Welcome to the Forum!
This received an "Excellent" from me.
Though I agree, the voicing of the Carrera/Harlequin is on the smooth/dark side, which is why I didn't buy it and got a UniValve Top instead. I love to listen to these Santanaesque creamy tones, but don't like to play them (I need more crunch to get excited:)
Great Tone and playing, wanna hear more !!
Re the crackle: Maybe you could get rid of it by increasing the sample buffer / latency in the soundcard/host app settings. If you're not real time monitoring the recording, latency is no issue anyway.