G Major + D'Lator unity gain...

[erwin_ve]

Unfortunatly the intellifex isn't made any longer. Less is more is true only when your analog stays dry.
The digital converters is fx units do someting to the highs in a signal that's unpleasant and also the amps feel changes.
If you ever heard a Line6 Vetta side by side with a good tube amp it's easy to recognise the difference...

[glasman]

That's the way every mfgr should do delays & verbs. Are all Rocktron multi effects like this - and do you like the verbs and tape delays provided? And is the Intellifex a legacy product? I don't see info on their site. Thanks

I'm digging my setup because I can use anything I have at home in there now. Lexicons, DL4, stomp boxes, etc.. Before, I always ran the amp dry and sent the dumbleator out to effects & a satellite. Less is more.

I think that the multi-effects Rocktron have the dry side mix as an option on all units. Yes the Intelifex is an oldy, picked this one on fleabay from $125.00. Nice unit, of course not as state of the art as some of the new stuff on the market.

I have a version of my Matchbox that has a two stage recovery section for use as a mixer. Probably extend it in time to 4 inputs.

[Blindog]

Yeah, set it kill dry and run it in parallel with a Suhr MiniMix II. The difference is ASTOUNDING. The TC absolutely ruins the tone, no joke.

I run a TC Gmajor 2 and a Suhr MiniMix in my small 3 space rack. What an amazing night and day difference. You won't regret it.

Agree with Scott here 110%. Spend some money on a transparent parallel loop to go with your d'lator - it's the the living end! You can put nearly any device there then with no worries. Spending all that time tweaking your amp to leave it at the mercy of inexpensive digital conversion is for the birds. I am sure it sounds great now - even greater after. By many magnitudes.

I really can't believe my ears after taking this advice. It really is a night and day difference. I guess I fell victim to getting a new piece of gear and spending too much time dicking around trying to make it sound good and forgot what my amp really sounded like before!

The MiniMix II is sweet little box. The only issue I had was that I forgot to set the G Major to "Parallel" in the "Routing" menu, and the modulation effects were not coming through. Once I set it, no problems.

Also, if any of you have an older G Major, the "Kill Dry" option is apparently only in firmware 1.27, so you'll need update before you can use this setup.

Thanks again guys!

Mark

[stelligan]

I really can't believe my ears after taking this advice. It really is a night and day difference...........
Thanks again guys!

Mark

Knew you were gonna love it! I am selling some of my wet/dry/wet gear because of this. Super clear tone with all the effects goodies mixed in. I am still trying to decide if I will miss the 3 dimensional component of my old setup - won't miss the load in/out.

[angelodp]

Here are some anecdotal notes.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archiv ... 00716.html

[Blindog]

Knew you were gonna love it! I am selling some of my wet/dry/wet gear because of this. Super clear tone with all the effects goodies mixed in. I am still trying to decide if I will miss the 3 dimensional component of my old setup - won't miss the load in/out.

Ah, so you had a wet/dry/wet setup ala Carlton? I started down that road, got a good deal on a JBL powered monitor and a small mixer, but quickly realized my back would not enjoy this rig. Never got around finding another monitor, and now I have a decent practice PA

One thing I noticed straight away was that my Strat sounds much better with the new rig...the G major was imparting some harshness on the high end with my Strat before. Did you happen to experience anything like that?

Mark

[stelligan]

Ah, so you had a wet/dry/wet setup ala Carlton? I started down that road, got a good deal on a JBL powered monitor and a small mixer, but quickly realized my back would not enjoy this rig. Never got around finding another monitor, and now I have a decent practice PA

One thing I noticed straight away was that my Strat sounds much better with the new rig...the G major was imparting some harshness on the high end with my Strat before. Did you happen to experience anything like that?

Mark

Oh, yeah. I always took at least 1 effects satellite to the gig. I never used my effects stuff in the loop - it always messed with the tone. My loop out jack always went to the time based effects - then the Tech 21 power engine(or 2). I'm trying to sell those now by the way: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... p?t=677966

[Deric]

I've had a G Major II since they came out. It's pretty much sat unused since. Sounded like...well...elephant ass! After reading this thread I ordered a MiniMix II. Finally got around to setting up today. Works great!!!

Thanks!

[Structo]

A guy I know on another guitar forum has a G major for sell.
He hasn't mentioned a price yet but I was wondering if those are very good units?
Seems to be a lot of hate or love towards those things.

What does the MiniMix do that the D'lator doesn't do?

[rob@tele]

I have a G-Major and used it in a Kevin o Connor loop (serial) with great succes. No problems with any sound degradation. You have to set the input and output levels very carefully and you have to use a bufferd loop (D-Lator or one of its sisters).
The G-Major is soundwise a very good FX Processor. However mine has developed a problem when it is of the mains for a while, it has to be on mains for 30 min before it will startup. Also the push buttons are mechanically not that good (plastic mounting clips will break). So I replaced it with a G-System, which is mechanically and soundwise a better unit. But every FX unit needs a good buffered loop. I think the Gmajor2 is als a good unit.
I am not so fond of parallel loops because it requires a 'kill dry' FX unit (otherwise you get phase shifting due to IO delay) and that limits FX such as tremolo pitch shifting etc.

Rob

[Structo]

The guy wants $200 but it might as well be $1M since I haven't worked in a long time.

[dogears]

Rob, there is a MASSIVE improvement of tone if you runn the TC kill dry and in parallel. Done it. I have botht he original G Major and the 2. Both suck major tone in a serial loop. It is not subtle. They really kill the tone.

I have a G-Major and used it in a Kevin o Connor loop (serial) with great succes. No problems with any sound degradation. You have to set the input and output levels very carefully and you have to use a bufferd loop (D-Lator or one of its sisters).
The G-Major is soundwise a very good FX Processor. However mine has developed a problem when it is of the mains for a while, it has to be on mains for 30 min before it will startup. Also the push buttons are mechanically not that good (plastic mounting clips will break). So I replaced it with a G-System, which is mechanically and soundwise a better unit. But every FX unit needs a good buffered loop. I think the Gmajor2 is als a good unit.
I am not so fond of parallel loops because it requires a 'kill dry' FX unit (otherwise you get phase shifting due to IO delay) and that limits FX such as tremolo pitch shifting etc.

Rob

[vibratoking]

I run an M-One XL and a D-Two in the parallel loop of my Fuchs. Works wonderfully. I have experienced the same loop degradation issues, - no matter how the send/return levels are set, with a serial loop configuration.

The bad part is that many effects don't work well in parallel. Most time based effects are OK, but many other effects are not so good due to the presence of the original signal. After looking at the Gmajor, it seems to have quite a few effects that won't work well in parallel. These have to be switched in conjuction with a parallel to series loop switcher or they will be degraded. Just be aware that without loop switching some of the capabilities will be degraded or lost completely. If you don't use loop switching, it makes sense to look at the capabilities of the effects unit and see how many of them will work with a parallel loop vs how many you will lose. I hate to spend money on functionality that I ultimately won't use.

Reverse echo, tremolo, compression, flange, chorus, and many others (the list is quite large) are either degraded of completely ruined if run in a parallel loop.

[vibratoking]

I run an M-One XL and a D-Two in the parallel loop of my Fuchs. Works wonderfully. I have experienced the same loop degradation issues, - no matter how the send/return levels are set, with a serial loop configuration.

The bad part is that many effects don't work well in parallel. Most time based effects are OK, but many other effects are not so good due to the presence of the original signal. After looking at the Gmajor, it seems to have quite a few effects that won't work well in parallel. These have to be switched in conjuction with a parallel to series loop switcher or they will be degraded. Just be aware that without loop switching some of the capabilities will be degraded or lost completely. If you don't use loop switching, it makes sense to look at the capabilities of the effects unit and see how many of them will work with a parallel loop vs how many you will lose. I hate to spend money on functionality that I ultimately won't use.

Reverse echo, tremolo, compression, flange, chorus, and many others (the list is quite large) are either degraded of completely ruined if run in a parallel loop.

[Structo]

I read about the MiniMix II.
I still don't really understand what it does.
How is a device powered by a 9v supply goint to handle the voltage swing of line level effects?
Isn't this the same thing as the Ironsounds FX loop where it could not handle the voltage swing of the loop and corrupting the signal?