Rockman Guitar Ace Headphone Amplifier

No longer available at zZounds
Pick up and play without the hassle of setting all your gear up. This headphone amp features built-in compression, volume control, and auxiliary stereo input/output.

Dunlop's quieter, smaller re-design of the Rockman Ace with improved headphones, circuitry, and gating action lets you hear your instrument's dynamic range and clarity to inspire you to "pick up your guitar and play." These high-quality, low-priced headphone amps offer built-in compression, volume control, and auxiliary stereo input/output. The Guitar Ace offers pristine clean, semi, and heavy distortion. Runs on 9V battery or optional ECB05 adapter.

- Practice silently anywhere, with great tone
- Built-in compression, volume control and auxiliary stereo input/output
- Tone controls: select clean, semi and heavy distortion

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Phone: 707-745-2722

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 2 out of 5 stars. (80 ratings)
Submitted November 21, 2007 by a customer from hotmail.com

"This thing is terrible"

Overall: 2 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
I am probably going to place this in an ad similar to the one I answered for it and sell it. The Ace series doesn't impress much. Bring out the original equipment that made these things famous and now you're talking. Otherwise, this thing should be buried along with all of the other music gadgets that didn't quite take off.

Sound
The sound of this thing leaves a lot to be desired. The only decent sounds are in the accoustic mode. I hate the built in compression that while reduces unwanted distortion, makes it drop in volume when you pick hard which I do. The distortion sucks completely. Even adding my sm-9 super metal pedal in front of it doesn't help. To top it off, it's not even in stereo but mono through headphones, something that impressed me with the original rockman. This thing aint even close. If I were Tom Scholz, I'd find a way to get my name off of this thing.

Features
The buttons sometimes don't stay down so you have to push several times to get it to stay down. There were no accessories as I bought this thing used but I don't see anything added to this thing that would improve it much. The most useful feature is probably the volume control that drops the volume pretty low so that nobody else has to hear how much it sucks. How about the supposedly stereo aux. input? Nope, not even that is stereo but passes the sound mono to the headphones. forget about jamming along with anything. The mix read more of the guitar and the input music is so close that either you listen to the mono mix or the guitar drowns it out. Terrible.

Ease of Use
While the interface is pretty easy, there is just no getting good sound out of this thing. Like I said earlier, the built in compression pretty much kills any pedal you put in front to boost the very weak distortion. If you want to just strum along accoustic style, then maybe this things for you.

Quality
Probably the best thing about this unit is it's very rugged build. The jacks are sturdier and stronger than ordinary jacks and can take a beating without jarring any of its solder connections loose. We'll see though. I'm still going to use this thing when I travel because I'm broke and can't afford the original thing, if it's even manufactured anymore. Looks like ol' Jim bought this thing out from Tom and cheapenized it. Sad. I use Jim Dunlop picks because they are the very best. Wish I could say same for the Guitar Ace.

Value
I bought mine used for $45 and I think I spent too much. I have an old 80's headphone amp, Arion Hot Watt II, that atleast has stereo input, chorus in stereo and a comb filter like affect as well as decent distortion and I got it for $20. I think the Ace should be priced along the same. If Tom could have them drop his name off it, it'd probably sell for that.

Manufacturer Support
I went to the website and it sucks hardcore. I went to see if there was a way I could get stereo music through this thing so atleast the mono guitar would blend better making it nicer to jam along with songs and the support section of the website was pretty much 90% "buy this accessory or part" and very little of any info on what to do. Most of the website is devoted to buying and not enough set aside for questions like mine.

The Wow Factor
Sex appeal? If this were compared to sex, I'd have to say it was some really bad sex. As it looks, it invites you to use it being black, very sturdy and most guitarists know that Tom Scholz made the best headphone amp in a box ever. This aint it.

Musical Background:
Active musician for 25+ years

Musical Style:
Classic Rock, Old Metal, Reggae
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