Just got my Boss GT -10 , yeah late to the party but this should be at least fun.

[Dmantis]

Whats up everyone?

I just made a deal with a friend of mine. I traded some pedals for his Boss GT-10. He's an older guitar player that likes things simple. The GT-10 was a bit for him to handle not to mention he couldn't get the tone he was looking for with it.

 

Years ago I owned the GT-8 and fond myself where he was except I was able to take full advantage of the GT-8. The only thing I didn't like was the way my preamps sounded with the GT-8 as it took the organic richness out of it. I'm hoping the GT-10 has improved in this area as stated from Boss.

 

I have noticed some differences between the 8 and 10. The 10 seems a bit easier to use. I set it back to factory spec's and I'm going to spend some time this week and week end dialing it all in.

 

I'm using the 4 cable method so I can use 2 channels of my 3. Actually my thrid channel is just a lead boost for my drive channel.

 

QUESTION:

I know the GT-100 is out and I'm really thinking about picking that up. From what I learned about it is it's way more organic sounding over the 10. Has anyone done a side by side? I saw the Youtube videos and they seem to hear a big difference across the board.

 

I'd also like to get some impressions of both boards , favorite patches , effects and overall likes , dislikes of them.

 

Thanks in advance guys,

 

Dan

[Dmantis]

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 ass 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.

[Dmantis]

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 ass 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?

[SwingingAx]

 

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. Is that to much to ask guys?

 

 

If you're so obsessed with tone that NO modern amp sims will float your boat, then using a digital multi-fx probably isn't the way to go.

(you'll mess with your 'original tone' dude)

 

 

Btw, it's 'too' not 'to'. ('too much')

 

And yes it is.