I've had this unit from new and it has been a real workhorse in my set-up.
I've used it in FX heavy bands and just to tweak EQ/Reverb a bit and it
delivers tone in buckets full. I think digitech made a bit of a blunder with
this unit (and the RP12 & 20 which followed it) in that it seemed to be
billed as a rack quality effects unit for people who couldn't afford racks. It
is a comprehensive FX unit (no external FX loop - a big oversight) which
fell between the 2 camps and therefore didn't sell as well as it should
have done - it was too pricey for stomp boxers and not line level for the
rack enthusiasts. The RP12 & 20 did improve on the RP10 but after that
digitech downgraded (in my opinion) the RP series by putting phono
inputs and learn-a-lick type stuff in the units. For me it was excellent as I
wanted a comprehensive effects package at a price cheaper than a rack
rig.
Model Year: 1995
Where Obtained: flying pig, London UK
The unit will run in mono or stereo, is mains only powered, metal case
(except for the sides) and has a clear display so you know exactly what patch
you're on. 100 presets and 100 user edittable patches mean that there is
plenty of space for your own sounds. Fully MIDI compatible. The unit lacks
an external FX loop, which is it's biggest flaw. I would have also liked a ring
modulator and an intelligent pitch shifter included in the FX.
Sound quality is great. I've used the unit for electric guitar (my own guitars
are fender, but I've heard others borrow the unit), bass guitar and I used to
have to use it on the FX loop of my 4-track (those were the days!) and it's
worked fine with whatever I've thrown at it. I've put it through various amps
and it's done the best it can with differing quality amps. I recently changed
my amp to a fender blues junior single channel valve amp because I know
that I can get all the tonal variation I want out of this unit.
The unit is very comprehensive and so maybe isn't the easiest to use, but I
don't mind spending a bit of time getting into the programming of patches.
This unit has amazing flexibility if you want to re-assign switches to
different parameters you can acheive some amazing sounds. If you don't
want to get involved in that the presets sound great and tweaking them is
simple enough. If I get a sound in my head I've never failed to get it out of
this unit.
This is a tough mutha. I've gigged it for 16 years now and it's still going
strong. The plastic sides occasionally pop out and it CC pedal (wah-wah/
volume/whatever else you want it to be) sometimes needs it's screws
tightening and re-calibrating, but it's taken some knocks and some beer
spillage. I did manage to squash it with a marshall cab in the back of my car
a while back, so I had to take it to pieces and try to straighten the unit out,
but it seems to be fine now.
Overall, I settled for this unit because of the price it was presented to me for, as well as the name brand, but, if money was no issue, I do know the newer units have a tube built in for that warm distortion that this unit lacks. But, overall, for the price of what a couple stomp boxes would set you back new, you can purchase one of these used and have alot more at hand to tweak with. It just takes a couple weeks of really tweaking with it to understand how to achieve that really great tone you been lookin for.
Model Year: 1995
Price: $120.00
Where Obtained: Private Seller
This Unit is AC power only, with an inline transformer that connects the power to the unit via MIDI style connector. It is a non tube pre-amp effects processor. The biggest feature that it does NOT have, is a power switch (makes NO sense to me). Effects in the analog section (so the effects are warmer) include Compression & Distortion (3 solid state types), and the Digital section includes 2 different EQ's (Full bandwidth 10 band, and a 4 band parametric), Cabinet Emulator, Reverb (3 different types of reverb), Delay (5 different types), Sampler, Pitch Shifter (5 different ones including Pitch Shift, Mono Detune, Dual Detune, Whammy & arpeggiator, Chorus (3 different), Flange (2 different), Phaser (2 different), Mono & Stereo tremelo, Auto Panner, Noise Gate, Stereo Ducker, Phase Inverter, Traditional Wah, and AutoWah.
I play with a Jackson with a Dimarzio Tone Zone Humbucker and stock Jackson J-103 Single coils thru a Samson Servo 170 power amp and 4 x 12 cab, the tone is very warm and crisp, and extremely versital. It is very quiet, but seeing it has an onboard noise gate, it should be ... lol. THe effects are all VERY versitile and the parameters have a very wide range of 'tunability'. About the only thing that tone wise it is pretty much unable to deliver, is the nice warm crunch of a set of tubes, IE marshall and older fender amps.
The unit has 100 factory presets, and 100 user programable presets. The presets are kind of awkward to really get the hang of dialing a specific sound in. But the unit is capable of doing patch dumps back and forth from a computer, if you have a program available online for free called RPEdit21. With this program, the parameters and EQ's are all done graphically on your computer screen. The MIDI patch cords set me back 20 bucks at Circuit City, and like I said, the software was free. The software, according to the writers, was written with much help from Digitech programmers, although I dont think the program is endorsed in any way from Digitech. Seeing this is an extra, I will not include this software interface within my rating, the rating reflects ease of use and programming parameters direct from the front of the unit.
Ive been playing thru this live for the past few months, and it has performed absolutely Flawlessly thus far! I have spent a considerable amount of time tweaking 'MY' sound out of it, and thus far, everyone that is a guitarist that listens to me, loves all my tones I have coming out of it, Distortion, Clean, Dirty Blues ... it has done me great justice.
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