# Using Boss GT-100 to switch channels on Peavy 6505 +



## Tyler1993 (Dec 27, 2017)

After hours of research I can't seem to figure out how to use my boss GT-100 to change channels on my Peavy 6505 +. So far I have gathered that I would mpst likely need to invest in a custom 7 prong / TRS / or possibly a 1/4 cord. I know the GT 100 is capable of channel switching so I don't expect to have to buy the gizmo. If anyone has personal experience accomplishing this, a tutorial or just any general information on this it would be much appreciated. Got a show coming up next week & the whole tap-dancing thing doesn't fair well with the music my band plays. 

-Tyler


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## Unleash The Fury (Dec 27, 2017)

All im familiar with is the 4cm. Which i believe that switches channels right? I dont know how you can go from your amps gain channel to a clean+chorus with the press of a button without it switching a channel?

I have a boss gt100 and a 6505+ and i have it in the 4cm to do what i just described. Someone else who knows more might give you a better answer than mine, but this is what i do.


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## Tyler1993 (Dec 27, 2017)

Unleash The Fury said:


> All im familiar with is the 4cm. Which i believe that switches channels right? I dont know how you can go from your amps gain channel to a clean+chorus with the press of a button without it switching a channel?
> 
> I have a boss gt100 and a 6505+ and i have it in the 4cm to do what i just described. Someone else who knows more might give you a better answer than mine, but this is what i do.



I am running it with the 4 cord method so basically I'm bypassing all the preamps on my the gt100 and using my peavy for gain and and distortion. In order to go from distortion to clean w/ chorus I have to change channels with my amps pedal and then click gt100 to activate chorus. The gt100 should be able to replace the peavy's channel switcher and change the amp channel with the proper cord and calibration. Are you sure you're using your amps distortion ?


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## Unleash The Fury (Dec 27, 2017)

Tyler1993 said:


> I am running it with the 4 cord method so basically I'm bypassing all the preamps on my the gt100 and using my peavy for gain and and distortion. In order to go from distortion to clean w/ chorus I have to change channels with my amps pedal and then click gt100 to activate chorus. The gt100 should be able to replace the peavy's channel switcher and change the amp channel with the proper cord and calibration. Are you sure you're using your amps distortion ?


Im like 99.999% positive. There is no built in distortion on the gt100 that could even come close to sounding as good as a 6505 amp. I can tell its got that raw tube power sound and feel. It doesnt sound like a cheap distortion effect at all. And i have it hooked up in the 4CM properly. I also know because i can twiddle the dials on the amps lead channeland it directly effects the sound whereas if it were a built in distortion then it twiddling the knobs would have a different effect in changing the sound. (If that makes any sense, if im even right about that) I guess the real question is then are you sure that YOU have it hooked up properly? Lol.

So when you step on button 1 on the gt100, that should be your amps gain channel if hooked up properly. Make sure the gt100 setting is on "half stack". (Im assuming its a half stack).

When you step on button 2, that should be your clean channel or whatever you want. Im not sure how many effects you are using but thats how i have mine set up since i only use one clean+effect.


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## Tyler1993 (Dec 27, 2017)

Unleash The Fury said:


> Im like 99.999% positive. There is no built in distortion on the gt100 that could even come close to sounding as good as a 6505 amp. I can tell its got that raw tube power sound and feel. It doesnt sound like a cheap distortion effect at all. And i have it hooked up in the 4CM properly. I also know because i can twiddle the dials on the amps lead channeland it directly effects the sound whereas if it were a built in distortion then it twiddling the knobs would have a different effect in changing the sound. (If that makes any sense, if im even right about that) I guess the real question is then are you sure that YOU have it hooked up properly? Lol.
> 
> So when you step on button 1 on the gt100, that should be your amps gain channel if hooked up properly. Make sure the gt100 setting is on "half stack". (Im assuming its a half stack).
> 
> When you step on button 2, that should be your clean channel or whatever you want. Im not sure how many effects you are using but thats how i have mine set up since i only use one clean+effect.



I have it hooked up properly, I'm sure you do too. & what you're saying makes sense. The first time I tried the 4 cord method I did have it hooked up incorrectly cause changing the dials around on the peavy didn't effect the sound. I guess I'll give it a try but from what I've been reading about it there seems to be a 5th cord involved if you want to change your amps channel with the gt-100. Are you running the gt100 in manual mode by any chance ?


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## Unleash The Fury (Dec 27, 2017)

Tyler1993 said:


> I have it hooked up properly, I'm sure you do too. & what you're saying makes sense. The first time I tried the 4 cord method I did have it hooked up incorrectly cause changing the dials around on the peavy didn't effect the sound. I guess I'll give it a try but from what I've been reading about it there seems to be a 5th cord involved if you want to change your amps channel with the gt-100. Are you running the gt100 in manual mode by any chance ?


No im not in manual mode. Im probably doing it the wrong way if there is a wrong way, but it doesnt matter because i only use one effect with the clean. I dont manually turn effects on and off because i only need, amps gain, and a clean with chorus. I can do that with the press of one button. Therefore i dont need manual mode.

I hope this helps at all let me know if your still having issues

Btw i dont know anything about a 5th cable. You shouldnt need anything more than this.


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## btbg (Dec 27, 2017)

Oh man...

How would 4CM switch channels? It doesn't.

Obviously if he wants to use the GT100 to switch channels on his amp he's going to need a 5th cable. The 4 cable method on it's own has nothing to do with channel switching. If you're only using 4 cables and have nothing going into the footswitch jack well... you definitely aren't using your amps distortion. You should see the LED's change on the front of the amp and what not too. Why would the 4cm do channel switching with nothing plugged into the footswitch input? The way Unleash the Fury is doing it, he might as well go guitar - input - output - effects return.

You should see the LED's change on the front of the amp and what not too. Why would the 4cm do channel switching with nothing plugged into the footswitch input?

If you've got the 7 pin input, custom cable is probably going to be your best bet. If it's just the TRS input well, try a TRS cable and see what you can cook up.


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## Unleash The Fury (Dec 27, 2017)

btbg said:


> Oh man...
> 
> How would 4CM switch channels? It doesn't.
> 
> ...


Well then why is it called the 4CM and what is the purpose of it then? I asked people how to use my amps distortion and use effects from a pedal and everyone suggested to get a mfx pedal and hook it up in the 4CM so thats what i did. Why do they call it 4CM and not 5CM then?

Im lost now this whole time i thought i was doing it right. The distortion sounds the same when i just plug straight into the amp. If i was using distortion from the pedal i think it would sound different.

Is it possible that im using the amps gain and even though im "not switching channels" to clean clean channel, i am switching to the clean/chorus patch from the pedal? Theres just no way the distortion patch alone on the gt100 can sound as good as it does the way i have it hooked up. I never went in and set up a patch for distortion; i never selected an amp model or cab model or anything. As soon as i bought the pedal, i hooked it up in 4cm and the gain sounds just like my amp.

So i was wrong about the gt100 being able to switch channels, but i still do believe the distortion i use is my amps..........no?

Not ti mention that adjustting the gain knobs on the amp effects the gain overall.....that knob wouldnt be able to do anything if it were the pedals distortion. I dont think


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## btbg (Dec 27, 2017)

It’s called the 4 cable method because it uses 4 cables to allow you to use your pre and post effects while still using your amps channels. Why call it the 5 cable method when the 5th cable has nothing to do with this purpose 

If there’s nothing plugged into your footswitch jack there is absolutely no way that the gt100 is switching your amps channels.

To do that you’d run the proper cable from the control out of the gt100 into the appropriate footswitch jack on your amp.

The gt100 can definitely switch channels, but the traditional 4 cable method has nothing to do with channel switching.

Maybe your clean/chorus patch is going right into the effects loop return of your amp and bypassing the 6505 preamp, and that’s what’s happening, but no the 4cm on its own isn’t changing channels.

Now I’m curious as to what you’ve got going on.


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## TheKindred (Dec 27, 2017)

btbg said:


> Maybe your clean/chorus patch is going right into the effects loop return of your amp and bypassing the 6505 preamp, and that’s what’s happening, but no the 4cm on its own isn’t changing channels.



I'm betting that's what's happening. It's definitely not switching amp channels with just the 4CM. The 4CM chain only carries the audio back and forth, need to have something sending an open/close signal to the channel switch.

@Unleash The Fury - With your setup, do you have anything at all going into amp channel switch, or anything plugged into the GT100 channel switch jack?


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## Unleash The Fury (Dec 27, 2017)

TheKindred said:


> I'm betting that's what's happening. It's definitely not switching amp channels with just the 4CM. The 4CM chain only carries the audio back and forth, need to have something sending an open/close signal to the channel switch.
> 
> @Unleash The Fury - With your setup, do you have anything at all going into amp channel switch, or anything plugged into the GT100 channel switch jack?


No absolutley not. I just checked.

OP, im sorry for jacking your thread and giving you misinfo. Dont listen to me haha


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## cmtd (Dec 28, 2017)

You will need a custom cable to channel switch with the GT-100. It will have to convert from the 7pin DIN on the amp to a TS or TRS cable to use the latching switching on the GT-100. Best-Tronics makes them. I had them make me a loom to use with my amp and MIDI switcher, its very high quality stuff. They are very helpful as well, give them a call and chat about your rig, they will sort you out. Gonna be a stretch to get what you want up and running by next week, but who knows.

https://btpa.com/Footswitch-Cables/Peavey-Amp-Cables/


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## Sogradde (Dec 29, 2017)

For clarification: The 4 cable method technically separates your amplifier's preamp from the poweramp in an elegant way. Check out my incredibly artistic drawing for reference.
The signal flow is indicated by cute little arrows. At first, your signal goes from your guitar into the multi, where it should be routed towards internal or external pre-FX. Pre-FX are effects you want in front of your preamo, like overdrives, input gates, compressors, etc. The signal flows out and into the multi again. Next it gets routed via input into the preamp of your amplifier where you get your distortion from. Via FX-loop out, you now send the signal back to the multi, without touching the poweramp yet. Now is the time for those sweet post-FX like reverbs, delays or EQs for example. Signal goes back and into the poweramp via FX-loop return, where things go loud, duh. From the poweramp you fire up your massive cabinet.

The 4CM simply saves you a bunch of cables and in case of a good multi FX, a lot of step dancing on your pedalboard because you can easily assign one footswitch to several effects.

Regarding channel switching: Almost every amp has a 6,3 mm input (sorry, no idea what that is in freedom units - it's the size of a normal instrument cable) where you put your footswitch and some newer ones are capable of MIDI switching. Since the 6505 is not capable of MIDI IIRC, you are left with four options. A: You use the normal footswitch. B: Some multi FX have a "channel switch jack", where you can connect it to the footswitch input on your amp and hope they are compatible or C: As most multis are MIDI capable, you use a MIDI-top-6,3 mm converter and put it inbetween. Last but not least, D: You could simply skip your amp's pre-amp for cleans and use an onboard clean preamp (without cab sim!) and put it in the post-FX.


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## Tyler1993 (Dec 29, 2017)

Sogradde said:


> For clarification: The 4 cable method technically separates your amplifier's preamp from the poweramp in an elegant way. Check out my incredibly artistic drawing for reference.
> The signal flow is indicated by cute little arrows. At first, your signal goes from your guitar into the multi, where it should be routed towards internal or external pre-FX. Pre-FX are effects you want in front of your preamo, like overdrives, input gates, compressors, etc. The signal flows out and into the multi again. Next it gets routed via input into the preamp of your amplifier where you get your distortion from. Via FX-loop out, you now send the signal back to the multi, without touching the poweramp yet. Now is the time for those sweet post-FX like reverbs, delays or EQs for example. Signal goes back and into the poweramp via FX-loop return, where things go loud, duh. From the poweramp you fire up your massive cabinet.
> 
> The 4CM simply saves you a bunch of cables and in case of a good multi FX, a lot of step dancing on your pedalboard because you can easily assign one footswitch to several effects.
> ...



Seems like option 3 would be the ideal. Could you possibly elaborate on that more? I'm not the best with distinguishing different cable type, although this whole process has broadened my understanding of how all this stuff works. It's no wonder Axe FX/ Kemper are praised so much considering they can do all this stuff right out of the box.


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## Sogradde (Dec 29, 2017)

Tyler1993 said:


> Seems like option 3 would be the ideal. Could you possibly elaborate on that more? I'm not the best with distinguishing different cable type, although this whole process has broadened my understanding of how all this stuff works. It's no wonder Axe FX/ Kemper are praised so much considering they can do all this stuff right out of the box.


You basically need one of these guys or a similar product to make that happen. Mind you, I haven't tried it myself and those things are quite rare so I can't comment on how well it works but you basically program your multi to send out a MIDI signal (let's call it "1" for the sake of it) to the converter whenever you hit the "go clean" button. The MIDI converter now receives MIDI signal 1 and converts it into an electrical signal and sends it via output jack to your amp's footswitch in, causing a channel switch. Google around a bit and you might be able to find someone with experience on this.


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## cmtd (Dec 31, 2017)

That won't work with your 6505, because it doesn't use 1/4" jacks to change channels, it uses a 7 pin DIN connection. You need a cable like the one I linked you to previously.


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## Tyler1993 (Dec 31, 2017)

I sent them an email. Waiting to hear back before I make any purchases. Appreciate the help. Will keep thread updated. 


cmtd said:


> That won't work with your 6505, because it doesn't use 1/4" jacks to change channels, it uses a 7 pin DIN connection. You need a cable like the one I linked you to previously.


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## btbg (Dec 31, 2017)

cmtd said:


> That won't work with your 6505, because it doesn't use 1/4" jacks to change channels, it uses a 7 pin DIN connection. You need a cable like the one I linked you to previously.



Seriously. OP - this is all you need to do.

You’re over complicating this. @cmtd has the right answer.

This seriously isn’t space shuttle technology. Or brain science. Or rocket surgery. It doesn’t help that you’ve gotten a few very useless answers too.


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## TheWarAgainstTime (Jan 1, 2018)

The Best-Tronics cables that cmtd recommended are top notch  I had them make me a custom cable to control my VHT 50/CL and it's super solid


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## Multilang (Jan 2, 2018)

Hello, I have bought Boss GT-100 last week for a dad, who would like to read some basic manual. Can you point me, where can I find localised manuals? Thankyou


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## Tyler1993 (Jan 2, 2018)

Multilang said:


> Hello, I have bought Boss GT-100 last week for a dad, who would like to read some basic manual. Can you point me, where can I find localised manuals? Thankyou



I believe you can find all manuals on Boss's website. Google "Roland Boss GT-100 Manual"


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## Multilang (Jan 2, 2018)

Thank you !!!


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## TheKindred (Jan 2, 2018)

Multilang said:


> Hello, I have bought Boss GT-100 last week for a dad, who would like to read some basic manual. Can you point me, where can I find localised manuals? Thankyou



http://bfy.tw/Fpwc


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## InCasinoOut (Jan 2, 2018)

Multilang said:


> Hello, I have bought Boss GT-100 last week for a dad, who would like to read some basic manual. Can you point me, where can I find localised manuals? Thankyou


https://www.boss.info/us/support/by_product/gt-100/owners_manuals/

must be vejichan in disguise!


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