Zoom 9002

Very difficult if you don't have the manual

Sound quality for me was from best to worst, 8 for practice through headphones, it's not a bluesman's thing but, it has some cool variations. 6 for recording. I'd hoped for better. 3 for playing into an amp, bogus!!! changes the entire character of a tube amp, and not for the better.

I don't know anyone whos killed one yet would be a ten if not for the battery expect 5 years out of it but possibly less if you let it sit without using it

never tried

Soft acoustic, thrashing rock, blues, blues fusion, sometimes electronic music. don't pay to much the prices have come way down

Very easy to figure out as everyone has already said. I like the different things you can do.

Thru an amp it proobably takes a certain kind of gate add on with the 1/" jack, but if you use both the headphne PU's in a y config like the guy above said, it's un-beatabe. I like to think of a guitar cord as a big antenna and boy does this guy give a big antenna but with the little cords it's positively tits.

Iv'e miswired the cables, dropped it you name it and it still works.

n/A never even called them

For an all in one processor it's a great value!!

dead easy to use. takes only minutes to figure it out.

pretty awful if used through an amp - the distortion and compression are particularly horrible. however, through headphones sitting on the couch it sounds great.

the battery failed after about 3 months. now the whole thing has croaked - i think due to problems with the ac adaptor. about to have it fixed though, as it's been knocking around with my guitars for about 8 years.

havent dealt with them yet - hope they can get me a battery.

fun little unit. though it must be very out of date now.

This is a fun little unit. When it came out, one reviewer referred to it as "Darth Vader's Codpiece." My friends call it "Satan's Walkman." I have lots of fun with it. Once I organized the user patches into useable banks, so I can just progress back and forth without much trouble. The presets are OK, but too many distortions. Easy to use, I figured it out in a day, but it's like golf...you can pick it up fast but it takes a while to master. I strap it onto the handle of my amp with a velcro watchband.

It's noisy for amps. However, it's been great with my four-track, especially with the stereo outputs. The presets are OK, but it's pretty easy to set up custom ones for recording.

It's reliable, except the battery is really a chunk of aluminum or something. It doesn't hold a charge. I bought new ones (about $25 at GC in 1997) and they lasted for a while. Now I just plug it in. I'd use it on a gig.

Never had to contact Zoom about this guy, but it is old and discontinued.

I found out that when I first plugged it in, it was relatively simple to operate. The manual is ok, but the factory presets are not the greatest. Also editing is not a long process either.
I also made a foot switch controller out of the remote control with is really cool. I got tired of trying to fumble around with the correct band or setting I was on,,,but with the footswitch, it makes the difference.

I am running a Peavey Supreme through a marshall 800 4x12, along with a Fender strat and it sounds pretty good. I have found that the more distortion and compression I tend to get a lot of feedback. Also the low end lacks some drive. But I can reproduce many different sounds from it.

The only trouble I had with it was the power inout plug from the adapter. I had to wire a new one. Other than that no problem in the 2 years I have owned it.

I never had to deal with customer support yet?
Knock on wood.

Over all I like the product. But like I stated earlier, the foot controller is the key.
If anyone had the need for a foot controller, feel free to give me shout and I could assist in building one, or I could build you one for around 65.00 plus shipping.

Very intuitive. It took me less than a day to get the hang of it. Really, there aren't that many buttons to mess with. However, after 6 years of use, I'm still coaxing new sounds out of it. Most of the presets are silly, but give a good idea of how you go about combining effects to create your own patches. The manual is clear and straightforward and has a nice blank graph to write down cool settings you stumble upon for later use.

I run both a standard Strat and a Chapman Stick through this unit, and got good results with both after some tweaking, and especially after I put a wah pedal into the mix. This has actually been my main processing tool for the past 6 years, and I still think it's an amazing little doodad once you get past its obvious limitations. It can actually give you some truly nasty distortion and tons of sustain if you caress it right. The chorus, flange, and phaser are a joke on their own but can add nice color to an existing patch. I love the delays, especially the fact that you can have two delays happening at once at different speeds(even if it does max out at 1 second). Cool. The pitch-shift is surprisingly good, and serves as a base for some of the wildest sounds I've produced. On the downside, heavily-distorted patches tend to make a lot of noise, and there's a brief-but-irritating delay when you change patches. As for the reverb, stick with the one on your amp. And I never found a use for the ring-modulator, wah-simulator or synth effects.

The unit itself is quite rugged; 6 years and it's never failed me once. All the buttons, lights, and sliders still work fine. However, the rechargable battery system is very poor; the battery stopped working after about 6 months, but I usually just let the device sit on top of my amp anyway, so there was no real need for it. The little remote was pretty crummy and didn't last long either.

I would certainly use it at a gig without a backup. In fact, the thought that something would go wrong with it never entered my mind!

Can't say, I never had to deal with the company.

My current forte is experimental Stick-based stuff; think Fripp, Belew, David Torn, etc. I do lots of real-time looping, and rely heavily on the ability to access lots of different timbres. I suppose the Zoom 9002 isn't really ideally suited to this style but, like I said before, over 6 years I've created some surprisingly bizarre sounds with this little thing, and a lot of guys I've played with told me they didn't expect to hear such wild sounds from it. Plus, it's cool that I can fit the 9002, a wah/volume pedal, 2 sampling pedals, and all the wall-warts and cables I need, into a standard briefcase. That's really nice.

If it were stolen or lost at this point I'd use it as an excuse to move up to a Boss GT3 or some Digitech or ART floor unit. But it did take 6 years for me to really feel that I'd outgrown the Zoom. Considering its size and its relative cheapness back in 1994 it's amazing that it does everything that it does, and I can easily forgive the limitations.

It takes a lot of fiddling but it gets there.

i am using a 40watt pro amp(cheap amp but for the price it is exellent) on a cheap odessa strat. the compression is very noisy. it takes a lot of the meat out of the clean sound and it sound awful when using a pedal the distortion is very weak for what i want but good for a beginer.

no pobs yet

haven't needed it

i play grunge punk metal(black sabbeth ect) & blues
i'v been playing 4 years.
i love the delay the destortion could be a bit basser
if it were stolen or lost i'd buy a marshall jackhammer

Too small display. But anyway, quite intuitive.

Used it for 6 years with a EMG modified strat. I think the thing works the best if you have silent pickups (humbuckers) on guitar from the start. Sounds terrible through an amp. Pretty noisy on extreme settings on the compressor and dist. Dist can be annoying sometimes, due to lack of character. This is my main box to produce BAGPIPE sounds on guitar. Compressor, Full tilt distortion, and EQ set at enhancer, plus a strong detuning in the pitch effect..it buzzes like a bee! Very weak output, and the time slack it takes to swap patches is annoying. The metronome had stronger output on the earlier models, and was weakened down to unusability on later models. Definetly a practice headphone thing. Lacks pick attack, and transients on all sounds, even if bypassed. The Scholz Rockman X100 had better pick projection. Max 3-4 effects should be used at a time, else it starts to muddying the sound too much. However, acceptable for the time being. Sounds decent through a midrange home hi-fi, but playing together with other music it tends to not cut through regardless of effects configuration. Use lower end walkman phones, those expensive ones tends to enhance that bee-buzz sounds.

Have used it on gigs. Those sliders can get gritty from time to time, so slide them up and down for a while, gets them back in right positition so one can fine tune dealy settings etc. The battery lid's poor. Have lost it so it's left open. Dropped it a few times. The jacks are prone to internal cracks since all of them are solded onto circuit board. I used it without a backup. But after 3 gigs I thought it couldn't make a decent sound that was usable, so i kept it at home for practicing purposes only.

Not ever needed. Did that soldering bit myself.

I play contemporary rock/ambient dance music. Good for Metal riffs. Has a tendency to sound the "same" no matter what. If played/recorded in studio, it sounds like "theres the other instruments" and "theres someone who laid a guitar on top of these things". It's very hard to make it BLEND. Either it's too loud, or too low in the mix. Today I would check out the alternatives (Korg Pandora etc) isntead. Favorite feature: REV2 lowest setting (close mike) full effect.

right from the start, very easy to program and copy from preset patches.

noisey, especially with compression, but workable if you take the time to play with your settings.

I've been using this thing as my ONLY effects, practice and live, and it only caused me a problem once and that was when the cord of the AC power supply had a break in it. Nothing new to those of us who chose AC over DC.

Pretty good. I just recently called them for replacement of both the input and output 1/4" jacks cause after 9 years of continous use they finally started to wear out on the inside connections. And they're sending them for free. Even shipping.

I LOVE this thing. Even though others dont seem to like it through an amp I personally have no problem with it. I'm currently using a Peavey Bandit 112 and not suffering any sound change from my other amps I've used in the past. The time delay between channel switching is the only thing that sucks but it is workable. I also own the footswitch for this paticular unit and Ive been able to time channel switching when I need it and its not noticable as long as your channel volumes are level. Even in recording. Looking to buy another one just in case for backup.

This sweet small unit is just wat i was looking for.It is very easy to get the sound that you like to. &I didn't nedd any manual to use it.the unit come with an A/C adaptor,rechargeable NiCad battery and a cable remote control.

I have an Epiphon (s-310)... but.. it is no longer an epi. I'v change the pickups to a Fender Lace sensor set and i'ts now sound better then any new strat or alike. I use a Marshall-5120 combo (70w) and the sound is very sweet and clear, just as I like it to. (and belive me I'm a SoundMan and I know a thing or two....)

The reliability of it is very good, and I'm using it on a gig (without a backup)

i'v got this unit with a small problem... it's didn't ouput... and I'v send it to the lab of the music store that represents Zoom in my country and after one week exactly it was back.

For overall, it is a great unit and it's realy match me. I love the SFX - there are few funny things there.. specialy with a delay... only the distortion is pretty weak.. I think that it will be better whith a wha-wha. I play mainly rook and blues (like Queen and Gary moor). for the bottom line.. It Is Great!