Yamaha Magic Stomp 2

I have owned my Magic Stomp II for about 1 1/2 years now. I have owned a Flextone II amp with pedalboard, various stomp boxes, and even a SPX 90, Yamaha's classic rack effects. I own a Motif ES 8 keyboard workstation, so I am a little bias towards their gear. I bought the Magistomp II on reputation alone, and was not disappointed. Its really easy to use, the manual is ok, editing is very simple, once you understand what's going on. I am a "plug in and go" player, and it takes me time to really be content with what I hear. I read the manuals once, and then put it away, only referring to it if I have a problem. I like to learn my gear on the go. So, I am contantly changing presets, etc. This is a easy unit to understand.
Ignore the original Magicstomp, the upgrades in the II are worth it.

Its not bad for the price that you pay. I love the choruses, phasers, reverbs, and most of the effects. There is a wide variety to choose from. Some are pretty lame, though. I bought a Vox Tonelab SE, and that is my main rig. I play in a church setting, where I am asked to provide a wide variety of sounds. The Magic Stomp II does have a digital sound, so it doesn't really deliver on the distortion patches. I have only found two distortion settings that I can use live. I needed a wah, and volume pedal, plus I like the warmth of a tube, hence my purchase of the Tonelab SE. But, I recently played my Magicstomp II, and rediscovered some very cool sounds. There are a few Boss Gt-8 sounds here. I have no problems with the tuner, and its vey easy to read from a distance. I A/B this out into a Roland KC 350 keyboard amp, which is miked thru our FOH system. The Magic stomp adds a nice contrast, with my Vox Tonelab SE. The Magic stomp will sound good thru any guitar ( I own a Taylor T5, Gibson ES 335, Fender Telecaster and a Tyalor 514 CE acoustic.) I would run it stereo ( left/right output) so you can get the full sound effects. Its is not noisy, no more than any other effect unit.

Very reliable, this is my backup to my Tonelab SE. All Yamaha gear is great.

I've called them in Buena Park, Calif and they return calls for the most part. The website for the Magicstomp is so-so. It's not as good as Vox, Line 6 or Boss, where there are more users.

I play praise & worship. We cover a wide variety of styles, from rock, blues, country, & blues/gospel. This is not a good pedal for metal/grunge. But it is a great tool for creating new sounds/effects. I've been playing for 35 years, and have owned some classic effects ( Boss CE 1, MXR Phase 100, to name a few.) Yamaha has done a good job capturing some of these classic sounds. But this box does sound digital, remember that! I really heard the difference when I played this next to my Tonelab SE. But I am ok with this, I wanted the variety of sounds.This is a good unit for the money. This would be a good entry level stompbox, to learn about guitar modeling. It is not a boutique pedal.I would not buy this for the distortion alone.

First of all, I'm writing this review to contrast the negative that has been posted as I believe that these have been posted by those who are impatient and willing to work for the sound that they want. So, first of all, ease of use. This unit is very easy to use, especially if you look at the owners manual. Don't ever take a piece of equipment out of the box and just tear into it without looking at the manual, it is there for a reason. The CPU editing software doesn't come with a self install, but who cares. Any idiot can figure out how to install the contents of the disk. By the way, if you can't figure out these basic steps, then why are you buying a pedal that utilizes this type of editing interface. The tweaking process is fairly detailed but simple, just point and click and your on your way. Easy to tweak and save. As far as performance use, this unit is very easy. You can simply bank up and down using these two respective stomp functions and the 3rd being the on and off switch for the effects. There are 99 slots for editing in addition to the 99 presets that cannot be saved over, therefore you have plenty of space to save what you wish. Additionally, you can save in threes and access these via performance mode. Explanation; say you have a song that has a clean verse, dirty chorus, and a dirty+delay solo. Just edit your settings for clean to lets say User setting 7. Then save your dirty preferences to 8, then solo settings to 9. Then instead of using the banking mode, switch to performance mode. This will allow you to use the 3 switch buttons like 3 separate effects pedals, that way you can access settings 7, 8, or 9 simply by stepping on a switch to turn it on and off without having to bank up and down. Very user friendly.

I'm using this with a new Peavey Bandit II 1x12 amp simply for bedroom usage. I used to own a 2x12 carvin amp but it was more than I needed and was built like glass. Anyways, out of the box, this is a noisy pedal if hooked straight into the front of the amp. It can be done this way only if you are plugging straight into a PA system or a recording unit, but not an amp, there is simply just too much noise, especially with a dirty channel. However, hook it up into the effects unit. This pedal then will rival any Line 6 or Boss multieffects system out there. In fact, due to its simplicity and price tag, I would prefer the magic stomp. The effects are great. Delay, chorus, phaser, flanger, etc are all good. As far as distortion, I would not recommend it over the amps distortion, but i do use it in conjunction with the amps distortion. The AC30 mimic and other classic distortions are good, but the heavier, more modern sounds will only cut it for recording if not used in addition to the amps distortion. All around though, great sound quality. By the way, I wouldn't recommend using ANY multieffects pedal for distortion, you'll be disappointed no matter which brand you choose. Go with either your amps distortion or a single pedal like the DS-1, tubescreamer, or Zakk Wylde MXR.

Very reliable, built like a rock in it's metal housing

not had to deal with them

I play all kinds of music. This pedal can mesh with any style.
I have been playing for 10 years now and have owned various other effects, amps, Fender U.S.A. strats, Taylor acoustic. If this unit were stolen I'd be seriously agitated. I have grown very fond of it, especially as a boost for soloing. The delay with a punch of volume can really send a good solo over the top. I compared it with Line 6, Korg, Boss, Digitech, etc... and for the money, you can't beat this one. The effects are not digital in sound which is the problem you will face with the other previously mentioned units with maybe an exception to Boss. Problem with Boss is the price. Way to expensive.

You can probably get some very nice sounds from this, some of the presets are nice. However, the CD with drivers has no self install, no big deal for many people. I ran into a corrupted driver, it happens, and whenever I plugged in the pedal to a USB slot it would restart my computer. Due to the lack of a selfinstall/uninstall, it was difficult to remove drivers. The pedal itself could have used a better way of switching between effects instead of cycling through invidually (but thats just nit picking).

Don't even bother with the distortions. They don't sound very nice at all. Everything else sounds great. I didn't run into many noisy effects. Good for digital reverb (thats why I bought this).

I haven't used it long enough to judge this.

Didn't contact them (though I should have)

I bought the pedal mostly for the reverb, but with the driver problems I decided to not bother. Drivers can be corrupted at any time, and to uninstall them is a real hassel. For as good as the reverb sounds, there are better options out there. I wish Yamaha would have taken the time to make the drivers and USB interface work better than it does. I also wish they'd either take out most of the distortions or make them usable. I would be embaressed to play with the distortions on it. I am also aware that not everyone will have corrupted driver problems, but I felt it should be noted incase someone runs into the problem.

* How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?
Not so easy. Device editing features are unusable. Software editing is more user friendly but lack of good description makes this product hard tyo setup.
* How about Editing patches?
After managing first-use problems, it is easy.
* How is the manual for it (if there is one)?
Poor and weak.
* Do you know the firmware revision number? Has your unit been upgraded?
Yes, I know. Device has the newest firmware. YAMAHA nearly don't releases firmware upgrades.

* What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with?
Marshall solid state MG-series amp, Gibson LP Voodoo, 10-years old YAMAHA Pacifica 120 SD.
* Is it noisy? On what settings?
Yes. It has buzz on distortion effects.
* Are the effects weak or do they always sound great?
All effects except amp simulation and distortion are great.
* Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? Who are they?
Very poorly. All distortions are very mud and dry. I cannot achieve warm sound of valve amp overdrive.

* Can you depend on it?
Yes.
* Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
No. Chromatic tuner is not so precise.

* If you've dealt with the company, how helpful/friendly were they?
I have sent some technical e-mails to customer support. Everything I have received was info about contact to local YAMAHA office.
* Ever get an upgrade, or try and get it repaired?
No.

All effects except disrtion and amp modelling are very usefull. Rest - worthless.

It is fairly easy to use the editing effects is quite simple. but it takes a while to grasp everything this pedal can do...which is alot!

i use a gretsch electromatic pro jet->magic stomp->roland cube 30 ..sounds great the reverb, delays, chourus and flanger etc. are very good and extremely clear,the overdrive distotions are very realistic and vintage also very very vesitile, the metal-like distotions are also very good but i rarely use them, the sound i like is fuzz, and i think that the fuzz settings are good but they lack the chrunch and thickness of some other separate fuzz pedals i have used, but it is a very small difference that most people wouldnt notice but it is just enough to bug me(the fuzz is still outstanding compared to other multi effect pedals). apart from that fault overall it sounds awsome, better than any other multi effects stompboxes out there, my friend has a zoom gfx 5 and it sounds sooo muffled compared to this thing. oh this thing does have a small delay between changing patches, you could get away with it live. but is fine turning on and off, no delay.

its been very reliable so far, it seem sturdy enough, i would gig without a back up.

i play alt. rock, i love the smashing pumpkins, sonic youth, pixies. this pedal is great for all styles. if it were stolen i would definatly buy another.

There are no good sounds that I found. It is very easy to play the presets..The computer and usb supposedly gives far deeper editing. That will never fix the "lag" time disaster. Very little editing on the fly. One has to spend a decent amount of time to get the best out of most processing gear and in this case that would be with usb and software that comes with it..I really enjoy sitting and getting the most out of effects processors...waste of time in this case.

First off I own a Yamaha DG-80 modeling amp which to this day is absolutely the very best I have heard. (Check reviews)I use it for small gigs and it is really awesome. The Boogie Rectocerb is my new honey so here we go with needing outboard effects. The first time I plugged in and headphoned the Magic I immediately understood the latency..and it is really bad. There is lag time between pick and sound like I have never heard all these years having used a ton of gear. I have played for 35 years and gig in rb vintage dance band. Its' funny how you can absoletly love a companie's amp and then be really let down by another piece of gear like the Magic. The effects and distortions aren't even close to the Yamaha amp and it is 6 years old! The effects are very weak and thin. The delay's aren't bad but with the latency it is delayed delay...ALLL sounds coming out of this unit are delayed..unbelievable...I have worked with high end gear..lexicon..etc. and I don't expect that kind of quality at this price. I have spent a few hours with it and the lag time between pick and sound is intolerable to me anyway. It's great if you don't need good sound...have no other effetcs?...then go without effects as opposed to this sham... When you strike a chord you can get hungry waiting for the sound to pipe out the other end. It's going back to Guitar Center asap. In fact, "IF" you find a DG 80 on ebay buy that instead of the "TRagic Magic" for a little more money.

It's porbably very tough..I know I have had NO problems with my beloved yamaha DG 80 in 6 years of fairly hard gigging. Magic looks tough enough...nice and heavy as in boat anchor.

I have no clue..

I have a lot of amps and play an '87 PRS I bought new and a PRS Hollowbody 2. If it were stolen I would feel really bad for the poor guy who tries to play it...His having to listen to it would be punishment enought for me. I am not jaded by using gear a long time and I love to teak effects. I just expected more from a great co. like Yamaha...like the ability for it to be musical..which it is NOT!!

I have never trashed anything as most have some redeamable quality or nich use..the Magis 2 really would make a decent boat anchor come to think of it..

I have a Magicstomp 1 with firmware 1.8. Once you have this unit set up there is very little to be done. Seems to be alot of work to program via a computer and then upload the patch and then test the sound and then start all over again because its the wrong sound.

I did own a Boss GT-6 and this little Yamaha is my favorite...hands down.

Never had any issues with a Yamaha product.

Never needed them.

I love this little thing. The downside is live adjustments and stepping through patches. If Yamaha would play tug-a-war and strech this out to be accessable like a Boss ME-50 then it would be perfect.

I agree with mostly all of the comments of the previous review. Several of the basic effects that are preloaded are very useable right out of the box, some need tweaking and others you probably won't use. There are almost 200 additional presets on the CD tat can be combined in any order of sequence within a bank and downloaded to the stompbox. 99 user patches can be stored in memory.
Although you can access the deep editing features right from the pedal, you really need a computer to make it easy and set up your patches in the order you want.

This pedal is very amp friendly and sounds good plugged diredtly in.
The reverbs, delays and mods sound good and are very quiet with hardly any coloration to the amp itself. Adjusting the gain and levels in the distortion presets make a loud tube amp very useable at bedroom levels. I have previously owned the POD 2.0, J-Station, PODxt and GT-6 and all of these have a fairly good sounding direct line output, but don't sound that great when plugged directly into an amp. Currently, I am also using a GT-8 that sounds good for direct recording and when I use it with an amp, I plug it into the FX return. The stompbox isn't so much a modeler as it is a multi-effects box. In that way it is different from the POD and all the others I've tried.

My live rig is mostly boutique with some vintage pedals that I use with a 3-channel loooper for bypass. The Stombox works great in the live rig and I have it on its own loop bypass. I'm giving this pedal a 10 because the patches I use sound great.

Overall I've had good luck with Yamaha gear. No complaints.

I have never needed service for Yamaha products.

This pedal is a tremendous value. The price is amall for so many good sounding effects. I especially like the reverbs and chorus patches for clean sound. Depending on what you are looking for in a pedal, this pedal has many high quality and useable effects.

The pedal itself is very straightforward to use, once you have programmed it using a PC. I wouldn?t like to try deep-editing patches without a PC, as it only has 3 switches and 3 knobs, and the manual makes this process look very tricky. However, I have owned it for about four months now, and have not needed to do this. Making minor adjustments to the parameters you have assigned to the three knobs is very quick and easy ? you can even tweak these on stage, no problem.

Provided you get your patches in order, it is generally OK for stage use. Switching between patches mid-song can be a little cumbersome unless they are stored next to one another. 99 user-programmable patches, and the ability to store even more patches on a PC, gives plenty of scope to get things stored in the right order.

The editing software supplied with the pedal is basic, fairly intuitive and easy to use. You can download and preview it on the MagicStomp website. It could be improved, but it does the job. The manuals are OK, but don?t provide very helpful explanations of the deeper editing parameters, so you just have to dive in and experiment. Not a big problem, provided you have plenty of time to spare.

The overall range of different effects available in this unit is great, but rather limited in terms of using multiple effects simultaneously. The modulation and reverb/delay effects are exceptionally good; distortions and amp simulations are not quite up to the same standard, but are significantly better than other multi-effects I have used (e.g. Pod, Zoom GFX8). The MagicStomp is cheaper, and I much prefer it. I use it in the effects loop of a Fender Hotrod amp. It doesn?t interfere too much with the amp?s tone, which is very important, and it runs very quietly. As well as playing various electrics through it, I have also used the pedal in place of a pre-amp with an acoustic guitar with an L R Baggs pickup with some good results.
I would give it 10 if you could use more effects simultaneously.

The pedal itself is very sturdy, rugged, and fairly heavy. I like its traditional metal footswitches a lot - you can stomp on them hard without the fear of doing damage. Haven?t had any problems with it.
The power supply looks a bit flimsy by comparison, so I carry a spare.
The software has needed re-installing a couple of times, but this maybe more to do with my PC.

I haven't had to use customer support, but I gather than Yamaha has a pretty good reputation in this respect.
There is a dedicated website: www.magicstomp.com

I play a range of styles, and this pedal offers something to augment almost all of them (with the possible exception of acoustic blues). Since I started using it, I have dispensed with a few stomp boxes because I just don't need them any more, and this pedal sounds just as good, if not better. It has made my rig quicker and easier to set up, and it generally doesn't need much tweaking from one gig to the next.

As with many effects modules getting good sounds is subjective. Programming is easy using USB and computer. User friendly icon interface with software supplied makes for fast programming.
Patch Editing can be complicated especially if you go deep into multitapped echo effect etc. The manual is not really a requirement with this unit very simplistic programming. Easy to record with and great as live effects / overdrive unit without any other amps.

I use everything from acoustic's with fishman's through to vintage strats, going straight to desk or PA mixer.
One of best features is definately the echo effects, with some knowledge you can accurately emulate those vintage echo sounds of Hank Marvin and the Shadows from 60's, these are very difficult to obtain normally. If you like saucy rock type overdrive this box has plenty to offer, no (Gary Moore)singing sustain but pretty close, (Boogie V-twin is only model I know that can do this on the floor).

Factory presets are a bit of a joke, many sound weak and artificial, or just to weird for use. Program you own and get some great sounds.

The clean sounds are as usual lacking any sort of amp warmth, needs lots of Eq from desk for this jazz type sound.

Reverbs and Delays are stunning and worth the money just for these effects alone, as good as TC Electronic studio stuff which is a high recommendation. Used with Acoustic guitars a splash of Revb and hint of Chorus it will add a new dimension to your sound.

Overall very versatile.
Beats all the Pods to my ears.

No Problems.

Good site www.magicstomp.com has many user patches and also famous names to download

The versatility of MagicStomp is unmatched by anything else I have used. Previous experience with Roland GP100, POd's,Fender Cybertwin, and many many conventional amps, this Magicstomp product does so much for your money.
Programability, and super effects sounds is the key factor in purchase.

For home recording I would say it is a must have product!

I would like to see an interface for volume or wah wah pedal, this would make it so good for live use. The addition of a midi interface would make it better for live work enabling a foot controller to switch between patches fast.

Live work needs careful arrangement ,close proximity, for the patches you use or you end up tap dancing to get to next sound.

A mod that would allow selection of on/off on any of the three switches would be a good move allowing three effects to be used ie; dist on/off (1), delay on/off (2), chorus or reverb on/off (3). The performance mode of use is not well concieved at this stage.

Overall I must say two thumbs up for Yamaha MagicStomp