Feature:
No power supply included. Purchased separately. The best feature, in my opinion, is the editing interface, which is common to many Digitech multieffect devices. Easy to change (even on a dark stage 2 minutes before show time), once you understand the parameter matrix concept. More than enough slots for user-edit patches.
Quality:
Sturdy, solid, should last me a while. No backup -- without it, I could still get through a gig (although it might not be quite as much fun). Generally, construction quality is good.
Value:
Plenty of features for the price. And in my case, it may save me some medical costs associated with hauling a giant pedalboard around, ha ha.
Desirability:
Cosmetics are so-so. But on the floor of a dark stage or dim tavern, who cares?
Sound:
Digital modeling only get you so far, but this unit sounds pretty good in most of the patches. The autowah algorithm is a difficult to tweak so that it triggers properly and shapes the Q envelope in a useful way. The speaker modeling isn't particularly subtle. Editing the chorus effect takes some trial and error. The reverb patches are not especially distinguished, but are quite usable. I bought this unit to replace a pedal board full of gadgets in my live rig, and it serves that purpose perfectly. I might have some doubts about using it in the studio. As with any multieffect, some of the preset patches are just plain silly, and most of them benefit from judicious editing. The distorted sounds are decent. The octave patch is as good as a Boss OD-3 (my standard for live octave gadgets). The amp models range from sexy to ugly; anyone should be able to find four or five that work for them. And yes, this device flattens dynamics and sucks some tone (especially on the more extreme patches) -- but that's just the nature of effects in general. My advice is, stick with subtle, and save the wacky stuff for one or two standout passages.
Ease of Use:
I have no problems coaxing good tones out of this unit. Your mileage may vary, and depends on your willingness to edit your own patches. The expression pedal takes some getting used to -- I use mine strictly for volume now, although I like the idea of using it to control triggering sensitivity for certain patches (like autowah). The tuner works reasonably well, but I rarely use it.
Support:
No dealings with Digitech support. Perhaps that tells you something.
Overall:
I'm not going to part with this thing as long as it keeps working. If it gets lost or stolen, I might replace it, or I might take the opportunity to trade up. That's the thing about digital audio gadgets -- the technology gets better and cheaper pretty rapidly.
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