Preliminary review - Waves iGTR

[Gabriel E.]

Since my old POD is MIA, I decided to splurge and get a Waves iGTR "Personal Guitar Processor" (i.e. headphone amp) so I can practice late at night.

 

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/regular/8/7/6/552876.jpg

 

$48 from MF. I got a backorder email saying the ETA would be March 10. The next day I got a shipping confirmation and it arrived yesterday via priority mail.

 

It looks a lot like my iPod nano and is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Very light and maybe not as durable as an iPod. I also purchased a set of closed-back Sennheiser headphones for $25.

 

The unit came in a box with a belt/guitar strap clip, 4 AAA batteries and a small 3.5mm stereo cable. There was also a CD ROM with a demo version of Waves GTR software.

 

I put in the batteries and attached the belt clip. The clip is also very handy for attaching it to a music stand. There's a 1/4" input for a guitar plus a 3.5mm aux input for an iPod or computer and volume controls for guitar and aux on the side. This is cool since it negates the need for a separate mixer. I plugged in my old Boss drum machine into the aux input. My old practice setup included my POD, the drum machine and a little carvin mixer. It was pretty unwieldy. The iGTR and the drum machine fit on the music stand no problem. When I turned up the drum machine there was a horrible noise problem. I turned off the drum machine and it went away. I'll get some batteries for the drum machine and see if that solves the problem (I was using a wall wart so maybe there was a ground loop).

 

There are two 3.5mm headphone inputs. I plugged in the headphones and got no sound. I had to back the headphone jack out a little to it to work. Tried the other input and the same thing happened. ??? When I get around to it I'll try another pair of phones and see if that was it. I refuse to wear ear buds.

 

On the front of the unit there are 3 slide switches and a knobs (thumbwheel) next to each switch. The top switch toggles between chorus, delay and reverb and the knob adjusts the intensity of the chorus and the time for the verb and delay. Level is not adjustable.

 

The second switch toggles between wah, tremolo and phaser and the knob adjusts the speed. Again, intensity is not adjustable.

 

The third switch toggles between warm, normal and bright amp models and the knob adjusts the gain.

 

There's also an imput for a 6-9v adapter. There is no USB port or any other means to interface with a computer for downloads, updates, etc.

 

This is a digital modeler but Waves does not identify specific amps/effects that were modeled. I think this is a good thing since you don't draw comparisons, you just play with the controls until you find a sound you like. I plugged in my bastard strat (a 1983 Japanese Squier with a maple Warmoth neck, Carvin AP11 pickups in the neck and middle and a SD JB Jr. in the bridge).

 

The clean sounds are pretty damn good. The warm and normal settings are Fendery and the bright setting sounds kind of like a JC-120.

 

Crank the gain and you get into Marshall territory. Unlike my old POD, there are no super high gain sounds on tap. I'll try putting my RAT in front of it tomorrow and see how that goes. The low end is also a little loose and fuzzy for my liking. Great for Jimi-style playing but too loose for a nice chuggy metal rhythm sound. Sounds almost like an impedence mismatch. My fav lead sound is the bright setting with the gain cranked 100% for a George Lynch-style lead tone. Also unlike the POD, they didn't model the noise! High gain sounds are pretty quiet (for the life of me I can't understand why most modellers have the same noise problems as real amps). The iGTR is also way more touch sensitive and doesn't have any noticable latency.

 

The tremolo is kind of lame IMHO. I really like the wah and phaser (Ernie Isley!!!). The reverb is more the ambient variety and makes no attempt to sound like a spring reverb. The chorus and delay are generic but sound good.

 

Overall, this is well worth the $48 (and costs 16% of what the POD cost back in 2000). Clean sounds are very happening and that's what I'll be using to practice. You get a nice variety of sounds in a small unit that weighs nothing.

 

My only gripes are the headphone jack issue and limited variety of high gain sounds. Still, it costs 1/3 what a Scholtz Rockman cost 20 years ago and sounds way better (the fact that you can't get that s*@&ty over-compressed Boston guitar sound out of the iGTR is an added bonus!).

 

My $0.02.

 

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

Iddunno, I kinda have mixed feelings, a little nostalgia perhaps, missing my old Rockman; boy, I got a LOT of miles outta that thing!

 

Your POD is "MIA"? What happened?

 

Glad you're diggin' your new acquisition, and that it was so inexpensive, too!

[Gabriel E.]

It got pregnant and sang at the Grammys in a polka dot dress.

 

Seriously, I have no idea where it is. I've done a lot of packing and unpacking and repacking and it disappeared. We were going to move but ended up staying.