Zoom 503 Amp Simulator

This is another entry in the Zoom 500 series. It provides amp simulation models for a variety of amps including, Marshall, Fender, Peavey, Roland, and Mesa Boogie. Editing patches is straightforward. If you want a decent copy of the manual (ie readable) download it from Zoom's website.

I use this unit both as a headphone amp and to drive a Marshall VSR30 or Mesa Boobie Subway Blues, just for some different sounds. Most of the presets are over the top and not really useful, but editing is easy. The Zoom Noise Reduction feature seems to work pretty well at cleaning up hiss, especially at some of the overdrive settings. Most of the amp sounds are good, especially the Fender clean, Mesa Boogie drive , and Roland. There are enough parameters to play with, such as EQ, gain, cabinet types, mic placement, some basic effects, and reverbs, to tweek a half way decent sound from most of the selections. Is it useable for recording? depends on your tastes and experience. Like I said before you can get decent sounds out of it but don't expect knock dead emulation. One note, the bass patches can be changed to electric guitar which opens up eight more patches.

I've had it for a year and no problems. I've edited all the patches dozens of times and everything is still working fine. Yea the plastic is cheapy looking but it seems to hold up and for bedroom playing is perfectly satisfactory. Get a 9 volt adapter fom Radio Shack and forget the battery.

Their website is very good and provides all the user manuals for their various effects

I play mostly blues and jazz plus whatever sounds good. I've been playing about three years. I like the fact that this unit is easy to use and delivers good sounds for a reasonable price. I compared it to other amp simulators but for the price it is hard to top. If it were lost I would probably not replace it simply because I like to try different stuff. The bottom line, this device is fun to play with and provides a variety of sounds that help me shake up my playing when I get in a rut.

The owner's manual states: "Compact multi-effect device convincingly recreates the sound of famous guitar or bass amplifiers." Preset patch number 2 is called "Twin-Lead", and since I do not currently have the means to afford a '65 Twin Reverb Reissue, I thought this box would be a good alternative for the time being. It is important to note that in the configuration of effects, Zoom has placed the tremolo before the reverb. Ask yourself a question, "Is this how a '65 Twin Reverb works?"
The way it works on the zoom, you will degrade the tremolo effect in proportion as you increase the reverb. Suppose you hit a chord and immediately mute the stings. You will not hear any throbbing from the tremolo as the reverb gradually fades out.
Unlike a previous review, I actually value the tremolo effect, but I can only use it without any reverb (contrary to what I had hoped). I simply don't have time to write a full review of this box. It does have some nice points, but I wanted to make this "feature" known to other prospective buyers.

There are so many parameters that I feel like I haven't yet tapped into all of the great sounds this little unit is capable of. Editing patches is very simple once you get the hang of it. The manual is terrible, but you won't need it once you've edited the patches a few times. I have 4 patches set up for headphone playing, and 4 patches set up for playing through my amplifier, because what sounds good through the headphones won't necessarily work through the amp.

Played through an amp, this unit can completely change the characteristics of any amp. The Fender Blues Jr, which is a wonderful sounding amp for blues, can take on the sound of a hot-rodded high gain amp with the help of the 503. Through the headphones, this thing simply sounds great. I don't play too much with the chorus effects, etc, because I just wanted something that sounded convincing through headphones and DI recording. This does both of those things well. The unit has noise reduction built in, and that is a good thing. Turn off the noise reduction and it isn't pleasant. The distortion is excellent.

Other reviews have stated that the unit is made of plastic and doesn't look very sturdy. I'd like to say that the thing seems to be pretty sturdy. I don't gig so a backup isn't an issue with me, but if I were I'd keep my old, trusty Arion SD-1 handy.

I've never dealt with Zoom

I play blues rock. The 503 is good for just about any style of music. I've been playing for almost 20 years. If it were lost or stolen I would get another one because it's dirt cheap. I love the sounds, hate the chorus effects and tremelo (why is this stupid 70's amp feature suddenly popular???)

Manual is kind of bizarre, like a road map, and slightly confusing. But once you figure out the basic setup, you'll be fine. Editing is fine.

I play in a contemporary church band. We do many styles of music, from country to alternative to ballads, etc. Myself and the other guitarist were trying to figure out a way to minimize stage noise in an effort to get a better mix out front, and getting rid of our amps was one way to accomplish this, so we investigated this pedal.
We tried many guitars: PRS, Les Paul, Danelectro, Fender stuff. Both of us use Fender Deluxe Reverb amps, mine's a Hot Rod Deluxe. We both wanted that clean tone, with the ability to get a really nice overdriven sound. Weren't too interested in heavy-distortion kinds of sounds. We went straight from this unit into a very high-end Mackie mixing board.
We didn't even care if the amp "models" matched actual amps like Mesa, Fender, Marshall, Vox, Matchless, etc. We just wanted an acceptable clean sound and the ability to get a decent overdriven sound.
What we found was that we could achieve an "acceptable" clean sound, although it didn't sound like "Fender" or anything in particular. Pretty generic. However, we tried and tried to get some kind of acceptable overdrive sound and could not do it. Everything sounded fuzzy and horrible, like playing through a home stereo or cheap headphones.

Pretty cheap-feeling plastic. Probably wouldn't last under any kind of heavy gigging.

What we ended up buying about a month ago was a POD from Line 6. This thing has been getting rave reviews, and we went for it. It's fabulous. Clean sounds are really nice (although they still, to my ears, don't sound like Fender clean) and it has lots of versatility in overdriven tones. And the overdrives are excellent-sounding, very focused and complex for the different amp models. It's more expensive, but at $330 or so, it packs a lot of great uses (as well as wonderful digital effects).

This model is a very good amp simulator, considering it's price. Frankly, it kinda behaves like it's job is to waste batteries, rather then to produce some cool sound (which it does very nicely, though). It's presets are cool for people like me, that can't be bothored by editing their own patches.

I use an American Telecaster Deluxe guitar with my Fender Prosonic head + combo. I like the effects very much but most of the time it's easier just to use ordinary pedals, after all I've got a pedal for every feature that it holds, so I don't use the 503 much except when I'm recording in a studio.

I don't use it when I'm gigging because it's easier to use the normal pedals. It wastes batteries so fast I don't like having it without a backup. Although, when I'm recording, I like having it, it's much better then the ordinary pedals there, if I have an AC adaptor present.

It hasn't broken down yet.

I play rock, pop and metal. I think the 503 is fine, it's great with all music. I have been playing for 31 years and I haven't found it's match in the studio.

Once you've set up the patches you like, operation is very easy. Programming is fairly straightforward, but the user interface is one of those where you have only 6 pushbuttons to perform mode changes, play/edit navigation, and parameter mods. The display is a 2-character LED, so codes are used to represent the various types of effects and at first, you must refer to the instruction sheet to decypher these. Although the interface is crude, it's workable, and not unexpected for such an inexpensive unit. Although you should tweak the patches to your taste, it's easy to get a great sounds out of the 503. The instuction sheet isn't as convenient as a booklet, but it's designed pretty well and you'll learn the 503 pretty quickly.

With my standard Strat, the 503 sounds great. It produces a variety of good drive/lead and clean sounds. The effects/reverb/cabinet simultions are quite useful, and are very tweakable. The output of the 503 sounds studio-processed, and it records well (home recording on a cheap 4-track) and sounds good in my small Fender and Peavey amps. I thought the unit was pretty quiet, especially for the money. It's quieter than any of my stomp boxes.

No problems so far, but a couple of notes: you need an AC adapter, batteries don't last. I got a 9v 500ma one from Radio Shack at about half the price of ZOOM's adapter, but be careful that you get the polarity right if you don't get the official adapter. Also, the 503's plastic case isn't going to be as bomb-proof as a metal stomp box, but that's no big deal to me.

No contacts.

The ZOOM 503 is perfect for me. I've played for 30 years, mostly in the closet, and like everything from Bach to Rock - anything that has quality. I like Fender-style guitars and play into small Fender and Peavey solid-state amps. I can get the lead sounds i want out of it, and the cleans are marvelous too. I love the sounds and flexibility, but find the programming a little awkward. I'd definitely replace it if it were lost, since it has made all of my other stomp boxes obsolete. Has anyone done a side-by-side comparison with the Line6 Pod? I think the functionality is similar, but the 503 has a cruder interface and is much cheaper.

It's pretty simple to get a good sound out of this. Lots of folks complain that the presets are unusable for these types of units, but I am of the opinion that the presets are there to show you the unit's range of ability; it's up to you to find a sound you like. If you're fairly familiar with the sounds of the amps being simulated, then you can have an idea ahead of time what to dial in for a custom patch. If you're not, then it'll be trial and error finding which amp sounds you like. Either way, a couple hours of tweaking and you're on your way. Manual is kind of skimpy, although I guess comprehensive. Just a pain to fold it this way and that to find the section you want. Of course, if they made a fancier manual, we'd have to pay for it. One glitch tho, is that it can be confusing sometimes because certain effects will only be active if you've selected a certain type of amp; otherwise you have a different effect (ex- you only get compression with clean amp settings, but with drive or crunch amps you get gain).

I have an old Ibanez roadstar with a stock humbucker, a Yamaha acoustic, a Peavey Classic 30, a Yamaha MT4X 4-track, and various plug in toys. BUT, I only use this for direct recording! It goes guitar-zoom 503- 4-track; then the sound is good. Put it in front of your amp and you'll get crap. It's NOT a distortion pedal baby. If you sit and tweak for a while, you can probably get it to sound ok in front of an amp (turn off the cabinet emu and the mic pos., tho. Make sense?), but that's not what I got this for. For headphone practice and direct recording, noise is not bad (I mean, you expect noise if it's trying to sound like a cranked wall of Marshalls!). To be honest, I haven't checked out the effects on-board. I was mainly interested in getting an amp simulator so I could get believable sound direct to tape. I have an effects processor that I use in my 4-tracks loop to handle chorus, flange, rev, etc. so I haven't really been concerned with checking them out extensively. What I have checked out so far is as follows; amp sounds are good and varied enough to let you find the mood, or inspire one. Cabinet types also good, and mic placement makes quite a difference. The time effects (Ch.,Fl.,Del.,Rev.,etc) are fine for headphone practice, but I haven't used the tremolo. Noise red. is good. I really haven't tried to sound like anyone, although for the masses, it seems predisposed on the presets to go into EVH territory.

It's plastic, and light. I use it at home only for 4-track recording. If I was playing a mellow, low key gig and couldn't use my amp, I might try it direct to the PA. But I wouldn't be too happy about it. :)

N/A

I play some covers; Dylan, CSNY, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Ani DiFranco... My original stuff is kind of funk-folk-rock-chocolate goo. I've been playing around 12 years. I have in addtition to the above stuff a Boss DS-2, digtech chorus-flange from the early 1800's :), a couple mics (audio technicas). If it were lost etc., I'd probably buy it again with the insurance money. It's pretty much the cheapest in this field of gadget. While there are better products, I didn't have the money or patience to wait. I wanted to play and record, and I'm very happy with this. I do like the amp variety, and while it won't fool any pros, they probably have the money for something higher end anyways. I'm not trying to fool anyone, I'm just trying to write music. Compared it to H&K redbox, Sansamps, multieffect boxes (ME-3,etc). This was cheap and in my neighborhood music store. In case you haven't figured it out, it helps make music. If you're not into sonic snobbery, have a limited budget, and want to record at home but can't crank your amp because of your neighbors, then this is great...Whew.

Getting a good sound is as simple as plug and play, I haven't yet tried to edit any patches. The manual is small print but pretty straight forward.

Pleasant surprise: through my Seth Lover pickups the unit is whisper quiet. Through my P-90 equipped Les Paul Jr re-issue, it is a bit noisier. I like the presets and the fact that I can edit and come up with my own. Some of the bass patches work actually rather well with guitar (other surprise!), better than some of the guitar patches...

I've only owned it for a few days, it's primary function being as a practise headphone amp and an amp simulator to DI in my HD recording setup. Whisper quiet as long as I use the Seth Lover equipped guitar, the P-90 equipped one picks up everything from the lights to the PC monitor ... that's noisy!

Hasn't broken down yet!

I must admit that I was a bit reluctant to get this unit since my previous Zoom pedal experience was bad to say the least: impossible to get a pleasant tone out of it, temperamental foot-switching etc ... I returned that one within the hour! In this case,I'm happy I got it: this baby goes though shades of dirty and clean that with a little work can sound rather exquisite!
I'd buy it again in a second, should this one get stolen or broken.

It takes a while to figure everything out, but once you get to know it, it is not that hard to get the sound you want. The manual is a little confusing

I'm using a Cort Ferrarri III guitar and a Gorilla GG-25 amp- truly cheap toys. the 503 makes them sound HUGE!! It's not that easy to tweak the effects, though. the flanger successfully reproduces Van Halen's "brown sound"

if you're looking for durable, go buy a Boss. and unless you live in a Duracell factory, i'd buy a 9 volt adapter.

this thing is perfect for just recording the great little ideas you get at 1 a.m. and jamming. i'd buy it again- for the money, its got a lot of stuff.

Very simple, but maybe because I cheated. I went to ZOOM's website at www.zoom.jp.co/english/ and perused the instruction manual before I ordered the 503 from American Musical Supply (www.americanmusical.com). The printed instructions that come with the unit use a very small font, so it might be best to download the Adobe Acrobat reader and visit the site (which allows you to 'magnify' the text). Editing and saving patches is simple for me - and this is my first experience with a multifx pedal. I found it very easy to get a very good guitar sound by editing the presets and a teeny bit more difficult to get a likable bass sound for my needs.

So far, I have only used the unit for direct recording into my Fostex XR3. I play a Yamaha 112 and a Yamaha Motion B bass. In the weekend I've had it, I am very happy with the sounds I've been able to get. The distortions for guitar are pretty diverse - I am quite happy with the metal-ish rythm guitar tracks I've laid out. The lead guitar sounds available seem very good. I don't have any previous experience with bass distortion, but the bass distortion seems a little weak when it is EQ'd toward bass. Otherwise, there is a noticable difference in each level of each parameter for all levels of distortion, cabinet types, mike positioning, reverbs, and modulation effects. I prefer not to compare any sounds to Nirvana or Metallica or Rush or Styx or the Monkees or whomever, because I haven't tried to get those sounds.

I will use it mostly for recording myself in my own pseudo-studio (or psteudio), weekend jamming, and occasional performances. I would use it on a gig without a backup. But, I'm weird - I would see an effects failure as a sort of artistic inspiration to improvise in other ways. Now, if an amp failed, THAT'S a different story.

The only support I've used was this site (Thanks, HC!) and the aforementioned ZOOM site. I haven't had a need to call Customer Support, or research a problem.

I try to play many different styles, but I keep returning to rock/punk/metal sounds. I think this pedal should keep someone like me - who finds something appealing in lots of different genres - happy. It probably wouldn't satisfy a jazz purist, a techno fanatic, or a metal extremist, but it's great for my purposes. I suppose if you try hard, you can emulate some famous sounds. You can also try *less* hard and get some very good sounds that might make you sound pretty original. I think that for a single pedal that provides a wide spectrum of sounds for both guitar and bass, this is a great value.

I find some of the abbreviations for effects banks a bit confusing and have to keep referring to the manual for explanations. The manual is a fold-out affair which is a real pain to read but the instructions are easily understood.

I'm using this unit to provide a decent sound with which to go directly into my mixer and it does a good job. Some of the more distorted sounds are a bit too fuzzy. Only a couple of the presets stand out, one of which is called Liverpool and provides a classic Beatles-esque sound.
I haven't used the unit for bass yet so I can't really comment on the bass section.
The cabinet simulators are pretty good, with adjustable cabinet depths and mic positions.

I have gigged with a similar unit (the 506) and with a bit of care it should hold out for a while, although for heavy gigging you'd maybe be better off looking at something else. The case is plastic and subjecting it to a Doc Marten from aloft would result in a broken unit. It's great for studio use though.

Never used support.

I don't know if I would buy this unit again, mainly due to the fact that it's a bit inconvenient to use in my tiny studio...a rack-mounted version would be heaps better... I think that this unit has a lot to offer for most styles of guitar, although it is a bit limiting in terms of parameter adjustment (9 different settings per effect).
For the price, this is a great unit with some good features and for somebody in my situation (ie big ideas, small wallet) it can't be beaten. I already own a 505 and 506 and was put off ZOOM gear for life but after playing this unit, I changed my mind completely,

See bottom of page for previous review.

I did install the lil 59 and the JB Jr. in the neck and bridge and WOW! What a difference this has made in my sound coming through this effect. More "Balls" are there to really put this unit to the test. I recorded with it today and I was able to get a Roland JC-120 tone for rhythm, A nice fat bass sound, and for lead I was going for the "Woman tone" that EC was so fond of with that SG. This is great for recording so ya don't have to drag your 212 when you want to tape.

Don't gig.

see previous review below.

Like it more, and again Zoom should install that aux. input jack on everything, so musicians have something to jam to.

I was messing around in a music store and the sales guy said 'you've GOT to plug into this thing". That pretty much sums it up, plug it in and play.
It's fairly easy to modify patches on the unit, but there's not a whole hell of a lot of parameters that you can change - personally I think that's a GOOD thing. The manual is a skimpy, ugly, hard to read, and very large fold out affair, but since it's a straightfoward unit to figure out, you won't need it much after you play with it for the first 30 minutes. You WILL have to do a certain amount of try-this-and-see messing around with it, but it will reward you in short order.
Of course, since it has a small LED panel which imparts no other information than the patch number, you actually have to remember what patch is where, which, for the IQ-challenged people like me, leads to a lot of clicking and swearing.

I demoed the box through a 50 Watt Crate w/12" and through headphones, with a Fender TexMex Strat, a Godin something-or-other, and my terminally ill Ibanez 570. I also tried it through an old Roland DAC-10, but let us never speak of that again... The Tex Mex Strat sounded incredible, no doubt due to the Pearly Gates humbucker and the fact that I was staring at the 503's price tag in shock at the time.
The Godin sounded great (and played wonderfully, regardless of how, well, upsettingly ugly it was...), the Ibanez sounded thin, but that's just because my pickups doth suck mightily.
The thing to keep in mind is that FOR THE PRICE, this box is unbeatable. I was flat out amazed by what it could do FOR THE PRICE. The dirtier tones seem to suffer from a bit too much high end, but judicious use of the EQ section helps tremendously. The clean sounds are great.
FOR THE PRICE, this wee box will get you anywhere you want to go (assuming you have the patience to play around with the patches) very quickly, and it makes an incredible practice amp as long as you have an AC adapter handy - batteries last for a few nanoseconds.
Again, if you haven't taken the hint yet, FOR THE PRICE, awe-inspiring sounds.

Dunno, it sat on my desk and acted as a DI to my Mac. I wouldn't get drunk wearing Doc Martens and expect it to survive, but it should be OK for a non-drunk running shoe type person.
Oh, and tape the adapter cable to the box otherwise it will slip out.
Oh, and don't ever, ever, ever expect to use ANY !@#$%^& box like this for computer based recording, unless part of your compositional process is to play with new and interesting buzzing noises.

No idea. I don't use it anymore, but I have no trepidations about selling it to a friend (he doesn't wear boots when he's drunk). I think that's a pretty decent endorsement of reliability. Alternately, it's a bad endorsement of my friendship ;-)

I do strictly my own stuff for my own entertainment, and have been doing it for about 16 years now. I enjoy everything from Hedges to Slayer (OK, honestly, I LOVE Slayer), and this box, with a little bit of coaxing, can really deliver to a large degree. It will NOT, no matter how hard you try, allow you to mimic Eric Johnson's tone, but then, well, that's not surprising.
I wouldn't buy it again, but that's only because my wife 'allowed' me to buy a Digitech 2120 VGS and now she's set a precedent as to how much money I can waste on toys (silly, silly woman). I'd reccomend it to anyone on a tight budget and I love the fact that you can just shove it into your gig bag and run off.
For direct recording on a budget, it's a dream come true. For an alternative to distortion pedals on a gig, it's also way cool
FOR THE PRICE

I got this because of Zoom's good rep. and I needed something to play my Ibanez EX Fretless Bass through, as I don't have a bass amp. I first saw it in the Musician's Friend catalog, so try it right? I also have a Warmoth strat w/SD Classic Stacks and a Line 6 Axsys 212 amp. I don't have the time to always pull out the 212, so I thought I could practice with the 503, that's why I got it. The presets are set- up pretty good A-D are for guitar and E-F are for bass. They try to cover all the "usual" sounds some of the clean/chorus stuff is very nice, but the distortions could use some serious tweaking, by themselves sound pretty harsh.
Haven't tried to edit much but it is the same principal as the other Zoom stuff, trial and error till you get what you like.
The manual was made for the stars of the 60's TV show,"Land Of The Giants" by one of the giants. I am seriously considering purchasing a magnifer page just to read it. Especially the preset sec. and then type it into my mailbox of WebTv. I tried a 505 when they first arrived and I remember them having a "Roadmap" format of plastic. Now it is recycled yellow paper and really small print. Rating: 1 for the manual.

The sounds are sometimes noisy, but they have a very good NR system and you can dial the hiss right out. Distortions are the noisiest. I haven't tried it with an amp yet because as a simulator I am using it as an amp substitute. To be honest I've had this for a month and find it has some pretty cool patches to use for my home recording projects( that I could do more of if I could get off this internet) I like the one called(squint) Liverpool a very good all-around 60's Beatles clean tone(RAIN) and a Tremelo tone good for Creedence-type stuff. My favorite influences are so many to list them would take up too much space:but at the top of the list would be Steve Howe,Allan Holdsworth,David Gilmour,Mark Farner. I don't play like any of them but they all make an appearance now and then for a bar or two. I have been trying to find that warm sustain from the neck p/u ala The Yes Album but not even the 503 can get me to that place, I am thinking of putting a SD, 'lil 59 in the neck so I may do another updated review after I change p/u's. The bridge is going to be a JB Junior.
I thought the delays were lacking in variety and not very adjustable, but the reverbs sound real nice and there are many to choose from.

Zoom has that plastic top and if you step on it hard you could probably break it, I would take it to a gig but be very careful with it if I had to, with the Line 6 I don't.

No contact with zoom. I would deal direct with the store I bought it from.

I play mostly Progressive Rock/Jazz/Fusion and I do like this unit for the very reason it does what I wanted. I also use an E-Bow and an original Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress I got in 1979.
If it got stolen/lost I would get it again just because I need something to practice bass on. I tried the 506 out but found lot's of the "synth" patches to be useless distortions, that's why I chose the 503 for a more general simulation of different amps,cabs,mic placement,chorus,flange,trem,reverb,delays,DISTORTIONS. Not the greatest thing I ever heard, but for the price quite alot gets covered. My fav feature is this is the only Zoom unit that has an input jack so you can jam with another source,cd,cass.etc. and I played with Magical Mystery Tour on the fretless which was a blast. My least fav. feature besides the manual is the thrash metal sound, just rediculous. But there are level adj.to warm them up to be fair. I want to try this with my Fostex X-30 and use it for the bass it gets a nice sounding phase for bass, and not as dry as direct. I'd just like sum up this is my first product review so if I rambled to boredom I'm sorry. I would recommend the 503 to anyone that needs a way to practice without an amp wearing headphones. I use Sennheiser HD-420's and the 503 sounds great with them. It really takes the place of a bass amp for me as I have no need to buy one at this time, I will use this unit frequently and I'm glad Zoom decided to invent it. P.S. I wish/think that Zoom should add the input jack to everything they make in this 500 series. I'm sure it would be useful( one of the reasons I traded from the 506) Thank you to Harmony Central for this format. It has been very helpful for over a year to inform me of musical equip.
I have been a guitar/keyboard/bass player for 32 years, and I love music.