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Zoom G1-XON is another good one, and is only £62 on Amazon. You can't edit patches via your computer, but it does sound very natural, as does the Boss.
I prefer the Boss as it's a little more flexible and I'm also a fan of Boss stuff.
I recently picked up a Boss GT 001 second hand for £100. With a bit of tweaking (esp using EQ to subtract harsh frequencies) you can get some decent enough sounds. It also can record vocals which is why I chose it over the other small units like Zoom even though they sound great. You can also easily record a dry signal (by itself or along with a wet signal) and reamp through the unit.
I have to keep all my gigging stuff in the hall cupboard and having something tiny I can leave out for headphones practice and recording is ideal.
The amp modelling is far superior to the Boss COSM stuff and it's streets ahead of Pods, etc. for sound quality.
Amazingly good unit and might just fall in the upper range of your budget used on eBay.
It's good for recording and does everything the g3 does and more. Used prices will be 50 - 100
Im watching a Zoom G3 on Ebay right now but some of them seem to be going for almost as much as they are or were new. They were only £110 new on Amazon.
You could even return it if it doesn't work
It is a shame about the old Boss GT5, perhaps I should have had it looked at but to be honest I live in the middle of nowhere and have no idea where to take it, certainly nowhere within 30 miles of here and Im not sure I am capable of fitting a new power supply myself as meddling with electronics is not something I have much of a clue about.
I always thought it sounded great. Didn't use the COSM stuff but the modulations and delays are superb. Drives need careful setup but you can get great fat leads out of it and the Wah is very useable.
Still use it for practise and cannot see me parting with it any time soon.
However. The power supply doesnt work (Ive contacted the seller). Luckily Ive found one the same spec of my old Zoom and it works. Sounds pretty good but I have absolutely no idea how it all works so a bit of a learning curve to go through tonight I think.
Connected it into my Audio interface and PC and played through the PC monitors but I am still getting this clicking noise. Tick Tick Tick like a clock. Going to have to get to the bottom of that. Its most prominent in high presence or high treble tones. Quiet patches with mellow tones not so much. Dammed technology. Drives me nuts!
Thanks again for all the help so far.
Built like a tank, proper heavy duty power supply, great tone in front of an amp, head-phones or through PA (5 global EQ's inc programmable EQ), dead easy to use, control switch to kick in effect or tonal variation, fully programmable, great tuner, expression pedal, easy switch between stomp mode and pre-set mode, MIDI, insert loop, patch-naming, well-lit LCD display and pedal LED's, real 12AX7 valve (not a gimmick, not for 'show' or 'warming' but essentially used as a power-valve for a real valve tone and feel).
The 'Dad's Army' tracks were with my Tonelab SE (same amp models), Undercover Duo with Tonelab LE.
https://soundcloud.com/richard-birch-1
Its also a bit quiet. I have the global master on 100 which is how it came but some of the effects are really quiet. Sounds daft I know but my old Boss GT5 seemed louder with the same settings on the PC, Interface and speakers.
There are some good sounds and tones but not many. I guess I am going to have to figure out how to get the best out of it.
I have however figured out what the clicking is. Its my phone line. I tried unplugging the phones power supply and even the router before but it made no difference. Today I literally pulled the ADSL filter and everything connected to it out of the socket and the clicking stopped. Even with just one normal phone or just the router in it clicks. Phoned BT but they didnt want to know.
So if I need help with this G3 am I best starting a new thread? Any good guides for novices?
I wanted to like it, because it was very compact and I liked the idea of being able to alter the pedal order, which you can’t with the Boss ones. But I found the editing frustrating, didn’t really think it sounded all that good and hated the footswitches, among other things (not least that switching on the tuner briefly engages the middle effect). So I quickly sold it and got another ME-50.
If I needed the amp modelling I’d take an ME-70 over the Zoom every time, even though I didn’t like it as much as the 50.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I did record something with it last night and it came out ok ish. Seemed less muddy than my old Boss GT5. I figured out why it was quiet. I had the output on the M Audio interface turned right down. FFS! Worra Tit! There is no hope!
What I have realised though is that my old Boss GT5 had a good Bass guitar simulator and it doesnt look like the Zoom G3 has one. I guess I should have always had a proper Bass Guitar really anyway. Lets try getting that one past the Mrs.
Arguably just too many options 're pedal order and too many long menu's to scroll through. The switching options were virtually useless from a gigging perspective with an awkward two buttons at once needed for preset/stomp switching although I liked it's global boost option. On paper it should have been great, and it does have a ton of effects, but I couldn't get anything like the tones with it that were just so easily 'there' from my Tonelab LE/SE units. And tweaking live was just a nightmare.
Which is why I've stuck with my Tonelabs as so far I haven't found anything comparable at a reasonable price up to £3-400.
Once I upgraded the firmware it seems a lot better, some nicer tones but still not much clean stuff. I know how to download patches though so I am getting somewhere with it. Ill stick with it I think. Its been a good afternoon of tinkering which took my mind off a stinking hangover.
Another top tip is that all the reverbs have a stupid amount of predelay they sound better if you dial it out.