Korg ToneWorks AX1500G - still fit for purpose?

skinfreak

I should answer this damned question myself with my ears but I'd appreciate your neurons on this also. Many moons ago when I were a wee lad in Leicester, I had a Marshall Valvestate 8240. It more or less gave me everything I wanted as the inbuilt stereo chorus on two channels was so flexible. Plus the tube pre-amp gave a lovely tone. I could get a great Balance-era Van Halen tone with the chorus plus my Jackson Dinky with Tone Zone pickups which I felt like was "my sound". 

I bought a Korg AX1500G when I was in a band to beef up my effects arsenal and found it was pretty useful but I relied on it for individual effects rather than the tone modelling as the amp sounded so good. 

Cut forward to moving back to Wales to settle down after uni and the amp had to go. Too big, I wasn't playing that often and needed the cash.However the Korg stayed in the attic....

Recently I got a PRS Tremonti SE and it has re-ignited my love of the guitar and am really getting back into it, practising at least every other day and enjoying it. The next step is the eager arrival of a Blackstar HT-1RH And HT112 (in Bronco to match the cushions). With the wealth of tone and overdrive featured in the amp, and a credible reverb I wonder if I would start making use of the Korg again. Things have moved on significantly since 2002 and while I am not going to chuck it, I do wonder whether I am better off just looking at getting a few pedals to add to the Blackstar (e.g. a phaser and chorus).

Has anyone used the Korg AX1500G and gravitated away from it? Or does it still hold up some 15 years later? 

PS: The Jackson Dinky will be going up for sale soon... ;-)

longi

Up until recently I was using a Korg AX3000G which uses the same modelling, I think it still sounds ok especially the lower gain amp models which sound pretty good to me. I also liked the the high gain Marshall model and the shred distortion which I found to be very good. The delays are pretty good and a couple of the reverbs are pretty good. The AX3000G was the model which superseded the AX15000G with a few more bells and whistles other than that I believe everything is the same.

I liked the sounds you could get out of it and still do to be honest and it definitely sounds better through a valve amp rather than direct although it still sounds ok direct. The on board cabs are rubbish though, it sounds much better with better quality IR's.

marktheharp

I  was using  an ax1500g  up until recently.  I found delays and reverbs great. Try it and see how you go. Only got rid of mine, as I picked up  a zoom g3  (which takes batteries and is great for practicing with headphones). 

ICBM

skinfreak said:
The next step is the eager arrival of a Blackstar HT-1RH And HT112 (in Bronco to match the cushions). With the wealth of tone and overdrive featured in the amp, and a credible reverb I wonder if I would start making use of the Korg again. Things have moved on significantly since 2002 and while I am not going to chuck it, I do wonder whether I am better off just looking at getting a few pedals to add to the Blackstar (e.g. a phaser and chorus).

I actually like the HT-1R best of the Blackstars, but to say it has a 'wealth of tone' is something of an overstatement… it has a nice tone but very limited range - the ISF control is *only just* enough to get a few usably different tones, and the gain control really has three settings - clean, just right and too much (especially with any modulation effects in front - since it has no loop) in my opinion. In fact for overdrive I prefer the sound with the gain up all the way on the clean mode, rather than anything on the actual overdrive mode.

So I would definitely keep the Korg unless you're intending to buy more effects that expand the *tone* range of the amp (eg a graphic EQ), and an outboard overdrive or distortion so you can still put the modulation effects after at least the bulk of the distortion, or you're likely to find it quite frustrating. In my opinion, anyway...

skinfreak

ICBM said:

I actually like the HT-1R best of the Blackstars, but to say it has a 'wealth of tone' is something of an overstatement…

I should have said 'in comparison to the cheap solid state amp I'm currently using'. I suppose what I was trying to get at was if the effects in the Korg are still up to scratch and some of the other comments seem to suggest they are. Having said that I'm more than happy to start looking at some extra pedals, and the eq is a great idea.

ragingben

I've still got one from about 15 years ago, it doesn't get used much but I kinda love it! The delays are decent, most of the amp models and fx are OK to good, but the black phaser i can't get enough of. I've been through 2 EHX small stones, the Malekko phaser, a Boss GT8, To Nova System and now a Kemper and I still haven't found a phaser that makes me smile as much as the one on the Korg! Mine had mainly bedroom use and a few of the switches are a bit dodgy now, not sure how it would hold up gigging. 

MattBanshee

If you already own the Korg and it still works, then give it a try! Chances are that if you're not after amp sims, it'll do as well as any similar multi-effects unit would do.

longi

Just to add, when I stopped using the AX3000G's amp modelling, I used it in the effects loop in my amp for delays, reverb and modulation. The compressor is excellent at volume boosting guitar solos. It works very well in this format.

skinfreak

Thanks for the feedback people! I will dust it off and figure out how it work's again.