DigiTech GNX3000

Given that this is a complicated device- and you should know that before buying it- the manual is excellent, layout straightforward, and the programming very easy. I can't think of anything to complain about, so it gets high marks with me.

I have the opportunity to compare it straight-up with a VOX Tonelab, because I own both. Let me be very clear about this- the Tonelab has a much better responsiveness, smoothness, and tube breakup sound. Period. I bought the GNX3000 as a result of a great demo by a DigiTech rep at a show. But, when I got it and worked with it, it became very clear that the VOX just sounds better for mildly distored to overdriven sounds.

HOWEVER, the DigiTech beats the VOX's butt in any number of ways. You have far better tonal control than the VOX, tunable eqs, cabinets, etc. You can get inside the effects and mod them considerably better. The DigiTech is a far more versatile box and is extremely well thought-out.

It is a definite plus that you can patch in and mix outside instruments and mikes. An effects loop would have been a great addition.

The only thing that is flat-out daffy to me is that the Univibe effect has only one speed!!?? What's the deal, DigiTech? Other than that the effects are quite good.

Very well built, I don't foresee any problems.

No experience with DigiTech.

I mix a number of styles- rockabilly, jazz, folk, rock, ambient/space, and the unit responds very admirably to my diversity. I have been playing for over 40 years, I know what I like. I play Gibson, Rickenbacker, Gretsch, and Guild electrics.

The GNX3000 would probably get a 10 with me if it had a little sweeter tube sound/tube breakup when overdriven. But, to my ears, it breaks up with a harsh sound. It does NOT sound like Fenders, Ampegs, and VOXes from the sixties, I know, I was there. I intended to sell my VOX Tonelab when I got the GNX3000, because the DigiTech is far more versatile. But, I find that I am using both of them blended together to compensate for the weaknesses in each. It's too bad that I have to do this, I wish that one or the other was perfect. Oh, well.

If it were lost, I would probably scope out other high-end multi-effects such as the Boss GT-8. After all, if I am going to blend with the Tonelab, then I might as well test out units that provide great effects but don't provide good tube sound such as the Boss. As an aside, I tested the GT-8 when it first came out and the effects wow'ed me but the amp models were a digital dog's breakfast. So, I don't think anybody makes the modeler of my dreams yet.

Easy to use, very easy. The unit offers a lot of tone capability when you include the EQ of the amp cabinets. The Manual was purty good, but I thought the computer recording part of it was lacking. It comes with Pro Tracks+, but the manual for this is in the help tab of the software, no hard copy.

I had the GNX4, which I loved. But, I sold it because I wanted to record on the computer instead of the GNX 4. I wasn't to impressed with the tones of the GNX4. But, I think it has a lot to do with the amp your playing. I recently bought a BASSMAN LTD and use the GNX 3000 with it, it sounds VERY good. I believe any effects unit can sound great through a BASSMAN. So, I'm sure the GNX4 would have sounded great. I pretty much like all that the GNX3000 offers. For rythm ideas i run the GNX into my JAMMAN looper. Once I have a bunch of song ideas, I connect the GNX to the computer and use Pro Tracks to record the whole song. FUN FUN FUN ..........

no problems yet. First time i loaded the software, the drivers didn't load. So, reloaded the software the second time, and they were there.

I called the tech support once, he was helpful.

I like the unit. I like making songs up. I have a lot of fun just playing it through my JAMMAN LOOPER and the BASSMAN. Its just a simple setup.

Great sound! not sure why the other guys' GNX3000 was bad sounding. Sometimes that happens. Editing is easy. The editor loads perfectly. you have to have XP and SP1-2 along with net 1.1 framework. All of this is listed at the Guitarworkstation Forum. Same thing goes for Pro Tracks software. So many people have the wrong settings on their PC or the hardware is not capable. Go into gaming and you see all the same complaints.. Bought Halo, and it won't run on my 256mb ram. Duhhh!

The manual is good. I had a geneses 1 before this so I know a little bit of the functions are. It's a new GNX3000, so I guess the firmware is the latest since I haven't seen a new one posted. I did upgrade with the Supermodel disc. Yes, it is a very nice library for 60 bucks. From what I heard before I bought them, it is more of a model pack, than a patch library. Many patches contained. I think for references only. There are more individual amp models than patches. That gives me more than I had before and a butt load for recording. It comes with videos for how to use the GNX3000 editor and GNX3000 features. I had a bit of a learning curve but the supermodel people helped out long before I bought the pack. They seemed to know the GNX3000 real good and helped me with the whole thing. So I bought the disc. It's awesome and they are helpful! The editor is very easy to use now.

Artists? Sure you can. All the effects are great. I don't mess with artist sounds since we are doing less covers. I need to be original. My cleans and distorted amps are what I wanted. I play mine through a Crate 212 tube amp. I love the sound. Then I started playing the GNX3000 through our PA mix too. You can do that since you can use speaker compensation for PA mixers. My guitar is an passive EC1000, and Schecter C1. The sounds out of the GNX3000, amp and PA are amazing!
Chorus and Delays are really good. What I did notice is that the models in the super model disc give more of a diminsion to the effects. My band memebers noticed it too. Our PA is a behringer 24 ch, QSC amp and Yamaha 115V speakers. The mix on the GNX3000 in stereo on the XLR outs is set to be just enough and panned a little on both sides, but not as loud as the vocal mix. The 115V's handle it well.

Gigged with it about 5x so far. No problems. jacks seem sturdy and not flimsy like the Behringer V amp pro. I always have a backup stomp pedals. nobody should ever gig without a backup.

Digitech is really getting better. I used their gear before like rack type effects processors but the GNX3000 is a first for me in modeling preamp pedals. That's another thing. The GNX3000 is a preamp. When I use my amp I keep the gain of the models lower. GUITAR3456 and Ilia posted about this in the live section of the forums.

Too new to upgrade. The only upgrade I did was the supermodel pack.
The support for those guys at mfxsupermodels is right on. I called and talked to Matt and he spoke with me for an hour an a half helping me find the best cabinet models. I've emailed them 4 times and had answers in less than a day. Some as fast as 3 minutes which shocked me since it was around 1am PST, and they are EST. That means they answered at 4 am. Nobody does that! Supermodel Guys get a 10! for the category and to be fair to the GNX3000 maker, no opinion.

Original Modern Rock, but I like blues and EVH, Morse.
I have sold my MG Marshall halfstack. I like this method better. It's easy to carry up and down stairs too! I would buy another if it was stolen for sure. My favorite thing on the GNX3000 is the warp feature. Now that I know what that does, my 3000 can get so many sounds. I had the Pod Xtl and the model packs. you can't change the sounds at all. Warp allows you to change the model itself. You get a mix of amps, or you can out the same amp in both channels like they suggest. Then you just turn the gain down for CH1, Turn it up for Ch2, and then the warp you can select where you want it in between, closer to a channel green or red.

I wish it had more drum kits like the GNX4. I can make my own now that I know how to do it. Still stuck to one kit though. The GNX4 has 8 kits. I'll probably buy that GNX soon too.

The recording pkg is good. It's not Sonar but looks very similar. The hands free recording is easy to use. Some PC's have had driver problems I've read but mine was 1-2-3 presto! I have a Compaq media center with XpPro added, 1Gb ram, Pent D, and it works effortlessly. I wish it had spdif, but USB is fine for me. I've found that the band could have used the on board recorder like the GNX4. I'll probably buy that too along with the supermodel packs. With 2GB memory cards getting cheap and 6hrs of recording in 8trks that would work well for the band.

the interface is idiot proof (so g3456 shouldnt be able to work it_
Patch editing via the matrix is intuitive.
The manual is informative but not enlightening.
I have version 1 = no upgrades.

This is simply the best guitar pedal out there.
It beats the PODS ans BOSS and TONELAB pedals hands down,
I own the POD Pedals and i love the analogue feel of the effects (wich i prefer to the digital feel of the GNX) but the amp models are just no comparison - the GNX3000 is simply the best = wins hands down!
it beats my friend's Tonelad SE easily - and it has the most glorious Univibe effect - very "bridge of Sighs"
Y
his unit is glorious!

When recording DI it is often ok as it is, but sometimes i will add BBE Sonic Maximiser plug ins and or compression/reverb,etc... but you cant imrpove on perfection y'know?

There's a guy on the GNX forums called Guitar 3456 who will try to sell you a disc of patches for 60$ = dont bother - they are very low quality and you can create your own for free. Also the digitech forum has its own free patch sharing community wiich is very cool.

solid

excellent

its just great for bass and guitar and as an external USB ASIO soundcard = really difficult to find fault with this unit!


i made the first post on Harmony-central for the GNX and im back to reaffirm what i initially said!

this one is a KEEPER! no addotions or alterations necessary.

yours faithrully

Archon

Very Easy to use, you'd have to have an IQ of a dog not to figure this out. Comes with software too, oh yay!

Aweful, I don't know what all of these glowing reviews are but this thing sounds like ass in a can! I've owned it for 6 months, and that's 6 months too long! Maybe some of the people on here never heard a real tube amp, it is Digital to the point of wanting to rip my ears off my head, either that or throw it down the stairs or out the window, or it makes a great paperweight in a windy office! The sound quality on this is aweful, and the supermodels disc does not help it at all. Forget about recording music with this, it does not mix well in any mix! This is another modeler product gone wrong. and no, I did not get a defective unit, I use several guitars into several diffrent tube and SS amps, and believe me, keep looking because this thing again like I said, sounds like ass in a can.

Seems reliable, but I guess we'll see how reliable it really is after i throw it out my 8 story window from the noise it prduces.

Worst customer support ever. When I first bought the product there was a discclaimer on the page that said "If this product does not satisfy you within one year Digitech will refund you the full purchase price", well guess, what. That was marketing bullshit to get you to buy the product. I contaacted Digitech for this and they said it was 30 days and not 1 year. Hmm, well the printout i'm looking at says here 1 year, but then they change the story to 30 days. Now when I look back at the page, they changed it, probably because it sounds so bad everyone is returning them! The price seemed to have dropped fairly fast afterwards, and now they do not honour their warranty. This is the last time I ever buy another Digitech product. If they can't stand by their words, what good are they? Not besides the fact that it sounds like a retarded Bass player. Digitech has gone downhill. I can't believe they would falsely advertise such things! Down with Digitech! Down with fizzy modelers!

Overall, this thing is an expensive paperweight. Considering Digitech does not honour their false advertisments, I have to say over all this product is garbage and Digitech is the worst company to ever deal with. Don't buy this product, you don't have to take my word for it but then again, leaves do fall from the trees.

it takes some time to find out, the manual is only available in english, with a lot of technical therms.

sound is great, with seymour duncans humbuckers its super.
just what i always wanted.
ajustable nois reduction is super.
distortion very divers and sounds great.
chorus and reverb very digitech = super.

no plastics, all metal, very strong

the dutch "importeur" can not provide a dutch manual.

You need a P-IV pc with at least 1,2 Mhz processor,256Mb mem. and winxp sp2 for recording and editing.
If you do have all these its great fun to make your own thing.
sofware that comes with it, is easy to use.

Once you use browse through the manual editing is a breeze. I setup the included software on my PC no problem, I didn't get the unit for recording though. The software is optional. Digitech has a GNX Workstation forum which is very helpful. www.guitarworkstaion.com. You can upload and download patches and post recordings aswell.

At home I'm running this through the fx return on 50 watt SS, live direct through PA. To me this sounds great the amp models are top draw very organic, the fx are of a high standard also though I'm not really big on fx. I don't really like to imitate other peoples tone so I tend go with whats pleasing to my ears and stick with it for what ever I'm playin, there are only two tones IMO anyway clean or dirty. My guitars are a Ibanez RG570, American Series Strat & a Epi Les Paul. I use the unit in stompbox mode so I setup the green channel for clean the red channel for distortion and select a stompbox for lead boost, there is no delay whatsoever in stompbox mode. ALways make sure speaker compensation is on, it's of by default.

Had this unit for 3 months so far so good. I have a RP 100 which has lasted about 6 years and still going.

Never dealt with Digitech.

I play mainly blues\Rock SRV, Guns N' Roses, Lenny Kravitz and some Maiden n Metallica etc. I've been playin 6 years. I've played out using a 5150 and a Matchless and they sound great. But my GNX3K sound great aswell it's different but it is still great. If I had a tube amp I think I would be worrying all the time if it was gonna break down on me then there is the cost of maintaining it. Let's be honest when you play a gig most of the punters don't care what gear you have they go to be entertained and get drunk. It's only the miserable guitarists in the crowd that will be there analyising the bands guitarist and what rig he has, all I can say to you is get a life, life is to short.

The pedal is straight forward. Edits are much easier after reviewing videos at mfxsupermodels site. The manual is good but I've seen better. You won't hardly need the manual once you see the videos. Like having a tutor, thanks MR3456! Firmware is the latest and no upgrades are required yet that I know of. 9 for a manual that could have been better.

I use a PV 5050 stereo amp through an Ear Candy buzzbomb. Epiphone Les Paul and it's perfection. My Pod XT live through the same setup sucked! It made my Ear Candy sound like garbage!

I can get any sound, most artist tones are easy to acheive or create. The stock patches are okay but again, MR3456 is a wizard at this stuff. I have the supermodels for the 3000 and it simply blows my mind! There should be an area to review that by itself!

Distortions are great and effects are good. Surprisingly with the amp models on the Superpack there are not really distortion boxes used. It's all amp tone and modeled distortions. I add sparkeldrive to get a little more on some patches and it's so easy to do. Like this: Click! See how easy? Yeah it's that easy!

Sound quality gets a 10

It's metal. It's black and has a much larger display area which I like much better than the VOX or Line 6 units.

I have gigged with the GNX3000 8 times in 3 months. I figured 90 days for a review! Seems durable enough for me

Customer Support is great. I had a prob with the PC and drivers and support was there just by searching the workstation forum. I also contacted MR3456 and he helped me sooner than anybody else. I did not even purchase from him at that time. Very friendly. He referred me to other Digitech Tech Supt reps and the response was better than expected. I did a dumb thing and installed drivers before my GNX was hooked up to that USB setup. I know how to do many things now. Support gets a 10

I play metal and Classic Covers. Most of the sounds are there if you want them. You have to have a good guitar cabinet for anything to sound good. Save up for an Ear Candy cabinet. You won't regret it. I would buy this again for sure!

I compared to Boss Line6 and VOX and GNX3000 wins. It hands down with superpacks leaves the previous ones I owned in the dust!

The only thing I do not like is the dial wheel noise on the drum machine selection. You can use the up down buttons to do the same thing and not have the noise. I just think the noise should not be evident when switching drums with the dial wheel. Other than that the unit performs above my expectations.

After hearing so much about the GNX4 and additional features I thought I would not need I kinda wish the 3000 had them. It's another 100 of so for that unit. For me the 3000 has plenty. Just not the onboard stuff I would have liked. I chose this unit because it had what i wanted for the price I was willing to pay. I added sixy dollars for the Supermodels which was definately worth it.

With the Protracks software recorder I can make songs easy. I can practice sessions easy and the GNX3000 has made me a better player and performer. My band loves my tone. My guitar setup can easily stay with our lead guitarists Mesa Nomad and stomp floor boxes.

I can't give this one less than a 10 because my only pet peive ( the drum noise for switching patterns) is solved by using a different knobs for the function. So it gets another 10

This unit can do soooo much, yet it is very easy to operate and create patches. The matrix is very easy to use but the software makes it even more easy.

The manual is good and easy to read.

The order in which the amps and effects are located are fixed. For some people that may be a limitation but for me it is great. I never changed the order when I was using stomboxes so I won't miss this feature.

I have had or at least worked with pretty much all of the Digitechs competitors (Korg, Line6 etc) and the GNX3000 has the best amp sims around. This was the main reason why I chose this one.
I have my favorites but most of them sound awesome. Most of the patches I created are factory default with some adjustments.

Warping is a truly magnificent feature. You are able to create new amps that sound exactly the way you want them. I downloaded some patches from the Digitech site that emulate Engl amps (not present as default) and they sound great.

Most of the time I use headphones but in the weekends I plug it into the FX loop of my Tech21 amp. Both situations sound great. Like most of the reviewers allready said: Turn off the speaker simulation when using an amp !!

Also important: If you really want to benefit from the amp sims you have to use an amp that doesn't colour you tone too much. It should be as neutral as possible.

I rate this 9 because 10 would mean perfect... and nothing is perfect.

I bought this thing 5 weeks ago so it's a bit early to judge. It is very well built (metal housing) so I don't expect it to break very easy.

never dealt with them (yet)

I play mostly blues/rock (20+ years) so my favorite sounds are slightly overdriven/distorted. This unit however has also very good metal sounds which I use more and more. I keep discovering sounds that make me play more different styles and i guess that is a good thing. With this many features it is hard not to experiment.

It is quite difficult to choose the right multiFX unit nowadays. There is a lot to choose from. For me this unit is the best: the best amps sims, very good effects, easy to use. Somebody who likes to tweak more than he plays might go for the Boss GT8. If you want an endless list of amps you might like Line6 POD XT Live because you can buy lots of expansion packs.

editing patches is really easy using the unit itself - the tricky part is getting your head around the warp, but as soon as you do = cakewalk!

There are no menus to scroll through on the tone editing side (there are a few on the configuration/output setup - but they are very good) its all pretty much what you see is what you get.

Using ex-edit makes everything much simpler.
The manual is great i think.
I think its pretty easy to get a good sound - most of the stock sounds are excellent as they are - i like that there are some direct patches with no amp or cab modelling (just stompboxes) that you can plug into the front of your amp and have footswitchable OD/Modulation/delay and wah right there with no tweaking - excellent!.

This pedal is so useful its difficult to find fault. First of all if you switch speaker compensation on (it nocks of the top end - just as a speaker cabinet would - it's off as default on the 1/4" outs - i guess DT assume people will be using headphones or XLR to desk and only 1/4" to amps - but i think a lot of people get tripped up by this.) you can use it as an amp modeller and you can plug it into your pc and record with all of the major distortion wah pedals/stompboxes/ post effects/amps and cabinets of the last 50 years and they all sound great. But you can also switch the speaker compensation off and plug it straight into your amp and use it like you would a chain of stompboxes = and it still sounds great ;) Some people have complained that you cant alter the order of the effects chain - but i dont think you need to. You can have is as pre delay or reverb and it will still sound cool if you turn the stompbox on, and if you are recording DI to your pc it will be as if you have the effects post amp, like you would with rack equipment - it makes sense to me, i like it.
I love recording direct to pc with it - but i also love running it through my vox AD30VT with the amps reverb and using the GNX for wah/compression/IPS/Whammy/pitch shifting/Distortion stompbox modelling/delay/modulation effects etc..etc..etc.. The univibe setting made my freind (who loves dave gilmour and hendrix and owns a tonelab SE) very jealous and when i switched the drums on i think he was ready to cry! I think the GNX held up really really well to his Tonelab aswell = very clear and pristine sounding.
The guitar you use will affect the sound a lot - some of the presets for SRV and hendrix were a bit naff i though - but that's becuase i was using an LP - when i plugged a single coil guitar in = wow!

very solid - some people have had problems with the software side, driver issues and the like - but ive got no complaints.

i play everything and anything - i love blues and rock mostly and i think this pedal was made for that. There are a lot of marshall amps in here (not that im complaining!) i really enjoy hooking the JTm45 up to a Nice cabinet and wacking a little pro co rat distortion into it. I have it hooked up with speaker compensation on the XLR outputs running to a mixer into my hifi and the 1/4" outputs switched with speaker compensation switched off running to my VOX amp - so im all set for DI PC recording, or MIC'd amp recording at the flick of a switch! I have previoulsy owned a v-amp2, wich is excellent - i would strongly recommend it for people with not much money and i also have a POD XTL = wich is also very good but different, i wouldnt like to say the POD or the GNX is better than the other as they are both excellent - i think thay are on a level, but the ins and outs and config settings of the GNX make it more useful and there is more detail in the amp models i think, the POD has more amp models to choose from (if you get all the model packs) and more analogue sounding effects, but lacks the drums/ins and outs and expression settings of the digitech.