Boss GT-1000CORE dirt pedals, preamps and what am I doing wrong?

[zerocrossing]

I must be doing something wrong.

Or not. It’s not a big secret that Roland/BOSS isn’t lighting the world on fire with their amp emulators. Maybe it just sucks. Since you didn’t buy it for that, I’d move on and forget about it. One thing you might want to try is using an amp emulation without the cabinet as a drive effect in front of your amp. I’ve gotten some great results with this, though never with BOSS stuff.

[zerocrossing]

I got a deal on a GT-1000CORE, apparently identical to the GT-1000 pedal board when it comes to amp models and effects, and got it for the effects

As the amphead I am, of course the first thing I did was checking out the amp models instead of the effects. I'm not a fan of digital amp modelling, the GT-1000 has some models not based on actual amps though, which if you have to do digital amps is the way to go in my opinion

Anyway, nice headroom and very good response for a digital amp, the sound was not great though. I have disconnected the cab sim, and the manual recommends using it as a preamp plugged into the effect return on an amp, or with a power amp as I did. I shouldn't have to EQ the crap out of it to make it sound less cheap though, even the 1996 GX-700 cheesy amp models sounds better without any EQ. I must be doing something wrong

All the overdrive models and all the distortion models sounds the same, most of the difference seems to be the gain and EQ, which is surprising as the overdrive and distortion models on the 2001 GT-6 pedal board have at least their own distinctive character

I'm keeping it anyway, as I got it for the effects, and the effects are really good. It's basically most of the 200 series in a single unit and then some. It wont really matter what the amp and dirt pedal models sound like, as I wouldn't use them much anyway. Would be nice to figure out what I'm doing wrong though

[YnJ]

I the overdrive and distortion models on the 2001 GT-6 pedal board have at least their own distinctive character

I have a Boss GT-3, not sure if the GT-6 is the same, but the OD/Distortion/Fuzz on the GT-3 is actual Boss analog circuits.

The manual says they are digital models, I don't really know. They are not as good as the OD/Distortions in the GX-700 though, which I know are analogue. The GT-6 has the option to place an external OD/Distortion in the same place as the models though. Most of the effects are not very good by any standard, only reason I have it is because it uses the same power supply as the GX-700 and was a cheaper option to just getting the power supply

[tapper mike]

I've tried to avoid this thread for the benefit of the op. Roland refuses to get with the times with regards to dsp.

For a long time I was thinking of replacing my Zoom L8 mixer with a boss gigcaster 8 The gigcaster has a better interface but there is no way in hell I'd use that guitar line in.

[BertKoor]

fwiw: I used a Boss ME-10 for like a decade as the only thing inbetween guitar and power amp. It's currently sitting in a drawer and it does not come out often.
I used to think it was decent, until I did some critical listening on it in "bypass" mode. Still have to run it through Rightmark Audio Analyser to be shocked by how lo-fi it really is.

[Sascha Franck]

Fwiw, I'm by now using GT-1000s for both a small and a bigger setup. When I got the first one, I was planning to use it merely as a pedal platform for my analog dirt boxes (which I wanted to use both FX loops for), also thought I could use it on its own for gigs where the guitar sound was not all that important.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be that I simply hated each and every single amp of the GTs. In fact, I even think that the amps in the GT-10 (which I still own) are somewhat better, at least the "classic" amps.
Now, I can see the value of some of their X amps for folks into heavier styles - but for anything else, I think Boss amps just plain bad, the main reason being that they're all compressing as if there's no tomorrow. It might even work in a live context (it does in fact work, tried on 2 gigs), but it's just zero joy for me to play through them.

So, how comes I even bought a second one (the Core)?
Well, I simply started using IK's Tonex Ones for amp modeling duties. On the small setup, I added a Pirate MIDI Polar Pico, which "hacks" MIDI support into the TXO, on the bigger setup I'm using 2 TXOs, one in each loop, plus some analog pedals for each.
Fwiw, before anyone asks, latency is no issue at all, the full chain still kicks in at just around 3ms.

Now, there's still some major issues, mainly the most horrible editing situation. Onboard editing is possibly among the worst I've ever came across in recent years, it's even way worse than on the GT-10 (which has dedicated switches for each block).
But on the upside: The GTs have a "global block" feature, allowing you to edit blocks across patches. That's absolutely what my doctor ordered (for a variety of reasons), and up to this day, the GTs and the big Axe FX are the only units with such a feature.
So once you're done with the editing horror and have something else for amp sounds, these things start to shine. The hardware is just excellent (as is pretty much anything Boss), the FX are pretty much all I need (apart from some weirder stuff, but I may add some external things one day) and the global block functionality is really making my gigging life much much easier.

[Uncle E]

they're all compressing as if there's no tomorrow.

100% agreed. This exactly how I felt about the GT-1000 Core when I had it. Same goes for the WAZA-Air, I originally thought the headphones were the problem but now I'm using Tonex Plug with headphones and it sounds awesome.

[Sascha Franck]

Yeah, it's quite weird that of all people, Boss really fails with their amp modeling.
I don't expect them to be the latest and greatest, but a decent roundup of amp tones suitable for any style should be well within their possibilities.
Fwiw, I really like that they're not going for the same (partially huge) amounts of whatever "meticulously modeled" authentic amps but have the guts to come up with their own takes - but that doesn't help if all of these amps sound plastic-ish.

[YnJ]

People praise the Katana it seems. I haven't tried it myself, if it's half as good as some people say I would say Boss still has it. As I wrote, I have never tried a Katana though

[mystran]

For what it's worth, I've got a Katana Mini and even though it obviously sounds like a small speaker, the amps themselves are actually quite nice... as long as the power supply is clean (my two datapoints are Roland official 2A supply which is pretty much unusably noisy if you want any gain and a Cioks DC-7 which is perfectly fine).

Now... that thing is stripped down to just clean/crunch/brown and whether or not you like the tones is one thing... but they are all kinda "bread and butter" and usable, the EQ does what you'd expect, it takes pedals well and it's honestly kinda difficult to make it sound really bad.

This thing is actual (solid-state) analog circuitry though... and getting those to sound decent is perhaps a different skillset from getting digital models to sound decent.

[Sascha Franck]

People praise the Katana it seems. I haven't tried it myself, if it's half as good as some people say I would say Boss still has it. As I wrote, I have never tried a Katana though

When I tried one (thought about it as a grab'n'go thing some years back), I thought the amps suffered the same issue as those in the GT-1000s. Serviceable yes, but too compressed so I didn't enjoy playing them.

[YnJ]

Doesn't sound like I an amp I would like then

This thing is actual (solid-state) analog circuitry though... and getting those to sound decent is perhaps a different skillset from getting digital models to sound decent.

From my understanding it has a digital preamp and a solid state power amp. I actually have a Boss solid state amp modeller which I really like. It doesn't try to replicate specific amps, rather the models are described as "a simulation of a large size tube guitar
amplifier" or something similar. It also has some non-descriptive models, which includes a Metal Zone amp model. Who wouldn't want that? It's from 1988 though. I think Quilter and some other brands makes solid state amp modellers, I think I would rather have a look at them than anything digital

[Sascha Franck]

I think I would rather have a look at them than anything digital

Why?
Digital has come an incredibly long way and if at all, the main differences these days are to be found in the playback systems.
I can understand people going for analog stuff for a number of reasons - but a "solid state modeler" sure isn't anything popular.

[mystran]

Doesn't sound like I an amp I would like then

This thing is actual (solid-state) analog circuitry though... and getting those to sound decent is perhaps a different skillset from getting digital models to sound decent.

From my understanding it has a digital preamp and a solid state power amp.

Katana Mini? Nope. It's mostly opamp circuitry, there's an image of the board here: https://www.cctv.fm/post/modding-the-boss-katana-mini

Whether this applies to the bigger brothers that obviously have a bunch of digital circuitry, I have no idea, 'cos Roland marketing just doesn't make it very clear...

[YnJ]

From my understanding it has a digital preamp and a solid state power amp.

Katana Mini? Nope. It's mostly opamp circuitry, there's an image of the board here: https://www.cctv.fm/post/modding-the-boss-katana-mini

Whether this applies to the bigger brothers that obviously have a bunch of digital circuitry, I have no idea, 'cos Roland marketing just doesn't make it very clear...

I was thinking of the ampheads

Why?
Digital has come an incredibly long way and if at all, the main differences these days are to be found in the playback systems.
I can understand people going for analog stuff for a number of reasons - but a "solid state modeler" sure isn't anything popular

I'm not a fan of modelleres in general when they attempt to simulate specific amps, it's almost always a dissapointment. Having said that you need to separate how it sounds to how it responds to your guitar and your playing. Digital modellers might get the sound more right, allthough they tend to sound like cheap plastic copies at best, analogue modellers are real amps and will respond as real amps. The latter is the most important to me. How popular a solid state modeller is is irrelevant. Would you say the most played songs on spotify are the best songs?