Solo Boost for GM40

I am seriously thinking of getting a GM40, and one thing I'm wondering is how to get a solo boost.  I see that the unit has a "boost" function, but from what I've read and heard, it doesn't really seem to be designed as a solo boost, especially as the level is fixed; it seems to be more of an "eq expand".  So what are folks doing to provide a solo boost when using the GM40?

Thanks in advance!

Where did you hear that about the Boost not being a solo boost?  I wonder if that is from your own hands on experience when you heard and played the amp, or is it just comments in a forum, generally from others who have no experience of the things they run down?  If so you really need to hear the GM40 to make an informed decision, and be careful, there are pitfalls with an amp which has as much gain on tap as this one.  More about that later.

It isn't a straight "lift the volume out of the preamp" control by any means, it isn't intended to be.  It's not just a second volume control.  It alters the gain of the input buffer and a variety of the valve stage gains according to which channel you have engaged at the time in order to hit the valves harder.  It's a Gain boost not so much a Volume boost.  And it alters the eq of stages slightly, generally cutting out a little bass, to suit the increased gain it builds in too. Yes, it is does have its effects before and within the valve stages, so as such it may be said to not be a solo boost but there are better ways of doing that for the GM40.  If you have the GM40 under MIDI control from either the FSM432 or any other suitable controller, it is easier and much more flexible to set up two whole presets, one for your rhythm and the other for solo, and just kick between the two.  You can set the Gain, Eq and overall Volume along with the selection and settings for any of the internal effects of each preset individually.  That way you will get much more control of the differences you may want between your rhythm and solo sounds.

Even if you have no MIDI controller and just have a simple FS2 style footswitch, (any generic one will do), you can even start then with a different channel for each as each channel remembers its own settings as you switch between them.  This approach gives you so much variation you can build into your sounds.

I think one of the things that colours peoples' view of functionality like this is that they are so closed minded to using the Gain control below 4-o'clock.  It's almost seen as an admission you are only a guitaring lightweight to do so.  Everyone seems to just want to open up the gain way too high right from the getgo.  If you are running the Lead or Ultra channel with high gain for your rhythm chugging there is no place left to go for your solo.  The Boost then appears to do very little as the valve action is saturated already.  If you set the amp up so you have a slightly more restrained rhythm sound, when you kick in the Boost the Gain increase becomes much more obvious and meaningful.

I'd honestly suggest you do a bit of reading around but most of all get out and play one, and use it throughout its full range of capabilities.  You will discover amazing variations which you maybe didn't expect.

Thank you so much for the quick and informative response!  

To be clearer, I'm not looking to hit the input harder/more volume in order to get more gain (I don't go much beyond Humble Pie levels of gain ), I'm just looking for a way to lift the volume of a given preset above the rest of the band during a guitar solo.  

For context, I currently have a DV Mark Multiamp, and it has "slots" which you can use to insert various effects into the signal chain.  One of those is a "boost" effect that allows you to set the number of decibels to raise the volume along with a tone control.  I have it included with every preset, so no matter which preset I am using, I can turn the solo boost on and off via MIDI without having to change to a different preset.

I have not been able to play a GM40 (wish I could find one locally to try!), but my understanding is that its boost is not this.  As you say, it's not really designed to be a solo boost, which is what I was wondering about.  I am sure that setting up separate rhythm and solo presets will work just fine for this purpose.

Thanks again for the reply, I appreciate it!

Hi,

just for clarification and in addition what bordonbert said:
Using the GM you could easily get this effect by using two presets as bordonbert suggested.
The beauty of the GM is, that for each preset you can set a different volume level and another set of eq settings.
I think the important information which may was not totally clear, is that the GM has, besides its master volume, another volume control which can be used to level out presets, or as you would use it, increase the volume relative to others without touching the master volume control.

Best wishes,
Jo

More good info, thank you very much!

I have a clean volume boost in the effects loop which should do exactly what you're describing. I stomp on that for when it's solo time and it does a nice volume boost without coloring the tone or needing to create copies of your presets. Also has the added advantage or any tweaking done to your rhythm sound will not need to be duplicated on your copied patch. BUUUUUT, there are definitely advantages to having separate solo patches that add more effects and/or change the EQ. I'm happy with just bumping up my rhythm volume for solos.

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Thanks for the tip, I appreciate it!

Do you know I hadn't seriously considered an external Boost pedal as being slotted into the Fx Loop. I had really only considered it as a way of hitting the amp harder, which will of course colour the sound, possibly dramatically. That definitely gives you a much more "volume only" change between rhythm and solo. Sometimes you can think so hard you miss the bleeding obvious! Thanks for the tip Costalot.