Through the wonders of reverb.com I was recently able to acquire another Lexicon MPX-G2, which was a key piece of my performance rig in the early 2000s. I sold it in a fit of poverty and regretted the move ever since. It has excellent distortion, filtering, ambient and pitch effects, as well as a great speaker emulator, and an insert loop, which I use for the SE-70.
So the current setup is:
Melody: StepABout preamp -> TC Fireworx ->Lexicon MPX-G2 (with nested Boss SE-70)
Bass: StepABout preamp (mainly for switchability with melody pathway) -> SWR SM-400 preamp -> Boss SE-70 -> Boss SY-300.
I have a patch selector pedal with additional controllers for each side, the Lexicon MPX-R1 for the melody side and the Boss FC-50 for the bass side.
Why revert to an old unit like the Lexicon when there are so many more recent alternatives? Sound. Each device has a personality, and each does some things better than the others.
For example, the Boss SE-70 has an unbeatable slow gear, rotary speaker, and programmable analog distortion, but it doesn't have a great reverb or pitch shifter. The TC Fireworx has a great filter and pitch shifter, the Lexicon has a great set of ambient effects and an great sounding "whammy" effect.
With the exception of the SY-300 none of these devices has a computer editor, so programming means stepping through menus, which can be tedious, but the ends justify the means.
I hope to be posting some improv. jams with this rig soon, just have to do a little more programming first....