DigiTech 2120 VGS Artist

Programing was easy the only thing you have to keep in mind is your levels

I found the preamp to be a little weak but if you use an external preamp in the effects loop it rules. My reccomendation the Mesa TriAxis.
The Digital section is for the most part transparent it compliments the mesa very well.

It seems that Digitech has a bad rep for reliability but I have owned several Digitechs and never had any kind of problem until the unit was ten years obsolete. At that point it doesn't hurt anyway.

never needed support I can't have an opinion

Pros = effects loop before distortion, lush chorus/flanges, killer effects Cons = effects loop before distortion, gain stacks when too many effects are used I play Gothic acid Death metal for my style I found putting a Mesa TriAxis in the oddly placed effects loop made the 2120 sound awesome. The effects loop should of been called the external preamp or distortion loop becaouse i couldn't see using any effects before the distortion but some people do so if they like it more power to them. the effects complimented my guitar and synth well. In closing I just say with this unit just buy it and experiment. Have fun and it should serve you well until the next cool multiFX unit comes out. DIGITECH RULES!!!!!!!!!!!

This is not the easiest piece of equipment to use, nor is it the hardest. It will take time to feel your way around and figure out how to program the unit to get the sound you like. When changing effects, they give you various options as a starting point (ie if you want chorus, they give you 10 different sample chorus settings. It is easy to find an effect that's close, then tweak from there.

The presets stink (typical). They all have too much effects and the noise gate settings are too high. I'm using this with a Carvin guitar (Dimarzio Tone Zone pickup), a Mesa Stereo Simul 2:90 and a Marshall JMP 1 Preamp. My hope was to run the Marshall through the effects loop of the Digitech 2120. In this setup I could use the Marshall sound, or bypass the effects loop and use the Digitech preamp section. The high gain sounds on this unit pale in comparison to the gain sounds on the Marshall JMP1, however some of the mild overdriive sounds and clean sounds are great on the 2120, much better than the Marshall. However when I set it up this way, the Marshall sounded very saturated through the effects loop of the 2120 and lost the balls it has going direct to the poweramp. Instead, I am now using the 2120 through the loop of the Marshall. This limits the flexibility of using the 2120 preamp section also, but gives me the big Marhall tone I use for about 80% of my playing. The effects section of the 2120 is great. Everything you could want. This unit is replacing a Digitech GSP21 (also run through the loop of the Marshall). This unit has dramatically improved my sound. I used to think chorus is chorus. But the sound of this unit is so much more lush and full bodied than the GSP21 it replaced. With this unit I was also able to create much better clean and mild sounds using the Marshall preamp than previously. All the effects seem very good and they have every effect you could want, although I haven't really used the tremolo or the rotary speaker yet

So far, so good, but too soon to give an accurate rating. Only had it several months, but no sign of problems. My GSP21 lasted for years without a problem

I've emailed them several times and always got a quick response (from 15 minutes to 1.5 days). I have heard other complain, but I've had good luck.

Always room for improvement. It would be nice to have a rear input, xlr outputs and a headphone jack, but these are minor. I'm not using it in the manner I hoped, I'm basically using it as an effects unit only and bypassing the preamp. The effects do sound great, lush and full. It has greatly enhanced my sound. Preamp section sounds good for certain things, but the gain sounds do not compare to the Marshall JMP1. I may have been better off just buying an effects unit, but with the included footcontroller, I don't have any regrets. My rig sounds better than ever. I would suggest anyone using this to use it with a tube power amp.

Pretty Easy as I had the 2112 then Upgraded it to the 2120, Editing the patches is the same, the only good thing is that you can change skeletons within a patch, Once you you know how to work this sucker, its very very flexible, The firmware revision of mine is 2.01

The Artist Presets on all patches the gates are too high, there are some cool effects, but some a very useless. I run this through a Carvin Tube 100 which I like and is very good. The only thing about this would be the Distortion, in which there should be more variables in it to change it around and stuff.

Umm, Hasn't Broke Down Yet, and if I had the money I would have a backup.

When I Had my 2112, digitech sent me 2 Upgrade chips for free 1.02 1.03, but now, there support is ummm dismal as I say, I have had no response from them for a long while, thats the only thing that sucks

Everything kicks, except the user support. Thats all I have to say for it, I Would of gave it a 10/10 but for user support it sucks :)

At first this machine is difficult to suss out, but you just have to spend some time with it. One of the things that I like about the 2120 is that it is so flexible, and therefore more complicated than a more basic unit. It's pretty easy to get some really good sounds out of this unit at first, but tweaking is where you have to do your homework. After spending some time learning my way around the system I can now get tons of awesome sounds rather easily.

This thing is awesome! I really fell in love with it once I ran my guitar (Musicman Axis) to the 2120, out of the effects send into my Mesa/Boogie, out of the effects send back into the 2120, then back to the effects return of my amp. I know this may sound weird to some, but what I'm doing is combining both preamps (2120 and Mesa/Boogie), then coloring with effects, then juicing it up. The effects all sound great (except for rotary...I only have 1 amp, so I don't care for this). The distortions are awesome...I especially like the patches by Joe Satriani...they sound just like some of his tones (cool!).

No problems here...I hope it stays that way.

N/A

I really like this system. I know some people prefer 'low tech', but that's what stomp boxes are for. I've played for over 10 years and play many styles of music. I can't think of a style that you couldn't find a use for this thing for. I would definately buy it again.
Very Musical.

First of all, the factory patches are utterly useless. Obviously the folks at Digitech were going for 'maximum ear candy'. Having said that, once you figure out how to edit a patch (good luck) you can manipulate the sounds with a few hours (days, weeks, etc) of screwing with it. The system is VERY flexible, which is good, but the manual sucks. If you don't already know a lot (read: everything) about effects then you're s.o.l. Digitech: keep the manual simple! Your tech folks have obviously assumed that the reader has a good basic knowledge of the 2120...guess what-I didn't.

The sounds are very good, once you fix the screwed up factory patches. The noise gate is set too high on almost all of the patches, with the compressor bypassed on many of the same patches...does this make ANY sense? Once you tweak the unit (and retweak it), you can get a good variety of sounds. I got a good Keith Richards emulation and a very good "One" (U2) tone with some minor fiddling. I would suggest that you find a patch near what you want and tweak that than to totally modify an existing patch that is not near to what you need. One thing I found useful one the noise suppressor: go to page 3 and turn the threshold down unit you hear your guitar's 'hum'. Then slowly turn it back up until the hum just dissappears...this is where the threshold will work best for your guitar.

So far so good....I'm worried about some horror stories I've heard, though.
There is a glitch in the foot controler once you activate a new patch. Why? I don't know...Digitech?

Haven't had to deal with them (fortunately).

This unit replaced my Alesis Quadraverb GT, although I may still use the Quadraverb in conjunction with the 2120. I'm glad I bought this unit, but I wish Digitech had put more thought into supporting the customer with good documentation. This unit really does get a good tube tone, which I like...it is very natural and musical. I've been playing for 15 years and was fortunate enough to spend 2 years studying recording arts at U.S.C. This was very helpful in figuring this system out. If you do buy this system, make sure you have the salesperson show you the ins and outs before you take it home (it wouldn't suprise me if the salesperson didn't understand it either). Caveat Emptor...or something like that.

OK, let's be honest, I'm a professional computer nerd, so this unit was easy enough for me to figure out. A friend of mine almost had an aneurism trying to change parameters, but he's got a real job...
The presets are, well, cool enough, but I didn't have much use for them. The immediately important parameters (eg. Gain. Also Gain. And Gain) are accessible through rotary knobs on the front panel, which is great. Delving into some of the more wonky aspects of the unit requires the usual menu scrolling, button clicking, and prodigious use of the words "What the f*ck???". I guess it's no different than any other unit, the G-Force is a pain, and so is the Roland GP-100. Par for the course?
For fun, you can just plug in and rip, but that's insulting the engineers at Digitech. You must learn how to manipulate the unit (and when you figure it out, tell me) to get your money's worth.
The included foot controller board is nice, very sturdy, with a big easy-to-read LED screen and a predictably creaky expression pedal. Lots of space between pedals, and you can assign them in any number of ways. A nice long cable included too.
The manual is very nicely presented, and manages to rattle on and on for page after page without telling you ANYTHING USEFUL. Amazing how you can fill up so many pages with nothing. Folks, I already know what a digital delay does (a _reapeating_echo_? really? gosh, what a nifty idea!), maybe you could tell me how to access it and modify it within the context of a 2120 patch? D'ya think? Eh?
However, it seems even that when they DO tell you how to do something, it doesn't actually work. The Digitech web site lays out, in a nice 'do this then this' sequence, how you can assign wah to the expression pedal. Except, like, y'know, it doesn't work eh? At all.

Cooooool. If you can't emulate it with this box, you aren't doing something properly. I tested a Roland GP-100 for a week before I got this thing and, the 2120 _thoroughly_ destroys it. The 2120 also sounds much better somehow than the 2112 to my ears. Not quite as harsh (to me). You can get any tone you want (well, "any tone you can figure out how to get" might be more appropriate), from Helmet to Ed Bickert.
OK, so the real high-gain stuff is a little noisy, duh. If you weren't expecting that then stick to playing piano, silly person. The noise gates are awesome and you can EQ your way out of that problem anyway. Lush Choruseses (chorii?), thick delays, great reverbs, killer distorted tones, competent harmonizer, it just goes on and on.
For me, everything about the sound is near perfect, it's almost my ultimate all-in-one recording rig. Even the wah is not-so-bad, which is a biiig surprise for a unit like this. In the first week I had 'headphone rings' around my ears because I was just glued to the unit, and I think on Wednesday (was a national holiday) I played for around 8 hours straight - according to my wife it was "all day", but to her that can mean as little as 5 minutes ;-)
If I had the money, I suppose I'd go for a Triaxis and G-Force or something, but the 2120 is a way cool piece of gear. In fact I'd be willing to go so far as to say it's a bargain for what it can do.
I haven't tried recording with it yet, but using headphones (make sure to buy a Y-jack, as the unit doesn't have it's own head[ohne jack - a bizarre overisght) is almost a religious experience when you start getting the multi-tap stereo delay thing going.

Wow! The very first time I plugged it after removing it from the shrinkwrap it didn't work properly.
Then it did work for a few hours.
Then it didn't, then it did.
Currently it doesn't. Tomorrow it might, I dunno.
The first time I tried to save a patch it crashed on me. Hasn't happened since, however I'm going to get that old SYSEX utility out and make a complete backup once every 3 minutes or so just to be #$%^& sure...
The unit also 'stutters' constantly when the footswitch is plugged in. Or not, depends on the tides and direction of the jet stream I guess. It's really like flipping a coin when you turn it on. Will it? Won't it?
Also, once in a while the volume will jump about 100% for a second, accompanied by the sound of dirty pots, sort of like what happens when you jiggle your patch cord (I didn't, in case any Digitech tech support people are reading this). The volume jump I can live with since it only seems to happen once or twice after playing a couple of hours, but the footpedal issue is incredibly irritating. Part of the fun of this unit is the cool things you can do with the expression pedal. Or, in my case, the cool things you want to do but can't quite figure out yet...
I've heard that Digitech stuff generally tends to suck mightily when it comes to reliability, and so far I haven't seen anything that suggests otherwise.

I sent Digitech 2 emails last week describing the trouble and have yet to get any response from them. If you wait that long in any other industry, generally, your customers lynch you, then boil you in oil, then allow rabid crows to feast on your eyeballs. However, this seems to be normal for Digitech.
Again, I _was_ warned that Digitech tech support is abysmal, and so far they haven't done anything to correct that opinion.
If I don't get any response in the next week I'm going to return the unit and save some more for a G-Force and preamp because I think they're the only things that will give me comparable sounds to the 2120.
A shitty predicament.
C'mon Digitech, answer the email.

Sounds fantastic, WHEN it works... It really, really bugs me that this unit can sound so damned good but I can't rely on it to work properly.
I've been playing a very wide variety of music (as in Folk to Speed Metal) for over 16 years, and I've played with a lot of toys. I really _respect_ what this unit can do. It's all meat, no fat. It'll keep me busy for the next year just toying with different routing combinations and stuff.
WHEN IT F*CK*NG WORKS!
Which is why my rating for this category is "no opinion". For now.