Overall User Ratings

"If you can't get the sound you want with an ME-50 sell your gear and start a lawn business."

This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.

Feature:
This ME-50 takes the place of the 7 pedals I used to have to carry around. Not to mention all the patch cables and different batteries and multipal wal-warts, and nightmares of suddenly finding yourself playing air guitar when one of them decides to short out!

Quality:
It's built like a Sherman Tank, and the AA Batteries last all night long if you forget to bring the wall wart to a gig. I have actually used the same AA Batteries on three full 5 hour gigs before they burned out. Just turn it off on breaks. Just try not to spill beer on it too much...it makes the knobs sticky but it still works!

Value:
I would have been happy to get an ME-50 for a hundred dollars + more.

Desirability:
A technical marvel that is simple to figure out and easy to program. Dial in a sound on one of the banks, press one button...the lights start to flash, press it again, and WALLA! your dialed in sound is saved (All effects, even the volume and compression)

Sound:
Les Paul Standard Premium Plus, 50's neck, 100 Watt Marshall DSL half stack with 1960 AV bottom, and Boss ME-50. There is no finer sound attainable in this universe. I can dial in any sound that I have ever heard including single coil clean! Boss NAILED The Big Muff clone!

Ease of Use:
Any idiot could figure this out in five minutes...even a guitar player like me! The first thing I did when I got it was dial in a Eric Johnson violin like lead sound (with the same echo)...Perfect match! And it took 5 minutes to do it.

Support:
Boss is the Best. Boss has always been the Best. Last time I complained to them (1990) they sent me a brand new replacement pedal for my busted Tube Screamer.

Overall:
This is all I need for Blues, Hendrix, SRV, Eric Johnson or any other imaginable style of guitar. If anything ever happened to it I would buy another one or have it fixed.

"Almost perfect if it weren't for a few design flaws."

Feature:
Overall, I think the concept of this unit is brilliant: straight-up guitar effects in a compact floor unit without a bunch of amp-modeling bulls@@t. (I like my amp's sound just fine, thank you very much.) There were just a few things that aggravate me to no end which caused me to bring this score down: 1.) The lag between switching from patch to patch is absolutely unacceptable. You're telling me with all the technology out there, we still have to put up with this? C'mon, Boss. 2.) Being able to save to patches is great, but what about when you want an unaffected signal? There's no way to turn a patch "off" unless you go to another patch. Does Boss expect me to eat up one patch per bank with a "dry" or "unaffected" signal? That's 10 of only 30 banks. Again, unacceptable. 3.) Why doesn't boss include the stupid power adapter? That's ridiculous. 4.) And why should I have to go out and buy two additional pedals just to be able to bank up or down with my feet. That should be included. 5.) Lastly, I could've done without the Overdrive/Distortion pedal since I'm happy with my amps distortions. I never use it. I would much rather have a pedal and more settings for the reverb section. On a positive note, all the other effects sound great, are simple to use and very usable. The volume pedal iss a nice touch and the wah sounds fantastic. The whole expression pedal overall is brilliant.

Quality:
The quality seems great so far. It's rugged and attractive and there's nothing that will break off or anything. The sound is fantastic and there's no noise. There's every useful effect you'll ever need and plenty of ones that are good for experimenting. There are no effects that are just stupid noise-makers like some units try to shove down your throat. I've had rack gear, stompboxes and wah pedals and this thing has made all that stuff nearly obsolete. If only they could've thought through the user interface a little more, it'd be the single best guitar effects unit available.

Value:
It seems more suited for playing at home than at gigs, but if you can deal with a few flaws you can get great effects sounds out of this thing. And it's not as if it's impossible to use at shows. It's easier to use than a whole slew of stompboxes, that's for sure. The cost is very reasonable for what you get.

Desirability:
The unit does have a lot of character with it's blue metal chassis and almost vintage-looking knobs. Nice and compact and all self-contained too.

Sound:
The thing SOUNDS fantastic. As far as I can hear, it creates no noise of it's own and the effects do nothing to take away from your guitar's and amp's natural tones. The ME-50 simply adds crystal clear, beautiful and very useful effects to the sound you've already created with your guitar and amp.

Overall:
Overall, it's a great, quality piece of gear, it just has some considerable user interface flaws that make me wonder if there isn't something out there a little more suited to my needs. It's not perfect, but I can't find anything out there that's better at what the ME-50 does.

"Good Bang for your Buck, Simple and Functional."

Feature:
zilch...nada...zero. Had to buy foot switches and adapter which nearly puts you into to GT 6 price range.

Quality:
Solid manufacturing which is why I prefer Boss. Ibanez pedals tend to have switches that break.

Value:
The extra foot switch and adaptor price is a killer issue here. You will pay approx. $60 for these and you figure for another $40 you can get the whole package and get the GT-6. I have grown used to Boss quality over the years and this unit is simple, powerful and you get a very good bang for the buck.

Desirability:
this unit functions very well and refuses to disappoint me. The phaser really works well and the choruses have definite clarity.

Sound:
I can't give it a 10 because I haven't compared it with other multi-effects. The sound quality of the distortion is on target. I have compared the DS 1 with the ME 50, and I liked the ME 50's distortion better...the DS 1 sounded too harsh. The Rat is unbelievable, as well as the MXR (Dist+), Govn'r, and Blues Driver. These all sound great with the set of Choruses. I've noticed that the Chorus sounds better if not left on full. The best thing to do with this is to put a Tube Overdrive in front (Tube Works with a 12au7 or ToneBone). I have a Aphex Exciter and a Morley Wah to compliment. What the consumer then has in his/her hands is the potential to replicate nearly anything that has been produced muscially (within reason), to include Hendrix UNI Vibe and good ole American Woman (Guess Who) Fuzz Face.

Support:
N/A

Overall:
I hope to just keep this for about 10-15 years until the next product by then will be so futurisitic that I can't help but buy it. I like the distortions and I will keep this around until I wear it out.

"BOSS IS BEST"

Feature:
It's got a few limitations: the reverb section could've held two parameters instead of one (per selectable reverb) namely Reverb length and Reverb level. Now, it's just a combination of the two, but then again it's usable as it is and the Spring simulation seems very accurate. Other than that you don't have to worry about LCD menus and endless editing and programming because it's all right there in front of you with handy knobs for every parameter there is and that's just why I bought it. I mean, I also have a Roland VG-8 EX and - although it's got way more sonic possibilities - I got sick of menu-surfing so with this, it's back to basics. And don't get me wrong, I get the same kind of professional sounds out of the ME-50 as I get out of the VG-8. The package itself doesn't come with an AC adapter - you have to get this separately (and pay for it). That's pretty lame for a device this size.

Quality:
It's made of steel so it'll last, I guess. I do take a backup with me in the form of a.... ZOOM 1010 ! (because I like to switch to cheezy vintage sounds halfway the set) but I don't see the ME-50 breaking down anytime soon. other than that it's a real treat to the eye - an absolute beauty - very well designed, not specifically meant for one type of guitarist or musical style. It's very inspiring just to look at it.

Sound:
The sound quality is great. The distortions are all perfectly usable, the modulation effects are, be it somewhat retro, spotless and the delays, well, they're delays, so what's to say? The wah is okay too - it does the job, but it's no crybaby - however it does beat the crap out of my Morley pro series II. The reso- and voice wahs are nice, but the octave shift expression only works on single notes and appears a bit toyish to me. The damn thing lacks an equalizer, but has a Tone Modify knob instead with a few effective presets (personally, I would've put it some kind of a Contour knob instead). Other equalization can be done with the overdrive/distortion section, which has a "bottom" and a "tone" knob. This is what makes these distortions so fine. Further: It's good to have a compression/sustainer onboard, the noise killer works just fine and since the device doesn't add any noise of it's own, keeping the incoming signal as pure as it is, it's definately worth a 9 here. Using it in a studio setting: taking the signal from the PHONES output, you get the effects routed through some kind of amp sim, which you can't alter, but presents you the sound the way Boss thinks it should be - in stereo. I'd like to really kiss Boss at this point.