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Another 'Which Multi-FX?' I'm Afraid......!


SPHDS
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I am in the market for some sort of multi-effects board....but am not sure what to get......
I play in a rock covers band (Bad Co., Whitesnake, Skynnyrd, The Cult, Thin Lizzy.....) and want to add some more variety to my sound.....
I have been drawn towards something like a Boss ME-50B or ME-6B as my father has had both of these in guitar form and rated them.....what are the pro's and con's of these two....and are there any others I should look at?
Also would guitar boards be any good? (lot more of them about......) or would that be a bit of a lame duck....?

Cheers

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I'm currently using a Zoom B1on... amp sims, compressors, noise gate and lots and lots of effects which can be combined, edited and stored in patches you can change on the fly... and it's cheap enough to buy, try, and move on if you don't like it. Lots of bang for your buck. I use mine as a preamp.

[url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on"]http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on[/url]

Edited by discreet
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I'll be the first to suggest a zoom B3. Should be treated more like 3 single effects in a line, but of course with the option for multiple banks of 3 pedals. It can be used as a very good preamp pedal too, so dependant on how many effects you might want to use, you could stick a preamp on the last pedal, an OD on one, and a chorus (for example) on the other. If you dont need it as a preamp, then this is an ideal way of getting ALL the effects you probably would need in one box.

Normally the fuzzes and OD are a bit sh*t in multiFX, but this sounds top notch to my ears, so much so, I got rid of my Fuzz as the big muff clone on this is great! ! £100 well spent!

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The Zoom B9.1ut works very much like a pedalboard with the ability to usefully switch several effects in/out per user defined patch and it has an expression pedal built in - it's older than the B3 and can be a bit daunting when it comes to programming when you first get to grips with it but there's a lot you can do with it. You'll only find these second-hand now which means they're harder to come by but they won't cost that much.

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I have the Zoom B3 and I play similar material to the OP. Great unit, lots of good sounds and great to plug into PA using one of the preamp models. I find though that I can vary the sound enough for my needs with the volume and tone knob and rarely use the effects so mine is sitting on the shelf unused. Good for the odd song that needs an octave pedal or fuzz unit and handy floor tuner.
Must have an ebay clearout...

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Another vote for the Zoom B3. Easy to use, easy to tweak, sounds good (though quite a few of the pre-loaded patches are somewhat OTT). Comes with Steinberg Cubase LE (download) & Sequel (CD) so you can use it as a USB recording interface too, there's a downloadable patch editor as well.

I've copied a few of my favourite standard patches into a different bank and edited them there, so that I have "easier" access to them. The SVT model does sound great.

If you have access to a Line6 POD (any of the various versions), then you could try playing with that as well. I have the PODxt, and the HiWatt & Plexi models work really well with the bass.

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I love my zoom ms60b, 4 fx at once with the footprint of one. I use mine alongside some standalone pedals as a preamp>amp/cab sim>gate>verb (all allways on but verb, so only once switch doesnt bother me). I love that they have added mid and mix controls to alot of the fx that the standalone you would have to mod.

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I've used the Zoom B2.1u, Zoom B1on and currently have a Boss GT6B.

The Boss is a big piece of kit and is pretty much all singing and dancing (well, it was in it's day, it's a bit long in tooth now I suppose) Initially the GT6B is a bit daunting when trying to programme it, but when it's twigged then it's actually quite straight forward. I like the fact that you can turn effects on and off within a patch, it is very flexible. The effects are good, although the defretter effect sucks in my opinion. The synth effects are good and I'm currently using that in my band on a couple of tracks as it does work well.

For some reason I couldn't get on with the Zoom B2.1u. I think it was I couldn't get my head around just having a two digit read out to set any effect. Zoom have really come on with the interface for the new Zooms. I borrowed Discreet's B1on for a while and having the screen emulate stomp box knobs felt a lot more intuitive. The B1on is a really great pedal regardless that it costs so little. You can also use it as a practice unit. I'd plug my tablet into the aux in and play along to songs via headphones.

I'd definitely consider the Zoom pedals.

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