BOSS
138 Guitarist August 2012
PHOTO GRAPHY BY JOBY SES S I ONS
BOSS GT-100 £470
EFFECTS
BOSS GT-100
£470
The latest GT series unit offers increased DSP power,
new features and improved ease of use by Trevor Curwen
T
he GT series has been the
flagship guitar processor
in the BOSS product line
for some time now and gets a
serious revamp every few years
with a new model. The latest is
the GT-100 – the successor to
the four-year-old GT-10. This
time around BOSS is using a
new DSP (digital signal
processing) engine and has
completely remodelled all of the
COSM amps for the GT-100.
The effects have been updated
with enhanced real-time
control options including the
all-new ACCEL pedal, which
can adjust multiple effects
parameters in real time. Ease of
use is another area BOSS has
addressed with gusto – there’s a
completely redesigned user
interface for this new model,
featuring, for the first time,
dual displays with associated
knobs for quick parameter
adjustment.
The GT-100 is a multi-effects
processor with 400 patches
onboard, 200 of which are
factory presets, with the rest
available to save your own
creations. Patches are stored
four to a bank and all are
constructed from a chain of
effects blocks that can be placed
in any order. The blocks include
compressor, overdrive/
distortion, preamp (amp
simulation), EQ, FX1 and FX2
(both can host a variety of
effects types), delay, chorus,
reverb and expression pedal
FX. You can also connect your
external effects to the GT-100’s
send and return loop for extra
flexibility and include the loop’s
assignment as part of a patch.
Each patch can have two
channels, each with different
amps and effects assigned.
These can be combined or you
can switch between them with
a footswitch or automatically
via the notes you choose to play
and how hard you play them; a
feature called A/B Channel
Divide divides the signal not
only by dynamics, but by
frequency as well.
In addition to the sound
creation and control features,
the GT-100 sports a looper with
38 seconds of mono looping
(19 seconds in stereo) and can
function as an audio interface
to your computer that can be
used for recording dry or
effected guitar from the GT-100,
or sending previously recorded
dry sounds to it for reamping.
The slick black GT-100 is
made of solid metal and sits
squarely on the f loor/stage on
four robust rubber feet. Eight
footswitches and a treadle
control the action. Two upper
footswitches select the patches,
The Rivals
There’s a choice of several
patch-based multi-effects
processors that allow access
to individual effects
switching. DigiTech’s
RP1000 (£429) offers 200
memories (100 user/100
preset) and a pedalboard
mode to use five footswitches
to turn stompboxes and
effects on and off within a
program. The Line 6 POD
HD500 (£429) features 512
memories and up to eight
simultaneous effects that
can be individually turned on
and off. Zoom’s G5 (£259),
with five footswitches and
treadle has 297 onboard
patches featuring up to nine
effects with instant individual
switching for four of them
plus a switchable valve boost.
one scrolling up the list, the
other down, while the first
four of the lower bank of
footswitches select the patches
within the bank. The fifth
footswitch operates the looper
while the sixth is the previously
mentioned ACCEL switch.
While you could simply
operate the GT-100 by changing
patches at appropriate points in
each song, there’s an alternative
manual mode, entered by
pressing both bank switches
simultaneously. In this mode
the GT-100 can function just
like a conventional pedalboard
with the switches being
The manual mode allows you to operate the unit like a conventional pedalboard
GIT357.rev_boss.indd 138 6/12/12 2:55 PM