GT6B synth bass effect faulty....help!

Zaney · #1 07-08-2010, 04:47 PM

Bought this from a guy on another site a couple of months ago and until today only used two effects so don't know if he sold it knowing it was faulty.
However, went to use the synth bass and just got a crackle (similar to what a dodgy guitar lead sounds like) and the effect was on/off intermittently. Nothing to do with the leads as I checked that.
All other effects work fine so can't understand why this particular one is playing up.
Any ideas on what it could be or how to rectify?

Fab Savage · #2 07-09-2010, 02:10 AM

Sounds like a problem in the circuit to me if all of the other in built effects are working fine. I used to own one of these and had no technical issues playing active or passive basses through it.

I would contact boss/roland if I were you and report the issue. It might be a simple DIY fix (unlikely but who knows). I am sure I have emailed them in the past for one thing or another and they were quite responsive and helpful

though there are some very good useable effects on the GT6B, the synths were never that good IMHO.

Good luck

gumtownbassman · #3 07-09-2010, 02:20 AM

The whole effect process is digital in these beasts, i would bet on the internal lithium memory cell battery is on the way out, and part of the internal settings are corupted.
I suggest backing up your custom patches you want to save, remove the old cell inside the GT-6B for 5 minutes, replace the CR2032 cell with a new one, and fire up the GT-6B and perform a factory reset, then load your saved patches back in.

Bassman 100 · #4 07-09-2010, 02:52 AM

Great to see this post, I have a week off & this is one of the jobs on my TO DO list. I want to replace the battery in my GT6b & GT-8, before they go down. They are about five years old. In my case, where I don't have the above issues, do I replace the batteries as fast as possible in order not to loose user & factory patches? (I'll do a back up in any case.) How do you re-boot in factory mode? Are there any do's & don’ts when replacing the battery, I presume the GT-6B & the GT-8 is the exact same process? Talk about hijacking somebody else’s post, but looks like you have the exact inside information required !!

Zaney · #5 07-09-2010, 08:08 AM

Battery needs changing??
I've had my GT6 guitar version for 9 yrs and never needed to change the battery.

Bassman 100 · #6 07-09-2010, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zaney

Battery needs changing??
I've had my GT6 guitar version for 9 yrs and never needed to change the battery.

Not been a regular bassist, I don't want get caught out. There could be several weeks between gigs these days. I don't know if that makes a difference to the battery. Also if I leave it another few years before I change the battery, people on here won't know what pedal I'm talking about ! Very comforting knowing yours is not showing any signs of memory loss yet....

gumtownbassman · #7 07-09-2010, 03:36 PM

Sometimes a bit of corrosion on the battery terminal can cause a memory/system malfunction, or if the unit has been dropped and the battery might have shaken loose briefly from it's retaining clip.

A factory reset may fix it with out replacing the battery, since the battery is only $2, it might be worth doing while you are at it.

I have not needed to change the battery on any of my GT pedals yet (have GT-3, GT-6B, GT-10 & GT-10B) but did have to do a factry reset on the GT-3 and GT-6B due to strange behaviour.

The factory reset is described in the user manual, which involves holding down 2 buttons while powering on.

Restoring the GT-6B to the settings made at the factory is
referred to as “Factory Reset.”
Not only can you return all of the settings to the values in
effect when the GT-6B was shipped from the factory, you can
also specify the range of settings to be reset.

fig.11-201

1.
Turn off the power.
2.
While holding down COMP/LIMITER ON/OFF button
and [TYPE VARIATION], turn on the power.

The Factory Reset range setting screen appears in the
display.

fig.11-202

* To cancel the Factory Reset, press [EXIT].
3.
Press PARAMETER [ ] [ ] to move the cursor,
and rotate the PATCH/VALUE dial to specify the range
of settings you want to restore to the factory settings.
System:

System parameters, Harmonist scales, Auto Slap phrases
and overdrive/distortion, and wah custom edit
parameters

#U1-1–#u0-4:

Settings for patch Numbers U1-1 through u0-4

4.
If you want to proceed with the factory reset, press
[ENTER].

The specified range of data is restored, and the Play

screen returns to the display.

Bassman 100 · #8 07-10-2010, 04:27 AM

Hi Gumtownbassman,
Many thanks for your help.

11o8o · #9 11-21-2012, 03:12 AM

gastric · #10 11-21-2012, 11:25 AM

I could be mis-reading your post, but it seems you've indicated the entire unit is functional and all other fx are functional. If that is the case then considering the unit is DSP based then the synth fx is also functional. Which would mean you're simply not playing into it correctly which is often difficult to do with synth fx.

Play single monophonic notes, never chords or blended notes, play higher up the neck as open and lower notes don't typically track well, avoid dead / buzzing spots on the fretboard, and play extremely cleanly. If there's a tracking or sensitivity setting try experimenting with both higher and lower values.