# Boss MS-3 Multi Effects Switcher



## xCaptainx (Jun 16, 2017)

Starting a review thread for this as I just got an hour ago. 

First impressions. 


UI is easy to navigate. 

Build is VERY solid. Very confident having this on stage. 

Effects sound dope. 

Spent most of my time on clean channel playing with the pre sets. A lot of nice sounding fuzz presets I'm going to experiment with + delays. 

I bought this specifically for a mini effects unit with high quality effects. 

I replaced an entire Hotone mini pedal board and intend to use the four cable method with loop 3 for full effects routing. 

Overall I am stoked. I went from multi effects to digital, back to mini heads + mini boards. Stoked to go back to multi effects but with a MUCH smaller footprint as that's my vibe nowadays.


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## nerdywhale (Jun 17, 2017)

Thanks, Ross. Keen to hear more thoughts as time goes on!

I was looking at the ES-5 for a long time, then this popped up and went to the top of the list.

Can you have a reverb or delay in FX1 pre-loops? Or can you route each block I any order - eg. Loop 2 > Loop 1 > Loop3?


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## xCaptainx (Jun 18, 2017)

Alright so spent a fair bit of time with this over the weekend. 

Loop 1 to 3 are in a fixed position. Whilst you can have any number of the 6 effects before or after, you can not have effects inbetween. Boss have stated that they believe most users will want to use Overdrive/Fuzz/distortion pedals here, as users generally have extremely personal preferences with their OD and truth be told, the in built effects are extremely high quality anyway. 

You can have the remaining 6 effects blocks in any order you want, before or after the loops. 

The 4CM is extremely easy to do, you simply use loop 3. I spent the weekend using the 4CM with my 6505MH head. 

Overall I am extremely happy with this. The pre sets are nice for providing ideas and general 'this is how to get this sound' tips and guidance. 

I'm going to be using it in 'manual mode' which will allow me to assign effect parameters to the footswitch pedals. I set up a nice lead delay/reverb which is assigned to FS2. You can also assign CNTRL 1/2 to a footswitch also, so I'll be using it for channel switching once my TRS cable arrives for the 4CM snake I'm building. 

This is smaller than the Hotone board I was using, and much, much more functional.


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## xCaptainx (Jun 18, 2017)

My apologies, the images aren't working. 

Here we go


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## PBGas (Jun 18, 2017)

xCaptainx said:


> Alright so spent a fair bit of time with this over the weekend.
> 
> Loop 1 to 3 are in a fixed position. Whilst you can have any number of the 6 effects before or after, you can not have effects inbetween. Boss have stated that they believe most users will want to use Overdrive/Fuzz/distortion pedals here, as users generally have extremely personal preferences with their OD and truth be told, the in built effects are extremely high quality anyway.
> 
> ...



Thank you! Thank You and Thank You again for verifying that 4CM will work with this. Super happy! Mine should be in this week up here so I am pretty excited to get it. 

Can't wait!


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## xCaptainx (Jun 18, 2017)

No prob! One of the crew at Boss Australia is a regular on an NZ Guitar forum, he put up a video of himself using the four cable method shortly after the announcement, as it was our #1 question. 

Very excited to get into this much more. I've been a one trick rhythm pony for quite some time but looking forward to expanding my palette and playing style a bit more with some interesting tones and effects going on!


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## xCaptainx (Jun 18, 2017)

Sorry I'm having a bit of issues with imgur. Will try these links instead.


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## nerdywhale (Jun 19, 2017)

Tidy rig!


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## russmuller (Jun 20, 2017)

I'm pretty excited about this piece of gear. I've got a LOT of pedals and I think that integrating the MS-3 with an ES-8 would probably be the most effective way to manage that mess.


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## StrmRidr (Jun 21, 2017)

Awesome to hear that the 4CM works well with this unit. I may have to reconsider.


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## JD27 (Jun 21, 2017)

That's a nice clean setup.


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## ESPImperium (Jun 21, 2017)

Im wondering how this would work with a bass in a bass rig/pedalboard with a couple of pedals in the loops like a MXR Compressor and a couple of dirt pedals.

With a Phil Jones Bass Double Four and a wah pedal and its pretty much everything id need for bass.


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## xCaptainx (Jun 21, 2017)

Thanks guys! Love my setup. Covers all the bases now, which I'm stoked on. 6505MH for the metal, Classic 20w for everything else. 

This would work very well for bass, it has 28 bass effects to choose from I think. 



10 min 30 onwards is the creation of a bass patch, with a near identical setup you suggested ESPImperium.


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## PBGas (Jun 21, 2017)

Just picked mine up! Going to have some fun this weekend setting things up!


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## A-Branger (Jun 22, 2017)

ESPImperium said:


> Im wondering how this would work with a bass in a bass rig/pedalboard with a couple of pedals in the loops like a MXR Compressor and a couple of dirt pedals.
> 
> With a Phil Jones Bass Double Four and a wah pedal and its pretty much everything id need for bass.



how many effects do you need for a bass appart from what you already have, or better said how many do you actually would use


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## nerdywhale (Jun 23, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> how many effects do you need for a bass appart from what you already have, or better said how many do you actually would use


How many effects do you need for guitar? That's how many they need for bass.


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## A-Branger (Jun 23, 2017)

nerdywhale said:


> How many effects do you need for guitar? That's how many they need for bass.



far from truth. Depending on the music style you can go fully nuts with guitar effects and different parameters per each effects and combinations of them. But on a bass?. I get having some dirt for some styles and having a compressor always is good (both already own by the guy I quoted from), would you need a chorus or a flanger on a bass? or reverb?, delay? (maaaaybe for one ambiental song). I know everyone plays different, I have been playing bass for 17 years in whole different styles, yet I still dont own any pedal. I would love a compressor but thats it. At one point early I bough a digitech BP8 pedal board. it didnt last me a year before I stopped using it because I didnt really use it

also my question is more because this pedal is aimed so you can control your amp channel switching with it. Thing a bass doesnt have either.

Nothing wrong here, if he wants to go for it then go for it, just genuinely curious as how many effects he uses/needs. Not that this cant be used with a bass, but the biggest more used effects on a bass, he already owns them or hes planning to buy them separately. So at the end is like buying $$$ this board for one FX for that one song


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## nerdywhale (Jun 23, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> far from truth. Depending on the music style you can go fully nuts with guitar effects and different parameters per each effects and combinations of them. But on a bass?. I get having some dirt for some styles and having a compressor always is good (both already own by the guy I quoted from), would you need a chorus or a flanger on a bass? or reverb?, delay? (maaaaybe for one ambiental song). I know everyone plays different, I have been playing bass for 17 years in whole different styles, yet I still dont own any pedal. I would love a compressor but thats it. At one point early I bough a digitech BP8 pedal board. it didnt last me a year before I stopped using it because I didnt really use it
> 
> also my question is more because this pedal is aimed so you can control your amp channel switching with it. Thing a bass doesnt have either.
> 
> Nothing wrong here, if he wants to go for it then go for it, just genuinely curious as how many effects he uses/needs. Not that this cant be used with a bass, but the biggest more used effects on a bass, he already owns them or hes planning to buy them separately. So at the end is like buying $$$ this board for one FX for that one song


I'm sure you didn't mean to (as you said, you know everyone plays different) but your post read like there is only one way to play bass, that everyone plays bass that same way, and ESPimperium is nuts  for wanting the Boss unit for bass. Even though it is being marketed as a unit for bass as much as it is as a unit for guitar.

This post also paints a similar picture. 

It's music. Art, if you will. Words like "true" and "false" don't apply. Unless you're a Manowar fan. 

Absolutely, depending on the music style, you CAN go fully nuts with bass effects and different parameters per effect, and combinations of them too! Of course you'd need chorus or a flanger on a bass. Why not? Reverb? Yup. Delay? Sure! Does one _need_ these effects for guitar even? No. Does one _want_ them? YES. GIMME. They're fun. Fun on bass too! 

I think it's cool that your playing doesn't need or want effects too. A pure, clean bass sound is a thing of beauty, but so is fcking it up with effects! 

Lots of bass amps have channel switching. My Thunderverb 200 does. If yours doesn't that's cool too! Imagine you used a preamp pedal in one of the loops, and it has some sort of remote switching - be it an OD channel, a bass boost, tone stack defeat (I'm not too savvy with what features bass preamps would have) - you could use the Boss unit to trigger that along with other effects! Sweet! Makes this unit even more attractive.

You're right, there's nothing wrong here. This unit is one of the more interesting things I've seen (YMMV) in a while. Flexibility, sounds, size... Boss deserves a high-five. And I'm curious as to how many effects ESPimperium uses on bass. Must be pretty cool. Not nuts. At all. Maybe in a good way. Not an emoji way.

Are you excited about this unit? I am!


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## ESPImperium (Jun 24, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> how many effects do you need for a bass appart from what you already have, or better said how many do you actually would use



MXR Bass Compressor, Boss ODB-3, MXR Bass Fuzz, Dunlop Bass Wah and run the onboard octaver and sometimes a delay, or reverb from inside the Boss unit and have a DI to split the signal to a bass amp and PA if you are playing live and it would pretty much be what i need.

Im not interested in any amp sims (if they are on this thing) but am interested in many of the effects.


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## xCaptainx (Jun 27, 2017)

My long TRS cable arrived a few days ago, so now have a 4CM snake + TRS included for channel switching with the MS-3. 

Quite simple to set up multiple controls to a single footswitch. I'm using manual mode so that the footswitches can be assigned to control parameters within the patch itself, and do not control patch switching within the bank. 

FS1 switches to my 6505MH clean channel + turns on reverb effect. 

Going to set this up some more to give me four different effects 'scenes' within my patch, much like I used to with Axe Fx and HD500 to allow my delay trails to continue after switching effects within the patch. 

Was pretty easy to set up and I'm really enjoying this pedal!


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## nerdywhale (Jun 27, 2017)

Is the Hotone pedal on your board a Wah or expression for effects?


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## xCaptainx (Jun 27, 2017)

Both, lol. It's a wah/volume/expression pedal. I'll be using it as expression pedal once my TRS Patch cable arrives in the post!


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## nerdywhale (Jun 27, 2017)

Tight rig.


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## StrmRidr (Jun 28, 2017)

Is there any noticeable lag in the unit when switching between presets?


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## xCaptainx (Jul 7, 2017)

Setup complete! Smallest 4CM multi effects I've ever had.


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## Unleash The Fury (Jul 9, 2017)

How is this pedal much different or better than something like the gt-100. Besides its a little cheaper. But what can it do that the gt100 cannot?


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## xCaptainx (Jul 10, 2017)

That's quite a large question. 

This is primarily a loop controller first. It's not the first that Boss have created, they have larger ones for 5 and 8 loops. 

This is primarily for people who may want to control three seperate loops. 

The major selling point for me was that it has 112 build in effects from the existing GT range. FX1 slot, FX2 slot, Delay, Reverb, Mod plus the three loops, tuner, noise gate, expression pedal for volume/wah/pitch/effects parameters. 

I'm using it as a smaller mini multi effects as the Boss GT range of effects are strong and by using this, I replaced my existing pedalboard and added much more functionality. 

So it really had two purposes. It allowed you to control existing pedals via the loops and/or minimise the rest of your pedalboard through the use of it's in built effects range, which themselves are very good. 

It's not a GT-100 replacement, as it doesn't do amp modelling or the sort. It's a looper with in built effects.


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## StrmRidr (Jul 10, 2017)

I just received mine Friday and I am in love. It is exactly what I needed. I no longer have to dance around my pedalboard to go from a dry heavy sound to a clean with chorus and reverb. One click, instant change with no lag whatsoever.


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## nerdywhale (Aug 29, 2017)

Necrobump, just wanted to see what Ross is thinking about the MS-3, coming up to the 2 month mark. Getting an itchy trigger finger for one!


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## hvdh (Oct 5, 2017)

Bit late to the party. This thing is so advanced that it can trigger and control everything in Tha House.
A BOSS indeed!


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## rexbinary (Jan 22, 2018)

I was reading up on the MS-3 and found that if you setup 4ch with Loop 2, then Loop 1 can be in front of the amp, and Loop 3 can be in the fx loop. See here:



BOSS said:


> Connections would be as follows: (For this example use LOOP 2 (PRE AMP of AMP)
> This will allow for the effect/stomp box in LOOP 1 to be before PRE AMP and the effect/stomp box in LOOP 3 after PRE AMP)
> - GUITAR/BASS to INPUT of MS-3.
> - MS-3 LOOP 2 SEND to AMP INPUT.
> ...



https://www.roland.com/us/support/knowledge_base/115002871046/


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## PBGas (Jan 22, 2018)

I have 2 of these units! One of them I use with my amp pedalboard via 4CM and the other goes to my board that I use to run direct to FOH. I had one go bad on me in the summer and returned it so I decided to re-visit it again and now with the editor and software updates, it is a fantastic little unit. No issues and works great! So easy to edit and update via USB.


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## hvdh (Jan 26, 2018)

Great unit. Small multi multi flexible and paid Euro 380.
Perfect volume mitigator for and with my EVH 5153 50.


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## matisq (Jan 26, 2018)

I'm having it too and love it!
Great MIDI functionality, very good drives. 
I'm using it to control Strymon Timeline and Marshall JVM205 and it's just perfect!


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## TeeWX (Jan 26, 2018)

What kind of tone suck are you seeing with the MS3 as compared to the pedals direct?


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## tupesaku (Jan 27, 2018)

I got a MS-3 a while ago and gotta say it's pretty amazing! And the price is really reasonable too...only thing is that I had to wait for a looooong time to get it, it was out from every where I was looking for. Finally Thomann got one that I ordered the second I noticed it 

I'm using mine in 4CM with a Taurus Stomp Head 4 HG. Also have a Precision Drive in the loop, and a Mini Cry Baby and a Whammy Ricochet in front of everything.

Really loving this setup...everything in one very compact pedalboard!


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## PBGas (Jan 27, 2018)

TeeWX said:


> What kind of tone suck are you seeing with the MS3 as compared to the pedals direct?



I am not experiencing any tone suck whatsoever. I’ve switched it out and take it out of the loop of my BE-50 and tried to hear a difference and there is not. Works great!


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## hvdh (Dec 18, 2020)

Bit of a necro bump. But experiencing some trouble with the unit.
1 signal clipping when strumming hard or digging in E and A
strings. Reducing signal with volumepedal block does not help. There might be a buffer problem.
2 1.9 dB increase in the mid frequencies bandwith around 2,2 KHz.

any of the owners here experiencing one of the same problems?

BTW to make sure it is the unit I changed guitar, cables, headphones, I even connected my headphones directly in to the unit. The clipping and freq bump stay.

Already have an appointment at the Boss/Roland repair man.
So wish me luck.


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## maggotspawn (Dec 18, 2020)

I just snagged another one, making 3 for different rigs.
Running them 4CM. It is like a Swiss Army Knife.
Does everything I need.


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## ATRguitar91 (Dec 19, 2020)

maggotspawn said:


> I just snagged another one, making 3 for different rigs.
> Running them 4CM. It is like a Swiss Army Knife.
> Does everything I need.


Curious as to how you use them. For switching and the built in effects? I've considered grabbing one for my stereo preamp pedal rig.


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## maggotspawn (Dec 19, 2020)

ATRguitar91 said:


> Curious as to how you use them. For switching and the built in effects? I've considered grabbing one for my stereo preamp pedal rig.


I use them 4CM with my rackmount tube preamp rigs. FX and channel switching.
With my Rocktron Valvesonic preamp rig, it doesn't have a clean channel.
So Iput a Joyo American Sound in a loop, for cleans. These things kick a$$.
Highly recommended.


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## hvdh (Dec 19, 2020)

Did a bit of testing today. Measurement mic before cab and 
1 MS3 switched out of the eff loop and 
2 in the eff loop of my EVH

- now the frequency bump af 2.3 Khz is gone and the unit us pretty flat. Small difference at 4 - 5 khz. 

To make sure I made no mistake earlier also tested guitar direct in the DAW without the MS3 and with the MS-3. And there is the 2.3 khz bump again.

Weird stuff. Or does anyone has a explenation?


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