Boss GT-1

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B
oss’s fl agship GT series
has been around long
enough it’s almost part
of the furniture, but the
brand new GT-1 marks a
dinky departure. Featuring a sound
engine derived from the bigger,
premium-priced GT-100, the GT-1
contains 99 preset and 99 user
patches each built from a chain of
blocks that can draw from 108
eff ects, including 27 amp/speaker
sims and a 32-second looper.
Four AA batteries will give you
seven hours of playing (or you can
plug it in, of course) and its been
designed with no sharp edges so it
can slip into a gigbag pocket with
ease – although this means that it
has a plastic base, which inspires
less gigging confi dence than the
rugged metal top surface.
The fi rst two footswitches scroll
through patches, while the third
(CTL1) footswitch is used to turn
an eff ect, or a combination of
eff ects, on and off in a patch, or for
tap tempo. The treadle handles
volume and wah, but also other
parameters, including Whammy-
style pitch bends. For additional
control, you can also fork out for
up to two extra footswitches, or
another expression pedal.
There are useful facilities to get
you started: Easy Select allows you
to choose your patches by genre,
distortion, or eff ect type, while the
Easy Edit facility lets you quickly
tweak Tone, Vibes and Echo. These
are assigned to three soft knobs
that, in conjunction with dedicated
buttons for each block, take care of
deeper (but still easy) editing
tasks. Easiest of all is to connect a
computer and use the free Boss
Tone Studio software, with its
brilliant graphic display.
Sonically, there’s some great
stuff here. Many of the presets are
playable straight off the bat, but
the wide range of eff ects means
that you can get really creative
with your own patches. As you’d
expect from Boss, the modulation
eff ects are a highlight, as well as
the delays and reverbs, particularly
the Tera Echo. We’ve heard better
pitch-shifting though…
While the COSM amp sims will
give you an approximation of the
real thing for recording, at this
price, you don’t get th e playability
and detail of high-end modelers.
Likewise, the overdrives and
distortions work really well when
building a patch but, used as solo
eff ects, have less of the impact of
real analogue pedals. The acoustic
guitar simulator is class, though.
For live use, the GT-1 doesn’t
have the fl exibility of bigger units
where you can switch individual
eff ects, although you could get
by in a live situation with careful
sequential use of your own patches
and the CTL1 button. It is without
doubt, though, a great-value
portable practice tool.
Trevor Curwen
BOSS GT-1 £169
Boss’s GT-series multi-effects units get a mini-me
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FOOTSWITCHES
Besides patch
selection and
parameter control,
hitting two of those
at once can call up the
tuner or looper. The
CTL1 knob controls
all looper functions
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EFFECTS
BUTTONS
These turn the
effects blocks in a
patch on and off,
lighting up red if the
effect is active. They
can also select a
block for editing
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TREADLE
You can assign
various functions to
the treadle. Pressing
down on its toe will
bring in the assigned
pedal effect and
light the red LED
TYPE:
Multi-effects pedal
CONTROLS: Soft knobs
(1, 2, 3), 12x buttons,
3x footswitches,
pedal treadle
SOCKETS: Standard
input, standard
outputs L(mono)/R,
mini-jack aux input,
mini-jack phones
output, CTL/EXP
socket, USB
BYPASS: Buffered
POWER: 4x Alkaline
battery (AA, LR6), 9V
adaptor (not supplied)
CONTAC T: Roland UK
01792 702701
www.roland.co.uk
AT A GLANCE
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
PLAYABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
MANY PRESETS ARE PLAYABLE
STRAIGHT OFF THE BAT
£169
DECEMBER 2016 TOTAL GUITAR
REVIEW
95
TGR287.gear_boss.indd 95 01/11/2016 21:54