Alesis Quadraverb GT

I bought my Quad GT in 1991, when they first came out as a replacement for my Yamaha FX500, and have been using it ever since, so I feel I must be an expert on this unit by now. As far as how easy it is to use, you can't really use it 'straight out of the box'. Although there are some very good reverbs in there, you can guarantee most are for demonstration purposes only, and you need to start to grapple with programming it to make it usable for performance. It does take a little getting used to, because of the flexibility this unit gives you in where you put any particular effect in the chain, the mix from different effects going into other effects, wave shapes, eq's etc. I first gigged my unit the day after buying it, and it took me all evening the night before the gig to make it useable, and I've been refining the sounds ever since (some I'm STILL refining)! Lesson 1, read the manual first! Lesson 2, DON'T LOSE THE MANUAL!

I'm using the quad with various guitars, from a custom built Strat to a Les Paul, a Telecaster to a Larrivee RS4, then a custom built power amp and into a Marshall 4 x 10 in stereo. Loads of people on here slag off the preamp sound and say it's unusable, all I can reply to that is, they haven't tried hard enough. I have used this as my ONLY sound source on stage most of the time, and it can sound GREAT! I've ripped off guitar sounds from the Police and Bon Jovi to Mettallica with this! To achieve these great sounds takes some doing, but they are there. If you are trying to emulate a valve amp just clipping, it's close-ish, but no cigar.....If you want a shred sound, again it's close-ish, but if you want a good driving guitar sound and sustaining lead, it's there in abundance, but use the preamp sound shaping BEFORE you eq it, those cab simulators are the answer. Another thing, the overdrive is actually distortion, and the distortion is actually overdrive! They are in reverse if you listen to them, you also HAVE to utilise the noise gate, but it is a reasonable one. I now use this unit with a Peavey Rockmaster (purely because I love the valve sound) and a Digitech harmoniser, years ago I used a JMP1 until I got so broke I had to sell it, but kept the Quad so I could still gig. The chorus is not the best I've used by a country mile, the best being an Electro Harmonix 'Clone Theory' (noisy, but soooooo warm and full), and the Yamaha chorus on the FX500 was better. The reverbs and delays on this unit though are exquisite, and far surpass the quality of any other unit I've ever used. MY only complaint about the unit is it can't handle an electro acoustic plugged into the front end, as when I plug mine in it sounds brittle and breaks up terribly, yet through the pa or into any mixing desk it is fine. It also isn't good for recording out of directly into a desk, even with the speaker simulation, even a Peavey Max 100 sounds better. If you want to record from it, mic your cab up!

As I said before, I've had this unit for 18 years and it's NEVER let me down. The display started to slowly dissappear letter by letter about 8 years ago, but I bought a new display from RS, had a repair man fit it and it's been fine ever since, then earlier this year, on my local music shop's advice, I replaced the lithium battery in it. Evidently they're only supposed to last about 7 years, so I sysex dumped all my programmes onto my pc first, but it was so easy to do I never lost any data.

Never had to deal with them directly, but I had a query which I passed back through a local Alesis dealer and he got me a reply in only a couple of days. That's better than Marshall!

I play in a covers band and I play all types of music, mainly pub and AOR rock with my main band, but anything from jazz to swing with some of my friends who do the odd gig every now and then. I've been playing for over 35 years and played through almost every make of amp made, famous and not so famous, so I know what I like, and I know what sounds good and bad. I've got a dozen guitars, a bass, a semi acoustic Framus, Ibanez strat, plus all the others I've mentioned, so I use lots of different sounds, and the Quad can do MOST of them, but if it blew up tomorrow, I'd probably get something easier to programme, although I'd miss those lush reverbs.

Fairly easy compared to other units if one spends a couple of minutes.

I use the reverb delay and modulation effects only in a midi rack setup with a JMP1 Marshall and an ENGL Tube 2x50 plus 2x 1x12" Boogie Thiele EV. Instant Midi switch of the patches without any recognizable delay is possible.
Stay away from the distortion and overdrive: too artificial / digital.
In a live setup the quality of the clean fx is more than sufficient. Sometimes with loud and high distorted solo sounds the Gate is very helpful using it carefully at the min. rate.

I have not considered it a studio unit. Therefore I never tried the speaker simulation. But on stage, despite the fact that it is definitifely the low budget component in my setup, it always gave me the sounds I expected.

I bought it brandnew in 1992. It never let me down in 17 years. A couple of years ago the display started to die letter by letter. I bought a second unit and in order not to re-programme I just took off the good display from the second and fixed my old unit with it. This was easier and probably cheaper and quicker than to order a new display.

Never needed /tried.

There are many exciting units on the market, but as long as my sound (which also has been influenced by the Q GT) is coming out of the cabinets I have no reason to replace it and would even buy another one as a backup (guess I would not need it).

Over the years the number of sounds I use became less and I think it is better to know the Q GT very well instead of using a new "hypermeutophatic" unit for e.g. prestige reasons which I have to make myself familiar with over years. Do not get me wrong I am interested in technical improvements but what I mean is: whether the performance is fine can only be found out on stage and not in the living room (unless you rehearse in a stage situation. Also during rehearsals, particularly in semi-pro or pro environments people hate waiting for somebody "playing" with the knobs of his fx units.) and while gigging you usually do not have the time to start programming if something does not fit. Hence it will take some time until everything is in perfect order particularly if a unit has an enormous amount of parameters.
I play Rock, Funk, Soul, Pop and the Q GT was and is a nice fellow for all.

I use it since 1991 and as you plug the jack you get many nice presets, and you can edit all af them according to your needs and tastes.
It's easy to use and the manual helps very well.

I use it just for clean sounds, good Digital fx such as delays and reverbs though the latter sometimes might sound weak. Chorus and flange are very interesting especially if used stereo.
I don't like distortion very much, it tents to sound "too digital" even if it's analogue and sometimes a bit noisy and the soustain is very weak. I always use my amp's valve distortion though.

Never had problems on the stage in 15 years.

N/A

I play light rock and vintage rock so I don't need special FX and I get all I need from this.
The only thing I don't like is that if you're playing, for example with a delay and you change program the delay (or reverb) stops.
To avoid this I think I might use a continuous midi controller but I'm not sure.
But I never really had to many problems because of this.

Okay, the factory presets are pretty awful from a bass player's viewpoint. Plugging in an old Les Paul copy didn't do them any favours either! So I was pretty much straight into edit mode as soon as I got it.

Fortunately, editing is a snap. The pressure sensitive buttons were a great idea, but it can be hard getting parameters (like delay times, or letters in the patch name) where you want without getting impatient & overshooting the mark.

RTFM. Seriously, you miss some very useful things otherwise, like being able to switch between the 8 taps of the multi-tap delay mode simply by pressing the Delay button, rather than scrolling all the way down through the menu & back up again. The manual could be laid out a little better - there are a few misleading typos & a lot of repetition, and some things are not explained anywhere near as well as they could have been (resonators, anybody?). Why the hell couldn't they tell us how much cut/boost is represented by each bar on the graphic EQ?

Gear: Warwick Thumb 4 Bolt-on > SansAmp RBI pre-amp > Carver PM 1.5 power amp > Trace Elliot 1248H cab

RBI's fx loop (parallel mode) send > Boss LS-2 [Boss NS-2 [Big Muff pi] > Dunlop 105Q bass wah > Boss PH-2 > Boss CE-2b] > Quadraverb > RBI fx return.

I have patches named "Grudge" and "OneOfTheseDays" for when I'm messing around with other people's music :)

Now, down to the sharp end. I'll not cover the Preamp section in detail, as it's not something I use much. It contains Compression, Overdrive, Distortion, Flat / Presence / Bright modes, Bass boost, Speaker Simulator, Noise Gate & FX loop in/out. Of all the things, the noise gate is the most useful. The distortion is awful - I couldn't get palm muted chunk out of it, no matter how I EQ'd it.

Digital Effects: there are seven modes which provide access to various
effects in set configurations. You can't have ring modulator and leslie, or sampling and anything else, for example. Many of the effects can be routed so they feed others, and you can select the input source too. For an idea of why that is cool, see the note after Reverb. As a final note, all the various output levels (Direct/Preamp/Delay/Reverb etc) can be tweaked to taste.

* Reverb - plate, room, hall, reverse & gated. Very nice, especially in high quality mode. Note: for an amazing effect: feed the reverb from the delay output, mix all the direct signal out & crank the reverb level up.

* Delay - mono, stereo, ping-pong & multi-tap (with 8 taps). Lots of options, up to 1500 ms delay. Clean digital sound, as you'd expect, but not tinny or too sharp.

* Leslie Speaker - quite nice, especially in stereo mode. Adjustable high freq output, fast or slow modes, stereo spread. Spins up to speed from bypass mode, which is a nice touch!

* Chorus - weak in mono. Stereo mode sounds cool through headphones though.

* Flange - not too shabby, freaking amazing in stereo mode!

* Detune - sounds more like my CE-2b than the chorus mode for some reason!

* Phaser - lacking in character. Not as fast or deep as a Boss PH-2, so better for subtle effects.

* Equalization - 3 band para, 5 band para or 11 band graphic, depending on configuration. The graphic mode is very nice for fine tuning your sound. Hissy guitar? Roll off a little of the 16kHz.

* Panning/Tremolo - panning sounds okay, but the tremolo won't do square-wave sounds. I love that gated LFO sound you get in electronica (and can get amazingly close to with a tremolo, big muff & wah pedal) so this is pretty much unusable for me.

* Ring Modulator - tunable (0-300 hz), and you can pick how much up or down signal you want in the output. I like it, but I've never owned a vintage ring mod so I have no bias :)

* Resonators - a set of 5 filters that can be tuned (in semitones) 2 octaves below or 3 octaves above the incoming signal. Now, this sounds great on paper, but the actual effect is quite weak & only succeeds in making distorted sounds appear to be in a tunnel. Setting all 5 resonators to -1 octave does not result in an octaver sound, nor is it possible to make your bass/guitar sound like a synthesizer.

* Sampling - better than a DD-3 by 700 ms. A whole 1.5 seconds of sampling time isn't much use. You can play a very short riff, or some high tremolo picked drone. The neat part is that it can be set to loop indefinitely, or work off an audio or midi trigger. It's the audio trigger that should interest the casual player. You can walk a bass line under a simple melody, and it actually sounds good.

My overall rating is a 7 - it loses 1 point for the sub-par chorus & phaser, 1 point for the seemingly useless resonators & 1 point for all the shite in the pre-amp section that makes it also essentially useless (therefore, if this was the Quadraverb Plus on which the GT is based, I'd give it an eight).

This one dates to 1991, and is in flawless condition as it spent all it's time in a studio rack. That being said, it's only now seeing hard work doing gigs/practice sessions, so I can't rate it yet.

Website is great, all the manuals are available for just about everything!

This unit is great for freaked out experimental stuff - and I use it for bass ;) It works really nicely with my stompboxes to make sounds I've never heard before, and that's really, really cool. If you find one on the cheap like I did, and it's in good shape, you could do far worse.

Now all I need is a Midi foot controller...

As a stock out of the box preamp with great chours and reverbs this is awesome,however the best way ive found to get awesome distortions out if it is to simotaneously use a zoom 707 pedal with a few of my settings as an effects loop.add the killer verbs to the great patches ive made for my zoom and I can emulate every guitarists sound that I need, Eddie Van Halen, Dave Mustaine ,Marty Freidman, Kirk Hammett, Joe Satriani, Stevie Ray Vaughn,Gary More,Zakk Wylde,Tommy Iommy, and other sounds that are almost needed in the never ending and evolving sound of new bands like Disturbed,The cult,ect ect ect and the list goes on and on and on ,i use my Zoom as a footswitchable unit for the settings but the Quadraverb GT (With a little tweeking)gives me that awesome bottom end crunch from hell that i love all so much.
Give it a shot youll be surprized.

Not too bad once you get the hang of it, but yes, some knobs would've been better to do some quick changes. The pressure sensitive buttons was a great idea, the harder you press them, the quicker they scroll.

Setup was a Yamaha SG300, Fender Mustang, a hendrix wah, and an Ampeg 130C Combo. The sound was great, but the distortion varied with different amps. Bought a couple of fender princetons with the idea of running it in stereo... what an expensive mistake (on the fender side). Although it sounds tops between my Marshall JMP and the Ampeg.

The multi tap delay provided me hours of fun in the bedroom. trying to get a reverse type sound.

As for a footswitch, a Boss midi controller does the job well enough, and can bank through the 100 effects, if I could remember them all.

Great. It died once on me, but got it fixed by asking around. I think a Roland/Boss repairer helped me out.

never dealt with them

Garage Grunge was the music. We were kinda experimental (you could say pushing the boundaries... or you could say we sucked).

Still got it. It's probably worthless as a trade in these days. It will stay with me forever as it's a great effect unit. Tops.

Definitely not a product you can use without reading the manual first, but if I can understand the manual and work it, anyone can.

The Alesis Quadraverb GT has its uses, but getting a distortion or overdrive sound isn't one of them. I don't really gig seriously or record often, but I do a little of both. I use a 5150 Combo Amp and Peavy Wolfgang guitar (lots of guitar based riff rock in our song book) and the Alesis provides all the reverb and chorus I need, which is the basic bedrock for my sound other than the 5150's distortion. The EQ is reasonable, not fantastic.

My main patch that I use is one I made myself, which consists of chorus, EQ, Delay, and reverb, and I have other combinations that replace the chorus with a flange, and it sounds pretty fantastic, but I wouldn't want to buy this unit expecting it to give me some killer distorted sound, because this won't do it. If that's what you're buying it for, you'll be disappointed. With my current setup, I can get exactly Eddie Van Halen's sound from the Balance tour, which is what I use most.

I get no hum or noise off the thing whatsoever.

I've had the unit for about six years anyway, never had a problem with it.... ever. But then, as I said, I'm more of a friendly, garage band, Joe-Basement kind of player, not a pro.

Never dealt with the company. Never had to. Never had to get it repaired.

I've been playing since I was about 14, I'm 32 now. I play mostly riff rock (Van Halen, Kiss, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Ozzy, Deep Purple etc), and it does just fine by me. It's totally reliable and helps me get the sound I want, which is a big tube distortion with some chorus to sweeten the pot, and some reverb and delay. But as I said, if you're looking for killer distortion presets, you will be disappointed. The only thing I wish it came with was a footpedal setup so that I could switch effects with my feet instead of having to buy one separately (greedy ain't I?)

Can be tedious at the get-go for people who normally like the simplicity of turning knobs, but once you learn how to set up presets, it just becomes a matter of navigating through the menus. Just be prepared to spend some time with this thing.

The only reason you're looking at this thing in 2003 or beyond is because of the reverb and I can confirm that thanks to all those tedious controls, you have an amazingly powerful reverb tank here that'll have you droning and moaning in no time. EQ and delay are fine; the rest is truly terrible and not worth discussing. But there's a reason Sigur Ros, Bowery Electric and everyone else uses these things, and the minute you find an ideal reverb preset, you'll know why.

If you've become interested in this rack unit because a band you like uses it, mark my words when I say that you cannot use this as the core of your effected sound; it certainly won't do everything, and the space rock bands that use it nowadays only do so because the reverb is so smooth and heavenly. So unless you want really crappy proto-digital distortions and tremolos, know that this thing will do wonders to augment your sound but it won't BE your sound; that part is up to you and other gear/performance choices you make.

Oh god, do I sound like one of those crusty old HC guys who complain about people using too many effects pedals? Seriously, get yourself a decent comp-sustainer, delay and distortion to go with these reverbs and you'll be set.

I find this unit relatively easy to use. Most people should be able to tweak it pretty close to a sound they're looking for without even referencing the manual.

I've been using this thing for the past ten years with a Carvin guitar and Carvin power amp with various preamps. The sound quality is adequate for what I do, but the distortion, overdrive and compression are, well, junk, in my opinion. The reverb and chorus are decent, making this unit a pretty good value.

I've had tremendous reliability with this unit. I've used it nearly every day for the past 10 years with no problems at all. Very impressed here.

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing long enough where I get frustrated with the limitations of this unit, particularly the wretched preamp effects, which I seem to constantly work around. But, for the money, it's been a good, reliable processor for basic reverb.

The QV-GT Is fairly simple to use. There are a few aspects about it that can make it a bit confusing however. The first of these is the signal routing. (This is actually one of its better features!) Instead of simply chaining one effect into the next, the GT allows you to choose the input sources for each effect (given the choice, I'd rather have this feature, than the ability modify effect order- really, I mean how many times are you going to need to put a compressor after your reverb?)
Another problem I encountered was with the way the midi controllers are set up, particularly when using a MIDI volume controller. When ever you change patches, the unit automatically sets all controllers to zero. The result, is that when you want to change to a patch that will use your controller's volume pedal, its starting is Zero (Silence), at least until you touch the pedal! (This was an obvious oversite by the guys who designed this thing!) I called Alesis, and their only solution was to set full volume as zero, and no volume as 127. That would make it go to full volume when you accessed the patch (which is acceptable.) The only drawback was that my volume pedal would operate backwards! (all the way forward would be off, and all the way back would be full volume! Try it sometime, it SUCKS! Fortunately, there is a solution, but it requires a controller that uses an attached controller pedal (as opposed to an intergrated one.) Set up your system as described above, then take the cable of your controller pedal, cut it, and reverse the hot and ground wires. This will technically make the pedal operate backwards, but since the system is set up backwards, it will operate normally. Confused? So are most people. None of my other effect units have this problem. I think it's idiotic that Alesis designed a guitar effects unit that can't use a MIDI volume controller without shutting the damned volume off every time you change a patch!!!
Fortunately, with the exception of that major gripe, the unit is actually very user friendly, and is still pretty advanced, even by today's standards.

The GT's sounds are kind of a mixed bag. Some of what it does, it does fairly well. Other things are absolutely pathetic. I'll start from the end of the effects chain, and work backwards. The Reverbs, Choruses, Leslies, Delays, etc, though not stellar, are actually pretty good! No, it doesn't have 50 different effects that you can chain all together, but who actually uses that crap? (teenagers who can't play very well, so they hide it under a ton of effects, that who!) Well, what the unit lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. the effects routing is great, still better than anything else out there at fine tuning your sound. No other multi-effects unit I know of allows you to specify exactly how much of each effect will be sent to the next one, and how much will go directly to output.
The programable effects loop is a nice addition, particulary if you have an old stompbox effect that you like, but want to keep a rackmount setup. This is also a great place to insert your amps preamp section. That way you can use the GT's various overdrives and compression to boost or modify your amp's preamp, then send it through the effects section of the GT, then finally, to your amp's power section. The routing is as follows: Guitar > GT input > GT effects send > your amp's input > your amp's effects send > GT effects return > GT output > your amp's effect return. With this setup, you essentially turn your amp into a programable amp!
Now for the bad stuff. While the compressors, overdrives, and distortions are acceptable as boosts and modifiers for another preamp section, by themselves they are practically unusable. Additionally, while the sampler configuration is fun to play with, it is equally useless in a performance situation.

The GT despite its limitation, actually fits perfectly into my rather unusual guitar rig which is as follows: My guitar (Hamer Centari) runs though a Wah pedal (Bad Horsie) and a couple of cheap boost pedals (Danelectro "Pastrami" and compressor) then into the input of the GT. The effects loop on the GT accesses a SansAmp (I love that thing!!!!) The GT's outputs are then sent to a splitter which sends a stereo signal directly to the mixing board and another set to a set of powered full range speakers! Believe it or not, the sound is incredible! Very Marshall sounding. I use the cabinet emulation both on the SansAmp as well as the GT (along with "Bass Boost and "Presence".) This setup allows me to plug my acoustic directly into the other input on the GT, bypass the cabinet emulation and SansAmp and get that "direct sound" while still utilizing the GT's presence and effects. Very cool!

Same as what most people say, backlights burns out. Lines start disappearing on the LCD. Other than that its rock solid.

Unless you own a studio with $50,000 worth of Alesis gear, don't expect anything from their customer support hotline! The question I had asked (mentioned earlier) required about 10 phone calls, and about 4 hours waiting on hold. (and that was when they were still making the unit) Now that its discontinued, don't even expect that! Its not even listed on their web site!

Its not the unit for everyone, thats for sure. It has very limited number of effects, and some preamp sections are basically worthless. But if you want an inexpensive multi-effects unit that focuses more on the effects that you use all of the time, the ones that "thicken", "smooth", and create "ambience" (i.e. Chorus, Delay, Reverb, etc,), and one that does a pretty damned good job at them, then the GT is the one.

I wear many hats as a guitar player. I hire out to many of the local studios in the area. I've played several bands that play the various west coast club circuits. Some play Top 40, Hard rock, Funk, Blues, and even Country. I've got wide tastes. I also do a solo act (with and without sequencer), so I need a sound that mixes well, is easy to dial in, is compact, is versatile, and above all, lets me focus on playing, rather than *#%@*$ing with my sound. The GT works in my setup, so if it got stolen, I'd probably go out and try to find another. Sure I wish it had more features (I don't know of a single piece of gear out there have that does everything I'd like it to do, so its kind of a ridiculous question) But for the price, its well worth it.

Anyway its just a tool. If you need to pound a nail in, a hammer is probably your tool of choice. Some hammers are better than others, but you can buy the most expensive hammer out there, and still be a really crappy carpenter!

pretty difficult, but once you work it out, the complexity makes sense, and you have a lot of freedom.

amazing reverbs! So clean and seamless, love them, also this thing is true-bypass, so it does not affect your sound as long as you run the preamp section on flat. the other effects are crap (the delay is okay though), but I only bought it for the reverb, the only configuration I use is 3eq to reverb. 10 for reverb 2 for the other effects.

nothing gone wrong as of yet

haven't dealt with them

I play with a six piece ensemble (piano, guitars, bass, drums, violin, synth, vocals) and have been playing for about 10 years now. If this thing got stolen, I would buy another, it has become an essential part of my setup. My favourite things about it are the reverb and the output volume, because I can tame my Deville (it's too loud) through the effects loop, I can run the master and gain on 10 and control the volume via the quadraverb.

Each set of effects has several parameters that are not very easy to be configured at first. However, a little of patience and a further owner?s manual reading helped. The main problem for me is the rack format - if you want to play gigs you'd rather buy a MIDI foot controller to help you.

My setup is: Ibanez JS100, Boss Compression/Sustainer, Quadraverb GT and a Laney TF100. The modulation effects are awesome, especially reverb, delay and flanger. Ok, the tube emulation is not 100%, but if you spend some time learning about preamp configuration, you may find some good sounds (forgot the preset stuff). And there's always the possibility of bypass the unit and use the pure sound of you valve amp instead. No problems playing live (noise/feedback, etc.).

This unit has never disappointed me, even in the wildest gigs.

Never needed.

I play basically rock/pop. I think that it was an awe deal by the price that I paid. I love the reverb/delay/flanger, the noise gate and all the textures that you can put together to make a bright clean sound. I also use some preamp effects to play leads, I think they?re very cool. However, if you are a hardcore tube fanatic, you may be disappointed (I suggest BOSS equipment instead). However, the Quadraverb GT is a very good option to leverage your guitar sound, together with a good tube head and a compression unit.

Never really found any sounds that I super loved.

Again, did not really love the sound.

Seemed to be very reliable. Never gigged with it, just used it in the studio before I bought more preamps.

don't know

I used this once in a while as a preamp and chorus for a Rhodes 73 electric piano. That was it. I really didn't like the distortion sounds, which populated most of the presets. Eventually I sold it.

It's not bad if you don't mind tap and scroll but a software edit/librarian would be nicer. The set configurations can be a pain since not all features are available on all patches but this was just an initial beef

I find the sound quality to be very good. Okay, the distortions and speaker simulators aren't like my tube amps but I use this unit mainly for practice with headphones (typically: Mac running Band-in-a Box and/or StudioVision outputting MIDI to an Alesis NanoSyth) This is the units forte IMHO. I've tried it with various amps in-line, inserted etc but straight into the board is best. There is no quicker way to dial a sound to tape and it beats the hell out of patch cords everywhere.It can also be used to get a pretty damn good acoustic guitar sound too (after much tweaking)

I've owned mine from new, used it virtually all the time and have never had a problem

The GT can be used with pretty much any style of music but probably lends itself to rock (factory setting wise) Tweaking the settings is a major pain but great when your done, and it certainly has more features than most people will ever need. At the time it was the best unit for my money if it were to disappear I'd probably buy a used one cheap but I'd certainly drool over a Lexicon first. Now that it is set up exactly as I want it I would hate to lose it especially since I haven't any way to back up my patches. For what I use it for it works great any improvements would require entirely new algorythms so hurry up and wait for that.

So long as you don't use the preset patches, just use them as a starting point it's fairly straightforward to get a great sound from the Quad GT, the manual is clear, if repetative, and even with basic digital editing skills like I have, you can still get almost any guitar sound imaginable.

I've been using the Quad GT since 1990 for my main guitar sound in a rock band. The sound it gives out has always been really awesome with the exception of the chorus which is only good compared to the likes of Yamaha and the old Electro Harmonics stomp boxes. I tried changing to a Marshall JMP1 a couple of years ago, I thought the whole sound would be different, but most of it was psycological, and there was, in reality, no real discernable change in sound quality, and through the Marshall it really missed the compression and noise gate.

I always used this on gigs with no back-up and sound wise it has been 100% reliable

This is where Alesis fall down. BIG TIME. The l.e.d. display has died on the right hand side, you just see dark blocks, and it has been diagnosed as the chip on the back, so a new display is needed. I have emailed Alesis SEVEN times trying to get a replacement for my unit, which now CANNOT be edited (as I can't see any parameter values), and to date (6 weeks so far) they haven't even acknowledged me.

I'm now playing all styles of music and, when it can be put back in use, I know it will be perfect for what I'm doing. I've been a gigging musician for some 26 years and is was, wothout doubt, the best effect I ever bought, until it went faulty! At this moment in time, I will never buy anything else from Alesis EVER, because I feel totally let down by their after sales, a bit like, "we've had your money, now go away". Hopefully they will reply one day and change my mind. In the meantime, BEWARE...

Very simple to use, if you a computer with midi-interface then you can even edit using one of the shareware-editors and a midi-cable. Manual used to be okay for starting, but you don't really need it.

It's not fair to compare it with nowaday units like G-Major etc.
It used to be one of the best units money could buy in the late 80's and still sounds okay (after more than 10 additional years of ongoing fx-development). It was also one of the first usable preamp sections compared to Roland's GP-8 or GP-16. The compressor is crap, but very few units had one, so i would take it as a feature in that times... What had been also new in that time was to have a speaker-simulation inside. The QV-GT had two different types, not really sounding like a speaker but useful to get a different sound. The preamp sounds like the typical FET but if you combine the QV-GT with a good tube-poweramp and a 4x12 it starts to sound like a real tube-stack.

I bought it in early 1990, never had any problems, using it a lot of gigs without any backup. I even have a functioning backlight on the display (maybe some people are playing soccer with their fx-units ;-))

Never needed...

Playing different styles, from 60's to 70's, German New-Wave to Industrial, never had a problem and never missed a feature or sound.
I use the QV-GT together with an Engl 530 tube-preamp and an Engl 930/60 Poweramp as well as a matching MIDI-switcher. Tried all the expensive units like Rocktron, T.C. and Lexicon... They may sound better but the QV-GT is still okay, and 11 years ago there was no alternative. I would buy it again, because making new sound patches would cost me to much time and why should i spend thousands of marks if i can get that unit again for only 400-500 (used)... I even used it on some studio recordings (directly to the mixers input) and it was okay...

This used to be the top of line studio main-stay multi-fx processor from the late 80's/early 90's.

Comes with 90 Presets that are really good starting off points to tailor your own sound. Editing patches is pretty much a breeze. LED display shows step by step all editing options. Based on preset effects chain configurations. Very versatile!

The Quadraverb GT is simply a Quadraverb Plus with added preamp features. Given this, the delays, reverbs, and modulation effects are of course, excellent. Has that very unique Alesis character that can't be recreated with another unit. However, the preamp portion of the unit is sub par. The distortions/overdrives and compression features are not really to die for. (However, I do like the "Meaty" preset though). Anyway, who do you know that uses a multi-fx for distortion? Get yourself a dedicated analog stomp box like a TS-9, OD-2, or Dallas Arbiter..

Got this unit simply because John Squire of the now defunct band, Stone Roses, used it for their legendary first album and live shows. The Quadraverb can be heard all over the album....if you don't have the album, get it! It's their self titled debut album "The Stone Roses"...

Had it for over 10 years, and it still works without any problems.

Never dealt with them.

There are loads and loads of other multi-effects processors out there now...most modern ones have tons of more features. However, these late 80's quadraverbs have a certain tonal quality that is very lacking in the new units out on the market today. If you need a strong reverb solution to your guitar rig, consider the unit cos that's where it shines the most.

If it were stolen or lost, I'd pick another one up on Ebay. They go for around $150-$200 in the used market now.

Damn easy! It's just time consuming to go through all the parameters but your sound should come way before time!

Sounds great as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a analog man so I love every last drop of that processed sound. Every effect sounds great with the exception of the compressor wich is very noisy. You can get slight overdrive to full on heavy metal distortion. The delay is amazing. I play bass so i set the stereo delay to 1 millesecond for the left and 2 millesoconds for the right. The fattens your bass tone a lot. It's like a wall-o-bass! Reverb can get a little crazy if you crank all the settings to full but that will happen with anything. EQ and pitch mods are incredible too. Sampling is good but there are some audible clicks that may mess up your sample.

10 years and still going strong!

Never dealt with them.

I play bass in a blues/funk/rock band and I take lots of solos. I can count on some amazing effects from the GT when I solo or a fat sound when I'm groovin'. I play a Fender Jazz Bass Plus out of a Fender Bassman 400 stack. I use a Boss rack-mount compressor because the Alesis comp sucks:( Get this multi effects and you won't be sorry

It was my first FX box in '94 and I've never needed a manual. Easy controls to get around. The configurations are the only thing it took about a week to get the hang of, and this is when I knew nothing about effects.

I've used a variety of guitars and keyboards through it. The distortion is very digital as others have noted. I like that. I'm not an analog purist and I don't really want my sound to be too warm when it's distorted. The clean FX are nice and warm to me. Not really natural, but if I wanted natural I'd record it in a big empty room. This box is a great sound mangler. I have a patch that makes a guitar sound like a string synth. One that turns a simple synth bass into crashing dirtiness. The reversed gated reverb is a blast. Not everyones cup of tea, but my personal fav through the years

Never let me down functionally. I lost the LCD backlight a few years ago which, I understand, is common. Never a single flaw in it's performance. Gigged it without a backup for three years straight.

Never needed 'em. They do have manuals for all their old units in .pdf on their site

I do industrial and mellow gothic. It's perfect for my sound... maybe not for yours. Would I buy it again? My second one is arriving this week. Always productive to my creativity. MIDI controls quite nicely. I really prefer it for keyboards now. It can do great sound perversion

Very stright forward. I do not have the manual. Start at the <config> button and <page> to set. I bought it used from a dude that needed cash.

Distortion and Overdrive do not come close to authentic tube sounds - use sparingly. Though, pre-set factory patches are pretty cool for the most part. I use a pignose, tubeman (hughes & kettner), Fender Studio Bass amp., and a rouge amp. Usually mic'd out with a SM57 or whatever mic will color sound. The delays, pitches, eqs and reverbs are not too bad.

Dependable. Very dependable. It obeys my commands always.

Haven't needed help from Alesis, yet. I would like to have "all" the factory presets again. (the dude i bought it from was a jackass and erased some of the preset patches)

I have had it for 5+ years. I songwrite "un"-pop. music. Been playing/recording for 20 years. I have digital audio computer-based recording gear, blah, blah, blah. If the GT were stolen/lost/crushed/etc. - who knows? I would be sad. I would be forced to spend money on some new gadget or toy (yikes). I enjoy the GT as much as I enjoy Batman re-runs from the 60s. "Wham"! "Pow"! Same Bat-processor!

You actually need the manual. I'm technically minded but the signal
paths inside the unit can only be understood through the manual.
The other parameters are a piece of cake, for each effekt.

The reverbs which are a bit unnatural. Especially when using longer reverbs. This character is also found in the Microverb 1,2,3 and Midiverb 2 where this unnaturalness is even higher.
The compressor is absolutely worthless. The attack time is fixed to
a long time so when a note is picked it is actually decompressed.
Because one of my ears has a damage, it is more sensitive to levels and distorts sounds that are to loud in some frequencies. I cannot
use the compressor. The attack transients become larger. This is a
poor choice of Alesis to use a fixed long setting here. Since the circuitry is analog it is possible to replace a resistor or a capacitor with another value.
The distortion doesn't sound good for me either but the overdrive is
quite good.
The leslie is quite good but the time from fast to slow is too long.
The other effects are ok.

Has been working ok.

I asked for a schematic diagram and I was promised that but did not
receive anything.

I play blues and melodic rock. The QV GT only works for me with the overdrive. I have been playing since 85-87 when I was 20-22. I own
too much gear to specify it hear. I would buy it again because I know
how to use this shit. I love the resonator and I hate the compressor.
My favourite feature is the speaker simulator and the leslie. I used this because it was cheap back then 1994. (About 300$ in todays value). And it did help me to play without an ordinary amp.

I've used the GT since 12/92 with a few different amps and guitars. Without boring all of you with the arduous story of my search for tone, I have recently been able to get TONE with effects that I am happy with (and other veteran guitarists like the sounds as well). Editing patches is tedious but simple; I found the manual to be gibberish (excluding the sections on reverb, chorus, delay, and distortion textures).

I used to use the unit with a peavey Special 112, then a Fender Super Chorus (amp alone would change guitar's tone as amp's volume was turned up - yuk!), then a pair of Peavey Special 130s, and finally a Trace Elliott Super Tramp 2x12 (w/Celestions). My guitars were - at first - a 1991 Jap Strat. I put Lace Sensors in the Jap Strat and that improved tone. By 1998, I had a US made custom Tele and a Lonestar Strat. Recently, I purchased the Trace and an outboard compressor (BOSS). The QVGT's compressor totally blows as it produces quite a bit of noise. The overdrive is quite good when used with the cab sim features. My current configuration involves the Trace, the Boss compressor, and a touch of the QVGT's chorus, delay, and reverb. I use the amp's distortion mostly, and only on occasion do I use the GTs distortion. As far as artists, well, I've dialed in a very close reproduction of Brent Mason's (studio hound) telecaster tone, and have a very sweet Vince Gill (artiste extrordinaire) strat tone. When I rock the house, I use the strat as it sings like a mother. I have found that patience is most effectively bred into a guitarist when funds are limited. Subsequently, I had to noodle with the GT over several years. Now that I have finally found a guitar/amp combination that really lets the unit do its job, I am quite satisfied with its tone. HOWEVER, when ever I have tried it out with pure tube amps, no matter what I did with the GT and/or amp, the NOISE was deafening! Tube amps and ANALOG effects make for a happier guitarist.

I depend on it - period. I have used for nearly 7 years without a backup. In late May of 1999, the light source for the display screen stopped working. I am still able to edit so long as there is light shining near the screen. I give it a 10 for reliability in spite of the display light problem; the GT has served me well for the last 7 years and not let me down once.

I've contacted ALESIS about the display light problem, but have not gotten a response. PISS POOR!

I am mainly a finger-style guitarist and gig regularly in the Country scene in my area. I do however get to stretch my wings when we get requests for classic rock (amp's distortion or if I feel like it, a more modern digital sound from the GT). HOWEVER, despite my feelings for the GT, I am assembling a set of stomp boxes as I write this. It is time to go "home" so to speak. My new rig will consist of the Trace, and the following BOSS pedals: CS-3, BD-2, CE-5, and a DD-5. 'Nuff said!

It was fairly simple for me to get the hang of, even without the instructions. It seemed to be pretty self explanitory, and I have great fun diddling around with the sounds and what not.

I play through a Fender Yale Reverb at home and have the Alesis plugged through either the power amp in or preamp in jack.. I forget which. This works better than my previous set up which was basically like how you would plug in an effect pedal - Guitar to in, output to to amp. This worked fine, but I had to fiddle around with the amp's EQ to get a decent sound. When I plugged it in the other way, the alesis drove everything. The sound, I though, was very good, concidering that previously I had been using DOD, Danelectro, and Ibanez effect boxes. No complaints about sound. I did have a hard time though trying to get heavier distortion sounds without the amp sounding 'fake' (for lack of better word). The overdrive, compression, resenator, chorus, delay, etc I thought were wonderous. For what it's worth, I usually play a Fender Strat. I still think that a Strat played through a fender reverb or blues amp sounds beautiful and every now and again I am inclined to unplug the alesis for that tone.

I can fully depend on it. It's never really let me down. I love it.

N/A

I write fairly light music.. Jazzy, I guess might be a better word. I mostly end up usig delay, overdrive, chorus, resenators.. things like that. For what I do, it works really well. The phasing on it sounds magnificent. I really enjoy using it. It works well with basses, too.

Not that easy to figure out without the book and even with the book it`s not very clear you have to toy around with it. I have the old rom version and I don`t have a need to get the upgrade.(I don't really know what it does except add me a speaker simulation)

Very quiet but very digital. For electric guitar I don't find that it does a great job even the reverb doesn`t really do a good job(doesn`t sound like a fender). Everything sound lock in and it sound to electronic for me. But for acoustic guitar it`s great and I was very impressed. That`s why I own one. It`s doesn't have the greatest effect but they are fairly good for acoustic and I got a lot of people impressed by the sound this thing will do. It`s a cheap solution and the result are really worth the money. Rated 6 because of the electric but 8 for acoustic.

So far so good

I try to get information on a rom upgrade and I wait 15 minutes on hold before I hang up.

Instead of spending a lot of money on acoustic guitar processor try this one it`s cheap and it does a very very very good job for the money. I use it with a Godin 12 string and a Takamine and it does a better job then a lot of processor that are build for acoustic.

sorry for my limited english. the unit is quite easy to use.

i play a carvin guitar and a fender strat into a Hughes and Kettner preamp (Access)(which is also a great looper),sometimes I use in addition the Rocktron sidewinder preamp. Power amplifier is also from Hughes/Kettner (VS 250). Boxes are two Hughes/Kettner with one 12" celestion speaker. My favorite music is fusion /Jazz rock. the alesis is a great effect unit for hall, delay and chorussing effects, but you have to use it in a correct and parallel stereo (in and out) effect loop. The sound is bad when you go direct in and out to an amp (ok, clean sounds with PA are possible). a great advantage is that you must not use the preamp section, which is poor. My tip for parallel loop use: Preamp or EQ section: 0, direct level 99, master effect how you wish. in a correct rack system the alesis is all you need.

i use it since 1992. three effects units are broken until now, but not the alesis.

no experiences

my favorite style is fusion and jazz rock. i'm a gear fanatic, because i want to build a rack system which can create a large range of sounds, in special real warm tube-amp combo sounds should also be possible as modern clean and lead sounds, also sounds for nylon string acoustic guitar. Alesis Quadraverb is a good deal to realise smart hall and chorus sounds. won't miss it. I also played digitech effects for a while, but can't use them because every effect unit has a shit preamp section which influence your (hopefully good)basic sound. in coorect use you can not hear a difference between warm analog chorus sound and the alesis! i'm interested in people playing jazz music and use rack systems. Because i had made so much mistakes (money!!)in the past i will give tips to the beginner of rack systems.

Quite easy to use. From Harmony-Central pages you can find a very good Quadraverb patc editor for PC. That is great !

I play my Stratocaster and Les Paul thru GT to my PA ( I use only GT preamp and PA). Good clean sounds. With my analog AGE 1 tape echo you can very easily get Ventures and Shadows surf sounds.I give 8 to Quadraverb from the clean sounds, Distortion is not good, very digital. Overdrive is better in mild settings . Very hard to get classic rock sound ! I give only 5 from the dirty sounds. Effect department is better than the pre amp section and only delay is a little bit limited.Reverb is very good. With my analog AGE 1 tape echo unit I can varm up nicely my Quadraverb sound.

After 3 years use the power switch broken.

I have been playing about 5 years . If it were stolen I will not purchase it again bacause of it's limitations.

It's quite easy to understand but you have to fiddle with buttons to "tweek" the sounds. I'll give it a seven compared to other rack-units, but in comparison with the ease of use of stomp boxes, it gets a 3.

Oh man, does this unit sound digital. If you're aiming at classic sounds, i.e. WARM analog fx and such, you're in for a big surprise. No way this gives you any authentic sounds....

I play fuzzpop, and if you have a classic setup (strat/lp/es-3xx etc and a tube amplifier) you'll ruin the sound. I use a strat+, a les paul special through a twin reverb, with amdek (old roland) chorus, a EH small stone, an old ibanez phaser, a mxr distortion+, and a roland re-201 space chorus. So if you're into playing music ranging from radiohead, dinosaur jr, soundgarden to old zep, buy analog fx and get that big grin on yer face, coz with digital it sounds crap. CRAPCRAPCRAP. Have I mentionned that digital sux...? Remember kids: analog rules , digital sux!

Ya know, I used to swear by this box, but the more I think about it, the more I think I'm gonna trade it in for some good old fashioned foot pedals. The unit has some very nice presets, but it's nearly impossible to edit/create your own sounds. The preamp is particularly difficult to use, and seems to have a pretty limited range of sounds available. My biggest beef is that I've tried to use the GT as an effects unit with several different amps, and it has turned out to be an unhappy marriage each time. The only way I got the thing to work the way it's supposed to was as a preamp unto itself -- i.e., I used the GT as a preamp, a Carvin power amp, and separate speaker cabinets. This worked nicely, but since the preamp in the GT is kinda lame, this setup leaves something to be desired.

The GT is very reliable. I wouldn't hesitate to use this without a backup. Excellent construction, and great electronics.

As I said above, I could only find a limited use for the GT. In this limited setting, the unit is great -- Alesis' reverb is legendary for good reason, and the GT's presets are (for the most part) beautiful. But as a pre-amp, the GT pretty much sucks, and it's hard to get around this. I'd recommend an effects unit without a preamp -- get your core sound out of your amp (not out of your effects unit), and then tweek it with effects.

Most of the effets are fairly easy to control. The only problem I have is with the Resonators. I cannot get a clear explanation of what they are or how to use them (There is five I think)

Charvel M1, the two outputs (left,right) go into a converter and into my headphones. I find that it can be very noisy if the distortion is high.

I have never giged it but it has been trouble free.

Not very helpfull. I thought I might get some feedback after registering but no.

It needs abetter user manual and a better pre-amp.

About the same as most effects devices. Submenus to deal with although I've taken to usng a patch editor (X-OR) for this task.

This box has a clean sound and quite good reverbs for its price range The distortion available is limited but sounds excellent if your Guitar has high output (active electronics). The tone and clear and sustains like Larry Carlton or Lee Ritenour. I find Strats and passive humbucking pickups (Les Pauls, etc) less than satisfactory.

I have used this box in live settings for several years with no problems.

This is a good value for any PA or keyboard application. It is outstanding on accoustic guitars and any bright electric sounds that have percussive qualities. I recommend it for lead guitar only if you go for a clear sustain and suggest avoiding it if your needs are more hard rock oriented. Country, Jazz, and Folk players can't miss!















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Reasonably easy to use. The manual is unclear in parts, but not bad.

The digital effects are not bad. I would agree with others in this section that the preamp is not very usable. One real concern is that it seems to do something to the tone of my Crate tube amp even on bypass, and I'm not sure what.

Seems to be quite reliable

I would think twice about buyoing it again mainly because its bypass is not a true bypass. Its pretty good for digital effects on acoustic guitar though when going through a PA.

It's as easy and pleasant to use as possible considering the lack of a continuous data-entry controller; editing patches is a breeze; the manual is very sketchy - the one i got seems to be for the non-GT version

the digital fx are very clean; the pre-amp section is EXCELLENT for processing electronic drums and 303 acid-type sounds; the reverb is very good compared to my Boss SE-70 and build in fx (Korg Wavestation and Kurzweil K2000); the phasing effect is good, the resonant eq is very nice but quite recognizable

build like a tank; no problem gigging with it

would certainly buy it again; it beats the fx in my $2500 Kurzweil K2000 with a couple of magnitudes; everything sounds great through it; i chose this one because of preamp+digital combi; should probable have compared it with other guitar fx (i only use synths/electronic drums) but i'm very happy with it

I found this unit easy to use and relatively easy to program.

The 'clean' effects are just beautiful. The distortion is crappy. I did not find any of the distortion sounds usefull. Therefore, I rate this unit a '9' for the clean sounds.

My main complaint is in it's reliability. The unit never worked properly in stereo. The left side would intermitently go out. I spent $80 to have the unit repaired and the problem still existed. It never did work right.

As stated above, I spent a lot of money on repairs and it never got fixed. I was told by a rep for the company that they were too busy designing the ADAT to worry about something as trivial as the GT.

Because of the problems I had with the company getting the unit reparied (or the lack there of), I will never buy anything made by Alesis again.

I bought this unit used, so had no manual, and it still only took me a few minutes to figure out how to use it. My background isnt in rackmount units (this is my first real programmable one, the other one i have is an all-preset one and a million fx pedals).

It depends on what you want to use it for. THe noise gate is very good so it is possible to get it to be dead quiet. If you want this unit to be your all in one unit, you probably wont be happy if you want to use a lot of distortion. THe main complain one hears about this unit is it's poor pre-amp section. The speacker emulators are nice, but the distortion is lacking (the overdrive is ok). I bought this unit for it's classic quadraverb features (reverb, delay, chorus etc). In those areas they shine (as well as with the flange, phaser and leslie speaker emulator). The tremelo is terrible and noisy. I give this unit a 9 for sound, because it does what I want it to do, but it doesnt do everything well (pre-amp).

No problems yet, but i've only had it for a few months.

I would buy it again. I wanted a unit for reverb, chorus and flange and it does them great.

I got mine and had it sussed out in less than 2 hours. It's very easy to get set up, and programming of patches could only be made easier with a dial to scroll through values. Their touch-sensitive value buttons (push harder to go faster) are a decent substitute and work well once you get used to the feel. The manual is alright. A bit wordy, but complete.

Once I got past the idea of using its guitar preamp for my main tone- shaping tool, the sound is excellent. The preamp in this thing is lame. I've found that the only things I have used it for are to mess with the send to the digital effects, like putting overdrive on the Leslie simulator. The digital section on this is excellent. The main reason I'd recommend this unit over the regular Quadraverb is for the mix section's direct output setup, which lets you blend the effects output with the dry signal easily. This lets you mix a nice Leslie effect with the dry signal in any proportion you like. Another cool feature of this device is the preamp output level control, which lets you shut off the reverbs and delays from the input end via a continuous controller, so that reverb and delay sounds decay naturally after the effect is turned off, rather than being chopped off at the output side. My bottom line: If you have a good channel switching amp, or a good preamp and power amp setup, this device can give you a ton of good digital effects. Its preamp can also let you do wierd things to the effects signal, like compressing it, so that the sound is almost dry when you play hard, but gets wetter and wetter as the note decays. A really cool sound... A little overdrive on the Leslie simulator works well, too.

I haven't had a problem with this device in the four years of (ab)use it's gotten from me....

I would probably buy it again if they hadn't come out with the Quadraverb II unit with completely flexible signal routing and mixing capabilities (as well as 8 FX at a time...). I'd certainly advise anyone looking for a good unit at a decent price to look for one used....

Main drwaback are value up/down buttons which are not as practical as knobs/alpha dials.

Pretty good considering the price. Nice chorus/flanging and reverb. Main drawback here is that the preamp section (which makes the difference between a quadra plus and a quadra GT) isn't great. It works OK for mellow drive, but forget any heavy riffin' sound.

Very reliable. I once had it sitting on top of a fender tube amp (which produces a lot of heat) during a very *hot* day: After an hour it apparently overheated and shut off automatically. I powered it up again and everything was back on line without a problem, nothing blown.

It's great value for it price. Buy a simple floor unit or some stomp boxes and you've spent just as much, while the Quadra GT gives you far more possibilities and at least as good a sound. Nowadays I'd probably invest a bit some and get a Digitech 2101 or comparable unit with a better preamp section (that's what I miss most).