Zoom 505

I got this as a gift knowing zero about using it, and had no problems. When I got this, of course, it was a long time ago and I was a lot younger -- honestly, I found ways to use it at the time because it's all I had and I didn't know any better. Is it easy to use? Yes. But now after years of using better FX tools, most any of which are both more advanced AND easier to set and get to work, this 505 ZOOM is pretty clumsy and toy-like in comparison.

My biggest complaint is that the parameters can be very interactive, so if you care about fine tuning it, then you will have to adjust, scroll, tap, tap, scroll, tweak, tap, tap, scroll, tap, tweak and then start over at the top because everything's related, etc etc...

So it's hardly ideal, but still easy, just not recommended for obsessives, or the impatient.

Yep it's certainly can get hissy! Honestly, you can get some nice tones out of this thing, but like I said it takes a bit of tweaking, mostly turning down or off a lot of the presets. Compression, EQ, Distortion, "AMP" and Reverb... all these things, added to each other, can get noisy (even with other company's products), so you're best knocking everything down to zero and reading the manual at least once carefully (for example, I misunderstood the EQ part at first which made it sound awful).

Anyway, the payoff of this pedal is that it packs a good bit of effects into a little package, so you get a a sort of swiss army noise-maker without a lot of investment, money nor time.

Pretty digital too, but a creative user will find plenty of to explore.

Amazingly, still with me after 7 (?) years I think.

Seems cheap, but mine has lasted a lot of wear and tear.

I wouldn't "depend on it" but I don't "depend" on any effect.

Plastic but still kicking.

Nah never wrote/called.

I love experimenting. I care about tone, a lot, but I'm no $4000 10-watt boutique amp obsessive that only plays Fulltone clones. As variety is the spice of life, this pedal remains a great thing to have around.

The don't make these anymore, but they make very similar things. I guess if they ever make a newer version of substantial difference, I'd probably get one. Although the old school digital flavor has probably been improved on, whether that's good or bad depends on you.

Not great, but cheap and fun.

No processor is without the hassle of menuing or scrolling. Even the digital Boss stuff you have to move their pots back to zero and then, back up to where you want that particular parameter at but, the ZOOM 505 is pretty damn easy to manuipulate. Even somewhat on the fly. Yes there are effects on it that absolutely suck and those in which you will never use but, believe it or not, there are some killer sounds in that grey box. I mean considering what we paid for it there is some bang for the buck. The road map style manual is shit. I think you have to move up to a different model to upgrade it. I don't care what others say about it, I like it. It does work for me in ceratin situations. Is it as great as a ToneBone or a Hot Cake? No way.

OK, MY trick to using this box is like this. Guitar> Zoom 505 > split the output. One leg to tuner to keep the tuner from degrading your tone. The other leg to a MXR Micro Amp > DOD FX40 EQ > Electro Harmonix LPB 2UBE tube preamp > Tech 21 Power Engine 60 amp. You will not believe how that E.H. box warms up cold digital signals. It alone is the key to getting a nice tubey sound out of the 505 or any other device you have that is cold, hard or impersonal. If your a high gainer or a metal head I would definately suggest linking it into a Boss NS-2 noise suppressor using the effects loop provided on that pedal. On the Zoom 505, the EQ's are preset in stages. Some of them sound the same. Some sound muddy. Therefore it is necessary to use a separate EQ as I have outlined with this pedal. The MXR micro amp is
ALWAY a pleasent user friendly boosting device in any setup. I can get nice crunches on the Blues drive even around gain levels 5 to 8. I can get a nice 12 string sound setting the Chorus on 3 with a Hall Reverb at 2. (Watch out Roger McGuinn). There is even a convincing auto wah in there that I can do Frampton's talk box lead on in "Show Me The Way". What I don't like about it is that you can't have delay and reverb on the same patch. It's one or the other.

Has never ever failed me. Mine is old faithful.

Never needed them. I don't know. I think they just recently replaced it with something called a G2. I doubt you could get one fixed. They are probably throw-aways like cheap Samsung and Sanyo stuff. You can get Zoom 505's for a song on www.ebay.com.

I play classic rock. In tight club setups I can use this device as outlined above by splitting the Electro Harmonix preamp pedal output. Sending one leg to the PA mixing board, the other to a small Fender 1270P monitor on a raised stand (so I can hear what I'm doing). I control my volume, the sound guy controls my front of hall volume. I don't need an amplifier. There is an amplifier simulator in the 505.
I have too much stuff to list. The one who dies with the most toys better leave a freakin' will.

Anything digital is easy to use for me, but I believe noone should have any problem using it.

I use Fender Frontman 15g amp. Sound quality is very personal category, so I will not rate it. You can create so many differrent sounds with this device, so I believe there is something for everyone. Maybe it sounds a little bit too "computerized" sometimes, but I personally like that kind of sound.

I have it for almost a year now, (on power-adapter, not batteries), and did not have single problem. I play guitar several times per week, and every time I go through many sounds on Zoom.
Frankly, the only problem was when I pulled the connector out with my leg and Zoom lost power :-)

Did not need it.

I play mainly rock/blues/metal. I sure would look to buy it again. Sometimes sequencial switch from sound "A1" to sound let's say "C3" can take several seconds (A1 -> A2 -> A3 -> A4 -> B1 -> etc :-), but with additional pedal you can quickly switch banks (A -> B -> C, ...).

Incredibly easy to use.
Was the very first processor of it's kind.

Manual was great but of this giant unfolding map style format that sucked.

Digital chips degrade.
I've heard it claimed that they don't, they just die at once but I notice a drastic difference in performance with mine from when I first got it and also in comparison to newer ones.
It sounds awful!!

When I first got it though, it was great. There is no doubt in my mind the quality degraded because I returned a high end, real tube gain, amp simulating rack mount digital processor with every goodie imagineable which was replaced by this unit and ultimately a simple zoom rack mount processor add on.

After about 3-4 years, there was a very noticeable loss of quality. It got next to no use after that. After getting back into playing and having my head repaired, I decided to try use it again. Man the quality had degraded even more. I used it for like 6 months and the sound literally got oozier week by week until I scrapped it.

It is a silicon chip that gets subjected to heat. Funny that the sound actually became oozy from the silicon gelling up and deteriorating from the heat.

Anyway, no reason to buy one cept if you collect old useless crap, lol.
I'm dumbfounded how much they sell for on Ebay.

VERY RELIABLE

It's 10 years old and still works fine!

eh, dunno

Awesome processor for it's time. It started the revolution. Within a couple months companies like Art and Digitech released these massive floor processors that looked absolutely amazing and sounded a lot better than this thing.
....Something about the 18 bit processors of that time. I think they had the overbearing midrange issue of digital balanced out. Something most companies are failing to do these days with their improved 24 bit processing.

This thing did start it all though and with a good muscley amp it took care of business.

ZOOM is still making the best floor units on the market. Soon I'll grab the Zoom G2 which is everything I've been waiting for from them for the last year or two.

My final opinion.
Great processor in it's day but now a total dinosaur. Put it to rest in your music memorabelia room or something.

Very easy to use if you are not going to treak individual effect modules.
Jumping here and there definitely needs the special technique from the manual. Are you interested to step 12 times to go from A1 to C2?

Frankly the sounds are not bad to me at all for the price I paid. The distortion is very "solid state" but acceptable.
The chorus and flanger and delay levels etc are quantized, so you will not be satisfied if you are too interested in turning knobs for 2.5 degree for a tiny trewking.
The acoustic simulator preset could hardly be said as good, but sounds alike actually.
The floor noisy on high distortion is the only concern while bringing it on stage.

Many many users critize the plastic shell of the 505. But does it really matter if it gives you everything you need to protect the stuff inside?
As mentioned before it's good enough for practicing and small studio, but not reliable enough for gigging because of the noise level.
Backup is nothing to me as I seldom do the customized set up.

Their website keep everything you need for years just for this old cheap model. Who could ask for more?
Never called CS or asked for repair. Hard to comment on this.

I play mainly pop rock and blues. As a man just playing for hobby, I believe this small and low-price toy is good and funny enough to keep me entertained for years.
The Synth-like sounds are not useful at all, but funny and inspiring enough for me to come up with some new ideas in making music.

I bought this effect unit 7 years ago, still very unexperienced with effects and that kind of stuff.
Still after reading the manual and trying out a few things I got on very well with the 505 so it can't be very difficult to use.
From the point of view I'm having now, being used to much more complex machines, I can only say that the 505 is VERY EASY TO USE.

I've used my 505 with various guitars, mostly with an Ibanez Ergodyne.
Sometimes I used it with a small Marshall Valvestate Combo (V30R) but most of the time I didn't use an amp at all, plugging it directly into a recorder for recording, using the phones out or even plugging it into the aux in of my stereo.
The clean sounds are okay, even quite good if you consider the price of this little thing. Chorus, flanger etc. are okay and with the pitch shifter and harmonizer effects (and an expression pedal connected) you can do some pretty cool stuff that sounds quite good.
However, the distortion sounds are aweful!
You'd rather not use the 505 for high-gain sounds.
It's okay for playing around a bit, but the distorted sounds never worked with any setup I tried.
But as long as you keep it clean, the 505 doesn't sound that bad, although, compared to what I'm used to nowadays, this isn't much more than a toy.
But I got to say that I'm still using this 'toy' from time to time and I'm still having fun with it.

For years I didn't have any problems.
After 4-5 years there was something wrong with the power supply via battery.
But I think the reliability of this thing is really okay.

The Zoom 505 is a nice little and very affordable toy.
I you have never used multi-effect units and want to start slowly or if you just want to play around with a few weird sounds or so you should try the 505.
If you're looking for something to use seriously or if you're looking for a good distortion sound this isn't the right thing for you.

very easy to use

like all poducts i tried an worked with from zoom, this pedal also offers a lot of functions for less money. for starters or for people who are looking for a little box they can carry around (to the beach, while you?re sitting on the toilet) to play guitar with common effects, it?s a nice box. if you?re looking for performable and recordeable sounds - beware. this box is (like every product from zoom) just a piece of shit made from 100% plastic. you get 100% plastic sounds. do yourself a favour - don?t buy this or other gear from zoom. i?m always disappointed from zoom shit. get good stuff for cheap - don?t buy cheap stuff - one day you?ll have to get rid of it!!!

not useable forlive- not useable for recordings.

don?t know.

forget this piece of crap.
don?t buy zoom shit!!
it?s cheap - yes!
it?s worse - yes!

It's pretty easy to mess around with the sound and then save your own combinations of effects.

Very noisy, and the range of tone you get from the effects is pretty lousy. Very digital sounding.

A plastic piece of crap. Has got noisier and noisier since I bought it and now it's pretty unusable.

Have not dealt with Zoom and don't intend to. It's a cheap product, and will probably be used simlpy for messing around with noise.

This is quite a fun toy as a first effects pedal, but nothing more. Once you start really exploring each effect you realise you need much more than this thing has to offer. It served me well when I started messing around with effects about 5 years ago, but on the whole the effects sound poor. But for such a cheap, compact unit, what do you expect?

It's pretty easy to get a variety of sounds, labeled from "a" to "f" and "1" to "4" on each letter, so at least 24 sounds not including custom ones. I've never edited patches, it looks intimidating- although it does have lighted LEDs for WHAT effect you are using at the time(reverb, chorus, flanger, etc). Manual?- well, it's pretty descriptive but I like the papers I received that were downloaded and nickname the effect, which letter/number it is, and a brief description. It does have a button to skip letters which helps speed up navigating very well. I just stomp it until I get the sound I feel like monkeying around with.

I have used it with a Dean Markley K20 practice amp and it totally brings it to life, as this amp has no reverb and sounds very cold(besides that it's solid state/cold enough). I cannot STRESS how much you NEED a combined effects pedal if all you have is a basic practice amp. It's cheaper than buying a big amp and will motivate you back into playing harder. I also use it on my big amp, a Crate Tube Drive TD50C but don't use it as often because the Crate has chorus and soaking wet reverb and a nice warm tube overdrive so why comprimise my amp's clean tone? I like the range of sounds it makes, it has at least 4 different overdrives, an auto-wah, 3 different choruses, and at least 2 reverbs, and even an acoustic guitar mimic function. I am not so ear-tuned to find sounds of different artist. You can most probably find any sound you are looking for- the tunability OF that sound?- I don't know, I leave it like it is. The main GRIPE I have is that it goes from low to noisy loud depending on the effect you click on, so BE prepared to lower the volume on your guitar. I guess this is normal though, every effect is combing the sound in different ways and different ends of the pitch. Oh, by the way, I play at home, or the finding a selection at a live gig or getting a fistfull of feedback because you didn't turn the volume down on the guitar before you clicked the next effect could get a tomato thrown at you.

Seems reliable but it's plastic, so don't treat it like a battered spouse, treat it like a newborn baby or YOU might be the one crying. I've been having mine over 5 years and it was second hand when I got it. Even the LED display still works. Unplug the battery though just to be safe. It will however auto turn off if you unplug the output to the guitar from the pedal.

No experience, never broke.

I play rock, a few oldies, Clapton, Otis Redding, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and whatever else I can figure out. I've played for 20 years but as a novice hobbyist, never live. I'd probably get another or consider the same Line 6 multi-effects pod that the guy I bought the Zoom from bought when he sold the Zoom to me. That even has different amp models, as well as the SansAmp multi-effects pedal.

Using the 505 is fairly simple once you've read the basics of the manual. Its not the sort of kit that you can just plug in the day you get it and start strumming away - twisting a few knobs here and there. Oh no - you need to work out how the thing works first.

I use a 100W Marshall valvestate amp.
The sound quality is my main gripe with this thing. Really poor and destroys the tone. The distortion/gain effects are nothing other than appalling, and wouldnt even come close to the quality of a Boss pedal for example. If i use the thing (which is rare nowadays) i bypass the gain features and use the amplifiers own gain channel instead which is miles better.

To be fair, -its reliable and has never done anything out of turn since i've had it.
On the other hand, -because the sound is so bad, -i rarely use it, so my opinion here is hardly reliable.

I play rock/funk/blues music. Have been playing for about 15 years.
If it got lost, i'd not even notice.
If it got stolen, i'd laugh.
Does anyone want it? - No? -i thought not.