Yamaha DG80-112

I am not sure what year my amp was made - I bought it used. I play pop/rock/blues/country and it covers what I need. With a midi controller, I have access to more patches than I would ever need live. The only thing I wish it had would be a built in phaser. I use an MXR Phase 90 and love it, but it would be nice to have that built in - not a big deal. This amp is rated 80 watts and it feels like a true 80 tube watts. Its very very loud and punchy. My Flextone is 60 watts and isnt anywhere near the volume of the DG80. It has the staple effects most players need and they sound very good. It really does everything I need it to do and has way more features than any highend tube amp, but a digital amp probably should come with more effects, so I have to give it a 9.

I use an American Standard Stratocaster with a Duncan JB in the bridge position, a DiMarzio Virtual Vintage in the middle and a Kinman in the neck. This amp doesnt have as many tones to choose from as my Flextone, but I like it better. The DG has fewer choices, but they all sound better to me than the Flextone. The tones are very very tubelike, very warm and puchy and compress when cranked. The amp responds better to the guitar volume too. The distortion is wonderful for what I play. I dont think this is a metalhead amp - thats fine with me - I dont need scooped mids metal stuff. You can get great tube clean to overdrive sounds with this amp. Actually, I find I dont really use that many different patches because you have so much variation just by using your guitar controls (pickup selection and volume control).

I have owned a Boogie, a Rivera, a Flextone and other assorted amps and this one really is my favorite. I wont say the "best" because best is relative, but it really does sound great.

I always have a GT-3 with me as a backup but have never had to go that route (thank God). I havent had this amp too long but so far so good. It is built very well. Its quite heavy and seems very solid.

I got it for $300 used. Its worth much more than that and I would certainly buy another. These amps are going pretty cheap on Ebay and they are a steal. I have been playing 24 years and have gone through a lot of gear. I compared this amp to my Flextone which I really did think was a great amp, but the DG is just better. Its built better and sounds better. My Rivera was a wonderful amp and I sometimes regret selling it, but the reality is my DG gets those tones and more without the tubes plus it has chorus, reverb and delay built in and as many presets as you need.

I got this amp for my son, who play lead guitar in a church praise band every Sunday. Harvey Whitehead's review seems pretty much on target. The features that made this amp attractive to us are:
1. It is solid state. We're not gearheads, and the low maintenance associated with SS is a real plus for us. In addition, the flexibility of being able to turn the volume down in small rooms and still have the desired sound profile was important. When we need the power for a larger room, the 80 Watts into a 12-inch speaker delivers nicely. For outdoors, it gets patched into the mixer and fed through the sound system anyway.
2. The band plays a wide variety of musical styles, and James also plays Rock, Jazz, and Blues in other contexts, so he needs a lot of versatility in the sounds that the amp can deliver. As a modelling amp, this puppy is versatile.
3. The controls on the amp are easy to figure out. Some amps give the impression that you're piloting a jet fighter. The controls on the DG80 do pretty much what you would expect. Since the amp is so flexible, this last point means a lot. There's no value in having great flexibility if you don't know how to use it to set the tone you're looking for.

James plays an Epi LP. Even discounting for the humbuckers, the amp is quiet. The clean sound of this amp is to die for. Likewise, the lead sounds are bell-like and pure. In these modes, the amp is at least the equal of any amp, tube or SS, at any price to my way of thinking. When the amp gets crunchy, it is a bit less appealing, though. While you can get an acceptable overdrive out ot it, my goal would be to get a Cream-era Eric Clapton highly compressed but still fat sound, and I haven't found that in the amp yet. It may be there, but I can't get quite what I would want from it. The crunchy sounds aren't bad, but they don't have the blow-your-socks-off beauty of the clean modes.
One thing worth mentioning is that the controls for the tremulo, chorus, and tape echo need to be downloaded from a DOS floppy disk (your music store may have alrtady done that, but when the battery dies, you'll need to do it again). This is a MIDI device. I was new to MIDI, and Yamaha sells a $400 computer to do this. You don't need that. I have a SoundBlaster card in my PC. Creative (the SoundBlaster mfr) sells a $20 cable that allows the joystick port on the SoundBlaster to be used as a MIDI In/Out port. I have heard that there are similar cables for use with USB ports. You can download the disk contents using that. The MIDI port on the computer will probably have a couple of MIDI drivers for it -- some kind of synthesizer support and a plain vanilla MIDI I/O utility. Use the latter one. The Yamaha program on the floppy will tell you if the MIDI port is set up right on the computer (it will take some fiddling), and then download to the amp for you. It's relatively easy, takes about 10 minutes, and won't have to be done again until the battery needs replacing ont he amp.
Another point worth knowing -- Yamaha makes a very expensive MIDI foot pedal (~$300). It is easy to use for the basic controls -- switching between the 128 preset amp programs and a foot control for volume. The presets are MIDI Program Changes, and the volume is a MIDI Control Change. There are a few other controls possible, but I haven't learned how to do them yet. If you want to get a different MIDI foot controller, make sure it will support both Program Changes and Control Changes. I think that this amp needs to be used (at least by a lead guitarist) with the foot control, so this is a big "hidden" cost of this amp.

This is a very well-made amp. We haven't had any problems yet. The controls are motorized, which looks like a repair bill in waiting, but so far the amp has been a tank. And it weighs about as much as a tank, too.

As some other people have mentioned, the manual is very hard to red and not very informative. The amp is well-designed, so you don't need to refer to it very often. But when you're trying to establish a MIDI connection, you will hate the manual. This is by far the weakest part of the product. The Yamaha web site is easy to navigate, but pretty limited (you can download the MIDI patch if you lost the diskette, or the manual if you think that it will be less foul in electonic form). Other than that, I haven't used their support.

For $500 or less, this is a terrific bargain, a 10. I got ours when Mars stopped carrying the amp, so it was a good deal. At the ususal $700 discounted price, it's still a good amp, but awfully pricey. This is especially true when you keep in mind that you're going to have to cough up another $275 or so for the foot pedal.
If the gear were stolen, I would replace it because it is such a good amp. But if I had to pay the ususal discounted price, I'd be a very unhappy customer. The DG60 appears to be an attempt by Yamaha to bring the price down into the >$500 sweet spot, but that amp appears to make too many compromises on the controls, so I'd complain and pay for the DG80.

I bought the amp from mars in Dec.01. I play quite often at church as I am in a praise band. This is NOT the church music that may have put you to sleep when you were a kid. We rock the house with many different styles of music which is exactly why this amp fits the bill so perfectly. The band leader owns a '62 twin in mint condition. This amp can come so close to the sounds of the twin you'd be scratchin' yer head trying to figure out which one was being played. As far as power goes it will make your ears bleed. Like the other reveiws, IT NEEDS A HEADPHONE JACK!!!!!

I use a epi sheraton II with gibson pick-ups and coil taps. The sound is better when the hums are engaged. I wish I could get alittle more saturation in the overdrive tones but what I get is ok. I do plug in a Dean accoustic into the amp and it sounds go

I've not had a problem with it and it is in use all the time. I do not like the idea of battery replacement and loading all my saved info back into this amp when the battery goes. I hope it gives me some warning as it would be embarrassing if it quit during praise!

The manual SUX!!!!!! I was on the phone alot with Yamaha. They did stay with me until all questions were answered. The guy that wrote the manual must never give anyone traveling directions, who knows where they will end up! The 7 is because of the manual

I've been playing for 35 years and have played most everything. This is the most satisfied i have ever been with new gear. I would buy another if stolen but still worry 'bout the battery. I also bought the pedal board that goes with it but will never be able to fully figure it out. the manual on the pedal is worse the the amp. I almost bought the hotrod deville or the tech 21 but I fell in love wth the tone of the Yamaha. If anyone has the amp and pedal, and knows how to use it please help me out. I would like to get the full potential out of this amp and pedal combo. The pedal should have been included with this amp.

its been a while, but i wanted to add to my previous review.
i just love this amp. I sold the amp after buying a Tech 21 (because i get in my amp change'n moods).
i really didn't need two amps. anyway, the DG got damaged during shipping (top board of cabinet), thus i ended up getting it back. when i got it, the case had been damaged, but the amp was still running great. so, comparing my Tech 21 to this DG, i realized how WARM sounding this amp is. it sounds so good. thus, the TECH 21 is gone. i reset the pre-programmed settings back to yamahas initial settings. I must say, they did a extremely fine job with their sounds. most amps/effect companies do a lousy job. And i must add, this amp does the best job of maintaining its sound when a "line out" is sent to a mixing board and to my recorder.
its just a top quality amp. By the way, i think i'll sell this amp if anyone is interested, $300. why ??? i think i want to try the DG 2x12 amp. BIG BUCKS though....... hmmmmmmmm O-O
^
O

HANG'n in there after being dropped by UPS !!!
the impact broke the top board of the cabinet
everything else looks new

I bought the amp new at Mars at a blow out price, they discontinued stocking these amps. Since I have been using a DG1000 preamp for some time in my rack (I hardly ever use my expensive Soldano X88R preamp anymore), I was quite familiar with the features and functions of the DG amps. The DG80 also has reverbs, delays, trem, chorus that are not in the DG1000. It doesn't have as many built in FX as some of the other modeling amps, but I am not much of an FX guy anyways. I think there should have been a headphone jack, just because of the nature of the amp. The manual is not the greatest, but the amp is really fairly straightforward to operate.

I use a variety of guitars, vintage Gibsons and Fenders, plus some hotrod superStrat guitars for more hard rock stuff.
The first time I heard the DG1000 preamp, I was amazed! I could not believe the sounds were digital. The DG80 is no exception. The trade off here is that there are no 'specific' amp models, but since most of the modeling amps really don't sound like the amps they are supposed to model anyways, it doesn't really bother me. I usually try to go for the sounds I hear in my musical imagination, and the DG amps can achieve 'that' sound for me. I do like the attack and touch sensitivity the DG series of amps have. The DG amps have a good 'feel' to them, which is very important to me. I feel that some of the more popular modeling amps do not have the 'tube feel'. The DG amps just seem to have a more 'dynamic' feel to them, the notes seem to 'bloom' better than some other modeling amps. The DG has quite a lot of gain, but does not have super saturated mega gain as some modeling amps do, so if that is your bag this may not be the amp for you. If good tone and response is your thing, then take a closer look at the DG amps. I use my DG for recording, and people are usually surprised when I tell them I use a Yamaha DG for recording. I have recieved many compliments about the tones I have generated with DG amps. I especially like the smooth, woody overdrive tones I can get from this amp, reminiscent of EJ or Allan Holdsworth. Awesome for fluid toned soloing. I find it easy to nail the sounds I hear in my head with this amp.

Reliable so far. I did get an error message, cleaning the offending pot with some cleaner fixed that problem. These units also seem much heavier and robust in construction than some of the modeling amp competitors. Take apart a Line 6 Spider and see what I mean!

Never had to use customer support, no opinion.

I've been playing 20 years, and have owned a LOT of modern and vintage gear. I'd sure consider buying another one if it disappeared, since I have tried all the other modeling amps (Line 6, Johnson, Fender, Crate, Behringer) and did not care for them. I do like the ease of use this amp provides, the motorized knobs make life a lot easier! It may not have as many bells and whistles as the competitors, but maybe that is why the DG amps sound better? Less is more? Who knows! A heaphone jack would have been nice for silent jamming. The manual sucks big time, but the amp is pretty easy to figure out.
Yamaha has done a really piss-poor job promoting these amps, nobody knows about them, and the major chains are not carrying them anymore. A shame, really. Listen with your ears, and not the marketing hype and maybe you will come to the same conclusion I did...

This is a servicing tip, not a review.

I began getting the E1 message on my DG about a year after purchase, and it got to the point that it would come on after every midi switch. The manual says this means the volume pot isn't returning to its specified position, and the solution is to take it to an authorized service center. I've found that a better solution is to spray all the pots with a good contact cleaner-lube, which is probably what they'd do at the service center for the $100 bench fee.

Made in early 2000. This Mars Music display model was loaded with the new effect features --chorus, tremelo, so I didn't have to install them via MIDI. Ah, the little victories. The tremelo is especially rich, and surpasses that found on any digital amp I've played or owned. As far as I know, the DG amp series is rarely seen in retail stores.

One odd oversight:no headphone jack. I suppose one could string an XLR out to a 1/4 female plug, but it seems Yamaha has missed an essential feature. I also own a DG Stomp, so this is less of an issue for me than someone who wanted his/her amp to double as a headphone preamp a la POD or J-Station.

On the plus side, the DG-80 has a staggering 128 memory locations, and you can run an extension cab for stereo effect.

Like many, I have been intrigued by digital amps. Over the course of two years, I've owned a POD, Flextone, DG-Stomp, and I've tried Johnson, Crate, and the new Roland VG amp that seems so feature ladden that it probably has digital strap locks. In short, as enjoyable as the Roland and Line 6 Flextone series are on the design side, the purity of tone does not rival even the most pedestrian of tube amps. Granted, there are trade-offs --personally, I like the Line 6 Fender emmulations; however, the Marshall and Vox are uninspired.

Enter the DG-80. When compared to the Flextone, two things are immeditely apparent. Sheer output is not an issue with Yamaha. The rated 80 watts are of the tube variety --duck and cover drills occur at a volume setting of "4". Additionally, that certain "Je ne sais qua" of tube harmonics and tone is represented extremely well by the Yamaha --better than any digital amp in its price range IMHO.

I especially like the "Crunch" and "Drive" settings --two each. Here you can dial in those elusive Vox and boutique Class A tones that most digital amps fail to reproduce. The "Lead" channels serve up a
great range of Marshall tones, from JTM-45 through JCM 2000. The gain provided is merciless, though not unweildy at high volumes.

The two "Clean" settings provide only a hint of break up with the "Gain" set to 10. I've often read musicians lamenting the digital amp's inability to voice completely clean tones. Frankly, the DG's are almost too clean for my taste. I like a little grit in my coffee.

My trusty set-up: LP Standard, Tele, Danelectro Baritone & 12 St >>
535 Crybaby>>Line 6 MM4 >>Line 6 DM4>>DG-80 with or without an extension Laney 4X10 cab. The amp has made friends with all my guitars --I tend to use a Vox-like emmulation for my 12st and a driven Fender Tweed Deluxe sound for the Baritone.

I've been guily of churning gear for mere whimsical reasons, and have often regreted my dispensing of gear. Let me just say that I doubt that my DG-80 will be among the equipment posted on HC classifides.

The rotating knobs make me nervous as they seem laggard in moving to the preset designations --luckily patch changes are driven internally, and the sound changes instantaneously. Additionally, the internal battery seems a hassle. Other digital amp manufacturers don't require a battery to store internal settings --I'm not sure why Yamaha went this route.

As is a selling factor for a digital amps --no tubes to maintain. Hooray!

No response to my e-mail -though I'm not surprised in this "self Service" age. The manual is uninspired, and unlike the DG-Stomp there's no "quick guide" for the amp series. Web site is adequately mantained. I suggest Yamaha create different sites for their product offerings as there's too much navigation required to get to "Musical Instruments" --let alone specific amp products. Dirt bikes anyone?

I've been the happy custodian of a RI Vox AC30 TB for the past year. I think the finest compliment I can pay the DG-80 is that the Vox no longer gets quality time.

This is a great amp!! I play blues and country weekly and it covers both styles beautifully. I might change the speaker someday because I am in love with the sound of EVM speakers, but the Celestion G100 sounds great now.

I use a Bolin guitar with EMG humbuckers, an Ibanez RG 520 QS with a HAZ preamp and Seymour Duncan pickups and a mostly stock Gibson 335 and though I must adjust the Trim knob when I switch guitars and the Gibson gets plugged in to the LOW input because the pickups are not active I can get an appropiate sound for any type of music.

Well built amp, BUT I never gig without a backup. I have boogies and fenders and I always have somekind of spare amp at a gig. So Far Great!!

Yamaha are good people, they have returned both my email and voicemails.

This is an excellent amp to cover many styles and types of music. It can't out Boogie, out Fender, out Marshall the other respective amps but it unlike the forementioned amps it can sound like all of them at the push of a button.It is an excellent compromise for a "one type fits all" amp. It sounds good and can "imitate" many types of amps very easily. I love it's versatility.

Manufactured in October 2000. This amp is very versatile and sounds suprisingly good for a digital amp. I have played all of the competitive models that I could and this sounded better than the Line 6, Johnson, Rocktron. I liked the distortion on the Carvin Bel-Air 212 better, but like most tube amps, it was a "one-trick" pony. I like to play blues, jazz, rock, experimental and make sound design based noise for video and film. This amp fit my needs perfectly as it is so versatile. It's also the first digital amp I have ever played that had that "thump" in the mids like a real tube amp as well as the "sag" and "delay" in the attack. I'm not going to list all of the features because everyone else already has so why be redundant? If you need to know go to http://www.yamaha.com/cgi-win/webcgi.exe/Specs/?gGUA00004DG80-112

This amp is mainly used in the studio, jamming at home and at the office (yes, it's cool to be able to play guitar at work). Does it have enough power? So far, yes. Haven't tried it with a live drummer yet although the glowing Guitar Player review from last year said that it had enough "oomph" to keep up with a live drummer. I play more in the studio so this isn't a big concern but for the occasional jam session, it could matter.

This amp is played mainly with a customized (new pickups, wiring re-done, Corian nut, titanium custom bridge) Epiphone Dot and a cusotmized Telecaster (Corian nut, new bridge, Fender Vintage noiseless bridge, Fender Vintage humbucker, wired to accomodate coil tap with tone control). I love how it sounds with both.

It suits my musical taste and style of playing quite nicely. I try to play a little bit of everything as far as musical style and I also just plain make noise with it that is further heavily modified in audio post for film and video soundtrack work.

Is it noisy? No, it's very quiet, much more quiet than a tube amplifier. I played the Mesa Boogies and I was very disappointed at how noisy (not in a good noise way, in a hissy rainstorm way) all of the models were. How does anyone record with them? There must be an entire industry subgroup of engineer set up just to noise reduce and gate anyone who records anything but loud rock with Boogies. I was really looking for a quiet, versatile amp and I think the Yamaha fit the bill. This amp does pretty good takes on various famous players sounds if you are into that. I prefer to use it to find new sounds that hopefully haven't been discovered.

I'm by no means a virtuoso guitarist and I suppose I never will be. My musical style is evolving more toward finding ways to integrate the guitar into various groove based electronic music (house, hip-hop, electronica, R&B). And, I am also trying to use the guitar to generate organic noise that is later integrated into film and video soundtracks, sometimes as music and sometimes as sound effects.

The distortion that the DG80 produces is definitely organic, smooth and nice. It is not good at generating death metal chainsaw buzz, it leans toward Fender and Marshall type sounds though. Just not the scooped mids, seven string Korn, chainsaw stuff.

Have only had it a couple of months. So far, perfect. I did buy a factory refurbished unit at a discount from Musicians Friend that didn't work right but I don't blame Yamaha for that. The new one I bought from ZSounds has been perfect so far although I have been too busy to play a lot. Other Yamaha gear I have owned has been absolutely bulletproof so I expect that this will be the same. Not sure about those motorized knobs, though. I guess time will tell.

Oh and also, this thing weighs quite a bit for the size. Our office is up two flights of slippery tile covered stairs and their is no elevator. So it's a good workout to haul it up and down occasionally.

Haven't dealt directly with them on this unit although I did send a e-mail inquiring about a new piece of equipment and the response was prompt and courteous. Have never dealt with a Yamaha repair.

I have been playing for 22 years. I have the two electric guitars mentioned above, Washburn D-21 acoustic that by some fluke is one of the best acoustics I have ever heard and played, including Martins, Roland GR-303 Guitar Synth, Carvin DC-4 bass (awesome bass), a Carvin DC-210 Redeye 600 watt bass amp (also killer for the bucks), and I am planning on buying one of the new Yamaha RS-7000 Midi Sequencer/Sampler/Synth units as soon as they are available. This should be enough music toys for a non-professional musician to keep busy with ;-)

If it were stolen, I would track down the inconsiderate person and make them watch an endless loop of the MTV Movie awards, have a debate about the merits of boy bands with Carson Daley for a week, then would make them carry this amp up and down flights of stairs for a week. by then, they'd be begging for mercy so I'd let them go if they repented and went to fourteen Benny Hinn crusades in a row. That would be the ultimate punishment, much worse than death.

Almost bought the Carvin Bel-Air 212 (I still might get one sometime) because it was sweet sounding but just not very versatile without a ton of boxes). The Yamaha won out because I play so many different styles of music and I thought the Yamaha would just be more versatile. Also didn't want to mess around with tubes since I have such a busy life. Much too busy to worry about tubes at this point.

Latest model with the full updates, all the features of the other reviews, 80 watts, wish it was a tad bit louder, I think digital amps need more DB to cut through a band

I play many guitars, Les Pauls, Juniors, Tele, Strat, some vintage some new, mostly stock guitars, blues infl rock/pop/punk/country.
First of all: if you are looking for an amp the you click on Blackface, or Plexi and it sounds like those, this ain't it. This amp has its own, distinct, extremely musical tones and qualities that have bits of those amps coming through, but it doesn't attempt to recreate those sounds.
That being said, the sounds of this amp are extremely enjoyable and musical. I have used it on gigs and recording, using speakers only, no direct out. I have been able to get everything from some very nice clean, warm Lindsey Buckingham stuff to crunch, vibrato swamptones to Mick Ronson sheets of Les Paul. It does not replace having a great old Fender or Marshall, but it sounds great, has it's own personality and is satisfying to play for hours. The effects are the type that most players use on real amps, reverb, cool sounding tape echo, vibrato, just like a real amp should. No whizbang ray gun over effected sounds here.

appears to be built like a tank.....

don't know

don't know if I'd replace it, but as an addition to a bunch of cool old amps that I don't want to cart around and have people set their drinks on anymore, this one is a keeper.