Economy Effect Unit for Steel.....

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 19 Apr 2002 11:13 am

A fellow steeler (Larry Sutphin) bought a Digitech RP-100 about 8 or 9 months ago to replace his old effects board which was a Roland or something like that and cost him about $500.00 around 12 years ago. The new unit costs only $99.00 through Musician's Friend or your local music store if they give deals. I listened to Larry's for quite a while and really started digging what he had coming out of his guitar. I went down to Guitar Center a week ago and bought one for myself. This thing is great! It's got Compressor, Delay, Reverb, Flange, Phase, Wah, Envelope Follower, Tremolo, rotating speaker sound, all kinds of distortion, tuner, a drum machine, chorus, detuner, octave, and everything works great. It's also the easiest to program of any unit I've seen. It has 40 user programs and 40 presets. If you like any of the presets you can move them to any spot by just touching two buttons. It's small and can just set on the floor to the right of your volume pedal and can be operated easily and quickly with your right foot. There's also a large red LED display so you can see it in a dark place. I'm really elated about this thing. It's even got some acoustic sounds in it and I've programmed a very usable Dobro sound on it. In closing, at a price like this I don't see how anything else can compete. I've even got one patch that sounds like an old Fender 1000 for the Mooney stuff.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney tuning.

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 19 April 2002 at 12:15 PM.]</p></FONT>

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 19 Apr 2002 11:40 am

I've been thinking of getting something like this for home recording, but more for guitar applications (at least for now).

Could you post your dobro settings?

I tried out a Digitech Genesis 3 a while back. It has all of the effects and amp modeling BUT it lets you set up two different amps and "warp" or mix between them. Did you ever want to know what a clean Boogie with a 1x12 cabinet would sound like next to a dirty Twin going through two 4x12s? Me neither, but now you can find out. Of course, it's a little more expensive.

Mark Zinns · Post by **Mark Zinns** » 19 Apr 2002 12:41 pm

I've been using a Digitech RP-3 for a couple of years on standard guitar, and I've just recently started using live with my steel. I've tried a lot of differnt FX boxes, and none have out-performed the Digitech live. It's not bad for recording, but for performing it's great.

Post by **b0b** » 19 Apr 2002 4:42 pm

Moved to 'electronics' section

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 19 Apr 2002 8:11 pm

"Economy Effect Unit"? Is that something that makes your expensive steel guitar sound like a cheap student model?

Everett Cox · Post by **Everett Cox** » 19 Apr 2002 8:17 pm

I've been using an RP100 for about a year, now, and have been very pleased. Not only do you have amp modeling and all kinds of effects, but headphones-out and optional battery operation. Many of the presets are for standard guitar with distortion but any and all parameters can be changed. I've come up with a few that really help my steel sound. --Everett

Rusty Hurse · Post by **Rusty Hurse** » 20 Apr 2002 11:20 pm

Well Jimmy Day only used a guitar and amp and he got a GREAT EFFECTS SOUND!However, if you are going to buy an effect unit, save your nickle and dimes and buy a Lexicon MPX1 or TC Electronics unit if you are doing studio. For live the Boss DD3 or DD5 will do what you need I guess, but I dont use a lot of reverb these days, on live playing.Just a good spring sound in the amp, but the delay is where it is at.I want it to sound like a steel guitar, not a DAMN TRAIN WRECK!

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 22 Apr 2002 11:21 am

No Jim...........It can make your student model guitar sound like an expensive one! Maybe if you'd try one you could move up from "Acceptable Tone"

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney tuning.

Buck Dilly · Post by **Buck Dilly** » 29 Apr 2002 6:53 pm

In 30 years of gigging I went from "straight in" to cheap floor boxes to good floor boxes to bad rack gear to good rack gear to floor boxes and back to "straight in". On pedal I use only a matchbro and a floor eq. I feel differently about guitar and lapsteel, but a quality pedal steel seems to sound just right if the amp is good. Toys are fun though! I can amuse myself for days with an echo unit.