Alesis Roadfire 15

The Alesis RoadFire battery operated portable guitar amplifier comes in a hip looking case and is built to take the harsh road condition of clubs as well as remote locations where AC power is not available.

As with other Alesis guitar amps, there are built-in effects as well as a tuner. You can even plug in your battery powered drum machine or CD player and play along with it for the total road
? Powerful 15-watt guitar amplifier with 8? speaker
? Rugged, modern style case
? ?True-Stereo? processing with headphones or the Stereo Link output
? Built-in guitar effect processing: Distortion, Modeling, Compression, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Wah, Delay, Reverb, and much more
? Over 80 presets that can be edited stored and recalled
? RCA inputs to connect a CD or MP3 player or a drum machine
? Built-in auto-chromatic tuner

It's a shame that people don't wait awhile before they post a review about a product. I'm afraid some of the previous remarks about this amp were made in haste. This is a remarkable amplifier! Once you've READ THE MANUAL and learned how to use it you will love it. It will make your guitar sound like anything you want it to. It really shine with the optional foot pedal. I really recommend getting the foot pedal.

It is built like a tank! I wouldn't hesitate to take it anywhere.

It comes with a warranty and is manufactured by a well know company. I see no problem at all with the customer support.

I must give this amp a perfect 10. For a ac/dc amp you just will find no better. It does not have the "hiss" that the crate taxi has. The 8" speaker blows away all of those little 9 volt type battery powered amp. It has more effects than any battery powered amp on the market. The cabinet looks fantastic. When you team it with the optional foot pedal you have an amp that will do almost anything. If you need an amp that supplies it's own power source then look no further. This is a winner!

Thhis is a slight update of my previous review of 09/03/2005. The more I use this amp, the more I like it. The sound is very accurate for an amp this size, and the effects are better than I had thought -
I was missing some things in the manual at my first review - I plead guilty to not having waited long enough. I may not need the top end of the previous reviewer (it is true that the eq does absolutely nothing), but the reverb is actually pretty good, and the distortion is fine form me, since I only use a slight edge.

I'm definitely going to keep it; for the really critical gigs, I can always put the latest flavor of the month pedal in front of it - I am currently upgrading the PX4 to something else right now.

But for what it is, at its price point, as a basic portable amplifier, I give it an 8.

Again, the Microcube has a darker output, and is not accurate in a lot of ways, and (absent form factor) I do think this is as good if not a better value at its price point.

The Microcube will fit on the back of my motorcycle; I'm not so sure about this (my cycle is in the shop right now).... But even so, it is a definite keeper for me.

This amp was released at the 2005 NAMM show, and versitility and usefulness depends on the basics of the amp as well as its features.

I needed a portable amp with a good clean sound, a bit of reverb and a tiny bit of distortion for a mostly clean sound I use for Flamenco.
This amp does that, although I am not finished tweaking it.

It has one channel, no effects loop, but with headphone jack. I would have liked to see a mic input. The amp has plenty of power for its size.

Rechargeable have their tradeoffs - if you run out of charge in a picnic area, you run out of music (with a Microcube you can simply replace batteries). But for short gigs, it is great to just pickup and go.....

I'm using a Flamenco guitar with a PickupTheWorld pickup/preamp, and also a Yamaha Silent Guitar.

Flamenco -

I think the amp has a very clean sound; it blows the microcube away for acoustic sound, and especially where the auxiliary in is concerned (the Microcube sounds muddy, and you can't control the aux volume from the amp) It therefore is well suited to my primary style (Flamenco)

However, I agree with the previous user about the effects; they kind of suck. It doesn't matter that much to me, since I am only going to use one of the distortion, turned on only very slightly in its normal configuration. The distortions all sound almost the same; kind of buzzy, and in no way comparable to the current effects available on the market. The MicroCube blows it away in the effect catagory..

Re the Yamaha Silent Guitar -

I plan to use this with a Pandora (velcro'd to the top of the unit) into the aux in for my effects anyway, and use the input for a voice mic in performance, for a portable amp with effects, and maybe even for acoustic (the reverb in the Pandora is definitely more flexible than that of the RoadFire.

I think the unit is way louder and holds the sound better than the Microcube. (I want to stress that I think the Microcube is awesome for what it is)

I am experimenting with the newly available (to me) sounds, though, so can't claim to be expert. However, I am comparing this with Boss GS-10, Line 6 Guitar port, and Guitar Rig, and it is not even CLOSE to any of these....

So I'll give it a 3 for the effects sounds, but a 9 for the clean sounds...... Average = 6

Very solid build; I think it will survive many trips on my motorcycle (probably one more than me, come to think of it....)

N/A

I've been playing for 40+ years, most of which was trying to get a consistently good sound from an amplified nylon string guitar. The first step in the process was the PUTW pickups/preamp IMO, it is the best pickup system I have tried.

I think this is an excellent basic portable amplifer if one ignores the effects. Velcroing the Pandora (PX4) on top will make it usable for modern sounds (possibly the Zoom G2.1u will be fine as well)

At this point I am torn between keeping it and waiting for the next step in the techonolgy.....

This is the 2004 model Roadfire, one channel solid state amp with an 8 inch closed back speaker. Lots of effects on the built-in efx processor (80?) - delays, various autowahs, distortion and cabinet emulations, compression, trem, pitch shift, hall, room and plate reverb. There is a headphone jack, CD in, pedal in.

Best feature is a internally rechargable lead-acid battery. You can plug and unplug AC with no click or interruption.

Glaring omission is lack of real EQ. No treble, mid, bass, presence. There is an effect called "EQ", but it is undocumented in the manual (and doesn't do a whole lot). Other glaring omission is no spring reverb emulation. I don't why they put so much energy in the novelty effects, but didn't work on the guitar mainstays.

Also, there isn't a large enough range of clean tube sounds.

The amp is heavier than you would think for an 8" 15 watter. About 30-35 pounds.

I am using a Tele, Rick and Gibson jazz box (Trini Lopez) with this. I like playing from rockabilly to garage to folksy 60s styles. This amp doesn't really fit the sounds I want at all. The limited EQ is a big problem. All the distortions are so noisy to be useless (I played it next to a cheap tube-pre practice amp - Vox Cambridge 15 - the Vox has never sounded better).

It does have a huge range of effects, and some people may end up loving this amp. I think the effects are all lacking in high frequency response. I checked the manual, and it showed a sample rate of something like 31k (instead of 44.1k or higher). Maybe this is responsible for the lack of sparkle?

Could also be the speaker, the cabinet does have impressive volume and bass response for such a small size, but again, not much on the top end. No jangle, no sparkle, no Byrds or Seeds covers!

Seems pretty sturdy and well built, but can't really post an opinion as I'm not going to have it for more than a day.

No dealings with the company.

I've been playing for 20+ years, through lots of gear. I'm also a recording engineer, and have used many, many different amps for different styles. If this were lost or stolen I would happily collect the insurance and buy something better.

Having a durable battery powered amp with digital efx is a great, great idea, but the low quality of the effects and speaker cabinet and the lack of decent EQ really dooms it. If they redid the efx at 44.1k (or higher), added a nice spring reverb program, got the noise out of the distortion, put a wider variety of clean tube sounds, and put effective EQ knobs on the front panel, then I would be singing a different song. Then again, with all these fixes, it probably wouldn't be a $200 amp anymore!!

I bought it without trying (mailorder), because I thought I was too busy to go to the music store. I've learned my lesson...