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.

very easy to use

like all poducts i tried an worked with from zoom, this pedal also offers a lot of functions for less money. for starters or for people who are looking for a little box they can carry around (to the beach, while you?re sitting on the toilet) to play guitar with common effects, it?s a nice box. if you?re looking for performable and recordeable sounds - beware. this box is (like every product from zoom) just a piece of shit made from 100% plastic. you get 100% plastic sounds. do yourself a favour - don?t buy this or other gear from zoom. i?m always disappointed from zoom shit. get good stuff for cheap - don?t buy cheap stuff - one day you?ll have to get rid of it!!!

not useable forlive- not useable for recordings.

don?t know.

forget this piece of crap.
don?t buy zoom shit!!
it?s cheap - yes!
it?s worse - yes!

It's pretty easy to mess around with the sound and then save your own combinations of effects.

Very noisy, and the range of tone you get from the effects is pretty lousy. Very digital sounding.

A plastic piece of crap. Has got noisier and noisier since I bought it and now it's pretty unusable.

Have not dealt with Zoom and don't intend to. It's a cheap product, and will probably be used simlpy for messing around with noise.

This is quite a fun toy as a first effects pedal, but nothing more. Once you start really exploring each effect you realise you need much more than this thing has to offer. It served me well when I started messing around with effects about 5 years ago, but on the whole the effects sound poor. But for such a cheap, compact unit, what do you expect?

It's pretty easy to get a variety of sounds, labeled from "a" to "f" and "1" to "4" on each letter, so at least 24 sounds not including custom ones. I've never edited patches, it looks intimidating- although it does have lighted LEDs for WHAT effect you are using at the time(reverb, chorus, flanger, etc). Manual?- well, it's pretty descriptive but I like the papers I received that were downloaded and nickname the effect, which letter/number it is, and a brief description. It does have a button to skip letters which helps speed up navigating very well. I just stomp it until I get the sound I feel like monkeying around with.

I have used it with a Dean Markley K20 practice amp and it totally brings it to life, as this amp has no reverb and sounds very cold(besides that it's solid state/cold enough). I cannot STRESS how much you NEED a combined effects pedal if all you have is a basic practice amp. It's cheaper than buying a big amp and will motivate you back into playing harder. I also use it on my big amp, a Crate Tube Drive TD50C but don't use it as often because the Crate has chorus and soaking wet reverb and a nice warm tube overdrive so why comprimise my amp's clean tone? I like the range of sounds it makes, it has at least 4 different overdrives, an auto-wah, 3 different choruses, and at least 2 reverbs, and even an acoustic guitar mimic function. I am not so ear-tuned to find sounds of different artist. You can most probably find any sound you are looking for- the tunability OF that sound?- I don't know, I leave it like it is. The main GRIPE I have is that it goes from low to noisy loud depending on the effect you click on, so BE prepared to lower the volume on your guitar. I guess this is normal though, every effect is combing the sound in different ways and different ends of the pitch. Oh, by the way, I play at home, or the finding a selection at a live gig or getting a fistfull of feedback because you didn't turn the volume down on the guitar before you clicked the next effect could get a tomato thrown at you.

Seems reliable but it's plastic, so don't treat it like a battered spouse, treat it like a newborn baby or YOU might be the one crying. I've been having mine over 5 years and it was second hand when I got it. Even the LED display still works. Unplug the battery though just to be safe. It will however auto turn off if you unplug the output to the guitar from the pedal.

No experience, never broke.

I play rock, a few oldies, Clapton, Otis Redding, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and whatever else I can figure out. I've played for 20 years but as a novice hobbyist, never live. I'd probably get another or consider the same Line 6 multi-effects pod that the guy I bought the Zoom from bought when he sold the Zoom to me. That even has different amp models, as well as the SansAmp multi-effects pedal.

Using the 505 is fairly simple once you've read the basics of the manual. Its not the sort of kit that you can just plug in the day you get it and start strumming away - twisting a few knobs here and there. Oh no - you need to work out how the thing works first.

I use a 100W Marshall valvestate amp.
The sound quality is my main gripe with this thing. Really poor and destroys the tone. The distortion/gain effects are nothing other than appalling, and wouldnt even come close to the quality of a Boss pedal for example. If i use the thing (which is rare nowadays) i bypass the gain features and use the amplifiers own gain channel instead which is miles better.

To be fair, -its reliable and has never done anything out of turn since i've had it.
On the other hand, -because the sound is so bad, -i rarely use it, so my opinion here is hardly reliable.

I play rock/funk/blues music. Have been playing for about 15 years.
If it got lost, i'd not even notice.
If it got stolen, i'd laugh.
Does anyone want it? - No? -i thought not.

With in an hour of getting it home, I have the sound I was looking for. Editing presets is a breaze, manual ( downloaded ) give the gist of how to use the pedal.

Ibanez Rx - Peavy Audition Plus
I am not hearing the hiss that others are saying prob cause I just use a little amp.
I am liking a few of the presets but they are there just as an example I am figuring and I have already filled f1-4 with my own sounds and they are the way I want them.

While not of course as good as the boss stomp boxes that I have had experience with this fx unit is a nice little accessory.

So far after a couple of days I havnt had a problem, no gigs in the near future for me, while I have been playing guitar for 18 years, I do not play professionaly, so this little puppy is good for what I use it for.

no contact

For what I am guessing this pedal is for ( home bedroom use ) this pedal is a great value, I saw one at teh music store used for $100 Can and I paid $31 can including shipping I say I got a good deal.

Its a small pedal when compared to other multi-effect pedals. Once you play with and get the hang out its very easy to use and fun. The manual that came with it did its job and that was give all the basic understandings of the pedal. Its good for a beginner in the multi-effect pedal area.

I have used this pedal with many guitars, it has always worked well for me. It has covered up bad sounds of cheap guitars, and added some new tones to nicer guitars. Some effects are weak when compared to the quality of a single effect pedal ( ex. boss pedals). The chorus & flanger could have much more range. The distortion isnt the greatest but it can be tweaked to sound pretty damn good. I have used this through small 15 watt amps and larger 100 watt marshalls and sounds good in my opinion. You can in many cases clone your favortie artists sounds with this, but dont expect it to be perfect.It isnt very good for recording at all, it can have static noise and reduces the overall quality of your sound.Its fun to practice with but I would depend on it for a live show.

I depend on this pedal for practice in my room and with music buddies to play with. And for that its been very reliable. The biggest drawback is having to cycle through with a bunch of taps to either of the 2 pedals to get to a certain sound you want, making it useless at a gig if you have more then 2 sounds in a song. However , for instance if all your doing is going from "clean to distortion" or something of a one two switch, then it can be done. Its only plastic so you dont want go stomping on this thing with your boots adn crush it. I have had mine for at least 4 years and I have enjoyed it very much and it remains 100% working condition as it was when I first got it.

N/A

If you want a multi effect pedal that can be found for a fairly decent price nowadays and its fun for messing around with for room playing then give it a shot. There better units out there and this model is rather old compared to whats been coming out but untill I aquire something better I will continue to use it. I wish it had more effects. I also wish some of the effects on it could be stretched even further. It has helped me enjoy playing guitar everytime I play by myself and I do rely on it for creating new sounds to experiment with or to clone an artists sound so I can along. If it was stolen.... I would probaly just get a newer pedal thats out there, maybe give Digi-tech a try.

Insanely difficult to customize patches. 4 buttons is not enough. Most of the effects are not adequately customizeable.

Quiet. But limited.

Individual effects are mediocre. This is a toy, not a real guitar effect unit.

The sample rate is actually low on this unit. I really noticed this when I compared it with a really good multi-effects unit like the GT-6. Guitar amps tend to kill high-end, so you may not notice it at first.

As an example, you cannot set the rate of the chorus or flanger or delay continuously, but only select from 10 different pre-selected rates (most of which aren't realistically usable). These effects have distinct sweetspots that produce characteristic sounds. Whether the detuned tones of a particular chorus setting are audible or not is a function of rate*depth. The limited number of rate and depth settings mean that, in practice, there's only one usable chorus setting (maybe two or three, but you get the point).

Not exactly built like a tank. Unlike boss pedals which will probably survive as long as cockraoches survive, this one will probably survive for a few years at most.

n/a

Much much better than the Digitech stomp boxes (which are comparable in price, but even more limited).

A nice way to get a sense of what various effects do, in a limited sort of way. But, if you buy this unit you should consider it nothing more than a stopping point along the way to buying real effects.

You should buy this unit with the knowledge that you will throw it away once you know enough about effects pedals to want to buy good ones.

I'm not crazy about devices that try to get many functions out of a minimal number of buttons, but this one makes a good job of it. I had to look up a couple of things in the manual, and after that everything was self-explanatory.

I have an old Kustom K-200 and a little Peavey club amp, and the 505 adds a nice element of fullness. The unit itself doesn't seem noisy, but when you add enough compression and gain then you start really hearing unwanted sympathetic vibrations in the guitar.
The distortion is easy to modulate, but it doesn't give you that juicy, throaty Clapton/Bluesbreakers sound.
If you turn any of the effects all the way up it sounds ridiculous. The equalizer isn't great, and the amp models appear to do very little. On the other hand the flange sounds very good, and some of the reverb settings are much better than the reverb on my amplifier.

Mine is already broken after very little use, but I got it used and I don't know how the first owner treated it.
If I were playing in public regularly I'd have a different effects box, mostly so I could get the distortion I want. In that situation I think that the 505 wouldn't be a bad backup.

The company responds promptly to e-mail, and they answer their phone. Then they tell you that there's a one-year warranty, and they quote you a price on labor. I'd be happier if the 505 had a lifetime warranty like a Skagen watch, but I really can't fault the company.

I play blues and a little classic rock, but mostly I'm just practicing by myself and waiting to get called as an emergency replacement for Joe Kubek or Tinsley Ellis. It's not stolen or lost, but it is broken, and if I can't fix it I might very well buy another one. If I ever get the chance to compare effects boxes I'd be very interested in the different distortion sounds. For the price and for my purposes it would be close to perfect if it were still working.

There will be a learning curve, so sit down with it and play around with the preset patches until you think it sounds better. I own both the 505 and 510, so I picked up pretty quick.

The 505 can do anything from clean with chorus/reverb/delay to smooth slight overdriven to all out smash your nuts with a hammer! Though the 505 is a great little processor, tuning, tweaking amp settings and a separate EQ may be required! The distortions are great although the Acoustic sim is a bit weak. The chorus, flange and reverbs are pretty good. The delay could be a bit stronger but thats why I use a separate delay unit. The EQ is setup a bit strange so I use my Boss GE-7 and turn off the EQ on the 505 entirely.

It is plastic, gig without backup at own risk! But other than that, the inner workings seem pretty solid.

Never needed

The Zoom 505 does alot of things from one little unit. I haven't tried anything but Zoom processors so I can't say it's better or inferior to anything else out there. Every processor has their selling points and their downsides. If you're just starting out and want a nice processor to toy around with. Do research by reading reviews here at Harmony-Central and go with your guts. Thats what I've done.

Once you've got your head around editing one patch, you can edit them all in the same way, so not much of a learning curve there. Manual is good as manuals go, but surely they're for putting to one side?!

This was my first effects unit (on to stomp boxes now), so I was running it through a '1st' guitar and amp set-up. This isn't a unit for running mid to high-end gear through, so assuming it's a starter effects box, the sound quality is ok, if a little too digital. It's not going to match your favourite artist's overdrive sound or WAH'ed up solo though. In terms of noise, again, the digital nature comes through and it has a tendencey to hiss.

I used it for bedroom / small room practice only, and it never failed me. A little battery hungry perhaps, but addition of power supply didn't alter noise levels or anything like that so use it where you can. Wouldn't gig with it personally (bigger sound systems will only show up the inefficiencies of it more).

Never had to deal with them. Heard good things about Zoom in general though.

This is really a beginners all-in-one effects unit, best suited to bedroom or practice room use. These days, it's a great cheap way to learn about different kinds of effects before you (inevitably) decide upon the higher quality effects you actually want in your set-up. Because of this assumption that it's a beginners piece of kit, I give it a good overall rating.

This is the original Zoom 505 so theres a little less features compared to what they got now.Very easy to use pedal as I'm not much of a tweaker guy I like playing instead of wasting time trying to get a sound.I think theres something very wrong when it takes weeks and months to get good sounds out of somethign you should be able to get something good the first day or 2,and from their tweak it precisely as you play to perfect the sound you want.

I use a Peavey Bandit 112 and Yamaha/Ibanez guitars and play mostly heavy/death metal but a decent amount of clean stuff too.It seems everyone doesnt like this pedal too much but I think it's better then what its given credit for.Although far from a great pedal it is usable for most situations,I've even used it in recording with great results.Now for live thats another story,its quite trebly and digital sounding and doesnt sound too good overall although I keep it as a backup now.For practice this little thing is handy,easy to use and small.The compressor/limiter is ok,drives are mostly crap(especially the fuzz and metal ones uhhh)but the overdrive and lead are ok,as for the distortion(dist)I think this is the only reason I keep it as this is a brutal distortion thats great for the stuff I play.One thing which I agree with everyone and its hard to deny this thing is noisy no doubt about it.Eq is not really good as its only a boost for certain areas and the noise gate is a joke.reverbs are pretty good for a cheap multi fx,especially the hall,rest of the effects are ok,nothing I would use other then to mess around(why do companies still make auto wahs in multi fx are beyond my comprehension)

Although it is only made of plastic I never had problems with it at all,I used it to gig in my early band days and it stood up well but I had many friends who had some and they all broke down so maybe I was lucky.I wouldnt be aggressive with it though.Buttons on the side to edit get sticky which is annoying but thats not a big deal.As for playing without a backup,not a good idea ever so always make sure you got something to cover your ass incase something goes bad.

Never needed it so no rating for customer support

Overall I don't think it's that great a pedal,but for someone just starting to play like when I got it and great sounds isn't a issue it's one of the only multi fx for this cheap and makes a good upgrade when you can't afford expensive amps or pedals.I use a Digitech Rp2000 now which is a great pedal to use,so I would think the Rp50 and Rp100 for the price would be pretty good probably better then the Zoom I got,but I haven't tried the new Zooms and I've heard they've improved considerably.As I've mentioned before,you can use these in band/live situations but I would highly recommend getting something better in that case or a better amp.For practice though Zoom pedals are great solutions if you don't feel like paying big bucks for Line 6,Boss or higher end Digitech

easy to use.
bobo lang talaga mga kano kaya nahihirapan.

all factroy settings are lousy.

EDIT THE PATCHES. do not use more than 2 fx per patch. it will eat up your tone and will make it hiss a lot. why do some people use all the fx at the same time?? thats crazy.

the distortion is bad
the auto wah sounds bad
the modulation fx are ok.
the tuner is ok
avoid using the amp sim

ANG PROBLEMA KASI SA IBA, PINAGHAHALO YUNG LAHAT NG FX SA ISANG SETTING. KAYA SOBRANG INGAY.

never failed on a gig. no back up.

PARE WAG LANG SADYANG SIRAIN, HINDI TO MASISIRA. DIBA??

never dealt with them

ive been playing for 13 years now. im into hard rock and metal. i only use the 505's tuner, chorus and flanger . i get my distortion sound from my boss ds 1 linked to a danelectro eq. the 505 is a very versatile gadget for its price, but i really hope you guys improve the distortion selection.

NO DIGITAL FX CAN MATCH THE SOUND OF AN ANALOG

The pedal is fairly easy to use once youve practiced the editing, getting a good sound takes quite a while. The only thing i like about it its that it has no preprogrammed patches that cannot be edited so if im in A1 i can co to F4 (the last patch) and edit it, i use this pedal mostly for the reverb and the modulation effects.

Here is my complain, this pedal is based on presets for everything, so you have no control for the chorus rate depth or anything at all, you have to stick to using 9 presets it has already programmed. The pedal is noisy has a lot of hiss and it seems to be conflicting with a distortion pedal i have because it creates digital noise (a disgusting blobbling sound ) when the dist is on instead of the normal hum, if you step on it tooo hard the input jacks become crakly , overal the sound is a piece of crap.

Even its made of plastic it has stood up to 6 years of practice and live gigs (didnt have the money to buy all the effects apart) so i guess it is realiable and i have gigged many many times without a backup even on the worst conditions (rain)

Never dealt with them

With the advent of other digital multifx like the Digitech Rp 50 and other, this unit is basically useless, and even the 505II is not worth the money ( the 20-bit depth is just not enough when for a little more you get 24 bit and much more efx), personally im dropping the whole multi fx and im going stomp pedal,( i already own a pedal board with a morley wah, an Ibanez Ts9, and a Boss Ds-1) but i bought it as my first pedal and it wasnt so bad .

It's pretty easy to use although getting a good sound out of it depends largely on the supporting equipment such as amp and axe.
The Pedal itself is a cheap practice unit, nothing more. If your serious about emulating Satch or Morse then you should look at an expensive DigiTech, they're the best.

The Pedal itself is noisy, I have used Boss and DigiTech pedals as well and the Zoom 505 makes too much noise. The distortions are absolute crap, if you have a stand alone Distortion pedal your better to not use the Zooms.

Never use the Zoom 505 in a gig man, it's a practice pedal. The buttons stick too so no you can't rely on it.

Never had the inclination.

I like Satch, Blues (any), Metal - Metallica etc, the Zoom dosn't cut it. I've been playing 25 years. I wouldn't buy a replacement. I bought it at the time because it was within my budget and I wanted to forge a style. I wish it had better distortion and less noise. It helps only because it beats a totally clean amp sound.
If you havn't bought it yet I'd suggest you don't bother, go and guy a digitech, anything but a Zoom 505.

The 505 is easy to use, edit, tweek, etc; The manuel is laid out in easy to understand way.

The 505 guitar processor is noisy. A noticable hiss, the effects are
not weak in my opinion. Some of the effects tone is deep. I like mid tone but not quite that much. It is usable nontheless.

I only use the 505 with an adapter. It is reliable enough. I have used it without a back up.

Never tried to contact Zoom

I really only liked 1 or 2 distortions, the overdrive was clippy, Wish the pitch pedal effect moved only the played note and not hold the origianl. I have the expression pedal for pitch bend and wah.
The unique thing is the step effect. It is a rare find in my opinion.
Line 6 has it on their modulation pedal and not found much anywhere else. to my knowledge.The Digitech RP50 has 10 times better tone and warmth, The rp50 seems to be based on the Zoom 505 . The saying,"You get what you pay for" does not apply to the RP50 by Digitech. It rated #4 on best multieffects in Guitar Player magazine, over a 300$ Korg AX1500G! The Zoom 505 is a poor man's multieffects, kind of fun
but lacking tone and warmth, but for 60$ what does one expect?

Firstly, it is hard to edit without the manual in your hands if you are operating it for the first time. However it took me half an hour to figure out what those four small buttons and those two "small" large pedals did (of course with the manual).

There lies the flaw of a system having buttons that can do multiple stuff in different modes. It's hard to edit quickly on stage. However editing patches is relatively very very easy. I'll suggest the user to double check the patches before going with it for a gig (Actually I wouldn't an advice like that.... Read On!).

The manual is Great, really very detailed. Even the website has the manual on it in pdf format. Or else you can download the manual from "http://www.safaricomputers.com/505/505_manual.pdf".

I use it with a Gi"V"son guitar (in case you think this is some cheap imitation of Gi"B"son, you might be right but have a look at the reviews of GS 1000 before developing any premonitions. It's available here "http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data4/Givson/G-S-1000-01.html") and I use an AMD Athlon XP powered computer with nVIDIA nForce chipset as an amp. I have also used it in gigs and short shows but it disappointed me badly.

Firstly, it's noisy and I had a hard time configuring a decent "clean" patch. Almost all distiortion modes sound the same (a bit fuzzy and noisy). Secondly, it sounds drastically different when you play it with low and high volumes. Imagine not getting good amount of bassy region even with an Ibanez on stage when using Peavey amps and speakers. Thirdly, if I want to inceament the bass regions the treble is lost - which means it is not possible to get a heavy and sharp sound at the same time.

That is why I use a computer these days to pre-process my sound before sending it to the final amp (even on stage). I'll say the nVIDIA nV Mixer has greater acurracy and clarity of sound than this small plastic box. In fact it helps me to get full bass and treble and add reverb to the sound after it has been processed by ZOOM 505.

I have converted my small hostel room into a powerful recording studio and I'd rather rely on my Real-Time Guitar FX Software for recording than this one. If I can't rely on it in studio where external effets can be added, how can I rely on it while on stage? In case the small plastic box fails you definately need a backup (I'm sure that no other FX Processor will give out such a fuzzy sound - I've tried and tested some 20 types of them - and so you need another ZOOM 505 as backup!!!). To be frank, I tried using a Real Time FX software for my last two shows and it passed with flying colours as opposed to ZOOM 505. (WHY?? Read On...)

Moral : Never take this to the stage. NEVER NEVER.

The company logo says "ZOOM : Catch Us If You Can"... I guess that explains everything.

During a gig there was some kind of a problem with the adapter port and there was a constant disconnection and reconnection going on in the equipment. By default the patch is initialized to A1 whenever you connect it to the power supply. I tried calling them but as the saying goes "ZOOM : Catch Us If You Can" I couldn't catch them. So I took it to a local electronics shop and replaced the DC Adapter port. After that I swore never to take it on stage again.

I play Metal, Soft Rock and Pro.. It's not at all useful to me, but I made some interesting patches coupled with my computer which gives really cool effects but alas!! such kind of sounds are only avilable in trance music.

If you are planning to buy this look for something else... although it is cheap value for money is 2.5/10

Although entirely possible, it's not immediately easy to get a good sound out of this unit.
Editing patches is VERY advantageous, but takes some practice to learn how to edit.
I had to download the manual from the website to really figure out how to edit the patches.

Using with a cheapo Crate practice amp, Peavy Classic 4x12 stack, playing on an '89 Gibson Les Paul Standard with stock pickup in neck and an aftermarket DiMarzio that the previous owner installed.

OK, the sound quality of this unit is not absolutely mind-blowingly great. None of the preset patches are useful in real-world settings. After you edit things down, and (in my opinion) never use the ZNR, Distortion, or Metal processors, you can get some good sounds out of it. I find that it's best to not layer too many proccesses. I already own a Boss DD-3 delay, a Boss Flanger pedal, Ibanez Soundtank Tremelo, and Boss TU-2 tuner pedal, so my only need from this unit is Overdrive. I use the spring reverb found on my amp. What I've done is to craft a nice series of Overdrive patches in a row. Starting on a high-gain Overdrive, then a rhythm-gain-setting Overdrive with just a tad of reverb, then a moderate-gain Overdrive with a lower octave double note, then finally a high-gain solo sound with the Lead processor, an EQ bass and mid bump and a little reverb.

The Overdrive patch is the only distorted sound I like at all. The other grunge sounds are nasty!

The flanger is decent, but like I said, I use a dedicated flanger pedal. The chorus is ok, but sounds a bit thin. The Step effect is nice, but should be used sparingly, and the double effect definatly has potential, at least until I get an Octave pedal! I don't like the Autowah, but I've been spoiled by a friend's vintage CryBaby.


So, in summary, good sounds CAN be achieved with this unit, but you have to make your own patches, using few effects at a time.

Seems reliable.

I play lots of styles. I only use this unit for overdrive, so therefore it's only having blues, rock, hard rock, emo, etc. played through it.

It's not so hard to understand the system, but the limited number of buttons means they all have too many functions. And I am not particularly fond of using pedals for anything else than turning an effect on or off, but here I have to use it for other purposes too (although that's similar to a lot of other products).
Conclusion: It's easy enough to use, but editing patch etc. is a slow process.
A display with more than just to LED digits and maybe some knobs would have helped.

I used this plugged into a rather cheap amp and with an Epiphone SG G-400.
I don't expect great sounds, when I won't pay the money for it, but especially the distortions,Zoom's own step effect and to some extent doubling are useless as is the amp simulation.
The chorus and delay are very nice sounding at the price.

Nothing broke, but it's a bit plasticcy and doesn't seem too durable. I cannot rate fairly.

No contact with Zoom - didn't have any problems with (aside from the sound quality).

I play soft rock mostly - with some OD/DS or nothing at all
I have played for a couple of years and am far from professional. I sold the 505 already and wouldn't buy it again.
I liked the chorus and delay, but they no better than most.
If you can find a used unit cheap, it might be worth considering, but get some seperate OD/DS.

This is the easiest, most simple digital effects pedal I have ever used. period. If you're retarded, lazy, or just really dumb. This is for you.

I don't know what everyone's talking about. %90 of the idiots that reviewed the 505 say it sounds like shit... I think it sounds great. But you gotta play around with the effects a bit. You can't just put a whole bunch of stuff together and expect it to sound good. If you go to the zoom website it'll tell you some good settings and stuff. Or just play around with it untill you get a nice sound... it can be done.

I've had mine for only about 4 years... It's all shitty plastic but yet it sems pretty durable. I use this thing like a mad whore,and it's pretty much like new. But I wouldn't be surprised if it ever fell apart completely. The edit and store buttons are broken, i don't know why, but other than that... it's alright. Not great, but alright.

I'm gonna give them a 1 just for the hell of it. I've never dealt with them, but giving shitty marks instead of getting them for once is fun. revenge.

The unit is pretty easy to use in terms of scrolling through different function banks and such, but only up to a point. The tiny +/- buttons on the side of the unit remind me of those tiny LCD games from the 80s that would give you major wrist problems within minutes of use. You're going to want to read the manual to get the most out of all the different banks and customization available.

As pretty much every other reviewer points out, this unit definitely sacrifices tonal quality for price and number of effects and price. Realistically, it's only suited for playing through headphones or practice amps - the sound flaws become glaringly obvious at any sort of higher volume. Above all else, you'll quickly learn why digitally based effects sound almost nothing like the real thing.

This was definitely the Achilles heel of the 505. Beyond the plastic construction that is not suited for any sort of giggin or stage work, the unit(s) that I had experienced major electrical problems. At only a few months old, the 505 mysteriously stopped accepting input from the left/right pedals, and would not get out of tuner mode. I also couldn't scroll between effects anymore - it was locked on one particular setting, F1. One day I plugged it in an this was the way it operated. The store that I bought it from sent it back to the manufacturer, and they said that the circuits were fried, and sent a new replacement. Bearing in mind that the unit had experienced no power surge, power blackout or the like, this was quite enexpected. The replacement worked acceptably for about a year, then developed similar electrical/circuitry problems! Again, no scrolling, etc. That, and a second rate wiring job in the AC adaptor that came with the unit frayed and fell apart. The unit still plays, but not in its intended mode. Also, for a 88% plastic unit, I had to laugh when the four screws on the back of the case started to rust.

Didn't deal directly with the company, but they did send the dealer a replacement unit for me when I took it back. But then again, it developed the same problems.

This was the first multi-effects processor I ever bought, back in 1997, and I've finally got around to reviewing it. Since then, I've thankfully moved on to bigger and better things. I suppose for a someone just starting out, the 505 might make a good choice if you're interested in familiarizing yourself with several different effects, albeit some fairly watered down digital versions of them. Still, the overall quality and unreliability of the unit means that I definitely would not recommend it, unless you can pick up a dirt cheap used unit.

Very easy to use as far as a multi-effect can go. Editing patches is really easy too...

Well, the zoom 505 is by far one of the WORST things you can use to get a good sound. I never liked myself digital crap, but the 505 goes really far in the word "crap". It is horribly noisy, sounds decent at low volume but really gets awful when you turn the volume up. There isn't an interesting effect in there, everything sounds cold, digital and ugly with this monster. If you're looking for a good tone, never buy digital crap, but if you still want to use digital things, this things is definately the worst out there.

It's made of cheap plastic... I would never gig with it

who cares? better waste your money on another pedals than wasting your time with the guys that made this horrible thing

A friend of mine lent me his zoom 505 several years ago. I was looking for some effects, and I thought I could begin with a zoom to test and then buy anything better. If you want to play at home, the zoom isn't that bad. But never try to play it loud, you'll be frightened. After testing the zoom I got scared of effects and didn't buy any. Fortunately a couple of years later I began to buy single pedals (wich is the best option to get a good sound) and I learned an important lesson: there are two types of guitarrists. The ones that sound good and the ones that sound bad, no matter how they play. The ones that sound good use single pedals for specific ambiences; the ones that sound bad use digital crap. Period

A retarded dislexic monkey could operate it

Distorion, modualtion etc.....the usual

Killer unit for for practice amps

Decent depending on YOUR rig. Best with SOLID STATE amps that's for sure. Tube and digital are very unfriendly with one another typically.

Typical electronic sound with the distortions but not to the point of a synth....quite digital sounding but the right set up usually filters it out.

The effects sound great through my effects loop and distortions are fine as long as I only use them for voicing by setting gain at 2 and using my amps gain control.

Like I said, the effects sound awesome through my amp. The distortions can vary and not all are usable but the Fuzz is awesome as is the acoustic simulator. The amp simulator can be useful but too electronic sounding sometimes and the noise reduction works great for me.

I must continue though. This and other simular processors can give a 10 in performance granted you don't expect to play some major venue.

These little units were made for practice amps honestly. Take a 15 watt thru an 8 inch speaker amp and hook any of these affordable floor units through one. It will sound amazing period. You can get a good
20 dB of undistorted volume gain by using these type of units. That's a hell of a lot of volume increase.

Great for smaller single speaker combo amps 50 watts and under. For the time it came out, it deserves an 8 period.......
IT SET THE STANDARD.

Very reliable. almost 10 years old and just today one of the pedals finally came off. It's plastic but it's been stepped on, jumped on, kicked around, thrown, numerous liquid spills on it....you name it!

never met um'

Great unit for the beginner or simplist. FOr the most part the distortions aren't performance or recording quality but for my rig the effects sound great. If you were to hear them through my rig you would assume I was using all analog.

Get one of these for like a small Crate or Behringer you can pick up for around a $100 USD...or just whatever practice amp you may already have. You'll be getting close to the volume output of a two 12 combo amp with some of them not to mention for some reason practice amps just seem to work ten times better with these types of units.

DIgital can sound as good as analog this way!

It's quite easy to set up, and you do need to set it up...the stock patches are pretty bad

Ok...For the most part i use a samick going into a p.a.
Depending on the effect it can get noisy mostly on the Dist. and Thrash patches. I play mostly slow, fuzzy & heavey. Along the lines of The Melvins. All the effects are good eccept for Dist,OD,Thrash & Fuzz.

You CANNOT depend on it....I squashed mine.....Cheap Plastic

Never delt with them...

I play stoner metal/grunge This was a mistake
I've been playing for 9 years, now I use A samick-KorgA5-Boss Metal Zone-500 watt Powered Mixer
If it were stolen...Time to move on get something different
For the most part it's for beginers. Not profesionals

not hard to use, editing etc pretty easy. that said getting a good sound is phisically impossible for the device...

I've got a mid 70's riviera SG (aledgedly made by ibanez?) and a frankenstein (built it myself from 3 different amps) 150w tube amp.
the noise in this 505 unit makes mining equipment sound wisper quiet.
my amp and guitar sound kick ass, if I ever want to sound muddy and shit I hook up the ZOOM. none of the effects sound ok in any combination.

It'll stand up to a healthy battering (unfortunately) so there isn't even any satifaction to be had in beating the shit out of it.
gig with whatever backup you have, a poorly taxidermed goat would sound better live.

I'd commend them on a waste of plastic and a valuble contribution to land fill.

I play, punk/ rockabilly (bout 10 years). got a dano daddy O overdrive (surprisingly good pedal).
if it were stolen, I'd enjoy not having this pedal around to remind me of a wasted 70 bucks.
I bought this, when I had no experience or amp. I played through a mixer into my stereo at which time this pedal sounded ok. I've been pretty harsh in this review, but I'd like to emphasize that this is not a good bit of gear for anything other than playing at home through your stereo. If you can find one (but don't actually look for it) under 20 AUD consider it but DONT EXPECT MUCH.

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/