Zoom 505

This wonder was the easiest to use of ANY multi effects unit I have used in 25 years of guitar playing

Man, its sweet, the stock effects were OK, but, then I went ONLINE to ZOOM 505 CENTRAL...it changed my life, seriously. I have been playing for 25 years and this thing cranked all the sounds I ever wanted to play. From 12 String acoustics to heavy, heavy , heavy metal, man, this unit did it all, and sounded AWESOME!

I have used it in HEAVY jams as well as bar gigs, stands up well, but, requires a certain technique, which I HAVE MASTERED!
Surprisingly durable and a sweet simplistic alternative to a stomp box etc!

Dunno

This unit changed my guitar playing life, since I have bought one, all my guitar playing friends have bought one. The ZOOM 505 CENTRAL website is what iced the cake, a massive amount of pre-sets, some of professional quality for sure!!
GO SEE http://www.safaricomputers.com/505/

This unit is a breeze to program.

Let's keep in mind that this is an entry-level device. I play out regularly with my band, and use 2-combo amps, a pro pedalbaard with about $1,000 worth of boutique + vintage effects. I use Les Pauls, and a Telecaster. I use the 505 for headphone practicing, jamming with friends, and Through my Pignose 30 watt Hog rechargable amp outdoors (nothing like ripping leads out in the desert!). This unit is exceptional for wanking around like that, it is not a professional studio-quality, roadworthy pedal. I have hovever banged this unit around for a few years, and it works perfect, and it's easy on batteries. As far as sounds for the price, this unit cannot be beat, its a great little effects ubit for short dough. it has a great fuzz distortion; the modulation effects are great also. My rating is based on the fun-factor, this baby can't be beat for the money.

No problems for 3 years, take care of your equipment, and it usually takes care of you.

Never needed it.

As I said, for the cash, it's awesome, many cool Zoom sounds, some wacky stuff, and some great lead sounds. It also works great for home demos in a fix. Very small, low battery consumption (also runs off standard Boss 9V adapter), and it's a vrey fun unit, I use mine all the time for bedroom playing. Not a pro unit, but the cool Zoom vibe can be had cheap.

I have had this piece of kit for nearly 10 years.
Dead simple to use.

OK - you have to bear in mind the price.
It is OK but you do get a lot of hiss with some of the more "trebbley" distortion settings. The trick is to keep the levels low when you are programming it - dont go over 15.

Still going strong after 10 years.
Use it for gigging & home recording

As it is still going strong, have never used customer support, but good website.
pdf manual available from http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/505.pdf
even though discontinued!!

Look, for #99 to get 10 years + good use is bloody fantastic.
Not the most sophisticated unit but great for basic effects.

easy to use. Editing patches is so easy.No need for manual.

i only use this with headphones, i only got the zoom 505 for 1 week (bought it 2nd hand). yeah, its noisy on some settings, especially with higher dist level. they're not really weak. use it with my marshall micro amp (sounds great!!!!),i dont know if this will sound good on bigger amp. You can get some of ur favorite artists (pantera, metallica), though i cant really get the sounds of some of my fave artists like richie kotzen..etc...(can anyone help me get RK's patch?). Distortion - too heavy, and when setting to lower gain it sounds fake/lame, other effects no problem...i dont use the wah here since i have a crybaby ...

i havent gig with it, since i only had this for 1 week,but hopefully soon. i dont have back up since this is my only guitar fx..This thing eats battery... better use an AC adaptor, i only have a boss adaptor 9V, 200 mA, but it works, im just worried that it might soon break the circuit in my pedal(hopefully not!!!). i've read that someone here uses the same brand of adaptor ( i just dont know if its 200 mA too..???)HEY U, BRO!!! IN CASE UR READING THIS, HOW LONG HAVE U BEEN USING YOUR BOSS ADAPTOR IN YOUR ZOOM? IS IT 200 mA TOO? DOES YOUR ZOOM STILL WORKING?

bought this thing second hand!!!!

i play blues, rock, ive been playing guitar for 9 yrs. i own a crybaby wah and marshall ms-2 (poor me!!) if it stolen or lost, i think ill buy single fx like boss.. i think the tuner here is pretty fine.. can get close. i hate about this is the noise when setting to higher level. I bought this one coz it cheap, its the only one i can afford, and with lots of effects, its a good choice!!!

Easy to get a good sound out of? -- Not likely....sound quality is lacking, but for rehearsal gear it is decent. Editing patches and saving them is a breeze, manual is quite good.

The sound quality is definitelu lacking. I can say that it has some useful chorus tones and compressor, reverb and delay patches but on the overall it sounds as cheap and plasticky as it looks.
The distortion settings are noisy and the noise gate not always catches much of it.
The really stupid thing is that the two decent effects (delay and reverb) are actually on the same effect patch so you cna use only one.
All I cna say is that if you want to jam on headphones in the night this thing is not bad but you won't be doing any serious jamming with it onstage or at rehearsal. WIth an amp it sounds better, with a tube amp it almost works...

For the first few years of use I could depend on it, after more extensive use the left button started to stick and became almost impossible to switch with. I tried to clean it by opening it up and almost laughed at the little amount of parts it has!
Since live switching with no lag can be done only by pressing the two pedals together (and one of mine sticks) I'd say it is not reliable at all, but will give it about 3 for its first 3 years of use.

Customer support is horrible. When the button started to stick I wanted to see if they'd be interested at looking into fixing it for me -- no response. After a second though I am glad they didn't cause now I have a realguitar rig.

I play metal. This pedal is not a bad at home excercise effect when you don't feel like blasting the real amp. It is cheap and almost disposable and at what I see them going second hand it might be worth owning so you can run reverbs for singing like I do with it sometimes.
There are also a few interesting computerized effects in it that might be of some value, the chorus and compressors are decent if ran thru an amp.

i think I paid 59.00 for this thing a couple of years back. the AC adapter was another 20.00. I had it hooked up to a small practice amp in my room. I took a hiatus from playing electric guitar for a couple of years and then got back in to it. so I started cheap..best bang for the buck. Editing patches is confusing at first but becomes second nature. the manual is basic but works. Doesnt tell you what the amp simulations are. firmware? no nothing about it. With some editing you can get a good sound out of it.

Edit the patches and you can get good tones. The thing that sux is that when you switch between patches, say heavy patch to clean, there is a moment of silence between the two. very annoying and low budget sounding. The pedal is great for what it goes for, but the sounds are very processed sounding. This is a great pedal for home practice or relaxed playing with the boys, I still use it for that. However I don't recommend it for gigs. You can get away with the sound quality, but the silence between patches kills me. plus I get a lot of feedback and a rediculous amount of hum when I use any of the heavier patches at high volume i.e. jamming at the studio.

depend onit? on a couple of different occasions I got a small amount of debri by the edit button and it stuck in place, rendering it unusable. i managed to get it free but i would hate for that to happen at a gig. also, the left/right pedals are too close together, all too often I go to hit one and accidentally hit the other, or hit both and turn it off. Playing barefoot may help...

dunno.

good for various styles...great for at home practicing...small amp or run headphones in to it. For anything else I suggest spending the money and buying a higher quality unit.

Sure its easy to use but it sounds like crap when your using it if you are thinking about buying this don't it is easy to use but sucks.

I'll give it a 9 for easy to use beacause of how easy it is but it sounds like crap.

My setup is a Gibson Les Paul through many boss pedals through the zoom pedal and then into a marshall half stack. The only reason i have this pedal is because someone gave it to me for christmas. IT REALLY SOUNDS BAD. i dont use it any more and i'm glad i dont. the effects are weak and the distortion just sucks.the distrotion well never sound good. The chorus is ok but thats it every thing sucks. when you try to make it sound like an acoustic it has way to much feed bad and a funny buzz

No. its flimsy and slides around on anything other than carpet. it ways about a half pound and wont stay in play every time i hit it im worried about breaking it. If i stomped it to hard it would break. i wouldn't use it for a gig but if i did i would deffintly have a backup.

dont even wanna try

I play almost anything and this pedal doesnt cover anything. I've been around long enough to know that this pedal stinks. I would not buy it again or buy it in the first place someone gave it to me. I HATE IT!!!! I wish it had tone and good sounding effects. I gets in the way. DONT BUY IT

It's super easy to use,and best of all you can go online and get about a thousand diff settings for it.
I didnt have or need a manual,but you can goto zoom website and they will send you a .pdf file of it.Never been upgraded not sure it you can upgrade it.

I use different setups all the time.
It is noisey on some of the patches.
The effects are totally changeable and they are strong.I use a peavey head with a crate stack.You can get the sound of almost any artist with this it just takes time and patience. the lead, accoustic, metal, Blues, there a few more in that category with those if you use them you get ,well at least I get static its low but its there and it drives me crazy

Its reliable ,,but whatever you do if you use the adapter make sure there is no battery in it,it caught my adapter on fire well it just melted it but I saw smoke

Never had to call but the web site rocks they are very helpfull

I play alot of diff styles. Nirvana, Metallica, G.N.R, Smashing pumpkins, and stuff like that and alot of older bands like Lynord Skynord and CCR and Bad Company.If it where stolen or lost I would just buy seperate pedals .only because I have alot of single pedals and they are easier to turn on a off ..instead of going thrue patches and then turning on .

The preset patches are crap so you will have to learn to edit them. Fortunately with the manual this is quite easy. The buttons at each side are fiddly, and having spent 5minutes cultivating a sound you like it is all too easy to lose it when you think it is saved.

Used with a fender strat and fender princeton II amp, I had no noise, but having used other (better quality) effects you realise how cheap this sounds.

After 6 months two of the buttons for editing and saving patches stuck(not the stomp pad buttons.) I managed to fix them but this should not happen in the first year. It has now bit the dust as I used a power adapter which was not made for this pedal, Correct power output, but it started to need a bit of a wiggle to power up, then in no time it stopped altogether. I believe that I look after my equipment well. I have owned all my other equipment for over 10 years, all gigged and in good condition.

Never needed them.

In no rush to buy another one.
If you want to play around with lots of effects without paying loads of money then these are worth a try.
If you want quality sounds, and long life out of your equipment avoid these cheap all-in-one's

It's very easy to use. You don't need to read the manual to edit patches. Maybe to understant features like 'bank hold' or 'direct load', and to understand the mnemonics appearing on the 2-digit display.

This unit was designed for beginners. And as such, do not expect killer sound from it. Like most units, factory presets sucks. I played this unit with a standard Fender Stratocaster and with a Tagima Zero (27 frets, 2 humbuckers).

WHAT'S BAD:
- The distortion tones are too heavy! If you set a low/mid gain, the distortions are lifeless. In high gain, they are too heavy and dirty. It's difficult to get good sound from them.

WHAT'S GOOD:
- Chorus! I like ZOOM's chorus. In fact, most modulation effects are ok. Delays and reverbs are limited, but they sound ok. It's easy to get a good clean sound from this unit. Even the wah is acceptable, considering that most multi-effect units have a TERRIBLE wah! Wah + distortion on this unit sucks. Clean wah is ok.
- ZNR (noise reduction). Works fine for me.

I'll give a 6 for this unit, because of bad distortion and lack of parameters to set EQ (see 'Overall Rating').

The plastic case may look fragile, but it's pretty strong. In 6 years, I never had any problems with this unit.

I contacted'em by e-mail, and they answered all my questions.

WHAT'S BAD:
- There are no parameters to each effect, only a "general level", example: on a compressor unit you may have 'threshold', 'attack' and 'level' controls. On 505, you only have C1 to C9 levels of compression.
- You cannot individualy set each band of the EQ. There are "presets" for equalization parameters. You have to try all of them until you find one that gets close to what you want. I think it's the WORST thing of this unit! :[

WHAT'S GOOD:
- Very low cost, for the bunch of effects you get.
- Great chorus.

It's a good unit to have at home to practice. For live and gig, only people that play VERY heavy music (doom, thrash) will like the distortion tones.

You can use it to colour your clean tones at a low price. Chorus is great, despite of the lack of parameters.

I recently sold mine to get a 9150 Valve DSP. As anyone would expect, the 9150 distortions and EQ are *WAY MUCH* better.

I'll give a 7, because of it's low price.

Pretty easy to use. Instructions were a bit more confusing than helpful when I first got it but I was new to programming. All in all it's really easy to use and within ten minutes I was doing fine having ignored the instructions and mainly used them for reference such as effects explanations/defenitions.

I've used this pedal with several amps. Older Yamaha with twin 12's, single 12 w/50 watts and most often with a Crate solid state head and half, now full stack. The compression is quite satisfying in my opinion. The more compression you use the more it compensates by rasing the input level. Auto wah is a great but the pedal wah is really disapointing. Don't use the limiter but it does what it should. The Distortions tend to suck BUT not with all amps. I use it with whatever distortion and the gain on 1. My amp heads gain takes on the voice of whatever gain I choose even the FUZZ. THEY SOUND AWSOME!!! Some amps when used as meant they sound digital and really like shit. My Yamaha and old Crate they sounded great on. Not digital at all. The modulation effects give you ZERO parameter control but don't sound digital at all on my main rig or any rig I've used them on for that matter. The Flanger is what mainly leaves me craving parameter controls but I guess the Phaser really does make up for that and when both used compenstates for it. The pedal pitch bend is decent but also quite lacking giving you bend down or dual octave bend which is really useless FOR ANYONE. The amp simulation and Zoom Noise Reduction are absolutely great. While the EQ could have been set up for specific bands it still does very well. It is a very unique simple parametric EQ basically. The Delay and reverbs are actually exceptional but again lack parameter controls. The room reverb is great as is the hall. The delay can give you a short echo, ping pong in stereo or on the 1 setting the EXACT delay sound Kirk Hammet used to use. My only MAJOR gripe is the output level. It's set at +4 db for going straight into a
P.A., mixing board exc. for recording. Most ppl are using it straight into an amp and when doing so it delivers an annoying amount of white noise. not enough to ruin your sound but enough to annoy you especially at higher volume levels. Pisses me off the noise reduction gives you perfectly clean sound but the output level is that of Pro Audio gear when it shouldn't be. It should be -10 db for going straight to an amp. This with a few other minor drawbacks earn it a seven.

Bought mine online but my friend at Sam Ash was shown how to sell them. THEY STOOD ON THEM! The guy I know infact jumped up and down on it while standing on it!!! Plastic but it's very solid. I have had mine for 7 years and stood on it the other day for the hell of it. WORKS FINE. Been chewed up in my car, crushed under furniture....you name it it's been through it! Spilled soda and a number of other beverages on it. It's very reliable and if absolutely was a must I'd gig without a backup but otherwise NO WAY WITH ANYTHING!

Never dealt with them till recently for a battery cover. Never got back to them cuz I'm sure they'd wnat 5 bux for one plus shipping which would be ridiculous.

Overall its a great pedal. The effects don't give you parameter control but there is enough of a variation that you can get the sound you need for basically any cover song. The distortion seems to perform differently with different rigs but typically sounds very shitty cuz it sounds digital. Sounds great though the way I found to use it as mentioned above. The white noise is just unacceptable so if I get the 505 2 as planned I better check it out in the store first. All in all it's a great pedal and will save you a FORTUNE in single pedals or even if you build analog pedals yourself as I am now getting into.
Beginner or Pro this unit still has a lot to offer you. Anyone who can't manage to get the sound they need from it is quite simply gear incompitant. But hey thats 70% of musicians/guitarists out there!

I got this off a friend a while back, while at first i thought it was shit,we found the manual somewhere and actually fucked with the thing and belive me if you fuck with it enough you will get the effect you want.

All i can say is...transtube...i think the only reason people don't like it is because there output is anything but. This thing was built for it. Some of the fake harmonics and that fucking bassy sound are tacky but its all about settings,most people don't even bother spending time with it

doesn't look like anyone has gigged it, but actually i couldn't find mydod, so i took this on stage and it did the trick....although that was only for 2 effects, it survived but i switched to a bass pedal at intermission and suprisingly did better 0_0

nope

all in all i think this is neat to either have fun with, play when your heavy trippin,or you lost your pedal, but i don't glorify it,the bitch gets a six...

Ease of use? Very easy but the continuous button pressing is extremely anoying! Everything is straightforward on it as it is designed for beginners. The manual was pretty good but mine came in japanese and chinese not english and i purchased it in Australia. Weird.

Remember dont expect much from this box as it is designed for beginers who dont really have a trained ear. It is pure crap. I currently own a Fender roc pro 700 with a tube preamp and have been using it with a jackson ps4 whcih i just sold and am purchasing an ibanez rg1570 instead. i also use a boss mt2 which sounds crap going through the zoom as it is weakened and muddied by it. It is extremely noisy on any setting and the noise reduction thing just decreases sustain and clarity. All the effects are weak and thin with no quality in them what so ever. The distortions sound fuzzy and like a computer distortion while the cleans are muddy, unclear and thin. you cant get the sound of any artist through this thing. one thing. i have to admit that there is one effect that sounds half descent. its a distortion patch with delay. thats all and even that is only good through a tube amp and quality guitar. But anyway who needs all this extra digital crappy effects. jsut by 2 or 3 analog stomp boxes. Clean, distortion and any other preffered effect. Trust me its worth it. Dont buy. not even for beginers as they will eventually hear the pure crapness of the pedal.

OK this is its only strong point. Its made in Japan,is solid and the plastic is quite sturdy aswell.

never dealt with em

For all those idiots who rate this thing good your nuts. dont get me wrong it may sound good to you but if youve got ears it sucks. just my oppinion. Do not buy.

This thing is easy to use - when you are knowing how it works.
It has many functions, but you have to read the complete manual
to use it. 24 patches.

I am using it with a Rickenbacker 330 (copy) Jim Harley and
an old Rickenbacker TR 7 (solid state) amp.
Most programms are not useful. Some are good, some are crap.
Sound is sweeping from good to really bad.

I would not play a gig with it.

N/A

I bought it 6 or 7 years ago because this thing was the only thing
with a compressor I could get. I wanted to play Beatles and Byrds,
but the result isn't good.
If it was stolen I would buy something else.
But it's good for beginners to see what effects are possible on a guitar.
I don't like the plastic on it, and the thing, that it hasn't got an
on/off switch.
Mainly I only use it to play with headphones (my amps headphones-jack
works only together with the speaker, so I can't play quite only with headphones)

its relatively easy to use. 6 buttons. just read the manual, or be like me and mess around with it

being a multi-effect pedal, i wouldnt expect spectacular quality from any of the effects but for some reason this pedal sounds sweet on tube amps (all i have owned are tube amps (silvertone, carvin, etc). even as my taste has matured and i have learned good from bad effects, the zoom 505 was my main pedal for years.

well, its been dropped, kicked, stuffed in bags without padding, and even pissed directly onto by my dog and it still works fine (it always picks the most expensive item on the floor to relieve itself on..) . not too shabby for a plastic pedal

never really contacted them, so no comment

i play zeppelin, floyd, pumpkins, weezer, hendrix, and whatever else i deem good music. i think the distortions are the best features this pedal has to offer (when programmed with the equalizers and compressors also on the pedal)

i got this pedal in the 6th grade, along with a vintage silvertone amp (before i was really serious), and it was an excellent way to learn about all the effects out there. ive played it through numerous les paul and strat style guitars, and its sounds great on all of them... but much better through a tube amp. i cant stress that enough.

although i wouldnt suggest a seasoned player should buy this pedal, its great for beginners.

You need to use the manual quickly, which is very small. Once you do the unit is very easy to use. It's gets stuck in certain modes sometimes which can be a pain.

I am using this with an old Fender "The Twin" amp. For the price you pay for one of these nowadays, I don't think you can complain about the sound too much. The high gain settings sound kinda crappy, but I find the setting with a small amount of overdrive sound suprisingly good. I have gotten some nice clean tones out of it. Overall, I was able to get useable tones, and a ton of them, from a unti that cost me $25 CDN used. So you can't really knock that.

It seems flimsy when you pick it up, but it can take a beating. It eats batteries as others have mentioned. I picked up an adaptor that works with it for $12 though so no biggy.

bought it used.

I play a mix of Surf, Punk, Rock and Roll and Hard Rock in my band. For $25 I got a unit that allows me to switch to a clean "slapback" tone for surf, and give me a fairly nice overdrive. It lets me set up identical settings, but with a different volume for each one which is great for leads. Again, for the price you can pick one of these up for used I can't really knock it.

Easy

The distortion is really fake but the other effects sound good

This is why i am really posting this review. I have had this thing since they came out. I used it for home practice so i didnt have to lug all my gear home every day after practice. THIS THING IS ONE TOUGH SOB!!! The batteries went dead so we rigged up this power suply that started to smoke and the 505 was acting funny. I threw it on the band room floor and thats where it sat for 2 years. Last week our bastment flooded and the 505 was under 2ft. of water and mud for 3 days. After i cleaned it i put some batteries in it and the f#$k'n thing still worked.

its tough, Effect are ok, good deal for the money

Digital stuffand it is really for beginners who want to have a little fun....Hard to get a good sound out of it, patches are easy to get on the net and apply, but..............
Ehhh......cycling thru the banks to get to where you are going is a joke!

Neat at first...But no useable sounds ....EXCEPT a slightly modded and gated F3!
I use that to play several songs from Gilmour's Live 1984 gig in Bethlehem PA and I can get some pretty close stuff with that setting!
The rest I would erase and make those patches "OFF"!
"9" for the modded F3
"1" for the rest!

Still ticking and I don't bring this out until the very end!
LOL..........

Fugggedaboutit!

Read the above and there you go!
A one trick pony in my book, but it's a pretty good trick!

I love my zoomette... I've used so many peoples different amps that don't come anywhere near the sounds i get. Editing patches is easy... I have a load set up next to each other for songs where i need to switch between them, and i find it easy.

Most of the distortions are a bit poo.. The one i use 95% of the time is the basic overdrive. It gives me a nice thick ampy sound with the drive on about 20 with my not-a-les-paul, and with the drive on 1 or 2 with some treble boost and reverb, i get a nice twang that;ll crunch up when i hit it hard...

I go straight into a PA, or mixer for recording. I think maybe it prefers that kind of amp to a guitar amp, judging by other peoples' reviews. Give it a power amp and some nice speakers to play with, and it will love you...

My clean sound is often mistaken for acoustic... Loads of reverb and a bit of chorus, and i'm a happy bunny.

Touch would, its been fine so far.

I got it half price when they brought out the 707. Bargain. I recently got an expression pedal and am having loads of new fun with the pedal wah. I get sounds from metallica to GnR, to my own sound out of it with no problem at all...

El pedal es facil de usar, basta con experimentar unos 20 minutos, hasta cogerle el tiro.
El manual es de gran ayuda (yo tuve que bajarlo del site oficial de zoom), como compre el pedal usado, me lo entregaron sin manual.
Estimo que cualquier persona puede aprender a usar este pedal.

Los sonidos no son malos, pero tanpoco son excelentes. Digamos que son fantasticos para el precio que pagas (actualmente he visto en internet que lo venden a $45 bucks). Me gustan las distorsiones, si las seteas bien, puedes conseguir un sonido decente. Yo la he usado con una guitarra baratilla "primer" y con un amp BEHRINGER vintage.
He conseguido "imitar" el sonido de ciertas bandas, tales como deftones, nirvana, greenday, y aunque el sonido no es el mismo, suena muy bien. Los efectos son buenos, con excepcion del wah, me parece muy debil, y carece del "feeling" de un pedal wah analogico.

Lo he utilizado en varios lugares (con diferente acustica), la verdad, si tuviera suficiente dinero, compraria efectos independientes montados en un rack, pero invertiria casi 6 veces lo que me costo la zoom 505. No me quejo del sonido conseguido en presentaciones en vivo.

El pedal funciona muy bien, no se que cuidados habra tenido su anterior due?o, pero sigue funcionando conmigo. Al parecer los materiales empleados en su fabricacion, son de excelente calidad.

Yo toco musica grunge-punk. Las distorsiones son buenas para este estilo, no me quejo. Llevo tocando unos 3 a?os, antes tenia un pedal independiente de distorsion, pero deje de usarlo cuando consegui la zoom 505, debe estar botado en algun lugar de mi habitacion. Si se me perdiera, o se me da?ara la zoom 505, probablemente compraria la 606 con pedal de expresion, me parece muy atractiva (ademas, como que ya es hora de cambiar a la vieja 505).

Relatively easy to use, deceptively hard to get the several great tones out of it...

I'm not going to scroll down and read the hundreds of reviews already posted, but I just want to mention that this is a great cheap effects unit for your home computer studio. Add some color, compression, reverb to your vocals. The EQ section shouldn't be underestimated. Although it isn't very flexible, you can find that the high/low cut and mid-boost EQing properties can drastically change the way your signal sounds. The same with the "amp simulator" section. If you have a noisey preamp, you can also use the ZNR noise reduction feature. Setting it too high will make the noisey signal funky, but keep it at a minimum and that hissing mic will be much cleaner (until of course you start singing or what not).

It's also a great effects processor for keyboards. Really. All those digital effects will sound right at home with artificial keyboard sounds.

This is a mediocre guitar effects processor at best, but a sleeper preamp multi-effect unit that will give you a lot of tools for your little home studio. I have this plugged into my sound card with a stereo 1/4" to 1/8" converter line. An ART Tube MP preamp is before it in the signal chain to boost mic levels. Otherwise it can be used as a DI preamp by itself for guitars and keyboards.

I've gigged with it lightly, but it rests on my desk top now. Like someone wrote below, the biggest design fault isn't the plastic case, as it's very sturdy, but the fact that the 1/4" plugs are directly on the circuit board.

Again, as a guitar effects processor, it get's a mediocre rating at best, but as a preamp stereo multi-effects unit (especially for vocals and keyboards and microphones) you might be pleasantly surprised. Doesn't add noise if you stay away from the distortion effects so that's another plus.

You can manage it even within 15 mins.
It's a cool thing for BEGINNER like me.

But there comes a little problem when you switch the effect during your play. You couldn't switch without a few steps on it.

I use a cheap Fernandes guitar with a practise amp.
It sound a little bit noisy when turned the volume low.
However, it turns out not think enough with the volume is high.
Anyway, its sound is quite good with such a low budget.

Although it's covered by plastic case, it seems it's hard enough to endure my legs!
Reliable when you've got power supply.

I play heavy music and it does a good job on it.
I used it for 2~3 years and it still functioning well.

If you have enough budget, I recommend you not to buy ZOOM 505.

NOTE: I bought one of these guys in early 1997, just after they came out (and were available in Australia). It was sold in early 1998 when I moved outta home and went to uni. That's like 5 years ago. Since then I've bought far better equipment and my ears are probably a billion times more subjective. This review is based on memory alone, so how accurate a review this is, I don't know. This is my 2 cents.

Very few buttons, 2 character LED display. Not immediately intuitive but with the 'manual' once you figure out what code means which it was a piece of piss. Programming in patches isn't hard but it isn't quickly achieved either. I just set up most of the patches to suit the usual collection of tones/effect combinations I used, and left a few for experimentation.

Only 2 footpedals (UP and DOWN, rather than the BANK/PATCH layout of the other x0x0 systems) is a little limiting too when playing live, you'll need to sequence your patches carefully (at least it was easy to move patches around).

Get's an 8. Pretty good.

'Twos 1996-7, and ZOOM, masters of the bang for buck, and just produced the 505, which delivered a shitload of bang for very few bucks. I, then a cash-starved high school student who played and talked guitar all day and dreamed it all night, couldn't resist.

Of course, they built it down to a price, not up to a standard, and the cost cutting is obvious. In terms of sound quality, the ZOOM 505 did very well considering how little it cost, but for discerning ears it probably would have been too much of a compromise.

Thankfully I didn't suffer any of that back then. All I played were metal covers with my college band 'Turgid Throb' (best band name ever, really) and the ZOOM delivered plenty of cool sounds. Any fidelity or subtlety would have been lost thanks to my Ranger Strat (eventually replaced with an Epiphone LP Special II) and Marshall 10W Valvestate. Not to mention our drummer and the ZOOM 506-equiped Bass player.

Someone here mentioned that the ZOOM sounds great through a bass amp. I'll second that. I'd run lineout from the Marshall into the second input of our bass players' amp and it sounded much thicker. He always whinged that it killed his bass tone but having my own little 'stack' did rock very much.

Of course, in the light of now the 505's effects and amp sounds aren't anything special. Far better units are available for not much more money. But at the time, when ZOOM's other units were several hundred bucks, let alone anything from Digitech, Korg or Boss, the 505 did bloody well.

Gets a 5 in 2003, but got a 7 in 1997.

Light plastic with a thin sheet metal base. Not so much of a stomp box but a gentle-prod-with-your-toe box. I only gigged it a few times, we did more practising than actual gigging back then, but the jams were furious and I never damaged the thing. Took pretty good care of it though... it was cheap but still took several months of delivering papers to buy, was my most prized possession (for a while anyway).

Gets a 6. Take care of it and it will do the same.

Dunno about ZOOM back then, these days they're ok.

I dealt with Pro Audio back then, they had the cheapest prices in Australia at the time. Unfortunately the 505 was in such strong demand back then that I was on back order for some 6 weeks until I got it. The guys at Pro Audio were extremely apologetic (it was ZOOM's fault for not allocating enough units to Australia), they were also very helpful in providing a 3rd party power adaptor and expression pedal too (the actual ZOOM unit was nearly the same cost as the 505 itself, I used a $30 volume pedal and it worked brilliantly).

My musical tastes are far more refined now, but back then I breathed ate and shat metal... Pantera, Marilyn Manson, Tool, etc. I've been playing since 1993 but still considered myself a rank amateur back then. The ZOOM 505 was a great little unit, and despite it's obvious shortcomings it was a barrel of fun for me. I couldn't afford a brace of BOSS pedals, nor one of the better multieffects units that cost over AU$1000 back then. The ZOOM allowed me to play around with what were at the time pretty decent sounding effects without having to shell out a small fortune. With the cheapo volume pedal attached as an expression pedal, I also had a nice wah wah pedal, though I would have even been more impressed if the pitch shifter worked like a whammy pedal and not like a second harmony (the 506 worked this way).

Say what you like about the 505 now, but back then music retailers couldn't get enough of the things... they were the hottest thing for a while, bar none.

Of course, that was back then and now things are much different. My crappy guitars have now been replaced with a lovely Tele, plus a Kramar 7 string and Yamaha acoustic. I can now afford separate pedals and use a JStation when recording into my DAW setup. I now know and appreciate good tube tones and quality effects. If I heard a 505 today I probably wouldn't be impressed.

To recommend one today isn't easy. The 505 is now a second generation unit which I'm told does sound better, but with so many different units from Korg and Digitech, not to mention things like the POD and JStation, which do so much more for so little money, it would be hard to recommend it new.

However, if you're a young muso with fook-all money, the 505 can be found on eBay for virtually nothing, and while its distortions and effects aren't fabulous, they're certainly enough for you to experiment with.

If this was 1997, it'd get a 10. But it is 2003, so it gets a 4. Isn't progress wonderful?

Very easy to use, i got it years ago when i was young and go into it right away!

This multi effector isn't generally noisy, although on some distortions it's stupid noisy but on those who cares man that's what you want! Some of the effects to be frank suck! however, if you want all plush effects then you're gonna have fork out a lot of money! This wee thing is the bee's knees for some stuff! The delay and hall reverb can be used in great combination, i mean a GREAT combination, when i learned how to use the e.q. on this thing i was blown away. Turn off all the effects on use the c9 at the start a mid range e.q. the hall reverb and delay and oh my word. maybe add in the rhythm effect and som distortion on the next patch up and you're off! So nice even for expensive effects!

Sound quality if used right is TEN! if used wrong like most of the lower range zooms is one

Hasn't shown ANY signs of breaking yet and i've had it for about five years and have been gigging for two of them!

Never had to use it! But all shops know all about them!

I play quite rocky stuff! I like atmosphric sounds! It's a great all rounder! Good clean sound and good Reverbs/Delays not a bad wah either, One of the distortions i use on it is quite beastly for the money

Well, with about 450 reviews already submitted, what do you expect?

This is a beginner's box that I bought to mostly to experiment with combinations of different effects.

It's easy to learn and difficult to use. That means, the controls are logical and you'll figure it out in a minute, even without the manual. But editing the patches is somewhat painful, as you have to step through the modes -- lots of button presses to do.

The rating?

For the price, it's awesome. You get a lot for 50 bucks.

But then, 50 bucks is not very much, and the sound quality is poor, digital, cold and distorted when compared to professional units.

Again, this is a beginner's unit, and usable for trying out different effect combinations at low volumes.

I have a Tokai Les Paul and a Charvel 475, and a Mesa/Boogie Studio .22. But mostly I use the Zoom with just headphones, e.g. when playing and experimenting at night.

It hasn't let me down, except that it eats a lot of batteries -- in practise, only useful with an external power supply.

But the construction looks very easy to break. The case is plastic, but that's not a problem; nowadays plastic can be very strong. The real problem is that the input and output jacks are directly on the circuit board. You kick or step on the plug that sits in the jack, and it's gone. The lack of reliable construction would prevent you from gigging with this thing, if the sound quality would not.

No experience here. Bought it used, don't expect any support.

If you are a beginner, get it!

It's a piece of junk, but good value for money.

The 505II (which I don't own but have tried out) is considerably easier to use and sounds better, although it's still fundamentally the same kind of toy.

If you don't have any effect pedals yet, this is a good piece to start with. You'll be going up in quality and price after this, but with the Zoom you'll have an idea of what the compressors, distortions, flangers and delays do, and you'll get some experience.
Then you'll know what pedals you need and what not, or if you are going for a more advanced multi-effect device, you'll spot the differences more easily.

I've been playing 20+ years myself, and I find this toy sometimes useful when trying out different sounds, as I don't own too many other effects (I use mainly just a Line6 MM-4 modulation effect box on a Mesa/Boogie amp).