Digitech gsp1101 - Mark III 4-cable

[daveg62]

Hey , just wanted to give some props to the gsp1101 and Control2 foot-control. Bought this to replace the axe-fx and rocktron midi-mate I was using with my Mark III. I gotta say I am very pleased with this in 4-cable hook-up. The control2 is awesome, much better than the hassle of programming the midi-mate to work with the axe-fx. Sure the axe-fx is a level above the gsp1101 but for what I need it was overkill and kind of a distraction to be honest.
I always felt like I had an endless amount of tones with the axe-fx but never could stick with one long enough to make it "my sound". Great, great unit don't get me wrong but sometimes simpler can be more productive and the better choice. I really feel like I needed to get rid of the axe-fx to help my playing...sounds odd I know.
With the gsp1101, I pretty much use the Mark III's lead channel, and I've found a couple great clean and crunch sounds within the unit so I can now stop tweakin around so much and just play.... Did I say how much I'm enjoying the foot-controller?
Sure the effects aren't quite as elaborate as the axe-fx, but what's there sounds fantastic.
Did I say how well the foot-controller works??
And not only does it work well with the amp, it also has xlr line outs to send to the board and user load-able cab IR's. Lot's of nice features with this unit, wish I would have found it sooner!

 

[zodiac272]

that's cool, you don't have any issues with the FX loop as far as signal loss or anything like that. sometimes the older fx loops aren't the greatest

scott

 

[daveg62]

No, it works very well. It actually works much better than the axe-fx did , as far as 4-cable for my amp . For some reason I had to set the levels really weird with the axe-fx, never seemed right. There is no noise at all and the unit acts like a master volume also so I can crank the amp a little more than normal if I want and adjust output volume right on the front of the digitech. If your looking for an effects unit and floorboard combo, with some decent amp and cab sims to boot, this unit is worth a look. Like I said the axe-fx is an awesome piece of gear but also 4x the price of this if you want the fractal floorboard. I love how the digitech just works with no fuss. The editing software isn't spectacular but again it works great and the floorboard and rack unit respond instantly to changes, unlike the axe-fx which always seemed like a hassle to make changes and upload patches, then re-program the midi controller to match. Another thing I really like is the floorboard uses a cat5 cable. Also, it takes firmware upgrades which can be found online.
I'm really having a blast with this unit and now saving for a new amp instead of even considering axe-fx II. For me I think this is all I want out of digital modeling for now until prices go way down and technology improves. So once the royal atlantic comes out I will be taking a hard look at one and also considering a fuchs ods or ceriatone ots.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

I just ordered the gsp1101 and control 2 to use with my DC-3 via 4CM as well as with a power amp and EVM L12 Thiele. Looking forward to getting it the end of this week.

 

[daveg62]

If you need any help let me know, I'm just learning the unit myself but might be able to help with easy stuff
Go here for the firmware updates, you want C63
http://www.mustbebeta.com/
site is not official digitech but run by digitech engineers who update the firmware so it is legit. There's a forum there also.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

I'm buying this unit slightly used and the previous owner said he had that version loaded up. I went ahead and downloaded the free redwirez impulse to experiment with since I hear such good things about their cabinet impulses. No doubt I'll have questions and will take you up on your offer.

I've been going back and forth trying to decide if I should get the Axe FX II or Royal Atlantic when it comes but and have pretty much concluded that the Axe would probably consume too much of my time and be more expensive than the RA once you add in a quality controller for it. Maybe one day but I like things a little simpler.

 

[ryjan]

My brother just got this setup on my recommendation. He's running the 4cm on his Peavey Ultra and it sounds really good.

 

[daveg62]

I was just using, going through some of the free redwirez last night as a matter of fact. They do sound better than most of the one's in the digitech, but not all are useless. It's nice because I think you can load 10 user cabs in the digitech. It's also nice that you can use the signal without cab sims going to your amp and also run the xlr's out to a frfr setup or pa system and use the cab sims at the same time. I've got a HUGE sound going on right now in my studio between the amp and the signal running through the board to my monitors. Also makes things really easy for recording.
Sounds like we are exactly in the same boat as far as the axe-fx goes. It's a lot of money that for me can be used on other things such as guitars and amps. After using the axe-fx for over a year, for me personally I feel it's counter-productive and too time consuming. It's kinda like having 50 amps in a room and always thinking one sounds better than the other. Honestly they all do sound very good in the axe-fx and that can be a problem, at least for me anyway.

 

[ryjan]

That's exactly why I traded my AXF in. :lol: It was impossible to zero in on one amp and setup. I also found that I spent most of my time tweaking to get that "real" amp sound.

 

[Freefall]

That's exactly why I traded my AXF in. :lol: It was impossible to zero in on one amp and setup. I also found that I spent most of my time tweaking to get that "real" amp sound.

Hey ryjan, welcome back to the fold. I read some of your posts about the Axe-Fx, and it was interesting to read about your experience with it.

I use a few effects in front of my IIC+, so I've toyed with the idea of going 4CM, maybe with a GSP1101, G System, or AxeFx. Every time I've tried a processor between my guitar and amp, I just feel like there's a wall between my guitar and the preamp, and the amp doesn't have the same feel/tone. Setting signal levels seems to be a pain in these units, and unless you get it just right so that the guitar signal hits the front end of the amp exactly like it does without the processor, the feel really changes because the preamp is so sensitive to the guitar signal level. The AxeFx II is supposed to solve this problem with it's new "unity gain" feature, but at $2200 it's overkill for me because I want fx only.

The GSP1101 sounds like a reasonable choice at the price. To the OP: is it easy to set the signal levels? Do you feel the same "connection" between your guitar and the front of the amp?

 

[daveg62]

To the OP: is it easy to set the signal levels? Do you feel the same "connection" between your guitar and the front of the amp?

Well I can't speak about the axe-fx II, but the Axe-fx Standard I had did not work nearly as well as the gsp1101 does with the 4-cable. Honestly I can't tell the difference if it is there or not. It is very quiet and clear, no hum or buzz either. The levels just seemed to be right, all I had to do was adjust the volume pot on the front of the Digitech and it's at about 10:00 right now and seems to be about unity with what the amp would be putting out, so I can use that knob almost as a master volume to lower or raise the volume, seems to work great. I haven't used it at higher volumes yet though, so that might be a little different but I'm thinking probably not.