digitech rp 155

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

I kinda gone through the whole myriad of fx for steel guitar over the last few years, always looking for what sounds good to me, tried all the stomp boxes, some good, some bad, my preference is for reverb with just a slight delay as my stock sound, the best warm sounding unit ive had was a Marshall jfx 1 rack unit, i had that for 10 years until it died on me, never could replicate that sound since, and them marshalls are long since discontinued, due mainly to the expense of the unit, it was around £500 in the mid nineties, but it was brilliant, it only did reverb, delay and chorus, but what a sound, i tried a lexicon mpx1, but found it very user unfriendly, same went for a TC electronics unit i had, then tried individual stomp boxes, but found it all a bit messy with loads of cables etc, recently got a line 6 pod xt, and a boss me 25 multi fx, both were good in as much as everything was to hand, ie tuner, delays, reverbs, unit level, BUT, i didnt like the core sound, sold them on ebay last month, spent a hundred quid on a unit that has been very highly praised on the U.S. forum, the DIGITECH RP 155, but i was kinda thinking, "well, i've tried virtually everything else" and when my new unit arrived last week, i was even that cynical that i didnt even try it out for a couple of days, but when i did, "wow ! its brilliant" if you only want a reverb, then do yourself a massive favour, look at one of these, apparently the reverbs are Lexicon, and they are so lush, and the unit is so user friendly, and easy to navigate and store your own preffered sounds, there is other stuff in there that i will not use for steel guitar, distortions, amp models etc, but you can switch them off, i gigged it last night, and was really pleased with my sound, a lovely rich reverb, with a hint of delay, and i added a very discreet amount of compression, an effect that many people simply dont know how to use properly, but what can really round off your sound, anyway, this unit has really impressed me so far, and the price? around a ton, ok its made in China under licence, but who cares, it sounds great, little wonder why so many of the guys stateside are keen to endorse this little gem

[elparkirio]

Eddie, have you ever tried the electro harmonix holy grail reverb?? I use that sometimes with the steel. I also find it works best if you put it in the fx loop on your amp, so as to not distort the signal path between the steel and the amp.
If you get the chance try one, they are only £75 and well worth a go

[bob adams]

I have a couple of Behringer Bass amps on which I use the holy grail, the sound is awesome with an LDG!!! Not withstanding I like the sound of that 155 unit Eddie! Must give it a try!

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Maybe we should re-badge your topic Eddie to "our favourite toys" I know nothing about the rp155 but my fav toy is still the first DIGITECH delay that I bought from Eric Snowball many years ago, It was not the one I wanted as its a double pedal and I wanted a single for just the short slapback delay this thing has a side to it that keeps the delay coming back, so in effect I am only useing half the pedal and though I have since aquired a single pedal IMHO it does not come close to the sound of my old one. The daft thing about it all is I have a Boss delay on my pedal board and I rate it behind the other two but its the right size and it fits on the board.
My other most fav. toy is a thing called a JHS Rock box (I have two of them unused for the last 20 years!) It is the ultimate practice equipment you can get (apart from BIAB) as you put the headphones on and it deliveres pure stereo directly into your ears in fact the sound is so good you can sit there playing for hours and the people around you that cannot hear it will wonder what the big grin on your face is all about! I have tried (and I think others have too) to recreate that amazing sound on stage but it does not work, two amps may spread your sound but its not the same or anything like it! I guess these old toys are long consigned to the scrap heap now but I am yet to hear anything sounding better than that Rockbox ..........

[Paul Brennan]

I still use the venerable Boss DD3 (or DD6, I'm not sure which. I look at it so seldom I'm not exactly sure of the model number) together with the spring reverb in my Peavey amp. Having said that I recently bought a Line6 M9 for my six string guitar. I've tried this on my steel on steel only gigs and been very impressed with the sound. I delay and reverb with a a touch of compression as Eddie mentions.

[SteelieAJK]

I have a RP150, the reverb is very good IMO. For a while I used for gigging with a couple of reverb/delay configurations. I ended up going back to pedals because I think it's good to be able to tweak settings on the hoof. For gigs I now use Hardwire reverb & delay pedals. The RP150 sounded as good at less ££s than a single Hardwire pedal, expensive tweaks!

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

yeah i have an electro harmonics holy grail reverb unit, very good little unit, i have been using it prior to getting the rp 155, but i have to say i much prefer the lexicon reverb on the rp 155, the holy grail is a keeper, it will stay in my gig box as a spare, im just amazed at the sound quality of the digitech, for such a cheapo unit,
re hearing yourself in stereo, its like headphones into your ears from your your ipod, sounds awesome, but your right you cant replicate that sound onstage, even if you use a couple of amps in stereo, or dare i say it, one of these expensive stereo amps, it will sound good in close proximity, but the further you move from it, the stereo effect evaporates, [i think the word is dissipates, but not sure]your audience certaintly wont hear stereo,

[Malcolm]

Eddie, I have been using the RP 150 since moving to my MB200 amp, more than pleased with it, great cheap little unit.

[STEDDIE EDDIE]

yeah the rp 155 has replaced the rp 150, it looks to be the same layout, just a cosmetic upgrade methinks, so easy to programme,

[Will C]

I have the RP200. Similar to the 155 I think, but they have done away with the pots - it's all menus and Up/Down buttons. There is an effects pedal that you can configure to be anything - volume, wah, you name it. There are up to 99 user-definable custom sounds so you can set up favourite patches, give them a name, and call them back with the footswitches. I like the reverb I get from it. You can select amp modelling too, compression, Leslie effects, it's all done digitally of course.

Will Cowell
Huntingdon
Cambs