NAMM 2026: Boss has anted up in the battle for multi-effects pedal supremacy, releasing budget-friendly but pro-quality entry-level GX series units for electric guitar and bass.
The GX-1 and GX-1B are all but identical in layout (the latter, for bass guitar, has a blue chassis), and are designed to be super-easy to use, portable, affordable, and promise tube amp dynamics courtesy of Boss’s proprietary AIRD amp modelling tech under the hood.
The same algorithms that make the GX-100 sound so impressive are put to work here.
Both units have three footswitches and an onboard expression pedal – all of which are user-assignable – a hi-res colour display, colour-coded hexagon buttons for your amp/effect categories, and 99 user presets.
As ever with these Boss multi-effects units, there are sounds, lots of sounds, with 23 amps and more than 140 effects to choose from.
That can be bamboozling. The factory presets are usually a good place to start. There’s also new feature here, Gear Suite, which Boss says will make your life easier. And that makes sense; if this unit is to be priced for beginners (expect to pay £225/$229/€259), then it has to be easy enough for beginners to use.
Gear Suite sounds like another interesting feature for tone-seekers. With each amp or effect come a variety of factory-designed Gear Suite settings you can scroll through, which is a more granular twist on the factory presets.
Where factory presets preset sounds fully dialled in (say an amp type, plus drive, compression, modulation), the Gear Suite has preset sounds for each of the GX-1’s amps and effects. It could be super helpful for beginners who are looking for a deep chorus pedal sound but are not too sure where to start.
Sometimes, portability comes at a cost. Smaller units can mean some features – and typically the ones that you need to use – are hidden behind second-function dials and switches.
There’s something reassuringly tactile and, well, kind of Fisher Price about those hexagon buttons all lined up there, allowing players to tap one to turn an effect on and off, or to hold the button down to edit its parameters. On the face of it, this all sounds easy enough.
And that is kind of the point of these units. They’ll get you started. Boss promises “great tone accessible to every player, regardless of skill level” and “frustration-free creation”. So have at it...
With the AIRD tech, the grown-up Boss sounds in a compact size, the rugged gig-ready metal housings, and the price, these look a decent bet for experienced players looking to give their pedalboard the night off.
You can power this via battery, USB or AC adaptor. There is Bluetooth, meaning you can play along with external audio. You can connect the unit to your DAW via USB-C and use it as a guitar audio interface.
Hook it up to the Boss Tone Studio app and there are various metronome and drum machine rhythm patterns to practise too. And there is a headphones output. The GX-1 units are expandable too; you
The GX-1 and GX-1B are available now. Head over to Boss for more details.
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