I am cheap They press the penny until the zinc drips from the middle. I guess my skin flints pay off about fifty percent of the time, though. When I spent $99.99 (plus tax) on a Digitech RP100 Guitar Effects Pedal, I could definitely say that it really is a 50/50 payoff!
This eight-channel unit, which runs on either 6 AA batteries or a 9 volt/130mA optional power supply ($29.95), small and light, but surprisingly durable. It can be used in stereo, mono, or through headphones so as to disturb your donkey neighbors and/or housemates!
It has a drum machine, digital tuner, pickup simulator, compressor, wah-filter (optional “expression pedal”), reverb and delay in both analog and digital, amp model, cabinet simulator, noise gate, phaser, chorus and flanger. The RP100 has 40 factory preset channels and 40 user programmable channels that can be changed by stepping on either of the main buttons to move up or down in the channel selection.
It has many advantages. Chorus, wah, phase, lip, delay, sound and awesome reverb, as you would expect from Digitech. Amp modeler does a great job of imitating the sound of a dozen vintage amps, most of which are true Marshall. JCM900, ’65 Fender Twin Reverb, ’57 Fender Tweed Deluxe, Mosa Boogie Mark II C, and a great old British Invasion amp, Vox AC30 top boost.
The cabinet simulator, the ampoule is clearly angry, with the right lines on the mixing board, it is very realistic. It simulates 4 different grids, composed of four different microphone placement devices. Used the simulator and the simulator while running the guitar through the PA channel sounds almost indistinguishable from a vintage amp!
Other nifty features that impressed me were the surround speaker simulator (to create the sound of an old “60 Leslie”), pan (swithcehs the sound from left to right when used in stereo mode), Auto “Yah” (a single finger effect that makes the sound almost vocal effect), and detune (the samples in the signal are only slightly different to simulate two Tom Morello of “Rage Against the Machine”).In essence, the pitch of your instrument digitally you can lower it so you can play out of tune without the body having your strings languid.With the expression pedal you can bend the notes up or down (like Mr. Morello), or, in Harmonize mode, you can manually drift the harmonic notes for more natural sounding harmonies let them play in the Minor Third and Seventh.
The digital tuner (with bypass mode accessible), vibrato, tremolo, noise gate (using vibration feedback), pickup simulator and compressor are all decent, though not exceptional. The old saying “They are good enough for government work” can be applied to these characters.
Because you get what you pay for, the RP100 doesn’t have any negatives to it, though, the biggest being its inability to switch between channels silently. There is a loud and extremely irritating driving of almost a second, when changing the ways or the mode of exit or the form to pass; A big deal breaker if you intend to live the purpose of the unit.
And then there is the tone. Band three EQ has no tone. You’d be better off skipping it altogether and using the amp’s tone control. Despite the light weight of the old one, it is not very road worthy, as it is designed more for the handicap space than for playing hard clubs.
The Digitech RP100 is great value for money; I have very successfully used home run record. However, it has its limits. If you’re after good work for quick results, I suggest saving another $200-$300 and buying a good Digitech-type unit. The RP100 makes a killer “first” performance unit for a beginner, and a good amp simulator for the budget-minded (i.e., cheap) home recording enthusiast.
