Zoom G9.2tt

Tricky catagory...
this pedal has a ton of effect potential.
you can layer up 2 effects at once and control them with one foot on a 4 way pedal (up, down, and side to side)
dont know much about the processing unit inside it, but it provides an a huge variety of chorus, wahs, reverbs, delays, and amp models.
coupled to that are the energizer and accelerator tubes that are completely variable

translation:
get ready to sit down for a loooooong time to find a sound that really suits your taste, or maybe im just picky.

Good news, its got 50 preset patches, so you can ultimately plug in and play off the bat. some are pretty accurate, some are abismal. go figure.

one huge advantage of this thing is that patches can be edited or swaped to different bank locations.
Translation: you can assign the 5 tones you use most to a single bank, which is accessible from the 5 foot switches.

Manual was good. i didnt read much of it, but it did offer some cool tricks.

also comes with a direct digital out and cubase recording software.

yippee, hooray!

i play 4 guitars through this:
- fender showmaster
- Jackson rr24
- Jackson kelly
- fender HM strat

What i have really been leaning toward while using this unit is metal. not so much thrash and death metal, but lead driven prog metal.
it took me a looong time to find the lead tone i was looking for, but DAMN am I now glad.
Quality of the sound is really expandable because of the tubes, which really fill out your sound and brighten harmonics.
some of the amp models available are really well done. you can get excellent driven tone from the modern rectifier, and boutique preset diezel and engl. IMO the marshall drive is a little muffled and bass heavy, but im sure tweaking it could yeild something good.
on top of amp models, you have a bunch of stomp box models, which are dead on to the originals (or at least the ones i have owned).
The only thing i have to say that i do not like about the drive channels on this thing is that i havent found a good setting for rythm playing. i cant get good chord articulation for fast stuff on the lower strings, especially in lower tunings. if you are someone who LOVES to chord on the bottom strings at machine like speeds, you may need some extra tweaking, but may have better luck dialing it out of your own amp.

the crunch presets are pretty good, but i prefer using any of the high gain ones and turning the gain down and tubes all the way up. not enough info to give a good idea...

the cleans on this are reaaaaaaaally versatile. you have everything from your Fender clean (that gives you a nice bluesy/jazz box sound) to your Roland JC series, that gets along GREAT with all the effects (just like the real thing!)

I only have 2 problems with the cleans, and they are more to do with the effects associated with them than anything else.
1) the compressor does not seem to want to compress the sound with any of the clean settings. instead of sustaining, it does some weird noise gate/ reverse delay type thing whenever you hit a note. cool if your trying to sound like satriani, otherwise a pain in the ass.
2) the tube settings are universal. that means if you have them cranked all the way on your favorite drive channel and switch to your clean setting, your shimmering cleans are breaking into crunchy overdrive. would have reaaaaaaallly been happier to see the tube settings assignable to each channel, but i think that would have driven the price of this through the roof.

i definitely depend on this thing. i have dropped it out of my car on various ocasions, and everything still works.

no repairs necessary. tubes are still working fine, and circuitry seems to be holding up. the zoom website has downloadable patches, which can offer some cool ideas.

VERDICT:
i have found a tone that i dont think i will ever get out of an amp (tube or otherwise) on its own.
personally, dont use this much for effects. its got them if i need them, but i use it as a colossal preamp in stead. its kind of funny when people come over and play it and say "its too easy to sound good through". lucky me.
this is definitely the tone i was hearing in my head, although it took the better part of 6 monthes to dial in.

again as a warning:
for intricate lead work, arpeggios, scales and the like... this thing is awesome, absolutely awesome.

getting your heavy chords works, but at subsonic speeds. not saying you cant do it, its just muddies up. strangely enough, you can play single note runs even faster and theres no problem....

the tubes in this thing are probably the biggest selling point. they were the reason that this tore the boss GT-8 apart when i was trying it out, as well as many pods.

i will be critical on one thing...
the usb direct out is easy to use, but the sound of the console on its own sounds sickening. coming out of the amp, everything is wonderful. plugging it in straight to your sound card (or headphones straight into the effects unit) gives the most sterile and sucked dry tone i have ever laid ears upon. you can still manage a decent sound when recording via direct out, but your gonna have to eq the damn thing for a while. from my experience, the pod xt sounds much better for direct out recording.
however, if you want any recording to sound really good, your probably going to mic your amp anyways. i mostly use the direct out to save a cool idea when it happens, not for making recording quality music, so the abismal direct out quality is not really a significant factor.


***side note: my direct out issues may also be the result of the sound card in my computer. im still not convinced this is the case though, because listening through headphones into the pedal itself is just as bad. definitely do yourself the favor and plug your headphones right into the amp....

Hard to be satisfied with this one, the distortions and OD's just don??t sound right, and the cabinet mods and the tubes tweaked don??t help. Beatiful effects though, I use a lot of delay, you can do amazing things with the Z-pedal.

Don??t expect to get all that this thing can do in a week, it took me a month to get used to all of the features, but over all, once you get it, it??s easy.

Manual covers just about everything in a detailed way.

I??m using an Ibanez RG with various amps, from small 15w to 100w marshalls. Advice: tweak the tubes and DON'T use the cabinet mods, I wanted a heavy but defined sound for riffs (I play mostly prog-alt-rock-metal), and it??s practically imposible, I was never satisfied. Although it has quite a large selection of preamps, none of them felt right for this. Too fuzzy, or not too defined.

Delays are really great. The z-pedal is like heaven, every mfx should have it.

Most of the distortions and OD's are just lame, unless you want it to play blues or alt-rock, then maybe you'll like it. None of the preamp models sound like they're supposed to sound, but if you're not too critical, or you never heard them before, they're fine.

The tubes are the only thing that keeps the distortions for being a complete failure.

This is where I drop the hammer.

My unit lasted 4 MONTHS. Then some power failure due to the AC adapter failing turn it completely useless. The backlight of the lcd display turns on and nothing else happens. So I took it to an official tech help and they said, after 2 weeks, that the Mainboard is damaged, and that fixing the unit could be done by replacing it with one new, wich costs about 75% of what I originally paid for it.

5 months later I??m still pissed. DON'T BUY IT.

When this happened I e-mailed everywhere, even zoom corp on japan, demanding an explanation. They said they regret what happened, but couldn't help me. My local distribuitor (audiomusica.com, in Chile) only gave me a 3 month warranty. I??m not willing to pay that much for fixing it, I only used it 4 MOTNHS, I still can't believe it. So yeah, costumer support, CRAP.

I play Prog-rock mixed with diferent styles, but always with the element of heavy yet defined riffs. This unit didn't cut it for me.

I've been playing for 10 years, I own a BOSS ME-50, it has never let me down, although I'm not satisfied with the sound, at least I can trust Boss.

I'm now saving to buy a Boss GT-8 or something better. I??m NEVER buying ZOOM products again.

I loved the delays and the built in tubes. Hated the cheap Zoom reliability. Fav feature: Z-pedal.

I just bought this because in that time I couldn't afford a Boss Gt-8, or Line 6, and I was in a hurry because I had gigs to do... never again. You get what you pay for.

I wish it had MORE RELIABLE PARTS.

It helped for a while, experimenting with it opened new creative ways. But then... don't buy it.

I just want to say that Zoom products have this bad reputation for a reason. Now I know it for sure.

Stock sounds are ok. I don't know why they made so many factory sounds with crazy effects. I really just wanted to have lots of GREAT sounds I could tweak just a bit for my own use. Anyway, I created my own sounds using the software editor and a MIDI connection.

Editing patches is good, but not great. There is a USB port on the back, but it's only for using this unit for recording. I don't know why they couldn't use this port for editing the patches. Anyway, you need both the MIDI In and Out ports connected to your computer to utilize all editing features. Once I installed the softare, it took about an hour for me to figure it out. To write save changes on the G9, you have to send ALL data to it. You cannot edit one patch at a time, but it only stays in the computer until you "Send All" to the G9. Not the greatest, but it sure beats editing on the G9 directly.

Manual is good. I've had to refer to it several times and found my answer each time.

Firmware was 1.07 and 1.08 was posted on their website. So I attempted to install it from Windows Vista. During the firmware update, it errored out. When I powered on the G9, it was dead. I had power, nothing else happened. I tried several times but got the same error. I dual boot my computer between XP and Vista, so I gave it a try from XP. Same error. However, my XP installation didn't have .NET 1.1 installed (which I thought it did), and this is a requirement for the updater. So I installed .NET 1.1 and installed it under XP. The update worked just fine, and the G9 started working again. Whew!

I use an Ibanez S520 guitar plugged into a portable Yamaha mixer and then into my computer. I mainly play at home writing and recording. For live use, I'll play this through a Marshall MG250DFX, but I'll connect the G9 to the left and right Return inputs on the back. So the amp is pretty much just loud box.

The G9 is pretty quiet except when using patches with lots of gain. But that's to be expected from anything with lots of gain.

Effects are good. I upgraded to the G9 from a BOSS GT-3 which had wonderful effects. But I don't get crazy with effects, and the G9 does a good enough job.

As I stated, I mainly plug the G9 into my mixer then into my computer. I like the fact there 10 banks to be used for "direct" play into a mixer and another 10 banks for "live" use. I was hoping I could edit a patch for "direct" use at home, then just turn off the cabinet simulator and save the patch in the equivalent "live" patch area. Depending on the sound, you may need to adjust the preamp settings a bit between the "direct" and "live" patches to make them sound the same.

Looks like it was build very good. Seems to be solid and durable.

I can't afford a backup, so I won't be using one. I'm not worried about it though.

I've emailed Zoom in Japan and Samson in the U.S.A. (the Zoom distributer here) asking some presales questions. The Samson rep emailed a reply the same day. And a reply from Japan took a few days. Both answered my questions. I even spoke with the Samson rep who was very helpful and courteous.

I play melodic rock. I've setup my own patches to give me some clean, blues, and rock sounds. I'm not into metal, but there are some awesome metal sounds here.

I've been playing for 20 years. Sold my old Boss GT-3 and upgraded to this. Definately a step in the right direction.

If I lost this thing, I'd probaby buy it again. For the features and prices, it's awesome!

What I love: I love the sounds, the sexy look, the price.

What I don't love: It's kinda big, so I'm having a hard time finding a case for it. Editing patches from the computer could be improved. There is no digital out on this! The USB audio port is only 16bit. If it was 24 bit, I wouldn't care so much for the lack of digital out. So I'm better off just recording this using the audio out ports into my M-audio 2496 sound card which supports 24bit audio.

I was looking at the Boss GT-8, Line6 X3 Live, and the VOX Tonelab LE.

Listened to the GT-8, but I didn't really hear a lot of difference from my Boss GT-3. I'm sure the quality of the sounds is better, and I did like the dual preamp feature.

I really considered the X3 Live, but read so many negative reviews about the construction of the unit and so many firmware issues. So I stayed away.

I almost bought the Tonelab LE. I really believe having a tube warms the sound up, which is what I like. But then I found the Zoom locally and had to buy it.

For the price, features, and quality, this unit is wonderful!

If you're reading this then you're like me and researching.I bought this item and can honestly say I love it.A person can tweak on this thing forever.It's not real hard if you read the manual.I sold a Zoom G2.1u to get this and don't regret it a bit.Like I said ,the sounds you can get, if you take the time, are limitless.You can edit patches directly , or with a downloaded librarian(requires a MIDI/USB interface).However the manual is helpful,if you are doing it directly.10 because I understand it, a novice may have difficulty.

I am running various Ibanez (7 different ones total) guitars through this and a Randall half stack.The sounds I'm getting are awsome.But, I took time and tweaked the sound.The ZNR is top notch.It eliminates a lot of noise, and can be tailored to suit.So far I haven't found any bad effacts, but I've tweaked on almost all of them for my sound/amp/guitar preferences.If you take time with it ,it'll make you very happy.Remember though,it's a board, not individual effects.There are combinations of effects that can't be obtained because they are on the same "bank".But overall I give it a 10 because I can manipulate it very well.

So far it's held up.However, I'm very careful with my equipment.As with anything i'm sure , if you abuse it , it'll fail.I, however ,don,t anticipate any problems.I'd gig without a backup.

I haven't had to deal with them,but ,I've used other ZOOM products without a problem.

I don't know if there is a style I don't play.I've played for 25 years,used several pedals/amps/guitars,etc.I am pretty impressed with ZOOM.I would more than likely buy another G9.2tt if this one were stolen.Ther isn't too much I don't like about it.Don't get me wrong, it does have it's limitations(it's a processor,not individal effects),but I can deal with them.Take your time, do your research.If you're like me , you pinch pennys, get the best sound for your buck, and have the ability to use what you have.I've done that with this processor,and don't plan on getting rid of it for a while.(until the next latest and greatest.lol).
Buy it , you won't be disappointed

You must spend some time with it, like a girl, to get best results.

Editing patches is a strange mix of knob twiddling and routing parameters which turns out to be pretty comprehensive, but a bit awkward.

Manual is in about 4 parts, it includes an in depth look at all the effects and modelling amps presets which will have guitar fx anoraks creaming themselves with joy, also instructions on how to use it as an asio driver via the version of cubase it is shipped with.

I dont copy anyone else, I want my own sounds and with this its fairly easy, the distortion and double tube is what is immense about this pedal board - two tubes, three controls, accelerator, energizer, and boost. It can sound totally filthy if you turn them all up, or you can turn them all down and just have solid state sound.

No noise, the znr noise reduction is astounding. I think zoom do the best NR in the world.

Im not using it through an amp, Im DI'ing it into my pc soundcard for recording.

Its metal innit. One of the switches has started to go though after only a couple of months use, so thats crap.

Never dealt with tme, yet.

May try and get the switch repaired if it gets worse.

I play everything really, I am a sound artist, so it literally is a sound pallette for me.

I wish the FX section could be configured more in order and that it had a few wider parameters, I was very disappointed with the intelligent harmoniser. Its toss. But it was damn cheap for what it has done for my creativity so...

I found it to be a bit intriuging, and i think its the first time that i have really read a product manual thru n thru.
The manual is not perfect (somehow, i think Line6 hits the right note in that dept). Am still fuzzy about assigning mods to the Pedals.
Apart from the pedals, i think everything is pretty straightforward, and marked out clearly, so u need not have a steep learning curve to get the most out of this one.

The Z-Pedal is an intuitive control. You can spend hours experimenting on the possible combinations of sound that you can make up with this. Not to forget the extra pedal on the left is always handy for vol or mod effects.

Another gripe is u need a MIDI interface to edit patches using the computer. Crazy!
Also, the USB audio monitor seems to have a very low sound. Am not sure how to work this out. But again, the manual is not of much help.

Out of the box, it is amazing. Actually, about half the patches are really great and need very little tweaking. The artist tones seem to be okay. Not perfect, but usable.
The tubes really set this baby apart.

I play a Kramer 422SM Striker (1 Quad rail, 2 Dual rail pix).
I use and old (really OLD) indian made amp (which is basically a speaker, connected to a amp circuit, with 3 knobs, bass, treble and vol, packaged in a wooden box). Damn thing doesnt even have a plug. And I have never gotten any sort of "tone" out of this amp.

Until now. The tube adds an amazing amount of warmth and crunch to the tone. I used a Korg 3000G on the same amp and it gave a muddy and digital tone. The 9.2tt seems to just take the amp for a spin and churns out an amazing tone. And there are two tubes! And u can hear the distinct difference in tones from either of them very clearly.
The option to mix the analog signal with the solidstate signal makes this a true hybrid.
Tried the 7.1t at the shop. It just cant compare to the 9.2tt in terms of sound. Podxt Live sounded as good (maybe slightly better, if you are not into metal), but was ridiculously expensive (1.5 times the cost of the 9.2tt).

I luv it.

Have had it only for a day now. But the damn thing is built like a tank as I have read on so many reviews. Apart from breaking the valves, i cant think of a way how the 9.2tt can go bad in the immiediate future.

In India... hah!

The website is good. Got to download some interesting stuff. Not bad i guess.

I play stuff from Satriani, Metallica, to a bit of Indian classical and pop rock.
The tones I get from the 9.2tt seem to be very versatile. What really blows my mind is that I can get a great tone from a screwed up amp like the one I have.
In fact, I think the best option for an amp would be one without any drive/effects channel. I plan to buy a bass amp to use with my 9.2tt.

And I got it cheap (comparatively). I actually went to buy a Podxt live. But when i heard both 9.22tt and Podxt live, they sounded pretty close to me in terms of quality. The two tubes on the 9.2tt make all the difference. And its way cheaper than the Podxt live.

I have recently purchased this Zoom Pedal from local dealer. This is a Multi-Effects pedal.This pedal comes with a manual and it tells you want certain things do, but it is not very informative. You have to spend some time with it in order to get the fullest amount of it. I still dont know how to use Two amps to produce different sounds from each one. If someone does please tell me.

This is very good from what I used to use (an old Digitech multi-effects pedal). Turning up the TUBE control to drive the 12AX7 produces warm crunch with rich harmonics. Popular names such as Fender, Marshall, and VOX to modern amps including MESA BOOGIE, Hughes & Kettner, and Diezel. G9.2tt comprises 120 effects in 10 modules. I am trying to run a VOX ac30 Combo one the right and a Marshall JCM 800 stack on the left. I dont know how to switch from the two I dont know if it is capable of doing it.

Only owed it for about a month.

Its a great Multi effects pedal only it doesn't really go into detail of what certain effects do and how to do different Sets ups and why.

It's easy for me though, maybe cos I'm used to most of the multieffects. If you're having a hardtime with editing it use the editing software(you need to download it) The manual that came with it is very detailed as well.

This is got to be one of the best at the moment, I've got digitech and line6 product this item is just badass, seriously though I sold off my podxt for this, this damn thing have got two tubes in it, I think that's the main reason it sounded damn good, it's just thick and juicy, The preamp modelling too is great, I've never tried any other amps that it modelled after but I do try the fender twin reverb and it just react and feel the same way as the original. I normally use this product bypassing other preamp. The ZNR that came with it is just magic, it doesn't suck the tone like the normal noisegate, and it's just damn quiet. The other effects like the delay and the chorus are just great!

Yeap I can but the knob drop off and I need to use glue to stick em back, other than that it looks like a tank.

I've emailed em before buying, and I have to say the reply quite slow.

I'm playing for a progressive metal band, and this thing just handle it like a pro. At home I play mostly blues and rock stuff and it's jsut great.

It's not really plug-n-play. There are a lot of functions and settings and in order to get the most out of it you have to spend time tweaking it. That said, you don't need to be a rocket scientist either.

The sounds here are really top notch. You can find everything here from crystal cleans to Hi-gain stuff and everything in between.
The accelerator tube really adds warmth and dynamics (The crunch sounds are really dynamic compared to other digital processors).
The effects are very good. You have all kinds of choruses, delays, reverbs and others to choose from.
The only thing I don't like is that you can't change the order of effects freely. You can control the order of general blocks, but not everything. That said, this is not that annoying.
The cabinet sims are also great and I use it a lot when playing through headphones.

This thing is built to last. All metal with heavy duty switches.
I wouldn't kick the expression pedals too hard though

Never had to use it.

I've been playing for 5 years on and off, and this thing is very good for the price.

Its more easy to use than my old Boss GT-6, changin patches its really a matter of taste and almost all Pre amps are really good
Got to be carefull when creating a patch and giving it the precise amount of Accelerator (tube or solid state) and again with the Energeizer (tube and boost)
Creating Patches its much more easy if you use the Editor Librarian that you can download at zoom web site. Some things are a bit dificult to understand in the manual concerning Midi Capabilities of this monster, and yes i think in the future The firmversion will be available as the zoom guys told me in an email.

This is where the G9 comes best performing, with internal 32 bit audio engine chipset and output at 24 bits you get the best of the best. I have worked with it in my simple stereo and sounds pretty pretty amazing and tweakin the Energizer and Accelerator knobs the right way you can feel you are playing a Tube Amp (sounded much better than my Marshall Valvestate, wich i used to love) and get amazing tube sounds with my current Marshall Stack 100W and with the right Pre Amp you can get distort as hell. The ones i like personaly are the Marshall JCM 2000, the Engl Drive, The Rat Stomp box and the Extreme Dist, but you can choose others like Metalzone fanatics, Peavy, Diezel, Fenders, etc. I dont know why some G9 users claim 2 things. First, they claim that the Wahs are not good, Damn i recorded some track with my sonar along with Timmo Tolki Song "Are You The One" and the Vox, Crybaby and MultiWah sounded Exactly the same as for Range and Sound....yeah yeah you probably want to buy an external Wah that use Mr. Vai or Mr. Satch but then is just impressions, i found the Wahs better in sound/range than my old boss GT-6 (when run high gain sounds on gt6 the wahs go almost unreachable) with the G9 i can use Xtrem Dist and the Wahs does not lose Range or Sound (sorry, i cant explain better in English, i am a Colombian user. the other thing was the Pedals to be fragil. i cant understand those words, mine is built like a tank. i have to recognize triggering the wah with any of the expression pedals its hard but i found a way to get them more easily. Just put some kind of sticker into the trigger button under the pedal, the amount you think you need and problem solved.

Ok, finally i am very happy with a Multieffects, Nice sounds Nice Cleans and Nice Crunch and High Gain Sounds

And guys, learn to dial your own tones, the Cleans are ok not bad as some users claim.

I only use it Live and in the Studio so i depend on it a lot.
One advice: you can have the G9 to act like a professional Audio Interface and play with all your Amp Sims the best way and use the G9 Tubes to get tubes sounds from let me think...ohh yes, that amplitube 2, Guitar Rig 2 and Revalver 2. The Combination of sound are endless and dont worry if you only have one Cab Sim, get it to work with The Cabs Sims on Revalver II and/or Trash Cabs and you will rock hard, Althought The G9 Cab Sim is pretty Amazing only thing is that lack on Parameters

I have mailed at Zoom several times, and several answers i got.

I Play Almost Every music i can lay on my guitar and hands and yes, its a good match but i think is aimed more for Metal Users than for lets say Jazz or Pop users (better stick with Boss Gt-8 for those Special Effects). I??ve been playing for 3 years and owned a Boss GT-6, Pod XT Live, GT-8 and some Amp Sim Plugins and nothing of the above match the quality of my Zoom G9 that i think personally of course so dont go to discuss with me, the G9 does the Job for me because i Love Metal and Guitar Playing. If it were stolen then i buy my self another G9 or expect to Boss to come out with a unit that has same features like the G9. Personally i think GT-8 is the winner in Modulation Effects and G9 wins on its Killer Tones, Clean, Crunch or High Gain Sounds.