Boss ME-30

Ease of use?, there not much to it,to edit the effects, you gota mess wit the menu which is always a bitch, but still simple, pretty easy to get a good sound, but still not as good as the boxes

the setup i used w/ it was ibanezrg7620>boss me-30>peavey special 212, u could have great control over the unit but still hard to get some quialty sounds, NOTHING COMPARED TO THE REAL PEDALS, i play mainly korn, deftones, coal chamber stuff so i mainly use the distortion, chrous, flanger, phaser (complete peace of shit), and the tremelo which is pretty decent. there all really good FOR A MULTI-EFFECTS, but sill, NOT LIKE THE PEDAL. i have replaced it was a line6 POD and some other pedals of my choice, sounds much better. but if you want a standard multi-effects, this is the way to go.

it's a boss, need i say more?

bottom line, this is a good multi-effects if you can't afford the real pedals.the only things on the pedal that suck is the "ring modulator" (compleatly usless and sounds like shit) and the phaser (shitty sound),the metal distortion (waaay too much tremb that the EQ cannot change), and the amp simulator for direct recording (sounds like shit). still cool. i give a 9.

It's easy enough to alter the effects as long as you're not on stage, because it's impossible to see the screen in the dark. Also, it is hard to get levels right in the effects, because the level moves too much at a time. Basically it is too hard to get the sound that you want, unless you are lucky.

I use a Marshall Valvestate 100 and an Ibanez UV777.
*When I have my amp volume low the distortion and everything else sounds ok, but when I turn it up to half way and higher it screaches no matter what, and with undistorted effects it crackles and sort of distorts. Also, distortions are usually too fuzzy or too twangy. It's hard to get the right distortion.
*When you mix phaser or flanger with distortion it sounds really bad, because they phaser or flanger sounds too dominant no matter how low you set it.
*When you use the pitchshifter there is a delay from when you play the note and when the sound comes out of the amp.
*There is a short delay when switching effects in the banks.
*When you use the tremolo or pitchshifter it puts out other sounds with the tremolo or pitchshifter effect.
The ME-30 makes me think it is a bunch of cheap, low-quality effects put into one pedal.

Once my ME-30 stuffed up for some reason and it wouldn't work using the batteries - only with the adapter. That's just about the only trouble i've had with my ME-30, but I know somebody who also has an ME-30 and so far he has broken the expression pedal, the bank up/down pedals and something else, but i'm not sure how rough he is with it. I use this at gigs without a backup and it hasn't been a problem on stage yet.

I play heavier music eg Korn, Fear Factory, Slipknot, and originals, and I think I could do better with single pedals. If it was stolen or lost I wouldn't buy another ME-30.
It's not easy/quick enough to add/remove effects when you're trying to write a song, there is too much stuffing around.
When I was using this pedal in the shop, I thought it was cool because you can make the delay go for ever, and you can get weird screaching sounds from it, but after a couple of years I figured out that you can never use effects like that in a song without making it sound bad.
I don't think the price is as good as people say for what you get, and i've seen it advertised for $200 more than what I paid for mine.
I am probably going to sell my ME-30 to get a distortion, phaser and delay pedal. If anybody knows of a distortion pedal that suits 7 strings for good low-end sound, please email me.

It is fairly easy to get a good sound,once you read the manual. If you have experience with this type of effects, you probably won't need to read it. I've always been a stomp box man myself.

I use a Charvel model 6 guitar,and a Peavey Transtube amp, and I can get just about any sound I want. It hs a noise gate and it needs it. If you operate it with batterys it's not noisy at all, but if you use the adapter it's very noisy, but the noise gate takes care of it. The distortions are analog,and sound great. The other effects are digital, and they sound good for the most part. I don't see any use for the ring modulator, to me it sounds like crap
!

I think you could depend on it, after all it is a Boss. I've used alot of Boss stomp boxes,and they are tough as rocks. I use this without a backup. I've had it about 5 months and have not had any problems.

Never had to deal with them, like I said, Boss is built like rocks!

Overall I would say this is a good buy for the money. I play mostly classic rock. I do have a few minor gripes. The foot switches are too close together, and it's easy to step on two pedals at once. I wish it had a foot controlable bypass. And I don't know why Boss didn't spend 20 cents and put a damn light bulb in it. You can not see the display without bending over and getting a good look. They have a luminess display, meaning you have to put it under a light and charge it up like the old style wrist watch. I compared it to other products like Digitech RP-3, and Zoom 505, and this leaves the in the dust. I didn't like the sound of the Zoom, and I don't like the footswitches on the Digitech.I've had problems with DOD footswitchs and they look and feel the same.If it were stolen or lost, I would definatly buy another one. It's the most bang for the buck.

The ME-30?s operation is intuitive and easy, but it helps to read the manual at least once. One of its best features is the capability to store, edit, and recall effect patches using the pedal board setup.

My setup: Epi Explorer (EMG 60 & 81)>Crybaby>ADA MP-1>ME-30>Fender Super Reverb (Left Channel)>Peavy Rage 158 (Right Channel).

Here are my feature ratings:

1. Compressor ? F
2. Distortions ? F
3. EQ ? G
4. Phaser ? G
5. Noise Gate ? P
6. Chorus ? G
7. Flanger ? G
8. Pitch Shifter ? P
9. Reverb ? F
10. Wah ? P
11. Whammy ? F
12. Ring Modulater ? P
13. Phrase Trainer ? P
14. Tuner ? G

(Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor)

Compressor works fairly decent. The ME-30?s distortions sound very digital to me, as do some of its other effects, but you can tweak out some good tones. I am bypassing the compressor and distortion sections of the ME-30 because I generally prefer the MP-1?s more organic distortions (Tube and S.S.). Equalizer is good. The noise gate is ok, but I don?t use it much because it cuts off sustaining notes if not set right. Pitch-shifting effects (pitch shifter and whammy) seem to lack the processing power required for smooth and natural sounds, although the whammy?s good for an occasional dive-bomb. As far as the wah goes, you?d be better off with a Vox or Crybaby wah pedal. Ring Modulator is unmusical and useless. Reverb is all right but also sounds digital, I prefer my amp?s spring reverb. I do like the phaser, delay, chorus, tremelo, and flanging effects. The tuner section is also good. The phrase trainer is barely useful. I guess my general opinion on the ME-30?s sound quality is that if used properly (with subtle, meticulously tweaked effects) it can enhance your sound. If not, you can end up with a very digital, processed color to your sound. One major note, to maximize this unit?s sound quality use it in stereo!

It seems to being holding up well after owning it for about a year, but I don?t gig at the moment and I try not to abuse my gear.

I really can?t say since I haven?t experienced any trouble with the ME-30 and it?s the only Boss product I?ve ever owned.

I would recommend this for a beginner or casual guitarist. Given the price, it?s hard to go wrong with the ME-30. In my opinion, I think it?s more of a transitional piece of equipment (whether due to money constraints or lack of experience) than a permanent addition to your rig. It all depends on how critical you are about your sound. It does have some good quality effects, but it?s likely that as time goes by you?ll find yourself looking for something better.

Fairly easy for a multi effects unit, not as easy as a DOD TEC-4 but that thing is a piece of shit anyways.

Not bad for a cheaper multi effects unit but don't give up the individual boxes. The distortions are different, but i would never give up my boss metal-zone (MT-2). The trick to obtaining good distortions with this unit is to just use the equalizer to really adjust the tone and use a distortion box like an mt-2 or what ever your preference for distortion is. I recently played a show with this unit and i love the distortions for live use, they don't sound studio processed and they give a really good live tone, its not so much Metallica distortion but its really crunchy and heavy kinda like a headstones distortion, but as far as bedroom jamming i always use my mt-2 with the equalizer on the me-30. The whole reason for buying this unit was to get a few more effects to add to my rig like a flanger, pitch shifter etc... Since i rely mostly on Distortion, Wah, and delay (which i have individual pedals for) i don't need real high quality flangers, phasers etc... to use, i just like to have em to beef up my sound sometimes, so that is why i bought the ME-30. Although i was not expecting real awesome effects, these really surprised me, the chorus is really good and so is the flanger, not quite boss stomp box quality but non the less very good effects for a live band, i wouldn't be so quick to jump into the studio with this unit, but for small gigs it kicks ass. The coolest effect ive played with so far is the whammy pedal on this thing, it kicks major ass, its no digitech but its definately the best one ive heard on a cheaper multi effects unit.
especially compared to the ZOOM's peice of shit excuse for a whammy pedal. I don't much care for the delay on this unit, u cant tweak it just right for some reason, although the 2 seconds is nice for somthings, i stick to my trusty DD-3 for any intricate delays.

I never go on stage without a backup, but im sure u could trust this thing, after all its a boss. Im not to crazy about the plastic tho, and the expression pedal doesn't seem real solid, but it hasn't failed me yet.

Never dealt with boss

I play just about anything, if i hear it and i like it then i'll play it, but my main style is metal/hardrock. I love Metallica, Headstones, Black Sabbath and Led Zepp. This thing kicks ass for Hard Rock music, it doesn't quite give the Metallica super crunch but thats what ive got my metal zone. I've been playing for about 6 years now, and ive owned an amazing amount of gear in those 6 years, currently my setup is: 1.)Samick KRT664, 2.)Gibson SG, 3.)Crybaby, 4.)MT-2 Metal Zone, 5.)DD-3 Delay, 6.)ME-30, 7.)Peavey Stereo Chorus 400. If it were stolen or lost id replace it if i had the cash, and if there wasn't somthing better on the market. My fav feature would have to be the expression pedal and manual mode, manual mode is where u can setup each individual pedal to act as a stomp box, and that is how i use this pedal mostly. Ive had alot of Mfx units over the past two years (DOD-TEC4, ME-5, ZOOM 3030) and this thing is by far the best ive come across yet, but id like to get my hands on a digitech, ive never had much chance to play with any of their gear yet. I wish the expression pedal could control more, like depth of flanger/chorus, amt of distortion etc... but u can't get everything for the price i payed for this thing. It doesn't really help me make music, but it definately doesn't hinder me either, its just there to help me bash my way through a set somewhere without sounding to shitty i hope =v).

I've finally get rid of this thing. I really didn't get what I wanted and that was a good distortion sound. When I first bought I used to think that this box is great. You get alot of different effects and so on. But as I grew up I began to realize that this is not I want to hear from my amp. I wanted to make music not just tweak my sound all the time. And the thing that really made my angry was that the distortions were either too fussy or sound crappy otherwise. After 10 months I went and traded this to Ibanez TS-9. Now I only need my Crybaby and TS-9 to play anything. I have finally found what I've been looking for. I just want to say that Boss ME-30 is not a bad effects unit it just did not work for me.

Up, Down; 1,2,3 easy. but on changing the effects "knobs", thats a little confusing

I use a american stratocaster into a randall 12" I went through every factory preset, they all didnt sound like their titles, like breeze, sounds like a baby screaming when getting hit upside the head. I own a boss mt-2 so i decided to go into the manual mode, turned on the distortion. Didnt like it, changed the knobs, still didnt like it, one more time, taking 5 mins. to get 1/4 of the way to the mt-2. the noise compressor cut off all long notes, IM not saying that boss is bad, its this multi effects unit that isnt good, most boss individual pedals are awsome.

Its plastic, but it might stand up to sitting in my basement

I play metallica, alot of metallica. This doesnt match metallica at all. If thing were stolen I would see it as being out 200 bucks. But in the next year or so i plan on getting into individual stomp boxes. I give it a 3 because it has nothing to my liking

This pedal is cut and dry. It doesn't get much easier for this type of pedal. The sound is good, it sounds good loud, the editing is easy if you know what the effects are and if you don't the book really lays it out for you. Read the manual before you play. You can learn cool things.

I'm running my pedal with three guitars (fender toronado, gibson sg standard, epiphone LP special strung low B) all through a JCM 2000 Marshall. All the effects are good, but I agree with others in saying, what the hell is the ring modulator for? I love the distortions (I never really use overdrives other than when i'm playing classic rock) especially the metal distortion. The Chorus is great as is the Flanger, the wah is a problem though. It's a real pain to kick on and off throught the expression pedal ,sometimes I think I'm going to break it from pressing too hard, but then I remember it's a boss. Another problem is that my expression pedal is always coming loose, so forget keeping the volume low with the pedal. Other than a couple short comings I love it.

No matter how many pedals I get I just seem to come back to the ME-30. I have all the user memory banks full all with effects I made from the bottom up and I just can't seem to stop using it. In a year and a half I haven't had a problem (except the expression pedal) and I would definitely go on stage without a backup.

I've never dealt with them.

I play a lot of metal (Metallica, Fear Factory, Meshuggah) and it works perfectly. It's fair for blues and it's great for classic rock (Santana, The Doors, CCR) the Leaf preset on the pedal is great for most classic rocks sounds except the distortions. I wish it had a Harmonizer but whatever. If it were stolen I would replace it that day. Basically, no matter what I say you have to go by your ears, but I've been playing for over 3 years and I think it's worth a try.

This thing takes too long to REALLY figure out whats going on. The virtual knobs suck. they barely have ANY settings.

I don't know where to start on this. I turned it on in the store, thinking it will rule with the responses on here, WELL GUESS WHAT EVERY BODY, THIS THING IS 1/2 ASS. I went through all the presets couldnt find anything good. The master level it always too high on the settings, which takes a bit to change. So I figure, "Well if I'm gonna buy this thing, I'll compare it to my MT-2 Metal Zone." I put in on the the "manual" mode, hit the OD/DS pedal, Shit, Changed ALL the knobs once, shit, Changed em again, Shit, Changed em one last time, SHIT! I swear. I was playing my American Stratocaster into a Marshall of some kind. (i didnt bother to look) If you want distortion, DONT BUY, DONT BUY, DONT BUY!! Get am MT-2. I tried out the reverb. The reverb on my amp is better than that, and mine only has ONE KNOB!

**FOR ALL YOU OUT THERE THAT LOOK AT RESPONSES AND JUDGE PEDALS BEFORE YOU HAVE PLAYED WITH THEM, DON'T.**

I dont know, its plastic, so...

I play Metallica METALLICA METALLICA!! And AC/DC. IF YOURE A METALLICA FAN, DONT BUY DONT BUY!!

You don't need a degree to work this little baby out. So easy to use as it emulates a virtual series of little Boss stomp boxes. Editing is easy once you read the manual first.

I use a Ibanez Saber 470 and run the pedal through a Peavey Studio Pro 1x12 65W Transtube Amp. It can be noisy especially with the presets but once you fine tune it and have noise supressor on, you should have no problems. I love the sounds which come out of this. I have been playing guitar for 14 years and always loved Bosses effects.
Since all the major Boss effects come in this ME-30, it is a great plus and the price is ridiculousy cheap. I particluary like the Metal distortion's Chorus and the delay. The pitch shifter is pretty good but can waver if you wanna try to down tune your guitar with this effect - hey but it's great for twin rythem and lead. Compressor's great too but don't over do it and it will cause a bit of noise. Overall, the sound quality of the ME-30 is excellent. With the right setup, you could sound nearly like Satriani or Maiden (Of couse not exactly unless you buy what they use. If you are contemplating buying the ME-30 or the Roland GT-5, buy the ME-30. The GT-5 is expensive and it's and overkill of effects in which some of them sound crap (Different engineers worked on the GT-5, they have no idea on effects). Just ask any rock star in the Music Shops.

Although it's made of plastic, it is quite tough. The expression pedal is surprisingly strong and I'm not worried in breaking it. I would use it without a backup as I have got faith in it. But don't use batteries as they run out very quickly. Boss should've never included a battery compartment as it is a waste of time as they don't last long. I love it!

Nver dealt with Boss as I have no problems with it.

The Boss ME-30 is a great sounding machine. The price is value for money. I play mainly Metal and it does the job (Any I also use it for recording purposes - good Guitar Amp simulator). If it was stolen, I would probably buy it again or whatever new version Boss comes up with. The only thing I don't like about it is the display screen isn't bright enough and the ring modulator sounds like a cat being chewed up by a garbage truck. In it's price category, I think it is the best sounding multi effects around. Don't look at another one before you try the ME-30. It gets a 9 out of 10 from me as nothing is perfect.

I don't think it could possibly be any easier. It's just like using a bunch of stomp boxes, but without the tangled cords.

I use a Strat with a Fender amp. The sound is excellent. The distortion, reverb, chorus, flanger, tremelo, phaser, and delay are great. The pitch shifter isn't as good, but it's OK. The ring modulator is pretty cool. All the other effects are about average, but you won't find anything better for the price range.

No problems.

Never had to deal w/ the company.

I play blues, metal, punk, rock, and Latin. This is pretty musc the best unit in this price range. If I had $600, I'd probaly get the GT-5, but for any amount less than that this thing rocks. Compared to much more expensive units, it isn't that good, bu for under $600, it is the best I've used

Very easy to use. It has this cool "Virtual Knob" thing that makes adjusting the parameters seem like twisting the knobs on a stompbox.

My setup is as follows: Guitar-->Dunlop Crybaby-->Boss ME-30-->Squier 15 or Fender Princeton 112 Plus. The quality of the effects is generally great. Just what you would expect from Boss. However, there are a couple of weak points: The wah is terrible, but that wasn't a big concern for me because I already had a crybaby. The noise suppressor works but either doesn't kick in if the threshold is too low or cuts your sound off too abruptly if it is too high. I haven't found an appropriate middle ground yet. Also, the pitch shifter tends to give the sound a really nasal tone and a "shimmering" sound (which is not a good thing.) It won't be a problem if you are using to add a fifth to your notes or something, but when trying to use the processor to act as a capo it will screw you up quite a bit. The ring modulator is fun for robot-like effects but utterly useless practically. Most of the effects that don't work well are the ones you probably will not use too much. All that aside, nice volume pedal, compression, distortions, chorus, tremolo, phaser, EQ, flanger, delay, reverb, and whatever else is packed inside this box. The distortions sounded good when I played through the Squier 15, but when I got the Princeton I noticed how odd they sounded. A good solution is to play with your amp's distortion to give it a kind of "authentic" sound and then use the processor to control the subtle parts of the tone. Another cool thing that you can do if you play through the mono output is plug a dead cord into the other output and then set the delay on "pan." This sends the signal to one output, waits two seconds, then sends it to the other output (where there is no speaker connected), then waits another two seconds before sending it to the first output again. End result: You get a full four seconds of delay! This is nice when you want to record rhythm parts. Do it with the four second delay with feedback and level on 100%, then turn the delay off. The rhythm part will keep echoing, and you can switch to another patch (as long as it does not use delay) and start soloing.

I gig without a backup because I can't afford a backup. It hasn't failed me yet, but it is made of plastic and doesn't seem like it could take a bashing. If you are going to take it places, get a nice case. (The "official" one costs about fifty bucks.) It eats batteries like a starving monkey, so get the adaptor for use at home and only use batteries for occasional gigs and stuff.

Never had to use 'em.

Excellent. Not professional quality, but great value for the money. Unless your last name is "Clapton" or "Santana," go ahead and buy one. You will not be disappointed.

This thing is really easy to use... Read the manual and you'll understand everything.

It's just a little bit too noisy, but for 340 dollars, what do you expect. The OD/DS is a little plus, but you need to have tubes in your amp... I don't like the delay, nor the compressor (too noisy). I use a Les Paul, Musicman 100-RP and a Marshall 4x12 (Celestion) and I get a fair sound, but I wouldn't go into a studio with it...

PS: putting the volume pedal in front of the dist, and using the compressor gives you a relly good feeling of expression-pedal. mix the delay, chorus, reverb (50% from the amp) Add some noise sub. Try that out...

I can depend on it... Been using it for about 2 years now, and there's nothing wrong with is. (The pedal can get a little bit loose... but that is really easy to fix)

Haven't dealt with them...(yet)

I play almost any cind of style of music... and I like to put together a lot of different effects, I like the Boss ME-30 because it's so easy to use, and it's PRICE. that's something that I really agree with. If it would get stolen, I wouldn't by a new one, I would by something a little more expensive... But I do like it, I really do, That's why I give it a 9.

This thing is so easy to learn. I got it home and asked my friend to help me using this. He says just mess with it. I fiquired out how to edit all the patches in just seconds, literally. Everything about it is easy to use

This thing sounds amazing. The distortions are all distortions that I use when I play. I espeacilly like the blues and the metal distortions. Theyre really warm and full for when I jam with friends or play gigs. The chorus is awesome. I get that sound at the begining of ONE by Metallica. The only complaint is when I use the noise supressor cuts my sound off short and the ring modulator is useless.

All in all there are 7 distortions, noise supressor, compressor, wah, volume pedal, ring modulator, EQ, Delay, Phaser, Flanger, Tremelo, Chorus, Pitch Shifter and more I just don't care cause I named enough. The pitch shifter aint all to great either but the distortions, chorus, flanger, EQ, Phaser, are all pretty nice. This pedal has the most "usable effects" out of any multi effects unit in this price range. I give it a 9 cause the ring modulator, noise supreser.

Oh yeah lots of people say the wah sucks. I actually like it. It's not the greatest but it is usable.

It's a BOSS

I play metal to blues to 50-60 love song type music. Anything I hear I'll try to play. This is perect for anyone and for any style of music. For 150 its so usefull that I cant afford not to buy it

This unit is really easy to use. You can find all the sounds you want after a couple of days, without even reading the manual.
There are some boring things, like not being able to bypass the Me-30 with the foot, but i got used to it.

I use it with a Fender Tele Custom and a Marshall Valvestate 80W, and some other boss pedals. Modulation effects are great, especially the phaser and the Tremolo -you can get some really weird sounds with them- delays and wah are okay. Distortions suck - i use my amp for them -.

Quite reliable despite the fact that it's just plastic... Don't jump on the expression pedal.

Don't know.

This unit is all right if you want modulations. But don't buy it for the distortions (i've tried the Digitech RP-3 and they're much better). I think it's the most interesting cheap multi-effects unit and i definetely recommand it.

It gets a bit complicated to switch patches while I'm onstage but it's relatively easy. The manual is well made and explains each effect well. Editing patches is easy but it gets tedious when you have to switch through all the different effects and parameters.

My main setup is my Hamer Sunburst Flat Top for drop D songs and my Ibanez Talman for songs in standard tuning. It then goes through a Danelectro Daddy-O overdrive, then the ME-30, then to my amp which is a Marshall Valvestate 8100. I don't use the Boss for distortion at all when playing through the Marshall as the Marshall makes some of the best distortion on this planet. I use Boss for it's modulation effects and also some e.q. to bolster the low end since my band is a metal/hard rock band. The delay is excellent and goes up to 2 seconds. The chorus is serviceable but can't be used when rate and depth are both turned all the way up...then it sounds awful. The phaser is okay. The tremolo is actually pretty good. The pitch shifter is worthless unless you go all the way down or all the way up a full octave. I use it detuned a full octave when I'm in drop D which is actually C# for me. Gives a good low end. The Flanger is also real good. The thing I love the most other than the delay is the silent tuner. I didn't realize this thing was chromatic until recently. I can tune down my normal 1/2 step on stage and it's accurate. When I switch guitars I can hit the tuner button and change guitars without a bunch of thumps from the cord hitting the floor because I forget to turn the amp off. All in all for the price I paid, the effects are good.

It's actually very solid but since it's plastic, I'm not going to say it's built like a tank. I've had it for a year and a half and it's held out very well with all the shows I've played.

not applicable

I eventually would like to go to individual effect boxes but I am a poor sumbitch. This thing suits me fine right now for what I'm doing. The delay and the silent tuner is what I mainly love about this thing. I would recommend it for the beginner and intermediate guitarist as well as one on a budget like me. In my opinion, though, if you've got the bucks, get individual stompboxes.

Not as easy as stopming a box, but for a Multi-FX, very easy. Editing Patches is really easy. You just choose your effect,choose your "knob" and change the setting.You can choose to save or erase it too. The Manual can put you on the right track if you get lost.

I use this Pedal board with a Washburn and Crate amp. The OD and Compression are very noisey on high settings, but with Noise Gate, it's dead silent.All the effects are great. Exeption: What the hell is this Ring Modulator for? Any how,Any artist I need to imitate, I just tweak awy until I find it,and I always do. Dispite what other reviews sayed, the distortions are great! I recommend Fuzz and Vintage overdrive settings. The Delay is as good as a DD-5, exept no realtime tap function.

It's a boss, so It'll last. I would use it at a gig without backup. I think it would be better in metal, but then the price would go up. They should make a special limited edition metal casing version. I couldn't afford to but it, but it would be nice.

I play Beatles, Rockabilly, surf, and all that other 60's stuff. This works great. I traded a Dan-echo, Cool Cat, Boss SD-1, and Morley Wah strait up for this thing and didn't regret it. I'd definatley buy this again. The Phrase trainer is great. This blows away the ZOOM 505. I wish this thing came with a Harmonizer. I'm not going to complain of the Plastic Casing cause this thoing is the best. One set-back... not much range one the volume pedal. (Yes, the Wah is good.)

I don't know if anyone cares about my input with all these other submissions...but you're getting it anyway. This is a very sophisticated, yet simple to use piece of meat. All the effects are in little pictures on the display. The buttons are labeled in ways that make sense(effect, patch, edit, store, etc.) The manual is almost not needed except for the part about the recording feature. Everything is ready to use from the moment you unpack it and plug it in. Simple as that.

I play with headphones alot, due to my living quarters.... which sounds great. When I'm not doing that, I use a Peavey Wolfgang Special through a Marshall VS265R 2x12 combo...I also have a boss PS-3 pitch shifter/digital delay petal, an MXR flanger that I'm using on loan until I can find my own, and a George Dennis superb quality Parametric Volume/wah. The effects are very defined and can work for all types of music I play(rock, blues, classic rock, even metal). I mainly bought this to provide distortion for recording..but wound up with much more. It has the most useable effects of most any multi-effect unit out there. You can get all the weird space sounds for having fun, but for the most part, you get good distortions, good cleans, reverbs, choruses, wahs, and all the things you actually NEED. I don't try and sound like too many other people, but for fun I tried getting that processed Joe Satriani distortion, perfect...the classic Hendrix/Page overdrive, perfect...and that super heavey pantera "chunk"...perfect. You can get so many sounds. The only effects that could be considered weak would be the wah and flanger... but I already have top of the line products for that, so it makes not difference.. If you don't have a wah or flanger though, this will certainly get the job done well. I think my Marshall has the edge in the chorus department, probably because the Marshall's is stereo, I don't know. The reverb is a toss-up between the ME-30 and the amp. This is all quality stuff... If you can afford both, I'd get this thing and the pictch shifter/delay pedal, because they do slightly different things..and the PS-3 is the best damn pedal for those things there is.

It is made mainly of plastic...but still seems very durable. Boss has never let me down...and I've been through a lot of their stuff. I wouldn't buy a backup for it, mainly because my amp could probably save me in case of a problem. I don't see this thing breaking down on me anytime soon. Just buy a power supply for it...the batteries(included!) last close to a week...but you don't want to have them die in the middle of a gig.

Never dealt with the folks...I'm sure they're great.

I already mentioned the style deal above somewhere...I've been playing for a while.. I'm mainly a bass player. I love playing Van Halen and Satriani on guitar... Vai is God, but his music is really complicated, I don't care how good you are, he's better. I love this thing. The End....listen to funk!

This thing took me about a week to learn, but that's because it was my first experience with any effects anything, and had no idea just what the heck a phaser or anything else did. Once I figured this stuff out, though, this thing was a blast. I was up in no time thanks to their nice presets, and I actually sounded good (which, for me, is a real surprise.)

I'm playing right now with a Masada Les Paul-looking thing and a Peavey Rage 158 amp. It sounds real good, a little noise hither and thither but that might be due to the fact that my room is a zone of complete electromagnetic distortion. Other than that, though, it sounds wonderful. The Guitar Amp simulator sounded great when I plugged my headphones into the unit for practice.

I don't do gigs because I suck, but for home playing it's been quite reliable, and it still works after a year in my dorm room, which is a real testament to the durability of this set.

Never needed it.

This is a good buy for anyone who doesn't have $2 1/2 grand to blow on effects pedals. My only beef was that it didn't come with an AC adaptor, and batteries didn't last long, so I had to buy an adaptor from Radio Shack. Buy this effects set - it will change your life. Well, maybe not, but you'll sound real good.

LOOK. THIS THING IS VIRTUALLY FOOL-PROOF. A KID COULD USE THIS THING. I SCANNED THROUGH THE MANUAL A BIT THEN THE NEXT THING I KNOW, I WAS PUTTING UP THE PATCHES. I'M PRETTY SMART AND HAVE AN ABOVE AVERAGE IQ, I'LL GIVE YOU THAT BUT ANYONE COULD TOY WITH THIS AND LEARN QUICK. AND IF YOU ARE REALLY STUPID, I MEAN REALLY STUPID(THOUGH I DON'T THINK ANYONE IS STUPID--JUST SLOW), READ THE MANUAL AND LEARN IT BY HEART. THEN TRY THE HUNDREDS OF PATCHES IN THE NET RESOURCES RIGHT IN THIS SITE!! I MEAN A LOT. THIS IS EASY.

I'M USING AN IBANEZ RG270 AND A PEAVEY 110 ENVOY TRANSTUBE SERIES. IT IS VERY QUIET BUT CAN BE NOISY AT TIMES WHEN THE COMPRESSOR IS ON HIGH SETTINGS. I STILL NEED TO FIGURE OUT TO CUT THE NOISE OUT WITHOUT BUYING ANOTHER NOISE GATE. I DON'T USE THE COMPRESSOR MUCH, THOUGH. THE OTHER EFFECTS ARE GREAT. I DIDN'T LIKE THE WAH THAT MUCH. FIRST TIME I ARRANGED MY PATCHES, MY DISTORTION WAS SO WEAK!!! I WAS PONDERING THAT I WAS SCREWED. I WAS GETTING UGLY SOUNDS. BUT AFTER A FEW MINUTES, I DISCOVERED THAT THE WAH WAS PUT IN ANOTHER POSITION!!! WELL SPANK MY ASS AND CALL ME CHARLIE!!! THE DISTORTION WAS AWESOME. IT'S METAL ALL THE WAY MAN. I DON'T KNOW WHY PEOPLE SAY THAT THE DISTORTION WAS WEAK. IT'S GREAT!! I CAN GET THE HEAVY METALLICA SOUND. IF YOU WANT THE DISTORTION TO BE MORE FULL AND BASSY, THEN TURN UP THE AMP SIMULATOR AND THAT MAY DO THE TRICK FOR YOU. I DON'T DO THAT. I JUST TWEAK THE EQUALIZER AND ALAS! A FAT SOUND!!! BUT I DON'T WANT A FAT SOUNDING DISTORTION. I WANT TREBLE, METAL RULES!!! USE A HUMBUCKER AND WHAM! I CAN GET GLASSY TUNES WITH IT, STEVIE RAY VAUGHN SOUND, CLAPTON, METALLICA, KORN, GEEZ, ANYTHING IF YOU'RE PATIENT ENOUGH!!

I'LL DEPEND ON IT CAUSE IT'S BOSS!!! I'LL USE IT WITHOUT ANY BACKUP WHATSOEVER IF NECESSARY.

NOT TALKED WITH THEM YET.

I PLAY MOSTLY HEAVY METAL, TRASH AND SOMETIMES CLASSICAL, EVEN BALLADS. THIS IS PERFECT FOR MY TYPE OF MUSIC. I DON'T KNOW FOR BLUES PLAYER BUT IT IS FOR ME. IF THIS WAS STOLEN, I WOULD BE REALLY MAD AND IF I FIND THE ROBBER, I'LL GET MY GUITAR, AIM ITS SHARP HEAD WITH THE TUNERS AT HIS/HER ASS (EQUAL OPPORTUNITY) TURN IT SIDEWAYS AND I'LL PUSH AS HARD AS I COULD UNTIL THE END COMES OUT OF HIS/HER MOUTH. THEN I'LL KICK HIM IN THE NUTS. I MAY BUT SOMETHING ELSE WHICH IS MORE EXPENSIVE LIKE THE ROLAND VG-8 BUT RIGHT NOW, I NEED TO BUDGET SO THIS IS FINE. I LOVE EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE WAH AND THE COMPRESSOR. I HOPE THE WAH HAS THE MORE TRADITIONAL SOUND TO IT. IT IS SO DIGITAL THAT THE D STRING SOUNDS LIKE AN OCTAVE HIGHER. BUT I GUESS IT'S STILL OK. THE COMPRESSOR SHOULD BE MORE QUIET. BUT THAT'S ALL. THE OTHERS ARE AWESOME! THIS IS CHEAP BUT RELIABLE AND HAS GREAT SOUND QUALITY YOU CAN EXPECT FROM A GREAT COMPANY. THUMBS UP TO BOSS!!!

I see there's a lot of reviews here, but I mean A LOT. So I'll try to make this one just for the person who wants to buy something and isn't decided yet. Thinking about the complications of operating it? Don't. This think is dummy-proof. When I bought it I didn't even get to read the manual.

The setup I'm using is a Jackson Randy Rhoads Performer w/ a Crate Excalibur 120W head and 4x12 stack. I run it all thru the effects loop, meaning that my guitar is jacked in the head's input instead of the pedal. This reduces the noise in the ME-30 (which sometimes will bother you). My main worry with pedals is the delay between switching patches. Since I'm the rythm guitar on my band, I need a really seamless change between clean/distorted sounds. The pedals that have this (like SDISCII RP2112) are way beyond my reach right now. But this pedal closes the gap in this. I found out that with some work and practice one can work this out. Also, the change from clean/distortion is smooth (more notably when one has the delay on). I also needed really big distortion, without mids and with a great bite for fast palm mutes/picking. At first I put the METAL distortion w/ the drive at 100 and played great in my practice amp, but when I cranked it up in the Crate it almost blew up the speakers and sounded like a funky fuzz. I found out that the best settings for Metal distortion are not 100% drive. Keep this in mind. It has more distortions but they leave me unimpressed. The clear effects are good, the wah-wah is so-so (get a Crybaby), you got tremolo arm effects and ring modulator which are good only after looooots of thinking 'When am I gonna use this?' and tweaking.

Boss has a great dependability and track record, so I'm riding on that. It has not faltered me. I can use it without backup because for my band, effects are not critical, just enhancers. I can use my amp's clean/distorted sound. It doesn't get a 10 because the output jack were giving me some hassle, it cut the guitar's signal (guess it's from lack of ground inside). *******NOTE********* The 'luminous LCD' boasted on the ME-30 is nothing more than this: you put your pedal up to a light for some time, then turn the lights off, and VOILA! your pedal's menu is lighted. This wears off, though.

Never dealt with problems concerning Boss/Roland.

I play a lot of styles (Latin, Hardcore, Metal, Progressive Rock) so I needed something versatile and with good distortion. This pedal gives me both. I've been playing for four years now, and my other gear's a Peavy Bandit 112 combo (for practice), a Fighter guitar import (really cool), a Strat, and PA equipment for voice amplification. If it's stolen, I would ache to want one but won't have the money to get one back (tight budget). Compared to similar pedals, though, this is a good bang for buck. I love the tweakability of the modulation effects, hate the feedback/noise w/the compressor. Chose this product over others by price. I wish it had a seven-band EQ.
Folks, compare it to the RP-7, RP-3 and 21. This beats them all in bang for buck. What you get is what you pay for and more.

Like any button/menu-based system, it's kind of a pain to navigate around, and easy to accidentally hit the wrong button and end up editing the wrong parameter. The screen wastes too much of its limited space with cute icons, and doesn't give enough space for the actual text labels, so you have to be at least 12" or less from it to read it. Not good if you're editing patches that make use of the controller pedal. Otherwise, once you get the hang of it, the editing proceeds rather smoothly.
I wish you could assign the controller pedal to something other than volume, pitch shift, wah, or ring modulator. It would be cool to get increased overdrive, reverb depth, etc. from the pedal control.

I'm playing this with an Ibanez Artstar fat-body archtop electric. The amp is (laughably enough) a Peavey keyboard amp, which I purchased for running a microphone, midi equipment, and guitar through all at once. What's surprising is how good the amp simulator on this unit makes the guitar sound through the sub-optimum amp (because it sure sucks as a guitar amp otherwise). I also use the unit for going direct into my PC sound card for direct-to-disk recording.
It tends to be a little noisy on high-overdrive, high-compression settings. I don't use them much, though, so that doesn't bother me. A fat archtop guitar doesn't like high-gain settings...
My favorite setting on this box is the "vintage" distortion, moderately compressed with a slow attack (to preserve the initial attack but make the archtop's notes last a little longer), some EQ to cut the mids and boost the highs a little, and light delay and reverb. Tasty, tasty. Also cooked up a few really spanky clean tones.
The pitch shifter effect is unconvincing, but you can't expect too much when doing that kind of pitch manipulation. The reverb isn't particularly lush, but it's servicable. I can't find any use for the ring modulator, but just call me an old pre-industrial bogart.
The pitch shifter can provide a fairly nice harmony/doubling effect, provided you cut the level of the shifted version relative to the original. Otherwise, the unnatural nature of pitch shifted sounds tend to sound robot-like. (Again, this might be cool for those of an industrial bent).
The presets are a mixed bag. Many exaggerated, overblown settings. My presets tend to be small groupings of similar sounds with subtle variations between them.
Having one "catch all" amp simulator, though, makes me hungry for newer effects (Line 6 POD) with multiple simulators.

I haven't gigged with it, but it hasn't failed me at home. Don't plan on going far on battery power, though. You'll need a wall ward.

No need for customer support yet.

I'd say this is a very good unit for the price. Does a fine job of giving convincing tones when going direct, and a good grab-bag of effects.
I play a wide variety of styles, but have tended to gravitate toward a jazz-blues direction (hence, the archtop). I find traditional jazz sounds largely boring, though, and I like how I can keep a lot of the archtop tone but with a good bite and attack with this pedal.
I chose this one because it seemed to offer bang per buck. I got it through a mail order catalog, so didn't get the chance to do ear comparisons. Given that you get a controller pedal along with all the effects, it's a good deal and I'd recommend it to others.

Amazingly Easy. Its like adjusting a bunch of individual stomp boxes, you just scroll through them and adjust. I really like the ease of use because you can still do it while drunk/stoned. Editing, swaping, and moving patches is extremely easy. If your not brighter than the average house plant, then the manual (which is written very well) will be more than enough to help. I had this thing figured out in 5 minutes when i was playing with it in the store the first time I saw it.

Its hard for me to really rate this because my amp is a piece of crap. (some cheap japanese import) but even with my crap amp, if i turn all the equalizer settings to flat and cut the gain, use the ME-30's amp simulator, i can make it actually sound pretty good. With the distortion up it can be quite noisy, but not enought for me to care, because you can cancel most of it out with the noise suppression. The effects are pretty good, with the exception of the wah, but i never really use it, so i dont care. In order to get good distortion you have to fiddle with the equalizer for a bit, but not too hard. Its quite nice because it will fit a wide range of playing styles.

I always play my guitar through it, and i have been using it for a year so far, and i have had no problems at all. I would be cautious about bashing it around too much because its plastic, and my main consern would be stepping on the screen and cracking it, if it really would crack. knowing the way boss' effects stand up, i really dont think you can hurt it too bad.

I have never delt with boss.

Mostly i play punk, its not spectacular for punk, you can get the same sound im after with a boss metal zone. the real reason i bought this is so i could play many diffrent things, and the thousands of diffrent sounds you can produce with this, its perfect, and the price is right too! Overall, i enjoy it very much, and would recomend it to anybody who would like to expand their playing syle.

I'M GONNA KEEP THIS WHOLE THING SHORT AND SWEET. AS FAR AS MULTI F/X IS CONCERNED THIS UNIT IS FAIRLY EASY TO USE, I ONLY WISH THE DISPLAY WAS LARGER. EDITING PATCHES IS SIMPLE, PERHAPS MORE SO THAN ANY OTHER UNIT IN ITS RANGE. THE MANUAL IS ACCEPTABLE (BUT I NEVER LEARN ANYTHING BY READING).

HMMMM... SOUND QUALITY, ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT OVER ALL IT'S THE BEST YOURE GONNA GET FROM A MULTI F/X FLAT OUT. IT IS A BIT NOISY AND YOU DO HAVE TO COMPROMISE SOMEWHAT (WHAT, YOU WANTED SOMETHING FOR NOTHING?) I'VE GOT A BASSWOOD IBANEZ JS MODEL AND RUN IT THROUGH A CRATE AMP AND THIS THING SEEMS TO DO THE TRICK, I'M NOT REALLY PICKY ABOUT SOUND SO MUCH BECAUSE IN THE END THE AMP TENDS TO SLAP ON ITS OWN SIGNATURE SOUND ANYWAY. HOWEVER, WHERE I DO TEND TO GET PICKY IS WHEN I USE IT THROUGH MY 4 TRACK, THIS MY FRIEND IS A WHOLE DIFFERENT STORY. LIKE EVERYONE I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THAT THE COMPRESSOR IS KINDA LOUD BUT IT'S GOT ENOUGH PLAY THAT YOU CAN ADJUST ALOT OF THE NOIZE OUT AND STILL HAVE IT ON. THE DISTORTIONS ARE ALLRIGHT, EACH HAS ITS OWN VOICING THAT IT KINDA KEEPS NO MATTER WHERE THE LEVEL SETTINGS ARE. I SELDOM USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE METAL BUT THE BLUES HAS ALSO GOT SOME SOUL TO IT, THESE 2 ARE PROBABLY THE ONLY THAT DON'T SOUND OVERLY PROCESSED. THE EQ AND PHASER ARE LIKE ONE IN THE SAME "PEDAL" SO U CAN ONLY USE EITHER AND NOT BOTH, WHY THIS IS I CANNOT IMAGNE. THE EQ IS STANDARD AND THE PHASER IS PRETTY GOOD, VERY ADJUSTABLE BUT SOUNDS PROCESSED. THE NOIZE SUPPRESSOR IS JUST KINDA THERE. TO ME IT SEEMS KINDA PICKY, LIKE ITS GOT THIS HUGE RANGE GOING ON BUT DOESNT DO MUCH WITH IT (THAT'S JUST OPINION THOUGH). TIVE GOT TO SAY THAT THE DELAY IS QUITE IMPRESSIVE, VERY VERSATILE, ADJUSTABLE, AND INCREDIBLE! ITS NICE, DONT THINK YOU NEED A WHOLE 2 SECONDS THOUGH BUT I'M NOT ARGUING,IT HAS BOTH NORMAL AND PANNING SETTINGS. THE MODULATIONS "PEDAL" RUNS ONE OF 4 EFFECTS. FLANGER, CHORUS, PITCH SHIFTER, AND TREMOLO. FIRST OF ALL, WHO THE HELL NEEDS A TREMOLO? THE CHORUS IS PRETTY GOOD (I THINK BUILT IN CHORUS ON AN AMP IS MUCH BETTER) BUT IT SEEMS KINDA FLAT. THE FLANGER IS PRETTY GOOD AS WELL, HOW MUCH DOES ONE REALLY NEED TO BE ADJUSTED? THE PITCH SHIFTER WORKS, NOT GREAT, BUT IT WORKS, DETUNE IS THE ONLY SETTING IVE EVER USED FOR LENGTHS OF TIME. LETS SEE, NOW DOWN TO REVERB. I GUESS THIS SOUNDS PRETTY GOOD TOO, ITS GOT A HALL OR ROOM SETTING THAT ALMOST ACTS LIKE THE DIFFERENT VOICINGS IN THE OD/DISTORTION SETUPS, I USE IT ON ALL OF MY PATCHES, I GUESS U COULD SAY THAT IT'S KINDA DOCILE. IT DOES SEEM TO BE VERY ADJUSTABLE. THE DIFFERENT OPTIONS FOR VOLUME, ARM AND WAH WHICH ARE DRIVEN BY THE "EXPRESSION" PEDAL MAKE THIS PRETTY FUNCTIONABLE AND VERSATILE. PLEASE DO KEEP IN MIND THAT THE WAH ON THIS THING IS AN ABSOLUTE PIECE OF SHIT! I JUST REALLY TRIED TO USE IT TONIGHT AND MAKE IT WORK BUT NO WAY, FORGET ABOUT IT. THIS IS IN FACT THE REASON I CAME HERE TONIGHT, IVE OWNED THE THING A YEAR OR SO AND JUST NOW DECIDED TO DO A REVIEW. THE WAH SUCKS BIG FAT BURLY DICK. OVERALL, THE EFFECTS ARE PRETTY GOOD, WELL WORTH THE MONEY AND VERY VERSATILE. IVE BEEN ABLE TO EMULATE SOUNDS (NOT TALENT) OF MANY MUSICIANS FROM RANDY RHOADS, SATRIANI, VAI, TO ALEX LIFESON AND EVEN CARLOS SANTANA. IT'S PRETTY VERSATILE, YOU JUST HAVE TO SPEND THE TIME TO TINKER WITH IT.

AS FAR AS RELIABILITY GOES, WELL, IT'S A BOSS. THE ONLY PROBLEM I'VE HAD WITH IT IS THE TUNER, THE READINGS GO FUNKY. IT DOESN'T HAVE A READING FOR THE "B" STRING SO I TOOK IT RETURNED IT TO THE PLACE WHERE I BOUGHT IT AND THEY GAVE ME A NEW ONE, A WEEK LATER IT DID THE SAME THING. SO AGAIN I WENT BACK WITH IT AND EVERY UNIT IN THE STORE THAT THEY HAD DID EXACTLY THE SAME THING, GO FIGURE. OH WELL, SMALL PRICE TO PAY. U SHOULD BE ABLE TO TUNE BY EAR ANYWAY.

IVE NEVER DEALT WITH THE COMPANY SO I WOULD HAVE NO IDEA.

I PLAY DAMN NEAR ANYTHING THAT I CAN MAKE SOUND GOOD. I TEND TO LIKE THE PURELY INSTRUMENTAL APPROACH TO MUSIC SO IM PRETTY MUCH INTO THE SATCH SCENE. I THINK THIS WOULD BE A GREAT UNIT FOR ANYONE, FROM THE WEEKEND GIG WARRIOR THAT'S IN A BAND TO THE FULLY AUTOMATED MUSICIAN LIKE ME (GUITAR,BASS, DRUM MACHINE,4 TRACK). IT'S FLAT OUT THE BEST DEAL FOR THE MONEY, IT'S NO RACK SYSTEM BUT IT IS ENOUGH TO HELP YOU EXPAND.

The ME-30 is very easy to use. The display makes editing patches a breeze. The manual is very in-depth. The ME-30 is the easiest multi effects i've ever used.

Awsome sounding effects! Especially the chorus & flanger. The overdrive/distortions were pretty good, especially the metal. The delay has a max. time of 2 seconds! The noise suppressor is pretty good.

I haven't used this at a gig yet. But so far it's been extremely reliable.

Never had any problems yet.

I've been playing for just about 2 years, I play mostly Punk, ska, and metal. This pedal is perfect for the types of music i play. I compared this product to the Digitech RP-7 & the Zoom 3000. I chose the Boss because of the quality of the effects and the inexpensive price. I would definitly buy another ME-30 if anything happened to it. This product really enhances the way you sound in a positive way. The ME-30 is truly what all multi effects should be!

The ease of use for this is great! I figured out the whole unit within 15 minutes with a little help from the manual. (which is well written) The greatest thing about editing patches, is that when you edit a certain part, you see stompbox dials that you can "turn." It's a lot easier than any other multi-effects pedal, which just have some number LEDs.

I'm using a crappy Ibanez through a crappy Crate. (I should be picking up some new, good gear in a few weeks) The ME-30 really cleaned up the tone, so it actually sounds decent. (although it does require the listener to be slightly intoxicated). This only gets a 9, because it does not make make my crappy Ibanez/Crate setup sound like vintage Gibson through a Marshall (but I guess I'm just a little too picky) The distortion is also a little weak.

Well, I don't gig (I'd get laughed off the stage with my Ibanez/Crate), but I've been using the ME-30 for a long time. I'm into the grunge scene, so I like to jump up and down on the stompbox in front of a mirror, because it makes me feel like Kurt Cobain. I'm lame, sue me. Besides, it's a BOSS! The thing is made mostly of plastic, but I hear that they can withstand direct missle assaults.

Roland (Boss' parent company) sends me stickers, along with some weird stuff like pink socks, whenever I email them. I give them a 10 cause the guys at boss kick ass

I play grunge/rock/metal/classic rock, and mostly anything except r&b and top 40, cause that isn't REAL music. I've been playing for two years with my crappy Ibanez/Crate, and like I said, it makes my setup sound halfway decent. If it were stolen, I'd probably hit my parents up for some cash to buy another. I compared it to a lot of other multi effects pedals, which all sucked royally. I like the fact that it's easy to use. I hate the fact that the backlit screen doesn't help that much, and it doesn't make me sound like It's definitely helps me make music (although my parents say that what I play can't legally be defined as music). I give it a 9, because this is one sweet product. And the price is amazing.

This thing is a complete cinch. At first I thought it might be hard, but I only spent 10 minutes figuring it out without looking in the manual. The manual is good though...it gives nice descriptions of everything this unit can do, and in the back there is room to write down your patches. I would give it a 10 but sometimes I have a problem in saving my patches when I am working off one that already exists---sometimes when I try and save it to a different number it just swaps the two patchs.

This thing is the bomb, well...at least for a multi-effects unit. If you want the real thing with better quality then go out and buy a nice rack system, or spend the money and buy all the pedels included in this thing. Lets see...theres the Boss CS-3, OD-3, SD-1, BD-2, DS-1, MT-2, FZ-3, GE-7(almost), NF-1, DD-5, CE-2, BF-2, PS-2, TR-2, and RV-3. That is a ton of pedals, and for digital effects at this price you cannot find better. Not Digitec, not Korg, not DOD....nothing. Here is the lowdown on what things sound like. Compressor: Great..I love it...it does make noise when it is on but that is normal. OD/DIS: These are some of the best digital overdrives and distrtions I have heard in forever...a lot of people have made the comment that they have too much treble, but I found that the secret is to turn the AMP simulator on and leave it on...it gives everything a much more crisp sound. The vintage and warm overdrivers sound good...I use them for softer songs and sometimes just for the gain. The crunch overdrive is good...I use it for praise and worship type music. The Blues overdrive is the best one on this unit, I use it even in songs that aren't blueish. The Hard is ok, but don't turn the gain up past 50 or it looses some on the low end. The metal is EXCATLY like the Boss MT-2 and it has some excellent tone, but I don't use it simply because it doesn't fit with my music. The fuzz is really neat, set the gain low and use it for lead and it sounds great, not to good for rythm though. The equalizer is awesome and it picks out the highs, mids, and lows nicely. I don't much care for the noise suppressor...it only really works when the level is set all the way to 100 and then you loose some 'hang time' on those strings. The delay is very nice...i think it is actually better than the DD-5. Chorus sounds excatly like the stomp box...EXCELLENT...the flanger is good but tends to overwhelm the tone if the resonance is too high. the Pitch shifter could be better...there is a slight delay for it to find the pitch...it finds it well, just slow. Tremolo is good. Reverbs aren't very lush, but for digital sound decent. Wah is good but needs more depth(it works nicely though, just needs a bit more umph), wammy sucks, ring modulator is good ONLY when there is no distortion. This is an all around good sounding until and has great sounds(for digital)

I do depend on it. It gets me through many gigs. I have an old DOD that I use as a backup, but I KNOW I will never need it...it is a BOSS, and BOSS rocks.

never had to mess with them

I play christian rock and it suits me just fine for the moeny I paid and the incredible sound I get. I have been playing for a while now and I only own a few other multi-effects pedals(cuz I am too poor to buy a whole friggin system). I would buy it again if something happened to it. I love every aspect of thise great pedal, except the saving problem I have been having. GO OUT AND GET THIS IF YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY FOR A WHOLE PEDAL SYSTEM...you won't be let down.

ME-30 is very easy to use. But if you haven't used these kinds of machines before it'll take some time to realize what is going on. But in about 5 minutes you'll be making your own patches. Manual mode is also very good, you can change 5 effects on/off. The big LCD screen really helps you so you can see what effects are on and what aren't. I think it's pretty hard to get good sounds out of it. The manual is quite long and will tell you what to do.

I run this through a Fender Strat and Fender Vibrolux Reverb amp. I also own a JD Crybaby wah for wahing, because ME-30's wah isn't the best one available but great for multi-fx wah. I would use it on a gig if I wouldn't have a separate wah pedal. Anyway the sound quality is great and most the effects sound good to me. I don't know why some people are wining about the distortions. They are great but you have to tweak ***ALOT*** to get it sound good, also remember to turn Guitar Amp Simulator on. Once I was playing with a friend of mind who has Jackson "heavy" guitar and Tech 21 Trademark 60 amp. We tried a couple of Metallica's songs and we both were totally blown away because of ME-30's distortion, wah and reverb. I mean the distortion sounded almost BETTER than Tech 21's, whic distortion is amazing.
Chorus is excellent but if you put rate or depth too high it'll sound like your guitar is out of tune. The Delay, well I don't use this one much but it's sometimes fun to use this with Pitch Sifter and play some harmony stuff. Compressor is a little bit noisy and that's why I use it only if I'm playing with ME-30's wah. Flanger, Phaser and Tremolo are also very good. Reverb is kind of weak, because I'm used to my amp's excellent reverb.

I've owned it about three months and so far I haven't had any problems with it. I usually step pretty hard on but it has survived and I think it will never broke. Altough I'm a little worried about the plastic cover. But as they say: It's a BOSS !

I've asked a couple questions about Boss products and they answered very quicly.

I play in a blues/rock band and we usually play stuff like Hendrix, SRV, Santana, Gary Moore and The Shadows (I'm not joking). I love it my band love when we get gigs the whole world will love it. ME-30 does everything I want and it's absolutely fantastic. If you want good multi-fx box and don't have lots of money, buy it and get everything what you want. Run to your local music store now !!!!

I found the ME-30 to very easy to use. The first time I fooled around with it, I was able to figure out how to program patches without the manual. However, I'm pretty familar with how processors work because I used to have a zoom and I figured out how to use my friends Rp-7 cause he didn't know how to use it!! Also, the instructions are very helpful if you have no clue what your doing, which shouldn't be the case.

I think the sound quality is awsome!!! when I first plugged it in at my house I was real surprised, becasue at the store it sounded good but not great!! I use a Marshall VS100R with a 68' reissue white stat. I also use an old tube amp for the stero effects. That is another thing that made the ME-30 sound so good. I haven't heard too many people talking about the stero effects of this thing, and if you don't plug this thing in to an extra speaker, your missin' out!!! For example, the delay has a pan feature which pans the delay sounds from the left to right speaker! It sounds crazy when the delay is real fast!! The chorus also sounds twice as good with a second amp, as well as the reverbs!! So if you have ME-30 and aren't using a second amp, do your self a huge favor and get one or borrow one off your friend if you have to. You'll be amazed at the difference! I even compared the ME-30 to the Rp-7, and thought the sound quality was just as good. And for the money, it's damn good!!!! Another thing I would like to mention is the ring modulator. I've heard a lot of people say it's useless, but I think it's great!! If you set the ring modulator with some delay and a soft disortion, you can really bug out to it!!!! Especially if you have two speakers hooked up!!! You have to fool around with it to really start to like it. It's good for slow, metal songs if you what weird noisies in the background.

I've had the ME-30 for about 3 months now and so far so good! I would use it at a gig, but I would make sure I remembered what I programmed in what bank because the Lcd doesn't do a whole lot in the dark. You have to put it under a light for awhile or in the sunlight, and it still fads after awhile. I use it mainly to record and in my home. But I also jam with it, when I play with my band. A fun thing to do is to plug a mic into it. I've able to come up with some real funny shit, as well as freaky!! If you use with the pitch shifter, you can sound like Mickey Mouse or Barry White. It's also fun to call people on the phone with your voice all jacked up!!! But it's definetly dependable, unless you really abuse it, like dropping it a lot or spilling beer on it or something!! It's Boss so I'm not worried!

Never had to deal with them.

I play a wide variety music from hendrix, to funk, to blues, to jazz, and metal, and I found this unit to be able to cover everything. You just have to sit down and really tweak your sounds to get what you want. Use the eq and compressor they help a lot!!! I compared it with the Rp-7 and found that the sound quality was just as good, and it had the same phrase trainer that the Rp-7 had. Rp-7 did have a few more effects and the parameters went higher, but for the money and sound quality, the ME-30 was something I couldn't pass up. Maybe when I get enough money, and need more variety with effects, I'll buy a bigger processor. But if you only want to spend so much money, but still want cool effects and great sound, get the ME-30, it's the best out there for the money.

Ease of use was a bit of a contradiction for me. It's very easy to select patches and get going with it. It looked like it should be easy to edit patches too, but it ended up taking me a whole evening to figure it all out. As others have pointed out, not all effects may be used at once. You have to pick between EQ or Phaser, and one of Chorus, Flanger, Pitch Shifter or Tremolo. I haven't found this to be a serious limitation so far, but I guess time will tell. The manual is regular 8 1/2 by 11 stapled black and white booklet with illustrations, and is adequate. It took me a while to find some of the finer points on programming it, like how to pick one of the mutually exclusive effects mentioned above. The patch bank pedals are nice. You can set up patches in groups of three which make sense to you, and the ability to name them is really useful. The phrase trainer feature is easy to use, but I'm not sure if I'll use it much. It is possible to adjust most of the effect parameters satisfactorily with the exception of some of the ones that are tied to the expression pedal. For example, if you select the ring modulator, there's no way to mix the effect with the original signal. With something as wacky sounding as a ring modulator, you might want to do that. Also, the depth of the wah, and pitch range of the arm effects are not programmable - I guess you just have to train your foot to move the pedal carefully.

I'm using it with an '84 Fender Squire Bullet (basically a strat), and a Peavy practice amp. It is acceptably quiet, especially if you are not using a distortion effect. In fact, I traded in a Zoom 505 because it was too noisy for me, and I find the ME-30 way better. As with most pedals, some of the presets are good, and some aren't, but there are enough adjustments on this thing that you can fix up the ones that aren't to your liking. In general, I find the ME-30 to be more "musical" than the very bottom end multi effect pedals, and worth the extra money.

I don't gig. This is just for fun, so it's not a consideration for me.

I play a variety of styles, and I think the ME-30 can easily match anything I might want to do. I've been playing on and off for about 20 years. This is only the second multi effects unit I've owned, the other one being the zoom 505 which I traded in for this one. If I lost this unit, I might look for a unit which fixed the shortcomings I mentioned in this review, but if there wasn't one available in the same price range I would buy it again. I wish it had multi-tap delay, reverse reverb, and more simultaneous effects. Overall it feels more like a piece of music gear and less like a toy than some of the bottom end units.

Very easy to use, manual explains pretty well although you wont need it. I would give it a 10 if it weren't for one shitty thing, you can't use some effects if you are using another, like using EQ prohibits you from using phaser as these are on the same slot, using chorus prohibits you from using flanger, tremolo and pitch shifter as these are also on the same slot.. (Why??!) Only that lowers my rating for 2 points. One more thing pissed me off..That luminous lcd display, you can't see a shit if you're in a dark room unless you put your unit under light for some minutes before..That's -1 point. Just be sure you prepare everything before playing live and you will be just fine..

I run my Fender Strat through a little Crate GX-15. At first I went mad as every distortion and overdrive sounded like shit, by turning on the guitar amp sim. though everything started sounding like it should and I ended up getting any sound I want. From the most clean acoustic guitar sound, a H-E-A-V-Y distorted metal sound to a fucked up fuzz distortion like NOFX uses is in the song Brews. I don't know why most are complaining about me-30's bad distortions, I love them and I will always use them, wont even spend money to buy a separate stomp box as I feel I don't need it. It's all about tweaking, If you put your ass down and tweak the shit out of it you wont get dissapointed.
Now there is an expression pedal too. It can be used as a wah pedal, as tremolo arm, as a volume pedal and for the awful ring modulation (ring modulation always sucked, don't mind it). The wah is usable although not the same as a separate wah pedal, but again a good separate wah pedal costs almost 1/3 the prize of the me-30 so don't start whining. The first thing i tried with it was the riff from Bulls on Parade (Rage against the machine) and it worked well, then I tried some fill-ins and solos from Black Album and they also worked out fine.
The pitch shifter is cool, you can actually make your guitar sound like a bass if you like although there is a small delay before you hear the detuned note.
There is a noise suppressor included. Use this carefully or it might cut your tone when you pick your strings without much power. It got a threshold from 0 to 100, I suggest you set it at 65-70 as it will cut almost all hiss created when you have many effects at the same time and it will not ruin your tone.
The me-30's sound quality R-O-C-K-S and is simply worth a 10. No more to say about that.

I've only had it for two weeks. Although it's plastic, It's Boss so I it could be made of paper, I don't give a shit, I trust this company more than possible. I will gig with backup although that's something I would do even if I owned the most expensive unit ever, you never know what will happen. About the expression pedal: I've read a review of a guy who was 300 lbs =] , it hasn't broke for him so I am pretty sure It wont brake for me either.

Never dealt..

I play alot of shit, hardcore, metal, grunge, punk-rock..etc. In my band we are playing a mix of metal and hardcore. The me-30 is helping me ALOT when it comes to recording own songs and playing with my band. I love it and If it were stolen I would report it to the police as "missing baby" and buy a new one the same day (If I had money...)
Before buying it I tried out the Digitech RP-3 and the Zoom 2100 as they are all about the same prize, and I can say for sure the Boss ME-30 kicks some serious RP3-2100 ass.
The things I miss is a volume knob, a backlit display and the ability to use EQ - phaser and flanger - chorus - trem arm simultaenously. But again these drawbacks are compensated by the low prize and great sound you get.
If you can afford something more expensive you are lucky and could buy something better in they way of effects, like a multi-effect rack unit. But again if you are low on cash or just looking for a good multi-fx console, just run (fast!) down to your local music store and buy it now!!

It's very easy to use if you are familiarized with that kind of machines. If you're not, it's a little bit difficult, but the manual is very usefull

Except for the Wah-wah, Whamy, Ring modulator, that are disgusting, and the OD/DS that is very noisy, the rest of the effects are very good. I use my ME-30 with a JD Cry Baby, both connected through my Fender Performer 650 effects loop, and it sounds great with my Fender Stratocaster Silver. I'm using the amp drive, since it's a valvestate. The reverb isn't so good, but if you don't have any other, it's very usefull. I prefer to use the amp reverb. The volume pedal isn't the best, but it's enough for me. The other effects are enough for anybody

It's made of plastic. I broke the wah-wah switch when I didn't have the cry baby. The rest is perfect. I don't have a backup

Never heard about it

If I had only US 500, I would buy it again, because it's excelent for the price. I would change it only for a set of racks, like Marshall distortion, and others. Obviuosly those are very more expensive than ME-30, so I suggest you try it.

This pedal is really easy to get a good sound (with some of the effects) and It is really easy to get accustomed to changing patches, etc. especially if you are used to using stomp boxes. The manual could be better on explaining some things, but overall it isn't bad.

I run my ME-30 through the effects loop on a crate 2x12 combo and a Fender Lone Star Strat. The Metal and Fuzz distortions are always noisy even with the supressor. For the most part, the effects are pretty good, with the exception of a few useless ones like a ring modulator, and a few crappy whammy bar effects. The best effect is probably the chorus, which is always really rich and smooth. The worst is the wah, which has absolutely no depth to it.

This pedal is very dependable, however, if you are going to use it for more than an hour at a time, then use the AC adaptor that comes seperate.

The customer support is o.k. they give a lot of helpfull info, if you feel like calling or writing. The manual should come with enough to get you started without having to go through that trouble, though. There are troubleshooting sections, etc.

I play just about anything, except country, and this pedal serves its purpose well. I have been playing for 3 years and have owned pedals made by DOD (WHICH REALLY SUCKED!!!) and a digitegch XP-100 which I still use for detune/Wah effects. If it got stolen, I would have trouble deciding whether or not to buy another ME-30 or to invest in some good old stomp boxes. I love the fact that I don't have to hassle switching every single effects (like with stomp boxes)every time I want to get another sound out of my amp. You just have to switch to a different patch. I hate that there is only one way to route the usefull effects, like distortions and Modulations (Chorus, Flanger, etc.).I also hate that BOSS wasted their time adding some useless effects, like Ring Mod and Whammy, instead of conserving the processing power to make the other effects sound better. Like I said, I had a DOD(Tec8-G) and this ME-30 totally blew it out of the water. The overall quality of the effects offered, however useless they are, are way better than anything DOD could ever think of doing. The ME-30 doesn't really lack much at all, although, it has a little too much. It really helps make music, because sometimes you play something good with a certain effect, but you change the effects around, and it gets 2x better than it was before. It really diversifies your sound.

As a first time multi-effects pedal user, I found this to be extemely intuitive (with the help of the manual). The icon-based format is great! The manual is well written.

I've run this through both a Marshall 60 watt 2x12 tube combo(for about 1+ yrs) and a new fender vibrolux(+ - one month). I plug either my Heritage 535 or a mid eighties Ibanez roadstar II into it. Let me just put a synopsis of my evaluations here: Chromatic tuner: It's accurate and I like the fact that you can either use the display screen or the LED's.
Noise: Not too bad; the more effects used at once, the more noise
Factory presets: Good for showing off what the pedal can do, and also as a starting point for beginners to see how to (or how not to) run effects together. I've acually found that a couple are pretty usable.
What's good: Chorus, Tremolo, Reverb, EQ(o.k.), "Vintage" and "Metal" distortions(with *a lot* of eq/levels tweaking), Delay, Phase Shifter, Flanger, Volume pedal, Wah(so-so: not much of a sweep and is rather thin), compressor, noise supressor.
What's bad: The other five distortions, the whammy bar effects.
What's useless: The ring modulator(unless you like to pretend you're Rodan in a Godzilla flick), the pitchshifter/detuner -- really bad!!!!- it does not give true chromatic shifts(At least not if A=440, and even if it doesn't, the pitch isn't accurate relative to the dry signal. You can use it in conjunction with the pedal or not; set it completely wet or a mix -it just doesn't work correctly.
A word about the distortions: I've never really liked BOSS distortions- at least the ones I've tried over the years(i.e. since they came out). So that may explain why there's only two of them that are passable after *extensive* tweaking with the EQ engaged. It seems as though each of the OD/Distortion types have their own general voicing and no matter how much you tweak, you can't change that voicing. So you either like it or you don't I guess.
If a 10=pristine sound quality, then this thing's a 5; but I give it a 7 because of the price/performance ratio.

I've used this since before they were advertised, the dealer had just got it in that morning. So that's been since October of '97 and I haven't had one problem with it at all-- and I've gigged with it every weekend. Just a word to all of you out there worrying about its being plastic--I've stomped on this sucker and I mean HARD and it has shown no problems yet! As far as gigging w/o a backup, I always bring a couple of stompboxes with me just in case. But the thing is, if a person really depends on a multi-fx unit and it goes down, they're screwed.

I've been playing for 20+ years and play a bunch of different styles. I need something that will cover a lot of sonic ground. For the most part, I really like this pedal. It's quite the bang for the buck. The main thing I don't like about it is the distortions. This wasn't a big deal when I had my channel switching Marshall, but now that I'm using a vibrolux, I need distortions that are of really good quality(at least as I define it). The two that I pointed out above are pretty passable though and get me by.
I compared this to other FX units of comparable price and it had the best sounds[even the distortions:)]. I got it before the Digitech RP3 came out but I think I still would have gotten the BOSS unless the Digitech blew it away sonically because of the easy to use icon interface.
Areas for improvement: need to be able to bypass the unit by footswitching, not just by bending over and using the button.
BACKLIGHT THE READOUT/DISPLAY AREA!! - Why the heck put this easy to use interface in this unit and then not invest the couple of cents to wire in a light bulb so the user can see it?
Make the wah-wah on off switch/sensor(whatever it is) less stiff.
Anyway, this pedal is really a very good value and most of the usable sounds it offers are adequate for playing live(I've never tried to record with it).
If this were stolen or lost, I think I'd shop around and consider going to something a little more expensive; which I'd do only if the price/performance ratio favored a different pedal. What I intend to do is to keep using this and see if Boss does any upgraded versions of it in the future, or if someone else does something similar/better.

I never even had to look at the manual. Editing patches and singling out a sound you want is a breeze.

I use a Fender Strat (both a Mexican and an American Standard), a Fender J.A.M., and a Marshall Valvestate 10. Most of the effects are great...the compressor, chorus, and delay especially. The wah isn't bad, quite a bit weaker than my Crybaby, but not horrible. The only effects that I don't think are very good are the pitch shifter (noticable delay), reverb (shallow and weak), and the distorition (just all out weak and bot great). The ring modulator has got to be the most disgusting, worthless thing I've ever heard. The tremolo arm pedal-based effect is cool. Overall, this is a great deal for the price, but you'll want to get an offboard distortion, and possible reverb.

The jack-board died on me nearly as soon as I got it. Other than that, it seems dependable...I've left it out in freezing weather in my car (for a week or two), and it didn't hurt it. I've dropped it and such, and it's fine. However, the tuner won't pick up my B string right for some odd reason. Overall, a 7. Good for a multi-effects, plastic housed rig, but very sub-par for Boss.

Very helpful, but rather condesnding, and oh the time I was on hold! A 7.

It's great for what it is, so it gets an 8. It'll never be as good as having off-board pedals, though. If the distortion was better, I'd give it a 9, but the OD/dist on it's pretty sorry.

At first I didn't know how to handle it 'cause I haven't deal with these kind of things before. I messed around about five minutes and I learned how to get sounds out of it. Editing patches is pretty easy. But the buttons that edits the sound are pretty small. Manual is good. It gives you all the details about each effect.

I'm using a Fender American Standart Stratocaster -> JD Crybaby -> ME-30 -> Fender Vibrolux Reverb. I can get pretty good distortion out of it. Actually I boughted this thing because I wanted a great distortion. I'm not even using these flangers, ring modulators, tremolo arms. I find that I dont't use 'em for anything. Chorus is pretty good. And also tremolo, compressor and eq are execellent. This thing rules.

It looks a bit of week. Made of plasctic -> not good. Hasn't broken up yet.

Never deal with the company.

I play Jimi Hendrix and all kinds of other music. It's good. Buy it

This is an update from my first post on 05/20/98.
I've had a few months to put the unit through its paces. The main thing that I have found is that while I'm on stage (I play with a blues band) I don't have time to stand there and hit bank controls until I have found the patch I need. If I were only playing, it might not be such an issue. Since I have joined this band I do about 1/3 of the vocals. When you play blues not every song needs vocals. That makes it easier. Now that I do sing, The ease of use in a live situation is of major concern.
I have found a way to maximize efficacy and be happy with the overall sound. I have started using the "Manual" setting. I didn't want to at first. I thought I would be limited. I was left with no alternative. Do you know how stupid-feeling it is to be playing in front of about 200 people and while you're singing you're also trying to find the patch that goes with the next lead break? You think you've found it. You stomp on the patch button, thrust your pick to the strings only to find out, through the first note, that instead of a soulful, singing, creamy overdriven tone you accidentally hit the patch used for your ultra clean, ultra glassy 12-string patch.
That was enough for me. I had to find another way. I used my favorite tones for each manual patch. Rather than have a unit that does everything, I now use it to hone, more or less, what has come to be known as my signature sound. I use the expression pedal as a wah. I just need to get a volume pedal.

Since I'm not trying to find the highest quantity of sounds, I can now have the highest quality of sounds. I can tweak the noise levels with a lot more accuracy and satisfaction.

I've used this thing at all my gigs since I've had it. I have had no trouble out of it at all. But remember, it is plastic. I give this rating a 9. If it were metal I'd give it a 10.

N/A

My band is a blues band. I have a style a lot like Robben Ford and Larry Carlton. Good tone means a heck of a lot. Ease of use ranks very high as well. I have, with some tweaking, made this unit something that, I feel, I can take anywhere. I am very proud of it; but while I'm in this band the settings are fine. Who knows; the band may break up and I'll start playing progressive rock...

Found the ME-30 easy to use. It has icons of stomp boxes which are set up to like the individual Boss pedals. The instructions are complete and easy in the owners manual. My biggest complaint is that Boss didn't add an external volume pedal like Digitech's RP7.

I've read comments from the others and have to agree with most of them. The distortions are not bad if you take the time to work with the settings and the EQ. I took my stomp boxes and tweeked my sound until I got it close. Boss states that the distortions and compressor are analog, they are analog "emulations" and not true analog. It makes a difference in the overall sound

I did not care for the plastic casing. I would have rather of seen it built like Boss's individual stomp boxes. I was also concerned of the volume pedal and the strength of it on weekly gigs. Its made by Boss so it should last through thick and thin.

I recently sold the ME 30 and went back to my Boss stomp boxes for the following reasons:
I play every weekend and need something that will hold up to the use of the road.
The individual stomp boxes sound better to me and are easier to edit while on stage. You dont have to bend over and reprogram the stomp boxes when you need small adjustments.
The ME30 is limited to Boss sounds only. With the individual stomp boxes you can pick and choose the other companies pedals.
When you change patches the ME 30 is noisy.
The LCD screen is worthless. In a dark stage setting you can't see what you programmed.
Overall, for those who don't play in a hectic road gig environment, the ME30 would work out OK. For the studio use it would also be a plus. Also those on a tight budget would benefit due to its low price.
For me it didnt work.

The boss me-30 is very simple to operate, infact, it's laid out like virtual pedalboard on the lcd screen with the parameters of each pedal showing. The manual is easy to follow and understand, and even comes with a section for writing down your own patches in case the internal memory goes out.

I use the me-30 with an Ibanez guitar that has a h-s-h configuration with coil tap, so I've already got a great sounding, extremely versatile axe. I run it into a crate TD-70, a 1x12 70 watt combo amp with a 12ax7 in the preamp. Like most multi-effects, the factory presets mostly suck. It's like they say, "look at all the wierd unusable sounds this pedal can make!" But with a little bit of tweaking, all your favorite boss pedals are there. The noise gate is superb, and there are 8 different styles of distortion. There's not a tone I haven't been ablt to get with this pedal. The only thing I wish they had done is use a virtual GE-7 eq pedal instead of the 3-band virtual eq pedal they give you. That would give you a bit more tone-shaping ability.

Never had a problem with this or any boss product. I gig every weekend using this pedal with no back up. Looking at it, the built in expression pedal seems flimsy, but I weigh 300 lbs and have had no problems!!

A player on nine years, I make my living playing and teaching guitar. I am in a variety rock band that plays everything from Grand Funk Railroad to Def Leppard to The Wallflowers to Megadeth to Kool and the gang to Stone Temple Pilots. I also play in a "sight-reading out of a fake book" jazz band. I mean real jazz. I mean Miles Davis Jazz. The songs I write for the band I'm trying to put together sound like John Fogerty covering Sting songs with Eric Johnson on guitar. This pedal gets me at least very close to any tone I need. It's the only thing I use live, for recording, I use it and an original Ibanez TS-808 tubescreamer. My favorite features on this pedal are the ease of switching patches, the unbelievable amount of effects(great tremolo!!!!!) and the built in expression pedal which turn wah on and off within one patch! The built-in tuner is easy to use with just your feet for quick tuning even mid-song. I tell my guitar students, it's the best buy for the money in the guitar world right now.

The ME-30 is all around a good unit for programming.. the layout is nice.. but the tiny little buttons can sometimes mess you up. One HUGE problem with this unit is to turn on and off the wah.. i weigh around 250 pounds and i can stand on this pedal (hoping not to break the PLASTIC!!)and it won't turn on or off.. you have to hit it JUST right for it to do anything i don't think i'd use the wah live. The least Boss could have done about this is put an external effects loop on the ME-30 so i could use an external wah! (or other device)

I'm running a Vester Maniac Series 2 into a little Fender Champ 15GR my 120W Traynor got stolen :( I love the sound anything i want to do with this unit i can. My only disappointments are the wah and this fricken ring modulator. The wah is very "steppy" it's not as analog as i'd expect from Boss. Ring modulator is the most useless effect i've ever come across.. it's only good to imatate my cat, nothing musical about it.. it's noise. I was also disappointed by the EQ the treble and bass are fine.. but the mid setting should be like the one on their Metal Zone.. parametric, I feel like i'm setting my amp not an effect. I saw someone say that the distortion on the ME-30 was nothing.. i beg to differ.. i can choose from 7 different types and they all sound like they are supposed to.. IN YOUR FACE! AND DISTORTED AS ALL HELL!!

I've only had the ME-30 for about 2 months now. So far nothing has gone wrong.. but the expression pedal really worries me. I'm afraid i'm gunna break it in half :) Boss definatly should have made this board out of metal, also the board is so skinny when i try to turn the wah on or off sometimes the opposite end of the unit lifts off the floor. I definatly wish this unit was wider and made of metal. But as for workmanship.. nothing can beat Boss

Never had to deal with support.. and i probably will never have to :)

I play anything from Metal to Progressive Metal to alternative to whatever :) I've been playing for 9 years now and if this baord was stolen or lost.. i'd have to think hard about getting another one, i'd most likely get a rack GX-700 or GP-100 if i could afford it. But I love the price of this little board, for what you get in sound it's a good deal. I had a Digitech RP-3 on loan before my ME-30 came in.. i almost like the RP-3 better except for the ME-30's icon display and price. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish Boss had put a backlite display in this unit, i had to rig up my own light that shines on the display (switched with power switch) so i could see what i was doing :)If the ME-30 was made of metal and was wider i think it would be more appealing also.

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.