The Crossroads models seven of Clapton's personal sounds, from songs such as "Badge," with its swirling rotary speaker, to "Layla" (Unplugged), with its intimate acoustic tone, and of course "Sunshine of Your Love," featuring Eric's characteristic "woman tone." Crossroads spans 30 years of Clapton culture and tone. DigiTech has accustomed us to reasonable quality at quite competitive prices.
We have several of the company's products in its multi-effects line. We decided to start with this "little one." Little in weight and size, not in features, since I have been playing pieces through it for a while and it has pleasantly surprised me (as have other DigiTech pedals).
Seven signature sounds of the legendary Eric Clapton
In collaboration with Eric Clapton, DigiTech has recreated some of his most famous sounds in the DigiTech® Crossroads Artist Series pedal, applying its new Production Modeling™ technology. This effects architecture was designed to help reproduce an artist's sounds (both in the studio and live) exactly as they are heard on the records. This includes modeling of the speaker cabinets, microphones (in their proper positions), pre and post effects and the recording engineer's magic, all in a single pedal. The Crossroads Artist Series pedal was thus conceived together with Eric Clapton and his longtime guitar tech, Lee Dickson.
Appearance
We unpacked the box and found an illustration of our beloved "Slowhand," with his years now showing, printed on it. The message: this is a signature pedal (Eric Clapton limited edition artist series) that offers the sounds used by the not exceedingly fast but deeply soulful guitarist Eric Clapton. I remember that when I started playing, this musician didn't particularly catch my attention. Back then I tended to focus more on fast, virtuoso guitarists who did "difficult or noisy" things. Years later, one fine day, I heard a striking solo. Not for its speed, but for everything it added to the song. A raw solo with a lot to say that communicated with me intensely. I decided to pick up the album credits and see who had recorded that solo, since it was different from the rest of the guitars on the record; to my surprise, the guitarist credited on that piece was Eric Clapton. I began looking for more of his recordings.
To round off these remarks, I would like to tell you that this was one of those moments when I learned that not everything on the guitar (or in music) is dexterity or playing more notes than anyone else in a few seconds. Eric Clapton was one of the first (along with others) who taught me to appreciate the importance of many more things than speed on scales.
Guitar + cable + amp / Guitar + cable + line
A small classic-style unit. This type of pedal has the shape (Boss-style) and structure I like best. The reason: it takes up little space, it is light, and its metal construction makes it tough and ready to be stomped on hundreds of times in the rehearsal room, the studio or at a gig without getting damaged. I have tried (and even owned on occasion) pedals of this type finished in plastic, and we really don't save much weight, while we get a more "fragile" unit that is easily damaged, especially in conditions of late nights, transport, smoke, drinks spilled near the stage, kicks, etc.
In a quick review of its inputs/outputs, we check the conventional connectors (power via an adapter and the guitar input). Now we add an important detail: two outputs:
a) Amp output
b) Mixer or line output
I like this detail because it makes the pedal useful in different situations we may find ourselves in, whether because we feel like playing through a warm amp or because circumstances force us to make do by plugging into a studio console or some dive bar's mixer. The mixer output also lets us use the pedal at night (without disturbing anyone) through headphones, or record directly, doing without the amp if necessary. All with more than decent quality for such a compact format.
There are no secrets regarding the battery compartment, which is under the rubber pad that switches the effect on and off (as on many others).
Knobs and control over the sound
The pedal has four knobs. Although they have more or less standard functions, what they do varies with each selection. Let's take them one by one.
1. Level knob. As you might guess, this control has a fixed role and always acts on the signal level.
2. Control 1. Basically used to control the gain level in any of the selections.
3. Control 2. In the tests I put the pedal through, I found it adjusting frequencies (TONE) as well as controlling modulation on wave effects (there's a chorus hidden in there somewhere). It also acts on the reverb level sent to certain settings.
4. MODEL. This is the knob with the most "repertoire" on the product. It is really what turns a simple pedal into a box of surprises that brings it closer to a multi-effects unit. There are seven positions, each of which gives us good-quality sounds covering different sonic territories used by Eric Clapton. In turn, each of the seven presets can be shaped by the previous controls: level, gain, tone and modulation (on the effects that have it).
The Crossroads' seven presets
Although there are seven settings, you can actually get many more sounds out of it. Let's say you cover a good range of overdrive, from light to "heavy" (without going overboard), different tonal points from dark, muffled guitars to totally crystal-clear sounds, reverb levels to taste in some positions, lush guitars with doses of chorus, overdriven or not, as you please, and clean sounds with great attack.
The pedal serves, on the one hand, as a source of inspiration or reference thanks to its preset sounds crafted to Clapton's taste. Each position of the mode control already has a preselection of premixed effects (although you can vary them with the controls). Second, if you feel like finding more uses for this tool, you can perfectly well use the pedal as a unit that combines overdrive, reverb or chorus (within the limitations of each position of the mode selector).
Conclusions
The truth is that the €171 this device costs go a long way. It may be surprising when you see a simple pedal (although I remember buying single-effect pedals back in the day, delays for example, that were more expensive than this one). The truth is that it offers you a good assortment, both in Clapton's style and in your own, as you configure it. In my view, it is a "bluesy" pedal. It handles soft and medium crunch passages very well and can even hold its own in more aggressive passages, since it also has more aggressive distortions.
This generation of signature pedals isn't bad at all: they offer a generous assortment of effects in a condensed, compact unit. If you like the Clapton vibe, and your sound lives somewhere between light or medium/medium-high overdrive, chorus and reverb, this pedal will make you happy.
