DigiTech GNX1

It has less patches than the Pod, but it is great.
It's a nice programable unit. I woned a Digitech RP-10 which had much more parameters to adjust and a less friendlier interface. The knobs work great, and you have less parameters to choose from, so it's easier to program. The GenEdit program is basically the same, although Digitech claims you'll have access to more programable functions this is not true. It would be nice to have included a PanelWare for cakewalk and soner programs.

I own a MArshall Vavlestate V80, a Dunlop Cry Baby, an Ibanez 470 Custom Made and an Epiphone Electric guitar. The unit ain't noise, althoug my old RP-10 got noisy with time. The amp models are OK, the Effects are cool (I believe Digitech is great on this huh?), it's cool to be able to warp different amps or cabinets, I believe the POD won't do the trick. As usual the presets are focused on overexpressing a certain effect so they are actually useless, but with no problem you can dial excellent sounds in no time. Digitech Sound Community needs more time so users will be able to upload more usable patches. The acoustic preset is very noise, although it can be fixed quite easily.

It looks solid, more compact and heavier than my RP-10. I noticed they were able to put a better footswitch. My only complain is the power cord, looks like a god dam cell phone charger, it'll break in no time, beside it is chinese.

Never used it, since I live in Mexico, there is no one to go to. I had to fix the Expression pedal of my old RP-10 by myself.

I am trying to pull out my home made record, it is going fine. I play kind of NIN - Grunge - 80s Metal Blend, and this unit has helped me a lot.

With the midi based editing software it's f...ing easy to create your one unique tones or favourite artist tones. You can even download finished presets from the manufacturers homepage right in to your gnx

I use a mesa bogie trem o verb and when i dont plug my Ibanez vai signature model in to it i use the gnx and it sounds great and you can almost hear no difference between the rectifer sim on the gnx and a real dual rectifier when you mixed whith the equalizer.

it has solid metal case.

had no problems

The greatest pedal i have ever used beats the pod by miles

Man it was cool! I just pluged it in and it worked, I read the dam book after my fingers started bleeding. But programing it is pretty involved, playing with the sounds that come on it will take some time, 48 in all with about 1000 variations. So I guess it's easy to start off with but you can make it as hard as you want. I know nothing about this digital stuff, but I can plug in a cord and thats all it took.

OK I read what some people wrote about quality, there full of it. You can take this thing with a cheep guitar and two cheep amps and make sounds like $10,000 of equipment, those other guys are just pissed they spent so much!

I haven't broke it yet and it's not easy living in the Dave zone! It's made of steel, I guess they could have made it out of titanum and some guy's wouldn't be pleased

It sucks their web site has been down so go figure! At least they have one.

I like it, It's more than I wanted to pay but it works fine. If you plug it into two amps and set it to stereo, the dam thing makes the toughest sounds you can imagin. Try that with you Marshal stack!I was impressed! OK maby I'm not a die hard professional musician, I just bought the dam thing to play around with and it's fun. A lot more fun than I expected. If it keeps me playing my guitar more and getting in more practice I think it's worth it. Hay! Face it, if your poor this thing will make you play like a million bucks.

This processor is actually pretty easy to use. The parameters are changed by knobs, thank god. With a little common sense, it is easy to create your own sounds. Read the manual anyways. It will help for you to understand some of the cool features (e.g. whammy, warp, cab frequency). However, the expression pedal is extremely stiff at first, which makes it difficult to use the pedal for the sub-par wah or changing parameters. The FX mode is a pretty damn cool idea, seeing as how you can go from clean to distortion easy, and add an effect (e.g. chorus, flange) and delay. However, the fact that by pushing pedal 1 takes you from amp1 to amp2 to warped negates its usefulness for live gigging. And you can't go from amp to amp to amp in this like in the normal mode without reaching down and pressing the tiny arrow buttons next to the exp. pedal.

Let me start out by saying: THIS IS ALL MY PERSONAL OPINION. IF EVERYONE'S TASTES WERE THE SAME, THEN MUSIC WOULDN'T BE THE WONDERFUL GIFT THAT IT IS! Enough philosophy. Like many of you, I'm sure, when I checked this out in the store, I was impressed with some of the cooler features mentioned above. Obviously, the presets sucked horribly, but I bought it, and used it for a couple of gigs before I really sat down with it. At the time, I was still saving up for my new gear, and I needed something for my straigt Peavey 200 watt 2x12 combo and Hamer Explorer. But after I sat down with it, I discovered that most of the sounds I could get out of it sounded, well, digital. Very fake, not TONE at all. See, there is a huge difference between the way something sounds and if it has Tone. You learn how to tell the difference the same way you learn how to tell the difference between a G and an A chord: with time.

I recently acquired my new gear: Gibson '61 SG through a Marshall JCM2000 DSL 100 watt half stack. Crank it up to about 11 in a club the size of your backyard, and that's tone. I ran the GNX straigt into the PA, through headphones, and though my stack, and none of them could compare to the Marshall. I'm not a vintage amp freak, but that's where the tone is. The distortion on my Boss Metal Zone is superior to the processor's. But I will probably keep it for some of the better effects. The effects were pretty good, nothing spectacular. I liked putting on a little rotary speaker. I also like screwing around with the Synth. Also, the fact that you can adjust the cab frequency is very cool. It's a bit noisy, but the noise gate is above-par.The output level is very sensitive, so be careful.

I will say that Digitech did a wonderful job marketing this, with its DNA slogans. However, the warp feature just seems to fade from one amp's dominance to the other's. The wah is very uncool. PURE CRAP. Nothing like a real one, say, Crybaby or Vox. The distortions and overdrives are very thin, and neither both of the eq's really help that much. They just sound, fake. But, you can get a wide variety of sounds, so if you're in a cover band, or if you don't care about Tone, no offense, this might work very well for you.

It IS made out of metal, and seems very durable, except for the power chord. But I wouldn't need a backup, because it isn't very vital to my sound at all. I could live without it.

I dunno.

I play original music, mostly hard rock, Doorsy type shit, grunge, solos, and some metal. (GO HET!!!) I've been playing for several years, and if it was stolen, I'd collect the insurance and save for a Tele or a Triaxis. It just feels uninspired.

That said, I gonna tell you two little stories. (This is for those who are serious about making it in the music industry, which is cruel as hell) And the little stories go that one of my friend's band had a meeting with a record executive to get him to listen to their rather cool demo. They played it for him, and he told them: "What is this shit? You're wasting my fucking time. It sounds like everybody else! I could hire some guys off the street who could sound just as good. Get the fuck out of my office!!!" So, to really make it, you've got to be original, give the listener something that they haven't gotten before, unless of course you are Lenny Kravitz or Aerosmith.

The second little story goes that my other friend met Carlos Santana, and he had him play through his gear. After he left, he went and played the exact same notes, but it wasn't the same. It's in the hands. It begins and ends in the hands. So instead of wondering which new effect to buy, go practice and write some songs! Remember, your gear is only as good as YOU are!!!

Its a fairly easy piece of equipment to use. took me about an hour to get a full understanding of the nature of its features and controls.

i used to run it through my crate gfx-65 in a preamp kind of configuration (Guitar --> GNX1 --> Amp). all the effects were cool and the signal is kept decently, but not exceptionally.

complaints:

I just recieved my 100W Carvin Legacy half stack today and hooked my GNX1 through the FX loop. i have done some research on the fx loop and learned that its purpose to place effects AFTER your guitar signal has been processed by the amp eq and distortion. when you plug this thing into your input jack and turn on the distortion on your amp, you distort whatever effects are coming out of the GNX1, as opposed to an effects loop which ensures that you put your effects on top of your amp tone. this is hard for some people to understand, but there is a significant difference between delay that is distorted, and distortion with delay. this is one of the most interesting things i've found about effects in general.

im having some major trouble getting my GNX1 to work in the effects loop of the Legacy though, it feeds back and sounds like crap when you increase the output volume on the GNX1 to about three o clock. im gonna take it to guitar center tomorrow to see if theres anything i can do to imporove the situation.

reliable, made of metal, requires a llllot of thought in terms of presets when you take this thing on stage though

never dealt

its a pedal that is rather commercial, you know what i mean? its got all the effects you'd ever want, its a compact box, it looks cool, and they advertise it with all this "audio DNA warp amps create a whole new tone!" but i find all that warping stuff to be worthless.

if i can figure out how to get this to run nicely with my legacy, i give it a 9, but im having some trouble... so its a 6

It's easy to use at home or studio, but on stage you're screwed.
Any last second editing will cause a lot of stress, there are
only 3 presets to use at a time and you can only scroll up and
there's no way back except to press the little preset-knob using
your finger..
Editing goes quit alright, the annoying thing is the indicator that
moves from left to right and doesn't stay at the parameter you want to edit.
As soon as you twist the knob of the parameter you want to alter
it doesn't start at the original setting, so you have to remember that
before making any changes...

Sound quality is really good, I used it on a little home-amp,
a Marshall-stack and even on my PC, no prob. except for the volume settings...
The warp-settings are great, I didn't bother to much about the factory
settings, though...
It needs a little experimentation, but I got some great sounds in the
end...

So far so good, but you got to get your things right
BEFORE entering the stage (but that's nothing new ;-))

Didn't need any yet...

To play in a coverband like I do you need a lot of sounds, from
clean-acoustic to blues-crunch to Metallica-earripping-trash..
The sounds are there, and they are good, but you need more than just
the tip of the toe to get trough them...
I use it on a Marshall valvestate top on the clean-channel, 4x12 cabinet, jem777 and fender guitars.
Better go for the GNX 2 or 3 next time.

N/A

I've tried both versions of the Pod, various Line 6 amps(original version + Flextones models), the Johnson Millenium, the Yamaha modeling amp, the Yamaha Stomp pedal, the Cybertwin, and a few of the previous model DigiTech stomp boxes. Many produced at least a few tones which sounded really cool at the beginning and middle of the notes played, but some ended with that hard to define harsh/unmusical "digital thing/frequency/annoying sound."

Then I read the glowing review (in no uncertain terms) in Guitar Player regarding the GNX1- - an "Editor's Choice," the holy grail ????

I tried the GNX1 out in a fairly quite guitar shop with the same guitar I often use - an American strat with a humbucker in the bridge position. I tried it both plugged line-in to a PA/Keyboard type amp, and plugged straightin to a Fender Blues Deluxe. The Deluxe sounded warmer than the PA route, but, to me it still wasn't quite "get there." I heard some nice effects, and some nice clean and distorted tone ideas, BUT, the sound seemed "boxed in," and very compressed -especially the hot rod distortion Marshallesque/boogie tones. I can only describe it as what I might expect to hear if I heard a good-sounding Marshall or Boogie played through a cabinet loaded with
4 x 6" inch speakers.

I tried most of the settings, and REALLY LISTENED - - at times with my ear very close to the amp. Then, I unplugged the pedal, and just plugged the guitar straight into the Fender Deluxe. All of a sudden, the once two-dimensional, hard to describe sound opened up (like it had been freed from the box) and became three dimensional and "musical" again. It wasn't so much that the GNX1 sounded terrible; to the contrary, there were some great ideas - - but tone IDEAS is really what is involved. Many of the GNX1 tones were ultimately unnatural sounding to me after I got over the initial "that's kinda cool" response to the many tones that sounded good at first. Kinda like going out with someone who appears very nice and intelligent at first, and then after a few conversations you find that they are pretty shallow.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT a vintage tube/amp freak. I have a digital recording set up (though I'm always trying to use tricks to warm up and fatten the sound to make it sound analog . . . !!!. And I truly hope that one of these days they'll get these "modelers" to really do the job right, because I'm damn tired of hauling all of my pre-amps/effects/racks around. If I was playing in a jack-of-all trades cover/bar band, and if a really good tone was not necessary, I might consider it. Otherwise, while the GNX1 is one of the best digital modeling things I've encountered thus far,the fact remains that (IMHO)it remains a digital modeling thing.

It's too bad that we've had to endure the digital hype so extensively before they really got it down. One problem,it seems, is that at least some of the larger, guitar-related music manufacturers are so caught up in the digital hype, that they no longer seem to place sufficient emphasis on new product design and development of good, solid sounding analog equipment. Instead, like a bunch of tom-cats chasing their tails, they get themselves wrapped up in each other and each others digital hype, spending large sums of money on digital product development, and then forcing the stores to sell, and the guitar mags to legitimize this stuff like as if it was mannah from heaven - which it ain't, at least not to me.

CD's were manufactured with the McDonald's theory and hype, efficiency - not overall quality. As one restraunt owner said once,
"Give 'em crap, they'll eat it . . . " Presently, digital ain't it soundwise - - -except for the incredible convenience factor. If you digital folks are really honest, you know this is true. If you doubt it, take an acoustic guitar with a decent mic and record it direct to one channel of a good ole' fas

N/A - I didn't buy it

N/A I didnt' buy it.

I play many styles, from rock, to R&B, to blues, to folk, to progressive rock, to simpler forms of jazz and jazz funk. I've played a variety of Gibsons and Fenders, and have owned/tried out many amps - all sorts of Fenders, Marshalls, Boogies, Top Hat, Matchless, Budda, Rocktron, ect, as well as the whole gamout of pedals and pedal boards, and also have experience with rack/MIDI systems. I've worked in guitar stores before, and have experience with many of the guitar merchandise sold out there. I've recorded on a Porta-Studio, 4 track reel-to-reel Teacs, a 16 track DA 38 set-up, and a 16 track ADAT recording set up.

Pretty easy to access all the features from the matrix. Although when adjusting parameters the LED is positioned so your hand gets in the way. Since there are two simultaneous amp models in one patch, it can be a bit awkward the way Digitech have you flicking between the two. Also, one wrong move on the amp model control and bam - lost a lot of your configuration as it reverts back to its default for the amp. Editing effects is fine, but editing the amp models doesnt seem very intuitive.

To validate my review I will give you some background details:
I am a IT engineer (no stranger to complicated equipment) and home recordist with some decent equipment (PC, synths, samplers, 24/98K recording setup). Been playing guitar 10 years as primary instrument. I use a Marshall EL34 20/20 poweramp (into 1x12 marshall cabs), Line6 AX2. Have previously owned GX700, VF1, Digitechs, Zooms, Marshall amps, pedals...

On paper this thing has every feature to construct many brilliant varied guitar sounds. I have spent a good solid 8+ hours for the past 3 evenings purely tweaking/AB'ing and programming this board. Out of the 16 or so models, it seems there are three or so unique distortion types - fuzz (fuzz model), and MEGABASS distortion (rectifier model), regular od (all the others). Not much variation between models. The overall sound of this unit is extremely bass oriented. I tried it through the valve poweramp, AX2 poweramp, direct recording with all "target" settings and it still sounded extremely bass/low mid heavy. It seems Digitech have gone for that cheap hi-fi like MEGABASS to give a fake powerful tone! It does not respond well to cutting the bass or low mids on eq or amp model to clear this up. Listen, as the immediacy and midrange/presence just disappears. Add some treble back and its harsh and shrill. Its hard to believe that you cant get a good balanced distortion tone as the GNX1 and 2 has both amp-model-EQ and post-EQ's!

On a plus side the unit is very quiet. Effects are nice and clear. Clean sounds again lack midrange/presence but are quite nice, at least not so bassy as the rattle your jaw as in the distortion models.

Whammy feature is an excellent toy and will doubtlessly sell bucket loads of these things in the excitement of the novelty whilst playing in the guitar store. As will that MEGABASS fake "rectifier" distortion - the guitarist who wants to sound like Y2K metal bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit... will declare this is the best thing on the planet after 1 powerchord.

Had it 3 days. Seems a very solid construction. Asthetically impressive.

n/a

I believed all the hype and hoped this would allow me move onto the next generation of amp modelling, sell my Line6 AX2, and just run the GNX1 with my poweramp and speakers. Not so. I enjoy heavy/alternative music from all decades and whether playing Rammstein, 80's metal or 70's blues demand an authentic *real* guitar tone. The distortions on the GNX1 sound cheap and fake. If programmed correctly the Boss GX700 and GT5 can be much superior. Even without the help of a valve powerstage the AX2 wipes the floor with it. I am so glad I didnt wait to get the GNX2.

The GNX1 is going back to the shop today and I'll have to try the Pod2 as I cannot get a cash refund. But with the POD I'll need another outboard unit that has post eq... aggghhhh!
I'm also in the second hand market for a Marshall JMP1 and Rocktron Voodu Valve.

One of these babies has got the be the holy grail!

Really easy to use. Once you've got your sounds into banks that make sense then it makes live work so easy. I thought programming it was easier than any other unit I've used. The knobs help. Press and hold to back track through patches is a bit of a pain but I'll live with it. The manual was very good.

Using this for direct recording (Roland VS880) and have used it live through 2 Marshall combos (input) and also straight to PA. I'm thrilled with the sound quality. Sure it might not sound like uncle Joe's '67 Fender twin reverb in isolation - but in a real setting, with a band, It does the business. If you're ego can't handle it you could put a cardboard cut out of the Twin on stage and no-one would know. My one complaint about the unit (so far) is the short cut out when you change between patches - only milliseconds but enough to annoy me as I know have to change patches just before the beat rather than right on. I'll get used to it.

I'd feel fairly confident - but then again I like to live dangerously. If I had the money I'd get two (or maybe borrow another one) if I had a few big gigs coming up. This thing isn't flimsy by any means, but technology is an enemy of humanity.

Never dealt with them.

Play a whole range of stuff from acoustic folk to modern rock. Versatility is what I need from a unit and this does it. I've also come up with a few non-guitary sounds which I really like. If you use your imagination this can create far more than the traditional crunch most of us want.

It's my first multi-fx unit so keep this in mind.
The manual is very helpful and it is quite easy to tweak around in the first 5 minutes. If you have a computer it's much easier if you connect a MIDI cable to it and do all the tweaking through your PC (I'll give it a 10 in this case).

I play a FAT-Stratocaster with a Marshall AVT20 but I use GNX mostly direct.
Presets are useless (I never like the idea of having 'ready' sounds. I prefer to start from scratch).
Some amp models are quite usefull (Rectifier,Marshalls) others sound poor (Hi-watt for example). Fenders (Tweed,Blackface,Bassman) seem very similar to my ears. Generally as far as modelling is concerned I haven't been amazed by the unit but I'll give it more time. It definetely needs a LOT of tweaking to get good sounds. The Warp function seems to be a simple 'crossfade' despite Digitech claims it is not. It works better with similar amps (warping JCM900 with Rectifier is quite impressive) rather than blending clean with hi-gain sounds. Cabinet tuning is very useful and effective.
My Marshall AVT20 sounds a bit 'dark' with the GNX even if I played-around with the 'target system' quite extensively. So for me its much better if I go direct to my PC/Stereo. Most of FX are good but I would be surprised if I used more than 5-6 of them.
The noise gate does a really good job.

It's my first Digitech so I don't know. Seems well-built though.

never dealt with them

As I said earlier it's my first multi-fx so maybe I am not the best to judge, but although the unit generally 'delivers' some sounds are uninspiring. It doesn't sound digital though but I guess it doesn't sound like the real thing too.
I am not sure I would buy it again. I think the Behringer V-Amp (about half the money) should be more of a bargain.