ROADSTER FOOTSWITCH ISSUES

[MiSeRY]

I picked up a Roadster combo over the weekend and am in love with it. There's just a couple things that I really don't care for, one of which is the footswitch. With the style of music that I play being very dynamic with a lot of tight stops and starts etc., I hate that millisecond delay when switching channels...especially from clean to distorted or vice versa. Has anyone found a way around this, other than actually altering your music? This sucks!!

 

[TheBlackman]

Are you just wanting distorted to silence and back? If so, you could just use a tuner pedal in the signal path to do quick mutes without having to change channels. I don't find the delay to be too noticable especially in a live situation. Of course you could be wanting distorted to clean and back quickly.

 

[vertigo_]

or you can also use a volume pedal with a minimum volume setting and use that.

 

[MiSeRY]

yeah, our music has a lot of switching from distorted to clean on the fly without a stop in between. when doing this on the Roadster, there is a definite delay between the two channels that was not there on my Dual Rec, where the sound of the guitar cuts out for a millisecond.

 

[jdurso]

yeah, our music has a lot of switching from distorted to clean on the fly without a stop in between. when doing this on the Roadster, there is a definite delay between the two channels that was not there on my Dual Rec, where the sound of the guitar cuts out for a millisecond.

that is really the only thing that pisses me off about the roadster..... i never experienced that in all my other mesa amps.... but i discovered when i was using my amp gizmo (midi switcher) that the roadster switch a lot faster than using the footswitch.... i dont know why but it was noticible.... i'm assuming the grx4 would accomplish the same thing but the amp gizmo can switch everything on the roadster including reverb, fx loop, solo, and mute

 

[vitor gracie]

I too also just picked up a Roadster head and am completely blown away by it as well... and also noticed the same switching problem. Amp Gizmo is the solution huh? Ill have to try that....

I traded my TOV, Formula pre, and a guitar for the head.....smokin deal..

 

[songrider]

I dont notice any delay at all in my Roadster... only in the reverb, but it states in the manual it does that.

 

[MiSeRY]

yeah, our music has a lot of switching from distorted to clean on the fly without a stop in between. when doing this on the Roadster, there is a definite delay between the two channels that was not there on my Dual Rec, where the sound of the guitar cuts out for a millisecond.

that is really the only thing that pisses me off about the roadster..... i never experienced that in all my other mesa amps.... but i discovered when i was using my amp gizmo (midi switcher) that the roadster switch a lot faster than using the footswitch.... i dont know why but it was noticible.... i'm assuming the grx4 would accomplish the same thing but the amp gizmo can switch everything on the roadster including reverb, fx loop, solo, and mute

jdurso,

how does the amp gizmo work? i don't use any rackmount effects or MIDI...just stomp boxes. what is the amp gizmo for and how does it work? i looked it up but don't totally get it.

thanks

 

[jdurso]

yeah, our music has a lot of switching from distorted to clean on the fly without a stop in between. when doing this on the Roadster, there is a definite delay between the two channels that was not there on my Dual Rec, where the sound of the guitar cuts out for a millisecond.

that is really the only thing that pisses me off about the roadster..... i never experienced that in all my other mesa amps.... but i discovered when i was using my amp gizmo (midi switcher) that the roadster switch a lot faster than using the footswitch.... i dont know why but it was noticible.... i'm assuming the grx4 would accomplish the same thing but the amp gizmo can switch everything on the roadster including reverb, fx loop, solo, and mute

jdurso,

how does the amp gizmo work? i don't use any rackmount effects or MIDI...just stomp boxes. what is the amp gizmo for and how does it work? i looked it up but don't totally get it.

thanks

the amp gizmo is a small midi switching unit... basically you either use the channel switching jacks on the back of your amp or they also have special cables for the roadster (made by rjm) that plugs into the footswitch jack..... it lets you create patches such as say channel 1 with reverb and fx loop on and the solo engaged... and then you can make another patch thats just channel 3... and another thats channel 3 with reverb and solo... it also lets you talk to other midi capable units like a gmajor or other midi fx units..... so you can program your amp and an effect so you can go from just plain distortion to a distroted lead with delay and a solo boost... or from a clean sound with reverb to a clean pushed lead with chorus.... and it is so easy to use.... basically you hit the write button the amp gizmo... select the channel and funtion (solo, reverb, fx loop) you want and setup the fx unit with the patch you want and get your midi footswitch to the channel you wnat to save it to and hit write again and you ahve just written a patch

they also have the rg-16 which has all the functionality of the amp gizmo with 8 loops for pedals... it has a buffered input loop for od pedals in front of the amp and 7 other loops for other pedals.... good way to keep your tone pure when your using fx in the loop... ..... again fully programmable so it eliminates the tap dance and what i like most is that you can throw all your pedals in a rack drawer and just have a midi footswitch in front of the amp... you can house your head, pedals, fx units all in a rack.... makes everything a lot cleaner for setup and for gigging... check out their site..... i had the amp gizmo but sold it to fund an rg-16 (also i got an offer for more than i paid because for the last year they were sold out of amp gizmos because they were doing a slight redesign)

if your familair with the axess grx4 the amp gizmo is basically the same thing except it can controll 8 functions which works perfect for an amp like the roadster/RK because you have 4 channels and 4 functions (solo, reverb, fx loop, tuner mute).... i decided way abck when to try the amp gizmo because i'd need two gxr's rather than one amp gizmo... ended up being cheaper... if you go this route make sure you get the cable made for the roadster/RK.... instead of using 8 different cables from the amp gizmo to your switching jacks its just one cable from the amp gizmo to your amps speaker cable jack

http://www.rjmmusic.com/products.html

 

[MiSeRY]

thanks for the info j. i'll have to save up some cash for this, after spending all my duckets on the Roadster!!

 

[jdurso]

thanks for the info j. i'll have to save up some cash for this, after spending all my duckets on the Roadster!!

the rg-16 is a bargain for $600.... compared to the other switchers with that much functionality your going to pay almost double that