DigiTech GSP1101

Fairly simple once you mess around with it. Wish it had the ease of the Podxt but it feels solid and really is easy to program.

Ok...first I will state what system I use. I have a Mesa Boogie Triaxis preamp with a Mesa Boogie Power 2:90 power amp. I use to run a G major after the Triaxis but hated the cheap knob that would always break. Since I bought the GSP1101 I have sold the G Major because I honestly think the effect are better and The GSP1101 allows me to now put the Trixis in it's Effects loop. This allows me to put effects before and after the preamp(some effects sound better before like compression, noise gate, and distortion....and some sound better after like reverbs and delays). Also I can take my preamp out of the amp via midi patches and use the amps models for different non tube type stuff. This is the best of both worlds really. Now it's Line 6's turn to produce a product like this! Amp models and cabs sound great and the effects are truly superior to the G Major.

Like I said..this is built far better than the G Major.

Sell the G Major! You will not miss it!

I give this unit a 9 only because I had to look over the manual to get some of the midi functions working, but it only took 10 minutes to familiarize myself with it. I've used a G-Major for 5 years, and the interface is similar, if not a little easier to implement. Editing patches on the fly is very simple, as they give you Gain, Bass, Mid, and Treble controls for quick amp tweaking. All of the effects are easy to access and very intuitive. I love the MIDI controllable wah and whammy functions, which took 10 minutes to setup but sound great.

I am using this unit with a Peavey 6505+, BBE Sonic Maximizer, and TC Electronic G-Major. I am using the Amp Input/Effects Loop routing scheme on the 1101. Basically, this allows you to send stompbox effects (overdrive, noise gate, wah, whammy) through the front amp input and places all time-based effects (chorus, flange, delay) and amp models through the effects loop. You can choose within each preset whether you want to use the GSP amp models (Internal) or your own preamp (External). In External mode, the amp models are automatically disabled, while Internal shoots the amp models directly through the loop return. This has rendered the amp switching feature on my G-Major obsolete, as I can simply bypass the 6505 preamp for clean sounds. The acoustic sounds on this thing could be a little more convincing, but the choruses and reverbs are very deep, which complements the more subtle G-Major nicely. If you're using this with a very high-gain amp, you'll still need a noise gate in the effects loop since the GSP only provides one on the front end. I've been playing with the amp models in search of a good lead tone, and the JCM800, Soldano SLO, and Carvin Legacy patches sound amazing! I'm not much of a Mesa guy, but the DualRec patch sounds convincing as well. I would definitely recommend a tube power amp for this, as the sounds on my computer were not nearly as impressive. Using this unit with the G-Major actually cleaned up my sound a lot, because it works as a buffer between the instrument level 6505 effects loop and the line level G-Major, which is something I've fought with for years.

I've only had this thing for a week, but it seems solid enough. The knobs seem a bit more sturdy than the TC Electronic, which has unfortunately been knob-less for a couple years. A good rack should keep this running.

Haven't dealt with Digitech before.

I play melodic/death metal and this unit does exactly what I want. I can get searing, saturated lead tones with dense delay and chorusing and still use the 6505 tone for rhythm, which is my favorite. The acoustic patches with chorus also sound good, as my G-Major chorus always seemed too subtle. I also like having the wah patch linked to my Behringer FCB1010 footpedal for a 'clickless' wah that sounds just like a Crybaby (I own one). I would definitely suggest this unit if you love your rhythm sound but want more for leads and clean. The amp models also seem convincing enough for use alone with a tube power amp, but I won't give up the 6505 just yet. My favorite feature is definitely the Amp Input/Effects Loop routing scheme.

easy to integrate in an existing rig and get decent tones quickly.
firmware 1.2

The modeling sounds decent as does the FX but the GSP1101 is no replacement for dedicated pedals, tube amps or high-end rack FX.
the overall sound is very flat and two dimensional. GSP1101 into VHT 2502 into VHT Fatbottom cab. Sounds good but not good enough. My guitars are Valley Arts Standard Pros with JB pickups.

Had mine a month and returned it. The hardware worked fine. The included GSP1101 Audiounit plugin would not pass AU validation and an email from Digitech informed me there were no plans to fix or update it.

This unit is not a "pro" unit designed to work with existing high-end amp rigs, it's made for "garage" rigs with Behringer, Digitech, Crate, etc. The marketing for the GSP1101 is a little misleading. I had my hopes up but for $500 what did I expect.

Setup was a little tricky but not too bad. There is a single output knob and no clipping LED...I suspect that this unit has so much headroom that the LED isn't necessary (I cranked the unit well past unity gain and still no distortion from the unit itself), but it would still be nice to have. There was also no input level control...again, it didn't seem to need it as my guitar (which has really hot pickups) didn't cause the unit to go into audible distortion. It's best if you have a true bypass loop box of some kind so that you can not only hear how the bypassed unit affects your tone, but also to make it easier to set the unit for unity gain.

I found the bypassed signal to be very strong, clean and very much like the sound of my setup with the guitar plugged straight into the amp. As far as I'm concerned, this is the first and most important test for ANY rack processor...if it doesn't sound good bypassed I return it...and I've done so with many other units. It's a real sticking point for me and I won't compromise on this at all. With my amp, guitar and GSP-1101 all set and ready to go, I'm ready to check out the effects.

Now...if you're like me, the first thing you do is go to the first user patch location and turn off all the effects, noise gates, EQ's, etc. and start from scratch. From there I proceeded to audition each effect on it's own to get an initial impression of the quality of the particular effect and, if it's supposed to be modeling a particular effect, make any direct comparisons to the actual unit it's supposed to be modeling. That being said...the GSP-1101 is DEEP! There's a seemingly endless supply of effects on hand...but what makes this particular unit shine over many other lesser products out there on the market today is that MOST of them are actually useful and do what they're supposed to do. There's not a lot of filler effects in the GSP-1101.

It's relatively easy to edit, and the included editing software is the model of efficiency and makes creating sounds a breeze, but away from my computer I find the rack's interface to be a little too cumbersome. I would prefer to be able to adjust the various parameters of that effect with the 5 knobs that are used for the "preamp" section. I don't really plan to use the preamp section much and it would be great to hit a "Modulation" button use the big knob to select a particular effect type and tweak the individual parameters with the 5 smaller knobs.

On top of the front pannel input it needs a rear pannel input. This is a must. The front panel input is reasonably sturdy and well implemented, but not everyone's setup is optimized for one. Having both a front and rear panel input is a much better way to go.

Basically I use vintage style single channel tube amps (this one in particular was a Emery Sound modded Fender Blues Jr. with a Celestion Greenback speaker) a variety of nice analog pedals (FoxRox/Keeley/Analogman/Skreddy/ElectroHarmonix/etc.) and an American Standard Tele with a Dimarzio Fast Track 2 in the bridge and a Fender Noiseless Tele neck pickup). Live I use a Plexi and a Twin in stereo or Valvetech Hayseed 30 heads (well...I will in a couple of weeks when they arrive). Live I will be running the 1101 in one of the loops of my DMC Ground Control Expander and using it for effects only (no amp/cab models), but for review purposes I ran the guitar straight into the 1101 and into my amp.

I have to admit I usually hate digital distortion/overdrive/fuzz/compression/etc. and have mostly used digital for modulation, delay, reverb and pitch shifting effects, but the GSP-1101 is the first digital unit I have used that I would actually consider using the digital distortions in a live situation???I'm mostly a overdrive and fuzz guy???I'll also use medium gain distortions and generally avoid most of the high gain stuff unless I'm donging around on metal riffs at home or something. I compared the GSP-1101's overdrive and fuzz models to their analog counterparts and a ZIM with a VT card in channel A and a T+2 card in channel B and a Skreddy Top Fuel and I have to say only the Big Muff model didn't quite nail it as convincingly as I would have liked. The rest were pretty spot on???again???I've never heard a digital unit that nail these tones before???in fact, the GSP-1101 nails the Boss DS-1 sound even better than the DS-1 model on the Boss GT-Pro rack. Somehow they really nailed the midrange complexity and low end authority that previous distortion modelers have lacked???the highs were not sussy and diffused. I honestly can't even begin to properly convey how impressed I am with the od/dist/fuzz models.

The compressor models also stand up well to their analog counterparts. The Dyna Comp model was particularly spot on.

Everything you may have loved about the Digitech Expression Factory can also be found here, but again, with better sound quality. The wah models were mighty impressive as was the Whammy.
The modulation effects section is huge and complete???some of my favorites were the Small Stone, CE-2 (compared very favorably to my pre 2000 analog Boss CE-5), Whammy, all the Tremolo models, the Vibrato and Univibe models (both were very impressive) and the Electric Mistress models. The Modulation section even has a "pre/post" option for running the effects pre or post preamp. Even with the preamp disengaged, the tone of the effect changes in a manner that you would expect by running the effect pre-preamp or in your effects loop. Very cool.

The delay section was equally impressive as far as tone was concerned???While not as extensive as say, the Line 6 Echo Pro rack, the basics are covered and covered well???there's a few different analog delays (which compared favorably to my Ibanez AD-9), a tape echo, digital delay, modulated delay, etc. I compared my Deluxe Memory Man to the Modulation Delay and I got pretty damn close to nailing the sound???I found adding a little compression got me even closer to the tone and feel. While many of the other models have the same functions as their analog counterparts, I was a little disappointed to find there was no chorus/vibe switch for this model. This is a small complaint. Most of the delays can do repeat/hold and have up to 5 seconds.

The reverbs were really great. Harmon bought out Lexicon and they have featured a few of their reverb algorithms along with a nice plate reverb model and a spring reverb model. The only complaint I have here is the "spring" effect is triggered by volume peaks and it can sound a little unnatural at times???sometimes the pulse of the tremolo model is enough to set it off, but it can be worked around.

Of course there's all kinds of MIDI control an

It's pretty solidly constructed. I imagine it will last well beyond it's usefulness in terms of future technological advances in processing power.

I have found Digitech to be very helpful in the past. I expect they will continue to be. Way better customer service than you would expect from such a large company.

First off, let me say that while I prefer analog gear, I am of the "if it sounds good, it IS good" school of thought, so a well made piece of digital gear is just fine by me.

That being said, since digital modeling technology has hit the market I have been less than impressed with the offerings over the years. I've owned a few different Line 6 Pods, a Line 6 Flextone III amp, a Boss GT-Pro and I've spent several hours with various other modeling products from Vox, Roland, Marshall, Fender, etc. and, with the exception of the Line 6 Echo Pro rack, Line 6 Verbzilla, and the Boss DD-20, I haven't been overly impressed with any of them...especially the amp models and distortion sounds.

One unit that I took a chance on recently was a DigiTech EX-7 Expression Factory. This was a major deal for me as I have been the biggest critic of DOD/DigiTech gear for the last 15 years. I've just never been satisfied with it, whether it was the features, the sound quality, the long gaps between program changes, etc. I basically vowed to write them off until they at least had seamless program changes. For me, if a unit doesn't do that, it's pretty much useless.

Anyway...I was very impressed with the versatility and sound quality of the Expression Factory. I did end up selling it when I needed the money, but when I had it, I used it a lot in the studio...my only beef was that it could do so much, I would need at least two or three of them on stage to use live unless I wanted to be tweaking knobs all night...but the sound quality was great, the wah, vibrato, Whammy, chorus, etc. all sounded great. The distortion models weren't amazing, but they were functional and still some of the better digital distortion models I had yet to hear.

So with renewed interest in things DigiTech (and a desire to get some of the same sounds I was getting with my now sold EX-7) When I heard that DigiTech was coming out with the GSP-1101, I was very interested in seeing what it could do and I picked one up at AMS. Folks...I was not prepared for what I experienced.

While the GSP-1101 is not without it's faults... they are minor compared to the sound quality and functionality of this unit. This is beyond a shadow of a doubt, the best sounding, well built, digital modeling unit under $1000 on the market today...Period!

As for my background, I've been playing guitar and bass for 24 years in high school and college bands as well as my own bands outside of school. I play a variety of styles...my favorites being vintage rock & roll from the 50's, 60's and 70's including surf instrumental and old school country but I mostly write in an alt/indie rock vein. I also play some speed metal for fun.

Some of my favorite bands right now are Interpol, Queens of the Stone Age, The Good The Bad And The Queen. Some of my other favorite bands include Sonic Youth, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ride, Blur, Fugazi, early P.I.L. , Husker Du, etc. I could literally go on for days.


My guitars and amps are mainly simple vintage style with a few simple modifications...I like to keep my guitar and amp setup simple. I have a rather large boutique pedal collection and a Digital Music Corp./Voodoo Lab MIDI loop switching system to automate my pedal setup live.

I got this rack to fill in the gaps where my pedal collection leaves off. I use my analog pedals for my favorite tones and for when I need variations of those basic tones with different settings, I use the rack. I also got it for getting more experimental textures. The GSP-1101 is the first multi effects unit I have heard that I feel can stand up next to my analog pedals and hold it's own.

Very easy to set up with the setup wizard. Patch editor is easy to use too. The tone libraries are a great place to start, or just grab a tone from the library and end there because the library sounds are very good on there own.

Sound quality of both the models(from clean all the way to high gain) and effects are excellent. The effects in the presets are not overdone. The modeling in this unit is very good and I have not heard anything better than this.

I only give it a 9 because I notice some fuzz type noise when I put my G-Force in the effects loop. The noise lasts a couple minutes until the unit warms up and is heard as a note or chord decays. Then, after a few minutes after turning it on, the problem disappears. I've never ever heard this noise from my G-Force so I am pretty sure it is the GSP. Even with the noise (it goes away), my main setup is now a 3 unit case with a Furman, GSP1101, and the G-Force in the GSP effect loop, then straight to the PA.

The GSP will not replace my G-Force, at least for now, because I have a lot of sounds I like in the G-Force. For comparison the G-Force effects are warmer sounding for some reason than the GSPs and I actually like the way the G-Force sounds in combo with the GSP. Also the G-Force is infinitely more tweakable. I link the midi between the units and the GSP can switch the G-Force patches and even turn it on and off internally with the preset settings. The GSP1101 provides fantastic flexibility in routing (unlike the G-Force, which does not have a loop.)

Other than the loop fuzz noise that goes away ( I wonder what causes this), I've had no problems, but then again it is brand new. It seems rugged. I keep it in a rack.

Excellent. I must have bought one of the first units. It came without a USB cable and came with the wrong software (some Lexicon product software was on the CD instead.)
I emailed their support and got a friendly reponse the next day. They very promptly send the items to me and I had them a few days later.

I give it a 10 because for the price I don't know how it can be beat.

My reference is that over the last 20 years or so I have worked with a fair amount of gear. I currently own and use the following (so my ears are familiar with):
Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 into 4x12
Peavey VTM120 into 4x12
Roland GP-8
TC G-Force
Digitech GNX3000 (GSP sounds much better than this)
Used a lot in the past (with mainly tube amps): Roland GS-6, DHP-55, BBE rack unit, lots of different pedals and a crybaby, POD Pro, Rockman amps and other stuff I can't remember.

The GSP1101 can basically replace all the above if I wanted to do that. Though what I really I love is the flexibility and transparency to use it with my old gear as I see fit.

Guitars: Charvel Model 6 (EMG 81, SA, SA), Fender Contemporary Strat (PAF Pro, Dunc 59), PRS Cu-22 (Dragon IIs), Custom Warmoth Strat (Super Dist, Area 61, Area 58), plus a couple Yamaha classicals.
Music: Main influences are 70s, 80s blues, rock, hard rock, metal, "hair" metal, etc... basically anything except country. A lot my playing is for church lately though, which is why the GSP fits the bill very nicely for adaptability and direct to mixer and PA apps!

I've waited a few days after recieving the unit to do a fair overview. Straight out of the box, I set out to see how easy editing was by creating a base patch, that is just a double rectifier model, with no effects, no cab model, no frills and I was delighted at how intuitive the interface was. Without reading the manual I was able to program exactly what I intended, no tricks. Tried out the sound, and I liked it, so it seems to be pretty easy to get good sound out of it. Cracked open the manual and it explained a few more things. My firmware revision is 1.2

With the sheer magnitude of amp models, and effects units, it is nearly impossible to not be able to eventually find the sound you are looking for. All the effects I have tried have been masterfully done. the patch switching is lightning fast, with delay and reverb spillover, so there's no instant sound chop when you switch patches. My current setup is a guitar, into the GSP1101 straight to a 1400 watt Solid State QSC power amp to a guitar cabinet. I have turned the cab models off on the unit for use with my guitar cab. The noise gates seem to work wonderfully, I have heard almost no unwanted noise from this unit. I have had a little trouble getting a tight high end off the unit, eventually I get there after tweaking some paramaters.

The unit looks well built, however there's the typical plastic knobs, I would make sure my Rack has a face cover on it to protect it from damage on the road. I would use this gear without a backup.

I have not had to deal with customer support yet.

I play Power Metal, this unit is a very good match, it is flexible enough to cope with any style. I have been playing for 22 years, and own a wide variety of gear. If this unit were stolen or lost I would definitely replace it. What I love about the unit is the flexibility, it has so many options, that I could theoretically never finish playing with it, but I can get a sound right away that I like so I don't feel the need to constantly play with tone shaping. My favorite feature would have to be the built in harmonizers, wahs and other normally expensive add-ons that are right inside this unit. Compared to the Behringer V-amp Pro, Sansamp PSA 1.1 and the Pod XT Pro this unit has infinitely more flexibility. The amp models seem to be of higher quality, particularly on high notes and the sound quality that I can't articulate any way other than it emphasizes a living note. the last gen amp modelers sound a lot more dead than this unit. The only things I wish it had were a couple of Engl amp models. With the flexibility and ease of programming, this unit has already helped me make music.

I would like to add that controlling this unit on stage you really want a MIDI controller, like the Behringer FCB1010, the expression pedals make the wah and whammy effects work, as well on the fly patch changes are easily done this way.