{"id":48,"date":"2012-01-14T16:12:19","date_gmt":"2012-01-14T16:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=48"},"modified":"2016-03-20T13:37:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T12:37:22","slug":"amps-effects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edsguitarlounge.com\/wordpress\/amps-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"Amps & Effects"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSS GT-100 experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n

My brother and I have a large collection of stomp boxes and we often exchange them. No problem because we both don\u2019t gig that much and when I practice at home I use my small Fender Vibro Champ XD with built in pre-amps and effects.<\/p>\n

But by coincidence, we had to gig at the same date and since we have for \u2018must-have\u2019 pedals only one, I decided to buy an effect floor-board: the BOSS GT-100.<\/p>\n

The reviews of the GT-100 were raving, price OK (400 euros including bag) and it also has an harmonist function. I needed one for doing some harmonics and since a BOSS harmonist pedal alone costs about 180 euros, the decision to purchase the GT-100 was easily made.<\/p>\n

Sadly it was delayed on delivery so I couldn\u2019t use it when practicing with the band and I only had one week to master this complex device for using it at a real gig. And during this week I found out it sounded shit. Although I used it during the gig (the gig was the drummer\u2019s birthday party) I was about to return it to the shop. The effects were awful, as if someone put a pillow on the speaker.<\/p>\n

Anyway some googling showed the solution: when you use the BOSS GT-100 (or any effects processor) in combination with a guitar amp, don\u2019t use the amp simulators.<\/p>\n

The reason is that a guitar amp doesn\u2019t really have \u2018hifi\u2019 specs. All guitar amps have a frequency response that is rather flat between 1 KHz and 5 KHz (low E open string is about 82 Hz, high E string at 22nd<\/sup>\u00a0fret is about 1.2 KHz). But hifi-like devices as a PA system, headphones or a studio mixing board have a flat frequency spectrum running from about 50 Hz to 20 KHz. If you use a pre-amp simulator in combination with a real guitar amp, you will have twice the typical guitar amp characteristics resulting in a muffled sound.<\/p>\n

So what to do if you use your GT-100 in combination with a guitar amp? What I did is to use what I call the \u2018Satriani method\u2019. It is known that Joe Satriani (at least in the old days – when I liked his sound best) only used the clean channel of his Marshall amp and got all overdrive\/distortion from his pedals. Of course also the clean channel of a Marshall will add some flavour to the overall sound but the \u2018crunch\u2019 was coming from pedals. My main amp, a Hughes & Kettner ATTAX 100, has three channels (clean, crunch and lead) and I use only the clean channel. It is possible to use the different channels in combination with the GT-100 (so the GT-100 can switch channels of your amp) but for now I will keep this out-of-scope.\u00a0 There are many websites that describe how to do this.<\/p>\n

Fo best results I\u00a0use the \u00a0\u20184 cable method\u2019 which means that a part of your effects will be put before the pre-amp of your guitar amp and another part of your effects are put after the pre-amp and before the power amp of your guitar amp. In a simple picture:<\/p>\n

\"4<\/a>
Scheme of 4-cable method<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You must connect the 4 cables as follows:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Connect your guitar to the input of the GT-100<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Connect the GT-100 Send Socket to the input of your guitar amplifier. \u00a0The guitar signal will be sent straight to the Pre Amp on your amplifier.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Connect the Effect Send Socket on the amplifier to the Return Socket on your GT-100. \u00a0The \u2018pre-amped\u201d signal will enter the effect chain on your GT-100.<\/p>\n

4. Connect the GT-100 L\/MONO Output Socket to Return Socket on your amplifier. The \u2018Effected\u201d signal from the GT-100 will enter the Power Amp section on your amplifier.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"4-cable_method\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now defining your sound. For the best results there is a recommended order of putting your effects. It is a good starting point but best is to experiment a lot.<\/p>\n

Before the Send\/Return of the BOSS-GT100<\/p>\n