Yamaha DG Stomp

Purchased off Ebay, price included the expression pedal.

For what it is, it has great features. The only thing I wish it did was tune my guitar for me! Seriously, I don't get what some of these reviewers want from this unit. No noise gate??!! A noise gate does not belong on this. It should be some consolation that you get a compressor because a compressor doesn't belong on this type of unit either. You're not gonna buy this unit for the compressor any more than you'd buy it for the noise gate it doesn't have. You might, however, buy it JUST for the quality and ease of setting up and using the effects, regardless of the amp and speaker models.

I find the tuner quite easy to use. But I am comparing that to my IntelliTouch tuner. They're very similar.

Well, I guess it "only" has 8 amp types, so it's not as versatile as the Pod. I'll put it this way - 8 is already one more than I can keep track of. It also costs about half the price of the Pod.

Because it has fewer functions controlled by each knob - and therefore more knobs - it's a lot easier to set up than many similar units. I found it quite easy to store patches. Recalling them, however, is a bit more complicated. But again, not more so than similar units. If you added a midi controller (which sort of undermines the simplicity of the unit) it would be every bit as easy to use as the Line 6 or Johnson amps - which also require a midi foot controller for ease of use.

There is definitely a limitation in that you have basically three presets you can call up per song. Fortunately, this is exactly right for me.

To an aging player suchb as myself, the coolest thing about this DG Stomp is that it sounds good and doesn't weigh 85 pounds. My Boogie Mark III just keeps getting heavier! It'll be 200 pounds by the time I'm .... OK, 50.)

I use the DG Stomp with headphone with speaker model turned on. I also run it into the main amp input of an Eden Traveler bass amp. That's a cool application: I can have a bass plugged into the front of the amp and use all of the preamp controls of the Eden for the bass while keeping a guitar plugged into the DG Stomp and running to the main amp input, which is not affected by the preamp controls. This means that I can just lug my Eden 210 rig for practices and leave the Mark III home. (I play both guitar and bass.)

I play an ES335 and a Strat about equally. I tend toward jazzier sounds. Mainly clean sounds. Gee, there are nice clean sounds available from the DG Stomp too! It's not ALL about distorted sounds. There's a very nice, bloopy jazz preset too.

Did Yamaha make a mistake by not actually NAMING the models "Tweed," or "Twin," or "JCM?" Some reviewers are hung up on the notion that Yamaha didn't actually emulate specific amps. If you ask me, it's quite obvious that they did just that. They just didn't opt to use the trademarked names. The Stomp's Clean 2 sounds as much like a Twin as the "Twin" model in my Roland VS880EX. It's better than the Johnson Millenium I bought and returned. But frankly, I am not looking to sound like someone or something else.

The only real problem with the presets was that they are so maxed that the pick attack seems to glitch digitally. If I back off on the gain I get a responsive "interactive" type of attack "something like" a real tube amp. If I want to get the kind of springy responsiveness of a real tube amp, I play through my Mark III.

I like the chorus better than my Roland CH-1 or the CE-3 (which sucked but it's highly desirable now because it's "vintage" and made in Japan. I sold it for more than I paid for it brand new - nearly 20 years ago. Yeah, I'm a geezer.)

I like the spring reverb in my Mark III better than the spring reverb model in the DG Stomp. The DG Stomp's reverb is still good, though. To be more specific, it's got too long of a decay for the higher reverb mix setting I like to use. I think it's just what I'm used to - It's not really better or worse. It's still a nice, useable reverb sound.

Well, for this price, you can get two of them, if you want a backup. But one of the uses of the DG Stomp could be AS a backup: If your amp goes dead, you CAN run this through the PA.

I have been playing for 35 years. I've owned a lot of gear over the years. For the price, this is a great piece of gear! I probably will actually get another one just because it looks like they don't make them anymore. I love the simplicity and versatility of the DG Stomp. It's perfect for nearly everything I do on guitar. I'd still take my Mark III with me. But that detracts not at all from the DG Stomp's usefulness. My points of comparison are a Johnson Millenium head, which I returned after a week. The models in this little Yamaha are far better than those of the Johnson, which really sucked. My experience with Line 6 has been an early combo amp, which was terrible, and just trying out the Pod. The Pod's nice. And way overpriced. It does MORE than the DG Stomp, but it doesn't do it as well, in my opinion. The other comparison is the effects cards in my Roland VS880EX (digital hard disc recorder.) I assume these effects are like those in the Boss VF-1. The Roland's models do sound better to me than any of the other modeling amps.

on starting up the box, it's easy to use the preset sounds and by just adjusting them a little get very good, personalised sounds. trying to use some of the more complicated functions is more tricky however. the manual helps a lot, but some of the functions, such as the tuner, and the wah wah pedal, are a little complicated. could be better.

i use an epiphone elitist les paul with seymour duncan 59's. i put this through either a modified peavey valve amp (used to be a hammond tr-30 thing) or a marshall 200w solid state power amp and an ashdown 2x12 cab. the only other effects i use are a marshall guv'nor pedal, and a cry baby wah. through both of these the dg stomp sounds excellent, it requires a little tweaking to get the sound right, (as you'd expect) but overall it sounds very good. My only complaint would be with the phaser and flange effects, they themselves are very high quality, but they would be better if they had a mix or volume control, it's hard to get a subtle sound using some phaser and distortion, the phaser is just a bit loud. not that it's a problem though. using it as a preamp works very well as well, the speaker simulator is excellent, and the sounds add that extra realistic warmth. would be nice if it had a dual rectifier style sound though, the lead sounds are verry high gain anyway, but it would be nice to have somthing more mesa boogie esc. maybe that could be an upgrade, who knows?

i've not had anyproblems with this at all, i've had it for about 6 months now, and have gigged with it several times. on all occasions it's performed brilliantly. i'd never hesitate to take it as my only effects. it's built like an absolute tank. there's no risk of it being damaged, yamaha have done an excellent job with the design and layout.i think if i dropped it, the floor would suffer more than this would. a great piece of kit.

i had to contact yamaha to get a new plug when my little brother threw it out the window in a temper (don't ask) and they sent it along within about 3 days no problems at all, very helpful.

overall, an excellent piece of kit, well worth the money and a great alternative to the line6 pod. definatley the best piece of equipment i've ever bought, just wish the foot pedal (the fc-7) was a bit cheaper. i definately reccomend it to anyone looking for some excellent amp sounds and high quality effects.

The DG-Stomp is a pre-amp and effects pedal. The unit is fairly easy to use as far as creating patches. They obviously took their time making the presets and modifying them is simple enough. They have a tri mode button that you have to use to change sound banks and I can't say that I care for it. Not a problem when you're recording but on stage it's slow. The manual is straight forward and simple. A little experience with Yamaha gear helps. It's certainly better than the old manuals that were poorly translanted from the Japanese. As with their other pedals of this type, you have to initialize each function before you can make a change. This means you have to find the setting is it on and move the dial to this point before it will register a change. I thought this odd at first but then realized that it would be the only way for you to know what setting is used for the preset. Not a bad idea at all really. Any and all changes you make including bass, treble, presence, gain, etc are saved when you create a patch. The tuner doesn't seem to be able to "commit" and is largely a waste of time. Although I haven't done so (yet) you can hook up an expression pedal to it to alter sounds. Pedal function is assignable.

I use a variety of guitars with this pedal but all of them use either single coils or P-90's. I believe this to be the best multifunction pedal I've ever owned. I've been using guitar pedals since 1966. They have included all the effects I could want. The inclusion of phaser (think MXR Phase 90) and tremolo are a real bonus to me. The speaker cabinet emulations are great for recording. At first I was amazed that it had no "distortion or overdrive" button. But that function is handled by the "amp select". I believe all the effects are first rate (the "spring" reverb is outstanding). The presets would probably suffice for all but most picky tone monsters. Plenty of crunch, clean, and lead patches They have a few "experimental" patches but only a few. Patches with names like "Santa-Ana" are self explanatory as to what tone they are aiming for. It is not noisy in general but I've had to tweak the compressor on a couple of patches. I've sent the output direct to my computer, to a Mackie P.A. amp, and to my Crate DX-212 amp. The stomp handles all of them very very well.

The box is made of metal and the stomp switches are solid under your feet. There will not be any physical problems with this unit. I will use it without a backup but I haven't sold my RP-1 yet.

I haven't dealt with Yamaha since the old DX-7 days. When I did call them about parts for mine they were friendly and helpful. If they still train their people the same way I'm sure you won't have trouble with them.

I play in several different live situations and I record several styles. This unit will find it's way into all of that. I've been making guitar music for almost 40 years and I think I know the good stuff. Unlike most gear I own, if this were lost or stolen I would try to replace it immediately. As a pre-amp OR as an effects unit, it's more than worth the price I paid. As both, it's the deal of a decade. I hear this pedal has been discontinued. What a pity. One of my bands has 3 guitarists and we all got one after hearing it. It may be the one and only thing we agree on. If you can find one to audition give it a whirl. You'll be leaving the store with it I guarantee.

Ease of use: -3 Ease of using the manual -10
I have been playing with the Stump for 2 years. The best thing about the Stump is that some of the preprogramed Patches (all 90 of them)sound great. With some of them you can virtually play anything and it sounds good. Remember the first time you tried a Fuzz Tone and nobody had any idea what the song was or even cared? The worst thing about the Stump is the manual. It is so confusing and has such little useable information I don't think it makes any difference whether you can read or understand any of the 6 languages it is written in. Once you go through the discription of the controls, the rest of the information is just more confusing.

It is easy to edit the patches but difficult to keep track of what you have done without keeping a note book for each patch number you modify. And Heaven help you if you touch one of the 21 momentary buttons after you have set up what you want, your not in Kansas any more.

That being said, it is relativly easy to get the device working as long as you stick with the preprogramed patches. The Stump is split into 2 identical sections. The factory setting (90 Patches) that can be altered but not saved, and a user section where the settings (same 90 Patches) can be altered and saved.

I use a Carvin SC90T and a Martin D28 with a Gold under bridge pickup.
The Stump is pretty quiet. It sounds like they actually have added noise that would be tipical of the effect.
I play through a Rivera, Fandango and a PV Pacer100.

The good effects always sound good the so so ones always sound so so.

If anything I think they tried to do too much. Included effects are: Compressor, I give it a 5, Chorus-8, Flanger-2, Phaser-2, Rotary-3, Tremolo-9, Delay-7, Tape echo-6, Reverb/spring/plate/hall-7. In addition they offer different outputs of: Lead 1&2, Drive 1/&2, Crunch 1&2, and Clean 1&2. While they give you 1&2 1 would have been enough. There are also 16 different speaker simulations taht all kind of get blurred from one to the next. Four or five distinct cabinets would have been plenty. The Preprogramed patches are various combinations of the effects. With all of these buttons and dials you would think that there would be a way to bypass the Patches and use the effects you want, if you can I haven't figured it out yet.

It is reliable if you can remember what Patch does what. I should put a lable on the bottom and write down the settings I use for the different user stored patches. I do gig with the Stump but don't venture too far out of 2-3 patches I have worked out at home for what I'm playing. And once you turn it on and select the patch don't touch anything!

Customer support was just as confusing as the Manual. You understand real fast who wrote the manual and it took almost a week to get a reply that was not at all helpful. Saddly when I asked what a particular discription in the manual meant, they restated what it said in the manual. I guess I shouldn't have asked such a question.

I play a lot of different music styles from Jazz, to Rock, to Clasical. I have been playing for, "Oye vey, 40 years". If the Stump were stolen or lost I probably would not buy another one. Sadly, I don't love or hate my Stump I am indifferent. The favorite feature is, I have been able to get a feel for several types of effects with one device. That being said I will probably be buying some individual effect boxes.

With all the obvious work that went into building the Stump (none went into the manual), I would have paid more attention to the relation ship of the Gain control knob to the Volume knob. My impression is the designers have never used an amp that really had these features built in. It is very difficult to get a truly clean sound.

I think this is a great idea that got beyond the designer or maybe there were too many desiners, I'm Stumped.

I'm surprised this is classified under 'amps' rather than 'effects' like other amp modelers, but maybe it's a typo. Anyway, I got a recently discontinued DG Stomp from Musician's Friend, and had the chance to play it and compare it to my Johnson J-Station. Other multi-effects I've owned in the past: Behringer V-Amp 2, Digitech RP100, Zoom 505.

Specs are listed in other reviews, I thought I'd just share my general impressions compared to other amp modelers. The DG Stomp has less options as far as amp sims and deep editing goes than the J-Station or V-Amp 2 (or the POD 2.0 for that matter). I think this is both good and bad. Good because it doesn't require as much tweaking to get a good sound - out of the box the sims sound better than my J-Station, which sounds a little muddy/muted for my tastes. You don't need to have a deep knowledge of working effects because they simplified it. For example on the DG there is only knob to adjust compression, whereas on the J-Station (with the J-Edit software) you can modify attack, release, threshold, and gain. The J-Station also has more fine control over things like delay (numerical values) whereas here it is basically a tap delay. They clearly designed this for live users who want to set it up quickly and play, versus the J-Station which is essentially for home studios. Also the J-Station has bass and acoustic amp sims while the DG is strictly guitar only. The downside of course is that if you enjoy having lots of options and tweaking for hours then the DG Stomp is a little simple.

Nonetheless the DG has all the essential sims and effects and allows a wide range of sounds (I noticed this just by cycling through the presets). It has a digital coaxial out with 20-bit/48kHz. The most noticeable omissions are lack of editing software (even though it has MIDI in/outs) and a noise gate (more on that below).

I am using this with an el cheapo Squier Affinity Special. The clean amp sims and time-based effects are superb, very lush-sounding. I would rate them above all other amp modelers I've tried. The gain sounds are a mixed bag, some of the lead sounds are very studio-like but some other distortion sounds have that digital grittiness. I haven't seen a digital unit that can reproduce the smoothness of a Pro Co Rat or a USA-made Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, so I think it's best just to stick with stompboxes for those sounds.

As stated above the unit lacks a noise gate. Even with reduced noise pickups (with 'dummy' coils) set in humbucking positions (Strat 2 and 4), there is still a noticeable hum. On positions 1,3, and 5 the hum is just unbearable. This is compared to the J-Station which has almost no noise on 2-4, and very little on the 1-3-5 positions.

Very solid construction with metal casing. I wouldn't stomp on it too hard in case I might errantly stomp on the display or knobs, but it has a Boss pedal-type construction to it.

Haven't dealt with them yet

Soundwise it is better than all the other amp modelers I've tried, except for the increased noise. It is more dynamic and natural sounding than the J-Station and V-Amp 2. It is not as feature-rich as those two but it is more suitable for live playing in my opinion. If you can find it for under $150 then it's a great deal.

Excellent features for the money although usability can be an issue (switching amp settings for instance).

Having used this and a POD I have to say that the Stomp has far more natural sounding amp tones. Especially good is the way that the Stomp responds to picking dynamics, getting cleaner with less guitar output.

Where the POD wins hands down though is that it reproduce real amplifier tones form Marshall, Fender etc. Given that the presets on the Stomp are pretty useless this is a major shortcoming. Marshall/ Fender settings for the Stomp can be got at http://yamaha.dgstomp.users.btopenworld.com or by side by side matching to a real amplifier (a slow process). These settings turn the Stomp into a wonderful collection of vintage amp sounds and make it truly usable.

I guess it's a 9 for sound quality but only an 7 for actual sound choices.

No problems with reliability.

Other Yamaha spares seem outrageously expensive ($200 for a new grill cloth and baffle, $30 for a push/push pot).

I've been playing for over 30 years, mostly Strats and PRSs. My first real rig was a Marshall Plexi with 2 4x12s. I've been searching for that sound ever since in a more manageable package. The Stomp is the closest thing I've found for recreating valve amp sounds whilst retaining some of the natural warmth. My POD 2.0 got the EQ spot on was just wasn't compelling to listen to for me other than direct.
Overall a 9 (when set up with the Marshall and Fender tones).

I'd like to add a few words to my previous post. The features of the Stomp have been covered in detail by a lot of people on this page, but there's still some confusion as to the quality of the gain on the DGS. After some months of use, I found the following, which may help a few people out there get good/better distorted sounds:
1. on the back panel (where the guitar plugs in) there is low/hi output switch. Always leave it on.
2. ALWAYS leave the amp sim on. That changing the sim has negligible effect on the sound is one of the DGS's shortcomings, but turning it off ensures that you'll sound like Marylin Manson underwater. So leave it on.
3. Likewise, ALWAYS leave on the chorus or preferably phaser from the modulation bank, unless your song demands otherwise. This helps to get a big, tubey sound from the DGS, and if you're careful it doesn't sound too much like the effect is on at all.
4. Having the compressor effect on but turned down all the way seems to work for me.
5. Away from this, look at your guitar: use thicker strings, HB pickups, thicker picks, tune down 1/2 stop; increase amp volume where necessary.

Good luck!

Digital preamp modeler with effects. There is some dispute on this page as to whether this should be called a preamp; since I have run mine directly into the power stage of my amp and am getting at least as much volume as I ever did using the amp's pre, I say it can be safely called a preamp.

There are some truly marvelous features on this box, but it will not get a 10 from me because you can only use one modulation effect at a time, and because there are features that really should have been built into it that were omitted (ie noise gate, clean boost on demand, which you can do with the foot controller but I would have rather had a built in 10 db boost on the fourth ftsw than tap tempo for the delay, or ideally be able to assign either function to it) However, as I will get into in the next section, overall the features are pretty good, with some rising to excellence.

Let's break this down in sections.

AMP SIMS: 2 types each of Clean, Crunch, Drive, and Lead preamp models, all with Gain, Level, and 4 band EQ. I use mostly the Clean 1, Crunch 1 and 2, and Drive 1 (the Lead channels have a very sort of nu-metal sound, which is way not me), and overall I am fairly satisfied. Pick of the litter is definitely Clean 1, it's almost 100% noise free and it's very easy to make it sound good. Speaking of noise, there have been some people who have called this box noisy; I suspect these people are using this preamp into the front side of their amps. If you have a Power Amp In (FX Return on a series loop equipped amp) USE IT!! 90% of the noise disappears. Yeah, the higher gain settings get a little noisy on single coils, just like almost every OD pedal I've ever used does when you crank the gain. A lot of people have also complained that this does not sound like a good tube amp when it distorts. To this I say: no shit sherlock, nothing sounds like a Bogner or a Boogie except a Bogner or a Boogie!! The DG will, however, get you about 80% of the way to that kind of tonal nirvana, for about 4.6% the price. If you absolutely positively will not be happy with anything less than real tube tone you should know better than to buy a digital preamp. If little digital boxes that weigh a pound and sell for under $500 could really make EXACTLY the same tone as a 100 lb, $3000 tube amp, do you really think the big heavy things would still cost $3000??? Do you really think they would still be made at all if that was the case? And would anyone buy one of they were? Come back to reality everyone. If you use the Gain judiciously it's not horrible; if you push the hell out of it it gets kinda harsh.

MODULATION EFFECTS: chorus, flange, tremolo, rotary (vibrato), and phaser. You can only use one at a time, so if there's one you can't live without you might consider getting or retaining a separate pedal for that effect, as I'm doing with the chorus. Some of these effects are tremendous: the other guitar player in my band, for instance, owns a $100+ Voodoo Labs trem and he's jealous. I was never a fan of flanging before, but I am rapidly falling in love with this one. Then there's the others, which for the most part I could take or leave; however there are 4 parameters you can adjust for each effect, so with careful tweaking I may yet find a use for the phase and vibrato.

DELAY: two modes, delay and tape echo. Feedback, level and time controls; peg the time to 10 and you get a little under 2 seconds of delay, which is a lot longer than my old Boss delay that went to like 1.2 I think... What can you really write about delay? It is what it is. I don't hear much diff in Tape Echo mode, personally.

REVERB: Spring, Hall, and Plate modes, Effect Level knob. Hall is great, Spring is a little too bright; I say the plate sucks, but I have yet to find a digital plate reverb I like so take it for what you will.

PATCHES: You get to make 90 patches, and it has 90 (mostly useless ones) preloaded. 10 Groups x 3 Banks x 3 Patches. Editing is intuitive; I've played with the thing a total of about 4 hours this week and have created and idealized about 12 patches. Storing is easy unless you want to store across groups (ie, tweak patch 1-1-3 and store it as 5-2-1), which gets to be a pain. I myself am trying to organize them so that I don't have to change groups during a set; hence I'll have 9 patches at my disposal in any given set, which I can switch to FAIRLY quickly... This depends mostly on how intelligently you use the thing. And on how many patches you feel you need in a given song or set; if you really need more than 9 patches at any given moment you need MIDI I guess.

OTHER FEATURES: Speaker Sim, haven't used it yet. Master Output Volume, without which I wouldn't have bought the thing because I have lived too long without a master volume. Tuner, which will make you want to break your guitar over your

The chassis could be run over with a small car, msot likely. Time will tell if the innards prove to be as durable; I've had it for a week and gigged once with it, so I couldn't say. I intend to baby it as much as possible.

If I had bought this for $400 I would rate it a lot lower, but for the price I paid I feel I got a tremendous value. No it does not sound like a Matchless or Bogner, but then again I will never herniate myself trying to put this in my car or carry it up a flight of stairs, plus it didn't cost more than my mortgage payment. It all comes down to priorities. If I was a millionaire with a road crew I would have gone for a Twin and a bunch of boutique pedals. Being that I am in a barroom band, schlep my own gear around, and am lucky to come home with $100 in my pocket after settling my tab, I am willing to make some compromises.

Even if I had that Twin and never used the amp sims (which are bypassable), at the price I paid it would still be a phenomenal value just for the effects. You couldn't buy the same quality delay and trem, for instance, for twice the price even on the used market. If it was stolen and I could get another for the same money I would buy it again in a heartbeat.

I won't bore you with re-writing the features of the Stomp. Thou, I decided to get the stomp bc of the digital recording. Also, I needed something that I can use without waking up the neighbors.

The sounds are good and for a modeller, it's warmth is closest to a tube compared to others in this price range. I've tried the POD and Pandora, neither of which I was impressed with and found them more difficult to use. What I play mostly is jazz, classic rock, santana and clapton, and for what I use it for, it does the job very well. I use an Amer. Strat with single coil, '67 Les Paul with humbuckers, and a Fender acoustic with diMarzio pick-ups and I get great sounds from all of them. I've paired it with the DS60 "slave" speaker and I find that it's got enough power for most small to mid size venues. I have tried it with a Peavey 258 Transtube and found it too digital sounding...but I believe it was more the Peavey than the stomp. I won't give it a 10 since I don't think any amp is perfect, but it is good for it's purpose.

since I haven't had it over a year yet, I won't rate it for reliability. but it seems to be built well. I do like that it's cased in metal.

haven't needed it yet

I've been playing for 22 years and have Marshall and Peavey amps. I would get another one if I lost this one.

This unit is quite easy to use although a couple of workouts
with the manuel are neccessary to set up your patches (up to 90).
Editing is a snap after you become familiar with it. This unit has
great tone and only needs a plain solid state amp to play through
and even sound great through my Danelectro nifty fifty but ofcourse
nicer through my Pevy keyboard amp. The pre-amp can switched off
allowing only the effects to opperate if you want to run it through
a nice tube amp. The effects can be dialed in to suit any style
of music. It was easy to get a nice clean tone, overdrivin to any
degree, and explosive fat grinding sounds for blues, rock, or
whatever. I had a POD for a year and I never came close to what
can get from this thing and you can edit everything without a
computor and store it in a flash.

I use single and double coil guitars with it and get no noise
except for on the monsterous gain settings that is part of that
style anyway. The effects are very nice and fully editable. I can
cop a SRV thing easy , Santana , Van Halen , Robin Trower , Clapton ,
Metalica , Desturbed , and also sweat fat clean jazz tones. I like the
sound of it through my keyboard amp with all tone controlls set at 0
which is a Pevy KB60 w/1-12" and a tweater. Through head phones it's
not as thrilling.

It's built like a tank and no dought it'l be around
for ever. All metal construction.

N/A

This is the best pedal/preamp i've purchased. I've been
through a POD, H/K Tubeman, and a dozen little pedals and none
of them have been this usefull. Blues music is my fist love
and I'm gettin some great Hendrix , SRV tones. Nothing beats
a cranked up vintage or botique tube amp to me , but now I
don't have to lug my sweathearts out in the cold for every
little jam night.