Pedals/Effects Best multi-effects unit on a budget?

[Rancid Rumpboogie]

The most important thing to me if I were looking at a multi-effects thingy is this:
WILL IT WORK IN A LIVE GIGGING SITUATION.
And that means night after night from club to club, bar to bar, where room acoustics change drastically from one venue to another and even in the same venue from early in the gig to later as the place fills up with people.
That means literally everything must be quickly and easily adjustable ... and I mean like between one sentence and anther while paying and singing ... in a half second or so. For me if it can't do that it simply isn't viable.

Unfortunately that means presets are essentially useless. Think about it ... soon as you call one up, you have to tweak everything in it ... and save it, which essentially wipes it out ... and if you don't save your tweaks you will have to do it all over again next time you call it up in the gig. And if that involves scrolling through menus and pages, it is not quickly / easily done.

 

[JestMe]

Not everyone is playing regular gigs... including me!

Still IMHO the Line6 Pod Go is quick and easy to make changes, no complex navigation... It also allows 4 variations of each preset... which seems like a good starting point.

As a guy who is not experienced with a lot of pedals and setting up chains etc... this gives me an easy to use playground to experiment with and seems like it may be an economical way to go as well.

 

[OG_Blues]

If your friend wants to try something out cheap, I have a Zoom G3n I will sell for $100 + shipping.
I found it to have quite decent effects - not botique pedal quality of course, but one of the real
benefits of a multi-effect pedal is that it gives the user the opportunity to try a lot of different stuff
in order to zero in on what effects you find truly useful for your situation. After that, one may
want to look at a few individual pedals with of quality to replace the multi unit, or the multi may just suit you fine.
That is exactly what I did, and wound up with only 4 good quality pedals - all I need.

 

[Crossroads]

You have all kinds of suggestions here, but what does he plan on playing through?

An SS amp, tube amp, or direct into an FRFR or interface?

Is he just looking for multi effects or multi effects and amp sims?

And what kind of fx is he looking for, and does he want a controller pedal?

 

[Stinger22]

I really like zoom. Don't need a manual for it. It's pretty intuitive.
I have the Zoom G5n used for $200. I like it allot

You can get the G3, which I gigged for several years for $118 on Amazon and G3X, has the pedal, for $168. Built like a tank, I used it mainly for my tuner, some some mods not a lot but the build in are phenomenal, delay and the ZNR which is really really good. One of the best and most affordable ME units out there. The way it is set up as three stompboxes, and it can scroll to 5 or 6 I forget how many, makes it super easy to use on stage or at home.

 

[Stinger22]

If your friend wants to try something out cheap, I have a Zoom G3n I will sell for $100 + shipping.
I found it to have quite decent effects - not botique pedal quality of course, but one of the real
benefits of a multi-effect pedal is that it gives the user the opportunity to try a lot of different stuff
in order to zero in on what effects you find truly useful for your situation. After that, one may
want to look at a few individual pedals with of quality to replace the multi unit, or the multi may just suit you fine.
That is exactly what I did, and wound up with only 4 good quality pedals - all I need.

I last gigged my G3 in a Grateful Dead band, even though I am mainly a blues and blues rock player, and the other guitar player had all the proper original MuTrons and Moog and other pedals and my G3 sounded as good as his MIDI rig with all ahe he was constantly trying to fiddle with it and complicated setup. I plugged in and was ready to go.

 

[Mr.Scary]

The most important thing to me if I were looking at a multi-effects thingy is this:
WILL IT WORK IN A LIVE GIGGING SITUATION.
And that means night after night from club to club, bar to bar, where room acoustics change drastically from one venue to another and even in the same venue from early in the gig to later as the place fills up with people.
That means literally everything must be quickly and easily adjustable ... and I mean like between one sentence and anther while paying and singing ... in a half second or so. For me if it can't do that it simply isn't viable.

Unfortunately that means presets are essentially useless. Think about it ... soon as you call one up, you have to tweak everything in it ... and save it, which essentially wipes it out ... and if you don't save your tweaks you will have to do it all over again next time you call it up in the gig. And if that involves scrolling through menus and pages, it is not quickly / easily done.

I use my G5n as single pedals mode for those oddball pedals that I don't want to buy but just occasionally like pitch shift, vibe or detune etc. Stuff like that with my analog ones. Out of all the multi effects I've looked at the G5n and G3n have 4 knobs for each screen to adjust NO menu diving and no manual needed. It's all intuitive.
.

 

[dwparker]

I don't own one, but the Line 6 Pod Go has really good reviews. I think the advantage to a unit like this is the ability to select from a large number of effects rather than being tied to 5 ot 6 preinstalled like a fly rig or red truck. If he is playing worship music at a church this might prove helpful if they use a lot of ambiant effects or what have you.

 

[Rancid Rumpboogie]

If he is playing worship music at a church this might prove helpful if they use a lot of ambiant effects or what have you.

If you consider that to be music and not just joyous noise.

 

[TwoNotesSolo]

As much fun as the red truck is, it's pretty basic. so it depends on whether you want a full mutli-pedal emulator that emulates 100s of pedals, of just a few basics like Red Truck. My guess is most church players will want the former.

 

[MikeR]

Prymaxe.com has a 20% off sale right now that includes Line 6 multi-effects like the Pod Go. You can get one for $360 with the discount.

 

[JestMe]

MikeR... Thanks for the heads up on this....Prymaxe.com is a new site for me. They seem to have a lot of products.

Have you dealt with them before? Are they a good reputable place?

Got my eye on a couple things and can feel some gas building up! ;-)

Thanks

 

[MikeR]

MikeR... Thanks for the heads up on this....Prymaxe.com is a new site for me. They seem to have a lot of products.

Have you dealt with them before? Are they a good reputable place?

Bought a pedal from them a few years ago without a problem. Shipping was slow as I recall. They list a lot a products, but many are not in stock and listed as "PreOrder". Also, they have the 20% off deal almost every month, but most of the time, it either doesn't apply to what I want or it's not in stock.

I mentioned the Pod Go because it was available for purchase and the coupon code worked when I tried it.

 

[cowboy]

MikeR... Thanks for the heads up on this....Prymaxe.com is a new site for me. They seem to have a lot of products.

Have you dealt with them before? Are they a good reputable place?

Got my eye on a couple things and can feel some gas building up! ;-)

Thanks

I've bought a couple of pedals from them...one was a "demo" that took a couple of months to get...I'd try to get Sweetwater to match the price...much better customer service...later.

cowboy

 

[JestMe]

Thanks gents for the feedback on Prymaxe. Sounds like shipping is really slow!

I did pop over to their site... found one of the many things I'd like to get... [pre-order]. Ended up in a chat with them where I asked if they would give me 20% off on the PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo... they came back and said they would give me 15% off... not bad!... free shipping [ya get what ya pay for here I guess ;-)]...

I have dealt with Sweetwater a number of times and have always been happy with them, their products, shipping times, return policies... class outfit IMHO. My personal sales person said he could not give me any discount on the Hollowbody II Piezo as they are too hot right now and hard to even keep in stock... or maybe just hard to get.

I have gotten some 'Sweet' deals from Sweetwater... and lots of candy! ;-)

thanks again

 

[ervjohns]

I got a set of SD pickups from them when I was building one of my teles and I got a great price and I don’t remember any unreasonable shipping delays.

 

[JestMe]

I was thinking about the mentions of long shipping times and comment regarding things being out of stock... perhaps the business model is to not keep an inventory but instead order items when they are purchased. So the shipping delays may be due to them waiting to receive the ordered item before they can ship it... sounds kind of logical... to me anyway!