Zoom 1010

Good sounds right out of the box, although you should edit patches to match your set-up. About the editing: I think this thing is easier than a Line 6 POD to edit, pretty self explanatory. The manual(downloadable on the Samson website in PDF) helps for descriptions of the sounds of the preset patches which can help you get closer to programming your own presets.

I've used this with a crappy Crate practice amp, a Fender Princeton Chorus, Line 6 Flextone series amps and just about every kind of guitar you can think about (Parkers, Gibsons, Strats, Danelectros, Ricks, you name it)with great results. Some effects patches can be noisy, but just edit in more "Zoom Noise Reduction" and it can tone the noise down a bit. I came up with all my own patches and it was easy to get good Pink Floyd delays, The Edge type effects, great Sex Pistols guitar tone, 311 harmonic distortions, Jesus and Mary Chain reverbs, cleaner than clean sounds, the works, just dial it in and don't be afraid to use the EQ.

Ive had my unit since it came out new in 1995 and only just recently bought a back-up (a fraction of the price I bought it new,about $45-$70) on eBay due to a sticky bank pedal. This thing is just plastic, but I use to use this thing in garages, barns, dank practice rooms, bars, on the grass. I would say as long as you dont step on the cable when it's plugged into the jack, your pretty good.

Never dealt with customer service and it's probably no longer around dealing with this ancient pedal. I found that it is pretty easy to take the unit apart yourself to see if there is any major problems with the pedal mechanisms or the contacts.

If you want a decent pedal for cheap that you can get most of the sounds that a POD has, this is it. It's not flashy but is highly effective in getting sounds you want with little hassle. This thing definately inspired me when I first started playing guitar, I spent hours editing the patches to match up to some of my favorite bands' sounds with great success. If someone stole this from me I know for a fact I would get a used one off ebay in an instant (good thing I have all my own presets written down in a notebook). I have never had any problems putting any other effects pedals in the chain with this pedal. I end up putting a distortion pedal first before the Zoom if I want a little more bite for solos. Ive used just about every effect pedal with this (MXR, Boss, Dano, ProCo, Big Muff, Korg, Dunlop, etc.)in any order going in or out of the Zoom with little or no noise problems. The only thing I wish it had was a built in expression pedal/volume pedal. If youve just started playing guitar this thing will surely get you inspired to learn and is a good stepping stone for learning the ins and outs of basic guitar signal chain and simple editing.

If you ever played a video game,useing and programing the 1010 is pretty simple if you dont have a manual,but with a simple search on google will find it.

I've owned this pedal longer then a decade and played it through amps ranging from a Gorilla 50watt to an old sears tube amp,to a Fender Princeton,and guitars ranging from les pauls to teles to the wacky "dont impale your singer" 80s guitars,and even an acoustic.sometimes it can be too loud depending on the amp or how hot your pickups are,but you can turn the pedals output volume down.however when you change to a different patch the volume resets.12 user patches isnt a lot,but if i recall it was the first multieffects pedal that cost under 2 bills,and it sounds better then the 505/505II

It went through a flood,and the buttons stopped working...fast forward a couple of years and a "nothing to lose" attitude,i fixed it with some good contact spray,the buttons inside had rusted,but it works just like when i got it.

For the price when it came out,it was an awesome value,guitar center didnt exist and a stompbox cost around 150 at your local guitar store.its served me well,fits in a gigbag,sounds good,sounds great if you have an amp with some extra reverb or delay effects.these days there are a lot of better effects for 200 bucks,but if you can find a 1010,they are usually dirt cheap(15-30 bucks)and its a good complement to any set up,be it budget or full blown and you just want a new cheap toy. and if your starting out and cant afford the newest toy from Line 6 or Roland,Zoom doesnt kill your cash.

Preset sounds are straight forward, to program effects- I jest dunt like...know. It is rather difficult to keep them saved. The presets are pretty decent though. The manual I have was um, kinda dumb.. do this, step two, do that...now RAWK. This processor will do a whole lot but it is not well explained. I bought this back around 1997 and it has seriel # 052546.

There are probably 3 setting I absolutely love. There is a massive gain on (I think) bank B2 that is positively metal evil. Through my Randall I get a great Metallica sound (No Remorse). I like the chorus on B1 but it's a little muddy. I tend to switch between these two and clean. It has a tuner built in...nice feature for such an antique digipedal. I play what would be called metal/blues 70's style hard rock. I can get a good slap-back blues tone out of one of the settings but I consider this my waycrunchnumetalpedal and this is all I consider it good for. I play it through a Randall RG100 sc. I used to play it though a Peavey 212 classic and it sounded decent through it too.

I have not yet destroyed it. It has been a little tempermental. At an informal gig I decided to use it and it kinda freaked out on me and I had to wrestle it away from my rig and hook back up my analog kids ( obvious reference to Rush) I really haven't trusted it since live. I have recorded with it at home and it's been great for that.

huh?

playin 26 years, I love Rush, Police, King Crimson, Styx, Priest, all the great blues players,and the prog rock genere. My style/sound could be compared to Gary Moore, Winters, Lifeson and James Young ( I wish). I play with kind of a heavy hand/alternating pick and some people say.." yer playin too many notes an' too fast you bastert" I agree sometimes but it just gets me off to play that way. I probably would not buy another, just get a Boss metal zone or similar. I like the insane gain on B2 and the tuner, other than that it a 10" plastic thang takin' up space. I have to say for what it is capable of doing it was worth the money and I didn't have that much back then (1997). I have enjoyed recording with it where I can be right there on it controlling it.

It's very user friendly unit. I bought mine used without the manuel and I had it figured out even before I plugged in. 5 minutes and I got a decent metal sound. I've plugged it in My buddies Fender tibe Bass amp (don't remember the model) got a pretty good sound out of that.

When I was originally Bought it I had just switch from bass to guitar so I was playing it through a Crate 15 watt bass amp. Since the unit didn't come with a AC adapter I had to buy a universal so I think that is causing some humming coming from the unit. For the distortion I'd have to say it's decent for the price. The other Effects are not that convincing

Other than the humming it's held up pretty good.

never delt with them

I play metal to hardcore so it could be used for that.
I've been playing guitar for 10 years and bass for 14. If it were lost or stolen I'd say I wouldn't replace it.

this was my first pedal I bought it about 15 years ago and picked up all of its tricks straight away.

this pedal is perfect for all kinds of metal like industrial Gothic and
death metal. Great for heavy distortion

I have used it almost every day for about 15 years and have had nearly no trouble at all.

never had to use it.

I play most kinds of metal and use Washburn and ibanez guitars through
a torque pa system amplifier. I find this pedal better than a set of kronk distortion pedals

I traded a piece of glass for this unit. It can be a useful piece, given its limitations, provided that you read the manual (which is still available online) and make your own patches.

Patch editing is straightforward, and there are few limits on combinations. Having said this, it takes time (and a definite objective for your sound) in order to tweak the unit appropriately.

Bear in mind from the outset that this unit samples at 31.25 kHz, which is below CD-quality (44.1 kHz, the standard used in most better units). It is also 18- rather than 24-bit.

Given these specs and what I had read about the sound of it in these reviews, my initial expectations of this effects processor were low. But the chorus, flanger, reverb, and delay sound fine - I'm not sure if I could replace them all better with a series of stomp boxes.

I found it impossible to achieve any satisfactory setting on the wah and most of the eq and high gain distortion. The distortion circuitry is analog, which makes it nasty and best applied to the mid- to low- gain distortions.

The Zoom Player adequately livens up a Roland GH-450 amp, espacially if looped it. An ART Tubepac preamp helps to warm up the sound.

My only complaint is the bypass, which sucks some of the dynamic of out my guitars (a rebuilt, customized Fender E-Series Squier and a 2005 Toronado). This is most apparent and completely intolerable when I hook the Zoom up to a 1972 Super Reverb amp. To obtain a real bypass and really hear the guitar and amp hwne I need to, I use the Zoom on the non-reverb channel and switch directly into the reverb channel with a Morley A/B/Y box.

The piece is plastic, and the pedals will stick/break if pressed constantly. To avoid wearing out the cheap pedal that cycles through the banks, I use only six patches and duplicate the banks between a/c and b/d.

No dealings with the company or even any store with this one. If I upgrade, it will be to a Boss ME-30 or ME-50.

This pedal suits the purposes of my practice and small gig rig. For beginners or those with limited amps, it is useful for experimentation purposes. It is hard to lose, as they now cost only about $20-30 on E-Bay.

Very easy and straghtforward editing. I Bought mine when they first came out in the mid 90s and lost the manual shortly after-but it's pretty intuative

I seem to be the only one on this board that feels this way, but I love this thing-when they discontinued them about 5 years ago I actually bought a second one to keep in the closet. The secret is to completely ignore the presets-just start each patch from scratch with a clean sound and gradually add stuff. I get a great "Crossroads" era Clapton and also early Jimmy Page sound (Distortion #2) It does a real nice RockaBilly Slap and a rich Andy Summers chorus. I bought this to replace my Boss pedals-I thought I would only use it occasionally when I needed the convenience - now I really feel limited when I pull out the pedals

I've used it ealmost every night for about ten years now. Every few years I starts acting up - I've learned to open it up and look for cracked solder- just take a soldering iron and re-melt them. It's as good as new for another couple of years

Never did

I've been playing in and around NYC for full time for about 25 years.
Jazz, Country, Rock and Blues-sessions, clubs. One problem with the 1010 is it's not really quiet enough for pro-recording. Live it's not noticable, but in the studio it sometimes picks up some wierd digital noises. I've tried to keep up with other stuff out there-Pod, Korg AX1, Pandora - Digitec-most of them have some good sounds (the exception was the Boss ME3-useless!) I recently picked up the Zoom G2.1U-it's real studio quiet, but distortion is not as authentic as the 1010.(maybe I'll break out the old Boss OD 1 to use with it) With all of these effects-don't just buy them plug em in and think they'll make you sound great. First try to hear the sound you want in your mind's ear, then attempt to create it with the effect.

Gumby, Gumby, Gumby. I know these aren't meant to be high dollar items with the same level or quality or sound. Just a basic stomp on the buttons approach. Very cheap plastic feel.

Noisy lame sounds that you'd find on an vintage video game. Lousy sounds/patches, sucks the life outta any amp.

Wouldnt expect much with the cheapo plastic

Never had to use. Junked the pedal before this happened (took it back to the store)

Save your dough and the headaches, just buy a couple of good pedals you'll be way ahead of the game

Quite straightforward for a multi box.

SG Gibsons, Carvin Belair amp. Make no mistake, even for a budget box this is really quite awful. I bought it as an emergency back-up for gig's, but can't bring myself to use it, so it's only being used as a spare tuner. It is noisey, and seems to suck the tone out of my guitars. The preset sounds are appalling, and even after hours I couldn't get a effect out of it I was happy with.

Hard to rate as I haven't used it much, but it is a solid unit, and other people I know with Zoom products have had no problems.

Never dealt with them.

As I've said, this is awful. I use a Line6 Crunchtone and a DOD Icebox, both of which put this to shame.

Fairly easy to use. Patches can be edited quickly. You just can't edit
in real tone or decent sustain...doh!
No delay w/reverb, but you can have reverb with a Doubling(short delay).

P90 pups/vintage tube amps and 70's SS Peavey Pacer.
The distortions are weak so shut that off. Well, maybe leave on and reduce the gain to preserve some tone and use more of the amps gain.

Tone sucker. Sustain sucker.

Use a tube pedal w/SS amp or lower the Patch level w/valve amps. You spend most of your editing on trying to get the tone back after adding effect.

If your ear is used to tubes and quality aftermarket pups you have no business trying this piece.

If it would fail I could toss it, doh.

Playing for decades. I just went ahead and bought it in '97 after trying it at a pawn shop. Never tried a multi-effects unit 'til that day, "you live, you learn". I thought I'd be able to edit things a bit calmer when I got it home. Calmer exposed the lack of tone and sustain.

Boy if somebody would build a programmable analog multi-effects unit.

I won't replace it if you come steal it.