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Well, I buckled under GAS and got one.
This past Labor Day I used it on my country gigs for the biggest shows I have played in my life - on the national stage at Arts, Beats and Eats in Pontiac, Michigan. (the second show was later on the Dodge Stage).
In the country bands, I play straight up acoustic and tried using the G-System out to my Radial JDI DI to FOH.
Flat out - I love it. It is everything I wanted it to be and more at this point.
The floorboard is utterly gorgeous. Sturdy enough to inspire complete confidence. I run the rack part in my old 6 space SKB with a drawer for the pedals I like. One CAT-5 cable from the board to the rack. Setup.... done. The floorboard fits pretty well (it is tight) in the Gator bag I have for the POD XTL (and luck would have it, I have two of the Gator bags!)
I have it dialed into my rack, with the pedals all connected and it works great with the electric rig.
Just to comment on it - there is no real loss of tone or feel. Folks were spooked about the AD/DA-AD/DA setup of the G-System; all I can say is they got the converters right. You would never know you had any conversion going on. It sounds organic and warm. The guitar's volume pot works exactly like you want it to; no funny loading issues. Mucho impressed.
The floorboard is just beautiful to work with. The knobs are big and easy to step on with boots. It is easy to see/read in the direct sunlight outdoors and on the darkest stage. The tuner works great; very accurate and a snap to use. One side thing - the tuner is always on, so if you hold a note it tells you you are in tune on the LED display with arrows. Hard to describe, cool to see/use.
The footswitches are solid as hell; and no they haven't "fallen off" yet like the anymous "reviewers" on HC have claimed (and I dispute, read those "reviews" for real man - that is just stupid). The encoders and the way it works to tweak is fast and easy. There is a computer editor coming in the next month or so from TC, that'll make my day.
With the electric guitars, I have a Vox Volume pedal that I run into the G-System floorboard as a wah or EFX controller. The wah, much to my surprise and extremely high expectations, sounds freaking incredible. Not just good, not just okay, not just passable. REALLY good. That one thing - amongst many others - totally have me sold on this.
The filter stuff sounds smooth and round. No surprises, you can do some cool things with the vocal filters. Useful? Dunno. Fun? Yes. For envelope filter stuff, I am more than impressed. Very good.
Compression is perhaps the biggest improvement over the G-Major on the whole thing. You can use this compresser and it sounds great. Dig it.
Modulation is good. The chorus is fun because you can sync up the modulations with the tempo; the Line 6 XTL spoiled me with this power; now I love it.
I like a slight detune on the acoustic; the pitch stuff works great for it. Extremely useful; I had it on the entire set of gigs on Monday. Great stuff.
Delays and reverbs are good. Useful and all tap tempo. Nothing you don't expect; and not on the level of Eventide; but they do sound good.
The boost is genious. You are actually attenuating your signal with the G-System; and the boost is really not a boost more than an off switch for the attenuation. You can set it for anything from 0db to 10db. I like it at 6db and it works perfectly.
For the acoustic setup, I run the guitar to the G-System to a DI to FOH. (details earlier in the post). The result? Killer. Using the compresser, slight detune to fatten and the boost when needed. Nothing more needed; and the thing worked perfectly.
I dig it. All I need now is the Leslie effect of my choice (I have the L6 Rotomachine on preorder) to plug into one of the loops and I have everything I wanted to get.
In the end, I had very specific wants and needs; the G-System delivered them. It met my expectations and by using it in the acoustic rig now; exceeds them (hadn't even considered doing that, damn glad I did!)
With this thing I can use the relays to switch the Flexi's boost on/off; with the midi out to the Axess CFX4 I can control my VHT 50/ST. I can use it to control the Acoustic rig.
I can now use my one rig to play country, funk, rock, R&B or whathave you. Acoustic or electric. Small, easy to cart around and it sounds fantastic. Every musician and sound guy (all the sound guys on the BIG national stage were all over me to check it out (and the Line 6 Variax Acoustic to boot)). Ahh, I pounded my chest with GAS vapors spewing out of me. "Me gear. Me gear goooooooooood."
I need one more thing to make it complete; and that is the result of the design of the Flexi's loop and not the G-System. I need a tube buffered loop with send/return level controls ala the Rodenberg Amplification's Flexloop3D to get the setup I want to run. I also set up my wireless in the rig and man, what fun.
All in all, maiden voyage is complete and the thing rocks. Big 3 hour show coming next weekend; at night with this one outdoors. I'll report in on it.
This past Labor Day I used it on my country gigs for the biggest shows I have played in my life - on the national stage at Arts, Beats and Eats in Pontiac, Michigan. (the second show was later on the Dodge Stage).
In the country bands, I play straight up acoustic and tried using the G-System out to my Radial JDI DI to FOH.
Flat out - I love it. It is everything I wanted it to be and more at this point.
The floorboard is utterly gorgeous. Sturdy enough to inspire complete confidence. I run the rack part in my old 6 space SKB with a drawer for the pedals I like. One CAT-5 cable from the board to the rack. Setup.... done. The floorboard fits pretty well (it is tight) in the Gator bag I have for the POD XTL (and luck would have it, I have two of the Gator bags!)
I have it dialed into my rack, with the pedals all connected and it works great with the electric rig.
Just to comment on it - there is no real loss of tone or feel. Folks were spooked about the AD/DA-AD/DA setup of the G-System; all I can say is they got the converters right. You would never know you had any conversion going on. It sounds organic and warm. The guitar's volume pot works exactly like you want it to; no funny loading issues. Mucho impressed.
The floorboard is just beautiful to work with. The knobs are big and easy to step on with boots. It is easy to see/read in the direct sunlight outdoors and on the darkest stage. The tuner works great; very accurate and a snap to use. One side thing - the tuner is always on, so if you hold a note it tells you you are in tune on the LED display with arrows. Hard to describe, cool to see/use.
The footswitches are solid as hell; and no they haven't "fallen off" yet like the anymous "reviewers" on HC have claimed (and I dispute, read those "reviews" for real man - that is just stupid). The encoders and the way it works to tweak is fast and easy. There is a computer editor coming in the next month or so from TC, that'll make my day.
With the electric guitars, I have a Vox Volume pedal that I run into the G-System floorboard as a wah or EFX controller. The wah, much to my surprise and extremely high expectations, sounds freaking incredible. Not just good, not just okay, not just passable. REALLY good. That one thing - amongst many others - totally have me sold on this.
The filter stuff sounds smooth and round. No surprises, you can do some cool things with the vocal filters. Useful? Dunno. Fun? Yes. For envelope filter stuff, I am more than impressed. Very good.
Compression is perhaps the biggest improvement over the G-Major on the whole thing. You can use this compresser and it sounds great. Dig it.
Modulation is good. The chorus is fun because you can sync up the modulations with the tempo; the Line 6 XTL spoiled me with this power; now I love it.
I like a slight detune on the acoustic; the pitch stuff works great for it. Extremely useful; I had it on the entire set of gigs on Monday. Great stuff.
Delays and reverbs are good. Useful and all tap tempo. Nothing you don't expect; and not on the level of Eventide; but they do sound good.
The boost is genious. You are actually attenuating your signal with the G-System; and the boost is really not a boost more than an off switch for the attenuation. You can set it for anything from 0db to 10db. I like it at 6db and it works perfectly.
For the acoustic setup, I run the guitar to the G-System to a DI to FOH. (details earlier in the post). The result? Killer. Using the compresser, slight detune to fatten and the boost when needed. Nothing more needed; and the thing worked perfectly.
I dig it. All I need now is the Leslie effect of my choice (I have the L6 Rotomachine on preorder) to plug into one of the loops and I have everything I wanted to get.
In the end, I had very specific wants and needs; the G-System delivered them. It met my expectations and by using it in the acoustic rig now; exceeds them (hadn't even considered doing that, damn glad I did!)
With this thing I can use the relays to switch the Flexi's boost on/off; with the midi out to the Axess CFX4 I can control my VHT 50/ST. I can use it to control the Acoustic rig.
I can now use my one rig to play country, funk, rock, R&B or whathave you. Acoustic or electric. Small, easy to cart around and it sounds fantastic. Every musician and sound guy (all the sound guys on the BIG national stage were all over me to check it out (and the Line 6 Variax Acoustic to boot)). Ahh, I pounded my chest with GAS vapors spewing out of me. "Me gear. Me gear goooooooooood."
I need one more thing to make it complete; and that is the result of the design of the Flexi's loop and not the G-System. I need a tube buffered loop with send/return level controls ala the Rodenberg Amplification's Flexloop3D to get the setup I want to run. I also set up my wireless in the rig and man, what fun.
All in all, maiden voyage is complete and the thing rocks. Big 3 hour show coming next weekend; at night with this one outdoors. I'll report in on it.
