OK, I get the picture. With the GT5 (being a floorboard) you have immense lengths of cable runs back and forth to your racked preamp(s). That itself results in a definite degradation of your signal.
Having your needs in terms of weight restrictions/size (when it comes to travel) in mind I suggested the GSP1101. GSP and preamp in 2u rack bag, small midi controller (e.g. Control 7, can be found for 30€ used) in the rack bags pocket. Done.
Guitar signal to rack and in there is where it stays with no extra lengths of cable (except some small 15cm patch cables in the back of the rack). Just a Midi cable from rack to floorboard. -> Clean solution.
You can either decide to bring your poweramp of use the loop returns of the venue's backline amps for fly in gigs.
Compared to the internal of the GT5/SX700/GX700/...units of that era, the GSP1101 is by far more transparent in 4cm.
That's true about the cable, it still sounds fine, I just think it sounds better directly into the pre.
In my studio when using 4cm and the boss GT5, the leads are short also, so degradation is definitely not an issue here, it's hard to compare the live sound to the studio setup. But since I changed from guitar > pre > FX using the sx700 I think a bit more clarity and bite is present.
With the SX700 there is no 4cm. My chain is like this:
Guitar > Pre > RockMAN eq > Rocktron Hush IICX > Rocktron Intellipitch > SX700.
Sounds great, just I hate the mix controls of the SX700.
Live I was hoping to have:
Guitar > Pre > NS-50 Noise gate > SX700 > Power Amp
But now I've decided I don't like the SX700 controls at all. First boss I've disagreed with.
Hey RG, if you really want to get pedantic the 4 CM method is slightly floored from the start as it is totally dependent on the Fx units quality (remember the old posts where MikeB and I tested 4 CM with his GMaj 2 (which digitizes the input etc etc) compared with using a mixer and preserving MP1 analogue signal). Did it sound better all analogue with mixer, yes but Mike lost some CC functionality (i.e. GMaj2 master vol control).
Your main driver (correct me if I'm wrong) is to build the smallest foot print rig (that sounds great) so you can fly with it. So (for what they are worth), my thoughts are ADA preamp (MP1 ? or 3TM 4cm into decent FX (I recon a Lexicon MX300 (new reliable has all the FX you want including pitch/harmonising, eq etc) and IIRC you have poweramp. Or better MP2 with MX300 (or similar) in the stereo parallel loop (no 4cm issues). The MP2 has a room eq knob BTW, this will help you adjust for all the different cabs you end up using (and the cab sim outs will feed the FOH (jack or XLR), no mic up required). Then to control it all you just need a phantom powerable midi pedal. And I you could put some sort of boost thing in front (preferably a rack mount thing?), anyway my 20 cents AUD)
I agree probably keeping analogue does sound best, but it really isn't bad sounding going through a unit digitized or not. I've never noticed any additional bad artefacts from using my boss.
So lexicon has intelligent pitch shifting eh? I wasn't aware of that. I must look at both MX300 and GSP1101. Are there any older lexicons with intelligent pitch shifting? I ask this because older units are cheaper and I'm looking for a bargain as always.
edit: Richard the MX300 has no intelligent pitch shift which is a shame as there are some bargains on ebay right now for them!Really pissed the SX700 did not work out.
- *sidenote* was used extensively by pros (Megadeth, Dweezil Zappa, Queensryche,....)
and most Importantly Glenn Tipton
https://digitech.com/en/news/glenn-tipton-of-judas-priest-relies-on-digitech-gsp1101-preamp-processorMind you, I don't like how his guitars have sounded in years hahahaha so perhaps it's not for me. I hate all modern tones, this is probably the worst era ever of guitar tones. Who knows though perhaps my rig with a GSP1101 would sound good.........................
I'm not ruling it out mate