DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory

First of all, unless my unit is defective, you CAN NOT TURN OFF THE EFFECT MODEL and still use the distortion model! The heel switch turns off/on the distortion model(with effect model) and the toe switch turns off the effect model when the distortion model is disengaged so you're left with a straight, clean sound!

I ask you, what good is that? Say I like the Wah with the Ibanez distortion model but I would like to actually turn OFF the Wah after a solo and continue playing using the distortion sound... NO GO! CAN'T DO IT!

You want the distortion model on when you turn off an effect? Go buy a Distortion Factory to use WITH your EX-7 (another $100.00). You, like me, might think you're getting two independent models that can be combined or used singularly. Not so! I mean really, Why on God's green Earth would you want to design a unit like this?

An unfathomable oversight or a really poor design choice. Such a shame. The sounds themselves are very good. The distortion models are great. The pitch shifter is far superior to the Digitech RP300's. No delay. Pedal travel is limited, there is no octave down function. The two Wah, Wah models are very good. The Leslie and Uni-Vibe are passable. No presets are stored except the distortion and effect combination.

If you can find it for under $99.00 used, you can get yourself a decent pitch shifter and Wah, Wah. Personally I am very disappointed in the design. What were they thinking.

Takes awhil;e to figure all the possibilities out, but one thing to note, you can set all the control (except the effect select) on 12 and get great sounds, so start with that and go from there trying all the effects out. Lots of stuff in there ...

I have owned about every pedal out there, but I hate carting them all. Digitla effects are basically not as rich sounding as the originals.

However, I think this pedal sounds great. You want to carry a separate wah-wah, univibe, whammy, flanger then knock your socks off. I recorded a bunch of stuff with those pedals, and they sounded outstanding. I have no noise or crackle in mine. In fact, it is unbelievably noise free, even on the flanger settings. If you own a good flanger, then you know the analog version is noisey by nature. Score 1 for digital improvement.

I actually use the 2 different wahs, the Vox for my Grosh, the Cry Baby for my Parker Mojo ... and the Univibe is excellent. I set it like Hendrix did live and it swooshes and dives perfectly.

The whammy is the "Killing In The Name Of" lead effect by Rage Against The Machine. I can nail that sound, and it is quiet, quiet, quiet. Leave the pedal at the octave setting and play Fire and Purple Haze leads ... perfecto.

All you guys who don't like this seem to have valid reasons. I use expensive amps (Egnater Mod50 currently) and the pedal is like gold to me. Maybe this is not a pedal to pair with another digital amp ...

NA

NA

Love the pedal, does what I want, I use 5 of the effects at gigs, it sounds great. The price should be about $50 cheaper IMO, but I paid the cash, and I am glad I own it.

It is built very sturdy for a digital pedal, and the foot pedal is easy to operate (for me at least). I think it is hands down the best multi effect I have tried, and I have blown a lot of cash on these things. Try it out with an amp like the one you own before buying it though.

There are a fair amount of parameters to tweak on this pedal but in a very short time you can be coming up with interesting sounds. The Manual helps but omits answering a few important questions you're sure to have after playing this unit for a while.
in brief :
- 7 effects : Crybaby/Vox Wah, Synth, Whammy, Flange, Leslie, Chorus
- 7 distortion models : TS 9, DOD 250, Boss DS1, Boss Metal Zone, ProcCo Rat, Muff Pi, Digitech Metal Master
- 7 of different cabinets
= the effects can be used clean or in combination with a distortion model (any 1 plus any 1.) Each distortion is combined with a cabinet model which can be changed according to preference

I tried this unit through both single-coil & humbucker equipped guitars. Before discussing sound quality I want to mention an issue that immediately became apparent and was never resolved : hideous line noise
Playing through a Spider 212 (an amp notoriously free-from-hum)with top-quality cords, I experienced a crackling-hiss that made using any of the EX7's effects clean absolutely pointless. Hanging chords would have their tails eaten and obscured by white noise. This costs the EX7 half its functionality right there. When using effects/distortion combined the noise was still there but at an acceptable (but still irritating )level.
to fix the problem I tried :
- changing outlets
- changing adapters
- changing guitars
- changing location of amp/pedal
- using a noise gate & and power conditioned
- contacting DigiTech & Line 6 for advice
- taking it back to the store (where it worked noiselessly on every amp it was plugged into, including a Spider 212 II)
The noise problem was never solved...
As for the sounds the EX7's actually supposed to make, I thought :
Distortions : the Metal Master, Metal Zone & Big Muff Pi all get high marks for their sound and tweakability; didn't think much of the other models however as they sounded a bit thin and lacking in power to me.
Effects :
Dunlop/Vox Wah - each did the job for me; no complaints
SP 2000 Space Synth - Hated it; wondered why it was put there in the first place but this attitude could be caused by all the line noise
Whammy - loved it; could (and did) spend days varying the interval positions; awesome for leads: I'll definitely be looking into a pitch-shifter
Chorus - nice but didn't blow me away
Rotary - Ibid
Flange - my pick for the 2nd best setting; love that jet whoooosh

I should mention I haven't owned most of the effects the EX& is supposed to emulate so the above ratings are based on my own ear and taste

In the third week of use, I crouched down to tweak an EX7 dial. When done, I used my pedal-foot to stand up.
"Hmmm, probably shouldn't put that much weight on the pedal." I belatedly though about half-way up but was comforted by Digitech's claims of durability and that I only weigh 150 lbs on a heavy day.
The next time I worked the pedal though it was obviously some damage had been done; there was now a 'buckling' sensation in pedal that I could feel in the sole of my foot every time I worked it from heel to toe.
Obviously, I mistreated the pedal a bit but at the same time, I'd expect more for something intended to be stomped on by rock guitarists. Even the rubber footpad on the expression pedal looked like it was pining to peel off. By comparison my friend's Boss digital wah pedal was world's away in the solidity of its construction. The EX7 looked like a cheap child's toy next to it(and the Boss does practically all the same things minus the hum; too bad they don't make them anymore...)

Sent emails regarding the noise problem; never heard a word...

Bought this on an expensive whim as I needed something to use when gigging through house amps. I haven't used many effects before this so the EX7 was a learning experience :

Likes : the Whammy and Flange effects, Muff Pi, Metal Zone & Master distortions.

Dislikes :
- incurable line noise
- suspect construction
- this pedal doesn't remember settings!!!
A question : what kind of company produces a mult-effects unit that doesn't save your customized settings?
For instance, you're gigging, playing rhythm on Mode 1 (the Dunlop-Wah, all tweaked to your liking)but here comes your lead; stepping on your FS3X footswitch (sold separately) you clickity-click your way over to Mode 4 for some pitch-bending madness (you've already spent hours getting the perfect tone.)Guess what? The EX7 doesn't remember how you set up Mode 4 previously so instead it gives you the pitch-bender effect according to where your dials are currently set (Mode 1's Dunlop Wah.) Since you'd probably want the knobs in different positions for such radically different effects you and your audience are in for an unpleasant surprise...
Not only does this make the EX7 useless for anyone how wants to change effects midsong, it also questions the sanity of making a foot-switcher in the first place.
I'm so angry at this I don't think I'll buy Digitech again; their design department obviously aren't thinking like (or for) musicians...

one last gripe :
- the dials themselves are small and ill-labled; you'll need nimble fingers, a flashlight and a magnifying glass to adjust settings in between songs on a darkened stage...

The Verdict
- I love the concept of a multi-effects expression pedal as well as some of the sounds the EX7 creates; just wish more thought went into the design: inability to save customized settings a deal-breaker
- Even had it worked flawlessly, the price is still outrageous.
- May be useful in a studio but inflexible and problematic for live perfomances
- Luckily for me, the place I bought the EX7 has a 30-Day return policy. I returned mine on the 30th day less the reshelving fee, exuberent I wasn't going to get stuck with it.

not as easy as pedals in its range which come with various effects or more then this!

Like any other fony synthy effects unit, you get what you pay for , the only unique thing about this pedal is you use your foot.

Hard to tell, Digitech usualy has cheap knobs, looks strong from what i see.

Have no idea

i am a session guitarist, as well as a producer.
You have to love this world of music to stick to it as long as some people who had been through everything (wife, kids etc) , (Bands, production, Post) and still play with pedals like this.


The only thing i can say i that with all the effects possabilities in the world, live mixing or recording still does not require you record ot go direct into your amp with them, but these types of pedals ar ethe only ones which you should officially use live and direct., but this one seems to sound like a multi effects unit, and this goes with out saying that its not gonna cut it if you do not have full control,

I believe the price for this pedeal should be $125.

Its basically a cheap wha with a built in lIMITED multi effects set up, i did not spend enouth time to say whether all these effects where that clean, but they where certainly not as effective as the origionals and just a realy cheap version of them, like Pandora guitar effects units.

Those who say they are getting a deal for $200 bucks should invest it in a pedal that can simply connect to a computer since they can use it to its full range then, if they can find one like this for that price, until then (which is soon) there are others out there.

Takes some time to figure out but certainly not rocket science. What makes it tricky is that for each effect, the three knobs do different things (though similar). If you have ears though you can figure it out quick. After having a GT6, this thing is a peice of cake. No layers of menues to scroll through. WOuld be nice if their was a way to save tweak for each effect.

OK, here is the deal with this pedal: IF you use, say, a wah-wah alot, or want to do your Jimi Hndrex Univibe thing alot, or you want to sound just like you are plugged into a hugh brown peice of furniture with speakers shwirling aound inside, I would not buy this. It is not that cool. However, if you want a reasonably good version of these, this is ideal. Instead of buying 7 effects (and schlepping around a Leslie cabinet), this one does them all fairly well. The wahs are nice and the whammy is worth the price alone. I can stay up till 2 in the morning jamming on this one, lets you get nice bass sounds, along with the high octave, almost like an octaver sounds with the distortion on. The univibe and leslie are convnincing though not the "pure analog bliss" feel you pay $300 a piece for. The space echo is cool if you still want to make this sound (I stopped using this in the 80's). The flange is cool in an over the top way, use sparingly to avoid sounding like Heart Baracuda.)

The distorions are just OK, really more of an added bonus than the main deal. I really do not use these types of distorions much, and these did not convince me to start. The Rat impersonation is kinda cool if you wanna shred. The big muff is, in my not so humble opinion, really bad, more bottom end than Oprah on a bad year and more useless fuzz than a donought shop (at which way you may also find Oprah). The TS 9 is not a bad impersonation of the real thing. I have one so I know, and in fact I may just leave the little green box off my pedal board and use this for a while. To my ears this is the best one offered, but that is probably because this is the type of OD I like - smooth, mid ranging and tube like. You need to spend some time matching the distortion to the effect, and once you do you can keep it matched so that it becomes the default distortion for that effect, and it is very flexible and easy to switch these - just hold down your freakishly large big toe for 3 secords and BOOM - the pretty blinking light comes on and your ready to try out 7 new distortion pedals, some of which you might like.

So far so good, seems sturdy, weighs a ton

Haven't used it, though the small manual is very thorough and readable (sounds like the person writing it actually spoke English, which is more than I can say for the Boss instructions (sorry but true). "...for really nice rock and roll sound..." come ON! I'll shut up now - they WILL take over the world some day.

I like this pedal alot, it works for a middle age guy like me who wants alot for his money. You actually get 14 things to mess with (7 effects and 7 distortions), so fer $200 smackers it's alot of bang for your buck. Again, not for the hardcore analog heads (but hey, you are not reading this review anyhow). This is a good sollution for the player who wants these type of sounds but does not want to pay $1,000 to get them all and take up that much space on your pedal board. Use wah, univibe and whammy one song a set? This is the pedal for you, and you may actually use them for 2 songs a set. I am keeping mine (and believe me, I return ALOT of gear to GC on a regular basis). Thanks Digitech for a nice product (and no, they did not pay me to say this ; )

This is a double review, I'm on my 2nd one of these already.

The first one was a dud, unfortunately. It was almost impossible to engage, especially the heel switch, which i was only able to activate twice despite putting varying degrees of pressure on it, up to and including a gentle press with nearly my whole weight, which tipped my whole pedalboard, which is hardly normal. Even worse was that it had a fair amount of digital distortion glitchiness, the bad kind, when the pedal itself was rocked, very pronounced on some settings. I don't really care about the distortion/heel features, but after a careful few tries to get past the flaws, it was clear that it was defective. It also would not calibrate per the manual instructions, despite several tries, and arrived packed sloppily from mail order, sorry to say, which wouldn't be a big deal if it worked, but the digital glitches in sound were a deal breaker. I guess it was just faulty.

That said, a glance at the manual tells all about the settings and it's easy to understand and use right out of the box.

After the first one it took a leap of faith to gamble on the same product, but I have other Digitech stuff I like, so maybe this is an isolated experience. I tried one of these at NAMM and it sounded a lot better, so I requested a replacement instead of a refund. The 2nd one I got is stiff to engage but it does indeed work, both toe and heel, which is a relief. The digital scratchiness is absent too, thankfully.

It's not noisy, it's digital and very clean. Some of the effects are on the harsh side of digital at first to my ears expecially if set to extremes, but fine tuning each I quickly found acceptable several settings for nearly every mode, which is great. It's VERY flexible.

The wahs are both good, #1 is very smooth, impressive sounding for an emulation. #2 is ok, but nice to have both.

The Synth Swell is a little of a disappointment in that it's tough to tweak within reason, but it's a fun extra to have and sounds pretty nice for what it is, since it could easily be a disaster when you think about it. It's very 'preset' though, a shame because a little more control would make it much more useful. As is it's cool though, very trippy.

The Whammy setting is generous. It's a little too brash but the mix control goes a long way. The multiple pitch settings almost justify the whole package.

The univibe is my favorite. Unfortunately it's a little hard to get a feel for the rocker in this setting, but after a few minutes it comes easy. Calibration might help here.

The Leslie effect is nice too, if a little digital and a little over the top. It's one of those effects that no one seems to nail, but perhaps the suggestion below about running stereo at high vol. would make me a believer. I love Leslie sims anyway, so I'm not complaining, but in this case YMMV.

The ADA flange is something I was really looking forward to, but it's not for the faint of heart. Nice for synthy tones, but doesn't really do it for usual flange duties. The shift sound in the rocker emulates a real flange effect, in that it "zippers" up and down, which could be cool in the right setting.

Since I already got a bad one I can't swear by it, but it's heavy duty. Other Digitech stuff has been reliable.

The online shop was very helpful. Didn't contact Digitech.

I really like this thing because of all the variety. It does the job of 7 pedals and more. Modelling is modelling, but this is more about the creativity, not replacing analog, IMO.

The univibe is mostly what I use it for. Everything else is a bonus, but the Whammy and wah and Leslie are nice too. Space Station and flange are nice extras for special effect.

I don't use the distortions. I haven't played with them too much but I wasn't crazy about what I heard when I did. This doesn't bother me since I didn't buy it for that.

Since the first one was iffy, I'm leaving the ratings blank, but despite the disappointment I ordered another and so far it's works well and I like it. Time will tell if it's a keeper, but it really is fun to play and offers a lot of creative options.

This pedal is fairly difficult to make full use of. I bought the extral, external footswitch for it, which does add a bit to its functionality, but to a limited degree. That said, there are great things and not so great things about how the pedal works. I appreciate DigiTech's even trying to make something like this though, I'm generally on their side with this one, this is a real attempt to broaden the horizon of what an expression pedal can do for guitar.

The switching could be better, but at the same time, I have to say that the way it functions makes it necessary for the toe and heel switches to be slightly difficult to engage. If they weren't, you would be accidentally switching things around in a much worse way. You just have to practice with it, perfect how much pressure to use to engage / disengage. Get used to it, the switching isn' very difficult once you do.

Keep in mind that this pedal can do so many things, that there really isn't a convenient way to create a bug-free, perfect interface. The best thing you can do is play with it reguarly, and make yourself change the settings around regularly. The more you know the pedal, the easier it is to use.

Well, quality is relative for some things, and not so much for others. I find the wah settings tweakable, passable. Not extraordinary, but useful on the whole. You won't get that 'stack of dimes' sound that you can get from an analog pedal with real inductors. But at the same time, there are interesting sounds to be found within the realm of the digital weird wah. As a noisemaker more than a tone purist, I am satisfied with the wahs. I have owned a Cry Baby, Ibanez Weeping Demon, Boss V-wah, Hiwatt Custom Wah, and DeArmond Weeper, as well as the EX-7. Only the DeArmond and the Hiwatt really worked better as a wah, but the Weeper boosted my signal SO much that it was difficult to use under all circumstances, and the Hiwatt had such f-'d up power supply issues that it became too much of a hassle after a while (although it has amazing tones, but what use is a pedal that shorts out ever few minutes?). The 2 wah settings of the EX-7 are a bit difficult to distinguish from one another, but play with the settings, and remember what sounded best. You'll find something that works fine eventually. Not the most extreme effects, but good enough for my purposes.

The Space Station, while very cool to play with at first, is not so usable for what I do, which is noise/rock in the vein of Pavement, Mercury Rev, the Cure, etc. I think I'll have to just devise a whole song around it, rather than trying to incorporate it into a song that I've already pretty much determined the sound of. As the last reviewer mentioned, would be hard to use this setting more than once per show without it being a bit cheesey.

The Whammy setting I LOVE! Its so tweakable, and can really achieve some seriously weird sounds once you memorize the settings. I find it to be a great soloing tool that is varied enough to use as repeatedly as you would a wah. To me, the ability of this pedal to create all of these different effects relatively well is its main selling point. The Whammy settings went far beyong my expectations, whereas the Space Station settings seemed more impressive at first. My band did a recording on which I use this pedal in several capacities, and by now I've played 3 live shows with it. I am pleased with my purchase after all of that, so that should say something, despite the pedal's limitations, which are many, and which many reviewers have pointed out.

The Uni-Vibe works pretty much like a Dunlop Rotovibe, to my ears. Only not quite as deep an effect, and without the 'pop' sound that occurs when turning the pedal on and off. Works very well as a Choruse that is adjustable on the fly. I thought I'd have no use for this setting as I have a Maxon CS-01, really rare Japanese-only-made chorus pedal which pretty much rules (I sold a Boss CE-20 once I got it...) but this setting is really useful, and I've based a whole song around its adjustability by now.

The Leslie setting is similar in usability to the Uni-Vibe function. May sound un-impressive in your bedroom on a practice amp or on a more powerful amp turned down, but try it out in a big, stereo setup. You will find the effect needs some room, and some volume to breathe. But, it does. About 10 yards away from a stereo setup...you'll be impressed. A useful noisemaking tool, if you have enough equipment to make use of it!

The ADA Flanger is to me, the least impressive function. Although, it is a bit more subtle than really pronounced flangers, which actually works for me, as I have a Guyatone FL-3, which gets about as extreme as flangers get. So, this can serve different functions for me. Also, when I have it on, and then use this setting of the EX-7, using the pedal can make really weird noises as it goes in and out of the sweep of the other flanger. Hard to explain, but definitely weird sounding. I like that it can be adjusted via the pedal, but overall, I don't have too much use for it. PLUS, WATCH OUT, since when no effect is engaged on this setting, the pedal funcitons as a volume pedal. This is handy, sure, but if you're using the flanger with its distortion, then turn it off and don't remember to push the pedal forward again, ... UH-OH, WHERE did my signal go??? Oh shit! Thats right, I just turned it into a volume pedal with the volume all the way down! Watch out for that, its gotten me a couple times now.

To be perfectly honest, I still haven't played around with the distortions yet, and don't really care to. I just use them as boost functions basically, to get louder if I need to. I already have an amp with very good distortion (Ashdown fallen angel 60), a Boss OD-3, a modded Boss BD-2 (Monte Allums), and a Tech 21 SansAmp GT-2 in my rig, so what could really beat any of that? I just use the distortions to boost those, or make them heavier if I feel like I need that Spinal Tap go-to-11 type of thing.

I'm awarding a 10 in this category based on the sheer scope of what this pedal can do. Some of the effects could sound a bit better, some sound absolutely great. On the whole, I think this pedal is a winner for my playing style. Email me if you want to hear sound samples of my band, and me using this pedal for solos, etc. The word "Pristine" doens't really apply. Its the versitility I want to reward.

Hehe, ummm. sort of. I do gig with it without backup, but it makes me nervous. Why? Once, during practice, after switching the settings around a lot on the fly, the pedal suddenly freaked out and only produced static. LOUD static. Static that wouldn't go away, until I unplugged the pedal for a half a minute or so. I plugged it back in and all was well again. But, if that happens to me at a crucial point in a gig, my whole opinion of this thing might change. A tip - this happened when I switched things around without disengaging the effects, ie the effect was on and I just turned the knob to another, then did so again, etc. I haven't experienced this at all when properly turning each effect off before swtiching to another. However, this is exactly how the external footswitch functions, so I worry about that. Haven't experienced this with the footswitch yet, but worry that I might at some critical point in time.

No idea.

Overall, I've said about as much as I can say. Tone purists, blues players, metal players, you probably have no use for this thing. Just get individual effects that do what you want, no one pedal can do it all, though this one attempts to. I don't even try to make use of every function on this thing, but over time it has impressed me, and I've been able to get a LOT of useful sounds out of it. It is a strange creature though, and surprises me at times. I don't like too much unpredictability in my gear, but a little bit here and there is a spice of life, you know? I've played for about 16 years, owned several expression pedals, and basically kept buying and selling them one after the other, until I got my DeArmond weeper wah. That I used faithfully for a while, but it died right before I was to play a gig. I'm still hoping to repair it, but I went searching again after that, and bought this as soon as I realized it existed. And even if I get the Weeper repaired, I'm keeping the EX-7, because it really is a cool and useful product. Imperfect, but very useful.

Changing the pedal settings requires reading the manual. Some kind of indicator to show which effect was active would have been nice since it does have external switching capability--as it is now you have no idea which model is active once you start switching up/down through the models with the FSX3.

So I would put it right in the middle in terms of easy/difficult to use, plus one bonus point for having instructions on the bottom of the pedal.

For a $200 pedal with 7 effects + distortions, this is pretty darn good. The two wahs may not be the absolute best wahs you've ever heard, but given that they're tweakable in the frequency range and intensity you want, they're pretty flexible. The space station effect is good for a one-use-per-show special effect, and the whammy is quite serviceable. The vibe, leslie, and flanger are all useable--wouldn't want to depend on them as my only option if I used those effects all the time but they're they're good as bonus options.

So as a tweakable wah + whammy pedal I rate it pretty highly.

A bunch of these apparently shipped with bad switches. I know this because I'm on my third one. The first one wouldn't turn on at all with the toe switch, and the second one would only intermittently turn on with the toe switch (and required a great deal of force to do so). The third one works fine. That's not a very good batting average.

The folks below complaining about how hard it is to turn on aren't idiots, they just have bad units in all likelihood. A properly functioning one isn't hard to switch on at all. If it's hard to switch or doesn't always switch, return it.

I didn't have to deal directly with Digitech since I bought it from Sweetwater. Sweetwater was good to deal with throughout the process and tested the third pedal before shipping to make sure that the problem would be solved.

This pedal is a solid 8. If it was programmable (given that it's digital there's no reason other than price point and footprint not to have a display and memory) it would warrant a 9 or a 10 rating even if priced higher. Still, it's a good tool, capable of both nifty sci-fi soundscapes as well as bread and butter wah effects.

The way I look at this pedal is that it's good for one effect. Pick anything you like out of the seven that are available. If you look at it that way, it's fine. It's not really set up as a multi-fx; I doubt that many players are buying the optional footswitch.

Everything you need to know is printed on the bottom of the pedal.

I bought this on the strength of its Leslie simulation. Unless you put it side-by-side with a Leslie 147, it's pretty convincing. Better than the Boss RT-20. Better than the DLS RotoSIM. (IMO, of course.) I don't really care for the drive control; when I want to add some grind to the Leslie simulation I use one of the EX-7's built-in distortions.

The whammy and synth swell effects are good, too. The EX-7's synth swell and whammy behave better than the same effects on a Digitech Space Station that I used to own.

The flanger and unibe effects are simply atrocious. The wahs are pretty good; I actually prefer the short pedal travel.

The built-in distortions are just OK; there isn't as much tweakability as found on the Digitech DF-7.

Can't judge a book by looking at its cover. Too early to tell how this might hold up in the long run.

Never dealt with Digitech customer support. Don't intend to.

I play a variety of material that borrows from rock, folk, classical and jazz. Most of my playing is fingerstyle. I've been playing for almost fourty years - seriously for the past seven.

I use a Koll Custom DL Thinline plugged into a Fender Vibro-King. That rig gets about 99% of my playing time. I have a few other effects (Aphex Punch Factory, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Toadworks Redux, plus one or two new ones still on probation) and a Leslie 147.

The EX-7 is just passing through - I won't be keeping it. The Leslie effect - my motivation for having bought the pedal in the first place - isn't satisfying enough for me to want to make this pedal a permanent addition to my rig. I find the noise gate bothersome, too.

As a Leslie sim, the EX-7 is pretty good. As I said above, it sounds better (IMO) than the Boss RT-20 and the DLS RotoSIM (although not as configurable as either). It's still no competition for the real thing. If I was looking for a pedal to give me three or four of the EX-7's effects for occasional use, I'd probably hang on to this pedal.

Not the easiest thing to use but its like everything you get use to it.

May not be the best, but it's the best because of what you are getting in the whole package. If you can get 90% of the sound why throw out 100s more dollars. Its really a matter of opinion but if you are experimenting with effects this has great quality on my marshall tube. Some of the effects sound great, just a few sounding good is well worth the price.

It's made out of metal, what do you expect. Can't imagine its broken on anyone if you take care of it.

Great because of everything you get in the entire package.