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Boss GT-8 Vs GT-10

41K views 2 replies 1 participant last post by  GuitarAkuma  
#1 ·
Hello!

Recently I bagged a sh GT-8, usually I stay miles away from digital effects as the distortions are thin and have no bass or punch, but I thought I would give the boss one a go as I use 99% boss effect pedals.

Anyway, I am quite pleased with it. The distortion sounds digital but its not as bad as other units so I can live with that for recording purposes. The question is, now boss have released the GT-10 do they actually sound any different? I quick compare of the user manuals and the the sounds and sound settings are identical and so are the amps, so does it really sound any different??????

The idea of sharing the same effects between FX-1 and FX-2 should have been in the GT-8 to start with. But Digitechs GNX4 still pans it for assignable effect flexibility as I created on my mates a Vai style patch with an octave AND the whammy pedal via the expression pedal something the boss still lacks...

But is the GT-10 more than a parallel effects loop and phrase looper??? Does its sound bury the GT-8???
 
#2 ·
Hello!

Yes I know have BOTH!!!! Expect a more indepth review, for the moment lets look at first impressions.

The first thing you notice is how the blue display is quite hard to read and there is no brightness control to fix the issue only contrast. This situation is made worse because for some reason the effects buttons (delay etc) are now super bright LEDs that mean when you stand up you cant read whats on them.

Also, there is button for "Wah", why? It took me ages (as the manual is written as though its for the GT-8 so even simply things like choosing the function of the "CTRL" buttons is really hard to do as its not properly explained) to find the wah settings, why are they under the Master button???

The distortions are not as good as the GT-8. It captured that hard fizzyness perfectly even if top and bottom EQ was always a bit too close to muddy, where as the GT-10 seems to have a brighter more middley sound as standard which knackers you trying to get that Marshall stack cutting distortion. This might also be linked to the fact the GT-10 no longer simulates the HM-2 pedal which has been my main distortion for over 20 years!

I set the GT-10 to EXACTLY the same settings for input and output as the GT-8 yet the GT-10 was a lot louder. Also mirroring the emulations setting for setting I did for my Boss pedals individually. I.e. I have separate patches for my CH-1 and CE-5 etc resulted in the GT-10 sounding a lot closer to the original where as the GT-8 always seemed slightly wide of the mark...

In the quick comparison the GT-10 produced louder brighter patches than the originals in the GT-8 which seems darker, which meant a direct transfer of patches would not give you the same sounds and you would as I did have to play about effectively re-doing the patches to get the EQ right for the GT-10.

The harmony is the same but with Boss finally getting round to copying the GNX4s brilliant ability to have two pitch changers simultaneously means I can re-create my Vai "buliding the church" patch on the GT-10.

All in all, not much of an upgrade. The interface is slightly fiddly and the manual misleading and at times darn annoying as it does not tell you how to do a lot of important things in any sort of detail at all. E.g. trying to select the extra od types when set to "custom", the manual does not even seem the know the arrow buttons exist which are what you need to make the option work!!!

So its not as easy to use as the GT-8, in a non live (i.e. dark) environment the display is not very clear to read and the super bright effect buttons make things a lot worse. But the apart from the distortion everything else has a slightly better sound so it and the extra control pedals do make a difference.

Leaving you with one burning question for Boss. Why no wah button????