The Forgotten Modeler? The Boss GX100 

I appreciate tones and responsiveness of my GX-100. Before I had a Ampero MP-100, then NUX MG30 and, yes, Boss is better and not too much expensive. Love it

For the money, the GX100 is hard to beat. The touch response is the best of any modellers I’ve tried but what sold it to me was the flexibility. The ability to assign each foot switch to any function you like is extremely powerful. Especially if you add a FS6 or similar as additional control switches. I love it, and it’s now my main live rig. I’m always complimented on the tones I get from it and it has made my gigging life much easier (and lighter)!

I love my GX 100 , since 2 years I use it live and in the rehersal room which is our studio. I had almost every Modeller or Capturer like Helix, Kemper or Quad Cortex. But I keep my GX100. I think the most important thing with these units is , to keep off from the factory presets and build your own. You need to understand your unit as good as possible.

I've bought an used GX-100 a week ago due to your reviews, John, and couldn't be happier. Since Version 2 the Boss is also a bloody serious tool for bassists. Thank you John!

With the GT1000 and similar units like this people get caught in having this or that amp and forget about the quality of effects as well as Boss’s X amps and effects which allow you to do things you can’t do in a conventional way in addition to the touch sensitivity of these models. To be honest many of the offerings we have seen lately by the top tier players in the modeling world do offer far less than this. I can in fact play a concert, have two channels two boosters, two switchable effects and as many as 24 blocks on in the gt1000 core with just using an external foot with and the manual mode. If you add a small midi controller you could do literally anything. The Aquiles heel of these Boss units is the output section which is no small blunder. There is no absolutely transparent option which difficulty matching them with a real cab or getting them to sound right through a guitar amp even though there are ways to make it work. I believe that because of it folks get disappointed and turn to other things. The other issue is that they should introduce high and low cuts in their default settings. Out of the box all their modeling stuff is too spiky and boomy. Once you bring that back to more sensible levels as you would do with any other unit the thing is a beast.

The GX-100 are worth every penny. We've used COSM-based platforms for decades w internationally released albums. The simple battery operated GT-1 is a workhorse and a bargain,too. Play your sim/modeler pedal through the power section of a Katana head and you'll get dynamics. Nothing really beats a tube amp,but servicing tubes and dragging cabs around is over-rated. Great vid

I got the gx100 after seeing how functional it is with all the effects blocks engaged, touch response, and not to mention the lowest latency you can get other than analog. I was extremely happy. I packed my ampero stomp 2 straight away to sell. The UI especially scrolling thru the effects is kind of annoying. But worth the sacrifice for it's performance. I was even more pleasantly surpised that this device can stack drives quite well. 😊

GX100 is my workhorse and I have been able to achieve the 3-dimensional organic tones. My fingers are also appreciating the responsive of the amp modeling. I can dig in or back off and feel the immediate response.

I love my GX! Been gigging it regularly for a couple years. Never cared about the small number of amps; I love the tones I get. I haven't even done the update yet--probably will after my upcoming Vegas gig. I seriously can't say enough good things about this unit.

Boss GT1000 CORE is the best value for money, and it is the most compact. Totally underrated.

Got one, love it. Many complain of lack of amps - But the killer move is to put a tonex one in the loop. Dumble amps etc etc sounds fantastic

I play in a Green Day Tribute band and love running the X-Modded and X-Ultra in parallel, Slicer for Blvd of Broken Dreams, Booster for leads. This pedal is absolutely amazing and can do sooooo much it is insane.

I just fell back in love with my GX-100. Kinda contemplated selling it, but it’s just so easy to get a good tone thrown together. Not quite Strymon/Meris level delays and verbs, but very good sounding unit and the user interface is so convenient!

I mention this often but Steve Caton's late 90s rig was a Roland GP-100 into the effects return of a JC120 for Tori Amos' live shows -- and that's all the gear he used for all his STELLAR guitar tones. I really can't imagine not getting even better tones with a GX-100 thru a nice power amp now...

I have the Boss GT-100 it is all I use. Yes the "GT" 100 It has COSM amp, cabs and 24bit effects. Every time I think about buying a pedal I know it's not going to be better than what's inside the GT. I have bought Xotic SL preamp pedal thinking the GT could not do pull off, but then once I had played it/heard the sound I figured out how to set the GT to get the exact sound. Live and learn. I want to say I paid $399-499? over eleven years ago. I bought it for birthday gift to myself. 2024 birthday I bought 2 Taylors, 812ce-N, K22ce and a Yamaha Pacifica Professional - Beach blue burst. I started out over fifty years ago and still have all the pedals, all Boss of course! I even have my first amp Peavey Bandit 1978. I started playing acoustics late 60's then switched to electric in 79. First electric was Gibson, The Paul 79 paid $375 with hard case still have it too. I was gifted an nice old nylon string got into classical and my teacher threw in some rag time songs got hooked, played the shit out of it and gave it to my girl friend over 25 years ago and she still has it. Probably with the same strings on it.😺 Jimmy Page is my guitar God. Always will be. I play everyday, retired now I play bass, acoustic, nylon and electric. It never gets old it gets better. With youtube there is a never ending supply of songs and backing tracks and great people to watch and learn from. Amazing. I have learned that there are multiple ways using same effects/unit and getting the same sound. I have never played the GX but I do recommend all in one pedal boards because the effects are designed/matched to work together clarity and I think more consistent less conflicted with patch cables and power supplies ect. noise. oh der Cheaper$$$$$$$

I love my gx-100, other than the drives it’s amazing. I originally bought it as a multi effect but the amp models sound great and they are super quite. The sound of the unit to me improved after the update, not just the new sounds but the one all quality. I also have the two notes opus and really enjoy it but the gx-100 send to be working better for me especially for live use

I Do have a Helix, and I love it both hardware and Native. But I also still have my 90s Boss SE-70 !! Yes, it's still going after 30 years ! It's half analog/half digital 👍 All the old Boss distortions in there 🎸 Build quality for sure.

I own a BOSS GX-100 and I think it's an incredible piece of gear. Does everything other modelers do and the amp sims with MDP are something else. I play in a Rush Tribute band @ghostridersrush and this is the only gear I need. One factor that is overlooked is that the latency in this is lower than any other in the market. Also, the instantaneous preset change is something that other companies only achieved more recently and BOSS has been able to do for a long time.

The thing that sold me on the Boss GX 100 that no one talks about is it’s functionality as a standalone multi effect pedal. The GX 100 is one of the few modellers that can control a real life Amplifier so I just have two sets of patches, ones with amps and cab sims and then duplicates of those patches with no amps or sims and just a send/return block and I use the GX to control the channel switching in my amp. So if I want to use a ‘real’ amp I can, I still have my favourite pedals for playing and recording and I’ll use those for inspiration, but for playing live or as a more practical pedalboard I can get 99% of the sounds from the GX. This then ties in more with what you were saying about the future of modelling and how most players want some integration from both real world amps and modelling functionality, I just use it the wrong way round 😂 I think for bigger gigs, you could even use an amp on stage for monitoring and giving you that feel, whilst sending an amp sim to front of house… kinda like how Rabea is mixing amps with his QC. I love that the GX has limited amps as I’ve never owned a Vox AC30 or a Fender Twin etc so I’m not chasing those tones… if it sounds good I like it, regardless of what it’s ‘meant’ to be. The workflow isn’t the most intuitive but with the desktop app I find it much better, and the updates they’ve made to that help too (IR loader etc). When you think you can get these for £350ish on the second hand market it’s a bit of a no brainier in my eyes!

Had earlier things - GP8 and GP16. Also had a Roland VS880 with all the cosm modeling that exceeded all expectations. My brother got the Boss GT1 and loves it.

I was about to sell my GX-100, but after the update I decided to keep it. I also own a stomp, a Helix floor and some vintage stuff like an X3Live and a Roland GP16. Interestingly the latency on the Roland GP16 is as good as on the GX-100.

All Boss builds are high quality. Built like tanks.

The best part about the gx100 is the AIRD amps. They sound fantastic-- like a real amp, not like an amp that has been recorded and is being played back.

The main problem I have with Boss and that I currently have with my GT1 is the little or no support, the almost no updates, and of course the fact that it is unacceptable that a device like this at this level does not come with balanced XLR or TRS outputs. So it is buying a product so that Boss stops supporting it at any time and forgets about it even if it still sells it, as is the case with the Boss GT1.

Had a bit of experience with modelers, going back to 2009 (Digitech RP series, Zoom, etc), and with all the hype about Line 6, I decided to try one (a Helix LT). To say that I was unimpressed, would be an understatement. First of all, the UI was counterintuitive, to the point of being confusing …which kind of zeros in on the point of this video. About two months ago, I tried the GX-100. Within minutes, I was crafting my own sounds, without having to seek out any assistance or instruction. On top of that, once dialed in properly, the emulations accurately conveyed the feel & character of the amps & FX that they were modeling …if not the actual, spot on sound. Furthermore, the overall full, rich sound quality & low latency were astounding, & made playing a pleasure. Everything about it was vastly superior to the Helix experience … proving why Boss, as the pioneer of this genre, is still the ‘boss’. In closing, there’s a palpable & increasingly conspicuous bias on the part of most RU-vid content creators, against certain modeling brands like Boss, Zoom, Peavey, etc … all of which are excellent & seem to have tremendous international sales success, as well as a massive global following. Is this phenomenon linked to special ‘incentives’, on the part of certain popular mainstream brands? Would be great if you could chime in on this. Thx.

Proof is in the pudding John, putting any UI negatives to one side this unit just sounds great here. £450 unit vs £1500-2000 etc for QC, Fractal etc Means this will appeal to many looking for good tones on a budget. A very solid unit from a major player.

The degree to which I now want to see a GX-100 “beating off” an HX Stomp has made me uncomfortable with myself.

XLR outs are handy, I think if a product is marketed as a live unit they should be standard

Would love to see all the main modelers 4 cable method with a high end channel switching amp to see which ones have the most transparent analog to digital conversions and how good they are at doing that job

I love it but after a year and a half of using it, I started using it with a Tonex in the FX loop of the GX100 as I thought the amps in my Tonex sounded better than the GX amps. It's become just an FX switcher at this point.

I like it, some of the best clean sounds Ive heard on this channel. The graphics puts me off a bit, but I might pick it up used to try. I had the Boss IR-200 and regret selling it tbh, it was a great box.

I'm getting one in about 2 weeks. I can't wait.

I think the biggest thing that keeps people off of boss multi fx products is their requirement for tweaking along with factory presets that most people don’t like. You just need to RTFM and spend some time with it, sounds amazing with normal effort. It’s interesting to me that people will put time into learning the empress zoia but not a unit like this or the rv-500.

Got one. Love it.

I loved my gt8 i believe at the time it was the state of the art of modeling. I bet these can hang with all the big boys when dialed in nicely. I think life cycle of a product is no longer an issue if it sounds good its good

GX-100 👍

I get why people complain about Boss's amp models not sounding good. I've complained about it plenty. If you actually take the time to dig through the pile, you can always find a usable tone that actually sounds pretty good. Maybe not great but good. I prefer Boss for their design ethos, aesthetics and UI's over other brands. They make really solid products at a decent price and you really can't complain too much about that.

So I’ve got a GX-100, but have been plagued with an unacceptable noise floor level. Even on the most pristine of clean tones, I’m getting noise that quite audible. I don’t know if it’s a defective unit, or just the way it is. But it’s made using the device challenging. To say the least. I shouldn’t have to run a noise suppressor block with a perfectly clean tone. Also, when I touch one of the metal dials, I can clearly hear it being grounded!!! Wtf?!?! There is also a staticky noise when I run the dial or turn it.

I gigged a gt 1000 3 or 4 times and used it exclusively for about 6 months... i use an mvave blackbox now as a profiling pedal platform paired with an mvave chocolate... im just gonna leave this comment here

Thanks John & I think this sentiment is broadly agreed on. It is peculiar that Boss has not played a bigger role in the modelling/ capture market? Especially given how large the modeller market is, and their size & heritage in effects. Roland played a titanic role in gaining mainstream acceptance of the electric piano, and seems logical they could have done the same for digital amps?

I have a Boss GT6. It was a very good sounding unit in its day. The knobs and buttons failed. I replaced it with an HX Stomp. The higher fidelity of the Stomp was noticeable, but I would have been relatively happy using the GT6 if it hadn't broken. It was not easy to use/program, but had lots useful features and authentic sounding Effects. Weakness is all the many buttons and knobs are subject to failure. I looked at a Kemper in horror.

I had one. I feel Boss made a mistake trying to invent their own amps. It’s not what we as guitarists were looking for. It also only sounded good to me when going through a real tube amp.

The GT-1000 doesn't have a fixed signal chain.

The thing that always puts me off is that output section where you have to say whether you are going into a JC120, Katana etc and it EQs it... Same as ME-90. Just give me flat!

How is the boss gt-1000 4 cable method

Yeah…I dig it a lot…but even more after the firmware update.

Is this better than the Gen 3 100 watt head?

Compare to fractal vp4,,, this is obviously worthed 🎉🎉

Have you tried a TC Plethora (either x3 or x5?). I’m wondering if there’s anything the new Fractal does that the TC doesn’t (and for much less money)

Do you know if this device has a tuner?

For whatever reason, I could not get the gx-100 to sound good. I’ve had success with most other modelers, not sure what the difference is

Boss / Zoom / Fender - need to work on their Amp Sims and IR's - they are way behind Fractal / Line 6 / Cortex / Kemper stuff, Zoom has done nothing since 2013 - pretty much same with Boss - they just give new names COSM / AIRD etc - but they just don't have dynamics - and the new Fender Tone Master Pro has awful Amp SIMs - pretty much sounds like one amp sim with different EQ's. How many agree with me?🙂

Not enough product support from Boss. Not enough good out of the box presets. Not enough f a fanfare as to how good it can sound. And not enough info about what their amp models are based upon or can sound like.

Because Boss are constantly dropping new products on the market and not developing the ones they have out. The reason other certain modelers are popular is because of one, the ecosystem and updates, and two, enthusiastic user groups associated with them. Boss has terrible interface and pc editors compared to the popular options and they rarely do updates. Feels like they abandoned them so why buy one if it’s not going to be supported.

Too big, give me half price and half the buttons and stuff, I want an affordable but good sounding pedal and don't know what to get.

imo the UI is still terrrrrible, at least compared to Helix and QC. it's barely better than the MS-3...basically a color/touchscreen version of the same bad interface. sounds great for sure but i couldn't stand making presets. went right back to the QC.

I have this and like it a lot. I like the amount of fx you can add to a chain and said dual amp set up is great. Some of the presents sound good. The amps are good too but don't sound as authentic as some brands. I wish they were more specific rather than just an approximation of amps. Some of the amp just sound like eq'd varients of the same amp. I think that good quality ToneX captures sound better than the GX100. Similarly the Neural and UAD amp pedal/plugins also sound better. The effects are good but IMHO not on a par with the Fractal, Line 6, UAD etc. The chorus effects don't really sound the same as the actual Boss pedals eg CE 1 and CE2. Amplitube Max fx sound way better and more organic that the GX. The reverbs are decent but not on a par with other brands or the plugins I use. For example the Space Echo delay is just so so and not anywhere the real deal. It sounds analog enough and latency is great but just lack an edge sonically compared to others. I'm umming as to whether to add a Tonex pedal to it or sell it. It's just like there's something missing on the GX that I can't quite put my finger on. If anything this feels like just an updated COSM unit from yesteryear.

Boss modelers have been forgotten with good reason. There are many options on the market, and guitar players have voted with their ears and wallets.

We are waiting for the same old boring "That's the best sound I have ever had"... 😂😂 😂. Don't trust this guy. He is always advertising the next paid video.