I have quite a few analog pedals in my gear collection, but none quite like Zoom’s Multistomp. It has the form factor of analog pedal, but the guts of a digital stompbox.

The MS-50G is a unique pedal, but I was unsure how I would fit it into any of my current setups. Would it replace some of my analog pedals? Could I use it with my digital amps and cabs? The answer turned out to be yes.

I use the Zakk Wylde Overdrive with my JCM 800 and love what it does for my tone. I didn’t want to replace that pedal, but still wanted to add some of the effects in the Zoom Multistomp. Ultimately, that’s exactly what I did.

Whether you put the Multistomp before or after the ZW Overdrive is personal choice based on the tone you’re looking for and the effects you choose. I tried both, but preferred using the Multistomp before.

The Multistomp did exactly what I was hoping it would — it added to the tone. It didn’t try to overpower the tone that I already had, but rather allowed me to try out a bunch of effects that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to. The Multistomp comes with 55 effects and amp models and a tuner, so there is no way I would be able to buy all of that gear.

Here’s the beauty of the Zoom pedal. It has 50 presets slots and you can put up to six effects in each preset. Each preset is like it’s own stompbox.

You can program the pedal to load presets in whatever you order choose, so if you have a song that starts off with a clean tone, then goes to a crunchy tone, and then a lead tone, the Mutistomp can load them in order for you. Just stomp on the pedal and it changes to the new preset.

You can also change the order the effects are loaded in each preset, so you have complete control over your entire tone.

I also plugged the output from the pedal into my audio interface and tried the Multistomp with a number of amp modeling software applications. I disabled all of the effects in the software and used the ones in the Multistomp instead. The only thing I used in software was the amp and cab — it worked great.

Changing the settings for individual effects or global settings is done right on the pedal itself. There are buttons around the stomp pot and three knobs/buttons on the pedal itself. It will take you some time to figure out what button does what, but it’s not that difficult. By the time you set up your first preset, you’ll have it mastered.

Since the Multistomp is digital, Zoom included the ability to update the pedal’s firmware via USB. This is very handy if the company decides to make changes or enhance the pedal down the road.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the MS-50G, but I’m pleased with what I found. A versatile pedal that added to my existing tone. The Multistomp costs $99.99 at Amazon.