Zoom 505

I read the instructions - it took a couple of minutes, and away I went. No problem. It uses presets, so you have to decide which preset is closest to what you're after. Some dials and sliders would offer greater adjustability and "twiddlability", but you wouldn't be able to get this clever little pedal for the price it is if it had these features.

It's ok. If it's sometimes too shrill or middley, adjust the tone on your amp or your guitar (for goodness sake!). It can be a bit noisy, but if most people who buy these cheap little pedals use cheap, badly shielded guitars, cheap leads and cheap amps, of course there's going to be noise. Played with a decent guitar and reasonable leads it's fine. Don't believe the people who blame the noise from their cheap chinese guitars on their processor chain or cables.

I have never, ever, ever had any issues with it. That is after storing it in a damp garage while I was away. I've dropped it, dropped things on it and its never gone wrong. Not bad for a cheap lump of plastic.

N/A

I play loads of stuff from thrash to Van-Halen tapping cheese rock, prog, blues, jazz, samba, folk, slide and have done for over fifteen years. I prefer to use my old westone thunder (1984) and Marshall Master lead combo (1960s / 1970s white edge), Dunlop cry baby, couploe of other bits band bobs.

*Hint
Buy yourself a volume pedal and a splitter cable for the pedal socket and you will double how good this little box is. A little smasher for the price!

this is debatable. sometimes while moving the 505 i accidentally may push one of the edit buttons and have to reach for the manual to sort it. its easy with the manual but a bit tricky if u havnt touched it for a while. switching it on & off doesn't solve it either. you have to press the correct sequence of buttons to sort it.
once u get in the swing of it i think editing is easy. the manual is adequate .. albeit a sheet of folded paper. a small booklet may have been handy .. but then its easier to scan a sheet of paper.

well im a hobbyist. mainly indoor playing using midi for backing tracks. the output of the 505 ive got patched into a Zoom 1201 .. about the same era .. and the results are great. with min chorus and delay on the 505 i can add better fx from the 1201 .. plus i can eq the levels. the 505 has a high output so i can turn the final signal down if im mixing and theres not much amp noise.
my main guitars are Washburn .. dual humbuckers. just purchased a Ibanez S470 & theres no drastic`change in the sound .. different tones but still a solid fat sound.
sometimes a sound may be reminiscent .. but i prefer to get the best sound i can rather than re-create one. those ping-pong / voice / pitch / out of tune type sounds i avoid. a good heavy tone with loads of sustain pleases me and i can get a few variations from this 505.
the audio from this 505 eventually goes thru my mixer and to headphones / amp. i cant really hear this noise that others speak of. there can be some hiss with high level distortion settings .. but i find the gate not too bad. the FQY range (quality)is very good with a high headroom on my 505.

its now almost 10years old. its still working but i have to find a replacement.keep my fingers crossed egh ? ha
so far its been a shear bargain.

not to date

i like lots of styles. i dont think its set to emulate anyone in particular .. but ive a few patches suitable for soloing which i like.

using the cleaner settings .. i must say it helps with some reverb.

i need to replace it as its getting old. ive just bought a RP350 and have to say the 505 blows it away! maybee theres something set wrong or its just faulty .. but im not happy. i dont expect to be able to copy the 505 tones ... in fact something new would be a change .. but the RP350 sounds .. thin - gritty - compressed - low output.

i wish the 505 had a expression pedal fitted. ive got a separate pedal .. but to be honest its too much bother to wire it all up .. & the wires are a pain.

Didn't have that much experience with racks of multi-effects before this so I did initially find it a bit of a work to set all parameters. Once you've done that it is pretty easy. But you can't dial anything playing live. Of course as it it is a multieffect you can preset 30 or something sounds which of course is handy.
The headphone output was pretty useless to me as the sound coming out is so radically different from what you get through and amp

I use a modified Telecaster Custom and a 70's Fender Twin Reverb. Bought this a while after all my other pedals and my amp (Fender75). had been stolen so I couldn't cough up that much money. I was quite satisfied initally but after a while I noticed that this box seriously worsened the sound quality in virtually every setting.
As I nowadays mostly tend to look for effects that allow my guitars original sound to come through this thing is not for me.
I guess you could find one or two useful sounds.

Used it for 5-6 years, haven't failed once.

Haven't dealt with them

Been playing as an amateur for about 25 years.Play mainly rock, reggae and some jazz. The ZOOM was allright for me at a time when I couldn't afford "the real" thing so I guess it could be a useful and cheap alternative for beginners. For my part it has totally put me off multi-effects and digitalized sounds and I have continued to build up my effect chain witha MXR Comp, Ibanez FL301DX flanger, Lovepedal Overdrive, DC Demonizer, Cry Baby Wha, EB Volume pedal.
A few things missing still, but I'll get there...

The unit is labeled clearly enough to where you can figure it out as you go. I hadn't touched this unit in years and I was able to pick it right back up. The effects are easy to sort through and save.

Well, in a word, lousy. The effects are generally alright, but I have very little use for a unit that supplies delay (for instance) without the ability to change how many repeats you get or how long the delay time is.

The presets sound fair, and if you don't mind sticking with what you're given, you can get some halfway decent sounds. For guitar, this is restrictive and severely limiting.

The modulation effects are lacking, again with no true control. The chorus is decent, if a little weak, but the flange is nice and thick. Phase is also weak, and sounds very thin and wimpy.

The distortions were nauseating. Nothing more to say.

The amp simulation is lousy, as well as the acoustic simulator. Compared to today's multi-FX units, this thing is a dinosaur, so I didn't especially expect a real-sounding acoustic emulator. The compressors are surprisingly good, but again a lack of control is the downfall fo this unit. The hallmark of a good amp sim is the ability to hook directly to a mixer and record with some degree of realism, which unfortunately is not the case for the Zoom 505.

The pitch shifting functions are the saving grace on this unit. They're really quite cool, and you get a decent amount of flexability. You can get perfect fifths, octave low, octave high, or octave low and high. I was able to cop a reasonably good 12-string sound out of it, which was neat.

This unit was *just* flexible enough to be used as a vocal processor for live applications. I snagged a couple of good patches for my vocals on a psychedelic folk show I'm doing, so I can't totally knock the unit.

Well, I've had this unit for over 10 years, so I have to commend Zoom on making a good, long-lasting product. It sat on a shelf for the last 7 years, and I pulled it out on a whim the other day. With a new set of batteries, this baby was just fine. Nice work, Zoom.

Never needed 'em. Should say something...

If you don't expect miracles, this unit can be used for very limited applications. All of the effects are decent but totally canned, so their window of application is pretty tiny. However, I liked what I heard on a few of them, so it was worth having.

As I said, I got this unit about 10 years ago, and it's served its purpose for that long. With the number-crunching power of the new multi-FX units (The Digitech RP series in particular), there is not much use for this product, and you'd be much better off going with something else. However, if you can snag this guy in a bargain bin, you may come across one or two presets that tickle your fancy.

Very easy to use, no need for a manual.

You can't get simular sounds of the artist, this is a low cost product.
The excellent thing is that you can use Phaser with Chorus or Flanger. Chorus and Phaser are cool, Flanger is OK, Pith and double mods are catastrophic. Compressor sounds very cool but it also creates loads of ear damaging noise. The distrosions are all ok expect for metal, that one is really crap. DT dist has a cool sound but creates a lot of noise even if you don't play, just like having a electrical problem. Rhytm distorsion is much better then anything i heard in all the multiefects. YOu can play cleans on hi gain things on it. Even with a lot of gain all the noise sounds very warm and valve like. Lead dist is also ok but it sqeells even more then all the others. This unit is impossible to use at koncerts or even rehersals. Can't get good sound with out beeing really NOIZY - this one is for home use only.

It's simple, doesen't create much problems or fails often.
Using this sqeel machine on a gig is a great way to ruin your band chances to make it someday.

This thing is good for beginers. The good thing about it is that oyu can get some really magical sounds combining chorus and phaser.
It doesen't matter what gear you use.
I wish other more expensive multiefects would have a feature with such good rhytm distorsions and a combination of suing chorus and phaser at once.

Quite easy.

This thing sound sucks. Really. The distortions are the worst i've ever heard. the moudulations suck too. the wah has too much trebele boost. the only ok effect is the delay. Sold it..

It's made of plastic. other than that it's fine.

never dealt with them.

this thing can't make one decent sound, and even if you find one - the bypass of this pedal is HORRIBLE, so I won't keep it in the chain even for one song.

Once you get your head around how the various controls work, setting the pedal up for your own patches isn't a problem. The display is a good size, and it's all pretty logical, IMO. The manual is just a sheet of A3, but it covers the basics OK - I guess that says it all, really!

Getting a good sound out of it is pretty easy, unlike some other multiFX I could mention. It's great to use live - set up the patches you want in sensible memory locations relative to each other, and there's next to nothing to go wrong.

I don't generally try to sound like anyone else, but you can get a good range of tones out of this unit that cover most of the bases.

Like most multiFX units I've used, it seems to major on distortion/overdrive FX - but the good news is that some of these are really pretty good, especially if you lay back off maximum on the input. The acoutic emulation may not sound much like a real acoustic, but I've gotten good mileage out of that tone for certain songs with my Strat copy.

Other high points are the modulation FX - chorus is warm and rich, the flanger's well useable, and the phaser will give a slightly thin tone that I find quite attractive.

The pitch mod FX are not particularly useable in a musical sense - the high octave isn't spot-on, which makes things painful, the low octave sounds OK, the fifth etc. settings are better, but limited in practice as it's not an intelligent harmonizer.

The wahs are better than nothing, and I've gigged with them, but there's no real richness there. The cab emulations don't really do what it says on the tin. The gate is not too bad as long as you tweak it right. The echoes are clean and what you'd expect from a digital unit, and the reverbs suit guitar well (they're a bit too "springy" for use on vocals etc., which my 505 has done when patched into a PA in extremis - probably no worse than the built-in reverbs on many an old pub PA out there, though).

Where all the FX except the distortions fall down is their lack of tweakability (which I think was improved in the Mk II version) - but that's the downside of a simple low-cost unit like this.

I've used it with an electro-acoustic and a Strat copy through a variety of amps. With the right amount of tweaking, it did both guitars proud.

A big minus point is that especially with some of the FX, this unit can be NOISY - the gate will help a bit, as will tweaking the amp tone controls. The main culprit seems to be the preamp section - the compressor/limiter is useful, but at the cost of introducing noise right at the start of the FX chain on some settings, and the gain on the distortiomn FX obviously makes this worse. I wouldn't say it's any noisier than the chain of discrete FX pedals you'd have to put together in order to equal it's functions, though! It's OK live generally, but you wouldn't want to record with it (unless you were after seashore-type sound effects, or even the occasional waterfall).

Never really had a problem with it. The big bright LED display eats PP9s, so you probably wouldn't want to rely on battery power for a gig. It's been used without a backup in pub gigs plenty of times, and has survived the odd beer with a shake and a chance to dry out. After about 8 years (I think), the switches and everything else still work fine. With a bit of a clean-up, I could probably pass it off as new.

Never needed it, so no opinion. It was cheap to buy. I suspect it would be cheaper to get another than get someone to repair it.

I play anything from jazz to pop covers to experimental, and have done so for over 30 years.

I bought it as I'd had all my FX pedals and amps ripped off years ago and was broke, so it covered quite a few bases in terms of getting me up and running again for very little money indeed.

It's given me an enormous amount of pleasure over the years, now I look back on it.

I ended up customizing it - if you plug a wah/swell-type pedal connection into the control input on the back, you can control volume, wah and pitch (Zoom sell a pedal for this, but I just rigged up my own with an old broken wah unit). If you rig up an external oscillator and plug it into that input, you then have modulation effects that it lacks - auto-wah, tremolo and vibrato.

In the course of rigging all this up, I discovered that if you short the live control input line to earth, the pedal ramps down then up again over about half a second. So I rigged up my own "electric plectrum" - covered a standard plastic plectrum with tinfoil and took a lead from it to the control signal connector. Provided the strings on the guitar are earthed (they should be), then you have access to plectrum-triggered swell, wah and pitch effects - great fun!

(Disclaimer: You can electrocute yourself playing around with this stuff if you don't know what you're doing - You have been warned! I did this, but that doesn't mean I'm recommending that anyone else do it.)

I now have a PODXT Live, but I think this little Zoom will still see use on those occasions when I want to take along some FX but not the whole rig, especially into situations where gear can come to harm or be ripped off. Funnily enough, although I'm aware that the Live is capable of many more subtleties etc. than the 505, some of the distortion units on the 505 give those on the Live a fair run for their money!

It has character despite its flaws, and it's very cheap for what it can do - what more do you need to know? If it were stiolen or lost, I'm not sure I'd replace it, though - if I was looking for another knockabout unit to take over what will now be its role, I'd probably check out what else is available, or maybe get the Mk II instead. On the other hand, I haven't checked out the second-hand prices for the 505, so just replacing like with like might be a no-brainer.

The Zoom 505 is too easy to use, you can get some good tones out of it but i like analoge better than digital, the patches easy once you look a the manual a few times

well im using a ibanez ex350 through a Marshall MG100DFX, it is a bit noisy at high levels of volume. you can get good eddie van halen tones like 'eruption' and some good metallica tones too

i dont know, iv never used it at a gig only in practice, i would always have a backup if u used it

never needed it

i play rock, hard rock, and metal i have been playing for 5 years now. i own a digitech grunge pedal and a marshall mini amp
Overall Rating - i think it is good but you should go analoge
digital tones are not that good

The Zoom 505 is a poor man's mult-effects pedal. Within this unit is some pretty good stuff. I got mine used and borrowed a manuel from a music shop put it on a copier machine because it has some surprises otherwise. It is FAIRLY easy to edit and get the right sounds out of it. After a little time of use, it becomes easy to edit.

The sound quality of the Zoom 505 is assorted. Some are not very usuable in my opinion. Some are worth the unit alone. My favorites are step!& lead (distortion) It is a second unit to supplement my Digitech multi-processor. I use it with a tranformer (AC) The OD kind of "clippy" the blues too dark, setting the pitch at a certain setting sounds like a 12 string; pretty cool. People talk about finding the holy grail. I think you can take 2 separate units and brands and blend them and find the holy grail sounds and tones.
pretty cool. but with trial and error, baby steps.

I would not gig with the Zoom 505 without a back-up.

In a pedal board, this is worthy to be included for the step phaser alone!! The lead (distortion) really rocks!! The noise reduction ZNR is ok. I do have the FP02 expression pedal and it works well with the pitch bend and wah. The auto-wah is not bad either. I am very tempted to try the G1 made by Zoom. The 32 bit processor. I think the FP02 works with it also.

First let it be known that i am not a touring musician just a humble hobbiest.With that said i had no problems figureing out how to use my zoom505 even though i bought it from a pawn shop with no manual.Editing the patches on it was very simple right off the bat as well as useing the built in tuner,you just press down on both pedals at the same time and blam your there.The zoom505 was a no brainer to learn to use.

I play a lot of metal and rock,from slayer to pink floyd and i can usualy get all the sounds i need out of it.For floyd and the more psycodelic music i like my zoom505 has a flanger,phaser and a cool step feature that sounds very spacey.As far as metal goes i can usualy get most of the distortion sounds i need but not all.I can get a good slayer sound with it using the optional expresion pedal with the wah feature.I use a (B.C.Rich warlock and mockingbird)wich runs through eather my (Digitech Metal master) or my (Digitech Death metal pedal)wich then runs through my zoom505 and into two (Ibanez tone blaster 25 watt amps.All that takes care of the rest of the distortion quite well.Overall the sound quality is pretty good.

So far i've had no real problems with it other than the buttons sticking on it once but a little air in a can fixed that right up.I bought it about five years ago used from a pawn shop and its still going strong to this day. If i had a gig to go to I would be confident in not bringing a backup.The batteries go pretty quick on it but its rare that i use batteries,i normaly have it pluged into my (one spot) plug adapter.I've never had a problem with the pedals when cycling through pathes that i can think of.

I cant say ive ever had to use customer support yet but if you go to zooms website its quite easy to download manuals and other info.Ill give it a five for now.

Like I said before I play alot of metal like slayer,metallica, megadeth,etc and alot of rock pink floyd,black sabbath,etc and the zoom505 is a good match for a lot of diferent styles.Im also in the process of buying a second one for my bass setup wich consists of a (Ibanez soundgear bass)a (Boss v-wah)and a(Fender rumbble 25 watt amp)and at the moment a(zoom506 2 bass efects pedal).The 506 2 has a lot in the way of clean tones but not so much in the distortion department.Im a big fan of Jason newsted and his style of playing wich involvse a lot of cutting distortion through a wah pedal,useing the zoom 505 i already have and my v-wah i can easly pull of anesthesia-pulling teeth,For whom the bell tolls,etc.If this pedal was ever lost,stolen or broken I would definetly buy another,its just worth it.its especialy good for your musician on a budget,you get almost $1,000 worth of pedals and stompboxes for around $50 brand new.It may not be the best multieffects pedal in the world but it works for me.

The ease of use is a bit finicky. Its not as easy to use as my Behringer X V-Amp (and that is hard to get used to when it comes to effects) because of what you have to go through to edit something. Once you get the hang of things, its not bad at all. As any new piece of multi fx gear, it requires you to learn a bit.

The distortion sounds kinda harsh but Im talking digital harsh, not over trebled harsh. Mind you Im talking about the loads of gain settings. Others sounds really nice. One setting on here really livens up the tone and I really like that. Doesn't distort or add much in the way of effects, it just makes a clean guitar even nicer.

I've had it for a few hours and I gotta say, no issues with it so far. Patch switching is easy, big pedals on either side so you dont end up hitting the wrong thing. Also the switching doesn't take that long at all. Not that I would ever use it live because its just something to have fun with. I still run with a Behringer X V-Amp and Im going to pair the two together to see what odd sounds I can get.

I gave it a 6 for customer support (as seen right there). They had the manual online for anyone who happend to buy an old one. I have no complaints or problems to call them up about but if anything happend, Im sure Id open it up and mess around with it like the weird fellow I am. I did trade a ten dollar digeredoo for it anyway.

Could use more features like better floor board support and not just a single pedal switch or expression. It gets different sounds and different sounds have different uses. Overall, its pretty damn fun. If it was stolen, Id beat whoever stole it then steal a piece of his gear as a lesson(of course Id get my 505 back first). As listed, you saw I have the X V-Amp. I play metal and this thing is fine for lots of things other than metal. I love to experiment and thats what this lets me do.

Overall, the reason I got it, I had a digeredoo that I bought for 10 bucks and couldnt play and was offered as a trade for this. Id say I made the right choice.

I got this pedal for about 6 years, it's very easy to use, just u have to read the roadtrip map ( manual ), it's not hard at all, but sometimes you dont know whats is this efect for??? but c'mon if you are looking for a cheap multieffect pedal and its going to be your 1st one, give it a try it wont let you down.

Well, i must be honest as it was my 1st guitar toy, i was amazed of the number of effects that you can make, good solo patches, good acoustics sound, with reverb, delay, flanger...Its true what some people say about high gain distortion, the noisy little buzzzzzzzzzz that the amps spits when you are not playing, that noise....well its not a big deal considering how cheap is this little black machine. Now i got more experience and i realized that now its a toy..not a multi effect processor pedal, why?? cos im playing "muse" and i tried a millions time trying to "clone" matt's effects, with a few y got lucky, but i still can't reach that quality of sound and a 100% match. The 505 still can give a good fight against the new breed of pedals, specially when playing blues, and classic rock!!!

I got mine for about 9 years, still working fine. You just have to treat it good...like any electrical device.

Never tried to contact them, no problems at all

Well...i said that the 505 is great for begginers, and still can be used for more advanced guitar players...Its cheap, it's reliable, a lot of effects to combine, with some practise you can make amazing effects. If its used with the expresion pedal, you can squeeze a little more of it!!!

It was confusing since I found it at a Sam Ash (the same one that repaired my Squier Strat I use with this) w/o manual, but a quick search on Google found the manual. -1 point for being confusing to use w/o manual (Normally I don't need manuals)

I'm using the Squier SE-100 Strat Pack (Squier Affinity Strat and SP-10 amp-rather crummy) and it brings the amp to life! The distortions are good, and the chorus and reverb are what I bought this for. There is an "amp simulator" (don't know what that does) as a bonus. What made me give this a 10 is how it sounded thru cheapo old computer speakers (surprisingly clear).

Considering it's used, and it looks like it's pretty old, it went thru a lot. The buttons seem to stick, though.

This is a good intro to effects for me, a kid who saved up for a simple effect by starving himself to get the money (I also saved for my Squier SE-100 pack that way) It's a good intro to effects for any beginner, for that matter. It also makes a good recording aid. Needless to say I ended my hunger (bad joke) for an effect with this (I didn't need any more money, so I started getting snacks at school again-I didn't eat it!)

This unit was the first of it's kind. The first floor unit with multi-effects. Editing is easy once you play with it a while. One can get the sound they're looking for if you just take your time with it. Sure other units are more user frendly now, but when this unit was designed, it was unique as it had dozens of pedel effects in one box. So use the manual (yes, I agree, it does look like a road map) but it is helpful. Also go to Zoom Cental on the net. There are hundreds of patches others have worked out that you can use. Beware: some are the extreme and just sound like a B-52 bomber on a takeoff roll, but there are some nice patches in that site. Use your own judgement.

Ok, my setup: I play Les Pauls, Strats, and a couple of my own design and making. (I build guitars and amps for fun and profit). Currently I have left the road and no longer gig. So I got rid of all those monster amps and huge wattage units. Now I either run through an 1979 Peavey Backstage 30 that I rebuilt, or through one of my amps that I have made. Either way the wattage never goes beyond 50 watts.
Is it noisy? Sure, anything can hum or sound crummy if you crank it up high enough.
Can I get the sound of my favorite artist? Yes, I can clone any Clapton sound I want. Get the agressive thump of Ted Nugent, Of course. The tone of B.B. King is in there too. Again, you just have to work with it a bit.
Are certain effects good or bad? Well yeah, the higher levels of distortion are pretty poor, but then again I don't go for the "Let's see how loud and offensive we can get" school of thought. All effects are set in a progressive manner where you can pump it up to the point that they sound like junk. Here again, going for the extreme will get you just that. The extreme, but no real tone.
I've read in other reviews that this unit sounds like crap and such. Well think about this...just how many ways are you going to dial in a bunch of distortion? I mean do you really NEED 30 patches of distortion? You're going to forget which one you put where soon and then go on a "patch to patch search" for them. Some folks have said that there's a lag between patches when you shift from one to another. Micro seconds guys. Big woop! My advice is that you set up four really good patches all in the same bank. Then press the EDIT button for a second or two and then simply use that bank for your stuff that you always play. Then you don't have to go jumping around all over the 24 patches in this thing and get lost. So simple.....READ THE MANUAL!!
Over all there are some nice sounds in this box. Some cannot be had simply by design of the effects within. The delay is cool but limited in some respect. The waw waw is generic of course, but functional enough to use. Using the distortion, I mean the one that shows up on the unit as "dt" or Lead "Ld" are great. Others are fair to poor. Reverb is wonderful! It can go from plate to dripping like an old Fender unit.

Reliability. Can you depend on it? Now if you stomp on this enough and really treat it like a "red headed stepchild" as they say here in Texas, you're gonna break it. The case is molded plastic. It can take only so much. Now I've repaired some pedels that were encased in metal that had the switch smashed by some heavy footed folks that just jumped up and down on them and snapping off the knobs in the process. Anything can break if you beat the hell out of it! Treat it like an eletronic instrument that it is and it'll last a long time. Kick it around, jump on it, and generally trash it, and it will break. "Nuff said.
Would I use it on a gig without a backup? Yes, and I have. I've even gone as far as plugging it into the sound board with the band I was with and used the expression pedel for my volume. No amp, just the Zoom 505 for my playing rig with a couple of extra batteries for back up. No amp to lug around. Now how's that for putting all you eggs in one basket? But then again, I don't kick my home stereo or stomp on my CD player either! The 505 has never let me down.

I'm sure that the folks at Zoom are real nice, but I've never had to call them. Never needed repairs.

What style of music I play? Well I'm a bluseman by heart, but I also play classic rock, fusion, jazz, and some metal if it has a decent melody behind it. How long I've been playing? Well let's just say that when I started playing guitar there was no such thing as solid state and tubes were the only thing in our amps. A few decades have passed that I remember. Other gear that I own? No other pedels anymore. The Rats, TS-9's, and Boss effects were either given away, borrowed and never returned, or sold or traded off. All that's left is the Zoom 505 and an expression pedel. I've had this one since I bought it new in the guitar shop that I worked in years ago. If it were stolen? I'd get me another one. I got used to it. Now the guy that steals it will need good insurance as the hospital will ask for it when he's wheeled into E.R., if you get my drift..
I like this unit. It's simple. to the point. Not too many doo-dads to get in the way. In short, IF you know how to tweak it and use it right it will get the job done. If you don't take the time to learn it, you will say its a piece of crap or a piece of shit like some other reviews I've seen here. Bottom line: to each his own.
Anything else I'd like to share? Sure, folks this was a first in its field. No one before made a stompbox with dozens of effects in a floor unit before this. Of course its "outdated" now and is looked upon as a dinosaur these days, but like so many other things I've seen, this little guy will be around a long time and will teach many a young guitar player the joys of effects without having to break his parent's bank account in the process! Use it for what it was intended for. An low cost multi-effects unit that you can have to make your own signature sound or that of others. A great value? You bet!

24 pre set patches which can all be tweaked and stored as new patches.

The editing function is simple enough but limited and can sometimes be frustrating.

If you want you can plug and go with this unit but most of the pre sets are on the "over the top" side to showcase what it can do...not what it should do.

User manual is simple and informative.

Simple large bright easy to read display.

I play Blues....Blues/rock mostly and prefer simple tones. I collect guitars so have a good cross section of fixed neck/bolt on neck humbucking...single coil...hot rail...P90...active/passive...etc.

Main amps are an early Vox V15 2x10 valve combo and an original 1969 Sound City mark 3 custom 100 watt Valve head with matching 4X12 cab with celestion G12 speakers.

As mentioned in other reviews noise can be an issue but I have edited the pre sets and removed most of the unwanted effects leaving patches concisting of simple chorus only...patches with only an E.Q. setting and a hint of hall reverb...mild blues drive with a little delay or reverb...etc. To be honest I dont use a lot of effects so this takes the place of 2 or 3 simple stomp boxes without the hassle of patch leads and the bonus of pre sets. When the 505 is used in this way and the output level set accordingly noise is no longer a problem.

The Thrash type distortion sounds a bit processed and unconvincing but usable...if you like that kind of thing. The Milder gain/distortion types are very good if used in moderation

Reverbs and delays are very good...Chorus is all I will ever need...not into other modulating effects like phase/flange E.Q. is ok but limited.

There is a lag between changing patches but this is nothing major and not as bad as other units

Plastic construction but quite robust...

Never had any reliability issues with it...plug it in ...it works, with either battery or power supply...no crackles from plug sockets.

I would use it for a gig but would want protection for it...to stop input/output jacks getting stood on and broken by enthusiastic singers....god bless em... I would never play without back up

never had any need to contact them regarding any problem with the unit.

Manual went missing some time ago but I got full downloaded manual off their web site no problem.

As an all singing...All dancing box of tricks its well over the hill but as a simple, light easy to use tool to add a little colour and variation to your tone it is very good indeed.

I play for my own enjoyment, and the enjoyment of the neighbours, but I would be prepared to use this in a live situation, probobly with some kind of protection for it though. I use other effects units but keep comming back to this little lad because of the simple honesty of the sound....just makes a great blues sound.

If it was lost/damaged/stolen I would get another asap....E-bay is full of them

You need to read the manual to fully exploit the capabilities of this pedal.

CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! I regret buying this piece of junk.

One of the switches broke after a while. They suck batteries fast. It's made of plastic. Like I said, CRAP!

Haven't dealt with them.

This is my first and last digital processor. I bought it when I was starting out and I didn't listen to my so called "elders" when they said ; "Go analog, buy one pedal at a time, then get a good amp....." But I was young at the time and I said I wanted a piece of gear that had "all of it" in it as I could save more funds. As the saying goes, "When you are young, you are foolish", oh well, I learned my lesson.

I play blues, rock and technical music (I don't want to call it shred). Now, my gear consists of an Ibanez JS900, Marshall AVT50, some Boss Pedals, Dunlop 535Q Wah, Tech21 Sansamp GT2 (I use this when I don't bring my amp) and an Ibanez TS-9. Surely, the 505 can't beat that. Actually, I don't use much of my pedals anymore, except for the 535Q. I just use the dirty channel of my amp and manipulate my guitar's volume knob for the tones I need. When it's time for solos, I use a Boss FV300L through the effects loop. I also have a review of the JS900, check it out.

I've been playing for a couple of years now. So to all of you younglings out there starting out, take my advice: GO ANALOG

You'd be able to save more in the long run.

Yeah this thing is fairly easy to rip into and get started straight away. No worries here.

I find it funny that people are rubbishing the sound quality of this thing!! And complaining about their sound they get at gigs! Lets get it straight, this is not designed to be top of the line equipment, prob not even for gigging (any decent guitarist wouldnt gig with this anyway) I think its best suited to a young beginner guitarist wanting to explore the wonderful world of effects.

And for that purpose and that purpose only, its great! It was my very first taste of effects and I learnt a lot from it. BAck then I thought it sounded great. Yeah!

All good, no worries.

Again I must state that this pedal was not designed for gigging or for recordings etc. I think it is a great first pedal for a young / beginner guitarist wanting to explore the world of effects. i think for this purpose it is a great.

This unit is easy to adjust and there are many free patches available that are much better than the stock settings.

Editing patches is very easy and quick to save.

The manual is very easy to read.

I am using this with a Peavey Bandit 112S and a small Fender amp.

The 505 is far from quiet, but the effects are not to noisy if they are used at low levels. The unit is much better if your amp has an effects loop wher you can plug in a rocktron noise reducer or a Boss.

I was able to get Nirvana, AC/Dc and several other rock tones, I was also able to get some decent blues tones.

I have not had any probles wiht the unit it is sturdy for pastic. I would never gig without a backup (they are cheap so it would be easy to have a backup).

I have never had to contact them.

Overall it is a decent unit and a great value for a good used price. The unit does not compare to a line6 of Boss, but lets be honest it cost much less so lets not compare apples to oranges.

I have been playing for over 15 years and I have used many products so I have a pretty good judgement on products.

If I lost it I would get it again if I could snag one for $20 or less.

The 505 is about as simple as it gets when it comes to multi-effects. I find that the patches are pretty easy to edit, although the tiny buttons on the sides of the unit that adjust the parameters can be hard to mash down, and they tend to stick, causing it to cycle through the intensity rate(drives me nuts!). As far as the manual goes, I bought this when it first came out(95-96) so the thing has long been lost.

I have a Gibson Les Paul Studio, and a Peavey 15-watt transtube practice amp. I sometimes also use this with a mini-marshall half-stack(belt-clip amp). This pedal, as the other reviews have pointed out, is strictly for bedroom practice sessions. Most times I just plug in the headphones, and this is where the 505 sounds best. The amp simulator is good for this application, as it gives you some tightness and heft. The only truly useful distortion settings are the distortion and blues. I never use the acoustic simulator. Metal is the worst. I find the compression to be pretty useful, along with the hall reverb, and setting the chorus to 2 or 3 adds some nice flavor. the octave effects are particularly nice, you can play bombtrack by RAGE and it sounds totally convincing. I would srongly recommend getting a graphic e.q. to put behind this, it will improve the sound tenfold.
The pedal is particularly noisy, and after years of use, it's starting to sound as though it's filtering through a box fan(think Chris Farley doing the Darth vader impression). And keep in mind that all the parameters are fixed. Versatility is not the 505's forte.

The pedal is dependable, but you would have to be suicidal to take this on a gig. There is a lag between patches, which pretty much makes it useless for switching patches in the middle of a song.

I've never had to deal with Zoom, so I couldn't say.

I go from punk to blues to metal to jazz, and this is a good match for all of those. For the money. I've been playing for 8-10 years, and had this pedal for as long as I can remember. I would say it is a top-notch beginners pedal, if you are in the 8th or 9th grade this is perfect. Overall this pedal is less digital-sounding than a Digitech pedal. As much as this pedal has frustrated me over the years with it's limited number of sounds, I still use the little bastard on a weekly basis. I would say 80% of the time I've used simply as a distortion pedal. I wish it came with a built-in expression pedal, but the newer Zooms on the market have this feature, so they obviously figured this out. I have used the 606, and it is a better pedal.

I got this as a gift knowing zero about using it, and had no problems. When I got this, of course, it was a long time ago and I was a lot younger -- honestly, I found ways to use it at the time because it's all I had and I didn't know any better. Is it easy to use? Yes. But now after years of using better FX tools, most any of which are both more advanced AND easier to set and get to work, this 505 ZOOM is pretty clumsy and toy-like in comparison.

My biggest complaint is that the parameters can be very interactive, so if you care about fine tuning it, then you will have to adjust, scroll, tap, tap, scroll, tweak, tap, tap, scroll, tap, tweak and then start over at the top because everything's related, etc etc...

So it's hardly ideal, but still easy, just not recommended for obsessives, or the impatient.

Yep it's certainly can get hissy! Honestly, you can get some nice tones out of this thing, but like I said it takes a bit of tweaking, mostly turning down or off a lot of the presets. Compression, EQ, Distortion, "AMP" and Reverb... all these things, added to each other, can get noisy (even with other company's products), so you're best knocking everything down to zero and reading the manual at least once carefully (for example, I misunderstood the EQ part at first which made it sound awful).

Anyway, the payoff of this pedal is that it packs a good bit of effects into a little package, so you get a a sort of swiss army noise-maker without a lot of investment, money nor time.

Pretty digital too, but a creative user will find plenty of to explore.

Amazingly, still with me after 7 (?) years I think.

Seems cheap, but mine has lasted a lot of wear and tear.

I wouldn't "depend on it" but I don't "depend" on any effect.

Plastic but still kicking.

Nah never wrote/called.

I love experimenting. I care about tone, a lot, but I'm no $4000 10-watt boutique amp obsessive that only plays Fulltone clones. As variety is the spice of life, this pedal remains a great thing to have around.

The don't make these anymore, but they make very similar things. I guess if they ever make a newer version of substantial difference, I'd probably get one. Although the old school digital flavor has probably been improved on, whether that's good or bad depends on you.

Not great, but cheap and fun.

No processor is without the hassle of menuing or scrolling. Even the digital Boss stuff you have to move their pots back to zero and then, back up to where you want that particular parameter at but, the ZOOM 505 is pretty damn easy to manuipulate. Even somewhat on the fly. Yes there are effects on it that absolutely suck and those in which you will never use but, believe it or not, there are some killer sounds in that grey box. I mean considering what we paid for it there is some bang for the buck. The road map style manual is shit. I think you have to move up to a different model to upgrade it. I don't care what others say about it, I like it. It does work for me in ceratin situations. Is it as great as a ToneBone or a Hot Cake? No way.

OK, MY trick to using this box is like this. Guitar> Zoom 505 > split the output. One leg to tuner to keep the tuner from degrading your tone. The other leg to a MXR Micro Amp > DOD FX40 EQ > Electro Harmonix LPB 2UBE tube preamp > Tech 21 Power Engine 60 amp. You will not believe how that E.H. box warms up cold digital signals. It alone is the key to getting a nice tubey sound out of the 505 or any other device you have that is cold, hard or impersonal. If your a high gainer or a metal head I would definately suggest linking it into a Boss NS-2 noise suppressor using the effects loop provided on that pedal. On the Zoom 505, the EQ's are preset in stages. Some of them sound the same. Some sound muddy. Therefore it is necessary to use a separate EQ as I have outlined with this pedal. The MXR micro amp is
ALWAY a pleasent user friendly boosting device in any setup. I can get nice crunches on the Blues drive even around gain levels 5 to 8. I can get a nice 12 string sound setting the Chorus on 3 with a Hall Reverb at 2. (Watch out Roger McGuinn). There is even a convincing auto wah in there that I can do Frampton's talk box lead on in "Show Me The Way". What I don't like about it is that you can't have delay and reverb on the same patch. It's one or the other.

Has never ever failed me. Mine is old faithful.

Never needed them. I don't know. I think they just recently replaced it with something called a G2. I doubt you could get one fixed. They are probably throw-aways like cheap Samsung and Sanyo stuff. You can get Zoom 505's for a song on www.ebay.com.

I play classic rock. In tight club setups I can use this device as outlined above by splitting the Electro Harmonix preamp pedal output. Sending one leg to the PA mixing board, the other to a small Fender 1270P monitor on a raised stand (so I can hear what I'm doing). I control my volume, the sound guy controls my front of hall volume. I don't need an amplifier. There is an amplifier simulator in the 505.
I have too much stuff to list. The one who dies with the most toys better leave a freakin' will.

Anything digital is easy to use for me, but I believe noone should have any problem using it.

I use Fender Frontman 15g amp. Sound quality is very personal category, so I will not rate it. You can create so many differrent sounds with this device, so I believe there is something for everyone. Maybe it sounds a little bit too "computerized" sometimes, but I personally like that kind of sound.

I have it for almost a year now, (on power-adapter, not batteries), and did not have single problem. I play guitar several times per week, and every time I go through many sounds on Zoom.
Frankly, the only problem was when I pulled the connector out with my leg and Zoom lost power :-)

Did not need it.

I play mainly rock/blues/metal. I sure would look to buy it again. Sometimes sequencial switch from sound "A1" to sound let's say "C3" can take several seconds (A1 -> A2 -> A3 -> A4 -> B1 -> etc :-), but with additional pedal you can quickly switch banks (A -> B -> C, ...).

Incredibly easy to use.
Was the very first processor of it's kind.

Manual was great but of this giant unfolding map style format that sucked.

Digital chips degrade.
I've heard it claimed that they don't, they just die at once but I notice a drastic difference in performance with mine from when I first got it and also in comparison to newer ones.
It sounds awful!!

When I first got it though, it was great. There is no doubt in my mind the quality degraded because I returned a high end, real tube gain, amp simulating rack mount digital processor with every goodie imagineable which was replaced by this unit and ultimately a simple zoom rack mount processor add on.

After about 3-4 years, there was a very noticeable loss of quality. It got next to no use after that. After getting back into playing and having my head repaired, I decided to try use it again. Man the quality had degraded even more. I used it for like 6 months and the sound literally got oozier week by week until I scrapped it.

It is a silicon chip that gets subjected to heat. Funny that the sound actually became oozy from the silicon gelling up and deteriorating from the heat.

Anyway, no reason to buy one cept if you collect old useless crap, lol.
I'm dumbfounded how much they sell for on Ebay.

VERY RELIABLE

It's 10 years old and still works fine!

eh, dunno

Awesome processor for it's time. It started the revolution. Within a couple months companies like Art and Digitech released these massive floor processors that looked absolutely amazing and sounded a lot better than this thing.
....Something about the 18 bit processors of that time. I think they had the overbearing midrange issue of digital balanced out. Something most companies are failing to do these days with their improved 24 bit processing.

This thing did start it all though and with a good muscley amp it took care of business.

ZOOM is still making the best floor units on the market. Soon I'll grab the Zoom G2 which is everything I've been waiting for from them for the last year or two.

My final opinion.
Great processor in it's day but now a total dinosaur. Put it to rest in your music memorabelia room or something.

Very easy to use if you are not going to treak individual effect modules.
Jumping here and there definitely needs the special technique from the manual. Are you interested to step 12 times to go from A1 to C2?

Frankly the sounds are not bad to me at all for the price I paid. The distortion is very "solid state" but acceptable.
The chorus and flanger and delay levels etc are quantized, so you will not be satisfied if you are too interested in turning knobs for 2.5 degree for a tiny trewking.
The acoustic simulator preset could hardly be said as good, but sounds alike actually.
The floor noisy on high distortion is the only concern while bringing it on stage.

Many many users critize the plastic shell of the 505. But does it really matter if it gives you everything you need to protect the stuff inside?
As mentioned before it's good enough for practicing and small studio, but not reliable enough for gigging because of the noise level.
Backup is nothing to me as I seldom do the customized set up.

Their website keep everything you need for years just for this old cheap model. Who could ask for more?
Never called CS or asked for repair. Hard to comment on this.

I play mainly pop rock and blues. As a man just playing for hobby, I believe this small and low-price toy is good and funny enough to keep me entertained for years.
The Synth-like sounds are not useful at all, but funny and inspiring enough for me to come up with some new ideas in making music.

I bought this effect unit 7 years ago, still very unexperienced with effects and that kind of stuff.
Still after reading the manual and trying out a few things I got on very well with the 505 so it can't be very difficult to use.
From the point of view I'm having now, being used to much more complex machines, I can only say that the 505 is VERY EASY TO USE.

I've used my 505 with various guitars, mostly with an Ibanez Ergodyne.
Sometimes I used it with a small Marshall Valvestate Combo (V30R) but most of the time I didn't use an amp at all, plugging it directly into a recorder for recording, using the phones out or even plugging it into the aux in of my stereo.
The clean sounds are okay, even quite good if you consider the price of this little thing. Chorus, flanger etc. are okay and with the pitch shifter and harmonizer effects (and an expression pedal connected) you can do some pretty cool stuff that sounds quite good.
However, the distortion sounds are aweful!
You'd rather not use the 505 for high-gain sounds.
It's okay for playing around a bit, but the distorted sounds never worked with any setup I tried.
But as long as you keep it clean, the 505 doesn't sound that bad, although, compared to what I'm used to nowadays, this isn't much more than a toy.
But I got to say that I'm still using this 'toy' from time to time and I'm still having fun with it.

For years I didn't have any problems.
After 4-5 years there was something wrong with the power supply via battery.
But I think the reliability of this thing is really okay.

The Zoom 505 is a nice little and very affordable toy.
I you have never used multi-effect units and want to start slowly or if you just want to play around with a few weird sounds or so you should try the 505.
If you're looking for something to use seriously or if you're looking for a good distortion sound this isn't the right thing for you.