The new TC Electronic G-Major 2 takes its place underneath my trusty Roland GP-8.
I’ve never been one to change out gear for
the sake of changing out gear. If I find something
that works for me I stick with it and learn
it inside out. That way, when I need to make
program changes to an effects unit I don’t
have to stare at it like a chicken watching a
card trick. I can approach it with confidence,
knowing what it can do and how to scroll
through the various menus to make it happen.
Having said that, I have to confess I’ve recently
made some changes to some effects processors
I’ve had in my rack for over a decade.
As anyone who deals with signal processing
knows, technology moves fast, and by the
time you get home and take a new piece of
gear out of the box it’s practically obsolete.
But hey, a good piece of gear is a good piece
of gear, and you don’t have to have the newest,
shiniest processing to sound good. For
example, I’ve been using my Roland GP-8
multi-effects processor since 1986 and it has
been a big part of my sound.
After losing some of my gear in the recent
Nashville flood, I found myself in the uneasy
position of having to replace some of the equipment
I had gotten to know so well. Two of the
units that I lost were vital to my sound. One
was a Boss SX-700 Studio Effects Processor that
crackled and popped a little when I turned its
knobs. Fortunately, it had really great reverbs
and delays, so I gladly accepted its eccentricities.
The other was a DigiTech IPS-33B Harmonizer—a
very smart unit that allows you to select harmonies
by key and modes. You could also tell it
what pitch to sound as a harmony against your
melody note. That allowed me to go smoothly
into key changes, do odd parts by harmonizing
a minor second (half-step), or jump parts rather
than having to accept only an interval of a third
of fifth. I could shift from a major third to a sixth
or octave by assigning different intervals in a custom
harmony mode. I could also replicate a sort
of synth-like string pad orchestra effect, which
I’ve heard on many of Allan Holdsworth’s early
recordings. The DigiTech also included a great
detune feature, which I used as a sort of pseudo-Leslie effect. I could bring the effect in and out
with a standard Ernie Ball volume pedal, which I
controlled from my pedalboard downstage. The
SX-700 and IPS-33B received their changes via
MIDI through my Roland GP-8.
Finding a really good multi-effects processor
for guitar that doesn’t also include preamps
and amp modeling is getting increasingly
difficult. Companies tend to make their new
rackmount multi-effect models all-inclusive.
(“It slices, it dices!”) It’s great to have those
features, but to me it seems a bit like buying
a Ferrari and never driving it over 55 mph. I
like the natural drive of my amps, especially
on the cleaner sounds. Real tube drive is so
much fatter than processed distortion.
After much searching, the unit I found that was
able to cop everything I needed without the
additional preamp or speaker simulations was
the TC Electronic G-Major 2. This multi-effects
unit offers everything any guitarist could possibly
need, including a variety of reverbs, delays,
phase shifters, choruses, and even wah. Since
it has a harmonizer built in, I was actually able
to replace both the old SX-700 and the IPS-
33B processors in one fell swoop. There was a
slight learning curve at first—I had a hard time
figuring out how and where to store my presets—but once I sorted that out, the unit was
quite simple to program.
Fortunately I was able to write down the
parameters from the old processors before
they passed away. Once I transferred all the
settings into the new unit—about 20 programs
in all—I still had the arduous task of tweaking
and fine-tuning them. Some programs
needed slight adjustments, but most fell right
into place and sounded even better with the
G-Major 2 than they did with the old unit.
One of the most beautiful advances I noticed
with the new TC Electronic unit was how much
better the EV-5 expression pedal responds to
the commands. The old harmonizer always
worked great but the one problem I had with
it was that when I went to my pseudo-Leslie
setting, I could still hear some of the effect
bleeding through, even when the pedal was in
the downward “off” position. To remedy this
I had to create a duplicate patch without the
effect then switch via MIDI to the same setting
with the Leslie on. With the new unit, I just
have the one setting and can bring the effect
in and out, saving me from having to do the
pedal dance in the middle of a song.
It’s often said that things happen for a reason.
I was perfectly happy hanging on to
my old processors like a comfortable pair
of shoes. When they were damaged I was
forced to upgrade to new gear, resulting
in the best tone I’ve had in years. Lesson
learned? I’m not sure, but it is all about the
tone! Until next time, keep jammin’.
Rich Eckhardt
Rich is a highly sought-after Nashville guitarist who has
performed with singers ranging from Steven Tyler to Shania
Twain. He currently plays lead guitar for Toby Keith, and
also works as a spokesperson for the Soles4Souls charity
(
soles4souls.org). His new album, Cottage City Firehouse, is
available at
richeckhardt.com and
CDBaby.com.