I've always wanted to have a Boss pedal. It's been my dream since I got my very first effect pedal in 1993 - a Boss Digital Delay 3, the DD3.
I remember it was at SM MegaMall when I asked Papa to buy me my first pedal. Didn't know much about them then but I knew I wanted a Boss. The store guy tried to convince me to get a DS1 - the iconic distortion of the 80s, but I liked the soothing sound of echos and delays so I ended up choosing the DD3. I realised later that he was right. The DD3 was a fantastic but I needed a distortion to play rock. We ended up using the DD3 for mic effects while I relied solely on my amp's dirty channel for distortion.I played straight-to-amp all of my "gigging" days. Not by choice, but because I was young and couldn't afford more. As time flew by and I gradually became detached from my dream of becoming a rock star, life's economics got in a way. Fighting the urge to spend on many gadgets, I settled on a small Zoom 505 pedal. And it had me hooked on multi-effects ever since - they cost the same as 1 or 2 compact pedals but can do the work of 10.
After the 505, I got myself a Roland G60, then the bigger Zoom GFX-5, then a Vox Mini 3 modelling amp with built-in multi effects, and very recently a Vox StompLab IIG.
But using multi-effect pedals is very different to using compacts. With the former, you have to pre-program your settings and just choose from saved pre-sets while your playing. With compacts, you are dialling in settings before every set and "dancing" with them to turn on/off each individual effect in the middle of a song. I've always wanted to experience that level of involvement and the closest I could get without having to overspend was a Boss ME pedal. It has the practically of a multi effect with the playing experience of compacts.
I managed to snag the ME50 off Ebay recently and picked it up from the vendor on Tuesday. Last night Ethan and I spent some time enjoying sounds and effects it can make and it was really fun. Erin joined in later helping strum the guitar while Ethan played DJ with the gadget's settings. I stood there watching in teary-eyed grin knowing that I'm raising a new generation of rock stars. Yeah!!
