# Anyone Familiar With The Boss ES-8? Do You Like It?



## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

I am thinking about jumping into a switching system, and the Boss seems to be a compromise between size and price. I would like more than 8 loops, but again size and price are driving my decision.

If there are any owners or previous owners I would appreciate your thoughts on the Boss ES-8, as well as how you liked switching pedals with the ES-8 vs just the pedals.

Thanks!


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

Do you need all the extra features?? 4xTRS switching, full stereo signal, global effects loop, midi, dual expression? ETC, ETC?

That thing is a big heavy monster and I couldn't imagine the size of the board/rig that would use half of those features.

Features, size and weight are all immense,


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

TheYanChamp said:


> Do you need all the extra features?? 4xTRS switching, full stereo signal, global effects loop, midi, dual expression? ETC, ETC?
> 
> That thing is a big heavy monster and I couldn't imagine the size of the board/rig that would use half of those features.
> 
> Features, size and weight are all immense,


I am not sure, but I like to combine pedals and get some really cool sounds. I would love to have the ability to save those combos and recall them. I have a Timeline delay and a Source Audio EQ and the midi would be nice to switch from one patch to another with the combination of other pedals. I don't need it, but the amp switching would be OK, as one of my amps has a channel and boost pedal that the ES-8 can activate.

Another thing that I would like to be able to do is change the order of my pedals. The ES-8 lets me put the loops in any order I choose. So delay before EQ, delay after EQ etc.

Size wise I have been using an online pedal board builder. I bought a Pedaltrain Pro? that is 16" x 32" that I have never used. It will hold everything. My board now is 16" x 24". No room for anything else there. The ES-8 is smaller than the other similar functioning switchers I think.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

I have a 16x24 with 6 to 8 pedals depending. The heart is the MS-3. Three loops for pedal chains, two TRS switching, also midi, not true stereo, a shit tonne of onboard effects which are handy for none core tones. It has pre and post loop fx control for 4CM. I still have a couple send controls and a expression control I don't tap in to. I was using maybe six main tones that had a few pedals switching per patch, the four button layout was beyond easy to get those patches to work, switching midi, onboard fx and dedicated pedals really well.

I think that ES8 is overkill for most people, as far as switching goes.

I think voodoo labs, and dare I say some of the asian companies, make some pretty powerful units for a very low price if you're just looking to call up a few presets with no order preference.

Carl Martin is another brand I would look at, but its $$$ and probably the same or bigger than the ES8 without the same feature set.

Lately, I've gone back to pedal dancing as I don't need 2-4 effects changed on time. Covid.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

TheYanChamp said:


> I have a 16x24 with 6 to 8 pedals depending. The heart is the MS-3. Three loops for pedal chains, two TRS switching, also midi, not true stereo, a shit tonne of onboard effects which are handy for none core tones. It has pre and post loop fx control for 4CM. I still have a couple send controls and a expression control I don't tap in to. I was using maybe six main tones that had a few pedals switching per patch, the four button layout was beyond easy to get those patches to work, switching midi, onboard fx and dedicated pedals really well.
> 
> I think that ES8 is overkill for most people, as far as switching goes.
> 
> ...


I didn't know about the MS-3. I have a 16 x 24 board with 17 pedals shoehorned in, plus a few on either end of the chain outside my board. I don't think I need to dive into the big board, or the functionality, but I have been wondering what it would be like to take the plunge. I see Next Gen sells the Square Plug short straight plugs for about $7 each. I would need at least 16 of those, some other cable and ends, and it would take me days to make all the cables and set it all up. Probably at least another $200 worth of stuff plus what I have on hand for cable and plugs.










SquarePlug SPS5 - 1/4" Mono Short Plug


SquarePlug SPS5 is the shortest 1/4" soldered plug with strain relief on the market today. It protrudes by only 21mm when plugged in and has an outer diameter of just under 14mm.




nextgenguitars.ca


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

Thats why I chose the MS3. When I needed channel and midi switching plus a drive and light onboard delay or mod, its one switch. It can also knock a couple pedals off your board. Im a hipocrite though. From the last few gear trades I've ended up with a few favorites and the MS3 is playing tuner duties right now. But the band is not rehearsing and playing out, if so the board would change over night.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

Oh yeah, the cables. I'm already buying a handful of new ones with the couple pedal additions and wear and tear from the left over shoddy cables from my last big board.

Multi effects boards get more tempting the better they get.


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## Hammerhands (Dec 19, 2016)

I needed a MIDI footswitch and I ended up buying an ES-5 instead. I've hardly used it yet. There's a lot of setup to do. There are a ton of functions like wave pedals that can make your pedals dance. You're going to need time to do those things.

It's possible to string two of them together, or add something like a Voodoo Labs Hex, which might fit under the board. There are others...

Maybe a Mixer/Router would be the next thing.

I've seen one guy with all his pedals on a stand, I think that's ideal.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

Hammerhands said:


> I needed a MIDI footswitch and I ended up buying an ES-5 instead. I've hardly used it yet. There's a lot of setup to do. There are a ton of functions like wave pedals that can make your pedals dance. You're going to need time to do those things.
> 
> It's possible to string two of them together, or add something like a Voodoo Labs Hex, which might fit under the board. There are others...
> 
> ...


I have my pedals on a keyboard stand. I could put the es-8 on the floor...


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## Festus McCorkindale (Dec 17, 2017)

TheYanChamp said:


> I have a 16x24 with 6 to 8 pedals depending. The heart is the MS-3. Three loops for pedal chains, two TRS switching, also midi, not true stereo, a shit tonne of onboard effects which are handy for none core tones. It has pre and post loop fx control for 4CM. I still have a couple send controls and a expression control I don't tap in to. I was using maybe six main tones that had a few pedals switching per patch, the four button layout was beyond easy to get those patches to work, switching midi, onboard fx and dedicated pedals really well.
> 
> I think that ES8 is overkill for most people, as far as switching goes.
> 
> ...


I had the Voodoo Lab PX-8 Plus, and it was great! I got it off Reverb for $350 gently used. Dead simple, light, and durable.

The only big pain with switchers (aside from extra weight and space) is the extra expense and time for making custom length cables. For the ES-8 I would urge anyone to consider getting a soldering iron and doing their own cables. Will save money and grief in the end.

Ended up selling my PX-8 because I discovered all I really needed was a simpler board with 5-8 effects and some good buffers.


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## TimH (Feb 4, 2006)

I have had a bunch of switchers. Save your money and buy one from RJM. The ease of use, support and general enjoyment with the product is amazing. The Boss ones are frustrating and buggy.


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## CDWaterloo (Jul 18, 2008)

player99 said:


> I am not sure, but I like to combine pedals and get some really cool sounds. I would love to have the ability to save those combos and recall them. I have a Timeline delay and a Source Audio EQ and the midi would be nice to switch from one patch to another with the combination of other pedals. I don't need it, but the amp switching would be OK, as one of my amps has a channel and boost pedal that the ES-8 can activate.
> 
> Another thing that I would like to be able to do is change the order of my pedals. The ES-8 lets me put the loops in any order I choose. So delay before EQ, delay after EQ etc.
> 
> Size wise I have been using an online pedal board builder. I bought a Pedaltrain Pro? that is 16" x 32" that I have never used. It will hold everything. My board now is 16" x 24". No room for anything else there. The ES-8 is smaller than the other similar functioning switchers I think.


I am using my Boss ES8 since November 2015. At the beginning the learning curve was steep. I thought about selling it. Once I learned how to use it, everything became very easy. It's now an indispensable part of my pedalboard. Boss has updated most of the bugs with the latest firmware. Frankly, I have never had any issues with ES8 so far, and I have used many features of it; midi connections with pedals and a Marshall JVM Amp, amp channel switching, two instrument inputs (bass and guitar) and effect pedal switching, external expression pedal connection, controlling pedals with toggle switch options (Suhr Koji comp and Boss Angry Driver pedal), outside midi controller for Whammy DT, midi tap tempo options etc.... 

I am a basement player. I started with a very big pedal board in my basement. I had three small to mid size pedalboards. Now, I am switching to a single mid-size Boss-ES8 based pedalboard. I was using a Novo 24 pedaltrain. But PT-3 classic fits better for my needs. It is not that heavy now. My only complaint about ES8 is that it does not have a usb port to connect to its editor. You need to use a specific midi cable for that. But I think most other similar pedal switchers also has the same issue. 

Yes, if you'd like to have 8 to 9 (or even more) pedals in your setup, I'd highly recommend an ES-8.. Of course, it also depends on your needs. Price wise, you can find very good deals in the second hand market.

If you have any specific questions sent me a pm. I'd be happy to answer your questions.

Cd

My first basement ES8 based pedalboard:









Then, PT Novo 24:









PT-3 Classic:


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

CDWaterloo said:


> I am using my Boss ES8 since November 2015. At the beginning the learning curve was steep. I thought about selling it. Once I learned how to use it, everything became very easy. It's now an indispensable part of my pedalboard. Boss has updated most of the bugs with the latest firmware. Frankly, I have never had any issues with ES8 so far, and I have used many features of it; midi connections with pedals and a Marshall JVM Amp, amp channel switching, two instrument inputs (bass and guitar) and effect pedal switching, external expression pedal connection, controlling pedals with toggle switch options (Suhr Koji comp and Boss Angry Driver pedal), outside midi controller for Whammy DT, midi tap tempo options etc....
> 
> I am a basement player. I started with a very big pedal board in my basement. I had three small to mid size pedalboards. Now, I am switching to a single mid-size Boss-ES8 based pedalboard. I was using a Novo 24 pedaltrain. But PT-3 classic fits better for my needs. It is not that heavy now. My only complaint about ES8 is that it does not have a usb port to connect to its editor. You need to use a specific midi cable for that. But I think most other similar pedal switchers also has the same issue.
> 
> ...


I have about 16 pedals in my chain. How do I group them down to only 8? I have checked and it looks like the Gigrig and the Mastermind go to 10 loops. Still short.

Do people use supplemental smaller switchers like Loopmaster makes that can switch pedals on and off within a loop?

Does the Boss have any insert points where a pedal can be inserted but not controlled?

I was reading the ES-8 changes the guitar tone. True?


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## CDWaterloo (Jul 18, 2008)

player99 said:


> I have about 16 pedals in my chain. How do I group them down to only 8? I have checked and it looks like the Gigrig and the Mastermind go to 10 loops. Still short.
> 
> Do people use supplemental smaller switchers like Loopmaster makes that can switch pedals on and off within a loop?
> 
> ...


Boss ES-8 has 9 loops. You can use the volume loop as a regular loop if you want to. There are other options to increase the number of loops as you mentioned. I've never needed to do that tough. I was controlling the delay and reverb pedals outside of the es-8 with midi connections. I usually like reverb at the end of my chain. I have boss rv-500 which also includes a nice delay which I was using it after reverb so I had the option to put the delay after reverb as well. There are some options as well. For example, suhr pedals can be switched on/off using a link cable. I put suhr koji compressor before es8 but controlling it with es8 via its link connection. There are also midi cotrollable dirt pedals so that you may use less dirst pedals. For example, Chase Bliss preamp sounds great.

Volume loop is proposed as an insert loop by boss but it is actually a regular loop. So there is no loop that cannot be controlled.

I have never had any issues regarding tone loss because of ES8. I guess some people are using some bad quality cables. I should warn you tough if you are goint to use a switcher for 16 pedals you should get prepared with dealing tons of cable connections. I recommend you to get a cable tester.

Between, there is a FB page for Boss Es8. They are extermely helpful there and can help you regarding your question about loop extension.

Cd


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

CDWaterloo said:


> Boss ES-8 has 9 loops. You can use the volume loop as a regular loop if you want to. There are other options to increase the number of loops as you mentioned. I've never needed to do that tough. I was controlling the delay and reverb pedals outside of the es-8 with midi connections. I usually like reverb at the end of my chain. I have boss rv-500 which also includes a nice delay which I was using it after reverb so I had the option to put the delay after reverb as well. There are some options as well. For example, suhr pedals can be switched on/off using a link cable. I put suhr koji compressor before es8 but controlling it with es8 via its link connection. There are also midi cotrollable dirt pedals so that you may use less dirst pedals. For example, Chase Bliss preamp sounds great.
> 
> Volume loop is proposed as an insert loop by boss but it is actually a regular loop. So there is no loop that cannot be controlled.
> 
> ...


Thanks. Using the midi for the delay would definitely save me a loop. I have a cable tester and make up my own cables now, so that won't be a problem, but an arduous task.


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## Chitmo (Sep 2, 2013)

Unless you’re a session player or a gigging musician I’ve always seen switchers as more of a pain in the ass than they’re worth. So much time wasted on cables and programming, blah blah when you can play instead.


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## troyhead (May 23, 2014)

I had the Boss ES-5 for a while. It is very powerful, and once you learn what you can do with the “Assigns” you can do a lot of cool things. (Hint: learn how to use the “CNUM” function if you pick up a Boss switcher) The learning curve can seem a bit intimidating, but there are some good online guides. Once it starts to make sense, it’s actually pretty simple. I recommend getting a USB MIDI interface to manage it through the computer though. 

The internal expression waveforms are pretty cool for sending expression messages without an expression pedal. Even if you have an expression pedal, the waveforms can do some repetitive stuff for you, or things that are otherwise impossible. I used a slow oscillating sine wave to control the wah setting on a Mobius, imitating the effect of slowly sweeping from the heal to the toe and back, but with much more precision (and without needing to stand on one foot for most of a song). 

If using MIDI, the switcher can be a great way to use a single expression pedal to control a ton of different pedals. The ES-5 didn’t support analog expression control, and while the ES-8 does, switching analog expression between different pedals usually doesn’t work well because it’s like yanking the expression pedal out when you switch it away from one pedal to another, usually resulting in the disconnected pedal reverting back to the heal or toe value. MIDI is definitely the way to go here, if you can. 

However, in the end, I did spend a LOT of time programming and figuring out the best way to organize things. Despite being big part of why I wanted the ES-5, I rarely used the pedal order changing functionality, and never used the parallel feature. I found an easier way to control my MIDI pedals in a “set list” manner like a switcher, which takes up less space (and money). I have also enjoyed using my tiny “no frills” pedalboard that has a more traditional what-you-see-is-what-you-get layout, and I’ve been loving it compared to the overhead of programming and remembering how a switcher is setup. 



player99 said:


> I have about 16 pedals in my chain. How do I group them down to only 8?


As others mentioned, using MIDI to control some pedals outside of the loops (like delay & reverb) can save you loops. But if you are like me and your signal is mono up until the delay, you can skip worrying about needing to use the stereo loops as well.

You can also put several pedals into one loop to save loops as well. For example, if you have an overdrive and then a boost that you always like to use with it for solos, put them in the same loop and then just stomp on the boost pedal itself for solos rather than creating a new patch just for that. Or put the the boost in front of or behind the switcher entirely. Using pedals “the old way” where you stomp on them directly is still good when you are using a switcher. And it can simplify your life so you don’t need to create more patches on the switcher. 



player99 said:


> I was reading the ES-8 changes the guitar tone. True?


Didn’t notice any change at all. The switching was dead quiet, and there are lots of buffering options available.

To sum up, it was a quality pedal with great features, but it just wasn’t for me (not so much the switcher in particular, but loop switchers in general).


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## Josendor (4 mo ago)

CDWaterloo said:


> I am using my Boss ES8 since November 2015. At the beginning the learning curve was steep. I thought about selling it. Once I learned how to use it, everything became very easy. It's now an indispensable part of my pedalboard. Boss has updated most of the bugs with the latest firmware. Frankly, I have never had any issues with ES8 so far, and I have used many features of it; midi connections with pedals and a Marshall JVM Amp, amp channel switching, two instrument inputs (bass and guitar) and effect pedal switching, external expression pedal connection, controlling pedals with toggle switch options (Suhr Koji comp and Boss Angry Driver pedal), outside midi controller for Whammy DT, midi tap tempo options etc....
> 
> I am a basement player. I started with a very big pedal board in my basement. I had three small to mid size pedalboards. Now, I am switching to a single mid-size Boss-ES8 based pedalboard. I was using a Novo 24 pedaltrain. But PT-3 classic fits better for my needs. It is not that heavy now. My only complaint about ES8 is that it does not have a usb port to connect to its editor. You need to use a specific midi cable for that. But I think most other similar pedal switchers also has the same issue.
> 
> ...





CDWaterloo said:


> I am using my Boss ES8 since November 2015. At the beginning the learning curve was steep. I thought about selling it. Once I learned how to use it, everything became very easy. It's now an indispensable part of my pedalboard. Boss has updated most of the bugs with the latest firmware. Frankly, I have never had any issues with ES8 so far, and I have used many features of it; midi connections with pedals and a Marshall JVM Amp, amp channel switching, two instrument inputs (bass and guitar) and effect pedal switching, external expression pedal connection, controlling pedals with toggle switch options (Suhr Koji comp and Boss Angry Driver pedal), outside midi controller for Whammy DT, midi tap tempo options etc....
> 
> I am a basement player. I started with a very big pedal board in my basement. I had three small to mid size pedalboards. Now, I am switching to a single mid-size Boss-ES8 based pedalboard. I was using a Novo 24 pedaltrain. But PT-3 classic fits better for my needs. It is not that heavy now. My only complaint about ES8 is that it does not have a usb port to connect to its editor. You need to use a specific midi cable for that. But I think most other similar pedal switchers also has the same issue.
> 
> ...


Hello!!
Thanks for all the information here.
The stereo setup (loops 7 and 8) keeps the original stereo signal left/right (from a delay) or the es 8 mixs all togheter and then sends the same signal to left an right?


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## CDWaterloo (Jul 18, 2008)

Josendor said:


> Hello!!
> Thanks for all the information here.
> The stereo setup (loops 7 and 8) keeps the original stereo signal left/right (from a delay) or the es 8 mixs all togheter and then sends the same signal to left an right?


Stereo outputs (A&B together) keep the original stereo lines from loops 7 and 8 if they are connected stereo. I haven't tried but I don't think you can mix stereo lines from loops 7 and 8 and send the same signal to outputs A and B. If you want such flexibility without dealing with stereo connected loops, Goodwoods TX interfacer might be helpful.


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## Josendor (4 mo ago)

CDWaterloo said:


> Stereo outputs (A&B together) keep the original stereo lines from loops 7 and 8 if they are connected stereo. I haven't tried but I don't think you can mix stereo lines from loops 7 and 8 and send the same signal to outputs A and B. If you want such flexibility without dealing with stereo connected loops, Goodwoods TX interfacer might be helpful.


Thanks for your answer. I want to keep signals A and B separate (I use an Eventide delay with A/B parallel outputs).👍🏼


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