Back to blogging

Life has been rather boring ever since I am back here. It is not that I have too much free time; life back here is quite busy as well. So I thought one way to entertain myself is to start blogging again. Hopefully, some people in Myanmar would actually read it.

I don’t have an amp back in Myanmar here. Well, I thought it would be rather unnecessary if I buy one. One reason is that music instruments here are overpriced. An Ibanez TS7 costs S$80 in Singapore but in Myanmar, it is priced at KS 110,000 (approximately about S$180). So at the moment, Pandora MINI is my best friend.

I’ve read many comments and reviews saying that Pandora MINI

• A failure
• Sounds horrible
• Drains a lot of battery

and etc…

Well, here is my response to the 3 listed points.

Pandora MINI is much compact than the previous version of Pandora. I don’t really see why it is a failure. Maybe it sounds horrible? Well, Pandora MINI WILL sound horrible if you plug it into any amplifiers (15W, 30W, 100W, tube or whatever).  Pandora MINI should be a stand-alone effect and its potential can only be brought out if you are using a headphone. I wouldn’t suggest in-ears because unless your in-ears are bass-biased, it will sound too treble-ish and that can be plain annoying. For me, I am playing through my medium-sized stereo speakers.

I do have another pair of smaller speakers and I do use them. But whenever I use them I would cut down on the high ends in the EQs of Pandora and perhaps, a bit more of the mid and the low. But that really depends on what guitar and pickups I am using as well.

As for Pandora eating a lot of battery, I have to agree with that. An alkaline battery will last no longer than 9 hours of continuous playing according to my experience. But again, 9 hours is pretty long. There are many ways to save up on batteries. I would use rechargeable batteries and it lasts about the same length of time. Or you can hook up your Pandora with to an USB. I believe that is not much of a problem because almost everyone owns a computer and all computers have at least one USB port.

So if someone tells you that Pandora Mini is lousy without giving a reason why, don't believe them straight away. I've been playing with it for 3 months and though it has certain limitations, the tone it gives is still good enough for me to enjoy a good playing. Also if you are going down to a guitar shop to try this, don't try it through an amp. Use your headphones instead.


Loki