I finally decided to retire my ancient floor pedals (Frontline Stereo Delay and Boss Digital Metalizer ) after about 21 years of continuous abuse and repeatedly kicking them to get them working in various awkward situations...
Having experimented with stuff like GT6's and GT6B's and various other similar units in the past and every time discarded them in utter frustration at being unable to get them to do my bidding (read: being too dim to understand them...) I've finally found one that seems to do everything I want... and that I am actually capable of operating ; the Boss ME70.

What I like about it :1) this thing has a GENUINE bypass ! Hooray ! A fellow is not obliged to set his 'clean' sound through the pre-amp - it can be switched off - or through some amp model which bears little relation to an actual clean sound. You get your normal clean sound - therefore it will just slot right in to the rest of your rig, if you want.
2) it just adds fx to that - does what it says on the tin - I LIKE that.
3) so simple to operate that even I have not screwed it up so far.
4) built like a tank.

I know these things have been around for ages, and I daresay that there may be a few sophisticates out there who can and do know how to use all the parameters of the various menus which it's necessary to negotiate one's way around to use stuff like Axe FX, GT10's or GT100's and who may be smiling as they read this, but for guys like me this thing really is the answer... just twist the knob... hey... excellent !
The fx themselves are actually of a very workable quality, too, at least for most live situations that I'm likely to find myself in. I'm getting some (what I think are) great sounds out of it. OK, so the reverbs could be a bit sweeter... and there are only 36 writeable patches - but, hey, that's about 32 more than I had before, and they're so simple to write that I may even get around to actually using more than 3 or 4 of them...

I found a wonderful 'training guide' for the unit on the net here ;
http://cms.rolandus.com/assets/media/pd ... _Guide.pdf
... and whoever wrote that bit " GOING DEEP - USING THE TUNER" - was obviously aware that I would be reading it one day...

For anyone else out there who may be technically, er, 'challenged', I recommend this as a great little unit to check out. Good old Roland Corporation - I've always liked your gear, ever since falling in love with the JC's when they came out in the 70's - thankyou very much !!!

Congrats! Finding a piece of gear that "speaks your language" is a truly wonderful thing. Seeing as how this unit also has an "EZ Zone" button, it may be something even I could figure out, as well.

~Michael

Thanks Michael - yes, at last I can communicate effectively with a multi-fx unit, and it does feel good... but wait - EZ Tone ? Easy now, don't confuse me or break my concentration, I'm still twisting the knob here...