DigiTech RP-300

The RP300 is one of the easiest to use multi-effects pedal's out there. The "analog" control knobs to change all the parameters for the digital effects chain are very intuitive. Very quick to get to a patch and edit. The patch pedals were not optimal to use. They were too close together. For live use, they might be scary to use. The tuner was OK at best and finnicky at times. I had to end up buying a Fender pedal tuner to lower my frustration level. The manual is somewhat basic but adequet. The Digitech site does have a library of user patches, but they range from awful to OK. I give the RP300 good marks for ease of use.

I used the RP300 with MIJ Fender Strat with Fat 50's pups, Ibanez S470QS, Ibanez 540S, Carvin SC90S(awesome axe). Play live into a Marshall AVT50 and do a fair amount of recording as a hobby / for my own compositions.

I originally got this pedal because I really like the ease of use, thought the range of tones were pretty good when auditioning in the store, liked the quality of construction, thought I could use it as a compact all-in-one solution. Even though I was not all that impressed with the factory patches when I auditioned it, I theorized that I could tweek to get just about anything with this pedal.

I spent about 4 months with this pedal using it daily, tweeking it over hell and high water. Used it in front of my amp and in the effects loop. Also used it direct into my PA and board for recording. In sum total, I ended up being dissapointed with the tone and sold it on eBay for $25 less than I paid for it new.

Anybody who argues that outrageous amp tone is just a tweek or two away with the RP300, is either trying to justify a conscious or subconscious mistake in buying this pedal, or just plain ignorant. Anyone who rates the quality of tone from this pedal as high plainly does not know what the hell they are talking about. Range of amp sim tone IS awesome, but quality is subpar vs. other alternatives. The amp sims, while offering a very foggy rendition of the real thing, tended to suffer from "digititus" and were sterile / lifeless. I think if you play nu-metal, the Mesa / Hi Gain patches might be more than adequent and you could be very happy, but if you play nu-metal, does tone really matter? I think the best way to summarize the amp sims is that they are like listening to a CD through a cheaper stereo. You can recognize the tone, but it falls way short of being convincing.

Going down the effects chain, I did find the pickup simulator to be very useful. The compressor and noise gate worked pretty well too. The spacial effects were pretty good, especially the reverb and delays. The array of effects is truely headspinning and pretty well thought out. The expression pedal was a disappointment. No way I could get close to the tonal expression of a Vox V847 or Cry Baby with this pedal. When I ultimately became frustrated with the amp sims, I thought I could keep this pedal just for a killer effects pedal by turning off the pre-amp. Despite trying it in front of my amp and in the effects loop and wasting WAY too much time tweeking, I had to dismiss this pedal even as an effects pedal. It sucks tone and is undynamic vs. other alterntives. I have a Behringer DSP1000 for reverb(in Aux bus on my mixer ... don't use this in-line!) and a old 1985 ANALOG Rockman Stereo Chorus / Delay for comparison. Again, these are in another league in terms of effects quality and they don't suck tone and dynamics.

After I had this pedal for a few months and was increasingly getting more frustrated, I bought a Tech21 NYC GT2 for $70 off of eBay in an attempt to get better amp sims and tonal range in playing both live and for direct recording. Holy CRAP! The GT2 BLOWS away the RP300 for amp sims and distortion tone! Sure it does not have the preset capability, etc., but if you want tone, the GT2 will let you know what a amp sim pedal SHOULD sound like. I also ended up comparing the RP300 directly with the Behringer V-AMP2 that my brother has. Again, no competition. The V-AMP2 blows the RP300 away, but it too suffers from some level of sterility after you play it for awhile. I felt similar about the POD 2 (but want to hear the PODxt).

I had no issues with this pedal during the 4 months I had it. I think it would stand up to mild abuse, but I would worry about the patch pedals standing up to a nu-metal monster smashing up the stage. Overall though, with the metal case I think this would stand up better than most other multi-effects pedals.

Never had to use customer support. The website seems pretty decent. If I kept the pedal, I doubt I would have needed customer support.

I'm 43 years old and have been playing heavily / daily / religiously for 3 years. I play hard rock, 80's metal, some blues. I play in a band and have auditioned a ton of stuff through new found friends that I play with. Like I noted previously, I ended up selling this pedal. It just did not work out for me. However, I think at the price point it might work for others. If you want a RANGE of sounds (or call it tone if you like), the RP300 is hard to beat at the price point. If you are a budding guitar player and want alot to play with or play covers in a "lounge" type environment, than this is one to look at. Still the Behringer V-AMP and POD2 will be a better choice, but there is no expression pedal and they are not that well set up for live. Also, the SansAmp GT2 is something to check out. I have had that pedal for 4 months and it STILL blows me away in terms of amp sim tone. If you want to play searing leads with alot of dynamic expression and organic tone, don't buy the RP300, RP200, RP100, RP50.

Overall, for $199, the RP300 presents an interesting value. It is amazing what functionality is packed into this box, and the ease of use is very good. Just make sure you cut through all of the hype and map out what your goals are as a player before dropping your hard earned $$$ down. You have to do some direct comparisons over a period of time to really get to the bottom of what the RP300 is and what it is not.

I wouldn't have bought a multi-effects processor if it weren't absolutely simple to operate. I figured it out while still in the store, without the manual. A couple hours at home with the manual and I had it mastered.

You get TONS of effects, and although none of them are extremely above par (though the digital whammy is superior to my analog one), none of them are far below par, and all have many parameters to customize the sound. I like.

It's sturdy for it's size, but I wouldn't be as harsh with it as I would with say a Tone-Lok. If you aren't a jerk to your equipment, it'll last. Gig with it? Sure, if that's what suits you.

n/a

All in all, NO, IT'S NOT PERFECT. But if you don't have all the money in the world, but you want the ability to have virtually any combo of amp+effect+delay etc, this IS A WORTHY BUY. I'm still going to get new effects, but if your slate it nearly clean (or only distortion pedals) and you need FX, this is it. I'm happy.

OK overall this is a good product. It is easy to use by Far you can pretty will figure it all out by yourself. However i would read the manual because you may miss some features that you don't know about. One minor problems though THE PEDALS ARE TOO SMALL i can't stress that enouth. you may end up pushing to pedals at once. So i taped up a cassette case and taped it onto the channel switch so i can just switch between channels while playing from clean to overdrive and then between songs i just find my preset for whatever song i will be playing.

Sound is also great their is enouth amps types to get whatever sound you need. The Stack model is my favorite I have heard a JCM 2000 many times and it is almost pretty well right on. It anit noisey at all even with all gains cracked. Thanks to the built in noisegate which can be a little slow but takes care of the problem. All the effects are good my friend uses a cry baby wah and i use my rp 300 almost right on. I don't use alot of effect but im sure they are all right on. I use a 2000 Fender Strat guitar and a Fender princeton 65 amp i found it worked best because of the clean fender tone however on a peavey bandit 112 I would of use the bandits distrotion rather than pedals.

I depend on it for everything practice, gigs, jamming you name it i have used it there and never let me down yet. I never have a backup if it breaks down im screwed but so far it anit broke down yet :)

Never dealt with them had no reason to this pedal was great for day one

Overall i love this effects processor everyone should have one

It's kind of hard to figure out on your own, but is alot easier to use once you read the manual.

The footswitches are really close together, so some people might have problems with them (like switching from channel A to B you might hit the other pedal that changes the effect).

The expression pedal is a little trickey to use at times ... you have to use alot of pressure to turn it on / off sometimes and other times you might not have to use as much pressure to use it (it's never consistant).

I bought this pedal to use as a multi-effects unit to use with my amp so I wouldn't have to use as many pedals ... more on that latter.

It sounds OK, if you change all the EQ's on each channel / effect, to match your amp's already existing EQ.

After I set all the effects to my liking, I foundthat it was not very useful to use in a situation where you are the only guitarist and are going to switch effects alot.

But one thing this box is good for, is to use it as a preamp box to run directly into the soundboard (for live and recording purposes), but you will still have to play around with each channel's EQ to suit your needs / sound.

Some effects sound really good and some don't sound good at all.

It looks like it will hold up well as long as you don't stomp on it.

I've never delt with them but they have a great website with lots of info.

I've been playing the guitar for over 10 years and own lots of gear.

It's not a bad pedal to use as a preamp (after you've EQ'ed everything to your liking) for direct line in soundboard use (for live playing and reocording).

Not that great to use as a stand alone multi-effects unit (as long as you are not going to switch effects alot).

I've had this pedal for almost two years and it still dissapoints the hell out of me. I'll even "forget" about it for a couple weeks just to get that "brand new" feeling when I pull it out again and play but that never works. So I YES, even tried to like this thing. IT IS VERY EASY to create and edit patches. I lost the manual but from what I remember it was understandable...

I ran this pedal through the clean channel of a Fender M-80 stereo Chorus amp with my trusty Jackson AT1. A REAL Jackson made in the USA. I've been playing lead guitar for 6 years-rock, and metal and I know good tone when I hear it. The sound quality is just a real downer and uninspiring. All the effects this pedal has (and there's a bunch) just lose their sense of purpose after awhile. My beef with this pedal is:

-distortion is weak, thin, *tiny*. no matter what the hell you do to it

-EQ does absolutley nothing.

-EVERY PRESET WILL EAT YOUR GUITAR'S TONE AND POOP IT OUT MAKING "CRAP TONE"

-when switching from patch to patch there is a pause in between. NOT COOL...BUT each patch does have amp channel switching for each patch. This means you can set up a good clean tone and a chunky rythym tone in the same patch and switch between them without leaving the patch-THIS does not have the pause when you switch, thoug.

-the wah pedal sucks. it basically has 3 uses when the wah effect is activavted: 1. OFF (pedal is in normal up position) 2.ON (pedal is rocked completeley forward) 3.KINDA ON (pedal is rocked forward and back) THIS PEDAL HAS NO RANGE WHATSOEVER. IT IS LAME.

-Did I mention that the damn wah pedal squeaks when you step on it, too?

-Assignable wah pedal can be used to control other things like volume, depth or speed, for chorus, delay, flanger, reverb, blah, blah...a good idea. I'm sure it looked better on paper.

-I couldn't seem to recreate any well sought after guitar tones with this garbage in a box

-tuner sucks-pedals to close together because you accidentaly engage the Learn-A-Lick when you're not supposed to (i.e in the middle of a gig while you stand there looking like a fool)
I'm just bitching so I'll tell you the good things about this pedal.
Uh..nope...nothing good. Let's move on.

It's in a sturdy metal/plastic combo frame. So, after you've wasted 3 hours trying to dial in a decent sound you can throw it against the wall and it may not break into a thousand pieces...But it seemed to work every time I plugged it in.

Never dealt with Digitech. I did blow out the Adaptor it came with and you CANNOT buy a generic adaptor for it. They don't make them, even at Radio Shack. So you have to order it from Digitech and after 4 weeks and 25 bucks you can start wasting your time again with this pedal.

Like I said, I tried to like this pedal and get my money's worth but it just couldn't happen. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND this pedal to anyone who's even half-assed serious about sounding better. This is really a beginnner's pedal and I hate myself for buying it. Hell, those cheaper Zoom processors are better. If you already have a good rig and are looking for a bunch of effects with wah in one package don't buy this. Take some cans and bottles back and find something else like a REAL Digitech with a tube preamp in it or a Boss processor. Like I also mentioned, this pedal produces crap tone and I will say "I told ya so" after you by this and hate it.

This thing is easy to use. I see these "read the manual or you're screwed" comments, and while that would be a good idea, it was not necessary for me. I found it very easy to use. The manual is excellent, though. Really well put-together and very informative. So . . . if you buy it and can't figure out, definitely read the manual (and also, read up on how to operate a door knob correctly - you might need to know how to do that someday as well).

Ok, here is my main beef. Maybe it's just me, but I have not found a way to create different effects settings for separate channels within a given preset (& I don't think it's just me). That SUCKS and pretty much makes this thing to where one has to create seperate presets, which kind of doesn't flow when you switch them, as the volume levels on the thing bug out. That knocks it down a point or so, and the crazy volume switching even another. This thing will *never* be level when you switch it, no matter how much you want this to happen.

If you are looking for a tool to control your live show, there are ups and downs to it. A lot of separate tones/effects/etc. to use (versatility-GOOD), but you would have to be really quick to be able to switch these off in a "real-time" situation (little control-BAD).

It is simple to figure out, but there are some very annoying things you cannot get around once you do figure it out. For the price, I guess this is to be expected? Great for home recording/practice, could be MUCH better for live situations.

I use a buddy's 90s Standard Paul (ooooh, don't touch)/late 80s Ibanez (God I f**in love Ibanez!)/a respectible American Tele through a Peavy212SC (a decent solid state combo). Used to be a JCM800 (sigh) . . . I often pratice straigh through the headphone jack though (ah, the joys of domestication!), sounds pretty decent one way or another (ie, they both have sweet spots . . . finding them, why that's your job). I play many different styles . . . this pedal can do about anything I imagine. It is a very versatile FX processor.

Amp Modeling is . . . okay. Let me explain what I mean by that. You know, I wouldn't say one damned setting sounds like what it is going for, but they are good in their own right . . . (I mean, seriously, do you expect a Matchless DC-30, VOX AC 30 sound out of a pedal?) If you have a good tube amp, by the way, you probably are wasting your time using this thing, as I truly believe it messes with your amps true sound, even if you bypass it. I repeat, this thing will NOT make a Crate practice amp sound like a Matchless DC-30/65 TwinReverb/whatever, I don't care what the manual says. And if you believe for a second that it might (or that a POD will, or a Line 6 amp), maybe you should stay away from the piranahs at Guitar Center until you learn more about the instrument.

I am surprised to hear the distortion effects aren't well appreciated . . . they aren't THAT bad . . . I mean, the rectifier setting is probably why 80 % of the people are buying these modeling thingys. The variety of gain you can get by adjust the gain knobs is piss poor, it goes from muddy clean to brutal. NO in between, which blows as that could really redeem this processor and make it much more organic. As it is, this thing is VERY digital. Hey, I mean, it's digital, if you are not expecting this, then you need to wake up and get over it.

Noisy . . . HELL yes! And the noise gate is, IMHO, crap, it cuts out half the notes you play. If you care about dynamics, turn the damn noise gate off and get a real one. There is a happy medium to be found. The Wah is worthless. God, I've never heard a worse excuse for a wah pedal in my life. It is about as limp and impotent as a wah can get. If you want to play wah based music, drop a little bread for a good wah pedal.

Other than that, most of the affects are good (actually, GREAT) . . . although a couple (I'm looking in your direction YaYa/AutoYah . . .) are just wierd and pretty useless unless your band covers Peter Frampton (and why the hell would they do that???)

Speaking of covers, if you are in a cover band, this would be a FANTASTIC tool. I believe the whammy, delay chorus, etc. are great. I mean, if you want to cover Rage, this thing delivers, so long as you can get that sort of crunch on your own. It can do Thrash/Power Metal excellent. Death Metal is easy. Modern metal ala Rammstein/SOAD, it excels here. Pink Floyd, it can do it if you know how. Hardcore/Surf/Ska, pick your flavor of Punk . . . this sucker whips ass. It does grunge, does jazz sub-par, but it works. You can play some good old s&*tkickin country on itl. It could do adult contemporary and gospel too (I guess, don't know why not, but I wouldn't be caught dead using it for that crap . . . plenty of crappy church-band guitarists in other reviews). It is a little weak in AC/DC, SRV, blues type stuff, though, although strangely I can get dead on Stones sounds out of it (too bad I don't dig the Stones). I usually go my own way, but if you want to sound like other people, check out the patches on Digitech's web site.

The acoustic sim is garbage, get an acoustic guitar, you'll want one anyway someday. It's a different sonority, you cannot get your electric to sound like an acoustic, and vice versa.

I would probably give it a 7.5 if that were an option, I mean, this does not rate a "9" on sound quality. Sound does not deserve an A, maybe a B-.

Definite problems here. I have had a problem, and reading other reviews, so have other people, with the pedal sticking. These things come from the factory tight as hell. They squeak and click when you use it. If this were at a show, that shit would surely pick broadcast through your amp. *Let's not even talk about what would happen if your big feet turned on the dumb "Learn a Lick" feature*

If your pedal does this, don't take it apart. Their is a screw on the side with which you can adjust the tension. Cover the entire unit with 3in1 oil, you will not have this problem again.

Outside of that, will this thing take a beating?? Probably not, it looks like it's made mostly out of laminated plastic.

A different outlook on "Reliability" . . . can you rely on this thing not to make an ass out of you in front of a club full of people? My answer would be . . . probably not. Like I said earlier, you would have to be on your toes to use this thing live. And Dear God help you if you should happen to turn on the silly "Practice features" in the middle of a song. Picture the kind of "Neato" drum tracks they used to put on $40 Casio keyboards from Wal_Mart (How about a little "Maching Music/Basa Nova" under that nice, introspective emo ballad you wrote).

Haven't dealt with them. Don't know when I would get to the point to actually call with anything I couldn't figure out myself. Their website is great.

Overall, it gets a C+ *WITH PROMISE*. Don't tell the thing it might be President some day, it is be a middle manager at a Propane store. But, hey, you get what you pay for, and it is definitely a steal for it's price.

I have been playing for 12(?) years, been in a few bands . . .popped my cherry in a Clash-ish rock band, played garage rock, a hardcore band that went places before self destructing, all kinds of thrash metal bands, some jam quartets, yada yada. I'll probably be in a few more.

If it were stolen, I probably would sigh, and save up some money for a good amp (which I should do anyway). It's a good pedal, and a great deal. What else are you going to do with $199, start a college fund?

The RP300 has more features, and more parameters to adjust than the RP200 which i owned for about a week, because it didn't work well; but i had faith in the RP300 and i didn't dissapoint me, the preset patches, most of them are good, some are totally useless.
Editing patches is pretty easy. The manual is easy to understand, no problems there.

I'm using an IBANEZ RG120 through the RP300 and to a KUSTOM KG16R amplifier(which i got as an exchange for the RP200).
With the the higain, stacked, and rectifier patches at full gain is when u get the noisiest, but besides that no real noise problems.
I like the Vswitch feature on it because it allows me turn on the wah when i want to and not for all the patch. And the amp AB switch is great too.
The most useless effects on the RP300 for me at least, are the synthtalk and YAYA effects.
Some sounds are difficult to get accurately because of all the parameter changes u would have to do, but all in all it's good.

I think i can depend on it. Nothing has gone wrong with it for now.

For all the effects and features there's no beating the price.
I'm an on and off player for 2 and a half years, and this is the second multieffect unit i've owned and it definitely beats it by far a zoom 505MKII.
I wish it we're bigger though cause sometimes i step on the wrong switches when i'm not looking and that could cause a problem.
I'm into prog-metal and the sounds it provides are pretty good for what i'm looking for.

Pretty simple. It looks strange if you've never used one before, but once you check out the manual, it makes sense. Editing is simple, once you check the manuel.

I have a junky BCRich, and an alvarez acoustic. Thats it. With a good guitar, it sounds good. With a bad guitar---bad sound. Not real bad, but it adds effects, it doesn't give your guitar a new sound. Noise? Ha. Ever try using an acoustic for distortion? Well, I have. Noise. Ha feedback that drives you crazy. Sound men hate me. The effects are good, some are tough to use. Its individual opinion mainly. Sounds of my favorite artist are pretty simple. (i.e. DCtalk, alltogetherseperate)

Seems reliable, but I have a huge suggestion. Why dont they give you an optional way to disable learn-a-lick! I turned it on once, while playing in front of people, and in a cold sweat tried to turn it off. It seems funny now. I ended up unplugging it and plugging it back in. Of course, the sound men hated that cause its like unplugging your guitar. BOOM!BOOM! Then after like a 30 second break in music, I did my intro. But realibilty should be fine. Not a boss, but its solid plastic-metal type stuff. Squeky pedal, but its fixible.

Dont know, heard its good. Very decent website

I play anything from contemporary christian to lite rock stuff. For those who dont know, contempory christian isn't hymns! :-) It's like metal. Any of you live in central Oh?radio- 88.7 Heavy as any of your stuff! I've been playing for 8 years-since I was 7---yep, im that young but I love it. If it were stolen, I'd be heartbroken cause I'm trading it in any day for a Boss GT-6. I love the size, I hate the feedback(im using an acoustic for almost everything remember---stop laughing! I'm not a rich 15yr old kid!)It really will help your music. If ive turned you away from it, I didn't mean too. :-) Why is it so much easier to talk about the bad stuff? Its good, not the best, but it works. Try it, if you like it, buy it. It's a really opinionated thing. But thats Digitech

After years of trying to figuire MIDI programming and even using my digital recording studio, this unit is a breeze to work with. Without reading the manual I was able to quickly firgure out how to edit patches and create new ones.

Overall, I really like the sound of the unit. My main criticism of the sound lies in the distortion/gain. 0-20 is very precise and you quickly loose sustain without the compressor on. 20 on sounds almost the same- pretty intense distorion. Given the range of the gain I would have liked to find a nice dirty but not heavy distortion sound. I am still playing with the programming of the unit so I may stumble across better settings that accomplish my goal given more time.

I am running the pedal straight out into the sound board of our church P.A. It sounds really nice on most settings, but as others have mentioned, some of the presets have a bit of noise in them. I really like the 3 band EQ onboard and find it really easy to quickly adjust my sound. For some reason I always struggle with getting a good mid range sound on amps but am able to do that with this unit.

I am still working on tweaking the presets to get the sound of my favorite artits. Like I mentioned, the main challenge is getting the just barely audible distortion sound or the average rock guitar sound. The unit likes to quickly jump into full blown heavy metal sound if you aren't careful.

I have packed the unit back and forth to several rehearsals so far and have had no problems with reliability. I feel like it is built pretty well.

As I was trying out the unit in the store the factory rep happened to be cruising by. He spent a half hour with me showing me the ins and outs of the unit. I was very impressed. I feel like I will get excellant service should I need it in the future.

I play exclusively Christain Rock these days and find the unit to be a good match. I can go from the dirty sound of Sonic Flood to the more the driving guitars of the Newsboys without trouble. The clean sounds are also pretty decent.

I have been playing for over 25 years and want to pass on that you current players have no idea how great you have it with pedals like these. I would spend an hour or more dialing in the old effects pedals to even come close to some of the factory presets. On top of that, I was paying $75+ a pedal so paying $190 for a pedal that has the overdrive, delay, chorus, reverb, compression etc. onboard is a major bargain in my mind.

One final note to all you would be woodshedders. The unit allows you to plug in a CD player and mixes your guitar into the playback so you can practice with the band. It also included the ability to record 10 seconds worth of a solo and slow it down so you can learn it. Combined with the onboard basic drum machine you get a great live unit and a practice unit that performs awesome.

If you want to get a great sound out of this pedal, you have to work with it. Reading the manual is a must to figure out how to program it. It was tough at first but now I can edit patches no problem.

I use the pedal with a Jackson going through a Crate 80W amp. I also hook up an Ibanez TS9-DX and sometimes a Boss Metal Zone. Most of the distortion sounds are kinda bad, and Rectify is very noisy. I do not use the on board distortions. I find it works best if you diable amp modeling and use your own distortion/drive, and jst use the pedal for the effects. The effects are pretty good but you don't have the level of control you get with single-effect pedals. I guess that's true of any multi-effects unit though.

I haven't had any problems with the pedal yet. As long as you don't over-abuse it I don't think it would fail you. However, I did have a friend with one that just stopped working correctly. I don't know why, but it made me wonder if it could happen to mine too.

For the money, you're not going to find a much better multi-effects pedal than this. If you're looking for a cheap yet high quality effects unit, this is the one for you. However, if you don't plan on using the distortions, I reccommend looking at the RP-200. I never use the amp-switching, and rarely the wah switch, however, if you like to play around, it might be worth it to throw in the extra cash.