DigiTech GNX3000

Like most modern multi-effects pedals, there's a bit of a learning curve that must be navigated before you can really get to grips. Fortunately for me, it wasn't that long before I was editing patches and effects with consumate ease. Ease of use will always vary from person to person though. I think if this is your first effects pedal, you might have trouble getting to know it. Having said that, in my experience, it's easier to use than the Zoom, Vox and Line 6 equivilants. The only thing easier to use for me are the boss pedals, but I can't help but think they sacrificed features to promote ease of use on their newer pedals... that could just be me?

The manual is... hefty. To be fair, it repeats itself a lot and the majority of it is taken up by the USB and MIDI implimentability of it, so it's no surprise it's so freakin long! Despite it's offputting length, it tells you pretty much everything you need to know... not that I've read it all!

What you've got to tell yourself when using this pedal is: "The sound you want is there, you just gotta find it." Occasionally it can take a while, but 99 times out of 100, the sound you want is in there somewhere if you spend a while looking for it.

The mild distortions (for heavier blues and indie stuff) are very good. The highs and lows are all there, but they don't smother the mids, which is nice too see from a DSP effects pedal for once. The fender amp simulations I like particularly. I can't say I've heard the originals from which these sounds are modeled (I don't think many people will have heard a genuine 1957 fender champ in person. Right?), but the important thing is they sound good! The marshall 800 and 900 are both good too. Great for the Oasis style indie solos.

Not all of us can settle for just a mild distortion, and DigiTech obviously knew this, so they threw in some mean, dirty, uber saturated ones too! I'm no hard rock or metal guitarist, so my opinion on these distortions may well be standing alone here. The dual rectifier I love. I used it to try and replicate Santana's unique sound and it wasn't far off. All the others... they have their uses, but for me, the sounds a little so saturated to work with. Sometimes that might be a good thing?

The clean sounds and light distortions are also pretty good. Clean sounds are the Taboo sound of DSP effect pedals. It's my opinion that no matter how hard companies try, you can't get any cleaner than a good ol' tube amp. Needless to say, the cleans on the GNX3000 are still pretty impressive. I've used them for a bit of Jazz and a bit of blues, amongst other things, and they work quite nicely.

The acoutstic simulator is a nice feature, and it sounds alright too, but never, repeat, NEVER consider it a replacement for a real acoutsic guitar. It's simply there for convinience in live performances.

Effects are all good. Wahs are nice if you tweak them right. Whammy is a lot of fun (probably sounds good too if you know how to use it, unlike me!). Lovin the UniVibe, deep and phat, just as it should be. Chorus is pretty good. Phaser and Flanger both better than any other I've seen on a DSP unit. Reverbs and Delays... well you can't really ever hear a bad one, the idea is you don't notice them that much anyway!

Looks strong enough. Haven't gigged it yet... but it's time will come! I think I'd score it a 30 on the "how many minutes would this thing last on stage with Pete Townsend" scale... so it's gotta be pretty robust!

My GNX3000 didn't have a power supply in the box. Annoyed I was, but I had another digitech power supply handy which worked.

I emailed DigiTech about a month ago about fixing this problem and I still haven't got a reply... that's one long coffee break huh? I'll probably send them another, slightly more abusive email in the coming days.

Whilst on the subject of power supplies, I believe Digitech engineer their pedals and power supplies so that you can only use a digitech power supply with their pedals. How annoying is that!?

I like the general ethic DigiTech had when the made this pedal. I summarise it by "Take out all the useless stuff that players don't need and make sure everything else is as usable as possible." A great example of this ethic is that the preset patches are actually quite usable! Wow... a multi-effect pedal with usable preset patches!? Credit to DigiTech for that. Putting the players ahead of their ego is something companies like Zoom often fail to do. Speaking of presets though, there could have been more user preset patches. 65 is alright, but there should be at least as many user patches as factory preset ones. There are 130 of those.

I can't think of anything off the top of my head that I want that it doesn't have! Ah! The drum machine doesn't play a 5/4 drum beat... how I am supposed to play Take Five now!? Seriously though, it's not a huge problem. If I wanted a drum machine, I would have bought one. The onboard drum machine is acceptable, only if you consider it and extra, not a feature.

Out of the Boss GT-8, Zoom 9.2utt, Line 6 Floor Pod, Vox Tonelab SE and Korg AX3000 and the GNX3000; I chose the GNX3000 because it has more features and I had a feeling the sound quality would be better. Whether it's better or not doesn't bother me now, it's still darn good!

For the money I paid, I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Its Pretty Easy to go and play with using the factory loaded presets but when you get into it it can be tricky. I'm mean there is endless possabilitys with this product i bought it august 15 2006 and i'm still figuring out better ways to use it. Like i have it set to where all of the 1-1/2 step songs are tuned down a 1-1/2 step throught the gnx meaning my guitar is in standard tuning when it sounds like its tuned 1-1/2 step down you can also tune down lower or higher. Getting the perfect sound is the hardest thing in my opionon. But now i have figured out how to use the x editor librarian
now i can just go to the presets page and download them then store them. But if you have the right recsources the ease of use just gets easier.

the sound quality is fantastic if it starts to get out of shape or to noisy the settings are not set all that great. You can program so many diferent sounds you just have to do it right.

It has never messed up other than a glitch when i hook it up to my computer it'll go automaticly to user preset 38 but i don't plan on using a computer on stage. So yes i would use it at a gig without backup

They are very helpful they gave me links to get x-edit and told me where to get microsoft.net framework in order to use x-edit they told me about the drivers and the programing and all of what i didn't figure out on my own i suggest you give them a call once or twice.

This covers any style of music, and for me i play a lot of different kinds of music it is perfect. The other day at guitar center i was talking to this guy about an amp he knew i had the gnx 3000 he was talking to me obout the line six spider 3 amps and i played with it and i was messing around with the settings and it is not at all like the gnx 3000 there is so much more you can do with this thing.

not too hard,especially if you have used these 'all in one' pedals before...some aspects of editing this aren't totally intuitive to me(morphing for one)but otherwise OK. i thought the manual was
somewhat easier to get through compared to others i've read-you really don't need it to get your own sounds happening but it's good for reference.

i use the gnx3000 mostly for direct recording and onstage without an amp-the sound quality/amp models work very well for me when used this way. the seperate 1/4 outs with defeatable cab emulation is a cool idea,but the gnx through an amp is a bit shrill and thin. i have heard of some people using this with a power amp/cab setup which makes more sense-less 'coloring a color' going on...to be fair,i've had the same problem when using my old POD with an amp so maybe it's just part of the deal with modelers? another thing i found strange is that the compressor has a very noticeable latency when on-i called about it and the guy was helpful,but in the end confirmed that the latency was there to stay(though it's better depending on how the attack is set)...suffice to say i don't use the comp! the other effects are all useable,but i usually stick with the delay and sometimes the chorus/trem/rotary.

i've used the gnx in a bunch of situations for about 8 months as of this writing-album and demo sessions,various gigs...it is a very reasonable amp substitute(as they all seem to be these days)but if you want to use it WITH an amp,try it out first-you may want to just go with standalone pedals.

I found the user interface a little confusing at first, mainly because you have 2 different amp models at once and it is hard to figure out how to tweak the amp you want. Once I got the X-Edit software working it became MUCH easier to tweak sounds.

I have owned pretty much every preamp/modeler ever made. I still own a PODxt in addition to the GNX3000, and in the past I owned the GT-8, all the Rocktron preamps, J-Station, Marshall JMP-1, Peavey Rockmaster, ADA MP-1 and many others. I think this unit sounds much better for direct recording than it does through an amp. The huge lag when you switch presets also makes it lousy for live performace. I purchased the MFX supermodels and it made a HUGE difference in how much I liked this device. I still had to tweak the MFX models to get what I wanted, but they got me where the factory models/presets couldn't. I really like the cleans, high gain, and the bass sounds that I can get with this unit. For direct recording I find myself using the GNX3000 more and more. I still like the PODxt for certain sounds, but overall I think the GNX3000 sounds more natural and less synthetic. The effects are pretty good, but not as good as the GT-8. When I try to do smooth violin-like volume swells the volume does not swell as smoothly as I would like, but the other pedal based effects (wah, whammy, etc.) work and sound great. I have also used this through my church's PA system with good results. I rate this a 9 for direct recording, but only a 6 for live use.

Seems well built. Owned it for about 2 months without any problems. Unlike my PODxt which seems to freak out on occasion and change settings on it's own, this unit hasn't done anything weird.

I had problems getting the X-Edit software to work. They responded to my e-mails pretty quickly, and eventually sent me the missing file I needed to get the software to work on my pc.

I play mostly hard rock/modern rock as well as 80's metal. I also play mellower stuff for church, so I need something that gives me a wide range of sounds. I have been playing for almost 20 years, and I have bought and sold more gear than I care to remember. If you buy one, then I would definitely spend another $60 for the MFX supermodels. That is money well spent. I like that they included bass amp models and cabinets (good ones) without buying an additional model pack.

Well, i just got this on the 6th of december (pre release), and so far with non extensive use; about 6 hours, It is actualy quite easy to use. However if your the kind of person that just rushes into effects procesors you may want to take a really deep breath and prepare to be a bit confused. READ THE OWNERS MANUAL. The owners manual is really easy to read and easy to use, any piece of equipment that is as complicated as this you wont be able to figure out all the cool editing options. As far as i can tell so far the flexability with editing on this is great, but remember that ive only had about 6 hours straight use of this.

Lets just say this, any effect that i ever wanted out of a single pedal is in this one processor. for example: there are pedal effects from jimi hendrix, led zeppilen, black sabbath, pink floyd, and many many more. Out of 118 different models I only disliked one, it was really loud at a defening pitch, but i suppose that could have been fixed if i had turned it down ha. also you must remember i havent had the time to expierement with them all on an extensive basis. Also you have 3 different effect channels (if you could call it that) that you can use simaltaniously to create numberous effects. The set up that I have for this is a Gibson SG Classic Electric Guitar with P-90 Pickups and with a fender combo amp (unsure of the model at this moment). The effects are in no way weak what so ever, if anything they have either that kick your looking for or that perfect mellow sound, its extremly customizable.

well, with only 6 hours of use i would have to say that im not sure

well i work for guitar center so if you were to call me i would help you for as long as you needed and if i didnt have an answer i'de find out for you. as for the manufacturer i've thus far never had a problem with them

without writing a book about it, I play anything i can think of, mostly indutrail, rock, alternative, rap, techno, under ground, among others. Ive been playing numberous instruments for about 12 years now. I own mixers, synths, pre amps, moniters, many many interfaces, guitars, basses, drums, digital pianos', violins, madolins, and a chello. I've already ordered two more if that tells you anything. Well, what i love is how amazingly flexable it is. What i hate about it is, of course, i dont like reading owners manuals but to use this to its full functionality you have to read the owners manual. My favorite is the swell and the phazer effects AWSOMELY AMAZING.

It is not too difficult to go through and learn the menus. However, I do believe that the navigation could be improved a lot. Have not tried the software.

I have tried this several times in stores. I haven't bought it yet. So obviously I am not too impressed. The reason for trying out this unit was that I bought a used GNX2 and liked it. I went to musicgoround to trade it in. Anyway I didn't but the gnx3000 and I don't have the GNX2 anymore also. Which was a decent unit. A mistake. Sound-quality-wise these digitech units sound nasal and muted. Its like an amp has a giant bowl covering the front of the amp. May be that is a good idea. Most amps remind me of muted trumpets of sorts. There are good sounds in it also. Clean sounds are very nice. Distorted and amp sounds are rough and choppy. Like machine whirring, or a power tool. As compared to this the GT-8 sounded better, however its sound was the same as the GT3 and so with added features. Still not bad, has many sounds. It has 4 DNA chips. Where does that help ? I have no idea.

One hears about digitech switched failing much much more than say Boss units. I had to replace two switches on my GNX2.

Have not dealt with them.

Overall, 6 or 6.5. It does give you lots of sounds "based on.." amp models. Lacks the capability of two separate amps on two separate channels. Has a lot of signal routing capability but does not route one item to one output. only stereo to xlr or 1/4 outs or mono. but not one amp to 1/4 right output and clean amp to 1/4 left and mic to xlr left and line in to xlr right or so. Then again this is not really a mixer. Still versatile and useful. Has only one effects chain setup. Unlike the Boss units where you can move your distortion or wah or whatever to anywhere in the effects chain in any order, you can't change the order of effects in the GNX3000, it is set to one optimal setup. which is not too bad I guess.

Intuitive controls, especially if you've owned a digitech product before.
Very easy to edit, Xedit software is excellent and easy to use.
Manual could be a bit more descriptive but it effectively shows how and where to change all the parameters.

The amp modeling is amazing, especially if you buy the MFXsuperseries CD, the Mesa Triple Rectifier and Marshall 1987 Anniversary Stack really need to be heard!
Sounds are clear and with out fuzz, unit produces high quality clean and high gain tones.
Admittedly I haven't played through all the real life amps that can be modelled and I'm sure the really thing is better but to my ears this is as near as you'll get with out actually buying them all.

The amp morphing is really useful and incredibly easy to use, all patches really easy to modify using the Xedit software.

The effects are all top quality and provide plenty of diversity in creating the sound you want.

The stompbox models are also a nice touch and add even more variety.

Have owned for over a month and have had no problems with the unit or any of the software.

Haven't had cause to contact digitech.

I previously owned a Digitech RP7 and really liked it, you could get some really nice tones out of it with a bit of effort and liked the fact it was valve powered.
However the quality and variety of tones you can get out of the GNX3000 is truely amazing, especially as I've not really delved that deeply into it yet.
It may not have any valves but in my opinion this doesn't matter as the proof is in the sound it produces not how it does so.

I play mainly music from bands using Mesa Rectifers and Marshals (Blink 182, Smashing Pumpkins etc) and this unit is perfect for me, it can near as damit replicate the amps I need and has pretty much all the effects I need as well.
Plus if you look you can find some really good deals.

just wanna say , i do not have this units but i spent 7 hours comparing between This GNX-3000 and the Boss GT-8 so it'll be a comparison more than a review.. guess some of u needs it! cos i did:

Gnx-3000 :

i never used digitech products before.. it's a first, and i couldn't understand anything on this pedal , it's hard! really hard.. but for someone who uses digitech products he might find it simple..so i give it a 1 rating for a new digitech user.


GT-8 :

everything is writting bellow the knobs, it's clear.. for a GT series Boss user it's really easy .. many parameters to tweak but nothing is hidden.. i'll give it 8 for a boss user, and 1 for a new user.

I read many reviews before i buy butu can know unless u try!


GNX-3000 :

Clean tones are awesome! really it's like playing the reall amp , but higher gain sounds.. seems to be TREBELY , and so thin.. i tried to fix that with the EQ .. the sound got worse with the EQ.. the presets just the clean tones are good.. didn't like any of the high gain presets.. the whammy rocks, maybe i did something wrong to make it sound thin , im not sure..but i like the Talker , it's really cool and sounds good too..BUT NOTICE THAT THERE's ALMOST 0,5 SEC BETWEEN SWITCHIN PRESETS.. digitech done that really bad! what were u thinking!


GT-8 :

As ur searching the presets there's some weird sounds...synth delays.. TIESTO stuff! , it's really great.. i liked some of the high gain presets..and the best effect that i liked is teh FEEDBACKER , it sounds so reall!
the output selection is great.. u can choose the output type that u want..and no Delay between presets switching..and great screaming wah!


well ill give the both pedals an 8.. cos 9 will be for the better products..and nothin take 10!
so an 8 for both will be great .. cos those 2 pedals , u do really have to tweak to get ur tone..
so if u can't tweak and u just wanna plug-n-play go buy a behringer and leaves those pedals for the big boys!

Both pedals have steel chasis.. and they'r heavy.. u need both of ur hands to carry it .. it's a 10 for both pedals.

Do not try to compare between those 2 pedals by readin reviews.. u need to try it urself.. it's lot different from here! the Gt-8 is something else that the GNX-3000.. it's like comparing an apple to an olive!

very easy to manipulate the settings - both with the hardware and with the editing software. The software lays everything out in front of you - using the hardware interface is slightly trickier but the matrix layout is a good design (although vulnerable i think)
The manual is big and covers everything.

The GNX3000 is a strange beast = a lot of the presets are excellent, when recorded they sound warm and tube like and detailed (check out the product video on the Digitech website). But creating my own sound is trickier. Ive had a number of Digitech units over the years and ive always felt the same way about this = the tone is in there but its almost like an occult science trying to get to it.

Some of the presets (like dream for example) and most of my creations feel cold and digital. i can use plug ins to warm them up - and ive even tried using valve preamps to help but there is something unsatisfactory about the sound that i can put my finger on.

Often it records well, but it doesnt play well - the sound doesnt leap out of the speakers at me. Its best with pa or monitors - ive tried it with amps in front, in the effects loop, cabinet modelling off and on - or even just as a stompbox and effect units but i didnt like the sound. Its best working on its own - but i dont find it fun to play - i feel happier with the pod xt sound over the speakers to be honest - much warmer and smoother, although less detailed and quite heavily 'produced'.

I love the layout and the package as a whole - its riddled with effects and amps and sound possibilities are pretty much infinite with the warp function but to me it is hit and miss = not bad, but not amazing = but amazing is what you want isnt it?

i preferred the tone of my old RPX400 = in comparison it felt very warm and smooth and was only a 16 bit machine - maybe thats the problem?

I dont know = i cant find it in myself to love the gnx3000 no matter how much i want to - i think ill wait and see what the rp350 sounds like, or wait another year until the rp350 technology ends up in the gnx5 or something. Another thing im looking forward to with the rp350 are the 'brand name' effects theyve got on there - I love the line 6 effects for this reason rather than (bar the univibe/octavia and the stompboxes) generic lexicon effects on the GNX3000.

I dont know - maybe its psychological but there is just something that niggles me about this unit and stops me from feeling happy with my purchase.

its very solid but so much of it is plastic - the knobs and the matrix dont look like they survive and encounter with a size 10 boot.

pretty poor. Whenever ive had to deal with them ive always been underwelmed by the response.

The unit has the capacity to cover basically any style - i love the hardware side of things - the dual XLR outs aswell as the 1.4" outs is great - noiseless setup to PA - maybe some kind of in ear monitor - thats the smallest backline you'll ever have to carry to a gig! I love its comapctness and design.

The tonelabs record well - they have a similair feel i think - but the tonelabs just do that tube feel better (because they have one!)they're also huge!

I still prefer the sound of digitech for recording above the line 6 stuff - but at the moment im enjoying PLAYING using line 6 tones over the GNX.

Its a genius piece of equipment overall - but missing one crucial element = feelgood factor!

I also dislike the whole supermodels thing - turning a forum into a place of business, not cool - and now everyone's jumping on the bandwagon - it never used to be like that. Sad days....

I've had mine about 2 months. Editing ahhh.. so so. The video from the MFX super site help a lot. The manual doesn't share much in detail. Nope, no upgrades yet. Supermodels are 3rd party so I won't categorize them here as a factory update or upgrade. The pack is a nice amp model addition despite what a couple guys have said. They work better on my Carvin legacy.

Sounds, sure no prob. I crank through my Legacy and it sounds great. I asked Digitech about my cabinet color and they said to use a PA. Well, I emailed mfxsupermodels support and they MADE me a cabinet model to use with this pedal and Legacy cab. Now that was cool!

It doesn't seem noisy. I get noise with the USB cable but I think that's my PC. Effects are good. Univibe effect is lacking. The effects seem weak compared to the GNX4. I'm not sure why.

Rugged build. I've jammed with bands with this and they like it too. Pedal squeaked but that was fixed with some R5 lubricant.

Digitech support is good. Supermodels makers is A1. Videos, email support or you can call them. Great group to work with and they know exactly what you are talking about. Digitech support no opinion yet.

From Rock, Blues, Country. This unit does well. If it were lost I'd go for the GNX4. That unit does much more and has little latencie. That part bothers me a little so I use stompbox mode. It's a little better but not as noticable. I tried the GT8 and Zoom 7.1 9.2. Digitechs lately have caught on to better modeling. Besides supermodels aren't made for PODS or Boss. At least not yet.

I wish the GNX3000 had on board recorder but I wouldn't expect all the GNX4 features at this price. Either way it's a good buy with one of the best model pack solutions if you want. I can use mine okay for recording but since I have comp hardware limits I should have got the GNX4 and imported wavs all day and night to any comp based program. ASio did not work for my computer either but I think it's the PC. For the price I paid including the supermods I'm happy.