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Digitech Eric Clapton Crossroads

From "Sunshine of Your Love" to "Layla" (Unplugged), the new DigiTech Crossroads™ Artist Series Pedal provides seven signature tones from guitar legend Eric Clapton

Seven signature tones from guitar legend Eric Clapton.

In conjuntion with Eric Clapton, we have helped recreate some of his most famous tones in the DigiTech Crossroads Artist Series pedal by applying our new Production Modeling technology. This revolutionary technology was designed to help reproduce the studio and live sounds of an artist as heard on their recordings. This includes modeling the speaker cabinets, microphones with their placement, pre/post effects, and the recording engineer’s magic all in one pedal.

The Crossroads Artist Series pedal was conceived in conjunction with Eric Clapton and his long-time guitar tech Lee Dickson. Crossroads models seven Clapton signature tones. From songs like "Badge" with its swirling rotary speaker, to the Unplugged performance of Layla with its intimate acoustic tone, and of course, "Sunshine of Your Love" which features Eric’s signature "woman tone", Crossroads spans 30 years of Clapton culture and tone.

• Sunshine of Your Love. Eric achieved his now legendary "woman tone" by running his amps as hot and load as possible, rolling back the tone control on his SG and engaging his wah-wah to a fixed position.
• Badge. Eric used a rotating organ speaker for the swirling guitar breaks between the verse and chorus. This guitar sound was achieved by overdriving the amplifier within the rotary speaker and by strategically placing two microphones around the rotating speakers and panning their signals into a stereo field.
• Lay Down Sally is in a country style shuffle featuring Eric and George Terry in a counterpoint guitar duet.
• Reptile, Eric’s title track on his 2001 release features a classic Gibson L-5 jazz guitar played through his custom Cornell tweed combo. Some chorus and reverb were added during mixdown.
• Crossroads. A pivotal moment in Eric’s career, Crossroads was penned by Robert Johnson, Eric’s most important guitar influence. Its electrified delta blues form evolved from Eric’s days with the Bluesbreakers.
• Layla (acoustic). A classic moment in Eric’s career was his live acoustic performance on the MTV television series Unplugged. This setting transforms your electric guitar signal into Eric’s vintage Martin heard on this performance.
• Layla. Eric’s most recognised guitar riff and song features him on "Brownie", his Fender Strat, through a tweed Fender Champ combo.

In order to capture and preserve the accuracy of each of these unique Clapton sounds, DigiTech employed its proprietary Production Modeling technology via the AudioDNA™ DSP super-chip. This critically acclaimed technology was explicitly designed to help reproduce the studio and live sounds as well as the effects of an artist sound, as heard on their recordings. This includes modeling the speaker cabinets, microphones with their placements, pre/post effects, and the recording engineer’s creative magic all in one pedal. This attention to detail ensures that each Clapton signature sound is true to the original, as sonically distinctive today as it was when Eric played it live or in the studio. In addition, guitarists can draw on any of the modeled sounds as a starting point, with the ability to create and further develop their own tones using the function control knobs.

Features include function controls for Level (Output Level), CNTRL 1 (controls Distortion, Overdrive, Body Amount), CNTRL 2 (controls Tone, rotary speaker Modulation Speed, Reverb Level), Model (selects which model), Pedal On/Off, as well as jacks for Input, Out 1 (Amp), and Out 2 (Mixer). In addition, the Crossroads Artist Series Pedal is powered by an AC power supply or can operate by a 9 Volt battery with the benefit of a battery life LED indicator. The new DigiTech Crossroads Pedal measures 4 15/16" (L) x 3 1/8" (W) x 2 1/8" (H), weighs 2 lbs., comes with an Artist Series Pedal Gig Bag and Eric Clapton Crossroads Artist Series Guitar Pick, and is available immediately.

Commenting on the launch of the new Crossroads Artist Series Pedal, Lee Dickson said, "I’m so proud to have an association with this great little pedal! It has some of Eric’s classic tones and effects from past recordings that all E. C. fans and players will love. If you’re looking for inspiration, E. C. sounds, and a great FX pedal, check out the Clapton Crossroads Pedal and find all three!"

David Rohrer echoes Dickson’s sentiments: "The concept of the Crossroads Pedal came from early conversations with the Clapton people on their specific needs to duplicate a rotary speaker without carrying around a big wooden box. Based on our success with the award-winning Dan Donegan Artist Series Pedal, The Weapon™, and realizing the vast capabilities of Production Modeling, we knew we could accurately duplicate what was on the original recordings, so we took it to the next level and modeled some of Eric’s other signature tones. At the Crossroads Festival in Dallas, we demo’d a prototype to Lee Dickson and front-of-house [FOH] engineer Robert Collins. After hearing it and giving us a thumbs up, the next step was for Eric to give it his blessing…the rest is history!"

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this pedal is being donated to Crossroads Centre, an International Centre of Excellence for the treatment of alcohol, drugs and other addictive disorders.

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