Hi, I'm finally looking to pick up a multi-fx unit after years of a "guitar -cord - amp" set-up, and I'd really appreciate recommendations from any experienced players on which units offer the most versatility/overall quality. It'll be used primarily for recording, and ease of use is a huge issue for me. I've messed around with a P.O.D., albeit briefly, and not thoroughly enough to get a sense of whether it's what I'm looking for.

Even if you have suggestions of which units to flat-out avoid, those are appreciated too.

Thanks, and hope it's cool I'm starting a thread on this.

Boss GT-6 or GT-8

I have the Digitech RP200 Effect Processor. I'm very satisfied with it. It also has preamp out for digital recording with your PC. I like the RP200 for its compact size and ease of use, only 3 buttons and 3 knobs. If your more heavily relying on it for recording you may want to check out the Digitech GENETX series, their some bad-to-the-bone floor processors. They even have one that's a 8 track recorder, labeled the "workstation." I also believe Boss processors and the infamous Pod are great as well. You can check www.musiciansfriend.com they'll have loads of user reviews who bought and wrote good/bad about any particular product. Hope this helps

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If your looking for an FX unit, just go for rack. A g-major or intellifex will suit you just fine.
But if you are looking for an FX/amp-modeler unit to record straight to PC/analog recorder, try line6 POD XT LIVE. It's an XT in a floor board unit. I tried one out a few weeks ago and the amp models on there are very nice. Many tones to be had out of this unit.

It may not be the best, but I realy like my Boss GT-6

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Awesome - thanks for the suggestions, all of them are very appreciated. The Digitech & POD XT sound especially interesting. I'm a little wary of the Boss GTs, only because the other guitarist in my band had an older model (the GT-3 maybe?) that was the most incredibly complicated, un-intuitive machine that I could have sworn it was designed purely out of spite for any guitarist without an engineering degree (which, incidentally, the other guitarist had - and he STILL hated the fucker.) Thanks again for all the advice!

Digitech GNX series. I had the GNX3 and loved it. But sold it for new rig money.

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dont underestimate the guitar-cord-amp setup :P

As with multieffects:

Floor:'
Boss GT series

Rack:
Rocktron Intellifex
Rocktron Replifex
TC Electronic G Major

id say the V-Amp Pro and V-Amp 2... (the Pro is a rack and the 2 is an actual pedal)

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I have the GNX3 and it's not the best. A Boss GT6 or ME50 is the minimum I'd go for.

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Well, the 6 and 8 are still not very plug&play, but after you get the hang with it, it roxorz your soxorz!

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Dont get a ME50 unless you have a tight budget. My friend got one and boy im glad i dont. He boasts about havin 500+ fx or whatever and they all sound like shit. Apparently the ME50 has a Boss MT-2 built in..well when i tried it.. it was shit! ... especially shit maybe as it is on his Squire Strat?

But yeah go for high budget $1000 + if you want to get a great sound for recording.

What are you saying? A real MT-2 doesn't sound like shit?

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well, you want the best you might as well go evantide. i likve the vox tonelab or pod live xt thing for floor

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I'm thinking about getting a GT-6 for effects myself. I don't use many but the clean channel on my amp really needs to be shot and killed ( I got a Randall Cyclone ). Now the distortion on the amp just rocks but the clean really needs some effects like compression and chours.

The GT-6 has duel preamps and I was thinking of just inserting my amps distortion preamp into the effects loop of the GT-6 for my high-gain tone and just using the GT-6 preamp for cleans.

I can hook this all up and make it work if I run the guitar>GT-6 input, GT-6 output>ISP decrimator>BBE max>amp effects loop return, amp effects loop send>GT-6 return, GT-6 send>amp input. I will have 4 cords running to the amp from the effects board but I will be able to switch preamps, effects, place effects infront of and behind the amps preamp all with the change of a patch on the GT-6.

Anyone ever done this? I'm going to try out some Multi effects pedals today to see if I like anything.

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i diddnt really get it all but it sounds cool

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Basicly, I will be inserting the distortion preamp channel of the Randall into the GT-6 effects loop. That will let me put effects before the Randall input and effects after the Randall preamp.

I will be able to switch between distortion ( that uses the Randall high gain preamp ) and clean ( that uses the GT-6 ) channels with the tap of a patch switch on the GT-6 with all the assigned effects included.

My only concern is that the GT-6 might load down my signal and fuck my tone The thing isn't true bypass but surely it uses good I/O buffers.... I hope.

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I think GT-8 is the best one.

It is really not much different then the GT-6 from what I have comparted. There are only 3 things different.

1. The color of the thing.
2. The GT-8 has a solo button that boost the mids. ( you could just make a patch for solos and get a solo sound you really want )
3. The GT-8 has a extra button and jack that allows you to actually switch the channel on a amp. ( worthless to me because I would still have to tap dance around on the thing to change channels and effects patches )

Other then that they are the same thing in every detail.

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Soul, what you described is called the "4-cable method". Without getting into details, you have to sacrifice your OD/Distortion FX on the GT-6 to be able to bothe use your Amp's and the GT's pre-amp beside each other. You may not cry over not being able to use the MT-2 simulation, but you might want to use OD's and tubescreamer sim and such.
On the GT-8, they solved this problem, so you can hook it up, and still be able to use the OD with your amp.

Besides, the GT-8's simulations are tweaked, and a lot of it's pre-amps (especialy the high gain ones) are much more usable. I wished I shelved the extra 50 bucks for it.

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It would be the squier that sucks, not the pedal. I don't think it has a BOSS MT-2 built in. I think it just has it's own overdrive. The overdrive isn't the best part of the pedal though, the effects are. They're good quality.

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Yup. I just finished my research today and I'm going to get the GT-8

I know, I know. It's a God damn tone sucking multieffects pedal and I have always hated them because of the shit I have tried in years passed. I tried it today and I was shocked that it was so cool. They let me fuck with it for 3 hours today ( read the manual first or you will be lost and hate it ). I tried everything out on it and found that it was tweekable beyond belief. I even turned as much as I could off on the GT-8 and compared it to directly connecting the guitar to amp.... I could not hear a difference in the amps tone I even tried the "4 cord method" and it worked very well. The dude at Guitar Center freaked out while I was hooking it all up though but once it was all done he was impressed.

The best news is that they have a clean used one with a power supply for $349. Tomarrow I am bring all my old gear to see what I can get for it all. I'm sure they will trade me strait up for it.

I was also wrong about the other post I made here about the GT-8 only having a few more features. It does in fact have some settings that the GT-6 doesn't. It seem that the GT-8 is indeed more flexable then the GT-6.

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You are wrong wrong on the "own overdrive" part. It has dozens of simulations of Boss OD/Distortion pedals, with the MT-2 being one of them.

@SOUL: Have fun with it mate!

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GO SHOEGAZE OR GO H0ME!


true.... but that's totally unrealistic. something like a used eventide eclipse is going to cost you well over a grand. and from there i doubt he would even understand how to turn the damn thing on.

if he's asking people for suggestions on an internet forum and actually considering units like the rp200.... he is not yet ready for an eventide.

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you're right, it does.

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Bah, my Zoom707 has served me well for years

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Doesn't it have that COSM feature too where once you pick past a certain threshhold it changes the patch? (sorry I don't know how to explain it better)

What, so you're playing chords and its in one patch, then when you solo about 12th on the 4th string, it changes to a different patch?

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If thats what it is, I doubt it. Would be bloody annoying if it happened unepxected too.

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Imagine a 5 string sweep, it'd sound ridiculous switching patches all the time

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Damn Guitar Center I took my Crate half stack in there to trade it for the GT-8 and everything was going fine. The dude was going to strait up trade me the GT-8 for the Crate until the big boss dude of the place came over and got nosey. Once he learned that we were going to trade he asked me to go look around for a minute. Said he needed to talk with the guy that was about to do te trade.

20 minutes later the dude found me and said the boss shot the deal down. The boss wanted $300+ my amp and cab, no exceptions. The poor dude looked hurt to even have to tell me that news. He was about to go get it the GT-8 to when it all happened.

I told him I didn't like his boss and he said his boss didn't give a shit about customer happiness. He looked as bumed as I was about the whole thing.

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I assume you didn't get the GT-8 then?

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Pfff... No way was I going to agree to that deal. $300+ my gear? The boss was trying to rip me off big time.

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I have something for his boss

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Go there when the boss isn't there, and try and do the same deal with a different sales person

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I might just do that actually, but I know that people will talk with each other there. They will know what I'm doing. Their boss was a little emo looking prick anyway. I think I'll just post it on ebay and see what I can get.

I was expecting to maybe pay some cash for it but not $300.

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I didn't think GT-8s were _that_ expensive, i thought they were about £250, and its expensive over here.

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They are $450 here but the one I wanted was used and cost $350. The boss was only offering me $50 for my gear. The amp and cab are mint and very clean. I take good care of my things. It was insulting

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Yea, i was thinking that he couldn't have offered you much for your gear if he was gonna try and shaft you for $300 too.

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I could practically give it away on Ebay for $200. Hell I'll even throw in a speaker cable. I know they could have easily got $400 out of both the Amp and the cab.

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$50 for your gear? Daaaaiiim.. I would take that as a personal insult!

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fuck selling gear to guitar center.

i had something like that happen. i have about a dozen friends that work at guitar center so i asked one of them what i could get from them for my jmp-1. expecting it to be a really low ball price. he told me $350... i was like "whaa?". thats what i wanted for it. so i brought it in... about to make the deal. then the boss talked to him an demanded he swing me down to $300. i was like "i'm over it" took my jmp-1 home and sold it to some bro in canada for $400 usd + shipping.

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I think for multi efx the Gmajor is terrific, great delays , pretty good flange chorus , phase shifting , reverb, compression , noise gate etc.
Its a nice unit but id recommend you get a good ground controler like a GCX or a behringer , If you got the Bucks I hear the G-Force is very cool even better I hear the G system, The only drawback and it aint no big deal is there are no distortion efx on the G major , Its reasonable about $499 ,TC puts out good shit I think

I hate going in there half the time the guitars are out of tune the action sucks .They are famous for selling used shit as new, in other words some dude goes in buys a axe , gigs with it and comes back before the end of the 45 day return policy says nahhh I change my mind I wanna refund,
I tried a Boogie a few years back , 2 of the tubes were missing out of the amp , Guitar Center Sucks
Even with Musiciansfiend and Music123 they try to pawn off used shit as new , yeah if its noticably dinged they will knock a few bucks off ,
the only saving grace with any of them is you can tell em you saw it cheaper and they will more often than not come down , within reason and you can buy shit go out and gig and bring it back say sorry dude it sucks lol I wanna refund

Well, I have finally got Guitar Center to go down to $300 on the GT-8 and also give me $220 for the Crate half stack. I put $30 cash on it to put on lay-away so no one else gets before Friday. Then it will be all mine.

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Maybe not the best deal to be had, but at least you got the gear you want. Welcome to the GT family
Btw, check out www.bossgtcentral.com if you have any questions or something, they have loads of great tips and stuff

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Hell Yeah! Great site man thanks

I still can't believe how unreal the GT-8 are and must admit that I was very unsure of this thing at first. It really is the best multieffect pedal I have ever seen. Nothing else like it really.

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Oh, and be sure to checkout teejay's instructional dvd, he is a regular there, and he made a dvd for the gt-6, and now i believe also the gt-8.

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I never really found the whole multi-effect deal that appealing...or pedals at all really...i thought they were interesting...but lost their appeal after about five minutes...i can barely deal with what i have...(tube screamer and a morley wah)...

Well, some people like their rig raw and basic, while others like to experiment with different sounds.

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i go through phases... i'm just using an amp, and a wah... with a noise suppressor, tuner and power conditioner... but since ditching all my pedals and rack shit... sometimes i just feel like it's missing something special.

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I like to experiment with different sounds...but right now im trying to figure out what all i can do with just the guitar-cord-amp setup...you would be amazed at things you can come up with...of course...figuring out how exactly you did it is the hard part...

Wel, you can experiment with different sounds and fx, or weird chords, progresions and fingerings. One should try both...

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I like the GT-8. I don't like multieffects pedals, but I do like the GT-8. It is a lot more flexable then I first thought it would be. My setup is breathing fire now I need to update the solfware but that isn't going to be hard. All I need is a USB to MIDI cable.

I would definately recommend the GT-8 to anyone that needs a effects pedalboard.

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Ill try fx...im just slow to figure out whats so good about stuff...remember...im the guy who doesnt understand "growling"...

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This response is for most of the posts, It all depends on the persons tastes & the amount of money you want to spend. You can get a good sound out of most cheaper multi-effects pedals. I have the Digitech Rp100 & a Boss GE-7 EQ & if you mess with it you can get the sound you desire. Ive had the Rp300 which is twice as expensive & you basiclly get the all the same stuff with the 100. As for dealing with local music stores, Everytime i walk into one it is a joke! Everything is over priced & most salesman are know it all jerkoffs & they will give you next to nothing for your gear but when you walk in a week later youll see your stuff marked up to 3 or 4 times what you got for it on trade. Im glad there is such a thing called the internet so i dont have to deal with the local music stores any longer.

Yeah, they tried to stiff me on my trade in at first but I kept at them for a week about it and they finally gave me a decent deal. I ended up getting the GT-8 for $280 tax included and they gave me $220 for my Crate GFX half stack ( which was a good deal because they sell for about that on Ebay ). The GT-8 could fetch $350+ on ebay this week. I'm pretty sure I got a great deal, but it did take time.

I like the GT-8 most of all because I can place different effects before and after my preamp and switch the actual amp channel with just one stomp. I don't know of any other multi effect pedal that can do that. Plus it has a ton of other fuctions that I'm still learning how to use. MIDI rack gear could do it but that would cost a lot more. The only draw back is I got like 30 cables running between the amp and GT-8

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Haha! I can see that...

how is the GFX head? I was looking at GX (the same one, no effects) but wasn't sure about it.

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I wouldn't get it without the built in effects. I could turn the effects off with a footswitch but the dry signal just lacked the body that reverb and chours could give it. The cleans were awsome on the amp but I had to boost the distortion channels a bit with a pedal. It did have a great lead distortion and mid range crunch distortion without a pedal to boost it though. But to get a Pantera type hard attack distortion I had to use a pedal.

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I'm looking more for a great clean. Distortion can be fixed (get me a Rocktron Silver Dragon like RussianRoullette. Thing slays). Unless I can get a Blue Voodoo cheap (below $450), I'll probably get the GFX then. Thanks mate.

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No problem bro. Ebay has some really good deals on GFX right now. What is in demand seems to change by the week there, but I've seen GFX heads go for $50 lately. Everyone is trying to sell Crate GT amps and it drops the price of the older models a lot. The GTs are the same thing as the GFX but with knobs that light up and a channel effects tracker. That way you can switch channels and the effects asigned to that channel at once, but that isn't really needed unless you are heavy on effects.

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Heh, alright. I'll do a little more research, and see what I can do with what little money I have. Fucking parents and pathmark are ripping money out my ass weekly now.

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Oh, YES
In Saturday I'll buy it!
But how many people, who can use an options of GT-8 at least on 25%, do you know?

What??