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mooseherman « Not worth it's relatively low price »
Published on 10/13/10 at 12:07This is a multi-effects pedal made by Boss. I don't know why I ever bought it, to be honest. I was young, I guess, is my only excuse. There are two 1/4" connections, a direct out, and a MIDI out. It is 100% digital. This pedal can be edited with MIDI though I don't really do that much at all, so I can't comment on how well it works compared to other pedals with this feature. It doesn't really need it so much as there are presets available on the pedal.
UTILIZATION
The one cool thing about this pedal is that it's pretty great to use if you put some time into programming it. There are 4 presets that are available by simply pressing the corresponding switch on the board. There are also two other switches that can be programmed to make other changes, like triggering specific effects. Last but not least, there is an expression pedal which can be used to adjust the effects settings in real time.
SOUND QUALITY
This pedal has very bad sound quality, in my honest opinion. I try to see the good in pedals, even if they aren't suitable for my taste, but I just find that this pedal doesn't really have any sounds that are good. The wah-wah effect is really weak, anemic, and boring. The chorus and flanger effects are really bad at coloring the tone badly, and the effects don't really cut through the mix. The distortions are god-awful, to be honest, as is to be expected of digital distortions. Only the delay is tolerable, and even then, it's digital, which will not be a good bet for fans of analog.
OVERALL OPINION
While the interface is great, and it's easy to switch between effects and to adjust them with the expression pedal, I really do not think that this pedal is worth it for anybody except maybe a beginner who has no effects. Some people just play for the fun of it, and aren't that worried about tone, but for anybody who takes tone remotely seriously, this pedal (along with many others like it) are not going to be appealing. I know that there are other guys who disagree, but being a studio musician as well as a recording engineer (and therefore seeing it from both angles), I happen to think that these multi-effects pedals are a perfect example of quantity far outweighing quantity. As someone who performs live, I can see that the tone simply doesn't do my playing justice, and I don't think that anybody should buy a pedal that makes them sound worse than they are.
UTILIZATION
The one cool thing about this pedal is that it's pretty great to use if you put some time into programming it. There are 4 presets that are available by simply pressing the corresponding switch on the board. There are also two other switches that can be programmed to make other changes, like triggering specific effects. Last but not least, there is an expression pedal which can be used to adjust the effects settings in real time.
SOUND QUALITY
This pedal has very bad sound quality, in my honest opinion. I try to see the good in pedals, even if they aren't suitable for my taste, but I just find that this pedal doesn't really have any sounds that are good. The wah-wah effect is really weak, anemic, and boring. The chorus and flanger effects are really bad at coloring the tone badly, and the effects don't really cut through the mix. The distortions are god-awful, to be honest, as is to be expected of digital distortions. Only the delay is tolerable, and even then, it's digital, which will not be a good bet for fans of analog.
OVERALL OPINION
While the interface is great, and it's easy to switch between effects and to adjust them with the expression pedal, I really do not think that this pedal is worth it for anybody except maybe a beginner who has no effects. Some people just play for the fun of it, and aren't that worried about tone, but for anybody who takes tone remotely seriously, this pedal (along with many others like it) are not going to be appealing. I know that there are other guys who disagree, but being a studio musician as well as a recording engineer (and therefore seeing it from both angles), I happen to think that these multi-effects pedals are a perfect example of quantity far outweighing quantity. As someone who performs live, I can see that the tone simply doesn't do my playing justice, and I don't think that anybody should buy a pedal that makes them sound worse than they are.