DigiTech RP-10

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? No worries
How about Editing patches? Ptreyy basic if you like computers
How is the manual for it (if there is one)? Fine
Do you know the firmware revision number? Has your unit been upgraded? v2.00

Hi I have the RP10 v2.00 EPROM upgrade available.

$20 + postage.
Paypal accepted.

Upon purchase you will be emailed photo detailed instructions and sent
the EPROM with the updated firmware.

Please visit my web site for more details.
http://www.rok-music.com/upgrades.html

Feel free to email me questions on
hc@rok-music dot com

Cheers,
Ray

What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with? Yamaha Pacifica, Ibanez RG7
Is it noisy? On what settings? Only on Distortion settings, but just throw a noise gate on it will fix it
Are the effects weak or do they always sound great? I dont use a great deal of layeed effects so I have had no problems
What amp are you using it with? Speaker Emulator into a mixer at home
Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? Who are they? Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson. As a practise unit in a mixer setting its fine for a rough guide.
Are certain effects (distortion, chorus, ...) very good? Very bad? For digital distiorition its fine.

Yea sure, no problems with realiability.

Bought it old second hand so not much support for this one any more.

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match? Rock, prog, jazz, funk..
How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own? about 14 years, art sgx, digitech gsp 2101, BJ Amplifier (custom builder), Peavery practise amp.
If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else? Probably would try find something similar, good and practical for where I use it
what do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature? No big deals either way its just fine...
Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one? If anyhing to rp6, (i use to own one when I first started guitar playing. Obviously this is a bit more sophisticated.
Anything you wish it had? No its fine
Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way? Yea sure it helps.
Anything else you'd like to share?

(easy)read your manual and take your time and you will find your sound

yes but that also takes some fine tunning, srv-doyle bramhall-robert cray-pink floyd-gary moore (distortion chorus-very good)i use fender guitars and amps -and you also have to ajust your amp to your effects-noisy? no-invest in some good chords-the sound is good when the mix is right-i use a 68fender twin reverb and a fender deluxe

(yes) (yes)

(no) (no)

rock r&b blues 25years i would keep my eyes open one unit easy to set up i wish the display were larger yes it helps just take your time

No inicio e um pouco complicado de editar, mas com o passar do tempo fica melhor.

Seus efeitos s?o de grande qualidade. O unico problema e a impossibilidade de desligar o equalizador.

Sua sonoridade e muito boa. Consegue-se varios timbres e sons diferentes com ela. Com um paciencia faz-se sons dignos dos grandes mestres.

Considering all the options available in this unit, the programming is logical: within each effect algorithm (there are 33), you scroll thru the given effects and their parameters, tweaking as you like. A difficulty might arise when you come upon, say, the ?flagship? reverb module, if you don?t know what all the parameters are for ? but that?s the complexity of the effect, not the programming. You also have to spend a little time learning how to assign effect on/offs to the footswitches, or how to assign specific functions to the CC pedal (it usually defaults to volume control but it can do much else). I?ve never messed with the MIDI capabilities, and I?m sure they?re as complex as the manual makes it out to be. But the basic programming and tweaking is not difficult once you get into it. It can be tedious though with the more manipulative effects, like the big reverb or EQ.

Ease of use onstage is easy, if you?ve done your preparation beforehand. Assign patch programs to sequential banks, so you can go thru a setlist with a minimum of foot taps. Assign effects on/off switches so you can stay within the same patch, but cut chorus in or out, delay on or off, etc. That?s the selling point of a multi-fx unit in the first place: to replace a sea of pedals and cords with something simpler in bulk and execution. The more time you spending getting to know the unit, the less time you?ll spend fiddling with it when actually playing. A downside is the little blip of silence when switching patches, but there?s no delay when tapping FX changes within the patches.

Rule #1: This is meant to be used in stereo, and it sounds best that way. #2: Amps warm the tone. I run this into two combos. At one point I was using a Peavey Classic 50 and there was a nice synergy there ? warm sound, controllable feedback, etc. I?ve recorded demos direct with the RP10 and that?s where the digital tinny-ness is laid bare.

As for effects, the chorus is great, from a simple mono to a 6-voice stereo. Flanger and phaser are good, and I found a great sound with the dual flanger algorithm. Reverb is decent, very adjustable, and there are cool tricks with the flat envelope option. Compressor has value if you experiment with it, like matching high compression with a low clean level. The harmonizer is digital-harsh, unless you warm the signal before it. Delays are quality, with lots of tweakability. All sorts of secondary effects, like panning and autowah and ducking, do their job. On the downside, the distortions are weak, except for the Heavy Sustain setting. It can be warm and fuzzy if used right. The manual wah is silly, but I salvaged it on one patch by linking it with volume on the pedal for an envelope chorus swell. (That?s the thing about the dud sounds/effects on here ? you can find ways to salvage them, if their normal application is out of the question.) Individually, the effects range from 4?s and 5?s (the wah, distortion) to outstanding (the modulations), so an 8 seems fair overall...with a 9 if you know what you?re doing. The preset patches range from good to obnoxious, and it?s up to the user to dive in and coax personalized sounds from the effects. But it absolutely can be done. I?m addicted to the chorus variables on this and don?t want to use anything else. Ditto the phaser, for that matter. It?s apples and oranges comparing these sounds with vintage analog pedals, but there?s some good fruit here.

Overall, the guitar and amps will play a role in the final sound. And there is digital glassiness to contend with in the RP-10. But it can be computed out.

Only snafu in 8 years: wires connecting CC pedal shorted out; local guitar shop rewired it for 30 bucks. No problems before or since. Gigged with it in smoky bars, dank basements, swank basements?reliable all the time. (thankfully the wire problem occurred at home and not on stage.) Changed the battery once ? no big deal. Note: write down your programs!

I cannot remember the exact details of my conversation with Digitech when the wires went bad, but it seemed enough of a headache and waiting game to turn instead to a local wiz for help. Two days of waiting, opposed to two months.

Why am I writing about a unit I?ve had for eight years? Because I?ve had it for eight years! The industry of digital FX is like the auto industry: we?re told how great this year?s model is, then we buy it, then it?s obsolete and we?re told how great the next year?s model is. Either these things all suck to begin with and constantly need improvement, or it?s a quickfire market where you always have to have new product out there. The point is that the best aspects of the RP-10 have not been significantly bettered by any comparable newer model ? not for my ears and purposes ? and thus I?ve never felt the need to upgrade. Bells and whistles don?t sucker me. I want some good modulation, EQ, reverb options, and this still provides it.

I bought this when I noticed a sea of individual pedals forming under my feet, and it was more convenient. I do like a variety of sounds, and thus my ultimate FX setup would be a logistical buzzing nightmare were I to do it all with individual units. I still use other devices, like EH Microsynth, and that?s another bonus: feeding analog character sounds into the RP10 and coming up with even more unique combinations. Another keeper aspect of this unit is that I?ve found some unique soundscape effects, involving long reverb decays, harmonizers, and delays, which I don?t think I could replicate with any combination of other units/devices. It has exclusive capabilities that I don?t want to lose.

At this point, there are enough multi-fx processors out there to sink a boat, so that the RP10 is probably not worth searching out if you don?t know what you?re missing. Personally, it?s a part of my sound, and it has loads of capability. I used it for rock gigs before; it?s now assisting me in some jazz and abstract situations.

Getting sounds is quite easy, simple to program. Editing is pretty simple too. Lost my manual many moons ago. No upgrades.

I Bought this unit used back in 1993 in a pawn shop for $350.00. After about 3 years of use, I sold it to a friend for $150.00, and he gave me a bass rockman to boot. Fast foward to now "2004" and a few weeks ago I bought it back from that same friend for $50. Back when I owned it the first time, I was really a beginner, and only had small Fender, or Crate 1x12 amps, and it sounded great (as I recall) with those little solid state amps. Fast foward to now, and I use it mostly for recording direct into a Focusrite ISA 220 Preamp into a Roland 2480hd. I also own a Valve FX too. The RP-10 works fantastic for recording direct. Now I own several "toob" halfstacks, but I haven't ran it through them yet.

Before selling it to my friend the distortion switch kept sticking. I figured it just needed cleaning. So I popped off the switch button (the black one) and it broke. After years in my friends posession the switch under the button quit working too. The distortion patch still works and can be toggled off from the menu buttons, but not the switch. Everything else works. I ordered a new button from Digitech, and put it on, but still can't be switched from the pedal switch. But overall considering it's age (11 years, or so) it still cleaned up nicely, and looks almost as good as it did when I bought it.

Working with the guys at Digitech is great. You can order small parts right off their website. Things like replacement pedals for the RP series, and Control One controllers (which I have one of these also for my Valve Fx. Anyway, if something breaks on any of your Digitech gear, just send it to them with a check or money order for a $100.00, and they'll ship it back fixed, regardless of what's wrong with it. Which is great if it's a major fix, but lously if it's just a stuck switch thingy. LOL.

I personally play an assortment of styles from Country, Pop, all the way to nu-metal stuff. I've been playing at guitar for over 20 years. If it was stolen, I probably wouldn't look for another, unless I could get it cheap. But I really do like this unit considering it's time period. This was some hot doody back in it's day. I've owned the folling Digitech guitar fx processors. Started with the RP-10, RP-7, RPM-2000, and the Valve FX. The only keepers of those are the RP-10, and the Valve Fx. The RP-7 was great for recording, but sucked with my amp of the time, a solid state Crate Halfstack. I don't use it for all of my studio work but, it's one of those "go to" units when nothing else is working on the song. I have a nice collection of various Boss, and DoD pedals, and nice tube amps, but for some reason I continue to search for that direct recording tool thats the Shitznit. I've owned the Pod XT, Boss GT-6, an Ibanez virtual amp (theres a handy little box for the studio)and other stuff just for different sound in the studio, any of which will work in the right situation. I don't think it's really the box you use, but more the touch your fingers have with the guitar that makes a particular sound good or bad. Still I search..

I have this one and the Art SGX Nitro, and this one is way easier to configure and to use. One thing I really like about this one is that even if a particular effect is not active for a particular patch (distortion, for instance), you can still hit that switch and it will come on. The SGX Nitro (with the X15 pedalboard) isn't like that. If the effect isn't enabled as part of the effect, you can't add it on the fly.

Excellent sounds. I have seen negative reviews about this one- some complain that everything is obscure, extreme and unusable. Well, have you ever taken the car out of the garage? Nobody uses just the factory defaults. Spend some time with it, setup some patches for your particular songs and program them in. When tweaked, this thing will put out just about any sounds you can dream up.

Awesome. I've had mine for over 12 years, and it just wigged out a week ago. One day, some of the filters stopped working. The next day, when I powered it on, it went into some sort of demo mode and then when I hit a pedal, it would give an error message. I emailed one of the "authorized service centers", and they said it would be ~$100 to fix it. I found a yahoo group for RP-10's, and read through the threads, and I found out that the Lithium battery went bad and corrupted the memory. So, I bought a new battery (3.29 at radio shack), and did a factory reset, and it's back as good as new. I also had a backup of my configs using RPEdit, so I'm set. Otherwise, completely reliable.

Never had to deal with Digitech directly, but this device has been discontinued quite some time ago. They still have the user manual online.

I play a lot of cover stuff, along with some of my own stuff. The music styles and effects vary considerably. As I said before, the factory default presets are pretty much just to show off what this thing can do. They're all extreme, so they're not much use, but it can be customized to do pretty much anything, save a few more modern effects. I setup patches for each song or band style, and since this is MIDI, it can be controlled by the sound engineer from the soundboard for live performances.

It was fine. I Didn't have much trouble.

Some of the effects were very good and some sucked. It was possible to change some of the effect to suit my purpose. The distortion wasn't very good.

Trash. I bought this unit used and it worked for a while and then just quit. I have electronic guy look at it and he said that their were power supply problems along with the possibility of others so I hocked it.

Overall I was plesed with the effects and ability use some many different types but it quit. Electronic guy said most places charge $60 just to look at it and then whatever it costs to fix it. So when you buy this pedal make sure you know where the hech came from and its complete condition and previoius use! Good pedal it it works.

The stock presets are unusable, but are standard in order to show off how extreme the effects can be. Once you make your own settings where every parameter isn't on ten, it is pretty usable. THe manual isn't too difficult until you get to the midi section. I consider myself somewhat intelligent. However, I was floored by the extreme complexity of the midi continuous control and the morphing nonsense.

I had this unit at the perfect stage of my development as a guitarist. I got mine when I had been playing 2.5-3 years. At about the 7-8 year mark, I outgrew it and upgraded to a rack. THis unit taught me how to program anything, how to utilize effects tastefully, and how to achieve a useable sound in a band situation. The distortion sucks. All three of them as a matter of fact. The "grunge" has searing, overboard gain. You will never hear it in a band situation. The heavy sustain doesn't have enough gain, or sustain. The overdrive is okay. The clean is awesome.

I blew it up.

Pretty easy to use, just a lot of crap to go through adjusting parameters abd all - I mean, tweaking one preset to get exactly what ya want can take forever, but persistence will pay off.

I ahev played thru several amps, currently using an Ibanez TB100, and after playing around with the "clean" sound setting on the amp, got most of my patches edited to sound great with it. The effects always sound great - good quality, and the damn Cabinet Emulator kicks ass when going straight to a mixer or computer - which I do a lot. The only GRIPE I have about this thing is that when switching from patch to patch, you get this little 1/2 second delay which is annoying as all @#$&!!

I have beat the crap out of this thing over the years and it's time for a replacement, but it has always been reliable. I will keep it for studio recording, but I think I am gonna go stomp boxes now cause I hate the delay ya get when switching patches in multi-effect units.

Remember what I said about banging it around over the years? One day I turned it on and got an error message. The manual didn't say jack, I called tech support, the guy walked me through resetting the unit, and presto. Of course - I lost all my user-defined patches. But the support was great.

I don't know how the newer units are as far as having a slight delay when switching patches, but for any type of music this thing is great.

This unit IS NOT for total begginners or stomp box users, but when accompanied by the manual, it is for the most part; VERY easy to learn, and user friendly. Towards the end though you can forget about programming the CC pedal to morph simultaneous effects. This part of the manual was like reading a MIDI textbook! Anyway, After 7 years of owning one of these, I was NEVER at a loss for a great or unique sound! So being able to program this unit for probably more than you would EVER need to apply to playing live, or recording; should be of relative ease!

I used this unit through a Carvin SX-200, using my trusted Jackson Fusion Standard.(also have used with Ibanez models, and a Fender Strat. This thing was RIPPIN' straight out of the box!!! Monster distortion, and Very nice sounding acoustic cleans. I was in a guitar/keyboard band when this arrived, and My keyboard partner ran this unit through a CHEAP Radio Shack mixer, and a Dolby Digital Surround Sound home stereo system setup. The ending result within 4 hours later was a smooth jazz song that we recorded on the cassette deck of that stereo, which in turn was submitted to our local jazz station, and was first played on the radio between Sade, and Vanessa Williams. The radio Station did re-mix, and edit a bit, but was mostly the original recording. this was probably the second or third preset that I fiddled around with, and done the first time ever plugging into this unit! Over many years, I was able to sit down for long 4-8 hours stretches and tweak parameters to gain some VERY UNIQUE effects, that became instantly recognizeable in conjunction with my already unique style. Much in the same way that Slash, or Vai can play one or two notes, and you just KNOW!(ya' know?!) Some distortions are VERY noisy, some VERY thin, but the meat is that you can tweak up, and down and find perfection somewhere to your liking! Effects sound A LOT better through recording equipment, P.A., or even a kick'in Digital Surround sound stereo, Than they do through an amp though. For recording this is a VERY inexpensive, and versatile piece of gear to take you to the cleanest definition, without taking you to the cleaners! Note however that you will Only get very FEW of the Satriani, or Vai type of effects.( Go buy an EVENTIDE!) You will get GREAT Queensryche, Fates Warning, Type O Negative, Pantera, Savatage, Orgy, and yes even a little George Lynch! Also BIG smooth jazz, new age, and funk sounds!!! I recommend Pedal Motion factory preset, and Platinum Solo(smokin') factory preset for starter distortions, and Studio Clean factory (I believe it was called.) for acoustic applications. Then have fun customizing effects for years!!!(Note one severe drawback of this unit is the noise between switching times of presets!)

I had my unit for 7 years, and left it on for days at a time for years!!!!There is no on/off swith. just an adapter. This thing gets HOT!!!!!!(but DO NOT panic!) Out of all the years, and being on for days It only locked up maybe a total of 3 to 5 times max. You just unplug the power source, and plug right back in. Unit goes through intro screen, and within seconds, you're back in biz! Back up unit for live playing could be smart, and effects switching times are seconds apart, and VERY noticeable, during live gigs. However, It is VERY UNLIKELY that it is going to die on you, if that's your main concern!

Never had to call!

I've played Metal, rock, pop, funk, blues, classical, jazz, new age, and A little of almost every style imaginable on this thing! Like I said it is very versatile! I've even done bass parts with it! This unit is better suited for some forms, and styles than it is to others, but it does them all to a satisfactory degree in my opinion. I've been playing for almost 14 years, and I now own a Digitech Studio 5000 (In my quest for more Vai like sounds.), but man GIMMIE' BACK MY RP-10!!!!!!! The 5000 minus the impeccable harmonizing, is very limited as opposed to the RP-10, and it is to this factor that it also loses it's fun!(Not nearly as versatile!) I feel an almost emotional bond with this unit, but I am just the kind of person who would never buy the same thing twice. I am always on an endless search to try new things. There is an ABSOLUTE OCEAN of ways to get guitar sound through guitar/amp/effects combinations, and in my opinion you are handicapping yourself by staying with the same ol' thing! I was bonded to the RP-10 for financial reasons(even if it was a pratical unit that served me above, and beyond!) If I were Petrucci, or Satch, I would use ENDLESS amounts of different gear! George Lynch is an absolute prime example of switching gear eternally!! What I loved about this unit is that it was able to give me ALMOST any sound I could conjure! What I hated was the noise between preset switching! My favorite feature of this unit is the ability to shift octaves! This proves for some VERY interesting F/X! I only compared this unit to the RP-1, and some Zoom units.(The Korg G-3 was out at the time as well!) I liked the RP-1! It was my teenage fantasy when I first started playing, but for over $1000 was unattainable. An old guitarist finally let me borrow his for a week, and 4 years later My dream had come true. I was surprised at how easy I caught on, and recorded a whole demo just switching F/X. It was very addictive much like any cool piece of equipment when you first get it! Anyway, I tried out an RP-5, and was NOT impressed. The distortions wee still THIN, and F/X were just too cornball like on the RP-1. So then, I bought the RP-10 on A LOT of good reviews, and blind faith! Boy did it deliver!!!! I'd say the RP/10, and 12 models(virtually the same in every way.) Were the absolute best of the RP line. Today, with the RP 100, and 200 lines I just sit back,and try and figure out WHAT HAPPENED?!?! because these things are a JOKE! Youd think if your product line went from model 10, and 12 to 100, and 200 that it would be 100 to 200 times better!!!! Not 100 to 200 times worse!!! It just doesn't make sense! I must say the built in tuner on this unit is exceptional!!!!

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.

I have an RP-7 also so I was used to the way it has to be programed. It could be confusing if you didn't know what you were doing.

I use it as part of a bigger setup. Standing alone it doesn't work well. I play classic rock and blues. I use a Strat with a humbucker on the bridge mainly. I go through a Boss TU-2 tuner, a SD-1 overdrive, a BD-2 Blues Driver, a DS-1 Distortion and a GE-7 EQ. I run all this into an all original 1969 Deluxe Reverb. You can get some classic Fender sounds out of the RP-10 if you mess with it long enough. Overall it takes up half of my pedal box but it is worth it. The chorus and delay are pretty good but the distortion is BAD.

I've used it for four or five years of hard gigging and it hasn't let me down yet. I used to carry a RP-7 as backup but it stays it the studio now.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 25 years and if I find something that works for me I don't like to change. I've tried other setups and always go back to the RP-10. Once I get the settings I like I pretty much stick with them unless we work up new material that requires new settings. I have 25 or 30 programs that I use regularly. The built in tuner is worse than useless. The ability to program the pedal for whatever effects you need is great. If I lost this one I would probably get another one just like it. It would really suck to start the programing all over though.

Digitech RP-10 V2.00.

Well, it's not so easy to use...I mean the interface is easy per se, but you *have* to get the manual to understand what each parameter means exactly.

For the manual, I had to download a PDF version from the Web because the guy who sold it to me didn't have it.

Overall, after you get the hand of it, you can set up patches pretty quickly.

Setup:

- Danelectro 56-U2
- Hamer DA-03 strat-clone
- Electric solidbody cuatro (a sort of 5-double-stringed guitar)
- Vox Pathfinder amp

Unit is usually connected DI to my PC for recording with CoolEditPro. The unit is sometimes noisy, but I think that the problem really lies in relatively cheap pickups and cheap cables, and in addition being near the PC monitor, so the unit is really not to blame.

The effects are good, except for the wah, although I don't use it much. Effects sound VERY digital, which works for my style of electronica-influenced music. Very very wet sounds. I really like the flanger, reverb, whammy and chorus. The harmony is a bit slow sometimes. The distortions can be made to sound good; you just have to play a lot with the parametric EQ which is very good but at first hard to understand (i.e. "What the heck is Q?"). Stereo "separation" on digital distortions is awesome.

What I do to "warm" up the sound is that most patches use the cabinet emulator set to "1-Warm Cabinet".

Very reliable. It's made of metal! Could even be a good weapon (in defense, always!).

Never dealt will them. Will do so soon, though, because I gotta buy a new power adapter (I kinked the plug cable on mine when packing it! Mea Culpa)

For my style, as I said before, is perfect. Very electronic, digital sounds. When I wanna warm it, I either run it thru my amp and mike it or play with the cab emulator. I've been playing for almost 3 years, as a hobby. I'm now into home recording.

If I lost it, I'd cry.

This thing has boosted my cretivity, making me explore new, different sounds away from the usual Les Paul/Marshall/Wah sounds everyone dies for (not that looking for a classic sound is bad....it's just that I want something different).

It's tricky to get a really good expressive sound out of this unit. However after a few years of learning how to program it , ive found some neat tricks. being able to assign CC controller parameters to a number of different setting at once really opens up the poissabilities. Ive since opted for the Eprom upgrade for the intelligent pitch shifting. Ive had this unit since they came out, and have recorded many tracks with it.

the distortions dont give you much range but are usable, especially for recording. They dont sound great live, but good on tape. The effects and especially the reverb are pretty good. Unfortunately you must use a preprogrammed effect chain as your starting point, which limits you to certain ( 33 or so) set ups.

The pedal went out onme, I fixed it myself, my original unit had the optical sensing mechanism encased ina cardboard box (within the unit) , I had to replace the wires ( a tricky, for the solder enclined only operation) early on. swtill theresa bit of noise in the expression pedal. The rubber foot pad has come off and ben lost ( the smoth metal base pedal doesnt allow for spray adhesives to remount the foot pad). A couple of swithes broke eventually also, but they are cheap replacement parts form Digitech. The Eprom update is also available from Digitech Direclty. Otherwise when its tuend up and working a pretty good board for dependability. ( read that as no set up and play failures).

Rock, fusion, etc. A good efx board, the floor board nature of the thing makes it a bit of a pain to edit, you practically have to have it on a desk to work with it. I have yet to try using it as a MIDI program sender/reciever. Im hoping it will be usable with my synth and midi rig.