| Ease Of Use |
The GT-5 offered many sounds and default patches that can you started right out of the box. Of course, being the type of unit that it is, everything is tweakable, and you can edit virtually every parameter. It is certainly doable as far as editing patches, however the single "wheel" navigation tool, and variety of buttons can make it a painful process. At least to me. In my opinion, when Boss moved to just using knobs (for the most part) as opposed to menus and submenus ad infinitum on later units, it was a vast improvement.
The instruction manual left out many important details that I had to learn from user forums and other internet resources. The lack of important details, as well as the often bad english translation made the manual kind of difficult.
|
| Sound |
My standard complaint on multi effect units are phase and flange, this Boss unit is no different. I didn't like them, they did not sound as natural as I like.
The amp models (some) are quite good and will certainly do passable simulations of some great amps. One thing the boss units do that some others don't is provide cabinet models, with the ability to edit where the simulated microphone is placed even. Very detailed editing abilities.
All of the other effects were pretty good, and offer sounds close to the real-life Boss equivalent effect. Chorus, delay, reverb, compressor, acoustic sim, wah, volume, etc... are just some of the effects available.
The GT-5 has a couple of unique features you don't find on some other units like these as well. For one, the integrated power supply, no wall-wart necessary. An "external effect" in loop, which allows you to insert a pedal or whatever you want, into the signal chain.
All the usual banks/patches, with plenty of user preset storage, clear LED screen, volume/wah/expression pedal with the ability to assign the expression pedal to whatever parameter of an effect you want. For example, say less delay with the pedal in its lowest position, and full delay at it's highest, or anything else your creativity might come up with.
I also owned a GT-3 at one point (which oddly enough was released after the GT-5), and found the GT-5 to sound much better than the 3. Some people consider the GT-5 to be the first, and best one Boss made. I would disagree, and say that some of the newer units (GT-8 and beyond) offer all of the best of the 5, and much more.
This unit would be fantastic for a small recording setup, or for small gigs where you would just plug directly into the board.
They can be had for quite cheap nowadays on the used market, if you can find one.
|
| Reliability |
Like anything made by Boss, it always just worked. No issues there at all. I would never worry too much about gigging with one.
|
| Customer Support |
No need for support.
|
| Liked about it |
Pretty much every effect Boss makes, as well as some very nice amp models/speaker cab simulations. Plenty of user storage. Extremely versatile.
|
| Didn't like |
It is a difficult unit to dial in and the manual isn't super good with explaining all the ins and outs.
|
|
| Overall satisfaction: |
|
3.0 |
By blackspy Jul 08, 2010
Last updated: July 15, 2010
Was this review helpful to you?
Report this review
|
