There isn't much in the box. It looks like just the unit and a box with the adapter. The adapter comes with 4 plugs for international use. In my excitement to get going, I almost broke it trying to get the US plug inserted correctly. It drops in the middle instead of sliding down from the top. A picture for dummies would have helped this dummy... (See picture on the right. Drop in the plug as in the picture, THEN slide down!) The "manual" is a piece of cardboard inserted where the iPad goes, with a registration card behind it. Mine had the iPad 2 tray installed and the iPad 1 tray taped to the bottom of the unit in bubble wrap. I use the iPad 2 tray with my iPad 3. The hinge lid for the iPad is very solid. I worried it would be flimsy, but it is all metal baby! A little scary actually, like a guillotine! You won't like it when it drops on your hand... though I did notice there is a rubber lip on the bottom that might afford some protection in case it falls shut. Also, by the way, you won't ever be able to load your iPad one handed. You have to press both spring loaded buttons at the same time to open the lid. Once the iPad is in there, I don't think it will be going anywhere!

 

The dock connector is short. It connects directly to the circut board with a special ribbon cable. It is *not* a USB cable. If you own this pedal long enough, I expect you'll be needing a replacement of this part eventually. If you want an extension cable, you'll need a dock extension cable. Most people have USB cables, not dock extension cables, so if you are thinking about getting an iPB-10, do yourself a favor and get the dock extension cable at the same time. After you connect your iPad, it automatically launches the Nexus app. Not sure how that works, but it's cool. Then the app tells you need to update your firmware before you can use the app : (  Typical new iPad buzz kill. The firmware update is a download off the iPB-10 product page. The app tries to give you the URL, but it's truncated. You download the NetUpdater program and run it from your computer (Windows or Mac) with the iPB-10 connected via a USB cable (again, not included). It takes *forever* (10-15 minutes while you're new toy does NOTHING...). If I understand it, the firmware update wipes out your settings in the pedal, so don't play with the pedal first. Then if I remember right, the app asks to sync with the pedal, which is another 5-10 wait. I was playing around with the app before I got the pedal, and my custom patches were untouched by the sync, but I think pedal assignments revert back to match the pedal.

 

Once you are finally done with updating and syncing, you can check out the dull presets. I was not impressed. There were only a few that were fun to play. Tweak patches is a breeze compared to other pedals, though it takes a while to get the habit of tapping the iPad in the right places. You tap once to swap out pedals, and double tap to edit the knobs on a pedal. It is easy to tap somewhere you don't mean to and have to start the process over. It also does not warn you when you switch to a new patch without saving your edits, so be careful... When I started working on a patch, I got in the habit of naming it and saving it right away, and then just using the "Quick Save" button every so often as I built the patch. At first, I struggled to get the knobs to save at the precise number I wanted, much like x-Edit with a mouse. I would try to stop at 50 and get 51 or 52 instead. For anal people like me, it will drive you nuts until you get used to it, but now it is only an issue if I am making quick adjustments.

 

I created a blank patch with no pedals or amp as basically a bypass signal, and assigned to patch 1. I then turned on the Stomp Loop and cabled up my old GNX4 and re-saved the patch so the stomp loop would always be on when I switched to patch 1. I would bring up the patch I was copying from the GNX4. I also had my GNX4 connected to x-Edit via USB. I would look at the old pedal settings in x-Edit and then try to duplicate that on the iPad. It is a little difficult in that a lot of pedals and amps are named differently now, and some of the settings don't match up very well. Sonically, it doesn't seem too hard to make it sound the way you want though. My experience was that the new patches turned out nice just for the extra effort in tweaking them. x-Edit was getting to be a little slow, so I switched to an Excel file I have that reads .G4P patch files and prints out the settings. I would add the amp and distortion pedal and save, flip back to patch 1 and compare, then flip back to my new patch and edit some more, do a quick-save, and compare again, and so on until I got the new patch how I liked it. This has been the easiest way to get new patches how I like them. The iPB-10 does not work with x-Edit.

In October of 2012, DigiTech finally update the app (v1.06) to allow patch sharing via email and backup of you entire patch library.

 

Any questions, add a comment below.