Zoom 505

It's slightly complex if you've never dealt with multi-effects systems, but with a little guidance from the manual editing and switching patches is a breeze.

I use it with a Fender Deluxe Powerhouse Strat and a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp. The factory presets were kind of noisy, and weren't very practical settings, but after I programmed it to my specifications, it sounded great. Some of the effects are weak, and I was really disappointed that there was no tremolo effect. I know that would've added to the cost, but they could've taken out some other effect (like Step Effect) that nobody uses. Some of the distortions are useless (i.e. Rhythm, Fuzz, and Metal), especially the Acoustic Simulator. The Chorus is real warm and lush, and I liked that immediately. The delay's pretty good, but it's way too limited, because you can't edit individual parameters in it, and there's only 9 different choices. Another thing that is dissatisfying is not being able to use reverb and delay at the same time. The modulation effects are great, but once again, ZOOM needs to enable the user to edit individual parameters, like speed (chorus), regeneration (delay and reverb), and attack (compression). The auto wah is very noisy, even with the ZNR, and is pretty useless, but the pedal wah is great (but of course, you have to buy the FP01 Expression Pedal for another 60 bucks). Overall, the sounds are great for the price, but the 505 is too limited in editing capabilities.

I can always depend on my 505. I've used it at almost every gig without a backup.

I play bluesy-rock. This is a pretty good match, and is great for special effects for more pop-y tunes. I've been playing for 6 years, and I have two Ibanez Soundtanks; TS-5 Tubescreamer and TL-5 Tremolo. I also have an old used DigiTech delay pedal, which is great, but I never use them. I recently purchased a DOD VGS50 Valve Guitar System, in place of the 505, but only because I needed a larger unit as an upgrade. If it were stolen or lost, I'd probably by the 509 Dual Power Modulator, because I basically just use my amp distortion with my pedals, and a lot of mod. effects, so this would work better, just using the amp tone with a separate modulator. I've had it for 2 years, and I've loved it the whole time. Even though I don't use it live anymore, I still fool around with it constantly at home. I went out and bought it as soon as I heard it, without comparing it to any other product. The only things I wish it had were tremolo and rotary effects (which are included on the 509), but of course, that would make it more expensive. It always helped me create, and I used it for direct recording with the built-in amp simulator.

It was dang easy. And changing patches was a breeze. I never had to use the manual. I don't know abot the firmware revision number and I dont know.

Am using an Ibanez with Peavey PA system.
I like it, I set most of my distortions to heavey metal patches that have a nice bite to them.
I like alot there were already on the pedal but I changed alot.
I have have a peavey and I believe it is about 500-600watts, it is to power PA speakers.
Yes I can get the sounds of my favorite artists. Metallica, Offspring, Korn

Yes I can depend on it
Sure I would go to a gig with no back up

No
and No

I play metal, and it is awesome to have this pedal, I can program all the metal effects that want.
I have been playing for 6 months, I have had my guitar for 4 now. I own a Squier bass had it for 4 months, I have an ovation acoustic.
Yes I would get the same equipment.
I love being able to change the effects. I really think they could have put a better tuner in it.
I wish I had a Marshall Stack.
I think it helps me make music.

Presets are pretty average, about 20% are useful. The rest are absolute shit. Editing patches is a pain in the ass, but is very thorough and hundreds of different sounds are available, but again about 20% are useful.

I started with a Samick guitar with ahumbucker at the bridge, staight through the Zoom into a 25watt ProAmp which is a piece of shit. In this environment, the Zoom really excelled delivering some nice distorted and chorus sounds ranging from the offspring to led zep to metallica. However, I recently upgraded my amp to a Marshall DSL-401, which was so far ahead of the ProAmp in every area it scares me I actually waited a year to lose the ProAmp. In my new set up the zoom was my only effect. It sounded really generic turning my smooth tube tone into computerised sounding crap. I tryed everything, the Zoom by itself, zoom compression and chorus in the effects loop shaping the marshall's distortion, nothing worked. I give it an 8 with the ProAmp, but with my Marshall it sounded extremely bad, thus the low rating.

Its made of plastic, step on it too hard and you will never step on it again.ie. it will be fucked. This pedal is reliable if you look after it, it literally goes through a battery a day so a 9v adapter is highly recommended. The setup of this pedal isn't really suitable for gigging, its more a personal use, recordingkind of deal.

Never dealt with them, never will.

Basically, this pedal can do a shitload of things, but isn't really outstanding at any of them. It is recommended to beginners with cheap amps who want a decent sound, and that it will accomplish. For those with a tube amo ,run, run as fast as you can cause this piece of plastic is just a waste of space, electricity and bstteries(if you're that stupid).

I don't know how to rate this. Its easy to press a button and editing patches is fine.... unless of course you're a true moron.

I think everyone is being way to critical. The Zoom 505 is a multi effects on a budget. You can't expect it to perform to enormous Boss floor processeres. I mean, come one, lets be realistic. If you're in a garage band thats doing a little gigging i say it's fine. The heavy distortions sound nice, the jet drive is great and the aucostic simulator is pretty cool too. I use it with an epi les paul studio and a fender stage 160 and it sounds fine. You can get the ole' nirvana grunge sound and the hadcore metal like godsmack. I say if you have 100 bucks, buy it and don't listen to everyone else they're noses are so high up they can't look down without breaking their spine.

Unfortunateley I can't be so kind in this category. I've never broken it and I've used it at gigs but I worry all night about it. The power supply cord (needed cause it burns batteries) some times comes loose. It happened once in the middle of a fast punk song and the whole gig was ruined.

I've never dealt with them

I'm in a punk-core band and the 5 distortions on it sound cool. My band has never been "embarrassed" so begining bands: don;t listen to the snobs. This pedal is fine for a punk band.I wouldn't buy it again only cause I want to buy a large collection of stomp-boxes.

IT IS DAMN CONFUSING AT FIRST, what the hell is all that, stuff like distortion type mt, or dt, huh!?, and for the first 2months i kept it on normal settings, cuz my own sucked, cuz i didnt understand the thing.

I have a HOT RODDED Lefty Fender Strat, dual emg81 humbuckers..., i used to play with it not to loud, then when i learn a kick ass riff, that i want everyone to hear, i crank up my amp, thinking "oh man this is gonna be bad ass!", it sounds screechy, and like someone is frying sausage too...totally noisy....sucks for loud stuff.....do not buy it if you want to play loud...i try to do loud solos....but it has a weird noise there too....at low sounds, i can get metallica, megadeth, sabbath, the metal sounds suck royal d*ck

i can kind of depend on it...its plastic though, not like my bosses i have.....i would probably break if i used it at a gig, its broken once, i cant use batteirs anymore....

never delt with techsupport

i play older metallica, megadeth, mercyful fate, sabbath, diamond head, and it dont work good for them loud, soft---because then you cant hear the shitty sausage frying sounds

The effects unit is easily manipulated by the use of storing an switching between effects. the unit could still be better designed for switching between effects though.

I use a generic brand amp with an Ibanez RX series guitar, the variety of wacky sounds it creates is pretty cool, from wah-wah, pitch shifter, jet flanger and step -like effects are all damn cool, however the distortion is horrible, it sounds too meaty. I prefer using the 'DOD Grunge distortion' which combined would give every desired effects

the effects unit is pretty flimsy, after a couple of drops, it won't be the same. the materials used are for mass-production the casing is cheap and rattly. don't use it recklessly.
I would never depend on it at a gig. Its good to just have stomp boxes really.

They were happy to consult with me on the quality of their product and offered to swap or give me credit on their products.

the unit is overall good for the first alternative pedal.
it is good for solos and bitchin for messing around riffs,
A cheap little unit it is.

yey yey

fairly easy to use. manual is annoying as it is a fold out

i use this with a 100wt marshall valvestate and a BC Rich Warlock guitar. it feeds back to much and it sucks all the tone from the guitar

i wouldnt use it for giging. it looks to flimsy and the pedals would probably snap off.

this is not a pedal used for metal. i would never buy a piece of crap like that again. it is the worst pedal i have owned. i now use a boss metal zone and flanger, a danelectro cool cat and a jimi hendrix fuzz-wah. these make a much better sound

simply very easy to use, it is is designed to be your first pedal.

this is very difficult to rate, because the delays and reverbs are fairly well, and the distortions simply suck.
the other effects are good, but only if you want a space travel sound.

You CAN'T use this on a gig. The only way you could use is as a tuner(as i do) or as a delay/reverb.

?!?!?!?!?!

I play free jazz so I don't depend much on effects. I bought this because it was a cheap way to get started on them. (it was). But now I only use a foot switch and a crybaby.
Where is the 505, you ask? it is my tuner.

If you'll sit down and read the insructions, it is very easy to use. But don't do what I did an try to figure it out right out of the box unless you've had experience with pedels of this type in the past.

This pedel is very good for a beginner looking to play around with some cool sounds, but that is about it. The effects are very weak and fake. Don't even attempt to gig with it unless you want to make a complete fool of yourself and your band. This pedel simply does not cut it.

I haven't had any trouble with it. But it is made out of plastic, and what appears to be cheap electronics.

i play rock, and blues, i was running this pedel through my crate blue voodoo stack, and it completely screwed up my amps tone so i ended up throwing it in the junk shed. i think it now rests beside a stack of dirty paint cans. if anyone wants to buy it i'll sell it for $20. that's probably all it was worth new

Let me be brief...This pedal is a wreaking heap of steaming dumpola! It is virtually impossible to get anything that resembles a pro sound out of it. It becomes easy to use after softing through their cryptic cheezy instruction page.

It is noisy, has too much gain, the disortion effects sound as if they were shot out of a dead rhino's butt! I plugged this into my Fender Twin Reverb...big mistake...the Fender reproduces everything accurately...including these incredibly lame effects which you WILL NOT EVER EVER USE! I thought that for 100 bucks it was too good to be true, but thought maybe, just maybe....belly to the bar guys, let's be honest and admit we torched a hundred bucks! Don't even consider this one. Run far, run fast, run away...you're free!

It might be dependable...but why? I am an industrial designer. I design products for a living and products like this look good but have no substance...it ticks me off!

I purchased this turkey from Musicians Friend a few days ago. Let's hope they really are my friend and take this grease spot back!

It's coming this way....RUN!

It is easy to handle it after a short time. But when you learn, you get disapointed. It's not what you thought it was.
You can edit the pathches by yourself, but it sucks.

I use an Eagle Strat with an Fender princeton chorus 50w. It is very noisy, specially with distortion. Damn bad, no definition in the sound. Delay is good, but you can't specify the time of it as you want.. its pre-set
The 8 distortion types suck. If you play heavy (iron maiden, sabbath, metallica..) don't buy

it sucks at all.
I wouldn't play with it not even for my dog!!

nope

I play Heavy like Maiden and * old * metallica.
It 's not a good option for this price. I use this for about 1 year and a half.. I would defnetly thank the thief, if it were stolen.
I say: Don't BUY it, unless you're crazy enough to like it.
If anyone has a good heavy distortion, send me.

Very easy to program as options are limited. However, it loses points because it only has two footswitches, no manual mode, etc.

The distortion is far from natural. Everything sounds off. The Lead distortion setting sounds a bit too nasal, the overdrive is very boxy sounding, and the Rhythm is papery. The fuzz has a unique sound, but does not sound at all like a classic fuzz box. If your idea of a good blues sound is ZZ Top's Eliminator or Recycler albums you might appreciate the Blues distortion, but be advised it will not make you sound like SRV, Robert Cray, or BB King.

One way to simulate the sound of the distortions on this box is to take your favorite overdrive or distortion, and run it through a graphic equalizer where the first band is maxed out, the second is minimum, the third is maxed, etc.

The equalizer is not worth anything. While they call it a 4 band equalizer, you actually can choose among a number of set EQ profiles.


The chorus, flanger, and phaser are not bad.
This unit gets a 1 for the distortions, 5 for most effects.

Within 6 months the programming buttons had a tendency to stick, so you would press the button once and it would cycle through the parameters until it got unstuck.

The only reason I bought this product was that in the store, they had it set up through headphones and it didn't sound too bad. Or maybe I was just cocky and figured that I could wring better sounds out of it than the presets if I just took the time. Actually, I was able to but they still sounded fake. I needed to put an equalizer behind it to be able to get it to sound better than awful.

Despite what its fans may say, this box is mostly for teenagers who confuse gain with tone. If you like bands that sing about shoving cookies into private places, this might be the box for you. If you like very artificial tones that don't sound like a real amp, this is for you. If you want it to sound like or are using it with some classic amp, forget it.

I ended up selling this for $30 and was thinking that the guy who bought it was a sucker for paying that much. It is actually okay as a headphone amp. If you want an actual quality multieffect, you will need to spend several times as much.

It wasn't too hard to find playable sounds out of this, but it's something you'll never master. You'll play it forever and never figure out all the sounds you can create. Editing patches is pretty simple. All you gotta do is hit edit, scroll through the settings, change them, then hit store twice. Botta bing, botta boom. The manual was real helpful, explaining what the settings were. Like, what the EQ settings covered, how things went, etc. It's easy to switch between them.

I do not currently own this pedal. I have an Ibanez EX standard guitar and a Crate GXT-410 amp. The pedal worked well alone, with the amp. However, when I began adding other pedals, it didn't quite fit in so well. You can't use it in your chain as a second or third distortion, plus a chorus or phaser, plus an EQ, cause you'd have to keep moving it around your chain. That's not too convenient. I currently am using this order of pedals: Big Muff -> Dunlop Crybaby -> Rocktek Phaser -> DOD FX50-B Overdrive -> Rocktek Vibrato -> RMS Volume Pedal -> amp. Noisy became a problem. I had a heck of a time with this and the crybaby, even when the 505 was bypassed. I kept experiencing unbelievable squealing (course, I slapped the fans and told them to get a grip on themselves). I mean, uncontrollable feedback. I finally set an EQ patch that cut the highs and boosted the lows, so I could use the Crybaby. I isolated the problem to the 505 by removing it. You have got to keep the output down on this, or you'll be blown away by feedback, unless you're in a prairie outside. I thought this pedal did alright with the effects. Here's the problem I think a lot of people have with it: you can't compare a $100, 24 effect box with a $125 box that was designed for one effect. Of course the 505's chorus isn't conna be as good as compared to a top of the line chorus. The distortion's gonna be crap compared to a Marshall stack. I don't think you should use this pedal as your standard distortion, chorus, phaser, flanger, delay, wah, etc. This pedal's strength lies in how you can check out numerous effects and see what they're like. You can see what phasers and choruses are like and decide what you want. The other benefit in this album, is you can create some neat effects. You can use this as a bonus pedal to create unique sounds that will be hard to get with stompboxes. You can create some neat sound for an intro, hit one button, rather than going through a line and turning on five or six pedals. So, I think if this pedal is viewed in this light, one will see that it's a good pedal. I sold it just because I found what effects I wanted. I fell in love with the Big Muff and had to get it. I'm not to a point where I want to create a totally unique sound. I'm fine with straight stomboxes. I liked the chorus, but it was a really overpowering effect. The phaser seemed weak. It needed some distortion to boost it. The flanger was weak. The distortions weren't terrible, but pretty undistinguishable. The fuzz is hard to work with. I set the pedal wah on to work as a filter and it helped the fuzz. I HATED the auto wah. The ZNR helps with the noise. My favorite feature is the built in tuner, so you can silently tune easily. I'm still looking for a replacement (put my tuner as the only thing in my effects loop, but still can't easily tune silently). The delay was hard to deal with. I didn't have an expression pedal, so I don't know what the pedal wah, or pitch bends were like. I did find two settings that I will really miss. I created a bluesy distortion that was nice and sweet, with blues distortion, gain about 10, slight chorus, boost highs, slight reverb. Very nice sounding. I also had a bluesy chorus that was nice too. Pretty much the same thing, just more chorus. Love that light chorus with distortion to thicken it up.

I never had a problem with it. It's not a Big Muff, but it's not a wet piece of paper. What are you gonna do, climb up on a stack of speakers and jump on it? What do you need? The only major issue on reliability is the batteries. I've been told these things eat batteries like it's cocaine.

no clue

I like to play alternative type stuff and this was good for a little while, but man, you can't beat the sound of a Big Muff! If you're gonna just set up different patches, and put them in the order of your songs, this is perfect. BUT, if you're gonna get different pedals, avoid this one. Just get the stomboxes you're gonna use and put them in a good order. This pedal is hard to fit into an order, cause a good order is like wah(or later)-compressor-EQ-distortion-EQ(optional)-wah-phaser-chorus-flanger-pitch bend-trem-vibrato-delay-reverbs-volume. But, if you're gonna use the 505 and other stompboxes, and want to use the 505 as different pedals, like I did, you can't find a good place to put it. It's hard to fit into your chain. I ended up moving it three or four times, just couldn't find a good home for it. I've played guitar for four years, electric for two and a half. I would not buy this again probably. Not because I hated it, I just don't want to go multi-effects processor. I think individual stompboxes are the way to go. I love the built-in tuner. I hated the flanger. The EQ was hard to figure out. This pedal takes time to get used to. It's a great intro to effects. Don't get turned off by negative ratings. I think those people used this pedal for the wrong things. It didn't really help me make music, cause it can take forever to find a style with it. Now, I have a friend who uses it on albums, and comes up with some solid settings. They have a song on their latest album that has an almost organ-sounding guitar that I'm sure this created. It's a neat sound that you can't get real easily off a board full of stompboxes. Play with it and see what you think. It is cheaper than buying a couple distortions, a chorus, a phaser, a flanger, a delay, a tuner, an EQ and all that stuff. But, some of the effects aren't as good as a stompbox would be. But, can you fault something for not being what it was not intended to be?

it's not my pedal but my friend lets me use it, but he seems to be able to edit a patch very easily

this is my setup ibanez rg270 deluxe - boss mt-2 metal zone - zoom 505 - boss ge-7 equalizer - morle pro series wah - boss dd-3 digital delay - peavey 80 watt amp. If I were to use this pedal it'd be for simple effects such as flange, phaser, chorus etc. I wouldn's use effects like the pitch shifter wah or digital delay, since it'd be better to get a dedicated pedal and have more control. as for the other "simple" effects, they sound pretty good, and i just keep on a clean sound and keep all the ones i use in songs next to each other.

don't know

not mine

i usually buy boss since i like their pedals,but since they're expensive i can't buy too many. flanger phaser and chorus all cost at least $100. buying this pedal would give you all the little effects for $100. and some other stuff to try out.

Easy to change sounds etc.
Anoyingly my pedal goes from A4 to A1 again and not up - I can't sort it.

This pedal sounds incredibly noisy. When putting it through an amp at volume it sounds like someone is frying sausages. It also has a horrible tinny sound on most patches that sounds like someone banging two metal pipes. Do not buy this if you are going to gig!

That said it does sound ok with headphones or a 10 watt practice amp.

Basically this pedal is for those who have bought their first guitar and want to say that sounds like the guitar in some song!

This pedal is terrible for playing publicly and is very very hissy.
I now only use mine for a tuner when it is too noisy to tune by ear.

Easy. If u have problems operating this then u are dumb. The only slight nusance is pushing the two pedals at the same time to bypass the effect.

Ok this is what I ahev a problem with. This pedal really does SUCK. The modulation type effects really don't cut it against the infinitely more pro-sounding stomp boxes from boss, danelectro, digitech etc. The distortions are just terrible. Anyone who thinks that they are better than the amp distortions should go back to baby school. We are talking in big boy language here. When u are playing guitar u don't want a distortion like a goddamn five year old whining at ya. Delay/reverb etc - come on. Basically this pedal covers the extreme basics of guitar effects - badly.

It's plastic.

Where I live this is the perrenial teeny guitar players pedal. Everyone under 16 who plays guitar has one and it is destroying the quality of bands at the moment. Any guitar player who thinks that this is going to make them sound like their hero (Kurt Cobain, Billy Joe, Munky, Head, Adam Jones etc) is severely mistaken. It seems to me that this is usually every players first effects pedal and it is bought before they really get the idea of a GOOD TONE. I've played live alongside those bands that use it and to be honest the 505 ruins what could be a good song. I will advise anyone thinking of going into multi effects pedals for the first time to SERIOUSLY shop around outside the zoom range. Yes, granted they cost a lot less than the lastest (but infinitely better) models from digitech or whoever else, BUT once u get better at recognising good tone u will curse the day u set eyes on this thing cuz it WILL limit your growth as a player.

Quite easy to work once you get the hang of it - my first multi effects box so I am a bit biased, but give yourself a while and it is easy to use.

Basically, it all depends on what you are looking for - some effects, for example compressor , limiter , chorus etc are not that great by themselves - they are kind of watered-down versions of what you expect, but I love the distortions on this, especially the fuzz- it gives a great big muff / smashing pumpkins / nirvana type sound, from almost any guitar - you don't need humbukcers to make it rock. Some of the other distrtions, particlarly the thrash and distortion effects sound quite fake and digital, but that might be just what you are looking for - this isn't for the 50 something blues player who loves subtle, warm sustain. I think zoom custom designed this for penniless teenagers who want gain! Again, I love the fuzz effect on this - it is so grungy and sustainy and cool. I can get really nice delay and reverb sounds from this pedal as well- you can go from lush, lightly chorused reverb or delayed sounds to full on grunge fuzz! Exactly what so many younger players want. Overall I think it sounds great, there are loads of variations you can find and different combinations of effects.

It is plastic, so if you jump up and down on it you can depend that it will break. But, if it is treated with respect, it should last a long time. It would be interesting if zoom brought out a new version in a thick metal casing. That would be very 'cool'. I'd gig without a backup becasue it seems to be well put together elctronically etc. Does a keyboard player have a spare keyboard at gigs?

I play various things, when using this I would be inclined to play alternative pmumkins esque stuff, just becasue I love the fuzz sound and the clean tones you can get. The contrast between the two are what really make this work for me. I'd buy it again. If you want your band to 'rock' and you can't afford every vintage fuzz box and chorus reissue out there, I'd strongly recommend getting one. Value for money is excellent.

It is AWESOME. I liked the first one I owned so much that I got another to see what happens when I mix them. It's easy to use. All you do is push a few buttons and store and that's it! It's really easy. It takes a second to understand and read up on but it's really easy once you get the hang of it

I use a Peavey Bandit 112 with it. It works great with my amp the way I see it. I can get most sounds from Metallica and Pantera out of it with a few exceptions on my amp and other effects pedal. The flange and chorus are extra good as far as sound goes.

Well.... I broke my voltage regulator in it somehow, I think I was getting too much power into it or something an dI had to send it back. Otherwise I trust it.

I sent it in to Samson and it took about 2-3 months to get it back. I called them various times and they said it would be done within the next week every time but they finally got it backl as good as new after a while.

I play Metal and the Distortion effects are awesome. I have played for 4 years only and I bought a BOSS hyper-metal for the same price and it doesn't sound half as good as the metal distortion effect on this.

This multi effect pedal is very easy to use; you just need to sit down for about five minutes and you know all about it right away. If you are dumb and don't know that there is a d-load, you are going to have to go through many different presets to go from, for example, a1 to e3. If you notice the d-load, you can go from a1 to e3 without going through any other sounds.

If you know how to use it well, you can get really good sounds out of it. The distortions sound pretty good, especially METAL and BLUES distortions. The other effects are also quite good except for the pitch shifter witch sounds quite weird.
I use a peavey bandit 65 amp and with a samick guitar. Even though my guitar isn't amazing, it sounds really good with the zoom505.
The ZNR(zoom noise reduction) is very good because it refrains your amp from any buzzing when you stop playing. I like the sound a lot.

I've had that pedal for exactly a year and I've never had any problems with it. I already used it in gigs without a backup and it was totally fine. But, DON'T USE 9V BATTERIES WITH IT! It kills them in about 45 minutes. A boss adapter fits very well with it.

I've never had anything to do with the company so I don't know how they are. I also never got it repaired, but the guys at the guitar shop were really cool and helpful.

I play mostly Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera & Guns&Roses. It fits really well with the sound I need for what I play.
I've been playing guitar for three years, and I use to have a boss ds-1. You can get the exact same sound out of the zoom505 + 23 other effects wicth you can combine to make amazing sounds. I wish it still lasts long because I really like it and also, I don't have enough money to invest in a new multi effect pedal.
If you know how to use it well and know how to get good presets out of it, it's an amazing pedal for the price paid and the variation of sounds. I say you should buy it if you're searching for something not to expensive, you'll have a lot of fun with it.

Now, I dont understand everyones bullshittin about this pedal. I can guarantee you the distortions on this pedal is better than your amps distortion. This pedal make some of the coolest sounds you can get for a low price. Im useing the best guitars in the world-Les Pauls and it sounds kick ass. Whowever says its below a five has something criticly wrong with them. Ive been playing for 3 years and this is a phat pedal. It is very easy to use.

Like I said, the sound of this is boss. You can acually create your own sounds. I use one of the coolest amps- Peavey Banddit 112. By the way, peavey amps kick ass. There are 24 factory set sounds. You can get any sound out of this from any band.

Well its plastic and it was smaller than i though it was, but it should last awhile

Never had

This is a fantastic value for 99 bucks. This is one of the best pedals you can get, no matter what. It makes awsome sounds like flanger, corus, jet, wah, vib, blah blah. Its a cool pedal and I would recommend it to any guitarist.

this is the only category that this pedal gets a semi-decent rating in.
the pedal is not very hard to figure out at all.

i play a prs mccarty through a 70's bassman. i bought this pedal to
screw around with on my 4 track just for fun...it was only 100 bucks!
the pedal sounded like such crap, i couldn't even use it as a joke and had
to send it back! nothing on this pedal sound even remotely decent!
i hate to put people down, but anyone who thinks this pedal sounds good
should be shot. a beginner guitarist might think it's a good deal, but
i strongly recommend not wasting your money. the only semi-usable
feature is the tuner. i've never heard such horrible distortions!!

plastic, non-sturdy construction...probably won't last
i wouldn't be caught dead at a gig with one of these

i bought mine from ams...i returned it but they were very disorganized
and extremely late on sending the check. i have no clue about zoom's
customer service

it doesn't matter what style of music you play...this pedal's crap. once you have been playing a while and learn what a good guitar tone
really is, you'll laugh at this pedal. i would get a better sound plugging my guitar into my ass

Yeah, like all zoom products a damn two year old could get a noise out of it. However there is no way u can skip from say a1 to f4 without going through a million and one other things first.

Ok, lets get one thing straight - this is a novelty pedal and nothing else. I just about guarantee you will use it maybe three times in your entire career as a guitarist. The effects are fairly ok-ish but as with most zoom products they are NOTHING compared to the sounds of Boss, Danelectro, Electro-Harmonix and all the other great pedal companies. The distortions SUCK. The other fx are much better by comparison but are crap compared to others. This pedal really has what the 1010 should have had - is outlandish effects. But really it just blows due to crap sound quality. Every time i plugged it in I had visions of Eric Cartman going "Oh come on guys - you are really reaching right now". Basically it has the bark but not the bite.

It's plastic. It broke. End of.

Trying to find Zoom is like finding a needle in a haystack. They left one number on the manual and that was a dud. Took me and my girlfriend three hours to get hold of someone who actually had there Japan number. They then directed me to another American number. The people on this line were absoluty rubbish. They new NOTHING about the effect, refused to send a replacement and insulted my girlfriend in the process. I was appalled at this and have since lodged a complaint with the company who offered to send me a new pedal. I told them to F**k off. (Please excuse the language.)

Since I had this pedal it has done nothing but dissappoint me. Basically it is and amateur guitarists pedal. I am a pro session guitarist and it does NOT compete with anything I have ever played. My advice is to avoid all Zoom pedals at all costs. They suck. Maybe in about twenty years I might have considering buying one again (once they'd sorted the sound quality out) but the customer "support" left a sour taste in my mouth and has put me off ever since.

Its pretty easy to use, except for trying to stomp 2 pedals at once to bypass something.

24 factory presets, 23 of which are useless. This is a novelty pedal, nothing more, nothing less. The distortions suck, the rest of the presets are off the wall spacey bullshit. B1 is the only preset I use. I still keep it in line just for the tuner.

Its plastic, who knows how long it will last. I still have boss pedals from the 80's that work fine, I wouldn't bet on this one with regular use to last very long.

I'd like to call them and get my money back.

This thing is bound to end up on Ebay as soon as I buy an inline tuner.

I give it a nine because you have to set it yourself. Say you have it set to the type of distortion you want, and then you want to kick in the wah or some delay, well if you don't have that setting already programmed in, then you have to go through alot of buttons to get it going.

I use it with an epiphone les paul and a fender chorus 2x12 combo. It can be noisy if you don't tinker with it a bit (ie. compression, gain, eq, noise filter). Most of the effects are great but don't get too picky with this pedal, too many at one time make it sound crappy. The best setting I've found for good distortion is compression of 5, overdrive, gain of 30, noise reduction at 9, eq at 27, and volume around 20. This will give you about the closest sound to a tube amp as you can get with this unit. I play alot of blues and alt rock.

I haven't had a problem with it yet.
I suppose I'd use it without a backup.

Haven't dealt with them yet.

Overall, it is a great starter multi fx because it is cheap and it can do alot. I really do like the acoustic setting although it has alot of bass to it if you have humbucking pickups. I tried it out at the store on a fender because that's what I had at the time, but now that I acquired the epiphone, it just doesn't quite cut it.

Sit down with it for 5 mins, you got it!

For the money, this pedal rocks! I mean, you can't pay $100 or less for a pedal that sound like this ones does, and is as customizable as this one is. There are sites upon sites about how to customize this pedal. I know for a fact that Adam Jones from Tool uses or has used one.

Never had issues with it. It seems fine to me...

Never called them.

I am telling you, this pedal ROCKS! I love it...would NEVER part with it!

It's fairly easy to use, it has quite a lot of possible combinations, the manual is easy to follow. As far as ease it is a

I am using a 1962 Harmonie combo. 2/12's. and an epiphone SG. It has alot of effects but most of them you aren't gonna use cause they don't sound very good. I've had a hard time getting a decent distortion

you can depend on it. I use it for gigs, and i don't have any backups.

i play mostly weezer influenced music, and i just don't like the distortion. everything else is nice. if it was lost i would probably buy a different distortion pedal. but i'm not going to sell it. cause it does have some real nice acoustic effects.

It's pretty easy to work with. Before this, I had a KORG multi-fx
pedal, -too hard to use. This is simple and straightforward.

I have a Gibson Les Paul w/2 humbuckers-and a Crate GX-15.
It's not too noisy-I love A4 (Metal)! It kicks!
The distortions don't have enough low-end crunch, but they're
awesome for the price! I play Living End and Nirvana stuff.
Its good enough-not bad. Chorus and acoustic effects are cool.

Yeah, I can depend on it.
Yeah, I would use it on a gig without a backup.

idono i've never had trouble.

Overall, its a great value! It's the same price as 1 BOSS pedal!
Here, you get 24 effects! What a deal.
Great first pedal.

get the best destortion out of your 505!!!i got the pedal and hooked it on metal destortion ok i thought. well, all of the destortion souds like crap in less you listen to me. set DIS/to METAL , the GAIN/to 26 the AMPSIM/to A9 EQ/to 50AND VOLUME TO 26 .if you do this it s the best metal your gonna get out of it

if followed like above the sound quality should be top nouch.im using a piece of crap epiphone les paul (beat to hell)and a GXT-CRATE AMP.
all of the distortions are noisey except the way i have set and sounds great.great if set up right for PanterA and METALLICA.

you can always depend on it if your using a adapter because it eats up batteries.i would use it on a gig without a back up but just in case my amp has distortion.

didn't need to never had a problam yet and ive had it sence it came out 2 years ago.

i play PANTERA AND METALLICA and if you set it right yyou can get a SSSSSSWWWWWEEEEEEETTTTTT tone.ive been playing for 4 years and my get up is pretty cool.it it broke or got stolen i would buy it again.i love every thing about it but when you use an amps distortion it gets real noisy when using the effects.

The distortions are not smooth and often not heavy enough even when you try to create your own.

My left pedal broke after six months of using it, I didn't misuse it. The bank buttons often got stuck and started banking very rapidly.

This one of the better categories for the 505, it's pretty simple to operate. How hard can an up/down bank system be? It would have been nice to have a little more of a display area, most of the editing is done only with short abbreviations on the 7 segment display. With only two pedals, you have to plan out clean patches next to distortions. (or just bypass) Either you love this or hate this idea, but for me it works.

Many people say this the downfall for the 505, but what can you expect for $99 bucks, you get what you pay for. For this price range I think the zoom is a solid performer, I'm not saying the zoom is a fabulous product, just a solid all in one box. There isn't much of a choice in the overall delay and reverb settings and some of the distortions are downright horrible(noise), but you can get some good overdrive tones and a decent metal tone if you use the regular distortion instead of the one labeled "metal". The pitch shifting does sound generic and most patches do have a grating digital plastic sound to them, but overall I give the sound quality a 6.

This is one of my major problems with the system. It's all plastic, to save money I'm sure, but three times I have had to take it apart and fix the pedals so they would actually change patches and I never stomp on the pedal, so I figure it should last,right? I guess: Wrong!
And trying to push both pedals to bypass or tune can be serious trouble.

I've never had a problem with the company, but their website seems to be informative and you can contact them so....

Overall it has to be a 6-7. I know it might seem a little contradictory to my previous ratings, but if you're looking for a good,cheap, all-in-one box, this Zoom does it all for less,with decent sounds, and an easy interface.

it's my first multi effect...but i can use it's full function directly..
and the manual is very good too.

i haven't played in gig...but at home, it's sound is very amazing with it's price...but EQ is....--;

i get used...but it's like a new one...so...i think it's very durable..but..it's made of plastic...um...
i don't know....

it's very good to use at home...but i don't know at gig....
(i haven't played at gig yet...)
and it has many effect..so we can save much money...

for a *big complicated digital device* it was pretty easy to change and save presets.

ok, here's the deal, for the effects, it was great. i love the delay on the 505, reverb and chorus were great, BUT all and i mean all of the distortions/overdrives were really weak. when i tried to use just the effects and my amp overdrive, there was so much background noise, i couldn't even hear the guitar. and since i play mostly metal, this pedal wasn't very impressive

well, for the short while i had mine, it didn't break, but i was carefull with it. hell, look at it, it's plastic, how reliable can it be?

didn't have mine long enough to need it

i plat mostly metal. i've been playing about 6 years, and i'm very picky about my distortion tone. all of the distortions on the 505 were weak and thin. if you're a beginner, and you want a grab-bag of effects, this is the pedal for you, but if you want heavy, powerfull distortion tone, don't get a 505

the concept of use seems easy, but it's not. select the patch you want with the up/down pedals; simple right? sure, if the two you want are right next to each other. so they let you switch to a mode where you selct the patch you want and push both pedals to go to it. however, both pedals must be pushed in perfect unison, and even then sometimes it will erraticaly switch to a different effect all together

I use a carvin ultrav with EMG 81s thru an ART amp. It is very noisy, and using any distortion other than "Lead" will result in very strange squealing and roaring sounds to come when you play high notes. In, fact, the "lead" distortion is the only one that you can rtelly use, all the others sound like crap unless they are turned way down. It has a noise reduction that actually creates noise, and the compressor doesn't do anything, and neither does the limiter, except for slightly lower the volum on it's highest setting. In fact, of all 24 effects, the only ones that work at all is "lead" distortion, reverb and chorus, and the delay is OK, but other than delay, i can gt the others from my amp. If you ever play one, try the pitch shifter effect, a pitiful harmonizer effect that sounds remakably like an out-of-tune pipe organ

it worked fine untill i plugged it into the wrong AC adapter and since ZOOM was too cheap to put in a fuse, it fried it and i now have a $100 paper weight.

i tried to call them once, but there is none, unless you can speak Japanese and want to spend more on the phone call than you did on the pedal

now that it's fried, i will definately NOT buy another ZOOM product, as it is paradoxically pointless, 24 effects and you can only use a few. But, it did do it's job for a while, and a overdrive stomp box and a tuner would have cost about the same, so i can't really complain too much, it did serve me for quite some time

Well, it has two main buttons, an up and a down. It also has a few smaller buttons to edit and store and switch banks. The manual is really informative; it didn't leave anything out. I don't think this unit has been upgraded. There are a total of 24 programs, 24 factory set. Sometimes it is hard to scroll up and down the programs.

Well, the sound is awesome. It's stereo. The effects are all good. I don't use it generally to get the sound of artists but it can produce some Metallica and Collective Soul. I generally use it in establishing my own unique sound. The effects it comes with is as follows: 8 distortions, hall and room reverbs, chorus, flanger, delay, pitch shifter, doubler, phaser, and compression.

Well it has died on me once and before I got the AC adaptor, it ate 9 volts so I reccomend not using batteries and just spending the extra 20 bucks and getting an AC adaptor. I use it at gigs without a backup because I have nothing to back it up with except my amp effects.

I've never dealt with ZOOM.

I play everything from blues to metal. It gives me every type of sound I could need. It's very compact so it's extremely portable. If it were stolen or lost I'd probably get another one because it has everything I need and it was a good value. What I like about it is the clear stereo sound but I don't like having only two buttons. It helps me create my own music and when my band is playing covers it also helps a lot. There is no song that I don't use it. I just want to say that if you find one, get it but look at the competition. If you want something compact, get the 505. If you want something a little more advanced, then get something with more thn two buttons.

This little "soap box" is very easy to use. 24 patches, all user edit able, enough for most guitarists. The patch editing is easy to use even without the manual, because of easy interface (display and leds show where you go). The manual (a big folded sheet) is pretty clumsy to use if certain info is needed. Some of the factory sounds are ok, but most of them are crap. Anyway I think they are only demos what the 505 can do. Built in chromatic tuner can be used in sound or silent mode.

First I used it for practicing through headphones and my setup was: Charvel 2 -> 505 -> phones. This sounded great on every patch I made. When I plugged this "thing" to my amp, the result was something unexpected. The background noise of the 505 was very high for a digital device. At this time the setup was: Charvel 2 -> 505 -> Marshall SL100 + 412 w/30W Greenbacks. This setup required some re-editing to every sound, but I got pretty close to what I was looking for.
The only sound I couldn't get even close was my Mega Metal Killer Kruntz mod that I had in my Marshall before I reissued it back to original .The 505 found to be very noisy at higher sound levels and the noise was present on mute or bypass mode also. I emailed few times to Zoom in Japan about background noise and after few bitter emails they managed to reply always with the same "helpful" notes: "Use ZNR or check your settings". Ok, my third setup was Charvel 2 -> Dod Grunge -> 505 -> Marshall SL100+412w/30W Greenbacks.
The 505 was only for chorus,wah and reverb. The background noise was as before, but by using same PSU for Grunge and 505 caused a high pitched noise to the signal. A little trick fixed it.
This setup was the closest to Van Halen's "brown sound". As a reference, I made this setup: Charvel 2 -> Dod Grunge -> Ibanez DCF10 (a 8-bit digital chorus) -> Marshall SL100 + 412 w/30W Greenbacks. No noise was present when the Grunge was bypassed. Referring it to the 505's bypass mode it was dead quiet.
After been fed up with the background noise, I decided to peek inside the "soap box" to see why the background noise is so high. After a short study with the signal generator and the scope I found it. To compensate the signal loss in the digital process, the gain of the output amp is set pretty high and this produces the noise. Bug in the level adjusting algorithm?. So, every Zoom product with the same level adjusting algorithm will have this "nice" (C'mon hear the noise) feature.
The 505 is protected against reverse DC polarity so powering with same psu other effects, short circuits filtering inside the Zoom and causes a high pitched noise to the signal. This can be prevent by using only +pole of the dc plug and grounding is provided via in/out jacks.
All distortion sounds were good, I can't say great but good and very useful for different guitar playing styles. Maybe some density were needed. I don't use much chorus, but it was enough for my taste. The pedal wah was too weak and was no replacement for Crybaby. I didn't use phasing or delays for anything, but I checked them out and some delays are useful. I didn't like phasing sounds at all. I have MXR Phase100, so there was nothing to compare.
The reverbs were the best part of this "soap box", very clear and airy. The pedal pitch shift was the best pitch shifting sound, but was pretty tricky to use untill I modified the pedal little bit.
I played with '75 Strat all setups above and they sounded what can be expected: Good old Strat sound with some pickup hum, but anyway they sounded great. ZNR worked much better with humbuckers than single coils and was good for preventing unwanted pickup feedback, but worked well when string feedback was needed.

I opened the unit, so I can say it will take pretty rough handling.

Catch Us If You Can or Contact Us If You Can. I've dealt with the company few times and their customer service sucks or simply - they think there's no need for it.
After some frustrated emails they might reply. Those guys simply refused to believe that there's a bug in their product and I think when the 505 was on the test bench they were wearing earplugs.
As a reference, I've dealt with some US, UK and German companies and the customer support has been excellent.

I play mainly metal, southern rock and some heavier blues. It's good for practicing through the phones, but plugging it to an amp or recording with it, you're in trouble. The sounds are good and pretty satisfying, but the background noise is really annoying if the 505 is used for more serious playing. If it were stolen or lost, I would buy something else than Zoom. I was concidering to check out the GFX707, but it has the same 505 quality (NOISE and of course Zoom customer service) I changed my mind. I chose Zoom for it versality but dissapointed with the quality. The sounds and ease of use are good. I even designed a remote control for the 505 (bank up/down, patch up/down and bypass) for faster patch changing in the gigs and because the patch up and down pads are too close each other and made me to bypass the unit too often. But the noise made it useless for that purpose.
This is my first and probably the last product I'll buy from Zoom.
I don't recommend this or any other Zoom product to anyone who wants quality. If there is still someone who's concidering to buy this little piece of shit, think twice, test it with sound level you play with your band. We have saying: "You'll get shit for free, so why pay for it". I know it's cheap, but by investing more money for your gear you'll save your nervous and money.

Very simple. First pedal scans up through the effects, pedal 2 scans
down. Both at the same time brings up the tuner. Creating your own
presets is easy too. At first you will need the manual to let you
know what effect is under each category but you will eventually
memorize where everything is.

I have a Karera strat hooked up to a Brownsville Thug amp. First time
I ran through all the effects I thought it was very impressive. Alot
better then the DOD Tec8 that I used to have. Some distortions give off a wicked buzz when your not playing but others are just perfect.
Like all processors theres effects that your gonna find worthless but
you can edit them out later. I like the pedal because it dosnt get sluppy at loud volumes. I also run my microphone, keyboards, and drum
machines through it. It adds alot to them as well.

I've had it for a year and theres not a scratch on it. I dont suggest
backing a truck over it though. Im not big on jumping on my equipment
either...

Never had to deal with them. Thats a good thing.

I play alot of ambient, progressive, goth rock type stuff. Wierd
noises are a key for me. I dont know how this thing would work
out for someone like David Gilmour though. Best play with this
in the store for a while but I think its perfect for the price
and alot better then some expensive processors I've used.

It is really easy to use, editing patches is also easy.
Little buttons in both sides are too small to use with foot.
Manual is pretty good.

I use my 505 with Marshall VS15 and Jackson DX-4.
It's not noisy when used with noise destroyer.
505's distortions are almost good, but other effects are bad.
All effects has a "plastic" sound.
Pedal wah is really bad.

plastic.............................!!!

Never dealt with them.

I play many different styles (metal to jazz).
I have been playing 4 years.
I think it's better to get little more money and buy a better effects
processor than 505.
Overall, Zoom 505 is very P L A S T I C.

This pedal kicks ass. I got it a year ago, and have put it through hell. Its been on the road, at gigs, thrown down a few flight of stairs, and it sounds just as good as when i opened it. Its about the easiest Multi-effect I've ever seen or used. I've tryed the big ass boss floor pedals, their nice, but this pedal is easy to take along, and pack. its a beautiful thing.

I use a Washburn Maverick Series, and a Crate GX-15R. They were both used when I got them, but this pedal makes them sound new as hell, the pre amp feature makes a real difference. In my own prespective, every type of destortion is awesome, I play alot of everything. the Reverbs are alright, the room reverb sucks, but hall is great, Wah-Wah effects come in 2 versions, Pedal Wah, and Manual Wah, Pedal wah is alright if you want it to sound a little wahhy but the manual wah sucks. I ended up bying a basic Crybaby pedal, but the ZOOM and the Crybaby work extremely well together.

Its awesome like i said before, its been through hell, and has never broke. Its a beautiful pedal, I used it at a few intense shows, and it always has worked, the only that screwed it up was me. :)

Never had to call'em

I Play EVERYTHING, it works too, you can make some weird shit come out of this box. Overall rating is that its a beautiful pedal, and If I lost it or something, I'd buy a new one along with a GFX-707. :)

Very easy to use. Bank switch buttons on right, A-F, and large foot-stompable pedals, patch up/down. LCD display shows the bank/patch you're using. Editing patches is very easy...takes no time to feel comfortable using it. Instructions explain everything that pretty much explains itself anyway. To bypass the unit, just tap both patch changing pedals at the same time.

I love this pedal -- I use a Peavy Blazer 158 (piece of crap) and an Epiphone $200 model....both crappy entrylevel stuff, and I get an awesome sound out of it. Of course if I owned a Marshall, it would sound a ton better, but considering the equipment I own, it's great.
Different dist. types, from blues and fuzz to metal. I only use 2, Distortion and Metal. Settings such as chorus, delay, flange, phaser, and a few others have 9 presets to choose from for that particular effect. No choosing any parameters, so hope u like their preset choices. Reverb (room and hall) sounds good....room sucks, hall is much better. Flange sounds too much like the phaser. Overall, good effects and sound.

Great reliability. I would use it at a gig w/ out a backup anyday, if I played gigs of course. Once I thought I broke it, but I really turned direct-load off. Read about it in the manual, very simple concept and easy to turn on/off. No biggy, of course I thought it was at first.

Never dealt w/ them.

I play mainly metal, heavy stuff, like Metallica. This pedal suits it perfect. I've been playing a lil over 2 years, or maybe 3. I don't remember. If it were lost or stolen, I'd prolly save up and buy a better pedal, but that's cuz I'm better than I used to be, but this pedal is great for any relative beginner and even to a more experienced player. My friend who is very very good at guitar (playin for 5 years) uses this pedal too. This is a definite buy.

The sounds are cool at first but sound the same after a few short hours. Editing patches is not too bad after you get the hang of it. The manual is week but I experimented with different settings a soon as I figured out how to. Not sure on the firmware. No upgrades made to it.

I use a Peavey 5150 Combo and a Wolfgang Special, a Boss DD-3 and an MXR Phase 90. The Zoom 505 it way too noisy to use with the amp period. With or without effects pedals. Duplicating EVH Sounds is pretty good if you plug rhe Zoom into you stereo's auxillary input or use headphones. It pretty much blows with an amp even through the effects loop. The distortions are ok but again thy're best with head phones.

Yes I can depend on it for only what it's intended to do. No I would not even think of gigging with it, except maybe for the tone deaf. No Offense.

Have not need any support.

I like Metal, blues, country, and hard rock. I works ok with some of those styles. I've been playing about a year. I have a Yamaha Electric Acc. travel guitar, a Kramer Farrington Elec. Acc., an Ernie Ball Music Man EVH Copy guitar made in Korea, and a Peavey Wolfgang Special. I also have a Boss DD-3, MXR Phase 90 and a Peavey 5150 Combo amp. If the Zoom was stolen, I get an ME-30 by Boss. I like the size of this unit it's great for the car and hotel rooms packs easily. I like the fact I can take it anywhere. I hate the sound and noise it generates through the amp. My favorite feature is the headphone jack for use in almost silence. There's reall nothing else I can find in this price range, except maybe the ME-30 but that's $150.00 more. I chose it for the price and cool features. I wish it had an on/off switch and that it came with the AC adapter. The thing eats batteries like they are going out of style!!! It helps me with music as long as I remember what it's best at. Buy it used. Don't pay more that $50 to $60 tops. It's great fo a student or new guitarist who can't swing an amp yet and just wants to play.

It takes a little getting used to tweaking the patches, but it is well worth spending the time. I found the only big problem is when I got stuck in Bank Hold mode while jamming I had to dig out the manual to get out of that setting and held up our rehearsal but that was a one time thing. Once you are really comfortable setting up patches this pedal is a breaze to use.

I am surprised to see as many negative reviews as positive on this pedal. No question the default settings are mostly lame, and some patches can be really hissy and noisy if not set up correctly, but I was able to find solutions to all my gripes with a little patience. The biggest help is eliminating the compression or lowering the EQ settings when noise is a factor. I have used my Gibson Sonex 180, An Ibanez that had both coil and humbuckers, and a Squire Tele and was able to set up patches that did everything I wanted with each one. I have used the pedal with a Fender Frontman 15, An old amp I have that just says Minstrel on the face, and my baby my Lab Series L5 and can make them all sound sweet with the patches customized for the particular combonations. I get Hendrix-like distortions, Clean BB King like blues, and the reverbs are great especially the hall reverbs.

As another person here said there is metal under the plastic case and I doubt you could do much damage to it unless you really abused it. I would not expect a need for a backup, but for appx $100 it wouldn't be a huge expense.

Thankfully I've had no need but they have a good official web page and there are several excellent patch related player based pages with ideas to try out.

This catagory is so easy for me. How could you deny this amazing value? I really believe that any naysayers did not really play with this baby before they gave up on it. I'm a casual player but I have been playing for over 20 yrs and I sincerely believe all you need is this pedal, a decent clean amp and your fave gipfiddle to sound like the guitar god that is in us all. Einstein said the imagination is more important than knowledge, and if a little bit of it is applied with this pedal the sky is the limit. I only reccomend that you get a real wah pedal like a Cry Baby (my choice) and put it before the Zoom and then direct into your amp. When I put my Cry Baby after the pedal it kinda killed the Zoom's effect and the wah sound overrode everything, but in the reverse order it wails! If I lost it I would either buy another or I see they have a newer model with a built in expression pedal and sampler. I'd love to try the pitch bender effect since I never liked whammy bars on my axe but would love to try some of those Korn like effects.

Really easy. Takes no skill to press 2 buttons. It takes some skill to edit patches though.

I think they have really neat sounds on this thing, but I really couldn't get a cut sound out of this thing. Whenever I played with my band, the sound would just be a bunch of distortion. You couldn't really make out what I was playing. I tried all kinds of things to get it to cut more, but then I just got fed up. Although, if you're a recording person or live in an apartment and don't want to wake everyone up, this pedal is great if you're just playing in your room. It has great cabinet emulation (makes it sound like a beefed up cabinet, but not as loud) and the effects it has are really good. I got the separate expression pedal (FP02) also. To me, the expression pedal is almost half the pedal. It's great for volume and the other expression applications, but it sucks for wah. It's not shaped like a wah and it doesn't feel like a wah, so using it for wah is a bad idea. And the wah on the Zoom sucks anyway. I really only use this pedal for the interesting synth sounds I can get out of it. I like it 'cause I can use it in my room and not disturb anyone. The tuner is not bad either.

I don't know. It's plastic. It'll go at one point or another. Haven't had any problems yet.

Never dealth with them.

I wish there was more ways to edit patches. But if you don't feel like editing them, there are some great ones on there. For the cost, it's an excellent pedal for beginners. If you're just starting to get pedals, and you don't have the cash or don't know what you want, get a multi-effects pedal. That way, you can find out what effects are out there, and the technical lingo that goes with them. This one is super-cheap, but again, you get what you pay for. The digitech Multi-effects pedals are the best I've seen, and the Boss GT-3 and GT-5 are great also. But if you don't have the cash, get the Zoom. And get the expression pedal too. I think that is $50. I would reccommend this for beginners and people who would only use it for neat sounds every now and then. But after a while, you're gonna have to get something better than this.

It's very easy to learn how to use the thing. Editing patches is a trial and error thing for the most part. The manual is easy to understand.

I use the zoom with a Gibson SG special and a Epiphone Special II. I play through a Sheriff 100 watt all tube head through a Marshall JCM 800 Half stack. I also use it through an Epiphone EP-800R 15-watt solid state. Basically if you use good cables and adapters and have quiet pickups in your Guitar it does a good job at noise reduction. My Gibson is very quiet with it and the Epiphone is also quiet but not as much. The Wah totally sucks, go buy yourself a Jim Dunlop Crybaby for that, don't bother with the Zoom Wah Expression pedal add on. The Delay also has lots to be desired for, like if it could be delayed at least 3 times longer instead of the skimpy 370ms. The reverbs are good and they are comprable to the built in reverbs on many amplifiers and the chorus is also good in the same respects. The Distortions are not of top quality and they don't offer many options on adjusting the sound but a few are usefull. Flange is also decent, in General most of the effect on this pedal are decent except fo Wah and delay.

Yes it is dependable if you take good care of it, but I mean really goood care, just be carefull with it and it should last a long time and if it doesn't then don't feel to bad because your only out a 100 bucks or so. It's Plastic but durable plastic, I only wish the LED display was more durable, mine has scratches all over after less than a month of use.

Never dealt with them

I experiment with all kinds of music from Punk to folk to Classical to Jazz. Basically this pedal won't fit any style perfectly but you should be able to find some use for it no matter what you play. I also own (as far as effects go) a Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah which is a must if you like Wah and it's virtually the industry standard. I also own a Boss Hyper Metal Distortion Pedal, and a Boss Original distortion pedal as well as an Arion Chorus effects unit. To put it simply the Zoom won't work wonders or sound Professional but it's cheap and can be alot of fun if you experiment alot. It also serves perfectly as an Emergency backup and as a headphone amp. It is also the best thing you can buy if you got little money and want to get into multi-effects. My Boss distortion pedals sound better but they are not nearly worth the diversity you can get out of the 505.

IT'S PRETTY EASY TO USE. YOU JUST HAVE TO GET THE HANG OF IT. MANUAL IS GOOD.. SHOWS YOU HOW TO WORK WITH THE PEDAL.

THE SOUND IS OK. IT GIVES A HUMMMMMMM TO THE SOUND WHEN YR NOT PLAYING SO THAT'S BAD.. THE DISTORTIONS ARE NOT THAT GOOD... THE SOUND EFFECTS AREN'T THAT GREAT EITHER ,BUT THEY'RE OK.. I JUST USE THE 505 MAINLY FOR THE EFFECTS (FLANGER,CHORUS ETC.) AND USE A BOSS OS-2 FOR DIST.,ALSO USE A CRYBABY 535 AND I JUST PUT THE DOD PHASER IN THERE ALTHOUGH IT'S NOT THAT GOOD!!!

I'M NOT SURE!!!! IT'S PLASTIC!!! BUT IT WILL DO!!!

IT'S AN OK PEDAL.IT'S VERY GOOD FOR THE PRICE. GOOD PEDAL FOR BEGINNERS THAT DON'T WANT TO PAY A LOT FOR SEPERATE PEDALS. I THINK I WOULDN'T BUY IT AGAIN ALTHOUGH I'M NOT SURE!!! OVERALL IT'S A COOL PEDAL!!!

Um, this pedal took me about 15 minutes to figure out, so that's good. You have to play with it a lot, but the instruction manual is very descriptive.

I use a fender squire Strat (cheap but I like it), Fender Hot rod Deluxe amp (awesome tone), but when I got my Zoom i had a Dean Markley k-20 15 watter (piece of CRAP). The Zoom sounded great through my Dean Markley. It had too much high end but I fixed that. But as soon as the "novelty" wore off I started to hate this effect box. First of all, I spent 50$ on an expression pedal for wah. The wah is the most disgusting wah on the planet! so, I slowly started to compare and contrast my Zoom to other pedals. The separate effects boxes make the Zoom sound like a toy musicbox! When I got my New Hot Rod deluxe, I plugged the Zoom into my effects loop to see how it would sound. It hissed like a cobra! and it took away from my new awesome tube tones. So I stopped using it.
Go with the separate pedals. This Zoom has way too much hype.

I would never use it live or for recording. The Zoom gives out way too much hum, and sounds very very weak for recording. I've tried. Live, it sounds decent, but when you go back and listen to yourself on tape, you can tell it sucks.
Also, its plastic. A very durable plastic, but wil soon get banged up pretty bad. It's two stomp pedals stay together good, but the buttons on the sides could easily snap off.

haven't had to talk to them.

If you want to play techno-digital stuff, then this is a cheap (very cheap) alternative. But for me, I like the warm vintage tube tone, so the Zoom is useless for this. Pretty soon the Zoom will be in many used music stores around the country being sold for a dime a dozen.
Hey, I'm totally speaking from experience here, find out for yourself. Don't buy it, borrow it from a buddy, then wait for the novelty to wear off so you can be analytical with the quality of this pedal. then decide if it is for you. And don't use a good amp with it!!!

I had never dealt with a programmable unit before. Had to read the instructions. After that, pretty easy to use. Once I got what I was looking for, I'd say it's a good solid "9."

For what you get, for the money, it is o.k. I don't think I would do any serious recording with it. The noise gate is an essential. It is a great, cheap way for me to go to get a reasonable sound for club work. I say reasonable, because I feel it is lacking in the delay department. Ideally, it should have more tweakability in the delay dept. Zoom might consider separating an expanded delay feature from the reverb, so both can be used simultaneously. Rockabilly, surf, pscychobilly, and some blues players would probably appreciate this. I know I would. The hall reverb is outstanding for the price. The distortion is good enough. The compressor is fine. I get a satisfactory sound for what I do, a roots thing, which makes things pretty ease to handle. I can keep everything in one bank, more or less. As the delay and reverb can't be used together, I up the doubling feature to max and turn up the hall reverb. It is not quite optimum, but close enough.

So far, so good. I got it for club work. I have a real decent delay pedal, and coupled with a distortion unit, these two represent a backup system for me, should the 505 fail.

Haven't had any problems.

I do a bluesy psychobilly thing. The 505 is easy for club work. Especially for a solo. Plug it in and go. I use an AC adaptor. I needed something inexpensive, in a single. portable unit, that would deliver. This does. It matches my current "small club work philosophy," which is minimalistic equipment financial expenditure and bulk. I use this thing with a Peavey Raptor 1 and a Danelectro Nifty Fifty. With experimentation and use of guitar controls, this thing has proven itself to me. For $99.00, it is a good value. If Zoom came out with an improved model, one that had a much better delay feature that is separate from the already fine reverb, I would buy it and use my current unit as a back-up. By the way, Zoom, in case you scan these reviews, here is what I want in an inexpensive multi-effects pedal: Delay that rivals a stand-alone unit Great reverb, which you already have Great distortion with more control, which you are close Compressor, you are there EQ, which you have Noise gate, already there The rest in the 505 is superfluous to me.

Effects take forever to switch when they're far apart, and there's a slight delay when you stomp on it, so this pedal is worthless live. Use it for recording only.

The factory settings suck, but if you know what you want, this pedal offers a fairly good setup with a little programming. Again, I wouldn't touch it live, but for a recording setup it's pretty decent. Also, it sounds very digital (but what do you expect?).

It's plastic. I would never use it at a gig to begin with, whether it was made of wood or stainless steel.

Never dealt with them.

For whatever style you play, you can probably find a setting that you like, but it takes programming, and even then it's fairly difficult to use. The heavy distortion is okay with the right settings, but the sound is basically very digital, especially in the reverb and delay.

It's pretty damn easy to do just about anything with the buttons EXCEPT go to bypass mode. I hit one or the other pedal without hitting both simultaneously about half the time. Oh, and you can't swith between patches very quickly if they're 'far away' from each other.

I'm using this with a bass (a customized Fender) & a guitar amp (a Samick 15-watt piece of shit), so maybe my view is a bit off because I'm inputting lower frequencies than the 505 wants to hear, but most of the distortion really blows. The flanger & phasing tend to put the sound of note under the 'this is a flanger/phaser' sound, & the pitch shifting sounds like a church organ. I kind of like that, but you (and I) might wish ZOOM had included a real pitch shifter. The other effects aren't too bad, but the factory settings are HORRIBLE! Whoever programmed this thing for ZOOM must've been hitting the crack pipe a bit too much that day, because I can get better sounding effects & combos in less than a minute. The effects themselves aren't too bad, but they are very noticably inferior to dedicated pedals. But you knew this was a multi-effects pedal, right?

Uhm... it's made of plastic. Mine hasn't broken yet.

Never dealt with them.

I play noisy music, but I think the 505 would end up sucking for anyone who wasn't a complete beginner. My opinion of it pretty much just went steadily downhill. At first things sound moderately cool, then ... ugh. If you're a novice, this would be a good pedal to borrow from a friend and figure out what effect you'd like to get sounding GOOD, then go buy that pedal. If it were stolen, i'd buy a real flanger, as that's mostly what I use it for nowadays. It doesn't help me make music OR get in the way, because I rarely use it while songwriting. It just sucks too much.

Very simple to use. Anyone with fingers can make their own patches. But no matter how hard you try, this pedal will always sound shitty.

I play mostly heavy metal (Machinehead, Slayer, OLD Metallica), and this pedal is useless. I run a Ibanez RG270 through a Marshall 2x65 combo. The distortion is super weak with no bottom end, everything pretty much sucks on this pedal. I couldn't even use it in practice. It is a $120 peice of plastic shit.

Gimme a break.....ITS PLASTIC!!!

Never called them

I've been playing for 5 years and this is the worst pedal I've ever used. If it was stolen I would thank the man who took it. I would strongly recommend NOT buying this pedal.

It's pretty easy to use. The presets just show you what kind of crazy sounds you can get out of it, but you can't really use most of them. It's easy to change the presets, and you can get some pretty good sounds out of it.

I'm using it with a guitar that sucks ass, but an Ibanez ToneBlaster amp, that's really cool. It's usually not noisy, because it has a noise reduction effect. The distortion, in my opinion, is very impressive. The wah sounds more like a burp, but it might be that my guitar has NO sustain at all. The flanger is pretty cool, and the chorus is good for leads. If you mess with it, you can get really good sounds out of this pedal.

It's definately not made like BOSS pedals, but it seems like it would be okay, as long as you were a little careful with it. You can't drop it, or toss it around, but as long as you're careful with it, it would be fine.

Never dealt with them, but the manual was pretty well set up.

I play Metallica. I also like to make up my own stuff, that is really similar to Metallica. I have been playing for about 6 months. I like this pedal a lot. It's absolutely perfect for beginners, who want a lot of effects for not a lot of money. It's also got a tuner, which is very handy. Everybody says that the effects on it are a lot worse than individual pedals. I agree that they are not as good, but that does not mean that they're bad. They're not bad at all, in fact. They are still very useful, and don't sound like some of the other reviews say they sound like. i am really happy with this pedal.

I felt that the pedal was easy to use. I did glance through the instruction sheet after I had played with it for about an hour, just to make sure I wasn't missing a feature. I like the dual-pedal feature so you can go both directions in the patch list. I do wish there was something like a MIDI input so you could directly select a stored patch, or program a patch without using the on-board buttons. Maybe in the next revision?

Most of the time, I'm using a Yamaha PAC112 into a Fender Frontman 25R, or at night I have my headphones plugged directly into the 505. None of the patches that I have used seem to be noisy at all. I'm not fond of Zoom's noise gate, you'll have to play it to see what I mean. Also, I have found that harmonics seem to be somewhat muted on even the heaviest distortion out of the 505, possibly because of my compression / limiter settings. I have been able to get a lot of sounds that really remind me of the Eventide H3000, which is a good thing, in my opinion. A lot of my music is instrumental rock (influenced by Vai and Satriani), and many of the patches I have programmed can get me close to their sounds. I would be real happy if Zoom would bump the delay up to about 2 seconds, preferably 4, and add some ways to tweak the delay settings more.

It seems to be pretty dependable... I have used it for very long practice sessions (7-8 hours) with no troubles. It's pretty cheap new, so I'd probably keep a spare just in case.

I have never dealt with Samson Tech, but they have a nice website (http://www.samsontech.com/).

I play instrumental rock, and various other styles. This pedal has been a good match for all of them. If my 505 were stolen or lost, I would buy another the same day. I like being able to program my own patches (check out http://zoompatch.homepage.com/), but wish there was a less cludgy way of editing them. The two things I would change would be to add more delay, and add a MIDI interface for patch selection an programming. After my patches are in, this pedal definately helps me create music, and doesn't get in the way.

Fairly easy to use, if you read the manual.

The key to make this pedal perform well is to use a graphic eq in your amp's effects loop. I currently use a BOSS GE-7 (7 band equalizer) and it sounds great. Also, I do not use the 505 in the effects loop but rather on the input to the amp. Also, I use a 9 volt power supply with 600 mA that I got from Radio Shack for about 12 bucks - does wonders for tone.

Seems fairly reliable to me.

Decent pedal for the bucks. Most of you bone-heads out there can get decent sounds out of it probably because you're either beginners or just plain can't play.

This pedal is easy to use but the "Edit Mode" and "Store Mode" and all that is hard to work with and its pretty confusing.

I can't really rate the sound on this pedal cuz its a multi-effect unit. There's ones that i like and some that i hate. This pedal can be for anyone, no matter what kind of music you like to play. There's a few good metal distortions, auto-wah, wah-wah, phases, flange, chorus, reverb, 2 different kind of really weird syntheseiser effects, a cool distorted jet plane effect, and many delays. But i think very experienced guitar players would be very disappointed with the 505. I play my 505 with an Ibanez RG470 with a fender automatic gt 25 watt amp and it sounds good with every effect but if your like me and want to play stuff like KoRn, fear factory, Deftones,...I'd go with something from DOD like grunge or grind distortion. You can get some distortion "KoRn" sound out of it but not any of those really weird effects that they use on some songs. The heaviest this pedal gets to is about that phat riff in blind (no heavier) but with grunge , grind distortion, death metal,....you can get distortion like in kill you.

The 505 is sturdy and it wont fall apart i'd NEVER do a gig with it if i were in a band cuz it runs out of batteries SO fast! I've only had this thing for a month and i went through about seven 9v batteries.

I am having trouble with this pedal with the edit mode and store mode but i haven't got a chance to deal with them cuz the store that i got it from is far away and the store knew EVERYTHING about the 505. But the guy that i bought it from at Zapf's music was very nice and helpful

I like playin heavy metal and punk (Deftones, Offspring, KoRn, Fear Factory....) and this is a close match. It has 24 effects but only about 5 of them are for this kind of music. I've been playin for almost a year and this is my first pedal. If it were stolen i would probably get something else. My favorite feature is probably A4 or C3. Get the pedal if u like a variety of music. Be picky!!

Easy to Use no doubt about It

Ok... I presently use a "stage" guitar (that's the brand name...) true my zoom 505 into a Peavey Bandit 112S. I played on little basic amp before (10 watts) and that sounded bad.. but with my peavey 112S it help alot!!!! that pedal is good and is very versatile and you can get great hard rockin metallica, offspring, punk and other metal band but there's kind of some "record kicking" missing, kinda miss a bit of definition. (Maybe that's just my guitar!!!) I think that with an EQ, like the Boss GE-7, you might get a excellent result! Overall effects are good but there's some things to say... first, the Wah don't sucks that much but the "A1" sucks. I suggest you the "A7" that is much better!!! Distortion are great. Acoustic kinda medium, Rhythm is great, Overdrive need more definition (Get an extra Equalizer) "distortion" is a straigh forward distortion that is, I think, use for most all the sound you'll want to have, blues is great for punk too, fuzz is ok, lead is correct and metal kinda to excessive. One thing that sucks all the way is the Octaver... what's that sh*t??? sound like the big piano in the church... when not playing the amp got much hissing damn!!! but I don't have humbucker pickups so...
(I want to also ask you, so write me to give me your advice, which guitar I should buy between an Esp Explorer, a Washburn Dime 3, any Jackson guitar or any Ibanez guitar??? write me please)

For the moment it's ok, but it's made in plastic so don't depend on it I would use it on show but I should be careful!

no problem for the moment!

I play metallica, pantera, and some punk bands and I'm the kind of guy who when he play on a cd background, want the EXACT sound that the group that play in background.. So If you like the thing I like you might trust what I say but you still have your own opinion... The best thing I can't replicate for the moment with my setup is punk bands and some metallica record but with the Boss EQ... whatever, If it were stolen I would buy it again for many resons... 1: it's very good price for all effect you got, which might cost you hundred buying all the effects on simple stomp box 2: I just need an additonal EQ and my sound will be awesome!
Notice: I have a very great quality Amplificator so it help

This is a _REAL_ easy pedal to use, a retarded first grader who smokes crack could use it. Editing patches is real easy, the manual is a bit whacky though, because it makes it seem so complicated.

From the factory, this pedal has effects that sound like complete crap. However, I took a couple hours to add my own effects to it, and now this pedal is worth 3x is weight in gold. It makes beautiful sounds now, and I would even say its semi-professional; its great. I'm using it with a Bronwsville 35GR amp, and I can very easily get the sounds of a WIDE variety of artists, from Hendrix to Offspring to Metallica. If you tinker with the effects, all of the different types (dist, chorus, wah, jet, synth stuff) will sound pretty good.

Well, this is the only fact about the 505 that sucks. Its a piece of plastic, and not a real sturdy one at that. It wont survive knocking around or guitars falling on it, but it will take an understandable degree of abuse.

Never dealt with Zoom.

This is a great pedal once you put the effects you want on it. I'll be honest, the factory settings _suck_, whoever put them in was a real moron. If it was stolen, i'd have to buy it again, because I really love this thing now. The only thing I wish it had was more memory banks so I could load up more combos!

I never really got a realy good sound out of it. None of the distortioins sound organic they all sound fake. Despite the sound it is very east to use. Easy to understand manual.

The sound is to fake and chincy sounding. Not much else to say to say about this pedal cause I got sick of it and don't use it any more.

Plactic. sometimes the edit and the +- keys stick. Never use it in a show

It's good for beginers because it gives a taste of many effects. I would never again Buy or use this pedal because I have better ones.

it was the first multi-effects unit i have tried, A little hard to figure out at first but it got easier. You have to make patches for every effect you want to use, I wish it was like one patch that you can change the settings on whenever you feel like it.

the distortion is very useless, It sounded very metallic and fake, not heavy metallic, but like aluminum can metallic. I couldn't get the stupid thing to sound good at all, I'm not jsut talking hi-gain, I couldn't get a decent overdrive at all, the blues effect with gain around 10 was about the closest to useable that i found. the delay was pathetic(Im going to get a Dan-echo soon) Every effect had one control on it, very useless. the hall reverb was about all i used thing thing for. the chorus was kind of weird. I don't like phasers and flangers anyway but after hearing this thing, I really don't like them. some of the effects where pointless anyway: the pitch shift, verry funny the first time I tried it, very pointless though. The Autowah was pretty much a joke too. Room reverb sounded very fake too.Overall I wouldn't recomend this to anyone. When my dad's friend let me use this thing i thought it would be good, but it wasn't, I actually liked the hal lreverb though, I would hook up my rat in front of it and it would sing. I'm just going to bye individual effects so I don't have problems like this.

i wouldn't drop it on the floor. It looks ind of dinky. Forget batteries, that's a big joke. I wouldn't gig with it ecause it sucks.

not sure

I play all kinds of rock, and this gets in the way big time, I wouldn't pay 40 for this thing, even the tuner was sorry. I really hate every thing about this pedal, the useless effects, the distortion, The only thing i could deal with was the hall reverb. Overall: avoid, buy seperate effects.

its easy to use once you get a hold of it. this was my first multifects unit and i'm actually happy that i had this cuz now when i get rid of this peice of sh*t i will know how to use other units with similar editing configurations. i bought this used, so i didn't get a manual, but it was probly better that i figured this out on my own.

i used this with a modified ibanez rg270, with a dimarzio paf pro in the bridge and a laney 100 watt tube head. me and my band tune to "A" so alot of pedals couldn't handle the large strings. even though i hate this pedal i sounded full after a year and a half of trying to get a good sound. This thing has one usable distortion and it is still way to trebbly like the others. the acoustic simulator sounds nothing like an acoustic guiatr and even if you wanted to use it you'll have to play as lightly as possible or it starts to distort. The effects are horrible!!!!! with distrotion they are overbearing and with clean you can't even hear them! The compressor can help if you tune low like i do, but the noise reduction hardly reduces any noise! the reverbs suck, the delay have no controllabllity other than time, the eq can't be controlled by each individual frequency, only by 50 prest eq's so you have to guess. the phase is the literally the worst i have ever heard it sticks out more than the others, just buy a small stone. And also due to the slow tracking you have static in the background but you van hear it more on highher strings and if you have a solid state amp forget about playing leads, the static will drown out your notes.

yes, but after a while the pedals stop working, they only change when they want to.

never had to call them

i play primarily agressive music and this thing did the job better than some pedals.... but i didn't try many others before getting this, but now i know it sucks! to anyone who is considering this...DO NOT BUY THIS PEDAL!!!! You will like it for a day(if you have never heard good effects) and you will drive yourself crazy trying to get it to sound good, but that day will never come! Spend the extra money and get some boss processor, even the cheap ones are a huge step up from this abommination! trust me don't waste your money and your TIME! I hope this thing gets stolen because if it doesn't i will personally throw it in the trash can myself!

Two big pedal for switching between the bank A-E. Each bank can have four patches. The two big pedals don't have to be crushed to change the patch, and the sound change is instant. There are four tiny itty bitty buttons also. Edit, store, up, down. It is more comfortable to change edit you patches with your feet (to me), because you can switch effects, pluck a string, and see how it sounds. But the editing buttons are very tiny, so ya gotta pick it up. Other than that minor complaint, very nice. Great big manual that tells you what effect does.

For the 100$ i bought it for, it's ok. Some of the effects aren't "there", they could be better. Right now i only have the little CRATE GX-15 amp i'm playing through, and a crappy Squier Fat Strat. I'm working on playing Whiskey in the Jar, and the Octaver on the effects sucks. The range is two big in the octaves. Most of the factory presets i have edidted over, but i might bring some back. I really like the settings i have now. (acoustic, rhythm, distortion, metal, blues, lead, overdrive) The Metal distortion could be better though, and the acoustic effect is very quiet, but when i turn it up, the amp gives out this big bassy blob of noise. You can play up to nine effects at once. Flange is pretty good, lots of EQ settings. Chorus is pretty good. Has compression, and built in auto wah, and pedal wah. I have a FP02 expression pedal, and the wah, sucks. It also has a pedal bend up 1 octave, and Bend DOWN?, two octaves. I have no idea why anybody would use that.

It's built pretty good, metal bottom, plastic everything else. DON'T USE A BATTERY TO POWER THIS THING. BUY AN ADAPTOR, IT'LL SAVE YOU MONEY. IT GOES THROUGH BATTERIES ABOUT EVERY FOUR HOURS!

haven't dealt with ZOOM

I play lot of Metal, Metallica, and hard rock. If you really want a hard sound, you won't get it here. I suggests another separete pedal. I've played a year, and don't have a ton of money to throw around at really nice stuff, but if i lost it, i'd buy it again. There are so many effects and features that would cost me hundreds to buy separetly. Eventually i'll have all kinds of other pedals, just to get the sound i want. But i wish this thing had better wah, and a better octaver. Overall, i recommend it.
If anybody has or finds any really cool patches, feel free to send them my way. ziggy_pop11@yahoo.com, we'll swap.

This pedal is really easy to use. Just four buttons to edit patches (edit, store, up and down). The manual is very clear and comes in 5 different languages.

I play an Ibanez rx170 through a JD CryBaby through the 505 to a Peavey Rage 158 (I know, these aren't the best instruments, but in my country (Chile) things are too expensive). Most effects on this unit are unusable (?), the good ones: acoustic simulator, rythm dist., blues dist., noise reduction, reverb. I have a big problem with the 505, this unit is way TOO NOISY!!!, i used it for recording and almost couldn't record. The delay is awfull and mod effects are just nothing. ok, ok, the phaser is all right.

The thing is whole made of plastic (really weak), what more can i say?

Never deal with them.

I play my own music, a mixture between Joe Satriani, SRV, Led Zepellin, Eric Clapton, i think. I've been playing for 6 years. For that kind of music and for beginers who plays only into their rooms, this is a good pedal. If it were stolen i'd save some money to buy something more pro, because with the 505 you can't enven think on play in a gig or in studio, the noise is a really big problem.

The Zoom 505 is very easy, but perhaps a bit tedious to customize due to the numerous tones and effects that are available.
First, the Zoom 505 has dozens of tone/effect settings spread across 9 main categories. These categories include phaser, flanger, echo, chorus, reverb (hall/room), distortion (various types), noise reduction, harmonic doubler, and more.
Second when switched off, the Zoom 505 functions as a pass-thru with a an automatic chromatic tuner. That is, you hit a note and the unit recognizes it, showing you if the note is flat, sharp, or right on the money. This tuner is a very nice feature that is being included in more and more effects by other manufacturers.
Third, there are 24 permanent memory slots to hold you custom patches. If you don't want to program the unit, you can stick with the 24 preset patches. If you customize the patches, you can return to factory presets at any time by following a simple procedure.
If you want to make the most out of the zoom 505, you will have to program it. While easy to program, the unit will consume a lot of your time with experimentation of all the various combinations of tone and effects. Keep in mind that there are dozens and dozens of choice across those 9 main categories and you can combine up to all 9 categories to create a single effect - whew!
There are a number of web sites that have custom patches with descriptions. Using their patches may save you some time.
The manual is a fold-out sheet and is helpful in getting you started.

I have a couple of archtops one of which is setup for jazz while the other is setup for R&R and blues. I have 2 amps - a SS Fender Acoustasonic JR with reverb & chrous and a vintage Alamo Capri tube amp with no on-board effects.
I did not like the Zoom 505 through the Fender Acoustasonic JR amp as much as I did through the Alamo tube amp. The Alamo amp benefits from the Zoom's reverb, delay, and echo. With some settings on the Zoom 505, the Alamo sounds like a stack. Keep in mind that the Alamo is all-tube and overdrives like crazy with tube tones.
The Fender's on-board chorus and reverb sound better than those supplied by the Zoom 505. In addition, the Fender amp is tuned for acoustic guitar and has a hi-freq tweetwe that the zoom 505 does not seem to like as much as tubes. That is, the Zoom 505 does not sound as good through the SS fender as it does through the Alamo.
Some of the settings are very noisy on the Zoom 505 - background swooshing or other extranneous noise. I simply avoid noisy settings. As for others who have slammed the Zoom 505 for noise, my guess is that they did not look for work-arounds to the noisier tones and did not play around with the custom settings enough.
As for getting tones of the masters? The hury is out on that one until I have more time to experiement with the Zoom 505.
I assume that a "10" is a expensive, rack-mounted processor. As such, I rank the zoom 505 somewhere between a 6 and a 7 because some of the settings are noisy and some are unusuable because they are just too weird - for my music anyways. On the plus side, the Zoom 505 is very customizable and you can get a wide range of tones from synthesizer to cleaner blues sounds.

The Zoom 505 is very reliable and has ben out for a long time. Therefore the design is proven.

Unknown.

I play jazz and now some blues and R&R. I did not compare the zoom 505 to other products as there is nothing else in its price category.
I disagree with others that the Zoom 505 is merely a toy. The 505 is an inexpensive way to add reverb, echo, and chorus to simple tube amps that have no on-board effects which is why I bought mine.
Can the Zoom 505 replace a bank of rack-mounted pro-level effects or an expensive guitar synthesizer? No! There's no way the Zoom 505 can upstage a $1,500 processor or $250 single use pedal.
Is the Zoom 505 a good value? No, it's an EXCELLENT value. The unit retails for $149, but usually sells for about $100 new (not including shipping or tax). You can't buy a decent single use pedal for that mind of money, much less a multi-effects processor.
Zoom and others make higher-priced effects processor with more slots for custom patches and maybe even better sound quality. but I did not want to spend more than $100 USD. For my money and my application, I got a great value.

you dont need the instruction book unless you are dumb as a box of rocks. editing patches to your liking is very easy although switching to certain patches sucks. over all very easy to tweak.

i play a fender pro tone series squier strat through a fender princeton 112 plus amp and the distortions are decent(could be better) although even with noise reducer it still makes too much noise you hear more noise than you hear the guitar. you can get some of the clean sounds metallica had(like in one) but other than that you cant recreate sounds of your fave axe slingers. The acoustic simulator is very good, it has a lot of depth and tone like a piezo pickup. The chorus sucks, delay sucks, phaser is another good effect the rest of them are decent

this thing is a piece of plastic. Nuff said

i dont know cuz i never had to call them

I play classically influenced metal and blues. The 505 is good for warm bluesy sounds and is ok for any kind of metal sounds. I've had this thing 7 months and i'm trading it in for a boss MT-2 Metal Distortion. If it was stolen i could care less and i would probably loose it on purpose so i have the excuse of getting another one. It is a good pedal for a beginner looking for cool sounds but once you get out of that stage you want something different. I would tell someone to save up for somethinmg different.

A very good sound for a compact mpedal. editing patches is easy once you figure it out, which alos isn't very hard to figure out. it's described easily in the manual. A beginner could quickly pick it up. It's kinda hard to change patches quickly, but that's all.

I use different crate amps, especially the GFX-15 for practice. performing is a little bit hard, b/c you can't really move and jump (like i mostly do) because you have to keep changing patches to get different sound. Noise redustion is very good. It wears the batteries quick so i wouldn't suggest using it for a long performance. You can get a good grunge, Nirvana sound from some patches and a funky 70's sound from others. I give all the patches a very good rating.

I've had no trouble with it except missing the pedals sometimes. I'm sure that will rub off on it sometime in the future. The pedals are big, but like i've said before, I move and press down hard. I use it for gigs all the time, especially since we don't use back-up.

i've Never had to deal w/ zoom before, so i don't have any proble with them.

This really matches all the types of music i play, and that covers a lot of genres. even those i don't use it for, you can probably easily edit the patches to fit it. and if it can take what i use it for. i'ts one of the best multi-effects pedals for guitar.

I rated this pedal a 10 because it took no more than 10 minutes for me to start dialing in my own sounds.This was my first multi-effects pedal and I was glad that I didn't have to have a colledge degree to use it.

I am playing through a Peavey Wolfgang (sunburst) and a Peavey Backstage 50.I was surprised at how crisp and clean this pedal sounds on a clean setting but even with the ZOOM noise reduction the distortion patches were extremely noisy.Ilike to crank my gain as high as I can get it but without a noise suppressor you might as well forget about it.My favorite guitarist is Eddie Van Halen and as anyone knows it is basicly impossible to get the BROWN SOUND but with this pedal I can get extremely close.Powerfull effects with a powerfull sound!

When I first got the pedal it seemed indestructable but as time went on it became more noisy and the input jack for the adapter would'nt work anymore so I had to use a 9-volt battery wich didn't last as long as a day at the most.I would never use this in a gig without backup for fear that the battery would die.To me nothing beats a good variety of assorted straight out old fashioned pedals.

Never dealt with them.

I play mainly rock music and this pedal gets just about any sound you want for any song you desire to play.I've been playing for 3 years and like I said this was my first multi-effects pedal and I played it to death and it was all I expected in its price range.If it were lost or stolen it would'nt bother me to much I would try something else out I would'nt lose any sleep over it.Overall I thought the pedal was a great buy and I reccomend that anyone looking to buy a multi-effects unit do some shopping around before you buy it or at least go to your dealer and play around with it first to see if it is the right pedal for you.Best of luck!

very simple to use.......10 minutes out of the box and you can put patches in with a breeze

rather clean......some functions are too "digital" sounding

hey....its a piece of plastic.....i dropped the end of my guitar cord on it as i was unplugging and it put a nice size hole right over the led.....and my editing buttons stick

never thought of calling customer support....never had to

couldnt wait to get it.....used it for a few months.....gets old fast....i put an add in the traders guide to get rid of it last week....save your money and get something cooler.....

Very easy pedal to use right from the start.

I like the sound of this unit best when used with some good headphones.

No problems so far...

I went to a music store in Japan (while on vacation)and traded an old 70's univox micro vibe for the 505 unit, expression pedal and adaptor, all items new in box, so to me, it was a fantasic value. The sounds the unit has, are pretty cool overall. I use this unit to screw around whith at home. I would be a little scared to actually play out with this unit so will leave that job up to my pro gear. Overall I would say that this is the BEST! headphone amp I have ever had and would recomend the unit with the expression pedal for anyone that wants to have some...some...ahhh...FUN?

The pedal is fairly easy to use but you cant hardly get a good sound out of it.The manual is pretty good about intsructions,other wise you mite not figure it out!

I have a jackson, Marty Freidman signature series,a crate pa-6 and a gx-20.I use a Alesis me-q 230 eq,a boss mt-2,zoom505 and crate pa 15"speakers. It is a little noisy.The effects are ok but the distortion sucks badly if you want heavy sounds.I play megadeth,metallica,some pantera.you cant hardly play other pedals through it.

The electronics are good but the plastic shit can go.I have to take mine apart some times because the pedal buttons get stuck.By the way my boss mt-2 never messes up.But I really dont like it a ho lot.

Right out of the box, very, very easy to use. Presets are all there, and all usable. Manual is very easy also, idiot proof.

Fender Am Std. Strat through crybaby through Tube Driver TD-752 (1x12 100 watt amp)...originally, i loved it. Then, as chance may have it, i played through a marshall on stage. Changed my mind forever. I had to get a 4x12, but the 4x12 was after i traded the Zoom for a lexicon MPX 100...that has MUCH better delays, choruses, reverbs, you name it. What's good about the zoom is instant gratification, for a little while...lead sound is particularly stellar, responsive and thick...a little too compressed though. blues is ok, depends...i didn't really love it, it was ok. Clean tones in the zoom are horrible. The choruses leave much to be desired, as do the delays and reverbs in a live situation. The bypassed mode sucks horribly. Still, the lead sound saves the pedal. I wish sometimes i could try it out w/ my 4x12, but no go.

Very dependable, never a problem with it. I would gig w/o a backup.

Never dealt with them.

I play anything from Hendrix to Satriani to Pearl Jam to Jeff Beck. The zoom just isn't my thing anymore. It was great for a while, especially for beginners. Most beginners to intermediate will love this thing, as i once did. Sometimes i regret trading it (for ease of use and lead sounds), but most of the time i'm blown away by the wall of sound in a 4x12 and the natural-sounding MPX 100. By the way, the fuzz on the zoom is AWFUL!

I made an earlier submission about this pedal. These are my after thoughts. Real easy to use. Too easy. Not complicated enough. The manual is really descriptive. No revisions.

I have an Epiphone Lesl Paul Triple Pickup, and play through a Peavey Bandit 112(Scorpion). It is very noisy, loud hisses. I was embarassed to use it live. The effects are decent, you have no parameter control on them at all, but they are alright I guess. I couldn't get the sound of my favorite artists. I play at a church and this isn't a very good match for praise and worship music. It's loud, distracting at times. Not a good match. YOU CANNOT RUN THIS THING THROUGH A DIRECT BOX, MIC YOUR AMP AND USE A VOLUME PEDAL!!!

It was pretty reliable for the short time I owned it. However, it will creak and crack when you step on it. It's plastic. Enough said. Give it a year or two, and you may be using some duct tape.

They sent me a catalog. They were nice on the phone.

Like I said it's a terrible match for the type of music I play. I've been playing for 8 or 9 years. I got rid of it, too noisy. I will never buy it again. I have a taste for delays on my solos, and this thing's delays are terrible. I lost my respect for Zoom. If you are a beginner, this is for you. If you've been playing for a while, save your money, buy stomps, or something a little bit better. Boss ME-30, or GT-3 if your into processors, otherwise get stomps if you prefer. I think the number one rule for effects is, you get what you pay for.

This unit is very easy to use. The manual should have been better, cause this mainly is a beginners thingie. Editing patches is easy, and the manual explains this very well. There are some things I don't like about the manual, though. It doesn't explain how to manually edit patches live at a concert. (I mean like just using your feet, not having to bend down and use your hands.... this might be a bit difficult while playing.) Anyway, I am writing my own manual to the 505, I guess it will soon be finished if I bother. It will probably come on some kind of homepage. You can email me if you have any questions about that...

I mainly use a gibson epiphone explorer-guitar with humbuckers. This goes into a Peavey Rage 15W amp. I realy is a practice-amp, but I can get some great sounds out of it, though. First thing I gotta say, is this thingie can be very noisy. If you use a lot of compression or limiter, don't buy it. The distortions realy sound great. The metal-distortion has a hissing sound, though, but the BOSS MT-2 is about as noisy. The discriptions are just a load of shit, though. I use the LEAD-distortion just as much for rythm, play as for lead-play. The blues-distortion rocks! The FUZZ is great. It feals like my whole rig is about to blow. Ehh... That auto-Wah sucks, but it is better than many other multi-effects-wah's. You can't the wahs to you'r liking, but you've got I think it is 9 presets. I ain't got a expression-pedal, so I can't really say anything about the manual wah. The equalizer sucks. The Zoom-guys say that it's a 4-band equalizer, but realy, they have just programmed 50 presets, and you can't change the sound to your liking. I used to think the flanger was great, until I heard a probably not so great flanger, but still better than the 505 flanger. You can get some wounderful, mind-sucking tones out of it anyway. The chorus sucks- you can't control it much. The Hall-reverb is great. It can match every reverb-box in the world I think. I've heard lotsa CD's with much more weak reverb than that. I realy loove this reverb. I don't use the Room-reverb that much, so I can't say anything about it. This may have seemed like a bad sound-qulity-something-review, but honestly, I realy like it. Oh... the pitch-shifter sound to mechanical, It doesn't sound like my own guitar. I really like this cute, little thing, I really don't need much more. I played in a hardcore-band until 16.5-99 And it really worked for me. I am starting a heavy metal band to, and it is enough. I play some other music to, and it's all I need. The only complaint I have, is that it is too noisy. The noise supressor is great though, but not grat enough. It never cuts sustained tones if you know how to use it. You can get the sounds of every of your favourite artists. They have patch-sites all over the net. Check out http://net.result.com/~jay/db.html Here you can get any sound you want. They also have a top-30 list with the greatest sounds you can probably get to a 505.

I am using this thing without a backup. It is really dependable. I weigh 65-70 kilos, and I've been standing on it lotsa times. That it's not metal, don't bother me. It will never break. I've lost is from great hights. It can take all pain in the world without braking.

Never dealt with it. I bought it from a person who imported'em private, though.

I mainly play Heavy Metal (Helloween-style),Heaby-Metal/Rock (like Accept), Hardcore, punk, rock, etc, etc... It does the job no matter what I play. I've been playing for five years now. Electric for three years. I wouldn't buy it if it was stolen. I would either buy a set of stomp-boxes or maybe a DIGITECH RP-12. It helps me make any kind of music. If you're not making direct-recordings, buy it! It's the best you can get for the money. Maybe I should have given it a 10.

This pedal is almost as easy as it gets with multi-effects units. You plug it in, select a patch, edit it, and save! It isn't quite as easy to use as the DOD TEC4X, though it makes up for it in the sound quality.
The main thing that knocks it down a few points is that some of the effects are in weird categories, e.g. the "acoustic" simulator is in the distortion category and the phaser is in the EQ category!
When I went to the music store to buy an effects processor, I looked at the DOD TEC4X first. The TEC4X sucks! It may be easy to use, but its nisy and the effects are just plain stupid. Then, in the last 15 minutes the store was open, I tried the 505. It was love at first sight. After those fifteen minutes, I was knew the 505 like the back of my hand. In other words, its easy to use!

I'm using this unit with a Fender Squier "Fat" Stratocaster (H/S/S) and a Fender Automatic GT amp. The 505 has 7 types of distortion, and they're all pretty good (except for the lead distortion....what's up with that?). The only reason I don't really use the 505's distortions is that the Automatic GT has a wicked distortion and overdrive.
I''l rate every effect on its own now (out of 10), so you know what to expect from this pedal.
The Flanger is about as good as any BOSS or DOD flanger pedal I've seen for under $75 Canadian (about $50 for all you Americans out there), but it doesn't quite have the tweakability that individual pedals have. I give it a 7.
The phasor is awesome (for this price)! It can give you an eerie "breathing" effect, or, for all you retro fans out there, a rotary speaker sound. I give it an 8.
The dleay is, well, a delay. You can get the "double" effect, but the max delay is only 370 milliseconds. The effect is very natural and organic sounding. I guess that's because it's analog. The one bad thing about this otherwise AWESOME analog delay is that you only have nine levels to choose from. You can't always find the exact amount you want, but if you do, watch out! You may think you've died and gone to heaven! I give it a 5 for range of delay and speed, but a 10 for sound quality.
The compressor and limiter (which are essentially the same) do what they should. It's not incredibly versatile, but it gets the job done. I give them a 7.
The reverb is definitely not the strong point of this unit. If you play surf, and don't already have a good reverb pedal, look elsewhere. The 505 has two types of reverb- Hall and Room. The reverb is kinda muddy and misty. It's not good for playing real artists' songs, but it's cool if you're wrote a song called "mystery in the graveyard". If you have a Fender amp, use its reverb. I give it a 4.
The "doubler" isn't a serious effect; it doesn't dramatically affect your sound. It does add warmth and depth to your sound, kinda like more than one player playing at onece, hence the name "doubler".
The "step" effect is so awesome, I would pay the $150 ($100 American) just for that effect. It's kinda an auto-arpeggiator (it makes the notes you play sound like arpeggios even if you play just one note.) It does this by dramatically changing the EQ of the sound rapidly (you can adjust the speed). It make one note sound like hundreds of diffent guitars intermittently playing the same note. It may not be conventional, but it's awesome for creating your own songs, especially techno and industrial.
The distortions (there are seven) are quite versatile, and you can set the gain from 1 to 30. I'll give brief descriptions of each distortion.
Overdrive-7. It's a generic overdrive, suitable for anything with overdrive.
Distortion-8.5. It's a metallic, crunchy distortion than can be tweaked into something suitable for punk, metal, alternative, or rock.
Fuzz-8. For those of you who are retro fans, this fuzz distortion will definitely help you play those groovy tunes.
Lead-3.5. What the hell is this. It sounds like someone's suffocating Nirvana with a pillow! This is only suitable for songs you wrote where you want the audience to say "what the hell is that!?".
Metal-7.5. It's self explanatory. It's high gain no matter what you set the gain to. 1 is high gain. 15 is metal. 30 is death metal. If you disagree, just tweak the EQ. the sound you want is there.
Rythm-7. If you want to blend into the scenery, use this distortion. It's perfect for rythm. IF you want to play a lead, use metal or distortion, NOT the lead distortion.
Blues-9. This is the best distortion for its category. Don't try to play anything on this baby than pure blues. If you've got the blues, this may cheer you up (or at least help you sing them out.)
Acoutstic simulator-10. This effect adds a cool bassy "acoustic" quality to your sound. Only use this with clean effects, it doesn't agree with death metal. The gain level adjusts the amoun

It is made of plastic, but it is made of VERY HARD plastic. I would use it on a gig without a backup. The pedals seem to be sturdy enough. I wouldn't chuck it across a room, but that's just me. I'm sure it would live to tell the tale.

N/A. Never dealt with 'em...don't hope to.

You'll never find anything better for the price. It sounds like a pedal twice its price. If you've been playing for under seven years, or are on a tight budget, you can't live without this pedal. In fifteen minutes it won me over (and the TEC4X didn't win me over in an hour).

This unit, atfirst will seem weird to use, so have a gander at your instructions for help. Once you know shortcuts and where each effect is you'll be fine.

GREAT SMASHING PUMPKINS SOUNDS w/ other effects.... I am pretty effects crazy, as told by my friends. I have two guitars one fender strat copy with a red lace sensor at the bridge and an epiphone nighthawk. In order, from the guitars signal to the amp, my pedals are : Boss ds-2 turbo distortion w/footswitch Boss Mt-2 metal zone EH Big muff Zoom 505 Boss ceb-3? Bass chorus Boss bf-2 flanger Boss ph-2 phaser Mxr phase 90 Delays are not so hot limited use of modulation _ settings are fixed and you pick the ones you like
Pumpkin sound- instead of the jcm800 2204 w/ sovtek kt-88 tubes in it, the zoom amp simulator works pretty well with an Eh big muff behind the zoom. My epiphone is great for james iha's sound. But for billy you need the zoom's amp simulator with some fuzz pedal. The zoom's fuzz is too thin. Maybe a roger-mayer voodoo-axe or a fender blender.

It hasn't failed me yet, but i've noticed the small bank keys as well as the edit/patch keys are becoming sensitive, so don't press too hard on them. Although this box is plastic it is well built for it's price range.

I'm new to zoom, but I am fond of their sounds. With other pedals though you may be disappointed.

I play alternative music and some heavy stuff and weird effecty-mellow stuff. If it were stolen I would try to find another amp simulator function in another more expensive effects processor. If that didn't work, i'd buy it again. `
I love the phase, chorus, flange, wah, compression, amp simulator w/ additional noise reduction and its built in tuner. The distortions are too thin to find a thick sound. Also with other distortions behind it the sound makes weird squeals and sound shit. Same deal with distortions infront of it too.
The zoom has an eq but it dampens the colour of your sound. I have a jvc audio eq and that fuckin' rips, it is sooo beefy and doesn't buzz at all. I still want a boss ns-2 noise reduction. If you live in adelaide and want to jam email me.

It is extremely easy to use and the manual is also quite good. You can start editing patches right away (at least I did)

I am using the 505 with an Ibanez 450 Deluxe and a custom designed guitar into a Larios 60 W solid state amp ( I bet you've never heard one of those :). The sound quality is, well, rather poor, if not disastrous. There is a lot of noise on almost every setting. I have been playing the guitar since 1991, so I think I can judge the amount of noise that is not acceptable. This is my first multi fx unit and compared to the stomp boxes I've used before the 505 is excessively noisy. The unit boasts 6 types of distotion. Well, I think none of them is decent, even after some serious tweaking. They all seem to have their own distinctive sound that can't be changed, no matter how long you fiddle with the EQ. I guess the only thing they are good for is death/industrial. The compressor/limiter hardly affect the sound and add up to the noise. Auto Wah? - you must be kidding. ZNR - unlike other guys, I dont think it cuts the sustain but I agree that it is one of the most needed effects on the 505, given all the noise. EQ - this is the most weird EQ I have ever seen. It has 50 preset settings which you are supposed to be satisfied with?!! Phaser is so-so. Chorus is all right, but is nothing compared to my CE-3 and lacks in flexibility. Flanger is huge, although difficult to control. The pitch shifter is pathetic - it warbles a lot and there is a delay between the original and the processed sound. Delay is pretty shy - 320ms and is totally inflexible. Amp simulation - I have it running all the time as I find that the 505 sounds better like this through my amp. I tried to record direct-line into my PC and it sounds way too gritty and buzzy. Acoustic simulation produces something like an acoustic guitar but not quite and again there is some pretty audible hiss in the background. The only thing that I find decent in this unit is the reverb.

It is made of plastic and it looks flimsy. I have owned this one for 6 months now and it hasn't given me any trouble yet as I'm using it as a backup for my Boss stomp boxes ( which are one of the most reliable around) and as a practice headphone amp)I treat my equipment with respect, but the 505 needs to be worshipped.

I play mostly progressive, hard rock, a little blues, fusion and anything else that I stumble upon in my career ( I sometimes work in a studio) I like artists like Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Al Di Meola, Jeff Waters, Satch, Extreme.In the studio I'm using sudio processors but I was looking for something to practice at home and take with me on the road as a backup. The 505 proved to be a wrong choice. One advantage it has over the stomp boxes I really liked is the ability to switch sounds radically on stage with only one touch. Also it is compact. I am planning to sell it as soon as my Boss GT-3 arrives. One major advantage the Zoom has is that it is so darn cheap! I would recommend it to beginners who don't plan to take up playing seriosly, otherwise save some more money and buy something better - THE 505 IS A TOY, NOT A FX PROCESSOR.

Compared to other multi effects units, it's pretty easy to use. Since the number of parameters is small, editing is pretty straightforward. The manual is OK. The usage is well explained, and so are the different effect types (although I already know most of them).

I'm currently using a Kingsound (Strat copy) and a 15w amp. The 505 was the first FX pedal I bought. Later, I've bought a Morley wah-wah, a Boss OD-2R and a Boss MT-2. In general, the "tweakability" of the sounds is pretty limited, since only one parameter can be adjusted (ex. rate). The (few) settings are mostly useful. COMP: Compression/limiting works well. I'm using compression on almost all patches, to get more definition with my "weak sounding" guitar. Since I got the Morley wah pedal, I almost never use the Auto Wah. (But it sounds a little unnatural). I also don't use Pedal Wah (haven't got the exp. pedal and I'm probebly not gonna buy it in the future.) DIST: The main problem is that I've still not found my "ideal dist" og "favourite dist" (but I got it with the Metal Zone). But there are plenty of other distortion types available. The most useful ones are Rhythm, Fuzz and Lead. The Distortion is a little too noisy and a little too unnatural. The Overdrive sounds dry and boring (I use the OD-2R for overdrive purposes). Acoustic sounds pretty cool. Since it consists mostly of low and high boost and mid cut, it makes an ultra cool thrash sound combined with the MT-2! ZNR/AMP: Noise reduction is OK, although it may sound unnatural with Acoustic and other clean sounds. Amp Simulator is REALLY useful and "freshens" the sound with my 15w amp. It also gives cool sounds when combined with MT-2. EQ: The 50 settings makes it possible to tweak the sounds a little. But it doesn't eliminate "unnatural" distortion sounds etc. (Cannot expect that either). The Phaser sound is really cool, but it's "too bad" that speed only can be altered (I want lower intensity). MOD: Chorus sounds natural, and the 9 settings are all useful. Flanger gives a cooler sound, but the flanged sound is too clear combined with distortion. Available settings are OK. Doubling may "fatten up" heavy Metal dist. or other distorted sounds, but otherwise it sounds a little unnatural. I use doubling very little. Step effect is of the "psychedelic" types of FX. It's pretty cool, but its usage area is fairly limited. Pitch shifting sounds too "digital", I don't like the pitch shifted sound too much. There's also a slight delay before the pitch shifted tone appears. The "octave down" is useful, but the others aren't too good (esp. not the 4-step up/down). DLY/REV: Hall reverb sounds great. Room reverb isn't as useful as the Hall reverb. Delay is cool, but it isn't too useful, since the mix is set to full-on. It would've been ways better if mix could've been adjusted... Tuner: Very, very useful. The auto-chromatic function makes it easy to tune down a semitone or two. Otherwise it may react a little unprecise some times, but tuning is usually straightforward.

I'm not quite sure about its reliability, since it's made of plastic. When a friend of mine sometimes tries it, I order him not to stomp it too hard (he's one of them who handles his gear really uncarefully). I would've used it on gigs without backup (I handle MY gear pretty carefully). I hope it won't take damage if I sometimes drop it down by accident.... Once I experienced that all effects didn't kick in when selecting the current patch, but only once. It's functioned great all other times.

Never dealt with them.

It was the first effect I bought, because it seemed to have "everything" in one little box. But later, I've realised that it hasn't. (Effect tweaking is very limited). I wish it could have one particular effect: tremolo. A friend of mine planned to buy a 505, but I convinced him to buy the 2100 instead. And so he did. When I see all the 2100's features, I soon realise that the 505 isn't the choisce for "professional" players. It's useful for beginners/amateurs as the first FX pedal (it's better than a standard, cheap distortion pedal). I've had plans to sell it, but I've realised I can't, because of some "vital" effects like compression, amp simuator, chorus, delay, reverb etc. , and the tuner, of course. I think I'll keep it.

When I first got the 505, it took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to program it and make my own settings. It's very easy to go through the patches.

The effects are very, very good. The distortions are excelent and so are all the other effects. It's got auto wah to ZOOM noise reduction. The ownly bad thing is that you ownly have one setting to adjust for each effect e.g such as the digital delay. You can ownly choose the length on the delay, not the speed or a Ping Pong delay. This is the ownly bad thing.

I've had mine for over 2 years now and nothing had happened but I'm waiting for it. The whole thing is made of plastic so eventually it will probably die. Not recomended for someone who likes to stomp on their pedal really hard I have used it at gigs before and I would play with it without backup.

Overall, it's a great pedal. Great sound and great effects (basically it's great!). I play Pantera style music and it's great. With the distortion on the ZOOM, I use it to add extra gain to my Marshall JCM 900, with my Ibanez RG570, it sounds sooo beefy and heavy.

Easy enough. I bought it new and it came with a manual. Six buttons, two of wich normally work to quickly change between patches.

This was the first pedal I bought (though I had made onde previously) and I bought it knowing that it would mostly help me getting aquainted with the general effects, nothing more. And that's just it: you work with it as a starter's pedal and then it starts to suck; everything just starts to sound the same (digital produced sound), you loose that "feel" that you can easily get with analog pedals. Plus, with analog stompboxes you can rearrange your setup and get different sounds and tonalities, while this thing is kinda a fixed "pipeline" of fixed effect values. It's VERY limited in most effects (the delay is a joke, you can only select the delay time and nothing else).

Seems reliable. The store owner scared me with the use of a regular AC power supply and I bought the zoom one (don't do this). Besides being made of plastic, it's pretty sturdy.

Never dealt with'em.

I have sold this pedal already (I'm glad I did). It's a good pedal to get to know different effects and hear what they do, but generally it pretty much sucks. I recommend that you borrow one to a friend for 2 or 3 weeks and then return it and buy decent stompboxes.

I bought it used for $78.00. In 10 minutes, I managed to get the sound I want from it. For the time being, I'm only using it as a compression pedal.

This pedal is awesome. Before this I used Boss cs-3 as my compression pedal. CS-3 is terrible man! every time you switch from a distorted sound to a clean sound, you won't get that clear/original sound from the guitar unless you turn off CS-3. Since I play mostly Metallica, I probably need another foot to help me turn off the AC-3 on time (talking about displacement, heh!) Unless I buy a line selector.
Anyways, the compression sound I got from Zoom is unbelievable. I don't have to do a lot of adjustments to other Boss pedals that I hooked up this unit along with, yet the palm muting sound I got from it is unbelievable.
I'm happy now!!

I pretty much turn it on during the entire gig session. It's alright I suppose.

don't know

Like I said, I only use this unit as a compression pedal. It fits the need right now....

This is a very easy pedal to use. Editing patches is very simple. This is the first multi effects pedal I've owned and I had no trouble with it. The reason for the 3 rating is that it is VERY hard to get a good sound with it. Not that a good sound can't be had, but it takes a while. I've had it for 4 months and I am only now happy with all the settings.

I havn't found it to be noisy at all like others have said. Most of the distortions are useless, the compressor and limiter make it very noisy, the auto wah is VERY WEAK. You can't even tell its on on the high E string. The chorus is also very weak. The phaser and flanger sound good, but it is hard to get a sound that dosn't cover up what your playing. What happens is it sounds like only a flanger or a phaser, not actual musical notes. It took me three months to find a patch that didn't do this with these effects. Doubleing is a joke, some may find it useful, but not me, delay is alright, but you don't have much control over it. The reverb is alright, but I prefer my spring reverb in my amp. The pitch shifter will not work with chords. Only single notes. Distortion is very good, but you really have to work hard to get good sounds. The acoustic effect works very well, but only at low volumes. The step effect is cool, but I personally don't use it. The tuner jumps around A LOT. I hate that. It works best if you play harmonics. Despite all this, I love this pedal. I can get almost any sound I want out of it. It's just REALLY hard to get the sounds. All the effects can be made to sound VERY GOOD, you just have to play with it.

In my opinion, this is absolubtly reliable. It may be plastic, but it is very sturdy plastic. Reminds me of my vacume cleaner. Sure its not a Boss, but I think it would take A LOT to break this pedal. Keep in mind you will have to pay the 20 bucks for the adapter. Don't even think about using batteries for more than 2 hours.

Havn't delt with them.

I play metal and this works very well for that. I also play a lot of soft mellow stuff and this works well for that too. If it were stolen, I would get another one. I can't live without this anymore. It gives me every sound I need without having to tap dance on a bunch of other pedals. For the price, you can not do better than this pedal. I highly reccomend buying this pedal. I love the sounds I can get with it and how easy it is to switch between effects combinations. If you buy it, don't get discouraged if it sounds bad at first. I used to hate it, then I finally got all the patches how I wanted them, and I can't live without it.

Totally easy, from heavy metal feedback to a Jazz oddessey to an organ for a rendition of "Here comes the bride".

Can be noisy, there are millions of diffrent combinations for this thing. It's really cool cos you get sounds of artists really easy.

Amazing!

Well...the default sounds are there to be changed, if you ask me. Sounds cool at first, but it won't take long before you change them. Editing patches is easy. If you are a bit patient, you can get some great sounds. I wish it had more delay and wah, though...
(I lost my manual, but you'll find it on the Internet.)

I've only got a cheap Hondo guitar, and a 15W Dean Markley-Amp, so the sound could be better. Yes..it's quite noisy...on the distortion-settings...do not use nearby TV's or PC-monitors, as the interference is horrible. I reckon the effects you make up by yourself are the best. The default patches won't do after playing for a while. But you can mix the sounds, and get really neat effects...so that's very cool.
My favorite band is without doubt U2! I love the guitarsounds, and with the 505, i've been able to make some pretty neat U2-sounds...at least i feel they are great. I have to be patient, though...trying out a whole lotta effects, using many effects together, etc. I mostly play live U2 songs, so the patches i make, are for live versions. I've made patches for "Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me","Bullet the blue sky"-Popmart version, "Discoteque"(Although at the end the sound is a little too much), and some other live songs. I only wish that the unit had much more delay, less distortion on the acoustic-patches, and a bit more volume to boost up the patches a bit.
I feel that the distortion effects are great. Using Hall-reverb, and heavy distortion makes a crisp-metal sound. Like i said...more delay and better Wah-effects...making a wah-wah/delay effect is quite difficult.
But overall it's got neat sounds...when you make up your own.

Well....i've had it for a bit more then a year, and i've never had trouble with it. It seems solid enough, even though it's plastic. I even put a lot of cables into the wrong sockets, but nothing bad happend...?:-)
I don't have a band..(yet), but i think i could use this unit on stage....(though i haven't ever played on stage....) I like to make songs fade into the next song, so the noise probably wouldn't be too bad, either. As for the patches, i've got lots of backup's. Loseing the patches would be tragic.

No need for theire support yet.

One thing's for sure...the 505 has really improved my skills. I'm no guitarexpert, i've only played since i was 13-14..(I'm 18 now), and i have never taken any lessons. But like i said...even though i have no equipment even close to that U2 uses, i can get quite neat sounds, close to the U2-sounds. If it got stolen...well...i think i would go for the Korg AX1G..i've heard it's quite good. At the moment, i'm looking for a Korg SDD-3000 Digital Delay....so if anybody who reads this has one, and wants to sell it, please drop me a line! It's THE U2-delay sound i'm looking for. I love the way i can make up almost any effect i want. I "hate" that it's too short on delay, and the wah-effects. It should have had much more delay. But like i said...i've improved alot with it....i love it...but i will look for more "fancy" equipment...to get a better sound.
If anyone knows of a Korg SDD-3000 Digital Delay, please let me know! I'm "desperate" to get one!
I love the sound of it.

I've had this unit for two months now, and have given it a thorough test. It's pretty easy to use; the markings on the unit itself give some clue as to what means what in each parameter. Some of the basic functions involving other buttons (like the many uses of the "edit" button) are not entirely clear. I bought the unit used, but found a manual online in PDF format. The URL is: http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/pdf_e/500_e/505_e.pdf
The pedals are a little unwieldy. I agree with other reviewers that it's too easy to make a mistake. That's why I've set up my effects chain to compensate for the 505's shortcomings (see below).
DO NOT take this on a gig with only a battery! Buy an adaptor. I went through a brand new energizer in less than two hours!

I'm currently playing a custom Music Man silhouette with H/S/S EMGS, a pre-Gibson Steinberger GL2T, and various Fender and Music Man guitars. My main amp is a Boogie .50 Caliber. I use other effects as well, including a Digitech Whammy-Wah, MXR Distortion II, and a Boss LS-2 line switcher, which I bought in part to deal with the ZOOM 505. Let me 'splain:
The 505 has a lot of great sounds, and with some patience in editing, you can get a lot out of it. All the parameters are FIXED, but some effects have 9 different intensity settings. The different distortion settings are very well thought out, from a light overdrive to a square wave shred.
The big problem with this unit is that it is very, very noisy. Other reviewers have complained that it's noisy even in "bypass" mode.
My solution is this: I use a Boss LS-2 Line selector, which allows me to use one or two loops which I can turn on and off. I've set up a few sounds in the 505 that I use for certain songs and I give the 505 its own loop. Before the song, I stomp in the sound I want, and when it's time to kick it in, I step on the LS-2.
The 505 is a toy; the quality of all the effects is sub-standard. However, some of the sounds (like the "step wah" effect -- listen to Frank Zappa's "Ship Ahoy") are just so damn cool that I don't want to take the 505 out of my live/studio setups. I would never use this as my only pedal--just as the occasional "what the hell is that sound?" effect.
I've heard that Korg's AX1G is a slightly higher-quality machine AND it has a built-in expression pedal--something that ZOOM charges a lot for as an add-on.

I bought this unit used. It had a few scratches on it, but works perfectly. I couldn't find a ZOOM adaptor at any of the local stores, so I bought an $8 universal adaptor (set up for 9v, 300mA, negative tip) that works perfectly.
Like others have said, it's plastic, but it takes a beating. Our bassist has been using a 504 for over a year. He's a big guy and he steps hard. His unit still works perfectly.
I would not take this unit to a gig without other effects. It's just too noisy and too low-quality.

I have not had to deal with ZOOM yet. The ZOOM Web site is helpful, and though I had to dig deep to find the manual, at least it was there.

I play many styles: metal, jazz, country, punk, disco, lounge--you name it. For any song that requires a clean sound, I don't use this effect because the sounds are just too crappy. I also don't use its distortion for hard stuff--I use a high-quality distortion pedal or use my boogie's high-gain channel.
I've been playing for over 15 years. I've owned lots of effects, and even though I complain about this unit, it's few cool, weird sounds make it a keeper.
If this unit were stolen, I'd go to the store and try out a Korg AX1G. Either that, or I'd save up for high-quality effects to get the few cool sounds I like in the 505.
What do I love about it? The "Step Wah" effect and the way that I can mix together phase, chorus, auto-wah, preset delays, and distortion to create some very unique and bizarro sounds.
What do I hate? The unwieldy pedals and the overall low quality of the effects.
I wish the casing were metal.
"Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?" Figure out what you want out of it, then use it for that. Don't use it as your one pedal for anyting.
Oh yeah, it makes a GREAT headphone amp!!!
The 505 retails for US$99. Considering the price, it's a great deal, even if you just used it as a headphone amp or for recording demos. Just don't fool yourself into believing that your hunred bucks will replace all your favorite stomp boxes and rack gear.

a retarded monkey with its hands stuck up its ass could use it without having any trouble.

i'm using it with a fender american standard strat and a esp ex-300 and the esp sounds a hell of a lot better than the strat because it isn't as noisy.The distortion is awesome if you make it yourself and have good pickups.some of the effects are pointless but fun to fuck around with.i would gice it a ten if the distaortion didn't get a damn hissing sound and the same for the acoustic simulator but that all can be avoided if you take the time ta fix everything to what you want.

it looks like it was made in k-b toys but it can actually take a beating my friend jumped on it and nothing happened i wouldn't try to treat it like a boss pedal though.if you can get the ac adaptor because this thing eats batteries.i would use this one without a backup if need be.

havn't had to deal with anything yet it works hella good

if this was stolen i probably wouldn't get a new one because i kinda outgrew it if you know what i mean but its pretty awesome.i play mainly metal/hardcore/punk and i can get good sounds out of all those categories i can also easily get blues and clean sounds to sound great.this definitaly kicks the crap out of my amps distortion(fender princton chorus).if anybody knows any great patches e-mail me.

its very easy to use as long as just scrolling through the factory presets, but if you want to improve the sound, youve to read the manual and then you still dont exactly know what to do. but you learn it quick and then its simple. the guitar tuner is ok, i tune my guitar with it only, and it works.

im using a ibanez RBM and a marshall Park G10r (solid state). i also use it directly through a mixing board. through the amp (i know that its just crap, ill buy a real one soon) the pedal sounds real good. i love the metal distortion (with noise reduction) and after optimizing the factory patch A4, it really kicks ass even with this kind of amp. compressor, metal dist, lead dist, acoustic sim (althogh its noisy) and the chorus/delay effects are nice, the other dists are fuck and the step effect is useless. there are two things which should be mentioned: this pedal is noisy (with zoom noise red. its acceptable, but you hear it still, especially with accoustic sim) and the EQ is very limited (only 40 presets, no way to edit em) and not very useful. but in general, this pedal sounds quite ok. ive used it even directly through a mixing board, and it doesnt really kicks ass (what do you expect?), but you can live with. you could even record with it, if it were just a little less noisy.

its made of plastic, so dont walk on it. at the beginning, i were afraid of operating the foot pedals with my feet, but its surprisingy solid for that material. i would use it on a gig without backup, cause i havent got the bucks to buy one.

never dealt with em, 1 year and ive had no problems

i play mostly punk and metal, and with this cool metal dist, i really like it. it has good metal and hearable clean sounds, and you can mess around with it a little if youve nothing to do. i tried a special metal-distortion pedal before, but the zoom had comparable metal dist and a lot of other useful stuff, too. the distortion takes away some charakter from your amp and axe, but thats quite normal for a digital processor. so, if you are looking for a versatile, neat pedal for few bucks, buy it. if you are professional and have enough money, buy professional equipment. for this price, its really the king.
PS: email me your patches if you want to share em with me

yts very easy to use if you have enough brain.just a few clicks on the edit panel and you get what you look for.

I am using an epiphone special les paul fender 15w amp:and even with this amp I get cool sounds.The most good sounds are the distortion sounds.There is a lot of choices between effects eq and stuff.I also like the clean tones.Its a very versatile effect processor.This price this pedal is EXELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not so stupid to jump on it...But I trust the ZOOM products anyway...

never dealt with them.It has 1 year warranty.

CATCH US YF YOU CAN...

This one's very easy to use... just press a button to change the patch, there are 28 pre-made patches to choose from, all editable. The manual is easy to understand so there shouldn't be any problems with it.

I use a fender strat chained to a dunlop crybaby and then to this 505. I play through a marshall 4x12 amp wich sounds great. About the effects now... Here's the deal, it has a really CRAPPY acoustic simulator with WAY to much distortion, actually it's in the dist-category, wich to me is hard to get! The other distortions are pretty good. There's a good metaldistortion and the others are ok, you can get killer lead sounds very easily with this box. The auto wah is TERRIBLE, the worst i've ever heard!!! But who gives a fuck when you have a crybaby?!? The good parts about it are the flanger and chorus effects, GREAT, except that there are to few alternatives to choose from. The digital delay sucks 'cause the're are just not enough options! In general a good box for the low cost i'd have to say!

I depend on it, but it doesn't look very heavyduty in that plastic manner. Use an adapter or else you're gonna stand there on that gig don't knowing what the fuck happened!

Never had a reason to talk to 'em!

I play anything from grunge, like Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots etc. to classical, mozart, beethoven etc, and it suits my needs perfectly. I bought it mainly for the good cost and the variaty of effects. It has a few errors wich I wish they'd fix! It SHOULD have a seperate button for bypassmode!!! But anyway i like it for some parts, and I guess for the price of it it's worth it!

This pedal is very easy to get an OK sound out of it, however it is much harder to get a brilliant sound. I have only managed to make one or two very good sounds. This is because of the all or nothing nature of the pedal. Editing patches is very easy, you just select the patch number press edit, change the variables and store it. The sound changes in real time, so you can see what your sound is like while you are editing. The manual tells you all that you need to know (this is not a very complicated pedal). My only gripe, is that bypassing the patches is a real pain, and I often find that in my attempts to press both the pedals at once, I often end up changing patches. Maybe Zoom should have included a second footswitch-in for bypassing.

I am using this pedal with an Epiphone SG, and a Kustom TR12L limited edition tuck and roll amp. I have found that the factory patches are not great on anything other than the bridge pickup, but I am happy with this, as I often find the neck pickup to muffled anyway. The range of effects is excellent for a pedal this cheap. They often sound very digital, however, but that is to be expected in this price range. I can get OK sounds of my favourite bands - idlewild, nirvana, foo fighters, green day, offspring etc. However none are perfect. If anyone has found/made a Placebo patch please e-mail it to me, because I have not found one yet. All of the effects are good, the distortions especially, and I love the pitchshifter. The chorus and flanger are both a bit useless at high levels, because of the severity of the effect.

I would use this pedal at a gig without backup. The pedals seem a bit weak to me meaning you can't jump around on it like a stomp box.

I have never dealt with them, but Zoom have a very informative website, which aided my decision to buy the pedal.

I play grunge and punk mainly, and I have found that with the bridge pickup, I can get pretty good imitations. I have been playing for eight years, (since I was seven) and this is the best value pedal I have ever seen. If it were stolen or lost and I was short of money, I would definately buy it again. If I had more money, I would buy one of the better in the Zoom range such as the 3030. I love the rough and ready distortions, they are the best part of the pedal (apart from the price.) I am borrowing a Denio Distortion pedal (a Boss copy), and 505 sounds so much better. I wish it had a seperate bypass switch though, and faster switching into a patch would be nice. It has helped my music lots. The TR12L has an OK distortion, and a crappy clean, and this pedal sorted that all out. It also helps for songs such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that have to switch in and out of distortion, because my amp does not have a footswitch. For the price, this is an excellent pedal, that I do not regret buying at all. -- Go buy it!

It's pretty easy to use the 505. It took about 1/2 hour to get the basics down. There is only so much you can do with a few buttons though, and you have to cycle through a lot of settings to find what you want. The manual is a big fold-out sheet, which is just a pain. A booklet that lies flat would have been nice.

I'm using this unit with a circa 1984 Fender Squire Bullet (strat) and a little Peavey practice amp. I'm not professional, and the gear never leaves my family room.
My major complaint is that this unit is NOISY, all the time, even on bypass. Not so noisy that it's unusable for practice, but I wouldn't want to do any recording with it. I couldn't set the mix of "wet/dry" effects with reverb or delay - you get whatever the presets give you. In general you may find that you can't always find a parameter preset that gives you just what you want. Some of the factory presets are nice, others are just silly sounding, but this stuff is all subjective.

I haven't had it long enough to rate it fore reliability.

I play various stuff, from Rolling Stones to Sheryl Crow to Gord Lightfoot. I'm 40, so of course I agree with Homer Simpson - rock and roll was perfected in 1974 and no progress has been made since then :-) I've been playing on and off for 20 years. Mostly off. If the 505 was stolen, I would replace it with something else. It was the cheapest available unit, and sounded good in a noisy music store, but after living with it for a month I plan to exchange it for something better ( read: quieter, more easy to adjust to my preferences) tomorrow. Having said that, if you want a multi-effects unit, and cost is your number one issue, it's not a bad little box.

Okay, I've posted 2 followups on this page. Here is my absolute complete evaluation of this box. It is decently allright to try to get a good sound out of it, but you may have to sit down for an hour to try and get a perfect sound you crave. Editing patches is allright, there is a wide range of varieties and options to apply to your sound. The manual is okay, but they should have made it in a book form.

I use a Standard Strat on a homemade tube amp. This pedal is very noisy with single pickup selections, but combos are quiet. The noisiest effects are the distortions. Some of the effects are weak and stringy, but others can really deliver a strong bite. I play mostly Nirvana and grunge stuff, and this pedal is pretty decent for that. I tried a Boss DS-2 in a music store (the pedal Kurt Cobain used for In Utero and Incesticide) and I found I could pretty much reproduce the DS-2 with the 505. So in other words, this thing isn't bad for Nirvana.
Good effects: distortions, chorus, compressor, reverb, eq isn't bad
Things I don't use or don't make a difference: flanger, pitch shifter, amp simulator, delays and the other stuff is mediocre. The acoustic pretty much sounds, well, decent but it could sound better with some eq tweaking.

It is made of plastic and I haven't busted mine yet. I don't really go nuts on it or throw it around but if I did, the pedals would probably fall off. One thing is that the 4 buttons on the side seems weak and I think mine may break soon. I wouldn't know what to use as a backup.

Never called'em

As I mentioned I play Nirvana and grunge and this thing is pretty good for my playing. But I am sure all styles can be created with this pedal. I have been playing for about a year and a half and I would say this pedal is good for beginners. If it was stolen or lost, I would probably not buy it again, I'd probably buy a Boss ME-30. I like the distortions and the chorus which are the ones I use the most often and the eq's allirght. I wish this pedal was a bit quiter, and it does require super strength batteries to work. It is a creative tool for creating different music, riffs and neat effects. I have not tried the optional seperate FP-01 pedal used for volume and other wah stuff but I don't really think it's necessary. Overall I give it an eight. Feel free to contact me for more information, or if you'd like sound clips of the different effects or anything else.

I'm following up to my last report. I said I would try a DS-2 and it is not really worth it. I can get practically the same tone with the 505, so I'm sticking with it.

Pretty easy to program once you get the hang of it. The way of switching between patches suks. I dunno how many times i been jammin at a gig or with friends and ive hit both buttons. The manual helped me out alot though, but they've gotta make it more like a book than a poster.

I use this pedal with my standard strat and peavy bandit 112 and i can never seem to get a good sound. Ive also tried it with my little fender 40 watt practice amp and my pa system and havent been able to get a good strong sound with it. The pedal is "very" noisy, and the distortions arent the greatest either.

It still works after two years of owning it.....

if it breaks, buy something else

It's very easy to get cool sounds from this processor; you may edit patches with ease or call the original ones back if you decide that you don't like it... The manual is good too, they're in all languages.

I use this babe with my Maison RE-280 guitar. It isnt noisy, and the effects always sound great.

I depend it so much that I'm getting on stage with it

never dealed them

just buy it if you're looking for something affordable and cool

It's not easy to get a good sound of it...And editing the patches is kind of difficult..Would help a lot if it had knobs or something... Manual is kind of tricky to read, 'cause it's like a big poster or something...

I used this with Squier and 10-watt Fender Sidekick amp..Extremely difficult (or even impossible) to get a good distortion..Chorus and flanger are quite good but everything else sucks big time..I play mostly punk/alternative and this pedal sucks for them...

Well afterall it's made of plastic...And it's not very heavy so I wouldn't gig it without backup..

Never dealt with 'em..

I played this for two months..And I'm going to switch it for Danelectro Daddy-O..
It really isn't good..

It's really not that difficult to use, but it can be hard at some times. Editing is allright, there is a wide range of changes to make. The manual is pretty useful too. Overall it's pretty easy to use.

I use a Fender Standad Strat on a homemade tube amp and it sounds allright. The 505 is very noisy on many of the effects especially the distortions. But when I put the pickup selector on a pickup combination, there's hardly any noise at all. Some of the effects aren't even worth using, but some sound great. I hardly use the flanger, pitch shifter and some of the other wild effects, but I frequently use the distortions, compressor, eq and Amp Simulator. I play a lot of NIRVANA and this pedal is "okay" for that type of thing. If anyone would want a Nirvana sound clip with the 505, let me know the song and I'll send it to you. The distortions are okay, but not that great. The chorus is pretty good, and the others are all mediocre.

It's pretty dependable, there is a little half second delay between switching patches, and it is made o' plastic but I would probably not bring a backup.

No Comment

As I mentioned I play a lot of Nirvana and other bands in that categorie, and this pedal is allright but if you're really serious about Nirvana, go and look at a DS-2 (I'm going next week). I've been playing for almost two years, and this thing is definately for beginners only. If mine was stolen or lost, I would not get another one, I'd either buy Boss singles or an ME-30 or something. I wish it this thing had better distortions, but it is a creative tool and useful for creating music or songs.

The 505 is very easy to use, the lack of parameter settings is what makes it so! Usually you can get an adequate sound (hey, it only costs $100!) from the 9 or so settings for each effect. Editing and saving is very easy, after you figure out the one-sheet multi-section instruction sheet. I wish it had a true one-button by-pass switch, it is difficult to always hit both buttons at the same time. I've used it gigging, but you have to be very careful. Worst case nightmare is, you are in one patch, and wish to go to another, but hit the wrong pedal combo in the process. NOW, you wind up in a patch you didn't want, are playing, and need to either bypass, or stomp on the pedal a million times to get to the correct patch. This is not unique to the 505 however. It would be good if you could lock it to go 'back-and-forth' between only two presets, too.

I play 70-80's rock, and blues, and use a Squire with Carvin pickups and an Epi Sheraton, usually with a Classic 50 amp and a few pedals. There has been a lot of criticism of the distortion sounds. Depends on the amp alot, and the settings. I do prefer my old pedals for dirt, thought,as I'm not into extreme high gain. Ditto the noise, if you adjust the amp v. Zoom levels I've been able to get a relatively low noise level with several amps and PA systems. Extreme high gain IS noisy, no matter what device. Delays are just too much - but reverbs substitute pretty well. The doubling setting is actually better as a delay. Overall, I like it a lot, factoring in the cost. By-pass is also fairly transparent, doesn't mess up the sound.

Seems plasticy-cheesy, but after many months, it has proved very reliable. Get a power supply, though, it eats battteries very quickly. I trust it, but always have other stuff along to fall back on.

Never had to deal with them.

I'd get it again in a flash. Matter of fact, I'm selling an RP7, but keeping the Zoom! This was my first multi-effector, I bought it to experiment with because of the price. I bought a RP7 based on the fun I had with the Zoom, and don't like it as well, except for the distortion quality, and reverbs. Definitely not 3.5x better!

This pedal is real easy to use...Editing is kinda wacky, but no biggy..The manuel is somewhat confusing, but I haven't really played with it's whole potential yet.

Epi SG through a Marshall Valvestate...This thing is noisy as hell when you have it bypassed. I have monster cable instrument cable, so it's definitely not that. The pre-set effects are good, but a tad noisy. The effects are all good but kind of techno sounding...if you get my drift..

This unit made up entirely of plastic, so I don't think it would take much abuse..but it hasn't messed up on me yet so I'm keeping my fingers crossed

Never dealt with them

I think I wanted something that sounded more "real," but hell I don't have all the dough that top musicians have to spend on effects...Its decent and enough to satisfy my current needs. I would probably buy something else that had effects loops in it.

its easy to use just turn it on and go. thats all there is to it

I set up some cool delays and a pretty good death metal distortion. its a good mid level effects processer. I suggest you give it a try.

use a ac adapter for best performance

Very easy to use. Since there are few parameters to edit with each effect there are no complicated settings. Just press the edit button, find the effect you want to adjust, and press + or -. I did not like most of the manufacturer patches(programs) so I edited many to my taste. The unit is set up with 6 banks of 4patches each. You can organize each bank to include common programs for live performance. The large foot pedals allow you to scroll up or down for ease of use. Pressing both together puts you in the bypass/tuner mode. Then with an optional expression pedal you can have some real time control over wah,pitch,or volume. This is truly one of thje easiest multieffectors to set up & use. The disadvantages are there are a lot of button pushes to do. Try to find a patch that sounds close to what you want to minimize this. I also wish that the instuction manual came in a booklet form instead of a foldout(like a roadmap). This is a nusance. It is complete and easy to read.

I used the unit three ways; 1-Guitar amp (Fender Deluxe 112), 2-Directly thru a mixing board, and 3- with headphones. If you are in love with your amps tone be aware that this unit will alter the tone noticably, even in bypass mode. Who knows, you may prefer the new tone. The second thing you may notice is an annoying amount of hiss wich cannot be eliminated with the noise gate. This hiss may be reason enough to return the unit if you plan to use your amp to record or for quiet work. I found that the different effects were ok considering the price. In the compressor section I used the limiter to limit the signal to the distortion section. This reduced buzzing and smoothed out the overdrive. The distortion section had 7 different types & 1 acousic parameter (cool but remember that hiss, bummer). The noise reduction works well in lowering noise from the effects but will not reduce the hiss that is inherant in this unit. The amp simulator is just a tone modifier ehh! EQ? Not really, there is a 50 step adjustor which changes multiple bands all at once. This is pretty lame, but again what do you expect for $99? The chorus, flanger, & phase shifter are ok. Delay & reverb also are servicable but there are minimal adjustments available here. Delay time limited to 370ms. You set the time to short, longer, etc. You can't adjust feedback or mix either. In general you can get some ok sound thru your amp, but I figure that if you have any decent equipment save up for a better multieffector or even consider stomp boxes. The above holds for use with the mixing board, except that the unit is much quieter. Unfortunately, the tone also gets a little muddier. Headphone are cool! You get some real neat separation. This translates into some huge effect. This I liked. Because the 505 is rediculously cheap it may be worth the cost just for this reason. To sum up, there are many multieffectors which have better sound & features but you can't beat the price!!

Even though this unit is plastic, there is no reason to assume that it won't hold up. It's very compact so you would really have to target it for destruction. Of course if you hate the tone you may decide on getting back at the poor thing. Use a separate power source, I'm told this unit eats batteries. I would probably gig with this pedal. It is really easy to use, and you can get some intersting tones out of it. That hiss though.

Have never dealt with the company directly, but I found a large amount of unofficial online stuff patches etc.

I am a consumate gear fiend. I love playing with this stuff. Compared to other units, this comes off a poor 5th, 6th, 23rd. If you stop to think about it, for the price of a single stomp box you can get a quite sophisticated piece of processing equipment. You can spend as much or as little time as you want fiddling with it. The one thing that I really hated as I mentioned was the noise. I have a 504 acoustic pedal and it was much quieter. If you are on a budget this pedal is one to consider. There are so many pedals you can go nuts. In this price range you could look at DOD Tec-4x (also noisy). Korg makes a multieffect (I haven't tried), ZOOM itself makes a few pedals 2100 for $149 . I have tried Boss's ME-30, Digitech's RP-3 and they are clearly superior to the 505. Remember you get what you pay for. This is not a costly rack unit. In my opinion, you should try to find a used Boss ME-8, RP-1. You get a lot of bang for the buck with used stuff. This is a neat pedal and I'm enjoying noodling with it. I wouldn't buy another if it were lost, but I'm not returning this one.

It`s pretty easy after reading manual.

I`m using an Epi Dot 335 and a Vantage amp. Through the amp, there`s the loud hiss. Very annoying. I had to change the patches as some of them are loud. I use the Zoom with my headphones and the sound was good . No hiss. I could easily get a good early Beatle tone on the neck pickup. I also could get the Rick 12 string sound,( Found the patch on website) Overall I use the zoom with my headphones. I`m planning to get a good amp soon

I strongly recommend using Energizer batteries only. It usually lasts for four or five days. DON`T USE OTHER BATTS. They last for 15 minutes!I had to step onthe pedal to get to the sound i wanted which is tiring.

I play the 60`s music Beatles, LedZep and others. This zoom contains alot of patches. Some of them are bad or too harsh for my tastes. I like the chorus and the delay effects.( Had fun playing the Police`s Every Breath You Take).Cheap for many effects in one. But i`ll doubt i`ll ever buy it again. I`ll use it for headphone practice witout disturbing my family.

This pedal is very easy to use, but you may find that two effects are spread out very far. this can be solved by editing and storing though.

I use a strat copy (lotus 660) with a crate 75 watt amp. The sound varies, but i tend to get lots of unwanted noise and feedback. you can get very grunge-like sounds out of it and lots of chorus effects too.

If you use batteries, have lots onhand. i use a power supply and i've never had a problem. batteries are a waste of time because it eats them so quickly. i would use it on a gig w/o backup though.

never had to deal with it

easy to use about 5 minute and you'll what you search

i used cheap guitar and peavey Bandit 112 S and with the zoom 505, the setup kick ass and I didn't have made my opinion on the first day I had it ,it take me about 8 month to find what i wanted and i can say you that this pedal have all that you nedd and this is great as the metalzone is. can get great metal and blues sound, even punk

great and not very expensive so try it