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TC Electronic G-System Integrated Guitar Effects and Controller

TC Electronic G-System Guitar Effects Processor and Loop SwitcherG-System is the first floor-based unit ever to offer both studio-quality guitar effects and advanced loop/routing facilities for external pedals and preamps. With a unique combination ...

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Searched TC Electronic G-System Integrated Guitar Effects aController in Reviews

The Great Brain

Ease Of Use	It takes a little tinkering to get everything to in sync with FX, amps, and various other things, but once you do, it's wonderful. The most important thing is to realize that this isn't a preamp. It's a specialized piece of gear that acts a foot-switchable mixer. Like a mixer, it has inputs and outputs, but unlike a mixer there are no preamps. To get it to work with latches for channel switching on an amp will take some trail and error, but there's always something that works. Getting it to work with all pedals can be tricky because some pedals require a guitar-like impedence and this outputs a quasi hi-z signal and won't drive some older fuzz pedals.
Sound	Wonderful. Great effects. I have a DSP4000 in one of the G-systems loops and the basic effects are almost as good...almost. I have an Axe FX in another loop and it holds it's own with that as well. The Wah has a little to be desired, but it's still pretty sweet since it's integrated with the pedal board and can be controlled by a continuous controller. It does affect the sound a little and I wouldn't recommend for recording, but in a live setting, no one will hear the difference.
Reliability	My still works and I've beaten the hell out of it. One switch did fall off and another came loose, but I disassembled it and it was a quick fix. Sometimes, the unit will lose display sync and will go blank, but disconnecting it and reconnecting it fixes that. It may be a software bug that has been fixed by TC. I'm still using one of the earlier firmwares, so I don't know.
Customer Support	Excellent. When I lost the switch, they mailed me out a new one instantly. When I wrote them emails about using this picee with multiple preamps, they responded the same day. Can't say enough good things about them.

Liked about it	1) the bullet proof construction...ALL METAL 2) flexibility of FX 3) all of the connections...really makes the ground control units look limiting
Didn't like	1) weird MIDI implementation 2) software bugs 3) would like a slave rackmount unit that would expand the number of loops available.

Overall satisfaction:

5.0

By diek
Apr 24, 2011

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A great nerve-center for any rig!

Ease Of Use	Ok, I must start off by saying that I can get frustrated pretty easy by items like this but really, this item isn't so bad to use and to get some great sounds out of. I actually have TWO rigs - one live and one studio. This is part of a studio rig that I use with a Bogner Ecstasy 101b (also reviewed on Jemsite). The pedalboard is to die for - it's built like a tank and most of all, you can separate the "brain" and rack mount it. That's the way I have it. With that said: Editing patches is pretty simple. The buttons on top work as encoder knobs so you can enter values. I run this the same way I run my Axe-FX rig in that there are patches and Instant Access (commonly referred to as IA) switches. On the G-System, they are pre-determined. So there is the necessity to be smart about what you "want" and what you "need". The real magic is the loops. There are actually five. One is buffered for preamps specifically and the other four are set for the stompboxes. I have four: Suhr Riot, Keeley Compressor, EVH Phaser, ISP Decimator G. The loops can be turned on and off via your foot or within the patch itself. Neat! The manual isn't so bad - but you really don't need it as much as you would think. Hell, the info on the forums provide you with better info these days!
Sound	I have a simple 6-space rack in a custom amp case with the Ecstasy. I have a power conditioner, the DCR-2SR (wah), a two-space pedal-tray, the "brain" and a spacer. My signal path is pretty simple: Guitar --> Dunlop Crybaby Rack Wah --> G-System --> 4-cable method with 4 pedals in the loop --> Bogner Ecstasy --> Bogner 4 X 12. Some time ago, I was using my Fractal Axe-FX to do the same thing within my H & K TriAmp. It almost seemed like a waste for the Fractal to do that so when I sold the TriAmp I had the Fractal going to my new live rig and I got the G-System and the Ecstasy and they really are matched well. Like any set up - and those with the 4-cable method in particular - there's gonna be some noise. But, that's nothing that the Decimator G can't deal with. There is a built in noise gate but I don't use it. TC Electronic has always been known for their delays, reverbs and choruses. You get them all here - and they sound gorgeous. A little tweaking really opens everything up. There are other effects like flanging, intelligent pitch shifting, tremolo, whammy plus more. I use them sparingly... There are ways to seriously get some great tones out of this thing. You must tweak though... keep that in mind!
Reliability	It has never broken and it really is built like a tank. It gets very little live use but in my studio it has been pretty amazing.
Customer Support	I have dealt with TC in the past and they are pretty nice. I once had a G-Major EFX processor that broke and they were awesome to deal with.

Liked about it	1) Relatively easy to use and easy to dial in a good coloring sound. 2) Works great in the 4-cable method - which really is the best way to run this. 3) Looks very professional and the loops work nicely. With that, you also have the ability to have two different amp sources. In my case, I could have my Ecstasy with another tube preamp like an ADA MP-1, a Rockman XPR or a Bogner Fish.
Didn't like	Not much I don't like - I can't even complain about the price. It is NOT as good as the Fractal Audio Axe-FX... I don't care what anyone says. But it is more than enough power and brains to drive many rig. Pricey? Maybe a little. If it was more money than the Axe-FX I would say yes for sure, but it seems priced right. There is a little noise - make sure you run a good noise gate/suppressor.