DigiTech Hot Head Distortion

Basic operation -- 4 knobs and a footswitch -- doesn't get much simpler

Using humbucker equipped, mahogany bodied, set neck, LP copy and a REAL cheap solid state amp. After listening to the demo sounds on digitech's web site, I changed my mind on getting a Bad Monkey pedal and got this one instead. I was hoping to get a Marshall stack sound for 39.95 -- didn't work out. I have to assume that digitech was using a tube amp to acheive the sound on their web site, cause I sure can't get it with a solid state amp. I'll have to admit that it wasn't realistic to expect $1,000.00 worth of tone for forty bucks -- but I figured if the pedal to amp didn't work, I could use the direct out to my Tascam PocketStudio. That was even less impressive than the tone through the amp -- definitely not a sound worth recording.

too new to tell

haven't used them yet

If you're running budget gear -- you might want to try something else. If you have the money to spend on your choice of tube amps and 1/2 or full stacks -- why would you want to buy something like this? It's a fuzzy, one-dimensional sound (not very musical at all),and won't get you a big sound on a small budget. But on the plus side -- you'll only be out forty bucks!

It is very easy to use. It is pretty basic control wise. Level and EQ settings. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to use it.

I am using a Epiphone Les Paul Standard with Dimarzio Super Distortions in it and a Gibson Les Paul with EMG '81s. The sound coming out of it defies logic. I really want to know what they used on the web site to get those sound clips because in real life I could not get anything but *$#@ out of it. I had it in front of a Line 6 Spider II and also a couple of Marshall combos. I can sum up the sound of this by what my 8 year old daughter said when she heard me playing with it. She said "Daddy, that sounds really bad. It sounds like a broken radio!" Enough said!!!

Built really strong, you could drop it alot and it would still work if that's what you call it! No gigging with it since I would not want to be laughed off the stage playing that!!!

Don't know, never used it.

5 minutes after I tried it, it got packed back up and I returned it. I replaced it with the Death Metal pedal, What a difference!!! To sum up my experience with it, I returned it to Guitar Center for exchange and while I was parked in their lot my car got smashed into but some A*%hole who quickly left and left me with about $1000.00 worth of damage. Great!!! If only this pedal was better I would have a nice guitar sound AND an undamaged car!!!! This pedal cost me ALOT!!!!!!

The usual: Level, Low, Hi, Gain. A monkey could get something usable out of it. Like the Bad Monkey and the Screaming Blues (from the same product line), the Hi and Low use filter/cut for the first half of travel, and active boost for the second. Very easy to tweak back in the exact sound of your tube amp (dunno 'bout solid-state) then dial gain from there, or add volume with level. Pretty sweet at any price ... amazing at $39.

In searching for a new OD/Dist box, I have played the True Grit, Barber Direct Drive, Voodoo Sparkle Drive, TubeWorks Tube Driver (2 versions), MXR Zack pedal, and all the Boss pedals, and nothing yet has bested this simple, inexpensive pedal in the following areas: noise level (it's VERY quiet), tone suckage (absolutely NONE), warmth (more 'tube' than the TubeWorks), and ability to sound like another channel on your amp. Maybe the over-$200 units will fare better, but nothing yet has convinced me to spend three times this much for not as much pedal. This little box, just like the Bad Monkey and the Screaming Blues, will amaze anyone willing to spend a little honest time with a good tube amp. Running from a Strat copy with Mighty Mite pickups to a Peavey CLassic 30, I run a Bad Monkey into the Hot Head and have been able to dial in for a warm, low noise, two-channel distortion box that rivals any of the hi-dollar stuff. It's a winner in every way, even at three or for times the price.

The usual ... will survive nuclear Winter, along with the roaches.

Never had ... so I dunno.

I've been playing for 30 years, many of them semi-professionally. I'm playing heavy Southern Blues/Rock right now and this is as close to a cranked British-style amp as I can afford right now, and it gets the job done. I consider it a poor man's V-Stack or Rust Driver. It won't do metal, but it will get the job done for everything up to hard/classic rock. Just remember to use it on a clean amp to lessen the noise hit. It gets a NINE all the way around cuz noting at twice the price can touch it.

Simple to use...gain, level, high, low knobs. Pretty standard stuff.

I plugged this into a an old Laney pro-tube head and Marshall cab with a Fender Fat Strat. The first thing that struck me was the distortion had a very fuzzy quality to it. This thing is great for 70s hard rock...Hendrix, Sabbath, Zep. It was also very high-endy and thin. I had to back way off the highs and crank the lows up. Then with the mid-boost on my Laney amp, I was able to dial up a great punchy distortion. A mid-range knob would benefit this thing greatly. Once I got it dialed in, I was hooked. It has enough gain to play most rock/metal and isn't overly noisey like a lot of pedals. Right now it has replaced my Boss DS-1, which I've been using for years. It also has a cabinet simulator but I' haven't toyed around with that yet and probably won't as you won't find one that works well in this price range.

These look like they were modeled after the Boss pedals and should hold up pretty well.

N/A

I mostly play 70s/80s rock/metal. For me, this pedal is a winner. You can dial up some vintage sounding distortion very easily. It's not overly noisey and seems to be built fairly well. It's more than I expected for the $40 bucks I paid for it.

this pedal isnt very good. its easy to use and dial in a tone for all your own but i dont recommend it to anyone.. infact if you buy this sell it to some stupid kid who just started playing the guitar!

i have a line6 spider 112 50 watt and i use my Delonge Stratocaster and my Squier M77 its difficult to keep the same level of sound switching guitars and the tone on a clean channle is very weak and thin sounding... although its a great booster if your on a distored channle. it gets noisy if you stand to close to it... but its good if you want feedback!

its heavy and built like a tank so i dont know why you could throw it around alot and still depend on it working... ive only had it for a week or 2 but i should think that it would be very dependable years from now

never used it

I play almost anything... pop punk to rock to metal and everything inbetween. ive been playing for a little over 2 years and ive used a couple pedal here and there but i seriouly wouldnt recommend this to anyone if it were lost or stolen i would probably care less about it only cuz i used it a total of 5 times and put it back in the back to be returned... i would spend the time to find a better digitech pedal GO FOR THE BAD MONKEY OR THE SCREAMIN BLUES if you want a nice cheap but great buy from digitech

This box is straightforward, easy to use and work out sounds with. (the manual, 8 pages long, two of which cover replacing the battery, reflects this). Gain, Low and high tone controls, and level. It's got a stong steel case like Bosses' and rubber anti-skid top and bottom.

I play a Strat Plus with an old-style Seymour Duncan "quarter pound" single coil at the bridge, the rest are Lace Sensor Golds. My amp is a Peavey (all tube) Classic 50/410 which has a nice bluesy drive channel (think of Leslie West doing "Mississippi Queen"). The Hot Head can dial in more drive with more grit and more "scoop" ala Judas Priest/Screaming for Vengeance. I really like it's classic range of distortion tones. I can get a much fatter, Humbucker style tone from it. I can also get a nice smooth Srat/neck-pickup SRV tone that's actually better than my drive channel, because the slightly fuzzy quality of the Hot Head softens up the rather glassy tone that the Lace Sensors have. But if you play with a lot of attack like I do, you get REAL tone, not fuzziness. I've been searching for those qualities for a long time.
Of all the times I've seen that cliche' "it's like having a full stack in a ---", this one actually does a good job of it. It's indescribably better than the distortion in my old, used 2730 Hot Box, and DOD Overdrive Plus. No mush, good bass response, no fuzzing together of chorded notes, especially in the low strings. And it doesn't color my amp's tone too much.
It's good for blues, classic rock, classic metal and could even be used for thrash, although thats not my thing. It's not "the box that will give you saturation from Hell" but......it can approach that.
I get a fair amount of noise from it, but then I have an unshielded bridge single coil..it's much less than the 2730 though.

I can't speak for the direct-to-mixer output with cabinet emulation, I haven't used it..

Haven't had it long, but I wouldn't be afraid to kick it around a stage..or anywhere else...

Haven't had it that long

My tastes, and playing, run from the Fabulous Thunderbirds to AC/DC to John Lee Hooker, to Iron Maiden, to Sheryl Crow.....I'd say Digitech described it right when they called this a "multi purpose distortion pedal." This box is excellent for the price,

Easy to use but I can't get any classic tones from it.

THIS IS A FUZZ not an overdrive not a distortion
THIS IS A FUZZ with a treble and bass control tacked on.
And the speaker sim cuts bass and sounds like a cabinet WITH
A BLANKET OVER IT

HEY IT looks cool and is heavy and well built and it doesn't cost much.

Digitech does some very interesting things. This is not among them.
They also do some terrible things. All their speaker sims sound
Horrible to me. Just muffled tones with wierd midrange resonance.
And why can't they make an EQ or a pedal tuner?

Some punks might like it as tones are moving these days towards FUZZ.
If you are looking for classic tones like Van Halen or ACDC forget it.
This thing is a fuzz with treble and bass added.

This thing is pretty straight forward with Level, Low, High, and Gain knobs. Getting a killer heavy distortion is at the touch of your fingertips or just a straight forward blues tone. It doesn't get much easier.

I played an Ibanez AX220 and ran it through a Fender Champion 30 and it sounded great. I put it through my Peavey Bandit with and extension cabinet and was blown away by the tone. his thing has some bottom to it. Instead of one tone knob that either gives you a real muddy sound or nasally sound you can have any mix of Lows and Highs. If there was a Mid EQ this thing would be perfect.

I use a daisy chain for my effects pedals so I can't tell you if it eats batteries or not but DigiTech puts together a nice sturdy pedal that could probably be dropped off a building and only end up chipping the paint. This thing was built to last. I've had a DigiTech Digital Delay for over a year now and have no problem with it. I think DigiTech is on the verge of replacing Boss's single pedals.

Haven't dealt with them yet and I hope I don't have to but all of their pedals come with a warranty so they back themselves up.

I play all different styles from jazz to progressive stuff and I wanted a straight forward distortion pedal and this thing delivered. I've been playing for 14 years and I got tired of my old Boss GT-3 because none of the levels are ever the same, so I switched to single pedals. If I lost my Hot Head, I would definitely go out and buy another. I was very impressed with the new DigiTech distortion pedals. This is a great pedal for a great price.

Like most any distortion pedal, very easy to use. Level, Low/High EQ and Gain controls. Cabinet and normal outputs. Manual is sufficient.

When I first connected it, I was very disapointed. Using a Gibson Les Paul custom 498/490 pickups it was muddy and overdriven with bass. I could not get the sound that DigiTech has on their website. Switched to a Kramer with EMG HZ H4s and its sounds were much more acceptable (EMG HZs have less output). You cannot get a scooped sound from the EQ. It appears the EQ low and high frequencies are contiguous, so if you raise both you continue to get a flat sound with a greater level. Turn down the high with the low passed the mid point and it gets very bassy, from which you can turn up the gain and get more harmonics for highs. Saw the same results from different tube and solid state amps. You can get a usable crunch sound. I would use this on an amp that does not have good built in distortion.

DigiTech pedals are rock solid. This new design is built much like Boss pedals where an entire section of metal goes up/down to enable/disable, unlike the older designs that use a plastic button. Never had a DigiTech pedal fail.

Never had a problem.

This distortion pedal is "OK". I bought it because it was fairly inexpensive and wanted to check out the latest from DigiTech. I have been playing for over 20 years. I wish this pedal had a greater frequency separation between low/high and a mid control. Digitech and DOD seem to be stuck with only 4 knobs, if you get a mid control there is no gain control with their other distortion pedals. Without a gain control you must turn down your guitar volume to lower the gain, however this typically reduces the bottom end of the output as well.