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Boss ME-50

All About Access
By Michael Ross o program or not to program? That is the question. With apologies to Will, for generations now guitarists have had to choose between the instant parameter access and individuality of tone that comes with using separate effects, and the switching ease, quick setup time, and portability of programmed multi-effects. I reviewed one of the ME-50s antecedents, the ME-30, and was impressed by the sounds and lightweight plastic package. The page scrolling and questionable durability of said package, however, somewhat dampened my enthusiasm. In the interim Boss has replaced the ME-30 with the ME33, and now the ME-50 (what happened to the 40?), eliminating these drawbacks in the process.

NICE PACKAGE

Like the ME-30 and 33, the ME-50 Guitar Modify section allows you to revoice your Multiple Effects unit is a floor-based multiinstrument to be brighter or darker, or to effects processor. The metal housing is make single-coils sound like humbuckers similar in size to that of the 30, and though and vice versa. Thats pretty much it. significantly heavier than the You can use the ME-50 as latter, it is still much lighter a glorified pedalboard, turnThink of it as ing overdrive, modulation, than the equivalent of the pedal power it contains delay, and expression pedals a pedalboard hell, it isnt much heavier on and off at will, and change full of stompthan your average wah pedparticular sounds by hand. boxeswithal alone. Designed to work Or you can set up any comout the with an amplifier, the ME-50 bination of the above effect individual leaves out the amp and types and easily save it to one speaker emulation of the 33, of 30 user patches. Switching pedals. saving its processing power between these modes is simfor some killer effects. In fact, plejust step on pedals two as Boss claims, it is best to think of it as a and three together to toggle back and forth pedalboard full of stompboxeswithout between manual and programmed modes. the individual pedals. The unit bears this out; it is arranged in logical sections (includSOUND INVESTMENT ing overdrive, modulation, delay, reverb, With over 60 effects, the sonic possibilities noise gate, compression, and expression of the ME-50 are too numerous to cover in pedal), each with its own knobs (no screens their entirety here, but for starters, we are or menusyay!). An interesting Tone dealing with tried-and-tested Boss effects, which have proven their worth on countless stages for many years. A highlight here is the Tone Modify section. Accuracy of the acoustic emulation aside, at a rehearsal through a studio amp that had seen better days, adding the Presence setting on the ME-50 saved the day, sonically speaking. Even with no effects engaged, the ME-50 seems to add life to the sound. The overdrive modeling section offers a wide enough range of tonal coloration to almost obviate the need for amp modeling. The 808 emulation, Crunch, and Guv sounds were standouts, as was the Oct Fuzz. Combining this last effect with some harmonization from the Modulation section, a 500 ms delay, and some Hall reverb led me straight to the pseudo-synth riff below. I could finally achieve the coveted Cheap Sunglasses sound by employing the Ring Modulator setting on the expression pedal. One quibble is that although its nice that the unit runs on batteries in a pinch, Boss really should throw in the adapter for free. So who is this pedal for? It is for those of us who have a big rack or pedalboard and just dont feel like hauling it to that preliminary rehearsal or $50 club gig. It is for the neophyte who wants lots of great pedal sounds without paying for lots of great pedals. It is for those of us who want to program sounds but hate scrolling. In short, the ME-50 is, potentially, a pedal for everyone. CONTACT Roland, 323-890-3700, rolandus.com FEATURES Over 60 effects, simple knob-based operation, rugged metal housing, COSM overdrive modeling, multi-function expression pedal, $345

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