Is anyone here using a Boss GT-1?

**Jim Soloway** · 11-14-2020, 11:06 AM

I'm still very interested in using a modeler for recording. My budget for this is quite small and the newer low cost options are limited in availability here. I can wait a little longer for an NUX MG-300 or I can get a lightly used GT-1 for a similar price. Any thoughts?

**newsense** · 11-14-2020, 11:34 AM

Hi Jim, I have just this week received a GT-001, which I believe is almost the same thing but in a desktop format - which possibly suits me better despite not having the looper built-in. It is the second time I have had one; the first time was purely to use it as a headphone amp in a situation where I couldn't play loud - for that purpose it wasn't great as with good quality phones, anything with a hint of break-up sounded fizzy, so I flipped it. However, I am now willing to give digital a second chance and I am just about to start testing all the amp models with no other effects other than a reverb. At this stage I will be playing through my desktop monitors, but for recording have the option. So far so good, some of the built in patches sound pretty good, but I probably won't be relying on them.

I'll report back in the next 24 hours with an update !

**Jim Soloway** · 11-14-2020, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by newsense

Hi Jim, I have just this week received a GT-001, which I believe is almost the same thing but in a desktop format - which possibly suits me better despite not having the looper built-in. It is the second time I have had one; the first time was purely to use it as a headphone amp in a situation where I couldn't play loud - for that purpose it wasn't great as with good quality phones, anything with a hint of break-up sounded fizzy, so I flipped it. However, I am now willing to give digital a second chance and I am just about to start testing all the amp models with no other effects other than a reverb. At this stage I will be playing through my desktop monitors, but for recording have the option. So far so good, some of the built in patches sound pretty good, but I probably won't be relying on them.

I'll report back in the next 24 hours with an update !

Thanks. And the GT-001 is the one the Max/Joe uses right?

**newsense** · 11-14-2020, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by Jim Soloway

Thanks. And the GT-001 is the one the Max/Joe uses right?

Not sure - I would have to check back through the forum. If it is, I really hope that it makes me sound like Joe !!

**Alter** · 11-14-2020, 02:04 PM

I have one. I like it, gets the job done, very easy to operate and record direct. Only problem i 've had was with grounding, it has a 2 way plug, so with some guitars that have no shielding i had static sometimes, but it was easy to solve. Here are some videos i ve done with it with various guitars, all direct. No experience with the Nux, might be better, but i 've had good luck with Boss stuff, they sound good and they never break..

I think nowdays, all processors at that price range can give you nice sounds if you work with them a bit. On the jazz sounds i just used the twin model nothing else. Huge upgrade from the previous generation of similar devices.

**Socalbill** · 11-14-2020, 04:08 PM

Hi Jim, yes that is the one Max/Joe talked about. I have one as well. It sounds great with phones. I don’t have a frfr speaker set up yet but the box lets you select a number of different output modes and one is a stereo effects loop output and that too sounds pretty great into my one amp with a stereo return. I can also run it line out to an aux in on my practice amps, but I’m getting addicted to playing through phones. I am now in a multigenerational house with my sons and someone is always sleeping it seems.
Bill

**jads57** · 11-14-2020, 05:52 PM

Of all the Boss GT versions I played I enjoyed the 8 version best! But I 've since replaced it with a Nux Ceberus
I mainly used both for effects individually as opposed to amp modeling. But with things like Strymon Iridium and other amp modelers, those are much better and smaller choices

**rpjazzguitar** · 11-14-2020, 05:55 PM

I had the GT-1. I have a few sounds I use (with an ME80) and I wanted to get them in a small, lightweight unit.

The good stuff: The sounds are fine. The parameters are available for tweaking in large numbers. The unit is small and light. It has all kinds of options.

The bad stuff: There's a learning curve, but once you figure out how the parameters are organized, it's not too bad.

Adjusting parameters from the unit itself (and not your computer, using their software) is not pleasant. There's a lot of scrolling. The computer software is friendlier, once you learn how to use it. There were a few things that were not obvious at first.

The volume/expression pedal is very small and that makes it hard to use.

I found the unit difficult to control - frequently getting unexpected sounds ... like some metal screaming preset when I was trying to play soft jazz. That's all probably controllable, but it involves making sure that some things are turned off and I didn't find it easy enough for that to be pleasant.

Special note: I was very interested in programming in a sound that I've had in my head for years. Basically, I wanted to be able to use the an expression pedal to sweep from clean to distorted while maintaining control over the overall volume. I spent a good deal of time trying to get the GT-1 to do that, but, I could not. I got somewhat close, but the link between the sweep of the pedal and the change of volume had a hump in it I couldn't get rid of. I was never able to get a musical sound out of it.

I ended up returning it. I have been using the ME series for many years, ME50, ME70 and now ME80. The ME80 is a great unit for my application. The positives: sounds good to me and everything is controlled by a knob. No menus no scrolling. The pedal feels great and is linear. It does what I need it to do, very well. Negatives: $299, and rather big. If you want to get under the hood and tweak parameters (which you can with the GT-1) the ME80 doesn't allow that.

**Jim Soloway** · 11-15-2020, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar

I had the GT-1. I have a few sounds I use (with an ME80) and I wanted to get them in a small, lightweight unit.

The good stuff: The sounds are fine. The parameters are available for tweaking in large numbers. The unit is small and light. It has all kinds of options.

The bad stuff: There's a learning curve, but once you figure out how the parameters are organized, it's not too bad.

Adjusting parameters from the unit itself (and not your computer, using their software) is not pleasant. There's a lot of scrolling. The computer software is friendlier, once you learn how to use it. There were a few things that were not obvious at first.

The volume/expression pedal is very small and that makes it hard to use.

I found the unit difficult to control - frequently getting unexpected sounds ... like some metal screaming preset when I was trying to play soft jazz. That's all probably controllable, but it involves making sure that some things are turned off and I didn't find it easy enough for that to be pleasant.

Special note: I was very interested in programming in a sound that I've had in my head for years. Basically, I wanted to be able to use the an expression pedal to sweep from clean to distorted while maintaining control over the overall volume. I spent a good deal of time trying to get the GT-1 to do that, but, I could not. I got somewhat close, but the link between the sweep of the pedal and the change of volume had a hump in it I couldn't get rid of. I was never able to get a musical sound out of it.

I ended up returning it. I have been using the ME series for many years, ME50, ME70 and now ME80. The ME80 is a great unit for my application. The positives: sounds good to me and everything is controlled by a knob. No menus no scrolling. The pedal feels great and is linear. It does what I need it to do, very well. Negatives: $299, and rather big. If you want to get under the hood and tweak parameters (which you can with the GT-1) the ME80 doesn't allow that.

I used Pod HD's for several years and I got pretty good with the software. The problem I had with them was when I wanted to play live. There were a lot of challenges both with how to amplify them and how to control the settings on the fly like I would with an amp in a live setting. This time around, I'm viewing it strictly as a recording device. I just got a nice pair of on-ear headphones and I have a decent pair of monitors but for playing live I have a completely separate rig that I am really starting to love. I feel like having limited ambitions for the GT-1 will make it a lot less frustrating. I'll take some time to dial in a few useful sounds and just go with those, leaving everything else to my Milkman head and my little 1x10 cab.

And I guess I should have mentioned that I did buy the used GT-1. There were a few issues getting the driver to load but once I did, the software worked very well and seemed a lot easier to use than the old Line 6 software. It sounds really good through the headphones. Sadly, I broke my index nail down to the quick last night so I probably won't have anything to play for anyone until it grows back a bit but that will give me a chance to get it dialed in and figure out how to record with it.

**jads57** · 11-15-2020, 06:38 PM

Jim have you tried the direct out of the Boss Micro Cube? Ive had great luck live and in the studio both. I went direct bypassing internal crappy speaker to either the p.a. and monitor or d.i. in the studio.

I was quite happy and at $100 It's a no brainer!

**Jim Soloway** · 11-16-2020, 07:34 AM

Originally Posted by jads57

Jim have you tried the direct out of the Boss Micro Cube? Ive had great luck live and in the studio both. I went direct bypassing internal crappy speaker to either the p.a. and monitor or d.i. in the studio.

I was quite happy and at $100 It's a no brainer!

I've never even played through a Micro Cube. I do know a few people who've had great success withem though. Ultimately I did buy the used GT-1. It was more than a $100 but low enough to pretty much remove any resistance. I also picked up a really nice pair of over-ear headphones in a trade for some gear that I never used and couldn't sell, so the total buy-in was completely painless. I started experimenting with it last night and I think this is going to be really good way for me to record.

**Uffe Steen** · 02-29-2024, 08:10 AM

Hi Jim
Late to the party
I have the Milkman 50 and Boss GT-1 and a Jensen Neodyn 12´speaker.
Those 3 things works fantastic live.
At my 1 main patch I can choose (on/off) reverb, delay, tremolo, drive and volume/wah.
( I have the boss fz7 with 2 expressions)

**markesquire** · 02-29-2024, 03:48 PM

I recently got a Boss GT1000 Core (the flagship model but smaller size like the Line 6 HX stomp). I usually only use a couple of effects, but wanted to (1) reduce the size as much as possible, (2) eliminate noise and failure issues with patch cables and power supplies, (3) have their top-quality effects and zero-latency fidelity, (4) have amp models available for headphone practice; and (5) have the other bells and whistles simply as a hedge against wanting other gear.

I've only had it for a couple of days, but it's really great so far. All of the effects are easily as good as my few analog pedals, though I'm still trying to dial in a great spring reverb. I like that it can either be set up to have a patch with a single button to change something, OR you can enter manual mode and each of the 3 buttons act as on/off switches for 3 effects like stompboxes. I plan to use it that way primarily: have a Twin Reverb amp model, subtle studio compression and a nice reverb as "always on" in the background, then use the 3 knobs to toggle on/off for tremolo (bias/sine), slapback delay (analog or tape), and overdrive.

I also like that I can call up an EQ to make subtle adjustments. So much of our gear-trading (pickups, speakers, amps, etc.) comes down to subtle differences in EQ. I plan to get down to one great Telecaster, and then use the EQ if I ever want to approximate a PAF tone or something.

A Tele, Core, and Champ is gear minimalism and maximalism at the same time (Henriksen Bud 6 with the Core would be the ultimate "smallest biggest rig in the world" if you're willing to rely more heavily on the models for any tube sounds). Easily packs in a Mono Vertigo with everything you could conceivably need.

**markesquire** · 02-29-2024, 03:59 PM

Edited above.

**Alter** · 03-01-2024, 08:42 PM

If you use the Gt1000 core in manual mode, it's worth it to get two of these double foot switches below.

They only cost about 20$ each and can control effects fine (can't switch program patches though). Essentially this way the core gains the functionality of the Helix stomp XL with seven switches available.

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