Boss GX-700

Each effect can be toggled or edited by its own lighted button, so it's about as easy to use as a pile of stomp boxes. One of the best user interfaces of any guitar multieffects unit. Much better than its predecessor, the Roland GP-100, because it makes you scroll through fewer menus. Ditto the Digitech GSP-2100.

I don't think there's a better-sounding guitar multieffects unit. Some of the distortion and speaker emulation sounds are suspect, but there are enough good ones that it can sound excellent when programmed right. I use a Tube Works tube preamp in its effects loop for a better distortion. The pedal-wah is horribly glitchy.

Twice in the week I've owned it, it's locked up and stopped responding to its controls, forcing me to power-cycle it, at which point it reinitializes itself from ROM, losing all of my changes. I wouldn't gig with it. It's not low voltage (I measured the outlet at 120v), so it's probably version 1.0 bugs.

I haven't yet dealt with the company, but it looks like I'll have to! I can't find any warranty information, but I have my sales slip. I wish I had a PC to save a SYSEX of my work to.

It has a lot of the usual over-effected hair band presets (distortion and delay are especially overused), but overall it looks like a lot of thought went into making it what guitarists want. There are lots of convenient and helpful touches. Too bad it's so flaky, or I'd buy it again.

For once the presets are almost useable and represent a good starting point for tweaking. Editing patches is logical but time consuming, as with all units of this type. With the unit you get the usual Japanese-badly-translated manual, but with a bit of common sense you can work out how to program it and then you only need to dip into the manual to work out how to do wierd things.

The sound quality is astonishing. I've previously owned one of the Zoom 9150 valve rack units, and there is simply no comparison between the two units, despite the small price differential. Although the Boss unit has no valves, the COSM tecnology (whatever BS that stands for) works and gives some lush tones. Especially good are the Fender twin crunch tones. The delays and choruses are transparent. There's also the compulsory other wierd stuff, which sounds wierd (harmonist etc). Especially useful is the speaker simulator section, and also the option of specifying whether you are going into a combo, a power amp or desk etc. One cute and highly useful feature is the ability to reduce or boost all the reverb settings in the patches depending on the acoustics of the room you are playing in, in a few seconds. However, as with all processors, you really have to play around to get the best sounds.

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I'd buy this again. For the money it is the only thing on the market. The GP-100 might be worth almost twice the price if you really need the flexibility it offers. I need a range of useable tones as I play a diverse range pf styles in many different settings. This offers the flexibility and the quality I need and I haven't yet even begun to fully make use of its capabilities. My only wish is that it wasn't such a gross colour. I'm also a bit upset that it is only one unit rack size; I've got a 4 unit carrier and because this thing has a tuner and all the effects I'll need, I can't justify buying some other cool-looking units to fill the remaining space. Does anyone have any fake lexicon fronts or anything with flashing lights so I can improve my rack credibility?