Earlier this month, U2's The Edge sent shockwaves through the gear world when he ditched his beloved tube amps for Universal Audio’s UAFX pedals for U2’s Sphere residency. Now, for Black Friday, the entire UAFX range – including the Edge-favored Ruby, Woodrow and Dream pedals – has seen its prices slashed by as much as 20% at Guitar Center.
For those uninitiated, the Ruby, Woodrow and Dream pedals are pedal amps that offer emulations of the Vox AC30, ‘55 Fender 5E3 Deluxe Tweed, and ‘65 Fender Deluxe Reverb, respectively.
Don't just take The Edge's endorsement of these impressive emulators, though. We tested the Ruby, Woodrow and Dream units ourselves a couple months back, and found that – if your tone of choice is represented by one of them – there is simply no better way of getting their sound and feel in an ultra-portable, studio-, home-, and stage-friendly package.
I myself live in a small city apartment – with neighbors in every direction. A heavy, temperamental tube amp simply isn't practical for me, nor will it win me the good will of my neighbors or landlord.
Even if you don't have my space and proximity issues, though, this sale is one of the most enticing Black Friday guitar deals I've seen because of just how much the UAFX boxes have to offer to those looking for a more back-friendly way of recording or presenting their favorite tube tones.
It's not just the amp emulation: buyers get a choice of six speaker cabinet emulations – (three are shipped with the pedal, but simply registering the pedal will net you another three.) There's plenty of tweakability on hand, and users can create a preset snapshot of their settings at any time with a simple flick of the onboard Store switch.
Users can also import presets via the UAFX Control mobile app for iPhone and Android, with a number of both factory-made and pro guitarist-made options available.
The quality of the sound is phenomenal and amazingly responsive – not only did we find the emulations to be spot-on in our test, the responsiveness blew us away, too. These are no staid, lifeless re-productions.
With prices cut to $319, this Black Friday pedal deal is hard to beat, and one that has me re-thinking my own home setup...
For more killer sales, head over to our full Guitar Center Black Friday deals page.