Boss ES-8

ManualsBrandsBoss ManualsGuitar & Bass EffectsProgrammable effects switching system

112

GUITARIST DECEMBER 2015

ELECTRO-HARMONIX

edals: most of us can’t be without them, but with

multiple stompboxes underfoot we soon find

ourselves doing more tap dancing than playing,

not to mention looking like a contortionist angling your

foot to hit three footswitches at once for a composite

sound, for example. The obvious answer is, of course,

to add a switching unit to organise your pedalboard,

and Boss has recently entered the market with the ES-8:

an effects-switching system boasting a feature set that

makes it hard to resist.

The ES-8 features eight send-and-return loops to

connect your pedals, with eight dedicated footswitches

to activate them. The eight loops comprise six mono,

one mono-in stereo-out, and one stereo-in stereo-out.

At its most basic, you can use the ES-8 in its Manual

mode with the eight footswitches simply calling up the

individual effects connected to the eight loops. But the

real power of the unit is in Memory mode, where you

can readily recall user-programmed patches. It couldn’t

be easier to switch between Manual and Memory mode

– there’s a dedicated footswitch for it and the change is

instant, with all the LEDs changing from red to blue so

you know exactly which mode you are in.

In Use

The main advantage of using patches is that you can

bring in various combinations of effects with a single

footswitch, but the really powerful feature of this unit

is that you don’t have to stick to a rigid order for the

effects. Each patch can arrange the loops in any order,

so you can, for example, have distortion before or after

a delay for a quite different sonic result. To take things

even further, you can set up parallel effects paths within

a patch and you can also program it so reverb and

delays can ring out and decay naturally when a patch

is switched, rather than cut dead. On top of that, each

BOSS ES-8 £549

RIGHT Manual mode

switches in the individual

effects in each individual

loop, while Memory mode

(shown with blue LEDs)

recalls user-deﬁ ned

combinations of effects

Boss comes up with a switching solution that will transform your whole pedal setup

Words Trevor Curwen Photography Joby Sessions

GIT401.peds_boss.indd 112 29/10/2015 15:00

Summary of content (2 pages)

PAGE 1
ELECTRO-HARMONIX BOSS ES-8 £549 Boss comes up with a switching solution that will transform your whole pedal setup Words Trevor Curwen Photography Joby Sessions P edals: most of us can’t be without them, but with multiple stompboxes underfoot we soon find ourselves doing more tap dancing than playing, not to mention looking like a contortionist angling your foot to hit three footswitches at once for a composite sound, for example.
PAGE 2
BOSS ES-8 patch can also store data to take care of a bunch of other useful functions. Besides MIDI connections on the ES-8 for sending control and program-change messages and MIDI Clock, there are a bunch of outputs to feed pedals equipped to take expression and control input. Now, these can be fed from external expression pedals or footswitches plugged into two ES-8 inputs, but control parameter values can also be stored with patches to, say, call up a particular delay time.