Yamaha DG Stomp

Hi, all. Another follow-up to my 06/06/02 & 06/07/02 posts (below). I now use a Dunlop Mr. Crybaby ahead of the stomp for wah; expression pedal set to global, post pre-amp volume control. Also am using the Vibrato ("bright") channel of my DRRI amp. MUCH better sounds. I tweak treble and bass on the amp when I switch between my Strat and ESP H-202. The thing rocks! Armon's anti-hum mod is still holding up very well.
Prices have sure dropped to the basement, so now's a particularly good time to pick up a Stomp.

You by now probably know all the features, if not read othr people's reviews or go to yamaha site and find them, 'cause I ain't gonna write them..Loaded with a variety of different sounds, pretty straight-forward, versatile, easy to dial in sounds, even tho it's my first multieffect unit. I like the metal chasis, really, really well constructed, footswitches are metal instead of plastic, like on some other multi-units. User-friendly interface. Wall-wart is the only feature that maybe bugs me a bit..but no biggy

I'll give this unit a 10 just not to affect the average score because sounds are excellent, but for me, sound isn't what I want. I've been playing for about 7 years and use a Gibson SG Special (my baby), and a Roland Cube-60 Chorus amp. All sounds found in this unit are very very good and usable, the unit itself isn't noisy at all, effects are natural sounding as if you are having a line-up of stomp-boxes, reverbs are really deep and smooth, but it lacks the most important sound to me: a big fat distortion. It simply doesn't have enough gain for metalheads (I am one so I probably know). The clean sounds are awesome, can get an excellent SRV crunch, even drive is rather good, but lead preamp is not so good. Not good for palm muting (Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, SOAD or Tool) or shredding solos. I really like the voicing of the drive "channel", and I think that for me it would be great just if it had more gain, so I could achieve bad-ass metal palm-muted rhythm sounds...but unfortunenatelly, it doesn't.. also, lead channel sounds rather digital and fake, unlike all other sounds in this unit. But: speaker simulators are great, effects are great (especially flanger, chorus, reverb), all sounds but lead are great, and I think that any blues, jazz or rock player will be very pleased with the DG stomp. I tried it through a 4*10 all-tube Fender combo (don't know what model), Marshall Valvestate 102R and various other amps and it still didn't give that high-gain sound, just if you might thought that the problem was in my 60-watt bluesy SS amp...It sounds good even through headphones, and good for direct-to-computer recording...In my opinion, Yamaha knew that it doesn't have enough gain, so high-gain factory presets all have a rather big amount of delay or some other effect as if they were trying to mask this fact. Unfortunatelly, I'll sell it, and my amp too, so I should have enough money to buy a Marshall AVT-50, which is an awesome sounding little(but loud) amp, has great distortion, check out the reviews if you don't believe me.

Had it for only a couple of months, and seems very reliable. The wall-wart gets really hot. Tank-solid metal chasis. Built better and stronger than boss pedals. It would survive the apocalypse.

Really good if you're NOT into metal and high-gain rhythm sounds, not good for palm muting..but besides that, I think it's an awesome tool for any studio-stage-bedroom jazz-blues-pop-rock player. It's unbelieveable that all this warm&cozy sounds are coming from a couple of microchips and transistors. I opened it up, it looks like a computer motherboard, amazing! I wish high gain sounds didn't mean so much to me, then I wouldn't have to sell it.

I've had this pre-amp/modeller for about 6 months now. I believe the features has been described to death by previous reviews so I won't go there. I play mostly classic rock, contemporary, jazz and blues style and the stomp seems to be versatile enough for my useage. I don't like the pre-set patches, they seem to be on the extreme side, but I will call some of them up and then tweak out the settings to get the tone I am looking for. The chorus feature is a nice touch and the amp sim is nice for direct digital recording uses. Thou I do wish that there was something similar to a channel switch that I can access the dirty sounds quickly rather than to pre-program the groups/banks/etc. I read from an earlier review about the Yamaha FC-7 expression pedal and I agree, I took a look at it in the store and the play was way too much! The travel of the FC-7 is so long that it was uncomfortable for me...I bought an older Yamaha piano volume pedal (which the FC-7 basically is) with less travel and that felt closer to my old cry baby wah. The sound of the wah isn't like the cry baby, but it's useable. I haven't tried to turn off the pre-amp and use the stomp strickly as a effects box looping throu the effects loop of an amp but it's nice to know that that option is there. I use it mostly for recording and it shines in that arena. In running it with an amp it does a good job as well. I haven't gigged with it live so I can't comment about that. I have found it to be somewhat easier to use as compared to other pre-amp/modellers out there. The midi option is something useless for me since it would make its use more complicated. I've tried hooking up a left and right speaker to it and you can get some nice stereo feel from them.

I play a '67 Gibby Les Paul with the original hber's, I also have a Fender American Fat Strat with Fender Fat 50's single coil and Gibby PAF's and I also have run my Guild DC50 accoustic electric with the fishman active pick-ups and they all can get great sound from the stomp. As far as digital modeller goes, it is the warmest sounding digital I have found at the price range. Let's face it, it's a digital processor so comparing it to a tube amp is like comparing apples to oranges. It is quiet, with a large range of sounds. On the digital recording, it produces great sounds which I have been very pleased about. Don't judge the stomp by it's pre-set patches, use the pre-sets as a base and tweak them out, you can get some really nice tones that way.

not sure, since I've had it for 6 months I've had no problems and would expect it to be solid. feels like it was built like a tank.

haven't needed them yet.

I've been playing for 23 years and have owned a few gears along the way which were mostly tubes. this is the first digital gear I've ventured into and I have to admit that I have been pleased with it. the only thing I wasn't impressed with is the pre-set patches. I think Yamaha could learn a little from Tech 21's Tradmark 60's. The midi option is basically useless for me, midi controllers seem to just complicate the use of the stomp. Sometimes I think there are way too many features on it then I need but I've found myself in situations where I was glad that Yamaha had put them in there like the phaser. If stolen , ya I would pick up another one.

NOt sure what year it was made.
Very versatile for what I play (garage rock)
I play it wit hmy band and for home recording.

Using Gibson SG-I with this amp. I also have a dano and a LP copy but the sg sounds best with this unit.

It suits my style well which is 60's garage and 70's punk. I love the fact that you can pick a clean amp and with the right speaker sim, you can force it to over drive. You can get a nice early Stones/Who sound, better than an OD pedal. It can be noisy at hi settings.

I recorded some stuff with this an also with my tube amp, then I neglected to mark which was which on my tapes. Listening to the tapes I can't distinguish which was my tube amps and which was the DG stomp.

The amp can make country sounds all the way to heavy metal sounds.

I'm not sure if I'd bring this without an amp to a gig. I like having an amp up there as a monitor.

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been playing 20 years, own a traynor ycv-40 and an old ampeg reverberocket.

I did not compare this to any other multi-effect units. This is the only one I have ever owned. I chose this one after playing it in the store and I loved the sound.

I wish it was easier to navigate to different banks.

As I said before I love the fact that you can overdrive the clean amps.

I owned one once before but returned it to buy my tube amp. So this is the second one I've had. And this time it was used oneBay and cheaper!

I've had the DG Stomp for about 6 months now. I am really pleased with it. It may not have as many features as the Digitech GNX series, but I find the sounds (and the price) to be much better. Without using names of the amps it tries to emulate, it calls the different amp selection ?Clean, Drive, Crunch, Lead, etc.? This highlights the fact that it does not matter whether you sound like this or that amp as long as you can get the sound you want. The foot switches make it convenient to select up to three patches which is enough for most songs. The difficulty comes when switching between banks and groups, which is normally required between songs. I personally find that ?tap dancing? a bit ridiculous and error prone; for example, I once switched from user area (user programmed sounds) to preset area (original presets from Yamaha) by mistake and it took me a few seconds to realize that my sounds were wrong. You do not want that hassle when in front of a crowd. For that reason, I am thinking of buying a midi foot controller to switch patch sets on the DGStomp.

Speaking of sound... This is what I like most about this unit. I have been reading these reviews before making the ?right? choice. I found the DGStomp to be generally the best in that category and sound quality WAS my number one criteria. Some people give a very low rating, many give a high rating. Others say that speaker simulation is too subtle or useless. The way the DGStomp is plugged in the system is VERY important. This is a preamplifier, which means you should bypass the pre-amp of your amp by connecting to the effect return (if you have one). Speaker simulation has almost no effect otherwise. On the other hand when connected properly, speaker simulation will remove that annoying ?buzzy and fake? sound some have been commenting on. Connecting directly to a computer or PA (with speaker simulation on) also produces a very good sound. I play a Strat. I recorded a small jam over a boring bass and drum line directly into the computer; I wanted the distortion to be proportional to volume in this specific case. For those wondering what the DGStomp sounds like, you can hear this mp3 sample (1.72 MB) at http://pages.infinit.net/jremi/GuitarTest.html

No problem so far. Yamaha is normally reliable.

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I have been playing mostly rock, progressive rock, blues (no heavy metal) for more than 30 years and this is my first such device. I would buy it again without hesitation. I can get any sound I want for the type of music I play. Again, to whoever is thinking about buying one, please ensure that your current setup will allow the DGStomp to shine before investing in one; otherwise you may become one of those reviewers giving a low sound quality rating and using adjectives such as ?buzzy?, ?fake? or whatever else.

I've had the DG Stomp since its inception (really bought into that nonesense in Guitar Player) and as with all similar devices it has too many features; too many options. Instead of doing one or two things well. On the plus side, this unit achieves a level of quiet that Roland and Digitech can only dream about.

What can I say...in the Yamaha tradition its a high fidelity device. So the sounds that call for lots of processing are impressive. Lots of nice chorus, delay and so on. But a simple distorion--the kind you can get from a $200 tube amp? No way in hell. Its just shrill, buzzy and fake. Like the J-Station and the Pod.

After a year (when it was never out of the house) the thing died. Being Yamaha and so clean sounding I always felt like I was taking a stereo receiver, placing it on the floor and stepping on it. Seems I was right.

I didn't have to wait on hold and I didn't have to listen carefully as their menu options had NOT changed. Bravo!

If it matters I've been playing since 1966. And if anyone should love the DG Stomp its me since I'm not interested in sounding like Megadeath or Blue Cheer or whatever. But aside from its breaking down, the lack of any decent overdrive, the worthless manual, the too-subtle speaker simulations and the unneccesary complexity have made me appreciate the advantages of using a tube amp and high-quality, individual pedals. A lesson learned.

It's been pretty much covered.Anything you might ever REALLY need it has got it. A bit spastic to use it live but I've found the cure:I have created 9 groups of sounds and just change the banks with the foot switches.Forget about trying to change the groups live via the foot switches,except if you are an expert tap dancer!

I am an analog stompbox fanatic and I used to own a POD that I sold cause it did not sound very good to me.This small unit REALLY surprised me.VERY warm and un-digital sounding especially through a tube amp (I am using a VOX AC30) but also very realistic sounding through a soundsystem.Having the speaker sim ALWAYS on is the key to a great sound.I am very impressed by this little thing,especially the killer overdrive sounds

built like a tank

a very nice sounding effects/preamp especially when I can't carry my huge pedalboard.VERY good sounding effects w/ the exception of the compressor that sounds bad.I always use a MARSHALL ED1 comp in front of the unit that enchances the tone dramatically

I needed a floor unit for rehearsals & small gigs so I wouldn't have to lug around my Rocktron Prophesy or Rocktron Chameleon 2000, both of which I love very much. At $150.00, this unit is an outstanding value given the fine versatility and usability of the amp tones, the quality of the effects, a well-thought-out user interface that's pretty easy to follow and access.

The metal chasis seems to be contructed very well. I do prefer that the knobs used on the unit are continuous rotary encoders where adjustments can be made on the fly instead of having to turn the knob in the direction of the current parameter before the unit recognizes that a change is being made.

MIDI implementation seems complete relative to how I would have a sequencer control the unit. However, some MacOS X software interface would be very welcome.

The provision of S/PDIF I/O allows for direct digital recording but a switchable sampling rate between 44.1 and 48 KHz instead of just 48KHz would have been nice as I mostly record using the 44.1KHz.

This is a great little tone box that I have been using as my live front end. As much as I still love my Rocktron Chameleon 2000 and Rocktron Prophesy, they have not seen the light of day for a long time now (six months) since I started using the DG Stomp.

While I'm not too familiar with the sounds of the variety of amps that most modelers mimic. I am exposed to and play a wide variety of commercial and fine arts music so I have an awareness of what kind of sounds complement whatever style. And playing with the unit on these varying styles, I find that it fits in very well with all them except for ones that need ridiculously high gain.

The amps I revolve around are as follows:
- Lead 2, having less mids & being bassier is perfect for ballsy muted power 5ths and shred stuff.
- Lead 1, being more prominent in mids, sounds sweet & is typical for melodic playing in fusion music
- Drive 2 I use for that tube-saturated glassy texas blues type sound
- Clean 2 I use for chordal/rhythm work on pop/rock styles
- Clean 1 for jazz
- Crunch 2 for country

The effects are great sounding despite being of the bread & butter kind. The delay helps me emulate a Holdsworth type swell and the chorus is quite rich.

What I may not be completely satisfied with are the speaker simulations, as they tend to retain some edginess that I end up having to EQ out. I tend to go with the Y412 and Y212 simulations which have a good balance for me.

The unit has been very reliable in 6 months of weekly use. Then again, I do my best to take care of my stuff.

No experience with Yamaha in this area.

I've been a musician for 15 years now, but playing guitar for 10 of those years, the last 5 with some competency. And of course, I am maintaining progress with the craft. I originally intended to use this unit as an alternative to my rack stuff for small gigs & rehearals but I am very pleased with the quality of the sounds I get that I will continue to use it as the primpary front end for quite a long time. It's sound and simplicity is what attracted me but there is quite a bit of power to the unit and it serves my musical purposes well. With technology going at the rate of progress that it is, I'm sure that time will bring us with much finer units. Yet knowing that fact, I find no need to make meaningless comparisons between GNX, PODs, and the like nor dream of what the future lies in store. I wish to reinforce that I am thoroughly satisfied with the DG Stomp.

I have read the manual twice and am still a bit confused. I'm not the type who has problems programming a VCR either...I'm a PC tech by day. Any help would be appreciated. I keep getting fustrated and am considering offing it because of this.

Distortion seems very "tinny" and "thin" I play a Gibson SG Special through a Fender Blues Jr. It sounds great plain, but the Fender has no gain channel, and I was thinking this box may add some dimension and distortion to my sound, therefore I bought it. Maybe I could have done better with a Boss DS1 for $30? I have to admit there is no line noise. Very quiet operation. If the sounds can be "thickened" up, I would be happy to give it a 10.

I bought it used, and it seems sturdy and fine. No line noise, quiet pots, etc.

Discontinued item...manual and patches available online. I have no MIDI knowledge, so it is pretty useless at this time for me.

I play blues, rock, folk, & jam. Even though I've been an on again-off again player for 18 years and am still a beginner. I am just beginning to take this more seriously. The other effects I have are a Crybaby & tube screamer (TS7). I tried a Digitech RP200 and took it back to the store. it was a pain in the a$$ to program (but easy to figure out) and was built cheaply. This also has compression, delay, modulation, a built in tuner, and reverb settings ---but finding the right sound is a challenge. I would really appreciate any help so I can have a more positive review on this product. I would not replace it if it were stolen. I would just buy single stomp boxes. (I want to spend my time playing guitar, not endlessly tweaking knobs and buttons for effects)

I prefer clean sounds and I get them with this. I have used it on tape and digitally.

Only the wall wart bugs me. I know it would add to the cost but if I were sitting in thqat meeting I would have insisted on getting rid of it.

This is a great product and no one was more skeptical than I was when a guy I work with lent me his for a weekend. I was basically a straight in the amp kinda guy for 32 years with some expermentation with effects. But the amp modeling is what I have been looking for.There are a lot of obnoxiuosly opinionated people who say they hear this and they say they hear that, you know the same ones who claimed CDs would never take over. Get a life. This product proves two things, science is still wonderful and this is the new century. If you want to be one of those 60 year old geezes in some dusty guitar shop go ahead and be my guest but I am moving on.