Boss GX-700

Superb (see my earlier review)

Excellent all round, but compressor can make things a bit noisy.

The reason I am posting this review again, a couple of months after my last one is that I have had some problems in this area, and speaking to a couple of other users it seems I'm not the only one. When I first got the unit home the second time I switched it on it locked and then reinitialized itself. I dismissed this and the unit has performed fine until last weekend when at a gig it did the same thing: it locked up, I switched it off and then when it was switched on again it reinitialized itself, losing all my 40 odd user patches. This has happened to at least one other user I know of, and I'd be interested to know whether anyone else has encountered similar difficulties. It seems that it is a superb unit in all other areas, but if you can gig it with confidence then that is a serious problem. Fortunatley I have not programmed anything too complicated into it, but if your set requires sophisticated effects ........

No problems, no calls, never had a hassle with Roland, having a good dealer helps,

Yes, without the bugs...

the easiest to use effects processor in the world

very quiet .The best thing about this unit is that all the distortions are controlable

it is purely solidstate so i can guarantee a long and prosperos life

I would definetly buy this unit again it is the best preamp i have ever used and the mnos t versatile.It completely thrashed the preamps i tried.Never have i likeda preamp like this beforeI tried the JMP-1 and nowadays that is history as it is so old and practiclly useless

Incredibly easy to use. The GX-700 has a rotary dial on the front that switches between patches (presets) with a simple silent click. The unit contains 200 patch spaces (100 for the factory settings and 100 user-assignable). My favorite feature of the GX-700 is that just by looking at the front panel, you can see whether an effect (e.g., chorus, distortion, etc.) is ON or OFF. For example, if I am playing a patch that uses distortion, chorus, and reverb I know by looking at the front panel what is being used by that patch. If I then want to turn off the chorus, it's a matter of pressing the "CHORUS" button twice and then pressing the PLAY button. The whole reason I bought a "multi-effect" unit is that I considered buying individual pedals, but the price of those add up pretty quickly. The bottom line is that the GX-700 is like having 21 BOSS stomp boxes (even says that in the Users Manual). You can even "cahin" them in whatever order you want. Editing patches is pretty simple as well.

Sounds great. I played several different multi-effects units and liked the GX-700 best. After hearing the GX-700, the other guitar player in my band bought one too. The stock BOSS pedal sounds are great (several distortions, chorus, compressor, etc.). The pre-amps are good but I don't think most of them "exactly" emulate the pre-amps they're trying to reproduce (I think the Fender and JC-120 are the best, but the Mesa/Boogie and Marshall sounds are good but not great). The great thing about this unit is versatility - it has so many options that the combinations are infinite. I know that there's a endless debate over tube vs. solid-state, but I gotta tell ya, if you can't get some great tones outta this thing, you`re not trying. Built in noise suppressor is super.

I've only played two "live" gigs (one outdoor) with the GX-700, but lots of practices. So far, never a glitch. I will and do use it for gigs without a backup.

Haven't needed them.

I would buy this unit again. If I lost it tomorrow, I would buy another one. I also looked at the GX-700's "big brother" - the Roland GP-100. For the 300 or so dollars I didn't think the GP-100 gave you that much more. The burnt orange color is a bit odd, but's growing on me. :-) I compared the GX-700 to the GSP-2101, the Roland GP-100 and an ADA unit. For the sound, money, etc., the GX-700 is hard to beat. I wish it came with a foot controller (of course that would bump the price up too much). The MIDI Mouse ($99) works fine with it. The biggest problem I had with the GX-700 is that when I originally purchased it, I was using a Fender combo amp (Blues Deluxe). Through that amp, some of the "heavier" sounds just didn't sound that great. I now play through a Marshall Valvestate 8008 (solid-state) amp to a Marshall 2x12 cabinet - sounds awesome. I would suggest to anyone who tries this out in a store: play through your setup. If you don't own a 4x12 cabinet, don't demo through one (the GX-700, like many other processors sounds even better through a half-stack (of course :-) ).

Except for the amp buttons (like on the Roland GP-100) I was very pleased with the overall ease of use. I managed to get excellent sounds for my Gibson SG, Takamine (Folk), and Classic guitar (Yamaha) within hours.

Very good! Low noise, almost professional quality. The factory presets do not demonstrate the power and potentialities for this device.

After two months, the GX-700 suddenly died. I also noticed sometimes a degrading output level. Now it is with the Roland Service Centre for repair (estimated 2 weeks).
I sure hope this one is in the margin of the failure statistics. Would make a deal with some sponsor to buy a spare GX-700.?

W'll see after I get back my beloved toy

Mmmm,
If I could spend the $, a next buy would be perhaps a Roland GP-100. Although the GX-700 has it all, as long as it works.

This thing is SO easy to operate. I was in the store playing around with it and it must have taken me all of five minutes to figure out how it worked. Zoom through the patches with the knob, press the effect button you want to see (click dist. to see what the distortion settings are, etc.), you can change the settings, and re-write the patch. And writing your own patches are just as simple, except for some of the settings for the effects, which get way too complicated, but they sound good however you use them.

This thing can't get any better. You can adjust the effects any way you want so you can get the exact sound you want. There are seven different kinds of distortions - distortion, turbo distorion, od, turbo od, blues, metal, vintage od. There are pre-amp setting which sound good (I don't know how they compare with the real thing, but they sound good). There is a speaker simulator which can totally change the sound. The noise silencer does great, the chorus is rich and full, and the reverb is excellent. The only thing that gets sort of sloppy is the pitch shifter and the harmonist, which get to sound more like a keyboard than a guitar, but I don't really use them that much so it doesn't really bug me.

As far as I know it's reliable, except I don't use it that much, so I can't really say. The only problem is sometimes the outgoing signal gets weak, so the volume is cut down, but that has only happened a few times, and a hit on the top of it will do.

Have no comment yet.

I'd recommend it to anybody looking to buy a processor.

Each effect can be toggled or edited by its own lighted button, so it's about as easy to use as a pile of stomp boxes. One of the best user interfaces of any guitar multieffects unit. Much better than its predecessor, the Roland GP-100, because it makes you scroll through fewer menus. Ditto the Digitech GSP-2100.

I don't think there's a better-sounding guitar multieffects unit. Some of the distortion and speaker emulation sounds are suspect, but there are enough good ones that it can sound excellent when programmed right. I use a Tube Works tube preamp in its effects loop for a better distortion. The pedal-wah is horribly glitchy.

Twice in the week I've owned it, it's locked up and stopped responding to its controls, forcing me to power-cycle it, at which point it reinitializes itself from ROM, losing all of my changes. I wouldn't gig with it. It's not low voltage (I measured the outlet at 120v), so it's probably version 1.0 bugs.

I haven't yet dealt with the company, but it looks like I'll have to! I can't find any warranty information, but I have my sales slip. I wish I had a PC to save a SYSEX of my work to.

It has a lot of the usual over-effected hair band presets (distortion and delay are especially overused), but overall it looks like a lot of thought went into making it what guitarists want. There are lots of convenient and helpful touches. Too bad it's so flaky, or I'd buy it again.

For once the presets are almost useable and represent a good starting point for tweaking. Editing patches is logical but time consuming, as with all units of this type. With the unit you get the usual Japanese-badly-translated manual, but with a bit of common sense you can work out how to program it and then you only need to dip into the manual to work out how to do wierd things.

The sound quality is astonishing. I've previously owned one of the Zoom 9150 valve rack units, and there is simply no comparison between the two units, despite the small price differential. Although the Boss unit has no valves, the COSM tecnology (whatever BS that stands for) works and gives some lush tones. Especially good are the Fender twin crunch tones. The delays and choruses are transparent. There's also the compulsory other wierd stuff, which sounds wierd (harmonist etc). Especially useful is the speaker simulator section, and also the option of specifying whether you are going into a combo, a power amp or desk etc. One cute and highly useful feature is the ability to reduce or boost all the reverb settings in the patches depending on the acoustics of the room you are playing in, in a few seconds. However, as with all processors, you really have to play around to get the best sounds.

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I'd buy this again. For the money it is the only thing on the market. The GP-100 might be worth almost twice the price if you really need the flexibility it offers. I need a range of useable tones as I play a diverse range pf styles in many different settings. This offers the flexibility and the quality I need and I haven't yet even begun to fully make use of its capabilities. My only wish is that it wasn't such a gross colour. I'm also a bit upset that it is only one unit rack size; I've got a 4 unit carrier and because this thing has a tuner and all the effects I'll need, I can't justify buying some other cool-looking units to fill the remaining space. Does anyone have any fake lexicon fronts or anything with flashing lights so I can improve my rack credibility?