# The Boss ES-8 Pedal Switcher



## Guest (Jul 9, 2015)

Man, I don't play a pedal board these days, but this thing got my heart racing a little!

http://www.boss.info/products/es-8/












> One of the ES-8’s key features is its innovative routing flexibility, which provides the ability to easily rearrange the order of a chain of stompbox effects. This gives professional guitarists the ability to access a wide array of effect combinations, offering total creative freedom to achieve the unique sounds that they desire. In addition, the ES-8’s parallel chain function increases the effect combination options further, thereby expanding the final sound variation capability exponentially. What’s more, all of these programmed configurations can be saved for instant access during a live performance.


Matrix switching with support for parallel effect chaining! Holy cow! That's got to be a first for a floor-based loop switcher. Buffers can be turned on and off at the inputs and outputs of every loop! And the size is fantastic. The feature set on this thing is really exceptional. Boss too, so it'll be tank-like in build.

Phew. I think I have to go sit down now. Feeling a little faint.


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## Guest (Jul 9, 2015)

Long & M has them for $800 CAD!

https://www.long-mcquade.com/55406/Guitars/Guitar_Effects/Boss/ES8_Effects_Switching_System.htm


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Looks impressive.

This is a bit of a tangent but I wonder how many guys who sing lead vocals most of the night feel about the tap dance guitarists do to change sounds.

It gets to be too much for me. I like simplicity. That's one reason I moved to a programmable modeler. I typically have three or four sounds available for any given song, but the switches are four in a row so I don't have to look down.

If I was a rich rock star I'd have a guy at side stage making the changes for me.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Player99 said:


> Long & M has them for $800 CAD!
> 
> https://www.long-mcquade.com/55406/Guitars/Guitar_Effects/Boss/ES8_Effects_Switching_System.htm


Whoa. I was totally excited by this as I was reading, but that price tag is a little high for me. 

Looks like it has really extensive MIDI capabilities, so that's nice, and I like the LCD display and that it has more loops available, but my Decibel 11 Switch Dr seems to be working pretty well for me right now.

I'd be much more interested at around $500, so maybe I'll keep my eyes open for the used market.


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## Guest (Jul 9, 2015)

Player99 said:


> Long & M has them for $800 CAD!


Ouch. Like a few others, I was hoping this would be ~$500. Still: the next closest thing to what it does is a Switchblade rack mount unit that's like $2000!

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Milkman said:


> Looks impressive.
> 
> This is a bit of a tangent but I wonder how many guys who sing lead vocals most of the night feel about the tap dance guitarists do to change sounds.


I can barely sing and strum chords at the same time! No way can I change effects while singing and playing! I'd fall off the stage as my brain shut down...


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

iaresee said:


> Ouch. Like a few others, I was hoping this would be ~$500. Still: the next closest thing to what it does is a Switchblade rack mount unit that's like $2000!


The feature-set is totally worth it, but I literally _just_ bought my Switch Dr. I _could_ use another loop or two, and I _could_ use more MIDI channels, but at double the price??? The routing options are very cool, but yeah...money is money


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

This does look interesting.

For the features and BOSS build quality and reliability, I don't think that the price is outrageous.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Saw the ES-8 in person at L&M today, and saw the price tag too *ow*.

I wonder how close the Voodoo Labs PX8 gets you http://www.voodoolab.com/px8.htm they had one at the same store, under $450


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## Guest (Jul 9, 2015)

keto said:


> Saw the ES-8 in person at L&M today, and saw the price tag too *ow*.
> 
> I wonder how close the Voodoo Labs PX8 gets you http://www.voodoolab.com/px8.htm they had one at the same store, under $450


It's missing the matrix rerouting of the loops. That's a massive, massive feature -- hard to describe how powerful it is to re-configure the order of your pedals with the touch of a button. Even better: to run effects in parallel.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

I was in a Guitar Center in Nashville just a few minutes ago. I should have had a look at prices.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

iaresee said:


> It's missing the matrix rerouting of the loops. That's a massive, massive feature -- hard to describe how powerful it is to re-configure the order of your pedals with the touch of a button. Even better: to run effects in parallel.


Hush, you're giving me ideas.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Waiting for the Behringer knock-off.


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## Guest (Jul 10, 2015)

Milkman said:


> I was in a Guitar Center in Nashville just a few minutes ago. I should have had a look at prices.


$699 USD at Sweetwater.com...

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Budda said:


> Hush, you're giving me ideas.


Dude, seriously, one of the things I love MOST about the Axe-Fx is THE GRID! Being able to route your audio signals in all kinds of crazy parallel/serial ways is highly addictive. This is like, a nice step in the direction of the power of the grid in the AFII for non-AFII users. Parallel routing -- a clean delay signal behind an overdriven guitar sound for a shimmery, cool space effect? Or reverb and delay in parallel like <insert deity of your choice> intended them to be! Or swap your snazzy Eventide H9 from in front of your amp to the amp's effects loop while also changing the H9 patch at the same time?

COOOOOOOOL!


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

It's the delay before or after reverb stuff that could get interesting. But I don't think it's near $800+tax worth of interesting at this point.

I'm also fond of my sticker collection on my PT-2 case, and would need to upsize to fit a looper on there.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

In the modular analog synth world, all of this patching, and series/parallel stuff is quite normative, and matrix-patching was around since the early 1970's with the EMS Synthi ( http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/synthi.php ). HOWEVER, it presumes that electronic synthesios is primarily a studio entity, and that repatching is done in separate run-throughs, not for the next song in a set.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Kinda want this, and am afraid to bring it up with my bandmate for fear he'll agree I should get it. There's this nasty habit of me buying the things I want, but I have another large expense coming up next fall haha.

Maybe if we can get a deal with BOSS...


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