Gigrig Quatermaster

dean111music · February 2018

https://www.thegigrig.com/quartermaster

Hello

Has anyone had any experience with a before and after using a switcher like the gigrig.

My setup....

8 pedals from guitar Tuner, Compressor, OD, Dist, Boost, Delay, Tremolo and later on adding in a wah.

My Boost is a fulltone 2B which has a buffer.... not sure how good a buffer it is. All the rest are true bypass. I was thinking that the fulltone buffer/boost will keep the highs intact in the middle of the chain.

https://www.fulltone.com/products/2b

But i was thinking if add a gigrig quartermaster will that improve tone, noise and general improvement in reliability....if i pedal goes down then the show will go on.

Its a lot more money to spend including the extra patch cable to buy. Just wondering if any one had experience and if its worth doing. All power going to the pedals is isolated.

Also would i need to put a buffer in-between buffer and the gigrig? or is i supposed to feel like you are plugging straight in the amp?

Thanks in advanced

dean111music · February 2018

Just seen this!

http://www.brightonion.co.uk/8-switch-strip-looper/

You can customise how you want, buffers, extra switches..

sweepy · February 2018

Surely the Boss ES-8 is your best choice with your setup

dean111music · February 2018

sweepy said:

Surely the Boss ES-8 is your best choice with your setup

That’s out my price range and is huge. Just want to go on the bottom of my board.

How can the gigrig be 2x the price of the brightonion?

is there a quality difference? Tone difference? Switching quiet better on the gigrig?

meltedbuzzbox · February 2018

The quartermaster is a well made switching system. It's very basic in an on/off fashion. It is quiet, but I don't think I have ever played a noise switching system.

Most manufacturers I have seen state that the buffer should be at the start of your chain, in this instance you'd probably want it before the quartermaster.

Tone improvement is very debatable, if you use 2 twenty feet leads you will lose signal anyway.

If you have 8 pedals and you want a more flexible setup I'd look at the Carl Martin octa switch mk3.
It offers more than on/off and it has a buffer and amo switching etc

impmann · February 2018

The issue with a lot of switchers is the use of switches that click, bang and pop. A buddy has a cheaper made one (sorry, can't remember the make) with standard click switches and its terrible for going bang and pop through the amp when switching higher gain sounds. What you are paying for with the Gigrig one is the better switches and quieter switching.

dean111music · February 2018

impmann said:

The issue with a lot of switchers is the use of switches that click, bang and pop. A buddy has a cheaper made one (sorry, can't remember the make) with standard click switches and its terrible for going bang and pop through the amp when switching higher gain sounds. What you are paying for with the Gigrig one is the better switches and quieter switching.

So it that case it’s worth the extra money as I hate that with switching. Although I’m sure brightonion could match the quality?

meltedbuzzbox · February 2018

Bright onion, as much as I love them, don't have switches anywhere near the quality of the gigrig ones

Boromedic · February 2018

I looked at the Quartermasters and they are beautifully well made but I need midi so it wasn't worth it for me. The quiet switching is fantastic but they do price their gear at a premium. They should look at adding a midrange that does the job of the QM plus midi for less than the G2 which is crazy money and rather large. If you're patient the QMs come up used for good money but the older ones don't have the fancy switches.

slate · February 2018

I cant speak for any other brand as I've not tried any, but I've had 2 gigrig quartermaster 8's and I can't speak highly enough of them.
They're built great, reliable, noise free and so convenient that I wouldn't be without one on my board.
For me, being able to switch in the pedals in and out as I wish - without the the balancing act of reaching the top row of pedals, treading on the knobs of the pedals on the front row and accidentally changing the settings, nearly falling over and messing up the song , etc - is priceless.
I did have an 8 pedal board all wired with monster cable before I got the first QM8 and I have to say that the bypassed tone now with the QM is definitely purer and with a stronger signal than when I was running through all those pedals and jacks at once continuously.
YMMV but I love mine.

dean111music · February 2018

slate said:

I cant speak for any other brand as I've not tried any, but I've had 2 gigrig quartermaster 8's and I can't speak highly enough of them.
They're built great, reliable, noise free and so convenient that I wouldn't be without one on my board.
For me, being able to switch in the pedals in and out as I wish - without the the balancing act of reaching the top row of pedals, treading on the knobs of the pedals on the front row and accidentally changing the settings, nearly falling over and messing up the song , etc - is priceless.
I did have an 8 pedal board all wired with monster cable before I got the first QM8 and I have to say that the bypassed tone now with the QM is definitely purer and with a stronger signal than when I was running through all those pedals and jacks at once continuously.
YMMV but I love mine.

Thanks guys.

thats good to know!

Have you used a buffer at the start or the end to see if that improves things even more?

impmann · February 2018

Boromedic said:

I looked at the Quartermasters and they are beautifully well made but I need midi so it wasn't worth it for me. The quiet switching is fantastic but they do price their gear at a premium. They should look at adding a midrange that does the job of the QM plus midi for less than the G2 which is crazy money and rather large. If you're patient the QMs come up used for good money but the older ones don't have the fancy switches.

Its an interesting idea, but would harm sales of the G2 IMHO, so I doubt they'd do it.

Boromedic · February 2018

Yeah probably, its a shame though as they have the low and high end covered but not the midrange. A GigRig DPC5 style pedal could be great.

sweepy · February 2018

The ES8 has one big advantage over the Gig Rig and thats parallel switching, i found that very handy indeed on the Axe-Fx and it has swung it for me,

slate · February 2018

dean111music said:

slate said:

I cant speak for any other brand as I've not tried any, but I've had 2 gigrig quartermaster 8's and I can't speak highly enough of them.
They're built great, reliable, noise free and so convenient that I wouldn't be without one on my board.
For me, being able to switch in the pedals in and out as I wish - without the the balancing act of reaching the top row of pedals, treading on the knobs of the pedals on the front row and accidentally changing the settings, nearly falling over and messing up the song , etc - is priceless.
I did have an 8 pedal board all wired with monster cable before I got the first QM8 and I have to say that the bypassed tone now with the QM is definitely purer and with a stronger signal than when I was running through all those pedals and jacks at once continuously.
YMMV but I love mine.

Thanks guys.

thats good to know!

Have you used a buffer at the start or the end to see if that improves things even more?

Never tried a buffer with the QM. It sounds so close to plugging straight in that its never occurred to me, tbh .

piers_ward · February 2018

dean111music said:

Just seen this!

http://www.brightonion.co.uk/8-switch-strip-looper/

You can customise how you want, buffers, extra switches..

I've never used Bright Onion loopers before, however, I can vouch for their patch boxes and latching and momentary switches. Everything I have received from them has been great quality and I have two of their boxes on my pedal board at all times that work perfectly.

James Murphy who makes them has also been very helpful in the past with custom jobs.

mal1971 · February 2018

I use the quartermaster 8 on my main board. Two reasons. Firstly if a pedal or patch goes down I only lose that pedal, secondly it limits the cable run. I use a Pete Cornish p1 and tuber/mute before the switcher so I have the buffer from the p1 always in the chain. I double up on some loops. For example, my cornish g2 and ss3 live on the same loop which means I can bring either or both in to play together.

Wazmeister · February 2018

Dean,

Ive never owned the Quartermaster but I do own and use a G2. Now, it is overkill for my rig, as Im using less pedals than ever...

However, the G2 does something to my rig; my guitar sounds better just thru the G2 - is it the buffer ? Each pedal also sounds better too, and the isolation of each pedal is what works for me.

Might be info you already know, or might not help, but my findings as I perceive...

dean111music · February 2018

mal1971 said:

I use the quartermaster 8 on my main board. Two reasons. Firstly if a pedal or patch goes down I only lose that pedal, secondly it limits the cable run. I use a Pete Cornish p1 and tuber/mute before the switcher so I have the buffer from the p1 always in the chain. I double up on some loops. For example, my cornish g2 and ss3 live on the same loop which means I can bring either or both in to play together.

Nice!

i was thinking about this and getting a tuner like this at the start of the chain before going into the quatermaster

https://www.tcelectronic.com/Categories/Tcelectronic/Guitar/Tuners/POLYTUNE-3/p/P0D5Z

Not sure what the buffer is like? Say compare to a boss? Pete Cornish have great buffers don’t they?

my reasons are the same as yours. If a pedal goes down or lead you can identify it and pure tone!

slate · February 2018

mal1971 said:
I double up on some loops. For example, my cornish g2 and ss3 live on the same loop which means I can bring either or both in to play together.

Good idea !!

Chris_J · February 2018

dean111music said:

mal1971 said:

I use the quartermaster 8 on my main board. Two reasons. Firstly if a pedal or patch goes down I only lose that pedal, secondly it limits the cable run. I use a Pete Cornish p1 and tuber/mute before the switcher so I have the buffer from the p1 always in the chain. I double up on some loops. For example, my cornish g2 and ss3 live on the same loop which means I can bring either or both in to play together.

Nice!

i was thinking about this and getting a tuner like this at the start of the chain before going into the quatermaster

https://www.tcelectronic.com/Categories/Tcelectronic/Guitar/Tuners/POLYTUNE-3/p/P0D5Z

Not sure what the buffer is like? Say compare to a boss? Pete Cornish have great buffers don’t they?

my reasons are the same as yours. If a pedal goes down or lead you can identify it and pure tone!

That's exactly what I do, going into a qmx6.

Polytune3 in buffer mode (they come set to true bypass), then the Quartermaster with compression, drive, modulation and delay in the loops, then out into my Flint set to buffer and finally a Ditto looper.

The buffer in the polytune is the same as the bona-fide buffer pedal they put out a year or so ago. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/tc-electronic-bonafide

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