Boss GT-3/GT-6?

[Jax]

A dude I jam and record with has a Boss GT-3 and a Line 6 Spyder 2x10. IOW, he's too lazy and cheap to do the homework required for finding good, single effects boxes or amps. We manage to get decent and sometimes good sounds through the Line 6. He just dug the Boss out of storage and can't find the adaptor! So I haven't heard the GT-3 yet, and he remembers it (from 3 years ago) as having some good sounds, and others that sucked.

Anyway, just curious what people here think of the GT-3 or GT-6. Word was they were supposed to sound like all of the boss pedals living in one box, but I'll believe it when I hear it (not that all Boss pedals are anything to write home about).

I know good guitar tones and I might eventually get him to swap out his rig for the real deal stuff, but this is what we have to work with for now.

[Messiah]

I've got a Boss GX700 (rackmount equivalent of GT6) that I keep in the rack. I've used a GT6 a few times and it's pretty similar, I don't know about the GT3 though, having never used one.

The beauty of the GX700 is it's one of the only units that is really transparent when the FX aren't in, and I don't mean simply bypassing the whole unit. It is, like you say, like having a load of Boss pedals at your disposal. Particularly good are the OD's and Distortion's, Compressor, Delay and EQ. There's also a matrix to change the configuration lines which is very handy (for those times when you want your wah after distortion).

It also has its uses with sources other than guitars, especially the compressor which is quite hard edged and does a good impression of an MXR Dynacomp.

The speaker and amp sims are pretty shit though and I've never found use for them. You'll definately still need a half decent amp for guitars with it, as it's going to sound shit both on it's own or with a POD. It's worth digging out if you're short on gear..

[Saucyjack]

Hey Jax,
I've had a GT-3 for few years...I gig with it all the time.It sounds ok for most live work...I use it like a bank of stompboxes..delay,chorus,trem ,reverb,compressor and stomp these in and out depending on the song(also has a built in tuner and the best feature Foot- tappable tap tempo).It's conveinent and fast to set up.
I never use the preamp/amp sims/overdrive,though(I have a Fulldrive and Hotcake set up for this)

That said I've never been real impressed with it in the studio...A few years ago I tweaked with some of the Amp Sims and got them sounding ok(kinda similar but not even as good as an old POD)...
.ALWAYS ending up preferring sticking a Royer or 421 out in front of the Amp and getting real tone.It is useful to have around if you need a generic wah or an over the top 80's hair metal sound.Defintely workable and useful just use in small amounts.

YMMV but I'd stay away from the preamps and Amp sims and just it for Modulation/delay/Sci Fi type stuff.

[Saucyjack]

Also IIRC
The GT-6 and GT3 are quite similar soundwise...Gt6 has more "footswitches" and I think some different(?improved?)amp sims.

[Jax]

Thanks Carl and Sj. What you guys are relating is about what I expected. If the guitar/bass player starts to get serious about tone, I'll get him into some good pedals first, then we'll work on finding a better amp and cab. I don't know that he'd change his rig on his own. Working in a studio is teaching him to listen a lot more attentively than he did back in our band days.

[Drumsound]

I did a record with a kid who had a GT-3 a couple years ago. He wanted to record it direct and I said get an amp. We used it through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. It's a pretty overrated piece IMHO. We were working on a ballad, after dicking around with that thing for a half-hour or so I yanked the cable and plugged right into a tube amp (I don't remember if it was the Deluxe or not) and had a great tone in five seconds. The distortion tones on that thing are useless, and all the other effects sound compromised to me. Even the individual boss pedals sound better.