Boss GT 10 and valve amps ?

IceCreamMan

sonically speaking I would say no...convenience etc is another issue

arjunmenon

Tonally, no. For convenience, yes.

I used to run a GT10 into a 6L6 amp. After considering the tone vs convenience issue, I ended up going pedals into said amp.
Although, in favour of the GT10, if you don't use the amp simulations and the drives/distortions, it does a fairly good job for the delay, reverb and modulation

AlanRatcliffe

Agree with the guys above. You lose the ability to mix and match your preferences for individual pedals and, even with the best multieffects (Eventide, TC Electronic, etc.), each manufacturer will do certain things better than others.

Beyond a certain point of complexity though, multieffects become a necessity, IMO.

charleshaupt

Hi all,please send your advice... Another guitarist in town wants to replace his guitarpedals with a Boss GT 10.How well does the GT 10 drive valve / tube amps ? He uses a Jeff Beck strat into a Fender Blues Jnr 15 w . His current pedal setup is :guitar ..... Dunlop Custom audio wah pedal.... Craig compressor[optical]... MI Audio crunchbox ... Craig dualdrive ...Ehx memory boy deluxe analog delay... Ehx smallclone chorus... M I Audio blueboy overdrive... into the amp.[Fender Blues Junior 15 w.] I,m not sure of the blueboy,s connection into the pedalchain above. Would it be worthwhile for him to switch to the Boss GT 10 ? SONICALLY SPEAKING ? Thank you c..

Psean

Surely he doesn't want to replace the Craigs ???

Greg

I'm a strong believer of starting with guitar -> cable -> amp and pushing that as far as you can. A pedal or two along the way to ENHANCE your soundscape is pretty likely in this day and age, even if you're playing old school Rock and Roll you might need a delay or a reverb, maybe a boost/drive/distortion pedal for a bit of extra grit.

I had a multieffects unit when I was younger and, jamming in my bedroom, it was awesome. I could change amplifiers, cabinet options, effects, save them as presets, assign presets to my FCB1010 midi controller, etc. It was the BOMB. I learned so much and got to really get creative with the effects. Then I played it through my Fender DeVille (I had started to get into the blues quite seriously) at a gig and it was an utter catastrophe. Levels were mismatched for live performance, cymbals obliterated all the subtle nuances I had injected into the sounds and the amp (being such a loud bastard) was on such a low volume setting that the valves were hardly working.

So after that night I used nothing but the amps channel switcher and reverb and got to know that as well as I could. I soon reached various hurdles that I have gradually jumped over. Firstly, the spring reverb on the DeVille would "shatter" when the stage moved underfoot, eventually (since I played a lot of surf stuff) I had to get a reverb pedal. I also played in a Rockabilly band (which also played surf) so I ended up buying the customary Delay pedal. I ended up playing clean a lot because the drive channel on the amp was horrible so I bought a ZVEX SHO as a clean boost since I got over using the volume control to turn up to solo volume (turning it down slightly sucks tone but boost adds sparkle) and after my guitar going out of tune constantly due to me mashing my Bigsby I got a tuner. I then proceeded to build my own pedal board, velcro the stuff onto the board for convenience and get on with my life. Eventually I retired the DeVille and got a (dramatic pause) Fender Blues Junior! It has its limitations but since it's a small amp I can drive the preamp and speaker harder for better tone and after some mods by Mr. Mars, it's sounding excellent.

I now have a slightly more complex board with a few "toys" on it that I don't use much in my current bands but plan to use excessively in the future and an amp much suited to small venues and frequent gigging.

My point is this:

-My tone is awesome
-I know my pedals REALLY well
-My pedalboard is quick and easy to setup, just as fast as a multieffects pedal, if not faster
-I have a neat bag that I can put other stuff in
-If a single effect breaks, I can pull it off the board and out the chain
-MOST IMPORTANTLY: because I know my amp and guitar well, if something goes wrong with the board (like it has, several times due to cables made by monkeys and not techs) I can bypass the board and plug straight into my amp, leaving the crowd blissfully unaware that I'm having major technical issues.

Your friend seems to have a decent setup. My board cost me R75 to make, R75 for velcro, R200 for a case that fits it.

Then again, if you want phasers and flangers and delays and wah and expression and volume and distortion and amp modelling and you don't play the kinda music I play then maybe the GT10 is what you need.

I'm sure Jeff Beck could manage with a strat and a blues junior.

WORD

singemonkey

Seriously. If he's got a pedal rig already, what the heck can be gained by going to a GT-10? The alleged convenience is nicely offset by the fact that the unit has to be carefully prepared and you'd better remember exactly what's going on with every setting. With pedals it's "are the lights on... or off?" End of story.

The chief benefit of a multi-fx is versatility. If you're in one of those cover bands that tries to sound like a record (why? but... ok I guess), you need something with every conceivable combination of effects that can be switched in an instant. Guitar players for pop singers are in a similar position - you've got to reproduce the studio sounds.

If you're a normal guitar player you just get less tone for greater hassle, with a unit that devalues like the Titanic plummeting towards the icy ocean floor.

arjunmenon

Agree with you Singe, but (playing the devils' advocate here) the convenience of having multiple effects with ease of access cannot be overlooked.
I think this is what the OP was aiming at.

You don't have to be in a cover band to require a boatload of effects and vice versa..case in point, you used to do a lot of blues covers, but i've not seen you use much else besides the tuner and the dirty little secret. On the other hand, i've heard guitar players who need a whole bunch of different sounds for each song - and this calls for multi-fx or some pretty complicated rig.

I think it's been mentioned before - there's always a compromise. As Alan mentioned, beyond a certain point of complexity, multi-fx do make sense.
And i think the digital guys have been upping their game(s) year on year...take companies like Kemper and Fractal for example.

The mil $ Q for me is tonal compromise Vs. convenience/portability/ease of access.

AlanRatcliffe

Actually a big fly in the ointment with the multieffects units is that most guys don't know how to use them properly. They offer lots of options to tweak, but many ways to mess things up too. It's a different skillset.

arjunmenon

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Actually a big fly in the ointment with the multieffects units is that most guys don't know how to use them properly. They offer lots of options to tweak, but many ways to mess things up too. It's a different skillset.

+1. That does require a person to RTFM ?

singemonkey

Exactly. That's what I was saying. These things are not so convenient because they're so hard to operate.

And yes, people may need a bunch of effects for their unique sounds. But people like that rarely need more than 5-6 effects. The point about a cover band or duplicating a record is that you may need a vast number of different setups. Very few need that just for their own unique live sound. In fact, at that point you stop having a sound. There's so much variety that no one comes away with an impression of what you sound like.

So I'm saying for someone who already has pedals, to consider this an easier option is madness. They're not so small and portable (the GT10 case has a shoulder strap FFS). They are hellish difficult to get the best out of. The variety they offer is unnecessary for 90% of players. They don't offer the best of any given effect. And, unlike the pedals, you will not be able to get your money back when you need to flog it to buy the next, and latest wonder-weapon (I still laugh when I think of a forum member who claimed that his latest, ultra schmancy multi-fx would not devalue cos it was just so good - and a few months later they brought out version 2 for the same price he'd paid for version 1. Guess what happens to the value of version 1 then. ? )

I'm not saying effects like this are not useful. I'm saying they're not useful to the vast majority of players who buy them. Poorer tone. Poorer control. And massively enhanced devaluation. It's different for the people who need to sound like 35 different guitar players during one gig, and have put in a lot of study to learn how to use them.

Edit: Oh, another use may be for people using 7 and 8 string guitars who would get no definition in the bass from a conventional guitar setup. The modelling options on a multi-fx may be critical to a player like that getting a useful sound through the PA.

Warren

I'm a big fan of multi-fx units for certain kinds of tasks, but I'm not sure why a player with a quite decent array of pedals would want to change over to a GT-10. Perhaps the OP can give us a bit more info as to what goal the player is trying to achieve.

Psean

ShreddySmurf wrote: ...but I'm not sure why a player with a quite decent array of pedals would want to change over to a GT-10. Perhaps the OP can give us a bit more info as to what goal the player is trying to achieve.

+1
Those pedals are way more than decent. So why?

arjunmenon

+1 Singe. No refuting the points you've raised.

Lfan

I experienced a similar dilemma. I want my tone to sound awesome but also need best possible convenience. I play with a church band and in doing so, as a guitar player, you need to be prepared for a wide array of different styles and sounds.....immediately. For instance if a set comprises of 6 songs one after the other, I will need 6 different drive/gain settings, 6 different delay settings, different modulation settings etc for each song and there basically isnt enough time to tweak and switch effects between songs.
I have owned numerous multifx pedals for the above reason, convenience. But I was never really happy with the quality of my tone.
So I decided i needed to compromise and get the best of both worlds. I sold my mediocre multifx units did some research and bought the best sounding MFX unit on the market right now, imo, a TC Nova system. It has a analog OD/Dirt circuit(as good as having a nova drive on my pedal board) and I can call up presets at any time. It is as basic as on and off, no 101 settings under each effect. And the best part is that it sounds amazing, I owned a GT-8 before the Nova sys and the tonal difference is night and day.
Before the Nova system in my chain I run an external WAH/Volume pedal(no wah or expression pedal incl in the Nova sys) and a separate OD pedal that just sounds a little different to the Nova drive.
So its my guitar into the WAH------>OD------>Nova system------>Amp.
Minimal tap dancing and excellent tone. Hope this helps

Armandearl

Why dont your friend try a multi fx unit thats designed to go with an amp. I used my diditech gnx4 for a while throug my hotrod deluxe, even if i turn the amp and speaker modling of it still messes with the sound. I then got myself a boss me 70 that can be used as a stompbox effects unit. Also look at the line 6 m13. It works awesome with an amp being used as stompboxes. A bit more expensive is the TC Electronic nova system. Its got top notch sounding effects.

BluJu

The blues jnr is a fantastic amp (I use one myself) but will not pair well with a GT10.

You would need a less dynamic amp. Preferably something with crystal cleans to get the most out of your GT10 (or preferably GT100).

The pedals he currently has work very well with a small punchy amp. The GT's work well with things like roland JC's and big clean marshalls.

singemonkey

BluJu wrote: The pedals he currently has work very well with a small punchy amp. The GT's work well with things like roland JC's and big clean marshalls.