I may or may not have a slight crush on Daisy Pepper. That being said, wait, what was being promoted again? 
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New Boss multi effects for bass
- Thread starter dadabassefr
- Start date
I dissagree completely.
As a former HX Stomp user, I have no interest in this Boss unit, because of its user interface.
By contrast, the user interface of the Anagram solves what I think is THE problem with all other multi effects: I need instant control on the settings and intuitive UI.
I didn't buy the Anagram (yet), but I think it deserves its success.
IMO all forum have a hint of it. Tb as guilty as then all.
They are an amazing company.
We could say the same about NDSP. Funnily with shared roots.
Brain rot is everywhere. It’s post holiday consumer cycle. I think it’s more seasonal. GIVE ME MORE PRESENTS.
This looks great. The Boss GT-1B was my first multi-FX (I was so reluctant to step into the digital world), and sometimes I miss it. I’ve bought different multi-FX units from different companies since then, but last year I picked up a GX-10 and felt like I’d come full circle. I really like Boss’s approach to effects, and needless to say, the responsiveness of the new AIRD preamps is amazing to me. I would definitely buy this one since it includes AIRD technology as a backup...and to fill my nostalgic heart!
Just got notification that it shipped today! That was quick, just pre-ordered it yesterday expecting it to be awhile, should be here mid next week. Looking forward to starting down the rabbit hole... The weather here in the Great Plains is finally starting to turn to
so it'll give me something to do on the long cold days ahead. 
Only for my Art Noise stuff do I need direct control of something. Even then it's usually just one thing and I can usually leave that ‘open’ so I can mess with it on screen. Most of the time my patches are programmed in there so I can just switch patches.
But I appreciate my needs are not everyone's needs
But I appreciate my needs are not everyone's needs
If you can look down at the floor while standing and read any of those knob labels you must be under 30.
Actually, I was 30 . . . in 1985. And I'll admit I read them kneeling till I get them like I want 'em,; I CAN see the LCD's off or on.If you can look down at the floor while standing and read any of those knob labels you must be under 30.
I'm actually the opposite – this is exactly what I've been looking for!
I've got a whole range of MFX units but I keep coming back to my GT-1B. It's tiny, light and I've built some really good patches for it over the year that get me through pretty much any gig. I love the Helix but it's just too big and heavy to cart around; the GT-1000 Core sounds fantastic, but is lacking in bass-specific effects.
This packs a great range of GX-level effects and amps into a tiny unit, with a real bass focus. I'll be very interested to hear if the acoustic bass and synth effects have improved from the GT-1B; it's hard to imagine that they haven't. Boss have really raised their pitch shifting game in the last year or so, so it'll be good to see if this has made the shift from a warbly effect to being genuinely usable.
Built-in Bluetooth is a BIG game changer, as is (finally!) USB class compliance and USB power; it'll be handy to plug this into a Mac without needing a reboot to pick up the drivers or a PSU to power it.
It's a pity that there's no XLR output – a priority for many bassists. But they're using the same form factor as the GX-1, and guitarists seem to desire this less. Plus, it's a budget unit – you're getting a lot here for £219.
Fully agree. The no XLR thing as been discussed extensively and bottom line it's easily enough dealt with. Not ideal but far from being a significant, deal-breaking issue.
The Stomp, which I was a fairly early adopter of, is an awesome unit as well but I'm only using the bass specific parts of it plus a few basic effects (pitch shift being my most used effect) so probably 80+% of it is of no/limited value to me. The Boss unit has way more bass focused stuff than the Stomp, more pre-programmed in presets (which may or may not be all that helpful, we'll see) and basically is just a more simplified gigging bassist focused unit at half the price of a Stomp (or a GX-10 for that matter). As a gigging bassist I'm excited to see if or how much the GX-1B might simplify things for me at the gig. Especially for a gigging bass player who hasn't yet taken the leap into the multi effect world this (to me anyway) looks like a pretty simple, low exposure, and inexpensive way to take that first step. Worst case I'm out whatever hit I'd take reselling it, which at $229 plus tax (original purchase price) isn't going to break the bank.
I'll be interested to see of Line 6 doesn't so something similar to divide out the bass and guitar parts into separate units similar to what Boss is doing with the GX-1 and GX-1B. They've already done it with the effects parts of the Helix (Pod Go) where it's just effects with no amp/cab sims, so it would make sense. If not Boss may ultimately take some market share away from them perhaps?
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Very good point on the presets. I've found that the presets on Boss guitar units are designed to show off the unit, but not very useful in a band context. Whereas most of Boss's bass presets are pretty useable. On the GT-1000 Core there were only a handful of bass-specific presets but I ended up using three of those as the basis for building the presets that I ended up actually using.
I don't have much faith in Line6 these days. They used to be a shining example of continuous support for older kit but that's really tailed off. Helix updates used to come every six months; the most recent was well over a year ago. Obviously they now have the Stadium series to push and it's hard to complain about the sheer amount of features that they added to the Helix over the years.
Complaining about the £250 backpacks, on the other hand...
With the Stadium system out now I don't expect much more in the way of updates for the Helix platform but we'll see. It's a pretty mature system as is so IMO I don't know how much more in the way of updates they can do that would make any difference, likely wouldn't for my usage anyway. That energy is rightfully going to go into their newest stuff. With Kemper, Neural, etc etc taking it all up a notch Line 6 is likely more concerned about competing with and comparing to those systems than updating a mature system they're moving up from.
following. I might pickup a GX-1B just for home studio recording. To see how this works out better or worse than using amp sims. I like the size, that is USB powered and has the newer AIRD stuff, and is 48/24 which is my projects usually.
So I've been a long time Zoom user (B3n, MS-60B and MS-70) and they've worked great for me in a live setting. I always found the workflow to be very intuitive. I stayed away from Boss multis because I never got on with their interface. The newer Zoom plus series sound great (an upgrade for sure from the B3n). That said, this new Boss unit has me very intrigued. The price is excellent for a self-contained, bass centric multi. I never cared for the demos of the older (GT?) units but if this one sounds like the Core/GX (maybe it's the AIRD-based stuff I'm thinking of) flagship models I may have to give one a try. The newer Boss tech always seemed to sound very good and in many ways more flexible/neutral than the Zoom stuff, but I've been leary of changing up because of my comfort level with Zoom.
I searched and may I may just have missed it but can anyone confirm how many FX blocks you're able to run per preset, and if the fx chain is completely assignable (no fixed position FX like on the Line 6 Pod Go)?
I searched and may I may just have missed it but can anyone confirm how many FX blocks you're able to run per preset, and if the fx chain is completely assignable (no fixed position FX like on the Line 6 Pod Go)?
- Sep 3, 2006
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- Authorized dealer for Dingwall, Genzler, Phil Jones Bass, Cort, Traynor, Yorkville Sound
Impressions?Just got notification that it shipped today! That was quick, just pre-ordered it yesterday expecting it to be awhile, should be here mid next week. Looking forward to starting down the rabbit hole... The weather here in the Great Plains is finally starting to turn to
Hmmm... So far I haven't had a lot of time with it and I'm only now beginning to become somewhat familiar with it, so in fairness my initial impressions are still being formed and I still have a lot to learn. So for me the jury is still out but despite all of that my initial impressions are pretty positive.
I will say that in comparison, being used to how the Line 6 Stomp is to work with (which I've been using exclusively for over 6 years now and am thoroughly familiar with), the Boss is a completely different animal as far as how it's set up, how it programs etc. Very frustrating and not very intuitive at first and I'll say that the Boss instruction manuals aren't anywhere nearly as detailed and clear as the Line 6 manuals. If one is already familiar with the Boss operating style probably not as big a deal but a definite learning curve for me. Of the three different manuals I've found I've only been able to download one (Parameter Guide) to my desktop. The other two (Reference Manual and the Tone Studio editor manual) I've had to go through them online and print them out page by page which was a huge PITA. Possibly a user error due to my admittedly lousy tech abilities and I'm open to input/instruction on that point. Out of the box I had to update the unit from 1.02 to 1.03 to even be able to use it with the Tone Studio editor, figuring that out was another issue but I got it done. And the Tone Editor program will only work with Windows 11 (which I still had Windows 10...) so I had to update my desktop too before I could even load and use the editor. That was all fun.
As I've gotten onto how the operating system works I've begun to understand how to work around it to get the patchs (Boss calls them "memories" rather than "presets" which is an adjustment) set up the to be useable to me. In example, on the Stomp I can set up a preset so I can turn on/off effects on a basic preset by assigning them to a foot switch. At this time it's not clear to me if or how to do that with the GX-1B. In example my most used effect is Pitch Shift - on the Stomp I simply press a foot switch to turn it on/off. On the Boss I'm having to take my basic preset, copy it to the next preset with the pitch shift engaged, and scroll up or down to the next preset with the effect included and turned on. Just a different mindset on my part but functional. I'm open to instruction on that point as well and if anyone can explain that to me I'd be appreciative.
There are a bunch of useable presets in regards to basic amp/cab settings that are useable as is or easily tweakable anyway, however they're spread all over the 99 presets rather than being bunched into a group ala the Stomp where they're all basically together. So currently I'm trying to reprogram them all into a group (presets U1 - U17 currently on my unit) so I have a basic starting point for each of the amplifier/preamp models to start building from. Unlike the Stomp there are a bunch of useable, or at least promising, synth settings which IMO seems a big plus. But again they're all over the place so I'm attempting to get then into some sort of order as well.
Tonally I'm finding some good sounding amp/cab patchs that I'll be using, probably equivalent quality wise to the Stomp amp/cab sounds I use currently. Not quite as much tweak-ability as with the Stomp which may or may not matter, still learning. Generally speaking, for each effect there's not as much tweak-ability as on the Stomp for any of the amps or effects, but again that may not really be a big deal.
So basically I'm still figuring it out. My impression is that once I get this thing lined up for how I'm used to doing things I think it will be a very useful unit and I'm definitely keeping it and will eventually be gigging with it. I'm not convinced it's a slam dunk replacement for the Stomp, however I think it's in many ways equivalent from the perspective of gig-ability and at least makes for a good and functional backup. There are plus's and minus's to both. If I were looking to get into a stand alone gig-able replacement for a stage amp and pedal board, for less than half the price of the Stomp new, IMO the GX-1B would be the way to go. Still learning...
In fairness I went through pretty much the same degree of learning curve with the Stomp, took me awhile to figure it out too and even now I'm still learning things with it. Getting the desktop editor loaded and working, how to use it, having to do updates etc. So in that regard I don't think what I'm going through with it is all that out of the ordinary, at least to someone who's not particularly digital stuff savvy as I am/wasn't. Going from a stage amp/pedal board setup to a digital processor IMO is going to be a process for most folks, it's a different mindset. There's always a learning curve involved but once you "get it" and it makes sense, from there it's just a matter of figuring out how to make it do what you want it to do.
I guess I kinda made it sound like it's a complicated thing to use and figure out and that's not really an accurate portrayal. There's a lot of immediately obvious stuff you can do with it right out of the box with little/no tweaking, which is a plus. Like anything digital you have to figure out the process and get comfortable with it which I'm not there yet. I do think it's going to be a very useful tool and I'm looking forward to getting on top of things with it. But it's a process and it takes some time investment, which I haven't had a lot of opportunity to put into it just yet. No different from any new pedal/processor/amp/whatever.
I will say that to someone on the fence about going digital or replacing a pedal board with something simpler, I think this is a very worthy and functional option. This does some things the Stomp doesn't and vice versa. And IMO at $230 if you're thinking of taking the digital processor plunge pretty much a no brainer.
I'm not replacing my Stomp, just adding another workable and gig-able option.
