The Boss DS-1 is a distortion pedal, with adjustable tone, level and distortion. It is an analog pedal and has a 1/4'' input and output. It is not a rackable unit.

Like most of the Boss pedals, you can pretty much just plug this thing in and let it rip. All you have to do is plug in your guitar in the input and the amp to the output. I had no need to look at the manual as I just adjusted my tone by ear with the 3 knobs and had no troubles setting it up.

This produces a great heavy distortion sound. Its really thick and great for sustaining a power chord. The distortion can range from just a light overdrive to all out heavy metal. However, I am unable to get a real tube sounding overdrive with this. I have only used it with guitar, and it sounds great with my amp that has no built-in distortion.

According to Electro-Harmonix, the Little Big Muff is identical to the Big Muff, only smaller. It's a rather basic, but seemingly sturdy stomp box fuzz pedal. One input, one output, three knobs (volume, tone, and sustain), and a foot switch.

I chose this pedal primarily as a compromise between the Big Muff and the Nano Muff. The Big Muff is just too... big, and I honestly don't understand why the pedal has to have such a large housing. The Nano Muff only has a volume control, and I wanted to be able to tweak the sound. But I really feel that the Little Big Muff is no compromise at all, more like the best of both pedals, and it seems deceptively flexible.

Some people have complained that it adds too much low-end. While I do tend to keep the tone above 12 o'clock, I feel there is plenty of room for adjustment, and it might be more about the amp they are playing out of; my tube Peavey Classic 50 makes this pedal sound a bit less bassy than my digital Peavey KB-60 keyboard amp (but surprisingly enough, I feel that this pedal sounds good through both of them).

I was inspired to try an EHX Muff pedal when I heard some of the gritty fuzz tones coming from Jack White's guitar on the DVD "Under Blackpool Lights." It's extremely easy to get a very similar sound with this pedal and variations on it. Perhaps this pedal IS a bit more bassy than the regular Muff, but someone searching for Jack's sound is probably better off with this one, because I feel some of his low end is probably coming from that hollow-body Res-o-Glass Airline guitar, as they tend to "growl" quite a bit. But most people don't have an Airline.

Anyway, to me this pedal sounds "full," so I'm not complaining at all about any perceived amount of low-end. It's got a sound that I like a lot.

There's no real manual to speak of. The instructions that come with it give a basic overview, and the gist here is that if you plug in an AC adapter, it must be outer-ring positive (like most pedals). EHX didn't supply an adapter with it, but they did include a battery. I've got mine plugged into a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus.

It's simple to use by just adjusting the three knobs. The volume, tone, and sustain all seem to have the ability to affect the sound, which is a good thing, because it gives the pedal quite a bit of versatility. I just love the sound I get from it, and it's hard to come up with a combination of settings that doesn't sound good. It does seem to get a bit too bottom-heavy with the tone control set low, but if you like fuzz, it'll be easy to get a satisfying sound out of this pedal.

In my opinion, it's a perfect combination of simplicity and versatility. Very easy to use.

"Sound quality" is an interesting metric for a fuzz pedal. As I said before, I love the sounds from this pedal. It trashes up the signal very nicely, though inevitably there will be people who do not like it for one reason or another. I was actually a bit shocked by how much I liked the pedal. It sounds a lot fuller than the overdrive box I have. I thought maybe the pedal would be redundant seeing as how I had two other fuzz pedals as well. But this pedal seems to have its own character, and a significantly different fuzz sound than the two Effector 13 pedals.

I play a Switch Wild One (single bridge humbucker with coil tap), an Eastwood Corona (SG clone, with excellent Eastwood humbuckers), and a modified Squier Strat through this and the rest of my pedals, and each guitar has some subtle differences that can be heard. It sounds good with all of them. It even cleans up a bit if you put an overdrive after it, but I'm not really liking much of the sounds I'm getting from my overdrive. A Boss DS-1 would probably be more to my taste than the AMT Du Hast pedal that I have now. But that's not the Muff's fault.

My favorite guitar, as far as sound from the Muff is concerned, is the Eastwood Corona, and it sounds so good that I often leave the other pedals turned off. However, a new addition to my pedals is a BBE Sonic Maximizer, and this makes the Muff sound even fuller. You can almost sort of adjust the tone of the Muff even further with this pedal. So while I liked the sound of the Muff by itself, I tend to leave the BBE on at all times.

The Boss RV5 is a digital reverb pedal with 6 different types of reverb, each have different adjustable settings. It has most mono and stereo 1/4'' inputs and outputs. It is a traditional stompbox and is not a rackable effect.

The pedal is extermely easy to use - you pretty much just plug it in and go with it. The sounds are very easy to manipulate, 3 simple knobs for each setting - time, tone and level. I never looked at a manual because I bought mine used and never got one.

I love the reverb that this produces. I usually keep it on the 'modulation' setting and it is really a beautiful sound. The release and the sustain of the sound makes for a great pad-like sound when the level is up high enough. I don't use the spring setting much because I have spring reverb on my amp. The other settings are quite realistic as well, but I have a great liking for the 'modulation' setting.

The Line 6 DL4 is delay pedal with 16 different settings, all based on other delay pedals. It also has a 14 second loop sampler. There are 1/4'' mono and stereo inputs and outputs and has 3 spaces for making your own presets and also has a tempo tap feature.

The pedal is very easy to use, although it takes some time to master it and to reach its full potential. Each knob has a different use for each setting and I would recommend looking at the manual for the full information on that, just because there is so much information and so much you can do with the pedal. Overall, its really easy to get some great sounds out of this though.

The effects on this are impeccable. While some are better than others, all of the sounds are very realistic and they don't sound too 'digital' at all. I use this mostly on electric guitar but I have used it on keyboards as well, and it works great with both. My favorite settings are the sweep delay and the reverse delay. I used the looper constantly, most of the time I just lay a chord progression down and make up lead parts over it - its a really great writing tool as well.

My Martin DX-1R was made in the USA and has 21 frets and is not an electric-acoustic.

I have loved this guitar since the first time I played it...the neck is unfinished and goes so easy on the fingers, one of the nicest necks I have played and I couldn't believe it for the price. It is very light and is extremely easy to get a nice sound of. I would say the sound is definitely on the brighter, tinnier side, but it does have some nice bottom and fullness as well.

I'm a singer/songwriter and play a lot of shows by myself with this guitar and it always delivers, whether its with or without the external pick up I purchased. I'm into a lot of acoustic guitar orientated music (Bob Dylan, etc) and this has suited me great for playing those kinds of songs.

The Epiphone Valve Special is a true class A tube combo. It delivers 5 watts of single-ended power through an epiphone 10" speaker. It has a single input, and an 8 ohm speaker output (more on that later). An effects loop would have been nice but is nonexistant in this price range so I don't hold it against them.
This lineup of amps and heads from Epiphone is most likely their answer to the Fender Junior amps. Having high quality tube sound in a simple package thats affordable appeals to everyone from a sound-savvy beginner, players that frequent small venues and are looking for an uncomplicated setup, to studio use since their low wattage makes them easy to crank up. The whole Epiphone Valve lineup is incredibly affordable.

The Valve Special combo is a step up from the Valve Junior because unlike the VJ it offers seperate Gain and Master Volume controls (the VJ has a single level) and a moderately usable EQ, along with reverb and onboard effects. It also has a standby switch, which the lesser models do not have, so thats a bonus.

This amp is a breeze to plug into and play with minimal fuss. To be honest, I never looked at the manual. I easily got a good sound out of it with every guitar I own.

This amp is not as versatile as many would like it to be, since it is a single channel amp. With that being said, I still get a wide variety of sounds from it, but keep in mind it will not give you a metal sound, or even a high gain sound without outboard effects/stompboxes. What it will give you is a fairly British sounding bark at high gains, moderate sustain, but still with clarity on the indivudual notes. More of a slightly crunchy overdrive that never enters "distortion" territory.
My favorite strategy is plugging my Ibanez Ghostrider (Les Paul style) guitar in, maxing the Master Volume, and playing with the gain to get a perfect balance between chime and dirt. One tip for you if you have Gibson style pickups that clean up as you lower the volume (like mine do) is to use more gain than you want, and use the controls on your guitar to clean it up. It yields a creamy clean sound that is to die for if you are used to sterile solid state amplifiers. Sometimes I drive the amp with a TS9 Tube Screamer and get some great lead sounds that satisfy my need for Santana-like sustain.
The reverb on this amp is very good, better than that of any of the other tube amps in this price range like the Fender Junior amps. Its fairly full up to 70% or so then gets flabby after that, so don't expect true Fender tube reverb or drippy surf style reverb. It works perfectly for me, as I like a good amount of reverb on my clean sounds.
The built in effects on the Special suck. It would have been better to just leave them off, or just give a decent chorus effect in place of UNusable multi-FX. The delay is too drastic and will turn off most players with a tasteful ear, and the flange is absolutely, terribly cheesy. I do not use them at all.
One more cool feature is that rather than hardwire the speaker to the amp, Epiphone purposely used 1/4" connections that can be dissconnected to use the 8 ohm output to drive a seperate cab in place of the stock 10". The stock speaker is not bad, but I did get some good results by driving the speakers of a 212 combo I had laying around. Its cool to have the option of driving different configurations, so its harder to outgrow this amp.

Analog voiced digital delay... more knob twisting, easy... yay!! Rackmount quality in a very, very small foot pedal package. 1/4" connections... no Midi here!

Very easy to use... as an effect. The typical user will absolutely, no questions asked, want to get an adapter with this pedal. This has a very high power draw. Eats batteries like tic tacs...AND aside from that, the battery compartment to this undersized, and lightweight pedal is a horrible design. It is sophomoric at best. The access to the battery compartment is covered by a tin plate, held together by a big black rubber band. Clumsy, difficult to attach, and worst of all... the battery feels like it needs to be forced into the space. NOT what you want to do to sensitive chips and circuit board... And not what you expect in a pedal that sells for 115.00 dollars.. but, I suppose the perspective on this would be that the price is for the quality of the effect. Get the adapter... And no worries! Other than that.. it is a straight ahead, 3 knob effect pedal that can be used without a manual... not sure mine came with one!

Rack mount quality in a foot pedal. Nice bypass... not True Bypass, exactly.. but buffered. I notice no tone loss with this pedal.
Using a Voodoo Lab Preamp, Carvin T100 poweramp,Cannabis Rex speakers in closed back cabs. Les Pauls,Strats,Tele's, etc. I don't use this much in my current rig, as I have a Digitech GSP2101 that I use for effects..but I have used it extensively with combo rigs, and it foots the bill.
I love the quality... better than my rack mount unit..( a little)...I don't use it because I need the other effects..and because I don't want 50 pedals on the floor in front of me....for very little difference in tone. ( I already have 2 footcontrollers and 3 other pedals in front of my rig... and all my effects essentially come from 1 unit. And hate lugging around more junk than I need!)
A solid "9" for sound quality. The bypass and organic tone beat all the other offerings in the price range ( Boss,Digitech)

Made In Korea..22 or 23 frets, 3 pick-ups (the standard Ultra III)...

The feel of this guitar is pretty good, it isn't as smooth as some other guitar I've played, but its pretty easy to play, great for both lead and rhythm playing. It's a very heavy guitar but it's well worth it for the sound of it.

I love it because I feel I can get very diverse tones between the three pick ups. I use it mostly with my 1976 Fender Twin Reverb along with a few effects pedals (DL4, Boss comp, chorus and distortion)...I feel that with this guitar I can get some great lead tones as well as heavy distortion or a great clean sound. I listen to mostly anything so I'm always trying out new sounds and this guitar is great for that.