DigiTech Hot Head Distortion

This pedal is pretty much a Boss DS-1. But instead of having a single knob for tone, it has a high and a low control. It's fairly easy to get a good distorted sound out of it. Although it doesn't sound exactly like a DS-1, it sounds very close to one. Although like the DS-1, since it's impossible to get a creamy sounding tube distortion out of it, if you experiment with the settings on your amp, the sound, that it produces is very good. It's not as outrageous sounding as a lot of other distortion pedals on the market these days, but it is very musical. The speaker simulated output isn't all that bad, but sounds sort of sterile gooding thru a mixing console for recording. Since Hot Head is a very misleading name for this pedal, this is the reason why I didn't give it a !0.

This pedal tends to work well with humbucking pickups to get that classic fat distorted sound in the bridge position. If you roll off your guitar tone with a humbucking neck pickup, it's fairly easy to get a good woman tone out of it, which will remind you of what the solos sounded like on the old Guns & Roses albums. As far as getting a good Black Sabbath or a Bad Company guitar sound out of it, although it falls short at nailing those sounds exactly, it doesn't take much experimentation to get a sound, that you'll be really pleased with. The sound of the Hot Head isn't as raspy as a Pro Co Ratt. However, for classic rock, you'll be able to find a heck of a lot more uses for it than an Electro Harmonix Big Muff.

I've had mine for two years and haven't had any problems with it, but it seems to drain a 9 volt battery faster than other pedals do. So, I bought a power supply for it. It's about as noisy as any distortion pedal is, but it isn't as bad as some are.

If you're trying to sound like Van Halen, playing blues, or industrial, a Hot Head won't do the job for you. For an overall distorted classic rock sound, it will do a good job. I actually prefer it over a stock Boss DS-1, which retails for about the same price. If my Hot Head got lost or stolen, I wouldn't think twice about buying another one. Although the Hot Head doesn't sound close to the distortion, that you can get out of the dirty channel of a really good tube amp, compared to a lot of other more expensive pedals, to get something, that sounds as good or better in a pedal, you're going to be forced into spending a heck of a lot more money.

Took a while to explore the settings that worked with my setup, probably because its a vesatile pedal and the high and low tone pots are VERY responsive, a small movement will have a big effect on the sound...so it can be a bit fiddly.

Initially thought it was a one trick pedal, i.e. for hot overdriven sounds, however i found that when you roll down the gain it gives a lovely very glassy sound that still has a bluesy crunch to it, it gives me a sound i've been looking for for a LONG time.
I've always hated the way my amp and guitar interacted before (marshal 100w halfstack and les paul copy), i felt the sound was too muddy; but this pedal makes me feel like im almost playing a new instrument, verrry happy with this pedal. Live i chain it up with a big muff and kick on the big muff to get heavyer, it also works wonders with the big muff by making it sound clearer and less compressed/muddy.

Probably tank proof.

N/A

This is a great pedal, the only thing you have to watch is that when the gain gets set too high it can be a bit o.t.t and harsh, personally i use it with the gain fairly low and kick on a big muff for when i want a really dirty sound. I baisically think this pedal is a great tone enhancer/conditioner and just adds loads of tubelike harmonics, im not keen on the higher gain settings though, thats why i hook it up with my big muff to get those sounds....so if your looking for more heavyer distortion in one pedal go for the digitech grunge instead.

While I admit it can be tricky balancing the treble and bass controls as pointed out by numerous previous reviewers, with a little effort and a bit of patience this pedal can produce some of the best distortion you can get from a pedal.

I love this pedal. I've been playing for 30 years and never found a distortion pedal I wanted to own until I tried this one. It gets me into early Jimmy Page or Jeff Beck territory with a tele through a clean Fender amp.

Built like a brick outhouse.

No contact, no problems.

Great pedal for the money. After reading the previous reviews, I notice that some folks consider this more of an overdrive than a distortion. In my frame of reference (classic rock), it almost has too much gain on tap. Man, how nasty do some of you want your sound to be? I never turn the gain up past 50%, but it's deliciously gravelly with gain at 0. Like others have said, this is basically a hot-rodded Boss DS-1 for a fraction of the cost of the usual big-name suspects. I just had to chime in to offset some of the kiddie reviews that might prevent a serious user from checking one out.

UPDATE:
This is August 2008 update to this review. I've had the Hot Head pedal for a couple of years now, and it still amazes me what a great value it is. I love the sound of this pedal through a *clean* amp. I've played it through 6L6, 6V6, and EL-84-based amps and it has shined on all of them, as long as the amp has a decent clean sound and sufficient headroom. I recently acquired a clone of a 5E3 Fender Deluxe, which has gorgeous tones but relatively non-existent clean headroom. The Hot Head sounds absolutely awful into this amp, which is no surprise since this amp's circuitry needs no outside help to produce harmonic richness. But it made me realize that many of the earlier, negative reviews for this pedal might have stemmed from folks using the pedal into an already overdriven amp. The optimum place for this pedal is definitely in front of an amp with a pristine clean tone. IMHO, of course.

It has four knobs, all clearly labeled (level, low, high, gain). It would shock me, if someone couldn't figure them out! There is one input (for the instrument) and two outputs (one that goes to the amp, and one that goes into a mixing board, for direct recording, etc). When you press the pedal, a red LED lights up and the effect is engaged. Why did I only give it a 7? Read on...

So, how easy is it to get a good sound? Honestly, for me, it has not been easy at all! One disappointing aspect is that even when the gain knob is turned all the way down, it still distorts slightly (it would have been nice to use as a clean boost pedal), but I suppose that is expected for a distortion pedal (it's definitely NOT an overdrive pedal).

Also, the high and low controls are VERY touchy, which can be a good thing with some pedals, but not with this one. I will explain in the next section...

I am going to be up front about this: I purchased this pedal from Ebay (in brand new condition), without first getting to try it out with my rig...baaaad move!
This is the basic rig I hooked this thing up through: Ibanez RG570 (with Dimarzio Breed in bridge)>Hot Head>Peavey Classic 30. Decent setup, right? NOT WITH THIS PEDAL!
So, what prompted me to buy the "Hot Head"? Honestly, I wanted an alternative to the gain that is built into my amp. I was hoping to coax some heavier tones than what I already had. I should point out that I normally boost the amp with a Bad Monkey Overdrive, which sounds fantastic, but I guess I just wanted a new sound to play around with.
Why doesn't it sound good, you ask? Remember when I mentioned the touchy Low and High controls? I cannot, for the life of me, get a good, full, clear sound out of this pedal. It sounds thin and buzzy, and gets worse as you increase the level of gain. You would think that you could just boost the low end, right? NO. The second you do that, it just sounds boomy and weird. Also, for the love of God, do NOT turn the High control past noon, unless you like the sound that bees make.

Having said that, I believe that nearly every pedal has a purpose. In my opinion, it is a noise pedal. It's great for producing ear-splitting feedback, or some interesting fuzz tones, but that's about it. Don't expect to do any kind of real heavy rock tones or metal stuff. Palm muting sounds muddy and farty, and getting fat solo sounds seems next to impossible.

Remember the Boss Heavy Metal, or DOD Grunge? I reminds me of those, sort of. It doesn't have as much distortion (but still more than enough), and sounds just as lifeless.

I might keep it just to use with my synthesizer, just for wierd industrial sounds, etc, but I haven't tried it out yet for that purpose.

This is not my first Digitech. I have a Digidelay and a Bad Monkey. They have both been very reliable. The style totally reminds me of Boss stuff. The casing seems super heavy duty- you could definitely hurt someone with these things! I expect it to last a long, long time.

Never tried to get customer support. I haven't needed it. If it broke, I would buy something else. I really don't care if it stops working.

I play mostly hard rock, and metal. This things is not a good match, and I honestly don't know what kind of music it would be a good match for. I have been playing for more than 15 years, and have a pretty good idea of the types of sounds I am looking for. I didn't expect the Hot Head to sound great, but I didn't expect it to sound this bad either. I have learned that, with exception for my Bad Monkey, you usually get what you pay for, so I am not entirely disappointed. As I said, I was just looking for an alternative to my normal setup, something cheap. I succeeded in that respect, at least. Oh well....

Best feature is the mixer output, gives your tone better punch and definition. I am using an AB box(coolswitch from Art, with leds, for cheap) so I switch between mixer and amp modes to solo or rhythm.
Eq works well, dist level too but keep in mind this box is not an aggressive one so it won't do your chunk chunk metallica background.
Noise floor very low, battery access perfect and doesn't eat too much of those.

As I said, not your aggressive dist box. But for smooth solos, melodic stuff it is very very good. With a telecaster too, and I think the more gain the pedal has over an overdrive is to compensate for lower output pickups, still in the overdrive range of sounds.
The mixer output works with other dist boxes too, always active.
The hot head is a clear, smooth sounding unit, more an overdrive in fact. For my needs it is perfect, does the malmsteen melodic lines very well, and bluesy rhythmic stuff has just the right amount of loosiness required.

None of my dod/digitech stuff ever broke.

I like the look, too!
Using this box with Ibanez7strings, noiseless strat, p90 flat top les paul, the controls lets me adjust the pedal perfectly.

Again: don't buy this for aggressive chunk chunk or fuzz nastiness if that's what you're after! They do the grunge pedal for this, still with mixer option, what a great idea they had on this one feature!

Few knobs, too easy.

Setup1: Epi SG=> HotHead=> Vox Pathfinder15R. Tone Quality: 4/5
Setup2: Epi SG=> HotHead=> JTM45 Plexi . Tone Quality: 6/5

Distortion not as good as DS1, however sound more dynamic and much better lows then DS1. Gain knob produces minor variation of tone and becomes muddy after 2 o'clock. Level control generates mild overdrive on max setting which is appreciated by amp tubes. Sound pretty dry and abrasive on solid state amp.
Good thing is that it has two outputs - Line and Amp. Line output has cabinet simulator build in.
It doesn???t sound even close to sample from DigiTech web site (false advertising).
Not noisy at all.

Build to withstand nuclear blast.

Never call them

Playing mostly rock and HM, I was looking for DS1 substitute with more tone range and more bass. Alright, I've got more bass but nothing more. It's not as smooth as DS1. Grab soldering iron and replace few resistors and caps in DS1 and it will yield rewards. Alternatively, buy Grunge pedal. It covers more bases.

If lost or stolen, I would be sorry for the battery within.

Four Controls, Level Gain and 2 band eq. very easy to dial in your desired sounds, if not then theres an idiots guide to different settings to try included in the booklet.

I play Washburn N4ESA (a humbuckers guitar) into my beloved Marshall AVT50 combo with a Zakk Wylde Overdrive and some other effects boxes. I use both the effects loop and have a rig in front of the amp. This box goes in front as I believe all distortion & gain pedals should be plugged into the jack input.
Great Distortion pedal- standard. I can easily sound like my favourite artists- well thats what happens when youre a Bettencourt, Marty friedman/ Vai wannabe like me..
Ive compared this pedal with a KEELEY DS-1 Ultra which I tried before this. A great sounding pedal, but lacking in the gain. The Hot Head has PLENTY of gain and the distortion responded great to my rhythm playing in the shop which is why I told them 'I'll take one!'
Plenty of dynamics, not too muddy and much gain which is exactly what I needed. The pedal itself sounds much like some boutique modded distortion boxes Ive tried- smoothe distortion and warm sustain so Im thinking that theres 'better than stock quality' components inside.

The pedal is built like a tank and seems bombproof. no doubts. and I use PSU's with my pedald- no batteries!

One word of advice- always use a BOSS adaptor or equivelant- its not worth risking your pedals by getting a cheap transformer.

No dealings with these people

I love to play heavy metal and shredder type rock. Nuno Bettencourt and Van Halen type riffs which are very percussive and rhythmic.

If I solo I wanna play as fast as I can.

I have been playing guitar seriously for about 10+ years and I'll outplay anyone lol- joke ok sshhhh!

I love the way this pedal responds to my rhythm playing in particular becaus I use alot of muting etc for funky/heavy groove vibes. The pedal responds well dynamically. I love that theres lots of gain which is where the DS-1 fell short. the distortion is warm and smoothe and the tone its quite unique. this pedal has alot of it's own character which is cool.

My guitar riffs and playing sounds very musical through this pedal. If I play it long enough I may even like it more than my Marshall's dirt! but that will take some doing!

One thing Id like to share is Ive been playing for years without pedals and only believed in playing distortion from a great amp. This pedal is a great alternative to using an amps overdrive channel. I'll recommend this pedal to anyone for exceptionally great rock sounds.

There are 4 knobs to play with, 2 of them for distortion and volume levels, 2 for simple EQ (low and high frequencies to adjust). Very simple even for anyone who ever heard there are some pedals for guitar. Inside the simple manual sheet you'll find description of its parts and important notes about battery replacement procedure and use of the AC adapter. Manual was printed in China.

I went to huge music shop to get THE distortion for me. I bought new amp which has an extraordinary good clean channel, but for the built-in drive I needed some "reinforcement". I though of many legendary pedals like Mig Muff, Rat, some of the yellow Boss pedals, sexy silver Marshalls just anything that woul fit my requests... which were a priori versatility and sound quality. I wasn't limited with money as all the non-tube drive pedals cost almost the same. I write whole this story because I didn't really know Digitech makes some other pedals than multieffects and as I tried all the pedals above (which were all good but either one-purpose non versatile things (Big Muff, Proco Rat) or simply did not fit to my ears (Marshalls, Ibanez)). I tried the funny orange Hot Head and wow that was my pedal. The GAIN knob does its job from first touch (slight drive from 8:00) and does not work in jumps like some other pedals do. The simple EQ lets you to get wide range of sounds and I failed to find more versatile pedal in this price category. My target was to get slight to middle range distortion as I don't need any metal sounds. I have other pedal to play with more drive. It is very similar to Boss DS-1 for my ears but I personaly chose Hot Head because I still heard the character of my guitar when played. The DS-1 is great, too but in direct comparsion it took too much of the sound for itself. The sound may not fit everyone's needs, there is a bit of this "chemistry" in it but be sure to give it a chance. I was searching for exactly that kind of distortion and as I found it, this is a review of satisfied buyer. I play an '72 Mexico tele through Fender Amp, the pedal has no true bypass but doesn't mess your signal and it's very quiet unless on full gain of course. With the two EQ pots you can get rich variety of sounds from deep and dark muddy distortion to to high tone ear torture. Possible great settings for both solos and backlite riffs. I chose 9/10 because the EQ knobs don't respond as dynamically as I would like to have them and I partially miss the MIDDLE knob. But for the price it's still more than enough.

The pedal is well built. Heavy. Looks very reliable and I'm sure it hurts when thrown. I will definitely use it without backup.

I play many styles /blues, classic rock, grunge (Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam), indie music (Radiohead, Muse, Mars Volta.../, this pedal is very versatile /allthough I don't use it to play all the mentioned styles/, it does what I need and it does it very well. With the price paid, sound possibilities, metal design and with the fact I tried many similar pedals I have no problem do rate it as fantastic value. If stolen I would buy another one.

gain,low,high, level. Very easy to get a large variety of distortion tones.

I compared it back and forth with a my ds-1 on a strat into a soul-o-45. I love the basic character of the boss ds-1 distortion but it is either to thin or two muddy and won't let the guitar through. With everything set around 12 It was possible to make the hothead sound almost identical to a ds-1. It has the same distortion flavor but with more harmonic content and more of you guitars tone comming through. It was impossible to make the ds-1 sound as good as the hothead.

Crank up the gain and bass with a trebble setting 12-1 o'clock And you will get a very modern and big marshall style overdrive sounds great for heavy riffs and much more amp like than a ds-1. It is impossible to get this sound from a ds-1 even my analogman modded one didn't sound nearly as good.

To me this is the best pedal for the ds-1 type of distortion sound.

It weights like 3 pounds. If you ever need to knock someone out this would be a good substitute for a brick.

It's the best sounding distortion pedal i've picked up for less tha $100.

It's a stompbox. Guitar in on the right side, amp out on the left. Four tone controls...not too difficult, huh? I bought it from Guitar Center a couple of years ago, and I think that there was a warranty card and manual, but I just sent out the warranty card and lost the manual. I don't know of any kind of upgrades, but I'm sure some gearhead out there who's a lot smarter than me has done it.

I used an old Lotus Les Paul copy with ancient humbuckers through a Fender Sidekick Reverb 25 when I bought this. The guitar is okay but has its share of problems like noisy pickups, and amp is a Fender and had unbeatable cleans, but the distortion was lacking, to say the least. This was a cheap fix for the sound I wanted, and it sounds great! Slightly dirty to balls-to-the-wall metal with a turn of a knob! I chose this over other pedals becuase I thought that it had a little more refined distortion than a Boss, but that's just my opinion. It's never noisy, but does cut out and degrade in sound quality as the batteries die. As we all know, don't leave your effects plugged in if you're using batteries! I did that once and it drained the batter over the course of a few days. On the plus side, I think I averaged about one battery a month, but an adapter might be a good investment. Great sound for forty dollars through a solid state amp!

This little guy is incredibly reliable. Metal casing and rubber bottom and footswitch. The footswitch is secure, but removes easily to change the battery (all you need is a pen or stick). I would use it on a gig without a backup, but more on this later in my review...

Never tried, never needed. I think that they had either a three or five year warranty when I bought it, so don't get suckered into buying another warranty at the store! You'll get one with the pedal!

I've been playing electric guitar for about two and a half years and play 40% rock/metal, 45% acoustic, and 15% rap fills and latin. When I was using the Fender amp that I described above, this gave me a great rock sound to complement the already great clean sound that I had in the amp alone. Together they sounded great, and I would use them live if I had to...However, I recently bought a MESA/Boogie Nomad 100 Head and 4x12 Rectifier Standard Cabinet. Amazing amp, and I get any kind of distortion out of the amp now (you can do that with 9 or 10 tubes!). This pedal was great when I needed it, but now it just sits on my shelf or joins me when I play bass. No disrespect to the little guy, he was great for what I needed at the time, but what I am saying is that a good tube amp will most likely give you better distortion tone than any stompbox or effects processor. I would be a little pissed if it was stolen, but I don't really have much of a need for it anymore. I would definitly reccommend this for someone that wants a great distortion tone at a cheap price, but just keep in mind that as you move up in gear, distortion pedals become somewhat less important. By itself I give it a 10, but compared to a tube amp distortion it gets between a 7 and an 8.