Boss ME-30

This unit is very easy to use, right out of the box. I'm an idiot as far as programming patches, etc. goes, but I only had to consult the manual a few times on this.

When I first got this unit, I guess I was in awe of all the cool sounds I could get in my bedroom setup. I had been playing out with a 335 through a Carvin X 100B half stack for about five years, and I thought it would be neat to try some new sounds. Once I set it up to play its first gig, however, it lasted about half a set before I hurriedly unhooked it and went back to my straight-to-the head setup. In a dark, smoky room there is no way to see the tiny LCD display. A backlit display would have been nice. Also, there was so much noise and harshness at gig volume that it drove me NUTS!!! The distortions absolutely sucked.

Never had a problem with it in this category.

Never had to deal with them.

I play in bar bands, so the styles of music go from Dwight Yoakam to Pearl Jam to AC/DC to Metallica. In a practice setting, the ME 30 was ok. But I will never use it live again. I've been running straight through the same 100 watt all-tube Carvin head for the last 10 years, so maybe I'm just spoiled. I think this would be good for bedroom shredders or someone just looking for something to kick around with, but not for serious gigging. I would never buy another one, in fact, I've been trying to sell mine for some time now.

Just read the manual and it won't be difficult. But it will almost be impossible to get a decent sound from it.

Compressor: Decent (6)
Overdrive/Distortion: NOT!!! good (the worst i've ever heard) (1)
Equlizer: Decent (6)
Phaser: I've never really used it
Noise suppressor: Not so good (4)
Delay: Good (8)
Chorus: Good (8)
Flanger: Good (8)
Pich shifter: Not good (5)
Tremolo: Good (8)
Reverb: Decent (6)
Wah pedal: Not good (2)
Ring modulation: Not good (2)

It have never failed me.

I've never needed it

I don't like it, so i'm goimg to sell it.

Very easy to use - the presets are fairly ordinary but patches are easy to tweak and get a good sound out of.

I used this with a G&L Legacy and a peavey classic 50 amp and was able to get everything from SRV and Robben Ford sounds to Scofield and Scott Henderson sounds. For this price there are no better sounding multi effects units. Obviously in a perfect world we could all afford TC electronics gear but on a limited budget this is the best you will get. I thought the wah was great it all depends on how you tweak it. The more I played with this unit the better sounds I got - remember that if you get patches off the net they have been tweaked for someone elses gear and playing style just use them as a guide and use your ears to get a great sound.

Never had a problem

Never needed them

I play Blues, Jazz, Funk, Fusion and Pop this is a versatile unit for the price. Was great in the pop cover band and I found if I spent the time with it I could mimic a lot of the great fusion players sounds really well. However like any piece of gear a good player through crap gear will still sound bad and a bad player through the worlds best gear will still sound bad. The great thing about this unit is that it complimented my playing and gave me ideas rather than changing my whole style everytime I turned it on.

This pedal is fairly straight forward and easy to use, editing patches is straightforward and intuitive, you shouldn't need to use the manual for this.

This is where the pedal falls short (and considering this is the most important part...). First of all you have to realize that a multi-effects pedal will never sound as good as the separate effects stompboxes, and digital wah is notoriously horrible.

Distortion: Probably the pedals weakest point, very metallic and lawnmowerish, the distortion is notisably digital, especially for heavier metal sounding distortions. The blues/light distortion is mediocre but has little to no warmth and even less harmonics. There is a large range of distortions available, but none of them sound good so what is the point.

Wah-wah: don't use it, ever, period.

Other effects: Not horrible, again very digital sounding, the flanger, phaser are decent, the pitch shifter is pretty bad for anything beyond 2 half steps, you get a really horrible lagging delay. Speaking of delay, that is decent as well but you will never get a decent Satriani delayed lead out of this pedal.

This has never quit on me yet in the 2 years that I have had it.
It is fairly solidly built and should withstand some impact, but i wouldn't throw it around too much.

I haven't dealt with it as i have had no problems

There are plenty of better multi-effects pedals out there spend the extra money now, or you will dissapointed and find yourself replacing this. There is a lot of flexability of sound, but none of it is good. I would really recommend sucking it up and buying individual effects, a couple good effects are a lot better than a lot of bad effects.

Ok, so i went to a guitar center, saw this pedal in a cardboard box on an old wooden table scattered with others, took it outta the box, took a good look at it, and bought it. I may have been drawn in by the price which said it was marked down 250$, but i was also lucky. I took it home and pluged in and thought it was great. Its simple to use. I love the view of individual stomp boxes while editing, but am not so fond of so many confusing small buttons instead of knobs. It if fairly easy to get the sound you are looking for. The effects are all simple and effictive. The distortions (you knew this was coming) on the other hand sound like the highs are set at 11 at all times. You can choose from Metal, extreme highes, whee are the lows?, hard rock, more highes, less low, less gain, and others. The others are ok such as crunch, but i enjoy the fuzz a lot. The manual is great, one page for each different effect setting. I mut say that i love the manual setting (use pedals individually, each stomp box is set to one button.

This guy is between an Ibanez rg 470 with e.m.g's, and a peavey bandit (i know, i know). Its not too noisey, the usuall. Distortion settings go from to harsh, to too weak. But i guess with a bandit there not much choice. You can definity get some hard hendrix fuzz outta this beast. I play the usuall, rock, metal, bluesm in happywith its ability to hand the classic rock, hendrix, zeppelin, others.

Its dependable, screen set down fron casing so i doesnt break, hard plastic. Ive had it for about a year and no problems yet. I would give it a higher rating but i am yet to see a multi- made out of solid steel.

Not yet...

I play metal (metallica, pantera...), classic rock( zepplin, doors...), blues (stevie ray, kenny wayne, B.B)... grung (soundgarden, pearljam, ...) Ill say its original intention was for the road, jamming with my friends/ bands, but i now have it pluged with all my other boxes in my main rig for extra needs. I have been playin for 'bout 4 years or a little more, (im only 14) and its my favorite multi yet. If it were stolen i would go out an look for a new one, then probably be drawn over to another old brown table... haha. I love its versitility, hate its dist. and anoying buttons.
i have compared it to others now that i have had it for so long and still like it. ( i bet other guitar players can relate to the brown table or just when you walk into a guitar center or mars with 150 bills in your pocket.) Ok so if you want a great box with *some* great sounds, go for it. If you knocked ozzy off and are now headlining ozzfest, pay someone the 100$ to find a better one. But i think its great, and if anyone want to ask me anything, email me.

It's easy to use as far as getting started but to use all it's features you really need the instruction manual which I don't have. The display really sucks in low light and the foot switches are small. I would want some kid of additional lighting during a gig. As far as setting up an effects chain on one "bank" it's pretty simple. Where it gets a bit complicated is when you want to program "bank" presets... For that the instructions would be really cool to have!

I'm a bass player and have found a sound that is uniquely "me" with this box. I use it for recording on my computer and the "guitar amp simulator" really contributes to having a full bodied sound. In a room through my amp it sounds even better. The best way to describe it is that the sound fills the room... All the individual effects sound as good or better than thier stomp box counterparts. The wah pedal for example blows away the Crybaby I used to have.

I've never had a problem with it. However as I stated earlier I would use supplemental lighting for a gig... Otherwise ya might not find it, heheh

Can't get a owners manual through thier web page

As a hard rock bass player I found that I was able to come up with an effects chain that produces a very distinct and recognizable sound. I've been playing for 19 years right now I'm using a Dean Edge4 bass with active pickups through it. The sound is very cool, I would highly recomend it to any hadr rock/metal bass player. I would buy another one if something happened to this one.

Very easy to use. Your up and running in no time. Wish it had knobs to adjust the sound but I guess that is why you now have the option of buying the ME-33.

Good sound overall. The distortion does not suck as bad as these some of these reviews indicates. You just have to play around with the settings to get the right sound. The Wah was not that bad either.
Better than I expected. What disappointed me was the delay. Compared to my DD-3 Boss stomp box, the delay on the ME-30 sucked. It didn't matter how much I played with the settings. I play an Ibanez and use a Peavy Pacer 100-SS series, 150 Watt amp. Not a bad sound. Not much noise.

Reliable. But it is a piece of plastic..so I never know.

Never had to deal with.

Overall. I have been playing 14 years and have mostly used stomp boxes. I would give this thing good ratings. Gets great sounds with exception of delay. Have to say the Ring Modulator sucks too. But I am not to sure how you could implement that yet. It's not a bad deal if you pick it up at Ebay for $81 like I did. If it was stolen I would look at the ME-33 and pray it was on Ebay too!!!

Impressive. Got the hang of it in a couple of minutes. I don't say I didn't need the manual, but both times it was due to lack of patience, and after reading up I really felt plain stupid I hadn't been able to figure out that simple thing on my own. I give it a 9 because of the non-backlit LCD-panel (dammit, BOSS!).

This is my first multi-effect thingy and so far I'm more than happy with it. I bet a good, low-noise guitar would make it perfect for my needs. Now, with my old piece'o'crap noisebox some-wouldn't-even-call-it-a-guitar... well, it still sounds fine. Better than ever before. It only takes some time tweaking. Making the first patch of my own, in half an hour I got what I needed the most, a Pink Floydish something, with a nice, long but subtle reverb. Yay.

Likes: compressor, chorus, reverb, wah

Dislikes: distortions (soooo noisy), except maybe fuzz, ring mod (would exchange it for something more useful)

Yeah, well, I fully depend on it. And I don't have the money for a backup. If I had, I'd buy a better guitar.

I don't think i'd need a backup.

Not yet, hope never.

I mostly play stuff that should sound like Pink Floyd or Dire Straits, either because it is their music or because my band's own songs tend to have a style similar to that. I'm working on the sound and I'll get it, I just know I will. Tweak-tweak, yay.
Been playing for 10 years (not too intensively, though), and I'd say I'm revitalized by this unit. I'm sounding better so I'm getting more creative.
My secret favorite feature is the tuner. I never owned one before.

For this price I haven't found anything comparable to it.

Anything I wish it had? Yeah, a harmonizer, a vocoder, metal case, separate modulation effects, separate EQ, lotsa other crap. And backlight for the display.

you have good sounds right out of the box, but if you don't want to sound like someone else you'll have to change them a little. It's a bit noisy and the pitch ain't that good. It's easy to edit patches and the "knobs" are similar to the ones you have on single pedals. You don't have to read the manual to play...

I use an Epiphone les paul thru a laney tube amp. The noise is always there, but you can get alon'g with it. Everything except noise gate and pitch sounds great. Tube amps are the best to use.

I'm using it wherever I play and It's reliable. You don't need a backup for this.

Never had a problem I couldn't fix.

I play a lot of different styles and It's great whatever you play.
I've had it for 3 years and I'm going to buy the Me-33 as well cuz It's got more features.

I found it easy to adjust the settings of each effect on manual mode. I did not have a manual with it so I had to play with it for a few hours, but I figured it out really quick. It saves my settings so I dont have to reset it every time I plug it back in. I read a few reveiws of this pedal and I dont really agree with most of the bad ones.

1 48th street sam ash custom fender strat with 2 single coils and 1 humbucker. Through a crate 120 watt head and 4X12's cab also through a fender 25 watt 1x10 plugged into a LANEY 2x12's cab. I really like all the effects this product has. I mainly play reggae ska and hip hop such as bob marley peter tosh steel pulse ETC.. it works great.

I use this in every day practice at home. Also at rehersals and at gigs 110% reliabale. I do use it with out a back up.

Well i tryed to get a manual for it but no luck so far i just gave up trying to call or look online i figured it out really easy after fiddling with it for a few hours. its a real basic set up so even beginers should be able to figure it out.

Reggae,Ska, Hip Hop. It works great. I been playing 9 1/2 years. i also own a few other boss stomp boxs and strat copys with new pick ups. also a fender jazz bass and crate bass amp