music & computer

The GT-10, driven by BOSS' latest custom-made DSP and proprietary sound-modeling COSM® engine, is a floorboard powerhouse that offers natural and musical response as well as a marked improvement in sound quality from previous generations.

The GT-10, driven by BOSS' latest custom-made DSP and proprietary sound-modeling COSM® engine, is a floorboard powerhouse that offers natural and musical response as well as a marked improvement in sound quality from previous generations.
Ease of Use: Usually, a multi-effect pedal is supposed to be an ordeal to learn, in that you have to spend hours finding a good Overdrive or Distortion tone. Not so with the GT-10. It has a feature called the EZ Tone, which lets you graphically shape your tone. Once you do, you can save it as it's own patch, and there you go. I'll break it down into steps, since no one has yet.

01. After clicking Create under the EZ tone category, you'll choose from genres like Blues, Country, Soul Funk, Jazz, 70's Hard Rock, 80's Metal, Modern Metal, Punk, Progressive, Acoustic, and a few others.
02. From there, you Pick a variation (for example, Modern Metal has different variations that will focus on solos, or rhythm).
03. Once you Pick a variation, you use a graph system with the main knobs that feels like you are drawing on an Etch-and-Sketch. The tone is shaped by what area of the graph your cursor is in (in an x, y coordinate graph). The farther right you go, the harder the tone hits. Moving to softer warms up the tone. And then there is the solo or backing axis that modifies the mids and higher ups in the EQ.
04. You can then set delay and reverb in the next graph.

And that's it. Then you can nit-Pick from there, and that could take a little while, depending on how picky you are. Editing patches is easy as well, feels like a normal unit, but it is pretty fast and easy. The manual is a little thick, but the font is also a bit bigger, so it is easy to read. The manual also has a cut-out booklet, basically a 4 page deal (front and back of 2 sheets) that has all of the presets. Very easy to use if you put at least 5 minutes into getting acquainted with the EZ-Tone deal. After that, it depends on what sound you want. I haven't owned a previous iteration of the GT-x series, but I can definitely say, it's probably a huge step up because this thing rocks. // 10
Sound: I have a few number of setups. I've yet to try my main one, which is my guitar into a Crate half-stack. I'm debating about putting my Mesa/Boogie V-Twin pedal in front of the GT-10 or behind it. I'll see how it goes. So far though, I've used it on a small Ibanez practice amp, a Fender 212R combo amp, and the headphone jack. My guitars include an ESP/ltd. Viper-400, Dean Dime Razorback (two-tone), and a Schecter Revenger 7 (7stringer). Another great thing about this pedal is that it has an output selector, which lets you Pick what kind of amp you are coming out of, and then the GT-10 will adjust it's voicing to that. You can Pick between a JC120 (from Roland), a small amp (practice amp), a combo, a stack, and a line/headphones sound (for use with a PA/mixer and/or headphones). Also, you can Pick the return inputs on the combo, stack, or JC120. Most of the presets are pretty decent. There are some that excel, but of course there are a few failures. The sound has been cleaned dramatically (from what I've heard about the GT-8) and almost all of the distortions sound great. Some of the pre-amps this thing models include a JC-120, a Vox, a Mesa/Boogie combo, a Marshall 1959, a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, and a Tube Screamer (the pedal from Ibanez, but voiced to a pre-amp! ), a Peavey 5150, and many others. The Rectifier sounds really good. It is easy to adjust any of the pre-amps, so that shouldn't be a problem. This thing has a good number of pedals modeled too. A few I'll mention are pretty much any of the Boss od/ds pedals, a Tubescreamer, a Proco Rat, the Guv'nor pedal, a Dist+, an Octave Fuzz, and a Muff fuzz. The pedals sound really good, and there are many things you can edit about them (EQ, voicing, etc.). The distortions have a nice bite to them, and aren't very hiss-prone or whiny, like my Boss MT-2 sometimes is. In fact, I think the MT-2 modeling on this pedal might even be further improved on the original MT-2, if not even better than a modded one. it's all in the ears though, so take heed to that. There are a huge number of effects. You can make a single-coil sound like a humbucker and vice-versa. And even make your guitar sound like a hollow-body or an acoustic. I was playing this at Sam Ash with an ESP/Ltd. Eclipse, I think the 600 model with passive pickups. I turned it to an acoustic setting, strummed, and thought I had grabbed an electric/acoustic. The simulators aren't supposed to be this good! Very clean tone. Besides a guitar simulator, there are a number of effects. These are some of them: compressor, equalizer, delay, chorus, reverb, pedal wah/pedal bend, noise suppressor 1, noise suppressor 2, t wah, auto wah, sub wah, adv comp, limiter, graphic eq, parametric eq, tone modify, guitar sim, guitar synth, and many others. There are a few other synth effects. there is even a feed-back effect that simulates getting feedback, even if playing through head-phones. Pretty useful if you need a single-note phrase with some feed-back kicking in. Each effect has many different parameters to work with. Users familiar with the GT-8 will be happy to know there are now 2 control (ctrl) pedals. Basically these Switch channels on the pre-amps, turn effects on/off, and more. You can hold down on of the control pedals with your foot and get a higher Harmony part for as long as your foot is held down. So if you have a higher melody part that you want, but it comes in for 2 measures every other time you repeat the phrase, you are good to go with that, instead of looking like you are trying out for River Dance. I give sound a 9 just because of a few of the effects being a bit too "out there" in that I might never use them. But for a progressive type of player, this could be a gold-mine of effects. // 9

Reliability & Durability: Oh yes, this thing seems rock solid. You can't use it without the power-cord since there is no place for batteries. But this thing is built like a tank otherwise. The only problem is that the bank switching pedals are a little out of reach. But they aren't anywhere near the screen, which is good. I never really feel safe at any gig. I'd depend on this, but I'd carry some back up effects with me, just because that keeps me comfortable. Otherwise, if I only had room for my amp, guitar, and this, I would most definitely gig without backup. // 10

Impression: I play in a band that plays hard rock with a slight hint of metal. This pedal does everything I need it to in the band. As for myself, I write music as a solo project and for fun, and this takes care of everything. And I will go between different genres. If I'm feeling some blues, I kick that on. If I want to do some fun techno stuff or dark synth for industrial, I can flip that on with no problem. This really is a great pedal. It has 2 midi jacks, so you can use the GT-10 to control MIDI objects as well. I don't use MIDI, so I don't have too much to say about it. The USB is one problem though. They don't include a cable with the GT-10, and I can't get my GT-10 to work with my computer. But that's only because I have a 64-bit version of Vista Ultimate. There are drivers for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Apple. So you should be safe. Check Boss's site for more info. on that. I can't really explain that stuff, since I'm not very tech-savvy. Customer Support, after you register for "backstage" or w/e at Boss so you can see the different manuals and stuff, is very helpful. I e-mailed yesterday about the drivers, and I was replied to today. They even sent a request to the main headquarters to see about making a 64-bit driver. No info. on that though, but it's understood. They were helpful as far as they could be, so for that I thank them. I've been playing for almost 5 years, and my multi-effect pedal before this was the Zoom GFX-5. A knob broke on it, and I wasn't too happy with what I was hearing so I decided to upgrade. I was thinking about this and the DigiTech RP-500. But I decided on this after hearing it, because it just seemed to good to pass up. And I wanted something that could create tones, instead of just full-on replicating them. My friend and other guitarist in my band isn't going to be too happy about me getting this instead of the RP-500, since we were thinking about getting the same pedals so we'd have identical sounds and he doesn't want to shell out for this. I don't really care though, because this pedal probably kicks the RP-500's ass many times over. Maybe the replication isn't as great, but this thing has enough tones and effects where I am completely satisfied. I'm going to be learning things about this system for a good amount of time to come, and then the fun will really start. If you are thinking about getting a multi-effect pedal, and have the cash... get it. I believe you won't regret it. If you plan on recording via USB though, make sure you aren't running a 64-bit OS. Otherwise, go for it. If there is anything else you need, feel free to message me. Or better yet, check the Boss site and look at all the effects and stuff they have under the Knowledge Base. I give this a 9, only because of a few of the presets (which really shouldn't be taken into account, but for those that like all presets to be great, then the 9 is for them... otherwise, if you aren't too picky with presets, give it a 10) and the USB driver problem. I'm sure someone will have a fix sometime soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and get back to jamming out with it.
price:$499
form http://www.ultimate-guitar.com