Zoom 9002

Wonderful. This was my first effects unit. I bought it new about 6-7 years ago when it first came out. Easy to program, nice clean display, even a metronome built in.

A little tinny on the distortion size, but for a small compact unit that fits in your shirt pocket, it packs a mad punch. Nice cleans, some funny effects.

A couple of the rubber buttons pushed into the unit, so that I had to use a pen to set a few things. Nothing unsurmountable though.

Tremendous backup unit. If your rig goes down, having a 3lb processor the size of an distortion pedal on hand is a great thing. It'll get you through the gig without a doubt. The hand controller is cheesy and rather useless, but that's really this unit's only shortcoming. Great for what it is, but it doesn't really compare to a full rack unit.

Overall sound quality was ok. I didn't like the distortion as it sounded very weak. In fact I use my Amps distortion and just use the zoom for effects like chorus etc. Editing patches is really easy.

Effects wise this unit is not too bad, Like I have already mentioned the distortion was quite bad, and the rest of the effects sounded too 'naselly' for my liking. I like a rich fat sounding tone and I found it hard to get an effect that I liked.The compression was quite noisy and an EXTREMELY annoying feature was that there was a slight delay in the sound when you changed patches!!

Reliability was really good. I brought mine second hand and it loked like it had been to war and back. It always works first time and I have yet to have it cut out on me. I would and have used it without a backup and it went fine.

N/A

If you want a cheap reliable multi effects pedal then this would do. In retrospect I would have rather saved up a little more and brought a better unit. I found the delay between patches really annoying as it took away the clean to distorted contrast quite badly and I found that I had to play as the effects unit dictated not how I would like to play.

Well, its really not that hard to use. It took me a while to get the really un-zoomish sounds though. The distortion always seem to sound Zoom 9002 for most guys, but after these 5 years with my little turtle, I've finally managed to get really decent distortion and stereo imaging.

Well, it's no Tube amp, it's no TC. Electronics reverb or delay, but it's a Zoom 9002. This box will surely be worth a lot more than I paid for it. Almost everyone has used it. Satriani, Metheny, Scofield, and in every late-80's TV series you can hear the Zoom sound in the intro's. Jus listen to the Beverly Hills 90210 theme or the Zorro theme and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Well, how can you rely on a box looking like this. I would never use it live. I only use it for home-practicing with headphones, and you shouldn't expect more from it. The battery broke down the second day I had it. (I bought it used). The DC input is a little stoopid too. I had to open the box and put a little piece of paper under the jack.

Well, I don't want to mess with this. I try to fix things myself.

I would buy it again! Since it's a lot cheaper now than when I bought it. I love this box. It's the best practise box I know of. And it sounds great. If you just tweak it a little. The clean sounds are capable of professional recording even today. The delays and chorus are awesome. By using the chorus in a slow mode together with compression and distortion, you can get a very wide distorted sound.

Ok to use. Editing isn't too bad. Display is a little too small. Changing patches is cumbersome.

Here's the reason I submitted this review. As everyone else already said this thing sounds good through headphones but terrible through an amp. And I agree, except that I discovered a way to improve the amp sound dramatically. DON'T USE THE 1/4" INSTRUMENT JACK FROM THE ZOOM OUTPUT. Use the 1/8" headphone jack. Go to Radio Shack and buy a stereo 1/8" to 1/4" instrument "Y" adapter. If they don't have one just buy whatever adapters they do have to take your output from the 1/8" headphone jack. If you can pump this puppy into two amps from the headphone jack you will be very pleased with the result.

I've dropped it to the floor at least 6 times. And I bought it used and it looks like it's been through a war. But everything still works. Battery life is short and it's a "custom" shaped battery, why didn't they just make the battery cavity capable of holding several standard size batteries? Obviously, to scoop more money from us for the "Zoom" batteries.

Hard to get a hold of

Of course at 60 bucks how could I not like it? And it can be convinced to produce some pretty good sounds. It's not a rack mount pre-amp processor, but with two amps and taking the output from the headphone jack it has allowed me to put off buying something much more expensive.
Now that I've had it for a while I would never pay more than $150 for one of these, new or used.

Pretty easy to program. There aren't a whole lot of parameters for each effect, but it is pretty cool that you have three sliders to adjust settings in real time. Manual is adequate.

Distortion is extremely nasal and very weak. Compression raises the noise floor up incredibly high- worse than stomp boxes. Digital effects sound, well, digital, but the analog effects are _awful_. I have not been able to dial up a decent distortion sound live at all, and the output is so weak that it seems to lower your gain through your amp considerably. It's weird, but I can't get a decent sound through an amp at all, ever. It seems like its either so undynamic it is drowned out, or so shrill it gives a lot of ear fatigue.
Of course, it IS alright through headphones.

Battery life is short, and seems susceptible to "memory" problems (When half-charged batteries "burn-in" and you can't recharge them to maximum). It has surived with me for several years, but it started having power/battery problems soon after I bought it.

I've only dealt with the company to attempt to acquire a footpedal for this, which was exorbriantly expensive at the time...

I bought this item several years ago, and was disappointed with it from the start. I have had some fun with the digital effects over the years, and it does have a good outlay of connectors, but I consider it nothing more than a toy. I have never been able to use it effectively in a serious situation, and have always avoided using it live. It makes an ok headphone amp. I probably would of done a lot better to by one of the multi-effect footpedal boards available, or even to invest the same amount of money in stompboxes. =P

If you have the manual, it's fairly easy to use. You choose what effect you want, then there are three sliding levers. One generally controls degree or type of effect. The others control things like speed of decay or pattern. You have to have the manuel for it, though, because some settings can produce pretty different things on say, "flanger" depending on what pattern you choose with the first lever.

It's somewhat noisy. All the effects are blah. It's not going to bring out new dynamics in your sound, but it will do pretty much what you expect a delay, reverb, chorus, compression, etc. to do. The advantage is in the packaging. There are much better chorus pedals, better delay, better compression and flangers out there, but to get all these things in one package is nice. It sounds pretty good through headphones, but like I said, you're not going to get all those subtle things that set a certain effect apart. Think generic.

The rechargable battery quit on me, but I must admit that I didn't treat it very well. For the pounding this unit has taken, it's held up fairly well

I had a hard time getting in touch with Zoom. Once I did, they made me pay for new battery, but I felt this was fair since it was totally my fault that I screwed up the old one. I have heard reports that they do not like retailers to discount their items. I don't think too much of this, although since they price so cheaply to begin with, it's hard to complain.

It's a great piece of gear for those who are starting out, and 1) don't gig, 2) have cheapo solid state practice amps, or practice through headphones, and 3) don't have a lot of cash. It's great for effects you use every once in a while. For example, I don't think I would buy a flanger, because I just don't use them that often. On the other hand, I like chorus so I bought a chorus pedal which I think works better than the Zoom. For it's price, it's tough to beat. But don't buy it to achieve a particular sound.

Not particularly easy. Readout is dim(needs backlighting). Parameters are set with small sliders and just a little movement can make a lot of diference in the effect. The manual is really pretty good and they give you all the parameters for the presets.

Through an amp - Yuk! Through headphones as a practice device - the Best! It never seems to develop unity gain on most efffect when played through an amp. It ends up sounding really weak. Through a good pair of phones it is a totaly different beast. Warm and full dirstortion. Great Reverd & delay. Can't get that mildly overdriven blues tone but it has a pitch shifter. Plug in your cd player and jam with Stevie Ray w/o retuning!

Had it about 18 mos and bounced it a couple of times - No problem

I would not be without it for late night practicing when the familiy is snoozing. Sucks through an amp. Much more versatile than my Rockman Soloist.

This effect has the most user-friendly interface in this category. It is very logical and easy to modify effects. Users can keep track what they are doing easily. However, the lack of floor panel makes it almost useless in stage environment. The unit offers a wide range of effects, most of them reasonably good.

Noise is what you get out of this unit most easily. The lack of the noise gate makes it play on in interrupts. The distortion would not win any price in most categories. Some effects are quite good, but when I play in a band with this unit the others cannot hear me, and increasing volume doesn't help. Pretty good (almost excellent) through headphones but useless through an amp.

The adapter plugging method sometimes leads to power failure, if the battery is not charged. I could not find any other problems.

It is relatively cheap considering the number of effects in it. However, I strongly discourage everyone to purchase it for stage use. If somebody finds it a good value for home practicing, he/she should buy it. I would buy it again, if I have more money to spend on home practicing equipment, but between present circumstances, I wouldn't.

The 9002 has a fantastic "amp emmulation" quality for recording directly into a tape deck... particularly if you use the headphone output to maintain the stereo sound

Most effects have a terrible signal to noise ratio!!! however, running the 9002 through my fender amp is no big problem when performing live. I'm particulaly impressed with the compressor/sustain and reverb effects.

Yes, very dependable unit although the rechargable 6v battery that came with the unit is defective. My local dealer replaced the battery and it is defective also. I've tried to contact Zoom and cannot get an answer at the phone number on the back of the manual
HELP! HELP! HELP! if anyone can help me get in contact with the Zoom company I would greatly appreciate it. (phone # or anything!!!) I need a working battery badly! please send info to me at superguide@shelby.net THANKS!!!!!!

I cant get an answer on thier phone # I need a replacement battery desperately PLEASE HELP!

Yes I would buy the unit again. Very good product overall!
If I can get a working replacement battery I would be totally satisfied.

It's dead easy to get a good sound out of this unit. Editing is a cinch and the manual is very good.

I use it with a strat through a Mesa Boogie Studio .22 combo amp and with some judicious tweaking, it sounds great. Unfortunately the distortion is a little noisy but you can keep it under control if you damp your strings properly and don't just thrash around with your right hand. The key to getting a good distortion out of it is to use the EQ section properly. The presets mostly suck as usual but who uses presets anyway?

I've been using it on gigs without a backup for several years without any trouble. The battery is a joke because it won't last through a 5 hour gig. I use the wall wart.

I've never had any dealings with the company.

I'd buy another one even though it's inconvenient to change settings because you have to take one hand off the guitar to do it. It would have been better if it came with footswitches. But then again, I don't overuse it. When I used stomp boxes, I used to tap dance on them all night. If they brought out a better one with more user memory and a noise gate and footswitches I'd trade up. I can't work out why everyone says it sounds bad through an amp. Maybe there's something wrong with mine because I don't have any problems.