GP-20 or Joyo "character"?

My band is switching over to using a JamPod for rehearsals, so I need to have some sort of amp sim to put after my pedal board. I'm not planning on using it for much else - I'll continue to play my JCA20H rig on stage, and record with that or my SFTR.

I picked up a used Boss GP-20 for $80 at GC today, but after doing a little more research it seems like one of the Joyo "character" pedals might do the trick for a lot less scratch. Probably the AC Tone or British, although the California would probably work fine too.

I've got 30 days to take the GP-20 back, but I'm not sure I could get ahold of a Joyo unit by then. So - any thoughts? Is the GP-20 useful for anything else (dirt box, etc.)? Are the Joyo units a good fit for direct in?

Based on your "Location" information, I think I know the GP-20 that you got. GC had one posted in their used gear section. If I'm right, you got the one that's missing the silver tops on the knobs.

At any rate (whatever that rate is), I had a Boss GP-20 that I recently sold to a GC in IL. It's a nice unit, if you can find a need for it. As you've already found out, it's an Amp and Speaker Cab modeler. About the only thing you can do with it is dial up a model that you like (Tweed, Black Panel, American Combo, etc) and select a speaker cabinet. It does have built in distortion in some of the models and you can get distortion on the others by playing with the Gain and the Master Volume. Once you've found a sound that you like, you can save it to memory, though there is only one memory location.

It'll do a Roland JC-120, Fender Twin Reverb, Fender Bassman, MESA/Boogie combo, VOX AC-30, Soldano SLO-100 and some others, plus variations of them, plus speaker cabinet variations. If you're specifically looking for an VOX AC-30 sound or the British sound, you might want to go with a pedal that is fashioned specifically for that tone. However, if your not sure which sound you want or you want a variety, the GP-20 might do the trick for you.

The best thing to do is to play with it and see if it suits your needs. Like you said, you have 30 days. The Brit Combo setting is your Vox AC-30TB. Give that a shot. American Combo is the MESA and Black Panel is the Fender Twin Reverb. Also, try it with your amp tone controls flat. Adjust your bass, mids and treb with the GP-20. Then, run the GP-20 flat and adjust with your amp.

I, personally, never found a need for it which is why I sold mine to GC.

Yeah, that's the one. Hooked it up to my Twin today to check it out - seems like a lot of interesting sounds on tap. I'll try running it direct tonight. I'm most interested in how well it works being driven by my other pedals. Thanks for all the info!

I think you'll find that it doesn't behave well when driven by other pedals. You might get away with running a comp in front of it, but probably no drive pedals. When running the drive pedals after the GP-20, you'll have to do some playing around with the Gain and Master Volume again to get the sounds you want out of the pedals. It can, and will, push an OD/Dist pedal pretty hard.

Yeah, turns out it's not for me. I spent some real quality time with it today in my intended configuration (guitar -> pedalboard -> GP-20 -> mixer -> headphones), and was less than thrilled. With the clean guitar running in to it, it sounded really processed and fake - almost piezo-like. No matter which amp model I chose, I couldn't dial out the plastic sound. With my various forms of dirt running into it, well, let's just say that it was unsatisfactory and leave it at that. I'll be taking it back to GC tomorrow.

In the meantime, I ordered a Joyo American Sound (from a US dealer, so I should have it by next Monday). Half the price, and now I've got a couple bucks left over for strings or somesuch. The online demos I've seen seem to show a really nice clean, which is all I really need.

In the meantime, I ordered a Joyo American Sound (from a US dealer, so I should have it by next Monday). Half the price, and now I've got a couple bucks left over for strings or somesuch. The online demos I've seen seem to show a really nice clean, which is all I really need.

Let us know how the Joyo works out for you. They have a few that I'm interested in. Amazingly enough, you don't find too many used ones around. Tends to make me think that people like them.

I bought a couple Joyo pedals from this guy and it was real quick, think I got them in like 3 business days. http://stores.ebay.com/kdmdistributors

I have an AC tone and a british. I love both of them I use the British the most at the moment just because I can get overdriven sounds a little easier and it just seems smoother. The AC is my sparkly clean pedal. You can't go wrong with these. The tech 21 pedals aren't true bypass but these ones are so thats a big plus.

Received my American Sound today and spent a few minutes with it. Very impressed! Definitely nails the BF/SF clean sound, sounds great direct to the board, and takes my dirt pedals really well. I like the dirty tones as well, but since I've never played a tweed, I can't vouch for how accurate it is. All in all, a much much better fit for my needs than the gp20. Hell of a deal at $43 shipped.

Love the American Sound! Only reason its not on my board is its size.