RP1000 owners: any reliability issues?

[Jaymz D.]

Hey dudes, I really wanna buy an RP1000, but.....I am a concerned it may glitch out or prematurely die like 3 out of 5 of the Digitech products I've owned. Anyone have any problems with their RP1000? Thanks in advance for your time and rock on!

 

[timowens316]

I've been using mine two times a week for almost two years without any glitches or problems. I really baby it though, aside from the dust it looks like new.

 

[Jaymz D.]

Awesome! That's good to hear! I treat my gear as best as possible too. The build quality of the rp1000 looks real nice. The footswitches seem too be very durable as well.

 

[supersoldier71]

I've had mine for over three years and it's my primary recording interface. No problems at all.

 

[Guitar Vilain]

Mine has two problems that never got fixed: the output of the XLR outs is horrendously loud and uncontrollable, and the harmonizer screws up depending on the note you're playing. I used to be a Digitech fanboy, will never buy anything from them ever again. If you intend to buy one make sure it doesn't have the aforementioned flaws.

 

[eschoendorff]

Mine has worked flawlessly for the last couple years. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone else.

 

[JCW308]

Neither of these things are "reliability" issues though. They are design flaws.

Mine has two problems that never got fixed: the output of the XLR outs is horrendously loud and uncontrollable, and the harmonizer screws up depending on the note you're playing. I used to be a Digitech fanboy, will never buy anything from them ever again. If you intend to buy one make sure it doesn't have the aforementioned flaws.

 

[GCDEF]

I've been using one about six months. No issues at all so far.

 

[Will Chen]

Mine has two problems that never got fixed: the output of the XLR outs is horrendously loud and uncontrollable, and the harmonizer screws up depending on the note you're playing. I used to be a Digitech fanboy, will never buy anything from them ever again. If you intend to buy one make sure it doesn't have the aforementioned flaws.

Did Digitech and/or Stan not take care of the harmonizer in the RP1000? taht sucks! The RP355 and RP500's harmonizers were pretty good. And I'd take a hot XLR over the whisper of the HD500's XLR all day. You can always turn the channel input down, a hot signal requires less post boosting and as such a lower overall noise floor. If those 2 things are enough to steer you away from Digitech, feel lucky. Early HD500 owners have had to put up with 10 times that and sit patiently for about a year before the product was "complete". Boss is the only company which seems to consistently put out a complete and bug free product. Of course, many have not liked Boss's COSM high gain tones so I guess even with them its a trade off of sorts...

 

[Guitar Vilain]

Did Digitech and/or Stan not take care of the harmonizer in the RP1000? taht sucks! The RP355 and RP500's harmonizers were pretty good. And I'd take a hot XLR over the whisper of the HD500's XLR all day. You can always turn the channel input down, a hot signal requires less post boosting and as such a lower overall noise floor. If those 2 things are enough to steer you away from Digitech, feel lucky. Early HD500 owners have had to put up with 10 times that and sit patiently for about a year before the product was "complete". Boss is the only company which seems to consistently put out a complete and bug free product. Of course, many have not liked Boss's COSM high gain tones so I guess even with them its a trade off of sorts...

I'm not a big fan of the modeling in the HD500 either, but at least I can use it as a MIDI footswitch for my 11R. The XLR outs in my RP1000 are unusable, trust me. As soon as you slightly turn the trim control up from zero it becomes loud and distorted. And to my knowledge and in my experience Digitech has made it pretty clear that once you've bought one of their products, if there are any design flaws with it you're pretty much screwed. IMHO ad infinitum of course.

 

[burningyen]

I don't have the 1000, but my 155 and 355 have been rock solid for a few years now. As with all gear, it's a good idea to have a backup, and as with all of your important electronic files, it's imperative that you periodically back up your patches to your computer. That reminds me I better go do that soon!

 

[hobbystuff]

I've never had any problems with mine, use the XLR out to FOH all the time with no issues. Solid unit, sounds great.

 

[tatkovladko]

Had the RP1000 for more than one year, sold due to lack of money. I could never produce a single slightest glitch with it, it worked faultlessly. And built like a tank, doesn't hurt either.
Have never used the XLRs though, can't comment if they were faulty.

 

[Schafrocks]

I'm not a big fan of the modeling in the HD500 either, but at least I can use it as a MIDI footswitch for my 11R. The XLR outs in my RP1000 are unusable, trust me. As soon as you slightly turn the trim control up from zero it becomes loud and distorted. And to my knowledge and in my experience Digitech has made it pretty clear that once you've bought one of their products, if there are any design flaws with it you're pretty much screwed. IMHO ad infinitum of course.

I'm pretty sure if you send them the unit, they will fix the XLR issue. It was a known flaw in the older ones.

 

[S. S. Bender]

I don't know if it's a problem with RP1000, but Digitech doesn't seem to consistently implement electronic circuit protection on the XLR outputs of their guitar processor products.

If your Digitech's XLR outputs are connected to an audio mixer's XLR inputs, and the mixer's phantom power is turned on, this can potentially damage the electronic circuit that drives XLR outputs in the Digitech.

 

[Schafrocks]

I don't know if it's a problem with RP1000, but Digitech doesn't seem to consistently implement electronic circuit protection on the XLR outputs of their guitar processor products.

If your Digitech's XLR outputs are connected to an audio mixer's XLR inputs, and the mixer's phantom power is turned on, this can potentially damage the electronic circuit that drives XLR outputs in the Digitech.

If the unit has this problem, all you have to do is send it to them and they will fix it. It's a known issue.

 

[buddaman71]

I've used my GSP and my RP1000 HARD for almost 5 and 2 yrs respectively.
Zero issues with either. Also, my bandmate has an RP1000 too, has absolutely abused it, spilled beer all over it, busted several knobs and it's sticky and dirty but still works perfectly.

The phantom power issue was on early models only as far as I know and was remedied with a resistor kit that can be factory installed.

 

[Jaymz D.]

Awesome! That's what I've been waiting to hear buddaman71. I play guitar in two gigging bands and that entails rocking out in many a super-sketchy venue. Even though I try to take care of all of my equipment, the odds of my gear encountering various liquids, solids, or gasses, are an every gig reality! Glad to hear the RP1000 can take it!
Rock on!

 

[Rock Johnson]

I've only had mine a couple months, but I've had no problems whatsoever, to include running it through the XLRs.

 

[mannydingo]

To clarify the RP1000 issues of which I'm familiar well:

The XLR issue is a flaw right from the get-go and not a reliability issue. Many of the units came out with a problem where if the phantom power is on, you will have the volume issue and it's too much to be fixed by trying to control via the volume on the PA mixer. This problem can be fixed by sending it back to the manufacturer. It was free under warranty and even out of warranty if you had just gone over the expiration date by a bit. Not every unit had this problem. Most people just use the 1/4 inch output to the PA, instead. It works out fine.

The harmonizer issue is also a problem with the unit when brand new. It was a big problem in the RP500 and GSP1101 but was fixed enough to make an acceptable, though not great, harmonizer in those units. This fix was never made for the RP1000 and it seems it never will. If you have one of the few units with a good harmonizer, don't update your firmware. If you're one of the many people who don't need a harmonizer, this is not a problem.

I have owned the RP1000 and have had NO reliability issues. Digitech is on par with Boss in reliability and will have their bad units here and there just as Boss has. Most people buy the RP1000 anyway because they like so many other things about it.