Zoom 3030

Its pretty easy to learn to work this - making patches is also fairly strait forward.

I don't play guitar. I use the Zoom 3030 with my electric violin so my review will be tailored for violinists. The preset sounds are OK, but some of them come out wierd on the violin and many of them sound too much alike - I only ever use two or three of the presets. Not to say that the presets are bad, its just that they are meant for a guitar. I depend on my custom patches which you have quite a bit of flexibility with. As with any violin, use good strings. I use Thomastik Dominant (all perlon) which I found seems to reproduces a cleaner sound through the amp than all metal strings (in general).

I have only had the Zoom 3030 for about 7 months, but I havent had any problems at all. So from personal experience its reliable.

After modifying the patches this unit suites my playing nicely. I would have given the sound quality a higher rating if I didn't have to depend on my own sounds - but it actually sounds very clean and rich. I recommend the Zoom if you are looking for a mid-quality processor, and I will probably be using this for years to come. For the money, this is a great unit.

O.K. ---First of all these things have been out of production for who knows how long....???? if they were not worth a damn this listing would not even exist. I bought mine on sale in 1996 for $200.00. After using a $ 900.00 ART unit ( we all remember those !!!) ADA MP1 Queensryche phase ( noisiest $500.00 I have ever spent) Peavy Rockmaster/ stereo 50/50.....This thing is the quietest most versatile unit to date. I don't see a Digitech Twintube gravesite here ......because they were @#$%#$% by anyone who got burned buying 1. I was a drunken retard and had this thing singing before I plugged it in.

I dont care what you sound like when your playing ...if you stop playing metal chops and there is nothing but noise ...you sound as good as Jimmy page with the violin bow." Were not as high as you it sounds like sh#$%t." This thing delivers great tones , harsh distortion and sums the chop evenly without premature theft. I run mine through a Hartke 2000 bass head and a Alesis Equilizer. I Use ESP and Jackson Guitars with EMG pickups. You cant wear a gold chain and have holes in your jeans. This thing is not a miracle cure ..for some of the listings here you should have stayed with your Metal master pedal ..it went better with the SERIES 10 GUITAR YOU PLAY. Funny how all you guys with Pauls and strats ...smile with the tail hanging out of your mouth....

I have had mine since buying it new....in 96. The jacks havn't went yet. Believe it or not the transformer just went out and that is why I am here. If your Touring with Alice Cooper stop buying room service and buy the gear you can afford ...stop complaining.

This thing is kool . The only thing out there right now that can compare will be the LINE 6 gear. I am replacing it this year , but after 8 years of getting kicked, spilled beer , fights with the ex ...I think it deserves a rest. This piece is a classic. Goodnight.

Simple enough to use, I didnt get the instuctions with it, but 30 seconds of looking at the panel on the front and its obvious.

I`m using this plugged in to a Marshall MG15CD practice amp, sounds usable once you play around with the settings.
The distortions are not very good, but the overdrives are nice.
The delay, chorus and wah are very good.
Does its job well enough

Nope, flimsy plastic, I would never gig with this, the expression pedel is tiny.

No idea

I have been playing the guitar for around 8 years, did have a Marshall 6100LM, a MIJ Jackson Pro and a rack mounted EFX that I had to sell about 5 years ago do to various problems surrounding an ex girlfriend, stopped playing for a year or so.
I bought it as it was cheap to have a play around with, I cannot argue with the price I paid.

Industry standard set of banks, effects and pedal but the editing buttons are very small and very hard to get many of the sounds in sync with each other. If I had about ten hours to spare, I could probably get a dozen or so decent settings.

I play a Les Paul Custom through either a Fender Princeton (live) or Peavey Bandit (home). Also, a Martin w/ a thinline directly into a P.A. At best, the Zoom enhances the versatility. At worst, it hisses and sounds too digital. Very little warmth. Very tough to define an acceptable tone on many of the effects.

Pretty dependable for a plastic rig. The pedal may loosen up a bit, but it's easy to cure with an Allen wrench.

Bought it used w/o manual, but Zoom did send me one for free. It can also be downloaded.

My first processor. It has taught me a thing or two but I look forward to getting something better.

I think it's very easy to work with the zoom 3030. But is't very hard to get a very good metal distortion.

I play with a Lefthanded Fender Stratocaster and I use a Laney amp.
The effects always sound great.
I can't get the sound of my favourite artists!! Pantera, Cannibal corpse, nightwish.

I play metal and death metal, it's not a good match because I cant get the effect's of the bands. I'm now playing 6 years. I would buy the tonyworks 30xg.

Can somebody help me to get the distortions I need, PLEASE !!!!!!!!

Its very easy to use you do not need a manual to figure how to use and make the most out of this baby. You just need previous experiences and familiarity on handling and manipulating pedals and multieffects processor. :)

It sounds good but not all. Things to look for are the distortions, wah, reverb, and chorus.

You can depend on it as long as you are not one fat dirty bastard with a feet as big as Shaq. the wah ped is quite small and the casing is made of plastis so a little care on handling it would not hurt.

No experience with their CS yet.

I play senseless music, some sort of music for the drunken on drugs priests. And i play for the free beer!

I got it used so there's no manual. I looked at the panel and scratched my head for a few minutes then it all made sense. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out and it really is quite simple to program. I still downloaded the manual though (I mean, THEY prolly know more about this than me and its free!)

I use a knockoff Les Paul custom and a really cheap practice amp. This thing makes cheap gear sound like a million bucks. The distortions are awesome and with a little tinkering you can really find a nice sustaining lead tone with it. Some distortions (like the Blues OD) can get a little noisy, but I blame my cheap amp for that. I tested this on a Marshall when I bought it and it was damn quiet. The chorus is nice and I use it a lot to put some gloss into my leads (and just a teensy bit for my rhythms). The expression pedal stinks though (I have a little asian foot and mine is still too big to fit!), but then again I dont wah so it dont matter. The compressor is a little inefficient, I wish it had more parameters. The reverb rules. Another problem, there's a slight silence when changing patches but I only notice this when playing alone. Since I arrange most of my tone changes in song breaks with drum rolls and cymbal slams, it hides the shift well so no real problem.

Hmm, I haven't had it long, but it looks pretty solid. I've always been particular about taking care of my gear so Im not expecting it to break down before my day job can actually afford me another FX box. Dont gig much, but Ill be sure to bring my BOSS stompbox along just in case Murphy's Law decides to make itself felt.

Prolly will never deal with them. This is quite an old machine. If it breaks down you go to your backyard and bury it.

Our band plays nothing but compositions (old school melodic to hard rock with dashes of metal). Im trying to forge my own tone and this baby is definitely a boon. Since Im not looking to copy tones from others Im basically just left to my devices. The range of effects in this thing is wide enough and I can't imagine wanting any more. Its light, its fairly easy to use and it can give a really cheap amp a million-dollar sustaining lead tone. I want nothing more. Cheap as it is, this one does the job nicely.

Simple to use - most of the pre-set patches are cack, but you can tweak to your hearts delight. As with most multi-effects, you may occasionally need the manual to work out which parameter you're actually altering, and the manual is well laid out and easy to understand.

My set up is usually an Epiphone Les Paul thru a Peavey Bandit 112. The quality varies depending on effect / feature. The Compression, EQ, delay, reverb and the majority of SFX are all excellent - you get really good results. I dislike the pitch shifter and am not too keen on the harmonized pitch shifter. I found the wah to be weak - it's taken me ages to find a sound that I liked, and it still doesn't sound that punchy despite having four wah-types available. Probably the most disappointing feature for me is the overdrive - you can only get the extremes of distortion and it's impossible to get a warm overdriven sound. I find the distortion generally cold and too much. Final gripe is the level - it's hard to get a solid sound out of the box and begin to play around with feedback. Also the clean sound isn't particularly strong, even with the output level maxed. It feels like the 3030 was solely made for 80's stadium lead ROCK! bands, which is fine if you want that, but really frustrating if you're trying to get a more subtle sound.

Bottom line for me on the 3030 is: Clean SFX sounds = good, Overdrive = Poo.

I gig a couple of times a month and rehearse with my band once a week. I've had my 3030 for 3 years now and it's lasted longer than I thought. The expression pedal doesn't feel great, but it has lasted and is still working perfectly even though I use it a lot.

I agree with some of the comments about the jacks - they are the main point of weakness - they are soldered directly onto the microchip board and mine are dying on me. It's a bugger to find people who can fix it. More worrying is jacks I haven't used - the right stereo output - are suffering from the same problem which may suggest something about flexibility between the board and the case.

Never had to deal with them - bit gutted that the website doesn't support older models. In fact the website is a bit naff.

I'm in band best described as alternative-indie/rock - I sometimes play lead, but I'm more left to try and create the sound behind the song. I wanted something with loads of effects and I had little money, so this has fit the bill well. I was a complete FX newbie when I got this, and it's been a good education for me. Over the past couple of years, I've grown more frustrated with my 3030, particularly on the lack of expression with its OD/distortion and the signal strength. It's happened to break (again!) just when I was looking at alternatives - I think I'm gonna get it fixed, but I'm gonna get a decent OD stompbox and probably an EQ too(I'm already using a crybaby in place of the 3030). I'd like to use it's delay and some of the SFX functions still, but I'm concerned about what it does to the signal.

I love the fact that it's got loads of modules and they are fairly easily adjustable. I hate the OD/distortion. Fave feature is probably the delay and the amp sim when I use it late at night!

I think it's a great product for amateur guitarists who have got into effects and want a cheap alternative to buying individual effects. Unfortunately the more you get to know it and the more you strive for different sounds, the more limiting it'll become to you.

It is very easy to use this, you only have to work with it for a day or 2 and you know everything about it. The schedule on the panel shows everything very well, what each little function is doing with the wanted effect. Editing is very simple even if you want to chance a already excisting effect. just edit it and put it in a bank you prefer.

My telecaster likes it, and my strat too. And my friend hates it, because I have a much better 'soundmixer' than he has(he owns a zoom506Bass) and he also uses it for his guitar(bad Idea)I think that the sound is good, I'm not very good at listening at that. 'Cause,when I don't like a effect: I simple chance it till I like it. That's why this category isn't THAT important. Also it depends on what You want to do with the sound, and what kind of equipment you('d like to)use>My opinion now is standard(so don't attach much value at it. It is standard a 7 with me...

First I though, well this is THE INCREDIBLE ZOOM3030. But I had to make a little fix. just make an extra bypass from your feeding(=electricity)to your main board(=with all the chips on it). My dad did it,because my power was on and off and on and off(during a stageact!!!!!)Still with this bypass, everthing is good

Never dealt with them, my repair: look at reliability

I only bought it because it was very cheap in comparation with other multi-effects. But when I really started to use it... I don't want something else. Only a Marshall amp. And maybe more memory space in this multi-effect. Now I only can store 28 effects and 28 other effects are pre-set(and pretty useless, I mean, not what I want to use)

The Zoom 3030 is very easy to use when you visualize the unit as seven stomp boxes. Editing is very easy and straight forward. Just take your time and make sure you write out your changes on a Patch form. The manual is simple to understand. Just like any other device...Read the manual a few times before digging in. Firmware Version? Who cares, it sounds just fine to me.

I run a Strat with H/S/S pickups through my 3030 and to my Tube Works 100W Half-Stack. The only noise I can detect is the same as with any fx unit when recording on PC...just turn your monitor off while recording. The effects are very solid and this is by far the best all-in-one box I've ever owned (FX7, AX100G, RP-5). I prefer to Not sound like anybody but me. The distortions and the clean tones in this thing are it's strong point.

I've had to fix the Exp/Vol pedal once. It's plastic, so it's gonna be a liability. If you take care of it, like anything else, it will last. I would use it and have used it on gigs without a backup. If it were to fail, I'd just use my amp and go find another 3030.

I play Metal and Hard Rock and the 3030 is very versatile and fits my percussive style of playing. I've been playing since 1984 and I taught myself how to play. If my 3030 were lost or stolen I would hunt down another one. The Zoom 3030 blows away units that are priced twice as much. I wish it had a Jam Along feature. The 3030 will inspire you to write new stuff. Alot of the presets are corny and worthless but that's what editing is for.