Boss ME-6 Guitar Multi-Effects

This unit is easy to use. The presets are decent but, there is a lot of stuff that you would never use. The manual is easy to follow.

I use this unit with a music man HD-130 tube head, a 2x12 cab, and a SG guitar. I've gotten good sounds for playing metalica, STP,and other modern rock. Doesn't have the greatest distortion. The flangers and the delays are pretty good.

The plastic box and plastic inputs haven't held up for me. Right now, it is just a piece taking up space in my colection of junk equipment.

Had it worked on once. It took forever to get the schematics from boss to the dealer. And the input jack broke again and again. I would not recomend this to anyone who moves around when playing.

It's an old unit. It dosen't cut the cake for playing some of today's music (Korn, Bizkit, RATM). Save your money and buy something newer and made of metal. By the way I purchased this about 93.

Using this stomp-box is incredibly easy. I bought it used, and I learnt using it without any manual within an afternoon.

Compressor: Quite good Over/Dist: It's just rubbish! They're neither powerful amp-simulating overdrive nor warm and fat distortion; the sound loses it's deepness, when using these (I use the overdrive of my Marshall Valvestate 4060, and a Boss SD-1 SuperOverdrive). Equalizer: I use it very few, but it seems very good... Noise Suppressor: Good for clean sounds (sometimes...); when using distortion or overdrive with a high level of Suppr., the sound is unnatural, it sounds like plastic... Delay: A bit noisy, only one second delay time, mono only; but it's good if you never had a delay before it. Flanger/Chorus: The flanger is not too bad; I don't like the Chorus (but I never used one before, and I never heard it on stereo). Reverb: As if it weren't there! I use the reverb of my amp; that's good!

I broke only one button once, but it was because a guitar fell on it!

Never met them. I bought it used.

It's good for weird sounds... Synth-like sounds, Experimental sounds... But only for that. Luckyly we play Noise (Sonic Youth...), so I use it with not-bad results. But I would never recommend it to anybody. I've been playing it for 8 months circa, but i'd like to buy a wah-wah, a Boss Metal-Zone or Hyper-Metal and a good Delay (not a Boss one: too expensive). I would never buy it again. Anyway, this is my first multi-effects unit, and it gave me the way to understand many things, and above all, what to buy and what not.

Ok, there is nothing difficult here, this unit is relativelly easy to use.

I play a japanese Fender strat wired into a cry baby and then the me6 leading to the amp (CARLSBRO scorpion lead). Noise is acceptable, not too much but still there when you are using distortion. Nothing noticeable when you are not using distortions. Unfortunatelly the sound quality of the whole thing is bad. The distortions are crap. Especially mode 5 (pre equalised distortion) sounds bad. Not recomended for blues or heavy metal players. THERE ARENT ANY BLUES SOUNDS COMING OUT OF IT WHATSOEVER. Delay is muddy and i guess if you have crap delay and crap overdrive/distortion there arent much to talk about. Good for weird sounds though, you can come up with very weird sounds

THIS IS A TANK, you can kick it, step on it and it will still be ok. I 've used it for 4 years now and i can surelly say its one of the best designs i ve seen in floor units.

never dealt with them

Overall i wouldnt recomend this unit to anyone into blues or heavy metal. There are so many better units out there. Just avoid it.

Sounds great with some fine-tuning. Effects settings are easy to edit, both in Play Mode and Manual Mode. The ME-6 features a row of six large footswitches labeled 1 - 5, and B. B = Bank, so players can easily select a patch from another bank with three quick taps -- no scrolling through banks. Players can concentrate on their playing instead of watching the scrolling numbers on the LED. This feature kicks Digitech's ass! The ME-6 is out of production; Boss's newest offerings are the high-end GT-5 and the competetively priced ME-30. I haven't tried the ME-30, but I know I don't like the footswitch layout.

The modulation effects (chorus/flanger) are lush, but the flanger's master level must be kept under 50% to keep the sweep from drowning out the guitar's tone. Stereo and mono choruses are good, but nothing phenominal. Delay provides a natural-sounding echo, and you can even make infinite loops with some tweaking (very cool!); I wish delay time was longer, as this only goes up to 1,000 miliseconds (ms). Four Reverb modes are okay, but too bright; you'll need to turn the delay tone down. I really like the compressor because you can get a very even string response and boost your sustain. Compressor really enhances the overdrive effect. Distortion modes 1-4 are good, but mode 5 is too fuzzy; it might be good and grainy enough for grunge rock. Mode 1 = soft tubelike overdrive; mode 2 = crunchy tubelike high-gain overdrive; modes 3 and 4 are differently voiced solid-state distortions (4 is good for '80s hard rock/metal). The noise gate is always on, but features an adjustable threshold; I like to keep it low so I can get controlled feedback when using distortion. Finally, the equalizer: it rocks, but the Mid-Freq selector can be tricky. I try not to mess with it too much; it really depends on the characteristics of your different guitar + pickup + amp combination. I've finally found a good Joe Satriani sound (after five years!). See Tone Depot Web site. Not 24-bit, but clear enough for good tone on a budget.

I've been stepping (not jumping) on mine for five years. I've left it in hot and freezing extremes in the back of my car. I've sweated and spilled drinks on it. I've gigged with it only once (the only time I gigged), but it's roadworthy. Just be careful not to unplug yourself from it. The input/output jacks don't have the strongest grip in the world on 1/4" plugs.

Great value!

25 patches directly programmable, very easy accessable, for quick editing (even during gigs). However, in manual mode, when you disable a certain effect and you keep the (blinking) cursor on that position, you can hear the blinking through your amp...sucks. I found out after playing 2 songs....while we were taping a demo! Manual is good enough (you don't really need it).

At rehersal time I use it with a peavey 50W amp (if you like good sound don't buy this either). I play metal, rock and a bit of grunge playing on a Jackson Dinky XL. I prefer a warm overdrive sound (like Marshall), but this sound CANNOT be achieved with this unit. Distortion and overdrive sounds flat and definitely NOT tube-like. So don't buy this unit if you're looking for a reasonable or even good distortion. At home I'm using the unit on the effects loop of my Marshall valvestate 8080 (now that's an overdrive!), which works pretty well. Noise surpressor 's good, but I ALWAYS need it, 'cause the damn thing is too damn noisy. Compressor is good, EQ can not satisfy me, Delay is pretty good, (mono) chorus sucks,(I haven't tried the stereo's on amps, but through headphones they sound pretty good!). Flanger isn't warm enough. Reverb is reasonable but not great.

Allthough the all-plastic-case suggests otherwise, this thing's quite strong. Inside there's a metal case in which the electronics are. So it's stronger than you think. I have it for 5 years now (or so), and I didn't have serious problems with it. Some (edit)buttons now broke down since a month, so I'm goin' to fix it for the first time next week.

I will find out next week!

This thing great for your first effect processor, if you don't have much money to spend. It gives you reasonable sound (except overdrive/ dist) for little money. I wouldn't buy it again though. advanced players (I'm not saying I am!) should spare some money and buy something better (= much more expensive). And remember: listen before you buy! Don't take shit from salesmen.

Very easy to use. It's laid out like a chain of stompboxes. You don't even need the manual, because a quick reference is printed right on the top of the unit. The documentation's nice, though. There's a manual mode, so you can tweak it like pedals, or you can do presets, which provides a nice level of flexibility.

I use this with a Randall half-stack, and a Peavey Stereo Chorus 212. I also use it as an all-around processor in my home studio. I'll give you my take on each of the effects. Here goes:
Noise Gate: Always active, very effective. Compression: Good. Can even use it for vocals. Distortion: Hrm...not tubelike at all, very fuzzy. Not enough "gain". EQ: Flexible. I like it. Chorus/Flanger: There are 3 chorus modes, for different stereo effects. These sound pretty good. The flanger can get a bit wild at times, but you can tame it. Delay: It's a fairly quiet, flexible delay. Reverb: This is where the unit falls short of my expectations. The reverb is pretty thin, regardless of mode. It's no substitute for the lush reverb sounds I have heard in more expensive gear, but from a utilitarian perspective, it'll do for gigs. You need better in a studio situation. Sounds like low bit resolution on the DSP.

Very reliable. No problems whatsoever, even after our practice room flooded and the thing was SUBMERGED IN WATER for TWO DAYS. Pulled it out, dried it out, and it worked like I'd just pulled it outta the box.

Haven't had to deal with them.

This is a good entry-level effects unit. I believe it's not in production anymore, so you can probably get one used. It's good for live applications, because, let's face it, the sound quality doesn't have to be perfect. I wouldn't haul an Eventide to a smoky club even if I could afford to. For recording, it's usable, but I'd recommend getting my distortions and reverbs elsewhere.

The factory patches are way to reverb for my tastes. Very easy to tweek however. Editing is easy as well. Manual was very helpful. This was my first multi-effects unit and I learned alot about what not to buy.

I run my unit through a 65 music man amp so I can get some good od sounds fromthe amp and use the digital sounds on the unit. The flanger sucked till I found that if you turn the master Volume down it tones down all the crappy swish. This applies to the chorus and the delay as well. I just started running two amps through a cabinet with two twelves. I send the left channel into a crate and the right into the Music man and I've gotton some cool sounds from the combo. Unfortunatly my back is killing me from lugging all the gear around. I'm looking at an RP unit or a Zoom.

Very dependable even when drowned in beer.

Na

I am looking forward to upgrading. I play every thing from jazz to metal and this unit almost hangs in for the transitions.

You don't have to be an engineer to understand this one

Very good dist, but too noisy flanger. Delay section is a little too undeveloped for my needs, as I play Pink Floyd - kind of music

I suppose one could do with this board, and nothing else. I would rather have this one than dragging all those pedals around on a gig. But it's made of plastic, so be careful.

Never needed.

I play Pink-Floyd-kind of music, so this one produces almost all the sounds I need. But if I get the money, I will buy something "fatter" the next time. I need something that is just about nioseless, and this unit is not.

If you have half a brain and five minutes, you can figure out how to use this easily. The main problem that people have is changing the "channels" during a performance. But you can easily program up to 5 needed effects to one channel which makes changing from heavy distortion to a light acoustic sound easy.

I love the sound quality on this pedal. The distortions are great, and the effect can be varied easily. If a decent amp is being used, the pedal can produce great sounding distortion and other sounds well.

This product is not the most reliable I have ever seen. The buttons, (not the stomp pedal) get stuck somewhat easily after a few years of use. Overall, not the most reliable piece of plastic, but it still produces great sounds.

Not much customer support. More customer support is needed because of the low reliability of the pedal. I haven't directly been in dire need of customer support, but it would be nice.

I would buy it again, and again. Great pedal, great sounds, great product.

The ME-6 is very easy to use and program. Changing effects on the fly is almost imopossible. I puchased the EV-5m volume pedle to give me better control

THe sound quality is average almost all of the factory pesets contain some sort of destortion. The ME-6 is a little on the noisey side and some of the decays on the digital side sound fake

It is plastic but it seems reinforced and is sturdy with a metal base.

Never had to use it but would be neet to get a book or sight that offer patch settings Anyone that would like to e-mail some patch settings I would greatly appreciate it. Who knows maybe I will change my opinion of this thing.

Boss does not make this any more it is replaced with ME-8 and the reviews on the 8 look much better than that of the 6. Needless to say I, in the market for another effects system and looking at the RP-6 and the AX30G

It takes 15 minutes to understand it.

I am a Heavy Rocker. I'm very confident to the Boss Distortion. ME-6's Distorion is good. Delay works well. But its noise gate, compressor, EQ section have noise. Somewhat it makes sound cheep. Now I'm using it with more heavyier and sticky setting.

The plastic case might seem to be broken.

Here in korea, I think there will be no Customer Support here.

I will buy a higher level Effect Processor like GT-5, ME-10 next time if my budget allows. But, if I have only money that can buy ME-6, I will buy it again. I think there is no other choice. ME-6 is enough. (It will be better choice than buy a series of Combo-style foot pedal effector.

The effects on the ME-6 are average,(that means Stompboxes are better.) It's easy to operate. average Manual

It is noisy when using Flanger and compressor. These two things THE WEAkest the TouchWah (Under the Bass Synth) is good enough but I would like an Envelope filter from DOD instead

I depend on it BUT I'd rather use Stompboxes at gigs

No, I would never buy again. Give me the damn Stomps( goddamnit)

As a Boss fan from the 80's I thought I had a great deal by buying one unit with all what I need in one package. I was wrong. It is fairly hard to pine point a sound that you are looking for. It doesn't communicate well individual taste and to transistored sound for me. But it is something that is affordable for someone that doesn't have the dough to buy separate unit. the patch are fairly easy to tweek. But you have to get on your knee every time you want to adjust something banging your neck all over. The manual is alright I guess. I never been one to use manual unless stuck or looking for new features. As far as I know, it a toy not made for serious musician.

The reverb sucks. I like the distortion. have a choice of overdrive 1 or 2 and then distortion 3,4. The flanger needs help and cannot be used for more than just a touch of it. I always had problem with digital EQ. I find it so much easyer to let my finger push sliders up and down to find the perfect tone. Although it's not bad EQ.

Don't get it out of your bedroom. Use it as a practice effect only. Its made out of pure plastic and if you are like me you are gona crash it the first night. You will need to make yourself a box of somekind, (You have to) otherwise if you step on your wire: By bye female conectors. everything is made out of plastic and not geared toward the road. but for a bedroom effect, it's great.

na

I wouldn't buy it again. I like only a few things about it but can only use it in the bedroom. Next time I buy an effect processor all in one kinda thing I will get rackmounted. You need metal on the ground and electronic on a rack simple as that. anything close to plastic on the floor will get dammaged and you will poor water on it one day or another.

The manual wasn't that helpful, but I didn't need it. In three minutes, I figured out how to program everything. A nice touch, but personally, I don't like this whole "ease of use" thing: I'd prefer editing parameters on a faceless rackmount unit, myself.

This thing's quiet. The compression for me isn't exceptional, but it does get the job done. The distortion is OK, although I still prefer my stompboxes. What really knocked me out, though, was the chorus - plug this baby into two amps, and the stereo chorus effect was unbelievable!

The power supply does seem kinda flimsy, and the whole shebang is made of plastic. I'm kinda hesitant to give it a good pounding, and would always use a backup, just in case. Other than that, it still hasn't failed me yet.

Never had to deal with them.

A very good value for my dollar. It helps me make music, though next time, I'd probably prefer something with an effects loop - I have to chain my stopboxes BEFORE this thing, which kinda makes the compression useless.

Very easy to use. Not that many buttons to confuse yourself with. All that you need to know for configuring is organized right on the unit

The distortion is mediocre. I recommend getting a separate distortion unit. Otherwise, the effects are great for the price of this unit. Not as high quality as some of the Alesis products, but good enough to cover all the 'essential' effects.

Haven't had a problem with it yet. However, since the unit is encased in plastic instead of metal, much more precautions are necessary.

N/A never needed it

Great for those looking for their first multi-effects unit. Easy to use, and very inexpensive. The big negative part is of course the distortion, however, the chorus, delay, flanger make up for it.
You can easily find one for around $200 used these days...which is a great bargain.

Editing is a breeze. Good manual, too. Dialing in a sound can take some time, though.

The 4 distortion sounds are terrible, and the reverb is weak. EQ, delay, and chorus/flange are pretty good.

Never really had a problem with it.

I'd probably get an RP-1 if I had it to do over. I do like the EQ and delay-based effects, but the distortions suck dead bunnies through a straw. I sort of wish it had a harmonizer (like the ME-8), though I doubt I'd know how to use one...

I believe that it is fairly easy to get a good sound out of the ME-6. All you have to do is read the small manual to get an overview of how each effect works, and just combine some of the effects until you get a sound that is good for you. It is also very simple to edit patches. Just hit the edit button, and you can configure any of 25 presets. Each patch has ITS OWN manual mode also, so for instance, you can program an effect with a volume of 40 into patch 20 for concert playing and have the manual mode of the same patch with a volume of 10 for playing around the house. All you have to do is hit the manual button...

The only problems I've had with feedback or interference has been with distortion. There's not much at all, especially if you put a high setting on the noise supressor. Overall, the effects sound great. Chorus/Flanger, Reverb, Distortion all sound good to me!

I haven't had any problems so far with the ME-6. Since the effects pedal is machinery, it can be unreliable at times, but I haven't had any problems. I would definitely do a gig without a backup as long as I had my ME-6.

Sure, I would buy it again. When I bought it, I knew that it was a lot of money, but if you're a musician, you probably will agree that that is the case with most equipment. I can't imagine playing without my pedal. While other musicians are playing on their amps with a little distortion, I can blow them away with features like reverb, distortion, chorus/flanger, digital delay, a noise supressor, and an equalizer. It certainly helps me!

The easiest programming of any multi effects prosessor I've used. Full editing of all parameters. Good Manual.

I never used the compressor or distortion because I used the unit in an effects loop of a tube amp, but the effects quality were mixed. If grainy digital effects are your thing, than this is your box. None of the effects are really excellent nor are they bad.

First, the unit is plastic. The buttons are plastic . . . The pedals are plastic. We're seeing a pattern here. I have had my unit apart many times fixing buttons that wont work. Especially important ones like the EDIT and WRITE/COPY buttons

Save your money. Throw in an extra $100 and get a higher quality unit like the ART E.C.C.(IF YOU LIKE IT ON THE FLOOR) Of a quality rackmount

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