Boss ME-50 vs TC Electronic Nova System

Old school vs new kid on the block! Boss ME-50 vs TC Electronic Nova System

I recently was offered a tc electronics nova station for pretty good money. It was original purchased in the USA but that wasn't an issue as they have auto switching voltage and use a kettle lead rather than an external adaptor (or wall wart as many like to call them).

I'd looked at the Nova in the past after a friend had bought one specifically for reverb and delay and I like the fact that TC Electronic seem to be making top notch gear and this is no longer limited to high end market with the recent range of Tone Print pedals and even the Nova itself.

My gear
Currently I'm using a Boss ME-50 into the front of an old US built Peavey Classic 30. For the classic rock band, I'm running this into the gain channel, and for the pub band, into the clean channel.

In a previous life when I was purely playing original material (old school thrash/death/heavy metal) I pretty much used one sound and my rig was a Boss TU2 tuner pedal, Snarling Dog Whine-O-Wah, Daphon E200D. Occasionally a Boss NS-2 noise gate was added and the Daphon was occasionally swapped of with a 2nd generation Marshall guv'nor. These went into the rhythm channel of a mark 1 Peavey 5150 head.

This rig was simple and sounded mighty fine, but my playing circumstances have changed and now I require a few more sounds.

Covers Band

When I started playing in a covers band I knew I'd need to expand on my sounds available and being a fan of the 3rd generation Line 6 pods (XT and beyond) I got a XT live. With the passing of time, after a while I decided the Line 6 wasn't working for me. The exact reason excludes me but I do remember there was a dramatic lack of volume out of the unit and a google search backs this up as the norm. I believe I also wanted something a little smaller and simpler as although I needed to expand my sounds it was still a fairly generic 70's rock guitar sound with a little delay and modulation when required. The line 6 was very much overkill for these requirements although I never had an issue with the sounds themselves.

Enter the ME-50

Initially I was looking for a delay pedal as that was the main pedal I was missing, but when I reviewed the price of a stand alone delay pedal , I began searching for other multi FX units to suit my needs.

It was then that I then bought a 2nd hand Boss ME-50. It was dirt cheap (around £75), had the bullet proof Boss reputation and most importantly Internet-land seemed to like them a lot. :)

Luckily it turns out that the Boss ME-50 is not only pretty good sounding, with a small footprint, it is just like using separate floor pedals as each effect has its only dedicated control knobs. Which also means you can edit on the fly really quickly and easily - no menus and complicated screens to fight with. The polar opposite of the Boss GT-6 I had way back. 

Fight!

Anyway, that's just a little background info to put things in perspective

So, physically the TC Electronic Nova System is a chunky wee monkey. I was initially surprised at the size as it's quite thick, but then again it does have the transformer build into it. Structurally it's as solid as the Boss, so I got it plugged in and gave it a go.

The effects are, as expected, absolutely top notch but what about the user interface? In terms of selecting the effect, stand on the button.....and release...that's important. It does not engage when you press, but when you release. Different and I can see how it maybe useful as you can pre-empt changes, get your feet into position and simply step off to switch the effect.......but not the norm, and not a deal breaker for me. 

Setting and changing the effects is through a series of tables and scroll knobs, which reminded me of my old Korg multi-effect pedal (A4?). Not great for on the fly changes I guess but simple enough for setting up.

But I still hadn't carried out the acid-test, so I hooked up the Boss ME-50 in series with the Nova System so I could instantly compare.

A quick comparison didn't highlight a "night and day" difference, so I dug deeper and tried like for like,  vintage  delay for vintage delay, flanger for flanger, etc.

Through the amp, I could hear a slight difference in some modulation effects, but it was only a difference, neither worse nor better, so I stuck the headphones on for some detailed evaluation and repeated the tests but they only confirmed my findings.

Win, Loose, KO or draw?

I finally came to the conclusion that I would not benefit from the Nova System.

I will stress that "I" would not benefit; a pro playing a big theatre or hall with good PA and the likes may get that extra sheen and polish, but for 50 punters in the local sawdust covered drinking hole......

I know this contravenes all the laws of guitar players......we MUST buy new stuff, but if I switched to the Nova, I'd need to run a wah in front and loose-out on the volume pedal, but the big issue I'd have is the lack of knobs! I like turning things and hearing the sound changing; no menus, no messing about. Deal-breaker.

So, there you have it; a multi-effects pedal introduced in 2003(?) beat a cutting edge TC Electronic.

Go Boss!