Boss ME-30

The entire approach to the ME-30 was for ease of use. The LCD screen is very easy to use and I found myself creating and naming patches in no time. One of the best features is the ability to swap patches around and put them in an order of how you use them. One of the most helpful things for me straight out of the box was that I was able to take a nice sound from one of the 30 presets and tweek it and save it under another name rather than having to start from scratch. Boss has done a really good job of making the interface on the LCD work much like stomp boxes. If you can tweek a stomp box you can in no time edit the patches on the LCD.

I use two guitars with it: I use my Alvarez Yari Acoustic with a Martin Thinline Gold and my Fender Strat with a Jackson humbucker in the rear. Both get some great sound. I built some clean patches that sound great with both but also built a few for each guitar. For my Yari I found the quality was great with the chorus, delay, and a little equalizer. The Fender sounds impressive with the distortion, delay, and the flanger. If you like Boss's stomp boxes I found them to be almost virtually identical. I pulled out my Boss Stereo chorus and set them both exactly alike and could not tell the difference.

I have only had it a few months but havent had any problems with it. I carry it around a lot and hook it up and unhook it quite a bit. I am a little worried about the plastic casing over time. I would have preferred it be metal. Mainly the pedals. The volume pedal is plastic as well with rubber grips on it. When using the volume I have a hard time coordinating volume settings. The sensitivity of the pedal has a tendancy to move slightly when I pull off my foot.

I havent dealt with Boss's customer service. Most of what I have needed to know about it I found in the manual and various internet resources. The manual is written to drive you to other Roland products. For instance, I was buring quite a few batteries in it and was looking for a AC/DC adapter. I couldn't find any specs in the documentation on what ratings to get. The only information the manual gave was to get an approved Roland PSA adapter. I finally gave up and found the information on a newsgroup.

I mainly play acoustical music with some electric rhythmm stuff. The acoustic is primarily for chording and picking for church music and electric is for playing for just pick up gigs with a few other people. If I was a professional I would never even consider using it but for my purposes it exceeds my needs and I am very pleased.

This unit is very easy to use. It has 30 factory presets which are convenient to access because it has bank up and down pedals. You can also program 30 patches of your own. This is why I gave the unit a 9 instead of 10. It is simple to use once you read the instruction manual the whole way through. Edititing is simple now. Patches can be copied into the manual mode and edited, or they can be edited in edit mode. The tuner can be accessed by pressing both bank pedals at the same time, for tuning on stage. You can do it all in the darkness because of red lights and a liquid crystal display that glows in the dark. Each patch that you create can be named as well for easy identification of what sound you are on.

I use a Marshall JCM 900 50W combo and a Gibson SG. The EQ on my amp doesn't have much effect, so I use the EQ on my ME-30. The only problem with the EQ is that it can't be used at the same time as the phase shifter. The chourus, flanger, tremolo, and pitch shifter cannot be used at the same time either. But you probably wouldn't want to use these effects together anyway. I never used a noise suppressor before, but now I couldn't live without one. This can be set with a high or low threshold, so you can still maintain your great sustain. Every effect is very versatile. There are 7 different distortions which can all be adjusted for drive tone and level. So it is like having 7 different distortion pedals. The delay can be set on normal or pan for stereo delay, with up to 2 seconds. The reverb sounds better than Fender, and is more versatile. The expression pedal always amazes everyone that I show it to. The volume pedal can be set at two places. One will lower the volume as well as the distortion. The other will keep the drive at the same level, and only lower the volume. The wah pedal can be the same as if you had single pedals. You can make it so the wah is plugged in before your distortion, or after, to create different sounds. There are four settings for the whammy pedal. 1-the more the pedal is depressed, the lower the pitch, up to 1 octave lower. (Similar to a whammy bar). 2-the opposite of 1, it goes 1 octave higher. 3- the same as 1, but you get the altered pitch as well as the standard pitch of your guitar. 4-same as 3 but the octave goes higher. The ring modulator is the strangest effect that I have ever heard. It is difficult to use it tastefully. I do not know how to describe it except that it is really screwed up. If you listen to the band Radiohead then you have probable heard their vast range of effects. I have yet to come across a sound of their's that I cannot duplicate. I have sounds for Guns 'N Roses solo sound. The phase shifter is acceptionally good on clean tone. It makes me feel like the whole room is filled with water. The phrase trainer function is excellent. It records up to 12 seconds of music and slows it down to your desired speed without changing the pitch. I never would have been able to learn the Sweet Child 'O Mine solo without it.

I have only owned the unit for 5 months. I think I bought it right when it came out. I have had no problems with it.

I have never dealt with anyone at Boss but they make their stuff built to last so they're probably pretty decent guys.

I play all styles of music and the ME-30 is sufficient in producing a good solid sound. If it were stolen or lost, I would go out and buy the exact same unit. I have played the Zoom 3030 which is very similar and more expensive, but cannot compare in sound quality. I also tried the Boss ME-6. The ME-30 is similar, but has more effects, is easier to use, is more compact, and costs $300 less. It helps me to write songs. It is easy to create your own signiture sound.

This feature is very important to me. I have been playing guitar for 20 years and I've almost always used individual pedals. In the 1980's when processors first came out, I was scared to death of them. A couple of years ago I bought a Korg G-3. For what I wanted, it was the ticket. However, it was a bit limiting. The ME-30 isn't. It was easy to play with right out of the box; but my interest lies in creating my own patches. This was almost too easy to do. I read through the manual, created my patches, and thought, "No, this can't be all there is to it." But that was it. The manual is as user-friendly as the unit itself.

I play a multitude of styles. From super-pickin' country to bepop jazz to progressive rock ala Rush, Yes, & King Crimson. My main influences include Larry Carlton, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, & Brent Mason (recently) to name a few. So as you can see, with a list like that I need all the variety of sounds I can get. I play a Hot-rodded Telecaster most of the time; and it goes through a Fender Blues Junior amp. For my uses the sounds I want are very attainable. I don't need overly harsh distortion and I don't get it with this unit. For the most part the effects aren't as noisy as other units because of the digital signals (minus the OD/DIST.).

I haven't owned it long enough; but, I think that if it was taken care of it would last just like any other Boss product.

I haven't had to deal with them. They need an e-mail address. Then I might bug'em a bit.

I would use this unit anywhere and everywhere I could. I've read a lot of other postings and have realized that some people are too hard on their equipment. Oh well, to each his/her own. If it was stolen or lost I would replace it in a hurry. I appreciate its user-friendliness and the quality of the effects that are in it. There's not really anything I dislike about it except there is no way to really see the display in the dark. Oh well, when your handicapped you either cry about it or adapt. I will learn to adapt. I used to own a Korg G3. Most players don't like that unit; not enough power in the distortion. I liked it. The ME-30 is almost as easy to use but 20x more applications. I would like a unit made of metal but that would drive the cost up. I could have gotten a much higher-priced unit but I don't need 400 user patches with 47 effects. I would get lost. This unit doesn't have too much nor too little. It's just a great unit.

It is quite easy to get a reasonable sound with this device, the manual is very clear about how to edit a patch. The manual clearly explains how the effects work and what the parameters have on the desired effect

The setup I use is a Epiphone LP-100 and a Peavy Delta-Blues. The overdrives and distortions of the ME-30 are ranged from worthless to reasonable, but none of them sound really great. I found that the ring-modulator and the tremelo are quite unuseable when you're playing. The chorus, delay, reverb, phaser and flanger sound very good and you can use these effects to improve the sound of the od's en distortions to some extent. You can get close to almost any artist's sound

In my point of view you can depend on it when you use it for practice or rehearsel, but I would not trust it enough to gig with it. The expression pedal seems the most fragile oh the whole device, and I would advice not to use this pedal to roughly

The style I mostly play is blues/rock, and the ME-30 sees in my need for the sounds of this genre. I have been playing for +/- 2,5 years now. Beside the ME-30, I also own a Korg Pandora, Ibanez Tubescreamer and a Jim Dunlop Crybaby. I'm not entirely sure if I would replace it if it was stolen, it would depend on the amount of money I had to spend for a new device. The chorus is my favoutite effect and the ring-modulator is the worst. The best about the ME-30 is the easy to use interface and the fact that it is quite easy to get a reasonable to good sound out of it without having to read the manual. I have compared it with an Ibanez multi effect processor, a DOD tec 8 and a zoom 9002 pro. I chose the ME-30, because it sounded better and more powerfull then the other processors. I wished it had a intelligent harmonizer, better od's, distortions and a better wah-sound. It is not a perfect unit, but you could do much worse and it does help you to create a good sound and make your music sound better. If you are a beginning player and you don't have a lot of money to spare, then the ME-30 is a good option to get many sounds for little money.

It was advertised and reviewed as VERY easy, and it is extremely easy to use. I already got the hang of it in the store waiting for a salesman. My only gripe with Boss here as that changing from patch selection to specific effect selection on the 5 primary foot pedals has to be done by hand with a smaller button, which gets to be a bit of a pain. I did very much like the option to edit patches, and use a patch like a set of pedals, so you could turn effects on and off one at a time within a patch. Also, I dont like that with the five footpedals that control distortion, modulation, delay, reverb, and compression, there is no footpedal to shut off the EQ/PHASER effect. Lastly, the LED dispaly is fantastic; it makes it even easier to use, and leaves no stone unturned. My ONLY prob is that is glows in the dark; I would have greatly perferred that it be backlit similar to a Timex Indiglo watch or something...

Boss does it again! No complaints on the effects. The flange has the capability to be very strong or not so well defined. 8 different distortions and overdrives leave lots of room to play, and the metal distortion even closely resembles the famed boss metal zone, of which I am also a proud user. The wah-wah is a close match to a Dunlop Cry-Baby, especially when coupled with a distorion or compressor. For the price, the ring modulator is superb, as is the digital delay and reverb. My one complaint on the effects is that the pitch shifter sounds kinda crappy. For the money, it's good, and sounds better than the pitch shifter offered on some of the DOD multi-effects I've tried, but it is still too poor for studio. The amp simulator is actually pretty useful as I found out, and does a great job of simulating the color an amp adds. I honestly don't think you can do better for the money, Boss has outdone themselves here.

IT'S A BOSS. The boss individual pedals shouldnt even come with a warranty card. I know this ME-30 does, and I did fill it out and send it in, because this isn't housed in a small, sturdy, steel frame like the other Boss effects, but it's done pretty well for me in the last month I've been using it. It has traveled across the state a few times in the trunk of a car, been plugged in and stomped on at lots of jams and recordings without once screwing up. Its plastic, but the whole underside is metal. I do carry backups, but only distorion (Boss metal zone, that I live by) and a Dunlop Cry-Baby wah-wah (that I declined to trade in to pay for this thing). My usual set up is my Squier supersonic, through the wah-wah, through this pedal. I use the cry baby to keep the cry-baby authentic tone, but more importantly to preserve the life of the expression pedal on the ME-30. I couldn't tell you how dependable it is over a long stinit of shows, but that the ONLY thing I'm babying with this pedal. I trust boss!

As many Boss users will tell ya, these guys could hire the Maytag repair man if they wanted to. I've never needed any repair on a boss.

For the money, this is the best multi-effects deal on the market, if you ask me. Boss finally did right what DOD has tried to do all these years. I couldn't recommend it more.

It's one of the simplest boxes I've used to edit, all you have to know is what you want and it's a piece of cake to create the effects with all the virtual knobs and pedals that are shown on the "luminous display." the manual explaines everything you need to know, it's pretty staight foreward.

I have a Peavey guitar that I run through a peavey practice amp at home, but I play straight through a PA system just about everywhere else which makes it really nice to have the guitar amp simulator on. The noise supression on this unit is incredible, when I bought this I was upgrading from a Zoom 505 which can be pretty noisy but this box does an amazing job, some of the presets are pretty noisy but if you just turn up the noise suppresion when you are using distortions or compression. I like all the effects on here, the Distortions are pretty good, the reverb, chorus and delays are incredible, and I like the rest of the effects too, altough I'm still looking for a use of the Ring modulator.

I haven't had it very long but I would trust for all of my needs. Considering I wouldn't even be able to afford a backup this is pretty good, but even if I could I would trust it in a gig without one, and if you are running it on bateries the Batt Low starts flashing at least a half hour before it stops working

I have never had to get it worked on or deal with Roland, so I don't know.

I play all sorts of music and it seems to work well with all of them. I've been playing for a little over a year now, and that's about all the gear I own, but I'm quite happy with it. I would definetly replace this if it got lost or stolen unless I had a lot more money to spend at the time, but for the price this is a great unit. I really like the phrase trainer function that lest you record up to 12 seconds of music of CD or anything else for that matter and play it back at as slow as 25% while retaining the original pitch, although it starts to sound really funny when you get it that slow, especially if there are vocals or drums with it. I compared it to just about all pedals in it's price range. I chose this one over some, such as the DOD tec8 because I really liked the phrase trainer, and the large LCD display more than just the little red lights. I'm very impressed with all it has, and it really helps me get all the sounds I listen to on albumbs and on the raidio that I couldn't get before. This unit is definetly worth the buy if you are looking around this price range.

This is the first multi-effect I've got. Before, I tought that multi-effects were a pain in the ass so I didn't want to even think about getting one. Then I saw this one in a shop, tried it and bought it the next morning. Editing is very easy to do, only a couple of buttons to press and that all (2 or 3 buttons) I haven't read the manual, I never read manuals.

I use a Ibanez FGM w/ Traynor amp (1980's...) and THERE IS NO NOISE AT ALL! My amp doesn't have reverb so I was hooking up my old 8040 Marshall amp as a pre-amp and it was noisy. I use a Dunlop Wah-wha and a Dod Stereo flanger in the chain. The Me-30 is in the middle of the 3 effects. All the effects on the ME-30 sound good, maybe except the ring modulator because it is only a noise... I don't try to get the sound of anybody else. I set it up like I like it to sound. The distorsion impressed me. At first I tought that it was going to be weak, usely distorsion in multi-effect are cheap (thats what I heared) but the distorsion was good... maybe not as fat has it could be.

I'm not rich enough to get a backup and if it breaks down, too bad, I'll have to manage to get throu the gig anyway. I've been using it for a week now, everyday, minimum 5 hours. I don't play sitting down and I presse hard on the switchs and expression pedal, result: no crash, no injuries.

I play any music for 5 years. If I'd getting stolen, I'd get another one for sure. What I like the most is the screen and how easy it is to change effects. I mostly use it on manual mode. I compared it with DoD Tec4, a much cheaper machine but you can change the effects parameters. I wish there would be couple of more effect and more effects you could use at the same time.
I would like to exchange sound setup you could have made up. If interested, just e-mail me, address is below.

This pedal is very easy to get started with. Any of the 30 preset patches can be copied into a user patch and adjusted into a more usable sound. However, The "luminous" display, while very detailed and functional, is a real pain to read in low light conditions. The display can be "charged up" under a light bulb (not mentioned in manual), but fades out far too quickly.

At first I hated the shrill and edgy sound of my distortions patches, but later discovered how to adjust the EQ settings, in conjuntion with the distortion level and tone controls to produce vary pleasing tones from SRV to ZZTOP. The Wah E-pedal "feels" alright, however, it tends to make your favorite patches sound too bright and piercing without some added patch "tweeking". It would have been better if they had made the Wah "on" all the time, and you just step on it to activate it (like a normal Wah), instead of having it already activated as soon as you select a patch with a Wah in it. Actually, my E-pedal wouldn't turn off and on at first, however I found a trim pot inside that varied the trigger point of the "virtual" switch and was able to properly adjust it. (There are 2 trim pots inside the pedal, one controls the E-pedal's off/on point and the other adjusts some parameter of the goofy ring modulator). Although, most of the pedals effects sound very good when properly adjusted for your guitar and amp, I thought the chorus lost it's cyclic "swish" too easily when distortion was added, and if the E-pedal is not placed in the line-up correctly the low tones become "digital" sounding. I was very disapointed in the guitar and Aux. input playback level through headphones. Even when the CD player is set to maximum volume, I can hardly hear it's sound through the headphones connected to the ME-30, and the guitar sound level is even worse. After sorting through a bunch of headphones I was able to find a pair that brought the CD sound up to a usable level. However, with the guitar, I have to raise the master level of my patches from around 70 to 100 to get a reasonable sound level in the headphones. Hey BOSS, listen to a Zoom 9002 Pro to hear how good a DSP effects processor can sound through headphones. Wished the phase shifter wasn't grouped with the EQ, this makes you have to select one, or the other, but not both. Would like to see another headphone jack for jamming with someone with another headphone amp. I really like being able to label the patches with a disciptive name instead of just a number (now if I could just read them in the dark). Being able to copy and exchange patches easily is a big win. Should have come with a wall wart at no extra cost.

As a Mechanical Engineer, I would have prefered a metal enclosure, however, my experience is that this kind of thick walled, injection molded structural foam is very strong and quite durable. Would I gig with this pedal and no back up, of course not. But then, I'm not sure I would trust any pedal that far. Always pack an extra distortion pedal, if nothing else. I give this pedal an assumed "10" for reliability based on a long standing partnership with several other BOSS pedals in my collection.

I called BOSS once to find out if the display should actually glow on it's own (electro-luminesent), or if it had to be charged up under a light bulb. The tech seemed to be able to answer my questions as long as I phrased them in a way that he could just reply "yes", or "no". Never could find a E-Mail address for BOSS, or Roland. If you know of one, please E-Mail it to me.

I enjoy playing Texas Blues, however, the band I'm in plays "classic rock", so I needed a very versatile pedal, and being married w/child, I needed something inexpensive without being cheap. I think I found it in the ME-30.
Disclaimer : Even though I ran on a bit about this pedal's short-commings, all would be right in the world, if BOSS would just put a stupid back-lighted display in it ! What were they thinking ?
For those of you interested, I think it may be possible to use double back tape to attach a little book light to the back of the pedal that would shine just enough light on the display to be able to view it on a poorly lit stage.
PS If anyone knows of a site exchanging patch settings, or posting tips for programing the ME-30, please E-mail me.

You really don't even need the manual to get started. The manual is pretty good though. The ME-30 is all icon based. You choose your effect and turn virtual knobs to whatever settings you want. Creating patches is really easy. Just adjust your "pedals" and the write button.

I'm using this with a Fender Squier Strat through a Crate GX15R and the sounds are great. The overdrive and distortions are nothing spectacular but the chorus is great as is the delay. The flanger, phaser, eq, wah are all good as well. The factory presets vary. Some are pretty cool and usuable, but most are too far out there. fortuneatly, it's easy to create your own.

It's plastic but sturdy. Perfect for home/studio use.

I called Roland a few times asking about the ME-30 and they were very nice and helpful.

Well, this is a great unit for the beginner or intermediate player. I've been playing for about a year and this is my first multi-effect and I'm quite satisfied with my purchase. I would buy it again. It's a great value.
I've set up a Me-30 webpage for swapping settings. the address is: http://members.tripod.com/~grzymala/me-30/

The ME-30 is really easy to use. You shouldn't have any problem figuring it out without a manual... well, everything but the manual mode. You have to copy a patch into the manual memory before you can use it. Why did Boss do it that way? Why not just click on the manual button and enjoy the current patch in manual mode? Not a real big setback folks. :)

I've used the ME-30 with a couple of setups. If your guitar is quiet, the ME-30 will be very kind to your signal, but even with a noisy guitar... you'll still have a fairly quiet output. The distorsion is probably the noisiest effect.. but I don't use the distorsions anyway. They're awfully harsh. Really, really harsh. I'm afraid I'd hurt someone's ears if I gigged with this thing (using distorsions). The "heavy" and "metal" distorsions are probably my favorites.. even though I don't really listen to any metal. The other effects are nice! The chorus is really, really nice. The wah suits me good. The tremolo, reverb, delay, flanger.. those all work out pretty good too. I'm almost positive the ring modulator is useless. Not to mention annoying. The pitchshifter is OK. I think there is a tiny tracking delay. Not only that, but when you pitch up an octave.. it doesn't sound completely natural. The whammy bar effects (basically a pedal version of the pitchshifter) work just fine, but I don't use them that much. The EQ works great, and I love the phaser. The amp simulator does its job. The recording quality of the phrase trainer is nice as well.

I've had the unit for a couple of months now.. It seems pretty darn reliable. It is plastic.. but it's built well enough. The expression pedal seems pretty secure to me. I'd gig without a backup.. but I'd watch my step.

no problems. no help needed.

I generally don't play other people's songs.. so the me-30 suits my style well enough, but I don't usually write with effects on. I've got a fuzzy ross distorsion box.. it saves me when I get sick of the me-30's crappy distorsions. If it were lost or stolen, I'd spend the money on individual stompboxes. I feel as if the multieffects gig was the wrong route. I love the wah, I hate the distorsions. It's a decent box for the price.
Alright, here's where I give advice. Please! play with this box and all its competitors THOROUGHLY before you spend hundreds of dollars on an effects unit. I'd also recommend that you buy individual stompboxes. This way, you can pick out your tonal colors one-by-one instead of having to depend on a predetermined palette of sounds.