Boss GX-10 Bass/Guitar Multi FX

[Chienmortbb]

On 25/10/2024 at 18:41, stewblack said:

XLR out?

You know me so well!

[SumOne]

'what is missing?'

 

The main thing I missed on the GX-100 was the Helix type footswitches that have the dull and bright lights. Once I'd changed presets it wasn't obvious enough to me what each footswitch will engage before pressing it, due to that limitation I only needed it to be a Stomp sized unit as I generally scrolled through presets rather than using it like a 'russian roulette' pedalboard.....but hey presto, the GX 10 appears! So although the dull/bright lighting footswitches are still missing, I don't see that as such an issue as it is a size where you are resigned to mostly using the footswitches to scroll presets.

 

The GX-100 sounded good, I assume the GX-10 sounds exactly the same. It is a shame it is missing the Boss SY synth effects, and I don't remember being impressed with the envelope filter. Again, not such an issue for the GX-10 though as it is small enough to use as part of a bigger pedalboard, whereas GX-100 sized things are the whole pedalboard.

 

XLR isn't an issue for me as I have £10 passive DI boxes (subzero) that also have pad and ground lift and prevent potential damage from phantom power. And I don't even really use them - I always go into an Amp/Cab live which has a XLR out that runs to the mixing desk for the in-ears, so even if it had XLR I don't think I'd really use it.

 

It would be nice if it had the Bluetooth without needing to pay another £40, I suppose it keeps costs down though.

 

And yeah, more sturdy power supply would be better, but the 9v barrel is pretty much standard for all but the biggest and most expensive units so I suppose is to be expected and does mean it is potentially easier to integrate into a bigger pedalboard.  A cable retainer should be on these things though. I have gaffer taped 90 degree barrel connectors to multi fx before to add some security.

 

It looks good though, it's on my shopping list.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 21 by SumOne

[SumOne]

 I was never much one for any restraint so I have ordered a GX-10, but now I really need to set myself a pedal abstinence target for the rest of the year!

 

 I'm happy with the 'what is missing' things I listed previously, can't have it all and I can live with those limitations for the price.

 

The issue will be that I'll probably nit-pick and think 'X effect isn't as good as X analogue pedal' so need to get into the mindset that it isn't all about being the absolute best at doing everything or exactly replicating an analogue pedal.

 

At a minimum, I'm fairly confident it'll do a decent job as a tuner, EQ, compressor,  boost,  (if it doesn't do those things well enough then it'll be swiftly returned for a refund), it is a similar size/price to having a TU-3, BB-1X, BC-1X for those utility type things so with that expectation it is hopefully a winner. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 21 by SumOne

[SumOne]

I'm liking the GX-10.

 

Sounds good, solid build, nice size, the big colour touchscreen is great for editing.

 

The expression pedal does some great stuff, it is much more useful than having two extra footswitches in that space (heel down = tuner/mute, toe press = engage a different effect e.g. switch from volume to wah, and can assign multiple effects and parameters and settings for where they get engaged in the sweep)

 

 

For approx. the size and cost of three or four Boss utility compact pedals it does do the same things (TU-3, BC-1X, BB-1X, GEB-7) and more. So even before considering the other features it's a winner in my book.

 

My only slight beef is that it feels like more thought could've gone into how to squeeze more from fewer controls than the GX-100. E.g. the 'up' and 'down' footswitches pressed together seems to only be assignable as 'tuner' (or, confusingly 'up' or 'down'). That seems a waste of a valuable options with limited footswitches - the expression pedal heel down already does tuner (and I have a separate tuner, pictured for scale) so it could be better used as something else. Likewise, 'long press' footswitches do nothing - which feels like a missed opportunity.

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, SumOne said:

I'm liking the GX-10.

 

Sounds good, solid build, nice size, the big colour touchscreen is great for editing.

 

The expression pedal does some great stuff, it is much more useful than having two extra footswitches in that space (heel down = tuner/mute, toe press = engage a different effect e.g. switch from volume to wah, and can assign multiple effects and parameters and settings for where they get engaged in the sweep)

 

 

For approx. the size and cost of three or four Boss utility compact pedals it does do the same things (TU-3, BC-1X, BB-1X, GEB-7) and more. So even before considering the other features it's a winner in my book.

 

My only slight beef is that it feels like more thought could've gone into how to squeeze more from fewer controls than the GX-100. E.g. the 'up' and 'down' footswitches pressed together seems to only be assignable as 'tuner' (or, confusingly 'up' or 'down'). That seems a waste of a valuable options with limited footswitches - the expression pedal heel down already does tuner (and I have a separate tuner, pictured for scale) so it could be better used as something else. Likewise, 'long press' footswitches do nothing - which feels like a missed opportunity.

 

Ooh that looks good! The screen, in particular, looks a nice step up from the one on my GT1000 Core! 

[SumOne]

14 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Ooh that looks good! The screen, in particular, looks a nice step up from the one on my GT1000 Core! 

The touchscreen and features on expression pedal are great. 

 

I can notice a slight delay in the pitch shifter that I don't remember the Core having, so possibly doing a direct comparison the Core would sound better for a few things. But at least just from memory, I can't notice much difference in sounds (fewer blocks and routing options though).

Edited January 20 by SumOne

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, SumOne said:

The touchscreen and features on expression pedal are great. 

 

I can notice a slight delay in the pitch shifter that I don't remember the Core having, so possibly doing a direct comparison the Core would sound better for a few things. But at least just from memory, I can't notice much difference in sounds (fewer blocks and routing options though).

 

Ah interesting. I've always thought of pitch shift as being a really good test of capability for any multifx - most really struggle with it! I'm guessing the DSP / chipset are going to be a step up on the 1000 vs the 100/10, which may account for the difference?

[SumOne]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

Ah interesting. I've always thought of pitch shift as being a really good test of capability for any multifx - most really struggle with it! I'm guessing the DSP / chipset are going to be a step up on the 1000 vs the 100/10, which may account for the difference?

Yeah, I'm not sure if the superior brain of the 1000 is just used for the increased amount of blocks and split paths available and sample rate, or if it also makes a difference to things like pitch shift latency - I don't think Boss advertise as that, but I'd kind of hope that more processing power is also used for stuff like that.

[deerhunter113]

Has anybody tried the GX-10/GX-100 against a zoom b6? The HX stomp is outside my price range, so I’m trying to decide between those two. 
 

Currently leaning towards the GX-10 just because it is smaller and can do parallel signal processing. (Also the chassis not being made out of plastic is a big plus)

[SumOne]

17 hours ago, deerhunter113 said:

Has anybody tried the GX-10/GX-100 against a zoom b6? The HX stomp is outside my price range, so I’m trying to decide between those two. 
 

Currently leaning towards the GX-10 just because it is smaller and can do parallel signal processing. (Also the chassis not being made out of plastic is a big plus)

 

I've not used the B6, but had been considering it vs the GX-10 and I've owned a few Boss and Zoom Multi-FX pedals.  Personally, I chose the GX-10 because of:

• Boss build quality/reliability. I haven't had issues with Zoom things but Boss stuff feels more sturdy/reliable to me.
• Boss sound/effects: I might be wrong, but I think the GX-10  has the BB-1X and BC-1X software within it - both were on my shopping list, the BC-1X has almost universally good reviews, whereas I've not been much of a fan of Zoom compressors and I find compressors to be a key thing for Bass.
• GX-10 seems more powerful for effects chains/routing: 15x effect blocks vs B6 6x effect blocks. GX-10 can have a parallel effect signal path, B6 can not.
• Size: GX-10 is small enough to fit in my gigbag, or could potentially be added to a bigger pedalboard.
• Expression pedal: GX-10 isn't just a normal expression pedal: Heel down = tuner, toe press = switch to engage effects, can program quite complex things like adjusting parameters past a certain sweep of the pedal. 

 

The B6 wins out of some things though, the main ones seem to be more in/Outs & more footswitches. And although they are approx. the same price new, there are now second hand B6's available (one for £200 on here).

[MichaelDean]

2 minutes ago, SumOne said:

 

I've not used the B6, but had been considering it vs the GX-10 and I've owned a few Boss and Zoom Multi-FX pedals.  Personally, I chose the GX-10 because of:

• Boss build quality/reliability. I haven't had issues with Zoom things but Boss stuff feels more sturdy/reliable to me.
• Boss sound/effects: I might be wrong, but I think the GX-10  has the BB-1X and BC-1X software within it - both were on my shopping list, the BC-1X has almost universally good reviews, whereas I've not been much of a fan of Zoom compressors and I find compressors to be a key thing for Bass.
• GX-10 seems more powerful for effects chains/routing: 15x effect blocks vs B6 6x effect blocks. GX-10 can have a parallel effect signal path, B6 can not.
• Size: GX-10 is small enough to fit in my gigbag, or could potentially be added to a bigger pedalboard.
• Expression pedal: GX-10 isn't just a normal expression pedal: Heel down = tuner, toe press = switch to engage effects, can program quite complex things like adjusting parameters past a certain sweep of the pedal. 

 

The B6 wins out of some things though, the main ones seem to be more in/Outs & more footswitches. And although they are approx. the same price new, there are now second hand B6's available (one for £200 on here).

You can do all of the same expression pedal bits on the GX-100 too. I've been using the heel down tuner for ages.

My top tip for the tuner in that setting is to have the tuner on thru mode. You're putting the volume down with the heel down anyway so it's allready muting. Then it doesn't just do a hard cut of your volume at a certain point and any reverbs or delays will still finish their various noises.

[SumOne]

Something that's annoying me more than it should are interface related things: Say I want to edit parameters of the Overdrive - from this view: 

 

 

 

....I'd assume long press that 'overdrive' area on the touchscreen? Nothing. Long press footswitch? Nothing. Press the knob buttons in? Nothing. Press some other buttons or combination of buttons as quick access? Nope.... this is annoying as it feels like wasted opportunities. What you do need to do is a somewhat convoluted bit of menu diving.  

 

It generally feels that more thought could go into the interface:

• The knobs are all push-button which could be great - but that feature usually does nothing, that feels a waste of hardware.
• Long-press footswitches or screen buttons aren't generally a feature, why not? Again, a real waste of the hardware potential and presumably something simple to add to the software.
• 'up' and 'down' footswitches together in the main views access tuner - but so does 'heel down' on the expression pedal so the footswitches together should have the option of doing other things like opening the looper, or opening a tap tempo mode, 'page' view scrolling (which includes tuner), or accessing 'bank' mode ('bank' mode is a good feature but let down by the interface with the need to menu dive to access and once in that mode it needs menu diving to get back to 'manual' mode).
• Tempo BPM is displayed on the touchscreen - pressing it does nothing though. To access it you need menu diving then turn a knob to set tempo - it  does not allow tap tempo in this way (it'd be a good use of the knob as a button press). Also, how hard would it be to allow a flashing dot on the screen to display tempo vs needing to assign a footswitch for that flashing light? They seem like easy and obvious things to make it more user-friendly, it's frustrating as the hardware has the capability and I can't imagine it is a difficult software thing.  It means that for tap tempo you have to assign a footswitch (tip: use the 'carryover' to make it apply to more than one preset, then you can have a 'tap tempo' preset and then scroll back to your other presets to still have the 3 footswitches available).
• The preset name screen has plenty of space to show what the 'C1' footswitch will engage, but it doesn't show you. Again, it'd seem a obvious and easy thing to implement, I'm not expecting big expensive new bits of hardware or software.
• On 'manual' mode the preset name is tiny (see where it says 'clean' in the picture above, it is about 3mm high - really tricky to see from 2 metres away) even without changing anything on the rest of the screen it'd be easy to make that text bigger and fill that space. Again, anyone testing it in a real life gigging sort of situation would surely have noticed that - and how hard would it be for the software to just put a bigger text size to fill that space?!
• You cannot assign the knobs to the 'global' EQ parameters, which to me is what they would be most useful for (I seem to remember that it can be done on the Core).
• And this might be more than just a simple interface improvement but it would be nice to be able to set the 'L' and 'R' outputs to mono and have them branch off from different parts in the signal chain, or use the headphone out for this. Then you could have an output to PA with cab sim, and another output to your Amp/Cab without it. A workaround is to use the effects loop for this, but you only have one effects loop to use.

 

It is a shame as these are relatively small but annoying things as they seem quite obvious and I expect would be easy/cheap implement, they would change it from being a good but slightly flawed multi-fx to an excellent one.  Fingers crossed someone from Boss reads this and all of these are implemented in a software update.....I'm not holding my breath for that though! 

 

Overall it is decent, top marks from the team making the hardware and the sounds are good so I will be keeping it and I would recommend it......but the team changing the software interface from GX-100 to GX-10 basically hit copy/paste (and it wasn't even ideal on the GX-100),  slackers!

 

 

Edited Friday at 12:18 by SumOne

[MrDinsdale]

I think the intuitive interface is the main reason I love the QC. I don't think I've ever felt the need to check manuals or “how to” videos to understand features. It just does what you expect.

[MrDinsdale]

I do sometimes wonder if Boss go out of their way to make their UI for hardware and software as clunky and ugly as possible.

 

I had similar minor grievances with the GT1000core, not a deal breaker but just enough to cause a little frustration every time I used it.

[SumOne]

9 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

I do sometimes wonder if Boss go out of their way to make their UI for hardware and software as clunky and ugly as possible.

 

I had similar minor grievances with the GT1000core, not a deal breaker but just enough to cause a little frustration every time I used it.

 

Yes, I now remember that the Core does something similar. I understand it more when there's that limited space and no touchscreen so I didn't find it so annoying, but with the GX on manual mode pressing the onscreen effect block that's assigned to a footswitch only turns the effect on/off - which is exactly what the footswitch also does, so what's the point?! It'd be so easy to have a setting where pressing or long-pressing the touchscreen block opens the parameter editing. Frustrating.

 

 

[BigRedX]

On any of these devices with touch screens can they be used and edited without needing to actually have to touch the screen? I'm one of these people for whom touch screens often don't respond at all. 

[MichaelDean]

Yep. You can do everything without the touchscreen. You can even turn off the touchscreen functionality. Sometimes accidentally dragging a cable over it can change parameters 🤦‍♂️