# TC Electronic G Major II or G System?



## Brody (Nov 17, 2011)

Hey guys, 

So I am officially tired of tap dancing all the time. I run a 5153 as my main head, I use a TS9, MXR 10 band EQ, and 2 noise gates in front of my amp. In my FX Loop I have had various delays, reverbs, chorus, and compressors. The thing is that that I have grown tired of having to switch off all of my "Front of the amp" pedals to switch to a clean sound with delay, reverb, etc. 

I have decided that I want to get rid of all of my FX pedals in my loop and instead get either a G Major 2 or a G system. What does everyone know about these units and what should I know? I know that the G system is much more expensive than the G Major, why is that? 

Finally, can I rig up either of these units to automatically switch off my TS9, noise gate, and EQ when switching to a clean sound? 

Thanks!


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## vanhendrix (Nov 17, 2011)

The g-system could switch off your pedals (4 max)....but I believe you're going to have problems with the input levels while running the tubescreamer in front.


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## JStraitiff (Nov 17, 2011)

The G-system is a self contained effects unit similar to the PODHD floor units. It has the ability to take the "brains" out and mount it in your rack if you dont want it on stage. Then you can control it with the switcher board. I dont know the functions of the g system except for the self contained ones such as the on board effects, tuner, etc. I do believe that it has effects loops built in so you can include your physical stomp boxes in the board as well.

I think the gmajor2 is more suited to what you need (as it is to me). The gmajor2 is basically just a rack unit that contains all the effects, in order to use it you need to get a midi foot controller such as the ground control pro from voodoo labs. This lets you engage multiple effects on the unit at once and you can also add in a voodoo labs GCX audio switcher that will let you patch in physical stomp boxes and will switch channels for you as well. I believe that if your amp is not midi compatible you will need a control switcher as well. But with the combination of these things you can program any combination of any of your gear all into one tap. So in your case hit one button and it will engage a chorus and delay in the gmajor and will also switch your amp to the clean channel all at once. You can have another button switch to a dirty channel on the amp, add in your ts9 etc. If you are satisfied with your current effects, you can leave out the tc electronics gear all together and just use the ground control to control the audio switcher that will switch your stompboxes and amp channels. The gmajor2 is only going to give you another set of effects to use. The only advantage is if you need more effects than the number of loops in the switcher.

Bottom line is the gsystem cant do that.


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## Brody (Nov 17, 2011)

JStraitiff said:


> The G-system is a self contained effects unit similar to the PODHD floor units. It has the ability to take the "brains" out and mount it in your rack if you dont want it on stage. Then you can control it with the switcher board. I dont know the functions of the g system except for the self contained ones such as the on board effects, tuner, etc. I do believe that it has effects loops built in so you can include your physical stomp boxes in the board as well.
> 
> I think the gmajor2 is more suited to what you need (as it is to me). The gmajor2 is basically just a rack unit that contains all the effects, in order to use it you need to get a midi foot controller such as the ground control pro from voodoo labs. This lets you engage multiple effects on the unit at once and you can also add in a voodoo labs GCX audio switcher that will let you patch in physical stomp boxes and will switch channels for you as well. I believe that if your amp is not midi compatible you will need a control switcher as well. But with the combination of these things you can program any combination of any of your gear all into one tap. So in your case hit one button and it will engage a chorus and delay in the gmajor and will also switch your amp to the clean channel all at once. You can have another button switch to a dirty channel on the amp, add in your ts9 etc. If you are satisfied with your current effects, you can leave out the tc electronics gear all together and just use the ground control to control the audio switcher that will switch your stompboxes and amp channels. The gmajor2 is only going to give you another set of effects to use. The only advantage is if you need more effects than the number of loops in the switcher.
> 
> Bottom line is the gsystem cant do that.





What do you use foot controller wise?


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## JStraitiff (Nov 17, 2011)

Like i said a gcx ground control pro would work. I dont know much about other controllers but i believe there are others available that will work just as well.


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## Deliverowned (Nov 17, 2011)

Just buy the RJM rack gizmo. Thats what Im gonna do when Ill have $$

It makes your whole rig, pedals and 1 or 2 amp totally midi controlable.
Not sure how it works with pedals in the loop but im sure you could turn off all in front pedals and active the loop at the same time with 1 foot hit.

pre post edit: yeah you can go with voodoo labs gear too that do about the same thing as suggested above. Rjm just realeased the rack version of their looper and control switcher so personnally ill prolly go with them.


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## Camer138 (Nov 17, 2011)

woah woah woah.. the g major2 can add in a od pedal on certain patches somehow?? can someone please tell me how I can do this? would love to tighten up my rhythms more.. I thought I needed a G system to do this..

I use a Rocktron Midimate for my controller.. is this possible still?


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## VESmedic (Nov 17, 2011)

Camer138 said:


> woah woah woah.. the g major2 can add in a od pedal on certain patches somehow?? can someone please tell me how I can do this? would love to tighten up my rhythms more.. I thought I needed a G system to do this..
> 
> I use a Rocktron Midimate for my controller.. is this possible still?



Go read up on the RJM rg16....after that come talk to me and ill explain more....it does exactly what you want....there are several youtube videos made by rjm music on the rg16


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## Leuchty (Nov 17, 2011)

Camer138 said:


> woah woah woah.. the g major2 can add in a od pedal on certain patches somehow?? can someone please tell me how I can do this? would love to tighten up my rhythms more.. I thought I needed a G system to do this..
> 
> I use a Rocktron Midimate for my controller.. is this possible still?


 
No not quite.

You can add on a midi looper (serach: wobo) with the g major and have everything switch via midi.

The g major does not have switchable loops.


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## drgamble (Nov 17, 2011)

You could also use the gcx audio switcher and use that to switch stomp boxes via midi without having to buy a whole new rack unit. It can also do all of your amp switching and pedal changes with the click of a button on the ground control. Either way, you may end up needing a switcher regardless if you use a g system or not.


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## gunshow86de (Nov 17, 2011)

Even if your amp doesn't have midi capabilities, you can change channels with just the G-System using the relay switches. You don't need to buy a separate unit. I think overall, the G-System is the better bargain. That's what I'm going with in the rack I'm building right now.



EDIT: After reading the manual, the G-Major2 has the same switch outs as the G-System. So you can change amp channels with it as well.


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## JStraitiff (Nov 17, 2011)

gunshow86de said:


> Even if your amp doesn't have midi capabilities, you can change channels with just the G-System using the relay switches. You don't need to buy a separate unit. I think overall, the G-System is the better bargain. That's what I'm going with in the rack I'm building right now.
> 
> 
> 
> EDIT: After reading the manual, the G-Major2 has the same switch outs as the G-System. So you can change amp channels with it as well.




Can the gsystem control other midi devices and can you do presets with it like you can using the whole foot controller setup? If so i was mistaken and its a pretty good deal.


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## gunshow86de (Nov 17, 2011)

JStraitiff said:


> Can the gsystem control other midi devices and can you do presets with it like you can using the whole foot controller setup? If so i was mistaken and its a pretty good deal.



It seems so.........


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## JStraitiff (Nov 17, 2011)

Cool. I might take the g system into consideration then. It looks like the whole set up with the GCX audio switcher, ground control pro and g major 2 would still come out a little cheaper than the g system. If you took out the switcher and just used the g major to switch amp channels, you would really be in business. so.. I dont know. It seems to me the voodoo labs setup would be much more scalable and would come out to be quite a bit cheaper. I guess it really depends on how complex of a setup you want. The g system provides a nice all-in-one package that pretty much does whatever you could want and looks nice. So even though it would cost a lot more i would still consider it.


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## gunshow86de (Nov 17, 2011)

JStraitiff said:


> Cool. I might take the g system into consideration then. It looks like the whole set up with the GCX audio switcher, ground control pro and g major 2 would still come out a little cheaper than the g system. If you took out the switcher and just used the g major to switch amp channels, you would really be in business. so.. I dont know. It seems to me the voodoo labs setup would be much more scalable and would come out to be quite a bit cheaper. I guess it really depends on how complex of a setup you want. The g system provides a nice all-in-one package that pretty much does whatever you could want and looks nice. So even though it would cost a lot more i would still consider it.



I don't know that it's that much cheaper, really.

G-Sytem is $1600 at most major retailers (you can actually find them on eBay for $1200 new almost all the time, there's 3 up now for $1190). 

G-Major2 is $550 plus $400 for the Ground Control Pro $400 for the CGX, and you're already at $1350.

For me, it's about saving a rack space, having to run only one cable to the floor, and getting the G-System's pedalboard (I like the "stombox-style" switching layout, where you can turn individual effects of a preset on and off, on the fly).


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## JStraitiff (Nov 17, 2011)

Yea i like the pedalboard a lot. Thats one of the reasons im so attracted to it. The only flaw i see is that the volume pedal and expression pedal would have to both run cables all the way out to your pedal board instead of just the one now. I would probably want to keep it that way because i want to have the brains in the rack case with the head and pedal drawer so that everything is right together.


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## gunshow86de (Nov 17, 2011)

JStraitiff said:


> Yea i like the pedalboard a lot. Thats one of the reasons im so attracted to it. The only flaw i see is that the volume pedal and expression pedal would have to both run cables all the way out to your pedal board instead of just the one now. I would probably want to keep it that way because i want to have the brains in the rack case with the head and pedal drawer so that everything is right together.



You're in luck my friend. Even with the unit racked, there is an expression pedal connection on the G-System pedalboard. 

Check out Troy's setup (around 1:20);


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## JStraitiff (Nov 17, 2011)

Hot! im in love. I just took a look in the manual and it seems you are correct. This is why i love these multi effects units. If you were to try to buy all the pedals that this thing has integrated it would run you much more than the unit and these sound arguably much better since they have the delay run offs and such.

This saves a lot of rack space as well. This would probably be one of the only things in my rack. Power conditioner, G-System, pedals. I can stick my wireless in the drawer like this guy did and thats about it. Man this is exciting lol. Like a kid on christmas day. "Mom look! Only 1 cable on stage and i only need 4 rack spaces."

Also nice timing on finding a video that shows something like that.


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## gunshow86de (Nov 17, 2011)

^

I've actually been going back and forth, weighing the pro's and con's of the G-System vs. the G-Major2/Voodoo Lab setup for the past few weeks. I just happened to have those videos favorited. 

My setup is actually going to end up very similar to Troy's in the last video; I have an E-530 and I found a Mesa 50-50 on Craigslist that I'll be picking up Sunday.


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## victim5150 (Nov 17, 2011)

I use a G-System with my 5150 III and absolutely love it. You will need to buy an RJM Mini amp Gizmo and a special cable from RJM to connect the Mini Amp Gizmo to the amp. There is an issue between the G-System and 5150III with momentary vs latching switching but the mini amp gizmo addresses this as well. I used a G-Major GCX loops switcher and a ground control pro before my G-System. Much prefer this setup. I keep the brain in the foot controller. I ditched my rack and just have everything on the floor. By the way the G-System and 5150III mesh extremely well together. The 5150III has a great fx loop and I didn't need a buffer or an Ebtech hum eliminator like many other G-System users needed with other amps. They are a great combination together.


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## gunshow86de (Nov 17, 2011)

^

Why can't you do amp switching with the G-System? Is it the G-System only momentary or only latching?


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## victim5150 (Nov 17, 2011)

The G-System uses only latching and the 5150III uses only momentary but the mini amp gizmo takes care of the issue. The G-System can switch most amps with it's relays or if the amp is midi. In my case the 5150III doesn't use midi or relay so I had to go with a mini amp gizmo. Although, the new 50 watt 5150III Mini does have midi capability..


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## JStraitiff (Nov 17, 2011)

gunshow86de said:


> ^
> 
> I've actually been going back and forth, weighing the pro's and con's of the G-System vs. the G-Major2/Voodoo Lab setup for the past few weeks. I just happened to have those videos favorited.
> 
> My setup is actually going to end up very similar to Troy's in the last video; I have an E-530 and I found a Mesa 50-50 on Craigslist that I'll be picking up Sunday.



Nice. I have been planning on doing the gmajor setup for a while but now im convinced otherwise. Do you know if i can set it up so certain effects get routed through the effects loop and some go in front? Im not sure if they integrated that. Might be stuck with everything in front.


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## victim5150 (Nov 18, 2011)

^
I wish you could do this but you cannot. The filter effects, compressor and the external loops are all routed to the front and all the time based effects like delay, reverb, modulaton, pitch etc are all in the loop. This is not ideal for some but for others just fine. In my case it's fine. If I want a phaser or flange in the front I put one in the G-Systems loops and I have it in the front. Problem solved.


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## JStraitiff (Nov 20, 2011)

^
Well no. The best way would be to have two sets of outputs. One for the front and one for the loop. If the loop isn't connected everything goes to the front. If they're connected the guitar automatically goes through the front but you can select which section you want a certain effect to route through. This would be what I want. That way you can choose with anything. If youre going for a certain whacky sound you can do it.


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## pantera95 (Nov 21, 2011)

axe fx!


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## JStraitiff (Nov 23, 2011)

Thats actually something i have considered. I think i would be too tempted to use the modeling instead of just the effects. I want to avoid getting caught up in that. For some reason i really favor the tc electronics gear.


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