PSA: Valeton GP200 for £216.75 and GP200LT for £178.83

Rich31k

Anyone wanting to give these multi-fx/modelling pedals a go, there are a couple of codes on eBay to get the Valeton GP200 for £216.75 (WAREHOUSE25 and GP200HOTSALE). Seem to sell second hand around the same price. 

The GP200LT (smaller without the expression pedal) is £178.83 with WAREHOUSE25. 

I’m giving the GP200 a go. The reviews seem favourable overall. 

Rich31k

A link would have been helpful:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314092742034?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=w2ok-nrpqhg&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=5lQSA1xORfm&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Voxman

Thanks @Rich31k - I think the price has possibly changed - £224.24 I think for the GP200R (red one) up to 31/12?  
Pricing seems to be all over the place depending on which page you look. 

Rich31k

Coming up at £216.75 with both the codes at the link above 

Voxman

Ah, didn't see the other token, thanks

Rich31k

Voxman said:

Ah, didn't see the other token, thanks

Are you going to try one? If so I’ll be particularly interested to hear your thoughts given how well you know the line6 modellers. 

Voxman

Rich31k said:

Voxman said:

Ah, didn't see the other token, thanks

Are you going to try one? If so I’ll be particularly interested to hear your thoughts given how well you know the line6 modellers. 

I'd certainly like to try one to see if it would make a good gigging mfx.  I really hoped the Pod Go could have fit that role better. It's a great unit that's light, compact, sounds good and is packed full of features, but it's overly complex to tweak, heavily menu driven with insufficient knobs etc to fast access or alter things on stage and the fixed block approach and restricted user blocks just don't fit my gigging needs. 

It's why I'm still gigging with my Vox Tonelab SE and LE as they are so easy to set up and use on stage.  The GP200 is simpler, and has a lot of good gigging features. 

And although £217 is a great price for an mfx with that spec, without being able to try one and put it through its paces to see if it can do the job I need and still sound good, it's a gamble.  Ideally I'd need to try one on approval, or buy one from eg Thomann on a 30 day no quibble return but at full price which isn't ideal. 

Sadly there's no local availability to try one side by side with Pod Go and a real lack of meaningful info on the GP200 out there. What's needed are some truly independent appraisals and comparisons with Pod Go from gigging players. I'm also mindful that the GP200 will likely need IRs to compare with Pod Go's v2.0 new cab engine and IR upgrade.  
  

markslade07

Well…I’ve just ordered one. I had it in my basket playing around with the codes then received an offer from the seller taking over £14 off, then with the Warehouse25 offer it dropped to £213 so not going to grumble at that. 

Background to my needs…I sold most of my kit last year when I gave up gigging to start my business and all I have now is one guitar and nothing else. I’m due to play at my sisters wedding with a band I’m putting together so need something to a. practice at home with backing tracks and headphones, and b. play the gig, probably ampless. Not going to do much else so his will hopefully do the job nicely

Rich31k

Mine arrived today. I’ve only played with it through a Headrush FRFR 108 for 10 mins, but it sounded good and was easy to set up a new patch without reading the instructions. I’m impressed with it. 

markslade07

Good stuff. I’ve come from a Helix background, mainly due to its UI so glad this sounds pretty easy to get up and running

Rich31k

I think the inherent limitation of the blocks (can’t have more than one of each type) makes the UI simpler. There is a physical button for each effect type. Just press it and it takes you to that block. I need to dig deeper, but first impressions are positive.

Voxman

markslade07 said:

Well…I’ve just ordered one. I had it in my basket playing around with the codes then received an offer from the seller taking over £14 off, then with the Warehouse25 offer it dropped to £213 so not going to grumble at that. 

Background to my needs…I sold most of my kit last year when I gave up gigging to start my business and all I have now is one guitar and nothing else. I’m due to play at my sisters wedding with a band I’m putting together so need something to a. practice at home with backing tracks and headphones, and b. play the gig, probably ampless. Not going to do much else so his will hopefully do the job nicely

Have the same offer and sleeping on it.  I really don't like buying gear I've not had a chance to try.  If I didn't have a Pod Go I'd snap it up but regardless of the great price, I'm still risking over £200 that it would meet my gigging needs although I could always sell it and potentially take a £50-60 hit. 

topdog91

Voxman said:

It's why I'm still gigging with my Vox Tonelab SE and LE as they are so easy to set up and use on stage.  The GP200 is simpler, and has a lot of good gigging features. 

And although £217 is a great price for an mfx with that spec, without being able to try one and put it through its paces to see if it can do the job I need and still sound good, it's a gamble.  Ideally I'd need to try one on approval, or buy one from eg Thomann on a 30 day no quibble return but at full price which isn't ideal. 

Sadly there's no local availability to try one side by side with Pod Go and a real lack of meaningful info on the GP200 out there. What's needed are some truly independent appraisals and comparisons with Pod Go from gigging players. I'm also mindful that the GP200 will likely need IRs to compare with Pod Go's v2.0 new cab engine and IR upgrade.  
  

Not to completely derail, but what do the Tonelabs lack from your point of view? I too have a POD GO but gig with amps and pedals - I love the POD for home use through monitors or headphones, but I once took it to rehearsal to try and dial in a gig-volume tone through the PA and haven't been convinced yet. (Admittedly I didn't try for more than a few minutes.)

Rich31k

Voxman said:

markslade07 said:

Well…I’ve just ordered one. I had it in my basket playing around with the codes then received an offer from the seller taking over £14 off, then with the Warehouse25 offer it dropped to £213 so not going to grumble at that. 

Background to my needs…I sold most of my kit last year when I gave up gigging to start my business and all I have now is one guitar and nothing else. I’m due to play at my sisters wedding with a band I’m putting together so need something to a. practice at home with backing tracks and headphones, and b. play the gig, probably ampless. Not going to do much else so his will hopefully do the job nicely

Have the same offer and sleeping on it.  I really don't like buying gear I've not had a chance to try.  If I didn't have a Pod Go I'd snap it up but regardless of the great price, I'm still risking over £200 that it would meet my gigging needs although I could always sell it and potentially take a £50-60 hit. 

They appear to accept returns within 30 days. The only plastic is on the screen, so if you’re careful unboxing it I suppose you could send it back if you don’t like it - only losing out on return shipping. It was shipped from an address in Manchester. 

Voxman

Thanks @Rich31k... Might try it then.

 @topdog91 you've asked a good question. The Tonelabs are very gig robust but are also quite big and heavy, so I suppose I'm trying to find something that sounds good but that's smaller, lighter, yet still easy to use with a bit more flexibility.   Perhaps I should stick with them because for my needs they just work and I'm probably just suffering from some minor GAS. 

But the GP200 has some features I like that might make it good for gigging. These are in the other thread but I'll list here too:

Built in XLR balanced outs (as well as non-balanced outs)
MIDI
Groundlift
Staggered footswitches - such a simple solution to make switching much easier
Dedicated amp controls - (this was a feature I really liked in the Zoom G11)
Dedicated buttons to access each section quickly (modulation, reverb, delay etc) (a feature I really liked in the Mooer GE300)
Globally accessible looper 
Built in drum machine (basic, but still a nice extra to jam to & drums can be looped too)
Initial & wait modes for footswitches - brilliant for teeing up something whilst you're playing
Cab off setting (global)
Patch level meter
180 sec looper
Customizable Display Mode (3 modes)
Magnify the patch names and numbers (great option for gigging).
1000mA  (a sensible power requirement, unlike the Pod Go)
All metal construction

I think the GP200R offer is open until 31 December so I have a couple of days to mull things over. 

Voxman

OK, so I've the option to buy this at a great price & it's currently sitting in my EBay basket. 

HOWEVER having read the manuals and watched the videos I think it has a major problem for gigging. Although you can customise footswitches A B C D per patch to switch on/off pedals in stomp mode, the display only shows ABCD - so if you have a dozen patches for a gig there is no way you can remember which footswitch does what in each patch. Unless there's a way to name these switches per patch this important stomp feature is useless for a gigging player. Unless I'm missing something?

(Pod Go had a similar issue with its snapshots and it took Line 6 18 mths before it was upgraded with the ability to name & colour code footswitches)

I hope I'm wrong & I've emailed Valeton/Sonicake for clarification.  If anyone here has bought one please let me know if I'm right?

markslade07

Just got mine…only had a quick play through some of the factory presets as yet so can’t answer your question at the min @Voxman. Early impressions (only through headphones so far) are that it’s pretty reasonable, especially for the price. It’ll certainly do me for the one gig I have planned for this year, and am looking forward to faffing about creating my own presets when I get a bit more time

Rich31k

I’ve been using it a reasonable amount. Loading on a couple of IRs has made a big difference to the sound quality over the stock cabs. Just a couple of free ones that I found by googling Valeton GP200 IRs. 

Voxman

Just got my GP200 today.  Very impressed with the tones and the stock cabs.  Here is my first impressions post on the Valeton Facebook pages. I've since upgraded to v1.5 with no issues. But even though I've loaded the Win7 ASIO driver, I still can't hear PC Audio with the GP200 connected by USB cable to my PC. 

GP200 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Just received my GP200R today, a day earlier than I was expecting, which was a nice surprise.

Out the box I must say that the GP200 looks very attractive indeed in the metallic red.  The display is good quality and all the foot switches and the expression pedal work smoothly.  It's impossible to comment on long term ruggedness & reliability but the unit has a good solid feel to it, & only a comfortable toe pressure is needed to engage the wah.

I've only played through the presets so far with a Tele guitar but my first impressions tonally played through my Audio Technica ATH m50x studio monitoring headphones are very favourable.  The GP200 sounds very good with a full and surprisingly pleasing 'organic' sound.  I'm quite impressed that, for the most part, the factory presets actually sound very usable and appear to have been put together by someone that plays guitar.  This makes a nice change as all too often factory presets are very 'meh' and regardless of how good an MFX can actually sound, presets are always going to be the first impression that a new user has.

Once I'm further advanced and have done the firmware upgrade and used the edit software, I'll do a detailed and objective assessment comparing the GP200 to Pod Go.  I might even do a youtube video.

Whilst the drum machine is arguably like somewhat out of the 80s/90's, nevertheless its actually quite usable and is a good feature for home jamming and practice. Playing to a rhythm does help to tighten up your playing and there's sufficient variety to cover pretty much any genre.  Had a brief play with the looper which seems to work adequately but I'll need to play around with it some more to see how controllable it is.

The tuner display is clear but its accuracy is disappointing and it falls short of the standards I'd expect from a modern MFX. Even my Vox Tonelab LE from 2007 has a way better tuner.  Valeton need to improve this in a future update and ideally should add a strobe tuner option.

I've yet to get my head fully round the GP200 functionality and especially for my needs, assess its suitability for gigging.  As it stands, its biggest shortfall is that the control switches need to show the function(s) set.  Whilst this currently renders the GP200 inadequate for my gigging needs, nevertheless its a lot of bang for buck & as I only paid just a tad over £200 for it I still might decide to keep it for home use.  And its always possible Valeton will address this issue in the future.

There are some things that do seem to be a bit of a nuisance in that as far as I can see, there appears to be no fast patch scroll option, and although the GP200 offers 3 display screen options, unlike the Pod Go, there appears to be no mode foot switch and you have to go into global settings to select this. Also, whilst fast access knobs and buttons for amp tweaking and fx module selection are very helpful, on a dimly lit stage you can't read these. 

Anyway, these are just my first impressions after only an hour with the GP200.

Voxman

Having played the GP200R (R=red) quite extensively over the last week i'm returning it.  There's a lot to like about it but the Control switch limitations and archaic designations of ABCD or Control 1,2,3 etc render it useless for my gigging requirements. 

markslade07

That’s a shame @Voxman but I see what you mean. I’ve got my first proper jam session on Saturday so interested to see how a. it sounds through something that isn’t headphones and b. how I can set it up so it works well enough for a one off gig. The inability to name a pedal/ switch as to what it’s actually doing is going to be a pain in the arse, but as it’s only a one off gig (currently) I’ll have to make it work