ricnok
TDPRI Member
I'd appreciate any advice for custom settings on a Fender G-Dec 30 amp that are good for mostly rock and blues player. Any other insights and experience appreciated also. Thanks in advance!
G-Dec 30 Advice?
- Thread starter ricnok
- Start date
Tone Chase
Tele-Holic
Had one when there was good support, and they were more state of the art relevant. I believe Fender Fuse is no longer supported. I eventually only liked 5% of what that amp did best. Originally, the satisfaction was about 50%. Over time, it lost its lustre for me.
I went back to tube amps.
However, I had a Boss Artist for a month, and returned it. I like the idea, but didn’t need another amp that size and weight. I will most likely pick up the newer generation, 19 pound, 100 watt Katana head. I have cabs that sounded great with the Artist. Lots of support, fills the niche with lots of amp choice, 60 boss pedals, and acceptable sound, right out of the box. The built in speaker sounds pretty good miked up. Good attenuation, doesn’t take up much space.
I love my tube amps, but there is an easy fun factor in something like a Katana, for the money.
I went back to tube amps.
However, I had a Boss Artist for a month, and returned it. I like the idea, but didn’t need another amp that size and weight. I will most likely pick up the newer generation, 19 pound, 100 watt Katana head. I have cabs that sounded great with the Artist. Lots of support, fills the niche with lots of amp choice, 60 boss pedals, and acceptable sound, right out of the box. The built in speaker sounds pretty good miked up. Good attenuation, doesn’t take up much space.
I love my tube amps, but there is an easy fun factor in something like a Katana, for the money.
Sax-son
Tele-Afflicted
I have a G-DEC Junior, it's good for practicing, but I am sure there are way better amps out there now. I got mine for really cheap and it does what I wanted, but it nothing to write home about. Perhaps the G-DEC 30 is more sophisticated and will do more, I don't know.
ricnok
TDPRI Member
It's lost luster for me also in terms of the usefulness of the variety of settings. I find myself only using a few of the modification settings. It still serves me well enough for playing against the preinstalled band tracks but there might be better solutions for that these days also. Thanks for the info.
rangercaster
Poster Extraordinaire
Sell the G-Dec ...
Buy a Champ ...
Buy a Champ ...
ricnok
TDPRI Member
G-Dec 30 has more bells and whistles than the Jr. and more wattage. Though most of the extras are not entirely useful to me. The 30 is a decent practice amp but I agree there should be better options available these days.
ricnok
TDPRI Member
Thanks...Which Champ model(s) do you recommend?
rangercaster
Poster Extraordinaire
One with tubes in it ???
Tone Chase
Tele-Holic
The multiple Champ and Twin settings were pretty good on the G-DEC, as far as I can remember. So buying a tube Champ won’t necessarily do what the OP was after.
I never tried adding pedals to the G-DEC, but did use the computer programs tied to amp at that time. It was all too much to remember. I basically just wanted to play along to music, or backing tracks. As I said, I eventually went back to my roots, mostly tube amps, some solid state ones occasionally.
I thought about high end Kemper, tried the Line 6 approaches. Still own some of that and older GNX3. However don’t use it often at all. I tried the Katana Artist for a month. I can see the possibilities in the newer Boss Katana versions, and appreciate the simplicity of it more. You can get over involved with the computer side, or not, and get useful results if you have some actual talent for playing guitar. It is inexpensive used to boot.
I never tried adding pedals to the G-DEC, but did use the computer programs tied to amp at that time. It was all too much to remember. I basically just wanted to play along to music, or backing tracks. As I said, I eventually went back to my roots, mostly tube amps, some solid state ones occasionally.
I thought about high end Kemper, tried the Line 6 approaches. Still own some of that and older GNX3. However don’t use it often at all. I tried the Katana Artist for a month. I can see the possibilities in the newer Boss Katana versions, and appreciate the simplicity of it more. You can get over involved with the computer side, or not, and get useful results if you have some actual talent for playing guitar. It is inexpensive used to boot.
Love me some gdec 30. You can still get other backing tracks free online, not fender. It is what it is, and has come in useful during these crazy times. When wife has meetings, I can fire it up at reasonable levels or use headphones. Can’t do that with my Princeton.
Five Aces
Tele-Meister
I've had my GDEC-3-30 since 2011. It was something I sure wish I had when I first started learning guitar playing in the '60s!
Moving forward to present time, it's been a great practice/home amp for the countless effects it offers. Several good play-along rhythms & beats but you had to get past the 90% lousy presets 'cause only 10% were usable as is. I've only set & tweaked it manually... not with the fuse software (no longer supported). Once I got use to it, it's just like any other amp...tweak a few knobs and I can create a preset on the fly! And with the multi-function footswitch (like the Mustang series amps) it's like a programmable stompbox! So, I've pretty much wiped out most of the useless default presets and saved aprox 20-25 of my own settings. Now, to me, it's just like having a Champion or similar amp. Select the sound you want and play! But I can set speed, depth, rate, etc to fine tweak almost all the effects... something you can't do with a Champion or similar type amp. And don't forget it still has the built in looper, and I've got a 16gb SD card that I backed up all the original presets and downloaded tons of backing tracks over the years!
In the meantime, I always felt this amp had the potential to be gigable(?) if only it had a little more punch behind it instead of just sounding its best through headphones.
So last year, during our infamous Covid isolation times, I replaced the OEM speaker with an Eminence Ramrod 10" 75W speaker. The concensus was always that I'd ruin the EQ because it was a modeling amp EQ'd for the OEM factory widerange speaker. But since the GDEC also has a piezo crossover in it, the improved sound of the Ramrod + crossover seems to still retain a relatively wide & flat freq response! Add that to the efficiency (101db) and clarity of the Ramrod, it really puts out some serious power! My guess, it sounds like the output has increased by aprox 5-6db! So, by today's standards, miking small amps is routine so there's no question it could be a working amp, and still have such features as headphone jack, preamp output jacks, Aux input, and more!. And it now can do a small live venue, club, or church performance, too, if miking wasn't an option... all in a small, easily portable combo amp that can easily be transported if we get back to that world again.
Moving forward to present time, it's been a great practice/home amp for the countless effects it offers. Several good play-along rhythms & beats but you had to get past the 90% lousy presets 'cause only 10% were usable as is. I've only set & tweaked it manually... not with the fuse software (no longer supported). Once I got use to it, it's just like any other amp...tweak a few knobs and I can create a preset on the fly! And with the multi-function footswitch (like the Mustang series amps) it's like a programmable stompbox! So, I've pretty much wiped out most of the useless default presets and saved aprox 20-25 of my own settings. Now, to me, it's just like having a Champion or similar amp. Select the sound you want and play! But I can set speed, depth, rate, etc to fine tweak almost all the effects... something you can't do with a Champion or similar type amp. And don't forget it still has the built in looper, and I've got a 16gb SD card that I backed up all the original presets and downloaded tons of backing tracks over the years!
In the meantime, I always felt this amp had the potential to be gigable(?) if only it had a little more punch behind it instead of just sounding its best through headphones.
So last year, during our infamous Covid isolation times, I replaced the OEM speaker with an Eminence Ramrod 10" 75W speaker. The concensus was always that I'd ruin the EQ because it was a modeling amp EQ'd for the OEM factory widerange speaker. But since the GDEC also has a piezo crossover in it, the improved sound of the Ramrod + crossover seems to still retain a relatively wide & flat freq response! Add that to the efficiency (101db) and clarity of the Ramrod, it really puts out some serious power! My guess, it sounds like the output has increased by aprox 5-6db! So, by today's standards, miking small amps is routine so there's no question it could be a working amp, and still have such features as headphone jack, preamp output jacks, Aux input, and more!. And it now can do a small live venue, club, or church performance, too, if miking wasn't an option... all in a small, easily portable combo amp that can easily be transported if we get back to that world again.
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nickmsmith
Tele-Holic
Old thread.. but I got one of these Gdec 30s along with a Strat for next to nothing. It sat in my garage for nearly a year, and I finally tried it a few days ago..I’m really pretty impressed with the amp!
Much easier to use and edit sounds than the mustang line that came after it. And I got a very serviceable sound from it.
for essentially free, it’s absolutely great.
Much easier to use and edit sounds than the mustang line that came after it. And I got a very serviceable sound from it.
for essentially free, it’s absolutely great.
lance71
TDPRI Member
I still have mine I am always on the fence about selling. It's a Blues edition of the 30. At the time I bought a Stevie Ray Vaughan and Hendrix tab book that came with an SD card that would plug in the presets and backing track for the songs in the book. Really cool idea. It's strength over all is it's ability to be a decent all in one jam along amp. For me it was still hard to figure out since everything was done with a jog dial and buttons. I think today with YouTube it would have gotten a lot more support from users giving demos that would have helped people like me out more to understand it better. I agree with a poster above saying that only a certain percentage of the backing tracks are useable. I wish Fender could bring back the books, backtracks and presets with todays upgraded sounds for favorite artists. Just great having everything in one practice amp.
eclipse
Tele-Meister
It has to be hard for manufactures to compete against a smart phone or tablet, particularly apple products withall the music apps developed for them.
A practice amp with a aux in and a phone/tablet is hard to beat for a practice setup.
A practice amp with a aux in and a phone/tablet is hard to beat for a practice setup.
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