The Boss ME-50 is probably my favourite all-in-one effects unit available today. Digital effects units have really come a long way in recent years, and the days of having a collection of small fluorescent coloured die-cast boxes kicking around the floor in front of your amplifier, all connected by easily damaged short leads are all but over. Well, they could be over because these multi effects units represent good value for money when compared to the cost of three or four of the smaller stomp boxes.

The Boss ME-50 has been around for a few years, but it is still one of the best. It is one of the stock-standard effects units that will meet many guitarist’s needs – whether it is the bedroom hack trying to pick out a riff, the committed home recorder, or the experienced studio musician or regular live performer. The ME-50 is a well designed, all-round multi effects guitar pedal that will not leave any user disappointed.

This multi-effects, floor-based processor is solid and rugged. Its focus is to replicate the basic stomp box sounds we know and love: distortion, chorus, modulation, delay, wah wah and a host of others. In fact it is pretty much like an array of 8 effects boxes all rolled into one package.

The Boss ME-50 unit has a total of 20 controls which allow your sound to be manipulated and changed quite easily. On the top of the unit are the controls for the Tone Modify, Compression, Noise Suppression and Reverb. They are all quite straight forward to use as you go. You are also able to use all of these effects at the same time, which is a big improvement on the much more limited Boss ME-20. At the bottom of the unit are the three foot switches that control the separate Distortion, Modulation and Delay functions as well as a pedal for wah and volume.

The Distortion options are awesome and the unit comes with a huge array of pre-programmed sounds such as Tube Screamer, Oct Fuzz, Guv, the Big Muff Pi and Marshall tube amp style distortion. The sound quality is pretty good – but like most of these things – beauty is in the ear of the listener. Each programmed sound can be precisely adjusted in terms of drive, tone, and volume. There is so much scope to play around with it, that I am sure every user will find the sound they love, and hit “preset”. There is a metal distortion there to shake your jaws, a tube screamer to fill your skull, and a gentle light distortion to calm you nerves in a power ballad.

In terms of other effects – the ME-50 has a range of modulation effects that include a phaser, flanger, a number of different chorus’s, a tremolo, uni-vibe pan, vibrato harmonist, and rotary amp simulator. All of these sounds are sweet, clean and easily customisable. Again, personal preference dictates, but the sounds are of a high quality, easy to fiddle with and come up with a version that is more than acceptable.

Some of the really unique sounds can be generated using the expression pedal. The standard wah-wah feature is available, along with an interesting sounding ring-modulator, and a 'voicing' effect. Among the most unique features of the unit is the octave-shifter. The octave shifter allows you to adjust the pitch either up or down an entire octave, and everything in-between. This makes it sound like the all the guitar strings being adjusted while playing.

The unit comes with an in-built tuner, which is particularly handy when playing live. No need for unplugging, and stuffing around with the tiny plastic box that fits inside the guitar case that always has a flat battery – just hit the tuner on the ME 50 and you can do it in-situ. The also can be used with headphones in your bedroom, or when an amplifier is not available. Now that is the sort of thing to keep your mum (or wife) happy. You can crank it up without disturbing the neighbours.

The ME-50 allows you to store up to 30 preset sounds. This is not a vast number, and other units can easily out do this, however 30 sounds is usually adequate for most live playing musicians.

The price of the unit is around the $300 mark and can be purchased from good music retailers or online sellers of guitar pedals.

All in all this is a great floor based unit –with lots of features and not overly-complex that makes it too hard to use. If you are sick of plugging and unplugging, changing batteries and building an unsightly and unwieldy pedals board – then this is for you. It will get a lot of use both in your individual jamming and playing on your own, and in the live setting. Zoom make great stuff, as do Digitech, but in a hotly contested field, the Boss ME-50 is a quality product for a reasonable price.