What are the older Boss GT multi-fx units like?

scarry67

Keep seeing some good deals (sub £100) on Gumtree and eBay on GT6 and 8s but are they better than ME50 units or just more complicated?

guitarfishbay

I had a GT8, and to be honest I did not like programming it at all. I had to keep the manual saved on my phone for reference. No idea about the GT6 I've never tried one. The GT8 sounded fine and works great when dialled in but i was using it during a writing phase and having to stop and bust out a manual to try something new at rehearsal really slowed things down and killed creativity for me, so I went back to pedals. If you're not going to tweak a lot they're pretty good for the money as a multi FX IMO.

Heartfeltdawn

Loved the GT-3 and want to get another one in the future. Old digital stuff, analogue drives, worked beautifully for me. 

By contrast all the newer ones I haven't liked at all. 

No problem at all programming the GT-3. A damn sight quicker than rearranging pedals on the board!

dilbert

I bought my GT-8 for around £100 from someone on MR and really like it but as @guitarfishbay mentioned I really am not getting the best out of it because I use it infrequently and can't remember all the editing 'keystrokes'. Don't get me wrong, that is down to me and my laziness but it really does sound cool, however I will never use all the editing capability if I live to be 100. If you use it regularly and have a more inquiring mind than mine, it's a fine box to get all your' sounds from.

scarry67

Are they pitched above the ME models then? I've just seen a Korg AX3000G on the bay at BIN 75 or best offer. These multi fx units are temptingly cheap once they've been slightly outdated but all look grimly complex to use , as you say...

Heartfeltdawn

The GT models offer greater control over the effects that the ME series. 

I will admit that I had to read the manual of the GT-3 when I bought it. Once I had, it was simple. 

iseverynamegone

Had a GT3 - pretty easy to use and sounded pretty good to me for £70 ...

timmysoft

Gt5 I had was brilliant, superb effects but still very user friendly. You can get really deep with the programming if you want and thats where you will find some great sounds

Roland

Had, and still have somewhere, a GT-8. Effects are better than the ME series, the metal case makes it more resilient to bashes, and here are more sockets on the back so there's more flexibility in joking up and adding external pedals.  I didn't find configuration too difficult, but then I used to be a software developer.

If you want to get into multi FX then they are a good starting point, and far cheaper than buying individual pedals

Teetonetal

I have a GT6 - Distortions are awful, really boxy. Effects are standard Boss, nothing wrong, but nothing exciting either. You can sort of do a 4 cable method on it so that you can use Amp distortion, this is how I used it. Mine is gathering dust as I switched back to stompboxes,

ICBM

Roland said:

Had, and still have somewhere, a GT-8. Effects are better than the ME series, the metal case makes it more resilient to bashes, and here are more sockets on the back so there's more flexibility in joking up and adding external pedals.

Most of the ME series are metal-cased too, it's just the cheaper ones which aren't. (And which are generally not that good-sounding either.)

The problem isn't the casing, it's the jacks on some of the models... if they're PCB-mount only without a panel nut - like the ME-5, ME-6, and also the GT-5 - they're prone to being easily broken. The ME-10 and all the other GT series (including the 3) have panel-mounted jacks.

Danny1969

I've got the GT5 and the GT10. Not a fan of the drive sounds but they are good for delays, comp and other stuff and they act as a midi controller as well for controlling other stuff which is handy

If your interested in older multi effects then the Vox Tonelab SE sounds better, is built like a tank and is so simple to use I never even bothered reading the manual. 

Kebabkid

I've had the GT-3, 5 and 8 and also the ME-50 and ME-70.
Generally , the fx are fine and the GT-3 was my fave. Good sounds that actually sounded closer to the Boss pedals and programming it wasn't a faff. I also liked the ME-50 (had 2) and it's normally the drives that let these units down but the ME-50's "Natural Drive" was pretty decent and it was easy to dial in sounds.
Programming the GT 8 was a pain in the butt. The ME-70 wasn't too bad but it sounded artificial.

Edit:As an alternative @Flanging_Fred brought a Yamaha DG Stomp pedal along to one of the SE Gearfests and I thought the overdriven and clean sounded better than the Boss units and the fx were ok too.

meltedbuzzbox

I owned a GT3 and I thought it was dog shit (my opinion obviously)

It used to ruin the sound of my fender twin.

The only multi fx I have ever managed to get along with is the zoom 9.2tt. I use it for all my home recording

quite cheap too

ElectroDan

Had the GT5 and the drive sounds were awful (had to use a Hughes and Ketner Tubeman in the loop). GT6 was pretty similar I thought.

The GT8 was a lot better. And for convenience it was great. You could set the control pedal as a tuner/mute, have a double press of the patch pedal for solo boosts and have volume on the Exp pedal change to Wah at the press of the toe switch.

I got rid of it in the end because I had an awakening, and now go straight from guitar into a great amp. It is literally a different world, and I have a few great sounds instead of a million mediocre ones.

digitalscream

For what it's worth, Nuno still uses a GT8 in 4CM with his Randall amps. When he's not using those amps (which have MIDI channel switching), he uses a Marshall DSL - the great thing about the GT8 is that it has the external relay output for switching amp channels.

It's the only thing which the GT8 does better than the Zoom G9.2tt, though. If you don't need that, the Zoom's an amazing unit.

Drew_TNBD

If it's good enough for Opeth, it should be good for any of us merkins!

ICBM

Kebabkid said:

Generally , the fx are fine and the GT-3 was my fave. Good sounds that actually sounded closer to the Boss pedals and programming it wasn't a faff. I also liked the ME-50 (had 2) and it's normally the drives that let these units down but the ME-50's "Natural Drive" was pretty decent and it was easy to dial in sounds.

The ME-70 wasn't too bad but it sounded artificial.

Completely agree on all those points. I also owned two ME-50s (one twice!), and the thing that made me sell them was nothing to do with the sound or the ease of tweaking - which I liked - it was the lack of a proper manual function to control preset patches. You either have fixed presets with no individual effect control or one manual patch that's completely independent, which made it fairly useless to me. The 'Natural Drive' was excellent though - I could dial it in to be almost indistinguishable from my Mesa V-Twin, although most of the other models weren't as good.

I may have to look at a GT-3 again, it's a long time since I tried one and they're dirt cheap now. Although my Zoom G3 is pretty good...

siraxeman

I've had the GT-5,6,8,10 and now 100. I like them...the COSM drives/amp models aren't great at least thru a real amp up loud n live..but apart from that if you 4CM them and just use their FX then they are good enough for me. And Nuno Bettencourt as well!

57Deluxe

dilbert said:

I bought my GT-8 for around £100 from someone on MR and really like it but as @guitarfishbay mentioned I really am not getting the best out of it because I use it infrequently and can't remember all the editing 'keystrokes'. Don't get me wrong, that is down to me and my laziness but it really does sound cool, however I will never use all the editing capability if I live to be 100. If you use it regularly and have a more inquiring mind than mine, it's a fine box to get all your' sounds from.

I have a copy of the GT-8 user DVD Tutorial somewhere you can have for a tenner...

dilbert

@57Deluxe thanks for the offer but I have one !. I guess that goes to reinforce what a complete arse I am when it comes to editing multi's. )