Yamaha DG60-112

See below.

I think the basic setup of this amp is very appealing-- in a way, it's better-suited for a live rehearsal context than the other Yamaha DG amps, even if you lose the flexibility of instantly recallable patch memory. It would be nice to have programmable memory, of course, but there's something to be said for aesthetic simplicity. I for one would rather have all the stuff that screams "digital" (membrane buttons, LCD displays, etc) hidden from audience view while the knobs remain up front. The DG60 doesn't look as digital as the other amps in the DG lineup-- the interface is highly "analog"-- and as such may better suit those of us who still wish to "look tube" in our modern digital era.

A speaker out would be a massive enhancement, as would the ability to kill off speaker emulation in the line out (in favor of another speaker emulator of some sort). I'd like to see this particular amp produced in head-only form to compliment the programmable DG130HA.

One more annoying "feature" worth mentioning: the "speaker mute" switch is the sort of recessed button that you usually find for memory-reset functions on digital synths and such. If you want to use the line out in the studio without the speaker running, you'll need to have a mechanical pencil or paperclip handy-- and the amp will turn the speaker back on when you turn it on the next time. A hard-turn rotary switch would have been a far better design choice.

I've owned over forty amps and preamps, and presently own seven such devices, five of which are vintage tube stuff. I wasn't expecting to be impressed when I plugged in, but for under $500, the DG60 is simply astonishing. It sounds great with hums OR single-coils. It mops the floor with the Johnsons and Line 6s dominating the digital-amp marketplace, and actually delivers (to a considerable degree, anyway) on the hype presently surrounding modeling. This thing kicks the AX2's ass-- let's not even talk about the Spider, which is at the same price point but sounds like a flimsy toy by comparison.

Both clean models are excellent by modeling standards, and capable of some quite tasty overdrive with the gain hopped up. (The cleans do seem to be quite a bit softer than the other six models, and lack a bit of tube ring/sparkle, but they sound MUCH bigger and better than the other modelers out there, not to mention the vast majority of decent solid-state amps.) The crunch models aren't quite what I expected from the name-- they're a little on the mild/harsh side-- but I imagine that many players could find a better use for them than I could.

Drive 1 and Lead 1 are both great, with Drive 1 being more what I expected from "Crunch" (yer basic 70s-Marshall grind), and Lead 1 being one of the smoothest, fattest, heaviest high-gain tones I've heard in ANY amp-- including all-tube Soldanos and VHTs. (The number "2" versions of these models seem to approximate a mushier amp like a Boogie, which is not quite my style. But again, I can imagine other players enjoying the tones produced with these models.) Reverb is also digital, but it's very tasteful and lush. I guess I should mention that I'm not a fan of spring reverb, though.

My complaints about the amp: As another reviewer below mentioned, there is a noticeable fixed amount of power-amp hiss, even when master is turned completely down-- granted, not as much as you'd find in a Crate or something in the same price bracket, not to mention the majority of tube amps. Regardless, it's annoying in a digital wonder, and I'm sure it could have been avoided somehow.

The modeling doesn't sound quite as good through the line-out as it does through the speaker, which again makes me wish that the built-in speaker emulation could be switched off. This feature would also be handy for running the preamp through a nice clean tube power section.

Several reviewers have also commented on the frequency-extremes characteristics of the included Eminence-- I agree that it can be a bit on the boomy side without proper EQ. Didn't get the chance to try it out with another speaker; you'll note that all the "upscale" DGs come with Vintage 30s. (Myself, I think I'd probably try a Weber Thames before a V30. Since this amp can actually keep up with a band-- unlike its competitors-- I question the wisdom of installing a 30-watt speaker in an open-back 60-watt+ combo.)

This amp has the depth, character and real tube feel that its competitors lack. With any present-day modeling amp, you don't really have the ability to get weird yet (tinkering with individual modules and making "fictional" amps out of bits and pieces of various gear, like you can in the Alien Systems ReValver plugin). Maybe someday soon, we'll see a hardware device designed for live usage that allows you to do some serious model hacking via MIDI and an editor program. Meantime, the DG is excellent for covering all the standard bases, but for my trash tones and such I still have to seek outside help. Still, I feel that the DG has much more personal character than any of the other models I've played to date. This is a good thing.

Let's keep in mind, too, that this amp runs for less than $500 new. At the price, it's really a steal. I can't remember ever being this enthused about a late-model amp, let alone one that sells in the beginner price range... and this is about as plug-and-play as it gets i

Never had a problem with any of my Yamaha gear, although I suspect they probably cut a few corners here and there to keep prices down on this particular piece.

It's weird, but I liked this amp so much that I brought it back to the store. Reason (well, besides hating the retailer I got it from): it can make enough great tones that I figure I'd like to have more than two available at a given time. So I'm holding out for either a DG Stomp (which has a month's worth of backorder at the time of this writing) or the DG130 head. Still, I could see buying another one of these down the road for rehearsals. It's a beautifully simple interface that has an interface much like a "real" amp, and you can't beat a one-piece 40-pound package.

Yamaha seems to be doing a miserable job of marketing these things, so they're the sleeper of the modeling wars-- out here in the Midwest, the retailer I bought it from said that they got theirs "by accident" with no plans to order more (despite a floorful of inferior Line 6 product), and I'm having a hard time finding the full DG lineup in even the most obvious mail-order locations. If you can find one in a local shop, try it out-- I guarantee you'll be impressed.

2 channel (foot switchable), 8 preset models per channel from clean to crunch, digital spring reverb (foot switchable), 5 band eq per channel. 60 very healthy watts feeding a digital preamp into a SS power amp and out to a single Eminence 12" speaker. Can cut through the mix in all but the largest venues (but doesn't every one use a PA doing large gigs anyways). There is a blendable effects loop on the rear panel and the line out uses the preamp effects which is very handy if you do direct recording. The only feature that is missing here is an external speaker jack, which is really too bad because this baby would make a 4x12 cab sing. Of course that didn't stop me from adding one anyway. :o)

This amp sounds really tooby, it took some fiddling with the settings to get the sounds I was looking for, but trust me they are in there. From latenight quiet practice to earsplitting gigging levels, this amp can do it WITHOUT sacrificing tone quality. My only critique lies with the stock emminence speaker which I find to be a tad shrill at times and a little loose on the bottom end.

I play 3 guitars though this amp, a Les Paul, a BC Rich warlock with active pups and a Samick with twin humbuckers, they all sound great. When using the Warlock I find I need to turn the gain on the amp down since it provides so much pregain on it's own. The Amp exibits tube like compression while playing and you can dial up country clean to metallica scream. I rate sound as a 9 because I feel the speaker is the weak link in an otherwise excellent package.

This is not a toy, it can be and is used as a serious gigging tool, I have had many comments on the sound of the amp, and other musicians have been stunned that there isn't a single tube in it.

I would definitley use this amp without a backup, it has seen it's fair share of banging around and still looks and sounds brand new.

Due to formentioned reliability there has been to reason to contact Yamaha.

If this amp were lost I would buy another, If it were stolen I would personally find the individual and show him what a 112 combo feels like stuffed up his.......

Features? Well that depends. If this was a tube amp, it would be considered full-featured, but for a modeler it's very basic: no FX except reverb; no balanced outs; no MIDI; only 8 models (essentially 4 each of Fender and Marshall). But these features, plus being compact, light-weight and rugged, add up to a damn near perfect gigging tool.

Oh yeah, the sound. That's another fearture that makes this such a great gigging tool. I've used a lot of rigs over the last 25 years, and I've never had anything bark through the mix like this little beast. No, it's not a freakin $2000 Matchless. But it's bark is sweet and textured and its response to picking is very tube-like. What more do you want? How about getting optimal tone at any volume, and not having your tone go to hell if you find yourself gigging at the end of 150' of 16 wire? Viva la solid state.

I find the EQ is fussy: the perfect setting for my SG will sound like hell with my G&L and even worse with my strat. That's not to say you can't dial in great tone with any guitar, just that you have to be prepared to tweek when switching. (If you use lots of guitars at gigs, check out the fully MIDIfied DG80.)

I can't compare the stage tone of the DG60 to that of other modelers, because I've never heard a modeling amp on stage. I've SEEN a few, and the guitar players using them seemed to be hearing something interesting, but nothing much was audible out front. Too bad, because the Johnsons and Line 6's sound pretty good in the store. But that's the thing with the Yamaha: it's voiced for grown-ups who perform rock-n-roll and blues; kids looking to make cool sounds in their bedrooms should look elseware.

Oh -- I have to admit I changed the speaker to a Celestion Vintage 30. The stock Eminence is a good speaker, but it seemed rather shrill and boomey, necessitating lowish settings for both bass and treble.

Compared to a tube amp it's a piece of granite.

If Yamaha wasn't cursed in all their guitar-related endeavors, they would take over the world with this line. It's simply a great tubless amp. My racks and Fenders will be staying in the studio from now on.

Digital Modelling amp from Yamaha's new line. Has 2 footswitchable channels w/separate EQ, reverb on each channel, 8 different amp models, eff. loop, line out with speaker simulator, 12" Emminence speaker. Most features of a regular guitar amp.

I use this amp with a variety of guitars, but my favorite is with strats. I disagree with most of the other reviews here. Sounds beautiful. I have played old Fenders and vintage Marshalls, and I own an all tube stack. While this doesn't reproduced those sounds exactly, it comes very close. You can tell lots of attention went into the modelling. This amp is not for real heavy styles though (don't expect 'brutal' distortion, although there is quite a lot of gain), but if you like an awesome versatile clean/crunch amp for classic rock and contemporary sounds, this thing rocks. I played a bunch of other modelling amps from Line 6 (Spider)and Johnson (Millenium) but they sounded wimpy. Sound was too contained (not to mention noisy). The Line 6 Spider didn't sound too bad but it simply wasn't loud enough and would definitely get buried live with a bass and drums. The Yamaha is a great live amp (which is what I use it for) and the speaker simulator is great for recording too. I love it especially compared to other amps in this price range ($549 CAN).

No problems yet. Don't expect any.

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I have been playing guitar for about 20 years and I've been through a lot of amps. I decided to give this one a shot after the DG80-112 got a rave review in Guitar Player Mag., and I'm glad I did. I have always been frustrated by tubes amps, love the sound, hate the maitinence and this amp fullfils my need for tube-like tone without all the hassle, hype or expense associated with regular tube amps. If it were stolen, I'd get another one in a minute, no question. Might as well say something bad about the amp too: I don't like the fact that it has two footswitch jacks, one for ch., one for reverb. Why couldn't they just have made a dual footswitch instead of having to use 2? Bottom line: for the price it is the best digital modelling amp out there and it BLOWS comparable solid state amps(Peavey, Marshall Valvestate, Laney,etc...) away. Just my $0.02

I can't believe that people who have been playing for longer than me (in some cases WAY longer than me) are saying that this is the best digital modeling amp. THIS AMP SUCKS MAJOR GOAT NUTS!!

the clean distorts, the distortions are just HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE. THIS AMP SUCKS! don't buy it.

Like the guy at the bottem said, I can rely on it not to break, but not to sound good. IT SUCKS!

Yamaha does put out good products, I had a good guitar of theres once, and a keyboard. but their amps suck goats.

IT SUCKS! I think you already knew my rating! don't buy it, all together this amp blows! I managed to get a good distorted sound out of it using my tube screamer, but it still sounds WAY TOO FAKE! so take my advice and stay away from this amp, it's for your own good. PLEASE don't make the same mistake I did.

This amp was released to my knowledge at the summer NAMM july 1999 and is one hot little number. It is absolutelly versatile and covers every base from all out metal to twanging country. It's a basic A/B chanel type setup but I do wish it had three chanels for a clean/crunch/full saturation type back and forth type of thing. It does include however some really nice features such as dry wet blend on the effects loop, a headphone jack that doubles as a line out that, beleive me, is really accurate and you won't be needing a mike there no more. This little amp will sing it's heart out for you and is plenty loud for any practice and can also easilly handle small clubs, actually the Emminence speaker in it is quite the little projector but you would not know it till you get out in a big room so I have to say that although it's not a power box it's got lots of head room and would hold respectably against anything watt for watt tube or otherwise. This la creme de la creme in as far as digital modeling is concerned and is replacing two pretty nice amps that I have in my stable so it's got to be good. If it was not for the chanel switching of only two instead of three it would have gotten a 10. Oh yeah I almost forgot, the reverb is superb and I honestly though it used a quality spring tank reverb but then fould out it was digital, good job and hats off to the engineers on that one.

I use a 57 strat and a Lado custom hawk with PafPro pickups in it and this amp just loves either guitar, unlike other modeling amps that colour the sound of the pickups to emulate the sound they are after the Yamaha relies on the old addage of garbage in------garbage out and any one who thinks that because their guitar sounds great on one amp it should sound good on any amp is sadly mistaken but this amp will lend itself nicelly to most guitars. I do have to mention that since I started using this amp that I have actually stopped using my effect processor and that is a scary thought,I have been using stomp boxes since I was 14 ( I'm now 44 ) and have been using processors for about a dozen years and this is the only amp that has gotten me off of them, so tone wise the amp is a ten. Don't get me wrong, there is no such thing as the perfect amp but there is nothing else out there that does the digital thing as well as this amp. My only beef is that unlike other amps that control the master volume by attenuating the power amp, the yamaha's amp runs wide open all the time and all the dynamics work is done by the processor. So there is a constant power hiss that is audible and although you can use an expression pedal thru the effects loop and your stage volume will go up and down, the line out volume will remain constant. So for these missgivings the amp will score lower.

Never had to deal with Yamaha but have heard that they are excellent. I hope I never have to find out. I have always giged with two amps on a stereo type set up with a processor but this amp is going to make me do the one amp thing, so we will have to wait and see but I don't think it will be a problem.No more tubes, ye haw!!!

Three year warranty parts and labour, solid state amps have gotten very reliable so don't know what to answer here.

I have been playing for 36 years and I play everything from country to all out metal shred but my favorite is blues (S.R.V.) and R&B and this is the only amp that can do it all, (withouth a processor, remember, this amp has no bells or whistels like the other modelers). If I were to do it again I might get the DG80 for the sake of getting the built in effects and multiple preset chanels but the price tag is a lot more and to be honest the DG60 is vitually identical tone for tone and I find I'm not in need of the sustainer on compressor or delay to get that full sound any more. The competitors to this amp that I did try would have given me the multi chanel thing because of all the programable presets namelly the Johnson JT50 and the Line 6 Spyder but honesttly neither one came even close sound wise and both were a lot noisier than the Yamaha. Keep up the good work Yamaha but at least include a !@#$%%$@## chanel and reverb pedal on future shipment and fix the lack of volume control thru the effects loop playing thru a P.A. is nice but not everybody has access to sound man to adjust the volume on the fly so the use of a microphone becomes necessary and defeats the purpose of the bets sounding direct line out system out there. I defenitelly would buy another one fore the sake of it's tone but would probably upgrade to a DG80 for the sake of a lot more flexibility in chanel switch.

AMP MADE IN 99. ITS ONE OF THE BEST AMPS IVE PLAYED. I ALLSO HAVE A FENDER PRINCETON THAT IS GREAT AND THIS COMES REALLY CLOSE.I PLAY COUNTRY AND ROCK AND FIND THE AMP DOSE IT ALL VERY WELL.IT HAS TWO CHANNELS.IT HAS PLENTY OF POWER TO HANDEL ANY JOB.I PLAY IN A THREE PIECE BAND AND IT DOSE EVERY THING IT NEEDS TO DO.THE SPEAKER SIMALATER DOSE GREAT IN THE STUDIO TOO!

I PLAY A TELE AND A STRAT.IT CAN HANDEL ANY STYLE I PLAY.AAND IT IS REALLY QUIET.I PLAY ALOT OF DIIFERENT STYLES AND FIND THE CLEAN IS REALLY CLEAN AND THE DISTORTION IS REALLY GREAT ITS JUST A GREAT AMP FOR ITS PRICE.

I WOULD USE THIS AMP AND NOT EVER WORRY ABOUT IT. NEVER HAVE HAD ANY PROBLEMS.

YAMAHA IS THE GREASTEST TO DEAL WITH NEVER HAD ANY PROBS.IT HAS A YEAR WARRANTY.

IVE BEEN PLAYING FOR ABOUT 34 YEARS.IF IT WAS STOLEN I WOULD BUY ANOTHER MABY TRY THE DR 80.I ALSO OWN A FENDER PRINCTON REVERB.I COMPARED IT TO MY PRINCETON AND I CAN GET THAT SAME SOUND.I DID COMPARE IT TO A CRATE AT THE SAME PRICE BUT THE CRATE DIDNT EVEN COME CLOSE IT SOUNDED VERY CHEAP. TO WRAP IT UP ITS RTHE BEST AMP IVE HEARD IN YEARS AND WOULD REALLY RECOMEND THIS AMP TO ANYONE WITH ANY STYLES.

read others above, thats what it does

I play fenders and PRS guitars. I like blues rock (SRV style).
the amp i thought was great sounding at lower volume. I bought the amp through musician friend for only $399. i thought wow, pretty good price. i was happy with the amp for about 2 weeks, then started to crank the amp. this is when it started to sound shitty on the over drive channels. I also didn't care for the clean sound. i thought it was weak compared to a fender clean sound (solid state and tube.
if it would have had a decent clean, i would have kept it. the amp was quiet. i must say though, the two channel was nice. Also, didn't come with a channel foot switch, tight wads. maybe the 80 DG or 100 DG would sound better when cranked. But, i will leave you with this input, out of all modeling amps, the DG series is the best for feel and tube sound. I'll spend more time with the DG-80 and 100. I might buy one if they sound great at higher volume. I know they won't get that fender clean tone, but i don't think any amp can achieve that except fender. Lastly, i thought the reverb on the amp was really good. it suprised me, since i think fender makes the best reverb and the DG was pretty close.

no problems for 2 weeks. The amp's construction was top notch !

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This amp is very versatile, in that it has a variety of sounds in it, but most of them (to me anyways) don't sound that great. I've had the thing for almost a year now, and I still haven't found the sound that is perfect to me, I've come close, but this just doesn't nail it. thats the problem with amp simulators.

I'm using a Yamaha RGX120D --> Boss Octave --> Ibanez Tube Screamer --> Boss Super Phaser. The amp is noisy, but not extremely noisy. It's noisy no matter what setting/volume you have it on. the Clean channel isn't half bad, it kind of distorts at high levels, but not too bad.

I can really rely on it not to break, and I would use it without a backup. But I can't rely on it to sound good, thats all!

Never delt with them.

If you are looking for a cheap good sounding amp to upgrade from your little crappy practice amp you got with your guitar when you first started, or your looking for a cheap first amp. then don't buy this one. Go for a Line 6 Spider, or a Johnson. they are both cheaper than this, and sound WAY better!