Guitar Effects Processor Advice

[Mr. Boston]

Hey I just read a review of the BOSS GT-8 Processor, and it SOUNDS great in the review. Of course, I'm reluctant to put too much faith in a "hands on review" in a music catalog. Anyway I have mostly BOSS stomp boxes, and love them, but taking control of them is getting harder and harder the more I buy. The pedal chain is about 6 feet long now. I'll never get rid of them I know, but I need one unit that will handle the bulk of my needs the rest I'll keep for flavor now and then.

I also read a review of the ToneWorks AX3000G processor which sounded like a decent piece of gear too. Anyone had any experience with one of these? What I want is something that's ridiculously easy to use with an expression pedal that will let me control the "rate" of phase, delay, etc. I don't necessarily need something with 3000 vintage amp emulations, as I like the sound of my amp just fine. What I want is something that has all the biggies, compression, phase, chorus, delay, drive, distortion, wah, vibrato, flange, etc. For the times when I want a specific individual effect to be "perfect" I'll always have the stomp boxes in the line-up too.

Any recommendations?

[Jalabodu]

Hi,
I own the GT-8 and I gotta say I like it alot! I'm a long time Boss user. I've used the SE-70 on stage for over 10 years and I always get compliments on my tone.

Just the feature of being able to have 2 amp models going on at the same time is very cool. I like recording stereo tracks, having the same performance with 2 different amps panned hard left and right. The clean/dirty thing is a blast to play with.

You mentioned finding something that's "ridiculously easy to use". I gotta say, in this respect the GT-8 is WAAAYYY off your mark. I definately wouldn't call it "easy to use", but that's because there's a tremendous amount of depth when it comes to programming it. For instance, you can specify using a 57 to mic the cabinet or a 451 (I have tons of experience with both and I think these settings are pretty true to the actual mics). You can also specify positions of the mics. These parameters greatly affect the tone, and there are a ton of great effects to choose from.

Now, for me, I don't think this is a bad thing. I've been digging in on learning it and I'm reaping the rewards. It's a great unit. I replaced my Johnson Milennium with it and don't regret it.

So, if you don't mind jumping in head first and really learning a piece of gear, I think you'll like it. But if your just looking for some icing on the cake, it might be too much.

Just my 2 cents.

[BruceTheProduce]

Hey Jalabodu!
well, do you only want this for studio use? OR live as well?
, If you already have a lot of effects and want to try something else.and If is only for studio use try guitar rig by NI. For live use as well, I like the digitech GNX 3000. The 'tarrist of my band has it, and doesn't seem too complicated and it does sound good

Cheers

[Mr. Boston]

This would be mostly for live use really. What I meant by "ridiculously easy to use" was more in reference to how easy it is to switch, control, and layer effects live. I can spend all day delving into the subtle nuances of all the programming options, in fact I LOVE that kind of stuff. But it needs to be an easy tool to utilize live. I've been a BOSS enthusiast since I was turned on to their Compression Sustainer by another guitarist a few years back, so I never doubted it would sound and perform well. I don't mind a lot of options, what I don't want is something where you have to perform elaborate foot-procedures to utilize the thing live, that's all. This thing sounds like a winner to me.

[Mario-C.]

I have a previous model, the GT-6 and it's a good processor, it's not the most incredible sounding unit out there but if you need to travel light and an all in one solution then it's great, the presets are awful as usual and it's kind of dificult to get a good clean sound but it can be done, with some tweaking you can definitely get something more than usable ...

on the other hand if you want better sounding effects try the MPX-G2 by Lexicon, I have two of them in my setup and they rock, the preamp section is all analog and sounds great, unfortunately it's not in production anymore