Final Rating: 8/10

The Behringer Metalien is an awesome guitar for the price. It looks very good at first impression and sounds great when you plug it into your mixer/amp. It is the best looking guitar in the behringer lineup. The black on black color scheme and sharks teeth inlay emulate expensive Ibanez guitars. The price for this setup is amazing and I would recommend this package for anyone starting guitar, curious about guitars, or anyone who needs a guitar sound in their music thats not fake & sampled. This is a REAL guitar.

Sound:

It sounds nice, and pretty clean. The two single coil pickups sound the humbucker sound even better when raised / adjusted with a screwdriver, an easy task. In the right hands, and with the supplied overdrive on the Behringer amp, you can get it to “scream.” I am sure there are better pickups out there, but I would say this guitar sounds fine. The strings are okay and seem like they need to be played a bit to break them in. I was happy to find that this guitar did not need any adjustments as to string height etc, and that the playing action was good (no buzzing). The whammy bar is a basic design, but works. I play most of the time with it taken off, but its fun to mess with. Again, some ibanez guitars don’t even come with a whammy… The tone, volume, and pickup switches are very solid feeling. Its nice to have ALL the features of the expensive guitars, and a nice clean sound for $150

Looks / Feel:

The Metalien looks great on first impression. Its all black and has a great shape and the finish is a cut above many other expensive guitars. On closer inspection, however there are some things that I would mention. The finish on the pick guard panel has a kind of plastic over it that can bubbles near screws. Thats a minor complaint. You can kind of fix it by pressing down near the screws. I didn’t investigate to see if you can remover the plastic or not, but this is a minor issue. Also, the frets on the bottom edge seem a little rough but you won’t ever touch this part of the guitar due to the angle. The shark tooth inlay is amazing!! This guitar basically looks like a copy of the Ibanez, even down to the hardware, and it really is a quality guitar for the price. Go ahead and compare for yourself. Overall I’d say the design, and finish are an “A-” Very good! Looks expensive.

Side by Side Comparison: Metalien ($150) Vs. Ibanez ($240, No Amp, Tuner etc.)



Extras:

The supplied Behringer guitar amp is fun to mess with. Its not good quality at all, but the overdrive button is really fun. Again, an overdrive button is something you won’t get on the more expensive ibanez metal pak. If you don’t have distortion pedals and just want to rock, the overdrive is a nice touch. The gain on it is super hot, so be very careful to your ears. Its just a practice amp so I can’t say much bad about it. I would not use it as a preamp to a mixer, but I would mic this amp because it sounds dirty and cheap in a good way.

The practice DVD will get you up to speed if you’ve never played guitar before. You’ll be playing chords hopefullly on your first or second session.

Note * I would replace the guitar strap if your near 6 feet tall or so, it seems a little small.

The tuner is very very good. I found the cable it came with to be very decent, and thats got to be better than the Ibanez Metal Pak’s cables I’ve heard about busting after little use. The picks are nice. The carrying case is also very basic, but will keep it protected from scratches.

For $150 you can’t go wrong. Its the most fun you can get for this little amount of money. If you need a starter guitar, or a guitar sound in your music, this is a must have. It looks more expensive than it is, and sounds good. Once you pick it up you will be very excited and will enjoy how much fun it is to play guitar.

Tips:

The one reviewed does not have the USB module installed. I felt that the USB is kind of pointless, and that the phono jack was more versatile. I can plug it into a real amp, or a mixer, or an audio interface, or even an array of pedals. With usb, its computer only. Since the guitar is analog anyways, I thought the USB option to be limiting. I would also recommend trying out Amplitube with this guitar even though it doesnt come with it in this package. The sounds you can get are even more fun. I would say its a personal choice to go USB or Metal Pack, because they both cost the same ($150), but you can’t go wrong with a practice amp thats always waiting for you to pick up and play.

“The FLAME MIDI TALKING SYNTH is a small-sized MIDI-controlled sound module based on the analogue Speakjet ™ chip, produced by the U.S. company Magnevation LLC. Originally designed for basic artificially generated speech output…

….The internal sound is generated by the two independently controlled Speakjet ™ chips. Each of them provides a mono audio output (32 kHz PWM output) through a 6.3 mm stereo socket.”

Midi-Talking-Synth is compatible with Pro-Wheelchair 2 for the Sega Dreamcast.

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