Zoom 505

i just started playing again about 6 mos. ago, after a 6 or 7 year absence. i was very surprised at the ease of use of this unit. To me, it is easier than the days i had of making sure i hit the right pedal in a string of 5 or 6. and they have made the patch editing process very straight forward.

i am playing through an old "stage" explorer copy w/ a humbucker, and 2 single coils through a zoom fp01 (used for us $20) as a volume only, and a used yamaha fifty 112. once again, i am very pleased with the sound i get from this unit, mostly because of the lack of noise. the stock patches are neat, but i do recommend playing around with it to get the sound you need. i have to subtract 1 point for the stock pathces.

i have only had this pedal for a week, and the guy i bought it from had it ?. however, it has taken my stomping dr martens so far, so i feel it will be quite reliable. if not, i will strip it and enlose it in a sturdier box, and give it sturdier pedals.

i have yet to deal with zoom, so i give them benefit of the doubt.

i have played all kinds of music: from originals in my former band, to everything from punk (real punk. not this blink 182 sugar stuff), to hardcore, to metallica, to 60's and 70's era rock, with a little 80's rock thrown in for good measure. from the sounds i have been able to get out of this pedal in a week, i have no doubt it is one of the best musical values i have ever come across (other than the $130 i paid for my yamaha). you need this pedal!

Easy to use...I got this a few months after learning to play. Very simple, good instructions.

When I bought this, I was using a 15-watt Crate practice amp. Frankly, it made it sound much better with this amp. Once I moved to a better amp, though, it became worthless. The background noise is unbearable, and the effects themselves sound corny and artificial.

I used it for about two years, and never had a problem with it.

A fun toy for a beginner, worthless for an experienced player.

I got this thing for free without an instruction manual, and had it figured out within the hour. The only problem is finding out how to bypass without a manual.

When I got this I was a beginner, so i pulled it through a fender squier strat and a low watt peavey amp. It was very noisy on distortion settings and phase settings. You could hear feedback and noise even at low volume levels. The distortion sounds like shit, like crackling paper or something. But, if youre a beginner and youre looking to start playing with effects this would be a decent bet.

I dont know about depending on this thing, but it has never broken down. I wouldnt gig with it because of the low to mediocre quality of the effects and the feedback and noise.

N/A

I play blues and melodic rock and jazz, and this doesnt work that well with it. Its mostly good for like when im at my sisters place and i just have a small amp and my strat i can bring this over rather than haul a dozen pedals. Ive been playing for quite a while, i like a tube screamer, fuzz face, dunlop crybaby, big muff, and a whole bunch of other shit and the only thing this baby can hold a candle to is a piece of shit danelectro distortion pedal i have. As I said, its fun if youre a beginner or just looking to lighten your load for a trip or something, but dont expect anything but mediocrity all the way.

This is your best value, all round guitar effects unit! It can coaxe so many sounds and it doesnt cost a fortune! You can have chorus effects, Thin Lizzy-style Harmony sounds and a whole lot more. Although not the best wah wah effect in the world.

Great sounding! As I say, very versatile unit with plenty of sounds and textures. The wah effects is, quite honestly, one of the worst i've heard, but it's worth subsidising that one thing to have access to so much else! Overall a very useable and versatile effects unit.

NO I COULDN'T DEPEND ON IT LIVE! I wrote a piece of music called 'Majestic' using this pedal and the music I wrote sounded fantastic. THE DAMN THING CUT OUT ON STAGE! The music I wrote was so great that I thought I could get away with it, but I had the HARMONY effect on and it just kept resetting itself! It was a shame and I havent played through it since!

Havent dealth with 'em, but I probably should! lol

I play blues and rock music and the sounds out of the ZOOM are still pretty high class despite my little incident! It's not too noisy as well which I think is important. It's good stuff anyway.

It's very easy to use, I've never neded to read the manual

My first amp was a little frahm shit, my guitar sound very better with the zoom, but since when I bought a Marshall VS80 I've never used it again, only for tuning my guitar.
If you don't have a good amp it can be a great help, but if you have a great stack it's better to get analogic pedals...

I think that the little edit controls are very fragile, sometimes the buttons get stucked and it keeps saving the effects infinitely

It is a good choice if you din't have a realy good amp, but now it doesn't worth to buy cause now they have the GFX series that are much better for a little bit more money

This pedal takes a little learning, but it's pretty easy after you figured it out. I recommend looking at the manual, because it tells you everything pretty quickly. The factory settings are kinda lame, but after fooling around a little, you can get some nice sounds. The distortion isn't really good for palm muting or anything like that, but I've found it to sound cool for soloing, combine with other effects.

My setup is a fender strat > Crybaby > 505 (w/FP01 exp. pedal) > Ibanez Smash Box > Boss PS-5 > Fender Princeton 65 Amp. This pedal goes good with my setup, because it can maek pretty cool sounds for a lot of different styles and techniques of playing, but I don't recommend it for a distortion with a punch. It just doesn't sound as good as the smash box, which i chose over the metal zone. The pedal can sound like many artists, i suppose, but not really that close. It can sound a little like satriani, but not exact, and it can sound like metallica, but not exact. This pedal is more for unique sounds, i guess. If the distortion were better on this pedal, I would have probably given it a higher score.

Can you depend on it? No. Mine's broken. I've had it for 2 years, and it still sounds the same. But the buttons stick, and my patch down button doesn't work unless you stand on it and wiggle your foot around. That's a pain when i want to bypass the pedal. I also had a problem with the power adapter that came with it, but i managed to replace the end and get it to work again. The expression pedal that i got with the pedal sucks. It doesn't work well either.

I've never dealt with the company, but maybe I should have... they might have helped me fix it. Oh well, too lazy.

I play all styles of music, just about, so this pedal is a good tool to get the variance. It's not as good as it could be, but since it can do so many differnt things, I really like this pedal. I've been playing for 7 years, and this has been a cool addition to my setup. It gives me the cool effects that I don't want to spend more money on, like flanging, even though it may not sound as good as a regular pedal, it's a cool addon to what i've already got. If it were stolen, I would be upset, but then I'd probably look into other multi-effects pedals, which are maybe built stronger, like the 505II or one of the boss ones.

When I got the pedal a year ago I immediately started
programming my own patches since I read here that the
factory patches are mostly crap. And they are. Through
any amp the effects were weak and unnatural sounding.
So, first thing I made a custom distortion that I still
find pretty good (I've played guitar for 1,5 years)
So here it is! The best distortion I've managed to
pull out of the pedal:

COMP: of
DIST: dt
GAIN: 30
ZNR/AMP: A9
EQ: 25
MOD: C1
DLY/REV: of
LEVEL: 28

Pretty neat when played to my SB16 Soundcard's Line-In.
Well, more of the sound quality later on.
I really hate the 0.25 sec delay when changing patches
and also it is impossible to take full advantage of the
24 patch slots since you can't change to a third effect
quickly enough, no problem with slower or less guitar-ey
songs, but when you need to switch quickly from distortion
to clean then to some effect and back to distortion it
starts to get tricky. Zoom really should add a remote switch
jack in addition to the expression pedal jack, so that
you at least could jump between banks without having to
go through all the effects between the desired effect and
your current effect.
Programming patches is really easy, but it cost the
programmability of the effects. It's really annoying that
you don't have much control over the effect parameters. It
would be nice to get the flanger to follow song tempo but
you can't get it that accurately, instead it's just 1-9
selection which really isn't to my liking of parameter
adjusting.
If you had more control over the effects I would have given
the pedal 9, but since it's so innaccurate I gave it 6 for
ease of use.

Most of the effects sound really plastic when played through
even a moderate amp. But if your amp is about 30w or less,
this pedal really livens it up. With my first amp, some cheap
ass chinese B2-Bomber 15w, I could get pretty good sounds
and when me and my band recorded one of our trainings to a
casette my $100 amp sounded more like a 50w Marshall!
But I recently tried the 505 through a 65w Peavey transtube
(the new version, with orange lines) and it sounded like shit.
Tinny, flat and plastic (in addition to the casing) would be
the most fit words. I would recommend this as a first pedal
to be used with your first amp until I are ready to buy your
first decent amp. The analog pedals are out of the question
with the cheapest amps since they need a little more powerful
amp to work properly. But the 505 is perfect for use with
cheap amps. I recently bought Boss GE7 Equalizer and boy
did it do wonders to my zoom! Try it yourself, boost bass and
treble a little (no more than +5 dB) and slightly middle (about
+2 or +3 dB) and then fine tune it to perfection.
The factory distortions are of no use (except for the blues dist)
try my favorite patch (above) and decide yourself.
The wah is fair, chorus is average and rest of the effects
are below average.
Some people have complained about the noise/ringing, but I
haven't had any such problems with my gear:
Yamaha EG-112U Guitar -> Zoom505 -> B2-Bomber 15w amp
you could try turning away from your amp so that your guitar's
mics are not facing your amp, or try setting ZNR/AMP to A5-A9.
One of the biggest problems with the 505 is the sustain,
which doesn't last for more than about 3-5 seconds on the high
strings and about 6-8 seconds with power chords on the low strings,
and I also have a suspicion that the effects are looped, try
it yourself: play a single high note and listen. Well, it sounds
like loop to me, it isn't natural at all.
On a cheap amp the 505 is pretty powerful but the better the amp
is the weaker 505 gets.
Don't even think about buying that $50 FP-01 Expression pedal, get
a Bespeco! Mine is VM-18L Volume pedal and it works fine and only
costs $16.
I give it a 8 if you play it with a cheap amp (9 with the Boss GE7 Equalizer),
but only 3 if you have a more powerful amp. So it averages a 6.

I really don't know how long the batteries would last since
I already had an AC adapter prior to buying the 505.
I would take it to a gig, but I would be constantly worrying
not to step on it. Plastic, man, Plastic *headshake*
The left switch has also recently started to get stuck
(not because of sand, I have cleaned it) and sometimes the
store button goes berserk and starts saving a patch endlessly.
I have accidentally dropped the pedal twice and also my guitar
strap snapped and my guitar fell on the 505, but everything is
still working out fine.

You know what they say: Catch us if you can!

As a first pedal I would give it a 8 or 9, but since it's
of no use after you buy a better amp I only give it 6.
If you just started playing guitar I definitely recommend it
but when your ears start improving (musically) buy an analog
pedal or use your amp's distortion (if it's good).
I tried an Ibanez Black Noise with a 65w Peavey transtube
(the new version) and it sounded really good. So try the
Black Noise in the store when you buy your second amp,
the 505 is useless with better amps.

As with all effect boxes, there is way too many stupid ass features that you have to sort through when using this. I'd never play live with it.

Honestly, out of all the cheesy effect that Zoom incorporated into this thing, maybe three effects were good; a distortion, acoustic simulator, and a compressor.

This piec of plastic shit broke within 1 month of using it for no apparent reason!!! DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!! BY THE DIGITECH RP-100 instead, it's much more durable and of higher quality!!!

ZOOM DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS, PERIOD. WHEN I EXPLAINED TO THEM HOW THE 505 BROKE ON ME VIA E-MAIL, I WAS IGNORED FOR THREE WEEKS UNTIL I PESTERED THEM AGAIN. AT THIS POINT I WAS GIVEN A RUDE RESPONSE TELLING ME I HAVE TO WAIT LONGER FOR 'PROCESSING'. ZOOM IS A LOW QUALITY, SHITTY COMPANY THAT SELLS HORRIBLE EQUIPTMENT. DO NOT BUY THIS THING!!!!!!!!

BOTTOM LINE: BUY A DIGITECH OR BY SEPERATE, DEDICATED PEDALS; ZOOM ROBBED ME OF A 100.00, AND I WAS DUMB ENOUGH TO BUY IT!!!!

just as easy as any other multi effects..as far as i know..

im using a Jackson JDR-94 GUITAR.. with the zoom505..somtimes a dod equalizer..threw a crate 2x12 amp...
dont underestimate this little monster...i found my ideal sounds in this thing that i couldnt get out of any other pedal or effects...
the distortion...umbaleivable man... i dont know one bad thing on it...and its runs like under 100$...i wish it had more heavy distortion choices...but im still glad with all the crap in this thing...really rocks

oh yeah definetly.

never had..probaly never will.....even tho this is made out of plastic or whatever...its all good..and never had a problem with it...

i play HEAVY SHIT...but when i play heavy i play no games..i play heavy... but when i play melow..i play no games ..i play melow..
this has it all..
if i lost or broke it...i would buy another one..but first try out the BOSS multi effects..there pretty damn explosive i heard... but also more money.....nothing can beat the z00m 505 and its price..
this thing could probaly get a lot better then i think...just cause theres so many patches u can use..its nuts..so hopfully someone would nail me in on some patches. and ill get back to u all again...
so long my good friends...
i like chud.

Very easy to use. Editing patches is easy. The great majority of the time you don't even need the manual.

All I can say is, how good or bad this pedal sounds will greatly depend on what gear you have, more specifically, what amp. I played it through a cheap little 25 watt amp and no matter what I did the sound was shit. I then played it through a Peavey Bandit and it rocked.

Also, you need to know how to set up a good sound for yourself. My friend owns a Boss Metalzone. One day we were jamming, and it was thoroughly clear that despite him using his Boss, and me using the distortion of the 505, my sound was waaay better. If you don't know how to tweak your settings on your amp and the pedal, it will not sound as good as it can.

You can get some good sounds out of this pedal, a lot of people just don't know HOW TO.

Currently my band covers a lot of Slayer and Sepultura type stuff, and it does the job very well.

The wah isn't that hot though, neither is the delay. Otherwise...

I've had it for a year and a half now or something. No problems whatsoever. I have used it on numerous occasions without hesitation for gigs.

Batteries don't last a great deal though. The only time I use batteries is when I'm sure they are brand new, and know I won't be using the pedal for more than an hour. The adaptor is a must.

Never had to deal with them.

I don't think you can beat it for the price it is. My only regret is that I could've bought the pedal second hand for $50 less.

It's a good pedal for the money. You can't really go wrong with it.

pretty easy

good sound, but alot of background static. maybe if you have a gate it will be ok

never failed me

never used

Get individualy FX that you want or a better FX pedal. you'll like it for a year....then you'll see the mistake

My roomate last year had one of these (he paid 150 big ones for it brand new). I never edited the patches 'cause I didn't know if he had preset them, also didnt have instructions, but it was easy to use. Then I finally got one off of e-bay (used but in great condition along with a FP01 Expression Pedal). It's lovely trying to download the instructions you need 13 X 16 inch paper to print it. Fortunately I got the instructions after getting the pedal its a big poster. The 505 is quite easy to use and the instructions are overall helpful. (Although they didn't provide very good tips/instructions for the FP01 pedal, getting it to do the wah/pitch stuff was tricky).

Ah you're going to laugh at me. I am an amateur guitar player. I have several guitars (a hohner, kramer) but I mostly use that popular standby Mark II (a strat clone, mass produced, POS). The amp I am using is a Fender Squier 15. The amp itself doesn't sound very good in my opinion, and when plugging the zoom in, didnt sound much better (especially using the distortion from the amp with some of the cleaner effects is a harsh combination).

So I have now been using the Zoom with a set of headphones instead of an amp (Koss Sonic Boom 30 Stereo Headphones, dont worry guys, I didn't pay for 'em, took 'em from my college! Fight the system!) and with the 'phones it sounds awesome! Barely no noise at all (I've got a 5 way selector-switch on my POS Mark II, on switch 2, 4 I believe they are called out-of-phase modes, there is even less noise).

The distortions are ok, not great, some are good, some suck, mt and dt are pretty good. I have a dod Supra Distortion pedal which blows goats and my amp distortion is not too bad, but I have yet been able to find the kind of distortion on the zoom that I've been looking for.

I also find some of the effects unapplicable to music. The step effect especially. Some of those pitch harmonies are stupid. I'd rather have a 3-step than a 4 step! Doesn't metal lead guitar use 3-step? Of course you can arrange that with a FP01 pedal but its cumbersome. Chorus is ok I have an ibanez stereo chorus pedal which is pretty good. One big issue I have is that I with the 505 had a longer delay effect, it goes up to 370ms. I wish it could go up to 1 or even 2 seconds. But hey, its a cheap pedal. Quality costs more.

It seems like it will be reliable if kept in good condition. I usually keep the pedal next to me at a desk or bed so I switch the pedals with my hands. Obviously since its plastic, It shouldn't survive a thorough stomping.

I did have a question that I later solved myself, they havent gotten back to me yet. I've only had mine for a few days and its in great condition.

I've been playing guitar for about 10 years but haven't really developed much until the last 2 years. I like to play metal/rock. If this pedal were stolen or lost, I'd be pissed off considering that I have very little money. If I had more money I'd go and buy a better pedal. But for the price you can't beat it, especially if you are permanently strapped for cash.

I like that you can create so many different effects and tons of people have posted patches on the 'net. Sure there are things I don't like about it, more customizeable effects, easier patch switching. But for the price you can't really complain.

Pretty easy to use.

Except for the overdrive and lead, crappy. I use a compressor and an Ibanez Tubescreamer into it. The compressor on the 505 is not very good. The gain on the overdrive is good for gind, but has harsh and brittle overtones. I set the attack at 9'oclock (on my compressor pedal) to try to smooth it out. The noise reduction is good. Lead patch is squawky and bright. Sort of like Mick Ronson on Bowie's "Spiders". I use an Ibanez RG, a tele and strat (copy) guitars. I use the chorus when playing "clean". The reverbs are ok, but not really heavy. Good output volume to headphones. I never use any of the other effects. The tuner function is erratic.

Seems to be reliable, I have owned it 5 years now. They don't make these any more (thank god). With the 300+ reviews, I thought I'd put my two cents in ! You can get better $100 stuff these days. I only play through headphones. I use the Tubescreamer and the 505 for reverb and volume. Like I said, the distortions are (for the most part) crap !

Never had any dealings with ZOOM.

At the time (5 years ago) this was all the rage in the multi-function digital stompbox. But like I said, now you can get DigiTech's RP-100 and other cool crap for $100. The Johnson J-Station is now only $150 and POD is offering $100 rebate on the POD 2.0. Who knows what's in the future ? As for me, I'm savin' up for a Blues Junior tube amp ! The digital boxes have so much stuff I'll never use.

It was good for when I was a beginner, but now, at my 3 year level, Im buying a GFX-8.

It's long to preparate , but the patch is quick.

The distortion sounds sometimes too digital, but for 100$US or 150$Can, it's great.

I use the blues distortion, the delays and the metal distortion the most. I play Tool/Pink Floyd style, so heavy distortion and effects are needed.

Never had problems. Would keep one with my normal set up, a a backup.

Never, but it seems they are bad on the american continent.

I give it a 9 cuz the stuff you get for 150$ is awsome !!!

Effects are pretty easy to edit, though it can be somewhat cumbersome at times...
The manual explains all its operations pretty well.
Editing the effects is a MUST because almost all of the factory presets sound hideously overprocessed.

I use this with a number of guitars into a Peavey Bandit 112, and it sounds quite good. Filters with heavy distortion, especially those with compression get damn noisy, but the built-in noise suppressor works pretty efficiently overall.
To the point: the 'Metal' distortion is worthless; I never use that. Ever. All the rest are fine. Being that it's an effects processor, the point of the thing is to alter the distortion tones (or whatever) with EQ, modulation, delay, etc. I'm not especially fond of most of the distortion tones by themselves, but with a few effects they can sound very nice. In fact, I recently finished recording a CD with it. Most people who've heard the CD thought better of the sound of my guitar through my 505 (recorded direct no less) to that of my friend's Gibson SG Special through a small Fender combo (a Stage model, maybe?) which certainly sounded very good.
Fact is, the 505 can sound extremely nice, or it can sound like a cheap uberdigital piece of crap. It depends entirely on how the effects are used. I can get a reasonably close approximation of Eric Johnson, Jimmy Page, Alex Lifeson, John Petrucci, SRV (the list goes on...) out of it. I guess your mileage may vary.

It's plastic, yes, but it's fairly tough. I've been using it for about a year and a half and the only real problem is that once in a rare while the buttons on the side stick, but that's easy enough to fix.
The sound quality remains consistent regardless of the battery level (until they're absolutely dead, of course), but getting an AX adaptor really is advisable.

Never had to deal with them

I play a very wide variety of styles, and this suits me well. I've been playing for around four and a half years, and I use this with a Dunlop wah, Big Muff, Boss Noise Suppressor (which the 505 does sometimes necessitate), and an Ernie Ball volume pedal.
If the 505 were stolen or lost, I think I'd go for one of Zoom's higher-end processors, but for $100, I'm very pleased with it.
The phaser effect often makes things sound overprocessed, and the Metal distortion and step effect are both absolutely worthless, but I'm very satisfied with the rest, and it's pretty versatile. It's very gratifying to be able to play Under a Glass Moon or La Villa Strangiato or something, and then bust out with a fusion/funk-rock jam mainly making use of a single pedal.

Tres facile a utiliser. Lire les instructions avant! Inserer une pile, ta guitare et des ecouteurs ensuite explorer les possibilites de cette machine qui est capable de produire des milliers de combinaisons de sons. Les instructions sont tres completes et facile a comprendre en anglais et en francais. Chaque bouton peut accomplir plusieurs taches.

La qualite du son depend de votre selection. Certains sons sont accompagnes de bruits. Il y a des milliers de possibilites et la plupart sont tres bons....meme excellents. Tout depend de votre selection. Il est possible d'avoir des sons de 2 ou 3 guitares a la fois ou meme d'un orgue. A vous de choisir. C'est certain que la distortion ou chorus ou delay d'une pedale a $200.00 sera probablement meilleur mais que voulez vous d'une pedale qui se vend moins de $150.00 et qui peut produire autant de son qu'une armee de pedales a au moins $100.00 chaque. C'est possible d'avoir un son comme Santana avec une guitare de $50.00 et d'un ampli de $30.00. Je le sais....je l'ai faite. Parfois, il y a un bruit de cillement avec le son choisit mais, ce bruit sera perdu lorsque vous aller jouer avec d'autres musiciens. Pour reduire ces sons non-desires, utiliser un adapteur 9 volt d.c. de bonne qualite. Au lieu de payer $15.00 pour un ordinaire, achete un adapteur avec un voltage d.c. regularise qui va couter quelques dollars de plus.

Increvable! Cependant, elle n'est pas faite pour celui qui veut sauter dans les airs et atterrir a deux pieds sur la pedale. Encore lire les precautions a prendre qui se trouvent dans les instructions car c'est possible de causer du dommage aux circuits si la pedale est mal utilisee. J'en ai 2 Zoom 505 que j'ai achete usages.....pas de probleme.

Je n'ai jamais eu besoin d'aide de la part de la compagnie Zoom mais, il y a des sites sur l'internet consacres au Zoom 505

Je joue surtout du blues donc, c'est possible de trouver des centaines de recettes pour me donner differents sons "blues" sans avoir d'autres bruits indesirables. En plus, je joue quelques tounes de Led Zeppelin etc qui demandent des effets speciales comme "octave" que seulement une pedale dispendieuse peut me donner. C'est certain que si vous voulez employer de la "distortion" tout le temps, du "wah" du "chorus" ou beaucoup de "reverb", c'est souhaitable d'avoir une pedale qui specialise dans ces sons mais chaque pedale va vous couter plus chere qu'une Zoom 505. Ces pedales sont merveilleux et quand vous voulez les vendre, il y aura toujours quelqu'un qui est pret a l'acheter. J'ai vendu mes 2 Zoom 505 et mon Korg G3 afin de me payer un plus gros ampli. J'ai d'autres pedales specialisees comme la CryBaby Wah, Morely Volume, Arion stereo phaser, Ibanez DDL delay, MXR dyna comp, Morley fuzz/wah, DOD FX56, distortion Rogue, Ibanez dual chorus PC10, Ibanez soundtank, Arion stereo chorus SCH-1, Danelectro BLT et un accordeur Korg (la Zoom est aussi un excellent accordeur). Mais je suis sur que bientot je vais m'acheter une autre pedale multi-effets economique pour avoir des sons qu'on utilisent que de temps en temps. Donc pour le prix, pour le fait que vous aller utiliser la Zoom 505 tout le temps, je dirais meme que la Zoom 505 ou un autre pedale du meme gabarit est presque essentielle pour celui qui veut jouer de la musique semblable a celui qu'on entend sur la radio ou lors d'un spectacle. La Zoom 505 n'est pas parfaite mais assez de trouver quelque chose qui peut la remplacer facilement.

For an entry-level, multi-effects pedal, editing patches is relatively straight forward. I takes a lot of noodling to get the sound you are looking for hence the programming aspect. The manual is well laid-out althought I would have preferred it to be like a book instead of a folded sheet of paper.

I currently use a Fender Standard Strat into a Peavey Bandit (85watts). For the most part, any distortion/overdrive/fuzz etc. patches are quiet. Most of the distortion/overdrive/fuzz etc effects are not good. There is very little control over parameters. I have only been able to get one good distortion tone similiar to Def Leppard's Hysteria-era but that is about it. I did not care for the chorus and flange effects. The ZNR is the best feature of the product. The acoustic simulator is OK. The delays and reverbs, in my opinion, are horrible. For those expecting any vintage sounds, forget it. This is a completely digital processor. The auto-wah is not that great either.

I have never gigged with this pedal but, being that it is plastic, I cannot imagine this holding up too well.

Never dealt with it.

I play a lot of classic rock and roll and some 80s rock as well. Playing for over 15 years, I am from the old school of rock (i.e. pedals). I own a Boss Blues Driver and Boss Super Chorus which I like much better than this pedal. While this is an entry-level multi-effects pedal, there is just not enough flexibility and control to keep me happy. I bought this to try out multi-effects programming and have been turned off by it. I prefer the pedals. They seem to have more flexibility in sound. I will be trading this pedal for another Boss pedal (probably a Boss DS-1 and receive change). The plastic just does not seem sturdy enough to last for years. I know other Zoom products sound much better than this pedal. But for me, single-pedal effects are the way to go. Sorry Zoom, I am not impressed.

The pre-programmed patches are shite, but if you can edit well, you can difinetely get a good sound. Manual easy to follow. Ver Easy to use.

Using a Squier strat and amp. You get slight SNR on the F4 acoustic, but easily fixed in edit mode. Like I said before if pre-programmes... The Distortion are crap, but edit mode. Thank God for edit mode.

No problem. I don't really use this one for gigs, only if I'm doing an acoustic piece. I use it a lot in edit mode and make pre-studio studio recordings as a practice for the feel I want. F3 and F4 are about the only pre-programmes I rely on for good sound, but mind you I'm really a jazzy and acoustic player.

n/a

Overally. I'd say it totally *** and you're better off buying single effect units.

easy to use but changing between patches that are far apart is a pain. i only use it for playing in my room and the occasional band practise and most of the distortion is fine for what i play.

efects are good, just flicking through often i can find an effect that resmebles what i am looking for, though it is sometimes hard to find that 'perfect' distortion. the editing function is useful then. used with a fairly basic amp and old epiphone les paul it seems to be well suited but i feel that if i upgraded i would have to upgrade the pedal aswell.

seems fine, the only problem i have had with it as teh previous owner did before me is with the battery connector, though i always run it off a mains supply anyway so not really a problem.

n/a

for playing alone or band practise (not gigs though) it is fine and both guitarists use one. i would replace it with something a little higher spec should i lose or break it but overall it is good. anything is better than nothing. versatility is the key i think, and it certainly is versatile.

Fairly easy to use. Unless you're trying to fiddle around until you get the perfect distortion, in which case it is IMPOSSIBLE to use. The fact that you can only switch to the next effect with the footswitch can be a pain in the ass... if you've got one good effect in A1 and another in C3, it's move one of them or don't use them together.

This pedal is absolutely USELESS if you're looking for a good distortion. Some of the other effects are neat, but are still not quality reproductions of the actual effects.

Though i haven't thrown it out the window or anything yet, I haven't had any problems with it. It is pretty wimpy, all the same... i like big metal boxes on my pedals.

I like playing metal sometimes, and this pedal is simply USELESS for metal. You can dial in some cool sounds, but it's simply not a versatile do-everything type pedal. If it suddenly disappeared, I'd go get something else. If this pedal had at least one decent distortion, my opinion might be a little higher.

I found this unit very easy to use. I've used various multi-effects (Digitech, Zoom, ADT) as well as stomp boxes over the past 35 years. This unit is very easy to program, once you get the feel for the 4 programming buttons (yes...only 4 buttons.... figure it out!)

Sound quality is fine, if you want to monkey with it a little (or a lot). The factory presets are cheesy for the most part, but there are some great internet sites that contain many decent patches. I now use one of the blues distortions, clean and dirty wah (use a pedal), phase, and clean compression. I also have a nice acoustic setting that I use frequently. I use a Strat, Epiphone Del Ray, Gibson 335 primarily with a Peavey Bandit 112 or a 1968 Super Reverb. Music styles vary from jazz to classic rock to funk to blues. I've got patches for each. All sounds that I'm using sound fine.

I've been using this unit about 5 years with no problems at all. I use it on stage and perform about twice a week. It's great and hasn't let me down at all, even when folks get out of the audience to dance (stomp) all over the stage, this unit (even though it's plastic) has held up great.

Haven't used them. Haven't needed them.

I use this unit very often for a wide variety of music styles. So far, it's filled the bill. But you HAVE to spend some time with it and for gosh sakes....record your patch settings somewhere!!

Editing is easy and the manual is great.

First let me say, for the price this thing is awesome! But... if you play live, you will definitely be ready to stepup before long. I use mine with a Hamer Daytona and a Fender amp, and I get decent sound out of it. The distortions leave a lot to be desired. I would say that all the other effects are decent. The EQ sucks! But again... for the money, you can't buy anything better!

So far so good, it hasn't let me down yet.

I've not needed them yet.

I play rock music and it gets the job done. I've played it for a year. If it were lost, I would probably not replace it. I love the price, I hate the distortions!

It will be great if it is possible to randomly navigate thru the patches. For ex. A1 (pres right pedal) A2 (pres right pedal) C1 (pres right pedal) F3...

I have Ibanez RG guitar and Fender Frontman 25 amp. I have many problems with noise, thats why in all my patches I use maximum ZNR. Distortion is good but in ACC mode great gain value produce distortions in other modules. Bad EQ. In clear acoustic sound there are many low fr. It result to distortion in amplifier.

Dealers in Ukraine are not competent

once reading the manual, its easy to program and operate. i just wish it had an on/off switch so i dont have to unplug the power supply every time.i give it an 8. 10 if it had an on/off switch.

sound is very good but limited, the only distortions i use on it are the ry and bl and sometimes the od. the others sound too midi for me. the fuzz is good for using the auto wah. hall reverb is very good, noise gate is good but takes away from the tone a little. too many unwanted effects and not enough useful sounds, wish it had tremolo. play an american standard strat. through a musicman 212-hd amp and it sounds great but limited but for 59 bucks, i cant complain.

so far its been reliable and no problems. eats batteries in a matter of minutes.

havent had any contact.

for the price (new on sale from musicians friend) it cant be beat for what you get but its sometimes too much of nothing. few very useful sounds. they really should have put an on/off switch on this thing.

I'm giving this a 6, because it isn't totally impossible to edit patches. It is a big pain to go through all of the little parameters and change them with those cheap plastic buttons, though.

Basically, this pedal is just about as cheesy as multi-fx processors get. I bought this pedal about 6 months after I got my first electric guitar. I went to the music store and played around with it, and I was really amazed by all of the "neat" sounds that it made. Then, when i got it home and played around with it for about a month, the truth hit me. With the exception of maybe the distortion and delay, this piece of crap is a waste of money. All of those phaser/octave/compression effects are pointless unless your ideal tone is that of a $15 casio keyboard.

I did play a small gig with it once, and it was very distracting. You have to use the standby-switching mode unless you want to have people hear you cycling through all of you patches. I just wouldn't use this live at all.

never bothered calling zoom

I play all kinds of music, and I have been playing for about 4 years now. I sold this pedal off for about 50 bucks, and I was just glad to get rid of it. I just hated how fake the 505 sounded and after a while, a couldn't stand playing through it. If you're thinking about getting a 505 as your first pedal, let me make a suggestion. Get an EH Big Muff. This pedal kicks so much ass, and i couldn't ask for more in a fuzzbox(plus it's only $50). You'll be so glad you bought a decent first pedal. Don't be fooled by the hype surrounding the Zoom 505. Either get some analog stomp boxes(in my opinion, the way to go) or at least save your money and buy a higher quality digital fx processor.