Zoom MS-100BT MultiStomp Effects Pedal with Bluetooth Reviews

4.3/5.0 based on 16 customer reviews

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Customer Reviews

Mark
from San Diego, CA
February 28, 2013Music Background:
Pro guitarist and composer

Great value and perfect for my board

I rarely write reviews unless I find a piece of gear that impresses me enough - and this pedal delivers. I have a fairly large pedalboard loaded with boutique pedals and have literally waited years to find something like the MS-100BT to fit the bill, as the usual multi-FX boards take up too much real-estate and often do not have the sound quality to match my rig. I am a pro guitarist and won't use a piece of gear that degrades my tone. So I will describe my particular use for this pedal as follows:

Pros: if you are looking for a pedal that will give you all of those special FX that you use to complement boutique overdrives, etc., then I highly recommend this pedal. It actually does many FX really well - more than I needed it to do. The compressors are actually quite good, as are the filter, chorus, flanger and phaser effects and delays. While the amp models and overdrives leave a bit to be desired, they are helpful to have around for those songs that need a different sound.

Cons: since I rely on my amp and boutique overdrive pedals, I don't need to complain about those in the MS-100BT, but the Marshall and Bogner models are actually quite good. The major performance drawback is that using the built-in effects chain can be cumbersome if you need to skip around patches quickly. I overcame this obstacle by purchasing a loop-bypass pedal that keeps the MS-100BT out of the signal path while I am changing patches - so I can do that while I am playing without hearing the patches I am stepping through. Other than that, I would really like to see a firmware upgrade that adds more user patch locations, lets me back up my patches, and even be able to transfer them to a second unit for another board.

Overall, this pedal is an incredible value and many of the effects are as good as some high-end units. Very happy with my purchase.

Mike C.
from Boston, MA
February 22, 2013Music Background:
Hobbyist, Effects pedal junkie

Incredible

I bought this pedal because I wanted to be able to add a lot of versatility to my board in terms of effects, more specifically delays and reverbs. After just an hour or so of working with it, I had the controls down and understood how to get where i needed within the pedal. The interface is clear and easy to navigate, which was very appreciated. I've already downloaded the Stompshare effects, and I've got to be honest in saying that I don't think the value could be any better. 99 cents for a duo-trem pedal that works FANTASTIC is a steal. the Centagold pedal is very well done, and the additional amp models add plenty of range to what this impressive pedal can do.

I like that you do NOT have to remove old effects to add new ones from the app, which was a concern I had going into this purchase.

My friend who I am teaching guitar bought this not long after I did and with this pedal and a wah, he has the capability of making so many tones that he'll be happy for a long, long time.

I do, however, wish there was more room for presets/user settings. there are 30 presets and 20 open slots for user patches, meaning after 20 of your own patches you'll have to overwrite the presets. not a big deal to some, but I'm always looking for more space in terms of presets and patches.

This pedal surpassed my expectations (and my friend's, as well) and I look forward to each and every available upgrade via stompshare.

Frank Bello
from Huntington, NY
February 8, 2013Music Background:
Hobbyist

I can't believe what I'm hearing Pedal

I guess the only drawback to this pedal is that it does not have a color screen! Crazy good. It has a bunch of presets, ability to set your own and then on top of that you can purchase Apple or Android apps that simulate other pedals and power amps. These apps (at least for Apple) only cost between $0.99 and $1.99 each. It takes a little getting used to (especially since the instructions are in very small print) but once you get the hang of it you will be pleasantly surprised!

Macatowa
from Holland, MI
January 27, 2013Music Background:
Hobbyist

Big Fun With MS-100BT

If your like me and you are getting started and learning how to make all the different tones and sounds but you don't have a pedal board, this is your ticket! Not only is it packed full of great tones, you can get great downloads from itunes for a dollar or two. The Centagold pedal if you could even find one goes for $2500 bucks or $.99 on i-tunes and if is very very nice. The amp sims are great like a Matchless or Orange, make your own patch dial it in OD, amp, delay ect.

Suart973
from Chico, ca
January 27, 2013Music Background:
Bass

Amazing, simply amazing.

What else can I say?

Douglas Johnson
from United States
December 16, 2012Music Background:
Recording Artist, Producer, Recording Engineer

Game Changer

As my title suggests, this is a game changer. Now in one pedal space you can have any effect you need. Its almost like having the entire boss range of pedals available in one pedal. Not only that, but the ability to have 6 different effects going at once means you can essentially have a pedalboard within your pedalboard in the space of just one pedal. Need to have specific effects in an odd order for just one song? No problem, this pedal can do that.

I have a pedalboard with limited space (doesn't everyone?) and this pedal allows me to have all those pedals that I might use on one song as a "special effect" in one slot right where it belongs in my chain. Not only that but what I am using it for (slow volume, trem, pitch, vibrato, chorus and rotary speaker) the effects are quite amazingly good.

As far as the quality of effects I am not a huge fan of modeling amps or modeling distortions, but these sound as good or better than any I have heard. I think the reverbs are exceptional and the delays are good. And again, the modulation, pitch, and volume effects are as good as I think I have heard.

Whats more is if you don't find what you want you can download new pedals for 99 cents! They have a tube echoplex I want to try as well as a centaur model which actually sounded good for a digital distortion to my ears. I also want to get the duo trem. That is a good example of an effect that would be expensive to obtain as I think only boutique shops are making that type of effect at the moment. And it is also the type of effect you might use once a set. Do you spent $200.00+ and have this huge pedal on your board or spend $150.00 on the Zoom and have that pedal plus many more?

Don't get me wrong, I am not a huge fan of convenience when it come to my art. Sometimes you have to do things the old way to get the tone. Yes you can make whole songs with just a guitar and modeling software. Do I do this? No. I use a mostly analog signal path for my guitar. But for me there is a time and a place for technology. Where I can go "old school" I often do. And that is the beauty of this pedal is the way it can integrate into my workflow in so many ways. I can use it as an entire modeling rig, just on its own. I can use it to replace pedals in my pedalboard if they should break. I can use it to expand my pedal board with pedals that I don't use very often. I can use it to run an entirely different effect order for just one song and still use my pedalboard for the rest. I can have a different EQ setting for each guitar I own. The possibilities are endless. I also plan to use it to run my DSI mopho x4 synth through mostly for delays, verbs and chorus.

The other thing about this pedal is its interface is like a virtual pedalboard. Once you understand the way the navigation works everything is pretty intuitive. The interface acts like a little window on a virtual pedalboard on which you can manipulate or change one effect at a time. You can scroll though your six effects by moving left and right, or you can change the effect in a slot by scrolling up and down. Want to change a parameter, grab a knob just as you would on a stompbox. Seriously Zoom should win an award for this thing!

So if you can't tell, I am very pleased with my purchase. So much so I am about to buy my second one from Sweetwater right now!

Dan Leonhardt
from Niles, Mi
January 20, 2013Music Background:
46 years of loving guitar

It could be the Holy Grail

The first unit I received had a problem. The center parameter knob failed to function when editing effects or scrolling thru presets. After contact with Zoom I re-initialized the pedal which corrected the problem for a brief moment. Sweetwater was great in replacing the unit and now that I've had some time tweaking the sounds I've nearly reached Nirvana. This thing sounds amazing and takes such a small bit of Real Estate! I will be mainly using it for my Taylor 514CE acoustic. It has pristine delays & reverbs. I programmed a de-tune setting which creates a beautiful shimmering chorusing, and the "rack comp" effect can be programmed to sound so transparent my wife (who usually hates compression) couldn't even tell when it was engaged. Using an "A-B" foot-switch in front, I can change to my G & L Strat and get some great electric effects too. I'm not much of a "tone Nazi" when it comes to electric but I got some great Larry Carlton sounds with this thing. Did I mention these sounds are in stereo? Drawbacks are: 1 ) no way to back up personally edited effects, 2) you have to know your set list and pre-program your memory settings or you'll be doing a lot of bending down to change settings. (Maybe with a software update sounds can be changed via bluetooth.) Wishes are; a bluetooth expression pedal. Outside of the above caveats, it's nearly the Holy Grail!

Blind Dog
from Longmont, CO
January 18, 2013Music Background:
studio owner, guitars of all shapes and sizes

Love it - a great multi-effect unit

Years ago I had a Zoom pedal and it was just noisy, so I've avoided Zoom gear for a long, long time. Thought I'd dip a toe in the water with this unit as it just sounded too good to be true. Well, it's both good and true! Very impressive unit and well worth the coin. The effects sound really good, surprisingly authentic, and the processing power is incredible for the number of things this pedal will do.

(I'd give it 5 stars, but I had to return the first unit I received because the input jacks wouldn't hold a cable. The replacement unit inputs are better and workable, but still a little sloppy compared to the output jacks. It's interesting that both inputs are sloppy but the outputs are tight. I wonder if all unit are like that?)

Richie Naef
from Long Island, New York
January 8, 2013Music Background:
Weekend Warrior veteran

Kool 'Lil Pedal

Easy to use interface.
Good tone on the amp simulations.
The A B switching works well enough for quick changining of patches
Small size is astounding
Downloading new patches from the app is great to keep it fresh
It's like having a pedal board you can fit in your pocket
Fun for one and all
Buy two

Ray Jennings
from Pioneer, Ca.
January 8, 2013Music Background:
Amateur recording artist in personal studio

One pedal fits all!

This little zoom pedal packs a wallop in features and sound quality! The screen is easy to read and settings are a breeze. Haven't utilized the Bluetooth feature to download more amps and sounds because I'm having too much fun playing with the 100 pre sets already loaded! Playing these sounds through a fender frontman 2x12 and they sound great! WY to go Zoom and thanks to my Sweetwater rep for recommending this great tool. Small footprint at a small price. Very nice!

Roger Moore
from Tenn.
December 31, 2012Music Background:
Musician

Good little box

This is great little pedal. It offers several ways to use it and can be a bit deep if you like real simple pedals, but it will do a whole lot at once. I was looking for a small, battery powered pedal that was able to do mult-effects in one patch. This little guy fits the bill. In the studio it is a great space saving way to have alot of effects in one place. Live, the simple controls means you will be bending down to do "something" with the pedal. I say "something" because you do have options as to how the single switch will operate. One thing I did want to point out, was that in another review it was stated that you could only turn one effect on/off at a time. This is true, however there is an effects that is a line selector. When off the signal goes straight to the output, but when turnded on the signal goes to the effects. So if this the first effects in the chain then you can have up to five fx after it and use the switch to go between 'off' (sound goes direct to output with no fx) or 'on' Which sends the sound thru the effects (again, you can have up to five fx) so you are going from no fx to 5 fx with one button push. You can also put the line selector anywhere in the fx order, so I can use a compressor and eq before the line selector and delay/dist (whatever) after the line selector. The guitar siganl goes in and has comp and eq always added, but I can turn the delay/dist off/on with one switch press. About the effects. They are all pretty good. I really like all the delay options. And the fact that you have several different "flavors" of all the effects is nice. The bluetooth worked as advertised with no problem, and the SpaceEcho effect I downloaded is awesome! Will buy more effects in the future. Again great all aroung little box, if you don't mind getting a your hands dirty doing a litlle programming, and possible doing a little bending down.

James Drury
from Ga USA
December 29, 2012Music Background:
GuitarVocalSongwriting a band named J.E.D.

A no suck digital!

This was a Christmas gift from my brother. Was not expecting it and was not overly thrilled when I saw it. I am a tube amp analog pedal kind of guy usually (I have a Roland VG-88 I am trying to incorporate). I had the Digitech RP1, a Zoom multi pedal, but never really liked the sounds. This has 100 different effects in a small pedal format. So far I have been impressed. I'm weird about tone nd especially OD / distortion (bought only three such pedals in my 20+ years of playing). Not everything seems useable but many effects are superb. I like the various reverbs and echos. The amps and envelope filter effects are cool. I think I could play out with this if I was feeling lazy, which NEVER happens.
The Bluetooth thing seems funny as it is only to try out and buy new pedals (in case 100 isn't enough ya freak!). Syncing w iOS devices like Garage Band would be cooler, but oh well.

Paul B
from Boston
March 23, 2013Music Background:
Folk music performer

Great pedal with a couple of (for me) gotchas

I'm very impressed by the quality of the sound of this pedal, and for my relatively simple needs it should work well for live performing (using a chain of one saved model preset per song). But I have run into a couple of gotchas which make it difficult to use in a pedalboard setup (as opposed to as a single pedal on its own).

1. Behavior of DC power jack. On other pedals, if there's power connected to the external power jack, the internal battery is disabled, whether or not the external power is turned on. So you can have batteries in the unit and leave it connected to the pedalboard's power source, and when you unplug the pedalboard's power, the battery doesn't start to drain. With me so far? With this pedal, and the MS-50, this isn't true: if I connect the pedal to an AC adapter and plug a guitar cable into the input, the pedal powers up even if the AC adapter isn't plugged into the wall. So the AC adapter plug does not disable the internal battery. In a fully connected powered pedalboard setting, you can't have a battery in the unit or it'll drain whenever the pedalboard isn't connected to AC.

2. Power Management mode -- turns the pedal off after 10 hours. Not sure what the advantage is supposed to be (since that's longer than the battery would last so it's only useful on AC power), but once it activates and shuts the pedal down, the only way to start it up again is to disconnect the AC and guitar input connections and reconnect. So you wouldn't want to use this mode in a tightly-populated pedalboard.

For me, this is a great pedal to take to an open mike by itself and play an electric without hauling an amp etc. -- I can setup a full set of amp sims and effects for each song and step through them and I really like the sounds ... I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use it in an actual pedalboard given the limitations I've listed -- maybe I'm missing something? Remove the battery and disable the power management mode seems to be the only way to use it in a pedalboard.

GM
from CA
December 21, 2012Music Background:
gigging musician, 30+ years experience

An Interesting Stompbox - Promising but Underdeveloped

Warning: this is a lengthy, detailed overview.

Having to use a wide variety of sounds at our gigs, many even within the course of a single song, I am curious about multi-effects and units that give more versatility and flexibility that just the single-stompbox "effect on/effect off" choice. At the same time, something versatile but smaller than my GT-10 would be nice.

MS-100BT gives you sounds (or patches, as they call them), each of which can contain up to 6 effects at a time, and it's LOADED with presets. The iOS Bluetooth library is a very small cherry on the cake as it' offers only some 15 amp models/effects (although pretty decent ones) and the presets already do a great job.

However, in each of those patches, you can switch only one of those (up to) 6 effects on or off with the footswitch. So you can have a blues sound and within it add a compressor or a booster for the solo and turn it off for rhythm. Next song, you can use a clean sound and within it turn chorus on and off. And so forth. The effects are all very good for any live application. Sure, some purists will whine how the preset chorus, distortion or reverb doesn't sound exactly like some vintage 1976 stompbox, but any sane gigging musician can in fact dramatically reduce the pedalboard load by using this one unit alone.

To do anything more, including even change the effect within the patch you want to turn on or off via the footswitch, you will have to kneel and fiddle with very small cursor buttons and the small, simplistic screen.

Within the sounds, you can select up to 6 effects from a huge library and, most importantly, chain them in different orders

Bottom line:
- If you improvise a lot, jam and need on-the-spur-of-the-moment flexibility, if you need to change sounds on the fly and use effects right away with no planning, then this is absolutely wrong for you. You'd have to spend most of your gig on your knees fiddling with buttons and cursor keys instead of playing.

-If you have a firm song list and use up to two sounds per song (where the two sounds differ in the presence/absence of one effect only), then this is a life-saver that will allow you to sell most of, or all your stompboxes and happily carry only this one Swiss Army knife around.

Zoom would be smart to develop an iOS app for controlling patches and effects. Being able to do it without squatting or kneeling in the dark, using an iPad instead, would dramatically increase the flexibility this thing offers. Seeing the patch and its 6 effects, and being able to reassign what's controlled by the footswitch on the iPad screen would be a huge improvement and then this would be a truly useful box for a mich wider user base.

Charlie
from Detroit, Michigan
March 12, 2013Music Background:
Musician

Good in theory but impractical in a live setting

I purchased the Zoom in hopes of gaining a variety of effects, amp models, distortions, and overdrives in one stomp box on my pedal board. I was attracted to the idea of putting patches together and saving them. Although the effects sound pretty good, as do the overdrives, the problem is the pedal remains on all the time making it impossible to bypass back to your natural amp. For this to happen you would need to program an empty patch in addition to all your other presets and toggle through all of them quickly to get back to your amp, and even then, the pedal still remains on. A one button footswitch just doesn't work for changing on the fly. Furthermore, the blue tooth isn't too exciting. You have enough to work with without downloading more sounds. The amp models are a bit tinny, high pitched, trebly, and lack air. I found the standard effects especially the delays useful, but things like keyboard, bomb, and other useless fart sounds that make your guitar unrecognizable I wouldn't have a place for. Bottom-line is If you're looking for a variety of options that sound okay in one pedal to use in a recording session, or to jam at home, this may be your thing. I have an original POD for that. If you want access to your sounds on the fly in a live setting look elsewhere. You'd be doing a lot of tap dancing to make this work live, and you'd better be lightning quick with your toes.

Horacio
from Los Angeles
January 15, 2013Music Background:
Recording Engineer and Guitarist for 20 years+

Great Idea but lacks sound quality

I am using this pedal to go directly into a mixer. THE GOOD: compact sized, battery or AC powered, very useful LCD, rugged, tons of built in effx & amp models, stereo or mono, lots of sounds for $150
THE NOT SO GOOD: sound quality is thin and lacks "air". Regardless of the amp model chosen, it seems to have that same "digital POD" sound. I plugged the Zoom's output into a $200 SansAmp pedal before the mixer and then it sounds rather good. The IOS app is useless, all u can do is buy new "amps & effx; you can't tweak/control the pedal. The output level is low and there is no master volume.