Washburn SX 3

Straight forward.

Using a American Strat > effects pedal board > Fender M80 amp. It's a little noisy, but hey, it's a distortion pedal.

The power cable that connnects the battery to the pedal broke. I re-soldered it and it's working now. One thing I also hate is the pedal compartment requires a screwdriver to open.

No idea.

What I use this pedal for is, in conjuction with the distortion channel on my amp. It gives it a nice low-end boost. I would not use this pedal by itself, though, the sound is too muddy.

Very easy to use. Volume, tone, and gain knobs.

I have been playing off and on for thirty years. Right now, this is the only effect I use with a ES-335 thru a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue amp. My band plays mainly classic rock and blues from the '60's. Setting the pedal on: tone-1 o'clock and gain-2 o'clock, allows me to get any overdrive sound I need by changing pick up settings. For instance, heavy drive on the bridge pick up, softer Allman Brothers style drive on the middle position, and classic blues tone on the neck pick up.

I have owned the SX 3 "Stack-in-a-box" since 1987, when I saw Kim Simmonds using one with a Les Paul thru a half stack, at a club date. I have never experienced any problems with the pedal, and have used it at gigs without a backup.

Last year I emailed Washburn. I was trying to find out if the SX 3 had true bypass. A rep emailed me back the next day but could not answer my question because they no longer produce the pedal.

I think that the SX 3 is an excellent pedal when used to reproduce the basically low gain ovedrive sounds of classic rock and blues. I feel that the SX 3 does not color the sound of the ES-335/Fender amp combination, just adding the right amount of grit and sustain. I recently bought a second SX 3 on E-Bay when I realized that I'd be screwed if the pedal broke. It can't last forever, but then again, it's 15 years old now an sounds as good as new.

Being optionaphobic, I appreciate effects pedals that keep your choices to a minimum. Whenever I have compared it to all the endless variations of the tubescreamer on the market, I have never yet been tempted to replace it.

Self explanitory..

I'm currently using a Fender USA strat, a 72 tele, and a modified 68 tele with a Gibson mini humbucker in the neck position and a Dimarzio Rails humbucker in the bridge. Amps are a Fender Princeton and a Laney DS50L A half stack. I used the pedal solo and in series with other effects with none or very little difference. The pedal is basicly unremarkable. Or in some lingo: lame. I wanted this pedal to add dirt to the clean distortion I get with the Laney. This it does do in small amounts but you ar not going to get SRV, VH, or anything metal sounding. Sound is basicly one dimentional with little latitude for change. It is, however, less noisy than many other pedals I have used. This I like. I also did not experience the lack of mids and dead sound that the previous reviewer experienced. And, As you might tell by my equipment, I am very sensitive to muddy tone and etc. So you might say it is an ok effect that doesn't go far enough.

Seems fairly sturdy. I have had trouble with the jack inputs and had to repair. I would not recomend this for hard/profesional use. This is a home pedal.

The pedal doesn't work for me. I have played in cover bands from clasic rock to alternative to country. The effect could be quite usefull for someone looking for a small boost with little noise.

This is Washburn's "Stack In A Box" pedal. It has 3 controls labeled Level, Tone, and Dist., also with a LED "On" light. It's a standard, no-nonsense pedal...just plug in and go.

This is an ineptly named pedal...it does NOT produce a "stack"-type overdrive/distortion, but adds only a slight amount of "fuzziness" to the instrument's sound. Maybe "Cheese Fuzz In A Pedal" might be a more accurate title for this stomp box. One MAJOR complaint/flaw concerns the pedal's tone...even with the tone control turned to 10, it Still sounds VERY muddy/dull...Very LITTLE treble response. To be more descriptive, it sounds like you have pillows over your speakers, muffling the output...a Very disappointing feature.

It's too bad this pedal sounds so shabby, because it's built tike a Sherman tank !! Very heavy, sturdy metal casing, with a convenient battery access cover located on the bottom of the unit. I can't say with any amount of certainty just how well the unit will hold up under road conditions because I use it so Very little (only half-way decent overdrive sound), but as sturdy & solid as it looks to be constructed, I would imagine it can take quite a bit of punishment without breaking down.

I have never delt with Washburn, so I can't comment either way concerning Customer Support.

Bottom line: Extremely sturdy, well-built pedal....extremely crappy tone, with only mild overdrive/distortion at best. If you ever see one of these at a garage sale or pawn shop for a buck or two, buy it (for the "name", not it's sound)because every musician needs a pedal named "Stack In A Box". Makes a great conversation piece...almost as funny as the DanElectro "lunch counter menu"-named pedals out now!! Stack In A Box....yeah, right.