Yamaha FX500

I have owned this thing for about 18 years, so it's kinda like the back of my hand.

The reverbs are sweet - vocal reverb rules.

It has been very reliable over a lot of years.

Yamaha has a number of websites around the world and they are all easy to navigate. I have no recent experiences with customer service.

I hope this will help someone - I also submitted this to the KB on yamaha.com.

FX500

FX500 Factory Reset procedure

WARNING: All user stored data will be deleted.

1. Turn the power off.
2. Press and hold down the [COMP] button and the [MOD] button simultaneously while turning on the power.

Reference: Reset list found here: http://www.yamaha-europe.com/yamaha_europe/uk/service/030_support/index.html


FX500

Memory data warning message on an FX500 with a newly installed Lithium battery

The Factory Reset procedure needs to be performed to clear the ''** WARNING ** MEMORY DATA'' message from RAM.

WARNING: The Factory Reset will delete all user stored data.

1. Turn the power off.
2. Press and hold down the [COMP] button and the [MOD] button simultaneously while turning the power on.

Reference: Reset list found here http://www.yamaha-europe.com/yamaha_europe/uk/service/030_support/index.html

it's easy to dial up sounds on this unit, it's just that you need to know what you're doing. being a sound engineer helps (really)

havnt gone deep into editing, but managed to get a good sound. like most multi efffescts, you have to go threw the pages... duh.

i like aloot of distortion and very nice chorus sounds - probably like most guitarists that play rock. i find the clean sounds to be good. distortion threw and amp isnt.

threw the headphones at the back of the unit the sound is nice, also the distortion.

i think its ok

i had this unit around and didnt use it for a long time. today i played around with it and realized that its actualy pretty good for plugging directly into a 4 track (got an old great fostex! plugnplay:)) she gives much pleasure. i thought of selling the usnit, but after today i wont. if you got an old one like this around, plug headphines into it and listen. it's pretty darn good. worth keeping.

Bought it new back in the late 80's. wow it's that old. at the time i managed to get great sounds, so I thought out of it. In it's day I think it was almost better than anything out there in terms of tweakability. the patches are tricky to edit by todays standards, but the manuals were clear enough so I could get great sounds for the top 40 of the day.

It used to be used alone, but now it's in a rack with a midi octopus, BBE sonic maximizer, sansamp classic, and a pod 2.0. The yami now sounds kind of characterless compared to the pod, BUT the quality of the reverbs can't be beat. I used the yami for years going direct to the board with the sansamp in front. This was the best of both worlds, analog transistor and digital reverbs. The pod is now an additional angle on my sound, but I should be able to get everything. The distortions on the yami are very edgy, lots of fuzz but not subtle, warm or responsive. No one's mentioned the EQs which are PARAMETRIC. This and the many reverbs will save this box from obsolesence. Years ago I almost bought the korg a3, but comparing the reverbs on specs and sound, you can't beat the 22-22k frequency response of the verbs. Also check out the "soft focus" patch. You won't find that on any other guitar processor.

Front panel is loose. Power switch was broken years ago. It's fine for me now since I've hardwired it on, and just switch a power bar. It shares duty with my POD, the sansamp, and in a pinch I could use a reverb from the p.a. Sure I'd gig without a backup.

never dealt with them.

I've played all styles with this unit. Mostly paid gigs, but it was used for quite a while as a preamp for acoustic guitar in a church setting. Lost or stolen, I'd buy another since it's so cheap. The unit can be a little noisy at times when used with some mixing boards, but other than that it's fine for me. I always thought the green display was great. The switching times are slow, which i found out in midi studio when punching in to tracks one day. Just a note that no one seems to have mentioned that you can program the unit to cycle through any range of patches (e.g. 52-58) with a momentary switch. Read the manual -- it's a decent unit for the money.

I've been using the fx500 for 15 years, gigging and jamming. Useability is pretty good except for a couple of things: this unit changes slow between patches, you have to time the patch change carefully so the dead air isn't too noticeable. Also, I don't have the right footswitch (I have a Roland switch) - I can only change "up" or "forward",ie: I can't change to the next patch and then back again after the solo. So I sometimes end up changing patches by hand (a hassle) or set up a "chain" for a song . This sucks because you use up too many patches. Somebody please tell me if the Yamaha pedal lets you move back and forth in the patch sequence. What pedal?? Where to get one??

Strat, tele, Fender 75 amp. Modulation effects are really good, but I often use the amp's tube distortion. Got some great clean Tele sounds (edited Brass Burst, Brass Energizer) for punchy country picking with some quack about 10 years ago. Get some decent U2, The Cult, etc 80's sounds with symphonic and delays. Some of the all out distortion is OK (Trad Dist edited) but the more modest distortion for bluesy playing is really lame. Nothin like tubes. What it does good it does really good though (clean, modulated with some good reverbs).

I've depended on it lots. It's only fallen off my amp a few times, battery still good, no probs at all. I've gigged without a backup a few hundred times.

dunno. I should call them and ask about the pedal I guess.

I play mostly blues/classic rock now. Wish the distortion was better but hey I can use the amp right? Best feature is the versatility. I'd buy another if the price was right. Seems like they go pretty cheap now. If it got stolen I'd have a good reason to try something else.

To answer my own previous questions: the mfc06 midi foot pedal *does* allow one to turn the individual effects (comp, dist, eq, mod, rev) on/off within a given patch, without any interruption of the signal. (changing patches will break the sound for 1/4 second or so). The mfc01 might also work for this, but I haven't tried. I highly recommend this accessory for increasing the usability of the box.

Yamaha support got my question flat out wrong. They were quick and courteous, but spent even less time researching it than I did. Once I figured out the midi diagrams in the back of the manual, the unit does accept effect on/off messages (msgs 114-118 or around there somewhere).

Again, the interruption when changing patches makes it a bit of a pain to use sometimes. Do get some sort of foot control for it unless it is intended as a set and forget effect. The Yamaha mfc06 seems designed specifically for the unit. The mfc05 can *only* change the patches, while other foot controllers might be able to do both.

It is fairly straightforward, once some time is spent with the manual. Most of the presets are fairly useless, but all can be tweaked with some showing some promise. The ability to cycle through a set of patches with a "normal" footswitch pedal is interesting (I only use two patches on it usually, so I set them up to be adjacent patch #s). Midi footpedal control is a bit disappointing: I have seen the MFC06 various places (ebay) and it seems to be made for the fx500 and supposedly allows one to turn off the individual effects *within* a patch. I have an MFC05 and it is only good for changing patches, unfortunately. [if anyone knows if the MFC06 *does* allow for dis/engaging individual effects w/in a patch please let me know, especially if it does entail the drop out/hiccup that comes with changing patches). Pick up a cheap yamaha sustain or switch and you can change patches on the fly. It is no fun to try to do it by hand while playing.

The clean sounds are, as have been mentioned, very very good for something this inexpensive. I am only just starting to get into changing the numerous parameters within the patches, but there are a great deal of possibilities there. It sounds absolutely amazing with headphones, a bit less so through an older tube amp. I would definately encourage at least another delay pedal and a distortion pedal of some kind, since the distortions are poor.

No problems at all.

I wrote to the yamaha customer support re: the different possibilities for midi control. They replied in a timely manner (but gave an answer I didn't want, i.e. the fx500 only accepts patch changes). If they are right, 8, if it turns out the mfc06 does deal with the individual effect, 3. A .pdf of the manual is online, so that is always a bonus.

I play sort of a mid-to-late 80s dark shoegaze sort of thing (seriously for a few years, bedroom taping for the last 15 or so) and I think this is a fun and (now) essential part of my set up. It adds a huge amount of depth to the sound (even running through a mono amp) and would be a fine supplement to whatever tools for creating dreamy drone noise shoegaze stuff. I'd definately hunt down another if it wandered off. Cons: midi control, the .5 second drop out when changing patches (especially bad since I run delayed signals in that get cut), no effects loop (to be able to run a distortion or delay within the internal effects chain). PROS: nice clean sounds, ability to tweak them in bizarre ways, fairly easy to use, 1/2 rack size, reverse reverbs. A bargain (I've bought individual pedals used for around that price!) that has the potential for making some unique sounds. A fantastic value, if there ever was one, esp. under $70 or so.

It's not the most intuitive unit, but if you have the manual, (which I do) then you can figure it out quick enough.

I've been using this unit for years... it has to be about 9 years now, and although some of the others knock it's distortion capabilities, I have managed to dial in the Eddie Van Halen Brown Sound. It just takes some work.

Acoustic and other sounds are A+

Again, easily 9 years on my unit, and I have the footswitch to compliment it.

I figured I would have to replace the internal battery by now, but still has my presets... I need to write those down, as eventually the battery will need to be replaced. I try to keep it plugged in, and maybe that helps.

Nothing wrong with my unit, no issues with the plug in ports etc.

Never had to use Customer Support

I just was browsing around and found this board, and decided to leave a review because I have had the unit so long, and it's been great to me, so if you can find a good one on ebay that isn't abused or something, then it sounds like a good buy to me.

I don't plan on selling mine anytime soon.

Once you get the hang of it, it's no big deal. You need a foot switch if you're going to use it live.

The clean sound is incredible. Everyone who has heard it has been blown away. I have not been able to get as good of a clean sound with any other equipment (more expensive). Pearly, lush, smooth rolling chorus and delay - it's tremendous. Don't use it for distortion - it's digital so why bother? I've seen some people complain about the distortion but I don't know what they were expecting. I have never heard a goo digital distortion in my life. This thing is the ultimate for a good clean sound - it really thickens up the guitar.

The output jacks are mounted directly to the circuit board and I've had some trouble with one of them.

Never tried contacting them.

Incredible clean sound. I use it with a marshall valvestate and several guitars. It works well for any type of music. Start with "Lush Strings" (I think) and edit it a bit. I have not found another unit that sounds as good as this. If you can find one at a good price - get it and hang on to it.

The answer to this question really depends on if you resist the temptation to patch right in and actually spend 20 minutes with the manual, which is short and straight-forward. This is especially true if, like me, you've grown accustomed to the flexibility of plug-ins and computer effects; these proto-digital effects are tedious--hey, they didn't know better at the time--and are time-consuming. A good chunk of the learning curve here is patience.

Now, if you've worked with early digital rack gear then the scrolling and button mashing shouldn't be all that difficult; I found this infinitely more intuitive than a Alesis Quadraverb--though that's not saying much--and actually found myself enjoying putting presets together. Well, except for the recall button, which may just be the dumbest thing I've ever seen on an fx processor...so worthless.

I switched to the fx500 after becoming frustrated by my Quad GT; although the reverbs are great, the Alesis unit is noisy and annoyingly feedbacks at low frequencies, even when you adjust appropriately--which is to say nothing of cloying it is to program settings in that thing. The Yamaha is a much more streamlined rack experience, and I've discovered that I actually like what it can offer more than the Quad, which has been a pleasant surprise to me.

I bought the fx500 for the reverbs and delays; I figured if Slowdive's Christian Savill got good use out of this thing, then surely I could too (You can actually get his sound right out of the box, which i didn't know whether to take as cool or pure laziness). Do know that the presets loaded onto this thing sound very "circa-1989" digital: there are some weird and wild settings that people into drone and shoegazer will love, but most have that cheesy phased sound I can't stand. Not that you should judge a unit by its presets, but it tells you a lot for this box: not to bother with the 500's distortion because it is worthless; not to expect any indulgences when it comes to dynamics (though I liked the simple compression and EQ options); and to expect to tinker with the modulation effects.

That said, if you're a reverb junkie, this is such a great little expression tool for not a whole lot of money. There's got to be at least a dozen reverb settings on here: the four obvious ones, four early reflection modes (including the infamous yamaha reverse reverb that was the cornerstone of My Bloody Valentine), a couple of echos and delays, and really great reverb-delay mix where you setup the order and how one feeds into the other. The reverbs are so heavy here that straight-up delay is an afterthought, hence I suggest supplementing your setup with a delay pedal and do your delays there; in the meantime, dig this: you can set reverb decays at up to 40 seconds, and it is unreal the kind of oceanic thrust you can put out with this. This thing lives and breathes space rock.

I'm not so bowled over by the modulations; I like the tremolo, really hate the chorus (very tinny) and have no opinion on the flange. There's also "symphonic", which is really just Yamaha's way of saying their phasing is a bit more liquidy than others...it's the first effect you want to experiment with, but it's also the most erratic; I think it colors the sound too much, which would be great if it didn't sound so 80s-esque. A little goes a long way with this.

As noted by others, the fact that you have to call up a program and then hit the "recall" button makes playing out with this unit exceedingly difficult--at least if you want to switch presets during songs. I can't see how the box could fall apart on you, but be careful of the buttons: they look like they're waiting for but one hard mashing and then they'll be stuck forever.

This was an impulse purchase on ebay, though at $46 I think I got a great deal. These should be bargains for some time to come...I mean, if I got a bargain on ebay--where there are no bargains anymore--it must be something.

I can't imagine you're here because you want to sound like a cock rock band from the era whence this unit came; it's 2004 and you want the kind of meaty reverb they don't make anymore. For $50, this is a killer box of great spacial effects; it's really the first device I've seen where you can approximate the shoegazer sound without really needing anything else--it's all in here. Of course, if you're into such things you probably already own way too many pedals to begin with (welcome to my life), but this baby still has life in it yet.

If I should inspire you to seek one out, do email me and let me know settings you used to get cool sounds.

There are plenty of factory presets in the FX500, and some user selectable ones. I've used about 8 of the user settings so far, and have plenty more free. I've found maybe a dozen of the factory presets that are useful to me (I rarely use distortion). Some are just plain dreamy. To set your own presets, I highly suggest going through the manual bit by bit (which I downloaded easily enough). This thing does alot, and there are alot of settings to cycle through and utility functions. I haven't used midi with it. So I give it a 7 because of the big learning curve in figuring out how to get the sound you want. Once I spent a few nights with it, I understood more of what does what. I don't have the optional foot switches which I'm sure would have made cycling through effects easier while you're playing!

I generally play directly into a system or to recorder (no amp). I get BEAUTIFUL sound out of this thing, and it's very clean whatever setting I use. The reverbs and symph settings lush and can give you a very different sound using acoustic or electric through it. It sounds excellent with an acoustic which is my primary guitar. I use a parallel setup, one line direct and one through a volume pedal to FX500. Then I can control how much effect I get. Haven't used it long enough to know if it's pristine or not... the settings they offer do what they're suppoed to do.

As great as the sound is, I would use a separate pedal for the delay simply because 1) it's 380ms max with the settings I use, and 2) it would be easier to control the delay settings on a pedal on the fly. I use delay alot. Also if you use distortion alot, or chorus, you probably already have your favorite pedal. Use them. The beauty of the FX500 imo is the symph/reverb/lush type settings that add depth and beauty.

I use it mainly for shoegazer effects, and bought it because Christian Savil of Slowdive used it (guitargeek.com). So the first patch I attempted was the Symph guitar stuff like on Spanish Air. I was able to mimic the sound pretty closely without using other pedals he uses. Here's what I think I got, through acoustic guitar:
Comp - You might use it, I didn't.
Dist - Set this fuzzy and low at an even level so it won't amplify it too much, and kick it in when you need it.
EQ - LoG +1 MiG -3 MiF 900 HiG +6 (these will be different for you)
REV - Erd Rsz 10 LIV 10 DLY 0.1 MIX 70 LVL 0
MOD - Flg Sped 1.3 Dep 70 Dly 4.3 FB 15 Mix 50 LVL 0
You can use any other MOD setting, the random plate reverb is what really does it. I use sel/asn at REV>MOD.

I love it, I love it. My only concern is the 1/4 jacks on the panels don't seem very well fixed, and can't help thinking it's putting stress on the PCB solder joints. But time will tell. I bought it used, I've been using it alot, and no problems so far. I don't think I could afford a backup. If it broke, I'd cry and look desparately for another...

I found the manual easily. But haven't dealt with customer support.

I never play without it. Maybe it gets in the way becuase I'm now obsessed with its lush sound... but that's not a problem with my creativity style! I haven't found the delay between changing patches particularly annoying (about 1/4 sec) because it doesn't come in with a pop, it's clean and quiet.. I generally use one setting per song anyway, but even if not, there's generally some silence I can add somewhere in order to push a couple buttons. I use a volume pedal to the fx500 in parallel with a line to either clean or other effects and I can control how much I use it that way. Fantastic value!