DigiTech Hot Head Distortion

The pedal sounds pretty good when u find a good setting for your style. the thing i didnt like is i dont think there is enouigh distortion because i play alot of thrash and speed and some rock. its still a good pedal, id recommend it to someone who plays all kinds of rock and some metal

i use the pedal with my ibanez guitar and marshall amp. i get a pretty sweet sound out of it. it sounds reall good especially on a tube amp. i used it on my old peavy tube amp and it sounded great. i hooked up another amp tto it through the mixer output and it was pretty sweet.

i think its a good pedal and its very reliable, its built well and its easy to change batteries on it.

never dealt with comepany

I think it would be better with more distortion but for now it should be good. if i got stolen i might buy the same one or maybe the death metal

Four knobs (gain, high, low and level), very simple layout. To get a good sound requires some patience and good nerves. For me it took few sessions to get it sound the way I wanted. You have to listen and learn. The manual explains all connections and controls, nothing else.

I've been using it with various guitars, actives and passives. A good clean sounding amp is a must, there is no big difference is it tube or tranny. My experience is
that medium output hums sound best. Very high output pups make it sound harsh, but by turning gain down corrects the problem. Another thing is relation of tone knobs and level. It is very easy to make it sound bad by turning tones and level too high. The output clips easily.

Now I know this pedal pretty well, so I get almost everything I want from blues to 80's heavy metal. For beyond that I need something else.

Haven't tried the mixer output yet.

It's built like a tank.

Never dealt with the company.

I play from blues to chainsaw rock and roll, but I use this from blues to 80's heavy metal. For heavier stuff I'll use something else. I've been playing over 20 years. I own few other Digitech products, Ibanez pedals,MXRs and some homebrews.

If it were stolen or lost, I might buy it again or buy something else like Screaming Blues.

When it's tweaked right, it acts pretty close to tube distortion - I love it. Too easy to get bad sounds - I hate that. It's pretty sensitive to my picking, softer/harder and everything between. I have never had a plain distortion before this one. I wish it had more headroom at the output.

It is really nice for some playing styles.

I tried a 12V power supply and got more output before clipping and got more scale for gain.

Simple to use, but not easy to get any good sounds out of. Also, why just put a control for your highs and lows, where's the control for your mids?! Like I just said, not hard to use, but you really are going to have a hard time finding any useable sounds.

You can sit with this pedal for as long as you want, and I doubt you will find a good, useable sound. And if you can get it to sound good or want it to sound good, your going to have to buy an EQ pedal, fiddle around with the knobs on the pedal, then the EQ, and then possible your amp. Just like the other reviewer said, I can't believe I bought this pedal, I also can say I haven't come across anything as bad as it, and I hope I never do! I bought my Hot Head back in October, but didn't keep it either (wish I would have checked out a few reviews on it first--HINT) sounded so bad, even after tweaking and tweaking and tweaking, I gave up on it. IF A PEDAL TAKES LONGER THAN 5 MINUTES (shouldn't even take THAT long!) TO FIND A USEABLE SOUND, RETURN IT - IT IS A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY and would be a waste of you time to sit and attempt to get it to sound good. I sat with the pedal for around 45 minutes, I knew it was crap once it was taking so long, but had to make sure. I've never used or tried a pedal that took me a while to get a good sound.

Very solid pedal. A little heavier than Boss pedals. Sound wise, it's not reliable AT ALL! Not going to rate this since I wouldn't know which way to go, reliable in sound, or the pedal itself.
Reliable in sound = 1
Reliable in construction = 7 (to open it up to put in a battery or take out the one it comes with is stupid, it's a small pin that you have to push in)

This pedal isn't even worth anyone wasting their time trying out to see if they'd like it, don't believe me? Look at the few reviews this pedal has! Notice the low number of reviews, just about all negative also. Someone probably mentioned this already: Looks somewhat similar to a Boss DS-1, but don't be fooled, it can't even compare to a DS-1. If a pedal gets a 1 for sound quality and overall rating, that's pretty damn sad!

It's easy, but takes a bit of tweaking to get the top and bottom together.

A good pedal, especially for the money, but a solidly good pedal none-the-less. I think it works best as a 'dirty' booster; gain below noon and setting the volume to taste. I tried the Bad Monkey, but I've got that sound covered with a variety of pedals already. I was able to dial in the Hot Head to sound virtually the same as the Screamin' Blues, not quite as open as the SB, but extremely close. I'm playing single coils and humbuckers through a wide range of old tube gear, and the Hot Head sounds very nice as a dirty booster.

Many reviewers have written the high end is excessive and harsh. I can understand where they're coming from, but very limited adjustments to the tone controls make a big difference - sit with it some more and tweak them very lightly. I was able to get the pedal to mimic my straight amp sound, just a little louder and hairer. I once owned a Boss Blues Driver, and I can say that the Hot Head has a much less harsh high end than the Boss.

It cleans up very well rolling back the volume on the guitar, something I always like and looks for.

I have no idea, we'll wait and see.

It's probably great, but I have no experience with them.

A nice in-between overdriven sound for rock or blues, cleans up at the guitar volume knob.

The knobs are responsive, very hard to get the pedal to sound good at all. I bought mine a few months back, but didn't review it, my situation is very similar to last few reviews. The pedal is easy to use, but not easy to get a good sound out of even if you work with it for a while. Simply put, the pedal is a waste of a measly $40, it's total crap (put short and simple). I'm rating this just like what this asks: how easy is it to get a good sound out of it? You can try and try, but most likely, it ain't gonna happen, and if it doesI guarrantee your mids on your amp are at 0 or just about with your highs and lows boosted... yeah... you really know tone.

I bought mine without testing it out in the store, I thought it would be something, or somewhere near a Boss DS-1 also. Boy was I wrong, way off! I picked up the box to check the company and picked up my receipt... I thought they gave me the wrong pedal, I thought they gave me some crappy $20, even less, cheap distortion pedal. I was so shocked, I've never had or used a pedal that sounded so bad. I sat and tried working with it for about a half an hour, changing the EQ on my amps (I didn't just use this with a stack or combo) and fiddling around with the EQ on the pedal, nothing was working, nothing would sound anywhere near good? I realized then, this pedal is totally useless, I couldn't use it, I'd sound like one of the many kids today with their cheap assed Ibanez and BC Rich guitars and/or cheap Marshall MG100fx (or whatever that amp is) or cheap, low wattage combo amp. If you are one of those kids, go right ahead and buy this pedal, enjoy, it's perfect for tone deaf people or people who just buy cheap equipment. (many kids just buy Ibanez, BC Rich, and Jackson for 2 reasons :cheap and look "cool" to them) It wasn't noisy at all, no excess hissing or anything, but the pedal just sounded like a joke no matter how hard I tried to get it to sound good. So, I packed it back up about a half hour later and returned to the store with my receipt to give that piece of crap back and get my money back. I told the guys at the store that work there that I know not to sell Digitech's compact pedals, they just said, "they are cheap and sell. The kids that buy them don't know what's good, they just buy it because it's cheap and then go tell their friends and we get more business." Ever wonder why good pedals really aren't sold in music stores? THe kids that shop at the music stores just buy what's cheap and affordable, kids today and popular bands today don't care about tone anymore. Nobody can argue me on that one. Back to the pedal, don't waste your money on it if you really care about your tone, this pedal doesn't kill your tone, the makers of it made it just to sell to kids who don't care about tone, scoop their mids and boost the highs and lows. I've never rated a pedal on this site so poorly ever, I've tried or had some bad distortion pedals, but the Digitech Hot Head is by far the worst distortion pedal I've ever had! It's really that bad. Can't believe I'm actually giving a pedal I've had a 1, can't believe I bought something so terrible! Help us all! What's happen to music today!?!

This question is like a joke for Digitech's line of distortion pedals! I bet it would last a while, but who'd actually want to be heard using this thing? I'm not rating this, it works fine, but just is not reliable in tone.

I've contacted Digitech a few times, if your question is very easy, they get back to you quickly. If your question is complex or more educated, expect a few days, maybe a week. Pretty sad, fire the kids working there, get some real techs and pro's!

If you are wondering about my equipment, here it is: Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Supreme, Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty without Bigsby, various Epiphone Les Paul's and one Epiphone Flying V, Fender Standard Strat and Tele, and Peavey HP Sign. EXP. Amps: Peavey Classic 50 head with cab, Peavey Transtube Supreme with a custom made cab, Fender Tone Master, old Fender combo amp 15 watts, and an old Crate 30 watt amp. Pedals:*just a list of some pedals I have and/or had, not all of this is on my custom board* Various Dunlop wahs, Vox V847 wah, Morley wah, Boss DS-1, Boss SD-1, Boss Blues Driver, Boss HR-2 Harmonist, Boss Turbo Overdrive, Boss DS-2, DOD Flanger, arious delay pedals, Digitech Whammy WH-4, Danelectro talk box, Rocktron Banshee, various chorus pedals, and more. My pedalboard doesn't even have half of them on it. I've probably owned more distortion pedals than most people have ever even tried out, I didn't even list all the distortion pedals I've had, I just listed what I could think of off the top of my head, most of which are very good pedals. Can't say it's the guitar or amp I used with the Hot Head, it came down to the pedal itself. If it wouldn't sound good on one of my amps, it won't sound good on any. I've been playing guitar for somewhere in the area of 12 years, why I even bought the Digitech Hot Head is beyond me, one bad mistake, luckily I could bring it back though. I don't really like Digitech pedals, they are copies off of other companies and they pretty much ruin them. The only good Digitech pedal I can actually say is good that I have and used is the Whammy, crazy pedal but kills tone, had to put a true bypass in it. The only other good Digitech pedal I can recommend, I bet you the Jimi Hendrix Experience pedal that is going to be out soon is going to be good, can't wait for it any longer. Overall, pretty much stay away from Digitech, even their huge multi effects pedals suck, they are digital pieces of crap, I've tried them before, it was even a waste of my time, how sad is that! Some Digitech pedals could be good, I don't really know which one(s), but I'd never buy any of them except the Hendrix pedal. But, the Hot Head was and is a joke, somebody probably already said that, but it's true. Anyone want to argue about this review, go ahead and do so, but think before you do so, if you scoop your mids and boost your highs and lows and think your Hot Head sounds good, don't even waste space on this site, you aren't a musician, you're most likely a "cool" kid who picked up guitar in high school to be cool and believe you are great when you aren't. Oh yeah, did I mention that Digitech's Hot Head distortion pedal is a disgrace? I could probably find a super cheap distortion pedal from some company like Arion or something in that area that sound better, that's pretty pathetic. Once again, can't believe I have owned something that I am reviewing and giving a 1, that's unbelieveable, proof that it's a waste of money, I'm never this harsh on pedals. But then again, I've never heard something so bad.

Easy to use, four knobs.
Manual is OK, no suggested settings.

The paint color of this unit is very similar to the Boss DS-1.
Unfortunately so is the sound.
I am using this pedal with my Fender 64 custom Vibroverb reissue and a strat.
Ice pick high end, when I dialed an almost usable tone on my rear pickup, I switched to the front pickup only to be greeted by mud.

I have used a few Digitech products in the past and have always been happy with the quality.
This looks like a well built unit. I just don't like the sound.

I have never had to contact Digitech.
There website is fairly informative.

I play Rock/Blues. I have been playing over 20 years, I own to much gear to list.
I like the fact that Digitech is offering some budget minded pedals, and I have read many reviews on this website about the Bad Monkey Overdrive unit and how nice it is. I own a FullDrive 2 which has that tone covered so I was looking for something with a little more gain for some of the other music I cover. Thought I'd give this pedal a try.
I hate to give it the lowest rating because tone is such a personal thing, but for me this unit is unusable.

The knobs would make it seem easy to use, you would think. I'm really pissed with this pedal right now, and I have been since my return period with guitar center expired. I can't get a single... not one single good tone out of this waste of $40. More in the next section.

Here's my setup: I use either a Carvin CM130 or a Fender '57 RI Strat through a DOD Stereo Phaser, a Boss CH-1, then into a Marshall JCM-900 4501. When I demoed this at Guitar Center, I demoed through a DSL 40W combo. The sound there sucked, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and took it home to check it on my amp. I didn't get a chance to get back to GC before the return period expired, so I got shafted.

This is capable of getting not one single desirable tone (at least in my rig) at gig levels. The EQ is so sensitive that it's useless. If the Hi and Low EQ are both at 12:00, the thing's high end is grating and harsh. If you even touch the low end to move it to 1:00, then play a chord, prepare to sound like a trombone through a distortion box. It's not pleasant, and reminds me more of a loud burp than a guitar.

Now, at bedroom levels, this is alright. Nothing special, but alright. However, any gear I buy nowadays is meant for being gigged with, and all pedals/stompboxes should be performance quality.

Put short: DO NOT BUY THIS PEDAL IF YOU PLAN TO GIG WITH IT! GET AN IBANEZ DISTORTION OR INVEST A LITTLE MORE AND GET A RAT OR SUPER OVERDRIVE!

It's housed in a metal chassis like all Digitech or Boss pedals. It sucks that I actually want to break this thing into smithereens but I can't.

But again, you don't want to have to depend on something that sounds as bad as this.

N/A. Just emailed them about the pedal, asking if maybe something is wrong with it, or if there are some recommended settings I could try. I'll give them a few days before I say yay or nay.

I play all styles except punk, but my main styles are grunge, metal, blues and jazz. No, this doesn't do any of these styles at a legit standard.

I've been playing for around 5 years. I have (in chronological order of purchase): Squier Affinity Strat, Fender Frontman 10, Boss CH-1, Dano Pastrami Overdrive (don't buy this either), Epiphone G-400, DOD Stereo Phaser, Fender '57 RI Stratocaster, Marshall JCM-900 4501, Morley Classic Wah, and a Carvin CM130.

I compared this to a Boss DS-1 and a Digitech Screaming Monkey. I had gone to Guitar Center to get an Ibanez distortion pedal, but they don't stock anything but TS-808 reissues.

Please, please please do yourself a favor and buy a different distortion pedal. The only pedal from Digitech worth buying is the Whammy pedal.

4 knobs, volume, low, high, and gain. Easy to use, but not easy to get a good sound out of.

I bought this thing expecting it to be like my Boss DS-1, but maybe alittle bit more versatile and a bit more gain... I made one HUGE mistake! This pedal is DECENT, it's nothing special like all the other reviewers make it seem. There is a bit more gain than my DS-1, but the tone of this pedal is terrible. I didn't get any excess noise due to my very quiet setup, but the pedal itself is very quiet too. I saw that someone said this sounds like a fuzz pedal, this thing is NOTHING like a fuzz pedal at all, whoever that reviewer was, is a comlete IDIOT! If you want fuzz, go out and get a Fuzz Face or E.H. USA Big Muff Pi. I returned the Hot Head a few minutes after I bought it. It's really not good at all, for probably the same price, or less, you can get a ppedal that is so much better than the Hot Head, Boss's DS-1. Trust me on that one, the DS-1 has a better range in tone even with it's one knob as the tone control. The Hot Head may have a tiny bit more gain, but the pedal overall is not worth it. It's only $40, but sounds like a $10 distortion pedal made by some unheard of brand. Try it out yourself, you might like it if you really don't care about tone.

I only own a Digitech Whammy pedal, and that's the only Digitech pedal I will use or buy. They seem reliable, some just aren't reliable in tone. Would I use it on a gig or for practicing, No, because it sounds terrible and I returned it back to the music store a few minutes after I noticed the pedal can't dial in any good sound.
The battery compartment is accessable in an odd way, they should have taken Boss's way or made a better/easier way, but I use a One Spot Daisy Chain adapter for my pedals. It is just a stupid way to get to the battery compartment, and you have to have something small to push the little thing in. I am only rating it an 8 on the construction of the pedal, not the tone of it.

They either respond in a day or quicker, or take a few days, you never know.

This pedal is a bad copy off of the Boss DS-1, they just gave you the low and high EQ instead of the one knob EQ. Which, the DS-1 is still, byfar, better. Try it out yourself, you might like it, I didn't, I'm sticking with my DS-1, it's 10 times better.

easy... IGNORE the flames from unexperienced players.

Some guy said this was a fuzz pedal and not distortion. Apparently he has an ear infection. Maybe it's because he's playing on a solid state amp. Anyone who has gone from solid state to tubes will definately notice how fuzzy solid state sounds. Anyways another person asked: If we can buy tube amps why buy something like this. My response: The same damn reason! TOO SOUND DIFFERENT!

I get sick of seeing crappy reviews on a pedal when they try to turn a $99 solid state special into a Full stack. They reason you think it's fuzz is because your amp is fuzz. Play a tube amp sometime and you'll notice how the fuzz isn't there anymore. That's why you sound so crappy and one dimensional. This pedal kicks ass. It's analog except for the emulated line out.

Tough

Was looking for a basic distortion pedal that wouldn't break the bank...this fit the bill wonderfully. Couldn't be easier to use.

It's a one trick pony, but that's what I wanted. None of the B.S. "morphing" or "cab sim" dials found on other pedals. I play a Gibson SG Special (490s) into an Ampgeg VL-1002 (Lee Jackson). Again, this is basic distortion. Not an overdrive pedal (I use my B channel for that). Someone said it's a fuzz, but to me fuzz is more like a Dallas Arbiter or Sovtek Big Muff, both of which I use. I needed some basic distortion and got it here. Good low end, but dial back the highs to around 9 o'clock unless you want the neighborhood dogs to beat a path to your door. Haven't tried the direct-to-record output and probably never will.

Built solid. Way better design than that of 10-15 years ago...you pretty much had to go with Boss back then.

Don't know...don't care. At this price, if it breaks, replace it.

For what I wanted, this pedal is perfect for the price. Been playing on and off for 25 years and have gone through a pile of pedals...this one's a keeper. But you be the judge; try it out next to Digi's other pedals and Boss's stuff and get the pedal (and sound) that you want.