I recently became the owner of an exciting piece of guitar gear. Well, exciting to me, anyway. Winding back the clock to 2010, I distinctly remember pining after a TC Electronic G-System. It was the guitar effects processor to have; all the pro’s were using it, but I was a poor student and couldn’t come close to affording one.

TC Electronic G-System

A couple of months ago, I spotted a used one for a very reasonable cost and I just couldn’t resist. It arrived, and it was immediately clear why professionals used this—it’s an absolute tank of a unit. It’s 8KG and made of thick aluminium. The processor is removable and rackmountable. And it looks like a Christmas tree. I love it.

What’s super interesting is how it has clearly inspired the design of modern processors. Sure, there’s no touch screen and the LCD strip is dated, but there are also no buttons or switches to get broken on the road. You navigate the menu by twisting the footswitches themselves, which was way ahead of it’s time.

It doesn’t have any amp/cab modelling or drive effects, so amazingly, the sounds haven’t dated at all. Chorus hasn’t really changed since the 80’s, so they still sound great on a unit from the 00’s. It merrily fires out relay switches to change channels on my amp, has four powered effect loops for drive pedals, and is effortlessly controllable via MIDI, which I used in a gig at Christmas.

I’ve ended up selling my Strymon & Walrus Audio gear and have fully committed to this now historic (and in my opinion, timeless) piece of kit.

In doing so, I now realise that I’m very much getting old and nostalgic, not for things I had in my youth, but for things I couldn’t afford at the time. Next thing you know, I’ll be driving a Renault Avantime…