Overall User Ratings

"The X Guitar - Get More for Less!"

Feature:
It's basically a full-sized Strat copy with the Alesis GuitarFX pedals' electronics built into the guitar. Look up the specs for the GuitarFX pedal and you'll see they're exactly the same. A very cool concept for an electric guitar. All you need are 4 AA's (or an optional 9v power supply), and some headphones and you're ready to rock. The pickup configuration is like the Fender Standard Fat Strat with two stacked single coil pickups for the neck and middle position, and a humbucker in the bridge position. There's only one volume knob, and where the tone knobs should be (as on a Strat), there are two silver (plastic) toggle switches - the bottom one to turn on the effects processor and the top one to scroll through the presets. On the top edge of the guitar is the built-in effects processor control unit. There's a 2-digit red digital display that shows all the presets and parameters as 2-digit "codes" - and yes, you do need to have the manual nearby to decipher all of these "codes". There's two knobs/dials to the side - the left one to dial through the preset's effect parameters and the right one to dial-in adjustments and "set" the values of the effect parameters (by pushing the knob in). There's two up/down arrow buttons next to the display that also scroll through the presets. And when pressed together, it turns off the effects and activates the built-in tuner. A cool idea, but not the best or easiest tuner to use. The only other guitar that comes close in comparison would be the Fernandes Nomad Deluxe with built-in effects and built-in speaker. Although the Nomad is smaller (for travel/practice) and a lot more expensive. So I'm pretty happy with this purchase. Although my next purchase will be the Alesis CF-1 Footswitch to take full advantage of all the features of the effects unit; wah, flange, volume, etc.

Quality:
The setup was good right out of the box. Even the intonation was spot on. It has a shiny black glossy finish and the headstock is finished to match the body. It looks like a Standard Black Strat with the standard white for the pickguard. There's a small "V" knotched out of the middle of the headstock between the 3rd and 4th tuning keys which is by design - to create some sort of original Alesis designed headstock look. So Fender purists can tell right off that it's not the genuine article. The action was good enough for my tastes and the strings are very easy to bend (extra light 9's, I believe). It appears that the quality control is very good at the Chinese factory that produced this axe.

Value:
I've been playing for over 25 years and have bought, sold, traded, and collected a ton of guitars, amps, and related equipment. This is just another aquisition of the many "tools of the trade" I now possess. Many electric guitar purists will thumb their noses at this guitar because of what it is - an all-in-one unit with questionable tone right out of the box. But for me, it's perfect for what I need it for - low volume coffee house gigs! With some time spent tweaking the presets, you should find the sound you're looking for ... It works for me! And with the under $250 price tag, I would buy another one if it were lost or stolen. In fact, I'm buying another one and headphones for my son for his birthday and shipping it to him overseas to his Air Force base in Italy - I'm sure he'll have NO complaints!

Desirability:
Beginners, intermediate players and even semi-pros will appreciate this unit for practicing because you don't have to drag out a lot of equipment to start jamming right away. It has already stirred my creative side since I can sit out on the porch or under a tree with this guitar and some headphones and just play to my hearts' content!

Sound:
There are tons of sounds/effects as you scroll through all of the presets. Clean, Chorus, Flanges, Distortions, Delays, Reverb, etc. All the sounds you'd typically find on a multi-effects processor. There are a few "weird" sounds too - spacey, distorted, delayed experimental sounds that are totally unusable - like if aliens were broadcasting through a transitor radio while it was burning and crackling in the fireplace (or something like that). Some of the presets are noisy and hissy. Even more so when going through headphones (Sony MDR7506). The cleaner presets like chorus/reverb and delays are less noisy and some sound pretty decent. I also play it straight to my Marshall AS80R Acoustic amplifier. The sound is very good going through the amp. Most of the presets need major tweaking, but experimenting and adjusting the parameters, you can create some decent sounds. One cool feature is; you can move the presets or your own settings to any order in the preset chain. The presets are "numbered" A0 - A9 all the way through G0 - G9. So if you like the preset sound of F6 and don't want to scroll through all the presets to get there, you can copy it and move it to position A2 for example (overwriting the original A2 preset). When the processor is turned off, you can still hear the "un-effected" sound through your amplifier like any other electric guitar. The "off" sound is pretty decent, although there's NO tone control, you have to control the tone with your amplifier's tone knobs. This is a design flaw. All in all, for the $249 price tag, the sounds are pretty decent, and should satisfy beginners, intermediate players and even some of us semi-pros.

Support:
Have not dealt with Customer Support except logging onto their website to fill out the on-line owner's registration. Website is pretty good with descriptions of their product line.

Overall:
For the price and the features, you can't go wrong. Get one today!