Digitech Hardwire pedals

[JakeAC5253]

What are your thoughts?

 

[thiswaythatway]

The verb and delay are good pedals at a decent price. I'd take them over the current Boss offerings. I haven't played the other one's.

 

[gibson08]

The Delay is def one of the best stomp-box delays I have tried, the Reverb pedal I did not bond with, but I have not found any stomp reverb that I have liked yet, and I have not tried the others,yet.

 

[thiswaythatway]

The Delay is def one of the best stomp-box delays I have tried, the Reverb pedal I did not bond with, but I have not found any stomp reverb that I have liked yet, and I have not tried the others,yet.

Have you tried this?

 

[jet66]

I want the blueSky pretty bad, but I don't know if I am ready to plunk down $300 for it. But dammit I'm tempted...

 

[JakeAC5253]

idk, I've watched the PGS demos for a few of them and I remain to be impressed.

As far as delays go, It's this ($159.95)

versus this ($149.99)

Dollar for dollar, the Hardwire may have more settings, but I believe that the Aqua Puss has more tones.

 

[gibson08]

Yeah I looked at those Strymon pedals, but a little too much for me, the first vid when the pedal is first turned on sounds great but all that other stuff I just dont need, always seems like waste or too complicated sometimes,,ahem, sorry,,,,

Those Hardwire pedals are very well built by the way, very sturdy, the pots are a "click type" pot, and they come with the rubber cover to go over the knobs when you find that perfect spot, so they dont get bumped or changed=genius!! Anyone try the drive pedals yet??

 

[droptrd]

Im addicted to them. Always checking ebay and CL for cute little used ones. Theyre great for the price. I too like them better than most of the boss pedals

 

[gibson08]

idk, I've watched the PGS demos for a few of them and I remain to be impressed.

As far as delays go, It's this ($159.95)

versus this ($149.99)

Dollar for dollar, the Hardwire may have more settings, but I believe that the Aqua Puss has more tones.

I dunno, During that reverse delay I thought I heard "Buy The Hardwire" No actually I still thought the Hardwire had the more natural repeat, I really like mine, I dont use all of the other stuff, just for basic delay, very short to Floyd-ish, sounds awesome just to wet up the sound just a little, the local GC had a used one for 99.00, almost bought it to put on the board one for short, one for long. I dunno, you might find the other one to sound better, everyones different.

 

[billboogie]

I have the Chourus and I like it very much. Lots of differant modes to choose from and a level adjustment which is nice too. I've had it for almost 2 years now with no issues. I also need a new tuner and I am going to buy the Hardwire one. My .02

 

[NinjaRaf]

I have the chorus, reverb, and delay pedals currently. They all sound fucking fantastic!! I had the overdrive, which was an upgraded bad monkey...sounded awesome, but I didnt need it, and I had the metal distortion pedal...sounds like a metal zone, to me. All are great pedals that are made to take a beating. Feature packed, and the stomplok thing is pretty sweet. Great pedals.

 

[blackba]

I have the Reverb RV-7 and really like it. I really like what Digitech did with this hardwire series, they finally stepped up to the plate, IMO....

 

[JakeAC5253]

I guess it really comes down to personal taste as it seems that there are a good number of people who enjoy the pedals. I personally think they sound too 'hi-fi' or too perfect in their function, there isn't that analog warmth or 'flavor'. They affect me like hearing a digital delay "well, it's a delay, it's doing its job, but does it sound good?" That, and I find hardwire bypass to be very overrated. In this day and age I believe that everything should be 3PDT true bypass. Unless it's a vintage pedal clone that refuses anything short of an exact copy. Hardwire bypass makes your bypass tone sound just shy of 'spongy' which I am not much of a fan of to be honest. I don't like having my MXR ten band EQ plugged into my rig because of this. Great pedal, terrible bypass.

 

[blackba]

I guess it really comes down to personal taste as it seems that there are a good number of people who enjoy the pedals. I personally think they sound too 'hi-fi' or too perfect in their function, there isn't that analog warmth or 'flavor'. They affect me like hearing a digital delay "well, it's a delay, it's doing its job, but does it sound good?" That, and I find hardwire bypass to be very overrated. In this day and age I believe that everything should be 3PDT true bypass. Unless it's a vintage pedal clone that refuses anything short of an exact copy. Hardwire bypass makes your bypass tone sound just shy of 'spongy' which I am not much of a fan of to be honest. I don't like having my MXR ten band EQ plugged into my rig because of this. Great pedal, terrible bypass.

Unfortunately hardwire bypass does not typically mean true bypass. I am not sure exactly what bypass the hardwire series has, but I find the bypass on my RV-7 to be transparent in my amps effects loop. I should try it out front to see how good it really is. I always leave the tails off. One of the reasons I sold my line 6 Verbzilla was due to the poor bypass, out front it really sucked tone, it was fine in the loop.

I wish all pedals had a True bypass or high quality buffer option that you can switch between depending on what you need.

 

[JakeAC5253]

I guess it really comes down to personal taste as it seems that there are a good number of people who enjoy the pedals. I personally think they sound too 'hi-fi' or too perfect in their function, there isn't that analog warmth or 'flavor'. They affect me like hearing a digital delay "well, it's a delay, it's doing its job, but does it sound good?" That, and I find hardwire bypass to be very overrated. In this day and age I believe that everything should be 3PDT true bypass. Unless it's a vintage pedal clone that refuses anything short of an exact copy. Hardwire bypass makes your bypass tone sound just shy of 'spongy' which I am not much of a fan of to be honest. I don't like having my MXR ten band EQ plugged into my rig because of this. Great pedal, terrible bypass.

Unfortunately hardwire bypass does not typically mean true bypass. I am not sure exactly what bypass the hardwire series has, but I find the bypass on my RV-7 to be transparent in my amps effects loop. I should try it out front to see how good it really is. I always leave the tails off. One of the reasons I sold my line 6 Verbzilla was due to the poor bypass, out front it really sucked tone, it was fine in the loop.

I wish all pedals had a True bypass or high quality buffer option that you can switch between depending on what you need.

Yeah, I hate that many manufacturers now label their pedals as 'true bypass' when the switching is not indeed 'true bypass'. The impedance in the loop is much lower than in front of the amp, I sometimes use my MXR unit here because of this. I have stopped using it in front of the amp because anywhere I put it it sucks tone. All hardwire bypass pedals are guilty of this, some more than others, depends on the circuit. With hardwire bypass the 'bypass' mode simply activates a wire that goes straight to the output while the actual pedal circuit remains in parallel. The main circuit will still draw some of your signal through it which results in aforementioned 'tone suck'. BOSS pedals advertise 'true bypass' as well, and they are not. They utilize a momentary switch which activates a transistor operated FET switching circuit, not true isolated bypass.

 

[billboogie]

I am not sure exactly what bypass the hardwire series has, but I find the bypass on my RV-7 to be transparent in my amps effects loop.

Same here with the chorus.

I guess it really comes down to personal taste as it seems that there are a good number of people who enjoy the pedals. I personally think they sound too 'hi-fi' or too perfect in their function, there isn't that analog warmth or 'flavor'. They affect me like hearing a digital delay "well, it's a delay, it's doing its job, but does it sound good?" That, and I find hardwire bypass to be very overrated. In this day and age I believe that everything should be 3PDT true bypass. Unless it's a vintage pedal clone that refuses anything short of an exact copy. Hardwire bypass makes your bypass tone sound just shy of 'spongy' which I am not much of a fan of to be honest. I don't like having my MXR ten band EQ plugged into my rig because of this. Great pedal, terrible bypass.

I gonna rethink the Hardwire tuner purchase based on that, you may have stopped a regrettable buy! Thanks for the tip!

 

[blackba]

I gonna rethink the Hardwire tuner purchase based on that, you may have stopped a regrettable buy! Thanks for the tip!

The hardwire tuner appears to be $100USD normally. For just a little more you can get the sonic research turbo tuner, those are supposed to be awesome (I have a Peterson SS2, but wish I had the turbo tuner). If you need a good buffer, check out a used Korg DT-10 (they are discontinued). Nice tuner and nice buffer on the DT-10, I have 2 of them

 

[JakeAC5253]

Just to clarify, when I was speaking of the evils of 'hardwire bypass' I meant in the engineering sense, not the Hardwire™ sense. I was unsure at the time of the switching of the pedals, but I've just come across a website which upon a quick glance seems to be credible, and says that the pedals do not use 3PDT switching, but do seem to be quote unquote "true bypass".

Hardwire bypass: This only means that the switching isn't electronic. In 90% of the cases, it's the good old half-assed bypass with a buffer section in front, to ease the signal loading. In the final 10%, the pedal simply doesn't have the buffer. For instance, MXR uses a buffer at the start of the effects circuit, which is designed to present a high enough input impedance to be "electrically transparent" - the idea being that the electrons will not even try to move that way, when the bypass line is open. It doesn't work that way, sadly. It will still drop the overall input impedance the pickups "sees", compared to when it's active (thus changing the tone).

There's one exception to the above - Digitech markets a line of pedals under the name "Hardwire", and contrary to their name, they actually seem to be true bypass for real. They use relay switching to provide true bypass in a Boss-esque stompbox, and according to their own description, the circuit is disconnected at both ends in bypass mode, leaving only a straight in-out connection. True bypass, in other words. Thumbs up for Digitech (although the pedal series' name can be a little misleading in this case).

It is an interesting idea, wonder if you built an identical pedal using 3PDT true bypass and compared them side-by-side if it would hold up?

 

[billboogie]

I gonna rethink the Hardwire tuner purchase based on that, you may have stopped a regrettable buy! Thanks for the tip!

The hardwire tuner appears to be $100USD normally. For just a little more you can get the sonic research turbo tuner, those are supposed to be awesome (I have a Peterson SS2, but wish I had the turbo tuner). If you need a good buffer, check out a used Korg DT-10 (they are discontinued). Nice tuner and nice buffer on the DT-10, I have 2 of them

Thanks, I also heard good things about the SRT Tuner. I'm good with buffers. I think I need to research some more

Digitech markets a line of pedals under the name "Hardwire", and contrary to their name, they actually seem to be true bypass for real

I believe your right,
In the manual under "Specifications" They state "True Hardwire Bypass" Also under "Battery Operation" They state that when your battery runs completely down it switches to bypass eliminating the need to remove the pedal from your chain. That sounds like "True Bypass" to me also.