Best Guitar Amp Simulators (Jan 2023 Update)

If you are looking for a good practice amp modeler that is compact and has quite an array of effects and amps than the Pocket Pod should do the trick. I gig regularly and felt the Pocket Pod would be ideal for gigs where I didn't want to haul my tube amp around. Sound wise I'm not disappointed in hooking my pocket pod up to a sound board. However, where this product ultimately fails is there is NO On/Off switch! To activate the pod you plug your guitar directly into the input jack and it comes on. Once on you pretty much have to leave the guitar plugged in for your entire set or risk getting a loud pop through the PA system. And leaving the pod plugged in makes the pod get very warm and drains your batteries. I have a circuit breaker guitar cable so I can switch guitars without getting the dreaded pop in the PA system. I'm sure the people at Line 6 cut out the On/Off feature to save room. But I've never seen any piece of equipment that can't be turned off with a button. Satisfactory sounds but more headaches than it's worth for gigging musicians.O'neil Blues

Its great i love how it has all kinds of sffects and i can use both my guitar and phone as i play along. Great for portable playing so i dont have to bring the big head amp everywhere i want to take my guitar. Also the battery life is amazing if there's a new version of this i would so buy it.Hector

9 effects in line plus the integrated booster, a Z expression pedal that allows you to put a left-right effect and another one in the up-down position. The best amps simulators i've tried. Excellent heavy-solid construction, 4 integrated screens that give you the opportunity to switch on and off the effects selected… balance out output to give you a full wave audio (left and right together). Awesome multi-effect!!!edwardochoa

This Effect Pedal ROCKS!! It is NOT to hard to learn, Its Quite Easy. i LOVE the "Effect Pedal Pictures" on screen, That alone is what sold me! 🙂 You Will Scroll Left & Right To SEE ALL "9" Of the Effect Pedals Your Useing For Any Givin Patch. The 3-Controls & 3-Buttons Under every Screen, is ALL you need to Adjust THAT Single Effect Your Looking At On THAT Screen! Pure Simplicity! This Pedal gives you Awesome Patches to start With! ZOOM Dont Mess Around! They Give you ALL You Need To Start Right Out Of The Box! Plug it in, & Thats IT! Your ROCK"N From The Start!! I Cannot tell you anymore, or i Will Be Banned! =) Keep On Rock'n Everyone!! 🙂world_guitar_quest

I purchased this unit to eliminate numerous stomp boxes and/or a rack with a PSA1. I do many fly out dates and needed a compact all in one pedal FX unit that sounds great through a PA. I found very good sounds within just a few minutes. I don't use many of the FX that are included. I play in an 80s rock tribute and need good drive and clean sounds with delay, reverb, chorus. Two complaints at this time are the pedalboard switches are way too close to the adjustment knobs. If you don't take your time when stepping on the switch, you'll hit those knobs when switching channels. It is such an issue for me that I'm fabricating a knob guard. There is no XLR output. This would be very helpful, but I have a good DI Box that works great allowing me to send an XLR to the sound man and a 1/4" to my in-ears mixer….. My other guitarist has a AxeFX unit. Obviously his is far more capable but for live performances through the PA his doesn't sound $1100 better than this Zoom unit. So for a good live sound on a budget I highly recommend the Zoom….lanesuzza

I bought one for my live rig and one for my home rig. The live rig one works well however the home rig one died. When it works it works well but the lightly used of the two didn't hold up.Joe

I have used countless pedals in my time and I can recommend a few brilliant ones But I have to say this is a revelation!! Its the best most versatile pedal I have ever used and the combinations are exceptional and incredibly authentic. The sampling used to produce the various guitar microphone cabinet simulation are. Truly exceptional and for this kind of money you would never need another guitar pedal and you can eliminate dozens of pedals on your board one good amp and you have almost every combination of different amps and setting you will ever need I have it going through a pre amp and doesnt matter if you run it into an amp or a desk it has every amp etc you could ever wish for at a click INCREDIBLE !! I couldnt recommend this more highly !!!!!gordont5861

I've been looking awhile for a Zoom G3x, with the The Shadows patches because they are very good. Its a well made metal bodied unit , pretty easy to use when you study the manual . It can connect to your laptop or PC using USB type B to Type A cable. which enables you to update the firmware, and play your backing tracks. If you download Edit and Share from Zoom ,this enables you to alter, swap and change patch positions. Very handy having a volume pedal, which can be set ,for various effects. I'm very pleased with the Zoom it was a good price ,and sounds fantastic. I recommend it.opaline_04

As a "weekend warrior" gigging musician, I needed a new pedal board to replace my old XTLive POD that finally died after 12 years (also a MF purchase!). Checking reviews, I felt pretty confident ordering it and this thing exceeds my expectations! The phrase "so easy a caveman can do it" comes to mind. I literally received it, set up a bank of effects and played a gig within two hours! My picky soundman even told me at the end of the night "don't ever get rid of that pedal-board, it's your new secret sauce". Already tweaking and adding more patches – thanks MF and ZOOM for such a great product and such an easy purchasing process!Muzik Man

I've owned several other pedals in the past and some were better than others. This one is my latest addition. The manual is vague not enough detail, it took some guessing and experimenting to learn how this thing operates. Got past most of that. Individual FX are good but most are way over the top and need editing to be useful. I don't understand why they over do the FX, no need to get extreme with the factory sets. The Looper is nice but haven't figured out how I would use it yet (my first Multi-FX pedal with a built in Looper). No power adapter noise is nice a plus. No Bypass switch is a bummer if used in a pedal board with other FX, could make bypass patches but that kind of fails the idea of easy switching between other pedals. It needs a better clean sound with the Fender Twin Reverb model, Twins are known for their clean and this doesn't sound like a Twin at all. Need to fix that. Go listen to a Twin, I owned one for 30 years I know what they sound like. At this point I'm a little disappointed at Zoom, I don't think they thought this pedal through very well. It may be great for some people but it's kind of eh, for me. I may send it back.John

I bought this to use as a headphone amp. For practice, the drums section and looper included are useful. Was not so interested in the effects part, however the range of options for drive and reverb are well beyond what is available on any one amp. Am now thinking I could use this as a preamp for any powered speaker, and adjust to suit. Signal to noise ratio is excellent to my ear. Overall sound quality is excellent.Ts

Get this on sale, and there's nothing that can touch it. Even at full price, heck, you would pay that for one regular pedal alone. Brilliant sound quality, quiet as a mouse, 32 bit processing, 2 bit sampling, a gazillion great effects. Editing and using is pretty easy, you'll have it all down in 5 to 10 minutes if you simply read the instructions- and I barely had to, and still got it figured out. Built like a tank, up-gradable and expandable memory, patches, and effects. (Use the downloadable Guitar Lab software). 3 effects on/off switches at once, but easy enough to scroll and turn on/off any effect in a patch. I run mine off of batteries, a home made battery pack using either 9 volt or AA batteries- either works. A definite improvement over the G3. The only thing better would be a pedal with more physical switches- but then you're paying a lot more money, and bigger pedal, so I opted for less cash outlay, more compact pedal. Truly wonderful and 21st century on it's own, yet small enough to put on a pedal board. Do I sound like a commercial?? 🙂 I'm not, just a user. Best pedal bargain on the planet right now. Better than Boss or anything else I'm aware of. 10 stars.neilslade

The footswitches are finicky. The overdrive models are sub par. The touch screen works well and the IR workflow is excellent. In the end, it was not for me. While the amp tones have a pleasant midrange quality, the character itself felt restrictive. The reverbs are glorious but do not warrant the price of admission. My first one had footswitch issues, where they would activate on their own. The replacement did it once or twice. I ran at that point, and do not miss this sub par productEC

For me the MX5 is exactly what I have been looking for many years. Intuitive, compact and priced right. I owned the original Line 6 Pod, the Boss GT-10 and recently the Line 6 Pod Go. The frustrating thing for me with the Boss GT-10 and Line 6 Pod Go is if I did not consistently use them I would forget how to go in and tweak the sounds. Sometimes I don't play for weeks even months and when I got the urge to play again I had to fiddle or re read the manual on how to make certain adjustments. I ended up spending more time on the darn effects unit than actually playing the guitar. With the MX5 it's very intuitive via the touch screen to just make changes or create a new rig. I don't think I'll succumb to use it or lose it affect. The compact size means it can be tucked away easily in my office. And the fact that it has a built in expression pedal is really nice. I don't typically do reviews but I felt this is the first time in a while that a product has met all of my needs. I think Headrush really nailed it for many of us older, part time weekend warrior guitarists out there that just want something easy and ready to use. Whether at home practicing, recording or take to a quick jam session or gig.Steve

The MX5 is the third modeler/multi effects processor that I have used for recording and playing live. In my opinion the overall sound quality is a bit underwhelming. On the positive side, the clean tones are excellent. On the negative side, the overdrive tones are satisfactory at best. To be completely honest, I'm very disappointed with the overdrive/distortion tones. It will take a lot of tweaking to get a desirable crunch tone if you are a True Tone chaser. I am not alone with this opinion. Check out the YouTube reviews of the MX5 and the reviews from those who are not affiliated with HR marketing. There are some honest reviews that point out the good, the bad, and the ugly. I unfortunately did not pay attention to those before I purchased this pedal. If you are not a tone chaser and you are new to modeling, this may be a good pedal. It has a great looper. It is easy to use. And it gives the user plenty of options for exploring different pedal tones (not to mention the ability to split the signal chain). But if you are serious about high quality sound, compare this with others before you buy. Not to mention, this pedal has had its share of firmware bugs. The good news is that HR is pretty good about fixing them with firmware updates. Good customer service too.Jesse

Recently downsized my Fractal (Axe-fx) live rig into this little unit. I've had it now for about a month and i'm really happy with it. It does everything i hoped it would and the tones i'm able to pull are great. The built in presets are a really great place to start and you can dial in your 'sound' even more with the many effects available. The touchscreen is an awesome feature but i'm really happy with the computer editing capabilities, as that's what i'm used to. The build quality is actually really strong and the built in exp pedal is super solid too. And it's small, like.. smaller than my keyboard! Perfect for carrying around to shows! I was also able to get this really cheap compared to it's competition. There's even an Ampero gig bag that you can purchase separately that is fantastic. Cheers!Barak B.

I have been VERY impressed with the Hotone Ampero so far. I have no idea how they were able to create such an amazing product for such an unbelievable price. It's like a Helix LT shrunken down for about 1/5 of the price and it has the same dual DSP SHARC chips as Helix! The unboxing is similar to an Apple product. Build quality seems very solid. There are tons of AMPS, EFFECTS, and CAB Sims in here! And so far, they all sound great. I've only been through a small % of all this stuff. But I can't wait to see what I can do with it. P.S. I had a great experience with Sam Ash! I was able to negotiate a better deal which made things even better! When's the last time you negotiated a price drop while in your Amazon shopping cart screen?!?!? 😉Dolf M

I usually use mics, but this unit sounds good run directly into the mixing board thanks to the better than average amp/cab emulators. The overdrive/distortion and chorus algorithms are particularly noteworthy, and the reverb and delays are also more than adequate. Definitely one of the best overall multi-effects pedals I've used, especially in a direct to board capacity. The interface is easy enough to operate, the menus intuitive and , again, the sound is really good. -Better than most, actually.DAVID

Overall, very good for my needs as a bedroom guitarist. I chose this multi effects units over the more expensive brands simply because it had built-in drums and looper which the other brands didn't have.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

I bought this as an additional pre-amp to others I own in the Joyo line – I wasn't disappointed. Correctly connected (I've found recording guitars direct into my Zoom HD with pre-amps like these works much better if you use an active DI box to convert the signal to balanced and then use a line input rather than the dedicated guitar input) this little amp will shimmer and shine! How close it is to an actual Night Train I couldn't say, but what I can say is this gives a full rich tone with lots of gain options. Full marks to Joyo again, who in my experience make high quality products at an affordable price, meaning people like me can afford to have a good few pedals on hand, rather than breaking the bank on one. Joyo rule!tonym6912

Although this pedal is mainly designed as an amp simulator (direct to PA/mixing desk etc.) it's equally good in front of an actual guitar amplifier. It will lend your amp some of the character of a Night Train. The strength of this pedal is its overdrive. It's got a rich, pleasant "crunch" overdrive, with plenty of touch sensitivity (i.e. responds to how hard you pick). It's well suited to classic rock: I'd say it competes well with pedals that cost a lot more. In terms of build, it's very small (you might not appreciate from the pictures how tiny it is), and sturdily constructed from metal with a thick plastic cover for the controls, which is a nice touch. Overall, at the price this is a surprisingly useful, versatile and great sounding overdrive pedal. I'm really enjoying it.240gldotorg

Good amp sim pedal. Nice variety of amp & I like the cab sim pairings (although the CAB module expands those choices immensely). Main issue with this pedal: VERY NOISY, even by itself. Gets even noisier when trying to stack it with another drive pedal. Most of the effects seem to be the harder-clipping distortion or even metal style, although the cleaner amp sims seem like they cut down on the noise significantly (but still not low enough to stack drive or dirt pedals). JMHO thus far. Still haven't found the right combination of noise gating or silencing to quiet this one down yet, but my experimentation is still ongoing. YMMV.John

Received this pedal the day following my order. Great service. Wanted a Fenderish sound to practise after selling my Laney tube amp to a blues harp player, without all the bells and whistles of a multi effects processor . This pedal really works for me. I use it with a stereo amp and analogue chorus pedal. Knobs are quite sensitive but I can get clean through to distortion. Also works well as overdrive into clean amp. If you want to get the amp sounds without the weight and cost this can do it. After getting a Yamaha THR I have become a fan of using stereo monitors rather than combos/cabinets for practising.Hobbyist

Having never been a huge user of pedals, I was somewhat surprised when I listened to the demo's of this little marvel. The demo's were done very simply, with just a little reverb added on some. I promptly placed an order, and the pedal arrived very quickly in the mail, as per usual from this company, Artist Guitars. Using several different, but very basic amps for the test, I was blown away by the range of tones available, and a simple push on the foot switch left no doubt that this pedal is a game changer. It really shows it's potential when using through an interface into a DAW. This area has long been lacking when using electric guitars to record via a computer. Now, no need to use a ''noisy'' guitar amp to get ''that tone'', it is all in this little, very well constructed pedal. You would think for the price it would be a lightly constructed case, but no, all cast metal, and a good foot switch. Well done Joyo, you have a winner here, and at a bargain price. There are other amp sim units out there, but if menus and buttons and digital sound don't excite you, for the price of a decent meal, this unit is sure to do it.Geoff

I bought this pedal a couple of years ago wanting to see if I could fully make the move to DI at gigs, and not have to mess around with amps. I toyed around with it briefly, thought it didn't sound that great, and never used it again, just chucking it in my gig bag to use as a backup if I ever had to. Recently I've pulled it out again and spent some time really dialing it in, and wow, it really is great. I'd say it can get about 90% of a Deluxe Reverb tone. The main difference is that it's a little more compressed than the real deal, and doesn't sound quite as natural when moving from soft playing to hard playing (which is what makes a tube amp sound so good). I think the reason it works well for me is because I'm running humbuckers into it which are already quite compressed. I suspect running single coils might not yield as good results. For a good DR sound try level 4 oclock, voice 9 oclock, drive 9 oclock (or to taste), bass and treble about 3 oclock, mids about 10 oclock, with the PA EQ flat – YMMV depending on your PA speakers. The trick for high gain sounds on top of this is to use a distortion pedal (before the Joyo) which has its own 3 band EQ. Have a play around with it and push the EQ to its extreme. The Joyo will compress the signal going into it, so you might have to push the level on your distortion pedal significantly to get much of a volume boost when you kick it on. I spent 30 minutes or so finding a setup that worked for me and I am extremely happy with it, I'm now considering just going DI full time with this in live situations.Matt M

Recently bought this thing after saving up for months. I pretty much ripped it out of the box, plugged it in, powered it on, went through the very quick and simple setup process, and in minutes it was ready for use. I’ve now had it for a few days and already it has made my life a ton easier. Being a musician that goes on the road a lot, carrying around an amp can be a huge hassle. The Kemper eliminates that hassle, while also maintaining an amazing tone. A few things to keep in mind, though:

1. It doesn’t create an EXACT carbon copy of your amp, but it comes EXTREMELY close, so close in fact that I, having played guitar for around 7 years, can barely tell the difference, and the very microscopic differences there are, are nothing that can’t be ironed out with small tweaking to the EQ, specifically the high end

2. The volume may vary depending on how the venue has their sound system set up, so that’s something to be mindful of. You may switch on and blow eardrums at some places, or you may switch on and barely hear anything in other places, so be mindful of that.

3. You will have an amazing tone, so just be mindful of that as well. Even the stock profiles sound great, but the Kemper is taken to a whole new level once you start using your own profiles, as well as commercially sold profiles, such as the ones from Tone Junkie.

The built in Performance mode also allows for a seamless switch between up to five different rigs at the click of a button, which would be impossible to do using only analog gear.

The Kemper can be a pretty big learning curve, though, especially for people like me, who have used analog gear for years, and were even leery of making the switch to digital at first. But after the initial learning curve and getting familiar with it, I promise you will be glad you made the switch.Brandon Johnson

I bought the 600w version after a ton of research and inner debate. I had solid state rack stuff in the early 90's and hated it. It always had something missing from the tone, it seemed shallow and fake. I turned into a die hard tube guy after that. I pledged never to buy any computer amp ever again. I dismissed the Kemper at first. But once I saw some videos and heard some profiles, I was a little interested. I couldn't get past buying a computer and having 1000's of tones at the turn of a knob. Once I heard it live, thru a cabinet in a rehearsal space, I was floored and very surprised. My friend went from a 68 Marshall to a 6505 to a Fender Twin Reverb with a turn of a knob in seconds. I've owned very expensive tube amps with very distinct tone signatures I thought could not be replicated. I was 100% wrong. I profiled my Engl head and did a blind test to see if I could tell the difference in tone once I shaped it up. I honestly couIdn't tell the difference. When I guessed, I picked the Kemper 4 out of 5 times. I went to the rig exchange and found a profile that was reasonably close to a 59 plexi. I tweaked it for 10 minutes. Within that 10 minutes, I saved thousands on a new tube amp. The Kemper is a perfect fit for the skeptic. There's a million forums and tutorials out there so you'll never feel lost. Once you learn the menus and how to dial in a tone or profile an amp, you're hooked. This is the most versitle amp I've ever owned. I am completely satisified.Rob

Like the title says, you can find 1000's of these for sale used and there's good reason for that. It doesn't sound like tube at all. I think it's good for the studio where I've used one. But live? If you're fine with a solid state head, then fine. The modeling really isn't any better than higher end Line 6 modeling. This past labor day, Great White was playing a festival near by. They had a total of 8 Marshall 4×12's on stage with 4 DSL 100 heads. Not one of them was powered on. So I looked around for what they were going to use, I saw 2 Kemper Profiler heads. 1 for each guitarist. The sound was absolutely terrible. Neither amp sounded anything close to a Marshall or like tube for that matter. You could hear the cab emulation a mile away. At this price point go another direction. Unless your application is purely studio.guylemieux

For anyone who's never used this box, it's important to know that it's most effective use is as a preamp into either a power amp / speaker cab, OR, into a DI-to-PA or your s/w modeler. You will most likely be disappointed if you try to use it as typical stomp box in a chain-to-amp front end. The emulation in this box is powerful, and will really conflict with preamps and external modelers. Of course, one's desired sound is the ultimate yard stick, so whatever ends up producing what you want to hear in your music is the "right" thing to do. IMO, if you want to apply Tech 21 voicings in a normal amp / cab setup, your best bet are the Character Series pedals they make – the Liverpool, British, Oxford, etc. These pedals are very effective in all the typical applications, and have an extremely wide range of tonality. rgdsabradfordajb

I'm actually a big fan of the TECH 21 SansAmp TRI-A.C. and I think it's still the best programmable analog overdrive pedal or tube emulator. However, the TECH 21 SansAmp GT2 is the most versatile analog distortion pedal and amp simulator. The SansAmp GT2 can be a little over-the-top, but the extra gain is needed to get those hard rock and heavy metal tones that are just outside of the reach of the TRI-A.C. Get both!micromano

As an individual pedal its great but I also use an OMG pedal which is great too. The two together are just fantastic The guitar goes in to the tuner then wah OMG followed by the Sansamp finally delays. Could have bought the RK5 but it is Ok Would been cheaper. At least I have found the sound that I always wanted. Real bluesy rock sound. Rolling back the volume even fusion or contemporary jazzgbel62

Fantastic quality and love having all the settings to play with physically. Sounds phenomenal through headphones, monitors and straight into the DAW.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

An amazing 2 channel or dual amp zero watt amplifier pedal. Used it at a rehearsal and could dial in great tones very quickly – from Marshal type distortion to clean reverby Fendery tones. Great through headphones for practice and DI'd into PA for live use. Only disappointment was that there was no power supply supplied, but it does come with a very useful channel/reverb foot switch.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

Amazing for recording, the pedal sounds the way your amp would before adding the mic. So easy to dial in any sound, I added a nobble Od1 into the chain and it blew my mind. I gave a good on looks because its hard to read what the knobs and switches do in a studio environment.Reviewed by Andertons Music Co.

I was looking for a good multi-effects pedal option and found this Flamma FM10. It's loaded with a bunch of different amp models and effects. I was able to dial and EQ everything. The expression pedal can also be put to use as a volume pedal, wah, gain control, and several other things. I was able to create several personal patches and have used them all in live settings. They sounded great. Which means a lot coming from me because I am EXTREMELY picky about gear and tone. Other benefits are that it functions as an audio interface, it has stereo outs, a headphone out, and aux in. It fits in a backpack and a gig bag. Depending on where the show is and how a musician needs to get there, this effects unit is going to travel well in all circumstances. Seems like a really great option for any musician (especially traveling musicians) who need a small multi-effects unit. I like it and I'm going to be using this quite often moving forward.Paul

I was looking at purchasing a Helix LT and upon researching I came across the Pod Go Wireless. It does everything I required from the Helix but at less than half the price, size and weight. You can dial in some great tones, I use it through an 80w Marshall combi straight into the FX return (turning off the cab sim on the Pod) and it sounds very impressive. The amount of effects to choose from is incredible and you can tweak so many variables to get that perfect tone. The wah treadle is very good but it’s not so great when used as a volume pedal as it doesn’t seem to gradually increase/decrease the volume, it’s almost on/off. The wireless feature is very good, I’ve not had any connection issues and don’t have to worry about treading on my cable, which I’m very prone to. Overall, for what I need in a jamming/garage band capacity it is perfect and I’m very, very pleased with the purchase. PMT delivered the next day, it was very well packaged and was the best price I found on the internet.Martin M.

It arrived a few days ago from MF. I want to highlight what I like about it without repeating the contents of its manual. Bottom line, for my usage replacing a Fender black panel Deluxe, a spring reverb, and a Tube Screamer, it is excellent. I am using the Vibro King amp model for most of my tweaking, but I also set up the Twin Reverb (super clean), Super Reverb, and Marshall JCM800 (crunch even with the guitar volume relatively low). The Twin model would not distort without a boost included in the "scene" even with my guitar and the model volumes at 10. That was the one anomaly from my expectations. I like the Vibro King model, amplified by my QSC CP8 (on the floor, on its side, backside EQ set to floor monitor), and do not prefer my now sold Tone Master Deluxe. The first thing I did was download the 2022-10-31 Firmware update and install it. Instructions to put the pedal in "DFU" mode to accept the update were missing. A YouTube video found via Google explained to hold both foot switches while powering up. Next, I installed the main NuX App for my Mac. I disabled the third "scene" such that the "scene foot switch" becomes a "scene" toggle (one cleaner, one with the Tube Screamer engaged, both with spring reverb). I then went through the amp models I planned to use (two "scenes" each, which must be done individually) and set all the controls to 12 o'clock. I tweaked the amp, spring reverb, and Tube Screamer to taste. I now have three ways to boost for an overdriven solo starting with the Vibro King as my clean base: turn up the guitar, foot switch to the Tube Screamer "scene", or foot switch to the JCM800 amp model. I explain all this detail because it took about an hour and without this work the pedal is disappointing. The software was almost easy enough to use without the nonexistent manuals (to do it again it would take much less time). Once done, everything can be adjusted via the knobs and optionally saved with the left foot switch. No menus to navigate at a gig. You can see in the pictures that it is quite small (Tube Screamer for reference), weighs exactly 1 lb. (less than that Tube Screamer), and draws only 3 watts. Leaving it run over night only gets it to room temperature. My old HX Stomp would have been hot to the touch and required a 20-watt power supply. Is it a Universal Audio quality Twin Reverb, Super Reverb, JCM800, or Vibro King modeler? Impossible for me to know. But for what I want, a classic black panel 60s Fender amp tone, spring reverb, and foot switchable Tube Screamer, it is a complete solution in a small package. No aspect of IO is missing (XLR, USB-C, ¼", 3.5mm, MIDI over USB). It also has an effects loop, graphic EQ, all the usual reverb types, 1024 IR loader, a selection of boost/overdrive/compression pedal models, and a noise gate which I've not tried. If one of the amp models is acceptably flat response you could use its 1024 IR loader, reverb collection, and compressor collection for your acoustic guitar too. Wow! What's missing? For my usage a master volume not associated or saved with an amp model "scene" would be nice. It does make a click when switching amp models or "scenes". Sometimes when switching amp models there is a noticeable delay.Jon

It is a very good pedal and at a great price. Is it as good as the competition? Honestly I am not sure as I have yet to make my own IR but the loaded 24 bit IR's sound pretty good and the preamp is very malleable plus it has a very decent reverb. I am glad I gave the NUX Optima a go before I spent two to three times more on the others. This pedal exceeded my expectations for sure. Blending is essential to get the most of of the pedal's offerings. Only thing I did notice is it did not really work well with my Godin A6 Ultra but worked great with my Martin and my Art and Luthier 12 string. For best results use the XLR out. I look forward to creating my own IR's in the near future but even without this feature it is a good buy.chsh_5693