Boss GT6-B?

Hey, I'm looking for a new effects pedal and wondering if I could get a few more opinions about the Boss GT6-B. I'm going to rent one for a month to check it out, but is there anything I should try when I get it? I have a digitech bp50 now and I find it a pain to use! So I am looking to upgrade! YAAAA more toys! Thanks for all your opinions and help, this site is great! D

[g00eY]

You have to be prepared to tweak with the GT6-B. The presets are only so-so at best. The interface for tweaking make take some time to get used to, but after a little bit it becomes natural and makes a lot of sense.

Edit for more comments: I think the pedal is good if you're just getting into effects. A lot of the stuff seems useless, like Dave_W said. The wahs are weak and the synth is really hard to tweak. I'm sure if you spent some time with the synth you'd get a good patch, but it seems to me that it's just way too responsive. That being said, the basic effects are great. There are different models of OD/Distortion, amp models, cab models, and compressor models. It has a pretty tweakable parametric EQ. The chorus and delay/reverb are solid as well. Stuff like the defretter, autoslap, SOS... pretty much everything that's not "normal" seems like it's just there for the fun of it. I like how you can add or reassign footswitch values to either change the, say, drive on the distortion with a stop of your foot from a mild OD to a heavy distortion. Right now I just have mine set on tap delay, and then my extra footswitch pedal that I added is set to turn on a FX2.

[cerealkilla1980]

I just bought a gt6b ast night. So far i really like it. I agree the presets are kinda goofy. It seems to have alot of versatility and flexability. I downloaded the manual about 2 weeks ago so i kind of had a head start. After about an hour of playing with the pre sets I made a nice sunday morning praise and worship patch. it has chorus and comp. I also set up some nice delay and reverb if i want them. After about 8 hours of playing with it i really like it. The only complaint i have is that the headphone volume isnt very loud. Well it kinda drops some deepend, but that might just be my cans. (by the way, www.zzounds.com has the gt6b new for 249.95 w/free shipping. That is also nice if you local store price matches. Sam Ash did for me)

[Dave_W]

I've had mine for a number of years now. It has alot of effects in one place, which was one of the reasons I bought it. But as the other guys said the presets are goofy at best. The wah pedal on mine has always been a problem, the effect is not smooth across the sweep of the pedal. But I did not buy it for wah so whatever. May just be mine anyway. But that illustrates the main problem with all in one units, more stuff means more stuff can go wrong. It also depends on what effects you are looking for. I mainly use the OD/Dist., Reverb, Delay, and sometimes Chorus so if I had it to do over again I wouldn't buy it cuz I don't use most of it. Some of the effects don't make sense to me anyway such as defretter, pedal ringer, auto-slap, bass synth etc. And again there is a bit of a learning curve, if you don't mind sitting down with the manual for an hour or two then you should be ok. If you just want to plug in and go you might get a little frustrated. Considering the price and amount of features I would still recommend this unit. But keep in mind it's not really top end gear and if you are trying for a specific sound you may be disappointed. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask me.

[lord toranaga]

so, what exactly is a top end multi effects board?

if the roland is not top end

Hey, thanks a bucnch! I just got it home and am printing the manual now. I woulsd buy this online, but I live in Ontario Canada and the shipping wouldn't be free I am sure. I would probably have to pay duty on it as well. Oh well, I got a used one for a good deal anyway. Just a little dusty on top! Wish me luck cause here I go! Thanks again! I'll be sure to post my thoughts after a few days. Later

[Fnord Explorer]

I'll agree with most of the comments here. The synth patches take a lot of tweaking to get useful (and I like a lot of synth) otherwise most of the time they just sound like a different flavor of overdrive. The OD/distortions are serviceable, and I use them occasionally. The modulation effects have a lot of versatility, like the phaser (I have a Boss Phaser and I find myself tweaking knobs too much, this is way easier to set and forget).

I actually really like the pedal ringer tone and the defretter is really cool for "in-a-pinch" fretless tone but don't need that tone often enough to justify buying a fretless bass. The chorus and flanges are great too.

The EQ on it is almost too versatile. I kind of find it a pain to mess with parametric EQs like this when I can just use a graphic equalizer and get what I'm looking for instantaneously. Since every room I play in sounds completely different, I find the preamp flexibility a bit too unwieldy for that kind of application. That and the output varies wildly from when you switch a preamp-set patch and the bypass. I'm sure you can adjust all that easily enough but I just haven't seen the need to bother with it.

I think it's fairly easy to negotiate and having knobs there definitely helps for stompbox freaks like me. Overall, I think if you aren't trying to do any super crazy things with it, it'll work well for just about any application you can think of.