Multi Effects Pedal

ChrisG

Blues Newbie
I’m shopping for a decent easy to use multi effects pedal that I
can use to program some artists
/song patches for doing covers as well as use in a regular old stomp box function. I don’t want to spend a fortune and I don’t really want to be a sound engineer to use the thing. I’m thinking multi effect because I can’t buy 100 pedals to get all the variety I need. I’ll be running it to the front of my blues junior. Let me know what y’all think.
 

Norfolk Bill

norfolk uk, just knoodling along
zoom g3n/g5n,,,as good as anything in the lower price range,,,effects are as good if not better than the line6 M series and amp and cab sims pretty good
 

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
I got a BOSS ME80 and still have it. I like it because all the controls are knobs on the top so it’s as easy to set up as a pedal board.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
I would 2nd Norfolk Bill. Any Zoom processor I have tried has impressed me with its tones, and are less expensive for what you get than most. I would also say that any multi-processor is going to have a bit of a learning curve. I would suggest finding and downloading the user's manual for any such processor you are interested in, and if understanding the manual has your eyes crossed, probably move on.
 

blackcoffeeblues

Student Of The Blues
I -3rd that one---don't use them my self, but see a lot of them on stages----and they all sounded good. even thinking about getting one.
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
Another vote for the Zooms - I have the G3n and am very happy with it - got rid of the other pedals that I had and don't miss them. I found one used and for the $, it is an exceptional value. You would need to spend a lot more $ to get noticeably better sound. It's easy to use and quick to learn how to set it up.
 

Norfolk Bill

norfolk uk, just knoodling along
Line 6 HX effects. Or a used H9.
Though without doubt a slightly better unit the HX is a lot more money and only models effects pedals not amps or cabs, which I would have thought you would need to produce the different tones you are after if trying to emulate specific players
 

ChrisG

Blues Newbie
zoom g3n/g5n,,,as good as anything in the lower price range,,,effects are as good if not better than the line6 M series and amp and cab sims pretty good

The zoom pedals are definitely in my consideration. They get mostly good reviews and seem less complicated to use than some of the others. Price is within my budget too.
 

ChrisG

Blues Newbie
Another vote for the Zooms - I have the G3n and am very happy with it - got rid of the other pedals that I had and don't miss them. I found one used and for the $, it is an exceptional value. You would need to spend a lot more $ to get noticeably better sound. It's easy to use and quick to learn how to set it up.

Thanks. I am looking at the G3n and the 5. Not sure of the differences yet. Are you able to bypass the amp sims if you want to run just the effects into your own amp at times.
 

ChrisG

Blues Newbie
Or you could buy a Mustang III amplifier, and get all the sounds and an amplifier as well :D

Lol! Thanks. I know the mustangs are cool. I like my junior though and would like to just get good with running effects through it.
 

ChrisG

Blues Newbie
I got a BOSS ME80 and still have it. I like it because all the controls are knobs on the top so it’s as easy to set up as a pedal board.

Hey man. The ME 80 is on my list. It looks less complicated than the other boss multi’s. Does it allow you to bypass the amp sims if you want to use it as a pedal board only at times?
 

Norfolk Bill

norfolk uk, just knoodling along
yes you can bypass all amps,,,thats how i run one ,,just in the effects loop for modulation/delay etc,,,,but the amp sims are pretty good going through a clean front end or effects loop return ,,,,there are a few differences so well worth checking out the zoom site

one thing to bear in mind is that you cant use the four cable method with these units if you want to
 

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Hey man. The ME 80 is on my list. It looks less complicated than the other boss multi’s. Does it allow you to bypass the amp sims if you want to use it as a pedal board only at times?

Yes, you can turn off everything if you want, including the preamp section. Each section of the board acts like a single effects pedal including a stomp to toggle it (or you can set the eight stomps to select full preset rigs if you prefer). Here's a link to the user manual:

https://www.boss.info/global/support/by_product/me-80/owners_manuals/
 

straightblues

Blues Junior
There are a lot of decent multi-effects pedals out there. I think everyone should own a multi-effects unit to really learn which effects they like. What I see, is most people start there and then move on to individual pedals. So I always encourage folks to buy them used so they can easily sell them without losing money, when and if they want to move to single pedals.

The problem I have found with multi-effects units is that one tends to dial them in at low home volumes. Once you crank your amp up at a gig, there is suddenly too much gain and they don't sound right. Making changes to suit the "room" or new environment is difficult with a multi-effects unit. I would recommend that you set up a couple patches at lower gains and have them ready for the next jam.

Have fun with your new effects.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
Lol! Thanks. I know the mustangs are cool. I like my junior though and would like to just get good with running effects through it.
The Mustang may have built-in effects, but it is NOT good for switching individual effects in and out at will … you have to save the entire patch, including all effects for that patch into a separate memory location. If you have a great amp sound + delay + reverb, that would go into one patch. For that same amp sound with only delay, that would have to go into another patch. For that same amp sound with only reverb, that would have to go into yet another patch. And once one of those patches is called up, tweaking just one of those effects is not as easy as just tweaking a knob or two.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
I’m shopping for a decent easy to use multi effects pedal that I
can use to program some artists/song patches for doing covers as well as use in a regular old stomp box function..
I am going to put this out here just as food for thought. I played in working cover bands for 10 years (years ago), and although not blues/rock (it was outlaw country and classic rock), what we found was that trying to exactly emulate the sounds of different artists was pretty much a waste of time and energy in a practical sense. What we found was that so long as the audience could recognize the song/lyrics they were happy. You can drive yourself batty for days trying to cop the sound of so-and-so, and then, as straightblues says above, find that it will work in one venue but not so well in another.
 

Norfolk Bill

norfolk uk, just knoodling along
Your probably right Jim with that sort of music,,,
in the cover bands ive played in we had quiet a tonal variation to cover ie from clean RHCP Dani California to Foo Fighters passing through U2 and varies other "tones" i always used a modeling amp which compared to the in depth parametres these days was a simple case of knob turning and saving to patches (what you see is what you get)
Any way long story short the first thing i do is find out the amp style used on that particular song dial in the tone on my amp and go from there then it was just a simple case of moving down through the patches as per the set list,,,,,i guess thats one of the beauties of modeling getting the same amp/tone ish as the recording ,,,
 
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