My RG120 is Japanese made. It has 24 frets with dual humbuckers. The bridge is a stock Ibanez bridge with tremolo unit. The amp has volume and tone selectors. It has a three way pickup selector switch. Not sure what wood the neck is made of, but it is your typical fast ibanez neck. It is thin, normal width and has small to medium size frets.

The neck, as with many Ibanez's has a very nice and fast feel. Because it is a twenty-four fret neck, I can easily get to that wonderful high E either by bending up to it, or by simply striking the 24th fret on the 1st string. Give it some wild vibrato and Yngwie would be proud! Cutaways are well cut such that it makes it even easier to access the top notes. The guitar is very light and is easy to move around with. With mine in black, it is very conservative and professional, yet the design still screams "rock star !" Controls are simple and spartan. I usually put the tone all the way. Volume knob depends on where I am in the song. I select the top (low end) pickup mode for smooth solos, and the bottom (high end/treble) pickup mode for rhythm playing and for screaming solos and finger-tapping. I do not use the middle pickup mode.

This guitar, even at entry level, is shred all the way. Just perfect for me. When I go play a Jackson or even a Fender stratocaster, which I used to play, I am out of my element. That is how much I like the way Ibanez's play. If I buy an upgrade guitar, it will most likely be an Ibanez. (I've already got my eye on one.) I play mine through several pedals, including a Zoom multi-effect. I play through a Hartke half stalk, a Fender stage 185, a Crate gx30m, and a Fender Frontman, as well as a combination of these. Even though this is a double humbucker shred guitar, I feel it plays clean sounds / jazz and blues well, at least in my style. The wonderful clean sounds from my Fender amps also help. This guitar is great for heavy music as well as soloing. Get it set up, and you understand why the Satriani's of the world can solo for so long! The only drawback of lower action is the fret buzz, but that may be my guitar repairman's fault, not the guitar.

This amp is solid state all the way. Not sure of the wattage, but I would say, judging from the volume, that it is about 30-40 watts. This amp has two channels, drive and clean. The drive channel has gain, shape and volume controls. The clean channel has master volume, treble, bass, and mid knobs. It also has a reverb knob that controls both channels. There is a manual channel switching switch if you don't have a foot-switch, which I don't. There are rate and depth knobs for chorus as well as a manual switch to engage it. Finally, there is a speaker out, headphone out, as well as foot-switch input.

This is your standard combo amp. The setup/configuration is simple enough that you don't need a manual in my opinion. I bought this thing used, so I don't have one anyway. Though I am not sure about the wattage, the amp is sufficient for rehearsals and even from small venues. It can also drive a 4ohm cab fairly nicely ! You have to tweak the amp a little bit because of the mediocre tones that come from it (see next section.) But pedals can help.

I bought this amp to rehearse and play on stage that upcoming Sunday because it was cheaper to buy it than rent an amp for a weekend. It does the job and has done so for more than a year. It's just that I've since bought better amps, so she might get sold soon. Both the stock clean and distortion channels are OK. The clean is passable, but the less than exemplary built-in chorus effect does not improve the tone any. The distortion is also passable. Kind of boxy sounding, but some people like that. I think it has it's place. The good news for me is that the distortion with gain all the way has enough sustain that I can keep up with our other guitarist and his much more expensive Fender Hot Rod Deville when we do "call and answer" solos. I play through a beginner Ibanez and many pedals, including a Zoom multi-effect. If I put the Zoom on the Fender Twin setting through the clean channel of this amp, you can close your eyes and think you have a Twin right beside you! That's a pretty good thing. The amp takes pedal distortion OK as well, especially put through a 4 speaker cabinet....you've got a stage ready rig for not much dough !

This is the classic tube amp of the ages. I am not sure of the wattage on this model. However, from the volume, I am pretty sure it is at least 60-80 watts per channel, of which this amp has two. With the clean or overdrive channel volume at 2, this amp is already plenty loud enough.
There are two sets of stereo inputs. One set of two is for switching channel mode. And this amp came with the channel switching foot-switch included, which is great. The other set of two is for parallel channel mode. It defaults to the clean channel, and you can pull the volume knob of the distortion channel to switch to it. I guess this is useful if you don't have a foot-switch. On the back there is a foot-switch output, effects loop (preamp out and power amp in), power amp thru output, two extension speaker outputs, one for series and one for parallel. There is also an impedance selector which allows you to select between 4,8 and 16 ohms, which is very cool and makes the amp very versatile. On the front, the clean channel has knobs for volume, treble with boost (by pulling the knob), mid and bass. The distortion channel has gain, treble with boost, mid with boost, and base with boost. It also has a wonderful presence knob and a volume knob. (The one that can be pulled out to select the distortion channel.) Finally, there is a reverb knob that controls both channels.

This amp was bought used, so there is no manual. The general configuration, in my opinion is self explanatory as long as you play with the knobs and inputs long enough. This thing is known for the tone that comes out of it, and it has a wide array of wonderful sounds that I keep discovering from additional use! With this being a vintage tube amp and being considered a vintage "red knob" model, I try not to use this as much. Just power it up from time to time to keep the tubes working or if I need it to impress at an audition. I also plan on using it more primarily for recording. If I am playing stadiums, I guess I can afford to play with this loud, tone-full baby on stage more often to get more volume and that wonderful tube sound!

This is considered a blues/jazz amp, styles which I incorporate into my playing. It is not really a heavy metal amp, but it takes pedals pretty well. However, I frankly don't remember the distortion channel being that good when I first played this amp in the nineties. But I played it recently, and I don't know if it aged gracefully, but I'll put that 2nd channel against many high gain amps today. With the gain at lower levels, you get a nice tube overdrive from this beauty. Set the gain on 10, and you have a great 70's or 80's heavy metal tone, in my opinion. To get thrash metal, death metal, or nu-metal, you will need a pedal. But like I said, this amp takes pedals well. I put a digitech death metal pedal through the clean channel, and it went from pristine heaven to absolute palm muting hell ! Speaking of the clean channel, I agree with many that it is the best in the business. I've played "boutique" amps that cost 3 times more, and their clean sound didn't sound any better. This baby has always been known and liked by me for it's beautiful "glassy" clean sound. It's got the right amount of shimmer and a wonderful thumping low end bass range. I love it, and there's probably nothing about this amp I hate, as far as tones!

This is a solid state amp. Mine is a black-face metal grill, so it doesn't say what the wattage is. But it is reportedly 15 watts, not 38 watts, and I think that is more accurate. There is one input. Also has an output for an 8 ohm minimum extension speaker as well as for headphones. It has two channels, including a clean channel with normal volume knob. The drive channel has drive volume and gain controls. Treble, mid, and bass knobs control both channels. The amp also has a drive select button to switch between channels. No foot-switch capability. All controls are on the front of the amp.

Being a practice amp, the configuration of the controls is very simple. I bought it used, so it didn't come with a manual. I don't believe it's necessary to have one, though. As with all my amps, my baseline setting is treble 10, mid 0 and bass 2. And with just this setting, I can get great sounds, especially on the drive channel. (See sounds section.)

The drive channel definitely suits my preferences for distortion ! (See settings from previous section.) With my baseline settings, the drive channel, has this raunchy, growly, powerful distortion with a wonderful presence to it ! The clean channel is OK. It's probably the worst Fender clean I have played, but that doesn't make it bad compared to other amps' clean channels. And the clean channel takes pedals quite well, so I can live with that, especially with the awesome drive channel ! I play a beginner Ibanez electric through a couple of pedals, specifically a zoom 505 multi effects pedal. When I set the Zoom to the Fender Twin setting, this baby's clean channel sounds awfully close to a fender twin. So I love the sounds that come out of both channels: the drive by itself, and the the clean with pedals through it.

This is a hybrid amplifier head. It is best described as a half solid state, with a 12aX7 tube for a tube amp feel. It is rated at 60W, and I would say that rating is accurate based on the volume. One input with two channels. One is a clean channel with volume, bass and treble. It also has a cool knob called "crunch". Distortion/overdrive channel has gain, volume, bass, mid and treble. There is also a reverb knob that controls both channels. There is a manual channel switch button, but there is no foot-switch included. There is a footswitch jack in the back, so there must be one you can buy. In the front, there are headphone and cd jacks. To conclude the back, there are effects send and return, as well as a minimum 4 ohm speaker output.

This head is fairly straightforward. It’s you basic 2 channel head with clean and overdrive. I put both channels on bass 2,mid 0, and treble 10, and it sounds decent, To get more thump out of the matching 4x8 speaker cab, I sometimes turn the bass up to 6 or 7, and it sounds pretty good. I don’t think the head comes with a manual, but because of it’s simplicity, I don’t feel that it really is necessary. I use this amp for rehearsals and the stage, but now I use it to practice with because it’s kind of cumbersome for rehearsal and the cab gets put in a box when I play on stage with it, which I think renders it useless.

By themselves, both channels sound OK, at best, in my opinion. The clean does not shimmer enough for my needs and the 2nd channel is a mediocre overdrive, and definitely not a distortion channel. The good news is that this amp appears to take pedals well, I don’t know if the 12ax7 tube has anything to do with it. I play my beginner level Ibanez through several effects, including a Zoom 505 multi-effect, and I can get a world of sounds and tones that mimic many guitar stars, past and present. See previous sections to see my settings for treble, bass and mid. Because it takes pedals well, I have many favorite sounds. I don’t know what to make of the crunch knob on the clean channel. It can provide a nice tube type breakup at lower volumes and pure overdrive at higher, and sounds good on its own. But when I introduce pedals, especially distortion/sustain on top of it, it sounds very muddy and TOO crunchy. So while it’s a great volume boost, it’s not a great lead boost.

Fender's G-DEC is a solid state combo amplifier with 15 watts of power and an 8" special design speaker. It features 16 amp models, 15 special effects presets (delay, chorus, flanger, etc), 15 drum and bass accompaniament loops, a metronome, and built-in tuner, and more.

Its controls include Gain, Volume, Tone, and a dedicated knob each for selecting amp models and effects, Backing Volume, Tempo, Key, Loop Select.

Its very cool how you can plug in a second guitar, for jamming or teaching and also plug in external music source (such as an ipod) for play-along.

Even due it being the smaller version (Fender also offers a 30 watt) it offers nearly all the features of its older bothers, and is very user-friendly because Fender managed to utilize knobs and avoid complex menus, so you still feel like you're playing an amp and not a computer.
I've tinkered with a Cyber Twin before, and this amp has a bit more ease-of-use, so it seems good for beginners or guys like myself that want to PLAY with what little time we have instead of being obsessed knob twiddlers.

First of all, the stock presets are a bit opver the top almost to the point of being cheesy. Some are useless. So you will have to invest some time creating your own presets but it will familiarize you with its capabilities, and its subtleties.

I particularly liked the Tweed and Blackface for clean sounds, and the Metal amp model was nice and extreme. It is hard to believe such a wide variety of tones is available in one package. You can get a full range of tones from jazzy clean, gritty clean, classic hi-gain, all the way to artificial harmonic-squealin, chugga chugga metal sound.

Just don't expect it to sound just like the real thing, or like a roaring half stack. Its great for bedroom volumes.

This amp from Peavey has an incredibly versatile 7-band grapgic EQ with hi/lo shelving to tailor the sound, along with countour and brightness switches. Its loaded with 2 10 inchers and a tweeter horn with its own built in attenuator, very cool. Its even got compression built in, even cooler.

The only flaw I see is that something this heavy should have casters. Peavey has long been used as roadworthy gear, I would think they would equip their gear accordingly.

I was impressed with the very clean (I couldnt get it to distort at any reasonable volume, I dared not try and push it further and damage my hearing or alienate the neighborhood) and responsive sound from the amp. The 10 inchers are very punchy. With all the controls available to you, a huge variety of sounds can be attained to fit almost any style. Dialing in a fat bottomed sound clean tone with sparkling highs (possible due to the tweeter) was easy as pie. Its a very smooth tone as well, refined rather than being gritty.

Noise was low, it was fairly quiet. My only complaint is that the compressor seemed to add some noise. If anything, you just can't use aggressive compression on this, and you should have to anyway. This amp is tight, but its nice to have it there for certain occasions you need it.

- What are the effects, or types of effects available?
Compression

- What technology is used? (analog, digital, tube...)
Analogue, tube.

- Can they be edited? through a Mac/PC editor utility program?
Nope

- What connection types are there? (Audio/MIDI)
In & out.

- Is the general configuration/setup simple?
Yes, very.

- Is the sound or effects editing easy?
Yes, but settings are powerful so u need to be careful and use them with subtlety. Too much can really kill the sound.

- Is the manual clear and sufficient?...
Yes, very clear, with preset examples.

- Are the effects good, usable and sufficiently realistic?
This is fine for electric guitar during a gig but be careful when recording cos you can add hiss easily. You might want to dehiss the track afterwards, actually.
This is no Neve gear...

- With what instruments do you use them?
Useless on bass unless you're looking for a special effect.