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.

It's hard to understand at first just screw with it a while you'll get the hang of it. I didn't have the manual when i got it. It took me about to weeks to know everything it does.

I have a Gibson Epiphone sunburst guitar i put a DOD fx13 Gonkulator after a boss Overdrive distortion. I usually use the Gonk's distortion but sometimes boss. I follow those off boss chorus not a super not ensamble just a chorus then an Electro Harmonix Small Stone 4800 along with a flanger then the platform. The modulators on this thing are great except the phaser. Then again it's on a platform of course you will hear the vox. If you screw around with the expression catagory you can create LFO skips that arent quite as cheezey sounding as tremolo you know a little bit more modern. If you have a whammy or octave on (pitch) you can play with a trigger or sq and get all these funkey lil techno beeps that sound robotic or like aliens trying to speak. I love the whammy i frequently put it on a double octave up and it sounds very harsh great for noise breaks in songs it's very atonal and sounds like a robot blowing up. I love all the pitches because i like playing alot from the incubus CD S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and they crank out the funk metal but like to take noise breaks in a certain shade of green and favoriate things i find the whammy very helpful because on favoriate things it sounds like a one signal octave even though he has a boss octave. The only thing i hate about this pedal is the distortion ahhhhhh. It compares to an overdrive on with an output plug to a cassete recorder fit in with a transfer outlet very lo fi and crappy. It's one of the worst distortions i've heard on a platform and i know that you shouldn't expect much on one but seriousely good thing i didnt sell my distortion pedals to buy this. If your planning on doing that you will kick yorself forever. I would downgrade majorly for this incredibly bold flaw but the mod's, sustains, equalizers delays and reverbs save it because it's mod's are the best ones i've heard and have more then most boards despite the phase. It's easy to get sounds of S.C.I.E.N.C.E. outta here with the LFO's and Expressions and totally new sounds i've never heard a guitar do. Bottom line is this thing rox besides the distortions it's prely one of my smartest effect buys ever.

Well you need a AC so lol. I can depend on it tho unless i leave it on a few days then i need to restart

Nope never dealt with them except for the online

This thing rocks except for the distortion. Thats worthless but it's other qualities kick it up. It's a fantastic value for the money i spent hahaha

HARD AT FIRST, BUT THEN IT GETS EASIER AS YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING.

SOUNDS LIKE CRAP WITHOUT AMP CAB, AND SOUNDS HORRIBLE WITH HEADPHONES, BUT ONCE IT IS ROUTED THROUGH AN AMP, AND EQUALIZED PROPERLY YOU CAN GET THE *********BEST************ SOUNDS WITH IT. I WAS PLAYING WTIH THE LFO WITH THE YA YA, AND MADE IT SAY WOE, LIKE IN THAT ALICE IN CHAINS SONG, I ALSO GOT A FUNNY OH-YEAH SOUND... IT MAKES EVERYONE LAUGH, BUT THE DISTORTION WITH THE RECTIFIER IS JUST SICK!

I GOT A CRAPPY ONE...MY MID LEVEL KNOB, ONCE IT GETS TO 99, STARTS HAVING A 'SEISURE'AND GOES ALL OVER THE MAP, THEN AT 0. i COULD SEND IT BACK, BUT I GOT IT AUTOGRAPHED BY ZAKK WYLDE, AND A BUNCH OF OTHER GUYS. I HAVE TO KEEP THIS...I HAVE NO CHOICE...SO I SAY IT IS AWESOME.

NEVER HAD TO DEAL WITH THEM ON THIS PRODUCT, BUT ONCE I E-MAILED THEM JUST FOR FUN TO SEE IF THEY WERE GOING TO MAKE A TALKBOX FOR THEIR X-SERIES PEDALS, BUT THEN THEY E-MAILED ME BACK SAYING THEY ALREADY HAVE ONE CALLED THE TALKER........THE TALKER IS ACTUALLY A VOCODER USED IN TECHNO MUSIC...WHAT MORONS. ANYWAYS DIGITECH ROCKS!

THIS THING IS JUST GREAT. I AM THINKING OF BUYING THE NEW GNX4...YES GNX4 (4), BUT I AM ATTATCHED TO THIS. I JUST CANNOT LET IT GO. SO I GIVE IT A 10, AND BY TYPING THIS REVIEW MAKES ME WANT TO KISS IT!

OH YEAH, I MADE SOME CASE FOR THIS, SO IT'S ALL WOODEN, EXCEPT FOR THE KNOBS, PEDALS, AND SCREEN...LOOKS REALLY COOl!

The digitech is sometimes a pain to use, but with enough hours spent tweaking the patches you can get a good sound out of it. The manual is also helpful for understanding how the wah-pedal can manipulate dly levels, rotary speeds, and such. The main problem I have with it is when I'm using the wah-wah pedal, I sometimes have my foot to far off the side, thus hitting the channel button. Yet, the v-switch is extremely helpful if you are switching between a wah solo and to non-wah rhythm.

It definitely needs banks to separate your patches, but that can be solved by lining up patches according to your setlist.

Overall, it is a good pedal, if you put enough time into it. Yet, the amp models are too limited, and the cab option just sounds weak when it is put through a fender ultimate chorus, or even recorded. Because it dums the fullness of the sound.

I'm using a high-end samick (2 hum, 1 single) with a Fender Ultimate Chorus 2x12. And I must say the pedal sounds more complete and full in its patches through headphones. Effects are somewhat lessened through any amp. Yet, can be brought back somewhat to the norm *headphones, through a slight gain. The main distortion I'm using now has no compression or noise gate, (because these weaken the signal) behind it, and is put at about a 13-15 gain setting, with no cab. I use the Stack amp model at about 30 in level with a Master at 50. I do this to keep the patch from overdriving.

Rectify, is extremely noisy. Feedbacks constantly, and may only be used most likely in a recording situation.

Rotary effect is awesome, as well as delay, and panner. I sometimes use these with the stereo option.

Distortions; however, leave you in a rut, because it's hard to manipulate the patch in order to get something decent. The clean amp models are the shit though, they can make you guitar sound ten times more brilliant with just a turn of the knob.

I can depend on it, yet it sometimes has a nervous breakdown, and the guitar signal is sometimes affected when switching from a dly patch to a clean patch. I wish the inputs were placed on the sides of the gadget, cos' when wahing you can get your guitar cord in between the pedal and the machine itself. Thus, leaving you fiddling with your foot trying to move the cord, so you can switch off the pedal or hit the higher ranges. I would also like to have some kind of power supply input which locked in some fashion, to keep my bassist from tripping over it and pulling it out.

I don't think I would need a backup, you could kill someone with it. But, what is needed is for this blasted machine is a decent tuner. It will drive you nuts, believe me man.

Never had do deal with them.

I've been playing seven years running now, and the music particulary pertains to a mix between punk/ska/alternative/folk/blues/and of course rock n' roll. I own lots of other gear, but if I had to say just one I liked for it's ease of use it would be the Zoom GFX606. If it were stolen I would probably just by a pedal like a marshall jackhammer, or bluesbreaker. I love the pedals channel select, I hate the tuner. I compared it with the expensive Yamaha DG stomp, but got this instead because digitech makes nifty looking pedals.

It is a very self explicit piece of gear. After a quick glance to the manual I got the general idea of how to make my own sounds. However, if you are a begginer with effects, it will take you a couple of months to really achieve the sound that you dreamed about some crazy night.

I am using a Yamaha RGX 420 (ordinary not Drop 6) guitar , and a Gibson- Epiphone Les Paul Guitar with my RP 300 and an (an?) Ibanez TB 15r amp (my first!) . At first i couldn't get any really usefull sound, there are a lot of presetes that have "interesting" sounds, but nothing that really sound like a guitar should sound. The Rerverbs, Delays are realy nice. the compressor and the noise gate are Awesome (i've tried this with a lot of noisy, cheap, crappy guitars and i can make them sound decent). However the distortion .... the 12 "amp models" that come with this totally suck... unless you use a nice feature called "cab" . I play metal (Dream Theater, metallica, nightwish), Funk (REd hot chili peppers) and some rare things (NIN) and i say that it really take time to get what you want. You can get a nice "low FI" , "artificial" sound for things like NIN of Porcupine Tree, but for metal I think it is not just enough (unless you have some decent Amp) although the Rectifier model with some 4*12 cab can do some good stuff i think it is not enough.

Here it becomes tricky. Overall it is as solid as granite... except fore those blue footswitches. AFter some little time (a month o so) it happens that one of more of them stops working, as if it didn't clicked how it should. However, this is a minus problem, after three journeys to the customer support I realized i could fix this very easily. Just open it (be careful, do not tocuh anithing!) And gently remove the screws for the footswitch part, and you will see like a butoon that the footswicht should push, just play aropund with the buttom some time, re screw the back and you are ready to go.

I bought it a Mexico City (Music City store) and gave me 1 year of warranty and the guy who helped me was the one who told me how to repair the footswicth thing, really helpfil.

It is really usefull for a begginner, really cheap and has everything you need to understand how effects works and how to begin you endless quest for tone. However, if you are a bit more experience should try perhaps some of the GNX, more money, more features.
The only thing i would love to have in the RP 300 , is some kind of footswihcth so you do not have to put your effects togetehr, that you can jump form presset 1 to presset 48 without going all the way

Appeared very simple to use, just plug it in and fire it up. Unit came with power supply but no manual. I got it running in just a few minutes. The interface is pretty intuitive. Everything is labeled and functions as expected. There's lots of knobs and buttons but you really can't screw things up by playing around.

This unit was purchased as a "blem" from Musicians Friend. Cosmetically prefect, but it has been returned and I can tell you why, the sound was just awful. Many effects were extremely "noisy" with a constant "crackle" going on. Some effects didn't work at all, some worked sporatically. Yeah, OK, I probably got a lemon, but somebody somewhere isn't testing these things the way they are supposed to.

It is built solid, that's for sure. The entire housing, with the exception of the plastic pedals and the display panel is metal. If it was working right, there may be nothing like it. But I will always have it in my mind that, as solid as it was, it was sounding terrible. Something inside is pretty fragile. The only way I would play in public with this is if this was my backup, and my primary unit failed.

Never tried Digitech, just called Musicians Friend up and asked for an RA number so I can return it for a refund. Interesting, I was just looking at the specs for the RP100A on the Digitech website and there are several errors concerning that unit's specs. Even they don't know the products that well. Basically, I'm out 15.00 for postage to return the thing.

Not playing too long again after a 30 year vacation. Play a lot of British invasion, Tull, Stones, classic stuff, Bob Segar, Eagles, no metal, etc. Play Fat Strat, Tele, etc. For this thing, if it was insured, I'd pay someone to steal it. Seriously, I know people who love Digitech and I have no specific problem with them. This is a faulty unit, not a faulty design or company. It sure appeared loaded with features and abilities. At this point, I do not know which way I will go, stick with single pedal effects and have a minefield in front of me, or go with some multi-effect system. The jury is still out.

Really easy to use! I live a couple of hours away from the nearest guitar center, and on the way home I read the manual. When I go home I plugged it in and just started going at it! Obviously it took a while to dial everything in right, but there were no headaches at all.

I run everything through a Carvin AG100... which is *technically* an acoustic amp... but since I'm using a digital amp modeler I want the cleanest sound possible. Anyway - this thing does just about anything you'll need it to. In fact... when I decided to drop it from my rig for reasons I'm about to go into, this was the biggest dilemma I had.

The footswitches broke after mid-heavy usage... I didn't play more than a dozen gigs with it! Maybe I was just too used to Boss reliability... but it was crazy! And then, about a month after getting it fixed, a different footswitch broke, and then some point after that, the first footswitch broke again. Very aggravating. I'm looking into the more robust GNX series. But I DEFINITELY would not play a gig without taking a backup. I own the Vocal 300 as well, and the SAME EXACT thing happened!

It was good - but the repair center people were Extremely aggravating. Not the Company's fault though, and their internet correspondence was prompt and helpful. Digitech is a great company.

This thing could most likely do just about anything you need it to. And the delays on this thing are awesome. More so than anything else I've used. I would most likely get something else if it was lost or stolen... I dunno.. I just thought I'd let you prospective buyers know that the footswitches have a *major* problem with reliability.

If you're looking for simplicity, search no more my friend, 'cuz it doesn't get any easier than this. Just press 1 button and start turning knobs. Plus, the matrix is so easy to understand, you won't even need to touch the manual to get started (OK, this is a bit exagerated; there are some functoins that need to be studied, but nothing that a 2-minutes reading won't solve). The ONLY thing I don't like 'bout it is that you have to "run" on the footswitches if you want to travel from patch 2 to 30. Didn't the think about banks? But if you're smart enough and have your movements well-planed you'll put the patches you need to use in a song right next to each other. I'm DEAFINITELY giving it a 10

I have to say that even though you can create great "Pink Floyd-like" sounds with it, SOMETIMES it can be a bit noisy, but don't worry, if you put it in your lap it will feel like a kitty. If you asked me, I preffer those realy deep, introspective, head-twister sounds (like Pink Floyd, or Incubus), sounds that the RP 300 reproduces greatly.

Don't be fooled by its looks. That pedal is a rock (if you are a HUMAN BEING and don't start using it for your aerobics classes)

Sorry. Couldn't say. Hope's good, but I'd be lying if I said anything.

I think this is a great pedal. As I said before, it is SO easy to use that you'll love it from the first moment. Before I bought it, somebody told me about the ZOOM GFX-4 and I started making comparissons to see which one was the best to suit my needs. After reading both manuals downloaded from the web, I went for the RP 300 without hessitation, not only for being so user-friendly, but also because the great effects it has, such as the YA-YA, SINTH TALK, TRIGGERED FLANGER and PHASER, the kick-ass distortions, delays, choruses and so on. I would be a real gerk if I said that this is the greatest pedal in the whole world, but I can say that it's a really good step in the right direction. I would put it in the third of five steps (the first being just your guitar and amp, and the fifth being Steve Vai's racks)

Everything is really easy to use, Im glad I purchased it for sitting around the house. It has all your effects such as wah, phaser, detuner, chorus, flange blah blah. For me it gets a little confusing on some things but everything is pretty much self explanitory. Good Pedal.

Im running my Fender Standard Strat (Soon to be a Gibson SG!!) through this into my practice amp which is a crate mx15. I dont care about what amp I buy because to me, it has some good amp simulators. One thing you can't do with this pedal is turn the overdrive on on your amp, you wont hear crap. I get the sound of Iommi, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix everything. You can get the patches at the digitech website by the way. I am planning on purchasing another wah and eventually i will sell this pedal because the wah is fake compared to a real thing but what do you expect? It's all MIDI I believe and it's pretty darn good.

This is very dependable, I stomp on the expression pedal hard to hit the V Switch and it's great, I've had it for six months and so far I haven't had any problems with it.

I've never dealt with the company and I don't plan to.

I didn't get the rp300, I got the rp300a but it is definantley worth it, I've only been playing for a year and a few months but I know that this is pretty good quality for what it's meant to do. The only thing they can improve is the talk box thingy is pretty crappy but I didn't even expect that effect to be on it. I play mainly rock and some blues. I like using my guns n roses patch when I play Sweet Child O' Mine, it sounds perfect, get the patch at http://www.digitech.com it has a Pickup Simulator so My Strat sounds thicker. When I first started, I was gonna get the rp-100 or something but I'm glad I waited and got this one, definantley worth it! If it got stolen I dunno if I would by it again because I would really like to get individual pedals because they are the real thing. I really like this for at home when your practicing though because It's all in one box.

I've had the RP300 for over a year now (resisted the temptation to add a review before I'd really used it). I play in a semi-professional 80's (UK) cover band....Spandau ballet, Duran Duran, Wham etc.

I can't really fault the RP300 for ease of use. Within about 30 mins you'll have it worked out, and the table based patch editing works fine. The manual is reasonably good. I'd give it good marks for ease of use. One thing however is that it's very easy to accidentally press two foot switches at once and end up in Learn a Lick mode - not good in the middle of a gig.

Also there are only 40 user patches, which may be fine for some but I use a lot of patches - I play covers so for each song I'm trying to get as close to the original sound as I can. Restriction on number of patches is the main reason I'm considering another unit at this time.

I'm running a squier strat into the RP300 and straight into a Peavey Bandit set on the clean channel Note - as you can see, nowadays I generally use the cheapest gear I can get hold of. For years I've carted round Gibsons, Fenders, Marshalls, and Mesa Boogies to Gigs and constantly worried about getting them damaged or stolen. Then I realised that your average punter hasn't got a clue what gear you're using and is too drunk to notice the tonal quality anyway - so now I use cheap gear and don't have to worry about it...the fact that I'm playing 80's britpop helps as well (not a great era for classic guitar!!)

Having said that, playing a set of 80's covers requires virtually every guitar sound you can think of (including all the weird ones that usually no-one uses, so the RP300 scores there - it's really got everything that I need - even the digital whammy pedal was useful on one track.

The sounds are fine and perfectly usable for what I do. Chorus/reverb are good, overdrive sounds are a little synthetic but as I've said before, your average punter won't tell the difference anyway.

Hmmm - not sure I'd bet my life on this thing. A bit plastic, and the smaller buttons have a habit of getting stuck under the facia panel when you press them in. I've used it for a year and it's still Ok but then again I'm generally not too heavy handed/footed with my gear - I suspect some people could trash this pedal fairly quickly.

I seem to have one really annoying fault in that on one of my patches - it always seems to default to maximum amp volume. Even if I edit the patch, lower the volume, save it, the next time I come to use it it's jumped to max again. Really annoying - however that's only happened with one patch.

Never dealt with them. Web site wasn't too bad - had an online copy of the manual and a PDF file showing how all the factory presets are constructed.

For cheesy 80's music and a cheap expendable bit of gear, this is perfect for me. The only thing I'd ask for is more user patches. If it got stolen I'd probably get something with more patches, maybe the Zoom, or a Boss GT6 if I could get one a little cheaper. At the end of the day though, this little box has helped me earn a lot more money than it actually cost me, so can't complain!!

Pretty easy. wasent too complicated at all. the only thing i found hard to use was the whole recording deal on it

iam using my fender strat and a yamaha 100w amp (hope to up grade in amps soon!). it can be pretty noisy, but it really is a good noisy! i like the effect rectfy, i belive it is called. and limpy. i can get quite close to my favorite artists, they are metallica.haha. and i can get pretty close to james hetfeild's sound and kind of kirk hammet's.

i can depend on this, sure. you know, this is the first and only pedal i have ever had so i cant really compare it. but it is reliable. on a gig i would bring a backup if i had one but that is because i bring a backup for every thing just to be on the safe side

i never had to deal with the company! and i never got an upgrade or got it repared.

i play metal(lots of it) and it matches it fine. i also play blues and it works for it great. i have been playing for 4 years now. and iam told iam good. i think iam pretty good. and i told you all my gear.i would probly buy it again if it were ever stolen, but there is a good chance i would buy something else to compare really. I wish it had an easyer to use recording system. but overall it is great!no it doesnt get in the way. it helps make my music, i love it! i want to get the 400 because it has alot more features.

i thought it was easy to use (but then again some things i thought were easy others found hard, but.....). read the manual! not only does it tell you everything you need to know about the unit, but it gives you some background info on some of the stuff it's emulating (I thought that was cool). it takes a little (not much) getting used to, but is real simple once you've mastered it. it does take some doing to get a really good sound, though, and its easy to get a bad sound, but its not that bad.

i use a Peavey Raptor plus EXP guitar (which is a really good guitar for the price) and run it through anything from a marshal solid state amp at my church to the huge (and i mean HUGE) sound system in my school auditorium. so far i have no complaints. sometimes you have to tweak the EQ a little for the different sounds various amps give. i don't get any noise cause of the sound gate (a real life-saver sometimes where feedback is concerned). all the effects are good but i haven't gotten a hang of using the phaser yet, and theres some effects that i never use (like the auto-wah and the pitch change). i don't really go for the sounds of my favorite artists, i just make up my own stuff (altough i did make one that sounds almost exactly like Third Day's "Agnus Dei" on accident) the distortions are great, but you can't get insane amounts of distortion out of it (but then again i don't play any deathmetal) and its best for punk, rock, clean and old school stuff (like zz top, etc)

like a rock, or a tank or any other solid object that won't break. made of metal. i've dropped it several times on hard surfaces (on accident of course) and have bumped it against thing lots and it's still as good as new. nothing's broken, sounds fine. i'd give it a 20, but that's not a choice

never had to use it, see above ^

i play punk, rock, some softer metal, clean/acoustic stuff, and just about everything else, and it fits everything (just don't use the compressor on clean and low gain presets, i learned that the hard way). i've been playing for about 2 years or so, had this pedal for about the same, a little less. if it were stolen, etc. i'd most likely buy another one (or do my best to find it and steal it back) or i might go w/ the one that is the same but w/ mic outs and midi stuff. overall its a great pedal, well worth the money, its versital beyond anything i've seen (my friend uses a zoom and it stinks and he uses stomp boxes and they seem like a pain) and definately helps me get a good sound.

reading the manual you'll be able to edit your patches very soon,it'really easy,and the manual is well done,but it don't explain very well the channel A/B tipe of setting.

I use a fender stratocaster and a marshall 2005 as a monitor,I usually enter the mixer and go out trough jbl speakers (don't remember the model cuz they're not mine.the effects are very weak and I find the distortions sound like mosquitoes.I think weaking a bit you can have good delays and choruses,for clean sounds.
it also sucks cuz when you pass from a patch to another the volume is always different.I found the preset really terrible,but I bought it
to have the chance to edit my own,if that day I'd stayed in bed...

I won't depend on it no more cuz I've just passed to a more pro babe that's my brand new Boss GT-6,and it's now taking dust in the corner,waiting for some1 who want give me some euro...

I didn't deal with it.Hope is good.

I play in a cover band and so I need a lot of different sound cuz we space from melodic to revival when playing in marriage party,and rock when we play clubs(Toto-VH-Queen-Lynyrd-Gov't Mule-Allman-Joe Walsh).I
never owned a mfx,but some stomp,I bought it without checking it cuz the keyboardist said that the precedent guitarist had the RP50 and he had some good stuff out of it(I think he was a magician).
I found useful the jam-a-long feature and the learn-a-lick,but sometime you switch two pedals together and you succed in doing what you'd not.
If stolen I'll thank-you the one...
Don't buy it,go for something serious!

Very easy to use and modify patches. I have different patches for different songs and I have them programmed in the order in which my band plays the songs, so its easy to just go up to the next song. I also have a few songs that I switch up and down during the song, and that works out great as well. My biggest complaint is the "learn a lick" feature. Its really annoying when playing live and you accidentally push the far two buttons in and it goes into this mode. I'm thinking of gluing on a bar or something to prevent this from being "foot activated". Other than this, I would have given it a 10.

I've had this unit for 2 years now, and I have been happy with the sound quality. I play it through a vintage Ampeg VT-40 tube amp, 4 x 10 combo, and this unit sounds great. I also play it through a little crate practice amp, and its OK, not great. It also works pretty good for demo recording direct into a computer.

I mostly use the Chorus, Delay, and Tremelo effects. For the amp mods, I use a Tweed, or Clean for channel A (30 - 50 gain), and Hotrod for channel B (75 - 90 gain). I also like the FUZZ setting for some good distorted leads. The wah-wah pedal is also very useful and I use it on one of my songs.

For playing through an amp, make sure you turn off the cabinet simulation. I also don't use the compression or the EQ. I use my amp EQ to adjust the sound I want. I also use the Reverb on my amp, though the Reverb on this unit is very good.

I play a standard strat, and I use the noise gate, it helps.

I've noticed that some poeple have complained about a drop-out when switching between patches. I have never noticed this, and its not a problem for me, I change patches mid song and it works like a champ.

So far the unit has been reliable ,except for the "learn a lick" engaging when I don't want it to ( I guess my foot must be too wide...)

Battery option would be nice, because I once went to a gig and left the power adapter at home. Had to just play clean...

Never had to deal with customer support.

I would rate this thing as a 9. For me its great to be able to program a different patch for each song. My biggest complaint would be that you can't have Chorus and Tremelo at the same time. You can have Delay, and Reverb, along with a list of effects, but you can't turn the Delay off or on. You can program the pedal to change the level of the effect, which helps, but I usually program the pedal to increase volume or gain.

I've been playing on & off for about 20 years. This unit works great for my style of music which is basically rock. I used to have multiple effect pedals, which was very hard to keep up with, especially during a live gig, so I find that having it all in one unit is a better way to go. I'm sure there are better units on the market, but for the price, you can't beat this unit. I think that Digitech makes the best delay & wah, and this pedal has both. I also use the tuner on stage, and I think it works just great.

I would recommend this product, and I would buy it again if mine where ever lost or stolen. I would also consider stepping up to the GNX versions because you can save and download pathces to a computer.

great pedal for a beginer, the manual that came with it is easy fowlow along with. editing and efects is a little tricky at first so I recomend for one to look at the manual first. and the drum machine is easy to use.

I use my digitech with a peavey stereo chorus 212 and a imataion strat. When the pedal is plugged I get some feed back (buzzing coming frome the speakers).the efects a good but the distorion is weak and there no gain settings. I can get the sound of most of my favorite music bands such as Jimi Hendrix, Alice in Chains, and metallica.

I dont know about reliblity becuase ive only had for about 7 months and abought new at GuitarCenter.

I sent Digitech a waranty form online a couple months ago and never got a reply saying they got my form of information.

I play hard rock and this pedal dose an ok job at i have been playing almost two years now and own a imation stratocaster guitar peavey stereo chourus 212 amp (130 watts) , deam markley k15x wich I bring back forth to school because the peavey is to big for a bus ride. if it were lost or stolen i would probaly buy a diferent product from a diferent company. I bought a used zoom 505II last year had for a little bit and then just stoped working right so if you are one of those people tied over the zoom and digitech stay away from the zoom it's a crud and you only will be wasting your hard earned money.

As long as you read the manual, you'll be fine.

I generally use it with my two ESP guitars (Explorer & M252) and my Marshall Valvestate 10 and Carlsboro Colt 45L amps, recently used it for recording and played it through a Marshall AVT150H. The effects always sound great IMHO, but I only got it two weeks ago so I'm still exploring. Have managed to get a sound pretty close to Kirk Hammet's by using the Dual Rectifier sim and using the V switch for the Wah.

Yeah I think it is pretty reliable, as it's made of metal it isn't gonna break when you play it live, but ask me when I've owned it a year.

Haven't had to contact them yet.

I play mainly hardcore punk and thrash metal and this pedal has definately added to my playing, recently used it to record my band's demo. I have been playing seven years, I own an ESP M252, an ESP Grassroots explorer, a Marshall Valvestate 10 practice amp and a Carlsboro Colt 45L amp. I really like the versatility of this pedal, I did look at a Zoom 707 but it has nothing like the amount of effects that the Digitech has, and it's plastic so is way more likely to break. It is a great tool for writing and recording, haven't gigged with it yet.

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.