After Owning the Boss GT 8 .

[mantis]

Ok,
I have had it for awhile now and I'm about done with it. I took it out of my rig and found a whole new(old) tone I have been missing out on. My Amp sounds way better with just the guitar plugged straight in with nothing in the effects loops, no booster pedals nothing. Cleans are amazing and the drive channel is awesome.
The Boss GT 8 does have many very usable features like writing patches and saving them. I love the fact you can build a dealy time, add reverb, put a compressor in and route all signals correctly using the effects routing. I like that it can switch my amps channels and I can write patches to go with those switches. It has so many cool features I would be completely happy with it if it sounded better. Retail it cost 549.99 and it can be had for around 400 to 450.00. You get a ton for your money but when you own a tube amp, it takes away from your tone. My drive channel suffers the most. I seem to lose gain when I run the gt 8. I use the 4 cable method plus amp control with it. I've been playing around with output levels, EQ settings , output settings as the gt 8 can set a global EG setting depending on connections and kind of amp you use. Also if your using the effects loop or not. The 4 cable method uses up front and effects loop at the same time so I can place a OD pedal in front of the amp while sending the Chorus and Delay in the effects loop.

I think I will miss many of the awesome features that the Boss gt8 has. I'm not going to miss the amp modeling. I found a few settings that where ok but I like a certain level of tone and I can't get exactly what I want out of a modeler. Same goes for Line 6 and Korg. Vox's touch on modeling is pretty good but nothing beats the real thing.

Now I'm back on a quest to find the absolute best sounding true bypass design pedals made. Money isn't an object when it comes to my tone. I buy what I like and find a way to pay for it. I don't like settling for anything if it's not gooing to sound the way I want it 2.

What I'm also asking here is whats the best Delay , chorus and Reverb pedals on the market today?? Processors just aren't for me. I wish someone made one that doesn't change your tone. If someone would make one that when I connect it, my tone is exaclty how it is if it wasn't there. When I turn on a effect, I here my tone with the added effect. The Boss gt8 didn't live up to my expectations. I wish it did as I love everything else about it.
Funny about this GT 8 as the effects in it are pretty good. If my tone as still there and they added in the Awesome Chorus it has I would keep it and never buy another pedal. The Delay and reverbs are excellent but at the cost of changing your tone slighty.

I'm sure there are many happy GT 8 users out there and probably think I'm nuts but as a guitarist , my tone is everything to me. It just got to sound the way I want it to or I lose intrest in playing. I can express myself when my tone isn't a problem.

Thanks for reading and I would love some suggestions on some new high end high quality true bypass pedals.

Dan

[jgcable]

I don't agree with most of the above but its your ears that count most to you. If your tube amp has a good loop and you use true bypass stomp boxes your tube tone should be preserved.
Prepare to spend a fair amount of cash for high end pedals though.

[ABSOLUT CHARVEL]

Electro-harmonix Memory Man Deluxe

[El_Kabong]

The best delay pedal is the Ecoczar. It sells for over $675, with a long wait to get one. http://www.toneczareffects.com/lg-pedals-echocz.htm

Or if you don't want to wait, this is really nice: http://www.t-rex-engineering.com/def...w=page&id=2325

Chorus: Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus

Reverb: also from T-Rex http://www.t-rex-engineering.com/def...w=page&id=2606

[Twisteramps]

I think you're going to have issues with any effects through your amp. I have a *tiny* bit of 'tone suckage' on my JSX with the GT8, but it's not much at all - and I can bypass the fx loop with my footswitch instantly, so I have a perfect 'A/B' comparison.

The GT8 is pedal level I believe, so any tone suckage you encountered on it you will likely get with pedals unless they are line level. Even a line level processor is no guarantee that you won't get 'tone suck' - I had a TC Electronics G-major that sounded great in the JSX, like ass in my Randall RM100, which had TWO loops (one parallel, one series) and was supposed to have a perfect loop.

One other thing to consider is even if you do find the best true bypass pedals to jam in your loop, you still have loss from every single jack and plug plus the length of your cables too.

My best advice to you is to take your entire rig if you can to a music store on an 'off hour' time when they shouldn't be too busy, and try every effect you want through YOUR amp. Otherwise you're going to be on here in short order unhappy about the effects you just bought that were insanely expensive and 'true bypass'.

I'm almost ready to start trying a 'wet/dry' rig, since I love the tone of my SLO clone, but the loop on it is craptacular. I still like my JSX, but it's always nice to have different toys to play with!

Pete

[mantis]

Electro-harmonix Memory Man Deluxe

Thank you I will check one out.

[mantis]

The best delay pedal is the Ecoczar. It sells for over $675, with a long wait to get one. http://www.toneczareffects.com/lg-pedals-echocz.htm

Or if you don't want to wait, this is really nice: http://www.t-rex-engineering.com/def...w=page&id=2325

Chorus: Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus

Reverb: also from T-Rex http://www.t-rex-engineering.com/def...w=page&id=2606

Very cool man. Voodoo labs I have seen around. I gotta go play.

[mantis]

I think you're going to have issues with any effects through your amp. I have a *tiny* bit of 'tone suckage' on my JSX with the GT8, but it's not much at all - and I can bypass the fx loop with my footswitch instantly, so I have a perfect 'A/B' comparison.

The GT8 is pedal level I believe, so any tone suckage you encountered on it you will likely get with pedals unless they are line level. Even a line level processor is no guarantee that you won't get 'tone suck' - I had a TC Electronics G-major that sounded great in the JSX, like ass in my Randall RM100, which had TWO loops (one parallel, one series) and was supposed to have a perfect loop.

One other thing to consider is even if you do find the best true bypass pedals to jam in your loop, you still have loss from every single jack and plug plus the length of your cables too.

My best advice to you is to take your entire rig if you can to a music store on an 'off hour' time when they shouldn't be too busy, and try every effect you want through YOUR amp. Otherwise you're going to be on here in short order unhappy about the effects you just bought that were insanely expensive and 'true bypass'.

I'm almost ready to start trying a 'wet/dry' rig, since I love the tone of my SLO clone, but the loop on it is craptacular. I still like my JSX, but it's always nice to have different toys to play with!

Pete

So you know exaclty what I'm talking about. Have you built patches with the JSX's preamps?? I use my clean channel then add in the effects loop delay and chorus. Another patch I use Reverb in the effects loop and my amps clean preamp. Dude I love all I can do with it but maybe I need to figure out how to EQ it to get it closer to a straight tone.
After reading your reply, maybe I need to spend even more time with it. I also wonder if using it to switch the amp channels is causing some of my tone fall off. My foot switch lights up on channel changing. So there is a small amount of voltage there. I remember reading something about that it causes a small amount of noise. I know I get some noise as when I turn off the noise gate , I get some hiss. My amp doesn't hiss when I'm plugged straight in. Both clean and drive channels are very quite unless you place your ear infront of the speakers. From 15 feet away you can't hear anything. But with the GT 8 in place, you can hear noise from anywhere in the room.

I only owned the GT 8 for a few months and so far I have very mixed feelings about it. It's a love hate thing. I want my cake and eat it you know and I can't seem to get it right. I know how to do everything on it. I learned so much from the manual, forums and simply playing with it.

Thanks again man

[Twisteramps]

I use the four cable method. If you're not liking what it's doing to the tone, then by all means you should get something else. Just take your rig if you can to the music stores when you find gear you want to try out, OR make sure they have a great return policy.

People rail about Guitar Center, but I bought a pedal from them and changed parts of my rig a week later - and it didn't work so well. I took the pedal back and they gave me a refund on my credit card, no problem. Took over a week which sucked, but they did take it back which was cool.

Pete

[sevser]

Dan:

What amp do you use?

What cables do you use?

[mantis]

Dan:

What amp do you use?

What cables do you use?

I own a Krank Revolution 1 Combo which has 2 12 Legend speakers in it.
Live Wire Instrument cables for everything.
2006 Jackson SL3

I haven't connected in my BBE sonic maximizer but I'm thinking of giving it a try on the return to the amp side.

[sevser]

I'd get a hold of a buddys amp and try it out in something different...Just find out if it's your amps fx loop...Not familiar with the Live wire stuff but the cables can be everything. Planet Waves have been good to me and good price too.

[Guitardude86]

Dan
I'd check out Cornish if I was in your situation. If money truly isn't an object I guess he's your guy. His pedalboards cost between $3000-6000 and up tho hehe.. Everything is hand built by him (Pete Cornish) and his wife.
This is the guy Dave Gilmour and Brian May use, just to name two. I sent him a mail once and he answered it personally.. How cool is that? Long wait if you want to place an order tho.. But I guess it'll be worth it. To many this is as good as it gets.

http://www.petecornish.co.uk/

[beachjammer]

I just got a Boss ME-50 multi-effects unit that I'm digging pretty heavily. It doesn't do amp modeling at all. It's basically just a bunch of effects pedals in one unit. You can run it in the front of your amp and it not effect the true tone of your amp when everything is turned off on the unit. I'm running it with a Mesa Recto with very good results so far. It might give you some of the features that you'd miss from the GT-8...

[mantis]

I just got a Boss ME-50 multi-effects unit that I'm digging pretty heavily. It doesn't do amp modeling at all. It's basically just a bunch of effects pedals in one unit. You can run it in the front of your amp and it not effect the true tone of your amp when everything is turned off on the unit. I'm running it with a Mesa Recto with very good results so far. It might give you some of the features that you'd miss from the GT-8...

I wonder if it's pure analog? I looked at it and thought it would be what I want but after playing around with it for 30 minutes in Sam Ash, I didn't think a few things sounded as good as I would like. The Chorus on it wasn't as nice as the Boss double pedal CE-20. I was looking to get a CE-20 when I tried it out. I'll have to go back to it and try again. I don't need any amp modelers as I find I'd rather have the real thing. I can see why Modeling is so popular as you can change your tone alot with little money. Owning all those amps would break many peoples banks not to mention you would have to wire up all that.
Thanks for the tip.

Dan