I'm Thinking of Buying A Boss GT-6

I see other guitar players walk in and plug in 2 cables and they have tuner and everything all in one. I'm jealous! I use pedals all over the floor  And set up and tear down is a pain and time consuming. Should I get multi effects processor? Help me make up what's left of my mind. Please....Are those  Boss Me 70,Line 6 M 9 stompbox, Boss Gt 10 s worth getting. Thanks for any input!

Here Bill. Take care of stage and studio.

Here's one experience I had a couple of weeks ago. Call Me the breeze was  up so I set my VooDoo Vibe up for it. When that was over Born on the Bayou was called so I set that up on the Vibe for tremolo. This took about25 seconds. The lead vocalist turned and said I need to be ready and stop spending so much time on setting my pedals. He wasn't sticking to the Set List I was given but calling as he saw fit and the crowd. Is there a solution to this? The other guitar player just hit one button for each song. He sounded the same much of the night and wasn't all that good a player but he had some nice effects when he did.

I've acquired several guitar/bass multiFX pedals over the years and I'd say it depends on what you want it for.

Personally, I don't ever seem to like any digital versions of fuzz/distortion/od pedals. Amp sims vary.

Digital mod-pedal emulations vary and depend on your tastes in phasing/flanging/chorus. Usually I can find something usable, but given the choice I'd much prefer a good MXR pedal to any multiFX version. AFAIK, the Boss multiFX versions are identical to the (modern) individual Boss pedals, so if you like/hate them...  

I'm quite happy with Line6's delays (!) and reverbs; never been a fan of Roland/Boss reverbs.

I can usually find a perfectly usable Wah in a multiFX unit. Auto-wahs/envelope filters are much trickier.

MultiFX's built in loopers always seem to be completely unusable.


From a tweaking/programming perspective, on one side it's hard to use some of them, but on the other side they remember their settings since the knobs don't accidentally get changed. And you don't ever have problems with little patch cables, or batteries and there's only one power cable that can come unplugged.

So if I were gigging a lot, except for a couple of key dirt boxes in front (and a dedicated looper, if required), I'd probably compromise on one. But it is a compromise (except maybe for the AxeFX, but that's big $$$).

" All I can say is that MultiFX units don't have near the flexibility and propensity for an original sounding tone as do pedal boards  "

I don't think these guys agree with you.
 

spacey


" All I can say is that MultiFX units don't have near the flexibility and propensity for an original sounding tone as do pedal boards  "

I don't think these guys agree with you.
 

PFFTTT , what do those guys know anyway, they dont have a singer like Bill does....

bayoubill


YEAH!

hey bill, what music stores you got closeby so you can drive over and test out some rack mount guintar fx processors?

musicman100

spacey


" All I can say is that MultiFX units don't have near the flexibility and propensity for an original sounding tone as do pedal boards  "

I don't think these guys agree with you.

PFFTTT , what do those guys know anyway, they dont have a singer like Bill does....

I guess they didn't know Bill wants to learn how to tap dance too. 

well all I can say about some of those layouts where pedals are all katty-whompus is you never want to be DRUNK and try to stand on one foot while trying to tap dance the pedals with the other, you might wind up busting your arse... or worse , embarrassing yourself in front of the hot blond who had been watching you

The best multi effects unit I've ever used was a Digitech RP7 Valve. They don't make them anymore but you can buy them used on eBay.

It has a tube preamp built in to it and it just screams. The tube stage in it creates some awesome distortion's. It gives a solid state amp that nice tube sound, or you can run it through a PA without even using an amp. It has stereo outputs also.

Mine got fried by water one time and I haven't been able to find anything that's come even close to sounding like it does. I don't play out anymore so I haven't replaced it, but I wouldn't hesitate to grab one off eBay if I start playing out again.

The other thing about the RP7 ... it has nice big lettering on it so you can see it well on stage. Foot activated bypass, tuner (auto mutes and has big LED display so you can see it in the dark), and I 'think' iirc, you can assign the effects to each foot switch. You can do preset mode or pedal mode. So you can have your distortion set up and turn it on/off, same with choruse, flange, ... etc.

I still have mine even though it's dead. Can't bring myself to throw it out. :( Best thing about it ... Made In USA. Here's a link to one on ebay with some good pics. For guitar multi effects, I wouldn't consider anything unless it has a real vacuum tube in it. The emulation stuff just doesn't cut it imo.

Just like the factory patches in a keyboard, they are some ones else s idea of what the FX should sound like. Even the "Signature" patches dont exactly sound like the fx the famous person is using, if it was where would his mojo go then and uniqueness?

I read somewhere that 80 % of keyboards that went back to the factory or service center had the factory patches in them in most all locations, Bill if you get any rack processor, (which I think you should do ) tweak them to get the BAYOU sound !!!!!

spacey


" All I can say is that MultiFX units don't have near the flexibility and propensity for an original sounding tone as do pedal boards  "

I don't think these guys agree with you.
 

I would endorse it too if I was getting one for free.  

Middleman

spacey


" All I can say is that MultiFX units don't have near the flexibility and propensity for an original sounding tone as do pedal boards  "

I don't think these guys agree with you.
 

I would endorse it too if I was getting one for free.  

I believe you .

Remember all those Event ASP8 ads a few years back. They must have had 30 top notch musicians and mixers on their website, much like the site above, who endorsed and raved about those monitors. The ads were in every magazine for months. It turns out that one of the more honest of the group admitted that Event had pulled them into a big weekend bash at a hotel in New York, wined and dined them. Then they unveiled the speakers and gave every one of them a free pair. They then took their pictures in a variety of rooms and used that as an ad campaign for the next couple of years. A few of them reported later they tried but did care for the monitors even though their picture on the site and in many magazines remained in circulation. Just saying.

Now there is no doubt a lot of those players actually use a Fractal, ($2000 device) but that is not even in the same universe as the GT6 or about a dozen other multi fx units under $1500. The Fractal by the way lists for $1995. So bayoubill, let me adjust my comment. There are some Multifx units which are as good as independent units except they will cost you 4 times as much.  

I use the Line 6 M13 and love it.  Very easy to use also.