Boss ME-50

should be called "multi guitar effects for dummies"

not bad. i am a purist. i don't like alot of anything messing with the sound of my guitar and/or amp. but...i also like flexibility. currently i am using two schecters. one pt blackjack stock with seymour duncans..a jb and a 59 with a 5 way mega switch..cool. and a c-1 floyd rose modified with seymour duncan distortion humbuckers also with a push-pull tone pot for splitting. both are strung with ernie ball power slinkys .011 gauge strings. jim dunlop .88 and 1.14 tortex picks. monster performer 500 cable. a modified jim dunlop jimi hendrix wah and rotovibe. the me-50 serves as my pre-amp and is routed to the line ins on my crate power block head which pump all my tonal nirvana through a bogner cabinet loaded with celestion vintage 30s and wired for an 8ohm load. very cool.
i try to concentrate on my own material but do dig jamming along with : alice in chains/jerry cantrell , jimi hendrix , guns n' roses and nirvana. can i get those sounds ? with a bit of tweaking..sure.
is it noisy ? it can be if using alot of extreme settings.
most effects are useable to some extent. i guess it depends on what you are into. me personally..the only settings i r

It does exactly what it says on the box to be honest, just plug it in and twiddle the knobs and you get a sound, may not be what you want exactly but its better then the sounds that come out of most other pedals.

Patches are easy to mess with, you can even save some random thing you have made by pressing one button.

Manual is easy to use, not really necesarry as this thing is so easy to use.

I play an ibanez ax220qmb through a fender amp or sometimes a marshall when playing live.

Its not noisy at all, when you just want a nice clean bypassed sound its a nice clean bypassed sound, infact it sounds better then playing without the pedal plugged in, the computers are that good on it. When an effect is on there is little or no noise and if there is there is threshold function which takes it out, great!!

There are no really weak effects unless you are talking about their flexibility in which case some of the delays and modulations are limited such as tremolo, but to be honest when you tweak everything you generally get the sound you want.

For artist sounds this thing is amazing, having only had a week ive managaed to get a hendrix sound, a john frusciante soloing sound, QOTSA etc etc the list is endless, i mean it takes some trial and error of knob turning but its worth it, also its great for finding a random sound that you can call your own signature.

Distortions are amazing, its a boss what else can u say, delays are good purely because of the range, the wah is a bit hit and miss but when used with the right distorion it can be as sweet as nething.

Steel case would survive most things, ive got a 5 warranty on it i doubt i will ever need it. i would use this at a gig no sweat, you could just throw this into ur band van and use it the next night and it wont be damaaged at all.

having just registered it i got sent a free subscription to a magazine and 5 year warranty now thats good customer support

Amazing and worth it, if you've got lots of time on your hands and are a proper whizz with all things patched then a GT-8 is also worth a look, but if your a guitarist who just loves to plug in and play, but also get all the effects you could ever want, get this. Use it live, use it your bedroom, use it in your car, newhere it does the job you want it to.

I had been using a Digitech RP2000 for a couple of years and although I was fairly happy with it, some of the effects were definitely lacking and I was sick and tired of having to go on a menu hunt just to make the slightest tweak to the sound. I came to the conclusion that deep editing multi effects just wasn't for me anymore and so decided to go for a simpler approach. I have a number of stomp boxes and so the option to go back to a line of stomp box effects is still open to me, but I really wanted an intelligent harmoniser that I'd frequently used with the RP2000 (a must have for many Queen and Iron Maiden songs). I did consider just getting the Boss PS-5 but when I saw the ME-50 I was sold on the idea immediately. For £30 more than the PS-5 I could also have:

Tone Modify
Compressor
Overdrive/Distortion
Chorus
Phaser
Flanger
Tremolo
Pan
Vibrato
UNI-V
Rotary
Delay
Reverb
Noise Suppressor
Foot Volume
Wah
Resonance
Voice
Ring Modulator
Whammy (+1 OCTAVE, -1 OCTAVE)

So it was a real no brainer for me. I reckoned that even if some of the effects turn out crap, as long as the harmoniser worked well and I liked a couple of the other effects then it would still be a real bargain. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that more than just a couple of the effects are useful to me and so this has to be one of the best bargains I've bought.

The manual is clear and concise and no more detail is needed as the unit is pretty much self explanatory. All functions such as factory reset and sensitivity adjustment of the expression pedal etc are included and easy to understand.

Ease of use has to be a 10 out of 10. Some people have complained about having to buy an extra footswitch to change banks, but NOT including bank switches makes perfect sense to me. Everything about multi effects is a compromise and if they'd included two more foot switches it would have almost certainly made the unit bigger and of course it would have been maybe £30 more expensive putting it much closer in price to the GT8. This unit isn't designed to be used in memory mode as that takes away one of the most attractive features of the ME-50 - the ability to keep it in manual mode and look down at all the switches and see exactly how you're getting your tone. Personally I've only ever used memory mode once and that was to check the delay that people have mentioned when changing between patches. I never intend to use it again because manual mode is where this unit shines. Boss would actually do better by removing the memory mode completely and reducing the cost even more or maybe using the space they save to add extra controls for reverb, noise suppression and maybe compressor (more on that later). You don't get a memory mode in a group of 5 individual stomp boxes and that is what the ME-50 is simulating so why bother?

Incidentally that delay when selecting patches is just a split second which is the same as every other multi effect that I've ever owned, so I can't understand some of the complaints. Boss have either improved the response in the later model that I have bought, or some people have unrealistic expectations.

However, not including an AC adapter was really cheap of Boss and so they lose a mark for this. They must pay about £2 each for their power supplies and so not including one is real penny pinching. On the plus side (and contrary to Boss literature), any stabilised 9V power supply with a negative centre pin will do the job just fine. I use a 5 way power brick so it wasn't a problem for me.

The expression pedal needs quite a firm stomp to change over from volume to the selected effect but this makes sense really as it requires a positive action to switch over and so you're unlikely to do it accidentally. The sensitivity can be adjusted as explained in the manual if you want to make it a bit easier.

Mixed bag but still a real bargain in my opinion. Effects that I haven't gone in-depth with yet have not been scored:

Tone Modify - 6 OK. Very basic EQ which does its job but like everyone has already said, it'd be better to have a dedicated 7 band EQ. Doesn't bother me personally as I already have a Boss GE-7 and a Danelectro Fish and Chips for my tone shaping. Sorry but the acoustic simulator sounds absolutely nothing like an acoustic guitar in my opinion.

Compressor - 8 Great. Works well enough for my needs but real compressor aficionados may miss an attack level. Still if the Keeley doesn't need it ......

Overdrive/Distortion - 9 Excellent. OK some of them may be a bit dodgy but out of 22 I think most people will find a few they like. Push the gain up to the turbo area and of course it can start to stink (much like the real DS-1 which I also own) but if you experiment with less extreme gain you can get some lovely smooth distortions out of this. I especially like the DS-1, DST+ and the GUV, but I found I can get usable tone from most of them with a bit of tweaking.

Chorus - 7 Good. But not great. Sounds a little brittle but with a bit of work you can get usable sounds from it. I don't tend to use this anyway as I have a Yamaha Magicstomp in the effect loop of my amp which has some of the best Chorus effects I've heard.

Harmonist - 9 Excellent. Does exactly what it says on the tin. Better than the RP2000 because it so much easier to configure. Choose the key, then choose the relationship and you're away. Just give it a try for the Killer Queen solo set to E flat (D# in the ME-50) and a 4th down. Sounds pretty good to me. Down an octave for The Phantom of the Opera intro simulates the bass line perfectly.

Phaser - 7 Good but I won't use it often because I have a higher quality selection in the Magicstomp

Flanger - 7 Pretty good, but again not as good as the Magicstomp. Just a bit thin like the other modulation effects.

Tremolo - N/A Not used enough to pass judgement but seems to perform as expected

Pan - N/A Not used enough to pass judgement

Vibrato - N/A Not used enough to pass judgement but seems to perform as expected

UNI-V - N/A Not used enough to pass judgement

Rotary - N/A Not used enough to pass judgement

Delay - 9 Excellent. I am very pleased with some of the delays available from this. Ultra simple to setup and mostly high quality effects in my opinion. Tap tempo is an added bonus.

Reverb - 6 Well it just about works but less than a quarter turn per reverb type (remember the OFF position uses up about a fifth of the turning circle) definitely isn't precise enough for most people. They should have just done without the spring option which is truly horrible.

Noise Suppressor - 8 Pretty good but definitely needs a decay switch to allows you to fine tune the drop off. On a low setting it's excellent for totally removing the hum or buzz you can get between songs without having to turn your guitars volume down.

Foot Volume - 10 It'd be difficult to get a volume pedal wrong and it does its job perfectly for me.

Wah - 8 If you're not a constant wah user then this may be perfectly adequate for you. Personally I only use wah for a couple of songs and it does the job fine. I used to own a Crybaby and although I've not had it for a couple of years I think the effect is very comparable from what I can remember and if anything the ME-50s wah seems more natural sounding whereas the Crybaby always sounded a little harsh and equalised when you first switch over.

Resonance - N/A Not used enough to pass judgement but can't see much use for it

Voice - N/A Not used enough to pass judgement but may be useful for the Living on a Prayer intro.

Ring Modulator - N/A God I hate this effect. I just don't see the point.

Whammy (+1 OCTAVE, -1 OCTAVE) - 7 A nice inclusion but doesn't have the multi octave dips of the real Whammy. Still it's a nice effect and a good inclusion.

I've only had it for a few weeks and so can't really comment on its longevity. I think the chassis is steel and so is very strong but all switches are plastic and although they seem sturdy enough, they are definitely the weak point. Again, you could complain about it or just accept that these measures help keep the cost down. Personally I'd have preferred to pay a bit more for some proper metal stomp switches (like the TC Electronic G System) and a stronger metal based expression pedal but that's if I'm being really picky. All in all I feel confident enough in it's strength and have no real concerns.

Never dealt with them directly and so I have no opinion

I've been playing guitar for 24 years, mainly rock and metal, and the following guitars are the ones I had to keep:

Guitars:

Gibson Les Paul Standard - bought new in 89. Tobacco sunburst.

Ibanez RG770FM - Japanese model. Transparent blue flamed maple

BC Rich Mockingbird Natural Neck Thru with Full Shred pickup in the bridge position, Alnico Pro II in the neck and custom switching arrangement for coil taps and reverse phase in both pickups (I don't know why I bothered going through all that soldering to be honest, I rarely use the coil taps and never use reverse phase!).

Hohner G3T (Steinberger copy) with Super Distortion pickup in the bridge and 2 x Little 59s in the neck and middle position. 3 individual mini switches to select each pickup as either full humbucking or coil tapped.

Jackson PS4 Performer

Ibanez PC300CENT Electro Acoustic



Effects: I have others (Zoom GFX4 for living room practise with headphones) and have owned many others in the past but my current setup is as follows.

Guitar

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Boss GE-7 ?? Boss DS-1 (or Danelectro Fab) (loop 1)

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Boss ME-50 (loop 2)

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Marshall AVT150 with AVTC-112 extension cab ?? Marshall channel switcher

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(FX Loop send)

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Danelectro Fish and Chips EQ (loop 3)

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Yamaha Magicstomp (loop 4)

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BBE DI-100X Sonic Maximizer (always on)

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(FX Loop return)


Basically I have made a switch box that allows me to connect the guitar, amp input, fx loop send, fx loop return and 4 switchable effect loops (2 pre-amplifier and 2 in the amps loop). This allows me to true bypass any of the loops if I want to and put the effects in a different order making it a really versatile setup.

I tend to use different distortions for different things and I have plenty to choose from there. I like the distortions available from the amp, but then I also have the DS-1, Danelectro Fab and ME-50 to choose from. Not to mention the Magicstomp (which I don't tend to use because of its positioning in the effects loop of the amp). Basically I like different options for different songs but I tend to use the ME-50 on an overdrive setting to give me a boost for lead. I also use the compressor, noise gate, harmoniser, volume, wah and delay (I only use delay on the ME-50 if I'm using the DS-1, Fab or ME-50 distortion - if I'm using the amps distortion I use the Magicstomp for delay to keep the signal chain order to my liking). For me to use individual pedals for that selection I would have spent considerably more money, but more importantly it would have taken up a lot more space and there'd have been an extra 5 or 6 cables in the chain as well.

Maybe with a bit more effort you can get more lush sounding modulation but I really haven't given it too much time. For the effects I really wanted it works very well, and was an excellent purchase that I wouldn't hesitate to replace if lost or stolen.

It is currently the easiest to use of this class pedals i've ever used!
Editing patches needs a little learning but it is good in the end. It has 30 preset patches to edit
The manual is very good and explains everything there is to know.

I used this pedal with fender stratocaster iron maiden custom on 2 different amps. One is the Fender Frontman 25R. It worked perfectly. The lead distortion setting made my guitar sound like hell! Perfect for soloing. The second amp i tried this on was a Marshall 300Watt with an 100Watt head. It was crystal clean. The effects are fully customizable with knobs. You can easily get the sound of Scorpions, Iron Maiden, even Opeth :D The distortion at very high levels and gain could produce a little noise which is completely silenced when used with the Noise Suppressor half way full. Chorus and all other mods are crystal clean. The compressor works GREAT and is fully customisable. The Noise Suppressor really does what it's supposed to do. The MOD and HALL reverb modes are veeeery sweet. The delay modes are great and the best of it all is the wah on the expression pedal. Finally gives your solos the feeling you want it to have where you want it! VERY good.

It is quite hard and it can't be broken easily. I would and already have used this multiple times without backups. It is constructed by very good materials and hard. No soft parts on it.

Never dealt with them.

I play from blues to death metal. It satisfies all my needs. I would buy another one for sure! I've been playing for 2 years. It really helps me get the tone i want exactly as i want it. My favorite feature is the Wah on the Expression Pedal. I tried several more. Digitech RP200 for example. I prefer Boss ME-50 to all other pedals i've tried. Great :D

When i went to the shop , they themself had to find out how it worked , the real technician wasn't there .
And i have to say , in about 2 minutes we had it figured out without the help of the manual ..
the notifications on the device itself are very easy to understand .
Even the editing of patches was found very easily .
The manual itself is all what it need to be , simple explanations , no blahblah .

I play with an epiphone les paul custom , with Ernie Ball 'regular slinky' strings .The amp i'm using is the vox The overall sound is very good , but the overdrive i found a bit on the noisy-sound . But since i'll mostly be playing rock , bluess etc i won't bother that much ...
the wahwah is great as also is the delay ...just gotta love it !

Can't really say ..just bought it today! :p

same ...

After several years of not owning a guitar anymore , i bought myself a les paul ...i never had a pedalset before so i can't compare to other rigs . In total i have played guitar for 8 years now :)
Most of the time i play blues or rock , which go well with this Me50
It certainly keeps me interrested in keep on going playing guitar

It's really easy to use and in conjunction with your amp's EQ, you can get great sounds in no time.

The manual is competent.

Editing patches is really easy, but this is mainly because you can't control much of anything.

I used this with a Tech 21 amp and two USA Jackson guitars.

The unit has a couple big flaws that rule it out as a viable option for a serious amateur or pro. 1) No EQ (tone modify doesn't do too much). To use a processor effectively, you need to be able to set your amp to a neutral setting and let the processor do the work. Now the ME-50 left off the EQ because all amps have one, but for me the problem was that if I set the ME-50 and my amp EQ to a clean sound that I liked, I was unable to get the sound I liked when I kicked in the distortion. If set right for distortion, my clean sound was poor. Since I'm unwilling to compromise either, the ME-50 went back after the 1-month trial. The other thing that stinks is that there is a drop off with patch changing.

I should mention that the wah is pretty good for a multi. The distortions are pretty nice too, but the overdrives are just usable.

Well built. I wouldn't use it with anything that would involve a mid-song switch though.

Never dealt with them

This is a step towards the right idea with all the knobs, but the two main faults are inexcusable at the asking price.

If you're a newbie, you should run right out and buy this because it will make your practicing at home more fun. If you're experienced, you really shouldn't buy this. I'd about given up on multi-effects after this, but then I tried the GT-8. It's awesome and the perfect blend of what the ME-50 should have been and a rack processor.

I'd rate this a C- overall. GT-8 gets an A.

Great User frendly Multi effects unit, Very easy to create good sounds. My only gripe is that in order to change from one bank scroll up or down using your hand. I ended up making a two button footswitch for it but it would have been nice to have individual buttons for the banks.

I find the sound quality to be exelent, a bit of hum on the more extreme overdrive/delay combinations but great for playing live, If you were recording Id use a software effects package for these anyway as it simplifies things

Built like a tank like all boss pedals, this would do you more harm than you could ever do to it. ID have no problems in using it without a backup. The build quality is extreemly impressive, fair play to boss for not getting all cheap and plasticy in this otherwise disposable world

Ive had no problems with the unit, THe Boss website is helpfull and has a downloads page where the manual can be found

I was very happy with the pedal from the onset and am really glad that I spent the extra money to get it. The quality of the item is very high both in terms of build quality and sound qualiy

everything is so clearley. if you find the distortion too sharp you turn a button and that is it. if you wan't a deeper chorus turn je button and that is it. I think this is the most easy multi-effect pedal on the market. no programming or what so ever. and you can save your favourite sound with a push of 2 buttons. it's really easy

I use it with a 1999 fender stratocaster and an home made amp with a fender sidekick 15 for backup. it sounds great!! you can get a ska sounds, reggea sound, jazz sound and hardrock sounds. what ever sounds possible and if the amp buzzses too mutch, you can activate the noise supressor and away buzz, only that shorten your sounds but thats not really bad.

I trust this thing with my heart. it's heavy duty metal chassis is really hard too brake.

I bought it from a friend.

this is a fantastic multi-effect pedal. it really helps in getting the perfect sound for every style I play. I play bleus, ska, reggea, hardrock, soul, punk, grunge and I can use this pedal for every style. it's just my dream come true..this is one of the best pedals on the market. if mine was stolen, I would by an other one, no doupt about that

Wire it up and plug it in and away we go .. it is quite easy to use but you should use extenal power source / supply as batteries will not last long.

You can create your own sound patches and save them but I like some of the factory preset patches particulary Bank 4, Patch 1, 2 and 3 and Bank 6, Patch 3.

The manual is straight forward and easy to follow. It even explains the sounds.

As with most effect boards, the built-in tuner is real good

I play a 2000 fender strat, maton electric / acoustic and ibanez SA160 through fender stero chorus amp - Priceton 60W(2x30W). Every thing sounds quite good.

The effects all work as intended but offer my personal comments as follows:

I love the FAT tone and Reverb ... sounds range from mellow blues to chunky boogies and anything else in between.

The distortion sounds are good BUT it is noisy / mains cycle hum, nearby electrical interfernece etc. The noise suppressor works but dampens / muddies up the sound quite a bit. This a bit disappointing.

I noticed when running the unit through my amp effects loop, it squeels on distortion sounds at only moderate settings - either unit is at fault or fender amp.

The modualtion sounds are real cool, anything from Pink Floyd, Lenny Kravitz, U2 etc.

The delay sounds are a bit tricky to get right - I still need to sit down and get it right. However, the reverse echo is real Led Zep, the echo delay is U2 and the rotary is SRV "Tightrope".

The expression pedal is reeeeally good. The voice wah is great with the pedal set about half up - real Santana sound, very vocal!

Worthwhile to purchase foot switch for this unit - this allows to switch through the patches

Works all the time .... the operator may be "weakest" link in the chain though. BOSS has been around for a long time and I am sure it will stand up to all the foot stomping abuse and playing environemnts.

I would use it professionally - you need to understand the sounds you require and have it set-up for the music you play.

The sales guy in guitar shops ie after salkes advice - some are good and understand the product, others give you this 'glazed-eye-I-don't-know-I-don't-care' look when you ask specific questions.

I wouldn't expect to deal with BOSS direct as I expect this to be reliable equipment. I have had this for 18 months - two years.

I like blues to hard rock, bit of haevy metal, boogie, acoustic delta and R n B. I even like playing country rock . To me its all about groove, tone and fun.

I have played a long time > 20 years. Jamming, some gigging, self enjoyment and expression.

In my personal experiences, I find you 'adjust your playing' to your equipment and genrally progress from there. In my instance, playing elctric acoustics, to 'slinky-action' ibanez electrics to 'fat- stringed, fat-sound' strats, I have adjusted and found the experience most gratifying. The ME-50 to me has opened up my playing ... sometimes subtle, other times brutal but most rewarding all the same.

Most worthwhile investment, very sounds ... another dimension to my playing.

i love the boss me-50 but i think that one hast to have a good guitar and amp to start off with all that money would be wasteted on a 2 volt amp and pick-ups you could use to scare dogs away with.

but wiht the help of the manuel and some cool tunes in ure arsenal this can be a worthwhile investment.

it by far is the easyest multi eff... box ive ever used

the pedle will make any bad guitar or guitarist sound good. i use it with a yamaha eg 112 and yamaha 60 odd volt amp and it rocks. its as noisy as the amp can be. but the effects will sound better on a better amp (obviouly)ive been hearing sounds from hendrix to santana

im 15 stone and i could fall on this from 10 feet up and not scrach it. i wouldnt only use this at a gig i'd use this to invade mars.(or Iraq) lol

no ipinion but im sure they would be helpfull

i love all rock, well apart from punk. but ive played every thing from direstraights to chris rea on the me-50 and its rocked them all.

iv been playing 11 years and own a accustic and a classical guitar as well as my yamaha eg 112. i also am quite tasty on the tennor saxophone but thats another story.

if it were stolen or lossed or sat on and broke id deffietly buy it again because of its ability too mold to fit your playing perfectly

one of my only complaints is that some of the distorsion effects sound abit samey but i love its inibility to get boaring
my favorite feature is the expression peddel (wah in particular)

i didnt compare it to other products but i did seek advice from my guitaristic advisary board of friends

i wish it could record tracks on it and play them back at you threw the amp but what r u gonna do

it helps me express myself with my guitar and has helped me write alot more songs for my band (5 ways to the weekend)from london

it would be cool if it had jazz/blues features but its a better contraption than i could ever build so enough said

if icould give this peddle 11 i would but you'll have to stick with 10

i hope reading this has helped you decide to buy this... and spread the love ....

largeman out...!

Incredible - compare this to any competing products and you'll choose the me-50 every time. User interface designers take note - knobs are the most intuitive controls on the face of the planet!!

Absolutely incredible. I've been playing for 25 years professionally, session, live, jamming, w.h.y., and I now use this to replace my 12 boss stomp boxes. The distortions and overdrives are virtually perfect! I do find that the tube screamer is missing the very subtle analog delay doubling that is in the original unit (which is partly responsible for it's amazing tone), however that can be simulated pretty well with the me-50's analog delay setup properly.
Contrary to what some people have written here, the chorus, phaser, flanger, univibe etc are all VERY good but you have to understand how to use the non-traditional effect level control when applicable. Original units didn't often have such a control, but by A-B comparing the originals to this and fiddling with knobs (and using common sense about how the original units work) you can duplicate their sounds and store the settings in the me-50.
COSM (roland's digital modelling technology) truly is excellent. I use this with my vox valvetronix amp (ad-50vt) and a cheap project strat that's been customized extensively to be a great claptonesque guitar (also use a custom mahogany les paul copy with seymour duncan alnico-ii pro and dimarzio pickups). The tones are simply outstanding. Unless absolutely necessary keep the noise gate off or almost off, and keep the compressor off except when specifically wanted (or add external pedal switch) since it adds insane amounts of sustain even on the lowest settings and that might not be what you're looking for.
The pitch shifters and harmonizers are stunning - like the boss stomp pedal version which is best of breed also. Just learn how to play guitar cleanly and understand that guitar synths can only track single pitches unless a hex pickup is used (as in midi guitar synths - not compatible with this box anyway). I use the harmonizer to simulate brass section bursts and lines in a cover band and people are looking around for the extra keyboards etc when I play, then I hit one switch and I'm SRVing with tons of tone!

You might want to use a boost pedal with this to switch in for leads (before or after the me-50 work well depending on how you setup compression etc). I use a chandler tube driver before it and hit it for solos - some extra real tube drive and boost bring me over the top when wanted.

Even the wha pedal is great, although I don't like it's position in the signal chain for some guitar styles so I use another antique vox italian crybaby (red fasel) after the me-50 to really scream "hendrix".

Perfect - solid, metal, made to gig, this is a pro piece of equipment. Anyone who thinks this is only practice material doesn't understand what gigging is all about. If you can get a great tone, play it live. It doesn't have to be $1000 to be amazing, this is the same technology in the most expensive roland gear, same amazing build quality, ultimate gigging features.

Use it live - it's great!

This unit also goes through batteries fairly quickly, although lasts longer than many other digital boxes due to it's use of multiple AA's instead of 9 volts, but I still bought the boss wall wart adapter for it to make sure it doesn't die on stage.

n/a - but I've heard boss is good for this. no problems for me and I got a 1 year warranty from long and mcquade in vancouver canada anyway so not important to me.

how can you do better than digital equipment with analog controls and digital programmability with analog tone?

Of course, to sound like all the boxes in this unit, including a rat, tube screamer, every boss overdrive and distortion pedal, govn'r, fuzz face, univibe, every boss modulation effect, boss digital and analog delays, good wah effects, incredibly good tracking harmonizers and pitch shifters, etc etc, you'd have to spend $5000. Then you'd have a lot more unreliability, tons of patch cords, power supplies, problems, headaches, and noise.

This is superior in my opinion. I will never go back. I do have some great analog effets and will keep using them in my chain but they're gradually becoming more and more like backup solutions.

Very easy and straightforward. All the knobs turn perfectly, and it is very easy to figure out. Getting good sound is not hard, but you need to read the manual and learn what "Level" and "Tone" and "Drive" truly mean if you want to get good and fancy with the sounds. If you already know what those mean, you won't need to read the manual. The manual, by the way, is the best I've ever read for any guitar-related product. Very straightfoward with pictures. I've never needed to mess with the firmware because it works great, and my unit is brand new (never upgraded).

I am using it with an ESP EC-100QM guitar through a cheap Korean brand amp (I'm deployed there so I needed one), although I also use this through the church mixer board during performance. The ME-50 is very very powerful: with the mini amp at gain=0 volume=2 and the pedal at output_level=50% you can get very loud sound at the very lowest possible volume pedal setting. However, within the range of the amp, I have yet to experience sound distortion. I have yet to plug into the church mixer board.

The effects are very powerful, in terms of their variety and their abilities. Starting off, the distortions are nice. There are many varieties, and you can pick either to emulate a pedal (Boss and others) or to specify the kind (Metal/Loud/Lead/Natural/Crunch/etc). If you're trying to emulate music that you hear, you can eventually find what you want in terms of distortion. Me, I prefer to either sound identical to the CD, or if I'm doing improvised music or original music, to play around with the distortion until I get what I want. So far it seems to work great and have tons of options (probably more than I'll ever truly need).

The place where this pedal really shines is the modulations: Chorus, Tremolo, Flander, Phaser, Uni-V, etc. There's one analog Chorus and two stereo choruses, and they both sound excellent. The Rate knob is almost too sensitive for analog chorus, but at 100% depth this chorus sounds absolutely sexy. Tremolo took a little thinking and playing, but also works great. You can also manually set some of the rates by holding the Mod foot switch then tapping the rhythm (LED responds) or moving the Rate knob (LED displays rate, which is cool).

In terms of delays, I don't use them often, but they seem to work as advertised and described. Too bad there's not an "Edge" switch position for the delay (i.e. to sound like U2) :)

The one thing I learned new (after being sort of "lied to" by other multieffects pedals) is the Compressor. This is the first time I've had one that's independent. After reading the description (since I'm new) and using it, I have fell in love with it. On Metallica's song Nothing Else Matters, if you listen closely, someone is using Compressor due to the sound that comes through. Running with only Compressor, I sound almost identical to the sound they used on that song.

The noise gate works as advertised, the reverb does also (but in response to some other comments, if you're using amp reverb and then use ME-50 amp reverb, it's probably going to sound really stupid). Master volume is a knob right next to reverb, and that's a lot better to me than one that's on the back side of the pedal. The tuner works great, even without a needle like the Quick Tune's have.

The expression pedal as a volume pedal works great. It can be tuned if you really want to, as well as the stomp pressure set. As a wah, it seems to work as advertised, maybe not as rich as a Cry Baby, but I have yet to fine-tune the pedal.

Tone enhance seems to work as advertised, if you're listening closely. As for the way they did the naming of them, maybe it would be more logical to just say (Bass Boost / Bass & Treble / Mid Boost / Mid Cut) but once you learn the names (Presence / Tight / Fat / Enhance) you understand. As such, this knob and others seem to be abstract rather than analytical, but you get used to it very easily.

My favorite artists vary, but it seems like I can get it to sound like the Deftones, Disturbed, Metallica, System of a Down, Chris Tomlin, Petra, Whiteheart, Margaret Becker, etc.

Reliability: never had any issues: always works, always dependable.

Would I use it on a gig without backup? I would never be anywhere without a backup. However, since I'm deployed, still learning, not rich, and a church musician (i.e. I don't tour), I seem to be fine without backups. If it were to fail, I'd just run direct into the amp / sound board and do my best without it, and then turn it in. But I've never had any issues with it, and it's awesome, so I'm very tempted to say that I'd never get a backup.

I've never had to talk to Boss. This is a good thing because it works and the manual explains everything. Never had any issues. Their website is nice: you can get the manual in PDF form, and there are also other places to find info and such.

Style: everything from slow and beautiful through chorus (Margaret Becker) to Metallica (Compressor + "Metal") and System of a Down ("Metal"). It seems to be a great match and very versatile.

I've been playing since I was 18, although I'm military and have never been able to spend a good amount of time on practicing. I own an Ovation Celebrity Custom CS247, ESP LTD EC-100QM, the ME-50 and a cheap practice amp.

Stolen? As soon as I could buy another, I would get another ME-50.

Love? I love how it's got knobs, the way you can use effects independently, and since it doesn't have amp modeling (I absolutely hate amp modeling) I love it even more. I can't think of anything I really hate, but the output is rather high. However, this could be my amp, so I'm not going to count against the pedal (since the output level knob fixes things). Also, I wish I had gotten the optional dual footswitch addition so that I can switch between banks (up/down) and/or turn on/off compressor and tone modify, but this is additional equipment. My favorite feature is being able to switch to/from Tuner and to/from Memory mode, and to set up effects together in memory positions to get a very specific sound for a specific song.

Compare to other products? Let's see ... The DoD effects pedals I've used are ok, but then I'm sort of dependent on spending a lot more time playing with amp modeling and/or hoping there's a factory preset that meets my needs. That is unacceptable to me, so I'm happy with this pedal. I'm a Boss fan, so I can't really down the other pedals, but I have actively (live) played through DoD pedals. Amp modeling sucks. I chose this one with the Boss product chooser, and out of reviews and experience, and due to how it can act more like independent effects when needed.

I wish it had more factory presets, however. I'm picky, and I set mine up great, but for my amp (again, could be a sucky amp) the presets sound overdone. However, the factory presets come in the manual telling you where every knob is, and this is golden because you can see the basic philosophy behind the sounds themselves. They even give you a little preset sheet you can fill in (I don't use it, but it's nice).

Help me make music? Well, it doesn't do my laundry for me so that I can spend more time playing, and it doesn't teach guitar, but it doesn't get in the way lol. In general, stomp boxes and multi-stomps require more cabling, so they technically do get in the way, but they all do this, so it's normal.

This is the area that the ME50 really excells at. The basic layout is that of three "stompboxes" next to one another, each possesing dedicated knobs to all the peramiters that you would expect to be there. In addition there are dedicated tone ajustment, Noise reduction, Compression and Reverb controlls and an Expression peddel.

There are no menus what so ever, whith everything being ajusted just as it would be on a normal dedicated foot pedal. The only time that the LCD is really used is the Tuner and recalling the presets that you program in.

When it comes to presets, again it couldnt be easier. You simply press the "write" button and then use the arrow keys to choose a bank, then press "write" again to store your settings.

The manual is pretty strait forwards and explains what each of the preamiters on the settings do. Theres really not much explaining needed as you just move the dials and the sounds there.

The sound on the ME50 is fair. The Tone shaper is nice - I wouldnt say that it really dose what it claims (making your guitar sound like an acustic or single coils etc..) but there are pleanty of nice useable tones in there own right which is fair of any unit.

I'm using it through a THD Univalve and a THD 2X12 speaker cab. I have an Eppi Les paul with EMG's, a Jap Jazzmaster and a USA fat strat.

The compression is something that i never really use but seems to work ok. The reverb comes in four forms (room, Hall, Spring and Mod) The first two are quite nice for digi verb, the spring is awful and sounds like someones kicking your amp when you play (it makes "splosh" sping noises that really arnt there with real spring verb) and the mod is good if you like David Gimore esc "ultra effects" but not really for the majority of players.

The Distortions range from good to usless (the MT2 being the worst culprit, offering muffeld fuzz and hidious feedback) but there are pleanty enought of the good for most tastes. Like the tone mod they dont really imitate real amps and pedals that well, but sound ok in there own right. One thing to note is that the higher gain distortions are VERY noisy - to the point of being unuseable

The modulations are great, and all without exception are up there with any dedicated box. They have great scope and sound clear and crisp at all times.

The Dealys are good and seem up there with most digi pedels - there are the useful ones and the not so great (slow revers ecco etc..) but all in all there is everything that you could ask for in that department. The expression pedal is ok but i felt it lacked range. As a volume pedal it is a but to sharp for nice violining. The whar is a bit nasty in my oppinion, and fails to capture the range that good whars (like the cry baby) have. There are a selection of other expression effects but there all pretty useless (ring mod - a bad pitch shifter etc).

This think is built like a tank - its made of heavy duty metal and very tough plastic. Short of chucking it out a highrise window there not much that could break this pedal.

As for the softwere - I've had mine about 7 months and there have been no probs yet - If i gigged with this then i'd have a backup as you never know do you - but this is about as tought as they get!

No idea - never needed to use it

I play mainly rock and punk (TRHCP, The Distillers, Greenday, Metallica, Placebo etc...) and find that there are pleanty of useful sounds - as mentioned before the "metal" distortions are awful, but there are some others (hi birt) that are really good for 80's Thrash sounds.

I've been playing for about 6 years and have never really had much in the way of effects. I have a Visual Sound Jackle n Hide and a GD whar but never went for multi effects before as i find them too much hasstle searching through all the menues. This is really where the ME50 came into its own as there was none of that to deal with.

As mentioned above, the ease of use is by far the best thing about this pedal - the worst being that several of the sounds are below average - but there are still many that are pretty good

I compaired this to the Korg Muti fx unit (the new small silver one) which was far below this in both ease of use and sound qulity. I also tried the GT-6 which i felt lost some of the ease of use in exchange for more effects (in my oppion this has too many already)

This is a really great practice tool and is good fun for Jamming. Its not pro quality and it wont make a ?200 amp sound like a ?2000 amp (infact - it wont do this through a really good valve amp either) but nor will anything else out there, but if your looking for a good selection of sounds in a tough small case that are good enough for pub gigs and practice sessions then this is well worth checking out.

No menus, just knobs as easy as any Boss stomp box. The manual is well laid out.

Pretty damn good all the effects sound how I would expeect for a unit in this price bracket not perfection but pretty good. Some of the effects can get overpowering when used the od/distortion module but you can dial that out. The only real problem is when using memory mode there is a small drop out between patch changes reminds me of the Korg A4 I had about 10 years ago. I would have in this age of technology they could have sorted this problem out but hey I only really use manual mode anyway.

It's Boss so I trust it stury chassis but plastic foot switches but they look like they can take a few years abuse.

I don't know about Boss but my local guitar store are always very helpful when I need any help (I guess it's cos I used to work there).

I play many styles of music and bought this as a Birthday gift to myself. I've been playing for nearly 11 Years and own alot of gear. This unit is part of my home practice rig Ibanez SC420 or PRS CE24 - Boss ME50 - Laney HCM60R. I was also thinking about the GT-8 but it was more unit than I needed. The ME50 does what it does very well and serves my needs more than enough.

Ok, I've been playing guitar for 13 years and have tried a whole wealth of effects and amps and combos and i have to say this pedal is damn easy to use. I view it as two pedals in one, one pedal is awsome, on sucks. The first is bascially a real time pedal where you can dial in the settings you want and colour your sound as needed as you go, add delay, chorus, change volume, add wah or whatever effect you use. The other pedal is the preset pedal.....whereas you can dial awesome tones, set everything beautifully the massive drawback for me is that when you change patch there is about .4 of a second of silence. Sounds like John Petrucci on silent man in Scenes from new york...that really definate delay in tone change. I'm used to changing tones on the beat and expect an instant change, no gaps.......in real time mode this isn;t a problem, in patch mode it is....unless i am doing something wrong i am suprised no-one has mentioned this.

However, the redeeming thing of this pedal is that you don;t have to use the patches. So basically i use the clean channel of my DSL2000 and when it's distortion time hit the pedal. It works well :) the only draw back is you don;t get all those nice semi distorted tones unless you do that on the amp or extremely back off the volume off your guitar and change to a neck pickup. For this reason i give the unit an 8.......not perfect, but pretty damn good!!!

Right, this is where the unit comes into it's own. I use a Marshall DSL100 JCM2000 head, 4x12 cab, Ibanez Satriani and Paul Gilbert signature guitars, and a high spec Jackson Dinky, with seymour duncan pickups just fitted.mini 69 and a high distortion. I play mostly rock, metal, progressive music and jazz, funk, blues and just good old smiths style guitar pop and this pedal can cover all the tones.

Having a great amp and good guitars is obviously vital and i have to admit i only actually use one of the distortions, and manipulate the sound with the tone, bass, volume and drive controls. The others are ok with work , but to get the EQ settings right on the amp, pedal and guitar it's difficult to change different distortions as you go. At high volumes it can cause a problem, either too much treble or bass and not enough middle. Once you get the perfect setting then stick with it!!!!

The actual effects are excellent, the delays are clean, the reverbs can be overpowering but i just back it off. Using the minimal reverb is the way forward, esp at high volumes. The noise gate is fantastic , at about a 60% setting you get a perfect tone, no loss of distortion or anything. It is like the NS-1(i think) noise supressor(!) that is used to use. that was perfect. The compression is uneeded but a good touch for those who require it. Again, for me this messed up the tone slightly. In a live situation I don;t think this is necessary. The modulation section is excellent............I don;t really use chorus or flange or anything like that, maybe slight chorus sometimes and this pedal does everything you need. It's all programmable so you can get the desired effect.

The expression/rocker pedal is amazing........i use it for two objectives.....one as a volume pedal and one as a wah. For volume if you are precise you can use it to give you a boost in solos, but as i am the only guitar player in my bands i don;t need it for that. When i want a dead sound, or i need to unplug my guitar for total silence i use that pedal. The wah is awesome........to activate it it is a cry baby style push down on the pedal to activate the switch in the forward position, then away you go. Obviously it isn;t cry baby or morely standard but it is by far the most natural sounding wah i have heard on a multi effects unit. The pitch shifters are very accurate both up and down and the rest of the modulation effects are very good.

Another amazing addition is the tone selector, i only use it for the acoustic simulator......it is awesome........saves having to get that piezo fitted!!!!

In typical boss style this is a beast of a pedal. It is a solid metal tank that is unbreakable. I have had mine for two years nearly and it has never let me down. However, i do advise you get a Boss 9V adaptor otherwise you will compromise sound quality. At a recent gig mine was damaged and i used my 9V from my POD that i happened to have........in clean it was ok, in distortion it was noisy as hell. I had to ditch the effects and use just the amp!!!

I';ve dropped it, done countless gigs, busked in the street with it(good battery life) and basically it's been a work horse. The paint isn't even tarnished, the LED's all work and it is bascially as new.

Never needed any repairs......but i am sure BOSS would be excellent at customer support!!! In fact, their products are so good and reliable i bet their customer support section is pretty bored and would welcome any repairs!!!

I read elsewhere that someone said this isn;t a pedal for professional guitar players....i would say i have to dissagree. It's nice to be suprised when a cheap product can compare to products that are three, maybe four times in value. Obviously, it is not a massive rack of effects but it has some excellent useable sounds and does the job. I'd never use it for recording, but live it is good. The only problem is the switching of patches. As i am not using the patches preset mode it does everything i need. If the patches mode did the job then i would use that, but i guess you can't have it all!!!

I'll give it a nine.......not perfect, but it's on;y minor niggles that stop it being a 10. Hope the review has been useful!

It was designed specificly to be easy to use with all the parameters tweakable with analogue style knowbs so not only does it get a 10 but it's the easiest to use modern day multi effects unit there is. The user experiance is a throwback to the 80's and early 90's when multi-effects were basicly a few pedals in a single piece of plastic.

The way they combine several effects into a single knob is pretty nice, you can select between 4 types of reverb and choose the intensity all in one twist. The loss of resolution when picking the the intensity isn't that bad.

One drawback is that reverb can't be toggled in manual mode, you have to use a memory patch to alter the reverb on the fly.

The other drawback is that tap-timing the modulation requires you to hold down the pedal for two seconds to activate the mode so you might as well not think about manipulating that effect in the middle of a song.

You can save any setting as a memory patch so none of the drawbacks to manual mode realy count against the unit overall. Most effects units are much harder to use in either implementation.

I compared my Maxon OD808 to their "scream" overdrive setting since it's trying to mimick the same circuit and I was very interested to see where modeling is at nowadays. They have the same tone color at the moment you strike the strings and sound nearly identical but the huge difference is in the decay. The OD808 sounds bubly and random with various frequencies spiking all over the place as the strings quiet down whereas the scream setting on the me-50 has a very linear decay like a compressed and equalized distortion. There are no random spikes and bubbliness. It sounds more like a elf inside the pedal is turning the drive down. I'm guessing this has to do with the fact that it's digital and/or that the model can't hope to be that exact based on the circuitry it uses. This doesn't radicly effect my opinion of it because if you wanted a similar and usable tone you still have it.

Most of the other distortions all have the same linear decay characteristic but that can probably be compensated for with a dirty tube amp. I'll know as soon as mine get's out of the repair shop. The distortions are usefull, even if they don't sound like the originals they don't sound bad. Some even sound a little better in that I always wanted that tone but not the noise, or I wanted it with more low end.

The delays are realy clean but I wish there was a tone knob for the repeat signal. The reverse effect is realy cool because it makes it sound like there's another guitar behind you doing stuff that's amazingly complementary.

The rocker pedal is awesome, the pedal feels realy nice and the effects are not so extreme as to make your sound awkward in the bigger mix. I think the wah resembles a vox wah, not a crybaby. I realy like the resonance effect because of the way it makes the tone of the guitar so narrow, I'll often leave it in one spot for a long period.

The modulations, compressors and other utilities are pretty good. They sound alot smoother than multi effects of the past. The reverb sounds artifacty but digital reverb always does.

no idea

no idea

Overall it deserves a 9 because 10 would imply a perfection which I'm still waiting for.

Very easy to use. Just read all the posts below. Play with the knobs, TRY to dial in your tone and effects. Very smooth operating board.....have not read the manual. Dont need it if you have ever used a pedal.

Please know right off the bat that I do NOT own this unit. This review is based on 4-6 hours of playing with it at various shops through various guitars, single coil and humbucks, and amps, tube and SS everything from a Bassman LTD to a JC 120 to a Mesa F-50. Each time I played dry though the amp with both cables first as a reference point. I reccomend that to anyone trying out effects at a shop. Eliminate the simple things...find a good guitar that is set up well or bring you own.

I really, REALLY wanted to like this pedal because I love the way it is set up and for the price it would be great to throw in a backpack to take to garage jams, open mike night at the local bar...etc and get some decent sounds without having to haul a big ass pedal board around.

After many hours of tweaking I have finally given up on this unit.

First the good. Delays are damn good. Not great but good enough for most. Lotsa variablity in the settings. I also like the rotary and Uni-Vibe effects...actually suprised by these! The reverbs are ok but the spring reverb is noisy as hell....hall sounds great. The expression pedal has a limited sweep but the wah is good also for a ME unit.

The bad. The OD/Distortion, all 22 of them are among the worst I have ever heard. NOISY AS HELL in every setting with every guitar and amp combo I tried, The built in noise suppressor does very little to help.....sucks tone from the guitar as does the compressor/sustainer. Just horrible.
The other effects, flanger, phaser, tremelo, chorus (WTF....Boss/Roland..even the chorus blows ass????)....very dissapointing.

Noise, noise and more noise. I should have given up after an hour or so but the look, feel and apparent value of this thing kept me going back with an open mind

Like bamboo and cockroaches, this thing would probably survive an atomic bomb blast.

Never dealt with Boss directly.

I play mostly blues, surf, bluesy rock, southern rock type stuff. I have a large pedal board, several amps and guitars. My work does not allow for a steady gig right now but I play alot of blues jams, garage jams with the kids and occaisionaly stand in with a local band or two. I have been playing about 35 years and semi-professionally on and off. This aint my first rodeo. I have been searching for a compact, portable multi-effects board with a decent OD, distortion,reverb,delay,wah and maybe a few extra's (uni-v, chorus..etc) So far I havent found it. The ME-50 looks cool, has tons of effects and features and is built like the proverbial brick shit house. The only problem is that it mostly sounds like what is in the bottom of that pit.

This thing is very easy to use. I am used to stompboxes, and never presets. So, if you like the ease of stomping effects on and off, this is good for you. Here's an example. Let's say I want some delay. First, I dial in what type of delay I want. (reverse, analog, etc.) Then, I can ajust the feedback, E. level, etc. There is a preset function, but I never use it. But anyway, I'd say that this is the perfect multi-effects for those like me.

Let's just go from top to bottom.
1. Tome Modification
This thing works pretty well. I can make my Strat sound like an acousic, a hollowbody , and even a Les Paul! (with the right overdrive) It has good quality. There are 11 different models all together.

2. Compressor.
Works okay, but I don't use much compressor, so I'm not a good judge.

3. Noise suppressor
This works really well, however, it does not get rid of the 60 cycle hum. Although, nothing gets rid of a 60 cycle hum!! I like how it reduces all the pops and snaps when you're not playing!

4. Reverb
Works perfectly for me. It has hall, spring, room, and mod reverbs. I prefer it on hall. You can also turn it up or down with one knob.

5. Overdrive/Distortion.
This has soooo many models. Metal, loud, lead, crunch, natural, mt-2, ds-1, bd-2, od-2, od-1, scream, dst+, guv, rat, muff, face, modern od, stack, hi gain, modern ds, square, and oct fuzz. Plus drive, bottom, tone, and level knobs. They all sound awesome.
6. Modulation
Pretty good. Only problem is the phaser. When you put it on, it gets louder for some reason. I use a seprate phaser.
Flanger, phaser, st chorus 1, st chorus 2, chorus, harmonizer, tremolo, pan, vibrato, uni-v rotating speaker, and rotary.
Here's the weird part. On the harmonizer, you can't play a full chord. It's monophonic. If you play a full chord, it buzzes and bounces all over the place.
7. Delay (my favorite!)
This has no problems whatsoever!
Analog, 400-2000 ms, 100-500 ms, 0-30 ms, slow echo, pan, space pan, reverse, hold, tap tempo. Clean sound, very tweakable.
8. Expression pedal
Pretty good. Wah, resonance, voice, ring mod, + octave, -octave.
Wah screams like a Jimi Hendrex wah, resonance and voice are pretty good. Ring mod, +octave, and -octave sound really wild, but they're monophonic like the harmonizer!

It has an all-metal chasee, so it's very sturdy and durable. It's suprisingly lightweight, too. It won't run on batteries for long, but I always use a power supply. The stomp pedals are very robust. So is the expression pedal.

Haven't had any problems yet. Ive had it for a year.

I play mostly rock and alternative, so this is a really good tool for me. I mostly use a Strat and sometimes a vintage Harmony Meteor. Amps will vary on what type of music I'm doing. This seems to sound good on everything from a Fender Bullet to a Marshall stack and everything in between. If I ever lose it, i will buy a new one because I can't find anything better.I just wish the ring mod, pitch shift and harmonizer wasn't monophonic!

How can you complain?

Compared to things like the Boss GT-8 its a breeze to use and find the right tone.

This unit is clearly not meant for pros who have been playing for a long time but for beginners and even high level intermediate players the Me-50 is a perfect unit.

As said above this unit is not designed for pros who can pick the differences between a real tube amp and a tube simulating pedal but for the price it is an extremly reasonable quality.

The only addition that it would need would be more ajustable parameters on the expression pedal effects mainly the wah.

People have been constantly complaining about the lack of an eq but anyone who need to change the eq in the middle of a song should be hiring techies to do it for them.

Its a boss - would definatly gig without backup

I play punk/metal/rock and this pedal can cope with each genre easily.

I have been playing for 6 years and consider myself to be an intermediate level guitarist. for all my purposes i cannot imagine a much better pedal.

I play a gibson sg custom through a Marshall MG100HDFX and the tone match is ideal.

This is an addition to my review below, whereas if you are somewhat disappointed with the tone, throw away your adaptor. I had 3-4 wal warts powering my board and it was noisey. I bought a Dunlop 9V Brick and this seems to have revitalized the unit's tone. I don't know why, but this is probably why Boss does not include a power adaptor, maybe a design flaw. I was using the appropriate adaptor, but for some reason the tone just didn't live up to its hype until I hesitantly bought a Dunlop brick for $99 which substantially increased this unit's potential. Now its sounds like the unit that the engineers had in mind. You probably won't benefit by buying the $29-39 multi-daisy chain. The brick cleaned up the noise significantly. I am considering a Hush Super C, but I am glad I bought the brick first.

Buy the brick

Rather simple to use. I prefer the simplicity of this unit over other more complicated one's, like the GT-6 and GT-8. I wonder what would happen if Boss tried to stop reinventing the wheel.

Here is the issue. You get what you pay for. The EQ is lame, very lame in my opinion. You must impliment an EQ-7, not the 10 band which I dumped on e-bay. If Boss implemented a GE-7 with this most people would be in tone heaven. In addition I have the Aphex Exciter and most defintely a Rocktron Nitro. In front I am utilizing tube overdrive, Tube Works Real Tube. Excluding the ME-50, this set-up runs about $300-$350.

With the ME-50, you get what you pay for, a volumunous array of distortions, mods, delays and other superficial effects. For $295 it doesn't take you over the top, but it gets you half way there.

The key to the ME-50 is is a solid selection of distortion, some good quality mods and a decent Wah. Noise gate and Compressor is pretty much in line with stomp box issues.

If you buy a Rocktron Nitro for only $49, your amp head will sound like a pro-amplififier and your guitar will scream tone. I have the Aphex Exciter which doesn't seem to do a lot, but the guitar tone just sounds better with it on. Trust me, if you were to buy these options, you will seek the Holy Grail no further. To simplifiy and reiterate here: Tone Works Real Tube, Roctron Nitro, GE-7 and Aphex Exciter.

This is built solid like most Boss units.

Duh! Why would you need them?

You have to buy the power adaptor, everyone quit your whining. The only issue is why Boss didn't implement a bank changer, it's like 10 steps foreward, and one step back.

Easy to use but if have an existing patch with the Modulation or Dely turned off you cannot turn these features back on. Of course there are easy ways around this but its a bit annoying. The manual is not bad. It shows the settings for the factory presets and if there are any you like you can reference those settings.

I am using it between a stock Chinese Squire and a little Marshall Lead 20. The noise gate is just OK, The harmonizer works nice when used with single notes and distortion. Playing a chord through the harmonizer makes the sound go goofy. I like the delays and prefer the analog. The tap tempo is very handy for adjusting delay time on the fly. As far as the distortions - The BD-2 works great for crispy - crunch tone. I like the MT-2 for shred-tallica stuff, Scream (alias for tube screamer)works good for overdrive but of course does not sound like a real tube amp. The Rat distortion sounds good. the Modern OD seems to very work good for CCM because it has a friendly sounding hybrid distorion/overdive sound that cleans up nicley when backing off the drive level. I find that I have had to lower the tone level i.e. less treble on all the distortion settings or my Squire will sound shrill.

Never let me down, even after I dropped it a couple of times. Very Ruggid

Never User It

I play mostly Contemporary Christian Music. I use alot of different variations and levels of distortion and overdive. This unit works excelent on all the clean tones with mods and effects. Also If you need to be able to have plenty of extra boost at one stomp so you can be heard nailing a killer lead, this unit can do it - its just not a problem (smile). The Distortion levels as well as the Output levels are all programable. You will need to use it with an amplifier. If your looking to model amps and plug straight into the PA and have good sound - forget it. the ME-50 models stomp boxes not amps. Value to Price ratio is very good. If I did it again I would probably look much closer at something that models amps and cabinets.

Easy to use but if have an existing patch with the Modulation or Dely turned off you cannot turn these features back on. Of course there are easy ways around this but its a bit annoying. The manual is not bad. It shows the settings for the factory presets and if there are any you like you can reference those settings.

I am using it between a stock Chinese Squire and a little Marshall Lead 20. The noise gate is just OK, The harmonizer works nice when used with single notes and distortion. Playing a chord through the harmonizer makes the sound go goofy. I like the delays and prefer the analog. The tap tempo is very handy for adjusting delay time on the fly. As far as the distortions - The BD-2 works great for crispy - crunch tone. I like the MT-2 for shred-tallica stuff, Scream (alias for tube screamer)works good for overdrive but of course does not sound like a real tube amp. The Rat distortion sounds good. the Modern OD seems to very work good for CCM because it has a friendly sounding hybrid distorion/overdive sound that cleans up nicley when backing off the drive level. I find that I have had to lower the tone level i.e. less treble on all the distortion settings or my Squire will sound shrill.

Never let me down, even after I dropped it a couple of times. Very Ruggid

Never User It

I play mostly Contemporary Christian Music. I use alot of different variations and levels of distortion and overdive. This unit works excelent on all the clean tones with mods and effects. Also If you need to be able to have plenty of extra boost at one stomp so you can be heard nailing a killer lead, this unit can do it - its just not a problem (smile). The Distortion levels as well as the Output levels are all programable. You will need to use it with an amplifier. If your looking to model amps and plug straight into the PA and have good sound - forget it. the ME-50 models stomp boxes not amps. Value to Price ratio is very good. If I did it again I would probably look much closer at something that models amps and cabinets.

my boss ME-50 was made in 2004 and is one of the easyist guitar effects to use i have ever seen. You can get a good sound out of it just by clicking the distortion pedel. Some of the distortions are a bit tinny to start off with but crank up the distortion level to turbo and you get a different story. the modulations on this guitar (phasers,flangers,rotary,octave etc)effects are amazing, there are so many different ways to change the sound and it is all so easy,
and because it's analouge there are no screens and just plain old knobs to select what you want. One of the easiest guitar effects i have ever used and owned.

The sound quality of this beast is stunning, at the moment i am using it with a peavy 15 watt and an ibanez S470(soon to upgrade to an ibanez S3620 J.Custom!) i just like to play upstairs, but if i do start gigging i will upgrade to a peavy head and cab triple x (my favourite). Even on a 15 watt combo it sound great but some of the distortions, to start off with, are a bit tinny but crank up the distortion level to turbo and you've got a different story(by the way i know i've repeated myself,:) As iv'e said the modulation is fantastic. My favourite artist is Vinnie Vincent and can nearly get his sound but it's tricky. Overall the sound is fantastic and if you alter the noise gate you get no unwanted sound at all. Would definetly gig with it.

This baby has never broken down but i've only had it about a year. would definetly gig without a backup.

never got it upgraded, don't need to. Never dealt with Boss.

Overall this effect unit is the best i've had and suits my style very well. I also own a Marlin state of the series guitar, i think it's quite rare(read the review if you want). What i love about this guitar is that it's so simple to use and is so well put together. If it were lost or stolen i would definetly buy a new one, i thought it was quite good value aswell because you are getting a Boss after all.
If someone wanted to spend around #190 on an effects unit i would advise you to take a look at the ME-50. It's fantastic!!!!!

Very very simple... Had it for half a year now. Easy from day 1. The problem is though with ease of use you end up sacrificing the range of what it can do...

The distortions are okayish.... The metal sound sounds like a real metal zone pedal, except with a hell of a lot of fuzz!!!! i wasn't very impressed. However all the other distorts are great and as a muse fan i love the square fuzz sounds.
Mods are okay. Very average phaser and flanger. Good chorus. Don't even touch the harmony mode...its awful!
The delays are where its good. They are very authentic and almost as good as some analog delays.

built like a TANK

never had to

i know i can always use it without a backup and by it a power supply and your sorted.