High-quality stompboxes offer a warmer sound but are much more expensive compared to multi-FX devices. However, using individual pedals from different brands allows for more personal customization. Each combination and sequence of pedals creates new dimensions and possibilities for crafting your own unique sound. For instance, do you place the Overdrive before or after the Wah? Should the Compression go before or after the Overdrive? The sky is the limit! This approach encourages creativity and allows you to explore different effects, learning how EQ, delay, gain, reverb, and others should be set to emulate various guitarists. Additionally, stompboxes tend to retain their value better, and some older pedals can even appreciate over time. The major downside is that it’s extremely time-consuming, often involving a tangle of cables and adapters, troubleshooting bad contacts, and a deep understanding of effects.

Fractal Axe-FX

So, what about multi-FX devices? If you see a guitarist with an Axe-FX II, you might think: 1. They’re a wannabe guitarist with a lot of money, 2. They’re an amateur who doesn’t understand how effects work and just bought an Axe-FX II like everyone else, or 3. They’re a professional guitarist who knows what they’re doing and understands when and how to use a multi-FX device. Unfortunately, the first two types are more common in the music scene.

Here’s my take: a multi-FX device is ideal for today’s fast-paced world where convenience often outweighs effort, and quantity and purchase price are prioritized over quality. Multi-FX units usually approximate analog sounds, sometimes up to 99%, but rarely achieve the full analog experience.

On the plus side, multi-FX devices are incredibly easy to use. Need a Santana preset? Connect a USB cable, download the preset, and voilà, you sound like Carlos Santana! Jimi Hendrix? Download and click, and you’ll even find different variations! This convenience is particularly useful for cover bands with varied setlists. Switching from a Metallica song to an Elvis Presley tune, and then moving to Avicii and Kings of Leon, with a multitude of stompboxes would be impractical and negatively impact stage presence. It’s much better to have a guitarist who moves around the stage rather than one constantly fiddling with pedals.

Multi-FX devices also save space, eliminating the need for a heavy pedal case, avoiding issues with bad contacts and broken cables (and identifying which of the 25 patch cables is faulty!), and speeding up the soundcheck process. However, one significant drawback is that multi-FX devices offer a one-size-fits-all approach. If you and I both use the same multi-FX device, we’ll sound alike. While programming can adjust settings, you’re still working within the same set of effects. Creativity is limited, and you can’t easily integrate a pedal from another brand into the setup.