This affordable, battery- or DC-powered multi-effector is a sonic smorgasbord for guitarists on the go.
A lot of old-school guitarists will turn tail and run at the sight of a multi-effects unit. But multi-effect fear isnāt altogether irrational, because, letās face it, a lot of multi-effect pedals and rack units are bears to work with, especially when time is short and you just want to plug in and play.
With the new ME-80, however, Boss clearly prioritized ease of use, and this surprisingly utilitarian, powerful, and portable unit is relatively simple to operate, a lot of fun, and great for home demo studios, small, informal gigs, and even unorthodox tinkerers who like the straightest possible line to the most possible sounds.
Tough, Easy to Toss Around
The ME-80 is built for moving from place to place fast, and while itās not super-light, itās sturdy as hell, with an almost entirely metal enclosure and chassis. Apart from the knobs and switches, thereās very little plastic.
You can also power the ME-80 with six AA batteries, which means you can pick it up and move from room to room, or go from jamming through headphones in the kitchen to blasting through your ampāall with the uncomplicated glee of a kid toting around his battery-powered keyboard. If youāre a busker, play pub gigs, or perform at the farmerās market, this kind of portability can be invaluable.
The addition of USB connectivity maximizes the creative potential of the ME-80 too. Once youāve downloaded the ME-80 software, you can literally be writing a riff with the device in the backyard and capture the same sounds on your DAW up in your office a few minutes later.
Obviously, the ME-80 isnāt the first multi-effect unit or modeler to deliver portability and connectivity. Devices like Line 6ās POD and Bossā own GT-100 have similar capabilities, and the ranks of tablet- and smartphone-based guitar interfaces seem to grow daily. But the ME-80 offers an interface thatās much more familiar and intuitive to the typical stompbox user, and arguably, a whole lot more fun to play with than other devices.
For starters, the ME-80ās interface is basically a little hive of stompboxes. Each of the four footswitches closest to the guitarist is a bypass switch dedicated to one of four effects groups: compression and FX1 (which includes a ring modulator and acoustic simulator among others), overdrive and distortion, modulation, and delay (which also includes a looper). Three footswitches above and to the left of the four main effect switches activate a preamp simulation section, an EQ/FX2 section (which also includes a second phaser, delay, and looper), and a reverb control.
Each effects group has a dedicated set of knobs, including one that selects a specific amp or effect type. To the right of the footswitches, thereās an expression pedal for operating pedal effects (wah, talk box, Whammy-style octave up and down functions, and more). You can also use the pedal as an expression pedal to control modulation rates and delay level.
The two leftmost pedals in the top row also let you select presets when in āmemoryā mode, which is activated by the upper right switch. Thereās a raft of cool factory presets. But creating your own is a straightforward, three-step process.
Sound Horizons
The sounds inside the ME-80 range from really good to passable, depending on the effect or amp. Some voices, sounds, and effectsāthe ātweedā amp, the delays, and the tremolo effectāhave a warm, organic quality and relatively natural dynamic response. Othersāheavy phase settings, the ring mod, and most of the heavy distortionsāmore readily betray their digital roots.
The effects typically put function before freak-out potential: Thereās few deep, ambient space verbs and fractured delay sounds to be found here. Still, with a bit of tinkering and an adventurous spirit you can create a lot of unusual, recording-worthy textures, and the right pairings can make the ME-80 sound very lush.
Ratings
Pros:
Super portable. Tons of sounds. Easy to use. Nice sounding delays and modulation effects.
Cons:
Some effects and high-gain distortions have a digital edge.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$299
Company
BossUS.com
Mating the rotary effect and the spacious and spacey ātera echoā delay along with a sustain-heavy compressor and a Vox-like combo-amp simulation generates an expansive, swirling, sci-fi/psychedelic tapestry. The āharmonistā (which can be set for thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths or an octave above and below) and a little boost and tape echo will make you sound like Duane and Dickey without the expense and hassle of a second guitarist.
There are some peculiarities to get used to on the ME-80. For one thing, you have to keep effect levels for modulation and delay effects uniform with OD and comp effects if youāre using more than one effect. For example, if youāre about to launch into the Uni-Vibe segment of raging Hendrix solo and the āuni-vā effect level is too low, youāll experience a highly anti-climatic signal cut for the whole effects chain rather than for just the selected effect level. This type of signal cut might makes sense when youāre trying to keep a hot fuzz in check, but it makes less sense for other effects. The workaround is to create a preset. But if you prefer to play without them you have to be careful about effect balance.
The Verdict
The features covered here represent just a fraction of what the ME-80 can do. And while the ME-80 is not without limitations (most often these are fair tradeoffs for simplicity), itās a smart, streamlined way of getting a lot of sounds for very little dough.
Some sounds, like the delays, combo, and tweed amp voices are a real pleasure to use and have a relatively organic feel. Othersāmost notably the high-gain distortionsāexhibit a more digital edge and lack the touch and reactivity of the genuine article. The unit definitely sounds best when paired with a tube amp with a neutral EQ setting. But cleaner sounds are effective with a good PA when you use the internal speaker simulator and dial up a sweetening EQ that massages highs and mids.
The real magic of the ME-80 is itās ability to deliver so many reasonably convincing sounds in a sturdy package you can power with a pack of AAs or DC adaptor. That means a wealth of possibilities for remote performance and production. If all you have is a set of headphones, you can practice anywhere. Hook the ME-80 up to a battery-powered amp and you can play for the rest of the world at any locationāsay, jams on a mountaintopāwith all the functionality of a traditional, familiar pedalboard.
Taken together, the ME-80 is a set of smart design compromises in a multi-effect unit so affordable and easy to interact with that it rarely feels like any kind of compromise at all.
Watch the Review Demo:
Michael Bloomfield's "From His Head to His Heart to His Hands" CD/DVD Box Set Review
Essential for Bloomfield freaks, Head, Heart, Hands will also move anyone fascinated with the collision of rock, blues, and folk music in the turbulent 1960s.
CD/DVD Box Set
Michael Bloomfield
From His Head to His Heart to His Hands
Sony Legacy
By 1981, when Michael Bloomfield was found dead in his ā65 Chevy from a drug overdose in San Francisco, the 37-year-old blues guitarist had been largely forgotten. Popular music had moved far away from the gritty, high-octane sounds Bloomfield helped pioneer in the ā60s as the lead guitarist in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and the screaming Telecaster licks heād played behind Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festivalāthat infamous event that split the folk-music community into acoustic and electric campsāhad faded into history.
But between 1964 and 1970, Bloomfield was one of the most revered electric guitarists of the dayāan inspiration to Carlos Santana, Jorma Kaukonen, and Jerry Garcia, who saw Bloomfield as the 6-string master of their generation. In 1966, Eric Clapton said, āMike Bloomfield is music on two legs.ā And Dylan claimed Bloomfield was the ābest guitar player I ever heard.ā
The new triple-CD and DVD box set, From His Head to His Heart to His Hands, will appeal to those who fondly recall Bloomfieldās passionateāeven manicāsolos, and also offer newcomers an excellent introduction to the mercurial guitaristās fretboard wizardry. Spanning 16 years of Bloomfieldās output, the CDs include early demos he recorded for John Hammond at Columbia Records in New York, as well as songs he cut with Dylan, Janis Joplin, and Muddy Waters. Bloomfieldās work with Butterfield, the Electric Flag (a horn band he founded after leaving Butterfield), and his longtime musical compadres Al Kooper and Nick Gravenites is particularly well documented here.
Even those with extensive Bloomfield collections will likely find new gems in the 46 tracks, and a handful of previously unreleased songsāincluding āHammondās Rag,ā a blazing fingerpicked salute to Merle Travis, and āSantana Clause,ā a live modal jam recorded at the Fillmore Eastāreveal the scope of Bloomfieldās abilities.
Featuring interviews with bandmates, friends, and familyāas well as audio recordings of Bloomfield describing his own journeyāthe nearly one-hour DVD Sweet Blues paints a sometimes disturbing portrait of the legendary guitarist. B.B. King, Santana, impresario Bill Graham, Kooper, Gravenites, and Charlie Musselwhite are among those who testify to Bloomfieldās genius and eccentric outlook. Thereās scant existing archival film of Bloomfield performing, but the filmmakers do an excellent job of using slow-motion footage from the ā67 Monterey Pop Festival and panning across a wealth of photographs to add visual interest to the talking heads.
Essential for Bloomfield freaks, Head, Heart, Hands will also move anyone fascinated with the collision of rock, blues, and folk music in the turbulent 1960s.
Must-hear track: āKilling Floorā with the Electric Flag
An octave fuzz that makes even humble rigs sound monstrous.
Some fuzz players are so mired in pursuit of classic tones they forget that, above all, a fuzz should be able to scream like a banshee and stand out like a rabid, fanged rhino on jet roller skates. This forgotten knowledgeāthe loss of the essential fuzz spirit, some might sayāhas found us swimming in a Great Lakesā worth of same-sounding fuzz riffs while a panoply of dirty, unique fuzz tones goes largely ignored.
The coolest thing about Crazy Tube Circuitsā Pin Up octave fuzz is how readily it sends you down those less-trodden paths. But the other best thing is that there are copious classic tones on tap, if you want them. The Pin Up does fuzz a lot of different ways. Itās not the most outlandish, radical, or deviant fuzz out there, but its ability to accommodate weirdoes and classicists equallyāand so effortlesslyāmakes it a very powerful tool when youāre trying to quickly carve out a fuzz sound thatās not so run-of-the-mill.
Petite But Powerful Presence
Crazy Tube Circuits has fast garnered favor among some very dedicated and adventurous tone hounds. Players as varied as Bill Frisell, Brad Whitford, Nels Cline, and Lee Ranaldo use Crazy Tubes wares, and it doesnāt take too much time with the Pin Up to understand whyāit sounds great, but the design is also very smart.
The Pin Up is compact for a two-switch fuzz. Some players might complain that the footswitches are too close together, but I never had a problem finding the switch I neededāeven in a dimly lit rehearsal space with the Pin Up in a pretty busy pedalboard. In fact, I found the economy of size a real virtue and the interface intuitive. Any seasoned fuzz player can navigate the Pin Up with ease. The volume, gain, and tone controls all work the same way they would on a Big Muff or similar fuzz. Much of the Pin Upās additional flexibility comes from a fourth voicing control that scoops or boosts the midrange. The icing on the cake, though, is the octave functionāa bold-sounding octave-up function that expands the Pin Upās vocabulary exponentially.
Sounds from a Looker
One real plus is how deftly the Pin Up stands in for distortion pedal along the lines of a Pro Co Rat, MXR Distortion+, or Boss DS-1. Set it up for unity gain, dial up relatively neutral tone, voice, and gain settings, and the Pin Up deals punchy, super-rich ā70s-style dirt. Adding volume and gain to taste adds ripsaw attitude to Johnny Ramone- and Steve Jones-style downstroke onslaughts and Grand Funk-like riffs.
With volume and gain wide open, the Pin Up has a tight, boxy, compressed fuzz character that rules for hot leads. Note definition is excellent, and yet it still retains that distortion-box-like articulation. The single-coils in my Jaguar and Stratocaster couldnāt quite coax the amount of volume youād get from a higher-gain pedal, but the Pin Up was still tighter and more responsive to picking dynamics than something like a Big Muff.
The Pin Upās voice and tone controls are huge assets if you tend to move between different pickups and guitars over the course of a set or session. Midrange boosts from the voice control add low-mid emphasis as well as a little presence, so cranking the voice control clockwise to its limits can make output more harmonically cramped, especially with chords. But it can also make a thin-sounding rig sound more massive, and itās great for getting hazy, stoner-rock lead tones out of otherwise anemic-sounding instruments. If the lack of high-end definition gets you down, you can kick on the octave section, at which point the Pin Up spits out a rotund, snarky, almost cocked-wah-sounding lead tone thatās a pure shot of desert rock.
I tended to use the voice controlās scooped, counterclockwise settings with 6V6 amps, but those settings can also make a Twin or mid-watt, blackface-style circuit crackle with lively distortion. The voice control can just as easily tame the shrillness of a Stratocaster through a Marshall.
Ratings
Pros:
Seemingly infinite fuzz voices. Smart, economical design. At home with big or small amps.
Cons:
Somewhat pricey.
Tones:
Playability/Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$269
Crazy Tube Circuits Pin Up
crazytubescircuits.com.com
The tone control has an wide, useful range, too. Ease back on the volume while opening up the gain and tone, and the Pin Up spits out a menacing, ā67-style psych/biker fuzz. Throwing the octave on top generates a paint-peeling fuzz that will cut through anything while remaining notably resistant to feedbackāa great asset in a recording session. Less trebly settings are great for fattening-up lead tones and filling harmonic space in an overdub. They tend to cloud the output of mid-scooped single-coils, but a hot humbucker generates burly, cutting lead tones and greasy, grinding power chords. In general, humbuckers are very much at home with this fuzz.
The octave-up function is basically smooth and tuneful. Itās also highly reactive to tone and voice knob adjustments. The octave can be very hairyāespecially with a big ampābut between the extra control you get via the tone and voice knobs and the basic singing quality of the octave voice, the Pin Up is pretty easy to tame. With mids boosted, a neck-position single-coil yields one of the snorkliest, most focused and playable octave tones around. And while the Pin Up isnāt quite as thrillingly chaotic as a SuperFuzz, its more reserved voice works better for chords than any other octave fuzz I can recallāit can impart an almost horn-section-like set of overtones to power chords.
Home-recording fans who work with smaller amps and lower volumes are bound to treasure the Pin-Upās civilized and brutish capabilities. Itās a dastardly little monster with a Blues Jr. or Champāreadily dispensing filthy ā60s garage-trash buzz and grinding chord tones. Interestingly, the voice and tone controls feel especially reactive and versatile when cranked through a small amp, making it easy to dial in a perfect (or perfectly nasty) fuzz tone before you ever hit tape or your digital interface. The octave function ups the insanity just as readily with small amps, too.
The Verdict
You can make a lot of fuzz racket with the Crazy Tube Circuits Pin Upāfrom barbaric and skanky to more familiar classic-rock sounds. The combination of a clever, powerful EQ and a separate octave footswitch make it a fuzz of many very colorful personalities. And if your pedalboard is bogged down by a fuzz surplus, the Pin Up can very capably replace a fuzz or two and a distortion pedal. That versatility makes the fairly steep price tag look a lot less painful. It also makes the Pin Up a pedal any fuzz-inclined touring or session guitarist must investigate.