Combining a modern approach to metalcore and emo ballads with old-school 80s metal virtues, lead guitarist Michael “Padge” Paget lets his G-System handle the effects management while he’s busy handling the uptempo riffing and harmonic shredding mayhem. Just home for a few days after an extensive Euro/US tour only to take off for Australia and Japan shortly after, the obvious focus of this interview is how his G-System performed on the recent tour. “Well, nothing short of brilliantly” is Michael’s blunt reply to that question, followed up by “no problems whatsoever.” This comes from a guitarist that hadn’t had his G-System more than a couple of weeks before taking off on tour.
Pedalboard trimmed down
Before turning to the G-System, Michael had a huge board packed with pedals, separate delay pedals for different delay types and decay times etc. And with two amps to select channels on and switch between for dirty and clean sounds generating the array of dynamics and intensity shifts that make up the signature of Bullet For My Valentine’s hard-edged music, there’s plenty of need for the control and effects management that G-System provides. “I spent more time tap dancing than I did playing guitar,” Michael recalls. “G-System has really simplified things. It allows me focus my energy on playing rather than constantly being distracted by having to worry about which pedals to apply next – now one button gets the job done,” he continues.
Once connected to the G-System relay connectors, switching channels on your amp is pedal simple: All you have to do is dial in the desired channel just like any other parameter setting you want to store in the preset bank that holds up to 200 user presets.
Less is moreBesides having G-System simplifying his setup, with the insane range of different stompboxes out of his signal chain, Michael has also experienced a remarkable sound improvement; “It may appear to be a hackneyed phrase, but less pedals in your signal chain clearly equals less signal loss and less noise” Michael declares with true conviction in his voice.
However, noise elimination alone doesn’t do the trick. What really makes G-System shine is its unsurpassed sound quality. Michael elaborates on his choice: “There’s just no getting around the fact that TC offers the ultimate delays and reverbs. Delay is my favorite G-System effect, but I also use its compressor to color my sound and add uniqueness”.
Drag-and-drop easy preset sharing
Usually, guitar virtuosity goes hand in hand with gear nerdry. Not so with Michael. Being one helluva guitar player he is surprisingly indifferent to the technical side of things as long as he’s got premium sound.
“I’m really not much of a gear nerd,” Michael says. “I have Kevin, my guitar tech, set it all up, doing the programming and stuff. Cool thing; when we hit the US leg of our recent tour, I was really amazed with how easy it was to just copy the settings from my European G-System preset bank to the US board which the backline rental company had ready for us when we arrived.” Thanks to the G-System Editor, aligning presets between two units has become drag-and-drop easy. This is not just convenient to meet increasing weight restrictions on most airlines, it is also pretty neat when you want to exchange great presets with your friends or when you want to get the tone of your favorite guitarist.
Michael’s tech, Kevin Papworth, has hooked us up with two of the pristine clean sounds Michael uses on the songs "Tears don't fall" and "The End". “The preset editor works a treat - a fine addition to a top bit of gear” Kevin puts in.
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