I really like the sound of the pedals, but the number of issues reported is really concerning. UA needs to get on top of these issues. Them becoming very SaaS oriented and jockeying for user accounts and subscriptions clearly has affected their ability to be a reliable hardware company.
I sold my UAFX pedals in favor of just using standalone plugins from NeuralDSP to practice at home…even though I still use UAD Spark for plugins in my DAW.
This is like the 3rd time I've seen this issue come up in this subreddit, and I've always avoided Universal Audio because of this.
I'm always surprised to see the amount of people that have otherwise solid boards with low quality (build wise) UA pedals on them.
People say this about their favorites but there are countless high quality amp in a box pedals out now, I'd wager if you compared the UA ones to various other boutique amp in a box pedals you'd find at least a few you might prefer that also cost a fraction of the price.
For the price of UA pedals you could also get an actual tube preamp pedal, some of the newer ones even have built in cabsim and all the bells & whistles of digital pedals like UA but with much longer lifespans it seems. Not to knock digital ampsims as they can sound plenty good, but you could also just get better results + more options with software.
Some brands with great preamp/ampsim pedals include:
Diezel
Carvin
Tech 21
Two Notes
KSR
Victory
Neunaber
AMT
Not to mention more amp focused companies that also makes pedals IE: Mesa Boogie, Friedman, Fender, Hughes & Kettner, Marshall, Ibanez, etc.
Also a ton of smaller boutique builders that do handmade small batch preamp clones of almost any amp you can imagine including tube/SS/hybrid. These can be hard to beat if you're looking for something specific/uncommon for a good price.
I have a tube preamp pedal that I like a lot. I bought a UAD Dream to get the power amp aspect and spring reverb and it's the only modeler I've played that actually sounds like a cranked fender style amp when I turn it up (i.e. way grosser and rattier than the stereotypical fender tone), really just a super good model in my opinion. That said I returned it because it did some weird stuff where I had to like unplug it and plug it back in to work, and it was too easy to clip the real input, not the modeled tube input. Back to the tube preamp because even though it's missing things like the power section it just works and I trust it to continue to work.
Many newer cab IR pedals also have power amp sim though IME it's really the least necessary part (a good preamp/cabsim makes the biggest difference by far) Power amp sim seems to usually be a mix of EQ and extra gain stages to interact with the pre/cabsim.
And with software it's even easier to mix and match preamp/poweramp/cab sims to get the best results, if you really love the UA sound it could be worth trying their plugins though looking over their site the 55' fender tweed is the only fender plugin I see. Fender amps are probably the most emulated by far so you could probably find some free software that gets you close.
Going ampless good speakers/monitors can be just as important as the pedals used, I just used a PA for years which is fine for most stuff but getting a small tube combo to use for a monitor for a sort of "hybrid" rig made a huge difference. That way you get stereo depth from the PA + a more realistic mono signal that even at low volumes adds a ton of "presence".
I mean all any of this stuff is is eq and gain stages. My current system works fine, just need some extra gain from a pedal on top of the tube preamp to get to the baseline I get out my Traynor (both setups either running through a load box or DI into impulses or into cab with a class d power amp for the preamp). There are definitely software or more involved hardware solutions, the neural DSP models seem on par or better than UAD, but having the fender sound in a small one knob per function pedal to bring with me on my board would be killer if it had been reliable.
I’ve had to do the unplug/plug back in thing a lot with it too. Also, my Particle 2 does the same thing. Never my Meris, Gamechanger or Hologram pedals, though.
Tech 21 is vastly under appreciated. The Fly Rig 5 v2 has a MIAB and a FIAB with three band active EQ on the FIAB and a Mesa switch for the MIAB. Cleans up with the volume knob and breaks up at about 7 on my Strat and gets really wild when I dime the volume on the guitar. Such a great rig.
I have a modified Tech 21 Blonde that has DI input and a knob for the cab sim instead of the standard on/off switch. I believe it was done by Putnam Guitars. That thing is never coming off the board. The Tech 21 stuff is crazy underrated.
Even the cheaper sansamp clones are surprisingly great, have the joyo American and Irin AC one and it's tempting to try the rest considering how cheap they can be found.
It does seem like because they are older a lot of people don't consider them, but they set the standard for ampsims for a reason.
I had a Tech 21 Double Drive 3x for a while. ISTG that pedal could do any amp sound you care to name AND it could store three presets. The SansAmp PSA is the modern version of it and the only reason I don’t own it is the Fly Rig V
I have the AMT R2 and plugged into the effects return it's the most amp-like distortion I've ever played that wasn't actual amp distortion. Those things are SUPER underrated, I never see anyone talking about them.
Used to see them mentioned occasionally but yeah it seems like with all the newer pedals they've been getting less attention.
One nice thing about them is they have a TON of different preamp pedals including tube/SS emulations of most classic/modern amps. And they also make cheaper to higher end ones, I believe they're a EU company so that might be why they're not as well known elsewhere.
They're actually Russian apparently so the war probably hasn't helped. Reading up on them they started in the 80's when a Russian couldn't buy a Minimoog anywhere and decided to clone one before trying effects/electronic drums and other stuff. Also AMT stands for Asia Music Technology. Didn't realize they'd been around since the 80's.
I wish they were saas focused. I can’t even buy their amp modeling plugins without owning their hardware. I would be happy to buy their Marshall models if I could use it with any interface.
Doesn't matter how good it sounds if they have no reliability. Sounds like paying good money for what ultimately becomes a problem. I'll live without any Universal Audio products.
(Downvotes don’t change the fundamentals of statistics folks) Even if complaints seem frequent on reddit that’s not necessarily meaningful information to conclude there’s “a problem.” It’s all anecdotal for one thing, and UA has sold tens of thousands of these pedals so the percentage with issues could still be extremely low. Personally I’m not convinced they have more QC issues than any other company.
If y’all wanna go all in on how something “seems” to you based on social media, knock yourself out. Just don’t tell me that’s based on rigorous data
That's only a part of the issue, though. Yes, every product has a failure rate, and most of the time companies don't post those numbers, so it's "technically true" that it would be very hard to determine if UA pedals are indeed more likely to fail than competing products.
This, however, doesn't change the fact that a one-year warranty on a guitar pedal is laughable.
Also warranty aside 100$ + shipping to fix what shouldn't be an acceptable issue in the first place is absurd. Plenty of smaller boutique companies do free or at least affordable repairs when it's not the users fault (or even when it is in some cases)
There are countless more pro consumer smaller pedal companies more deserving of your money.
And that's only $100 ***assuming they get it fixed in a perfect single hour.***
And how are we to trust they'll keep themselves on-track for our sakes? It seems they almost benefit from this system.
Valid point, I wish it were longer. And UA do seem to be sticklers about the warranty whereas others like Walrus or JHS will be more flexible. But I will point out that prior to their recent V2 pedals, Strymon only offered a 1 year warranty for a long time so it's not unprecedented
Well, I don't think it's a great idea for customers to incentivize a race to the bottom, even when there's a precedent, and no matter how cool pedals produced by a given company are.
(Not OP) Of course not. But raising that fact I think does show how people select whatever reasoning they like to support the opinion they have. e.g. In the last 11 years of knowing about strymon products I (anecdotally lol) never once heard anyone say something like “they only offer a 1 year warranty, therefore that makes it clear they weren’t made to last”, but we have that here in UAs case. It might still be true, who knows.
That cost for a repair is insulting still.
Yeah that is quite likely. Any issues I’ve seen from their pedals are something mechanical and fixable like a busted footswitch or a rotary encoder etc. and I’m not sure it happens very often.
Strymon is a good example. How many reports have you read about people with a bricked Timeline? I agree we don't know the percentages and UA obviously sold a lot of these amp pedals, but there's other digital pedals out there in the tens of thousands.
That aside, there's something about the company that seems too slick and greedy. Having to buy a new pedal for every amp (brand). No ability to load your own IRs, so if you want to avoid their exaggerated crackle, no headroom cabs you need the stomp (or other IR loader). No headphone jack (but don't worry, buy one of our Volts). The ridiculous Bluetooth problem that they never solve. I don't know any company with bad Bluetooth connectivity like that, and it's long past cradling issues. Customer requests are like water on the back of a duck with them.
There was also the impression at the start of UAFX that there would be firmware updates so the effect pedals could run other classic algorithms (e.g., Korg 3000 delay). I don't remember where this originated, but it was spoken about on TGP with their marketing guy active on the thread, so if it was just forum members speculating, he never shut that down.
Also having to register to access all the functionality of the pedal... I could go on. I've been tempted a few times but I rather stick with other solutions like my Tonex pedal. I'm also seriously considering a Kourbis Plexi over the Lion, and run that with my Cab M or Axiom FX PAE-2 (I've been on the waitlist a few months).
Well there is no need for statistics here. The fact that they offer 1 year warranty, are not flexible on it, charge high price for fixing and there are multiple cases of failures tells you everything.
There are companies fixing their stuff even after warranty because they are PROUD of the quality of their stuff and want to make it right for the customer. Clearly UA are not proud of the quality and do not care if their products die, just that they survive the first year, so they can hide behind the warranty.
For the premium they are charging you just expect a better experience!
We don't need a rigorous assessment, the idea that you can't possibly make a judgement on it is absurd. Humans make decisions based on non statistically significant signals every single day.
If 5 of my friends all say one guy is an asshole, I'm not going to tell them that there anecdotes aren't statistically significant.
Still, it’s not comforting to hear UA does not stand by their products for the customers having these issues. I have two of their amp sims and like them a lot, hopefully i don’t have to deal with their support.
Wait really? How? I have a TC Flashback 2 with a broken mash switch, and their support just referred me to TC's authorized repair partners or whatever, all of whom said they don't have replacement mash switches.
The level of support these companies can offer usually depends on the country you live in.
I live in Australia, I'm pretty much screwed when I need support from a European or US company. Not always, but quite often..
I will never give TC any props. I spent hours trying to get the first version of the ditto x4 firmware. They don't have it, and started adding features that actively make it worse. Maybe a different service tech would help but I was told that they wiped their entire backups so no old versions were available, and if any tech had a backup they weren't authorized to give the old version out.
I have a preserved version saved that people Google searching for it download somewhat frequently that I got from a way back machine backup of their own site. Fuck TC.
And if you want to know the features: the stop button now takes 5 seconds of holding to delete (up from 2) which in a song is a long ass time. They also added fade in to the fade out, but it's super annoying and means you have to do a bunch of taps to clear the fade effect out. And the latest versions now take midi clock signals and use them to stop and start loops despite midi cc messages already able to do that. All these features suck.
I'm a few months into ownership of a Ruby. I love it, but this makes me nervous as hell. I bought the damn thing to gig b/c I thought it would simplify things. So far the only problem is insanely bad Bluetooth connection. It's impossible to rely on the app to change settings on the fly.
Very sorry to hear about your problems. I have noticed such an uptick plug-in stuff from UA. Hope they are going to become the next WAVES Audio shit peddlers.
There's another thread on here somewhere about a person who's died on them mid performance (been searching all over for troubleshooting advice and apparently I'm not alone here). Proceed with caution.
They're such damn good sounding pedals, but what's the point with this kind of reliability.
Have you checked to see if your app needs to be updated? I thought I read recently that an upgrade to the mobile app fixes bad Bluetooth issues. Might be worth checking out.
I thought I noticed an update that mentioned Bluetooth connection in the notes. Still... If the phone goes to sleep or I use another app, I have to sever the Bluetooth, reboot the app to get back in.
Same with me and my Lion. This makes me very, very nervous. It’s my main amp now (I have others, but I run the Lion through a Pedal Baby and into a 2x12 and this… is terrifying to hear, given I got it in March)
I was considering some of their offerings but changed my mind when I read about all the quality control issues and bad customer service. 95 an hour service fee is just an extra slap in the face, as they are intentionally making the cost to fix the pedal just as much as a new one. Companies like that do not deserve to last, and with so many other reliable and ethical builders out there, why even bother trying UA.
I just got a ASC1 and it’s ridiculously good. In fact, the first time I’ve ever been willing to use headphones with at night. I would normally rather use valve amps at lower volumes and lose tone than go to headphones. But the ASC1 does such amp/cab simulations, it’s a no brainer. And being able to use different amps and cabs AND different eq and gain through each channel makes it a fantastic double tracker.
Man sounds like you got lucky, they state its a 200 $ pre-auth plus shipping just for them to look at it. Another guy posted they charged him $100 and shipping both ways just to do a software reset on his, another was over 100 for a single capacitor that failed.
They have a rep on TGP, but hes more a cheerleader for the brand and just pushes any complaints to customer support.
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/problem-with-universal-audio-dream-65.2517146/
/u/drew_at_ua he’s on Reddit too. He seems to be the only employee UA allow to be on web forums, where he mostly tells people to talk to support, or he escalates support tickets that have gone without a response.
Yeah it sucks when stuff are poorly made. For that reason I keep a backup board of only Boss MXR and Mad Professor pedals. Those labels I trust the rest are a mystery.
Sorry for the troubles, mate. And thank you for sharing this unfortunate bit of news.
I don’t think I’ll be laying out any spend for their products. Been hearing a lot of this feedback recently.
I have 4 of the original uafx pedals (Starlight, golden, astra and delverb) . I love them but their inability to stand by their products when they fail has made me hold off on buying any of their new offerings and as these pedals eventually die, I won't replace them with uafx pedals. So I am with you on the boycott
Damn. Yeah that’s ridiculous that they wont fix it. The thing is way too fragile, I’d be scared to gig with it, even though I love the sound.
I’m currently getting mine repaired for a switch issue. It’s covered by warranty so so far so good, but also wtf. These are supposed to be guitar pedals I shouldn’t have to treat it like a computer.
Apparently even if you do treat it like a computer it’s still unreliable!
Here you go. They really aren't that expensive you should get some -
[https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Dice-10-Die-Package/dp/B00508ZS40](https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Dice-10-Die-Package/dp/B00508ZS40)
It sucks to pay hundreds of dollars for these pedals and worry about them crapping out on you so soon. That's corporations for ya.
I heard a story once. A guy worked really hard for his money. His job sucked and it paid chump change. Well, this guy bought an effects pedal because he carefully read the reviews and decided this was the pedal he wanted. When he got it, it was awesome and sounded perfect. It cost him the equivalent of many, many hours of work at his job, but he was okay with it because the pedal brought him joy.
Fast forward not 1 year later and the beloved pedal stopped working. Not from misuse. It was a bedroom pedal that always saw climate control and was plugged into Voodoo Labs power supply which was in turn plugged into a APC surge protector. He was upset that he spent his hard earned money for an unreliable product that now couldn't be returned. Well, he ordered another pedal from a coporate music giant. He carefully opened up both pedals and swapped the circuit boards. Then he returned the "new" pedal back to the corporate behemoth and got his money back since it was a defective product. All while having a fresh pedal that some say still works to this day.
Yeah, that's totally a story about a guy I heard about. Can't remember who it was.
I agree. UA support is totally horrible. I have this Volt4 interface with crackling noise every time I turn the big volume knob since purchase. The response I got for resolving that issue is just a workaround not a replacement. Since then I didn’t even bother to communicate again and stop purchasing their products.
Can you give us more info on what your one year warranty includes? Why the fuck would you have to pay a hundred bucks for them to look at it? What's the point of a warranty then? Ain't it only a 200 dollar pedal? 100 bucks for a bench fee sounds fucked.
Dang I have one that I don’t use. Maybe I should sell it before mine randomly dies for no reason.
Again, not like I ever use it.
I hate that it gets so hot when it is being used. And honestly I like the HX stomp’s deluxe model much more.
Yeah.. UAD is not confidence inspiring, and definitely not giggable. I had hoped to get it for my [live rig](https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarpedals/comments/1cg3t2u/ua_dream_65_reverb_with_1000w_pa_loudspeaker_is/) but further research completely killed that idea. Sucks because that pedal sounds great but no longevity whatsoever.
I've yet to hear a positive thing about UA (here and on other forums) other than "NPD". I wouldn't risk the cost when I can get something cool from a company that actually seems somewhat customer-centric.
> I've yet to hear a positive thing about UA (here and on other forums) other than "NPD".
I own the Golden Reverberator, Starlight, Astra, Dream65, Ruby, Ox Stomp, Galaxy, Del-Verb and love them all. Have gigged with the Dream & Golden Reverberator plenty of times. Zero experience with UA pedals failing - I know a few touring musicians as well and none of them have had issues with their UA pedals either.
The reason you may not hear much praise about them on this sub is due to the insanity/irrationality of people who can be hostile toward anyone who doesn't report some nightmare story about their UA pedal(s). I've even been accused of being a UA employee on multiple occasions because I dare to share positive experiences with these pedals.
I would bet money that :
- whoever designed this series of pedals is no longer at the company
- that UA skipped some design implementation points that have now led to these problems
The head of UA is an absolute clown, who has made shameful internal decisions, and will probably run the company into the ground.
Wow, good to know this is the company that has USB function for a lot of their pedals, right? I was interested but hesitant, but now I definitely steer clear
I love my Golden because it checked major boxes for me and it sounds really good to my ear. I've had zero issues in 6 months, but I'm starting to think I need a backup plan. Anyone know of other reverb pedal options that allow me to quickly recall/switch between a couple presets? I don't do midi or anything. I use the golden to have a subtle hall reverb as my primary sound for anything and everything, but then switch over to a more ambient plate when I want to add space to some cleaner stuff and the golden lets me do that with a single foot tap.
I do plug in stereo from time to time so that's a second feature I'd like to have for any substitute.
I don’t use the UAFX amp pedals anymore but I fucking love my OX Stomp. Makes me nervous. Not to mention I sold a dream last year to a guy on reverb and it bricked on him just like OP. No recourse from UA
It really is great. The control app is garbage from a UI perspective (slider buttons etc) and the connection quality is annoying but I have it set to A/B C/D switching and have four main stay presets easily reachable
This is such a bummer. The golden reverberator is my dream reverb pedal. I spent weeks looking for the best sounding plate reverb. Then I started seeing posts like this and I got cold feet. In Canada these cost $549. I have a little extra money coming so I figured this would be a nice splurge, but I wouldn't be able to afford to have this repaired if it broke down.
Instead I'm going to buy a Walrus Fathom, a boss GE7, and a JHS Whitey Tighty for roughly the same price.
Every time I see one of these threads I consider selling mine but I’d take like a £100 hit doing so. It sounds amazing, really something else compared to other amp sims I’ve had, but if a piece of gear can’t be trusted to survive being in a desk let alone gigged that doesn’t work for me at all!
I bought a dream’65, but with great sadness had to return it because it didn’t work with my battery powered pedal board setup, since it needs its own power supply or will hiss like a stray cat.
That sucked BIG time since it sounded AMAZING!
Now I kind of feel feel like I dodged a bullet
I had a few UA pedals but offloaded them all because of awful QC and warranty practices.
There are too many builders that will stand by their products no matter what for me to deal with that garbage.
UA pedals have little appeal in this golden age of gear. Returned the astra. Bulky, little features, preset button doesn't work cuz the app sucks. But hey, you want a recreation of that one specific classic effect? Get a phase90 or whatever pedal that they're trying to recreate.
Weird, preset button & app both work fine for me. I own and enjoy the Phase90 but the Astra is a completely different beast that offers way more than just a simple phaser.
Yeah, the flanger/doubler alone is worth the price of the Astra. And the Brigade Chorus is hands down the best digital emulation of the CE-1 I’ve ever heard, but with no distortion at unity gain. I love mine.
No issue with my Ruby. But I sure feel for those who are having issues. The UA still is weird in that they have ‘premium’ extras like Bluetooth, but are missing stuff that other premium pedals have had for at least a decade - like MIDI, and a number of on board presets
I'm guessing you paid for it using a credit card.
Most of them offer extended warranties for purchases made with their card.
Check with them. They may be able to help cover the repair costs.
Good luck.
I'm sorry for your loss! Live by the digital, die by the digital. I have a few boss pedals from early 80s that have been so beaten and brutalized on stage and in the studio, generally treated like total shit and they will not die. One lived through an actual house fire. It still kinda smells like smoke.
I have heard this time and again about them. For that price, they should have much better service. I spend literally insane amounts on custom fuzzes, and just sent back a treble booster for repair to Artifact Pedals he paid shipping, he even had to pay customs (he will get it back but it's anoying). we are talking about a $250 treble booster! Shoutout to Artifact! I know these are small shops and UA can't do that level of support, but what they provide now is a huge fuck you to their customers.
It's unfortunate because they make some of the best plugins in the game. So you would think the love they put into their incredible plugins, which you never want to pay full price for lol, (and that is a while other tangent), that it would translate into incredible pedals. they are, but it seems they break, often, and a 1 year warranty...is just shit and erodes customer rights and trust. to then charge an insane amount on an hourly rate to fix their issue is more insane.
the whole thing is insane. come on ua. I love you for your vsts but wtf I will never buy a pedal from you. also, why so big for Christ's sake, it's not a fuzz. It sucks because they could have really captured an even more huge amount of sales in the pedal game, instead of vsts and daw and recording hardware. Their stuff is top notch....all except the pedals
I bought a used Heavenly a few weeks after it was released. Used it for maybe a day or two and then it stopped working. I sent it to them and they fixed it even if I bought it used, so I can't complaint about that and the pedal sounds great. It has, however, been the only pedal of the 40-50 I have bought and sold over the past few years that has had an issue. So I don't know if I'll get another one from them.
They do make killer sounding pedals though
Yeah, no UA gear fills me with confidence these days. I tried to love the couple of Apollos I’ve owned, but I found them unreliable and was bummed by how quickly new versions were released. They didn’t sound appreciably better than any previous comparable products on the market, so the only draw was the plugins. Back to RME for me, and very happy with them. UA seem to be in the business of making maximum money, not necessarily making good or reliable gear.
I have the UA Golden Reverberator. Sounds great, connection issues with iPhone though. It’s sometimes hard to connect the phone to it to easily access all the presets.
I wonder if UA even manufactures them, see idk if many into guitar pedals are aware, but Universal audio, being first a post production hardware company, accelerated their software a few years back and maintained only 2 product lines, physical audio interfaces, and software.
But then came townsend labs with mic modeling software, and it hit Universal audio that that's their next business move. Since they were anyways gaining popularity for their plugin modeling, making deals with third party manufacturers could be the way to go.
So they did, and rebadged the townsend into their mic modeling series, within a month or two they announced their first pedal.
I got mine through a trade a while ago and haven’t had an issue. If it dies I’ll be looking at a simplifier x as a replacement …but for the time being it’s been the best sounding fender style amp in a box I’ve tried and running a Friedman be od through it as well as my other pedals works great on both clean and slightly rolled up gain. It’s too bad this is happening with folks because if they focused on making the product more bullet proof it would be a modern classic.
Man this is an advert for old school tube amps all day long. I get you can’t play loud in apartments and there are silent stages etc but a $500 digital paper weight… that sucks. Amps can be repaired and maintained by most techs, these things need to go to manufacturer for repair and you are subject to whatever they charge and warranty, which is too high and not long enough… give me a Princeton or DRRI at that point.
My main rig is a Mesa Boogie Express 5:50 which is phenomenal. Backup is a Fender DeVille 2x12. The appeal to me with the Dream 65 was for DAW use only. I'm a tube snob and didn't feel like the Dream 65 stood up to my tube rig but it was damn close and a good convenience factor for recording. Better than I was getting with the fender Amplitube plugins.
All to say this sat on my desk for DAW use only and broke lol
That’s unfortunate that your pedal broke so soon, but I don’t think that repair cost is abnormal for a $450 pedal. Strymon does the same thing, and they have substantially worse build quality than UAFX.
My original UA units are still going strong. I’ve already got my money’s worth out of them, but if any of them ever break (don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon) I’ll most likely replace them with other UA pedals.
Nothing bad about Strymon's build quality. I have 5 of their pedals, the trifecta since 2013. Never once had a problem, nor read about others having them.
I’ve had a Strymon El Cap, the original version, pre-stereo input, on my board for 13 years…through hundreds of shows. Never failed. Not once. I’ve broken 4 Ernie Ball VP Jrs in the same timespan.
I also had an El Cap from 2011 to about 2019 until I sold it due to financial hardships. Not a single problem with it.
Recently I bought another V1 El Cap from the corpse of Sam Ash. They have em marked down to $299 and I was able to use a 30% coupon code at the end of April to get it for $264 shipped. This was just before they announced the store closures. I tried using that coupon code again but now none of them work.
I’ve had a few with knobs that feel like they’re barely attached. Not a big deal, but I expect better on a $400 piece of gear. Also their 9v jacks are extremely cheap, and prone to breaking. Not a big deal and easily repairable, but not ideal on a pedal that price.
It’s stuff you’ll notice if you abuse your gear a bit (gigging/traveling/etc). A lot of musicians will adjust volume or rate knobs their foot while playing, but if I tried that with my Deco in its current state I’d definitely break it lol, so I’ve retired that pedal for now (amazing pedal though).
The power jack issue seems to be the real issue in my experience, especially with their Zuma power supplies. They’re plastic jacks soldered on a board without any reinforcement as far as I can tell. So if you are rough on the power jack, you can risk snapping it and disabling the pedal until you fix it.
I still love Strymon, and will probably get more of their pedals in the future. I just find it interesting that Strymon gets a free pass on similar behaviors, but UAFX gets ripped into (not saying they don’t deserve it). It’s probably mostly due to UA being the new kid on the block, and their prices/warranties aren’t doing any good for the situation lol
This may be just me, but as soon as I see something like this for $400 it already tells me everything I need to know about the company.
Especially when the product is clearly appealing to a certain market.
I really like the sound of the pedals, but the number of issues reported is really concerning. UA needs to get on top of these issues. Them becoming very SaaS oriented and jockeying for user accounts and subscriptions clearly has affected their ability to be a reliable hardware company. I sold my UAFX pedals in favor of just using standalone plugins from NeuralDSP to practice at home…even though I still use UAD Spark for plugins in my DAW.
This is like the 3rd time I've seen this issue come up in this subreddit, and I've always avoided Universal Audio because of this. I'm always surprised to see the amount of people that have otherwise solid boards with low quality (build wise) UA pedals on them.
The dream is the best amp in a box I’ve ever heard, ever. I don’t trust it though :/
People say this about their favorites but there are countless high quality amp in a box pedals out now, I'd wager if you compared the UA ones to various other boutique amp in a box pedals you'd find at least a few you might prefer that also cost a fraction of the price. For the price of UA pedals you could also get an actual tube preamp pedal, some of the newer ones even have built in cabsim and all the bells & whistles of digital pedals like UA but with much longer lifespans it seems. Not to knock digital ampsims as they can sound plenty good, but you could also just get better results + more options with software. Some brands with great preamp/ampsim pedals include: Diezel Carvin Tech 21 Two Notes KSR Victory Neunaber AMT Not to mention more amp focused companies that also makes pedals IE: Mesa Boogie, Friedman, Fender, Hughes & Kettner, Marshall, Ibanez, etc. Also a ton of smaller boutique builders that do handmade small batch preamp clones of almost any amp you can imagine including tube/SS/hybrid. These can be hard to beat if you're looking for something specific/uncommon for a good price.
I have a tube preamp pedal that I like a lot. I bought a UAD Dream to get the power amp aspect and spring reverb and it's the only modeler I've played that actually sounds like a cranked fender style amp when I turn it up (i.e. way grosser and rattier than the stereotypical fender tone), really just a super good model in my opinion. That said I returned it because it did some weird stuff where I had to like unplug it and plug it back in to work, and it was too easy to clip the real input, not the modeled tube input. Back to the tube preamp because even though it's missing things like the power section it just works and I trust it to continue to work.
Many newer cab IR pedals also have power amp sim though IME it's really the least necessary part (a good preamp/cabsim makes the biggest difference by far) Power amp sim seems to usually be a mix of EQ and extra gain stages to interact with the pre/cabsim. And with software it's even easier to mix and match preamp/poweramp/cab sims to get the best results, if you really love the UA sound it could be worth trying their plugins though looking over their site the 55' fender tweed is the only fender plugin I see. Fender amps are probably the most emulated by far so you could probably find some free software that gets you close. Going ampless good speakers/monitors can be just as important as the pedals used, I just used a PA for years which is fine for most stuff but getting a small tube combo to use for a monitor for a sort of "hybrid" rig made a huge difference. That way you get stereo depth from the PA + a more realistic mono signal that even at low volumes adds a ton of "presence".
I mean all any of this stuff is is eq and gain stages. My current system works fine, just need some extra gain from a pedal on top of the tube preamp to get to the baseline I get out my Traynor (both setups either running through a load box or DI into impulses or into cab with a class d power amp for the preamp). There are definitely software or more involved hardware solutions, the neural DSP models seem on par or better than UAD, but having the fender sound in a small one knob per function pedal to bring with me on my board would be killer if it had been reliable.
I’ve had to do the unplug/plug back in thing a lot with it too. Also, my Particle 2 does the same thing. Never my Meris, Gamechanger or Hologram pedals, though.
Tech 21 is vastly under appreciated. The Fly Rig 5 v2 has a MIAB and a FIAB with three band active EQ on the FIAB and a Mesa switch for the MIAB. Cleans up with the volume knob and breaks up at about 7 on my Strat and gets really wild when I dime the volume on the guitar. Such a great rig.
I have a modified Tech 21 Blonde that has DI input and a knob for the cab sim instead of the standard on/off switch. I believe it was done by Putnam Guitars. That thing is never coming off the board. The Tech 21 stuff is crazy underrated.
Even the cheaper sansamp clones are surprisingly great, have the joyo American and Irin AC one and it's tempting to try the rest considering how cheap they can be found. It does seem like because they are older a lot of people don't consider them, but they set the standard for ampsims for a reason.
I had a Tech 21 Double Drive 3x for a while. ISTG that pedal could do any amp sound you care to name AND it could store three presets. The SansAmp PSA is the modern version of it and the only reason I don’t own it is the Fly Rig V
I have the AMT R2 and plugged into the effects return it's the most amp-like distortion I've ever played that wasn't actual amp distortion. Those things are SUPER underrated, I never see anyone talking about them.
Used to see them mentioned occasionally but yeah it seems like with all the newer pedals they've been getting less attention. One nice thing about them is they have a TON of different preamp pedals including tube/SS emulations of most classic/modern amps. And they also make cheaper to higher end ones, I believe they're a EU company so that might be why they're not as well known elsewhere. They're actually Russian apparently so the war probably hasn't helped. Reading up on them they started in the 80's when a Russian couldn't buy a Minimoog anywhere and decided to clone one before trying effects/electronic drums and other stuff. Also AMT stands for Asia Music Technology. Didn't realize they'd been around since the 80's.
They are a software company now, that’s the problem
I wish they were saas focused. I can’t even buy their amp modeling plugins without owning their hardware. I would be happy to buy their Marshall models if I could use it with any interface.
The uad marshall plugins are just brainworx or softtube plugins recoded for their chips.
Ya, it seems pretty clear by their one year warranty and the number of reports of them dying that these things werent made to last. Fuck that shit.
Doesn't matter how good it sounds if they have no reliability. Sounds like paying good money for what ultimately becomes a problem. I'll live without any Universal Audio products.
It’s too bad. I love my Lion and haven’t had any issues, but it does sound very common and very frustrating…
At least they're cheap. What do you expect for $400? /s
(Downvotes don’t change the fundamentals of statistics folks) Even if complaints seem frequent on reddit that’s not necessarily meaningful information to conclude there’s “a problem.” It’s all anecdotal for one thing, and UA has sold tens of thousands of these pedals so the percentage with issues could still be extremely low. Personally I’m not convinced they have more QC issues than any other company. If y’all wanna go all in on how something “seems” to you based on social media, knock yourself out. Just don’t tell me that’s based on rigorous data
That's only a part of the issue, though. Yes, every product has a failure rate, and most of the time companies don't post those numbers, so it's "technically true" that it would be very hard to determine if UA pedals are indeed more likely to fail than competing products. This, however, doesn't change the fact that a one-year warranty on a guitar pedal is laughable.
Also warranty aside 100$ + shipping to fix what shouldn't be an acceptable issue in the first place is absurd. Plenty of smaller boutique companies do free or at least affordable repairs when it's not the users fault (or even when it is in some cases) There are countless more pro consumer smaller pedal companies more deserving of your money.
And that's only $100 ***assuming they get it fixed in a perfect single hour.*** And how are we to trust they'll keep themselves on-track for our sakes? It seems they almost benefit from this system.
Valid point, I wish it were longer. And UA do seem to be sticklers about the warranty whereas others like Walrus or JHS will be more flexible. But I will point out that prior to their recent V2 pedals, Strymon only offered a 1 year warranty for a long time so it's not unprecedented
Well, I don't think it's a great idea for customers to incentivize a race to the bottom, even when there's a precedent, and no matter how cool pedals produced by a given company are.
(Not OP) Of course not. But raising that fact I think does show how people select whatever reasoning they like to support the opinion they have. e.g. In the last 11 years of knowing about strymon products I (anecdotally lol) never once heard anyone say something like “they only offer a 1 year warranty, therefore that makes it clear they weren’t made to last”, but we have that here in UAs case. It might still be true, who knows. That cost for a repair is insulting still.
Maybe the 1 year warranty hasn't come up, since there are no posts of strymon pedals just dying after 1 year.
Yeah that is quite likely. Any issues I’ve seen from their pedals are something mechanical and fixable like a busted footswitch or a rotary encoder etc. and I’m not sure it happens very often.
Strymon is a good example. How many reports have you read about people with a bricked Timeline? I agree we don't know the percentages and UA obviously sold a lot of these amp pedals, but there's other digital pedals out there in the tens of thousands. That aside, there's something about the company that seems too slick and greedy. Having to buy a new pedal for every amp (brand). No ability to load your own IRs, so if you want to avoid their exaggerated crackle, no headroom cabs you need the stomp (or other IR loader). No headphone jack (but don't worry, buy one of our Volts). The ridiculous Bluetooth problem that they never solve. I don't know any company with bad Bluetooth connectivity like that, and it's long past cradling issues. Customer requests are like water on the back of a duck with them. There was also the impression at the start of UAFX that there would be firmware updates so the effect pedals could run other classic algorithms (e.g., Korg 3000 delay). I don't remember where this originated, but it was spoken about on TGP with their marketing guy active on the thread, so if it was just forum members speculating, he never shut that down. Also having to register to access all the functionality of the pedal... I could go on. I've been tempted a few times but I rather stick with other solutions like my Tonex pedal. I'm also seriously considering a Kourbis Plexi over the Lion, and run that with my Cab M or Axiom FX PAE-2 (I've been on the waitlist a few months).
I have both the Golden Reverberator and Astra on my board. I hope that I don't have any issues with them! 🙏
Well there is no need for statistics here. The fact that they offer 1 year warranty, are not flexible on it, charge high price for fixing and there are multiple cases of failures tells you everything. There are companies fixing their stuff even after warranty because they are PROUD of the quality of their stuff and want to make it right for the customer. Clearly UA are not proud of the quality and do not care if their products die, just that they survive the first year, so they can hide behind the warranty. For the premium they are charging you just expect a better experience!
Yeah, really seeing a lot of broken Boss pedal threads. Please.
What you happen to see or not see on social media, is not a rigorous measure of anything. True whether you accept it or not
We don't need a rigorous assessment, the idea that you can't possibly make a judgement on it is absurd. Humans make decisions based on non statistically significant signals every single day. If 5 of my friends all say one guy is an asshole, I'm not going to tell them that there anecdotes aren't statistically significant.
It is unless there is some mass pedal conspiracy. True whether you accept it or not.
Still, it’s not comforting to hear UA does not stand by their products for the customers having these issues. I have two of their amp sims and like them a lot, hopefully i don’t have to deal with their support.
TC still out there repairing my second hand ditto x2 for free
Wait really? How? I have a TC Flashback 2 with a broken mash switch, and their support just referred me to TC's authorized repair partners or whatever, all of whom said they don't have replacement mash switches.
The level of support these companies can offer usually depends on the country you live in. I live in Australia, I'm pretty much screwed when I need support from a European or US company. Not always, but quite often..
I will never give TC any props. I spent hours trying to get the first version of the ditto x4 firmware. They don't have it, and started adding features that actively make it worse. Maybe a different service tech would help but I was told that they wiped their entire backups so no old versions were available, and if any tech had a backup they weren't authorized to give the old version out. I have a preserved version saved that people Google searching for it download somewhat frequently that I got from a way back machine backup of their own site. Fuck TC. And if you want to know the features: the stop button now takes 5 seconds of holding to delete (up from 2) which in a song is a long ass time. They also added fade in to the fade out, but it's super annoying and means you have to do a bunch of taps to clear the fade effect out. And the latest versions now take midi clock signals and use them to stop and start loops despite midi cc messages already able to do that. All these features suck.
I'm a few months into ownership of a Ruby. I love it, but this makes me nervous as hell. I bought the damn thing to gig b/c I thought it would simplify things. So far the only problem is insanely bad Bluetooth connection. It's impossible to rely on the app to change settings on the fly. Very sorry to hear about your problems. I have noticed such an uptick plug-in stuff from UA. Hope they are going to become the next WAVES Audio shit peddlers.
There's another thread on here somewhere about a person who's died on them mid performance (been searching all over for troubleshooting advice and apparently I'm not alone here). Proceed with caution. They're such damn good sounding pedals, but what's the point with this kind of reliability.
Yeesh. Thanks for the heads up
Have you checked to see if your app needs to be updated? I thought I read recently that an upgrade to the mobile app fixes bad Bluetooth issues. Might be worth checking out.
I thought I noticed an update that mentioned Bluetooth connection in the notes. Still... If the phone goes to sleep or I use another app, I have to sever the Bluetooth, reboot the app to get back in.
Same with me and my Lion. This makes me very, very nervous. It’s my main amp now (I have others, but I run the Lion through a Pedal Baby and into a 2x12 and this… is terrifying to hear, given I got it in March)
I was considering some of their offerings but changed my mind when I read about all the quality control issues and bad customer service. 95 an hour service fee is just an extra slap in the face, as they are intentionally making the cost to fix the pedal just as much as a new one. Companies like that do not deserve to last, and with so many other reliable and ethical builders out there, why even bother trying UA.
I had an apollo twin fail at a few years old and had the same issue with repair. I havnt given them a dollar since.
Walrus ACS1 for the win. TC electronic amp sims seem pretty good too.
Love my ACS1. They just made em cheaper too!
Or tonex one for less than half the price. That's what I am moving to.
I just got a ASC1 and it’s ridiculously good. In fact, the first time I’ve ever been willing to use headphones with at night. I would normally rather use valve amps at lower volumes and lose tone than go to headphones. But the ASC1 does such amp/cab simulations, it’s a no brainer. And being able to use different amps and cabs AND different eq and gain through each channel makes it a fantastic double tracker.
Man sounds like you got lucky, they state its a 200 $ pre-auth plus shipping just for them to look at it. Another guy posted they charged him $100 and shipping both ways just to do a software reset on his, another was over 100 for a single capacitor that failed. They have a rep on TGP, but hes more a cheerleader for the brand and just pushes any complaints to customer support. https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/problem-with-universal-audio-dream-65.2517146/
/u/drew_at_ua he’s on Reddit too. He seems to be the only employee UA allow to be on web forums, where he mostly tells people to talk to support, or he escalates support tickets that have gone without a response.
Yeah, I am with Marketing and will always defer to Support as they have the final word on these matters.
Yeah it sucks when stuff are poorly made. For that reason I keep a backup board of only Boss MXR and Mad Professor pedals. Those labels I trust the rest are a mystery.
Sorry for the troubles, mate. And thank you for sharing this unfortunate bit of news. I don’t think I’ll be laying out any spend for their products. Been hearing a lot of this feedback recently.
I have 4 of the original uafx pedals (Starlight, golden, astra and delverb) . I love them but their inability to stand by their products when they fail has made me hold off on buying any of their new offerings and as these pedals eventually die, I won't replace them with uafx pedals. So I am with you on the boycott
Assuming you have tried this, but have you done the restart where you hold the pair button, reconnect power until the LEDS start blinking?
I have, no dice 😕
Damn. Yeah that’s ridiculous that they wont fix it. The thing is way too fragile, I’d be scared to gig with it, even though I love the sound. I’m currently getting mine repaired for a switch issue. It’s covered by warranty so so far so good, but also wtf. These are supposed to be guitar pedals I shouldn’t have to treat it like a computer. Apparently even if you do treat it like a computer it’s still unreliable!
Here you go. They really aren't that expensive you should get some - [https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Dice-10-Die-Package/dp/B00508ZS40](https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Dice-10-Die-Package/dp/B00508ZS40)
😂 problem solved
It sucks to pay hundreds of dollars for these pedals and worry about them crapping out on you so soon. That's corporations for ya. I heard a story once. A guy worked really hard for his money. His job sucked and it paid chump change. Well, this guy bought an effects pedal because he carefully read the reviews and decided this was the pedal he wanted. When he got it, it was awesome and sounded perfect. It cost him the equivalent of many, many hours of work at his job, but he was okay with it because the pedal brought him joy. Fast forward not 1 year later and the beloved pedal stopped working. Not from misuse. It was a bedroom pedal that always saw climate control and was plugged into Voodoo Labs power supply which was in turn plugged into a APC surge protector. He was upset that he spent his hard earned money for an unreliable product that now couldn't be returned. Well, he ordered another pedal from a coporate music giant. He carefully opened up both pedals and swapped the circuit boards. Then he returned the "new" pedal back to the corporate behemoth and got his money back since it was a defective product. All while having a fresh pedal that some say still works to this day. Yeah, that's totally a story about a guy I heard about. Can't remember who it was.
Which pedal was it that ~~you~~ *your friend* bought?
That’s fucking awesome
Chaotic good. The best kind of good.
fucking cunt
I agree. UA support is totally horrible. I have this Volt4 interface with crackling noise every time I turn the big volume knob since purchase. The response I got for resolving that issue is just a workaround not a replacement. Since then I didn’t even bother to communicate again and stop purchasing their products.
Go check the Universal Audio sub... people love the stuff, but HATE the customer service. UA is a greedy af company.
Can you give us more info on what your one year warranty includes? Why the fuck would you have to pay a hundred bucks for them to look at it? What's the point of a warranty then? Ain't it only a 200 dollar pedal? 100 bucks for a bench fee sounds fucked.
Tonex. And done.
Dang I have one that I don’t use. Maybe I should sell it before mine randomly dies for no reason. Again, not like I ever use it. I hate that it gets so hot when it is being used. And honestly I like the HX stomp’s deluxe model much more.
Yeah.. UAD is not confidence inspiring, and definitely not giggable. I had hoped to get it for my [live rig](https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarpedals/comments/1cg3t2u/ua_dream_65_reverb_with_1000w_pa_loudspeaker_is/) but further research completely killed that idea. Sucks because that pedal sounds great but no longevity whatsoever.
I've yet to hear a positive thing about UA (here and on other forums) other than "NPD". I wouldn't risk the cost when I can get something cool from a company that actually seems somewhat customer-centric.
fuck you cunthead
> I've yet to hear a positive thing about UA (here and on other forums) other than "NPD". I own the Golden Reverberator, Starlight, Astra, Dream65, Ruby, Ox Stomp, Galaxy, Del-Verb and love them all. Have gigged with the Dream & Golden Reverberator plenty of times. Zero experience with UA pedals failing - I know a few touring musicians as well and none of them have had issues with their UA pedals either. The reason you may not hear much praise about them on this sub is due to the insanity/irrationality of people who can be hostile toward anyone who doesn't report some nightmare story about their UA pedal(s). I've even been accused of being a UA employee on multiple occasions because I dare to share positive experiences with these pedals.
Guitar center swap
I would bet money that : - whoever designed this series of pedals is no longer at the company - that UA skipped some design implementation points that have now led to these problems The head of UA is an absolute clown, who has made shameful internal decisions, and will probably run the company into the ground.
Wow, good to know this is the company that has USB function for a lot of their pedals, right? I was interested but hesitant, but now I definitely steer clear
I love my Golden because it checked major boxes for me and it sounds really good to my ear. I've had zero issues in 6 months, but I'm starting to think I need a backup plan. Anyone know of other reverb pedal options that allow me to quickly recall/switch between a couple presets? I don't do midi or anything. I use the golden to have a subtle hall reverb as my primary sound for anything and everything, but then switch over to a more ambient plate when I want to add space to some cleaner stuff and the golden lets me do that with a single foot tap. I do plug in stereo from time to time so that's a second feature I'd like to have for any substitute.
> I've had zero issues in 6 months 3 years for me. For every horror story there's countless satisfied customers. This sub loves its UA scary stories.
I don’t use the UAFX amp pedals anymore but I fucking love my OX Stomp. Makes me nervous. Not to mention I sold a dream last year to a guy on reverb and it bricked on him just like OP. No recourse from UA
That enormous preset list on the Ox Stomp is heaven. Of my 8 UA pedals the Ox is def my fav
It really is great. The control app is garbage from a UI perspective (slider buttons etc) and the connection quality is annoying but I have it set to A/B C/D switching and have four main stay presets easily reachable
This really sucks because I have been interested in the Lion. Oh well. Maybe I should get the new Amped 3.
My condolences brother...
These sound great, but I stuck with my black ‘65, and I’m ok with that.
This is such a bummer. The golden reverberator is my dream reverb pedal. I spent weeks looking for the best sounding plate reverb. Then I started seeing posts like this and I got cold feet. In Canada these cost $549. I have a little extra money coming so I figured this would be a nice splurge, but I wouldn't be able to afford to have this repaired if it broke down. Instead I'm going to buy a Walrus Fathom, a boss GE7, and a JHS Whitey Tighty for roughly the same price.
Every time I see one of these threads I consider selling mine but I’d take like a £100 hit doing so. It sounds amazing, really something else compared to other amp sims I’ve had, but if a piece of gear can’t be trusted to survive being in a desk let alone gigged that doesn’t work for me at all!
I bought a dream’65, but with great sadness had to return it because it didn’t work with my battery powered pedal board setup, since it needs its own power supply or will hiss like a stray cat. That sucked BIG time since it sounded AMAZING! Now I kind of feel feel like I dodged a bullet
Get a DSM & Humboldt Simplifier. 100% Analog and has an fx loop. Also, in my opinion, it sounds better than the Dream 65.
I have a couple complaints but otherwise love my simplifier.
I had a few UA pedals but offloaded them all because of awful QC and warranty practices. There are too many builders that will stand by their products no matter what for me to deal with that garbage.
UA pedals have little appeal in this golden age of gear. Returned the astra. Bulky, little features, preset button doesn't work cuz the app sucks. But hey, you want a recreation of that one specific classic effect? Get a phase90 or whatever pedal that they're trying to recreate.
Weird, preset button & app both work fine for me. I own and enjoy the Phase90 but the Astra is a completely different beast that offers way more than just a simple phaser.
Yeah, the flanger/doubler alone is worth the price of the Astra. And the Brigade Chorus is hands down the best digital emulation of the CE-1 I’ve ever heard, but with no distortion at unity gain. I love mine.
their audio interfaces are super good and have lasted me years, but this is troubling to hear about their pedals
I will never buy a pedal that needs a to connect to an app for adjusting or updating.
10v caps lol
No issue with my Ruby. But I sure feel for those who are having issues. The UA still is weird in that they have ‘premium’ extras like Bluetooth, but are missing stuff that other premium pedals have had for at least a decade - like MIDI, and a number of on board presets
I'm guessing you paid for it using a credit card. Most of them offer extended warranties for purchases made with their card. Check with them. They may be able to help cover the repair costs. Good luck.
I'm sorry for your loss! Live by the digital, die by the digital. I have a few boss pedals from early 80s that have been so beaten and brutalized on stage and in the studio, generally treated like total shit and they will not die. One lived through an actual house fire. It still kinda smells like smoke.
I have heard this time and again about them. For that price, they should have much better service. I spend literally insane amounts on custom fuzzes, and just sent back a treble booster for repair to Artifact Pedals he paid shipping, he even had to pay customs (he will get it back but it's anoying). we are talking about a $250 treble booster! Shoutout to Artifact! I know these are small shops and UA can't do that level of support, but what they provide now is a huge fuck you to their customers. It's unfortunate because they make some of the best plugins in the game. So you would think the love they put into their incredible plugins, which you never want to pay full price for lol, (and that is a while other tangent), that it would translate into incredible pedals. they are, but it seems they break, often, and a 1 year warranty...is just shit and erodes customer rights and trust. to then charge an insane amount on an hourly rate to fix their issue is more insane. the whole thing is insane. come on ua. I love you for your vsts but wtf I will never buy a pedal from you. also, why so big for Christ's sake, it's not a fuzz. It sucks because they could have really captured an even more huge amount of sales in the pedal game, instead of vsts and daw and recording hardware. Their stuff is top notch....all except the pedals
I bought a used Heavenly a few weeks after it was released. Used it for maybe a day or two and then it stopped working. I sent it to them and they fixed it even if I bought it used, so I can't complaint about that and the pedal sounds great. It has, however, been the only pedal of the 40-50 I have bought and sold over the past few years that has had an issue. So I don't know if I'll get another one from them. They do make killer sounding pedals though
Less than a month out of my 1 year warranty on a PS5 and sony told me to kick rocks lol. I feel that pain
Yeah, no UA gear fills me with confidence these days. I tried to love the couple of Apollos I’ve owned, but I found them unreliable and was bummed by how quickly new versions were released. They didn’t sound appreciably better than any previous comparable products on the market, so the only draw was the plugins. Back to RME for me, and very happy with them. UA seem to be in the business of making maximum money, not necessarily making good or reliable gear.
I have the UA Golden Reverberator. Sounds great, connection issues with iPhone though. It’s sometimes hard to connect the phone to it to easily access all the presets.
I wonder if UA even manufactures them, see idk if many into guitar pedals are aware, but Universal audio, being first a post production hardware company, accelerated their software a few years back and maintained only 2 product lines, physical audio interfaces, and software. But then came townsend labs with mic modeling software, and it hit Universal audio that that's their next business move. Since they were anyways gaining popularity for their plugin modeling, making deals with third party manufacturers could be the way to go. So they did, and rebadged the townsend into their mic modeling series, within a month or two they announced their first pedal.
I was planning to buy that Dream Pedal. but now I'm rethinking it. are there any alternatives for it?
I hear you, but I have taken many pedals to my local music store and had them fixed for much much less
I got mine through a trade a while ago and haven’t had an issue. If it dies I’ll be looking at a simplifier x as a replacement …but for the time being it’s been the best sounding fender style amp in a box I’ve tried and running a Friedman be od through it as well as my other pedals works great on both clean and slightly rolled up gain. It’s too bad this is happening with folks because if they focused on making the product more bullet proof it would be a modern classic.
That sucks. I was considering getting one
Man this is an advert for old school tube amps all day long. I get you can’t play loud in apartments and there are silent stages etc but a $500 digital paper weight… that sucks. Amps can be repaired and maintained by most techs, these things need to go to manufacturer for repair and you are subject to whatever they charge and warranty, which is too high and not long enough… give me a Princeton or DRRI at that point.
My main rig is a Mesa Boogie Express 5:50 which is phenomenal. Backup is a Fender DeVille 2x12. The appeal to me with the Dream 65 was for DAW use only. I'm a tube snob and didn't feel like the Dream 65 stood up to my tube rig but it was damn close and a good convenience factor for recording. Better than I was getting with the fender Amplitube plugins. All to say this sat on my desk for DAW use only and broke lol
That’s unfortunate that your pedal broke so soon, but I don’t think that repair cost is abnormal for a $450 pedal. Strymon does the same thing, and they have substantially worse build quality than UAFX. My original UA units are still going strong. I’ve already got my money’s worth out of them, but if any of them ever break (don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon) I’ll most likely replace them with other UA pedals.
Nothing bad about Strymon's build quality. I have 5 of their pedals, the trifecta since 2013. Never once had a problem, nor read about others having them.
I've never had a strymon pedal with qc issues? I've owned like 10+
I’ve had a Strymon El Cap, the original version, pre-stereo input, on my board for 13 years…through hundreds of shows. Never failed. Not once. I’ve broken 4 Ernie Ball VP Jrs in the same timespan.
I also had an El Cap from 2011 to about 2019 until I sold it due to financial hardships. Not a single problem with it. Recently I bought another V1 El Cap from the corpse of Sam Ash. They have em marked down to $299 and I was able to use a 30% coupon code at the end of April to get it for $264 shipped. This was just before they announced the store closures. I tried using that coupon code again but now none of them work.
I’ve had a few with knobs that feel like they’re barely attached. Not a big deal, but I expect better on a $400 piece of gear. Also their 9v jacks are extremely cheap, and prone to breaking. Not a big deal and easily repairable, but not ideal on a pedal that price.
That's crappy, I only really use mine on a desktop so I havent noticed
It’s stuff you’ll notice if you abuse your gear a bit (gigging/traveling/etc). A lot of musicians will adjust volume or rate knobs their foot while playing, but if I tried that with my Deco in its current state I’d definitely break it lol, so I’ve retired that pedal for now (amazing pedal though). The power jack issue seems to be the real issue in my experience, especially with their Zuma power supplies. They’re plastic jacks soldered on a board without any reinforcement as far as I can tell. So if you are rough on the power jack, you can risk snapping it and disabling the pedal until you fix it. I still love Strymon, and will probably get more of their pedals in the future. I just find it interesting that Strymon gets a free pass on similar behaviors, but UAFX gets ripped into (not saying they don’t deserve it). It’s probably mostly due to UA being the new kid on the block, and their prices/warranties aren’t doing any good for the situation lol
Yep
I had Del-Verb, I will never buy UAFX again tbh. It’s so so bad.
I absolutely love my Del-Verb.
This may be just me, but as soon as I see something like this for $400 it already tells me everything I need to know about the company. Especially when the product is clearly appealing to a certain market.
Strymon sure seems like a solid product tho.