Zoom 9002PRO "Artist Edition"

I like it cool little unit. Its easy to edit the patches, much easier than My main processor (Boss GT-3). It is a bit limited but I still like it...

3 different guitars: a 7 string Warlock, a Jackson King V KV-4 and a 1986 Westone Dynasty. I run into a AVT150 and randall 4x12 cab. Personally I think it sound killer, I don't know what every body is bitching about the sound coming out of thier amps it sound fine to me, you just turn up the compressor and put the gain switch on low and your all set. I find the distortion a bit dry at times but then I turn up the reverb a little and it helps. the delays are awesome though.

Just got it, and I'll really only be using it for direct recording <take to tape very well.

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I play metal and hard rock, been at it for almost 5 years, I own too much stuff to list here PA, multi tracker mixer Boss GT-3, I already posted the amp set up above. I compared it to the Pandora PX-3, I chose this one cause I know someone who has one and really like the sound on tape. I wish the patch changes were quicker, theres a 1 second delay between. Like I said first cool little unit.

It's easy to get many effects but if you want to get the maximum quality of the sounds like very good distortions, you need to learn how to setup very good the effects combinations...
To edit the Patches is the easyest thing in this processor. The manual is very good and teaches all the functions...
The only thing I sugest to be easyest to use is buy a foot swicht!

I have a Fender Stratocaster with 2 single coils and 1 humbunker, and I plug it in 1 Marshall Valvestate 15W. It doesn't have noises if you configure correctly. I've tryed to get sound's of Guns N' Roses, Queen, Iron Maiden and others and I can get very close to the original.
The distortion is very strong when you turn on the pre-amp simulation and equalize in high frequencies. And you can get a hot distortion with the booster.

I play progressive rock and it's very good to play with Zoom 9002PRO

20 banks, 4 patches per bank - all of them preset but easily tweakable...can only save to the first 9 - thus overwriting the "artists" patches...the manual comprises your basic japanese translation but usable, comes with a good overview of preset patches..plug guitar in, plug amp in - play, get annoyed, unplug amp, plug in headphones, get less annoyed...

Using my Squier Strat through a Fender 75 (valve) it sounds appaling, the sounds are so heavily biased towards distortion and way too many layers of effects. Even with the new Gordon Smith (coil tapped humbuckers and all!) it still sounds better with headphones! This is a very expensive headphone amp...with some good effects, but even through solid state / transistor amps its not great! - too clinical, not enough woody warmth...no tone basically!

So far so good - been dropped loads and still okay - battery life is very poor and has an annoying habit of "reseting" to patch 1, bank 0 when knocked on battery power...wouldn't like to gig it without power...

Never tried...

I've playing for 10 years and this was the first "serious" effect I've bought...wish I'd stuck with pedals (I even tried to take this unit back the day after I bought it because it sounded so lousy through my amp, needless to say they didn't want to know....!). Straight into the 4 track its passable and hooked up through my midi gear its fun for weird effects, but this certainly isn't a "PRO" piece of kit...steer clear (buy the Pandora!)

Plug in and play use the up & down buttons to choose your patch then hit the bank button to activate it. Use the bank button tho change between four banks of effects. Each bank contains 10 User and 10 presets. Programming is similarly easy, use the cursor button to select the effect you want adjust the appropriate slider and hit "tore" viola. My unit was an in store demo and came sans manual but I had no problems programming the thing.

I use this thing primarily through one of two signal chains. Either Zoom-Digitech Modulator-Digitech Whammy/Wah-Laney HC25 or Whammy/Wah-Modulator-Zoom-Korg Pandora (which has great amp simulations and a good noise reduction). Either way I'm going to give this thing an 8.
On the one hand the distortion sounds by and large suck. They sound very thin in relation to the distortions from the Pandora, the distortion of my Laney and even thinner than my BOSS DS-1 pedal which is fairly thin in it's own right. If you're looking for that "woman tone" or "brown sound", I'd suggest buying a Pandora (I can't vouch for the PX-2 but the PX-1 rules), it's cheaper and is much more "traditional" sounding. I't s not that good distortions aren't possible with this unit, but you have to work for 'em.
That being said the other effects kick butt. You can get anything from subtle to truly crazy sounds (check the "SFX" section). I'm particularly fond of the multiple delays, even running them mono (Delay 2 is a stereo ping-pong delay) you can do some interesting multi-tap things, like have your delay repeats get *louder* and such. The pitch shifter tracks perfectly, but like many units in this range it can sometime sound more like a guitar being doubled by a keyboard than two guitars. By and large if you steer clear of the distortions the sounds available are wonderful.

Ok, I've had this unit for a little over a year, it's been dropped, kicked and stepped on and survived with flying colors. There's no doubt to me that this thing could stand up to the rigors of live usage except for one thing. The battery only lasts for about 2 hours. This might not be a problem for you. In fact 2 hours is about the length of a good show from a major headlining act. But for rehearsals or practicing at home or even a bar-band gig this pretty much blows. I'd use it live without a back up if I could attach it to the top of my amp and leave it plugged in.

Problem one - as I stated earlier I didn't get my unit with a manual I went to the Samson Technologies Zoom webpage (www.samsontech.com/zoom) to see if they'd have something. I believe it was here that I found a request form for the manual, this was several weeks ago and I've gotten nothing but an e-mail saying that I will recieve a manual in the mail at some point in the future. Com,pare this to say, Digitech. When I broke my Whammy pedal I got an e-mail back (*FROM AN ACTUAL PERSON*!!!) telling me what the problem seemed to be with an attached Microsoft Word file giving detailed instructions on how to fix it. All in less than 24 hours.
Problem two - The samson homepage referred me to the Zoom corporate homepage (www.zoom.co.jp) which had the manuals for every Zoom product in PDF file format *EXCEPT* the 9000/Fire series. Considering these are like the Zoom trademark effects processors you'd think they'd be a little bit more heavily supported, but noooooooooooo.
Zoom really needs to have a better web presence. If you're going to do it, don't do it halfway.

My overall opinion is that if you're playing in a more traditional situation where you're trying to nail that Page/Clapton/Beck tone and really only need three sounds; clean, dirty and wah'd, then you're probably wasting your time with this. Buy a nice Marshall or Fender amp and a crybaby.
However, if you've already got a good distortion sound nailed and you want to get into some more complex sounds then this might be your ticket. Although the Pandora has got this beat for distortion sounds, *NOTHING* in this price class beats the Zoom's flexibility. I'd especially recommend this unit to anyone doing more textural based music or who find themselves playing a lot of keyboard parts on guitar, you can get some really spacey sounds with this unit without trying hard at all (that would be the special effects).
Outside of the distortions the only thing I'm bummed about with this unit is that I don't have the foot controller which would make this thing more manageable in a situation where I don't have time to change patches by hand. That's no fault of the unit, just wanted to note that this review was made without one.
Overall it's a great unit and would easily be a "10" if they could fatten up the distortions and work on the battery life.

Straightforward, simple to use, only one layer of pages. Easy to edit patches (fortunately) while playing.

Quiet, has a decent noise gate. Presets heavily into distortion, many with way too many effects. Once you tweak it, you can get some pretty nice sounds out of it. Reverbs and delays are good, flange works well, chorus is a major weakness. Distortions are best when used carefully, a little goes a long way. Sounds good thru headphones, makes an excellent practice amp. Sounds surprisingly good thru a Mesa 2:90 poweramp when used as a preamp. Excellent output levels, blows away the Pandora in this regard. Nice feature: Two headphone outputs- you can have a friend plug his headphone amp into it and both of you can hear to jam together.

Seems to give me no trouble at all. Plastic, but I have dropped it a couple of times without ill effects.

I needed a new rechargeable battery, the techs were helpful, friendly and fast.

For the price I paid, it was great. Some of the effects quality can be better (especially chorus) but it does a decent job as a spare preamp and especially as a portable headphone amp. Pandora's effects might be overall a little better, but the Zoom's are decent enough, and it has much more output! I am surprised the price hasn't dropped in light of the competition.

Fairly simple to use and edit compared to other multieffct processors. Manual is excellent.

The presets by the artists are a mixed bag, but there is a little something for everybody. Opinions will vary according to taste. The other factory presets are average. You can create your own sounds with few limitations. Need to cleart up the poor sound quality issue. This thing is great through headphones because it appears to be designed for stereo listening. If you want headphone quality sound through an amp you have to have a stereo amp setup.

Made of plastic so I wouldn't want to drop it too many times

Never had to use customer support.

Would buy it again, but I think it should be discounted more than it is. Mail order dealers tell me that Zoom instructed them not to discount their products too much.

The presets are a complete waste of time. This unit must be tweakes to obtain optimum sounds.There are some very good sounds inside if time is taken to program them. On the down side, why would a reputable company put out a unit of this sort that sounde excellent through headphones, and like complete unusable shit through any amp you plug it into. If you need a good practice headphone amp, or a cab simulator to go directly to tape, then I would recommend this unit. But if you want to charge up an amp, this unit is NOT!!! for you.The manual is thorough and editing patches is fairly simple, and I've gotten good results on tape. I wouldn't dare take this thing out live, through an amp. The people at zoom get a big F- for the way this thing sounds through an amp!

The Zoom people took the time to include a totally useless special fx section, (no usable sounds here), and no noise gate, very poor decision! Unit direct through my 4 track has nice stereo separation, and usefull distortion sounds but too noisy.

Unit has worked just fine since I've had it.

Haven't had to contact dealer yet, but big deal, sounds like shit through an amp and no noise gate.

I would not buy this unit again. This unit is just an expensive headphone practice amp. Shop around, you can do better!