DigiTech RP-10

Playing pre-sets is very easy- nothing to it. I agree with other reviewers who talk about the complexity of getting in and programming it, especially if you are used to something more basic like stomp boxes. Having experience in programming synths and other effects, I found it not all that difficult, after getting used to it's internal structure (except for the parametric eq). However, tweaking it "on the fly" or in a live situation is a problem- not like just reaching down and twisting a knob on your pedal. But having all those paramaters to deal with does have the benefit of providing a lot of sound shaping possibilities. The manual is essential to get the most out of it.

From reading the other reviews here, it's obvious that some people love it and some people hate it. I am definitely one of those who love it. In fact, I bought it new when it came out about 7 or 8 years ago and it's still my main effects unit for guitar. This may not seem like a big deal, but I am the kind of person who is constantly upgrading equipment for the latest model and features. Effects are a big part of my sound and I've not felt the need to upgrade from this unit, although I do supplement it with other processors from time to time.

As far as my set-up, I use a variety of guitars: Fender "Roland-ready" Strat. w/ Lace Sensors & Roland GR33 guitar-synth, Fender 72 Telecaster Custom, Fernandes "sustainer" guitar, and a gold-top Les Paul copy with vintage Gibson and DiMarzio humbuckers. From there I go into a Mesa Boogie V Twin tube pre-amp and into the RP 10. Most of the time I come out of the RP 10 in stereo into a pair of 60watt Marshall combo amps. I've also gone directly into the board from the RP 10 which is ok for some kinds of gigs, and great for recording. Sometimes I add an E-bow, Lexicon Vortex and/or BBE Sonic Maximizer to the signal chain. By the way, using it in stereo makes a big difference in the sound. If I were using it in mono into a single amp I would probably not rate it as highly.

I play a wide range of music from classic rock (Santana, Hendrix,Pink Floyd, etc.) to ambient electronic soundscapes, and the RP 10 works for me in all those situations. After a bit of editing I get nice clean sounds, great soaring lead tones, and wonderful Robert Fripp-like special effects. The wah-wah isn't the greatest, but is useable occasionally if I don't feel like using my Cry Baby.

Mine has been totally reliable. I've never had a problem in all the years I've used it. Even so, I always carry a little Zoom 505 II as a back up, just in case.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I bought it when it came out because it was the new model after the RP 1, which I was very impressed with after having seen a demonstration by a factory rep at a trade show. Also, at the time (mid '90's) I was using a rack-mount effects rig with a midi control pedal and it seemed that I could get as much processing power out of this compact floor unit, with less set-up, wiring hassles, etc. And I was right.
As far as criticisms, one of the only things I can think of is that I wish changing banks was a little easier and quicker- especially in a live situation. Mine is set up where the top row of buttons turns individual effects (distortion, delay, etc) off and on, and the bottom row changes patches. This only gives me 5 patches per bank, so I have to use the bank shift more than I would like. There's a bit too much pedal dancing with the possibility of tapping the wrong bank, especially on a dark stage. But obviously, I'm willing to live with this limitation and it hasn't been a major problem.

Although the RP 10 has been a great fx unit for my needs, if it were lost or stolen, I would probably do some serious research on some of the current models available. What I've heard of the newer RP series hasn't been very impressive, but pre-sets rarely are. I might check out some of the models that came out after the RP 10 like the RP 14 or RP 20, or possibly a Boss GT 6. But for now, I don't have to worry about it and will continue to use and enjoy the RP 10.
Highly recommended, especially if you are willing to get in there and tweak the patches.

all the factory settings are complete garbage, u have to tweak this motherfucker to get any good sounds out of it. The main level of each patch is always 100% and u have to put it on 50-60% to get it decent.

Sounds are ok (after tweaking it for hours) but sometimes to Digital.

Some good distortions and delays

Now this is the reason why i call it a cheap motherfucker:

the first year i bought it ('96 or something) the thing broke down 9 times!!!. I had to send it 9 times to the store and wait +- 1 month for it to get it back. After a few days it would crash again.

too cold => crash
too hot => crash
fart at it and i'm sure it would crash too

Biggest rubbish i ever bought

Awfull.

Peace of Junk indeed

Its not easy to get a good sound out of anything that has as much capability as this. Some clowns here think a parametric Eq is too hard. That's EXACTLY what ya need to dial in good tones that are precise. Get an ear. Editing is easy enough, if you're familiar with such units, i.e. menu driven. Like I said, I don't need the manual as I'm very accustomed to these style units. The manual when needed, & it is, is clear enough for those with a brain.

I use it with headphones mainly and it sounds just like every artist tone I try emulating. Tony Iommi from the 1st album upto the present, Randy Rhoads on Tribute-perfect, Ritchie Blacmore Live Rainbow, Robin Trower & Hendrix with alittle help from avibe unit of course, Scorpions, Metallica, hell they're all in there. If ya now what you're doing. Very flexible sound wise. Built in Noise gate so..... not an issue. 3 OD/Dist that can emulate anything you've ever heard. When I do use an amp it's Marshall ,of course. Don't like the wah at all, its in the wrong point in the chain.

I ve used mine for 8 yrs. No Problems. I'm sure the internal lithium will need replaced soon though, not an issue. All presets are backed- up via sys-ex.

N/A

Blues -Trower& Hendrix. Metal-Metallica, Sabbath, Rhoads, Clean mellow sounds are wonderful also. I've been playing for 25 yrs. and have pretty much gone through every effects scenario thru the years. From a super pedal board that had 30 effects boxes on it in 2 loops that was the size of small car to 20 space racks with pedals stashed & velcro'd to the rack pieces in the rear to get sounds this 1 little Pete Cornish type unit gets and more. The only bitch I have onit is the burp when switching between 2 programs its not seamless, so in live situations it may not work for others out there. 'm very picky on that 1 point so it gets blasted in rating for it. Otherwise its great. Not for soeone whois not familiar with dialing sounds using a parametric EQ or doesn't know what reverb parameters are and what they do. So it's really not for beginners or the ignorant dummies that have the typical guitar players mentality. i>e. -3 pedals with 4 knobs apiece would be too much for the small brained inexperienced at dialing in sounds. You know who you are. But if you can sit in front of a rack of some hi-end Lexicon, Roland, Symetrix, etc. rack pieces and dial in exact sounds like you would in a studio situation, then this is no problem for you.

Straight "out of the box" the pedal is not bad in terms of getting a straightforward sound within seconds. You can easily scroll through a broad range of sounds for just about any style you care to approximate right away. However, outside of minor tweaking, in terms of fine-tuning the sounds and/or coming up with your own custom patches, assigning certain patches to different pedals, effects to the expression pedal, etc... you can forget it, unless you have LOTS of time to sit down with it. The manual is practically a joke. You pretty much need to have a PhD in Physics to understand half of it. Even things that I figured out how to do on my own, with experimentation - they were easy in practice, but the manual made it seem very complicated. It also neglects to mention a very important factor about the pedal which involves a lithium battery inside the unit which powers the memory (the unit itself is powered by an adapter). When this battery dies, it must be taken out and replaced, and the unit must be reset, or else the pedal will "wig out" and not work. It's very simple to do (although any custom sounds will be lost - so make sure you keep a list of all your patches.) I imagine that many people have thrown away perfectly good pedals, thinking that it was not repairable, or perhaps spent way too much money on repairs when it only requires a $3 battery to fix the problem. It seems though that once someone gets used to how it actually works, endless possibilities could be in store.

I am mainly using this pedal with a 60-watt Randall Jaguar Chorus Amp, a Rickenbacker 650F, an Electra Phoenix, and an SG copy. I am also using the RP-10 to run vocals through, as well as keyboard. I will often plug my instrument/mic into the RP-10 and then the RP-10 directly into a 4-track.

On some types of distortion, the pedal can be noisy, but I find using the noise gate can help. Sometimes that gives it an unnatural feel though, to me, so often I let the hum continue. I mostly play rock and experimental type music, so sometimes I can use the noise to great effect. However, I also play in a room with lots of equipment and computers, so that could also play into it. I don't notice the hum on every setting though.

Generally, I love the sounds out of this pedal. It's one of the best muli-FX units I've ever owned. Very versatile. Some sounds in the factory preset sound too similar to others to really have a point of being included, but overall, I like the palette of options available, and I love the custom sounds I've been able to create the most. One sound that I've approximated was Joey Santiago's of The Pixies. I then took that sound, tweaked it and have come up with a few versions of my own sound that I'm particularly proud of.

I don't know FX inside and out to be able to tell you if say, the chorus is the tops or not... all I know is generally everything sounds good to me. Some of the distortions are a bit much on the treble side, tinny, but sometimes that's what I want. At the same time, there are many meaty distortions to choose from too, and some that are fairly faithful to the sounds they're based on, especially for an old unit such as this.

My only other "complaint" is that there is a delay sometimes when clicking from sound to sound, but that's to be expected for a vintage pedal of this type.

Whether you play, country, pop, metal, triphop or anything beyond or in between, you'll be able to make use of this pedal.

For a split second, I had a scare... a few weeks after I got the pedal... it "died" on me... but it turns out that it was only due to a dead lithium battery INSIDE the unit, that has nothing to do with the power adapter for the unit itself. This lithium battery powers the memory of the RP-10.

When this battery dies, it must be taken out and replaced, and the unit must be reset, or else the pedal will give you tons of error messages and will not make a sound. A battery can be bought at Radio Shack type place for a few dollars. You simply unscrew the unit, replace the battery, re-fasten the cover and then reset the unit. It's very simple to do (although any custom sounds will be lost - so make sure you keep a list of all your patches.), only takes a few minutes, and will save you lots of money instead of sending it to a repair shop, or throwing it away, only to buy a new one.

I bought the unit used from eBay, and judging from a missing endcap, I think this unit has been used thoroughly. And I once tripped over a cord and came stomping down on the board and the baby still works beautifully.

I would completely feel that I could rely on this pedal and would use it for shows without backup AS LONG AS I had an idea of when the lithium battery inside was changed. If I knew there was a chance the battery still had juice in it, then I would definitely gig without backup. To not have a backup would not be smart because you would have to unscrew the unit, change the battery, screw the unit's cover back on, reset the unit and if you weren't using factory preset patches, you would then have to reprogram your custom sounds.

Digitech is TERRIBLE, with a capital T. Granted, the RP-10 is discontinued, so I don't expect them to tend to me as they would someone who's bought a new pedal from them... however, they have a forum that specializes in helping people with their older gear and they rarely ever answer users with even the most simple of answers. They do not tell users about things as simple as the lithium battery situation, knowing that many people are throwing away what would otherwise be perfectly good units. It seems they want everyone to throw away the old ones in hope that they will buy their newer models, or go to their in-house repair shop.

All the help I have gotten has come from experimenting with my pedal, researching on my own and having started an RP Group at Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rp10 . I had to because Digitech are lumps on logs. Many people have thanked me for the information I provided and the money they saved, because Digitech would not answer them. Some of THEM are active Digitech buyers and complain about the customer service. Digitech is terrible as a customer service entity. I don't think I will ever buy a new Digitech product, because I don't want to support a company that seems to have so little regard for their users, new or old products... If I buy Digitech again, it will again, be a used product, unless I absolutely have to have a new one.

I play a little bit of everything, but mainly pop, rock and experimental. I'm finding the RP-10 quite versatile and producing great sounds overall. I have been playing regularly for about 10 years and this is one of the best multi-FX units I've ever gotten, new or used. Finding it used, makes it an even greater bargain. Again, I will be using it on guitars, vocals, basses, and keyboards; equipment ranging in age from mid-60s to mid-90s.

I'm very happy with it and if it were lost or stolen, I would definitely seek out another. I tried using a Boss ME-30 when this Digitech RP-10 was out of commission due to the battery situation, but the Boss surprisingly, didn't cut the mustard. I LOVE Boss pedals, but overall even though that pedal and the manual are easier to understand, I didn't think it was as good as the Digitech RP-10.

I love the sounds of the RP-10 generally and I live the PROSPECTS of what I'll be able to do, once I figure out that manual. I'm particularly looking forward to using the Wah/Whammy/Expression pedal when I can customize it more.

I wish it were easier to understand, in terms of use, but still it's a good pedal. The only other thing is I wish it had an on/off switch. Here it gets power only by plugging in and to turn it off, you unplug it. My complaints seem major, but I think with a lot of good electronics, it can take a while to fully to unlock the possibilities and I'm willing to put in the time to work with it, to shape my own sounds. The problems I have with the pedal for the most part stem around that complicated manual, but once I get that dialed in, all should be good.

Straight out of the box you can be playing the pre-sets immediately, but tweaking the parameters can be a nightmare. The manual is a joke but if you spend the time to tinker with it, this is a good processor.

Most of the default programs are weak, but can sound quite good if you take the time to figure out how to dial them up. I use my RP-10 with a Peavey combo and get great sounds from it, leaving the amp settings at half all across the board and doing all processing within the RP-10. I also record straight-to-desk with it, although it can get noisy sometimes, calling for an outside noise gate.

In the five years I've used this thing I've only had one problem with it where it broke down during a practice. the next day it worked fine though and has never given me any other problems.

The RP-10 has a special place in my heart, even though I am about to upgrade to a newer unit. I will keep it even then, because it has a lot of useful aspects that I continue to utilize, such as the diversity in sounds. You can get 'heavy metal' to 'lazy country' to church choir guitar and back. Plenty of options to choose from.

How good is something that needs repair before you even take it home from the shop ? Well thats when it started, I walked into my fav music shop and they were putting the ends back on with glue. Anyway after that ordeal I figured out how to use it after a year or three, well I had too since I lost all my sounds three times thanks to the dodgey roms they use. Now it is version 2 and it still suxs. The menus speak a different language and the manual needs a wegie board to reveil the secrets of it since it is "a discontinued product" now. I though "Q" was from star trek. The bypass pedal takes a huge beating to work, but i had it replaced and no change.

I have used it with a Peavey quad and a peavey combo and it worked out ok, I guess. As all the other reviews have said the distortions sux majorly. but remember this is early digital for digitech so they will suck. The chorus' were ok but the noise was pretty annoying and seemed to come into every clean effect (flange/phase/trem). the amps sim. now is very out dated and almost useless. I used it with with direct to desk in my studio and it was always totally unusable. You have to have a pretty nice amp to make the digital disappear. I use alot of different guitars like tele's, steel strings, 335's and my jackson ps collection. The 335 is the worst, the feedbacking will overide the noise gate, you don't want that kind of attention at a gig ! I asure you, I have video evidence. When changing patches the noise gate would never work, so you would set the volume low and that would screw you up when you changed patches during a song. it was totally impractical.
Now the kids taunt me, they call me "one tone willie !" I was need really about to get the same sounds twice, the presets were terrible and when I got the new rom they got worse and there was more of them.

whats that ! the fact that I have spent $500 on repairs not only indicates I am an idiot for buying it but it shows that it is a very dodgey digi ! I would use it without a backup but only because I have a great sense of humour and it makes for great entertainment went it breaks down ! I am so looking forward to when I can afford to ditch it on some poor sap !

They pretty much washed their hands of this one when it was proven a lemon, i can't blame them but this seems to be a trend with a lot of this gear. The repairer company were pretty good at taking two or three months every time to replace the rom. I lost a lot on this and won't be buying from dodgitech again.

I have played Goth/industrial and blues rock but am now into metal and I would say its passable for amateursbut not a professional rig at all so don't even think about it. I am looking forward to replacing it
with something more prefessional like a roland v guitar. If stolen I would have a party for it ! I thought the metal casing would be good but the plastic bits have let it down majorly. There are better things on the market now, this was never one of them !

I've been asked a lot about the RP10 manual. Well--I kinda cheated. You see, I have the RP10 V2 upgrade, which is pretty much like a RP12. So, I downloaded the RP12 manual from this address:

http://www.digitech.com/cgi-bin/manuals.pl?man=ftp://ftp.digitech.com/pdf_manuals/Discontinued/rp12.pdf

Hope this helps!!

This pedal required alot of tweaking to get the sounds that pleased me. There is a lot of crap in this pedal that I do not understand especially when it comes to EQ stuff. This pedal could be easier to use in editing if there were not so many EQ parameters, and other settings for reverb and cabinet emulators. I am not a technical person.

I use this pedal with a Les Paul Studio and a Kubicki Strat copy going through a Marshall 1x12 Jubilee Amp. With extensive tweaking, one can get some good sounds with this pedal, after a while I just gave up. The overdrive/distortions suck on this pedal. They are very thin and kazoo like. Very phony sounding. Greatly lacking in any tonal quality what so ever. Instead I would use my amp's natural overdrive. The phaser portion of this pedal also sucks. It is very noisy with a static sound. I did however like the reverbs and the delays on this pedal. The wah did not impress me with this pedal. Very weak sounding. I liked my RP-1 a lot better and regret trading it in for this "wonderful creation". The tuner on this pedal is absolutely useless.

Not a reliable pedal. I have owned it for 5 years and it is curently dead. I did this review to discourage anybody from buying one. Technology has come along way and one can do better buying something new.

Digitech provided me with possible places in my area to fix this pedal.

I regret buying this pedal. I should have kept my RP-1

For simple changes there is no prob. But to fine tune it can take hours. THe biggest prob I had was trying to adjust or add anything to do with the pedal. The manual just did not explain this in detail enough to understand. I spent hours trying to figure it out. And the fact that your are stuck with preset algorithim is kinda anoying when you want to build from scratch.

I was using it with a pevey 4x12 cab and an 100 watt RG100 Randall head or a Pevey Roadster 160 watt (all tube) head. Kills the 100 watt Marshalls. But anyway. The sound quality was very good. Even better though a tube head. The distortion is good but not quite my style (Pantera) but still was able to get many souds that were very good. The effects souds better. Gettign a good clean sound with a chorus, delay, reverb etc... was soo easy no matter what guitar you put though it. I was using a Dimebag 333 signature series and an old BC Rich iron bird.

I used it live, studio and just practising. It was very versitile and never broke down. THe only prb I had was with the manual. Too vague.

This is sort of a grey area. I contacted tehm about the manual being to vague and that I could not figure out how to set the pedal for certain applications. They sent me the RP-12 upgrade chip!!!!! With the new manual of course that was just as vague as the other. But it did shut me up. I has happy now. I gained a harmoniser. Didn't need it but cool to have. I just didn't use the pedal

Overall it's pretty good. i just recently sold it because my need for a brutal distortion was to great. I've been playing for 13 years and it was one the better processors i've used. I might look into a 2101 unit. Digitech is definatly a name that is good on my list.

A lot of paging through menues looking for specific parameters. A LOT of parameters for each effect (except for compression), which makes this very versatile. You cannot set up your own effect order--you have to find a factory preset with approximately what you want, and modify it. That sucks.

I play and record professionally, and bought this for quad-voice chorus and flanger effects only. I play acoustic and alternative, using an Ovation Specialty through a Matchless DC30 with a Matchless Hotbox pedal, tube reverb, and tube compressor. Those two effects are great, but this unit is difficult to ground properly to get rid of the noise, and it makes your signal brighter even when completely bypassed. The quad-voice chorus is great, and you can select four or five different waveforms for the flanger among like 6 other parameters (as for chorus and phaser as well), which lets me emulate the tones of the ADA Flanger nicely.

As for the other effects:
Delays-------good for a digital delay
Reverbs------pretty decent, but it's no Lexicon or tube 'verb
Compression--terribly noisy and ineffective, no useful parameters
Tremolo------actually pretty good
Phaser-------pretty good and smooth-sounding algorithms
Chorus-------can get tinny, but if set properly, can be quite good
Flange-------swoopy-sounding, but purple and colorful
Wah----------the pits, absolutely terrible
Pitch-shift--Tinny-sounding
EQ-----------four-band parametric; GREAT
Distortions--all are noisy, brittle, & digital, no tone parameter

Note: for the two effects I use it for, it sounds great, but there's still some noise, which in the studio or at home is not a problem. There's always some background noise on the flanger, but that's not terrible, and can be worked out of the signal with a few minutes of setup if you don't like that sort of thing. These are not the best modulars out there, but they sound great for the few bucks I spent, and sound very nice on recordings (a big part of that is the amp warming them up).
For all that, the modulars can be quite lush in their more subtle settings, but I'm not much for much processing anyway, so it works out. If you want usable distortions, compression, or think the expression pedal can be used for wah-wah, you'd best get almost anything else (Roland GP100, Rocktron, Lexicon, Digitech RP-20, etc). The worst fuzz or overdrive pedals I've ever encountered were so far better than the grunge or overdrive in this unit that I couldn't describe it. The compression should just be labeled "noise" because it doesn't compress or level, just adds line noise. The "wah" is a joke. The "heavy sustain" distortion, if it weren't for the noise, might actually be rather usable--a mellow, fuzzy thing.

Recording direct with this thing would be a sick joke.

All effects, even the modulars, need warmed by a tube amp, else it sounds metalic and (gasp!) digital. And you have to work to kill the noise-factor without using the horrible noise gate.

These devices are problematic. The first one I had when I began playing had problem after problem until it died two years later. This was under my college guitar instructor's desk for six years, controlled by MIDI only, never by direct use of the pedals, so it's still mint, but I don't anticipate it staying in that condition. I'm going to be very delicate with it.

For $100 used, it's all I wanted or needed it to be. Considering how well it does the ADA Flanger thing, and for how good the stereo 4-voice chorus is, with programmable 4-band parametric EQ, all stored in memory, it was worth it. I wish it had proper grounding, or that it had a HUSH circuit rather than a bad noise-gate.
For my purposes, it's the best choice for my needs and not wanting to spend a ton on two great chorus pedals and a great flanger pedal and a few EQ pedals, or even spend for a really good processor. For most people's uses, this would be a terrible mistake.