Zoom 3030

It's not easy to get any really good sound out of it because it removes the attack of the original sound. Therefore I always put it in my effects loop, leaving the bypassed sound in parallel with the effected.

Editing the patches is OK, pretty logical, but it would be nice if there was an overall default setup for EQ as well as for volume and amp simulator, because the default EQ is pretty dull and always needs changing on every patch I set up.

All the sounds in this pedal are pretty much what you'd expect considering it was far cheaper than seven top-class stomp boxes, i.e. they sound cheap. However, the reverb is good enough for me and the 3030's general ability to act as a buffered freshen-up of my sound is really useful. Without it I'd be stuck with the powerful but rather primitive and brutal sounds of my Marshall 6101 (30th Anniversary).

I've never tried to get the sound of anyone else with it and don't think I'd bother because of the general cheapniz of its sounds.

My main guitar is a 2008 custom Eccleshall Scimitar, a single-coil Frankenstein which is a cross between a Les Paul Junior and a Telecaster.

I don't use the 3030 for recording, only for gigging. For recording I prefer software processors which are much more accurate. The noise level isn't bad.

It has NEVER failed me in any way in many years of exposure to dust and being banged around in a gig bag. The fact that I can't back the settings up doesn't bother me because the day I lose the settings will be the day the thing dies and I honestly believe it'll putlive me.

Nope!

I play varied rock/pop styles, and bass, and have been playing for 40 years. I also have an Analog Man Beano Boost (which is TONE GOD:-), and these are my only 2 effects.

My guitars are the Scimitar, a 1987 Eccleshall Barracuda (single super-humbucker superstrat with Kahler), a 1963 Burns Sonic Model, an Epiphone Firebird Studio WC, a Ridgewood Strat and a Guyzer bass (handmade by a friend, Guy Rogers). I bought it because it was offered to me at ??75, hard to resist.

Don't know if I would try to find another one, I might get the modern Boss equivalent or something, but another one would do fine.

I wish it had a wah that sounded more like a real wah! It's a bit small-range as others have said.

The manual is helpful. This was the first processor I ever used so, it was tricky at first to try and remember what parameters were involved with the different effects, but it's second nature to me now, some 10 years after I picked it up.

I used my Humbucker modified Strats through this, going into a Fender Stage 112 SE tube emulation amp. I also tried an old Fender Bandmaster combo. I was never completely satisfied with the sound...after years of tweaking. It never sounded full enough for me. I tried the presets that came with it and the distortions were mostly too loud with the wrong frequencies. Major tone issues, I think. Some of the effects I worked into patches caused a reduction in sound when I would manually switch them off within the patch. I tried it live on stage once and my other guitar player was drowning me out no matter how high I cranked my volume. However, with headphones or through small speakers, the preamp gives a more natural distortion sound. I use the unit exclusively for recording purposes.

Always stayed in one piece. The A/C jack has a problem with shutting the unit on and off suddenly. Because of this, I wouldn't use it live.

I never sought customer support. There are sites online that offer user presets for all kinds of different styles of music....that's pretty cool.

I've played heavy metal type music for the last 15 years. I mostly use built-in amp distortions along with Boss pedals for all my FX. I basically own the 3030 for recording...I think it sounds great through a PC. All the effects come through clear and the tone is beefier. I even get cool bass guitar effects out of it from the octave pitch shift effect. In summary, I probably paid too much for this 10 years ago, but it has never fallen apart or never stopped working. I highly recommend the Zoom 3030 to anyone doing home recording who needs a one-piece, compact effects processor with almost limitless effects combinations.

Easy. JUst read the manual to familiarise yourself a little. Othet than that, If you have a nice ear for EQing, you should be able to cover much ground. Experiment a little.
Some little grittys the manual doesn't cover
SO, try to figure out a little. use yuor ears and manual. It helps.

Humbucker Equipped SG. Into MArshall MCD.
It only gets noisy on very high gain distortion. But at the same time the distortions are well balanced. Fuzz is not wild like my stomp box. But rather well modelled to sound like the pros like hendrix.
I'm not very xperienced with pro efffects so i can't tell you if this compares well with others. But it sounds pretty like secular artist.

Well.. this is the previous generation Zoom.. so.. they have soldering difficulties. be careful with the jack. take soft care of it. be smooth. dun get angry with it. Don't force. You should be fine.
But still not too godd if you have to do tt.

I got this third hand. Thankfully the ppl hu owned it had taken care of it well. I'll just use my experience in electronics to fix any problem i haf. If you're gonna buy this anytime soon. Do check it wiring. power it up. Cos it may be close to ten yrs old already.

Good enough for me. The audience dun get sick of me. Its definitely warm in some ways and not twinny even through a crucnchy marshall.
If you're getting htis, do test it out. make sure electronic parts are working fine. Other than tt get it. Cos it could be on the vintage market one day. remember the 57" LP??

It was a pretty simple processor to work with. I've used harder and easier in my day, but in all it was pretty simple.

THe user presets were alright. They lacked tone for my tastes, but that was easily fixed. The amp modules were pretty nice themselves.

Well. I've had had my 303 since '97 and in all. It was a pretty good piece of equiptment until here erecetly when it decided to die. I replaced the jack plug but it still gets no power. Any info on other causes for no power??

My experience with their support was very nice. I emailed and called about my 3030 dieing on me and sof ar, they have been the only company to NOT be friendly and help troubleshoot. Instead they wanted me topay shipping charges to them and then back to me plus tech time. Even Boss and Ibanez were friendly enough to work with me and not charge my life away for one simple fix.

Over all is almost perfect until its death

many of the presets are good sounds, but, I still think that a lot of them need a little tweaking...Of course this is true because it depends what kind of guitar you are using, if you are going through an amp or headphones (BIG difference in the settings). You have a certain amount of flexibility in editing patches,but,the more experienced you are in sound reproduction the better and easier it is. The manual is great for helping you understand the different functions of the unit...Very helpful even though translated by someone who isn't that well versed in the English language!!! But you can get great sounds right out of the box...which can be improved greatly if you tweak some of the parameters..My unit has not been upgraded...I don't know anything about upgrading Zoom 3030 pedals...I would sure like to find out about it though...

I use a 50th aniversary Strat with a Seymore duncan mini humbucker in the lead position, and a 54 or 55 Les Paul..(they didn't put serial numbers on in those yrs.) with DiMarzio dual sound humbuckers. I run my guitar through the Zoom into an old (no effect loop) Peavey Classic 4x10's 50..Noise is not an issue for me as this is easily dealt with if you understand the different gain stages and eq and compression etc...Well NO noise is not a problem for me. I can get almost any sound I like..from the 60 surfing music with a lot oreverb and tremelo IE: pipeline or duane Eddie through the death metal groups of today...Overdriving the classic 50 with the zoom pedal gives unlimited sustain and distortion...I can get Zeppelin, Metalica, Cradle of filth etc...anything...Remember it is a combination of the two.... the Zoom pedal overdriving the all tube Peavey Classic 50...You have to work with the settings, but if you just use the zoom pedal with headphones, or don't use it to overdrive an amp (tube) you still can get great sounds..All the distortions are goo if tweaked correctly, the chorus and reverb wah, etc. alone are worth the price of the Zoom 3030..

here is where the problem is !!!!it is made of plastic and breaks very easily...I must have opened and soldered eithe the input or outputs many times...the pedal is flimsy too...If it was sturdy I couldn't critisize it, but the ins and outs are in constant need of re-soldering...Plastic just dont hold up...If I used it on a gig I would definately be prepared to go direct to the amp, which isn't that bad with the Classic 50, but I wouldn't have all those nise chorus and flanging tones etc...If I could I would positively have a backup !!!!!!

Never dealt with the company...I would love to learn about upgrades..

I've been a guitarist since the pre-Beatle days....I play almost anything from surf music, R&B (heavily stones influenced), Otis Redding ( the most beautiful and simple guitar ever) Chuck Berry, Led Zep, AC DC, Metallica, BLUES, Clapton (Cream), Almost all British Invasion music, Kinks, Aerosmith,and todays music (alternative) but to me its all rock and roll...Also oldies, Doo Wop, Beatles, and STONES STONES STONES...Bowey...well you get the idea!!!I have been playing since I was 15 I am now 57..I would buy it again or an upgrade if it sounded as good or better..My favorite feature is all the pre-sets you have, without using 50 pedals..It definately helps me to make and write music, as I can tweak the paramaters and get some really GREAT sounds....If it didn't break so easily!!!!

Has small buttons and bank navigators that only go in one direction so that you spend lots of time scrolling thru to get the patch you want. live its troublesome because its flimsy, small expression pedal, and THERE IS A SLIGHT PAUSE WHEN SWITCHING BETWEEN PATCHES, which can sound really be a bother if you're in the middle of a live performance. Editing patches on the other hand is fairly straightforward, and fun. Keep in mind that you'll need to find the time to edit/create your own patches, because the presets blow the big one.

Sounds better with humbucker pickups. My Strat sounded pretty dull thru this, but my Ibanez sounds fuller.
Clean sounds are decent except for the chorus which sounds cheap and detuned. Also there is a hiss that is hard to get rid of, w/o using the noise gate, which cuts off squeal/harmonics.
SOme pretty damn usable patches CAN be created though, but remember you have to MAKE EM YOURSELF
THe delay is very good and foot tappable.
The reverbs are pretty dry and lo-fi sounding, but usable.
I have yet to produce a good WAH effect outta this, because the range of frequency cut is too small. When i first bought this, i wanted to sound like JIMI on ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER solo, and was big time disapointed by this WAH
Analog Distortions are OK for the more grungey styles, but not too good for classic rock. Despite what some other reviewers have saida good metal distortions CAN be edited, with some patience and research on the net. i play many metal styles from Judas Priest to modern grind/sludge core, and this blows away my BOSS METAL ZONE pedal. The analog distortions produce harmonics/ that feedback well and warmly at high volumes, and can make youre shitty solid state amp sound like a much more expensive tube variety.

I've had this since 1997 and it still works fine, despite having kicked it around and stepped on/ dropped it quite a bit over the years. THe pedal came loose once but you can tighten it with a Allen wrench. Also, after 6 years the input/output and AC jacks are starting to come loose and cause the signal to go off/on. If it died today i feel i got my money's worth out of it, but it could have been built a little sturdier. you have to unplug it every time you turn it on/off which causes wear and tear to AC jack

they have a web site at least, where i believe you can download old manuals and find some user sent patches.

This was my first and still my only multi-effects processor. I had too high expectations in the beginning and so was a bit disapointed, but that was my youth showing. If you wnt to use this to sound like famous rock stars you're bound to be disapointed. Keep in mind though that it is a highly flexible SOUND CREATOR with almost limitless possibilites for use in conjunction with not only guitars but also home studios and keyboards. Over the years this thing has taught me so much and has been invaluable to me. Now that i'm getting older/better i may want to delve into some of the many high end effects that are on the market, but i don't see myself completely stop using this thing, because it is so versatile, and by now i'm so used to it. This is a very good value in the used market right now also, going anywhere from 50-150 dollars.

Instructions suck. Not well laid out or explained if your not familar with this kind of equipment. It takes a bit to figure out but once you do you'll find its VERY easy to use.

Bad ass all the way around & ZOOM's noise gate is got to be one of the best in the industry.

WHOOOO NELLY heres the down side plastic piece of "S#%T" get your tools out & you MUST own a soldering iron. REPAIR WORK needed about every 20-30 hrs of play.

Wasn't needed.

ZOOM KICKS ASS!!!! but just buy one of their more expensive METAL case ones they DO have good reliability I got a GFX-4 & no problems with about 150 hours of play. Reliability is the ONLY reason for my low overall rating of this product its a real piece of work & a TRUE pain in the tool chest to own.

The Zoom 3030 is a bit complicated if no one explains you all the features it has - it's more like trial and error. but once you read (and understood) the manual, which is pretty good, you get the hang of things and it's pretty much easy to use.

since i only wanted to play guitar for a hobby i started with a low budget and i'm currewntly playing on a Parksons ST-170 (2S 1H) guitar and GRC15 Watt Marshall amp. i think that for what's it worth, the sound quality is the best feature - it's really great if you're not searching for the perfect-but-expensive set of effects, and needless to say it has many effect types, which you can make combos of and everything. in short: great sound

well, i bought mine used not so long ago, and since it's a bit old multi-effect, i'd say it lasted pretty fine. i think that there's too much plastic involved, but that's not an issue if you're not going to hammer it or anything... i'd say it's ok in this category

never had anything to do with the manufacturer...

in conclusion: if you're not a pro, and looking for a stable multi-effect with lots of oprtions and great sound quality, the zoom 3030 is what you should be looking for... ENJOY !

Hi there friends, I think the 3030 is very ease to edit the patches, but it took me some considerable time to create and get a "good" sound of it.

My axe is a 1987 fender stratocaster (Jap), at home I use a 150wrms combo. Anyway I had a GFX-8 , I don't need to say it's far better than 3030 but I primally though I'd never get an interesting distortion, effects are pretty fine but I had just a poor thin distortion (I'd give it a 5 for this category, I was about to throw it away from a 20th floor, but after trying some patches from web I really enjoyed the sound it gives!, my tip is try some rock/metal patches from "www.angelfire.com/tx/wellofsouls/" then you'll see what you can get of it, one more thing....I had a very bad impression right from the moment I turned on because it seemed too noisy, I couldn't believe, but the noise had to do with a bad setup from Compression + Eq1 or/and Eq2 if parallel or serial, said that, keep in mind if you don't set it up properly the unit will inevitably sound incredibly crappy!

hmmm, toooooo much plastic (don't worry nuts and bolts are yet made of steel), be carefull keep the equipment far from heat or it's going to melt down !

hmmm, liked that one "catch us if you can!!" hahahahaha!!

I play Stevie Ray Vaughan, pink floyd, Led Zep, rock blues, I wish it had the "jam play" like the gfx-8.

If you want to have a number of nice effects + wha but it's short of money, the 3030 is perfect.

Marcelo Ferreira (Piracicaba-Brazil)

it's reasonabilly easy to use, untill you start fumbling with the position of different effects , like trying to put the signal through the wah-wah or eq before it goes through the distortion, or vice-versa and defining which one actually sounds better.
but i think if you get that right, you are allready a professional sound-technician,

i used a les paul model, and a sunn mustang with it, over a fender amp, and also recording into my pc.
i'm not sure what caused the buzzing sound, but the zoom introduced a barely audible martian laser-attack sound to it when you touch the strings very lightly, in all modes, active and bypass.
if you're new, distortion, delay, bathroom echo and phaser or stereo-chorus lined up is a 100 mile below the surface cathedral with horny nuns, and you are the high-priest with wings , especially over a dolby-surround five speaker system.

the pitch-shift is digital-like with distortion, you still have to tune drop-b, and there is steps in between when using the expression pedal for pitch.

jimi hendrix' complicated sounds wont work, maybe because of the amp and guitar.
i tried to make my fender amp sound like my friend's marshall on overdrive-channel, and it came pretty close except for the bass.
you could get any artists sound from this, but some only pretty close.
even a church organ!

the feed broke once, a 20 euro repair fixed this so it wont ever happen again, but now, after five years, some pedals wont work.
it's surprising since it was for a long time allready polluted with pet hair, and assorted beverages.
it broke down once on 30 gigs in three years, which was the feed.

i wouldnt know about them
their logo says " catch us if you can"
i hope this is not about the support section

it works for smashing pumpkins, faith no more, any metal.
atleast some blues.
i noise for nine years, with gaps, hell, i DID MAKE YOUNG GIRLS SCREAM AND CRY AND RUN with this.
i have an analog flanger too, and it sounds a little better for the flange part.
i guess that goes for the rest of individual effects too, i never tried
maybe, if cash is sufficient, i would buy an equalizer, chorus, phaser, three wahs, a compressor, harmonizer, delay, echo, tremolo and some distortions, if it was stolen, or just get a new one.
i like almost everything about it, i dont like the mounting of the feed off-factory, and the pitch-shift with distortion.
modulated distortion or overdrive is fat.
its all i know for multi-effects, but i know very much guitarists who also bought one, all except two really.
its alot for little money.
maybe tube-overdrive-emulation should be better, and hammond-rotating-speaker-effect would be better.
nothing on it is the edge, pretty close though.
i dont think any big act uses this, because every bit of it can probably be done better, if you do know someone famous that uses this, please tell me who.

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.

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.

At firts I couldn't understand how to manage well the effects, but after playing with this unit for some time I was able to dominate the effect editting and get the sounds I wanted.

I've been using a Crate GX-80 and a Peavey 150 Watt bass amplifier, I use it with a Les Paul Standard, a Jakson Superstrat, and a Squier Strat with a SD SH-4JB pickup on the bridge. Using difirent guitars changes a lot the sound as well as the diferent amplifiers, in general the effects have quality and my band love it but in my personal opinion the processor gives a bit of "digital" sound, after trying some of Equalizations I was able the sound that I wanted. The distortion is able to get a really amp sound whit a good equalization, especificaly the lead distortion, also the compressor is good but it gives a "duck" tone whit solos, and the delay abd reverb are a little bit noisy at high volumes and metal distortiona is a little bit noisy but its good at high volume. I play death metal music, Hard Core, Hard Rock, Blues, New Age (yeah it's strange). Is good if you know how to use it.
Bout I love a good amp Sound.

The people that hear me tells that it sounds good, and it a really help on live gigs.

I didn't need it.

I like to play a lot of thinks but sometimes I can't the sound I want at all but it helps me a lot (especially the Pitch Shift), I don't recomend the wha and the compressor is not good a high levels, especilly for solos where a excelent texture is recommended. But it akes you aout of the problem when you need it. I've been playing it for a year and a half and I use a CryBaby too. For beginners is good, but I would buy a unit with more professional sound. I love the Pitch Shift, delays, some tone effects an lead distortion. One of the best things of this pedal is that you have "harmonizer" and Pitch Shit i the same pedal but you can't use it at the same time. I would be perfect with more real distortions and mos calid effects. It reallye helps me out to make music

This thing is so easy to use, it has a very informative sticker that tells you all you need to know. I bought mine second hand and there was no manual that came with it, but it took me to hours to get the hang on every effect tweeking function. This thing is so easy to program it is scary.
The manual can be downloaded from the company website and is in PDF format and is easy to understand. I didn't need it, but I wanted to read it to se if I missed something.

I use Epiphone Les Paul Gold Top 59' reissue. This is a great gitar btw. I use a Fender Precission Bass, Fender Mexican Fat Strat. Both guitars use stock pickups. I use a Marshall EL34 50/50 Rack mount dual mono tube amp, a Marshall Valvestate AVT275 and a Marshall VBA 400 with a VBC412 speaker cab. Ok I dig marshall amps ok? :)
And I use this unit in my homestudio with a Fostex R8 (why you ask? why not a hd recorder, because I got this a flee market for 10$ and I love the sound I get from it I'm kind of an oldie)
Ok back to bizniz. I am able to use this effect box on all my guiiars, it works great for both the bass and the other guitars. I love the way you can tweak this thing to any sound you want. You can get Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Metallica, Mayhem, I have even been able to reproduce Brian May's unique sound through this thing (If you've heard Brighton Rock from Live Killers album you'll know what I mean). This box does a great job of imitation, but also for creating your own unique sounds. I love the wah and the chorus. The wha can be so screaming it almost hurts my ears, or thick as fog, you just need to tweak, use the EQ it is great. The Chorus can get so thick, creamy and fluffy as good milkshake! It's great! The distortions are also good, not great, but they can be good. There are some tricks to get theese to really tear you appart. The Noise reduction is awsome!!! It really hushed up the effects good, almost too good sometimes. All in all you can get some real cool effects out of this thing. I use it both for recording and live stuff. someone here asked for advice on how to record off it. I have found two good ways, one is to use the phones jack and record that way. It is good, but it may be a little "flat" I also used the Line Out on the amp and put it into my mixer, I have a Mackie VLZ 16 Pro. Which does a good job, it also has gain and eq controls. Another advice if you are going live through the amp turn off your AMP sims, or else you will be in trouble, this is because the eq on your AMP will kill the effect, and it would take a lot of tweaking to get it right. If you have a LINE in on your AMP use this to bypass the AMP's eq that is also a good tips.
All in all this box is great! If you are not pleased with it, mail me and I'll send you some patches that proves this box. Just mess with it for a while and you'll love it to.

Well this is where it comes in short. It is made of plastic, sometimes I'm afraid to step on it. But it does withstand a lot, and the expression pedal works good and smooth. However the jack sockets can get a little flaky, but this is easy to fix

Never dealt with support. I have just repaired it myself.

I play anything from jazz to death metall. I've been playing guitars for 10 years and I've tried a variety of guitars, amps and effects. This setup is definately my sound, Epi Goldtop, Marshall AVT 275 and this 3030. I started out on a Fame Hondo Strat Copy and even this guitar sound pretty good through this box. If this thing was stolen or lost I would get another one definately. I love this thing because it has such a variety of effects, all the stuff you need, no mumbojumbo, I hate that it is made of plastic and that it can't operate on batteries. I also own a GFX707, a lot of BOSS and DOD Stompboxes, a crybaby wah and an Alesis QuadraVerb. This thing is great beacause you can get close to the sound of all of those put together. I wish it had battery operation. It helps me create music and play cover songs and it has never gotten in my way. For the money I paid for it I am more then satisfied, I would expect much less for a box at this price.

This is cool, if your ten years old. easy to edit patches.

I use a Gibson Les Paul Studio, and at the time I owned this I had a Marshall 4x12 1960a Cabinet with a Tube Works head. Overall this unit is only cool if you play it through headphones. anything through an amp sucks. Nothing is seamless, hard to match levels between patches.
SUCKS. Playing live everything gets drowned out. Once again. It sucks.

I wouldn't. A week after I had it with normal wear and tear the a/c jack broke.
I wouldn't use it at a gig period.

Never looked at the company again after buying this piece of junk. They should start selling them at Wal-Mart because that's the business there looking for with this crap.

Everything from heavy shit to jazz. Been playing about 13 years, bought this about 6 years ago. I still use the Les Paul but I just bought a Fender DeVille 4x10 and I'm rebuilding my whole rig. Stolen???? I can't even give this thing away. Anyone willing to pay the shipping and give me 10$ for my time can have it. Now I'm buying mostly vintage pedals, building it one step at a time.

VERY EASY.
GOOOD.
VERY GOOD.
NO.

STRAT,MARSHAL 8240.
A LITLE.
GREAT.
MARSHAL.
NO.
SO,SO

YES.
YES.

OKAY.
NO.

ROCK,FUNK,METAL
8 YEARS
NO
MANY EFFECTS
NO
BETTER QUALITY ,MORE USER PATCHES,MORE PENTALS,BUILT WITH METAL NOT PLASTICK
YES
NO

I own the thing for 2 years now and by now I think I've explored all the functions so it's easy to get the sound I want to have. The process of editing a patch is easy because it is logical! I didn't really need the manual - it was just nice to look up specific things.

I have a yamaha strat copy and an old marshall valvestate 8240. It adds some variety to the sound of the amp but usually I don't use the ZOOM with the amp but with headphones or to record stuff in the computer. The presets are all crap - there isn't one single patch that sounds cool. You got quite a few options to specify a patch that you're editing but there are some good and some bad features. I like most of the standard effects (comp, dist, reverb, eq, wah) but the special effects like pitch shift, for example, are not working well. One thing I noticed about the dist. module is the fact that I always end up with "lead guitar" for the parameter "type" because it sounds much better than all the other distortions in my opinion.

A few months ago both the input and the l/mono output jacks broke...but it was really easy to repair it...other that that everthing is fine

i really like it because it sounds really good on headphones and the sound is also allright through the valvestate.....if it were stolen or lost I would probably not get another one but try a digitech.....sometimes it annoys me that it doesn't offer the possibilty to get powered by a battery....

I wouldn't say it's easy to set up the custom patches. It requires time especially at first to learn how to do it. But once you spend the time playing with it and setting up new sounds, the easier it becomes. The editing patches are workable. I was surprised at all of the variables there are to them. It's not easy to make minor adjustments if you are at a gig so you'll want to make sure you have everything set up correctly before you play. I downloaded the manual from the web and it is an excellent step by step guide. Mine has not been upgraded.

I have a Yamaha Pacifica, which is a cheap but very nice guitar and a Peavey Backstage Chorus amp. That's half my problem right there. But there is a stereo headphone jack in the back which I can plug into and crank up without bothering anyone. In my opinion the sound quality through my phones are excellent. It sounds professional. I've found that some patches crackle if the master volume and the patch volume are both set up between 45 and 50. In my opinion the Phaser effect doesn't sound like a phaser effect. No matter the depth or degree it's set to, the only thing to me it shifts is the high pitched hiss. I'm sorry I got rid of my DOD phaser for this. The distortions mixed with delay sound good to me though. The Wah-wah isn't bad considering there isn't a whole lot you can do with it. Although in my opinion the wah sounds more real without any distortion. Add the distortion and it's only so-so. My favorite artist is Ed Van Halen. Overall, you can't sound like him with this pedal. I had better luck with my Phaser and BOSS distortion pedal. It does a pretty good Alex Lifeson, and Boston. Andy any player can match David Gilmour exactly with this pedal. I would say the other effects are pretty good. The pitch shifter is pretty neat but doesn't sound excellent. I play a certain song with everything shifted a whole step higher because of chord fingering. I play it in G and it comes out in A. It shifts everything up, but in turn it also adds a weird undesired chorus effect.

I can depend on it. It is plastic, and it's been dropped several times, stepped on and it seems unjarred. Seems to be pretty solid considering. I would use it on a gig without a backup. I forgot my power cord once though, and remember unlike other effects pedals, this does not run on batteries.

I never dealt with the company, as I purchased it on a Yahoo auction.

I'ts a fine match for hard rock and metal. I wish it had acoustic guitar patches similar to the Zoom 504 pedal. I have a need to play acoustic through my system but I can't through this pedal. I bought it on a Yahoo auction and I didn't know beforehand if it did or didn't have that, so I took a chance. I've been playing guitar for 20 years. I like the variety overall, and for the price, you can't beat what you get. If it were stolen or lost, I don't think I'd get another one. I think I'd go back to stomp boxes. I love the distortion and delay mix. I hate the phaser effect. I did not compare this to similar products. I chose this one for the price, as it was cheap on an on-line auction. This is a great unit for someone who doesn't have a lot of spending cash for effects. You can get by, and mostly do what you want to do with this unit.

its need a little time to learn this shit but after a while you will understand all of the options .editing paches is taking a while too.
the menual is not so understandble but to figure out the best you will need to pay attention and read it cuple of times!

I have like some stinky samick amp ,the zoom and straight to the guitar - witscowsky custom (i didnt order the parts so i dont have alot information on it) this shitty distortion are pretty crappy because you only have 2-3 good distortions ,the other are all the same crap!!!
the wahwah is nice but only nice! I like the marty friedman/megadeth sound , for soloing there is some sonic dist' that sound good on hi gains but the best of the 3030 -"metal knight" distortion is not megadeth/mettalica kind of dis its more like deth kind and its took me alot to get a little closer to my kind of sound
the hrmonizer is very very awful - you need to push the string so the shit will stay at the right key! if you go in tempo 120 on 16 its sound like the shitest thing you have ever heared!!!!!
the clean sound is ok but they could put there acustic too and they not!

this thing i got second hand and after a week the pedal got of the multy! im lucky becaus i know to fix this shit but someone else would
stuck without a pedal . anyway the input is starting to make noyzes and this is the shitiest thing i ever bought!!!

n\a

the one and only thing i love in this thing is distortion 5-sonic that sound good and you can get a tiny tiny little taste of marty friedman sound .
in short DONT BUY THIS !!!! get korg multy or a better sugest is to by a metal zone or ibanez-box .anyway zoom products are worthless!!

Not very easy to use, takes a while to figure out how to get the thing to make the sounds you are looking for

The delays, reverbs and chorus are ak on the 3030 but the distortions sound like crap. The wah is even worse i wasn't able to get it to make any sound my favorite artists (stones, clapton, hendrix etc) use.

I wouldn't use it on a gig as the expression pedal is already broke and so is the imput, you can not depend on this Zoom player

Am trying to contact Zoom

This effects processor is almost worthless I wouldn't even recommend it to my worst enemies.DON'T BUY IT!!!!!

Fairly easy to use. The "grid" pattern editing interface is a bit inconvienient, but not too bad.

Not too great. The distortions are really poor. And the bypass... about as transparent as mud. I've noticed that sound can vary alot depending on the type of gear you are using. I used it through an old vintage 60's Fender tube amp and it sounded pretty good. But when I tried it through my new Fender Hotrod it proved to be unusable.

Very poor. I actually tried using this thing on some professional gig's for a while and it held up poorly. The worst problem with this unit is the frigin moronic soldering job they did on the connections. I swear a the guy who designed the internal rear connections was mentally absent at the time. I've had the power supply connection on the back of the unit conk out on me many, many times. I can't count the times I've had to solder the connections myself. Add to this the cheap plastic "Toys R Us" housing and you get an idea of how this thing is constructed.

Have not contacted them.

The Zoom 3030 is good for home use only - truly not a roadworthy piece of gear. It would be best used as an effects/preamp unit for a home studio or practice. If used within those boundries the 3030 is a great starter pedal for those who want to get many effects and functions for little cash.

the manual basically tells you how to do what... but dont expect to get any good suggestions from it. its kinda boring too. editing patches is not too difficult but for you to get a good sound you do have to get used to it and experiment with different effect settings and combinations. learn how to use it then play with it and tweak it for a couple of hours. i'm sure you'll come across a sound you like.

i have basically tried every kind of guitar with every type of pickup configuration and every kind of amp with it and in my opinion it sounds pretty good and consistent. most especially the clean sounds. i can truly say i have found my sound. i basically just use one bank for general purposes which includes my basic clean and distorted sounds and the same clean and distorted patches with wah added. nice, clear clean sounds and a nice distortion setting which really cuts through the mix. i love it. as for the wah, i think its pretty good. i think dunlop wahs are too midrangey and when played without distortion just plain hurts my ears coz it cuts through too much and i find that it also boosts the signal slightly. not good. if i can find an analogue wah pedal similar to the one in the 3030, i'd buy it in an instant.
the other effects are ample. i use mostly the choruses, phasers, wah, the 2 eq's and the compressor for clean tones and the compressor, eq's and distortion for the dirty stuff. i use the delays for slight reverb. the series and parallel effect connections is handy too.

some of the effects are pretty useless but the useable ones are pretty nice. some of the distortions are crap too but most of them are useable. i just add in some eq to change the tonal characteristics of each distortion type. the delays are ok too. the flanger isnt too nice coz its not very adjustable. its just too loud a flange for me. i was looking for something more subtle.
the tuner is ok too. no problem there iether. people just need to learn to use it.

very dependable/reliable. ive been gigging without a backup with mine since 96-97 and i still use it today. it did konk out once after a gig coz someone stepped on the cables attached to it but i got it fixed ok. no major damage there. i think the cable jacks are its major weakness. be careful with that part!

never dealt with zoom directly. i sent mine to the shop where i bought it and they got it fixed. i'm not too happy about that tho coz it took them a reaaallly long time to fix it despite the fact that it wasn't damaged that badly.

i play everything from rock to funk to r&b and it adapts to my style really well. i love the clean sound and the wah!
ive been gigging and touring on and off in small and some large venues since 97 and i never needed any other effects. if it were stolen or lost i probably wouldnt buy it again, not because it doesnt sound good or anything but coz i find the wall wart such an inconvenience. i had more than three adapters break down on me. luckyly all broke down during rehersals. there were also several gigs where the power outlet was too far away from my position on stage so i had to move closer to the AC plug (i hate it when that happens). so now i decided to just get individual battery operated effect boxes for the convenience. but since i still have it. id always bring it around with me as a backup.
at the time i bought it i compared it to the other zoom products and i got it coz it was the most versatile in terms of function. i really didnt need two expression pedals but i did need at leas one for volume or wah. so there you go. what i dont like about it is that every time you change patches the sound cuts off for a split second and any delay you had in the previous patch instantly disappears unlike other multieffects pedals which decays the delay smoothly after changing patches.

The other people who think that this pedal is sh*t, i just think they didnt experiment enough. this is a good sounding pedal and it has all the basic effects a guitarist may need plus a few (sometimes useless) extras.
learn how to tweak it before you throw it out the window and brand it as crap. after all, you bought the damn thing. i dont think anyone would shell out $200 for something they thought was crap.
i admit that some of the extra effects are useless and most of the presets are crap but you didnt buy this for the presets and extras did you? i bought it for the essentials.

overall, i love this pedal. i just think wall warts are too much of an inconvenience. i'm switchin to individual effects but by no means am i gonna sell this thing. after all, it is my sound. if ever i'm gonna buy another multi effects pedal (not likely), i would probably try the RP-2000 or the new zoom amp modeling pedal. But the 3030 is a keeper.

pretty easy to edit patches. manual boring, but tells what you need to know

I was able to get a desent distortion, and the clean sounds good. the wah effects are terrible. couln't get a good sound

did't break yet have had it for 3 years

havn';t called

sounds like crap wouldn't recomend exept beginner

It was pretty easy once you read the manuel. Although I don't like the fact that there is only one bank button so you can only cycle through the patches one way(it can be a pain going through all the banks just to get to the previous one)

The clean sounds are allright - espicially that 80's chorus/delay. But other than that I think that the sound quality is lacking in major ways. I'm using an 80's Charvel (don't know the model number but its one of the nicer ones, much nicer than the new Jacksons), then straight into my amp - hot rod delux. Then I run the effects loop out into my effects - DOD comp. and an old Small Stone. From that I run the signal into an a/b box and send one signal to an old Fender princeton reverb(that way I can use overdrive on the princeton). Wondering where the ZOOM is...Well I don't use that piece of garbage anymore. Its sitting under my bed in perfect condition collecting dust. Why you ask. Accept for the before mentioned effect everthing else stinks(in my opinion) The 7 or 8 distortions/overdrives it boasts are just the same effect with just different EQs. Whats up with that??? The exact same texture. And they are all pretty lame. Nothing like my tube amp which I love. They are dead and boaring. Oh I almost forgot. That bypass mode that they boast about, its the most colored, tone sucking, signal degrading, gain lowering bypass I've ever heard. If you're thinking well I'll just use the clean effects and use my amp for overdrive. AAAAA wrong. Thats not possible(well, it is possible but I woulden't recomend it).

Its plastic but it would hold up with reasonable care as long as you don't stomp on the buttons or stand on the expression pedal. I never had any problems with it.

I haven't contacted them. I wonder if they give refunds

Like I said before the overdirves are not the best. If you into grunge or metal you might like but for bluse and Rock it stinks. And it would probably be good for country. I've been playing for about 3 years and this was the biggest mistake I made. There is one ok feature and that is with the expression pedal you can adjust some cool parameters like the gain on your dist. and the rate of tremelo and stuff like that. As for me if it were stolen I would pitty the fool who stole it. The on board tuner was nice but I just bought a Boss tu-2 and it blows the onboard tuner out of the water. And with the bypass being an effect in its own category I would steer clear of this. Buy individual effects pedals, much better quality. With price of this you could buy four. If you still want this after reading it I know where you could get a used one in perfect condition. E-mail me for any questions.

This pedal if really good for getting a sound out of, their are many good distortion patches on it that are great when jamming and playing live.
Editing the patches is really easy to do but it is hard to program to get the sounds you want, it is better to buy it if you like the preset sounds (which I do) but if you want to creat your own then getting the perfect sound will take some time.
There is a manual with this but like all manuals it is long and boring and if you are like me you will just want to plug in and play, using the pedal and understanding how to getb the different sounds is easy but if you want to get the best out of editing then it is best to read the manual (which I have not yet done). I personally use the prset sounds which you don't need the manual for.
There is a better version of this, the Zoom 4040 had less effects tham this but it has 2 expression pedals, the Zoom 8080 if the ultimate pedal in this series (look it up on the zoom web site). But how-ever the zoom 3030 has been replced by the Zoom 3000 which I feel isn't as good as I didn't like the preset sounds in it. The Newest modles are the GFX series and the latest addition had been the GFX-8.

The set up I have is a Marshall MG amp and a Encore fat strat, the amp I am using is only 15W so i feel that that limits me a bit - I once tried it through a Peavey live and it sounded much better. The Encore Strat I use has a Humbucker by the bridge and mroe often than not I use that.
It can be a bit noisy but I don't think its bad, I used to usen a Zoom 505 and compared to that it is heaven. I considered the background noise on it (or lack of) to be really good.
I prefer to use the presets and not program my own stuff into it, the cretain effects on it can be limiting especially in programming, getting a sound of a paticualar artist can be a struggle if not impossible, but I feel some of the presets do sound great and ypu can use them ikn songs that were written by some of m,y favourite artists and still make it souind good even though it is not exactly the same.

The relaibility of this scores low, when you use it at gigs it sounds great. But after you have used it a while it can get damaged, when i had had mine of 8 months the expression pedal broke, I took it to the shop and they said it had been cracked by being knocked, I do take it round a lot and it is knocked about a lot in bagsa nd stuff. The connection on the power imput on my brothers one needed fixing as well. As great as I think this pedal is it does not withstand wear and tear as much as I would like.

In the way of customer support, I took the pedal it witht he cracked pedal and the shop said they would send it off to Zoom, the guy in the shop said that he did not think it would be covered by guarentee because the carck was my fault. He was also not sure if they would have the part or not because it is not made anymore.
I am still waiting to hear what has happened, I am expecting a call about it this week so i can't comment on customer support until I get it.

In all I think this is a great pedal, althuogh I find making good programms difficult I fing a few of the presets espeecially excellent and I feel that these are really good easpecially when I am palying live. My Favourite effects are: U0 1, U0 2, U0 4, U5 1. I also like U1 1, U1 3, P1 1-4.
I feel that the amount of wear and tear it can take is quite low so if you get one you will need to look after it if you want it to last.
It is worth gettting for the good effects in it and it is a great pedal but the product has been discontinued and more abanced products have replaced it with new features (drum machines etc) and more advanced effects with a larger memory so if you are thinking or buying a up to date one then find the sites for the following manuafctures ZOOM, KORG PANFDORA, DIGITECH, BOSS.

You really need to read the book, and play with It for awhile, It can be a pain.

The effects sounded weak, and their was only one distortion that I liked. I ran It In a Marshall stack, with a gibson guitar.

I'm not sure what kind of abuse It could take.

Well I played with It for a week to get the best sound that I could out of It. I took It with me to practice with my band, but when I plugged It In and started playing It was all over. Everbody was laughing so hard that I ran out screaming don't look at me. I took It back the next day and got a refund. I only like a couple of effects, so I wouldn't have used most of them. I guess everything jammed In one box Is not for me.

Patches are very pickup dependant. High tones, single coil ickups, get really high. Humbuckers get a little dull. The distortion unit changes with pickup output. make patch adustments to fit your instrument.

I often use it without a backup.

Nice to have additions: more speaker simulations (410), pre-amp simulations in combinations with the distortion module and XLR outs.

It takes some time to learn the ins and outs of the DIY programming, but to get off and running with the pre-sets is a snap. Overall, it could be more efficient in the programability catagory, but once you get what you want, you're just a few stomps away from it.

I play an Epiphone 58' Flying V Korina. 2 hot humbuckers...this ain't no stratocaster! I play through an Epi/Electar Tube 30... nice small tube amp with attitude. I am quite impressed with this little unit, lots of nice sounds for the money...and some really wierd ones too. The presets are all over the place, mean to nice, open to compressed, common to just plain wierd. I've found some I like quite a bit, especially the pitch bending... I really like that "Tape slow-to-stop" effect... really cool, very fun. I never made the effort to try and sound like anyone but myself... I'm one of those home recording wierdos who is happy to play in my home studio and create my own vibe. This unit does an excellent job at making me sound like myself... sometimes better....(better than myself??) Distortions are pretty cool, some minor snarl to a really mean sound. The "valve overdrive" is pretty close to the real thing, just a touch less edge though. The re-verb effects are really cool and spacious, great for recording. Chorus and phaser are cool... this unit has lots of potential if you take some time to get used to it. I've never been a Wah-meister, but that works ok. As far as noise goes, no problem, this unit does just slightly kill the sustain of the guitar when bypassed. At this price level, it wins my seal of approval.

High impact plastic.... It's only AC powered... no dice for batteries, making it a bit of a pain for live situations, then again as a studio geek, this isn't an issue. If you take care of it, and play nice, it'll last you for years. If you get highly intoxicated and jump up and down on it, it'll break.... no surprises here folks.

Havn't had to chat with them yet...

This is a versitle unit, so when I want to play some punk rock, several stomps for mean grind, when I want to play a nice wussy song, a few stomps and it sounds all friendly. If I want to play something tripped out...... you get the idea.

I've been playing drums longer than guitar, but I play lots... almost every day for a few minutes when available. I like to create sounds, so this box is great for that... it makes lots of neat sounds...
If somebody stole it I would drop kick them and then go out and buy another one... or something even more deluxe.

I really like the variety of sounds, and the very recordable nature of the sounds it makes. I wish it were easier to program.

I was looking at similar priced Digitech, Dod, and Boss units... this one has the most toys for the price tag, and that recordable sound.

I wish it had analog dials instead of a rack of buttons, but hey, what can ya do for this price tag.

This unit definitely helps me make music... sometimes a sound will inspire a song idea, or remind me of a song I have heard. Having the large palette of sounds encourages me to play more frequently and explore new sonic adventures.

If you are broke and need a multi-FX unit, check this one out, it's groovy. The zoom 3030 would seem appropriately priced higher than it is.

it is kind of complacated for some people if you are a begginer but once you get the hang of it it is eazy. the only hard part is the equalizer part. it is hard but sounds great

the sound is the best sound i have heard any pedal before. the distortion is the best of all. it is better than the boss metalzone pedal. it has a humming sound with the metal distortion but that may just be the guitar i am useing

it is very reliable. i would use it at a gig and it would not have any problems at all. it is great

I play all kinds of music and it is great for all. i ussualy play metal of rock but it is great for all kinds if music. if it where stolen i would buy a new one. i used it at gigs and it had no problem getting through the hour and a half of guitar playing

Es muy facil de usar, se pueden armar sonidos muy rapidamente. El manual es exelente, no deja una sola duda. Es mas me saco dudas de pedales que tube anteriormente y en los propios manuales no explicaba nada.

Los efectos son fantasticos en cuanto a variedad, realmente por este precio no hay maquina que se le aproxime... las distorciones son muy buenas y los efectos de modulacion muy completos... (el pedal shifter quisas sea el mas flojo, al notarce los pasos)
Algo malo...? Si muchos de los sonidos producen ruido como un siseo digital que en relidad no se oye en vivo pero esta. Si no fuera por eso sin duda llevaria un 10 en este item.

Es plastica pero parece que resiste!!!

Es una exelente compra, buenos efectos a un precio realmente bajo.

When i first got this (2 years ago) i was a little underwhelmed with the factory presets. But then i realized that they are set up so that you can hear all the effects and decide what you want to use with what. You can get great heavy metal sounds and some pretty decent clean sounds, but you are limited when it comes to country or overdriven blues sounds. The effects are decent(stereo chorus is best one), I get a lot of noise out of flange and phase,just like all stomp boxes i ever used, so i guess that is to be expected. tremolo sounds just like the one i had on my old vibrolux. I have found no use for slow attack. pitch shift i use to get a light background hammond organ effect(think house of rising sun)e-mail me if you want patch.pedal pitch,step(an arpeggio patch),metallic,super bender,pitch delay,and hps patches are completely worthless. Whoever came up with the idea to put metallic and HPS in this thing out to be fired, HPS is a great idea in theory, but dont include it in a product if it don't work wort a damn.
Editing is easy enough if you arent on a dark stage and need to do it in the midle of a song. BUT all floor processors i've seen are that way, so what do you expect? if buttons were big enough to edit with feet the unit would be humongus.
The manual is good enough for me plus there are websites that can elaborate on tweaking patches it wont tell you how to program that perfect patch you have been thinking about, but it will guide you to the locations of buttons to push, what patches there are, and what parameter ranges there are. Use your ears for the rest:)
For the price (i think they're around $190 now) it's decent enough for the price

One thing I didn't mention yet is the built in compressor. It may be because of my setup, but this has to be the worst compressor i've ever dealt with. Why doesn't this thing have a level on the compressor?!?! they have a level for the distortion and the EQ. but not the compressor. They got this parameter called mode which makes the guitar sound full or thin. HEY ZOOM! am i missing something or can you just set the mode to full sound constantly and replace the mode button with a LEVEL button? Please? Should'nt the mode button be incorporated in the tone button and just set the range bigger? I'm no electronics expert so maybe this is impossible to do, but it's still frustrating.
Anyway thats enough complaining about compression, just get a comp. stomp box and turn comp. off in processor.
My setup is a rogue PRS copy with alnico II pro on bridge and Jazz on neck, and a squire pro tone strat(try one of these before you knock 'em, they are VERY underrated)I like pro tones so much i bought 2 of 'em, 1 for playin out and one stays home. Also i use a hagstrom swede, 59 reissue lp standard and fender 90's custom tele but these also stay home, except when recording. I have found you never want to play out with an expensive axe (drunks sometimes get too drunk).
our band doesn't use any stage amps, so i'm going from guitar to COMPRESSOR to zoom, stereo out into 2 old boss powered cabinet emulators, into board, and listen through 15" jbl eon monitor powered by a mackie 1400 power amp. Sound exactly like putting on headphones,
and i can be very versatile if not a little processed. In other words i can go from a slow country ballad, into 70's rock, into a rockabilly
plucker,into heavy metal number without having to fiddle with a bunch of amp knobs in between.
some patches get noise regardless if you have noise reduction up or not. effects are always right there in the mix and it really does sound good, even if it is only a $200 processor.
With the external compressor (Carl martin)I get all the sounds i want from eddie cochran to eddie van halen. It's too bad i had to spend another $200 for a compressor that should work right in the processor itself, but if you already got a compressor you don't need to shell out any more money.
Harrmonized pitch shift and metallic are annoying as hell.
I'll give it an 8 because of that compressor.

Its plastic, but it has to be the toughest plastic known to man, I dont even have scratches on this thing! the only bitches i have are that red led does'nt show up when the sun is up, take a toilet paper tube and duct tape to outdoor venues. and when it gets up to about 100 degrees out side and you are stupid enough to leave it in the car trunk it acts kind of wacky, and the clear plastic film over the control panel bubbles up! But you know what? I cooled it off for about 30 minutes before we went on, I plugged everything in and it worked flawlessly the whole show! immpressive!
I shouldn't use it without a backup but i do I know it's gonna sneak up and bite me in the ass one day, but i've abused it for 2 years and it still works great.
I'll probably get an 8080 super player one of these days and gig out with it and use 3030 for backup, but for now if it ain't broke i would have too hard of a time talking wife into getting something else:)

Never dealt with them, but i've read horror stories

If it was stolen i'd get the wife to let me buy an 8080 only because it's a bigger one. I play for a wedding band, so some nights it's all jim reeves and everly brothers,othr nights it's all Van Halen and violent femmes,and other nights it's polka and metal?!?!believe it or not i've been with the same band with original members for 11 years and have been playing for about 26 years, we've gone through all sorts of setups, from marshall stacks to twin reverbs and other combos to our current setup.
It used to take a couple of hours to setup and now(because of our setup)it takes about a half hour to 45 min. and we still sound as good as we did when we had the marshalls and combos.
The bottom line...Is this a good product......YES great value great sound and easy setup and editing. you need that compressor for the ability to get that slight OD. sound but other than that it has paid for itself many,many,many times over, and i would reccommend it.
E-mail me if you don't agree with me or you want some patches
a 9 for that compressor again.

This thing rocks! The only problem is figuring out what does what.
If you read in depth, of the manual, understanding what to do is pretty easy, but getting the right sound may take some time.
There's some sights on the internet that have some good patches, if you search for them.

The sound you get out of the zoom 3030 is spactacular. A lot of good distortion protocals for all the metal heads. You can reach great blues quality and you can even mix in that little extra bit to make it different. HOWEVER, most of the presets on the zoom 3030 are crap. You really need to get in up and up to your knees to get virtually any sound. Works great with all types of guitars, and amps.

Have you ever heard of incognito? This is a great example.
What could someone expect from a plastic pedal? not much!
But some how, the plastic used in the manufacturing of the zoom 3030
is tough as nails. Were talking about titanium steel of plastic!
Definitely reliable, for any situation (in normal situations, were not talking about jumping down on the wah/expression/volume pedal as hard as you can)

Don't ever need to talk to them, they make a great product.

How can you go wrong? 189 bucks for something that is as close to a rack that you can get for about 1/10th of the cost. This is definitely great for any hessians that play guitar. I've played with the zoom 3030 for a few months, and my expressions that are perceived from my guitar, are astounishing, from that of before. I'm telling everyone, I went through (combining and using seperately) a ton of guitar pedals, ranging from boss to dod -distortions, equalizers, and overdrives, and none of the hundreds of setups can compare to the zoom 3030. Highly recommendable. If for some reason I lost it, or it got stolen, I would actually try a dod multi effects board, or buy a rack, just to see whats out there. But if I went down to the local guitar shoppe and they had the zoom 3030, I'd definitly re-purchase it.