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tornadobox
Copper Member
USA
20 Posts |
 Posted - 04/09/2007 : 15:05:10
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Hey all,
I just bought myself an ME-50, and I'm really liking it! I've done a lot of searching on reviews of the unit, and some people really dislike the distortion, but, I find absolutely no problem with it run into the front of my Fender Blues Junior (maybe the tubes make the distortion sound nicer?)
First off, I know this unit is pretty old already (around 4 years I think)...has Boss announced anything to replace this unit? I'm obviously still within my 30 day return period since I just bought the unit...so if there's anything announced I'd probably think hard about whether or not to return the ME-50 and wait until the new unit comes out...otherwise I'm really happy with the ME-50.
I also just wanted to make a quick note that I've gone through a gamut of pedals and multi-effects units, and while I really appreciated the pedals for being able to combine more than one from the same "category" unlike with the ME-50, the cost was just way too much, and the power consumption and floor realestate was also too much for me (I don't even gig).
I absolutely love that this unit is so intuitive with knobs for everything! I have gone through the Line 6 PodXT Live, DigiTech RP350, and several Boss compact pedals, and I like the ME-50 the best out of the bunch. I also had a BD-2 Blues Driver while I was in my compact pedal stage, and although I don't still have it for an A/B comparison, I think the BD-2 model on the ME-50 is great! I also noticed that the ME-50's BD-2 model does not have the nasty decay issue that a stock BD-2 has!
Any other ME-50 players here? If so, what are your takes on the unit? Does anyone play live with it? |
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shakethedevil
Copper Member
Australia
27 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2007 : 10:05:14
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I got an ME-50 about 8 months ago when I started gigging again, 2nd hand off ebay. Bang for buck I can't fault it, sure I'd like "better" but there was just nothing else in the price bracket I found.
I'm old school, so having knobs is so much more intuitive to me than trying to program something. I was using a Digitec board prior that I loaned from a friend and live it just didn't cut it. Plus as I say being an old fool i was spending more time trying to work out parameters than i was actually playing.
I use it in manual mode, mainly because there is a delay in switching between patches which is just not cool in a live situation. I found this same prob with the Digitec as well too. Maybe you gotta go high-end before you get clean patch changes.
So basically I keep the overdrive on all the time (either blues driver or DS1), I then use the modulation pedal for the harmoniser and the delay mostly on the space echo and just stomp them when needed. I sometimes change the mod pedal between songs to the flange or phaser too although there is a BIG volume rise I found in those two effects regardless of your prior level. I used to keep it just on the chorus all the time but now I've put my old ROD-10 in chorus mode on the chain and also my RPQ-10 which i have foot-switched to use as a boost for solo's.
I'm more than happy with it for live playing. You could back your car over it and I bet the thing will not miss a beat lol. I get a great sound out of it (IMHO) and it's EASY to fiddle with between songs if you need to (knobs just so totally rule hehe). I only wish there wasn't the delay in patch switching cause I could do so much more with it.
Oh one last thing.... I've got pretty small feet, but on stage in the dark sometimes it's hard to NOT step on two pedals at once, hence either putting the pedal into tuner mode or patch mode which can be pretty embaressing if your guitar suddenly drops out or goes into some preset patch thats 10 times your current volume with a myriad of effects on it lol. My advice is do like me... once you set up your sound go and program that into the first patch, at least that way if you accidently go into patch mode it wont be so disastrous cause it will be close to what you already got going :)
Hope you have some fun with it, feel free to lemme know if there's anything else I may be able to help out with.
cheers
Rod |
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tornadobox
Copper Member
USA
20 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2007 : 14:51:35
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Rod,
Thanks for your post!
I'm at work now so I can't try this out right away...but I just thought of something I wanted to ask.
Can you make a preset with say, the BD-2, the Harmonizer, and a Delay, but set them to all off so that when you access the preset it defaults to a clean channel, but then when you step on the OD pedal it will go to the BD-2 regardless of what setting the knob is on? |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2007 : 15:30:48
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Hi Guys
How does the Wah sound on the ME-50?
What type of wah does it sound like or does it COSM model.
I have looked at it a few times, at a local pawn brokers.
I have a couple of GT-3's and the wah is so-so
And A big Aussie welcome to shakethedevil 
What part of Oz are you from, if you don't mind me asking?
Regards Dr. Bob  |
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shakethedevil
Copper Member
Australia
27 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2007 : 04:49:12
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Hi tornadobox,
I'm not overly clued up on playing with the patches so please anyone correct me if I'm wrong.
I think to do something like you describe you'd probably want to make 2 patches... one as your clean sound and then another using the BD2/harmonizer/delay to how you want it and have them saved in memory mode as bank 1 & 2 and switch between them. You could even have a 3rd sound saved to the delay pedal as well. With a sound saved to each of the 3 pedals you can stay within the first "bank" and jump across each sound without having to use an AB pedal to change the banks (or bend down to change the banks manually). But as I said earlier that delay in patch switching I find is just not "do-able" live since it's not a clean transition.
In regard to the knob settings, when you save a setting to memory mode it takes into account where each knob is set on any effect that is active for that patch including your master volume. So you can have the BD2 level set to 9 oclock & drive set to 12 oclock and it will recall those knob settings after the patch is saved regardless of how you change them afterward. But I'd advise you write down each of your patch settings somewhere for future ref as there's no way of "recalling" how you initially set each knob later on.
I hope I answered what you meant correctly. Without using the patches this is how I run the pedal in manual mode....
I use a Musicman 130 head and quad cabinet. Since it's an old (but wicked!) amp there's no effect loop ins/outs etc so everything effect wise comes straight out the front of the amp.I run it fairly clean to my board which has the ME-50, ROD10 & RPQ10. The ROD10 is always on for a chorus effect for my amp's clean sound. I set the overdrive on the me50 so it's level matches the amp's volume and just stomp on that when i need the dirt. Then the other 2 pedals on the me50 i just use as manual stompboxes for whatever effect i have them manually set to. Then the RPQ10 is just set up with a footswitch at about a 10-15db boost for volume for solos.
Sorry if that was all a bit long winded lol.
cheers
Rod |
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shakethedevil
Copper Member
Australia
27 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2007 : 04:55:23
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Cheers Dr Bob! Thanks for the welcome mate
The wah is so-so on the me50 as well, but I find it ok. I'd like a bit more sweep to it.
I'm on the Gold Coast mate, Syd boy originally but came up to the sunshine about 15yrs ago.
cheers
Rod |
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tornadobox
Copper Member
USA
20 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2007 : 21:02:48
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Rod,
Yes, you totally answered my question. I somehow forgot that when you're in the patch mode each foot pedal is no longer for OD, Mod, Delay, but for patch 1, 2, or 3 on whichever bank you're on.
I guess I confused the Line 6 PodXT Live with this somehow (with the XT Live, within a preset bank, you can turn on and off OD/Mod/Delay...though the XT Live also has many more footswitches to make this possible), whoops!
My guitar is in the shop right now, which totally blows, I'm unable to play with my new toy for a few days! |
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tornadobox
Copper Member
USA
20 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2007 : 14:30:19
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Hey all ME-50 users, I have another question.
I noticed in the manual all of the presets are in a chart with numbers corresponding to dial positions. On the ME-50, when you turn a dial, is there supposed to be a number on the display that goes up and down correlating to how high or low a knob is set to?
If so, there's something wrong with my ME-50 as it doesn't put anything on the display if I turn a knob.
If not, then what the heck are those numbers in the chart for?! What good is a "68" on the chart when there's no real way to get a corresponding "68" on the knob? |
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shakethedevil
Copper Member
Australia
27 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2007 : 09:21:31
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Hi Tornadobox,
Unfortunately the only thing that the LED will display in reference to knob settings is when you have the harmonizer going and it will tell you what key and what harmony you have set (rate/key & depth/harmony knobs).
Apart from that it only displays tuning mode and what bank you're in when in bank mode. No other settings go thru it, which is a pain, hence my advice earlier in the thread about writing settings down if you save them to a patch cause its the only way of recalling how the knobs were set.
I agree with you about the numbers in the chart... it's pretty silly having settings like "68" when there's not even notches on the dials themselves to give you any sorta idea if you're at least close. It probably would have been more intuitive if they used 1 to 10 instead of 1 to 100 in the chart.
cheers
Rod |
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tornadobox
Copper Member
USA
20 Posts |
Posted - 04/18/2007 : 14:30:57
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Rod,
Thanks much for the reply. Well at least it's good to know my ME-50 isn't malfunctioning!
Too bad they didn't just put a knob diagram chart on there instead of those silly numbers...guess I'll be making my own knob diagram chart for my settings.
Thanks again! |
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shakethedevil
Copper Member
Australia
27 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2007 : 08:53:16
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| No probs at all mate :) |
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Topic |
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Just Bought an ME-50
