I got the GT-1000 Core for its form factor (and the price difference between it and the HX Stomp in Japan is much bigger). -I get huge “rack style” parallel/stereo tones -it didn’t break the bank -I almost never run into processing limitations -the modeling is good. (Any difference in ‘feel’ isn’t noticeable live and it sounds great so who cares) -the master fx are a quick way to have big ‘produced’ style tones with a single block, minimal tweaking Absolutely Boss is underrated at what they aim to do. They’re not the best modelers but they get the job done right, done quick, and done cheap.
Thaanks to you, Leon Todd and the Studio Rats i bought the gx 100 after swearing that i wouldnt buy another Boss unit (loved them but the all died on me. Not the stomp boxes though) Anyway i am selling my Pod Go. I have never had such a high level instant gratification with any modeller to date. I found it so easy to get great sounds , without the endless inscutable options with the amps and parameters. Personnally having 80 amps, 78 of which i have never played isnt really useful to me, a good amp sound plus some good effects and i am good. I couldnt find a drive pedal in the Pod Go that i liked. The GX100 solved tthat so I am sellling several drive pedals too. I think the Line 6 editor is better but frankly i just find the Boss siunds better and is way eaiser to get a great sound. I Afeter spening a lot of money on IRs and buying your patches too i am happy to not have to bother. Anyway this is not to dis the Pod Go, i guuess it just wasnt for me. So John please do some presets for the GX100.
The GX 100 is one of the best gear decisions I have ever made. You will not beat this unit for $600. I traded in an Axe fx Ultra with some trepidation, but I needed the foot switches for live playing on a budget. I have No Regrets.
Thanks for sharing your GX100 presets in these videos! I’ve REALLY been enjoying this modeler and am learning so much by seeing how you craft your tones. The Bluetooth adapter and the app has been working flawlessly for me.
It seems like BOSS has always dropped the ball in terms of marketing even though they always had a good product. I had a boss gt10 that I used from 2009 to 2016 and I probably would still have it if it didn't get stole. Line6 was the first of these modern companies to really nail it. Even back in the early 2000s they were on youtube, in forums, etc. Fractal Audio isn't the best with marketing but their product was so good when it came out it kind of just became industry standard for so many bands. That alone was their major marketing and propelled them forward a lot. In recent years, Neural DSP has shown once again how important marketing is. They send products to tons of RU-vidrs, artist signature packages, and collaborations with amp companies. Can anyone really remember Boss doing anything like that in recent years or ever?
One reason why I'll never buy Neural DSP. More marketing than substance. It's always wise to avoid companies that put more energy, money and effort into their marketing bs/YT influencers than into their products. Fractal had plenty of marketing, especially through their European distributor you seemingly just don't remember or didn't know.. your Fractal story reads more like Kemper's uprising. Relatively little marketing but adopted by studios and touring musicians all over the world in just a few years.
@@Bushprowler Interesting. I agree with you with Neural DSP. I tried their stuff and it was fine, but then they have 10000 variations on the same basic tones all of which cost money. I don't like that strategy personally. I didn't know about Fractal's marketing push. I'm in the states and I never saw any of it except through different bands. And your Kemper example is also great. Do you recall Boss ever marketing well? I personally don't.
I sort of wonder if Boss' main market may be in the East? I think it seems to me that Line6/Fractal etc have a bias toward the West, but maybe that's part of why over here we get less targeted Boss stuff?
@@andrefludd I worked at the Musikmesse in Frankfurt back when it was easily on par with NAMM and the market was still alive and well and when I started playing guitar everyone had some Boss pedal or rack unit, they're a cult brand so to speak but I can't remember Roland/Boss ever doing more than the bare minimum in marketing which I now think is a good thing for the consumer. I mean Fractal has a toxic cult following and a jerk at the helm and if you buy their flagship model now you can be sure it's obsolete/there's a slight upgrade with a hefty price increase in the near future (Standard, Ultra, XL, XL+, MKI, MKII, MKII Turbo etc. - it's absurd at this point and if your Axe-FX II XL+ 'last gen' flagship model has a problem it becomes an expensive paper weight because they don't even service them anymore since the III is out), Strymon and NeuralDSP have more in common with Apple regarding their marketing and product development/care (e.g. NeuralDSP were hyped for their amp plugins and you literally don't get any of these amps in the QuadCortex and its still lacking to fulfil most of the promises that their marketing made and Strymon was likeable when they were Damage Control and actually answered mails from customers, then they became some overly hyped company that sells overpriced pedals to worship guitarists). Neural could iron out all the problems with the Quad and Fractal could be the best on the market (which I don't even believe to be the case) and I'll still gravitate more towards Line 6 or Boss, tbh.
I have a GT-1000 and before that I had all of the 500 series pedals. The thing I've always noticed about boss digital stuff is you get a lot of unusable presets that are meant to show off what the unit can do, but almost no one would ever use. There's no plug and play game there. I've gotten the GT-1000 to really exceed my expectations sonically, but it took a lot of deep diving and tweaking to get there. I don't mind that because I enjoy tinkering and exploring everything it's capable of, but if you're someone who wants to plug in, tweak a few things and go, it's generally just not a great experience. My 2 cents. Great videos btw.. You're a fantastic player.
Well the Roland VG99 with a FC300 controller still amazes me more then a decade after it came out. Havent seen anything comparable yet. Love the basic Boss Pedal and have never been disappointed by a Roland Product. Even their customer service is fantastic. Had a problem and one of the engineers/developer phoned me from Japan to explain one of the functions and answer any questions. They are top tier but offer a varied line of products. Hobbyists to Pros.
Good review, as usual! 👍 Although I was, at the end, slightly confused with all these changing parameters. Maybe it is possible to pay us for a round of more sound examples? That would be awesome! 😀👍👍👍
I remember back in the day when we only had Boss Pedals to create music. I guess this also applied to famous bands and guitarists. So maybe you’re right Boss is underrated especially after seeing your video.
I love the GX. I'll be selling my Stomp and keeping the POD Go only as a backup. I have some of the switches assigned kind of set up like snapshots, and others just toggling one effect at a time. Here's an idea for a comparison vid: GX X-Modded vs. Line 6 Placater Dirty.
Thanks man..I have a Boss gt1 processor and it's so under rated it's criminal..for 250 bucks the overall quality from tones to effects to build quality to functionality and connectivity is stellar... expression pedal.. assignable extra foot switches onboard and expandability to more..USB interface built in ..tuner..looper .it's stunning the features to cost..and they're Great tones and presets...this is the next level up and the touchscreen is awesome...gt1 is also battery powered w headphone jack..built in preamps and speaker emulations... awesome fully contained unit that's fully tweakable with boss app as well... really great through boss katana mk2 50
Had the GX-100 for over a Year Now for Gigs (Bass, Electric & Accoustic) & Recording . It dose everything and sounds amazing 🤘 Amps sounds incredible especially once you start Dual Amping and adding effects there's no sound it doesn't cover. You can have 300+ Amp Models but Really a Fender , Vox , Marshall and Orange cover is what most amps are based off anyways. The Feel and Latency actually sold it for me it literally acts and responds like an Amp . Learning Curbs - Settings up the Looper - no real information on that (eventually found a Video ) Setting up the WAH. Locking the Controls for Gigs - Slightest nudge on the Unit your on a Bass Patch Mid gig when your on the Electric 😳😂
I bought a GX100 a month ago and absolutely love it. First dip into the digital world and at the point where I’m selling my amp and pedals as I’ve not used them once since the GX100 arrived. Quick question about live use… do I need a simple jack to xlr Di box to go into a PA? Would there be any benefit in running stereo jacks into Di box and merging signal to one xlr i.E. using something like radial JDI? Would really appreciate your advice! Thank you.
I’ve been Boss multi effects user for years starting with the ME-6, ME-50, GT-10 and recently the GT-1000. Having those units gave me some experience with Boss’ UI and I’m a tech guy so the learning curve for the GT-1000 wasn’t too bad for me. The UI is definitely not as slick as other manufacturers’ and the documentation is laughable. On the plus side the Bluetooth app is very handy and to my ears it sounds astonishingly good. I owned a Line6 HX Effects for a while before the GT-1000, but I just could not get on with how it sounded. I totally get why the GT-1000 isn’t more popular especially during my research. I didn’t go for the GX-100 because I don’t trust touchscreens in general especially when they get gooped or spilled on. Great playing and showcase of this option in the game John !
My first pedalboard almost exclusively had boss pedals (tu3, cs3, od3, ce2w, dd7 and ns2). In hindsight I'd say they're all good except for the cs3 which I'd swap out for a Cali76 compressor if I went back to analog gear haha. Btw the dispersion & spectrum analysis shirt looks sick...what brad is it & where did you got it?
A couple of months ago, I bought a Boss... GT 1000 Core. I had watched your videos on it several times (among others) and I thought you were really fair with your criticism, but I also thought you got really great sounds out of it. After I bought it, I tested it against the drive pedals I had at the time (an SL Drive and a Plumes) and I could tweak the GT 1000 to where I couldn't tell them apart. Great unit and I've been really happy with it. All this to say, I was tempted by the GX100 but the size was an issue. Now I've got a GT1000 Core, an SY-200 and an RC-5 and there's not a sound I can think of in my little brain that I can't dial in - and then save and use again. If there had been a GX100 Core when I bought, I probably would have gone that way, but I'm quite satisfied. The interface has its quirks but given that I'm not having to unlearn any habits from, for instance, the Helix, I've found the learning curve very manageable. Given how much Helix content I see vs GT 1000 content, I really do feel like the Boss units are underrated.
Very interesting. I had a GT-1000 for about 6 months and I really couldn't get on with it - mainly because I'm a little fixated on the LP+Marshall paradigm and it's the one thing that it just didn't really do well .. or so I found. I'd be interested to see if you think that's true of that GX-100?
I think the Roland GR-55/GK guitar synth would be interesting to check out....Jack Thammarat did a few nice things with it....that surprised me...or maybe the Boss SY1000
the gx-100 has only unbalanced outputs (no tsr/xlr.....). Is it possible to connect it directly to a pair of studio monitor, or frfr cabs? what is the right way to do that? THANX & CONGRATS
Is it possible to connect the mobile phone to the gx100 to listen to music (for example, from spotify ..) while I play the guitar with headphones? If so, how? I don't see any audio input on the rear panel ... THANX & CONGRATS
AmaZing playing! I picked my GX100 a month ago and love it that much I’m ditching my amp and pedals completely. What would you recommend for live use? A simple DI - jack to xlr or is there any advantage to using a stereo to mono DI like the Radial JDI?
The pitch shifter isnt perfect and the travel on the expresion pedal seems a little short, but thats about it. The GX is a winner. Oh, and tip: Crank some compression in front of the Matchless preamp and get ready for some awesome chime and bell tones!
Interesting vid man, Yea it’s great that BOSS will give us things like being able to change amp by assign BUT then you can’t change cabs - 🙃 Doh!! But I have to say as a GT user DynIRs are a game changer, the boss cabs! are ok, IRs are good but I tried Two Notes DynIR & it’s amazing Cool vid & nice to get an updated point of view from you, hope you’re well
I have an old Boss GT-6, and it produces good tones, but is not very intuitive to use. The GX100 looks like a big improvement over it. Boss has a certain sound that's good, recognizable, and classic, but sounds kind of dated to me. If I recall properly, the entire CD "Mr. Malusardi" by Fabrizio Leo was recorded using a GT-6, and is a good example of Boss tones. I wanted something different, and the HX Stomp fit the bill. John, if you the opportunity, could you review the Moore GTRS S800? It has a built in Modeler, and has a great many useful features. Thanks
OFF TOPIC: John, just watched some of the Mark Kelly's Marathon videos. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Been a Marillion fan since 1983 and love seeing my new favorite guitarist playing with a formative band from my youth. (Ok, second favorite to Steven Rothery, but that ain't bad 🙂)
I have been through all the modellers ,the boss is definitely capable of matching other modellers sound wise but I found the interface very clunky .Top notch effects and ultra reliable .
I sold my HX Stomp last week. It's a great tool for making music, but somehow it was missing something. I'm a guitarist, not a keyboardist. And the Helix always makes me feel like a keyboardist. Too digital, too many tricks, too many configurations to get a decent sound. And you really need IRs to get a good guitar sound (otherwise it sounds so digital). So I went back to my simple setup based on separate pedals. I hadn't actually heard of the GX-100 before, but came across it today. After following a few videos I am so impressed with the sound quality of this device that I am going to think about purchasing this GX-100. What an impressive guitar sound. So pure but full compared to the Helix. Thanks for the video.
The problem I have with Boss is that they are very much a "release-and-forget" company. Anecdotally, Boss don't really update their modellers in the same way that say Fractal and Line 6 do - I'm not saying they don't provide updates, but when they do they are infrequent and often contain little additional content (compared to Fractal/Line 6). Some people may like this approach, but I *know* that when say the next Helix firmware releases, it is going to make the product better than it was before and generate a lot of excitement, and I've got used to this approach now.
It seems that's the main way that Kemper/Line 6 and Fractal are able to ensure that a)existing users continue to be enthused about the product b)potential users get the sense that they're jumping on a moving train - not one that is stopping?
@@johnnathancordy Yeah - with other vendors, I know from experience that the product I'm using today will be a better and more fully featured product in 6 to 12 months - Boss doesn't give me that feeling. I've looked at the release notes for the GT-1000, and other than the last firmware update, they've all been very "content" light.
@IshredGuitar The Helix platform is coming up to 8 years old, and the Kemper is 12 years old - ageing hardware being kept relevant by continual improvements in the software. If offering free regular feature updates is "manipulating users", I'm all for it! And all of the platforms allow you to create backups and/or rollback to previous versions if they have an issue with the update - in this day and age "losing presets" ultimately comes down to bad data management by the user - if you update a Helix unit using HX Edit, it even forces to you make a backup before proceeding.
John, I still have the Boss GX-700 with the copper plated face. That thing is now 26 years old and could still have its uses. I mean this effect alone people are paying hundreds of doallars for something similar: a 3 parts harmonizer that was programmable as to the key, and each of the notes could be programmed however you wanted, so you could play in Eb minor if you wanted and have your notes move relatively, not parallel! Topping that, was that you could pan each harmony, then if you wanted, use a foot controllerl to change most any parameter you wanted, with min. and mx. values, like take the pan of harmony 1 far left and sweep to far right, and reverse harmony 2. You could configure the effects in terms of order also. Like a lot of older things, impressive how it still stands up for its programming abilities.
The Harmonist on the GX-100 allows you to set up notes as well. So for all 12 notes in the chromatic scale, you can set what the harmony pitch will be for each of them. It only allows for up to 2 harmony voices, though (although each one is fully independently configurable)
@@moe45673 Damnit, I meant to mention that as being its greatest attribute. That was the first reason I meant to post the above. Who the hell needs another parallel harmonist device? You can only take so many octaves, and aprallel 4ths and 5ths, right?
Being able to change models within a block (amp types, over drive types, etc.) is a great feature. I think Line 6 has avoided it becasue of the slight audible gap when loading the new model, but for my needs, that gap really isn't a show stopper. (Are you listening Line 6?) The Boss devices provide big advantages for anyone who plays a lot of Boss effect pedals. But I don't :) And the user interface is pretty bad IMHO. I rejected buying the 200 series pedals becasue of their awful UI. Don't like this UI either. Rumor has it that the MIDI implementations are wacky too (I haven't looked at them at that level). And poorly documented from what I hear. Maybe someday Boss will be an option for me to consider, but I still haven't seen a Boss product that checked all of the boxes for me. I am still in the Line 6 world for now (Stomp, HX FX), plus my Iridium. (Frankly, my recently acquired NU-X Amp Academy is not a bad tool either)
bosstoneexchange.com/creator/f297e158-696e-4086-ba4f-ed3cb29da6d1/?keyword=&gear=&view=block&sort=-createDate&creatorId=f297e158-696e-4086-ba4f-ed3cb29da6d1&from=1&size=24&tag= get them free here!
I tried to make Boss my guitar modelling and effects base with the SY1000 so I could use their synth. I thought that it was absolutely terrible, which may not be fair in comparison to what you are showing here, but it supposedly had all the COSM stuff in it. Even with everything off and zeroed, it negatively affected the basic guitar signal. It was a non-starter for me. I worked with it for almost six months before abandoning and selling it.
Maybe it’s subjective, but to me it seems that it may sound and function amazingly, but at the end of the day who wants to use a musical device that isn’t pleasant to use? The graphic design for the screen icons and fonts is… (to me)… awful; it looks dated, abstract, and ugly. A user friendly experience? 🤷♂️ Boss could do worse than to look at the likes of Headrush for inspiration, no?
