ART SGX 2000 Express arrives!!!Ok, As I was driving home from work, I looked and sure enough there was a box waiting for me!! Allright!! on a friday too , that leaves me a little time to check it out!! Ok, I get the box and open it up (I still dont see how this cost $50 to ship, but I digress......) SO it was $127.00 for the sgx2000 express 2 raqckspace rack unit plus $50s/h=$177.00 . By the way, I am still waiting on the x-15 ultrafot pedalboard which I understand is on its way.
First impressions
upon opening the box was that I did get the expresss version (not the non express version which is not as good,noiser and less presets and missing some f/x's). Ok, mine actually looks like the one in the picture. I was immediately taken by how it was all metal consturcion,not cheap plastic, all the knob were tight and it looked like new!! Mine was the latest ver 1.10 of the software and was built in 1994, the year they discontinued the art sgx 2000 express. Also, The pink versions really looked like a toy and this has a little pink lettering but th face is black and it looks very professional, so no scratches, its jsut a great looking unit, even for being 15 years old.
I also noticed that on the back of the unit were 2 f/x loops, line and isntrument level outs, midi inout and thru and 2 XLR outs as well. WOw, this was no toy!! My fear was that I didnt get a unit with the 475 presets and extra features (art claims they improved it 400% compared to the older sgx's)). Yet I did have the latest firmware. Also, the front of the unit was well laid out and upon plugging it in, I was overcome by the number of red led's, geez, at least 20 or so, flashing and so on. Wow!! So I tried some knobs and hooked up some headphones to the headphone out jsut to try it out. WEll, some of the pots were scratchy which concerned me. But, after giving thm a few twsits they cleaned right up. This is common among old gear that hasnt been used in a while,I would guess this is one of those units.
Art turns to a F art.....?
So I plug in my guitar and get this squealing into the headphones and hardly any sound. I try the pots and I get this scratchy sound. TERRIBLE, this was no ART it was a F ART!!! I suddenly had buyers remorse. I fiddled with the knobs and suddenly there came this tone, that sounded pretty good. I then tried another preset, memories of the 80's and early 90's filled my headphones.Still , where are the 475 presets? Instead I get about 16 presets from some schmo user who preferred the sound I dislike, its the distortion after the delay and reverb type sound, man, every preset, yuk!!! I was becoming discouraged, now I was thinking they should have called it the the F ART 2000 express, like a bad joke, add an F and that's what it sounds like.
F art clears the air and the ART surfaces
So I went to the internet and decided to do a reset back to factory specs!! Voila!!!!! AWESOME!! The F ART was gone and now only the ART remained. suddenly , I had all 475 presets, 4 banks->classic, performance,production and contribution. AMAZING SOUNDS!!! I had presets emulating amps ,fantastic f/x and great sound quality. The ART had surfaced. I was really taken a back. The presets were really fun to play with , it had 20 or so fender twin simulations, marshall amps, VOX and so on and it had artist presets as well. Some were really fun and telling of the times, zztop presets, SRV,nirvana, pink floyd ,eagles, eric johnson and 1 joe satriani patch haha some metal patches. Loved em all!!
Ok the sounds thus far, amazing for just presets, I mean the clean sounds were really nice, and the distortions ranged from classic rock to 80 n 90's rock /metal. IT just has that old tone even on f/x, I just dont hear that older tone from my modern f/x units at all. IT had black sabbath patches and they really do sound authentic haha. Anyway, just a lot of fun tones and they sound great. I would not recommend this to a beginner as far as editing patches as there is just too much there to really make a mushy sound, but if you tweak the presets a bit it certainly shines and gives this sound that you just cant get with modern pre's and f/x.
I had a blast with some of the jimi hendrix patches, they sounded just right, not crazily distorted and with that hendrix type sound. Anyway, it is easy to overdo the f/x such as reverb in particular as it has reverb and also an acoustic environment simulator. It even has a sampler which I tried. It seemed kind of short. Bu th e ping pond delays and panning effects were great and the pitch shifter/octaver was fun to.Also, it has Extensive EQ I mean bass lowmid etc...and presence.Anyway, I just scratched the surface but after the reset I immediately heard quality sounds worthy of using this unit to record tracks for an album.
OVERALL
This is great piece of semi-vintage gear and will certainly eventually be true vintage gear. It has truly old "80's " sounding f/x and preamp as well. so much so, I had forgotten what I liked and disliked about that sound. I mean it also had the Van Halen presets. Ok, dont try to find 7 string death metal sounds here but the distortion can really deliver a good metal sound. The f/x can be overdone on the presets,but with some tweaking they can be just right too. It also has a production patches which can be used for vocals and drum machines, bass and so on. When I compare it to the line 6 pod xt live, it actually holds its own, though the line 6 pod xt can get a ton of hi gain which the at cant, but they have diffrerent sounds, I think the line 6 would have a tough time recreating that old 80's soundf/x wise especially. So, the art is not a replacement for the line 6 but is a breath of fresh air with its retro sounds. It is everything I hoped it to be. Ok, will posts some tracks and some mp3's of some sounds I get with it. VERY COOl and worth every penny of the $177.00 I paid for it, maybe even cooler with the $94 x-15 pedalboard, we will when it arrives.....
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