GP-100 for effects ony without the preamp

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

I have a GP-100 that was using with a Peavey DPC1400 power amp. I was thinking of using the GP-100 as processor only without the preamp with my combo amp. The GP-100 has some nice sounding reverbs & delays and I believe you can use the effects in this unit without the preamp. Does anyone do this and if so, how do you hook it up?
Thanks,
Lenny

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Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

I do that with my Boss GX-700, which is the little brother of the GP-100, and it works fine. I just don't activate the preamp for any of my patches.

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

Same here (GX-700). Sometimes I use one of the amps and often I don't. I think the Matchless emulation is the cleanest and it lets you cut thru a little more than with no preamp at all. Next for me is the Soldano emulation but here as with most of the others you have to keep the preamp's initial gain (volume) at 1 or 2 on the scale of 100 to avoid that distortion that the guitar players love.

John Russell · From: Austin, Texas

Question:

How do you guys adjust tone on the GX700? I saw one for sale the other day and was thinking of trying it out but it seems to be a bear to EQ. Tell me I'm wrong. Or do you have to patch in a graphic? Also how are the delays and flange/phase/compression? I assume it's great for blistering lead or slide solos. (I mostly play steel.)

John

Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

Since I don't use the preamp, I don't use the tone or EQ on the GX. I use mine with a Stereo Steel preamp/amp and do all my EQ'ing there (which usually is straight up flat on everything

)

The delays are great but I haven't played with the flange/phase enough to be happy with the sound. It always sounds different on the gig and then I don't have time to tweak it. I'm not too happy with the fuzz/overdrive/distortion yet either for the same reason. I haven't tried the compression, but the harmonizer is great. I have Buddy's "Triple Play" settings programmed into it.

I'd like to find some decent settings for the flange/phase and fuzz/overdrive/distortion. I can do Sysex dumps but I think the GX only allows whole bank transfers, so a text description will have to do.

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

I think the GX-700 equalizer is easy to edit. Just hit the EQ button to bring it up (aor toggle it on/off) and step thru the 3 bands. Mid band has adjustable frequency and Q.

Most of the amp emulations have tone controls like those on the amps they emulate, so yuou can get another stage of EQ there if you like.

In my experience it sounds pretty good with no EQ.

Jerry Gleason · From: Eugene, Oregon, USA

Len, you can easily use the GP-100 without the EQ and preamp models, as has been said. There are several ways you can hook it up, with different results.

1. Guitar - volume pedal - GP-100 - amp input. This allows you the option of adding EQ before the combo amp. A variation of this would be to use your volume pedal in the effects loop of the GP-100. Generally, running the GP-100 into a combo amp input wouldn't be the best hookup method, since it might be noisy and / or have too much gain.

2. If your combo amp has an effects loop, you can patch it in two ways: Effects send (of the amp) to GP-100 input - GP output to amp effects return. this method puts the amp's eq ahead of the GP, and you still use the GP for post-eq if you want. This also allows for the use of volume pedal in the GP effects loop (make it the first thing in the chain).

3. Another way is: effects send (from amp) to effects loop in (of the GP-100), then GP output back into the amp effects return. This way will probably give the most clean headroom, and maybe the best sound, but it depends on the amp. I do it this way with my GX-700 and Stereo Steel now, even though it means giving up the volume pedal through the loop, because it just sounds cleaner and better.

Are you confused yet?......

Jim Smith · From: Midlothian, TX, USA

I got this hookup from a fellow forumite, it works great for me. SS=Stereo Steel amp, GX=Boss GX-700):

Guitar out -> GX input -> GX loop send -> volume pedal in -> volume pedal out -> SS input -> SS effect send (one cable) -> GX loop return -> GX output (stereo with two cables) -> SS effect return.

I showed this hookup to GD Walker last year. He had to scratch his head thinking about it, but finally agreed than it would work.

BTW, I like most of my effects before the volume pedal, so I make the GX effects loop almost last in the effects chain.

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

Thanks guys! I will experiment with all the various hook up recommendations this week end and I'll let you know how I make out. The acid test is playing with the band to see how the set up sounds.
Thanks,
Lenny

Jerry Gleason · From: Eugene, Oregon, USA

I can see where that setup would make sense, Jim. The way I've always done it is:

Guitar out -> GX input-> GX loop send -> Volume pedal input -> Volume pedal out -> GX loop return -> GX out (stereo) ->SS loop return.

This method bypasses the SS preamp section completely, using just the power amp, which is sort of a waste. Your arrangement allows the use of both the SS preamp and the volume pedal in the GX loop, a good idea. The problem with the hookup I've described above, is that with the unattenuated output from the pickup going directly to the input stage of the GX, it would sometimes distort a bit when I play hard, even with the input gain all the way down and no preamp model selected. Recently, I changed it so that it's:

Guitar -> volume pedal in -> volume pedal out -> SS input -> SS loop send -> GX loop return -> GX output -> SS loop return. This gave me much more clean headroom and allows the use of the SS eq section in front of the GX, but the volume pedal is at the front, which still sounds ok in the SS input. I like the sound I'm getting this way, but I'll have to experiment some more. I like your idea, and I suppose I could always attenuate the guitar with a matchbox, but I want to keep it down to as few devices as possible.

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

I tried hooking the GP-100 in various ways shutting the preamp off. Although it works, it is not user friendly to hook up. Surprisingly, it appears you can't use the GP-100 as you would a Lexicon MP-100 in a send & return stereo situation. The GP-100 has send & return jacks but they are designed for adding another processor to work
through the GP-100 as an effect loop in an amp.
Oh well!
Lenny

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

The GP-100 (or GX-700 in my case) is not hard for me to set up. I hang it on the legs on the right end of my steel. Three very short George L cables go
guitar -> GX-700 in (top)
GX-700 loop send (bottom) -> volume pedal
volume pedal -> GX-700 loop return (bottom)

Then a long guitar cord goes from the main out of the GX-700 to a stage amp or recording board.

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

OK Earnest:
I'll give that try and see what happens!
Thanks,
Len Amaral

Jerry Gleason · From: Eugene, Oregon, USA

Len, the GP-100 certainly be used as an effect in the same way you'd use a lexicon or any other effects device. In fact, that's exactly what I'm doing in the above example. For the easiest hookup, you wouldn't use the effects loop jacks in the GP-100 at all, just patch the input and output through the effects loop in your amp. Then program an effects chain that only has the effects you want, such as reverb and delay.

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

Thanks Jerry, Earnest & Jim! I finally got the GP-100 to work the way I wanted to with 2 Nashville 400 amps using the send & return in the Nashville amps. Although I have to use longer cables to hook things up it's sounds good.
Thanks for your input,
Len Amaral

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