VALETON Dapper Acoustic Mini Electric-Acoustic Guitar DI Analog Preamp Multi-Effects Pedal

It's not going to change your entire world but the Valeton has a ton of useful features wrapped into a very nice price. Solidly built. A decent DI's alone is $50. Add to that, a headphone amp so you can play under phones, decent reverb, tuner, compressor, and basic EQ. Yes, the little dials are tiny (really... the size of a LED) but the idea is that you'll set it once or make small adjustments and leave it for the duration of your gig.It's a solid win for any acoustic guitar or uke — but also could work for other non-guitar acoustic instruments.

Works as advertised and well made. Good clear sound. Sets up quickly and easily.

I like when reviewers give their background,what they've worked with in the past etc.This way you know exactly what bowl of experience its coming from. Having said that, I'm a touring acoustic guitarist since 1980. In the most part as soon as a product comes out I tend to want to test it. I'm going to refine this review to make it clear that this unit by is far appropriate for 99% of the acoustic guitar population tough to beat for the money and well worth it. The Reverb is simple and well-thought-out they obviously picked a very popular setting oh, quite nice actually. The preamp section is surprisingly good with a warm touch to it, specifically good for taking away that piezo bite. And finally the compressor which although is good makes for the four star instead of five star. Overall this really should be a 5-star rating but I am writing this review for other touring professionals that may be considering this option. It is the slightest bit noisy on the compressor side,a good setting can be dialed in,it does its job,warms things up,punchy but overall it's a little bit noisier than the higher-end units but considering this is a 4 in 1 unit..its a no brainer. As a comparison my last record was with a Universal Audio, Avalon and a Neve preamp. Somewhere in the 5k zone,is this unit as good? Ugh no! Is it day and night...ugh NOT Really.The Tommy Emmanuel and Phil Keaggys of the world would probably have something to say(both of who I've played with) Me? I like it.So where would a slight noise of the compressor be a nuisance, in a pin drop acoustic Auditorium type setting and direct connection for recording a pristine album( which you'd want to use a top notch compressor anyway. In your standard Rock concert setting it would have no impact whatsoever.for live,outta the box,very impressive,worth the money ABSOLUTELY. Hope this helps.

Bought this hoping for an economical way to travel light, and get a workable sound with my acoustic direct into the PA system without hauling all my gear around. On paper the Dapper has pretty much what I need for most acoustic work: preamp, compressor, and reverb. A chorus and delay would be nice, but not really essential for me. Took delivery yesterday and immediately plugged it in, set it up, and tried it out. Unboxing I was impressed with the build quality--although pretty tiny (ca. 2.5"W, 8" L, 2"H) it was surprisingly heavy, speaking to all metal construction. All knobs and jacks are solid, cables fit snugly, paint/labeling is precise, etc. Essentially the thing is built like a miniature tank, and I would expect it survive well with a regular playing schedule.But, how does it sound? Played my Ibanez acoustic (decent middle of the road--great to test things with) into the Dapper, then direct into Soundcraft mixer and out to JBL studio monitors (FRFR). EQ on guitar and mixer all at noon (flat). Here's my assessment:*****BYPASS: With everything disengaged the sound was identical to going straight into the board--what I would expect. I don't know if it has "true bypass" or not, but the pass-through sound was crystal clear.****PREAMP: with preamp engaged and all knobs at noon there is very little, if any, noticeable difference to the tone--again what I would expect. 3-band EQ allows to sculpt the tone pretty nicely, and the volume allows to either normalize levels when off/on, or to set for a boost or cut. The notch filter appears to work as expected, but somewhat difficult to test without being in an environment where it's needed (IE on stage, dealing with competing frequencies and/or feedback, etc.). Overall, the preamp is quite good--it's not on par with very high-end players, but extremely good considering the price.***REVERB: the reverb is simple (sounded like a medium to large hall), but sounds good. Tending towards great, actually. But reverb quality is highly subjective and taste-driven. I liked it. It was clean, had a nice sparkle on the upper end, at the control allowed me to dial it from very subtle to a rather cavernous ambient sound.*COMPRESSOR: unfortunately, this is where the Dapper falls apart. The compressor is pretty wonky sounding and doesn't add anything very useful to the sound. You can get a decent amount of sustain, or dial in a nice "poppy" attack, but all at the price of pretty significant tone coloration. I could see myself using occasionally--probably very occasionally, except...it's really, really noisy. If engaged while not playing, or when playing something soft, subtle, or thin in texture, it produces a glaringly apparent noisy hiss. If strumming hard, or if there's sufficient other sound (IE other instruments) then you don't notice it. But it's loud enough to render it useless for anything tending toward the quiet end of things. It's certainly would not work for recording. This noise surprised me, to be honest, because the preamp and the reverb are both dead silent. (I did not take the time to try a noise-gate to see if I could eliminate it, as this would kind of defeat my purpose. I suspect you might be able to tame it a bit this way, but really you shouldn't have to.)***TUNER: the tuner is a little wonky, but works--very typical of any "3-light" tuners I've used. Hard to be precise as the red (out of tune) lights just flicker when you get close to in tune, and there's no real sense of how far sharp or flat it is. I always fine tune by ear anyway, so this isn't a big deal to me--it's nice to have something to quickly get you in the ballpark and this does that. Pretty much what I would expect from an on-board tuner like this, especially at this price point.****PRO: separate levels for preamp, compressor, and reverb make it easy to get a well-tailored "mix" of the three.OVERALL: I have to give it 3 stars, and I'll probably be returning it and trying something else as the noisy compressor is kind of a deal-breaker for me. However, it's pretty low priced unit, and you do get a lot of bang for the buck on the preamp and reverb end, and if you only needed compressor (albeit a kind of weird sounding one) every now and then when playing loud stuff, then the Dapper would probably work great. And, it would likely last forever, judging on the apparent build quality.Wow...was gonna just make a quick comment on the noisy compressor and this turned into a book. Hopefully it's helpful... Best, -RH

Very impressed with the sonic quality of the unit. Very, very nice reverb. Even though you cannot change the type of the reverb they set this one just right. The single knob for the reverb changes wet/dry ratio, and it is very pleasant. Amp and Compressor are also fine. Highly recommended. A night and day compared to that Donner acoustic pedal, which I tried and promptly returned because it sounded awful.I will later try it on other guitars -- various electrics I have, and basses (acoustic and electric). I sense it may be very useful there, too. But the quality on the acoustic guitars make this well worth for me. Been hunting for years for a reasonably priced pedal, and seems like I found the one.