Digitech BP200 Bass Processor

The JoZ · 04-26-2004, 12:23 PM

Someone requested this in the bass forum, and while a few comments have been made, a more thorough review has not been done. I own one and for the most part love it, but there are some minor things I don't like about it.

This is a multieffects pedal that covers every effect one could possibly need...comes with 80 settings, with 40 of them to remain factory presets, and the others to be customized as you wish. I think you can customize past 40, but to be honest I've not fiddled with it enough to know.

Features of the BP200:

*Fretless simulator: Get a reasonable reproduction of fretless sound on a fretted bass
*Wah: Play around with that wah sound
*Cabinet Modeling: Play as if you were playing through a different size cabinet than what you're using
*Amp modeling: Same as above, except you get tones based on different types of amps, rather than size
*Stompbox modeling: Several different types of distortion and overdrive settings
*Compression: I can't really explain compression much because I don't know much about it myself, but it does offer compression settings
*EQ: Play around with a three-band EQ on the pedal, in addition to your bass and amp settings
*Effects: Includes the following effects: Flanger, Phaser, Detune, Chorus, Octavider, SynthTalk, Whammy, Pitch Shift, Envelope Filter, Vibrato
*Delay: Several kinds of delay, with changable feedback and delay times
*Reverb: Several kinds of reverb, with changeable decay, level
*An expression pedal: Control those effects in real time, necessary for Wah and Whammy control.

The 40 presets are a nice thing, but I'll admit some of their settings seem to or make no sense...some of settings in the 20's region are all just slight variations of clean settings...and some of the earlier settings are slight varations of distortion settings. I highly recommend that you try all of them, and then go create your own settings, because there is so much potential with this thing it isn't funny...yet they were quite conservative I think in their settings in that they didn't do much with them...

I really love the sound of the Chorus on this thing...it's deep and warm, a very full sound. The Detune effect does a similar thing, but not quite as thick...the Whammy setting is fun if you want to do weird sounding things, and for the bassist who loves Tool (like me), you can get the correct setting for Disposition on this pedal...5th up/Octave up...

The distortion settings are cool to mess with, you can get this grungy kind of distortion, or heavier metal distortion, or thick fuzz...the delay is nice and the reverb is a great thing. The wah is fine, but I think you could probably get better wah sound from a real pedal...same goes with the fretless simulator...don't buy this pedal in hopes of never needing a real fretless bass. Phase and Flange are cool settings, but most people may never have a use for them...the only setting I don't really like is the Synth setting on here...it sounds weird, and not a good kind of weird. Digitech does make a Synth Wah pedal, however, and I've heard great things about it, so I think I'd pick up one of those one day too

I'd give this a four out of five star rating...so many choices, so many ways to find your unique sound. What it does well, it does really well in my opinion (Delay, Reverb, many of the effects)...the Synth is the only thing I don't like at all, and the fretless/wah could be a bit better. I've played live with this before, and improvised a long drawn out distortion filled solo...which was loved by many. The only other thing to watch out for is it's power supply...I had to have mine replaced because it stopped working...so be careful with it. The unit itself is quite solid, however.

dans107 · 04-27-2004, 04:47 AM

Nice review.

How much was it? I'm looking into getting another effects pedal, or an effects board. I'm just wondering if it would be a waste of money for the amount of things I'd use.

Dan

The JoZ · 04-27-2004, 07:43 AM

It was bought for me at about $150...

If you're only planning to use like one effect on there, I wouldn't buy it...but then again, if you bought two X-series pedals, you could've bought this.

I don't think it's a waste of money at all, unless you do absolutely nothing with it; as stated above there are so many choices and so many combinations of things to mess with that if you can't find something you like, I'd be very surprised

fallen angel2121 · 05-01-2004, 02:44 PM

Do you find that your BP200 hisses nastily at you when you use it? I'ver heard that this is from putting to much gain on, but I've turned the gain down to 0 to no avail. Any thoughts?

Fallen Angel

The JoZ · 05-02-2004, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fallen angel2121

Do you find that your BP200 hisses nastily at you when you use it? I'ver heard that this is from putting to much gain on, but I've turned the gain down to 0 to no avail. Any thoughts?

Fallen Angel

I have not experienced this...aside from turning up the gain too high with the Solo, FatFuzz and FuzzFaze settings...but those have heavy distortion involved, so it's no surprise there

You might have a defect...if you've recently bought it, or you registered it with Digitech, you can get a replacement...otherwise, I don't know what to tell you other than I don't think it's supposed to do that

Try turning down the master level knob too...or the gain on your amp...or even the volume on your bass...it's quite possible everything is just too loud...or maybe you have a smaller amp? I run mine through a 100W Ampeg BA115 with no problem, so...I don't know what else to suggest if these don't remedy your situation

trev913 · 05-21-2004, 08:16 PM

niceee. I was thinking about buying a BP80 (the step down from the 200) sometime this summer. But I'd like a full list of the effects.

electric grapevine · 05-21-2004, 11:04 PM

The effects are not that high-quality. They work, but they're not great. Compare the built in flanger to an $80 flanger pedal and you'll hear the difference.

But if you're looking for something to play around with, or like me, a drum machine/headphone amp, then this is fine. Through my amp, yeah, this thing is loud as ****. I have humbucking pickups, and even then, I have to turn on the noise gate to keep it from getting to loud when I'm not playing. And when I am you can still hear the hiss in the background.

Good for the money, but I don't think I'd buy it again.

fallen angel2121 · 05-22-2004, 03:34 AM

A full list of the effects:

Fretless Simulator: Not so good, but might be worthwhile for a few specific tones
Wah: Fine, sounds pretty good to me
Compressor: Never really understood or used this
Amp/Stompbox modelling: This is definately useful, especially the stompboxes. Really good for getting the exact tone you wanted.
Equaliser: Its a 3 band equaliser, same as on your amp.
Cabinet modelling/Noise Gate: The cab modelling is also quite useful, not as good as the amp modelling though. The noise gate is definately useful for lots of the effects that create a constant background noise.
Chorus: Very useful, wide range of tones.
Flanger: I've found thissounds really good with some distortion on it. As said not a top quality flanger, but its a multi effects pedal.
Phaser: Again, pretty good. Yet to use it in a song though.
Envelope Filter: Kind'v weird wah effect on each note you play. The "Autowa" setting using this is a lot of fun to play around with.
Vibrato: This has to be the least useful there, but its so funny to play with.
Octavider: None of my amps can really cope with this, but it might see use this summer with a new amp....
SynthTalk: The SynthTalk is a load of bollocks really. It tones down everything you play and bashes some queer sounds on top of it.
Detune: Kindv like Whammy, again not so good.
Pitch Shift: Again, like Detune.
Whammy: Gives a queer ringing noise sometimes, but its not too much of a problem. Good for Tool songs/ RATM solos on a guitar.
Delay: Does exactly what it says on the tin.
Reverb: Large amount of room setting for the reverb (ever played in an amphitheatre? Ever think you will? Not a problem with this pedal, if it ever was a problem.)
Drum Machine: Just some kindv crap preset drum patterns. Don't buy it for this.

Thats quite a few effects... Definately worth it unless you're super rich and can buy 256 different pedals.

Fallen Angel

05-24-2004, 08:10 AM

Thanks for the reviews. I'd read about these but its good to hear actual players talk about them, instead of the people who made it. I think I'll get one this summer after I get a new bass.

The JoZ · 05-24-2004, 07:48 PM

Yeah I'll admit myself that the effects are not like uber-great OMG kind of sounding...

But some of us can't afford to buy the entire Digitech product line at this point in time...

Plus, it's nice to blend effects and sounds into one channel to as opposed to stepping on tons of pedals

timmySmi · 05-27-2004, 05:21 PM

Have you tryed to mix the Wah with a bit of distortion?
If so does it give off a sort of RATM/Calm Like A Bomb sound?

Joe not-a-noob · 05-27-2004, 06:18 PM

Since it has the stompboxes, do those work as footswitches too? Can you go from clean to distortion just by stepping on the pedal?

trev913 · 05-28-2004, 11:38 AM

Thanks for the list. I'm probably gonna buy that or the BP80. This summer, I'm hopefully gonna end up with a Deluxe P Bass Combo and I'll probably buy the 80. Thanks again.

fallen angel2121 · 05-28-2004, 03:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe not-a-noob

Since it has the stompboxes, do those work as footswitches too? Can you go from clean to distortion just by stepping on the pedal?

It basiucally functions as any other multi effects processor; there are 40 different settings you can create on the pedal, ancd 2 footswitches cycle between them; opne is up, the other goes down. So basically, yes, if you create a "Bypass" setting (I have many of these) next to your distortion, then it does act as a basic stompbox in that way. Its built very sturdily, and so you can step on it pretty hard. It also has a Bypass mode, but to do this, you need to step on both pedals simeultaneously which is kindv hard to do.

Fallen Angel

Joe not-a-noob · 05-28-2004, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fallen angel2121

It basiucally functions as any other multi effects processor; there are 40 different settings you can create on the pedal, ancd 2 footswitches cycle between them; opne is up, the other goes down. So basically, yes, if you create a "Bypass" setting (I have many of these) next to your distortion, then it does act as a basic stompbox in that way. Its built very sturdily, and so you can step on it pretty hard. It also has a Bypass mode, but to do this, you need to step on both pedals simeultaneously which is kindv hard to do.

Fallen Angel

Thanks a lot.

The JoZ · 05-31-2004, 10:21 PM

The best thing to do, I've found, is to go and save a clean channel in between an effect...for example, these are a few settings of mine

24 - Chorus - Gives me a strong chorus effect
25 - Normal - Clean setting, defined as I want it
26 - 5-3004 - A weird delay setting I made yesterday

You can go from the settings back and forth to a clean etting quite easily this way...better than trying to bypass the pedal completely

***joshmay*** · 05-31-2004, 11:43 PM

http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186195

SomaTaker · 06-03-2004, 04:32 PM

i wouldnt recomend. but maybe im just a purist, i go straight through my amp and find many settings just through drive and EQ settings. the only things that are good on the Bp200 is the compressor(it limits and/ or enhances your tone, controling your volume-great for slapping),amp modeling (the stompboxes suck, they are modled after GUITAR distortion pedals [ds-1,big muff pi etc]) the cabnet modeling and the EQ. it was to much of a hassle and made my sound "thin", so i never use it and will be selling it soon

SomaTaker · 06-03-2004, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timmySmi

Have you tryed to mix the Wah with a bit of distortion?
If so does it give off a sort of RATM/Calm Like A Bomb sound?

no. sorry, the wah sux, and so does the distortion, but to get a good heavy distorted sound you can overdrive one of the amp models. the only thing i found the wah useful for was when playing anesthesia, it worked ok there.

SomaTaker · 06-03-2004, 04:40 PM

again, still ranting. most of these effects were taking from the guitar processors and just put on here (whammy,a boss ds-1 distortion,wah,chourus,flange etc) so, they dont seem very pratical for bass. and the compressor is great, if you learn how to use it. it controls your sound tone and volume, but other than that, dont buy this. its more worthwhile to save your money and buy a good boss multi effects pedal instead.

04-26-2004, 12:23 PM	#1
The JoZ Beyond The Divide Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Norfolk, Virginia, USA Posts: 12,452	Digitech BP200 Bass Processor Someone requested this in the bass forum, and while a few comments have been made, a more thorough review has not been done. I own one and for the most part love it, but there are some minor things I don't like about it. This is a multieffects pedal that covers every effect one could possibly need...comes with 80 settings, with 40 of them to remain factory presets, and the others to be customized as you wish. I think you can customize past 40, but to be honest I've not fiddled with it enough to know. Features of the BP200: Fretless simulator: Get a reasonable reproduction of fretless sound on a fretted bass Wah: Play around with that wah sound Cabinet Modeling: Play as if you were playing through a different size cabinet than what you're using Amp modeling: Same as above, except you get tones based on different types of amps, rather than size Stompbox modeling: Several different types of distortion and overdrive settings Compression: I can't really explain compression much because I don't know much about it myself, but it does offer compression settings EQ: Play around with a three-band EQ on the pedal, in addition to your bass and amp settings Effects: Includes the following effects: Flanger, Phaser, Detune, Chorus, Octavider, SynthTalk, Whammy, Pitch Shift, Envelope Filter, Vibrato Delay: Several kinds of delay, with changable feedback and delay times Reverb: Several kinds of reverb, with changeable decay, level *An expression pedal: Control those effects in real time, necessary for Wah and Whammy control. The 40 presets are a nice thing, but I'll admit some of their settings seem to or make no sense...some of settings in the 20's region are all just slight variations of clean settings...and some of the earlier settings are slight varations of distortion settings. I highly recommend that you try all of them, and then go create your own settings, because there is so much potential with this thing it isn't funny...yet they were quite conservative I think in their settings in that they didn't do much with them... I really love the sound of the Chorus on this thing...it's deep and warm, a very full sound. The Detune effect does a similar thing, but not quite as thick...the Whammy setting is fun if you want to do weird sounding things, and for the bassist who loves Tool (like me), you can get the correct setting for Disposition on this pedal...5th up/Octave up... The distortion settings are cool to mess with, you can get this grungy kind of distortion, or heavier metal distortion, or thick fuzz...the delay is nice and the reverb is a great thing. The wah is fine, but I think you could probably get better wah sound from a real pedal...same goes with the fretless simulator...don't buy this pedal in hopes of never needing a real fretless bass. Phase and Flange are cool settings, but most people may never have a use for them...the only setting I don't really like is the Synth setting on here...it sounds weird, and not a good kind of weird. Digitech does make a Synth Wah pedal, however, and I've heard great things about it, so I think I'd pick up one of those one day too I'd give this a four out of five star rating...so many choices, so many ways to find your unique sound. What it does well, it does really well in my opinion (Delay, Reverb, many of the effects)...the Synth is the only thing I don't like at all, and the fretless/wah could be a bit better. I've played live with this before, and improvised a long drawn out distortion filled solo...which was loved by many. The only other thing to watch out for is it's power supply...I had to have mine replaced because it stopped working...so be careful with it. The unit itself is quite solid, however.

05-31-2004, 11:43 PM	#17
*joshmay* ob la di, ob la da! Supermod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: falcon, kentucky. Posts: 12,665	http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186195 __________________ i'm so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here.
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04-27-2004, 04:47 AM	#2
dans107 My Coco Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Teesside, England Posts: 8,388	Nice review. How much was it? I'm looking into getting another effects pedal, or an effects board. I'm just wondering if it would be a waste of money for the amount of things I'd use. Dan

04-27-2004, 07:43 AM	#3
The JoZ Beyond The Divide Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Norfolk, Virginia, USA Posts: 12,452	It was bought for me at about $150... If you're only planning to use like one effect on there, I wouldn't buy it...but then again, if you bought two X-series pedals, you could've bought this. I don't think it's a waste of money at all, unless you do absolutely nothing with it; as stated above there are so many choices and so many combinations of things to mess with that if you can't find something you like, I'd be very surprised

05-01-2004, 02:44 PM	#4
fallen angel2121 Spiral out Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 450	Do you find that your BP200 hisses nastily at you when you use it? I'ver heard that this is from putting to much gain on, but I've turned the gain down to 0 to no avail. Any thoughts? Fallen Angel

05-21-2004, 08:16 PM	#6
trev913 Official Kid With No Legs Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: St. Louis, Mo Posts: 1,287	niceee. I was thinking about buying a BP80 (the step down from the 200) sometime this summer. But I'd like a full list of the effects.

05-21-2004, 11:04 PM	#7
electric grapevine Registered User Join Date: May 2004 Location: Flagstaff, AZ Posts: 6	The effects are not that high-quality. They work, but they're not great. Compare the built in flanger to an $80 flanger pedal and you'll hear the difference. But if you're looking for something to play around with, or like me, a drum machine/headphone amp, then this is fine. Through my amp, yeah, this thing is loud as ****. I have humbucking pickups, and even then, I have to turn on the noise gate to keep it from getting to loud when I'm not playing. And when I am you can still hear the hiss in the background. Good for the money, but I don't think I'd buy it again.

05-22-2004, 03:34 AM	#8
fallen angel2121 Spiral out Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 450	A full list of the effects: Fretless Simulator: Not so good, but might be worthwhile for a few specific tones Wah: Fine, sounds pretty good to me Compressor: Never really understood or used this Amp/Stompbox modelling: This is definately useful, especially the stompboxes. Really good for getting the exact tone you wanted. Equaliser: Its a 3 band equaliser, same as on your amp. Cabinet modelling/Noise Gate: The cab modelling is also quite useful, not as good as the amp modelling though. The noise gate is definately useful for lots of the effects that create a constant background noise. Chorus: Very useful, wide range of tones. Flanger: I've found thissounds really good with some distortion on it. As said not a top quality flanger, but its a multi effects pedal. Phaser: Again, pretty good. Yet to use it in a song though. Envelope Filter: Kind'v weird wah effect on each note you play. The "Autowa" setting using this is a lot of fun to play around with. Vibrato: This has to be the least useful there, but its so funny to play with. Octavider: None of my amps can really cope with this, but it might see use this summer with a new amp.... SynthTalk: The SynthTalk is a load of bollocks really. It tones down everything you play and bashes some queer sounds on top of it. Detune: Kindv like Whammy, again not so good. Pitch Shift: Again, like Detune. Whammy: Gives a queer ringing noise sometimes, but its not too much of a problem. Good for Tool songs/ RATM solos on a guitar. Delay: Does exactly what it says on the tin. Reverb: Large amount of room setting for the reverb (ever played in an amphitheatre? Ever think you will? Not a problem with this pedal, if it ever was a problem.) Drum Machine: Just some kindv crap preset drum patterns. Don't buy it for this. Thats quite a few effects... Definately worth it unless you're super rich and can buy 256 different pedals. Fallen Angel

05-24-2004, 08:10 AM	#9
pbzep0670 Guest Posts: n/a	Thanks for the reviews. I'd read about these but its good to hear actual players talk about them, instead of the people who made it. I think I'll get one this summer after I get a new bass.

05-24-2004, 07:48 PM	#10
The JoZ Beyond The Divide Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Norfolk, Virginia, USA Posts: 12,452	Yeah I'll admit myself that the effects are not like uber-great OMG kind of sounding... But some of us can't afford to buy the entire Digitech product line at this point in time... Plus, it's nice to blend effects and sounds into one channel to as opposed to stepping on tons of pedals

05-27-2004, 05:21 PM	#11
timmySmi MX Sadowsky Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Plymouth, England Posts: 297	Have you tryed to mix the Wah with a bit of distortion? If so does it give off a sort of RATM/Calm Like A Bomb sound?

05-27-2004, 06:18 PM	#12
Joe not-a-noob bass>you Join Date: May 2004 Location: grove ****ty, ohio Posts: 362	Since it has the stompboxes, do those work as footswitches too? Can you go from clean to distortion just by stepping on the pedal?

05-28-2004, 11:38 AM	#13
trev913 Official Kid With No Legs Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: St. Louis, Mo Posts: 1,287	Thanks for the list. I'm probably gonna buy that or the BP80. This summer, I'm hopefully gonna end up with a Deluxe P Bass Combo and I'll probably buy the 80. Thanks again.

05-31-2004, 10:21 PM	#16
The JoZ Beyond The Divide Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Norfolk, Virginia, USA Posts: 12,452	The best thing to do, I've found, is to go and save a clean channel in between an effect...for example, these are a few settings of mine 24 - Chorus - Gives me a strong chorus effect 25 - Normal - Clean setting, defined as I want it 26 - 5-3004 - A weird delay setting I made yesterday You can go from the settings back and forth to a clean etting quite easily this way...better than trying to bypass the pedal completely

06-03-2004, 04:32 PM	#18
SomaTaker Registered User Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 9	i wouldnt recomend. but maybe im just a purist, i go straight through my amp and find many settings just through drive and EQ settings. the only things that are good on the Bp200 is the compressor(it limits and/ or enhances your tone, controling your volume-great for slapping),amp modeling (the stompboxes suck, they are modled after GUITAR distortion pedals [ds-1,big muff pi etc]) the cabnet modeling and the EQ. it was to much of a hassle and made my sound "thin", so i never use it and will be selling it soon

06-03-2004, 04:40 PM	#20
SomaTaker Registered User Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 9	again, still ranting. most of these effects were taking from the guitar processors and just put on here (whammy,a boss ds-1 distortion,wah,chourus,flange etc) so, they dont seem very pratical for bass. and the compressor is great, if you learn how to use it. it controls your sound tone and volume, but other than that, dont buy this. its more worthwhile to save your money and buy a good boss multi effects pedal instead.