Lexicon MPX G2

Fairly easy to use, if you like programming MultiFX units.
Editing the patches was painless. I purchased the MPX G2 a few days ago through a mail order.

The actual quality of effects are good. Mostly the real time effects.
Where Lexicon drops the ball (and you need balls for this), is the dynamic effects. They've got reverb and delay down well.
Chorus and pitch fairly good. But the distortions and compressor...well, what do you want for 1100 bucks? Doesn't even come into the same "city" as my Marshall. Even for just a boost...my stomp pedals were the same...so then you go back to "is the money spent worth it?"
Also,my biggest gripe, the configuration of routing the effects to the "front" of the amp and "in the effects loop".
This is a great idea, the reason why I purchased the darn thing. But something is lost when you connect it this way. I a / b'd this type of configuration compared to my standard config, which is a MPX 100 in the effects loop, and my guitar going into a Boss tuner pedal, compressor CS-2 (old one), and a old Boss Graphic EQ, both made in Japan, not Tawain.
My old setup sounds better! The chorus is richer (very close), fuller. The dynamic response with my guitar in relation to the amp is more...responsive and real. Something is lost with all the processing and routing. I messed with this for 3 days...aprox 6 to 8 hours a day. No quick judgement here. Also, I played in a band situation. Again, effects didn't seem as rich and full and my stomp pedal (compressor) sounded smoother and not as harsh.
I really liked the Jam Man though. Let's see Boss come out with a 25 second looper in a stomp box...you can do it!

The rack seems fairly sturdy. But the pedal boards pedal seems kinda flimsy. I did not have the unit more than 3 days. So if I had to guess how it would be a road worthy piece....I would say, don't drop either.

Never called them.

I did return this product. I kept it for 3 days...but after and only after a b'ing it with my Lexicon MPX 100, which I paid only 190.00 for. But then, I have a Marshall TSL 100 and my tastes are different.
Hopefully similar but to each his own. There is definitely something lost with this new routing concept. I made it apparent to myself when I quickly switched back to my own setup and then played.
I think stomp boxes still rule. If you don't mind the harshness (mild to moderate difference) and the fuzzy distortions (the "preamp" is pretty damn good)then it could be a decent box for you. I will stick with my Marshall TSL 100 with 3 channels and seperate 4 x 12 cab. Actually, I returned the G2, sold my other amp (Flextone) and bought another TSL 100 combo.
Hope this helps. I did read other ratings previously before I purchased the Lexicon...thanks to you guys for giving me the heads up.
The unit is "still" worth checking out. I'm keeping my MPX 100. The detune is killer for chorus type sound...and the delays and reverbs are great for the price.

The manual is good and gives details and block diagrams for all the effects. Programming is pretty simple. It can be controlled via MIDI and/or footswitches/ analog volume pedals. It can be used as a stand-alone preamp w/ fx, before an amp w/o an fx loop, or before the preamp and in the fx loop.

Some of the effects can be noisy when used before a preamp. I use a separate preamp, so I haven't really explored the preamp part of it. It has some outstanding pedal emulations (tube screamer, wahs and others) plus a very flexible chorus and some strange rotary type effects. Delays and reverbs are excellent. Pitch shifting is pretty good too. I run in stereo and it's stereo imaging is excellent. It has a noise gate, but in live situations, it's not as good as a Hush unit.

It locked up on me once in the 8 months I've had it. Unfortunately, it was during a show. Never did figure out why. Other than that I've had no problems with it. Too expensive to have a backup.

Haven't dealt with them.

This is my 3rd rack processor. I changed from a Rocktron Voodu Valve to this because I needed more flexibility in the fx configurations. I play mostly heavy alternative/metal and I like to have a bunch of effects available. I use it with an Egnater IE4 preamp and a Marshall EL34 stereo power amp. It's not perfect, but it does a lot. If it got lost/stolen, I'd replace it.

Although it was fairly easy to hook up and get going, the manual does not state that you cannot use the xlr outputs with the 1/4 outputs simultaneously, unless if you use a transformer which may defeat the the reason you are using the xlr's.

Inserting anything before the insert send does introduce noise, but this is to be expected with any stomp box type effect that is placed before the input stage of your guitar amplifier. This unit has an unbelievable univibe, wah (vox or crybaby with variable bass, gain). The mutrons sound awesome as well. Most important you have level control over these units. You can use the MPX-R1 foot controller as a "stompbox" setup for instant on/off as opposed to the typical time 1/2 second time lag for loading a program. However, you can smooth out the loading by setting the temporary bypass levels as your load a new program. The post return f/xs (post guitar pre-amp if your using your amp's fx loop), sound pristine with a lot of control and you can use one global reverb that you like to soften new program loads even further. I use this with a Rivera stereo TBR 1M amp which has an fx loop, then for speakers I'm using 2 celestions and a horn loaded monitor cab for my acoustic. The speaker simulations are not boxy sounding models like you find on a number of other units, but very simple and useful simulations for direct recording and plugging directly into the pa. Very good for taming direct line buzzyness when running direct WITHOUT taking the life out of your sound. Too much more to be listed here!

I had 1 lock up when using the compare feature. No other problems so far.

Very good and responsive but I was dissapointed that the service rep. that I dealt with did not have any first hand experience when dealing with the aforemention simultaneous xlr/1/4" out. instead I got an e-mail describing various loads that should work in theory. I confirmed with other users and retailers that you can't use both outputs simultaneously(return to your amp and send to a mixer/recording console. A simple yes and no confirmation through actual use would works for me

I have never plugged into a unit that remained 100% transparent when using it with my guitar amp. Obviously ,the 24 bit i/o converters make all the difference in the world and if your not using an effect before the insert send, the unit switches a relay providing a straight analogue path to your guitar amp input. Ive used a GX-700 from Roland that was ok at maintaining a similar sound to my Rivera when not using any fx, but the lower quality converters were gobbling up some dynamics and "velvet" from my Rivera. I wish that the R1 foot controller on/off status of the toe switch would update when loading a new program. I programmed the toe switch out of my user programs so I wouldn't have to think about it's status except for 1 or 2 that I use in stompbox mode. I highly recommend getting the R1 because of the visual feedback,stompbox mode and most importantly, it's the only way to access the tuner by using a floor pedal. Clever...heh heh

This unit is fairly easy to use, but could have been made easier. Editing patches is easy and the manual is big and goes into a lot of detail. I have version 1.0 and it should be the newest version since I bought this thing new.

I have the Lexicon in front of a Carvin F300 power amp and a Peavey 4 twelve cabinet. First I'll go into the good qualities: nice wah, good tremolo, good reverb, nice chorus, flanger, phaser and nice warm clean sounds. Now the bad qualities: On the distortion settings, this thing is noisy, I don't know about what tweaking the noise gate will do, but right out of the box on factory distortion presets, it's noisy. The distortion itself is weak, you can get a lot of bite out of it but not much tonal control. The pitch shifter sounds too digitized, you can hear digital noises going on while you're playing. Another thing that I didn't like was the time it took for the presets to load. Every time that you select a new preset it takes about a second to load. So if you're playing live and you switch presets, you have to lose a second of lead before the new preset kicks in. A lot of the factory presets serve no purpose except to demonstrate what all the different effects can do. Some presets are trying to emulate different people's sound, such as patch 160 Jimmy P... (Jimmy Page), the only one I found that sounded like the artist was patch 172 Cold Shot (SRV).

I sent it back not too long after I bought it so I don't know about how reliable it is.

I've E-mailed Lexicon several times and have recieved a reply in about a day or two. Paul Forman is the guy who responded to the MPX G2 questions and gave good answers.

I've been playing guitar for about 6 years and searching for a good multi-effects unit with a built in preamp. This one won't cut it for me. If you like good clean sounds and basic effects, you might like this unit. But if you like good distortion and a low preamp noise, you won't like it.