Looking for a low cost multi effects pedal

Kerry Brown

Kerry Brown

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I'm looking for a pedal I can use at open mics. I'll be using it with acoustic and electric guitars, ukuleles, and bass ukuleles. I will set it up at home, walk on stage and plug in to the house PA. Usually at open mics they have a DI to plug into so I would need a line out. I've been looking at the Mooer GE250 Pro. Anyone have any experience with it?
 
I have a Boss GT1. I don't gig..... but I use it as a "practice amp." As in... headphones. I like mine and if I ever went back on worship team and was playing electric rather than acoustic, I might be inclined to use it the way you are describing. It does have a line out. Either via a guitar cable or USB. Don't know what they currently sell for but betting you might be able to find one used at a reasonable cost.

Edit: When I played acoustic for the worship band I had a small pedal board setup with tuner and a few acoustic friendly pedals and routed that thru a Radial Tonebone Preamp. The Tonebone has a FX In/Out loop that I could kick in and out. Theoretically it also should work as a DI, but I ultimately plugged it into one of the church's DI boxes and got a bit stronger signal to the board.

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I've never used the Mooer GE250 Pro, but it doesn't look like a bad unit.

As for the DI box, unless the house really expects you to use the DI, you can completely bypass it by running the XLR outputs direct to the mix. Of course, it does have the 1/4" outputs, so you can run those to the DI, if you have to. The purpose of the direct inject (DI) box is to convert high-impedance, unbalanced audio to low-impedance, balanced audio. Since the XLR outputs are your low-impedance, balanced audio, you don't really need the DI box. But, of course, some venues may not like you unplugging their stuff, so you can always run your unbalanced outputs (the 1/4" outputs) to the DI, if that's what they prefer. Personally, I prefer to have as little stuff in the audio chain as possible, so in those instances where I've used house audio and they let me bypass a DI box, I always opt for that.

But, as for the unit itself, like I said, I have never used it. But, honestly, the emulation technology has gotten so good these days that you'll probably be fine with that. It may lack some features and bells and whistles, but it should sound okay.
 
smitty_p said:
I've never used the Mooer GE250 Pro, but it doesn't look like a bad unit.

As for the DI box, unless the house really expects you to use the DI, you can completely bypass it by running the XLR outputs direct to the mix. Of course, it does have the 1/4" outputs, so you can run those to the DI, if you have to. The purpose of the direct inject (DI) box is to convert high-impedance, unbalanced audio to low-impedance, balanced audio. Since the XLR outputs are your low-impedance, balanced audio, you don't really need the DI box. But, of course, some venues may not like you unplugging their stuff, so you can always run your unbalanced outputs (the 1/4" outputs) to the DI, if that's what they prefer. Personally, I prefer to have as little stuff in the audio chain as possible, so in those instances where I've used house audio and they let me bypass a DI box, I always opt for that.

But, as for the unit itself, like I said, I have never used it. But, honestly, the emulation technology has gotten so good these days that you'll probably be fine with that. It may lack some features and bells and whistles, but it should sound okay.
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I think we may have had to run DI's. Our cabling ran into the floor. Under the sanctuary. Up a wall, upstairs to the balcony. Then finally into the mixer. Not a sound guy, so don't hold me to the required DI. Just remembering the only way I got my guitar to the board was thru the house supplied DI.
 
iblive said:
I have a Boss GT1. I don't gig..... but I use it as a "practice amp." As in... headphones. I like mine and if I ever went back on worship team and was playing electric rather than acoustic, I might be inclined to use it the way you are describing. It does have a line out. Either via a guitar cable or USB. Don't know what they currently sell for but betting you might be able to find one used at a reasonable cost.

Edit: When I played acoustic for the worship band I had a small pedal board setup with tuner and a few acoustic friendly pedals and routed that thru a Radial Tonebone Preamp. The Tonebone has a FX In/Out loop that I could kick in and out. Theoretically it also should work as a DI, but I ultimately plugged it into one of the church's DI boxes and got a bit stronger signal to the board.

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Thanks. I like Boss stuff. I see it can run on batteries so it's a possibility.
 
Also. While you can "program" patches on board. I promise you, you'll want to interface it to your computer and use the Boss App for on screen programming your patches. Waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy easier. And once programmed like most Multi Effect boxes you can save it to a User Patch.
 
iblive said:
I think we may have had to run DI's. Our cabling ran into the floor. Under the sanctuary. Up a wall, upstairs to the balcony. Then finally into the mixer. Not a sound guy, so don't hold me to the required DI. Just remembering the only way I got my guitar to the board was thru the house supplied DI.
Click to expand...

For the Boss GT-1, I'd run through a DI unless just making short runs to an amp or something. It does not have balanced outputs. Sometimes, some units may have balanced outputs even if they use 1/4" jacks. In such a case, the outputs will be TRS jacks, and not simply TS jacks.

If a unit has XLR outputs, you definitely know that the unit is providing balanced outs. In that case, technically, a DI is not necessary. But, in the scenario you describe, it sounds like the DI is pretty much an integral part of the infrastructure, so, yeah, it would just be simpler to plug into the DI and be done with it. No big whoop.
 
smitty_p said:
For the Boss GT-1, I'd run through a DI unless just making short runs to an amp or something. It does not have balanced outputs. Sometimes, some units may have balanced outputs even if they use 1/4" jacks. In such a case, the outputs will be TRS jacks, and not simply TS jacks.

If a unit has XLR outputs, you definitely know that the unit is providing balanced outs. In that case, technically, a DI is not necessary. But, in the scenario you describe, it sounds like the DI is pretty much an integral part of the infrastructure, so, yeah, it would just be simpler to plug into the DI and be done with it. No big whoop.
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The GT1 is far from the flagship multi effect platform from Boss. The seriously good (and expensive) ones probably have a XLR out. The GT1…. Nope.
 
smitty_p said:
I've never used the Mooer GE250 Pro, but it doesn't look like a bad unit.

As for the DI box, unless the house really expects you to use the DI, you can completely bypass it by running the XLR outputs direct to the mix. Of course, it does have the 1/4" outputs, so you can run those to the DI, if you have to. The purpose of the direct inject (DI) box is to convert high-impedance, unbalanced audio to low-impedance, balanced audio. Since the XLR outputs are your low-impedance, balanced audio, you don't really need the DI box. But, of course, some venues may not like you unplugging their stuff, so you can always run your unbalanced outputs (the 1/4" outputs) to the DI, if that's what they prefer. Personally, I prefer to have as little stuff in the audio chain as possible, so in those instances where I've used house audio and they let me bypass a DI box, I always opt for that.

But, as for the unit itself, like I said, I have never used it. But, honestly, the emulation technology has gotten so good these days that you'll probably be fine with that. It may lack some features and bells and whistles, but it should sound okay.
Click to expand...
At most venues for open mics they don't want you to plug in directly to the board. You need to get on and off the stage as quickly as possible. If I had my choice I'd use xlr.
 
Kerry Brown said:
At most venues for open mics they don't want you to plug in directly to the board. You need to get on and off the stage as quickly as possible. If I had my choice I'd use xlr.
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Ahh...that's a different story. I totally get the point. Ya gotta do what makes the venue happy. You need to keep them on your good side!
 
I hosted jam night for 3 years one night someone plugged a Zoom multi effects in my board fried the crossovers both main speakers
good thing EV had a 5 year warranty I had new crossovers in 2 days great company they paid the air fright

I don't know what amp you use if it was me I'd build a short board with the effects you need

Times have changed where I live the new sound men don't want amps on stage anymore
 
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