DigiTech GSP-21 Legend

It requires a bit of fiddling before you understand what sounds good and what sounds like crap. (The factory presets are mostly crap but are good starting points). Once you learn how to balance the compression, distortion and EQ then setting up a wide variety of patches is fairly easy. It's unfortunate that when you select a new effects chain you need to start programming each effect in the chain from scratch. For instance, if you change a change from an effects chain that has UltraRev to the one with MultiTap Delay, the settings from all the other effects (COMP, DIST, EQ, CHORUS, etc) are garbage and need to be set. So you need to remember what you had.

I am using the GSP-21 with a vintage Strat and Super Reverb. It is quiet.

The sound quality is A+. Without distortion, the sound is huge. The distortions don't have much bottom though and if you add lows with the EQ they sound funny. The good news is that in a band context, the sound is perfect. I find the lower distortion settings are very usable to get a smooth tweed-like overdrive.

Chorus/Flange, Reverb and Delays effects are fine.

I haven't had any problems but I'm only using it in the studio.

Now that I have a library of good sounding, useful patches I give this unit a B+ rating.

Really easy to use. Good menu driven events. Gotta have great eyesight though....the screen on the unit is a little small.

Everything sound wise is great except compression and distortion.

Bang on - never failed me yet (touch wood).

Gotta give these guys a Class A rating. My cable from the unit to the foot controller went dead on me.....the folks at digitech had one on the bus for me in days.

I'm a heavy metal musician and have been playing for 23 years. Would I buy it again - as a studio piece sure but not as part of my stage gear. Nothing beats the sound of Peavey distortion. My overall favourite feature of the Legend is that Digitech has not made a comparable product since then. It's really a nice all emcompassing unit...able to provide reverbs & delays to drums, voice & instruments in a studio arrangement. It really only lacks the harmonizer ability.

The Legend is easy for a quick start. You can easily scroll through all of the programs to get a good idea of the effects offered. Editing can be quite tricky, however, the manual helps alot. It does take some time to create your own sounds, and after working with it several minutes to tweak your sound, you will become tone deaf.

I've owned this unit for 8 years and played it through a Charvel, Fender Strat, and home-made Les Paul styled guitar. The Les Pual actually sounded the best. For amps, I played through a Peavey mini-stack with average results, and a Hughes & Kettner power amp with great results. The Hughes & Kettner offered such clean power which did not interfere with the jambalaya of effects put out by the Legend.
Distortion just sucks. For all of the Metal artists featured in the adds, I was not impressed by the distortion at all. I used a Dean Markley tube overdrive for distortion but this usually created problems when I used programs with lots of delay. I never could get the perfect distortion out of this unit and had to experiment with many different amps, distortion pedals, and tweaked the hell out of the speaker emulator and distortion parameters. The EQ is great, but like I mentioned earlier, after messing with the parameters for so long you will get tone deaf and end up with a worse sound than before. Very frustrating. I did enjoy the Delay, and flanges, and this unit did help me to achieve a unique sound ranging from The Edge, The Cure, to No Doubt.

My biggest reliability complaint is the cord connecting to the foot pedals. The plug is a bit shallow, and always comes out. After years of plug in and plug out, the socket has become worn and the foot board frequently shorts out on me, causing me to check the cords, connections, and finally turning on/off the units power to reset.

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I've been playing for 14 yrs. I play everything from Metal to Progressive rock. I bought this unit after hearing my guitar teacher play through his. He has a mini studio and top notch equipment, and this unit seems to perform well in the studio setting, whereas it did not perform so well with my mediocre equipment. The other guitarist in my band played through an ART system and was able to recreate other artists sounds much more accurately than me. I wish it had better distortion, a dial knob, an expression pedal with wah effects and a tuner. My friends ART had all of these and he paid less for his system than me. I love the LCD display on both the footboard and rack unit, however if it were stolen, I would do much more research and probably by something cheaper and better. For the price at the time, you could have done much better, such as the ART.

EASY TO USE AND BEATS NEW MODELS ALL TO PIECES.

YOU MUST WRITE YOUR OWN PROGRAM FOR GREAT SOUND.DELAY-EXCELLENT,CHORUS-EXCELLENT,REVERB-GOOD AND DISTORTION-AVERAGE.

EXCELLENT HAS LASTED SEVEN YEARS WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS.

EASY TO GET A HOLD OF.

I LOVE THIS PROCESSOR.IT BEATS ANYTHING DIGITECH HAS OUT NOW.BETTER THAN ALESSIS,BOSS,PEAVEY,ART,KORG OR ZOOM PROCESSORS.

The easy part of this multi-effects unit is that you can just plug in, turn it on and you are ready to rock'n roll (if you are using the factory presets). If you are familiar with other multi-effects units of the time - then programming is fairly straightforward - just scroll through a bunch of menus and adjust parameters up and down. The manual doesn't help much - you just have to fidgit with the settings to figure out what changes affect what sound.

The presets suck to high heaven and you have to do some serious tweaking to get any usuable sounds out of it. The distortions are weak, but for what little gain there is, there is a tremendous amount of noise in the background. There is also this funky digital "pinging" sound that you can hear when you switch between effects and when the noise gate cuts off the fading notes. The effects all have a heavily colored sound to them. I found that when you listen through headphones, the unit doesn't sound to bad - but played through an amplifier or P.A. system - it is very weak sounding. I put a BOSS MT-2 Metal Zone pedal in front of the unit and turned off the distortions in the processor - and it sounds OK, not good, but passable. The delays and reverbs are nice, and I've used it as an outboard effects processor with a tube amp and it sounds pretty good. You pretty much HAVE to run it in stereo to really get a usable sound out of the effects and it does sound OK running it direct to a mixing console.

It is a sturdy metal rack unit - and the knobs are fairly well recessed in the panel - so it should take a fair amount of abuse without being damaged. If I were desperate enough to use it on a gig - It would probably survive.

I e-mailed the company about an upgrade for the unit and they responded the next day (albeit with bad news). They told me that there was no upgrade for my particular unit (I wanted to upgrade it to the Legend II specs).

I've been playing for almost 20 years now and I've played just about everything under the sun. I originally bought this unit because I needed an all-in-one unit to lug to practice and noodle around at home with the headphones on. I was very young and impressionable back then and when I saw all the artists whose names were linked to the processor "George Lynch, Ted Nugent, Bruce Kulick, etc." I thought "wow, I can have presets that sound just like the pros!" Man, do I feel ripped off!

I did not have a manual for this product but after fooling around with it I got the hang of it. It's fairly easy to use. I just wish there was a data wheel.

I have a Fender Strat with new pickups in it and a Fender amp and this unit has always sounded great. I really love the Flangers.

I've been using it for 3 years and nothing has ever gone wrong with it.

I would definately buy this unit again I play in a classic rock band around my town and it always sounds great.

I have found it to be pretty easy to use, but it would be nice if I could have access to all the available effects and create my own preset(s) The manual is ok.

When I'm playing at home by myself, the distortion is great! But when I'm with a group, it tends to be muddy and get lost in the mix The chorus in pretty nice but seems to be a bit complicated to adust. I must say that on some settings this unit make my guitar (Valley Arts Custom Pro) sound like a wonderful acoustic guitar!!!

Very reliable

Overall I think I would buy it again. It was just a standard GSP-21, but I bought the "Legend" upgrade chip from MUSICIAN'S FRIEND for $40.00 (about half of what a local store was gonna charge me btw) I wish it had a Harmonizer, Octaver (I.E. Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart" type of tone) I would really appreciated it if someone could e-mail me and discuss this unit....I NEED HELP!!! :) tw@oz.sunflower.org

This particular unit is easy to use in my opinion. If you are just interested in plug n play this will pretty much do it. However, if you want to truly tailor your sounds I would recommend reading the manual on how to edit the programs. One read will be sufficient. Its pretty easy after that. Be sure to keep the manual if you plan to expand or use midi equipment. It has some good hints on getting better sound. The speaker simulator section of the manual is very helpful and can make a dramatic difference in the sound depending on your amp/recording set-up.

Overall, the effects are good for a multi-effect device. The distortion is kind of weak without cranking up the compresion, which of course results in more noise, which causes the noise gate to open and close loudly! In terms of the sound that is the only thing that bothers me. On high gain patches you get this clang or ping noise (its hard to describe) when you cut a note off suddenly or when not playing and you touch the strings it "jumps" at you. Other than that I like this unit for its sound (read: it does what I need it to do, which is provide the common effects and sounds in one unit). One observation: It seems that on some patches when the chorus is on the sound gets grainy and crackly (not up front but you can hear the difference when you switch off the chorus). In terms of the programs that are available, they are mostly useful. A few dumb ones, but overall, pretty good. I like the celebrity programs (do you think they really wrote them or not?) for an approximation of their sound. It is also easy to take a basic sound and tailor it to your needs. Being able to change the actual program convigurations is helpful because if you like a bsic distortion sound on one program but don't need the digital effects you can change the configuration so that only the distortion is in the signal chain.

When I first got it I experienced a complete reset of the programs twice. All programs and settings reverted back to factory defalts. On the second time it blew a fuse that was sligtly difficult to replace. I do not know if the glitches were in the GSP or if a power surge caused the problem (I now have it plugged into a protected power source). Since then I have had no problems at all. I would gig without a backup.

I have called them once to find out the upgrade potential for this unit. The people I talked to were very helpful and informative.

I would probably buy it again. At the time, it was the best thing I had experienced and did all I need (still does, really). If I were in the market today, I might try to get a unit that allowed me to create my own configurations from the list of effects, instead of depending on the fixed ones on this unit. This unit definately helps me make music. I play mostly blues-rock and boogie-rock stuff, and the sounds I use on the GSP help out tremendously. I am at the point where I will be gigging soon and the ease of asigning programs to particular patches on the foot-controller (not to mention being able to rename them whatever you like) will be a big plus in a live situation. The ability to kick on/off each effect is also a big help, especially when adding chorus or flange for a solo! I do have one more request from everyone out there. IF YOU HAVE ANY COOL PROGRAMS ON THIS UNIT THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. I WILL BE GLAD TO SHARE THE ONES I HAVE COME UP WITH! THANKS!

This unit is very easy to get good sounds from out of the box. Many of the presets are pretty much useless although there are a few that make for good starting points. Compared to the competition at the time that I bought this unit, it was the easiest to get around on. If you're not well versed in programing midi foot controllers then this is a pretty good unit as the foot controller that's provided is a no brainer. I like the fact that the foot controller has only one cord from the rack unit which also supplies the power for the foot controller. The LED display on the foot controller is the best I've seen and makes it easy to keep track of your patches. The manual was helpful to a degree but lacked in certain areas e.g. the digital effects algorithms are set up in the digital mixer in series parellel (I thinks) and it took awhile to figure out how the effects interact depending on signal feeds from one effect to the other. The algorithms provided are practical and cover everything I would ever need. The reason for the mediocre rating is for the manual and that programming can be a bit tedious but once you get your basic sounds dialed in then it gets easier.

On high gain settings this unit can be noisy if you don't have the noise gate adjusted properly but I don't think this can be avoided with any high gain amp situation. I wish the noise gate had an adjustable release as it can shut off abruptly on trailing notes. I think the effects are better than average. Chorus, flanger, delays, and reverb do an adequate job especially for guitar. There are enough adjustable parameters to tailor the effects to suite my needs. I received a lot of complements on my sound after getting this unit. Of course you really have to work with it to get something you can call your own. The real test was in the studio. I did an entire album with this unit and used it on everything except the accoustic tracks. Covered all styles from heavily distorted guitars ala Brian May type harmonies to jazz, 50's rock, and country styles. Our producer/engineer is a tube purest and didn't want me to use it at first but was impressed with the sound and even barrowed it for some other projects. The key to getting good sounds with this unit is not just the distortion, but the interaction between the compressor, distortion, eq, and enhancer (exciter). I've ended up with about ten sounds that I use consistently which cover most styles. One thing I did do later was to add a tube preamp (Hafler Triple Giant) in the effects loop which is real nice but even after adding the Hafler I still used a lot of patches using only the GSP effects. Not too crazy about the slight dropout when switching patches but this usually isn't a problem. Switching individual effects in and out is transparent though. I use this with a Marshall stereo power amp and a pair of 2x12 cabs loaded with Celestions. Sounds great. Have had good results going direct.

I've owned this unit for about 3 years and have never had a problem. Gigged without a backup. I seems to be pretty sturdy and has held up well.

Ended up calling the customer support line a few times when I was trying to figure digital mixer thing out. Spoke with a guy named Bruce quite a bit. He was very helpful and returned my calls when he wasn't available. Never had to have it worked on but my experience with customer support indicates that they are responsive.

Would I buy it again? Given the same circumstances as when I bought it, yes. When I bought this unit the main competition was ADA MP1 which required an additional effects unit and controller, and the Alesis Quadraverb GT. The other units were good and maybe better at certain things. The ADA in my opinion really wasn't that good of value after you buy the extra gear and I don't think it had any advantage tone wise. The Alesis had a very good digital section but was real week in the analog preamp department. Even with the new gadgets that are available now I still think the GSP rocks pretty good. I had a situation where a former band flew me half way across the country to do a benefit concert. Only thing I could take with me was my main electric axe. They arranged for me to borrow another guy's GSP2101 for the gig. I though no sweat, I everything my Legend is and more. Wrong. I had about a day and a half to work with the 2101 and got some usable sounds but not as good as my Legend patches. What ever your use to I guess. Bottom line, I still think it's a good sounding processor and still a good value. I think you can probably pick one of these up for a pretty reasonable price these days. I know that Digitech sold truck loads of these things.

Compared to just plain pedals, the control buttons should have been infinite rotating knobs. This would have been much easier. It's curious as to why I can't edit all of the presets without moving a high preset to a lower numbered one. The manual is good, although a better picture of the patch layout would help. A background of the effect presets (i.e. author, music style, etc.) would be interesting.

The unit's digital effects are not too noisy themselves, especially compared to old analog pedals. Something is missing in the flanger. Could be feedback. Again, infinite rotating knobs would have been better to adjust settings. Distortion is very weak, especially when playing a diverse set which requires one to switch from clean to dirty-dirty. The multiple echo, is very good but requires lots of time to set, especially since one has to move back and forth between parameters using buttons. All, in all, the unit has a decent range of effects for probably most players. The update chip I use V3.0 really didn't benefit me from the original V1.0. The pedal arrangement has been rearranged by the newer chip, which didn't help ease of playing.

The unit box is very rugged, although the pedals are weak. The hex screws often loosen up. The weakest part, however is the pedal box falling apart on the sides. I've had to screw them in with tapping screws. The unit losts its memory once for an unknown reason. In short, the box itself is rugged, but the pedal box weak.

I called the company for a new updated chip. They were very responsive and helpful. The service department performed super.

I'm not sure if I would buy it again. The button controls are really anoying when programing. Infinite rotating knobs would have been faster and easier. Old analog pedals seem much quicker to program. The unit would have been better with a fuller distortion, and a flange with more breadth. The multi-tap delay is excellent but takes lots of time to program. The pedal box kept falling apart until I used tapping screws to holds the sides.
I've used the unit for 5 years. It still works well for the wide range of music I play. Personally, I should have chosen the single unit over the rack unit which isn't as transportable for quick-n-play gigs. The update chip is really unhelpful since the original pedal outlay is different. This is minor, but the new sounds aren't that impressive to me. In short, I like the unit but wish it had infinite rotating knobs to quickly set the effects.