Digitech Element XP

The Digitech Element XP is a multi-effects pedal. It’s an entry level multi-effects unit. I’ve used it for around 5 years. It was my first multi-effects pedal. In this post, I will be giving you a very honest review of my experience playing with it on stage and at home. The XP version has an expression pedal. This post is about the Element XP. The specifications given will be that of the XP version.

Specifications

• 31 effects. Digitech says that you can run 9 effects simultaneously but they have included the expression pedal as an effect in the chain.
• 12 Amps to choose from
• Distortions
• 100 factory presets and 100 user presets for you to store the effects you create.
• The pedal gives you the option of just going through the FX banks and the Tone Banks, which showcase different kinds of classic configurations. This means you can select something from the FX bank like the Chorus and select something from the Tone Bank, say Blues and combine the two to get the sound that you need without configuring all the effects. Personally, I never found this useful.
• It has an inbuilt drum machine which allows you to choose from 45 patterns. You can set the tempo of the pattern and adjust the volume. This does help but adjusting the right tempo can be a bit tricky as you can’t tap in the tempo. But the metronome patterns are pretty useful when it comes to practicing.
• It has a built in tuner. It works fine. Nothing fancy.
• It has an AUX input and a headphone jack, which is pretty useful for practicing without waking anybody up and for jamming with your favourite track.
• The pedal has an option called Speaker Cabinet Compensation. This emulates the frequency of a guitar speaker cabinet and is very useful when playing with headphones. You can also use the pedal in mono and stereo modes, depending on what you are connecting the pedal to.
• The power supply is included.

My Experience With The Digitech Element XP

Here are the reasons why I liked it:

• Most people looking into a pedal like this are usually new to the world of guitar effects. I was one too, when I decided to buy one. The reason for that is how easy it is to use. The effects chain is displayed using small illustrations, which makes it easier to dial in effects and understand how effects work. Not having a lot to tweak, limiting as it is, makes the pedal extremely user friendly to beginners.
• It is very compact. It weighs nothing and will fit into almost any decent bag. There no knobs or buttons sticking out.
• Last of all, it looked pretty cool. Which is always important 🙂

Here are the reasons why I didn’t like it:

• I spent too much money on it and could have bought something much better for what I paid. I bought it online and paid around 10,000 rupees for it. It was not worth it. I don’t think it’s that expensive outside India. If you asked me what price tag I would put on it, I would say around 50 dollars. Even then, it would be better in my opinion to spend a little more money and get a better pedal, if you are planning to spend more than 2 years with it.
• The effects were very tinny and too bright. I use a Yamaha Pacifica and it just didn’t sound good when I plugged it into the Element XP.
• You can’t really dial in the sound you want. You can’t tweak it much. If you are adding a delay to your signal chain, all you can do is choose what type of delay you want to use, at what speed you want it to function and how loud you want it to be. It gets really bad when it comes to amps. For example, if you choose a 1983 Marshall JCM800, all you do is choose the how high you want the gain to be. You are given 9 settings from JC1 to JC9. As the number increases, so does the gain. Most of there amp models were too distorted from the start and you always had to use a noise gate. If you ask me, being able to configure your amp models in crucial to building a good effect and this just didn’t help me there.
• The Wah effect, which is perhaps one of my favourites, was absolutely unusable. It was to tinny and whenever I used it, it resulted in really screechy effects.
• The built was ok for the money but it just felt a bit cheap.

My Final Verdict:

The Digitech Element XP is definitely not the greatest sounding or the most tweakable pedal in its range, but it is definitely a great introduction to the world of pedals. It’s small, cheap and a great Christmas present to a beginner guitar player. It does the job. If you are not the guy who has a lot of time to research about pedals, this might be the thing for you.

Now if you are the kind of guy who spends hours on guitar forums and spend your Saturdays at the Music Store, I would ask you to spend a little more money and get something like a Vox Stomplab or a Zoom G2. If you are not planning to buy a new multi-effects pedal in more than 2 years, and you practice everyday, there is a great chance that something like the Element XP will limit you.

I hope I was able to help you make the right decision. If it did, leave a like and give me a follow. I’m new to the world of gear reviews so any feedback would also be really great. God bless!