Description
SPX50D in excellent condition. Refurbished with new battery and reset to factory settings. Has previously been recapped
The Yamaha SPX90 was probably the first rackmount FX unit to achieve world dominance. Before the SPX90 racks contained nothing but expensive outboard gear that did one or two things but, post-SPX, everyone could afford a multi-fx unit – so everyone bought one
The SPX90 was joined after a couple of years by the SPX50D. They share the same 1U case, and most of the programs, but it’s D for Distortion because the 50D adds distortion to a number of effects presets. The unit is pretty guitarist-friendly – it has a front-panel jack input plus an output for a guitar tuner. It also has rear-panel jacks for connecting an external fx loop, switchable from the front panel, and jacks for bypass and program change foot-switches. The status of the effect loop (in or out) can be stored in a preset for easy recall
The SPX was, and still is, a great little fx unit. It has a selection of very usable reverbs – including that 1980s speciality, gated reverb – plus early reflection programs and delays. It also has a number of fairly basic pitch change presets plus panning, vibrato, parametric EQ and a compressor. Of these, the reverbs (halls, plates, rooms) are the most useful. To my mind, the best bits of the SPX range are the chorus / flanger / phaser effects, particularly Symphonic, and, in the 50D, the distortion effects
Symphonic is a great, deep chorus effect which is like a Dimension D on steroids. It can be subtle, like a Dim D, or tweaked to create an over-the-top chorus with lots of pitch changing. It’s great for widening synth basses, for warming up the low end of tracks, for adding movement to a Rhodes patch or for thickening an acoustic guitar
The addition of distortion and the provision of a front-panel input and effects loop makes the 50D far more appealing to guitarists. Clearly Yamaha went to some trouble to make this is useful upgrade. The front panel input with loop out for a tuner shows that a lot of thought went into it
In excellent condition for a vintage SPX. Most of these have bent rack ears, chipped cases and scarred front panels, but this is a rare survivor. It’s the best SPX50D I’ve seen
