DigiTech GSP-21 Legend

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.

I feel I'm naturally mechanically inclined, so I have no problem with the whole user interface deal. I felt it was fairly easy for a beginner to get a hang of shaping his/her own sounds after messing around with the presets.

The chorus, reverbs, and delays, where pretty decent but the distortion has a sound of its own. I mean that in a bad way. Even played through an amp it took on a direct in type of tone. I like heavy distortion that has good thump and crunch. I literally had to push the 21 to its max limits to get a decent distortion. Without the compressor added, the distortion is weak, and lacks real balls. As far as the foot pedal, this was my biggest gripe! Whats the use of a fancy foot pedal if every time you change channels, you get a 1-2 millisecond delay of silence! Doesn't sound like much, but it can really screw up a performance

It seems pretty rugged, then again, I had to really start babying it after I kept blowing fuses to get the distortion where it sounded decent. After that, every time I saw the overflow LED on, I would wince. I don't have time for that stuff during a performance.

I complained after the second time my fuse blew and something else went wrong, they sent me a new one overnight. That was pretty impressive.

Wouldn't buy it ever again. Definitely a beginners type processor It seems all of Digitechs processors have the MIDI program change glitch.

It is somewhat cumbersome to dial in "your" sound. You basically have to start with something close to what you're looking for, and tweak it accordingly. Editting patches isn't especially difficult, once you are familiar with the controls. Admittedly, I didn't even read the manual for several months. :)

When I first purchased the GSP-21 Legend, I really didn't know to listen carefully for noise. The default noisegate settings cover up the noise very well if you're not listening carefully. Turning off the noise gate revealed to me that this beast makes a lot of noise in higher gain patches. I mean a lot. :) People have mentioned to me that if you crank a good head up, it makes noise too, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. The built in distortion, save being rather noisy when combined with compression, is tolerable, I suppose. I have been spoiled as of late because I have been playing straight into my tube head rather than going to the bother of hooking the GSP up. I can't get the same harmonics and musical-feedback from the GSP that I get from my head.
You really have to crank the compressor up as well to get a good high-gain lead tone. I'm not super-demanding on most of the effects, and have been fairly satisfied with the delay, and chorus.

I have had no realiability problems. After 3 years, I've had to replace the footpdal cable. Recently it seems that my left channel is crackling. It may have been that way all along, since I never run it in stereo. This behavior doesn't happen through the headphone jack.
I don't know if I'd want to rely on any single piece of gear at a gig. I use two guitars. If I could help/afford it, I'd probably duplicate everything. I don't feel any more or less afraid of this units reliability in comparison to my other gear (guitar, head, cabinet, etc...)

No experience with customer support.

I find myself struggling to find a use for this unit these days. The delay when changing patches is somewhat irritating, but I have managed to deal with it. I compared this to the RP-1 at the time of purchase, picking it over the relatively flakey rp-1. I originally chose it because I didn't know what I was doing. :)
I would not buy this unit again, simply because I feel like I have grown out of it. I wish stuff like this was available when I started playing, for around $200.00. Would be really great for guitarists starting out who can't blast a full amp setup, but have a decent set of headphones.

It is easy to program and very self-explanatory. It is not easy to get a good sound out of it, but that is a function of the sounds and not the ease of use.

Distortion - sucks. Reverb - sucks. Chorus - good. Delay - good.

I bought this a long time ago, so things have changed now. But the overall sound is unsatisfactory and I think you can do a lot better for the money.

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