Rocktron Blue Thunder

Fairly easy to use, but impossible to get a decent sound so who cares? By the way, be aware that it is IMPOSSIBLE to disable the overly bright, flashing blue "Tap Tempo" LED on the front panel, even if you're not using modulation effects. I don't know what genius thought this up, but he should be locked in a dark room and forced to look at it until he goes insane, which would only take a few minutes. DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU HAVE EPILEPSY! It'll trigger seizures. By the way, I contacted the manufacturer about this inherent defect. Their "solution"? Put a piece of tape over it. Nice.

Easily the single most disappointing piece of gear I've ever owned. It seems as if it's a guitar FX processor with a few token bass features, all of which are extremely limited or outright useless. I mean, who needs tremolo for an electric bass? The compressor is unacceptable. It doesn't offer continuous variation for attack and release, only three preselected levels. Hard or soft knee? Forget it. The parametric EQ sounded very thin, even with the low band all the way up. The factory presets were all kind of silly, over-the-top FX with little relevance to anyone playing bass. If you want anything resembling punch or thump, you'll never get it in a million years. Even the speaker simulator is of little help. And to top it off, it is by far the noisiest piece of junk I've ever had the misfortune to listen to. The noise gate doesn't mask the unacceptably high level of ever-present hiss when playing, only gates it when not. I couldn't imagine anyone using this for recording. Your bass tracks will sound like they were recorded next to the ocean.

I used it on a few gigs while my regular gear was being repaired. It didn't die, so that's like a good thing, right?

You can get a return e-mail fairly quickly, but nobody will tell you how to get a punchy thump out of this because it's impossible. So at that point they just ignore you.

A totally useless toy for the hearing-impaired. AVOID. I bought mine used for $150 and sold it to some poor fool who was specifically looking for that model for $175 (less eBay fees.) I was ECSTATIC to unload it!

The presets are useable but either very basic or over radical. Editing is a bit more complex than other midi pre's I've used but once you figuree it out it's incredible. If you like to plug & play go with something else, but if you love custom tweeking your sound then this is a goldmine. The manual is ok but leaves out critical linkage details that made me think this was crap at first. Always set global functions in conjunction with the individual effect your tweeking.

Ibanez sr800 > Tube pre > Blue Thunder > power amp > 4x10.
Very quiet in all modes and an incredible compressor. I hate all bass distortion that isn't a tube parametric design. The chorus is excellent and much cleaner than the boss ce-5 I'm used to. I particularly love the fx crossover option on chorus with NO mud on the bottom. The flanger is simular but a lower Xover seems to make it more traditional sounding. This is not an Aguilar/Eden/SWR tube pre so use it with a good tube preamp and the effects will knock your sox off if you spend the time to tweek a bit.

I've owned it for 6 months now and aside from hating the tap tempo blue light, it has been reliable through heavy use. I have no need for a backup with this trustworthy little thing. I've owned rocktron stuff for years without ever having a problem.

Very friendly but not a lot of enthusiasm for my picky tech questions. Great at returning my calls and getting me my stuff.

I play traditional HARD rock and behind some acoustic guitar songs and this thing lets me cut through the mix CLEAN. I've been playing for 20 years through some of the best from Ampeg, Aguilar, Mesa, Eden, Trace & SWR. after boutique bass burnout I will only play Ibanez SR 800 & 400's (realy). I love the Xover feature for the modulation effects and the compressor is amazing. There is NO substitute for tube warmth in my world so this would be my only preamp if it had one but until Rocktron pulls their head out I'll use a seperate tube pre. Boss has superior effects by themselves but the crossover option makes the Blue Thunder better overall. Why boss and the other guys don't get this is dumbfounding to me.

It's pretty easy to use. One wheel for selecting presets. Three for bass/miud/treble tweaks. Editing patches is pretty straightforward, press the edit button..adjust the EQ or parameters..hit edit again to store. The manual isn't much.

I use both active/passive basses with an Ampeg SVT2Pro and/or SVp 1500 watt poweramp. The Blue Thunder can be noisy on certain distortion and flange patches. The preset effects patches are weak. Only 2 useable patches that didn't require any changes. Disappointing since I also own a ART nightbass SE and that had at least 10 presets that I could use right away.

It's pretty brand new on the market, don't know if it will last or not. It better! Chinese made, designed in Michigan. Hard to get something that's not chinese made these days.

Rocktron managed to ship this thing without a power supply to me. It also requires an odd amount of amperage, so without the power supply, it wouldn't function. I couldn't purchase a replacement one at Radio Shack or an electronics supply store. I had to get Rocktron to ship me one, which they did.

I play everything from funk bass to metal. I think my ART Nightbass SE is a much better unit than the blue thunder. I think I may sell off the Blue Thunder and not replace it.