Boss ME-30

It's a cinch getting around on this thing. I pretty much mastered it in the store. The only time I opened the manual was to find out what the "guitar icons" were supposed to do (not much, it seems. Can anyone explain to me the purpose of these things?). Still, if you want to make a tweak, it's never as easy as a stomp box.

I use this with a Parker Fly and a Crate solid state amp (!). I leave the Crate on a neutral clean setting and get all my "sound" from the guitar and the ME-30. I'm a music director at a large contemporary Christian church, and I need to be very versatile in my sounds (next weekend we're playing "Friends" by Joe Satriani, followed by "Thy Word" by Amy Grant. Last month we did "The Living Years" by Mike + Mechanics and "Bealleu Wood" by Garth Brooks). I'd say it's pretty easy to dial up sounds in the B+ to A- range. The distortions are nice and versatile (and sound better than the other reviews led me to expect) though you do need to get in there and tweak, tweak and supertweak. My homemade EVH patch had my metalhead buddy (who uses a 5150 head with a Marshall cabinet) scratching his chin and asking how much this thing cost.
The chorus is good enough, but made me miss the Boss CH5 pedal. It didn't do well on the "Come As You Are" acid test. Flange, trem, phasor, EQ, delay and noise gate work as expected (very good).The only effect that made me really crinkle my nose in disgust was the wah pedal.In a pinch it's ok, but if you're gonna play "Dazed and Confused", budget for a real wah pedal (get the Vox!)

Well, because it's BOSS I'm expecting it to be reliable. To tell you the truth, the plastic casing doesn't inspire confidence (though it's nice and light to carry). If it didn't say BOSS on it I probably wouldn't trust it. Digitech can do metal in this price range, why can't BOSS? If you're a wild & crazy guy onstage, you probably could bust this thing. I don't worry about a backup.

You won't need it.

I've been playing for 28 years (I'm 38). Since I'm playing almost every popular style of music there is, the "all in one box" is the best route for me (short of a Bradshaw system). I know I'd be happier with the BOSS GT5 (and a better amp), but I'd rather save money than spend it. The ME-30 is a GREAT value, and is plenty good enough for all but the most critical applications (don't bring it to a Steely Dan gig).If it were lost, I'd buy it again. I've tried the cheaper digitech stuff and this is waaay better. The only thing I really don't like about it is there's only three preset pedals, so I'm banking up and down more than I like. Also, the screen is useless in a live setting. Don't bother naming your patches, cause you can't see them. The tuner is nice (it mutes you while tuning) and the phrase trainer may come in handy one of these days. If you're on the fence, get off. Buy it.It ain't poifect, but it's the best in this price range.

It is a lot more easy to use than it originally looks. Exactly like dialing in a stomp box, only with a few more buttons. I am only giving it an eight because you can't switch to bypass or manual mode without bending over to hit the buttons(no foot switches).
This thing is so easy to use that the very smae day I got it I was able to program it and use it at a concer that same night.

I play a Peavey Predator or a Hammond Les Paul copy through a peavey PA system and/or a fender frontman amp. For some reason, I can't put the ME-30 too close to an amp or speaker or it starts to hiss, but as I move it away it causes less noise. Let me go into detail about the effects them selves. Compressor-Excellent for doing rythms, but if you are going to use a heavy distortion it is not so useful and makes more noise than it is worth. Distortions-excellent after you tweek them a little. There are 7 types:Vintage, warm, crunch, blues, hard, mtal, and fuzz. Equilizer/phaser-I don't know why these two are in the same box, but both are really excellent at what they do---especially the phaser...it is hard to believe that this effect is digital. Noise Surpressor- This comes in handy when you have heavy distortions, but I don't use it on clean sounds because it cuts off too soon, even at low levels. Delay-Oh...this is beautiful. Just put it on, turn the dials all the way up and have a blast. Modulations- these bad boys sound great...just like their stomp box counter parts. There are Chorus, Flange, Pitch shifter, and tremolo. Reverb-this is nice but can very easly be over done with this box. Wahs-this is actually my first wah pedal, so i can't compare it to anything...I like it. Wammy sounds ok, as long as you go only about half up...after that it gets a little bit digitized. Ring Modulator- I have no idea what to use this for, but i guess there is something or it wouldn't be on here.

Even though it is made out of plastic, it is very durable...i will gig without a backup.

never had to mess with it

I play christain rock, and this little box can make any sound that i need and so much more. I would buy it again. The only complants I really have is that the screen is hard to read. It has really improved my music writing ability. peace out <><

Let me start out by saying that I read all of the reviews (good and bad) I could find for this thing before I made the purchase, and after all was said and done, I bought it. I think this thing is ultra-easy to use, it is just like dialing in the stombox, just on screen. The stompboxes are on a screen lined up like you would have them on the floor, editing them is incredibly easy. I never even opened the manual until someone told me there was blank patch sheets in the back to write down your own patches.

I am using it with a Yamaha Pacifica 112, awesome guitar, and a 200w Peavey tube amp (Classic VTX). I don't find it noisy at all, it is all in how you dial in the effect levels and the master level. I have been playing guitar for about 13 years now, I have played in several bands ranging in a huge variety of music, I have always used the long chain-linked row of stompboxes and wahs, what a pain in the ass, especially now that I have this, I look back and think how stupid I was. The only disadvantages I have come across are the following: Background does not illuminate (although it is supposed to be like a glowong type thing, it just doesn't work) therefore it is hard to see on stage (especially in bars and pubs). The pedals are a little tight for my liking, I have gotten used to it though. The wah is hard to turn off and on, I just set a neighboring bank w/ wah and switch back and forth. It has 2 guitar emblems, a Strat and a Les Paul, they do absolutely nothing and are just a pain in the ass. All of that being said, I love it.

I gig with this thing about 2-3 times a week, I practice with it also, it has a built in amp simulator, works great with headphones! I leave the pedals at home, no back-up, fancy free, me and my ME-30!

Never had to call them.

This baby will match any style of music, you can even get other peoples patches off of the unofficial Boss ME-30 Page, they have quite a few with a good variety of artists, I submitted 2 there myself. Look, I will sum this whole thing up, it has over $2000.00 worth of equipment inside it, it has 16 different Boss pedals, a wah/volume pedal, built in tuner, a phase trainer, and an amp simulator. Now of course it is all Boss products and you can't have your Danelectro Cool Cat with your crybaby and whatever else you use, maybe someday they will all get together and make the ultimate Multiple Effect Box, but until then, this is it baby!

Others have commented on this, so I won't get into the details. I find it very easy to use, and the manual is good as well. If you didn't know what some of the effects did, the manual gives a brief description of each one. I'll second the opinion about the LCD -- it is too dim, making it nearly useless under less than optimal lighting conditions. Another thing I found annoying is that you don't have the option of manually turning on/off individual effects in a particular patch (ie, while you're playing). Also, the phrase learning tool is useful, but there is a noticeable pause between the end of the phrase and the time it takes to loop back to the beginning. I found this a bit irritating, but then again, I haven't used this feature much so perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

I'm playing this with a US Fender Strat Plus into a Fender Stage Lead 212 (solid state). I also use the Tech21 SansAmp GT-2... I essentially use it as a pre-amp/distortion pedal. I found that this pedal really improved my overall sound quality (gives my amp a warmer, more "tubey" sound), especially since the distortion on the ME-30 is a bit weak. The wah is also very weak -- I use a dedicated wah pedal instead. The other effects are very good, however -- delay, chorus, flange, pitch shifter, eq, etc. The thing I like about this unit over individual stomp boxes is that I can punch into a slightly (or very) different sound at the push of a button. For example, I can use patches with different settings for delay, chorus, flange or whatever all in one song, which would be cumbersome to do with individual stomp boxes. Since I like to vary my sound throughout songs to keep things sonically interesting (I come from the Eric Johnson school of playing... try to cram as many effects into one song as possible :), this is a nice feature, and the quality of the delay based effects in the ME-30 makes this possible.

It's housed in plastic, but it seems very sturdy. I haven't had any problems with it yet, but I take good care of my equipment.

Haven't dealt with them...

I play in two bands -- a goth/black/death metal band and a jazz/blues/funk band (yeah, I listen to a wide variety of music). The ME-30 is an essential tool in my setup. I'd probably buy it again, but I'd also look around to see if there was anything better on the market. It also comes in handy for private practicing (has a headphone output and line input) and direct recording (complete with amp sim). I'm very happy with it overall.

this pedal is easy to use its just perfect your foot can find it

Put it this way it sounds 10x better that the tec8,all the dist modes are killer,espesially the pitch shifter its great

its plastic ,and one thing in dark places you cant see the LCD so i dont know

its so much beter than the dod,digitech,zoom equivelents.its got any sound you want.if you think it sucks suck my dick

I found that the ME -30 is very easy to use and program patches. The icons represent individual stomp boxes whcih simplify the set up process. The ME-30 can be switched off using the bypass switch. The manual switch enables the user to have up to 5 effects in an on/off configuration.

I have been very happy with the sounds that the ME 30 is capable of. I takes some time and experimentation to get the sounds that you desire but it's worth it. The only weak point of the ME - 30 would have to be it's distortions. With a little patience and use of the EQ abd distortion settings you can get some good sounds.

Have had the ME 30 foor the last 3 months and have noticed no problems. I play live every weekend and have had great luck with teh ME 30. It would also be foolish of anyone not to brings at least some kind of back up to the gig

Dont know yet.

Ive been playing since the mid - 1960's and the ME 30 suits the country/classic rock that I play. I currently use a Custom Shop Tele and Matchless DC -30 (and sometimes and old 65W Music Man). If the unit was lost or stolen I would go out and buy another one. I owned and RP7 prior to the ME 30 and was very unhappy with it. The RP7 lacks the adjustments to compressor settings which I use alot. The ME 30 has the flexibilty and the classic Boss sounds. My main complaint with the ME 30 has to do with the "lousy" LCD. On a dark stage its worthless. I don't seem to mind the plastic casing with appears to be well built. I also wish Boss made the distortions that sounded like their "stomp boxes". Overall, I really enjoy the ME 30 and have found that a little time and patience make a great sounding unit.

Despite the many good reviews the ME-30 has received for this category, I myself have to say that this unit is pretty difficult if not entirely impossible to use in live situations. This is due to the fact that it doesn't provide a by-pass foot-switch-- this should be mandatory. It also doesn't provide a "manual" footswitch to allow you to use each pedal as an on-off switch for each effect in each individual patch as do other comparably priced multi-effects units. The tuner is just about as useless. And the controller pedal does not allow much, if any programability over important parameters like depth ratio or speed. You pretty much have to put the damn thing on a table to see the read-out while you program it. I hate little rubber buttons. Not easy to use.

I have a fairly wide range of guitars that I use--Gretsch Chet Atkins, Fender AM Std Strat w/Duncan JB jr, Std. Strat, and Duncan stacked (p100) humbucker, Rickenbacker, and Martin acoustic. I play through Fender Vibrolux and Pro Jr. amps. The Boss ME-30 is NOISY and taints the original vintage sound of my set-up. I recently bought some Danelectro pedals (Daddy-o, Dan-Echo, Cool-cat) that blow the ME-30 away. I guess if you play a watch-a-ma-caster through a Crate or a Peavey, adding the terrible sound of the ME-30 won't matter to you.

If you do choose to use this chunk o' plastic on stage, make sure to use duct tape to secure the adapter cord to the bottom of the unit. It pulls out much too easily and there is no retainer. I give give it a 5 because I don't think it would break under normal? circumstances.

I deal with Roland extensively regarding my VS-880 recorder and have gotten satisfactory if not fantastic results. I love my VS-880. Never have dealt with them on pedal effects issues.

I play vintage rock, swing, 60's, SKA, pop, and jazz. Mostly rhythm, some lead. Played since '72. I record original music and burn my own cd's. Play and sequence my midi stuff with Roland keyboards, Boss Dr5 drum machine, on Macitosh computers, mix with Mackie 1402 and sing through JBL. I would replace this ME-30......with another product. In all fairness, I guess it's my fault for expecting a low-cost unit to perform like a high-end one. The low-cost Danelectro pedals on the other hand have been a big happy surprise.

This unit is very easy to use. Editing patches is a breeze, and I didn't even need the manual to figure it out. There aren't that many good preset patches, but you can edit them and make them good.

Most of the effects are good quality. You CAN get the distortions to sound good if you fool around with the settings and use the EQ. I can it to sound like my DS-1. I play a through a Crate 15XR amp, and can get some pretty good sounds. I like the way it is setup like a bunch of pedals, except that chorus, pitch-shifter, tremolo, and flanger are on the same pedal, so you can use one of them at a time. Same thing with the Phaser and the equalizer. There is also no pedal for the equalizer/phaser in the manual mode. I don't like the noise suppressor, but it works. The whammy and the wah effects are pretty good but the pedal itself is a bit sensitive and small. There is also a small delay when you use the pitch shifter. Speaking of delay, the delay on it pretty good. Not as many features as the DD-5 though. Overall, this pedal sounds great for its price.

The bad thing about it is that its plastic. It's still pretty sturdy, and I play it with my band and it hasn't broke yet. It sould last if you don't jump on it or throw it.

Never had to call them.

I play music like Silverchair, Nirvana, Korn, Metallica, Green Day and others, and this pedal can do it all. If you are looking for a good multi effects unit for a cheap price, this pedal is for you. I use the tuner, chorus, delay, and equalizer a lot. The phaser, flanger, and wah-wah also help improve my sound. I think this unit would be a good addition to anyone who can't afford a bunch of stomp-boxes.

This is a very easy pedal all in all. If you work at it you can get Big Muff type sounds as well as Led Zepplin Distortions. Some of the other stuff is a little harder and involves more tweaking.

I would give it a higher rating except in my opinion the delay down right blows (too damn noisy) the Whammy sounds so digitized it's not even funny. Not to mention the Ring Modulator is good for justa bout nothing. Also little things like on the Flanger and Chorus towards the end if the deptha and resonance is on real high it can change the pitch or better yet detune your guitar sound. This could be desireable but it pisses me off real bad

It is very, very dependable

Never had to deal with them

I pplay Smashing Pumpkins, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin and this does the trick for the most part. I've been playing for 4 years now and i am very particular to my sound and some of the effects i can't even stand to use. i'm a big analog effects kind of guy so i'd rather stick to the stomp boxes. I love the distortion i've heard a lot of complaints all you have to do is dickaround with the tone EQ and amp EQ and you can get really good sounding stuff like everything from the Huge Big Muff to that shrill Nine Inch Nails sound. If anyone has any tips on the delay priamarly how to make it less noisy on close to infinite repeat please E-mail me.

This little box is incredibly easy to use. Editind patches is a breeze and the manual is helpful although you might not need it.

I use an epiphone SG and a fender hot rod deluxe (read the reveiws)and this thing suits me just fine. I play alt-rock radiohead stuff and every little effect is in or can be created in this little magic box. The distortions are good the ring modulater is worthless but fun to make noises with. The phaser isnt as good as my MXR phase 90 but pretty close. The tremelo is great and the flanger is cool. The Flanger is like a phaser but more metallic. The chorus is smooth as well. The wah waahs are good too

I really wish boss had not put this in plastic. It is sturdy and wont break down on you unles you jump on it and try to smash it but its nice to have that security. I compared it to the Digitech rp-3 and i cant believe how flimsy the digitech stuff is. I could break it without trying. The Boss looked like a tank compared to it. Overall boss make very reliable products.

never dealt with them i dont think i will ever.

Compared to the other multi fx processors this is by far the best. Anything you could imagine is in here and if it isnt you can just make it.