Boss ME50B unusable sounds??

RockBoxBass · #1 03-03-2009, 09:43 AM

Ive been using an ME50 for a couple years but dont use some of the sounds. the synth sounds become unusable because the amount of bass that comes out is just too hot. Just like the phaser and flange, when the low wave comes by, there is so much low end that I think its gonna blow speakers. It peaks. Ive tried turning all the knobs to pull some out and level things to no avail. Is this a normal sound for this thing? I have the eq set flat and the natural comp on. do I have something set wrong? when I use the T wah its the same thing. Unusable because the "wave" is so hot that its unbearable. Ive tried all different parameters. could I actually have a defective one??

GearHeadBassMan · #2 03-03-2009, 09:47 AM

I had that same problem with my flanger... I just made the effect less severe and it evened out the wave enough to be playable.

i feel like bass effects like that are MADE to sweep low, because in a band setting they are hard to hear.

RockBoxBass · #3 03-03-2009, 09:52 AM

Ive even tried that! like on the phaser...I can turn everything to zero and it s still too much. or...nothing

bassman1185 · #4 03-03-2009, 12:26 PM

I had some of the same issues with the flanger and phaser with my ME-50B. It wasn't a deal breaker for me, though, because I never really used them.

cheapbasslovin · #5 03-03-2009, 05:37 PM

You just described the reason that I finally dumped my ME-50B. I was able to get areally light phaser sound out of mine without the crazy sweep. The flanger was something that never seemed to sit right in the music either. Other effects I never made use of were the tone shapers, auto-wahs, and octave ups. Chorus, reverb, delay were all pretty good, and the the distortions got loads of use (especially with the wah).

I think you may soon be on a path to a variety of individual pedals.

Good luck.

RockBoxBass · #6 03-04-2009, 01:17 AM

I think your right. I love the "natural" comp. I use the octave down , hi band dist and delay. thats about it....I guess thats enough to still use it. Im glad to know that im not alone...

tapp01 · #7 03-04-2009, 01:34 AM

I never use the synth bass sounds on mine. They sound poop.

TLW · #8 03-05-2009, 12:59 PM

thats what happens when you buy multi-effects pedals.

rekall · #9 10-08-2009, 07:24 AM

I used to be able to use the synth efects on my old Marshall 60Watt Bass state at they (at times) sounded pretty cool.

Since upgrading to an Ashdown MAG EVO II combo these effects are unusable since I thought I was going to blow my amp and speakers.

I've never seen anything so scary. The speaker grill was vibrating and it sounded like my house was going to collapse on me.

I found that killing the compressor on the pedal and bass had a marginal improvement but it still seems to dangerous to use.

pedrodelawasp · #10 10-08-2009, 07:42 AM

Yeah, the synths on the ME 50 B are terrible. To be honest all I use it for is noise suppression, compression (sometimes), tuner, delay, a little EQing depending on the sound of the venue/amp and the volume pedal. The chorus and delay combined option on the third 'pedal' is probably the nicest sound that comes out of the unit.

Am considering re-jigging my board (again) using my morley wah/volume to replace the boss expression pedal volume and bringing in an NS-2 or something similar and maybe a DD-3.

NortyFiner · #11 10-08-2009, 08:30 AM

I have had much the same problems with my ME-50B.

Pros: I like the defretter, the comps, the Overdrive/Muff Fuzz/Hi-Band Drive modes, and (perhaps surprisingly) the phaser and flanger.

Cons: The tuner isn't user friendly. The synths and the other drives are too harsh. The filters besides the defretter generally suck.

Because of all that, my ME-50B is up for sale (check the classified) and I am in the process of building myself a board of individual pedals. The ME-50B at least helped me determine what I was looking for in the individual effects...

Bassman 100 · #12 10-09-2009, 04:17 AM

Some of the same issues here too. I'ts a great compact pedal easily adjustalbe on the fly - when you stick to what works. I'm still awaiting the Boss ME70-B. Anyone with some insight as to when or if it's going to happen ?

Has anyone tried the Boss ME70 with Bass ?

slipitin · #13 03-27-2011, 11:35 AM

Has anyone found a suitable seperate defretter pedal to replace the one on the ME50B?

oldcatfish · #14 03-27-2011, 02:31 PM

Quote:Has anyone tried the Boss ME70 with Bass ?

I have a Boss ME70, and I have fooled around with it around the house, but never at a gig. I don't use a lot of effects anyway, and I have a Zoom B2 that covers most of my live needs. So no need to haul the larger multi-effect board.

But I have found a few usable effects on the ME70 that I like better than the Zoom's. I think that the chorus, compressor, the defretter, and slow gear sound nice. I also like the natural od, and the pickup "changer."

If the Boss unit had a few bass amp models, I'd honestly just switch to it. So Boss/Roland, if you are listening...make an ME70B, and add some of the Roland Bass Cube models in place of the guitar ones on the ME70, and you'll have a winner.

badboy1984 · #15 03-27-2011, 02:40 PM

i regret buying the Boss ME50B last year. I already had some pedals at that time but i thought the ME50B is pretty good to carry round. I end up selling it due to alot of the effect is pretty bad, only good use is use the expression pedal as volume pedal, tuner and effects like chorus and delay.

A zoom multi is better than this in my ear and is alot cheaper too.

At least this pedal gave me idea of what effects I would and like use.

I end up going back to my pedalboard and upgrade a few pedals etc instead.

Explorer · #16 03-27-2011, 09:41 PM

This thread is very interesting to me. I've been considering picking one of these up, since I love synth pedals of all kinds.

I sat down with one of these in a shop at some point in the last month, and thought it sounded really neat. I was specifically looking at the synths and the sound hold functions, but I did mess with other effects.

I had really liked it, but now I'm going to be sure it works with whatever amp I'm going to be running it through, and that I can return it if it doesn't work out.

floatingaxe · #17 03-28-2011, 11:48 AM

I've had one for a while now. It's got enough good effects, comps etc. for it to be worth the money, but I am disapointed with some things. For me the chorus is usable, but not as nice as I'd like. The octave up only sounds good if combined with a distortion. Unfortunately, I don't often get a chance to use effects, but I'm getting rid of my unit any time soon.

StringThing · #18 04-02-2011, 02:44 PM

You know with these and the line 6 stuff... you kinda need to go in thinking of 3 sounds in your head and dig them and forge them out. Not the other way around. Kids in candy store's end up with a stomach aches

Then you kinda own them and sound like you. I do however think the digital distortions are really bad. Compression, choruses delays all seem to work well on this. it's fun to play around, but that gets me through in the real world.

After I learned on the modeling stuff, I bought the higher end true bypass equivalents and really own my sound. The modeled digital stuff is a great "learning" environment and a bedroom noodlers dreamgirl

I think you can only digitize a sound once or it completely dies. This into a line 6 combo, a roland cube would be dead on arrival. Where as a tube amp can breathe some life back.