DigiTech GSP1101

Easier than you think to use. The manual is simple and well laid out if you ask me. Edit a patch and push the Store button 3 times and your done. Very easy to use but the sound is where it really shines.
Effects loop, 1/4 ins and outs, XLR outs. Very configurable and can really shine either live or recorded.

What is really great about this unit is that it has an external loop between what should go in front of your amp and what should go after your amp. Some of the effects like chorus can be placed either before or after the loop. My setup is unique. I plug my guitar into the GSP 1101 and out its loop send to my JTM45 so I'm getting only the "before" the amp effects into my amp like compressor, distortion etc. So there is no delay or chorus coming out of my guitar amp. What I do is mic (Sure sm57) my speaker into a mixer. I tap the mike channel insert into the return of the GSP1101 so the chorus, delay etc are fed out out of the GSP1101 through it's XLR outputs back into the mixer and out the mixer channels in stereo panned full left/full right. My mixer is fed thru a power amp and into two (2) speakers that sit left and right of my guitar amp speaker. No Speaker simulator required because I mic my guitar speaker. I compared this units DS-1 and tube screamers to the real things and in some cases the GSP sounded much better. And you know this thing has Lexicon reverbs so I get an ablolutely plush sound all together. I also have the Digitech Control 2 foot controller. Set up the patches for 80's hair band hard rock or clean chorus, or harmony pitch shift, or univibe or what ever! OK the wah kinda sucks compared to the real thing but you can still practice with it. I can get just about anybodys sound that uses a Marshall tone since I have the JTM45. I've had other modeling products and I think this one sounds the best. I really don't use the amp or cab models but the JCM900 model thru my mixer just kicked ***. After hearing that patch alone I new I could be very happy with this unit. I have sold everything else and only use this unit. I will get a crybaby or some other wah pedal but that's it. Easy a 10 for what it does.

Never a problem in a couple years.

Never used them so I must give a positive score.

Over all this is a really quality sounding and useful unit. The parameters on the effects are just enough but don't give you much control of pan left/right. If it's a stereo effect, you get what it's got. However you can slow down/speed up and set volumes etc.
I have not found another piece of gear that could replace it so I would have to buy another if lost.

For a digital rack preamp, very easy to use, particularly via x-edit, just acces the programs and tweek to your hearts content.

It;s not a six knob Marshall so can't get a ten, I'll give it an eight

At the mo I'm only judging it on direct line into mixer using amo and cab sim. I'm hoping it will sound beastly through my Marshall 9200 but we will see.

The key is to go to www.mustbebeta.com and get beta c48. This makes the original preamps sounds phenomonemally better than the original models and adds a couple of classics (the 5150 most importantly and a triple rec)

Would get a 6 without the beta version. Gets an 8 as it has some great sounds. None of the models exactly nail the originals but having 10-15 amp choices at my fingertips for 200 notes can;lt be beaten. I tube screamer all the heavy channels and partiularly like the jump panel plexl, dual rec and JCM2000. Also use a heavily chorused Blackface Twin for clean. Just sounds great for the money

Aint broke yet

Good info on site and forums. Not had to repair it

Really hopingit will come to life played through the Marshall 9200 into my Engl Vintage Greenback 4x12.

Direct to mixer it gets an eight

As far as multi-processors go this one is easy to navigate through. There's lots of good sounds in it but most of all I like the eq it has per patch. You can set which freqency the low, mid & highs bend and make it a narrow, medium or wide band. It also has a -12/+12db cut or boost to it per range.

If you know how to use one of these is easy to edit. If your new to multi-effects the manual is a pretty decent tool and I think you'll figure this one out AFTER banging your head againt the wall a couple of times. That goes for all processors but this one is probably far easier than most.

Schecter 006 Blackjack guitar-Isp Decimator, Gsp-1101 in the series loop, BBE Maximizer 482i in the parallel loop 50/50 wet/dry, Carvin V3 amp, Digitech Controller 2 pedal board, SIMPLE yet overkill on versatility!

It's not a noisy unit in my rig but the gate in it helps a little with that. It's not that great of a gate but it's sufficiant at high gain levels. I let the Decimator do most of that trick for me.

Parameter control of the pedal is great for solos. It's got 8 different settings for it and ALOT of parameters to control from it. I can now trigger the delays on, boost reverb level, volume, AND boost/cut whatever freqencies I want with a simple toe down of the pedal for solo's and heel down to go right back to my rhythm sound.

Now I can (thats me) mimic pretty much anything I want to a very suitable level not to mention create an awesome sound for myself. If your looking to mimic the radio players EXACTLY plan on spending alot more than $500. (try $1000 or MORE) At this price range I would say it's handsdown the best unit out there. I AM NOT A Digitech fan at all and in the past have stayed far away from thier products. I do really like this unit and some of thier Hardwire series pedals though. It's about time they started making some decent stuff, thanx Digitech for finally doing that.

The 10 rating here is for a processor at this price!

So far so good. Not really any bad problems from software yet.

None yet anyway.

This thing is great for the money period. I don't think you will do any better in the $300-$750 range.

If your amp is MIDI controllable like my Carvin V3 you'll find no problems with the latency of the channel changes in your amp from the GSP 1101 unit. I was worried about that to before I got it.

Overall if you know how to use one I think you'll like it for this kind of money. If your looking to upgrade the one you got than you might not think so but it's still a fine unit to have for the money.

If your new to this stuff it's probably your BEST bet on starting out with one. It's about as simple to navigate as one of these things get. As far as MIDI controls from a pedal you should probably get the Controll 2 pedal board for it so you won't have anything else NEW to learn

Rack processors are all pretty difficult to get used to. This one is a little better than most. If you are using the amp simulator stuff, this one is awesome since it has the knobs right there and you don't have to page through several screens. You have to know a little bit about how to chain effects and how to wire this into your setup, but if you are buying this unit, you probably already know that stuff.

I use this with a Marshall JMP-1, into a Marshall El84 power amp. I run the JMP-1 from the effects loop of the GSP1101. This setup lets me run either the internal amp modeling or use the JMP-1, which is very nice! Why didn't somebody else ever think of this? I use a Rocktron All-Access to control everything.

This unit sounds great. I like that it doesn't have a Wall Wart adapter.

Complaints: My first problem with this was that the reverb and delay tails would get cut off if you use it in "stompbox mode", where you switch off effects within a preset. This was a big screwup on Digitech's part. Strangely, it will allow you to carry-over the effect tails when switching between presets. However, if you use a Rocktron MIDI controller like I do, MIDI CC's are always sent per program change, which if you link MIDI CC's to enable/disable individual effects, this "spillover" feature is rendered this useless. Thankfully, Stan at mustbebeta dot com released some firmware to fix this. Thank you so much Stan, this box about ending up getting sent back.

Second complaint is that all pitch and modulation effects are in one effects block. (Unfortunately, Stan couldn't fix this unfortunate issue.) Basically, this means that you can't run, for example, an Octave effect with a flanger or chorus at the same time. In fact, anything that is listed in the "Chorus/FX" block can only be on one at a time. I can understand why it would be fine to have chorus, phaser, and flanger type effects mutually exclusive, but the pitch/harmonizer based effects should have their own block.

I went from using a Rocktron XPression to the GSP1101. I loved the Xpression, but I liked that the GSP1101 had the preamp stuff and no wall wart. The Marshall JMP-1 has weak clean settings, so I use the GSP1101 amp modeling for clean settings, and the JMP-1 for distortion. The Xpression would allow you to run several effects simultanously, I think the only limitation was no Chorus and Flanger at the same time. If the GSP1101 could do that, it would be a real winner in my opinion.

Don't know yet.

Don't know yet about Digitech, but for sure check out mustbebeta dot com for a needed firmware upgrade.

I love that this unit has a loop where you can put your preamp there. This gives awesome flexibility! If Digitech would come out with a version that allowed you to run pitch/harmony based effects on a seperate effects block, it would be an awesome box.

Like many other players I'm sometimes intimidated with 'current' products and their sometimes maze-like operating procedures.

Not so with the GSP1101 .. I plugged in a guitar and with a set of headphones I went exploring this units vast sound library.

Even without looking at the manual , the units controls are very well laid out so that even an 'old fashion straight into amp' kinda guy like myself could figure it out.

I like the amp like front panel .. I know other manufacturers have similar layouts and suffice to say it's nice to say " they've finally caught on !!! "

The manual is very user friendly and the unit itself is so easy to use DigiTech didn't boggle the consumer with a lot of 'techno' talk.

Editing sounds is quite easy and this coming from a guy with limited use of processors like the GSP1101 .

I've been playing for close to 35 yrs now and like to think I have a good set of ears when it comes to tone. Of course everyone has their own perception of tone and what sounds good to one person might sound like noise to another.

I found the sound quality to be above and beyond what I was anticipating.
If you cant find any good tones from this unit , I suggest a hearing exam.

I'm running the left and right outputs into 2 Carvin Legacy combos .
I haven't tried running it through my amps FX loop because I'm not using the lead channels on either.
I have both Legacy's clean channels tone controls set at 5 o'clock across the board.
And additional eq'ing required is done through the GSP1101.


It sounds amazing !!!

I dont have a lot to say about reliability yet because I haven't done any gigs with it yet .
My unit is rack mounted so it's well protected.

When I first unpacked it, I found the overall construction of the unit to be quite sturdy.
The same goes for the optional Control 2 Pedal .. tank tuff .. just be careful picking it up ... the finish on the metal is extremely slippery.
Speaking of the optional Control 2 .. GET IT !!! or another compatible unit .. having this pedalboard is half the fun.

I've only sent emails mostly dealing with editing features and so far DigiTech has been excellent with replies.
Some questions were answered within the hour of me emailing them.

I hope that if I were ever to have any problems with the unit they're as prompt in getting it fixed.
Speaking of that ... 'tactful assertiveness' from the consumer can go a long way in getting anything repaired.

This processor has been a godsend for me, particularily due to the project I'm currently involved with. ( a Rush tribute )

Most of us aware with their music knows Alex Lifeson is quite creative with his use of effects and with this unit and no other additional processors, I'm able to emulate a lot of his sounds so needless to say this has made life a lot easier for this guy.
And the fact that I didn't have to spend a fortune to get these sounds is just icing on the cake .

And another bonus is having virtually clutter at your feet .
I dont even need my wah pedal ... lol

The only thing I really dont like about this unit is it's onboard tuner .. it's adequate but I think they could of done better .. rather a small annoyance considering everything else it does so well.

I'm using the foot controller in what Digitech refers to as " 5 Patch Mode "
Setup like that I have 5 presets(1-5) per bank but you can switch off your effects as you would with any stompbox. Switches 6-9 are for ..
6.Distortion
7.Chorus ( and other modulation FX0
8.Delay
9.Reverb



Considering the relatively low cost of the GSP1101 and it's huge library of amp models, effects, etc .. I have to give it a 10 .. the unit sounds that good. I would recommend this to anyone and like any other processor the more time you spend with it , the more you'll appreciate what it can do for you .

Note: this reviewer compares similar products (I am not comparing it with a stompbox pedal) and also assumes that the user has some understanding on how does rack mounted processors work.
If you understand the ABC of rack effects and how they interact with the rest of your equipment it is possible to get really good sounds out of it. As with any complex rig, it takes some time to fine tune it (setting the best interface between it and your amp, calibrating the global equalizer, etc..). I have been playing in different venues, and have had to share amp, and with the output configuration options this thing comes with, it is pretty easy to adjust the sound to fit the tonal and dynamic characteristics of the target amp, affecting very little your tone and playing synamics. Considering the complexity of this processor, it is really simple to edit patches. The manual is just enough to get you started, but I can understand that it might be incomplete for some people. I have upgraded it with the Beta c48, if the unit was already amazing the update put it into a different level.

I use a Burns Brian May replica, a Lone Star Strat and a Les Paul Classic, each conserve their own tonal and dynamic characteristics, awesome!! I have not had problems with noise comming out of the unit, but then again I pay attention to the gain levels and noise gate settings. I have read some complaints about the intelligent pitch shifter, I think it does what it is suppossed to do (help if you do not have a second guitar player to play harmonies) but cannot replace one (not for that ammount of money though). Apart from that I am amazed on the different tonal variations you can get by changing the efects position in the chain (some may sound weak or even bad if positioned in the wrong path, but that will happen with every stompbox-just plug a wah after a distortion pedal). I am using it with a Vox AD60VT, which happened to be a great discovery. Running the GSP through the loop return I can take advantage of the different class power amps it models changing the feel and sound of the rig. I have so far got great sounds, I usually create my own sounds, but I have tweaked a little bit the artist patches and they sound great (Woman Tone, AC/DC, etc..), I even got a pretty decent Brian May sound. As many of the reviewers have pointed out, the main factor is your own ears (I will add heart and head) is the more important thing, if you like it and makes you wanna rock harder the unit is working great, it does that for me with everything I have tried so far.

Well, as with anything electronic, you have to be careful, but if you keep it mounted in a rack case and do not abuse it, I believe it will last a long time.

No need so far (I have been a digitech user for more than 15 years)

I am currently playing 80's hard and heavy metal along with some Texas Rock, great unit for all of that. I have been playing for over 20 years and have owned a GSP 21 Legend (I still do), an RP 14D, RP 2000, GNX2 and GNX3K. Some better than others (read GSP 21 and RP 14D) but this GSP1101 is the summ of all the former and elevated to the 10th power. The only thing that I know that can kick its buttocks is the Axe FX, but one will expect that for an extra 1600 bucks. Do not buy this thing if you are not willing to use your brain and spend some time to get killer tone. For that matter just get a simple amp (and even there you have to tweak and balance your guitar, effects and amp to sound decent).

Pretty darn easy I would say... considering I have yet to actually read the manual and I haven't ran into any kinks.... hooked it up to my computer and that's all it took.

For $500, it's probably the best sounding multi-fx/modeler out there. The downfall is the fact that it doesn't do 2 amps at once like the pod x3. However, the pod x3 has a lot more filler tones and the gsp1101's tones are much more usable. The tones themselves sound better than any other modeler out there, besides the axe-fx. The effects are good, great even.. especially the reverbs.... But not spectacular or anything. However... to get truly better sounding effects would cost about a grand more. Unless you want to go out and buy a bunch of analog stomp boxes in which you would have less effects and more headaches anyway... and still cost an arm and a leg. This thing sounds great.. not perfect, but what unit is?

Not sure.. haven't had any problems though!

haven't had to deal with them.

This is a great unit. I use it with a rivera TBR-5 power amp and a marshall jmp-1 preamp. My jmp-1 blew a fuse and I had to use the GSP1101 as the main preamp and effects for a couple days. It worked beautifully. I used the Soldano SLO model for gain and the fender twin model for cleans. Sounded great, and more responsive than my POD x3 or my vetta II. I have a theory that some people aren't setting them up correctly. The unit requires specific settings for specific gear. For example, it treats a solid state power amp different than a tube power amp, or a tube/SS guitar amp or a PA and so on. It changes timbre and response for different settings, made to match the type of gear and routing options you are using with it. I messed around with these settings to hear the differences, and there was indeed a difference. You could overlook this easily if your not careful... and this would likely put a bad taste in your mouth. Check out their artists list, many pro's using this unit nowadays. You get what you pay for, and I highly doubt there is a better sounding unit for the price on the market.

Very easy to program, setup and use. The included X-edit software makes it even easier and fun.

I've been playing guitar for almost 40 years now, (yea, old guy here...) and I've always played through tube amps. I'm an electronic engineer by day and I've spent some time in the past designing and building tube amps and pre-amps. Nothing can take the place of tube distortion... nothing. I'm talking about both pre-amp AND power amp distortion. When amp and distortion modeling was introduced some years ago i was curious to check out various manufacturers claims of being able to emulate tube distortion. I purchased several of the POD products, and other modeling devices including the GNX4. The POD, Behringer and others I tested just plain sucked. Horrible intermodulation products and nasty artifacts, aliasing,.. just awful. I was trying to get a great guitar tone recorded in the studio by going direct into the board without having to mike-up a guitar amp. Forget it... These devices show their ugly side not necessarily when you're playing single note lines and straight open major chords, but when for example, you're holding one note on one string, and play a second note on another string and bend it, you'll hear those nasty artifacts appear. (intermodulation distortion) That being said, of all the units I tested (actually purchased and later sold) the GNX4 came closest to sounding decent. The tone was a step above the others but still not what I expected. Now I have to make the statement that I am not employed by Digitech nor do I receive any endorsements from them....(I wish!) I recently purchased a GSP1101 with the hopes again of being able to get a great recorded guitar tone direct. I must say I am impressed!.. When I first got the GSP (about 2 weeks ago now) I just plugged my guitar in, connect the line out's to my mixer and listened on a pair of high quality studio monitors. WOW!... incredible!... this is what I have been expecting out of modeling for many years now. Then came the icing on the cake... I connected my trusty Mesa Triaxis to the GSP preamp loop... oh yea! now I have the best of both worlds... the ability to switch between smooth rich tube distortion and great amp and distortion modeling tones. To complete my all purpose guitar rig, I feed the GSP line outs into a Eventide Eclipse processor. That gives me some of the high end wild effects the GSP doesn't have. Before I bought the GSP, I was using a Boss GT-pro but only for the effects, I never used the amp or distortion modeling because I felt they too sounded like crap. I just sold the GT-Pro.

So far so good..

Still working so no experience with support

I play mostly old school progressive rock.. (not metal) so I need everything from heavy thick tones to smooth clean sounds.. The GSP1101 in combination with a Mesa Triaxis is a match made in heaven!

This is an update to a previous review. My initial review was the 2nd review posted (9/07).

I 100% agree with the recent reviewer that says to try a tube preamp in the effects loop when going direct to mixer. I don't use a mic pre, but rather I use a Mesa Studio Pre and set it for clean. The Studio Pre is basically functioning as an effect.

The GSP 1101 sounds stunning in this configuration direct to PA or in a FRFR setup.

After my initial review, the fuzz/noise issue on startup bugged me to the point where I sent it to Digitech for repair. They fixed it and sent it back within a day or two. I haven't had a problem since then.

I had to send it in, but Digitech was very responsive and easy to work with.

it's very easy to use.Just read the manual and everything will gonna be okay ;D

My setup : Ibanez JS 1000 -> Digitech GSp1101 -> Tc Electronics G Major -> Rocktron Velocity 100 Power amp -> Marshall 4x12 cab

At the first time I heard the sound on the stores was so Digital! I almost not like this FX. But the salesman tried to convinced me and then he made up some effects changes. He modified the presets and then I was amazed with the sound that came out from it! Then I decided to buy it and make it as my main gear.

I found out some amp modeler is amazing. feels no digital at all, just like the real thing. You just need to be more patience to tweak it out.

my favorites setup are:

internal preamp -> distortion "on" screamer, drive 60, tone 60-> Head amp : mark III, gain 70-> cabinet marshall 4x12

and

internal preamp -> distortion "on" 808 -> Head amp : twin reverb -> cabinet marshall 4x12

the reason why I like those set up because the sounds really kickin' and punchin' just like real tube amp. I found out that the Twin reverbs modeler amp is the most kicking and punching Amp on the GSP1101. You can add a stomp distortion modeler before the amp modeler. So you can have a Killer distortion or a sweat crunch with a punch responding just like a tube amp. By the way I do have a Behringer Mic 100 and made some test to use it on the looper. In my opinion there is no need to add behringer MIC 100 or 200 on it, the GSP1101 "tube like" response is good enough.

I don't like the mesa rectifier modeler on this FX. It sounds bad, thin, no souls and it doesn't sounds like rectifier. Sorry probably it just my personal taste.

most of the effects are good.the diatonic harmony is useful, the sound of Octave is owe some too. But the Whammy is a little beat weak. It sounds thin and so digital on higher pitch. The Whammy FX is better on G major.

The Delays on GSP1101 just great, but I prefer the the delays on G major, it's more alive to my ears.

That's why I'm still using my G major.

I play some kind of Pop Rock music and Progressive Rock music. Yes this FX is a good match for me. Iv'e been playing for 20 years. I'm using Phonic PFC900E power Conditioner, GSP1101, G major, Rocktron Velocity100 Poweramp, Marshall 4x12 cab.

One thing that I love about this FX is the "Tube like" Response -if we tweak it right! the sounds really awesome!

What I hate about this FX: I don't like the sound when it through direct to the mixer. the sound just a little bit glassy n just like have much treble on it. But after I add using Behringer ultra G direct Box, with the cab simulator on, the problem solved.

My honest opinion, this GSP1101 is better for live - comparing to my PODXT peanut bean. It has a sound response (punchin' and kickin')just like a tube preamp. But too bad it doesn't sound as good as PODXT for direct. probably it because The PODXT has a mic cabinet simulator and the GSP1101 hasn't. that's why I suggest to add a direct box with mic cab simulator facility on it.

I wish it had a mic cab simulator facility, such as mic placement, kind of mic we used, the distance between mic and the speaker, etc. The GSP1101 only has choices for head amp and cabinet only.

Digitech's gear have always been idiot proof as far as I am concern.....

Here's something I feel that I should share with you.

For those of you who are not 100 per cent with the way your GSP 1101 sounds through your solid state power amp and speakers try this. Get your self a Behringer M200 Mic Pre Amp or the Art Studio V3 Mic Pre and patch into the send and returns, both these units are tube driven with presets, both are small enough to sit on to of your rack. I am still smiling at what it did to my sound...Have fun

No issues after seven month of solid use....

I have found this to be one of the easyiest units that I have owned to use.
I have struggled with Boss GT-5, Roctron Voodu Valve, TC Electronics G major, Alesis, not saying there hard just not simple to follow.
From the moment I turned the unit on, I was able to navigate around with out using a manual. And with the software editor you can preplan
your patches. (Easier to type in patch names than to use a daisy wheel)

I use a varity of guitars. Fender Stats fitted with Kinman pickups,
and others with humbuckers. Tele's, Lespauls etc.
About 20 years ago I brought a digitech digital delay pedal, which was the biggest piece of **** out. Because of that experience I never looked at another digitech unit, until I stumbled on to this unit. I have tried so many other multi effect processors, and found I could nver settle on a sound.
The GSP1101 has sat me on my ass. I have taken a instant likeing
to the unit. I have found the digital sound to be more like a analog sounding unit. The distortions and overdrive sounds are great. The clean sounds are lush and warm. I love my analog pedals, but for the first time I feel this unit could offer a serious challenge to the good old gear. I have not used this unit live, but I have used it in the studio. When I am writing songs, I have used with my Apple MAC Pro
notebook using Garage Band and recording via the USB with great results. Also great for practise. In my case I was able to use Itunes
to play the audio via USB to the GSP and monitor the song using headphones while playing the guitar. I have not got a bad word to say about the sounds of this unit. It is quiet, The presets are 95% usable compared to other units that have only 5% of usable factory patches. Another thing I liked was the factory patches were very balanced in regards to level and tonal qualitys.
Im going to give this unit a 10, because for the first time I have found a unit with more I like than I hate.

I can not rate this unit yet, but Everything worked straight out of the box.
I have had many new gear fail or be faulty straight out of the box,
so its nice when all goes well.

I am not a agent for Digitech, (Digitech tee-shirts, freebies, etc excepted) But I have to say this is the most enjoyable piece of gear I have owned in a long time.
I repair audio gear for a job, and its nice to see some well thought
out gear for a change. Again another 10

easy as can be to use from the front panel. x-edit is much easier on this unit vs the gnx3000 or gnx4. very easy to dial up good tone.

to be blunt: this thing pisses all over the gnx4 or gnx3000! i have all 3 units and i also have the mfxsupermodels for the gnx units and still...no comparison. the gnx units have many "tones" via eq, the gsp1101 has many tones and "feels". the tube emulation is truly next level. i am using this unit direct to pc or console to take advantage of the speaker emulation with great results. i have also tried using a rocktron voodo valve in the fx loop with mixed results. the cabinet sims are really good but i find the overall setup a bit noisy compared to the voodo valve alone. the effects on the gsp1101 are superior to the gnx units or the rocktron. the only thing that gives away that this thing has no tubes is pinch harmonics. while sounding really great, it doesn't have the same amount of lower/odd harmonics as an all tube preamp. it is however on par with the rocktron prophesy or voodo valve which has a tube in the signal path.

check out my presets if you have a gsp1101 to try it on:

http://singtall.tripod.com/

i have had really good experiences with digitech for over 25 years. never had any broken gear or issues.

i called digitech once a long time ago and they put an engineer on the phone to answer my technical questions. great.

unbelievable unit. on the wish list: bass amps, warp feature and pickup simulator. that's the only thing i miss from the gnx units, but really not needed since the gsp1101 has 3 sweep eq's. i compared this to line6, rocktron, and digitech gnx units and choose this unit over any of them. truly great unit for under $499. the fractal audio axe fx is the only other choice i would make if i had $1400 or more to burn. i have over 25 years of shredding experience and i own a studio and play on many cd projects. you can take my word for it or believe the salesman at guitarcenter who tells you that line6 rules.

REALLY easy to use. I have the control 2 and the GSP1101, the tap tempo works great, also the tuner display on the floorboard is better IMO. the control 2's 10 and 5 patch mode are really good, but the best is the toe control for the wah, really useful so you can use it like a traditional pedalboard. only thing is, for 5 patch mode, the "stompboxes" should be on the bottom 5 buttons.

the control 2 i would give an 8 due to the position on the stompboxes. and the GSP1101 an 8 as they could have made better use of the amp control buttons for other paramaters...

they should have put a ******* REAR INPUT ON!!!!!! really irritating if you have a wireless and are rackmounted.......

i use it with a Peavey Rotor with 2 x EMG 81s and a BC Rich Speedloader Bich with Bill Lawrence XL500 in the bridge.

I'm running into the effects return of my JCM900 SLX. i would use the four cable method, but the amount of noise reduced by using the digitech preamp only is too good to pass up. and the JCM900 model is pretty similar, only beef is they should have done a JCM900 SLX model, as it has more gain than the dual reverb and a diff dynamic, but its all good.

The unit is EXTREMELY quiet. Noise gate is top notch. Some of the effects are quite digital sounding, but thats what i wanted from the unit.

Amp models, some are mediocre, but the ones that are good are really good. Very versatile. Like the delays, and the dist pedals are great.

More than enough choice. I cant honestly think of an effect that i would add to it.

8 again as there are better modellers out there, but this is a cheap 1u solution. value for money is awesome.

hasnt done anything wrong yet except i thought it was dead, no signal, ******** bricks.

I was plugged into the headphone socket......

10 so far...

havent dealt with Harman. hope i dont have to.

i play metal a lot, but like to have a versatile rig so i can do anything at home .

for metal its really good, the tone is really sharp and cuts through live really well, bear in mind that is with a tube power amp. i've yet to try it direct, fingers crossed but i'm not expecting miracles.

as my JCM900 is single channel this adds WORLDS of options. i can have any amp sound, acoustic sim etc etc etc.

IMO the sims sound WAY better than Line 6, and price is comparable.

However the AXE FX pisses on it. But only in the respect that a dumble pisses on a marshall - for me it doesnt matter, cause i'm not that good! I hope to graduate to an AXE FX one day, but i will only do it if i get good enough to justify it!

gotta say if you need more versatility and a bag of effects this is prime, and such good value, but you really have to gewt the control 2 as well. bit annoying that it is propriatry, would hve been better to include midi and PSU alongside the cat 5 connection as it really is a fantastic pedalboard, they sould sell a lot of them for people to use with third party stuff. with any luck, someone will reverse engineer the cat 5 connection with a dongle!!!!! hint hint !!!

rating is nine as value has to come into account.

This unit is extremely easy to use. I was literally up and running with 3 excellent sounding amp model patches along with lead patches within 10 minutes, and that's without using the XEdit software. Using this software makes it stupid fast to do anything you want to do with a patch. I used an ADA midi foot controller with it and it worked right away without having to configure anything. The setup wizard makes dialing it in for your equipment very fast and easy. I've tried a couple of different configurations includeing the 4 cable method, line out to amp return, and just plugging in to a marshall valve state power amp. Each time I was able to configure the unit within 10 seconds to use the new setup.

UPDATE 8/11/08:
This is just a followup review and I still stand by my original ratings which were very good but for the purpose of this review system, I won't rate this unit again. I just wanted to followup with what I've found after owning it for more than a month. When I first got the unit, I was using it with the 4 cable method in conjunction with my Rivera Knucklehead. I got some very usable tones and I was fairly impressed with it. I then tried it with a Marshall valvestate 8008 power amp and it still sounded awesome but when I would crank it, something was just missing I guess so I would start picking everything apart and re-EQ and such. Then I finally went back to my Rivera head and just plugged the output into the effects return of the amp and used it just as a poweramp. When I cranked this up.....whoa.....it was more than awesome. It was so close to the sound in my head that I just could hardly believe it. In the end what I found is that the presence and focus controls on my amp which effect the power system and not the preamp were an integral part in getting the sound that I'm after. Not to mention the mojo that comes from cranking tubes. So if you're going to use this unit, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to find a good tube amp with some power section controls to pair with this thing. It's the best preamp that I've ever used. Maybe there's better out there, but I've never seen them. BTW, the singer/guitarist in my band has a POD Pro running into a Carvin X100B and he gets some pretty amazing sounds out of that setup too so I think that in the end, for great live guitar sound pairing a modeling preamp with a tube power section is the ultimate in tone and flexibility that we can achieve right now. Maybe in the future we won't need the tubes but who knows.

In the past, I haven't really liked the modeling offerings from Digitech. They've been a bit too digital sounding. I own a Genesis 3 and it does OK as long as it's running into a good tube amp but can't really stand on it's own. It's not bad but the bass is a bit too woofy and it just doesn't sound quite like the "real" thing without a little help from the "real" thing. This unit however sounds incredible no matter how you use it. Run it direct into your computer? awesome. Run it into a tube power amp? tone heaven. Run it directly into a SS power amp? awesome(after configuring it for this). This unit is what I've been waiting for from amp modeling. Until now, nothing has really stood up to the crank test and the feel test. I've liked a couple of the models that Line 6 has offered but they take some delicate EQ to really make them sound good. Not this unit. It sounds like the real thing from step one. The EQ only brings out more of the tonal variations. I really don't like any of the mesa models in this unit but that's just personal taste I thinkl. The Marshall models are almost spot on. The Fender models sound absolutely amazing too. The unit is dead quiet when using the noise gate. I've had the problem with the ground loop when using the preamp in my Rivera Knucklehead. But there are work-arounds for this. I'm seriously not worried about it thought because the amp models make it completely unnecessary for me to use my Rivera's preamp. Another big bonus for this unit is the global EQ. This allows you to adjust the overall EQ of the unit to fit the room you're playing in. This is very important to a gigging musician because every place you play is different and you want to sound your best where ever you go.

Not sure about this yet. Seems to be built well. I've had extremely good luck in this department with all of the other Digitech gear that I've owned.

Not sure. They usually have good support when I've talked to them in the past.

This piece of gear makes me excited to play my guitar. I've only had it for a week but it will become an integral part of my sound for years to come. Amp modeling has finally arrived. I'll never give up my tube amps because of the mojo but this thing has mojo of it's own and will definitely be a unit to be reckoned with similar to the 2101(which I used to own). Actually, this unit actually surpasses the 2101 in virtually every way except for maybe effect chain configuration.

This unit is possibly the easiest system of this type to use I have encountered!

Select a patch, press twice to edit, select parameter, press to edit, adjust it then save - easy!

It may not be as easy as a conventional amplifier, but for a multi effects processor and preamplifier module it is extremely simple.

The front panel mounted controls allow direct adjustment of the pre amp parameters (gain, bass, middle, treble, and level) at any time, and as these controls are encoders they work so much better than the line 6 ones.

In fact for ease of use this unit is in a different league to the line 6 stuff, and also from its predecessor the Digitech 2120.

The manual is clear, well written and easy to understand. I was up and running and get great sounds in minutes. I had no connection or configuration problems. It has a wizard that asks you a series of questions such as what are you connecting to etc.. and configures the GSP1101 accordingly.

Firmware version 2, which incorporates menus for the Digitech control 2 controller which I have and again is excellent and very simple to use.

Finally the free to download Digitech xedit software makes editing the patches even easier as you can see every single parameter at once on your PC screen.

If the front panel mounted knobs had a display over them like a tri axis I would give it a 10 for ease of use.

I am using a Fender Stratocaster with Seymour Duncan pickups, Rickenbacker 330 and a 1970s Ibanez with Seymour Duncan Humbuckers.

I play in a function band playing pretty much every kind of music you can imagine from Beatles to Bonjovi, Eagles to Ray Charles, The Police to Queen etc... I need to have a lot of sounds that I can call up very quickly with minimum of fuss (if there is nothing to say to the audience then there are no gaps between songs!!!)

I am using the Digitech GSP1101 connected to a Marshall power amp and from there to a Marshall 4x12 Cab or Marshall 2 x 12 Cab depending on requirements.

The GSP1101 replaces my POD XT Pro, Which Replaced a Digitech 2120, Which Replaced an ADA MP1 and Yamaha SPX90.

I also have a Marshall DSL100 head and a Mesa Boogie Mk2B.

The GSP is not at all noisy, at high gain settings with single coils you can get hum but this is no fault of the GSP. The onboard noise gate is simple and effective and I have not had any problems with it cutting off note tails.

I cannot believe the sounds I can get from this unit, it is almost impossible to pull up a bad one! I haven't had the luxury of using all of the classic amps that are modelled by this unit so I cannot vouch for their authenticity, but they all sound great! I am loving the Strat through the Fender Bassman model and the Rickenbacker through the Fender Twin at the mo! If anything there are too many great sounds here - making it hard to settle on one.

Even the acoustic simulator isn't bad, with a bit of tweaking it is quite acceptable.

Effects wise, the chorus, flange, phase an reverbs are just great!

This is the preamp / multi effects system I have been looking for. The ease of a amp, with the versatility of a programmable system and with great sounds as well.

Running it at home through headphones or my home studio, sounds almost identical to when I hook up to my stack - great for setting up tones at home at neighbour friendly volumes.

Global EQ allows you to tweak the overall sound to suit a venue. The control 2 allows global volume control as well.

Even under extreme overdrive and distortions the bass frequencies stay clean and defined and not muddy.

Overdrive sounds respond as you would expect to your playing style and also the guitar volume control.

The sound quality and tonal response of this unit is light years ahead of the Line 6 stuff!

There is no substitute for a good valve amp, but if like me you need total flexibly at the press of a button and you also want a great tone then this is possibly the best unit. Even if your vale amp purest mate claims he can tell the difference - no one in the audience will notice or care that you are using a modelling preamp that costs less than half a classic all valve amp!

I genuinely cannot think of anything to fault it on!

Never had a probelm with this unit. I regularly gig with it with no back up.

I contacted customer support a few times before buying this and got prompt and accurate replies.

Since buying I haven't needed to contact them.

Easy to use website with free downloads for editing and updating software.

I have had Digitech gear in the past and it has always been reliable. The one time I had a problem I emailed Digitech direct and got a replacement part sent to me free of charge, and full instructions on how to fit it.

Great for the function band I play in I get get every sound I need from clean to full on lead. Nice Betales AC30 with my Rickenbacker. Nice soul sounds and indie rock sounds.

I have been playing guitar for 25 years got through a stack of other gear in that tim ebut i think i will be sticking with this for a while now.

Yes I would replace it with another were it lost or stolen.

The main reason for buying this was its ease of use in live situations and the kind of tones it produces. It becomes invisible to me when I am playing and I just concentrate on the music - how it should be.

This is the new single unit rack mounted guitar processor from Digitech. It's easy to set up out of the box and the instruction manual is relatively clear although - as with most things midi-related - I could have used a bit more of an assumption of idiocy in the midi set-up section. Editing patches is a breeze; it's easy to see what you're doing and is quite intuitive. The 1101 has some very good amp models and high quality cab sims. However I bought this to go in my rack for live use and as I already have a very good valve pre-amp (VHT GP-3 Valvulator)I didn't want to use these options on the 1101. The good news is you don't need to. The 1101 allows you to use your own pre-amp and ignore the internal preamp settings. Having said that, I quickly realised that more flexibility was available as you can set up some patches to use the internal amp sims and some to use your own pre-amp. I found to my surprise that some of the amp sim sounds were so good I wanted to do that. A further unexpected benefit is that you can program one of the many distortion/fuzz box options to operate effectively in front of your external pre-amp if you so wish. The flexibility is amazing.

I was using this with a VHT GP-3 Valvulator Pre Amp, Yamaha power amp , a Beringher midi foot pedal; and a Marshal stereo 2 x 12. I play an Am Std Strat with a matched set of Seymour Duncans and a Hamer Sunburst USA Archtop with Floyd Rose and EMGs. I've playing for 30 years.

The sounds are surprisingly good and you could spend a long time deciding on your ideal groups of patches for gigs. I also use a Lexicon MX-300 for chorus, reverb and delay and although some of the 1101 patches are named after the Lexicon, they are definitely not as lush but you wouldn't notice at a gig. The reason I wanted to move from the Lexicon to the 1101 is that there is some latency in the patch changes on the Lexicon. Not the end of the world but a little annoying. The GSP-1101 again impresses; not only no latency but a user definable overlap of echo settings. Very classy. Seamless changes from one patch to another.

Being able to take a separate pair of XLR outs to the desk was fantastic too, as you can elect to send the internally amp modeled cabinet simulated sound to the desk (or you can set up a global cab sim sound for all the effects that are going to the desk, which replicates your backline set up). Even though your backline is not receiving amp or cab sim. Very cool.

Can't depend on them. Too bad really as I was loving this unit. The first one had bent pins in the XLR outputs as if someone had tried to force a plug in there. It also suffered from a weird clicking noise through the headphones which, while it didn't effect anything live it seemed to be an indicator that something was amiss. I read elsewhere that this might be a capacitor problem. The store (Guitar-Guitar in Glasgow) took it back and ordered me up a new one. I've just returned the new one to them as it's flawed too; there's some problem with the combined rotary/push switch that you use for editing. I'm afraid I can't live with that as it will be a problem live. So two dodgy units out of two...sadly I've had to say I won't be getting another. The store couldn't be more helpful though and are helping me to get sorted out with something in the short term for my gigs at the weekend and I'm confident they'll help me find something a bit more reliable.

I didn't deal with digitech directly. Guitar-Guitar in Glasgow were great and Digitech did seem to send another unit promptly so I'll award 5 points here but I still don't trust their quality control enough to buy another.

I play in three bands so I have to cover many styles including Jazz Funk, Classic Rock, Fusion, Blues and chart stuff.

The basic sounds that the unit produced were excellent.

I'm not going to buy another one because their record with me on the GSP-1101 is 100% bad in terms of quality control so far. Having said that I have previously owned many Digitech multi effects and they've always been good and reliable. In fact I think I've even got one of those old yellow multi-effect pedals of theirs in a cupboard somewhere. I'm sure it still works.

There are so few comparable products on the market just now that I don't know what I'm going to replace it with. TC Electronics have a few options but I think they're due for a face lift. Similarly the Boss GT-Pro is looking a little old in the tooth and I've never been that impressed with the quality of the Pod stuff - perhaps I need to have another look.

I'm giving an overall rating of 5 because in principle this is a great piece of kit but even if it could make you sound like the love child of Jimi Hendrix and Alan Holdsworth it would be useless for a working musician because it's unreliable.

I won't go over the features of this unit, as you probably already know.
This is a very easy unit to use, even without the editing software. I always feel biased when I say this since I have a computer background, but it's true. A monkey could do it. The interface is very simplistic yet allows a good amount of tweaking. The global EQ is very handy. Overall it has all the features I need for my rack. The manual is good. I wish they would give some more description on what the effects parameters actually do. It would save me a lot of time. Oh and btw I use a Behringer FCB1010 with it. Works great.

I have the latest firmware. This unit is pie. Digitech has made a very easy to use unit. Go figure.

I run this unit through a BBE and into a Peavey 50/50 poweramp through a 4x12 with celestion G12t-100s. I've used some other gear with it like external preamps but thats my current setup.

The unit isn't particularly noisy. High gain stuff can be though. The noise gate remedies this but only to an extent. For this review I'm just going to break the categories apart and review them seperately. Read accordingly.

AMPS - The word on the street has been that the models in this unit are all incredibly realistic. (especially for the price). The only other thing I know of that's claiming the same thing as the GSP and actually being taken seriously is the Axe-FX. Which I'll talk about later. I'm of the opinion that most modelers such as the Line 6 Pods and Vetta II or the Vox and Boss units just don't cut the gravy. I've tried a bunch of these so called "emulators" and honestly they don't come close. I'm a serious player who requires a seriously good sound. I'm very particular about my tone and I want the very best. Usually that comes from high end equipment and tube amps. Go figure.
The amps models on here range from decent to good to great IMHO. Obviously none of them are perfect, (perhaps barring a couple exceptions) But many of them come surprisingly close. The Fender and Marshall models I must say, are impressive. They're close...very close. With all digital circuitry, there's bound to be the occasional artifact or reminder popping up to let you know you're still playing through a modeler. But 90% of the time these models are stellar. I will also say that the matchless and Dual Recto models are quite impressive. Very realistic!
Now let me just say, that even though I have never owned a Soldano SLO, a Carvin Legacy, or a Mesa IIC+, these models are crap for me. Other players seem to like them okay, but I think they sound thin and fake. The only high gain amp on here I REALLY like is the Dual Recto.
And luckily it's good enough to make up for the rest. I also like the jcm2000 model but I don't use it as much because it doesn't have the gain of the recto. The digitech models are the same. Some of them are great, while others are just okay. You be the judge.

Overall I would say this unit is a steal for the price in terms of amp models.

EFECTS - All the effects here are done very well. Honestly, they sound near exact to their counterparts. I can't complain. There are very few weak points in the chain here. Some people might not like the delays. They are a bit different than most. Not bad, but different.

EQ - It's great. Does what it's supposed to.

Gate - There are better gates out there like a Hush super C. But that will cost you another $100.

Cabs - I never use these so I don't know.

Now let me say, for the money you're spending, this unit is incredible. I would pay $1000 for it probably if it cost that much. It's that good. However, I've been reading up a lot on this Axe-FX and honestly it sounds like it's just miles (and dollars) ahead of the competition. I'm curious to see how much better it is than this unit.
$1700 is a lot of money, but I guess we'll see.

It hasn't messed up on me for the 5 months I've had it. It's solid.

I've talked to them. They're as good as most other support teams. Not bad, not stellar.

I play all types of music. This is a good unit. Compared to everything else in it's price range it slays. AND I MEANS SLAYS the rest. I've used a fair amount of gear and honestly this was the best value on something I ever had. I'm still going to try an Axe-FX and see how that is. But for someone who doesn't want to pony up $1700 for a modeler, this is the best money can buy. Period.

Patience is what i leaqrned on this product! By pushing your patience limits, you can get some worthy sound out of this unit. The editing part for a non-user defined patch is easier in comparison though.
The manual need extra help for itself. 7 options are not enough. I bought the unit with the software version of 1.3 smth so i had to upgrade it to 2.0 before going on stage to be able to use control 2. I' d prefer to get it updated since i paid $800 for the unit and controller.

I have 5 guitars. Fender yngwie signature, Jackson DKMG with EMG active configuration, Jackson RR3, LTD George Lynch, and an ibanez RG350. I am happy with all of my guitars in most cases. I have always used and relied on my Sansamp GT-2 for the distorted sounds and a Boss GE-7 Eq. for boosting on stage for the solo breaks. I liked the sound but i needed more pedalds like delay, chorus, wah, flanger, volume pedal etc. and i thought it would be a pile of pedals and cords and supplies for that matter. Then i decided switching my gear to rack units. when i was a kid i was very familiar with digitech ( i have used rp-1, rp-5, rp-10, rp-14, gsp 2120 ) and was able to get nice sounds through them. So i decided to buy this new 1101 as a first piece of my rack. It was not bad at first times with my MG100 HDFX half stack. My ears got numb and senseless to the guitar tone because after a while everything you hear becomes nice because u grow numb. But after plugging into my sansamp GT-2 again it was like a deeeeeep breath into my lungs. Maaaan it was pure sound and no plastic sound!
If i was a tech guy in Digitech, the first thing i' d do would be to fix the crappy noise gate which apparently was never developed since those crappy old RP-1 times! It either kicks in too early which would kill your sustain on bends or too low to eliminate the garbage of effects.So: CRAPPY NG!
As for the preamp modelings, i just bought a new Sansamp PSA1.1 and experienced how "serious" and "tight" a guitar tone could be after those harsh, muddy and garbage tones of GSP toy.
and you know what? this GSP 1101 won2 t even let me use the NG for the ext. Preamp cuz it's located before the loop. Digitech is advertising this unit as "WE DON' T WANNA GIVE UP ON YOUR TONE, JUST WANNA BE A PART OF IT" !!!!!
What the hell? Then put an extra noise gate to cooperate with some ext. preamp!!!
even my MG100's preamp would soung more real compared to this artificial toy.
I' ll either sell this unit of use it just for FX after my PSA1.1 ( real thing )
Delays and reverbs are ok but the core of the tone sux.
My conclusion imho : Digitech hasn' t even gone even 1 step ahead, after those long yrs. Still the same junk and plastic tone.

They must fix the issue about the ethernet cable plugged on control2 and the unit. You can' t unplug it unless you break the port. The pin on the both ends are nearly impossible to push so i have to use a pick to push the pin inside to unplug the cable. Left the one on GSP plugged anyway.
What a low quality thing for smth made in USA!
I' d never use this thing without an ext preamp on stage. Audience is always mercyless and wouldn2 t think twice to judge your crappy tone as "bad" so stage needs some serious equipment.

I usualy play rock, metal and shred stuff which is usually based on very smooth, violin type solo tones. Without any "harsh" and mud in the low end. It is very hard to achieve such sounds on this unit but with my PSA1.1 i got them even on the presets!
As for the cleans, a good chorus and a crystal clear sound is all i desire for arpegios or some clean solos. You can have them with Gsp1101, but who would buy a preamp just for clean tones? :)
again and again i say, i' d never use this as a preamp because the sounds are either for new-metal heads ( Mtv crap ) who don' t need a definition or art in their guitar sound but just loudness, or for kids who wanna boost their egos with ultra high-gain, hyper metal sounds. Not for serious ones.
It doesn2 t cooperate with the rest of your gig so i think digitech' s advertisements are just for ripping ppl.
You can listen to some of my sounds i made directly through the PC with my old rp-14. not so good but much better than GSP1101.
I hope you guys are familiar with Rapidshare.

1-YAZ DOSTUM:

http://rapidshare.com/files/58317985/YAZ_DOSTUM.wma.html


2-ASK
http://rapidshare.com/files/58319412/ASK.mp3.html

This unit by far is the most versatile "does it all" unit I have used. Easy plug in and go with pre-set sounds minor tweaking of tone for your application out of the box good sounds.
Editing is almost a no brainer if you've ever messed with programming gear before- it's easier than most.
Manual is helpful and mostly complete but is missing some info non MIDI assignments.
I recieved unit brand new with version 1.0 or 1.3 and easy download of ver. 2.0 to make Control 2 pedal function

I use Tele, Strat and 335 guitars. Unit lines out to a Marshall 8008 stereo rack amp with 2 Vintage 30 tuned ported custom cabs and also run into a 63 Vibroverb RI. I started with a Behringer FC1010 MIDI controller then quickly bought the proprietary foot "Control 2" pedal- I advise this-as not all the MIDI funtionality was available out of the box.
Super quiet-so much so that I am not always sure if it's functioning until I actually play a note. Effects are clean, tasty, and extensive. A few of the distortion models are kind of weak as stand alone settings but with amp model combos, pre-amp settings, EQ, output etc...tweaking you should be able to make the sound of just about any amp, pedal, cab system out there. Fender Twin is stunning along with AC30, 45 watt Marshall those are the best models. I am a bit disapointed that none of the Marshall amp patches can be cleaned up for that jangly punch-but I use the Twin for clean. A couple of the pre-set patches "Stevie" (Ray vaughn) Eric Johnson patch ,And the "Black Label" "Dimebag" are spot on. Acoustic simulator worth the price of admission as it's like having another guitar! The Harmony settings are excellent, but the "bass" simulator patch (octave)is pretty much unusable-it doesn't track well and sounds wierd unless you turn your treble knob off.

I haven't had it long enough to know if I can depend on it. It is Digitech and I have a couple digitech units I have had in service for 18 years without fail. It is basically a computer and fallible as such. It did lock up on me one time, I reset to factory specs - kind of a hassle but the sounds and settings are easy to program -especially the 2nd time around so I was back on the road in about 15 minutes. I don't go to any gig without a backup system and certainly wouldn't with this.

I contacted Digitch about another unit I had bought recently, and one customer service rep tried to bulls**t me, so I contacted tech support and the guy was straight up and acknowledged an issue with the other device. Right after purchasing this unit, I contacted company to ask about limited functionality of MIDI and control issues- they never got back to me. The Control 2 Pedal addressed any and all questions I had anyway.

I play: Country, Blues, Classic Rock, Fusion and so far it covers all that and more. I have been performing for over 30 years and have had most every rig bought and sold- currently have a Fender Vibroverb RI as main/backup and a stereo rack system as well as several guitars Blues Driver, Dyna-comp, Morley Wah for my floor/jam setup. I don't know yet if it would have to be replaced, I'm not in love with it yet but it is awesome. The sounds are good, the fleixbility endless, the XLR out with ground lift should be on every piece of gear made PERIOD. The only drawback on the XLR outputs is the only way I could use without the output being too hot (distorted) was use variable setting-that is output is controlled by volume knob on front. While that makes some sense, pre-set output levels to mixer are a blessing to sound engineer.

So long as you're up to speed on these kind of units, the GSP1101 is one of the easiest to use. The multi-line screen helps you along the way with editing tips, and the operating system seems well laid-out and understandable.

The only hitch that I've found is the exclusion of tap-tempo delay time using a footswitch or MIDI. That's just crazy...a big mistake, in my opinion. DigiTech is incorporating that feature on their new, fairly expensive Control 2 footcontroller for the GSP, but they didn't take the extra few hours to write it into the operating system so owners of MIDI footcontrollers or manual footswitches could use that feature. Personally, I own an old Roland FC200 that works well and hoped I could use it to change programs and tap in delay times (something I do a lot). Programs? Yes. Delay time? Nope. If DigiTech spends any time at all updating this product, tap-tempo via MIDI or manual footswitch should be high on the priority list. This is a fairly common feature among modern effects units designed for guitar or PA.

This is very subjective, but I'll venture into this category a little. First off, I'm not a fan of modeled amps and cabinets...that's not what I bought the GSP for. Every modeled amp I've ever heard has at best a 2-dimensional, artificial tone. I use my GSP integrated with a Mesa Rect-O-Verb preamp & amp, and this combination sounds fantastic! I'm only using the amp models for one thing: Very high-gain tones. In this case, the model of a Mesa Dual Rectifier sounds better to my ears than my R-O-V turned up to the same degree of gain. The Mesa "squashes" and blurs at very high gain, while the GSP model sounds a little tighter.

Since I don't really use the modeled amps much, I won't let their artificial sound spoil my rating on sound quality. If you ignore the amps, the GSP is a stellar effects unit...the first I've ever heard that truly integrates with a guitar amp without adding or subtracting from the basic tone. This is exactly what DigiTech promises in the ads for this unit, and they've done a great job achieving that goal. I'm extremely pleased with most of the stompbox emulations, and the chorus/delay/reverb section truly shines.

Not sure about reliability, though the unit seems well-built and has a built-in power supply instead of a damn wall-wart. The GSP should last a long time.

Excellent customer support! I emailed them twice regarding the Control 2 and afore-mentioned tap-tempo issue. Both times, I received a reply in less than a day.

Great unit with just a few detractions. Stompboxes, EQ, effects and overall tone...two thumbs up! Amp models and lack of tap-tempo (without the Control 2 footcontroller)...just average.

Perfect! You really don't need the manual!

FX: Perfect, especially the chorus !
Preamp: Very artificial. Not too good imho.

It looks and feels pretty stable and reliable.

I bought it two weeks ago, so I never used the costumer-service ;)

Ok, but don't use the preamp-section!

Unlike my POD XT Live, The Digitech GSP 1101 does not require tweaking to get a good sound. The patches are highly usable as is and the unit right out of the box is honestly ready to go. With the POD XT I spent most of my guitar time tweaking knobs, with the Digitech I just plug and play. However, the GSP 1101 is also very deep and can be altered heavily both from the front panel as well as from the editing software that came with the unit.

The editing software is very similar to the type of software that came with my POD XT. However, I have only used the software once because I never feel the need to edit, as the tone sounds good in the first place. I rather spend my time playing my guitar then turning knobs.

There are several patches designed to sound like popular bands. For example, ???Angel of Death??? ??? SLAYER, ???Jump in the Fire??? ??? Metallica, ???Sweet Leaves??? ??? Black Sabbath. Usually when patches have such names they never sound anything like the tones they claim to be but these tones actually sound very convincing. The Slayer and Metallica patches both nail that old school early 80???s JCM 800 metal tone and the Black Sabbath tone has that godly dirty, fuzzy distorted tone from the 70???s. I can get numerous Metal tones from the early 70???s up to the most modern overdrive and distortion tones. I am highly impressed with several of the amps in this unit I am currently in love with patch 21 which is a digitech model, other highlights include the GSP 2101 saturated tube tone and the Carvin Legacy Lead tone. I can easily obtain any kind of Metal tone I want.

There are also a lot of grand non-metal tones that cover everything from Blues to Jazz or Surf to Classic Rock; there is also a very nice Acoustic Simulator.

The effects are very easy to set up since they do it for you. You just click the effect library and pick a pre-adjusted effect. My favorite effects in the unit are the reverbs, delays and pitch shifters.

I only spend my time recording so I can't say if it is gig worthy and I have no idea if it sounds good as a pre-amp but for an amp modeler in a studio it is the best thing I have found so far.

I have had the GSP 1101 for one Month.
I have owned every POD released.
Upon purchase of this Item I was still playing through a POD XT Live.
I spend most of my guitar time recording.
I have been playing for 20 years I mainly play Metal. (Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal and Progressive Metal.)
The 2 guitars I have played through the GSP 1101 are a Carvin 7 string loaded with Dimarzio D-Activators and a Carvin 6 string loaded with a Dimarzio X2N and a Super 2. www.aethyria.com

My complaints:

I really wish it had a tap tempo button and I wish the delays had bpm selection as well as note selection. This unit is obviously trying to compete with the Pod XT live and it does that without even trying but my POD has a tap tempo, bpm selection and note selection of delay and they really should have added those options to the unit.

However, next month when the GSP 1101 midi pedal board "Control 2" comes out it will come with a tap tempo button so I will finally be able to set the tempo of the delay easily, as all delays should be. To be honest this was my only complaint and since the pedal board releases in January, I really don't have any issues except I might not like the price of the pedal board.

The only other complaint I can think of is I don't need the rack design and would have preferred it if they offered a desktop version.

I have not turned my POD back on since the day this thing arrived. I actually entertained the idea of using my pod as a pedal board for my digitech.

man what a breeze to use.one of the easiest processor to navigate.

i have it in the series loop of my diezel herbert.i tried out the amp models just for the heck of it,i dont like amp modeling.so i wont go there. i bought it just for its effects,i like what they offer,simple easy to use,realistic effects.i have several of the real pedals to match em up with.they are great effects in the gsp.
it does not seam to affect the diezel,for i dumped the tc G System because of that.dont mess with the amp tone!
the noise gate,i dont like i have my isp pedal in the loop,that works the gsp does not cut it like the gsp,either it works or it doesnt no in between for me.

aint broke yet,knobs could be better quality

well see how it goes,i have had..gforce,g major,g system,mpxg2,rocktron prophesy,xpression,alesis quadraverb,and a bunch of other processors,i just wanted something to add to my rig that was easy to use and eliminate a few of my pedals not all!and works for me so far,till the next big deal right.great bang for the buck,too much equipment is overrated.overpriced.not this

I bought this unit a week ago and already have it together, its so simple to use.
Everything is clear and well explained in the manual.
Editing the patches is a breeze , storing patches or renaming also very simple.
I'm using Mac and hoping that the 1.3 firmware will be available soon, for PC its already there, also the X-edit software doesn't work with OSX Leopard yet.

My style is Jazz, World ,Fusion, Latin and Funk, before buying the GSP1101 i had the impression it was a Metal/ Rock based machine, but now i can say its one of the most flexable preamps on the market , ready for any style of music.
I like very much the amp simulation as example the Twin and the Digi Clean amp.
I'm using it in combi with a Rocktron Velocity300 .No noise heard and thats a seldom heard thing.
The idea of a tone library and effects library is a great idea and a good point to start creating your own sounds and patches.

Till sofar no issues.
Unit was an open box (returned).

Had question about the firmware and Leopard support and they answered in 2 hours or so.

I have been using a Pod-Pro "19", Tech21 Sansamp , Boss GX700 and a Rocktron Piranha over the last years but the GSP1101 makes these other units useless.
Actually i sold my Pod-Pro and Tech21 Sansamp and have even cash left for maybe another GSP1101 for my home recording studio.
Price is a steal.....

I would be nice to change the order of the effects and it would be handy to copy a certain effect setting (chorus, delay ,reverb etc etc) to a favourite preset. The Boss GX700 has this .
Hopefully an update will make this happen soon.

Hi, The first day I had it at home, it was a little hard to get MY sounds, but just the 1st day!, because the following days it was really cool to catch MY sounds. It is really nice to get what you want or edit patches with its cool LCD screen. The manual is complete enough to get the informations you're lookin'for. Firmware revision number was 1.2 when I bought it. 2 days later it was 1.3: I updated it via USB.

Everything you're lookin for you can find with GSP1101, but what quality!!! It is the once unit I have ever heard it sounds excellent. It is completely digital but is the once I love because it is tube-similar. I love the tubes. Iron Maiden, skid row, deep purple, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Motley Crue. I found all these sounds, clean and distortion. The sounds are really definite. The effects section is excellent: choruses are good, reverbs are superb, delays really good, pitch shifter never heard with 500$ of unit... Noise: there's somethin noise when I put another preamp into the loop of my GSP but no problem. GSP can simulate every preamp (if you're a good sound maniac). If you put in the effects chain too much effects you hear a little noise but you can correct it with a little bit of the GSP's noise gate. I play rock and heavy metal with my band: live, at home when I practice myself, open air, but always with just this setup: GSP1101+Marshall EL84 20/20 power amp+Marshall 1936 loaded with Celestions G12T-75cab+Jackson guitar with Seymour duncans or Ibanez RG2620 Prestige with DiMarzios, Rocktron MIDI X Change foot controller.
This is my main setup.

If it were stolen or broken, i'd buy another, sure. I use just a Rocktron Voodu Valve for backup: a good preamp but not so real as the GSP1101. I used the Voodu Valve live and at home for a lot.
I had also a Mesa Boogie 20/20 Power Amp but I prefere he Marshall.
I think the GSP plays very good also with a Marshall 9100 (very good preamp)

I come from Italy and written to the USA customer support. It is really professional and speedy: I was lookin for the software, because the CD included with the GSP1101 was wrong. I asked to the customer support, and the following day they sent me the right software. I???m Italian and think it is really functional and professional.

I play rock/metal and this unit is what I was looking for.
I play for 10 years. (I'm 19).
The best preamp (and now all the setup) I have ever had.
I had a lot of preamps or preamp-multifx: Marshall JMP-1, mesa boogie v-twin, rocktron pro-gap ultra, rocktron chameleon, Boss GT-8, Peavey Tubefex. and heard a lot of preamps like mesa Triaxis, Engl E530, E570 LTD edition, Kitty Hawk, ADA MP-1...
I think the GSP1101 is the best. And it costs just 500$.
I reccomend to you the GSP.

The GSP1101 is an incredibly easy unit to use. Just about anyone should have this up and running within a few minutes of opening the box. I'm also glad that DigiTech put knobs on the unit for controlling gain, amp level, basic eq, and the master level. This beats having things being totally menu driven. As far as editing, using the Xedit software is much easier than trying set up patches from the front screen. While the editing software is very utilitarian in appearance, it works well and was easy to figure out.

Currently, I am using the GSP1101 via the four cable method with a Mesa Boogie F50, and I am using the GSP1101 as a direct recording unit. The 1101 is pretty transparent with the F50, and works well as a basic effects unit for the amp. I also enjoy having the ability to set up patches that use the internal preamp in the GSP1101. This is great for when one of the two channels on the Mesa doesn't offer what I am looking for.

I was pleased with all of the effects offerings, especially the DS-1 model and the tape echo effects. The diatonic harmonizer works better than I expected it to, and with a little work (and just for kicks)I was able to set it up for some Judas Priest and Iron Maiden twin guitar parts. When using the diatonic harmonizer, the effect seems to work better using the GSP1101's internal preamp and one of it's amp models. There was a tendency for the effect to become "glitchy" when using the lead channel on the F50 for gain.

I have not, and will probably never, tried some of the more esoteric effects on the unit. Being a chorus, reverb, delay type of user, the quality of those effects are what I tend to concentrate on when purchasing a unit. In these categories, the GSP1101 does a very good job. The Lexicon reverbs are particularly nice.

Personally, I feel that the amp models sound more natural, and are more responsive, than on the Podxt I was previously using.

I have owned DigiTech products in the past and have never had a problem with them. There are folks out there still using DigiTech processors from ten and fifteen years ago, so I am confident this unit will last as well.

I have never had to use them, so I cannot offer an opinion here.
However, a dedicated foot controller (perhaps that connects via the ethernet port on the unit) would be nice.

This is a great unit for under $1000.00. For those people, like me, who wanted something between the RP, Boss GT, Line6 offerings and a high end unit like Fractal Audio's AxeFx, this is the perfect piece of gear. The flexibility of using the four cable method and the ability to switch back and forth between my amps internal preamp or the preamp in the GSP1101 provides me with access to a huge array of sounds.

There is a small (very small) board for the GSP1101 at http://www.setbb.com/phpbb/index.php?mforum=gsp1101

What in incredible product. The best amp modeler I have used...and I go back to the early DigiTech 2101 series, and on to the first "digital modelers", being the Line 6 AX2 212, and on through the Vox Valvetronix AD120VTH "blue" Head as well as the newest ToneLab LE.

The DigiTech GSP1101 is a step beyond them all...especially the Line 6 POD products. The User Interface is wonderfully intuitive...and in combination with the DigiTech X-edit2 Software, the programming of tones is both easy, and deep.

I have to totally disagree with the previous reviewer...who gave the GSP1101 a "5" for Sound Quality. I am a Tube Amp guy, and there is no substitute for a great tube amp and external stombox pedals. HOWEVER, the GSP1101 sounds fantastic, and completely tube-like and 3-dimensional. I have programmed a patch which sounds almost EXACTLY like my current rig (AnalogMan CompROSSor==>AnalogMan DS-1/Pro ==> Peavey ValveKing. Certainly, if I were to do a blind A/B test for a large sample of guitarist, I am certain that most would not be able to determine which was the real amp, versus the "modeled" amp of the GSP1101.

I can't tell you what a revelation it is, to be able to be playing through my own amp and effects at any given time, and then instantly switch over to using the GSP1101's built-in, internal amp modeling whenever I choose. Now, admittedly this wouldn't be so great if the GSP1101's internal modeling wasn't good. But that is NOT the case. The GSP1101's digital amp modeling is, IMHO, extraordinary.

I can't guarantee that every single amp model is completely faithful to the original...because I haven't tried all of the amps that the GSP1101 models. I WILL SAY, however, that all of the models sound and feel great...with all the warmth, dynamics and interaction that one associates with a 100% tube amp.

The Amp Models in the GSP1101 are the best I have heard on any digital modeler, which includes the Line 6 PODS, the Boss GT-6 and GT-8, the Vox Valvetronix series. The GSP1101 has none of the high-end digital "fizz" that plagues the POD series. All the tones are organic, and have a lovely warmth and roundness. Furthermore, the GSP1101 is able to provide a low-gain Crunch tone, which is so difficult to obtain with all the other Modelers.

From Clean, to Crunch, to Medium Gain, all the way to over-the-top High Gain, the GSP1101 excels at them all.

The combination of Parametric EQ's, as well as Global 7-Band EQ allows excellent fine tuning of your tone.

It's a rack unit. I have had it for 2-months, with zero problems. Any technical questions I have had have been answered promptly by Doug from DigiTech

See Above

This unit is built to fit into just about any live or studio setup you can think of, and as a bassist/guitarist using this to simplify two different sprawling pedal boards as well as for recording demos this was a big plus. Out of the box, I immediately downloaded the upgrade to firmware v1.3.

As I began setting it up with my bass rig, it took me a short time to work out the preamp routing settings (I'm using my amp's preamp). But once I did, I found the unit very intuitive to set up presets and get good sounds out of. The manual was very useful and probably would have overcome my initial fumbling had I read it first! It was a breeze setting up MIDI patch changes and expression pedals with my FCB1010.

I've been playing with the GSP1101 for about a week now and the sounds I've achieved can be described by only one word - brilliant. The effects sound rich and full for a digital unit, and with a bit of nouse can be tweaked to get just about any tone you want. I particularly like the phaser, flanger, whammy and 'YaYa' effects, while the chorus patches are slightly thin (but still not terrible). The wah models were also a little hard to set up for bass, but sounded very nice on guitar - I suppose this was to be expected. Reverbs and delays were top notch, the delays in particular sounded brilliant through my bass rig. I found the Big Muff distortion pedal sounded quite good for bass, with the SparkleDrive the pick of the pedals for guitar.

The amp/cab models were, like most modelled amps listened to through headphones, a little two-dimensional. I found adding just a little of the Lexicon ambient reverb made them sound much more like a miked cabinet in a room, which would lend itself better to adding room reverbs in the computer to give a realistic tone. I A/B'ed my JCM2000 DSL50 against the JCM2000 model and found it wasn't too bad a match, although I needed to run a distortion pedal model to get the same gain as my DSL50's dirty channel. Other good models were the JCM800, Mesa Dual Recti'frier', the Soldano, Legacy and Matchless, while the acoustic amp models weren't great.

Some of the cabinet simulators left me a little perplexed. By far the pick for distorted guitar was the Greenback 4x12 - many of the others sounded very 'nasaly' and overly bright. This would work well for clean bluesy stuff, but they didn't really do justice to the cabs they were based on.

As for bass - I set up a reasonable sound using my existing Hartke Bass Attack pedal, into a Brown Bassman amp model and a Bassman 4x10 cab model. This sounded pretty good but was a little dirtier than I would have hoped. Given the number of guitarists who also play or record bass it would be nice to see at least one dedicated bass amp model on some of these units.

It's in a rack and supported by a power conditioner so I don't see any reason to doubt its dependability. I would gig without a backup - but then I have neither the money nor the carspace to buy and take along two of everything I gig with!

It does have plastic knobs but I'm sure it will still work even if one of these gets bumped off.

I've dealt with their Australian distributor once for a VX300 vocal effects unit problem, they were pretty good as far as distributors go but nothing to write home about.

Mind you, I bought the GSP1101 from a shop in Germany so my warranty resides there!

I primarily play bass in rock/punk/heavy bands, though as mentioned I also play guitar and record both. This unit is everything I was after.

I've been playing bass for six years and guitar for four, but have been a performer for 16 years. I have also had a keen interest in sound engineering for five years and have produced two releases.

My other equipment includes/has included:

Bass:
SWR Workingmans 4004 amp
Fender Bassman 4x10T cab
Hartke 4.5XL 4x10T cab
Ashdown Mag 2x10T cab
Mesa Boogie Powerhouse 6x10T cab
Hartke Bass Attack pedal
Behringer Hell Babe wah
Shure SLX wireless
Behringer rack tuner
Behringer virtualiser DSP2496 effects
Behringer composer dynamics
Phonic Power Conditioner
Behringer FCB1010
Cutting Edge custom made 5 string (Q-tuner pups)
Music Man SUB 5 string (Bartolini Pup)
Fender Mex standard 4 string P-bass (SD quarter pound pup)
Ibanez SG405 5 string
Ibanez acoustic 4 string

Guitar:
Marshall JCM2000 DSL50
Hughes & Kettner Warp 7 4x12 cab
Danelectro distortion
Visual Sounds Jeckyl & Hyde
Behringer Chorus
Gretsch Pro-Jet

Other:
Behringer V-amp 2 modeller
Digitech VX300 vocal effects

If this were lost or stolen, I'd buy another one as soon as I got out of jail from ripping the thief's face off

This unit sounds great and is more flexible for live and studio use than just about any other effects unit on the market - thats why I bought it over the offerings from Boss, Rocktron, TC, Line 6 and many others. If you know what you're doing and are in the market for a solid, flexible effects rack look no further.

Confusion --> Frustration --> Panic --> Revelation --> Inspiration --> Happiness & Satisfaction --> Anticipation of further and future tonal wonders

I went thru each of these successive stages during my first 4-hours with my new GSP1101. The first hour and half was taken up mostly with the physical hook-up and connections with my existing rig, initial power on, initial programming set-up, and initial MAJOR PANIC and Bewilderment...due to the crappy sound I was getting. YIKES!!!!

How could this state-of-the art, next-gen, pro-class rack mount preamp/modeler/MultiFX system, designed with 2 of the newest, high powered audio/DSP processors (Harman's Audio DNA2 chips), and including a feature-rich set of digitally modeled stomp box pedals, point-to-point topology amp models, and high-end Chorus/FX, Delays and Lexicon Reverbs...sound so terrible, muddy, and down-right ugly ???

Quite easily, actually...If It HASN'T BEEN SET-UP PROPERLY by the User.

Indeed, despite an extensive pre-study of the GSP1101's User Manual, and carefully following the step-by-step instructions in the automated User Setup/configuration menu...somehow I still managed to screw this up somehow. :freak: Of course, I didn't realize this until after I had completed the initial setup procedures, and began sampling the first pre-set. As soon as I turned up my guitar, and played a couple of notes, I realized something was terribly wrong. And my only hope was that it wasn't a poor choice in new products on my part. And, as it turns out, this fortunately is not the case.

On the contrary. After figuring out what was going wrong, and making the appropriate corrections...I am convinced that DigiTech has developed and delivered a fantastic product, in the GSP1101.

Now, in my defense...and despite of the well thought out, automated set-up menu (which walks the User through the different configuration modes, and fine tunes the processor algorithms so as to sound the best with your unique gear and method of sound reproduction), there still remains sources of confusion. And, it is rather easy to over-look a key parameter or two, which can make all the difference in the world.

In my particular case, I had made the correct physical connections, as well as correctly "telling" the GSP1101 how I wanted it to be configured, during the automated set-up procedure. What I had overlooked, is a parameter in the main "Edit Effects/Preset menu. Even though I had correctly answered the set-up questions, and had clearly programmed the GSP1101 to configure itself for "Amp Input/Preamp Loop"...for some NON-intuitive reason, I still had to manually re-configure two settings;

1) In the Global Functions menu, I had to get into the "I/O" Setup, and set the "Type of Loop" to ==> "Into/Ext Preamp". This configures the GSP1101 so as to allow the use of EITHER your existing stomp box pedals and main amp, OR to bypass your external amp & stomp box pedals, and instead utilize the GSP1101's internal preamp/amp modeling. << Note that this pre-supposes that you; a) have an amp which has built-in FX loop, and b) that you have physically hooked up your amp and GSP1101 in the 4-cable method, as depicted on page 12 of the USER MANUAL (and designated as Set-up configuration #7 -- "Amp Input/Preamp Loop" >>.

2) Next, I had to return to the pre-programmed factory preset, enter the Edit mode, and select the menu "FX loop" and manually set and program it for either "external" or "internal" preamp.

BEFORE I HAD DISCOVERED THIS..I SOMEHOW HAD THE INTERNAL AMP MODELS ACTIVATED, AS WELL AS MY EXTERNAL PREAMP OF MY VALVEKING 100. SO, WHAT WAS HAPPENING WAS THAT, EFFECTIVELY, I WAS GOING THROUGH TWO PREAMPS IN SERIES. In other words, my signal included both the internal GSP1101 preamp as well as my ValveKing's preamp. No wonder it sounded like complete and utter crap.

Once I found the error, I re-set the programming so that it was either one or the other...not both.

Having made the necessary corrections, I set the GSP1101 to have my external Valveking' preamp in the loop (with the GSP1101's internal preamp/amp bypassed)...now I had my standard wonderful tone from my external stompbox pedals and Peavey ValveKing amp...yet I still could include the GSP1101's post-Amp FXs, such as chorus, delays and reverbs.

Alternatively, I set the GSP1101 to turn off the "External Loop" (thereby bypassing my ValveKing's preamp) and enabled the GSP1101's internal preamp modeling. Again, great results! The GSP1101's internal preamp, in combination with my Peavey ValveKing's 6L6-based power section, is an excellent match.

In fact, I very quickly was able to program and save my first User pre-set, in which I have selected the GSP1101's "DigiTech Blues" preamp/amp model. I also programmed in the GSP1101's model of the MXR DynaComp compressor, and TS-808 Tube Screamer Overdrive. Finally, I added a bit of tasty and warm plate reverb. These took me all of 5-minutes to program and tweak some parameters, and then save. Keep in mind that this is just my first pass at making my own patch from scratch. Nevertheless, the results were FANTASTASTIC. I was getting a wonderful overdriven tone, that has a nice mid-range...and perfect for single-note Lead / Solo lines. This sounded like the real deal. It had none of the fake, digital sounding harshness of the Line 6 POD series. It was alive, it breathed, and sounded wonderfully 3-dimensional!

So, to make a long story long... I haven't even scratched the surface of the GSP1101's sonic landscape. Nor have I yet had a chance to listen to all the different amp models the GSP1101 has to offer...probably because I had so much fun playing with this first program/patch I made.

I did, however, spend a few minutes audtioning a few select amp models. These are based on the Solano SLO 100, and Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. I have never heard, first-hand, the sound from a SLO. Therefore, I can't compare how "accurate" the DigiTech GSP1101's model is. However, I CAN SAY that this model kicked all kinds of ass. The creamy, liquid sustain was simply sublime. And there was a huge amount of useable gain range, available. The model of the M-B Dual Rec was very, very impressive. And that is an amp I have owned, and know well. Again, DigiTech nailed the "in your F'n face" gain, as well as the Rectifier's somewhat buzzy distortion and feedback

I also sampled some of DigiTech's own models, including an eerily accurate model of the DigiTech GSP2101 Artist "Saturated Tube". I am also happy to report that the factory pre-programmed presets all all quite nice. They give you a wide selection of tones, and demonstrate the many different effects and effects combinations which are available. My initial perception is that all the factory presets show taste and moderation. There is none of the crazy, over-the-top, effects-laden garbage that typically is found on these kinds of devices. DigiTech has wisely decided to take a more serious, conservative approach with the factory presets...and the results are evident and (at least for me) appreciated.

I would give this a 9.5, if there were 1/2 point increments.

I have owned many DigiTech products in the past, including the original GSP21 (wow, '80s flashback!), the GSP2101, and various stompbox pedals, including the wonderful "Bad Monkey" overdrive pedal (incredible bang for the buck).

I have never had a single problem with any of the DigiTech products I have owned.

I had a few technical questions on the GSP1101, which I emailed to Doug at DigiTech. I replied promptly with all the answers I needed.

I can't think of a similar product, either rackmount or floor / pedal board type, which represents as much value and "bang for the buck". At $499, the DigiTech GSP1101 decidedly trumps the competition (e.g. Line 6 PODs, Behringer, Vox Tonelab, Boss GTs), IMHO. The best feature of the GSP1101 is the flexibility it provides the User. You can choose to keep your existing tone (stombox pedals and amp) and just use the GSP1101's post Amp effects...or automatically configure the GSP1101 to utilize it's excellent built-in stombox and amp model effects. Furthermore, if you choose to use your existing amp's preamp section, you can still program the GSP1101 so that you put one of it's built-in overdrive or distortion pedals models in front. There are literally thousands of different tone possibilities/combinations with the GSP1101. And you can use as much or as little of the GSP1101's capabilities as you want. This device does NOT mess with your core tone. It enhances it.

Simply a fantastic value, and great product.

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.