DigiTech Hot Head Distortion

Like as said before. It's a stompbox. So, not complicated. Easy to set up.

To be honest I didn't even read the manual yet.

I have a Peavey Ultra all tube 3 channel amp. I love almost every thing about it except the upper mids aren't crunchy enough and the bottom is kind of muddy. I went to Guitar Center actually looking for a Marshall Guv'nor pedal to run at a low gain setting to add some Marshall color to my sound.

They don't carry them. So, after trying out most every pedal they had I tried the Hot head pedal and I knew in a second it's what I wanted. I run the level at about 2 and the gain at about the same just for some color. I love it! My amp sounds like a marshall stack!

Even on my clean channel I get that Marshall twang.

It's built a lot heavier than I thought it would be. I've never had any Digitech before and the heftiness was a surprise.

I'd use it without a backup.

I haven't dealt with the company, so I don't know.

I play a variety from contemporary christian to eighties type metal. I said "type" metal cause at home I just play my own stuff, but I love the eighties sound. The Hot Head is a good match for that.

I've played for 29 years and have tried a lot of pedals and this is a really good one.

I would replace it if lost or stolen.

My favorite feature is that it doesn't overpower my tone - It just shapes it.

I compared it to Boss's DS-1 and mega distortion and some others but this one did what I wanted it to do.

I've had this pedal for over a year now and am really liking it. Very easy to use and tweak and get a good sound. Manual is brief but explains how to use it.

I agree with the below review about the touch dymanics. From light to heavy attack the pedal responds very well. Lightly picked its very smooth almost like a light overdrive but when under heavy attack the distortion really comes out. It also responds very well to adjusting the volume on the guitar. Overall a very good sound.

Construction seems very good.

I have called and emailed Digitech and they respond very fast.

I use this pedal all of the time and love it's sound. Easily adjustable and very responsive. I would replace it if lost or stolen.

Very easy to use. The Low and High controls allow you to really equalize the pedal. Level and gain controls speak for themselves and are quite responsive. There is also an second out for cab emulation that can go to your mixer and it works!

I've been playing for over thirty-five years and have tried out or owned just about every pedal known to man. LOL You have to tweak this pedal just like any other to get your sound. I have tried it with my single coil and humbucker axes and with different amps both SS and tube. I have gotten some fantastic sounds from this pedal! It's touch dymanics are excellent. Again you have to set it up. I'll bet some of the negitive reviews below are from people who didn't take the time to set it up correctly.

Built like a Mac Truck! Heavy and sturdy. No problem here.

Have never called them so I can't comment.

Excellent pedal. For heavy overdrive to mid distortion, I don't think it can be beat. Great touch dynamics and easily tweaked.

Very easy to use. It's a stompbox, so it's pretty straight forward

I'm using a Line 6 Spider II, set on the Clean Red, behringer compression, Crybaby, and a fat strat. It gets a smooth sound, but be careful of the HIGH, it can get brittle sounding fast. However, I use it for a rock/blues type of sound and it fits perfectly. I really like this sound. When mixing it with amp distortion, be careful, it can get uncontrollable, but it sounds great ran through a clean setting. Lot's of negative reviews from people and they really voiced themselves offensively, it's really sad. I say, try it out. It's great from rock/blues. Not for metal, but they have pedals that do that also (the Metal Master is my fave for that)Tone is subjective. This works well for me, who know about your ear. Just keep an open mind, and an open ear.

yes, it is dependable. Built like a tank

Yes, I would use it without backup

Great pedal for some rock and blues. Get's a great tone without coloring your regular sound. The only thing that I don't like is that the HIGH eq is VERY touchy and get's brittle easily. Nothing some EQ won;t fix though.

Quite obvious, a Level knob for volume, Low, High for equalizing and Gain for the distortion amount. It rather depends on the setting of your amp, although I wish it'd have an EQ part like the Metal Zone has. It has 2 output jacks, one to the amp and one to the mixer, but I found the mixer output quite crappy, realy chunky, and the characteristic of the guitar is lost when I use that. I rather record with the amp output too...
The pedal part is quite easy to get off, you just need to push the side with a plug or something like that, and you can change the battery.
The manual is really made for ones who don't know much about how a pedal works :-)

I use that with a German neck-through axe, armed with a Gibson Iommi pickup at the bridge, and with a Dynacord solid-state combo. It really sounds like an overdriven valve head. Great tubey sound lies within, BUT its versatility is not for the range of tones but for the tone itself. This pedal can be used in any kind of music where a tubey distortion sound is needed. However the knobs can be used for some corrections, you cannot really change the tone. I need to tweak my amp around to change a bit, but basically the tone stays the same.
It's real verstaility reveals only if you have a wider range of EQ on your amp, or use an EQ pedal with that. It really sounds nice without EQing, but when I started to experiment with the EQ pedal along with the HotHead, I found how brutal or even really soft sounds are coming, and the HotHead still didn't lose it's characteristic.
On its own it's really great for hard rock tones, or bluesy sounds, but with an EQ pedal you really can get any sound you like without losing that nice tubey sound.

A bit larger than he Boss pedals, and more thicker...Even an elephant could step on it, however it eats the battery faster than the Boss pedals.

Just bought that

As I said this pedal is good for every music that needs a tubey distortion sound. I like it better than the Boss DS-1, cause this baby not only has a great and individual tone, but keeps the tone of the guitar too, even if you use an EQ along with it. I think until I won't have a valve am/combo I'll keep that.
I only wish it'd have the same EQ knob system that the Metal Zone had, then it would be really a versatile pedal.

Very easy to use. I like the two tone knobs for Low and High Boost/Cut. Much more dynamic than a single tone knob.

MIM Fat Strat --> Hot Head --> MXR Smart Gate --> Vox AD15VT Valvetronix.

I wanted to get some more edge and bite to my setup and was undecided whether to get a distortion or overdrive. With my amp I have a gain and master volume, so I cranked it up and decided I wanted more. I went to my local retailer and tried OD and DIST and liked the distortion.

This unit has a good all-around rock sound. The grunge and metal pedals were too harsh and could not be dialed in for subtle or light dirt settings. This was. I may get an overdrive or metal pedal later, but this is a good start.

Built tough - heavy as a brick.

NA

Good all-around pedal for light to medium distortion. Can approximate an OD pedal cranked but if you need more distortion you may need a heavier pedal.

Four knobs: Level for loudness, low for bass, high for treble, gain for distortion. Couldn't be easier. No need for a manual, though the one provided does the job.

I stick to my Epiphone SG religiously (despite what my friends say about it!), but I've tred it through a few guitars/amps and never had any real success. No matter what I play through the sound is just so fuzzy with little clarity. Best results through celestion-speaker amps, but even then I wasn't overly impressed.

It's well built, solid and heavy. Doesn't inspire as much confidence as Boss, but sturdy none the less.

Never used it.

My band plays a mixture of heavy rock to pop punk, with influences like Anthrax, Therapy?, Bruce Dickinson, Smashing Pumpkins and Wildhearts. For me the Hot Head just gives out too much fuzz. Open chords are muddy, palm-muting is weak. I bought the pedal on the strength of the samples on Digitech's web site, thinking it sounded like a good rock n' roll guitar pedal. I won't buy anything based on internet samples again! Overall the Hot Head is okay if you use it along with other pedals (like a delay maybe) but in the end you get what you pay for. This was cheap!

I use a Gibson LP with a Marshall 1986 50 watt head and a 4x12
Marshall-cab loaded with 30 w. Celestion tan-backs. I bought
the digitech Hot Head after hearing a few samples on digitechs
website and i was looking for a quick and cheap way to get that
classic full bore stack sound without upsetting my neighbours.

The pedal is very easy to use and you don't need to look at the
manual.

The Hot Head distortion works best at lower drive settings despite
what the manual tells you. The EQ takes a while to master, but if
you are a bass-junkie like me, you will get a very punchy bass-response
if leaving the Hi at 12 o'clock and the Low set at about two-three.
This pedal can simulate a plexi at full bore, but you really need to
set the drive low, otherwise the pedal gets way too fizzy.

The thing is not noisy at all. The secret is to use a fairly clean
tube amp and work with the EQ. Forget using a cheap guitar with
crappy pickups into a no-name transistor-amp. This thing works best
with humbuckers and a good clean tube-amp.

The Hot head is really sturdy and also a bit heavier than Boss-
pedals. It seems well built but i don't expect it to hold together
more than 3-5 years. You get what you pay for so don't expect hard
road use...

Never dealt with Digitech - don't know...

I play all styles of metal (classic hardrock to "stoner" to death)
and i'm quite picky. This is a good and cheap pedal if you are willing to spend an hour setting it up and testing for it's sweet-spot. Don't buy it if you hate the sound of the Boss Distortion-1, Marshall Goveneur or the MXR Distortion +

Really good. Simple controls. Gives great sound with a slight tweak straight out of the box.

Im using this with a Roland Jazz Chorus 55 and a Behringer SL2442FX-PRO mixing desk and some db Technologies Opera 112 speakers. Using the cabinet emulator out from the pedal into the desk sounds really good and I get great foldback through my amp. There is no noise that i can hear... I only got some noise when I used a crap cable. So I suggest to all you others that think there is noise - USE BETTER CABLES.

This is a very dependable pedal and I would definitly take it on the road with me. The only problem I have is it keeps cutting out but thats because I keep kicking the power cable (a cheap one). No problems with the pedal itself.

Havent needed to get it repaired so havent dealt with the company. The shop I got it from was useless though.

I play basic raw rock and this pedal is perfect for my sound. I would get this pedal again. Its the best my rig has ever sounded. Now, a stab at the other forum members (on other forums as well) - DO NOT say anything is shit. You'll be better to say 'This is not suitable for my needs' or something similar. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean its shit. Get that through your thick heads. And please, LEARN TO SPELL!!! I apologise to those I may have offended, but I have been offended. Things may not be good for your sound, but it will most likely be good for somebody else. For example: A Digitech Metal Master Pedal would be no good for the likes of Eric Clapton. You get it now? Good. The Digitech Hot Head Distortion Pedal is good FOR ME. I reccommend it to anybody who plays straight rock.

Sound changes....i swear...set the gain next day sounds off...go figure.
Dirty distortion, I like punk. Just traded in my Hothead for the Digitech Grunge....now that's a sweet pedal.

Hum...ho. hum....nothing but Hum....other pedals...BOS..VOX and Grunge nada.
this pedal sucks.

nope

never dealt

over all...this pedal can sound ok if using a digital delay and bring down the gain.
for general overall use just can't cut it.
i play in worship bands that play from drop kick murphy punk to 80' hair bands to green day.