@@withinthrall1445 for sure TE has done some cool stuff. I’m just not impressed with the cost of that mixer. It’s just very niche and not for someone like myself at all. I’m sure it works wonderfully as all their stuff does, but man that price point is insane.
Thanks for mentioning the engineering guys in the credits. These guys were a great team. Billy Clements had the best ears and guitar chops in the business. He wouldn’t let a pedal out that didn’t sound right. Jeremy Geisler is still involved with creating cool sounds by working on actual DSP chips for Analog Devices. A true lover of good guitar sounds. Craig DeVries (rhymes with The Breeze) was a great hardware guy who was able to squeeze the last dB of noise out of a circuit, which has always been one of the hardest parts of creating a good digital pedal. There were others, mechanical design engineers, product guys who helped to define what it was supposed to be, techs and testers. All in all, some great people whom I miss working with everyday. Thanks for making some great videos!!
@@Danthehorse The HardWire pedals were great pedals. Craig DeVries did the hardware design on the digital pedals, and I did the design of the analog distortions. I can honestly say that they were some of my favorite designs that I did when I worked at DigiTech.
If youre still on the fence, a really cool mod to do to this pedal is to open it up and stuff it with about $1,000 cash, and it will even more accurately replicate the old circuits and parts.
Thanks for this shoot out. I worked at Digitech for many years. Most of the engineers were also musicians. They painstakingly designed these to be as authentic as possible. Having said that, my all time favorite series, was the Hardwire pedals. It sucks that the brand is in zombie mode at the moment.
Back in the day I picked up a used Hardwire RV-7 and still love it - prices are crazy now, oof! The HT-6 tuner is on my main board these days, some cool features on that pedal.
@@jhspedals When companies let go of their engineers (in the pedal industry)..I have seen blogs through much salt at the company. In my mind Id always like to know WHERE they went (to another company we know?). I think that would make for a GREAT JHS episode. I think people would love to know that where certain people go..there is an inclination towards a certain COOL outcome.
The price drastically rise up after this video being posted and sold out everywhere. Well deserved pedal to be given some respect and prestige. Thank you for highlighting it out. ✊🏽
I need to get in their secret circle so I can buy 25 pedals for $40 each before they rise to $400 after the video comes out and make a small fortune. 😂
It does make me wonder how many were for sale on ebay/reverb/whatever at a decent price before this review came out. I now see the cheapest one on reverb is $250 and there are none on ebay. When I check out the completed listings on ebay for the past three months they all sold for less than $100. Any guesses how long it'll take before they come back to that $65 price? A month or two? longer? Yeah, I should learn to play something better before I go searching for pedals.
Funny fact, the DF7 distortion Factory was the very first thing I EVER ordered on Amazon. It was December 24 2007, and the funny thing is that because it was my first time using Amazon and I didn't really know what I was doing that I mistakenly purchased 3 of them! One of them I finally sold on Reverb last year, another is broken because I tried taking it apart when I thought I was gonna be the next great pedal builder after watching a JHS video, and the last one still works and I keep it around for nostalgia reasons. 👍
Taking apart something sure youll learn everything... then breaking it instead xD! Thats basically what happend to my metal zone lol i FINALLY got it functioning again thank god
I still have my DF-7 I bought new in '06, it was my main distortion pedal for years. Having the extra eq available for all the pedal models is absolutely awesome. And, I have the box 😉.
You normally do an good job with the A/B testing -- but normally I can hear some sort of change --- this time --- the only way I knew you were changing was the little light. Great job!
Thank you very much for your show. You have helped me a lot in a very hard and sad stage of my life, your videos distract me, entertain me and also I have learned to appreciate my gear, to enjoy the possibilities of its sound and to enjoy the music without worrying about the G.A.S. :) And also I have a lot of Digitech gear! I think it's great! Love you guys, never stop to make vídeos.
And now it costs almost 200 bucks. Josh is forever my favorite because he shows why these pedals are as good. Someday I’ll have one and I’ll piss off my neighbors!
As a chorus junkie, I snagged a CF-7 off Reverb a couple of years back, and it is the mainstay chorus on my El Primero tone plank. It weighs a ton! It lives there with my pre-Pandemania purchased Digitech Polara. Digitech kills it in the making great noises department.
@@devinftf Aces! A close second for me is the Joyo Atmosphere. It's got all the best of the Polara, IMHO, as well as a few different options of its own. Forest setting is just a chorus added in, and sounds quite nice.
I have this pedal. Bought new in our around 2005 and have loved it ever since. Recently I offloaded a ton of gear on Reverb and this was one pedal I refused to let go of. I’m new to your channel but am a fan! And I love love Death Cab; my favorite album is Thank You For Today. Thanks!
I think the issue is most people experience some of these pedals with their first terrible setup. My impression of the Boss DS-1 was based off of a squire $100 guitar through a cheap 15 watt rogue combo amp (btw amp had great cleans haha) I won’t say that the gear snobbery doesn’t exist but I think both are contributing factors.
That's what gave the Metal Zone its reputation. Kids who can't play and have no idea how to set the controls and EQ on anything, using crappy guitars and crappy amps, expected to turn on the Metal Zone with the controls set randomly and instantly sound like Arch Enemy shredding death metal riffs at a million notes a second. They get frustrated that it hasn't made their playing any better and their 1x8" combo doesn't sound any bigger, and they blame the pedal. Meanwhile that pedal was Prince's lead tone for over a decade both in studio and live, and Nightwish tour a thousand stadiums with a Metal Zone on their guitarist's board. Same goes for basically all Line 6 products pre-Helix, obviously the Digitech stuff, the DS-1 as you said, in fact a lot of 'standard' Boss pedals have this kind of reputation.
After you put out this video the price on Reverb went from 50 to 300 bucks. Very clever. You caused demand to go up and raised the price, thus making your pedals a much better value. Truly a master of 4d chess.
The Expression Factory also has all of these distortions built in. I have one of those. It's my emergency pedal in the event my pedalboard fails. It's good stuff.
The Expression version is such a great value. On top of all the distortions, you also have 2 wahs, space synth, a truncated whammy, univibe, flanger, chorus, and the final selection when the pedal is off(I think, can't remember) can double as a volume pedal! That's several thousand dollars worth of effects crammed into a $150 pedal. I believe you can also hook up the FS3 switcher to it as well to independently change effects. It has had a place on my board since 2007.
I've had the expression factory on my board for the last 15 years, it's been a real trooper all along! I don't use the gain side of it but having a wah, a vibe, a rotary, a whammy and flanger under the same expression pedal is just perfect for me. And the space station shimmery preset can sound absurdly huge if you put some gain and a reverb after it.
I’m in my 40s and this unreal pedal was my second pedal…my first was a Zoom 505. Man I had soooooo much fun with those bad boys. Thanks Josh for giving this classic a shout out
The EX-7 Expression Factory has these distortion sounds in it as well- if you click the heel down, it turns on the effect with the OD pedal on as well. It also has speaker sims. Hugely advanced for the time. It's also the same PC board/DSP as the Jimi Hendrix Experience pedal. Even has "Hendrix" printed on the board.
My uncle used to be a gigging guitarist and a couple of years ago he gave me his own ex-7 expression factory for my birthday after he stopped touring for good. This thing is crazy but i don't use it enough. 7 expression effects + 7 additional od/distortion effects? It gets rather complicated pretty quick but still love how it emulates gear I'm never getting my hands on. (like the univibe, leslie or the space station)
I bought this at 16 because I was starting a band. Already spent a ton on a Randall half stack. It was my amp, this pedal and a cry baby. That was my rig. 2024 and I’m still using it, in fact I am hooking up for my son to play now. This pedal is great, and after finding this video today just made me smile. Also Plans is a fantastic Death Cab record. Transatlantacism is my favorite , but Plans is #2. Not a bad song on it.
Yes! I've been recommending the DF-7 for years. It's cheap, it's small, it sounds good, it's sturdy, it even has a decent eq. I've moved on to building my own distortion hardware these days, but still keep a DF-7 nearby. It just does what it does well without any frills.
I had one of these in high school, played it through some crate head and a cheap huge 4x12 cab. Had no idea what I was doing, I bought it because I had a digitech mulit effects unit (rp500) and I liked that, so I figured I would also like the DF-7... and I was right! Kept my SOAD ripoff riffs nice and heavy lol
Thanks to you Josh, I am now a proud(er) owner of the CF-7 and DF-7. You just validated how much these pedals are so good and now have prices off the roof. My only regret is that If only I had also bought a used EX-7 earlier... Looking forward to your CF-7 comparison!
Ironically the only one that sounded remotely different was probably the Metal Zone, and that's likely down to it's weird tone stack. Really impressed with how *exact* everything sounded and how you were able to dial them in so precisely similar.
I own a DF-7 AND a Metal Zone. Yes they do sound different, can confirm, but I've been having a fight with myself for some years because I don't want to accept that to me the DF-7 Metal Zone actually sounds better than the original. And if I can't accept that myself I've no idea how I'm going to convince a stranger on the internet.
Did I hear a little more growl on the RAT as well? Not enough to be sure, anyways. This era of Line 6 and DigiTech stuff was *astounding* stuff. I couldn't believe the Pod, Metal Master and Synth Bass Wah, let alone this stuff.
I used to mess around with one of these a lot back when I worked at a small guitar store, and always I thought it was insanely good for what it was, but assumed I was wrong because no one else agreed at the time. This video makes me feel a little better haha
A thing you mentioned on the blog, text version that you didn't mention in the video is the tone controls of the DF-7. Put everything at 12 0'Clock and that's the basic model. For most, the level, gain, and hi knobs correspond to most pedals (level, gain, and tone/filter). But then you can boost or cut lows or mids with sweepable mids..
My brother was in a band and someone just abandoned a Digitech Grunge in our home after rehearsal. Some months ago I found it and messed with it. My favorite trick is using the cab simulator output into a real amp, it really smoothens the sound, you can even control the gain with the level knob of an overdrive in front of it
I don't have this one because I was short of money when I could get it. I do have the EX-7 and it's probably the best pedal I have, all things considered, it does everything and it does it good. Looking forward for Wednesday and the rest of the series. These pedals are really esoteric and really awesome. I didn't know the cab sim still worked when you were on bypass, I think that's not on the manual.
Way back when on a whim I picked up an X-Series Tone Driver and was pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded. That said, I suspect in isolation the "real deals" would sound better (or at least different) but, as is oft the case, mixed in a band you can't hear these differences. But Gearpage nerds don't play in bands :).
@@mikeb5372 I remember having to find this out the hard way - all of the time I had spent in my room carefully "crafting" the "best" settings on my pedals/amps went right out the window when I discovered exactly _none_ of them could cut through the drums and bass with any clarity
@@BirdmanDeuce26 I didn't run into that problem. After so many years playing live I knew the sounds that would work well in the mix. Actually the sound of the pedal worked better for the audience than it did for me on stage because I like using an amp without miking through the PA. I take it you dialed in too much bass when setting them at home?
Yep and the most popular guys with tons of fans and likes and inside info on the latest gear, are garbage players haha. Some never post videos of them playing because they know they're trash, and some have no clue so they post garbage videos full of boutique gear. I hate that place lol
@@mikeb5372 I never boosted my pedal's volume enough and cut way too much Mids. I may as well have been miming playing guitar with how lost in the mix I was, hah!
Starting with the RP 6, I used Digitech Multipedals live without amps. Some years ago a stagehand broke the PSU of my beloved GNX 2 and I had to move on and switched to a combination of a TC Voicelive and a tech 21 RK Rig, but I will use the GNX again as soon as I find a new PSU. At a Warwick Basscamp in 2016, I had my gear onstage and Stevie Salas, jamming with Phil X, needed a Distortion pedal. It took me some minutes to program a DOD model to his taste and during the session he forgot about being digital. One year later the same situation occurred and I still had the preset, so it took only some seconds to make this guitar legend happy.
Great channel! I just found it last week. You are informative, chill and hilarious! Not to mention you show a lot of respect to your competitors. Love the shout out to the people who were instrumental in developing this pedal!
I've always loved Digitech. They revolutionized multi-fx boards with the RP1000...everyone copied that design. I still use the Grunge, Hot Head, and Bad Monkey pedals.
That series of Bad Monkey, Screamin Blues, Hot Head and Grunge (not so much the Death Metal) are insane. Identical, perfect Ibanez/Boss/DOD circuits, with added bass controls and cab sim outs. They basically make the originals redundant.
I love the bad monkey. I bought 2 so I could use them on stereo stuff. Do they still make them? The old Death Metal pedal is quite popular in noise music circles. I have one, but only really use it when making feedback loops.
My first experience with the DF-7 was in 2006 when my guitarist at the time gave me his as a bday present. Instantly fell in love with it and was pretty miffed when he took it back when the band fell apart. Finally found another one back in 2016 and it is a permanent fixture in my pedal chain. Still trying to find an expression factory.
Thanks Josh. Youve turned me into an absolute pedal nut now. Ive been playing 32 yrs, been in 20 or so bands, and most the time, I used a multi FX unit mostly most those yrs, but I started watching the channel, and in 3 months time I went from 1 pedal, to 19. lol thanks man, love the channel. I need some more JHS pedals. Just always broke, but find some DEALS on Marketplace for pedals, like the Snarling Dog Wah I got for $50.
I scoffed at these when they came out. And I was wrong. These pedals sound really good. The jam with the tubescreamer sounded EXACTLY the same between the Digitech and the TS9.
I mean they both sound really good but the whole signal, especially the mids, is much less compressed in the Digi vs the TS9. I prefer the Digi but they aren't the same
I got mine like 6 months ago for about 60 dollars. I couldn't believe my ears! I honsetly don't own any of the emulated pedals, so I couldn't have a reference to compare to but, man! Do they really sound good! Now, after watching/listening to this I will never get rid of it! Thank you so very much for as usual having me laerned something and being amazed and amused with your peculiar and great sense of humor! Thank you very much sris! Greetings from Mexico.
So glad I bought one of these a few months ago! Wish I had bought a backup! I also have the Tone Driver, Hot Rod, and Digiverb from the X series.. all fantastic. The Tone Driver and Hot Rod is similar to the DF-7 but each of those only models 3 dirt pedals instead of 7.
Maaaan, this was my first pedal ever, got it for my birthday at 12, it has been with me my whole life, it’s nice to see it getting some recognition, ps: they called me a mad man for using digital
I bought a couple JHS pedals recently and it was just a reminder about why getting the box with a pin, a pick, the paperwork, etc was cool again. This guy cares about pedals and the whole experience.
My first pedal was a DigiTech Hot Rod in 2004, so this episode made me so happy. Still have it, but haven’t played it in many years. I’m excited to dig it out and take it for a spin.
Last week, news breaks of Digitech being sold. Millions of Digitech haters cry out in horror, “Who will be the recipient of my pedal ire now!!!”. This week.....Josh begins softening up the Digitech haters to prepare the pedal community for.......wait for it.......JHS NOW OWNS DIGITECH!!!!! Conspiracy theory???? 🤔
Got this pedal when it came out as a teenager. Heard from gear snobs it didn't stand up to standalones. Got a MT-2 and A-B'd them. I couldn't discern a difference that couldn't be accounted for by slightly different EQ. Have since tried against a big muff and a tube screamer, negligible difference again. Pedal is a monster.
This was my first pedal! I have gotten some great tones out of it and it's been my main metal tone for years. So awesome to see it getting some recognition.
This is the most entertaining guitar related channel on RUclips. I've had so much fun pursuing pedals and sounds that I heard from you. And I'm old enough to be your dad. :)
I've always wanted a proper DSP fuzz with various fuzzes a distortion mode, and most importantly the ability to put it after my octave and modulation pedals. The Z^2 Vector drive is the only one I've seen.
This is so much more entertaining than TV ! 👏🏼🤩 Once you are into Digitech - would you like to do some research on the YAYA? I came back to guitar at the age of 54 with an RP355 multipedal and the YAYA became an ‘always on’. I used it so you just may notice it, when you turn it off. It makes every note sound a little little bit different, without affecting the tone. I am using other stuff now and I miss it. There are many voice filters on the market but they’re all too strong. The YAYA gives you different vowels, but it still sounds like guitar.
Was turned on to this pedal by the Shoegazer channel here on RUclips. Bought via eBay for $45 and have NO REGRETS. I prefer the Muff mode over my NYC Big Muff (blasphemy)! Well done Josh 👍
Your words must travel at the speed of light cause this pedal is in the $400 range now. The video definitely proves the pedal does what it says it does. Man, I love pedals!!
I love to listen without watching this kind of videos while I do chores or cook lunch, I literally though "I wonder when he's going to switch" I literally couldn't hear a difference XD And I manage to not burn my potatoes so yeah... Great videos!
The first pedal I ever bought, and still a favorite. I never knew how it held up to the originals it was emulating, but I do now, and it’s spot on. Great work Digitech
I bought this pedal around 2006 and been using it up until a year or so when I switched from my pedalboard to an HX Effects. It's truly a great pedal, people came to me after shows asking about my sound. Well that was just an average guitar plugged into a DF7 and an average amp. You don't need expensive gear to sound great, just the good one
I like how you switched back and forth almost randomly between the pedals. Well done...I got one a while back for $60 bucks Canadian with a broken snap cap and a Pink Behringer Heavy Distortion pedalthrown in..lol.
Another amazing, much appreciated review. I've always been on the fence about obtaining one of these and the CF-7. Had to have the EF-7, but that goes without saying. Will definitely be getting one of these now but will unfortunately have to continue to wait now that you guys destroyed the market for them with this video 😂🤣
Digitech DF-7 was my very first pedal ever. I bought a used one in 2011 from a guy who appeared to have a birthday on the same day as me. Back in the day I knew absolutely nothing about how to use knobs I had to get the tone I was looking for. Nonetheless I was super happy about it. DF-7 served me long 9 years, I was making money with it, till it was replaced by HX Stomp. I still have it, and have no intention to sell it or whatever. Hope Russian bomb/rocket won't kill me and I'll get a chance to play it again. Stay safe guys and #ArmUkraineNow.
This channels never ending assault on gear snobbery makes me very happy.
On the day that Teenage Engineering released a $1200 mixer, this couldn’t be more apt
@@tompoynton over….rated…. *clap clap clapclap*
@@NnTFBA are you saying the company is overrated or the mixer? Because I own an op-1 and some of the pocket operators and they are all amazing.
@@withinthrall1445 for sure TE has done some cool stuff. I’m just not impressed with the cost of that mixer. It’s just very niche and not for someone like myself at all. I’m sure it works wonderfully as all their stuff does, but man that price point is insane.
@@luckyd2126 Thanks Obama!
Thanks for mentioning the engineering guys in the credits. These guys were a great team. Billy Clements had the best ears and guitar chops in the business. He wouldn’t let a pedal out that didn’t sound right. Jeremy Geisler is still involved with creating cool sounds by working on actual DSP chips for Analog Devices. A true lover of good guitar sounds. Craig DeVries (rhymes with The Breeze) was a great hardware guy who was able to squeeze the last dB of noise out of a circuit, which has always been one of the hardest parts of creating a good digital pedal.
There were others, mechanical design engineers, product guys who helped to define what it was supposed to be, techs and testers. All in all, some great people whom I miss working with everyday.
Thanks for making some great videos!!
John is so right with this group that worked on this pedal. I worked with them too. What a great group!
👏🏻
John, kindly start a pedal company with chaps you mentioned, and build on the superb hardwire series . Thank you.
@@Danthehorse The HardWire pedals were great pedals. Craig DeVries did the hardware design on the digital pedals, and I did the design of the analog distortions. I can honestly say that they were some of my favorite designs that I did when I worked at DigiTech.
@@JohnDeeHanson it's such a shame all that momentum is lost . You guys were really hitting a stride.
If youre still on the fence, a really cool mod to do to this pedal is to open it up and stuff it with about $1,000 cash, and it will even more accurately replicate the old circuits and parts.
scientifically proven
Germaimium cash?
Will it replicate the 'green' sound?
Then you could use that to buy the one on Reverb listed for, you guessed it, $1,000. True story.
But it has to be unmarked, used 20s.
Thanks for this shoot out. I worked at Digitech for many years. Most of the engineers were also musicians. They painstakingly designed these to be as authentic as possible. Having said that, my all time favorite series, was the Hardwire pedals. It sucks that the brand is in zombie mode at the moment.
@Guitar and Spiders is there a significant difference between the made in USA vs China Hardwire pedals?
@@roxynox They were built with the exact same components, so no difference at all.
Back in the day I picked up a used Hardwire RV-7 and still love it - prices are crazy now, oof!
The HT-6 tuner is on my main board these days, some cool features on that pedal.
I love my DL-8 delay to death!
Digitech PDS-1550 is my all time favorite distortion pedal for synthesizers.
Thanks for mentioning the engineers. Those guys almost always get lost in the stories. You're a real class act.
Truly, the engineers are THE unsung heroes of the industry.
@@jhspedals When companies let go of their engineers (in the pedal industry)..I have seen blogs through much salt at the company. In my mind Id always like to know WHERE they went (to another company we know?). I think that would make for a GREAT JHS episode. I think people would love to know that where certain people go..there is an inclination towards a certain COOL outcome.
The price drastically rise up after this video being posted and sold out everywhere. Well deserved pedal to be given some respect and prestige. Thank you for highlighting it out. ✊🏽
I need to get in their secret circle so I can buy 25 pedals for $40 each before they rise to $400 after the video comes out and make a small fortune. 😂
@@MrKjDrake better than crypto haha.
I saw 700€ on reverb rn 😂
I gonna keep it anyway 🙄
@@MrKjDrake That's what Josh does. He sneaks out and buys all these pedals up. Then he makes a video like this, and that's how he rigs the market!
It does make me wonder how many were for sale on ebay/reverb/whatever at a decent price before this review came out. I now see the cheapest one on reverb is $250 and there are none on ebay. When I check out the completed listings on ebay for the past three months they all sold for less than $100. Any guesses how long it'll take before they come back to that $65 price? A month or two? longer? Yeah, I should learn to play something better before I go searching for pedals.
Funny fact, the DF7 distortion Factory was the very first thing I EVER ordered on Amazon. It was December 24 2007, and the funny thing is that because it was my first time using Amazon and I didn't really know what I was doing that I mistakenly purchased 3 of them! One of them I finally sold on Reverb last year, another is broken because I tried taking it apart when I thought I was gonna be the next great pedal builder after watching a JHS video, and the last one still works and I keep it around for nostalgia reasons. 👍
Taking apart something sure youll learn everything... then breaking it instead xD!
Thats basically what happend to my metal zone lol i FINALLY got it functioning again thank god
@@otakuholly8885 Hey, well done! 😄
The jamming in this episode was top notch guys! great job.
I still have my DF-7 I bought new in '06, it was my main distortion pedal for years. Having the extra eq available for all the pedal models is absolutely awesome. And, I have the box 😉.
He Has The Box!
@@ogmakefirefiregood He Has the box!!!!!
@@georgebarry8640 Eh?
Without this video I would never have purchased a DF7 for a very reasonable price. I love it. The cabinet simulations are pretty damn good!
You normally do an good job with the A/B testing -- but normally I can hear some sort of change --- this time --- the only way I knew you were changing was the little light. Great job!
I could hear the difference with the DoD, but that difference is probably just as large as between two “identical” DOD pedals.
@@bartvschuylenburg I agree with that. The difference was so small, though, that I had to question if I really heard any difference at all.
This video is clearly fake. None of the guys are even playing. I’m sure Josh just downloaded some audio off the internet.
@@Martin-vp9lv Clearly.
These jams are getting so good to the point where u guys might need to do an album..
Thank you very much for your show. You have helped me a lot in a very hard and sad stage of my life, your videos distract me, entertain me and also I have learned to appreciate my gear, to enjoy the possibilities of its sound and to enjoy the music without worrying about the G.A.S. :) And also I have a lot of Digitech gear! I think it's great!
Love you guys, never stop to make vídeos.
I hope things get better soon Borja. Humans live on the equator and on the south pole, humans can adapt and survive in incredible ways, go human go!
And now it costs almost 200 bucks. Josh is forever my favorite because he shows why these pedals are as good. Someday I’ll have one and I’ll piss off my neighbors!
1st! I am glad to get this featured. I wanted to hear more about the Chorus Factory.
I love my DF-7, and the fact that it's so underrated. It takes up about one twentieth of the pedal board space of the original pedals.
As a chorus junkie, I snagged a CF-7 off Reverb a couple of years back, and it is the mainstay chorus on my El Primero tone plank. It weighs a ton! It lives there with my pre-Pandemania purchased Digitech Polara. Digitech kills it in the making great noises department.
The Polara is my favorite reverb pedal. It will never leave my board.
@@devinftf Aces! A close second for me is the Joyo Atmosphere. It's got all the best of the Polara, IMHO, as well as a few different options of its own. Forest setting is just a chorus added in, and sounds quite nice.
@@matttaylor4467 You have my attention. Honestly that whole Joyo R-series sounds great.
I have this pedal. Bought new in our around 2005 and have loved it ever since. Recently I offloaded a ton of gear on Reverb and this was one pedal I refused to let go of.
I’m new to your channel but am a fan! And I love love Death Cab; my favorite album is Thank You For Today. Thanks!
I think the issue is most people experience some of these pedals with their first terrible setup. My impression of the Boss DS-1 was based off of a squire $100 guitar through a cheap 15 watt rogue combo amp (btw amp had great cleans haha)
I won’t say that the gear snobbery doesn’t exist but I think both are contributing factors.
yep same for me, did it with a DS1 trying to make hardcore punk but didnt know how to even palm mute properly, thought it as awful.
really good insight, I absolutely agree. Well said
ds1 is one tricky pony to dial in tbf. The tone knob is a weird filtrr
That's what gave the Metal Zone its reputation. Kids who can't play and have no idea how to set the controls and EQ on anything, using crappy guitars and crappy amps, expected to turn on the Metal Zone with the controls set randomly and instantly sound like Arch Enemy shredding death metal riffs at a million notes a second. They get frustrated that it hasn't made their playing any better and their 1x8" combo doesn't sound any bigger, and they blame the pedal.
Meanwhile that pedal was Prince's lead tone for over a decade both in studio and live, and Nightwish tour a thousand stadiums with a Metal Zone on their guitarist's board.
Same goes for basically all Line 6 products pre-Helix, obviously the Digitech stuff, the DS-1 as you said, in fact a lot of 'standard' Boss pedals have this kind of reputation.
@@aceflibble I had all that beginner equipment and figured out that EQ the day I got it. The MZ is the shit.
After you put out this video the price on Reverb went from 50 to 300 bucks. Very clever. You caused demand to go up and raised the price, thus making your pedals a much better value. Truly a master of 4d chess.
The Expression Factory also has all of these distortions built in. I have one of those. It's my emergency pedal in the event my pedalboard fails. It's good stuff.
The Expression version is such a great value. On top of all the distortions, you also have 2 wahs, space synth, a truncated whammy, univibe, flanger, chorus, and the final selection when the pedal is off(I think, can't remember) can double as a volume pedal! That's several thousand dollars worth of effects crammed into a $150 pedal. I believe you can also hook up the FS3 switcher to it as well to independently change effects. It has had a place on my board since 2007.
Can we get a JHS bump for my JOYO compressor pedal so I can then sell it for $1000?
I've had the expression factory on my board for the last 15 years, it's been a real trooper all along!
I don't use the gain side of it but having a wah, a vibe, a rotary, a whammy and flanger under the same expression pedal is just perfect for me. And the space station shimmery preset can sound absurdly huge if you put some gain and a reverb after it.
I’m in my 40s and this unreal pedal was my second pedal…my first was a Zoom 505. Man I had soooooo much fun with those bad boys. Thanks Josh for giving this classic a shout out
The EX-7 Expression Factory has these distortion sounds in it as well- if you click the heel down, it turns on the effect with the OD pedal on as well. It also has speaker sims. Hugely advanced for the time.
It's also the same PC board/DSP as the Jimi Hendrix Experience pedal. Even has "Hendrix" printed on the board.
My favorite part is the engineer shout outs.
As an aspiring pedal maker its nice to see the faces so thank you very much!
My uncle used to be a gigging guitarist and a couple of years ago he gave me his own ex-7 expression factory for my birthday after he stopped touring for good. This thing is crazy but i don't use it enough. 7 expression effects + 7 additional od/distortion effects? It gets rather complicated pretty quick but still love how it emulates gear I'm never getting my hands on. (like the univibe, leslie or the space station)
great review & good on you for naming the gifted gentlemen behind the df-7
I especially love the part where you show who made the pedal. Great channel history and entertainment.
I bought this at 16 because I was starting a band. Already spent a ton on a Randall half stack. It was my amp, this pedal and a cry baby. That was my rig. 2024 and I’m still using it, in fact I am hooking up for my son to play now. This pedal is great, and after finding this video today just made me smile.
Also Plans is a fantastic Death Cab record. Transatlantacism is my favorite , but Plans is #2. Not a bad song on it.
Watching this pedal go from selling for $60 to $150 within an hour of this videos release. Crazy stuff.
$750 now...
@@markholden1662 -slowly facepalms- That brings my piss to a boil when people price gouge shit just because a RUclipsr mentioned it.
$300. as of 9:28 PM EST
Up to 900 now
It’s worth what people are willing to pay. And if they’re willing to pay as much as it’s gotten up to, they’re idiots. Let them.
Yes! I've been recommending the DF-7 for years. It's cheap, it's small, it sounds good, it's sturdy, it even has a decent eq. I've moved on to building my own distortion hardware these days, but still keep a DF-7 nearby. It just does what it does well without any frills.
I had one of these in high school, played it through some crate head and a cheap huge 4x12 cab. Had no idea what I was doing, I bought it because I had a digitech mulit effects unit (rp500) and I liked that, so I figured I would also like the DF-7... and I was right! Kept my SOAD ripoff riffs nice and heavy lol
Thanks to you Josh, I am now a proud(er) owner of the CF-7 and DF-7. You just validated how much these pedals are so good and now have prices off the roof. My only regret is that If only I had also bought a used EX-7 earlier... Looking forward to your CF-7 comparison!
Also, let's not forget that the Expression Factory has the Distortion Factory built into it! ✨✨✨
I want to hear how it does a wah sound.
Awesome video, I bought a DF-7 10 years ago for R25. I still use it a ton, it's a really great piece of gear! Thanks Josh and team.
Ironically the only one that sounded remotely different was probably the Metal Zone, and that's likely down to it's weird tone stack. Really impressed with how *exact* everything sounded and how you were able to dial them in so precisely similar.
yep, the sweeping pots make it hard to nail down. The clipping on the waveform however was spot on.
To my ears I only noticed something different in the upper range of the 250, the rest was indistinguishable
I own a DF-7 AND a Metal Zone. Yes they do sound different, can confirm, but I've been having a fight with myself for some years because I don't want to accept that to me the DF-7 Metal Zone actually sounds better than the original. And if I can't accept that myself I've no idea how I'm going to convince a stranger on the internet.
Did I hear a little more growl on the RAT as well? Not enough to be sure, anyways. This era of Line 6 and DigiTech stuff was *astounding* stuff. I couldn't believe the Pod, Metal Master and Synth Bass Wah, let alone this stuff.
I used to mess around with one of these a lot back when I worked at a small guitar store, and always I thought it was insanely good for what it was, but assumed I was wrong because no one else agreed at the time. This video makes me feel a little better haha
if any future "Best Kept Secret" videos could be sent to me directly 24 hours before being public I'd really appreciate it, for uh, reasons
The Brain Waves Jam was just lovely. When the drums kicked in double time, I got instantly much happier.
Now the pedal is $500 to $900 on r'verb
A thing you mentioned on the blog, text version that you didn't mention in the video is the tone controls of the DF-7. Put everything at 12 0'Clock and that's the basic model. For most, the level, gain, and hi knobs correspond to most pedals (level, gain, and tone/filter). But then you can boost or cut lows or mids with sweepable mids..
My brother was in a band and someone just abandoned a Digitech Grunge in our home after rehearsal. Some months ago I found it and messed with it. My favorite trick is using the cab simulator output into a real amp, it really smoothens the sound, you can even control the gain with the level knob of an overdrive in front of it
I don't think I've ever seen or heard a multi effects digital pedal compared to the original analog pedals. Excellent idea! 👍😁
The ad says the vintage muff is worth 59$ 😅 wish I could get a black russian for that price haha
I don't have this one because I was short of money when I could get it. I do have the EX-7 and it's probably the best pedal I have, all things considered, it does everything and it does it good. Looking forward for Wednesday and the rest of the series. These pedals are really esoteric and really awesome. I didn't know the cab sim still worked when you were on bypass, I think that's not on the manual.
Way back when on a whim I picked up an X-Series Tone Driver and was pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded. That said, I suspect in isolation the "real deals" would sound better (or at least different) but, as is oft the case, mixed in a band you can't hear these differences. But Gearpage nerds don't play in bands :).
I agree. In a band it seems that the biggest factor is getting the volume set right and having the right amount of gain at the same time
@@mikeb5372 I remember having to find this out the hard way - all of the time I had spent in my room carefully "crafting" the "best" settings on my pedals/amps went right out the window when I discovered exactly _none_ of them could cut through the drums and bass with any clarity
@@BirdmanDeuce26 I didn't run into that problem. After so many years playing live I knew the sounds that would work well in the mix. Actually the sound of the pedal worked better for the audience than it did for me on stage because I like using an amp without miking through the PA. I take it you dialed in too much bass when setting them at home?
Yep and the most popular guys with tons of fans and likes and inside info on the latest gear, are garbage players haha. Some never post videos of them playing because they know they're trash, and some have no clue so they post garbage videos full of boutique gear. I hate that place lol
@@mikeb5372 I never boosted my pedal's volume enough and cut way too much Mids. I may as well have been miming playing guitar with how lost in the mix I was, hah!
I’ve had this pedal since it first came out and I demoed it at the music store I worked at. Best pedal ever.
Hey I'm trying to sell this used pedal on Reverb, would you mind making a video about it so I can sell it faster and double my return?
Starting with the RP 6, I used Digitech Multipedals live without amps. Some years
ago a stagehand broke the PSU of my beloved GNX 2 and I had to move on and switched to a combination of a TC Voicelive and a tech 21 RK Rig, but I will use the GNX again as soon as I find a new PSU. At a Warwick Basscamp in 2016, I had my gear onstage and Stevie Salas, jamming with Phil X, needed a Distortion pedal. It took me some minutes to program a DOD model to his taste and during the session he forgot about being digital. One year later the same situation occurred and I still had the preset, so it took only some seconds to make this guitar legend happy.
Worth to mention that pedal has stereo effect. So you can have thick 3d distortion effect. Noone mention about it but it is big plus.
Now these pedals doubled in price on the used market. I really wish people would not pay those prices and the prices would have to drop.
Great channel! I just found it last week. You are informative, chill and hilarious! Not to mention you show a lot of respect to your competitors. Love the shout out to the people who were instrumental in developing this pedal!
I've always loved Digitech. They revolutionized multi-fx boards with the RP1000...everyone copied that design.
I still use the Grunge, Hot Head, and Bad Monkey pedals.
That series of Bad Monkey, Screamin Blues, Hot Head and Grunge (not so much the Death Metal) are insane. Identical, perfect Ibanez/Boss/DOD circuits, with added bass controls and cab sim outs. They basically make the originals redundant.
Bad Monkey is a beast
Bad Monkey has been the only constant on my pedal board!!! Also have the Hardwire DL8 delay on it now.
@@craiger951 hell yeah!
I love the bad monkey. I bought 2 so I could use them on stereo stuff. Do they still make them?
The old Death Metal pedal is quite popular in noise music circles. I have one, but only really use it when making feedback loops.
That DS-1 jam was fresh! i dug that lick...it was smooth & chill !
My first experience with the DF-7 was in 2006 when my guitarist at the time gave me his as a bday present. Instantly fell in love with it and was pretty miffed when he took it back when the band fell apart. Finally found another one back in 2016 and it is a permanent fixture in my pedal chain. Still trying to find an expression factory.
Thanks Josh. Youve turned me into an absolute pedal nut now. Ive been playing 32 yrs, been in 20 or so bands, and most the time, I used a multi FX unit mostly most those yrs, but I started watching the channel, and in 3 months time I went from 1 pedal, to 19. lol thanks man, love the channel. I need some more JHS pedals. Just always broke, but find some DEALS on Marketplace for pedals, like the Snarling Dog Wah I got for $50.
I scoffed at these when they came out. And I was wrong. These pedals sound really good. The jam with the tubescreamer sounded EXACTLY the same between the Digitech and the TS9.
I mean they both sound really good but the whole signal, especially the mids, is much less compressed in the Digi vs the TS9.
I prefer the Digi but they aren't the same
I got mine like 6 months ago for about 60 dollars. I couldn't believe my ears! I honsetly don't own any of the emulated pedals, so I couldn't have a reference to compare to but, man! Do they really sound good! Now, after watching/listening to this I will never get rid of it! Thank you so very much for as usual having me laerned something and being amazed and amused with your peculiar and great sense of humor! Thank you very much sris! Greetings from Mexico.
lol. Price on reverb has already doubled
I’ve had it on my board since 2008! Dependable and awesome
So glad I bought one of these a few months ago! Wish I had bought a backup! I also have the Tone Driver, Hot Rod, and Digiverb from the X series.. all fantastic. The Tone Driver and Hot Rod is similar to the DF-7 but each of those only models 3 dirt pedals instead of 7.
Maaaan, this was my first pedal ever, got it for my birthday at 12, it has been with me my whole life, it’s nice to see it getting some recognition, ps: they called me a mad man for using digital
Excellent demonstration, Josh! Then I just ordered a new one for 380 yuan. Thank you!
I bought a couple JHS pedals recently and it was just a reminder about why getting the box with a pin, a pick, the paperwork, etc was cool again. This guy cares about pedals and the whole experience.
My first pedal was a DigiTech Hot Rod in 2004, so this episode made me so happy. Still have it, but haven’t played it in many years. I’m excited to dig it out and take it for a spin.
Last week, news breaks of Digitech being sold. Millions of Digitech haters cry out in horror, “Who will be the recipient of my pedal ire now!!!”. This week.....Josh begins softening up the Digitech haters to prepare the pedal community for.......wait for it.......JHS NOW OWNS DIGITECH!!!!! Conspiracy theory???? 🤔
Josh - you are my record twin. Thanks for loving all the “sold out” bands frim the early 2000s lol
This pedal is now 500 dollars on reverb
The playing in this video is SICK!
Got this pedal when it came out as a teenager. Heard from gear snobs it didn't stand up to standalones. Got a MT-2 and A-B'd them. I couldn't discern a difference that couldn't be accounted for by slightly different EQ. Have since tried against a big muff and a tube screamer, negligible difference again. Pedal is a monster.
This was my first pedal! I have gotten some great tones out of it and it's been my main metal tone for years. So awesome to see it getting some recognition.
Great bass tone all through the video, loved it!
it's a pleasure to see, how much fun the bass-layers has during the sessions.
This is the most entertaining guitar related channel on RUclips. I've had so much fun pursuing pedals and sounds that I heard from you. And I'm old enough to be your dad. :)
Snare tone on Lazer Dust was magnificent
Words can’t describe how much I love this channel!
I've always wanted a proper DSP fuzz with various fuzzes a distortion mode, and most importantly the ability to put it after my octave and modulation pedals. The Z^2 Vector drive is the only one I've seen.
Love you Josh Scott and JHS.
You’re not making me do anything. I turned this video off right after you said that.
Best comment I've seen in forever lmao
Great demo ! And the sarcasm is always welcome !
5:29
“Nick, do you wanna smell the..”
“No”
This is so much more entertaining than TV ! 👏🏼🤩
Once you are into Digitech - would you like to do some research on the YAYA? I came back to guitar at the age of 54 with an RP355 multipedal and the YAYA became an ‘always on’. I used it so you just may notice it, when you turn it off. It makes every note sound a little little bit different, without affecting the tone. I am using other stuff now and I miss it. There are many voice filters on the market but they’re all too strong. The YAYA gives you different vowels, but it still sounds like guitar.
Was turned on to this pedal by the Shoegazer channel here on RUclips. Bought via eBay for $45 and have NO REGRETS. I prefer the Muff mode over my NYC Big Muff (blasphemy)! Well done Josh 👍
Your words must travel at the speed of light cause this pedal is in the $400 range now. The video definitely proves the pedal does what it says it does. Man, I love pedals!!
The DF 7 was blessed with this video by the pedalpope and now has a holy price :-)
I love to listen without watching this kind of videos while I do chores or cook lunch, I literally though "I wonder when he's going to switch" I literally couldn't hear a difference XD And I manage to not burn my potatoes so yeah... Great videos!
The first pedal I ever bought, and still a favorite. I never knew how it held up to the originals it was emulating, but I do now, and it’s spot on. Great work Digitech
I bought this pedal around 2006 and been using it up until a year or so when I switched from my pedalboard to an HX Effects. It's truly a great pedal, people came to me after shows asking about my sound. Well that was just an average guitar plugged into a DF7 and an average amp. You don't need expensive gear to sound great, just the good one
Man, I watch these videos not only for the reviews but also for the great musical pieces they come up with.
Plans got me into Death Cab as well. A literally perfect album from start to finish.
I was waiting for the switch on the first demonstration and then realised I'd missed it. That immediately set the bar.
Love my my DF-7, it hasn't left my board since 2010 when I first got it. "I have the box" :)
I like how you switched back and forth almost randomly between the pedals. Well done...I got one a while back for $60 bucks Canadian with a broken snap cap and a Pink Behringer Heavy Distortion pedalthrown in..lol.
Sir, You are the best and the coolest dude. Thanks for your work.
This is why I love you so much guys!! 🖤
Another amazing, much appreciated review. I've always been on the fence about obtaining one of these and the CF-7. Had to have the EF-7, but that goes without saying. Will definitely be getting one of these now but will unfortunately have to continue to wait now that you guys destroyed the market for them with this video 😂🤣
Digitech DF-7 was my very first pedal ever. I bought a used one in 2011 from a guy who appeared to have a birthday on the same day as me. Back in the day I knew absolutely nothing about how to use knobs I had to get the tone I was looking for. Nonetheless I was super happy about it. DF-7 served me long 9 years, I was making money with it, till it was replaced by HX Stomp.
I still have it, and have no intention to sell it or whatever.
Hope Russian bomb/rocket won't kill me and I'll get a chance to play it again.
Stay safe guys and #ArmUkraineNow.
I still have mine from when I bought it 15 years ago. Going to have to get it out the drawer and give it a look.
Hard fan of that album from DCFC! Thanks for the video!
The old Digitech Tone Driver with the morph knob was pretty cool too