Multi FX Pedals - Boss ME50 etc.

EvilGrin

EvilGrin

EvilGrin

Associate
Joined
12 Oct 2004
Posts
1,432
Location
Aberdeen, Scotland
Hey guys, I've been offered a Boss ME50 pedal with powersupply for £85. It looks great, but I know it's now a fairly old model. Do you guys think it's a good deal? I was originally looking at the GT-8 and GT-10, but thought I'd go a little cheaper to begin with, and upgrade at some point. So - for the money I'm paying, think it's a good deal, or has the market moved on since it was released and as a result there's something better out in that price range?

Cheers guys :)
 
one of my friends has one, it's not the best sounding pedal in the world but it is pretty good and has all the effects you'll ever need really.

can't remember how much my mate got his for but i'd say 85 is a fair price.

also, checking google shopping out, they're around 170-200 quid new as it is, so i think it's actually quite a good deal :)
 
I think thats quite a lot to ask for one to be honest. I bought mine for about £150 when it came about (around 4 years ago i think)

They're excellent pedals though!
 
I think they are excellent. I've had mine since release. All the effects sound good and whilst it's not pro equipment, it does the job perfectly.

There are however two slight niggles.

Firstly, you can save various effects settings to 'patches' and then flip between them. However, there is a slight delay that cuts the sound whilst switching patches, which makes this fairly useless for flipping between sounds when playing a song. To be honest, this has never bothered me as you can treat the ME-50 as three standalone pedals, a distortion, a delay and a modulator, along with an expression pedal and reverb settings.

The second gripe is to do with where effects should be placed, and this is something that is problematic for most multi-effects pedals.

Distortion pedals, wahs, modulators etc are typically placed between your guitar and your amp, simple enough. However, delays and reverb actually sound much better running through the effects loop of an amplifier. This means that with the ME-50, if you want to be playing about with your distortion and your modulation, the reverb and delay will not sound as good as they would running through the effetcs loop.

The result is that I have my ME-50 placed in the effects loop for delay and reverb, but this obviouisly negatively impacts the sounds of many other effects (particuarly modulation modes such as phaser or wah). It's up to you where you decide to place the ME-50, but it's impossible to have all the effects sounding their best at once.

With that said, I think it's an absolutely solid device and don't regret spending a penny on it.
 
Last edited:
Hey guys, cheers for all the replies! Yeah Nitefly, I'd read about those few niggles with it, I'm not going to be playing live any time soon, but will be using it to jam with some friends, but I don't think the pause would bother me all that much. The position of the pedal is a good point though, and the only pedal I've seen handle this is the new Pod HD300-500, where it allows you to position your effects/mods before or after the amp modelling, which of course is fine through a PC/PA system, but still not much use through an amp! Although I've been reading about something called the 4 cable method, which apparantly allows you to position the effects? Apparantly the GT8/10 can use this, but god they look like complicated bits of kit!

I do fancy having a decent amp modeller to give flexibility for recording stuff to PC, but I'm not sure if I fancy all the menu diving involved in getting decent patches created on the GT's and HD's etc., the simplicity of the ME's are certainly appealing.

Anyway, the guy that was selling the pedal has decided to keep it for now. They seem to be going on ebay for ~£110, but I'm not really in any rush so I'll try and hold out for a good deal. Anyone had any excperience with the ME70? Is there enough of a difference to warrant the extra cost for it? I presume the effects that are on both pedals are identical?

Cheers guys.
 
I'm a gigging musician and I needed something that was built like a tank and gave me all the sounds I needed with a very important noise suppressor.
I opted for the Boss ME70 and it is wonderful.
My lead guitarist has got over a £1000 worth of seperates and after trying mine for a fortnight he's going to buy the ME70 for stage use.
 
Nitefly said:
I think they are excellent. I've had mine since release. All the effects sound good and whilst it's not pro equipment, it does the job perfectly.

There are however two slight niggles.

Firstly, you can save various effects settings to 'patches' and then flip between them. However, there is a slight delay that cuts the sound whilst switching patches, which makes this fairly useless for flipping between sounds when playing a song. To be honest, this has never bothered me as you can treat the ME-50 as three standalone pedals, a distortion, a delay and a modulator, along with an expression pedal and reverb settings.

The second gripe is to do with where effects should be placed, and this is something that is problematic for most multi-effects pedals.

Distortion pedals, wahs, modulators etc are typically placed between your guitar and your amp, simple enough. However, delays and reverb actually sound much better running through the effects loop of an amplifier. This means that with the ME-50, if you want to be playing about with your distortion and your modulation, the reverb and delay will not sound as good as they would running through the effetcs loop.

The result is that I have my ME-50 placed in the effects loop for delay and reverb, but this obviouisly negatively impacts the sounds of many other effects (particuarly modulation modes such as phaser or wah). It's up to you where you decide to place the ME-50, but it's impossible to have all the effects sounding their best at once.

With that said, I think it's an absolutely solid device and don't regret spending a penny on it.
Click to expand...

Can't you set it up using the "4 cable method" that you can use in the GT series of pedals?
 
Let's see if I can sell the ME-70 to you.
In the 70s/80s I had lots of effects but during the 90s/00s I decided to be guitar straight into amp because that's the only sound I needed.
With this new band we're loud and I was having a major problem with feedback so knew I needed a noise suppressor (£70).
We do a variety of rock music and then realised I needed a chorus/softer sound (£70).
Then I needed to have some in between rock guitar sounds (£??).
After watching millions of You Tube videos and talking to Roland agents I came home with the ME-70 because they said all the sounds in the ME-70 were spot on copies of their seperate pedals:eek: (and I was willing to buy seperates so they lost money).
I got home, took it out of the box and within seconds I was making some great sounds because it's so easy.
I'm probably teaching you to suck eggs but for me with a past history of 40 years with seperates the layout was familiar.

1) Choose you Pre-Amp sound > add tone
2) Put a touch of reverb on (the choice of reverbs is the only letdown but for stage you don't need reverb or just a small colouring)
3) Set Noise Suppressor
4) Compressor or FX
5) Loads of Distortion & Overdrives
6) Flanger, Phaser, Chorus, Octave, Harmonis and so on
7) Delay
8) Pedal FX -wah, volume etc

All have parameters and there is an EZ tone button to choose a preset for each pedal you select if you so wish.

Add a Looper (which I haven't used) and I think I've got one of the best tools on the market.

me70.jpg
 
Not a huge fan of multi effect pedals for the simple reason they can't be the best at everything.

I used to have a Zoom G7 and it simply didn't sound that good, i've now gone to picking individual pedals (after extensive research on each) and buying them on what sounds best.

It might be a more complex and expensive way of doing things but will get you better sounding effects.

I know sound is subjective but i simply refuse to accept something that sounds dead and lacks any tone.
 
Last edited:
Firestar_3x said:
Not a huge fan of multi effect pedals for the simple reason they can't be the best at everything.
Click to expand...

If you are buying just Boss effects then the ME-70 can emulate very accurately all the pedals.
Of course you come unstuck when you want to emulate an Ibanez Tube Screamer accurately but my lead guitarist says that I won't tell the difference with the presets he's put in my ME-70.
He's also got this very expensive pedal that makes a Leslie speaker sound that he uses for Robin Trower and Stevie ray Vaughan effects but once again he's set the ME-70 up to emulate it accurately.

This is a debate which will run & run and the only real way is to do a blind test.
The fact is that some people know exactly how to turn knobs eg
I'm a fan of Line 6 gear but would never take it on stage because I've heard so many bands who's guitarist sounds tinny and awful.
About 3 months ago and in the space of a week, I saw 2 local excellent & mature guitarists using Line 6 and I honestly thought they were using the Line 6 Valve version but they weren't.
My lead guitarist uses a Marshall TSL602 which he gets a very accurate Blackmore, Hendrix and SRV sound out of but a month ago he was forced to use an AVT150 and after he set it up you couldn't tell the difference.

After 40 years of playing in bands you would think it would be me sticking to the old 'Seperates are best' and 'Valves are best' but it isn't true.
What is true is having a good ear and knowing how to mess with knobs (ooh err).
 
I personally much prefer separate pedals, but unfortunately they cost a lot more.

and oh, when you're talking high end, valve amps are always superior...
 
dmpoole said:
Snip///

After 40 years of playing in bands you would think it would be me sticking to the old 'Seperates are best' and 'Valves are best' but it isn't true.
What is true is having a good ear and knowing how to mess with knobs (ooh err).
Click to expand...


I agree to a point, but It really depends on that tone you have in your head, for me it's all about the 80's so stuff like RATT / Van Halen / Giant etc etc.

For me Solid state heads / combos simply don't cut it, they all sound clinical and quite frankly i don't like them one bit, I've just gone from an Engl Thunder head to a Marshall JVM410H all played through a Laney 4x12 which has Celestion Vintage 30's in it.

Also on the subject of solid state another thing to remember is you will never find anyone like Joe Satriani or Steve Vai using solid state and for very good reason.

Like you say it's an argument that's going to run and run, but for me it's no contest, individual pedals and valve amps played through high quality speakers are by far the best sounding option.

I would just like to add i do see the value of some multi effect pedals, but only as an adition to an already full pedalboard.
 
Last edited:
Firestar_3x said:
Also on the subject of solid state another thing to remember is you will never find anyone like Joe Satriani or Steve Vai using solid state and for very good reason.
Click to expand...

But if there are 2 artists who sound as though they aren't going through valves it's them.
Their sounds always sound 'pretend' because of the amount of FX they use.
 
dm - I think that is possibly one of the most constructive/informative posts from you I've ever read.
 
dmpoole said:
But if there are 2 artists who sound as though they aren't going through valves it's them.
Their sounds always sound 'pretend' because of the amount of FX they use.
Click to expand...

Not really, both have done countless solo song's without "loads" of effects on top, lots of the tone is coming from the head:


Back to the solid state point:

If Solid state produced a “better” tone / sound they why don't more manufactures produce high end / signature models based exclusively on solid state designs? They could make a mint rather than messing around with tubes.

In my mind the reason is two fold, firstly the artists know they can’t get the same sound, they simply don’t want it, secondly nor do buyers . Just think why would a live artist risk higher chance of tube failure on stage when a solid state amp is much less likely to break.

Another key reason why I dislike solid sate is you can’t fully emulate the way a tube amp distorts at set volume levels, nor can you fully emulate the various power tube characteristics / 6l6 for that 80’s big hair crunch / EL34’s for that classic Marshall tone / KT88’s for that all out metal sound, you can get close but not close enough.

I’ve spent many weekends down my local friendly music shop playing every amp under the sun, some people walk through the door and play through some line 6 combo thing and think it sounds like the most amazing thing in the world, but that’s only because they don’t know any better, stick them in front of something like a JVM210H / JVM410H / Engl Fireball / Soldano / Splawn and they wouldn’t know what’s hit them, I know cause I used to be like this, I thought a 1x10 combo sounded amazing till I had my eyes opened.

 
Last edited:
I still have my singles. I used to have a Hiwatt 50W head with a 2x12 Marshal cabinet. In my old age this has become too much so I've downsized to a small Laney Cub 12 amp (this is a smashing amp, 5 valves in it, sounds a lot like my old Hiwatt, but smaller sounding as you'd expect, ideal for playing at home).

I'll probably never get rid of the singles. I've had them all for years, most of them since the early 80s. I've tried all those multi FX things and I just can't quite get away with them. One effect that none of them can do properly is the Big Muff. I have an original 1973 version that I bought in 1981, and it's going to the grave with me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom