Zoom 505

Once you get the hang of how the pedal works, it's not hard. It can be time consuming to come up with the sound you are looking for. There are nine settings with numerious settings within to fiddle with.

When I had a no-name guitar and a Crate GX30-M, it added a lot to my sound (better). Wasn't much noiser than the amp. Now that I have a Fender Strat Plus and Hot Rod Deluxe, I find the Zoom 505 unuseable. It hisses like crazy, and generally sucks good tone away. I wish I could use the chorus, delay, and even the distortion settings once in awhile, but the hiss is just too annoying. I've kept it only to use as a tuner and headphone amp (good use) for now. I'd rather have a couple good pedals.

You could use it in a gig, as long as you didn't need to tweak any patches. And if you programmed the patches in an order that was easy to scroll through. It is plastic, so I wouldn't stomp on it too hard. Also, use the adapter. Sucks batteries.

Haven't used.

This is a beginner's pedal. If you are a beginner and have a cheap guitar and cheap crate, peavy, ss practice amp, you might like it to explore effects. It also has a tuner and works well for a head phone practice amp. Wouldn't recommend it for using for gigs, for anyone but a beginner.

This thing is easy to program, and is about as easy to use as they come once it's programmed the way you want. One side goes up, on goes down. But easy isn't always best - no knobs so no tweaks on the fly. The manual was helpful but still could figure it out on my own.

I use it with a Carvin Bolt and a Fender 212 DeVille (all tube). I used to use it with a Peavey Bandit and other "cheaper" guitars. It sounded OK with the old set up, but now it takes away somewhat from the great sound of my Fender amp. It's kind of noisy and the effects are sort of cheesy - I don't think any of the effects are that great. But hey, for around $100 what do you want?

It's plastic, so you can't crush it. But it seems put together fairly well. A little TLC and it'll be fine. I've used it live w/out a back up, but then again I'm not rich enough to have back-ups for all my gear. If it dies it dies.

Can't help ya here.

I play mostly rock & praise/worship. I've been playing for 11 or 12 years (wouldn't know it though because I get into the guitar in streaks...) and my other gear is quality stuff (Carvin Bolt & a couple other guitars, Fender Deville, Danelectro Fab Tone & Daddy-O). This is definitely the weak link in the chain. I love that it's cheap and can do lots of things. I hate that it has mediocre effects and can't be tweaked on the fly. In the end, though, it helps many guitar players make music 'cause we can't all run out and buy 15 pedals or an expensive rack unit. Consider spending a little more and getting a digitech or BOSS floor unit before purchasing this.

I will admit, it can be easily figured out, mine was w/out a manual

I have managed to find about three nice sounds. Yet, it is hard to use trying to get both pedals down for the bypass. If you don't play Heavy metal non-stop, email me and I'll let you know the sounds I am able to use off this thing

If your a pro, you don't need, or want it. Otherwise, who cares?

Responsive

Ok people. From now on, if your not using good equipment and you don't
really know
how to play, or you play HEAVY music, Don't keep cluttering this site.
I, as well as the rest of the world, are sick of you saying how huge
this thing sounds and then crying
about how bad you need a new, louder amp. Get the amp, and don't waste
your money on this piece of junk. For those of you who bought it and
really know what you're
doing, e-mail me...I will give you some usable sounds. P.S. don't go and
look up patches for this thing. 95% of them will be a Pantera immitation.

In few minutes, you can easily edit patches and play. You don't even need to read the (small) manual. only for see what's D1, C1, P1, and that... but you'll remember the effect names easily. THis is the best unit it terms of ease of use.

I use a Yamaha Pacifica 712 through a Marshall Valvestate VS65-R. The Zoom 505 is a bit noisy, but the Noise Reduction (ZNR) works pretty well. All effects are acceptable in terms of sound -- flanger is very good, chorus is good, step effect is useless, autowah works nice with fast soloing. Pitch shifter is a good improvement over small stompboxes. Distortions are a little "harsh" at high gain, but with some tweaking it sounds great. YOu can use doubling on distortion to get an ultra-saturated , "pantera" type sound, a really shredding. As a conclusion, the sound quality is very good in relation to the price of this unit. Digitech RP-4 sounds equal to the ZOOM505, but it costs $500.

It's made on plastic, so don't try to walk on it. But seems to be very solid though. I'm not used it on a gig!

No problems yet.

To play heavy metal as I do, it's a good deal, because you get shredding distortions and interesting, pitch-shifted chorus to make that "fear" introductions. I would buy it again. I don't hate nothing in this unit, and it helps to make music, in fact. If you are finding for effects, and that racks are expensive, the zoom505 is a big deal.

Umm... to the dude above... Like try plugging it in with a stereo cord!

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A baby could use this. The manual explain everything very good even if you can figure everything out by yourself. But you need to try a lot to get a very good sound as you like.

i use it with an Epiphone Nighthawk and a fender tremolux 100w. It sounds very good. The deley sounds good but you do not have enough settings on it. Other down are the wah and the accoustic simulator, they sound crappy. It is a little bit noisy. In general, the sound is good with powerfull distortion.

i play everything and this pedal almost does all i want. I would probably buy it again because of it`s low price. You can surely get better but not at this price. It is also very portable. I bring it with me anywhere without problems.

SUPER EASY! About 10 minutes after I got it, I could program like a pro!

I have a '84 Gibson Explorer and an Ibanez X Series with a Fender Bassman (2 huge 15inch speakers). It gets kinda noisy on some settings, but it is pretty awesome for the price. Some effects are pretty pointless, like the ones you have to make changes to cause you can barley hear anyhting. If you make your own distortions, it can be the awesomest pedal ever!

Its pretty dependable, but the plugin deal thing that goes out to the amp is MAJORLY JACKED UP! I have to put something underneath the cord to make it useable. GET A BACKUP or never do a gig!

Never called.

I play alot of metal, some clasical, and I love really crunchy stuff that has alot of "CHUG" sound to it. Overall it is a really good pedal.

a braindead monkey could use is. one pedal goes up in the patch list. the other goes down. Editing is easy too, maybe too eaYou can't fine tune most of the effects.on flanger, phaser, wah, and every other effect, (except for the distortions), you can only choose 1 to 10. 1 being low level, and 10 being high level.

right now i am using a fender squire strat, and a squire practice amp, and it still sounds pretty good, very low noise. it is kind of hard to duplicate other band's sounds, but mabey with practice, it'll be easier. the only thing that is bad is the acoustic simulator,it is absolutely horrible, but i wasn't planning to use it anyway.

I think i can depend on it, but I wouldn't go stomping the crap out of it. I always end up hitting both pedals and throwing it into bypass mode

never had to call, good thing because i lost the number

I play mostly metal and punk, and it is pretty good. The preset distortions aren't very good, but you can adjust them to fit your taste.Oh yea, the tuner sucks, it is totally useless, but the rest of the pedal is good

I was cycling through the patches and making my own within an hour of buying it. Excellent. However it is a bit shitty if you need to cycle between patches live. You need to buy a foot-switch, but you need an expression pedal too.... whichever you get is your decision. You can get good ones for around #30 ($40)

Currently, I'm using the Zoom 505 effects pedal with either my Fender '72 Telecaster and Epiphone SG with humbucker pickups. IT sounds amazing through the Telecaster (still if you have a Telecaster then everything sounds amazing). And when using it with my SG I can get some pretty high volume levels. The pitch shift effects are amazing.. but it helps to buy a separate expression pedal to use the PU and PD settings. Great for songs that use octaves such as "My Iron Lung" by Radiohead. Without an expression pedal you can get away with using P4 or something like that. I find it great for playing Rage Against The Machine stuff too.

I basically hammer this pedal apart every time I play a gig (and at home!!).. yet it still hasn't failed me. Remarkable. It doesn't look heavy duty, but it is one mean pedal and should hold up to most peoples stomping rituals.

Nah.. never dealt with them.. no neeed to. The pedal is great.

This pedal is definitely worth it for the price. It's small, compact and you don't have to mess around with it that much when setting it up for a gig. Like I said before.. I own both a Fender and an Epiphone (close enough to a Gibson)... remember Gibson Epiphones are good, Fender Squires are shit and Fender and Gibsons ROCK!!! IF it were stolen I wouldn't buy it again because it has served it's purpose. I've had it for aagggggeesss. I'd rather buy seperate FX boxes now because I'm into that kind of stuff. GEt myself a Digitech WH1 Whammy, a few distortion pedals, delay, flanger, fuzz and one of those Roland space echo things. Still.. the 505 is amazing.. BUY IT if you don't have it.

All I have to say is you would have to be completely retarted to not be able to have this puppy figured out within twon three days most. This was my first processor and I was editing patches within an hour getting it. The manual is very comprehensive though there is very little need fo it. I only used the manual for a half an hour.

I'm using a Strat copy and a Crate amp with it and it sounds very good to me. I have i bit of complaint about the acoustic distortion. It snaps and crackles if you hit the strings toohard. I like most of the other distortions except the metal distortion has a wee-bit too much bass.

Well Ive had for a year and I am very rough with it (I thriw it around my room, and step on it quite hard) It doesn't look very strong but if it can survive a week with me, let alone a year, it could suvive a Cyclone. I have friends who use these pedals for gigs all the time and never take a backup.

I have never had to deal with the company.

I like to play a wide variety of music but I try to stick to alternative and metal. I like a lot of older classics such as Ozzy and Led Zepplin. This pedal is perfect for such things and I would assume most other types of music. I have not had a stick of trouble with it, and I love it.

When I first got it, I was very impressed with all of the neat sounds it could make. Then a week later I got bored with them. Pretty easy to use for programming your own sounds.

Pretty cool for awhile, especially if this is your first effect pedal. But after awhile the sounds seem pretty lame when compared to other effects pedals.

It seems pretty fragile. I've always been too afraid to stomp it like a normal pedal. It's made out of plastic, so you may want to refrain from using it while wearing your Doc Martens.

Never dealt with them.

It's good for beginners who are new to the whole guitar effects thing. But I'd recommend something different if you want a more professional sound. It's kind of like the Fisher Price of effects pedals.

Very simplistic. The manual isn't really all that neccessary. Editing patches comes pretty easy. For a beginner, it probably couldv'e explained more about the ZDR AMP settings, compressor and limiter.

I use a Peavey Raptor guitar with a Danelectro Overdrive pedal and a Crate GFX. When it comes to using the Danelectro pedal and the Zoom together, it's just impossible most the time. Keep picking up radio stations, i suppose that i have been able to use single or maybe 2 effects with the overdrive. For example, i might just turn on the compressor, the znr amp, the volume, and a Wah or a flange. It's a pretty noisy pedal.

I havn't broken it so far. It looks kinda cheap though.

I like the thing, it's ok. I would probably not replace it, and I probably wouldn't buy it if I had been playing for maybe 2 or 3 years. I just wish it wasn't as noisy. I might be able to modify it but i should probably wait until the waranty is up to try that. I'm buying some of the individual crap that the pedal offers like a new Wah. I'll probably buy a new distortion because they're so cheap. That's probably it though, maybe a delay since those are cheap too. Since I was such a beginner when I bought it, I thought it was God's gift to music. I don't plan on throwing the pedal away, or selling it because their will probably be a time when i need it, if not, it's pretty good to experiment with if i need an effect that i dont have for a specific song. It would be ten-times better if it was just less noisy.

Right out of the box I started editing patches. Very simple instructions that a monkey could understand. Look to the User comments to figure out how to really use this thing. Yea, you will need to sit down for a couple of hours & program this thing but it is well worth it.

My setup is a Ross 400 Watt PA and a Ibanez RX series with a couple of single coil & 1 double coil pickup. I occasionally use a Vantage Vanguard but only for Heavy tunes because it has 2 hogh output humbuckings. The quality of the ZOOM sound is incredible for the price. I have almost no noise on most of my settings at ANY level. Yea, there are some effects that are noist but they are SUPPOSED to be loud!! How on earth is a Huge Swooshy Flange supposed to be quiet! I noticed that my bandmate had more noise than me going through the same EXACT patch & the same EXACT PA so you need to check your guitar & amp before blaming the ZOOM for any noise problems. I can get pretty much any Artist's sound out of the ZOOM if I spend enough time working on the patch. Again, check out the unofficial Zoom patch website, these guys have done al the work for ya! A couple of things though that could make the ZOOM better: The AC simulator is a bit too quiet so I have to adjust my PA input to boost the sound. The Delay is OK but I would like more options (I know, buy a BOSS!)

This goes out to all the PuNkErS & THRASHers who need to stomp the stompbox: Get a Distortion pedal(DOD or MetalZone) & plug it in after the ZOOM! Adjust the Dist Pedal to your patch & You can pound on the Dist Pedal all night without destroying the ZOOM or getting that "annoying" delay! I would use this at a gig but I do carry a BOSS Phaser & Metal Zone & I use a Crybaby Wah instead of the ZOOMS Wah.I do have migivings about the little buttons on the side so I just treat them with a little kindness.

Use the Website for customer support.

I play everything from Metal to Blues to acoustic Zep-like tunes & this pedal ROCKS! I have been playing for years & this has definitely improved my sound & the amount of time playing. I may get a BOSS Delay just to have the options but I would continue to have the ZOOM in an effects ring. If you are reading this ZOOM: Give us another foot pedal to change from A1 to B1 to C1 to D1 to E1 to F1, it would give us a lot more options on stage.

Fairly easy to use. I might've prefered a few additional punch keys for volume control, etc., but hey, you get what you pay for. Manual (more accurately, foldout poster) is straightforward and well-written, though most of the features will be obvious if you've used this kind of equipment before.

I've tried this pedal out on guitar, bass, vocals, and on pre-recorded drums. It works best on guitar and it's definitely not fit for any serious studio use (very noisy, even in bypass mode...poor frequency response...always sounds like it's being compressed even when compression/limiting is turned off). The sound quality is acceptable, but not great. There are a few interesting effects you can achieve with this, but for the most part, I found them to be mediocre, "fake" and "cheap" sounding. There are alot of limitations in how you can combine effects, too. For example, some of the more interesting effects are lumped into the same module so that you can't use them simultaneously. The effects themselves are very limited (for example, there are 10 flanger presets, which cannot be edited any further, and which all sound about the same...ditto for everything else). The reverbs on this thing are awful - half the time you can't even hear them, and when you do, you wish you couldn't.

Well, it's built out of plastic, it looks pretty cheap, I wouldn't hurl it against the wall or anything. But I've had it over a year and no problems so far.

A few of the effects are interesting, like I said, and I have used them in a few songs I've recorded. When I first bought this, I was hoping that it would be an "all-in-one" deal and that I wouldn't have to buy another effects pedal again. In retrospect, my money would've been better spent buying individual pedals for different effects. The sound quality would've increased tenfold and that setup would've allowed more freedom to experiment and more control over individual parameters. But considering the Zoom 505 costs less than most quality digital reverb pedals, you can only expect so much. But if you're in a band and on a really tight budget and you find yourself needing to switch effects alot on stage, it might be useful, since you could pre-program and arrange everything you need (assuming it can give you what you need). All in all, a fun little toy but I wouldn't buy it again if it got stolen.

This product could be the easiest multi-effects processor on the market. I had fun with the presets(though I don't use them) and editing is easy as sin. The manual is simple and even gives a few tips on using the 505.

As a beginning guitarist, I was awed by the vast number of sounds that could be produced for such a little price. As I improved and began searching for a sound I could call my own I bagan to realize that the distortions aren't all that great. I play driving rock and no distortion is hard enough for me without causing a great deal of noise. Im running a Peavey Wolfgang into the 505 an then into a Fender Princeton Chorus. If I turned on the amp's distortion there was a loud and annoying hiss. I wondered why. Then it cliked. The output on the 505 which I run into the amp is the same as the headphone output. The output is powered!!! The high signal going into the amp was the problem. I tried going into the effects loop but it didn't help any. Again the distortions could use some work but I really like the reaverbs, chorus, and flanger. Great for the money but not worthy of impressing anyone at gigs.

I feel it is very dependable but I don't like the fact that its made of plastic. Sometimes I get a little carried away and stomp a little too hard. However, it has lasted me almost a year.

I love my 505 just enough to keep it but I wouldn't get another if I lost it. I find it is very useful for midnight jams with my headphones but doen't work up to par for high vollume situations. I just purchased a new Digitech GSP 21 to replace it but i will definitely keep my 505 for messing around in my room. This is a great product for practices, brainstorms, or beginners but I wouldn't recomend that more experienced players that know what type of sound they're looking for buy one.

This is a very easy pedal to use right out of the box. You can probably throw out the instruction booklet its useless.

i use a les paul black beauty through a 30 watt dean markley amp. I need a better amp but there is only one patch that i found that was useful. the clean sound absolutely sucked, so did the auto wah,pitch shifter was useless, doubling was retarded sounding, the chorus,delay and reverbs were ok. you can never get a blues tone out of this. the best is probably the metal and acoustic distortions, although the acoustic setting had an annoying hiss to it.

Made of plastic, that sucks. had it for 6 months and now it won't play at all. i kept it in good conditon too. i don't know maybe it had a short in it but that definitely sucked.

Sent them four e-mails about the problem with the short that was 3 months ago.

i play blues to heavy metal. the metal setting was decent but thats it. i would only recommend it to very beginner guitarists. Its broke now and i am not replacing it. I learned my lesson with the zooms

As noted, essential programming is about as complicated as your average digital watch. Editing patches is extremely simple, but this is not to say that creating terrific patches is -- see below. Changing patches in play mode is as easy as it gets (pedal up, pedal down) and the options (direct load on/off, bank switch on/off, bypass) are also obvious. The ability to edit a patch in one location and save it to any other location is very smart engineering (sort of like the "Save As" option in Windows software). The manual is more like a poster but is unusually well written for a Japanese product. Only real complaint is the extremely counter-intuitive linear EQ: with the manual/poster it's not a problem but figuring out how to tweak it without the diagram is likely to frustrate you and callous your index finger.

Here's where everyone seems to go one way or the other: brilliant or crap. The bottom line is, what you get for the money is unreal and the overall quality of what you get soundwise from a 505 is dependent on your entire signal chain (playing style, string type and thickness, tuning, pick style if any, pickups, guitar construction, guitar control settings, where the 505 is in your signal chain, what else comes between the guitar-505 and 505-amp, your amp's preamp, your amp's power amp, your amp's speaker or your headphones...and of course what the settings and options are on each device, especially the 505!). Bearing in mind that each of these factors will impact the sound you actually hear, the 505 is an incredible bag of tricks for the casual player, hobbyist, home recording geek, and open-mike night jammer. I'd guess the 9-10 reviews are from people who both have decent equipment and have taken the time to mess with settings on all items...the lower ratings I would chalk up either to impatience or expecting the 505 to do magic without your help. For the price of a single typical BOSS pedal (and much less money than some) you get an astounding array of options. The truth is that the 505 will not make a garbage amp or guitar non-garbage, but the truth is also that with some thought and the right equipment around it the 505 can be made to do believable impressions of almost any electric guitar sound you can find on any album by anyone. As in any multi-effect, some of the options are relatively indispensible and some of the options are relatively silly, like the "step" modulation -- but it's not so silly if your holy grail is to play "Dancing In The Street" as covered by Van Halen. The thing to keep in mind is that digital is digital -- a $99 DSP and a $9000 DSP are both either limited or enhanced by the fact that they're digital. There are nuances on vinyl albums that ARE NOT on digital formats, and so there are elements to, for example, a tape delay which are not in an analog (circuit) delay, which are not in a digital delay. As far as the individual effects in the 505, they're all in the good-or-better category, especially considering the price paid. The compressor/limiter options are quite usable. Auto-wah won't exactly beat a Mu-Tron but is good enough for some wacka-wacka when needed. Pedal-wah and pitch-bend I can't address since I haven't bought the expression pedal. The seven (analog!) distortions are all usable and -- in conjunction with other settings -- easily cover the gamut from Hendrix to the Stones to Zeppelin to Van Halen to Randy Rhoads to Metallica to Eric Johnson. Dynamics come through more on some than others, but you can get very tube-ish growling whines as well as that airy-shrill, clipped transistor thrash chugga-chugga. The eighth 'distortion' is an acoustic simulation which is decent, not great (and not loud enough, but acoustic simulation is a dedicated-pedal type operation and I consider that a free bonus effect). The EQ is weird but, given the way it works, effective, and the phaser is very nice if a little noisy. The NR gate is extremely useful, has a nice range of application -- to go from total signal silence to deafening Diary of a Madman to silence is cool -- but if you like decay or static you can have that also. The "amp simulator" is a one-trick pony, very useful for headphone practice, unnecesary and a source of some nasty hiss through a real amp. The one-trick is a sort of Marshall impression, with or without NR. The modulation options are all very nice -- entirely usable choruses, flanges, pitch-shifts (play single-note leads, not chords!), and steps. The delay options are excellent -- top quality room and hall reverbs, and decent but limited digital delay. The delay is deceptive in that the increasing numbers don't exactly increase delay time, but also affect regeneration and sweep, which means d7 and d8 are actually longer delays when heard than d9. The overall level control is obviousl

Seems reliable for use-as-intended, which is to say home practice, recording, et cetera. For live use, would depend on the place, style of music, blah blah blah, but at $99 you could buy a second unit to have in your gig bag if you stomp the first one to death. As noted, you NEED the AC adaptor, and I think Zoom should include it and raise the price $15.

Price-performance CANNOT be beat in a multi-effect, period. Similar models from Roland, DOD, Digitech and others have different mixes of features, but are also all more expensive and larger (the ME30, which is better in some ways, is also 2.5 times the price and 3.5 times the size). Not a substitute for $3,500 worth of dedicated rack and pedal effects but those who really expect that for the money are seriously oxygen-deprived. "Fantastic value" was never truer.

I found the 505 very easy to use. This is my first multi-effects unit. The manual was easy to understand.

I am using both electric(Gibson L6S) and acoustic(Ibanaz AE10). I found the 505 to be great for both worlds. I mix both guitars through a small mixer then into the 505 and into an old Silvertone twin twelve 100w. and get great tones. I found most of the factory settings useless but do use some of them. You have to play with the volume settings of each effect so you don't have a great volume on one and when you switch your volume goes to nothing, and you have to grab for the amp volume.

I have had no problems with the unit and don't use a backup.

never

I play everything from Gospel to Christian rock which is why I chose the 505. Been playing for about 15years. I would replace it if stolen. I like the varied options. The display is terrable outdoors it is hard to read in the sunshine, fine for indoors. I choose it for its varibility and price.

Bought the pedal in a shop....an hour later i was editing the ould patches at home in me gaff!

Well i used to play electric guitar but have,of late,gone more into acoustic guitar.I play a semi acoustic guitar and wanted some overdrive for some solos....delay for others and maybe a bit of auto-wah here and there so i opted for the zoom 505.It sounded nice in the store but when i got home i couldn't get over the noise! We play thru a 200 watt carlsbro PA and the feedback was unreal! The actual effects are fairly good but the noise was too much for moi! I tried putting the pedal in the effects ring....quitened down a little but was still unbearable!

I only had it one day so i wouldn't be able to comment.

Never dealt with them.

Well,i play a lot of Hendrix,Led Zepplin,AIC etc.As i mentioned earlier i needed something to jazz up the solos a little but this didn't do it for me!(Im still on the lookout actually).I've been playing since i was 9 and know what i'm talking about!If it were lost or stolen i would say thanx.....woud have tossed it in the river anyway if i couldn't get rid of it! This effects unit is ok for someone with a practice amp playing in their bedrrom...as for gigging....no way chief!

It's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. Editing patches is really easy as well. The manual is mediocre, but there is not that much to explain.

I run my oncle's old guitar through it into his Squire 15 practice amp. Obviously I need a better set up, I'm hoping to get a guitar soon. But anyway, it's really quiet, it has a fairly good limiter, sometimes it seems like it cuts off a little too much, but it can be adjusted. It has good distortion, which is pretty cool with the Flanger, and chourus, reverb, and the compressor are all right to. But it seems like it sounds sterile, and your guitar playing is almost cut off on the way to the amp. (I hope that makes sense). Also you can't adjust individual effects very much, just turn them up or down, or in the case of the phaser or flanger, adjust the rate. This is the reason that I don't like it, and don't reccomend it. Also the tuner really stinks, it's hard to get your guitar in tune with it.

I don't think it will break soon, but it is plastic. I don't gig, but I think it would be pretty safe with out a back up.

Never delt with 'em, hope I never will.

This pedal can do just about any style of music, but it just doesn't do a very good job. If it were lost I would definetly up grade, and not get another Zoom pedal. It eats batteries really bad, 4 hours on an alkaline, according to the manual. So plan to pay an extra $20 on an A/C adapter. You pretty much need it. I guess it's all right for beginers, it gave me a good idea of what certain effects where like and how to use them. It is small for an multi effects processer, and thats nice, it will easily fit in a gig bag. I would suggest not to get it. And if you have $100 to spend on effects, I would suggest getting a Boss pedal, can't go wrong there, or putting it to a digitech processer. (From what I've heard, I don't have either) Good Luck

It's easy to use. But, it has it's down sides. When you're on stage and need to go from B3 to F1 there is no quick and easy way to do it without stomping through all the effects to get there.. Oh yeah.. sorry.. press on both pedals @ once and do it. You're in the middle of a hug adrenaline rush from being on stage, and you need to change effects quick, like you really have the concentration to do that, especially when you are singing and playing rhythms. For home use it's great, on stage, it's well... it does the job.

It's good. The digital delay could be ALOT better tho. The distortions are cool but, since when was an acoustic sound counted as distortion? It sounds quite good but the distortions could do with improvement.

It's never let me down. I depend on it. A gig without a backup? Which artists do you know do a gig without a backup? I still have trusty pedals around when I need them.

Nevre had to call them.

I think it's good all round. The more experienced you are in playing guitar and the peripherals involved the more picky you get. It was the right price with the right features. I use it for gigs and playing at home. All round it's a great unit. Some of the effects need improvement but, the ease of use, felxibility and price of the unit make up for it. It's good for what I play (Queen, [Which is why I think the delay needs work, Brian May uses alot of Delay and Over Dubbing in his leads], Metallica, Clapton, Extreme, etc..). If it was stolen or lost, I would probably buy it again, if not I would investigate other products manufactured by Zoom. I don't like the Red LED display, I would prefer if it was a blue back-lighted LCD display (I'm used to racks, what can I say? :o)) But all round... It's good. Shame its made out of plastic though.

It's pretty easy to program, but could take a while if your used to this sort of thing. It reminded me a lot of programming a digital watch, especially with the four side buttons. The manual is OK too considering the general 'cheap and cheerful' feel of the whole thinng.

I used the ZOOM for about a month before I realized I was only using 1 type of distortion (Overdrive), Delay and 1 modulation effect (Chorus) just about exclusively. I didn't particularly appreciate the way the ZOOM removed just about all the volume dynamics from my playing either (even with no compression). The vast majority of the other effects were virtually unusable.. using this thing is a bit like trying to do a nice picture in felt tip pen; the colours are all much too crass and everything seems to conspire against you making something asthetic. At the time I was using this peddle I had a Carlsbro 100w stingray amplifier, and played through the zoom via a strat. After a few weeks I went back to using the amp alone, and it was lovely. I could like, actually vary the volume just by changing how hard I hit the strings! I think this peddle definately has its time and place. My young brother in law can do a mean impression of James Hetfield with his ZOOM, his Jackson and his 30W transistor combo! It just doesn't seem to suit a more reserved style of playing.
I mentioned above that I'd stopped using the ZOOM.. which isn't exactly true. The processed sounding effects chorus and 'subtle as a brick' delays are perfect for my Gothic vocal style.. where considerably less 'feel' is required!! I wouldn't gig without it!
I've also heard one of these being used by a Bass player and it really is quite impressive. I wouldn't overlook the ZOOM if you wanted a general purpose box of tricks and wern't too bothered about tone.

I think you can depend on it provided you get the settings you want and then leave it alone. I've had no problems with mine but my little brother in law fiddled with his extensively and one of the side buttons is now kaput. My own ZOOM has the beginnings of a similar problem, but the patches are so rarely changed now I can't really see it becoming a pain. Reading other review it seems this side button problem is a recurring thing... be warned prospective buyers..

Dunno

This peddle was a pretty poor effects unit for guitar. It tends to destroy all the character of the guitar and amp and you just end up sounding like someone playing a ZOOM. There is also a really annoying problem with changing patches where there is a slight delay when changing between a patch with a time effect to one with no time effect (double or delay for example).
It is however, well worth considering if you're looking for a versatile, cheap general purpose multi effects unit.
I would not buy it again as a guitar effect.. if I lost the one I have I might try to get another one second hand for vocals.. they are quite common.
Some guitarists are really into multi effects processors, but some just can't handle the sacrifice of tone you make for the novelty of some of the effects. Oddly enough, people who play humbucker guitars are much more likely to appreciate these digital thingys than strat and tele users. Whether this is due to the way they are programmed for a particular frequency response, because single coils rely on more of the natural tone of the guitar or simply because people who play big, heavy mahogany guitars want crass distortions and washed out chorus.

Pretty easy to get a good sound. Factory patches are OK, there are many good patches out there. Easy to learn how to experiment with. Editing patches is easy, but I'm a computer progammer so of course it is easy for me. Manual stinks.

Fender Strat, Randall RG50. This pedal is noisy!!! The hiss bugs the snot out of me, but isn't noticeable if performing live. Definitely not for the studio. If the thing wasn't so noisy I'd give it a 10, but the hiss just kills it.

Dependable. Plastic, but still very sturdy, just don't stand on it! I would not gig without a backup, but I won't gig with anything without a backup.

????

Excellent beginner to intermediate pedal! Not really for high level professional studio work. Good for mellow to rock to death metal. Especially good death metal sound. I have a patch that gives a good 2112/Caress of Steel sound. I would definitely buy another. I hate the hiss/noise. But it is very versatile and has many excellent effects, good programmability. It's only downfall is the noise, otherwise it is excellent.

It's an easy pedal to use, once you get a hang of all those abreviations... it's easy to program and use, through you'll find yourself more confortable to program it if you grab it like a portable console or something :) The manual's a piece of paper but does the job well.

The important stuff... the sounds are limmited when it gets to programming, but i'd be lying if i said it doesn't sound well. One thing that annoys me it's that it gets noisy when i run it on my small Crate GX-15 (it's noisy by itself so i really dunno)... sounds very good using headphones through.
The effects are ok... some ones like the amp simulator, chorus, DTorion, MTal and BLues distortions settings, flanger and phaser (a bit weak through) are very good actually. The effects are designed to achieve their potential when u mix them, so you may be a bit dissapointed if you use the distortions alone f.ex, yet, adding a bit of eq and reverb does the job great :). You can get anything to a decent cheap-accoustic simulation to a valve crank in a seccond. Very expressive piece of musical equipment.

Well, it's more sturdy than it looks like (you'll notice it with time)... yet, IT'S NOT A STOMPBOX. Just be racional with it and it'll never let you down on a gig.

I had no real experience with them.

Oh the final words :) It's a real piece of music equipment, don't let either the price or the factory presets (which sucks mostly :) get on your way.. it's limited, yeah, but's a good sounding portable multi, incredibly cheap and it's even a good mic amplifier :) Try it, it's really good.

it's easy to use it but you have to be patient to find the sound you want and don't make your first impression of the pedal just on listen the factory patch because for about 95 % of it sucks so use the setting below, and you'll see what this baby can do!!

ok... I will explain it all... the wav sucks, the acoustic simulator isn't bad but it sound like if you were not playing!!! clean is standard, the standard distortion is very versatile with all the effects on this pedal, the blues is not enough blues to get a Kenny wayne shepperd or stuff like that but it's very bassy, the fuzz can be good for the blur "song 2", the lead is a good lead like a litte jimi hendrix style, the metal ,I think, is to "loaded", the rythmn is good and very quiet good for distortion with not much distortion, and the overdrive is good. the gain can get very smooth or very screaming, the noise gate is not bad, the amp simulator is good, especially if you put it with the EQ at 50 and the Amp Simulator a A3 it give you a very bassy crunch good for death metal if you have a good amp (fender, crate, peavey) and if you put a little less bass on your amp you can get an exactely replicated ...and justice for all sound (the record in general) well it sound like that for my self! the chorus is good, flange too, step effect is very weird but cool! ;-) the pitch chifter is so weird well... the delay is very cool the hall sound good, the room is good too! for those who said that is not a good pedal, try this setup: L5 dt 30 A3 50 pd of 27
and twist the EQ on you amp and at the best you can get a very good heavy/death metal sound

the only probleme with this pedal, it's because it is in plastic and can broke very easyly so if your doing live performance just don't use it or don't be like and elephant want you step on it

never had to deal with them

very good effects stomp box in general compact and for what she can does, not expensive like that big dod at 350$ who i'm not sur can do what my baby can do!!! try it (not just in store) i must say EXPLORE IT and you'll that i'm not a liar!

This was my first multi-effects, I bought it in Nashville at a guitar show for $75, so i got a good deal on it the pedal itself is pretty easy to use.The manual explains everything well and editing is a breeze

As i said it is my first multi-effects, I normally use my Mig-50, which is a bad son of a bitch, and very basic pedals I.E. chorus, and flanger. So I think it's a decent unit

It's prettyh damn rliable except for the fact that the bank down butoon sticks I've played with quite a few people over the time I've owned and it has behaved itself

Beats the hell out of me!

IT's ok I like some of the sounds it puts out the chorus sounds like rat shit anywhere over 4 so That sucks but it;s a good unit I'd buy it again especially now because you can get them for $100 from Musician's Friend

I think that this pedal is extremely easy to use esp. for anyone who has some experience with multieffects units. Editing patches is pretty straight forward. The manual looks intimidating at first but is really not difficult to follw as some others I have seen....ie digitech RP-12 ..now that manual sucks.

I bought this unit solely to be used as a late nite practice amp...ie with headphones. I play with a EVH MM guitar, Morley Bad Horsie Wah to the Zoom with headphones. In this setting , I feel this pedals abilities truly shines through. It has been very quiet in most every patch Ive tried.Based on prior reviews regarding noise, I won't even bother trying it with my 5150 combo. Some of the effects are truly weak I must admit .The flanger is no match for my MXR , the delay is limited in range and settings, ac sim is pretty sounding but no substitute for the real thing. However , as much as everyone is complaining about the distortion, I find them not bad at all . You can definitely get an acceptable EVH sound with minimal tweaking, and for the money the pitch shifting is great for creating some Vai like harmonies and doubling effects. This is coming from a previous owner of a Digitech Rp-12, a unit which costs 3x as much and is 8x noisier and needs hours of tweaking just to get an average sound. I find the pitch shifter on the Zoom much better! As for the Wah, it is the weakest of all the effects.Just get yourself a separate Crybaby.or whatever suits you....though I prefer my Morley hands down.

I haven't had it for very long so I guess time will tell. However , I definitely would not gig with this as my sole effects unit for one major reason. Whenever you switch patches there is an unplesant delay in the transistion.Even with the Direct Load off, it is too difficult to swicth between sounds reliably and accurately on stage.

Cant comment...yet

Overall this is a great piece of equipment as long as you use it in the right applications..ie home practice and recording. For the price , it is easy to use , has very acceptable sound quality, and is as light and as compact as you can get. I have owned a Boss ME6 and a Digitech RP 12 in my 15 years of playing and this thing is a great value.Using seperate stomp boxes is in my opinion the best way to go for gigging , flexibilty of parameters , and sound quality, so this piece is a great addition to your toy chest but should certainly not be your only toy. If you do get this, you must get the adaptor because you will be buying batterries daily! For about $15 it quickly pays for itself.

The 505 is actually my first pedal and frankly i didn't have much trouble editing the patches. Whatever it is I am satisfied with the pedal.

Pretty cool for a compact pedal..got all that I need e.g. distortion , chorus , delay etc. which are pretty cool when you mix them together... Believe you me some of the sounds I created on this pedal are almost impossible to replicate. With my little DEAN-MARLEY amp ...I can almost create havoc at a GIG

Cool after 5 consecutive gigs this pedal is still pumping for me!

Not sure

Cheap, Good and Interesting ....worth your last $148

It's takes a while to get the hang of it. You also have to read the manual (big yellow piece of paper) to figure out how each effect works and what it does.

The distortions are pretty good for the most part. The distortions can sometimes give to much feedback if you have too much compression and have your EQ in the 40 range. The Blues effect kinda sux. The acoustic simulator is a joke. No matter what you do it sounds really tingy. A BOSS AC-2 is the way to go if you are looking for acoustic sounds. A great feature that this has is the ZNR (ZOOM Noise Reduction) It takes away most NON GUITAR SOUNDS witout taking away from the effect. The chorus, reverb and flange are actually pretty good. The chorus is great for clean and distorted sounds. It's full and makes a noticable change. The overdrive isn't bad, it's basically has the same sound as the FUZZ effect. Anouther great feature about this is the LEAD distortion. It is crisp and full. It also has a special rhthym mode. It sounds clean when you play soft, but when you play harder it gives a slight overdrive. Perfect for Silverchiar Tunes. Well I'm going on and on about the sound quility and that is because there are so many different effects the has.

I haven't taken this giging to often, but I wouldn't recommend it. The pedal is plastic, it gets broken. I haven't even had this for a year and the DOWN patch pedal is screwed up. It's either a major mal fuction, or the contact just needs cleaning.

Never delt with them. Just take it to music store. Especially if it is under warrenty.

It's not a bad pedal for practicing in your room, but when it comes to kicking it around and taking some abuse while giging it sux. I probably wouldn't buy it again because I'm collecting BOSS pedals to fill a BCB 6 case. I play hard rock and metal and the Metal (distortion Mode) does the trick. Turn the Gain on your amp and on the pedal all the way up, put it on the Metal mode set your switch to the bridge pick-up and you can get some killer harmonic squels. Well that's if you know how to do harmonics. If you have any other question about this pedal, or harmonic squels for that matter, E-mail me.

Pretty easy to use once you got the hang of it... I didn't like the fact you had to push the peddles to change banks while editing... it just seemed like a hassle... Knobs or additional little editing buttons would have been better.

I used this with my AM Strat and Hot Rod Deluxe. Is made a pretty loud hiss on my clean channel but was acceptable after some tweaking. However, it rendered my dirty channel useless. The noise was just overwhelming. Even in bypass mode, which by the way is not true bypass mode. I bought a BOSS ns-2 to try and combat the noise because I liked the unit. Didn't do the trick so I returned the ns-2 and sold the 505. Bought a Korg 411fx which is weaker in some areas but much stronger in others... True bypass, no noise, better sound quality, and full EQ control. I now have full use of my amp and the dirty channel with the box and effects sound just awesome... Try the ZOOM before you buy with your equipment or some just like it at the guitar store... You may compromise with the noise at first but it will catch up very fast!!! If it wasn't for the noise I would have kept it... However, it was kind of like a blessing in disguise becuase I like the 411fx much better...

Plastic... also rattling noise inside... plastic

Never called and don't own it anymore

Make sure you try before you buy!!! It is nice if it matches your setup, however I tried three different ones at three different stores with the same result and even when using different equipment. Then tried the Korg on most setups tried with the ZOOM and now I smile every time I play... heh

Easy to program once you memorize all the damn abbreviations. The manual is helpful. Getting a good sound ain't easy (see Below)

Every effect is a mediocre simulation. The wah sucks. All the distorions are the same. Cold reverb and delay. Only good for getting a very processed tone, nothing vintage or organic. This is one noisy son of a bitch at high gain settings.

I wouldn't even use it at a gig.

Don't know

I hope it gets stolen so I don't have to look at it anymore. Remind me again why I bought it.

The 505 is really easy to use, anybody can use it, its real simple. All you do is press a bunch of buttons and you got a whole new sounds, very flexible in my opinion. The manual was good, not the best.

I'm using a Fender Strat, and it can be noisy if you want it to be. Some of the effects are weak, like (some)of the distortions, but the reverb on it is really good. The delay is decent. I'm just using a Crate GX-15 nothing special. Umm...I guess, it could get some of the songs I like into there like Ska style or like alternative. The chorus is fantastic, nothing more to say.

Yeah, just take care of it. You don't have to stomp on it or you'll break it(it's only plastic). Yeah I would use it on a gig, its a pretty reliable small multifx pedal

I haven't called ZOOM.

For $89.99 it's a deal. You can't get better than this for under $100 bucks. Also get it if your a beginner who doesn't plan to spend $2000 dollars on a multifx pedal.

The 505 is your basic floor effects processor for the average working guitarist. It is super cheap and has many cool sounds. It's real easy to pick and choose between effects and there are 10 different variations of each effect. I often need to change a preset on the run and its pretty simple and hardly confusing like some rack mount multi FX's. One thing that I find kind of annoying though is that each catigory holds several different effects and you can't have two effects from the same catigory in the one sound, but you rarely need this anyway

I play an Epiphone Lp100 and a Carvin DC135 through a Marshall Valvestate and the sounds (both clean and distortion) blow the Marshall away. The acoustic guitar effect gives the sweetest clean sound and when a dab of chorus is added it sounds as good as it gets. My Marshall at high volumes gives a really earpiercing thin sound and when I use the 505 it sounds infinately better. It is obvious it is solid state distortion but the sounds (especially the "blues" distortion type) are way more chunky and meaty than My Marshall - heaps more bass! I play a lot of hard rock so a few of my settings have a fair bit of distortion there and there is a bit of noise there but the noise suppressor gets rid of most of it (but not all of it!). There is no noise on semi distorted and clean sounds and the amount of effects in the chain has no impact on noise. The effects sound excellent. maybe not as huge as an Eventide 3000!, but pretty good for such a small price. I would definately like to have more control over the effects (they only have 10 preset sounds per effect) this becomes especially annoying with the delay, but there is a fair bit of versatility and as I said before for such a simple and cheap box you can't expect everything. I like Van Halen and that style of mysic and I find it very hard to get Eddie's tone but I can perfecly replicate the beautiful "316" acoustic guitar tone with the acoustic effect. but the distorted stuff I can't replicate. all effects sound great the "Metal" and "distortion" types of distortions sound really brittle at high volumes but the others sound excellent. (you can use it as a headphone amp too)

no problems so far (I've had it over a year). I run mine with a 9 volt adapter, but if I use a battery it cuts out after about 30 seconds. This is a problem but it doesn't worry me personally.

never had to deal with them

This suits any style of music I can think of. I think the effects sound good enough to record with and even the distortion (if I had an external graphic eq and noise suppressor). I've been playing for about 6 years and I would definately consider buying it again if it was lost or stolen (but I'd probably get something with a little more control over individual effects) I've got a few really cool presets that I really like but when switching between presets there is a gap in the sound that becomes pretty annoying after a while. The sounds are great though. I bought this thing when I was really new to the world of guitar gear and got it because of the price tag rather than the sounds (I was lucky there). I wish it had stereo outputs ( the output is stereo but you need a stereo cord to split the lef and right sides. When I get a really good sound out of any piece of equiptment it helps me play to my potential and helps me to write more to my potential and this has happened often with the 505. For the money you can't beat it.

Piece of piss. The manual is pretty good, explains what all the effects are and how to change them.

The distortion's are pretty crap. They just sound processed (gee I wonder why) you can hear the digits. Really tinny as well, I find I have to use a lot of bass and little mid and treble, which does sound ok. using The compressor and limiter dont really do jack. Most of the effects sound pretty cheap the chorus is especially plain. The delay is next to useless. The hall reverb is quite good.

Ive had it for a couple of years with no problems. I've played a couple of gigs with it, no problems. Just treat it with respect keep it in the box when your transporting it. Dont use a battery either, it would be a complete waste of money.

I dont know,

I play heavy industrial stuff, punk and ska.. Ive got 1 cool sound for ska sounds like a transistor radio speaker being overdriven. Ive been playing for about 5 years and this is the only pedal ive ever owned. If i lost it i definitely wouldnt buy it again. Its been useful in sorting out the sounds i like, but its time to move on to better sounds. Plus every kid and his dog is using this pedal, I dont want to be part of the norm. I dont know if id sell it, i find the tuner useful and I have a couple of sounds i use all the time that would be expensive to replicate. I guess its a good pedal for starting out, but you'll find yourself thinking "what a piece of crap" after youve played on it a while.

Easy enough to start out. Along with editing the stock patches, new ones can be made. The manual helps out a lot, its full of helpful hints.

Ive seen so many submissions on here bad mouth the 505 for being noisy and lacking in sound quality. Just like every other pedal, you have to experiment and with all the possible settings on the 505 it might take a few times to get what you want. Mostly its just all the metalheads complaining that the distortions weren't to their liking. Each distortion has optimal settings and its own sounds. The rhythm distortion is the most diverse as you can sound like Oasis, Green Day, the Beatles and on lower settings you can get a phat clean sound out of it. Also try experimenting with the Amp Simulator. It provides quite a change of distortion texture when switched on.

Haven't really used for gigs, mostly for home recording use.

never had to deal with ZOOM

I play every kind of style (rock, punk, ska/reggae/, lead work) so i can always find a new patch for my use. Thats the cool thing about the 505 is that a new patch is just a few buttons away. I also use the 505 as an effect for my vocals and for keyboard and drum machine. For the price i paid this pedal has paid me back 100 times over and i strongly recommend it to all guitarists who lack the funds to buy thousands of dollars worth of gear. "KEEP ON SKANKIN RONNIE" Brad Nowell

This unit is very easy to use. Just bank up and down to get the desired effect and go from there. Editing patches is easy, the manual is very easy to understand even for simpletons like myself.

The distortons on this unit are okay but not the best. For best distortion I use the acoustic simulator effect and add my Boss Mt-2 Metal Zone distortion pedal to it. Twiddle with the metal zone distortion to get the desired level of distortion, but trust me this sounds awesome. The boss pedal alone, ain't flash, but connnected up to the Zoom 505 acoustic simulator, it sounds fantastic. Great for that Metallica, Sepultra or any really heavy sound your looking for.

Treat it with respect and the 505 will never let you down. Throw it around or stomp on it hard, and like most platic things it will break. Tuning down over one whole step is a major problem, especially on the low E string. It just can't get a fix quick enough. I ended up buying a small guitar tuner, that is way better than the tuner on this thing.

N/A

Overall, not a bad little unit for beginners, but for gigs and so forth, there is better out there. I certainly wouldn't buy it again, but that's mainly because I'm looking for better distortions.

Well I've personally never had any experience with using a Multi FX pedal before so I couldn't really compare. Making a sound really isn't too hard.. you just have to experiment and find something you really like, thats all.

The Wah effects on this pedal are just plain shit. Other than that, the reverbs (hall, room) are decent, and make a good background sound on clean or distortions. The chorus sounds good, the phaser is usable, i've heard better though. Octavers/Pitch Shifters/Steps/Double/Limiter/Compresser all sound fairly decent. Now come the distortions, Acoustic Sim is way too quiet.. thats the only problem, the Overdrive is crap, along with the Rhythm and Lead distortions, the Distortion is the best one in my opinion, the Fuzz is ok to have sometimes, same with the Metal, which I think is just a bit too low key, and crunchy, a bit overdone if you ask me. The Delays aren't very good, I think you need more range in the speeds, so if you're into Delays, then you're better off buying a Boss DD-3. Other than that .. the EQ sounds can be useful in adding some tone/bass into what you've got.

I don't know what the hell ZOOM was thinking when they made a plastic pedal. I don't know how the rest of you are with your pedals, but I need to feel secure when I press the buttons. Plastic honestly isn't just too sturdy. If only it was made of metal I would feel better. I use an adapter with it so I don't know how it does on batteries. Other than that its not like this pedal will break down all of a sudden.

N/A

Well it doesn't really matter what you play with this pedal, you can really find something suitable for everything. There are 24 different spots you can save a certain sound so there are plenty of spaces to put your cleans/dists/fuzzes/wahs/delays/blah etc. There is one thing that pisses me off about this pedal: There is this tiny delay when you change up/down sounds, like saying you're popping into this really hard distortion part in a song, TIMING is critical, the pedal leaves this millisecond of a delay from changing sounds and its pissing me off.. sometimes its not so bad. Other than that I can really have fun with this baby.

the picture book style instructions were bizzar and confusing but after I spent some time with the unit I found it's almost too easy to use.editing patches is fun, however it is somewhat limited.

I'll put it this way it's the best head phone practice amp i've used so far,that's all it's realy good for,headphones or effects for an econo practice amp. it sounded great through a cheap peavy rage 158 ,and absolutly terrible through a marshall jcm900 superlead. it's good fun for beginners.

very dependable used with an ac/dc power converter,would not play in front of an audience with it.

blues/rock/metal, I'm glad I have it, because it's great for late nite practice,with headphones. but I would never use it in a proffesional manner because it just doesnt emulate a guitars true tone or quality through a tube amp. it does however improve the sound of budget amps ,specificaly those without a reverb. it's also helpful in checking out effects without buying twenty different units then finding out you dont like or need nineteen of them.

Very hard to obtain good distorion sounds. patch editing is fairly easy but there should be more parameter control. manual not needed.

I use an Epiphone Flying V (double humbuckers) all factory presets are quiet. don't up the gain too much. All distortions are awful except for fuzz and metal. flanger, phaser, chorous, wah and other modulation effects are alright. My amp is a peavey ultra plus head with a 412ms cab. Try to get alt. sounds and indust. sounds with success

very dependable indeed

zoom people are bastards. . . just joking. i don't know

Playing for 7 years and i've only just begining to get into buying eqipment. i have a dod grunge pedal. it sux. don't buy multi effects, cause there is too much delay in the patches and the sounds are horrible even with valves. thinking of getting boss xtortion, vox wah, boss flanger. that's all i need. maybe a compressor or i might play through the zoom compressor in the 505.

easy to use when you have understand how it work

your not obigated to have a very good equipements to get a very hot distortion sound. all you need is to put your eq at 50 on your zoom, have a eq on your amp and buy another eq! 3 eq combined give me the best sound you can have (great metallica sound with the standard distortion sound) other effect are all great excepts the wav who doesnt sound enought when i play. 8 without third eq, and 10 qith a third eq

sound very good in general

I think that 505 is very easy to use of the world of multi-effect. It's so simple that you can make a good sound, but the patches editing is not so good, cos u need to press "value" and "up/down" key more times. You can find all you need in the user manual.

I'm using Washburn and Fender guitar, along with my cheap but nice Fender and Marshall amp. More ppls said this product so noisy, but i don't think so, cos 505 have ZNR reduct the noise, and I think that some effect should be add noise to make it better! The 505 can make 24 effects and up to 9 effects can be used simultaneously in combination. The 505 shields out the guitars natural good sound, so you'll really want to program your own patches in this. About the sound, i think modulation effects "ie. Chorus, Flanger, Step..." better than distortion "ie. Overdrv, Fuzz, Metal..." , but this pedal is pretty nice for heavy rhythm playing, and it have total 24 preset patches (for the lazy man ... me!)

It's depend for you. I think that use it INDOOR better than outside, cos ... "Why The Case Is Plastic ar :~~~ ?"

I live in Hong Kong, no any customer support for this, but the "Tom Lee Music" (the shop i got the 505) give 1 yr warranty of this, but only vaild in Hong Kong :P

I play drum and percussion, but sometimes play guitar and use this effect. Music style : alternative, rock, blues... I've been playing for guitar 4 yrs, and i also have more home-make effect ( cos i learn electronic ) and some BOSS pedal. If i loss my 505, i'll buy 506 to learn bass ( just joke :P ) . 505 is nice for beginners get a multi sound but distortion, overdrv not so good, you kinda have to look elsewhere. Other side, ZOOM does make some very nice multi effects consoles, more choices :) and it has some very decent chorus and delay for its price. I've used this effect to make music, so good la...
Patch to share : Comp "A5" + Dist "Fu" + ZNR/AMP "A3" + Phase "P5" + Flanger "F8" + Delay "d8" + Level "25"

It took a few min. to get used to the editing process but after that I was off and jaming. The manual did a decent job of explaning the box.

I'm playing a Les Paul custom with a Crate GX-15 amp, and I have gotten some good sounds out of it. I rearly get feedback and the bypass is very clear. The effects always sound good to me and I like the ammout of effects that come with the box. I'v gotten good destortion (Old Metallica, BlackSabbath)

I find this very reliable. But I would use an AC plug for a gig, batteries tend to die fast with this thing.

N/A It's worked perficlly, I have not needed to talk to ZOOM yet.

I have been playing for 4 years and I like to play many styles. This has a little somthing for any type of style out there. There are good acustics and good distortions.

Editing patches is pretty simple & straight forward. Effects aren't as tweakable as if you had individual pedals, but what do you expect for $120. The manual is basic, but still helps you to get familiar with the pedal.

I run a Mexican Fender Strat, and an Applause electric/acoustic through a Fender BXR bass amp, and the sound really isn't bad at all. I don't really like the chorus, but you can get some cool sounds when it's blended with other effects. I really can't complain about most of the effects, actually the pitch shifter, and wah sound pretty cool with the expression pedal.

I've had it for a year and a half and I use it every time I practice with my band, so far there have been no problems.
I've only played 4 or 5 gigs with it, but again there have been no problems. (without a backup)

Simple Startout, easy to use. Patches are easy to create.

Running through a Marshall VS30R and a Jackson PS4, the distortion isn't great, but can be given a bit of crunch with a BOSS MetalZone. The rest of the effects are pretty good, though some are somewhat useless? The reverb and all its variants (Hall, Room) are great. The Auto-wah does the job and the accousic simulator is great, considering that it's going through standard metal pickups and not peizos, etc.

Haven't been gigging with it, and though it seems fairly rugged, it's made of plastic, which, no matter how tough, isn't half as good as metal.

never tried

Some effects aren't great, but for the price, it can't be beaten. I play a bit of metal and some blues, so the thing is perfect save for the distortion, but I own a metal zone so that's easily corrected.

It's not that hard to use if you have the manual. creating and editing patches are quite straight forward if you know what you're doing. a lot of mucking around with the sounds is unavoidable. You cant jump from one sound to another unless they are programmed right next to each other, even then there is a small break in the sound as you go to the next patch.

Some of the effects, such as echo and auto wah, are average, however as for a good distortion sound, it is virtually non existant. not enough bottom end, and generally lacking in every way!!!

It chews through batteries in a bout 6 seconds, so don't rely on it unless you've got an AC adaptor.

Bad sound for guitar, I think I had more fun and success plugging a microphone into it!!!

its pretty easy to use this processor,a quick look thru the manuel and voila! you`ve pretty much grasped everything there is to know abt the machine.Editing is a breeze juz adjust the levels of the effects you want and thats it.

i`m using a strat copy and a ROSS amp.now abt the noise level,its way noisy!!!!! trust me on this guys.the level of my distortion patch is only 15 and i`ve got major feedback and hissing sounds.Way too shitty to jam with.The ZnR is pretty much useless even if i`ve set them to the max. The distortions are very muffled,very muddy tones and the EQ leaves a whole lot to be desired.The Lead distortion sucks as well,i`ve tried playing lead wiv this distort setting and the bloody thing kills the sustain and harmonics.The normal distortion setting provides real good sustain but it sucks when it comes to lead playing,you can barely make out wat sound ya guitar is making cuz its too soft.Now the rest of the effects include,reverb,delay,chorus,flanger,phaser,compressor,limiter,auto/pedal wah and pitch shifter. all the effects above are very lame except for the chorus which sounds pretty decent to me.

its pretty sturdy,used it for 2 months and nothings happened yet.i would never REPEAT NEVER use this to gig without backup or to gig wiv for that matter its very difficult to gig wiv a piece of trash like this.

never needed customer support .

i play rock and metal and i tend to rely on distortions heavily and the zoom 505 juz doesn`t cut it.i would never buy it if it was stolen.ironically i`d be pretty glad if it was stolen,then i`ll have a reason to get my parents to sponsor me on a BOSS ME-30.t

Most of the effects are pretty damn easy to edit, but saying that there is not a great deal you can change. There are around 9 different presets for each of the modulating effects. The distortion works by you selecting a tonal character (blues, lead etc.), and then increasing or decreasing the gain, in a range of 0- 30. The manual is OK, but not particularly inspired.

On the whole the effects are not that bad. You can get pretty much any distortion, but having said that it is hard to get any realyl aggresive bottom end, and i'm in the process of choosing a graphic EQ stomp box. The modulating effects are good, and by using the step arrpegiator, a delay and a phaser you can create the sound from the beginning of "Soma" by Smashing Pumpkins perfectly!

No problems at all so far, i don't play many gigs so that aspect hasn't really been tested.

Never needed to contact them

Damn good for the price. The range of effects are good, even though there is not a great deal of editing. Overall, a bargin, especially for beginners!

It's a little bit difficult to use it the first day, but once you catch the idea it's really easy. Editing patches take a little time, because it has just a few buttons.Also you have to be patient, it's not difficult, just a little bit slow. It has a manual in english, spanish, german and french. The manual is very clear.

I'm using a Fender Squier Strat from the Affinity series and a Marshall Valvestate VS65R. It's a little bit noisy with most of distortions, except for the metal distortion which is pretty silent. The effects sound great. You can get a lot of different sound from the little box. You can sound like any guitar player from Kurt Cobain to Edward Van Halen, Kirk Hammet, Joe Perry and even make some of the strange sounds of David Gilmour and Pat Metheny. The only patch that doesn't sound so good is the A1, but the other ones have great quality.

The case is plastic made, so you have to be careful. It's strong, but abyway it's plastic. I don't know if I can have a gig with it, but it's perfect for rehearse.

Never tried.

It matches all my music likes from jazz to metal. It's something good n' cheap. If I lost it I'll buy it again. The only thing that I dislike from it is the very first patch, but anyway you can edit it with something better. One of my favorite sounds I can get from it is the organ sound. It's perfect for a really good intro. I wish that the volume pedal comes along with it, you have to buy it separately. Because of the big variety of sounds, it helps to make you own compositions.

piece of cake. its pretty easy, the manual is garbage but isnt really needed, you can make good ptaches after a little practice and knowledge of effects and effect parameters helps to make creating good patches faster.

VERY good, i was surprised because it was so cheap had so many features sounded so good and i mean its good, it sounds incredible for the price, i like it and i have spent thousands of dollars on effects over the years and this pedal does everything he other pedals does but a little limited than the other pedals, i like it

strong plastic i trust it, i wouldnt drop it or stomp the pedals to hard but it should hold up

never dealt with zoom

This pedal is really spectacular. At first I didn't want it because I thought it was a begginer's pedal and not a REAL piece of musicians equiptment, but it is, it is great! thats all i can say

I like it alot. I didn't like the distortion at first but what I do is I run the pedal thru my distortion channel on my amp. I barly put the gain on my amp up I turn the knob just until I can tell that it's on. It's not even on one it's like .1 if you can imagine this setting on your amp. This boost the distortion of the pedal to sound pretty sweet. I have a Peavey Bandit 112 (Not Transtube the older model)I play a Jackson Dinky Reverse. Editing is easy I was editing in 5 minutes. The manual is easy to understand.

All the effects are good but the distortion isn't that great unless you do like I said earlier and run it thru the distortion on your amp. The other effects are kick @$$!

I havn't giged with it yet but as long as you don't slam on it (which you shouldn't need to) then it should be alright.

No never had trouble yet

I'm starting an Idust/metal band like Rammstein. If anyone has some good patches please e-mail me them. I would probably buy it again.

This thing is VERY easy to use, and I'm just a beginner. Editing patches counldn't be simpler. However, you DO have to know what you're interested in hearing, otherwise you'll strain your brain trying out everything it offers.

I use a Gibson Epiphone with the same kind of amp (ep-800). I don't think the 505 is very noisy, but I haven't tried out ALL of the settings yet, so I could be wrong. I think the effects are mostly pretty good. The factory setting A3 is shit, but that's okay. I personally like the A4 factory setting because of the distortion level.

I don't really know about reliability. I've only had it a week. I don't do gigs or anything like that, and I tend to take really good care of my stuff. It's plastic, so I wouldn't go jumping on it like stomp boxes. If you just sit there and jam on your headphones or occassionaly try to wake up the neighbors, this thing rocks and you shouldn't have any reliability problems

Haven't dealt with them.

I mostly like to play grunge I guess. Nirvana, some STP, Rage Against The Machine, and plenty of others. This thing is great for those bands. I've only been playing for three months, and this is my first multi-effects pedal I've tried. I don't think the delay is very good, but that's what you get for $130. If you're a beginning guitarist, or just like to jam at home, the 505 is perfect. If you're a veteran guitar player, and you really pay attention to the tone of your music, you should go with something that has more to offer.

This thing is built for the stupid, but the shortage of knobs and buttons make you use buttons for multiple things.

It has all the effects you want, but the tone quality sucks. The distortion blows and so does the pitch shifter.

It hasn't broke yet, but the expression pedal is cheap. I owned it (the expression pedal) for a month and I broke it.

Great for people that are beginners to effects and play at home. It will get you started on the sounds of different effects.

As any other 505 owners would say, the distortions sux. Editting patches is a piece of cake. For those who didnt read the gigantic manual, they will say its hard to switch between patches,,bullshit!! That happens if you dont turn the direct load option off. Turn the option off and it will be a breeze to shift from A3 to E2.

Distortion on this box sux. The ac sim could be considered but had to be tweaked. Im using my 505 with an epiphone LP and a Crate GX30M (this amp is very, very loud, i reccomend it to home jammers). I like the clean effects on 505 better then the clean effects on my crate (reverb n chorus)

But iwouldnt stomp very hard. C'mon !! its plastic!! It hasnt turned me down, not yet....

duhh!?!

Its great for home jams, Iwould buy it again if i lost it coz its tremendous.

It is very easy to edit. The manual explains it all . Finding a good sound takes experimentation however. Once you get used to it you won't even bother looking at the manual.

Let me say this about the Zoom 505. It is cool , but let me warn you this . Don't buy it if you have a solid state amp. Solid state is horrible. This pedal sounds twice as good [like every other pedal] through a tube amp. I bought it as a beginner and liked it for a while , but then realized how much the tone sucks. Recently however I needed a headphone amp to play at night and to do less damage to the ears. Plug a good set of earphones[ the big ones ] and you'll see a huge difference. I love the tone of this thing now. Even though it does have tonal limitations , I refuse to sell it. I had this same reaction the first time I played it through a tube amp. Remember don't buy a solid state. All you beginners, buy a multi-effects pedal like this and use a good set of headphones [ $20+ ] . Save up for an all tube amp, it is well worth the wait. Solid state just ruins the tone of this pedal. Even if it is cheap.

No problems.

I have never dealt with the company.

This pedal has helped decide my future effects buys and helps me practice. It sounds really, really good through my headphones. Well worth the money if you are a beginner or need a headphone amp.

This is a no brainer. Before buying this pedal, I had very little experience with multi-fx units, but about 15 minutes after returning home from the guitar shop, I was programming my own patches.

I use this pedal with an Ibanez RG470 and a Marshall Lead Mosfet (Solid State) 100 Watt 1/2stack. There is a nice variety of distortions, most of which are comparable to the better distortion pedals out there. I can go from a Tony Iommi Fuzz to a crushing Metallica destortion in one tap of the pedal! The modulation FX are a mixed bag. I love the phaser and the pitch shifter is pretty trippy when mixed with other FX. The chorus, however, is pretty weak and the flanger is decent at best. I'm not thrilled with the wah but it will get the job done. The delay and reverbs do exactly what their namesake implies and they do it pretty well. The noise reduction is a godsend, especially when using a really heavy distortion. The compressor/limiter should be used sparingly if at all because it adds a good bit of noise to your sound. The acoustic simulator, while not a totally accurate simulation offers a pleasing tone. When lots of FX are combined, you can make some really ethereal noises that would be right at home in an industrial band.

It seems quite durable and I have a friend who has used it at a gig with no problems, though it wouldn't be fair to rate it because I haven't been able to field test it in a gig since purchasing the pedal.

I'm in the process of starting an industrial/metal band with a variety of textural FX in addition to a crushing distortion and it performs beautifully in those settings. Its versatility coupled with its price make it one of the best values out there. Before testing it out at the music store, I was very skeptical but after I tried it out, I was instantly converted. Hell, I'd buy it just for the distortions if nothing else. If it was stolen, I'd probably pick up another one since it has become such an integral part of my sound.

Finally got a zoom505 and its eays storing patches but editing a patch and finding the right sound is hell. It only has two bypass pedals one that goes up and the other goes down so putting the effects in order can be hell also.

I have a fernandez jaguar clone and a fender squire strat plugged through a peavey blazer 30 watt amp along with three pedals(Boss Ch-1,Rat,DS-1). The distortions on the zoom(wah,fuzz,lead,blues,lead,metal)are horrible. You cant tweak the sounds so its better combine it with the other effects. If you want just plain distortion, use another pedal. I think the acoustic simulator is great because i only have an electric and when i get tired of electric sounds, i use the acoustic simulator and play some acoustic songs. Unless you own an acoustic,then dont even bother using the ac-simulator.The chorus/flanger/pitch shifter and the reverbs are great but not WOW great but listenable.Not shitty. The compressor,limiter and amp module and equalizer are usefull. If zoom made the distortions more "tweakable", i would give it a nine.

Made of plastic but hard plastic so it would last. Youre insane if you gig with this. The manual is very helpfull. zoom said it would eat up a battery in 4 hours which is bullshit. It only lasts about 30 minutes(continuous play).The first time i tried it, i was fiddling with the patches and the thing died on me.

havent dealt with them

If your a first timer on the world of effects, this is an excellent choice. Usable for all kind of music. The reason i bought this is that its cheap and offers a variety of sounds with the majority of the effects not really shitty. The acoustic sim doesnt make your elecric a Martin but it does make it sound like an acoustic but those 55.95 types. I would buy it again if i lost it. I bought this because i wanted to expiriment on different kinds of effects without the cost of buying pedal by pedal. The bottom line: An excellent choice or maybee the best choice for hobbyists,begginers,basement jammers.

very easy to use! you have to work a little bit if you want to find the sound that you want but whatever. some of the stock patches sound great but some others sucks. Manual is almost clear and are given in 3 or 4 differents languages

im using beginner guitars and amps (very ordinary) and it's sound great! just noisy when you put the metal distortion on high gain. for me i think the wah is vrery good but this is the only one I have ever heard. you can get some metallica, bush sound, but there's not perfect. EQ is great. Let's speak about the 8 distortions: the acoustic disto is perfectly replicated, the rythm is not bad, the overdrive sucks, the distortion (standard) sound like metallica on the load and relaod album, the fuzz is weird, the lead is weak and the metal is great. delay, flange, wah, etc... are all great

im not moving really with my zoom at others places than my house so it's not broken. but if you drop it on the street im pretty sure it will broke because it's in plastic

never need their help

im playing alternative,punk,metal and this pedal is good for these thing. but for the metal, maybe i'll bought a metal zone... if it were stolen or lost, not I wouldn't but more I COULDN'T because I don't have enough money (hey,hey!) for a compact multi-effects pedals and for about 200 dollars (canadians, sure!) it's a realy great pedals

The basic patches are cool at first, but become limited quickly. If you get onto the web tho, and goto one of the patch sites, you can get some decent sounds out of it. The editing it fairly straight-forward, and the instructions are ok.

Again, this depends greatly on the patches. When good, good, otherwise it's unusable.

The box is the cheapest thing in the world. I'm definitely planning on building some sort of exterior case and taking the guts out of the plastic. As originally sold, I could to depend on it due to the above.

For classic or heavy rock, it's ok. Not metal though... the stage might get too extreme for the case.

The 505 takes a lot of patience, not to learn its fairly simple editing procedure, but to learn how to keep fiddling and experimenting until you get patches that please you. You must be willing to find out what it does well and what it does poorly (I'll get to that under "Sound"). Once you've got that down, it's fairly easy to dial up some tasty personalized patches. So the editing is OK...but using the #*&% thing onstage is a horror!! Maybe it's my size-13 feet, but the clever footswitch, which lets you scroll up or down or bypass, usually scrolls to another patch when you really want it to bypass, and you can look like a real idiot.
Also, the EQ section is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen--why not just have 3 or 4 frequency bands, and let the user increase or decrease each one? That'd be much more natural and intuitive than what the 505's designers thought up, although I imagine they had their reasons...
The manual is pretty helpful and decently translated.

As I've mentioned before, it does some things very well (especially for $125!!). The distortions range from hideous beer commercial whine ("Lead") to very usable ("Overdrive") to downright swell ("Fuzz"). The fuzz is gritty and splattery in all the right ways... maybe not quite as groovy as my original FuzzFace, but much quieter, less diffuse, more usable. The flange and chorus are so-so, the phase means well but seems to say "whattya want for $125?" The reverb is tasty and usable if you don't set it too high, but it's not as cool as the echo--cheap digital delay sounds better than cheap digital reverb because the reverb uses more processing power. My favorite feature, though, and what sold me on the 505, was the harmony function...mmm-mmm good! My faves are five steps down and a two-voice setting that gives you four steps up and four down.
I don't want to give the impression that all the presets suck, 'cause some of them are quite nice just the way they are...but if you hear one you hate, don't assume the whole unit stinks, 'cause you might miss out on a good, cheap source of neat sounds.

This thing is tougher than it looks. It may be made of plastic, but it feels like it was built to last. As for using it at a gig, that's a drag. But I haven't given up on it yet. - One thing to remember, though...GET THE 9-VOLT ADAPTER!!! The manual says it'll go through a battery in 4 hours. That's either wishful thinking on a hallucinatory scale or a DAMN LIE, I'm trying to decide which. While waiting three months for the adapter to come in I noticed that the 505 would eat a fresh alkaline battery in less than two hours, and this was consistently, battery after battery. The adapter is quiet and pays for itself in no time.

N/A--no real problems after one year (cross your fingers).

I play weird rock and occasionally space music. This box does enough things beautifully that it really earns its keep. It's more suited to lazy space jams, where you don't have to worry about quick patch changes. You can get VERY trippy with this thing, especially with the optional footpedal sweeping the harmony function. A definite bang-for-the-buck champion that's full of character.
Hat's off to the designers--I know I was a little hard on them for a few things, but they must be really clever to make such an inexpensive, compact, lightweight device that sounds as good as it does.

Takes a couple minutes of fooling around to get good sound. Very easy to edit patches but hard to get from patch to patch real quick thats the only reason why i gave it a 9 but everything else is awesome.

Im play a Washburn Lyon guitar with 2 humbuckers and a single coil through a fender champion 110. There are many great effects to use and all of them sound great. It's not noisy at all and you can use the great EQ to get a wide range of distortions. The Thrashmetal distortion isnt really that great but the regulat distortion effect has better sound and crunch than the metal zone by Boss. Most people dont believe me when i say it but when they here it they're impressed. The reverbs are sweet sounding and delay is great. The flanger is thick and warm it rules. This is the best multi-effects processor ive ever used

Its plastic but i stomp on it and it still works good i dont think it'll break. I'd definately use it for a gig without backup.

For whatever kind of style of music you like this pedal is great for any kind of music. This pedal is the best thing ive ever invested in.

The ease of editing patches amazed me, you can quickly toss the factory presets and make you own. I didn't like the manual though it was a big piece of paper that unfolded.

I use a strat with various amps and the noise is very very low on most of the effects (as long as you change em off the presets) There are two good blues effects on it, but way too many distortions. After a while they all sound the same.

You've gotta get the adapter for this or you will accidently leave your chord plugged in and the battery will drain before you realize what you've done. Everybody is saying its just plastic, but there's steel under there, and its not a stomp box.

Never dealt with em. I got it through Musicians Friends who are great

Because of its sheer amount of different effects and its low price this thing rocks. I would probably buy it again if i lost it, and I am thinking of getting the expression pedal for it. Anyone have it? How does it play?

great stuff. it takes time to edit and switch patches but it's quite user-friendly.

i've got this thing hooked up to a peavy rage 158 on one end, and my guitar's an ibanez talman of great quality. i can use this pedal to manipulate all nirvana, foo fighters, and green day sounds. also i can get most of the smashing pumpkins sounds but they have so many different tones i don't know if i've got them exactly. 8 types of distortion, they're really good. the delay and chorus are both pretty good, and i REALLY like the auto wah.

i can definitely depend on this thing. of course, i only use the adaptor, and so i don't know how long it lasts with batteries (but i heard somewhere it was 4 hours??)

this is definitely my best compact pedal. if i lost it, i'd get it again straight away. i've been playing for 3 or 4 years now, and i haven't seen a compact system as good as this. this pedal helps me a great deal.

After a few weeks you'll be using it with the ease expected of a mmuch bigger pedal board. Besides the huge interest in sharing patches over the web, it's user-friendly enough to create your own. Sometimes too many knobs only lead to indecision.

State-of-the-art sounds. Relly up to date for about anything you desire. The presets suck, but of course they can all be changed. Once again, you don't have much control over the individual effects, but the engineers did their homework. I use a Strat w/KMD amp and I'd put it against anything this side of the RACK World.

Me and my buddy Craig ran over it with my stealth (pretty heavy car) and you can see where the molding turned a bit white, but no internal damage. I play about twice a week at local clubs and use it for half my set.

Wouldn't know

Inexpensive. Flexible. Durable. Simple. If you purchase any other gear for your "first" pedal, you should have the inside of your skull analyzed.

Harder than a stop box (what isn't) way easier than a math exam, all you have to do is know what you want

Kinda noise with trebly distortion but thats not what i use, i use phat meaty fuzz or metal

i read that is wasn't study so i look it up on zoom page, they said it was made with steel under the plastic, i dropped once with a boss pedal, the boss beast broke, the 'pedal' part kinda fell off, the zoom is still perfect

blah blah blah, i e-mail about the noise, they said it wasn't noisy, i said then what the #$^& is the sound that is comming from my amp

I'm not a pro, but i'm in a band we've played 12 gigs it's work all the way through, USE AN ADAPTOR, or else, i play electronic 'alternative' dance beats with emotional to heavy guitar, you can get alot of dif. sounds and if you mix flang, delay, phaze and distortion you can get a totatly atmospheric sound, it worx on vocal and keybords well. The distortions sound 'fake' but that may be just why i like it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, i like it, the only other thing i've tries is a ton of stomps, but they would cost 20fold more then this baby

It's too easy ... a matter of minutes and you're making your own sounds

I use this for practice. I played it through an amp for about 5 minutes sounded OK...wasn't long enough to judge through amp. Distortions are great, plenty of choices) especially with the funky EQ. Effects are wet ... I am only using the delay. It would be a great Distortion pedal with all of the other effects turned off. The effects are useful, but limited, except distortion. I am giving this thing a 9 for sound because of what it offers for the price...to me the effects are just a teaser being an owner owner of an Digitech RP 5. The AutoWah works pretty good for that new Kenny Wayne Shepard song.

I would and might gig with it. I mainly use it for practice, and have it for a quick-fix backup to the RP 5

no experience here

If you are just sarting out...I would strongly recommend this pedal to help with learning songs and conguring different sounds. For the professional...excellent practice tool

Once you get used to the way the patches are numbered, it isn't too bad. I really like the chorus, phasing sounds. Very subtle. The delay is pretty nice for only costing about 130 dollars. The manual is straight-forward, but slightly complicated at first. The distortions are ok, but the acoustic sucks.

I use an Epiphone Les Paul and a Crate amp, and the clean and chorus are very nice. However, the distortion leaves a lot out. I can get a slight fuzz or crunch, but if you want the Pumpkin's crunch like I do, I recommend the Big Muff. It is really noisy with a AC adaptor and on high gain. The amp simulator works really well for direct recording.

It's made of plastic. DONT STOMP ON IT. I would assume it is reliable, but the construction leaves much to be desired. I would never gig with it, I just use it for practice, recording, or new material.

Never dealt with ZOOM. I bought it from Musician's Friend, and they have a pretty good warranty.

It is really fun to play for clean and chorus stuff, but don't expect a big crunch. The delay is nice. I've been playing for about 5 years, and I've played worse, but I've played better(BIG MUFF BIG MUFF BIG MUFF). I doubt I would buy it again simply because it is made of plastic and I'm a distortion junkie. It is really cheap for a first pedal, though.

The ZOOM 505 processor is pretty simple to use. Once you get used to the numbering system they use The manual is basic, but right to the point, and the sounds are great. Jumping from sound to sound is different, and at first very difficult, but once you get used to it it will be almost as easy as a full footpad

I've got Charvel/Jacksons only, and a peavey custom 212 chorus, and other than the reverb the unit sounds AWESOME! You can't tweak the sounds exactley except for the distortions, but the presets are set to what you would probably want for anything. The distortions are great, the best I have heard. You get 8, all analog! The noise reduction is perfect, and the compressor/limiter works just as good. I've gotten anything from Pantera crunch, to Black Crows blues exactly out of this box.

You could definetly depend on this, even though it is plastic, you could probably back a truck over it and still use it.

I haven't had to deal with them yet, but if the thing breaks i'll probably just buy a new one for the price.

I play such a wide variety of styles, and the ZOOM fits perfectly into all of them. I would definetly buy this again, as a matter of fact I am going to buy another one just to make jumping around that much easier.

Once you figure it out you can get alot out of this box. I have found it quite easy to work with, and the manual is very good. The editting can take a while though

I Use it with a Peavey Raptor and I usually play through a PA System. It is kind of Noisy but you can EQ it down pretty low, the worst one for noise is the Accoustic setting. Most of the sounds are pretty good, some of them could use a lot of work, but then that can be expected at this price range.

It hasn't failed me yet (i about six months). I have used it at quite a few gigs

Never tried

Over all it's a pretty good unit, Bottom line I would say that if this is the price range you are looking at this is the best unit you are going to find. If you have more money to spend you might want to go with something a bit nicer. The one thing that I really don't like is that there are no presets so if you wan't to switch during songs, you just have to hope you want to switch to the patch that is eather one up or one down, or you're sunk. I am going to move onto a nicer unit soon, but it's served me well and I got alot out of it.

It's very easy to use, almost too easy. There Is alot of extra stuff thats nice to just have around but really isn't needed.

I'm using a epiphone les paul standard and a crate g120cxl (130 watts.) This thing is really fun to use. It's not very noisy unless you have it turned way up which I wound't really ever have to do. The effects are okay. I'd say 7. The auto wah is kind of lame but with the expression pedal the pedal wah is alright. Distortions are awesome. There is a bunch of stuff on this that I like but some stuff really reaks. The acoustic/electric simulator sounds good at low volumes but when you turn it up, It kind of makes a sound like something is frying. I dont use the acoustic electric simulator on gigs though. I have my own Washburn acoustic electric with a crate acoustic amp.

I can depend on it. I'v had mine for a year and have giged 5 times without a backup. I really don't understand how every one keeps dissing it because It's plastic. Gee's, if your gonna drop a cinder block on it then yeah, I think It would break but it doesn't really take that much effort to just simply tap one of the pedals with the tip of your foot.

Never dealt with them

I play everything, rock, country, alternative, 60's rock, Bee Gee's. AC/DC, Hendrix, everything and I can find a patch for almost all of these styles. If it were stolen or lost, I might get it, but I think I'd get a more High Tech processor but don't get me wrong, I'm very happy I got this, I believe it's the best you can get for your money. I like that it has a tuner built in and a headphone jack for traveling.

VERY EASY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started making my own patches the first day i got it. You can get so many sounds out of it like a 311 sound(exactly for the song Down)plus others, a sublime(April 29), Van Halen(Ain't talkin bout love) , Metallica, and an OK KoRn sound. if your looking for an inexpensive quality multi-effects pedal get it! If your a beginner or a experienced player it is awsome!!!!!!!!

Sound is cool. I have an ibanez RG470 with a seymore duncan Invader with a Marshall 8240. It is quiet without the compressor but with it it hums forever. You can get so many band sound as I typed above.

I've had it for a year and I had no problem. But i would recommend a backup cause you never know.

I lost my manual that came with it and i emailed them for a new one and i got it so they respond.

I've said about everything. I would probably buy it again unless i have the money to get a better one.Its a cool @$$ pedal

If you can't use this pedal...you should be shot. This is one of the easiest pedals in the world to use! I have never used an easier pedal, and I have used a shitload of pedals.Patch editing is a breeze, and I can get great sound from it in a snap.

This pedal can put out some pretty cool sounds if you have it set up right....but it can put out some pretty shitty sounding sounds if you're unskilled at using it. The preset patches are pretty cool, espicailly the chorus and mild, fuzzy distortion.

This is pretty......weak. I would never use it on stage or stomp on it becase it's plastic. I would never do a gig without a backup....so...this pedal is basically....for lack of a better term...weak. But..on a good note....I have never had any problems with it working or anything.

N/A

I play Industrial/metalish music. I have a '76 Gibson Explorer, through a Roland GX30 150 watt amp. I also own a Kurzweil 2500 Keyboard, Roland GR30 Guitar synthesizer, Zoom 8080, a standard Yamaha 6 string electric. I have 3 acoustic 6 strings, and a 12 string acoustic. I also have a Kelly Jackson Pro 4 string bass, and an Ibanez Iceman 5 string bass. The Zoom kind of pales in comparison to the rest of my equipment, but it's fun to mess around with.

It's so simple you need to have your axe crashed over your head if ye can't figure it out. Plug and play and you get this pretty cool hard distortion. Editing this thing is a about as complicated as putting in the batteries (if you can't figure that one out.. geez) The manual for this is an "ask no more questions" sheet. You'll find all you need in here.

I'm using a Yamaha Pacifica 112M guitar, along with my (cheap but nice) Crate GX15 amp. With a 9V battery in, this thing is like a sleeping baby (and it'll cry and scream like one when you hammer out your riff, WICKED!!!) Beware: when you put in an AC adapter (the only sensible thing to do, this thing eats batteries like a pig), the noise can get pretty annoying. The stock patches are pretty sad, to tell the truth. There's a couple interesting ones, but you'll lose interest soon enough. The 505 shields out the guitars natural sound, so you'll really want to program your own patches in for this one. This multi-pedal is pretty nice for heavy rhythm playing (i.e. Metallica, Pantera), and it can have some pretty nice lead patches too (if ye know what yer doin, i.e. VAN HALEN!!!) The distortion on the ZOOM is pretty limitied, but the chorus and other mods (excluding reverb) are pretty sweet. If you want some serious reverb effects, you better look elsewhere.

It's dependable for certain things.. NOT for slamming around on stage. Mine broke when I did that. :-( I'd always have a backup handy on a gig, but if you're playing some "sit-down" in your room stuff, it's nice to have. It is NOT A STOMP BOX, if you use it like that, you need to be trashed. Cause that's what it'll do to the pedal, TRASH IT. It's NOT made for use like that, and if they did make it for that, then WHY IS IT PLASTIC????

I left em alone. I got plenty of use out of mine, and had no MAJOR compaints.

I play metal, alternative, and I have a special knack for lead and solos. It's nice for that, so I'd give it a pretty nice rating. I've been playing for a few years, and I also own a BOSS DS-1 and a DOD Grind pedal. I don't think I'd buy this pedal again... It's nice for beginners, but once you get past the "Whoa!! It goes-- "distortion, clean, distortion, clean!" thing, you kinda have to look elsewhere. ZOOM does make some very nice multi effects consoles.. Check em out. It has some very decent effects (chorus and delay) for its price, that's for sure.. The compression is just okay (it REALLY limits the natural sound.. but that's kinda what it's supposed to do anyways?) My fav feature has to be the chorus.. I love it! very nice effect for a little over a $100. Like I said, it's great for beginners, but advanced players need to look for something a bit more.. advanced??

The 505 is very easy to use just take it out of the box and rock. The manual is easy to figure out and it the pedal is very easy to edit.

I use a gibson sg and a peavey rage 158 (15 watt). I do have a very small amp but I always get a very clean sound from the 505. The effects aren't at all weak unless you make them! I like metallica, AC/DC, and most hard rock artist. It is easy to get any AC/DC sound from it because they use a clean raw distortion. The distortions, chorus, flanger are all good!

The only drawback is that it is made of plastic!? I don't know what these guys are thinking when they says its not a stompbox!? Why in gods name to you have to stomp on the thing so hard!? You have to press it lightly not stomp on the thing. If you want a stomp box buy a tank or something!

Don't know about the company if there service is as good as there product its pretty good!

I would recommend this to anybody who needs a multi effects pedal! No its not a STOMP BOX but its a pedal not a bug. This is a very good pedal for beginners who need an easy reliable good sounding pedal. It would be good for experts for practice but no its not something to use at every gig!? But look at the price you just can't beat it!

Well, i must say i'll give the 505 a 10 of 10. It's very easy and the manual explains ALL. The factory patches are very good, especially the distortion patches,although they are good for the first time you use it, but for example after 3 or 4 days of use,i created my own patch (by the way you have to ERASE one of the factory setting's to do it because there's no empty patches for the user to store their own patches), that's one of the few bad thing's of the 505. I really think that when you plug your guitar, you will start playing inmediatelly, there's no confusion here.

1. I played the 505 with my Gibson Epiphone Les Paul model and a Fender amp 65W) and it's sound was (is) pretty good. 2. i didn't here noise and i played from regular to higher setting's, maybe ONLY on higher setting's you can hear a little noise, but that doesn't make a problem either. 3. The effects are not weak but they aren't the greatest either, but for the price (around $120 maybe a little more, the effect's are acceptable) i recommend editing your own patches because for example there are distortion patches that don't have chorus and i BET you want chorus on that :). But i must say that some patches really suck for example the harmony effect (among other's), although they are good for the price, i don't know, i don't like some of them... The other question that harmony central ask is if i can get the sound of my favorite artist and who are they... well sort of... i mean, i play Rush,Pink Floyd,Satriani,Vai, and some Zep song's, among other's... you have to remember that this artist's for example, they use the finest equipment you can buy and they use many effects's that the 505 don't have, so don't expect you will sound like Alex Lifeson,Satriani or the other's, but i think your sound will be good (sure,if you know how to equalize and get a cool distortion,delay,reverb,chorus,etc...) 4. The other question are the effects. The distortions are good, there are 8 of them ranging from blues to metal, but i really recommend that you edit your own distortion and play with the EQ and see who fits with your musical style. The compressor is not that good because you can't get much sustain of it but is not that bad (maybe hehe), chorus is good,delay,the EQ (not that good),and the other effects are fine (FOR THE PRICE, remember).

The other low point of the 505 is that they don't fit in STOMP BOX like the Boss pedals, the 500's series definetilly need a little of love and attention. I played the 505 for hours and i would use it without a backup.

Never dealt with the company (thank god).

I play metal,progressive rock,alternative,hard rock... the 505 is good for almost every musical style. If you are a "first time" guitarrist you won't be disappointed with the 505 but if you are a experienced guitarrist,well somthing like that, you BETTER look for something else :). I wouldn't buy it again because i have more money now :), but if you want something inexpensive this is a good choice. i Buyed it for the price and for the many effects(almost all of them are nice) this baby have, what i didn't like is that you don't have ROOM for your own patches,so you have to ERASE one of the factory settings to store your own patch,also there a no knobs,so this can be crucial for live performance,and it doesn't fit in the category of STOMP BOXES (as well as the other 500's). My favorite feature is...,well, all i can say i like it because it have some of the most used effects in rock music, but i wish it had a little more, maybe a whammy...?. There's one more thing you need to know, REMEMBER that you can buy the expression pedal (about 75$) and you can use it to control wah,volume,pitch shift,etc. Talking in overall rating i can say is a good unit for the beginner guitarrist, i doesn't have to much power,but you can kick ass with it, and GOOD for the price. e-mail me if you have questions,comments, etc.

This pedal is dead simple. Just read the manual(Actually a xerox copy with very basic instructions) and you can use it right away. Programming the 505 is very simple, only problem, its that you don't have too much paremeters to mess with when programming.

I'm not an experienced player, and this is my first multi effects pedal, so maybe my opinion is not so valuable for experienced players. I think its great! Chorus is very good, so's delay and reverb. Distortions are the part thats not so good, but they are very "usuable". I think that a person who does not have any multi effect pedal should find the sound pretty good.

I think I can depend on it. It is plastic, but it seems to be very solid. I use it in gigs without a backup and I haven't had any problems with it(Yet). Don't think you ever need backup.

Never dealt with them.

I think its very worth the money. I play a little bit of everything. I like to play from things like REM, U2 etc, to Metallica, Marylin Manson, etc. I think its a very good option for a first pedal, and I would certainly buy it again. For the bucks, its great, as buying separate pedals for all those effects would ruin everyone.

It is very easy to get around but it can get annoying sometimes

I first I loved the pedal but then I hated it. It is very noisy and alters the signal of the guitar even in clean mode. But the 505 is very useful if you put a distorion pedal in front of it. I use the BOSS DS-1. The distortions sound on the Zoom are very fake sounding. I just use the Zoom for chorus, delay, and flanger. That is all it's useful for.

Very reliable. Although the batteries don't last long becuase it eat the juice up.

Haven't dealt with the company so I wouldn't know.

It's a decent pedal that's very good for the price I paid

It's not so easy to get a good sound of the 505. The factory presets aren't very good, but with time you can find "that" sound you wanted. The manual explains everything, in few minutes you can start editing the patches.

I used it with a ephiphone 25W amp, of course it would sound better with a better amp. It is very noisy when you use the useless compressor, or put the dist. too high. Anyway, with a little work, you can get very good sounds, from acoustic to trash metal. The effects, like delay, chorus, flanger, could be better, and some, as the step, are useless. But to play at home, you can have a lot of fun with the octavers. The distortion are regular, the hall reverb is very good, i loved it.

It's plastic, take care. Better for playing at home or in a studio. Mine had some parts broken when i sold it...

Never dealt with them

I play metal, and it is a good pedal for it. The metal dist. is good, as the others, but i spent a few months to find the sound i wanted. For it's price (in usa, 110 bucks) it's very good. If you're beggining, this is for you. If you play for a good time, don't waste your time.

I got it mail-order. I pulled it out of the box at about midnight and was jamming away within 15 minutes. The instruction pamphlet was very clear and easy to read. Editing patches was easy and I like how you can reset one individual patch without reseting the rest. It is a little difficult to get the sound you are looking for out of it, but with a little effort it can be done. I don't like that there are only 9 different settings for each effect. I would much rather be able to change each individual setting on an effect.

I played it first through a 15 watt Squier Champ and it sounded good then. Then I got a Fender Ultimate Chorus. Sounds just as good now. I've forsaken the distortion and chorus effects and use my amp for them, but I really like the delay and pitch shift. The step effect seems really pointless to me. It kind of sounds like random pitches added on over the actual thing, it's really annoying with distortion.

I would depend on it. I wouldn't want to try to switch patches in the middle of a song at a gig, but if you want the same patch through the entire song, it works great. I would use it w/o a backup.

Never dealt with them.

I mostly play alternative type rock, and it works pretty good. I really like that there are so many different effects in one pedal, although I've found that layering more than about 3 different effects causes the sound quality to drop drastically. Like I said before, it sucks that you can't change the minute details of the effects. For example, the delay has settings 1 through 9. All of them have a preset repeat rate and number of repeats and there are times when you want something that is in between one of the settings. Overall, if you really don't care about adjusting the effects that much, it is great. You really can't beat the number of effects you get for the price.

easy enough if you look at the instructions

I used this pedal for about 6 months before I found the best overall sound was gained by going through the effects loop. The front end sounds are great for practicing but the effects loop is the key to getting the most out of the distortions, especially the overdrive and blues settings I have a Dean Markley K-75 and the overdrive and blues sound too wavy through the front end. Through the effects loop they are just as lush as the other distortion settings.

this pedal is good for maintaining a sound throughout a song. Meaning I wouldn't try to use it a stompbox for a gig. One solution though is getting a clean sound and using another effect box for distortion or whatever sound you want to switch to. Other than that it rules for gigs.

never dealt with ZOOM so I think thats a good quality

it can cover the gamut of sounds so it is a great alternative to having 15 to 20 effect pedals to worry about. The adapter is a must though because it eats through the batteries like moths in wool.

Very easy...my first effects pedal and I mastered it in seconds...the instruction sheet is a fold-out which is laid out well but isn't needed after about 5 minutes.

I use a japanese strat going into a Peavey bandit with it. In the effects loop it is quite noisy, but put between the guitar and amp it is fine, especially with the noise gate on. The effects are good, especially the distortions and choruses. As other people have said, the stock patches suck, bit with a bit of patience you can get great sounds out of this box.

Even though it is plastic, it is sturdier than it looks. If you're someone who freaks out and stamps all over his gear, I don't think it would last long.

Never had to deal with them

Not too hard as long as you dont hit both pedels at onece by accident if you do then you are in trouble as the thing flys into ultra inaccurate guitar tuning mode. Other than that it's not too hard.

God, another 505 review, well here it is straight:
Auto wah: Don't even bother with this. It turns good settings into crap settings and crap settings into comical settings
Chorus: Not too bad actually. Can get a bit noisy. Keep it high for the best results & use it with th ZoomNoiseReducer.
Distortion: Ahhh... now this boils down to taste, I like digital sounding fuzz and this pedal is quite good at that, however It's not too hot at anything else the other effects have to be coupled with echos and the octave lowerer to get anything special.
Octave Lowerer (or whatever its called): By itself this is useless. Combined bith distortion you can get some sinister sounds out of it (and something that sounds like a church organ) Using this is the only way to get some decent realistic sounding distortion
Phaser/Flanger: Phaser = Exelent! By far the best feature on this unit! Combined it with a touch of echo/chorus and accoustic distortion for an exelent melow sound. The Flanger sounds a bit limited and a "less is more" approach should be used.
Echos: Not bad indeed. some of the setting are fairly useless. The hall echo is the best the room echos arn't bad but dont have much reverb. Turn up your amp.
Guitar Tuner: Abysmal. Dont use it. By far the crappest tuner I have ever has the displeasure to use. Tunes a guitar --> V E R Y <-- Approximatly but then again you shouldnt be buying #100 pedels if you cant tune a guitar.

Everyone moans about this being plastic, but hell I'm not going to drop it of a building and it looks tough enough to take a hard hit anyhow.

First I drop a mark for the shity tuner in the world award. Lose a mark for the Lack of Flexibility & crap distortions. Lose a mark for the Huge amount of usless features.
This pedal isnt bad at -->melow<-- songs but even then is very limited. You have to spend far too long to find decent patches Good for beginers who cant play, thats all.

I've had the 505 for several months. I liked it at first and then grew to hate it. BUT READ ON ! If you're looking for good tone ..forget it..it's great if you like a very "processed" rock tone. I'm a blues player and believe me- I've spent time tweeking this thing...you can't get a good blues tone. As for editing it'e easy once you get the hang of it. The manual is pretty basic.Overall it is easy to use (tone aside).

My rig includes a Fender Lone Star Strat and a Fender Stage 112 SE amp. So it's not the gear. The Zoom kills the Strat sound but in fairness so do most multiple effects units. It's not too noisy unless you turn up the treble on your amp. The weird effects are actually pretty good..but useless - so it doesn't matter if you don't USE them. Who cares about "jet drive" ???
The rock effects aren't bad but very, very processed. If your guitar and amp are junk this might help but otherwise forget it. I picked up a SRV patch from a web site and tried it.I know SRV inside and out and this is not SRV's tone.My Strat even has the same Texas Special pickups that are on the SRV model. The auto wah is lame and for months I couldn't find the Zoom expression pedal for the Pedal wah. The distortions are terrible and are the root cause of the poor tone. I threw the thing in a closet and went back to my overdrive and chorus pedals (currently a Boss Blues Driver and the Danelectro Cool Cat- both GREAT pedals).
Then this week two things happened. it occurred to me that you can turn off everything and use single effects on the 505. So, I hooked it up and created single patches with compression,delay, limit etc. and used them in parallel with the Blues Driver. GREAT result..it uses the Blues Driver's excellent overdrive and adds the other effects as needed. It gives me a bunch of pedals for a very liitle money. Cool!! No, the compression isn't the Boss Compression but it's useful.
The other thing relates to the Wah. I could'n even find the Zoom expression pedal in Toronto.But this week I read a great Zoom web site by a fellow named Jurgen Heinzerling (check out his page - search under Zoom 505) and he showed a way to connect any cheap volume pedal into a pretty effective wah. It works great. Again, it's not a Crybaby but useful especially in light of the 505 having so many single effects.
So the moral of the story is that as a total effects box this thing is terrible. But use it in conjunction with good overdrive or distortion pedals and you have a very flexible rig.Throw in the tuner and accoustic effect and it's woth it. By the way the way I use ut now DOES NOT change my Strat tone.

Seems pretty reliable..but don't jump on it

Don't know...haven't sent it back

I think I covered all this stuff above.

it was hard to use at first, but after an hour of fooling around i figired it out. it was so easy to find a sound i like, tons to choose from any thing blues, metal, grunge. any sound you want.
editing patches is a breeze the manual explanes every thing.

i use a b.c, rich platnum seris and a fender frontman amp (15 watts) i have to say the it sounds nice at low volumes on my amp, its too muddy but on a good tube amp or any loud amp it blows me away its not noisy, got a noise reduction (znr) i can get a perfect metallica sound, white zombie, pantera, almost any thing! the chorus is pretty weak, but it all kicks ass

i can rely on it, all though its plastic so treat it with care! i alwasy take a back up to a gig, but it could get the job done!

havent delt with zoom, the dealer was nice and explained every thing

i play metal, its a good match. it sutes almost every style. i'v been playing for 3 years, i have a b.c. rich platnum series and a fender frontman amp, getting a new amp as soon as i get cash! and a cheap acoustic guitar. i'd buy a zoom again! its a kick ass pedal! i wish the zoom could combine the mod effect with each other, or combine 2 distortion togather, stuff like that. it helps with creativity greatly with all the features, lots of driffrent colours.

It's a bit hard to browse through 24 effects just using up and down pedals...

Using it with an American Fender Stratocaster and a Dean 50W amp, the sound it really good... I have no complains at all

The one bad thing about it is that if you use battery, it lasts for 1 hour or so. So you have to buy that plug in power supply, and it doesn't come with the pedal, so you have to buy it (45 dollars in Brazil). How many plugs I'd need if I wanted to use 505/7/8/9/10 at once?

Never needed it

I'd buy it again, although a large ME set (1010/2020/3030/etc) would be much cooler if you want a large amount of sounds. This one is pretty much a basic ME, as you have the usual effects (and it's much cheaper too). Other problem is that if you set the delay too long, it'll only echo once...

It would probably help if you know a particular sound you are looking for before you attempt to program this thing (as with any processor, I guess.) Once you get the hang of how the "modules" are laid out, programming could not be simpler. When entering Edit mode, the 505 displays "Edit" on the display. To bypass the message and go right into Edit mode, just press the edit button twice (or "double-click" it!)

The 505 will definitely sound different in different setup situations. Through headphones, it's immaculate. I'm using a Peavey Bandit 112 and I needed to do some major tweaking to quiet the unit down. Some of the factors are the EQ on your amp and the level set on each patch. Simplay cranking each patch to 30 would just be noisy. I have them set around 20-23 and I'm content. The Acoustic Simulator is going to give you some "hiss" no matter how much you try to get rid of it. You might find that cutting down on the Compression or Limiting will cut down on noise (especially on patches with more distortion or the Acoustic patch.)

I suppose one of the main reasons the 505 is so cheap is because of the cheap plastic they used to build it out of. I'm not overly thrilled about this. Transporting it will take a lot of care. I recommend making a padded case for it. I built a footswitch for it to replace ZOOM's rip-off footswitch and I found that the jack for the footswitch is a little awkward. The cable does not rest completely in the jack and it can occasionally come out. Whe the footswitch is disconnected it cuts the sound off and you have to turn te ZOOM off and back on again. Other than that, it should be OK.

I hope I never need it but I don't think ZOOM has a large support team in North America (if any).

It's ideal for what I was looking for. I absolutely love ZOOM's chorus and distortion (although I use a BOSS Chorus Ensemble after the ZOOM as well.) I don't have much of an interest in picking up the optional volume pedal but someone else might. You can get pitch dives and foot-adjustable harmony (like Digitech's Whammy Pedal.) As I mentioned before, depending on your setup, you will probably have to do some tweaking to your amp and the ZOOM to get rid of excess noise, but no matter what your setup is, I think it can be worked out.

I've heard better sound, but don't get me wrong. With 24 programmable patches at this price, it's well worth the money.

I'm using the pedal on an Ibanez Custom S-Series guitar with a Peavey Bandit 112 amp. I've had a problem with background fuzz when I use some of the distortion patches; I have to turn down my guitar's volume whn I'm not playing. Some of the distortion patches are kind of fake-sounding, but when you get this many patches for this price, you don't expect a perfect tube sound. The acoustic patch (makes electric sound like an acoustic) sounds really great. The blues distortion sounds good, but it takes some tweaking with the EQ and compression to get it to sound just right.

I've found the pedal to be pretty reliable, but on a gig, I'd take the AC adapter. The Zoom 505 sucks power like crazy if you use cheap batteries. With a Duracell 9-volt, it lasts for about 8 hours. The only other complaint I have is some of the small buttons on the sides. I play in a garage band, and dust from the floor has gotten into the button mechanism, causing it to stick from time to time.

Never needed it... hope I never do.

This was my first FX pedal, and it serves well as a basic all-around effects processor. However, when I need a specific sound for a solo, I use a single-purpose pedal, purely for a higher-quality sound. It's good for what I bought it for (a pedal for several entry-level effects), but if I were to have this pedal stolen, I'd spend a little more cash and get a higher-quality pedal.

As easy as it gets. You don't need prior multi-fx experience to operate this unit. Editing the patches is actually fun compared to programming one of the higher end units. You don't have many choices for each module (dist., mod., etc...) but there's enough to work with. For chorus, as an example, you have nine choices, each increasingly "deep". You can't tinker more than that, but hey, it's a hundred dollar unit.

I'm using the 505 as a preprocessor to my RP-12, into a Roland JC-77, and it sounds great - even by itself. A lot of people have complained about noise; this seems to be a common complaint about all processors in general. I have not found the 505 to be any more noisy than anything else. It's a case of how you use it, and watch your levels - the higher they are, the more noise you get. The distortions on the 505 are very "metal" oriented, and very limited in their palette. Get a good overdrive pedal. But, as for the rest of the time-based effects, I like 'em. The unit has a good chorus, delay, reverb, and flanger - which I can't say for my Alesis Nanoverb. It works really well for lush, girly dream-pop stuff. It's very hard to find a digital multi-fx with a good flanger, but this one actually does. Made it worth it.

Obviously it can't take much of a beating, but it's 10x more reliable than your average tube amp (which I've blown DURING a show). I have used it in gigs, and will in the future.

n/a

If you want a decent chorus, delay, reverb, and flanger for a hundred bucks - get the 505. Don't buy it for the distortions alone, I think you'll be disappointed. I was unsure about buying such a cheap little multi-fx, but I'm very happy with it, and would definitely get it again. For its price/power ratio, I give it a 9.

This unit is very easy to use, but has so many features not immediately apparent that it dupes those who do not look colesly enough. Tinkering with the 505 is a MUST however before getting a good sound

Off the top- there is a minute miniscule tiny bit of hiss in the line, but I only really noticed it once, amy have a been a bad battery. Okay, here she goes: the presets that come with this unit absolutely stink. They are useless, without a doubt. HOWEVER (and that's a gigantic HOWEVER), a little tweaking and this thing really does the trick- ANY trick! Sound quality is great, even beyond. The disortions are extremely useful for everybody and that is VERY hard to come by even on extremely expensive rack units. By the way, the 8 distortions are all analog, another big plus. the eq section (with a 1-50 value system) is funky but again, VERY effective. All of the modualtion effects are musical and useful and I have run the gammut on pedals, BELIEVE ME! I give this category a 9 only because it's a $110 unit and doens't sound ablsolutely "dreamy", but it's got SO much bang for the buck, it's rediculous.

I have used it day in day out, gigging and at home. It has kept up with me quite well- though, make note- I am NOT a stomper, ESPECIALLY not with this unit. But then again, that's not really what it was built for, heavy-footer can stick with BOSS (which I have many of), but this unit really is, despite its flimsy looks, a quality piece of gear. 7 only cause it doesn have the plastic housing rather than metal, etc.

Have not dealt with Samson/ZOOM

I play and love a whole array of different music. This unit does the blues this very nicely, the overdrive thing devinely, the full-on distortion bit very well, the metal-head mania superbly, and all other distortions you can and cannot think of are awesome. The delay and reverb effects are also superb. There is one little issue that I have a beef with- especially with the delays. You can control the delay time, but neither the level or number of repeats cna be controlled. Now, granted, the guys at ZOOM picked some prett good setting for each given delay time, but I tend to back off the delayed signal level a bit more than the unit lets me. That really is my only beef with the whole unit and I'm not being fairytale-wonderland about it either. Excellent value and great piece of gear for either a main setup or backup. it really does do everything. Oh, before I stop- a couple hints... DO NOT base your judgement of the 505 on the presets alone, mess around with it AND- the ZOOM sounds WORLDS better running through a tube amp rather than solid state. I run mine through my Fender Hot Rod DeVille 2x12 60 watt tube combo.

I just got the unit and have been playing with it for a while.... essentially, it's a small effects unit crammed into a pedal format... Editing is easy and the manual (info sheet) is simple to follow, as far as sounds go, it is easy to get a cool sound from it, but only if you like your effects WET!

Kind of noisy, but the ZNR cleans it up good... THe chorus/Flange is pretty weak, but the rest is good. I am using this unit for practicing and recording to 4 track, so I can afford some extra wet effects... The compressor is pretty weak too, but not as weak as the one on the dod g7 processor...

It kind of light plastic, but it can probably take a hit... I would bring a backup (as always) to a gig, just a distortion and eq pedal though, I could live without the other effects...

nada, bought it used

This unit is great for tooling around with effects... I had a DOD G7 processor (I think I did a review) and I HATED it! it was cool through headphones (like the zoom) but it stunk with my amp, no good in front or in the effects loop... THe 505 blows it away, and being a pedal it is easy to just kick down and change effects no problem.
NOTE: I don't know how much the FP-01 costs, (i heard like 140 canadian!) but you can easily replace it with a simple 100k pot based volume pedal (25 canadian) and a stereo 1/4" to dual mono 1/4" cord... considering the limited amount of controllable effects (only volume, wah and pitch up/down) I don't think it is worth it to buy the FP-01... well, I've babled enough, bottom line, a good unit for beginner's or people just looking for a new toy, it doesn;t sound as good as my buddy's Digitech 2101, but it's like 1/20 the price! (besides, the money you save, you can spend on a good guitar and amp... and that's where your sound REALLY comes from... along with your hands, keep rocking
Dave

The Zoom 505 is great for beginners who have never used a multi-effects pedal before because you can just sit there and tap your way through 24 factory settings and go "Wow, that's cool" or "Nah, that's shit". As I said easy to use and easy to program but if you want more than two separate effects in one song, you really need to set them up in order. Once you learn how to program your own sounds in, it's great because you can piss off the many wah-type effects and the bizarre random-step effect (Zoom's own creation), and line up a good series of patches for yourself. You can bypass the Zoom 505 easily and go straight through your amp too which is very handy. Possibly as a function of my own uncoordination, I did find problems when I accidently pressed both pedals simultaneously and instead of switching to a new effect, I bypassed and went straight to clean amp (pretty embarrassing). If you wear big boots on stage, this can happen a lot and in desperation of recovering your mistake, the song can end up ruined.

Like other people, I think the distortion and overdrive sound too washy. There isn't a hell of a lot of grunt behind them. I use a Marshall Valvestate 80V and the amp distortion is muchmuch better. The more girly effects of the Zoom 505 are pretty good though (flanger, delay, etc). The compression and equalizer functions can dramatically improve the sound you are after.

It hasn't broken down on me yet, but do NOT rely on batteries. They don't last very long at all.

I've never tried to gain customer support.

I chose the 505 because it was by far the cheapest and most versatile multi-effects unit I could find. It looks poxy because it is made of black plastic, but it really does deliver. I would prefer not to be restricted to two pedals that switch up and down in your series of patches, but if your just into effects that last the duration of the song without too much stomping, than I recommend it and might even buy it again. Distortion is crap, and overdrive is too much, but if you have a good amp, you can get around this.

OK, I think by now everyone knows how easy these things are to use. Beavis and Butthead could easily play like metallica or any of their metal idols.

I gotta say some of the distortions are a bit presumptuous. The blues sound really is a far cry from it's claim, and most of the other distortions you really have to F**K with to make em' sound better than average. But on the upside the "dt" setting on the distorttion combined with an EQ setting of around 15 allows my Hughe's and Kettner shake the walls. I believe it all depends on what amp your using. The 505 just sounds better in some amps than others. I also have to admit that some sounds create a shitload of hiss, which would be alright if the noisegate didn't make everything sound like shit! All in all for $240 Canadian(I live in Newfoundland, everything costs a mint!) you REALLY get what you pay for. The sounds are decent, and the price is better! You get over $2000.00 worth of effects for under $300.00, hey, sounds good nuf for me!

Ok this is where ZOOM's design department smoked some bad weed! Who the hell do you think is gonna bring a plastic peddle up on stage and expect it to survive, especially if you're into thrash or punk! I also bought the expression pedal to go with it(I paid $140 bucks for that too!) it's basically a plastic crybaby wannabe. Here's some good advice....DON'T BUY THE EXPRESSION PEDAL!!! Save yourself some later pain and buy a good crybaby(cause they sound sooo much better than a morely wah) and buy a guitar with a floyd rose or something, you'll get everything that the expression pedal offers you without having to baby some plastic box of shit. whats more you have to have a special stereo cord to connect from the FP01 expression pedal to the 505. The whole works hasn't broken on me yet but it will and when it does at that cheap a price I can at least buy something comparable or maybe by then Zoom will have made a metal version

Hey I deal with Griffith's guitar works in St. John's NF and they kick ass. As far as Zoom goes I've never had to deal with them directly so I can't comment.

Ok lets face it, if you're a beginner guitarist or ya don't have access to shitloads of money(like me) this thing is great. It even comes with a chromatic tuner and we all know how cool those things are! Yes I would buy it again with the exception of the expression pedal(sucks horse cocks!). It's just one of those pedals that are easy to learn the basics but when you really start to experiment with it the thing just becomes an amazing tool for beginners and veterans alike. Hey, multi-effects board are known to give all male guitarists serious stiffies

Simple as it gets.

OK lets be honest... the thing is 119 dollars! For what I'm using it for it works great. I have a Mesa Boogie MarkIII that I hate the reverb on and wish for some effects. The 505 has some good sounds. I use it mostly for adding reverb and chorus to my clean sounds which it does great. I wish the reverb had more adjustment but... The delay is good too. To me the distortion sounds suck. I have never liked distortion boxes anyway and love a good high gain amp. If you compair the distortion to my Mesa there's no way you would ever use it... which I won't. I didn't find it noisy as other did but that may be because I'm not using distortion.
So you get a good sounding Reverb, Flanger, Compressor, Noise gate, Delay, Phazer, Pitch shifter, and tuner for 120 dollars. GREAT!
If your just needing to fatten and candy coat your clean sound go for it. If you want great distortion buy a good tube amp.
Nuf Said

Don't know.... So far so good

Have not used it

Good little unit for adding some effects. SIMPLE

This is an update to my earlier post about the Zoom.
Yeah, really simple to use. Just dorking around with it in the store is enough to figure it out.

Here's where I mark it down. In general, all the effects are "ok" but they are very limited. You don't have manual control over any of them. The best you can do it just pick the one that suits you best. There are some effects that are pretty lame and useless, like the EQ, auto-step, chorus, compression, and limiter but I don't care for those. I just don't use them. Most of the distortions are have good tonal qualities but the noise and hiss is just too much. Acoustic, blues, and rhythm are pretty poor but metal, lead, and overdrive are ok. The built in noise gate does a little bit to cut back on the noise but it's still pretty bad. My biggest gripe is in the hiss and background noise it makes.

I don't think it will ever fail on me because my environment is gentle. I don't gig or perform. The most torture I'd give it is playing with my backyard garage band. I opened it up just to look inside and it's pretty empty and hollow. The button contacts don't look very sturdy so I wouldn't recommend any stomping on it.

Never had to deal with them, and I hope I never do.

I'm going to get separate pedals for all the effects that I like and slowly try to phase out the Zoom from my playing. It's a neat pedal because it has so much in one package and it's great for exploring sound. But you can get a lot better than this. If it weren't so damn noisy I wouldn't send this update.

Fabulous! Even if you are dumb as dirt the presets will hold you for a bit.Manual is good but you won't need it after a few minutes.lots of online resources.A monkey could make this sound good.

Great Distortion Compression Limiter Chorus Flanger Reverb Delay. Noise gate and Wah is lame

Plastic. Treat it gentle. Power and sound however is no fail. use at a gig as long as you don't have an iron foot Hey, for 120$ you can buy one all the time

I don't really know. I think Zoom has some report

All I ever want or need. I love it. it has added about 100 new deminsions to my music. Programed very easily.Best Value for money.THE BEST. PERIOD!!!!

Ultra easy to use. The manual tells all, but after a little time getting to know the unit you don't need it anymore. Up/Down patch selection with two footpedals. Patch editing is smooth and easy, but you can't do it with your foot.

Pretty good here. Zoom built in a noise reducer module that keeps the hiss out. Heavier distortions with a lot of gain and the ptach volume set too high cause a noisy feedback. The same feedback hit me when I used it through my '78 Mesa/Boogie studio 1x12 combo's effects loop, but I hear it has different reactions to the loops of different amps. Best bet is to use it between your guitar and amp. The auto-wah is a little sticky and takes a pretty hard hit to sweep, but by connecting an expressor pedal you can use it's pedal wah, which I haven't explored yet. The distortions are great, most notably the blues driver and lead distortion. The acoustic simulator is not much diffrent from running it clean. The metal distortion wasn't thrash enough butstill acceptable for my purposes. The phaser was more like a vibretto/tremolo than a rotary speaker. Either way I don't use it that much. I like the chorus, especially combined with the doubler, making a nice dual-shimmer touch to my clean stuff. I tred the flanger with a touch of distortion one day with my amp cranked and everyone was looking up to see if a jet was going over real low. 'nuff said. Zoom's step effect is certainly diffrent. Sort of an auto-appregiator, I haven't found much use for this, except as fills for long note-holds. The pitch-shifter is ok. I use it mostly as an octaver, but those of you who use harmonizers can probably do a lot more with it. I like the reverbs, but the delay could be a bit more versatile. This still hasn't stopped me from putting it to use, though.

I take it everywhere with me and it hasn't failed me yet. I do use an AC adaptor for it, though, since it drains a nine volt battery in 90-120 minutes, despite the manual's assurance that batteries last four hours. Don't stomp too hard on it, though, it has a plastic case.

Never dealt with them.

It has definitely helped me out. I love the little thing and would buy it again and again. Decent effects at a decent price. All my friends keep wanting to borrow it, too.

Editing Patches is easy and almost endless combinations of effects The manual will show you every thing you need to know

I noticed after I got it It was nothing like I expected it to be there wasn't a single effect that sounded good while using my wah at the same time (I use a Crybaby it could sound better using a diffrent pedal?) The Chours was the worst effect on it The phaser was good and the Flanger was good also but for a $119 it wasn't worth it

The olny reason I submitted this was to save some body thier money It sounded like such a great pedal but i got rid of it in 2 weeks

Very easy to use. I really like the different categories of Distortion with the Gain. Editing the patches is very easy. You can even move the patch like lets say, from A2 to E3 without any problems. The manual is useful, but after 10 minutes, you don't need it anymore

Noisy ? Not really, I didn't plugged mine in the effect loop. The sound of every effects in that box sounds really great. For $120 bucks, we would think that it would be cheap sounds that would come out of there, but not, really professional. But I must say I only played with it in my living room,I haven't jam with it yet.

Plastic !!! Too bad they didn't make it in metal. Just be careful, it's worth to have it.

Never had to called them.

I would buy it again and again and again and again...... What I love the most ? 1) Professional sound. 2) 24 patches, wow ! 3) I play Blues/Rock/Country and that it what I always dreamed about.

Very easy. Sounds great direct into a board for recording. Editing patches, though limited is very easy and quick. Manuals okay, but you hardly need it after a few minutes.

I use it through a board for direct recording. For that it is clean, precise, and very, very quiet for the most part. The feal FX sounds are useless, but the basic overdrive and chorus and reverb are fine for recording. Echo is disappointing as I couldn't get a simple Rockabilly slap-back because of too many regenerations.

Seems fine.

E-mailed the company on the Net and they sent personal answer next day.

I love it for recording. It's simple and doesn't take a lot of time to find the right sounds. I use it mostly for the overdrive and chorus with reverb features. Doubling is pretty good, too. BUT, I would not use it for live amp work. It is just too plain noisy for that. It doesn't make sense to me but there it is. I tried the effects loop and everything and it just does not work somehow without mucho hiss. Again, great for recording or practice.

Well, straight out of the box the Zoom 505 is a breeze to use. You can plug straight into the amp or go through the effects loop, and once you turn it on, fun for hours. I would recommend plugging into the effects loop as in my normal signal chain it made tone of noise when in bypass. The presets are good and cover all ranges of music, and are a good starting point for creating your own patches. Editing is a breeze and can be done quickly, the only downside is that the volume of the patches can only be changed through the Level parameter as opposed to through a standard volume knob which would be nice. The volumes on the patches vary incredibly, so when you first turn it on don't crank your amp up. For some odd reason, the fuzz patches are about 600 times louder than the normal distortion patches. I never got a manual, but even without one you can use the unit quite easily.

The unit can be noisy when using distortions, but the noise gate can easily take care of that. Overall, the unit provides a good look at all the different types of effects and their uses in music. I wouldn't say that any of the effects are incredible, but they are all reasonably good and can be used in recording and performing situations. Overall, I found that you have to spend some tweaking the unit to get a good sound, especially when using distortions. The unit can sound cold and anemic, but with some good tweaking it can sound incredibly good. The distortions are wide ranging and I've gotten incredible sounds out of them. The flangers and phasers are limited, but work well. The chorus, reverbs, and delays are a blast to work with, but the delay setting are pretty limited. Overall, this unit can give you a great sound if you are willing to spend the time working with it.

I've used it in concert situations and recording, and it's held up fine. Even though, if you tour regurlaly, get a back up for this unit was not meant for constant stomping. The battery life is short (4 hours), so having an AC Adapter is a good idea. I use it alot, but I admit I don't smash on it like I do my wah-wah and Big Muff.

No idea, haven't dealy with ZOOM yet.

This machine is a great introduction into the world of effects. It works well for all situations, and can be extremely handy when working with a four track or recorder. I've used it for some recording sessions and it's worked like a champ, and my friends have been amazed. It sounds much fuller than my amp distortion, and I've programmed a good amount of nifty patches that cover all my musical desires. I don't know of I would buy it again because I like to move on, but I think I'll always keep it around for those days that I sit around and record ideas onto my four track. Once you get passed the programming stages, it will aid you in your musical endevours. The only thing you may be annoyed by is that you will find yourself bending over and getting into the Edit mode very often to change the level of each different patch.

It's certainly harder to operate than a volume pedal but then, you get somewhat more effects. Seriously, edit and save are mastered in a matter of seconds and the manual is clear enough on how to joggle with the knobs for the more complex functions. You definitly need it to know what is what when it comes to parameters, you make no wonder with a 3 letters display.

At low level in the shop, in a sound proof cabin or on headphones it's ok but once home i got a bad surprise : it has a permanent backgroud blow noise even in bypass It's a Zoom so it sounds like a Zoom : synthetic and the choice of parameters per effect is quite basic but remember the price tag!!!

It's all plastic so what you gain (or actually loose) in weight, you loose in physical resistance. I won't use it on a gig anyway due to the sound quality and versatility but if you play in a band that has an extensive stage show (ie lots of run and jump), definitly DON'T!!! But the electronic should be ok.

I bought it to replace my Rockman soloist that just died and for that use (practice amp on headphones) it's great. It's good enough to go jamming around without a van full of gear. And it's certainly a excelent start for a beginner with a limited budget. But if it's versatility and creativity you're looking for, you're gonna have to spend "mo'mony man".