Digitech GFX1 - Great or Garbage?
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2021
- Eric's channel - • Digitech GFX1 Twin Tub...
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SIGNAL CHAIN
Guitar - GFX1 - Two Notes Wall of Sound (Power Amp Sim and IR Loading) - High Cut 8000hz, Low Cut 80hz
The content of this video is entirely my opinion, and was not paid for, sponsored or dictated by any third party. Gear shown on this channel may be either sent by the manufacturer, on loan for review or purchased at a discount - in these cases you will see the "contains paid promotion" icon.
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Eric, you're a (GSP 21) Legend!!
Now this is the sort of comment I like to read
Just picked up my second one of these. Eric helped me out when I asked him about what tube was doing what in the unit. He is indeed a legend.
I want to see you put this head to head with MP1, seems very inspired
I have both. I cant get one to sound like the other... different animals.
Allright!! Now Im 20 again!! Love the twin tubes. Hooked mine trough a Mesa 50/50 and love the lead tone. Sustain for days.
Nice as usual Leon!!
Sick rig! It sounded great through my Synergy power amp but I ended up using WoS for this so I could go stereo and not have to mic a 2nd cab :p
I’m so grateful that you, Baker, Nielsen, Shnobel and Clifton Wright are doing these rack unit breakdowns. I’ve really missed the pro audio influence in guitar rigs.
I've been waiting on this one from you. I use it in my live rack for my cleans & lead tone. I hit the front of it with a TC Spark Booster & it just gives it that extra kick in the ass for metal. Can't wait for the shootout. 😊
A trip down memory lane. I bought my first MP-1 then this thing came out and it was a gain monster with it's compressor in front. It also has that NEEDED noise gate, sounded good in the store with it's additional FX but in reality it was no MP-1. I've kept an eye out for one but have seen them poping up. Cool video thanks Leon.
So many great memories using that preamp. Was my main tone in the mid 90's..
I got one of these 30 something years ago, ran it into a Carver poweramp driving a homemade cab with Sheffields in it. It was a Frankensteinian monster, but I loved it, and it taught me a lot about tone possibilities. Still got it. Thanks for calling up the memories.
Fire up the old warhorse!
Dude, I had one of these back in the day. Loved it.
i had one of these back in the day when they came out I loved it
I've got one and I am thinking of re-tubing it to see what happens; it is old. I also have a DSP-256; and though I like the pedal control of the 256, I prefer the true tube preamp tones on the twin-tube and it sounds "noisy" but works well with my Fender tube amps (1966 super -reverb, 90 something Hot rod Deville, 90 something Blues- junior).Nice video I enjoyed it and it did help me a bit in tweaking the presets and reassigning them new numbers.
Great video! Have you ever compared the two notes power amp emulations with real power amps? Would be interesting to hear how close the two notes PAs are.
Love these old Digitech units. Have been on a bit of a gear kick with them lately and scooped up an RP12, RP20, and a GSP2101, all for under $200 (total). So far, the 2101 has been my favorite followed by the RP12. The RP20 has some cool things going on but I haven't had much time to dig into it yet. They all have their own thing going on and between the various distortions and the powerful EQ, you can coax a wide range of tones out of them. Would love to see you check out some of those old RP floor units. You can get them cheap as hell (paid $40 for my RP12) and they work pretty much just like the rack mount units that they are derived from.
WTF !!! That is a freiking steal !!!
I used to have an RP20, I think! Was that the gold floor unit with a 12AX7 in it? Actually recorded with one.
@@chrisogburn8240 Yes, that's the one. My understanding is that it was more or less a floor version of the 2112 / 2120.
The 2101 is bloody amazing - I've actually started using it as my default preamp now, even over the Marshall JMP-1. I still dream of getting my hands on one of the purple, red or gold limited edition ones someday :D
@@svartmetall Yes, it is a fantastic unit. I was actually messing with mine just yesterday through my headphones. It is totally usable even for modern rock / metal.
Cool !!!!! All the Digitech stuff is cool…. Some of the best chorus and delays you will find in stereo…. The distortion was always suited more for rock…. The clean sounds with the compression….. are pretty incredible!!!!!
I really miss the one I had. It was the core of my live tone for years. Now I am gassing for another one.
I had one back in the early 90’s. I always liked the tone but felt it didn’t have enough gain. But I was dumb back then and used gain to cover my poor playing.
I've had my GFX-1 since it first came out. I recently did a electrolytic capacitor swap out on both boards and it definitely brought it back to life.
This and the 21 Pro or Legend were awesome and worked very well with a BK Butler Tube Works MosValve power amp. Gigged with a 21 Pro for years in the 90's. Really great and it never let me down live. Had it going into a Marshall 1960a cabinet. That was a great throwback piece! Thanks for the demo!
Thanks for sharing!
I had one of these and I loved it so much. I had no way to take it to Cali with me when I moved there in '01 and I've missed it ever since.
Definitely treading on the toes of the MP1 there! What a pity they didn't push the boat out just a bit more on the dsp side of things.
I do have one of these from way back, and the foot pedal! Love it!
Ooo ooo ooo....I have this one! Gonna make me pull it back out now. You should also try the Digitech Valve FX. There's also the Legend II, and the GSP 21 Pro. Then there's the newest rack from them, the GSP1101. Supposedly Michael Wilton from Queensryche used it? You also need to try out the GNX4. It's the best floor modeler they ever produced. Has an 8 track recorder in it. Recorded my first record with it. The tomes are really good on there too. If you get one I'll share some patches with you.
Hi I had forgotten about this! Nearly bought one after my GSP21 but none available at the time so I bought a Peavey Pro Fex II which was a huge lemon after Digitech gear, fortunately the Marshall Jmp 1 came out and I dumped it for one. I was i heaven after that Profex. Love looking at the old gear with a new review and modern comparisons. Good vid again👍
I have the ProFex II, I really like it. With a boost it can easily do the thrash/death metal tones, I also like the fact you can swap the order of FX.
I tried it when it came out, with a Peavey Classic 60/60 and Hartke 412 guitar cabinets...it was like one of the Hafler Rack tube preamps and the Digitech GSP7
Love the old multi-fx reviews. You should review the GNX4 or gsp1101. So glad we have the Axefx3 now. The dynamics are just lost in these old units.
you are right, the dinamics is lost in this old units with analog preamp and FX.
7:30. Leon searched for a Marshall crunch tone. Yeah nope. It ain’t in there. That’s what the MP-1 has in spades over this unit. But it really shines with the high gain stuff and the fender ish breakup thing. All in all they kinda have their own thing going on. Glad we were able to make this happen. Thanks for the vid Leon. Cheers. ☕️
Thankyou again mate! It's like an Mp-1 and a Boogie had a baby and they added some really handy time based fx. FAR exceeded my expectations.
@@LeonTodd Oh yeah the brackets indicate the saved settings for the specific patch you are on so if you go messing about you can see where you came from.
Hi Leon, i think the values in brackets are just what is stored as preset, so when you change stuff around you get reminded what your setting was beforehand.
Thats just by watching the video though, so i could be wrong. (as you flick through the PARAMETERs at the start everything is in brackets)
Aaaaah of course!!
This is my favorite preamp. Used it with a peavey 50/50 and I preferred it over everything aside from the peavey ultra plus.
I still use my Digitech Twin Tube. It's not a bad unit but I definitely had to dial down the presets. And yes, the speaker simulator is atrocious! I bypass the effects and use either pedals or Rocktron Intelliflex. I then run it through a BBE Sonic Maximizer and a Mooer Radar.
It's definitely not my first choice of preamp to use for recording, as I have a Mesa Boogie V-Twin and an Engl E530 to choose from.
@Leon Todd, what's your thoughts on the V-Twin and E530?
Digitech is under rated. I have a Studio 400 and a blue Studio Quad 4 FX rack and the algos are sick with a lot of character (same as in the 2120 you reviewed). Thanks for the video Leon!
To me most of the tonal changes from it don't change the tone much. Now for me, that's fine cause I don't use more than a few models on my FM3 and other processors anyways. And then just modified versions of them. As for what tone it gets is pretty good. A cool unit. Today with all the modelers out there, there are so many different models you can use and tones you can have. Maybe that's why no one really has a unique tone anymore. Maybe I'm just too old school thinking that way. But I'm happy in my old school outlook. I strive for uniqueness.
Thank you, Leon. I have one in a box somewhere that I think I need to dig out. How did you have this configured, right into a TwoNotes? Or some other can sim?
You had me at Stanger in a Strange land antarctic style.
This is a great Leon preamp! It's tones definitely sound like it's up your alley...might be a good "weekend rig" pre.
Still have mine & I love it when are going to do the rocktron voodoo valve first edition tube preamp just wanted to know your thoughts on it
Hi Leon Can you please make another video with the Rockman headphone amp by using effect pedal with it?
Hey Leon, are you connecting to some interface directly? or is there some amp involved?
Lol.....I am sitting my guitar dungeon and to my left is a stack of preamps I have out to perform a little pot and jack cleaning, and the stack includes an MP-1 Classic, MP-2, Rocktron Prophesy, Marshall 9004, and......(drum roll)....TWIN TUBE GFX1!!!! Spooky..........👻
Ever heard of Mantric?
Out of Norway ..
Remnants of the band Extol ..
Check out their guitar tones on their latest, False Negatives!
Quite unique!
Great Leon thanks Love ART No caricatures in this vid 😎🤩 The Twin Tube sounds great
Literally just found one of these and snapped it up :)
Congrats!
Ended up getting one recently for 65 bucks on Craigslist! Haven't stopped playing it; it's a great sounding unit, very user friendly, easy to edit and, at least mine, seems very stable - haven't had any overheat issues! Also - no hum!
Yo Leon! Keep a eye out for this units big brother...the Valve FX. One of the the coolest looking 1U preamp/multiFX made.
That's the plan!
@@LeonTodd Please do! 😁
Where to get a schematics for it in PDF ??? It's not available online now!
I always wanted one of these when they came out but never had the chance
You are really good at demonstrating pedals.
What type of cable do you use to connect a foot pedal?
Leon, do you still own the Twin Tube? If so, can I ask you a quick test with MIDI? Thanks in advance!
What about gsp1101? Solid state I know but not bad
Hi Leon! Good piece of gear, Thanks so much Eric! Nice and Juicy Tones! Thanks for sharing brother and Be Well All!
You bet!
Dude, that sounds much better than the GSP21 ...
Oh my gosh, I bought a Twin Tube in 1992/93 I think, and a Hafler G 300 and thought I had a great rack. Until the Dual Recto came out. I bought a Boogie DR and never looked back.
Very cool
How early was your DR?
@@LeonTodd Between 100 and 200, I paid $1050 for it, because I bought the matching leather 4x12, normally Boogie set the price, so there was no wiggle room. But I bought so much from the store, they knocked $50 off lol
@@Locoandchooch that's real early! Still have it?
I have a Digitech GNX4 that still works laying around somewhere, lol!
Sounds very good for that 80s tone.
I had one of these old skool classic great bit of kit until it died a long time ago 😊😊😊
What kind of guitar are playing in this video? Very nice looking with an amazing sound/tone.
Equilibrium Guitars Masai 6 - incredible guitar!
I loved my twin tube!!
got it, had dirty pots, GT tubes, so I handled that and so far so good, needs ventilation for sure
Ha! My mom came to visit me and brought this and the pedal board with her on the plane in her checked bags! I couldn’t believe she found that in a bunch of old stuff in my old room.
Mum you legend!
Hey Leon, have you taken the GFX1 tubes out and replaced them? Mine doesn’t work and it still has the same tubes from the 90’s in it. They glow when I turn it on but I wondering if they need to be replaced to work.
@@seanhollander9116 It might need the capacitor's replaced.
Now, it has a bit of the tone and distortion of the Tube Works Real Tube, Chandler Tube Driver, Dean Markley Overlord family :)
Nice little bit of king's X in there ;)
Oh yes!
Are you running that through sending return on a tube amp or what how you run in the signal change to the amplifier solid state amp or tube ample in the front or affect sending return
Can't remember the exact setup but it was more than likely a tube power amp, and if not that then the fx return of a tube head
@@LeonTodd it's got me wanting to buy one and send it through the front or rear end of my JCM 2000 DSL but I guess I really don't need it anywa that amp is a monster what do you think
@@crunch_amp9282 If you can find one cheap, why not?
@@LeonTodd about 200 was the cheapest I can find
I use to have a GSP7. I have one of these RP360xp now. Im convinced the GSP7 was better
Sounded better than I remember.
The Hum.. yes. Strange. I have 2 ART multi verbs, a LT, and LTX. The LT has no hum at all, the LTX hums. But at least not thru the Amps.
Wowowowowowowow... this makes me feel old LOL!!!
The eq in this is weird, it kinda sounds like an after thought of an effects processor, despite being tube preamp. I wonder if there's a bit unorthodox topology or values in the preamp. It has the same vibe as those floorboard multieffects pedals with preamp by Digitech. Great for processed juicy hair metal/thrash sounds, but it doesn't feel like a "real guitar amp". Just smoother breakup tones. The effects are also a bit funky, like glued on. Yet for someone who wants to get cheaply in the rack game, nothing wrong with this. And I bet for the right type of music nobody will notice anything odd about the guitar tracks.
Never knew you can slap some solid rhythms on guitar.
"here's my really bad guitar slap" .... what.this is way over my best.
Man, I really liked that!
This is great. just like the GSP21 I rate these a high 10.. a high level equipment
Eric you got the GSP21 Legend touch of my Pro. your my hero!!!❤❤❤❤❤❤
Eric i love your sound man. I watch you all the time on here. I saw these Digitech stuff late 1987 thru 1992 in East Hartford CT at a shop called Laselles Music store in July of 1991 and 1992 and 1993 as well the Legend and Pro GSP21 just had been out for 3 years and the price was $1,000 usd the pedal board itself didn't come with it and cost an extra whopping $479.00 usd. now fast forward 22yrs later i finally got my hands on both the Legend and Pro and I have to say OMG🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 love them both and well cleaned cared for and still use them in my recordings Roots Rock Reggae. Al Anderson played with Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1978 to 1980s and he himself with Junior Marvin both lead guitarist used them both and sounded great.
I have them all from the 80s 90s and up until the last unit made.. ipb10 rp old amd new lines GSP21 legend and pro,gnx series gnx 1,2,3,4 up to the gnx3000. Yep. Rack and floor units im keeping them all infinity. Thats incling my Korg tone works serires collects rack and floor Roland ,Boss GT3,5 6,and 8, and GT8pro racks, Line 6 firehawk fx, line pod go m13,m9,m5,m3. Roland GP8 and GP16 mate. I love it all
So much great gear! I've demo'd a lot of the units you just listed here.
Leon yes i seen those and bc of you i own these racks. You are best guitar player and your opinons are my world bc Lee only you know sound better than anyone. I love all you demos. And thats what made aquire the gear i have. I need more rack effects. Your knowledge of the 80s rack effects send me into the clouds. Your awesome mate thanks and cheers
Can't wait to see it up against the MP-1 - I don't imagine it will best it, particularly with the tube overheat issues, but we'll see!
What overheat issue?
@@jackstroem1324 apparently, putting two tubes into a single space rack unit with digital components so close caused the unit to overheat and cease functioning. I think this would happen in a stuffed rack in a hot environment (an poorly ventilated practice space or venue), but I personally haven't had this issue
@@MarsHottentot ive been using mine loads since i bought it.
I have never had the issue that it gets warm, maybe it doesnt happen to alll units?
@@jackstroem1324 Perhaps fixed on later units (not much later, though; the GFX1 was discontinued pretty quickly)? The word is they received a bunch of broken units for repair because the digital portion failed due to overheating from the tubes. Mine has vents over the tubes - does yours? Maybe this was the simple fix?
@@MarsHottentot mine has the vents! I drive the amp hard, maximum input from the input knob and relatively high gain (no need to max it out imo, there is plenty of gain in this unit!)
I can look up there serialnumber for it, I will definitely secure a backup unit incase something happens to it.
Although i did have it overheat one time now that i think of it. I placed the unit ontop of my AC30 amp and used the FX return on the amp. The heat generated from the amp was so hot that i could burn myself on the rack unit. But the GFX1 itself has never gotten hot for me.
make a video about the digitech 1101 Please
been looking for one!
What are you connecting the preamp to? An amp with a speaker and a mic? Or straight into an interface? What interface?
Leon please do sykedays on Sunday and do the solo from riot on the blue murder it has to be on the greatest guitar solos I’ve ever heard in life Leon check it out on UA-cam the production by bob rock on that album is amazing
Did you try to put an overdrive in front of it yet? Do it.... something like a Boss DS-1 at low gain. Tone around 12 'o clock. You will thank me. Ah...a couple of GT 12AX7/7025 will rock into that unit. And you can find a compatible battery on Amazon. I repaired one of those preamps and it has original GT tubes. Not like my ADA MP-1 or Marshall JMP1, but it fucking rocks and the noise gate is the best around.
Some really sweet tones straight out of the box. Much better than the GSP 21 which was the big brother to this unit.
Damn that thing sounds good
What kind of guitar are you playing, bro?!!
Equilibrium Guitars Masai
I had an RP1000, and it rocked, but the hardware was crappy, the pedal not dependable, and it has cheap AD/DA converters. But the "feel" is a lot like the BOSS GT1000.
I remember seeing those around!
THAT'S A CLASSICAL PIECE OF GEAR !!!
Always wanted one of these - never could find one except for those asking stupid money for them.
Man what is that beautiful guitar it is wicked..
Equilibrium Guitars Masai 6
@@LeonTodd Thanks for the info 👍 most grateful keep up the great work..
raddd review :)
Thanks!
Well i see GSP2101 there in the rack... its what i`d go for instead of this unit ;)
That really fat tone in the beginning almost sounded like a controlled Big Muff tone.
Great
only a couple years later.....hahahahaha the parentheses identify the un-modified patch so u know to find the original before tweak.
Дичайше респектую например, звук тащемта адовый
They had their uses. It was my first rack unit in the 90's it's got taken over by the 2101 which really wasn't much better . Very characterless
Still to try a 2101, but I kinda like the preamp tone on this a little more than the 2120
2101 is the real deal...check my YT for some very old direct recordings.
Now there are a lot of cool devices like Fractal and others. But there is no music and there is no band either. Everything is the same and looks like shit! But there were times of Whitesnake, Van Halen, Ratt....