DigiTech RP-100

My friend bought the Digitech Whammy padal and i was stunned by the number of sounds he made out of it. So when I went out looking for a whammy - i found the Digitech RP200 and was blitzed out for the thing - I was going to get a Line 6 POD - but this thing was waay better - a lot easier - had great presets & a whammy!!! I could not be happier with the results.

I can absolutely get any sound out of the thing I need - and then some - i'm still exploring new possabilities with it - and i've had it for over a year. All my favorite bands - Tool, SNOT, Alice N Chains - I cover them all - and all there varieties of sounds that even they use. I use a Schecter C-7 with it - which is almost a disgrace cuz i'm from Kalamazoo, Michigan - Home of the Gibson Les Paul. But i can't complain - i also use a Crate - or what ever else i can plug it into. Anything sounds good with my Digitech RP200!

ok - everything is great but Depenability - the thing needs to be more tank like. Traveling with it is kinda a pain in the ass - cuz sometimes i have to reset it. I should make a case for it - i really hate to complain.

BLiTZeD OuTA My MiND!!!

Terrible. Difficult. Frustrating. Then again, it's a processor.
I should've known better, and just stuck with my stomp boxes.
Who wants to mess around with all those damned settings? Not me,
that's for sure. It's a processed sound, and doesn't at ALL sound
like a good amp, don't let the hype fool you. The only thing
that this thing is good for is to play it through your stereo when
you don't want to plug into your big amp, or use it with the headphone jack thru headphones. A big waste of money.
Then, when trying to shut the thing off, you have to step on both
pedals to put it on bypass....then to turn it back on, press just
one of the pedals, and if you leave your foot on the pedal too long,
it goes up or down the number settings....that is, you press on the
pedal to get setting number 1, and WHOOSH! it goes all the way up
to setting number 4 or whatever! It's too damned touchy. I had to
make a LONG list of the settings because I couldn't remember which
one was which! Cumbersome, indeed. I don't give a shit WHAT Guitar
Player Magazine says (they gave it a good rating). Digitech must've
paid those guys off in BIG bucks!

I use a Les Paul and an SG. Not noisy, just sounds shitty, no matter
WHAT settings I used, and I tried all of them. Played this thru a
Fender Blues Deville, which has a beautiful sound, and this thing
ruined the sound altogether.

I wouldn't use this on a gig. It would totally fuck me up.

Who cares? It's a piece of shit anyway.

I play rock...classic and some metal and some country and blues.
It sucked for all of them.

Difficult, even impossible to get a googd sound out of this effects unit. Editing patches is quite easy. The booklet is o.k..

Used with only a Squier Strat and 10W solid state combo, but I would have thoght even with these it would have been capable of producing a decent tone somehow. This was not the case. Both the clean and distorted sounds are far too dark and muddy. I ended up using the rectifier and black face simulations most because these sounded the least like this, but they weren't good.

Completely reliable and quite robust

N.A.

I don't recommend this moddeler to anyone, unless you have hardly any money and want to recreate a few (poor) classic amp sonds

To me, this thing is a little confusing because the parameters for each object, say amp model or effect, keep flickering past on the display field. it would be nice to see all 3 at once.

I'm using a Godin Artisan and a ES335 copy thru a Fender Princeton. The only noise I get is when you try to use certain amp models with the gain set high. Most of the effects, like chorus, flang, delay, reverb, etc., sound very nice. I didn't care for the amp modeling or the picup selection or the mic placement.
One big complaint I have is with the 40 presets. I cannot use ANY of these. I tried some of the user patches from the Digitech site and the same thing. How could anyone possible use these settings with a live band?
My final solution with the sound is I changed settings 1 thru 10 to be a specific effect (or 2). Like 1 is chorus, 2 is delay, etc. This makes it easy to get to a nice effect and if I want lead, I hit my Ibanez TS9. Then I used 11 thru 20 for different amp models. Then 21 thru 30 for the amp model of choice for distortion with the settings from 1 thru 10. Hey, it works for me.

pretty solid unit

never had to call

First let me say, if you're gonna get this pedal, get the RP200. Same unit plus expression pedal - and you get the adapter FREE. Approx. $150 for the RP200. Approx $110 for the RP100 plus $25 for the adapter.
I'm an old blues player, but I got this unit because I'm playing in a band that does all styles and we use a sequencer (yuk!). I just needed more options than my tube screamer gives me and I think the RP100 will be a big help.
I've been playing for 30 years. I think I mentioned my equipment already. I've owned and played about everything thru the years.
If it were lost or stolen, I'd get the RP200.
I love the fact that you get all those effects from ONE pedal. I hate daisy chaining a bunch of pedals!
I already mentioned that I don't like the amp modeling much. I used to have an old RP5 or something. It was huge with 5 pedals, but it had different distortion sounds v.s. amp modeling. They were very usable. And there were several factory presets that I used.
I don't like holding down both pedals to bypass or tune. There should be a separate pedal for that.
It helps my sound, but I had to work at it.

Read on for ideas on how to get more from this thing:

You already know all the features; they're mentioned below. I'll try to stick to opinions here. The RP100 is easy to use, but unlike a Line6 POD, it only has three knobs, so you have to scroll down a matrix of features to change settings. Most guitar players are used to twisting knobs to get a change in tone, so it's counter intuitive for us to work this way. Manufacturers should take note: we don't liket his type of user interface!

As a practice and noodling tool, it's alright. There are a few good smooth sounds here and some not-so-good, harsh ones. There are better tools out there for recording such as the units from Line6, Yamaha, Behringer and Tech21. If you're going to commit something to tape, invest in more pro-level gear!

I've found it quite useful as a pedal for jamming and live performance (and even for recording as noted below). The RP100 allows you to selectively turn off virtually all of its features including the amp models, cabinet simulation, EQ, gate and effects. In this respect, it's the ultimate multi-effect for your tube or solid state amp's effects loop!

For example, my 5-watt Crate VC508 tube amp has an effects loop but has only a single tone control for EQ and no reverb, so I patch the RP100 into that and turn off everything except the noise gate and reverb. Excellent results! In this configuration, I've found that I can use the middle knob to change to one of the other clean amp settings (C1, C2) or even the blackface and tweed settings. So I have the tube preamp section of the Crate going into the RP100 then the output of that going back into the tube power amp section of the Crate for awesome warmth. By diming the output of the RP100, I can push the Crate into warm overdrive. I can use the EQ on the Crate and tweak it further with the EQ on the RP100 and I can dial in any of the additional effects from the RP100 such as delay, flange, etc. This should work very well with any amp that has an effects loop and it greatly enhances any of those one-trick-pony amps and breathes new life into them.

Or I could bypass the preamp section of my tube amp and plug my guitar straight into the RP100, but still run the output into the tube power section. Very versatile!

It's not that great in front of the amp, but there are uses there too.

One other feature I like is the Humbucker to Single coil emulation; it doesn't really sound like a single coil, but it's quite helpful in making your tone cut through when you decide to turn on all the effects.

As a standalone device, this is just ordinary, but it's versatility when combined with the above setup is invaluable in a package that fits in a gig bag!

I've had it for over a year without any problems. It's quite solid and I expect it to last many years. Forget about running it on batteries, they don't last very long.

Digitech has a lousy rep for customer service. My few dealings with them bear this out.

The RP100 is an excellent value not just for what it is, but for what you can do with it.

Very simple guitar processer lost of great features to simple

Well I dont know whats the problem with all the negative reviews This this only cost $99 dollars. I think if you think about it its the cost a weeky shopping. However this thing sounds great one or two of the effects need tweaking.

look pretty well made however your not surpose to throw the thing around.

dont know

I have to say I'm impressed with this petal it also has a drums patten to practice with the secret of the this unit you have to make
it work you you find the right beat set the temple find your patch I'm
certain you will be able to record with this thing. By the way guitar player listed it as editor choice. that alone speaks for it self.

It's a simple thing to use. Very easy to make your own patches. The manual is good enough to get started, after that you'll never use it again.

The guitars I own are the better budget guitars. I have an '87 Squier Stratocaster and an Epi Les Paul with birdseye top. Usually I run the guitar through a Crybaby Wah > RP100 > Laney LC15 tube amp. In this setup the RP100 sounds great. It doesn't kill the tone of my guitars when using my own patches. The factory patches are overprocessed and can sound too digital, but little adjustments can make them very useable.

Before I bought the RP100 I kind of decided I would only use it for the reverb, chorus and flanger. I also have a H&K Tubeman which has incredible overdrives and distortions and I expected to keep using it together with the RP100. Well, the Tubeman now lies somewhere in a closet doing nothing. The RP100 has actually good distortions and very acceptable overdrives. The only one I don't like is the rectifier...too much noise and very cheap sound.

The effect are good, especially with clean sounds. Not all of them are useable. I don't think I'll ever use the auto-Yah. In some cases I would like some more control but in general you can create some wonderfull sounds. Also this thing is not very noisy. Some of the distortion have some noise. but I guess that's normal for any high gain setting.

I often use it with headphones and then it also sounds great. If setup well it can really sound as if you were playing through an amp.

I thought this thing was made of plastic, but a little piece of the finish chipped off and now I can see it really is a metal casing. I don't thing is build strong enough for gigging, but I never gig so it's good enough for me.

never dealt with them.

I've been playing for more then 20 years...but that was just fiddling around. I started to play seriously about 2 years ago and decided 2 months ago to add a new toy to my setup. I wanted to make some more different sounds and a multi effect was the obvious choice. I did not have the time to check out many other products and started to read reviews at harmony central. It's not easy to pick the more serious reviews, but after reading a lot of them I thought the RP100 would be the right choice for me. I was right. The RP100 is a lot of fun and makes beautifull sounds.

I think the RP100 is more than a toy. If you play around with it and don't overprocess your sounds it can be good enough for the serious guitar players. For headset practising it's excellent.

It's a fairly straight forward unit, for the price. The manual does give a logical, basic, graphic explanation of what certain effects do, how they interact, and how they should be hooked up, so it's fairly obvious that Digitech is seeking the novice market with this unit. I used it a few weeks before I gave it to my son, to check it out. It's good for him. That's why I bought it anyway, a gift for him.

First, I have a criticism. I've have noticed that on many, many reviews on nearly all products reviewed here on Harmony Central, players don't match their equipment well, or at all. And they claim to be professionals! I have a Gibson SG Standard and a custom Amer.Deluxe Fender Strat with Texas Specials, into a Marshall AVT 50. Big sound and mucho denarii here. You DON'T use a $100 pedal with a $2000 guitar, or top quality amp! With my equipment, the RP100 doesn't do them justice. So I used it only on the Strat to check noise suppression. BUT, I bought my boy a Washburn BT-2 ($400) customized with Seymour Duncun JB's, and a 15 watt Marshall practice amp along with the RP100. With that setup, the RP100 sounds very good. He has fun with it, and he likes ALL the effects. FUN...isn't that what playing guitar should be? Think novice when buying, with matching novice equipment.

He won't gig. The kid's in law school and slogs dogs at Fenway. It has a high impact plastic casing, but if a stack of law books in his small apartment falls on it, I question its ability to survive. Any company that makes effects should make sure their product is "step on proof," as in actually being stepped on by a heavy person in the dark, not just "stomp on proof." The power supply is rugged, however.

So far, after 10 months, he hasn't had any trouble. He hasn't expressed a loss of interest, so an upgrade is not necessary. As I've said in other reviews, part of customer service is making a quality product in the first place. I think this is an excellent buy for a novice, and it doesn't break the bank. I don't think Digitech intended this to satisfy the artistic needs of a player who owns a Les Paul with a Marshall JCM, for example.

My rating will be in the context of novice use. It's novice equipment!
It's easy to hook up, store, and is clearly labeled. Lost or stolen..."Uh, Dad, got a few bucks?" Yes, I'd get him another. He's progressing with it, and not to rely on it solely to learn how to play. The problem is, novices don't always store equipment properly, or at all. Therefore, the casing could be a safety hazard if left on in the dark and someone steps on it. Not only would the person get a shock and cut their foot, but the unit would be destroyed. I hope the folks at Digitech will correct this problem. I have lectured him about taking care of stuff. And no, he can't touch my SG or Strat.

this is an update to my previous post. Late in '02, I decided to get a rogue volume pedal from musiciansfriend.com to test out the options the rp100 has that I couldn't access. I would definately recommend getting a passive volume pedal.

With the passive volume pedal you can access the wah, volume, and the whammy feature. And all work quite well! Volume works well for swells (whales sounds etc), the wah is decent (i prefer the 3rd option over the crybaby and the boutique-has more "range", and i also find it sounds better when i also run my zoom 9150 tube preamp on a clean setting for some subtle distortion-it enhances the wah i think) and the whammy feature is WAY FUN!!! If you've heard the cool noises/sound effects that tom morello makes w/ RATM/audioslave, you'll enjoy this. I do a lot of post processing (the rp100 is first in my chain) and you can get some fun techno sounds w/ the whammy. the potential of this pedal is not unlocked until you get a passive volume to add to the input.

w/ the volume pedal going into my rp100, i find that i'm using it a lot more. the amount of sounds at times seem almost unlimited for a small inexpensive pedal like this. i use it in my chain of effects at the beginning: rp100--zoom 9150--digitech dsp256xl--dod d12--digitech ips33--lexicon mpx100.--to amp/or direct for recording. the only knock is that the presets have a very weak signal going through all my gear, so i have a couple of presets w/ the amp settings maxed out when w/ my rack setup. a very flexible pedal. I'm trying to imagine what the future of digital modeling will be and all i can think of is something like this but it will have a pedal for volume control, a pedal for pitch (whammy) control, and a pedal for tone (wah/envelop) control. the sound will be very moldable/flexable. it will also be very tiny i bet.

The ease of use is really great i didnt even half to read the manual which is a first for me. Its alot easier to use then some efect prosesers liek the boss rackmounts and things which dont even come with optional pedal and you have to press with your fingers.

The sound wuality is great im running it through my roc pro 1000 head with a traynor 4 12 cabinet. The only thing is some of the amp mods on high distrtion arent so great jsut because of the fuzz u can hear when ure not palying all the effects sound great though and really like the flanger and the chorus. My favorite thing probaly thoguh is the amp mods like mesa fender amrshall and the fact you can switch your pickup type

The reliability is great ntuhing can really go wrong with it the only thign is the pedals are a little to clsoe together so when ur epaly a song with many different efects its hard tos et them up int he right order of use ide deffiently use this on mah badns gig which is coming up soon!

I never had to deal with the company theres nothign really that could go wrong with it.

The overall is that its great you can customize it for anystyle of music you paly i paly rock and ouck witch is great for this machine if soemone stole ide cahse them down and kill them too bad im not a fast runner. I probaly owudlent buy it again becasue ide probaly go for the RP-200 which has the expression pedal built into it. The only thing ide like to have different is if you could use too amp mods at once i would deffiently recomend this for the begginer or expert.