eude

OK, I'm not going to lie, the drop tune function wasn't great. My active basses and me hitting quite hard might not help, but it seems too laggy to be of any use to me. This is the only chink in the armour I have found so far...

I haven't had a play with that yet, but I will hopefully get some more time today and I'll let you know. I wasn't kidding about being time poor!

I absolutely love it!

I managed to steal a few moments for some playing this morning between meetings, and I'm very pleased. Size isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, not much bigger than 1/2 my pedalboard, so that worry has totally gone. Build quality, as with all Boss stuff I guess, is very solid and workmanlike. I only played around in manual mode so far, there's obviously a load of pre programmed stuff in there, but I wanted to see what this will be like in real life for me. The natural tone of the unit is lovely flat, I assume it's not doing much, if anything, but it sounds nice. The amp sims are good, a good range of options which all seem to be quite different. The myriad of effects all seem to be very useable, the range of some is limited a little compared to separates, by the limits of the physical controls, but there is plenty there and it's all useable. Everything I use for my regular tone is there, plus all the extras I use when nobody is looking, like Delays and Reverbs, the Slicer is well cool, and the Synths are really musical, and again, thanks to the limits to some of the settings, it's hard to find a Synth that's unusable, which in my experience is very easy with the likes of an EHX Microsynth. The regular Octaver is VERY OC-2-like, the Polyphonic has a similar vibe too, but tracks properly, which was cool as often the polyphonic ones sound a bit pants. The compressors all sounds different, which was a surprise, but lots to explore for someone that rarely gets on with compressors, unless it's in the studio with someone who knows how to operate an expensive one. The filters, autowah etcs, all very nice, and easier to set up than my MXR, plus there's 4 different core options, unlike the single one on that pedal. I was worried about the ability to stack drives, but as the core tone is so nice, I can achieve that by setting an amp sim to be overdriven and then use the drive section for more drive. Perfect. The different drives and distortions are cool too, will need a proper play to really dial those in. Of course, there is more you can do under the hood to make all the above more cleverer, but from just using the physical controls I can do everything I need and want to do. I'm impressed, very impressed. Does anyone want to buy some pedals?...

My ME 90B arrived today. No time to even unpack it yet, but soon, hopefully tomorrow...

Maybe (Warwick) RockBoard have something that might fit? https://shop.warwick.de/en/rockboard-by-warwick/bags-for-effects-pedals/21805/rockboard-professional-pedalboard-gig-bags?c=3083

I prefer the black too

I love that bass dude! I really wish they would reissue the Musicmaster bass. I don't understand why they haven't!?

Yes and No.... 😁

@Merton is using the new BIG Trace head with his Big twin, with good results. Might be worth looking at that?

I'm pretty sure that's a large contributor, however, it also can work with multiple other units, and means they don't have to worry about building Bluetooth into the circuit board. I need to order one of those too though, as I'm sure it'll come in handy!

I guess everyone's milages varies. I love the idea of a massive pedalboard covered in boutique gear, and I also love the idea of having the world available in something properly space age like a full fat HX or a Quad Cortex, but I feel that for me, right now, neither is ideal. I have a pretty big pedal board, with some darned nice bits and bobs on it, but, I find I often just pull it all out, unless I know I have a chunk of time to myself. I'm currently slimming down the amount of gear I have, basses included, and I think this Boss unit may well let me release some of my pedal pedals back into the wild too, apart from some of the special ones. Doing so will also likely pay for 3 of these Boss units too!

Have you been spying on me?

You're right, it's not the progress that's the issue, digital guts under the hood is fine, it's the interface that I find lacking, the UX/UI aspect. I use tech all day every day, although I'm a graphic designer I have also been an IT manager/purchaser in some roles alongside that, the last time looking after 50 PCs, servers, routers, firewalls etcs. The time before that 60, over two sites. I'm more than capable of dealing with the more complex interfaces that come with all these modellers, I just don't want to. I don't feel that any of the folks working on this stuff are meeting us in the middle. It's maybe not the best example although there are parallels, the original spin and click wheel for the old school Apple iPod was by far the most elegant and intuitive solution for an mp3 player back in the day, and it was never bested. I wonder which pedal manufacturer will crack the on pedal interface first, I think they're still a way off at the moment...

That's the problem right there though, I don't want to have to program anything, I just want to dial in stuff quickly and easily that works out of the box with bass in mind. I know I could get a whole lot more, and likely better stuff from a Helix, but I don't have the time or patience for it at the moment, and although I love all my separate pedals, when sometimes I only have 15 mins to noodle, I don't want to spend 5 minutes of that setting up. On the note of amp sims, I'm not all that keen on cab sims, but I like amp sims just to get a different flavour, it's a quick and easy way to do it. I understand that a lot of folks will think this new Boss unit is 10 years out of date, but from what I have read on here, and elsewhere, there's still an appetite for this kind of thing. The recent resurgence of DOD pedals has come with a lot of calls for them to reissue some of their older style multi effects pedals too, but not to ape anything like the Line 6 offerings, I think like in a lot of other walks in life, some of us are getting a bit of digital fatigue...

There is some use of it in a band context in the Andertons review >>

Your experience and reactions sound similar to mine, the interface is SO important. I also find a lot of the current lot of multi effects solutions, like the HX and even the Boos GT range frustrating in that there's only a smattering of bass specific stuff, and the rest is very much guitar focussed. As soon as the guitar version, the ME 90 came out earlier in the year, I have been bemoaning the fact that a bass one had not come out, and how it would be a great idea, and how I would buy one. Well, it would've been rude not to now it seems Eude

That's it! I've heard more than enough! I've ordered one!

I'm sure there's more than a hint or truth in that, but I have found a few unsponsored reviews too.

I haven't heard any complaints so far in any reviews I've watched on YouTube.

I know, it's just my wish list. If there was a way to make the menu diving as minimal as possible, super intuitive and quick, it would help. I might email Boss

Thank you!

It sounds like you have exactly the same mindset as me! I think you've got me convinced! One last question though, what's the build quality like, compared to the old ME 50B?

I have tried the Helix stuff and for someone that's time poor, its just too much faffing around.