Boss GT-5 Guitar Effects Processor

very easy to use and very simple
very pleasing on editing my patches especially on those bank c special functions can serve u want a boost, delay or some special function.....
i'be made a custom bank up and downfor it so i can play it and change each patches very fast.....

i use a legen les paul guitar, G&L strat, edwards les paul, an es335, fender esquire......

got it into my amps, jcm 900 fullstack, vox ac30 and fender 70's twin reverb....

i put also loops on my board .... diy digital/analog delay, eventide timefactor, ibanez pds1, 1st version procorat, hiwatt custom wah..i get it all hooked up on my GT5.... and then ill let it go send return of the amp.... then boom it makes an awesome live or either recording sound.....from very warm distortions, wet delays.... nice modulations and a very bright hiwatt custom wah with upgrades......

unlike gt10, gt8

i think this gt5 and gt6 is the only multieffects with analog sounding type of multis are produced

not as a back up but as a main!!!!

i don't need

bought it 2nd hand

10 yrs. of use only the skin and cosmetics is the problem (MEN 10 YRS!!!!)

superb multieffect unlike todays multi's

It is an old processor so it can be a little "user unfriendly" at the time of setting it up. It has A LOT of settings to take care of and the speaker simulation/pre-amp function can be tricky to set with your cabinet

I have had this processor for YEARS now and I have no complains at all. I used to have an RP-2000 which I hated and this has turned to be my main multieffect pedal.

I have gigged with this one pedal for 9 years now and I have had no issues whatsoever

I can't say, in 9 years I've never required any help from boss on it for it has been an extremely reliable pedal.

I would go higher, however like the reviewer below me I also took about 7 years to figure out how to use the GT-5 in front and in the loop at the same time. And in doing this I got rid of 6 pedals from my board, I was using it only in my loop and used other gear to get those sounds I needed. Now it all comes from the GT-5, and in the right order which is also very important.

There is a pic in the manual that depicts this set up, but it is a bit vague and no in depth explanation is provided, however it is very informative and easy to get an answer to some degree that can get you of to twidling.

I use a PRS Custom 22 into a Soldano Hot Rod 50+xl and it is like butter baby. Sorry. The unit does very little to color my tone, once I got good level going it was off to the races and I have used it everywhere I have played since 2000, and I played every state except Alaska as well as overseas and I never have any problems with the unit. It doesn't attract unwanted noise, and the 2 points of Noise Suppression are quite ample if it were to. There is a NS spot for your patch and an overall NS circut, so handy.

Like I said, it has been everywhere and I won't get rid of it. One day I may upgrade, but I still don't see the need to. This was bought for me as a backup, and now it is my main.

No opinion, it's Boss though so I can't knowck them.

I use my rig for all sorts of music and the Gt5 works fine with everything from Rock to Blues uses etc. Almost everything you want to do is in here, it just takes a minute to figure out the best way to do it. For example, I have a patch that uses the expression pedal, toe up the dry is prevelant as the main guitar signal with a reverse delay on it very mildly. As I toe down, I set the pedal to lower the dry and raise the reverse sound. Also, the expression pedal is adjusting the delay rate in small increments but enough to get a real wacky record player slowdown and reverse thing that is always interesting to me.

I would also like to recommend a couple of small foot switches, especially if you are using several patches. Manual mode is helpful, I set an onboard pedal to switch back and forth, however it is great to assign 1 particular function to an external pedal. I always use #2 for my delay tempo, and #1 to turn on my distortion/od for a patch. This way, even in patch mode you have a versatile pedal board

If you understand stompbox knobs and can transfer that knowledge to the art of digital editing and have a good ear, it's pretty easy to get good sounds. Just remember that what sounds good in your living room has, at best, a 50/50 chance of not cutting it on stage with your band. You will probably have to make adjustments, so be patient.

The manual seems to have been translated badly from some language other than English (surprise!) and also includes a chapter on midi implications which nobody I know uses. It is full of great diagrams though, so that compensates for the occasional odd phrasing.

The setup/connections section SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED ONE MORE DETAIL ON HOW TO USE THIS UNIT WITH YOUR GUITAR AMP'S EFFECTS LOOP, as that is the setup that makes the GT-5 sound its best.

Follow the instructions on connecting the GT-5 to your amp effects loop and use the Power Amp setting.

You have to have the LOOP effect in the unit ON in order to use your AMP essentially as an EFFECT. This setting allows you to make Treble-Bass-Mid-Preamp Volume knob adjustments on your amp which gives you some tone and volume control over Patches in which you are accessing the GT-5's PreAmp models. This saves you from having to drop to your knees in the middle of a song and make parameter adjustments to the unit within the patch.

While this seems like an intuitive thing to me now, for the first 5 years I owned this unit I was clueless about this detail.

Carvin TL-60 with Carvin Twin Blade humbuckers->Mesa Boogie MarkII-C. No noise problems. Ambient effects are all terrific. Decent Compressor. Lots of useless gizmos like Ringtone and limited stuff like Synth.

Can get any sound I want, clean or overdriven, all from clean channel of the Boogie with relatively flat settings (Treble 4-5 / Bass 6 / Mid 5 all knobs IN). Tone & Volume knobs on guitar come in handy sometimes.

Only problem with amp models is volume differences, even with same volume setting between models. I guess this is because maybe they are based on real-life power ratings of the amps.

I have set up GT-5's Control Pedal for Manual On/Off control of effects in each of your patches, and assign one of the pedals to the PreAmp models. This gives me one more tonal variation, and it is a Major one. With one step on a pedal I can switch back to my amp's tone and volume.

I've had this unit since it came out in 1996. Wish it had a removable power cable. Sometimes when I power up the LED display does this weird gibberish thing and the unit has to be shut off several times to correct itself, but it always comes back. This is the unit's Achilles Heel. When that LED goes, the GT-5 is probably doomed to the recycle bin. *see customer support category

I've always gotten great customer support from forums like this, so I never call the company. The cost and hassle of repairing a GT-5 just makes me go shopping for a new one. I'd probably go for a GT-10 instead of fixing the 5.

BOSS SHOULD INCLUDE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE MANUAL FOR HOW TO RECYCLE THEIR EQUIPMENT IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY WAY. Don't just throw out your GT-5!

I play Country Rock Jazz Blues. Been playing 35 years. I haven't gone to a gig without the GT-5 since I bought it, including solo acoustic shows. It definitely has helped become a more expressive and conscientious musician. If you are playing a variety of styles of music and are trying to make an honest attempt at creating the sound each of them requires, you need a great sounding reliable multi-effects unit with reasonably accurate amp modeling capability, and the GT-5 fulfills that role.

OK, this was one of the first "serious" multieffects floor processor for guitar by BOSS; one that had a ton of effects, COSM modeling, and was built for abusive stomping. BUT, it`s not user friendly at all...that`s a major concern for people who expect it to sound good right out of the box...the menus, like a lot of stuff from roland; are just plain tedious. It made more sense when they started to add knobs instead of a scroll wheel to change parameters, but still a lot of the presets suck pretty badly. It`s amazingly frustrating to scroll into menus to adjust one band on the EQ or the treble on your virtual fuzzbox; while your playing at the same time.... So you have to take lots of time and patience to write your own programs on the GT5. The manual is a must if you want to FULLY understand the processor, and to all you tweakheads it`s worth to know about a few techy stuff like the manipulation of any effect parameter with a virtual wave controller...specially to achieve a lot of weird experimental effects/noises.
But all in all, if you have patience, like to tweak sounds, hates presets, and/or play experimental guitar, this is a great option. (Check them out at ebay! They`re dirt cheap!)

I`ve been using this processor just about for any type of gig, recording session, jam, whatever, possible...again, you have to make some adjustments to make it sound good and it totally depends on how you hook it. I play a strat, LP, tele and even an acoustic guitar with the GT5. I`ve played all sorts of music...from industrial/experimental, noisepop to folk acoustic, and everything in between (metal, pop, blues, etc.)
I`ve mainly used it:
1)Direct to the mixer. At this setup, I use the line/headphones setting with the cabinet simulation always on. It`s very, very, very, very DIFFERENT the way it FEELS your playing...most people freak out and they hate it for that, hahaha...But it`s actually easier to mix the guitar this way, effects are always present and the sound never gets buried in the mix. Obviously, you depend totally on the monitors and the PA system. But if you have a decent and trustworthy soundguy at the mix, I guess you`ll be fine. And of course, all you need to carry is a guitar, some cables and the GT5!
The only tip of advice I can give you soundwise, is to lower the general highs on the GT5, the headphones/line signal might be a tad bit bright, maybe a bit too HIFI for most people.
2) GT5 & combo or stack, thru the effects loop return or into the preamp in (depends on the amp). Ok, this is where I think it`s preamp simulations really shine...again you have to tweak, twaek, tweak... some of the most convincing preamp simulations (at least to me) , are the clean ones...the dirty ones, are a bit more artificial sounding, you have to really experiment a lot to get a convincing marshall sound. But thru a lot of the combo amps that use a 1x12" speaker, I can get a sweet Fender sound without any hassle...
I`d recommend to use the cabinet simulation off on the GT5 for this setup and turn the power amp combo/stack setting on. And maybe back off on the reverb`s wetness %.
3) GT5 thru the amp preamp. Sometimes I`ve had to plug in this way, mostly it`s because I`m not using my own amplifier and/or the amplifier that I`m plugging into doesn`t have a preamp in or an effects loop. This is my least favorite way to use the Gt5, because it totally changes the sounds, and is totally dependable on the amplifier and it`s speakers...You could just bypass all the preamps and cabinet simulations all together and just use the GT5 for modulation effects or whatever, and use your amp`s distortion instead. But then, it would be better if your going that route to place the GT5 thru the effects loop, if it has one....hahaha, ok that`s another story...
Is it noisy? I guess not, considering high gain and massive distortion hiss normal playing on single coils, hahaha...seriously NO, it`s not noisy, also it has a splendid noise reduction effect that`s very usefull when needed. I guess it varies to what kind of pickups you use, and the amount of distortion, the use of compression, etc... Speaking of which, the gt5 has a little knob to turn the input`s signal up or down...I`ve found it a little bit frustrating to adjust it every time I have to switch to another guitar, since my les paul has hotter pickups than my strat; because the signal line has a tremendous effect on the sounds of your programs. BOSS recommends to turn up the signal until the little red light starts to light up ocassionally when you strum or pick hard.
All of the effects are top notch. I`m not gonna get too much into details (this review is getting longer than I expected). But every effect has it`s place...even the guitar synth has it`s use, I can get a very cheezy sax sound that`s so cool for improv jams, hahaha...every head turns. Delays are awesome, lush chorus, flexible phaser, aural reverbs, zany ring modulation...you get the point.
I use different amps, marshall half stacks, peavey combos, etc...
I can get sounds that go from cocteau twins to van halen, the cure to david gilmour, beatles to bloc party.

Like all of the BOSS pedals, built like a tank. It`s even got a thick power cable instead of a wallwart. Although it would`ve been great if it were removable, you know; like the standard power cable.

N/A

Well I guess if your reading this, it`s because you`re looking for a used, cheap multieffects unit. And at the prices they`re selling for now, it`s a great option. I bought mine when they released it, and it`s never ever given me any trouble. I`ve been playing for almost 20 years, and for maybe half that time I used pedals. I bought the GT5 to replace the pedals, and to a certain degree it did. But like I said before, and I repeat...you have to TWEAK, TWEAK, TWEAK a lot before getting GREAT sounds out of this unit.

It has a little learning curve- even for a rack head like I am with a rack full of Korg, Rocktron, and Boogie stuff.

I use mine for what you would not expect- I am a solo singer/ songwriter playiing solo acoustic shows- and this is the BEST unit for acoustic guitar effects. It does not color the tone of my Taylor 410CE with the Fishman system in it at ALL. Perfect. And this is one of the few units that you are truly bypassing the entire preamp section. It's just guitar to compressor to effects. I don't use the onboard EQ at all.

The delays are- well- let's put it this way. I have had an Eventide, various Rocktron and Korg units, and this thing sounds just as good. Friggin' AMAZING.

Perfectly clean and quiet. Effects are WONDERFUL, especially the choruses and delays.

Only had ita couple months... I'll judge reliability later. No problems yet.

I know form the past that Boss has great customer support. I worked in Music retail, and they were one of the easiest companies to work with.

Nobody really makes a pedal designed for what I want- no preamp stuff- just a compressor straight to the effects section- that has the control ability I wanted. I thought I'd give this thing a shot, and it is a real winner. I HIGHLY reccommend it for solo acoustic guys to get osme effects. Other friends of mine were using the POD live floorboard, but I could tell it killed their tone a little.

The pre-sets sound gaudy. They sound good once you edit down the effects. Less delay, less distortion, less everything. I found the manual essential for creating patches.

Most of the patches I actually use (about 10) are edited presets, some SUBSTANTIALLY edited. I cant imagine using any of the presets for gigging. They seem designed just to 'show off' this piece of kit.

My main lead guitar custom patch is the edited (Fender) TWIN-REVERB one. Similar to Jerry Garcia's sound (he used a Twin Rev at the heart of his system). It sounds very good.

AMP: I use this with a Fender Stage 112 and 5 instrument leads. You need 3 to cobble it through the effects loop. This way you get the clearest signal and the amp is then slaved to the GT-5, using its clean channel and bypassing all the switches & dials. Another lead is a line out to the band PA.

GUITAR: I mostly use a Jackson Soloist XL. Though a single coil pickup may the ideal option (cleaner signal), I find I use the brighter humbucker a lot of the time, especially towards the end of a gig.

The key to creating the best sounding effects is to know how to place them in the chain ie: what comes first & last. I created a patch at home that sounded superb in the dining room, but sounded horrible cranked up at gigging volume. Expect to do a lot of tweaking to patches as they do sound different at high volume.

I use this without a backup. I have used it for many years and it just goes on & on. This year I had to have the power lead chopped back, it had worn loose after years of heavy use. Boss should really have used a kettle lead here, but this is a minor grumble.

One favourite user-patch has a tremolo effect asigned to the stomp button, this stopped working properlly after a couple of years for some reason (The volume now dips substantially). I have not tried to ???fix??? this, as I only use on one song and I am lazy.

There have been 2 occasions when programming the GT-5 that I???ve managed to make it ???lock up???. Switching the thing off and on again restored it ok again (just like PCs).

Actually it is very reliable where it counts.

Have not used customer support at BOSS ROWLAND. The power lead repair I had done by my local dealer. It cost about ??10.

I play in a 7 piece band rooted in soul & ska. In practice, this accounts for less than half of our set. We have updated our set to include songs by The Coral, Keiser Chiefs etc. Sadly (for me) no original material is played.

I briefly used a Zoom unit. The built quality was not very good but I reasoned that if it lasted a year, it would be money well spent. At that time the band was recording and the sound engineer found the Zoom was compromising the sound quality. He had a GT-5 handy, and I used that for the first time in the studio. Before that week was out, I had chopped in the Zoom for the GT-5.

With so many other instruments competing at mid-range, I find that I do about 60% of my rhythm work with no effects at all. This mean I have no compression at all, and I can hear me much better in the blend.

I have fewer outlets for my personal music than I would like, but the GT-5 is essential for that too. Presently I am using it for recording (with the Jackson + a Washburn) and using the acoustic guitar simulator for a couple of finger-picked instrumentals. I have both a steel string and a Spanish (nylon strung) acoustics available but get a clearer sound and signal from the GT-5.

I???ve been playing for 37 years and play all styles. One effect I would like to have is a nylon string simulator (Spanish guitar sound). This was included on the GT-6 but I have not heard it myself so I don???t know how authentic it is.

If my GT-5 were lost or stolen I would try out a GT-8. If the build quality or sounds were not good enough, I would try to source another GT-5.

I like to solo. My most important piece of kit is the Jackson. The 2nd most important is the GT-5

Ok. I thinks is very clear once you??ve read the manual. The manual doesn??t tells you how to get a great SRV sound or whatever. Its good at telling you what the effects do and the parameters for each of the effects. Editing gets easier with the quick settings (read manual).

Lets be honest. First, you start going through the factory presets trying to find nice (or great) sounds. YOU DONT! Ja! The thing is probably they didnt have someone who can program a decent sound on this. This obviously gets you frustrated. You have to do it all for yourself. And believe me that you can get incredible sounds with this, IT JUST TAKES TIME. The effect chain order is crittical for the sound you want. And found out that EQ and some filtering with the AUTOWAH (fixed) makes wonders. The custom overdrive/preamp is amazing.
2 aditional exp/control pedal jacks, the loop can be place it anywhere you want and doesnt REPLACE the distortion section as in the GT6, AWSOME! Manual mode for using effects as stompboxes, UNIQUE. And the exp/ctrl pedal or external can be assigned to ANY PARAMETER, not just volume or wah.
In other words it will take you time to understand what a beast this is, probably it is better suited for pros or players with good understanding of effects.
Im giving it 9 beacuse it takes time but the rest is just amazing sounds anything from country and acoustic clean sounds down to heavy metal and Floyd sounds. I havent seen anything this versatil

As EVERYONE says, built like a tank. No backup. Never had a single problem.

Never had to deal with them. Hope i??ll never have to. Doesnt seems like it.

Mostly in cover bands: Beatles, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, latin rock, samba jazz, BLUES, country. Ive been playing for 13 years and hopefuly know something about what good sound is. If it were stolen I already have another one that I use for my own project. Its great to have something that just have to get plugged to work like it should. I didnt compare it in front of anything I just got it, foolish move i thought, NO WAY! Everytime I compare my toys with other guitar player i always shine on.

It's not terrible difficult to get a good sound. The dial makes a big difference for one thing, as does all the buttons being there in front of you. You spend time in menus but it's all pretty intuitive.

As long as you understand how individual stomp boxes work, and what each effect does, it shouldn't take too long for you to figure this one out.

Never bothered with the manual although in my experience Boss Manuals tend to be ok.

All excellent apart from the distortions which take a bit more programming to get something decent. You can always insert your own pedal through the effects loop however. The rest, with the exception of the wah, are all brilliant, especially the chorus and delays. 10 years since it was released it holds up extremely well to current gear. I don't try and emulate anyone in particular but most sounds can be approximated using this pedal.

Makes me laugh when people claim the distortions sound digital - because they're not - they're ANALOGUE! Pure gear snobbery.

I found it in a pawn shop with a very battered case and one knob missing. It's been used and abused an AWFUL lot. It all works perfectly. 'Nuff said. It's a horrendous cliche to compare Boss gear to tanks, but it's based on truth...

My previous dealings with BOSS have been nothing but decent, but I am not about to call them about this old thing.

I've been playing for 10 years and this was always the dream pedal when I started. I have owned an ME-30, GT-3, GT-5 before but usually sold for some reason or another (strapped for cash). I have also owned many models of Zoom and Korg, and individual stompboxes. This isn't the best pedal anymore but at these prices you are getting an incredibly, professional capable unit that will serve your needs, and for the bits that you don't like (probably wah/dist) you can put your fave into the loop. I don't care and I know a lot of other people who don't either, and I just use it as an all in one. Never had a single complaint from the audience either.

If you can get it for around ?100 you are laughing. It's so much more versatile than even the successor pedals, and creates more sounds than I could ever dream up. I loved my GT-3 so it's a toss up which you can get cheaper really, however I do prefer the GT-5 overall.

Pretty damned easy - so long as you can read a user manual. Speaking of which, the manual is reasonably well layed out and easy to follow...
One thing which would make it even easier is PC connectivity (I know I'm asking alot for a pretty old product!). I have found some third party softwares but they don't work real well - manual programming is the only way with this baby.

I actually play a six string ibanez soundgear bass with alembic pickups. I run my axe into a behringer MDX2600 compressor, then out into the GT-5 input jack, then from GT-5 send jack to the compressor's second channel, then out of the compressor into a Trace-Elliot 100W commando combo bass amp, then from the Trace-Elliot send to the GT-5 return jack, then from the GT-5 output to the Trace-Elliot return, then from the trace-elliot to either mixing desk or recording device via DI.
Sound quality is great, I can make overdrives / distortions that NO bass effects pedal will ever go near. The GT-5 basically includes every boss stomp-box I would ever want, give-or-take a few parameters.

One thing I must say is that the synth sounds do not register way down low on my "B" string... not surprising for a guitar effect!

I have had this thing (since new) for about 6 or 7 years now, every now and then I open it and clean it, has some corrosion from gigging on the METAL casing, but hasn't effected sound quality. The thing is built like a tank and has travelled around australia with me gigging - you do not need a backup. Reliable as swiss military neutrality!

I have never dealt with boss direct (as I've never had the need).
Their website has everything you could need - there are alot of "GT sites" out there by third parties too.

I play alot of different styles of bass - metal, funk, rock, jazz, disco, et al. In our band we only have drums and trumpet apart from my bass, so I play alot of chords and "sound like a guitar" half the time. For my purposes the GT-5 is perfect as it has unlimited classic "guitar sounds", but handles the lower frequencies of my bass really nicely.
If there are other bass players out there looking at the GT-6B (boss's attempt at an actual bass pedal) don't bother. The GT-5 has better cosm chips and the DSP chips are alot flakier in the GT-6s.

I must admit that when i first got the gt-5 i had no clue what t he hell was going on but after i searched a few web pages and read the manual (not alot of help but some) i knew how to work the thing. After getting past the damn parameters its a breeze! editing patches is very very easy until it comes to editing the effect chain, and sometimes you must hunt for good sound, but give it like an hour or so and you will be rewarded with GREAT sound!

I have a gibson les paul custom with a crate 50 watt, or a fender twin reverb. Both sound awesome with the gt-5. i dont know why people give this such a low rating, other than sometimes with the guitar synth it sounds a bit digital and using the preamp, speak sim. EQ, and dist/od sounds choppy. The effects are AWESOME. I've used a lot of other junk like digitech and POD and ive never heard such great sound. Some advice: USE THE NOISE SUPPRESOR. but no too high.

THIS IS THE MOST RELIABLE BOARD OUT THERE. IVE NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH IT. WHEN I PLAY SHOWS, I DONT HAVE BACKUP, I DONT NEED IT!!! BUILT LIKE A TANK!!!!!

have never needed it.

i play a wide varity of music, deftones, rage against the machine, hendrix, phish, van halen ,etc. It is PERFECT for that type of music. I have the EXACT ( not kidding) sound for a ton of songs like bulls on parade, be quiet and drive, killing in the name, know your enemy, poem, little wing, waste( acoustic guitar sim. works great) and others. If it were stolen, i would go grand theft auto on every ones ass, or yes DEFENETLY buy a new one. I LOVE THIS THING. If i lost it my band would beat me with a bench and kill my family. BUY ON NOOOOOOWWWW!!!they are the best. thank you boss. IM me for patches.-SilVeR DY357

ease of use is spontanouslly but with any new piece of equipment please take the time to dig deep and use your manual as a basic bible. Also order the instructional video available from rolandus.com
Ive been using mine for over 10 years ... and I'm still able to edit or construct sounds from the past or intivated NEW Sounds ....

My setup has change over the years, my first 3years I've ran GT-5 Stereo into a CS-800 then to a 1960b marshall 4x12 cab . Then learning and expermenting not excluding my Bands song sound request I needed the best of both worlds tubes and processors .. So started using the loop send and return-output set-up I know 3-4 cables but this is truly the best combo but this is all just talk your sound depends on your amp and I currently us 3 different styles with it depending on my gig Mesa Boogie Mark IV w/2 1x12 vintage 30 watt celestions
for bigger venues Ive got a Mesa Boogie Recto 3/channel 100 watts ver thru a mesa boogie 4/12 packed with vintage 30's, and for fun a hi gain 50 watt marshall 2/channel ....
This unit has the best TUNER I've ever used ...Patchs theres 65 different x's user preset I have learned to watch effects chain and outputs If I have a week effect but I hear what your saying from those who say the compressor is a little weak .. its really not but most of us have all ways been able to get that little extra volume during those expression such as a lead break and the GT-5 compressor will just give you grit sustain thank boogie for sumuclass sw on my mark IV and solo on my recto ...
The patches are very good if and when you would like to use them ...

Yes Built like a Tank ! ! ! ! It actually is my back up ! ! !

Yes ! ! ! I have upgraded mine when I had mine repaired because a drunk FOXY LADY STEP-SLIPPED-SKATED using the rotory select knob !They repair'd and upgraded took less than a month ver 1.07 I think !
the knob should be reacessed like there smaller buttons " I've got to be kidding ! they were the best I guess ! ! ! !

I Play in a Top Forty something -Classic Rock Band in Northern Calif And I really think this unit is the BEST there is, unless money is no object ! ! ! I have been using it to obtain the effects 4 Billy Idiol - Metalica -ext....... Check out the web site www.strut-a-variuos.com I play quite a bit and it has always worked no matter what the house voltage is doing . Or spilled Beer its not water prof but its a work horse ... And has never let me down KNOCK ON WOOD !
I do think it is a unit that Roland needs to bring back for the working musicians its not a line-6 its a Tool that will one day be unavailable so if you need a good tuner get it !!! it inncredable what you could do with it ..... PEACE OUT

The GT5 is quite easy to use once you get the gist of it, and after a few days you wont need the manual again for setting up effects patches. The manual is OK but doesnt adequately explain all the potential set ups between guitar and amp for my liking. Using the unit direct through PA is OK but when I got back in a band I wanted to bring my amp back into play so I tried the 4 lead hook up as suggested in this column. After setting the GT5 eq the sound quality was good. Unfortunately, this way (through my Mesa rectoverb) I lose all control of the amps pre amp and tone section. I am thinking of going back to stomp boxes as I know the compressor in this unit cant live with my old Boss CS3. Any suggestions as to alternative set ups that dont delete amp tones are welcome!
Craig

Set up. Fender Strat, Mesa Rectoverb, GT 5 4lead hook up using effects loop

Excellent durability. Been to hell and back, dented and whacked. Still going strong.

No experience with customer support

Lots of 60s, Dire Straits, Clapton. Convenient for rapid effects changes. Compromises amp tone quality if set up "traditionally".

easy

a tiny bit noisy with the pre and speaker sim on.

never gone wrong

just want to agree with a few of the further posts that reccomended using a tube preamp in the loop and a tube power amp after..it really balances out and warms the digital aspects of the gt5 and you get the best of both worlds with no clutter ect...i have some line6 stuff and some stompboxes and something tells me that the gt5 which ive had for years cant cut it against all this new technology. but that is wrong because it sounds great today as it did when i first got it. Mainly use it for its reverb,delay,slow gear,chorus and trem....try finding that lot at boss quality in one rock solid stomp box. I think this may be a bit of a classic...its certainly a keeper..at second hand prices its just plain criminal.

Pro Grade effect's processer, so you have to read the manual to fully understand the functions.

I by no means am a pro-player, but with little effort I can modify the gt-5 to suite my needs,

Editing Patches could not be any simpler. Altho I must admit, atleast one third of the preset patches are useless to me, I mean, Telephone, Noise Storm, and Ethnic Bell??? Do these sounds exist in the music world?? If so I can't think of one example. But i digress, these patches areeasly replaced with functioning real world patches.

I run a standard Fender Strat., a '62 Jaguar and a custom cyclone through the GT-5. As for amp's I frequiently use the Fender FM65R, and a Marshell G30R and I can honestly say the the Boss GT-5 has never seemed to be limiting my play, quite the opposite, If anything my gear is limiting the GT-5.

BTH I live for the late 80's thru the 90's Grunge period. This Processor handles all the Nirvana, Soundgarden, AIC, PIXIES, etc. and can smoke with the best SRV style players also. I think Jimi would have surely approved of this little gem.

With out a doubt, I would not rely on anything else without a backup.

Trust the GT-5, It's a tank, made for the road...

See "Reliability" in 6 years of stomping on the sucker I have never had to call Boss's Tech Support.

I've never tryed to Upgrade, but if it gets any better I don't think I could stand myself. Just kidding. I'll get around to it some day.

I play everythig from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Nirvana, but tend the stay in the destorted side of rock & roll. I've been at it 365 for the past 12 years and 5 years of plunking prior to that.

If it were stolen I would hunt down the low life sucker and super-glue his testicles to his knees, If I lost it, I would NEVER lose it. End of story. And yes I would replace it with an exact duplicate, but I would be pissed because I would never be able to get the great deal I got on the original one.

Best feature:

Endless capabilities sound/tone wise.

Worst features:

It is intimidating if you are not fimiliar with setting up your own gear, But READ THE MANUAL, Once you get into it you realize there is really nothing to it.

Favorite feature:

Size, 20" long X 9" wide. I can take this puppy anywhere that has electricty. With my strat, GT-5 and a pair of Wal-Mart headphone I'm in my own world.

Boa unidade. Pratica, com acessos faceis aos parametros de configurac?o, permitindo um manuseio intuitivo (com o passar do tempo). N?o fiz upgrade nem a testei via MIDI em um PC. Pra quem tinha uma RP-10 Digitech e bem simples operar a GT-5...

Uso uma Tagima custom, com captadores seymour duncan e uma Ibanez AF75T, semi-acustica. Plugo direto no P.A. (toco em barzinho) e tenho uma qualidade muuuuuito satisfatoria de sons limpos, crunchs e distorcidos. Logicamente, um Mesa Boogie ou um Soldano d?o um banho, mas acredito que nenhum ampli na faixa de US$ 1.000,00 consegue um timbre melhor... Pra mim, e o maximo...

Minha GT-5 deve ter participado de alguma guerra ou caido do onibus que levava a banda de seu antigo dono (*R*). Esta totalmente detonada, riscada, e falta o knob de volume. Dois leds n?o acendem... o visor de cristal liquido possui um profundo risco...
MAS ELA FUNCIONA P E R F E I T A M E N T E !!!! Pra mim, ela e uma unidade indestrutivel...

Uma bosta! A Roland do Brasil quer me cobrar R$ 50,00 pela copia RESUMIDA do manual de instruc?es em portugues... Precisei do manual da DR 660 (bateria eletronica) e me cobraram mais R$ 50,00...
EU ODEIO A ROLAND DO BRASIL! Ah! visitem o site www.roland.com.br - E UM LIXO!!!!

E uma excelente unidade de efeitos... os chorus s?o impressionantes, organicos e bem timbrados... as distorc?es, pra blues/rock s?o bem legais, mesmo quando ligadas a um P.A., via COSM/Simulac?o de Falantes. Uso um par de caixas trapezoidais com falante de 15", driver e SuperTweeter Keybass e tiro um puta som...
SOU APAIXONADO PELA GT-5. Se puder, compre uma!

I give this device a ten. This device, once you understand it, is rather simple to use. Having said that, don't make the mistake of thinking that it's easy to setup killer patches! The CONTROLS are easy! Take your time, and you'll be very satisfied with the results. The manual doesn't really go in depth enough for this device...Then again, it would need a manual as a thick book to do that!

Number one: The effects are as good, or better, than ANY other effects unit out there - certainly better than any in it's class, or genre, if you will. If you understand how to setup you patches correctly, you'll have no problems with noise. I generally plug directly into a P.A. and use a little amp as a spot monitor. There is so much to get into, I doubt if anyone who's posted here, myself included, could give a complete review of this device - it's that deep.

Two sentences:
It's built like a tank.

Yes, you can use it without a backup.

Never had to deal with them...Probably because this thing is so dependable!

I play many styles of music, and this thing will do whatever I want it to. I've been playing for about 26 years, and I can't imagine a better floor-based effects unit. I've got a variety of "tone generators," and this one beats them all, hands down.

Very easy to use for me. I have had mine for 7 -8 years.
Great manual. My GT-5 was upgraded about 4 years ago

Ver good full clean and overdriven sound. You must remember that the sound is no better than what you hook this thing up to.
I run mine into a Peavey Classic 60 power amp (Tube) and then into a Carvin PA monitor with 2 10's and a horn. then into the PA.
Very versital

No problems ever

Christian rock and R&B.
If you turn off the preamp section you can us just the effects which are top notch effects. It has a great tuner and switching/midi capabilities plus a couple of either volumn or wah pedals. I don't think I ever used 1/3 of the capabilities of the GT-5

I writing in portuguese cos i'm from Brazil and there's no review in portuguese. N?o e facil. Qualquer um que diga que sim, esta mentindo! A primeira vista trata-se de simplesmente mexer em bot?es para conseguir os efeitos/sons que deseja, certo? Errado. Os sons saem horriveis. E preciso ler todo o manual diversas vezes, pesquisar muito na internet e ter bons ouvidos. O manual e basico. O meu GT5 e um dos primeiros, comprei logo que saiu.

Sabendo como usar, trata-se de uma ferramenta poderosa! Tem todos os efeitos que se precisa e um pouco mais: Humaniser (tambem conhecido como talkbox), guitar synth (sons sintetizados), acoustic simulator (simulador de guitarra acustica), tremolo e muito mais. A Boss colocou todos os pedais disponiveis na epoca em uma so caixa. N?o e ruidoso (apenas quando obviamente se usa distorc?o e compress?o), mas tem noise reduction.

Vou ser sincero, eu o uso por pura facilidade de ter tudo num so lugar, mas gosto bastante de pedaizinhos (Boss). Da para usa-lo profissionalmente sem problemas, tem midi e tudo mais.

A Boss/Roland e bem legal, basta contacta-los.

Eu toco pop, hard rock, metal. Se essa pedaleira fosse roubada eu ficaria doido pois e bem cara e se eu a vendesse poderia comprar uns bons pedais Boss, mas N?O a compraria outra vez. Compraria pedaizinhos. Como eu disse no comeco, e bem complicado mexer com ela para conseguir os sons que se quer e muitas vezes eu perco a paciencia.

What is ease of use really? Daisy-chaining ten stomps together and carrying around a pedalboard in a flight case? Having to disconnect and reconnect all your effects when you want to change the order? Buying a set of George L cables to patch them together? Having to remember where you set the knobs in case you change them?

Ok, perhaps thats a little over the top. Yes the GT-5 keeps it's effects behind menus with access via the value dial and parameter menus, but this is a good thing because when you've found your sounds, they stay there. You can back them up via MIDI if you like.

When I want to gig, gone are the array of pedals strewn around with leads everywhere and countless wall warts. All I do is pull this out, plug the extra footswitches in and patch to the amp. Easy! And once you know where the menus are and are used to the extra options that you don't get on stompboxes, this thing really opens up and you realise you just can't get this sort of power and quality anywhere else.

Current rig: Gibson SG or Squier Strat -> Boss GT-5 w/two FS-5Us and Small Stone phaser in the loop -> '78 Marshall JMP 2204 50 watt head -> '95 Marshall 1960a cab (Special Edition, red tolex).

I've owned all the GT units made so far (GT-3, GT-6 and GT-5 in that order) and for me this one is the most professional and best sounding. I wish I'd known that BEFORE, and bought this first but that just makes me appreciate how much better this unit is compared to the other two. Better placement of effects (ie no Compressor in the same bank as the Tremolo, dedicated speaker sim independant of the preamp sims).

It's not noisy unless you use high gain and even then the provided noise gate is great at killing the noise without killing your tone, if set right.

Almost all the effects are great and more than worthy of the asking price. Weak effects - pedal wah (the GT-6 wins here), harmonist + ring modulator (bad tracking). The reverb is good if used sparingly or drenched for shoegaze/ambient style playing. The delay is great - sound on sound AND self oscillation, as well as high cut. Shame the reverse delay clicks but you can't have it all.

Particularly impressive is the preamps combined with the speaker sims. With just a little work you can get very close to those tubey sounds. For example, the plexi sim (MS1959) reacts to the strat very similarly to my JMP - the out of phase positions sound best and the other pickup settings have a pleasent bite to them. I love the fact you can choose between dynamic or condenser mics - I've worked with several types of both for micing real amps and the ones provided here are pretty damn accurate in respect to how the different types of mic react. You can also mix and match - want a Marshall Plexi head running through an open back 2x12 Twin cab? You got it.

The GT-5 manages to keep your dyanamics when running to the front of an amp too - something a lot of multis just can't do, the Roland VG-8 included. I like to run it with the natural OD setting through my JMP - the tone is very similar to cranking the preamp gain with just the right amount of compression.

You don't like the GT-5's OD/DS, something not quite right about one of the presets? EQ it, or better still create your own, tailor made for your amp. Ditto that for preamps. You like shoegaze/ambient style music? How about an expression pedal controlled self oscillating delay with an extra footswitch for turning delay hold on and off, as well as a Short Delay in the mod group if you need it? You want a Leslie-style sound without the inconvinience of another heavy amp to carry? You want to change where your effects are in the chain on the fly or store your favourite chorus sound to use on lots of different patches without having to manually program it in each time? You've got that and countless other features right here.

I could go on and on, I really could. The GT-5 is still the best multi Boss ever made. The GT-3 retained some of that magic, the GT-6 apart from the odd improvement here and there ruined what made the GT-5 great in my opinion. The bottom line as I see it - this is cheaper and better.

Strengths: rugged metal chassis, recessed buttons, the Boss = tank seal of approval.

Weaknesses: raised value jog, plastic expression pedal, plastic 'soldered-to-the-board' jacks. These problems were solved on the later models, but be careful with this one.

I needed to upgrade the EPROM from version 1.03 to 1.07 to correct several little bugs in the unit. Roland UK's service was prompt and efficient, and I had no trouble installing the new ROM. I could have had it done by them but I wanted to minimise out-of-action time on the unit. Good service!

I play mostly rock, punk, blues, some ambient/shoegaze and a little folk. I don't do jazz. I've been playing over six years and I still can't play so well, but I'm experienced at recording and such so I know good tone. I've owned enough other multis and single stomps (no racks yet) to know that this unit is a great deal. I paid #155 for it... hell, one or two brand new stompboxes could easily set you back that much!

I love most things about it. The wah, harmonist and ring modulator could stand to be improved. I think the guitar synths have a great lofi quality to them which can be a lot of fun for looping and creating textures. The customisable OD/DS... well, it's like having twenty different gain pedals right there. All you need to do is hit a few buttons or change a patch for another one!

I've compared it to the other GT units, the Zoom 505, the DOD Tec4 and a few others, as well as my old all-analogue pedalboard. This won in terms of sound and ease of use, the only thing it couldn't top was my EHX Small Stone but it gets pretty damn close!

If they could combine the better parts of the GT-6 (well the wah sims and button under the EXP pedal mostly) with the synth tones and pickup modelling of the VG-8, added a looper with over 4 seconds sample time and on the fly loop pitch shifting and a few other features then I think I'd be the first in line to buy it. That's asking a lot though and to be honest this unit covers all the bases and then some for me, a definate keeper.

Now if only I could convince more people to come around to the idea of replacing their bulky, non-versatile (in comparison) pedalboards with this...

It gets a 10 because it's almost every effect I'll ever need in my rig for less than the price of a few standalone stompers. That and it sounds fantastic after you've cracked it.

If you want a few good tones and simplicity, stick with your stomps and be happy. If you want a set of nearly endless possibilities which can do pretty much anything you can think of (I've put it through it's paces on several occasions and it hasn't failed yet), with great sound quality to match, these are going for stupidly cheap prices on eBay. Grab one now before someone famous makes this an important part of their rig and drives the prices up!

It is time consuming to learn and master. I never liked to tiny LCD screen and all the flip-flopping back and forth between parameters. Sometimes, old fashioned knobs are a good thing.

I have owned mine since they first appeared (about 8-9 years, I think). I have used this unit as direct-to-the console, in the EFX loop of my Pre, and between the guitar and the Pre. Direct to console worked well for several years and served to keep stage volume down. I did not care for the Pre-EFX-loop setup as some effects were lifeless or non-existent. I prefer to run it between the guitar and the Pre like a giant stomp box. I play a Nashville Tele and Gibson LP into a MB V-Twin PreAmp into a MB 50/50 followed by two 1x12 MB half-open cabinets.

I have never had a problem with it. Sturdy and have used it live for years without a backup but I found its weakness last week. Someone tripped over a cabinet on a dark stage and stepped on the guitar cord right at the input jack. The ensuing leverage action snapped the printed circuit board like a dried-out cookie. Thankfully this was not during a live set (actually right before it) and luckily I was preparing for an acoustic set so I did not need all of the patches anyway. I ran straight into my rig and moved on.

No need to until now. I talked to the local tech and he said that a part would probably cost more than what the unit is worth. It looks like I will be hitting ebay to find another one. But I will probably go ahead and by that Vox Valvetronix I've bene looking at first.

It has a great unit and I have enjoyed it a lot. Since buying and test drivig every amp out there is a financial impossibility I originally bought this unit as a way to pseudo-test the various Amps. Looking for that perfect "tone". I kept coming back to the MesaBoogie for hard overdrive, the Roland JC-120 and Vox for clean, and the Vox and Matchless for light overdrive. I bought my MB rig about four years ago and preparing to buy a Vox rig. I tend to be a purist so I like real tubes...not simulated tubes....but don't get me wrong. This unit is great.

This piece of gold is a rocking machine if you have the time to figure
it out. I did not sleep in the first three days but then I got used to
it and now it kills the ears. If you make one patch for a sound you
think works, be prepared that in a week or two you may set some
parameters differently, only because your ears demand a slight turn.
It makes you think of sound, either (along with hearing it). Don't
forget to set the input/output balance right! If it's set the wrong
way, it could make you think that the effect sounds bad, which is
asolutely NOT the truth.

Since it is no longer on the selling list, you can hardly go into a
store and try one, unless they have it used. You know what? Try one.
Again, after you dial all the right parameters, the result WILL be
perfect. You can simply dial EVERYTHING, and I mean it. The key is in the effect chain settings!

This damn machine is tougher than a stompbox and it looks cool too.
There's only one cord and you're done for all night. Clear and strong
signal, perfect reproduction. Don't jump on the upper part where the
value jog and the screen are, that part is the only area that looks
vulnerable. (it probably isn't...)

Everething is available even though it's not produced any more.

Perfect for live environment, stage abuse and studio use.
From acoustic to blues, from hard rock to shred, from heavy dirt to
angelic synth, from bass to guitars and VOICE (!) effecting, this
machine opens all gates. If I ever will stop use it, it could only
be when I'm a million dollar recording artist with a shitload of
pricey amps and a big studio on my own. But I will use it live, I
guess.

what a wonderful machine!!....i bought this to replace a behringer v-amp 2 with a behringer fcb 1010 controller that i was using on stage, and fearing that the v-amp 2 was too fragile for live use, which it is.....the gt-5 is very easy to use, easy to program, and extremely rugged....even though i bought it used, i still got a manual with it, but all i used it for was to find the factory reset procedure....i absolutely love the sound and the flexibility....

the sound?.....great....just great...i run mine right into the low gain input on a sovtek tube midget 50h, and then into a marshall jcm900 1060a 4x12 box....typically used with a les paul or equivalent guitar, but always with a humbucker.....of course, as with any processor, you have to "cook" your own sounds to taste, but the gt-5 has more than adequate ingredients available.....i've read many of the other reviews here, and those folks who are having trouble getting good sounds, or using needlessly complex cabling setups are obviously doing something wrong....this unit is a definite no-brainer....my sound is a revved-up classic marshall tone, with a lot of meat...the sort that cleans up as you back off on your pick attack, and takes off over the cliff when you dig in.....the same response you get from a cranked tube amp, just as it should be.....and yes, i still like mids.....scooped mids sound stupid :(....

the unit is very quiet, and i am just as happy with it as i can be

bulit as the tank, but no treads...love the real ac cord

roland/boss are pros, and i would expect pro level service if i needed it

i've been playing now for 34 years, and i've been down every gear road there is.....there's no valid reason not to go with an all-in-one processor, as long as it's a good one, and this is a good one....obviously, if you're not good at programming, you'll have troubles, but then, if you're not good at programming, you'll have a tough time surviving in this world....you need to learn how....i'm convinced that nothing is perfect, but i'm giving this thing a 10 anyway, cuz it is just too sweet....it does everything i could ever ask for, and does it very well.....

The reason I'm posting this is that I have just discovered the KILLER upgrade for a GT-5. Just insert a Rockman distortion device (either the "Headphone amp type or a Sustainor rackmount) into the Effects Loop, and you can get the lead tome that the GT-5 lacks. Plus the GT-5's preamp/eq, noise gate and volume pedal improve the usability of even the cheap Rockmans to the point of pro stage use.

Rock on!

10

it's all in the fingers ( & ears) !

i like it ! used in two combo setting with lots of sounds.
marshall vs100 combo , with vs112 ext cab ( good thump) and a roland vg3. i tried a dg stomp also , but hated the wall wart.

boss' manufacturing sets the standard. built solidly , but handled with respect. protect & care for your toys. always have a back up ( especially for a bass player who likes to get drunk before the gig )
harmonizer / octave divider , anyone ? ) i've had digital wierdness due to power brown outs, sag , etc. invest in a power conditioner. with boss , nothing an arm & a leg couldn't fix..

i've had success thru their warranties & superstore site. they've yet to improve upon it with the gt6 (wall wart alert !) as far as i am concerned. too many options makes jack a dull boy.....

i replaced a boss gx700 with this because i made a vow to get rid of all my wall warts. i had the gx700 for 5 years , recorded 2 cds with it & it never failed to get what i needed. the gt5 was very close in dealing with parameters of the gx700. this takes the place of 15 boss pedals at your feet. a tuner, wah, whammy, volume pedal, slow gear is great & the feedbacker is highly sought after. great bargain. NO WALL WART !

Not easy but once you understand the differents parameters you get a great friend!

Use a Fernandez stratocaster and a Peyvey amp, sounds great! But when I play live I use a Roland Bluse Cube, and I have to reajust the sound or else it sounds crappy... I use most distorsion and acoustic effects and I don't understand those who said that the distortion is crappy; I think it sounds great when you afdjust the related parameters...

Solid as a rock!

Support? They rather close this departement! I've never used it (got this pedal now for 5 years) and don't expect to use it ever!

We play anything in our band (from Chuck Berry, Beatles, Deep purple Led Zeppelin to Cold Play!) and it has never failed to give me the sounds I needed. I sure by another one if this one got stolen!! I love the ease of changing from effect to effect and making my own effects banks, but I hate the time it takes to program new effects! The only minus I can see is the dependance of the amp you use. It can sound great on a good amp (like the Peyvey) and sounds completely desastrous on a other one (Like my damn Roland Bluse cube!) My only wish would be to find a site for GT5 users/fans where we could help each others or give good tips for the use of it! I any one knows such a site you're welcome to write to me!

Not a simple toy. takes a while to learn the parameters, but hey its a more "in depth" machine than most guitar processors. manual and video help explain it all pretty well. worth the programming time once you nail the right parameters. I've worked with tougher gear thats for sure.

First off...to all of you fellas who claim this thing is crap and the distortions suck, etc etc...If you know how to setup and use gear properly you will have no problem getting great tones out of this thing. I know most of the negative posts are from purist metalheads or old blues farts anyhow. you know, the same people who knock on electro music but can't even program a GT-5, heh. first off...run it direct into a PA setup or use the 4 cable hook up into a guitar amp (one amp for mono). if you prefer stereo to mono guitar, then it sounds best thru 2 combo or stack guitar amps using the 4 cable hook up. great distortions, thick tones (especially the fuzz which is my fave). this unit is really great for electronic influenced rock music ala new order, depeche mode, cure, pumpkins etc. I believe johnny Marr, Martin Gore and Billy Corgan use (or have used) these numerous times. clear processing. just plain sounds good if you know what your doing. If your a purist I don't know why the hell ya bought it in the first place. good for experimental tones.

very reliable. don't need a backup.

never needed to call boss. they don't even need a customer support dept. their stuff never breaks.

Its a great machine for live and recording if you know how to set it up and program. I've been playing since I was 12 years old. I'm 22 now. play a blend of psychedelic/electro/rock and would buy another one if it were taken from me. love all the features and all the available tones inside this thing. compared to all the other processors in its price range, this one takes the cake hands down. to hear it used on my recordings head to http://www.angelfire.com/alt/cmb

It took me a few tries to get the sound that i want. If you went through and read the manual first and then try to experiment, it's so much easier.

AFter reading the other reviews on this site, i came to the conclusion that the way to hook this baby up is the 4 -cable hookup. (that is: 1. guitar to GT Input. 2. GT send - Amp input , 3. GT Return to Amp Send, 4. GT output - Amp return.) I run a Peavey Classic 50/410 using a Gibson Les Paul Special SL (all stock) and the tone is unbelievable. I love it to death. It sounds good.

I have not owned this long enought to have a fair rating.

Excellent customer support.

I play in a cover band. This thing is as solid as rock. been playing a long time and i have a very discriminating ear so i know a good sound from the bad one, DUH!!

Used around 400? methinks.
I've never been too fond of Boss distortions and this unit is no surprise. But then I bought it for live use/easiness.
Sick of tap dancing....
I may add that the time effects sound worse than those I had in the ME-6 some 15 years ago. My honest opinion.

You need to spend many hours editing patches to make it sound right
but it eventually can be done.
A lot (I mean a REAL lot) of the result depends on the amplification :
At first I had a Marshall TSL100 head+cab
I tried in front, the 4 cable method and straight in the FX return without much luck. I spent quite some time trying to tune the unit.
But everything sounded like Marshall crunch no matter what I did.
I sold the amp and bought a pair of powered speakers (Behringer B300)
Sounds way better and WAY more versatile. I use them as monitors/stage amp and go direct to the board. If you have the bucks, I'd suggest Mackie SRM450 (they're louder and more reliable - I have a few probs with the B300). Anyway get two (2) speakers for stereo, a definite must have. Use the speaker sims of course when going direct.
I played with the idea of getting an external dirt pedal in the loop (tubeman or similar) but that would ruin my efforts in getting a simplistic rig ...

To cut it short, I like my decent sounding setup. Not the best sounding rig I can imagine but good enough for the shitty bars I play anyway ...
I play original stuff, rock, funk, arpeggios, ballads, a tiny bit of metal, classic rock, punk, psychadelic, pop, power pop ... you get the picture : versatility is the magic word here.
If I was to play metal only, blues only or anything only I'd certainly NOT buy a GT-5 and get a dedicated rig.

BTW preferred it over the GT6. I can't see a valid reason for spending more bucks on that one. I don't got too into FX descriptions, it's eventually a matter of personal taste and preference. Things I never use are humanizer, ring mod.
Everything else gets used.

Like I said it took some time to get a dozen usable patches but nowadays, I spend more time focussing on playing and less on tuning the holy sound which is eventually what everyone should do.

I'd rate it 6/10 which doesn't mean anything actually
It simply means it's a good working TOOL
Good enough for me to stop looking for something better.
There IS obviously better gear out there ...

Es bastante dificil al principio, pero despues de trabajar en el 3 horas diaras durante 10 dias pude dominarlo perfectamente. El uso del control "PEDAL/ASSIGN" es bastante dificil pero despues de cogerle el tiro te das cuenta que es una gran caracteristica; El manual es mas bien deficiente. Encontrar el SETUP adecuado es dificil pero despues de eso el uso se vuelve muy mecanico. El software de mi unidad es V1.02, el cual traia un Bug que no permite subir los parches al computador (aunque si bajarlos a la unidad). De todas formas las versiones siguientes a la V1.06 ya traen solucionado este problema.

My setup es guitarra Yamaha RGX 1212s (Neck Thru) Head CRATE Stealth de 100W y medio Stack 2x12" hecho con parlantes Beyma en un taller de Audio. La unidad esta a la altura de mis equipos. Al principio salia un preocupante humm de la unidad, pero me di cuenta que era por estar muy cerca al computador; despues de reordenar my estudio el Humm desaparecio por completo y es realmente muy silenciosa (nada de hiss tampoco). Los efectos en general son muy buenos (Choruz, Reverb, Delay). El harmonizer es impresionante! configurando 1-voice, direct level =0, efect level = n, puedes bajar de tono la guitarra sin degenerar el sonido en absoluto como otros aparatos (ZOOM 3000s por ejemplo) y con el ajuste "Fine" puedes hacer un ajuste fino de la afinacion; no hay retardo entre la pulsacion y el sonido es "great".
El efecto Clean no tiene nada nuevo; tiene el mismo problema de siempre, demasiada compresion y un hiss desagradable.
El Wha es aceptable pero no es grande. Tampoco diria que es malo pero hay que configurarlo con el Autowah (con los valores adecuados a los parametros).
He podido obtener distorsiones con tonos cremosos muy buenas (buenas para ser una pedalera digital, pero aceptables comparadas con un sonido realmente profesional) aunque es tremendamente dificil encontrarlas (hay muchos trucos, como poner el OD/DS antes del PREamp, el Compresor antes del EQ etc.). Se pueden sacar sonidos bastante "poderosos" y limpios, pero realmente NO sonara como un Peavey 5150 o un Rockmaster.
Si me preguntan si he podido obtener el sonido de mis artistas favoritos la respuesta es NO. Mis artistas favoritos son Van Helen, Slash, y Petrucci; posiblemente los musicos podemos notar claramente la diferencia entre el GT5 y el "majestuoso" sonido de un Preamp de Mark IV de tubos, pero el pubilco en general, aun un buen publico No.

En sintesis el aparato es muy bueno, en este rango de precios y soy un amante de las pedaleras (procesadores de piso) ya que traen todo integrado en un solo aparato, aunque oviamente existen muchas opciones mejores pero mas complejas y mucho mas costosas como armar un RACK completo. Depende de lo que estes esperando de la vida con la musica ... :-)

Actualmente no podria tocar sin este aparato. La unidad parece un Tanque; la carcaza es de metal y no tienes que conectarle adaptador; trae cable directamente para el toma electrico; se ve muy robusta.

En Colombia no hay distribuidos de BOSS, luego no se, ni me importa realmente...

Toco musica de muchos grupos en ingles (Europe, Tesla, Deff Lepard, the police, Pick Floyd, U2, etc.) Tambien rock en espa?ol (Mana, Ratablanca, Caifanes, Enanitos Verdes, Juanes, etc.) He tocado desde hace 20 a?os. Estoy muy satisfecho con la compra de mi Boss GT5. No he podido obtener los sonidos que quiero, todavia porque el Preamp del CRATE Stealth no es muy bueno, pero esta unidad junto con un Preamp Rocktron Pirahna (recuerden lo que dije del Loop) y un Wha Cry Baby seria un equipo de miedo!!..

At take a while but this thing is amazing for most application.
Editing patches can be a little complex but are easy to manage if you have a good understanding. I've had mine for about 2 years now and just bought amother as a spare on ebay. The midi part of this thing is very powerful. I would suggest you try it.

My set up is as follows- ernie ball petrucci > gt-5 > VHT GP3 preamp > BBE Sonic maximizer > Looped back into the GT-5 > output to a VHT 2/90/2 > Genz Benz ported reflex cab (2x12). Then a midi cable to the GP3 from the GT-5 to midi control the channel switching, via the GT-5. I can get everything out of this. I mainly use the setup like this - clean, rhythm, and lead are controlled by #1,2&3 on th GT-5, I then set the "c" to switch from regular to manual mode to get the stomp box style arrangement. I was never really happy with the distortions but I let the VHT take care of that, Very Hot. I mainly use the reverb, delay, flange and pan. The main eq is what i use to match the room I'm in on any particular night. I don't like the direct into the board sound & had a problem using sure 57 to mic my cab. (very buzzy) I just bought an audex d4 (drum mic) that takes care of the buzz. The frequency response is tighter.

I've used mine for 2 years with no problem, I did buy a second cause I got a great deal. I origionally had some reservations about a all in one floor unit but it has held up well, gigging 3 times a week for 2 years.

never had a problem, thats a ten.

I do just about everything. Have been playing for 20 years and performing for the last 10. I would say the this box is just a link in the chain. It has quality & does many things. I will take a while to mess with it but is worth it. remember less is more so dont go too crazy!!!

I'm giving it a 1 here, because most people don't know how to use this unit properly to get the most out if it. And the manual does not spell it out. You have to look at these emulation devices differently than you do those little stomp boxes. If you don't know how to use it properly it can be very difficult to impossible to get a really good sound. Actually using this devices features and editing patches is not that difficult. Just takes a little time to become familiar with and then it will make sense.

My setup is one of my many guitars into the GT-5 and then into the sound board. This is the way it sounds best. When I practice I plug headphones into it and it sounds great. The GT-5 does not sound at it's best when you plug it into a guitar power amp and guitar speakers. Running the GT-5 into anything that is voiced for the guitar will usually work against what the GT-5 is trying to do. Here is my personal example. I use to run the GT-5 into the power amp of my PV 5150 head then to a 4X12 Carvin cabinet loaded with Celestions.
Clean sounds were great. Mild overdrive was ok. High gain sounds were a little less than ok at lower volumes, and sucked at high volumes. Chorus sounded good, wah was good, compressor was good for clean sounds and moderate overdrive, flanger and phaser was good. Reverb and delay was good on clean sounds, but sounded really digital and tiny when used with distortion. Lead licks sounded ok, but playing chords sounded like....well a train wreck. So right before I was getting ready to unload this on some other sucker, I decided to plug headphones into it for the first time since I bought it. By doing this I eliminated the need for any guitar voiced equipment after the GT-5. And was I amazed at the difference. The distortion and amp emulations come to life and sound like they are supposed to. The digital sound when using reverb and/or delay with distortion is gone. And it is much easier to get great sounds out of. So now on stage I run it straight to the mixing console and I have the best live sounds that I have ever had. The only reason I didn't give it a ten here is because nothing is perfect.

It has been dependable so far. And I feel very confident about it. I take a backup for everything. I'm one of those people that when I don't have a backup then something breaks.

Well I've been playing for 15 years now. I have a ton of amps, pedals,and rackmounts. I play rock and metal, but this thing will work for any kind of music. I would definitely buy it again if it was lost or stolen. This unit eliminates your need for a guitar amp, any other signal processing gear, and micing your cabinet. Simply put, the GT-5 solves a lot of problems and simplifies your rig without sacrificing tone, or sound quality. I absolutely love this thing now. If I would have reiewed this before I found out how to use it to get the most out of it I would have called it a piece of digital crap. I know there may be a few purists and tube freaks that will read this and say "bullshit". I know, I used to be one. You have to hear it to believe it. But, this eliminates the need for those NOS tubes, vintage 30's, non master volume heads, high quality output transformers, and all the other expensive tone generators. Because this thing accurately emulates all that stuff when you run it straight into a pa system.

Easy peasy. All the buttons are in front of you. It may take some time to MASTER the unit, but it's so easy to dial in a good sound immediately.

The GT-6 might have nice knobs on, and be a little bit quicker and prettier, but I don't mind.

Whooo... this thing sounds absolutely f#cking amazing.

Let me just say I have owned the following units : ZOOM 505, Boss ME-30, Boss GT-3, Korg AX-1000G, then a load of Boss / Electro Harmonix single ones (EH stuff sounds great but is built like CRAP).

Then when I had a go of one of these, I sold all my single pedals apart from a couple. The only real 'weak' effect are the distortions, but nothing come creative EQing can't sort out.

Plus, it has a INDEPENDANT FX LOOP, the ONLY in the GT series to do so. Even the GT-6 has an 'OD only' loop, which means if you want to use any other effect than OD in the loop, you sacrifice the onboard OD. On the GT-5 this is not the case, the external loop is an effect in it's own right, can be used WITH onboard OD, and increases the diversity of the GT-5 greatly.

Other features which set the GT-5 apart from the GT-6 are it has the niternal wave pedal which is ace, and 2 EXT sockets, meaning you could have 2 expressional pedals, or 1 EXP and 1 control pedal. On the GT6 / 3 it is either 1 / 2 buttons OR exp pedal. And the reverse delay, which is really funny and innovative, was ditched after the GT-5. WHY?? replaced with crap like Auto Riff and Defretter? gimmicks as opposed to something you could actually use on a recording.

Even Johnny Marr said these sounded good (apart from the distortions), so what's good enough for THAT guy, suits me fine!

Well, the GT-3 is a little sturdier than it's bigger brother, (metal jack sockets, metal exp pedal as opposed to plastic jack and exp on GT-5) but nothing to whine about. It's still rock solid and mine seems to have lasted since 1996.

This was an absolute BARGAIN, I've never been so happy about an FX unit purchase, and consider myself extremely experienced in multi fx AND single effects. I'm still really excited to fire it up and see what it's capable of, a week later.

I paid nearly the price for this for my ME-30 in 1998!!!! I would have died if I had seen one of THESE for that price back then! It was the dream machine (something like #600!), and it hasnt disappointed me even though its been 'superceded' by the GT-6.

I was going to buy a GT-6 but found there was little to justify paying #150 extra. You could argue the OD settings are not as good but thats about it. And for the saving you could get a really decent couple of extra pedals to get the exact sound you want. Really, don't be fooled by the extra 'bitrate' on the GT-6. You probably wouldn't notice. Your audience definitely wouldn't.


Thanks to so many people ditching their GT5s for GT6s in haste, you can get these at a bargain price. You will not be disappointed at all for the price... in fact nowadays they only fetch a bit more than the GT-3, and although the GT-3 is an excellent unit, think it's worth spending a bit more if you can afford it. The extra stuff just make it more desirable to me anyway.

Oh, did I mention that I LOVE THIS UNIT?!!! :-)

Not tough to get a decent jamroom quality sound if you are at all familiar with processors and "keeping it simple" would be my advice to new users looking to build a decent sound AT ALL with this thing. There are a few "deep editing" type features that I really enjoy (Like the very specific and effective "bottom" adjustment on the custom dist. But IF YOU START STACKING PREAMPS AND EFFECTS LIKE DIST. OR O/D AND THEN ADD EQ AND SO ON AND SO ON YOU WILL PAY! live and in a recording environment this thing suffers trmendously. If you plug it into a power amp (im using a mesa/boogie 50/50 cranked wide open) and only use the high gain custom pre-amp you can get a decent, and I mean that to the letter, decent sound.

The only reason I'm even going to a lousy 4 on this one is because the reverbs and delays and such are impeccable, as most boss effects are. The dist. sucks. plain and simple. IT SUCKS. No depth. I have to kill the mids because this is a mid-range furious unit, and then it sounds "washed out". I recently built a new simple rig from this unit, a Mesa/Boogie 50/50 and a Marshall 1960b cab. Ibanez 570's with Tom Anderson H3's in the bridge are the axes of choice. The MArshall and the Ibanez are the only thing I'm gonna keep. The customizeable preamp in the "utility" deep editing section is the only hope for a rock/metal/grunge tone. It still sucks though, when compared to a real amp. Like a 5150. If I was going to start over (and I am) I would have picked up a used 5150 for about 600 bux. I would NEVER have bought this thing. I would then get a BBE, a low end lexicon and a midi board and have came out a shitload heavier in the pockets. I hate to be a hater, but I've restructured my rig three times already around this thing, and not a single positive result other than the boogie finally got me a little sustain. The Noise Sup. SUCKS. The Humanizer Sux. The Speaker Simulator SUx. The EQ Patch is a Frickin TRAINWRECK of tone. It ruins even the most simple sounds and you will not be able to lose the familiar "processor" hiss and general tone flattening that they are so famous for. Cut the mids a little to make it deeper and you lose it all. This thing actually guides you down a twisted and distorted path of learning about eq's and compression for new users because nothing is standard. When I demonstrate to studio engineers and live sound engineers alike, they stand there scratching their heads. It's like Boss decided to make their own rules about what an eq and compressor are supposed to do. Sorry to ramble on. But this is a huge problem for me. I have also had tremendous "phasing" problems live and in the studio. Anywhere but the Jamroom, thie gain and dist. sound like a wah pedal opened wide up. For lack of a better simple comparison.

Very reliable. I wish it sounded as good as it is tough and reliable. It would be worth at least the discounted 450 bux I paid for it new.

N/A

I play Rock/Metal. Original stuff. I like to crunch and drive hard, but good tone has to start from the bottom. Keep it simple. Get a good amp, Get a good TUBE pre and power amp, whatever. Stay away from this crap and build it from the amp. If all you need is good reverb and delays and stuff, low end lexicons are even better than this thing. I have been playing guitar for 15 yrs. Gigging for 5, and searching for real tone for about 3 yrs. THIS THING AINT GOT IT. If it were stolen or lost? I would rejoice. A mere inconvenience. It's gonna be hard to get rid of. I'll tell you this much, I came home from the studio the other day and when I unloaded my stuff I left the gt5 outside on top of my trashcan in the driveway all night. It was cloudy all night and supposed to rain, but it didn't start even the first drop until I noticed it outside and grabbed it. Fuckin figures. Nobody will even steal the damn thing. I'm cursed, and for the money this thing costed me, plus a c-note, I could have a 5150 and I would gladly trade all the effects for the tone that it would provide. SERIOUSLY.

Once you master this unit you will have a friend for life. Not too difficult for the average musician.

I have it as a back-up for my main rig(Vox Valvetronix 2 x 12). I have used the GT-5 for years both as a stand alone guitar processor into a stereo power amp/cabinet rig and as a multi-effect into the effects loop of a Marshall stack. Both situations proved to be useful and sounded fine. The effects are Boss...what more needs to be said. I use an expression pedal to control delay level and use the onboard control pedal to tap in my delay time. This setup is quite useful for me. I use Ibanez guitars with EMG pickups and get a very clean sound with absolutely no noise. Not too crazy about the synth sounds though. Who really uses them anyway?

Built very well. Have had problems with the small "gain" knob in the back though. I have had this for quite a while and expect some type of problem.

Never dealt with them.

I play in a semi-pro club band(www.lastknightrocks.com). Have been performing for about 17 years. This unit will remain in my arsenal of required gear as long as it's alive. I feel very comfortable having this unit with me at gigs because I know that if my main rig goes down I can be playing in just a few minutes, even if it's direct to the FOH mixer.

easy to use, I can't even see, and I figured it out in five minutes. Just push the fx button for what effect you want, and tweek it.

This is where I have to say, it sucks. My friend has one of theese, going into a fender super reverb. His tone is horribly muddy, and just sounds like a bunch of flies. I thought, he just doesn't know how to work the boss, so I tried it through my rig. It just lacks any warmth whatsoever. All the fx are cold, and sound nothing like a boss pedal.

This pedal is extremely reliable, like all boss products.

Na.

I am so disapointed it's sad. I use 6 different boss pedals, od3, ch1, two ph3's, cs3, and ns2, and the quality of theese pedals just diminishes the gt5 completely. I can't find any use for it, unless you're in to metal, and don't care about your tone.

All of it could be adjusted with a touch of a button. It was simple to switch through all the settings to get the sound i wanted. I feel that this pedal is better than the GT-6 because it has the buttons and not the knobs.

I was using a Marshall combo ampsuperb for getting a sweet distortion sound. The pedal sound fantastic through the right amp, and this was the right amp.

Its dependable when gigged. It makes switching between sounds simpler than ever. Only one time the power switch came out and ruined the first 2 minites we played. But it wasnt the pedals fault.

Ive never needed help with the pedal, its so easy to use. Its never screwed itself up so i've never required the help. I gave it ten because i never needed to use the customer support line.

The greatest thing a guitaist can have. Its helped me with everything luve i've done. Its made it an ease.

It's all logical and simple if you once understand the basic systems. Instead, if you are used to know specific parameters on effects, you'll get confused, e.g.: compressor/limiter you don't handle with concrete db but with abstract numbers 1...100. Very hard to get real good sounds. Too much optiions to set the levels. Very, very hard to get e.g. 10 Presets onto the same output levels. Too hard To set basic sounds - too much tone controls on every preset - once you get lost with ist you loose control over your final amp-setting.

Overdrive, Distortion and Delay are awful. You must experiment a lot to get half way good sounds. None of the presets are usuable onstage or for recording. I use a 800-Marshall-Top, a JTm-30-Marshall-Combo, and an Engl Screamer Combo - put the Gt-5 in front they all sound like transistors then. My '64-Strat, my 81-Strat, my Brian Moore - they all come out like any cheap one.
Everything comes better when you take it for direct recording. It did not help me onstage.
I only use the GT-5 chorus, flanger, phaser, octavider, tuner and volume pedal right now. An Ibanez TS-9 will do the rest together with the 4-channel Engl-Amp.

Real Hard Stuff. Unbreakable. But weaks on the paramter-wheel, that does not respond properly after some months of use. And I am always anxious for the built-in power cord, a seperate AC-connection would be better.

Never used

I would not buy again for stage performing. OK for recording effects. Still my Hughes+Kettner Tubeman makes a more natural and more easy_to_turn_the_Knobs-Sound. All that Equalizers, highs, lows and presences - much too much to control. Final controls you make on your amp or your mixing console.

-- I'm German, sorry for mistakes, long time out of writing english..

I've had mine for about 2 years now. Once you unlock its capabilities, Its like a religious experience. This box can do some heavy things and I'm still learning. For the first year, it pissed everyone in the band off. Now they are shocked and amazed. Initially, my biggest concern was consistancy of sound. I use to puch it thru a soldano & found some of the settings do some funky things to tube amps. Now I push it thru a rack when I gig.

Les Paul - thru - gt-5 -loop a tubeworks 9002 - to roland 3030 - 1160 poweramp - genz-benz 2/12 g-flex cab. Very little noise at high volume. The gt-5 will produce some "YUK" noise if the individual effects are not EQ'd properly. I can get everything from Van Halen to Bush to STP to Creed and even some BB King if its late. My favorite is my David Gilmour lead patch.

Never had a problem, I wish they would have made it in a rack mount version.

Never had to use them.

I use a 4 cable method of hooking this up. It would be nice to have a rack unit with a midi cable. I like this unit alot but because they are discontinued I think I might go for a lexicon g series soon. Its built like a tank but I've already had one of the switches go bad.

This is an excellent unit, a very versatile one, with excellent overdrives and distortions, it has a deep interface, this is not a unit to plug and play like many on the market, you have to set the parameter at your taste, this is for someone who likes the Boss sounds and looking for a all in one floor unit.
The manual is not that deep, but there is on the web many places and groups where you can find usefull information on every aspect of the unit.

My setup its quite simple, I have a Yamaha Pacifica and a Les Paul Gold Top Standart to a a/b switch,to a Cry Baby 535Q, to GT-5 and Fender Stage 160 4 cable method. Using the amp preamp with the effects on GT-5...excellent. Using the amp simulators and cabinets...excellent too. Very good sounds out of this unit.

My setup is not noisy, nothing at all, if noise come out, there is the noise supressor, a touch of make up and the noise is gone.

In general, the effects are all quite good, some shine more than others but no complains so far. Overdrives and distortion are excelents, reverb spacy and chorus shines, a fun synth for those groovy minds. You can mix up to 15 effects so your combinations are endless. You have to tweak to get to the sounds, but once you understand the GT-5, it gives you just what you want.

Oh yes! you can depend on this baby, on a gig I throw away my guitar one time and it hits directly to my GT-5, belive me...not a scratch, I was lucky I think.
Backup...if you protect your unit from all the dangers, theres no need for one.

Mmmmmmmhhhhhh....this is the week point of it, no information, no resurces, and they sell everything.
Their web site is never updated, poor information and lack of support.
Come on Boss...you can do it better!!

An excellent unit for the price, flexibility (the best), features, effects, concept...lovely. Not many as this. Works really good with tube and solid state amps.
I've been playing for 9 years, I have the unit for one year, it looks like new, if it were stolen or lost...what do I do?....get a new one or get a Line6 Vetta.
Its a good unit for original stuff or a cover band, compare to the others GT's, I stay with this for the features and flexibility.
I wish that the unit could be upgrade in a way to improve its amp sims, cabs, effects, midi.
Try it, it worth it.

En principio,parece que tengas que ser un genio para entender el maldito cacharro,pero es todo lo simple o complicado que TU QUIERAS,me explico, puedes poner el sistema de modo manual, como si tuvieras los pedales sueltos e incluso puedes cambiar el orden de los mismos, o si quieres puedes perderte en todo tipo de parametros y equalizaciones y quebraderos de cabeza brutales, haciendo lo que te de la gana con cada efecto,que te puede salir el sonido ese que tanto te gusta o el mayor churro-intergalactico de la historia que te hara maldecir el caharrete,diciendo:-Esta pedalera, no vale para nada... cuando has sido tu el que te castigaste las trompas de eustaquio,por tocar botoncitos aqui y alla.Cuando pases esa fase,empezaras a comprender el cacharro en profundidad y te daras cuenta de que esta pedalera, no tiene precio.Empezaras a crear PATCHES de calidad superior,quitando por un lado, y poniendo por otro.Leete el MANUAL que sera una especie de biblia. Si alguien te la vende barata...NO DUDES EN COMPRARLA, en ese caso, es que el pobre pavo que te la vende, no ha pasado la primera fase.

JA-JA-JAAA!he probado la pedalera en amplificadores de valvulas y de estado solido.TIENES QUE EQUALIZARLO DE MANERAS DIFERENTES.Pero cuando lo logres...haras que tu ampli de transistores que suena como el culo,te suene de manera bastante decente y el de vavulas, de miedo.lo he probado con mi gibson les paul custom en mi JCM 800 ZW signature y...!TOMA CASTA?A! todavia tengo los dientes que se me mueven y tics en los parpados.Solo meti en manual el turbo-distorsion,el chorus stereo y el delay. No quiero deciros nada...He escuchado cosas como que no sirve, que es demasiado digital...etc.!QUE ME BESEN EL CULO! he sacado sonidos para mi otro ampli de TRANSISTORES desde un "bastanteparecido" Zakk Wylde sound, hasta el punch distorsionado de metallica en "and justice..".En el caso de las valvulas, lo dicho, solo que tambien lo probe en el ampli de un amigo construido por el mismo (es igual que un fender twin y marshall plexi juntos), y me dio por ponerle el CARLOS DISTORSION(Santana).!JAAAAAAAAAAAA! que cara puso el colega...suena ACOJONANTEMENTE BESTIAL,un sonido lleno y calido.AMO esta pedalera y creo que Dios tendra una igual en el cielo...el diablo seguro que la tiene...jejeje. lo peor el wah,pero el aparato para ser digital raya la perfeccion.

yo pienso,que si me dieran en el craneo con el, seria lo unico que me lo podria fracturar con lo cual ya es decir demasiado.Tiene un dise?o tipo antinuclear, y a veces lo he mirado imaginando si esta hecho de ADAMANTIUM.(??????)

pues seguramente si necesito ayuda,llamaria a la delegacion de boss/roland en Espa?a.

toco blues rock,heavy metal y un poquito de todo,desde mas o menos 10 a?itos, y Boss es la mejor marca que conozco en cuestion de pedales de efectos,con este artefacto,no se aburre uno en a?os si le sabes sacar partido.Siempre he estado vendiendo y comprando cosas y esto no lo pienso vender porque ,al final, sera algo con lo que la gente se de cuenta que no te dara problema de RUIDOS ni nada por el estilo, y equivale a CASI TODOS LO PEDALES BOSS, y no tengo que comprarme uno por uno e ir buscando por ahi...es una de mis buenas compras...
Cuando veas una GT-5 de Boss,mirala con respeto,es un autentico bicharraco con el que haras lo que quieras .Es para un guitarrista lo que el calibre 45 para Harry el sucio.

The real reason I'm writing this review is for the many, many times I've witnessed a band from around here called "Emotep" (And I wouldn't be surprised if you'd heard of them - They do a superb job of promoting themselves; http://www.mp3.com/emotep); the guitarist, Will, uses a GT-5, but DOES NOT use the distortion patches at all - In fact, what he has is a MIDI-capable JMP-1 Marshall pre-amp into a Marshall power amp and uses the MIDI capabilities of the GT-5 to switch patches on the Marshall head and at the same time uses it to switch effects and such. He has both lines to the preamp and effects loop in the preamp, as well as a MIDI line to the processor from the preamp. His sound is PHENOMENAL. I highly recommend using the MIDI capabilities available in this processor and taking advantage of just the effects and reverb available in this unit. And visit http://www.mp3.com/emotep - I guarantee you will be pleased.

this is an update on my earlier reveiw.ive just posted a web site for all you GT5ers out there ill need your help to fill it full of patches etc.we will all make a site for ourselves thats full of the stuff we want to see.please please please make this dream happen.visit http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/leesgt5/ and register with the group then you can add patches,links,photos and ask or answer any question there.LETS MAKE THIS HAPPEN!

AMAZING

its harder than a tank

to register(the easy way) email: leesgt5-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk
you know it makes sense!

DONT FORGET......................http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/leesgt5/ lets do it for each other!!

Yeah this thing seems a little tricky when you first get it, but its actually quite simple when you see where its going...i don't have a manual coz i bought it second hand but its easy enough to program the patches you need and assign them to certain places..

Iam using a Greg Bennett Signature as well as an applause acoustic/elec..(not sure of the model no.) directly into the Gt5 and into a Marshall Head / Quad box. I run in directly into the effects return to bypass the Heads preamp. doing that you have the luxury of setting up the marhsall preamp for another guitar which i do. Its no more complex than that. i used to have a rack of gear including lexicon processor and compressors etc. but it became to much fucking around...the Gt5 us really cool i think for both live / studio stuff.granted all of the distortion and preamp sounds aren't exactly like the real thing but they are still very useable if you set it right. all of you guys who get on here and say Tube power amp this or Valve this have to understand that not everyone can affrod that gear so don't be assholes about it...
i think most af the effects are good except for the guitar synth which is a bit slow to track the notes........

I think this unit is very touch ... just get a case for it to look after then buttons when travelling.

None Needed

I play in an alternative kind of rock band in australia.
I have been playing for about 7 years i own lots of other gear but i have to say that the Gt5 is a very good buy ....sure it doesn't have all the same characteristics of the gear that it emulates but i think that this along with the gt6 are definetely the best multi fllor effects you can buy anywhere...

this pedal is hard to master but once you get there its a dream come true.this is an update of my earlier reveiw and since then me sound has improved 100% i cant praise the layout of this pedal enough.its easy to edit patches as long as u use your head.

guitars.fender strat,gibson les paul standard.ibanezS520 crafter electro-acoustic,behringer v-amp(great also),boss EQ pedal and a trace elliot super tramp100w(shit amp...great cab)im replacing the amp head with a line 6 or acarvin legacy soon.let me tell all u dicks out there slagging this unit off for its sounds.....u go on saying "this sounds poo...and ive only been playing guitar for 1year!!" GET REAL..AFTER ONE YEAR U DONT KNOW WHAT A GOOD GUITAR SOUNDS LIKE ANYWAY!! i love this pedal soo muchits amazing.i have a lot of sounds of my favorite artists....iron maiden,joe satriani,steve vai,eric johnson,zakk wylde,brian may,nuno,robben ford,john petrucci,me,nile rogers,tower of power,larry carlton,steve lukather,ac/dc/metallica......loads and loads more too many to name.the only effects that i dont like is the frigging ring modulator...it useless. all in all this pedal can do it all. if you want to exchange patches and tips Email me(address below) im currently writing a book on the GT5,GT3 and GT6. i would love your input.im also in the final stages of posting a web site with PROPER PATCHES that actually sound great instead of all the shit thats on the web at the moment.!

back up...........HAAHAAHAAAHAAAHAAHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEEEEHAAHAAA.
dont be silly. this thing will be around longer than any of us mate.i would trust this thing with my life.

never needed them. they should have a proper web site like LINE6 have with lots of sounds etc.

i play all styles of music from MAXWELL-METALLICA,SISTER SLEDGE TO SATRIANI AND VAI.if it were lost or nicked i would get another one a.s.a.p. but PLEASE get a hard case for it.just to stop the scratches.dont forget to Email me for help and advice on all the gt range.

Keep the owners manual to use in your fire place this winter. Thats all its good for. Once you get fed up with trying to break the "code"
so to speak, the GT-5 unlocks its secrets. After that its smooth sailing. Its so easy to use and Im still learning.

The sound quality is versatile. This was made with a lot of differant musical taists in mind. I am Playing it through a Marshall 8100 Valveste 100w head, 4x12 Marshall cab, a Crate bass amp (for my low end) through a fender 2x12 cab. With an Ibanez guitar. If you havent guessed I play Metal. It was made for it. A lot of people complaining
about the Wah. Its not a Vox straight through the Marshall, but if you've got the time, fool with it you may suprise yourself. No complaints here.

Ive dropped it Ive let it sit out and collect dust Ive hauled it around every degree of heat and cold ond once the bathroom flooded
and the carpet in the next room (where the processor was located) was wet. It still worked! Goddamn anyone who says roland/boss doesnt make good equipment.

Never had to.

Ive owned a lot of processors from Art to Digitech and practically every pedal on the market, They all have some flaw or you cant do certain things (Art: I couldnt have Chorus with the the harmonizer or
Pitch shifter). GT-5 is will spoil you.

This is a deep unit, so it demands some time from you to set up your sounds. I'd say the rewards are worth it. If you've played with other effects devices it's easy enough.

OK - Listen up GT5 players - I'll let you in on a GREAT way to use this thing for a band/live situation and get a variety of great, natural, non-digital amp sounds. I've tried a bunch of setups, this kills them all:

Amp - 1967 Fender Pro Reverb combo with "effects send/return" mod. This is a vintage tube amp, simple, cheap and plentiful on the used market. Any warm, clean-voiced tube amp (Twin, etc) would work good like this too. Here's the trick - The key is to plug your guitar into the GT5 and output the GT5 into the EFFECTS RETURN of the amp, NOT the regular guitar-input jack. This has the effect of bypassing the Fender preamp entirely, sending your GT5 signal straight to the tube power amp and out the speakers. Then, set up GT5 patches that utilize the preamp simulator (the Clean Twin sim works Great!). Make sure each patch you make has NO speaker simulator (or set speaker sim to OFF in the Global settings). You'll also have to play with EQ to get it just right. Now create a few extra patches with varying degrees of preamp crunch or additional effects and you're SET! The GT5 preamp sounds great because it's the only one in the signal chain (not fed into the amps pre) and any added mod or delay effects sound great because they are post preamp, where they should be. The tube power section in the amp warms everything up nicely and adds a lot of character. Suprisingly good for SRV, american blues, rootsy country rock, some classic rock. Not as good for heavy, marshall rock tone, but passable. This set up gives me the versatility of a "modelling" amp at a lower price, without sacrificing that old Fender tube vibe.

Bought it brand new - I've gigged with this setup every second weekend or so for the past three years - no problems! GT5 is like a brick, my only complaint with it's construction is that the pedals are too close together - sometimes I'll stomp the wrong one by accident.

No problems, never had to seek support.

I'm a big fan of vintage tube guitar tone and have been playing mostly blues and classic rock for the past 12 years. I originally bought this thing to use without an amp for a low-volume solo club act with sequencing (guitar Karaokee!) and just to use as a headphone toy at home. At first I never thought it would cut it for my band - too "digital". Boy, was I wrong! Tried using it in place of my old stomp boxes - didn't quite cut it. Then I tried the preamp bypass trick and WOW! It's like it just came to life! Awesome!

I've had my GT-5 for about 4 years and I'm still learning! The sound is excellent for straight on recording. Live I haven't used it much because it takes too much tweaking! With patience though I think it can be pulled off. Editing patches takes some getting used to and keep in mind what sounds awesome in your head phone may not sound that great coming out of your amp. The manual is pretty useless you've just got to play with the thing.

I used an old Yamaha six string electric and a Gibson SG special running through a Marshall stack. Nothing beats a marshall, but when you plug into this GT-5 you can totally lose yourself in the effects. It's like having all the boss petals ever made at your fingertips! The presets are funny! Pretty true though especially the Van Halen and Boston ones. They are a good base to build on though. Distortion is awesome if you learn to tweak the eq and the preamp along with some compression. The flanger is a bit annoying but the harmonist is sweet if you like that kind of thing. I don't mess much with the organ sounds. Check the Humanizer out it's wild! The wah does suck, but the auto wah works good. Get a Cry Baby for Wah!

No problems with this thing yet. It seems pretty tough and it's pretty heavy mostly metal.

Haven't needed them yet.

If you like lots of effects don't waste your money on millions of pedals! Also don't buy some cheap plastic multi effects board. Buy something like this especially for the studio. It's well worth the money and tons of fun!

I have exp. with editing on these kind of units so it wasn't too bad for me. Manual was good. The features it has are really good.

DISTORTIONS ARE VERY DIGITAL! Nothing worked for me and I tried all the tricks(before and after eq's, etc.) All other sounds were OK. You need to run it stereo.

Solid as a German tank.

Didn't need it.

Really good unit but use a dist. pedal in the loop (get a TUBE dist. pedal). I play 70's and early 80's hard rock - Zep,Floyd,Yes,Rush,etc. USE A TUBE AMP WITH THIS UNIT !!! The GT-5 is VERY cold and digital by itself. I traded it in for a Digitech 2120 tube preamp. I should say however that Boss pedals rule.

The GT-5 is my first multi-effects unit, but with a little direction it became easy to set up and edit patches. On stage I often use 3 patches and the pedal during a given song, and I've been able to set up everything and get even levels across patches.

I learned quickly the key to these things is tweaking the parameters. Listen to me girls, I just recorded my second album using only the GT-5. If you mess around with the distortion and speaker simulators, you can get great, warm distortion sounds. You can't tell the difference between these sounds recorded directly and those of a miked amp. No you can't. If you don't believe me please email me. It's wonderful to use this rather than fool with miking a freaking stack. All the sounds I've needed are very good with tweaking (auto-wah, delay, fantastic reverb, warm-and-slightly-dirty- to Marshall-stack-style distortion, chorus and phaser). I've heard people claim the wah is this unit's weak spot. I've only used auto-wah, but I wouldn't be surprised if the pedal-controlled wah just needs some fine tuning too.

No problems so far. Used on stage and carted around extensively without a hard case.

No experience.

There are many old-schoolers out there who'll argue until the veins in their foreheads pop that GT-3s, GT-5s and Pods don't hold a candle to their ancient Twins and Voxes, and they think it's a joke to suggest any simulator comes close. But the fact is many simulators are fantastic and sound just as good once you scrap the horrible presets. The sound is just as good, and you can record direct. You can record an enormous, distorted sound in the middle of the night without waking housemates or neighbors. I front a band, and I've had several guitarists with pdeals strewn all over the floor who say my GT-5 is okay, but doesn't get great tone. Then they play through it during a break and mess with the parameters and almost always grumble that a) they've been meaning to get a better distortion pedal anyway, and b) there's probably some effect on the GT-5 that's weak. That's guitarists for you, adddicted to their retarded array of pedals because they've gotten so used to their own sound, even if something better and more convenient is out there. Trust me here, I love having only my GT-5 to lug around. No batteries or patch cables to troubleshoot. I actually plan to try going direct into the PA at my next gig.

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.

it only really sounds great after about...........2 months of messing about with it.at first i hated it because the presets are either too "twinkly"or totally useless.i also discovered the problem of programming problems ie,at "normal" volumes you can create a patch that sounds like heaven itself with all the right delay,reverb levels but as im sure im not the only one when your at a gig or in a situation of the upmost importance all you can hear is a echo of every little noise and it sounds like your playing in grand canyon coz of all the reverb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!but after the first gig with the gt5 i altered all the patches to sound...great.one of my tips is to programme in two ways.1)with headphones so you get the direct,most true sound.2)at a loud level!.even though your girlfriend will moan.(or boyfriend)!!!

my set up is a fender strat,ibanez rg550ex and a les paul.amp..marshall vs265r what i find really usefull is to plug into the amps input from the mono jack of the gt5 and the effects loop return jack(at the back of the amp)from the right jack of the gt5 then use the effects mix knob on the amp to set the mix...it makes the sound more warm through the loop.effects wise has anyone on earth got use for the ring modulator?i mean its useless.!but the distortions and preamps are roasting they oose tone and dynamics.and i love the speaker sim coz it adds so,so,so,so much to the overall tone its just amazing!!i love the tone quality all round but the processing time of the reverse delay should be better coz that anoying click ruins an other wise brilliant and (rapidly becoming an)essential effect.

you can depend on it heavilly.its a steel tone machine that can take the heaviest of hits(trust me i know)and keep on going.one suggestion is please,please buy a hard case for it coz they look awfull when they get scratched and it hurts your feelings too.backup?......well i also use a line6 pod aswell(that rectified setting rules!!!!!!!!)as the gt5 so i have THE BEST TONE ON EARTH so if one go's then im always prepared.

never needed help.no problems on that front.just maybe some more web sites for patches would be nice...please....roland...please.

in its case its just sooooooooooooooooooo heavy but....thats a small price to pay.since ive had mine four of my freinds have bought one on the basis of my sound alone.just get rid of the ring modulator.so all in all i love it,every now and again i hate it then i love it again but because im so in love with it even my girlfreind could write a 100 page guide to it and programme any kind of tone into it you wanted just on the fact that i wont shut up about it....and she's not even a guitarist...that says it all.hello adam hows the gt3?

It`s incredible how a 5x5 mile (!) effects processor can be easy. You can get almost every sound you want (if you read the manual gets better). I play guitar for about 4 years and belive me, you will not find something like this. These guys saying that its hard to deal with it are fuckin dumb!! Its easy as zoom 505!! The only thing that its boring its the bulkdump function that sometimes (if not used correct) can mess the order of your patches, but nothing that a couple of hours in front of it to get familiar.

I use a epiphone g-400 with a peavey bandit 112 and its fantastic. I play alternametal,hc, blues and jazz. I can get clean sounds if I want and fucking metal sounds if I want. The big deal here is use the EQ/preamp correct: if you set this things right you will get what you want. There is also a function called noise supressor that can really make magic. Its like having all boss stompboxes in one (you can even set the order). The only thing that sucks is the "MOD": you cannot use any combination of harmonist, flanger, phaser, subEQ, Short delay, vibrato humanizer, ring modulator, AC guitar sim and guitar synth.

You can really depend on it. Its hard as rock. Built like a tank. The only thing that need care is the power chord and the LCD cover (cheap plastic), but nothing that would screw up a gig. I have giged lots of times, without backup, and its absolutly safe.

I live in Brazil and the guys here really help, but they sometimes are slow...

How i said before I play for a long time and i really know what im saying. I play diferent kinds of music and i can get the sound i want. I would by another one in the next day if it were stolen.
When i bought it i was between GT-5 and RP 20, the salesman asked me: "what do you prefer: coke or pepsi?" and i said:"coke" and he said:"I prefer pepsi. They are different, bat all the same!! Its your deal choose one." So you will not konw if its really good unless you spend a couple of hours trying it in you retalier. Good look and feel free to ask me whatever you want (english, Espa?ol and portugues).

It really isn't too hard to figure out. I hate reading those manuals.
They're probably written by engineers rather than from a novice user
which is who will be using it. But they did a fair job explaining
the programming procedures. Once you "get it" you'll be able to dial
it in.

I use a Fender Strat Plus and a Peavey5150 combo. At first I was upset
because the GT-5 sounded like crap in the 5150. Then I messed around
with it and realized all I had to do was remove all the pre-amp and
distortion settings from any patch and it sounded great. You can get
alot of different tones using the equalizer. The 5150 has enough of
it's own distortion and when I need a really crunchy sound I use a
Tube Screamer. This is the best set-up I've found if your using a
5150. But, other guys I know, using different amps like using the
GT-5 distortion and pre-amp. All the other effects are great and it
is by far the cleanest effects unit I've ever found. I'm not crazy
about the digital sound and with my easy adjustments, it has a warm
sound.

I've been using mine for live gigs for three years now. The only
problem I've had is some drunk bastard stepped on that plastic
adjustment switch and broke ot off. Now, I struggle to program
new patches. The dial won't land where I want it to. I'm not yet sure
how easy it's going to be to replace this device! Help! I'm giving
a 7 rating because of this, the thing is made of steel and seems
pretty solid, the patch pedals seem firm and sure. If only that
programming switch were made of steel we'd see a 10!

I'll soon find out!

We play alot of high energy classic rock and blues. I've been playing
for 28 years and never cared for digital effect processors. I've tried
them all. My buddy used to own a music store! This unit is by far the
cleanest sounding I've ever used. Forget the effects loop, plug her
right in the main input of the amp. If stolen, I'm buying another.
You will be able to get what you want from this device but you'll
have to earn it by making adjustments, but it's fun because half
of the battle is finding "your" sound and the GT-5 will get you
there, you just have to play around and discover the possibilties.

I dont understand why people say its difficult to use, even after never even bothering with the manual its not a problem setting up a patch from new whether it's clean or distorted with every effect available.
The existing patches are good but nobody will use them as they are, and editing them is simple enough.
Manual? never read it, not even to learn how to transfer patches to and from it using midi and the PC, its that easy.

Currently its used with a USA Fender Strat Plus, and a Gibson SG-X, and a twin fender tube amp, and we've tested Gibson Les Paul's and loads of others through it, its good for Bass guitars too, and any vocal's you might want to run through it is you were recording say.
Generally, it doesnt matter how pants your guitar is, the GT-5 will produce a similar sound for any guitar with minor tweaking. Just make sure the input control on the GT-5 isnt too high (indicated by an overload LED which flickers to let you know if it's too high) or your clean will suffer and sound knackers. We dont like running through the effects loops cos it just doesnt sound as good as running it through the normal inputs.
The effects are amazing, infact the versatility is absolutely amazing, you really can do anything with this. I've heard people complain about the Wah, but the same people couldnt distinguish a recording done with the wah on this and a Jim Dunlop Original CryBaby, but its not as good as the 95Q CryBaby. You'll be recreating the sounds of your favourite artist in minutes, we play a lot of Metallica, Pantera & Machine Head when messing about which use just about every effect on the pedal and the result sounds identical, though you will probably dislike the preset distortion if you just enable the equalizer and put the Lo to 20, and the Hi to about 17 you will have a good crunchy sound just with that, and cant start worrying about fine tuning it later.
The actual quality of the sound is also excellent, and you can make it better which would seem impossible by changing the position of the effects in the Effect Chain.

I've never had a single problem in two years, it never fails.

Not had to deal with them.

Whatever style you are going to play this product will deliver what you want to get out of it, and more besides. I wont bother with any other pedal beside this and future generations of boss pedals, it is great for playing live but perfect for recording, with its line out socket directly into your hardware. If you sit and just run through the presets though, you will be inspired by the possibilities this equipment holds and will fluidly create new sounds and be writing new stuff effortlessly as it unleashes all your creativity as you marvel at its potential.
If it is scratched, that person is crucified, if it were stolen I would seriously be so furious that I might just die.
I love everything about it, except the ring modulator cos it is a willies effect in general. There is nothing to dislike about it though, I read some people dont seem to like the plastic bits but I dont see how they could break, at all. In my opinion this product is worth far more than its selling price (and I paid $900 for it in the UK cos it has to be imported) and when compared to other effect pedals nothing even comes close, the digitech's and zooms are gathering dust in the attic, I wouldnt feel right even selling those pedals up there on to someone else, even for 10 pounds cos that would be a rip off for what they are compared to this. Seriously, you cant be doing without it, it can do whatever you want it to, if it doesnt sound quite right, arse about with it even if it takes a whole minute (cos thats all it takes) cos you'll get it eventually.
You can even add two extra expression pedals and assign effects to them which is very useful, and you'll be able to create some more effects from that. I also love that you can download other peoples patches, even if you still cant get the hang of it, you'll be able to just go on the net and get other peoples who will have probably created what you are looking for already then just download to your GT-5 with your midi cable.
Theres not much else I can say but that if you try this then you wont even consider another pedal, now or in the future, the only limit is, rahter cheesily I know, your own imagination.

Easy to manipulate. HARD to learn how to get the sounds you want...

I use Ibanez RG-470 and a Peavey Studio Pro 112. I play mostly Dream Theater like stuff (...so everything virtually). There is a tremendous ability of the unit to give all kinds of sounds and all kinds of distortion I want. But for the first MONTHS I was kind of dissapointed because I could get them. YOU CAN'T GET A DECENT DISTORTION SOUND UNLESS YOU FIND THE TRICKS. IF YOU DO, YOU CAN GET IT ALL. I have seen other unit like Zoom 8080 for example. Much easier to get a good sound cause its ready made... In gt5 it is not! THE DISTORTION PRESETS ARE H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E ! I can't figure out what kind of people arranged them. Definitely not the ones that made the unit...
I'm bored and can't get into details but the trick is:
- Use OD/DS, PREAMP, SP SIM, EQ ALLTOGETHER and find the good combinations. It may take you days, weeks or months play particularly with distortion level and right pre-amp and preamp volume,master. SOME COMBINATIONS WILL JUST NOT WORK. BUT SOME OTHER WILL. Also make your own distortion setting. Experiment on things you don't think they'll work. Cause they might do work. After a year I am most satisfied. But still confused about new sounds I'm getting near to, and searching the way to get them exactly... Good luck and do not pay attention to the complete idiots that post a review with Ease of use=8,9,10 and Quality of sound= (low). They just were not clever enough (and they will never be)...

Well yes, but the plastic button should be metallic...

I bought it second hand,without the manual :-(. Not in any site of boss or roland :-((((((

I would pay 1000 dollars for a master of gt5 to show me his tricks...

This unit is very easy to use. The effects knobs on the panel really make it work, but you really need to spend some time to get to know all the possibilities and sounds. Finally there is a tool on the web that is called GT5-edit. If you own a computer with soundcard and MIDI cable, THEN GET IT. This is really great. It really helps you arrange your patches and tweaking your presets. You have to have revision 1.06 though. Mine is version 1.03 which means I can't do tweaking online. I use it now to store my preset and try new ones. The manual is translated into dutch ok, but adds nothing to what you can find out yourself. There are no sound examples whatsoever. I suggest you just use the presets and tweak them.

I use it with a stratocaster and a Godin Artisan signature. Then comes the GT-5 which leads directly into the instrument jack of my Marshall bichorus 200. The GT-5 and my amp both have loop 'send' and 'returns'. I tried all the possible configurations, but this really sounds best for me. I can get some great convincing sounds out of my setup, like a "Killing in the name off"-solo and great Metallica and Van Halen sounds. There are some websites with presets that are really worth trying. Though I have some trouble with adjusting the volume during gigs. A little tweaking at the guitar input can really mess up your settings concerning the volume. About the effects: The wah sucks, I use my Jimi Hendrix wah which sounds a lot better. The Van Halen pre-amp is definitely the best sounding pre-amp from my point of view. I mostly use it on stage and play covers like Metallica, Limp Bizkit, Green Day and Van Halen (I found a great eruption solo preset, thanks Rolf). The EQ is good. Reverb could be better. It's not that realistic. I use it mostly for the distortions, but there are so many effects you can really get any sound you like.

I have had it for 2 years now. Last week it suddenly wouldn't work while I was setting up my stuff fot a gig. I really was scared shitless, because I have no backup. I have to say that it was stored for a week at about zero degrees celcius (freezing point) so it might be my own fault. After a little warming up it worked fine for the rest of the night, no problems at all. It has taken some beer at some wild parties, but it has never really failed me yet.

Never dealt with them

We mostly play rocksongs like Metallica, Van Halen, Nirvana etc. The GT-5 really fits into this type of music. But I can also get sounds out of it like the Liquido organ, for example. It is really very versatile. Unfortunately I do not own any other effects gear so I can not really compare it with other stuff. I would buy it again if it were not for the modern technology moving so fast. There is a lot of new stuff out there.
I really love the sound and the possibilities it offers. I also love the fact that after some tweaking I now can setup my gear within 5 minutes and just play. What I don't like is that the stompbox mode is not editable per preset, but only once. Also the control switch is a bit close to the expression pedal. I use it for volume control and have to take care not to step on the exp. pedal when I hit the contr. pedal. I also miss the possibility to tweak effects online. You can program one effect to the exp. pedal but if you decide to add a little more reverb, chorus or whatever you have to use your hands, but that is just a minority.
Finally, I would like to know if anyone has tried it on different amps and what amp sounds the best. I now get the best sound plugging into the preamp and that is a bit strange concerning the GT-5 already has its own preamps. If you have any suggestions, please mail me.

Ok,If you come to this site regularly you already know the features.Editing patches are somewhat easy.If you've owned a multi fx before you will know how to use it.The manual is crap.jJust gives you the basics,but for me thats all i needed.Mine came with the upgrade already installed.The layout on this thing is absolutly killer!!Just be prepared to spend some time with the unit and it will reward you with some awesome tones.

I normally run this into the loop of my marshall TSL 100w combo.Usually play a jimmy page or studio les paul guitar with it,sometimes my prs ce22 and wolfgang special thru it.First of all let me say it is the ultimate headphone amp.sounds good thru cans,but that is not why i bought it.The presets are ok,but make your own,this is where you can make magic.the possibilties are endlees.the pre amps are good,but i don't like to use them with my amp.I have the ultimate amp(in my opinion),but the effects(reverbs,chorus,flange,phaser,eq's)are the best i've heard in a multi unit as this.It is a little digital sounding,but not in a bad way.this is also a pretty quiet unit.i have one patch that has nothing on it running straight into the loop and i hear no difference in tone.The distortions are good,but once again;a little too digital.It can give you a good 80's metal tone.The pre-amps are o.k.but not as good as the line 6 pod,in my opinion.The EQ's are the best thing about this unit to me. you got several to work with and they will mold your sound to the best it can be.The tuner is good,it even lets you store 3 of your favorites(way cool. the wah is good,but not spectacular.the humanizer is a cool feature on it. feed backer is useful at low volumes.Pitch shifter is good,ring modulator(who cares),that is not a must have.Speaker simulator is the best i've ever heard.This really just scratches the surface on this unit.Bottom line, with a quality amp you can do no wrong.you can get any tone desirable.

made of metal and heavy duty plastic,it will last forever if you take care of it.allways have a few pedals to back you up just in case.

never used it.their web site is not that good though.

I've been playing for over ten years.i also own a few pedals(boss,ibanez,proco rat2).crybaby wah,zoom 2020.rockman sustainor/chorus/delay rack unit.i wanted something i could plug in and play and this does the job.compared it to the gt-3,rp2000,digitech rp14.This to me was the most complete unit out of them all.Just spend some time with it.If it were stolen it would be a shame,but i would move on,i might buy it again,but i would also look around again,these units just get better and better,and cheaper as well.i also own a peavy transfex pro 212s amp,it is real good too.but the boss sounds just a little bit,i mean barely better.The gt-5 does the one thing i need it to do,MAKE MUSIC!AND MAKE IT WELL<ALL IS GOOD<IN MY WORLD>

Tweaking the sound (especially the distortions) took a lot of my time
but eventually the results I got were very satisfying. Editing the patches is a bit awkward now because after owning the unit for about two years the patch wheel has gone a bit funny so sometimes when you turn it quickly it doesn't respond. Other than that the ease of editing the patches is average compared to other units

Setup: Ibanez RG390LTD --> Boss GT5 --> Marshall VH100 + 4x12 cab
I play metal music so the distortion was the most important sound I had to get. After much tweaking I got the sound I wanted, the factory distortion patches aren't that good. Otherwise the rest of the effects are brilliant especiallt the wah (it has a strong effect unlike some pedals and fx units I've tried). Also the delay time between selecting patches is minimal.

Strong Metal casing + very sturdy buttons.
I have owned the unit for two years now and have experienced the following : The mains cable is connected directly to the unit as a result of too much moving the unit around the cable is now dodgy so I have to tape the cable in place to keep it working. Also the patch wheel is dodgy so now I have to turn is slowly to select things.

never contacted them

I bought this as I could not afford rack mounted gear. I have used it now for two years and have found it to be excellent for me. If it broken or got lost I would definitly buy another.
If only the power cable was separate + the patch wheel worked properly....

the EQ is quite dificult to set!!

the distortions are ridiculous!!! they are too bad to be true!

it looks dependable!

They are very nice guys...

I had to sell it, so...

Very easy to use for an effects processor. You really don't need the manual at all if you have at least had some experiance with multi-effects. Much easier and faster editing than most Zoom stuff.

Im using a Custom Strat body guitar with a Warmouth Neck and Seymour Duncan pickups. I also run a Line 6 DM4 distortion modeler and a Boss Hyper Fuzz through the loop of the GT-5. Then that goes into my Sovtek Mig-50 50 watt tube head.
It is pretty noisy but turning the noise suppressor all the way up cures this this. Mabye its just my guitar or my cheap cables that are making all the hissing.
I never use the amp modeling because my Sovtek already sounds great.
Distortion is actually not that bad but I prefer my Line 6 pedal. All the distiortions have that edgy digitalness to it. The Line 6 Distortion accents the pick attacks much better.
Flange is good and very useable. It won't do that ADA deep wooshing flange. Turn up the resonance too high and it starts to sound horrible.
Chorus, Delay, Tremolo, Phaser and stuff like that are very good sounding and very versatile in the parameters they give you. They all have that slight digital edge to them but its not hideous. The only things that are bad are the synth and harmonizer. The synth tracks horribly and so does the harmonizer. Icky and unuseable.

Metal casing. The pedals seem sturdy enough. Would use at a gig.

Never needed.

My band plays Industrial music. But I am also into jazz,funk,metal, experimental, techno, electronica, ect. This processor is good for any king of music. But those distortions are kinda dry, not warm enough. So get some stomp boxes or I recommend getting a Line 6 DM4 Distortion modeler and run it through the effects loop of the Gt-5 and you have the perfect setup. You can put the effects in any order to make some truly unique sounds. Defenetly helps me make music. I originally bought a zoom GFX-8. The zoom has better/warmer distortions but the EQ is very limited compared to the GT-5. And the GT-5 has much better and versatile sounding modulation effects.

Okay, I'm a Boss Pedal Lover and decided to shell out roughy $600 for the GT-5. I got it and was turned away from it. The place I bought it gave me a 45 day trial period to try it out. Anyhow I boxed and unboxed this unit 4 times and made several attempts to call the online company for a return. Every time I did something came up whether it was personal like my doorbell ringing, or a disconnection on the phone, as well as no answer past business hours. So I would play with it some more still on the edge of trying to decide if I should keep it. I AM GLAD I NEVER SENT THIS BACK!!!!!!

You might Bitch and complain that it's complicated, but you get used to it. My biggest problem was coming from a Korg Toneworks AX1000G multieffects pedal. The korg has the real time editing knobs right in front of you and such. So when I went from the Korg to this I was overwhelmed with all the buttons and programming of the GT-5. Keep in mind, this is VERY programmable and does take some tweaking on your part. YOU WILL LOVE THIS, TRUST ME! I've had this for about a week and I love it and am never going back to my Korg. The Korg I had still kicks ass for it's class. Yes, I'm still learning the programming, etc.. but the more I play with it the more I love it. If GT-5's were foster kids I'd adopt as many as possible.

I think the manual is a lacking in alot of areas, but I'm a hand's on kind of learner and just threw the manual in the corner after I learned how to write my patches. Once you get the hang of it, it does become easy to play with.

My axe collection includes: a Epiphone SG-400(stock humbuckers), Fender Strat(vintage noiseless single coil pickups), and a ESP M-300 with EMG-Hz's. I play on my Crate Stack and LOVE the GT-5.
It's not noisey at all. The sound is the cleanest I ever heard out of a multi-effect pedal. The only 'noise' you get is in the hands of the operator!(setting gain and treble too high, etc). Having this GT-5 has made me feel like a kid again like in the good old days when you'd get a new nintendo game. I can't leave the GT-5 alone! Keep in mind you may say some of the sounds suck, but you'll have to dive in and play around with it. Alot of the patches honestly are crappy. Some of the settings make it sound too digital.
I like playing everything from jazz, rock, punk, and metal.
It's a UN-prejudice multieffects pedal. You can get any sound needed for any style of music.

This thing is BIG and Rugged. The only cheap parts on it are the plastic dial knob, maybe some parts of the foot pedal. Other than that I can't rate this. I haven't had any problems.

didn't need any support, however I dislike their website and there isn't much information available on their site.

If this was stolen I'd hunter the bastard down who stole it and decapitate him and set his head on the top of my stack.
The only thing I'd do different on this pedal is add more space for addition user created patches!!!!! The GT-5 is a true PREAMP. Alot of pedals really aren't. I can tell a big difference with the GT-5. I love the fact that it has it's own Send and Receive for external pedals. It rules!

I just recently traded my GT-3 (plus) $200 for a used GT-5 and the GT-5 didn't come with a owners manual however I already knew how to navigate through the basic operating system from my previous experience with the GT-3 but there are tons of stuff and a manual would sure would surely come in handy. All and all its not so hard to use especially if you do a little homework.

I have several Strats but my main axes are the USA made Yngwie Malmsteen Signature Model (I love this guitar) and Jimi Hendrix Signature Model (this one too) and my amp is the Johnson JT-50. The Johnson amp modeling is OK but since I haven't purchase the optional foot controller so I just set the amp on clean and use the GT-5 for effects and amp simulation. Guess what? I am TOTALLY thrilled with the sound. The GT-5 is a lot better sounding than the GT-3(warmer, thicker, etc.) I admit that a haven't had time to mess around with all the patches but trust me this baby is great. There are already tons of reviews submitted talking about the technical aspects of this unit so I wont bother but I will say that it is VERY quiet and the overdrives and distortions are GREAT. I also own a RP-7 and as I mentioned before that I had I once had a GT-3 but to me there is no comparison. If you're thinking about getting it, get it.

I can't speak on the reliability issue but it seems to be constructed quite well and I have had absolutely no problems. Time will tell because I use it 5-6 hours daily.

I never dealt with customer support but I did go on-line to try to down load a manual and I could find one but maybe I'll call to see if I can get one mailed

I play Neo Classical (mostly Yngwie's stuff) and a lot on Hendrix's songs and also blues and funk. I also write my on original songs which cover a grambit of things depeneding upon my mood. This unit can easily handle the whole spectrum of music I play. I've been playing various musical instruments (trumpet, french horn, bass guitar, keyboards) for all my life but I just recently seriously switched to guitar about 3 years ago but I got so involved that I crambed 10 years of pratice into 3. I know guitarist that's been playing all their life and still haven't figured out how to play any Hendrix and have absolutely no ideal what Yngwie is doing

Well i've just got it and it's bitch to use as the moment, well not actually using it but knowing HOW to get the sound i want. All the effects are straight forward, editing them is a peice of piss, either on or off. It the levels and effects chain that requires a bit of getting used to. The manual is OK, i think it will make more sense when i get more familiar with using it. It certainly is not self explanitory and will need many hours messing with it to dial in the sound i want.

My set-up is a Jackson Kelly with EMG's (81 and 85) through and MXR 31 band EQ and a Peavy studio pro (soon to be 5150 II)and marshall cabinet.The GT-5 kicks arse and when i get my new amp it will rock even more. The only prob i have with it is the 5150 pre amp setting it FUCKING NOISY but the rest are choice. One tip is that you should set your setting with the volume cranked cause you might have an excellent meaty sound at low volume but when you have a jam, it will sound like shit cause it will bass out and sound muddy so set it at the volume that you are likely to play it at.
The wah is a little to be desired but after messing with it i can get a decent throaty wah sound out of it, i think it will rival my mates digitech.
I play blues and classical but particularly metal and this thing does it ALL. I love Carcass, metallica, pantera, sepultura and i think it can sound pretty damn close. The distortions are excellent and the range of effects and sound is just brilliant. I love my GT-5.
This thing has it all and i keep finding more shit to do with it all the time.

well i haven't put it through the hard yards yet, but the dude i bought it off have it for 18 months and it's still tough as can be. It's made of metal and the pedal seem very durable. I would depend on it anytime and if it fucks up, i've got the distortion of the 5150 mach II, which rules.
VERY RUGGED MACHINE

All is good, i had metal zone for 2 years and never had problem, i expect the same from the GT-5

the GT-5 is n effect processor capable of acquiring any sound for any guitar player. For me , a rhythm and lead guitarist for metal for 5 years it does the deed and does it well, i haven't had it for long but i haven't even scrathed the surface yet, this is the machine for me. my friend has a GX-700, which has the same mother board as the GT-5 but as a floor unit instead of a rack mount. I felt being a rack it would be imnpractable and cost more cause i have to buy a extention pedal board, i don't have a roadie so who is going to change my effects throughout a song? ME so the GT-5 made more sense. If i lost it or it blew up, i'd have to say i'd get it again 'cause this machine is incredible.
I love the dial, the LCD display the midi input, i love it all except it's damn hard to use at the beginning and the wah is pretty lame. The doubling effect shreds (dimebag sound) distortions and chorus rule (metallica)fat or thin sounds, i love it all, what can i say?
boss are supreme in affordable effects and as far as distortion are concerned i stop with boss, the rest are fantastic unless you want to invest outrageous amounts of money in some thing like the eventide H-3000.
I wish it had an undo button because within the first hour of having it i had this amazing sound (chunk as hell) and i wrote over it!! and i could not get it back even after spending another at leats two hours! MAKE SURE YOU DON"T FUCK SHIT UP AND DON"T EDIT OVER EXCELLENT SOUNDS!
The range of effect will definately allow me to broaden my musical tatses and experiment more, an excellect education tool as well.

GT-5 KICKS arse!!!

First off, turn the speaker simulator to ALWAYS ON if you want to use any of the preset settings otherwise you will end up with the most weak and fuzzy distortion sounds that will remind you of a wasp in a jam jar rather than THOSE Boss overdrives... Editing patches are easy peasy and the only problem i have encountered is that sometimes there is TOO MUCH choice of settings i.e how many volumes! EVERYTHING has got an output control so get ONE of these wrong and the sound is compromised either in distortion or lack of punch.The manual is informative but it doesn't explain clear enough for the average non-rocket scientist amongst us...

I use a Fender usa Tele through a 96 Fender Twin and after trying for hours to get a decent clean sound i always unplug the GT-5 and go straight through the amp which pi*s*s over it!!! I bought it for the distortion/overdrive sounds but they all need alot of tweaking to get them sounding as good as the individual effects pedals.I find the amp and speaker simulators help shape a sound but i never needed them before so.... The sounds i preset sound different every time i switch it on! I can be up all night perfecting a sound and when i come to play it the following day, what is this?!?!?! Maybe i'm not the sound engineer you need to be but after setting some awsome overdrive sounds i took my GT-5 along to band practise and the sounds were not there.By just moving the unit to a different room can produce totally different sounds, i couldn't hear any power but instead a low mid-free sound that couldn't cut through some melted butter! Trying to emulate my favourite artists has never been my greatest skill but the GT-5 does actually allow me to come close.I've got a decent RATM and Pink Floyd and Linoleum.I do not agree with the noise debate as it is pretty quiet on the whole apart from the acoustic simulator which, apart from plugging directly into a recording console as the manual suggests, this just sounds like a sharp hissy clean guitar sound.The MOD effects are more toys than proffessional effects.Ring modulator? Pardon?Brass? Ha ha ha ha, strings,synth all these are totally useless in 'normal' playing and i would have rather payed less and had these FX (sic) left in the toy cupboard...

Six months into using it the feeble power lead broke internally and i had to open it up to re-solder it, which was when i noticed the 'internal battery'.This is nothing more than something you would find in your digital watch or calculator! Save yourself some money and buy a new one and change it yourself and not 'take it into a Boss dealer' as the manual states.One word of warning though BE CAREFULL electricity hurts!!! The jog dial on mine is wearing out and i can spin it round and nothing happens! I have to turn it real slow to get it to move! I am impressed by the sturdy metal case though.It makes a pleasant change from all the cracked plastic effects pedals i've been through, and even though the power lead did break i am eternally greatful that i'll never have to buy one of 'those' adaptors again!!!

N/A

I wouldn't be as kind to myself as to call it a 'style' but the type of sounds i like are good clean pure thick and sparkling.The GT-5 isn't ideal for this but every once in a while i like to Rock-out and that's when it really comes into its own! It is a good mixed bag of surprises but if you're after a particular type of sound, such as a Rickenbacker through a Vox then buy a Rickenbacker and a Vox.. and so on for all those other 'famous' combinations.For an idea of what having these would sound like this is well suited to you as not many of us could afford to buy everything we desire. When i feel like playing some guitar i pull all my gear out and start to set it up but spend over 90% of the time just tweaking the damn thing to get what i'd call a passable good sound! When i do it's pure guitar heaven (though not for the neighbours as this thing is v.loud!) but occaisonally i just turn it off, plug directly into my amp and rediscover why i bought a Twin in the first place...

I had a RP-7 before. Compare to RP-7, GT-5 are easier. Like every multi-effect, preset sucks. The manual is good enough to tell me the functions and settings.

Ok, I am a metal guy, and sometime I play some blues. What I need is a multi-effect unit and play good metal sound and normal blues sound.
RP-7(digitech) have a good blues sound, but the metal sound sucks, not hot, not enough distortions, EQ range not large.
GT-5 provide mass distortions for metal sound(remember to tweak the EQ), and if u want nice metal sound, check out the preamp and speaker sim. sections. Preamp/Speaker, Distortion/Preamp/Speaker or Distortion/Speaker, try out everything, u will find it great~~~
The Preamp Section have Fender Twin, after tweaking the EQ, I am able to get the clean tube sound from my RP7 (my old RP7 have a 12AX7 inside).

If u want prefect sounds, u may go for tons of Amp or tons of single pedals (good amps and good single pedals, EQ, chorus, reverb, some distortions, some overdrives, Delays~~~~ cost you a fortune)

I have compare with some single pedals, low priced (said $70us) can't compare with GT-5. and in this price range, u can't find a better multi-effect.

The Speaker Sim Sections are very important to me, I use it to reduce the artifical metalic sound. I know GT3 combined the Speaker Sim and Preamp Sim, u cannot set the combination. Personally if u can in Metal, and can't afford high price devices, GT-5 is a good choice. It's still pricely? OK, get a Used Gt-5, or GT-3. My one is also a used.

Remember, Speaker Sim, Preamp Sim, EQ!!!! Tweak all the premeter, know them will, then u will able the get a good sound.

EASIER THAN DIGITECH, BUT REQUIRES SOME STUDY OF THE MANUAL TO GET FULL POTENTIAL. THERE ARE ENDLESS COMBINATIONS OF EFFECTS ESPECIALLY PRE-AMP AND DISTORTION. COMBINE THAT WITH THE ABILITY TO CHANGE THE ORDER OF EFFECTS AND THE DISTORTION COMBINATIONS ALONE ARE BAFFLING. THIS UNIT WILL TAKE SOME TIME FOR THOSE WHO WANT SPECIFIC SOUNDS BUT WELL WORTH THE EFFORT. THE BEST THING IS THE ABILITY TO NAME YOUR PATCH AND CONTINUE TO EDIT THE PARAMETERS OVER A PERIOD OF DAYS OR WEEKS TO FINE TUNE SPECIFIC ARTIST OR SONG REQUIRMENTS. MANUAL IS OK BUT REQUIRES SOME PRACTICE TO UNDERSTAND THE LAYOUT.

I HAVE ACHIEVED SOME AMAZING CLEAN TONES VIA PRE-AMP LIGHT CHORUS REVERB AND ACOUSTIC SIMULATOR(VERY LIGHT) COMBINATIONS SPARKLING RESULTS. THE DISTORTIONS ARE VERY USEFULL AND ONE CAN GO FROM SLIGHT CRUNCH TO FULL SHRED WITH EXTREME TONAL AND DRIVE VARIATIONS. TRY THE PRE-AMP IN FRONT OF THE DISTORTION EFFECTS FOR A MORE REALISTIC ANALOG DISTORTION SOUND. THE CUSTOM PRE-AMP AND DISTORTION MODES ALONE PROVIDE A VAST ARRAY OF POSSIBLE CONFIGURATIONS. AMP MODELING IS USEFULL BUT NOT ACCURATE. HOWEVER, YOU DO GET A VAST VARIETY OF CLOSE SOUNDS WITHOUT THE NEED FOR TEN AMPS ON STAGE. PLEASE REMEMBER, IF YOU ARE USING A MIC THRU A MIXER IN A LIVE SITUATION, UNLESS YOU HAVE A 600.00 DOLLAR MIC AND A VERY GOOD CONSOLE, AND AN EXPERT SOUND ENGINEER WITH GODD MAINS AND HIGH DOLLAR OUTBOARD GEAR, YOUR MARSHALL DOESNT SOUND THE SAME TO THE AUDIENCE AS IT DOES TO YOU. THEREFORE, THE GT-5 IS VERY EFFECTIVE AT EMULATING DIFFERENT AMP COMBINATIONS. AS FOR RECORDING, NOTHING BEATS A GOOD PLEXI WITH A TUBE MIC AND THIS UNIT WILL NOT GIVE THE SAME SOUND. IT TOOK ME SEVERAL WEEKS TO REFINE PARAMETERS, AND TIME OFF HELPED ME RE-EVALUATE PARAMETER ADJUSTMENTS. ITS HELPFULL TO HAVE FAMILIAR EFFECTS IE STOMP BOXES OR OTHER GEAR THAT YOUR USED TO TO A\B AGINST YOUR PATCHES WHEN YOUR TWEAKING CERTAIN PARAMETERS.

EVERYTHING BOSS MAKES IS TOUGH. I ALWAYS TAKE A BACKUP, ALWAYS!!!SO FAR THOUGH ITS BEEN A SOLDIER EVEN SURVIVED A SOAKING WITH A MIXED DRINK COKE AND RUM BY THE SMELL.

NEVER HAD TO CALL THEM.

FOR LIVE SITUATIONS, THIS THING IS GREAT. I HAVE PROGRAMMED A SPECIFIC SOUND FOR EVERY SONG WE PLAY. IT HAS ELIMINATED 8 PATCH CORDS, AND GIVES ME A TUNER VOLUME AND NOISE REDUCTION I HAD PREVIOUSLY NO USED. IT IS CONSISTENT EVERY GIG, AND I NEVER ACCIDENTALLY KICK A VOLUME LEVEL UP OR DOWN WHILE CHANGING PATCHES AS SOMETIMES HAPPENS WITH STOMP BOXES. I NEVER ADJUST MY AMP ANYMORE FOR VOLUME, AND RARELY DO I NEED TO ADJUST ANY PARAMETER WHILE GIGGING. FOR THESE REASONS, I WILL NEVER RETURN TO STOMP BOXES IN A LIVE SITUATION. AND COMPARING THE COST AGAINST STOMP BOXES OF EQUAL QUALITY, THIS IS A BARGAIN.

This box is highly unuseable in most situations / It can get hard to be hard on this box, But she doesn't really have it. The GT-5 has every option you could think of and it is on the floor - Perfect I thought. After two years of use I finally gave up on it. I had to dance on it in order to get this to sound right. I mean I would tune this thing perfect distortion I even edited the parameters hours and hours I spent on this thing and to no avail the unit would fall a little short during practice and gigs. It is very easy to change an effect - But the dial? How is this thing easy to use with your foot? Idiot invention. Seemed like a good Idea but bank up and down would have been a much easier (proven) science. Anyway most patches are way too digitized for my taste - No tube quality here. Editing patches is easy - but good luck - The eq is in no way honed in on any offect nor is any effect eq'd with eachother - Complete nightmare. It was Fun for a while but in real band setup I would be frustrated playing with My setup While others enjoy a smoke. I will give Boss a 5 here because it is in someways easy to use I think the internal sound quality is more of a problem.

Here's where my disappointment sets in. Very digital sounding and alot of it - just one mass simulation after another. Maybe nice for Keyboard? even for Voice I couldn't put it to much use. Has a few Good settings in the Clean and metal area - Everything in between sucks - and One nice wah sound - I actually liked the wah - very well made as noted in my next section. Anyway I was running a Marshall VS100 Head into EV Cab 2x12 and a Marshall 4X10 - No Good - No sound quality - Sold the Cabs - Went to a Mesa 4x12 Rectifier Cab (best make and Model made.) Sounded a bit better - But as I stated earlier two good sounds and one good wah sound. Very thick and bold sounding clean and Metal - everything else -- NG - Thought it was my Head unit - Bought a Mesa Single Tremoverb 50 Watt all tube 1X12 - Awesome power and sound - Blows everything away I have every played or owned. The boss lost it's luster. I plugged straight into the Mesa and Wow - What I had been craving forever. Plugged into the gt5 and a certain amount of shine and natural beauty was gone - that digital feel just tapped into my mood and just let me down. I finally just started plugging direct into the Mesa - I sold the GT5 and it is such a relief not to have to deal with that piece again. -- One more thing the input level was also unuseable - so powerful - you had to leave it on ZERO - that mean, yes, The tuner will not work - I had to turn down the level, turn up the input and tune then revert back + it was a small button - I mean what if I must tune during a gig - I don't want to sit there and start pressing buttons and turning knobs especially in the back of the unit - Just writting about it hear is rekindling the ugly thoughts of this complicated pitch box.

Built like a tank - You can ride it like a freakin' skateboard.

NA

Well My experience was not a good one I had some overall success even though the unit did not live upto my final expectations it was great for a little while - I guess I became a tone freak and back then I was just overwhelmed with it. It wasn't all horrible - had alot of experimental stuff in it and the wah was pretty cool. The best sound I could get out of it was a metal sound with almost a sped up organ sound to it, It was sort of a metallica sound but a little more Gothic. For you metal fiends stay away - go tube! Really everyone unless you just like toys than go for something else! This really was not a proffesional machine as I thought It was. Remember - Your setup is only as good as your weakest link.

I had I GP-100 and loved it but, progamming the GT-5 is a breeze! Your only limitation is imagination and inspiration. Keep in mind I'm assuming that you have had expirience programming processors, because nothing is easier than effects pedals!

You MUST adjust the master volume!!!! The factory sets it at 100. You will get a lot of noise when tweaking. I suggest setting it at 50 and working from there. Other wise the GT-5 sounds so original, I cannot compare it to anything but the GT-3 which is less flexable. Screw the presets. Technicians in white lab coats are the last people to get a good guitar tone. The presets basically show off the effects rather than give you any tasteful and useable sounds. Tweak Tweak Tweak!!! Think of it as a journey into sound.

its a Boss!!! What do you expect!!!

never dealt with Boss in my 13 years of using their products.

I play electronic rock music. Buy it if you are looking for an original sound. If you are into specific tube amp sounds, look else where. I personally agree, tube amps are overated and obsolete. Digital/solidstate, these days, can sound as warm or cold as you want it to. Complete flexability. thanks

very easy to make a tone
kick ass sound!!
motha fxcka!!
ass-hole

not good
i have been played guitar for 30years and i have gibson lespaul custom
and mesaboogie mark-4 amp.
sound quality is shit.
i play blues like smile face in rainy day.
bull shit

good

it's sound range is very wide. it is pretty good even though whatever music i play!!
very easy to make a tone.. and kinds of effects are incredble
preamp-simulator is so good
but wah is not good
and
it is low price..

Easy to get a sound if you know what you want and read and understanded the manual and importantly know what the effects do to your sound.
I had a hard time in the beginning to get the beast and manual under control, but gave never up, i get rewarded very much now.

I use a Jackson RR3, the GT-5, tru a Marshall JCM2000+Marshall 4X12 speakers. I can get to almost every sound i want, if tou understand the meaning of the effects, the sound you want, and read and understanded the manual for 100% (midi excluded).
I rated the sound quality a 9, the perfect sound can never be found.

I love this box and wouldn't want another.
If it went busted on a gig i sure wouldn't know where to get my sounds.

Customer support is for me reliable, free upgrade is possible, i getted an answer tru email in 1 day. extra info 'bout the product was neither a problem.

This is for all those people who got troubles with the GT-5 distortions. A lot say that the unit has ugly/fuzzy distortions, well it doesn't, on the contrary, you can do 'bout everything with this wonderbox. As read in my manual, and it is the truth:"Not the GT-5, but your imaginations are limited"(i have a dutch version). First of all you must have total knowledge (100%) of: the sound you want to create(back in your head), the sound of your guitar amp (what's the positive/negative 'bout its sound), the effects you must use and their purpose, the extra equipment on board of the GT-5(outputlevelviewer, inputlevelknob, ampsetting,...), mostly important you must understand 200% the manual(exclusive the midi stuff). the best sound you can get is my connecting your amp into the GT-5's loop (see manual), we leave your amp volume tone and gain settings in the middle (the stripe on the buttons way up;for most amps, in fact we choose the settings like they were made in the gt5's preset-preamps sounds), don't touch the amp 'till we finished the GT-5 sound. Choose "utility-global-your setting-gt.ampcombo", then raise the inputlevelknob(on the back off the GT-5)as far as you can (meanwhile you hit your strings) without letting the "input-overload-led" light up. Then i choose noise reduction tru effect "master" settings: treshold 75/ release 10. Now we choose our first "effect" a "preamp" (we're talking 'bout distortions here, not clean sounds) and choose "preset-metal drive"(don't touch the settings), problaby when you hit the strings the distortion won't sound nice or fuzzy, check the output via "utility-meter" of all the effects (when you leave your strings alone you must avoid the LED's light up, this means the output of the effect is too loud, otherwise decrease the "metaldrive- mastervolume" and check via meter again till the lights are gone). We put now our second effect on and choose "wah-preset-mid boost"(don't touch the settings), hit the strings and this sounds a lot better. We choose know our third effect and choose "compressor- preset-normal compression" (don't touch the settings)check the output via "utility-meter" of all effects (when you leave your strings alone you must avoid the LED's light up, otherwise decrease the "compressionlevel" and check via meter again, till the lights are gone). Hit your guitar again, this must sound better and harder. Now we're gonna make it a bit rougher and choose our fourth effect, choose "OD/DIS-preset natural OD" (don't touch the settings)check the output via "utility-meter" of all effects (when you leave your strings alone you must avoid the LED's light up, otherwise decrease the compression or preampvolume and check via meter again, till the lights are gone). If the "utility-meter" lights up in an effectchain with (let's say 6 effects), at the sixt' effect, this means that effect 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or a combination of them have too much output. If in that chain effect 4 is overvalued tru the "utility-meter", that means that effect 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or a combination of them are overvalued (so 5 and 6 are ok), and so on.....check it out and decrease outputlevels where necessary . We choose our 5th effect and choose "equalizer-preset- powermetal), again check the effects output tru the "utility-meter", and adjust/decrease the outputs if they light up. Now we double the sound for some dimension with our 6th effect; the following are my preferences, you can play with it like you want, maybe for the best follow my settings,i choose "chorus"settings: mono-rate75-depth15-predelay 4ms- highcut 700Hz-effectlevel 50. I double the sound again with a 7th effect and choose "delay"settings: normaldelay-type single-delaytime 30ms-feedback 0-holdoff-smooth off-highcut 700Hz- effectlevel 50-direct

The GT-5 is actually very simple to use, but I've owned it since it was first introduced a few years ago. For the newcomer, there is so much depth to the unit that it will take a while to become familiar with all of the myriad options available. This isn't trivial, since the finest tones are usually the result of careful tweaking. After years, I have considerable mastery of it (at least those components that I care about; i.e. I never use the Synth and Slow Gear fx). Where the GT-5 shines is in its incredible flexibility. It will front a guitar amp, work in FX loops, do DI recording, and sound great into full-range amplifiers and PA systems. It is amazing, and this - besides the awesome tones - is why I have not found a replacement for it yet, nor do I expect to.

I have never experienced any noise other than that inherent in single coil pickups. It is very, very clean. I use it with a Fender Super in the loop, as well as with a Yamaha DG-80. I have a very diverse guitar collection, including two homemade instruments as well as modded Strats, a 335, LP, and Gibson archtops. Once you take care to match levels correctly and configure the unit for your application, you are in business. There is no tone suckage here! What's neat is that the GT-5 has held its own, and even found new roles, with every new piece I have bought since. This includes a Flextone, a POD, the DG-80, and various recording gear. It's more typical that something older becomes eclipsed by the latest thing (or the most hyped and well-marketed in POD's example). Indeed, I have put the GT-5 away while exploring these other tools, and it always comes back out. It is simply the coolest guitar tone box I have ever used. It is now firmly the center of my guitar sound.

My primary bank of patches takes the following philosophy. Each one is designed to go into the power amp input of... something. At home, it's my favorite amp. At a rehearsal or jam, I can get away with using foreign gear because my patches contain all the preamp and EQ settings I need. I just find something with power and a speaker and I'm set. The GT-5's global settings make this a breeze. You can edit low and high EQ, as well as turn on/off the speaker simulator, independently of all patches. This lets you take the GT-5 from place to place and achieve near-perfect sonic integrity. Cool.

My patches employ a technique that I haven't read about, so I'll mention it here because I love it. I use an expression pedal (the GT-5 has two jacks for these besides the onboard one) to control both preamp VOLUME (which is like gain) and MASTER (which is actually the real level control) simultaneously. Normally, crank the gain and the sound gets much louder than it was clean. The GT-5 lets you control multiple parameters in realtime with a pedal, so I have it programmed to increase gain while simultaneously DEcreasing level. This means that, in a patch based on a Fender Twin for example, that when the pedal is at nil I have spanky clean. When it's all the way down, I have total Fender grit (perfect for blues). In between, it's subtle overdrive - continuously variable. The overall volume stays the same throughout, so I remain constant in the mix. Granted, I could set it up to have a slight boost at the highest gain setting as well, but the point should be clear. Picture setting up Marshall, Boogie, Vox, and metal patches like this, and you get the picture. Each patch is actually a whole range of sounds based on a single amplifier. Yowzah.

My main footswitches change the patches. One step on the Control switch, and it goes into manual mode, where each of the switches is then a toggle for a designated effect. Step back on Control, and it's in patch mode. Another patch in the same group is only 2 steps away, max. Delay tap tempo is accomplished with the Control switch in double duty - tap it an even number of times so that the mode (Program or Manual) remains the same, and there's your tempo. My 2nd outboard Expression pedal is a wah when the wah is on, or it adjusts tremolo speed when the trem is on. Do other units have multi-taskable switches like this? I haven't seen any yet, but I don't know every piece out there. I have all of my patches configured the same way, so my brain doesn't get confused. Do it your way, and make it your own. Again, effort required! The lazy should apply elsewhere.

I have no complaints about any of the actual effects; the chorus is wonderful and can be subtle as well as a wash. There are numerous overdrives as well as preamp models. The EQ is a 4-band parametric with low, low-mid, hi-mid, high. Each mid band has adjustable Q and center frequency. Combined with the preamps, nearly anything is possible. The truly magical is always elusive, but

It has gigged with me, but mainly lives in my studio. However, as others point out, it is all metal save the buttons and it's quite robust. No issues here, given reasonable care.

Tons of effects? Yes. Amp modelling? Yes. Works with guitar amps and hifi equipment? Yes. Integrated footswitch with up to 3 expression pedals? Yes. Configurable to control a multitude of realtime parameters, including several at once from a single pedal? YES! Built-in power supply? Yes! Big, case-sensitive LED display? Yes! This unit has it all. I love the POD and the DG amps, but they are not complete without MIDI or other foot control. The DG amps are great sounding, but heavy and allow only minimal MIDI control. POD is editable to its true potential only thru software, not exactly convenient on stage (if at all). The GT-5 doesn't assume (for example) that editing the hi-mid Q in your EQ in realtime is a dumb thing - it lets you do it, along with every other parameter available. You make the call, you make the music how you see fit. This is a very deep box, and it will reward you enormously if you invest the time it demands.

The Gt-5 is easy to use but to get the best results you do need to
have a lot of experience in programing and the best layout string
for your effects. When I first got the unit I was disapointed with
it, but after studing the manual and past experience with other effect units I got great results.

The sounds of this unit are great. But you do have to know how to
program this unit. I own a GP-8, Yamaha FX-500, Korg Ax1G, Line 6
pod with the foot controller. I think the GT-5 out does the lot. I
must admit I am very fond of the GP-8 but the switching time between
patches takes to long. If they were faster I would still use the GP-8.
The GT-5 has great sounds it took me a while to discover the overdrive
sounds that suit me, but they were there and with a combination of
pre-amp, overdrive, and EQ I could get the sounds I were looking for plus a few new ones. The delays, chorus,the reverbs, and all of the clean sounds are second to none. The Wah is the only let down to the unit as it is to weak. I use the GT-5 with a 68 strat fitted with
chris kinman pickups,and a custom strat built by Australian guitar
builder Stewart Male. This guitar is fitted with Dimazio Paf- pro
Hs-3, Fred pickups . My amp is a Marshall TSL122 and I use it on the clean channel and no reverb aplied. By the way the amp is the best amp
I have owned, and I have owned a few. Iv'e compared the GT-5 to the
Line 6 Pod in my studio. They both have good and bad results. I would
put the Gt-5 in front of the Line 6 Pod but this is based on taste,
as both units in this area are good. The GT-5 live eats the line 6 pod
but as i said before, take time to learn how to program it. Even rolands trained staff who programmed the unit could take some lessons.
I love this unit and I would suggest that people who say the unit is
crap need to get some lessons on building sounds. The unit is built
for people with a bit off audio experience and not the local know it all.

No problems

I hate roland in Australia. The company is full of smart arses.
When I purchased the unit it was missing the manual. The store
were very good in trying to get another one but roland were to slack.
As it happens one of the staff in the store owned one and let me use
his until roland got one in. When I phoned roland Australia all I got
was a smart arse. I hope he losses his job. (prick)

Good for all types of rock, hard rock, basically most music, there
is a patch that could add some colour to the music you are playing.

The GT-5 is probably as easy to use as you're going to get, considered the extremely wide variety of effects and controls you have at your fingertips. I have only two grieps: one is that you can't change groups with a pedal (you can change banks and patches within banks, but changing the group requires you to bend down and use the "hand" controls. Not convienient in the middle of a song on stage.) The other gripe is the tuner. It's a good idea, but the resolution it provides leaves something to be desired. Every other part of it is great, especially the settings for flat tuning and note display.

The presets are fantastic and varied, and for making new patches it's usually easy to find a preset as a starting-point. Editing patches is pretty easy, too. There's a lot of control to be had.

The manual is adequate. It's necessary for some things, because the LCD is so small there has to be "codes" for certain things (for example, P6 == delay tempo in, etc. It's not as bad as you might think, though. It's only applies to a couple things.) The patch list in the back is extremely helpful, especially since it lists the function of the control/expression pedal for every preset.

My setup is a Charvel M4 (active electronics) through the GT-5, into a Fender Princeton Chorus. The fidelity is pristine. Little to no audible noise, except with the feedbacker effect, which is noisy anyway, right? It's much quieter than most of my analog keyboards.

The effects sound wonderful. Warm choruses, deep phasing, and rich reverb. You can get basically any distortion sound you want, too. My only complaint here is the wah -- weak. Do yourself a favor and get a Crybaby, put in the GT-5's loop. There's no better wah sound. It's the best $65 you'll ever spend.

I use it every day. I take it to gigs regularly with no backup. The sucker is made (mostly) of metal, so no worries about crushing it. That's probably why they didn't include a case...

The plastic expression pedal makes me nervous, though. I'm going to look into something metal to use instead.

No dealt with customer service. Never had to! That's pretty good, right?

I play lots of different styles, the GT-5 caters to all of them, and more. I've been playing for 8 years, and this is the third multi-effects unit I've ever owned. The other two were rack-mounted units that were hand-me-downs (Alesis Midiverb II and III), and I researched heavily before I bought the GT-5. It's definitely the best you'll find this side of a couple thousand dollars. If it were stolen, I'd go out and buy another one.

Some of my favorite features include being to change delay rate on the fly by "tapping" the tempo on a pedal, the ability the alter the effects chain, and the clean, attactive casing. I just wish it had a better wah!

Very easy to use, in my opinion. There is plenty to get in-depth with too, but just picking a preset and modifying it to suit your needs can be quick. The manual is not great, but better than many Roland/Boss Japanese-to-English conversions I've read. Figuring out how to do mods in the global area and programming control pedals is a little dicey until you figure out what the manual is telling you.

My setup was either a Fender Am. Dlx Strat, '52 Reissue Tele, or Godin LGX-SA into the GT-5, then into either the power amp, or into a Fender Blues Deluxe. The GT-5 definitely did battle with the Tweed's sound though.
For a multi-effect unit, it's really quite nice. In the end, I must say I'm a believer in the concept that the best tones come from (in addition to a great guitar and amp) a few, separate stomp boxes that suit your own sound and taste. But, it's hard to beat the convenience of the all-in-one, especially one that sounds good. This piece blows away all the competition at that price range. I've owned MANY Digitech pieces, and they are awful by comparison. It has been postulated that the GT-5 actually has in it the individual guts of many of the Boss pedals it mimmicks, and while I'm not sure that's entirely true, it is at least partially true. Unlike other multi-effects that use &quot;algorithms&quot; to select what combination of effects you can use at one time, on the GT-5 you can turn off or on any effect from the 10 or so groups, AND PUT THEM IN ANY ORDER. This is a feature usually reserved to the higher-priced all-in-ones. True, you can't turn on more than one effect from each group (distortions, or time-based effects), it's at least clear that those different types of effects are discreet. The amp and speaker simulators are nice too. For a long time I ran the GT-5 straight to a power amp and two full range monitors, and it sounded very convincing.
The gates work well, and the unit is fairly noiseless.
The best part was being able to have one &quot;program&quot; that had &quot;my sound&quot; in it, and then just hitting one pedal to simultaneously add some more 'verb, turn on the delay, and turn on the distorion. That's pretty cool.
But, as I'll discuss below, when I finally bit the bullet and tried a few higher-end individual pedals, I realized how much the GT-5 was &quot;digitizing&quot; my sound, and had to just say no.

The GT-5 was extremely reliable over 3 years of solid, weekly gigging. Nice, solid metal structure with decent pedals. The volume pedal was plastic and looked a bit flimsy, but never suffered for it.
I used it without a backup for quite awhile. I agree with the submission below me that Boss should have provided a case for it, because despite my best efforts to protect it, it ended up scratched up and looking pretty ugly. In the end it also suffered some power issues (getting a little strange after being on for a few hours), and since I was by then looking for a new solution, I gave it up.

Never had to call Boss. Would have liked more online support with some programming tips and maybe downloads, but you know, the thing was built to last.

Eventually I decided I didn't like the Wah that much, so I added a Vox Wah before the GT. Then, because I was so fond of my Strat, I added a TS-9, and found I like that way better than the GT distortions. Then I tried a TC SCF chorus, and thought it was the bomb. And then I wondered, why do I keep the GT-5? The sound of my guitars, especially the Strat, through those pedals, then straight into my Fender Blues Deluxe and my new Tech21 Trademark 60 is, to my ears, so much &quot;purer&quot; than with the GT-5, I had to finally bite the bullet and stop using it. It truly was a nice box, and the versatility was amazing in that price range, but in the end, tone won out over flexibility. Now, after 2 months of gigging without it, I wonder what took me so long to move on. Ah well.

Straight out of the box the Gt5 has a lot of bells and whistles but nothing reallt designed to show it's class and subtlety. The unit I used before was a Gt16 and the manual was vaguely familiar. The sheer scope of what you can do with the Gt5 calls for some headscratching though!

I use the Gt5 running a marshall valve stack and Fender deville in stereo. The guitar is usually an Epiphone. The rea problem is the perseverence to get the sound you want while retaining the subtleties of your playing style If you do take your time some stunning delays and choruses can be achieved. The distortion settings are so numerous (as are the preamps and speaker combinations) that you can spend a long long time finding a great distortion sound. They are in there though. The wah wah doesn't have the sound of a stand alone pedal and the flanger sounds a bit processed and metallic for my tastes. I sing on stage so I program each patch from each song in order. This makes for less tap dancing than stand alone pedals and also means I've got an LCD set list at my feet which helps. Generally you can get great sounds out of it, just ignore the presets . Apparently there's a software editor called sound diver which works with it. That could be interesting. I didn't have a problem with noise either.

I've done over 150 gigs with mine and the only dodgy thing about it is the flimsy power lead. I replaced mine with a 'kettle plug' to avoid those trailing wires. If they just supplied a carry case I'd feel a lot happier

The Gt5 is a very flexible friend. I use it for Rock and pop mostly and have been very happy. For recording I tend to use it for Vocals and bass as well and it sounds great. It's also got a brilliant built in tuner. I'd buy another if it got lost.
The main gripes I have are as follows...

Flimsypower lead.
Tiny guitar input volume knob (I nightmare if you're using more than one guitar on stage)
Volume pedal is plastic, hould be metal at this price
No dedicated case you can buy.
Crap Wah wah

The Boss Gt-5 is fairly simple to use, however the manual is not very helpful, but I got a video with mine and that helped a little bit. Users should take the time to figure out how to use it themselves for personal tone options.

With the Boss GT-5 I usually use a PRS CE 24 through a Peavey half stack. Some times I will use a Parker Nite Fly or a Les Paul. The sound of this unit is very good for an effects processor, however at this point in my playing, for me, nothing sounds better than true amp tone. The distotion is decent, but there is sound left to be desired. The chorus sound very crystaline and pure, and the delays are admirable as well. The amp simulations I find very cheesy because you can never match the sound of the real product. The other problem with the Gt-5 is it interferes with your amp sound. I use the distortion straight through my amp and the processor takes away gain and volume. There are some pretty cool synth sounds on this if you're into that.

Boss is ultimate in reliability. This unit has scratches on it, but it is built like a tank. I don't own a back up for this and I gig a lot.

Never needed to deal with them.

I play multiple styles of music: Black Metal, Death Metal, Prog Rock, Jazz, and Hard Core. The GT-5 can produce very vesatile sounds, however I would rather play direct through an amp with just the few pedals I really need like delay, chorus, harmonist and a volume pedal. For me this unit just gets in the way with my development of music I'm the kind of Guitar who likes to plug in and wail. This unit is much better than others I've tried in the past five years of expierience. It beats out digitech,and dod floor pedals. Then again I can't stand dod products. If this product was lost I'd be pissed because I wouldn't have any effects but I would not buy it again. The best advice I could give you is try out one out for yourself. Just to warn you the presets suck so create your own sounds.

I borrowed it without a manual, but with experience in using
other boss processors I was able to figure it out without much trouble.

I play a 1978 Ibanez st300 and an ART rackmount preamp into powered speaker cabs. I get almost no noise from this unit (except when using the feedbacker effect). Some of the presets are pretty poor but can be easily modified to get killer tones. The amp simulators are excellent and give a wide variety of tones without even messing with the other distortion effects.

I haven't had the chance to try it live yet, but I wouldn't bother with bringing a backup along.

Never had a problem with boss's stuff so I never needed to deal with that.

I play technical progressive death metal, and this provides all the tones I need and more. I've been playing about seven years, and this blows away all other processors I've owned or tried ( boss ME30, Zoom505 and 707).

This fx unit sounds great Ive got it plugged into a stereo power amp and two 2x12 boxes. Editing can be done quickly,The manual sucks(use your own intuition),The updated chip has a few bugs two.
I finally think Ive got it stuffed!

Its best to use one Pre-amp setting and work with it.There is a bit of noise associated with the loop in/outs when they have been used and abused(jack problems)The effects on this are great Distortion,Reverbs,Delays and esp CHORUS! Ive got a strat with lace sensors red,gold and use a modded TS5 in the loop to give a more valve like sound. This works great!(oh yeah the wah sucks use a vox)

Ive had a few problems with this thing that if you own one you should be aware of : 1.The power lead is a great idea but using that thin cable thru such a tight gland means it will fail! I fixed mine. Disconnect the power when you do this ! As an electrician believe me some people dont:(
2.The imput jacks soldering needs to checked because after alot of use they do crack(This happens to alot of fx units)
3.There is a noise associated with the loop jacks (got me stuffed)
Other than that I use it to gig!
Problems fixed its very reliable!
Ive had it 3 years and use it everyday :)

Its hard to get but when you get its good
Had to call a few people for help when resetting the foot pedal
There is a few undocumented ways of setting things up
I,d love to get the software to program this thing but I dont think they,ll give it to me :(

This is still the best pedal around which is quite surprising since its been around a while.
Its sounds great, is built like a tank and still works (even after ive pulled it to bits 3x)Somedays I find it easy to get a great sound and then others I spend ages editing but at least I have lots of options :) I still think this was a great buy and that is why I keep it!

If you have any patches or ideas mail me!

If you know what you want and how to program, it's definitely all there.

After having tried all kinds of amp setups on stage (Top 40 band), I finally decided to give a processor-into-mixer approach a try. After having tried everything on the market (I work in a music store), I have I finally found my sound heaven with the GT-5. What can I say, this unit enables me to get ANY sound at ANY volume. People keep asking me where I am hiding all my Boogies and Twins. Noise? It depends where you put the noise gate in the chain. It should be after the preamp, but before the reverb/delay to avoid flickering. I play a Strat and I am by far the quietest guy on the stage.
Here's some tips.
#1: I built myself two footswitches into a small plastic housing that I attached to the upper left of the unit with double-sided tape. This is to control inputs 1 and 2 (Reverb and Chorus for all programs). The pedal is always master volume.
#2: For Strat direct-into-mixer players. Set global to LINE/HEADPHONE. Use the MATCH ON cabinet. Use the EQ after the preamp in the following way for ALL programs: Treble and Bass flat. Midrange +12dB at 400Hz with Q=0.5. This may sound weird but it really does the trick and makes your guitar stand out at ANY volume with the PA mixer EQ flat.
#3: Buy yourself two keyboard amps (e.g. PEAVEY KB/A 30) for personal stereo monitoring or as a power amp/speaker unit. These amps are fullrange and let all your speaker emulator settings and acoustic guitars come to full blossom.
#4: Contact me for my tried and trusted Top 40 settings: tschalipp@gmx.net

P.S. A friend tried the successor model GT-3 and found it to be less 'analog' sounding. He phoned Roland and they told him that the GT-3 does not have the same hardware and software as the GT-5. Hmmm...

Never had any problems.

Inquired about the GT-3 (see above).

This is my second time here. Looking around here for ideas has sure helped alot. After a year I would now say the GT5 is quite easy, but in the beginning it can be confusing because it doesn't present you with simple finished sounds like a lot of pedals, just a whole lot of variable parameters to learn about - you have to dig deep in your brain, or else you're gonna get some terrible sounds only because you don't understand what the parameters are about. Users of Boss stompboxes will know the rules though. Changing parameters on the fly is easy.

If you look after getting the right hardware chain together and observe some basic rules concerning the GT5's effect chain then you will get an optimum sound.

Hardware Chain - I used to run the GT5 straight between Strat and combo amp, but your amps preamp is often going to compete with the GT5 settings - Tip, listen to your sounds thru headphones and then amp to compare. If you have a combo with effects loop then use it. Since connecting this pedal into my combo amp's loop I've been able to mix my amp's preamp correctly into the effects chain - or as sometimes better, leave it out so that the amp functions as a power amp without the amp's preamp stage screwing your Boogie Preamp sound or whatever(but read the manual's diagrams "very" carefully concerning which cable goes where - this took me far too long to figure out! And change your global setting to power amp).

Effects Chain - The effects chain is badly explained, e.g. why put the effects in any particular order anyway? If you don't know the basics you can produce horrible sounds simply because the guitar signal gets built up and torn down inside a bad chain. Here's my general chain setup :
>Strat
>Crybaby Wah before GT5 (better than GT5 Wah)
>GT5 Effects Chain (general lineup as follows)
- Tremolo/Phaser/Comp
- Dist/ODrive
- Chorus/Flange
- Mod (Guitar Synth, Acoustic Simulation)
- GT5 COSM Preamps (e.g. BG, SLDN...), OR "Loop" (Engl Preamp)
- Pedal Volume or effect swell(no Wah here means I get to use the pedal for other things)
- Noise Gate
- Delay + Reverb effects
>Engl Combo's power amp stage.
Note - I sometimes change this order if it sounds better! You need to avoid doubling up on effects between GT5 and Amp with this setup e.g. don't set up GT5 reverb with your amps preamp reverb at the same time.

These two things have brought me a quantum leap in sound quality and the GT5 has taken on a new shine! A bit of friendly advice on the qualitative effects of these setup possibilities from Boss in their manual would have made things easier!

The pedal has served me well. If the battery dies I can survive with my amp's distortion and reverb until I get a new battery. The GT5 is solidly built from steel, but you need to buy your own carry case - dumb! Now that it really sings I'd like to back up my settings with Midi computer/sequencer.

No contact with Boss. Their Internet page is useless for users. Where are the homepages with GT5 patches? If you know, mail me. I have grabbed a few from a GT3 page, and they're good (type Boss GT3 Patches into your search engine).

I play christian rock and use most of the sounds in this box (even got a Stevie Wonder funky synth sound with the ring modulator together). I built a Rockinger Strat (www.rockinger.com) and dropped a splittable Humbucker into it, so I get a good spectrum between SRV neck tone and fat or Strat bridge tone - it all works very nicely with the GT5. I've been playing for 25 years, and this current setup is my best ever. If the GT5 went missing I'd seriously look at and listen to the GT3, which may be better value for money.

When I first got my GT-5 I felt like I was trying to drive a UFO,but with patience and a little preserverence it got earier. It's well worth the extra 5 bucks to get the tape on how to operate it. The book is a little foggy at times on how to use the GT-5.

As far as soud quality I am more thatn pleased with the effects. They all sound clear and are responsive for the average musician. If you can find the sound you want then it ain't been created yet! I use my GT-5 with a Custom Built Strat that I built played through a Marshall BluesBreaker and a Fender 75 that has been beefed up and modified. The only effect that I have a problem with is the Wah, its not very responsive and don't have that certain what ever a stand alone pedal has. And some of the effects are just useless in my opinion example the Ring Modulator.

I have relied on my GT-5 for the last year without a back up pedal with no problems. As with all Boss Effects Pedals the construction is exceptional and extremely tough.

I've never had to use the Customer Support so I really can't comment on this. But I figure these guys are like the MayTag repair man all sitting around with nothing to do just waiting for someone to call.HAHA!

I play Blues and Classic Rock so there are plenty of effects and it works well with my style of playing. I've been playing for 36 years and this is the best piece of equipment I've ran across yet. If I ever lost this or it got stolen, I'd definitely replace it with the same piece of gear. I had money and time when I bought this and tried a lot of multi-use pedals and this on won thumbs up. It's light and easy to set up and in the user section you can set up your show in a row by setting the sound you want on several different pedals. Sometimes I miss the impressive floor full of pedals that this replaced but it does everything I want so why have all the clutter. It is definately an asset in my show and sure is nice when stting up and breaking down at the end of the night when your getting ready to go home! I would difinately recommend the GT-5 if your a working musician and don't jump on your gear or try to see how much it will take to break it. I There's nothing liuke a floor full of pedals that you can tweak all night long but if you can live with one pedal and great sounds this is the way to go. Just make sure what you want is programmed into your unit before you take it on stage and be sure you know how to operate it too. But, I guess that would go with any kind of equipment you use!

I agree with some of the other reviewers, the GT-5 is rather easy to program and get good sounds out of right away. If you have programmed other digital effects before at all, this unit should be a breeze to program. I was able to put together basic patches that sounded great without opening the manual. This unit is laid out great. Most of the factory programs were unuseable for my tastes. They may be able to give you good ideas, but spend the time to tweek. The rewards of tweeking, tinkering, and programming will be bountiful.

Again, the unit didn't have any factory presets that I would use, however, a little programming goes a long way. I own Matchless, Naylor, Bruno, Kendrick, Fender, and Jim Kelley handmade amps. They all sound very good, but within a few hours of programming, and running the GT-5 through a tube stereo power amp and two 1x12 EVM-12L enclosures, I was able to get very good and very convincing boutique amp tones. It may have a some digital noise that you have to deal with but usually it's not much more than using tube amps. It all depends on the individual gear set-up. I'll take this rig to a gig alot of time instead of taking out the boutique amps. Any guitar that I run through my rig sounds good. Tele's, Strat's, Les Paul's, 335's, it doesn't seem to matter. Each guitar keeps it's own personality. Did I mention this thing is touch sensitive also? Roll off of the instrument volume and you can clean up overdriven patches. I created two custom preamp programs that I use most of the time. The TWIN model is great also. This thing cover a lot of bases.

The GT-5 seems to be built very sturdy. I haven't had a problem at all.

I wish Roland/Boss would coordinate patch information for users, and be able to give valuable programming advice over the phone. I've called a few times and couldn't get any usefull information.

I play alot of different styles of music and the GT-5 can be programmed to cover any style of music in my opinion. I've been playing for almost 20 years and this would have saved me tons of cash had I had it fifteen years ago. I'm thinking about buying another one to keep as a backup. Bulk dump my patch info into the second unit and I'd be set. I'd definitely replace the unit if lost, damaged, or stolen! I love the programmability. I wish the unit had good octavia and univibe type effects. Love the control functions. I add overdrive to my patches for soloing via an additional control function in port 1. It lets me add gain and volume level. It records well going directly into the console, and it's great live. I couldn't ask it to do much more than that.

Its differently something you have to put effort into. If your lazy,then don't expect this pedal to work magic. This is a great pedal as long as you have some imagination and creativity,if not you better save up more money and find someone to write your songs,make your effects,and play your shows for you. hehe.

I mainly use my yamaha guitar and play threw a JCM 2000 (Marshall)
half stack. I think most of the preset effects kinda suck,some are alright,but I look at the presets like playing someone elses songs. until you make your own,atleast for me,its not really what I was looking for,but for someone who is happy with that,then the persets are cool. alot better than most presets on any pedal I've seen.

So far so good. I guess if it came down to it and something happened
to my pedal,the show must go on. I would use my Marshall channels,clean,lead,and crunch. A real musician knows what I'm talking about. If the music's good you won't need to hide it behind a bunch of effects,cause it can stand on its own. Plus you should always check your stuff in enough time to fix it before a show.
Like everything though that comes with experience.

Could find out how to get ahold of them. Any info. on how to get ahold of them from anyone would be really appreciated.

Alternative/Hard Rock. I believe it is a good match.
4 years. I own an Ibanez guitar,Marshall JCM 2000,some other
various stuff. If it were stolen I would probably be pretty pissed and pout about it for awhile then work to get it again. If I lost it I would first kick myself in the ass and work to get it again. I love the fact that the depth of the pedal seems endless,almost like you could never run out of things to find and create. The worst thing about it would be finding numbers for tech support,which I'm sure is just my fault. Favorite feature is like I said before,the depth. Oh yeah and the fact that the shell is real metal and made more for live shows. Very tuff. I compared it to a Digitech RP-21 and if you plan on playing out and if you give wear to your equipment,then at least for me this was the right choice. Now someone like Kenny G might be able to use the RP-21 without hurting it but one hard stomp and your out of luck. Basically what I'm trying to say is if you really get into what your playing then get something that will play as hard as you do. Damn I sound worse than a commercial but only because I really believe in it. Like I said I chose this pedal because of the information I received from various musician's,the type of pedal I was looking for,the endless depth it has,and the hard shell. And the fact it was basically made for musicians who not only like to play in the studio but even more for the ones who rather play live! If you ever played live,then you know what I mean! One thing I do wish it had...a free coupon for a Gibson Les Paul Custom he he. In different aspects about help making music,it can help your creative side when writing but for me I have to watch that I don't go overboard with the
effects. I think that question would really depend on the musician and what they are looking to do,but I don't see it getting in the way unless you don't take the time to use it and work with it. Its just like practicing,if you don't,then don't expect results and that's goes with anything in life. One more thing, I think if you're really looking to buy a piece of equipment,no matter what it is,you need to gather information before you jump head first. Just because its right for me,doesn't mean its for everyone,but I'll be honest I couldn't be happier!

For such a deep machine, this box is way easy to use...Getting a good sound depends on how you are using it. It is imperative that you set the global options to match your usage- whether direct or through the front or back of an amp. Editing is a breeze- punch a button, dial up a parameter, and save. The manual is ok- although doesn't get as detailed as I would wish about some things.

I use the box with an Ibanez RG560, a Stratocaster, and Carvin TL60. HERE IS A LITTLE SECRET FOLKS- the way to make this box sound incredible is to 1.Go get a couple of cheap tube heads(find an old Carvin or Laney at a store for $200) 2.Have a good cabinet set up to run stereo. Go into the effects return of the amps, set up your effects to run stereo, and 3.Turn it up! You get the massive flexibility of the box, it's amp models, and effect AND you'll get some realistic power tube breakup- try that with a typical modeling amp. And it really does sound incredible- I have a/b'd in a studio against some righteous tube amps and the sound is damn close. And for any moron who would complain about noise- have you ever listened to a Marshall with a tube screamer in front of it? For the record- the 5150, Soldano, and Fender Twin models are the best- using the 5150 patch with a little stereo chorus and short delay you can get a dead on Van Halen sound. The chorus, delays, reverbs, and flange is great....work the eq to get a decent wah sound....harmonizer doesn't track that well...IF YOU HAVE EARS AT ALL YOU CAN GET MORE GREAT SOUNDS THAN YOU WILL EVER NEED!!!!

nice steel case- seems very sturdy. The only thing that would ever scare me about gigging is that it has an internal lithium battery that I pray only goes out during rehearsal.

I play all sorts of rock....professionally for 17 years...have all sorts of top gear and this is at the top...Going direct in the studio- incredible sounds. Through the back of a tube amp onstage- incredible sounds. The best things about it are flexibility in the studio, and portability live- it has made both recording and playing live so much easier for me.

The presets are a good starting point. A shame you can't see the settings parameters summarised for the various sounds (this would help the learning process enormously). The manual requires foreknowledge of effects units, and the range of possibilities is perhaps too wide for the average human being.

I use a Strat thru an Engl Combo (Germany) and run it pretty straight with my GT5 doing the additional work between guitar and amp. The Engl is in itself a nice sound so the GT5 is used sparingly for a few colours. I've recently discovered the Effects Chain function, which has allowed me to improve a few sounds. Chorus, synth and delay are used a lot. Occasionally I'll jump into something outrageous like the Brian May Distortion/Delay preset. The acoustic simulator is OK. Speaker and mic simulations are interesting if you're not playing thru an amp. You need to decide if you're gonna use this thing instead of an amp, or with an amp direct in a PA setup, as the settings are gonna be different.

This thing is built like a tank compared to other pedals.

No contact.

I play in a church band live and in the studio (thru the amp at all times). Styles range from hard rock thru to reggae, jazz and pop - no hymns! It's maybe too complex, as it requires a lot of learning. A good feature would be an on-board effects splitter to divide the effects chain into two channels - that would be interesting.

If you're not one of those people who are prepared to spend a good while programming a sound don't get one of these. It's took me about a year to get to know what everything does on this beast well, but when you've cracked it basically there's no end to what you can achieve with it. The manual is so-so.

I use my GT-5 with a USA Strat and a VOX and I can get almost any sound I want to achieve. Obviously the sound will be constained by your basic guitar/amp combination but if you put in the time with this thing you will be rewarded. My favorite guitarists are John Squire and The Edge and I can get most of the sound they do with the GT-5. I've read a few reviews of people saying they bought the unit and 'the distortions blow' or whatever, the thing is the presets ARE crap but if you explore all the parameters and get to know the unit you won't be dissapointed. For example there are about 10 different Pre-amp simulators, well you could spend a WEEK just finding out the capabilities of ONE of these simulators. As for the flanger, phaser etc. they sound as good as standard BOSS pedals to me, the EQs (two of them) are very flexible and can (like all the effects) be placed anywhere in the effects chain giving endless tonal possiblilites. However remeber it's a multi-fx so every single effect isn't going to be as good as your favorite seperate analogue pedals.

I've gigged with it a few times with no problems what so ever.

Boss have started sending me this monthly/quaterly magazine with guitar tips and a complete product catalogue. Good work lads! Never had to deal with them on repairs so I'll give them an 8.

I used to have a Zoom 505 before this which had good sound quality but no freedom to twiddle - this beast is the complete opposite, you can twiddle every little parameter of every effect. Some people may get phased by this but I love it. I'd definatley get another if I had it stolen.

Bad points worth mentioning:
The Wah isn't as good as the real thing.
The acoustinc simulator is great (if sightly noisey) but dosen't work well with the valve amp. You must go straight into the PA for best results.
You can't have flanger AND phaser effects at the same time, or the pitchshifter and phaser at the same time etc.
Very high gain settings can get noisy.
If you don't like your guitar and amp don't expect this thing to change it! (conversely if you DO it won't kill your guitar/amp tone if used sensibly)

Fortunatley these things don't effect me so I think it's brilliant.

What I am about to say is MY opinion only. You have to be the judge.The GT-5 to me is just a bit overated as a unit. To me there are way too many editing patches. By the time you learn them all you really need to go back to taking lessons on the guitar. The manual was helpful but was like following a road map in a lost town. I eventually got the hang of it but I wasn't really impressed.Here is a example,who needs 10 difeferent octave edits in one night,not me.No doubt a MULTI effects processor.

Here's where it gets sticky. I use a Gibson Les Paul Standard with a Marshall JCM half stack. Seemed like the time based effects were nice. The distortions to me were just generic and weak.Here again why have 10 differnt amp simulations to find a decent distortion sound.This unit was not noisy after tweaking the noise suppressor.I thought the chorus was especially good but that metal flanger,oh my God. The unit would be alot better if distortions had some quality.

It's a BOSS. It's dependable. I would be afraid to gig without some type of backup pedals. What if a cicuit gets moody,sorry your out of luck.

Boss staff is tops.

I play variety rock and some metal. I've played 22 years. One question for you all at Boss,why no CARRY CASE? I had this unit less than 1 month and I traded it for all BOSS pedals again. Take my advise if you have Boss pedals and are happy don't venture out to find a dream processor. You'll be unhappy. Like I said this is just my opinion. I'm not down grading this unit it just ain't for me.

Easy peasy.
Very straight foward.

I use an Ibanez rg550ltd with a crate gtx410.
If you get the patchesd right it will sound awesome but i have found that every guitar/amp will require different settings.
A lot of people have complained about noise. Any noise problems i have had have been noise generated in pickups by computer monitor etc. If you play around with settings and done have stupidly loud amp simulations with really loud volumes on distortion (which will sound pants any way due to clippin and saturation), then noise shouldn't be a problem.
I can get pretty much the sounds on my favourite artists. I play a lot of Dream theater and extreme and this box does it all.
OK, it doesnt sound as hot as a mesa boogie set up but does anything?
I still wish it had a valve in it though.
One thing, I have found that if you plug it in directly to a hard disk recorder it sounds a little artifficial. I think the best way of recording is to use a decent amp with it and crank it up a bit to get a better signal to noise ratio.

So far it has been 100%

No experience with customer support

I play jazz and prog matel and funk. This pedal does it all.
If i were buying again I would probably end up with this because of its sheer versatility but i would try some rack gear first.

The Boss GT-5 is not difficult to use, but it can be frustrating getting the sound you want out of it. The main problem here (at least for some) is that there are so many parameters, that the unit has the potential to sound very good or very bad.

I am playing a Fender American Strat and a custom guitar built by a friend. There is some noise when the distortion is turned up, but this should not be a surprise. A friend of mine just bought an RP-7, so a comparison may be helpful. My distortion seems better for leads, whereas his works really good for rhythm (the RP-7 has a tube 12ax7 I believe). There is some static on his volume pedal; the boss' pedal has none. The compressors work the same. The wah on the boss works decent with distortion but sounds cheesy without. The pitch-shifter on the RP7 is better than on the boss. The Flanger and Phaser work good on the boss, if you like those sort of things. The chorus is definately superior on the boss. The delay on the Boss is great (up to 1800 ms). The acoustic simulator must be used with single coil pickups and should be placed after the preamp in the effects loop, otherwise it will sound pretty lame. The reverb is ok. I bought this effects processor because I wanted to imitate a VOX clean sound and a Marshall distorted sound. Recently I went shopping for a new amp and I thought I'd try out the Roland JC-120. This processor sounds great into it. (Actually I think it was designed to work best with this amp and a fender strat). But anyway, I just couldn't get that Vox sound (although I got close). After trying out a VOX, there was just no comparison - nothing like the real thing. To make a long story short, I returned the processor and bought a VOX and now I use it for clean and my Marshall for distorted. I still think the processor is excellent, probably the best on the market in its price range. I bought a Boss chorus pedal because they rule. So, I'm poor now but happy.

Very sturdy. Note: The case that SKB makes for the V1680 (Roland?) Studio fits perfect with room for cords and other things. It's about $150 (Hard plastic with padding inside).

Never really dealt with them

I've been playing 12 years and I play different styles, but mostly blues and rock. The COSM preamp simulator is great, but there is nothing like a real tube amp - for warmth of sound. For blues, there is no substitute. It lets the guitar just sing naturally. It also heats my room in the winter :)

i want to update my last review about the gt-5
like i said i traded the gt-5 for pedals but.... I was very dissaponted and i missed the gt-5
it may not have aclean effect but the delay, reverb are better then the pedal
the turbo o.d like i said in my last review is very good sounding, open sound with good harmonics and the vintage drive is very good too
you have tuner, foot volume
if you take one on one you can find seperate pedals that are better,but for me i need 5 or 6 sounds and to built it with a seperate pedals its a task so i took the gt 5 back
the guy in the store know me for years and he doesn't pissed i lost some money but i have my gt 5 back