Reviewed by:
Invader Jim, on july 15, 2008
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Ease of Use: Made in 1999. As far as floor processors go, it's pretty easy to use. Though I've never used any other floor processor (before this one) so it took me a while to fully understand everything. It didn't come with a manual since I traded a guy 3 blank CDs for it (I later found a PDF online). This uses S-Disc II processing (version 1.03). It has 6 footswitches: bank or program up/down, distortion, mod/pitch, delay, and reverb. Two modes: bank and program. Program mode uses the up/down switches to select the individual programs and the other 4 switches to select individual effects on/off (as their names suggest). Bank mode uses the up/down switches to select whole banks of FX and the other four switches to select the indiviual programs (not effects on/off). It has forty user presets and forty factory presets. Along with all that are buttons to fully customize each individual effect plus store and edit buttons. Also has a Volume knob, presence (tone) knob, and an expression pedal. Also included is a tuner, jam-a-long jack, left and right outputs, and a headphone output. It uses a single Sovtek 12AX7 preamp tube (or any dual-triode tube, I guess. The original tube burned out and I just stuck in an unlabled dual-triode I had laying around. Sounds a little worse than the old one). // 7
Sound: I mainly play a
Squier Strat with a Frontman 25R (sse my review). There are a plethora of sounds and FX available. It has four solid-state distortions (grunge, overdrive, heavy sustain, and fuzz), two tube cleans (clean tube 1 [mellow] and clean tube 2 [bright]), and two tube distortions (blues tube and saturated tube). It's arsenal of modulation FX include chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, panner, pitch-shifter, whammy, and a harmonizer. Delays include mono delay, three 2-tap mono delays and three 2-tap stereo delays. Digital reverb types: club, studio, room, plate, garage, hall, church, arena, and Spring. It also has several wah types, a 5-band EQ, noise gate, compressor, and cab simulator. The harmonizer is amazing. You can set it to whatever key and scale you want, as well as set it to wherever you want it within the scale (like up a 5th, etc). The delays and reverbs are also great, as well as the tube cleans and distortions, EQ, and some of the modulation FX. I mostly use this as a preamp, and I use it's harmonizer, whammy, chorus, and EQ as well. My amp has a real spring reverb, so I don't use this unit's reverb. The wahs are terrible, as are a couple of the SS distortions (if the gain is too high). Really, it's just a matter of taste. Floor units never sound as good as individual stompboxes, anyway. For what I use it for, it's great. I'd reccomend a seperate wah, compressor, cab sim, and flanger, though. Maybe a tremolo, too.
// 7
Reliability & Durability: It's made of steel and has plastic sides. The place where the pedal is attached is starting to dent inward. The footswitches are the little black tophat styles, which wear out fairly quickly. I had to replace all but the two big ones under the up/down pedals. Many of the LEDs also quit working. I replaced them and most still don't work, so it's probably something in the circuitry. Other than hat, it's pretty solid. // 8
Impression: This is great for bedroom players and even for gigs (if you only use a few FX on it). It suits all styles, from metal to rock to country to pop to punk. If it were lost or stolen, I might get another, but only if I can get it really cheap (which may be easier due to the fact that DigiTech discontinued it, just like half their other stuff). I love the harmonizer and tube FX. You probably wouldn't want this if you are gonna use it for heavy gigging, but it's good for just screwing around, trying to become inspired to write stuff (then you can use seperate boxes). // 8
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