DigiTech GNX3000

For a complete n00b you MUST read the manual first otherwise the amp/cab/warp/eq selecting will be a total nightmare. I came from a Digitech RP200A so was already familiar with how to edit and save presets. If it was just for my experience i'd give it a 10, but for a beginner it is quite hard. X-Edit (the PC editing software) is a breeze to use and is always good for when you cant be fuked bending down every 2s to adjust the dials on the pedal itself like i had to do with the RP200A. Do not be put off by its ease of use at the start though, you will definitely get used to it.

Okies, straight out of the box this beast sounds like a fukin piece of shit. If the factory presets were the best sound you COULD get then i would not waste my money. Fortunately i knew this was capable of nailing every sound possbile with the right tweaking. Patience is the key if you dont know what you are doing. I have run this through my computer speakers, headphones and my amp. Speakers/headphones are good for recording sounds and give a very accurate reflection of what will be sent to a hard disk/USB PC setup etc. However these sound totally different when sent to amps as would be expected. I run my the Line Output from the GNX3K to the Effects Return of my Marshall JCM900 Stack with a ESP Explorer with EMG's providing the notes. This thing fukin roars when set right \m/ Ive nailed a rectifier tone which sounds like a real rectifier without any digital harshness and set the expression pedal to turn the noisegate on and off, so it also reacts like a proper amp now. Using the Effects Return i am bypassing my amp's preamp and just using the tubes in the power amp stage. Having the preset level on 99 with the JCM900 Stack volume on about 1/2 is very brutal sounding for metal. Not really into playing jazz/blues/normal rock on my axe cuz i am a metaller. If it doesnt ring for 20 seconds then it isn't heavy enough. I am picky with my sounds and have always gone for the "its not what you have its how you use it" and that is why i kept my RP200A for so long. The only complaint is th chorus sounds to flangey on any chorus level above 20 out of 99. A feature which i absolutly LOVE is the Intellegent Pitch Shifting. Wanting Metallica's harmony sound in Master of Puppets?, well this pedal will give you it \m/ I only gave it a 9 because im am a perfectionist when it comes to distortion and the only perfect band which has that in my opnion is Testament (Souls of Black era) and havnt quite nailed that tone yet, but only early stages yet... better stop rambling now, i know i hate reading long reviews.

Quite early stages yet to know how reliable it is, so far had no problems at all. So based on having it so far it gets a 10. It is made of metal \m/ and solid as a rock. It will NOT move on stage when you have it sitting there as it is rather heavy.

Havn't had to deal with them personally yet but im on the Digitech Forums all the time (username - aRcTuRuS). These dudes are very very helpful if you ever have any problems which will probably get answered before someone fomr Digitech Tech Support can reply back to you. The guys on the forum know their shit and have had years of both live/recording expereince and there are even a few wicked studio engineers there too.

Hell yeah this thing owns \m/ Definitly an upgrade from older models with the added USB recording you can't go wrong. Do not be put off by its factory presets, becuase although i do agree they are shit, with enough tweaking you can make this toy sound like a completly different unit. If you are hesitant jump onto the GNX Workstation website and download some samples of what this bad boy is capable of. Of course there are always improvements which can be made such as tubes, mutliple effects at once, S/PDIF outputs etc, but for this price (go to ebay and get it dirt cheap) you can not find anything comparable. My old band's guitarist had a Pod XT Live which sounded pretty wicked for cleans, the distortions were miles behind this bad boy. If someone nicked this at a gig or something well id hunt the fuker down and perform a satanic ritual on them. It took a great deal of time and effort to import this bad boy to NZ, and my effort has paid off so yeah I should have every reason to be angry if it got nicked, and would defintly buy another one if that happened, although i might wait to see what Digitech brings out next. The USB recording is tops with very clean plished results. Defintely recommended to all and cheers to those who read through this review. BRUTAL HAILS \m/

I started with the presets first, and checked them all out. I will say that there were a lot of good sounding patches, and were a lot warmer than previous GNX models. I played through the headphones, and through the front of the amp: it sounded great. I was a little leery routing through the front of the amp (Peavey Classic 50 212BT), but the GNX3000 rocked. Editing patches is a snap, very user friendly - any bonehead do it!

The manual I liked very much, I thought it was very well written. The firmware version is 1.0

I'm using an Ibanez RG520QTB, an Epiphone Les Paul Ultra, and an Ibanez Jetking I through a Peavey Classic 50 212BT. All of my guitars puff smoke on the GNX3000, I'm happy with the sounds I'm getting. No noise at all, and the effects are clear. Digitech did a decent job on putting together good patches, and the sound forum contains additional patches from other GNX3000 users.

The modeled sound of the Carvin Legacy 100 solo kicks serious arse. Man, it burns for days on end! Very cool Digitech!

This thing is heavy, and you will need to use TWO hands to cart it around. Its all steel chasis makes it very tough, and I believe it can handle road use well! I would indeed gig without a backup!

I spoke to Digitech's technical support when I was installing the Pro Tracks Plus software that came with the unit. I ran into some confusion on my part and called them to help me. Ok, I don't know if other users experienced bad luck, but when I called the tech guy walked me through the installation which must have been at least 25 minutes. How cool is that! I know other outfits that won't spend that kind of time with you if you have a problem like Line 6: they suck big time!

I play rock, pop, metal, and the GNX3000 can do it all, it is a perfomance, recording workstation that is very user friendly. It is an indispensable part of my equipment. If lost of stolen I would personally dispatch two Cylon Centurions to retrieve it from the loon who took it! I tried other famous brands like Boss, Yamaha, Line 6, Korg, which by the way I returned the AX3000G for the GNX3000. By far the GNX3000 has the BEST sounding factory patches of any modeler out there. Nice . . .

easy to use
edinting of patches is a little more comfortable than at my old GNX-1
manual ist good
firmware: 1.0

The sound quality is very good.
I play it with electric, acoustic and classical guitar.
I use it only dirct to Mixer, didn't try it in front of a guitaramp, because all the modellingboards i used didn't sound good in combination with a real amp.
Playing electric I can get every sound I want and it is a really update to my old GNX-1.
The noisegate is more like an on/off effect, but I think this is a bug (Firmwareversion 1.0), because at my GNX-1 it worked well.
Playing acoustic guitar i use it as an effect board without amp- and speakersimulation (Chorus, Reverb)
Turning off the global speakersimulation and gate there is some noise. This comes from the reverb effect. Turning of the reverb, the noise is gone.
My GNX-1 had no global speakersimulation, so i could have storable patches for electric and acoustic, now at the GNX-3000 i must edit this, chanching between acoustic an electric. Would be nice if i could store the global simulation to the presets.
I sold the GNX-1 because the ampsimulation is much better and accept with the global speakersimulation editing at concerts.

they don't answer to the noisegate problem and noisy reverb if turned the speakersimulation off ;-(

I owned the j-station, v-amp, GNX-1 and this unit is much better.
Sounds better, little easier eding, better drum machine, XLR-Outputs, all inputs and outputs are symmetric, individuall levels for the different outputs and much more.

Haven't actually used it yet.

Supposed to have the next generation of DNA processing chip. According to Digitech, it uses component-based amp modeling where each equipment in the signal chain are considered.

Like I said, haven't played it yet but let's hope that it is better

dunno

As mentioned by the previous reviewer, Digitech's customer service is definitely 'distant'. It really pissed me off since I was seriously trying to understand the difference of its existing GNX4 and the new GNX3000.

I first emailed them several times and received only short and vague responses. After four times of this, I called them and talked to two different guys. Same thing... not very interested or not clear on how to answer my questions (about GNX4 vs. GNX3000).

Of course, I asked about GNX5 but they claimed there was nothing in the works.

It's been a week or so, and I think they either have a suck-ass Customer Service group OR they were trying not to be evasive (vague answers) without being obvious (playing dumb about the GNX5). Basically, I think they're already working on next workstation - GNX5.

Will it be released or announced near the upcoming Winter NAMM event? If not, I think they'll have it ready by next Summer NAMM.

I'll give them the benefit of doubt and not rate their CS this time. However, if Digitech doesn't release a GNX5 for another 2 years then I'll nail them for their LOUSY customer service. I'll understand if you guys were trying to maintain confidentiality.

In the end, the following may be the key differences -

1. GNX3000 has more amp models and (supposedly) more realistic sounding; both has the Warp capability that allows two amps models to be... well, warped (or mixed together)

2. GNX4 has a built-in 8-track recorder that can be stored on its on-board CF card slot. The new JamMan is a looper with same CF storage, but it's a looper different from GNX4. However, I heard that the new JamMan may be easier to operate since it's a separate unit.

3. Some of the new effects on GNX3000 have been transferred from other new technology & products. The Univibe effect came from the JH Experience pedal... that is a very compelling effect pedal.


Bottom line...

GNX3000 is best for live application. Better tone & simple layout.

GNX4 is better for recording/practice. More computer-independent control & all-in-one, convenient unit.

Im going to keep this review short and sweet as i can only give 1st impression. Others will give better reviews over time.

The first factory patch i heard was the plexidrive and i bought the pedal on the strength of that. the factory presets are better than other Digitech pedals ive owned but still not representative of what the pedal is capable of - this thing has serious potential! just need to learn how to tweak it.
Editing patches is quite straightforward - if you use the Ex-edit software its a no brainer.
The manual is actually quite well written - doesnt tell you how to make a great patch but explains the function of everything in a simple manner.
The pedal looks intimidating - but its quite straightforward really.
my firmware is V1.

early days so i wont diss or champion it just yet. I really like the clean amp tones - they work really well with the stompbox models - not sure of some of the high gain settings yet = but i have heard experienced users create some truly breathtaking sounds, much better than any of the RP series and a lot of the earlier GNX series.
like all digitech pedals the tones feel very thick - not thin like sometimes the behringer and pod tones can - so if the pedal sounds bad to your ears, it might be down to you not understanding it yet.
but im not going to say it sounds better than anything else - cause its too early, but i will say it sounds pretty darn cool!
The effects are a very high quality - ive never heard a pitch shifter i liked - but this one could be pretty cool. I like the stombox models alot - and the Bass models are pretty good aswell (i bought it so i could record Bass and Guitar with one pedal. It saves space and cables)
the drums sound very impressive - hard hits, with a quite a bit of reverb. Not a programmable drum machine on the pedal itself but MIDIs can run the drums if you're connected to Pro Tracks.
Im just using headphones at the moment.

its v1 so im hoping i can, but prepared for bugs and things. its quite heavy but im not sure it would deal with something metal and heavy falling on it - i dont care to find outat the moment either!

Digitech are strange = they're either all super friendly/helpful and eager to please or completely distant and unresponsive - all down to the phases of the moon i think (and what product you've got and what workload they've got).

At the moment this thing is the same price as the GNX4. So you can get the old modelling of 15 or so amps on the GNX4 but with all the extra bells and whistles (worth considering!!) or you can get this new pedal that is quite simple but is a good tone generator and has 30 or so brand new models using the new component based modelling stuff.
OR wait till the GNX5 brings both elements together = but that will be pricey.
Personally I wanted this pedal - so i got it = and im glad i did.
The software was very easy to install - all the drivers/documentation/editor and recording software was on the one disc and installed in one go = have to restart the machine a few times as it locates and identifies different compnents - but a very well designed installation.

all ASIO/Mac and WDM compatible - wot work on anything earlier than XP though. Time will tell if it will kick the PODXTL's ares or not = but its a good solid product!