I got my EA Micro300 from Gollihur music last week after a long wait for tech issues to be resolved with the initial release. I'm quite pleased with the overall sound, portability and general build quality. However, some of the features do not operate as I had expected.
Both of my concerns have to do with channel switching:
1) For doublers on acoustic and electric basses (or when switching between any 2 instruments - elec. fretted to fretless, etc.) it would be most useful for the foot switching scheme to go 1-2-1 rather than 1-2-both-1 as is the default. The current scheme requires an extra click and has the potential for undesired noise from 2 active channels when switching instruments for doublers in a live show situation. The only time I'd want both channels to be active is when blending pickups, or for some type of teaching situation. In either case the ability to select both channels on with the footswitch is unnecessary. Actually, I can't imagine a situation where anyone would want to be able to select both channels on with the footswitch. Perhaps the footswitch could be re-programmed 1-2-1, and the option to select both channels on could be limited solely to the onboard switch.
2) It is great that you can plug a single instrument into channel 1 and have the ability to switch to channel 2 for a different tone. However, this feature has very limited practical usage without the ability to have independent volume settings for each channel. In the simplest case - if you have substantially different tone settings on the channels, the volumes will be very different between the two channels. I guess one could adjust the volume control on an electric bass to make up for this, but some passive instruments will change tone and lose highs when the volume control is backed down. My old Fender P-Bass sure does! Most acoustic double bass pickups do not have onboard volume controls. My Wilson and Underwood pickups have none. Bowing a double bass creates a great deal more output than playing pizzicato. The ability to adjust tone alone is not enough to allow me to play arco/pizz when using the micro300's channel switching feature. I need separate volume controls (or at least access to the trim pots independently when switching channels.) Perhaps a stacked master volume pot could be used, or an additional master volume pot could be added in the space where the EA logo is. Every other channel switching amp (guitar or bass) that I know of does have the ability to adjust volume settings between channels when channel switching.
I do realize and appreciate how much EA has packed into this tiny beast. Your thoughts and comments would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Carl
Both of my concerns have to do with channel switching:
1) For doublers on acoustic and electric basses (or when switching between any 2 instruments - elec. fretted to fretless, etc.) it would be most useful for the foot switching scheme to go 1-2-1 rather than 1-2-both-1 as is the default. The current scheme requires an extra click and has the potential for undesired noise from 2 active channels when switching instruments for doublers in a live show situation. The only time I'd want both channels to be active is when blending pickups, or for some type of teaching situation. In either case the ability to select both channels on with the footswitch is unnecessary. Actually, I can't imagine a situation where anyone would want to be able to select both channels on with the footswitch. Perhaps the footswitch could be re-programmed 1-2-1, and the option to select both channels on could be limited solely to the onboard switch.
2) It is great that you can plug a single instrument into channel 1 and have the ability to switch to channel 2 for a different tone. However, this feature has very limited practical usage without the ability to have independent volume settings for each channel. In the simplest case - if you have substantially different tone settings on the channels, the volumes will be very different between the two channels. I guess one could adjust the volume control on an electric bass to make up for this, but some passive instruments will change tone and lose highs when the volume control is backed down. My old Fender P-Bass sure does! Most acoustic double bass pickups do not have onboard volume controls. My Wilson and Underwood pickups have none. Bowing a double bass creates a great deal more output than playing pizzicato. The ability to adjust tone alone is not enough to allow me to play arco/pizz when using the micro300's channel switching feature. I need separate volume controls (or at least access to the trim pots independently when switching channels.) Perhaps a stacked master volume pot could be used, or an additional master volume pot could be added in the space where the EA logo is. Every other channel switching amp (guitar or bass) that I know of does have the ability to adjust volume settings between channels when channel switching.
I do realize and appreciate how much EA has packed into this tiny beast. Your thoughts and comments would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Carl
