What is a good Guitar Effects unit?

B

Bushice

New member
I have a friend who use to have this old ART effects processor. it had its down side, but one nice thing it had was a way to build your own sound, using flangers, EQ, delays, etc. that were all included in the rack mount unit. There were also a bunch of factory settings, and you could copy those to blank memory locations and tweak them until you got the sound you were looking for. I'm looking for something like that, but I'm not too familiar with current products, as this was years ago.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Bushice
 
I got a GNX-2 for christmas but haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet.
Some of the presets are pretty cool. "Acoustic" uses a little delay and makes my lp sound like a big jazz guitar. #43, whatever it's called is great blend of tight distortion and some phase/flange.
"Voxtop" is straight up Pete Townshend.

Direct in recording makes me grin ear to ear! I didn't think a "gadget" could sound like a Marshall being miced.

All in all, very cool features and adjustability. I'm taking some vacation days next month and will finally have a chance to do some knob twisting.

Digitech's website has a few wav files of this unit.
 
I only use 3 "effects units". An old tape and tube Echoplex, an Electro Harmonix Small Clone, and a Jim Dunlop Crybaby. They are the best to me, I hate all that igital crap out there.

H2H
 
Thanks for that price link to musiciansbuy, getuhgrip! that is most excellent. I dropped by my local music store, and they had it for $500 plus tax. Ouch!

BTW GT, what's a Pod?

Bushice
 
BOSS GT-6

Take a look at this unit as well.

There is a users group on yahoo that is very informative.

I've had mine a couple months and find it very user friendly.

Under $399. Heard they go as low as $330 @ music123.
 
The Rocktron Intellifex.

See my review :

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Rocktron/Intellifex-01.html

The sound quality is fantastic and you can use the unit for any instrumen including vocals.

It's hush,reverb,chorus,delay,pitch shift ..+++ all rolled into one.

Also if you're looking for a more guitar specific unit and want different distortions and what not...

Go for the Tone Works AX1500G by Korg. It's got many amp models, cabinet models, chorus, delay, reverb and an expression pedal for it's built in wah, volume etc.

check it out!
 
Re: BOSS GT-6

Bighand said:
Take a look at this unit as well.

There is a users group on yahoo that is very informative.

I've had mine a couple months and find it very user friendly.

Under $399. Heard they go as low as $330 @ music123.
Click to expand...

How are the sounds? This unit looks comparable to the GNX2.
 
tvaillan said:
The Rocktron Intellifex.

See my review :

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Rocktron/Intellifex-01.html

The sound quality is fantastic and you can use the unit for any instrumen including vocals.

It's hush,reverb,chorus,delay,pitch shift ..+++ all rolled into one.

Also if you're looking for a more guitar specific unit and want different distortions and what not...

Go for the Tone Works AX1500G by Korg. It's got many amp models, cabinet models, chorus, delay, reverb and an expression pedal for it's built in wah, volume etc.

check it out!
Click to expand...

The Rocktron doesn't seem to be very user-friendly, and I was looking for something more guitar specific anyway, but the Korg seems to be in the running. Damn! 3 good products to decide on! Anyone use either the Korg, or the Boss? I'll have to compare specs, I guess. The Korg seems a little cheaper in price.
 
whispers ..."go for the korg"

out of three guitar buddies that i have .. after playing with my korg toneworks for one hour, they all rushed out and baught the exact unit. (It took one of my buddies 2 weeks to afford it .. but he's 100% happy)

- the cabinet simulator will simulate the prescence and air that you would get on a stack cranked to the max. You can even pick how many and how big the speakers are.
- the amp sim gives you the choice of many distortions and clean sounds.
- the multiple effects are a bit much but the delay and wah are ok. of caurse my morley wah is better .. but the Korg's is fine.
- the unit is very rugged.

- it's got a stereo output of the kind you could plug directly into a soundcard and on top of that it's got two mono outputs so you could take up two chanels on a mixer and have different fx running through each.

- there is a noise reduction circuit. i usually leave it at about 15% . it does a very good job.

- the reverb section is fine.

You can simulate any guitar sound from Hendricks to Van Halen.

- it's much more flexible than that little red POD thing. The POD thing is fine though!

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Korg/AX1500G-01.html
 
The GT-6, sounds great! You will find people fighting over which one sounds better POD or GT-6. I haven't compared them personally.

I mentioned the GT-6 users group. If you subscribe to the group there are sound samples and detailed info.

I favor the "Hi Gain" & "Big Rectifier" sounds for distortion from this unit. Like almost anything else you will need to tweek to your needs or depending on your guitar. It allows for 2 additional expression pedals as well.

I also like the knob features. Simply tweek and "write" and your saved. This unit has many cabinet simulations as well as customizable. There are selectable output levels that effect sound spectrum. I prefer the "line/phones" =biggest sound-IMO.
You must adjust to your performing environment and this unit makes it easy.

I've had mine 3 or 4 months and have not had a chance to fully explore this unit. I am not a spokeman so please go try it for yourself.

Here are the detailed effects, preamps, etc:


Effects
= Preamp/Speaker
= OD/DS
= Delay
= Chorus
= Reverb
= Wah
= EQ
= FX1 Group (one effect per patch)
Compressor, Limiter, Acoustic Guitar Simulator, Pickup Simulator, Tremolo, Slow Gear, Feedbacker, Anti-Feedbacker
Defretter
= FX2 Group (one effect per patch)
Phaser, Flanger, Harmonist, Pitch Shifter, Pedal Bend, 2 X 2 Chorus, Pan, Vibrato, Uni-V, Short Delay, Humanizer
Ring Mod, Slicer, Auto Riff, Guitar Synth, Sub Equalizer
= Noise Suppressor
= Foot Volume
= Master Patch Level
= Master BPM

COSM Preamp Types
= JC Clean
JC-120: Roland JC-120
Jazz Combo: Roland JC-120
Full Range: Flat response amp (e.g., a keyboard amp)
= TW Clean
Clean TWIN: Fender Twin Reverb
Pro Crunch: Fender Pro Reverb
Tweed: Fender Bassman 4x10" combo
= Crunch
Crunch: Crunch sound with natural distortion
Blues
Stack Crunch: Crunch sound with high gain
= VO Combo
VO Drive: Vox AC-30TB drive sound
VO Lead: Vox AC-30TB lead sound
VO Clean): Vox AC-30TB clean sound
= Match Drv
MATCH Drive: Matchless D/C-30 left input channel
MATCH Lead: Matchless D/C-30 right input channel
Fat MATCH: Matchless D/C-30 with modified high gain
= BG Lead
BG Lead: MESA/Boogie combo amp
BG Drive: MESA/Boogie with Treble Shift Switch on
BG Rhythm: MESA/Boogie rhythm channel
= MS Stack
MS1959(I): Marshall 1959 input I
MS1959(I+II): Marshall 1959 inputs I and II connected in parallel
MS HiGain: Marshall with modified midrange boost
= R-Fier
R-Fier Red: MESA/Boogie Dual Rectifier lead channel
R-Fier Orang: MESA/Boogie Dual Rectifier rhythm channel
R-Fier Vint: MESA/Boogie Rectifier with Vintage Switch on
= Hi Gain
SLDN: Soldano SLO-100
Drive Stack: Drive sound with high gain
Lead Stack: Lead sound with high gain
= Metal
5150 Drive: Peavey EVH 5150
Metal Stack: Drive sound for metal
Metal Lead: Lead sound for metal
= Custom
Custom1: Slot for saving a user-specified custom preamp setting
Custom2: Slot for saving a user-specified custom preamp setting
Custom3: Slot for saving a user-specified custom preamp setting

COSM OD/DS Types
= OD/Boost
Blues OD: BOSS BD-2 pedal
Turbo OD: BOSS OD-2 pedal
Booster: New booster that works well with COSM amps
= Dist
Distortion: Basic, traditional distortion sound
American DS: Proco RAT pedal
GUV DS: Marshall Guv’nor distortion pedal
= Classic
OD-1: BOSS OD-1 pedal
T-Scream: Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer pedal
DST+: MXR Distortion+ pedal
= Fuzz
'60s Fuzz: Fuzzface pedal
Oct Fuzz: Acetone Fuzz pedal
Muff Fuzz: Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi pedal
= Metal
Metal Zone: Boss MT-2 pedal
R-MAN: Rockman distortion sound
Heavy Metal: Heavy distortion sound
= Custom/External
Custom1: Slot for saving a user-specified custom OD/DS setting
Custom2: Slot for saving a user-specified custom OD/DS setting
External: Slot for connecting an external effects pedal

COSM Wah Types
= CRY Wah: 1970s Crybaby wah
= VO Wah: 1970s Vox V846 wah
= Fat Wah: Bold wah
= Light Wah: Refined, "no unusual characteristics"
= 7String Wah: Broad range of variations for 7-string guitar
= Custom1: Slot for saving a user-specified custom wah setting
= Custom2: Slot for saving a user-specified custom wah setting
= Custom3: Slot for saving a user-specified custom wah setting

Hope I covered it all!
 
severe droolage here!

i've got the toneworks and am quite happy but after looking at the specs on the GT-6 mentioned above i tell ya..

DROOL!

If you can afford it .. go for it.

Personally I'm gonna buy a bass guitar instead of upgrading my effects pedal to a GT-6 .. but man, what a sweeeeeeeet processor!
 
With the GT-6, what about this problem:

To use the effects loop, you change the distortion section to the setting "external loop" setting. However, one problem is you CANNOT disengage the volume pedal function from the expression pedal when the loop is on.

I'll read up on the user reviews, too. Both the Korg and Boss units get pretty high ratings from users.

Thanks for all the input on this you guys, Sure was helpful.

Bushice
 
>With the GT-6, what about this problem:


Uh, yeah, you may also run out of dilythium crystals Captain.

But, seriously, check the users group for your answers.
Perhaps you could use the either of the two external exp pedals?

Enjoy.
 
Just in case anybody is looking for a good price on the DigiTech GNX2.

1) Music123 has an open box special on it for $325.38.

2) musiciansbuy will go as low as $339 if you mention Music123's open box special.

(both of these include shipping)
 
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