I have been a loyal fan of boss and Roland since the 1980s that being said there's been gear that's been great and gear that's not so great this however for me is my favorite piece of gear. I use it on both my nylon string guitars with L.R. Baggs dual source pick ups and the Yamaha Atmosfeel, as well as my electric guitars and I love that I can go back-and-forth and patches and basically it's just swapping a guitar swapping the preset and then I'm ready to go. I've used this on gigs and it's been great. My only caveat is use the boss recommended power supply. If you use something else you may find that weird things happen and that's what happened with my first unit I plugged it in and it just died. I returned it and I got another one and it's been going strong for three weeks without any issues. One of my favorite things about this is that I can use batteries and I can take it wherever I need to go. I can stream music into it and so I can play back music through this device as well and the size in the field and the look are just perfect for me. If you've been using effects and modular pedals, this will be very easy. I did not have to read the manual. The only thing I had to do for reading the manual is how to do a reset cause I wanted to make sure that there was nothing that was going on behind the scenes and I wanted to make sure it was completely fresh. I did not purchase my GX one from Sweetwater, but I do recommend that you buy it from a reputable dealer like Sweetwater or some other Large dealer so if there are any issues it's an easy swap. I also did do the firmware update and there seems to be no issues at this point.

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I'm a longtime Boss supporter and user. Have owned the GT-1000 when it first came out, purchased the GX-100 a couple of years ago (and still love it!) but wanted to pickup a small, portable board for fly dates, rehearsals, jam sessions, etc. I did own the GT-1 when it was out and liked it OK, but I think the GX-1 is heads, hands and feet above. Simplicity of programming and use is excellent and well thought out. Even the factory presets are great starting points, with more meat and potatoes, real world examples than the often goofy sounding effects presets that had been the norm for a lot of the Boss multi-effects units. Crazily, I almost like the sounds of some of these patches more compared to my GX-100! IMHO Boss hit this one out of the park! A shout out to Nate Burkhardt, who's always rocking Sweetwater's customer service!

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I love this unit I have had this for a few months and have found a few effects I love and have only used about 10% of what it has to offer! I like playing more than turning knobs so each day it is like a new pedal for me as I slowly find and use new features. For all you get for a little over $ it is well worth the price and for a person who has always just used tube and analog it is a great entry to the digital effects world. It sounds good but not as good as just plugging into my JCM 800 but thats just me. It offers hundreds of hours of fun!

Things I like:
-I think it has a wide variety of clean/distorted sounds that are great out of the box.
-The software on Mac/iPhone is really nice and easy to use.
-Can load custom IRs, not sure I can hear the difference though to be honest.
-Seems durable.

Things that could be better:
-The looping is pretty underwhelming compared to similar pedals that I've seen.
-Call me old fashioned but I prefer a power switch over unplugging guitar or power supply to turn it off.
-Not a huge fan of the fx pedal feel or built in wah sound, I'll be sticking to my old cry baby pedal.

Overall, I'm glad I purchased it and would do it again.

I just had a chance to try out my GX1. I'm very impressed! Easy to use , large variety of sounds. Great deal for the price!!

I just got this today, I must say it fits my need right out of the box, I programed/edited and stored my custom patches within minutes. It does have a lot distorted patches, they all do, I'm just the opposite I like the clean tones and I just spiced them up on this little floor pedal. Nice to have a volume/effect pedal on board. The build is quite good, I think it will hold up well gigging out, just don't beat it up, get a little gig bag for it. So real easy to program and store patches, didn't even look at the manual.
It's much more then a entry level effects pedal, I don't believe that nonsense, if you think about it your getting numerous boss pedals in this little multi-effect pedal. Do the math!

Astonished at the price and complexity of the multitude of options in the world of guitar FX units, I chose this cuz it's not nearly as expensive as units with similar functions. More "bells and whistles" are not necessarily great things.
I'm happy with the GX-1 as is. Consider getting just a handful individual pedals and you'll probably end up spending more than this unit, with more cables to deal with and little ability to edit and upgrade.
If I were a dedicated pro in and out of the studio, the superstar models might be worth it (and I could probably afford one of 'em!) That said, this unit gives me more than I need and/or want as an honestly affordable device.
I've read reviews of this being a "beginner's" unit. I've used tons of effects in various physical and software forms (when those later came available) since the 1970's and have done quite well by them on their own. I would not call myself a beginner.
The thing is, what is one trying to accomplish? I love the ability and flexibility available, and will have a great time experimenting, but, overall, I will use a minute amount of what the GX-1 offers, so what would I do with upgrading to something five to ten times the cost?
My only regret is that it won't make my coffee in the morning.

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