Boss ME-50

it's easy to use. the memory functions are less intuitive due to the lack of a digital display

i'm using it with a gibson les paul classic or a fender stratocaster standard--> Marshall jcm900 50W combo. basically the me50 isn't noisy. compared to the stompboxes, surely has a more straight and less unpredictable impact on a tube-amp general tone.

i have used it in a gig and the me50 seems to work good. never, anyway, without a backup (korg1500)

never dealt with the company. the boss website (bossus.com) has a lot of suggestions about the use of me50.

the me50 is good. in my opinion anyway the user pays the easiness of use with a lack of other features. at boss they should understand that the guitar players are not idiots. e.g. the korg multieffects are more complex to use, but have much more other effects and features compared to the me50.

Pretty straight forward.

The distortion tones, while adequate in a pinch, are not the smoothest. Under every distortion, there seems to be an underlying tight bass compression that can't be eliminated. While this is desireable for aggressive rhythm chops and solos, its a bit annoying when trying to get a subtle clip. Very impressed with the modulation and delay effeccts. Nice noise reduction and compression as well.

See sound quality

this pedal is about on par with any other multi effects pedals as far as ease of use and what not, i could totally see an easier way to make these pedals, include a small lcd screen with graphics, it wouldn't cost more than maybe an extra $25 in parts too

this thing is a piece of shit. and i don't just say that lightly, its noisy, it sounds "digital" all of the effects not just the distortion, some of these dunces here say the delay isn't that bad, i guess if its off it isn't that bad. i actually checked this pedal out, because i thought it was just boss putting all their old pedals into one unit, atleast that was what their advertisements and the helpful guitar center sales clerk tried to lead me to believe

its a boss so its safe to say it'll survive a nuke, but ugh you probably would wish it didn't

you need to buy a seperate powersupply for this piece of shit, but my experiences with boss customer service they're friendly if you don't mind being on hold for long periods

basically this is the poormans GT-6, and i'm NOT saying the gt-6 is a nice pedal either it sucks really bad too, is this worth the $230 pricetag? no it isn't. also the amps you use with this will have an effect to the sound, but rest assured every single function on this pedal sounds like crap, now i'm glad i didn't buy this piece of crap, and like all products test them out before you buy, dont' get duped. i was under the impression that there was no difference between these effects and their pedal counterparts, until i tried it out that is. now after all the bad things i've said about this i'll say one good thing, it'd be alright to use if you're plugging into your 15watt practice amp in your living room trying to be quiet so you don't wake the mrs. but please you going to spend that much money for something? just about any cheap multieffect will do the trick get the 50 dollar digitech model

If you can use stomp boxes, you can use the ME-50. It's butt-simple to use - just dial-in the sounds you want using clearly marked controls. It's very intuitive - no confusing menus to navigate through.

Here's where this usnit really shines. The sounds are as good as or better than the individual Boss stomp boxes. The reverb, distortion and compresser (sustain function) are GREAT! The modulation effects are outstanding - especially the Univibe and chorus. Very low noise and very natural (non-digital) sound. This thing rules!

It's very rugged. I do beat it up somewhat, but so far, I've had no problems with it.

Again, no problems here. I my entire career, I've only had problems with one Boss stompbox, which was a digital delay that I accidentally blew-up be connecting the wrong supply to it. Boss swapped it out in gig time at no charge.

I play Blues and Jazz. This thing gives me tones from SRV to Eric Clapton and everything in between. I also get deep, lush reverb sounds out of it for Jazz solos. It's quiet and easy to use...and get this: many of the factory presets are actually USEABLE. This is the best combo effect pedal I've ever used (and I've used a lot - Yamaha, Zoom, other Boss combos, Digitech, etc.). This is the first pedal to fulfill the promise of sound quality, ease-of-use, and versitility. Outstanding value!!

the only problem is that it has not an equaliser and it has no easy switch for the banks (i had to but several pedals for using it wile im playing), the rest is almost TO easy to use!!! :)

i have a Marshall MG100HDFX (cab is MG412 120W) and this Boss ME-50, together the sound perpect and i can create every sound i can think of, i play Metallica, Iron Maiden, Children Of Bodom, Nirvana etc etc, and it all sound great with it.

i mostly use the METAL distortion with my pedal, and it sounds great if you turn a phaser on (you should try it).

if i did not have the Boss ME-50 or it was broken, i would not be able to create all these sounds witch makes my covers more great.

so... yes i realy can't play happy if i did not have the Boss ME-50.

i don'd have expearience with Boss customer support.

i play all kinds of music, rock-hardrock-metal-deathmetal etc etc.
i play for 6 years now and i have it for a half year now, it keep suprising me of the options he has.

the reason i buy this one is that i needen a good quality multy-effect pedal, a friend of mine has a Boss GT-6, it is a very good pedal aswell but this one has all the options i need and is not as expensive as the GT-6 (witch is ?500,-)

Compared to its rivals this pedal is a breaze to use. Just works like a row of stompboxes.
In memory mode however i thought editing patches was a bit tricky to get to grips with and its hard to tell what you have and havnt selected for the patch, However its still a league ahead of anything by zoom or line 6.
the manual is faily concise and could do with more tips on how to edit different effects. i was fine with effects i had met before like chorus etc.. but i was new to phasers and i didnt feel the manual explained how to get the right sound. However 10mins of trial and error is all it usually takes to get what you want

i use a jackson with EMG-hz pickups. I mainly play metal and hoped this pedal would replace by metal zone boss pedal, how wrong i was.
The distortions are very fake sounding and also very noisy, it is good fun to try all the different sounds but none of them were usable, especially the metal ones.
The modulation and delay sections on the other hand were excellent apart from the harmonizer which sounds diabolical. only really good for a bit of fun.
Im giving 7 for this category just because apart from the distortions the effects sound pretty good and not far off what they are trying to model.

boss, nuff said

not dealt with them

Sorry but this unit went back on eBAY not long after i got it. i mainly play metal and i was hoping that this would stop me having to do a tap dance in songs changing effects on and off because i could save patches which i could change in one go. How wrong was i. Changing a patch makes the unit go silent for nearly a second which makes it useless in a gig situation for me, i just find it so frustrating!!!

THe other main problem is the fact theres no onboard active EQ. This is the most crucial thing to getting the right sound out of aguitar and they have left it off! some how they managed to put one on the Bass version of the pedal. what were they thinking....

This is possibly the easiest multi-effect device ever. The dedicated knobs make setting up a piece of cake.

I do a fair amount of recording. Using a bunch of pedals definately causes deterioration of your tone, and connecting and disconnecting pedals is a pain. I've tried a bunch of multi-effects(korg, digitech, boss GT-6, zoom)and a common feature with all of them is that telltale digital sound in the background. This unit is the first one since the original ME-5 that appears to preserve all of the tone of your rig. As with any effects, preferences are subjective. Unless you are going for some heavy mosh sounds or purposly trying to over effect, the ME-50 is a pretty cool sounding piece. Interestingly the clean tones going directly into the board were good. For most of my recording I'll go from the ME-50 into a PODxt then to the mixing board. The rectifier simulation with the boss can achieve a devastating chunk (if you want that kind of tone. I don't really use all of the stuff in the box, compress, OD/DS, NR, chorus/flange, reverb, delay seem to be decent.

Haven't had it long enough. Most boss stuff is reliable, but I always have backup for any gig. What if a 600 pound gorilla falls on it?

I do have a bone to pick w/boss. How could they possibly sell this unit without a power source. Also having to purchase extra pedals to switch on the compressor and the tone modifier is low.

While they make pretty solid equipment, Boss as a company doesn't relly seem to care much about their customers as far as support. From getting copies of old manuals to having to purchase materials to help you use their equipment. They really nickel and dime you. It's pretty insulting to be treated this way. The only advantage they have is that their stuff generally sounds better than their competitors. I guess that's apretty big advantage.

simple

distortion- too digital
modulation- okay but doesn't soak near as well as dedicateds
wah- the worst wah i have ever heard
ns- cuts out sustain
comp- decent
tone shape- negative effect on tone
reverb- dont ver ask
value- its great, but bear in mind that when you buy an all in one pedal, you sacrifice the quality of each effect severely!! most of these reviews are from people that don't know the difference, just get these things, and never play them anywhere but in their bedrooms.

but hey a $300 volume pedal that can play around with a little of everything is great for those kind of people. my distortion & chorus pedals each cost as much as this, but you can tell a world of difference in quality, and so this seems only half decent to me. its not bad, but its deffinately not great either.

boss in known for this

never had to worry about this

try it out and see what you think. everyones tastes are different, but so are everyone's needs, and something like this may accomodate you.

my opinion is that there are far better tools to work with, but atleast its easy to get started playing faster with this.

Simple as pie. Dedicated knobs and controls... distortion on, off, modulations, whatever. effects are simple to turn on and off but its annoying to have to readjust controls if you want to use a different modulation effect

You can definately gte good sounds from this thing. The distortion is decent but pretty gainy. Hitting the VARIATION switch adds more depth and bass to otherwise tiny sounding distortion types. My biggest beef with the pedal is the fact that when ou switch between patches there is a breif cut-off of sound. Its kind of annoying and is what keeps me from using the memory mode, i dont like the gap bewteen effect changes.

its way too easy to hit two pedals at once and enter tuner mode when all you wanted to do was turn off your distortion and put the chorus on at the same time

sounds great, good noise gate and an all-round exceptional pedal

easy as pie to control the effects; all knobs and stomp pedals. Only confusing bit os the MASSIVE range of effects on offer; its very bewildering at first. The presets built in are all rather poor and dont help, but i managed to get some great sounds out of it after a few hours of unpacking.

Now, lets address a few of the grumbles mentioned below. for a start YOU CAN SAVE THE MANUAL MODE SETTINGS!!
Fiddle with the manual mode till you've turned on all the effects you need, now save it as a patch. Then when gigging go into memory mode, select that patch and press "edit/exit"..BOOM, all the settings for that patch are recalled, and you can use the 3 pedals to turn off overdrive, mod or delay the same as in manual. If you now want to edit the settings keep turning the knobs and you'll find they activate when they reach the same position as they were in when you saved the patch (if that makes sense). This gives you 30 manual mode settings saved, surely enough for anyone.

Second of all, the gap in the patch switching..well it is annoying but just stop your strumming a little early. its no big deal for me, especially using the memory mode recall trick above.

wow..this is where this pedal comes into it's own. the distortion models are AMAZING! so realistic, they dont sound digital to my ears. 2 or 3 are totally gross and useless to me (metal, loud, hi gain) but the rest are all rather useable.
I specially love the RAT (not sure what a real proco rat sounds like, but this gives a nice compressed punk style distortion), DS-1 (good for grunge), Big Muff (wow so smooth!) and the Square wave synth sound (i like to play lead using this!). Absolutely best though is the Octave Fuzz distortion; crank the drive past 2 o'clock and every note ends in very realistic harmonic feedback; PERFECT for those Hendrix moments when you dont want to anger the neighbours.

As fore the modulations, they all sound pretty good though im a little disappointed for the chorus, its not very warm sounding. The delays are all pretty good but i still havent managed to find the perfect thick lead sound, oh and the amp simulation through the line-out/headphone jack is brilliant.

built like a brick, id trust this thing.

3 year warrently, shouldnt be a problem

okay, only had this thing a few days and already im loving it. Before i had a Zoom 505 and my god this is MILES ahead, especially on the distortions! Still need time to get used to it but i would probably buy one again (or maybe just go for seperate RAT distortion and big muff pedals?)

I just had to come back here to share this info regarding my ME-50.
I am now using this unit as my stand alone preamp. i found myself in my estimation a POD killer in terms of live vs. live playing usage. i now run my guitars right into the ME-50 and then out to a TC Electronic M300 out to a BBE 482i signal processor out to a Mesa 20/20 power amp out to a pair of Mesa 1x12 widebody cabs. OH MY JUMPIN' G'WILLIKERS !!! what a sound. i have used the POD 2.0 in live applications always never completely satisfied. the ME-50 as i'm using it now out performs the POD in live apps. the sound is a little more believable, although still one of a processed nature, it's realism is more convincing to my ears. i do believe the BBE482i is a must have component to make it all happen though. i use the BD-2 distortion model for my clean tones and they are every bit spanky as can be. i can nail Steve Vai tones using the DS-1 modeler and tweaking the tone knob on my guitar. the Guvn'r modeler gets me Marshall tone galore with a lot more realism. it's still really too bad for all of us that Boss offered these units to us with that damn "switch glitch drop-out" when using it in Memory Mode - that spoils the live usage overall ..... but not the tone.

HEY! YOU GUYS AT BOSS OFFER US OUT HERE IN THE REAL WORLD A FIX ON THIS "SWITCH GLITCH DROP-OUT" BUMMER SO WE REAL PLAYERS CAN REALLY PUT THIS UNIT TO MORE EFFECTIVE USE !!! NOW GET BUSY AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

This Boss pedal is actually quite easy to use. Just turn the knobs and you have your sound. It is harder though to get a good low end deep boost sound. I play mostly low pitch screaming metal leads and with no deep crunching tone knobs its hard to use it over plugging in to a straight amp. I was mostly a lover of manuals and this changed my thinking by the quick easy knobs. Thanks boss!

I play an epiphone double neck custom and its very hard to get the low deep riffs through my crate 120 watt amp. I usually play straight through the amp when I play me screaming leads becasue this pedal does not get the sound i need. Noise gate is horrible and I get that huge annoying buzz no matter what. Distortion is pretty cool but 22 types is too much for me. This sound quility actually would be good for country-high pitched punk, but for low, deep, screaming, crunching, sustaining, dirty, death metal it could be better. Like a tone know with only low pitch would be nice!

Sturdy metal casing--boss makes it built to last

Never had to deal with them

The ME-50 could have been better if it were not so high pitched. You can not even tune your guitar down, use the octave -1 and get a low deep crunch even with the lowest tone mod. or OD DS effects on. The wah is horrible and harminizer is tone gone wrong. The only decent part is the OK delay (that I never use) and the easy to use knobs. It gets in the way when I try to play my tunes. I would never use it live and i'd only use the neat volume pedal in the studio. This pedal is not what suits me and I would not reccoment it. I will probably sell it in ebay or just save it for the volume pedal/backup delay. Not a good multi-effects pedal!

THIS IS WHY I PURCHASED THIS PEDAL! Turn a knob and your done, and you can see where your settings sit at a glance (in stop pedal mode anyway). And a master volume with a matching gain indicator, Praise the lord! Why is it so hard for pedal companies to realize that we may want to control the volume of our pedals. Its nice that it can be used like a regular pedal board or have the presets. Bolth are easy to use without any menus. No manual is needed.

Most of the effects (all the important ones anyway) sound great. They are very thick and warm and have a useful wide range of adjustments. I would even dare to say that most sound just as good as a separate BOSS stomp box. Some of the distortions are good; I just wish they had a regular Low/Middle/High control instead of the goofy Bottom/Tone setup they use. Some of the seldom used effects sounded a bit cheap like the ring modulator and harmonizer but who really cares anyway? By far the biggest let down was the WAH. It just has a very stiff quack to the high end and gets really muddy when the heel is down. It has no adjustments. The other Expression pedal selections like humanizer and +/- Octave worked well though but again who cares?

Remember the advertisement in the guitar magazines about the guitar player used his DS-1 as a wheel block while the band changed a tire on their van? I have had boss products before and I believe it.... If they could only make cars that well.

I figure they would be lonley like the Maytag man. Nothing ever breaks so they have nothing to do.

This is exactly what I wanted. Some effects to lightly color my sound where needed. The only difference is I didn't have to spend a fortune on individual pedals. This pedal honestly works in the same way. This pedal can do 90% of what those huge fancy pants units can do and most people will only ever use half of that. If you have ever scratched your head at a menu this is a very good alternative. But if you?re a wah nut leave room on your pedalboard for a crybaby, I wish I would have.

FLICK THE ON SWITCH ON AND YOUR ROCKIN, IT'S THAT EASY. ANYBODY WHO HAS USED A PEDAL WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO. WHEN I BOUGHT MINE THE GUY AT THE STORE KNEW THE PRODUCT INSIDE AND OUT, I WISH ALL SALESPEOPLE WERE AS HELPFULL AND THIS GUY WAS, HE DEMOED IT FOR ME, SHOWED ME EVERYTHING IT COULD DO AND THEN LET ME PLAY AROUDN WITH IT.
THE MANUAL IS EASY TO READ AND UNDERSTAND, READ IT ONCE AND YOU'LL BE SET. CHANGING PATCHED IS A BREEZE.

WHEN I BOUGHT IT I WASN'T SURE IT WOULD SOME GREAT THROUGH A SOLID STATE AMP, I HAVE A RANDALL RG75 AND WHEN I TRIED IT IN THE STORE IT WAS THROUGH A BIG OLD FENDER TUBE AMP. IT SOUNDED GREAT IN THE STORE AND IT SOUNDED GREAT THROUGH MY RANDALL AT HOME. THE DISTORTIONS ARE GREAT, EVERYBODY HAS THEIR FAVORITE SOUNDS AND I CAN SOME OF THE DIRTIEST SOUDNS EVER. THERE'S A FEW OF THE MODULATION AND DELAY EFFECTS THAT I COULD LIVE WITHOUT BUT PRETTY NEAR EVERYTHING IS FUN TO PLAY WITH. MY STRAT SOUNDED WONDERFUL STRAIT INTO MY RG75 AND IT'S SOUNDS EVEN BETTER WITH THE ME-50. I CAN GET THE AD/DC SOUND TO PREIST AND MAIDEN TO DIMEBAGS SOUND AND GREAT KICK ASS CLASSIC ROCK SOUND. THERE'S TONS OF DIFFERENT SETTING FOR KILLER LEAD SOUND.

I'VE ONLY HAD IT FOR A WEEK. AS WITH ALL MY STUFF I'LL TAKE CARE OF IT AND I ASK THAT IT DOES THE SAME FOR ME.

AGANI I'VE ONLY HAD IT A WEEK.

I RESEACHED MANY MULTI EFFECTS UNITS,,, I FISRT WANTED A DIGITECH GNX3
I THOUGH THAT THE RECORD FEATURE WAS COOL, BUT IT'S WAY TO HIGH PRICED. I THOUGHT ABOUT THE POD, BUT I'M NOT REALLY INTO THE AMP MODELING THING(sorry but I don't see the appeal, if I needed something for direct recording I maybe would have choosen the pod)
I LOOKED AT SOME OF THE ZOOM STUFF AND THEY SOUNDED GREAT TOO
BUT WHEN I HEARD THE ME-50 I KNEW FOR MY PLAYING THIS WAS IT, FROM NASTY AND EDGY TO SMOOTH IT'S GOT IT ALL. I'VE BEEN PLAYING FOR OVER 20 YEARS SINCE I BOUGHT THE ME-50 MY PLAYING HAS IMPROVED AND I'VE ONLY HAD IT A WEEK. I HATE NOTHING ABOUT THIS UNIT ' IT CAME TO ROCK '
THIS IS A GREAT PIECE OF EQUIPMENT AND I'D BUY ANOTHER IN A HEARTBEAT.
LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE WHO HAS REVIEWED IT I AGREE BOSS SHOULD HAVE THROWN IN THE ADAPTER, BUT THEY DIDN'T, NO BIG DEAL, IT'S STILL A ROCKIN' UNIT.

This pedal is very easy to use. The Manual is very informative manual mode is great for gigs memory is good for studio nice stuff

I play a Schecter c-1+ through a Fender Stage 100(the older without the built in cheese ball effects) head and a tone master cab equipped with vintage 30's this pedal does not produce much noise at all. I have been playing for 9 years i am semi-pro gigging in a band that plays funk jazz and jam band type rock i have read some of the other reviews and came to the conclusion that most of you out there turn everything to ten and then try to tweek sound. i have found that on the over drive distortion sounds if you dont put the level past 12:00 and dont put the drive past 2 you get a little boost with buttery sounding od i use the rat and the natural the modulation is nice once again keep the level down never past 12 if you are in a band and you put to much effect on your sound it does not mix well. ever. less is definatly more in terms of good effects driven sound and effects volume let your amp map your tone and just use this to map in style the ring mod is fun for trance and down beat transitions when you are relying on your drums and bass for the song and you for trance type effects the compression is nice when used with your amp distortion

like a rock ........sorry thats chevy
excellent metal case

have had no troubles here

I Frikken think this is a great unit espeacially when coupled with the optional unlatching pedals the manual mode is very gig worthy i dont use it much in memory mode wel because i cant get past that damn delay but recording it is nice in memory mode easy to edit it was hard for me to buy a multi effects i have always been a stomp box guy but this pedal really kicks ass good sounds suits my needs just fine without making me look like a beginer on stage

I play about all types of music, from classical to metal, however I stick mostly with rock. I know a lot of professional musicians like Boss' stomp boxes for effects, so I wanted to try it out. I played the stomp boxes and then I played this. I was amazed, it does not sacrifice sound quality for multiple effects. It produces a thick, full and real sound, that can hang with effect systems much more expensive and complicated than this. I tried some other stuff too, such as line-6 and VOX. I think, without a doubt, this was the easiest to use, and it is very versatile. Its not as expensive as some of the other brands, but I bought it because of the ease of use and sound quality. It just rocks. I would recommend it to anyone. Boss proved that a pedal does not need to be complicated in order to have an awesome sound.

Well its very easy to get a good sound from it but read on!.
Easy to edit a patch.
The manual is easy to understand.

I use a Pevey Triple XXX and a Fender Strat USA.
Well as far as noise goes I have not had any strange noise yet.
Effects sound great.
You can turn the knobs and twist things around and get any sound you want.
All effects sound great to me.

Well can I depend on it ?. I have to be honest with you I dont know yet to early to tell.
But would I use it on a gig ? No I have a fear of it. Its kinda jacked up as far as volume goes and that pisses me off. Ive found it just blasting everyone away or not being able to be heard at all. But wait in the middle of all this you have to bend over and twist more knobs to find the volume you need. And in the middle of a gig would suck.

Unsure just yet.

Well I have been big on the Digitech stuff over the years and I loved Digitech once you learn to use it. And this thing aint even a pimple on Digitechs ass. Sorry! I mean so what you got up to 30 tones saved in it you only can use three at a time. But next patch is needed so bend over and push the patch arrow keys. Thats so stupid!. And the volume stinks on this thing. Make it one volume not ten thousand. And manual mode is great but then wait you turn it off and everything is lost. Poor Design behind this unit however it rocks as far as the effects go. My advice is gerat for recording in the studio however bad for live gigs. And sure it can be used with batteries but just about an hour or so and you better have more batteries on you.

ME-50 Multi-Effects Unit purchased in Nov 2003. 22 types of Overdrive/Distortion, 11 Modulation Effects, 11 Delay types, Expression Pedal with 7 assignable functions, 4 Reverbs, Noise Suppressor, Compressor and Tone Modify EQ Control. The unit will run on batteries but sucks them dry in a matter of hours. Boss power supply is extra.
I bought this unit because I had started to build up a small collection of pedals but hadn?t got around to building a pedal board. I had decided to buy a delay pedal at this point and was looking at the Boss DD-20 which is around #180 in the UK. I then realised that the ME-50 was selling for #199 and was loaded with good quality FX. So the decision was made. At this point I have to say that I use effects sparingly most of the time and I also hate to lug around loads of gear to gigs and rehearsals so the ME-50 was a great solution. I could use it as a row of stop boxes but not have to buy batteries and link loads of pedals together, therefore preserving a short signal path.
This unit has been designed to go straight into the front end of your amp. There are no amp or cab modelling features like the GT-6. It?s covered in knobs so you can instantly tweak your settings and has three footswitches to turn on/off each effect (distortion/modulation/delay). It will also operate in memory mode where you can store sets of 3 patches per bank with 10 banks total. Patches can be edited and stored easily, but recalling them in a gig situation is not as easy as it could be. You can buy an additional footswitch to do this but really it should have been incorporated into the unit. There is also a small but noticeable delay between patch changes in this mode as the unit reconfigures itself. I generally use the unit in manual mode.

I use an American Fender Strat with a SD Hotrail at the bridge and an Epi Les Paul Std. These go into the ME-50, which is connected into the front end of a Marshall AVT50 Combo. I play Rock/Grunge and a little Blues and the band I play in is in the kinda vein of Pearl Jam, Audioslave & Jane?s Addiction. When gigging I use the Overdrive channel of the amp mainly so don?t tend to take advantage of the ME-50?s distortions. I use the OD-1 or Tubescreamer setting on the ME-50 as a solo boost instead. Having said that, the OD?s and distortions on it are all useable and sound great when rounded out by the amp. In fact I?ve been very happy with the sounds from this unit and tinkering with it can lead to a moment of inspiration when song writing as there?s so much to play with.
Playing live I use the analogue delay, wah, tremolo (with some extreme settings, Tom Morello toggle trick made simple!), chorus and a touch of the flanger in places. The onboard tuner?s handy and mutes the output from the unit, you do get some signal still leak through to the amp though but not enough for the audience to notice. I?ve found it to be pretty accurate too, obviously with only a five segment display its never gonna be totally accurate, but for gigs its fine.
The assignable expression pedal is pure gold. When not engaged it acts as a volume pedal. Now I would never have bought a stand-alone volume pedal but now I couldn?t do without this. It?s a handy mute, an easy alternative to volume knob swells (which on a LP on the bridge pick-up is not easy) and a volume/gain control depending on amp settings.
Then stand on the toe of the pedal and you have the pick of a Wah, ring modulator and octave pedal plus a few other off-the-wall options. The wah?s actually pretty good too. I also have a PW-10 V-Wah that I?ve had for a while which doubles up on some of the effects found on the ME-50. The V-Wah is undoubtedly better at what it does and I?ve frequently run the guitar into the V-Wah then into the ME-50. This lets me pick the Wah model I wish to use and frees up the expression pedal on the ME-50 to act as a volume pedal plus one of the other options such as the octave function.
Speaking of the octave function, this is no replacement for a Digitech Whammy. It?ll only take you up an octave or switch to the other setting and it?ll take you down one octave, good to have nonetheless.
I don?t really use the reverbs, preferring to use the amps instead. The reverb with modulation is pretty cool though, giving you a bit of a Jane?s Addiction vibe. Compressor does its job as does the noise suppressor. Mostly I leave these switched out though in the interests of preserving the signal. The Tone Modify option can be handy to sort out a decent base tone with a strange amp, but again I?ve got the unit working well with my amp so leave this switched out. The Acoustic simulator does a surprisingly good job of making the Epiphone sound like a passable acoustic too!
Overall I?m very pleased with the sounds coming from this unit coupled with its easy of use.

I?ve had this unit for about 5 months now and practiced, rehearsed and gigged with it constantly in that time. It?s been rock solid and like someone else who?s posted here I went and bought a big Laptop bag to keep it in. I would recommend this to anyone who has an ME-50, if you get a large enough laptop case you can get your cables, power supply and all sorts of stuff in there and protect the pedal too.
I gig this without a back-up and if I did have a problem with it I?d just do the gig with the guitar plugged straight into the amp. The ME-50?s there to add texture and a little sonic variety, but my base tone is in the amp.
My only criticism would be the rapid way it devours a set of batteries, which isn?t surprising considering its size. It really should come with a power supply, preferably built in. The Boss PSA-240 power supply we have to use in the UK has a cable that?s about 2 feet long, in other words useless. So, you have to buy a mains extension cable for gigging too, ?cos you want the effects unit out on stage with you and all the power outlets are always on the wall behind your backline at least 10 feet away!

Haven?t had the pleasure!

I?ve played for 5yrs now and have a vintage Rat distortion Pedal, a Boss CS-3 Compressor and a PW-10 Wah in addition to the ME-50. As I said earlier, I stumbled across this unit while looking for a delay pedal and I?m so pleased I did. I hate having to carry loads of equipment around especially loose pedals. Now I have this, 2 guitars and the Marshall, problem solved.
The other thing to consider here is that you get, what, 50+ effects in this unit? If you were to go and buy even a fraction of these as standalone pedals lets say 8. You?d be looking at #500 easy plus cabling and batteries/DC multi-way power supply. Then putting you?re guitar through a line of 8 pedals and your gonna start to lose signal. So the purists might say that pedals are the way to go for tone, but at the cost of the original guitar signal? Hmmm?
This way you retain a short signal path and have instant access to loads of great effects. Yes it can sound a little harsh sometimes if you?re DI?ing it, but plugged into an amp (which is how it was designed to be used) it sounds great.
For the price I really don?t think you can go wrong. The downsides are the lack of power supply, and the issue with changing banks in memory mode in a live situation, but these can be worked around.
Used as a row of stomp boxes its great and has been an inspiration on several occasions when song writing.

pretty straight forward and easy to use. patches are simple enough to make, but takes some time to tweak.

i use a PRS custom 22 with a randall RH100 head and Marshall 1960B cab. the sounds you can get out of this pedal are awesome, though i noticed that when using it live there is a delay when switching between presets. this becomes frustrating after a while because the sound cuts right out, which is bad when performing live. the clean sounds are incredible for the most part - great delays and modulation sounds... you get pretty much every boss pedal in one for a fraction of the price. the distortions are alright for the most part, but some of the high gain models are extremely noisy, even when the noise gate is on. i play mostly hard rock/alternative/metal, and find that the best setting for distortion is the DS-1, because the notes stay clear but still have that heavy edge.

batteries don't last very long, so i would reccomend using the AC adaptor. the pedal itself seems to be strong, but the plastic foot switches don't seem very durable.

N/A

overall this is a good pedal for anyone who wants all the boss stomp boxes but can't afford them all. i've been playing for about 5 years and think that it's a good pedal for anyone looking for effects to mess around with. there are enough weird and crazy sounding effects that may help write music, depending on what you're aiming for. if it were stolen i would probably buy it again, simply because i don't have the money to buy all the stomp boxes i need. if you only use a few effects, i would recommend going with the stomp boxes because they are more durable and are easier to get the right sound out of.

Easy-peasy

Good quality, but my old Boss SE-70 had more grunt

Solid and beautifully built.

I walked out of the store and thought I had finally the answer to all of my dreams as a live guitarist. After years of trying out patch-driven midi equiped over-the-top gizmos, I was sure this was the answer. All I wanted was a simple triple stomp-box backed up with a bit of technology to store my favorite patches/tuner etc.
But this unit has in my opinion serious flaws;-
There are two modes of operation....
1)"Memory Mode" where you can recall around 30 patches. These user-patches can store all of your desired tweaks including master levels/reverb/compressor and combinations of modulation, delay and distortion. Great so far. Only problem is you only select one patch at a time (i.e. you cannot have a modulation assigned to one pedal and a distortion to another and stamp on both pedals. Also as you change patches you get a slight delay, as per my 10 year old Boss SE-70, which is annoying enough to stop me using it live.
2) The other mode is "Manual Mode". Now this feels more like a live player's mode... you can use all three pedals simutaneously (e.g. O/D, Flange, Delay) and tweak global settings such as reverb & compressor. Fantastic - no delays in switching either....... BUT!..... no way to store these settings! BUGGER! My unit is only 2 days old and I am using Blu-Tac on every button to stick all of my manual mode settings so that I do not knock the buttons out of place!!!
My other gripe is power....
When I saw that the unit could be powered by 6 AA batteries I thought GREAT I will use re-chargebles. But for some reason they don't work - maybe the unit is very sensitive to voltage levels of NiMH (1.2V) batteries and only works on 1.5V Alkalines. This really p%^%^%ed me off as now I have to buy a PSU.

What a shame it is so NEARLY there...My suggestions to Mr Boss for future improvements....
1) A save defaults mode for Manual Mode... and a "Lock" switch
2) A Midi port to back up patch changes to the "Memory Mode"
3) Design for re-chargeable batteries.

well the me-50 is great but but but when using the 10 patches thats a different matter , wen you change a patch say from clean to distorted there is a 1/2 second gap which when playing live the gap is very un pro. and one more thing , when you plug this thing into a full stack , just turn it up and stand back because when its turned up to band volume there is a very loud hiss that to a crowd your playing to doesn't sound good and is quite deafening , this is a great product for practicing at home but not for a band it realy isn't , i have tried this out fully under all band circumstances and it doesn't perform well at all.
tony , manchester , uk

poor

this thing is extremely easy to use the only tricky thing sometime sis writing the patches but if you have had previous experience with pedalbaords and writing patches its a cinch.

ok this is the drawback of the unit. it isnt as noisy as other units but when you have the noise eupressor it kills A LOT of the sustain i normally get. also on certain distortions when you push it hard you get a little digitized phasing kinda sound if you hear closely. for the most part can get great clean sounds out of this unit and the modulation, reverb and delays sound good.

no problems so far. ive had it for a year.

this is great unit probably for live setting if you dont want to dish out a lot of money for a rack system. but for recording in a studio it lacks the tone i owuld want in the distortions and the expression pedals.

Very easy to get good sounds. The factory patches are useless (Ain't THAT always the case!!!) but this unit is replacing my pedalboard, and is very easy to use. My first test was a direct A/B comparison, using my original pedalboard, at a local Guitar Center.

This is where is was REALLY picky. I LOVE my pedalboard and have not found ANYTHING in the last few years that could replace it! I had a GT-6, which proved too be too damn noisy and killed all the subtle dynamics of my playing. I've tried all the multi-effect pedals by Digitech (hurl), Korg, etc. Whenever I test something, the FIRST thing I do is bypass everything to hear the inherent noise of the unit. Then I A/B the unit with one effect at a time compared to my pedals. I was very impressed, as the ME-50 barely added any extra noise...just a little more than my pedalboard or plugged straight into my amp. Effects feel like my pedalboard and are about 95% there in sound and vibe.

I've never had any problems with BOSS stuff. Built like a tank and just keeps going. Solid metal construction. Solid feel and operation.

Never had any problems to have an opinion.

Well, I'm very demanding of my sound, and have always played through a Fender (for clean) and a Marshall (for crunch/lead). Because I grew tired of lugging these beasts around to every gig, I now use a Carvin Bel-Air (clean channel only) with the BOSS ME-50. Smaller, and easier to lug around. Incredible sound. I play oldies, classic rock, alternative rock, thrash metal, blues, country, funk, pop, top40 etc...semi-professionally.

Things I like most about this pedal...
1. Low noise
2. Unity gain when Master Volume is at 12 o'clock (manual even states this)
3. Great "vibe". Compares well to my pedalboard. ESPECIALLY in dynamics, feel and sounds. Doesn't "Feel" digital or processed.
4. Battery operated (I use rechargeables) so one less wall wart at a gig is great! Yay!

What I don't like:
1. Wish there were five footswitches instead of three. Hate having to deal with outboard bank-up and bank-down pedals.
2. This is a big one...I WISH EVERY FRIKKEN MULTI-EFFECTS PEDAL MADE WOOULD PUT A GE-7 RIGHT AFTER THE DISTORTION/COMPRESSOR!!!!This drives me nuts! Having a simple 7 band graphic EQ where you could actually HEAR the tone difference would be huge! I can't believe nobody does this!

The editting is easy. All effects parameters are directly accessible through the knobs. I only used it in 'manual' mode yet. Didn't have the chance yet to make some patches. But then again haven't really needed patches yet.

The tone modify, compressor and reverb sections should get their own pedal on the board. This is now the only reason I will be making my own patches in the near future.. Otherwise I would've stayed in manual mode :)

The overall sound quality is great. My favourite distortions are the RAT and the natural settings. The modulation en delay sections are good and very complete. I miss some controll on the reverb sections but the sounds are good. The cheaper boss multifx seem to lack some sort of decay knob on the noise supressor. I would've liked that.

Anyway... I able to get a good sound for any style in a matter of seconds.

It's boss... it's made out of metal... and the plastic knobs seem solid enough.

It's good I play everything from rock and blues to metal. It does my thing. A nice touch and definately an improvement over my previous boss multi-effect (a ME-30) is that when you turn the expression pedal effect off it always becomes a volume pedal.
People here say it doesn't have an amp simulator. But the phones/line output has some amp simulation. You can't turn it on or off, it's just there when you use that output. It isn't as versatile or good as some or most of the modelling stuff out there. But I find it good enough for my late night headphone practise.

This is the machine for the guitarist on a budget. Within 10 mins of playing with settings on my amp, i had this thing worked out... still haven't really looked at the manual... although i noticed it is quite easy to follow. As for editing patches, well if i was playing alot of live stuff, i'd be pissed cause you really do need the extra pedals at the extra cost (thanks boss) but thankfully i play in a studio alot so the need to change banks quick isn't really a problem

Very little line noise with a great clean or real nasty, aggresive metal distorion. My band and i play alot of vintage metallica so finding "that" sound is never a problem. Some of the disortions sound a bit repeditive but none the less, good show boss!. The flanger and chorus are great, the wah could be a little more "expressive" but then again, with the right tone you can make the thing scream quite easy... like anything practice makes perfect.

When the band does gig, i don't take any back up, i bought it just under 6 months ago, haven't had a breakage so as far as i can see it should last the same as any other pedal i have bought in the past from boss. (still have my first one from 12 yrs ago)

Haven't had to deal with the company yet so i can't say if they are good or not but, if there customer service is anything like there pedals... i won't be seeing them anyway.

I paly metal so this thing is perfect for me.
I have played for the past 12 years in which i have obtained a les paul studio (epiphone, cuz they r betta than gibson), a esp "grynch" and just recently i have bought a korn signature k-7 guitar from ibanez (awsome to play on). In my opinion, if your on a budget go for it best value for money, but if you are looking for a proffesional point of veiw, shop around play on everything use every knob before you make a purchase.