MXR M116 Fullbore Metal

178 Guitarist December 2009
QUICKTEST
MISCELLANEOUS
CONTACT: Hand In Hand PHONE: [phone] WEB: www.braceaudio.com
CONTACT: Korg UK PHONE: [phone] WEB: www.voxamps.com
Where previous AmPlugs have
emulated a specific amplifier
model, the latest in Vox’s range
of miniature headphone amps
that plug directly into your
instrument’s output jack
emulates an acoustic g uitar,
with two distinct sounds
(warm and bright) being
available via a selector switch.
Sounds
You wouldn’t mistake what you
hear from the AmPlug Acoustic
for a real acoustic guitar, but it
does go some way toward it,
providing a nice clear sound
with some sizzling and zingy
top-end. The tone control has a
great deal of influence on how
full-bodied the sound gets and
with a blend control mixing
between the original sound of
your guitar and the acoustic
guitar simulation there’s a
useful range of clean sounds
available for recording and
practice – perhaps along
with music from an iPod or
similar plugged into the
aux input.
Verdict
The AmPlug series are
great when quiet/silent
practice is essential, but the
main reason for using one
(the fact that you’ll hear
things louder than if you just
played an electric g uitar
unplugged) may have limited
relevance in this case – if you
want to hear acoustic guitar
sounds, then why not just use
an acoustic guitar? If you don’t
own an acoustic though, one of
these will provide a handy
recording tool for playing
acoustic-like sounds in a song,
while still allowing amplified
practice on electric, albeit with
a clean sound only. [TC]
The Bottom Line
We like: Reasonably
affordable; simple to set up;
RF mating feature
We dislike: Noisy; fiddly to
change channels
The Bottom Line
We like: A convenient
practice aid; nice range of
tonal variation
We dislike: Well, it goes
without saying, but it won’t
replace your Martin…
GUITARIST RATING
GUITARIST RATING
Brace DWG1000 £159
Vox AmPlug Acoustic £45
An affordable and straightforward digital wireless system
Practise on an electric, sound like an acoustic
It seems to Guitarist that we’ve
reviewed more wireless
systems over the past few issues
than we have at any other time
during our 25-year tenure, a
fact that clearly proves that the
advent of digital technolog y has
allowed a notoriously wobbly
process of audio signal
transmission to become
available and suitable for all.
It’s possible to run up to four
separate DWG1000
transmitters at one time and
the channels can be changed,
albeit via a rather awkward and
finicky process of using a bent
paperclip to access the inset
function button of either the
receiver or transmitter. That’s
not all, as the channels can
even be married up using a
process called RF mating: a nice
touch indeed.
Two skinny, stereo jack-to-
phono cables are included, so
that you can connect your
guitar and amp up to the
system, and two strap clips are
also provided.
In use
The DWG1000 has a range of
around 60 feet, which we found
to be perfectly acceptable and
we noted no discernible
alteration to the tone when we
A/B’d the system with a
standard 18-foot cable. We do
have to report that our example
was especially noisy and even
though we can let that slide
when using high gain options,
the excessive hiss did become
something of a chore when
using more subtle drives. That
said, it’s not ever louder than
the guitar itself, but as soon as
you ears latch on, it’s difficult to
stop perceiving the hiss.
Verdict
The DWG1000 is a system that’s
very simple to get to grips with
and – the bugbear of its
irritating noise issues aside– it’s
at a price that everyone should
be happy with [SB]
GIT323.rev_quick 178 6/11/09 9:17:8 am