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.
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