DigiTech RP-100

To the people that think this thing is hard to use: what the hell are you doing using the internet? This is the easiest to use piece of equipment I own. Really. Push the button until it gets to the effect you want to use and then use the knobs to tweak them, then push the store putton to store it to a preset number. Wow. Tough.

The manual tells you basically the same thing, but it also lists the factory presets. Not really vital information, but nice to have.

Occasionally used for recording, never used live. Has a terrible noise problem when put through any high-gain setups, or simply high volumes. Amp models are... iffy. Some sound great, others are terrible. The effects are all rather well done, only the pitch shift is aneimic. Which is sad, as Digitech gave us the Whammy Pedal. I just don't like the non-editability of effect order, and the fact that you can only have one effect plus delay plus reverb. The noise gate is terrible. Only a threshold parameter. Blasphemy.

I will never ever gig with this thing. It's built like a tank, but the sound is terrible for live situations, and I have issues with its preset selection system. MIDI implimentation would help.

I play a lot of stuff that requires flexiblity, and this thing doesn't have enough of it. It's nice for getting a particular sound for recording, but don't EVER gig with it. If it were stolen/broken/lost, I probably wouldn't care. I rarely use it. Again, needs more flexibility and MIDI. But for 100 bucks, why bitch?

Manual is essential inless you have had experience with these sort of things.
Editing patches is a snap once you've read the manual.

I play a Fender Strat plus through either my Fender Princeton 110 plus amp or straight into my Fender P-250 PA. OK ... I love Fender gear:)
Some of the distortions are quite noisy, esp if the gain is high. Knock the gain back and the noise goes without a huge loss of 'crunch'. I also find the distortions lacking in reality - ie they have a very digital sound but I am continuing to search coz this unit is so flexibile there must be a great sounding disto in there somewhere !
Some of the amp modeling is crap. The rectifier is unconvincing but I like the crunch amp and the Stack is Ok with some tweaking. The effects: flangers, phasers, chorus etc are all quite usage and very tweakable. I haven't found any clean tones that I really like but part of the problem is my guitar has a GREAT tone which is lost a bit going through this unit. I gonna try using it in the effects loop of my amp / PA as suggested so I can retain the tone of my Strat and still get the use of the great effects.

Have had no problems with it yet. It has been used for both outdoor and indoor gigs ... and will again. I have no backup unit:(

never needed it

I Play rock/pop/folk - mainly originals.
I have been playing for 10 years. I also have An Ovation acoustic and a Samic Classical. No other 'gear'
If lost or stolen I would replace with either the RP200 or the J-Station
Apart from researching the net ...it was the best priced option !
Wish the distortions where more convincing. I have yet to find one that has the sustain and 'warmth' of my Fender amp. Also find it lacks a little bit of bottom end.
This unit HAS added to my playing.
For the price its unbeatable ... but it will never be the real thing. For those who think it is and have rated this unit down because it doesn't exactly replicate a Mesa or whatever are full of shit. For me its to get a sound that suits MY songs not those written by some other artist so its great for personalising your own sound.
But if you wanna sound like Jummy - 99% of Joe Public will NOT know the difference between this unit and a $2000 amp but those that do know and have a quality ear will cringe with its digital sound.

This is very easy to use once you've spent a few minutes getting the hang of it. It is very flexible and easy to program for your own settings/patches.

If you want to know what it sounds like, check out these mp3s- I used the RP100 on each with different effects. These were home recordings through a Shure SM57 into a Roland Boss BR8 recorder. I played an Ibanez ES335 copy (the AS120):

1) 'We Are The New Wine' - used the RP100 distortion, cabinet modeler and delay as well as the vibrato on a few of the breaks, the tremelo on the 2nd guitar, and the auto-wah on the break near the end.
http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/3388/3388677.html

2) 'Summer Century Meltdown' - used the RP100 delay, cabinet modeler and vibrato effect as well as the phaser effect. The vibrato effect came out great.
http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/2339/2339652.html

3) 'Fear The Unknown' - I got some great RP100 distortion with lots of feedback and sustain on this song. One guitar is full saturation on the gain, the other was minimal gain with delay and reverbs from the RP100. A tad much on the reverb, but it was all one live guitar take and I didn't want to redo all of it just to knock a bit of the reverb off.
http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/2581/2581466.html

After having bought and played at least 100 different pedals over the last 13 years, I have to rate this very highly. The last guy's comments indicated this was not stage-worthy and that it is only for beginners - I would instead say that I have used it to great effect live and on recordings, and that I think it's got some great sounds (and I am no beginner). I bought the Line6 DL4, MM4 and DS4 and have instead opted to keep using the RP100 after checking both out top to bottom. My ONLY problem with it is that if you are changing from one patch to the next, there is a brief drop-out of sound while it switches. This doesn't bother me too much because I run a dual-amp setup and the effects only go to one amp - so if the one amp drops out for a sec, the other is still blasting and no one notices the 1/2 second drop-out.

Worked great for the last 2 years.

n/a

I give it high ratings. It's not the absolute best top gear you can get, but for the money it's great. It is much better than many other effects in the same price range and can be quite useful even in a pro setup. Would I rather have a Bradshaw switching unit and all vintage/top of the line gear? You bet. Can I sound great on stage and on recording with the RP100? You bet.

I play effect driven alt-rock, indie-pop and energetic, darker melodic rock along the lines of U2, The Church, Sunny Day Real Estate, Coldplay, Trail Of Dead, The Verve etc... I've been playing since 1987. I have owned dozens and dozens of effect pedals as well as over 100 guitars in the last decade. Currently I own/use the following.
Guitars: 3 Ibanez AS-120s (ES335 copies), 3 Gibson Les Pauls (a 1960 Classic, and two Studios), an Epi Les Paul Custom, 3 Yamaha SBG/SG series (SBG200, SBG1500 and SBG1300ts), Washburn Mercury II series strat style.
AMPS: Peavey Classic 50 (all tube), Classic 30 (all tube), and a Fender RocPro1000 transtube through a vintage Fender 2x12 cab. I run a stereo setup.
EFFECTS: guitar>Ibanez TS9 tubescreamer > TS808 tubescreamer > DOD FX65 Stereo chorus > Ross vintage Phaser > RP100 > Boss DL3 Delay > Line6 DL4 delay > amps

Very simple - RTFM, that's why they went thtought the trouble to write it!!! It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but now I can do it blindfolded. The preset sounds are a bit goofy, so I have tweaked it to my own liking and I am happy with the sounds. You can move your sounds around, that was an excellent idea - you can put them in any order you like. I haven't really had any problems getting a good sound. It helps to set your amp to a very neutral tone.

I use(d) a Hamer Studio (got stolen) through an Ibanez TB-25R amp and I found that it worked quite well. (Good quality pickups help!!)Replaced the Hamer with an Ibanez GAX-70. As far as noise, not much there, more with single coils though. Some of the presets are crappy, but that's why you should experiment, find out what you like. Most of the distortions are good, although the "recto" setting is fairly generic and the "fuzz" is crappy. Chourus, delays and reverb and so forth are pretty good. I don't really use vibrato or tremolo at all. I also like the detune and pitch stuff - kinda fun, you can get some Jimmy Page sounds with those. Auto-Ya: USLESS! I plan to get a passive volume pedal to play with the "Whammy" effect. My only gripes sound-wise are the cabinet models, most are pretty dark sounding and consequently not really satisfying. Also, the humbucker/single coil setting is backwards on my unit - the display reads one setting and is actually the other.

Never given me a problem, hopefully it stays that way. I am a basement noodler, so I've never taken it on a gig. Maybe one day...

Never dealt with them, but I did register it.

It works good for my tastes, mostly heavy stuff (Zeppelin, Sabbath, Ozzy, Rush, and newer heavy bands; Korn, Staind, Disturbed, etc..) I've played on and off for 20+ years. Other gear: Fender Strat, Crate MX-10, Yamaha PRS-550 Midi Keyboard (it's my drum and bass machine.) If it were stolen or lost I'd move up in the range (RP-200 or 300) I love the simplicity - once you get it set up it just works.
What do I hate? CRAPPY PRESETS, LOW HEADPHONE VOLUME OUTPUT, SOME OF THE RHYTHMS ARE USELESS (Not enough rock rhythms) - are you listening Digitech?
I have a friend with a ZOOM 505, I thought I might get one, but I like the RP-100 better (metal case, easier to use, sounded better) I think overall its a pretty cool thing for the price.

Anything I wish it had? - A FREE POWER ADAPTER!!! $20 FOR A $5 AC adapter, come on Digitech!!!

I'd like to get a POD, but that's a LOT of money when you got kids, house, car and everything else to pay for too - not to mention you have to get a MIDI foot controller or Line 6 board you make it really useful in a gig situation.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? - not possible

How about Editing patches? easy

How is the manual for it - good

What setup - Roland JC-120, various guitars(gibson, fender, gretsch, Dearmond)
Is it noisy? at times it is.
Are the effects weak or do they always sound great? weak
Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? no
Are certain effects (distortion, chorus,) very good? Very bad? - its fair
Don't be decieved by high ratings on this thing. It is for beginners, who want to have a toy to help increase their desire to play. This is not, gig quality.
Kids may enjoy it, but it is not a serious tool.

Didn't keep it long, it was given to me.

They have always been good to me

this is a toy, a toy. Repeat a TOY.
It is not worth the price of $99.00
Parents, don't buy this thinking it will make your kids sound better, it will only grate on your nerves.
Kids, save up your money, and look for a used or new Boss GT-6, ME-50, or a POD. You would do better spending your money on a decent amp(marshall, vox, fender)
If you want lots of diffrent sound get good gear, you'll be sory otherwise.
I've been playing for about 25 years, 16 years professional, and I have gone through a lot of gear. This thing doesn't even come close to stuff that is 20 years old.
If you spend your money on this and think it sounds good people will look at you funny and you'll wonder why they don't want to listen.
Sory digitech, back to the drawing board.

it's not hard to use, not at all. It's just that the longer you use it, the better you start playing with this or that, and I don't really understand people who say it can't sound any good... I'd put it this they, THEY can't make it sound AT ALL.
The manual is ok, but nothing better than self experience.

It is not noisy, my amp (old Hughes & Kettner) is due to some obscure soldering problem! The factory presets aren't good, but that's the same for most factory presets on most modelizing thingies (vetta anyone?) The effects are ok, but I rarely use anything more than a little delay and reverb, and even for those I'm not a whining picky biatch given the price of the thing.
I've posted some sound patches on digitech's website, under the nick of Sam669 or something like that, check for yourself, but I find them to be really honest sounding!
I love the Mark IIc amp model.

hmm, that's the drawback! The right knob has problems: if I turn it to the max clockwise, the value goes back/oscillates between 0 and 99.
And sometimes when I click on "store", it launches the drums AND the store function. It can be scary!
For serious gigging, I'll prefer to wait for a good deal on a digitech 2120 ;)

I play progressive metal, and that thing is ok. So ok that I prefer it for lead tones than the Yamaha DG over there lol!
If it were stolen, I wouldn't buy it again though, but would look for something better.
I'd like to add that people who complain about how it sounds blatently do not know their needs enough to know what gear they should buy to please them.

First off: I'm pissed at Digitech. They make products that sound pretty decent & are easy to navigate, only to have them develop weird
problems over time after they are conveniently out of warranty. Nice.

Sounds pretty good. What does it matter when you have zero faith in the unit. Tech 21 GT-2 anyday friend. The leslie imitation is wonderful- the autoyaya a fucking joke. The blackface is righteous-
The rectifier renders all guitars indistinguishable from one another only to dissolve into an unrecognizable sputz of fizzy white noise.
Does anyone deserve such wild inconsistency even in a 99 dollar box?
I don't think so

In two words: FUCK NO. The one thing I really need-the tuner- takes a crap and starts registering the wrong notes- making me think me losing me mind! WHAT"S NEXT
I'm selling mine before it stops working completely(my mind, that is)

Don't know, Don't care
I won't buy another effect device from Utah, ever.
Fuckin Harman bought dbx and jbl too godamn bastards
Pardon my French

If stolen good luck tuning up you larcenous swine.
I wanted to like this box, I really did.
Try Korg, Boss instead. Zoom bites.
Digitech,Genesis,Johnson,DOD is all the same conspiracy: a product you want to utilize and enjoy but ends up letting you down in some
pointless, avoidable and stupid way.

Well... its got 3 knobs and a few buttons, and 2 pedals. Pretty easy to use if you read the manual as it details everything in layman terms. If youve ever used a multieffects box, then youll have no problems.

Youve got a bunch of amp models to choose from, and most of them sound pretty decent. Theres plenty there for any style. Most of the patches I used were thin and lacking in bite, but thats just the distorted ones. The clean channels sounded pretty nice though. One big downfall of this pedal is that when you switch channels theres a lag between them where there is no sound. When you are playing by yourself its not that big of a deal, but if you are in a band trying to keep up, its really distracting. Not for gigging, thats for sure.

Mines been dropped and kicked and many other things and it still works. The pedals get stuck down every once in a while which is a big hassle, but nothing too terrible. Its made out of metal with plastic pedals. I wouldnt use it for a gig except as a tuner set up off the ground somewhere.

Ive never had to deal with them, so I dunno.

Basically this pedal is good for beginners who dont have a lot of cash to spend. I paid 165 bucks for it and got severely ripped off. Later I found out that they only list at about $99US. They are pretty good for recording, or playing direct to board, but after a while you get tired of the lack luster patches and the lag between channels. My advice, save up to buy the GNX series effects if you want to go that route.

Very well designed from the point of minimising the number of controls required.
Quite intuitive again considering the minimalist design approach.
Manual is quite good, but I always like the idea of easy/getting started single sheet approach as well as a detailed manual

Jackson Professional and Peavey Amp
Early days yet but I have gone through all standard and previous users effects and all seem OK.
Facility to listen directly through headphones is soooo very good for me when my kids are in bed.
I was unsure what to expect from this little unit but this is so cool, and with the added bonus of some great user sites with users effects........what can you say!

I will give it only a 7 as this is only a #70 unit so will never sound like something ten times the cost

Well its 3 years old and looks very good (of course the guy I got it from may not have used it very much)

NA

Metal, Rock and blues
Many years on and off
Yes I would and I may even buy it new
I love it all, but I love gimmicks
Only compared reviews rather than sitting in shop and making true comparison, (but why invent the wheel when others have done it for you, and the unit came up for sale too quick and didnt want to miss a possible bargain)

No too hard. Only had it for about 30 minutes. Able to make decent sounds pretty quick and preset patches are ok.

Sounds like a $100 processor. Used with a Marshall AVT 50 (which rocks btw, best 400 amp i could find, but line6 spider is pretty sweet too). Used in effects loop in store, chorus sounds good, tremolo sounds good most other modulation effects sound good. Distortions are all kinda weak, the amps sims sound tinny and weak. This unit sorta takes away from the amp. Prolly going to get a Boss chorus like everyone else. Would buy digitech pedals, but well, read below. I bought it for this one gig cause i dont have any effects and wanted to spend very little money.

Ok. This is the vent section. I took it home, played for about 30 min on batteries (cause the Guitar Center man sold me the wrong power supply) and it just died. Like out of the blue. Really really stupid. I wasnt really that pleased with the sound in the first place but this is pathetic. So im taking it back tommarow.

Havent delt with them, YET!

It sounds ok, but not great. Maybe im just not a digital fan. The reliability thing is kinda sad though. If you like it, buy it. If not, go for individual pedals. Maybe they are more expensive and more of a hassle, but I think they sound better.