Yamaha GW-33 Multi-Effects

Very easy to use and easy editing is a no brainer.

Had the best Metal sound for an effects board when I purchased it years ago. All other sounds were perfect for my hobbyist level of playing and recording. Great value for money.

Very easy piece of gear to live with for a home studio and offered years of faithful service without a complaint and is still going strong with no problems in 2008.

Nevey had to worry about it.

I play mainly rock style and some other styles that don't use much effects so there has been no need for other gear for my home studio work which is it's main role. Playing gigs you just plug it in amp it and away you go.

i was getting good sounds from this unit almost straight away
& was editing patches without the manual, (i didnt get the book
till later, i thought the detune feature would be like a whammy
but its not .. otherwise there wasnt a lot to dislike about
this unit ,most features are very usable & sound good

i am using a telecaster with emgs & fender champ for live work
i run the amps di signal into a desk , with the effects unit going
straight into the amp ( no loop ) i prefer this set up as it seems
to slap the input on the amp a little better, this unit doesnt seem
to alter my sound compared to others (like zoom etc)overall very good

so far reliable, ive used a yamaha effects before(fx 500 ) till it was stolen , & found it very reliable

no reason to use customer support yet

i play several different styles of music at live gigs & need an array
of tones , modern , vintage , blues & this unit allows me to get what
i would call a natural tone (think straight into your amp)when its between my guitar & amp i dont find myself altering my playing in a manner to compensate for the unit, a whammy would be nice thats all i miss,but otherwise it has all i need for live work

Hi to all.
Been dying to read what other players thought of this board, finally, some other opinions.
Most are not far off from what my thoughts are.
#1. Very easy to use, good, useable sounds right out of the box.I found editing so easy that I started to edit on the fly at gigs(when drunk!)
Manual is straight forward, with a cheesy illustration of "Slash"
Not aware of any firmware revisions,I'm under the impression that Yamaha put this thing out, and let it sink or swim.

#2. Amp set-up is 2 100w Marshall Heads(1 Mark IV Super Lead from the late '70's, the other a JCM 800 of mid '80's vintage), 2 4x12 Marshall bottom speaker cabs. Guitars include various Strats, a Tele, a Gibson ES335 recording model(no f-holes). I used a Furman PQ3 with the insert a few times, but mostly just the unit with an expression pedal. Loved the modulation settings, hated the reverbs,hated the non morphing between presets, used the echo grudgingly(my pet peeve was the lack of dual/stereo echo). I found that I could pull some pretty trippy sounds out of this unit, but the question was did I need them, or more to the point, did I use them? No, and no.

#3. 100% reliaable, never broke down, not even when in close proximity to mosh pit. I mounted it in a handy-dandy plywood box with the expression pedal and AC cord, and there it still lives. I pop off the top, plug it in and play. I used it at many gigs without a back-up, and there are quite a few soundmen/women(YECCCHHH) who got pissed off at my obnoxious volume. Piss on 'em all!

#4. when I was interested in buying the GW33, I contacted Yamaha here in Toronto, they were delighted to help me find a retailer, where I believe I paid........ next section.

#5. Nice piece of gear, not toally pro, but better than average for entry level. I wish I had had this when i was 15 or so. Main complaint was no morphing between presets, and no double echo.
I recorded all the guitar tracks for my bands debut CD with this(www.mp3.com/ViCELoRDS)
, and I'm generally happy with the sounds, for the price, it was well worth it. I hope to have this to show my son when he gets to be about 10.

It had great sound coming out of it the first time i turned it on.
Editing sounds is easy if you take the time to learn it.
One problem which i really hate though is that theres a small pause when you change from one sound to another which may not effect you if your not playing but on the go it can be hell. you need to change like a short while ahead or it doesn't sound right.

Sound from this thing is pretty damn good. big fat sounds

i'm not sure if this would be the best thing to use in live gigs. but thats my opinion

....

enough already

I got this unit about 2 years ago and after a lot of yelling and screaming i sat down and actually READ the manual and now this pedal is SHIT EASY to use. Editing patches is easy and it is so...so easy to get the sound your looking for.

First of all i would like to say, all those people that say "its not that good","i can't get the sound i'm looking for" have you ever thought that it may just be you setup? I personally have tried mine with lots of different setups. I (and people that i have played with) personally think that to actually get the sound you want to get out of the pedal you should listen to it not through an amp but through headphones and here the sounds without the amp settings, get the desired sound and the adapt your amp!!!(NOT YOUR PEDAL!)

I would use it without a backup knowing good and well that it would'nt let me down, that way i can concentrate 100% on my playing.

I rang them just see if they were friendly or not and they were an extremely nice group of people. And, NO, i have never needed to get it repaired at all.

Treat it with the respect it rightly deserves and it wont give you a problem in the slightest.

Editing patches is really easy and takes minimum time. Comparing original patch sound with a modified one is great - you can easily tell whether the new sound is better now or before all the modifications J It is easy to swap two patches.Patches are organized in 10 banks by 5 patches. Switching of the user banks (1-5) is fast enough, selecting a factory patch (6-0) requires your both feet. The manual is easy to understand, the only thing I missed was the factory patches setting list - all the owners have to write it down themselves. Moreover- the GW-33 alows you to connect a volume pedal in four different places within the effects chain - I missed a recommendation which placement is good for different purposes.

GW-33 is basically good processor with some not-so-good featuers. Distortions are very good and - contrary to the other processors - sound naturally. Moreover, send/return connectors allows you to insert another distortion unit or effect. I am using a two-channels tube amp and I use one of the channels for getting the tube distortion. Combined with the GW-33 distortion, I get almost never-ending tone similar to Robert Fripp's from the early King Crimson albums. Compression - usually it is hard to tell whether it is on or off. It helps to equalize the uneven rhythm playing but I was not able to suppres the sound of picking or even to get to violin-like tone with slow attack. Chorus/Flanger/Phaser- Chorus is good enough to be used (but Boss CE-3 sounds better). Flanger is so-so and I was not able to set an acceptable sound with the Phaser. Moreover, all three effects has the maximum speed too slow for some special effects. Pitch-shifter generates an out-of-tune shifted tone so that you can mix only very small part of the shifted signal with the original one and you should to mask it some way with other effects. The grates disappointment of the unit. Detune works fine and adds a space to the tone. Touch wah - I was really supprised - I've never though Touch-wah can be any use until I used this one - it is simply great. By the way - it works quite differently with different pick-ups - I got the best results with Seymour-Duncan. Wah - is probably a good one as well. As I don't have a pedal, I just tested it with a 100K pot connected to the pedal input and it sounded substantially better then those wahs on Zoom's or DOD's processors. Delay / reverb is OK. The only disadvantage of the delay is that it is only a mono effect - no ping-pongs and things like that. Noise gate works fine and gives almost a noisless output even with the hard distortion patches. If you use an external volume pedal you can set minimum volume for each patch - that's fine. Switching between the patches is smooth without any audiable clicks and if you set the delay and/or reverb to similar values, the delayed sound continues even after switching the patch. Each patch has its own volume setting. I would appreciate more then 16 allowed values and a volume settings for all the patches. Last but not least - most of the factory settings are quite usable without any attempts to show what the unit can do as it it common with the other manufacturers.

Rugged enough to stand the common stage life - I had no problems with it.

Don't know ... By the way, I was not able to loacate any info from Yamaha on this processor ?!?

Except of some of the weaker points (especially the pitch shifter and the compressor), the unit is quite good for common use. Well - there are definitely better units but in an another price category. The value/price ratio is outstanding. I can recommend it anybody who is able to get it - I was told to get the last piece in the Czech republic.
Sorry for my english

Easy to tweak, with lots of adjustable parameters (but not too many). Editing patches is done via knobs which are easier to work with than cursors. Switching an effect on or off during playing is a bit of a hassle since it requires tap dancing lessons. The manual is pretty well written and straight-forward. It doesn't take a degree in EE to understand. It also includes a list and description of the factory patches.

Good overall sound quality although some of the effects are better than others. My impressions: Analog Distortion: You get overdrive and distortion modes. These are good. I'd give them a 8/10. Digital Distortion: Heinous. Turn it up over 1 and the amp would start feeding back. Through headphones it was cool though. 2/10. Chorus/Flanger/Phaser: Pretty good although my Boss CE-2 and flanger beat them hands down. 6/10 Delay: Good. Plenty long enough for me and lots of options. 7/10 Reverb: Couple types. All sound decent. 6/10 Compressor: Did it work? Never seemed to have much of an effect on the sound. 2/10

Never failed to work. Rugged construction out of steel with a plastic top. Pedal buttons are rubber covered. I guess if you jumped on it the knobs might break but I generally try to avoid these situations. I'd gig with it I suppose (although it never left my apartment).

Never called them... It was used and had no warranty anyways.

This is a good beginner's pedal board with lots of potential. All of the effects are good (except those noted above). It also offers everything in a nice neat package. The problem with these boards, IMO, is that you can either put them up front of a tube amp in order to use the distortion and overdrive, or you can put them in an amp's fx loop to use the other effects. In either case it is a compromise. I prefer a few pedals, strategically placed ;).

The manual is very well written and organised, with detailed descriptions of effects as well as full instructions on how to change the parameters to get the sound you like. The only problem is it's a bit of a pain to change the settings on an effect in real time (ie just turn the distortion off), it's easier just to make a separate patch without the distortion.
One problem: there is no universal volume control for either input or output, there is only one output setting for each patch, and you have to edit each patch individually. This is especially a problem given the high output (see below).

The only time I get noise is when I set the distortion settings to max So far it sounded very good with my Washburn mg-42 (a pretty bad guitar with stock humbuckers). However, I just bought a second-hand Levinson Blade guitar, and with this it sounds outstanding. It's easy to get a crunch with the right settings, and with both digital and analog distortion, who could complain?
The chorus is quite average, not outstanding, but about the same as a good stomp-box.
The amp-simulators aren't the greatest, though. You'd be better off just miking your amp. The EQ, though, allows you to get a great variety of sounds, especially when you're using the distortion.
One very slight problem: the output is EXTREMELY high, so you might have problems trying to set the volume on your amp.

This is a pretty reliable unit, I've never had any problems, owned it for a year, but I've only played at a few gigs and use it primarily at home. It's never broken down on me so far.

N/A

This is a great EFX unit for beginners. I wouldn't buy it again because there are better units on the market, because my budget would be higher, but for the price, it absolutely can't be beat, and if I only had that budget, I'd certainly buy it again.
I chose it over all the Digitech's I tried because of the superior distortion, and the wah is a lot better too. If you buy it, be sure to get the expression pedal for both wah and volume control.
Highly recommended