Boss GT-1000 (and possibly other things Boss...)

[ChordInversion]

I think if you have a device that has a firmware which can be updated, and the software could be improved for better performance or expanded function, it's nice to get updates. I don't really see the Blues Cube or DS-1X as being held back by software so likely no need for updates. The digital amp pedals though? You could always get more amp models or more effects or things like that.

I get your reasoning, but I still don't care. I never claimed it was rational. Price may be part of it. I have been beating the drum about how the Tone Master Pro has way too few amps, but with the GT-1000CORE, all I'd really be interested is maybe expanding the X-Amps - though I don't need anything higher gain, and X-Crunch kinda covers me. Maybe some other variant of that?

I've been fine with the editors for the GT-1000, Katana Artist MkII, and Nextone Stage. Again, I don't expect that to be greeted as a rational choice.

 

[Jarick]

Mobile editors locked in landscape drives me nuts, as does the hold to enter value numerically, and then the numeric entry having its own weird keypad. I have to quickly move the value which is never going to be accurate because it's too sensitive or it kicks me into numeric entry which I don't want. Honestly with touchscreens, sliders make more sense for this type of app. Either that or give me knobs that when I hold them will turn into a slider.

Just testing on the Fender TMP, I can touch a knob and drag it up and down to adjust which is great. Or I can double tap and then a slider pops up and I can adjust and fine tune easier. There's even a plus and minus button at the bottom so I can accurately adjust the parameters finely.

ANYWAYS. I don't mind at all the Boss approach of generic amps and cabs. I find it kind of charming. And you can't argue with their low latency and gapless switching which was years before most competition had this functionality.

I do feel that the amp and effect modeling quality though was still half a generation behind the competition when they launched back in 2018, so they could use a step forward here. I think they could clean up how they present their models too, like chorus living in both the chorus block and the mod or FX block. Of course the block limitations like one master delay and several basic delays (already fixed on the GX). But I'd want Boss to do their own thing instead of making the Boss version of the Helix or Fractal.

 

[laxu]

I think if you have a device that has a firmware which can be updated, and the software could be improved for better performance or expanded function, it's nice to get updates. I don't really see the Blues Cube or DS-1X as being held back by software so likely no need for updates. The digital amp pedals though? You could always get more amp models or more effects or things like that.

The frustrating part can be when you know it could be improved with software updates, but the updates never come.

The Yamaha THR100HD is the posterchild of this. Lots of cool ideas in that amp. Many of its problems could've been solved with software updates, adding things like volume controls for boosts so turning the boost on doesn't become a solo boost at the same time. But Yamaha never did anything.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Am I just stupid or can you not use the editor in landscape?

Don't even ask. But it's not you being stupid...
Their mobile editors are a disgrace to human intelligence in pretty much any aspect. I mean, especially on tablets, they could just work as the Win/macOS incarnations, top half to scroll, select and move, lower half to adjust. But no, let's rather make it an endless hold-click-edit-x-button-rinse-and-repeat affair.

 

[ian_dissonance]

I’ve gotten the hang of it pretty easily (and would have loved even a half-assed mobile editor for Helix) but definitely some antiquated app design. Along with still using MIDI over BT to control the editing. I just really like the X-Amps for high gain. There’s a vaguely synth-like quality to big chords and they hold up way better under ridiculously low tunings compared to almost any “real world” amp model I’ve ever tried without resorting to all kinds of crazy pre-eq.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I’ve gotten the hang of it pretty easily (and would have loved even a half-assed mobile editor for Helix) but definitely some antiquated app design.

The thing isn't that the editor is difficult to use, but it's horrendously inefficient compared to pretty much anything else.

 

[ChordInversion]

The frustrating part can be when you know it could be improved with software updates, but the updates never come.

The Yamaha THR100HD is the posterchild of this. Lots of cool ideas in that amp. Many of its problems could've been solved with software updates, adding things like volume controls for boosts so turning the boost on doesn't become a solo boost at the same time. But Yamaha never did anything.

I had the THR100HD as well. I get your point completely. I still use the amp regularly, and I love it. For whatever reason, I never expected an update that wasn't a bug fix.

 

[nikitasius]

Hi folks! Have you tried to use powerbanks? And if yes, what your experience was?

 

[ian_dissonance]

Hi folks! Have you tried to use powerbanks? And if yes, what your experience was?

I’ve got a Bird Cord PD-9VDC adapter and then use a couple different PD compatible power banks. Works great with the GT-1000 and the GX-100.

 

[nikitasius]

I’ve got a Bird Cord PD-9VDC adapter and then use a couple different PD compatible power banks. Works great with the GT-1000 and the GX-100.

Interesting, thanks!
Have you hear the difference ?

 

[ian_dissonance]

Interesting, thanks!
Have you hear the difference ?

No audible difference that I can tell. Less likely to have noise issues with one less thing connected to the wall, I would think.

 

[Sascha Franck]

GT-1000 Core arrived.

I'm afraid I made the wrong purchase and it won't stay for long. Why?

- There seems to be no way to have the three switches call up 3 patches directly. That just sucks incredibly because it's what I thought *must* be possible somehow. But it's not. For some strange reasons, it does work for patches U001 and U002, though (and maybe to some other adjacent patches, no idea yet...) - but only if you import patches from the big guy. By the same token, when you import patches using CurNum as a switching sources, it works on these very imported patches, but you can't select CurNum as a source on the Core itself at all, it just doesn't exist in the pulldown. It's completely absurd, really.

- While you can switch to the tuner from an external CTL and while you can do the same with Manual Mode, these two still remain hardwired to dual-switch presses. I hate that as much as it gets.

- Micro USB plain and simply sucks, apparently even more so the way Boss has it going. I had to go through SIX cables before I found one that worked - and I had almost given up already. Needless to say, I checked these cables during the last days, giving them a testrun with my old Samsung S4. Needless to say that all of them worked, including data transfer.

- Slightly less relevant but still: The big GT allows you to switch a patch from stereo to mono and in return you get 4 FX blocks instead of 3. This is very useful because in case you don't flip FX within blocks and use the same FX chain, spillover works for all delays and switching is truly gapless. With just 3 FX I might have to alter the FX type between patches here and there.

Unfortunately, this is a real dissapointment so far as the organisation I had in mind simply won't work. I could possibly get things to work if the damn device was able to toggle between 2 MIDI PC sent through one switch, but that's not possible, you can only ever send one.

So, for my intended setup to work at all, I would now have to add an external MIDI controller. Which I just don't want to as the main intention was to set up a very compact little board.

Looks as if I have to give up on this thing. Super dissapointed, really. Especially given that my pedalboard is completely done already.

 

[Sascha Franck]

FFS, I have two patches going on the Core doing things in a way that you *can't* program on the unit itself. Namely: Switching to patch U001 and U002 and then manipulating things via CurNum. Doesn't work for a 3rd patch, though, that switch is fixed to work as CTL1.

 

[ian_dissonance]

That’s a really weird oversight.

 

[JiveTurkey]

It's Boss. The loops are noisy and the input impedance is dumb. Leave it to Boss to release something that should actually compete with the Stomp in form factor yet still be dumb and do it wrong.

 

[Sascha Franck]

That’s a really weird oversight.

It's completely beyond me how they're doing one unit allowing you to set the switches in pretty much every imaginable way just to come up with a little sibling that has the most awkward things hardwired. And fwiw, I don't even think the lack of being able to call up 3 patches directly will annoy me the most, but rather that you can disable the dual-switch-actions. I mean, the switches are defenitely close enough to each other that you can accidentally switch two of them - which is an instant drama when you trigger tuner mode.

 

[JiveTurkey]

You probably can connect a loopback midi cable to make it "work"

 

[Sascha Franck]

The loops are noisy and the input impedance is dumb.

Well, the loops ain't noisy once you go for a) a proper PSU and b) a proper ground lift setting (I made posted some tests in this very thread already). It's almost dead silent, even with the TXO running a pretty gainy patch in the loop. And I can ignore input impedance because I'm running into a Hotone Soulpress II as the first thing anyway, so there's my 1mOhm input and buffer already.

Leave it to Boss to release something that should actually compete with the Stomp in form factor yet still be dumb and do it wrong.

Yeah well. I will try out some more things for a while (after all, as I bought the thing used for a decent price, there's no return window and I might just be able to sell it for the same price), but I'm already considering going back to the Stomp for this small board.

 

[Sascha Franck]

You probably can connect a loopback midi cable to make it "work"

I could in fact sort of do that, but it'd kill some other functions.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I know it seems like I don't; but I actually LIKE and root for Boss but every single time they do something that just is so head in the sand that I just can't do it. I like the Boss amp sounds I like more than the Helix amps across the board. But I would choose Helix over it every single time just because they realize it's 2025 and there are other options out there people could look towards and act accordingly. Ugh.