Multi Effects VS Pedal board

[NicholasF]

What are the pro's and cons of each?

Ideas for pedal board: Big Muff, Cry Baby, The Sweeper, EH Synth, Flanger, MXR auto wah

Multi Pedal: Utopia B-300

[RickenBoogie]

Multi, one unit with tons of fx. Individual, more customized, and overall better single fx.

[gumtownbassman]

With a MFX (multi effects) unit, one button press will give you a totally reconfigured array of effects with settings preset to how you want.
Try to do that with individual pedals, and you will be unplugging/re connection, and adjusting knobs.
Look at the Boss GT-10B

[ksandvik]

Multi:
+single box, less noise and signal degradation
+easy to take to gigs.
- less flexible, you get what you get effect-wise, no auto-wah, sorry not in the spec

Pedalboard
+ configure it exactly how you want
- cables, signal degradation, noise, power supply needed and more and more stuff you have to add and tweak all the time.
- harder to take to gigs unless you have a dedicated pedalboard bag and so on...

So it really depends. At my age I don't really care so much about ultimate tweakability while I loathe a weak signal coming in to the amp from a very complex pedalboard. Many guitar players have learned this by plugging the guitar straight to the amp and realizing that now they get a really good tone.

[bassbrad]

Both, why is it all one or the other?

A well thought combination of single and multieffects covers more ground.

[NicholasF]

Originally Posted by bassbrad

Both, why is it all one or the other?

I don't have a money tree

[GroovyQ]

You can do like me. I use both:
Got a Korg Ax1b bass processor and add 3 single pedals: russian Big Muff, Bass CryBaby & MXR M80 (preAmp + drive). Basically added the effects which I found weak on my Korg.

[MSUsousaphone]

I have individual pedals now and will go that route forever....or until a multiFX is finally built with sounds the quality of individual pedals....which it isn't even close, at this point in time.

HOWEVER, I started off with a Boss GT10-B and wouldn't want to start any other way. It gave me the perfect idea of what I like and what I don't like. Which saved me a ton from not trying out pedals of sounds I didn't dig.

So...where are you? Starting off with not much idea of what you like or ready to step up to the exact sounds you're looking.....or something else?

[Geddyfleaharris]

The last multi I had was an M13. Some of the sounds were ok. Some were just bad. But the volume drop when I kicked it in was just too much for me to ignore. Always had a boost pedal after it. Having extra pedals sort of defeated the purpose of the multi in the first place in my eyes. Back to individual pedals.

[burl0029]

I've always had pedals since they're easy to swap out and generally sound better to me. I have toyed with the idea of an M5, though, since it's small and would fit on my board while giving me a ton of options. A guitar player friend of mine unloaded his collection of pedals for an M9 and seems to like it pretty well. I don't think I could ever do that, but adding a small one would be fun.

[burl0029]

Originally Posted by MSUsousaphone

HOWEVER, I started off with a Boss GT10-B and wouldn't want to start any other way. It gave me the perfect idea of what I like and what I don't like. Which saved me a ton from not trying out pedals of sounds I didn't dig.

So...where are you? Starting off with not much idea of what you like or ready to step up to the exact sounds you're looking.....or something else?

This is great advice and I've said the same to others.

[NicholasF]

Originally Posted by GroovyQ

You can do like me. I use both:
Got a Korg Ax1b bass processor and add 3 single pedals: russian Big Muff, Bass CryBaby & MXR M80 (preAmp + drive). Basically added the effects which I found weak on my Korg.

Its like a HYBRID!!!

I think this might be the route I go until the money tree starts to sprout. Unless someone out there should convice me otherwise.

@ MSU I've been playing all together for aprox 8 years, but I've never had GAS for pedals until now, I am both an upright and electric player, so when I was somewhat distracted by an effect (for about a month in to playing BG it was an Ebow)

I realized "hey I can do that with the big hunk of wood with strings, and its friend the stick with hair"

Edit: big hunk of wood w/ strings= DB
Not so big hunk of wood w/ strings= BG
Stick w/ hair=bow

Just for people who don't get the refrence

[behndy]

yeah. no offense OP, but this is a tad silly. a lot of people have both on their boards. i have a TimeLine, M5 and BEF Pro on-board right now. Sousie summed up why it's probably best to start with a multi-efx unit, and the Signal Loss in a pedalboard setup is also kinda silly. be careful and that doesn't have to be an issue.

if you're just curious about the pros and cons of each approach if you're going to be single minded about one or the other, that's been covered AD INFINUM in threads.

both work fine for different applications. HAVING both gives the most flexobility. i know that's misspelled. but i like it better that way.

[Sixpack324]

Originally Posted by ksandvik

Multi:
+single box, less noise and signal degradation
+easy to take to gigs.
- less flexible, you get what you get effect-wise, no auto-wah, sorry not in the spec
.

I don't get what you mean??

My multi has an auto-wah.......I can edit and save the settings for all of the parameters for every effect in the unit and I have the flexibility to edit the order of the effects chain. The effects my unit has are pre-amp, cabinet simulator, compressor, chorus, delay, phaser (both types), overdrive, harmonizer, pitch shifter, synth, auto-wah, EQ, expression pedal (which is editable for wah, humanizer, harmonizer and pitch shifter), vibrato, limiter, echo, flanger, slicer and it also has a a second expression pedal that is a volume pedal......And it has a tuner that can be edited to mute all sounds that also has a bright LED screen that's easily seen on stage. I can edit and save 340 different configurations in addition to the 340 preset configurations.

I've always considered it pretty flexible.

[mgalat]

I'll put in a vote for both.

GT-10b with a markbass compressore in front (for a tube warmth....love the tube), and an EHX BMS in the signal loop for the synth (to supplement the shameful synth of the gt-10b)

yeah, it's a load, but I can get most any sound I want.

[DeltaPhoenix]

thread carrots

[MSUsousaphone]

Originally Posted by NicholasF

@ MSU I've been playing all together for aprox 8 years, but I've never had GAS for pedals until now, I am both an upright and electric player, so when I was somewhat distracted by an effect (for about a month in to playing BG it was an Ebow)

I realized "hey I can do that with the big hunk of wood with strings, and its friend the stick with hair"

Edit: big hunk of wood w/ strings= DB
Not so big hunk of wood w/ strings= BG
Stick w/ hair=bow

Just for people who don't get the refrence

You pretty much just summed me up but a few years ago. I was playing bass for 8 years and was minoring in double bass (probably what started my HATRED for fretless and things with dead as a ******* doornail strings). Anyways, I came on here lost, and people recommended the Boss GT10-B to me. It was exactly what I needed. A huge range of effects that let me know exactly what I liked (fuzz, OD, flanger) and what I loathed (chorus.....bleh....though the Polytope has changed my mind on that....) I'll still jam a stand up from time to time...but not because I like it...just because people think it's cool for some reason. I'm vain like that.

Each one of the individual pedals that I have now sound 10Xs better than the individual patches in the GT10-B...that's just how it works...nothing is going to be great at everything. But the multi unit was decent sounding enough where I could gig on it. Our first CD used some of its effects and I'm not all that ashamed when I go back and listen to it.

Like I said, if I was talking to me back then, I would recommend the same path.....though I might go with a Line 6 M9 or M13 since they're easier to offload.

Oh, and that's the other thing. Go buy everything in the classifieds whichever way you go. Most times you can get it for CHEAP there (do searches to see what past pedals went for) and if you don't like it (or more likely, out grow it as this is a never ending journey with FX) you can usually make most of the money back when you go and sell it (after donating to this amazing forum).

[AmpedSilence]

I used to have a Line 6 bass floor pod, I was never completely satisfied with my tone. plus I felt that there were more effects on the board than I'd ever need so I decided to sell it, start from scratch and build a small board that could give me the exact sounds I wanted.

I am definitely more happy with this route.

[bassbrad]

Originally Posted by NicholasF

I don't have a money tree

For the 400 bucks that the Rocktron costs there is a lot of options Boss, Zoom or Line 6 may have better offerings.

[5StringFool]

I started with a Boss ME 20B that I bought used for $100. It really helped me to find out what kind of effects I'd actually use and like. After about 6 months of playing around on it I sold it for a little more than I paid for it and started assembling my pedalboard which atm consists of a PitchBlack tuner, Fishman Fission, Boss ODB-3, Ashdown Dual Band Compressor, and a Hartke VXL Bass Attack.

All in all the single effects sound much better than the multi unit and I'm much happier with the things I actually use than I was with the multi.