i am looking at getting a cheap, but good, effects processor, and i would like opinions on models. i am looking for ones with good distortions, as well as chorus, delay, eq, and a wah pedal.

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The digitech GNX3's arent bad sound a lil scratchy though. I use a Line 6 Pod Pro. Its really versitile and sounds pretty good. only thing I wish it has was mod pitch stuff

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korg makes an alright one. thats the only one i have owned personally. it was alright.

I've got a Boss GT6 and it kicks ass, it takes a bit of getting used to but when u get it sorted it fucking rocks. I've just bought some connection lead things, so i can plug it into my computer and download patches, just downloaded a Zakk wylde patch, it kicks ass. There so much u can do with the GT6. There also the Boss me50 and thats pretty good and the zoom gfx 8 i think it is. There all pretty good pedal, but the GT6 rules

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the GT6 has good sounding fx yeah, but I think it kinda messes up the sound of a tube amp (any fx pedal does that I guess)

don't buy digitech shit, (RP series) it really sucks and it fucks up your sound, Boss is one of my favorite pedal manufacturers, most digital effect units sound like crap though... the POD sounded average to me, the Behringer vamp thing was ever worse.

A friend of mine uses a Korg AX1500G, which in my ears sounds like it could deliver good metal dist (he doesn't really play metal).

I've played a GT6 at in a shop once, and it sounded cool, but I think it didn't sound very tubish (it was kinda raw and screechy in the higher areas of the neck). I dunno though, didn't spend much time fiddling around with it.

I myself have a Boss GX700, a now discontinued rack mount multi effect. It's in my opinion really good. Easy to handle, gives good sound, and so on. The drawback is that it's rackmount, so I need to get a pedalboard, but it'll still end up cheaper than a GT6, which is (I'm guessing) quite comparable in sound quality. GX700 (2000sek (swedish money)) + Behringer FCB1010 (2100sek) < GT6 (6000sek). But maybe our prices are twisted.

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true, the Korg ain't bad, the higher series that is, the ax1g sucks, the ax100g is the same but with more options (crap) a guy I knew had one, it was a POS.

the ax1000g and up have a descent construction and better sound.

I have the Boss ME-50 and its amazing, but you have to remember that its designed to work in co-ordination with your amp, not to model other amps. Its processing power is solely for effects rather than amp modelling. Its like having a bunch of stompboxes all in one as far as sound quality.

i am mainly wanting one with really good distortion, chorus, and other modulation (for clean shit), and a wah attached, so i can do volume pedal shit too. i am playing thru a peavey 50 watt classic, which uses 6L6 tubes, so i wanna run it clean, cus it sounds good, and gets shitty distortion on its own.

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I recently tried a Digitech RP300A, Boss ME-50 (briefly) and Zoom GFX-5. I didn't get to look at Korg, but I was told by someone that they could achieve the sound of every Metallica album using their Korg through a PA. The Zoom and Digitech units were on sale, and I ended up getting the Zoom GFX-5.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--ZOMGFX5

I don't regret it either, I am glad I didn't waste my money on the RP300, as alot of the effects and presets were bloody useless. The tone was too midrange overall on different settings even. When I put the Zoom GFX-5 on, it blew the RP300 into the ground. The distortion hit me first; it sounded way more brutal. Mind you I was playing them both through a $3000 (AUS) Peavey amp. However, even on my 50W Peavey Envoy transtube, it sounds great, or even running it through a line level stereo amp it rocks (especially the stereo ping pong delay and shit like that).

The ME-50 was easier to setup I have to say, suiting it to live performances. It uses knobs and buttons as opposed to the menus of the RP300. The ME-50 runs off AAs, but I heard it eats them fast. The RP300 doesn't even run off batteries; you need a 1.3A power supply! The Zoom runs off 4 AAs and has a 10 hour battery life (alkaline). The battery option is good, as I have loads of cables everywhere already, and one more would push me over the edge.

Now if you look at the link, you'll see all the features. But here's a rundown. Like the RP300 you can sample from CD or guitar and slow it down, you can also jam along to a CD, etc. The RP300 only gave you a 3 band eq. and a midrange centre frequency adjustment. The GFX-5 gives you a 4 band eq., where you can change all the centre AND crossover frequencies of the bands. Plus there is an energize knob that adds beef to the sound, plus turbo and edge buttons that add sharpness. It takes a while to learn how to use the GFX, but once you've got it, it's fast and easy. There's 3 modes manual, edit and play mode. Manual allows you to control stuff with just the foot pedals, like bpm of the drum loop, etc. Edit allows you to fiddle around, and then you can store the result of doing so. There's a bank of modules in series (although the position of the mod module in the chain can be changed), that you can turn on or off, and edit. You can quickly change the drive section, choosing standard, classical or modern variations of distortions, and there's a knob to change between fuzz, metal, etc. There's also cabinet and acoustic modelling; I got some mean sounding distortions using the cabinet/compressor/equaliser/delay settings.

There's also the VAMS and ARRM features. You can control parameters of effects with the pedal, or ARRM (various cyclic waveforms control the parameter), or a combo of pedal and ARRM. You can get all kinds of weird effects, like layering small recordings over and over, reversing them, adding huge delays, watery sounding flangers, etc. There are afew tripping sounds mods you can add that actually sound good. There's also all the standard stuff you expect like noise reduction and a noise gate (I personally don't use the noise gate), pitch shifter, wah, flanger, volume pedal, tremolo, chorus, compressor, vibrato, etc, etc. The tuner is actually quite good, better than the RP300s tuner. You can set a reference tone, etc too.

While overall the majority of effects sound great, a couple sound synthetic. Usually this is a problem with most multi effects units. In addition, sometimes you have to be careful not too pile on too much gain, bass and volume, as you can get some unnatural (bad) distortion. This was a problem on the RP300 as well, so you can't blame Zoom. If you overdrive any amp/preamp, you'll always get some bad distortion. The actual distortion module on the unit sounds a bit fuzzy at times, but that's just because the equaliser emphasises certain parts of the frequency. You can always change the eq, compressor, cabinte, etc, or add some gain from the guitar amp, and turn down the gain on the unit. The possibilities are endless.

So if you want good value for money, then I recommend it as a good multi effects unit. It (now) looks quite nice on the eye to me (gun metal and black finish), and it it very sturdy - metal chassis. Foot pedal is very solid and can be recalibrated. I felt bad after buying it (as I always do when I spend that type of money), but that's because I sat there in the shop knowing shit all how to use it. That wore off as soon as I got home, stepped through the manual, jotted down some reminders of how to do stuff, and started to make my own presets. I would definitely buy it again.

Anyway, hope that helps someone with their decision.

a tc electronics G major, great rack effect unit, about $500 new but you could probably find a used one somewhere. team it up with a midi floorboard unit and you're set, just not the G minor footswitch that is ment to go with it because it sucks.

sure this will cost more money, but a few years from now you won't want to get rid of it like you would with an rp or something.

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