Mark V and the RJM Mini Amp Gizmo

[Supreeth]

Hey Everyone,

I got a RJM mini amp gizmo a couple of days back with a standard adapter cable (The Mark V cable will be arriving next week according to them) and I can now control the Mark V switching using MIDI PC messages from my Boss GT-10 using the 4CM. I haven't used the Mark V footswitch (It's back in it's little black bag) in 3 days as the RJM works like a dream. The best part is that the mini amp gizmo is so small; it fits right alongside the Mark V on my cabinet! The one issue I've seen so far is that the light on switch 1 remains active at all times. So I don't use that at all and the cable that uses signals from this switch is not connected to any external switching jack. Other than that this little thing is great! I wish I could footswitch between channel modes but that's another story...

Is anyone else using a MIDI switcher to change channels on the Mark V? If so I'd love to hear your experiences.

Thanks!
Supreeth

 

[Mark Fore]

Hey man... nice work on the mini amp gizmo. I have been thinking about doing that so I can run the V with my G-Force. Since I don't need an OD pedal with the V, the gizmo will work fine (as opposed to the RG-16 with the loop function to switch out pedals, etc.). I'm glad to hear that it works well.

Got a picture of the new rig?

 

[JohnDNJ]

Tell Ron about that light being on all the time..it's probably because you don't have the exact cable for it yet.


Ron and RJM are one of..if not THE best customer service oriented company's in the business. If you need any
sort of switching system or amp\effects controller, mixer etc...you can not go wrong with his stuff. A total
class act in every sense of the word.

 

[Supreeth]

Thanks guys.

JohnDNJ: I'm sure the issue will go away once I get the custom Mark V cable like you say but I will definitely contact Ron about the light that always stays on. I've exchanged mails with him before and he's always been a pleasure to deal with. Class act as you say!

Mark Fore: I don't use an OD pedal with the Mark V too but I have the option of using one of the modeled OD pedals in the GT-10 should I *ever* need a boost. I used an OD model on the clean channel of the Mark V to get a solo tone similar to what Chris DeGarmo uses on Queensryche's "Out of Mind" and it worked like a Charm The possibilities with this rig are endless, and there is no tone suck as long as you have an approximation of unity gain between every single effect in the chain within the GT-10! I thought about the RG-16 and also the Amp Gizmo itself but settled on the mini since it was so easy to use and took up so little space! I will take a pic of the new rig and post it when I get home.

Thanks,
Supreeth

 

[Mark Fore]

Could the cause of the light being on be caused by the knob not having an "ext jack" setting and Ch 1 always being the default channel? Just a guess.

 

[Supreeth]

Could the cause of the light being on be caused by the knob not having an "ext jack" setting and Ch 1 always being the default channel? Just a guess.

That could well be the case. When I get home in about an hour's time I'm going to disconnect the Mini Amp Gizmo from the Mark V and see if the light stays on even if it is not connected to an amp. That way I can observe if any dependencies on the MKV causes the issue or if it is an Amp Gizmo issue. I have emailed Ron at RJM about this and am waiting for his reply.

cheers,
Supreeth

 

[Supreeth]

Here's some pics of the RJM Mini Amp Gizmo in low res. I'll take hi res pics later on. It's amazing how small this thing is!

 

[Mark Fore]

Nice pics man. Thanks for posting. Even though I have a Mark V head, I still like looking at other rigs :shock:

 

[Supreeth]

Nice pics man. Thanks for posting. Even though I have a Mark V head, I still like looking at other rigs :shock:

Thanks man. I saw pics of your rig in other posts too. Very sweet indeed!

I contacted Ron from RJM and he thought the switch 1 always staying on may be an issue with the gizmo itself (very early production units had this issue). He asked me to try a couple of things and if they did not work that he'll be glad to send me a replacement. Very very nice person to deal with. Class act!

cheers,
Supreeth

 

[Lucass]

Hi, i know this isn't the area for rectifiers but i am planning to buy a mini amp gizmo in combination with my dual rectifier and my boss gt8 and i wondered if you are happy with it. Is it also possible to select the "solo" function with the Mini amp gizmo?

And what is the blue device onder your mini amp gizmo?

Grts Lucas

 

[Supreeth]

Hi, i know this isn't the area for rectifiers but i am planning to buy a mini amp gizmo in combination with my dual rectifier and my boss gt8 and i wondered if you are happy with it. Is it also possible to select the "solo" function with the Mini amp gizmo?

And what is the blue device onder your mini amp gizmo?

Grts Lucas

I'm very happy with the RJM when I use it with my GT-10. I haven't used it with the GT-8 but it shouldn't be any different from the 10 since the MIDI implementation is the same. In order to use the gizmo to fully control all the switchable features of your amp you should get the custom cable for the Dual/Triple Rectfier/Roadster/RoadKing. You should be able to select the solo function using this.

The blue box below my mini gizmo is a Radial J-48 active direct box. I use it for direct recording into my Line6 Toneport (Mark V slave out (with a dummy load at the speaker out)->DI box->Toneport cab sim->PC). I also use it for recording my acoustic electric direct into the PC.

cheers,
Supreeth

 

[Lucass]

allright, thanks a lot
Now i'm gonna look for a place to buy the mini amp gizmo, since i live in Belgium and they don't sell it here i'm gonna start searching in Germany and the Netherlands.

Grts Lucas

 

[LPJunky]

The minigizmo looks great. From what I read from their customer service they also seems like a dedicated bunch.

The blue box below my mini gizmo is a Radial J-48 active direct box. I use it for direct recording into my Line6 Toneport (Mark V slave out (with a dummy load at the speaker out)->DI box->Toneport cab sim->PC). I also use it for recording my acoustic electric direct into the PC.

cheers,
Supreeth

You bring up something there. You mentioned that you use the slave signal to feed you DI. Are you disconnecting the speakers and replacing it with a dummy load for silent recording? What do you use as a dummy load? I have been using the MUTE output for silent recording and since it comes from the preamp its not like the SLAVE that is supposed to come from the speaker's signal.

As for the fizz from the signal without speaker sims (of course that's normal) I tried the GT-10 speaker sims but I was not happy with it. I am now using the berhinger UltraDI which simulates a 4x12 but that is not exactly stellar. Not quite what I'm looking for. Is the Toneport really good at cab simulation?

 

[Supreeth]

The minigizmo looks great. From what I read from their customer service they also seems like a dedicated bunch.

Yes, Ron is great to work with, and the best part is that he is a guitarist himself and designs his products keeping the playing guitarist in mind!

You bring up something there. You mentioned that you use the slave signal to feed you DI. Are you disconnecting the speakers and replacing it with a dummy load for silent recording? What do you use as a dummy load? I have been using the MUTE output for silent recording and since it comes from the preamp its not like the SLAVE that is supposed to come from the speaker's signal.

As for the fizz from the signal without speaker sims (of course that's normal) I tried the GT-10 speaker sims but I was not happy with it. I am now using the berhinger UltraDI which simulates a 4x12 but that is not exactly stellar. Not quite what I'm looking for. Is the Toneport really good at cab simulation?

Yes, I connect the speaker outs to a Groove Tube SE-II emulator for providing the dummy load. I can use the SE-II to emulate a Marshall 4x12 but I have never got it to sound good. So I just use it as a dummy load. The SLAVE out is indeed the speaker signal at line level. The Line6 has decent cab sims and is perfect for recording late at night. I think the best cab sims out there are the Peavey revalver(?) and the stuff on recabi.net to use impulse responses. I was thinking of going the IR way and will be experimenting this weekend!!

cheers,
Supreeth

 

[LPJunky]

The minigizmo looks great. From what I read from their customer service they also seems like a dedicated bunch.

Yes, Ron is great to work with, and the best part is that he is a guitarist himself and designs his products keeping the playing guitarist in mind!

You bring up something there. You mentioned that you use the slave signal to feed you DI. Are you disconnecting the speakers and replacing it with a dummy load for silent recording? What do you use as a dummy load? I have been using the MUTE output for silent recording and since it comes from the preamp its not like the SLAVE that is supposed to come from the speaker's signal.

As for the fizz from the signal without speaker sims (of course that's normal) I tried the GT-10 speaker sims but I was not happy with it. I am now using the berhinger UltraDI which simulates a 4x12 but that is not exactly stellar. Not quite what I'm looking for. Is the Toneport really good at cab simulation?

Yes, I connect the speaker outs to a Groove Tube SE-II emulator for providing the dummy load. I can use the SE-II to emulate a Marshall 4x12 but I have never got it to sound good. So I just use it as a dummy load. The SLAVE out is indeed the speaker signal at line level. The Line6 has decent cab sims and is perfect for recording late at night. I think the best cab sims out there are the Peavey revalver(?) and the stuff on recabi.net to use impulse responses. I was thinking of going the IR way and will be experimenting this weekend!!

cheers,
Supreeth

If recabi.net turns out OK it would be a steal compare to the groove tube SE. Let us know the outcome.

Thanks

 

[Supreeth]

If recabi.net turns out OK it would be a steal compare to the groove tube SE. Let us know the outcome.

Thanks

Heck yeah. I can just get a simple load box for the dummy load then The recabi.net is just $69 compared to the list price of the groove tube which is $999 :shock: :shock: I was lucky and got my groove tube SE at almost 25% of that a couple of years back.

cheers,
Supreeth

 

[jdurso]

Tell Ron about that light being on all the time..it's probably because you don't have the exact cable for it yet.


Ron and RJM are one of..if not THE best customer service oriented company's in the business. If you need any
sort of switching system or amp\effects controller, mixer etc...you can not go wrong with his stuff. A total
class act in every sense of the word.

+1

I orginally recieved my RG-16 with a few weird clitches that happened every so often. i emailed Ron and he sent me a new one out ASAP along with a link to a shipping bar code so i could ship him back the faulty one. No questions asked.... made sure i didnt have to pay a dime for the return cost and made sure in the end i was happier than happy. Truly a class act with a great set of products.

 

[ned]

I just wanted to say thanks for supporting one of the Boogie Boards advertisers.

 

[jdurso]

I just wanted to say thanks for supporting one of the Boogie Boards advertisers.

The thanks should go to Ron for making such a great product at a great price and having the highest level of customer support.

 

[WillPlayForFood]

Congrats on your success Supreeth!!

I spent some time this Saturday with the Mark V and my midi foot controller. I had been using a Rockman Midi Octopus with my Mark IV for years and never had any problems. So, I tried it on the Mark V, and viola, midi switching is here :mrgreen:

I am using the Axe FX for effects and with the 4 cable method I get the similar response as Supreeth gets from his GT10. I get effects in front of the preamp and after. Pretty sweet set-up. I will try it out a rehearsal on Monday evening. I'll get back after I put it through some real world, band experience.

If I ever need another midi switching device I am sure to go with RJM products, I have heard so many great things!!!

Rawk