Boss ME-25 Guitar Multi-Effects Pedal  

I bought this guy to replace my digitech rp70. That digitech (incase you're considering other options) was worth the 80 i spent on it in sound and programming convenience, but was so cheaply made. The pedals stopped working (a common problem with digi's) within 5 months. I decided I'd get something more durable

I upgraded to the ME-25 because it has basically every effect you could want, with a looper and even a recording interface. The interface works great with sonar and the sound that comes from my amp is gorgeous. Crazy clear and full on a variety of effect channels.

The only thing that annoys me sometimes is that the adjustment of your effects channels use shared knobs, as opposed to a value up/down button like on the rp 70. This means that the same knob that controlls your treble or bass when adjusting the eq of your channel controls the level of reverb or delay or whatever else. The problem with that is you don't know exactly where your levels were if you decide to go back and change it, because that knob was very likely used to adjust something else.

Here's an example: I find a distortion I like then eq it with the preap adjustment and turn the treble knob to somewhat middle (lets say 50%), then I add delay and use the same knob  to bring up the level of my delay to 80%, then use the same knob again to bring the reverb mix of the reverb effect to a saturated 90%. Now, i decide there's too much treble and go back into the eq settings. My knob is still jacked to the right from the reverb and the second I touch it, the level of treble jumps up to between 80 and 100 because i left it turned 90 percent for the reverb. If i want to actually turn down the reverb, i kinda have to guess where the level was before and go down from there (which is annoying because we all adjust using our ears).  The box does disply a value as you turn the knobs, but in a sea of performace, recording, and jamming channels, there's no way in hell you're gonna remember it. The rp70 in comparison always displayed a number value and starts where you left it when you re-edit your channels. As for the ME-25 sometimes I start to confuse myself as to whether I just turned up or turned down an effect, because I don't really have any reference.

Also, the rp 70 goes silent when you use the tuner so you can tune during a song. Unless I haven't figured out how to silence it, the ME-25 goes to like a soft clean channel when you tune and you wouldn't want that interupting a song if you're tuning mid-song. You could bring your volume totally down with the expression pedal I suppose, but much like the adjustment knobs, you'd have to guess how loud you were before when you volume back up after tuning. not a deal breaker but a just touch annoying.

Still absolutely worth the $ i spent for it. The sounds coming out of it are gorgeous and the pedals seem pretty durable and long lasting. The whole box is a nice strong metal with these little rubber feet added as well.  Way better thant he cheap little plastic rp70. It's also a great d/i preamp if you want some effects on recordings (although I'd recommend using an amp simulator post-recording).