Al Krow

"Pedal board ego death" - love that phrase!! Ah it's not such a bad thing! I think I'm having the same epiphany with a Boss GX10 multifx which, so far seems to be able to do so many things really well, and a number of things well enough (with the one exception so far of synth) that the ensuing pedal board cull is likely going to pay for this new unit multiple times over! And actually very liberating taking just one, albeit very capable, pedal to gigs!

Interesting to pick up on this. Our singer mentioned on Sat night she only used one ear piece and left the other one out "otherwise she felt disconnected from the band and audience" - which is a classic IEM conundrum. It doesn't affect me at all in the same way - I enjoy the clarity and comfort of having a tailored IEM mix and no one's complaining about missing out on the experience of a deafening guitar amp - ok maybe the occasional dep guitarist - now we're all going through FoH apart from the acoustic drums. I don't really fancy the additional set-up faff and need to worry about an additional source of feedback from an ambient / overhead mic, just for the sake of one band member, but was wondering if there's decent ambient IEMs on a par with the KZ ZARs we're using, that don't cost the earth, and she can treat herself to a pair?

Parameter assignment Nice YT review by this bassist who's a regular on Talkbass. Some really cool things to be done with parameter assignment, which is something I've just started scratching the surface on - was reminded of this clip by @MichaelDean's above post and I think Sean is using quite a lot of the same fx patches to build up his organ sound? I've started the clip at 06.22, to dive straight into the relevant bit re. parameter assignment. Seems that Sean is also in agreement with me about the Overtone block being decent for polyphonic octave up - and he's definitely got me interested in checking out the Ring mod block! 😊 I'm a complete novice when it comes to midi, but it seems to me that being able to control up to 20 different parameters at one go with any of the footswitches or the expression pedal gives a level of control comparable to most midi set-ups? Be interested if those of you more versed in midi than me would agree?

Looing forward to finding out if Santa has got anything up his sleeve that's going to make the cut into any of your "best of 2025"?! Have a fab Christmas all!

I'm using the PS for +/- 1 and +/- 2 semis - works just fine! It struggles with +12 semis for octave up though which is where the "Overtone" fx comes into its own. Still not perfect or as clean as the dedicated Boss XS-1 for octave up, but certainly usable and the full patch, as outlined above, with amp sim and GEQ in the chain is a tasty tone thickener - very Fishman Powerchord! Actually that kinda summarises some of the key pros & cons of the Boss multi-fx vs dedicated Boss pitch shift pedals: Boss XS-1: accurate pitch shifting without undue "flubbiness" for +/- 3 to 4 semis. A number of users have commented it's one of the best octave-up pedals around. But only able to do one interval at a time (albeit can mix wet and dry volumes). Whammy capability with external expression pedal. Couple of presets possible with external footswitch. Compact format. Boss XS-100: as XS-1 plus built in expression pedal for whammy-style effects. Multiple presets. Still only one interval at a time possible. GX10: decent, but more limited "usable" pitch shift range. Presets plus expression pedal can be assigned to any fx parameter. Fishman Powerchord tone thickening available with Overtone patch.

Before folk start wondering, the XE sounds like an old Jag model to me? Time for a bit of Xmas XS? 😅

Just had a quick play on with pitch shift set to -2 semis fully wet, and GX10 seems to comfortably handle taking down the low E by a couple of semis in terms of a usable-in-the-mix bass. What are you finding with the ME-90B?

Being able to assign the expression pedal to dictate the amount of gain on drive patches to take it from mild to full-on drive is also very neat. Essentially you have the option of assigning the expression pedal to any parameter of any particular fx in the chain. Possibilities are endless... All this stuff is obviously do-able on the Core with an external expression pedal, but having one on the pedal itself definitely focuses the mind on the additional possibilities.

Have to agree with you - the amp sims on the Boss are very good! My GT Core's main function was as an always on preamp with added fx thrown in for occasional use, with a very decent tuner. Boss do make it easy to get a great bass tone with little faff.

Nope! But it's surprisingly usable for +1 / -1 and +2 / -2 semis (using the pitch shift fx) which is predominantly what I'll need to handle key changes between our soprano and alto singers who separately front the band. (Not sure why I didn't discover this on the GT Core?) I wouldn't want to go further, whereas with the dedicated pedals you can go down/up a bit further to +/- 3 or 4 semis. The poly octave down is good! There's a few options for octave up on the GX10 (which the XS-1 and 100 do very well). I found a couple of them (Harmonist and Pitch Shift) are pretty bad when used for this. But the "overtone" patch is very usable for octave up. It allows you to simultaneously have octave down and up, with independent volume levels for each, very similar to the OC5, which gives a tasteful thickening-up of the bass. But additionally on the GX10 you can then also add in a detune and, very neatly, set the expression pedal to control the volume of eg just the octave up (with min and max set which ever way around you want to use the expression pedal), which could be fun / useful live.

And in answer to my own question, have managed to get some decently usable pitch shift patches on my GX10 ( and making me ponder whether to hold onto my dedicated Boss pitch shift pedals - OC5, XS-1 and XS-100?)

I've taken the liberty of widening this thread to GX10 users given the similarity of the patches and Boss editing software.

Nice one Steve. Remind me which Altos you're using?

Left my choice of best bit of bass gear to something quite late in the day! I've been on the hunt for a one-stop multifx that could take the place of my pedal board for a monthly pub residency I need to get to via public transport. I wanted something that was a step up from my trusty little Zoom B1-4, but wouldn't break the bank and was decently portable. I've spent a few months pondering alternatives - there's a lot of excellent and often really well priced multi-fx's on the market! I came close to getting one a few others, but none seemed to cut it for one reason or another. Slightly out the blue I was recently offered a used Boss GX10 from a fellow BC'er, which is a more budget version of the Boss GT1000 Core which I have on my board and I'm a big fan of. Whilst less powerful in terms of processing power than the Core, it does have a few features that make it great to use that the Core (or indeed the ubiquitous Helix Stomp) lacks e.g. colour touch-screen, built in sturdy expression pedal that can be easily assigned to patch parameters e.g. to boost volume or change the tremolo rate. It's a big step up from my old Zoom B1-4 and seems to tick a sweet spot for me. Although I bought it as "travel" multi-fx with the intention of using my main board for most gigs, the GX10 has really got me thinking whether it could actually become my main board by itself?

Feel your pain, Gav - it does kinda tie into the convo re. expensive / more "value" pedals earlier in this thread! Fingers crossed you'll be able to snag one used in due course or if you decide to buy it new it lives up to expectations which, from comments from other owners on this thread, it very well may do!