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Post subject: G-Dec - Not Impressed...
Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 2:52 pm
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I road tested a G-Dec 30 last weekend and was not impressed...

Why not just buy an effects pedal and plug it in to your existing amp...

I have a Fender Sidekick 30 watt with a Digitech Pedal which gives me 80 pre-sets including a tuner and an adjustable drumbeat... So I wonder why Fender produced the G-Dec range when effects pedals are plentiful and well priced...

And I must admit of the 80 pre-sets I probably use 10 of them!

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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:28 pm
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I don't think it's just about the effects. You can do a lot with the GDEC 30.
I have the first GDEC. I really don't like the effects that much, but it's nice to have backing tracks. For me it's just a practice tool. It helps me build on my technique. I think the 30 has sound on sound and a bunch of other stuff.
I've been playing for over forty years it's a lot of fun using this thing. I wouldn't use it to record with though.


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Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:27 pm
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I purchased the original G-DEC shortly after it was introduced and I have had a love/hate relationship with it ever since. For now, it is more love than hate.

The G-DEC is what it is. It is not a great guitar amp and I only use a handful of the practice loops. But when I plug in a set of headphones and dial up the Chicago Blues preset, I have a lot of fun with my guitar. There are some other practice loops that I also enjoy working with. I just wish that more of the included loops were of interest to me.

The amp selections and the effects are not bad once they are adjusted to taste (and they are very tweakable). The G-DEC sounds great in stereo through 'phones. The sound through the speaker does not work as well for me. If I just want to plug in and play through a small amp, I'll grab my Micro Cube. But if I'm going to spend a night away in a hotel room, I will throw the G-DEC in the car with a guitar and phones and enjoy practicing on the road with it.

From everything that I have read in other forums, I have no interest in upgrading to the G-DEC30. The original G-DEC is all I need. It more or less met my expectations and I have no regrets for having purchased it. I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a practice tool. All things considered, it really is great fun in one little box.


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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:50 pm
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I can see where you are coming from with that post, but...I do not have access to a drummer or a bass player. The main reason I bought this amp was because of the backing tracks, not the preset sounds and such. You are correct, your not going to use a lot of them based on your style of music. Before buying this amp, I was looking at 3 others, they were the Roland Cube60, the Line6 Spider III 120 & the VOX Valvetronix AD50VT2. These last 3 in terms of power and sound blow the GDec out the water, BUT the GDEC does MORE for what I want. Now..I am still considering getting either the VOX or Line6. :twisted:


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Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:14 pm
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There are many amps that have emulations of other amps and effects. The Gdec is more transpearant to your instrument than the cube or the line 6 produces. All these small practice amps have some kind of headset out to mute the speaker. A few, including the Gdec, have provision of external sound in, like a CD or MP3 player.

The Gdec lets you and a friend/student plug into the same amp. The Gdec has internal MIDI capibility, which is what lets you change keys and vary volume of the different patrs of the backing tracks. It has all those backing tracks. It also has a phrase recorder.

I agree the pressboard cabinet and inexpensive speaker leave the Gdec short on tone, but it has capibilities that none of the competition have. Although you can argue the sound is a little muddy, it's plenty good enough to have a great deal of fun.

There are many kinds of amps because there are many kinds of players. If the Gdec is not a fit for you, that's OK. It fits many people very well for a wide variaty of reasons.

If you have a Gdec-30 for sale, let me know; I looking to upgrade.


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Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 9:07 pm
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I'm having a blast with my G-DEC 30 but I'm a total techno-geek. I love programming things. The JAMMER Songwriter 5 software that's free to download from Fender's site is totally dumbed down. You can't really compose on it. Instead you string canned loops together and allow the software to "compose" for you. For true ability to compose effectively you will need a real sequencer like Sony ACID or Cakewalk Pro. Unfortunately that's about the price of the amp. I do one-man-shows in restaurants and yoga studios so the G-DEC 30 is great for me. It's a lot easier than lugging around an amp, drum machine and computer to gigs. I really like the compact size and it's feather light compared to other amps I've owned near it's size. It's not a tube amp and no matter what you do it will not sound like a true Tweed or Blackface. Still the models are close. Not only that, what can you expect for all that you are getting in the price? If you want a real tube amp sound their is really only one choice... a tube amp.

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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:35 am
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I have the original G-DEC and I love it. It is what it is! If you want a small practive amp with different sounds that are tweakable and sound great through sterio headphones, get a G-DEC. You can also play with another Guitarist/Student on it. It is feather light and easy to tote along with your Guitar. It is cheap and it sounds great in hotel rooms! I may upgrade to the G-DEC 30 but for now the original is all the fun I need!!!


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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:33 am
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In addition to being:
a combo speaker/amp,
an effects box,
backing tracks,
MIDI synthesizer and
loop recorder,
it is a
guitar tuner.

One small box has everything you need.
I don't see how one can't be impressed.
We're having a blast with my G-DEC and
B-DEC. I'd like more power but there
is no way I'm giving these up.

By the way, almost nobody talks about it but the built-in guitar tuner is really, really good. Some guitar tuners are crap and behave erratically. The G-DEC/B-DEC tuners have no problems identifying the frequencies and letting you dial the tuning right in. I even use it with a microphone for acoustic guitars.


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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:23 pm
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warnergt wrote:
By the way, almost nobody talks about it but the built-in guitar tuner is really, really good. Some guitar tuners are crap and behave erratically. The G-DEC/B-DEC tuners have no problems identifying the frequencies and letting you dial the tuning right in. I even use it with a microphone for acoustic guitars.


The man's got a point there!

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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 8:28 am
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Its just a practice amp, if it were a professional amp it'd be a whole different story. Don't see why you'd make a big stink about a practice amp because its not like you gig with it or anything.

Although its an extremely handy tool for practice, I must admit. I've considered upgrading my GDEC Jr. to a standard GDEC but I think this is just fine for me until I get some sort of V-shaped guitar. :roll:


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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 10:07 am
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I just got a G-DEC 30 (and footswitch) after having a 15 for the last four years. I'm glad I made the upgrade. Like the G-DEC 15, it's still mainly a practice amp, and useful for jamming with friends.

I realize now that the 30 is the amp that I really wanted, but it wasn't available when I got my 15. For a long time, I held off buying a 30 because I figured that the 15 was good enough, Then I got a Line 6 Pod XT Live and Variax, which completely distracted me from the G-DEC (something else to tweak the daylights out of). Lately I've been taking the little G-DEC 15 out to living room jams and just keeping it set up and plugged in, ready to turn on and play whenever I have a bit of free time.

Since I'm actually saving money just to buy gear or whatever (my musical "slush fund"), and seeing that the G-DEC idea was still useful to me, in a fit of GAS I bought the 30. it's everything that the 15 isn't, if that makes sense.

I've read posts from people doing one man jam gigs with these things, but I've never heard someone doing it. MIDI backing tracks only sound good for practice, IMHO. But if they can pull it off, more power to 'em!


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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 7:40 pm
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Rocker_Gamma wrote:
Its just a practice amp, if it were a professional amp it'd be a whole different story. Don't see why you'd make a big stink about a practice amp because its not like you gig with it or anything.

Although its an extremely handy tool for practice, I must admit. I've considered upgrading my GDEC Jr. to a standard GDEC but I think this is just fine for me until I get some sort of V-shaped guitar. :roll:

Not to mention... how often do you find a multi-effects unit that you can use even 10 factory presets on. I usually start from scratch and build up sounds from the ground. Like you would with separate pedals.

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