Dream '65

What a great piece of kit! I went with this, in spite of the high cost and narrow focus, over other amp modeling pedals because in the demos I watched, it just sounded so much better to me. In person it is every bit as convincing. I can't have a tube amp in my apartment, and this thing does the trick perfectly. The spring reverb is fantastic, and even though it only models "one" amp, with the three different mod options and six cabinet/mic IRs, there's actually a decent amount of versatility to it. It has a decent amount of gain breakup on tap for pretty much anything but metal (though you can get some chugs out of it with the right settings), but I have mainly been using it clean as a pedal platform and it has taken even my most gnarly fuzz boxes like a champ.

So far I've played it running into the FX return on my Quilter Steelaire with the cab/mic IR turned off, and also direct into Sony MDR-7506 headphones using an $8 Y-splitter cable, and it sounds great both ways. I'm sure it will also sound great coming out of monitors via my mixer or audio interface, but I haven't gotten around to trying that out yet. I'll note that the headphone method is a little quieter and I have to crank the output to about 75%, so high impedance headphones might not work with it.

A couple of caveats:

1) Even though it has some tonal range, it is still a Deluxe Reverb at its core. If you don't like that signature chimey, scooped sound, this isn't going to do it for you.

2) Getting it to connect to bluetooth to get access to the configuration settings in the app was frustrating for no reason and left a bad taste in my mouth dealing with customer support. Once you connect it the first time, the app forces it to download a bunch of factory presets with no way to skip that, and it just kept disconnecting during this process, so it wouldn't allow me to actually use any of the app functions. I spent an hour trying to get it to work, before reaching out to UAFX support. The next day they asked me to try some troubleshooting steps that I had already done, and then of course, before I even did anything it suddenly was able to successfully complete the download and gave me full access to the app.

I really only wanted the app so that I could reconfigure the footswitches, which will let you toggle presets, toggle the boost/reverb/vibrato, or switch between the pedal and your preamp with the 4-cable setup. There are only two footswitches though, so you have to choose wisely. I messed around a bit with the preset switcher on the app but was still getting random bluetooth disconnects. I have no need for an app to change presets, since the settings are so easy to dial in using the knobs and switches on the pedals, and I'll most likely just use this as a "set and forget" type of pedal with minor tweaks. But if you're somebody who is playing in a cover band or something, and need that app to quickly change settings between songs, I would be wary of the unreliable bluetooth.

When I mentioned to UAFX customer support that I got my situation sorted out, but that the bluetooth connection was still spotty and they should consider allowing a way to access the app features with a USB connection, they just kind of said "Glad it's working better" and didn't mention anything about the disconnect issues or my feature suggestion. So maybe they'll address it, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

Anyway, in spite of the initial bluetooth fiasco, I am thoroughly pleased with this pedal after having it for nearly a month now. Gave me exactly what I needed: a plethora of Deluxe Reverb tones without getting me evicted for noise complaints.

Decided to give this a try after really liking their golden reverb pedal. Was really skeptical that an amp could be emulated realistically enough for my ear, but figured if anyone could do it they could. I was not disappointed!