Digitech RP-50 Review

Product: DigiTech RP50 Multi-effects floor unit
Price Paid: (I paid) $42 on eBay, new in box

Digitech RP-50 Features : 9

There are more features than I feel like typing about, so see the online owner’s manual HERE.

This little Digitech RP-50 box has a huge range of amp models and effects, and allows several effects to be applied at once, for a very wide range of available sounds.

The first 40 factory presets are user-editable. The second forty are copies of the first 40 (as it comes out of the box) and are not editable. Many of the second 40 are just ‘show-off’ sounds to demonstrate the unit’s capabilities, though there may be some that you might find actually usable. In short, though, you have 40 user-definable sounds that you can store.

RP-50 Ease of Use : 7

For me, at first, it wasn’t so easy to figure out. I’m notoriously bad about thinking that I can just ‘figure stuff out’. Sometimes that attitude bites me on the hiney. I have to keep telling myself “RFM” (read the freekin’ manual!). This is one of those cases.

Once I scanned thru the manual and got an understanding of how the controls are implemented in this unit, it then became very easy to use. The logic of it just sort of fell into place for me after that.

Digitech RP-50 Sound Quality: 7.5

See the above link to the online owner’s manual for an idea of what all this unit does and what effects are available, etc.

After getting a grip on programming the thing, I started to get some really useful sounds from it right away. It took me some more time to understand how the amp models work, and I went thru a short period of frustration over the amount of hum & noise I was getting with high gain settings in the amp models. Then I discovered that, above a certain gain setting, the tone doesn’t really get perceptibly more distorted; just noisier. I find that true of most distortion pedals, too, so this doesn’t count as a ‘minus’ in my book.

You can reach a point with this unit where your guitar’s original tone will lose its identity in the amp models and effects, if they’re ‘over-applied’. Subtlety is key when using this thing. On the other hand, you might actually want to lose your guitar’s original tone in some cases. Remember the old Tom Scholz ‘Rockman’ headphone amp? Remember how, no matter what guitar you plugged into it, it still sounded basically the same? The RP-50 will do that sort of ‘over-produced’ sound if you want it to. Or you can be subtle about your application of the effects and amp simulation, and retain your guitar’s sonic identity to a large degree.

For the most part, though, I’m very pleased with the Digitech RP-50 effects. Especially good are the reverbs. There are several different types available, from ‘room, to ‘plate’, to ‘church’ to ‘hall’…all are really nice and lush. I’m not a big fan of delay by itself, but I do like the delay effects achievable with this unit. Combined with the reverbs, they can produce an ambient effect as if you’re playing in a large room, where you hear the initial echo off the back wall, and then the reverberation throughout the rest of the room. Oh, and chorus, delay, reverb, etc. are in stereo, should you want to run a stereo amp setup.

Speaking of chorus and delay, flange, phase, etc., I’d like to see perhaps finer control of these effects (you only get settings of 0-9…no individual control of rate and depth). But the ‘generic’ settings they give work well, within their limitations.

As for the amp models, there is a very wide range of timbres available with them. I can pull off tones from muddy old ‘Sears Silvertone’ to shred-monster hi-gain tones, to nice sparkly clean tones, and pretty much anything in between.

EQ control is very effective, too, giving you three bands of control with 0-9 level settings in each band.

The acoustic guitar simulator works surprisingly well, to my ears. It tends to be a little ‘chimey’, but a bit of patient tweaking of the EQ controls will tame that. It doesn’t sound exactly like an acoustic guitar, but the impression is very strong. When you hear it, you’re thinking ‘acoustic guitar’, so it gets the point across well.

My only real dislike about the sound of this unit is when using it with a single-coil guitar. Any amount of distortion applied seems to carry with it more single-coil hum as the gain is increased. The internal noise-gate is pretty effective at blanking that out when you’re not actually playing, but…it’s still annoying.

With humbucker-equipped guitars, this isn’t a problem.

Thru my amp, great tones are harder to achieve than thru headphones, but this is mainly just an EQ issue, and can be compensated for. Everything sounds better thru headphones, of course. And this is probably my favorite use for this unit; as a headphone amp. I can sit around and wail on it without even waking the dog, and groove on the stereo effects wafting back & forth thru my head. Nice, and therapeutic in a way. And even if only ever used as a headphone amp, it’s worth the price for that alone, in my opinion.

Digitech RP-50 Reliability: No Opinion

I haven’t had it long enough yet to find out how reliable it is. But given the solid feel of the jacks when you plug in, and of the buttons, etc., I tend to feel that it’s well-enough built to hold up to ‘normal’ use, i.e., not kicking it around and subjecting it to physical stresses beyond the plastic housing’s capability to withstand.

Digitech Customer Support: No Opinion

Digitech is one of the mainstream effects companies, and I’d imagine that to keep that status, their customer support would (or at least, should), be pretty good.

Digitech RP-50 Overall Rating: 8+

Excellent value for the money. The Digitech RP-50 produces a very good range of usable effects. The amp models give a wide palette of timbres to play with and build a particular sound upon. Again, subtlety is a good thing where this unit is concerned, because you can totally lose your guitar’s tonal identity if you’re not careful with the way you apply this unit.

But to put all these effects and amp-model tones in one little box is a pretty good feat, especially at the price it sells for. It may not be of a caliber that professional touring/recording musicians would require, but I find it very useful and with good enough sound quality that I’d not hesitate to use the Digitech RP-50 on stage or in a studio. Very large bang for the buck, no question.