Don't Buy Digitech (?) - A Cautionary Tale

My Digitech Drop died on me and it's become a multi year saga trying to get it fixed. I've never made a video like this before, but I recommend this pedal often enough that I felt I had to warn you.

I'm severely unimpressed with Digitech support these days (they used to be great!) and I feel very nervous about ever buying from them again. Your mileage may vary.

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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:47 Digitech Support Used to be Great
3:15 System Failure
4:20 Digitech Returns From the Dead
5:18 Contacting Support
6:30 Local Shops
7:30 Why This Rant
9:54 Conclusion

[agelessrocker]

i was part of their support team that got laid off. We were top in customer service for 25 yrs. When Samsung bought out Harman, Digitech was left to die on the vine. The new owners are trying to resurrect the brand, but they'll never replace the dedicated people who worked hard there and got tossed aside.

[matthewdeheus]

I work in a music store. We haven't had an electronics tech in 10 years and we don't really carry many pedals, amps or PAs. We get a steady stream of people coming in looking for warranty work, sometimes from companies we may have dealt with 20 years ago. I havev personally bought new products only to have them fail in the first week. This is usually followed up by finding out the warranty is useless. It's not just one brand.

[timoneil]

The East Coast dealers include all the Sam Ash locations that have been out of business for 4+ months. I don't think anyone at Digitech is actively manning tech support. Crummy situation, because that's a cool pedal.

[SixStringJournal]

Honestly That's why I always buy warranty from a distributor and don't buy directly from companies. Ive had to use my warranty for some Products from both GC and Sweetwater. One was a with Ditech product in GC during 2022 and although i wasn't able to get the same pedal i was able to get my money back. I would recommend doing the same cuss in the end of the day if the company goes under you can at least get your money back with the warranty. Just make sure to buy the warranty again once it expires.

[mondayworship]

The Digitech Trio + is one of my favourite ever pedals. If it broke I’d be gutted, I also have some of the JamMan looper stuff. In my opinion Digitech have some great “properties”, shame that the support doesn’t seem to be there now. Informative video, thanks for taking the time to share 👌👍

[RogerSanderson]

Considering what happened to Digitech & left on the back burner is sad. My drop pedal still works but I remember getting help from Digitech with their other products before.

[mico]

Many unfortunate events happened. I remember when many niché companies ditched support with generic answers. Really fustrating. But I was lucky to be friend with an mechanical engineer, so third party parts and DIY’ed things which needed service. DigiTech is in a new era, so I don’t blame anyone for the frustration they caused. Especially they are iconic pedal makers with a rich history. Which reminds me to buy revived DOD!

[ayeapprove]

What we should be doing is fix this as a community bypassing Digitech. What part failed? Maybe it can be sourced without involving Digitech.
Line6 are similarly bad, especially the DL4. They are starting to fail and you can't really get much help.

[charlesb]

Sorry to hear you Drop pedal died. I've been running one for just over a year. I have it on the pedalboard and haven't had any issues, my whole pedalboard is powered with the Ciocks DC7 and the 8. I wanted the cleanest power running my rig. Absolutely zero issues with any of my pedals including that Drop pedal, i really love that pedal for not having to setup a guitar for drop tuning as most of my guitars are Floyd Rose and its just a pain lol.
If you did around, you can probably find a good local tech to fix it, look for someone that builds their own pedals is a good start! We have a few local guy's here, a buddy of mine actually does as well. However I'm in Central Canada lol.

[randallclemons]

Dude, I just had a thought. Don't know if this is the case with you, but I literally just had this same issue on two DigiTech things I own. I was trying to use a nine volt dc because I lost the original adapters in a flood. Anyway, they would come on and do everything, but they were not making any sound. Zero. I've seen other with this issue. And several people kept telling me you had to use a 9 volt AC. That is why my stuff wasn't making any sound. But I was like, yeah right. They come on. Lights and all work. Of course they would make sound. But I just got a 9 volt AC adapter, and tried it. I mean just in the last five minutes, because I couldn't get one until now, no matter what. So all the people who are gonna say, why didn't you get one before, flood, couldn't, life happens, anyway, I just tried the 9 volt AC. All of my DigiTech stuff works perfect. Not sure if that is your issue, but i wanted to suggest it anyway. Check and make sure. It's like this one boss pedals i have. The power supply i use on it will power all of my other pedals, except DigiTech of course. But when I plug in my two amp universal pedal adapter, it won't work. Crazy. Anyway, wanted to mention it. I'm sure you have the right adapter, but I wouldn't lose sleep if I didn't at least mention it.

[mikebri]

As the saying goes, don't throw out the baby with the bath water. I own two Digitech GSP 1101 guitar preamps along with an RP1000, RP500, and RP 355. All of them work fine. I've only had one minor problem with one of the GSP 1101s and that was easily repaired at a local shop.

[retrodaze]

At some point, the price to repair surpasses the price to replace... I almost bought the new Blackout Edition they just put out, now im skeptical...

[tres]

Damn! My drummer has the same pedal that is also a paperweight now!
I've been wanting to get the Whammy DT Pitch Shift Drop Tune, but definitely not paying those prices for a glorified paperweight!
Thanks for the heads up and so sorry that happened to you.

[jasonhoudyschell]

It happens in 38 years I've had some pedals flake out and some I bought in 1987 that are working fine today, it's hit and miss with all electronics. The DigiTech Drop is an awesome pedal I love it! Look at it in a positive way it gives the excuse to buy a new DigiTech Drop pedal (Limited edition BLACKOUT version) from sweetwater. And I can tell by the disappointment and frustration in your voice you Love the Drop pedal. I know it's a bit pricey @ $239.99 but if you love it, it's worth it. -Good luck.

[markferguson]

Digitech build some interesting and unique circuits, but they have long been known for reliabilty issues and lack of customer service.When the big Whammy was all the rage, touring techs understood the need to carry back ups.
I like and use the Freqout, but as far as Pitch & Octave would recommend the Keeley Octa PSI, - or go up to the next price range with Eventide, Red Panda, or Meris.

[Steven-uw]

The sound you got from your digitech pedal when things went wrong did you isolate the pedal did you isolate the pedal everything else have you noticed any issues with any of your other pedals in the signal chain

[mjrisinsd]

This is pretty much my experience with Roland/Boss as well. I am definitely not going to recommend that you buy another pedal and return the broken one in its packaging for a full refund. I would never advise you that this is the only fair and logical thing to do. I would never say that this is basically what our society has degenerated to given that companies seem to loathe their customers nowadays and refuse to staff properly.

[milancaster]

This exact thing happened to my bass player. It's now a paper weight as well.

[Steven-uw]

Do you filter your mains supply for all your electronic sensitive equipment ie
Guitar amplifier mixer effect pedals laptop desktop server TV
I personally would use a fully surge protector too protecte
All of your sensitive electronic gear
I have Hear a
Surge protected pedalboard for the mains supply
I truly hope this is helpful for you

[tbucket]

I bought this the same day I saw this video. Lasted 4 days and broke. Does the same thing yours did