DigiTech RP-20 Tube Preamp/Processor

well, this thing can't make to many bad sounds, most of the effects are great (but there are a few exeptions). Editing patches is really what this thing was made for, its extreamly simple if you know what to do, no thanx to the manual. The manual was okay at first with little pictures and stuf, but the writer musta got lazy or something cuz from about page 20 on he left out how to get to places and how to use things. It even has stuff pinted out wrng on some pages (pg-6, #9 points to "midi in" but the explination says "midiout/through"??) I think this processor can be upgraded over the computer too.

well, I've got a laney GC-80 amplifier, and a fender cyclone, and I can make it sound like I've got a les paul, with a marshal stack. This processor has a feedback filter so it doesn't fart on you a lot, and that helps when I'm playing with my acoustic. Most of the effects are pretty in your face. Its a easy/hard situation to get the sounds outa the bands to like (depending on the band) like if you wanna get the sound of jars of clay you';re not gonna have a problem, but if you want say...metallica you're gonna have a harder time. the tube distoriton is great, and I enjoy the solid state distortions, chorus is extreamly lush, and the pannersa and phasers are great with the expresion peddle thats built in. All in all the effects are good

this thing is built solid, its mettle and rugged(which may be a problem if the tube ever blows) this thing will take a beating and still perform great, although the freakin power cord slips out every time I put it in so I have to tape it down at gigs, other than that its very dependable

some have god experiences with customer support some dont.......I one of the few that hasn't, I've asked about 30 questions (that the user guide failed to mention) and I havn't gotten one responce from the company.......so if you can get a responce more power to ya if not, ask some one who has one and they'll beable to to help ya.

I play every type of music, I'm very diverse, this is a great buy for all the effects. I've been playing for about 4 years, and have a a sea gull acoustic, fender cyclone electic and gibson les paul eagle eye. If this thing was stolen I would prolly cry for a week and then go save for another one, I love every thing about it exept the guide book, and my favorite feature is its morphing capability, how its can go from one effect to another just using the expretion peddle, its great. I dont think I could compare to many other effects units beacause its so different from the others, the only thing I think would make this thing a lot better is a talk box funtion, that would kick some serious nut. This thing helps me make about everything but my acoustic driven music, It'll last for a long time.

Getting a good sound out of it using the factory presets is no problem. -10 Basic editing of patches is no problem at all (-10). Although trying to tweak the effects can drive you crazy. Each effect has got a lot of parameters which is good but accessing and changing those parameters is very time intense (-4). I think Digitech could improve this by adding more rotation knobs. The manual is not bad but serious rework by a professional would make it a lot better (and expensive). However after investing a day of studying you will be able to control the unit (including MIDI even though I've never tried MIDI with this effect). -6 Firmware revision #: 1.01 +never upgraded it

-I am using this unit for practicing at low (very low) volumes in my room. The setup is guitar (Strats, Les Pauls & Shred machines) into RP-20 into a cheap 50W@4Ohms Sony Stereo amplifier into two 10" 8Ohm Celestion Vintage 10 (G10) 60W speakers (they sound awesome).
-On high distortion settings the unit is rather noisy without the noise gate. But with the noise gate it is just fine (but remember I'm playing at low volumes in a perfectly isolated room).
-The effects sound kick ass, studio like, hells round the corner, heavens upside down, -I can't express it but they truely sound goooood. The only disapointment is the wahwah (waaaaaaaah: wah meens juck in swiss german) it is not bad for "tame" sounds which need fine nuances or for fine or sweet varations. You can even get a rather dirty sound when tweaking the equalizers (two in a row). But it has not got a kick ass Jimi rules, go to hell, screaming Cry (Cry Baby). This baby doesn't cry!!!!!! The distortion settings work very well although I have difficulties getting a bluesy sweet (can't express myself again) distortion. Perhaps the second valve of Digitechs 2121 makes the difference. Also valve and transistor distortion is only possible in parallel. Series (first transistor and then tube) is not possible!! But don't get me wrong the distortion capabilities of this baby are impressive and fulfil 95% of my desires. The other effects (Chorus, Delay, Hall, Whammy, etc.) are all very close to first class and they hardly ever failed to meet my needs.
-I can get practicly all the sounds I need. From Jimi like Fuzz to nice sweet Valve distortion to Marshall like sounds, crunch, High distortion stuff freaked out effects shit (almost Vai like), Yngwie stack (I've even managed to get close to his stereo delay), nice halls and echos, glassy clear clean tones, ...
I know that there are several effects and preamps which sound even better (almost all Rocktron, Digitechs 2121 Artist, Lexicon etc.) but for the price and just for practicing this preamps sound quality is far more than enough (besides the wah)

As I have been using it for practicing in my room for over a year without serious difficulties I'd say it's dependable. The only two things giving me headaces are it's expression pedal and the power adapter. -The expression pedal is of poor quality. It often tends to squeal and sits very loose (I hope this makes sense in English). As for the squeal: you can get rid of it with some grease or with graphite powder. -The power adapter is -I've had this unit for over a year so I know what I'm talking about- C R A P. It has got very poor quality plug and socket connection. Also, after about 6 months mine started to hum after playing for more than half an hour. -I wouldn't use it on a gig without a backup as I never would use anything on a gig without a backup. Nevertheless the unit itself is pretty durable but its power adapter is absolutley unreliable.

I've never needed any

-I can cover all the styles I play which are classical guitar inspired tunes over blues, Rock, Hard Rock and Metal in an acceptable manner. -If it were stolen I'd immediatly (depending on my wallet) buy a new one or maybe even upgrade to DigiTechs 2121 Artist. -I love its size which doesn't make it too big for my room but I hate its wah for not being able to cry. -If I'd be able to redesign this pedal I'd leave the MIDI stuff out, improve the pedal, add a second wah which cries, make a dependable power connection und place the distortion in series (transistor first). Overall: This is (besides it's price thats OK but still too high) a very useful pedal.

almost impossible manual to understand... don't these people play guitar???

The best there is in a floor processor.. I have been playing Digitech since the RP-1 and this is just another example that they have the corner on the market... The sounds cook.. all of them... and the signal to noise ratio is better than any other processor I have played

I have had it fall off a stage.. I have dropped it.. I have kicked it around and left it outdoors in Florida heat... this thing is durable. no problems at all (crossing fingers)

don't know... never had a problem

I would buy it again in a heartbeat.. or maybe the rack version... I love it because I have managed to get the sound of my Marshall stack and my fender combo out of it using only a power amp and a pair of speakers... yeah, I had to spend days programming it, but now I gig with just it and my modified strat, I can even just plug through the board ... this processor is where it is at for the working musician.

This thing scared the shit out of me when i got it.. seemed so hard to use but then i fucked with it for a while and i figured it out.. not hard to edit or anything.. the manual is all complex and not very musican friendly though.. the sounds in it (presets) are good but sometimes over-wrought.

schecter 7-string avenger (see review) and a peavey half-stack (the rp20 goes into the effects loop thing).. i have the noise suppressor on all the time cause i turn my distortion on the amp all the way up all the time and i play LOUD.. the rp20 makes the amp much quieter and has much less hiss.. only thing is the wah sounds like shit. but thats probably cuz i'm using it in the effects loop instead of in front of the amp. i only use the distortion once in a while, otherwise i use my amp's distortion but i use the rp20 for everything else (EQ, whammy, chorus, reverb, delay, harmonizer, phaser, stupid sounds).. oh i play a mix of metal and industrial music with a tiny (very little) bit of hiphop thrown in (check our site at come.to/zeroband) and this really fits my sound that i want, which is a lot of the times a processed "synth" sounding tone.. but retaining that warmth of my amp that i like to have a lot of the time too.

the fucking power cord falls out all the time if you hit it, so i gotta tape that down. otherwise it is very reliable.. hope a tube don't blow. it's heavy and big and contructed very nice.

i dunno

i play afore mentioned mix of metal and industrial and this is my 3rd year playing. i compared with rocktron rack shit, some other digitechs and a boss GT-5 and a zoom something or the other, and i like this the best.. ii wish it had.. an arpeggiator.. that's about it.

Manual sucks, must play with enormously, e-mail digitech with questions and you get a detailed quick response.

WOW, WOW, WOW, this has great potential and great effects. Started with #3Wahdstock and worked on modifying settings to use second day. People were blown away. Presets are so so, but things like pre-amp 2 Death Metal Scoop can turn an amps clean channel into a metal stack(almost). The wah is better than most people say, I play blues, classic rock and original metal type music and it works great. I use an Ampeg reverbrocket 50W combo, Lone Star Strat, Epi LP Custom with Duncan Full Shreds, Jackson DR-5 with EMG 81's, and Washburn Studio A Woodstock model. This unit even makes my 15W Crate practice amp sound big. The morphing patches are great, although most presets use to much pitch shifting (not my favorite).

Used it several times at clubs, parties, etc...Just got back from Nashville after playing a couple of clubs showcasing. Very sturdy and dependable.

Needed help with programming (like I said manual sucks). E-mailed Digitech and got a thorough, timely response. So far, so good.

Love it, would buy it again. I play a variety of music and it does the job better than expected. My only real complaint is that the plug 'in' for the guitar is right in front of the expression pedal so you had bettter run all your cables under the unit or risk getting them caught in the pedal travel(bad for cords). Compared to several, way better than any in this price range. Will probably use with rack amp and cabinet combo eventually.

Ok, lots of people have complained about this one... I will agree, this unit is not to be used on the fly like it's younger RP 6 and RP 7 can be. This unit offers a LOT of control over your sound, but not only that, it can offer you just about anything but a talk box, or an arpeggiator... You have to have patience. The book doesn't help until after you've started playing with it. This thing is probably better suited to studio work, but that makes sense seeing as how it is the little brother of the GSP 2112/2120 rack processor. If you are going to use it live, luckily, there are five presets per bank, and a ton of banks, so, it's easy to move around, but forget about programming each effect type as a stomp box. Also, if you're going to use it live, get yoru sound's way before the gig. This one is also easy to get into the tuner mode, and the bypass. Over all, just have patience, cause this unit can probably do what you ask it to.

I've heard tons of complaints on this one too, but, hey, I like what it can do. Again, patience is the key. I used to run this into the input of my Fender Deluxe 112 Plus, but now, I run it into the post amp exclusively. Unfortuntely, the volume has to be adjusted w/ your hands, so keep the CC pedal programmed for volume if you can. This unit isn't really noisey, and that's even w/ the noise gate off. This unit has some built in artist presets, and to be honest, only the Stevie Ray Vaughn (Rockin SRV), David Gilmour (Run Like Heck), and Jimmy Page (Rock 'n Roll) sound faithful to their artists. My favorite preset on this is called "Ping Pong Auto Wah". This has a cool sound w/ my 57 Strat on the Mid pickup. The harmonizer/pitch shifter is much improved, and there is almost no wait now between playing and not playing. This unit also offers up to four digital effects at once, so you can have a really thick sound. Again, this thing is close to owning about 40 stomp boxes, and about as troublesome to program as 40 stompboxes. One thing taht is much improved over my other Digitech Units (RP 6, 7) is the noise gate. The noise gate was hard to even tell it was on! The preamp is strong, but the preamp presets suck, you just gotta fool around!

I have to play w/o a backup, but I do have my RP7, which has the 12ax7 preamp and the SDISC II processor, but lacks the storage capacity, or effect programming capabilites. My only conern is that this thing gets REAL HOT in the back, and I mean HOT. Too hot to touch after an hour or so of it being on. I'm worried about when the tube goes out, cause this unit doesn't seem like it's easy to pop a new tube into!

has much improved! I've asked several questions via email, and got prompt responses from them.

I'm going to cut this short. Buy it, open it up, play w/ the presets. Read the book only on how to get into the preamp/effects/assigning programming. Play for a few days, go back and read the book to see what all of those parameters do. This unit also has a compare effect feature that lets you compare the original to the new effect you've edited, over all, for what I payed for it, it was well worth it. If you can, go on and spring for the GSP 2120, since both aren't easy to program on the fly. You get an extra processor and an extra tube, and a foot controller that does the same thing as the pedal board.

I bought the RP-20 to replace my Zoom 3030. The operating system is not as simple as the 3030 but then the RP-20 is much more complex. The manual was some help, but i found that just messing around with it for a couple of hours was the best way of getting used to it. One thing that hasn't been mentioned much is the useful presets on each effect/distortion etc. These simplify things a lot. For example some reverbs have 10 pages of parameters which is quite complicated, but the presets let you find a sound that is close to the one you want and ten just tweak it slightly. You can then save it as your own preset. There are many presets for every effect, distortion etc and even whole preamps.

I'm using a Jackson Fusion EX with a DiMarzio Evolution in bridge position, through the RP-20 into a Marshall 8008 valvestate power amp and a Marshall 4x12 cab. It sounds great, especially when played loud. All the effects are good although the pitch shifting can be problematic -see below. There is not as much gain as in the Zoom, but the tube sounds are much better and less processed-sounding. I am disappointed with the solid state distortions though. Part of the reason I chose Digitech was because my friend had a Grunge pedal, but the Grunge on the RP-20 is much more tame and pathetic sounding, so I never use the solid state path at all, except for morphing patches. It has been said that the RP-20 is not suitable for metal. I disagree. I play a lot of heavy stuff, like Machine Head, Deftones, Metallica, and the sound I have is perfect. I use the tube distortion and 10-band EQ, and then a 3-band parametric EQ in the effects to get more bass and a more extreme sound - it's great loud. I also think that the wah is pretty good if the EQ is set right. I do have one complaint. I have the input gain fairly high to get maximum gain, but the pitch shifter/harmoniser needs the input gain set very low to get good tracking. As a result I use the pitch shifter very rarely, which is a shame, but I have no choice.

I had a minor problem when it first arrived but that was cured by doing a factory reset twice. I have no choice about having no backup as I spent all my money on this one.

The solid state distortions could be better and more gain overall would be nice to have if I wanted it, and it would be good if i could use the pitch shifter, but overall I am very pleased with it - I've had it about 4-5 months and I love the patches I've made. I don't know if I would buy it again. I think I would try out the Digitech 2112 before to see if the extra tube makes a lot of difference, but i'm not bothered about the greater effects capabilities - i'm happy with the RP-20's.

for somebody who hadn't done much programming prior to this effect (like myself) it was difficult at first. But after messing around for enough time you'll learn it easily enough. Basically I would have to say that it is somewhat problematic to make your own patches from scratch. I wish they'd make a patch editor like they did for the rp10 and rt12.

Using a 1963 original strat I found that I could approximate sounds I sought. The signature settings are good but nothing special in my opinion. I found that this pedal does sacrifice your tone significantly (for me, a MAJOR gripe as I have done everything I can to keep my signal pure including modifying the wiring [ not gonna say what, its my secret] in my strat, cables, etc. I found that the headroom, and pick dynamics are sacrificed. However, It's not like I don't like the unit at all. It does have some great sounds ( I especially like some of the multitapped delays in stereo). The reverbs are pretty much useless. The chorus is good as is the phaser and flanger although i'm not exactly a connoisseur of either of those. The distortions are better than the rp12 (it does have a tube - but so do lots of others and lots of them suck too) but again, Digitech: dynamics! The overal noise ratio isn't that bad, (we are talking vintage single coils here, so I can't complain THAT much) I tried it through both my marshall (4102) and fender (twin reissue), Both yielded good results although I lean towards the fender a little more as I basically think the 4102 sucks (that's another review). Overall not that bad. One last note, I tried it through my friend's 97 les paul standard and peavey bandit 112 transtube, damn did it suck.

I think that the unit is basically roadworth and would use it without a backup due to the price ( i rented it for a month, not gonna buy). However I experienced some definate preamp tube crackling which I'm sure could be rectified with a new tube, but still that was annoying.

haven't had to deal with digitech. Have heard horror stories from people working at the music store though.

Overall I find this unit to be a big compromise. It's not cheap, and some effects suck. Like for example the pitch shifter (try shifting down, tons of noticeable delay). I play mainly jazz (play professionally in a trio) and blues rock/funk, but I like to play around with crazy metal sounds too. Overall I find it to be a product with some good sounds , but not enough to justify buying it. Plus many of the sounds that were good had very little live application. Nobody would buy the preamp by itself because it just isn't that great. I'm really picky though, try it yourself, maybe you're enough of a wanker to fooled by this thing.

This is an easy processor to use. It's my first real multi-effects processor and it only took me two or three days to start getting the most out of it. You don't need the manual 99% of the time. You can get almost any sound you want in less than five minutes.

This thing is dead quiet most of the time. The noise gate is terrific. The way this thing works is it has two sections: Preamp and effects. The preamp has the compressor, wa, distortion and the distortion's eq, and noise gate. The effects section has, well, all the effects. You can run up to four at once. Even using four effects at once, it sounds great. The distortion is great, too. I play alternative and such and can get any distortion I want to on this thing! The morphing is hevenly. The only thing that is not great is the wa. You can't get sounds like Soundgarden wa solos on this. But other than that, its perfect. I would give it a "ten" if the wa was better.

I have had this for about a month, and the only thing that I have had trouble with is that sometimes when you plug it it (which, by the way, also turns it on) it doen't work at all and just hums. All you have to do is unplug it and replug it.

Very easy, very cool-sounding, very good for all styles of music exept metal. I love the tube, the distortion, and the ease of use. I spent weeks looking at the best unit under 700 and this is what I found. This product will help me while making music because it has so many effects and you can get the sound you want is a short period of time.

I bought the RP20 after having owned the RP-1 and RP-10 so I found the interface initially totally alien. Plus there's like a whole chapter missing in the manual. Anyway, it took me about a week before I really understood what it was all about, but once I did.....WOW! There is so much control of the sound that it should be possible to create any sound you want. The RP20 is basically divided into 2 sections... the preamp section and the digital section. In the preamp you have the usual parameters including compressor, wah, distortion, equaliser, and noisegate. The distortion section is unique because you have 2 paths, a tube and solid state each with its own 10 band eq. Now you can switch between the 2 paths, or combine them e.g. you can set one path up for a clean tube sound, and the other for raunchy distortion. The combinations are endless, and are particularly suited for live use where all paramaters can be assigned to a footswitch or expression pedal. You have no less than 6 assignable volume levels for dynamic control in various parts of the preamp section. Pretty mind boggling and difficult to describe in writing. Like I say, It took me a week before things finally clicked. The digital section has a useful array of chorus, phase, flange, detune, pitch-shift, tremolo, harmoniser, delay, reverb, etc...but no arpeggiator (as on the RP10)!Not that I ever used it anyway. I wont spend alot of time here because its quite straight forward. Digitech have thoughtfully provided stored presets of all the parameters, e.g.,preamp tones such as Twin Reverbs and Marshall Stacks, various eq's from warm to punchy... different compressor presets, noisegate presets right through to all the digital effect. And the presets are all named so you can identify them. You can also create, name and store your own. So you can create your own sounds by simply listening to the various presets and combining them until you get what your roughly after and then go in and tweak them to perfection!

I'm using a Fender Deluxe 112. The valve in the RP20 seems to give a tranparency dynamics and musicality to the sound that is ususally missing with a solid state amp or effect. I didn't know I was missing it until I tried the RP20. The RP10 sound dead and lifeless in comparison. Anyone wanna buy it? OK...the wah-wah is still bad...no control of the frequency..surely just a software problem. Still, its more useable that the RP10.

Well, I've read the reliabilty comments and I have to be honest..both my RP10 and RP20 broke down in the first 6 weeks. The optical sensor for for the expression pedal went on the RP10 and the RP20 had some kind of RAM problem which caused the unit to crash and reset itself thus losing all my weeks of programming. Lost more hair on that one! In both cases they were promptly and courteously repaired by Arbiter, Digitech's UK agents. The RP10 hasn't broken down since and has been very reliable at gigs. The RP20 had its first gig last week and all went well. Still, I've dumped all my programming onto computer and I bring the RP10 to the gigs as backup...just in case.

I bought the unit in the UK off this guy who had it for six weeks and found it too comlicated. When I had the trouble I emailed their customer support and they were very prompt and helpful. Thanks Bruce!

The band I'm in plays a range of songs from the 60's through to the present day. So the unit has to be versatile, easy to use live and controllable. Once programmed, the RP20 fulfills all these functions admirably. Having the valve in there I think would make it sound good through any amp. I know alot of people comment on the noise aspects od Digitech gear...but in my experience this occurs with single coil pickups and then its just a question of tweaking the noise gate. Yes I would buy it again (but not at the full UK price which is about 1.6x the US price) and there is nothing to compete with it on the market. In my opinion Digitech knocks the spots of Japanese stuff. I've owned both and so far have heard nothing to sway me.