Zoom 2020

Very easy to use and anyone can do the editing without problems. The manual is well explained and quiet helpful.

It's a damn noisy effect except you turned the distortion off. The compressor is almost "absent"! It doesn't change anything. When you want to dial up the Noise Reduction, it sucks up tone as well. The more the noise reduction, the weaker the tone and the distortion becomes very murky. This unit is cool with headphone only. I use a Peavey Bandit 112 and it makes my amp sounds like a Hoover vaccuum. The Distortion and the Overdrive sounds very bad. Those modulation effects are good but not very flexible. Reverb and delay is ok. Auto Wah sucks. It sounds like some wacky cheap wah.

It's very durable. I have been using it for 2 years. I even dropped it once and this thing didn't cracked (it made with plastic)! I have never used it on a gig because it sucks. I'd rather run my guitar dry.

Never deal with the customer support.

I will never buy it again, NEVER! This is my first ZOOM effect and will be my last ZOOM product. I totally lost all my confidence on any ZOOM products If you wanna buy a ZOOM, forget it... save some more and buy Boss or Roland.

The manual explains pretty much everything there is to it. Easy read, and easier to try it out. The pedals are a bit small, perhaps. Really simple to use.

It's not a noisy processor, and the noise reduction system works ok although it does affect your sound (attack) at high settings. Some effects are ok, like flanger, phaser and chorus. I use the chorus a lot. The delays are very nice, in my opinion and the reverbs do the trick although are not excellent. But the downside of this processor has to be the distortions. I just cannot get a decent sound out opf it. They are all CRAP. I use it with a Boss MT-2, which works, but it gives noise. The EQ section is fine. I don't like the auto-wah much, and I just bought an expression pedal for the manual wah which I don't like too much either. The wah affects my tone so much that it's like having two different set-ups altogether. I would like to keep my nice tone, and then switch on the wah... just wah, but it's not possible. It can be used, but I'm looking to buy a Dunlop 355 or something like that instead. The Step effect I find useless, and the pitchshifter is quite bad when shifting up. I use it a lot for direct recording, and also as the effects console in mixdown from a 4-track machine. The speaker simulator is not the best, although you can fiddle with the settings in the EQ and get a decent distorted sound on tape. But I prefer the Marshall DRP-1, only it hasn't got stereo outputs, and I love the stereo chorus and delays in the Zoom. So I sometimes use one, sometimes the other. Great clean slightly chorused sounds, plus delays and some reverb. Flanger & phaser ok. But forget about distorsions, really. I wouldn't buy it again. Oh, I forgot another thing: the delay between pressing the pedal and getting the effect working is annoying when you try to switch between patches precisely.

Very reliable so far. Never gigged it, only used it at home. But it's a plastic cover, so I'd be a bit wary... There're animals out there!

Never had to deal with them.

I don't think I'd buy it again. It is my first pedalboard, and when I bought it it sounded good for the price. And it was. But a couple of months later I found that by spending just a little more I could buy a lot better stuff. I use the chorus, reverb and delay a lot. They are cool. But distortions suck. Now you can buy it used for less than half what I paid two years and a half ago. It is a cheap processor, and if you are in a budget, and have a nice distortion device, the Zoom 2020 might be a good thing. But I am already looking for a substitute, something like a Boss GT-5... somewhat pricier, but good quality usually is.

This is a very easy pedal to use. I bought this in stock condition, used without an instruction booklet and figured it out all right. It is far less complicated than the 3030. Distortion and overdrive is difficult to get a good sound out of. Editing patches is very easy. You just select the wanted parameters in the edit mode, select the desired bank, and hit store twice. The footpedal are small, and sort of hard to step on while wearing large shoes. I find myself programming patches used for a song in the same bank so I just have to switch patches, not banks. The external volume pedal is easy to use.

This pedal has some pretty good effects, such as chorus, delays, flanging, reverb, phasing. These are great and I used them a lot. The auto wah is not used a lot, but it's a pretty good envelope filte. However there are a couple of effects which I find to kinda suck. For example the "STEP" function (an auto arpeggiator) is a useless bunch of shifting noise. Also, the tremolo is loud, scratchy, and is not very smooth. The distortion is this unit's real downfall. Although there are 2 types of distortion and 2 overdrives, they are really plain jane, so it is hard to get that warm and dirty sound for the songs I play. However, it satisfies my play for the most part. The Zoom Noise Reduction is good at a range of about 10, which cuts out a lot of the excess humming, but if over that, the pedal sounds way to plain and compressed.

The reliability is great. I bought it used a year ago in excellent shape and have yet to have any trouble. I do not, however, stomp on the footpedals because the are plastic and don't want to risk any damage. I would use it in a gig without a backup, but wouldn't let anybody mess with it. If someone messes with the buttons, it is very easy to change the desired patch effects. It would probably be in your best interest to have a written copy of the parameters for each patch written down somewhere, just in case of a change.

I haven't dealt with the company, so I can't say either way.

Before I bought my Zoom 2020, I had other pedals such as a Boss Chorus, an Ibanez delay, a DOD Classic Fuzz, and a DOD Envelope Filter. I got rid of these after I got my Zoom since the unit could do them all. I did, however buy the pedal without knowing that the unit was discontinued, so I don't know if I'm screwed or not if there is a breakdown. For the money I paid for this pedal, and the hundreds of hours that I've used it in the last year, I would definitely buy it again. I especially like the digital delay, because you can set specific intervals of 0-100 ms of delay to match the tempo played by most of the Floyd songs. The chorus also adds some good harmony. The flange is anywhere from a little noticeable to razor sharp, depending on how you set it. Phaser is pretty good too. I hate the step function, which is pretty stupid since I have yet to hear any songs using it, and the fact that you can't combine certain effects. For instance, you can only have chorus, flanging, tremolo, phaser, step, and pitch shift; you can never combine say, chorus and flanging. So, I wish I could combine a couple of these six effects. There is a hum that comes out of the amp when using some of the patches, but can ususally be eliminated by switching my Strat pickup blade in position 2 (front/middle pickups). I wish the tremolo was more quiet and the distorion was better. I probably should buy an Ibanez tube screamer, or better yet a tube amp if I want true tube sound. To be honest with you, I wouldn't upgrade to a 3030 or a 4040. These come with rarely used patches that are kind of stupid and it is extremely more difficult than the 2020 in setting your own patches.

This unit is fairly easy to use. The manual is pretty straight forward I't took me about 2 to 3 weeks to get it down. I had the most trouble editing patches. besides that it's a breeze.

This unit has alot of different sounds. Thats one of the things I like about it. The chorus and reverb is cool as ice but the distortion and overdrive aren't nearly as cool.

The first year I had mine was excelent I never had a problem with it but after a wile I experienced alot of problems with it. First my power input stop working I had to tape it in an awkward possition for it to work. Then my valume pedal and wah pedal inputs completly stoped working. Finaly my batch pedal only worked when it wanted to. I would never ever even think about useing this unit for a gig!

The company was very helpful to me with my problems. Very nice people!

I like Zoom effects alot but I don't recomend the Zoom player 2020 I would go the couple extra bucks for the 3030 or the 4040 becouse they are much more dependable and sound a hell of alot better.

The unit is pretty straightfoward and if you need any help, the manual should tell you what you need to know. It easy to get a good sound right away, but a custom sound will take a little practice.

Depends on what effect we are taking about. When I bought this 3 years ago, I thought THIS WAS IT. Now, being an experienced player, I can tell you - if you have the money, buy something better. The Compressor does nothing to your sound and only confuses. The distortions are decent, but are lacking for metal or hard rock. The effects, I must say, sound pretty good for the price. They all can be tweaked and modified. Love the patch U2-2. Another problem with this unit is that it will squash your tone in the effects loop. You lose some top end and some gain - not a good thing!

Reliable, yes. Although I don't use it much, I never had a problem and used it for a ton of gigs. It's usefull in the fact that you can alter some patches to adjust to different amps. Try revamping the EQ section on a Digitech RP-10 in under 10 seconds.

Never had a problem, so I never dealt directly with the company.

It's not a bad unit at all. But technology is always changing so better products are being made as we speak. Since this model is outdated now, and you will probably be buying this used, you can get a good price. If you never have tried multi-effects and aren't into metal or hard rock, you'll save some money and get an effects education. If you love your amp's distortion, and are looking for a cheap way to add chorus and delay to your setup, you will be dissappointed.

I've had a few people contacting me wanting to know what kind of settings I'm using, so I finally got tired of answering e-mail and wrote a few of my favourites down. If you want them, check out http://www.infomatch.com/~michow/zoom2020.htm

It's really easy to use, though I'd prefer to dial in my levels than use the buttons, but other than that it's fine.

This is the problem, when I plugged it into my setup, either straight into my amp (Marshall 8080) or through the effects loop, it really muddies up my overdrive channel, makes it far too thick and lifeless, no amount of eq tweaking will compensate. Unfortunately, the units distortions are utter shite, plus the thing is noisy when bypassed, especially when using another distortion pedal or just overdriving your amp. However, the units saving grace is the delay, bloody marvelous. I just feel it's a shame that you can't have flange and phase at the same time, but I suppose that is a bit much to ask for the price.

It hasn't broken yet, I've gigged it once then never again, cause it just sounded terrible. The bypass problem is amplified.

N/A

I wouldn't buy it again, and am attempting to sell it right now. Any offers???

i'm not really sure how i ended up buying it.. i gues i was in a hurry. editing patches is easy.. i had used one with knobs before but i like this one as my approach to sound is quite mathematical. the manual is fine, i read it just for info, i learnt to use it by myself.

it isn't noisy at all, at least for me.. the compressor is virtually nonexistant. it doesnt even work well as a limiter.. the clean sounds are fine.. the noise reduction works as long as you don't overdo it. the overdrives are crap (the one in my SS amp sounds better). one of the distortions is fine.. i'm using it with a ibanez classic metal however, which sounds way better. the eq is fine.. autowah is weird, i use a wah pedal anyway. the pitch shifter doesn't track too well, i don't use it much anyway. the phaser and flanger are fine.. the tremolo too, i guess, although i've never heard a "real" one yet. "step" is really weird, at least for guitar, maybe good on keyboard. the chorus is fine, although the boss i had before was way deeper. i love the delay, both of them.. the reverb is fine.

it's metal and plastic.. i've never gigged anyway, but i guess it'd stand up to it.

i've never dealt with zoom, though when i bought it the box said that the exp. pedal was included and when i got home it wasn't there..

it sounds good on headphones. i wouldn't buy it again, i wish i had browsed a bit more. i don't use it all the time, sometimes i plug direct into my amp. sounds good for recording direct. if anyone has cool patches for trading email me. i have a table in .doc format to write down the patches i like best.

pretty easy to use.

bad distortion.
pretty good clean sounds.
nice delay.

never use it

i would buy it again.
sounds great with the headphones.
i use it with a BOSS metal zone and sounds great
if you want to trade patches e-mail me

Quite Good Sometimes When I push the Upper right pedal I touch the edit button as well!! I'm 6f 2 and I usually play in small-darky pubs where you can't actually see where you're putting your feel (are mine to big for this unit .....?????!!! ) Anyway the effect creation section is fairly good! I've managed making 'almost' the kind of sounds I was looking for from a cheep unit like the 2020.

It did the Job! I must say that I'm not an effects expert. The 2020 was the fist I had , and 'till now It's still there working.... By the way, compression is NOT good! As soon as I'll find some time I'll work on some decent distorsions I've only used the standard ones which are 'decent' for rock (I'm not into metal)

Two Years playing 4 night a week Not one single problem!!!

Never used it

I think it all depends on the kind of music you're playing and WHERE you're playing it. I never considered it a PRO unit, but it gave me a decent amount of different sounds to play Jaz, Rock, Funk and whatever I had too. I really home some of you will give me some advices 'bout better products to buy. Till then, I'll stick to my 2020. (maybe 'cause it's been my first, you know , like you're first strato , you can't help loving it!)