DigiTech 2120 VGS Artist

This is an update to my previous review. After spending about 4 more hours of solid tinkering with EQ and voicings, I finally got an acceptable tone! My 5150II still sounds better on big chords, but it is muddier with intricate riffs, which my band tends to play more than chords. The 2120 is definitely more articulate now--still has a bit of that funky nasal voicing that Digitech products exhibit, but I can live with it! I paired it with a Mosvalve 1160 and it sounds pretty good now.

One preset recently "forgot" that the volume pedal is on in the Control One, so it no longer responds. I saved it to another patch number and all is well--a minor annoyance, but it shouldn't happen. Had the same problem with a Digitech Valve FX.

Overall, it's a decent unit. Most big tube amps are too muddy for my taste, but I sometimes like their overall more organic tone. It's a trade off between fatness and articulation--articulation wins for me! I hear that the original 2101 actually has more brutal distortion, but I already have this and the 2101 is no longer in production. If I had it to do over, I'd hunt down a 2101.

Not easy if you are a novice! The 82 page (!) owner's manual could be more clearly written. It takes a LOT of patience....

I have a BC Rich USA 7 string Beast, Peavey 5150 II, and Randall Warhead cabs. The clean sounds are great, but the distortion is poor. Try as I might, I could not get a truly brutal sound that doesn't have this nasty pinched/nasal quality. It seems to be all EQ and no true tone. So, I now use it in the effects loop of my 5150 II with the distortion turned off...adds some needed EQ and body, not to mention the awesome effects--definitely the best part of the 2120. The absolutely seamless switching is nice.

So far so good.

They responded quickly in the past to inquiries and a fast repair of an old Valve FX.

AS an effects unit, it's great. As a pre-amp, not so great for my style of music (technical death metal). Most of the factory presets are a joke--do they think anyone would actually use the "Death Scoop" tone? I don't like scooped mids, and nothing I could do to that or any other setting gave a satisfactory tone. I doubt that I would purchase it again.

After 8 months, I'm pretty used to setting the 2120 up but I've met many stupid people in my life that are really excellent musicians. I wonder if their type could ever understand all of this. Some of the concepts are very advanced probably for the average dude.

Great if you remove the tubes and get the jj ECC83 S. I got mine at www.thetubestorecom . They made such a difference. Before, my sound was more brittle and my highs were lost in all chords. Now my sound kicks ass. I'm in a New York Rush tribute band called 2112, www.geocities.com/rushtributeband2112 so I've gotta cover Alex Lifeson's tones on all 16 albums from the dirty to the ultra clean. I've been able to do it with my Ernie Ball Axis going into the 2120 going into a Mesa 50/50 into 2 4x12" Marshalls using Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.

So I'm giving it a 9 but I'd give the sound rating a 7 if I hadn't changed the tubes. It's very much like changing old strings on a really decent guitar. I'm taking only 1 point off for the cleans. They're really great but I've heard better.

THIS IS WHY I CHOSE TO WRITE A REVIEW. 2 nights before a semi-important gig I dropped it and my Mesa 50/50 amp off of my Marshall 1960 cabinet. Guess what, neither unit was affected in any way! Enough said. I love both companies in addition to SKB who makes the rack!

Never dealt with them

I'll also add that I replaced the control 1 with the johnson j-12 controller. Once I did that, I was very satisfied with my setup. The control 1 is a piece of shit. The plastic buttons are inaccurate. The j-12 saved me from selling the 2120 because I had been making so many patch change errors during live performances.

I like some of the factory presets, but for the most part a true
professional sound is still evading me. Editing patches to suit my ear
are also hard to do. The manual is not user friendly, but it could be
I don't haven't extensively dove deep into it yet.I would hope though
that if digitech wanted to keep customers they would make it a little
easier, and already have true beautiful sustaining distortions set at a flick of a switch or button.

I use a 9200 marshall power amp, 100 watts per side and play stereo through two 1960A marshall cabs.I play a 1970 black custom Les Paul
with original humbucker in neck position and a dimarzzio evolution
in bridge position. The 2120 is very quiet but as most have said the noise gate is set way to high.Efects in my book are second to none. The delays ,reverb chorus are pro quality. The only problem I'm having is at high volume levels the 2120 doesn't produce the great
smooth distortion and sustain you'd expect from an expensive unit such as this. The pick attack drops off considerably and you literally
have to work twice as hard as usual, just the opposite is what I would expect with great equipment. Iv'e been playing for over 25 years
and thought I had the best set up I could ever want. But what I got
was low volume ear candy and got it home and cranked it up and got
high volume crap.I'm not saying there aren't some fabulous sounds in this unit and maybe in acouple of years I'll find the sounds everybody says are "deep' within the unit, but frankly I don't have the time.I'm through with the fake sounds and emulations I want the real thing!

So far so good

Haven't dealt with them yet

I play many styles of music, Gary Moore, SRV Satriani,etc;
I guess if it was stolen I'd miss the effects, but would definately not miss the high volume chaos it can create, I'd hate to get rid of my 9200 without first trying other preamps, but it looks like I might have to get a 6100 marshall head rated at probably the best sounding head of all time and forget rack gear altogether. Come on Digitech
I want a professional high volume sound without having to be a rocket
scientist. Ever listen to the G3 concerts, now that's quality sound.
I have an open mind however and if anybody out there in cyber space
can convince me to keep this, with helpful information I would greatly appreciate it!

It takes some time to get used to this unit, like any unit. It is very, very deep. You can control practially every possible paramter of everything that affects the signal. The nice thing is: if you don't want to select a wave form, and depth, rate, resonance, feedback etc. for your flanger - there are a dozen or so presets for every effect to help get you close. You can save your own presets for each effect as well, which is handy. The manual is written in a dry style but is worth careful perusal. The presets, as usual, are pretty lame.

I use many different guitars and basses with this unit. I should note I use for direct recording exclusively. I do not use it in conjunction with any other gear (other than a mixer and a recording device).

As a standalone Guitar Preamp (ignoring effects)I would give it a B. It sounds pretty good, you can get some useful tones from it without using any FX. The FX portion I would rate an A-. I would give it an A or A+ if you could build your own FX algorithms but you have to use the 30-some-odd prebuilt 'skeletons'. Put the two together and you have a pretty powerful tool if you are willing to take the time and tweak it. This is not an instant gratification device, IMO.

One thing I should stress: the stock tubes suck. They are Ruby or Sovtek 12AX7WA and are horrible. Replace them *immediately* with something like a pair of Sovtek 12AX7LPS or some JJ ECC83s. This makes an *enormous* difference in how the tube preamp patches sound.

I haven't had any problems with mine and I have had it apart, changing tubes mostly, many times.

I understand Digitech is discontinuing these. Oh well. The market has gone digital modeling crazy. So be it.

I think the 2120/2112 VGS are a fantastic unit. I love having everything in one box, being able to build a complete & distinct signal chain and saving it whole (rather than remembering that I used this setting on my preamp, and this setting on my EQ, and these settings for my FX etc.) But I'm lazy that way. I like having one box that I can use convincingly for Guitar and Bass. It does great clean, crunch, and lead sounds. Very good Bass sounds. The only 'weak' spot in it's palette might be super-heavy modern "Nu Metal" type sounds. But then again, I haven't really tried to get that kind of sound so take that for what it's worth.

I've tried lots and lots of newer gear: Pod, Pod Pro, the GNX stuff, and I keep coming back to the 2120. Maybe when the next generation all-in-one Rack unit comes along I'll switch. Who knows. This works for me. I know it isn't the best sounding guitar preamp every built, I know certain FX made by other manufacturers sound better (TC Electronics chorus, Lexicon Reverb etc.) - but having practically every guitar effect ever created (very high quality too) in one box, plus the ability to those FX in any order, multiple times! Combined with a workable, if not spectacular guitar preamp - is a very nice thing. If you are a not a tweaker - don't bother with this unit.

This unit was upgraded from my Digitech 2112 and over the years I have become familiar with it's operation. The system is not the easiest to program and requires some patience.

I use the 2120 to push the front end of a Fender "Evil Twin" running in the low power mode thru channel one. I have been playing for over 35 years and go back to the day when an amp was as good as it's ability to distort. Lot's of Fender Twins, Showman's, Super Reverbs, Vibrolux, Marshall's and Ampegs. All of these amps smoked when cranked and the 2120 let's you push a pre amp to it's limit without pushing 50 or 100 watts. Patience is the key to the 2120. Start with a clean sound that has some delay and put in compression. Spend lot's of time on the EQ, then go for some tube distortion. Stand back and let your socks roll up and down. The tones there if you have a good tube amp and lot's of patience.

I have used Digitech products for years and have had little or no problems. I blew this one up at an outside gig when it got wet and have had to replace the foot pedel switches but have had no problem with support or with the 2120 otherwise. I have used it without a backup since they came out with the 2112, although my amp has a second channel for distortion if I need it.

Call them. They act fast and care about your problem.

I play mostly blues and require 4 - 5 different clean and distorted tones. I push this unit into a Fender Twin using a Gibson ES-355, 335, SG and sometimes a Les Paul (Hey, Gary Moore plays Blues). I'ld replace this unit in a heart beat. I love the tone, I like the Control One and the distortion, if you take the time, is right on the money. Maybe it's the Gibson into a Fender thing but this unit will sustain forever at any volume.

This unit was different in using at first--but once I caught on to what the layout of the parameters was, I was OK

The preamp section of this unit SUCKS badly--but the effects are so nice, they cover that FACT up.
The best reverb I have heard on a guitar unit.
I am looking in to what i can do to modify the input so this unit sounds better...I bought this unit 'cause I really like the RP12--I bought this unit thinking the higher line model should be better--I was wrong.

I play for a living and have traveled to 4 countries and 38 US states--I have never used a back up amp.

I started in a new band this year and started with this unit--i feel safe that it won't let me down.

Overall--since this unit has it all in 1 rack space--I can hop a plane to do a gig and have a large part of my gear with me.

I have learned that playing live allows you a tolerance in using top notch gear--as opposed to studio work. I save my great gear for the studio --this new gear with the new band is sounding great. What I get in versatility and great effects, Really does makes up for the preamp section of this unit sounding so poor.

I came to the 2120 from an RP-10, so I knew that you had to work with these things to get the best from them. What surprised me was the poor quality of the factory presets. Digitech usually go OTT on the presets to demo the capabilities of the box, but I was initially disappointed to scroll thru the patches without anything special jumping out. 2120 adds greatly expanded fx library and better routing control over the RP-10, but this obviously comes at the price of simplicity. If you've only ever used stomp boxes, be prepared for an initial shock. If you've used any other programmable multi-fx, it shouldn't take too long to adjust. If you download RPEdit, then it's a breeze. It _is_possible to get superb sounds out of this unit, but careful EQ work is required to get the best results. Rating is for the unit as supplied, add a few points for using RPEdit.

I use an Ibanez RG520QS and Status Shark bass into the 2120 via a Korg tuner (Digitech still can't quite get the tuner right, after all these years, although the wah is a vast improvement) with a Crybaby in the external loop (allowing switchable bypass from the Control One). From the 2120 into a Marshall Valvesate 8008 power amp and 1922 stereo cab. The sound quality is superb. Using the cabinet emulator to DI into a PC for hard disk recording is also quite acceptable. Once you've tweaked the noise gate into submission (Digitech - why the ridiculous gate settings on the factory presents?) then noise isn't an issue. Modulation effects are of the usual Digitech high quality, delays and reverbs v.good. Pitch effects noticeably improved over my old RP-10. Both the valve and solid state preamps have a lot going for them but, again, careful EQ tweaking is necessary to bring out the characteristics you are looking for. Some reviews have criticised the valve preamp for being poor, but it's all down to patience in the setup. Any signature sound is in here somewhere, the best method is to play around with different EQ and fx settings to see what works for you.

Seems as well built as any other rack box, but any electronics can fail so probably best to back-up at a gig with couple of decent pedals. That said, I've had no problems but other reviewers have had lock-ups and worse. I wish they'd spent a bit more money on the 5 mini infinite encoders under the display, though. They feel too light and insubstantial for this type of unit.

No experience with them. My 2120 came with v2.10 firmware so no messing around. The manual seems to be for a previous version, though, with some errors (the method for assigning the Solo function to a footswitch as listed in the manual is incorrect, for example).

I bought this unit to get as close as possible to a one-box solution for preamps and fx. For the price, I think you'd struggle to find an alternative that offers so much. I would definitely replace it if required. Take the time to learn the system properly and it can do pretty much everything. I'd like to see more S-DISC routing options, a guitar input on the back of the box to make my rack look more tidy and the option of direct patch selection from the Control One (by tapping the patch number in, rather than stepping through banks to get there). Other than that, a fine (but not cheap) unit which should suit all styles.

Quick review- I will give a deeper one when I have time.

Get the midi interface- helps a lot- although with a little work programing from the box isn't to hard- just focus.

Golden- much more useful as a creative tool than the Line 6 Pod Pro-which is very overated IMHO- This is a great box if you want to create sounds and sculpt them- the Line 6 is ok as a modeler (the effects section is poor and not very tweakable) but this box allows for creataion of tone- and I find the ability to tweak effects a big part of tone- Also allows for a beautiful clean, clear sound without the digital harshness that the Line 6 creates. I use it through Mackie HR824's in the studio and Mackie 450's on the road-

i always carry a backup rig- the bus driver could back over the rack or a tech could ramp it off the stage- a decent distortion pedal and a delay cost a couple $100 and will save huge headaches.

They are sending me the upgrade eprom for free- we'll see how long it takes.

Great creative tool- I would definitely get the/a foot controller- very programable- allows for easy access to thr 6db boost.

Email me if you have any questions.

Having started from a Digitech RP-12D, I thought that the controlls of the 2120 might be easier to use .... I don't think so. Although it is sufficiently complicated using the front panal LCD, the RPEDIT program (which you can get for free) makes patch editing a breeze. I would give it a 3 without a PC interface and a 10 with the RPEDIT program.

I am going to submit 2 reviews on this. This is my introductory one. I realize that not everyone is willing to work on their equipment and tweak their sound the way I am. With this in mind, this review is for the 2120 out of the box sound.

I use a Fender Roadhouse Strat into the 2120 then into a Fender Hot Rod Delux that has been retro-fitted with a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker. The stock patches and sound are adequate, but anyone that wishes to plug in and play will be dissappointed as some of the other post here suggest.

The unit is VERY quiet as one would expect from a top of the line system like this. The clean sounds are absolutely heavenly. I tweaked my favorite clean patch and put it over the stock patch #2 just to see what the unit COULD sound like with a good patch. It is truely amazing. It is the kind of sparkel and magic that a musician could make the room go dead quiet through the intro of a song while people became captivated by the music!

The seamless patch changes are great. This was one of my key reasons for purchasing the unit (The RP-21D was really getting the job done quite well). I play as the only guitar player in a 3 person band, so it is more important for me to have smooth patch transitions as it is quite noticable when you move from clean to dirty with out this technology.

Another key feature is the "Solo" option that boosts ouput by 6db on any patch. This is great for moving smoothly from rythm to lead on the same patch and then back to rythm without having to worry about how accurately you positioned the expression pedal when you moved it.

Finally, as with my RP 21-D, the Wah SUCKS! Don't use it for anything except a static envelope filter or you will be dissapointed. This brings up my second reason for purchasing the unit. The FX loop. I have a Dunlop 535Q Wah that provides a great Wah sound for even the most picky guitarist out there; however, it does color the tone of the rig even when bypassed since it does not provide a "true" bypass. The FX loop in the 2120 lets me REALLY get the 535Q out of the chain when I am not using a patch that has it in it!

The distortions I have just started to play with, but they seem adequate. I won't mess with the settings TOO much until I replace the Sovtek tubes with EI's or JAN Phillips tubes. I understand Digitec's reasoning that the Sovtek tubes are very robust and resitive to microphonics (keeps their warrenty down), but using bottom of the line tubes in a top of the line processor seems pretty stupid to me. This is paramont to putting a lawn mower engine in a Porche. The tubes will go tonight for sure. I will re-review the sound quality when I have ported all my patches and have a decent set of tubes in the unit.

It seems rock stable so far. I already had it fall 3 feet (kid got his foot wrapped up in the cords and I don't have the rack unit to put it in yet). It seems pretty reliable, but I will withhold judgement until I have giged it for a while.

I have called them in the past and wrote them about several things on other products. They seem pretty responsive.

I play top 40 and some classic rock. This unit is great for its versatility and ability to EXACTLY match the tone and effects found in many songs today. I have been a supporter of high end multiFX units for some time due to the amount of flexibility they provide. Keep in mind that this flexibility comes at the expense of ease of use. If you are not an engineer or hardened effects enthusiast, you may have trouble using this unit. One might argue that only one of the above would shell out the cash for something like the 2120, but many people seem to have more money than brains these days.

I have been playing for around 25 years. If it were lost or stolen I would report it to my insurance and get another one.

The sound the unit can make is inspiring. I played through many of the songs we do several times just to hear myself play. It is truely amazing what CAN be done with some patch tweaking. Unfortunatly, the stock patches are medicore at best.

If you want stage ready sound out of the box, this isn't the best bang for the buck. You will have to work for the truely great tone this unit can provide. If spending time tweaking your sound isn't your thing, I would definately suggest saving your money and getting something else.

If however, you are one of those sick individuals (like myself) that enjoys making just the right sound and is willing (or even likes) to play around with and understand effects, I have yet to see the equal of this unit.