Unimpressed with the Unbuffer and Morningstar

[dronerstone]

I’m likely going to slap a few pedals on a board and call it my 70’s board or something, nothing more complex than a patch cable. Aside from the couple misfires of switching loops and this fuzz issue, the loop switcher setup is pretty cool, but certainly adds a level of complexity that might be better left up to someone with working knowledge of how to eliminate and prevent all the shit I’ve been running into.

Be aware, this is very much how my dual-board rig started out, after buying Helix Floor I thought I'd yank together one little board with "the essentials".

A year later it's become a freaking spaceship.

 

[DrewJD82]

Hahahahaha man, I get home after the 2nd hellish day in a row and say “Fuck it, I’m just going to put it on the Tchula and jam out for a while like I used to do all the time” instead of dicking around with it, trying to find some magic setting to make it work.

Go to press the Tchula preset and nothing happens on the ML5R or VP4. Go through the whole troubleshooting process, it’s definitely the MLR5 because the MC6 is still changing VP4 patches when plugged directly into it.

Email has been sent to Morningstar, I don’t know if I voided the warranty by removing the back cover or not but I sent the pic I posted here and said if we can do anything, ideally I’d return this for a regular ML5. If not, it’ll be a long while before I bother with Morningstar again.

 

[[Nathan]]

You have to be fucking kidding me.

There is no way I am not involved in some kind of prank show, not after today’s endless effort to force me to deal with mediocrity every fucking step of the way.

Before sticking a screwdriver into the back of the Morningstar I wanted to ensure it was a standard Trim pot I could use a small screwdriver for, I yank it up and try looking through the hole but I can’t see anything but some kind of circle inside, but nothing looking like it’s going to turn or is even protruding from the circuit board. So I pull all the velcro off and start unplugged half the cables so I don’t stress the cables and remove the bottom of the ML5.

View attachment 58800

What the fuck is this bullshit? I see two variable impedance areas with two different surfaces. Since there’s nothing to even turn on VR1 I lightly poked around VR2 with a tiny screwdriver just to see how it’s supposed to turn and that thing is so damn flimsy I’m not willing to touch it further or even attempt to move it.

This is garbage.

That’s some epic troll level of “you can adjust the pots”, insanity.

 

[gearJunkie]

I've limited my loop switcher (Voodoo Lab's PX-8 Plus) use to "in-front-of-the-amp" duty, and rely on MIDI control and a gigrig wetter box for pedals in the fx loop. It took a while and a lot of failed experimentation to get there, but I'm satisfied with its current implementation.

 

[DrewJD82]

Morningstar said I’ve got to reach out to the Reverb seller for the return, but had no comments on the experience.

 

[metropolis_4]

Morningstar said I’ve got to reach out to the Reverb seller for the return, but had no comments on the experience.

Well that’s… not what you’d hope for from the company

Was it new from a dealer?

 

[DrewJD82]

Well that’s… not what you’d hope for from the company

Was it new from a dealer?

Yep, Perfect Circuit, specifically.

If ya guys thought I was bad with NDSP, wait until I get screwed by a company I actually gave money to.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Yep, Perfect Circuit, specifically.

If ya guys thought I was bad with NDSP, wait until I get screwed by a company I actually gave money to.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Probably not helpful now @DrewJD82 but the gigrig stuff works great with FFs etc Annoyingly expensive but they do make really good stuff.

 

[DrewJD82]

Probably not helpful now @DrewJD82 but the gigrig stuff works great with FFs etc Annoyingly expensive but they do make really good stuff.

Yeah, I looked into them at the start of all this and before and they cost about as much as all the pedals on my board.

That’d be something I’d likely step into if I were actually gigging for a living. I know my cost justification is all over the place (my snake cost more than my loop switcher), it’s not always easy to navigate in my own head.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

That’d be something I’d likely step into if I were actually gigging for a living

That's the same reason why I've never bought one.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Morningstar said I’ve got to reach out to the Reverb seller for the return, but had no comments on the experience.

That's -- disappointing. Especially given that it's a small, not terribly expensive little electronic gadget that the dealer has no way of servicing. Hopefully their M.O. isn't to haggle with dealers over whether the defect happened before/after it left Morningstar hands.

 

[EOengineer]

I’ve gone down this road a few times over the years and landed with either of the two options:

1. Use an all in one modeler with a decent fuzz face sim.

2. Use a full pedalboard and tap dance away.

Both work, option 2 has been more fun and usually sounds better. The FF is an absolute pain in the ass in most setups.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I’ve gone down this road a few times over the years and landed with either of the two options:

1. Use an all in one modeler with a decent fuzz face sim.

2. Use a full pedalboard and tap dance away.

Both work, option 2 has been more fun and usually sounds better. The FF is an absolute pain in the ass in most setups.

I put my hx stomp into a little loop switcher I made myself to get it out of the signal chain when I used a FF. I was trying to use the HX stomp with my amp for delay and reverb. I could get a FF sounding ok with the Stomp down the line but they all sounded better when it wasn't in the chain at all.

 

[metropolis_4]

Yep, Perfect Circuit, specifically.

If ya guys thought I was bad with NDSP, wait until I get screwed by a company I actually gave money to.

Sounds like I need to sell all my Morningstar stuff and move to a GigRig G3S… you know, for TGF solidarity

 

[metropolis_4]

I gotta say though, that whole complexity VS simplicity thing is one of the things I love about using pedals instead of a modeler. Since they’re all individual pieces I can build however simple or complex I need.

Right now I’m playing the big complex MIDI controlled board with switchers at the theater, but at home I’m just playing this:

 

[DrewJD82]

I’ve gone down this road a few times over the years and landed with either of the two options:

1. Use an all in one modeler with a decent fuzz face sim.

2. Use a full pedalboard and tap dance away.

Both work, option 2 has been more fun and usually sounds better. The FF is an absolute pain in the ass in most setups.

I don’t disagree about the sound but tap dancing is something I never enjoyed and it’s really not an option in how I’m going to be using this. I might try to figure out some kind of A/B splitter that meets a summing mixer before going to the amp, I dunno. I’ve really lost my steam for this thing in general.

 

[djd100]

You have to be fucking kidding me.

There is no way I am not involved in some kind of prank show, not after today’s endless effort to force me to deal with mediocrity every fucking step of the way.

Before sticking a screwdriver into the back of the Morningstar I wanted to ensure it was a standard Trim pot I could use a small screwdriver for, I yank it up and try looking through the hole but I can’t see anything but some kind of circle inside, but nothing looking like it’s going to turn or is even protruding from the circuit board. So I pull all the velcro off and start unplugged half the cables so I don’t stress the cables and remove the bottom of the ML5.

View attachment 58800

What the fuck is this bullshit? I see two variable impedance areas with two different surfaces. Since there’s nothing to even turn on VR1 I lightly poked around VR2 with a tiny screwdriver just to see how it’s supposed to turn and that thing is so damn flimsy I’m not willing to touch it further or even attempt to move it.

This is garbage.

That's a "trim pot", and it's adjusted with this tool...

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=trim+pot+adjuster