NEW Mesa setup - need YOUR feedback on GT8 FX setup

[reags]

GDay all!

Just got my new setup comsisting of a Dual Rectifier Head + 4x12 Traditional Straight Cab.

You all seem like top blokes and I need all of your expertise and opinions.

I have a Boss GT8 in which I've set up all my tones as 'cleans' (including wahs, phaser, etc.) and I wish to switch any of my settings to distortion by simply tapping the Mesa footswitch to CH2 or 3. How would you guys recommend I set up this chain?

I've tried the following -

guitar > GT8 > Mesa Dual Rec. input

Sound = so so.

Question is: How do I actually take advantage of the 'FX' button on the footswitch so that the GT8 triggers only when the FX is pressed while it would otherwise bypass the GT8 altogether?

Basically what I want to happen is -

FX button on footswitch pressed = GT8 on and I can select from either CH1,2 or 3 on footswitch to select between Mesa's distortion overlayed with the GT8 clean FX.
Otherwise if the FX is off, I'd simply like the GT8 bypassed and just use Mesa's CH1-3 tones

Another query - when turning off the Mesa or any head, what's the best way to do so? switch the 'Standby' to off and let it sit for a minute before switching it all off or?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

Reagan

 

[Storm]

Have you tried to wire the GT8 using a four wire connection method for better sound? Unfortunately you won't be able to use the FX switch the way you want but you can set up a bypass sort of patch and have other patches with the FX you want. I have a GT8 and I have set it up like this and it works great, mind you I'm not using a Mesa ... yet! :twisted: Doing a four wire method you need the FX loop in series so I guess that means you'd have to use the Mesa's parallel FX loop with the mix on 100%, does that sound right? For more info have a look at Boss GT Central for all the tricks on this unit if you haven't already done so.
http://www.bossgtcentral.com

Ciao ...

 

[reags]

heya storm,

cheers for the quick reply.

nup havent tried any other connection as yet will have to look into it.

so basically you're running your setup similar to mine at the moment with the exception of a 4-wire & non Mesa?

ie. guitar > GT8 > Mesa Dual Rec. input ?

Thanks again!

 

[Storm]

No worries. The way mine is set up is GUITAR > GT8 INPUT > GT8 SEND > AMP INPUT > AMP SEND > GT8 RETURN > GT8 MONO OUT > AMP RETURN. 'Loop' setting on the GT8 is on and there you go. It splits your amp in half so you can actually use your pre-amp and power-amp anywhere in the FX chain and in any order. How cool is that?

Ciao ...

 

[reags]

ah yes very interesting!

gets a lil complicated here as I run an ABY box as well which works out to be a heck alot of cables when I choose the send/return option. whats the difference between sending the signal out from the GT8 via mono rather than stereo?

also, any idea what the proper/safe way to shut down/turn off a head? wondering if im supposed to turn standby off for about a minute before turning the power off....

cheers again

 

[Storm]

If you are using a normal guitar amp setup you use the mono output. The stereo output is for stereo active PA speakers or where you have two guitar stacks so you can have stereo. Stereo can make for some interesting results with delays and other time based FX as you can have the after effects (ie. echo, etc.) shift from one stack to the other. Also if you have two stacks you have the potential to be louder, which is generally not needed these days as they mic the amp(s) to the venue's PA anyway.
As far as shutting down the amp I would have thought that switching it into standby before switching off is the way to go but I could be wrong. I do know that it is a good idea to let the tubes cool before transporting the head around though.

Ciao ...

 

[reags]

Thanks again Storm.

The weird thing with Mesa's Standby is that they recommend you turn the power on for at least 30secs to warm up before the Standby is switched on (!?) - fair enough, but what exactly does that translate to when the standby switch is supposed to be left on during the entire time you play?
It's kinda strange - standby = playing mode. so....switching off = standby off or just leave it on....hmm...

Storm, what's the quick way to assign a complete bypass of the GT8 pedal to one of the four footswitch channels?

 

[musicbox]

in this order!!

start- amp is off, no voltage in amp
standyby = off
ac mains = off

warm up- power is on, jewel light is illuminated, low voltage to tubes, no sound from speakers
standby = off
ac mains = on

play time- power is on, full voltage, jewel light is illuminated, loudness
standby = on
ac mains = on

turning off- power is off, voltage removed, stored voltage drains from amp, sound slowly fades away even after jewel light is off
standby = on
ac mains = off

after sound has disapated from speakers-no sound, no voltage. amp is off and safe
standby = off
ac mains = off

this ensures all the voltage has left the caps. this is only a big deal if your going to be mucking about inside the amp, but im sure its better on the amp not to have excess voltage being stored up inside

ah, and before anyone tears me a new *******, there still may be voltage stored in the cap's, so dont muck around if you don't know what your doing!

 

[reags]

hey musicbox!

thanks for the comprehensive info - makes sense now!!! before I was simply switching the standby back to off, waiting a minute or so, then switching the mains off.

Thanks again!

 

[musicbox]

enjoy. :twisted:

 

[Storm]

Storm, what's the quick way to assign a complete bypass of the GT8 pedal to one of the four footswitch channels?

Make sure everything on the GT8 is off and just have the loop mode on. This is basically a bypass mode of the GT8 as you are just using the amp and not FX of any sort. The GT8 will be what you use instead of the footswitch as you can't assign anything on the GT8 to the Mesa's footswitch. The GT8 can switch channels on amps using a 1/4" jack or via MIDI. I hope this helps.

Ciao ...

 

[reags]

hey storm,

I just visited my local music store & Marcus (hillsong guitarist) gave me a hand and drew me up a graph - it's sorta worked out now - as in I ran the FX seperately from the Mesa's send/return loop to the pedal while the T5 went directly into the Mesa's input jack. Now the FX button on the footswitch actually works and allows me to switch the GT8 on/off at will (you probably already knew this so its just lack of knowledge on my part).

New problem - some of the effects, especially the wahs sound really wet/hot/feedbacky - I've tried turning down the wetness on the Mesa/etc. but to no avail as yet - this is driving me insane! :shock:

 

[reags]

Alrighty I wonder if anyone has any idea on how to resolve my latest issue.

I just retried the 4 cable setup and it was fine - the wahs and fx worked correctly AND on my Mesa footswitch the 'FX' button works in switching on and off the GT8. The problem is, when I switch the FX to off, nothing else happens - all channels 1-3 don't work - it's somehow bypassing everything altogether and no sound is being produced.

Any idea on what to do anyone?

thanks again

 

[Sanchez]

Reags,

I can't help you with that perticular setup. To me is sounds way too complicated and would rather have a G-major or the like in the loop.

What did you pay for the GT-8 anyway?

The Hillsong band once came to Canberra and I went to see them. It was awesome. When things start to settle down at home I am going to concentrate on writing playing Christian Prog Rock like Pillar. It's something I have wanted to do since seeing Hill Song and The planetshakers.

 

[Storm]

I wish I had a Mesa to test this out as the four cable systems seems a little bit different on my Marshall. I'll have to have a good think why turning the FX loop of the amp off would kill the channels on the amp. What sound are you left with when this happens?

Ciao ...

 

[reags]

Hey all,

Thanks for the feedback so far. I've drawn up a diagram with pros & cons to show what each of the setup has produced.

I guess for now, the closest thing to usable is the 3rd 'straight in' diagram where GUITAR > GT8 > MESA input

As for the volume issue all I could do was adjust the 3 channels on the mesa according to the loudest it ever hits when I change channels then turning it down to something usable.

Sanchez - awesome a fellow aussie! I haven't actually seen any G-major's around Sydney so I'd have no idea what it's like - does it have a wah built in? Hey all the power to you and good luck with songwriting (I've tried, just cant seem to get it right)!

Storm - thanks for your continual help its most appreciated. To answer your question, from the 4 cable setup (2nd diagram), somehow only the GT8 fx works so if I wish to overlay any of my fx with some Mesa distortion it doesnt work, only the GT8 sounds though. When I switch the FX button off on the Mesa footswitch, no sound is produced at all (!?) - just silence as though everything has been bypassed.

Any further help from what I've posted in the diagrams would be unreal - thanks again all!

 

[Storm]

Hey Reags - I'm an aussie too mate! LOL. Anyway, back to the problem at hand. With the four cable method I noticed that for the cons you wrote that you don't have the Mesa's tone or distortion. That is the whole point of four cable so you can use your amp's tone to the fullest. If you have the loop mode activated on the GT8 then it is using your amps distortion. You must have that off or something not to hear the amp's tone. Like I said before, have a gander at www.bossgtcentral.com for a lots of info on the Boss GT units. I use four wire and I get the amps distortion and all the controls on the amp work too.

Ciao ...

 

[reags]

Storm! aussie! hahaha small world - where abouts are ya?

Yep I just re-read a few of your replies and I'll have to double check the loop mode right after dinner.
yea i just posted on the bossgtcentral forums too and i came across your nick...you're a mod there?!

Thanks again I'll give it a go with loop and see what happens - with the loop mode, do i need to assign it to each fx or is it once for all? also do you loop in normal or direct mix or branch out?

 

[reags]

Storm,

Just tried it with the loop on - I think it works now!

However there's a few more little bugs/queries which I wonder if you'd know how to deal with -

1) Which LOOP mode do you use? (normal, direct mix or branch out)

2) When I add LOOP to 'CLEAN UNI-V' and 'TREMELO CRUNCH', it sounds really bad/feedbacky as though I'd set up the GT8 via the 'FX LOOP method'

3) Alot of the FX that I use and have since assigned LOOP to have COMPRESSOR switched on - would you recommend I turn this off?

4) This is the hillarious one - now when I press the FX button on the Mesa footswitch, it doesn't switch anything off - it just continues as normal ie. I don't need the FX button to get the GT8 working! So this means I can't bypass the GT8 and just use the Mesa channels when needed

5) I've made a BYPASS GT8 patch as a result but I'm not 100% sure if I did it right. I've switched everything off in this patch and the only lights that are on are LOOP, CHANNEL B, MASTER and CTL/EXP - is this correct?

6) Just thought about this 4 cable setup - now it appears identical to my 'straight in' method except this uses 2 extra cables (!?)

Thanks so much mate, you must be gettin tired of this as much as I am

 

[Storm]

Hey there... I'm from Victoria! The main thing you have to remember with this four wire thing is that when the loop is on your amp's pre-amp is being used. If you don't want a compressor then get rid of it as that isn't part of the loop function. I use the 'normal' loop mode on the GT8. If anything sounds funny you might have to play around with your FX chain on the GT8. This is how mine is set up;

GUITAR -> WAH -> LP (loop) -> CS -> PRE (pre-amp) -> NS (noise supressor) -> FV (foot volume) -> OD (overdrive) -> CE -> RV (reverb) -> EQ (equaliser) -> DD (digital delay) -> FX1 -> FX2 -> DGT (digital out) -> SPEAKER.

This is how the FX chain should look and the upper case items are things that are on at the time and lower case items are things that are turned off at the time. You have to keep in mind that the LP (loop) is the Mesa's pre-amp while PRE is the GT8's onboard pre-amps. You want to mess with the loop. I use Boss GT Central now and again but I'm not a mod. I'm easy to find there because I use the same sig. Oh and your fifth question, yep everythging seems right, you'll always have a few lights on the board just to add confusion to an already confusing situation. Good luck mate!! Let me know how things go.

Ciao ...