DigiTech Crossroads Eric Clapton Artist Series

Very easy.
The manual is just simple and plain, nothing more.

I got this one just yesterday. When I tried this one with Line 6 Spider III 75 in the local music store, I did not impressed.
I bought it because...
1) I am a huge EC fan.
2) and unfortunately, this is a discontinued model. You can not buy this as a new one.
Today, I plugged it with my Hiwatt Hi-Gain 50 head... I was shocked.
It sounds really, really good with my EJ strat, Legacy which all have single coil PUs.
It has the "click noise". With single coil PU, it is noisy.
The 'Layla unplugged' model is noisy...
But model number 1,2,4 are so cool.
I have a bunch of great pedals in my arsenal.
Fulltone OCD, G2D Morpheus, TC Electronic VPD-1, ZVEX BOM, etc...
But this EC Crossroads pedal really works great with a single coil PUs.
If you have a nice tube amp and a huge fan of EC, try this one.
And if you don't, you will be disappointed like other users.
In a nutshell, the great sounds' made by your hands, a great guitar, and great amp...
Other stuffs are kinda complements.

It seems pretty tough.
And the battery compartment is very nice.
I think it is way better and easier than the Boss type.

I play this for playing blues, blues rock, or something like EC kind music.
But this one has enough gain for other kind of music.
So this is a very versatile pedal.
And it comes with a nice package. (AC adaptor, flat pick, pouch.)
So I give 10!

I do not find this pedal very user friendly at all. It is next to impossible to feel the "click" when you are turning the knob to another function or "model". Also, three of the titles of the knobs are completely useless, Control 1, Control2, Model.

The manual is rather confusing. All in all, not a user friendly pedal.

I really can't find a good sound ANYWHERE on this pedal. I bought it mostly for the "Leslie" speaker sound on Badge. This pedal gets closer than most other pedals to that sound, but there is always way too much distortion integrated into the sound.

The acoustic simulator is average at best. When you pick the low E & A strings, the signal just booms and distorts horribly. You can really only play the bottom 4 high strings on a electric guitar without getting horrible distortion on it. And the sound is VERY artificial, at least to me.

The other overdrive and distortion effect settings are useless. You can get WAY better quality overdrive and distortion out of just about any other multi effects pedal out there. I know I've heard better overdrive and distorion on Zoom multi effects pedals. Oddly, there are better sounding overdrives and distortions on even the cheaper DigiTech multi effects pedals. Why they couldn't put better ones in this pedal is beyond me. DigiTech sacrificed quality trying to sound like signature Clapton tones.

It's a metal box and metal jacks. The knobs are kind of flimsy and will probably wear out and break under any regular daily use.

I would advise against gigging this pedal with backup. You may well regret that.

NA

This pedal is definitely a non-essential pedal. You can EASILY do without it. The best sound it produces, and it doesn't even do that all that well, is the Leslie sound from Badge. How often do you really need this effect, anyway? I can think of 4 rock songs that require this sound: Badge-Cream; It Don't Come Easy-Ringo Starr; No Mater What -Badfinger; and a small passage in Time For Me To Fly by REO.

This pedal attempts to be a multi effects pedal, and offers allegedly custom artist (Clapton) sounds. Clapton doesn't use this pedal himself, and he'd never sound like Clapton if he did. He uses the REAL THING, that this pedal only attempts to emulate.

I STRONGLY recommend you try this at a music store before you buy it. I bought mine used from a music store via Amazon for $50.00, and would have passed on it if I'd had the chance to demo it in person. It really doesn't sound good enough to waste $100.00. Save you money and buy some other pedal that offers something you can use.

This is really great stuff. It is very easy to get a good sound out of this pedal; only four switches, so how difficult can it be? The manual is very clear and it's fun to read even if you're not a Clapton fan.

I have an Epiphone Lucille and a Hamer Strat. I use an Epiphone Junior Valve at home, and then I switch between the different sounds, and, honoustly, they always sound great. One thing though, don't use the reverb on your amp because if reverb is required it's already there. I love the "Reptile" (that's so inspiring)and the "electric Layla" sounds (steamy sweaty blues-rock solo sound). When I practice with my band I use an 80 watt Marshall Valvestate. Setting number 4 (Electric Layla) has become my standard solo sound, with the distortion on 2 o'clock and the tone at 10 o'clock it's absolutely perfect. Number 3 comes in handy when we play Tom Petty's "Down South"; then the rotary switch is set at 3 o'clock. Brilliant.For rhythm guitar I use a Boss FDR1 and the clean sound of my amps.

Hey, it's Digitech. Never failed me.

It works splendidly, so.......

I play in a cover band and have been playing for 25 odd years.We are no EC-cover band we mainly play americana. Although we only have one EC-song on our setlist, I use this pedal in practically 90% of the songs and "4" is my main solo-sound. The "Layla accoustic" setting (if you want an accoustic guitar sound buy an accoustic guitar) and the "sunshine" feature are the two sounds I hardly use. I own a digitech multi effect processor which is practically redundant since I bought this crossroads pedal. It's so easy to use and so versatile.

Very easy to use. Has seven selectable models and two two tone controls with level\volume. To me best place to start is with all knobs pointing straight up so that made it easy to get the sound i like to use and the other options are nice too.

I use a telecaster and a strat. and play though a tube amp. Just basically use it quite often and is my favorite distortion pedal for nice warm tone. I have tried and own a few other pedals that would be considered similar and this is first one i go to.

Had it for a few years and no problems.

I hate to give all 10s but really there is nothing not to like about it. Having logical expectations, it is a Clapton type tone pedal so goes without saying what type of sounds to expect.

Very easy to use and great sound

Sound quality excellent, no noise, easy to tweak the sound
The "Layla" model (not the unplugged version) is one of the best sounding overdrive/distortion sounds I've ever used.
I use it with a ElectroPlex Rocket 50/Acoustic 124 combination, great sound.

Great construction, typical Digi stomp box design/construction, built like a tank.

I've dealt with DigiTech in the past they are a great company

Play rock, jazz, blues, country, bluegrass. Played for 38 years, have tons of gear. I bought this pedal off eBay because it was recently discontinued. If it were lost or stolen I'd search far and wide to find another one. Great pedal/modeling design.

Four knobs - level, two that are specific to the model selected and the model selector itself. Plug in, set eveything to 12 o'clock and then tweak the controls until happy. It's a standard stompbox, treat it like a distortion effect and you'll be fine.

I generally play this with a Maton MS500 equipped with Seymour Duncan P90's into a Kustom KGA-65 acoustic amp. The Maton's strung with 0.11's and is a bluesy sounding guitar anyway, and the KGA's got a great clean channel that takes amp models and warms them up so I think this contributes to my results. I think a lot of people get bad results with digital modellers because they are trying to run them in front of an amp that already has a distinctive tone, the acoustic amp is about as flat toned as possible, all it does is take the model and the cab emulation and warms it up a bit. If you're finding that you dont like the results you're getting, stick a pair of headphones into the mixer output and listen to it there, you might find you hear a very different sound.
I'm not Clapton sadly, and I don't have truckloads of expensive gear being played at stadium volume. That said, I can get a pretty convincing clone of his sound with this pedal for a lot less cash. There's no model I hate, the first and the last are a little better than the rest but all are really usable. It's not analog, so you might want to put a Boss Blues Driver or one of the Danelectro CTO's in front of it to make it a little more reactive to your playing.
The secondary standout for me is the acoustic modeller. I'm not generally a fan of them but this really does sound good. It breaks up a little if you strum too hard but for light strumming and single note work it's really authentic. It's got a tight, compressed sound that makes you start playing like you have an acoustic in your hands. I've got a Boss AC-2 and a Behringer Acoustic Modeller to compare it too, as well as a decent electro-acoustic and I really am pleased with this model.
Overall, it's a solid addition to your pedalboard if you like Clapton or just bluesy guitar tones.

I've owned and used Digitech Pedals for around 5 years now, and the oldest one I have is still going strong. Unless something goes power wise I'd trust this.

I've never had to deal with them

I play a bit of blues, some classic rock and heavy metal as well as some softer stuff. This one's found a place on my pedalboard.

pretty easy to use. the manual is helpful, but you can get a feel for what the controls do.

i use a fender deluxe reverb ri with some mods done to it, with an esp viper with emg's. unfortunately, i think this pedal has gotten a bad rap on some of these reviews. i feel some people noodled around with this in the store, never owned it, and proceeded to write a review. i've had this for just about 2 years, has never failed on me.

for me, the sounds are great. mostly, i use one of the 3 "distortion" settings for a preamp. i like the badge setting as well. the acoustic faker is as good as one of the old boss pedals i've had in the past.

no problems so far, i've had this nearly 2 years.

never dealt with them. i was skeptical over that dod and digitech were the same company, and i don't like the dod/digitech multi effects units. however, i've been playing a number of years and i'll say that digital effects have come a long way.

i'd have to give this a 9-10 rating. the effects allowed me to replace a bunch of pedals i have.

i have about 10 pedals, this is one of my favorites.
i also have a hendrix octave, a vintage crybaby, mxr super chorus, vintage mxr distortion plus, ibanez sd9.

First let me say I love Eric Clapton and have a lot of effect pedal experience with all types, and really enjoy most Digitech offerings. This is one of the easier pedals to operate, but my issue is with the sound quaility and choice of effects given on this unit to represent the original guitar god.

Not impressed all around. Using my 20th edition H&K tube amp, and Palomino Class A amps, with American Strats and Les Paul.
The acoustic setting does sound decent in a stereo configiration, but you can get a better sound by using your eq pedal and lifting the highs and lowering the mids and lows using a single coil middle or neck position only.
The clean sound Lay Down Sally tone is a bit worthless. Dont we all have the ability to change and amp to sound clean, I would have like to replace this with a wah sound, something that clapton actually used.
The Rotary sound is a bit unatural sounding, compared to my Boss Rotary twin pedal or even my Digitech Expression factory. Your better off using a light tremelo with vibe to get a better sounding effect.
The only bright spots are the Layla distortion sound and Sunshine tone rolled back distortion sound, but can't we do this on any guitar with a decent amp distortion and tone knob? Overall sounds like a first try on sound quality, no where near the Digitech Expression Factory sound quality.

It is built very strong and looks reliable, I have no issues here.

It is a shame that they could not come up with something like the Digitech Expression Factory for a Eric Clapton tribute. They could have minused the octave, flanger and space station, and replace it with Chorus (used on many of his tracks), maybe Layla lead tone and a clean strat type sound that added a single coil tone to a humbucker and or a mid boost for his present day single coil lead tone.
I wanted to like this pedal because I think Digitech in many ways is on there way to having better sounding products than Boss. This pedal misses the mark, my only thought is that maybe this is because this is one of there first one like it.

simple enough to use; select model, adjust gain & tone, play.

This is where it gets subjective: I only like one model in the thing but that one model made an old solid state amp sound great - crunch, bark, sustaing, sweet singing tones...I'm not saying which model I like but it's in there...

pedal on/off switch stopped working consistently...had to leave it opened up and push with a stick...a major hassle. However, because I just use the thing as an always-on preamp for an old fender solid state, I learned to live with it.

I got my first electric guitar when I was 16 and I will be 50 next week. Grew up on Zep, Clapton, Hendrix. I owned a 50w Marshall for about 15 years, Fender Bassman, etc. I built my own guitars from scratch, electric and acoustic, so I know what I like. I guess the thing that interests me is not what the most awesome equipment is but how can I get a great sound without spending a fortune ( I did that on my house)I give it a 10 for the one setting I like/love and a 3 overall. Try a used one in a old fender solid state amp and you might find a decent sound for about 1/20th the cost of any other tube rig...I just built a 50w tube amp and bought a 20w Hughes and Kettner so the search for the right rig goes on...

I purchased this pedal when they first came out and I'm annoyed to see that instead of around the $160.00 I paid (with tax included), they only cost around $99.00 on musiciansfriend.com. The sounds are OK, but kind of mild and not as much fun as the DigiTech "The Weapon" pedal that I also have, which I have more fun using. Have not had to use editing patches, the manual is good. It is pretty easy to use.

The effects sound kind of weak to me and are somewhat undefined when switching between them. The pedal has never impressed me.

It has a strange problem where if I use the battery only, the power cuts on and off, and not just when the battery is dying. I tried several new batteries on it and for some reason, it acts like it shorts out or something because it turns on and off and sometimes just turns off. I have other effects pedals and other DigiTech pedals and know that when a battery is pretty much used up, the pedal will shut on and off, but on my Clapton pedal, it would turn off and on intermittently even with new batteries in it. I would not trust it to gig on, but it works 100% with the AC adapter plugged in.

I e-mailed DigiTech asking about the strange battery issue and received an e-mail telling me to call them. I called and explained the issue and was told it has a 1 year warranty but a 6 year warranty if you registered online, which I did, so I was given the name of a local repair shop and took in the pedal. I don't think the DigiTech rep was convinced that it was anything more than the battery having just been used up, but I've never had any of my other DigiTech pedals turn on and off and off altogether with brand new batteries, and I know that when a battery is used up, the pedal does turn off a couple of times, but this happened immediately when I put in new batteries. I took the pedal into the repair shop and they tried a new battery and tested it and said it worked fine for them and thought it just needed a new battery. This confused me so when I went to pick up the pedal I watched them test it and to my surprise, the pedal worked like it was suppose to when using a battery, so I don't know why it shut on and off for me when I was using new batteries on it. So, not only did I pay around $160.00 for the pedal, but I had to pay another $43.00 to the repair shop to do the exact same thing I had already done numerous times myself, they put in a new battery and charged me for their time. I don't trust the pedal to not turn on and off for me when it has a new battery in it so I will probably trade it in for some other pedal. My other DigiTech pedals have been fine.

I can't think of anything else to add. I just had strange luck with this pedal and put too much money into buying it and then paying a repair shop to check the battery that I had already checked, for some reason it worked fine for them, but acted bad for me. The DigiTech rep that I called acted professionally and had the repair shop seen the same problem when using the battery that I had when I tried a bunch of new batteries in the pedal, it would have been a warranty issue, but as it stands, since the repair place couldn't duplicate the problem I had, I ended having to pay and get back a pedal that I just don't trust as being reliable now.