Boss ME-50

It couldn't be much easier. Love the knobs. It's a snap to program, modify, and save patches. It would have a 10 if I didn't have to buy the up/down bank pedals separately. Otherwise, it's about as easy as it gets.

I don't understand what issues other raters may have had. This thing sounds awesome. I almost can't get a bad sound out of it. Not very noisy even with some of the higher gain distortions selected. I really love the Boss Chorus and Flanger. The wah is nice, but it requires a full sweep with the foot. The harmonizer is right on and doesn't get whacked out by heavy distortion. I love the delays. Reverse and their "tap" mode are really neat. The Tone Modify is a bit weird (might have been better with an EQ). However, the single-to-hum and acoustic sims are very nice. I also like the hollow body sim.

It's a Boss. I have a Boss HM-2 that's 18 years old, and it still works like brand new. I would suspect that only the cockroaches and Boss pedals will survive a nuclear holocost.

No idea. Many say bad, but never had any direct experience. I hate their website.

I defy anyone to find a box that has so many high-quality effects in one package. I also can't imagine paying thousands of dollars for all of these effects in stompboxes. Nor could I imagine the tone loss in the giant effects chain you'd experience.

I've always been a big Boss fan. I think this might be the best Boss piece of equipment I've ever owned. It's beats anything in this price range, and it's better than some more expensive ones. It's perfect for anyone who wants to stop dancing and start playing.

It can't be easier that this...all knobs and very intuitive. I gotta gound sound out of it in the first 15 minutes of use. Editing patches is as easy as using a stomp box. The manual is very detailed.

I am playing on a ESP EXP guitar and my amp is an 1979 peavey century 200H head on one 1x12 fender special design cabinet and one 4x12 cabinet with celestion vintage 30. The unit is not noisy at all and the noise suppressor is incredible. The effect may not sound as the original one but they are not weaker...they' just different. But if you have good pick ups it will sound amazing. My friend spent a lot of money on a Mesa triaxis and an 50/50 power amp, and my setup kicks his ass. I don't try to get the sound of a specific artist but I tend to like it heavy as hell with a truck load of bottom in teh sound. And this think delivers it. The only feature I don't like that much is the tone modify knob...which is useless. For the rest it it is fine if you take the time to setup properly. Don't expect too much if you play on a korean guitar through a 15 watts peavey amp...nothing will sound very good on that. Ah yeah, I tried the headphones out directly in my pc and although it doesn't sound that great, it still can be very usefull toi record demos.

I use BOSS produst for ten yers and My super overdrive pedal is 20 years ols and I dont see why I should care about it...The thing is built like a tank. But I would always carry an old DOD processor that I have...just in case...

Never dealt with them

I play basically heavey metal (Metallica, Korn, Megadeth, Dream Theater) and old progressive rock (very old gensis and Yes) and this thing can follow me everywhere. When I think of all the money I spent before, it makes me sick. If it was stolen I would buy aother one right away. I love it simplicity...the only things I hate about it are : the reverb knob with 4 types of reverb sharing each 1/4 of the knob, the wah wah sound is not that good. ANd for the footswitch to switch up and down the banks, I made my own with a stereo jack and to normal switches taht I got it at an electronic store...It costed me 10 $ with the casing.

This unit sounds excellent, with a decent guitar and a Marshall AVT. I've experimented with patches, but want the RU footswitches before I get serious with them. Unfortunately, they aren't part of the package.
The manual is easy to use. Unfortunately, it has a flaw, but not enough to return it. The resonance and the Wah are flip-flopped on the designated setting. In the past, I've blasted BOSS for their marginally acceptable quality and difficult settings. They have a winner here, but, the nagging quality issue is still there.

Some setings are weak. Like OD-1. The guitar sounds more powerful plugged in the amp than placed on this setting. The echo, synth, overdrive variations, and chorus settings are all very good. Contrarily, the wah has little range and the metal overdrive variation is ridiculously distorted. I use this with a Marshall AVT50, on various guitars, ESP EX351, custom Strat, SG, and an Ibanez RG. I don't copy anyone.

It's all transistor, so it should have a surge protector. Question for BOSS...on a $300 unit that sounds good, why don't you spend $3 for a surge protection circuit. If you have a surge or brownout, a circuit probably would be fried.

This is a cleverly designed and ruggedly constructed unit- but it has no surge protection and a fairly short two-prong plug. These are shortcuts on cheap safety items. I'm sure units will be burned out, or musicians shocked if something spills on it. This type of engineering continues to be the harbinger of problems that seem to plague all BOSS units I've owned (10).

Excellent sound and easy to use. It would be better if the footswitches were included as in Digitech or ZOOM, a heavier, longer cord with 3-prong plug for more ground, and surge protection. And if the settings were labeled correctly. Why wasn't that checked?

Extremely easy to use in all respects.
I would at least glance over the manual.... it helps quite a bit.
As with new Roland/Boss gear, saving patches and such is a bit intricate, but just follow the manual and you'll be ok.

Sounds great. If you're going to rely on it heavily, match the EQ on your amp with the sound that comes out of the headphone out.
I'm using a Crate Stealth all tube amp.
All of my other effects will most likely retire, except for my V-Wah. The wah is overall good, but doesn't work for everything.
The pitch modulating effects are cool, but only work one at a time... a little disappointing.

Haven't gigged with it yet, but it seems ok

Roland/Boss is great. Every time I deal with them its extremely easy.

I love it. Its an invaluable resource. So simple and sounds awesome.
I wish it had EQ, but its not that bad without it. I compared it to everything else, especially the GT-6, but with a good amp and a good wah, i found it unnescessary. Um.. thats it. The ME-50 is good

Extremely easy to use, that's why I bought it. I hate paging through menus. Boss did a great job of keeping this within the mindset of pedal users, not programmers. I didn't get a manual as this was the floor model, but I don't need one. Individual boutique pedals of course sound better, but this unit comes close enough for live use and solves the problems associated with power supplies, patch cords, etc, in a live situation. The best alternative to individual pedals yet.

I'm using a host of Ibanez, Gibson and Fender guitars. All sound good with this unit. Strats are especially enhamced by this unit. I use Boogie, Laney and Lee Jackson amps. I don't care much about coping the sound of other artists, just getting good tone for my own material. Notg noisey at all, but the noise reduction works great. Effects are the best af any all in one pedal board to date, and easy to use.

Very dependable.
Backup not needed. When it comes down to it, a good player just needs a guitar, amp and cord. Everything else is expendable.

Boss support is slow, but they eventually get you taken care of.

Great pedal for live shred, fusion, progressive, etc. Very versatile. FX are good, but not great. In the studio, I use vintage FX, live this is the way to go for me.

It is easy to use if you can read and know how to twist knobs. But, if you're trying to use chorus and phaser simultaneously, you would have to bend over and turn those tiny knobs. So i guess it depends. But in general, its pretty dam simple.

I use a mexican telecaster with a Marshall AVT50. I know AVT's are noisy in general, but it was even more noisier. I know this because when i used just a single Boss Metal Zone pedal, the loud noise was gone. The effects are okay in general; they are just there. Nothing special except for the distortion. There are over 20 types, so i guess you get a lot of variety in that. I would rather just have a single Boss Metal Zone pedal though.

The label reads BOSS.

i have no clue, but BOSS pedals never break anyway.

I've been playing for about 3 years, so I guess my opinion should'nt be of much value. But i do know for a fact, that individual pedals are certainly much higher quality than the ones of processors. Not many people need 22 types of distortion, and all those junky modulation types. If you like to play around, i guess this is what you should get, above all processors around. But i think a solid distortion, a nice chorus, delay, and maybe a wah or flanger will do for most people. Oh yea, the tuner on this thing SUCKS. There are like five-seven steps. very flat, Sort of in tune, in tune, Sort of sharp, and very sharp. Just get a cheap danelectro chromatic tuner off ebay or something.

Simply put, this unit is a breeze to operate. With this simplicity comes ( at least for myself) a great deal of confidence in the reliability of the ME-50. The knobs turn smoothly and the expression pedal switch has a beutiful sensitivity to it. Saving patches is easy the switching between them is noiseless and smooth.

I'm currently using a fender strat deluxe plus, tele plus, guild bluesbird and gibson SG live. These I run through a mid-90s 'Evil' Fender Twin which acts as a perfect platform for the ME-50. I was delighted at how quiet this unit is and with the use of the noise suppressor, distortion noise is non-existent...beautiful. Some may argue that this unit does not perfectly replicate the pedals it claims to. However, it comes close and often improves upon many of the classic Boss pedals in the area of flexibility. The Tube Screamer model is thrilling- rich, smooth and creamy, while the MArshall Guv'nor is highly reminiscent of Gary Moore's scorching tone on his early nineties blues recordings. The important thing to realize with the Distortion section is that it sounds incredible- whether or not it perfectly replicates a past tone is irrelevant (and of course comparing distortions is highly subjective anyways). The modulations are very nice, with the chorus and uni-vibe being my favourites thus far (Robin Trower's tone is easily achieved using this awesome effect + the Guv'nor). The tremelo is subtle yet effective, much like that of a black face fender tube amp. I am a huge fan of tasteful delay usage- from slapbacks to slightly longer, Colin James-ish Tape Delays. The ME-50 performs these tasks quite well. What I love is how well the effects meld with your amp tone- the two become one entity. I have mainly been using the Analog delay model and have been quite pleased... versatility!!! The wah wah, though not quite as lively as my Crybaby, is excellent in its own right and will serve me well on stage. The talk-box emulator called "voice" is also surprisingly useable, while the octaves are nice (though not something I'll use much). Reverbs are OK, though not too tweakable. If your amp already has a good reverb, there's not too much concern there. I was considering purchasing a highly over-priced Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, that is until the ME-50 found me. The volume pedal on this unit is easy to control and with a little bit of usage, one quickly becomes accustomed to its sweep. Finally, I have to say that I absolutely love the chromatic tuner included(it tunes silently and is convienently accessed via pressing two pedals together). I was slightly irritated with the fact that boss did not include the optional bank up/down footswitches, but then again for the price, you shouldn't really complain about having to invest a small amount more for flexibility. These are definitely essential for live useage. What is so perfect about this pedal is that you've got numerous programmable first-rate effects, a volume pedal, wah, and tuner- all in one package. Its like having all of those pedals and a carl martin combinator at your disposal for a reasonable price, and with great quality. I am pleased with how this has simplified my live rig while not compromising my tone......kudos Boss.

The extremely solid metal chassis gives me so much confidence in this product, not to mention the lovely blue finish. The expression pedals seems like it will stand up over time, and I've experienced the plastic square-style roland footswitches before and they have always served me well. So I am putting my faith in this unit, and embarking on gigs without a back-up.

I've never dealt with Boss but I have to assume the best given their reputation.

I mainly play blues and bluesy rock, and have been gigging for nine years. The ME-50 suits my style (and any style) nicely. If this unit were lostor stolen, I would certainly buy another. I love how this unit renders all of my effects and the resultant toe-tapping dance on stage obsolete- plus you're only plugging one adapter in. My live set-up should be considerably faster. I also wouldn't hesitate to use this thing in the studio... it is so versatile- like having 50 stompboxes at your feet. Overall, it does not compromise my tone and remains quiet, a god-sent when compared to something like the line 6 pedals etc.

First of all, I just check it for 1 hour or so, thus maybe my review won't be as comprehensive as it should... I agree with the major part of the previous reviews wich consider this unit as a pretty good stuff, so I just want to point out a few things.

Pretty simple to get the sounds, god bless the knobs! after some tweak you will have something close to what you're looking for, but I doubt if you can get exactly the sound you have in your head! maybe it lacks of more precise controls...

The manual won't figure as the new ISO-9002 STANDARD but not bad...

I fully agree with one of the guys who told:

"So, when you are looking for a multi-effects to combine with your natural amp sound, you should look for a tc or something... If you want to use distortion-boxes, then this unit is the right thing".

Yeah!, if you love your amp's distortion you're fucked! because, of course, you can turn off the distortion section but then you will find that any of the modulation effects will sound like crap! This scenario is having the ME-50 in front of your amp, ok, then, let's put the me-50 in the fx-loop and see what happens... here you can't use any of the distortions, they sound damn bad, but I don't mind since I just use my amp's distortion, now I can use other effects and they sound good, so what's the problem? you cannot use the wah here! or at least you won't want to use it if you want to get an acceptable sound! I'm not sure why... I supose it's due to the dirtier signal wich is recieved from the preamp... So the only place for this thing is in front of your amp, I tried to cancel or minimize the distortions effect over my natural sound in order to use other effects but no luck... I got interesting sounds but not the definitive sound you always want to use.

The emulation of the mt-2 sucks! but the ds-1 is not bad... I didn't tried the rest too much actually...

cool harmonizer by the way! good wah as well, I found Flanger a bit noisy, but probably this can be fixed after some tweak, at the beggining I found this unit noisy but I don't it is actually, you only have to play with the knobs a little.

I compared the ME-50 with the GT-6 and I din't find a noticeable difference in the quality of the basic effects that both units share. The distortions of the GT-6 are fucking bad by the way, the ones from the ME-50 are way better.

it looks good built and reliable.

Never have dealt with

Higly recommended to any of you who have an amp with an average sound and want to enhance it to get some personal touch, I can imagine a lot of teenagers enjoying a lot this unit. Obviously it lacks of a real equalizer, incorpored pedals to change between banks (that's a great inconvenience, above all because you have to buy them separately), and more memory cells, it's hard to me to understand how nowadays a company can release such product with just 30 memory cells for presets and user presets, I supose that since the presets from factory are ones of the greatest crap I've ever heard they expect you to delete them all, thus now you have 30 for you with should be enough... or not yet? :)

Very easy to use. But I've owned the GT-3 and Gt-6 before. This is easier. All knobs!

I use a few different guitars - Hamer USA Artist and Fender Strat through a Reverend Hellhound amp. i also use this unit to play acoustic through a PA. I don't consider the ME-50 to be noisy. The effects are very good, especially the overdrive. I also like the EQ presets. I find that I use them often. The delay is OK.

I really like this unit. It covers all the bases I need, and then some. It is very musical at home and on the gig.

Simple to Use, Don't need the manual. In 10 minutes you can have the sound you want from country to Metal. Editing and saving patches is a breeze, 2 button pushes and its saved. Manual is ok, but you won't really need it. Would be better if they inclded pedals for the bank up and down instaed of having to buy FS5U;s to do this, butyou can do this on the unit itself.

I use this with a custom shop fender telecaster with a strat pickup in the center thru 2 fender blues juniors. Not noisy at all. Reverb unit could really be better, only a quarter turn for the reverb since there are 4 reverbs on 1 knob. Tone modify is a cheap imitation of a EQ. Should have put a graphic on it instead. The effects are good, especially the delay module. Distortions are good if you tweak alot. Stereo chourus is excellent. The unit steals a little of your tone when playing clean but you can adjust this on your amp with the eq section.

Solid metal chassis, plastic pedals. Is very durable if you are not jumping on your pedal. I gig 3 times a week and do not take a backup. I also have this pedal in a road case.

Havent dealt with them on this unit. Other times with boss I got good response times and acurate info.

I play anything from Country to rock to blues. I have been able to easily find every sound I need when I need it. I have been playing for 25 years and professionally for the last 10. If this unit was stolen I would replace it immeaditely. I have tried all the major pedals out there and this unit seems to be a good comprimise of prive and value for the money without having to chain 8 compact pedals together and deal with the line noise.

For a multi effects, this box is very easy to use. In manual mode you can directly change the sound via potis, there are no difficult menus. Then you push the "write"-button and chose the patch and you have sucessfully saved the sound. By pushing "edit" you can modify single parameters of a saved sound.
You don't need the manual, everything is self-explaning.

It is the perfect unit, if you amp has no good distortion. In my case, I play through a Marshall 6100 head ("30th anniversary"), which has a very harmonic an fat distortion. I tried to use this unit in the fx-loop, but i got disappointed. you can only use it in front of your amp, but then you loose the distored channels of your amp. So, when you are looking for a multi-effects to combine with your natural amp sound, you should look for a tc or something.
If you want to use distortion-boxes, then this unit is the right thing.
My solution to the problem was: it gave it back to my dealer I bought a "Holy Grail" (Electro Harmonix) and a Nobels PRE-1. No I have my typical Marshall sound, a good lead channel and a perfect reverb

I'm not a "read the directions" type of guy. I unpacked this directly from the box, and found it quite intuitive.

I'm not a performing pro...I play to amuse myself in my living room, doing my damnedest to imitate Warren Haynes, Dickey Betts, and Jimmy Page. I play an SG, as well as LP Classic through a Marshall JCM 900, and also have tried the unit through my old Fender Vibrolux. I am particularly impressed by the variety of distortion selections: it ranges from slight crunch to blow-the-windows-out ballsy. The distortion is the main reason I bought this unit, as well as the wah and volume pedal. I previously was using the crunch channel for distortion on my Marshall, and a Big Muff with my Fender amp, but have not been impressed with the Big Muff. In addition, since I have been wanting a BOSS chorus and flanger, and thought this might be the cheapest way to go.

I just got it, but I assume it will be as reliable as the other BOSS products I own.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I've been playing about 15 years. My music is Allman Bros, Led Zep, and Skynyrd. This unit is all I need. If stolen, I'd buy another one. I've just gotten fed up with stringing together multiple pedals, finding patch cords, etc. This does the trick. I agree with what other reviewers have said regarding the fact that the unit doesn't come with switching pedals, which seems less than generous on the part of BOSS.

Very Easy. I also own a GT-3 and considered either upgrading to the GT-6 or the ME-50.

Excellent sounds. Lots of purests from the older generation will say this thing can't possibly sound like all their stompboxes placed neatly in a row. Dead wrong. The one thing I love about this product is the fact it has a more a "crunchy" sound on the distortion and tone than my GT-3. My GT-3 is a great multi-effects pedal. It sounds great and I still use it, but the ME-50 is able to act like stompboxes as well as a mult-unit. The GT-3 has that "synthesized" sound. Now I haven't really tried the GT-6 so I can't speak for how much they've improved the sound, but this thing has killer distortion and sound. I play everything from Pearl Jam to STP to Alice in Chains to Tool and it plays those bands well. Wah's a little weak. But these multi-effect units never give you a good wah on purpose. Boss wants you to go out and buy that nice one for 150 bucks. Does the job for me though. I don't wah more than 1-2 songs a performance. One more thing. I bought the GNX2 by Digitech and compared the sounds. No comparison. This thing blows it away. Digitech has the guitar mags tabbed songs, which I thought was a cool feature. I play all covers. But when I brought it home, I was disappointed at the overall sound. Digitect might be good for teenagers looking to release angst, but any refined musician wants a warmer and more sonic sound. Just my opionion.

So far so good. Only had it two weeks and wanted to write the review more about sound.

Never dealt with them yet

So far this pedal is great. I love it and really found it hard at first to put down my GT-3, make her back up and use this one as my starter. Well one rehearsal with me-band changed that. I still like my GT-3, but the sound quality from the 2000 GT-3 to 2003 ME50 is a definet improvement. The dudes at Boss are just great. Nice job Boss. Keep it up and read these reviews!!!! Some of what people say are true. You're the market leader. The name is always for great tone, reliability. They did it again with this one.

Pretty easy to use, just like a boss pedal on steroids. Idiot proof for the most part.

I play either an American Vintage 62 strat or a Les Paul Special through a Marshall DSL 401 combo. Its pretty amazing how many different sounds you can get with this thing...from Mudhoney fuzz to classic OD to pure metal. The delay/mod effects are sweet. Wah is good too. I'm marking it down a little because the reverb is kind of weak.

Just got it....but its built like a tank.

No experience with Boss customer support.

I don't think I could buy a distortion, a delay, a chorus, a tuner and a wah pedal for under 300 bucks. It has 22 distortion types, 3 chorus, a flanger, a phaser, harmonist, trem, pan, vibrato, uni-v, rotary, 7 delays, 2 pans, an echo, plus a wah, wammy, a noise gate, compresor, reverb, and a volume pedal. It maight take 300 bucks worth of patch cables to hook those all together. I bought it because I want about 50 different pedals and I'm a cheap-ass. Someday I'll get them all, but until then this'll do. I do wish it had a better reverb, but its still worth way more than 300 dollars.

It's was a real happy to unpack this unit and have a look at all knobs! It's very easy to change sound and to swith between tuner/patch mode and back to manual mode. This is all you need if you are a performing guitarist. If I have to complain, I miss a included AC/DC adapter and a included footswitch to on/off compressor. Very good price/performance

Very good sounding unit. I've been playing for 20 years, all different styles and this will do it all. A surprise is the very good sounding speaker emulator. I think this unit will replace both POD and Vamp in my personal studio. Very good dynamics in distortion sounds and extremly good modulation and delay effects. I inteend to use this with my Peavey classic 30 and use lineout instead of micing my amp when Iam performing live. The only effect I don't like is rotaryeffect (unfortunally) and the tonemodify effect (I could not see any use of this kind of EQ). However, This is a 10! A very good sounding unit. Even the expression pedal is very good with a good soundin wha and whammy effect.

This is a tank! Rock solid blue metal. I can't see this unit will broke on a live performance. The knobs could be a bit more reliable but I think they are good enough

Haven't dealt with Roland/Boss but I have ever heard something bad about thier support.

As I mentioned, I've been playing for 20 years and have tried all modeling units and pedals out there and this is what I can see the far best price/performace I have tried. Very good speaker emulator and VERY easy to use makes it a perfect companion, both on stage and in the studio.

ITS FAIRLY SIMPLE TO USE.THE MANUAL IS VERY HELPFUL.PLEASE READ OVERALL RATING

THE SOUND QUALITY IS DECENT.NOT QUITE T.C. BUT GOOD ENOUGHT FOR GIGS.IT HAS SOME NOISE ON SOME PATCHES.AND SOME VOLUME IS LOST WHEN CHANGING PATCHES BUT NOT A BIG PROBLEM.PLEASE READ RATINGS

SO FAR SO GOOD.PLEASE READ OVERALL RATINGS

HAVE NOT HAD TO USE THEM.NEVER HAD TROUBLE WITH BOSS PRODUCTS

IVE BEEN PLAYING 25 YRS.20 YRS WORSHIP.ALSO CHRISTAIN METAL BANDS,BLUES,SOUTHERN ROCK.PLAYED ZION,GIBSON,FENDER,CARVIN GUITARS,MARSHALL,BOOGIE,FENDER,CARVIN AMPSI GOT THIS FOR A BIRTHDAY GIFT.WHAT BOSS FORGEYS TO TELL YOU IN THEIR ADS WHICH SUCKS YOU HAVE TO BUY A PEDAL TO RUN YOUR PEDAL TO CHANGE BANKS THIS IS STUPID ANOTHER WAY TO SCREW YOU OVER.LIKE PAYING BIG BUCKS FOR A AMP THEN HAVING TO BUY THE PEDAL TO CHANGE CHANNELS.YOU DONT BUY A CAR WITHOUT THE KEY.MOST GUITAR PLAYERS LIVE ON LIMITED INCOMES ARE RAISING FAMLIES.AND CANT AFFORD TO BUY THE EXTRAS.BOSS HAVE THE GUTS TO TELL IN YOUR ADS WHAT IS REALLY INVOLVE IN BUYING YOUR STUFF YOU OWE ME WHAT EVER IT TAKES TO GET THE FULL USE OF THIS PEDAL.HEY ALL YOU GUYS OUT THERE LETS ASK HARMONY CENTRAL TO GIVE US APLACE TO TELL THESE MANFACTURERS WHAT WE THINK ITS YOUR MONEY GUYS LETS STAND TO GETHER ARE BUY A BIGGER JAR OF VASELINE.MY NAME IS GARY MITCHELL 325 W. TOWANDA ELDORADO KS.67042

This pedal is great. Dont listen to anyone who says other wise. You dont NEED to buy the additional foot switchs for the up and down switching banks. But they would come in handy. This is one awsome peice of material. Easy to find the sound you want, and to create it.

I use a Ibenez RX series guitar with a Rolland amp. And I couldnt be happeier with the wasy it sounds. I can get everything from Pink FLoyd and LEd Zeppeilin to Tool and A Perfect Circle.

I would not bring a back-up to a gig with this..It is built to last forever

Never had to deal with them

BUY THIS PEDAL IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR QUALITY AND RELIABILITY!!
You wont be disapointed

I wanted to reduce the number of pedals in my live setups as much as possible. I was pleasantly supprised that the effects equaled or came very close to all of them. You can hook up the optional bank up and down pedals for quick patch changes which is well worth the 50 beans. That leaves me with three pedals and one power supply. much better than 10 in row.

This is the first multi-effects unit I've used that has very useable distortions. The modulations are as good as just about any separate pedal. I created useable delays and the expression is very good. My various setups include Fender Strats, Gibson SG, Gibson LP and Carvin DC200 for guitars,thru a Fender Hot Rod DeVille or Carvin Belair. This unit does not work well with effect loops, it's fine straight in. I take two guitars and one amp to gigs now because in a pinch I can come out this directly into the PA.

Fine on 4 gigs so far. It's housing is metal, just like separate boss pedals.

Never had to deal with them.

I've been playing professionally on and off for 25 years. Currently
just a weekend warrior playing from pop to hard rock. This peice of equipment is a turning point for multi effects. The quality is finally there.

Straightforward to use,not complicated and easy to live with on a gig.No complicated menus or parameters to mess around with.Very easy to tweak mid-set etc.

Very good overall,some residual background hiss at a very low level,not noticeable on stage or when playing.The selection of effects and sounds are all usable and for the money it's a great package.

If it's as good as the rest of Boss gear then there shouldn't be a problem.

Never needed to use customer support on any Roland or Boss product that I have owned.

Overall very good value,plenty to go at,everything is usable,price is very good ,for an all in one solution it's one of the best,plus being Boss if you get fed up with it it will be easy to sell on.

I just plugged this baby in and was on my way jammin with any sound I want or need. The manual isn't really needed but helps for some of the knob functions.

This thing is incredible. I've tried a ton of different effects pedals and this thing has anything I need. I haven't got a clue what these other people are doing that claim it sounds nominal or like crap. I play a 2003 Jeff Beck Strat through either my Crate Bluevoodoo BV-60 or through my direct box right into my console for my home project studio. I can easily get anything I want for distortion, overdrive chorus and the dely is awesome. Compressor is great also. No real need for reverb for me, but it sounds fine if I need it. My Crate has an awesome reverb anyway.

Built like a tank.

No need for customer support yet.

This thing was just what I wanted and needed to get rid of all of the pedals with all the cabling and power supplies even though I was using the BOSS tuner pedal that is also a power supply. The problem was that the tube overdrive pedal needed a higher voltage power supply.

Why on earth does this not have integral footswitches to change banks ? The idea of one of these units is to get rid of individual pedals and leads and pedalboards etc. I like the unit but having to buy two additional switches - at an additional cost - and mess about wiring them up was a real turn off. Fine if you want it for bedroom use, but for gigging its a joke without the footswitches. The ME 33 has up and down switches as part of the unit. Does anyone know if Boss will be bringing out a model with the integral footswitch in the near future? As a unit it is so near yet so far.

Man, I have owned other multi-effects units and nothing comes close to this thing for ease of use. I had kick ass sounds in 5 minutes. he manual was helpfull for things like how to use the harmonizer, digital recorded delay and tap delay. Other than that, throw the manual out, the damn thing is so easy to use you don't need it.

I use a American Custom Strat and a personally customized mid 80's Epiphone Paul with a vox wah into a Marshall TSL100 JCM 2000 Half stack (the amp rules ass). It's just not noisy. Really. I had the old Me-30 and the difference isn't even funny. You can crank the distortions and still no hum. I love using the Uni-vibe effect with my Strat and Marshall, it's just a damn good effect. Sounds like the real thing, sounds soooo Hendrixy. The distortions and FUCKING GREAT. Period. The delays and choruses are fabulous. As are the tone modifiers (shouldn't replace an EQ, like it does, but it's still good), I especially like the accoustic simulator. The sound quality will stand up to the GT-6 any day of the week. I'v tried them both right next to eachother.

The thing is a die cast metal tank. I have and will gig without a backup.

n/a, I dojn't know, never tried.

I love the thing. I'm not saying you would. If you plug an Ibenez into it and run with a Crate, it's probably going to sound like shit because your useing shit. Sorry. That being said, if you don't have a deal with epic and therefor can't afford 19 Boss pedals in a pretty little chain, than this thing kicks ass. I didn't go with the GT-6 because I have a sick ass, three channel Marshall. Why the hell do I need digital Amp modeling. This guy has all the sound quality of a GT-6 minus all the amp and cab modeling (which I think is useless anyway).

I have a number of M-effects pedals and the ME-50 is clearly the easiest of them all. Really a no-nonsense kind of design from the get-go which is why I bought the unit; not much to learn...it just makes good sense..very well thought out. The only thing that I did not care for was having to push down "HARD" for the effects pedal to kick in, otherwise it would have got a 10.

If you have used Boss pedals before then you know the quality of the distortions are as good as any and they give 22 different of their
overdrive/distortion types ........just about every thing you need on the overdrive end. While they could have given you more tweakable control for the Tone; the set tones they give you - from "fat" "mid" "high" "single coil" "Humbuckers" "Acoustic" and others all sound great. The compressor - very basic but effective; the modulation types -Flanger, Chorus, Phasor and others are all very
tweakable and sounded very natural when used with the other effects. The delay types were of consitant Boss quality - and again very easily
tweaked. This is one of the few untits I have ever owned that the set sounds were the RIGHT sounds (you know- not maxed out to the hilt). They all just sounded damm good from the get-go; but you can tweak and
adjust, edit and save untill your hearts content if you want; but once you hear them you'll most likey say...yeah thats what I wanted.

No plastic junk here..........good and solid; I'm a little worried about having to hit the effects pedal hard to get the expression pedal effects to kick in; but the pedal appears to be built well.......I'll have to see on this...Very much a pedal you can take on the road with little worries; until all your guitarist friends hear
and mess around with it.....and take it from you.

Never had any problems with Boss pedals; so I really don't know how their support is with problems or issues with their equipment.

I have been playing for 20 years, seen all the pedals (and their are some very nice ones out there) and the ME-50 is easily one of the best M-pedals I have come across; for sound quality and ease of use.
If your gig is everything under the sun pedal such as all the "amp" modeling stuff and morphing other models, then this most likely is not the unit for you. If you just want all around great sound in one unit without a extreme learning curve - then this is the unit for you. Good sounds are really a matter of preference and tastes but this unit had the right ones for me; and best of all it work well with all my amps.

I tried this thing about 45 Minutes to get an overview. It's very easy to handle this knobs. You don't need the manual. I don't know how good it is, I didn't have a look in it. But there are some things that could be better:
* The forth of a circle is too less to adjust the rate of reverb you want.
* The tap tempo function is stupid for live performance. You have to press the button 2 seconds before tapping. After tapping it's the same.
* You need a optional switch the bank in memory mode. It could be wise to use such a switch for tapping if you're not in memory mode.

For I didn't bought it, I only could use my own guitar to test this thing. Setup:

Patrick Eggle "New York Standard" (Kent Armstrong PUs are replaced by DiMarzio Evolution and Fast Track) --> Boss "ME-50" --> Peayey "Classic 30".

My normal sound comes from this setup:
PE "New York" --> George Dennis "The Tube" Distortion/Volume --> "Cry Baby" --> Peavey "Classic 50" with Ruby Tubes.

First I have to say that this unit has no neutral sound when all effects are switched off. My guitar does not really sound after my guitar. The clean sound is better when I put the guitar directly into the Peavey. The great tube sound is damaged by this unit. The sections:
* Tone Modify: Most Positions of this "Wanna-Be-An-EQ" are useless. There are only two or three good ones. A 7-Band-EQ similar to the Boss "GE-7" would be useful.
* Compressor: Is ok.
* NS: Didn't really try.
* Sounds ok. But as said before, 4 Sound for one rotation is too much and too imprecise.
* Overdrive/Distortion: Only had a short look. But it seems that you can't get any really good crunch sound out of it.
* Modulation: Is ok but there are better ones.
* Delay: Seems not to be bad but I did not really get the sound I wanted.
* Pedal Mode: Some funny things. Wha-Wha sounds completely different than mine, but not worse, only different.

Built very solid. Only the plastic swithces could be better.

Style: Pop, Rock, Funk, Folk (Delirious, Brian Doerksen, Lothar Kosse)
Sounds to synthetic, not natural enough for the sound I want. I play (electric) for about 7 years. I like the tuner and some of the modulation and delay effects. Pedal is usable. I hate the Tone Modify and the Taptempo and can't really use the OD/DIS-Section. I wish it had one versatile usable switch more and an really EQ. A powersupply shoul be shipped with.

Maybe I have to give this thing a little bit more time but I don't think I'll ever buy it. My rating for this category is because of the low price.

This unit is real easy to use. If u have experience with multi-effects unit before, u probally won't need to read the manual at all. Just turn the knobs to get the sound tat you want and press "write" and save it to one of the presets. The only knob in there that's hard for me to use is the reverb knob, becasue you only get 1/4 of a circle to adjust the amount of reverb.

You can get a variety of sounds out of this thing. Lots of differnt OD/DS styles, Delay styles........
For me, half of the distortion settings are useless. I duno about other styles, but they're not that good for my kind of heavy metal sound.
The biggest problem i have so far is the noise from the distortions. The noise supression seems to kick in a few seconds after you stop playing makeing it sorta useless. With the compressor on, it's just plain stupid. Luckily, u can fix this problems by putting a real noise supression pedal in the chain (possibly before the input)

I got this a week ago so i dun really how long it can last.
The metal case and all the pedals seems ok, but the knobs might be easy to break if u're not careful with them.

Never Tried

as i said before, a large variety of sounds from this thing.
It totally kills all the older Boss ME units.
Obviouslly it's not as good as the GT6 which cost like 100 bucks more. But this one is way easier to use.
Some of the things that i would love is an EQ section, a jack for a 2nd expression pedal and the ability to input and display names for the settings.
The craziest funtion of this thing is the octave up and octave down on the expression pedal. I think u can actually like play a song by just changing the note up and down with the pedal. (never actually tried)