Yamaha FX550

I'd give it an 8 on ease of use. It takes a little while to get the naming process down, and the MIDI setup is a pain, but all in all you'll be up and running quick.y

the sound quality is excellent, even for a dated processor like this. The only downside is not being able to use chorus and flanging at the same time (without doing some neat tricks with the delays) and there's no built-in phasing.

Also, you only have three decent bands to with with in the EQ section and the width of each cannot be modified, just the depth.

I've been using this exact same unit heavily for 10 years, including gigging, recording, everything. It has NEVER broken down. Not once. Not ever. It's still on the original battery too! (about time to replace that).

I'm serious, this unit has never failed once. It still works just as well as it did the day I bought it. You want reliability? This is your unit.

It's never broken down so I've never needed support on it, but I was able to easily find the manual for the unit online for free.

There's only one big drawback on this unit, and I'm dealing specifically with features it offers....MIDI.

This unit claims to be able to sync to the midi clock of another device and tie that to choruses, tremolo, panning, etc. The two big problems are you are not given a beat resolution narrower than an eighth-note (though the manual claims sixteenth notes), and it will NOT stay in sync no matter what you do. You'll see the tempo meter changing but that does not reflect the pulse of the sound itself. Very dissapointing.

This unit has no MIDI OUT/THRU on board. Chaining it with other units isn't possible from the unit itself, you'll have to come into it from another unit or patchbay.

You can use tap synchronization on the unit, but not through a midi board. You have to use a controlled voltage pedal through one of the 1/4" jacks on the back.

the individual effect groups (Comp/Dist/EQ/Mod/Rev) cannot be turned on and off through MIDI. Again, you have to use a CV pedal to do it.

The good news is you can mess with any parameter of any effect through midi, but no more than two parameters per patch.

Also, the unit gives a pretty good sized drop in volume when you're switching between entire patches during a song. Really breaks continutiy.

My 550 is very easy to use. I have had it for nearly 13 years (bought in late 1992) and have used it solidly ever since. Saving and editing patches is very easy. I have always liked the fact it lets you store the song name and easily edit patches. The buttons are very tactile. I also find the midi input and channel control ver easy.

I like big, open, anthemic guitar sounds and the 550 helps me get this. I use an Epiphone DOT series with an old Peavey Bandit amp. I set the input level very high on the 550 which in turn pushes the amp very hard. I go straight into the input on the amp and never use the effects loop. I find that when I do this I don't get enough resonance from the amp as it seems to 'hold back'. I find that a combination of the great sounds from the 550 plus the resonance from the cut-away Epiphone makes the amp really sing. I get loads of sustain and 'voice', particularly when I use a combination of delay, compressor and distortion.

I never use the overdrive as the sound is not very rich. I also tend to stay away from the 'crunch' sounds.

I line up the effects as follows: COM + D/R (more delay than reverb) into the Marshall emulator and overdrive. I don't use any other effects units.

Note: I never DI the 550 as the sound is pretty poor!

I use the 550 with an old Peavey Bandit amp. I never DI it as the sound quality is pretty poor. I set the input level on the 550 very high which I find makes the amp really sing.

Yes, absolutely. It's been very reliable. The only things that have failed are jack inputs and a couple of screws, and that's only because it gets chucked around so much!

I play open, anthemic rock music with lots of ringing chords and notes. The 550 is a great little tool for helping me basically push lots of input and effects through to my old amp.

I have been playing for about 18 years and using the 550 for about 13. In that time, I haven't tried much else, except to include an additional compressor in line before the 550 to help push up the level of input to the amp.

I could use it right away, but I was already used to an fx500 which works very similar. Using the device with presets is really simple and editing patches isn't really hard either with a little bit of experimenting. The manual seems ok too, though I've only globally read it.

It's digital and aged so I didn't expect it to sound perfect, but for it's age it sounds pretty good, especially the pitch shifter. I read some people saying the distortion isn't very good. I agree halfway. For guitar they could be better but for a digital device of it's age they are quite good. For bass, however, the distortion totally rocks. Other than saying most of the presets sound good I can't really give an opinion on the other effects on it, I have to experiment with them a bit more.

It seems to be well made. It's kinda old but still works perfectly. I would gig without a backup cause I probably won't be able to find a second one ^^

For me this effect is great. Especially cause I play both bass and guitar. For some reason the fx550 works a lot better on bass than the fx500. If it were stolen or lost I'd cry, a lot O_O. The only thing I'd "upgrade" would be buying a distortion pedal when I have money again, but for now the distortion is ok. Playing around with the effects is certainly helping me to improve me making music, I have a lot more possibilities now. I make both really experimental music that's mostly improvising on bass and electronic music, the fx550 helps a lot with both.

Its a bit complicated to work out at first because yes lots of parameters, the manual is now avaliable at

http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/english/menu.html
(search under prof audio products/signal processors)

I use an external distortion before the fx 550 then into the amp, the distortion is very dated, but fortunately the effects are not. The pitchshifter is AMAZING, not an intelligent harmoniser but it is an 80's unit, I still to this day have not heard the equivalent in smoothness and quality, most pitchshifters sounds horrible. Also I dont think anyone has mentioned the tempo modulation/tempo delay, where you can set the effect response by BPM or by tapping with a pedal.

Another uniqueish effect is the symphonic function, which is chorusish, very ish but kind of expands your clean picking sound.
EQ is amazing, frequency sweep and gain on bass, mid and treble.

Giving it 9 because distortion is poo.

Its rock solid.

never had to.

You can use it as an effects unit for anything the effects ( apart from distorion) are that good, stereo ping- ping delays, delay and reverb mix delay into reverb Id buy it for the pitchshifer alone, also full midi control so stage work isnt a problem. There are two bad things about this unit. The time it takes to get how to use it ( because it has sooo many alterable parameters, which IS NOT really a bad thing. And the distortions, which arent VERY crap, but just not great, both of these things are down to the age of the unit. 80's.

It also has an effects map on top of the box, and oh yeah its a half rack unit, if no-one has said yet.

I love this thing, it is unlike many others of modest cost boxes absolutely noisefree. Also a great plus you can't blur your way while playing leads. You can doctor it to custom the effects to your own sound and style. I love that flanger sound and some of the distorts, and I also use it sometimes on other instruments aswell, like keyboard and bass... Mine is boxstock, and as I now a days use other boxes or racks by a mixer I can get a variety of sounds.

As the technic is improved over the time and so have the trends have changed some of the sounds may to some folks be a little out dated. But works fine with my style and sound. The best thing compared with a Zoom is that it is not as forgiving as Zooms are and you can't blur your way through... Allthough compating it to gear like V-Amp it is more limited for guitar players. But still a perfect choise for the first effect rack for home studios on budget. Many of the effects are designed for other use. I use it as sole effect on recording strings and organ.

Man, you should see mine. It has seen some rough handling but works pretty flawlessly. I would not hestitate using it live.

Only thing is that I have had to solder some of the plugs, nothing critical as this thing is common with most amps, keyboards and effects within time. Nothing seriously yet, all though it has seen an allmost daily use in decades.

I play hard rock oriented or blues oriented rock and this thing works fine. Compared to more modern effect racks, the number of sounds are more limited. But it is noisefree and very dependable.
I do not use all the effects on it just handfull. If you want to sound like your guitar hero or someone else, look for other gear, but if you want to sound good while you want to sound someting els than a carbon copy. This is it.

This is very easy to get a great sound out of, The presets are cool, & are easily adjusted to your own taste. The manual is concise, & easy.

I use this with a 59 Les Paul special, & a Seymour Duncan Convertible Amp. The Reverbs, & Echos are Great, very "real" sounding. the modulation effects are top-notch for a processor. I think the distortions are great, but you have to tweak them a bit. great for Hard Rock, or Alternative, as well as Jazz, or Blues

I've gigged with it for 5 years without a single problem

Never needed it.

I play Blues, Jazz, and sometimes Hard Rock. It's perfect for all these styles, and VERY QUIET.

Intuitive design- I got it used w/o a manual yet it's easy and quick to modify patches and save. Renaming the patches is a pain- the unit could be way better with a know instead of up and down buttons.

I use it in a loop from a mixer or in the effects loop of a guitar amp and it's transparent.

I got it used in great condition. It has never "acted funny" or otherwise failed me in about 8 years of almost constant use.

Never needed it.

I have used it for multi effects for recording everything from drums to piano. It works great in this role and also as an all in one guitar effect processor. For what you can get it for used, I think it's a great box.

Simplicity itself...I don't have the manual, and though I'm still looking, (Any help appreciated ;))I don't expect ultimately that I'll need it.

Reverb..............is astounding, distortions are a little crap.

You can throw things at it, throw up on it(haven't done that yet), it still works.
I would use it at a gig, perhaps not the distortions though.

Got the original powerpack from Yamaha but it did'nt work.
which is weird, and potentially dangerous.

I'd buy it again.
So should u.

If you don't have the manual, try to see if it is available through download on the Yamaha site in UK.

Very clean audio. Very very silent, as always with Yamaha. Pure frequency response up to 20kHz. All effects are really superb except
for the amp simulator which is according to my point of view, a bit
japanese sounding ;-). The reverbs are not smooth as in the SPX900 etc
but this is no effect intended for competing with a good Lexicon unit (or another more expensive Yamaha reverb (yes I like Yamaha)) in regards of the reverb.
Yet still, the reverbs in FX550 are absolutely ok. The rooms are
very good as well as the early reflections.

Really worth to try. Transparent sounds. Since the chorus and flanger effects also can be put after the delays and/or reverbs you obtain another type of sound that you may not get with all other simpler popular multieffects such as Midiverb III or Quadraverb.

It's a nice music device! I've found it easy to use and editing is "light" and fast.

I have used it with a lot of guitars and amps. Now I still have an Ibanez js-900 a Progap Ultra preamp, a Brunetti poweramp and a marshall 4x12 and it seems the fx-550 does its work well. It has a very clear sound, not very powerful. I've found that it cuts my sound, probably because it has not very good A/D, D/A converters. Distortion section is not very good (not a preamp or head distortion) but the effect section is good, with a lot of parameters to work, in this way it's possible to have e very selected sound. It has a nice param equalizer too, it's not very useful with good amp, but it can clean your sound if you have a not very good stuff.

In many years I've played in lot of places and it never had a problem!

I like a lot to have very "open mind" stuff. My favorite genre is heavy metal, but i like to shift from it to rock or neo-classical acoustic sounds. Probably at this time I would buy a newer device than the fx-550.

I think it is quite easy to use. I never had to look to that stupid manual which came with the processor. It is easier to try and find out rhather than reading from the manual.

I use a crate 30 amp with this device. Its performance is better with a Marshall. It is a little noisy (there is no effect loop in my amp) but the sound is good. I could get a sound which is close to Rhandy Rhoads. Distorition could be better for heavier sounds.

I have been using it for 2 years without any problem

I didn't need any support.

I usually play blues, heavy and trash. I think it is best for heavy.
I have been playin for 3 years. I have a cry baby. A friend of mine gave me his zoom 1010 to try. I can say that fx550 is much better than zoom 1010. But if I had the chance I would buy a boss. please contact me if you have got any patches

some words in english but I'm french !! Very easy to use because it's a logical approch. Good manual gives you all answers. Easy access editor. Unlike other brands, the 50 preset are interesting.

I use an american Strat Fender , a peavy basic 60 amp ( for bass !!!) and a SANS AMP GT2. modulations are good, delay reverb too but it miss some fat "body" . very accurate effects. There are 5 kind of distorsions: 2 disto (good), 2 saturations (good) and one crunch (very good for playing the Stones ). In 1992 when they create FX 550, digital distorsions were bad. In the FX 550 they are good but do not compare with the GT2. Good limiter/compressor. With a lot of time , I succeed in making a beautiful Fender Twin sound or an Van Hallen disto.

Very good. I use it since 1994

No problem

Good item for rock , hard rock, clean sound but not for blues. Excellent for vocals and studio mixing. The price I paid was very low (the store closed definitively ). I tryed a Rocktron Chameleon but i was disapointed (good speaker simulator) and I resold itimmediately.

I bought this unit in 1993 and when I was first using it, I pretty much had to learn what all the effects and parameters meant, let alone did. The manual is ok, but there are that many parameters on this thing ! It took me a solid year to learn how to tweak it into submission.

There are 4 main groups of effects : Compression, Distortion, EQ, Modulation and Reverb/Delay.
Compression : Good, in fact very good. I know this by analysing waveforms on PC sound editing software. When the Compressor is set high, the waveform is near perfect and the guitar still sounds natural. It offeres parameters such as Attack time, Sustain and also limiting.
Distortion : In a word, crap. Digital distortion is always going to be crap, and unfortunately at the time this unit was made, digital distortion was new and a lot of units were using it. The main problem with it is that it's incredibly noisy. There are many differnt settings and types, all of which suck. This is definitly the biggest problem with the FX550, but there is a solution - read on...
EQ: Fantastic ! It's a 3 band full parametric.
Modulation: You got Flange, Phaser(rotary speaker), 2 pitch shifters, chorus, Pan, tremolo etc... The flange and chorus is quite good as are the tremolo and pan. The pitch Shifters are unbelievable. I havent heard better ! The only effect which I did not like was the Phaser. It just didnt sound like a real phaser. All Mod effects have loads of parameters to play with including delay times and filters.
Reverb/Delay : Awesome ! The best thing about the FX550 is the Reberbs and Delays. They are all digital, but sound so natural and warm which is uncommon for a digital processor.
There is also a great amp simulation section which I used alot for DI applications. You get 4 types including a Marshall, a fender combo, and a full blown stack.
All effects sections have independant level adjstments and low/high pass filter parameters. They also have a "mix" control which allows you to set how much each effect is mixed in with the signal sound.
I used this unit for alot of differnt applications. I originally bought it to get some good reverbs for Multitrack recording with a 4 track, but as time went by I used it for all sorts of things such as DI guitar recording , Processing vocals, Enhancing pre-recorded music etc... In the final days that the FX550 was mine, I managed to get a great sound out of a crappy Peavey combo I own. I ran the FX550 through the Effects loop with a little reverb and compression, and set the amp simulator to a stack. I achieved a Marshall/Mesaboogie distortion sound. I shit you not !

Well, what can I say ? It's "rock" solid. Not a single scratch appeared on it in the 6 years I owned it, and I took it to gigs, rehearsals, studios etc...

I never needed any support or service so I can't comment.

It's a great peice of equipment. As you should have gathered, the distorion/overdrive section is the only let down. I recently sold it to a friend and bought a Digitech RP-7. This was mainly because I wanted some killer distortions and the RP-7 has a Valve in it as well as being a pedal type unit which is easier to use live.
I would have kept the FX550 for use with recording vocals ( I had some amazing patches made especially for this with perfect compression and reverbs) but I figured if I could duplicate the same patch into the RP-7 there really wouldn't be any need for the FX550 anymore. All in all it's a studio quality FX processor which although is intended for guitar processing, works equally as good with anything you plug into it. It's an all rounder ! I guess these units are probably hard to find now days, but if you are considering getting one, email me and I would be happy to send you some sound samples I've made over the years. By the way, on my bands first cd, I recorded all the quitars with a combination of the FX550 and a Digitech RP-6. All the vocals were recorded through the FX550 too ! Oh, I almost forgot, the solution to overcoming the lousy distortion is simple. You can either run an external distortion unit before the FX550, or place the FX550 into an amplifiers FX loop path. Just remember to turn off the units distortion!

Fairly easy to use. 50 out of the 100 patches come preset, and would these 50 cover a wide range of styles - something for everyone.

All effects sound very good. Noise gate is useful.

On the road up to 8 times a month. Four rehearsals per month. It gets knocked around and beer spilt over it. Totally reliable. Nice touch is the low voltage power lead clamp which stops the power leads getting pulled out during a gig.

Never had to go back to the supplier/importer.

Excellent live and for home studio. The only thing I've found that beats it, is the Chamelion (retails for #1000 in the UK - three times the price).

To get a good sound depending upon what the player prefers, It'll take a little work at going thru all of the parameters. Editing patches is quite simple, just push one of the five effects buttons and change the indvidual effects parameters. The manual is self explanitory.

The sound quality is on the most part really good considering that it is made for the normal musician, I mean it's not a top end professional device. The effects always sound superb. All of the effects are good.

This processor is very reliable. I would use it when ever and where ever I played.

I have never nedded customer support, so I have no opinion.

This small half rack processor is one of the best that I have ever heard. I won't play through anything that isn't up to my sound standards. I compared it to everything that I have ever tried out in a music store, and the only ones that ever compared were the $1000 and up processors. I do wish that It would of came with a midi pedal, so as to ease the transitions from clean to rythum, to lead, and any where in between. I usually try not to by japanese products, but this time I just had to have it.