Yamaha DG Stomp

My second review:

WOW, I got a class a tube amp (Top hat CR) yes a real amp...
Any way the DG stomp just comes to life so much now compared to my Fender new school tube amp. My amp has little drive and using this DG stomp in small amounts really does give me a swiss army knifes amount of classic rock tones. Its a great unit and can sound like SRV style very easy. Trick is dont over do the effects. I actually took off my 1979 TS-808 and opted for just the DG stomp! I love how there is no noise and I get the clean and dirty boost with subtle effects. Great for country blues. The real knobs, I got the Magic stomp but cant stand how there no knobs so **** canned it. Also I find it best to play three patches or three sounds only. Then its like a patch that is SRV sound, then Santana delay thick tone and a few major reverb patches. Just dont even bother with factory patches. Make your own! press save and your done. Don't get into patch surfing and knob tweaking get back to playing and understand this is a pre amp, clean boost with subtle but highly usable modulation effects, chorus, delay, phaser...and best used on a two grand tube amp because you will really be able to turn the amp sim OFF and get back to basics. Not used the cab sim and I use the Pre amp ON setting. Hell its so dead easy I could press the reset command and remove all my settings and be back in a song in 3 minutes.

Features are quite generic, and dealed with in other comments.

Used with '77 Strat, a pair of '79 Fender 75 amps, '68 Hiwatt 4x12 cabinet, and TS-9 for overdrive.

The DG-Stomp is a live, swiss army knife affair. Everybody knows that amp modeling is OK for submitting a pitch for a TV add, but for a real soundtakes there's just no replacing the real thing. I use it with the pre-amp emulator thing off, always, except in reharsal, where I don't carry an amp. The 'emulators' sound is OK for reharsal, and will 'fool' 90 % of the audience, and even the occasional tone challenged bandmate. But I'm the kind of maniac who plays for the 1% that comes up after the show and asks : those are Fane speakers, right ?

The effects cut it live (although the phaser is very brittle and the flanger harsh) but the pseudo-tape delay is actually quite OK, plus, its tap-tempo, wich is a real life-saver. Chorus is usable, but chorus is a cheap-o effect anyway. Nobody in their right mind would use the reverbs on this for a studio take. The high-end resolution sounds like its in the 4 bit range, for god's sake. The tremolo is OK, and choppy as hell if you need it to. I used the rotary speaker effect (sounded OK live) on a studio take once (the leslie didn't fit in the car) and lived to regret it each time I hear the song on the radio.

There's a reason why an actual real effects chain will cost a couple grand, and this costs quite less. There are no miracles. In sound, and in quite a few things for that matter.

The tuner is utterly useless. I can't even believe Yamaha put it in there (their acoustic guitars are quite well intonnated). The compressor is gadget-level, the attack-time is way to slow.

It's not noisy at all, and doesn't really screw up your tone if you EQ it right. The high-low impedance switch can actually heat up your tube amp a little, wich is OK.

It's made of steel, with real switches. End of debate.

It failed to turn on once, right before a show, but never did it again (yeah, the power-bar was on). Yet, kind of makes you nervous.

I got the pdf manual free on the net, so that's OK with me. And you do need the manual, because getting to some of the features is a two-knob at once affair.

I'w been playing for 20 years.

If it were lost, I might try something else, like an actual effects board (I was always to lazy to build a custom one).

I love the fact it's compact, tap-tempo, noiseless, and saves me fifteen minutes in setting up 7 pedals before a show.

I don't really 'hate' anything about it, its just that you have to take it for what it is : a 500$ machine that tries to emulates 80 grand worth of gear.

I had ~ZERO~ luck getting the external Wah pedal to sound good but im submitting this because with a $50 Roland EV-5 used as a volume pedal its great with the DG stomp.

Pros: SMALL compared to the big Boss multi effects rigs.
This wont sterilise your tube amp like Boss digital or POD.
All metal with big metal buttons and knobs.
Delay and Reverb is GOOD!
Volume petal jack is GOOD!
EQ is ok!
There is some magic in this box!

CONS: Built in Wah is CRAP with big tone hit and 20% drop in sound level.
Cant use flanger and chorus at once? Same with rotary, only one at a time. Delay is independent.
Comp is a little lame.

Im using with single coil strat.
This is how I use it. Its on my pedal board in the loop with a bypass switch, although I keep it on 100%.

This is how I got the ~BEST~ results.
1. I programed a BLANK sounding patch with volume pedal program and saved as #11, first program.
2. I have the tone as close to my natural amp as possible and its almost bypass with all effects and EQ at 5.
3. Then I run my effects.
Boss Compressor CS-3 >> TS-808 >> Dunlop Wah >> larger analog multi effects IBANEZ Pie-5 Tube, Loop into the DG stomp.

Its great this way with a little comp/sustain and TS-808 as a booster.

Now the important this is this is not a POD, although it has a "Pre amp" that gives a ton-o gain I never use it ever! Just get a good tube screamer or gain channel amp.

Its very natural sounding and im running this with extremely expensive all hand wired amp, custom strat, 1979 TS-808 and its a keeper. I can get this thing almost transparent! So for a tube purist its even a good deal, your ears wont know its on! Then start to add a touch of reverb, touch of delay.

The PSU got really hot once. Then it quit but the next day it was ok.
On a large pedal board it gets REALLY REALLY HOT! I dont have the feet on it rather I use Velcro. I imagine it needs space under there to dissipate heat. I imagine it might break but ill just get another if it breaks.

talked to a rep once, nice guy knew nothing about the stomp as Yamaha moves so much products in and out they are distached.

If lost id get separate effects but that would cost $300+ and take a lot of room, over $60 in cables to install. Iv had this for sell 3x in Craig's list and it never sold but im keeping it now now that I use it for SUBITLE delay and verb. Not to much or it goes south.

Thing to remember is be sparing with the effects, to much will ruin the sound. Just like I said, make a blank natural patch save as #11 then dabble the effects very slowly in.

I use this as a time based effects unit only and really get my distortion from a tube screamer or high gain amp.

Over all for a guy like me with a hand built amp with ABSOLUTELY NO FEATURES! This little box gives me reverb, delay, some amp Sims.
I cant tell when the amp Sims and drive, lead, lead2 is moved. My big amp 4x12 kind of nutralises that some how. I suppose its a little change in ambiance not anything I spend my time with. Stays on clean setting.

This is my tweak box and im always finding something NEW and useful out of this. Sometimes the sound is down right magical.

Like any effect you use moderation or you get a ball of mud.
I do not like the pre amp or gain as it just adds a ton o grain and dirt. I just crank my tube amp for that.

When I was all digital this device did provide some realistic "Tube" sound.

Lastly, im building a small night club for me and my friends and I will take this off my rig and install on the "House PA" for a guest guitar or second guitar player that might not want to drag his amp accost town.

Its plug and play tube amp simulation;, no wire fuss. Minimal use of effects and its very natural, very warm.

Use a Tube screamer and comp on the front end and its great!
The Rotary effect is good! but the external foot pedal did not change its parameters so I might look for a real Leslie.

Last comment, changing programs is IMPOSSIBLE. They really failed with no UP/DOWN button. I had to pay $50 for a midi up/down but when its about tone you can overlook that.

It's the tone and effect jack and small size that keeps this on my precious over crowded effect board.

Iv seen quite a few guys with $4,000 Tube amps using a DG stomp.
Dont bother with the external pedal jack use it as a volume or swell.
Im very fussy about "Digital" stuff and remember a real analog delay will run $250 alone and this box is around $90 so off you go its ambient to country, to classic rock... Its really old school if you want.

Fetures of this product you can find in earlier reviews. It's very versatile, indeed. Another plus is elegant design. No plastic star trek like crap, solid and simple metal construction. It feels better to be used connected to pa or transistor amplificiation like tech21 engine. The bad thing is you cannot setup effect chain. For example flanger will be always before delay and so one. I found dg-stomp useful for my musical ideas from jazz, ambient and rock.

Used with yamaha erg121 and ibanez af77 ( hollowbody). Stomp gives well textured sound and it reacts diffrent with diffrent guitars and pickups congurations. Can be noisy with single coils. You can get smooth modern jazz sound, type o negativ drive and everything between. Cleans channels are great, distortions good. Effects are somewhat basic, but quality is still very good. I found it very useful in recording. Before stomp i used line6 kidney and m-audio black box. Stomp is simplier ( believie it;s good) and sound quality is much better then kidnej and black box. It's very melodic, full of life and precise tool.

never had problems with this tool. Metal, solid and full of quality.

never dealed with them

I've been playing for 7 years, dealed with music school in jazz guitar class for a year. I would buy it again. very usuful, simply and elegant. I wish it had option to setup effect chain. Exept that - it's perfect for my demands.

Well its got a lot of features Im no expert and this is the only pre amp I own. KNOBS! DUDE!

It has all the classic AMP knobs, gain, master, EQ, all that stuff.

In my opinion its got a great tone. Its not suited for heavy metal I think you can stack a tube screamer for that I dont know.

I can get a great sounding realistic "Crying woman" tone.

Very "Classic Rock" metal heads look for something elce.

I tend to think it sounds better then other units like pod and I would like to think my expensive swamp ash guitar retains its tone and individual finger harmonics.

8 for what it is...

Sure its no tube amp.

10, it looks like it belongs in a police squad car in a retro dash board.

ITS LIKE CAST IRON.

If you had to you could kill someone with this and I just might@!

I talked to a rep in the freaking store and I had an issue with the clock running at 48 hrz.. Ok it was my fault I was using the digital out and recording at 44hrz so play back was SCREWED.

This guy was "Hay buddy I really dont know"

On the other hand the manual is online in PDF I hate how roland bangs you for $30 for the instructions.

SCREW that I hate that kind of crap.
Freaking jerks.

playing for 20 years off and on.
If it was stolen Id hunt them down and beat their heads in with the cast iron unit. Then Id buy one from ebay if I could.

What I like is the knobs and the REAL tone.
You can get so many tones from this! You need to be a little smart I admit for years it sounded like hell untill I removed it from my mixer LOOP FX send return. Its pretty complex unit Im guessing to copy 6 or 7 Stomp boxes.

At $100 used ebay alone its worth the value as an EQ and little over drive.

I dont mess with the amp sims or speaker cabs The ability to reach over and add a little compression is worth the $100.

I dont own other guitar FX so I cant compare this twords a pod

(Id never own a POD and dont want to sound like an army of "Crud" or what ever is the latest NEw metal band with a great metallica face.

Sound like Duane Allman or any old school Classic rock BB king.

The pre progroamed patches kind of suck at at first I was a total beginner with amp sims and I wanted to download some banks but NO they dont have online patches you have to dial them in.

You wont be happy with out putting a thinking cap on.
If you put a little work in this thing is a fantastic deal!

O did I mention that I have this installed in CUBASE with Midi and I can go back and it recalls the bank/patch when I load up my song if I choose to redo an audio track.

ALSO the thing is a tad noisy when used to chain together other midi gear and use as a foot controller. its crappy for a floor foot controller unless you can tapdance.

I took it out from my midi chain of gear (I play midi guitar) and the noise went away. (You could hear little BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP when the midi guitar volume or EQ was adjusted)

SUCKS as a flood controller even though it has the foot switches im still unsure what the hell they are used for.

VERY quiet unit when used with the digital out!

The DG Stomp is a floor based guitar preamp\modeler with built in effects. The effects are Compressor, Modulation (chorus, flanger, phaser, rotary, tremolo), Delay (digital or analog), and Reverb (spring, hall and plate). There are eight different "amp types" for the preamp\modeler section, and large adjustment knobs like on a real guitar amp. The Stomp can be used with or without speaker emulation and has a wide variety of cabinet types to choose from. It is also possible to disable the preamp and use the Stomp strictly as an effects unit. You can plug in headphones for silent practice.

Has a digital coax out for direct to computer recording, has MIDI and is fully programmable. Changing user banks is not as easy as it should be and requires a fair bit of tap dancing.

I bought the Stomp used, to use as an effects unit for live work, so I'll review the effects section before I get into the preamp part. As far as the effects go, they are VERY good. The modulation effects are excellent, especially the rotary, although accessing the secondary parameters is a pain. Delays (up to 2 sec) are fine and have tap tempo. Reverb is limited to 'type' and 'level', but good enough for live use. The Compressor works, but does not have any fine adjustments. An expresssion pedal can be used to change FX parameters in real time. As a simple floor unit effects box, the Stomp really shines, even though it does not have any fancy effects like harmonizer, whammy, pitch shift or that other stuff that I would never use anyway.

I just started playing with the preamp part a few weeks ago. I own several tube amps, Fender and Laney, and have my own studio out in the country where I can play as loud I can stand. I dont really have a need for amp modeling. I did buy a Line6 amp once upon a time back when they first came out, and returned it after a few days. Modeling simply cannot capture all the nuances and dynamics of a real tube amp. (We all know this). But I have to say Yamaha has come the closest to doing that of anybody I have heard so far. The other day I decided to do a side by side comparision, so I plugged into my Laney combo amp and adjusted the preamp gain to get a nice, crunchy Strat tone. Then I ran the Stomp direct to my mixer and into the computer, and was able to dial in pretty much the same sound easily using one of the "Crunch" settings. The Laney was, of course, more 3D sounding and responded better to picking dynamics and volume knob changes on the guitar, but the Stomp did a remarkable job of emulating the feel of playing through a real miked tube amp. I was quite impressed. You could certainly use the Stomp to record direct and probably fool most people. I think it's the best modeler I've heard so far, much better than Line 6, Digitech, or even Sansamp. I also tried running the Stomp in front of the Laney and a Roland JC like a stompbox (with speaker sim off, of course). It sounded better using the Stomp to push the tube preamp section of the Laney than the solid state Roland, but it worked fine with both, like a stompbox overdrive with fine EQ adjustments. No, its not analog but doesnt sound overly digital to my ears.

You cannot get "deathmetal" distortion out of the Stomp, but just about anything else, from country clean, Hendrix, SRV blues to Billy Gibbons nastiness is certainly possible. It is a little noisy on high gain settings, but so is a real tube amp (sorry, no noise gate built in). The main thing is to always have the speaker sim turned on if you are going direct, and to try different cabinet types to get the sound you want. You cannot judge the Stomp by the presets, some are OK, but building your own from scratch is more rewarding.

The Stomp would be a perfect backup system if your tube amp went belly up on a gig, you could just run the Stomp direct into the PA and finish the gig, no problem. It's worth picking one up just for that and the effects section. If you find that you love the sound of its modeling then that's even better.

Built like a tank, solid metal. Love the chicken head knobs!

Dont know.

I have been playing for over thirty years and own\have owned Marshall, Fender, Laney and Roland JC amps. Strat through a tube amp is the sound for me. I also play a Godin ACS nylon string with a GR30 guitar synth, and I use the Stomp for effects on the guitar at gigs, with an FC7 expression pedal for volume. It works great for this. My days of carrying around a big pedalboard full of stompboxes are over. I'm into toting the least amount of gear with the smallest stage footprint possible. Previously I was using a Digitech RP200, nice and compact, OK effects, but cheaply built expression pedal and I couldnt handle it anymore. The Stomp does a better job but does require an external expression pedal.

Yamaha discontinued the DG Stomp a few years back. They were expensive when they came out, but are cheap now. Fantastic value for the effects alone, much less the very good preamp\modeling (if you are into that). The Stomp is a veritable "Swiss army knife" box. There's a reason why it won an editors pick award from Guitar Player magazine back when it came out - it's a quality unit.

If you cant afford an all tube amp, dont want to haul one around, need to get good tones at apartment volumes or do direct recording, then get one of these, I dont think you'll regret it.

Easy to use just turn knobs dial in what your looking for and save config and your set. Has a midi-in, can be controlled by midi controller or other midi devices. It also has a on/off power switch which most guitar eff's processors don't. I don't care for the tuner but that why I rate it 9.

The amp modeling sounds fantastic can get Marshall or Mesa & clean Fender sound with the right adjustments. Modulation eff's sound excellent. Compression, chorus Falnger Phaser Rotary Tremolo, Delay & tape-Echo, Spring Hall Plate reverb & Speaker Simulator. and all adjusted & saved.

Never had any issues it's built like a tank.

I've never tlaked to them...

It's too bad Yamaha stopped making these, soon after they intergraded it into there amp's they stop production...The new guitar eff's processor they make sound no where as good as the DG Stomp, sorry Yamaha you lost it. I used Boss pedals Digitech RD's & Pod's which I feel are over rated, Korg ;there better the Digitech! and many others. Come on yamaha go back use the technology from the DG add a few other eff's ring mod for one and a better tuner & lay it out in a full control board like Korg AX1500 Boom!!! your set.

I love the effects in this item. The chorus and phaser are wonderful. The delay has two different settings (tape and digi, so it easy to dial in any kind of delay with a tap function built in!!! That's right, no extra controller required to adjust the delay time! The only reason why I give it a 9 is the deep adjustments require holding a button down (for chorus, rotary speaker, phaser, and flanger). That's a pain in the a** to adjust on the fly

Why spend the money on Line 6 stuff when you can buy this for half the price and get the same tones.

I have used it for many a gig. It is built like a tank!

I have yet to deal with Yamaha on anything (See my review for the UB99 Magic Stomp).

If this item was stolen, I would search all over EBAY to find another one. I originally bought mine from Guitar Center as a refurb for $125.00, and have yet to regret it a year later. I got rid of my Line 6 stuff after this item (and the Magic Stomp). It simply allows the guitar to be the guitar.......

For the benefit of all those who seem to think that this is an effects pedal, try plugging your fuzz box ( ;D ) or whatever effects that you use into a PA or mixing desk and see what sort of applause you receive......It's a preamp, it wont work without a power amp and a power amp section wont give you any sound to speak of without it. Still not convinced, stick your headphones into the output of your tubescreamer and tell me which ear the mono signal is coming through. How many of us are poking it in the guitar input on our combos? I know I do but I have no illusions. The effects are a bonus and are what probably enticed you to buy it. I admit, that's what sold it to me.
Just my opinion of course!

before i bought this, i tried as many guitars through different amps as i could find, in search of MY sound. i finally settled on a les paul through a yam dg combo (#1,000+ worth...hahahaha), but i was already aware of the dg stomp, and figured it'd have SOME of that sound. let me tell you, it sounds amazing! anyone who can sound bad through this unit needs their hands chopping off. the presets are awesome, and a 50 yr old could edit the patches. the manual is brilliant, too, tells you all you need to know!

i use a les paul, a fender tele(previously with stock poickups, now with bare knuckle pickups), and a homemade electric through this unit, i then go into the mac, or through a marshall 15 watter on the clean channel. sounds amazing, it's a touch noisy on the high gain stuff, but it just adds to the 'balls out' fun of it all, and to be honest i don't do that much high gain shit. i think all the sounds, effects, and cabs are great on this box. i've fallen out with gear before, become dissatisfied with the sound, but i won't ever sell this!

i bought this in june 2001, and i've never had a problem. it appears to be built like a tank. i would never gig without some kind of backup, only a damn fool would, but i trust it not to let me down!

haven't had to deal with the company over this, but i did once before over a keyboard....i've dealt with better, but their gear is top class, so it's not that much of an issue.

i play all sorts, but not so much really heavy stuff. i think it could do any style. a touch noisy on the high gain stuff, as i said before, but it just makes it sound more 'real' to me.
been playing 20+ years. i reckon i'd buy another, unless i was loaded, and would buy the combo, but i'd probably have one of these in the house, too. i love the sounds, some people might prefer it with a noise gate, there are better units for switching banks easier, but some of em don't sound as good as this, anyway, you can arrange your patches together, so thats not such a big deal. it's one thing i can just plug in and it does the job, some gear, it takes you ages to set up, and then you don't feel like playing/recording by the time you're set up. i hate that!
frankly, i was amazed to see that there was no feedback for this product already...it f'kin rocks!

Already despribed in other reviews. Just one thing: with the expression-pedal you can change so many parameters per patch that it's like having 6 patches in a bank and not only three. What I really don't like is the tuner and the wah is useless, because there is a hughe drop in volume when the wah is active. I use a Cry Baby for that.

Well, I had used this thing years ago in front of an amp as an effects-unit and sold it 2 years ago and switched back to stomp boxes. But I live in a city and I'm always go by public transport, so I wanted a solution, that I can always carry around with me. So I decided to give the DG-Stomp another try.

Now I go direct into the mixer and I'm very happy with this solution. The sound is really good. The other guitarist in the band is using a Engl Thunder Combo, but it's me who gets the compliments for a good sound. The unit delivers excellent clean and crunch sounds but high gain sounds won't satisfy you, if you're into NuMetal. But for Rocksounds like Van Halen or Stevie Vai it's ok. I play lot's of blues, rock and jazz and therefore the unit is great. The unit reacts like a good valve amp, especially when playing with your guitar's volume poti. Effects are of good quality too.

One important thing: this unit really amlifies the charactaristics of your instrument. So a shitty sounding guitar will sound shitty trough this unit. It does not polish a bad sound. Next is, that you have to do the right ajustments for your playing situation (speaker-sim, imput sensivity) otherwise it won't sound any good. I recommend doing the mod another guy explained here. You can find the link in his review. It's done easily and totally cancels noise.

So far I had no problems in cutting through the monitor on stage. But I'm thinking about purchasing a small active cabinet for situations with bad monitoring.

For me the price-/performance ratio is a clear 10.

Built like a tank.

Didn't have any contact

IMHO still the best modelling-unit out there, also production is discontinued. The new Magic Stomp is no good for live applications and Line6 units don't sound any "tuby" to me. But I have to say, that I didn't try the Voxe Tonelab Series.

If you can get a Stomp, buy it! There are some stores still having some units laying around and in most cases they sell them cheap.

it's very easy to use. the layout is perfect and the turning of knobs as on real effect pedals or amps is very nice. no scrolling through menus and sub-menus. you just have to memorise a view things when it comes to decide if you want to use the dg stomp for recording or for playing through an amp and using the effect section only without the amp/cab simulations. but the manual is very helpful for that.

i mostly used the dg stomp for direct recording with my MAC. it was very silent, almost no noise at all, except when using lots of gain, but that's normal. the dg stomp is ideal for getting "classic rock" sounds. it sounds very warm and real when dialing in some vintage crunch sounds or overdrive. i loved those sounds in combinations with the american or british 4x12 simulation. you can realy record some AC/DC, Led Zepellin, Black Sabbath ecc. with it. i found not that much difference between the various cab simulations, thats why i almost ever only used the american or british 4x12 or 2x12 simulations. i didnt use the "clean" and "distortion" amps a lot, but they were ok.
i absolutely loved the effect section! you simply turn off the amp/cab simulation and you can use the effects as normal stomp pedals by turning them on/off. especially good sounding to my ears are: tremolo, rotary, echo and spring reverb. the other effects are very good as well. i would descirbe 'em all as warm-sounding and not digital at all.
i bought myself the yamaha expression-pedal because i wanted to use it as wah-wah, but it didnt not work out great.

i am writing in the "past" of the dg stomp because ... it's broken. i had it for 3 years and it always worked great. few weeks ago i plugged in and no sound came out. i send it to repair to yamaha and they said that the central procession is gone and it would cost about 150 euro to get it fixed. to much for me. in my opinion it should have lasted a lot more, especially since i never used it outside my bedroom and almost exclusively for recording.

they made me pay 30 euro only for shipping the dg stomp to repair and for telling me it was broken and not worth to fix!!!! who am i? bin laden? i dont have money to burn - that made me angry!

if you are looking for a recording tool to get a great "classic rock" sound with effects this is for you! if you are playing live and need some effects to depend on but dont want to carry around a big pedalboard, this is for you! if you are a metal-head, stay away from this as you want get the sound you need out of it.
my dg stomp is broken now and i won't replace it, although it really fit my needs and i was happy with the music i recorded with it. i will buy a tonelab now as i have tried it out and it beats the dg stomp.

What more could you want? Maybe more individual effects. I may buy another stereo chorus pedal so I can use the (excellent) DG tremolo simultaneously.

I was just playing along with the new Neil Young Greatest collection and was really amazed at how easy it is to jump around (using manual, not patches--I still haven't gotten around to learning patch set-up) different amp sounds from track to track. My new set-up is much better: the DG is plugged into the LINE IN on back of my old orange Cube-60. Previously I had the stereo leads split to instrument inputs on the cube and a Fender Deluxe. That sound was thin, apparently from wrong levels. Using the DG as the preamp for the cube 60 is a revolution baby! At home I could never turn the Deluxe up loud enough to get the tone and harmonics only available between 6 and 10. I do know a little bit about tube tone, been using Fender Deluxe, Deluxe Reverb, and white Twin amp. Back in the early 80s I got the Roland Cube 60 as a booster. Put a JBL in it and have used it as a second, stereo setup. Prior to getting the DG I used Boss stereo chorus and mono delay pedals. I'd always have the Deluxe a little louder than the Cube. Nice fat sound. I sold the Boss pedals after I got the DG but may get another Chorus pedal as that isn't as good on the DG. The delay is very good though. Anyway, I just plugged the DG into the Line in on the Cube for the first time and now I'm not using the Deluxe. In fact I may sell it for a premium and get a Jazz Chorus as a second amp. The DG amp models and preamp/effects sounds are unbelievably great as a direct in to amp. I would guess that an effects loop would be even better. As a direct box for recording this should be swell. Unlimited variety and TONE. I've never heard overtones like I'm getting at "let the neighbors sleep" volume.

Beautifully overbuilt. Yamaha rep is good. Knobs. Lots of knobs!

Would buy another. I sold my 20-year-old Boss DM-2 delay pedal on eBay for more than I paid new for the amazin DG Stomp. I see there's a new Stomp that's designed for computer recording but all the beautiful chickenhead knobs are gone!!!! Fuggedaboudit.

This is a nice well built unit.
It has a lot of good sounds and I was able to clone my rhythm easily.
The speaker sims work well if you know what you are looking for.
It is a great pracice or recording tool.

The sounds range from real good to why bother?
Again good for recording rhythm tracks.
I would NEVER bring this to a gig, or for that matter, plug this into an amp.

it is only good into a mixer where you can eq and add some compression ( And I use the Stomp compressor too!)
Maybe it would sounfd good into an amp with no preamp.

One mistake I think I have been making ( after reading about Holdsworth in GP) is keeping the gain too high. Maybe lowering that will make it better.
Really some days I like this thing. Some days it's too cold.

Obviously it's built like the proverbial tank.
The chicken heads are nice .
The effects are actually top notch,
Tape delay is very good.
The Phaser and rotary are standout.

I'm sure Yamaha has decent Customer ealtions but since their stuff never breaks , who knows?

I've played 41 years. This is a nice toy.
My nephew asked me to play through "Dark side of the Moon" with the CD and The Gilmour tones just melted in right withh the CD. Both thru a mixer.
The most amazing thing about it ios that with major tweaking , it sounds like I always do which is worth a good laugh if nothing else.
Shows it's range tho'.

This pedal is extremely easy to use and edit patches. I find i can get a good sound quickly and easily and the manual is clear and helpful too. The patches are arranged in groups of 3 and the footswitches can be used to switch between the three in a group or to switch effects on and off. The tap delay is also great i only wish the tap delay time would set the time for the mod effects but its not a necessity.

I run my Yamaha EG-112 guitar (like a Pacifica) into the DG-Stomp and the left output into a Kustom Solo 16-R (great sounding amp!!!). Its very quite; no noisier than is reasonable. There is a LOT of gain available when using the lead amp types and along with compression the sustain is crazy. The effects are good although i usually only use chorus. Compared to something like a Boss ME-50 (which a friend of mine has) this is more oriented toward the amp modeling than the boss which is more the effects side of things. I dont have a pedal to plug into the dg-stomp so i haven't been able to try out the wah. Overall the sound of the pedal is awesome. i can get pretty much any sound of distortion/overdrive/crunch/clean with it that i need. And its not so fancy that u feel like ur playing a computer. I had an RP-80 before i got this pedal and i have to say that the effects and especially the amp modelling of the yamaha is far better. It costs a lot but its definitely worth it. I would say all u need is this pedal and a decent amp and ur set with all u need. I am and for the money i spent on my setup I couldnt ask for anything better.

I think i can depend on it. also the stereo output means that if one channel goes i can use the other still (i use it in mono). And its Yamaha. In my experience their stuff lasts well. Its no-nonsense equipment with performance to match.

The original pedal i bought used was only working on the right channel; the left one was completely gone. So the guy at the store phoned customer service and i now have a new pedal, with no problems whatsover. They were very helpful and kind.

Excellent pedal. i just wish, as i said before, that the tap delay would set the Mod effect's speed. Maybe a few more parameters on the effects wouldnt hurt either. And just for kicks a ping pong delay...
I would definitely try to get another pedal like this one if it were stolen. It does what i need it to do and without frustrating me and taking forever. Definitely worth checking out before buying something else.

See below.

I wish the speaker sims were on a rotary knob or at the very least the speaker sim button was closer to the utility button so one-handed changes were easier to execute.

Also, I wish you could still adjust gain and eq settings while the speaker sim utility is engaged.

No rating here because I don't want to add to or subtract from the hype--I'll simply offer my opinion and you can make of it what you wish.

My current set up, which is used for home practice and praise & worship services, is: Mex Strat equipped with two humbuckers--a SD '59 neck and an Anderson HN2+ bridge. From there I either plug into a Barber Direct Drive SS or a Boss LM-2 Limiter. Then into the DG Stomp, which is amplified by a Roland KC-300. Sometimes I run from the KC-300 into the house pa. I've been using this set up regularly for over a year now with little to no complaints. I am very satisfied.

The Roland's compression driver (soon to be replaced) can be very buzzy but I can eq the Stomp to eliminate or at least reduce that. What I found, even recently, is how sensitive every setting can be and how that affects your tone. For example, turning the gain or up or down, even a little, can drastically affect your eq. Thus, you have to compensate. Volume does the same thing, perhaps even more so. Let me get to the point--each amp model in the DG Stomp has a number of sweet spots like a real amp would and only patient tweaking will give you what you are looking for.

I do not think I would be happy with the DG Stomp on its own. The Barber fattens the tone and makes fast playing easier. However, it also makes it tough to get clean or overdrive tones with it on. I know, "so just switch the Barber off". But then you get the somewhat dull DG Stomp tone. So, I have been using the Boss LM-2 to enhance picking dynamics lately. I really like this. I can now get nice, fatter cleans, and mild, warm overdrives. Shred gains are not as good but turning up the gain on the amp model seems to work fine.

All in all, I am very pleased with my set up and have been for quite sometime. In fact, I have made attempts to move on to other set ups but keep coming back to this one. The Roland KC isn't the greatest but I occasionally use it to amplify my voice, drum machines, and bass so it stays. And I actually prefer the KC to the Tech 21 Power Engine I recently bought. The KC's speaker crunches up much more while the Power Engine sounds dull in comparison, probably due to the speaker.

Let me reiterate--harsh and buzzy treble tones can almost always be eq'd out with very minute adjustments of the eq. The same goes for honky mids. Don't be afraid to try bizzare eq-ing, either. I've been surprised at the results I have gotten by turning everything to "0" and moving on from there.

Finally, I have only attempted to direct record with the DG Stomp on a couple of occasions. I was not very pleased and thought micing the KC sounded better.

No problems whatsoever.

They've always answered my emails. Incredible considering the size of the company.

I know there are many modelers out there, many I have yet to try. But I will say this, the DG Stomp has been a great modeler for me. Finding one that works with the sometimes-to-harsh Roland has been a challenge but one the Stomp has lived up to.

I have to give Yamaha credit--for their first generation modeler, they really nailed it. I would like to see them continue to improve the Stomp. The Magic Stomp doesn't count, in my opinion. I thought it was horrible.

It's a feature-laden preamp in stompbox format. Very good sounding digital effects combined with a modelling preamp. Easy to alter the settings as they are (nearly) all accessible by turning the knobs. Only some special effect parameters have to be accessed by pressing a button and simultaniously rotating a knob.
But changing the bank is a bit problematic - just read the manual.

I use a Gibson Gothic SG into a Fender Vibrosonic Reverb and an Engl 4x12" cab. This is my main amplifier, but I tried this thing with an old Dynacord Excellent (PA with 2xEL34), too.
I have to admit that the clean and crunch settings sound decent. And the drive setting is pretty cool - clean is really hard to overdrive, crunch clears up nicely with volume adjustments on the guitar and drive is beefy. But the major drawback is the lead - the only channel usable for palm-muting. There's a really ugly fizzing noise riding on the distorted sound that just sounds fake.
I also used headphones with this device - and the lead-channel sounded like an endless loop of sampled distorted tone. Hard to describe, but just sounded really bad and artificial.

The effects are top notch - but I didn't really get the difference between the two delay types. They both sounded good but the tape delay wasn't really that different. The digital effects are good - phaser is a little bit plain - stand alone phaser just sound better.

Overall it's a nice practice amp for using it with headphones - but the fake sounds it produced are just not acceptable for this price range. I sold mine.

It seemed very solid. Only the 12V~ wall wart was a little flimsy - but I think it can be replaced with any AC 12V wall wart with matching current capability.

Haven't dealt with them.

It's a very well built stompbox; the included four footswitches are a great idea - I wish more effect manufacturers of digital stompboxes would include them instead of an expensive footboard.
But the sound quality was unacceptable bad for me - even though the effects are hifi.

This is a foot-pedal meets Line 6 Pod sort of system. Does everything I want and is mighty quiet. Seems to be discontinued now - which surprised me as all the Yamaha kit seems very solid and professional quality. Edititing patches is easy, but the manual is a bit light on hard info in an understandable format. Needs a bit of studying to get the best out of it. It isn't what you might cal intuitive.

Ecellent and quiet. All the tone of the guitar seems to come through and the effects applied on top. The tremelo is a bit weak if you want heavy and sharp volume cycles. Chorus, Phaser, Compression, Phaser, Flanger all OK and sound great. Rotating speaker is a bit warbly. Reverb, Tape Delay, Digitla Delay all sound good.

Very solidly built and I'd expect nothing to break in normal professional use unless your road crew are animals.

Haven't used this but the guys at Yamaha I've spoken to in the UK are very helpful.

Great - does all I want it to in every situation. Not extreme but nice and professional sounding effects and quiet. I love the headphone out so I can use this as a practice amp with no other equipment needed. (Stereo too)

I need to add a footpedal to this to be able to Wah and use as an effects swell pedal.

Just like a amp.
Editing is just like a amp.
The manual is great if you have experience with them.

Played regularly with strats and two HB guitars with great results.
The effects are awsome and very adjustable in every way with little effect on your real tone.
Used with Old fenders and staight to a keyboard amp and direct to
PC console with great results.
I can cop tones from every catagory with minamal effort, I love the
old stuff as much as the the new stuff.
If you need more add a pedal infront it works great, My favorite is
a Fulltone distortion pro. but whatever. Anything works. A wah? Go for a Teese, it's amazing. I like the DG for modulation.(SPX 90)

I use the DG every week to save my vintage tube amps without fail.
Occasionally My amp stalls and the DG is allways ready with only a
pull and plug in with great results. Now that I know this thing the
band feels secure if I pull it out. So I locked it in on my first
pedalboard ever. Now I can switch effortlessly with it's many outputs. I bang it around with minamal respect and the thing still
is ready when I call apon it. It's a must!

Did'nt need to deal with them.
It's the SPX effects with amp modeling. NICE

I'm not going to catorgize my style I like music period!!
I've been playing for 30+ years and I don't want catagories I want
good grooves with feeling. Other gear-Matchless. Theres no match.
Start with a great tone and add to it, if you messed it up start
over. I have it.

I sold my FX550 in favor of a newer effects pedal, and I wanted something that had footswitches on it, I'm rather lazy carrying around stuff. Since I loved the 550 Distortions, I searched for some Yamaha products and found this. The preamp knob lets you choose among 8 amps sims, from two leads to 2 cleans, with OD and crunch in between. This little thing also has Chorus, (not a very good one though) Flanger, Compressor, delay, echo, and spring, hall and plate reverbs and speaker sym. No noise gate which I believe is needed and no extreme effects like pitch transposer or harmonizers. Very basic and ideal if you play straight forward guitar.

I use Strats with Gold Lace Sensors, and although in the beggining it was hard getting that Eric Johnson sound, I achieved after tweaking it a lot. The distortions here are not ver well suited if you're into rather heavy metal music. This feels much more like a 70's and maybe 80's dist pedal than anything. Actually, theres no such thing as distortion, you get distorted sounds via the Amp Sym Knob presets, then tweak them within a limited Bass, Middle, Treble and Presence range, like a real amp, no fancy EQ here. Chorus is very dry and lacks depth and richness, but if you're not playing 80's British Pop, you can get away with this. Delay and echo are great (again, I cloned Eric Johnson's echo) Reverbs ara cool too, and the speaker sym is great for headphone playing, but the DG is really a speaker box, you need to plug it in.

I use it on gigs, and it is great. It's very solidly built, knobs are certainly going to last longer than buttons and are easy to tweak. At first there is a learning curve, but then you can program patches rather easily. I hope the foot switches last some years, there's no indication of the contrary, and also seen easy to fis, if broken.

Where I live (In Mexico City) it certainly is lousy. You can not drop you items in ANY Yamaha store, you ahve to travel to the other side of the city to their service center to drop items for fixing, after paying a 15 dollar fee just for looking into the item and telling you what the problem is. They could improve their service.

I've been playing for 17 years, I like pop and blues, so this little bos works great for me. The distortions are very tube like, and the small design allows me to carry it around. I like the integrated foot switching system, love the design, and dislike the learing curve and the preset patches, they totally suck, you can use one or two of them, and they are supposed to be built by German and UK expert musicians. Right. You are supposed to be able to download patches but so far, haven't found any software for that, you have to get the 350 DLS Yamaha Midi storage system for that. No way Jose!. If it were stolen I think I might buy it again, but, I might look for something else also. Then again, I hope it won't get stolen.

I'm not usually the greatest at getting a nice tone out of an effects unit but this one was simple! The manual takes you through the process of setting up the unit really well and then getting the desired sound from it is as easy as turning a few knobs and pressing a couple of buttons! I picked up all of the features in about half an hour which was mostly spent playing through it rather than studying it! Really impressed with the ease of use. Setting up and storing patches couldn't be simpler.

Playing through a Yamaha SG700 into the effects return on a Marshall VS8080 proved to create some gorgeous clean tones! The chorus sounds fantastic and the other modulation effects are also flawless and have a wide range of adjustment. The compressor works well and the delay/echo effects along with the authentic reverb add to the fine characteristics of the tones produced. The amp selector is maybe a bit restrictive in the high gain department but is simple to use and gives both american and british styles of gain from crystal clear to edgy crunch to screaching amounts of distortion. Sound quality is reasonable in this department although I did manage to recreate the sound of my 8080 with the stomp box very nicely.

Moving on to the speaker simulator - this thing is amazing! When playing with distortion through a guitar amp it probably won't need to be engaged but for plugging straight into recording devices or headphones this thing does wonders! You can recreate the sound of any of 16 famous speaker and cabinet setups from single speakers to a variety of 4x10 and 4x12 options. Sound quality is fantastic at any volume and would be hard to distinguish between the digital and authentic tones.

Can't say too much about reliability because I've only had it about a week but I've been with Yamaha for a long time and haven't been let down yet! Going by the build quality though, the thing is a tank! Heavy duty, all metal construction means it will most likely shake off a good thrashing around.

Never had to deal with them in about 10 years of playing Yamaha products!

Fantastic! If you want to shell out 1000's on seperate equipment for all your different styles feel free but if you want to get all the famous tones you've ever heard played from a guitar, this thing can probably do it for a fraction of the price. It saves a hell of a lot of effort when setting up for a gig and performs magnificently. If I must pick a fault with it, I would suggest that the footswitches (which aren't even featured on many of it's competitors) are slightly close together for big flipper-footed people like myself! Apart from that though it's a fantastic buy and another quality product from the folks at Yamaha.

Pretty easy to use although the manual needs to be absorbed slowly to get the best from it. The manual is rather basic and could have been written with much more expanation adn examples. Editing is easy and just at the press of a button and trirn of a few (or many) knobs.

Brilliant. Creates juts about any amp, speaker and processed sound you would want. This is Yamaha's take on the POD and J Station and it does a pretty good job. Little background noise. Presets are all over the place but that's why they let you set another 90 yourself. Who'd need more than 90? It's got compression, chorus, tremelo, flanger, rotating speaker, overdrive, digital delay, tape echo, hall, plate and spring reverb, and abou a dozen amp simulations and another dozen or so speaker sims as well. Well read the spec. to see if I've missed anything. I don't really know whether these processors get better than this but as a working musician this doaes everything I need and a whole lot more that I'll never get round to. And it does it real quiet which is great. Even came with it's own mains power supply.

Very solid and I would expect no problems. Has lots of chiken head and rotary knobs that you wouldn't want to spet on by mistake, so although it has stomp buttons on it - don't place it anywhere another band memeber is going to accidentally tread all over the knobs.

I've only spoken to the yamaha guys a couple of times but they have seemed very obliging in the past. I guess the suppport on this would be OK - has a year warranty anyway.

I'm a teacher and a player and needed something that would do everything in one box - this is it. I have to play everything from punk to jazz - this box does it.

First off this is an effects unit, as stated before, and not an amp. It's perfect for direct recording and live situations where you go direct into the board. For a list of features see previous posts.

I use a Gibson ES 335 and a Godin LGX-SA W/the duncan pickups. I play a lot of blues, folkrock, Jazz. My group plays mostly acoustic music but lately started adding some caned drums and a little electric guitar for some solos. I was using a fender hot rod (great little amp) but it didn't blend well with everything else (mandolin, guitar, vocal) going direct. Besides the hot rod had a loud hum every time I plugged the Godin into a guitar synth and into the board. Just for the heck of it I plugged the dg stomp that I've had around for a few years direct into Our Mackie board and our mackie powered speakers. After a little tweaking I got some very musical sounds. Nice clean sounds like the Hot rod and good overdrive bluesy sound. Fits nicely in the mix and best of all no noise. The effects section for the unit- modulation and dig delay are quality and the reverb is about what you would expect on a quality amp. Pre amps and tone controls are very well done.

Built like a tank

Been playing for 30 years (ouch). I also own a sansamp box which has great sounds but isn't as versatile as the stomp. I would probably by one used on ebay if it got lost.

All the features are already listed below. This is my up-date after owning this unit for a year. I was using it with the DS60-112 powered speakers and it wasn't quite doing it for me after a while. The sound from the speakers were muddy. Anyway, I did trade the DS60-112 but kept the DGStomp to give it one last chance. As a personal amp, I found it to be really good and I found the tone that I was excited about from this unit. It is 24 bit sampling rate so it doesn't have that digital decay as some other digital modellers I've tried. I'm glad I kept the unit and got rid of the speaker. I use this to record as well as for practicing late at night when I'm not able to use my tube amp.

The tones are warm. I still haven't found a better digital modeller. I didn't lke the Pod6 because of it's tone, and the PodXT was similar in tone to Pod6 but had a higher learning curve to learn how to use it. I have found that when I use it to drive a speaker, I've tried it with my tube amp, and the tone was muddy. I think it's best used as a personal amp, connecting directly into the mixer or for recording. I can only give it an 8 because of the muddiness when you use it to drive a speaker.

Never had any problems with it. It hasn't even crashed...I can't even say that about my windows based pc!

Never needed them.

It's a great little unit...I prefer it over the Pod6. It's too bad that the tone when I use it to drive speakers is too muddy.

Fender and Fender type guitars.

Bought second hand for #128 "off" ebay because original auction contents had been changed by seller. Unit was D.O.A. Traced fault to dry joint on P.C.B. mounted input 1/4" socket. Warmed up joint and away it went. I was confused at first by the fact that the "wall wart" (sic) showed no output, but it turns out that this psu needs a load to show a voltage. The dry joint had the effect of presenting no load to the psu. Strange really since the psu felt heavy enough to be linear.I like this toy a lot but then I would since I have eschewed effects for 20+ years! No use adding anything to all the foregoing reports but this info may help someone out.

I have dealt with Yamaha and have always found the U.K. setup to be efficient and helpful.

I have been "playing" for 32 years. Early days yet but I think that I would try to replace it if it walked. I love the sounds that I can get at living room volumes. I DO find it a little complicated to use. (my age !!) I wish that there was a straight through sound, maybe there is. I did not compare it to any other products.