G-Major 2 tone suckage?

[killertone]

I was thinking about getting one of these. I will be using it in a serial loop and wanted to know about tone suckage or lack thereof. Please chime in with your experiences.

 

[Anonymous]

It is certainly capable of sucking tone contingent upon where you set the input/output level. Most of the presets are garbage and some downright swallow the tone whole. Takes a bit of tweaking but it is an excellent unit. I try to stay away from the gate/compression/eq as I feel they are the weak links. I love the 'verbs and delays as well as the tri-chorus.

 

[roodboy]

I thought it was pretty transparent in the serial loop of an xtc.

 

[muudrock]

Out of the box, factory settings=tone suckage.
Spend some time with it and get your levels set properly=kickass effects box.

Here are some things that helped me dial this unit in:

Go into the Global menu and set global input and ouput levels to 0dB.
Make sure the unit is set to "Pro" (+4dB) and not "consumer" (-10dB)
Adjust in and out levels on front panel to unity gain.
Turn off Noise Gate and EQ which are set ON in every factory preset that I went into.
Bring back the effects mix-way too wet in factory presets.

These things helped me dial the GM2 in to where it's not sucking tone in the serial loop. I also found that the tone of the unit is slightly different when using the full parallel routing matrix. Don't know why, but it is. Not bad, just different-darker. That being said, the effects are excellent-- delays and verbs are clean and warm and the chorus is very nice. It's a great unit once it's set up right.

 

[stephen sawall]

"Make sure the unit is set to "Pro" (+4dB) and not "consumer" (-10dB)"

This very much depends on the amp it is being used with. It does not work best with all my amps set one way or the other. It needs to be set to what works best with the amp in use.

 

[muudrock]

"Make sure the unit is set to "Pro" (+4dB) and not "consumer" (-10dB)"

This very much depends on the amp it is being used with. It does not work best with all my amps set one way or the other. It needs to be set to what works best with the amp in use.

You are correct. Should have specified to match it to your amps loop.

 

[killertone]

Thanks for the responses. Good stuff to know. I had a G-Major many years ago and did not like it. The Gate was horrible and the unit was fairly noisy. Was hoping that the 2 addressed those issues. Looks like they may have. I know the TC chorus, reverbs, and delays will be nice but is the gate worth a shit?

 

[RedB4Black]

I have one Jason. You are welcome to hear it if you are ever in SA.

PM before you buy one. I may sell mine soon. I haven't decided whether or not I want to keep it, because I'm really not into tweaking this thing. I lack the patience to learn how to use it. May just go back to pedals.

 

[killertone]

I have one Jason. You are welcome to hear it if you are ever in SA.

PM before you buy one. I may sell mine soon. I haven't decided whether or not I want to keep it, because I'm really not into tweaking this thing. I lack the patience to learn how to use it. May just go back to pedals.

Right on, Matt. PM coming your way...

 

[windsen]

jason, i owned a GM2 for about a week. it's a kickass unit but it did alter the tone slightly in my splawn's serial effects loop. it does take some tweaking (setting the global in/out to 0 db, making sure the input level range matches your effects loop etc...) TC's A/D/A converter is apparent but i wouldn't say it's tone suckage, just a coloration. i ultimately returned it b/c i realized i felt more comfortable with pedals in front of me with knobs/controls i could see than a bunch of programmed presets. i am running a nova delay now though. if you get a chance to try it out first i'd suggest it. good luck.

*edit - i never ran the gate so i can't comment on that.

 

[Yek]

I'm kind of anal about tone suck. I was using a Suhr MiniMix 2 (plus an Axess CFX4 and Psionic Lumos) to keep my signal as direct and controlled as possible. I got the GM2, tested it, removed all the other stuff and now have it in series. My Bogner Ecstasy's footswitch lets me disable the effects loop so I can A/B it precisely: there's NO tone suck. The series setup simplified my setup a lot and also made it possible to better exploit the GM2-possibilities (it kinda sucks in a parallel setup).

Of course it depends on the quality of the fx loop and the right settings must be selected (like PRO/CONSUMER and levels).
I also don't use its compressor, EQ or noise gate.

Disadvantage of the series setup is that during preset switches small dropouts may occur. That's because preset switching is not exactly gapless. The length of the gap depends in my experience on the bit rate, the setting of FX Mute and fx routing.

BTW, quick-and-drirty soundclips of several of my GM2-presets are here: http://www.xs4all.nl/~engelen/sounds.

 

[Klark]

I had a G-Major many years ago and did not like it. The Gate was horrible...

Wow, interesting, maybe it's your settings. I've been using gates for 20+ years, and have literally owned some of the best gates in the world. I have racks full of Drawmer DS-201's and Aphex 622's out in my shop right as we speak, so it's safe to say, I know a good gate when I find one. That being said, I found the gate in the G-Major to honestly be, the best feature on the entire unit. So much so that I've recommended it numerous times to guys that were just looking for a gate, and a number of them are still touring with them to this day.

As already mentioned by another poster, when the levels, and everything else are tweaked properly, the G-Major is an incredible multi-task, one rack space unit. The verbs, the delay, the gate, the EQ, the control - All are incredible for the size of the unit, and the money you pay for it.

I have not heard or played with a GM2 yet, but I can only imagine that it's even better.

 

[Yek]

The gate itself is okay, but it can't differentiate between a dirty (gain) signal and a clean signal. With just one gate setting you'll get threshold problems (closing too fast with clean signals). So one has to include different gate settings per preset, and that's a nuisance.

The ISP Decimator (proRackG or G-String) noise gate doesn't have this limitation and works so much better IMO.

 

[killertone]

I had a G-Major many years ago and did not like it. The Gate was horrible...

Wow, interesting, maybe it's your settings. I've been using gates for 20+ years, and have literally owned some of the best gates in the world. I have racks full of Drawmer DS-201's and Aphex 622's out in my shop right as we speak, so it's safe to say, I know a good gate when I find one. That being said, I found the gate in the G-Major to honestly be, the best feature on the entire unit. So much so that I've recommended it numerous times to guys that were just looking for a gate, and a number of them are still touring with them to this day.

As already mentioned by another poster, when the levels, and everything else are tweaked properly, the G-Major is an incredible multi-task, one rack space unit. The verbs, the delay, the gate, the EQ, the control - All are incredible for the size of the unit, and the money you pay for it.

I have not heard or played with a GM2 yet, but I can only imagine that it's even better.

I am a sound engineer and touring guitar tech for a major artist and have tons of experience with gates and how to tweak them. The G-Major's gate was among the worst I had ever used when I owned one. Back then I remember many people that had that unit not using the gate because it wasn't that good. I had one very early on so there is a good chance that the software was updated on later models and the gate was improved.

 

[Digital Jams]

Yeah, I had a love/hate relationship with my gmajor, for the money yeah it brings alot but imo the effects are just alright. The verbs on my MPX1 are much better than the major and my SDE-3000 has much better delays and those two units cost me the same amount as a new major2. Of course I had to add a mixer which raises the price.


Go w/d man, only way to supersoak and maintain your core tone

 

[killertone]

Go w/d man, only way to supersoak and maintain your core tone

You're right, just don't wanna carry that much gear.

I have the gear for it, too....have a 9200 just sitting there doing nothing. That thing weighs as much as my truck though...

 

[thenine]

the gate is awesome for me. I love the thing for that alone,... YMMV I guess. The problem I had was it locked up on me. I have (had) mine mounted above a Rackto, I think it may have gotten too hot. This is an early rackto with serial loop so when it locked up I had no sound at all. Shut if off/on and still fucked. Rehearsal was over! Came back the next day and it was fine. Now I dont trust it. Dont know what to do,... I mounted it below the rackto (hot air rises) but I dont like the look of it as much. Pretty bummed out b/c I was really digging this setup. With my GCP I had bypass, mute, boost,... everything I needed on a nice pedalboard. Now I am back to pedals and my Uber which is also cool but I hate having one of my rigs in limbo.

 

[killertone]

Holy slime green Rectos, Batman!

 

[Digital Jams]

That recto looks AWESOME!!!!