Zoom 9150 Valve DSP

I've waded through all five pages of reviews on this old unit (which I bought new a long time ago - maybe 13 years or so), and have found conflicting reviews.

Some found it noisy, some didn't. Why is that? Well, the answer is:

Those who've found it too noisy didn't know how to use it! If you turn up the input volume too high, and the led stays lit, then yes, you will certainly get a crappy sound.

All amps that don't use a noise gate are going to have some noise. That's life. The trade-off is tone. Does this unit have it?

Yes. It does.

First off, much of the presets are too over the top with effects. Initially, someone might like hearing themselves with all that going on, but it gets tiresome fast. Effects are like spices. Too much, and they aren't so good.

That being said, editing the existing patches to create new, useful ones isn't difficult, and it has been described here several times.

The manual is helpful in regards to editing patches, but may be a bit short on the midi end.

Each preamp and effect have mulitple pages for editing, and they're not difficult to edit, even without the manual. For that, I'd say the unit is fairly easy on a user.

Most important: prior to editing/creating patches, setup the input and output volumes - especially the input (from the guitar). That's where the "horrible" sounds come from. Keep it to where the led clipping light may light for a fraction of a second, and the horrible sound is gone.

Editing is done by pressing edit, and pushing the right button until the preamp or effect is selected. From that point, it's a case of a combination of the scroll knob, and the up/down buttons to select different pages, and scroll through the parimeters.

Easy as pie.

When I purchased this unit in the mid-nineties, I ran it through a Peavey Renown 2x12 combo. The Renown was LOUD, but it lacked t o n e.

Basically, the Zoom became the preamp (I unplugged the preamp cable on the Renown, and plugged the Zoom in), using the Peavey's power amp and speakers.

After taking the time to equalize the volume on my patches, and any patches that I thought were worthy (there were some!), I was able to get some great sounds out of it, and actually make that Peavey sound good!

Any high gain amp is going to have some noise. You're only going to hear it when you're not playing. Turn the guitar volume down. During playing situations, it's a non-issue (like with any amp). There is no noise using clean settings. If someone is going to use lead two, with turbo, color, and high gain settings, yea, there's no getting around the noise factor. That has nothing to do with this product, though. Use ZNR to bring the noise down a bit. Or, just don't use so much gain. Too much will muddy up your sound, anyway.

The effects are fairly good. They were very good when the unit was first marketed. They're passable today. Considering that effects shouldn't be overpowering, they are still quite useable.

The tube distortions and clean tones can be very good! I'll give it an 8, just because the effects are no longer as good as one could get.

I've had this thing for many years. I've replaced the stock tube with a groove tube (because I also had noise problems - due to my own ignorance how to set this device up - NOT because of any hardware issues, or even the tube, which I've still got). The battery has never been replaced, and it's still working.

The only gigging I do is play at worship services. It works fine. I never did get a midi pedalboard for it. One of these days...

In any event, I'd give it a thumbs up for reliability.

Never dealt with them.

That could be a testament to their product, or that I was able to get a good one.

When I bought this, I was playing what is now classic rock - from Hendrix to Van Halen. This thing can cover those bases just fine.

I've been playing for 30 years or so, and have several other amps/guitars, etc...

Getting a true tube tone is great. I really loved that about this unit. I would've paid another $150.00 for a good midi/expression pedal, if there would've been a whole package deal. The only other things I think it probably needs is another tube, along with more power going to the tubes. It would really scream, then!

I really love this thing. I couldn't and wouldn't sell it.

Prety eazy managed to get a manual off the internet. Prety straight forward as most preamps thesedays are in that sence.

Good sound i use this as a loop effect for my mesa boogie recto recording preamp. and mostly play extreme metal

I suggest removing the Telekfunken EC 803S tube out (as its not to goodfor metal) and puting in a Tungsol which are amazing! better than any tube i have used.

Also the telekfunken tube i ahve seen been sold on ebay for $US400+

Seems good i am the 2nd owner, previous owner posted a review of this item on here somewhere on the 4th page. He got it sometime in late 90's so its still going.

Havent had to be their website is crap.

good sound. i wouldnt recoment it as a normal preamp. but get a wicked sound with a tungsol tube.

If you have never used a rack effect, this might be a challenge without a manual.
I have years of experience with racks so for me it was a breeze to begin editing patches and conjuring up my own sounds almost right away within 10 minutes of powering up that first time. That's not to say I don't need a manual. There are some things I haven't figured out yet but I will say for the experienced, this thing is simple.
And frankly a beginner with a manual should be able to climb this hill easily.

I am just playing it thru headphones right now and can only judge the headphone tone.
I bought this thing on a whim because It was cheap. For practice this is great fun but it is nothing compared to a real amp with 2 or 3 12ax7's and a set of power tubes.

As always, I was stunned at what a difference a replacement tube can make (for better or worse). I took a 12ax7 from my marshall amp and replaced the tube in the unit and wow what a difference. The distortion sounds a little more defined now but still nothing like an amp. Much better than that original tube. I would love to try some NOS tubes and other current production tubes and probably will.

The effects are ok for the price I paid for it but this is nowhere near the best effects rack ever made. But its usable.
Overall a nice sounding unit but it wont replace my marshall anytime soon.

This can not do death metal. Don't even think about it. I'm getting mostly 80s style metal out of this thing.
With my old Peavey guitar I'm getting a sound close to the Ozzy "tribute" album. (If I imagine hard enough).

I bought it used and either the previous owner never used it or this thing is very durable. Everything works as it should after all these years of service.

unknown

I play hard rock. if you play 80s style hard rock... the tones are there. Because I own real amps, I can never think of using this as my main tone generator. It can not compare to a marshall or dual rectifier head.
But for recording it does have some unique signature tones of its own that might come of use. I like this thing much better than my modeling devices for practice because nothing beats a real tube.
I like it.

TURN EVERYTHING DOWN BEFORE YOU TURN ON THE AMPLIFIER!!!

The Zoom 9150 has alot in common with other earlier Zoom units, so if you have previous experience getting the sounds you like out of it, it will feel like home to you. However, there isn't anything quick about getting the tones you like. Sometimes the sequence that you edit the effects can cause an effect to stop working. When this happens you have to begin all over editing the patch to correct it.

The sound quality in comparison to it's more expensive brothers: Such as the Digitech 2110, TC Electronics, Line 6, etc. is obvious, this unit wanes in comparision. But as an inexpensive (used) all in one box, it is a very versital tool. The tube that comes with the unit, seems very noisy, when I swapped the tube out with one that I had, the sound quieted and was much improved. The ZNR (Noise Reduction) does work, and the compression although it is very rudimentry, is a nice to have lion tamer, taking the roar out of the attack. The distortion improved drastically with a better tube in the unit (So consider changing the tube, it will be worth it). The sound effects when trimmed down sound much better as a sublte overtone than a swooshing Chorus, Flange, Phasing, that it is set up with as a default. The time involved increases when setting the volume levels with a guitar amp that already has wonderful tube distortion. The patches with distortion when put on top of the amp gain, can scream like an old girlfreind. So turn everything down first, before you turn the amp on!

I have owned a Zoom 9030 & now own this unit and haven't had a day of trouble with either one. Not being a rich man, I have always gigged without backs and so far . . . so good.

I bought this unit without a owner's manual, by the way there are not any Zoom owner's manuals available for download, however when Zoom support was called they return the call almost immediently, and mailed out the manual without charge.

I play mostly rock, blues, & 60's pop. I've been playing for 35 years & I use a Crate VC5212 with 2 Celestion AC30's & retubed with better valves. I use a Fender Strat Plus with Lace Sensor pickups & a Parker P44. I had borrowed one of these Zooms years ago and liked it but thought it was too noisy, and bought the Zoom 9030 instead for $850 new, but later bought a Digitech 2110 and found it so be unfriendly in comparison to the Zoom. So I came back to this unit because, I have found Zoom units be versitile enough to warm the tones to my liking. Don't pay more than $150 for this unit, nowdays there are so many units to choose from.

Ease of use? Well, it took me about an hour to start getting good sound out of it. I'm a person who perfers knobs to buttons, though -- if you put a guitar in my hands my mind switches to a different mode altogether, and it's hard to do computer-like tasks. Still, I got where I needed to go.

I'm using this with a custom built tube preamp and a TubeWorks mosvalve power amp. It sounds wonderful. People here are complaining about noise, but I don't have that problem at all. Don't know why.

I don't like the metal kinds of distortion it has. Some of the OD sounds are nice. I've found that I get my best sounds using a combination of my pre-amp, the zoom, and various OD pedals.

The effects sound good so far. I haven't mastered how to get a good reverb sound, yet, but I know it's in there. I just have to dial it up. The delays are very nice. Simple, but nice. The chorus sounds good although I don't use that much. The phaser's also pretty good.

I don't really like how they set up the preamp section. In an effort to make it simpler, they've made it more complicated (at least for me). I can get my sound out of it but it looks like I should be able to do that in 15 seconds rather than a minute and a half. No big deal, though...once you program it, it's instant. I'm going to try to put a groovetube in it and see what happens, although it really does sound good as it is.

The factory pre-sets are way over the top and completely worthless. If you want to sound like glam metal or something, go for it. But I have a more mature sound so I've had to program my own patches. It's kind of funny to go through the other ones now and then. I can sound like the dudes who are always at guitar center every time I go, churning away endlessly on bad metal riffs with pointy guitars.

But again, noise isn't an issue. I think you have to know how to use this thing to understand how to deal with that. Mine's silent.

I've only had mine three weeks. It's been alive for at least ten years, so I guess it's durable but I can't really comment. I'd gig without a back up since I do have a preamp and poweramp already.

There are manuals online at their website. Google it. I found it in under one second. They seem to have manuals for every product they've ever made, in fact.

I've never contacted them, though.

I play sort of experimental shoegazer noise rock, I guess. Think of strange combinations between Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Swervedriver, Ride, etc. There's also a lot of Stone Roses in there, too.

I found this thing cheap and decided to give it a shot. $75 for that and a big footswitch kind of thing. I have something called an expression pedal coming in the mail which, if I understand it properly, will allow me to change the sounds on the fly.

Anyway, I didn't expect to keep it, but it did it's job well enough that it's allowed me to get rid of some other stuff and simplify. That's always a good thing. A lot of these processors seem to rob your guitar of its sound, but this one DOES NOT. I can't stress that enough.

This is a follow up, from my last post in 2001. I finally killed it. After 11 years, nearly 1000 live gigs, only $50 spent last year for a minor repair, and valve replacement. It died on the NYE gig. Luckily a friend down the road had the same unit, which got me through the night. The next day I sourced another one out and bought it. The serial on my last one was 775, the new one is 773. I was lucky to get 2 years out of stomp peddles. What a Unit!
The new one looks as though it has never been used. It also came with a Behringer FCB 1010 foot controller. All for $400 AU

Excellent

11 years. Cant ask for much more.

never had to deal with them

Takes a few minutes..read the manual..another 10 minutes...pay attention...a lifetime.

Has some of the best rock with delay sounds I've messed with. I have some of the best gear...Eventide GTR4000, tonelabs SE, GT-8, Pod XT Live, Zoom GFX5, Boss GTPro..on & on...and I am still drawn to this unit for some recording needs. Maybe a tad of hiss on some settings, but some people just don't know how to use EQ to squash hiss..or use the noise gate or a hush pedal..it's really easy to quiet down and you can change the tube to a groove tube or something. I give it a 10 because in it's day (which is still today), it was one of the best units out there. I'll always have one.

Never a problem ..zoom tough.

Never needed them.

I'll say 9 simply because of some guys whining about the hiss that is on a FEW of the banks...well, that tells ya, it's in the settings you have..duh. Otherwise it would be on all the patches..that's common sense. Distortion with hiss..imagine that!

I love it,can play with patches forever

Seems to be hissy,but am looking at other makes of the 12ax7 tube to see if this will improve.

Never had any bother,i also have the 1204 and 9050.

The Manual for this and other older Zoom 9000's are here.
http://www.zoom.co.jp/archive/Previous_Model/
The link is not on the front web page.
The Firmware in my own is # 039-0001-091696.
I believe there were some updated versions,#'s unkown
I am able to burn this to eprom,or eMail the file as a .bin if yours is corrupted.

Love it to bits and would buy a replacement any time

Preety hard due to the fact that all effects are noisy when combined. Patch editing is very simple, logical and easy to learn. Manual on the other hand only confuses the user.

I am using a Jackson Kelly with Seymour Duncan Sh-10 on the neck and EMG 85 on the bridge. I also use Behringer's Composer PRO 2 because of the noise it creates. Using the Expander nad Limiter will very nicely fix the noise on Distorted effects, but on the Clean nothing really helps. Chorus is especially noisy and all the other preamp effects aswell, but as i said when playing distorted it is ok. All Preamp effects are practicly useless and i sugest to other users if they want to play something near the accoustic sound they shouldn't leave the Preamp button alone. A really good thing is that you can get really powerful distorted sound by using mods and setting reverb and delay to ping pong delay with a 0 ms delay. Flanger and Phaser can also be used with distorsion to get some really good tones by setting all their settings to zero. Equalizer Enchancer option is preety ok and so is the 3 band EQ which allows the user to get a large variety of sounds. Mods are preety much uselles due to noisiness, you really can0t get a good phasy or chorus sound on clean....noises ruin everything. Delays are nothing special but ok, there is a lot diverse reverbs but i rarely used them anywhere.

Since i used it i never had any problems.

Never had any contact with ZOOM ppl.

For Metal this Effect works nicely, specially for distorsions, but don't expect to play any cleans with it...you'll get a bettter sund if you plug the guitar directly to the speaker.

Ease of Use, well there are 2 kind of users. One wants to turn less buttons possible to get a good sound. Next wants to have plenty of options do make fine tuning. I would be last of those 2. So I have not as many options I d like to have. On the other hand it cant be as perfect I d like to have my sound due to missing options. So let me tell U this way if U find a patch and adapt it to Ur requirements it is easy. The Sound is at least good. No probs if U play overdrived or distored, the valve will give U the kick. Much harder if U want a clean warm or even hot sound. Do not expect to get sound like a valve running on 300V! But U can take the small path at borders to been overdrived (a compressor between the guitar and the Zoom 9150 will help U to stay in this path without missing the dynamics of the guitar). OK I m already talking about sound quality...

The manual is OK even if it doesnt explain all options to 100% but it will get U started.

Rating overall fot this passage would be 8. A bit more options for me or a bit easier for the other type of user.

I have several guitars, nothing special. Most I customise my self. Mid or lower price rank. Perhabs the PUs I still use are the reason why I have a bit noise. Amp is a real transistor crap with a good Roland speaker. I have more equipment but due to I make first a strong clean sound and add effects later on I m able to judge without mentioning these. The valve of the Zoom 9150 gives life to my sound. The valve is part of the preamp (main part for me). Of course there are many better ones at "affordable" prices. But I d get a bit more and I d pay much more! Reverb is good. Some are ok. Others like Phaser are crap. It can do all but sound quality may get poor.

Now how to judge? Sound or sound/price? My kind of sound or all sounds? What for it is used or all it could be used for (with all poor effects)?

Let me give U the sound/price here for me what would be 8-9 but rather a 9 due to I know what I have to spend to get better.

Well I had on the years I use it never problems. But I m rather pesimist, I had a screwdriver ans a valve on me. Ok, OK I had backup patches on other mutlis (without valve!!!) I d use for the modulation effects that I could directly use. So no real backup. the case of the Zoom 9150 is plasic but I trust it. But not realy the valve or the electronics.

Here the judgment is hard. It never let me down so 9

What kind of notes I see here? LOL sry but LOL again. It is the same for so many other bad reports I read. I can imagine the native english speaking guy which writes a letter to these poor japanese guys and they trining to find out. He simply expects they would understand. :D Futhermore he doesnt have a idea of the japanese culture, very polite but it would be a shame to accept they dont understand. So the reply is "I appologize but I cant help U". Keep Ur letter simple, very simple! And be polite, much more as U usualy do. If U know some japanese words insert them!

I had no manual and they send me it totaly for free!!! From Japan to Germany with airmail!!! Hello THX and bye where in japanese. Sry but those bad votings reflects at my opinion only Ur self.

Here without doubt full 10 pts!

But if some1 needs a Zoom manual check here:

http://www.zoom.co.jp/archive/Previous_Model/

Well a hard job to addapt it but it fits real good now. Kind of music would be Pink floyd and others around 60-80's. If it was stolen and I d get it that cheap anytime again. If not I d hope to have the money to buy next better one (-> 300 to 400 Euro!!!). I had a GFX-8 with amp sim i could compare with. Shure nice sims, but only sims. Dont try to sim a valve if U can have a real one. OK sims are getting better and better but compare prices to a used real. It may be a hard job to adjust those but u will be paid out. I love the valve!!!

Anything you wish it had? More options ^^

Take the Zoom 9150 as it ist and U will be happy with it!

Feel free to send me Ur non distored or overdrived patches (even if U use that preamps... THX ^^) or to ask me for help related to Zoom 9150 patches.

Judgement same questions like for the sound quality...