Zoom Multi Stomp MS-50G

Works with guitar and bass and synths (used it with crave). It has its limitations of up to 6 effects at once. Some effects like amp sims take up more "space" in DSP than lets say overdrive for example. But to be honest, I havent felt that limitation in practice, only when i was experimenting with the hardware at the beginning.
Now, I use it mostly for reverbs and delays and as a tuner, because I got booster, chorus, overdrive and amp+cab sim pedals in the meantime, but before I got all of those, my only thing on "pedalboard" was MS50 and it was fine too :) There are informations on the internet to update and upgrade this device, and make most out of it, as well as whole pages with presets you can download and use. I highly recommend this gear.

This is a great little utility pedal, there are loads of individual effects and amp models to try.
You can chain the FX and amps together or have them on individually.

I have it set as a chorus on my pedalboard and if my amp were to break mid gig, I can easily pull this out and go straight into the PA.

The sounds are easily good enough to get you through a gig.

There are a couple of free patch editors online which make setting your amps and FX rigs much easier than doing it through the interface on the pedal.

As it's only got one footswitch switching between a load of different patches just means you have to keep pressing it until you reach your desired patch.
It's the trade off I suppose, having so much crammed into a pedal the size of a normal Boss stompbox.
It's never going to replace your Helix, but it was never designed to.

You can connect it to a computer and swap around your FX and amp models
It has limited storage space so you have a trade off to make when selecting which FX and amps you want.

It's easy enough to change them but not at a gig.

Overall it's a very useful pedal, loads of FX that are really good, and certainly get you in the ballpark of whatever that model is trying to replicate. It can be used as either a self contained FX board, amp modeller, or both.
Given the price it's definitely worth it for the versatility.

Multi effect units from other brands, simulate their own stomp boxes. That?s where the MG-50 differs. It simulates the most iconic pedals from several brands.
I compared some of the effects with the real ones that I have (Big Muff and ProcoRat, TS...) and it sounds really close.
This comes with the newest Firmware giving you 100 effects, including amp simulations and several cab simulators (mandatory when connected direct to mix table or computer), and some very specific and useful effects such as the stereo delay (different delay times and feedback levels for left and right channels) an intelligent pitch shifter (harmonist) a Leslie rotary speaker. The effects are very good sounding.
it allows to assign an order to the recorded patches and change it with the stomp button (for example A -> B -> C -> D -> A -> B...). Although the manual refers 3 patches, I've used more than that with no limitations.
When in bypass of using non stereo effects, it works as a signal splitter.
I don't recommend to use it to drive headphones. In my opinion, it needs a headphone driver after it (I use it with a mixing table and works great)
It operates with 2 AA alkaline batteries, 2 AA NiMh batteries or a standard 9v centre negative power supply. It rates 500mA but my measurements only reached up to 130mA so, for safety, a 200mA or higher should be used.
I recommend to use a power supply because some reports say that under battery operation, a hi freq noise is noticeable when using high gain amp simulations.
Because of its small size, it can be used as a regular padel in a pedalboard.
It feels robust but i sugest you to be carefull because of the LCD and the plastic knobs.
For additional info and effects list, go the the manufacturer website and make sure you see the V2.0 version documentation.

This is a great buy if space on your pedal board is limited. You can get up to 6 effects at once, although this can be limited to less if you used more then one of the Amp models or heavy CPU usage effects like some of the HD reverbs in one patch (50 patches in total). But if you use one amp model and standard effects like chorus, flanger, compressor, delay etc. then 6 effects at once is not problem, plus you can put them in any order. The interface for editing parameters and adding effects works a treat (I've not had to read the manual at all).

The MS50G in built very well with metal construction and a metal foot switch that feels like it will last. All the other buttons are plastic but again have a solid feel. The backlit LCD screen is clear to view from many angles and in different lighting conditions, as you can adjust the contrast.

The sound quality of the MS50G is over all very good especially when you take into account the cost. You can however get some unwanted noise from some of the effects and amp models. As this is a digital pedal, it would have been good if Zoom had reduced some of the noise when emulating the various effects and amps on offer here, but in fairness they are good emulations and they do include a very usable Noise Reduction effect.

A few very minor points for me includes the input and output sockets, as they are on the top part of the pedal rather than in the middle and this makes it a little untidy to fit the jack plugs neatly if you put the pedal on say a Pedaltrain of Rockboard type pedal board. The other point is that you have to remove the rubber foot to mount it on a pedal board securely if you are using Velcro. Some companies now include a rubber or Velcro foot that the buyer can fit themselves, it would have been nice to have this option included with the MS50G (or other pedals come to that).

I would suggest that you get a Zoom PSU, as this pedal does use a fair bit of Milliamp's (mA). I'm not sure of the exact power requirements, but Zoom recommend using a Zoom AD-16 power supply and that runs at, a max of, 500 milliamp's.

I would also very strongly recommend that you update the firmware to v2.0 as this updates the pedal to offer 100 effects (92 stompbox effects and 8 amp models). This is done using USB and you can download all the relevant files via the Zoom website. It's easy to do and it nearly doubles the amount of effects on offer.

To Sum up ... The MS50G is a great way to add 6 more effects pedals to you're sonic pallet in just the space of one. You even get a built in tuner as well. Over all, this is simply a great value pedal !