DigiTech BP-200

Though this unit has a vast array of features, all control is concentrated in one button and three knobs. This is at times frustrating. The way it works is you push the tiny button to get to a group of parameters you wish to control and then use the knobs to tweak them around. The button obviously only works one way.

The usual procedure is as follows: you push the button 5 times to get to the amp selection. You select an amp. Then, you push the button another 6 times to get to the effect selection. You select an effect. Then, realizing that you also wanted compression, which is just after the amp type, you press the button another 7 times to get to the compressor settings. You adjust the compressor... To sum it up, besides moving the knobs, you've pressed the button 18 times total in order to select three properties of your sound. Enough said.

Sure, it has presets, but the process of creating custom ones will take some sweat. Especially considering that most of the factory presets are a little bit too extreme with respect to effect amounts.

Also, I'd like to point out one interesting factory preset design choice: None of the factory presets have cab emulation enabled in them. This means that if you are running a new unit into PA and are using factory presets, you will have to bend down use the evil little button and a knob to select a cab type every time you switch a preset.

I plugged my trusty old Ibanez Soundgear into it. I thought it sounded pretty good at first when playing by myself. The overall sound seemed very real through my stereo. The distortion was convincing, although it did sound a little bit "digital."

It wasn't until a rehearsal with my band that I found out that this thingy was much harder to get to sound good in the mix with the other instruments. We all run through a single set of speakers (POD for guitar and a digital drumset). First of all, I found a serious lack of low end in the sound. Seemed as if my bass actually had more "bass" in bypass than in most factory settings.

I did try customizing the sound at first but then got tired of the evil little button (see above) and mostly used factory presets.

It does have a wah effect on it. However, I did not find a practical use for it for the simple reason that when you have it on, no matter which position your pedal is in, there is no low end. I mean no low end at all. The bass stops sounding like a bass and starts sounding more like a very heavy-gauge guitar. Now, I admit, it is a very cool sound, but I just wonder how useful it is. It might be good for a break somewhere in the song where just drums and bass play. That is, if you don't mind switching the presets as you go (you need actual bass "with bass" for the rest of the song). I have never tried an actual bass wah pedal, so I might be criticizing it too much, but am just describing the facts.

I ended up returning it and getting a SansAmp Bass Drive DI instead.

Doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart, but it's definitely not a tank either.

Althrough my whole review was generally negative, I don't want to discourage all people from buying it. It's not all that bad for the price, considering it's array of effects. One can get used to the evil button and manage to collect a nice array of useful custom presets. Still, it would be a much better unit if it had easier control options. Separate knobs for EQ, accessible at any time, for example, is a given on most units. Not on this one.

I think this is a pretty good processor for a bass. It's easy to use (with the exception that the bypass can be a pain), and making new patches for it is rather easy.

For some reason when I use patches that aren't mine, they seem to blast through my crappy little 20 watt Rogue amp, which I don't like too much. Most of the effects come through clearly though.

This is a processor that's very dependable, with exception of the bypass. I'd use it at a gig, and without a backup.

Since I play a lot of rock on my bass, and some punk too, this is a pretty useful item to have. The distortions I can work out, along with the phasers and such, are useful. And, if it were stolen, i'd probably get the same thing because there's really nothing better. And the only think I can say I hate about this processor is the bypass, because it seems like I can't use it while i'm wearing shoes. I really wish it had a better bypass on it.

Some of the parameters are fairly intuitive (simple), but the fretless, effects, and delay parameters might require that you spend a lot of time experimenting with them in order to dial in your desired sound (if you know what you want).

The BP-200 is my first foray into real effects (except for a wah pedal I experimented with in the late 70's), and I am impressed with several of the factory presets. The ones I use most frequently are PHAT and STNDUP, with only a bit of tweaking in the equalizer. The bass signal goes first to the BP-200, then through a Rapco direct box, then to a Peavey TNT130. So far, no complaints from the sound technician, and some live recordings we've made sounded fine, although the bass was a bit weak in the live mix. The BP-200 sounds fine as a practice unit even through ordinary headphones. Some of the factory presets are so bizarre though that I can't imagine anyone using them for any serious purpose (other than electronica, perhaps).

I've had the BP-200 for over two months and it has proven reliable so far, but a longer AC adapter cord would be in order, especially in venues where AC sources are in short supply. I imagine the metal housing to be sturdy enough for normal use, as long as the unit itself isn't manhandled.

I haven't dealt with the company directly, but their website offers some fine user-submitted patches (see "Patch Library").

I wanted something that I could consider "outboard active electronics", encompassing active EQ, some amp and cabinet modeling, and chorus and other effects of that type. The BP-200 has all that and more. While it isn't for the proud purist, it is a great unit, in my opinion, for anyone who wants to expand his or her bass tonal horizons. It should make almost any small to mid-sized rig sound "alive".

It's fairly intuitive. No inexpensive compact/all-in-one unit is going to be as easy to use as a rackmount processor or an amp, but it's not as obtuse as some multi-effects pedals that I've tried, either.

I use a Modulus Q5 and an MIM Fender Jazz with everything upgraded. The BP-200 is not noisy at all - I was pleased with that, the floor model that I tried out was quite noisy.

As for the effects, I like them. Some are a little thin, but I didn't expect Lexicon quality for the price. I especially like the phaser and the amp models. The detune, delay and such, I don't touch.

The compression is quite usable, and so is the chorus with a little tweaking. My holy grail of chorus is the digital chorus on my tascam 788 multitrack, and the Digitech chorus doesn't even come close to that, but it's definitely audible.

I haven't had it long enough to say. It's not plastic, was made in the USA. It seems to be made better than the Zoom stuff, but that's not saying much.

dunno. I've heard they're pretty good to deal with.

I play a hodgepodge of most styles of music, and I'm not into effects for their own sake. As such, I think this will be all the effects I'll need to play small to medium gigs. Nobody besides other bass players pays much attention to how the bassist sounds anyway, as long as it's loud :)

This is a very easy pedal to use. The people who have written reviews for this talking about how bad the sound is obviously didnt bother to read the instruction manual and tweak the effects.

Editing patches is very easy so far, but the amount of editing i can do is a little overwhelming at this point (Ive had it for about 3 days).

The manual is very simple and informative..... even though I hardly needed it to start using it as soon as i took it out of the box.

I'm using a Peavey Cirrus bass with a small fender practice amp, a somewhat larger SWR LA-12 practice amp, and my main amp is an SWR Goliath 3 4x10 cabinet with a Hartke 3500 head. On the small SWR and Fender, the pedal sounds great... I havent used it on my main rig yet, but im sure it'll sound great with a little adjustment. I played in a rehersal studio yesterday through an Ampeg B-2 and a Peavey TNT (I think). I was able to get great sounds through these... the switching was totally quiet, and there was no noise if i wasnt playing and my distortian effect was running.

A couple of the effects are weak, sorry to say. The wah sounds are very weak, but I have a Dunlop Bass Wah to make up for that. Also the chorus sounds, to me, are a bit weak. But then again, I like my chorus to sound very very deep. Everybody else I've shown it to has thought its sounded fantastic. I can dial up some really nice distorian sounds too.

It seems very sturdy, made of metal... and I know alot of other pedals in this price range arent. The pedal is also made of metal, and it seems like it'll last me for a long time. The foot pedals are made of plastic, but they are very sturdy and I dont see why they would crap out on me anytime soon.

Ive never dealt with them.

What a pedal. Its very convenient to have a pedal like this because I play a very different form of rock/metal (think Tool), and the pedal has certain effects that just make some parts of the music sound so perfect. The price was right too. I definatly recommend this product to anyone looking to buy a budget priced HIGH QUALITY multi-effects pedal.

Out of the box, it comes preprogrammed with 80 preset positions. The same 40 factory settings are repeated twice. You can rearrange the preset order or store your own patches in any of the first 40 positions. I set up standard patches for my Fender JB Fretless and Ibanez Ergodyne in the first two positions. Then, depending on the set list, I sequentially set up any efx patches I want to use followed by a "standard" patch. This way I minimize the tap dancing.

Unlike some other multi-effects, there is no dead sound when switching between adjacent patches. If you hold down your foot on the switch you will rapidly scan through the whole library. The display is big and long (6 characters) enough to store some meaningful text. "FENDER" and "IBANEZ" both fit in the space so I don't have to think about it on stage.

There are 9 modules all of which are user-programmable for three parameters. The parameters differ depending on which module you're working with. For example, "Fretless Type", "Attack" and "Gain" can modify the "Fretless" module. This is an important feature (see "Sound Quality" below) because out of the box, the presets didn't sound terribly impressive to me. I wish there were a MIDI jack to back them up directly rather than text versions on a paper chart. If the internal memory gets zapped, or you have to do a reset on the unit, they're history and you've got a lot of reprogramming ahead of you.

The unit's controls are intuitive enough that you can start tweaking it after ripping open the box and before reading the manual. As others have mentioned, when you do read it, the manual is clearly written (for a change) and the fact that it is a US-based company means that there's no weirdly stilted translations.

A rather awkward simultaneous press of both footswitches accesses the bypass and tuner functions. It takes some getting used to and in live performance can result in inadvertently stepping up or down to an unwanted patch. I only do it to access the tuner between sets, or to mute the DI connection to the PA when changing basses, so it isn't really a problem for me.

My basement rig is (all SWR Workingman's) a 160w solid state head going into 2x12" and 15" cabinets. I use a Fender Jazz Bass Fretless w/ EMG-SEJ's (passive) and an Ibanez Ergodyne EDB500 (active). This set-up with the BP-200 also sounded huge through a Hartke Kickback 15 DI'd into the PA with the band.

With a little tweaking and coloration (chorus/detuning/amp/cab sims) you can make your set-up sound like it's coming from much more expensive gear. The EMGs on the Fender seem like they project a more powerful signal with less (but still some) of the artifact 60-cycle demon than the standard FJB p/u's, so extraneous noise wasn't a problem. The Ibanez with its active circuitry, gave some transient hum when letting go of the strings, but was quickly suppressed by the unit's noise gate.

Some of the factory settings, especially the modulators, do add quite a bit of hum and sizzle and need to be tamed to be useful in a live performance situation. The fretless sim also has an annoying clicking sound (presumably from the swell delay) and has to be tweaked to remove it. I wasn't too pleased with any of the factory presets and quickly programmed in my own versions.

Programming is fairly intuitive and the knob interface is much better than an up/down button. The ranges of the parameters are pretty broad, so you can dial in the sweet spot of whatever sound you're trying to create. There's plenty of headroom in the parameters and altering one will have an effect on another.

I was much more impressed with the sound of the unit after taking it home and playing with around it for a few days than I was when I demo'd it in the store. Unless you're trying out a simple stompbox, I think this is true of any of the multi-effect units.

I can't really say how accurate the amp sims are, since I don't have the gear to compare them to. I do have a Line 6 guitar amp that is supposed to emulate my vintage '65 Super Reverb, but doesn't hold up very well in an a/b test. I suppose it is the same with the BP-200. I look at the amp and cabinet sims as useful tools to find "the sound" you're trying to create. I just wouldn't get too hung up on trying to recreate the exact sound of a Trace Elliot Commando.

Bottom line is that using the unit increases my creative bass playing and doesn't make the sound from my set-up sound worse than when I'm not using it. Most of my patches are subtle variations of the "natural" sound of my rig and I took the time to balance the output for each of them appropriate to the desired effect. I also have many over-the-top processed sounding ones programmed in for that "stompbox sound".

I like the solid all-metal construction, which is unique for this echelon of multi-effects. The footswitches are solid-feeling plastic. I've been using it for a couple of months now. It's been kicked, sat on, and bumped and jostled around on the stage and carried around from place to place.

It has a tension reliever for the wall wart cord. The Achilles' heel is the point of contact for the input/output jacks. This is where everyone seems to want to sit on it, or step on it, whatever. It has held up well so far though, nothing loose and no crackly sounds from the cables.

The store demo unit looked like it was worse for the wear though. The plastic footswitches had trouble controlling the scroll through the patches. I hope this doesn't become a problem down the road for a "used not abused" unit.

Excellent resources on the Digitech web site for .pdf downloads and the obligatory patch exchange library (still tiny).

Features: 10
Amp modeling for 11 classic bass amps and 5 bass stompboxes (from their Johnson division?); chromatic tuner; rhythm trainer; expression pedal which can be assigned any 1 of 12 parameters; 9 module effects-chain (Fretless Simulator, Wah, Compressor, 3-band EQ, Noise Gate, Cabinet Modeling (6 types), Chorus, Flange, Phaser, Envelope Filter, Vibrato, Octavider, SynthTalk?, Detune, Pitch Shift, Whammy?, Delay, and Reverb.); AC power (wall wart included); all-aluminum construction (plastic footswitches and control knobs); external stereo audio source input jack; stereo headphone jack; stereo output jack; bypass mode (not a true electronic bypass); and, 40 user-programmable patches / 40 factory presets.

The expression pedal is programmable for Wah, Amp Gain, Amp Level, Amount, Effect Level, Whammy, Modulator Feedback, Delay Level, Decay, Reverb Level, and whether the Volume Pedal is pre or post effects. There is a calibration procedure to make sure that you get the maximum sweep.

The tuner is excellent and has minimal wandering when trying to find the low notes, as compared to other stand-alone tuners or multi-effects. The note is displayed in the big green LCD display and the 9 module LED's are used to zero in on exact tuning. The middle one is green to easily indicate when you're precisely tuned. I didn't care for the clockwise-counterclockwise swirling cursor display on other units like the ZOOM BFX-708 and 607.

The rhythm trainer has 31 PCM patterns and I agree with others' opinions here that about all you can say is "it's more fun than a metronome". You can alter the bpm for any pattern. Mercifully, it also has a separate volume control (unlike the similar ZOOM BPX-708), so you can hear your bass riffs without overmodulating the effects gain.

Battery power might have been nice, but I appreciate the fact that after shelling out over a $100, I didn't have to buy any thing extra like a power transformer. As someone else mentioned, this unit runs on AC not DC power, so the standard Radio Shack model won't work.

A midi jack would have also been nice for patch downloads and unit back up.

Comparison to Other Models: 9
I auditioned the ZOOMs (506 MkII, 607, BFX-708), Line 6 Bass POD, Korg AX1B and Pandora PX3B, Digitech BP-8 and some others in the store. Of these some are way more expensive >$300 and others are cheap <$70. I wanted something that was inexpensive, had a decent readable display and an expression pedal for on-the-fly hands-free adjustment of the sound. I tried not to let my in-store experience be the primary influence in my decision.

I settled on the BP-200 and the ZOOM BFX-708 for price/performance considerations. I first took the ZOOM BFX-708 and played around with it at home for a couple of weeks and just wasn't satisfied. It wasn't as versatile in dialing in the sweet spot, although its controls are very similar to the BP-200. The all-plastic construction worried me and I just didn't think it was a huge improvement over the 607 in terms of sound quality. There were some patches that I just had to give up on because no amount of tweaking produced a satisfactory sound.

When you power up the BP-200 it displays "VER 1.0". I hope this means that the processor is firmware upgradeable. It would be great if you could swap out a ROM chip and have a whole new set of amp/stompbox combos (like on my Line 6). There's nothing about this on the website or in the manual, it's just a dream?..

This product is VERY easy to use. I was able to use it to a limited degree right out of the box. I've had it two days now and I'm already programming my own patches. The instruction book is well written, and though it is pretty short, it is quite informative.

I am using an Ibanez bass with an SWR SM-400 amp connected to a Mesa-Boogie 1x15 cab and an ampeg 8x10 cab. There are only two or three presets that I am happy with. Most of them sound too processed to my ear. Fortunately it is very easy to customize these, or build new ones from scratch, which is what I did and i was much happier with what I came up with. Nevertheless, this unit does appear to have a tendency to sound over processed and specifically the "Octavider" effect seems to be a bit buggy. The drum machine sounds fine, but truth be told it is very weak. If you are buying this unit because it has drums on it you are buying it for the wrong reason. It's nice to use to play along with but for all intents and purposes it's just a glorified metronome.

I've only had it two days, but it seems very solid. It has metal construction which is great compared to the plastic that comparable units are made of. The only negative is the headphone jack on my unit. Sometimes I've got to wiggle it a bit for the sound to come through in stereo.

Never used it.

I mainly play heavy rock music, though my band does change things up from time to time. I've been playing about three years. If it were lost or stolen I would want to get another one. The thing I like most about it is that it is very easy to access a huge variety of sounds and effects, but the thing I like least is rtrying to press both pedals at the same time to use the bypass. I can do it successfully on my first try probably 2 or 3 times out of 10. Not a good ratio. I compared this to the Zoom BFX-708, which was $10 less. The thing that sold me on the Digitech was the metal body. The only thing I wish it had was a greater abilty to change patches on the fly. Since I've been using it, I've been more creative with my bass playing, using my bass to control sounds that I've never had the ability to control in the past. I'm very happy with my purchase, and I think it is perfect for someone like myself that wants some sound processing capability at a budget price. Just realise what this unit is. It's a low price Bass Processor. I would not consider it a "professional" piece of equipment, but at this time, I'm not a professional. If I had to gig a lot I would probably end up buying something more expensive with a better capability of changing settings on the fly and higher quality patches.

I had a near impossible time getting any decent sound out of this. It is basically easy, but for anything really good... can't be done.

I'm using an Ibenez 406 through just about any effect you can use. I thought it might be good to get the multi-effects for some simplicity, but I was wrong. The sounds are nasty. I couldn't make it sound good at all. The synth sounds couldn't track. The overdrives sounded fake and troubled, the amp modeling was bad, the chorus was worse. I returned it so fast

I wouldn't even bring this to a gig. I have no idea about it's reliability though

piece of junk toy. Save your money/ stay away. Might be decent if you are just learning and want some new sounds, but for anyone playing for any time, stay away.

This pedel is well easy to use. It not like one of those pedals with loadsa buttons and knobs everywhere. Each effect is simple to use

Im using this with a yamaha bass on normal settings. It sounds great when im on my practice amp by myself and i sounds good when im with the band on my bassman 100. It will give you all the sounds you need.

Never faulted with me. I dont thing you would need a back up in a gig, coz the whole thing is good quality aluminium. If you had a back up for a gig you would have to have a vigarous foot.

It good so I havnt had to contact customer support

A great buy. If you want a bass pedal that is gonna last you get this. It was worth every penny. Fantastic!

The unit is very easy to edit, and the manual explains each effect very clearly. Editing is fairly simple using the nobs, and the LEDs and display as feedback. It is easy to use , except the bypass is a pain in the ass. You have to hit both buttons at once, with your foot to engage it. If you don't, it's on to the next patch (up or down). Then you're fumbling around trying to get back to the original patch and then try to engage the bypass again.

The sound quality is fine for practicing alone at low volumes. At high volumes with the rest of the band, it sounds like shit. The sound is muddy, and indistinctive. If you ever get the bypass to engage, it adds so much noise that you just want to disconnect the whole unit.

Don't know; I only owned mine for 2 weeks.

Never dealt with them.

My overall rating for this unit is about a 3. I liked it in the store, and when playing alone. I couldn't handle the noise added by the bypass, and the sound quality was just too much for using it live.