Grateful Dead Music Forum

Curious as to the groups thoughts on the Ibanez AD and UE rack mount effects Units. I am converting to a rack mount with a Sarno pre-amp, and have been thinking about this versus the stomp boxes. I recall some older forum posts on these units - and I recall the UE 700 is the holy grail - where the AD 230 is the low-end option ? There are UE 400 and 405s for sale out there - I am seeking that late 70s Bobby tone - can any of these units deliver those tones in your expert opinions ? Thanks.

UE400 and UE405 both deliver Bobby lates 70's tones. The AD's are Delays and modulations and nice to have...the UE's are NEED to have. I would go 400 first.

IMO - the UE700 is better than the 400 or 405.

The Flanger on it is excellent and the EQ really shapes the Bobby tone of that era.

yeah strummin, definitely, but unless yours is still for sale he might as well be looking for a Travis Bean! UE400's and 405's can still be had, 700's are as rare as Hen's teeth!

jeffm725 wrote:yeah strummin, definitely, but unless yours is still for sale he might as well be looking for a Travis Bean! UE400's and 405's can still be had, 700's are as rare as Hen's teeth!

LOL! Yeah, well it did take me a while. The Flanger I think is the FL305 and is so controllable it's so musically tasty you forget it's an effect almost!!

Mine's still up as well as my Modulus soon. But honestly, if they don't sell I'll continue to love them for years to come I'd love a Modulus Tele Blackknife, almost pulled the trigger on one last week then then seller said it was heavier than alot of Les Pauls!!

AD230 & UE700 are high end. There were expensive pro-grade boxes.

The UE400 & 405 were priced as consumer-grade boxes, however, they were still very good with more effects and flexibility than the 230 & 700.

mk

mkaufman wrote:AD230 & UE700 are high end. There were expensive pro-grade boxes.

The UE400 & 405 were priced as consumer-grade boxes, however, they were still very good with more effects and flexibility than the 230 & 700.

mk

how do you figure the 400 or 405 being more flexible than the 700? besides changing the order or effects? the 700 has more tone control, IMO. And I like how you can plug into the foot switch to minimize cables!

Not mine but there is an AD-202 on Philly craigist for $250. Been up for about a month at that price so maybe there is a deal to be had somewhere - although based on the model number I'm gonna assume its not in the same league as the other units in this discussion.

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/msg/3010109078.html

Fair point: the UE-700 is essentially 5 effects, but they cannot be sequenced. The AD-230 has only two effects and only one can be run at a time.

mk

"drkstrcrshes" was just recently raving to me about the quality of the AD-230. One guy's opinion, yes, but here's a guy who has tried and owns or owned (largely concurrently) just about every effect that has existed... especially delays!

I bwelieve his words were along the lines of "why did Jerry use the green MXR while Bobby had the (superior) 230?"

The AD-230 has an awesome delay & flanger. It's top-of-the-line, however, that's all it has. Interestingly, there are ads where Jerry was promoting the AD230. I don't think he ever used it.

mk

tigerstrat wrote:"drkstrcrshes" was just recently raving to me about the quality of the AD-230. One guy's opinion, yes, but here's a guy who has tried and owns or owned (largely concurrently) just about every effect that has existed... especially delays!

I bwelieve his words were along the lines of "why did Jerry use the green MXR while Bobby had the (superior) 230?"

I often wonder that about alot of his effects choices - think about it, less the M3, most were crappy Boss pedals or regular MXR.
I have a theory - that the rest of his rig was so hi-fi that mod'd studio quality effects woulda sounded bad. Again, just a theory.