As I was getting to know the new Boss ES-8 Effects Switching System, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft was getting to know Pluto. I’m sure you are thinking “What does a spacecraft have to do with an effects switcher?” The answer: everything.
First, I happen to live just a few miles from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory where the New Horizons spacecraft was developed. And I have a few friends and even a bandmate that work there. So I had the mission on my mind and my mind on the mission (so to speak). Second, the weekend after the New Horizons rendezvous with Pluto, a certain Dr. Brian May (yes, the guitarist-cum-astrophysicist with the wall of cranked AC30s) visited the Applied Physics Laboratory to talk about the New Horizons Pluto mission. Immediately, my brain made a connection between kick-ass guitar tones and advanced aerospace technology. And it reminded me just how lucky we as guitarists are to benefit from technological advances fostered through unrelated fields. Sure, it’s tubes and transistors that put a man on the moon and created all of the great classic guitar tones. But it’s digital technology and zeroes and ones that allows a mission crew to communicate with a spacecraft that is 2.66 billion miles from earth or for the common guitarist to purchase (off the rack), an effects switching system as advanced as the ES-8.
So what is so special about the Boss ES-8 that has me comparing it to a spacecraft? In short, everything.
In its simplest use, you can think of the ES-8 as a programmable switcher and router for up to nine effects. The first six loops on the ES-8 are mono—meaning one connection in and one connection out. Loop seven is mono in and stereo out. This connection is perfect for the first stereo pedal in your chain. I placed a stereo delay pedal in this loop. Loop eight is stereo in and stereo out. Here I switched between a stereo chorus pedal and a stereo reverb. After loop eight, you have a send and return for a volume pedal. After that comes your stereo outputs, and then finally there is a jack for connecting a tuner. These are the building blocks for the ES-8. With these connections made, you can use the buttons labeled 1-8 to switch your individual effects on and off. And you have the added convenience of a mute switch—perfect for silent tuning or preventing noise when switching between various guitars.
Any Way You Want It
The true beauty of the ES-8 is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
I have no doubt that there will be numerous guitarists that use only the functionality outlined above. And you know what? They are still getting a bargain. You have a great analog-through tone, and a simple and elegant switching system with well-placed and great feeling switches.
For guitarists willing to dig a little deeper, the ES-8 offers some pretty impressive switching and routing options with just a little further tweaking. The next logical step beyond using the ES-8 as a simple switching device is to create patches. To walk through this next bit of functionality, we’re going to create an imaginary pedalboard.
Here are our pedals and their respective loops:
- Fuzz Face
- Compressor
- Overdrive
- Phasor
- Tremolo
- Boost
- Delay (stereo)
- Reverb (stereo)
- Volume Pedal
So let’s create our first patch. We’ll start with a clean tone, maybe just compression and reverb. To do this, I’ll first engage loops two and eight. Then I will press the Write button, use the arrow and plus and minus buttons to select my patch number (00.1), and then press Write two more times to confirm and save. Next, I’ll create a patch for a solo tone. I’ll use fuzz, boost, delay, and reverb. Just like before, I’ll engage each of my effects—loops one, six, seven, and eight. I’ll then hit the Write button, and save the patch as 00.2. Now, I can use the bank switches to toggle between my clean tone and my lead tone. What would have required a difficult tap dance of switching on or off four pedals now requires just one stomp.
To make the most of the patch feature, you want to be in Memory mode. You will know you are in Memory mode when your LEDs are blue. (Red LEDs means you are in Manual mode.) A quick tap of the Memory/Manual switch toggles between the two. What’s great about having the two modes, is that you can have the best of both worlds. Let’s again work with a real world example. Imagine that you are still on patch 00.2 which we created above. You are playing a soaring solo with fuzz, boost, delay, and reverb. And suddenly, you want to add extra emphasis to your crescendo. Hit the Memory/Manual switch and go into Manual mode. Loops one, six, seven, and eight remain engaged. Now quickly hit switch four to bring in your phaser. Perfect and amazing. The world is rejoicing for a new guitar god!
But wait, it’s time to transition into the Pixies-esque quiet bridge. And you have to switch off the fuzz, phaser, boost, and delay, and switch back on the comp. How will you do it? Correct answer: toggle back to Memory mode and then hit switch one. Two taps (one that doesn’t change your selected effects) and you are back to your clean rhythm tone consisting of just compression and reverb.
There, we’ve programmed two of the 800 available patches. And in the simplest way possible. Now it’s time to really see what this thing can do!
My favorite ES-8 trick is one I’ve always dreamed of—the ability to move the location of a pedal instantly. Sometimes I want tremolo before reverb. Sometimes I want it after (like the way it occurs on a Deluxe Reverb where the reverb gets chopped by the tremolo). Sometimes I want my overdrive to be boosted. Sometimes, I want to slam the front end of my overdrive with a booster. Up until now, I’ve had a boost on either side of my overdrive and just dealt with having tremolo before my reverb. With the ES-8, that all changed. Now I can change the order of my effects with the stomp of a switch.
Changing the order of your effects is as simple as a few button pushes. First, select the patch on which you want to work. Then hit the Edit button until you see the words “Loop Structure,” and then press Enter. Now use the Arrow keys to move the cursor from one effect to the other and then use the plus and minus keys to move that effect forwards or backwards in the chain. Working by example seems to be serving us well, so let’s continue in that vein. Since for this exercise, we’re just trying to move our tremolo to follow our reverb, we’re only really concerned with loop number five. Place your cursor under the number five and then use the minus key to move it all of the way to the left. Now your tremolo pedal is in the last pedal in your chain. As a quick point of clarity, the ES-8 visualizes your routing as it would appear on a real pedalboard, i.e. your signal flows from right to left.
Earlier, I mentioned that along with your eight loops, you have slots for a volume pedal and a tuner. If ever there was a pedal on my pedalboard that I wanted more than one of, it’s a volume pedal. Sometimes, I want it at the end of the chain, to bring down my overall volume. Sometimes, I want it before my delay pedal to do cool swells. With the ES-8 routing options, I can even move my volume pedal around in the chain.
If you have MIDI-equipped pedals, you can get even crazier. You can use the MIDI capabilities of the ES-8 to switch effects, parameters, or any other MIDI-controlled functionality on those pedals. For example, if you have a MIDI-equipped delay pedal, you can have the ES-8 feed it information on tempo. You can even use the MIDI functionality to change patches/effects on a MIDI-equipped pedal.
I spent a few weeks with the ES-8 and I barely scratched the patch surface. What worked for me was to use each whole number for a specific song and then use the decimal places for different effect selections within a song. For example, 2.1 is the verse, 2.2 is the chorus, and 2.3 is the solo or the bridge. Then I have a cheat sheet that tells me which whole number goes with which song.
Build Quality
Since I’ve been talking about spacecraft, it only seems right to talk about the feat of engineering that is the ES-8. It’s all shiny chrome switches and black brushed aluminum. It looks and feels high tech, but has a streamlined and welcoming user-interface (it’s so intuitive I almost hate to use that term).
Get Yourself Connected
With 33 quarter-inch inputs and two MIDI connections, the back end of the ES-8 can look like a plate of black spaghetti if you aren’t careful. This is a case where it pays to label each of your cables—both where they are coming from and where they are going. And with that many inputs and outputs on the back of a device this size, you will likely need to invest in new cables. The inputs and outputs of the loops are spaced closely together. Your best bet is to buy 20 combination straight/right angle cables for connecting your effects. You will also want to buy a few TRS and MIDI cables for making use of the expression and MIDI functionality.
With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility (and Patience)
With the ES-8, you really do get out of it what you put into it. If you take the time to get to know it, to really program your patches, and to make the most of the MIDI capabilities of both it and your pedals, you can do incredible things. But it takes time and effort.
Not that long ago, you would have paid thousands of dollars to have someone build an effects switching rig with this amount of power and flexibility. With the ES-8, I had all of my effects connected and multiple patches programmed in under an hour. Digging into the MIDI functionality and the expression pedal ins and outs took a little more time and effort. The good news is that you can start small and expand the size and intricacy of your patch library as you go. I’d normally say that with a device like this, the sky is the limit. But with the ES-8, Pluto and the Kuiper Belt are the limit.