Boss GT-5 Guitar Effects Processor

This kind of goes without saying when it comes to digital effects units: the presets absolutely suck. Many are downright offensive. But anyone who's worked with these kinds of devices/amps probably knows and expects this.

The manual while pretty thorough, doesn't really tell you how to *apply* many of the features. Like most manuals, it focuses on simply describing features. You'll have to play with it for a while, and really read the manual before you start to understand the poweful applications that many of the features provide you.

I particularly like the things you can do with the Control pedal. You can, for example use it to toggle effects (or even specific settings within an effect or set of effects) on/off or change their values on the fly with this pedal or the expression pedal.

All this being said, I'm still giving a very high ease-of-use rating because all the basic features of creating and storing patches are quite easily picked up.

I'm using this in front of a 30W Bad Cat "Black Cat" Class A amp (much like a Matchless DC-30). This amp, unfortunately, does not have an effects loop.

The GT-5 is not terribly noisy but it's not entirely quite either. It's okay and the noise supressor works pretty well.

The effects, in general, sound great, though in front of this amp, a decent amount of tweaking was required, at least for my taste. For example, I wind up pulling out some high-mids (using the GT-5's built-in EQ) whenever I use the chorus, phase-shifter or flanger. However, you can get some great sounds out of it.

The selection of overdrives/fuzz boxes is nice. Being more of a blues-rock type player, I'm not really into metal-ish kinds of distortion but did find one or two overdrive settings (blues and crunch) that really sounded okay. I also really like being able to program a simple volume boost into the Control Pedal (dB level +/- is the last param in the EQ settings).

As mentioned above the presets pretty much suck, but you can use some of them as 'starting places' to create your own sounds. For example, I found a reverb preset that sounded great when I backed off the effect intensity by about 90% :) !

Same for delay. Generally quite nice, but there are a few 'double' echo kinds of varieties that I could get on other devices that don't exist on the GT-5. But there is generally enough variety of delay types to cover most bases.

I am not using most of the effects--not amp or speaker cab sims, not most of the modulated effects and I'm doing very little with the Overdrive stuff. What I have used sounds more than acceptable. It compares okay with my T C Electronics G Major (which I use in the effects loop on a different rig), but the G Major's effects quality is generally much better, IMO.

I tried, for grins, running the G Major in effects loop of the GT-5: mistake. That sounded just awful, but I doubt if it had anything to do with the GT-5. The G Major was simply not made to be in front of the amp.

I got it used (probably 6 to 18 mths old). A little scuffed and the edge of one foot pedal is a little chipped, but it appears to have held up pretty well. In perfect working order. Seems to be very solidly built. Other than that, I've only had it 2 weeks so I can't attest to a whole lot yet...

I've never been impressed with Boss' (Roland's) support in general but haven't had to contact them regarding this device yet.

I'm using this primarily with a classic rock cover band. It does indeed enable me to create a wide variety of sounds, even using the very limited number of effects that I want and does a very respectable job.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about it is that it does not appear to color the sound of the guitar much. I'd describe the difference (i.e., plugging straight into the amp vs. plugging into the GT-5 and then into the amp) as minimal, perhaps a very slightly duller sound with the GT-5 in front of the amp. I.e., the A->D->A converters seem to do a decent job, but I'd really love to hear what they could do 24-bit converts...guess that's what the GT-6 does, right?

Compared to the options, this machine is easy to programme and use

Clean Twin does not sound as a ... Voxy Drive does nit sound as a ... and so on But most of the effects are OK

I have had a lot of problems. Mostly about output for the patches. The pedal is un reliabel on this issue. Due programming I can balance the output signal from the patches perfectly, but in live situations some times when i go from a rythm patch to a solo patch (f.ex. Delay or overdrive)the output sound is lower than the rytm output. My insurance company gave me a new PCB, because a person sat on the stage and the jack-plugs, which caused a broken PCB. The new PCB works sligtly better, but still I have the same problems. Maybe somebody could help me ??

Roland Denmark claims that there have been no updates, but i read somwhere on the www that updates exist ??? The dealer has tried to help me

I think the GT-5 could be very versatile if it worked properly ....

I consider to by a GX-700 or a product from another manufacturer

I found this unit very easy to use. Though there is such depth of configuration, someone not very familiar with effects units and terminology will definately need to study the manual. I've used tons of effects units and I still refer to the manual. I like to spend less time tweaking and more time playing. :-)

I use a custom electric straight into the GT5 and from there into two Roland KC100 keyboard amps with the tweeters disabled. The sound is simply killer. After spending a few hours playing through this I kicked myself for not getting one sooner. I'm a bastard for tone, and this thing has me completely satisfied, I can actually just plug in and play for a change rather than cursing at my tone and tweaking knobs for hours on end.
The sound quality of this unit is excellent! There is a bit of noise with some of the high-gain settings but that is nearly unavoidable after a certain point. Very impressed with the overall quality of sound.
I love the distortions on this thing! You can obtain limitless combinations using the OD/DS - preamp - speaker sim.
The only part I am not impressed with is the wah sound. It seems like it was thrown in as an afterthought. I still use my dunlop crybaby for wah sounds. Though I read that the GT6 (which should be out in September) will include wah-modeling technology.

Boss makes very sturdy products, I would probably gig with a backup though, it's silly not to.
I tend to treat my gear very well nowadays, though I'm sure you could kick the crap outta this thing and still get good sounds.

Haven't had a problem with this unit yet, though have dealt with Boss support in the past and was completely satisfied.

I play everything from rock to Jazz and this thing sounds great all the way through. Prior to this I had a digitech RP3, no comparison. I can get sounds out of this thing that are just as cool as my friend gets out of his $2000+ rack setup.
I would have to buy another one, though I think next I'll get a GT6.

You cannot say the GT-5 is hard to understand just because it has a deep interface. Such a variety of functions cannot be displayed in a simple and friendly way. It's almost too much. So be patient and try to find your way through it. I consider it deserves a try for such flexibility. I would say it is more friendly than my Intellifex LTD, which I'm not using live anymore.

I use a variety of guitars, going from a G & L Comanche to a Parker Fly Deluxe to a Gibson ES-355TD, and of course each one of them behaves a little different, not only with the GT-5 but also with the amp (a 30 Anniversary Blue Marshall combo). I'm using a cord because I've never found a wireless system as good to replace it. My signal chain starts with a 535Q Cry baby, then to a Boss Blues Driver and to the GT-5 input. I patch the loop send of the GT-5 to the input of the amp and the efx send of the Marshall loop to the efx return of the GT-5. Finally, the output of the GT-5 ends at the efects return of the Marshall loop. That way I can choose to use the Marshall preamp channel or to avoid it and use the preamp modes in the GT-5, with the Marshall acting only as a power amp. It may sound tricky, but it works fine and makes for a super flexible setup because I can assign the Marshall preamp pre or post eq, pre or post compresion or whatever I like.
But I must admit that nothing sounds better than a real amp, so I just use the GT-5 for coloring the sound in subtle ways: a bit of compression, chorusing, delay and reverb. Everything else sounds a bit cheesy for my ears, not because of the GT-5; it's because I love the cleanest tone possible. In that sense, the GT-5 works fine if you skip the presets (awfull) and build your own sounds to your taste. Believe me: don't copy those web presets because they all suck. Just build your own considering your years and don't bother trying to emulate your idol's rig. The GT-5 won't deliver it.
The only complaint is that the GT-5 does color the sound somewhat, mostly on the treble side. It can become a bit harsh, so be careful with dramatic eq because you may find yourself in trouble when you go onstage.

It's built like a tank. Period.

I had been using a very complex rig with Digital Music Corp, Rocktron racks and vintage pedals until I mailed Carl Verheyen (Supertramp guitarist) and told me to stop the shit with gear and concentrate on playing. You know: he was right. Now I have a simpler rig and I enjoy myself a lot more because I'm not fooling around with knobs and racks. Maybe for the audience it's more important if I can dial a soulful lick than if it sounds similar to Eddie's. Play. And have fun. This is music, not engineering. The GT-5 is ok for the job and the control and tuning facilities make your life easy.

it is very hard to get the sound that you want quickly.
especially the distortions.
preset patches are good but not the metal distortions.

i use a yamaha 120D guitar and a Trace Elliot super Tramp(100 watts)

for lead the sound is amazing i can get the Petrucci sound.
but the rhythem metal distortions it is not that good. i've been working on it for 10 month , lately i got the distortion sound that i want.it was a miracle.
when i use the acoustic simulator a buzz sound comes out. i couldn't fix it.but the quality of it is amazing.

all the effects are of studio quality (but you must have a lot of experience in sounds to know how to fix it.)

as for the artists i can get john petrucci's lead and clean sounds.
distortion ??????????????????????????

all others amazing.!!!!!!!!!!

it is a tank , so you can depend on.

in my country the support is not that good.

i play heavy, progressive and shred metal, soft rock classic rock
i can get all the sounds i want but difficultly.

if my pedal was stolen i don't know what to do, i must count to a million before buying another perfect pedal.

i only wish to have in it preset patches of known artist , but with reall sound not like 90's eric and eruption.

All this shit from all these stupid fucks whining about it being to hard to work with all can just shut the fuck up. Once you figure it out just a little it all becomes more easy to use. I guess what i'm trying to say is you have to understand how it's set up and then operating becomes the next step. The rotary dial helps too. Idevelop all my sounds in "real time" while i'm strumming my axe.

pretty damn near state of the art. Some high end shit for someone like me who plays mainly punk. It's sounds great in my setup. a fender strat running through the GT-5 which then runs through a Crate Blue Voodoo 120 head powering a large Peavy cab. Fuckin' rocks playing stuff from the Germs, MxPx, NFG, RATM, etc...

hell yes. the GT-5 is like my '95 Olds Cutlass Ciera. Reliable like that of a PT boat. It's casing is tough.

to get this for seventy-five dollars means that your'e connected. And connected means "black market", and black market means no customer support, warranty, whatever. Besides, you don't really give a shit. Because at $75.00 this processor is worth every penny in terms of it's overall value.
But come to think of it, when I got this thing i hadn't a clue how to use it, but I got a pretty good knowledge about how to become at least "comfortable" working with it through searching about the Internet and honing my skills with the information attained from it.

a damn good piece of equipment for 75 dollars. i'd give it an 11 in terms of value.

it is very hard to use. very hard to get a good sound out of it.
i think this machine sucks in that aspect.

i use US 78 fender strat, don grosh custom and es-335 with this.
yeah it's got some noise. the distortion in this machine really
sucks. also the preamps are terrible.
the only thing i like about this machine is the wah pedal.
it sounds better than most of those crybaby wahs.
i only use this machine when i play live with soldano x99 preamp.
gt-5 just works as a MIDI pedal and the wah.

input jacks are easy to break. other than that, the reliability
is pretty good.

never dealt with them

i play mostly blues and old rock. i think it's just okay. not that
great. i've been playing for 7 years. if it were stolen, i wouldn't
buy it again. i would just buy single pedals.
i wish it was easy to use and less digital sounding.
for the price i've paid, i'm not satisfied.

easy~

but patch chage is not,,,gt-3's R better

i have gibson ES-175 & ibanez RG-550EX not noisy, but in high gain sessions occurs little .
sound great delay,chorus,reverb.
satisfied whole effect.
it's good.

yeap~ good

N/A

sound great!
but dynamic range has probrem .
it's a digital....something cold. wanna be a more analogical^^??
maybe GT-7?
anyway i like this box,,,,

This tool is not easy to get good sounds but with a lot of tinkering you will find nice sounds are possible. Patches are easy, however finding the perfect sound is not easy! My unit has not been updated I don't know anything about it?

I have a simple cheap guitar and a cheap amp, it sounds good though! I am very dissapointed with it's sound quality very dissapointing to say the least! Distortion is not all that good! All the others are quite good though!

Yes, it is very reliable!

Never needed any support, however web site sux, and I want to find out about upgrades but I can't!

I am a intermidiate player and have a largely negative overall view of this product! I wish you could have more than one effect in the MOD section and OD/DS section! I*f it were stolen I would buy line 6, and try out every pedal before I by it!

Very easy to use. The manual is a must read to fully understand how to operate it but you can make some interesting sounds with this equipment on the very first day you use it. The manual isn't too technical and can be easily understood. I can't give it a 10 rating however because as with anything, there's always room for improvement.

This is an updated review of this equipment, now that I've owned this box for a year. Originally, I was very impressed with the sound you get. After tweaking settings and different amp/guitar settings, I can now say that this box is most useful when plugged into a portable 4 track recorder or used to play with no amp and just listen thru headphones and not so useful when plugged directly into the front of an amp such as a Marshall valvestate or Marshall Plexi. It's not as useful when plugged into the F/X loop of the valvestate when compared to a recorder, either. I know this issue is very equipment specific but the GT-5 just doesn't sound very good when used with either of my Marshall amps. Most know that the plexi is a lower gain amp. Don't think that the gt-5 will help your amp's gain for a minute because it just makes the amp sound windy and woofy. Rolling back on the amp volume or guitar volume just makes it tinny and wimpy. The best use for the gt is with a portable recorder IMHO. It offers low hiss when your house outlets are properly grounded and has a good noise gate. The differences in pre amps offered are much more discernable when playing thru headphones or a portable recorder rather than when going thru an amp. As far as good effects and bad effects, I would have to say that the ring modulator is a complete dud. The chorus is probably one of the best I've heard. Combine the chorus with a JC-120 preamp setting and you have one of this boxes most flavorful settings. The Boss company should work on setting up more valuable presets. For example, the "telephone" preset is useless for experimental as well as live stage performances. This preset is not musical and serves no purpose. If the company would have focused on making presets more geared to certain artists custom sounds rather than trying to impress people with the units capability of range of sounds, I would be a more happy camper. It's really a pain to have to take a preset and tweak the hell out of it for a good fifteen minutes to get a more custom, useable sound out of it. Maybe this unit sounds better with different equipment than mine, I don't know. If you have equipment like mine, such as a wolfgang special guitar thru Marshall amps, this box is a little dissapointing. On the up side, it's great to use for home recording when you don't want to be dragging around a bunch of stomp boxes and want everything all at your fingertips. Is there anyone else out there that thinks the eruption and clapton (90's Eric) GT-5 presets sound nothing like either artist or their gear???
Even though you have a bunch of preamp settings to choose from, when going into a Marshall, it still sounds like a Marshall regardless of preamp setting and not really a good emulation of any of these other amps. And that my friends is numero uno reason for dissatisfaction. All these reasons combine to give the unit a low 5 rating.

Built like a tank, this unit is road worthy. Haven't had a bit of trouble with it. Knobs and buttons are quality. Foot pedal never developed any creakyness (is that a real word?).

Never needed it. N/A

I mentioned the units's shortcomings earlier on. I've been playing since 1976. I also play thru a 1957 strat reissue, so my poor sound rating I give isn't due to using hot humbucking pickups. Single coils don't sound good with this box thru a Marshall either. I play classic rock and am a tone freak. I recently demo'ed the line 6 AX2-212 amp and found that this amp gives true tube amp tone with all the effects I need, built right in and properly placed after the preamp, thus I will be selling my GT-5 once I purchase that amp because of the redundancy issue. The line 6 is easy to Mic or record directly from so there's no reason to keep the gt for recording purposes either. So if it were stolen, I wouldn't replace it for that very reason. I didn't compare this box with similar boxes when I was testing this unit out for purchase. That was probably my biggest mistake. I understand that the line 6 POD is a much better, more versatile unit but that is water under the bridge now. I'm starting to sound like a line 6 salesman. I will keep this box long enough to see if it serves any purpose when combined with the line 6 amp however.
Did this unit help me to create music. To be honest, it did at first because I was new to multi effects all in one box and I was also new to marshall amps even though I had played acoustic and also thru a crappy marlboro solid state amp for many years previously. Once the newness wore off, I was getting more upset that changing settings was still only giving me marshall tone, albiet marshall tone with effects. The box wasn't allowing me to achieve any of my favorite artist's classic sounds thru my amps. No early Eddie, no Eric Johnson or Clapton, no Satch. It just sounds like Angus, had Angus used these types of effects. Moral of the story- if you are fussy about tone and want real preamp choices that sound like the real deal, get a modelling amp with built in effects such as a Johnson or line six. Play thru one of those type of amps in a music store and I'm sure when you do a side by side with your rig and a boss gt-5 versus a modelling amp, you will go for the amp purchase and not the gt-5 unless money is the issue. Hope this helps you with your quest for great tone.