Yamaha Magic Stomp 2

The UB99 Magicstomp is potentially the best guitar pedal ever made.

The sounds I have been able to program into the unit are now so good that I don't take my amp with me anymore.

It's not suitable as plug and go pedal and hence the low score on ease of use. To get good sounds you must customize them, and some folks can't do this and are left with those dreadful factory presets.

Firmware revision 2.0 and 2.1 tried and successfully upgraded.
Some people have problems with midi software. NO support for latest mac computers.

MkII magicstomp has headphone jack and hence can be used late at night with no problems for neighbors. Also easier to use with a desk for recording.

The manual is not really adequate, it will get you going but programming patches to most people is still a mystery.

Why the product was launched and then with 24 months killed by Yamaha is a mystery.

I do suspect that they know, like I do now, that this single pedal could replace just about everything, and hence killed it off.

Used with every type of guitar they all sound great with it.

I go direct to PA desk, even though I can use it with various amps that I have. Why break my back when a small pedal does it all. Amps stay at home now.

Sounds:
Throw away all those horrible factory presets, they are rubbish well 90 out of 99 anyway.

The sound quality for the price is excellent.

With my own custom made library of patches I am getting every amp and effect I need. I does take a lot of auditioning, and some sound knowledge to get sounds right. But almost any useful guitar sound can be made from this little box.

The effects on their own, are in most cases very weak, delay never has enough gain for example. Could be used just as an effect unit for this application, but this misses the target for me.

I have been able to create all my fav artists signature sound even difficult ones like Eric Johnson and Larry Carlton, Dave Gilmore all possible and very close to recording sounds.

Sound Quality is exceptional only -1 for the factory patches which are rubbish.

The quality of the pedal is good, but I worry about those push buttons, they are fake look rugged outside but inside it's a spring and a rubber touch switch ...shame on you Yamaha for this visual deception.
It's designed to break down by the looks of it.

I do use it regularly without a backup. But now as it is getting old I keep a spare hand as well.

Non existent, there is no support for this product and apart from the web site if you got a problem you are on your own.

Yamaha have not been able, or interested to support this product from day 1 or sales.

I feel very sorry for customers who purchased these at high prices only to see the value of their purchase drop to under 1/3 of it's original price as shops tried to rid themselves of an obsolete product dumped on them by Yamaha.

Now totally abandoned by Yamaha as discontinued product.

Shame on you Yamaha.!!!

There is a Yahoo community for this product very helpful especially regards software problems.

Playing everything from Blues , Pop, Rock Country and some modern post punk stuff, this pedal can do the lot.

By this I mean straight to PA desk, no amps no cabinets.

I've been playing for 40 years, and I have never found a pedal I likes so much as this one.

It's a sleeper on day people will realize just what it can do then the prices will rocket up.

Definitely a pedal to have and to keep.

For home recording it equals the sounds I get from N.I. Guitar Rig 3, sometimes better, and I though that was as good as it could get.

Suggested additions that will never happen.
Needs a midi in and out or a dual purpose USB with capability then to link to Foot Controllers like Roland Fc200.

Also USB stick memory and patch upgrading, the computer is only to operate a simple midi systems exclusive dump for patches etc.
With this you can upgrade patches without having a local computer required, good for touring and stage use.

Tap tempo for echo would be nice addition. Multiple sound combinations also required. Better foot switches, a built in 110-240V AC power supply.

The internal software needs a huge re-write by Yamaha which ain't gonna happen.

Get one while you can, these are no longer available except for second hand marketplace.

Very much a collectible for the future.

Contact me if you want patches upgraded to real amp sounds etc.
Dave. blissmusic<at>hotmail.com

Not really for first timers or people in a hurry.Depending on how patient you are,There are some GREAT rewards especially for those on a strict budget.BUT...dont expect to be on the fly and find"the sound".Ok that being said...The unit has huge potential in the delay/reverb/modulation/pitch area.I dont bother with the rest of it.The musicians friend blowout made me take another look at these.Otherwise FORGETABOUT IT!!!!

I bought 2 of these because of the multi tap delay's with filtering and modulation.I do not ever want to use this as a way of getting a guitar tone.The symphonic'delay is very nice as well as the basic reverb.Compared to some sought after "classics" korg sde-3000's(I have 2)eventide 949,klark dn780,sony r7,TC2290.The pedal to me is a portable spx on steroids and much quieter than any spx90 just harder to program.The lcd display is a joke in a live setting so don't plan on jumping preset to preset.I SET IT AND THEN FORGET IT.I use The 2 units are used in dedicated separate stereo chains so switching sounds or presets is not an issue.The sound is very professional and quiet and surpasses certain rack pieces.

no comment....except...If they get lost or stolen on a flight or they break I would laugh because my shoes cost me more money.These magicstomps are the crack whore of the fx pedals.Put a 2 cent dsp chip in a pedal.Come next year,they make another.Nothing precious about it.Mabie my time wasted putting up with its menu driven programming.I bought these to minimise lugging my older rack delays around.Im Not 100% percent sure if these are are solution for what I want.The price is right for experimentation.SEEMS CHEAP AND NOT POSSIBLE TO SERVICE.CHEAPER TO REPLACE AT THE END OF THE DAY OR MOVE ON TO SOMTHING THATS NOT A TOY!...A 50/50 OPINION.

They make motorcycles too.Probably better support in that area.

I love the portability and the hi-fi sound quality of the delay/reverb/chorus/mod/etc...I hate the wallwarts and the display.The could have added a bright RED NUMERICAL L.E.D. So you could at least see what patch you are on...a shame really.Probably the pedal with the most or widest LOVE/HATE Ratio.So much to love.So much to hate.If they(korg yamaha roland) could focus and make fx units with dedicated knobs that did one effect with a big red l.e.d. to tell you"#3" and did the fx so well we would all be better off than the current ideology of multi fx.

You need to spend a serious amount of time with this unit getting to know the in's and out's but it's very rewarding once you get to grips with it. One thing is that to go into the deep editing via the pedal itself, you'll really need the manual bocause everthing on the dispay is abreviated.
It's a pain that if you have a really good distortion sound going on and wanna add some delay or a little chorus, you have to virtually start from scratch and build your sound up again starting with a different preset with the modulation fx linked in with the main amp/distortion sound.

Most of the presets with any OD/Gain/Distortion are VERY over the top, either sounding very dull and flat or extremely bright and fuzzy. With a little tweaking you can add some warmth and bite to the sounds. There areny that many variations of gain and instead of naming different types with amp names like modeling amps do, there named straight forwardly like OD 1, OD2, Metal 1, Metal 2 and so on. But again with a bit of time you can alter the sounds greatly, the EQ section is brilliant giving you both mid and mid freq control's although even with both of these controls right up, on some of the high gain sound's, the unit does tend to still sound scooped.
The modulation sounds are nothing less than amazing in my opinion, the preset's are great and give a good idea of what the unit can do. There's a massive array of fx and the amount of perameters that can be adjusted is a little daunting when your usually used to just kicking in a pedal with only three buttons to twiddle. You can get some crazy fx by maxing some of the setting, the first day I got the unit I played around with it for six hours straight !
I'll give it a 10 for the fx quality but only a 4 for distortion's/overdrive's so a 7 over all.
It's ideal if your happy with your amp's main sound but want to add a multi fx that you can just set up for fx without altering the inherent tone of your amp.

Not had it long enough to coment but no problem's yet although i'm having trouble getting the deep editing software to work. Not a major problem because the deep editing can be done on the unit.

loads of downloadable tones and fx from the website.

I play mostly metal but use the unit just to add modulation and delay. I play a Custom shop Gibson Les Paul Custom with EMG 81&85's,
Peavey 6505+ head with Marshall 1960AV cab. I use a Dunlop Wylde wah, boss tu-2, boss ge-7 and an ISP decimator

This is the Magic Stomp with ver. 2.10. MS II has the added head phone jack and deep editing without software and added AUTO FEEDBACK REDUCTION for acoustic effects. I personally don't think this unit is that difficult to use. There is an additional manual on the CD, which is better than the hard copy. The editing software is EASY to use, better than it was for the MS I. Once you have the software installed and the Drivers, its just a matter of playing with all the effect controls.

Ok, I need to explain to some about effect units. The overdrives and distorsions don't work well with most amps, unless you have an amp that is very simple, such as the FENDER BASSMAN (this is the case with most effect units). This pedal works well with that amp because there's no added OD channels and extra controls. Like the one guy said, always use a single analog pedal for OD. But, the effects are great. I'd plug the MG II into the effects loop if you have one and just use the time dependent effects. I can understand why YAMAHA wanted to try deep editing without using the software, since I'm sure they got feedback from people who owned the MS I. But, I feel it was still a waist of time. I can't see anyone performing deep editing on this unit without using the MS editing software, its MUCH MUCH EASIER. I can personally get great ODs using my fender bassman. i PAID $80 for this unit, what a DEAL. I like it, and I'm amazed how many options there are in the deep editing software.

I've had many many EFFECT UNITS and I seem to always return them. I have the DIGITECH 3000, I kept it, since I like it quite a bit. I bought the MG II because I owned the MS I, but sold years ago. I like the concept that you have great effects in a small foot pedal. I have concluded that ODs and Distorsions in most effects units just don't cut it, unless they're analog. I can get some good tones from the MS II through a simple bassman amp using slight OD. For the price you can't go wrong. If you buy it, just take some time using the editing software, its purty easy to use, but does have a lot of controls; probably too many.

Takes some time and effort to figure out and program. However, it's a big improvement over the MS1, which I also have, because of deep editing from the unit (without computer) and because it has an anti-feedback feature that is very useful for harp.

I use for playing harp. I have programmed a lot of patches for playing through a tube amp and have also programmed some patches for playing straight into the PA. Through a good amp the reverbs, delays, and choruses sound wonderful. Going into the PA without an amp, distortions are not as good as a tube amp (I cannot compare them to other modelers because I don't have any). However, still pretty good for when I want to travel light. But the thing I LOVE is the anti-feedback feature. Feedback is a big problem for amplified harp. When it starts to feed back, just hit one button and the frequency is notched out. Can be done with up to 5 frequencies. Very useful when you can't get enough volume before feeding back.

MS1 buttons break. MS2 reportedly has improved buttons. No problems yet in a few months of use.

My MSI broke and Yamaha directed me to a local repair center that fixed it (very slowly) under warranty. Yamaha hasn't updated Magicstomp.com since 2004!

For the price I paid--$80--it's incredible. Wonderful sound quality, great anti-feedback feature. Not as versatile as some true multi-effects pedals, but great for what it is.

I don't think it works well as a Pod or total effects box because deep editing of multiple effects with multiple paramters is too complicated with only three knobs. You'll need the manual to do any editing (even if you remember the procedures) because all the parameters have cryptic or nonsensical names (i.e. DvBo, PLK, MNk, DDT, TNT, PTP, or whatever).

Excellent sounds overall, very clean. The distortions all sound like digital Eddie Van Halen crap though-- no warm/natural overdrives here. But the other effects are very transparent.

It's a much bigger pedal than you'd think. It looks smaller in the pictures I've seen, and the casing/knobs feel a little cheaper than I expected. The box is plastic, not steel or even cast zinc. I imagine it will be reliable, but Yamaha is kidding themselves if they say it's a "stomp" box.

I haven't called Yamaha specifically about this pedal. My experience in the past has been mixed with all gear companies.

This is an awesome value if you view it as a effects pedal with many single effects (if that makes sense). For the price, I am very happy that I now have a phaser, flanger, delay, tremolo, reverb pedal all in one. I just use it as a dedicated pedal (one effect at a time) and I love it. I think mixing more than two effects at a time is bad news because you lose the ability to tweak the sound. But to have a phaser with three adjustments, or an analog-type echo with three adjustments is just great. To go buy a dedicated Boss tremolo pedal would cost about as much as this unit did, and the MagicStomp also has several other effects I wanted.

I find it quite cumbersome to get good sounds out of this unit. It's cool that I can access all parameters via the knobs on the unit. However, I can only tweek three parameters at a time & there are lots of parameters for each effect type. Also, the 3-4 letter abreviations of some parameters are obscure. So you pretty much have to use the supplied software & a PC to adjust presets. The software is utilitarian with nothing more than a bunch of virtual knobs to adjust. There is no graphical information to help visualize the effects. Some aspects of the software are not so obvious...

1. Make sure you install the Yamaha USB MIDI driver & reboot your PC before you plug in the Magicstomp USB cable.

2. Be sure to set the software to Monitor Mode if you want to hear your changes through the Magicstomp as you adjust parameters on your PC.

I only found a couple useable default presets. It seems like Yamaha is trying to show off the bizzare sounds that this unit can accomplish. PREPARE TO WASTE SOME TIME TWEEKING THIS THING.

In general, this unit sounds better than the Behringer V-amp2 & Line6 POD 2.0 that I also own. The distortion sounds are closer to real amp & pedal sounds. However, in bypass mode this pedal colors the sound of my amp big time. I purchased this "pedal" to plug into my '68 Fender Princeton Reverb. It just sucks the life right out of my clean amp sound! Therefor I cannot use the Magicstomp2 with my amp. That being said, it makes a pretty decent direct recording/gigging/rehearsal device, but that's not what I was after.

The left output was busted right out of the sealed box. It had signal riding on a -4VDC offset.

Pros:
- it has a nice tuner
- most effects sound decent
- good distortions & amp sounds
- headphone output for private practise
- modern USB control
- software included

Cons:
- difficult to make adjustments without a PC
- bypass mode colors the sound WAY TOO MUCH!
- presets suck

Conclusion:
This would make a decent direct box for someone who has time to sit down & tweek the heck out of the presets.

I've owned the DG Stomp pedal, the orig MagicStomp, and now the MagicStomp II. I sent the MSII back today even though Musicians Friend was running a great special on it for $79.

First, the interface is kludgy.

Yes, you can do deep editing on the MS-II from the pedal itself - YEA! Yes, you can edit patchs on the PC with a pretty decent program - YEA!

But, the parms have meaningless 3 or 4 char names that you need the effects list to determine what you are setting and even then you can't be 100% sure exactly what the parm does.

You can't line up effects like you want... maybe you really want 9 effects on a single patch (doubtful), but you can't do it on this pedal.

Let's say you want a chorus-only patch to use with your amp...

1. Hit a small button
2. Hit the foot pedal patch on/off button; now, you're in edit mode
3. Hit the foot pedal patch on/off button again; now you can choose an amp model that contains chorus
4. Hit the patch up/down buttons as needed to cycle through and find Multi Amp Chorus
5. Hit the on/off button agian to get back to the 13 pages of parms you must now set (3 parms per page)
6. Disable every parms except the ones for chorus; see the effects list to determine which parms are for chorus
7. I don't think you can turn off amp modeling unless you can find an amp model with nothing; you're stuck with one of the 10 or so amp models such thta the chorus-only patch isn't just chorus (there may be a way around this, but I wasn't spending any more time on it)
8. press the little button for a second or more to rewrite the patch.

Oh, so you wanted reverb, chorus, *and* XYZ effect... sorry, but you are limited to the combination of effects preprogrammed into those amp models. If you can find one with everything you want, fine; if not, then you compromise.

Now, don't get me wrong; I think the MSII has great sounds and the potential to be an excellent sounding pedal, but getting there isn't half the fun with this thing.

I own or have owned Digitech RP3/RP7/RP2000/GNX3, Zoom 505/505-II/504-II/GFX707/GFX1/GFX4/GFX5/GFX8, Yamaha DG Stomp/MS/MS-II, and a host of other MFX pedals and the award for worst interface - including PC-based because of the design of how effects are grouped and the way you have to jump through hoops to get a group of effects - goes to - TA-DA - Yamaha MagicStomp series!

It's no wonder Yamaha is giving up on this pedal. The MS-II righted all the wrongs of the orig MagicStomp (you wouldn't believe the interface deficiences that one had!), but they were stuck in a nad design to begin with and honestly, as much as they tried, you can only polish a turd but so much.

Very good! Loved the sounds. Good cleans tones thta other Yamaha MFX untis didn't have. Great OD tones. So-so time-based effects; I just didn't liek the chorus all thta much, preferring the DG Stomp's over the MS-II.

Seems reliable enough - all metal housing.

Sorry, but I just don't have time to spend "crafting" my tone with this tihng; not when Ican get up and running in 1/10th the time with my Zoom GFX-5.

Sorry, but screw the preset review format; I'm pasting from this thread:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/showthread.php?s=ebfe2d0fd336185c2ad8260e895f7432&postid=17913269#post17913269

Basically, I was looking for something that would act as a multi-effect pedal, rather than an amp-modeler. I also wanted something that would be transparent when turned off, or when using only 1 effect (like reverb, chorus, etc). Bottom line is that the MS2 works very well for this application. Here's a list of pros/cons. I'm playing the MS2 between a strat and a SF Champ.

Pros:
-Transparent when using, say, just reverb. Makes my Champ sound like it has a spring reverb in it (tone snobs might be able to tell its not real, but not me).
-Pretty user friendly considering how incredibly adjustible the effects are.
-Distortion pedal models sound like the real thing. The names can be a bit cryptic, but you can tell what they are from listening. There is one that sounds just like a Big Muff and one that sounds just like a DS-1 - both pedals that I own.
-Overall sound quality is excellent. None of that digitalized sound that I get with my X-Vamp (the only other multi-effects I've owned).

Cons:
-I can't get a really good flanger setting, but this might be just me. I'm comparing to an Electric Mistress.
-You don't have total freedom to combine effects. You have to rely on the preset combinations of effects (which, to be fair, are pretty comprehensive). There are combinations that include compressor->amp or dist->mod->delay->reverb so there is alot to work with. More info on these combos here.

This thing works really well between a guitar and amp, and I haven't tried it for direct recording yet, so I can't comment on that. I also haven't played with the amp sims yet. Overall, I'm very happy, and for $80 I almost feel a little guilty...almost.

Id say its pretty easy to get good sounds out of it,so far editing is not that hard. I haven't had to use the manual yet but it is not complicated to understand it. First of all I went through all patches and set the levels for every one and found some very useful sounds.

I,m using a fender super 210 and an old old silvertone model 1483. both amps are tube powered and are run in stereo from the magic stomp 2. I think some of the distortions are weak, and some a little noisy, but i use a separate stompboxes for my distortion. I think just the reverbs,choruses, delays,tremblos and some others are all worth it. some sound better than boutique pedals. I use a Fender strat, Ibanez artist, Carvin bolt. Over all I think the quality of the usable sounds are awesome.

I havent had it for too long, but it looks pretty reliable, I have a yamaha spx90 from the eighties and is still kicking ass. I would use it without a back up.

I havent had the need for support so i have no opinion.

I play rock latino and a little bit of everything else rock and some blues, been playing since late eighties I own a bunch of other gear but who cares. If it where to be stolen or lost I would replace it. I love the sound especially when hooked up in stereo it just gives me a bigger sound. i hate the plastic knobs they feel a little whimpy to be stomping on them. my favorite feature is sound, kind of inspiring. It helps me sound better, what more could i ask for.