Guitar Players , anyone using the Boss GT10?

mantis

Whats up?
I just struck a deal with a friend of mine who purchased the GT 10 and found it to be to hard to use. He also thought the tone of his amp was not as good with the GT 10 connected.
He used it barely as he just couldn't get it the way he wanted. Mind you hes a long time guitar player and likes things simple so going back to pedals makes him extremely happy.
So what I did was trade him some of my pedals for the GT even up. He agreed and we made the deal. I'll have the board Next Thursday.

So My history with effects processors is shaky. I prefer the tone of pedals and my amp when I turn off the pedals , I like a completely organic sound as I hate when anything effects the natural sound of my amp. I had many amps in the past but never was able to find " the exact one" that fit all of my needs until I found Krank. I own a Revolution 1 combo.
Basically I wanted Fender clean with a Thick chunky sharp clear drive. Every amp I tried either had one or the other , never both. The Bogner series did but was slighty out of my price range. The Peavy JSX was just about perfect but had this thing I couldn't put my finder on but held me back from owning one. I actually purchased one and returned it in favor of the Krank. I could see my self owning another but I would need it modified slighty to get that last bit of clean out of it and a sharper thicker tone out of the drive section.

Pedal boards I had a Vox pedal board effect processor but it only wired either in front of the amp or in the effects loop. Don't very flexible but sounded pretty good. I got tired of it and sold it for a Boss GT 8. That thing sounded great in many ways but altered my preamp section in the 4 cable method. My amp didn't sound as organic as it did with the Boss out of the chain. I got it close after months of messing with it but when I went back to pedals , some in front , some in the effects loop , I got my best sound.

What I liked about the Boss GT8 was I could program it for instant recall of a full setup. That is want I always wanted out of a effects processor but not at the expense of tone loss. So I sold the GT8 and just delt with the pedal stomping.
When the GT 10 came out , I was on the fence about buying it. They said they made great improvements over the GT8 especially in tone of your amp mated with it. More of a pure pass if you will. I didn't see the need of test driving it as I really enjoyed my tone and I made it somewhat easy to use my setup.
When my friend purchased it and decided he wanted out of it , I felt trading up some pedals for it was a worth while deal so I did it.

So my question to all of you is have any of you compared it to the GT8 and how is the tone of you amp with it? I like using the modeled preamps inside and bypassing mine for certain things but I really like the preamp in my amp and using the Boss effects in the loop and in front with the 4 wire method. From what I read , the newer Gt10 does a way better job of using this method over the GT8. I'll answer all my own questions next Thursday when I get it( My friend moved to CA and I'm in PA so it takes 4 days to ship) but would love some input on it before it gets here , some tips , tricks etc or anything anyone with experience with it to give me. Even better if someone upgraded from the GT8 and can give some feedback on the upgrade or not a upgrade.

Cool guys thanks in advance.

halo71

I had a GT8 once. Thought I liked it until I started using tube driven pedals. And also have heard several guitarists say that the GT10 is not really that big of an improvement over the 8. I've had racks before with digital processors etc. (my fav being the Digitech GSP21 Legend) but after a while simple pedals and tube amps I found gave the best tone.

naturallight

I've tried rackmount stuff over the years. Tried the boss GT8, but that just came across too harsh for my likeing.
I have a Digitech RP1000...."supposed" to act like a stomp box. But if you plug any of these boxes in, with the 4 cable method(they say it's NOT supposed to effect the sound of the amp) Thats bull. It dose, no matter who makes it. I pulled the cable setup, just run it thru the EFX loop, plug the guitar strait into the amp. Run the RP in stompbox mode. All i really end up running is some delay.
To be honest, probably just going back to some stomp boxes....just seems to work best with tubes.

mantis

I'm kinda expecting that. I was hoping and still hoping I can make it work as I really like the ability of the newer GT10. I agree with the tone I'm as fussy about my tone as anyone. I put the guitar down sometimes when my tone doesn't sound quite right. I get annoyed and don't wanna play anymore. It's funny how one day your tone is exactly what you want it to be then another day you can't get it to sound anywhere near as good and this is all without changing anything but day , time and weather conditions. I play mostly in my basement with concrete walls on a rubber like floor( Gym Snap together flooring. I usually get great tone and that makes me play better and longer.

For stomp boxes yes i have yet to hear anything sound as good or better but the whole control over all those pedals suck. I heard there is some kind of pedal controller where you leave all your pedals on and this thing routes the signals the way you want programed switches. That I can't remember the name of it but I remember it being expensive like over a grand for just the controller.

naturallight

YUP..pretty much happens all the time. One day, everything works great, your sound is great. The next day...you just go, man this stinks and put down the guitar...LOL
It seems the longer i've been playing, the less junk i need, or want...but thats not really a far statement, since i no longer play out, and don't need to copy 100 songs....LOL

naturallight

By the way, i think the name your looking for is a Bradshaw switching system..."maybe" But these are usually custom made for the performer, and yeah start at 1K depnding on what you what done.

mantis

naturallight wrote: »

By the way, i think the name your looking for is a Bradshaw switching system..."maybe" But these are usually custom made for the performer, and yeah start at 1K depnding on what you what done.

I don't recall it being called that , It was another name I just can't remember what it was. Thats probably the best way to go but the most expensive and clunky.
I like the all in one effects idea if someone could actually make one that sounds amazing. I'm gonna fool around with the GT 10 and see how far I can take it. If it doesn't work out , I can always go right back to pedals.

Syndil

mantis wrote: »

I like the all in one effects idea if someone could actually make one that sounds amazing.

Axe-Fx. Yes, it's expensive, but it's what you are looking for.

JimKellyfan

I have an old hybrid Crate TD35 amp. Was thinking of trading it in for a Vox.

halo71

Syndil wrote: »

Axe-Fx. Yes, it's expensive, but it's what you are looking for.

IF I had the funds. This is what I would go for! Awesome unit.

But then again a vintage modded ADA MP1 and a nice tube power amp mated to it is still very hard to beat imo over anything today. Not nearly as sterile sounding as more of todays stuff is.

SWFalken

I'm definitely in the less is more camp when it comes to guitar rigs. Tele, Music Man delay, Barber Direct Drive overdrive, Fender Twin Reverb 65 re-issue.

naturallight

Yeah, the Axe-Efx is "supposed" to be the best thing since sliced bread..LOL But the cost is insane, something like $2200 for the rack unit and another $750 for the floor pedal. Most of the people i know that are really using this to play out, don't even use tube amps. It is run directly into the PA system, they have 2 monitors faceing them, run by an SS power amp. So they can hear what there playing.

If you try and use this, with say a 100 watt Marshall 1/2 stack. You would have to bypass all the "amp sims, cab sims" other wise it will probably sound bad.
Lots of money, any way you look at it.

newrival

I have a roland VG-88 that is pretty sweet.

Also, for the price, the Fender Mustang series amps have some of the best tones out there, and are a crazy good deal. The Mustang V is a big amp head with awesome tone and great if you have a good cab already. They just released a floor pedal that is pretty sweet with all the some processing. they are all usb devices that connect to your computer if you want to use the cool GUI and access user created patches. A lot of great support there.

Also, if you go with the amps, I recommend the III seriesand up. While the I & II are crazy good for their price, they're more of a practice amp.

naturallight

The only problem with the Axe-Efx is if you like the sound of your Krank..and you just want a floor pedal to run effects...this is a massive waste of money. What you may want is a Line 6 M13. It's just a a big stomp box, on a pedal board. You are limited to 4 effects in a chain, but you can program a bunch fo different chains. For about $500..maybe what your looking for.

mantis

naturallight wrote: »

The only problem with the Axe-Efx is if you like the sound of your Krank..and you just want a floor pedal to run effects...this is a massive waste of money. What you may want is a Line 6 M13. It's just a a big stomp box, on a pedal board. You are limited to 4 effects in a chain, but you can program a bunch fo different chains. For about $500..maybe what your looking for.

I've looked at that unit many times. It's nice and probably a good fit for most people.
The GT10 which I have had for 2 days now , what it can do is amazing. Think of this.

In your signal chain , you got your guitar out front , then into a Wah pedal , Over drive in front of all preamps. Then in the effects loop you can put your Delay , Chorus , Reverb , Phaser , Flanger , maybe the noise gate which depends on where your noise is happening if you even need one which I usually never do. Then everything goes out to the amp section.
I find this to be the best sound quality and all effects sound wonderful. The problem with stand alone pedals is you have to have a somehow control all these pedals. So if you write a song and it starts out in a clean with some reverb and chorus , then builds with a overdrive tone , then you want to turn off the chorus and OD pedal and switch to your drive channel of your preamp , this is extremely difficult when you have all pedals plus your amps footswitch.
What I can do with the GT-10 like my old GT-8 is I can do all of these things with one pedal press. The problem is at a cost , loss of tone. Even the Gt-10 as better as it is over my GT-8 still doesn't allow a pure pass like pedals do. If you play clean without the GT-10 connected , the amp sounds wonderful , connect up all pedals and turn them off , still sounds the same. Connect the GT-10 in the mix and your tone now sounds more solid state then tube warm. I don't get it. I can't see why Boss of all companies can't make a pedal board like this with which can be wired in the 4 cable method (i'll explain that in a min) and not be able to retain 100% of your original preamps tone.

So lets talk about the 4 cable method. Basically your connecting your guitar to the GT-10's input , then out of the send of the GT-10's effects loop your going into the front of your preamp. Return of the effects loop on the GT-10 gets connected to the send of your amps effects loop. The output of the GT-10 gets connected to the return of your amps effects loop.

So what this does is allow you to move effects in front and behind your preamp section of your amp. So if you want Wah and OD out front , you can , you can put Delay in the effect loop after your preamp or one of the COSM models in the GT-10. This is a unique feature which I love. Then you can program a chain of whatever you want and save it as a patch. Each patch is dual layered so you can have a clean setting with any effects you want , then a drive setting with any effects you want in any order. Think about those possibilities , what is achieved here. It's why I keep going back and forth between pedals and an effects processor floor board.

I know the GT-100 is out and suppose to be a huge upgrade from the GT-10 especially in the sound quality department. The amp modeler in the GT-100 smoke the GT-10's which by the way are not that good. The clean sounds are not bad at all but all the drive models basically are not that good and I think the GT-8 actually sounded better here.
Example is the Marshall 1959 II , it doesn't sound like a Marshall head being overdriven. I owned Marshall Tube amps in the past and this is a poor recreation of that sound. The Mesa Boogie Tone is probably the best overall but doesn't really sound exactly like a Dual Rec. Now mind you my amp section is all tube with Sovetek 5881 matched 4 of them. My amp sounds amazing on it's own. When I play my clean side of my pre , it sounds like a Fender Twin Reverb. I owned 2 of them and it's the best clean on the market IMO. The Rolland JC120 has a close clean but the Fender is just a notch above. My Krank has that sound , from what I understand about the preamp section , it started out as a Fender Bassman Head and was completely reworked. 12AX7 preamp tubes are used and they sound simply amazing.

I honestly don't use that many effects. I can be completely happy with a Wah out front with a nice Overdrive so when I just want some break up ,I can overdrive my clean channel and get a beautiful overdrive tone. Nice classic rock tones if you will with some sparkle. Then in the effects loop I really only use Delay and chorus. I fool around with Harmonizers , Phasers , Flangers but rarely use them. I do however love my BBE Sonic Maximizer which I love the way it corrects the frequencies and brings them into alignment. It's a unique pedal that I use most of the time. I can turn it off and be completely happy with my tone but I can really dial in another level of purity with it at the end of the chain. I use it right in front of the amp section and it's the last pedal in my effects loop's chain.

I'm gonna fool around with the GT-10 this weekend. I only played with it a few hours so far. So far it's nice and does what I want but I gotta see if I can dial out some of the Solid state sound I get. I will say if anyone who likes solid state tone like what the Line 6 model amps do , then they would love the GT-10. It IMO sound better then all the Line 6 amps I have played. Get a bad **** tube amp in front of the and use it purely as a preamp and you can create some wonderful sound. Maybe just use 1 or 2 JC120 amps and you got one versatile rig. Unfortunately for me I have a amp I love the way it sounds. I also really liked the Peavey JSX I had with the exception it was a bit noisy on the lead channel. Other then that that amp was very nice and gave me a lot of flexibility with the ability to turn off the effect loop on the factory amp control pedal. I sold it and kept my krank Revolution I as I like the drive section and clean more on it. I can't dial 2 different drive channel tones like the JSX but I can live without that. I do however miss that as I did use that often. The JSX is always on the back of my mind and unless I run into another amp I like better like the Bogner I played , I probably will get another JSX.

I might even pick up the GT-100 and see if it's finally what I have been looking for all my life. The GT-10 is close and I'll find out this weekend if I'm gonna keep it or sell it and go for the GT-100.

mantis

So with my needs , is there any other effects board that can do what the GT-10 can do ? What about just pure effects and scrap the Preamp sections in these things? Wouldn't it be bad **** if Boss would make a GT10 E or a GT100E with just effects? Really if you have a amp you get all your tone from and love it , you don't need amp modelers to give you more tones especially when they really don't sound like the original tones anyway no matter how much you dial them in. I can see if your in a cover band and play a world of different music and have a need for a amp modeler , I really don't need it at all. I just want the effects and a all in one solution like the GT-10 minus the Amp modelers. I want all the abilities so I can move effects in front of my preamp section , put others in the effects loop and make patches so I can recall my chains with one pedal press. Have the volume or Wah on the board at will , use the direct pedals if I decide to just add in chorus or delay on a patch for a nice touch here and there. Have a Solo channel completely setup exactly how I want then with one pedal press go back to a preset up rhythm path which could have a completely different effect chain and settings.

Is that to much to ask guys?

mantis

I got the Gt-10 working well , but it still alters my amps tone. Anyone have a GT-10 or GT-100? I got a few questions if anyone was able to dial out the solid state type tone I'm getting over the tube sound I get when I remove the GT-10.

Mind you I'm wired up in the 4 cable method with amp control as well. At least I can switch channels from Clean to drive. Can't switch to lead boost but who cares I can build a patch for that in just up the Gt-10s output to do so.

I think it sounds better then the GT-8 did , but without owning it anymore or having one here , I can't really remember. I do know the GT-8 did this exact thing and I got rid of it because of it.

If there is a way to dial out the over shadow I'm getting I would completely love the GT-10. I'm also willing to sell the GT-10 and get the GT-100 if it's a better more organic sounding board.

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