Rocktron Intellifex?

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Hey there is an Intellifex for a good price here that I am thinking of getting, but I don't know much about it...it looks like its an older one, like this:

http://www.jcguitars.com/rockintf1.JPG

http://www.jcguitars.com/rockintf2.JPG

Can you tell me if these are good ones or not, or any other info on this particular model?
Thanks.

[OklaStrat]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

I thought you weren't doing the rack thing, Box! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Pete

[Zero Signal]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

Musicians friend is clearing out intellifex's for 179, might check that out too.

[rstites]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

That is one of the originals and they're a good unit. I don't know what all the differences in the various versions since have been. The Intellifex is a very solid unit for delay, chorus, and reverb. The pitch shift is worthless, so don't buy it for that. Justin's prices tend to be pretty high for effects, so be sure and check completed ebay auctions for a reasonable price for one. I just bought one off ebay for $150 for reference.

Ross

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

Thanks for the info guys. Ross, the one I am looking at is local, I just used the pics from Justin's site because they were the best ones I could find. I agree with you-Justin's prices are kinda steep for me. Pete, the only reason I am doing the rack thing now is to be like you, of course.

[OklaStrat]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

Ok, now you can be like me and ross.... snagged this on the bay tonight:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=23790

Ross, any idea if this is one of the 'older/better' ones? Just curious. I noticed that some had a BIN of $200... if I was going to spend that much, I'd get one from musician's friend! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Pete

[Ebbflow]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

I've recently picked up a LTD version for $150 and I think the thing sounds great! It seems to go perfect with a guitar rig. I have heard the same thing, that the older units (Blackface) had the better Motorola chips in them when they were $1000 but my ears probably could not tell the differance. A new one for $179 is an absolute steal!!

[rstites]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

Pete, that's one of the original ones. I really don't know if the originals are any better or it's just the typical vintage/older is always better mentality. I know that the new ones also have Motorola chipset, so I don't know what the deal is with the chipset. I think some of the newer ones had reduced algorithms to offer a cheaper version and some were just repacked originals with additional memory. If you get a manual with it, can I talk you into a copy of it. Mine came without one, and I don't know which of the ones on the Rocktron site match with the original...plus I've been having problems with their pdf files.

I will say that there are a couple of limitations with these. They do affect the tone some, but not that horribly for live music. Since I have an Axess loop switcher, I'll use that but it's really being kinda nitpicky. Since they're older units, the memory limitation can come into play if you try to run multiple effects (especially reverb + others). I'm a real minimalist and almost always only run one effect at a time, so this is a nonfactor for me.

I owned one of these in the mid-90s and sold it when I ditched my first rack system. It was a great unit and did everything I needed it to do. I decided that was a better move for me than dropping $500 on a new G Major ($400-450 used on ebay, so no point going there IMO) and getting a bunch of effects I'll never use anyway. The Intellifex has as good of delay, reverb, and chorus as any unit I've used.

Ross

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

Is it satisfactory when you use chorus and delay together? That's my deal....if it's not then I'll check out a newer one somewhere and get one from MF. By the way I plan on using it with my Behringer MIDI controller, but I guess Pete can tell me how that goes too.

Oh yeah, I need to post pics of my new archtop Soloist Pro when it gets here....bwahahahah!

[rstites]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

Don't get me wrong. For any kind of normal use it won't be a problem. However, if you try to program in an 8 voice chorus, a multitap ping-pong delay, and some verb on top of that you may notice some of the effects sounding a bit digital and harsh. If you need a basic delay with a normal chorus, it'll be fine. The issue is that each effect can be programmed to the full power of the processor, so mixing them at those settings obviously won't work well.

[OklaStrat]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

After a little online research, it appears that the only intellifex model with the parametric eq built in is the XL. DOH! The original, LTD and 'online' versions don't have it.

One other thing - the XL also had better s/n ratio specs than the others - 109db with the hush on, vs 104db for all the others. I also read on the net that the original one had around a 1 second of deay, while some of the other models were restricted to 1/2 second.

Oh well - I can't complain much for the price, and if it works out great, if not, I'll sell it and move on. This is the best thing about buying used gear - if you're careful when you buy it, you can either get your money back or even make a few dollars if it doesn't work out.

Yet another reason why i rarely buy new anymore.

Pete

[rstites]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

I completely agree on used gear. Unfortunately, I got my Intellifex today and it was pretty beat up from a pathetic packing job. It was in a box that it barely fit in corner-to-corner with no bubble wrap around it and just some newspaper filling in the space. Both rack ears had punched holes through the sides of the box. The seller left the power supply (wall wart) plugged in and with all the shifting the jack and hole in the chassis are no longer lined up perfectly (though I can get plug in and out ok). The LED interface was completely pushed back into the unit. I wonder if this was from before shipping though because all of the faceplate screws were only hand tight.

I opened it up, bent the LED display up (soldered directly to the board). Then I fired it up and came right up and appears to work fine. I don't have an amp at home to test it with, but the display lights up and I can move around through the presets. Did I mention these are built fairly tough for a digital rackmount unit.

I still haven't emailed the seller. I'm trying to decide how to handle it. Everything appears to have turned out fine, but he was a moron to pack it the way he did.

Ross

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

Well I got the Intellifex today, along with a BBE 362 Sonic Maximizer. I haven't got to try the Intellifex with my amp and stuff yet, but in the store it sounded great. The best part was the price....it was marked $159.99, but I talked them down to $99.99! I got the BBE on sale for $79 too, so I am pretty satisfied.

[rstites]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

I did get to play with the Intellifex quite a bit yesterday. It works fine, which is good news. I forgot how bad the presets suck on it though, so it'll definitely take some programming to get good sounds out of it. It does handle the hot loops on my amps pretty well. I'll just have to play with it some and decide whether it's a keeper or not.

I bought an old Ibanez AD-202 rackmount analog delay this last week too, and tried it out yesterday. It sounds amazing for chorus, flange, and delay. So many of those old 'warm' analog delays, chorus, and flangers are really pretty muddy to my ears, but this one strikes a perfect balanced between prisitine and warmth for me. The bad news is that it's only one sound at a time from a 2 space rack unit. That's a bunch of rack real estate, for me, for one sound.

Ross

[Chuckracer]

Re: Rocktron Intellifex?

Ross, am I VERY curious about how the Intellifex sounds in the SLO loop. Do lots of A/B medium volume (overdrive master 4 to 5) testing and do let me know what you think please. Pretty Please and stuff!

[ March 24, 2003, 12:11 AM: Message edited by: Chuckracer ]