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Post subject: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:14 pm
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Hello Fellow Fender Fans,

My name's Chris and I'm sorry for the newbie post. I have my own forum which involves another hobby completely outside the music world. That forum's been going since 1998, and I know that many of the regulars get flat-out irritated by newbie posts. So for those of you who have seen this sort of post and are bugged, please disregard.

Hopefully some of you can empathize and or relate to where I am right now and may have some help to share.

I am brand new to electric guitars. I just got my standard Fender Tele and a brand new Fender GDEC3 Thirty Amp. I'm trying to figure my way around the amp and find the best ways to set up the amp to get the right sounds.

I found that the documentation that came with the new GDEC was quite limited. There was a quick start guide and that was about it. I am assuming this is the "green initiative" driving the Fender folks to intentionally not put lots of paper in the original shipping carton. I've pulled the .pdf file for the advanced user guide off the Fender site and printed it.

I've also downloaded the Fender Fuse version 2.3.0 from the website.

So far, I've tried reading some of the advanced user guide, and just toggled through the settings on the amp itself. I have not hooked the amp up to my computer and tried the fuse software yet.

I'm currently primarily looking to use the amp to practice without the prerecorded tracks. But I'd like to be able to dial my amp in to get the most suitable sound.

Is it significantly easier to use the software and do the computer thing versus navigating through the keypad menu on the amp itself? Are there any links on here showing folks good settings to use? Will I find it much easier to get around if I use the fuse software? Is there material on the disc that came with the amp that I need?

Any tips on where to start would be much appreciated.

I am currelty just going through the various premade recordings and just not playing the band part to get various amp setups.

Thanks in advance! Chris


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Post subject: Re: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 3:13 am
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Location: Sweden
Hmm... Given that you went into great length apologizing for being a newbie - It seems that there might be rather big behavioral issues on your forum if beginners to whatever the hobby is are frowned upon?
Hobbyist forums should unite. :(

Anyway, In my opinion, the GDEC-3 is rather useless for anything beyond using the current presets.
I have never bothered trying to "get the right sound" without a computer.
The FUSE software presents all the different amps and effect pedals with all their knobs, so it's a breeze to quickly test a lot of different settings. So if you wish to dial in a specific sound, I absolutely recommend you to install the FUSE software. It might be wiser to download the latest from the net rather than using the CD, though.
Personally I have the dilemma that I hardly ever use Windows so I cannot use the FUSE software often. So I'm currently hacking away on a replacement software for Linux. Until then, I won't be doing much tweaking of sounds myself. :)

Also, don't forget that there is the "FUSE Community" that contains a few hundred different presets if you want to search for something specific, may it be styles or specific bands or songs.
You can access the "FUSE Community" both on your browser or through the FUSE software.

Feel free to ask if something is unclear or if there is more you want to know. :)

/ J


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Post subject: Re: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:21 am
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Thanks very much Les Paul,

I appreciate your comments and agree that my other forum needs a cultural adjustment.

To be specific, I've envisioned learning "Little Wing" - either Stevie Ray Vaughan's or Jimi Hendrix versions, or maybe learning "Jessica" by the Allman brothers. I've toggled through the various settings that are "pre-loaded" and have had trouble finding sounds that emulate either of those terribly closely.

Is this the sort of thing that can be found in the Fuse community? (searching for Stevie Ray's sound in "Little Wing" for example?)

Thanks, Chris


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Post subject: Re: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:59 am
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Chris
I will only get limited success downloading presets. Too many varialbles to contend with. They are only starting points. Unless you matchup pickups, strings, playing style, how hard you pick on the strings, etc. it will be hard to nail the tones without some tweaking of your own. That's where the fun starts. I've replaced several of the tracks with my favorite Clapton songs and have been able to come close and really enjoy playing along with them. Most guitar players love playing with knobs and settings to dial in their tone, it's part of the experience. Have fun with it.


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Post subject: Re: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:16 pm
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Welcome to the forum! Beginners welcome!

I am certainly a beginner with the g-dec 3 Thirty, but I say just dig in and make changes, you can always restore them to original.

It's quite easy to make changes right on the amp, by pushing the amp/fx/band/phrase buttons and fiddling around. Fuse is, of course, more visual and easier, but both ways is a lot of fun.

I find that if I play along with the backing tracks it will often clue me in to what I'd like to tweak to play some other tune. A good example for me is #33 on the blues version - unmistakably Santana, etc.

FWIW, Little Wing is a song on the SRV play along book with SD card made for the G-DEC.

For me, I think you could get whatever sound you wanted, but there are so many presets I just don't bother, I get close.


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Post subject: Re: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 6:35 pm
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Chris, Welcome and congrats on your new gear.

I think you should download the fuse. I find it easier to tweak the amp as well as be able to share and download both Fender and User presets. Just an FYI, you will have one sign in for this Board, and you need to create a second user ID and password to sign into Fuse / Community.

You probably went here, but this is a good link:
http://www.fender.com/support/articles. ... er-g-dec-3

Some people have some issues when first downloading the Fuse, but the support by the users and fender on this board is very good. Make sure you have the latest Internet Explorer :-) and silverlight

Hal Leonard has sd cards / Lesson books with presets from what I understand for Hendrix and Stevei Ray. Pop it into your Gdec and you are ready ! There are a few threads addressing this on the boards here.

I found the stock sounds are very good and diverse on this unit. This is a great little amp. And the fact that you can plug powered speakers in the 1/4 "line outs" make it even better. I have a pair of Samson Media One 4's I plug in and it just sounds great !

Aside from the Matching backing tracks / Presets on the unit, I also use backing tracks I download from my Laptop to the SD card, and Jam away. A lot of Fun !

Dont forget to try out the Phrase looper. You can set this to 2:22 seconds , and dub and overdub forever !

Also, you can change your entire Amp to Country, Blues, etc. I have not done that yet, as I like the mix on the Original. And you can download one preset here and there as you find ones that suit you. You can save it on fuse if you don't want to use one of your 100 slots on the amp.

As Joer already stated, the presets you get from Fuse may or may not be close to the sound you want, because of the varibles regarding the gear that is used, etc. But it can get you closer and you need to tweak some more than others.

Hope this helps some

Jerry


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Post subject: Re: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 3:22 pm
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Jerry, how do you set the phrase looper for 2:22?


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Post subject: Re: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:50 am
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Jerry, Surfaday and Joe,

Thanks for your inputs. Each are much appreciated. I did swing by Wally-World last night and got an 8 gig SD card. I spoke with one of our esteemed moderator/administrators yesterday also, he told me he's still working with a 2 gig SD card and he's much more accomplished than I. So it appears I have all the tools at my fingertips. Now I need to start putting them to work!

Chris


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Post subject: Re: New to Electric Guitars - brand new GDEC3 Thirty ...tips
Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 5:07 am
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InkStained wrote:
Jerry, how do you set the phrase looper for 2:22?


Ink,

Go to the front panel of the Gdec. Push phrase and scroll till you see the choice of " hi res" or " low res" . Choose low res, that gives you 2:22 seconds ( fender says 2:20 but when I record it stops at 2:22 ) 8)

It is on page 9 of the advanced manual for Gdec 3


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