DigiTech RP-300

Had it for a veeery long time...

First thing??s first: this is a BEGINNER-INTERMEDIATE guitar player??s piece of equipment.

I strongly recommend it for beginners who want to explore what effects are all about. This thing contains pretty much everything there is out there in terms of live sound processing, for a good price.

ease of use: Very straight forward, the matrix system is a smart way of getting around the abundance of things you can do with this little thing.

Ok... sound quality is overall POOR. And keep in mind I say this with great affection that I have for this little thing, since its my first ever effects unit and has been with me through my years of learning to play and its eventual replacement by decent stomp boxes, which is pretty much the pattern any guitar player will go through.

Up to 95% of the featured sounds are almost comic. I mean, they give you almost every imaginable effect out there packed in 1 piece of equipment for some $250... what do you expect?

BUTTTTT
Like most things out there, there is ONE thing the RP300 does SURPRISINGLY WELL! And this is the emulation of the Fender Twin Reverb, the (BLCKFCD-something). Configure your own sound, leave out everything else the unit offers you, except the amp simulation left on, with selected BLCK-something (its the first choice that comes up). Now connect that into ANY (may be ****ty, whatever) amp, and its bound to improve the sound that comes out TREMENDOUSLY.

Another great feature is that it gives you headphones stereo output, so you can practice at home, or even connect into the Line In of your PC, download some freeware recording program (strongly recommend Audacity, its free as well) and start laying down in stereo format your ideas that might pop up at home.

For sound quality it gets a 5 from me, because, really you cannot show up infront of more than 50 people and offer them the sounds that come out of the RP300... It wont get a 1-2 because of the surprisingly (and exclusively) successful emulation of the Twin Reverb and for the great, clean, cleaer stereo headphone output mix that it can give you, which can be handy for a number of things.

Well, like most people seem to have noticed, after a while the pedals will give up. Usually this will happen after a couple of years. But by that time, you most likely would have, either given up guitar, or progressed and started looking into building your collection of decent stomp boxes.

N/A

At the end, this unit will stay at home with you, and just serve you to practice with your headphones, or help you plug very nicely into your PC to lay down ideas.

Strongly recommend it for beginners!

Nice work from Digitech to give an idea to the beginning guitar player an idea of what effects can do for you, for a decent price.

Pretty easy to use actually, most of it is pretty self explanatory and if in doubt the manual is pretty informative. That said I would like to use the detune feature a little more but it is over-complicated.

I really like the sounds, unlike some users I think the distorted sound is pretty good, and the clean sound is brilliant too. I mainly play thrash and hardcore and the rectifier setting, with a little tweaking is perfect for this. I use chorus and delay effects a fair bit and these both sound great

Here is the RP300's downfall, as many others have said the pedals are terribly bad quality and I've had the back off it countless times, I've finally fixed it by glueing small rubber peices to the inside of the back behind the microswitches so that I get a positive contact every time. Also I've been through 2 AC adaptors so far, on one the plastic just disintegrated (when plugged in somewhere it shouldn't have broken!?), and one just stopped working.
I would NEVER gig with this thing, it's fine for bedroom playing or the studio but it would scare me to death to think that I would be relying on this when gigging!

When I rang them about the pedals they were pretty good actually and even offered to send me the microswitches for free, although once I looked into it that wasn't the problem anyway. Trying to get an adaptor is another matter, don't even ask in a Digitech dealer, they NEVER stock them and will not break up pedal with an adaptor to help you out, I was MOST annoyed especially as I had a practice the next day & ??30 for an AC adaptor is more than a little excessive, I feel!

As I have said the sounds themselves are not a problem for the music I play, however the build quality isn't great and I think i will be buying a different unit when funds allow!

This is a good pedal, easy to get many, many sounds out of it. Way better then the new RP-300A that replaced it... i'd rather have the presets they already have then a bunch of artists i dont really play. Manual is good. Version 1.0. not upgraded

Using the patch library on the digitech website, can get plenty of sounds. excels in a mesa/boogie rectifier tone, but with some chorus and delay, a good tube-y tone can be had. Using an ESP LTD EC-1000 through a somewhat shitty crate amp. very quiet--noise gate works well.

Here's where it fucks up. the amp A/B channel switching button broke, so i had to open it up and bridge the connection between the footswitch and the little button inside, must be a shitty design. also, the input jack gets a little loose over time, and the connection no longer works without a little bit of jiggling. with some time i can probably bend back the little metal connection. if i can fix these well, i'd use it without a backup.

never did.

i play a lot of classic rock, as wlell as some contemporary heavy stuff, and it works well. i'd probably buy it again.

Not too easy to change individual patch settings on the fly.

Need the manual initially. Never used the record/whatever feature - don't know how/why.

Fender American Strat/Epiphone Les Paul Standard --> RP300 --> Practice amp (Marshall)

You need a damn good guitar to get a good sound out of this thing. But then, if you have a damn good guitar, you dont need this to get a good sound out of it anyway :)
Distortion sucks. In all my lead patches, I had to include a type of cabinet mic in my Amp modeller setting.
U really need to work on the Eq settings. Very unpredictable. You change your guitar and the whole tone composition changes (not in the pleasant way).

Delay is good (duh!)... i think, all in all, you need to tweak just abt every small setting before it gives you not more than TWO usable and pleasing tones.

That said, I think it's a nice piece to experiment as a beginner/intermediate guitarist. Know the functions, know the meaning of things like compression, noise suppression, gain, etc.

Use it for an year or two and then switch to better stuff.

It's been quite reliable. No issues over the three years i had it. I used it like a tin can... but it still sees the light of the day. But, i've always perceived effects pedals lack sturdiness and predictability.

N/A

Like I said, you can get only about TWO good tones from this thing. That's with using super guitars/pick-ups.

I play mainly classic rock. I couldnt get any transparency through this in terms of tone and dynamics. I switched to stompboxes as soon as I was ready and over the RP300.

easy to manipulate except for the drum loop thingy.. it would've been better if it could be turned on and off with a footswitch.

can the rp300 be upgraded ?!

clean---> good
distortion --> garbage
the weakest effect it has is the whammy.. completely inaccurate..

i used it in front of 500 persons and didn't fail me..
except when there's low electricity.. it's uncontrolable..

i play blues and rock .. so it fits me perfectly.
i own a gt3 boss but i prefer this one on it .

Very easy to use.

Pretty good...but the amp modeling is not really what they say it is.

Not as reliable as the better-built pedals. This is a beginners pedal for sure...but do not rely on it lasting a very long time. PLastic is not condusive to long-lasting product.

Plastic crap...nothing more to say.

this thing is really easy to figure out, i got it without a booklet, so i had to mess around until i got all the effectys down, it took about a week.

i use an epiphone explorer that i have put seymour duncan distortion HB pickups into (cause epiphone ones sound bad no matter what) and a Kramer Randy Rhodes V. I use this pedal through a Fender Super Reverb-Amp (1968 175watt tube amp) and a Marshall MG250DFX. this pedal is ok i guess, through the marshall alone i cannot solve the problem of having no mid knob on the cab, it sounds muddy no matter what i do, through just the fender, i get a weird distortion from the tubes nwhen it is clean. through both, it balances out (i think it has more to do withe the difference in amp than the pedal.)

the effects are ok, some sound really cheesy and fake, others sound fine.

i have never used this live, but i have left it running for days on end without it failing, i just turn on the amp and play. Because i have never used it live i couldn't tell you how it would fare.

never dealt with them.

i normally play everything from Progressive (dream theater, etc..) to classical (J.S. Bach) so in the terms that i needed a multi-effects it is ok, i could have done better... but the price was just right for me. i got it for trading a broken epiphone mini-bodied explorer that had a messed up bridge and a useless pickup. i think compared to actual individual effect pedals it doesn't stand a chance, but i think that can be said for any muti-effects, it can't possibly have enough circuitry to effectivly duplicate each individual effect without having some limitation, otherwise it'd be 6 feet long, weigh 50 pounds and have a bajillion settings.

It's usable straight out of the box with the presets. As with everyone, I started to mess around with the knobs without glancing in the manual and got some good sounds out of it. I recommend looking at the manual cause it clears some things up.

Easy to program and lots of space to save them. Also, the digitech website has forums where you can get settings other people use or submit your own, so it's as easy as dialing one in if you're too lazy to mess around with it.

The V-switch for the wah or volume is excellent and so easy to use. The tuner is not very accurate, but good for on-the-fly use.

This is where it has its high and low points. I own a Fender Strat, a Gibson SG and an LTD.

For just practicing in my bedroom it was pretty good. I used a Peavey Envoy 110, and set all the countour knobs (bass, mids, treble) on my amp to zero and used the EQ on the unit and it sounded good.

As soon as you take it to a band practice situation, you start to see some pitfalls. When playing really loud, the distortions sound really buzzy and the cleans sometimes overpower the amp creating some solid-state distortion (aaarrgh!!) when strummed hard. The cabinet simulators are no good if you're using an amp. Probably good for DI recording but I never tried it.

I used it live twice (see Reliability for more) and played it through the P.A. system my singer uses at practice (a B-52) and it sounded better when I used the cabinet emulator than using it with an amp.

Some of the effects were useless to me (Ya-ya, autowah) but some were cool, such as the whammy. The noise gate was not very good - it cut out your sustain and you can still hear some buzzing at moderate volumes. Feedback is still possible with the noise gate engaged - even in clean!.

Overall, it is very good for the price and has everything you need and more, but if you're stepping out to the stage, I don't think this is for you - unless you're willing to do some mondo tweaking to get the right sounds.

Like I said, I used it live twice. It's quite a hassle because of the AC power only, you need an extension cord at the front of the stage with you. Also, stepping on the power cord (at least on mine) will easily pull the cord out of the power input on the unit - so place those wires carefully!

That being said, it's built pretty solid and could probably withstand some abuse.

After about 6 months, I noticed that the plastic pedals wouldn't work. It was totally random. One day it would be the UP, the next the DOWN and even the A/B switch. Now, it only shifts UP. I don't remember how long I had it before the DOWN pedal got stuck. So no access to the tuner or bypass.

I now pack it in my gigbag as a backup, in case my gigging amp dies (hasn't happened yet, knock on wood) on stage.

Dealt with them once, very fast reply to my email, but haven't contacted them since. I bought it used, so I never had a guarantee...

I play mostly hard rock, sometimes heavy and sometimes soft. I bought this because I wanted an all-in-one unit woth everything I needed. It did its job but I outgrew it. I would never use it live again (hopefully I won't have to!).

Useful tool to discover what effects you need. I realized that I only used the phaser, wah, chorus and two others, so I didn't need a multieffect unit anymore. I now have those individual pedals and a volume pedal plugged into a Hughes&Kettner halfstack.

If you need it for practice in the bedroom, I recommend it. But once you move on, you'll discover you probably want to upgrade or get rid of it entirely.

Best digital effects , in my opinion , come from a unit such as this when played at a soft volume through a solid state amp. So, if you use a tube amp, or play louder than say a home stereo, you need to modify the preset settings a bit.

Compared to other units such as this, the RP is easy to use and about as easy to understand as any of those multi efx processors, which are many.

The manual was very helpful, but if you just get to know the face display enough you can figure out how to tweak the settings easy enough.

By the way, reviewer before me, it's not that you must turn the knobs to zero, it's that you must turn them beyond the current value before the knob changes the parameter.

Sound quality is again great through a solid state amp, kinda hissy with tube amb, plus a steady soft buzz resembling flourescent lighting 60 cycle buzz.

Be sure to modify the settings for NO REVERB, unless again you play a very low levels. When amplified, the reverb ruins everything.

Likewise, the cabinet modeling, and pick up modeling is accurate, but it's a waste of time if you play in a live band. Better to not employ any modeling if you have a guitar amp.

Just use the RP 300 for the efx. Distortions are excellent! I use the sweep pedal for the gain level so I am always in control of how much crunch without going back to tweak the guitar amp.

Reliability not so good for me. I am a careful user and treat my gear with livng care. And yet, this week marks the second failure I've had in about 100 gigs. That's 2 too many.

The first problem happened after about 1 year, when the sweep pedal stopped working for (only) the Wah effect (which is supposed to be available on every stored setting). Only the wah stopped working. After tons of trial and error I fixed it on my own.

This week the failure was one of the 3 pedals stopped incrementing. Which is a major problem, because not only can you not increment, you cannot BYPASS nor get to TUNER mode either!

No experience with the company.

But I'm trying to get a replacement micro switch now.

I play classic rock, blues, country, gospel and jazz.

If I had to replace it , I would consider another similar unit that is less noisy through the tube amp.

Otherwise I like the RP300 a lot. Especially the assignable sweep.

I don't use any presets, only my own mods.

Pretty easy really. I only had it for a while before I sold it. I didn't get the hang (our the point) of the LFO stuff. It took a bit to realize that you have to turn the knobs to zero to actually change the parameters. I kept turning to no avail. On the whole, easy to use.

I did like the ability to switch amp/cab models and EQ and keep your reverb, delay, and effects in a patch.

Also, when you start off, the expression pedal gets squeakier and squeakier, almost to the point of being as loud as the guitar. Use some WD-40. Your expression pedal won't work for about a day, but it won't squeak again once it works.

Lots of effects, more than you really need. Great in terms of quantity...

Uh, not too good in the quality department. I'll start with what's good:

-Wah is OK
-Rotary, Vibrato, Tremolo, Chorus, and the Tape Echo are pretty good.
-Boutique amp model is OK I guess. So is the Fuzz.

Now what sucks:

-Amp models: Awful. The cleans are terrible, and so are the distortions. These are truly horrible and tinny. Don't even get me started on the Rectifier.
-Phasing is pretty bad, as is the reverb. The rest is mediocre.

I guess it's okay if you're at a gig and no one cares if the Mesa Boogie model acurately conveys your technique.

This thing used to scare me to death. The pedals gave out one day. I opened it up and found that the pedals didn't actually press the little plastic buttons. I had to scotch tape the components in place.

Used to use it in gigs, but the thing just scared the crap out of me. I was afraid it would give out on me in the middle of a song.

Never used it.

I play experimental stuff, so if I couldn't hear very well, this would be optimum with all the variety you can get.

However, if you have more than $200, which most of you probably do, get something else. I'm not a very big fan of multi-effects units anyway.

If you want to learn about different effects, give it a try, but don't expect to get great vintage sound.