Recently Mile Marker Zero’s John Tuohy chatted with Gearwire about his Paul Reed Smith Custom 22 (a guitar that converted him from PRS skeptic to beliver). The band released their eponymous debut CD at the end of June and will be touring the USA in the fall

In addition to the PRS Custom Tuohy spoke to Gearwire about his Ground Control GCX.

“The GCX switching unit with the Ground Control is a very ingenious device,” says Tuohy. “You can get the GCX to switch pedals in and out of your chain in any combination, switch amp channels, and interact with MIDI devices with ease.”

He says he is always on the hunt for new sounds and new pedals, despite being a minimalist at heart. This doesn’t mean his chain will be a ever expanding but it does mean it will be ever changing.

“The rig I have right now will probably not be exactly the same as my rig in 3 months from now. Here's how I have the GCX hooked currently.” he says.

Before the amp:

Loop 1: MXR Phase 90

Loop 2: Barber Tone Press Compressor

Loop 3: Out to Input of Amp

In the effects loop:

Loop 4: Boss DD-3 digital delay

Extra stuff:

Loop 5: Channel 1 on/off

Loop 6: Channel 2 on/off

Loop 7: Channel 3 on/off

Loop 8: Solo on/off

Tuohy does want to be sure everyone knows he is not a fan of using “a gazillion” effects.

“I'm more interested in hearing a great pure guitar sound, with effects as kind of a ‘bonus’. This is not to say that I am opposed to effects, or I won't use them more in the future, but for MMZ, the pure tone of the guitar comes first,” he says. “With this configuration, I can turn on any combination of pedals, switch amp channels, and turn on or off the solo boost function with one press of a switch, rather than the ‘pedal tapdance’.”

Tuohy says that the GCX is simple to program and that the buffer isn’t terrible.

“When you plug your guitar into it, your tone doesn't automatically sound awful like some other switchers.” he says.

When asked about the best single feature of the GCX he gets detailed.

“I think that the ‘Instant Access’ buttons are the best thing going for it. These are great,” he says. “Basically, even if you've programmed all your patch changes for midi devices, your amp channel changes, and when you want the stomp boxes on or off, you can use the top eight buttons to instantly turn on or off the item of your choosing, without having to program! These automatically sync up to the 8 loops that they give you,”

He gives an example.

“Let’s say that I'm on channel one of my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, with my Barber Tone Press on. I now want to change to Channel three, with my MXR phaser on, and also get a solo boost. However, I don't have that pre-programmed! All I have programmed in the next patch is to turn Channel one on the boogie to Channel three, and turn the compressor off,” says Tuohy. “In comes the Instant Access buttons! I push the patch change button, and then I go to Instant Access button one, and the phaser turns on, and then I hit the Instant Access button eight and the amp gets a volume boost. Voila! Really helpful if you're going to be changing settings on the fly and you don't want to program 40 different patches in order to accommodate your ‘adventurous’ self.”

Is there anything he doesn’t like about the GCX?

“It's a great product. However, it seems to add some of noise to my Signal,” says Tuohy. “However, this could also be because I have ground loop issues.”

As he noted earlier the GCX is fairly user-friendly, no poring over a manual into the wee hours.

“The learning curve is very fast, even if you don't know anything about MIDI, which I didn't prior to this purchase. I think anyone who's been playing guitar for 5 years and knows a decent amount about gear could operate this no problem,” he says. “The longest part of it is soldering wires for the connection! You could just go buy a bunch of short cables if you suck at soldering, like me. If you buy both the Ground Control and GCX together, you'll find that they operate flawlessly with each other.”