DigiTech Genesis 1

I love knobs. I like to tweak them while I am playing. I can not stand these multi effects units with little buttons and lcd panels. I just want to tweak knobs. This is the only unit on the market that does this with modeling and delay effects all in one package. And it was only $99.

For a $99 unit, the sound quality is outstanding. But it is a $99 unit. So you get your money's worth and a whole lot more.

I have a bunch of guitars, but mostly I play through strats. I have an early 90's American strat, and a 2000 imported version. I also have a 335 clone semi-hollow body, and several other solid body humbucker type guitars. They all sound different through the unit, which I find to be very pleasing. Some effects units will make all guitars sound the same once processed.

I use an Ampeg 50 watt tube head as my main rig. I have a 1 x 12 and also 4 x 12 cabs. I also have a very old Peavy Reknown 2 x 12 combo that I use just for practices with the band. And I have a small Fender Tweed combo for practicing at home. These amp all sound great with the unit. I will however spring for the footswitch so I can completely bypass the unit, as well as turn the effects on and off. My Ampeg amp sounds awesome without effects and I want to leverage that sound.

A bunch of the other reviewers did not like the lightweight construction of the unit and thought it would be unreliable. I disagree. Plastic is good quality even though it is light weight. I think it will withstand a couple of spills. There are no moving parts to break. But I do keep it in a little gizmo bag just in case. But I would not hesitate to gig with this unit. I simple wrap my guitar cable around the handle of my amp before it goes into the unit. This will prevent me from pulling it off the top of the amp. The unit is made very well for the money.

Never delt with them.

The value for the money is above all other units on the market. Three years ago, you would have had to spend 5 times as much to get a similar unit, and the modeling units at that time sounded very artificial. This thing is great and fun to play with.

Extremely easy to use. No LCDs- just analog style dials. About the only thing you'll need the manual for is to find out what the amp models are.

Real easy to get the sound you want- choose an amp model, a speaker cab, and maybe some effects.

With a two year old in the house, I found myself using headphones a lot. I had a SS practice amp which sounded pretty good turned up, but not through headphones. The Genesis 1 sounds great through headphones, so it fit the bill, plus it doesn't take up the room that an amp does. I use it with a 98 AmStd Strat (stock) and a 01 Dearmond M77.

The amp models are pretty good, comparable to a POD IMO. I use it with a Boss JS5 and it provides a wide variety of tones. There's some noise but the noise gate does a decent job. Anyway, you can't really hear the noise with all 4 backing parts of the JS5.

I play mainly blues and blues/rock. The amp models do quite well, everything from blackface clean to crunchy tweed. Really nice. The super high gain amp models are good for kicks.

There isn't a lot of effects, just your basic modulation (tremolo, chorus, phaser) and delay/reverb. It's enough for me.

About the only thing that prevents me from giving it a 10 is the way the sound just cuts out instead of fading away. I guess this is just the way digital products are- but I don't recall this happening with the POD when I tried it a few months ago.

I don't gig. This thing is strictly for practice. I expect it to be as reliable as the boombox on my shelf.

Haven't dealt with them.

This is an absolute fantastic value, so I give it a 10. If you need something for practicing and use primarily headphones, this thing is it. I suppose you can also use it for recording, but I don't do that yet. I love how it gives me a vast array of tones to use with my JS5.

If it was lost or stolen, I may look at a J-Station, POD, or even a Genesis 3. But I think I'll end up getting this thing again, simply for the great price.

Extremely easy to use...don't even need the manual with this unit all is self explanatory on the unit

I am using a Jackson DR-6 , with Duncan Humbuckers...awesome crunch!!
great noise gate feature! I love the Delay, and Chorus, Phasor's not bad either for a unit that is $99! so far My fav setting is Rectified with some chorus and a slight delay, and 4x10 American Cab sim.

Well I would be afraid to use it on the raod , great to use at home for jamming and recording, I have a RP-100 to use out!
It's kinda light in weight so it would be destroyed if you dropped it from a few feet up.

Comes with the power pack nice =-)
I love this unit alot less than the Line 6 POD and alot easier to use.
This unit is great for all music, esp[ecially METAL!!! I play PRIEST, MAIDEN, SABBATH, OLD METALLICA, ICED EARTH AND ORIGINALS....and this unit does it for me Go Buy It!!

Doesn't get much easier to use than this unit. All the knobs are well labelled and do what they say they do. I haven't even opened the manual, and don't see a need too. It has gain, bass, mid, treble and volume knobs along the bottom. Has amp and cabinet model knobs in the middle and compression, fx, delay/reverb, and noise gate at the top. Inputs and outputs along the back. Simple right?

My only real complaint (and this is not just this unit, but Digitech products in general), there is no power switch?!?! Hello, Digitech, are you listening? Put a damn on/off switch on your products!! (There, now I feel better! *lol*)

Some people bitch about Digitech products, but I for one think they make great multi-fx boxes. I have an RP 2000 that is one of the best multi-fx units I've ever tried. Very versatile and natural sounding, so I expected the same from this Digitech product.

I was really out shopping for a distortion pedal for my practice rig when I tried this unit. After trying many distortion pedals (and having owned many!) I saw this unit and figured why buy another $80 distortion pedal with one sound when I could spend $20 extra and have multiple sound choices? So, I farted around with it at Guitar Center and found it to be fairly flexible. I didn't want another programmable, infinitely tweakable, multi-fx box, I just wanted something simple. This and the Boss GP-20 caught my eye as simple to use preamp/distortion units that didn't require NASA training to adjust. I wanted to find a good usable tone that I could set and forget. I figured if I could get 3 or 4 usable tones it would be worth the money.

I use many different guitars of all styles and a Crate amp with a custom 2x12 cab that I built using Celestion Speakers. I have Dimarzio super distortions in the bridges of most of my guitars, except my Strat, which has a HS-3's.

I bought it and ordered the footswitch (without it, you have no way to bypass the unit for a clean tone), and when I first plugged it in at home, I was kind of disappointed. I could not get a usable tone from it when using my amp. It turned out that the eq controls on the unit are controlling the wrong frequencies (IMO). The bass does nothing but add "boominess" and the mid uses too low a frequency, which adds even more "boominess". Treble uses too high a frequency and makes for a "frying eggs" tone.

Enter a graphic eq! I use a Dano 7 band eq and after setting the tone knobs on the Genesis to 12 o'clock, I adjusted the eq and it changed the way the unit sounds dramatically. Although some of the amp sims are of the novelty variety, there are some usable ones. The brit stack and the high gain are good ones (with some tweaking) and the tweed and brit combo are good for a cleaner sound. The secret to getting usable sounds from this unit is in the gain knob. Most of the amp sims sound like noise with the gain knob above half way, so use it sparingly. I like the high gain amp sim with the gain knob set to about 9 o'clock.

Now the real downfall of this unit, the cab sims. They are basically (to my ears anyway) preset tone settings. When using headphones or going straight to a recorder/computer, I guess they have some use. But, when going to an amp, leave it on "direct"! To me, there are no usable cab sims when playing through an amp. They alter the tone too much and sound boomy and un-natural. Use your amp controls or an eq to tailor the tone, don't rely on the units eq controls.

The compressor has three settings and off, and is very usable. The high setting is a little much, but the mid and low settings sound great. the chorus/flange/phase is o.k., you can control the speed, but unfortunately, not the depth, so they sound kind of gimmicky. The chorus does sound good with a clean amp sim. The flange and phaser are a little overboard, however. The reverb and delay knob is unique. It consists of a "tap-it" button and a rotary knob. The rotary knob has 3 stages, the first portion is delay only, the 2nd is reverb only and the 3rd is delay and reverb combined. Each stage controls the depth of the effect until reaching the next stage, which controls the depth of that effect. The "tap-it" button controls the speed of the delay. Reverb is decent, but I prefer the reverb on my amp. The next button is for the noise gate and it has 3 levels and off. It works well and doesn't clip notes, very usable.

All in all, the unit does about what I expected it to do. It is a substitute for a distortion pedal and has more flexibility than one. Pluses would be built in compression a

Definitely not something I would use to gig with. It's made of plastic and weighs like 3 oz's. I can see it getting dropped a couple of times and being destroyed. Would never take this thing on stage.

However, I don't think Digitech had the touring musician in mind when this unit was designed. Nor do I think it works well with high power amps. It was probably designed for "bedroom" musicians, practice rigs and recording situations and it works well in those situations. When using it as designed, it should last a long time.

I've owned a couple of Digitech products over the years, and the only dealings I've had with their customer service people, were for firmware upgrades. They were always friendly, quick to answer and informative, so I have no bitches.

I've been playing for almost 30 years, and have gone through all the stages. Garage bands, wedding gigs, original band, taught some, built my own axes, etc.... Buying guitar equipment is an addiction and the search for "THAT" sound is never-ending. There are no holy grails and there is no perfect manufacturer or product. What sounds good to you today is bound to sound like crap tomorrow. What sounds new and inventive today will sound old and dated next week. Try before you buy and don't be afraid to make noise in a guitar store. It's your money so you are entitled to try things before you purchase them no matter your level of ability. (off the soapbox now)

That said, I'll rate it a 7 overall. It falls short in some places, but like I said, I was looking for an alternative to another stomp box for my practice rig, and that's what I got. For a hundred bucks it is an adequate replacement for 3 or 4 different boxes, which could easily run you $300-$400. With the footswitch ($39.95) you have a more flexible alternative to a floor full of effects and a good preamp for your practice amp. I do wish it had a depth control for the effects (chorus/flange/phase) and an on/off switch. It is extremely easy to use and I think the only product it directly compares with would be the Boss GP-20 "Amp Factory". I went with the Digitech because of the addition of the noisegate and compression and it costs half the price.

I would say great for beginners with limited cash and usable for experienced players as a practice unit.

The buttons are easy to use. It gets great sound, and not that hard to mess with. The manual is helpful, was for me.

I am using a peavy studio pro 112, with an esp m-107.
The effects sounds better than my 80 dollar ibanez CF7. And the amp distortion is better than my death metal pedal. I am getting the sounds that I was hoping for, for example, pantera, metallica, creed. I love the delay, its very good.

Yes I could depend on it.

Never deal with them, takes too long, if i wanted to.

Metal is my style and it works very good. Been playing for almost 4 years. If it were stolen i would buy another one just like it. I love it cause its not a pedal, and it gives me my supurb sound that I want to get. I also can hook it up to my sound jack on my computer, and it comes out sweet. Helps me make great music.

It CAN'T get any easier than this! You've got knobs. You turn them. The top of the unit tells you what they do. You choose an amp, cabinet, then just set the gain, treble, mid, bass, and level...and you're ready to go! I tried to use a POD, *TRIED* for two hours at a music store and could only get about half the functions going (and I STLIL couldn't find the darn speaker sims!). This thing is great...when I'm recording or jamming late at night, I turn this baby on, spin a couple of knobs and in a matter of seconds I have some really usable tones going. That's a ten in my books.

I was bracing myself for the worst when I ordered this from Long and McQuade. I wasn't enthused about too many of the POD's tones (even after a salesman got me into the plain, straight amp-cabinet tones). The bluesier ones had this oscillating, compressed quality that I just couldn't stand. When this got it, I plugged it in and immediately was grinning ear to ear. The high gain models really have a lot of variety with the different cabs, the mid-gainy ones (like boutique and tweed) really stand out in the mix, and the clean ones (Black Face and Brit Combo) sound amazing with my strat!

The phasor is a bit stong for distortion, but it's incredible thick and juicy with clean tones. It nails the "Lightning Crashes" or "Given To Fly" type phasing with ease. The chorus is cool, tremolo I think is great, but only having one knob to adjust the rate and depth is kinda limiting. It's great to have the tap tempo button for the delay! With a delay pedal you need an extra $50 foot switch just to do that! The reverbs are also nice and smooth, the way I like it. Compression is ok, but I've never been a big fan of it so I can't really judge. The noise gate is amazing, I never have needed to go past the lowest setting. Notes still ring forever, and there isn't a trace of noise that my computer has picked up while recording.

My favourite amp models are the Brit Stack, GeNetX Gain, Boutique, and Black Face. My favourite cabs are the American 4x10 (adds some nice prescense to gainier amps), GeNetX 4x12 (good for the heaviest tones), and Blonde 2x12 for the clean tones. All of the speaker sims are usable though, and some sound just plain bad with some amps. However, by spinning the knob you will find some combinations that seem to be made in digital heaven.

The fact that I think the basic tones of this unit beat the POD surprised me, as I was expecting half the tone for half the price. Kudos to DigiTech for doing such a great job on this unit!

I won't be taking it out of my house probably so I'm not sure it HAS to withstand much. I was surprised at how little it weighed! 1.1 lbs according tot he box. The plastic case does not conjur up images of Sherman tanks but then again there isn't much in there to break!

I won't rate DigiTech because I haven't dealt with them. HOWEVER, I have a beef with Long & McQuade. When I ordered this and the CakeWalk software I'm using to record, the salesman went to great lengths on how I don't need to take this if I don't like it when it comes. I left a deposit of the amount of the software, and he said that I could leave this unit if it wasn't what I expected. When I walked in here a few days later after finding out it had arrived, I learned that it was on layaway. This may not be a big issue for a lot of people, but the fact that they would have charged me 10% on this even if I didn't want it pisses me off! The guy flat out lied to me...the unit turned out to be great, and 10% of this isn't much, but it's the fact that he just plain lied to me about store policy. I'm not pleased (with them! I'm in love with the unit!).

Overall, I must say this is the best bang-for-the-buck ratio I've EVER found. When I plugged it in for the first time and recorded some tracks, all my friends were surprised at how great it sounded. My brother (and bassist in my band) listening to this for a while and asked me why my amps can't sound this good :o).

This thing and the software I bought added up to about the same amount as a 2-day rental of a crappy 8-track and a microphone. I used it at first to record an instrumental guitar/bass cd and am also using it for a blues-rock cd I'm recording soon. I have played and recorded everything from jazz to alternative to blues to metal with this thing and it keeps surprising me..I'm still unearthing killer tones I hadn't found yet!

The best thing of all is, I only spend 5 minutes AT THE MOST before each song setting up the tone I want. It's usualyl done in under 30 seconds...which lets me get to playing, which is what it's all about, isn't it?

Very easy. Each knob has only one function. Footswitch input.
1/4" L&R outs. Miniplug stereo line out. Miniplug stereo headphone out. Miniplug cd input.

Very usable sounds for this price and not as noisy as I thought it might be. Quieter than the Rp 100 - 200 - 300 I think.
Amp sims are also a little beefier and juiceier here in my opinion.
Compressor gives very large gain boost, I wish it was footswitchable
in order to go from rhythm to lead but it's not. When you add the
mod effects they're a bit thick and loud for my taste, especially the
phasor is too strong. I like phasing BEFORE the distortion like
JIMMY PAGE and EDDIE VAN HALEN. Here the phasing is post-distortion.
Amp sounds are good but I think all should have a range of clean to
full distortion. Every amp I've ever owned had this range. For Example: everyone now seems to have the stupid idea that Fenders don't distort. What BullShit, I've had four Fender tube heads and they all scream like hell when cranked to ten. I had an old Marshall head that could play clean. So why are all these models simply all clean or all gonzo, they should have more range. But for $99. It's GREAT. Also why doesn't the vox ac30 scream? This is what Brain May
used in QUEEN. Even the Beatles got more distortion from Vox than this. Like "I Feel Fine" and "Day Tripper" Speaker sims seem like
odd midrange variations but are all usable and much better than the
afore mentioned RP speaker sims which totally remove ALL TREBLE.

Very lightweight but very inexpensive.

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Very nice. I like to mount it on a mike stand for instant control.
I feel all amp sims should go from full clean to full shread but none
seem to. In my opinion for $99 this is an amazing thing and if any anal retentive
geek who spends $350 for some BOO-TEEK one sound overdrive would make
an honest blind folded test he would realize he's wasting his money. Man today, most musicians are IDOL WORSHIPPERS who feel better
about spending $800 than $80.