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Author
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Topic: Yamaha DG Stomp: Anybody Tried This?
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Bob Kagy
Member From: Lafayette, CO USA
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posted 10 March 2001 09:56 AM
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I'm wondering if anybody has any experience with the Yamaha DG Stomp modeling preamp.Same with the Johnson J-Station modeling preamp. Lots of folks seem to be going towards the Pod unit. Any comparisons pro or con between these products? Thanks, Bob |
Adam
Member From: Seattle,WA
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posted 10 March 2001 02:41 PM
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I bought one about a month ago and was pretty happy with it until I started comparing the sound of my guitar straight into the amp vs. plugged into the stomp.I ended up ditching the Stomp halfway through a gig last weekend and just playing straight through the amp.I need to do some more experimenting,but I am finding that the stomp,which has no bypass setting really affects the tone even when programmed to be flat.I may try using an a/b switch to provide for a bypass mode.
I'm not even going to bother trying it on steel because it's made for high gain usage,just like most the other guitar products out there.Guitarists love overdrive,but for steel I much prefer NO overdrive.Distortion is my enemy and headroom is my friend.
It's highly programmable and really packs a lot of sounds into a small footswitch.The effects,particularly the reverb and tape echo are excellent sounding.I think I will still find it useful for rehearsals and the occassional gig for use with guitar. |
Rich Gibson
Member From: Pittsburgh Pa.
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posted 11 March 2001 07:15 AM
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Hi Bob.I tried one(the Yamaha)a couple of weeks ago and took it back.It sounded pretty good for guitar but did not cut it for steel.
I A/B'ed it with some of the amps it's supposed to emulate and the results where passable...For Guitar.It does Fender much better than Vox or Matchless.I imagine the day will come when you can get the real thing out of a box but I don't think we're there yet.I do sometimes wonder,though, if my amp collection will become an 8 track tape deck......
The amp farm computer plug in is allegedly really good.I seem to remember reading on the forum that the gentleman who played on Dwight Yokums new CD used and I thought it sounded wonderfull!Rich Gibson
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ajm
Member From: Los Angeles
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posted 12 March 2001 12:48 PM
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I've tried out the POD, Johnson J-Station and the DG, all using a Stratocaster.The POD may be slightly better in the amp simulation department than the J Station; it's a really close call. However, the J is TONS better in the quality of the effects. IMHO, the reverb on the POD is a disgrace. If I were going to buy one today, I would probably buy the DG Stomp. It doesn't appear to give you amp types (Boogie, Twin, Class A, etc.), or at least it doesn't label them as such. But the configurations it gives you are all very good. It actually responds and feels like a real amp. The EQ works. The effects are all there and they sound really good. It also seems much more rugged than the other two. You can use it on a desktop or as a stomp box. It also has a pretty "transparent" sound, meaning you can tell what guitar you're using with it. All of this and I didn't even get into any of the cabinet simulations. The thing I don't know is if it will take a steel guitar pickup on the input without overloading. I bought a Yamaha REX 50 effects processor years ago and ended up demanding my money back because IMHO it had a design problem that several others in the store also had. I swore that I'd never buy another Yamaha product after the crappy response I got from their technical support people, but the DG Stomp may make me ease up on my position there.
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Adam
Member From: Seattle,WA
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posted 12 March 2001 07:32 PM
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I agree with almost all the comments here,except about the Stomp being "transparent".It may be more "transparent" than the other modelers,but to me this is this unit's real down side.A guitar plugged into the Stomp set flat just plain does not sound as good as plugging straight into the amp.
I just bought a Mayer Univibe this weekend.It has analog chorus,vibrato and tremelo that run on photocells and LED's.I wasn't expecting anything spectacular,but I was blown away by how much better my guitar sounded than when I've got the DG in the chain.It sounded like a tele again. |
Dan Tyack
Member From: Seattle, WA USA
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posted 12 March 2001 09:01 PM
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I'm with Adam.These boxes are great for direct recording. They sound really impressive, until you do some comparisons with great amps in a live setting. ------------------
www.tyacktunes.com |
Jay Ganz
Member From: Out Behind The Barn
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posted 13 March 2001 08:59 AM
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So I shoudn't get rid of all my Tweeds, blackfaces, & AC-30's??? No...really,
what any stomp box should have is a
"true bypass" type footswitch. It
completely eliminates the unit
from your signal chain. It's just a
"double pole-single throw" footswitch
instead of the old kind they used to use
years ago that kill your highs when the
unit is switched off. It's what I put
in the "twin-tube" pre-amp I built a couple
of years ago. |
Larry Bell
Member From: Englewood, Florida
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posted 13 March 2001 09:09 AM
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quote:
So I shoudn't get rid of all my Tweeds, blackfaces, & AC-30's???
On the contrary, Jay, I think you SHOULD get rid of all of them. They are so worthless, I'll take 'em all off your hands -whaddayasay, $100 each????  LTB |
Bob Kagy
Member From: Lafayette, CO USA
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posted 13 March 2001 11:55 AM
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Thanks for all the replies.I've been all over the Harmony Central user reviews on the DG Stomp, POD & J-Station. Lots of opinions at both ends of the spectrum, but all from guitar & bass players, no steel players. One guitar player made a distinction between how good they sounded depending on whether he was using a single coil or humbucking pickup (he liked the single coil sound much better through the modeling boxes). Gary Morse's comments on his use of the POD really got my attention considering the nice sound he's gotten on the new Dwight Yoakum CD; I'd like to hear how it sounds live. From all the searches I've done on the Forum here, I get that the most successful uses of the modeling boxes come when the user has figured out a way to cut the signal coming from the hot steel pickups before going to the modeling box, so as not to overdrive the amp model selected so much. I *am* looking for some non-traditional sounds from my pedal and lap steels on occasion. A way to get more body, expression, springiness, sustain, etc. just edging up to the threshold where distortion begins. I envy some of these characteristics from the horn players. Maybe I should've taken up trumpet, sax, trombone or clarinet? |
Jay Ganz
Member From: Out Behind The Barn
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posted 13 March 2001 02:21 PM
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Larry,
I'd feel guilty taking that much for a
bunch of crummy old amps!
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