Review: Boss ME-50

You guys know I've been shopping for cheap pedals, figured I would spend around 200 bucks on a chorus (or some modulation pedal) and delay. I remembered my old original Boss BE-5, and starting looking to see if I could find one. As you might expect, most of them are busted up (i had mine 20 years or more ago) and still sell for too much coin (they're all "vintage," don't you know). But in searching I got curious about the Boss ME-50, found one going on eBay in like-new condition for under 2 bills, and bought it. Here are my impressions.

Overall: Nice construction, solid metal case, serious foot switches and a very usable expression pedal. With the Fezzter, the unit exhibits no self-noise that I can hear above the amp's own minimal hiss. You can save presets to memory, but the unit doesn't need "programming:" choose the effect, turn knobs, go.

Distortion section: I'm not a distortion pedal kind of guy, so I probably won't use this much, but it offers clones of all the Boss distortions, including the BD-2, and some fuzz box clones that I might find a use for (The Big Muff emulation took me right back to China Grove).

Modulation: I love this... you can choose from clones of 3 different Boss choruses, plus a phaser, flanger, Uni-Vibe, "rotary" pedal, plus tremolo (Fender amp style) and "vibrato" (a pitch effect). The choruses all sound good, the flanger kills, and the tremolo has a surprisingly great sound, with a deep throb that is probably not authentic but feels wonderful. I never would have considered a Uni-Vibe clone, but I can hear possibilities for that, and the "harmonist" setting gets those crazy Trevor Rabin harmony things... in short, way more firepower than I could have purchased for 100 bucks, and all very usable.

Delay: Great sounding digital and "analog" delays, very flexible with a solid tap tempo and complete control over feedback and mix level. The "Slow Echo" is instant Pink Floyd, the "reverse" setting a dumb gimmick. Again, much more delay horsepower than I need... with the stereo setting, I can see running one channel into the amp, another through he wall into the POD or mic pre, and then letting the Pan Echo bounce not only between L & R but between two different sounding amps! Keee-razy.

Modulation pedal: a good enough wah that I sold my Vox (I'm not a heavy user or a wah snob). The Resonance Mod and "Voice" settings are wicked cool. I'll likely never use the Octave up and down sweeps, but who knows? Once as a gimmick couldn't hurt. When not engaged for an effect, it works as a volume pedal, which comes in handy.

Extras: the compressor doesn't completely suck as I expected it would. The Reverbs (four to choose from) all sound great expect the "spring," which is a cheesy replication. Don't need the noise gate with the Zencaster. The EQ stage lets you pick one of a dozen or so preset EQ curves, and a couple of them are great... the "Tight" setting gets that snappy glassy Strat thing real quick.

To sum up: well, it's awesome. For the $187 I paid for it, it's just what I needed. I think that mutli-effects get a bad rap because the distortion stages usually sound so bad, and that's the first thing most rock players reach for.... but as an inexpensive replacement for a mod and delay, it's great sounding, easy to use and does 10 times what two good pedals would do. I was able to buy it unheard because of some residual trust in Boss effects (I did love my BE-5), and I'm glad I did. Thumbs up.

Well sounds like you got a winner,I've used Boss pedals for years now they're hard to beat,I wish I had that amp factory pedal it's
pretty cool also.
I havent tried the me-50 but from what you described it really sounds like a cool pedal,also keeps you from having a chain going
that can suck tone.

China Grove - hmm, is the big muff what they used on that track? It sounds mighty crispy to be a Muff - those are usually pretty wooly sounding - more like a charging elephant that a frying bacon sound.

Congrats on the new tone-toy!

RJ, you're right: I don't think they actually used a Muff on China Grove: but I sure did in back in 1972!

:D

I see! Jim, in '72 I started kindergarten. I missed a lot of stuff and caught up with it later on... in fact, my son and I are watching MASH reruns right now that I saw in syndication in the late '70's...

So will the ME50 let you put pedals in whichever order you like?
Does it replicate the Digitech Whammy at all?
Did you say that the wah is basically programmable in that you can change the Q and the range?

Spudman, the order is pre-set but changes depending on which effects you use... it replicates the Whammy in the Octave Shift pedal mode... and I don't think the wah is programmable.

But you should understand how I use effects: I'm not a Monster Chiller Horror Lead Player, I'm not a tone quester, and I don't play in a band. I make jingles and video scores: for me, guitar sounds are just one of a wide range of instrument sounds I'm going for, and I write and play in a range of styles. For me, if it goes "wakka wakka" and doesn't make a lot of noise doing it, I'm good to go. :D

That said, the wah sounded quite a bit like my Vox in terms of range. Perhaps a bit less "nasal," (and I'll make an under-educated guess that this means the Vox has a more narrow "Q") but certainly not enough different for me to keep them both.

Man...I just learned the 1/4" TSR line out on my modeler has a continuous crackling noise, so I can't use it with my new amp for reverb and delay...and then I read this review!