DigiTech GSP-2101

It's easy to get good sounds out of this thing. Editing patches is a bit of a chore, and really, too technical for me as a singer/songwriter/guitarist/recordist. I've edited some patches, but I had to have the manual in my face the whole time. If I spend a WHOLE lotta time studying the manual and doing a lot of patch editing or originating, I'm sure I'd get good at it. But, as probably most guitaritst would say "I just want to hit a switch or turn a knob and be there". Which, you can do with this unit. The manual is very good, but that doesn't make editing the patches easier. 2 months after I bought this pre-amp, the $247 I then paid for the Foot Controller (FC) was money well spent, though you really have to spend some time learning how to use it. My unit was upgraded when I sent the FC and the pre-amp in for warranty repairs just after I bought the FC.

Check out my other reviews.."Dr. Sound Good". I've played guitar for 41 years. I play a 1994 Fender Eric Clapton signature stratocaster, a 1976 standard strat, 1976 Les Paul Custom, but mostly played my 1990 Gibson ES-335 through it, 2008 Epiphone Gold Top '56 Reissue, mostly blues/rock stuff. Also play Takamine and Esteban acoustic guitars with pickups through it. I have piles of gear. Amps: 2 Marshall JCM 800 2210's, Fender Blacface & Silverface Princeton Reverbs, Fender '65 Twin Reverb Reissue, 2 Fender Silverface Vibro-Champs, Marshall Stereo 8008 Valvestate; This pre-amp is noisy on some of the patches, notably the heavy metal type ones. The effects always sound good, but you do have to either tweak them and save your tweaks, or know how to dial them in while playing live. There's a lot of disparate volume levels and tone differences between the many patches which make switching between them live very challenging. The patches for specific artists don't really sound like them if you ask me. There are some very sweet patches I use a lot. Also, I really think, as its name suggests, that this thing is best used in the studio. If you go direct from this unit to tape or disc when you're recording, this thing sounds like a million bucks. It's awkward using it live, but it does have some killer sounds. The sound from this thing IS tube and IS very lush, with a lot of depth. So when used with my Marshall valvestate power amp is sounds very good. Better through my tube amps, but very good through solid state amps.

I haven't used it a lot onstage, but it's been flawless when I have. In the past, I mostly used it for recording my song demos and for practice sessions. When you set this thing up in stereo and just sit down to play, you can spend many fun hours switching between the many patches. A smart player always has backup gear, but it's very reliable and can be used without backup.

A few months after I got the Foot Controller, it wasn't working right. I sent it and the pre-amp in for repairs under warranty, which they did, and it's been fine ever since. They upgraded it when they did the warranty repairs.

Other gear: A Crate PCMB 500 watt P.A. amp, a Carvin FET 401 monitor amp, Cerwin Vega 12" 2 way floor monitors, dbx 160 compressor, 2 Soundtech B2E 12" 2 way main speakers, Shure SM58 mics, Yamaha 4 track cassette deck, Marshall 8008 Stereo Valvestate Power Amp, a 1997 '65 Fender Twin Reverb Reissue tube amp, 1977 Fender Vibro-Champ tube amp, Mesa-Boogie V-twin tube pre-amp pedal and several Boss foot pedals.

This thing has to many parameters!!
Example noisegate has 7,reverb has 20 parameters!!
You got to lock yourself up and throw away the key and maybe after a day or 10 you understand this box.
Don,t get me wrong you get there but duuuuh!!
To compare a Rocktron Voodu Valve has a noisegate(hush) with just one parameter and it works ten times better than the oversized crapgate of the digitech.

The clean sounds are ok ,but don,t sound like a real amp ,they sound to proccesed.(factory presets are swimming in effects)
Offcourse you can backup the effects,but still clean sound stays
sterile.
Distortion(grunge etc) sounds are to overcompressed only the tube distortions sounds are ok.
Effects like chorus,delay and reverb are accepteble but not topnotch(like tc electronic or lexicon or rocktron).
A big minus is presetswitching there is a gap of a tend of a second but its enough to hear that gap.
When using a good tubepoweramp you can breath some live in this sterile sounding box.

Seams to be a sturdy box and built for the road(if you put it in a good flightcase)

Never dealt with them.

After dialing in some sounds with the tube and adjusting some eq it sounded acceptable but not like a good tubepre-amp or head with effects.
I used a VHT two/fifty/two and Rocktron Velocity poweramp connected to a speakercabinet with vintage celestions.
The only all in one box i ever used that sounded any good was the Rocktron Voodu Valve(or chameleon).
VooduValve beats Digitech,Line6,Boss and many other all in one solutions.
This thing is way to complicated and sounds sterile.

Programers and MIDI lovers will have no problem catching on to this unit. Knob turners will have a big learning curve.

Sounds can me down loaded from the net!
http://www.gsp2101.noisytoyz.com/

Still looking for the best. This is STILL at the top of my list. I have sold my JCM's, My Boogie Studio and Rectomfrier, my Rockmaster, Bogner, Gainiac, Tubeworks, Sansamp, Vox and VHT.
Listen to sounds here http://www.gsp2101.noisytoyz.com

9 until I find 10??? And all that for $300 used!

Note: If you plug it into crap power amps it will sound like crap.
Use a good GUITAR power amp not a PA amp. For example VHT, Boogie 2:90, Carvin T100, Marshall 9200, ADA B200S,Peavey 50/50, MOSVALVE etc.

Still going strong from 1996.

You can backup your sounds to the computer too.

I had a RP6 they send parts to me fast, but never needed work on the 2101.

My group plays so many differnt cover songs that this 2101 has been indespencible by having a tone library at my feet. Any tone in seconds.

Listen to my Van Halen patch at http://www.gsp2101.noisytoyz.com

I think certain sounds are great and don't need any tweaking at all. I had to turn the mids off on my amp, it was too punchy, not smooth, but I plan to get a power amp eventually. I don't have the manual yet but I remember how to edit pretty well, tho I never got into the hardcore editing process with the chain and EQ settings. Basic stock version, no upgrades.

I play retro 80's and Van Halen-Eric Johnson-metal and this unit out does ANY processor out there. I have had the boss GT series and the line 6 (too digital sounding) but this will NEVER be beat for what it does and how it sounds. It cost me $160 plus $130 for the foot pedal and let me say you get 6 more foot pedals on this rather than the chincy 4 with any others. You'd think line 6 and boss would step it up to the 90's at least! I use a '93 les paul with this thru a Peavey classic 50 head tube which is very clean and a line 6 cab with celestions for now, but want a real power amp and marshall at some point. Right now it will cut your head off and sounds sooooo pro, there really is a difference. If your playing blues, fenders are the deal, but with 80's metal and fusion that ain't gonna happen. There are sounds in here I still find. I highly suggest this unit, the clean sounds are so punchy! Where I used to use my volume control to get clean, now I can use a real clean patch that punches through the bass and drums in my band. The only bad side is certain distortion patches are programmed very low volume, and when you raise that, they get noisy. The efeects are amazing, I am don't need any pedals ever again, though I keep them for back up should this unit go down.

I will ALWAYS have back up gear, you are insane if you are in a working band without it.

repair was lengthy on my original unit, this is my second one.

I have been playing for 30 years and have used everything out there. I still want a 5150 and mesa but I had surgery on my left hand where 3 bones were removed which really slowed me down. my speed metal days are over so I just enjoy playing what I can now. I was using a boss metal zone 2, boss delay and super chorus with an mxr pahase 90 and fanger and I still like that set up but this is all that and much more. I HATE grunge and alternative and 'new' metal so those patches are horrible and worthless to me.It outdoes the line 6 podxt live but I didn't get to compare it to the boss gt before I sold it to get this, but I know those have more current sounds, not what I am looking for. I ultimately want Holdsworth tone, heavy sustain without distortion, any ideas?

I recently bought the 2101 on ebay . It sounds fantastic! It's pretty easy to follow the suggestions and directions that Digitech gives you in the manual.

I'm using a Jackson 7 string , a Roland GR-1 Guitar synthesizer,an Ibanez Dlx , and a Galveston clear plexiglas strat with the unit and all the guitars sound incredible. You could plug a plastic toy guitar into this processor and still get an unbelievable sound ! Right now I'm plugging straight into my cpu with a Midiland MX-2 speaker system and it still sounds great. I've also plugged it into a Carvin 100 watt 212 solid state amp, ran it thru the clean channel (of course) and the sound was awesome.

I've only had it for a couple of months but I've owned several Digitech processors and they've all sounded great and they were very reliable. I dont like the sound of the new Digitech processors that are out now, dont waste your money on them. Go for the 2101, 2112 , 2120 , RP-20, RP-14 , RP-7 or the chrome Valve FX rackmount. They all have 1 to 2 12AX7 preamp tubes in them and they all sound fantastic without tweaking the programs. I've owned the GSP-5, RP-50 & RP-80 (solid state pedals,they sound ok)the 2101 (my fav),the RP-7(awesome), the RP-12(solid state, sounds great)I trust them all. Any unit can break down on you if its not treated right no matter what brand name it is.

I was able to talk to an actual technician about changing the switches. I wasnt careful about making sure my shoes (and my friends shoes ;) )were clean when we stomped on the pedals and that allowed some dry mud and dirt to get into the switches. He was helpful with his advice on how to change them. It was a long 6-8 hour surgical process and I messed up one of the pedals so I would recommend sending the unit to them for servicing rather than attempting this yourself.

I've been playing for over 30 years. Started when I was 6 years old.I play rock, metal, classical, all styles pretty much to keep the fun in playing and to increase my understanding of music and my versatility. It covers all these styles and more perfectly. If it were stolen I would buy one of the favs I mentioned in the reliability part of the review. There are a few I have'nt owned like the 2112, 14, 20 , valvestateFX but basically the 2101 Artist version 3.0 in my opinion is the culmination of all these great Digitech effects processors so I'm really happy to have it.

I'll admit it's tough at first and you might feel like it's not that good, but if you're willing to tweak and put time into it there's no way you can be dissappointed.It will take you a long time to get a good sound but i feel like it was worh it.Definitely not for those of you that want an awesome tone from the start.

I use a parker fly deluxe into my preamp and from there into my qsc poweramp, then into a peavey 4x12 fullstack and it sounds awesome. I'm sure if i were to purchase something like a VHT 2/9/2 power amp it would sound incredible.The s-disc silencer is flawless once you find the right threshold setting for whatever you play.It offers absolute silence when you're not playing even without having to hold the strings.I keep my algorythms with a low pass filter and a slight chorus to fatten the tone slightly without compensating articulation.This amp is capable of getting absoluely any tone you could want if you're willing to work at it.I got the sound i wanted which is extremely heavey and clear.It has absolutely no flabbiness in the tone which of course is perfect for high speed riffing.By eq-ing a single algorythm i can get so many different sounds, and with the massive amount of eq options the possiblities are limitless.

It's fairly relaible with no serious problems since i've bought it(used).The only problem i have is at times when i switch to another channel the volume is for some reason much lower which is easily resolved by switching to another cannel and back again.Besides that it's trustworthy enough for a 16 yr old kid like myself, or anyone else for that matter that doesn't exactly have enough money for a "spare".

Never had to deal with them.

I play extreme progresive metal and as anyone might know i can't afford to have an amp that is either not heavey or clear enough.For something i paid almost nothing for it by far exedes the abilities of any other amp i have played.I've been playing for 3 years and i am absolutley obsessed with sound quality and playability.My current set up is all i own besides a Jackson Rhoads and a Peavey road master head.If this were stolen or lost there's no question that i'd buy another.The fact that i have created my own distinct sound that sets my tone apart from any other preamp is why i like it so much.The heaviness and clarity of this preamp by far makes up for any other flaws it might have.I've played through Marshalls, Boogie rectifiers,and Line6, and it's my personal opinion that i have found a better sound than any of those from my gsp 2101.The most important thing about this preamp is that it requires some time and brains to use properly which i don't mind considering the sound i've gotten out of it with such a simple set up.

This thing is not easy to use...it takes some serious time to figure it out. The whole idea of the mixers is stupid imo.

I use a stock ibanez rg-470. The power amp is a crate spa-200 and the cab is a carvin with gt12-8 spkers. Basically it is hard to get a good sound with this setup. Especially at playing volume. The poweramp gets nasty the louder it gets. It doesn't have smooth highs.

The version i have is 1.06.06 and it is glitchy as hell. I'll edit a patch and save it and then switch back to another and the volume and setting will be all skee-wad. Or i'll just get a big BOOM or something it is very annoying...but it is intermitent and olny happens on certain patches. I am going to be upgrading to the latest version so hopefully that helps.

You can get some cool sounds out of it IF you spend alot of time tweaking it and put the 15 band eq in every algorithim which doesn't leave rooom for much else.

HAHA this version i have is not to reliable...very glitchy

it's alright but a hassle to get good sounds from. Not to bad but you have to use a tube poweramp to smooth out the highs

this thing is really hard to figure out at first, but i managed to understand what i was doing by the end of the day. it takes a lot of fooling around, reading the manual, then repeating those 2 steps till you figure everything out. i still don't really understand the mixers, but theres enough patches for this unit all over the internet to get you going. Mine is an original 2101 model from 95' that has been fully upgraded with the 3.00.00a artist chip and second s-disk. once you get to know this thing editing becomes really easy.

im running an epiphone limted edition with stock pick ups to the 2101 to my home stereo system/mixing board to p.a/solid state combo amp/carvin t-100 stereo poweramp to 2x12 marshall cabinets. (no, its not all hooked up at the same time, these are just the alternate setups i have to use with this unit. first off, theres so many ways you can run this thing, i love it in stereo with stereo choruses, reverbs, and delays, panning back and forth, either automatically or with a sweep of the internal expression pedal. this unit has a great noise gate, it lets your notes sustain without cutting them off, and takes ot all the background noise, the unit is dead silent when your not playing. just make sure you have it set properly. i found all the effects to be very very good, i have no experience with lexicons or eventide type units, but i have no desire to want one of those units as this digitech is very satisfying. the only effect i dont like are the wah (i use a snarling dogs mold spore) and the whammy doesnt seem to sound good on settings where you set the pitch up, but it seems alright for lowering the pitch. the delays, reverbs, flangers, choruses, tremolos, detuners, phasers all sound amazing. now, alot of people tend to complain about the preamp section.....i dont understand why. i have groove tubes 12ax7's, and i love the preamp section, if you can think of a tone in your head, you can find it in this unit. I play tool, a perfect circle, opeth, smashing pumpkins, and my own stuff, and theres tones in here for all that stuff, well aslong as your running it trough a decent tube poweramp. going direct to board alters the your tone, but it still sounds good. the tube section is very warm and rich, and the 7 band eq is plenty. the compressor tightens everything up to, so its perfect for metal. the cabinet emulator doesn't sound that great, when i go direct to baord i prefer the sound of the 2101 without the emulator, but thats just me. all in all, i love this thing, and i wouldn't trade or sell it for anything.......except a diezel vh-4 with vht 4x12 cabinets, and a lexicon mpx-g2. but thats only if i had roadies, and a shitload of extra cash laying around. as of now i could not be more happy carrying just my guitar, 2101, and floorbaord to gigs and band practise.

like i said, its from '95, and i haven't had a problem with it, i would and do gig without a backup

i emailed them a couple times, and always had responses the day of or the next day

like i said before i play tool, opeth ect. ect. this is perfect for what id do, it has such a nice midrangy growl to it. ive been playing for about 7 years, and just recently have been getting better gear. i used to have and ada mp-1 with my carvin t-100 poweramp, and prior to that i had a marshall combo, with various boss effect pedals, and needless to say the only things i have left is the carvin, which i sometimes use with the 2101. oh yeah, i also had an rp 20, let me say a few things about that. first off the delay between switching patches was very annoying (the seamless patch changing on the 2101 is unbelievable) it only had one tube which made the saturated tube section sound very sterile, i always had to combine the tube and solid state distortions to get a full enough sound, the effects were great, the one theing i wish the 2101 had was the whammy from the rp20, but i dont use that often so its not a problem. and last but not least, it sounds like absolute SH** live. the nice full distortion tone ive been working on for so long with my solid state amp at home, sounded completly thin and quacky, and weak, and....well like sh** when going straight to board, ven with the cabinet emulator one. This was such a big factor for me because i don't like lugging a poweramp around to gigs, and i don't like lugging my cabs and poweramp to practise, if im not at home i go straight to board. This was also the main reason i took the 2101 over the 2120 or 2112, sinse the 2120/2112 are basically the rp20 x2, there was no way i was going to take thechance of having a horrible live tone again. if it were lost or stolen, i would definately look for another one, they go pretty cheap on ebay. the only thing i wish i could do with this is have it so i could choose on each patch whether the effects or preamp go first. right now it always has to be preamp - effects, but i like the sound of a flange dictating the distortion on milder distortion settings, and i can't do that unless i have a flanger in front of the unit. i just remembered another reason i chose this over the 2120/2112. with the 2120/2112 the effects loop goes before the preamp, which to me seems pretty useless, when you could just stick a pedal in front and have the same result, but with the 2101 the fx loop is after the preamp and prior the fx, which makes sense, because now you could have your favorite delay pedal, and put it in there after the distortion, or do what i want to do and throw a flanger before the distortion not using the loop. i think this thing is great for writhing your own stuff and finding your own sound aswell as playing covers with your favorite artist sound, the only way it gets in the way is when you first get it, you want to spend a lot of time tweaking instead of playing, but once you get all your sounds down to a tee and programmed your set. if you've been thinking about getting one, do yourself a favor and buy it, this is by far the best thing digitech has ever made.

The Digitech 2101 was a lucky break when I got it it was the first cool set up I ever owned and learned with. It once belonged to a close friend of mine. He was at a much different level of playing ability and music style then I. He was into smoth jazz and he told me that the presets sounds were awful for his style and to complicated, high maintenance. He now uses a Matchless DC 30 which is probably one of the best amps out there. Digital stuff is mostly for certain styles only. It works best for these styles. Example:Rock,metal, and wierd music for creative people that are searching for alot in a little computer bank called DIGITECH.
Its a pain until you get it down which took me forever. I don't understand much from the manual but if you're really in need of help and are willing to search for it, it will help you.
The Editing patches take alot of time and don't come easy to perfect. The one thing you don't want is to get to caught up in perfecting the sound to much. It's fun for you create and alter but it does'nt make you a better player if you're screwing around all the time.
My 2101 has not been upgraded. Does'nt need it.

I use the 2101 going into a korg tuner into 2 PA 1000 Watt Power Amplifiers going into 4 200 Watt Mesa Boogie cabinets with a shure UHF wireless system transmitted to a PRS bolt-on double humbucker guitar[great for metal rock], a Ibanez AX custom 4-string proto-type guitar, and a Ibanez AXR 7 string also double humbucker.
All the tones have a turn on turn off switch for the gate and it cuts of almost imediately after you stop playing pending on the tone. Distorted sounds cut off nicely but there usually is a slight static sound that rings out for about half a second.Pending on the level of distort.
Clean and dry tones cut off instantly but sustain well, its amazing.
All trippy sounds with chorus,reverb,phase etc. cut of when the effect has drained out.
All effects have there own special quality. Some I dont even bother with but you can make some great tones.
If you expeiriment with tone enough you can get everything just the way you like it,but it takes time.
I get great sound for stuff that is heavy limp Bizkit Pantera style stuff thats what I mostly play. Incubus,Metallica,Korn,Rage against the machine, Eric Johnson,Stevie Vai,Robben Ford,Wayne Krantz, Gun's and roses,Larry Carlton,Deftones, Nirivana and other various heavy artists tones can be found in the 2101. Lots of basic cool songs can be covered in this computer box.
All tones can be great if you use them correctly and are fun to mess with. There are alot of different types of distortion and not enough clean tones.
I feel the one hitch to this whole thing is that you don't get the true tube sound quality that you might get from tube amps.

So far for all the gigs I have performed it has'nt exploded on me. You here horrer stories about this knid of stuff but if you know how to work it you'll be able to sleep at night.When I travel on the road it never has died I just make sure to tell anyone who handles it to be careful.
This amp is pretty trust worthy if you have a good idea of what to do in a crisis situation. I have a compact back up but don't bring it along much. I trust my 2101. NOTE: IT IS FRAGILE.

I called once for a reset because it was gliching. It turns out the glich came from a nickel sized battery that needed a change after about 6 years of constant use.
The company walked me through as I hoped. They really knew just what to do. Within hours I was back on track with my favorite tones.

I play rapish hip hopish thrash punk metal. It a controversal style. I like to play anything I am capable of. Anything but main stream sell out music. Metallica,Beck, Van Halen, all the quality stuff is fun for me. I also enjoy Jazz,fusion,rock, and anything that will help me grow as a player.
I've been playing for about 11 years and I think this has made me grow as a player. Before this it was an acoustic mess around guitar that I played everyday.
My back up is a basic set up. A Fender Deluxe twin reverb amp which is perfect for me with 3 BOSS pedals and two DOD pedals, HV-3 delay,nurse gate,super phaser, a DOD envelope filter, and a good old fasioned DOD buzz box. It all plugs into a power strip because replacing batteries is a pain.
If someone stole my 2101 I think I might get something else just to upgrade and move on to see what else is out there. But if it was stolen I'd be heart broken.
I love it because all people marvel at its possibilities and its so much easier then a bunch of pedals.It has its ups and downs but it is there to benefit me. I don't enjoy the fact that the tone is'nt as real as tube amps but works for my style. Through my PRS I have created the best distortions I have ever heard.Its the best feature.
I've played through other stuff and this to me is great until I personaly find something better.
It helps me seperate myself and be the player I want to be.I would suggest to anyone who wants a fun set up and has alot of spare time to get this amp the way they want it.
BEST FOR HARD ROCK