DigiTech Hot Head Distortion

This pedal has four mian controls. They all work like they should, but the high knob would be much better if it rolled of the realy high frequencies alowing you to tame the harsh sound of this pedal.
The pots jump alot and don't change the sound evenly as you move them at all up or down.

My gear consists of:
Fender 50th Americain deluxe strat with 50s repro pickups
Fender custom shop tele with s/duncan '59 and jazz Humbuckers
Parts Esquire - 80s '52 reissue neck, alder body. 54 Duncan Pickup
Effects- home modded crybaby, home modded Boss CS-3, T-rex Gristle king, Barber Ltd sr, Crunch Box, EH small clone, Ernie Ball Volume Pedal
Amps - 1982 Mesa Boogie mark II or, Laney 1969 Super group Head.


This pedal gives that searing marshall tone fair enough. Which is what it is designed to do. But it also clouds the tone. even with the gain a 0, It's hard to determine what kind of instrument you are using from another. This would be forgivable for a pedal in this price range,.... but.... i can't abide to a pedal that sounds HARSH! It has a nasty, buzzing top end that just make me cringe, it's so brittle sounding. It is also really noisy when on!!!
Quick lesson: People that say they must have True bypass are often misguided. Pedals that don't have true bypass tend to have a buffer circut. This helps the signal go through long cables without losing clarity. This, in most cases does not change your tone in the BIG way people say it does (with the exeption of some wah pedals)

So, the truth is that True bypass does n't really matter a huge amount, SO LONG as the ouput buffer in the pedal doesn't change your tone! This pedal, however does change your tone when it's on and off! I know for sure by using a true bypass looper.

It seems to be quite tough. I have a spare pedal board for those rough gigs and jams, a lot of guitar players go through it, at home jam sessions and at gigs. This one was on that board for years, and never set a foot wrong! so yes it gets full marks here

never had any problems

I have bought, sold and kept HUNDREDS of pedals! And only the best sounds i can get actually go on my own pedal board. This is NOT one of them.

Over all its a really, really nasty sounding pedal, but i am used to higher quality. At this price it does the job for anyone on a budget. But, if your after a realy good tone, save up another 20 bucks, get an M.I Audio Crunch box (about $85 second hand) You will not regret it!

Email me with any questions I???m always available - fendermadlewis@hotmail.co.uk

It's pretty drop dead simple, each nob says what it does and then you have a giant stomp box button.

Good for humbuckers but it's really hard to dial in a good sound with single coils. Very Marshall like sound. Can be very heavy on the gain or can be gain with a bit of crunch for a brighter bluesy attack to the sound. Sound is very hard to dial in a good mix between highs and lows though. If you use a Gibson with humbuckers, and a Marshall amp it'll probably work good for you. Works well with my Ibanez RG350 with the gain on 11! lol but on my Strats and Tele it's just weak, clangy and thin. I will say though it's not entirely the pedal because my amp does suck so keep that in mind!(I use a 83 Traynor Bloc100g)

This thing is built like a tank, I love Digitech's pedals they're just amazing quality and this is no different. This pedal could probably withstand being run over by my car!.

Digitech does it how I like it make a product you never have to get help with!

I play a ranging style, mostly ska, metal, and rock/hard rock. I've been playing for 5 and a half years and this is my third distortion pedal. I've compared it to more distortion pedals then I can remeber but as I've changed back to a mainly single coil sound my love for this pedal has deminished a bit. I love everything about this pedal it just doesn't want to work in my rig for all my guitars. This is a great pedal and I recomend trying it and comparing it to a bunch of different pedals because it's all about what you like.

Not the simplest pedal in the world to dial in, but even the most difficult dirt boxes in the world are still remarkably simple to work with. I haven't even so much as looked at the manual, and I probably never will.

Right now I'm running this, along with a couple of other pedals, in between a custom guitar (loosely based on a Les Paul) equipped with Bare Knuckle Nailbomb humbuckers and a Mesa/Boogie Mark 1. With the knobs turned just right I absolutely LOVE the tone of this pedal, unfortunately with those settings I get so much noise and hum it makes it pretty much useless. The noise with the level and gain turned way up is bad enough that I can't clean it up with any noise reduction pedal and have any sustain left at all. I did clean it up with the ISP ProRackG noise reduction system, but just barely. The other decent setting I get from this is much lower gain and has very little noise, unfortunately this setting doesn't sound nearly as good as any decent overdrive I've ever used.

I was rather impressed with this pedal when used with a Roland Jazz Chorus though. Each knob had a much broader usable range, however I still ended up having noise issues with the higher gain settings.

I've not had any issues and I can't really imagine anything happening to it. It seems built well enough and I'm generally very easy on my pedals.

I've never dealt with Digitech so I can't comment here.

I generally play hard rock and picked this up on a whim because I found it lightly used at a bargain price. It certainly matches what I do very well, but is rather lacking compared to other products. The big upside to this pedal is the price. Even new it's still WAY cheap, so it scores points here.

As mentioned the only real issue I have is the noise. It's not the best sounding box in the world but I'm not going to complain based on the price.

Once you find the sweet spot it's a case of keeping the settings there... wich is how most people tend to use pedals... this pedal can be trebly, but just roll off the tone on yer geetar (thats what it's there for)

A great pedal, a good amount of gain, and much hotter than a boss ds-1... i'm using it with a les pual copy and a 100w marshall, i am SICK AND TIRED of people with crap guitars and amps critisising GOOD pedals like this.

yes.

no

It's a fine pedal, very cheap and worth getting if you want lots of gain... i have four other distortion/fuzz/overdrive pedals, and this is one iv'e recently come back to using as my main distortion pedal... seems to be a pedal that begginers tend to buy and then give bad reviews about, Hint: i'd look at the quality of your guitar and amp (and maybe playing skills)... before you write this pedal off.

Just a follow-up, two years later.
Mixer out very useful, when using the HH in a true bypass looper (passive unit) you can have a tighter sound and still a normal clean bypass.
No noise, effective eq, and very usable gain knob.

As stated before, basically more a Santana pedal than a Metallica one, sweet and on the softer side. Not much precision in fast attack playing overall. It is better through the mixer out, tighter.

But I have found my way with the HH, and it is dead simple: gain knob all the way, and my guitar's vol pot governs the ship beautifully.
A strat clone with two kinmans, and telecaster simple switching. Just a simple master volume, nothing else (no cap on it either.

So at 2 I have a very convincing crunch, with guts and definition. At 5 blues soloing is addictive, still guts and definition, and it sings warmly. At 7 with bridge pup and a strong attack a way good hard rock/nearly metal rythm sound, and at 10 a lush single notes solo sound, with tons of sustain and warmth.

The best pedal with this axe, and no matter the amp (vox modeling 112, bandit 112, toneblaster 15x, 59ltd bassman, all clean) it delivers. Even through my dod fx7 w7phones at night.

Way strong, but it doesn't accept every psu without humming so better stick with the classic Ibanez ac109 and everything will be fine.

Compared with ts7, ud100, pl5, womanizer, gt2, the HH delivers what I need with this axe and the others don't.

The simplicity of the whole thing (gain at max and managing with the vol pot of the guitar) is jaw-dropping.

I am perfectly happy with the HH, what a good deal it is!

So if you own the HH this way of doing could change your opinion, like it did for me. From just ok to astounding.

Need a little bit of work to get what you want.

It do distort the signal! But maybe to sharp sometimes - now, after i play in the practice room with my band along on good ampdistortions, i would say the hot head doesn't give me the sound i want to have.

about 5 months old and still works - but the bypasspedal seems to be wanky now... would gig without a backup, if it was new.

not dealt yet - but 3 years of guarrantie

i play mostly funkrock, blues and hardrock and it fitted perfectly in my style - and for just 45$ it's a good deal. but now i'm looking for a higher quality distortion, which gives me the sound, i need today.

It has four knobs, no rocketscience there.

It's bad, it doens't sound like advertised, it's just a flimsy distortion, unplayeble with an solidstate amp. I play threw a Primaxes Custom > Marshall G50R CD amp.

I'd risk it.

It looks good but that's it, for metal i'd stick with the DS-1 or my NOBELS DT-SN.

The nice thing about a Digitech Hot Head is the way it can provided a distortion sound
that clearly is more than an overdrive, without the gain of a typical metal pedal. The
controls are staight forward, but it is difficult to get increased midrange punch with this
pedal. This pedal features both treble and bass controls, with no midrange control, and
the usual way to increase midrange with this setup is to simply roll back the bass and
treble, allowing more midrange to come through. This method works fine on both my
Grunge and Bad Monkey pedals, but rolling back bass and treble on a Hot Head mainly
decreases overall volume....the midrange is rolled out, too!

I would like this pedal much better if the bass and treble controls only affected the bass
and treble. Because of this tone shaping problem, the Hot Head can be tempermental,
especially if the player wants to go from a real clean sound with lots of bass and treble
to a warm "brown" sound, with lots of mids, using one stomp of the foot. Considering
this tempermental quality, I would say the name "Hot Head" fits this pedal quite well.

I presently play through an all tube Marshall 2x12 combo, and generally use guitars that
have two standard type alnico humbuckers. The Hot Head produces almost no background
noise and this, coupled with hum cancelling features of the pickups, makes it easy to get
lots of hight volume distortion with little noise mixed in.

Using the mixer output on this pedal adds bite, and makes the overall sound cut through
with increased definition. I like it better than the output labled "amp", although it is a
matter of personal taste.

The Hot Head appears to be designed with classic rock in mind. Tones it creates remind
me of bands like ZZ Top, Bon Jovi, and Boston. Those playing mainly blues or metal may
like other pedals better, but for straight ahead rock, the Hot Head works extremely well,
once the E.Q. is set, which, as I said before, can be a little difficult.

The Hot Head is a sturdy a pedal, and I doubt it will ever break down. The casing is solid
metal and it sits on solid rubber. Very, very durable.

I once wrote Digitech a technical question about another product I own that they make,
and they were so quick to respond to my question, that I bought more of their products,
including this one. They impress me as being both friendly and involved. I think Digitech
is a really good company.

Overall, with the exception that it is difficult to adjust for enhanced midrange, the Hot Head
is a very usefull pedal, and should last the owner a long, long time. I own several pedals,
and none are beyond replacing, but the Hot Head has a personality of it's own, and, if you
like it, it won't let you down.

Very easy to get a good sound of it, just remember not to max the EQ's but just adjust them very litte as they have a huge impact on sound even with the slightest turn.

Very very good, I've tried them all and narrowed to this, the Boss DS-1 is good, but this is just better, more warmer and organic sounding distortion. The speaker emulated output is also very nice add to the pedal as it can be used for real! Also what I really like is that it doesn't color the sound anyway it really lets your sound come through.

I use it without a backup, no reason to have one, it lasts as long as any other pedal

Never dealt with 'em

I play rock / metal, and use this in front of my Marshall JCM 800 50w head and a 15w custom tube combo and I get very good "woody" distiortion from this little pedal. I recommend this to everyone looking for a good distortion pedal. It's cheap but the sound is not a cheap copy from any other distortion pedal, it's got flavors from others but in the end has it's own unique sound.

Stock Brand New Digitech Hot Head Distortion. It's a simple, and efficient stompbox. It's easy as pie to use, and great sounding without a lot of tweaking.

I run this bad boy with my Ibanez RG350DX, Fender Strat Custom Texas Special, and Warmoth Custom into a Hughes and Kettner Blue series combo amp. It is sometimes in junction with my synth wah, hyper phaser, volume pedal, amongst a BBE Sonic stomp. But this review is based on it and a guitar and amp. This thing gets great sounding distortion without mudding up the notes to sound like fuzzy garbage. My biggest problem with the boss Metal Zone was it's tonal loss when cranking the distortion, this pedal mimics some of the lighter, yet capable of being pretty heavy sounds that the Boss pedals do but a fraction of the cost and seemingly sturdier. I go for the full stack distortion sound and a little British rock. It's great! I eve play Nu-metal on it and it's perfect.

I'm sure if I dropped it and it landed on some rocks and tumbled into acid it'd fail, but for everyday purposes I'm sure it's gonna take a beating. It's heavy, thick metal chasis and very cool design (boss style with some different batter compartment features). I am definately throwing this into the live gig, and would only bring spare batteries knowing that's the only problem I could face.

I used the website for digitech and found all my answers without looking to Customer Support, I even registered my product there.

I stated previously I play Nu-metal to rock and some odd stuff outside that. This pedal is great and can dial in on a number of great sounding but tonally clear distortions. You don't have to crank the OD to 11 and then palm mute everything on a Boss Metal Zone to be heavy, and this proves it. I can get all the oomph of that pedal without the questioning of what notes the band is even playing. I've been a casual player going on 11 years and a gigging player for about 5 of those years... I wish I had this then. I tried Tubescreamers, DS-1's, OD's, amp ditry chanels, Line 6 DM5, and a Zoom 505 (series 1 and 2)... the zoom was my favorite, utnil now. If it were stolen I'd be pretty pissed, but wouldn't settle for anything less, so I'd probably buy another the next day!!! I do wish it had a Mid range tone button, but a High and Low is more than some crap and even big name pedals have! It's a great tool to stay true to your notes, and rock hard at the same time! I also have to mention it's orange casing is pretty sweet. I'm not a colors kinda guy but cannot stop thinking of how cool this thing sounds and looks

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.

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.