Just bought one today! Didn't even know the thing existed, but I saw it on the shelf and thought I'd check it out. For the price, I absolutely LOVE it. Most multi-effects pedals either sound like crap or are built like crap. This pedal is built solid. Opening the box at the store and getting to see and feel the construction in person went a long way in my decision to buy. I might not have bought one if I hadn't held it in my hands first.
It comes with an overdrive I like a lot for bass, and a delay, which I will likely never use live, and also gives you the option to buy any of the other available downloadable effects for 99 cents. I bought a compressor, a reverb, and an envelope filter. One was 99 cents, one was $4.99, and one was $6.99.
I play a lot of fretless and 6-string melodic solo stuff (not playing in a band at the moment), so I initially went to the music store hoping to pick up a decent reverb, and I'm glad I went with the iStomp.
Changing from one effect to another once they're in your library only takes a few seconds while hooked up (I used it with my wife's iPad, but it works with iPod Gen2 or newer, iPad or newer, and iPhone 3Gs or newer) so it would be super easy to switch between effects modules between songs in a live setting.
I've never been a big effects guy for live stuff, but this offers nice versatility without sacrificing the rugged construction of a stomp box. I'm sure there are good multi-effects out there, but for the money, I didn't see one today that I felt would fit my needs and my budget. For under $200, you can have this pedal plus just about every downloadable effect module offered. I think eventually I might buy another pedal, and then I could mix and match however I want and have 2 stomp boxes to play with live.
My favorite thing about the downloadable effects is that before you buy, you have the option to try the effect for up to 5 minutes before you buy, with full functioning parameters so you have enough time to play around and see if it's something you'd want. I tried and passed on a couple effects before selecting the ones I picked. They have a decent sized library of effects modeled after famous stomp boxes, and they promise to add more as time goes by.
I have a Bass POD Pro rackmount unit and I basically hate almost every effect in it. I use it for a rack tuner. The iStomp already has it beat on useable tones for my taste, and it's also something I can get good use out of with a guitar as well, which is something the Bass POD seems to be absolutely useless for.
Sure, I've only had it for a few hours and I haven't let the novelty of "new" wear off yet, but based on my initial impressions and the time I spent this evening actually playing with it, I think you could certainly find worse ways to spend $150. So far, I'm a huge fan.
Give it a try Ziltoid!!!
- Jacob
