DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory

I bought the Digitech EX-7 last year after seeing some ads in one of the guitar publications. I bought it mostly for the wahs and the Univibe, but found myself liking most of the effects. I recommend the optional footswitch because you can change patches on the fly. I wish there was a way to completely bypass the distortions because I have distortions/overdrives that I prefer. Sometimes if you go a little crazy with the wah, you inadvertantly switch on the distortion. I think this pedal is easy to use, but sometimes hard to control it.

My setup consists of; Gibson Les Paul Standard, or Fender '62 reissue Stratocaster, or a Fender Telecaster, into my tuner>Digitech EX-7>Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet>Vox Satchurator>Danelectro Tremolo>Boss DD3, into a Fender Prosonic(60W, class A tube amp with 2 10 inch speakers). The EX-7 is very quiet(except for the squeaky treadle, a little oil should cure that). The wahs sound great(I prefer the 2nd one), and the Univibe sounds very nice. It replaced my Dunlop Crybaby and Dunlop Univibe, thus freeing up valuable space on my pedalboard. I can tweak to my heart's content with the EX-7(not so with my Dunlop units). I do love the Dunlop pedals, but the EX-7 sounds as good, or better, with greater flexibility. As previously mentioned, I could do without the distortions because I get everything I need with my dedicated distortion/overdrive setup. The Whammy effect is very cool, and I find myself using it more and more. Also, the Flanger sounds great. I should point out that all of the effects sound great, I just don't use them all(Space Station, Rotary speaker).

This thing is built like a tank, and has worked flawlessly on countless gigs and recording sessions. I would use this on a gig without backup(seeing as I only have one EX-7). As mentioned, my only concern is inadvertantly switching on the distortion mode during an overzealous wah-fest.

I have never had to deal with the manufacturer, so I have no opinion.

I have been playing for over 25 years. I play a wide range of music, from top 40 to heavy metal, and the EX-7 fits in with just about everything. If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely replace it.

The Digitech EX-7 Expression Factory, is as (supposed by the name) a multieffects unit focusing on expression effects (it has 7).
it is pretty easy to dial in which sounds you look for(at first you'll need the manual to remember what each knob does). though, the univibe sound is difficult to handle as it tends to sound like a tremolo when the depth of the effect is turned on, even at 10 o'clock.
the 7 different effects feature:
1. Crybaby
2. Vox Wah
3. Digitech Space station
4. Digitech Whammy
5. Univibe
6. Leslie
7. A/DA flanger

besides expression, the pedal features 7 distortions, but they apear pretty useless as they cannot be used as standalone and turning on the distortions is pretty difficult.

but as long as you follow the manual, you're pretty good of the start. though it has a bit of a learning curve, or should i say "remembering" curve, as thats actually the worst part.

my current setup is a Gibson SG Menace, which i moddet to have a 81 in the bridge, an 85 in the neck, 1 volume, 1 tone, an Emg RPC(singlecoil emulating EQ) and at last, an afterburner 20db gain booster, it also features an 18-volt battery mod, a bigsby b5 and a killswitch. pheeew... long one, ok, heres the chain. SG -> EX-7 -> Devi Ever Synth Mangler -> EHX Big muff w/ tone wicker -> Voodoolab Overdrive -> T-rex Mudhoney -> T-rex Bloody Mary -> EHX small stone -> EHX small Clone -> EHX Flanger Hoax -> Boss PN-2 ->> TC Nova Delay ->> TC Nova Delay ->> Behringer V-amp L(1) & R(2)->> PA

stand alone, the ex-7 is not noisy at all. beneath i will explain the sounds and useability one by one:

1. Crybaby wah:
the sound is great, but on the extreme settings of the frequencies, it gets a bit to harsh or muddy, but thats what you expect from a wah with those settings. it has some difficulties cooperating with my synth mangler, but i suspect the synth mangler to be the villian as it wont really work together with much.

2. Vox Wah:
to make this short, theres so little difference between the wahs that it seems pointless to have two, instead, they should have left the setting for a universal expression control to use with other effects, that would be genious!

3. Space station:
many have said that its useless for musical purposes, i dont think so. it sounds really lush and spacey, you just need to practice a little in using it.

4. Whammy:
the whammy is really really good, even though it only tracks monophonic an tends to sound like **** if you have more than one tone, but, apart from that, its absolutely awsome, i use it with pan and delays and it gets really droid alike or mechanical, awsome!

5. Univibe:
i dont use this setting as much as i would like to, because, as before mentioned, its difficult to get the real univibe sound, it tends to "play Helicopter" more than make sweet vibes... sad, really, because its a nice effect.

6. the Leslie:
i have never heard a leslie emulating effect that was this close to the real thing, not much to say, this is proberbly the best sounding effect in the ex-7.

7. Flanger:
i dont use this setting at all, but, when bypassed in setting 7, the expression pedal works as a volume pedal, which is pretty cool.

i would deffinately trust this thing on a gig, i mean, the box is of metal, no exposed parts... you could kill SEVERAL people with this thing.

hav'nt dealt with them.

i play experimental and progressive rock, so the expression not only fits my needs, but also gives me new ways to explore sonic landscapes, for me, theres no alternative, so if it was stolen, i would by a new one. i really love the amounts of different effects in this box but its annoying to have two almost identical effects when they could have made the external expression thingy, i also hate the fact that they screwed up the univibe. after i recieved the ex-7, ive been producing atleast twice the amounts of music that i used to, so it deffinately helps me evolve new sounds and gives me (and the rest of the band) inspiration.
last words:
they should have made it like this:
1. Wah
2. Space Station
3. Whammy
4. Univibe
5. Leslie
6. Expression control for external effects
7. Volume
- skip the distortion part and add more control features to each effect :)

This pedal is not easy to use. Anyone of decidedly limited mental acuity or with a short attention span (are you still there??), walk away now.

I've had it since November last year, so I thought it high time to write a review on it. I was hoping that by now I'd be used to it... but I'm not.

You can get used to how this weird, wonderful, highly frustrating box of tricks works, but you need serious dedication.

I'm using this with my standard two-guitar (Fender Am. Dlx. Strat HSS & PRS SCT Artist Pack) and two-amp (Fender Twin & Fender Hot Rod Deluxe) setup.

It is utterly mind-blowing for sounds. How DigiTech managed to get such a badass pedal is beyond me, but at the price it was new, it was a bargain. Used, it makes even more sense. It's seminal!

The first two settings are standard fare for anyone who wants to play at being Hendrix, just a pair of wahs. We've all heard wahs before, and we know how they work, etc. It's after that things start getting interesting...

My personal favourite effect is the Space Station. I always like to muck around with it just to toy with the keyboard player's head, it's a way of letting him know he's dispensable if he annoys me! It's a lovely rich, warm and deep sound that it really ethereal. You can literally have hours of fun with it- I have done in the past, worryingly. Probably after a little too much chemical stimulation.

The Whammy is a good, faithful reproduction of a classic DigiTech sound, I use it quite a lot when I want to pretend to be Tom Morello. Hoist your guitar up, get your government-hating hat on and rock out.

The Univibe is just sexy... very Pink Floyd-esque. It's really good for Breathe, the opening part of the song. Difficult to get the hang of the treadle, but it's fun once you've worked it out. You need really good muscle memory to make the pedal work properly though.

The Rotary speaker is freakin' weird. I like it, but it's weird.

I'm a big fan of the last effect on the pedal- the flanger. It's a truly awesome effect, really great for the psychedelic rock-out phases. Also doubles up as a volume pedal when you're not using the effects and it's set to flange!

Overall, very very cool sounds, which would normally cost you hundreds (if not thousands, talking of rotaries) to get.

This thing is a tank. I don't get the feeling anything would ever break on it. You could most definitely give someone concussion with the damn thing.

Not had to deal with them. The manual did fall apart, but that's nitpicking.

I play every type of music I can, and this pedal fits the bill for everything. It's stupidly complex- how many pedals do you know that need another pedal to get the max out of them?- but that's part of the charm. It's a really intelligent pedal, and has very intelligent sounds to match. Just spend about a month trying to get to grips if you do get it though... but value for money, you just cannot argue with it.

This is a complex pedal. With all the controls for 7 effects plus 7 distortion models controlled by 3 concentric pots, having the manual on hand is a must. The manual was very helpful for me as a reference. Also, it doesn't save settings for effects, but it does save the distortion model chosen for each effect, so you'll want to write down the settings you use if you want to be able to reproduce the sound.

I use it for bass, and it works great. I've only used it at practice volumes, so I can't say how it sounds when you crank your amp up, but so far it sounds great. I haven't noticed any noise, and all of the models do what they should. The space station, whammy, and flanger models are very fun and usable.

You could brain someone without putting a scratch in it. That said, it never hurts to have a backup. I haven't had it long, but assuming that it's not built to fry its own circuitry, it should last for a long time.

I play a variety of stuff - alternative, rock, electronic, classical, and a lot of other random stuff. This pedal can be applied to pretty much anything to add some spice. As far as complaints, I noticed one reviewer said that the footswitches required a very hard press, and for myself I've had the exact opposite; mine goes on or off, perhaps a bit too easily, although accidents can still be avoided so long as a little care is exercised. This may be due to that I bought a store demo, I don't know, but in any case, this is a brilliant pedal.

This pedal does a great deal and because of that (and the fact that it has no memory) it can be a bit complicated to use in a live context. The switches require firm pressure on the right area of the treadle to turn them on or off - it's not the easy stomp of a Cry baby! The manual is well written and easy to understand but you will probably need to study it for a while and refer back for settings for different models. As previous reviewers have said, there is limited movement on the treadle and this makes the pedal feel very different from most wah, volume or expression pedals.

I've had this pedal for about 6 months and I've used it a lot more than I thought I would. The day it arrived, I played around with it for an hour or two at home and then decided to take the risky step of replacing my modded Cry Baby with the EX-7 on my board and going off to do a gig. That night I used the Vox wah setting for several solos (I prefer it to the Cry Baby model - more vocal), the Space Station for a keyboard like intro (that surprised the band!!) and the Whammy setting for another solo. I have to say that the sounds are really good and, if you can remember to alter the settings before each song, you'll be amazed at the versatility of this pedal. I rarely use the distortion settings but they're very good too and useful if you need to come out of a clean part into a wah solo with distortion, for example.

I've had no problems with this pedal at all. I have several other Digitech pedals and I've had no problems with any of them.

Not used it but their website is very good.

I play in a classic rock covers band but I also play some metal (NWOBHM), occasionally dep for a function band playing 60's and 70's pop and soul and I also do some teaching. I've found the EX-7 to be a really useful and good sounding addition to my pedal board. I would buy another one if it was lost or stolen because no other pedal can do all this stuff with such a great tone. It's built like a tank, looks great and seems very reliable. It's annoying that it requires an AC power supply (unlike any other Digitech pedal!!) which means using the power supply that comes with it rather than my board's supply (a Diago). Other than the few negatives in my review, I'm really pleased with it.

Have to refer back to the manual which has been covered enough but yea not great

Now i have been goin through all these reviews to see if any had the same problem i have with the whammy it drifts out of tune unless you hold it, as i use a gigrig to put this in the signal path to give me a blend of the note and an octave up, and the amount of times i have hit the preset to pull this in the path and ended up with almost ring modulation i think it sucks. But on a lighter note the XP300 sounds great dunno if its accurate but its a good sound

i cant depend on the octave up being in tune

I'm writing a follow-up follow-up review, as I've reviewed this thing a couple of times already, and now I'm just bored and slightly drunk enough to do so again.

ease of use, it remains, over 2 years after my initial purchase, somewhat difficult to use. I still have the original mini-manual, sitting on my rig, for me to refer to should I forget which knob does which on what setting. but that's the price you pay to use this pedal, which I have to say, by now, has proved itself to be by far the most useful and fun musical purchase I've ever made. maybe. really, I'm just trying to bump the numerical ratings up for this thing, because it deserves it.

I originally thought I would use some of this pedal and leave some of it alone. but by now, I want to use it on so many of my tracks that I'd have to buy another to play live properly at this point. and duplicate myself.

except that I rarely use the wah's. I'm just tired of wah, plus I have a DeArmond Weeper, which is a sick wah. occasionally if I just don't have an idea for a solo, I'll combine one of the wahs on their more extreme settings with some other pedals to make weird noises, but every other effect is pretty spectacular in some way or other. I use 6 and 12 string electric guitars of various natures, and have tons of other pedals. I use a tiny Epi tube amp, a crazy British tube head and an old school American Sunn high wattage solid state amp with various cabinets.

straightforward rock and this pedal don't really get along too well. maybe the whammy for solos and the uni-vibe, etc, but this thing is best for achieving just plain weird noises, atmospheric background stuff, textures, and its great for soloing, as a lead guitarist, because you can always save yourself one extra boost by going full out on the rest of you equipment, pedals, etc, to go just way over the top kick in the distortion, whatever you have it set for for each setting. the big muff pi setting is, I think, better sounding in my recordings than any of my real, analog, heavy-fuzz pedals. the whammy is especially great in this regard, but so is the uni-vibe and the flanger. lately I've been doing vocals through this thing as well, with a xlr->1/4" adapter, using mostly the space station and the whammy. makes vocals get very wacky. I sometimes run my synth through it as well, makes arpeggios sound really trippy and spacey.

I think the sounds are great, and the more you use this thing, the more you can wring out of it. although I do still need the manual for it, 2 years after buying it.

has been about 90% reliable. it does occasionally freak out electronically and need to be unplugged and then re-plugged in. well made, solid, no mechanical problems with it ever, and its had lots of use.

n/a

I play weird art-rock type of stuff of several varieties. this pedal has made more creative possibilities, um, possible. for me, as a guitar player mostly, it has been a great purchase. this thing isn't for tone purists, its not for people looking to replicate sounds, but rather it is for people looking to make new sounds. the new sounds. yeah. I'm the moon!

It's confusing at first and you can't really figure it out right out of the box just by looking at it. Once you read the manual and play around with it though it becomes easier to use. Switching between the modes requires a very forceful stomp on the front or back of the pedal though and it is very difficult to switch while sitting down. Other than that the pedal is pretty straightforward.

My setup is simply Telecaster --> Digitech Ex-7 --> Fender H.O.T. 75 watt amp (I like to keep it simple to save the tone of my guitar). The first thing i tried to play on this pedal was Radiohead's My Iron Lung using the whammy pedal. Coincidentally all the knobs were turned to twelve o'clock which created the exact sound of the song. Immediately I was impressed. The Vox Clyde McCoy wah was my favorite of the two wah pedals. The Space Station effect seems to be somewhat difficult to figure out, but i see potential in it for it to be a cool effect if I just play around with the settings. The whammy pedal is perfect for playing Radiohead. The Unicord Uni-Vibe is a good chorus and vibrato pedal, and if the expression pedal is rocked all the way back the effect is bypassed, so I use this setting to play around with the different distortion settings. The Leslie speaker pedal sounds like a real Leslie, and makes my Tele sound like an organ. The A/DA Flanger is also a cool effect and is perfect for songs like Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz. Of the distortion models my favorite was the Ibanez TS-9. All the distortion models were great, but some were weaker than others. Overall every effect on this pedal sounds amazing especially considering that this is a multi-effects unit.

This thing is pretty rock solid. It is heavy, and if heavy equals durable then this thing is never going to break. I'm pretty sure that if i was being mugged and I had this thing on me for some reason I could use it to beat the crap out of the mugger, then when hes unconscious on the ground play a face melting solo with it, no problem.

My parents bought it for me for Christmas, and since they were buying it late there was a possiblity of it not making it to my house on time. Some guy who worked for Digitech actually offered to drive it to my house in Chicago from Muncie Indiana. My parents declined, but still that kind of dedication is pretty rare.

I am in love with this pedal. Every single sound on it is amazing and with three seperate knobs for each effect the range of sound is almost endless. It is a bit difficult to begin with, but once you play around with it for a while it becomes easier and more user friendly. This pedal is good for prettymuch all styles of rock and blues.

I'm giving it a 5 not because it isn't easy to figure out. It actually is-- I got it going and got great sounds out of it in the store, with no manual. See previous posts for details. The EX-7 gets a 5 in ease of use for its quirks when using it in an actual playing situation. I will insert my complaint about the lack of movement in the treadle here. This isn't enough to make it less-than-wonderful, but it is kind of an oversight on Digitech's part. Why did they design this type of box this way??? Some of their other offerings (Whammy) have acceptable throws, why not this one? As it stands, you've really got to be careful with it-- people that like long throws might want to look the other way. I'm also not a fan of the external mode/model switch. These two combined with the inability to program patches and the extra oomph required to get the switch going bring it down to a 5 in my book. You've really gotta know what you're doing if you're going to make regular use of it.

As far as the sounds of the effect models go, this pedal almost *has* to get full marks. Blows the modeling pedal competition out of the water. The individual effects are the best simulations I have ever heard, and each is incredibly useful in its own right-- with the possible exception of its two wah modes. As some of the others have commented, why have two? As overwhemlingly happy as I am with the sound quality, there are a number of issues I have with its overall operation-- areas which, in my own humble opinion, leave quite a bit of room for improvement. If you're interested in my $0.02, or curious to see why this is certainly NOT just another moon-eyed rave-up, see the overall rating section.

I have never had a problem with any of Digitech's stuff. The pedal itself is a solid, heavy piece of eqiupment. The external switch, however, is not quite as tough looking. The way things are designed, this switch may be absolutely necessary for some folks, so I'm knocking off two points here.

Never tried, haven't needed to.

Okay-- now for the fun part. As overwhelmingly fantastic as the idea for this pedal is, and as stellar (no pun intended w/respect to the Space Station) as the models sound, there are a number of important areas I would like to see addressed-- things that would really make this thing, for me at least, an end-all and be-all pedal:

1)The wahs. Yes, wah has a place here, and there probable should be ONE wah mode. Yes, one-- not two. They both sound great, but there should be one wah setting that morphs between Vox and Crybaby. Much more useful, and would leave room for:

2)Tremolo. How cool would that be? Have a nice, wavery organ-y sounding trem in the second position-- maybe even a setting that morphs between trem and vibrato...all nice and speed-controlled w/the treadle.

3) If I had wanted distortion in this box, I would have bought a distortion pedal (maybe even Digitech's DF-7, but I've basically got one now--minus one tone control). This, IMHO, is totally out of place in this pedal. The "dual" knobs are great, but I'd rather have control over 6 expression/modulation parameters than access to distortion in one pedal. How much cooler would it be to have the ability to do things like add extra phasing stages to the Uni-Vibe, or control wave shape in the Flanger than these built-in distortion models that aren't exactly intuitive to program and tweak the way you want (and don't do what myself and many other players are looking for tone-wise anyway)?

4) Speaking of programming: there should be a way to program patches in this one. Even though the settings work relatively well when switching between models, it would be nice to have custom settings on tap. This would make the extra cost of the control switch almost worth it....

5) That darned footswitch: another good idea carried only halfway through. Getting rid of the distortion modes could knock it down to 2 buttons, and give it a much friendlier footprint. It's construction should also match the soliditiy of the pedal, and it should be able to plug in with any 1/4" cable. The cable you have to use with it is too long, and the ends are not exactly flexible. In a perfect world, it would also be included in the price of the pedal. I bought mine used, and it came with the switch. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have shelled out $40 for it, even if it does make switching between models handy.

6) Another issue with the treadle throw: this time not its over all shortness, but the fact that you have to keep pressure on it to access the highest speeds/settings of the effects. If I want to leave the Univibe on crazy speed-chop, I should be able to walk away from the pedal. Also the "hidden" volume pedal feature in the bypass mode of the flanger model would not cause volume loss when you walk away from it.

7) My final frustration (as of today, anyway)-- the power supply. I'm not an engineer, so perhaps there is some technical reason I don't understand, but why on earth did they have to make it AC powered? Everything else on my board is happy with Voodoo Lab's PP2+... this one needs a big, ugly wall wart sticking out of the PP2's courtesy outlet. Thankfully someone at Voodoo Lab was thinking!

Again, I am certainly not speaking out against this pedal. It definitely has secured its place on my board and does 90% of the things I need it to do (the only other modulator I now need to bring is a tremolo). I actually sold a Keeley Modded Line 6 MM4 to get this one. The Keeley Mods really brough the Line 6 to life, but even so the Uni Vibe and Flanger models sounded flat and truncated compared to this one. The Line 6 Leslie wasn't bad, but even that isn't quite as "3-D" as the EX-7's. Digitech has really made the grade with the actual sounds of the models, and you get the oh-so-cool Whammy and Space Station stuff in there, too. Great pedal, but I would sell it for the first company that comes closest to making one that addresses my complaints!

Unlike the previous review, I found this pedal to be pretty easy to use. Sure you need to read the manual, but it's not like you have to scroll through menus or punch in parameter values to achieve good tone - it's got 6 knobs and a model selector dial - get over it. The previous reviewer is also wrong when s/he asserts that you can't use the distortion models on their own - you can (see below).

Where I agree with the previous reviewer is the pedal treadle's very short travel - about half that of my Vox wah (of which the EX-7 has a very good emulation - I can't hear the difference), and about a third that of my Ernie Ball volume pedal. Not sure why they designed it like this - surely it would not have cost them any more to manufacture a pedal with a longer travel. Besides this pretty major issue (it is after all an expression pedal), the pedal is pretty self explanatory - RTFM.

BTW I have no issue with either of the on/off switches on this unit.

As a bit of context, my main setup is

Gibson Les Paul -> Boss Super Feedbacker -> Vox Wah -> Roland Jet Phaser -> Roland Space Echo -> Chandler Tube Driver (rack) -> JCM800 Lead Series 50W combo.

I think the EX-7 has Tone, or to be more accurate, the EX-7 does a great job of emulating pedals which have Tone. I don't like some of the emulations, but that's because I didn't like the originals. The Vox is spot on, the Univibe has Dave Gilmour stamped all over it and the Leslie is nice. The Whammy sounds like it should - great for Jack Black style noodling. I don't use any of the other sounds on this pedal

One thing I will say in this pedal's favour is that you can use the distortion models without the expression models - you just need to assign the relevant distortion model to the Univibe setting (and then bypass the Univibe by leaving the treadle toe up) or to the Whammy (and then bypass the whammy by dialing the mix knob to dry). Other reviewers should read the manual before saying you can't use the distortions on their own.

If reliability is related to weight then this pedal should survive a nuclear blast. Otherwise I've got no idea - I bought it new and I've never owned a virtual analog style pedal before.

No idea.

This is a great sounding pedal with a serious flaw - the treadle's travel is tiny. This is not however a deal breaker - it just takes getting used to. The point is that you shouldn't have to get used to it!