Oberheim GM-1000

I COULD GET ANY SOUND I WANT OUT OF IT. AND THE GOD OF STUPID BELOW DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE! I COULD EDIT PATCHES IN SECONDS NO PROBLEM THERE. THE MANUAL COULD HAVE BEEN A LITTLE MORE SIMPLE.

I USE LES PAULS AND THIS THING REALLY LETS IT SCREAM! THE EFFECTS SOUND GREAT I CAN TELL IT'S DIGITAL 24 BIT. I RUN IT INTO A CARVIN 100 TUBE POWER AMP THAT KICKS BUTT. I CAN GET ANY SOUND OF ANY ARTIST I WANT IT TAKES LITTLE TWEAKING BUT IT CAN BE DONE. ALL THE EFFECTS ROCK EXCEPT THE FLANGE AND CHORUS.........THEY ARE WIMPY SOUNDING I THINK.

WITH THIS UNIT I WOULDN'T BE SCARED AT ALL TO AS IT AS I HAVE FOR 4 YEARS ACROSS TN. NO ISSUES!

N/A

I PLAY EVERY KIND OF MUSIC UNDER THE SUN THAT'S HOW I LAND ALL THE GIGS!LOL I'VE BEEN PLAYING AND TEACHING GUITAR FOR 23 YEARS.
IF IT WAS STOLEN I WOULD BE VERY UPSET TO BE NICE.
IT WILL INSPIRE YOU AND MAKE YOU A MORE CREATIVE PLAYER.

as far as sound goes its got it /as far as editing their are all kinds off edits availible /i looked through it but founf after reading it it was time to jump in /dont know what the firmware is

im using gibson les paul guitars, x4/ibanez/jackson/charvel /kramer/brian moore/edwards/aso!!!!!as far as power im using a mesa boogie colosium 300 through 4 marshall 1960 cabinets/ iv been running 2 50 watt soldano hot rod amps through a eventide /into the mesa and into the 4 cabinets but i was going through stuff today and decided to try the gm again although i spent about 5 hours messing around once i got the output levels up on the oberheim it started to push the mesa around to the getting that tube sound burning (I WAS FLOORED THIS DAMB THING WITH THE RIGHT POWER WILL KICK YOUR ASS IV HAD IT FOR 6 YEARS AND NEVER USED IT BECAUSE IT SOUNDED THIN AND OFF THE WALL BUT AFTER LEARNING A LITTLE MOORE ABOUT IT IM GLAD I DIDNT SELL IT!!!!! AS FAR AS FAVORIT ARTISTS IM SURE IF YOUR IN TO MATCHING OTHER ARTIST YOU CAN ADJUST IT!!!THE EFFECTS ARE THEIR ADJUST THEM !!!!!

YES IT HASNT MISSED A BEAT IN 6 YEARS

THEIR IS NONE

ALL/LONG TIME 30 YEARS/HAVE TO GET SOMETHING ELSE THEIR ARE NONE /YOU CAN GET ALMOST EVERYTHING OUT OFF IT!!!!!! its not the soldano 50 twins im using!! but then again the soldano amps arent the oberheim either!!!!!!! hook it up with a hugh power amp and some cabinets and try it ya might be surprised their arent moore out their!!!!!!!!

very easy to program.If you have trouble read the manual, it is a good one.

As said before it has a very modern sound, but is also able to do a good marshall like tone also.Bone crushing amounts of gain, yet clear & articulate.Very tight bottom end, not mushy or floppy at all!!This is the first multi effect/preamp where the factory presets are fairly good.The Anthrax channel is right on!!!The effects are world class.
It takes a bit of tweeking to get what I was after but it is in there.This is the best sounding multi/preamp I have owned.So compared to those I give it a 10.

Looks solid.

na

I`ve owned a voodoo valve, replitone rp,chemeleon,All the digitechs,peavey tubefex,pod pro & a few other all in one units.This one tops them all.It is warm,tight & has a ton of gain.
You can also bypass the preamp & use just effects if you weren`t fond of the distortion.That alone is reason to buy it as the effects are very, good.Lots of eq`s,delays, filters,chorus & the whole schmeal.At 350$ it is unbeatable.
The guy who gave it a bad rap is false on all accounts.

As easy as a unit this robust can possibly be. You hit the edit button, use the arrow buttons to go to what you want to screw with, then you either hit the Edit button again to go in a menu, or you use the encoder to modify the value. As easy as it gets. It has a huge, blue, backlit screen that gives graphic representations of the effect being editied.

I tested this with a Kramer Focus and an LTD M-350 w/ active EMG pickups. Guitar->Oberheim->MosValve Power Amp->Laney 2x12 Cabinet w/ Celestion G12M-70's

You want it, it's got it. This thing will create any usable sound you could ever want. I saw usable because it does prevent you from making some sounds, but generally those sounds would be useless/painful to listen to, etc. Not to say that it can't make strange noises. The preset "From Mars" uses a Ring Modulator and short Pitch Shifting delay that makes the strangest atonal guitar noises I've ever heard. The distorions are great, real "cranked amp" tone. One problem I sorta had with it is that, while you're tweaking, you get the impression that there's always a sort of resonance there that sounds like flanger stuck in one position, or a wah half cocked. Which is cool sometimes, but not always what you want. I found that that sound is mostly just a psychological thing and if you save the patch, turn it off, go take a break, and turn it back on, the sound is no longer noticable. The only thing I ask is that there would be a little more routing flexibility. For the most part the effects are stuck in one position in the serial chain. Some can be changed, e.g. the wah can be put pre or post distortion. Again, everything you really need is covered for.

No noise, the built in noise reduction is fantastic. Completely transparent but completely effective. There is a noise gate always present that checks the signal for level before compression, but cuts it out after distortion. If that isn't good enough, there's also a Denoiser effect that eliminates any other sounds you don't want.

The amp/cab simulator is so good that I'm debating on ditching my guitar cabs and getting a small PA system that I'll use for my amp.

I haven't had the oppurtunity to test this out yet, but it looks solid, and the manual tells you how to do a reset, so if it does hang, you're back in business in a couple button presses.

I haven't dealt with musicyo.com or oberheim/viscount on this, but my past experiences with musicyo.com have been the best I've ever had. They replaced parts for a guitar that I broke in idiotic ways for free. 'Nuff said.

300 bucks got me a new guitar rig. Just add power and get ready to rip. This thing has so many features that I've barely scratched the surface of this unit. You can't go wrong in buying it. I'm thinking of buying another and A/Bing between them to make up for the patch change gap. I guarantee that you can't spend $300 better.

pretty straightforward, large graphical display helps seeing what's going on, nice layouts too,very intuitive, ability to bypass any Fx instantly, extremely well thought out for the price!
Endless breakdown menus can sometimes be tedious but it's tweekheads heaven!

Noise level is very low, can somewhat be high with hi gain settings ( but then again it's nothing compared to a real amp) the internal noise gate and/or noise suppressor take good care of this, no prob.
The overall sound quality is simply astounding! the tons of filters and amp models and be combined with a myriad of different EQ's and Fx etc..that will allow you to truly fine tune your sound to perfection.
From fenderish cleans to brutal gain ( there's tons and tons of gain, it even gets too much if you apply max compression, but it's alwasy very clear!!)
Now if you can't find a sound you like in this unit, that's cos you can probably afford a good dozen vintage/modern custom amps that are mic'ed to perfections and recorded in the best studios!! And considering its price new, I don't think ANYONE can argue with that!
Some of the effects are better than others, the phaser is OK, the Multi Choruses are great! the pitch shifter can be set to 3 added harmonies plus yours and combined with a delay ( I made a patch that allows you to play EXACTLY like 'Ballerina" from Steve VAI, just ask me, I can email you tons of patches)
The filters are extremely useful to fine-tune a sound and very well thought out.
Flanger is ok but nothing exeptional.
compressor rocks! the Leslie/tremolo/pan are truely great in mono ( haven't hooked up in stereo yet, can't tell) maybe not fast enough for my taste but very usable on lots of contexts. The delays are really great!! and you can tweek'em to death!
This Unit is, as someone else said in the reviews a poor-man Eventide. and it certainly holds up to all the emulators clogging the market right now. I just don't know why they don't advertize this unit!!! the POD pro is a TOY compared to the Oberheim Gm1000!.

I use it in the FX loop of my amp and my amp has never sounded that good! only bummer is the footcontroller, it simply sucks! small switches that you need to aim at barefoot with the tip of your big toe! useless..Butthen again it's midi equipped, so just plug in your fav footcontroller and you're set!
Second, I have to bitch about the main Flaw of this unit, it takes a split second to change patches, and the blank it generates makes it just unusable in a live situation...sob!( if you only use it combined with a power amp)
But hey, it's no problemo to me, cos you can leave it set to one patch and bypass on/off your Fx and it works just great!! ( btw there are 4 bank of 128 patches available!!!!! limitles!!)

When recording, the GM 1000 is crisp and pro sounding! I have recorded guitars and bass direct thru the GM-1000 on harddisk and it sounds like the best amps mic'ed up in the best conditions. So whoever says it sound thin crap or whatever just doesn't know jack about guitar sound or can afford $10k worth of amps!! ...well yeah, duh! this unit would be obsolete.

If you wanna check what it sounds like, pls feel free to check my bands' MP3's at: http://www.undermystand.homestead.com ( heavy Rock/Metal), the following songs were recorded exclusively with the GM-1000: Ocean, Down the River, Top of the world, A Little Soul.( others are a mixed of real amps and the GM1000)
And they are just Demo recordings! I'm telling you this unit sounds pro all the way!
Feel free to email me any comments, ask questions or request some patches I came up with.

I got mine used ( Music Shop Demo unit in London)
Never had any problem whatsoever, I'm using it in the US thu a current convertor and it works all the same!!
never gliched, never crapped out on me, I can't tell for the other owners but as far as I'm concerned it's a 9 ( I've had it for a year and a half, time will tell, hence the 9)

I emailed Music yo ( distributor) regarding my current conversion Issue, they got back to me real quick...forwarding me to the Viscount website.
I emailed those guys, but they never replied...
so it's 3 for VISVOUNT/OBERHEIM but 9 for musicyo.com

I play heavy Rock/Metal in Under My Stand a band based in Arlington, VA ( www.undermystand.homestead.com) it fits my needs perfectly, and I can honestly say that this unit is a keeper!
then gain check out the MP3's to make yourself an idea of what it really sounds like

NO problems :o) Fun interface - point and click sort of thing.

SOunds great! :) I like it a lot. I had some Digitech and Lexicon stuff before this. I like this better. I can get the sounds I want plus I don't have to go trying to make their MIDI work together :P This way, it's good sounding and simple. The base tone (with no effects) is somewhere between a Marshall pedal and a Sansamp PSA-1. It's a very modern, but warm, sort of sound. There are no tubes in this unit, but it doesn't matter. It is professional all the way.

One of the lights on mine is kinda dim - don't know what the deal is there - one of the meter lights. Two points off for that.

They no longer exist. Hey maybe in a few years these will become treasured collectables. I don't know. I'll probably get bored eventually and want to try something else - who knows. You can't really blame them for not existing though - so I give it a 5 here

I got this used off Ebay and it's working fine, no problems yet. It's a real fun unit. It's kind of expensive, but then everything truly pro is I guess. It's a lot better sounding (in my opinion) than any of the Digitech stuff. I've used Digitech stuff for years and when I got this home it really did have a different, and better sound I think.

It's like using a computer, very intuitive :)

I mainly wanted to write this in response to Mr. 'God Of Gods' review below. That guy needs his head examined! He doesn't know what he's talking about - I think he's just writing to bitch because he maybe doesn't understand how to use it right, or maybe he got a bad unit used or something - dropped out of a truck, who knows. Don't blame Oberheim for your own stupidity and problems Mr 'God Of Gods'.

This thing is great. I got one on MusicYo a while ago and it's the coolest pramp I've ever used (and I've tried about all). Yes it DOES sound like a real amp. Maybe that guy doesn't even own any amps so that's why he bitches so much - what's wrong Mr? Can't afford an amp? lol Anyway these are great and I don't know what planet he's on because at MusicYo they cost $500, not $350 or whatever. Go see for yourself at www.musicyo.com - the guy is lying to us, so don't believe anything he says. The other reviews should give you a clue about this - these really are great. I love it it's the most fun preamp I've ever used.

Never had a problem. I also own a coupple Les Pauls and one of them developed a crack in the fingerboard. Gibson fixed it free and sent it back - Gibson is nice. Maybe the other guy has truble because he is an a*s h*le!

Never had a problem - they always respond to emails, etc.

This thing is a deffinate ten! :)) It is by far the coolest preamp I've ever used. Everything about it strikes me as very, extreemely high quality and advanced technologically. It's like a computer in a box, just for guitar. It will do everything and then make your breakfast. The sound is like the others say somewhat Marshall-esque, but if you prefer something with more bite, you can simply increase the trebble and use the many various EQ processors offered on this unit. The total recall is really great as you can tweak things and then save them.

These units retailed for $1,000 - suggested $1,200, but nothing ever sells for list in pro. They can be had used for between $200-400. You can get them NEW at MusicYo.com for $350+shipping. There is no customer service or warranty whatsoever, but you can return it if you don't like it (so they say - I don't know).

The best of any product out there - EXTREEMELY fun to use :) Big fun windows and simple menu systems.

The sound of this unit is basically that of a Sansamp or Marshall Guv'nor distortion pedal through a variable low pass filter. This filter cannot be bypassed in this unit - surely because if you heard it's raspy highs you would not buy it. Instead you are always stuck with a dark amp sound - pumping the highs does not fix. Always sounds closed in and artificial, but useful in a synthetic way.

I have really grown sick of equipment manufacturers who commit fraud on the public like this - this product sounds nothing like a mic'd amp. Anyone who says so needs their ears examined - it simply ain't so. It is compressed, lifeless by comparrison. If you're looking for a souped up stomp box tone, this is a good place :) If not, look elsewhere. You can spend half as much on a tube preamp and separate signal processor multieffect and get better tones.

There are also 3 fundamental FLAWS in the design of this unit compared with the GM-400. This thing has 1/3 the gain of the GM-400. The GM-400 IS SUPERIOR! I owned both, and returned this 1000.

The second design flaw of the GM-1000 is the so called 'intelligent' pitch shifter does not track at all - worse than a digitech or Boss in this regard. However, the regular one note pitch shifter works ok :)

The third defect is the USELESS input meters. The GM-400 has BETTER input metering as you can utilize the entire LCD display to show input. The GM-1000 uses this lame LED on the side, simply to TAKE UP SPACE to justify a higher price lol

Another 'price hiking' game they use is to put an internal power supply, increasing output noise, but making the unit larger and more substantial feeling. This is like what Digitech does with their products. The best Digitech product out there is the Valve FX. It does everything a 2101 can do - more or less, and sounds better, in about 1/3 the physical space. Ditto for the GM-400 - sounds BETTER than the GM-1000, and takes up fully 1/4 the physical space and weight!

Ok what else - there are 2 input knobs, only one of which works. The second is only for theleft channel of the aux input on the back - and when you look inside the unit you will see they went through extensive design work to run poles to the back of the unit to operate these pots - god what a waste of money! If they put the amp section at the front of the unit perhaps it would have as much gain as the GM-400 :)

Hmmm - while I'm ranting, the Leslie simulator is useless. It pans things almost hard left - and you can't undo this! It is an obvious programming flaw, probably one of the reasons this thing was such a commercial bomb.

The only differences in available effects on the GM-400 and GM-1000 are:

Leslie simulator (sounds great, if only it would output to both channels! It is a good sounding DEFECTIVE leslie simulator lol

10 band parametric - no graphical display - overkill and useless

RTA - what a useless feature. If you are that anal, use a $10 or freeware computer program to do the same thing :)

Leslie simulator - but doesn't work properly

Custom pitch shifter - so you can designate what notes will be forced to be what - but it does not track properly - waste of time. Also, computer programs work far better in this regard :)

So what do we have people? We have here a unit that is fun to PLAY with, but it is basically just a toy. It is WORSE in sound quality than the GM-400, costs more, and has many USELESS features, some of which (like internal power supply) actually reduce the sound quality of the unit.

I must say though of all the effects processors I've seen this one is the most fun to use - pretty layout in the screens, like being in a virtual studio where you click on things and play with them :)

P.S.: The virtual room simulator on this thing is utter crap. It does not time delay the clean mix signal, so it always has to be full wet. Also, ALL of the effects except stereo delays and flange type things is just mono input - not true stereo effects - c

Don't know - it's all analog and digital - no tubes so probably never breaks.

Gibson is a joke. Try and get help from them on this product and they will look upon you with complete scorn - imagine trying to get a part! And warranty? There is none!

This is by far the worst part - there is NEGATIVE customer support. NOt only is this branch out of business, but if you ask any questions of Gibson, who now owns Oberheim, they will give you nothing but arrogance, spite, and ignorance in return.

Gibson and all their minions are by far the WORST company in service that I have ever come across in all my life, save fraud companies that send you a brick instead of what you ordered :) Gibson is the worst LEGAL business out there - as music products go. Totally overpriced and useless. You can, for example, buy a Dean guitar made in Korea - it will look better, sound better, and play better than the Gibson equivalents, and for about 1/4 the money!

Gibson simply rides upon their name - kind of like Bose or something. You can put the label 'Gibson' or 'Fender' on a pile of doggy doo and people will buy it lol

This is not a bad product. It just has flaws - which the GM-400 does not. The GM-400 does not claim to be something it's not. It's not as easy to use as the 1000, but it sounds better and does all the same things basically. It is just as adjustable in the effects it has as the 1000 is! It is only in those USELESS effects that the 1000 has that the GM-400 is missing - so who cares.

The unit is the easiest I've seen - very straight forward (obviously some knowledge of effects in general is a help). Reaching each setting is vey fast - there arenn't hundreds of pages to flip through due to the units large screen. There are 4 banks each with 128 programs. The factory presets are repeated for each bank. You may overwrite ALL settings.
The manual is very straightforward

I play a Patric Eggle customised Berlin. Straight into the GM 1000. Then out via 2 balanced XLRs into a Roland VS1680. Although I have both effects boards for the Roland I no longer use them for guitar. This wiped the floor with COSM modelling (at least with the VS8F2 - I hear V-guitar isn't bad though).
It has no noise at all as it has a noise gate/supressor. As with all other units I've tried - if you want a low distortion (and if you listen, very few songs have maximum distortion) the sound is usually very weak and strings resonate badly with each other (try playing a C chord plucking the strings with a little distortion - the notes interfere with each other. Not so with this unit - each string sounds like it has been played separately.
I play Steve Vai and Satriani, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, Crowded House. A fair mix. This unit is able to produce and sounds.
One other unusal note - the distortions do not require speaker simulation - they have placed a filter to cut off the high hiss (normally the 12 inch speaker in your amp does the job as it is unable to produce those high frequencies, but for recording, unless you go through a speaker simulator (or mic the amp) the result is raspy. The filter can be set from 1k to 4 k. There is a very good speaker simulator but it is not required for direct recording.

It seems very strong - being 2U rack mountable it can be given as much protection as your case builder can provide.
I would definitely gig it - the foot controller is very good (metal case (switches themselves don't feel the best). Switch indiviual effects on and off.
Connection is a high quality computer style lead rather than a small midi lead. Two expression pedals can be connected as the controller doesn't include them.

NA - I should think it may be a hassle due to the rariety of the model

I've been playing for 15 years. Used many pedals / amps. Then went to Roland VS1680 effects. Now this. AS a perfectionist I need not go further. Amps are too much trouble for live - mixing, feedback, noise, changing sounds. I now only use virtual amps and speaker simulators and this is the model for that. Store your entire gig list onto one bank and flick through each song in turn from the pedal board.
Effects on the unit:

Compression, Distortion, EQ, Amp modelling, Modualtion, Special 1 and 2, Delay, Reverb, Noise Reduction.

These are the effect units. You can run them all at once. Within each unit there are many variations, e.g. 10 band graphic EQ, amp EQ, Parametric EQ, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Tap delay, stereo delay. Distortion, overdrive, crunch. Each of these has many models eg tube 1 and 2 UK Tube, High Energy etc.
Sorry for the boring 10 out of 10s but I can't fault the unit (I've reviewed the Rocktek Delay pedal and gave that low marks so I'm not just being overly dramatic. I live in Dundee and the local 'authorities' rate this as the best effects processor available - I tried it and agreed - they don't recommend the valves as at this level they are not needed (24 bit).
It is very hard to demo this unit. Email me and I may be able to record something to mp3 and email it back to you. Cheers

this unit is very user friendly especially for experienced tweakers. The front panel is well layed out with soft keyes etc, the manual is pretty decent also.

Yowww man I have had scads and scads of gear and nothing touches this. Its initial dist sound is very Marshallesque but I have been able to emulate every other worth while amp and sometimes a cross between two..(ever wondered what a Marshall and a boogie crossed would sound like hehehe)...efx are excellent...I would recommend a decent compressor going in and if you want a nice tube type clean then you will need something else to really get that..(I have yet to find any preamp that sounds like a real clean tube amp)...here is the real kicker..and I know you die hards aint gonna believe this but my sound is direct..know pwr amps know speakers..this thing is so playable and the emulator in it really really works...My biggest complaint is that it is true the patches take a split second to go between patches and you can only have one effect assigned to a midi real time controller at a time..I may have to buy another unit to overcome this as the difference in patches extends far beyond the "dist on off" type of control...the footswitch is definatly cool and built well its worth having.

So far so good

Never had to call em

I play real slick studio stuff like Lukather,Huff,Landau...etc..I have been playing for 20 years..I currently own a Sdx330 chorus,Sony Dvps55, Gibson Max, Dbx Compressor, art levelar, Dunlop rotovibe,EV7 expression pedal, Seymour Duncan tube pre..(great clean sounds) Jackson Soloist and fernandes dragon elite sustainer guitar.
I have owned gazzilions of pieces including ada mp1..(still an old fav if you are going into a pr amp speaker setup)..voodoo valve tons of tc and lexicon stuff. This unit is really inspiring every time I use it and man can you really tweak the sound unbelievable! Go get one from yomusic.com they have a great return policy if you dont dig it..just send it back...(yea right..hec you will probably order a couple of more just like me!!)