DigiTech RP-300

Easy once you read the book

I use various strats, pauls, tele's and a few I hand built. going through the fx loop of any amp makes this unit silent when idling.But running through the front end of any older non fx loop amps (aka) Super Reverbs Twins, etc, the unit is noisy, and because the effects are lined up for optimum sound you can't put the gate at the end of the line.

two years old and so far so good

have not met them yet

After 40 years .....you name it, I've probably played it. I would not buy it again based on the noise problems at rest( hissing)

The digitech RP300 is a multi-effects pedal with 40 different emulated guitar voices on-board. It is fairly easy to use, but certain features are very annoying, like the fact that you have to scroll through 20 setting to get from 1 to 20. Also the fact that the tone controls automatically re-set themselves each time you switch to a new voice, but the actual knobs stay in place. This means that until you turn the knob, it has no bearing on the sound. This feature took me a while to figure out, and was the source of some frustration.

The RP300 is a great unit for multi-effects... if you're 13 years old. Anyone who has ever heard what a real guitar amp sounds like will be disappointed by the cheap, fake sounding emulations in this pedal. The only good ones were the really heavy settings, and they were all the same. I think if I had any problems with mine, the one thing that bothered me was the sound quality.

The unit itself seemed built like a tank. It's metal, and quite sturdy. Unfortunately, the ac adaptor on mine broke after one year of use, and no other adaptors work. For this reason and others listed above, I recently sold it for 60 bucks.

Sent it in on my dollar, and they wouldn't even replace the ac adaptor. If you ask me, they aught to stand behind their product a little more. For that I must give them a 1.

Overall, I think this is a good little toy, but that's all it is - a toy. It doesn't have good tone and most of the voices are the same thing over and over again, but If you just want something to play around with, and you've never had something like this before, go for it. I can't deny that it has a lot of cool features, like flange and wah, but you can find those elsewhere - and in better form. All in all, buy this to play with, but not if you're over twenty.

This is an UPDATE OF MY REVIEW for this pedal after owning it for several years. I was one of the first people to buy and review it here on harmony central. (You know the REALLY long review at the bottom?)

When I first bought it I didn't quite have the ear that I have now. You'll always think something sounds great until you hear something that sounds better. The distortions were "okay" at best. The cleans were laughable, absolutely no sparkle or chime. So I thought I'd keep the pedal around for effects purposes. Na-uh. The effects, even the chorus and phaser which I once really liked, are totally sterile sounding. No life to them what-so-ever. The boutiq wah, on the other hand, wasn't bad, and the tuner isn't all that terrible (unless you compare it to a strobe).

I sold this effects unit on ebay several months ago. This pedal is for beginners who aren't serious about tone, or someone who just wants something cheap to play around with. As a whole the pedal sounds STERILE and one-dimensional. After I started buying better equipment I found it useless. When comparing it to other high quality effects (boutique and otherwise) the RP300 sadly scores no higher than a mediocre 4.

The RP300 is very easy to use. Just with a quick scan of the manual, u know everything about it. All you have to do is plug in and you're ready to play. The only problem i have with this unit, is that it is kind of hard to switch between patches fast. i wish they had a bank switch.

The sound quality is amazing. I plug straight into a PA system, with a custom fender strat. It is not noisy at all. The effects arent that great with the factory settings, but with a little tweaking, u can make them sound awesome.

I feel like a can definitely depend on this effects unit. its very sturdy. I would also definitely use this on a gig without a backup.

never had to deal with them

I play rock, punk, and also metal. this is a perfect pedal for any of those sounds. If it were stolen, i might buy it again, or upgrade to a bigger pedal. For the price, this is a great unit to buy.

Lots of presets that sound pretty good. A few others that I'd never use. Manual is just OK for a guy like me who isn't highly proficient at playing with these things. Took me a while to figure out the editing process but was easy once I did. There are so many available options that it can be overwhelming. In fact, you could spend days exploring all the options. I bought this pedal to emulate various guitarists for a cover band. It would be nice to have presets labeled "Keith", "Eric", "SRV", etc. rather than having to figure them all out for myself. Also, you can't jump to nonsequential presets, say from 3 to 22, without going thru the whole scroll.

I use a 1983 modified American Fender Strat and 1975 Gibson Les Paul Custom 3 pickup thru a 1972 Fender Twin. Since this pedal is intended to emulate other amps, I put the Twin on a neutral tone setting (all 5's). The pedal is quiet at home but at one gig it made so much noise as to make it unusable. Must have had something to do with the light dimmers or electrical line. Easy to get a bad sound - takes a bit more work to get a good one. But the available effects sound pretty good for the price.

Hasn't broken yet. I've had it a year. Had a noise problem at a gig (see above)

N/A

Overall, this is a nice little toy, but it's not really a professional quality piece of equipment. But, hey, whay do you expect for $200? When you consider the price, this is really a great product, even given my luke-warm feelings expressed above. I play a wide range of music, but use this pedal with a classic rock cover band. It's a lot of fun to fool around with. And like I said, a lot of product for the price. For what it is, it's a great value.

THe use of this pedal is pretty easy, scroll up and down, and switch from channel A to channel B. Good sound, yet you still feel like your sound is fake.Manual for this is alright, only thing good is the trouble shooter and explaining how to create your own effects, the rest if blah!.

I play a 70's strat and a Fat Strat through this, I run it through a Marshall valvestate2000 avt 150. If I play this pedal mostlikely Im just playing it by itself not adding any other effect onto the signal chain. The sound with the distortions is ok, I mean the emulate the right sounds, but you still feels and sounds a little fake to the experienced ear. The drum machine is ok, you cant really get that feel as when playing with an actual drummer behind the set, but hey its good for practicing your timing. You can probably get alot of sounds out of this like the ones of your familiar artist but the only bad thing is it doesnt sound very good when added to other single effects, also you must work with the volume knobs if your switching or bypassing to clean or other effects or you will have a difference in volume.

I would play it but, eventually after gigging with it, I have had problems with it. Such as parts get loose inside, one of the switches to scroll stopped working, not even resetting it fixed it, so I had to do some work on the connection inside. Its reliable just dont beat it, like I do, be very gentle, and it will last. So I will have to give it a 9

The customer support is great, never actually sent it in, but the guy at the customer support center told me send it in with the receipt and if we cant fix it, we will send you a new one.

For my type of sound, I like to play live a lot so I will never use it at a show. I dont do much recording, so I would just set this effect aside for certain parts of songs if you are recording (thats just me and my stylistic opinion) you might think different). Its good for creating a specific sound or effect that it does not bring on it. 40 preset and 40 you can tweak and make your own. I wish bypassing was easier it does get it in the way when trying to click on 2 switches at once with 1 foot while playing at a critical part of a song. Another problem is having to scroll from effects, for example scroll up in the middle of the song to preset 36 you got a phaser, scroll down to 35 you got high gain, scroll down to 34 and you got more distortion, I got my closest clean at 25, do I need to scroll in the middle of a song down to clean, and run chances of overshooting it and messing up a song.

It is complex yet simple to use if you take the time to read the manual...The patches are alright(some good some bad)like the presets

Randall RH200SC head with two Behringer superstack cabs 4x12"x100watts 400 watts per cab..the effects work great at high volumes as long as it is adjusted for the high volumes..the freaquencies and such...the noise gate is great...they worked on the distortion settings on this puppy to please the metal heads...

unfortunatly i am depending on it alot right now because i have been able to find a few effects i like and can't seem to get through individual stomp boxes

never had to deal with them...

i play really heavy music...for 20 years....i might buy it again...there is always a new toy to try...great distortion effects..reminds me of Ibanez stomps .. Everytime i find a setting i like, it gives me ideas...

Not as intuitive as they said on the manual but little effort and you're on your way

traded the Korg ToneWorks PX-3 for this... What a mistake ! That unit reproduced incredible sound quaility even with headphones. This unit features cheesy effects and poor tone.

Distortion presets (most of them feature distortion) are terrible.

haven't owned it long enough... might give it to guitarist I wanted to vote out of band.

can't say.

I've been playing guitar for 25 years now. I play this through a Fender Telecaster with stero headphones.... Boy do I miss the Korg....

If it were stolen I'd probably mail the manual to the thief and wish them the best.

It's very easy to use,it isn't really necessary to read the user's guide,you can get everything about it in an hour.But i read the guide because i want to use it effectively in a short time,and i hope you spend time to read it.

I have a 10 watts squier amp(I usually use headphones,the sound is really good when headphones are connected to rp300 directly) and Epiphone Les Paul guitar with PAF magnetics.Rp300 has noise gate,it really works...Factory effects aren't great,but by changing them a little you can get what you want.
Changing pickup type also works,it's so nice...

I will use it on a gig...I'm just not sure about the pedal.

I play rock,punk,metal,and it's great for these styles.I have been playing guitar for more than 3 years.If it was stolen and i had enough money I would buy it again.I love changing pickup type,and i love the expression pedal.It has a V-switch,in any effect you can apply more pressure on the pedal and it becomes the wah pedal.
I compared it with zoom processors and Rp300 is perfect when you compare with them.

This is my second review (first was on 5/22/2002 a week after purchase). Now that I've had about a year with the pedal, I want to be more critical. Yes - programming is not hard in general, but often when I am editing an existing setting that has LOTS of variables, it is frustrating to dial in small changes to one item. On the plus side, you can play while you are editing, so you get to hear the changes you are making before saving them.

I bought the RP300 for home recording and it is still decent for going straight to the board. However, this is not a muti-effects pedal that you want to use as a replacement for other pedals. As others have pointed out, the RP300 does not distinguish itself through a good tube amp (I have a Fender Vibro King 60w custom shop tube amp). The King does not have a master volume and I was hoping I could get some gain / raunch out of the pedal, but the RP's overdrive is thin sounding. Learn a Lick is annoying to me, but the tuner, I think, works quite well. My 2 cents - don't buy the RP to use with a band, buy it for playing through headphones or into a home studio.

Fine. Wish it had battery option, so if the AC adaptor does go, I don't have to replace it.

20+ years of playing. Gibson / Ibanez / Fender / Yamaha instruments through Fender / SWR / Crate / Sunn / Peavey / Acoustic amps. I play originals - my stuff is like Tragically Hip or Bufallo Tom, maybe Dishwala or Verve Pipe if I am in a heavy mood. This box is NOT a good match for my style - but it does enough thigs well that I won't sell it.

By and large, this processor is very simple to use and program. Editing a patch is a simple process that can be learned in a matter of minutes, but you do have to be careful you are turning the correct knob, and do them slowly...The options and settings can flip by pretty quickly. The manual is clear, precise and easy to read. Just follow the directions and you should do well.

I am currently playing an Ibanez RG470 through this processor. I have no need to run it into my amp, since my reason for buying it was to practice using headphones...Which it does rather well. There is no background noise, and it is amazingly quite to operate. The factory pre-set patches are pretty generic and boring, but they do serve as a starting point for you to alter your tone as you wish. Your choices are seemingly endless and there are more options than most of us will ever need. Just tune and tweek it so it sounds like something you like. It's hard to measure "taste" when it comes to sound and guitar tone. Which is why there are so many different options available in the world. Just play with it awhile and you will find something you like.

I dont play on stage, so I have no need for a gig ready piece of equipment. Being made of metal and sturdy plastic, I bet if I take care of it, it will last me a few decades. I did not have any squeeks or creaks coming from my expression pedal out of the box, as so many on here complained about...Everything is fine so far.

I did register my unit online, which only took a few minutes. DO THIS! If you do call up and complain someday, the first thing they will look for is your product registration. If you are too lazy to take this step, then it sucks to be you if you break it...

I tend to enjoy playing heavy metal styles of music. Be it old Poison or Metallica or Scorpions or Warrant. There is a tone in this processor close enough to satisfy most any taste, no matter what you like. I have been playing for about 5 years now and I have a 30 year old classical Yamaha nylon string guitar and I am waiting on my custom quilt maple on western maple Warlock guitar to arrive from Warmoth...So, when I get it put together with an EMG 81 in the bridge, I'll have a whole new tone to play with through this processor. I spent weeks comparing this RP 300 unit to others, and for my money (which it was!) this was the best deal. Just the rythm drum machine in it was worth the money alone. Playing along with the drum tracks makes a boring practice session into a new breath of fresh air. Now, if you are a 30 year pro player who gigs for a living...You arent reading this anyway, and you already own something twice as pricey and 3 times more involved, so this is for the rest of us who play for fun, and look for new toys that will make it even more fun. Which is the point of playing guitar anyway!

This unit is definitely easy to use. Was able to program new patches readily without reading the manual. After reading the manual had a more thorough understanding for how to set patches up.

I use the pedal with an '88 Fender American Standard Strat. 90% of the time I use it with headphones and the CD player plugged in - Late night, kids in bed. In this mode I love the sound, can play along with all sorts of styles (Rock, Metal, Ska etc). A great multipurpose tool for all sorts of sounds

8% of the time I plug the output directly into my Sounblaster Live! card to do some very amateur recordings. A little background noise when doing this.

2% of the time I play in the basement with a bunch of buddies. The first time I tried it it sounded "tinny" and weak when trying to do some Iron Maiden - I run it into the Low input of a Yamaha JX50 from 1979 (time for a new amp- after we purchase a new dinette light fixture and paint the bedroom). I'll admit I dont have a lot of experimenting time with this pedal in a live situation, but I too fell victim to the Learn-A-Lick interruption when trying to switch channels

No problems so far- I've had it since Mar 2002. I did have to loosen the bolt on the pedal and add a little 3in1 oil to eliminate the squeeking

Really nice web site. Lots of user patches posted, Have used some posted with good results

Overall I am very satisfied with this purchase. I am a rank amateur that has been playing for 24 years. Never played professionally - never will, just do it for a hobby, stress relief. The RP300 was my first entry into multi effects proccessors and for a fairly reasonable price offers a wide array of tones. The easy ability to play along with my favorite albums and learn more about how to tweak it further.

There is alot of different sounds you can get with the digitech rp300.I like that you can change between different amp like a fender,marshall,mesa boogie amp.its pretty easy to get a tone just dial in what you want,its that simple.theres one thing wrong with mines though,i used my friends old cable and the metal end it got stuck in one of the things where you insert the cable and i even opened up the the thing and couldnt find a way to get the metal end of the cable out.one other problem is when you are choosing an effect like flnger or something you have to put in the E.Q.,the prblem i have is that it goes from 0-99.its too weird like that.

I use this with my marshall avt20 and my ibanez rg7420.its not noisy at all.actually i put the amp on clean and use this and when i switch the amp model to direct u cant hear this thing which is real good.some effects sound kind of bad.like the chorus can go WAY too fast.thats the effect that sounds the worst to me in he digitech rp300.theres alot of effects in this pedal that i havent tried the boss or ibanez or dod version of so i cant tell you if they all are good or not.i use this with a marshall avt20,a practice amp.not a marshall stack so i dont know if it sounds good with anything else besides a practice amp,but i have heard it doesnt.and i use this when im bored for fun,i probebly wouldnt gig with this thing cuz its so easy for it to get disconnected.but the main problem i have is that if u have an effect on like phaser or flanger or something when u switch amp models it stays on,that could really mess up your act.delays,drum machine,reverbs,etc....sound good.

its not metal even though it looks like metal.also that expression pedal sounded like it was gonna break when i first got it.i think that happedn to everyone.if you use it for fun its reliable.i never used it for other than that.

you might be needing customer support if you abuse that expression pedal to bad.so far i havent needed it though.

overall....i really enjoy how fun this is.i like it because of all the sounds you can get.also im not a fan of boss that much,and with this you can get close to their sounds.but if you are serious about replacing all your pedals with some effects processor which im not,you might need to look else where.atleast thats what alot of people say.this is an awesome deal for 200 bucks and if i didnt receive this as a gift i probebly would have bought this anyways.alot of fun things on this pedal.no bugs or anything in my rp300 either.great deal but i dont take this too seriously i just use it for fun.drum machine is fun but can get annoying.overall i have to give it an....................8,pretty cool.actually,personally i just dont like the weakness of the expression pedal and some effects sound bad.and i have to say this saved me from alot of boss/dod/ibanez pedals.

This pedal is extreamly easy to use, as long as you read through the manual at least one time. My friend had one and had no clue it had a tuner on it or learn a lick, He had no idea how to edit all the sounds even to make something thats sounds somewhat nice. (all the factory effects, the ones that are programed onto the pedal suck, you HAVE to make your own. I told him to read the manual through and he knew everything about it.. so if you do buy this product, READ THE MANUAL, even if you are a "no manual guy" you can do a lot more with it then.

This is where I have to give the company bad feedback. Its basically an extreamly fun guitar toy. If you are looking for something to replace all your BOSS distortion and effect pedals, DON'T BUY THIS. If you are bored with your guitar style or whatever you have been doing recently, this is a nice toy to use WITH YOUR PRACTICE AMP. If the effects are sent through anything louder then a little 15-30 watt amp it sounds horrible. I still think that this is a fun pedal to play with, but its not for gigs, recording, or even practicing with your band. Its WAH and distortion sounds are not very good even on a small amp. Despite all of the bad things, you can get some AWSOME sounds out of it, but you can't use the factory settings as i said earlier.

Although it looks like metal, its not.. its not plastic, and will break if you treat it like you treat your boss pedals. maybe if you are showing off in front of some friends at a small volume level this would be cool (you can get some pretty wicked sounds out of it)

AHH there is a little warenty card that comes with this pedal, fill it out and SEND IT IN!! My power adapter broke(the only way that you can get power to the pedal, no batteries, and i wound up paying 12 bucks for a new power adapter, which is a rip off if you can get it for free. if you fill out the form you will be luckier then me, but i don't know how the support is because i forgot to fill out my little warenty slip.

My main complaint about this product is the fact that you can't send it through any amp that has 60 watts + because it screws up the signal. This is a really fun to use pedal that i use every time i am in the most feared "guitar idea gutter" and i can't think of any new tunes. After a few hours of playing on it i always find something new. If someone where to steal it i would be rather pissed, but i would not buy a new one. I love the fact that its extreamly easy to make a nice sounding effect as long as you read the manual. You can save and store 40 of your own effects!! There are no real bugs i have had with it which is wonderfull. I always wondered why it says "version 1" when i first turn it on.. is there a version 2 that i don't have?!?! hopefully something that FIXES the amp problem, makes the wah sound more realistic, and the distortion so its not just FUZZ in the background of a clean signal.

Tons of easy to use features. Patch editing is a snap. I love the A/B amp option for each storage location. I use it for going from dirt to clean, electric to acoustic, or rythmn to lead (w/ delay, etc.). The flexibility is great.

The attached wah pedal can also be assigned to control parameters other than wah. e.g. Volume, or Delay Level, etc. Plus, you can switch between an assigned parameter and wah, if you like.

Learn a Lick:
You can plug in a CD player, capture a passage, and use the RP-300 to slow it down for learning. This is great for transcribing and players who gig and can't afford to keep buying song books.

Anyone who can't get a great tone out of this unit has to be a nitwit.
Maybe if you've only been playing 3 years you may need to be more patient. Experience does help.

This unit has great sounds and a very flexible EQ. The possible tones are nearly endless. Here's a hint... great tone does not always mean cranking the drive on every amp model. Try less drive sometimes.

With the built in Noise Gate and endless amp tones, recording for me has been priceless. I had considered a POD before buying this unit, but I wanted a unit to use on stage as well as recording. With the attached pedal this units fits all my needs well.

I don't use the cabinet simulator when going to my amps. However, they're great when recording. With compression and some vintage cabinets I can get a great Boston tone. The delays and reverbs allowed me to dial-in perfect Eddie Van Halen tone (first album).

My only negative comment is that only one modulation effect can be used at a time (e.g. Chorus, or Harmony, but not both).

Had it since it came out. So far so good.

Never needed them. The simple concise manual has answered all my questions.

I've been a musician for 30 years. I admit you "can" buy tone (e.g. good guitars and amps), as well as effects. However, as I tell all my students, great tone starts with you and your hands.

Half your tone is all you. You may be a new player and doubt me, but play long enough and you'll figure it out.

When it comes to effects, experience does plays a role as well. Most new players struggle when it comes to tweaking or apply effects. Be patient and experiment. More effects is not always better.

Here's a tip...
Forget all the new "expensive" amp-modeling amps with DSP, etc. Grab a simple inexpensive used amp that plays clean and loud (for playing with drummers). Plug-in the RP-300 and you've got what you need.

The RP-300 is great all-around: Practicing (headphones), gigging, and recording.

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.