Zoom 2020

very easy figured it out in about 15 minutes of plugging it in without a manual ( i already have a 505 )

Crap sound i got it given to me by a friend who is a session guitarist and i can see why. There are no good distotions or overdrive it is very noisy the noise reduction only helps so much and when distortion is on it just gets mega feedback
I managed to make so really nice clean sounds with chorus and delay effects
it is just to muddy and i would not recomend using it with a marshall or roland amp ( i have a roland )
cause the amp has better distortion a clearer sound and if you want a delay, chorus or flanger pedals better ones can be found.

not had it long but i would watch out when stepping on it

I prefer my 505 but i gonna get a digitech alongside a boss ds1 cause they works really well but im happy with it as i paid nothing for it but if i was going to buy i would look around 505 is good and cheap for beginers I got mine after playing for about three years to boost my amp cause i had a crap one
And after this definately WILL NOT buy any more zoom products.
Not bad for a first unit but there is better units that give better distotion/overdrive sounds its not really suited to me cause i play hard rock, punk quite a lot but it great for when im playing clean and blues stuff love the delay chorus flanger and wah isnt too bad
i would like to talk with other owners who have one so feel free to email

Easiness of sounds depends on your taste. I got an easy dry metal sound with a touch of chorus kicks a pack. On editing patches, well, its kinda hard because its made out of plastic and i got stories that when you kinda pushed it too hard, IT BREAKS. Manual, well oriented, but i dont use it anyway (Trying to deal with it by myself). About my unit it sucks bec. its an old japanese model.

Well sound quality(like i was talking about), depends on your music style. I play a melodramatic-metal, neo-metal,classical, sentimetal leads so i needed a chunky boost to my leads and zoom did a great job on providing me those (with a lot of frustrating dialing of course). Except zooms ZNR doesnt make any difference, it just cut and cut until you suceed to die out of tone. Yup its pretty noisy especially with my setup. I have to turn up the EQ's level so i can get a cool mid. For my setup I've got an Ibanez copycat to a Jim Dunlop Crybaby to the 2020 to a local amp (RAGE amps). Actually I got an almost Eddie Van Halen sound out of it but a Marty Friedman (MEGADETH) it does pretty well. All i can say is analog distortions are pretty old-fashioned but natural sounding, chorus, and delay are pretty cool except for the Rev. that only Fracks the sound.

I depend on it like its my last effect on earth. But for a single guitarist like me, i know hoe to use it as one without backers. I can make it as loud as i can (By turning off the eq). Or heavy as it must.

Nope not at all. Except for the powersupply and the footswitches.

For the music I play (or for the lead guitarist i am), 2020 is an absolute average to semi pro. effects. ive been playing guitar for 3 yrs. (a fast learner)and ive used almost all kinds of analog and digital effects e.g. MT-2, 505,707, MT-1, 4040, etc. but a 2020 is fair for me replacing those effects for a change (for the spacE). If it were stolen id say i must look for the bastard and then get my 2020 slap it into his face and ask him if hes interested on a 2nd hand 2020 (maybe i can give it to him for about 1/4 of its price!). I love the mod. delays, reverb. except for the dist module hope they can make advances. I wish it had a HARMONMIZED PITZ-SHIFTUR (damn icant get any of those really cheap!). If you'd like to buy this thing, well, it depends. If youre a beginner i think a 505 would be better and if youre a pro and has a lot of Greens (andhas a lot of room space) i would go for a series of BOSS EFFECT PEDALS. But for a amatuer ,yngwie wannabe like me and doesnt have enough bucks to own a heck of multieffects. Then buy the damn thing anyway.

At first it seems very easy and a lot of fun considering the built-in patches. I loved the sound but when I switched between amps the sound began to change dramatically! The amps settings are the same but the sound has changed 40%! Editing the patches is quite easy but the down side is that you have to spend a lot of time to get the sound you really want. My unit is brand new I just bought it last week! The manual is ok but the problem is that it is very TECHNICAL!

I use a Squier Stratocaster (by Fender) and a Samick VG-100 Amp. There is some noise when using distortion/overdrive related effects but overall it sounds great. I can get some sounds that I want to mimic but it is very difficult to duplicate! I like the Chorus and Delay effects the best! The things I hate are the distortion/overdrive effects cause they give off too much NOISE!

I can depend on it on some instances but when it comes to "quick thinking" on the effects I wanna use it is really difficult to cope up with! I would use this always since it's the only effects processor I have!

From my experience ZOOM has good quality. I've got friends who have said that their's could last for as long as 5 years!

I play slow rock, blues, pop and a bit of classical guitar. I would say that "for now" this effects processor is worth it. I have been playing for almost 3 years. I also own a Boss Turbo Overdrive Pedal OD-2R that I use often. If it got lost or stolen, I would get another effects processor. I might consider getting a Boss effects processor instead. I wish it had a built-in wah pedal! So far I can make music with it really good, especially when playing the blues! I'd say this effects processor is ONLY for begginers!

real easy to get a good sound and the editing patches cool.yes,i had a manual, but the editing and stuff so easy you dont have to read it. sorry dont know the firmware revision number and unit is the same old junk.

I use a fender strat and a stranger amp and man its so fuckin, noisy and the ZNR doesn't seems to help much either and it weakens the tone alot.it's really difficult to get your desired sounds unlike the zoom's other patches like the 505 & 3030 e.g (just want to add the 505 real cool,you'll get your money's worth)Ofcourse the chorus delay reverb& flanger's cool i can't get even one desired patch for distortion. Man, this really lets you down specially if you play for a heavy metal band.The compressor is useless and of course the autowah.

how can i depend when i can't get my desired patches.Of course the effect is compact except for the small footpedals and only one up bank pedal, but i won't use for a gig without a backup.oh ... when you switch from one patch to the other there is a small gap (silent) which i really find it sucks.

no, comment.

I play rock/haevy metal.So it doesn't match to my satisfaction.I will never buy a 2020 or any zoom products. I prefer DIGITECH,BOSS or ROLAND.I don't love this gadget except for delay and chorus.AND for the last time I advice prospective buyers to think twice before buying the most famous gadget ZOOM'S 2020.

Easy to edit, The manual was easy to follow.

I ran a lespaul and a fenderstrat with it, along with a mesaboogie stack.

I had this thing for six months, then kicked it to the curve. I wanted some different types of distortions for different songs, and the 2020 just didn't pan out. Only one distortion sounded decent, the rest were garbage. I played with the patches for hours to try and get a good distortion, but their was nothing. It also was noisy, even with the reduction turned up full blast. The other effects also sucked. They sounded weak, and had no tone. The only thing that sounded good, was the pitch shift. I tried other zoom processors, with the same story. I guess the thing is good if your a kid, and are just starting out playing guitar, but I would not put it on stage with me. I would not buy any zoom products, instead I will pay the money to get something good. I guess you get what you pay for.

Right - the 20-20 even though a ow discontinued line is a resonable efects box. The best bits about it here you can use the pedals as separates effects boxs (essential for live use to save farting around making up a patch for every song.). It only has 20 user presets however and the factory presets and really poor with loads of reverb and delay on each. It is easy to store ptches though but you can acidenlly wipe over other patches whilst mid gig. Doh.

Arhhhhhhh - noise. I am using a valvestate 65R and on distortion with the master on the amp at 5 it hisses more than next doors cat. It really is too loud to talk over and it hurts the ears. This is apparent on all settings - especially distortion. Arhh. Some effects are all right on it (i.e. chorus, reverb, delay and flages etc) but the distoritions are horrid and don't work at all well with my amp. THey are weak and lifeless. You can't get that metallica esq. lead metal solo sound but a MOR indie guitar sound is apporachable. It does have stereo output though for ping pong delays (novely at the price) but my expression pedal is unreliable and sometimes putting it in the volume pedal adds more noise to the procedings.

Its fairly reliabel - no very stablely built though - bit cheapo ploastic. Use it for lots of gigs but am about to upgrade cause of the noise it generates at high volumes. No need for a backup at a gig as I only use it as something to add too my sound and not as a mojor part of it.

Never had any thing I coulnd't fix myself go wrong with it.

Thios is not someting I would brag about owning. Considering it was desgned ages ago it has stood up well in time but not well enough to make me want to buy a nother one. I would prefer to buy separates pedals for distortion and then a 505 for the lettle extra btis like chorus.

I only had this product for 1 hour and I could get most sounds out of it. The manual is very clear and easy to use. Editing patches is also quite easy and changes in a patch can be made within ten seconds.

I'm using a B.C. Rich Bich with two humbuckers and a Park 20w amplifier, and I haven't got a lot of noise or feedback, but with some other guitars it screams like hell, but the Zoom noise reduction works very well. The reverb, delay, chorus, flange and phaser are quite good, but the distortions are not very versatile and the overdrives are a disaster. There's no way to get a cool overdrive from this thing. The pitch effect is funny in combination with distorions, but there is a slight delay in it, and in extreme parameters the sound is 'strange'. Auto arpeggio is unusable. If you like Metal, like myself, there are ways to get pretty heavy distortions, if you put a flange or chorus in it wich is almost turned off, for example.

It is made of metal and plastic, but I would'nt stand on it, because the pedals are made of plastic(why?)and the buttons are easely damaged. I would NOT use it on a life performance because there is a slight delay between the pressing of a pedal and the next effect(with a small silence between them).

never dealt with them.

I play death/black metal, and i think i'm going to by a distortion pedal to backup the distortions in my zoom. I would not buy it again, the 4040 is much better.

The user interface is very clear and intuitive. It does have its shortcomings; there is only one button for scrolling through the banks, which means you may have to push it several times to get the bank you want. Also, you can't name the patches, there isn't a separate volume control for the headphone output and it is easy to accidentally switch the unit to bypass mode because this is done by pushing the active patch button again and not with a separate bypass button. But given the price, the 2020 deserves high marks. Programming is so quick and easy that you can tweak your sounds during rehearsals without your bandmates getting annoyed.

The distortions and overdrives are usable, though the choice of different types is limited. The chorus is very good and I use it a lot. The rest of the time-based effects are mainly ok, though not stellar. The pitch shifter is almost useless due to the delay in the shifted note. The only thing it is good for is the chorus-type sound you get when you set the pitch shifter to produce a slightly detuned note. The reverb is adequate for playing live, but if I was going to record with this, I would probably use something else for reverb.

The unit has taken three years of rough treatment without giving any significant trouble. People complain about the external transformer; yes, it is a bit flimsy but at least there is an decent strain relief built to the rear of the unit so the cord won't disconnect too easily. Once there has been a software crash of some sort (the display went erratic).

When I bought it in 1995 it was definitely the best floor multi-effects unit available for the price. If your budget is really tight, a second-hand 2020 is still a good buy. But if you can afford a new one, you should perhaps check out some of Zooms present models instead.

Everything is excellent- manual, and a panel of the processor. You have perfect table which helps you to choose the wanted effect and to edit it's parameters by choosing a column, row, and pushing +/-. Everything is simple. 5 pedals each works with it's own effect during the editing. I spent about 20 minutes to understand all the stuff. To get a good sound is much more difficult. You must play with it a lot. Because the most presets are rude and ugly. So, if you have this product and you don't like the presets, just have patience. It tooks a lot of time to understand wich parameters affects which category of sound and which cobination is going to be nice to your ear. But this is the only problem and it's individual problem, nothing about ZOOM. Presets are bad - that is the negative point!

I use guitar Aria II pro (japan) with humbucker and Floyd Rose system. I use mostly the headphones. My amp is 15 watts only. But also using my amp gives me good sound. But the headphones is the best. If you hate phones, you can connect the phones output to the in-line of your tape or stereo-system - perfect sound. The Effect is a little bit noisy, but you can handle with it. There is a noise in high and low frequency range. I hate the noise that makes phaser and flanger effects, when you are not actually touch the strings! The copressor is very weak. But it also effects your sound. Edge is great! Noise Redusction (ZNR) - does the job! EQ - is great. Good mid-frequency floating point. MODULATION: Pitch is bad. It dobles the sound good, but what an ugly propagation delay between the moment you touch the string and the moment when pitch doubles the note!! I can use this effect only at low balance. Actually it works good with distortion. Flanger and Phazer are not bad ones, but too noisy. Tremolo - I don't use it much, but it seems to me that it's OK. Step - the stupid effect. Why did they put it in anyway?! It's just stupid, ain't no use of it! Chorus is a good one. It does the job. I use it in a "small portions" to make the sound some kinda spacy. DELAY: Great. Great Ping-Pong one. Good range (about 1 sec), feedback is also perfect. Reverb: Also the cool part of the 2020. But I think it's a little bit dirty..I prefer more crystal reverb. But it's ok for the money you pay. If you want a perfect delay and reverb for $200, just forget it. Nothing can be perfect in multi that costs $200! A word abou distortions: Many people said that they are bad. I do not agree. I use distortions a lot. At the beginning I didn't like them, but when you play with parameters, with EQ, it sounds quite good. I found really good havy Metal sounds, Hard rock ones, smooth ones... With Nirvana-sound there is a prob. I didn't find something cool. But in general the effects are quite good.

Yeah I depend on it. I would use it on a gig. The only problem is that bad power plug-in. There is a danger that with the time your power-cord will not functionate properly. There is a danger that the power will be down and all your temporary settings or real-time-using combination will be lost. Take care of it! If you will plug the power-cord in gently and pull it out carefully, I'm sure there will be no problem.

No I had no deal with the company yet.

I play blues, Hard, psychodelic, rock'n'roll. The 2020 helps me a lot. I've been playing for 7-8 years. I have a wah-wah pedal (MORLEY). I donno if I would by it again. Maybe. I like this product. But you know, when you go to buy something new, you gonna bye something better than you had (if you have money). I choose this one for a price and for the ability ty change a lot of parameters. ZOOM 505 is a good product, it has better sound, but it has no ability to change parameters of the effect. It really sucks! Other products of the 2020's class cost more. I liked RP6, but it's price is higher. And most effects of 2020 is better then RP6's. I choose it also for a good range of the delay. People, if you want to share interesting ideas and patches with me - WELCOME! I'll exchange my knowledge with you.my e-mail: sd0c@techst02.technion.ac.il or d0c@MAXHO.com

well it works, but the plastic cover sucks. sometimes if you change the patch during the song you can put it too easy and accidentally to bypass mode. the power adapter is also cheap made small, and getting too hot during the use. At the moment my 2020 is somewhere to be repaired cause power adapter began giving 15 volts instead of 9.

well if you are using high patch levels it can make some feedback and that makes me angry. the distortions are also crap like when you need some crunchy tones it's hard to hear anything some of the effects are ok.

well i'd take the distortion from some another analog pedal cause analog distortion is always better than digital. i wouldn't use it without some backup cause it's made for home use.

well it was ok for three months until the power adapter got broken the customer support works.

I play everything from blues to metal, but i think it's not the best.