Digitech Drop reliable?

ijonty

I'm playing a gig soon where I need to swap between normal and down half a step quite a lot. Only got one guitar, so is this a good option? I'm presuming they don't sound as good as actually re-tuning your guitar?

ICBM

ijonty said:

I'm playing a gig soon where I need to swap between normal and down half a step quite a lot. Only got one guitar, so is this a good option? I'm presuming they don't sound as good as actually re-tuning your guitar?

You would be surprised... the guitarist in my band has one, and I would say that if you don't go below about two full tones down it's more or less indistinguishable from down-tuning, especially with a bit of dirt on - maybe even more, but we don't play that low. It's excellent.

The only problem we found with it is that it's very bad for leaking noise into other pedals (especially fuzz) on the same power supply - even with an isolated output it wasn't silent. The only way to cure it completely was to use its own mains power supply separate from the rest of the board.

And the 'momentary' setting is a pain in the arse if you accidentally set it like that...

ijonty

Thanks @ICBM ,  sounds like it could be what I need.

mistercharlie

I use a Pitch Fork to tune down a tone, and it sounds badass through distortion. 

bingefeller

ICBM said:

ijonty said:

I'm playing a gig soon where I need to swap between normal and down half a step quite a lot. Only got one guitar, so is this a good option? I'm presuming they don't sound as good as actually re-tuning your guitar?

You would be surprised... the guitarist in my band has one, and I would say that if you don't go below about two full tones down it's more or less indistinguishable from down-tuning, especially with a bit of dirt on - maybe even more, but we don't play that low. It's excellent.

The only problem we found with it is that it's very bad for leaking noise into other pedals (especially fuzz) on the same power supply - even with an isolated output it wasn't silent. The only way to cure it completely was to use its own mains power supply separate from the rest of the board.

And the 'momentary' setting is a pain in the arse if you accidentally set it like that...

What's it like for doing fake bass sounds?  

ICBM

bingefeller said:

What's it like for doing fake bass sounds?  

No idea, never tried it.