Boss GT-6B .... $225 shipped to lower 48

grovest · #1 10-22-2007, 09:16 PM

I have a Boss GT-6B to sell for a firm $225, including shipping.

Some time ago I bought a TC Electronics G-Major and MIDI foot pedal here on Talkbass. That was my first exposure to effects and the results were uninspiring. I passed on that gear to my brother but recently thought I wanted to try effects, "just once more". A deal came up for a GT-6B via a mutual friend. Because this pedal could do so many different things, and the price was right and the unit's condition good, I decided to take a chance.

What I have found is effects ARE for me. I have found a little chorus and/or reverb fits what I am playing. Specific features of the Boss I like are the 160-styled compressor, the parametric eq assignable for each patch, the chorus and double (cross over) chorus, a tiny bit of vibrato, and a touch of reverb (seems to lend my P an upright's decay).

The pedal can be extensively customized. Almost any parameter can be assigned to the expression pedal, for instance. Different gains, signal chain, or tempos are programmable per patch. MIDI is available, in and out. There is also coaxial digital out, and stereo (some of the effects have stereo output) 1/4" AND XLR outs. Additional footswitches can be added for more control, or of course it could be chained via MIDI to something like a sequencer on your laptop.

Many have said that this multi is not easy to program. Well, I don't know what to say about that except I personally needed no more than one afternoon to get a hang of the menus and value / enter controls. That's not to say I created 50 killer patches in that time- no, in fact I could still twink with the knobs and find neat new patches. To me, that is part of the fun. I should add also the presets are - to me - not great. But (a big but), I was never looking for a distortion-style sound.

The condition of the unit is "good". There are some small scuffs on the plastic of the main foot-switches. There is a little gunk in the rubber traction of the expression pedal's footpad that I'll go at with a Q-tip before shipping. Basically this unit looks about how you'd want it to after a dozen live shows or less. All of the knobs are smooth. The screen is good, the expression pedal is smooth, and the foot switch buttons feel even. The red paint looks good with a couple scuffs on the bottom. All the rubber feet are intact. I don't think anything was ever affixed to the metal ("label") strip above the main control switches.

While I am selling the unit, I consider this purchase a 'success' for me. I don't need the 4 different control switches or expression pedal. And I just wouldn't ever use any of the distortion or amp (AND CAB) modeling. I am playing a cleaner style and will probably replace this pedal soon after its sale with a single chorus pedal to maybe be joined by a reverb or compressor down the line. It is also not that important to me to be able to switch patches live, even switching during a song. So, much of this functionality - which admittedly necessitates a larger footprint - is not being put to use by me.

Included is the original manual, power supply, and professionally-packed shipping by FedEx or UPS.

Please PM me if you have any more questions about the device.

http://bossus.com/index.asp?pg=1&tmp=110

Thanks.

~ ~ SOLD to a Maryland TBer ~ ~

lposavad · #2 10-23-2007, 12:46 AM

+1 for the GT-6B. I've used one for the past year in a classic rock gig, and it's really handy to dial in several stock voicings to cover a wide variety of material. I do throw in miniscule levels of distortion on a couple patches - it's easy to go way overboard with the distortion if you're not careful.
Compression, distortions, choruses, reverbs, delays, flanging, octave, autowah and a few other twisted things make this a very versatile unit.

And $225 shipped is a very fair price. Grab this now!

grovest · #3 10-24-2007, 12:05 PM

Thanks for the comments and bump lposavad.

For reference, the manual for the GT-6B is here: http://lib.roland.co.jp/manual/en/dl...3/GT-6B_e3.pdf

I'll write a little more description about creating new sounds with the GT-6B. To begin, there are 80 or so presets. You can see them on page 81 of the manual above. These demonstrate the capabilities of the pedal- in some cases, to extremes. But a particular player may find patches he can put to use without any modification.

More likely, he will want something a little different. I found the easiest way to accomplish this is by turning off all effects - in other words, there is no change in sound between effect on and bypass - and building up. In doing so three useful features of the GT-6B are exhibited.

First are the physical knobs associated with common effects: Chorus, Reverb / Delay, Overdrive / Distortion, and Compressor. Whereas other multi effect units, especially compact or rack-mount units, leave you no choice but to dive in to menus to dial in a sound, the GT-6B has physical knobs for the common settings of those aforementioned effects. In fact, it would not be exaggerating to say a player could find good tones without ever entering a menu. In this way, the GT-6B is analogous to just having 4 Boss pedals shared in one housing.

Second are the 'profiles' ("Quick Settings" - pg 7) stored within every effect- including amp and cab modeling. Let's say you enable the chorus effect. If you enter the menu for this effect you can dial in precise values for its different parameters. Or, Boss has a handful or pre-built 'profiles' for this specific effect like "lush", "wide", "deep", etc.

Third are the 'EZ Tone' patches. In addition to the 80 presets, this is a separate category of sounds under the EZ Tone button. These are inoffensive and generic - albeit practical - patches that demonstrate basic tones possible with the GT-6B. They are helpful as starting points for making a tone focused on one or two effects.

These shortcuts above are all in addition to a comprehensive menu tree that is traversed with parameter left/right keys, and enter key, and the large jog dial.

rockstarbassist · #4 10-25-2007, 10:42 AM

I used to have one of these but liked gigging my pedals moreso.

This may be a good thing to keep at church, as I won't have to bring my board every Sunday AM and I could sell my DI... hrm...