Has anybody bought the Boss GX10 ?

I want a corner of the living room processor where I can work on songs using headphones and bluetoothed backing tracks whilst the wife is watching eastenders. My beef with multi fx is that I have ALWAYS found the driven tones to sound like absolute pish compared to quality analogue stomp pedals.  Anyone able to comment if the Boss is decent in this area ?

I had a Boss GX-10 delivered on Thursday this week and I've just boxed it up to go back. I had a few issues with it.

I tried it through my Headrush 108's. Was ok when using one at a time but had an audible hum when using 2 in stereo. My Helix, HX stomp or Tonex dint suffer with this issue.
The other thing I found was the the instrument and output jack sockets are a bit loose. Very easy to pull out, like the pin doesn't catch the socket correctly. Bit strange really.

Sound wise, it was ok. Dialing tones were quite easy but... I play a lot of high gain stuff, and I found the amps sounded a bit shrill. A bit harsh. I'm not super knowledgeable on dialing in amazing tones but I've managed to do it on the line 6 gear with no issues, getting the sound I want. 

The GX-10 had a tone I just couldn't seem to dial back on the distorted high gain amps. I found that if you used middle gain setting, with a compressor, the used an overdrive in the front dialed back a bit I could get some nice high gain sounds, much better than the ones that are programmed on the unit. Did they sound better than my HX stomp. No to be honest.

But the gapless switching was good I admit, I like the touch screen being an older guy, and found it easy to use. If the hum wasn't there I would have kept it, but I have a feeling it's the power supply that causes the issue but maybe through a normal amp or with headphones that issue doesn't exist.

Not sure what to try next, maybe ampero, or I might just stick with the HX Stomp, but my main use is the Tonex at the moment as some of the captures I have sound great, and with the update for the effects coming it maybe all I need.

Good to know. I’ve been thinking of checking one of these out, my worry was it’d sound like the Katana did with this weird mid range sound I couldn’t dial out. 

I’m really enjoying my GX10, as ever the presets are awful, but there’s some very good sound in the there with a bit of patience. 

I'm really sitting on the fence. My experience with modellers regardless of price ( worst being NUX )has always been the drive tones sound shocking and that bastad headphone cable just gets in the way.

dindude said:

I’m really enjoying my GX10, as ever the presets are awful, but there’s some very good sound in the there with a bit of patience. 

The bit of patience is a huge deal breaker for those of us who despise menu scrolling. In the past I needed a tubescreamer type pedal with more drive than a ts9. I picked up a jam tubedreamer with the extra gain switch, stuck my maxon od808 in front of it with 100% level and 20% drive. Whole setup time, about 90 seconds and its everything I could ever want. All that arsing around with menus, not for me at all.

robwhttl said:

I had a Boss GX-10 delivered on Thursday this week and I've just boxed it up to go back. I had a few issues with it.

I tried it through my Headrush 108's. Was ok when using one at a time but had an audible hum when using 2 in stereo. My Helix, HX stomp or Tonex dint suffer with this issue.
The other thing I found was the the instrument and output jack sockets are a bit loose. Very easy to pull out, like the pin doesn't catch the socket correctly. Bit strange really.

Sound wise, it was ok. Dialing tones were quite easy but... I play a lot of high gain stuff, and I found the amps sounded a bit shrill. A bit harsh. I'm not super knowledgeable on dialing in amazing tones but I've managed to do it on the line 6 gear with no issues, getting the sound I want. 

The GX-10 had a tone I just couldn't seem to dial back on the distorted high gain amps. I found that if you used middle gain setting, with a compressor, the used an overdrive in the front dialed back a bit I could get some nice high gain sounds, much better than the ones that are programmed on the unit. Did they sound better than my HX stomp. No to be honest.

But the gapless switching was good I admit, I like the touch screen being an older guy, and found it easy to use. If the hum wasn't there I would have kept it, but I have a feeling it's the power supply that causes the issue but maybe through a normal amp or with headphones that issue doesn't exist.

Not sure what to try next, maybe ampero, or I might just stick with the HX Stomp, but my main use is the Tonex at the moment as some of the captures I have sound great, and with the update for the effects coming it maybe all I need.

Rob thank you so much for this post

No problem. I'm getting to the stage where I just want to plug and play myself. Saying that I can dial in good tones with the stomp without too much in depth tweaking.

 The Tonex has been a gamechanger for me. I found a couple of captures that I really like, loaded them to the pedal, made the tweaks on the pedal regarding gain, tone and reverb, saved them on the pedal, then just loaded them from the pedal back to the software so I have a backup. I've realized that's all I need. Maybe with the new Tonex effects update coming soon it will be my all in one pedal.

robwhttl said:

No problem. I'm getting to the stage where I just want to plug and play myself. Saying that I can dial in good tones with the stomp without too much in depth tweaking.

 The Tonex has been a gamechanger for me. I found a couple of captures that I really like, loaded them to the pedal, made the tweaks on the pedal regarding gain, tone and reverb, saved them on the pedal, then just loaded them from the pedal back to the software so I have a backup. I've realized that's all I need. Maybe with the new Tonex effects update coming soon it will be my all in one pedal.

I spent a lot of time and effort in 2013/14 trying to find a "go direct" solution I could accept, until I finally tried a profiler rather than a modeller. I'm using my Tonex Pedal pretty much in the same way - one amp, using three tone models from Amalgam for that single amp and tweaking my own presets from that. Sounds great, feels great and I haven't touched the Tonex software for weeks. It's fine into a PA and it's fine into a Laney LFR 112 cab. It responds to a drive pedal in front in a natural way. Job done... 

Telejester said:

dindude said:

I’m really enjoying my GX10, as ever the presets are awful, but there’s some very good sound in the there with a bit of patience. 

The bit of patience is a huge deal breaker for those of us who despise menu scrolling. In the past I needed a tubescreamer type pedal with more drive than a ts9. I picked up a jam tubedreamer with the extra gain switch, stuck my maxon od808 in front of it with 100% level and 20% drive. Whole setup time, about 90 seconds and its everything I could ever want. All that arsing around with menus, not for me at all.

In that case it would seem that 99% of all the modellers and multi-FX aren't really going to be your bag, full stop. Possibly an ME-90 style thing which is still all knob twiddling. But anything else is going to have involve some time learning it, and setting up the patches you want etc.

Snags said:

Telejester said:

dindude said:

I’m really enjoying my GX10, as ever the presets are awful, but there’s some very good sound in the there with a bit of patience. 

The bit of patience is a huge deal breaker for those of us who despise menu scrolling. In the past I needed a tubescreamer type pedal with more drive than a ts9. I picked up a jam tubedreamer with the extra gain switch, stuck my maxon od808 in front of it with 100% level and 20% drive. Whole setup time, about 90 seconds and its everything I could ever want. All that arsing around with menus, not for me at all.

In that case it would seem that 99% of all the modellers and multi-FX aren't really going to be your bag, full stop. Possibly an ME-90 style thing which is still all knob twiddling. But anything else is going to have involve some time learning it, and setting up the patches you want etc.

I also dislike the whole menu driven approach and prefer real knobs and dials. I have a Pod Go which is great fun at home and since the v2.0 cab engine and IR upgrade it sounds so much better and now at least on parr with Boss AIRD. But I've only used it live as a pedal board with no amp or cab models. Because it has so few real knobs it's awkward to tweak on stage.

An mfx that I'm very curious to try is the Zoom G11.  Whilst it was wildly overpriced at launch, probably has the worst factory presets ever created, has a plastic casing, is single routing, and looks that aren't for everyone, it's actually capable of some great tones. All the reviews I've read say it's touch screen and layout makes it easily the easiest of all modern mfx to use. It has a traditional pedal board layout that's like a line of stomp pedals with 4 real knobs and a stomp switch, and it has dedicated knobs for amp model control. Plus it's floor control looks really good. 

I've tried so many mfx over the years, inc the GX10's 'parent' the Boss GX100, GP200, Helix LE, but I've still as yet not found anything as easy to use and as live gig friendly as my old Vox Tonelab SE and LE units. It's because they have real knobs and dials to select and tweak instantly, no dsp issues, and the hybrid valve design still sounds and feels really good. Built like tanks with heavy duty psu's, these are very gig worthy.

The problem is they are old tech, big and heavy by today's standards (although Helix and the big Headrush are too), no IR capability, no fx loop, almost no fx chain control, no upgradeability, and very limited amp, cab and fx options. For example if you select a wah you can't add a distortion or compressor because you can only have one selection from the pedal section. 

Which is why the search for a Tonelabs successor goes on. Although the Zoom G11 might not be considered 'cool', on paper at least it might well be worth trying. But I need to find one really cheap because resale would be problematic. These were so badly overpriced sellers don't want to take a massive bath even though no ones willing to pay the unrealistic used prices being asked.

UPDATE:I've just read some detailed reviews of the G11 on the Gear Page and it would seem to be badly underpowered CPU wise with a flagship amp model and an IR taking up 50% of its processing power. Ho hum.  I had a G5n for a while and that too was way underpowered. 

Sadly the Boss ME90, whilst really close for my needs, misses the mark because it has no patch naming which is absolutely essential for me. 


 

I ordered a valeton gp200lt today, the clips of it sound pretty decent and it appears to offer a lot for a great price. If I don't get on with it, I can always return it. Will buy some ownhammer ir's  for it and am looking forward to trying it out. I know I can't bluetooth backing tracks into it, but a cable from my phone into the aux input ain't a deal breaker,

Telejester said:

I ordered a valeton gp200lt today, the clips of it sound pretty decent and it appears to offer a lot for a great price. If I don't get on with it, I can always return it. Will buy some ownhammer ir's  for it and am looking forward to trying it out. I know I can't bluetooth backing tracks into it, but a cable from my phone into the aux input ain't a deal breaker,

I had the GP200R and was very impressed with it but ultimately returned it. By far the biggest problem for me was that in stomp mode it has no footswitch naming capability and all you see is ABCD. That's near useless for live gigging because you don't know what fx you're stomping on off unless you add sticky labels. But even if you do that it's got to then be the same for every patch.

And whilst it had real knob amp parameter controls and on off fx module switches, these had no led illumination to see them properly on a dimly lit stage. I'd have coped with this though if footswitch naming was available.

But it had some great features including a wonderfully clear bright display, metal casing, XLR outs, and staggered footswitches. It also sounded pretty good too and IMO was up there with my Pod Go. 

Voxman said:

Telejester said:

I ordered a valeton gp200lt today, the clips of it sound pretty decent and it appears to offer a lot for a great price. If I don't get on with it, I can always return it. Will buy some ownhammer ir's  for it and am looking forward to trying it out. I know I can't bluetooth backing tracks into it, but a cable from my phone into the aux input ain't a deal breaker,

I had the GP200R and was very impressed with it but ultimately returned it. By far the biggest problem for me was that in stomp mode it has no footswitch naming capability and all you see is ABCD. That's near useless for live gigging because you don't know what fx you're stomping on off unless you add sticky labels. But even if you do that it's got to then be the same for every patch.

And whilst it had real knob amp parameter controls and on off fx module switches, these had no led illumination to see them properly on a dimly lit stage. I'd have coped with this though if footswitch naming was available.

But it had some great features including a wonderfully clear bright display, metal casing, XLR outs, and staggered footswitches. It also sounded pretty good too and IMO was up there with my Pod Go. 

I'm just buying the gp200lt for a living room practice tool, I would only ever use my full stompboxes pedal board for live playing. If the valeton sounds good thru a set of headphones with backing tracks I will most likely keep it.I have 0% interest in its presets, I intend to make my own patches for the Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, Jeff Healey, Thin Lizzy type of music that I enjoy playing.

Just as an aside. I’ve not been too impressed with the ownhammer IR’s, much prefer the York Audio ones. They seem more amp in the room to me, whereas the OH ones sound like a next room recording. 

Which of the York audio would you recommend ? I'm a single coils fender guy and I love the sound of a tubescreamer on a low output  neck pickup

Telejester said:

Which of the York audio would you recommend ? I'm a single coils fender guy and I love the sound of a tubescreamer on a low output  neck pickup

I’ve only experienced to compare the OH & YA mesa 2x12, Recto 4x12 and a vox 2x12.