TThe Womanizer from Damage Control is a tube preamp in stompbox form for electric guitarists. The dual 12AX7 tubes provide distortion with dual-cascading gain stages and acts much like the front end of a quality tube amp.
It has 1/4" in put and output, as well as a direct recording output, which when used emulates an open-backed 4x12 cabinet, so it can serve as a direct box for studio or live use if you wish.
The controls include gain and volume, pre and post eq, and an on-board compressor. Very cool.

I'm not a tube amp expert so I can't explain how they do it, but with only 2 tubes in Class A setup, the Womanizer has 4 stages of gain that let you travel from ultra clean to a classic heavy disorted tone, very akin to a cranked early Marshall.

It takes some time twiddling knobs to coax the different tones available out of this box. The versatility creates a bit of a learning curve I'm afraid, but you can't complain because good sounds are still easy to dial in.

This box is like a dream come true for guitarist that want classic tube crunch without paying a fortune for a dual-channel tube amp. I own a low-end tube combo but its only a single channel amp, and I still rely on stompboxes for even moderate gain sounds. Moving beyond just a distortion circuit that is sypical of most overdrives, this employs actual TUBES which means you achieve real tube amp sound, crunch, and dynamic response!

The cleaner end of the spectrum is fairly transparent gain wise, but it does impart a tubey-ness to your tone that it complimented my amp. As I cranked the gain and dialed in just a touch of compression the tone gets righter and raunchier, but in very gradual degrees. At full blast, this thing is like a cranked tube combo. Not Boogie high gain mind you, but a more early and classic British tube sound. I would imagine the Demonizer would give more aggressive high gain distortion if thats what you prefer. But this preamp is very musical and will retain the individual notes of a chord, very tube-amp like.

I found that I liked to keep the compression minnimal, as it sounds better and more "open" in my opinion the less you use. Being heavy handed with this compression kinda kills the natural tonal characteristics in my opinion.

But I was very pleased with a lot of the sonic possibilities and overall pallete of tone available. I played my Ibanez Ghostrider with PAF humbuckers through this, and into my Epiphone Valve Special set fairly clean. It brought a new dimension to even the clean sound of my amp, and its gain structure interacted nicely with the amp so I imagine others would find similar results.

- What type of amplification (Tube,transistor,...)?
Tube

- How much power is delivered?
N/A, this is a preamp.

- What connection types are there?
More than you can imagine: inputs, outputs & loops all over the place.
Ins on the front & back...2 output channels with individual settings...footswitch...this is some serious piece of pro gear.

- What are the setting controls, effects?...
Not sure i can count that high...
5 band graphic EQ + 3 band regular EQ, volume, master, rhythm bright switch, reverb, lead drive, lead master, EQ IN/auto/off, lead mode, lead fat, lead bright, master out A, master out B.
10 rotaries + 5 EQ faders. Never seen anything like it.

- Is the general configuration/setup simple?
Yes, same settings as you're used to on an amp, plus some more than you just have to try...nothing tricky.

- Can you easily get a good sound?
Now this is trickier than expected cos you're tempted to fiddle around and the EQ is very powerful. But you can get good sound if you stop messing around, haha.

- Is the manual clear and sufficient?...
Mine was second hand and i never had the manual.

Some say this has the best clear sound ever when used via the direct out for recording. True that it sounds quite good.

The distortion when pushed to the max gives you that endless sustain you've always dreamt of when listening to Gary Moore...

But Mesa/Boogie sounds Mesa/Boogie. You'll probably love it but you might not. Try it!

In any case, the range of sounds you can obtain here is awesome, and we're talking top of the range here. This is no POD or Boss pedal, folks, this is IT.

4 12ax7 tubes..PCB.. 3 channels.. Clean, dirty... and more dirty. Shared eq, separate volume on rhythm/lead channels (good to set lead boost) These two channels are very,very close.. Powerful signal..can push poweramps pretty hard. Direct out/XLR direct out, 1/4 outs.. NO effects loop. (Yuck) Mid boost button for distortion channels, bright switches for all 3 channels.
No effects. This is strictly tone shaping and gain.

Very simple. Knob turners dream. Buttons reeeeally easy to push. A monkey could figure this out. Getting a good sound.. well, you have to know what you like. This amp has a fair amount of complex mids... I don't know if you can dial these out completely like you could with a Boogie Recto for example. The eq is very responsive..I find myself dialing back the trebles overall since I am always striving for the smoothest sounds possible.. (while having loads of gain) The manual is easy...I think it is like... 3 pages.

It does suit my style. The sound overall is smooth.. creamy.. and still heavy heavy. I can play metal.. dial back my volume to hard rock-ville.. add some slight overdrive on the front end and it screams. Using Les Pauls, Strats, Tele's, a few other types with this. Carvin T100 poweramp, Digitech GSP2101 for effects.
Overall, I would say the character of this amp is somewhere between a Soldano and Marshall tone.. A bit smoother than the typical Marshall tone.. ( I play next to my rhythm players Marshall TSL stack) but with just as much attack. (and more character)
I need to run the gamut of tones for my originals. From crystal clean to molten gain. I run this thru parametric e.q.'s.. loads of effects.. and it retains its character.
The gain channels are the standouts here. Searing, yet smooth, detailed, but with enough hair on it to let you know it's heavy. The clean channel... uh. Hmmm. Honestly, this is rather 2 dimensional. The least exciting part of the amp, but with a parametric you can get a good approximation of Twin tones. If you are using effects, it is certainly more than adequate. It is not a "bad" tone... just not as good as the distortion channel counterparts.