Could I throw a dart at a list of these (Boss ME-20/50, Zoom B1/B3, Digitech B355, Line6 M5/M9) and get a good one? I have read all the multi-effect threads here and I have not seen one that was being evaluated for typical home use only. The problems of road or stage worthiness always come into it. Not a problem in this case!
Edit: GT-1b also on the target.
I can only help you out with my experience with the B3 as it is then only multieffects I have (except for an old B2).
Although I have used it live, most of my use has been at home or travelling.
I used the B3 exclusively as a preamp for a while, all I used were the amp/cab sims to run directly into either my PC or my rig at the time (I was running a power amp/subwoofer/pa cab). It worked perfectly for this application and managed to get almost any tone I was looking for, but I am pretty simple as far as tones/effects are concerned. Most of the amp/cab sims are good, others are very good (IMO).
I have also used this a lot as an interface directly in/out of my PC. I nearly always have a laptop with me, so I plug headphones into the B3 and can play along with anything from my PC. I have also used it a lot to record directly into my PC. This has been a perfect travel and practice rig for me as it can run on AC, batteries and USB power directly from my laptop. I have read of people suffering some latency or other issues when running directly on USB power, but I haven't experienced these issues (running on an MSI laptop plugged into a 3.0 port).
The looper that is built in is not the best looper in the world, it is pretty basic. However, having said that, it is another great practice tool and it is possible to do amazing things with it (just working inside its limitations. I have spent hours noodling over my noodling
The built in drum beats are again nothing spectacular, but they are more than enough to play along with and have some fun while practicing things that may be boring without a beat.
The rest of the effects in the unit are decent in their majority, they replicate some pretty famous pedals and can actually pull most of them off pretty well. I am not saying they are as good as some of the individual effects they replicate, but they are more than enough to try out (hundreds) different effects without spending a ton of money on building a pedal board (that comes later when you get the pedal bug
).
The pedal itself is very robust, the layout is simple (much simpler than a lot of other multieffects) which is great for someone with no experience. You get to understand what you are "twiddling" and the adjustments are laid out also to immigrate the pedals that the unit replicates (mostly), so what you learn on the B3 is actually useful if you move on to something else (unlike the B2 for example, that took hours to set up and left me at least with a sense of confusion as to what I had actually done).
I would say that for the price the B3 is a great unit that is very useful for practice and fun, but can also be used in a live situation if needed.
If you have any specific questions I would be more than happy to answer them (if I can).
Edit to add: one negative thing about using it as a simple practice rig with headphones is volume adjustment. It is not the easiest thing in the world to adjust, but is fine once you get used to it. As I run it 99% of the time hooked up to a PC, this is not an issue for me, but worth considering.
