DigiTech LUXE Polyphonic Detune pedal

[Happy Jack]

So we're now in uncharted waters ... I don't normally do reviews of FX pedals but (rather bizarrely) this is an actual request!

I've just discovered this pedal, which during its brief existence was often known as 'anti-chorus'. I've owned various chorus pedals over the years and they all have that seasick sound to my ears, and verge on being flabby.

What I really wanted was a sound that would thicken up my bass when playing in a 3-piece (in an ADT sort of way) and work well with a nice octave pedal for fretless work.

I stumbled across a YouTube of the LUXE and instantly thought "that's the one".

For reasons about which I know nothing, this pedal was only on the market for about two years before DigiTech withdrew it, so there's not many of them out there. After strenuous searching (oh alright, I looked on Reverb) I found what I suspect is the last unsold LUXE in Europe and immediately bought it.

I've done five sound files:

1. Vanilla sound, no FX at all
2. DigiTech CF-7 with all knobs at 12
3. DigiTech CF-7 with all knobs at 2
4. LUXE with Detune knob at 2
5. LUXE with Detune knob at 10

The bass is a Fender Precision Fretless (1977) played through a GB Shuttle into an ElBee 1012 cab. Recording was done with a standard Zoom H2 handheld.

A word of warning. We all know that fretless bass demos are played by Bass Gods who cram seven Jaco licks into every bar and drown us with 'mwah', right?

Well I'm not that guy.

Clip 01 Vanilla.mp3

IMHO it's a nice enough sound, quite lovely in its own way, but not particularly engaging.

Clip 02 CF-3 at 12.mp3

Despite being the simplest setting on the pedal, for me this is about as good as chorus gets. If only it didn't have that flabby, wobbly feel to it.

Clip 03 CF-3 at 02.mp3

Oh dear. This is really not much of a tweak ... three knobs each moved by about 10 degrees clockwise, and look what you get!

Clip 04 LUXE at 02.mp3

There! Now that's what I'm talking about. The bass is thicker and (to my ears) far more punchy, as if I had quickly swopped out the pickups for SD Quarter Pounders between recordings. There's no seasickness, and the flabbiness has disappeared.

Clip 05 LUXE at 10.mp3

The difference isn't enormous, and I don't think this is an improvement, but it's still a completely useable sound.

And that really is the key. The CF-7 is a marvellously flexible pedal which can do pretty much anything you might want, so long as you have the time and desire to fiddle around with it and note which combinations work for you and which don't.

For stage use, I have only ever used one setting, because a busy pub gig with impatient punters and scowling bandmates is not the place to start twiddling knobs. Unless you're the guitarist, of course. And it's all too easy for your knob twiddling to result in completely awful sounds, silly noises to irritate others [see also Bass Synth].

The LUXE on the other hand has a Level knob which you shouldn't need to touch once set for the gig, and a Detune knob which has a simple, direct function and really struggles to generate an unuseable sound.

This is a pedal which can find an instant and permanent place on even my smallest board.

 

 

[SumOne]

I've been searching for a Digitech Luxe for the exact same reasons:  I like the chorus 'thickening' by doubling of the signal with a slight de-tuned version but I'm not so keen on the modulation that chorus pedals also add - I find that gives a slightly seasick/drunken feeling. There are a few pitch shifting pedals and double-tracking pedals but I don't think they are quite the same effect as the Luxe. I usually end up running chorus pedals with minimum speed settings which sort of gets around it but ideally I'd like to get a Luxe because it gets rid of the modulation completely and gives precise control over how much it is de-tuned.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2021 by SumOne