Boss ME25 FX for dulcimer
22/03/2011

Boss ME25 guitar multi-effects unit for use with dulcimers

Background
For some years now I have been waiting for Boss to release a compact, battery-driven guitar multi-effects FX unit that could travel with and use on my dulcimer.  I have always used Boss FX as they are well-thought out, ruggedly made and sound great.

For my electro-acoustic guitar work in the UK, I am still using the sophisticated and complex Boss GT-5 multi effects board along with a rack-mounted Lexicon JamMan loop station. These units require mains power and are considerably heavy, not to mention bulky – you could not easily travel with them abroad.

The sort of effects I need for the dulcimer include chorus, phase, reverb, delays and phrase loop (or sound-on-sound).  I have previously documented here the sorts of effect combinations I use on guitar and dulcimer. 

           
Then along came the ME-25.  It has stereo sounds, is compact, rugged, runs off AA batteries and represents great value for money.

Boss ME 25 sounds
The modulation section has chorus, phase, flange and an octave-divider as well as some others, like rotary and harmonist that I might or might not use with the dulcimer.

There’s a nice hall reverb and a range of delays from 1 millisecond to 6 seconds and a tap delay.

What’s really useful for me is the phrase loop.  You can sample complex and/or wet sounds and then overdub onto them, building up layers of sound with different textures.

I don’t normally get on with overdrive and distortion on acoustic instruments, unless they are fitted with a coil pickup.  The acoustic profile is usually too complex to overdrive and often results in an unpleasant 'fizzy' sound.  However, the overdrives work surprisingly well with the transducer pickup in my dulcimer.

  
There is also a preamp section and a super-stack button that simulates the heavy bass you would achieve from a tall (Marshall-like) amp stack if you are using a small amp. I can’t see me using these much with the dulcimer, but you never know.

Foot control
There are three foot switches and an expression pedal. The first two switches toggle up and down the memory banks and when pressed together, they bypass the effects and access the on-board tuner. The third switch controls the phrase loop or acts as a ‘solo’ feature with a richer sounds and more volume.  The expression pedal defaults to a useful volume control and can be switched live to become a wah pedal.

Programming
You cannot really use the ME25 without programming it first.  Programming however is quite simple and there are 60 memories available to store patches.

The first thing I did was to delete all the memories and then populate the first bank of them with my own building-block sounds – for example a reverb, a delay plus reverb, a chorus plus delay etc.  I’ll then use these building blocks to create more tailored sounds for particular songs in the next bank.

I have saved the last bank of memoires for use at concerts. I can put here the patches I will need in the sequence of the concert program, allowing me to jump seamlessly between patches. This is especially important with layering sounds.

A noise suppressor is included in each bank and it can be switched off or tweaked to suit, although the default setting works well most of the time.

  
Limitations & summary
Inevitably, an entry-level multi-effects unit will have limitations and for me what’s disappointing is the lack of analogue or ping-pong delays, both of which I would use a lot. The hall reverb is very nice and can create an ambience not too dissimilar to an analogue delay but a ping-pong effect is hard to achieve without the actual module itself.

All-in-all this is a simple, rugged multi-effects unit that gives a great stereo sound and is easy to use.  Some of the more bluesy guitar sounds I probably won’t use on the dulcimer, but you never know.  Despite its’ limitations, it has many of the features I need for the dulcimer at fraction the cost of buying individual foot pedals and in a small packaged that runs of batteries.  Watch this space.

Boss ME25 for dulcimer - a one-year-on update

I have lived with the ME25 for a year now and I use it all the time with my dulcimers.  I have used my building-block programmes (patches) as a source to create more individual patches for my songs.  Overall it's easy to use and it augments the sound of my dulcimer with a little conditioning to suit each song.  It's quite compact and not too heavy and I found a small case to protect it in transit.  I would not be without it.

In using it for a year however, I have noticed some further limitations.  Firstly, the LED only displays the patch number, not the song name.  I can't remember the numbers of all the patches so I carry a chart in the ME25 case, which tells me which patches are for which songs.  It's as simple solution but it would have been nice if you could enter the song name so it displays on the LED.

My second issue is with the sound quality.  Boss FX units are renowned for their rugged build quality and  high sound quality - both in the texture of the effect and in not degrading the signal.  When plugging into a small portable and mono amp (I use an AER amp) you do not notice any signal degradation - you just hear the great sound of the Boss effects.  People listening to my dulcimer with ME25 FX though my AER amp will also hear a significant amount of sound from the instrument itself - so any slight degradation of the signal is not an issue.

When taking the stereo signal from the ME25 into a PA however, you do hear a significant degradation of the signal.  In particular the frequency response is curtailed and there is a loss of bass, especially.  You would not think that important for a dulcimer which is often tuned to BBE - but it is indeed an issue.  The sound is also less smooth and seems less refined.  A beginner electric guitarist with an inexpensive guitar might not notice this - but acoustic instruments are very demanding of sound quality and show up issues like this terribly.  To be clear and to be fair to Roland, who manufacture Boss products, the effects themselves sound great , it's just that the unit does degrade the signal slightly.  Considering the modest price and that it's an entry-level product its very understandable.

How I get around this is to mix the stereo sound of the ME25 with a mono signal from the preamp.  So the ME25 uses a stereo channel on the mixer while the mono signal uses a mono channel and both are mixed in more or less equal proportions.  By programming the patches so that the effects are strong, then mixed with some untreated signal, gives just the right amount of treatment.  You hear the great Boss sounds in stereo but with the mono untreated signal restoring the sound quality.  You could use an Aux send (to the ME25) and stereo return to get the same result (assuming you have a spare Aux).  The same principle works with my AER amp, as you also hear some of the instrument itself - the strong effects give just the right amount of treatment to the dulcimer's sound.