Impressions of a Mackie Freeplay

[dannyg1]

So I went to Guitar Center and played my guitar ( Fishman undersaddle and Quackbuster combo pickup thru a Fishman pre) and my mic (an EV ND367) through a Mackie Freeplay. it is an interesting option for busking.
I didn't test it with the app and I suppose that's a pretty big caveat but I had no phone and the salesman had no interest in putting it on his.

The sound overall was better than most of the cheaper options. I'd say that it sounded more like a Loudbox Mini than a Vox Mini5 Rhythm. Two things were Bert bothersome though. With the amp set to solo and to flat (both pushbutton settings on the back), it sounded as though the amp has a large bass boost circuit in line, pushing the 120-150 freq range by at least 4db. That and the reverb had this electronic sound that wasn't very subtle for my vocal. Between these two problems, I found it impossible to get a vocal sound I felt was comfortable. I should say that I was testing this at higher volumes and had the amp pointing at me like a monitor.

It was loud enough, I felt, to be a useful amp for busking, approaching the louder useful levels I'm able to get from my Loudbox mini/battery/inverter combo.
Another problem I ran into with the amp, that could be attributable to dirty power at the guitar center, was that my pickup combo was buzzing a lot when plugged and at higher levels. My Loudbox doesn't do this with the same guitar cable/pick up combo and so, I had a hard time getting a useful impression of the guitar sound. What I could ascertain was that the amp is capable of a warm guitar sound but, the buzz killed any romance I might've found.

So, not a thorough test I guess, but it does give a better idea of what you might expect with this. It's small, light and loud. It sounds reasonably good, given proper power (battery power will prove much better I'm sure). It has a more forward and direct , lower priced PA speaker sound (sizzle at the top, falsely pronounced at the bottom) but is probably a pretty good busking option. It's not though, a sound that's going to give Schertler or AER any competition.