Zoom 505

Overall, for the price, I think this is an excellent buy for the beginning guitarist, or the singer/songwriter who records out of the home. Although I have played percussion and piano for about 15 years, I started guitar this year and have found numerous other uses for it, such as running vocals through it. I found the manual (sheet) to be very easy to understand (I have a Roland E-70 synth, though..if you can read THAT, you can read anything). It is easy to edit and create patches, though I would state that the resident patches are WAY too high in general. Turn 'em down !! The restore factory settings feature allows one to start all over again, if one needs to.

Overall, I think the distortion is less flexible and pleasing than the chorus, compression, etc, but I was able to resolve a lot of this with my amp. I have noticed some noise problems with certain voicings. Still, for the money, its hard not to argue in its favor.

So far, other than dreadfully short battery life, it's worked like a champ. I am a little unsure of its lifespan on a stage, but I am planning on building a protective platform/box for it so that at least it can't be kicked around. At least it is cheap enough to replace easily. My first few gigs, it will be all I use until I really decide which direction to go....it allows me to play, I like that.

haven't talked to Zoom

Overall, I would keep using it, for the fact that I can preprogram a whole set s worth of songs and have them ready-to-go. I use my synth's sustain pedal ($15, Yamaha) as a bank-to-bank pedal and it keeps me flying through the different patches. I wish it was a little bigger (am I the only one who sometimes hits both by accident, thus activating the tuner ?)and made of a slightly denser, tougher casing. Overall, though, its cheap and fast and versatile. Again, I think great for a beginner. at netresult.com/~jay, I found a database of voices created by users to get different effects, a good place to start.

I could program it straight from the box. Everything is straightforward execpt the EQ which is coded with cryptic numbers so I have to get the manual out every time I change an EQ setting. It is still usefull though. I am prone to changing settings on the spur of the moment so the speed with which editing can be done is great. It does display E-D-I-T on the screen letter by letter though which slows me down a little.

The unit does sound great but you do need to tolerate some noise. On clean patches the unit is completly silent but on distortion settings, even the acoustic simulator, the unit starts to hiss. The noise reduction doesn't help very much. The sounds themselves though are so proffessional sounding that this gets 9 out of 10.

I haven't had it that long so I don't know. It looks tough enough. I do treat my stuff fairly roughly and seeing as it's floor mounted it's going to be bashed a bit. I do trust it though.

Havn't had to deal with the company. I did hear a story that a local music shop near me had sold an unauthorised import and the distributer had gone through the room because it was a substandard unit. I have played it and it seems alright to me (It is shown in the window for #79 and has no warranty, the local dealer for Zoom sold me a good one for the same price). The company must have pretty tight quality control.

If I had my way I would make all of my band buy one as you can use it on vocals, keyboards and drums as well. I think that it is better than my friends 3030 and that costs #350+. I would definately buy it again. I do wish it had tremolo or an auto swell effect but I can use other pedals for those.

pretty easy to figure out. took about 10 minutes in the music store. manual is pretty good, nice and clear, good layout, nifty little foldout thing (i hate booklets, you can't see everything at once)
wish it was easier to get from a1 to d4, though

acoustic distortion is great ... just what i've been looking for. only problem is that the Acoustic distortion has a funny "fuzzy" sound when you strum hard, but it's not that noticeable. been trying for months to get an acoustic sound out of my alesis q2 & 3630 ... nice to see that a cheap $110 pedal could sound so cool
reverb is a little weak ... compressor/limiter is very cool, especially when strumming hard with a humbucker. nice
pretty quiet, too (but i only tried through headphones)

i tend to be a little gentle with my equipment, so i don't think there is a worry. since it's light, i can stuff it and other junk in my backpack without feeling like i'm going hiking. feels sturdy and well built for a plastic piece

never needed to, yet. they don't have a website, which is kind of odd since most major manufacturers have a website now.

would definitely buy it again. i needed a small, good-sounding and portable(but not necessarily batter-powered, since it sucks juice like mad) unit that i could play through headphones, and this was perfect. actually, i was pretty blown away by the price, since i bought a Boss MT-2 metal zone pedal about a year ago for about the same price, and i think the distortion on this sounds better than the boss!! (and this does so much more)

The Zoom 505 is very easy to use. I got the hang of it while testing it out at the local music store. Everything you need to know is right there in the manual. Switching between effect is easy, just make sure they are programmed together.

Most people say they get a lot of noise out of the 505, but I haven't had any problems like that. If you program your patches well (as opposed to using the preset ones) you can get really good effects from this box. Some of the options aren't as configurable as more expensive effects boxes.

It is plastic, but feels like it could take a beating. Even so, never gig without a backup, no matter how realiable you think it is.

I've never had to use customer support.

I would definately but this again. It is so easy to use and sounds great. With the FP-01 Expression pedal, the 505 is a great value.

You have to play around with the 505 for a while (about 2 hours), but then you should have no worries working your way around and will find that you start getting some good sounds out of it (as opposed to the presets which well, aren't good). reading the manual may also help too. I have only ever used 1 other effects proccessor (fx-7)which I understand is fairly easy to use and found this just as easy.

On first impressions the 505 sounded shithouse, but if you have some patience you will find that you can get some really cool sounds out of it. The reason I bought this was not for the distortions at all (I had heard that they weren't too good) and I already own a big muff, but since buying it, I use it for solos and specific sounds that i can't already get. Most noise generated by effects is taken care of by the noise reduction which is cool because it doen't fade out (fx-7 users will know what I mean), but on high settings on high volumes you can hear little computer noises, this could be because of interference from another source however, or could be typical to all effects proccessors. I won't split hairs over most of effects as most people's opinions vary over whats right or wrong with them, the delay is probably a bit limited with it's settings. I have read of people experiencing noise problems which they overcame by putting the 505 in their effects loop, I tried this but be Fender blues deluxe did not take to kindly to it making several very loud feedback type noises, but considering I haven't had any noise problems and the 505 works fine before the amp this isn't an issue.

I havent had the unit long, but it has survived almost one month in my garage and has ventured on stage a few times without falling to bits. It is made out of plastic, which makes me a bit hesistant to give it a high rating as I have trashed all the plastic pedals I have ever owned. I really hope this one is different, it woud really be a shame if it broke.

Cosidering I have no input for this section I would like to say that the Australian band Juice has the one of the best CD I have ever heard (blues, funk, rock sort of music), and features some really, really cool guitar playing.

You can't go wrong, the 505 is as cheap as a regular pedal and has a swag of effects, sure don't have the control you would with a pedal but how many differents settings on a pedal can you honestly use? Especially when playing live, a major advantage are programmable patches that you can call up without crouching down and twiddling with your knobs. I do however wish it had a tremolo effect, but beggars can't be choosers! I use the 505 on passages which were previously clean, now with some different effects they have some personality. I can write some cool zany riffs a la rage against the machine now too. I would certainly buy this all over again, provided it was borrowed first so I could learn how cool it was. It has it's limitations but unless your intending it for studio use some patience will leave you quite satisfied with this unit.
P.S. could anyone with any good pathces please mail them, this would be highly appreciated and very cool.
P.P.S. Anyone out there who knows anything about "jen" wah pedals please get in touch.

This is one of the most user friendly pedals out there.... If you can't figure this on out, then I suggest staying away from music....

The effects are great except that the flanger setting are always quiet...

This unit is reliable if you are not a moron and put the patches in order, which is simple. Very sturdy to kicks.

GREAT PEDAL

I find the 505 very easy to use, the patches are quite simple to edit. The manual is simple to follow, but it's on a single large sheet of paper, so it's hard to hold!!

It gets a little noisy occasionally. You're a little limited on levels of effects you use (such as there's only 9 settings for Chorus)Strangely it seems to act as an antenna occasionally, so my amp sometimes picks up German radio when plugged in (you have to listen_VERY_ hard to hear it tho')

Plastic! Don't gig without a backup!

Never used it!

I'd buy another, but perhaps a 2020, 3030 next time...

I had trouble figuring out to get this thing out of edit mode without pressing the Store button. You have to do stuff like hold the button for 2 seconds to get out of modes & various other little things that are a bit annoying. You gotta hit both buttons down for it to bypass & that's a little annoying too. Also, if you wanna change an effect from something that's in (let's say) D3 to A1, it's really hard, cos you gotta go from D4, E1, E2, E3, E4, F1 etc...all the way to F & then back to A again. You can always change the effects to what you want so it's one press away, but that all takes pre-planning & you really don't have time to sit there between songs & figure out which settings you're going to use & what not...

For the distortion I like (heavy bass fuzz) with the gain pumped up to 30 (max) you get a lound humm & that's quite annoying. :\ You can get a decent fuzz out of it w/some fussing w/various other modes, but it's nothing compared to a GOOD petal (Big muff, Blue Box, Fender Blender...). The doubling effect sounds really bad. It's just some LOUSY reverb w/ a dash of delay. it's bad!!! The octave feature is also a bad sound. I wish there was a way to tweak the amount of octave I want, but there's not. It's either octave yes or octave no... :\

I would not depend on this petal for anything! it's more of a sampler petal so you can see for beginners what various things you can have for effects. After a few months of owning it, the edit buttons started to stick & i couldn't get them up again for a long time. Also, sometimes it gets really quiet & I can't get the volume back up. That's frustrating!

For such a cheap petal, I wouldn't bother going through the trouble of calling for support. Just get a nice petal that does your favorite effects. If you like a phase, I like to use the DOD DFX20-B Stereo Phaser & for a great distortion, invest in a Fender Blender. If you like delay, I use a DOD DFX94 Digital Delay. It does what I like it to & it does it well. The Mu-Tron octave divider is a really cool octave also. You really don't need this petal! Fun to play with, but don't waste your cash on it!

I absolutely would not buy this again! Concider it a waste of money! Get *real* effects & stay away from this trash!

Really simple. I figured out how to use in the store without a manual. Just plug and start shredding away. Editing is pretty easy. It's a bit cumbersome with the limited number of buttons and knobs, but once you get the hang of it, "Oh, well, that make's sense." The manual is a nifty fold out sheet. I figured it out in the store so the sheet was just neat to look at.

Yeah, it's a bit noisy, but you usually don't notice it if you're playing a loud distortion. On some of the quieter settings with more dynamic range, you'll notice it more. The effects are pretty nifty. Some are frivolous, but some are really cool! That depends on what you want. Everyone says that the default effects are pretty lame. Some of them are, some are mediocre, some blow my mind. Either way, you can easily change them and make your own.

It has a plastic covering, but it does have a solid metal base. I'm not a live performer or anything, but I think I could trust. Lets put it this way, it hasn't busted, and I don't expect it to.

Didn't have to use it.

For me, it's a neat toy. I love it. Its small, compact, and has 80% of the "professional" stuff. I'd buy it again, definatly. I like the fact that it has a great variety of effects that can be used together. I looked at the flashier stuff like the DOD FX7, Digitech RP-12, etc, and the 505 looked good enough for me. I like to tinker around and I don't have a huge of money to spend. CHeck it out. It's not pro grade gear, but it's definatly cool.

manual is quite good in showin how to use the zoom. editin patches and everything else is quite easy.

most of the effects are good...some of the distortion settings leave something to be desired though..but i managed to make some of the distortion settings sound better by stickin a ibanez soundtank compressor in front of the zoom. it does get abit noisy with high gain on some distortions...then again...which distortion isnt noisy? noise reduction isnt that good...compression isnt that good also..but the limiter is.

had it for more than 8 months with no problems at all... and as everyone has said...use a wall wart...eats batteries in 2 or 3 hours.

n/a

dont think i'll need to buy it again as i think it'll last for quite a while. for the money nothing can come close to the zoom 505.