DigiTech GNX2

GNX2, version 1.3. This pedal can be a pain to get a good sound. All the factory presets vary in level. You have to make sure you set the output for what you are running it through (direct, 1x12, 2x12, 4x12) if you leave it on direct it will sound like total CRAP! To get a good sound, get a good idea of what you are looking for in a sound, then take a channel and completely strip it down and start from the bottom up. The manual is lengthy because it explains all the different effects. All in all it's a very complicated unit. Eventually you will get use to it and then it will be less frustrating.

I run a strat through a crybaby 535, boss oc-2, boss fbm-1, dod supra dist, GNX2, then to my boss rc2 looper, then finally to my Marshall MG100HDFX clean channel. Not hardly at all noisy, and when it is(high gain or high compression) the noise gate takes care of it. Effects have lots of parameters so you can set them however you please. It has a pitch shifter and you can create octave up octavia sounding fuzz tone. Pretty rad. Right now, I'd say that the best part of this machine is that it has a built in freakin digitech whammy, which totally makes up for the previous low rating. Kind of. The delays suck, they sound really dry. Everything else is pretty decent. Anyway, if you dig Rage Against The Machine or envy Tom Morello's playing but can't afford a slew of pedals, this is THE machine for you.

Rely on this? Yeah, it's built like a tank, in the US no doubt. It's the power supply that I'd need a backup for. My first on crapped out, and I found out that it's common for this pedal. Something wrong with it, and it costs 40 bucks to replace. Dang. Don't leave it plugged in while you're not using it or you'll destroy the life of the power supply.

Don't know, can't say

Overall this pedal is very usable, but eventually I will have completely replaced it with good, mostly analog stompboxes. They just sound better. I'm tellin ya though, the whammy on this thing is rad. I'd say buy this first and have EVERYTHING, then slowly build up your stompboxes around it and eventually retire it.

*HOW EASY IS IT TO GET A GOOD SOUND OUT OF IT?
I've used it with a Fender Mexican Strat(with a Kinman pickup in the bridge), a Hagrstrom FP-200, and an Epiphone Joe Pass. I would say its much easier to get a good sound out of the first two since they are not as good sounding by themselves. I really like the way the Joe Pass sounds clean so its much more annoying/hassle-inducing to get a good sound going with that. There's also the placement. Direct it sounds the best probably. In front of an amp that sounds good by itself its a lot pickier to get a good sound.

*HOW ABOUT EDITING PATCHES?
I did my 'research' for this purchase so when I decided I wanted this pedal I read most of the manual to make sure it did what I thought it did, so when I got it, it was pretty simple. The only thing I don't like too much is that everything has a level. This is fine by itself, except that by the time you finish a patch and switch to another one, the levels are totally messed. Usually I just do a 'save as' type deal to get a new effect with a similar sound.

*HOW IS THE MANUAL FOR IT?
The manual is good. They pump up the hypermodeling thing a lot when all it does is really mix two settings.

*DO YOU KNOW THE FIRMWARE REVISION NUMBER?
nah yo. I haven't upgraded it.

*CAN YOU GET THE SOUND OF YOU FAVORITE ARTISTS? WHO ARE THEY?
I don't care about this part too much. If it's any perspective I like Hella, Braid, Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Zappa. Getting their sound wasn't really that important to me.

*ARE CERTAIN EFFECTS VERY GOOD?
I would say the best is probably the pitch shifter and harmonizer. I guess this was probably one of the selling points for me. Everything else does what it has to do pretty much. The thing that I like about this pedal that is maybe slightly less sound-related is that you can adjust most of the parameters the way you want them in terms of what you really want. For example the treble isn't 1-10, it tells you the Hz amounts you are changing.

*ARE CERTAIN EFFECTS VERY BAD?
The only thing I wish there was a ring modulator that is missing, but its not like I would use that all the time. One thing that sucks, but is a bit nitpicky is with the delay, is that if you change the amount of delay it clicks and then switches to the new level instead of actually changing how much delay there is (for example a boss dd-5 does this).

*WHAT SETUP ARE YOU USING IT WITH? WHAT AMP ARE YOU USING IT WITH?
Currently recording direct with an Epiphone Joe Pass and Hagstrom FP200, I want to use it live with the above-mentioned Roland amp, but mainly for effects and to get a bit more distortion. The only effect that is sometimes in the chain is an RC-20 loop station.

*IS IT NOISY?
Only with the p-90's in the Hagstrom, but when its loud enough it doesn't really matter and there is a noise gate anyway.

*ARE THE EFFECTS WEAK OR DO THEY ALWAYS SOUND GREAT?
They sound good to me, I guess I can't really judge how close they are to the originals but that seems kind of subjective to begin with. The pitch shifters and delays are awesome.

*ARE THEY EFFECTS WEAK

*CAN YOU DEPEND ON IT?
No, this is the only bad part about the GNX2. The unit itself is pretty sturdy, I'm pretty sure I've dropped it a couple times. The problem is with the adapter. I used the first one for gigging a bunch of times and then part of the insulation near the transformer block thing got and I couldn't use it anymore. If it happened now I might have tried to solder it, but I got a new one which you can only use their adapter which is like...40 bucks. Kind of a rip off in that department. I found that it works with a boston acoustics adapter, but messing with that kind of stuff is scary enough in itself. The reason you need to get their adapter is that the plug is a really specific size. It would be totally cool if they made it a more 'standard' size. For example I lost my Boss power adapter and then used a generic one I had laying around for my RC-20 and it worked fine. It seems like they've changed this (I recently ordered YET ANOTHER, and it seems that its only for the GNX2). I don't think they even sell this one anymore since they are trying to prostitute the whole MP3 recorder/flash card thing and maybe because of this problem.

*WOULD YOU USE IT ON A GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP?
yes actually, but only if you had a pedal board for this to rest on, or you don't move like an ass like I do.

haven't dealt with them.

*WHAT STYLE OF MUSIC DO YOU PLAY? IS IT A GOOD MATCH?
My band I guess is considered 'screamo' though our newer stuff is metal-ish in the sense that its more technical. Its a good match for this except for this except for that I usually move around too much. I want to use it like a pod for my personal recordings and control the effects with MIDI(the selling point for me, My friend had a flextone head and the weird connection to the floorboard really turned me off to it eventhough I think it might be compatible with MIDI).

*HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING? WHAT OTHER GEAR DO YOU OWN?
I've been playing about 8 or 9 years if you include highschool lol. I mentioned most of this stuff before.

*IF IT WERE STOLEN OR LOST, WOULD YOU BUY IT AGAIN OR GET SOMETHING ELSE?
If my computer was good enough and I had the cash I would get Guitar Rig 2 or a newer version of the GNX2 pedals. I might try another pedal, but I'm pretty partial to the pitch shifter.

*WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT IT?
The pitch shifter, the tuner was a nice little bonus. The amount of control.

*WHAT DO YOU HATE?
The aforementioned delay thing. Too many volumes lol. But mostly the adapter thing.

*WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FEATURE?
The little things. SPDIF, the direct stereo out. the tuner. midi control.

It's easy to get a good sound using genedit software, but if you are on the stage and have to do some corrections, it's pain in the ass.Any korg
unit is a way easier to do with. warp option is usefull but i would like that i could turn it off so it would be a good start.

I can get excellent sounds on this for recording directly to computer. when i go onstage, plug into my amp the sound is not so good. even when select in the utility menu my kind of amp, it's not quite optimized. you should crank your amp with digitech connected and using software set it right. i'm using marshall 2*12, and efects sound excellent, distortion if not carefully set sounds unnatural. i wanted more power, better control, whammy wah and all that in a single unit. it's verry good. biggest problem - IT KILLS A LOT OF A
TONE THAT AMP PRODUCES EVEN WHEN SET TO BYPASS

it seams reliable, but there is one big problem there also: TOO SLOW PATCH CHANGE FOR A STAGE. switch to solo and you'll first hear like bump maybe for 0.25 , 0.5 sec, and then a patch. not for pro's

i play heavy and prog, sounds are great, but it takes a lot of time to get a good one, on my ax1500g from korg i just turn a knob and there it is, sounds great all the time, and reacts on controlls way better then this pinball mashine.
if they invested more in speed of procesor when changing patches and put out the stupid rhytam machine, it would be like wow
oh, and i LOVE V-switch- wish that my korg had it. it's so fucking great. like having a morley bad horsie wah. and it do sounds great. any time press pedal bit over end and you have it. blessing for all styles
and also a great thing. if you press a button of a patch you are already in, you'll be in bypass mode.

Editing patches is not very easy, and not comfortable. Have to get use to that but recently I only used software on PC and didn't want to touch the device.

It's hard to find good sound. Something is always missing and sound is moody. Mayby it's good only for Vai fans?

I have had many other guitar processors and it's only one that I have problems with. After few months I had to apply extra force to push buttons and one footswitch even broke. Dial wheel was unpredictable. Once worked in right direction, other time in different.

Ugly. Looks cheap. Sounds cheap. Hard to edit. Hard to push buttons. I'm selling it right now. This is my second and last Digitech.

This is an UPDATE of my earlier review of Genesis 3 and GNX-2

This is an UPDATE of the review I just wrote MOMENTS ago, so Harmony Central People-- USE THIS ONE! Thanks

First, let me state that I have exceptionally great audio equipment here to test-- A Fender Blackface Bassman amp and Fender Champ, both modded by Fat Willy at NBS music in Denver, Colorado- and he is a genius.

My PC is hooked up to an alesis 500W power amp, with KRK passive monitor speakers, and my sound card is a 24/96 Audigy2.

I have discovered that I can get a PERFECT, or nearly so straight guitar sound using the GNX by using the DIRECT OUT option in the Utility area (do not use the other options, which color the sound), and then adding +2 to the Bass EQ, and +2 to the Treble EQ at 6500Khz

I then chose the DIRECT AMP and DIRECT CABINET setting (Green or Red) and selected output of 99, and gain of 99.

I tested this signal using a high grade A/B splitter pedal that would allow me to instantly compare the straight guitar to amp signal against the guitar to GNX-2 to amp signal.

I compared the two sounds BLIND-- that is switched between each, and tried to guess which was which without looking at the splitter pedal. It was impossible to tell the difference, much to my delight and surprise. I got it wrong as many times as I got it right.

I LISTENED VERY VERY CLOSELY.

There was no added noise or hiss using the GNX-2. There was no change in tonal quality at any pitch, or with chords, except possible for the better. Sometimes the GNX-2 sounded slightly richer in tone than the straight signal, possibly because of a very slight boost in this EQ- but it was EXTREMLY CLOSE.

I did not select any effects.

I plugged into a Fender Blackface Bassman amp and a Fender Champ amp as my test, one line going into channel input 1, the other into input 2, and adjusted the output of the GNX-2 to match the straight from guitar output.

It is important to know that when the GNX-2 is properly set up for a straight tone, it does not add any coloration or degrade the sound whatsoever.

Despite what many "purists" might claim, the unit does not alter the pure sound of a guitar if you add just that little touch of Bass and treble EQ, and this was a slight change from my earlier tests- now I have learned to tweak the unit more precisely. Apparently, the "factory flat" EQ setting of the GNX-2 looses a tad of treble and bass as compared to a straight guitar, but once you adjust this, you have a perfect match for a straight guitar.

To my further surpirse, the GNX-2 actually seemed to sound better to my ears on many occassions. I was convinced I was listening to the pure sound, and was greatly surprised that I had it backwards.

Whether or not the GNX-2 effects are equivalent or better or worse than separate analogue pedals-- this is a much more difficult question to answer, a certainly a very subjective area. I have found that I can put all of my pedals in front of the GNX-2 input and use them when I like either alone or in combination with the GNX-2, and then I have the best of both worlds. By using a A/B splitter, one could additionally choose to bypass the GNX-2 or make it part of the signal chain.

The GNX will generate a bit of background hiss on its own when the analog outputs are used, however, when the patch gain and output are maximized, this becomes irrelevant, and any inherent amp noise itself, regardless of volume setting, will be far greater. In the case of using the SPDIF outputs, It should be further noted that using the digital out signal when going into a SPDIF input totally eliminates any hiss or noise from the GNX signal under "microscopic" listening conditions- although there is something to be said for sound eminating from a moving coil and speaker, and miking than for recording will generally introduce elements of "REALNESS" absent from purely digital recording.

No problems, although an earlier example of a GNX2 and RP2000, the knobs got a little squirrely after a time.

Got them when I needed a spring and pedal cap once, no problem.

Can you beat it for the money? Especially used? No way.

See my web site for more music and recording info
www.NeilSlade.com
The Amazing Brain Music Adventure

This is an UPDATE of my earlier review of Genesis 3 and GNX-2

I have discovered that I can get a PERFECT, or nearly so straight guitar sound using the GNX by using the DIRECT OUT option in the Utility area, and then adding +2 to the Bass EQ, and +2 to the Treble EQ at 6500Khz

I then chose the DIRECT AMP and DIRECT CABINET setting (Green or Red) and selected output of 99, and gain of 99.

I tested this signal using a high grade A/B splitter pedal that would allow me to instantly compare the straight guitar to amp signal against the guitar to GNX-2 to amp signal.

I compared the two sounds BLIND-- that is switched between each, and tried to guess which was which without looking at the splitter pedal. It was impossible to tell the difference, much to my delight and surprise. I got it wrong as many times as I got it right.

I LISTENED VERY VERY CLOSELY.

There was no added noise or hiss using the GNX-2. There was no change in tonal quality at any pitch, or with chords, except possible for the better. Sometimes the GNX-2 sounded slightly richer in tone than the straight signal, possibly because of a very slight boost in this EQ- but it was EXTREMLY CLOSE.

I did not select any effects.

I plugged into a Fender Blackface Bassman amp and a Fender Champ amp as my test, one line going into channel input 1, the other into input 2, and adjusted the output of the GNX-2 to match the straight from guitar output.

It is important to know that when the GNX-2 is properly set up for a straight tone, it does not add any coloration or degrade the sound whatsoever.

Despite what many "purists" might claim, the unit does not alter the pure sound of a guitar if you add just that little touch of Bass and treble EQ, and this was a slight change from my earlier tests- now I have learned to tweak the unit more precisely. Apparently, the "factory flat" EQ setting of the GNX-2 looses a tad of treble and bass as compared to a straight guitar, but once you adjust this, you have a perfect match for a straight guitar.

To my further surpirse, the GNX-2 actually seemed to sound better to my ears on many occassions. I was convinced I was listening to the pure sound, and was greatly surprised that I had it backwards.

Whether or not the GNX-2 effects are equivalent or better or worse than separate analogue pedals-- this is a much more difficult question to answer, a certainly a very subjective area. I have found that I can put all of my pedals in front of the GNX-2 input and use them when I like either alone or in combination with the GNX-2, and then I have the best of both worlds. By using a A/B splitter, one could additionally choose to bypass the GNX-2 or make it part of the signal chain.

No problems, although an earlier example of a GNX2 and RP2000, the knobs got a little squirrely after a time.

Got them when I needed a spring and pedal cap once, no problem.

Can you beat it for the money? Especially used? No way.

See my web site for more music and recording info
www.NeilSlade.com
The Amazing Brain Music Adventure

The unit could be designed to be more user friendly, but if you pay attention to what the knobs are doing you will figure it out. Turning the knobs slower than you want to will get you where you want to be, and listen to what they are doing. Working from the factory preset sounds and dialing in from there should get you close, but I found some of the crappy sounding presets to make some of the meanest guitar tones I;ve ever played when tweeked to my liking. Be patient the sound is in the unit.I never looked at the manual, and I never upgraded any software, just opened the box and cranked that muthar up!!

My set up is simple and I recommend yours to be the same for the best sound from this unit. I run the pedal directly into a 400w per channel Yamaha stereo power amp model CP2000 that runs its outputs into a Randall stereo 4x12 cab and my guitar is a strat with Duncan Distortion bridge pickup and 1 volume knob,,,like I said simple!! Let the GNX2 do the work ,it has more juicy crunch available than you need. The distortion can vary from smoother tube styles to rip yur rectum metal! The pedal and effects are very good quality and is quiet. The amp and cabinet modeling is not a reason to own this but the ability to match an artist sound is easier with a pedal like this. The clean sounds are excellent with a wide range of variety from country , blues , or modern rock clean sounds. Is it perfect,,no it is not but in this price range I can play next to $1500 amps and impress there owners as I have already a few times.

It seems to be rock solid after 3 years of on and off jammin but it is a delicate electronic item and should be treated like one. I would'nt hesitate to play in front of 1000 people all nite with this but as anything goes a backup unit would be wise.

Never needed them.

I play alot of hard stuff from classic rock to new metal, mostly I play anything that sounds cool. If it were stolen I'd buy another unit with the same abilities as this has if I could'nt find one of these. Also if you use this unit and come up with something you can't live without write down what the settings are in case you accidently erase it!!! Building it again could be tough.

This isn't really brain surgery. This was my first time ever being able to completely tweak my settings. The RP 200 i had is cool and all but this has much more to it. For basic operation it's rather easy to deal with. For more in depth 'tweaking' you'll have to really read into it and understand this unit. All in all it's not a very challenging piece of equipment to run.

I am using an Ibanez Rg 220 with an EMG 85 in the bridge, an Ibanez acoustic (for use on clean settings only!!), and my main guitar being used is an Epiphone Goth Explorer with an EMG 81 in the bridge and an 85 in the neck. this goes through the GNX 2 into a Crate 212 amp.

I've used noisy guitars with this unit before just to test it and the noise compressor works perfectly. Due to using EMG's there is little to no noise. Even on high distortion or high fuzz settings you can pretty much turn down the noise level.

The Chorus and Flange effects are my favorite... Although not THE best they are do their job quite well. The Whammy effect is okay but the actual pedal is MUCH better. The pitch effect is kinda useless for me. The Talker is interesting but is kinda hard to use. The wah is alright but rather weak but is suitable until you can get the cash to buy a dunlop crybaby.

I can the sound that I really want. I play metal stuff like Metallica and Ozzy and even heavier stuff like Slayer etc. but I also play a lot of Pink Floyd music. So you can most certainly get the sound you need from this product.

There are only a few complaints I have...
I wish the wah had more of a range.
It would have been nice for the Whammy effect to have more thought placed in it.
And my adapter kicked the bucket after about a year of semi touring, but hey nothing is perfect.

Overall the sound I get running through my equipment is just what I am looking for at this stage in my life.

The reliability besides the adapter dying on me is absolutely wonderful. I'm in marching band and I played guitar in it for two years using this pedal. We went all over the place and mind you this is outdoors so it put up with 100 degree weather into cooler weather and has traveled into 4 different states with me and never failed.

I'm not the easiest person on my equipment but i don't totally thrash it either. This puts up with some heavy beatings. Only one thing use it with a semi-reliable power source. I used an un-reliable source one time and it shut off on me but no harm done to the pedal.

I've never dealt with them. but i'm sure they would be reliable due to their good products.

My main style of music is Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, but I do play EVERYTHING. This pedal, for the price, is probably as good as it is going to get for you. I've been playing for only 4 years but I really do know what I'm talking about 'cuz I've done my research and have played on many pieces of equipment (thank you guitar center lol).

If it were stolen I would be so damn pissed, but I'd prolly just buy one used off of ebay since I know they can take the abuse and it will probably work just as good as my old one if not better.

I chose this over the Boss basically because it had more features in it's price range I loved digitech ever since I used their RP 200A.
I love this pedal, anyone who is looking for a pedal should seriously check this one out. You most likely won't be displeased.

Some of the factory patches are decent, but most of them range from kind of bad to just plain awful. Getting a good sound out of it requires sitting down with the manual and figuring out what each effect can do and how you should set it up. The vast amount of options in this processor can definitely be overwhelming at first. Spending a day or two just fiddling with everything makes it a lot easier later to create good patches because you know where everything is. I've found that I can make good sounding patches fairly quickly now just by knowing the kind of sound I'm looking to make.

I'm running on firmware version 1.3 and haven't tried upgrading it yet.

My current rig is: Fender American Strat -> Digitech GNX2 -> Crate VFX5212 -> Aphex Guitar Xciter (FX Loop)

As seems to be the general consensus with most multi-effect pedals, the wah is pretty weak. I'm considering buying a separate wah so I can just use the main pedal as volume and for other expression purposes. The pitch shifting effects block is also kind of nasty sometimes. One of the things I was looking forward to doing with this pedal was playing downtuned songs without having to retune my guitar. Neither the whammy nor the pitch shifter work for this the way I want; there seems to be a slight delay between what's being played and what's produced through the amp. The volume also seems to drop when using these effects.

Other than those problems, I really like the sounds this unit can produce. Sure, the effects and amps/cabinets don't sound exactly like what they're trying to model, but that's only important for complete tone purists. If you're just looking for a good sound, I think you can get it.

Some of my more musically inclined friends have told me that I sound almost exactly like some of the artists I'm trying to emulate when I use this pedal. For me, that's a great endorsement.

I feel comfortable using this thing for gigs; I've done so a couple of times without damaging the unit. The plastic knobs and pedal buttons worry me a little bit, but I'm not planning on using it as a shot put or a discus anytime soon. I'd honestly be surprised if it just stopped working on me.

I've never had to contact Digitech for support.

My music styles are mostly classic, modern, and pop rock. Even if I didn't play this style of music, I'd wager I could use it fairly well to get the tones I wanted.

Overall, I think this is a great option for people who want to experiment with a bunch of different effects but don't want to buy a ton of individual stompboxes or rack units. I've never been disappointed with it and don't expect to be in the future.

If I lost this processor or had it stolen from me, I wouldn't replace it with another copy...that's more a problem with Digitech having discontinued this product in favor of the bigger processors though. I'd definitely consider buying another GNX product from Digitech again if this happened.

Just submitting another newer review for this pedal. Ease of use is all relative but as a software and elect eng. I find it pretty easy to use both for manual edits and with Genedit s/w.

Mainly a Yamaha Pac1412 SSH w/ Dimarzio EVO bridge and SD Hot rails neck pup. Also use Acoustic (Yam CPX15W), Gibson ES350T jazzbox and Charvel 650XL. The sound quality is very difficult to quantify because now that I have used the pedal in many situations over the last couple of years I have learned how to make it sound much better in all situtations. I liked the models + stompbox from the beginning but certain setups can be a pain - like straight thru a 1x12 combo. But now I use it primarily running through a preamp (Art SGX2000 just running straight 5 band EQ) driving the PA and a stereo TUBE power amp into a 2x12 cab for stage. This setup kicks major ass and the flexibility of the modelling is great. The biggest detractor to sound here is that I don't feel that a lot of the effects are up to par with the modelling but they have proven good enough for decent quality live effects (delays/revs/flange/phaser). Not all that psyched with the Wah - so I always run a separate Wah in front of the GNX2. The biggest mistake I think people make is treating this like a regular pedal - you should really think of it like a preamp meant to be run straight into a PA or good linear power amp. Also my rig really benefits from having a separate preamp with a 5 way EQ - so last seconds tone tweaks are easily attainable as with a normal amp, and since this preamp also drives the PA the entire sound is easily tweaked live.

Never broken on me yet. No digitech pedal has given me a problem (this is my 3rd one).

Dealt with them on the Talker trying to get a setup that would work with the GNX2 running in "effects" or "stompbox" mode. The support guy was really trying to help - so points there - but he didn't seem to know the unit all that well so I'm only rating them a 7.

I wanted to write another review because I now have over two years of experience using this thing and I've got a better idea what it does well and not so well and also how to get the best sounds out of it in different situations. When people write reviews that say these (or almost any of the modern modelling pedals suck) I think they are simply uneducated about what a modelling pedal is supposed to do and how they work best. Some of the best situations I've had are when I take nothing to a gig except the pedal and the guitar. Now I do miss the preamp setup I mentioned but I know what user patches I have that work great without any tweaking through the PA and stick mostly to those 4 or 5 and I'm always happy.

I will probably cough up the dough for a GNX3000 in the next year as I am so happy overall with the pedal, the durability and most of all the modelling quality - especially the addit. stompbox models and warping feature. These together give me a lot of flexibility and LIVE tweaking with the pedal in the "effects" mode. The lack of ability to select the V-Switch control binding is a major bummer IMO. I would like to be able to select the V-Switch to activate more than just the Wah, i.e. activate Whammy/IPS or Talker functions would be a great enhancement IMO.

It's easy to get a (basic)good sound and even easier using computer via midi, but if you want to sound more professional it'll take more time.

Editing patches is easy if you read the manual first.

Manual is ok.

Firmware: 1,6a(latest).

I'm using Cort X11 and Vantage strat guitars and Yamaha G 100 head& H|H -412bl(200watt)cabinet with it.

It's not noisy at all if you understand how it works(good noise reduction<2 types>.

Some effect's are better than others but not quite studio quality as Digitech claim's(basic effect's like delay's,reverb's, choruses... are just great).

Yes. You can get your favorite artist sounds using gnx easily (Vai, Yngwie, Jeff Beck and i think all the other's too).

Some of the distortion sound's are very convincing(nice rectifier), some are just ok. Stompbox modelling's ok quality but not exact.

The unit cover is made of metal, so i think it will last a lifetime. I think i could use it on a gig without a backup.

They say that Digitech does their job. Easy updates can be found on the internet.

I play hard rock, melodic heavy and rock/pop and gnx2 performs well in this area.

I have played for 15 years.

If it were stolen, i'd buy a new one.

I have compared Gnx2 with Vamp2 and both are good but i like gnx's amp. modelling better and Vamp's cab. modelling is better than gnx's.

Warping 2 different amp's/ cab's is my favorite feature.

Gnx2 is making it easy,, getting a great sound for recording.

Go buy it.

not terribly difficult to use considering everything in this unit. but, some things were confusing like where to edit amps vs. effects. the manual is only average so the learning curve can be a little steep. the GenEdit software makes it a whole lot easier, good stuff that.

i've owned this for a year. originally i meant to use the gnx2 direct to soundboard in a live situation. it replaced a zoom unit i was using. if you're not very demanding tone-wise it works okay for this. i would never record with this unit.

generally it's not noisy direct to board. however, on patches that have high gain the noise gate works poorly at the tail end of a sustained note. it cuts in, in a very annoying manner. don't expect to get any warmth from the modulation effects. the delay gets in the way big time if the feedback is set too high and i don't mean high in it's stated range.

played through an amp it sucks. it makes a lot of noise and it's just horrible in an effects loop. the "target system setup" sounds like nothing more than EQ variations and it's really bassy on a couple of the settings. i think it's just a gimmick.

if you use the GenEdit software the amp morphing is cool. the amp sims are probably the best thing going for this unit. don't get me wrong, it doesn't compare to real tubes (not even close), but for the price you get a cool toy.

the stomp box simulations are okay. there are distinct differences from one to the other that reflect the differences in the real ones. i think digitech comes the closest to reality in this area. i say this relative to other aspects of the gnx2, not that it really compares to real stomp boxes.

it has not broken down on me.

never used them.

this was a step up from my zoom unit, but that's all. if you're just starting out on guitar or you have little money to spend on gear the gnx2 is a cool toy. but, sooner or later you'll want more tone-wise. this is especially true if you've never played a good tube amp or tried other more dedicated effects units. this is my experience...play with these all-in-one boxes then realize you need to spend more money on the real thing.

Even with the manual this baby is extreamly hard to use. Trying to figure this thing out is like trying to learn rockect science over night. The manual sucks. They upgraded to a GNX3 right after I bought mine for full price then the guitar store closed down (where it was purchased) right after I bought it so there was no returning it.

I gonna keep this short by saying 9 out of 10 of the many effects on this pedal suck ass, even when you tweak am to your liking (which isn't easy). I basically only used a couple pre sets and a few settings that I modeled up. Sure theres alot of effects, (pretty cheesy most of em) but trust one of Gnx2 is very out dated and just down right sucks. If your gonna conjure up some signature sounds this pedal might be for you, at the end of the day though the effects are going to be obsolete and cheesy like chedder.

You can not depend on this pedal! After 4 months of using it the wah pedal broke. Next up was the whole pedal that broke (for unknown reasons) about a year after I bought it. Relying on this thing is like relying on a hooker to be faithful.

Digitech your a bunch of jerks. They never returned my emails, never, my warranty didn't meen anything at the end of the day. Digitech needs to learn to be more responsible for their peice of crap pedals.

It does nothing I want it to, it just breaks. If it was stolen I'd laugh about it. I hate it, lying dead on the floor it just gets in the way now. Once again I must say this thing sucks, everything about it sucks. DO NOT BUY THIS PEDAL!

I give the ease of use about a four in comparison to most of the other multi effects out there. The knobs don't have any play in them, one small twitch and you're way past where you want to be. I able to edit the patches once I figured it out, but I really didn't like the complex, second EQ that is madatory with every patch. There must have been a crack smoking team of money hungry business-men coming up with all the ideas for this thing.

Check out what I wrote Digitech: If there was a zero rating option, I would choose that instead.-Buy Single Boss pedals instead.

I've had this GNX2 for about 2&1/2 years. First of all, I was pissed that this was the highest model out on the market during christmas, after you all sold the hell out of them, a month later, I find that that there was a GNX3. Just caring about your profits, and not what the consumer really wants, and for that I think you're jerks. Business, business business, I'll show you where my business goes.

O.K. to add to this, I find I can't use any effect on there without first going through the EQ. Let me make this clear, I don't want to use your crappy EQ, Digitech! That really TEEEED me off.

Amp simulation? HHHHAAAAAAAA!

I'm angry to even mention every time I use the bypass feature, I can hear the difference between that and plugging into the amp directly. That agitated me even more.

Too add to this mess that you call an effects pedal, the amp trigger works half the time, ARRRRGH!

Now the damn thing beep-beeps every time I go into bypass mode, and makes a horrible sound and volume drop when I simply tap the volume knob.

Your products are gold-plated crap in a sturdy metal box. Nothing more. It would make more use as a bonfire starter than a multi-effects box. TO HELL WITH THIS RYAN'S BUFFET OF AN EFFECTS BOX, PROVIDING A LOT OF CRAP AT AN AFFORDALE PRICE. FROM NOW ON, ANY WEBSITE WHERE I CAN MAKE A COMMENT ON THIS BOX WILL BE BOMBARDED BY MY CANDOROUS DISDAIN, RECOMMEDING BOSS, ROLAND, OR ANY OF YOUR COMPETITORS IN LESS THAN A HEARTBEAT. SOMEONE NEEDS TO BUY YOU OUT!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't do it! Please! I forgot to add that the first editions of the power cords had flex tips. This is a horrible mistake. It broke and I had to buy another one for fifty dollars. That's a lot of money to me

I don't speak to people who did me wrong!

I pray that no one on this entire face of the earth ever buys this pedal ever again. I HATE this thing. The sounds create an imbalance within my soul and I feel sick inside. I can hear the profits in this box. It really hurts me that the art of making music for love has turned into a big money making scandal. Anyone who is os inclined to make a career out of music must deal with rascals at every corner. Trust is obsolete. This pedal is an embodiment of all that is wrong in the music business. WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD GUYS GONE??? Please email me before 11-30-05 if you have any desire to buy this thing, I'll try to show you what I know about it.

The ease of use on this unit is like flying the space shuttle. Even with reading the manual cover to cover it is one of the hardest units to program that I've ever come in contact with. I own a Digitech 2120VGS and it is hands down the best sounding easiest to use professional grade processor I've ever owned. That said I had both a boss GT3 & GT6 but unpleased with some of the distorted tones I decided to buy the GNX2. What a mistake.

Ok heres where this unit really stinks. You can get excellent clean tones with this unit no problem but thats it. When trying to add just a little overdrive the amp either had too much bite or not enough to get through to the final speaker. The heavy overdrive is OK but all of the other units I've ever owned either sounded better or at least as good as this. Also this thing has two eq's and one cannot be turned off or bypassed which really sucks. Each amp setting has the basic bass, mid, treble settings great. But then within each patch there is another parametric eq that has the same settings plus the high and low end frequencies are adjustable. This seems like a good idea on the surface but you will tweak these for hours to get the tone just right. My preference is to run into a combo amp with the bass, mid, and treble setting all flat and let the processor control the tone but this one is almost impossible to use. The 2120VGS has an adjustable eq I think its a 5 or 7 band but you can set it flat at 0 or bypass it. This makes the tone come from the power source and the preamp bass, mid, treble settings. Anyway it is much easier to use and sounds a million times better. Now as for the stomp box models they are way off the mark compared to the original models. The point to all of this rambling is I have owned many Digitech products over the years from the (I think can't remember all of the model names)DSP 21 Legend, The model that also came out before the Legend, Valve FX, and finally the 2120VGS, also have used the RP7 and RP10 all of them blow this unit out of the water. Digitech really screwed up a good thing they had with the RP line when the discontinued for this piece of crap!

As for this category Digitech has always produced excellent quality built gear and mine being 1&1/2 years old has never failed. I bought a back up power supply because the one that came with my Boss GT6 gave out just before a live performance and I had no back up. Needless to say my back up power supply for the GNX2 is still in its box unused.

Once again this is something Digitech has always excelled at so no complaints here. I've upgraded online to the latest software the only draw back is I had to buy a $50 midimate to connect which I believe Digitech has now made some of the GNX models USB compatible. Good Move.

Overall this unit stinks it doesn't do what I want it to most of the time. I'm going to replace it but I just don't know with what yet. I may try to find and old RP7 or better model on ebay also I've heard good things about the Line6 XT Live so I may try it. Overall I would say that Digitech did the guitar community a great injustice by discontinuing the original valve driven RP line and discontinuing the rackmount 2120VGS. Please Digitech bring it back I know this unit at $950 didn't sell big but realize the people buying this were looking for studio quality so its a small market but you guys kicked butt with this unit.

Read the manual thoroughly. You must understand this unit to use it. Then, and only then, you can get what you want. It is a bit hard to digest, but if you are smart enough, you can get this thing to work.

I like the sound I get. I play an ESP EC-1000 with SD JB/59 pickups direct into a PA system, and also into Peavey Transtube 112 EFX amp. I formerly played a Peavey Raptor Plus (now thats my backup guitar) Noise? What noise?
Effects are better than whats on the Peavey amp.
I had the chance to A/B this to a Fender Twin Reverb with a Nashville B-bender Telecaster. I played around for hours back and forth, (and also comparing the guitar to my Peavey Raptor Plus). The Fender twin reverb amp simulator is VERY close to the real fender twin. Only the most stuck up fart tarts would not like the comparison. And also, the Telecaster is superior to my Raptor Plus in every way.
I like the effects. But I had to tweak them to get what I want.
I used this to play out last year without much double check of patch levels. I jacked up a couple of songs because the levels were wrong. You can be fooled by how it sounds in your basement studio. Get a good sound check of each patch level!!

I hope. One year and ticking.

na

I play blues, classic rock, oldies, and country. This is a good match for what I do.

FOLLOW UP TO DIGITECH GNX PEDAL/GENESIS BOX and
ELIMINATING HISS

QUESTION:
Hi Neil

I read your review of the GNX2. Thank you for taking the time to figure that out, and for sharing what you learned along the way!

I have a question for you - I also noticed the hiss when using the "Direct" amp/cabinet model and will use your suggestion to turn on the compressor in an effort to eliminate that. I do have a question though. Did you turn down either the Gain or Level settings, which both default to 99 (maximum), on the "Direct" amp model? I think that having both of those maxed has caused me a bit of unwanted distortion to the bass notes on my clean sounds. I turned both of those settings down to about 75 (but didn't have the compressor on as you've suggested). I noticed my clean sound improved but unfortunately it made my gain channel of my amp sound horrible. It just killed the signal.

Any suggestions you might have would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!
David Mock

MY REPLY:
David,

Yes, this hiss is always present because of the potential output level not being reached when the compressor is not engaged-- it is latent output signal strength that is only engaged when the compressor level is boosted (which is really not a boost but a decrease in non-compressor engagement so that the compressor has some headroom to work with when its turned on)

The amp level needs to be up all the way to decrease noise, but the gain will act as an overdrive and distort the signal, exactly its function. ON the Genesis (and I believe GNX as well) boxes- you have three levels to contend with 1) gain 2) amp level 3) OUTPUT level.

1) Gain will boost, and hense distort actual tone, although it will also increase volume
2)"Amp level" (insiside the GNX or Genesis) wil boost volume, but should not distort tone, since it is POST effects-- with the exeption being if the level to the actual physical amplifier is overdriving the amp
3) Output level can and should be set low, since overdriving the physical amplifier will distort the tone.

Ideally for minimizing hiss from the GNX/Genesis,
1) raise the compressor level high- and adjust to the level of compression you want- either zero actual effect or whatever level you want. If you just turn it off, you're going to be the victim of unecessary hiss in these boxes using clean and semi-clean sounds.
2) adjust the amp level so that your patch matches the relative volume you want to all your other patches
3) minimize the output level from the box altogether to avoid overdriving your physical amp and altering the tone.


Any of these boxes, GNX or Genesis are pre-amps, so going into an amp channel, the output should ideally be exactly the same as from a guitar cord-- i.e VERY low signal level- UNLESS you want distortion-- exactly the function of a stomp box.

Neil Slade
The Amazing Brain MUSIC Adventure
www.neilslade.com

Courtesy of NEIL SLADE BRAIN MUSIC www.NeilSlade.com

Not bad, but not so easy since the controls are multi function- one button or knob has many functions, and it takes some getting used to-- but that's the price of digital stuff-- menu driven to keep costs down, to keep items compact-- you sacrifice ease and simplicity. In a live situation, this makes things difficult if you are not simply using your presets- and this is where plain separate analog effects are much better- albeit bulky. Instant grab and adjust-- no menu scrolling.

THIS IS THE BIG BIG ISSUE with digital effects, and the RP and GNX products. The sound quality is good-- but not as steller as straight through to amp and quality stomp boxes.

The difference is possibly not too relevant in a loud bar with simple settings. One needs to realize that the more complex your signal becomes, the less distinctive it will be around a lot of noise and competing noises-- add lots of effects, and your tone loses cutting power. A simple good tone, clean or distorted- this will cut through most. Start adding reverbs, and delays, and modulations-- it may sound great at home or in your car or with earphones-- on stage, it will just be mud.

AT home and in the studio-- PAY ATTENTION HERE-- a direct signal is also best. I spent considerable time comparing the sound of my guitar plugged straight into my Fender Bassman Blackface and Fender Champ, and compared this with both the processed and essentially bypassed or straight sound going through the GNX and Genesis boxes. The GNX does a very good job at reproducing the sound of the guitar-- keep in mind the GNX and Genesis devices SAMPLE YOUR GUITARS SOUND, THEN SPIT OUT NOT THE ORIGINAL ANALOG SIGNAL, BUT A DIGITAL CLONE/RECORDING OF THE SIGNAL. It is a CD quality sample, granted, at 44.1K, but nevertheless- its really not the sound of your guitar-- its a digital recording of your guitar, which the device can process in a number of ways to give you guitar plus reverb/eq/delay/modulation etc.

In this sense, the Digitech devices have come a long way in many years, and they get VERY close to giving you a pure sound. But its not perfect, not quite. For one thing-- if you turn up the gain and amp volume on the direct settings (no amp simulators) you will STILL NOT GET THE VOLUME that you would if you just plug your guitar into the amp. To get the same level, you have to crank up the GNX/Genesis OUTPUT pot-- and at the same volume level-- YOU GET NOTICABLE hiss/noise not present using a plain guitar cord into amp. Plug it into the GNX/GENESIS-- to get the same loudness, you will get some extra hiss.

Of course, if you are using one of the presets that has fuzz/overdrive/amp simulation these presets or settings encorporate methods of overdriving the sound and you don't notice the extra noixe, because its buried under the effect volume. However, if you are trying to accomplish a CLEAN sound-- it will not be as clean as a good direct to amp or through a quality stomp box clean-- all that Digitech electronics costs you a little extra hiss.

There IS HOWEVER A WAY AROUND THIS-- Turn on the COMPRESSOR effect--, that is where you are losing gain--- turn up the GAIN (all the way is fine). Then set the THRESHOLD as high as it will go, and use the least amount of compression, say 1.2:1. What this will accomplish is this will add volume without adding any compression (unless you REALLY play extremely hard), and raise the overall volume level. You can then lower the OUTPUT pot, and VOILA, you'll match the same level as a straight from guitar to amp signal and you won't be adding any of that hiss when you're using a clean sound on the GNX/GENESIS.

This should be something Digitech should put in their manuals from the very start- apparently, the devices SUBTRACT volume so that the COMPRESSOR EFFECT has something to work with. Unfortunately, this adds his to all the clean sounds, and it's not necessary. But its a fact. So, if you want to match the clean output volume of a direct guitar without any extra hiss, you'll have to make these compressor effect adjustments--- THIS IS TRUE OF EVERY DIGITECH EFFECT, GNX1, GNX2, GNX3, GNX4, and every past effect.

NOW-- given that you can eliminate this extra hiss this way-- how does the bypassed or clean sound of the Digitech pedals compare with a direct to amp sound? It's ALMOST the same.

I spent HOURS comparing the two (and three and four).

The digital reproduction is good, very good. But in the end, some of the SPARKLE is los

I've had some issues with the control knobs on a couple of Digitech devices-- they get squirrely.

I think they just use cheap mountings for their knobs- which seem to be the weak point. It could be worse, but it could be better.
What do you what for this kind of money, eh?

Not Mackie or Yamaha type quality-- one of the weak points. Probably will work-- but don't abuse these things.

Once had to get a new pedal cover, no big deal. Sufficient support.

I play everything, from symphonic music, to Captain Beefheart noise.

7.5 Good value for the money, maybe even excellent.

However, these are NOT perfect devices, but really nice tools, and are flexible and can do a lot.

Keep in mind that a good saxophone costs THOUSANDS, and good guitar is expensive (though I've got a killer Ibanez Art core that sounds amazing at $350. I own a Gibson 1980 Les Paul Standard, 1996 ES335, Ibanex Art Core, Martin 000c16C, 1977 Fender Stratocaster, Ibanez Nylon jazz acoustic, 1967 Hofner Bass, Fender Bassman Blackface, Fender Champ, Peavey solid state keyboard, guitar and bass amps.

Very Easy to Use. The Front Controls are intuitive, and with GenEdit Software you can get whatever sound you want. You can easily download lots of patches from digitech community page. My unit came with the latest firmware. The manual is good.

Im using a 2004 fender std strat, gnx2 and a Peavey KB/A 100
Not noisy at all, however some extremely high distors combined with high volume will cause this horrible feedback.
Im not an expert in effects cause before this unit all I had used was the distor and reverb of my old Marshall mg30cd. But I believe effects are very well done. Not the same for the presets included, as many people said they suck. Youll have to tweak them to get the right tone you want, this will be a long tedious task. And depends a lot on the target system you are using. Some presets may sound great with a small amp, but with a big amps they may sound muddy.
With a lot of tweaking you can get exactly the sound of your favorite artist.
I give it an 8 because its factory effects are bad (6), but once you tweak them you get exactly what you want (10)

The unit case seems built as a tank, however a friend of mine that had the same model (gnx2) told me that after a while his power supply stopped working.

Never dealt with them. The web site is a great resource.

Spend some time with it and youll get a good tone. Spend a huge amount of time with it (use GenEdit to reduce time) and youll get exactly what you want. Also make sure you visit the community pages and test some patches to get some good ideas. It it were stolen I would probably wait some time until the new edition of GNX2, the GNX2000, gets out and have enough money to buy it.

Against my better judgement, I bought a GNX2. I had been a big fan of Digitech's smaller pedals for years but with the exception of the PDS20/20, their multi-effects left much to be desired.

The last one I tried, the RP300A was simply a toy and I returned it, swearing off Digitech forever. Then I heard good things about the GNX's, so I went down to GC and tried one. Admittedly, I was in a hurry and it was noisy as hell in there but the presets sounded decent enough so I pulled the trigger.

Editing is very akward at first. As stated below the matrix takes some getting used to but once you do, it's very simple.

The manual is adequate.

My unit had the latest firmware.

I found the unit to be very quiet with good noise reduction. But as stated many times before, the effects are muddy. I found myself constantly jacking up the treble freqs on almost every preset.

The distortions are just plain awful. This has been a Digitech signature for as long as I can remember. They just don't get it. No amount of tweaking/warping could get rid of the brittle, shrill digital fizz. I'm no tube junky but for the life of me I couldn't get a warm overdrive out of this thing.

The mods are ok. Reverbs and delays way below average.

BTW: Unlike alot of reviewers here; I spent considerable time and effort exploring every possible setting. I had 30 days to return it and used 25 of those days.

Built surprisingly solid but I wouldn't dream of gigging with it simply because of the poor sound quality. This is built for home jamming maybe some recording, not gigging.

Surprisingly helpful. To a point.

I was never able to get it working on my Mac. The tech's tried but through no fault of their own they ran out of options because quite simply, it really isn't designed to work on a Mac.

It is advertised as such but the Mac must be booted into OS9/Classic. It will not run in OSX running Classic. Even still I couldn't get it to run at all. Fortunately I also own a PC. No problems there and it is a nice feature but I just wanted the ability to share presets and backup my own. The rest of it just seems like overkill for serious tweakers.

I've been playing for over 20 years. Mostly Fenders. Surf/Country/Post Punk/Some Metal/Classic rock/Rockabilly and Psychobilly. I played this through a Fender Twin, a Vox AC30 but mostly through headphones.

I've been looking for a good m/e stomper for a couple years now. I've tried the Boss ME50 (Crappy distortion), the GT6 (A little too much pedal for my use but probably my second pick behind the Tonelab SE), the Digitech RP300A (As previously mentioned, nothing but a toy), the Korg AX1500G (which I now wish I hadn't sold) and the PODxt which isn't a pedal board but I decided to try it anyways. (Painfully small menu driven) I thought about the XTLive but it too looks like more than I need.

Through all this I keep coming back to my Korg PX4. It is not a pedal board but the sound qaulity and modeling accuracy far surpass any of the aforementioned units. As far as modeling and effects, I think Vox/Korg have got it down. I think I'll probably just save up for a Tonelabs SE - more pedal than I need but they sound amazing.

This was the final straw with Digitech.

I'm done.

the GNX-2 is alot like most multi effects units out there as far as ease of use and user interface and whatnot. it took me awhile to figure out how to edit and dave patches and stuff--but once i got it its really easy. on definately cool thing is that you can create your own custom amps and save those for later use. another thing is (under user mode) you can rename and move locations of factory settings in any order you want. really cool.

im using an epiphone les paul std. a ORIGINAL '67 Gibson 331, and an ampeg gemeni 1. live i go staight into the board. i think it sounds great both ways. obviously, its gonna need tweaked differently for going straight in though. it also sounds good w/ my acoustic for delays and mods. the wah, i must say is pretty weak...passable but no crybaby by any means. the mods are pretty good....the flanger is just like my old boss bf-2. the delays aren't to bad either. its also very quite and you can get some good, controllable feedback as well. i really like the 'stacked' preset and the 'santana(#10)' but there are some retarted ones in there too......like the riffomatic. COME ON!!!!!! STUPID!!!!!!!! i guess if your going for ultimate sound quality....and arent worried about a floor unit, get the podxt for the same price....its not miles ahead, but it is a little better in a studio situation.

cant afford a back-up its made of metal......but its no boss now is it???

never talked to them.......but the kid at guitar center was really helpfull.

im in a praise and worship band at our church but i really love every thing from blues(yeah!!!!!!!) to some hard punk( brand new) to incubus and some good jazz as well. it fits me well and i think this thing is probably the best peice of gear ove ever purchased.

For as awful and as digital as this thing sounds, it should have 3 presets and 3 presets only - Suck, Bogus, and REFUND.

I've taken dumps with better tone and robustness than this sad excuse for a cheap kids toy. The clean tones are truly pathetic, and the distortion is hilariously BAD. I cannot believe anyone could give this thing more than a two?!?! Come on people. What the hell are you comparing this to? A pod or some other garbage fake ass modeler? Please. This may be one of the worst sounding pieces of shit I have ever had the displeasure of playing licks through. It was time wasted that I will never get back, and my ears are permanently scarred from the experience.

Wouldn't know. Since I got it free, I was tempted to make an ashtray out of it. I would imagine at that point it would not be very reliable.

Dunno. All of these companies are the same.

For the price this goes for, do yourself a favor and buy a good used tube amp and a put shitty fx unit in the loop. The tone of the tube amp will be superior, and the effects are just there for "filler".

No sweat.

You might laugh, but I'm playing a Larivee accoustic with twin pickups through the unit. I've got twenty presets dedicated to various accoustic sounds I want. Does exactly what I want. Particularly effective are the octave doublers and pitch offsets; makes my playing sound very rich. I'm not playing at jet-engine volumes, so signal/noise ratio is particularly important: the sound is extremely clean. Everybody who plugs in wants one---and wants my presets. I won't give up my presets, though.

Dependable.

Company support is absolutely pathetic.

Heavy folk, jazz, and nasty blues. Yeah, I'd get a new one.

The GNX2 is fairly easy to program.....the only problem I have with the interface is the "scrolling parameter values" that are necessitated by the single-line display.....it's a pain to try to remember what knob controls what parameter on what cell of the matrix, and waiting for the parameter name to scroll by (so you can tell what's supposed to happen when you turn a given knob) is a pain if you've got band mates waiting for you to tweak a sound during a rehearsal - I wouldn't try to tweeze a patch while in front of an audience. Maybe in future versions Digitech could put in push button pots so that when you push the pot down, it would bring up the name of the parameter that knob controls. Once you know the parameter though, programming couldn't be simpler.

The manual is OK, I've seen worse and better.

I'm using firmware version 1.3 (upgraded from 1.1 which was what I received the GNX2 with). The GenEdit software (which I run on a Mac G3 laptop under MacOS 9.2.2, and drive the GNX2 with a MiniMacMan midi interface) has proven extremely useful and easy to use....I spend a lot of time editing and the software makes it easy to keep track of the numerous versions I tend to come up with. It also makes it very easy to keep different batches of user presets handy - I've made several different sets for each of the bands I play with - it only takes a couple of minutes to load a completely different set of 64 patches. Great!

I use the GNX2 in FX mode rather than the default Bank mode....there's ALWAYS a brief glitch switching between presets in Bank mode (just the nature of most multi-fx boxes, I'm afraid), but by using the FX mode you've got instant access to major tone changes WITHOUT GLITCHES - and I tend to prefer a pedalboard-type control setup rather than "one button for everything", anyway.

Some minor quibbles I have with the GNX2:
I wish that the Reverb had a dedicated switch for FX mode like Delay does - as it is, you're "stuck" with a reverb that's either "on" or "off" as part of the patch structure. But at this price point it's something I can live with.

The V-Switch sensitivity can be a tad tricky to set, at least for me - too high and you can inadvertently switch on your Wah while using the Whammy effect, too low and you can't get the Wah to reliably engage when you want it.

Matching levels between patches can be tedious, as the best way I've found to adjust output volume is through the Gain settings for the Amp Models (I set levels using the mixing console meters to assure that everything is within a nominal operating range).....I try to send the sound guy as consistent a volume level as possible and let him do his job, which is to mix the sound.....but the upside is, once the levels have been set, they're ALWAYS gonna be right - another advantage of digital gear. I also use the Amp switch for solos - I make a duplicate of the Amp Model with a different Gain setting so that I can always punch thru the rest of the band when playing single-note lines.

There are times I wish I could use more effects processors at a time, or could change the order of the effects, but nothing that I can't live without - especially considering the price point of this unit.

Currently I use the GNX2 with a 1976 Univox "Lawsuit" Les Paul copy outfitted with DiMarzio humbuckers and a 1985 Bently Series 10 project guitar that's been kitted out with Schecters. I used to use a 1972 Marshall Super Lead 100 thru a custom-built 4x10 open-back cab and a custom 6X10 closed cab - but nowadays I just send the GNX2 signal directly to the PA, after splitting the 1/4" outputs to feed a power amp driving a pair of slant cab monitors so I can hear myself. Much nice to hear your sound from in front of you than from behind....and you get a "clean stage" look to boot.

As long as I set the Target System Setup to "Direct", everything sounds great. Not so happy with the "tailored for combo amp" settings, they just don't sound quite right to my ears - plus I prefer not having to haul my vintage Marshall around anyway.....

While on the subject of Marshalls - the GNX does an EXCELLENT job of replicating the sound of my old setup and can do it more reliably than the "real thing"....maybe I'm just picky, but it always seemed to me that the Marshall's sound can vary from night to night, depending on temperature, humidity, phases of the moon or alignment of the planets, my girlfriends' mood, WHATEVER.
But the GNX2 is dead-on every time.

I've got a couple of noisy presets, but these are presets I've built with INSANE amounts of gain. On the whole the unit is very very quiet.

I'm a big fan of the Rotary effect - the only way it could be better is for it to be modeled after the Korg G4 Rotary Speaker Simulator which has user-adjustable parameters for horn acceleration/deceleration and mic placement. Between the Rotary and Detune settings I can pretty much nail ANY Leslie sounds I've heard on records.

I've been able to replicate any artists' sound I've cared to go after, so far....particularly David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, even though he uses single-coil Strats and all my guitars have humbuckers. The humbucker>single-coil Pickup Simulator is simply outstanding - I now have access to more tonal variations than I've ever had in my life!

Also - using the GNX2's Whammy/IPS functions together allow me to do something I've not been able to do since my old Electro-Harmonix Micro-Synthesizer died - I can set up a patch that has an octave above, and octave below and the straight pitch simultaneously! Three pitches from one note! Really wakes up everybody when I kick it in for a solo......heeHEEEEEEE.....

The ambience effects (delay & reverb) are good and usable but not particularly outstanding...that said, I've done a fair amount of recording in ProTools and I rarely (if ever) find it necessary to use any FX plug-ins (or outboard gera, for that matter) to do something the GNX can't do on its own.

I had high hopes for the Talker effect - I had a Heil Talkbox in the past and was eager to get that function without rattling my molars around in my skull, but sadly, it just ain't quite the same....close enough for rock 'n' roll in performance situations, but just doesn't quite cut it for recording. Oh well...at least it'll keep my dentist in business ; )

The Ya Ya and SynthTalk effects are interesting novelties but not particularly usable for me. Same with the Envelope Filter.

The Chorus/Mod effects are good. I use the Phaser quite a bit. Not quite as good as my old MXR Phase 100 but definitely musical.

The Tremolo and Vibrato effects are good for all those old surf-guitar and rockabilly tunes, too. The Tremolo does a particularly good job of replicating the sound of my '66 Fender Deluxe.

The stompbox models are OK, but I get most of my sound from the Amp Models.

The Compressor and EQ on the unit are nothing short of outstanding, and are the real key to getting great sounds from the GNX2. Anyone who says they can't get usable sounds from it just hasn't mastered the use of these modules.

The GNX is built like a tank. But rock 'n' roll is rock 'n' roll, so I keep my old Korg AX30G processor handy just in case something truly drastic occurs....like a lightning strike.

I don't worry about the GNX2 going down on its own accord - but I do worry about "the unexpected", like getting beer spilled into it or a power surge/low-voltage condition. Most clubs simply aren't properly wired for AC, so that's ALWAYS a variable. (Hey, I know I'm paranoid - the question is: Am I paranoid ENOUGH? LOL)

The only contact I've had is to make a couple of suggestions for the next-generation GNX boxes, and I got a quick reply from them on that. Don't know about how they deal with problems though so I'll keep comment in reserve.....

I play a wide variety of styles and the GNX has been able to handle almost everything I've thrown at it....there are a couple of patches on my Korg AX30G that I haven't been able to replicate on the GNX2, so I can't quite give it Digitech 10 for that reason.

I've been playing for 35 years, and have gone through a long long list of gear - Marshall, Fender, Traynor, SG Systems, Peavey, Crate and Randall amps and Fender, Gibson, Kramer, Ovation ans Travis Bean guitars...along with stompboxes of every make and description - so I feel pretty qualified about commenting on the GNX2 after having owned and used it for 7 months now.

If it were stolen or lost, I'd HAVE to replace it...but I'd probably go with a GNX4 for the improvements it's made on the GNX line in regard to USB connectivity. Most of the things I'd want on the GNX2 have been added to the GNX3 and GNX4. I love the compactness and quality of the unit. The only thing I truly hate about it is the power supply, but I guess that having that transformer outside the box is what keeps it quiet and inexpensive.

I've used the Digitech RP200, the Korg AX30G and have tried several other multi-effect boxes (ART & Boss among them) and the GNX is the best bang-for-the-buck as far as my sound is concerned.

It definitely helps me make music....I can't imagine doing without it, now.

With a bit of tweaking, you can really get some amazing sounds out of this unit. Editing patches is as simple as configuring your amp/cabinet combination, going through the effects menus and configuring them with a few knobs and clicking the "Store" button three times. I especially enjoy how easy this is, because I am a blind guitar player. Since I can't read the menus, saving amp combos and patches with the knobs is a big plus. There were a few typoes in the manual, and it probably needs to be updated to reflect a few of the minor changes to the unit's firmware, but otherwise it was very informative. I believe I'm running firmware 1.3, but since I'm not able to read the display, I can't confirm this.

I mainly use this unit with a couple of Ibanez firestars I picked up a few years back along with a Mesa Boogy combo amplifier. I'm still tweaking the GNX2 to get the right sound for Metallica, Randy Rhoads, 38 Special, ACDC, and other classic rock bands. I do know that it's possible to get these sounds because other presets have been made and posted to the Digitech member area for the GNX2. The only effect that I don't like is the Ya-ya when used with the expression pedal. Everything else really sounds great, and in quite a few cases better than the Line 6 Pod.

I haven't gone gigging with this unit yet, but it's built nice and rugged. If you've ever seen the old RP1, this machine is just as solidly built. I don't think I'd need a backup unit, though if I could afford it I'd have another GNX2 ready in case something unexpected happened to this one.

I mainly play classic rock/metal, and this unit does all I need it to. I upgraded from the RP300, and damn! I keep being impressed with how much better this unit sounds in comparison. I've been playing for around six years, and the acquisition of new gear is not that often. Thus I own a Fendor Strat along with two Ibanez firestars and a Mesa Boogy combo. I love the fact that although this is a digital processor, the majority of the settings are altered using analog-style knobs. As I said above, it's great for those who can't see the display, and the added bonus of having the effects and amp models being affected in real time let you hear exactly what you're doing. Though I have perfect pitch, I wish there were some sort of audible tuner on the thing for those times when I'm in a really loud club and need to tune up really quickly... maybe something that only came out the headphone jack? If my GNX2 got stolen, I'd sure as hell replace it with another one. As for other possibilities, I checked out the Johnson J-Station and the Line 6 Pod. I was pretty impressed with both, but as we all know Johnson has gone bankrupt, and the Pod is a little more pricy. The Pod Pro 2.0 cost the same as the GNX2, but the GNX2 has so much more to offer like stomp-button presets for gigging, distortion stomp-box modeling, and more variety of things you can do with your sound that it was clearly a better bang for the buck. Granted, I could probably achieve the same with the Pod along with their $200 foot controller, but honestly! I'm a college student, and $500 is a bit much just to get a good effects unit and a floor controller.
For those skeptics out there, go demo this thing yourself at Guitar Center or a similar music store. There are also some great demos at the Digitech GNX2 Member Music area, so definitely go check that place out as well. Anyone who says you can't use this is full of it, because the manual is very straight-forward and to the point. Furthermore, a blind man can program the machine, so you don't even have to see the display to get what you want from it. This is an awesome machine, and my only regret is that I wasted my money on the RP300 when I could have gotten this instead. Ah well, that mistake has finally been corrected. BTW, I'm selling my RP300, anyone want it?