Digitech 2120 Users - Opinions Wanted

[MVG]

Anybody out there ever use the 2120? I looked at one about four years ago but didn't bite. Tons of FX. MIDI. Heard raves about them at the time. What put me off was the price - about $800 as I recall.

Well, now Digitech doesn't make 'em anymore and they're going for a couple hundred bucks on EvilBay.

Are they good? Are they bad? Any and all opinions greatly appreciated.

[Dan Desy]

As far as I recall, they were pretty nice. I believe they have an actual tube preamp, correct? Kind of like an ADA MP1 - way more effects and programs.I'd give it a thumbs up, given my extremely limited experience with it.

[J Silva]

The closest that I've played to it was a Johnson JM-150. I know there are some difference but for the most part their the same animal, just the JM-150 adds an amp and combo cab. It was complicated to use at first but once you got used to it, it wasn't so bad. It was great and I regret selling it.

[Dan Desy]

Do the Digitech and Johnson really use the same engine? That's news to me. I didn't know there was any connection. Similar, but not the same.

[MVG]

Thanks guys. Yer right Dan, it does have an actual tube pre-amp. One concern I have is the learning curve. The thing allows for creation of your own patches and is seriously programable, kind of like a poor man's Eventide. I've always been a stomp box guy so I worry about being overwhelmed by the intricacies of the unit. Maybe I'll stick with pedals...

[Dan Desy]

Thanks guys. Yer right Dan, it does have an actual tube pre-amp. One concern I have is the learning curve. The thing allows for creation of your own patches and is seriously programable, kind of like a poor man's Eventide. I've always been a stomp box guy so I worry about being overwhelmed by the intricacies of the unit. Maybe I'll stick with pedals...
Mark, the thing is you need to spend some time with it. But once you find a sound you like, you store it and use it. You don't have to do it all before you can actually use it, though. That's something that can get accomplished over months of use. All you need to get you off and running are a couple of good programs.

Some thing with complicated amps, such as my Mark IV. There are many knobs and switches, but as long as I find something that sounds good to start, it was cool. Then I get in tweak mode, and attmept to make it sound *better* over time. It's not as voodoo as it seems.

Get a 2120. If you don't like it, you just sell it to me for, say, half the price ;)

Good luck!

[J Silva]

No I don't they share the exact same engine just similar. I also know that as for replacement parts, they share quite a few. The Johnson also has two preamp tubes like the 2120.

http://www.harmony-central.com/Events/SNAMM97/DigiTech/Johnson.html

[MickYoumans]

I have a 2120 and it is actually a pretty good processor. Fortunately, you can get other good processors like the T.C. G-Major and Boss GT-6 in the $400 - $500 price range these days which is considerably cheaper than the 2120 cost new. If you can get a 2120 for a good price I would recommend getting one. The one thing I really like about the 2120 is the fact that it does come with a pedal board controller but the unit itself is rack mounted. With the T.C. unit, it's rack mountable but you have to buy a MIDI floor controller separately. The Boss GT-6 (which I also have) is all in a floor unit which is agravating to make adjustments on since you have to stoop down to reach it. Unfortunately the documentation for the 2120 leaves a lot to be desired, but there are discussion groups available for the 2120 where you can pump up your 2120 knowledge base. If you get a 2120, shoot me an e-mail and I can send you some website links for 2120 related stuff. I still use my 2120 live because the way the pedal board is setup. It has 19 pages that can be toggled through where each page can be setup to access up to 10 patches/sounds or 5 patches with the ability to turn individual effects on/off. I use the 5 patch with effects on/off mode. For each song we play, I have the patches I use for that song programmed on a page and I've changed the title for the page that is displayed on the floorboard controller to be the song title. It is so easy to use live. This unit is a bit more complicated and not quite as straight forward to learn than other processors I've used. Once you get through the learning curve though, you can do some neat things with it. Like I said before, IF you can get it for the right price, it would be good to have in your arsenal. Good luck on your tone quest.

[Lerxt]

Mark,

I've been gigging with a 2120 for about a year now, and I love it! I upgraded from an older Digitech preamp because I wanted the tube preamp section, and it has made a HUGE difference in my tone. After about a year of experience with the 2120, here are the pros and cons that I've found:

PROS:
1. Excellent preamp section (tube or solid state distortion, compression, graphic EQ, noise gate, etc.).
2. Excellent digital effects (as with most Digitech units).
3. Excellent control, using the footcontroller. I mainly use just five basic tones: clean, dirty/clean (slight tube overdrive), classic crunch, heavy/modern crunch, and solo/lead. But on each of these patches, I can kick in reverb, chorus, delay, wah, or volume boost. I also have the pedal on the footcontroller set to control the gain on the tube distortion: for example, on my dirty/clean patch I can use the pedal to raise the gain from 25% to 40% for a little more crunch. Very cool! It would be hard for me to go back to a simpler setup and lose this level of control.
4. Incredible flexibility. With enough digging, you can program the 2120 to do almost anything you want. For example, I felt the "Solo" function actually gave me too much of a volume boost for leads, so I was able to program a button on the footcontroller to give me the exact level of boost that I wanted (from 80% to 100%).
5. Front panel knobs. Unlike most multi-effect units, the 2120 has some very useful control knobs right on the front panel: Output, Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, etc.

CONS:
1. Very steep learning curve. I am a computer programmer in "real life" :) so I didn't mind spending the time to learn the 2120, but it was probably 3-4 months before I felt like I had everything figured out.
2. Poor factory presets. Often true with multi-effect units, but especially true with the 2120. Among the few good ones to start with are "EVH '78" for crunch rhythm guitar and "Satch 3" for lead. For my clean tone, I actually started with "EVH '78" but changed it from Dirty Tube to Bright Clean Tube. Basically, I had to do a LOT of similar tweaking before I started getting tones I was really happy with.

The bottom line is, the 2120 gives you a great tube preamp section and excellent digital effects, and almost everything can be meticulously programmed and tweaked to get the exact tone your looking for. The footcontroller can give you incredible control over almost any parameter, making it a breeze to use the 2120 in a live setting (provided you've done your homework beforehand). You just need to be prepared to invest the time to learn the unit and spend a lot of time tweaking to get your tones happening.

Jim

P.S. Mick, can you post those 2120 web links in this thread? I'd be curious to check them out.

[MVG]

Excellent info. Thanks guys.

[MickYoumans]

P.S. Mick, can you post those 2120 web links in this thread? I'd be curious to check them out.Disclaimer: I haven't checked these links out recently. Some may not be current, but I have copied what I had in my favorites list. Hopefully some will still be active.

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley/8177/2120.html
http://www.mes.uni-linz.ac.at/staff/pfaff/guitar/2120spdif.html
http://www.digitech.com/products/productpgs/2120a.htm
http://www.synthzone.com/digitech.htm
http://www.egroups.com/group/2112-users
http://www.ianchilton.co.uk/
http://home.sprynet.com/~clpastor/gsp2112.html
http://bechtel.colorado.edu/~ashlock/
http://www.angelfire.com/music/2120/
http://pub34.ezboard.com/bthejohnsonampworld

Even though I really like my Digitech 2120, I have been considering selling it lately to have some money to put toward a T.C. Electronic G-Force. "MVG" if you (or anyone else) are interested, shoot me an e-mail and maybe we can work something out.

[mcarty1]

Anybody out there ever use the 2120? I looked at one about four years ago but didn't bite. Tons of FX. MIDI. Heard raves about them at the time. What put me off was the price - about $800 as I recall.

Well, now Digitech doesn't make 'em anymore and they're going for a couple hundred bucks on EvilBay.

Are they good? Are they bad? Any and all opinions greatly appreciated.
ummmm.....I think you have that confused. I looked on ebay and a couple hundred bucks seemed cheap to me, but all I found was these results:

http://search.ebay.com/digitech-2120_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQfromZR8


I noticed they did have one for $199.99, but it is still a few hours away and the serious bidders have not bid on it yet, but most want $500.00 to $600.00 with buy it now.


Now I did do a search on thne Digitech 2112 (Earlier version of the 2120) and came up with this:

http://search.ebay.com/digitech-2112_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQfromZR10QQcoaction ZcompareQQcopagenumZ1QQcoentrypageZsearch

Now they did have one with a buy it now of $225.00


But I don't really know if you can get a 2120 that cheap.....but I noticed that for 20 bucks they have an eprom chip that upgrades the 2112 to a 2120!