Should I get a Boss GT-6

D

Druw

New member
Hi,
My guitar shop emailed me sayin that he has a Bodd GT-6 second hand for sale, the conversion form Maltese liri (140) to dollars makes it 412 dollars, new they cost maltese liri (290) which is 853 dollars, practically half price. I've tried out the lower model ME-50, which actually costs more, and it wasnt hald bad to be honest. Now the serious bit, what is better? A pedalboard full of individual pedals, or a multi effects processor? My guitar produces a rather beautiful tone (to me) so which would you suggest. Im rather budgeted (im 14) so alot of expensive pedals will be hard to buy.
Also, will this be any good for Pink Floyd, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Foo Fighters music? Im guessing it will be good cos i can store a couple of presets and have them on hand for different music.
Thanks for nany help!
 
I have a Boss-GT 6 which I got second hand for around $400 (and they don't seem to go much lower!) I like it very much! Excellent effects, except for the overdrives, which are not the best - but that could be my amp sucking. You can, however, do something called the "4-cable trick", which let's you use your amp's distortion in the effect loop.

Anyway, it gives me a better, fuller sound than my Pod XT (not tried XT live).

It's rather heavy, though: around 5 kgs, but it's very complete. And .. it's digital vintage, hehe =)

Try it out in the shop, I think you won't be disappointed!

Although, for Floyd or RHCP, etc. I think you'd only need a good overdrive (tube screamer is great for Floyd), a chorus (Boss CE2 or equivalent) and a good delay pedal.

Happy playing!
 
TheTrickster said:
I have a Boss-GT 6 which I got second hand for around $400 (and they don't seem to go much lower!) I like it very much! Excellent effects, except for the overdrives, which are not the best - but that could be my amp sucking. You can, however, do something called the "4-cable trick", which let's you use your amp's distortion in the effect loop.



Aren't these designed to run into the amp, not into the effects loop? Maybe I'm missing something with you're "4 cable trick"! Overdrive or distortion into the effects loop never sounds right to me, always shrill and gritty. :confused:
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The price seems high to me. I see these go for $250-300US pretty regularly locally.

That may be the best price you can get where you are, though. And they do sound good.

Take care,
Chris
 
I'm totally anti-all in one processors. However, these kids I recorded had one for each guitar and thought they didn't sound to bad at all. I pry wouldn't buy one myself, but if I was going towards that route that would be my first option.
 
I love my pedals.....

Yeah Boss rocks, so no matter what you go with, stand-alone stomps or a floor processor, buy Boss...or I will fight you! But seriousy, I'd go with stand alone pedals for pretty much one reason; variety. You like your boss DD6 delay but hate boss distortion? Throw in an Ibanez TS 9. Want a sweet vintage chorus? Hit those pawn shops for a CE 1. The expression pedals mounted on floor units really don't have the verstaility of specific made Dunlop wahs and Ernie Ball volumes....I mean you could spend half as much on a wah as you would on an entire processor, so custom up your own board with sweet expressions. Finally, a floor processor will digitize everything, not just reverbs and delays; most stompboxes overdrive a capacitor to produce (to my ears) more authentic drive and clip. So if you're on a budget, start off small with one or two compact pedals....I'd recommend the boss DD3 for the sheer hours of enjoyment and those wonderful U2 impersonations. Its worth checking e-bay too; Boss pedals are built extremely solid so you can buy second-hand with relative impunity. If you cme across some money, check out www.robertkeeley.com, he modifies existing boss and does custom pedals. His stuff occasionally pops up on e-bay and has a wonderful reputation. Anyways, i hope this works out for you, feel free to private message if you've any other questions; pedals are my thing man! Rock on!
 
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I got to agree, I like my effects when I need them and going through a menu by scrolling with foot switches is not my way to do it. I have 3 boss pedals, a Harmonist, a DD-6 Digital delay, & a tremolo, plus a Digitech delay for slapback & an Ernie Ball volume pedal, so when I mash on the pedal I get what I need at that moment.
I also have an issue with the scrolling menus in a bright outdoors gig....the display will disappear, and you can't tell what patch you are on.
I must say though, it is fun to have so many effects available, it simply doesn't work all that well live for me myself...my 2 cents worth~ :rolleyes:
 
a word of warning... the guitarist in my old band had one of these, and had tremendous problems with it. it worked fine for a while, but would frequently just wig out and start quickly cycling through presets and settings on its own. could be a one-off issue, crossed wires or something, but it seemed to do it the most when we were in his apartment, which was across the street from a giant radio tower, or when we were playing a club with a lot of wireless gear being used. we figured it was somehow being interfered with. i know that doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense, but it's the best explanation we could come up with.

i'm going to go put on my tinfoil hat now. sigh.
 
Ok thanks guys. It seems that individual pedals will be the way to go for me. How does a Blues Driver BD-2 sound? Will it be any good, or should I go for an Ibanez TS9, or a Big Muff. Also, what chorus do you reccomend (is it used by the kind of music I want to play?), the chorus on my amp is quite shit.
Thanks
 
Druw said:
Ok thanks guys. It seems that individual pedals will be the way to go for me. How does a Blues Driver BD-2 sound? Will it be any good, or should I go for an Ibanez TS9, or a Big Muff. Also, what chorus do you reccomend (is it used by the kind of music I want to play?), the chorus on my amp is quite shit.
Thanks
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I'd say go with the GT6. Having individual pedals is great, but only if you're willing to put up with the problems that come with it. You'll get noise, go through 9volt batteries like crazy, and spend a bit more than on a GT6.

The GT6 is great since it allows so much variation in tone. It's got sims of a BD-2 (which is spot on), same with the TS9 and Big muff. The choruses are lush, the reverbs rock, and you'll learn how to get a good sound. Then, later on down the line if you get pedals you'll have more of an idea of what you need.
 
The lead guitarist from my old band had a GT-6, which did the job perfectly for our style, a somewhat effects heavy strain of noisy psychedelic rock/punk. Defintely has some great sounds in it, although I've always felt it's distortion settings were sometimes a tad weak, but if you buy the GT-6 you could always augment your setup later with a nice tubescreamer or somesuch pedal.
 
White_Rabbit said:
The lead guitarist from my old band had a GT-6, which did the job perfectly for our style, a somewhat effects heavy strain of noisy psychedelic rock/punk. Defintely has some great sounds in it, although I've always felt it's distortion settings were sometimes a tad weak, but if you buy the GT-6 you could always augment your setup later with a nice tubescreamer or somesuch pedal.
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If the distortions are anything like in the GT-8 they're far from weak. You need to find a patch that's similar to what you like, use it as a foundation for your sound and just keep tweaking it ti'll your taste buds are satisfied. It took me a good couple of afternoons to go through every effect and tweak all my personal patches. And I sitll fiddle with them once in a blue moon now when I need a change.
 
Hi all,
I made a list of pedals I'm interested in, are they any good?

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (Russian made)
Danelectro DTB-1 Free Speech Talk Box
Boss CHORUS ENSEMBLE (CE-5 or CE-2 or CE-1)
Boss COMPRESSOR SUSTAINER
Boss GE-7 7 BAND GRAPHIC
Boss LS-2 LINE SELECTOR
Ibanez Tube Screamer ts-9

Is the CE-1 any good?
Thanks
 
Pedals are personal

Druw said:
Hi all,
I made a list of pedals I'm interested in, are they any good?

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (Russian made)
Danelectro DTB-1 Free Speech Talk Box
Boss CHORUS ENSEMBLE (CE-5 or CE-2 or CE-1)
Boss COMPRESSOR SUSTAINER
Boss GE-7 7 BAND GRAPHIC
Boss LS-2 LINE SELECTOR
Ibanez Tube Screamer ts-9

Is the CE-1 any good?
Thanks
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Dude, you really need to get to a store and make sure that YOU like them because everybody in here is going to have different opinions...You know all the Boss pedals are good it's a matter of taste. Go to a store, tell them the effects you need and have the person bring you out two pedals so you can compare which ones you like the sound better of and which ones you like to operate.
 
Druw said:
Hi all,
I made a list of pedals I'm interested in, are they any good?

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (Russian made)
Danelectro DTB-1 Free Speech Talk Box
Boss CHORUS ENSEMBLE (CE-5 or CE-2 or CE-1)
Boss COMPRESSOR SUSTAINER
Boss GE-7 7 BAND GRAPHIC
Boss LS-2 LINE SELECTOR
Ibanez Tube Screamer ts-9

Is the CE-1 any good?
Thanks
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Chorus Ensemble is vintage chorus as used by the likes of Andy Summers, guitarist for the police. Finding one in good order won't be cheap my friend! I think a super chorus (CH-1) or Chorus Ensemble 5 (CE-5), would be fine to get started with. I use a compression/sustainer for blues and some slide work...compression is somewhat of a black art however and its tough to get something you're happy with. Love it for recording though. Same with the graphic EQ, especially if you play alot of lead in band; it cuts through the mix real nice and I also run this through my sound card to record.

The Big Muff distortion...well, I've heard alot of EH pedals are prone to damage after only a little wear and tear...I guess it depends, but it something to think about. A boss DS 1 will give you some nice distortion, but it might be worth checking out the other distortion units they sell; DS 2 Turbo Distortion, Mega Distortion (more contemporary metal sounds) or a compromise between Overdrive and Distortion, the OS 2.

As for a line selector....why exactly? Do you use two amps? Or what? I mean its ideal for splitting your signal through two different rigs....lets say you run your guitar through a line selector; you take one output through a DS 1 and Crybaby wah and feed it through a Marshall (thats your dirty sound). You take another line out from the pedal into a CE 5, DD3 and put it through a Fender Princeton. This is a very basic example, but i guess its what most people use a line selector for, that and silent tuning. So unless you use two amps...I'm not sure why you'd want it. While we're on the subject of two amps, one of the thing i love about my boss pedals is the 2 ouputs many encorporate. For example, The CH 1 has a mono ouput (pure chorus through one amp) or a stereo output (processed through one amp, unprocessed through another.) This is also present in the DD3; Your delayed signal comes from one amp, your direct signal from another. You can really get some beautifully full sounds from this. The BF 3 Flanger (also boss; yes, i may be an addict) lets you split the signal, which gives a nice rotary speaker sound.

The Danelectro pedals are cheap but I've heard great things about the talk box! Looks awesome too, has an actual tube and has gotten some great write-ups. You should check whether it requires its own speaker though...but im pretty sure it doesn't. The TS 9 would be my pick of the lot....a re-issue sea green, not the cheaper grey edition. It's like a blues driver but has more gain and a better low end. I think you should go with this; its collectible and you'll never have a problem selling it if you have to. Its just a vintage overdrive doing what it should.

Okay so thats almost it, but like the other guy said, go and try before you buy! You might hate some of those pedals, and theres nothing worse than buying one distortion only to replace it with another two weeks down the line. Heres a link to some boss sound samples just to give you an idea.

http://www.bossguitarpedals.com/

Have fun man.
 
Thanks, I plan on going sometime this week, when i finish exams. I'm also trying out some Hiwatt amps, I'm looking forward to that!! The Danelectro doesnt need its own speaker which is a plus, I'll be getting one of those soon.
Thanks again
 
I say go for the GT-6. Besides everything that's already been said, it's STEREO! So you can use it with 2 amps. Or do like I do and run it direct into the PA. Talk about a huge guitar sound-wait until you hear stereo chorus thru a stereo P.A.
I used to use a T.S. in front of mine, but I tweaked the T.S. sound in the GT-6 to be close enough.
 
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