Boss GT 1000Core

[Krisfield]

The Transparent Amp is very usable for bass. Has an extended bass range.

Received my GT1000Core today. Here is my review after a few hours of editing en listening to most of the effects and amps. I also have an Axe fx 2 and Eventide H9 for many years and had some other mutli effects before (like the Boss GT-5 way back). I play and teach both guitar and bass.

First impressions:
-damn it's small! That's good
-editing on the unit itself is pretty easy and much more instant than on the Axe fx. Haven't tried the software of the GT1000 yet. I like the five knobs under the screen and the first page mostly has all the right parameters you want to adjust on a gig or rehearsal. So that's less menu diving.
-The Axe fx is much more flexible and has deeper editing and more parameters and possibilities. For some this can be a minus of the Axe fx though because it's more complex.
-Most fx's sound pretty good but can't compete with the H9 or Axe fx. I thought the Chorus and the Touch wah and autowah are a bit dissapointing. And also the sitar sim and defretter.
The delays, reverbs, phaser and bass octave sound good. Pitch shifter sounds a bit better in the Axe fx and H9 and has less options.
-I found a few nice amps for guitar but didn't like all of them. The three bass amps sound nice. Especially the natural end the X-DRV Bass.

I still a bit mixed because I used the Axe fx for so long. I prefer most of the things from the Axe fx but some things are better on the Boss (like the layout and editing on the screen).
I guess I have to give it some time. I bought the GT1000 so I can leave my Axe fx 2 for in the studio and use the GT1000 for live (less stuff to carry).

I have a few questions:
1) what bass compressor settings do you prefer in the GT-1000 and why?
2) if I understand it correctly the GT1000 chooses the 'right' cab automatically when you select another amp. Correct? Is there a certain bass amp/cab combination that you prefer that is not standard?
3) I haven't dived in the stompbox mode yet. Can someone maybe explain in a few lines how you use this? It is a bit different than on other multi-fx that I have used.
4) is there a way to make the knobs scroll faster? like in numbers of 10 for example?

 

[Nuage420]

The Transparent Amp is very usable for bass. Has an extended bass range.

Ooooooo ooooooo oooooohhhhhh reeeeeeaaaallllllllyyyyyyyyy

 

[Johno Dunn]

The Transparent Amp is very usable for bass. Has an extended bass range.

It’s great for fretless!

 

[Krisfield]

Here's the exact definition. I've been using it a bit for various things.

Ooooooo ooooooo oooooohhhhhh reeeeeeaaaallllllllyyyyyyyyy

 

[Les Fret]

The Transparent Amp is very usable for bass. Has an extended bass range.

Ok cool. I am going to check that out!

Thanks guys for the replies. Good help. One more question:
Is there a way to use the up and down switches to bypass the fx blocks? So you can use it like you do with hardware pedals. I know you can do that with the CTRL switch. In the old GT5 you could do that and I think you can do that with the big GT1000 also.

 

[Krisfield]

Out of the box assignments for the 3 foot switches are tuner, manual mode (pedalboard), memory mode (up down), and a CTL 1 assign. On the other hand… Control Assign for the 3 foot switches, external foot switches, and expression pedals, is a whole other rabbit hole. You can go pretty deep and is probably an entire discussion in itself. I haven’t gone there myself, just been focusing on USB recording, and patch making.

Ok cool. I am going to check that out!

Thanks guys for the replies. Good help. One more question:
Is there a way to use the up and down switches to bypass the fx blocks? So you can use it like you do with hardware pedals. I know you can do that with the CTRL switch. In the old GT5 you could do that and I think you can do that with the big GT1000 also.

 

[El Spearo]

Ok cool. I am going to check that out!

Thanks guys for the replies. Good help. One more question:
Is there a way to use the up and down switches to bypass the fx blocks? So you can use it like you do with hardware pedals. I know you can do that with the CTRL switch. In the old GT5 you could do that and I think you can do that with the big GT1000 also.

As Correlli said, assigns is where it's at. You can also assign multiple functions to the same footswitch. Just a matter of getting stuck in!

 

[Les Fret]

Out of the box assignments for the 3 foot switches are tuner, manual mode (pedalboard), memory mode (up down), and a CTL 1 assign. On the other hand… Control Assign for the 3 foot switches, external foot switches, and expression pedals, is a whole other rabbit hole. You can go pretty deep and is probably an entire discussion in itself. I haven’t gone there myself, just been focusing on USB recording, and patch making.

Ok thanks. I think I need Manual mode then. I also have a Boss FS-6 so I can extend the pedals to five switches. And also an EV5 expression pedal. I will dive in the rabbit hole!

 

[MrDinsdale]

Well, first gig with my GTK. Checked the backline available, nice little ampeg combo so decided to not bother with taking my amp as space was limited.

Annoyingly when we got on stage there was no fx loop despite checking the model they listed online before, think they must have got the wrong model number.

Didnt have time to faff around with my patch to make sure it worked well directly into the amp but I learned a lesson

Ended up just ripping the core off my pedalboard and just going with my preamp and tuner. Great fun though and still the best festival stage sound I’ve had (not played many).

 

[MrDinsdale]

Back in action and have a pedalboard patch which is identical and settings linked via stompbox so next time I’ll be ready.

Think I need 2 patches to cover off all scenarios in future. Both have full amp and cab sim on the main right for FOH. One has the same minus cab sim for an amp return and the other has everything until the preamps out the main left output.

Possibly a third in full stereo for recording.

 

[Johno Dunn]

I’ve finally had a chance to use the CORE into my Katana 210, and I am very pleased with the results. For the moment I have my output set to Bass 210 with Tweeter, and I’m using the preamp of the K210 with cab sims off. The CORE is covering Comp, EQ’s, OD and FX’s.
Down the road I’ll look at combining the K210 preamp with an AIRED pre. Looking forward to seeing what can be done with this, but happy so far!

 

[Les Fret]

How do you guys and girls usually set the sag and reso parameters in the bass amp blocks? I have a bit of a hard time hearing what they do exactly.

 

[Johno Dunn]

How do you guys and girls usually set the sag and reso parameters in the bass amp blocks? I have a bit of a hard time hearing what they do exactly.

I think it’s more noticeable on the High gain versions of the amps.

 

[krfoss]

I think it’s more noticeable on the High gain versions of the amps.

Yes. At clean or low gain, there is almost no difference (to my terrible ears).

 

[Krisfield]

SAG and Resonance is something guitarists talk about. If you’ve ever seen the YouTuber Ola England, he talks a lot about the Chug. It’s that high gain compressed sound and feel. I’ve struggled to hear or feel how it works also. But what I have worked out is SAG at -10, the sound is more open and loose. +10 the sound is tighter and more compressed. Resonance effects the upper harmonics (EQ filter?), 1k to 6k region. I was set-and-forget the two at zero, but have started setting the SAG at -10 and Resonance zero. So I think Gain, SAG, Resonance work together to get that high gain, tube amp sound and feel. I’m not sure those two settings would be that useful for bass players IMO. Would like to be corrected, still learning.

How do you guys and girls usually set the sag and reso parameters in the bass amp blocks? I have a bit of a hard time hearing what they do exactly.

 

[Les Fret]

SAG and Resonance is something guitarists talk about. If you’ve ever seen the YouTuber Ola England, he talks a lot about the Chug. It’s that high gain compressed sound and feel. I’ve struggled to hear or feel how it works also. But what I have worked out is SAG at -10, the sound is more open and loose. +10 the sound is tighter and more compressed. Resonance effects the upper harmonics (EQ filter?), 1k to 6k region. I was set-and-forget the two at zero, but have started setting the SAG at -10 and Resonance zero. So I think Gain, SAG, Resonance work together to get that high gain, tube amp sound and feel. I’m not sure those two settings would be that useful for bass players IMO. Would like to be corrected, still learning.

Yes I am a guitar player too but never dived into these advanced parameters. The Axe fx has many more advanced amp and cab block parameters and I never change them because I have no idea what they do exactly.

 

[Windreaper]

I haven't really messed with these controls enough to know what they actually do on the GT-1000, but here's what I think they do. Sorry for the layman explanation.

"SAG: Adjusts the amount by which compression changes in response to the power amp."

SAG is modeling a power supply voltage droop in response to loud transients, giving that slightly compressed tube amp feel.

"RESONANCE: Adjusts the amount by which dynamics is affected by the interaction between the power amp and the speaker transformer."

Resonance is a feature on some amps with a negative feedback loop. It effectively monkeys with the feedback to adjust the damping factor around some frequency - typically around the speaker's LF resonant peak. This affects the amplifier's ability to control the speaker, resulting in a tight or loose low end feel.

I believe AIRD uses modeled speaker impedance curves, so Roland/Boss might even have been able to implement this properly. Are these parameters available when you use a 3rd party IR?

 

[Krisfield]

Here’s some more information from the Boss GT 1000 Ultimate Guide website.

SAG — sag is basically the tube compression or “squish” that you get when you turn a tube amp up loud enough to start overdriving the poweramp. So, the higher the sag, the more “squish” you’ll feel in your playing dynamics.

RESONANCE — this affects the response of the lower frequencies to your playing attack. At minimum Resonance settings, the low end response feels snappy and tighter, but as you increase the Resonance parameter, the “release time” of the note increases, making the low end “feel” bigger — this can be crucial to add in that extra thump without necessarily increasing the bass too much.

 

[Krisfield]

I think so.

I believe AIRD uses modeled speaker impedance curves, so Roland/Boss might even have been able to implement this properly. Are these parameters available when you use a 3rd party IR?

 

[krfoss]

I've been messing around with the Core and putting together some presets and midi commands with the Matthews Futurist and realizing I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get rid of some of those delay blocks and replace them with some FX or Distortion Blocks. Even another noise suppressor would be more useful than that many delay blocks. C'mon Roland...

/Rant