Review: The Very Annoying Boss GM-800 Guitar Synthesizer Pedal

The Very Annoying Boss GM-800 Guitar Synthesiser Pedal

The new Boos GM-800 clearly represents a step forward in guitar synthesizer technology and, to judge from the initial video demonstrations, its sonic capabilities are fabulous, with a sparkle to the sounds that goes beyond a Roland GR-55 in the way that the GR-55 went beyond the my first guitar synthesiser, the Roland GR-30. However, what Boss offers in the GM-800 represents arguably an even worse case of what I called ‘mis-economies of scope’ when reviewing the previous big step up in the Roland/Boss guitar synthesiser product rane, namely the SY-1000.

It is probably useful to begin by noting the essence of my reaction to the SY-1000, as that product figures in what follows about the GMp800. The SY-1000 likewise offered wonderful sonic possibilities in terms of guitar modelling and create-your-own synth tones. However, it irked me because it seemed to have been put in the wrong box. It seemed to me that it should at the very least have been put inside the case of the Boss GT-1000 multi-effects unit, instead of into a shortened version of the GT-1000’s case, minus two of its selector buttons (which results in the bank up and down buttons needing to be hit simultaneously to engage the tuner – not easy in a live situation), and minus its expression pedal and XLR output sockets. I gritted my teeth, bought a Boss FV500l expression pedal to go with the SY-1000 and regretted having already bought a GT-1000 given that pretty much all that I wanted it to do could now be done, even with non-GK guitars, by using the effects section of the SY-1000.

Alternatively, for those of us who like using our guitars to trigger sampled or modelled non-guitar instruments, Boss would have served customers better by offering a replacement for the GR-55 that included the SY-1000’s upgraded guitar modelling, amp simulations, effects and non-sampled synth opportunities, while also keeping the GR55’s expression pedal and backing track player. This latter box of goodies would be the only one needed for a gig and would have kept cables to a minimum – either a GK 13-pin cable or, unlike the GR-55, a quarter-inch jack input for accessing merely the amp models and effects via a regular guitar (thereby removing the need to take a GT-1000 or other effects unit to gigs if one wishes not merely to play GK-ready guitars.

Instead of offering something akin to either/both of these packages as its new product(s), Boss has opted to make life even more needlessly costly and complicated for those who want the latest synth sounds. In essence, the GM-800 is a modernized approach to what my old faithful GR-30 still does: i.e., it is merely a triggering synthesiser but gets sparkling sounds and state-of-the-art tracking. Like a GR-30 and SY-1000, the GM-800 has not got a built-in expression pedal but the GR30 beats it when it comes to cable simplicity since, unlike the GR-30, the GM-800 does not include a guitar-out socket, let along a guitar-return socket (or stereo guitar return, as I think the GR-33 did). So, to play regular guitar and trigger the lovely GM-800 tones, you must use both a new GKC digital TRS cable and a regular guitar cable, and you need more input channels for the mixer. This is the simplest rig that Boss seems to envisage in terms of cables – and that is after you have purchased the new GK-5 pickup and taped it to your guitar and got your picking arm used to the cable below your wrist.

I’m one of those aesthetically sensitive guitar synth users who also like things hard-wired where possible, so I am not going to be buying one of these new digital, stick-on pickups.

Boss is alert enough to recognize that it is creating a standards problem in its switch to digital pickup and replacement of the 13-pin GK cables with the new TRS ones. Hence, it offers the GKC-AD adapter box as the solution, for almost the price of buying a new sitck-on digital GK-5 pickup. So, I can keep playing my Roland-ready Strats, Godin LGXTs and Multiac if I buy the GKC-AD to complement the GM-800. This would enable me to have only a 13-pin cable to trip over between the new units and my guitar, as the GKC-AD also has a guitar-out socket. But there is no GK 13-pin ‘thru’ socket on the GKC-AD adapter box to enable me also to drive my SY-1000 and get the DIY synth tones and guitar modelling, instead of merely getting regular guitar effects and amp models via my GT-1000 or older multi-effects boards. Moreover, Boss so far has not offered a short TRS cable to patch from the digital out of the CKF-SA to a GM-800, and the GKC-AD also has an external power supply. Hence, it’s cables galore if one doesn’t simply want to buy the GM-800, stick-on GK-5 pickup and long TRS digital cable. The small width of the GM-800 signals that Boss envisages that guitarists will make it part of their pedalboards, but if guitarists are using 13-pin GK guitars, the pedal boards will also need to accommodate the GKC-AD and the mess of the power adapter cable and the long TRS cable.

Actually, the previous paragraph isn’t quite correct, for Boss does provide a way of hooking up to both GM-800 without going the rather unreliable route of using a third-party 13-pin Y-cable to feed the guitar signal into both the GKC-AD and an SY-1000, or buying a US-20 13-pin signal splitter box (which Roland/Boss won’t supply here in Australia). Instead the way to go is to buy a Boss GKC-DA adaptor, and another TRS cable (yet more needlessly long cabling) to use the TRS-out from the GM-800 to take the signal, via the adopter, into a 13-pin analogue cable to the SY-1000. And, that is not the end of the cable nightmare, for the GKC-DA also runs off a an AC power adapter.

You can probably see where my thinking is going here. What I wished Boss had launched instead of, or in addition to, the GM-800 was a version that had a longer footprint that included a built-in expression pedal on the top, the GKC-AD and DA converters inside and, on the back, added a quarter-inch guitar out socket, a 13-pin GK in and a 13-pin GK out., with just one power cord, one cable from the guitar and one out either to a GK unit such as an SY-1000, or to a regular guitar effects unit. They have all the components in the three boxes (GM-800, GKC-AD and GKC-DA) and just need a new external box plus an expression pedal from a GK55 or GP10, and to hard-wire it together. Surely this would have been viable for around the price of the spaghetti- like mess of wiring and adopters one ends up with if trying to integrate the 13-pin system with the new digital TRS system in a way that gives the great new sample tones plus, via an SY-1000 or (if complex synth SY-style synth sounds are not a priority) by the terrific value GP10, guitar and amp models, effects and non-sampled synths.

Better still: put the internals of a GM-800 and GKC-AD in a single box, with an expression pedal, with TRS digital, 13-pin analogue, and standard guitar inputs and the inside of an SY-1000. You then get a modern alternative to the GK-55 (if you also include the backing track player or, failing tha, a stereo input or Bluetooth to play backing tracks from a smartphone or iPad).

It is possible that one day Roland/Boss might offer us such products, but in the meantime, simplicity favours the trusty GR-55, which has all you need (except for a regular guitar input to allow the amp models and effects to be used by none GK-equipped guitars). The sound may not have quite the sparkle, but it remains a remarkable package and for those of us who view stuck-on pickups and external cables under our wrists as deal-breakers, it remains the acceptable way to go with our Roland-ready Strats and Godins.

But there is something else I need to bring out that may make the GM-800 look less infuriating for those who, like me, have made big investments in 13-pin GK technology. So far, none of the demonstrations that I have seen of the GM-800 have mentioned the possibility of triggering it via the MIDI-out sockets on earlier 13-pin devices – even though the promotional material mentins scope for using the GM-800 as a synth module to be triggered from a computer or keyboard instrument. Mindful of this, I have been experimenting with connecting my SY-1000’s MIDI out (or even that of ye-olde GR-30, which works pretty much the same) to the MIDI in on my Roland RD-2000, Nord Stage 3 Cinoact and Yamaha YC73 keyboards, to see how well the former triggers the latter. In effect, my keyboards are GM-800 substitutes. Generally, the results have been very satisfying (especially so in the case of the Nord). So, one might consider risking the purchase of merely a GM-800 and a MIDI cable and none of the new Boss cables, pickups and adapters, if one already has a 13-pin device with MIDI out. But if one already has current-standard keyboards or DAW sounds and is focused on recording rather than taking guitar synths to gigs, the MIDI route from 13-pin gear to up-to-date sounds really begs the question of why one would bother with a GM-800 at the moment.

A final, related issue is that those who don’t have any 13-pin gear could drive the MIDI-in of a GM-800 via, say, the MIDI-out of a Jamstik Studio or Classic guitar, and use its regular guitar socket to drive a regular effects board. That two-cable inconvenience can be avoided by using a wireless guitar system, as could be used in some of the scenarios outlined above. But the Jamstik’s wireless MIDI connectivity points toward another thing that Boss seem to have got wrong in trying to impose its new GK-5 pickup and digital TRS cables on us: they could have produced a wireless system that was compatible with the Fishman and Jamstik guitar synth systems. Unless we assume stupidity at Boss, which seems an unwise assumption, we seem to be left with the possibility that Boss is simply out to create a proprietary technology and empty as much of our money into its coffers as is possible while telling us that it is helping us to continue to use our legacy GK 13- pin products. If so, it is running the risk that, instead of switching to its new standard, erstwhile GK fans will opt to go wireless via Jamsticks and laptops when they want to upgrade.

Update (20 June 2024); I invested in a GM-800 to test my hypothesis that I could use the SUY-1000 to control it purely using Guitar to MIDI and a MIDI cable: to read what happened, click here.