Zoom 3030

Very easy to get a good sound out of it. Editing patches is easy. Manual is good. Firmware revision not necessary IMHO because it sounds and works very good as is. I've used similar Digitech and DOD MultiFX units (RP-7 and VGS-50 resepectively) and the 3030 by far was the easiest to get good compression, distortion, chorus, wah, delay and reverb sounds out of. Has 28 user patches which is enough for me, but it's always nice to have more. Has four patches per bank which is perfect for me. Uses buttons to program, but I got the hang of it very quickly. I have the optional expression pedal which controls master volume to free up the built in expression pedal for use with other effects (wah, chorus level, etc). This feature makes for easy quick setup and teardown with the minimum of connections.

I use a Les Paul and Strat with a 30 Watt Class A Tube amp running through two Eminence Beta 10 inch guitar speakers. The 3030 is on the front end. I run a cable from my wireless receiver to the 3030 back to the amp. The external expression pedal (also a Zoom product) connects to the 3030 with one stereo TRS cable.

This unit is the most quiet unit of any effects pedal I've used. I only have to set the Zoom Noise Reduction (ZNR) on 1 (the lowest setting) for all patches, including the heaviest distortion patches!

The effects I use are compression, two of the distortions (I didn't get past the first two, I liked them so much), ZNR, Wah, EQ, Chorus, Delay, and Reverb. All of these are excellent. The Phaser sound is useless so I opted to use chorus only. I don't use the pitch shifter, step, or any of the unusual effects. The wah is the best I've used in a multifx unit. This was a top of the line pedal in 1996, but there isn't an acoustic simulator (no big deal)

Runs fine despite voltage fluctuations. Both digitech pedals I've used failed at a particular club because of the voltage flux there. This one ran without a glitch. Seems very reliable, but also seems a bit fragile (all plastic construction) so I treat it carefully.

N/A, never had to use it

This pedal listed for around $300 in 1996. I got it brand new on a closeout from ZZounds for $139 plus $4.95 to ship. They are all gone from ZZounds, so if you want one, you'll probably have to go the E-Bay route. Best $139 I've ever invested on an extremely useful, lightweight, good sounding, and versatile multifx pedal. Not perfect, but better sounding than most. The only complaint I have is that the patch pedal next to the expression pedal is too close, and I hit the patch pedal with my foot sometimes when I'm trying to use the expression pedal. Guess I need to wear stilletos or find some old pointed Beatle boots at a garage sale!

It takes a little time to find out what this thing has eaten, but after a short while its pretty simple.

I'm using 3030 mostly with my ibanez(g.) but now and then I've used it with bass too, works pretty fine with both of them. I've noticed that when cranking main volume over 2-something-(max 50) it starts squealing, not so good... I mostly use Wah sounds and it works with them, not JUST like I'd wanna but anyway -> I can easily manage with it...

So far so good. I've done quite a few gigs with it, without a backup. Plastic outside worries me a little, though. If it would be metal, I wouldn't have to worry at all.

No reason -atleast YET- to take such actions...

For such a cheap-ass machine I'm very pleased what I got. It's just one of those low-budget multifx's that gives a tiny piece of everything right there under your foot/thumb/whatever.

Its a good little Pedal for what I do, editing patches is complicated but not impossible. The manual can be annoying, I never read them, but the one I finally did read sounded like a telemarketer. I dont know the firmware revision number becuase I don't care I just play guitar. It hasn't been upgraded because there hasn't been a need. A full year and still goin....outlasted my Crybaby Wah that I bought the same day brand new. I'm happy.

I use this with a Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Peavey Bandit 112S. It can be too noisy, too quiet, and just right, annoying but when you get it set to fit you, you don't want to turn it off. The effects usually sound good unless your reverb on the amp is too high...trust me! I can pull off Angus Young licks with ease but I also have a Seymour Duncan SH-6 Distortion Humbucker and a Gibson '57 Classic Humbucker. New Stuff is easy too, just crank it up and its there.
Presets blow though....but screw them, you only have to hear them once if you memorize what you like. Its easy if your a true guitar player.

It's been durable for me...Haven't had a single problem yet.
I have used it on soooooo many gigs without a backup its not even funny.

Havent had a problem

Look, I've already told you its awesome for me, I play AC/DC to Disturbed and Staind....IT WORKS!!
AND FOR ALL YOU FAGGOTS COMPLAINING ABOUT IT!!! YOU COULD HAVE A ROUGE DST-5 DISTORTION PEDAL, SO BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU GOT!!!

as with all zoom stuff, if its too dificult for you to use, try taking up the kazoo!

useless factory presets. they should make it possible to wipe those out to make room for more user programs. good effects. ive used this thing on two albums so far. I have traded in my marshall for a clean power amp. just pump it straight into a cabinet.It still sounds better if i use the stack simulater though. Some of the effests like pitch shift are still kinda hoaky. I use them but they dont sound smooth at all.

Its tempermental. Jacks need continual tlc and repairs, plastic chassis is tender to say the least. Some how i managed to poke a hole in the face, but it wasnt fatal.It still beats a chain of pedals.

what a joke

I took this thing on a european tour. (Am i crazy?) Its small and light weight,which is of paramount concern when flying. It pulls off a variety of tones, boosts solos, gives intelligent harmonies, has a marginably usable drop pitch feature. Ive played with it through a power amp and cabinet, direct into a board, both live and in the studio and though it had plenty of room for improvement, it got the job done. I wish it was built to last.I also wish the drop pitch didnt sound so digital and growly. I guess I should upgrade to one of their professional processers and quit faking it, but thats what this thing is good for. It sounds like you spent a lot of money and it can do anything you set your mind on, when in reality it takes the very limits of its capabilities to sound good. I think zoom knows exactly what it is doing marketing this stuff to cheap bastards like me who cant say no to saving a buck.

I didnt have ant trouble at all. Being able to back up to the previous patch set would be very nice, why wasnt this done??? JEEZ!

I like a lot of the distortions, although I use an external EQ, thats your best bet with this one. I like the delay as well, but zoom could do a lot better, and lay off the stupid-ass presets if all you can put on here is china-town sounding shit,who plays that? NOBODY...you play with for five minutes when you get the unit, then never touch it again...maybe they planned to force us to hear it by making sure we have to pass it(perhaps accidentally enabling it,onstage,LIVE)every time we need to go back to the first set of four patches....

Already had to solder the legs on the damn input. Workmanship like a mcdonalds toy.

The only thing I've done is complain, so as everybody knows, they dont like to respond to those....

Overall, its ok for home. I dont trust it, unfortunatly. I like the effects, anybody with any imagination can get what they want from it,(with decent equipment) and all these guys saying " ....Ive got a MEMPHIS guitar and a fender 15" need to shut up,NOTHING sounds good plugged up to a turd.Go buy something decent, then judge.

It is easy to use if you know the meaning of the parameters and had experience with the same parameters in other pedals. However there are some weird combinations in the effects selections which really leave a lot to desire in terms of ease of use. Also the manual is written like they are still trying to sell the unit to you. And do not expect to edit sounds on-stage it is just too difficult.

AWFUL.
Set aside the Chorus,the Room Reverb, and their robot talking whatever sound, everything else is horrendously muddy. This thing will muddy up your signal even with a splitting buffer and it will not sound good unless one of the distortion or overdrive channels is selected, which makes this unit a set back from their Zoom 2020 which was noisier but could be easilly bypassed and better clean sounds could be dialed in.
There's also another problem. It has got too many effects geared towards shifting the pitch and delaying the signal and signal decay and tone shaping is not satisfactory, so in general terms you got a pedal with really excellent tools for manipulating the signal, but the signal itself is colorless and lacks brilliance.

If you want to sail the seas of uncertainty have both these unit and any of their 500 series pedals as backup. You'll never miss your amps direct sound, because you will be using it plenty. This thing is more temperamental than my wife.

I used to play almost anything, and I am now trying to return. However this pedal will not even make it to the practice session. This thing will sound many different ways, YEAH RIGHT!, it will sound differently in the stage, than in the rehearsal, than in your earphones; the sound on this pedal will change with the building's current rating, and I am not kidding about it. It does not matter whether you loop it, or you jump it, or you mix it, or you direct-input it, or even if you bypass it, IT WILL MAKE YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE COME TRUE WHEN YOU ARE UP FOR A SOLO AND A CREAMY DIARRHEIC TONE COMES OUT OF YOUR AMP! If it was stolen I'd be sorry for the guy.

All in all pretty easy to use,Im familar with guitar processors so that makes it easy for me.Love the way each pedal can be assigned to an effect ,the manual is straightforward.

overall great sounds,tons of great effects ,the pitch shifter will shift whole chords ,yet keeping the guitar in tune with itself!way to go zoom ,perfect for playing 1/2 step down.The volume swell effect combined with delay will let you do volume swell/echo effects without touching your guitars volume knob.The distortions are ok,but you need to tweak the hell out of the eq to make em useful.All in all its not bad, a bit of a high noise floor though ,especailly using clean settings!so Ii give it an 8

I never had it die yet ,I used it to gig in Florida,wouldnt mind a metal case,but you get what you pay for and in the music biz
everything cost a million bucks!I reccomend a backup

never needed em for this unit

I play and love 80s rock and metal,and more and more its forcing to move towards tubes,I have been able to eq decent sounds from this you can use live,but recording is a different story!If it was stolen I would try to find another,right now its on a shelf as a backup

I find it quite hard to get a good, well balanced distortion. It's either too hard or too fuzzy. Editing isn't too bad, but don't rely on the manual for help there, it is possibly the most unuseful manual in existance!

As I said, I'm not too keen on the distortion effects. Three are some good gimicky sounds, like the orchestra hit and oriental sounds, but they're rally not very useable and just serve to add to the number of 'things it can do'. Admittedly my setup isn't great. My guitar is a cack little handmade thing and the amp isn't wonderful, but even when I've tried it with better equipment, it isn't great. The distortion sounds are simply from one extreme to the other and apart from one 'manics' song I can't get many other realistic sounds like any bands I listen to.

It's pretty reliable I guess. Would I use it on a gig without a backup? If I had the choice I wouldn't use it at all, but seeing as I can't afford anything better at the moment, yes, I reckon it would stand up OK.

Never had any problems.

I play mostly rock, Bon Jovi, U2, Creed, POD, Delirious?

I can't really imitate any of their sounds unfortunately. If it were stolen I'd buy other pedals to replace it, for example the mini danelectro pedals, mix and match.

I hate some of the stupid sounds like 'oriental'. I like the wah and some of the phaser effeects are interesting.

I guess it gets in my way a little more than it helps, although sometimes some of the different effects can be inspiring and lead me to think of new ways to try things.

Pretty easy to use. Tweaking is hard if you dont understand what each individaul parameter does to the effect. The only hard part is having to go through the bank in one direction when switching presets.

I have a Lotus (strat copy) with an EMG 85 Humbucker. Run through two practice amps. One amp is for high, one amp is for low. They sound amazing together. But sound crappy by themselves. The ZOOM 3030 makes them sound like one sweet amp though...kinda like a half stack. I really like distortion, chorus, clean tone, auto-wah, flange, and EQ. The other effects arent used often, but they are good. My friend has a Solid State Marshall amp and it doesnt sound good through it, i havent tweaked it through the Marshall (but i dont like the marshall that much anyway, its overrated)

It hasn't given me any problems. I would definitley make sure to test it out on other equipment if you play a gig to make sure it sounds right.

I play heavy music. Bands like Deftones, Godsmack, Nirvana, Rage, 311, Silverchair, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Weezer. Can sound like any of them if you mess with the processor enough.

It's very easy to use. With a few hours you'll get the tone you want. Editing is easy to. The manual it's almost unuseful. I use it just to be sure about some parameters.

I have a strat model guitar, a Marshall VS15 and a Wattsom 100 amplifiers. This unit is very silent. The only thing you have to learn is its tricks. This way, you get a great sound without noise.
In general, the effects are very good. So, lets talk better about them: COMPRESSOR-more useful with distortions. It gives the clean sounds a weird bad aspect; EQ1/WAH-This is a great booster eq. You can control the gain and the frenquence of the sound. I don't use much wah-wah, but I think that it could be a little bit better; DISTORTION-very good. If you use them with the eq you get better tones. The dist3 it's awesome! EQ2-very good. It works correctly; EFFECTS-I have to mention the great chorus(mono and stereo), good flanger, phaser , harmonizer, tremulo,etc; DELAY-perfect; REVERB-good. AMP SIMULATION-pick brith combo and forget the rest!

You can trust in it, because it's very strong.

I didn't need them until now.

I play in a catholic Rock/pop band. I've tried digitech's RP-1(to old), boss GT3(to complicated to edit and get a good distortion). If it were stolen I would buy a line6's POD. I love the way I can get the right tone I want , the combo amp simulation and the distortions. This unit is great to intermediate to expert players.