Zoom 503 Amp Simulator

It's zoom 500 series... One programs the same as the other. All you have to know is what the effects are, and where they are, which can be a little on the tricky side if you don't have a manual.

BC Rich Eagle & Mockingbird > Ibanez Smash Box > Zoom 503 > ART SGX 2000 > Neptune 1/3 octave graphic eq > Peavey Mark VI amp.

Lots of times people tend to base gear solely on their stand-alone use. (ie. i plugged my Les Paul into the Mesa Mark IV and it blew me away, or I plugged the DS-1 directly into the amp, and couldn't get a decent sound..etc..) My point is that a lot of cheaper effects work best when used WITH OTHER GEAR!! Sure this unit may not be the greatest stand-alone amp-sim out there, but when you use the unit's better effects with other gear, it becomes much better... I run the SM-7 into it, and it DESTROYS!!!! If you're looking for something that is simply amazing all by itself, then you're going to be spending a healthy amount of money. For the amount I paid for this unit, you couldn't hope to get any better. As far as the individual fx, go.. the clean amps work really well when running your own dist. pedal(s), and even some of the distortions aren't to bad with some work. THe stereo chorus is cool, the mono...ehhh..; the vibrato is pretty weak, the 'verb is good; the delay.. some fx HAVE to be able to be fine tuneable in order to be decent. Delays, flangers, etc don't come off to well when the parameters are fixed. So, like the whole zoom 500 series, the 'fixed parameter' effects aren't liked very much, but are still useable. The 3 band eq is a nice touch, and proper use af the cabinet sim and mic placement can yield some pretty useable patches. Overall, you won't find a better deal (unless you're on e-bay). However, you can't really put this one in the same category as, say the ME-30, or RP-100. This was designed for AMP SIMULATION ONLY !! The chorus, reverb, etc..(IMOP) are effects that have commonly used as added features on some amps.

Seems pretty good to me.......

As mentioned in the 'Sound Quality' section, when used alone, it may not be the best, or even useable. However, when you use the unit's better features WITH other gear you may have (ie Rat pedal, Boss Chorus, eq pedal, etc...) it can really be an amazing addition to one's setup.

VERY EASY

Im Absolutely blown away by this unit..usaully zoom makes shit..but for some reason this unit sounds HUGE!!!!!!!So Good its part of my rig now

Hasn't broken yet

Whatever I live in Canada and trying to deal with american companies is impossible because most yanks dont know that there is a whole other country above them

AS far as modelling sound and emulation of huge amps, its perfect

0.0 This thing is hard as hell to use, editing the patches takes forever, the manual has small text so you can't even see it. I dont know what the **** your talking about when you say this is a great product

This thing sounds like crap...period...

This thing is made out of cheap plastic, if you drop it, stomp it or hit it on anything it will break..

Didnt get a responce

Piece of junk.. totally ..

Simple simple...I'm sure if you purchased the 503 unit you were already familiar with the rest of the compact zoom series and how they function...but then maybe not. No worries though, these things are easy to figure out in no time. Instruction manual is handy if you have it. Contrary to most people's complaints about the inconvenience of the little push button's on the side(versus the slightly more convenient rotary knobs incorporated on the new updated 505 and 506), I find them not too troubling at all. I'll give it a solid 9 in this category. Oh and by the way...the 503 has seperate adjustments for bass, mids, and treble unlike any of the others in the 500 series. One of the most significant features that sets it apart from this crowd.

OK...now for the good stuff. FYI, this is the first time I've ever bothered to post a review on here because I have been soooo EXCEPTIONALLY happy with this unit as of lately that I needed a forum to simply praise the 503 in it's full $50 glory! It has done wonders for me!!!...no lies. I did not buy this thing expecting to get the best distortion pedal I've ever owned...BY ANY MEANS. In fact, I didn't even buy it with the intention of using it's distortion models at all. I just needed a cheapass direct recording device with guitar AND bass amp models for straight, semi-believable clean tones in order to record simple demos. Tremelo and "spring" reverb were a couple of the few basic effects housed in the 503 which also attracted me since I am really into 'surfy' tones and wanted to get them down on tape. It was actually very suitable for this, and I still use it extensively for DI-recording. HOWEVER, one day I decided to experiment with the pedal through the amp. Keep in mind, I play Fender guitars and Fender tube amps...not your typical "rockstar" rig. The clean tones through my Blackface Fender Showman were surprisingly good[on the Fender and Vox models] and it didn't suck my tone(like the old zoom 505 does, being that it has no real "clean" settings...only to turn the distortion setting to "off" which gives you a dull lifeless sound), and I was happy about this. But THEN I pulled out my trusty Squier Jagmaster(a classic Jaguar/Jazzmaster styled guitar with dual humbuckers!) and rigged up some distortion settings on the 503 and I was astonished! This thing puts out the TONE!!! It puts out 'real' tone, unlike the rest of the zoom pedals in the compact series which put out disgustingly digital sounding distorted tones...that being the reason why I had low to no expectations for this pedal in that respect when I bought it. My assumptions were entirely wrong...Zoom spit in my face on this one. This pedal is 100% opposite of the 504, 505, 506, 507, 508, etc. Something tells me they were just lucky though. At any rate, I am glad they accidentally made a great pedal! They should screw up more often, or try experimenting like this with different sounds instead of playing it safe all the time with their standardized distortion chips. The Mesa Boogie setting with the mid enhancement on "E2" is the only distortion tone you'll ever need...I swear by it. The thing I love about this pedal is that as a result of a lack in modeling technology during the late 90's, the amp models aren't accurate at all. Confused?...don't be. I've noticed now that the harder these companies try to "emulate" amp models, the faker, noisier and more sterile they begin to sound because it's a digital reproduction of a specific sound...not a natural sound. The processor is doing all the work instead of the guitar and the amp. The 503, on the contrary, is very responsive to your guitar's unique sound on both distorted and clean settings. It's amazing! Picked it up for $50 and I couldn't be happier. :)

Plastic but dependable. No complaints!

If something happened to it, I'd probably just buy another one for $50 instead of bothering Zoom. They need to be worrying about making better pedals like this one if the future...not service repairs on the $50 plastic 500 series.

If you have a clean tube amp and a guitar with humbuckers, the distorted tones on the Zoom 503 will blow you away I promise. Keep in mind, The Mesa Boogie setting is not so buzzy and sterile like the real thing, which is good in my opinion. It sounds more like a modern marshall and the marshall setting, funny enough, sounds more or less like a real mesa. I add a little hall reverb and long delay(which is not all that responsive or adjustable, yet for some reason just about right!), to get a perfect emulation of that Van Halen brown sound...artificial harmonics popping out all over the place. I'm telling you, that's plain WeIrD for a Zoom pedal. The effects are minimal, but they are all you would need in a live application. All the basics are there(chorus, flanger, delay, tremelo, reverb, compressor, etc.), they can only be thought of as a great bonus. Who wants to deal with loads of effects on stage anyway?...I don't. I'd rather PLAY. Oh and BTW, if you are playing loud and in a professional situation, DON'T use the cabinet or mic emulation...that just clips the signal and makes things too "boomy"...your real amp cabinet will do just fine. That's what it's there for. Did I mention the noise gate is GREAT! The pedal is extraordinarily quiet to begin with considering all the gain you get, but the zoom noise reduction really cleans things up and the decay is perfect and natural. Sometimes noise gates are TOO good, like on the Digitech units, and it just cuts off your signal prematurely without a proper decay, making it unatural sounding #1, and #2 it makes it impossible to play with feedback. This thing does EVERYTHING perfectly, all by accident! I've tried the new 505 II and it's new Mesa, Marshall, and Peavey amp models don't compare to the 503's! I figured the amp models would be the exact same chip but they aren't!!! They are entirely different and not good sounding at all. AND you can't adjust equalization individually on the 505 II either, making it completely useless. It just generally doesn't sound anywhere near as good as my 503...end of story. I want to buy another 503 so I can have one dedicated to clean tones and one dedicated to distorted tones and A/B it for performance purposes. It's cheap and the features are nil but the sound is as close to pro as you will ever need to get with a footpedal processor. I am just thankful I discovered this well kept secret. Whoever called this thing a "sleeper" and a "dark horse" in an earlier post hit it right on. He's right. I don't know how "sought after" or "valuable" it will be in years to come, but it should be something special to the people who do know about it. Those of you who say it's pointless to plug this thing into an amp, and that it's ONLY useful as a recording device...I don't havea clue what your talking about! I highly recommend this pedal. Rub the Zoom logo off if you want.

easy, but i would rather have knobs. Some of the abreviations in the edits are confusing but a quick look at the manual and you're in buisiness.

For the price I really like this thing. I use it for both recording and live preformance. I play it thru the PA system (No amp) at live preformance and it rocks. Rev, chorus, EQ,compressor, etc not the best, but I didn't buy it for that, I have other fx for those things. My set up vaires week to week. Fender Strat, Gibson SG, Gibson Les Paul it depends on what songs we are playing that week. Sometimes I use midiverb, DOD chorus pedal, DOD phaser, always use an eq and compressor before the 503.

I have had it for over a year, use it in my studio and stage, no problems. Works every time

I haven't delt with zoom, yet.

In the studio, a little bit of everything. All Christian Music. But all types of styles from hymns to screaming guitars and noisy cheezy sounding drumsets. No death metal, tho. I'm into life. At live preformance, mostly rythum type, and some screaming lead. I have been playing for about 30 years. (I'm old) but still cool.
I set up the programs i will be using on sunday morning, sometime during the week as i practice the songs. Then on Sunday I just stomp to the programs I need. Works like a charm.

Complex for a stomp box. Don't try to tweak at the gig.

The Marshall and Vox sounds really stunned me for something so cheap.
I think this is a real sleeper. A dark horse. Fender bassman sounded real also.
The distortions are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than the Zoom 505. The 505
distortions are like chainsaws but the 503 has amp sweetness

lightweight

what?????

If you have experience with amp tone and are willing to sit down and tweak then the amp distortions will probably please you.
A real value, I really think in many years it will be a highly sought
after item sort of like the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer.
A dark horse in my opinion.

You can get the sound you want out of this thing with little problem, but the buttons can be a little annoying at time. Most people like dealling with knobs better, other than that, it's very straight forward and easy to use.

This little box is great, especially considering the price. I have it set up for two different uses. One is to flavor my amp, I use the amp models with no EQ or cabinet selection to make my amp sound like the basic clean sound of different amps. I've got an old 2x12 solid state Road amp, and it seems to sound really good this way. I set it to F Clean with no gain, no EQ, no cabinet select and it sounds basically like an old Fender Twin. I use my amps EQ to adjust the sound, so it's very much like dealing with the actual amp. J clean gives the basic Roland Jazz Chorus 120 sound, VX Crunch gives a Vox AC-30 sound (My three favorite clean amps, so I'm happy there.) I use a Boss DS-1 for distortion, so I don't really use the distortion sounds on the 503 through my amp...I do switch it to MS Crunch to give the DS-1 more of a Marshall Plexi sound to it, and for that JCM stack style sound, I turn the cabinet on to L1 and has more of a wall of sound punch to it. There are some bass models in there as well, I'm going to try to get a Fender Bassman sound using the same basic principal with one of those.

Now all of the above patches I have redone using the cabinet simulation and EQ for headphone practice as well and for direct recording, sounds nice there too. I also have a few extra patches with distortion for portable practice for trips and stuff like that. I really like the fact that it has a seperate 1/8" line in spot. I use that with my Yamaha DY10 for drums and back up when I practice with the Headphones. Since the DY10 is small too, I've got a nice, completely portable system here that I could take just about anywhere.

The effects are all right (not great though), but extemely limited. I did not buy this unit for effects though, but for the cabinet and amp selections. If I were to rate the effects, I'd give it a 5...fair sounding, but extremely limited. I do not think the effects are not that important though, so I do not count that in my rating (I've got the Zoom 509 for effects and Zoom 508 for delay.) I do like and use the reverbs though (4 types, spring, room, hall and echo type.)

Overall I give the sound a 9, just because I always believe there's room for improvement. And just for the record, I had a POD and was not happy with it. I think it's much easier to get a basic sound out of a Zoom 503 than it was with the POD.

OK, so it is plastic, I had a Zoom 505 for 2 years with no problem and the friend I sold it to has had for 2 years now, and I haven't heard a complaint, so I guess it's pretty duriable. I think, like everything, if your careful, it will last. From my experience though, most guitarists can get pretty rough when they stomp their boxes, so I do give it a rating based on that. I don't think I'll have a problem though.

I've dealt with Zoom before. I do not like their support. No E-mail, no phone number, no real way of contacting them on their site. I did find an E-mail address on the site, but not for technical support, I E-mailed there and got a response about 2 weeks later saying the message was forwarded to the proper area and then about a week later a message from them saying they can't help me, but they gave me another E-mail address of someone who could...a day or two later I finally got an answer. While they will answer you pretty promptly once you reach the proper person, finding the proper area to contact is next to impossible, which is the reason to the low mark. I basically like the sound of Zoom, not the support.

Would I replace it if lost...yes...for $50 it's well worth it. The average above would actually only give an overall rating of about 6...But since I think sound is really the main thing here, I added a couple of extra points there for an 8.

Once you get the hang of it, ot's not too bad to edit.

Decent reverb and doubling effects. Very inflexible delay. Combinations of amp, cabinet, and mic placements mean a fairly decent array of sounds. All the high gain sounds are pretty cheezy. Awful compressor. Awful chorus. Main reason why I bought it is for recording bass; I might try using it as a reverb unit only for a live gig some day when I feel like a change.
My setup: 1987 Marshall 2558 Jubilee combo; 1998 G&L ASAT Special; 1984 Strat; 1963 Gibson Melody Maker.

Cheaply made, all plastic.

No Idea

I think this unit is made for kids to hack around in Mom's basement. Not a serious unit, but grat value for the dollar.

If only every pedal was this easy to program. The only drawback is that it doesn't have knobs for the parameters, but like you would be able to twist the knobs at a show anyways!

The sound quality is not as pro as I'd like, but for $60 it kills everything. Lotsa feedback and very unnatural sounding at high volume levels, so mike it low if you need to use it live.

N/A had it 1 day

I have used the zoom 503 (and 505 years ago), and never once had any problem with either. N/A never had to deal with C.S.

For the money, the zoom 500 series are awesome. If you want pro gear, go buy pro gear. If you're poor though, this will make a killer substitute until you can get that $700+ Roland GP-100 with the $400+ foot pedal.

The 503 is a really simple machine. I lost the miniature instructions about 2 weeks after I bought mine, but it was still easy to find my way around on the thing. It REALLY needs bigger buttons though. I hate having to bend down to edit a patch.

I use a Gibson LP-90 through a Peavey XR-600B. It's a pretty cheap guitar but if you adjust your pickups just right you can get a really thick sound with the distortions. The harmonics are really strong too. The chorus is kinda weak, but the flanger and reverb are pretty tight.

As long as you use an AC and keep a fresh battery in it, it should last a while. I've only had mine a few months but other than the battery running out I haven't had a problem out of it. If you do screw something up it's pretty easy to set back.

I haven't had to deal with the support section yet but if you wanna upgrade I hear the 505 for guitar and the 506 for bass are pretty tough. I bought the 503 because I wanted something I could run a guitar or a bass through with no problem.

I play soul, blues, and rock. The 503 is great because it's small and portable with a pretty good sound. If it had bigger edit buttons and maybe an expression pedal, it would be way better. My friend uses a Korg AX1000G which has better chorus and way more effects, but my 503 holds its own.