Yamaha DG80-112

You can do alot with this amplifier. Enough to suit almost every style :D The included patches does enough for me!

It really sounds awesome! Great, warm, almost like it was a tubeamp :P I mostly play metal, progessive rock, jazz and blues and I was lucky enough to find a great distorsion sound, really thick and heavy! (I don't have the "A" model, but here it is: Patch 30, Gain: 10, Master: 10, Treble: 10, High Mid: 0, Low Mid: 0, Bass: 5, Prescene: 10, Reverb: 2-8.

I played a few gigs and it worked like I was hoping it would do! I have like most other here the E1 problem, but I don't mind at all.

I havend dealt with them. Will do next week. I gonna upgrade it to the "A" model and fix the E1 problem if it isn't too expensive!

Best amp I have owned so far :D

I personally can't ask for more features: eight preamp types, reverb, delay, chorus, tremolo.

IT took me a long time to appreciate this amp and i'm still unlocking it's possibilities. it's loud enough for any gig i've ever done. For a more dispersed sound i use an extension cab. 1 12inch speaker doesn't cover a lot of stage but for most gigs it's incredible. i mainly use the crunch 1 mode dry. i add chorus or delay via two expression pedals that are attached to my midi board. i only use three sounds really the crunch, a lead 1 and a clean1 ocassionally. the wonderful thing about the amp is that it sounds great with a lot of guitars. when i was auditioning amps i found the amps only sounded good with certain guitars. between the preamps and the powerful eq you shouldn't have a hard time finding a good sound. the cleans are not as lush as i'd like though. and i'm not into adding chorus or reverb to make it sound good.

i've had mine for over five years and the only time i've ever had a problem is when i turn on my midi board before my amp. then it goes E1 or whatever. it's a computer, i treat it like a computer. i worry about it even though it gives me no reason to. it's digital after all.

I've been justifying this purchase to myself for five years. This is after countless people telling me a have a great sound (i hope i'm not bragging) Because it's not a tube amp i would tell myself it wasn't the right amp for me. i've tried lots of tube amps. They either only sound good at certain levels or with certain guitars or sound too mushy. the dg 80 is not made anymore but they were probalby the best amp for $1000.

I believe that I got this amp in '99, before the "A" version came out. The 8 different amp models are all useful in their own way. The FX are rarely used by me, except the delay and reverb. I've never been a big FX person, so I don't mind not having flange, phaser, etc. I wish it had a headphone jack, but the mic line out is quite nice. The power of this amp is sufficient to easily play with a band in a small gig, not something I'd use without an extension cabinet and/or micing the amp for a large stage. Sure wish it came with a footswitch - I'm going to have to buy one one of these days.

This is my favorite part of the amp. The tones are great! None of them are quite as good as you'll get on real tube amps, but they're extremely close, and they respond similarly to tubes. I'm a big metalhead, and it's not entirely awesome for metal, so I may be going for one of the original Flextone HD 300W before too long, but I've kept this amp for a number of years now. It's fantastic!

I had a Gibson LP, and the cleans were great, while lead 2 gave me a very nice hard rock sound. Now, my main axe is an Ibanez RG570 with tone zone and air norton p-ups. I play neoclassical and metal mostly now, and I can get some great sounds, although at times I wish some of the distortion was a little more saturating.

Still, it allows me to do so much, and with tweaking, they all sound fantastic. At times, I do wish I had a nice row of tubes sitting infront of me for a little more saturated distortion, but all-in-all, it even suits my fancies as a metal player. Lead1 is great for soloing, while Lead2 is awesome for palm-muted riffs.

never had a problem. i've heard of needing to fix error messages with contact cleaner, but mine works fine after 5 years.

i called them and had them help me try to patch the amp to "A", and they spent a good while trying to help me out. unfortunately, something with my sound card wasn't letting it communicate with my amp, so i took it to a music shop and they upgraded it. yamaha was willing to talk to me about it, though.

I've been playing 9 years. It's my main amp, as I'm fairly poor. I enjoy a wide range of guitars, so having this one amp is perfect. From my les paul to my strat to my RGs, this amp delivers regardless of what I ask it to give me.

Already covered in the other reviews

I play jazz and fusion, and I listen to guys like Frank Gambale, Alan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson and Brett Garsed. All players known for their smooth, legato playing. I love this amp because of the warm singing overdrive it produces. To my ears, most amps I've tried are just too gritty and screechy with their overdrive. With the yamaha, I'm able to get a lovely compressed, midrangy tone that is not fatiguing to my ears at all. Kurt did a great job describing all the different channels in his review below. Everyone has different tastes, and will gravitate towards certain channels on this amp. My personal favorites are: Lead 1 for smooth overdrive - this channel will warm up any guitar if set right. When I use my tele style guitar (with strat middle PU) , I'm in tone heaven - great presence and clear rich bass, with just enough jangle to let you know it's a tele. If you listen to Brett Garsed or Mike Laundau, you know what I'm talking about. And with an LP style guitar, you're in Gambale/Holdsworth land (they both use Yamaha DG amps). And the nice thing is that when you roll off the volume on the guitar, the sound actually cleans up nicely like a tube amp, and all of the sudden, you get a John Scofield sound. On the flip side, you don't have to crank this amp to get great tone like a tube amp - great stuff. By tweaking the tone controls, you can get various sounds from this channel, including more cutting, edgy tones. Lead 2 doesn't do much for me, and I haven't found too many usable sounds from the other distorted channels yet, but there is potential there. The 2 clean channels cover all the jazz, funk and fusion tones nicely. This amp is really very versatile and powerful. It is very clean and quiet too. The only shortcomings are lack of very high gain distortion, and the effects. I don't use extremely high gain sounds, and I regularly max out the gain - shredders will need to look elsewhere, or add an overdrive or distortion box. It's nice to have the on-board effects, and they will get you by in a pinch, but I'm not very impressed by the chorus. Although its clean, it is pretty subtile, and limited - incapable of big lush, or funky flanged sounds that I sometimes want. The echo and reverb are not bad, but I can get a much better effect with my computer recording software. So I would suggest adding a good effects unit, like a TC-Electronic G-force, and/or some pedals - vintage type chorus and distortion if that's your cup of tea. The amp comes equipped with an XLR out and speaker simulator for direct recording, but I find it to be much too trebly, almost like an AM radio. Better to mike the cab. It is unfortunate that Yamaha is no longer making these, because, as others have said, they are the only ones that have really gotten the modeling amp thing right.

So far it's been great, but I never gig with it.

If they don't come out with a replacement, I would seek out a used one if this were ever lost.

plenty of features, 8 amp types, two inputs, trim knob, global output, fx loop, speaker out, yadah yadha.

I'm using this amp with b-bender teles, and g&l asat's. I use a bunch of fx as well, boss vwah, ross and akai phasers, maxon chorus and compressor, fulltone octave fuzz and a noise gate. I also use a boomerang in the loop. I really like this amp, and I was sad to see no one has broken the amp types down and talked about each one, so I will do my best to do that.
lead one: this is a high gain sound, based off a boogie type crunch, close enough to metal for anyone. It has a great deal of mids, and is near to the allan holdsworth sound with the gain around 5. Not as usable except for that higher gain fusion sound.
lead two: This is a more marshall type channel, with less mids and a bit less gain. I can also coax a bit of bogner tone out of it by cranking the low mid control.
drive 1: my personal favorite for modern crunch. This has a matchless quality to it, as well as some vox undertones. Lots of mids, not as much low end, but it really cuts through. I use this for most of my lead sounds.
drive 2: I use this with a rackmount eq to get a scott henderson type sound for recordings. It has more of an upper mid quality, and sounds more like a blues type of crunch, but I really like it a lot. It's my other higher gain sound.
crunch 1: this is the robben ford, lary carlton channel, and with the right settings, you can get a dumble like sustain that will make your ears sing. I really dig this one, and use it a lot in my jazz stuff. With my compressor, it really shines. I can also get a close aproximation to a bogner shiva with this one.
crunch 2: this is the least flexible in my opinion, too much mids and a wierd peak at around 3 K that won't go away. It is okay for a fender type gritty gain, but not as musical as the rest.
The cleans!! clean 1, a marshallesque clean, with lots of punchy mids, and not as bright, really good for jazz stuff. I like this one a lot, and with the gain on 9 you can get a scofield type grit to your sound.
clean 2: Based around a twin, less mids, and bright. Watch the presence on this one, it can burn if you're not carefull. I like this one a lot, for funk and with the high mid cranked, I get the country tele tones I love.
There you have it, I hope you're still awake.

I had a dg100 before this one, and kept getting the E1 message, so I sold it, in a fit of foolishness andstupidity. With a little care, and not keeping any knob at exactly 10 or 0, you won't have problems.

I have a love hate relationship with digital technology, and I am back and forth about it every day. This amp is a diamond, pardon the analogy, and I think yamaha really outdid themselves this time. Nothing can replace a boogie's honk, a fender's twang, and the roar of a marshall, but, for a gig where I need all three, and some cool stuff in between, I love this amp, and with another extension cab, it really cranks. Check it out, and don't be turned away by the crap line 6 and johnson have out there. Yamaha's on to it, and I hope they keep it up.

This is an addendum to the service tip posted below, not a review.

To correct the E1 message:

1) Spray all the pots with a good contact cleaner.

2) Avoid the extreme "0" and "10" portions of the knob travel when storing presets. Turn the knob slightly to "0.1" for zero or "9.9" for ten. This will also help extend the life of the pots.

All right, I think that by now you know the features of this amp. Mine is the "a" model so I didn't have to do the effect download. A friend of mine with an older model did and tells me it was a breeze. Tremolo, Chorus and Echo, all geat sounding. It would have been great if it came with a footpedal(you'll need a midi controller to control patches,volume, you know).The 9 in features is for the lack of a footpedal.The eight amp models are very versatile and cover a lot of ground.

I have about 12 guitars, so indicating how does this amp work with each one would be too long. What I'm going to tell you is a nice trick I learned when in need of a very clean (strat) sound and all I had was my Les Paul. Turn the trim knob way lower than you normally do,(this will lower the output of your pickups) use both pickups and viola! nice clean, very LOUD sound with no distortion. By the way, if you don't get the sound you want with one of the amp models on this amp, go get a check up, you may be going deaf.

I've been using this amp for every gig for the last 3 months, and I gig about 3 times per week, so far it has given me a E3 reading (midi comunication error) once. I think it had something to do with a nasty power surge that ocurred a second before, what tells me that this amp is sensible to electricity changes.(I recomend using this amp with some sort of power protection).

I've never dealt with them it so I can't tell.

I've been playing for 15 years, and of all the digital amps I've tried this one has the most realistic sound I've heard. It's really fun to use it. If someone steals it I'd get another one for sure.(After I've tracked down and KILL the bastard).This amp SHOULD come with a footcontroller.

I got an original model made before the effects were upgraded, but the guy I bought it from had them downloaded and everything works fine. eight amp types, reverb, tremolo, tape style delay, chorus. look for the rest of the specs elsewhere...

I use this amp with a Fender Strat with Vintage noiseless pickups on it, and our band plays some R & B, some Classic Rock, some Funk, and so forth. There doesn't seem to be any bias toward one style or the other, since the eight amp types have most of the bases covered. I don't play any REALLY heavy, modern stuff, so I can't comment on it's suitability for those styles. plenty of volume for our group, although I mike it and run a little send through the monitors for fuller stage coverage. I'm happy with the sounds and really happy with the versatility,as this amp has (almost) everything I need for the gig. I tried out several other modeling amps, but found the FEEL to be lacking in a big way from the tube amps I've always played. This was the first modeler that had the feel I'm looking for, with one caveat: I run a Boss compressor in front of the amp (just a little, not a big squish) to tame the spikes. As soon as I plugged in the comp, I was real happy with the sounds. the effects could be better in terms of programmability, but that would come at the expense of ease of use, as everything can be done with knobs. A tradeoff, to be sure, but then this amp doesn't cost very much, and you can use the extra money to buy yourself the processor of your choice. When I got this amp, I also got the Floorboard that goes with it, and I'm real happy with it, too.

Who would ever play a gig without backup? I have a Boss GX-700 in the PA rack that I use for acoustic and electric with the duo I play with normally, and the 7 or 8 times a year that we do a full band, I bring out the Yamaha. The amp hasn't given me any trouble except for the E1 message everyone seems to get becasuse of dirty pots. I try to keep 'em clean, and haven't had any big problems. I've had the amp for about a year and a half. It hasn't let me down.

I haven't dealt with them. No idea...

I've been playing for 35 years for a living. I've owned tons of gear of all brands, Fender, Boogie, Vox, Marshall, Orange (hey, I said I'd been around a while) you name it, and I think they're makin amps that pretty much kick ass nowadays. If this were stolen I'd definetly get another one. I tried out most of the other modelers before deciding on this one. I still love Tube amps, but hate not knowing when I pull the amp out of the bedroom to go to the gig whether or not I'm gonna have a tube related problem. IF your only experience with modeling amps is the first generation of Line 6 stuff, I'd suggest a trip to your local superstore for a listen. Highly recommended.

I have owned my DG80-112 (now 'A') since 1999, when it was introduced. That makes me potentially one of the longest term users of the amp in this review section. The best unique features are: Parallel fx loop with blend knob, hot (+4) XLR line out with level knob, dual midrange controls, and excellent bass response/volume for its size. Also, a versatile input section with two jacks and a trim knob really helps optimize signal level at the A/D stage. The rating gets debited due to a couple of things. MIDI control. Only volume, reverb level, delay level, trem depth, and chorus level are controllable. I have no issue with the first two. However, while delay level is helpful to control, I miss the ability to control tempo - much more musically useful. Trem depth - I would have much preferred speed, since I stick with a standard depth setting. Chorus level is marginally useful. Keep in mind that the unit does not set these parameters to 'absolute' control change values. For example, if your patch has reverb level set to zero (0), sending control change 127 is not going to crank it up - it will have NO effect. The level must first be set to something positive on the amp, then the MIDI pedal will modulate it only from zero to the maximum it is set on the amp. Annoying if you frequently use the amp without MIDI control, as all patches must effectively be saved with reverb, chorus, and trem at the maximum and then reduced by a pedal.

I use the amp with several guitars, ranging from single coils to humbuckers to a neck-mounted jazz archtop pickup. It is fantastic. The amp selections are diverse as a set and each has its own wide range of useful sounds. I bought this amp for its Fenderesque clean sounds, as it was IMHO far and away superior to all the other modeling amps in that area. I have not heard anything since that has caused my impression to change, including Fender's own Cyber amps. For comparison, I own a 1965 BF Twin Reverb (vintage) and a 1992 Super Amp 4x10" that have their own clean nirvana to offer. The DG80 can be coaxed to approximate either one, and certainly offers more in versatility. In addition to clean, the Lead 1 amp setting offers very smooth, sustainy distortion. The Crunch and Drive settings have a great range among them, from slight grit to modern rock rhythm sounds.

The limited effects are, to me, extremely rich and perfect for what i need (minus the lack of realtime control as noted above). The reverb is just killer. The chorus is chimey and can be made subtle. The trem has no weird artifacts, and the tape delay is very spacious. I have numerous other toys (GT-5, Pod, DG Stomp) but the basic effects in the DG are superior to my ears. I only wish they were better-controlled in a performance setting.

I could have added this review for this category alone, because I just discovered an interesting tip that I've never read about before. As noted, the DG amps have motorized knobs. Several have expressed concern about their longevity, and even a couple of people have discussed dealing with the dreaded "E1" error (when a pot doesn't return to its designated position within 20 seconds). For these people, cleaning the pots apparently helped.

I started getting those errors at least a year ago, but not consistently. Some patches did it, some did not. I couldn't figure out the pattern, if there was one. It was especially annoying when controlling patch changes via MIDI, because once the E1 flashed on the display, the amp would have to be manually reset (by pushing any button) before it would again respond to MIDI input. A huge PITA when playing in a live context. So I cleaned the pots, but nothing changed.

Well, I finally figured out what was happening. Due to the fit of the knobs on the pots, it would sometimes occur that a knob set to an extreme of either 10 or zero would cause the error. By tweaking that knob to just slightly short of the extreme (9.9 or 0.1), it would not materially affect the sound, but it would stop the E1 error from occurring. By going back to my patches and rectifying these settings, I no longer get the E1 error. I give the amp an 8 because this shouldn't have happened in the first place, but at least it is easily fixed.

My Yamaha contact experience has been with Gary (can't remember his last name), the US rep for DG products - at one time anyway. We exchanged a few substantive emails on some technical subjects. He was very cordial and helpful.

As noted in previous sections, I have a decent amount of gear - 3 Fender amps and about a dozen guitars, as well as other FX and modelling products. This amp has remained and will continue to do so because it just shines for me. It is heavy for its size (55 lbs), but I plan to put casters on it like its big brother, the DG100. At least it weighs less than my Twin Reverb. No amp is everything, but the DG80 is a great value that does all the right things sonically, and most of the right things in its other features.

Lots of cool features. it's like getting 8 amps in one. It's basically 6 types of distortion (2 leads, 2 drives, 2 crunch) and 2 types of clean. i'm a big fan of having individual knobs for the settings. this really does make it a lot like a non-digital amp. the line out is great for recording and the 80 watts is great for playing out. also, a big plus, using the output knob, you can turn down the volume when at home, but the most of the tone is still there. this feature makes alone makes the amp extremely versatile. you can use it quietly at home, and retain the tone, but you can also crank it when playing out. The only feature i don't like is, when you select a different amp, all the knobs return to 5. i typically like to keep my settings the same, but like to change the amp type so this is frustrating to me. does anyone know how to change this? i have programmed in 8 settings, one for each amp, but it can be a pain scrolling through the numbers to find the setting i'm looking for.

I'm using an ESP MH-201 with 2 duncan design HB-102 set humbuckers.

I recently bought this amp to replace my Laney GC-50. my biggest complaint about that amp is that it sounds too loose. the low sounds can be quite muddy, especially when distorted. the clean channel was ok but overall, it always sounded like i was playing in a tube. my yamaha on the other hand, is the complete opposite. all the tones on it are very tight and clear; even when distorted. playing regular chords with heavy distortion still sound like chords, rather than all the sounds being muffled together. i don't have a lot of experience with different amps, but i defiantly like this one. and as i mentioned earlier, being able to turn down the volume and retaining the tone is awesome.

this part makes me nervous. i haven't had the amp long, so i can't really sayanything about the reliability. so far everything has been fine with it. but when something has a computer in it, i tend to wonder how long it will last.

i haven't had to use customer support

overall, it is a great amp. great for playing at home and using for gigs. i consider myself very lucky that i found such a good amp and such a great price.