That was every young shredders dream rig back then, but a few years ahead of me, I got a 95 RG 550 LTD but had to settle for a Zoom 1010 and a Marshall split fifty reverb 2x12 because it kinda looked like my uncle’s JCM800, it broke my 14 year old heart when he didn’t think my Marshall was cool.
My favorite was the digitech valvefx itdid. Everything I could possibly want it to do, unfortunately after 30yrs it stopped performing now I want one that performs the same way or someone to fixit could you please help me either way please.
Hey Brad. Yeah I worked all through the summer of '92 to earn the 600 bucks to get one. I was 16 and it sounded amazing. The tone was actually crap but effects were great. Would have loved to have the Legend EPROM back then. I remember the high gain sounds were particularly awful and there was a noticeable rush of noise when the gate was tripped. Great stuff though. Thanks for the memories. Love my Helix these days.
Worst mistake I made back in the 80's was trading my JCM 800 for the endless pursuit of the over processed "tube like sounds" of rack filled preamp goodness lol. "That's so uninspiring pretty much sums up most of my experiences with them lol. They did have their place though. Thanks for the memories 🤘🤘🤘
same here...sold my Marshall 6101 for the Digitech GSP2010 (despite the two 12ax7), plus a Rocktron Velocity. Ok for the 80s tone, very good delays and reverbs, but forget about edge of break-up tones. Still regret up to now. And these things were awfully expensive and lost so much value
@@andreaferrero6533 Oh yeah forget about rolling back the guitar volume to get any kind of dynamic "tube" response. I tried rack gear one last time with the GSP1101 with a tube power amp. Some of the sounds were decent but the feel was very sterile and unresponsive.
I was at a time where I thought I build a chaos rack system ! Then the nightmare gig happened ! Large night club where a Fxxxxking part of the rack rig just started having issues ! Complete chaos 🖐️🖐️🖐️ ! Not good !! Ended up acoustic that was said went fine ! I was Sooooo embarrassed with band mates and entire club watching in making comments while I'd chased down the issue !! Went back to amp head and never looked back !!
I think the Digitech GSP21 Pro sounds way better than the JMP-1. Maybe it's not as organic, but for big 80s rock tones, the Digitech smokes the JMP-1 any day of the week!
I swear if people did blind hearing tests with a variety of units from the 80s,90s,00s, and now I am sure that the results would be a complete mixed bag with great stuff from every decade. We all are guilty of hearing with our eyes to a significant degree.
Agree totally. Picked up one of these GSP's with the Legend chip around 10 years ago for ~$120 Aud. A POS, but there a few good tones in there. It does the late 80's/early 90's thing with a bit of work.
Really vallad point. Just like an old jazz album no eq left rite or center was the only option along with only one reverb tank. I'm still using the boss se70 i bought instead of the 21 back in 93. After a decent compressor and blended with its parrerell mixer mx10 i have 4 more stereo busses for newer stuff. Some day I'll get a axfx but I'm still impressed! Cool find that brings me back in the day I was just thinking about!
I think my issue with most 90's rack gear is it sounds good... not great but good. The 80s stuff is bad in a good way and the 90s stuff is good in a bad way. #science
I don’t disagree. But, for certain music back then, that good but not great was quite good enough! I love pure tone but I enjoy a lot of the 80’s new wave etc out there guitar sounds. Just a tool in the end.
👍🇺🇲❤true, that's why my rig system is old school & new school....best distortion tone / feel.... I ever played / heard. It only took me over 30 years laboring / testing (many tricks involved) I've learned & discovered along the way😁
I used to have one of these! It was my main source of chorus & delay at the time, used it with a JMP-1 & a Marshall el-34 power amp. It was a pretty great sounding rig.
I had the distinct honor of being one of Alex Skolnick’s worst students in the late 90s, lol. Dude is an absolutely great guy and an excellent teacher.
this was my unit of choice in the 90s. i had a really nice 77 marshall jmp and had it modified with an effects loop. this unit sounded great i used to get tons of complements.
The 1st rig I ever owned! Had to do a fair amount of eq-ing to make it endearing I remember. Some clean presets were pretty cool as well... Green Rain!
I honestly really like the plasticy tone of these old preamps. They have their own thing going on, and it’s a thing....whether it bad or good...it’s a thing. That’s cool! I used to drool over all these as a youngster back in the 90’s.
Yup...I agree. The only problem with these all-in-one units was that if you didn’t know how to create your patches with proper gain and EQ.....you would absolutely disappear in a live mix and I saw COUNTLESS guitar players setup sweet patches that sounded great by themselves, but were gone once everybody else in the band came in. In order to sound good with a band, you had to almost intentionally create a “bad” tone for it to work. That’s when people started to attack these units as “fake” or “artificial” sounding. Trying to convince a 19 yr old kid to NOT drench their patches in long delays and reverbs readily available in the same box was next to impossible. These units shine when used separately with say a Tube preamp for generating your base tone with gain/EQ.....then another unit for FX...etc. That’s why so many pro players had these monster racks. Each unit had their own job. That eventually reached absurd proportions and ushered in the ‘grunge’ model of guitar....couple pedals....amp.
Aww man, me too. Thing is the old Digitech stuff is quite cheap but is starting to rise, I own a couple of 21s & managed to get hold of a Twin Tubes with controller which is their answer to the MP-1.
Used this thing all through the nineties, pedalboard made it so useful too. either 10 patches or 5 where you could turn individual pedals on and off. I made my own patches. I played it straight into the system and used the club monitors
Sounded good to me i thought that many presets sounded pretty good!For a unit almost 30 years old it still sounds better then some of the cheaper guitar processors out there now!I am surprised you thought it did not sound that good?
This was my first MFX rack unit. With pedalboard and all. I was stoked buying it. It was my first experience in realizing being a good player far out weighs a bunch of processing. I was smiling as you were realizing all the presets were jacked with reverb, etc. I did get some cool stuff once tweaked. Still it was much better direct then straight into an amp. No fancy reactive load boxes and IR’s back in 91’. Brings back memories.
I had one of those way back then. It was one of those pieces that you bought along your journey for tone. At the time, us poor working musicians loved that kinda stuff. These kids today don't have any idea how bad it was back in our day when something like this sounded phenomenal. But, we were spoiled compared to Hendrix and the like.
Cool, had one of these for a hot minute. Sold it to my vocalist. He would use it live with the foot switch for vocal effects. Loved hearing Highland Wedding and Tumeni Notes!
They made another preamp around that time to complete with the ADA. It was the GFX1 Twin Tube. Definitely had a more ballsy distortion that’s to the two 12ax7 tubes. Would love to see you find one and review it,
@@Easy_Skanking I upgraded mine to the Artist software when that came out & added the second S-Disc. Huge improvement. And yes, I really liked the integration of the analog tube pre with the powerful digital section. I got out of rack gear when modeling came in and those tube/digital hybrids went extinct.
@@draelyc That second S-Disc was really cool in how it did gapless switching. Using the control one foot pedal was fun in doing a continuous sweep between my crunchy tone and a shimmering delayed clean. It was a great piece of gear that really let you go deep with programming. I had so many compliments on the tones I got out of it.
oh now, you just time warped me back to the early 90's when I had this unit.......at that time, I must admit, it was a godsend to me and I loved it. Like others said, it was not plug and play to me on dirty sounds, had to eq a lot. but usually could dial in some good stuff. could get really good clean stuff pretty easily. nice to hear it again.
It is part of the whole pedal platform thing. You can take any distortion pedal and use it as a preamp; i.e. plug directly into the FX return and skip the amp's preamp and it sounds great. Everyone realized this so we got the Rockman(Boston, Def Lep), ADA MP1, even the JCM900 was solid state; All the GSP Digitech, the Rocktron VooDoo stuff; all with tubes that did nothing more than light up. None of them had tube tone, they were all solid state, and they sounded great because... SPEAKERS! Those magical filters that take the shitty tone you have and make it sound serviceable. Then Vintage 30s came around and it could polish any turd :) WOOHOO!!!
Oh man, I remember getting one of these guys years ago. I found someone who was selling an old 4x12 with the Blackbacks, a JCM 800, a Valvestate 8008, and this. I didn't have the money for the JCM, but I grabbed up the others and used to use that little combo very briefly. Taught me some nice applications of using a compressor and graphic EQ. Kind of want to get one for the nostalgia now, lol
Hey, i still got that, i run my Hughes&Kettner Triamp with GSP's pedalboard, so it change the channels of Triamp 😀 But i haven't used the preamp section, like never. Only delay, reverbs and choruses.
Man, I wanted a GSP 21 sooooooo bad back in the day. I'd get the Musician's Friend catalog and just freaking drool. Lol. Great video and it sounds better than I thought it would. \,,/
I’ve been sober for 30 years now, but back in the day I absolutely loved getting high or eating mushrooms and playing with my gsp 21 pro. Haven’t actually plugged that thing in decades, but I still have it, and I bet it would be super nostalgic strolling through memory lane with it🤘
You are the master! I cant believe you made the GSP21 sound good! I had two and both had crashes resulting in months of patch tweaking lost. Would never buy a third. Mine always sounded like wasps in a jam jar. Went to a JMP1 after that and a cheap Alesis for modulated effects and never looked back.
I've been using a GSP 21 Pro (recently upgraded it to Legend a few weeks ago) since the early 90's. Luke Lead has been my go-to patch (with some adjustments)! I've always liked that one.
Bro! Same sites here! I had a crate and the money we earned playing gigs bought band members upgraded equipment. I got this one to run thru my Crate amp. Had to get emg s on my Strat to avoid all the buzz. I used only like 3 patches that I made myself. Hated the drop in sound when going from my rythm to solo sound. Fun memories!
@@TeleCarlitos I only remember playing it briefly at the music store. Seems I remember Tim Kelly from slaughter talking about using it so I liked it. Trying to think of the other ones that were steering me to it. Crazy how far gear has come now
Haha...every high school guitarist in America through like 94. A tiny bit more got you the Ampeg Ss70 or vh140C series or the Randalls. Remember how amazing the first Zoom was at the time? Richie Sambora recorded an album chock full of it.
Nice demo. I'm into 80s rock/hair metal and was thinking about picking one of these up on the used market. I wonder, can they be DI'd into the PA and to an FRFR speaker? Or do I need a separate power amp and guitar cab?
Had one back in the very early 90's and used it through a Dean Markley combo in our rehersal studio, sounded really great in that combination, at least as far as I remember. :)
Used this for years during the 90's live with a MosValve FET amp into a 1960A cab .... it sounded great and was 100% reliable. Great video and takes me back for sure.
I had the gsp 7 and used it for several years with a tube power amp. After sitting in the corner for years I sold it to fund buying pedals. I’ve enjoyed your videos going through the old rack gear.
I live gig every weekend using a 2101 and the amount of modern day guitar players who hear my patches and say they are get blown away with the leads tones is surprising.
Im literally looking at an ad in a 1990 guitar player, so I go to search for the GSP 21 pro…and of course my favorite rack man did it. Nailin’ it mike.
I had a GSP 21 Legend with a GSP 5 running through the 21s effects loop. They were midi together so they both changed patches when I hit the pedal board. I was playing in an originals band that was a cross between Queensrÿche and Dream Theater. I had these units running through a Marshall solid state hooked up to a Peavy Scorpion 12inch for one side of the stereo and a Crate GX15 for the other. It was a ghetto setup but you should have seen all the other guitarists that were pointing and making fun of it jaws hit the floor when I started playing. I was blowing away guys with full stacks. You just had to take the time to dial in the sound. Once you got it to the sweet spot they were amazing units. I couldn't afford a good amp after spending nearly a grand on the Gsp 21 and 500 on the Gsp 5 but I used them to their fullest. Still have them in there SKB case buried in the garage somewhere.
Ive got a 2:90 myself. Ive gotta say... it can bring blooming life to any pedalboard, processor or pre amp front end to life, especially when used to it's fullest in stereo, tri axis with two cabs. Knock it down to half power, turn it up to about 1 o'clock, adjust front end output into it nicely and WAM!!!! The way it makes the cabs resonate and the guitar feel nice n loose, whew....silky. Full power at 180 watts of rip your face off is just something else out of this world.
I had one of these. Ran a four cable setup into a mesa 50 caliber. This was competitively priced when it came out. Had the foot controller. Got the job done. Never liked the DS OD sounds. That's what the caliber was for Used a fender for clean. Used to use the time based effects. It was easy to take on the road. Spent a lot of time travelling back then.
Wow I got one of these when they came out.... ran it though a power amp stereo into two altec lansing A7 Theatre speakers my dad had brought home (he worked for famous players before it was bought by ciniplex ) . It was insane and definately not mobile ! That trademark "chainsaw" distortion brought back some memories...
First rack piece I ever owned around 1990. I had to tweak the shit outta it, eq's, dampen alot of the presets, as they were really wet. Ended up buying a separate preamp and shutting down the GSP-21 preamp. Played it for years. Reliable piece of gear. I think I ended up leaving it at a friends and never went back for it... Horrible gain structure too btw...almost all the presets were at different volumes and a real pain to dial in correctly. Sound guys hated me!
I had one I bought back in 91. Used it as a preamp into a Peavey Deuce for power and speakers. Was able to get some decent tones at one point... but definitely don’t miss it!
This was my very first multi-effects. We didn't have ir's back then, so it never sounded that good DI'd. Moved on to a ROLAND GP-100, which served me well for a few years, sometimes alongside a Marshall JMP-1. I retired both the GP-100 and JMP-1 from my live rig in 2017.
This was my only "amp" throughout a lot of playing out in the early 90's, through a pair of powered speaker cabinets. It was simple and light and got the job done. I'd buy another one just for the nostalgia.
It is true it was laborious to program. So I made a panel to program the GP21 legend through cakewalk. Here is the link for a Free copy of that panel. th-cam.com/video/6kVhPhc4Udk/w-d-xo.html
Your reaction to the Tim Kelly patches I feel is pretty representative of their tones on the albums. Not so good! But I still dig a good chunk of the songs vs their peers.
Ohhhhh I do have it,,,, I do have it.!!! That and the GSP5... they've been unused for more than 20 years. I could never get a good tone out of it. I hate the fact that you can get a great tone out of a shoe box!!!!! I guess I'll have to dig it out and give it a try now.
I have an old Digitech IPS 33B Harmonizer and some of these presets are reminiscent of that unit (Chorus/Leslie). I think they were released around the same time.
I used to have a DigiTech gsp 7 or something, I also have a sgx 2000 express. I've had a lot of floor processors too. They all have really wet fx because their ment to be played in a mix. Once the drums and bass come in, the fx aren't so wet
So to clarify: the distortion/gain is purely from this unit? And it’s digitally created distortion? If so I’m definitely impressed considering the age of this unit
Hey Michael, the Digitech GFX -1 Twin Tube was like this one but with 12ax7 tubes in it. It definitely had more balls. I had both. I still have the Twin Tube, in a box somewhere. I also have an ART DrX 2100 that was awesome for fx. I had it in my rack with my ADA MP1. Let me know if you’d like check these babies out.
Is there or are there any plans to get this in a plug-in form? I would buy it in a second if there were, that highly processed 80's chorusey stereo stuff us is right up my alley.
"The Abyss" patch was pretty sick for more ambient soundscape type sounds. This unit was my first foray into effects beyond distortion, wah, and chorus. The multi-tap delays were some of my favorite aspects of that unit, until the power supply burned out on it. Add to the fact that it was the only rack unit (at that time) to actually come with its own footswitch. This was also where they branched into the floor based R.P. series.
@@brettmarlar4154 Hey Brett, yeah we would come back from the first set and use that swirling crazy wacky sound to catch everyone’s ear then launch into symphony of destruction.
this is the first rack pre-amp processor i ever owned. i ran it into a Marshall Valvestate rack power amp (80w/chl) great single space power amp. and a 4x12 cab wired for stereo. the competition at the time i bought it was the Alesis Quadraverb GT and some other Digitech variants but the GSP21 Pro/Legend won me over and was a solid performer. on a side note, Jeff Beck used a GSP21 on the Guitar Shop album straight into the board.
I used the gsp 21 with a rocktron pro gap......oh the late eighties and nineties, cool racks, cool music and the best guitarguys like Vai, Bratta, Gilbert, Eddie and so many more on the road. Def the best time for guitar....
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I finally broke down and purchased this unit yesterday on Reverb for $145. I purchased it back 30 years ago when it was new. A bit of nostalgia.
I bought one of these and an ibanez rg550 together in 1991 still have them both😁
Had rg550 then also. Got a Mitchell MD 200 now that I love. Rack processors have TOO much presets but the tones were not to bad.
Ibanez RG 470, digitech gsp 21 legend and ada MP1
Do you have the parameters for the captain crunch preset? Been trying to recreate it?
Righton! I got my rg550 in 91 but could never afford that rack. Sigh... man i loved that rack
That was every young shredders dream rig back then, but a few years ahead of me, I got a 95 RG 550 LTD but had to settle for a Zoom 1010 and a Marshall split fifty reverb 2x12 because it kinda looked like my uncle’s JCM800, it broke my 14 year old heart when he didn’t think my Marshall was cool.
These were all the rage when they came out. I think these really are great for getting that highly processed, chorusey 80s power ballad clean tone.
My favorite was the digitech valvefx itdid. Everything I could possibly want it to do, unfortunately after 30yrs it stopped performing now I want one that performs the same way or someone to fixit could you please help me either way please.
Hey Brad. Yeah I worked all through the summer of '92 to earn the 600 bucks to get one. I was 16 and it sounded amazing. The tone was actually crap but effects were great. Would have loved to have the Legend EPROM back then. I remember the high gain sounds were particularly awful and there was a noticeable rush of noise when the gate was tripped. Great stuff though. Thanks for the memories. Love my Helix these days.
Love that tone. Lol. I'm thinking about picking one up off Facebook marketplace now!
Worst mistake I made back in the 80's was trading my JCM 800 for the endless pursuit of the over processed "tube like sounds" of rack filled preamp goodness lol. "That's so uninspiring pretty much sums up most of my experiences with them lol. They did have their place though. Thanks for the memories 🤘🤘🤘
same here...sold my Marshall 6101 for the Digitech GSP2010 (despite the two 12ax7), plus a Rocktron Velocity. Ok for the 80s tone, very good delays and reverbs, but forget about edge of break-up tones. Still regret up to now. And these things were awfully expensive and lost so much value
@@andreaferrero6533 Oh yeah forget about rolling back the guitar volume to get any kind of dynamic "tube" response. I tried rack gear one last time with the GSP1101 with a tube power amp. Some of the sounds were decent but the feel was very sterile and unresponsive.
I was at a time where I thought I build a chaos rack system ! Then the nightmare gig happened ! Large night club where a Fxxxxking part of the rack rig just started having issues ! Complete chaos 🖐️🖐️🖐️ ! Not good !! Ended up acoustic that was said went fine ! I was Sooooo embarrassed with band mates and entire club watching in making comments while I'd chased down the issue !! Went back to amp head and never looked back !!
I think the Digitech GSP21 Pro sounds way better than the JMP-1. Maybe it's not as organic, but for big 80s rock tones, the Digitech smokes the JMP-1 any day of the week!
I swear if people did blind hearing tests with a variety of units from the 80s,90s,00s, and now I am sure that the results would be a complete mixed bag with great stuff from every decade.
We all are guilty of hearing with our eyes to a significant degree.
Agree totally. Picked up one of these GSP's with the Legend chip around 10 years ago for ~$120 Aud. A POS, but there a few good tones in there. It does the late 80's/early 90's thing with a bit of work.
totally. Just not looking, I am thinking this thing might be pretty good for 80s Satch stuff.
Really vallad point. Just like an old jazz album no eq left rite or center was the only option along with only one reverb tank. I'm still using the boss se70 i bought instead of the 21 back in 93. After a decent compressor and blended with its parrerell mixer mx10 i have 4 more stereo busses for newer stuff. Some day I'll get a axfx but I'm still impressed! Cool find that brings me back in the day I was just thinking about!
I think my issue with most 90's rack gear is it sounds good... not great but good. The 80s stuff is bad in a good way and the 90s stuff is good in a bad way. #science
I second that #science
I don’t disagree. But, for certain music back then, that good but not great was quite good enough! I love pure tone but I enjoy a lot of the 80’s new wave etc out there guitar sounds. Just a tool in the end.
With the exception of the Boogie stuff, this
Wtf 😂
👍🇺🇲❤true, that's why my rig system is old school & new school....best distortion tone / feel.... I ever played / heard. It only took me over 30 years laboring / testing (many tricks involved) I've learned & discovered along the way😁
I used to have one of these! It was my main source of chorus & delay at the time, used it with a JMP-1 & a Marshall el-34 power amp. It was a pretty great sounding rig.
I had the distinct honor of being one of Alex Skolnick’s worst students in the late 90s, lol. Dude is an absolutely great guy and an excellent teacher.
Wow 😲
Alex does RAP music
I remember bagging a shitload of groceries, back in the 90s $660 to buy this,16 yr old kid then
Cheers from Michigan
Same, but I painted fences, mowed yards, and shoveled horse manure. I appreciated it like crazy when I got it though😄
this was my unit of choice in the 90s. i had a really nice 77 marshall jmp and had it modified with an effects loop. this unit sounded great i used to get tons of complements.
The 1st rig I ever owned! Had to do a fair amount of eq-ing to make it endearing I remember. Some clean presets were pretty cool as well... Green Rain!
Fun fact: Michael Lee Firkins' excellent, actually amazing, debut album was recorded with this.
Did not know that! Loved his guitar playing in that album. Interesting sounds and superb playing!
WHAT! Seriously!?! Coooool
I've always said great players can make soso gear sound amazing...its in the hands
If so thats' great.Could you point out to reference for information?
Just checked that guy out, pretty sweet. How do you know that?
The delay on that Lynch preset is pretty sweet! Plus 100000 for playing Tumeni Notes too.
Thanks. I've been working on that piece for..uhhhhh 30 years. Still working on it. hahah
@@BigHairyGuitars Highland wedding sounded awesome even with slackness.Morse-wonder.
I honestly really like the plasticy tone of these old preamps. They have their own thing going on, and it’s a thing....whether it bad or good...it’s a thing. That’s cool! I used to drool over all these as a youngster back in the 90’s.
Agreed! Love the early 80’s police, til Tuesday sounds! There is a place for those digital sounds!
Yup...I agree. The only problem with these all-in-one units was that if you didn’t know how to create your patches with proper gain and EQ.....you would absolutely disappear in a live mix and I saw COUNTLESS guitar players setup sweet patches that sounded great by themselves, but were gone once everybody else in the band came in. In order to sound good with a band, you had to almost intentionally create a “bad” tone for it to work. That’s when people started to attack these units as “fake” or “artificial” sounding. Trying to convince a 19 yr old kid to NOT drench their patches in long delays and reverbs readily available in the same box was next to impossible. These units shine when used separately with say a Tube preamp for generating your base tone with gain/EQ.....then another unit for FX...etc. That’s why so many pro players had these monster racks. Each unit had their own job. That eventually reached absurd proportions and ushered in the ‘grunge’ model of guitar....couple pedals....amp.
Aww man, me too. Thing is the old Digitech stuff is quite cheap but is starting to rise, I own a couple of 21s & managed to get hold of a Twin Tubes with controller which is their answer to the MP-1.
Sounds way better in your hands than it ever did in mine!
Damn, brings back memories. Was working at guitar center when this was in. Could not afford it then but I did get a DigiTech rp 50 years later.
Only took you 50 years to get it
Used this thing all through the nineties, pedalboard made it so useful too. either 10 patches or 5 where you could turn individual pedals on and off. I made my own patches. I played it straight into the system and used the club monitors
Sounded good to me i thought that many presets sounded pretty good!For a unit almost 30 years old it still sounds better then some of the cheaper guitar processors out there now!I am surprised you thought it did not sound that good?
Digging the clean tones on this unit for authentic 80’s early 90’s hair metal
This was my first MFX rack unit. With pedalboard and all. I was stoked buying it. It was my first experience in realizing being a good player far out weighs a bunch of processing. I was smiling as you were realizing all the presets were jacked with reverb, etc. I did get some cool stuff once tweaked. Still it was much better direct then straight into an amp. No fancy reactive load boxes and IR’s back in 91’. Brings back memories.
I had one of those way back then. It was one of those pieces that you bought along your journey for tone. At the time, us poor working musicians loved that kinda stuff. These kids today don't have any idea how bad it was back in our day when something like this sounded phenomenal. But, we were spoiled compared to Hendrix and the like.
This video brings back so many great memories. I used to own one of these. Wish I still had it! Thanks for making this video :)
Cool, had one of these for a hot minute. Sold it to my vocalist. He would use it live with the foot switch for vocal effects. Loved hearing Highland Wedding and Tumeni Notes!
They made another preamp around that time to complete with the ADA. It was the GFX1 Twin Tube. Definitely had a more ballsy distortion that’s to the two 12ax7 tubes. Would love to see you find one and review it,
I had a rig for many years that was based around a later Digitech unit - the GSP 2101. I’d LOVE to hear you put that preamp through its paces here!
I had the 2101 Artist. In my rig then, I had it sounding completely amazing. Having actual tubes in the preamp made any sound possible.
@@Easy_Skanking I upgraded mine to the Artist software when that came out & added the second S-Disc. Huge improvement. And yes, I really liked the integration of the analog tube pre with the powerful digital section. I got out of rack gear when modeling came in and those tube/digital hybrids went extinct.
@@draelyc That second S-Disc was really cool in how it did gapless switching. Using the control one foot pedal was fun in doing a continuous sweep between my crunchy tone and a shimmering delayed clean. It was a great piece of gear that really let you go deep with programming. I had so many compliments on the tones I got out of it.
The Luke and George Lynch lead patches were quite good! Might snag one for the home studio 🤘 Great playing as always!
I loved mine. It was stolen about 9 years ago and I miss it so much.
oh now, you just time warped me back to the early 90's when I had this unit.......at that time, I must admit, it was a godsend to me and I loved it. Like others said, it was not plug and play to me on dirty sounds, had to eq a lot. but usually could dial in some good stuff. could get really good clean stuff pretty easily. nice to hear it again.
It is part of the whole pedal platform thing. You can take any distortion pedal and use it as a preamp; i.e. plug directly into the FX return and skip the amp's preamp and it sounds great.
Everyone realized this so we got the Rockman(Boston, Def Lep), ADA MP1, even the JCM900 was solid state; All the GSP Digitech, the Rocktron VooDoo stuff; all with tubes that did nothing more than light up. None of them had tube tone, they were all solid state, and they sounded great because... SPEAKERS! Those magical filters that take the shitty tone you have and make it sound serviceable. Then Vintage 30s came around and it could polish any turd :) WOOHOO!!!
Oh man, I remember getting one of these guys years ago. I found someone who was selling an old 4x12 with the Blackbacks, a JCM 800, a Valvestate 8008, and this. I didn't have the money for the JCM, but I grabbed up the others and used to use that little combo very briefly. Taught me some nice applications of using a compressor and graphic EQ. Kind of want to get one for the nostalgia now, lol
Hey, i still got that, i run my Hughes&Kettner Triamp with GSP's pedalboard, so it change the channels of Triamp 😀
But i haven't used the preamp section, like never.
Only delay, reverbs and choruses.
bought one when i got outta college in '92...was an awesome piece of gear!!!
Love these videos. I had the RP21? I have a GSPfloor unit as well, cool to visit the past. Merry Christmas.
Man, I wanted a GSP 21 sooooooo bad back in the day. I'd get the Musician's Friend catalog and just freaking drool. Lol. Great video and it sounds better than I thought it would. \,,/
do you remember how much they originally cost when first released?
Power of video. I immediately hit ebay and snagged an eprom for mine. I did feel the live rig with the VHT cab sounded much better than the virtual
Was an awesome unit back n the day, just awesome.
I’ve been sober for 30 years now, but back in the day I absolutely loved getting high or eating mushrooms and playing with my gsp 21 pro. Haven’t actually plugged that thing in decades, but I still have it, and I bet it would be super nostalgic strolling through memory lane with it🤘
HAHA! What a great story! Glad you're doing well!
You are the master! I cant believe you made the GSP21 sound good! I had two and both had crashes resulting in months of patch tweaking lost. Would never buy a third. Mine always sounded like wasps in a jam jar. Went to a JMP1 after that and a cheap Alesis for modulated effects and never looked back.
I sure miss mine, they pop up once and awhile. Just didn't like the latency when switching presets. But I'll pick one up one of these days.
Love these videos. Would love to see you demo a Digitech GSP 1101.
We tested that with jcm 900 distortion in the amp and it sounded the same. I love me that preamp because you can change effect order
The Steve Morse patches and your playing on these shows us your respect for the man!
Awesome video brother. I bought one of these babies from a friend back in the early 90s. I still have it.
I've been using a GSP 21 Pro (recently upgraded it to Legend a few weeks ago) since the early 90's. Luke Lead has been my go-to patch (with some adjustments)! I've always liked that one.
Loving the 80s trip videos Michael!
I wanted this soooo bad when it came out...I was so poor as a kid so had to stick with the charvel/crate combo lol. G40C!!!!
Bro! Same sites here! I had a crate and the money we earned playing gigs bought band members upgraded equipment. I got this one to run thru my Crate amp. Had to get emg s on my Strat to avoid all the buzz. I used only like 3 patches that I made myself. Hated the drop in sound when going from my rythm to solo sound. Fun memories!
@@TeleCarlitos I only remember playing it briefly at the music store. Seems I remember Tim Kelly from slaughter talking about using it so I liked it. Trying to think of the other ones that were steering me to it. Crazy how far gear has come now
GT-80 Quadradrive here.
Haha...every high school guitarist in America through like 94. A tiny bit more got you the Ampeg Ss70 or vh140C series or the Randalls.
Remember how amazing the first Zoom was at the time? Richie Sambora recorded an album chock full of it.
@@Davlinitos oh the zoom lol. Had one of those...well, the little cheap one with two buttons. I can’t remember the model.
I just picked up an RP21D the other day for $50. Take a me back to my youth. Wish it was as easy to update these things as newer processors .
Nice demo. I'm into 80s rock/hair metal and was thinking about picking one of these up on the used market. I wonder, can they be DI'd into the PA and to an FRFR speaker? Or do I need a separate power amp and guitar cab?
These are awesome. They have speaker simulation, so a PA or FRFR is fine. BUT, you can also run it into a power amp and traditional cab if you prefer.
Oh boy I miss my digitech valve fx, it was my first preamp/rack gear.
Had one back in the very early 90's and used it through a Dean Markley combo in our rehersal studio, sounded really great in that combination, at least as far as I remember. :)
Used this for years during the 90's live with a MosValve FET amp into a 1960A cab .... it sounded great and was 100% reliable. Great video and takes me back for sure.
I had the gsp 7 and used it for several years with a tube power amp. After sitting in the corner for years I sold it to fund buying pedals. I’ve enjoyed your videos going through the old rack gear.
I still use and love my Digitech 2101 over the GSP21. The 2101 just kills it.
I live gig every weekend using a 2101 and the amount of modern day guitar players who hear my patches and say they are get blown away with the leads tones is surprising.
Great video!! Many memories of that rack mount... Excellent playing!!
Huh, sounds pretty dang good! And kudos on the Steve Morse licks!
Great video, saw these all over back in the day. (And that orange guitar… so nice!)
Im literally looking at an ad in a 1990 guitar player, so I go to search for the GSP 21 pro…and of course my favorite rack man did it. Nailin’ it mike.
Ok you really need to do some comparisons with this and a 2101 Artist, which was the AxeFX of its day.
My guitar teacher had the ART SGX2000 and it blew my GSP 21 away!
I had a GSP 21 Legend with a GSP 5 running through the 21s effects loop. They were midi together so they both changed patches when I hit the pedal board. I was playing in an originals band that was a cross between Queensrÿche and Dream Theater. I had these units running through a Marshall solid state hooked up to a Peavy Scorpion 12inch for one side of the stereo and a Crate GX15 for the other. It was a ghetto setup but you should have seen all the other guitarists that were pointing and making fun of it jaws hit the floor when I started playing. I was blowing away guys with full stacks. You just had to take the time to dial in the sound. Once you got it to the sweet spot they were amazing units. I couldn't afford a good amp after spending nearly a grand on the Gsp 21 and 500 on the Gsp 5 but I used them to their fullest. Still have them in there SKB case buried in the garage somewhere.
Isn't it shocking how we can still get EPROM with software for this kind of unit in 2020? I wonder for how long this stuff will still be out there.
If I could find the ART SGX2000 to SGX2000 Express chip, it would be aces!
Ive got a 2:90 myself. Ive gotta say... it can bring blooming life to any pedalboard, processor or pre amp front end to life, especially when used to it's fullest in stereo, tri axis with two cabs. Knock it down to half power, turn it up to about 1 o'clock, adjust front end output into it nicely and WAM!!!! The way it makes the cabs resonate and the guitar feel nice n loose, whew....silky. Full power at 180 watts of rip your face off is just something else out of this world.
still think i have the RP 1 somewhere in the loft, think i'll go dig that out for some old skool sound.
The blasted pre amp section in that. But Those patches though. Back when I remember when slauyer opened up for fire hose.
I had one of these. Ran a four cable setup into a mesa 50 caliber. This was competitively priced when it came out. Had the foot controller. Got the job done. Never liked the DS OD sounds. That's what the caliber was for Used a fender for clean. Used to use the time based effects. It was easy to take on the road. Spent a lot of time travelling back then.
Wow I got one of these when they came out.... ran it though a power amp stereo into two altec lansing A7 Theatre speakers my dad had brought home (he worked for famous players before it was bought by ciniplex ) . It was insane and definately not mobile ! That trademark "chainsaw" distortion brought back some memories...
I had one! Had a Legend II as well. They were great as a kid and a set of headphones!
Is my favorite procesor, is my sound. Thanks for the video.
I had one of the floor Digitech units with the paddle footswitches, fizz city, oddly the best "model" in it was the JCM900.
👌 awesome...I was a proud owner of a gsp 7 back in the day. Ohvey lol.
First rack piece I ever owned around 1990. I had to tweak the shit outta it, eq's, dampen alot of the presets, as they were really wet. Ended up buying a separate preamp and shutting down the GSP-21 preamp. Played it for years. Reliable piece of gear. I think I ended up leaving it at a friends and never went back for it... Horrible gain structure too btw...almost all the presets were at different volumes and a real pain to dial in correctly. Sound guys hated me!
I had low end version the Valve FX. It seemed okay for the time. How things have changed.
I had one I bought back in 91. Used it as a preamp into a Peavey Deuce for power and speakers. Was able to get some decent tones at one point... but definitely don’t miss it!
I love my Digitech GSP 21! I bought one of eBay for $25 and another for $65. And my Pro has all the pro presets!
I've used one in the 90s to "guitarify" my Roland D-10 rockleads. Well mixed in and taking care of bend playing it works magic.
This was my very first multi-effects. We didn't have ir's back then, so it never sounded that good DI'd. Moved on to a ROLAND GP-100, which served me well for a few years, sometimes alongside a Marshall JMP-1. I retired both the GP-100 and JMP-1 from my live rig in 2017.
Reminds me a little bit to the digitech rp7 I had back then..I dont miss it.
This one sounds better.. but similar at the same time.
Great video I remember this I used to hang out in guitar center all day play all the rack gear..
This was my only "amp" throughout a lot of playing out in the early 90's, through a pair of powered speaker cabinets. It was simple and light and got the job done. I'd buy another one just for the nostalgia.
great piece of history a review of the rocktron voodoo valve would be amazing!! its by far the most famous old school rack gear
Don't forget the Pro G.A.P. :-p
@@GabiGolescu132 every piece of gear racktron made is history :)
That Factory Preset sounded like Black Hole Sun.
Hey love your vids ! Great how you present the gear from 80ties and 90ties in your last vids ! Keep on the good work !
I had one! Served me well but I’m sure it was all I could afford. Not the most easy to use. Went back to amp and pedals when I could.
It is true it was laborious to program. So I made a panel to program the GP21 legend through cakewalk. Here is the link for a Free copy of that panel. th-cam.com/video/6kVhPhc4Udk/w-d-xo.html
Your reaction to the Tim Kelly patches I feel is pretty representative of their tones on the albums. Not so good! But I still dig a good chunk of the songs vs their peers.
Ohhhhh I do have it,,,, I do have it.!!! That and the GSP5... they've been unused for more than 20 years. I could never get a good tone out of it. I hate the fact that you can get a great tone out of a shoe box!!!!! I guess I'll have to dig it out and give it a try now.
The Overdrives are pretty damn good!
I'm loving this series. Keep it up.
When are you going to do the Sansamp PSA1.
And the Kitty Hawk preamp please.
Gotta find a cheap one
I have an old Digitech IPS 33B Harmonizer and some of these presets are reminiscent of that unit (Chorus/Leslie). I think they were released around the same time.
I used to have a DigiTech gsp 7 or something, I also have a sgx 2000 express. I've had a lot of floor processors too. They all have really wet fx because their ment to be played in a mix. Once the drums and bass come in, the fx aren't so wet
So to clarify: the distortion/gain is purely from this unit? And it’s digitally created distortion? If so I’m definitely impressed considering the age of this unit
Yep. That Luke Lead sound has been a distortion I've used off and on for almost 30 years.
Sounded wayyyyyy better, miked up, through the cabinet 🤘
Hey Michael, the Digitech GFX -1 Twin Tube was like this one but with 12ax7 tubes in it. It definitely had more balls. I had both. I still have the Twin Tube, in a box somewhere. I also have an ART DrX 2100 that was awesome for fx. I had it in my rack with my ADA MP1. Let me know if you’d like check these babies out.
Is there or are there any plans to get this in a plug-in form? I would buy it in a second if there were, that highly processed 80's chorusey stereo stuff us is right up my alley.
You can get one for about $150 on reverb or eBay
I did a Jeff Beck record, and he had one, plugged into the board, and it was " preset one .... too much verb, preset two... yep, lets go".
Since 1994 I have the Legend one. Battery hack, new LCD and V 2.30 too. Greetings from Brasil.
"The Abyss" patch was pretty sick for more ambient soundscape type sounds.
This unit was my first foray into effects beyond distortion, wah, and chorus. The multi-tap delays were some of my favorite aspects of that unit, until the power supply burned out on it. Add to the fact that it was the only rack unit (at that time) to actually come with its own footswitch. This was also where they branched into the floor based R.P. series.
Hey i used to use the abyss patch as in intro to symphony of destruction. Still have mine
Wow, I remember that patch.... too funny.
@@dangreving1094 I used that patch to cover the live version of Ministry's "So What".
@@brettmarlar4154 Hey Brett, yeah we would come back from the first set and use that swirling crazy wacky sound to catch everyone’s ear then launch into symphony of destruction.
Damn, this guy is doing his mid-life wildlife RIGHT.
The killer toys we couldn’t afford in the late ‘80s! 👏
Back in the day they were great to get a decent bedroom volume.
This was the first serious piece of guitar gear I bought. I used it as a fx unit so I used 4 cable method and not as a preamp.
this is the first rack pre-amp processor i ever owned. i ran it into a Marshall Valvestate rack power amp (80w/chl) great single space power amp. and a 4x12 cab wired for stereo. the competition at the time i bought it was the Alesis Quadraverb GT and some other Digitech variants but the GSP21 Pro/Legend won me over and was a solid performer. on a side note, Jeff Beck used a GSP21 on the Guitar Shop album straight into the board.
no kidding! I just registered to Guitar Shop last week.
I used the gsp 21 with a rocktron pro gap......oh the late eighties and nineties, cool racks, cool music and the best guitarguys like Vai, Bratta, Gilbert, Eddie and so many more on the road. Def the best time for guitar....
This preamp was used by Bruce Kulick of Kiss, I remember the ad in my guitar magazine back in the ‘80’s.