Boss ME-30

I'm loving it. Its easy to set your own patches but at times you might screw up and accidentally delete it.The manual was quite helpful figuring out the phrase trainer and such. I was, however, intending to use the Phrase trainer for a drumloop but you don't get to use the modulation in the guitar mix. you get just the distortion e/q and noise suppression. I hooked up the computers speaker output to the input and put on a drumloop so i could fiddle with modulation. A very cool thing esp. with ring-mod. This could be usefull if you're a DJ or something.
What i want to see in this is the Compressor button(bank down) to be replaced with E/Q/Phazer. Who the hell wants to turn off and on the compressor?!?! I want the mix tremolo with flange or chorus or pitch shifter! I want to turn off and on the Ring Mod. and the Arms!!! just like the wha could! What the hell were they thinking?! Its just that easy to give it to the rest of the exprssn pedal effx!

Some bad stuff are- Chorus+Flanger kinda gets your sound out of tune if you setup the rate or the depth to high. - The Tremolo Arm( thats not right,its supposed to be called whammy arm) is pretty cool but because of the material used for the express pedal the peak can only be reached when you press with the your toes and keep you heel suspended above the unit so all pressure is at the top of the expres-s ion pedal.and use your heal and press down hard at the bottom of the ex.predal. to get the low if it. if you don't do this then you pitches won't be accurate.
-I wish the put a limiter on this cause when your phazer or flange or chorus is at its juiciest set- ting it starts to get very loud.
Im using a Peavey Studio Pro 112 BTW. I play mostly Pumpkins,Teaparty and Im very satis fied with the effects. So if you know these bands you know this pedals worth the bucks.
All the FX kick ass except for the Distortions. I like the FUZZ though its pretty rich and the one of the OD sounds alot like my amps OD so thats good.
I give nine cause a limiter was needed.

I could depend on this thing cause I got an adapter for it. I suggest boss make this this metallic so it can support the Xpressing pedal.

I'd rather not talk to these people. They are molemen.

I've been playing for about 4 yrs w/o NEthing but a metal zone and a Wha-wha and this unit is the 1st fx i've ever used.but I've have tried alot of Fx over the yrs so you can trust my critique. My style of playing is like Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins with a twist of Jeff Martin from the Teaparty(great Canadian band! check'em out! but they're known world wide Neway) If it were stolen,would I replace it? I got no job so it'll take quite a long time of saving lucky money (a chinese tradition) and stealing....oops.not supposed to say that. My fav feature on this has to be the delay! as you decrease the milli seconds on a delayed signal the signal speeds up but it doesn't lose pitch! FUN! Hours of usage is require by the psyche.

For a unit with buttons instead of knobs (pretty much a necessity for multiple effects) this is one of the most straightforward boxes I've used, mainly due to the custom LCD readout which shows pictures of simulated knobs. I would have given a 9 if it were possible to tweak the ME-30 on stage or at practice. However, since the LCD is not lighted, tweaking in the dark requires getting on your hands an knees with a flashlight. The LED which shows the number of the current program is very easy to read on stage though, and setting up your patches on your own time is not that terrible a requirement. My solution would be to give the unit a power supply and a light and add a few bucks to the price. Eventually I would love to see products that use wall warts suffer in the marketplace.

The distortions and most of the presets using them are absolutely hideous. I can't imagine anyone who could use them. Therefore, for anyone considering this unit for complete preamplification, I would say to look elsewhere. As much as I love BOSS pedals, and I've owned about all of them, I think distortion has always been their weakest effect, and these are far worse than average. That said, I didn't give sound quality the 5 that it probably deserves because I play blues through a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, so I don't need distortion anyway. As far as the other effects go, although the sound and flexibility might be slightly inferior to individual pedals, I am generally satisfied. I especially like the chorus, and the delays and reverbs are fine. Most importantly, this unit doesn't either overload digitally or thin out the body of your guitar and amp--maybe because of its 20-bit processing.

I haven't had any problems, but this box is not as tough as a regular BOSS pedal. I don't mind the plastic case too much, but I'm really afraid of the jacks snapping when somebody steps on one of the input or output plugs. I use right angle plugs just to be safe. I'm also a little worried about someone stepping on the plastic-housed glass LCD. But what can you expect at this price?

I faxed a question and got a helpful phone call within two days. I would have preferred emailing my question, but not being able to find an email address at the BOSS site was somewhat aggravating.

I'm generally pretty critical, so an 8 means I think this unit is a good deal for the money and I'm glad I bought it. If I were a heavy user of effects I'd probably get a GT-5 or maybe some other manufacturer's rack or floor unit. But for an intermediate, budget minded player or a casual effects user, I think this unit is a winner. Since I pretty much use only the time-oriented effects, I can throw this box in my loop and not have to worry about assembling half a dozen stompers every time I set up. And it's fun every once in a while to turn peoples heads with something weird like radical bends or ring modulation.

I must say, I waited over a month for my store to get this unit, and boy it was worth the wait. Imagine it, a small BOSS unit that replaces 16 pedals. All that was needed was take it out of the box, plug it in (I already had the power supply)and start playing. I did glance at the manual very briefly, but after a couple of minutes, you'll be creating your own user patches in no time. What I did see in tha manual would be very helpful. As far as the sounds, the factory settings are a little out there. Out of the 30 factory settings, maybe 15 are useful. You have to figure that BOSS is just trying to show the wide spectrum of this unit. The unit is set up with 30 preset patches and 30 user patches. To start with , the 30 user patches are the same as the preset ones, but you can change these and save them the way you want to. Like I mentioned earlier, creating your own patches are a breeze.

I curently use a Fender LoneStar with a Fender Deville Amp. The sounds that this thing puts out are mixed. It does have some weak points. The distortion gets a mixed rateing from me. There are I think 7 different types of distortions from blues to grundge. Since I use a tube amp I probably won't be using the distortion portion of this unit. But if I need a funky kind os distortion, I know I can go here a find one. EQ and phaser work very well. as do the modulation portions, i.e chorus, flanger, tremelo and pitch shifter. Probably my biggest beef with this thing is that you can't mix the modulation and EQ/phaser. By ths I mean that you can't have the chorus and flanger on or even the pitch shifter. You'll just have to play with it and try to get the best mixture that will suit your tastes. One neat thing about this unit is that you can name your patches. I currently play classic rock with a wide range of artists from Steely Dan, Tom Petty to the Guess Who. After I created my patch I then named it to display the artist i.e Petty-12 (Tom Petty 12 string). But i'll still need to remember where it is because ou really won't be able to read it on the stage. The LCD panel is NOT backlit. There is also an expression pedal on this unit, but I won't be using it much other than volume control.

Well it is a BOSS so it must be good. When my freind saw the unit, the first thing out of his mouth was that it was plastic. Now i'm not that big of a guy and I don't plan to dance on this thing, so it should hold up. The only thing that I can see breaking on it is the expression pedal, but since I'm not going to be using it much I should have no worries. I have all the confidence in the world on this so I see no need for a backup. I do wish it were made in the standard BOSS metal caseing though. Peace of mind I guess.

Never had to call BOSS in the past for pedals I had before so I don't see a change in that.

You can't beat the price for what you get. OK so it does have it's faults, but they can be worked around. It is worth every penny. IF given the chance, and if needed, I would buy this unit again. Buy it, enjoy it!

No complaints - very intuitive and easy to use.

Using a 69 Telcaster and a Starfield US Altair. Modulation and echo/delay effects are very good although I don't see the point of a ring modulator.
The distortion was weak and was very 'one sound' I didn't like them at all, the basic tone was very brittle and harsh. To a certain extent I'm annoyed at myself for being so easily impressed in the shop but it may have had something to do with the guitar they gave me to try it, a Thinline with humbuckers. If you normally use a single coil pick-up guitar, check it with one of them as it may have an influence on the overall tone. The noise gate suffers from charge pumping which can be annoying at times. The tuner is very good and easy to read. Expression pedal works well too.

Still early days.

Not used

Overall its OK. Basic distortion is pretty grim but the delays and modulation compensate for that. If your looking for a variety of distortions, you might be better looking elsewhere, however if your looking for good delays, reverbs, choruses and pitch shifting/detuning it's pretty good.
WOuld I buy one again? Nah! In fact I'm considering selling it and buying a Korg AX30G which are going cheap at the moment and offer much better distortions (but rubbish chorus and a silly expression pressure switch, but my old foot volume pedal should fix that)

Although this guy comes with directions, they are far from necessary. I took him out of the box and started playing right away. VERY easy to use. Everything you need to do is right there. I'm still in high school and I left the box in the band room and a fellow guitar player started messing with it. Within 5 minutes he had it mastered and was editing patches with ease. It's like having 10 pedals in front of you.

I use a Fender Strat Squier through a Peavy 112 bandit. The noise suppressor is excellent for open coil pickups. The presets, like on all products could be better, still they're pretty cool. I prefer to run it on manual mode where its like having the boxes there. This box is excellent for recording whereas manual mode is excellent for live performances. You can manipulate sounds from Dick Dale to Lenny Kravitz.

I only have one gripe. My ac adaptor does not work. This won't be a problem because the music store i go through will fix this for no charge. Other than this it seems very reliable. VERY VERY VERY low battery life. It's like 2 or 3 hours

If my music store can't fix my ac adaptor problem, then heads will roll at roland headquarters.

I overall LOVE it. I sit in my room till midnight with my headphones with this baby and write all night. Since it takes batteries, you use it on long car rides and such.

It is pretty easy to get some good sounds out of this guy. Editing patches is something you need to set sometime aside (not much), because you can thoroughly get your bandmembers upset if you do this at practice. The manual covers everything, but I had to read through it a couple of times to understand all of the features.

I use a PRS CE-24 into a Fender Super 60 w/ a Marshall 1960a 4x12. The box can be noisy, I agree with the guy that said to set the unit's volume between 20-40. I hated the distortion, but I have never really found a distortion that sounds natural in a pedal. I guess if you like pedal distortion, you might like the distortions on the ME-30. If you think this will replace the distortion on your tube amp - forget it. The good effects : phaser, compressor, noise supp, chorus, flange, delay, and tremelo wasn't too bad either.

Boss makes great pedals. I've owned several over the years, and I don't expect problems with this one either. Even though it's plastic, you just need to be a little careful (i.e. - don't stack the PA mains on top of it in the van!).

I play alternative pop, and I'd say it's a good fit for what I needed. I would probably replace it if it was lost.
I compared it to all of the other multi effects products that just came out (DOD, Digitech) and it was the easiest to use and I think the sound quality was better too.
I wish the expression pedal was just a little bigger and the wah wasn't so hard to turn off. I wish the display was easier to read. I wish there was an accoustic simulator, better pitch shifter, and the headphone out was a little louder.

Very easy to use although not quite as easy as my old DOD FX-7. Once I started tweaking the patches, I found that the advantages of the ME-30's flexible users interface out-weigh the lacking controls of the FX-7.

Very good. At first, I wasn't too impressed, but once I started creating and storing a suite of "practical" effects, I was very pleased with what the box could do. Don't judge this multi-effect by what the manufacturer has pre-set for you. From my research, Boss is the only manufacturer that has figured out "amp simulation". The box does a great job when you don't use an amp and are doing direct-in recording and performance. As far as the distortions, I play a Fender Strat and have found "Vintage" produces a very tasteful/clean distortion. However, I don't recommend this box for "grunge" players. This was not an issue with me as I have no interest in grunge anyway. All the effects individually are very good. Boss has done a great job in giving the impression that I am controlling a rack of pedals. They have also done a great job in allowing ME-30 users the complete control over each pedal. This is the main reason I upgraded from the DOD FX-7. Like all effect units, there is a little noise when combining several effects at once (no surprise). The noise gate does a nice job at eliminating most all of it. I'm giving the box a "9" because I had to work a bit at it to get the sounds that I wanted.

So far, so good. I've owned it about a week now. The footprint is small and seems very durable.

No issues

I don't want to say "For the money, this box is great...blah,blah,blah" because, it doesn't do the box any justice. In my opinion, this is all the box that 90+% of musicians would require. It offers a lot of flexibility because of the user interface and "complete control" over each effect. This is all most musicians are looking for anyway. Plus you get a functional expression pedal all in a "compact package" which puts the ME-30 in the lead over the ME-8 and Digitech RP-7 in my opinion. Yes, I would definitely buy this product again.

Its very easy to use. Out of the box it sounds good, the patches are easy to edit, didn't need the manual for that, its not rocket science. The manual was helpful in the area of copying and exchanging patches between locations.

I think it sounds great. I was leary of using the mono out, I thought ME-8 didn't sound so hot mono, but this guy cooks. I initially set my first patches at low volume, that was probably a mistake, at normal volume there were too many highs. Alot of good bite to it though . It is dramatically quieter than the zoom equivalent. It even sounds ok with my acoustic.

I think I can depend on this, Boss has a good history. I wouldn't use a backup. The battery life is low.

I have one other Boss pedal, and have never had any trouble.

This processor looks like it will do all the tricks I need it to do. I would buy another if it were stolen. The battery life is horrible, not even 2 hours, and that is inexcusable, Boss should have used the battery compartment to add more effects, and made the darn thing 120v powered. I will have to buy an adapter, that stinks!
All of the factory patches sound good, but not all of them can be used to play music, I mean if you wanna drive your parents crazy or have your wife make you move your amp to the shed for practice then Boss has come to your rescue with a couple of noises. I mean really, what good is a board of effects if you cant turn all the knobs up to 11(or in this case 100) ever once in a while.
Some of the overdrives sound like distortion, especially through headphones.
I chose this pedal over the me-8 because of the on-board expression pedal, and over the zoom 8080 because of the noisy nature of the zoom.
The phrase trainer does a good job of slowing down the licks while maintaining pitch. It was hard to get a good level between recorded lick and guitar while using the headphones.

The ME-30 is really easy to use. It doesn't take long to work out how to edit the presets. The manufacturers have tried to duplicate the stomp-box knob interface on the display with an analogue gauge as well as a digital reading which is far far better than the ME-8. I remember reading somewhere that the LCD was luminous, but it's just got some of the glow in the dark stuff on it, so if you hold a bright light next to it, you can read it for a few minutes in the dark, but there isn't a lot of point because you can tell which patch you have it on from the LED display. By pressing both bank switches at once you can get the tuner which is handy.

Somewhere I heard that everything in it was digital, including the distortion effects but the manual says otherwise. Everything works pretty well; the pitch shifter is okay but there is the slightest of delays which you'd expect for something of this price. I haven't worked out why they put in the ring modulator (the guy at the shop said that one day I might come across a song where I might just need that effect, yeah right) The more effects you have switched on, the noisier it is, but if you have every effect on it sounds kind of shocking (at least it did for me :) so that's not a big problem. One thing it lacks that the ME-8 does is a feedbacker which I just thought of but you'll live without it I guess.

It seems strong enough. To turn on and off the wah effect you have to push the expression pedal very hard which is a bit dodgy but it doesn't feel like it's going to break.

The phrase trainer is probably one of the nicest things about this one, you can record twelve seconds of audio from a line-in socket and annoy everyone in the house for hours on end by replaying it over and over and over. It slows things down to as much as quarter of the speed but it gets a bit choppy and hard to hear, but at 75% speed you can make out everything without problems. It doesn't have as many effects as the ME-8, notably the intelligent harmonizer, but it does cost a lot less and BOSS aren't making ME-8s any more. Some of the presets are bizarre but you can save 30 of your own. It doesn't come with a powerpack (batteries included though) so you might want to try hassling the shop to throw one and also a new lead in. Maybe you'll have more luck than I did.

I bought this pedal after trying a few like the ME - 8, and so on. I like this pedal because it offers such a wide range of sounds. Some of the preset patches are not too bad, but it is really easy to create your own original sounds. I misplaced my manual right away, but had no problem working everything. The only beef I have is I was led to believe that the display is easily read, but while standing it is tough unless at the perfect angle. The display also has a feature that it lights up in the dark, but this also did not really live up to the hype. Other than those small things, this pedal rules!

The are so many different effects that you can make you guitar fart or cry and everything in between. The effects that are included are compression, 8 distortions/overdrives, chorus, phaser, 2 reverbs, EQ, 2 delays, pitch shifter, flanger, tremelo, wah - wah, whammy bar, and ring modulator.

It's made of plastic, but I'm not smashing the hell out of it. I don't see any problems arising.

Boss products are reliable. so I don't plan on needing to contact the company, but the dealer was great.

I love this product. It is very versatile, cheap and provides fun, fun, fun. I highly recommend it.