player opinions
DigiTech RP7
Name: Francesco
Band: Lisergie (unofficial name of new band)
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Model Year: -----
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Price Paid: €350 used
Performance
RP7 is a complete pedalboard DSP, but I think the effects are too low quality. I’ve encountered many mechanical problems with the pedalboard. The footswitch doesn’t function sometimes, and I have to push them many time to change programs. This, combined with a delay of program changes that during the execution of the song, may confuse me or give wrong change between clean to distortion, or reverse.
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Performance Rating: 5
Sound Quality
The RP7 has clean sounds that result in ever lightly semi-distorted sounds with humbucking pickups (I have a Jem Steve Vai), and also with other guitars it’s the same. No results when trying to modifying the patch, the sound is always sharp. The chorus is a “a guitar swimming in the water”, very “fake sounding”, I obtain a better sound with Boss CE-3 chorus. For example Pull Me Under of Dream Theater executed with the chorus of RP7, seems like an exercise of practicing arpeggios instead of a fantastic song. Good, very good the distortion stage, like a big amplifier! But the compression stage doesn’t give the “limiter effect” on the clean sound like other multi effects. Another problem is that it isn’t possible to have an algorithm of various stages of effects. If you have the delay after the chorus, you stuck with it as it is! No possibility to invert the position. The continuous control pedal doesn’t work with the distortion parameters, so I can’t dissolve the distorted sound slowly to clean (Tender Surrender Steve Vai). Mechanically the continuous control pedal is noisy. I must lubricities it with a product named CRC, or I will hear a mouse sing a little song! Ha ha ha. The delay can’t put the note delayed at a higher volume than the direct sound. (not possible to execute perfectly “Lifting shadows of dream” or “The flight of a wounded bumble bee.”) The last problem is the harmonizer. It’s slow, very slow, too slow. It won’t emulate the “bass sound” using the pitched sound only, without direct sound, I obtain a “closed” fat sound with a delay of 1/4 of second! That means a very slow processor unit! For comparison, the Zoom 9150 doesn’t encounter this problem.
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Sound Quality Rating: 4
Construction
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I think that this pedalboard is good for house use, or a friendly jam session, but it doesn’t have professional performance required to use it in a live situation for high-performance execution of songs. I paid 400 € used for this “toy” one year ago and I’m not satisfactory. I’ve read another review of this product and and I don’t understand how some guitarists can appreciate such a defective instrument. To find out if the problems described here are only with my pedalboard, I compared it with my friend’s RP7. IT HAS THE SAME PROBLEMS, LIKE A CLONE! So I’m not happy to have this pedalboard, I will replace it with a Digitech 2112 — 2120 or ValveFx. I’ve played with them, and in particular with ValveFX I found my perfect sound. They have a good price/quality. My Vote for the RP7 is “2” for everything. I think it’s good for beginners that don’t want to spent a lot of money to buy a lot of single effects or a professional rack. Today I’m continuing to play with this pedalboard, with this configuration, but I will change soon: Fender Stage 185 pro Laney Linebacker 30 Celestion (over 12 years old but fantastic) Ibanez Steve Vai 555 modified with Lo Pro Edge, Evo 2, self adjusted neck with 1,5 mm action and 2 tones bending bridge! Morley Bad Horsie wah (wonderful.) Play with this configuration and you’ll have a great sound even with RP7! Understand?
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Construction Rating: 4
Name: Chris Jezewski
Band: Proximity
Model Year: 2007
Price Paid: I paid under $300
Performance
This multi-effects pedal is fantastic! I have never had any other effects pedals, so I don’t have much personal experience to compare with, but the RP-7 does do everything the ads I’ve seen claim. While you could buy several single effect pedals for the cost of this one, I don’t think you could afford enough to do all this one does. It has 40 factory presets and 40 user presets so you can program 40 of your favorite effects setups. I wish there was some way to store these externally to back up a memory erase or to allow creation of more. Also the phaser, flanger, chorus, and pitch shifter are all on the same program bank, so you can only use one of these effects at the same time. This is my biggest complaint with the unit. Programming the effects is a little less intuitive than it might be with traditional stomp boxes. You have to choose the parameter and adjust its value, rather than just turning a knob. Tech heads who know what each parameter does will have no problem getting the sound they want. Beginners like me will have to experiment. The basic layout of the pedal is logical and the factory presets will give most of the basic sounds one is looking for to get started, but I found myself tweaking most of the presets to get just what I wanted.
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Performance Rating: 8
Sound Quality
This unit contains a tube for four tube tones, plus a processor for four digital distortions. The tube tones are pretty sweet. I use these much more than the digitals, but that’s my personal preference. Most of the sounds I’m looking for I’ve found with relative ease on this unit. But I still haven’t found the perfect creamy blues lead sound I’m after. If I could find that blues tone, this would get a five for sound. But even if I have to buy a Blues Driver, I’d still be money ahead. I don’t hear any appreciable noise that I can attribute to the processor itself, and the tone variances allow the brightest of bright clean tones to the darkest, muddiest tones I’ve ever heard. I can’t say enough about how nice the tube tones are, especially considering my small solid state amp. I don’t think you can get real tube tones and all those effects for even close to this little money anywhere else.
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Sound Quality Rating: 8
Construction
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The pedal is built of metal, with a baked paint appearing finish. It feels solid and relatively heavy, so it won’t slide out from under you while you’re rocking the wah pedal (my favorite). The digital display is seven bar LCD, which seems like old tech, but is large and easy to read. Some of the indicators should be memorized, because while the indicator light is easy to see, the effect they’re indicating is in small print below the light and difficult to read while standing on stage. The output level and presence (a tone control) are operated by knobs which are difficult (but not impossible) to turn with your feet. Different programs have different output levels, so it is necessary to adjust the output level on the fly. The pedal can be set to control volume, but I often have it set to wah, so I need another avenue to adjust the output. Also, it has no power switch. The unit must be unplugged in order to be powered down. Shut off your amp first! Otherwise it will pop. A gig bag is available, but I keep it in the original box, with the packaging foam ends. I’ve had it six months and it still looks new. For reliability and quality of construction, I give it a 10, but for ergonomics and layout of controls, I have to give it only a 8.
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Construction Rating: 8
links
Average Ratings
- Performance: 6.2
- Sound Quality: 6
- Construction: 6
Ratings Key
- 10: Excellent
- 0: Useless
Company
- DigiTech