Zoom 505

Easy as. I was using it straight out of the box, and its the first pedal I've ever owned. The manual is very good, it explains what you need to know. Editing is a piece of cake (as I said before its the first pedal I've owned, so if i can use it no troubles it must be easy :) ).

Some of the factory presets aree fantastic, some suck. It is a little noisy on some effects. The volume on the distortions is too high, and on the clean tones it is too low. Not good for songs that make quick tansitions between clean and dirty tones. But for the price, and for my purposes (I've only been playing a year) it is fantastic.

Don't know, only had it a month but hasn't broken down yet :)

Ditto

Fantastic value for money :) Id buy it again no hesitation.

Very good sound right out of the box. Many have complained about hiss and noise, but mine's very quiet with Fender Strat Plus through an old Twin Reverb. Haven't had lot of time to try editing yet, but looks simple enough. Manual written by Japanese High Schooler studying English as a second language, not too helpful. Would like to hear from anybody willing to share creative new patches.

Sound quality excellent to my ears, but then I have little or no exposure to any of the more expensive units.

Built sturdier than I expected for the price, but still wouldn't depend on it too much for professional use other than studio.

No need to deal with them so far.

Would buy it again in a minute - I don't think I have ever seen a better value for the money in over 30 years of buying musical equipment. If I were still playing out regularly I might spring for a more rugged unit, but for casual use this thing is incredible.

Very simple to edit patches, the hardest thing is memorizing the button combonations to do the various functions (they needed to overload the button functions due to the small size and cost). I wrote a cheat sheet and left it on the floor during gigs the first couple times.

I never tried another zoom product, but I bought this from a catalog with out even listening becase of the price and number of effects. (I also own an RP-5 and the distortions, both grunge (TM) and OD are totally useless to me). I liked the sounds particularly A1, B1, and F2, presets. NOTE: as with most effects units the default volume is WAY too high, the power amp is supposed to handle that not the preamp. They do that so it doesn't sound wimpy at first. So if you find the thing noisy, first lower the overall volume to about 22 or 24 which makes the clean sounds only slightly louder than your natural amp, and the heavy settings more as it should be. Digital effects are fine but not too flexible (for the price, I'm surprised you have any choice). Also, no noticible delay in switching which is great (you have to be in skip/confirm mode). Wah is better than digitech, but it still can't vomit like a cry-baby. Expression and Pitch shift are pretty smooth. Before, I would never use anything but a vintage dist, but I found lead, blues and OD pretty good.

Yes, because I always have a Rat and TS-9 on the side; with any digital device, switching programs always requires a tap dance. So you have to step with care anyway. So I stomp on the Rat or real Wah when necessary :-)

N/A

Again for the price I think it's worth every cent, I bought it for rehearsal, now the RP-5 has that spot :-) NOTE: I'm compring it to units in the $100-150 range.

Although the manual is skimpy, it explains the unit well enough. Programming is easy to do, but you have to know what you want.

Sounds great. Has noise reduction on it which helps a bit. Distortions are OK. Be careful not to have too much reverb/delay at the same time as some raunchy distortion type. Effects sound good, but are limited in how m much you can manipulate their properties. Like the phase shifter. Haven't messed around with the eq, but it seems kind of lame. Can't adjust frequencies independtly, have to give an eq rating of 1-50. OK, but I like to have more freedom with my eq.

It seems to be pretty sturdy. It is made of plastic so be careful. Eats up batteries so either have whole lot of 9v's or get an adapter.

Would buy it again, but if I could afford the 4040, or an ART ECC, probably get one of those, but I don't that kind of money right now, nor is a more expensive pedal a neccessity. Most factory presets are crap. There are a couple that are nice though. Programming is hard if you don't know what exactly you want. I would like to be able to just browse through the effects, but instead I have to go through and program it (though not neccessarily save it). Would be nice to have more control over effects. For example: with the auto-wah, you just give a rating of 1-9, you can't specifically control the rate or depth. This is the same amongst most of the effects. Nice features include: jack for expression pedal which can be used for wah, volume, or pitch shift. if you don't want an expression pedal, you can get a foot switch so you can move through the banks easier. The output can be used with headphones which is especially nice because I always wanted a headphone amp, well yeah for me. I strongly recommend this unit for anyone, especially someone just getting into multi effects like myself, or that is strapped for cash, like myself. Its a nice little compact unit (about as big two stomp boxes), and for that size you get a lot.

Editing the patches couldn't be much easier ! But the manual is a bit thin...

Most of the modulation effects ( chorus, flanger... ) are pretty good, but the distortions aren't that good. But then again, what can you expect for $120 ?

Hmmmm... it's a plastic case, and it doesn,t take much abuse. Wouldn't use it on a gig.

Do repairs myself.....

Fair enough for practice purposes, but not a professional piece of equipment.

this is a great compact tool for any guitar player great sound and great reliability You can use the patches that are on the pedal or you can edit and save - there are 24 different effects and and out side pedal can be hooked through this pedal and control it's wah. It even puts out about 6 watts of power and can be used as an amp simulator. no manual though. as far as I know there are others but not of this king this is bran-new and it kicks ass too.

you can have it noisy like an amp's distort or put it on a different setting and have all of the noise cut off in a natural sounding way. The effects are never weak they offere a spot for a battery but It wore down with only two hours of use- just goes to show how much power it has. Every thing is very good - 8types of analog distortitions room reverbs hall chourses auto wha's even sudio type effects.

yes- mentioned above-yes rp-6, a little over my supply of money-pedal on the thing it self-helps-no

The manual, slim as it is, gives ample explanation on how each effect works, and how to change the settings on it. This is my first digital effect, and it seems quite simple to operate.

I couldn't tell whether the noise was from my amp or the box, but some of the more subtle patches needed a volume boost on the amp, causing som ehiss. The distorts were great, although the metal setting was a bit thin. (The again, so are all the metal distorts I've heard, analog or digital) I was amazed at the range of sounds my crummy old guitar and amp could make.

Plastic case. Plastic pedals. Disaster in the making. This box'll last forever with me, because even in my most frenzied solo, I don't *STOMP* on any of my pedals. Maybe I'm just old. Oh yeah, plug in a battery adapter, or you'll be paying loads of money to the Energizer bunny.

I fix 'em myself. The company'll never hear from me.

I like it. I'd like to convince the other members of the band to buy one, so that we won't have to swap all the time. The case could use some beefing up. The effects could have more settings to adjust, but hey, it's only got six push swiches on the whole box, and any more settings would make it impossible to program quickly. A steal for $100.

The manual is clear and editing patches is very easy. I've never had a multi-effecs box before and I was surprised how easy it was to use.

It has just about every effect imaginable. 8 kinds of distorions, EQ, chorus, phaser, flange, delay, 2 kinds of reverb. The distortions have a 1-30 adjustment on gain. All the other effects have a 9 fixed settings. They all sound decent but you don't have the adjustability of individual stomp boxes or higher end multi-effectors. The only problem is noise. The thing is noisy even in bypass mode. This is a very big design defect as far as I'm concerned. On a noisy amp (like my Traynor) the hiss is noticeable and objectionable.

Only had it a week. It's all plastic. It will eat a 9 v. battery in about 2 hours. Can't really tell.

Never had to use it.

The store where I bought it has a 2 week return policy and I'm seriously thinking of returning it due to the noise. The effects and programmability are great for the price but it shouldn't be noisy in bypass mode.

Very easy to get a good sound. Very nice and clean. Although it is not possible to "finely tweak" the effect. The variety of parameters is extensive and covers most of what I want. Controls are pretty intuitive.

Great sound. (it is a zoom after all !). Good noise gating.

Great little piece of equipment. Could be built into a sturdier case. But hell, for $120 it is the best value you can get. 24 effects, 24 patch locations (user writable) and it comes with the famous zoom step effect. Very cool.

The 505 is easy to use, but it takes to much time fideling through the menu's. It's my first digital effect, so I can only compare it with my other analoge effects.

It's quite noisy. The sound is shit. Period. Im selling it.!!

Made out of plastic. Compared to my proco rat, this unit looks like a bycikle compared to a tank.

Dont know.

I wouldnt by it again. ... The tuner is quite okay..!