Yamaha DG100-212

After looking around for approximateley two years for a reliable amp with onboard effects I bought the DG 100 in october 2002. The reviews by other owners were shown to be honest and I decided to dive in for a considerable investment.I have been playing in a sixties band for 30 years and have always used a Silverface twin with Boss Chorus/Delay/& Compression Pedals. The DG came with the chorus and trem update already done by Yamaha. It was easy to sort out the controls to get a good sound immediately, and the store facility is also pretty bulletproof. I only really use the clean sounds, so the Amp modelling/Distorion does not really feature for me, except that the drive function makes it really punchy. The seperate gain and master controls work well, but you have to get the trim correct on the input jack or your pickups will overload the front end resulting in a sound like a wasp in a bottle. I use the DG two or three times a week on live gigs. A MFC 10 Midi Foot Controller is essetial if you are playing live. You set the amp output knob on maximum and use the volume pedal on the MFC 10. This gives plenty of deep volume like a Tube Amp but really picks out the differences of the pickup positions on a Passive Stratocaster.For me. it is loud enough for my gigs in 200 to 300 seat clubs.

The DG 100 has a pair of Celestion Vintage Thirty Speakers, they are sweet for the clean stuff and can rock it up when driven. They can handle anything that this amp can give them. There is a lot of variety in the different sounds available and small adjustments to the controls make a subtle difference to the overall sound, also, the amount of headroom for a tranny amp is pretty impressive, especially when you play next to a bass rig like a SWR or Ampeg with Trace Cabs.

Is it Reliable ! I have not had it long enough to know, but I have bought a flight case to protect those motorised knobs. I take it on its own to gigs so I must trust the reliability thing. The Silverface Twin is in retirement for now, but its nice to know that its still there and wont be sold.

I have other Yamaha Products (EMX Powered Mixer) 6 years, no problems so the One year warranty does not really bother me, although 2 years would be fair for a high priced piece of kit like this.

So. Whats Good Or Bad with this Amp. Its a pretty well thought out piece of kit, obviously designed by a person with a good knowledge of the requirements of all types of guitarist. If mine was stolen I would buy another one without hesitation. You dont need a physics degree to make it sound nice,But its pretty heavy for a Tranny and a compression option would have been good for those country licks. There are a lot of options in this sector of the amp spectrum, and the DG can meet most of them head on. I know, because I spent two years trying them all before I got a DG, I have always been a Tube Man and to find a tranny with Goolies is great for me. Also,the birds nest of wires round my feet has disappeared and stumbling round trying to find pedals in the dark is a thing of the past.Athough the MFC 10 weighs 7lb and is pretty big.

Digital emulator amp. 100 watts, 2 vintage celestion speakers, 3 reverbs, delay (tape echo), 1 channel, motorized knobs, headphone jack (yes it has it, but it's not a toy amp), no foot controller comes with the amp. Professional piece of gear. The amp is really versatile if you need to know if the machine can produce different shades of sounds. Jazz, fusion, full warm cleans, and creamy distorted lead sounds and all others in between. You can't even compare this amp with other famous digital amps. This is a real amp based on a new concept. Not a toy good for Christmas present. One mere channel is not to much indeed, but the fact that you can count on 128 preset through a midi pedalboard should lets you face every gig. Speakers are simply among the best. Celestial performance! Maybe they should add a midi pedalboard. Without it the amp lose half of its potential.
The amp is powerful, not as a 100 watts valve AAA amplifier, but you can surely play live with it (for a better live sound you should always mike any amp, it plays better and moreover, you don't need a 300 watts beast to face a club audience. Granted!). The best thing is that because of the fact that it is not a valve amp you can play it in your bedroom at a consistent volume and still have a really nice sound that can be extremely close to a true valve amp with its volume up (and your neightboors will not call the Police to jail you!). This is a thing that I did not read in other reviews. In the end a lot of people play the most in their bedrooms, unless they are rockstars, so I think it is really important to have an amp that could be played in every situation. This amp can do this thing gracefully. Why own an amp that can be played in a stadium if you are not a rockstar? Just to look at it and think (Wow I own this valve wonder so I should be a great player)? (I did it so I know what I'm saying) Thinks to your needs when buying an amp....
Uh it' heavy, but absolutly not as a valve amp......Did you ever try to move a 100 Mesa combo?
I miss the compressor .....but you can buy one for a ridicolous price and so you have everything you may need to shape great sounds...

The amp is truly to the guitar you plug in. This does not happen with line 6 toys for example. Line 6 (talking about the flextones head and combo) has good sounds but you can plug in a tennis raquet or your electric toothbrush and it sounds the same. It's not enough for a player who really needs to hear and feel his fingers and his guitar. Sounds are really nice from Jazz to distorted leads and consistent crunches. What set this amp apart from the other digital stuff is the clean sound. This is quite nice, not obviously full and lushious as my '65 Fender Twin sound but it's quite good. You can surely play a jazz date with this amp and sound wonderful. You can't dream a valve amp and buy this one. Valve amps are something different. This is a tool that was meant to be different. It does its job extremely well. Distorted sounds are spectacular (if you consider that this is a digital emulator). They are fully, creamy, rich, again not as a Mesa turn up to 7 or 8, but who cares? This amp is a nice piece of gear that stand on its own, that can help you in a lot of situations, and is a funny thing to play, a joy. A little of noise here and there, but nothing dramatic.

You never know.... shit happens with every thing you own.....once I owned an Ampeg valve wonder (that had a montruous sound), but it never really worked properly......this thing is very well crafted and I think that if you take well care of it, the amp will last. But who knows?

15 years of playing. I owned every valve amp you can think of, VHT Pitbull, Ampeg, Mesa (a lot of them), Marshall, Fender (a lot of them), Peavey 5150, and I can tell that this thing sounds extremely well really close to these valve babies. But try to enjoy this amp without compare it... does it sounds good to you hear? Well, buy it. Every amp is a piece of your sound so if you think it can match your palying that's great! Consider tha fact that it is a really clever amp that can help you shape your sounds and make your practice excercise in your bedroom and can give you the right same right sound at a very consistent volume..... this is an important thing.

This is a followup review for this amp. Don't buy it!!!! i loved the amp itself, but since the day I got it, it was faulty, and not a reapair guy in Arizona could fix it. First, it started popping after being on more than an hour. Then the knobs went bad, and sometimes wouldn't move. Finally the midiprograms just died completely. Luckily I pawned it off on guitar center, and bought an old fender, best move I ever made. It's a great amp, it just is built like a piece of shit.

If you could give a zero, I would. The customer service is pathetic. They said since it was used, I had no warenty, and they couldn't even tell me what was wrong. They said that by the time I shipped it to them, it would be cheaper to just buy a new one. Whatever, that's the last digital amp I'll ever buy.

100 watts, 2x12" celestion vintage 30`s, built-in chorus, tremolo, tape echo and 3 reverb types, digital modelling (8 amp types) motorised faders. It`s big enough...it`s heavy enough...it`s loud enough and it`s clever enough.

I play a rickenbacker 330.We play The Jam Who Kinks Beatles Small Faces stuff as a three-piece and I personally couldn`t find a better amp for anything like the money...

lots of gigs and never squeaked...Check life insurance policy if lugging another one of these around as a backup.

Had a problem with the version upgrade...you seem to need the most obsolete soundcard you can find...I spoke to Mick Sweeney at Yamaha and he was very helpful.

playing guitar for 20 years - but I stop for meals and bathing etc.
for what it`s worth here`s my opinion...

1 find the guitar you REALLY want and buy it
2 find the amp you REALLY want and buy it
3 go out and play and enjoy it...you`re a long time dead

I`ve played through Vox Fender Marshall Laney Carlsbro H/H and Yamaha amps.
I own a Yamaha DG100.

This AMP is for sale, contact me at motokev@networld.com
$350 + shipping
this amp has the additional tremelo, delay and chorus
its a vey versatile amp
also has a line out for direct recording, which works very good
comes with vintage celeston speakers, a nice touch !

the amp has to be the best sounding effects amp around
never herd one with such great tube like tone.
the amp is very quiet
i think u can get any sound you desire with this amp
i wish it had a compressor, but you can almost achieve it with the delay.
The revebs are very very good

no problems with the amp
the amp was damaged during shipment
it was a BLEM from the yamaha factory

don't know

what do i like ?
1. simple to use
2. sounds very good
3. very versatile
4. reliable
the amp has some damage to the cabinet
can be repaired

check other reviews for features, one note ..line6 misses one big feature of the yamaha amps....TONE and FEEL!

every guitar that you plug in sounds like itself! i use a (real) kramer pacer custom 2 and a yamaha pac 311s( humbucker tele). i play all types of music but my band does hard rock, this amp can do it all. the clean is sweet and the other models do what they are intended to do, i could care less if it modeled mesa boogie, vox, marshall,blah blah, this amp models sounds.and it has so much tone it is amazing! it sings ,it has dynamics and the FEEL is so cool. our bass player has been whining for me and the other guitar player to get marshalls, but since i got my dg100 he could not stop telling me how awesome my amp is!!!

i trust yamaha, they do have thier act together and this is a solid amp. i don't even think of it as a digital/solid state amp. it is a real amp!! i have had chance to play a friends mesa b rectoverb, and yes it sounds nice but it didn't sing to me like this, honest! the yamaha is so easy to dial up. and you can have all you sounds saved . every thing it does it does for a reason, some people think the motorized knobs are a gimick, well it is there a visual reference and easy tweaking. any one who spent any time "on the floor" tweaking a multieffect processor knows how crappy matrix tweaking is when you should be playing. yamaha dg100,, yeah i trust it and they make good gear. try one .

don't know, never dealt with them personally. but all the yamaha gear i have had has always been top notch.

been playing 20 years on and off. if i lost it i would get another, if it was stolen i would kill the asshole. one reviewer complained of the weight, well it is a 100 watt twin celestion combo with tone, it will weigh what it weighs..duh. who wants an amp designed around a specific weight? and the guys who compare it to monster racks should dig thier heads out of thier asses, it is a two 12 combo at 100 watts, would you compare a mesa boogie studio 22 to a dual marshall stack setup? and if it doesn't sound like your amp with a tube screamer in the front end , it is because it isn't your amp and does't have a tube screamer in the front end dummy. marshall doesn't sound like fender and fender doesn't sound like mesa. bottom line don't take my word or the others word, listen for yourself and forget all the marketing crap from the other over hyped manufacturers. this amp can cover all the bases and sound damn great doin it. i had line 6 and found it lifeless. i do think the dg100 can be pricey when bought new, but you do get what you pay for. i wish it came with a simple footswitch for channel switching and effect on and off. guitar player reviewed the dg80 and said the cons were no trem or chorus and now the newer ones have those as well as a free software upgrade for people like me with the first series. sounds like they listen ,unlike other manufacturers.bottom line: quality amp with quality tone and feel.the extra options are usable and well thought out. damn it i love this amp. my wife thinks i am nuts, but bless her for supporting me on my quest for tone. this is the first time i read a review on gear in a magazine and i agreed 100 %. this is aa awesome amp.

This thing rocks!!! 8 separate amp models, delay, reverb chorus and trem. Tone monster, and loud!!

Allright, using carvin dc guitars, in to boss cs1, modded morley wah, boss nf1, and boomerang, with a middi buddy to switch chanels. This amp is amazing. I have owned fender, mesa, marshall, peevee, and more, and none of them pleased my style at all. I play in a band that does everything from phish to holdsworth, and all betweene. I mainly use cleans one and two, and drive one. The chanels all have their own awesome qualities: Lead one, very fussion, high gain, think holdsworth, fat, and warm. Lead 2 very bogneresque, less mids, and more crunchy. Drive 2, amazing lighter tones, much like Scott henderson, and Brett Garsed Drive 1, more mids, more like Phish tone, higher gain. Crunch 1, and two, very similar, 1 has slightly more mids, and breaks up quicker. The cleans go from fender punch, to marshall, more mids, and less bass. You can get amazingly loud with this amp. My bassist and rhythm guitarist both have heads, and 4x12 cabs, and i can be louder when I need to be. It doesn't break up at all, even cranked.

My drummer dropped it from his pickup, and it was fine, no tubes to shatter, or replace.

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Alrighty then, I got my amp back from my tech, and it cost me $100 and three weeks to get it back. Evidently, something had gone wrong on a circuit board, and he had to replace it. Not sure exactly what it was, but my amp is back, and I played it the next day, and everything is working properly. My tech did gush a little about how nice the amp was. That made me feel good. So my rating for reliability is a solid 9. Two straight years of service, and it needed a small break, no problem! I guess we all need servicing once in a while. Still, no gigging w/o backup. No matter what!

Yamaha did nothing for me. It was out of warranty. I'm not sure if it was in warranty I'd take it to them. They seem abit, um, loopy?!?

I'm so glad to have it back. I've sorta been looking on ebay for a used one to have if this one breaks down again. That way, I could get the same tone even with an amp down. I just expect to sound a certain way, and without this amp, I don't sound like me. I really recommend trying out this amp.

Mine is a 2001 model with all the features described in the other reviews. Coolest of all are the motorized knobs. There is however one thing I don't like and that is the weight. This is one heavy amp. But it sounds just a little better with the 2 times 12 speakers versus the 80 watt 1 times 12. So sound was the reason I choose this heavy Japanese sumo amp.

The amp features only three amp types that I use: lead 2 and clean 1 & 2. Not that the others are bad but they don't give me the sound that I want. If I want a crunch sound I like lead 2 with the gain on three better than the crunch channels on this amp. But that is the beauty of these modelling amps, you have a collection of stuff to choose from. They are versatile. The channels I do use remind me of Marshall JCM 800 meets dual rectifier and fender clean to fender "really clean' . And that's the stuff that gets me going. Why in this day and age of modelling amps the yamaha and not line 6, fender or hughes and Kettner. First of all because the yamaha is the only one that gives me the feel of playing through a real tube amp. When I tested the Zentera it sounded like I was listening to a c.d. of me playing. The sounds and effects were great but no interaction. The fender had the problem of being extremely noisy and very oriented on their own catalog of amps. That is understandeble but some more marshall, hiwatt, boogie, soldano, etc. would have made it a little more attractive. As far as player-amp interaction (and this one features tubes in the input section), it could'nt even match the yamaha. Line 6 has a problem with their power amps. I tried a couple of their combo's and last weekend I went to an introduction of their new Vetta amp. Each time I heard a very unpleasent high end, ear pearcing shimmer on all of their amp simulation tones. Than I tested the pod through a tube power amp, and it wasn't there. So I bought that one too for late night playing - not disturbing the neighbours - through headphones. And it is brilliant. But back to the DG 100. I tested it also side by side with the rocktron. They were around the same price (much cheaper than all the others exept for the line 6 Flextone II) and the rocktron had so much more features. The Yamaha however had one thing the rocktron didn't have. It is like playing through a tube amp. The rocktron comes closer as the others but not as close as the yamaha. Even though the DG 100 isn't a imitator of a zillion famous amps it is the closest you'll ever get to tubes without the obvious hassle. You can go many ways with the yamaha. It doesn't have many effects but they are all of the highest quality, (although I would have liked some more reverb types) and as said before the cloosest you'll get in this moment in time to a real tube amp.
Not a perfect ten but an honest nine.

No problems so far, it works like a dream.

Never dealt with the company but my local music store is very satisfied with the support they get from yamaha, so I trust that if there ever is going to be al problem it is going to be fixed. But since I never had to call for help I leave this category without a rating.

Overall I think this is the best modelling amp. It doesn't give you famous amps but it gives you the best tube like amptone in a digital amp. If you want the best immitations of famous amps the line 6 pod is the best way to go, together with a good poweramp, as a direct recording tool or with headphones. But when I plug it in the effects return of my yamaha, the dg 100 is the winner by far. For being just not really tube not a perfect ten, but very very close.

I bought the amp in 1997, just before I went to university to study music. I have a monster rack setup of a Soldano X99 preamp and a Mesa Boogie 295 Poweramp but that stuff is too big to lug around to anything but a real gig. I bought this unit to function in any situation other than live rock work.

The amp is versatile indeed. I come from a metal background but have been playing a much wider variety of styles in the last few years from classical to a bit of fusion. This amp can cope with the varied demands of any of these styles.

The Yamaha DG100 212 is a 100 watt combo with 2 twelve inch speakers and full midi control. Plug in your midi pedal and select a patch and the motorised knobs all move to the appropriate place. This is a very good way to get a real time sense of what the amp is doing and it works a lot better than the crap looking digital readouts on most amps.

The DG100 212 is a 'modelling' amp. It is not valve. It is not solid state. It is digital and therefore software can be upgraded to give new sounds etc. It is a new technology and other companies like Johnson, Line6 and even Fender are getting into it as well. In my opinion Yamaha do it best. This combo sounds great at high volumes whereas the Line6 gear I have heard falls apart when you crank it.

The DG100 212a has built in Tape Echo Delay emulation, Reverb (three types), Chorus and Tremelo. People who buy the straight 212 hav only Delay and Reverb but you can get a software upgrade from www.yamaha.com to give you the extra features. All the effects are very tasty. The Tape Echo delay is the finest digital delay I have ever used. I wish I could work it through my rack setup. It also has a direct output jack for recording but I never use it, as even with amp simulation it sounds better if you mike up the old fashioned way.

This amp has loads of headroom and I have had it on 10 a few times without losing the sound quality of clean or mega distorted sounds. There are 8 channel sounds to choose from and to begin with I only used two, but since I upgraded the software the additional effects bring the other six to life.

The only feature I would like to have is an extra output jack point, so I can run the built in speakers as well as another 2x12 speaker box. You can route the amp to another cabinet (and it sounds mad) but I prefer to run the unit plus an additional box.

The amp is not noisy unless you want it to be. You can get all the usual sounds out of it that are normally associated with valve amps. You can back of the volume on your guitar and notice the gain decrease on the amp. You can get all the feedback and harmonic tones you need.

The distortion is quite brutal. You wont be playing Death Metal on this amp but it can cope with Prog/Power metal style heavy with ease. The clean tone is pristine and sounds very sweet with my LRBaggs piezzo. It is especially good now I can add a bit of Chorus and Tremelo.

I use this amp a lot for recording with my Soundworks Custom guitar (Mahogony/maple with Seymours and an LRBaggs Piezzo bridge). If you want to hear it go to my web site http://go.to/sonicoverflow and to the My Music page. Read and download. If you want to see a photo of the unit go to the Gear page. The beauty is you can get a great rock tone without cranking it to silly volumes that are needed for tube gear.

I also get some bitey blues sounds and some cool 70s rock tones. The four distortion preamp sounds on this amp are magnificently divers. The only sound that is still eluding me is a Schofield style clean jazz with a touch of gain. This might me due to the wood of my guitar being so dark, though.

The only sound problem I have is that sometimes when you sustain notes it seems to compress them a little at the tail of the tone. It is a bit annoying but in those situations I whip out a Boss Compressor pedal and can usually milk it for long enough.

I pulled it away from the wall without disconnecting the power lead once and caused the lead to separate from the power supply. This was my fault and was easy enough to fix.

More importantly, the upgrade from DG100 212 to 212a (extra effects and 80 new patches) was a problem for me. I am running Windows 2000 and an SBLive Value. The update began, cleared my amp image and restarted in download mode. The download began then died, leaving me with a very expensive paper weight. If you screw up the process you have NO sound at all from the amp. I repeated the process on a different machine (NT4 with a SoundBlaster 16) and it worked just fine. The documentation from Yamaha is vague, they seem to think the process will just WORK. It didn't for me, and I certainly have very standard hardware. If you are going to do this yourself try and get a Soundblaster 16 card - they are old and work with everything. The upgrade is also worth the price of a PCI SB16.

Never used it. 12 month warranty I think. The service centre are also the people that built my guitar.

I have been playing for 11 years. I also own a Soldano X99 Caswell Preamp, a Mesa Boogie 295 Simulclass Poweramp, a Marshall JFX1 Effects Processor, a DOD Power Soak and some other stuff. I play a Soundworks Custom and a Music Man Silhouette.

I am selling my rack gear because I am recording at the moment and don't need the live rig. The Yamaha sounds great recorded - check it out at my site http://go.to/sonicoverflow even though I am just getting used to home PC recording.

It is the only amp I have bought that gets me ALL the sounds I want. It is NOT perfect at everything, but it is excellent at most things. It is a great all round compromise for people that dont want or cant afford a house full of vintage and bleeding edge equipment.