BOSS GT-8

[lonewolf]

I picked up a BOSS GT-8 last week. This thing reduces all other modelers to "toy" status, including Line 6 and Rocktron. It is truly a breakthough in digital guitar equipment. Unlike everything else, you can combine two different modeled amps in series, parallel or dynamic series where soft picking will get you one amp and harder picking will get you another amp.

Just about every wah-wah and stompbox you can think of is modeled to perfection in this box, so you can sell all of those too.

I have tried this thru various rigs, but it seems to work best with a transparent power amp thru good guitar cabs. In this case, 1 channel of a Peavey DPC1400X into 2-12" Mesa/Boogie Roadready Thieles. I tried this thru a Mesa/Boogie 2020 tube power amp, but the tube emulation is so thick that the amp only muddied the sound. I'm sure this can be adjusted with the cab emulator...

More on this later.......

[JeffLeeper]

I have a GT-3 I've used for a long time and it gets the job done pretty well , so the GT-8 must be sweet.

I'd like to hear it.

[lonewolf]

I have a GT-3 I've used for a long time and it gets the job done pretty well , so the GT-8 must be sweet.

I'd like to hear it.

I would too! Unfortunately, when I 1st got it, I played on it every chance I got and developed tendonitis in my left index finger. The doc gave me some big green horse pills and it should be OK in a week or so.

I had been using a 1/2 rack mount version of the GT-3 called the VF-1. Great box, but some of the models lacked gain, especially the Marshalls. Aside from 100% improvement on the old models, Boss added a lot of new models, including a few more hi-gain Marshalls and Boogies into the mix along with some new FX. There is also an on/off switch on the expression pedal so you can use it just like a regular wah.

Where the VF1/GT3 reached about a 90% tube emulation, the GT8 is at 99.99%, only without all the noise.

The GT6 could be described ad a GT3 on steroids and the GT8 could be described as a GT6 on steroids, times 2

[RAM Z]

Cool dude! I've been wonder'n if anyone had the GT 8 yet. I have a GT 5,
and I love it! Some drunk fuck kicked the back of it where the input goes and it screwed the jack up! Now every once in a while it will scream and crackel and my fellow band mates laugh at me and call me Fonzie cause I'm the only one who can make it stop! I would love to hear the GT 8. I bet it's awsome. Where did ya get it from and how much did it cost?
I'm really think'n about gett'n one, maybe at income tax time next year.

BTW, does it have any record'n capabilties? Ya know just for like when your sitt'n around make'n up new riffs and stuff?

[lonewolf]

I forget where I got that thing! I think it was an eBay store, I'd have to look.

I was using Boss VF1's for about 5 years. The VF1 is roughly the rack equivalent of the GT-5. They do OK by themselves, but I mostly used them in the FX loop of one or another tube preamp and as the guitar preamp (direct to mixer) in my solo rack. I'd try different things, but I always ended up back to the "red box".

I had been waiting for the GT8/GTpro and was disappointed when the GTpro turned out to be 2 rack spaces and contained all kinds of external stuff that I didn't need for twice the price. SO...I got a GT-8.

Knowing the GT5/VF1's capabilities inside out, I can tell you that the GT8 is the GT5 with more amp models & FX, on steroids, X 2.

I tried it with a Boogie power amp and the tube modeling is so good that playing it thru more tubes is like smoking cigarettes while wearing a nicotine patch. I am running mine thru one 500W(4ohms) channel of a Peavey DPC1400 into two Mesa/Boogie 1-12" thieles. Sounds just like a Twin Reverb...my old 100W Marshall...that new 500lb. Mode Four thingie...a Triple Rectifier....on and on.

As for recording, it has a s/pdif output on it and great cab, amp and mic emulation.