Zoom 510 Dual Power Driver

Very difficult. The tweak buttons are also too small. After a while it can be fun, hunched over the pedeal, killing an hour and a half.

Forget about emulating a Tube Screamer or getting anything warm. However, the grunge effect is obnoxious, disgusting and vile --IN A GOOD WAY. I'm pretty sure the grunge sustain lasts forever and you can disrupt any rehearsal with it & trounce any vintage gear. Seriously, the boost & overdrive if okay for soloing, the octaver is nice. My settings: A1 - boost/OD A2 - light dist A3 - Grunge A4 - Octave.
Once you use a Cry Baby wah, Stone Roses style you'll know this wah is useless without a pedal. Also, the tuner rocks. A tuner & one sound would be nice, this has a tuner and 3 usable sounds. Very nice.

Yeah, I think you can depend on this. It will break one day but whatever.

Soloing at home with the grunge effects is a blast. Using the grunge effect at rehearsal is fun just for the shock value on your band members faces --it really beautifully nasty. I think the boost/OD is good though it breaks up your tone a bit too much. My conclusion is that digital distortions are not good at just coloring your current tone but if you use digital distrotion full-on, the sustain, lack of noise create interesting new sounds. I LOVE the tuner, octave, grunge & the OD/boost is passable. You can now get these used for like 20 bucks. GREAT DEAL!
BTW, I'm certain I still haven't tweaked out all it's potential so it could be even better than I know.

Programming this device is easy. Once you're used to the sequence there's nothing to it. No, it's not the most versatile effects processor ever built - but there is a certain "in your face" quality to the Zoom effects that makes me prefer some of them over the pristine and somewhat "distant" sound of many digital devices. I find the "raw" sound of the 510 more appealing than the Yamaha DG Stomp, for instance. For one thing, the compressor on the 510 is far more useful and much easier to use. Some of the effects layout is illogical, for example why would the "fuzz" be in the "main" drive section rather than in the "pre" section? But whatever, it is what it is. The manual was still available online as of 11/'05.

I'm an old fart, I've got lotsa junk. I use this mostly with my fave axe, which is a Cort CL1400 (yeah, I can hear your laughter from here...Bite me!). I also use this with a Cruise short scale bass with Dimario P/J pickups. It goes into a Crate Powerblock driving a single 10" Celestion (or headphones), or a lovely orange Roland Cube 40, or into a Tascam 4 track cassette recorder. I like some of the lower gain sounds that are possible with this device. The combinations possible through the use of the "automatic mixing" feature are intriguing. The compressor works very well. Since I'm not looking for an idealized heavy metal sound, it's all good. I don't expect a $25 box to make me sound like the rock guitar god of the week...(duh). I haven't noticed any excessive noise. The primitive amp sim is mostly a joke, but does change the EQ by scooping the mids slightly, so I use it for that. The higher gain distorions will get you credible early 80's "punk/hardcore" guitar sounds if you so desire. Most of us didn't have perfect, wonderful, ideal equipment back then - we made do with what we had, and if you listen to the underground music of that era, the guitar sounds often reflect that - this device will recreate many of those sounds - the imperfections and idiosyncracies make it sound authentic. This device was marketed starting in the mid 90's, so it's obsolete in the evva mo' betta digital world.

I'm not sure how old this is - I'd say it's at least 5 years old.
The 510 was marketed in the mid/late 90's. I bought it used about a month ago (11/'05). It seems to work fine.
I might use it on a gig, what the hell? Why Not? It is no doubt more reliable than the Electro-Harmonix stuff that was ubiquitous in the late 70's and early 80's. I'd wear Converse All Stars and step rather lightly though...If you jump up and down on this thing in your waffle-stompers or Doc Martens, you will break it (duh! again, kiddies).
Anyway, so far, so good.
(Yes, older Zoom stuff does occasionally need the input and output jacks re-soldered. So it goes...learn to solder.)

Samson/Zoom still had the manual available when I went looking for it, that's about the best you can expect for a discontinued effects box.
(Uh, there's some "rather precious" young musicians who expect these companies to wipe their ass and buy 'em breakfast because they spent $60 or whatever on an effects box, that's simply not realistic.)

All that said, I've never required Zoom's assistance.
"Caveat Emptor" as always.

I play poorly blended punk/blues/rock-n-roll and I occasionally dabble in jazz and country, both of which are mostly beyond my ability. We started our first punk band in '79 (I think?). If it was lost or stolen - yeah, sure I'd replace it for $25, including the AC adapter, why not? I like the compressor, and the auto-mix feature. I wish it had more midrange EQ, rather than just bass and treble.
Whatever. I bought this device because it was there, it was cheap, and I wanted something to mess with on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It was much better than expected. I've used it often. Quite useful, and easily worth the $25 gamble.

There are 4 buttons to change values, and 2 buttons to change patches.
Not realy a lot considering its an multi-fx unit. You can forget figuring out how to edit the patches without the manual, since the editing process is rather complicated and not realy initiutive.
Once you do get it, its rather easy to do.

I got myself stuck in some mode a couple of times, and the unit would be unresponsive (resetting it wouldn't help). After downloading the manual from the zoom website I got it figured out.

The manual isn't very well written either.
There is an built in tuner, but it's not realy usefull, since it doesn't show the exact values of your strings (it will say its an B#, but not how far off from tuned it is)

I play mostly metal, grunge and rock. When I used this pedal, I played an s-s-s strat copy through an samick 20 watt practice amp.


The distortion settings were very noisy, even considering low gain settings and using its built in noise reducer. It has a lot of operational noise.

The overdrives lack dynamics and feel, the distortions are not very convincing. I only liked the 'grunge' setting, it had a nice crunch, but it was too weak sounding. The octaver & wah's in this pedal are pretty useless.

I played with it for a few months, I got an sound fairly decent metal sounds, but it wasn't that great.

It is a very cheap looking plastic pedal. It looks as if I could break it using the pedal in a 'normal' way.

The small plastic buttons on the side get stuck a lot, when it happens your settings keep changing until you pull the button up using a screwdriver.
I read other users had this problem a lot too, so this device is pretty unreliable.

I never dealt with them. At least you can download the owners manual from the site.

I play mostly metal, this pedal doesn't make a good match. I guess this pedal doesn't make a good match with any playing style.

I've been playing some 3 years or so, right now I play an
H-S-S strat trough an Metalzone and an Marshall s.s. combo. My gear still sucks, and it's far from giggable. That said, the tone of my setup sounds better than this P.O.S. pedal.

If it got stolen, I would laugh the poor person now having the pedal in his face.

Stay away from this pedal folks, its bad luck. It may be cheap, but just save a bit more and buy something better. Just about any stompbox is better than this thing, and thats saying a lot.

Ez ez, but limited space to see what is on or off, and you have to scroll through all the blocks(predrive, main drive, eq, amp sim znr, level, pedal) for anything. I find this annoying but since the unit is very well protected from shocks, not like their new stuff, it is okay.
The hidden function(bank up and down pressed simultaneously) is clever: you can there adjust the overall gain scale accordingly to your axe. If you program the thing with your les paul, and want to play with your strat, then you adjust the overall gain without touching anything in your patches. Great! But: quite logically it resets everytime the unit is off... Don't forget that point, or you'll have unpleasant surprises, especially in the stress of the gig...
The time lag is almost inexistant, and you can have bank hold. It scrolls through 4patches within a bank, so you can program a patch with overdrive, another with some boost, you copy them (A1-A3, A2-A4) et voila you have a three-channel amp(the bypass makes the clean sound). Very clever.

I play this in many setups : before an amp, in its clean channel. Straight in the power amp of an amp. Straight to the board, via speaker simulation box(the zoom has a fine amp simulation, very useful, but no speaker simulation.).
I play this thing with an expression pedal which allows me to control the panning between block one and block two, smartest thing ever.
So you can rythm clean with comp and gradually fade in some nice crunch while still having the clean sound for bass frequencies'tightness. Great with a bass guitar, only way to have good distortion.
With a five strings bass I toggle between a patch with compressor (and some eq and amp sim) and a patch with octaver (and some eq and amp sim) and it is so far the best thing I ve heard with a bass, no tracking problems and no "pitch shifter effect". Fine!
It is a very versatile and clever unit.
The boost function is perfect for soloing, fresh clear and dynamic.
So far I only use one type of distortion(main4, gain15) with the booster on for solos. It is perfect with my humbuckers'guitars.
When I find a fitting sound I don't search further...
Very little noise, noise reduction works far better than with other zoom products I own(5000,505,9150,gm200,ps02), the sound stays clear and defined.
One could say cold, it is but not in a bad way since a good clean channel(no tubes necessary, only a good amp) warms it up.
For the fun of it I put a behringer mic200 tube preamp in the loop of my trannie 112 combo, and man it is warmer than expected! Now I can't remove it...
I only can imagine the zoom in a vox ac-15, hot'n'spicy!
It is a ten here, considering the price, size and versatility. And the sounds are really good.

Well yes and no. Only a complete idiot gig without a backup, things happen. This unit is very solid, the jacks too (nothing to compare to the newest zooms) and you can walk on it without damaging it. The no is for the tiny bank/edit/store buttons because after some use they stick in the housing and do not work properly then. Some wd40 spray and everything is fine again but still...
The battery option is a life insurance when gigging, because you are not stuck if anything happens to your power supply. And I swear it happens, and more often thn thought in the first place.
My zoom is working flawlessly since a long long time. As are my 508 delay and 504 acoustic(first version) based on the very same design.

It is a very clever, versatile and useful unit. No it won't make you play like Yngwie, crap in equals crap out,only louder and worse.
The compressor is the easiest ever to set up, and it sounds very very good. As does the octaver.
About distortions you can find one for you, provided you don't play like a pig.... And no tone snob either, an audience only cares if you play well with the proper tone the song requests. I can tell you, and I've spent too much in "fine" gear which was no better than this in the end.
I have to find another one, because zoom now does crap.
If you have a warm clean channel at hand, go get a 510.

very easy 2 use....c'mon guyz...4 buttonz!!!(well 6 if u count the 2 pedalz) It may take time 2 play with it and program it 2 get a good sound but that's with any pedal or amp u buy. The only thing bad about it is that if i wanna tweak something during a performance it'll take longer 2 change something going through the editing, than just turning a knob on other pedal, but it's still an easy pedal!!! If u don't think this pedal is easy then u need 2 get off the short bus!!!

this pedal is amazing! u've got every distortion(from OD 2 metal)auto wah, pedal wah,octaver,compressor, noise gate, amp simulator,Eq, and parallel/serial signalz. Although the distortionz r digital, u can get a great sound out of them. People say that it sux just b/c they don't wanna spend the time 2 get a good sound with it, may not know how 2 get good tone, or think tht just b/c it's cheap it's no go; that u have 2 have all tube or high priced/popular effectz 2 sound good.....WRONG! This pedal givez u everything u need and more!

it's reliable. just b/c it's plastic doesn't mean it's cheap and it'll break. U'll break anything if u jump around and stomp the spit out of it. I've used it 4 about 5 yrs in my setup and had no problemz with it. I even use it without a backup, neva needed 1! so if u use it and don't abuse it, it'll last 4eva!!!

neva delt with them...no need 2! good product!

I've been playing 4 13yrs. I play any and everything, mostly blues, rock(all styles of rock),even a little metal. this pedal gives me a great sound 4 wot i play. I use on the A bank and put the bank hold on and i have A1 clean,A2 is my hard drivin OD that i use 4 my leads,A4 is a lighter OD 4 soft ballad or when i need a little breakup,and A3 is a good rhythm OD crunch. It also use it with the 505(which i use 4 chorus, delay, phase,and special fx), as well as a crybaby wah and a few boss pedalz! The 510 is a great pedal when u take the time 2 get the sound u want. I like the versatilitiy it has, especially the OD it rocks! i put it up against my friendz distortionz and it was just as good if not betta; i'm talkin about tube screamers, metal zone, boss OD, Fuzz pedal, even a Marshall amp and it was just as good!!! the only bad thing about it is that it takes longer 2 change something during a performance, if it was stolen i'd buy it agen, but if i can't find 1 i'd settle 4 individual effects that r just as good but i'm glad i got the 510... money well spent!!! give it an all around 9 b/c nothing's perfect!!!

It took me 15-20 minutes sitting with it and reading the manual (Found online at www.zoom.co.jp) to figure most of it out. And I'm sure theres still more I can do.

These are digital effects but they aren't too fake. Distortions galore and this little thing does pretty well.

Just got it an hour ago! :p

Previous answer applies

These effects ARE digital and may sound cheesy to the punk ass kids that mommy and daddy bought them a Marshall full stack and Gibson LP Custom. But for my budget this was a great investment. I'm sick of pissant bad reviews 'cause mommy and daddy bought me a Marshall with better OD or distortion that anything out there so everything else is shit. Ya go fuck your mommy and daddy!

Extremely Tricky too use but if you ever worked your way through a VS880 recording device this is simple. I don't like the pedal switches. Its too easy to hit the wrong one when trying to hit both pedals at the same time. Put this pedal in a simple MXR case and it would be the best.

The sustain is amazing. They threw everything in but the kitchen sink. I thought this pedal sucked because I only used it with headphones and the presets. I'm still trying to emulate the Ibanez Tube Screamer tone with this and am getting close. If anyone out there knows the settings for TS9/808 tone let me know at steve@sec-designs.com

The octaver is a nice touch, the WAH is useless.

Looks pretty flimsy but so far no problems.

Never used it.

7.5 out of 10

I owned this for 3 years maybe more. Now I own a Boss me50, it's another planet. But this was a good pedal for me. It's done only for the distortion. Has some of distortion combining effects like octaver, noise gate, wha, booster, compressor,ecc... and it's easy to use, maybe a bit complicated when editing because there are no knobs. Bit don't be non patient and silly to say: "the pedal sucks 'cuz it takes more than 2 seconds to change settings". Don't be in a hurry for nothing.

People who said here that this pedal sucks are very silly because you just have too play a bit with the PRE DRIVE and MAIN DRIVE and you'll get great distortions, to high gain metal sound to overdriven sounds even for country like stuffs.
I play with a Gibson Lespaul Voodoo and a Peavey audition 110.
Hey no crap settings....and great sounds.

It's made of plastic, one of the pedal switches got broken once, I fixed it immediately all by myself. no problem at all.
I used it on 2 gigs and there was no problem, and at all, why should you play tarzan on your zoom when playing on a gig???? Be gentle with it even on a gig.

Never dealt with them.

I play rock metal, and a lot of other stuffs, This was my effect settings at the time I owned this pedal (about 3 years)

Ibanez wh10, Zoom 510, Ibanez digital delay, Ibanez flanger.

That worth the money it costs.

It's not very easy to set up and not easy to make adjustments.

Anyone else participating in this review who rates the sound as anything other than total shit is tone deaf. I read a review by someone who gave this a good review. After he mentioned what equipment he uses I understood why, he uses a Crate Transistor Half Stack, and an ESP guitar. Anyone who pays money on a transistor head must be tone deaf.

Not sure I trust it.

Only reason I bought it was because I have an all tube half stack through a British 4x12 cabinet and I was looking for something i could play with headphones an night when my wife and daughter are asleep. I do studio recording using Mesa Boogie, Laney and Peavey all tube amps. I would use a Marshall amp but haven't found one that doesn't sound like shit. Anyway I know my tones, and this really isn't worth buying, but hey, there is one born any minute

I used to have a 505(1), so I was familur with the set up, even with the 505 I had, I found it very easy to use and customeize to my likeing. Granted with the 510 it took me a wile to find just the right sound I wanted to get out of it, but what pedal dosen't take a little time to get just right?

I play thrash/death metal, and I found with the pre set on light od (set gain to likeing) and main set to grunge (full gain) and a high EQ setting I was able to get a very Recto like tone, and seires setting with some light overdrive get's a lovely clean tone. The only thing I don't like about the 510 is the lack of flange or chorus. I use this as my main pedal ever since I got it 3 month's ago, and am very happy with it. I must admit some patch's r a little fuzzy, and crake a little too much for my taste, but I just don't use those setting's. I just got the new digitech x seires metalmaster pedal, and the 510 is kicking it's ass so far in the battle for my main set up.

I got this pedal used from a friend, he said the jack for the adapter was messed up so he had to "hotwire" the adapter stright to the box. He didn't do to good a job, but I fixed it, so I can't really comment on the reliability of this pedal

I have had ALOT of distortion pedal's over the year's, inclouding the famous 505, and I was never really happy with the tone's I'ed get out of them and never reall found what I was looking for in a distortion pedal. I can't speack for the next year, but for right now it look's like the 510 is just what I was waiting for, with the pre and main distortion choice's I have been able to come up with full sounding tone's with the right amount of bark and bite. And best of all, if I am not happy with something I can just reset the patch to what I want, but it will take a wile to know just what witch level setting will do to your sound, so be careful or u might just end up with some wicked feedback that will kill everything you play, and just anoy you (and your band, belive me)