Digitech Pedal Questions

Dustin Rigsby · Post by **Dustin Rigsby** » 4 Mar 2010 6:28 am

I am currently using a Digitech RP 150 and although I like the sound I get from it, it can be a pain to adjust on the fly. I am considering going to seperate pedals for reverb and delay. I have played Digitech/DOD stuff for years and have been pretty pleased. Is anyone using the Digitech pedals for steel ? I know they also have the old Lexicon stompboxes re-branded as the "HARDWIRE" series. Those may be a little out of my price range

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Steve English · Post by **Steve English** » 4 Mar 2010 8:04 am

I think I'd reconsider....

If you you use reverb & delay: Your alternative most likely would be two stomp boxes, two power supplies (or connectors, or batteries to replace) two times the floor space, and at least one additional cable.

With the RP, two quick clicks on the edit buttons activates the same parameters on the RP as most reverb stompbox, three quick clicks on the edit button give you the same knobs/parameters as on most popular delay pedals.

If you typically use three effects or four, add the addition pedals, connectors, patch cords, space, etc......

I have all of the above, and I leave all the stomp boxes at home....and soon to be listed in the For Sale section.

One other side benefit is that the RP, and all of it's capabilities, can be had for less than one delay pedal. My two spares were each purchased used for less than $50. That's pretty sweet for the Lexicon reverbs alone

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If you (or anyone else reading this) want to trade me your RP-150 and a few bucks for my new, mint, Boss DD-3 delay pedal...consider it a done deal!!

James Mayer · Post by **James Mayer** » 4 Mar 2010 8:50 am

Dedicated pedals can focus their respective CPUs on one task. I've yet to hear a multi-effect unit that outshines individual pedals. Most of them do a lot of things well, but nothing great. Both reverb and delay happen to be processor intensive effects. It's a matter of quality vs convenience.

For example, have you ever heard a multi-fx unit with a delay that can oscillate like an echoplex or an analog stomp? There are tons of individual digitial delay stomps that are able to.

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 4 Mar 2010 10:12 am

I have the hardwire reverb.
others love it, to me its a little cold and digital sounding.

it sounds like cost is an issue. if so, some of the old ibanez soundtank pedals can be found used for $15-20 and the 'echo machine' for example sounds great. I remember seeing that John Hughey used the soundtank digital delay or at least owned one. alot of those little danelectro pedals sound good too and they are also $15 used. I havent tried the reverb or delay tho (edit: yes actually I have, in have the slap echo and it sunds great). The behringer pedals are straight up clones ,in fact i think there have been several lawsuits, of some of the best pedals ever made and are $30 new. They have a clone of the ehx deluxe memory man delay which i think is around $50 new. The problem with these cheap pedals is mainly their casing and switches which are not very sturdy.

I did a breif search for a unit with delay and reverb indepedently switchable and could not find anything, so unless I missed it you are probably looking at getting two pedals. Im with James on the multi-effect thing and besides you need em switchable by foot I am guessing. Maybe a pod board can handle this and sounds good? i dont have any expericne with em..the pod live or whatever it is? kinda pricey tho i think.

there is a new reverb pedal called the spring chicken that has been getting some good reviews.
there is the new ehx cathedral reverb but its over $200. There is the Boss space echo pedal again over $200.

Im a fan of the old dod stuff. some of the digitech stuff is okay, some great, some horrible, cant say ive treid their delays or verbs. thats just my opinion as pedal geek.

Mike Bowles · Post by **Mike Bowles** » 5 Mar 2010 11:56 am

how much difference in a100 and a150?

Steve English · Post by **Steve English** » 5 Mar 2010 1:29 pm

No comparison.

The RP-150 is vastly superior. The RP-150 has the Lexicon reverbs.

Here's the newest version:
http://www.digitech.com/products/multi- ... /RP155.php

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 5 Mar 2010 2:08 pm

Well, I have a whole rack's worth or two that sits, lonely and dark, cause of my RP250. I'm sure you understand that you can use the presets with the amp modeling off? Save five reverbs, five delays, and 10 combinations that you can scroll through with the big selector buttons. I bought the RP250 mostly for the bigger display and the line-in capacity, but there's another way-cool trick available with having the expression pedal there. You can set the pedal to be an on/off switch for any parameter, too. In other words, I can save 15 reverb/delay models, and have the pedal turn the delay off in five, have it turn the reverb off in five (or adjust the intensity), and have it change the delay length in another five... whee.

My studies show that the people specifically bad-mouthing the latest RP series (150, 250, 350, 500, 155, 255, 355 etc.) simply haven't ever heard them - they're used to the earlier ones, or have them woefully confused with a Zoom or Boss or something. Digitech uses the same basic chips and architecture on the lowly $99 RP150 as on their big rack GSP1101, and that thing'll eat yo mama. Digitech seems to have musicians in the room at later design stages than Boss/Roland, Line 6 etc. - with suitable dicking around, they just sound better.

Jerry Bull · Post by **Jerry Bull** » 5 Mar 2010 6:57 pm

Not that I'm trying to plug or advertise for Digitech, but...........I use an RP150 and to me it is the perfect solution for adding effects to any instrument including pedal steel guitar. It's very simple to use and as far as having to tweak settings in the middle of a gig, it's just a matter of pushing a button a few times. It's all in how you program the parameters of it. And to be honest I have two settings that I use, overdrive and clean delay. I haven't had the need to jack with it a whole bunch. It works so I leave it alone, play music and get green backs to take home to momma. A buddy of mine in the band likes to tinker around with recording and I don't get any unwanted noise with it, how much quieter does it need to be? It does the job. If Digitech would put the guts from the late model "RP's" into a rack mount unit, everyone would be raving about it. Oh wait...they already did. Nevertheless, the RP series does not look like a steel guitar product, instead it looks like a guitar multi-effects pedal so it will probably never ever be popular for steel guitar. That's too bad, I feel a lot of folks are missing out on these things because of a few bad reviews from people that might or might not have even hooked them up to a computer to tap into the full potential. Just my 2 cents worth.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 6 Mar 2010 6:58 am

One other thing about the new RP's - if you are going to use the amp modeling, for playing a six-string through a clean setup or something, it's important to learn to use the computer USB editing. For whatever reasons, Digitech seems to set the mid-point of the tone controls much higher than I prefer. They vary according to model, but they seem to want the "midrange" control to center around 1600 - 2200 hz, and the treble is up around 4k (?) I reset the midrange to 800 hz and the treble to 2400, and the knobs are more useful to me.

Also, they and other amp modelers tend to see a "twin reverb' as a 65-watt tube amp that needs to distort at some point, so you're better off with the old 100-watt HiWatt or Marshall models.

Greg Wisecup · Post by **Greg Wisecup** » 6 Mar 2010 8:21 am

Jerry is 100% correct in all aspects. If you just used it for delay and reverb it's worth the money. Way cheaper than 2 separate units.

It does not have the steel guitar "Look" so it will never be a hit with steelers.

I was with a Nashville pro last weekend who thought he didn't care for them much. After hearing mine for a bit, and him being a man of few words, said "That doesn't sound too bad."

You want delay and reverb that sounds great with Lexicon reverbs for under $80.00 and get a whole mess of other goodies in one box; this is the real deal. Just my opinion. Greg

Emmett Clough · Post by **Emmett Clough** » 6 Mar 2010 10:37 am

To my way of thinking the Digitech RP-150 is a really awesome sounding effect, for reverb and delay, but you really do need to do some tweaking, and you can do that much better using their usb connection. It looks like the RP-155 may be even better! For the very moderate price they are hard to beat!
imuo,

Emmett Clough

Aled Rhys Jones · Post by **Aled Rhys Jones** » 6 Mar 2010 1:39 pm

I'm using the digitech hardwire reverb pedal and I like it a lot. Like some of the earlier posters, I prefer single pedals to multi-effect units, for sound (maybe) and for being more easily adjustable (definitely).

Gary Chiappetta · Post by **Gary Chiappetta** » 6 Mar 2010 5:52 pm

Dustin,
I have been using an RP 150 for about eight years now and found out some time ago it is key to my sound. The reverb is the key. It is a Lexicon reverb in fact and it is the best I have found. I have set up the program #1 for just reverb and adjusted it to my taste and rarely ever use any of the other features. You probably do not need to spend any more money on other boxes.

Rick Myrland · Post by **Rick Myrland** » 13 Mar 2010 5:16 am

I got my RP155 yesterday and started tinkered around with it. I run my Mullen through a Nashville 112 via Goodrich LP-120 and while happy with the sound I immediately found the 155 gave me a richer, thicker tone that really sounds great - and I haven't begun to get into all of the various settings. I'll probably be like many of you in that I'll use just a few settings for all my playing. Some purists balk at using one-stop-shopping pedal but I think 99 out of 100 ears can't really tell the difference between a single note in the middle of a song in a live setting. To me it's like fine tuning your prescription at the eye doctor, at some point the difference between "number 1, or number 2" is indecipherable and, frankly, meaningless.

Maybe today in the clear light of day the instructions will hit me a little more easily because I must admit (disclaimer: I'm not much of a tech or electronics guy, but I'm learning) I'm a bit confused on how to use this thing. If any of you previous posters have any suggestions or want to share what some of your pre-sets are I'd be grateful for the information so I someplace to start.

Bobby Burns · Post by **Bobby Burns** » 13 Mar 2010 6:15 am

I'm pretty happy with my RP-150. There is a lot more on there than I use. I have three settings that use. One of my favorites is actually the bypass. I don't like to have the effects be that important to "my sound". I actually don't bypass, but have everything off in this setting except reverb. I have a distorted sound that uses the compression, overdrive, EQ and noise gate, and reverb. I have a setting that uses the rotary speaker effect, and I don't remember what else that gives a pretty passable organ type effect on low chords. and that's pretty much it. One of the reasons I use this and sold the POD, is that I can tweak it on the fly easier, and it sounds better. As with any effect, tweaks need to be subtle, it's way too easy to go too far. I leave the first three positions as duplicates, and tweak and save them as needed during a performance. I still have the original, unmolested settings that I can quickly call back up, stored in other positions, in case I need them. I set it one the floor next to the "A" pedal.
The big thing that I wish it could do, that it doesn't is, it would be nice if it had 2 separate signal paths, so that you could put some things before the volume pedal, and some after the pedal or in you amps effects loop. I like the compression, and overdrive before the pedal, and it would be nice to get reverb and delay effects after the pedal. I've thought about getting another one just to do this, but I'm really not that into effects and lugging extra gadgets around.

Oh yeah, the RP150 cost me $75 brand new, around a 1/3 what I paid for my POD., and it is a much better product in my opinion. The reverb alone is worth having one.

Jerry Bull · Post by **Jerry Bull** » 13 Mar 2010 7:22 am

I would be happy to email some patches that I use for delay and reverb but I just recently switched to georgeL cables and since they cleaned my signal up so much I will have to totally readjust the parameters in the RP150. I should have time this weekend to get it completed. I'll post when I'm finished to let those of you know that want me to email the patches to you.

Greg Wisecup · Post by **Greg Wisecup** » 13 Mar 2010 7:25 am

Jerry's got some gooduns! I've using his instead of mine. Git Sum!

Rick Myrland · Post by **Rick Myrland** » 13 Mar 2010 8:09 am

So that raises another question: Do cables make a big difference? Should I be buying a more specific brand becuase of the unique nature of the steel?

Jerry Bull · Post by **Jerry Bull** » 13 Mar 2010 10:43 am

Cables do make a difference at least in my case. I was using decent cables I thought until I started using georgeL the other day. I'm sure there is other cables that are of great quality but I just decided to go with georgeL because of all the great things I've heard and read. If I would have known my old good cables actually sucked, I would have started out with georgeL when I first started playing steel maybe even when I started playing 6-string guitar. To me at this time, high-performance cables are equally as important as the instruments we plug them into. JMHO

Thanks for the nice words Greg!

Rick Myrland · Post by **Rick Myrland** » 13 Mar 2010 11:01 am

Regarding Bobby's post:

Does it matter whether I go from the VP to the 155 then into the amp versus 155 to the VP then to the amp? I wondered about this when I first plugged it in last night. What's the difference?

Jerry Bull · Post by **Jerry Bull** » 13 Mar 2010 12:19 pm

I've tried many different ways to try to achieve the best order for my tastes. The problem I've found with putting the "RP" before the VP is that the reverb/delay would abruptly stop when I cut the volume off, and I like it to have sort of a fade out effect (about 1 second) for the reverb and/or the delay when I kill the volume. The upside to that is my overdrive settings worked better because the "RP" always had a continuous hot signal from the guitar pick-up. So, for myself to get the best of both situations I keep the "RP" before the volume pedal and I have set the volume(programmed in the "RP") for the overdrive setting so that I can apply full volume on the pedal for the situations where I need overdrive and still get the hot signal from the pick-up without deafening the guitar player and the band playing at the club down the street. LOL

Bobby Burns · Post by **Bobby Burns** » 13 Mar 2010 9:31 pm

Jerry is right. The overdrive sounds better before the volume pedal. Also, any noisy effects are made to seem less noisy if before the pedal, as the volume pedal cuts the noise down as the volume gets lower. If compression is used after the volume pedal, for example, as the volume pedal goes down, the compressor brings the noise up. Reverb is best though after the pedal as Jerry said, so that it fades out naturally. I also put the effects unit before the pedal, and use enough of the amp reverb so that it doesn't sound like the reverb just dies when the pedal is down. If I were not using the amp reverb, I'm not sure I'd like the reverb sound with the unit in front of the volume pedal.

Rick Myrland · Post by **Rick Myrland** » 13 Mar 2010 9:50 pm

So any suggestions on what my NV 112 settings should be? I left them as is but the Digitech book said to set the amp clean. If I understand these comments correctly, then leaving some reverb on the amp will allow me to run the 155 in front of the VP w/o loosing all my reverb when I close the VP?

Bobby Burns · Post by **Bobby Burns** » 14 Mar 2010 9:15 am

I set my amp so that I have a sound that I'm happy with to start with, before I add the effects unit. Then turn the amp reverb off, temporarily. Then set the effect sound you like, back off on the volume pedal, and add enough amp reverb to help the reverb fade after the volume drops.

Brett Lanier · Post by **Brett Lanier** » 14 Mar 2010 11:22 am

I have a digitech hardwire reverb, but prefer the sound of the "hall" setting on my EH holy grail pedal much more. I often go back and try the digitech to give it a chance but the holy grail always wins. If I bought another reverb, it would probably be a newer holy grail that has a decay knob, or something similar.

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