Zoom 510 Dual Power Driver

I found it quiet hard to use, because the manual was not Dutch and not very clearly written. Also 4 buttons stick. So when you press that button, you've got to put a screwdriver in it. It's not very useable because that 4 buttons.

My setup is a PRS Santana SE with a Ibanez Tone Blaster and I got to say that I can get better sounds out of the amp. The 510 is also VERY VERY noisy when no effects are used. Some effects do sound nice, but the noise is so damn irritating. This effect has almost only distortions (of low quality)

Told ya earlier that the 4 buttons are sticky, also read it in another review, so, the reliability kinda sucks. The whole thing looks fragile and wouldn't use it at a gig, it's not worth that.

Got this thing for my birthday (if I didn't get it, I definitly, DEFINITLY shouldn't have bought it) and it didn't work with a battery so I returned it to the shop and they concluded that I had to use an adaptor. I never had to deal with Zoom so no rating for this.

I play rock and this...well it doesn't suit anything except for deaf guitarist. If you can get this thing, DON'T BUY IT. It sucks.

Not difficult to learn. The manual is available online in PDF and is very self explanitory.

The sound quality isn't anything to brag about. It's not bad, but not too wonderful either. I was hoping I'd be able to get lots of different sounds out of it but it turns out that it is kind of limited. Zoom kind of exagerates what their low end pedals are capable of. You can combine 2 effects (1 from each group) and set a bunch of other things such as amp modeling and noise reduction. You can tweak the effects a little, but not very much. The ability to decide whether to have the two effects going parallel or serial is nice, but still kind of limiting because so many of the effects are so similar.

If you like distortions and overdrives and you don't plan on using this for gigs then I'd reccomend it. It's not horrible for recording and it does give you a little bit too play with. The wah sound is interesting but I have yet to find a way to make it a useful consistent wah. Most of the presets are allright but not too wonderful. I like the "bass plus" preset.

The sound does have it's hissing and clicking but I've managed to always get very close to eliminating that completely by playing with the volume/pickups on my guitar and the settings on the amp.

Some of the buttons stick. It's never given me any trouble other than that. It may be plastic but I think you'd have to try pretty hard to break it.

I obtained this pedal off ebay for $20.00 (US) and it's not as exciting as I had hoped. I play a lot of clean sounding stuff and so a variety of distortions and overdrives won't be very useful. I wish I had waited and forked out a little more for the 505II. Low end zooms may not be the greatest but a pedal like the 505II at least gives you a little bit of everything to play around with. This pedal is only distortions and overdrives. All the timing effects are in the zoom 509. If you play heavy stuff or want to play around with some heavier stuff then this isn't that bad of pedal. It gives you a nice little variety of sounds and if you look around it doesn't cost much at all. At the same time I'd still reccomend that most people look for a 505II which goes for about $45 on ebay. The 505II has a nice selection of the same types of effects plus a lot of other effects and things to play with. It also has higher quality sound, better amp modeling, etc.

Generally I agree with most of the other people here. The low end zooms are not something you'd probably want to gig with or put in your recording studio. At the same time they are very cheap and give you a lot to play with. If you are looking for a way to alter your sound it could be worth a try. It's a lot cheaper than most other pedals out there and gives you a lot more options to play with.

may be hard to understand first.. but then its easy..

sounds terrible.. it may sound okay if u play single notes...
sucks all the sustain out of my les paul..
and there is a big "click" while changing patches...

plastic shit..

noway dont buy this shit.. i only use it as a tuner nothing more.. it sucks all your sustain.. dont buy this shit... get a tube amp for a real distrotion..

Well, when I bought this puppy used, it came with no manual or anything, I got a 9volt battery to use it, and it is SIMPLE TO USE..
I found editing patches to be very simple, and easy to get the gist of..
C'mon guys, all you have to do is press EDIT, and check out the settings, change to the sound of your liking and then press STORE twice! IS that hard?!
Mine has a lil sticker on the bottom with a 6 digit #, but I do not know what it represents..

If I use my Marshall Amp, my Fender Frontman Amp, or even these lil' Sony Headphones with a tip-ring sleeve jack this puppy sounds pretty decent to pretty good depending on the settings..
A lot of the distortions lack punch and sometimes sound rather crunchy depending on the setting, but they can be beefed up in Pre-Drive mode by adding either Booster, Light or Dynamic OD and lots of gain, but this lil' machine is very tweekable, and even without the "beefing", distortions can be edited to your liking..
I just got this last week, so I didn't know it had Chorus..lol

Depending on the type of music played, and the animation of the user are factors of the dependability of this Zoom 510..
I play everything from Jazz, and Blues to Metal and Alternative..
If I was hardcore Metal, I'd prolly break this pedal on the 1st gig..
This pedal was designed for more Rock oriented peeps, so I really don't think this would hold up in that kind of environment, it's plastic..
For practicing I use it all the time, especially with the headphones..

Never dealt with them, I just got this pup, and I bought it used and it works fine! I may look into upgrading if there is some more effects that can be crammed into this lil' box..

For my thing, this puppy busts..
I can have a super clean sound, or some wild seething distortion, I just save the settings for later..It's SIMPLE!! Anyone who says it isn't must be spoiled or just plain STUPID! I'm sorry if I'm blunt, but that is the way I feel!
I've been playing Guitar and Bass for about 6 1/2 yrs, I have several DOD and Boss stompboxes, they rock uniquely, but this digital pedal is fun to work with too I use it for practice and even for a little fun I do use it live, but not for anything hardcore I just keepit clean and use the Noise reduction as well..
I wish this monster had some flanging and some delay effects..
It can help me make music, and it can get in my way depending on what I want to do..
I would buy this pedal again if I lost or broke it, it's that flexible..

This pedal is a pain to tweak. The sounds that come on the pedal are only slightly interesting.
But, with all the possiblities, there really is no limit on the distortion sound you can get on this.
It's digital, so you won't get any beautiful sounds but there are literally HUNDREDS of great sounds in this box if you're willing to put in the time.

Given the amount of different tones, I give it an 8. It does what it does well. Not great or amazing. but well. You can get some really heavy sounds with this. The clean stuff is ok. I do like the autowah, nice and smooth and the octave is great for single note riffs.

Hmm...The case is certainly tough enough for a lot of abuse. The jacks I don't know about. and given that it eats batteries and the adapter cost $25 it gets a 6.
Wouldn't gig without a backup of ANY pedal or guitar.

This pedal is a fine match. I play heavy music, Sabbath, SOD, hardcore and also Zepplin, the Who, Hendrix. If you're patient, it's a good pedal. for $100 it's a bargan.-OH,YEAH, IT HAS A HEADPHONE JACK!!!!!! No one mentioned how incredibly important that is. It's one of the reasons I bought the damn thing.
I've been playing for 20 years and I know what my sound is. This comes close. Close enough for practice. I haven't used this live, but with the delay on switching I would probably only use one patch anyway. Great for 4tracking though.
If it was stolen, well, I'd be sad. I wouldn't replace it though.
It does help me make music. It's really a practice tool. and a great practice tool. Tons of tones and a headphone amp. Well worth the money.

not easy at all. the hardest biggest pain in the ass to setup I have ever seen. not to mention very cheap looking

this puppy just flat smokes!! once you spend a year playing with it like I have. you then realize the sounds it is capable of putting out. amazing. no other pedal I have seen does so much in one pedal and most sounds are usable. it has totally different sounds too! not just variations on the same old shit.does tons of metal sounds and a few good blues sounds as well as other sounds that were pleasant surprises. octiver works pretty good too! it has tons of noise reduction settings as well as several types of amp simulation as well. has a very adjustable pre drive and an equally adjustable main drive with the usual treble and bass settings, etc. etc.... and there is were the value AND the problem lies. zoom gives you soooooooo much to work with and the a near impossible way of doing it. it is almost incomprehensible. no wonder so many people hate this pedal. unless you are willing to spend hours and hours and a college course to figure it out you will toss it aside in disgust never realizing the sound potential you hold in your hand. what a shame. oh!, by the way, sound quality is among the best.

this thing looks fragile and I worry about the computer inside taking a dump on me. it has a glitch in it, or maybe a sticky button, but, when trying to modify a preset it sometimes starts to scroll numbers real fast on the display and won't stop until you push the other buttons enough. very scary. I always sweat blood whenever I need to edit an existing preset. however, once stored it has no problems at all. no glitches or anything. unless of course, you count the "bank hold" function which can be activated accidentally and will make it unresponsive to program changes. took me forever to figure that one out. I thought it was broke. I will give this box a 5 because of the glitches.

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great sound, great versatility,.. best of any pedal out there.......also the most incomprehensable pedal and the cheapest looking as well as the most glitches of any ever and it is the biggest pain in the ass of any pedal!

I bought it to replace the original Zoom 5000 Power Driver, which makes the Metal Zone look like a Rocktec Overdrive. Unfortunately, that's not what I got.

It's definately not a plug and play type thing. You have to be willing to spend a few hours, days, whatever messing with the buttons to get the right sounds. Then, when you decide, "Oh, I'd like a little more treble, and maybe a little less gain," you have to push twenty buttons to do so, which is rather annoying.

I suppose if you're a patient individual, it's not so troubling, but for the rest of us, yeesh.

Also, prepare to have all spontaneousness in your live sets killed by having to hit a button twelve times to change in between sounds.

The distortions are too harsh, too digital. I used to like stuff like that, but now I'm more into straightforward hard rock and punk. The heavy distortions are too brittle, too fuzzy to sound convincing, and the subtle overdrives sound like farts.

However, since upgrading my guitars and amplifiers, I can now get a really good sound out of it, using the "Booster" pre-drive, turning the output all the way up, and adding just enough noise reduction to kill the line noise. I put it in the middle of my Fender Deluxe Series Strat, and my 1981 Marshall JMP 50 Watt head, and it kicks my preamp in the ass just enough to get amazing distorted hard rock sounds. From Judas Priest to AC/DC to the Ramones to Naked Raygun to MC5 and back again. Of course, that's not what this pedal was designed for, and I'm positive that there's an overdrive pedal out there that will kick my tubes in the ass just as well, if not better than this unit. Right now I'm considering the Reverend Drivetrain.

The buttons stick. Since I use this merely as an overdrive, I don't touch the buttons anyway. If i actually used this at a live show as it was intended, by backup would be a cyanide capsule.

Nver dealt with them.

I like hard rock, 60's garage rock, a little metal, lots of punk and new wave. This pedal is really unsuitable for any of those. If you want super-heavy distortion check ebay for the original Zoom Driver, if you want hard rock or blues, buy a real amp, and perhaps a decent overdrive pedal.

Again, I found something this pedal is pretty good at, but there's something out there I'm looking for that'll sound just as good and won't get me laughed at for using a kiddie distortion.

The manual (instruction sheet) takes some getting used to but, unlike some of the reviewers below who either have patience, self conrol, or reading skills problems (the review two or so slots down), I have had no problem at all making adjustments, even between songs at the club. True enough, most of the canned patches are not useful without editing, but this is common with a lot of programmable gear in my experience.

Ease of use: These 900 series pedals have a problem out of doors in sunlight....you can not read the patch numbers. This can (and has been) a major problem for me and I no longer own one of these pedals on account of it. Love the sound, but since you have to tap/scroll through patches, if you can't see the numbers you can get into real big trouble when the lead break comes up. I now use a CB Labs PRX 902...incredibly user friendly, and sounds even better than the 510.

(Don't you just love it......if you want to see your own tough-guy profanity in print this seems to be your forum, as long as you sign your name "Anonymous". Just had to say that because it seems to be getting worse here within the H/C reviews.)

My Setup: My primary guitar is a stock '72 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop. I have a Mex Tele set up with a Hip Shot Trilogy bridge for slide in four keys.

My amps are old (pre '85) Randalls and a Laney Pro Tube Head. I rarely get loud enough to razz the output stage of an amp, hence the stompies.

Again, I don't understand why so many seemed to have problems getting this pedal to work for them. I like a bluesy overdrive with just a little edge for most things and another patch that can do the "TV Dinners" kind of thing, and I have nailed both of these requirements with no difficulty. I play through both tube and solid state amps, no we can't say the amps are the reason. I get a good sound, or so say our fellow musicians. Don't forget, much of the tone of your gear comes from your personal touch on the strings. The EQ function is very effective and the available drive options are ample. I truly think people are just too impatient to work with these ZOOM pedals, because they certainly CAN provide great sounds.

Sounds I can get: Similar to Robben Ford, Hendrix, Clapton, various generic blues overdrive sounds, thin or thick, any color.
I give this a 9 because I think 10 is unobtainable from any pedal or amp.....otherwise, why would we be spending all this money changing our gear every time something new shows up at the NAMM show?

So what if it's plastic? I used mine on stage and in the studio for two years with no problem. If you're jumping on any of your pedals hard enough to break them I suggest you might have a rage problem, at the very least more money than sense.

Never needed customer support.

I submitted this review because the others are so mixed. Again, I also think some reviewers ought to stick to spray painting graffiti and scratching dirty rhryms on toilet stalls and leave the music to the grown ups. May be the editor here at Harmony Central should be more involved.

I already mentioned we play blues and Southern blues-rock, some of it original. The pedal gave me everything I needed, plus the added bonus of breaking into natural feedback "at volume". Love that when it happens, don't you? Been playing over three and a half decades now. Already mentioned my other gear. If this were stolen? Shoot, I sold it. Probably shouldn't have. Compared to other products of the type, in regards to sound, I'd say it's right up there with the best of them I've used. To me, overdrive with just a tad of compression sounds more like the output tubes breaking up into saturation, which is my favorite "pushed" sound. This pedal can do just that. I prefered this pedal over a big six button floor board because of the compact size. Had a lot of fun with it. At the prices they go for now they are a terrific buy. I may just get another one, just in case..........

Ya'll have fun.

Its pretty easy to use. It didnt take me long to figure it out at all. Just hit the pedals to find the patch, press edit to edit, and use the foot pedals to choose what you want. its not rocket science.

The sound is ok for what it is giving to you. I only tried it on a 15 watt amp though. The effects are kind of mild mostly, and I didnt want that. I wanted something hardcore. If you want something like that, i dont reccomend this at all. I can get the sound of the mild distortion like what deftones play in the introduction of some of their songs. The only problem I have is that the sounds that the guitar makes (even though they are editable) sound very similar. If you want a good multi effect get the 505 II.

it hasnt broken yet on me so I would rate this pretty high. Would gig without a backup

This is overall, an ok piece. if it were stolen, i'd probably get the boss mt-2 or the zoom 505II pedal. Its not a piece of trash though, so if you like mild distortions that are customizable, i reccomend it. It would be cool if it had some harder distortions, but oh well. I think its also a little too expensive for what is has to offer

Not a bad little box for $50(bought used)

Editing is easy, but there are a lot of options, so those who like it simple, might not like this unit.

The manual is very informative(actually, it's a piece of folded paper)

I use a Schecter C-7 seven string guitar, running through a Crate amplifier. By turning the Crate amp's chorus on(bottom level 0), the unit really sounds much better than without the effect.

The distortion can get very noisy, but the secret to this unit is the last editing option of mixing the two channels, something missed by some of the other reviews. If you do this just right (takes time) you can find some kick ass distortion. It's got the digital feel to it, but it's not amp distortion, so....

I would say this thing could help anyone find a unique sound. As for re-creating other artist's sound... i don't think you'll want this unit. I'm not into that anyway.

The pitch shift on this thing is the best i've heard so far for something in this price range. I solo with it and DAMN... great effect.

It has an effect for using a pedal wah, which i find interesting. I don't have the optional pedal yet, but i probably will now.

it's plastic - need i say more
Good for gigs if you are not too aggressive with it.

I wouldn't use it without a backup - again, plastic

never dealt with them and I have owned a Zoom 2020 Player multi-effects pedal for 5+ years now.

I wouldn't buy it again, i would buy a Crate or Marshall amp with 3 channels (2 overdrives). They kick ass. Pedals just don't do it for ME, but some people might like the distortion that pedals put out.
I saw it on Ebay and got it cheap just to see what it was like. It was worth $50, plus the 7.5 in shipping. I wouldn't pay over $80 though, for a new one that is.
I use it recording, because of the ONE amp simulation it has. Does make a difference.

Zoom makes good products, but they need to fine tune their distortions a little more. TOO digital.