TC Electronics G Major

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A page dedicated to the tone and creativity of MESA Engineering's famous Mark Series. These little giant killers, first introduced in the early seventies, have been the choice of most major top players. Made famous by Santana and boosted by The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Grateful Dead, very few if any stadiums, coliseums or concert halls haven't been assaulted by a Boogie. Currently the state of the art is the Mark IV which represents the culmination of 30 years of evolution and refinement.

TC Electronics G-Major Guitar Processor

Serial Number # 3403310

Guitar Effects: Although the Boogie has infinite combinations to create whole dictionaries of tone, sometimes it is nice to have specific flanger, phaser and other such sounds. In this regard, the G·Major is ideal. It is the more reasonable priced offspring of the G Force. Although there are some limitations from its big brother, it is an incedible effect. It has fantastic saptial spread and the reverb alone makes it worth every penny. The unit is fully MIDI ready but very easy to understand and use. The G·Major benefits from the company's dedication to high quality guitar processors. Following in the footsteps of the G-Force, the G·Major makes affordable a technology beyond your expectations. G·Major can run seven different effects and a Tuner simultaneously, and offers real time control of a number of parameters through MIDI or pedal Input. G·Major preset change is fast and smooth, and supports true spillover of Delays.

The G·Major is strictly effects, which means that it will be a perfect addition to your preamp. Effects are organized in blocks, and each block contains several effect types to choose from. For example, the Delay block holds: Stereo Delay, PingPong Delay, Tap Delay and Dynamic Delay. There are more than 25 algorithms inside. Make the most of them instantly!

Multi Effects TC Electronic award winning technology found its way into the G·Major. So have extensive control and ease of use: · Single click: toggles the current effect on/off. · Double click: accesses the edit page. This is maximum control in no time!
Noise Gate A Noise Gate is generally used to attenuate the signal when you don't play the guitar. This way you can avoid hearing all the hiss, hum and other noise your system might generate.
Compressor A Compressor is used to reduce the dynamic content of a signal. There are situations where a compressor should not be applied on the guitar and there are definitely situations where it is the key to letting the guitar stand out and appear rock solid.
Chorus Classic and Advanced Chorus The Advanced Chorus algorithm holds a few extra parameters compared to the Classic Chorus. You have the option of turning the Golden Ratio on/off, controlling the Chorus Delay and also applying a Phase Reverse function for extra widening of the Chorus effect.
Classic and Advanced Flange A Flange is a short Delay modulated via an LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator). "Feedback" in relation to Flange sets the resonance level of the effect. Select the Classic Flange or the Advanced Flange which features the Golden Ratio facility inherited from the classic TC 2290 Dynamic Delay processor.
Resonance Filter The Resonance filters are basically a Hi and Lo Cut filter that can be swept up and down the frequency range. When the Resonance (Q-factor) parameter is increased, the filters peak and the cutoff frequency gets very narrow and very steep.
Vibrato A Vibrato effect modulates the incoming pitch. As opposed to a Chorus effect no direct signal is combined with this pitch modulation.
Tremolo A Tremolo is basically a change of level controlled by an LFO. The G·Major holds variations from soft, smooth to hard and aggressive Tremolos.
Panner The panner simply pans the signal from one channel to the other.
Vintage and Smooth Phaser Two effective good phaser types. The Vintage Phaser will give you the phasing effect similar to the one found in old stomp boxes. The Smooth Phaser is excellent for a less dominant effect. The Vintage Phaser and Smooth Phaser utilize respectively four and twelve All-pass filters. These filters create a comb-looking characteristic. When the filtered sound is mixed with the direct sound, the "phasing sound" occurs.
Reverb As far as Hall, Plate and Room algorithms, each Reverb consists of Early Reflections and a Diffuse Field. In any Reverb simulation the Early Reflections define the shape and size of the room. The Diffuse Field represents "the Reverb Tail". The Spring algorithm is designed to reproduce the sound of the old spring Reverbs, as used in vintage guitar amps.
Detune The source signal is split and a specified amount of the signal is detuned to you specifications. The Detune block in the Pitch block holds two voices. A Delay for each voice could be applied as a slapback effect.
Whammy The Whammy effect gives you the opportunity to control the pitch of an added voice with an external MIDI Expression pedal.
Pitch Shifter With the G·Major Pitch Shifter you are able to add 2 voices, each with a fixed pitch within +/- one octave from the Input note. The processing of the G·Major is at a speed where you will never notice any "searching" for the notes as with many older octaver units and octaver stomp boxes.
Delay The G·Major holds a number of Delay modes that will cover not only your basic needs, but also Delay effects thought of as unachievable unless hooked up with extremely high-end audio equipment. Actually that is exactly what the G·Major guitar processor features! See the featured delays below.
PingPong With the PingPong Delay line you are able to pan the repeats from left to right.
Dynamic Delay The Dynamic Delay is a function that allows the Delay Output level to be actively altered by the dynamics of the Input level. A function that can be used to leave the source material clear and undisturbed while played and delicately accompanied by the Delay between phrases.
Dual Delay The Dual Delay algorithm allows you to have two Delay lines running at the same time. In other terms you have two separate Delay "units" in parallel, each with its own set of parameters.
Channel Switching Changing your sound from a crisp clean dry rhythm sound to a overdriven lead sound, will most likely involve channel switching on your Preamp or Combo in addition to changing your effects preset. Generally this implies the investment of a separate switching system. Not with the G·Major! With the built-in Relay Switching on the G·Major you are able to switch between up to 3 channels on your Preamp or Combo.
Modifiers The G·Major holds four modifiers. A Modifier is a virtual handle, that can be remote controlled via MIDI Cc´s or the Ext. Control jack. A Modifier can be connected to several effects parameters simultaneously. Additionally a unique transmission may be set up between the Modifier and each of the connected effects parameters.
Tuner The G·Major Chromatic tuner ranges from 420 Hz to 460 Hz. Mute the Outputs of your G·Major when tuning your guitar. You can setup either a MIDI pedal, a momentary switch or an Expression pedal to control the mute function.
Routing G·Major holds three different effects Routings that can be changed with the preset or fixed to your favorite selection. The Serial Routing connects all seven effects blocks in straight line, equal to a regular guitar stomp box setup. Semi Parallel still connects the first five effects blocks in a serial manner, while the Reverb and Delay block are now connected in parallel. The Parallel Routing still allows serial based effects like the Noise Gate, Compressor and Tremolo to be connected in serial, and additionally connects the Pitch, Chorus, Delay and Reverb in a parallel setup.
G·Minor G·Minor is a multi purpose MIDI triple footswitch that sends and receives MIDI information. It allows for specific remote control of the TC Electronic G·Major but can also control any MIDI device. G·Minor gives immediate access to the most fundamental functions of the G·Major, such as Program changes, Tap tempo, Tuning the guitar on-the-fly but also more specifically realtime effects selection. Additionally the G·Minor MIDI In is capable of merging any MIDI data from a second G·Minor into the MIDI Out stream, allowing daisy chaining of several units.

Footswitches: The G·Major is fully controllable with any MIDI pedal board. One of its features is that it displays the tuner function. The G·Minor pedal is useful, but not very sturdy. Best to look at another market pedal if you need it in live situations a lot.

Set-Up:With six amps, I set the amps up so the IIC+ is Boogie Lead with the Pre-amp junction out into the Amp junction in of the Mark I. The Mark III Stack and Maple Mark III are linked in Stereo via a G-Major effect rack and are set hyper clean with the internal reverbs of each set at zero. The signal goes from the MESA Amp switch to the input of the amps. The Effects Send is then routed into the G·Major input and then via the output to the effects Return on the Boogies. The effect is incredible! The Mark IIB and the Imbuya Mark III are in Stereo via a Boss Stereo Chrous. The pedal is set with minimal chrous and thus primarily a stereo effect. I set this as the Crunch amp with the IIB in lead mode set to give a subtle break up and the Mark III optomized for the Rhythm 2 mode.

This page is a hybrid of history, manual and museum. I hope that you find it useful Any comments appreciated! This page would not have been possible without the help of the Mark Page, thanks to Gil Ayan at Mark History Page and the manuals of MESA Engineering.

email to: mesaboogie@mac.com
Last updated 2001/December/23