In Praise of the MS-3

[NerdyOcean]

I have to say. I have had a couple of months with this thing and it is really a game changer for me. I have used an MS-60b in conjunction with other single effects and really liked it. I even made a MIDI switcher for the MS-60b, but this MS-3 is so much better for me as a multi. I honestly could just throw three dirts in the loops and just use that (but I have to throw some single effects in for the ol razzle dazzle). So easy to set up different banks that have enough patches to get through songs. Easy to use live as well (this is where I had issue with the Zoom).

Two things I wish it had:
1. ability to separate the 3 loops from each other
2. two separate chains for stereo

Rant over. Just wanted to say that I am really enjoying this pedal.

 

[GMC]

It's an interesting prospect. I think the ES-3 isn't marketed enough and there's not a lot of lists of it's built in effects. I'm wondering what an ES-3, Source Audio C4, Source Audio Collider and a few dirt pedals would look like. It'll pretty much cover 95% of my playing needs.

 

[NerdyOcean]

It's an interesting prospect. I think the ES-3 isn't marketed enough and there's not a lot of lists of it's built in effects. I'm wondering what an ES-3, Source Audio C4, Source Audio Collider and a few dirt pedals would look like. It'll pretty much cover 95% of my playing needs.

I was sure I would get a Collider, but I don't find it necessary with the delays and verbs built into the MS-3. I have found my interest peaked about the C4 and Aftershock though to use the MS-3 MIDI capabilities.

 

[Andy westwood]

my Ms3 powered board! it switches all of this bar the front row stuff which i add in when i want

 

[Insidious_elk]

My little (WIP) ms-3 board. Using the Plumes as my main drive and the Aftershock for a synthy octave fuzz. I'd probably use the Aftershock for both, but I grudge spending another £100 on that daft neuro hub just so I can midi switch presets... I use the Neuron as a eq/preamp/gate/compressor because it has midi switchable presets, so I can control it on a per-patch basis The little dual switch at the front is just a bank up/down (once I get a TRS long enough to reach it) because my feet are clumsy, so I had to turn off the double-pedal-bank-change thing. The hall of fame is mostly just there because it has a nice mod reverb and a shimmer, which the ms-3 doesn't, but I could live without it. Have been considering replacing it with a collider for more fancy time-based-wankery, but never had the need yet. Still got a Digitech FreqOut to come for that space at the front.

The ms-3 is a great piece of kit, but I do have a few niggles... Like you said, not being able to separate/reorder loops is a bit of an inconvenience.
What annoys me more is that the loop ins/outs are in the opposite order than on the ms-3 display i.e the ports are in order 3-2-1 and the display is 1-2-3. This just means that, if you want your pedals to be in the order their are displayed on the screen, you have to cross all your loop patch leads over?! I kind of get that they are putting the ports in running order from right to left, but then why put the display order on the screen left to right?! Just seems crazy to me...
One other thing I'd like it to have is a clean blend on each loop. that's probably asking a little much, and I know it's pretty bass specific, but it would open up a world off dirt pedals without having to add an ls-2 to the loop.

Despite my ranting, this is a genuinely excellent piece of kit. I play in a proggy post-metally band, so there's load of choruses/phasers and the likes and, without the ms-3, I'd probably have to have a much bigger board.

 

[bassegg]

I had an MS-3 and found it great on bass. All the drive effects have a clean blend. I really loved the sounds in it but the signal chain was really limited. The comps are in the same slot as the drives so you could have 2 drives or a Comp and 1 drive iirc. So it’s not really suitable as a completely standalone multi fx (and it’s not designed to be). Another cool thing is it has amp channel switching built in and works as an extra footswitch for Boss loopers. Yeah, MS-3 is cool.

 

[dmichaels10]

Got mine in February. It’s been a really fun pedal to play with.

 

[richmoore1998]

I got mine a couple of months ago - and it’s become something I bring to every gig - I’m in a lot of different musical situations - always piecing appropriate pedals for whatever I might be playing. Last night I was so crunched for time that I just threw my little pedalboard in my backpack along with a Bassbone OD fully intending to use it and didn’t have time to mess about - turns out the MS-3 was incredibly useful playing my upright - I used a parametric EQ to carve out boomy frequencies and it worked like a charm - I love this little thing - as a switcher and a multi-fx unit. Well worth the money…