Bill Ruppert makes me wanna do stupid stuff.

I've been a "Boss" guy for 35 years, but man... Bill Ruppert's EHX demos make me want to buy all their stuff. I've been thinking about expanding my delay capabilities. Instead of just the DD-3 and AnaEcho I have now, I want something with more sounds, expression control, and presets. I had decided to just bite the bullet and get a Boss MS-3 multieffects switcher. It would give me all the delay options I want, plus a whole bunch of extra effects. I could also ditch four modulation pedals and my tuner, keep just a few favorite dirt boxes, and fit the whole thing on my existing 18" x 12" pedalboard.

Then I saw Ruppert's demo of the new (any day now...) Grand Canyon delay. Totally awesome sounds, cool looks, 13 presets, expression and control inputs, looper. I planned to buy one (along with its optional 3-button footswitch) as soon as it's released. I immediately started re-designing my pedalboard to accommodate the Grand Canyon. I could keep 8 of my existing 9 pedals, jettison the AnaEcho, replace it with the Grand Canyon, and add a dirt box or two (as long as I was expanding anyway). All I would have to do is build a completely new 24" x 12" board. The end result would be an even dozen stompboxes with no programing or multi-pedal loop selector; a tap-dancing nightmare. And I'd be throwing away the old pedalboard that's been the core of my setup since the late '80s.

THAT.

IS.

INSANE.

So I spent last night watching every MS-3 demo I could find, and I figured out the problem. Boss demos SUCK, even the ones done by dealers and third parties. It's all programming this and selecting that, easy to use, but you can really dive in deep. COSM, MIDI, GT-quality sounds, blah, blah blah. Boss' demos are obviously written by marketing guys and engineers, but what I want to know it how its SOUNDS. Play something cool and inspiring... don't just tell me over and over how many banks there are, and what those little buttons on the top do.

Bill Ruppert and the entire crew at EHX make me want to buy their really cool stuff, even if I know deep down that's it's not the right solution for me. Boss makes great gear but they bore me to death.

 

Agreed, but my point is, Boss needs a Bill Ruppert. His videos are inspiring, Boss' are lame.

 

It is extremely rare that I visit, much less post, on TGP, but tonight I made an exception to let all the TGPers know that the Grand Canyon user's manual showed up on EHX's website today. In under 15 minutes, Bill himself responded, assuring us that the pedal will be along soon.