DigiTech Black 13 Scott Ian Artist Series

I was bored today and decided to go to the local Guitar center a few miles from me here in Fort Worth, Texas and was just looking at some used gear and to pay on a layaway when I saw this pedal for $35 brand new marked down and could not resist getting it.I hooked this BLACK-13 up to my small piece of crap combo amp and it sounds like a hot rodded half stack now!! I just looked at instructions for about 30 seconds and I was blown away!!anybody should be able to get the sound they are looking for if they know who Scott Ian is and who Anthrax is !!30 seconds of manual or less is all it takes!

I will be hooking this pedal to a Vox ad-50 which rocks anyway with my rodded Ibanez.When i plugged it up it is very noisy but am getting a boss ns-2 to take care of that.I like all the sounds out of this beast!!2,3,4,5 are my favorites but they all work for me. it gets an 8 for the noise but that will change to a ten in a few days!!

Heavy duty!!!i have only had it half a day but I am sure it can take any abuse!! would not leave home without it, no backup would be needed

I have had prior tech questions and request to Digitech and always got the best service

I play amix of music but I like hard rock and thrash/metal and it will definetely fit in.I have been playing off and on since 1985 and have had alot of different gear but this is a keeper.it is so easy to use and get great sounds out of it but the noise, which is getting taken care of.no other comparisons, I mainly just plug and play but I building a rack of goodies.

Pretty easy to use--there are seven of Scott Ian's sounds as presets and then you can modify each using the other two knobs. Nice manual too.

I tried this with my SG, and an Ibanez that had humbuckers and single coils. This is definitely a metal pedal folks. It does get pretty authentic Anthrax sounds---although after awhile about four out of the seven begin to sound very similar. If you dig Pantera and old Sabbath those tones can be easily obtained. My only problem is that at times you get a bit of background digital hash like the pedal has a noise gate as the sound decays. I found that to be a bigger issue with single coils as I also got a hum that the gain tended to pick up and amplify.
For me, I still like my Boss Metal Zone MT-2 where you can get a variety of high gain sounds without the background noise.

Very heavy, seems like its built like a tank.

Not bad, just a bit of a one trick pony. There's lots of competition out there.

It is about as hard as a lightswitch to operate.

Well, here is the thing. I was bored with my MT-2 and wanted something new. I like Anthrax and thought I'd give it a try. Well it is a mixed bag for me. This pedal is great for recording or just jamming on my computer since it has the 7 settings. Number 4 is my favorite by far, though number 7 is absolutley 100% dead on to the record. The sounds are great on my PC, however hooked to my amp this pedal really falls flat. It just sounds too artificial with my rig. I use a Marshall VR100 with a Marshall 1960 Lead 4 x 12. I get a nice biting sound and when I hooked this up in place of my MT-2 all I got was feedback. Tried messing with the amps gain and the pedal level but it still sounded shitty no matter what, really noisy.
I found I really can only use this on the clean channel, and I don't like that sound, it is just fake and really lame at high volume. So I think if you leave your amp on clean and low volume it will sound okay for practice. That is pretty much all I use this for now and it does it's job well. I recommend this for intermediate players as a good way to just plug and play on a cheap little practice amp or a PC, I think a PC is the best option and in my opinion it sounds best on one. 2 for Amp use. 9 for PC, little shitty practice amps.

Built solid

never dealt with them

Good for practice on small amps on clean channel. If you are looking to beef up your hard sound on your 100w amps overdrive channel, forget it probably the worst thing you can buy. Good for PC use for recording or jamming, actually really good cause you have different settings you can use without actually having to twiddle.

This is a very easy pedal to get used to, the Anthrax sounds are dialled in by selecting 1 through 7. No real need for a manual, but it is very good and detailed.

Level - controls the volume output.
Control 1 - is for the low frequency boost/cut in models 1 to 6 and controls the pitch shifting in model 7.
Control 2 - is for the high frequency bost/cut in models 1 to 6 and controls the delay length in model 7.
Last but not least, the model selector - my fave

I am using the Black 13 through a modified Epiphone Valve Junior Head powering a Marshall 1912 speaker cab with the noise being supplied by my Epiphone Ace Frehley Les Paul, with three Super Distortion Dimarzio's. The sounds are nice, gives a great range of distortion settings in one box at the twist of a knob.

It has a clean bypass and does not appear to suck any tone from my set-up.

This gives me classic Anthrax sounds

It would seem very solid, no problems as yet.

I do not gig, so would not need a backup

I talked to them about the first pedal to be released in the artist series (Dan's The Weapon) and I must say they were very responsive, provided a lot of advice and help.

I like Metal, and have found that I can get some really good sounds from this.

I think I would get another, however it would have been nice to be able to change the models by foot.

Pretty simple. I like the fact it only has a model, level, and two equalizer controls and nothing more. This makes it easy to find a preset distortion, adjust the bass and treble to your amp and you're ready to go. Most of the high gain scooped tones will work with one setting on the eq, but the more mid-based models need tweaking. The manual explains what stuff does, simple and to the point.

Well, it's obviously got the tones of Scott Ian. I can get some other tones from this pedal with tweaking, and can even get other artists tones, like some Immortal, Metallica, Megadeth, and modern metal tones. The distortion effects are great, but the seventh model is kinda eh. I use this pedal with a super overdrive and Ibanez SZ320/Hamer Vector infront of it, and a Peavey Rockmaster and Laney 2x12 behind it. I'm sure with the level and eq settings high, it will feedback. Also, rolling your pickups volume back from 10 to say 8 or 9 will yield great results. I give it an 8 because some models are fussy (the lower gain, more mid, less compressed models) or unusable (model 7). I might experiment with having some amp overdrive in addition to the non-compressed mid-based models.

Yes I could depend on it, digitech is pretty reliable. I would use it sans a backup since I run this on it's adapter, and wouldn't foresee any mess ups.

I play thrash, black and death metal and this gets me a nice tone for all three. I have been playing 5 years, and if it were lost or stolen, I'd probably buy it again, even despite having nicer sounding distortions (this pedal's ease of use and great preset tones are it's selling point). I love that it has such a lack of controls, lending towards a "set and forget" mindset with the pedal. However, I also somewhat hate this, as being able to adjust the amount of mids or distortion would've been nice, but I can get my other pedals to do that if I wish.

Just plain easy.. This pedal is more like a Ghostbusters trap, it captured Scott Ian in a box. Plug in, dial up, & play. Can't adjust the gain, but it needs nothing anyway. There is not a lot of futzing around & dialing on this pedal, pretty straight forward.. Which is nice.. because dialing sounds gets old pretty fast, for me at least, & especially with metal.

Rhett said it best (Do read his comment below, he is spot on). I use it direct to my Mixer-Soundcard-PC, & out to some Fostex powered monitors. Plug in & play. Sounds like a mic'd cab! I play a Godin with tetrad humbuckers (pretty safe to say.. stay away from this pedal with single coils). This pedal is the answer to my prayers for direct PC recording. #5 is my favorite.. captures that 1980's jcm800 sound nicely. I have a Orange Rocker 30 amp but being a valve amp.. this pedal is not a good match for it, but I knew this all along & no big deal. I am a home musician & have no need to play through this pedal any other way besides DI-mixer-etc. I am sure it would do most amps justice. My 30 is more for single coil honk anyway. What can I say? I like honk & metal..

I'd say so.. but then again it is on my desk at all times. Weighs about as much as Scott Ian. Built solid! The chrome is a bit goofy though.. but could be worse.

N/A

I'd buy another one, & another one if they were solen & stolen again. Great pedal! I hope DigiTech does more of these deals.

Easy do dial a sound, just plug your guitar (humbucker equipped, please!), choose one of the 7 presets available and play.
The manual is quite simple but effective.

I have to say here that the sound produced by this pedal is ....BRUTAL!!! Some presets could sound better than others, but it's a matter of personal taste and application. But this pedal isn't for overall use, it was made for brutal crunch types of rhythm guitar. One part of the Ian's chain contains a noise gate to minimize the noise coming from extreme distortion settings on the amps modeled and when you back off your guitar volume to reduce your sustain (you don??t have access to sustain level in this pedal), you could reach the internal noise gate threshold and then ....bye bye, your sound starts to cracking and disappear. It means that you don't have dynamics in Black 13, just that (wonderful) type of brutal distortion. Period.
If you're looking for this type of sound, the rating is 10, but if you intend to do some leads with feel and dynamics, forget this pedal and buy something like TONEBONE PLEXI or SANSAMP GT2.
Due this noise gate limitations, I personally have to give an overall 7.

No, I can't depend on it. It's just an option in my palette of sounds.
It was built like a tank (and weighs like a tank!!!) and certainly resistent to road abuse, but I didn't like the presets switch quality. And I have I suggestion to DIGITECH TEAM: to put 2 center detent parameter pots to achieve Ian's sets more easily.

I am a session musician, composer and producer. I've been playing for the last 35 years and I have an arsenal of top acoustic and electric guitars and basses(Gibsons, Fenders, Rickenbackers, PRS, Martins, Godins etc), amps(Marshalls, Fenders, Vox, Demeter, Rivera etc) and effects (almost impossible to remember all brands...).

This thing is really easy to use. Just plug into a clean channel on an amp and it works great.

I really like how this thing sounds. I am running it on the clean channel of my Peavey Classic 50 (4-10s) and a 4-12 cab loaded with Celestions. I am using an ESP with EMG 60/81. I use mainly setting 1-3 at low volumes in the bedroom. Live, it didn't cut through as well with my set up. Setting 4 works the best with me live. It cuts through better and sounds mean. I am playing metal.
This thing sounds great for recording. I just run right into ProTools. It has a mixer out on it. For metal, it kicks ass over my POD. I'd rather use this than mic up a cab and annoy the whole neighborhood.

Hasn't broken on me yet and it's built like a tank

Never had to deal with them

I have been playing for over 20 years. I have played through a lot of amps and used a lot of gear. For the money, this is a great deal.

Very Simple

I love this pedal but it gets a 9 because i dont think some of the effects are dead on, the "i am the law" and "madhouse" settings sound more like the songs off of the greater of two evils type distortion, real scorching, but i was hoping it would sound like the original recordings, now, for the original recording i would go with the "march of the s.o.d" setting, its got more of an original scott ian sound, all the other settings sound dead on though, i would recommend the "room for one more" setting tho for people who play rock and the tape delay is fun!

I think this pedal will outlast me

Havent had to deal with them but i heard theyre very easy to work with!

Very, Very Great pedal!! i recommend it to anyone who plays metal and rock, most of the sounds are dead on and its well worth the price!!

Its pretty simple ,I personally keep the level at about 10 or 11 o'clock positions and control 1 and 2 at the 12 o'clock .
manual was fine .

The dude below me did an excellent job of describing the sound choices .I personally like models 4 ,5 ,6 the best , While the others are decent too ,I just for my own tastes like those a tad better.
But all of the models are usuable ,model 7 is kinda cool but its one of those you really will use once at best , whereas the other models you could keep on all gig.
You could only use this pedal on a clean channel , it will sound like mush if you use it on a gain channel. Im currently using it with a marshal DSL 100 ,
Im happy with the tone im getting from it . The way I use this pedal and actually the way Ive used other distortion pedals such as the DF-7 is to use them on the clean channel only.Most of the time I use the amps ultra gain channel which IMHO is brewtal enough for my tastes and if I really want to spice it up Ill use a Zakk overdrive to boost it.Now if I want a different type of gain or if Im doing a chordal thing on the clean channel and i want to go into a heavy riff think "children of the sea (sabbath) " , rather than switch channels , I have the option to step on the Black 13 and now im heavy as fuck .
And you have choices on the Black 13 of several types of different what I like to call gain voicings, like I said aptly described by the reviewer below me ( props dude).
Very clear sounding, not a noisy pedal . Good quality pedal.

Just got it

Im pretty happy with the Black 13 ,Im as fussey as hell when it comes to gear .
I have a boatload of gear , gibson Les Pauls ,ESPs ,Deans, Marshall DSL 100 ,TC electronics G major. To go along with
a house full of stompboxs . I guess you can say I have OCD when it comes to guitar and guitar gear lol .
But im like I said picky as a mutha , this pedal does its job well ,
I play a hard heavy old school type mercyful fate , saxon , priest , sabbath to name a few .
you will not play your local wine and cheese place with this pedal ,its strictly for in your face asskicking hard and heavy music.
All in all a good pedal so far im satisfied.