Any GT1000 CORE Users?

Fiftyshadesofjay

I had a full fat GT1000 for a short time but don’t think I gave it a fair shot. Does anybody know if you’re running it in front of an amp, is there a setting to give you just plain old regular unity gain? I know they have all those weird presets for different use cases, is there a completely flat setting?

And does anybody know exactly which 500 series algorithms it actually contains? 

Trude

thomasw88 said:

2. There are 5 knobs on the front of the unit - you can set  them to do pretty much anything.  So for example, I have one knob set to reverb on/off, one for setting BPM for tap tempo ie so I can quickly goto 128bpm if I want to,  and then three for setting different parameters of specific effects or turning them on or off or whatever you want to do there.  That's actually incredibly useful for gigs where I might want to switch off reverb at some points but don't want to use a footswitch for it.

This sounds almost like the knob assignments can be patch-specific - is that right?  I had a full size GT1000 briefly soon after they came out, and those knobs were only global, which seemed quite limiting.

There are six knobs on the big GT1000, and I ended up assigning them to Gain, Tone, Level for the two distortion blocks (which I had as global stompboxes).  That was to recreate the effect of having two analogue drive pedals that can be quickly tweaked during the gig.  I really wish there was a quick way to tap an active effect and have its main controls thrown up to those knobs (I think this is what Helix does with those capacitive switches?)

In the end I chickened out and returned it, but there have been a lot of firmware improvements since then, so I'm really tempted to give it another go...

Handsome_Chris

@thomasw88 , it seems like you're enjoying the unit and that you understand the way that Roland/Boss do stuff. 

It was @Clarky who taught me the value of EQ blocks from back in my Axe-FX II days.  A handy trick , IIRC, when using a hi-gain amp model is to EQ out some of the low-end on the way in to stop it getting muddy.  Any necessary low-end can then be EQed back in after the amp block resulting in a clearer sound.  

I've also used EQ blocks for straight gain and also lead boost.  I think EQ is a very underrated tool that can make a guitar sound wonderful.

thomasw88

Trude said:

thomasw88 said:

2. There are 5 knobs on the front of the unit - you can set  them to do pretty much anything.  So for example, I have one knob set to reverb on/off, one for setting BPM for tap tempo ie so I can quickly goto 128bpm if I want to,  and then three for setting different parameters of specific effects or turning them on or off or whatever you want to do there.  That's actually incredibly useful for gigs where I might want to switch off reverb at some points but don't want to use a footswitch for it.

This sounds almost like the knob assignments can be patch-specific - is that right?  I had a full size GT1000 briefly soon after they came out, and those knobs were only global, which seemed quite limiting.

There are six knobs on the big GT1000, and I ended up assigning them to Gain, Tone, Level for the two distortion blocks (which I had as global stompboxes).  That was to recreate the effect of having two analogue drive pedals that can be quickly tweaked during the gig.  I really wish there was a quick way to tap an active effect and have its main controls thrown up to those knobs (I think this is what Helix does with those capacitive switches?)

In the end I chickened out and returned it, but there have been a lot of firmware improvements since then, so I'm really tempted to give it another go...

Actually I'm not sure the knobs are patch specific! I'll have to have a look.

Handsome_Chris said:

@thomasw88 , it seems like you're enjoying the unit and that you understand the way that Roland/Boss do stuff. 

It was @Clarky who taught me the value of EQ blocks from back in my Axe-FX II days.  A handy trick , IIRC, when using a hi-gain amp model is to EQ out some of the low-end on the way in to stop it getting muddy.  Any necessary low-end can then be EQed back in after the amp block resulting in a clearer sound.  

I've also used EQ blocks for straight gain and also lead boost.  I think EQ is a very underrated tool that can make a guitar sound wonderful.

Ah ok that might make more sense - so  would be 2 for each chain. 

That's probably not my use case as i don't really plan to use the amp modelling side of it much, and I'm not really a High gain kinda boy.

My general approach to effects chain  is to use as little as possible - less is more.   So I don't tend to use much compression/eq/noise gates etc unless It really needs it, or I'm playing a song that needs a specific sound.

monquixote

Any opinions on the quality of the amp modelling?

TTBZ

monquixote said:

Any opinions on the quality of the amp modelling?

Check out Leon Todd's videos on it, when he loads in his own IR they sound as good as anything else I've heard on his channel, and that's mostly AxeFX 3. With the stock cabs it sounds a bit iffy to me but I haven't had a go on one so that's just based on all the yt demos I've watched. It seems like they take a different approach to modelling than how everyone else does it - you get a small selection of amp sounds, pick the one that's closest to what you're after then dial it in and play. Rather than choosing a specific Friedman, Mesa or Fender model. I really want to have a go on one with some decent IRs loaded in as I feel like I'd prefer this approach of less options.

vasselmeyer

The knobs are independantly configurable for each patch. For example, on one patch you could have each of the four knobs set up for delay time, delay mix, amp gain and phaser depth. If you jump to another patch (an the GT-1000 has instant patch switching) you can have those four knobs for something completely different, such as amp blend (for a divider), reverb length, amp (or pedal) mid level and chorus blend.

This is on top of what I think the best feature of the BOSS workflow philosophy which is the programability of the ASSIGNS which are massively powerful. In a GT-1000 patch You can have two amps and two dirt pedals. For each of them you can have a solo boost but with an ASSIGN, I can configure every aspect of each of those blocks with one push of a footswitch. I could take an amp and instantly change any of the EQ settings, gain levels, volume etc. I can do this for any setting for any effect anywhere in the entire patch.

The GT-1000 is similar in format to the Helix, Headrush, Fractal and other floor units but the interface and philosophy is entirely BOSS. You can compare its less colourful and smaller UI to the competition but the UX is totally different. The Tone Studio is the icing on the cake as the UI alters itself depending on what device you're using. WHen playing live I can use my phone and bluetooth connectivity to tweak patches or global EQ depending on the room, in real time when I'm in front of the PA. But using the same software on Windows, when building a patch on an Ultrawide monitor is a thing of beauty and super easy to use.

vasselmeyer

When I got my GT-1000 (full fat, but they're identical in terms of processing and sounds), it was so my band could go silent-stage and run on in-ears. I never even used any of the presets...I just started with a blank patch, then built patches completely from scratch. Essentially, I just recreated the sounds I got from my ES-8 based pedalboard because I've been moving pedals and effects around for nearly 30 years and have pretty much settled on what I like for the last 3-4 years. I got the GT-1000 because there's kind of shared DNA in the workflow with the ES-8 and when I tried out a GT-1000 at the guitar show, I was straight in. So since I've had my GT-1000 it has really just been a straight replacement for my pedalboard and not much messing about with the amp sims etc.

Well, I got bored of not playing live, and decided to see what patches were out there for the GT-1000.I jumped into the Boss Tone Central website and grabbed a bunch of their patches to see what else the box could do. I was pretty blown away by some of the amp models they have in there. As I said, my current set of patches are just a recreation of my pedalboard which is a loud clean amp, with pedals in front and amp boots for solos, and then mod pedals in the loop. Therefore, when recreating the pedalboard patches, I just chose their "Natural" amp model, and picked the pedals which gave me the closest sounds.

The Tone Central site has free downloads for the GT-1000 software and there are a collection of base amp models for single coil guitars and humbucking guitars. There are a lod of patches by "celebrity" guitarists, most of whom I have never heard of, and then some cool "Rock Legend" sets which recreate specific songs. The best patches though are four sets of patches which give examples of "Roots", "Clean Spacial", "Aggressive/Noise" and "Tricky" sounds. I've spent a few lost hours messing with those patches and it really has been fun and realised I've only scratched the surface of what the thing can do. The signal splits and joins are brilliant and can give a really complex serial/parallel chain if you really want to get into it.

The amp models really are very good indeed, particularly with appropriate use of the SAG value; that seems to be where the "real amp" feeling comes from. There's a real difference between a "hard" and "squishy" amp feel when you get into the settings. I've really enjoyed playing along with a bunch of SRV, ZZ Top and Gary Moore using the appropriate amps and my DGT.

As I'm pretty sure it will still be months before my band can get togther again, I'm going to build a bunch of patches using the amp models instead of pedal models...just for shits and giggles

Winny_Pooh

Loving mine, just made a liveset with some more traditional sounds I found to be missing from the user presets if anyone wants a shortcut.

1/My version of a harmonic trem into a slightly dirty amp
2/ A 2 channel fender clean setup with a vibey phaser
3/ AC30 for neck pickup rhythm & a lead channel
4/Tweed with 3 gain levels and a Neil Young echoplex
5/EJ style loose and fat Marshall lead.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yYmCmZ1Nv349mguFr390I17eAQ9sJl46?usp=sharing

Brio

Thanks, I'll dive into those when I get home. Still living mine on my mini board.