Boss GX-700

The whole thing is pretty self xplanatory after toying around with it for a few minutes. However, before this I just had a a few Boss Pedals with knobs, so the whole % thing for delay was new, as well as the panning info. Just toying around withJust messing around with it is the best way to learn it, and if you have any real questions, theyre probably answered in the book. the only thing not given in good detail is the harmonizer.

Very good noise free sound most of the time. You can pump out a ton of distortion without feedback and unwanted noise/ Pretty much all of the effects sound great. I can't really think of one that doesn't. Great phaser, plus theres a cool effect called the Humanizer for making vowel sounds. You can get some great doubled sounds using the harmonizer and chorus. The delay has 2 seconds which is more than enough.

It seems pretty sturdy. Boss is known for their pedals being so well made. I'm still going to put it in a padded rack bag just for reassurance.

Never had to deal with them for problmes. However I did call about getting one of those Nice Boss offer forms and the connection was so bad they hung up.

I'd give it 10 here for the money it's great. Lots of good quality effects. I play metal mostly and this pulls that off great. But it can definitely be used for more. The Amp simulator has amazing sounds/

Easy to use. Editing is a joke, Manual is straightforward. By far the easiest processor to use!

Main reason I bought this unit is more lack of noise. This thing doesn't make much noise. Delays, and choruses are very strong. Harmonizer is Ok. Distortion's are pretty good. But don't take my word for it cuz I didn't buy this unit for it's distortion. I use a Marshall 6100 amp and that thing is da Bomb! Reverbs are slightly useless. But I don't use it anyway. The only thing is that the Tremelo is a little bit on the weak side. But it gets what I want it to do!

No Problems!

No problems, No Questions!

Excellent for the cost i paid. It's like having Boss's excellent stomp boxes in one simple rack!

After reading about half a page of the manual you should be able to get a good sound whithout any kind of trouble. But because there are so many possibilities you'll probably need some experimentation to get the exact sound you're looking for. But chances are it's there!! There are some parameters that have to be set according to the way you connect it to your rig, and with any of these set wrong you wont get the best of the sound by far. But once this is done it's real easy to use. There's one button for every effect. Just push it and edit the parameters! The manual does the job, but I would appreciate better explanations for some of the less obvious parameters. And it doesn't say a word about how to find out the software version. Mine is 1.09 which I think is the latest.

Great!! The preamp simulations are what made me buy this box, and now I wouldn't dream of doing without them. It's like having a garage full of great amps!! I admit I haven't played all these amps for real, but it sounds just like I imagine they wouild sound(?!?!??!). Try the Fender Twin sim at full volume. Instant Neil Young!! You can actually hear the tubes begging for mercy. If you run one of the od-pedal sims into a preamp sim it gets a bit noisy. Just like the real amps would. So I guess thats forgiveable. But the noise reduction is just a noise gate and doesn't really work very well, so you'll just have to live with that. All the effects sound great. Except for the pitch-shifter and the ring-modulator which just soud weird. But I realize that might just be the point. They're just not my kind of effects. Currently I'm running it through the effect-return of my Valvestate combo.I'm planning to get a power amp and cab before long. I'm convinced you can get absolutely every sound you want from this box if you have the patience to experiment.

I certainly hope so! I've heard earlier versions of the software had a bad tendency to crash, but I haven't had that problem. A couple of times it's made some weird noises, like someone banging on a steel plate or something. But I just switch to another patch, and it's gone. This has only happened two times for as long as I've had it, so It's not really a problem. I can't afford a backup, so I guess I would have to use it whithout. I guess I could always use my amp if it were to die on me at an inconvenient moment

I would definitely buy it again!! Or a newer equivalent or whatever. Of course I would probably get a better sound with some of the real amps, but the fact is I'm into so many different styles of music that I really need something that can give me a lot of different sounds. And the GX-700 has given me a lot more than I ever hoped for. And the price is just ridiculously low!! I guess they don't expect to sell much of a preamp that doesn't have tubes in it....

I am resubmitting my comments on the gx-700. Last time I said I was unhappy with the distortions. Well since then, I have tried the Peavey Rockmaster Preamp, and I think the Gx-700 simulations blow it out of the water. I publicly apologize for doubting the sonic quality of the GX-700 and I wanted to resubmit my correction before anyone else read my unfavourable previous rating. To Roland, I apologize. Boss/Roland RULES !!!!!

My setup is a Ibanez RG-570 into the Boss GX-700 into a Marshall 8008 Valvestate Power amp into a Celestion 2x12 cabinet.

This piece of gear is definitely worth the money and I recommend it to anyone who wants awesome professional tone on a budgeted salary !!

I think the sounds that are offered are incredible except the distortions. I think I'm going through that "is there something out there that sounds better? " stage. I'm really debating adding a used "peavey rockmaster" or "ada mp-1" preamp for better distortions. I do think though that this unit offers wicked clean sounding patches. My unit has verion 1.08 software.

I'm running it through a Marshall Valvestate 8008 power amp and a 2X12 marshall cabinet.

The unit has never failed to power up. I think its very reliable.

The unit has never required service.

Like I said before, I don't know if I should have spent this much money on effects or maybe I should of picked up an mp-1 or rockmaster preamp first and added a cheap used processor later? Right now I have to concentrate on finding that "Def Leppard" distortion, and get that going on.

Very easy to use. Editing patches is very easy. I started without using the manual and had no problems. When I did consult the manual for more technical info, I was sadly disappointed by what I found. No concrete info on using effect settings to advantage, just a brief this is a Flanger and its parameters go from 1 to 100 yada, yada, yada. I have firmware version 1.08

The sound is very nice. It takes a while to get a sound just the way you want (doesn't it always) but once it's there it's only a knob twist away (I don't have a controller for it yet.) I've had some noise problems on and off but I just put all new electronics in my guitar (a Fender Tex-Mex) and it seems to actually have cleared up a LOT of the noise I was still getting (I had shielded it previously.) If I continue to have noise problems, I'll replace the switching power supply it came with with a linear supply. That should especially help on the higher gain settings of the preamp and distortion settings as then electrical noise wouldn't be gettting amplified as well as the guitar signal. A few of the effects seem pretty useless to me. The pitch shifter leaves a lot to be desired, it sounds quite unnatural to my ears. I'm not quite sure what the humanizer or ring modulator are good for other than doing the "Hey guys, listen to this!" Small entertainment value but not much musical value to me.
The chorus, phaser and tremolo are my three favorite effects so far on this unit. They perform very well. The delay is good, but I'm not much of a delay user (mostly because I don't seem to do it right.

I've never had a problem with it after 4 months so I'd say it's pretty dependable. I've packed it around in a rack bag from Southeastern Idaho to Northwestern Washington without a glitch.

If I could get a midi implementation book from them versus my local dealer that would be great. My local dealer doesn't ever get things in that I ask for. Or if they do they don't call me to let me know (and yes I always leave my name and number.) So I'm left rather ambivalent about the whole support issue.

If it were stolen, I'd either buy it again or save a little more cash after insurance and get the BOSS GT-5 instead.

Very easy!
Boss/Roland sent current firmware 1.08 free.
Only 4 cont controllers avail.

Direct to board sounded pretty good.
The 'live' situation didn't happen for me. I tried EVERY wiring possibility. It was like you being totally dehydrated and hot and having to drink ice water thru a straw!
I had a much better sound using my Fender Hot Rod Deville's preamp w/a Digi-Tech TSR-24 in the loop. No contest. Quieter/more transparent chorus/much nicer reverb/quieter delays...

Spent a few days programming...crashed.
Boss sent firmware upgrade (to a music store) v#1.08 They performed upgarde n/c.
I would be a little gun shy about depending on it.

I used to hate Roland/Boss for this reason. Look at their warranty on GR-30 for expample. They sell you a 800 dollar gtr synth, provide you w/lite weight cheesy gtr cord and put no warranty on it!
This is typical of the Japanese companies.
But I have to say they did take care of me, which really did suprise me.

I sold it, actually traded it. I couldn't seem to sell it. I would not buy this again. I also have owned a RP-10 by Digitech and have loved it. I recently replaced that w/RP-20. They have always treated well..free upgrades at times. I prefer their digital section and modulation to Boss's.
Like I said I tried everything to make this unit work in my electric set-up. To no avail for me.

Bone simple. Push the button for the effect you want to edit, scroll through the parameters, set the levels, and you're there.

Fair to Exceptionall, depending on the effect. Some patches (especially compressors and distorts) are pretty noisy, but some judicious tweaking helps it go away. I'm not impressed with the amount of sustain I get from the distorted patches--the noise gate makes it taper off unnaturally, and you DO want the noise gate running much of the time.

No problems yet. It's mounted in a rack that gets plenty hot, and it spends many hours a week in use. Would I use it on a gig without a backup? I wouldn't use ANY equipment on a gig without a backup.

Never dealt with them. Roland's reputation ain't stellar in this regard, and the manual is a well-concieved if comical translation from Japanese.

I don't know if I'd buy it again... I'll let you know when I give the DigiTech 2112 a good wringing-out. The amp/cab simulations are overall not bad--you can smell the dang tubes on the Twin Reverb patch. Others vary from good to suspect to silly. The only really convincing emulations I've heard are on the Johnson Millenium.

This thing is a piece of cheese cake. So easy to use. To write something just press write twice. Thats as easy as it gets. If you read the manual I think that you would know about 35% more about the unit. my firmware version is 1.09 which is the latest (I think) so I haven't had it freeze up or anything like that. I use the Roland FC-200 with it and it works perfectly and easily. If anyone knows how to get the tap delay thing to work email me.

No noise at all. Very quiet. Distortions are so good. I've gotten the crunch that I've always wanted. All the sounds are pretty good except Ring Modulator.

This thing is great. It's something you really can depend on. Ideal for a gigging musician. But you might want to use backup. Nothings Perfect.

Never dealt with them. I have had it for 6 months and its fine.

I would buy this again for sure. It was a good price and It had everything I needed. The COSM feature probably improved it 10 times. The worst thing about it is the ring modulator (in my opinion). I had to choose between the Boss GT-5 and this one and I figured that if you are a bass player that one maybe better. But if you are a guitar player like me the GX-700 is ideal.

This is the second multi-effects processor I've owned, so operation seemed easy and intuitive. I didn't need the instruction manual to move around from patch to patch and to make basic changes in effects or to write my own patches. I imagine that if you've only fooled with pedals before, you would need some serious time with the operator's manual, but this could be said for any processor. Some of the more advanced features and parameter tweaking definitely need the manual in hand, even for someone with experience. The manual itself is not as bad as some might have you think. True, it could be better, but I feel it does the job sufficiently. Software version is 1.09, which I believe is the latest. I haven't encountered many of the gripes voiced by others on this database (i.e. poor reverb), which could be a sign that either things have been improved with this latest software update, or else my ears just aren't as refined as some people's. Also, I was very happy with the unit's presets. They were not overdone, as some have said, and gave a good sampling of the unit's basic effects. I use many as they are. Again, this may be a change that was made in the 1.09 upgrade.

Distortion sounds are very impressive. My last processor had a terrible digital distortion, so this is a great improvement. As far as I can tell, the seven distortion sounds offered are very close, if not identical, to the individual Boss pedals. The fuzz setting is good, but won't replace a good Fuzz Face or Tone-Bender. None of the internal, analog distortions sound as good as my Mesa Boogie V-Twin pedal (which uses 2 tubes) so I put it in the unit's efects loop and can switch it in and out of the effects chain at will. The preamp simulations need tweaking to get them sounding good. I imagine these would work best if the unit was used in conjunction with a power amp set up. I have mine running in front of a vintage Marshall head, so this colors the different preamp sounds (they all sound like a Marshall). I've used the Fender Twin setting on clean to bring life to an old, terrible sounding Fender tube amp that a friend lets me play through occasionally. It sounded more "authentic" with the GX-700 than straight through the amp alone. Go figure. Otherwise, I'd say the preamp simulations, in general, just offer some interesting overdrive tones. Chorus is very good to my ears. The flanger is not as "whooshy" as Boss' pedal version, but the phaser seems to be rich enough. One advantage is that the chorus has it's own link in the chain, so you can use it in conjunction with other time-based effects. The pitch-shifter and Harmonizer are fun, but aren't as convincing as the Eventide's you hear on studio albums. Nevertheless, good enough for the bedroom or casual gig. Delay was excellent. One feature I noticed was that if you're using a patch that has delay and you change to a patch that doesn't use delay, the delay from the first patch will trail into the second. This makes for a nice, professional sounding transition. The reverb sounded good to my ears. There's plenty enough in there for most applications. It would have been nice if the unit would allow you to set the level for the reverb as being louder than the original signal, creating a spacey, swelling effect.

Haven't had any problems in the 2 months I've owned it. I've taken it on three oad trips and when I flip the power swith everything lights up and the unit's working like it's supposed to.

Haven't had to contact the company.

Given the current market options, I'd probably still go with the GX-700. While shopping I compared this unit with the Roland GP-100 and Boss GT-5. These units are essentially the same, sonically speaking. If you intend to use the processor as a dedicated preamp and want to place it in front of a power amp in a rack, I'd say spend the extra money and go for the GP-100, with its amp-like knobs for tone and volume on the front panel. If you plan to stick it in between a guitar and amplifier, the GX-700 should suffice, and for about $300 less. The GT-5 was as good as the GX-700, but I didn't like the dea of bending over or getting on the floor every time I wanted to tweak a parameter. Also, anything on the ground that you step on is going to take a lot of physical abuse. I'd rather have a dedicated switching pedal (like the Roland FC-200) and keep the "brains" separate.

This unit is very easy to use. All effects have a separate button with which you can : 1. see if it's on (lighted) 2. put it on/off 3. edit it
Plus the tuner uses the same lights

Very good distortion, preamp, speakersimulator, harmonizer Reverb is good but could be better Noisegate works very fine Effectchain can be changed in order, so you can out wah before/after preamp or get an external device (preamp, effect) at any place in the effectchain No hum. No noise.

no problem so far (1/2 year used)

N/A

Price/value it's the best on the market. I surly would buy it again
Plus: easy to use. good front panel (each effect one light/button) tuner visible from very very very far good soundquality, good effects wahwah (SW-PEDAL) can be used with a pedal AND can be switched on/off with the same pedal (works like a normal wahwah-pedal) which is a great feature that I haven't ever seen before in 19" multieffects. reverb can be put changed +/- 100 % for all the patches in a second. Very usefull on stage.

Min : No levelbutton on the front Headphones is not phonejack

A working example of plug and play

I don't use the overdrive/distortion on the GX-700 ( I get mine from a JMP-1).The preset reverbs would give a bad impression but with a little work you can get a passable sound. For me the compressor and limiter shold be split so you can use both at the same time. As it stands it wasn't up to scratch here so I got a Nanocompressor. Other than that everyting else is excellent ( I aprticularly like the digital talk box ( humaniser ) )

No problems yet, But I've only had it 6 months.

I don't know ! The harmoniser and humaniser are very nice but I'd probably for an ART SGX-2000 or the Digitech Valve-FX

My unit has software revision 1.08 (though the manual doesn't describe how to find this out!). In general, the manual is easy to read and operation of the unit couldn't be much easier. However, with its 9 preamp models and 7 analogue overdrive/distortion effects, there are so may possible tones that getting the right sound is very iterative and can take a very long time.
The effects buttons which double up as a tuning meter (believe it or not) are brilliantly designed. No other unit on the market comes close in terms or ergonomics.
When the tuner is activated, the sound output is muted. This adds a touch of professionalism to a gig since the sound of a guitar being tuned is not appreciated by the audience. I'll never go back to a separate meter.
I use a midi foot controller (Digitech MFC-7) to switch between patches and it's fast and seemless. Note, if like me your foot controller doesn't have midi controller switches or an expression pedal, these can be directly connected to the GX-700 (though this does mean more cables).
One problem (which is minor because it doesn't apply to gig situations), is the design of the LCD display. The top line is obscured unless you're viewing it at exactly the correct angle.

The unit is noisless due to its superior 22-bit ADC and 18-bit DAC ciruits. Since there are no valves or long loops of cables involved, it will always be quieter than a stack in a real gigging environment. The noise suppressor (NS) is superb since it can be placed after the preamp but operate according to the level at the unit's input.
One important indicator to watch is the peak input LED. With my bridge humbucker on full and the GX-700 input level control on its lowest setting, clipping occurs (the LED flickers and I can hear noise). Clearly the input level control should have greater scope.
My favourite preamp models are the Marshall, Matchless and JC-120 and they sound great. So far I haven't found the Fender Twin model useful, but preamp models are optional and great clean and dirty sounds can be made without them.
The range of effects are comprehensive and flexible. The speaker simulation in particular makes a stunning difference. As I indicated above, there are so many effects and parameters that great tones are there but can require much time to perfect. Reverb in particular has many inferior sounds, but once again with the correct setup can sound OK.

In the five months that I've owned it, I haven't had a single problem. Since it's solid state and made by Boss, I'm so confident in its reliability that I've used it on a few gigs without a backup.

I've never had need to call them.

One feature I miss is the ability to directly mix the output from the noise suppressor with the output of the end of the effects chain. This facility could be added to Level/Chain page and would provide an interface like the mix control on a separate preamp and FX unit setup.
While it does sound good, there is still plenty of room for improvement with the distortion sounds. The clean sounds are as good as any amp. The addition of an acoustic simulation (now on several other units) would be a nice addition. I hope Boss adopt the policy of updating the software and offering upgrades.
Would I buy it again? I've considered this many times and every time I decide that for playing a wide variety of music live, rack mounted preamp/processors are the way to go. With one pedal push, I can instantly dial up an appropriate tone and volume level. Compared with genuine tube amps and when using a good power amp and speakers, I don't think a typical audience in a gig would notice the difference in tone. Consequently, I would definitely buy it again.

This is a piece of cake to program, everything is very well figured out. From the alredy made presets it's easy to get very good sounds. The manual is very informative and eady to understand, I've had no problems finding out what I need. The revision is 1.08 and is working very good to this point.

You can get it to be noisy, if you want... But you can get it to be real clean sounding. It depends of what you want to do. It's realy easy to soften the sound from the more eavy distortions by using the equalizer and the speaker simulator. I don't use many effected sound... but the harmonizer and the pitch shitfer are both good. (Try the pitch shifter on -7 before the Soldano or Peavey simulator for the Sepultura ROOTS sound!)

I haven't got it for long, so I don't realy know.

Never had any problem (yet).

I would buy it again. So far I'm loving it. I chose this over the Digitech pedals and preamps that are more expensive. Go give this one a try... and remember that you can fiddle with the sound all you want. I use it to play live and to record at home and it does both jobs fine.

it's easy

distortions bite. effects are ok.

returned it.

Reverb sucks. everything else very good.

Have ver 1.05. It waited to crash (ie lock up and erase) only after I spent two days writing patches. !@#$ *&% Roland!
(note: digitech and art products never pulled this shit)

They deny any wrong doing....They haven't had problems with units locking up!! Yea...RIGHT!
If they send firmware upgrade in a timely fashion I'll upgrade them to a 3 or 4.

If this ever does what it's supposed to do I'd rate it a 9.

10 This unit is blindingly easy to edit right out of the box. The backlit buttons make it easy to see what effects are active. Parameters are straight forward yet quite in depth. I created two killer original sounds in my first day of use. Manual is thorough if you even need it.

9.5 Quite as a mouse with a very natural sounding noise suppressor. Distortions are its sorest point and it is really hard to complain. I have only had it a few days and havent had a chance to really tweak them too much. Blues Distortion is my favorite, nice and responsive. Preamp section sounds great. It doesnt sound like a real tube, but what does. I am amazed with the Vintage Twin, Marshall and JC120 emulations. The Soldano is said not to sound quite like the real thing but it is a great overdrive sound nonetheless. Delays and reverbs are particularly nice with delicate trails and rich washs. The mod section is quite diverse, including;phase,flange,pitch shift, multi voice harmonizer with user editable scales, intelligent ring modulator, and humanizer(and auto talk box(cool, hehehe...)) Chorus is its own module-Thank you BOSS!! Speaker simulators are quite interesting. I still dont think they can match the sound of a real speaker and mic but they do color the tone pleasing and usefull ways. Wah is slightly suspect. I dont think I will get rid of my crybaby. But that is what FX loops are made for.

I have only had it a few days. Cant really answer

No need yet

10 For the price this is one hell of a processor. I looked at a Zoom 9150 for about a week and the Boss blows it to pigeon poop. My bandmate has a Digitech GSP2101 Artist and I think the GX700 sounds just as good as it does and I know the Boss is WAY easier to edit. GO BUY ONE!

It has an easy to use tuner mode. The headphone jack is 1/8", presumably to prevent people from accidentally mistaking it for the 1/4" input jack next to it. It has no headphone volume control, and the fixed volume level is not loud enough for me. See the Customer Support section for the firmware story.

Most of the individual effects are very good. The distortions won't fool any tube-heads, and don't quite have the responsive feel of tubes, but are nevertheless better than the Digitech and Zoom analog distortions (and in some ways their low-voltage grungy tube distortions too). I use a Rocktron Piranha in the GX-700's effects loop to get really excellent distortions, but, when programmed right, the GX700's can be about 80-90% as good.
The GX700 has seamless program changes and reverb and delay trails, which were a requirement for me (ruling out the Peavey Tube Fex). The glitchy wah I mentioned in my earlier review was fixed by the 1.08 firmware upgrade. It's more modern sounding than a Vox or Crybaby; more like U2's Mysterious Ways. It goes "weh-weh" instead of "wah-wah".
Of the 12 speaker simulators, only Small, Built In 1, and Marshall 1, and JC-120 are good for something besides special effects; the others are parodies of '80s arena EQ. Similarly, many of the presets are over-effected. Some are so bizarre as to be useless for any musical situation I can imagine. But many of the presets can be made useful by tweaking them a bit, turning off excess delays, chorus, and distortions for example. With the delay turned off, the Space Octave preset and a Strat does a beautiful imitation of a steel pan drum.

I had to get the firmware upgraded because the revision 1.05 that I had locked up several times a day and erased all my changes. No problems in about 2 months of use since then.

I called Roland and after going through the usual "press 1 for..." hoops, got a very knowledgable and friendly product specialist. He told me that the current firmware is stable at revision 1.08, and anything before that is known to have the lock-up problem. To find out the GX-700 firmware revision you have, hold down the Preamp and SpSim buttons while powering the unit on. I had revision 1.05. He told me that since my dealer is an authorized Roland service rep, they could order and install the up-to-date chips for me for free. So I brought the unit in and they ordered the chips from Roland, expecting them to arrive within a week.
After a month had passed with no news, I called Roland again. The person at Roland was able to quickly track our order and seemed eager to help. They found that the 1.08 firmware chips were severely back-ordered from Japan, with a few units dribbling in every few weeks. It looked like it would be another month before the chips were available. I told my dealer this, and they checked their stock again, and lo and behold, they'd received the 1.08 chipset in the interim without putting 2+2 together and installing it in my unit. So, a couple of days later they had it upgraded and I brought it home.
The MIDI SYSEX format is in a separate manual you can supposedly order through your dealer. I'm still trying to get ahold of it.

This is an update on my earlier review. I'm satisfied with the unit now; it does what I expected it to, after the upgrade.

Very easy out of the box, factory settings are great and easily editable, scrolling thru parameteres is much easier than other units i have tried and owned including Digitech and Zoom. Manual is very thorough and clear as are most Roland Boss products i have owned. Mine is new and is a version 1.8. No problems to date. To create patches select a patch you like, copy it to a few patch space and edit it as you want and save it, could not be easier.

Preamp sounds are dead on, fender and roland sounds are better than the amps of these brands that i have owned, Marshall sounds are very goodparticularly at creating plexi sounds although 800 aand 900 head sounds are in there to. Boogie sounds are pretty close but then a boogie head can be made to sound like any other head but the classic boogie preamp crunch is right there. The peavey 5150 van halen sound i sdead on also but you have to like that sound, depends on the player. The Soldano sound is good but i have found those amps offer little that the other types of amps offer so i do not tend to use it but that is just me, any of these sound great, pick what you like and use it, problem is that you get spoiled for choice. Distortion sounds are killer, i have owned a blues driver, DS-1, DS-2, Tube screamers and HM-1 heavy metal pedals and i traded in my entire Boss pedal board since every type of Boss pedal is in there from Overdrive to grunge to classic disytortion to metal, its excellant. All editable features that the pedals have this processor has. Noise suppressor is like the NS-2 pedal, very quiet, does not cut off or interupt playing, Tuner is excellant and very simple and accurate, can be adjusted for easy detuning for. Chorus, flanger, vibrato, and other time based effects are excellant crystral clear, reverb is best Boss reverb to date but would have liked to have seen more settings, ie church or cathedral for total meltdown , but the hall,room and plate settings are good enuff for 99% of the time and the send/return loop allows you to add a separate unit such as an Srv roland unit of lexicon type. Delays are great and tap tempo allows on the spot settings in case your drummer is going to fast or to slow. Compressor works great on the clean chorus type settings syat away from compressing driven sounds. Dont like the wah settings and I hate autowah and never use it, i stick with a Vox 846 prior to the unit but thats what i like. Speaker simulators offer every option you could want to use, recording straight into the board is incredible and you can go thru the night without pissing off the neighbours. The harmonizer takes a little getting use to but it's worth it if you want to get Vai type effects, tracks great

No problems yet, never had a problem with Roland or Boss products. I use the unit in front of a Tremoverb head and have had no problems, much more reliable than a bunch of pedals, adaptors, cables, ducttape, tripping roadies, drunks falling over stuff, people stealing stuff in front of you, no battery's, no stumbling in the dark. Rack it in a good case with a power conditioner and relax

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

I would buy it again in a heartbeat, I traded in a BCB-6 pedal board with 6 pedals in it and two other boss pedals and a tube screamer for an even trade, dealer was selling for $495. Sound quality is beyond description with NO NOISE, no cables, batteries etc, you can change order of effects simply, try that with pedals live. More versatile than pedals, very quiet. I am familiar with the GP-100 but i dont think the added cost is worth it and the sounds are identical, if you use a guitar amp head to go into you don't need the eq knobs that the GP-100 has. Digitech 2100 and Zoom units don not come close, nor does the Korg, this unit is player friendly rather than the digitech computer nerd scrolling techmiques. Would like a headphone level knob on the front next to the jack, love the input on the front and back, HATE the color, if anyone from Roland is listening please make a black replacement front panel available immeadiately , i will gladly pay for it. The display screen could be larger for me and while graphics on the display are good i have seen better on other brands, but this is very minor. It has totally breathed new live into both my playing and recording, ok why, because in order to get some of the more cleaner modulated effects used to take a series of pedals and with quiter cleaner sounds the noise levels would make the sounds not useable outside of a controlled studio environment. In summary the unit gives what a player wants, flexibility, simplicity, great sounds and includes only things you need, does not include any obsolete features or gimmics.Consider the price about $500,go buy 5 pedals and you've spent $500, this unit gives you three times that much, no batteries, no connectors, no ducttape. This unit does it all, run into two heads or a stereo power amps and two cabinets and you will never run mono effects again.

This is as easy to use as it could possible get. The settings allow every aspect of the sound to be tailored as closely as possible to what you want without swamping you with options like most other units do. Most effects units just have the rotary dial for scrolling through the effects but this unit works different. It has buttons on the front panel which allow you to select an effect, then you use the rotary dial to scroll through the options for just that effect. This results in extremely quick alterations to your patch with the minimum of fuss. These buttons also act to turn the effects on and off. Another nice feature is that each button has a light to show if its on so you can see at a glance what effects are turned on in a given patch. Adjusting the effects is just like using the Boss footpedals. The manuals straight forward and acts as a good reference. What it doesn't do is give you tips on how to get certain sounds out of the effects so you have to experiment.

I wasn't looking for a new rack, effects processor. I'd gone down that road once before, sold up and bought a good Marshall and never looked back. After all, what can match the sound of a real amp? I started reading reviews and comments about the GX-700 and the GP-100 and everyone who had used it said it was the best unit on the market. I finally gave in and tried it out. What more can I say. It lived up to every expectation and more. This is the first time I've been totally satisfied with my guitar sound. Now I can have any amplifier/guitar sound I want. The preamp is the GX-700's ace up its sleave. You can select between JC-120, Matchless (Vox), Fender Twin, Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Soldano and Peavey Metal amps. When you dial through the settings for the preamp effect you find its just like the real amps. You've got bass, treble, middle, presence, bright switches, hi - mid - low gain settings, preamp volume, master volume, etc.(there are different controls on different preamp settings). And they DO sound like tube amps (ie. you can back of the volume for a nice break up etc.) You can even choose which input to plug your guitar into the Marshall! The peavey and soldano amps aren't to my liking, but I think thats just me, I use the 'normal' distortions for my metal sounds. You've also got a choice of seven analog distortions (just like a set of Boss distortion pedals) which sound amazing themselves. The effects chain is totally adjustable and the way Boss have set them you can have any effects you could possibly want at any time (ie. you can have a distortion pedal going into a preamp, a flanger+chorus, other wierd effects). There are some great patches. Once of my favorite is a chorused, twelve stringed sound which (with a bit of tweaking) is identical to the Mission guitar sound.
The unit is quiet and the noise suppressor is faultless. The speaker sims offers 20 different combinations of cabs and mics, the units a dream to record with or play DI into a mixer, PA.
I could go on and on about my GX-700, go hear one yourself.

Someone did e-mail me saying they had problems with it because they had on of the first units (revision 1.5 - 1.6). Mines rev 1.8 and has been working for the past three months faultless. You can check the revision number by holding down the preamp and speaker sim buttons when turning the unit on. I trust it but if it did go down I suppose I could always use my Marshall on its own.

Theres nothing else like it on the market except for the GP-100. The GP-100 is its big brother. It offers more control and has nice amp like dials on the front. But for nearly double the price I can't justify it.
Compared to other units I'm sure you could match the quality and variation of sounds if you spent a fortune on a couple of different racks but on a rack vs. rack basis its can't be beat.
You can customize anything you like. I even plugged my Marshall footswitch into it and now I can set the unit to do what ever I want with a push of a button.
All I can say is shop around before you buy. Some shops where selling it for 480 pounds! The place where I got it from retailed it at 399 but after haggling I got it from Sound Control for 370 with loads of freebies, great deal.
The only thing I would recommend would be to get a good poweramp (preferable valve) and a pair of speakers. You would then have the ultimate amp/effects rig.
If anyones got any patches or hints and tips to swap, get in touch.

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?