DigiTech GSP-2101

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

Read the manual about five times. There is a lot of options and menus available. In many ways this was a MAJOR jump from the GSP 21 (which I had also owned) and somewhat of a pivotal, forward looking product.

Better than the GSP 21, but it still sucks. The 12ax7 tube inside doesn't do you too much good tone wise, although I guess it is better than nothing.

I found it impossible to make good tones without resorting to TONS of effects. This is a great unit for FX heavy players, or people desiring a different tone per song--which is what I used to do. It would trip people out that none of our songs sounded like any others and part of the trick was this unit--and using a keyboardist that had different presets for each song. The only thing that stayed the same were the vocals, bass and drums. It was kinda cool I guess.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend if you are after a lively tone. This is best for people that have mediocre amps like Crates or Peavey, because it would be heresy to ruin a JCM 800 or Hiwatt with this things digital anemia.

Was robust all the time I had it, and I used it a lot for a few years. But, digital stuff can tend to go *poof* on you without much of a warning, so I don't trust it.

Well, this was PART II of my epic mistake period for guitar tone--Part I was when I had the GSP 21. Stupid me, I was disatisfied with the GSP 21 so I bought its latest incarnation. It was pretty good for the time I guess, it offered a lot of power: but not good tone, which was all I was really after.

Overall, I figure I wasted about 1000 bucks on those two processors (unit cost minus what I sold them for). Sometimes I just want to kick myself when I think back a decade ago and the stupid crap I bought, when I could have gotten something good for the same money.

Take heed when buying new technologies. Depend on the proven equipment, not some stupid fad like POD's.

Not so easy , specially if you don't have the manual . It took me weeks to activate a foot-volume function .

And you also have to program the effects chain , which's terribly bad in emergency situations .

The effects are amazing , umbelieveable , but all the drives are totally crappy and noisy .

The EQ is HORRIBLE , this unit is too middly-trebly , and the EQ can't solv that
.
And as all the Digitech users say , the wah is too bad .

And the tube distortions are simply too bad .

take a Zoom 510 , its a good match to be used as a backup = crap ;.

Even with the excellent effects , many famous musicians told me not to buy it , because it kills the original guitar sign . Yes , its truth .

That's why units like the Mesa Quad and the JMP-1 are so fantastic : they don't change the guitar's sound .

It's not as simple as a lot of other boxes, especially many of the newer ones from digitech and others. The concept is exceptional though. The reason for is complexity is flexibility. You can literally have any routing configuration you can imagine, and you can do some crazy stuff with this. if you don't think of what you're doing ahead of time, you might get some crazy, un-useful sounds. but on the other side, if you are inventive, you will really love this box. In other words, if you like to program sounds and are not afraid to dive in, you will love the sound of this. It has a good sound, and it is a useful tool. Has very flexible MIDI implimentation which is partially why I bought it. It's easy to tap in and out individual effects and is programmable to tap individual effect levels to any level you like. Plus it can transmit all this via MIDI CC's. For what you can do with it, it is fairly simple to use.

I rate the sound quality between great and excellent. If want to make something totally new and different, there's not another box like this outside of an expensive eventide. It has a nice reverb which compliments the utter programmability of the rest of the unit. You can use a MIDI footswitch to change any parameter in this beast very simply (I'm using the 3.00 software revision). With amazing programmability, great reverb and cool stuff like smooth whammy, it's great for making new sounds. As others have stated, the wah is crap and is basically unusable (for me at least)... but a great compliment to this machine is a resonant filter effect like those found in synthesizers. Route that through the FX send and you've got a nice wah plus incredible "space" rock sound or ambience.

I had a few interesting glitches when I upgraded it to 3.00 software... but after re-initializing the hardware a couple times, it shaped up.

I play ambient rock/industrial accompanied by synth sounds and drums ala Bjork, Radiohead, and U2. If you love to program sounds and have complete control over routing, this is an awesome box. If you just want something you can use, you might be dissapointed or downright hate the thing. Also, if you want a good wah built in... eheh, prolly look elsewhere. If you have one, some cool things to try are to use low pass and high pass e.q. filters on it to route only portions of the guitar's frequency to different effects and mix the outcome into one signal. a cool sound I've found is to route the high frequencies through a flange then mix with the dry signal to a delay, then mix with another dry signal to a reverb, and then mix the outcome with another dry signal.

original gsp-2101, made in usa,1993-94.easy once you get used to it.the manual is thick, it is comprehensive and you would need to approach this like a textbook.You won't have a choice as the presets mostly suck.( altho' you can tweak the presets pretty easily to get a good sound. they are the basis for good tones...) yes, a pain in the ass,but like learning your scales,it will definitely pay off.As i was saying, the manual is thick and at times a little much on the digitech propaganda side, but i guess this was really a groundbreaking unit... anyway, i've had this unit for 9 years(!), i guess it was time to do a review. the good news is,once you learn to tweak this, you will get excellent sounds.

ok, sound quality. i've read here people saying this "sounded hollow and lifeless"...well, i can agree on some of the presets, but this is where e.q. and tweaking the presets, along with a good tube poweramp comes in.is the preamp gonna get you into VHT or bogner- ville?well,with major tweaking and closed back cabs, a definitely, 100% kinda,sorta but not really(yuk-yuk).less organic.this brings me to my rig: i'm using(or have used) this with a les paul classic,carvin dc-127, ibanez rg550 and s540, carvin t-100 tube poweramp and 2 1-12 cabs with vintage 30's. dead silent rig ( just be careful dialing in the gate too much. you can kill your sustain very easily with this) effects are great ( except the wah which blows donkey balls. this is a waste of chip space)but so incredibly effective in range that you can overkill very easily.the distortion, for instance on the heaviest settings(grunge or saturated tube). one who loves lots of gain may think" oh.this goes to 11. kewl!!" well, except for seriously grinding thrash chords,most people who are playing at any real volume probably won't really need the distortion past 6.6.-7. especially for leads ( does anyone still play leads? please?) and yes, i love gain.
The reverbs are outstanding. again, very easy to overdo.you have total control over the parameters, so don't blame the unit.( read the manual) i don't know how someone could complain about the cleans on this unit. with proper e.q. and the gigaverb program, you can find pristine tones worthy of any professional recording. additionally, here are the other effects:
delays: clean and very flexible
tremolo: pulsing and sexy. i have some great presets with this. i don't know how anyone could dislike this if properly tweaked.great for blues or country.
phaser: very flexible, wide sweep
flanger: the same.
wah: sucks, sucks , sucks...but who bought this for the wah?
chorus: good on dist.great on cleans with delay. yum-yum. very good gilmour tones here.use in stereo with a panner to seperate cabs. magnifico!
distortion: ah, so subjective. i think very good on tube saturation and the grunge circuit is excellent for solid state. it really does seem based on a randy rhoads type of distortion!
anyway, my advice is always check wet/dry mix level and you can keep your effects under control.( at least until ready to dive into heavy parameter manipulation.)

well, i've owned this for about 9 years. haven't changed a tube or a battery, and i play everyday. have and will gig without a backup.(have no choice at moment,my wife let me get the les paul classic this year. next year another amp. yay!!) i once had to do a hard reset ( lost all my presets) because i pulled out the cord for the footcontroller while the unit was on ( this aspect really sucks. they should have put a family-size warning about this on the manual).

have dealt with customer service before,never a problem.walked me thru the hard reset and were very courteous. ( altho' there seems to be quite a bit of conflicting opinion here. they jus' like me cuz i wuz sweet..)

i've been playing about 18 years, mostly fusion-y,hard rockish metal type stuff(?),with forays into jazz, flamenco,funk, etc...this can adequately handle anything i have thrown at it.
if stolen...i'd get my insurance money and look around at whats out there. for an all in one unit,the sound and versatility are hard to beat. i would probably go the boutique amp route with some high end petals.( which i plan to do anyway, but i don't think i'll sell this ). most modelling amps i've tried don't actually sound as good as i've managed to tweak this, but i guess they may ultimately have more versatility. ( altho' the valvetronix sound was very nice,the line 6 stuff has done nothing for me.not even the vetta.haven't tried the zentera yet, but i'm sure i will.does this hurt or help in making music? it helps in that you have a lot of flexibility to try to achieve the sounds in your head. the thing that hurts is that you end up micro-tweaking a million parameters.( this could just be my problem.yuk-yuk)and may find yourself never satisfied. but some weirdos (like me)sorta like that about this unit. i guess you can't have it all ( even when your rig has it all.)

Go get a good sound is very easy , the only thing I didn't like was :
if I want a Pitch Shifter , for example , I need to find a factory preset with this effect , so I change the effect configuration , but there's no problem about doing that . The manual is NOT necessary .

No noisy , its noise gate is wonderful , and everybody seem to agree ith me . I just didn't like the Chorus , but all the other effects are excellent . Metallica and Satriani patches are easy to get .
The preamp seccion is very powerful ; I get a very heavy sound without problems .

Therion ( Christofer Johnsson is my friend since 2001 ) used it since 1995 on their gigs , but Chris told me he sold it and got a Mesa Triaxis and a Gmajor . I almost bought his own 2101 , but he told me it was falling into pieces , so I gave it up . No problem about depending on the unit , but we can't abuse the C1 ( the foot controller ) , because its not sooo strong .

I tried many Digitech , Boss and Zoom units , and I can say this is the best one . In comparison with the discontinued 2120 VGS , the 2101 is much stronger , and it doesn't have the crappy digital sound the 2120 has . You must know how to operate with rack units , and you need a loud amp ( what about a Mesa 2:90 ? ) , or it will sound weak , of course . Ah , the drive is much better and stronger than the WEAK Marshall JMP-1 too . IMO and long experience , if you want a floor multi-effects , try a Boss GT , but if you can go beyond , try this one .

I noticed the guy who wrote the review below this one is Brazilian , like me , so let me write him a few words :

E ai , o que se passa com o seu rack ? Eu li seu texto e percebi que voce tinha alguns descontentamentos com o seu 2101 . Me mande um email , se possivel . Eu sou de S?o Paulo .

Some people change the tubes , but I didn't and it's not necessary . Upgrading the unit is good to get those seamless patch changes .

I really like to tweak knobs on my gear, and I had a GSP21 before, and a lot of stomp boxes. Sorry for you lame guys out there, you MUST completely understand what every parameter means to get this thing sounding great. So, the greatest thing about 2101 is the possibility of creating new chains, but it's not easy to do without pre-planning. I used to draw the chains of FX to control the "linking section". Said that, if you want plug-and-play, buy cheaper boxes and stick with it.

I use Gibson Nighthawk and LP Gothic and for amps I have a Marshall Valvestate 100 and a JCM2000 DSL100. I used to plug into the input of both amps, but never achieved a decent low. So I decided to use both 2101 outputs into the Valvestate input (using the tube channel - its clean channel is the worst amp sound I've ever heard) AND into fx return (which gives me more bass) and mix'em. But this setup isn't possible on the JCM, and I think plugging it into the input made it sounds thin. But plugging it as a real preamp worked great, after I tweaked the global EQ (great thing when you change amps).
High gain patches are noisy, but very usable. Clean effects are great, I use tubes for every clean sound. Well, wah sounds stinks (everyone said that), but if you creat some weird chains it can produce abnormal sounds (for real wah sounds I have a Cry Baby). The pitch is too slow, but I don't use it anyway. And the best thing about this box is the assigning of the foot controler - 10 parameters at the same time! It makes me crazy - for example, I turn the gain down, increase compression, adjust 3 EQ frequencies, volume output, chorus and delay outputs at the same time - IE, two completely different patches smoothly changing when you bring the pedal up/down... amazing, if you have the skills/paciency to program it...

Well, I had 3 other DigiTech before this one, and 2 of them broke down... DigiTech products seem to be too sensible to AC variation (in Brazil it occurs a lot). Knowing that I never use it without an AC stabilizer, and for 6 years without a problem, I can't complain anymore. The foot controler however for three times went nuts. At the second time, the continuous pedal stopped responding. Well, it drives a LED up and down in front of a photo-electric cell. That LED needs power, and the wire that gives it power moves along the pedal. What happens when you twist the same wire for 6 years continually? Solder it back and you got it working again.

Well, I'm in Brazil, and the official support sucks. Too expensive and slow.

Well, it is a great unit. I really depend on it. Benn playing for 20 years, and I don't want to change it, although I was impressed by some new features of the 2120. And if I lost it, I would buy the new ones from Digitech.

I put the update chip and the card in mine-I can literally sound like anything I want. I got Steve Morse, Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Robin Trower......anything I can hear I can make. the manual is good, but a little better directory would have been nice. I had to put postit notes all over the thing for the first few weeks. Mine came from the factory with the upgrade chip. I paid for it and a chip came in a box. I followed the directions, and the unit kept locking up. I called them five times before We figured out what happened. It's a tool call to Salt Lake City, too. They sent me a chip for the Vocalist packaged as the upgrade. they accidentally installed the upgrade in my unit prior to shipping. So I guess I got what i paid for, it just cost $10.00 in phone calls and a few headaches to get it going. I wouldn't think of ever getting rid of it. I run a PRS thru it and it is great.

The only thing I don't like is that you can't turn individual effects on and off in the signal chain. You have to make duplicate settings minus the desired effect. I guess that's what they make stomp boxes for. Also, the wah stinks. I compare it to a Dunlop, so I guess I'm not being fair. I run this into a Carvin T100 stereo power amp driving 2 Carvin 2/12 cabs with 200 watt speakers. I like it at 4 ohms and the presence about 90%. I DI this with the emulator alot, and no one can believe how huge it is. Everyone thinks I ran my stack at full blast.

I always run it without backup. I run Bass and Vocals thru it when recording. The S/N is great and lots of headroom.

Like I said, it took 5 phone calls before we got it fixed. Most just seemed content to tell me to ship it to them (at my expense). The last guy really knew what he was talking about, though.

This unit is very easy to use to replicate as long as you have basic soundcraft skills, a ton of stomp box experience, or a combination of both. I used a huge pedalboard and racks before I bought this. The only thing that now doesn't collect dust is my talkbox. I sold my amp, all my pedals except three, and tossed the rack stuff. I'm a 22 year vet with tons of stage and recording exp. If I could afford it, I'd buy three more. One for insurance (backup live rig just in case of voltage problems) the rest for the sheer pleasure of owning them. Like a sports car. One is great, but twoo or three would just be that much better.

The factory presets are easy to use, just turn a knob and away you go. Unfortunately. the factory presets are for the most part, crappy. Worse yet, they are organized in no particular order so you really have to scroll through them all to find the good ones.

Programming this unit is not easy. Its easy to modify existing programs, but difficult to create new ones. The manual is great for those who are tech wizards, but no so for those who want to plug and play. The manual could have been laid out in a more understandable format. However, once you've learned to program patches, the GSP is pretty easy to use.

I use a 78 Ibanez, a 86 strat and a 93 Carvin, a 83 Fender Twin, and a 92 Fender Super60 with a Boogie 4x12 cab.

Sound quality is mixed. First off, I dont use this unit for its preamp. The preamp sounds like crap IMO, dead and lifeless with a hollow sound. I simply run the gsp through the preamp in my amps. The gsp's 2 tubes dont compare to my Twin's 5 preamp tubes.

The effects in this unit are excellent. The distortions are great, with lots of options for sound. The tubes sound pretty damn good, the digital distortion can shred if dialed in. A drawback is that to get good sounds, you really have to fiddle around.

My only complaint, if it can be one, is the digital reverb, which sucks, because there is no such thing as a good reverb without springs. The digital reverb in the gsp is not too bad though. To be honest, I dont use most of the effects as I prefer to use only dist, comp, noise gate, reverb, and eq.

So good so far in the 9 months I have had it.

this is a good buy, for the right price of course. This was my first processor, after years and years of being a pedal purist. Since, I have sold most of my stomp boxes, except for a few fav, which the GSP cant emulate (fuzz face, dynacomp, and tube screamer).


Too bad this thing is so old, because the online support for this product is minimal. There are only 1 or 2 patch sites, which is really too bad. Then again, this thing's age means it will cost less to buy.

***** This is an update from my previous posts ******

Please read the previous reviews for my point of view and check out my website for detailed information.

www.vanhelden.demon.nl/gear

WANNA KNOW WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE?

check out my website: www.vanhelden.demon.nl/gear
and go to the audio samples or the GSP2101 section.


I think the GSP-2101 is by far the best fx device DigiTech ever made and there are only a few other devices (such as the Eventides) around that can match the flexibility of this one. I've always been into making weird (jaw dropping) sounds with it and have now created a sound that is soo close to an analog synth that many people that I know could not believe it was done with a guitar and the GSP2101. And they know what they're talking about, they are the ones that use those synth!.

I know most of you are just looking for some chorus and delay, so the audio sample won't be much of a help. But it clearly shows how far and absurd this device can go. Don't think that any Rocktron, TC Electronics or Lexicon device can do this. So go on and check it out.


www.vanhelden.demon.nl/gear


I want to add another thing to my previous posts. I've got my 2101 now updated with the lastest software and with a 2nd S-DISC. I wish I would have done that sooner. I now got seamless patch changes and am able to make the most complex setup I could imagne!. JUST BEAUTIFULL.