Zoom A2.1U

You gotta read the manual and spend some time tweaking, but after that it is very easy and intuitive to set up custom patches. The manual is well thought out. I wish it had a little more info on compression settings (ratio instead if 1, 2, and 3, for example).

I use this with an Alvarez Yairi DY-66 with B-Band pickups, and am quite pleased with the sound. I had been using a POD X3 Live, but found it to be overkill and too large for just acoustic guitar. So, I took a chance with the Zoom and am very pleased. I don't really use the modeling cause I like my guitar tone as is. But I needed volume pedal, chorus, reverb, delay effects, so gives it all in a very compact package.

It seems to be very well constructed. No cheap parts. I gig with no backup, unlike the POD which had numerous scary faults.

Haven't needed them.

This unit gives you a lot of sound options for little cash. If all you need it for is acoustic guitar, then I would give it a try instead of stuff that is primarily designed for electric. I do wish it has a computer-based editor (it has a USB port, after all), but it is not too difficult to edit on the unit.

I previously owned the Zoom 504II pedal so I'm used to the limitations of the 2 digit display. You definitely need the manual for creating presets. The other minor inconvenience is that when tweaking parameters, many parameters have a different max value (10, 30, 100) so you have to drive the knobs to the max to know what the max is, or look it up in the mamual - all parameter values going from 00-99 would make things easier.

I have a high end Taylor (900 series) acoustic/electric and I'm playing through a Yamaha N12 mixer, QSC amp and Peavey loudspeakers. The clarity and definition that I get out of this pedal is great. I've had no problems with noise. About 90% of the presets are very usable. There are some sweet guitar emulations in this collection. I was happy to see tremolo, flanger and phaser added - I use these effects slightly and they really enhance the richness of ballad songs. The six band EQ is great for tweaking each preset. I created about 10 new presets today and they all sound amazing. With the clarity that this pedal brings out, I found myself getting more creative with fingerpicking, and flatpicking, not just strumming. Even the Reso/Dobro/National emulations are cool and inspiring.

Built like a tank

No issues - I''ve only owned it for a few days.

I play Christian music in church. I play rock, blues, jazz and folk music as well. I play electric, classical and acoustic guitar. When I was shopping for a new padel for my acoustic guitar, I looked at the Fishman AFX stuff ($750 for three units!), the TC Acoustic pedal ($700!), the Boss 3A and the Radial ToneBone PX-pre units ($300). None of them could do all that this unit can do. If your list of requirements is like mine (portable, XLR out - no extra DI box to carry around, sounds great through a PA setup without an amp, built in tuner, great effects (chorus, tremolo, flanger, phase, delay and reverb, built in compressor/limiter good acoustic guitar emulation, expression pedal, reasonable price), then you'll find that no one else has put together a package like the A2.1u. I'm a value kinda guy - I don't mind spending money on good things, but I can't justify the price of many of the other units on the market when this unit does a whole lot more for a whole lot less $$$.

The interface and lack of anything more than a 2-digit LED display is a little tough to overcome. Over time, though, I found myself able to tweak any parameter I needed with ease. Selecting a patch is easy once it's tweaked to your liking. The foot pedal has a great feel and is very useful for live performances. It can be configured as a simple volume pedal or as a mix control between the "wet" and "dry" outputs of the effect modules. That's a VERY nice feature. Another foot control can be added - either a switch or a pedal - and can be configured a number of different useful ways. The <8ms effect switch time makes it easy to make seamless patch switches during live performances.

At first, I was completely enamored with the rich sounds I got from the Takamine EAN40C I play through this pedal. After the initial "wow" I finally started to hear a little background hiss which I expected - having owned a few Zoom (Samson) products in the past. With tweaking, I found all the noise comes from the guitar and mic modeling sections of the unit. Let me be clear - the noise is very low and most people won't ever notice it. Tweaking the modeling level and ZNR (Zoom Noise Reduction) made the hiss even less noticeable to me. I was able to completely eliminate the noise because I don't need the modeling sections of the unit. I'm only using Tube preamp, Hi EQ, Lo EQ, Reverb, and Delay - which are all perfectly noiseless. The unit has a wonderful and rich sound straight out of the box. Several of the patches are useful and are great starting points for your own creations. I've tried two acoustics through the unit and it makes a marked improvment to both. As with everything, the better the source signal, the better the final sound. My solid cedar guitar sounds way better through this unit than the plywood guitar I own. I believe I could spend some time with the plywood guitar though, and make it sound close to the solid top using this pedal - but why?

The unit is very solidly built. I really like the metal housing and robust feel of the foot switches and pedal. All the connectors on the back of the unit are solid and mounted wisely in a recess to protect them from impact.

I've had no need to contact customer support. The manual is not the best I've seen, but it is pretty clear and is organized very well.

This unit is a GREAT value and is sure to improve the amplified sound of any guitar with a piezo bridge pickup. I've added a Boss FS-5U footswitch to the "control in" input. By default this allows me to put the unit in "bypass" and "muted tune" modes easily. I highly recoomend you do the same if you're playing in a live environment. It can also be configured to be a tap tempo switch. This pedal adds a warmth and clarity to my guitar I frankly did not expect. In short, I love my Zoom A2.1u and you can't have it. Go get your own - you won't be disappointed.

You need to learn how to use it before you can get the best out of it. This may sound silly, but it is not all that intuitive. Depending on the effect being edited, the three dials do different things. This takes a fair amount of learning, but when you have taken the time to get to know it it is easy to adjust (almost) on the fly.

This part of the review could go two ways. There are many preset options in the 'control' and 'global' settings that have to be adjusted depending on whether you are going through a guitar amp or PA, as well as the type of guitar and pickup you use. So, if you use an amp for practice and DI in for gigs, you will need to fiddle. If you get this setting wrong you will be punished with poor tone, and punished very heavily.

Once you have this sorted these settings out and built up your own sounds and effects, this thing can really add to your sound with some excellent effects. I use some chorus and delay quite a bit and have had fun with the 'wha-wha' effect as well. Some of the other effects and many of the presets appear to be there to show just how clever Zoom are. I've simply not used them beyond the level of playing about with the new toy.

Solid as a rock, no problems there. Its exterior build quality inspires confidence in its interior. If the insides are as well made as the outsides, it will outlast human civilisation by a millennia or three.

Never dealt with zoom. The manual is quite good and appears to be written in English rather than translated from another language.

I play predominantly contemporary Christian music and modern folk/acoustic rock type stuff. I mainly use a Tanglewood TW45 FLM acoustic guitar and they sound good together. The part of the equation that lets everything down is my playing.

This piece of kit will stay with me for a while and if anything happens to it it will get replaced. One feature I like a lot is the USB port. I can use my laptop with the version of Cubase it comes with to record song ideas, then bypass the effects, shove a mic in and warble along merrily. It solves all latency problems I suffered before.

All in all, a good piece of kit and when you take the price into account, bloomin' marvelous (As they say in my neck of the woods.)

The a2.1u comes with some great, some good, and some all out fun to play with patches dialed in. If you have a great acoustic, it will still sound great. If you have a so-so acoustic, it won't make it sound like a Taylor or McPherson.
The Editiing stinks. I was hoping for a computer edit with it (like Line 6 PODs, and some new D*techs have). This is the big "killed it" for me. Two Alpha-numeric digits is ALL you get. It's like learning another language to try & remember what it means.
The manual is fairly thorough, but could have been better. I remember re-reading a couple of things two or three times to see if it really answered my question.

Sound quality is excellent. This unit adds no color to your signal when bypassed. And when you select a "acoustic timbre" it does a fair job. If you own the same acoustic it is emulating and use that timbre, it's a beautiful thing.
The chorus reminded me of a TC Electronics Chorus+ pedal. Very nice, but not over the top. The delays were fair. Reverbs were good. The noise gate worked very well, but the auto feedback detector was a pain to set up. I used this both direct and through a keyboard amp. Direct (via the XLR) was much better.

The one thing going for it is rock solid. The other is it makes a great DI box for an acoustic. Probably the best chasis I have ever seen on a floor pedal yet. NO backups required with this baby.

I'm a middling acoustic player, who primarily plays electric. It worked great for the time I needed it. But now I'm back to electric more, and have sold my main acoustic (a Tacoma Chief).
If you need a good DI box, a volume pedal and would like a tuner built in to it all, this is for you. I was not all that jazzed by the other offerings it contained.
For $170 its worth the sum of its parts (typical DI box =$50, volume pedal=$75, tuner=$50, chorus=$50, reverb=$50. $275 for $170. yeah, its worth it). Just don't try to edit it without the manual or really good lighting.

I bought this unit to replace a Zoom 504 MkII that I had been using for a ocuple of years. All in, I was pretty happy with the 504 but thought I would try upgrading to the newer and more expensive A2.1u.

Unfortunatley it was a big dissapointment. While I had never had any problem getting a decent tone out of the 504, I struggled for hours to get any kind of acceptable sound out of the A2.1u. After a few weeks of using it my band mates asked me to bin the unti and go back to a straight D.I. into the desk. I had to agree. Every gig I played, the sound guy asked me to bypass it, many mentioned that they had struggled with these pedals before. Nothing I could do was going to get a decent tone from the Zoom.

47 effects, 8 guitar models yet not one of them sounded any good. Who wants guitar models anyway, I just wanted my gitar to sound like my guitar. The EQ was also complex and sounded very synthetic when switched in. Above all that, the menu system a nightmare to master and lmost impossible to use without having the manual with you at all times (fair enough, the manual was reasonably well written).

I play a acoiustic guitar in an indie/rock band and use a Martin guitar with Fishman rare earth humbucker. Not the most expensive set up but sounds good and is robust enough to survive on the gig circuit. I bought this pedal to give me a bit of control over how my guitar sounds through house P.A. systems but ultimatley, I just use it as a D.I. too many complaints about its crumby tone from the sound engineers.

The effects are plentiful but many sound very similar and few are actually of any use. The chorus and reverb effects are oparticularly weak.

The unit is not too noisy and the D.I. works fine but the only way to get a decent tone is to bypass all the effects, models etc and ust use it as a tuner and volume pedal.

I ended up buying an Apex Aural Xciter Acoustic pedal instead and have been have much happier with my sound since. Sound engineers are also much happier with the sound that they have to work with. The Xciter does not have any of the complex features of the Zoom but it does produce a really good tone and can still gives me the ability to determine my sound on stage.

Battery life is awful. 2 practices max. Needs the ac adapter. Build quality seems good and the finish is excellent. Just a same that it sounds so bad.

Never used it. Manual is okay though.

Overall, I was not happy with this pedal at all (can't you tell?). After using the 504 for years I had high hopes for it's big brother but, after 3 months of trying to ring a decent tone out of it, I gave up and bought the Aphex Aural Xciter insteaad.

If you are considering a pedal to improve your acoustic tone, make sure you try out a few alternatives first. There are now plenty of pedals out there and I made a point of auditioning as many as I could before I bought mu next pedal. The Zoom is a great toy (lots of buttons and lights) but is no use at all as a serious peice of kit for gigging.

Would I replace it if it were lost? Sold it last week on eBay.

When I first tried this out in a store, I was totally confused by the controls. And this was worsened by the tiny lettering, almost unreadable to anyone over 40 y/o. However, I took a chance & bought the product. At home after spending 20 minutes reading the manual + 10 minutes of experimentation, I found it easy to use from there on. Easy, but not intuitive. The manual, thankfully, is more user friendly than the product itself is.

Also, while playing, there's no way to get from one preset to another (i.e. from A01 to A10) without clicking through all the presets in between. So, if you plan to play live, you may find it necessary to preset patch sequences to accomodate your set list.

The expression pedal is very easy to use. A single push of a button toggles it between controlling volume, wah-wah, or effect level.

What's NOT easy is hitting the right button with your foot. Okay, I have big feet. But when stomping the right (up) button, it is all too easy to hit the expression pedal by mistake. So when using the 1U, I'm limited to skinny shoes or bare feet; sandles don't cut it.

I play a mix of rockabilly, blues, contemporary Christian, a lot of classic acoustic rock (Denver, Fogelberg, CS&N), and "acoustified" versions of most oldies (Beatles, Byrds, etc), played through several guitars. Playing a set requires some pretty quick tone shifts as well as appropriate effects.

The sound is actually quite good, given the price. The chorus effects are nice and rich and flexible. There is a bit of noise, though, with the chorus on. Flanger and phase shifter seem equally good, though I've barely experimented with them. There's also a compressor - easy to use, but easily generates hiss, so don't overset it.

There is also an assortment of reverbs and delays, the usual bag of tricks that most FX units have these days. The delay will create a nice slapback echo, invaluable if you play rockabilly - and I do. A nice touch is the reverse delay. It's fun to hear yourself play backwards, but I haven't found much use for it.

More important are the tone controls. Without going into detail, I'll say that the EQ has 6 bands; 10 would be better, 20 would be perfect. But this gives reasonable flexability. Or, you can opt for the parametric EQs, one each for low and high ranges. However, most of us mortals aren't very handy with parametrics. For tone, the best option is actually the acoustic guitar modeler. Choose carefully - The nylon modeling sound is awful and the Ovation sound, sadly, sounds like an Ovation. The Martin D-28 modeling sound is surprisingly rich and complete, and the Martin OOO-16 and Gibson J200 aren't bad. Building my sounds around the D28 and then tweaking the EQ slightly seems to work well for most of my guitars. I'm now presetting for different guitars and am getting good results with my Taylors without undermining their natural sounds. I'm also getting surprisingly good tones with my Godin A6 which is typically twangy and brittle sounding; the A2's EQ is doing a nice job toning that down.

Well, at this writing, I've had the A2 a month and it hasn't been out in public yet. However, the unit is solid, metal, and seemingly well built. And if it breaks in a couple of years, hey, it was cheap.

No experience with Zoom, so I won't comment.

I'm a fingerstyle acoustic player with nearly 40 years experience. My acoustic gear includes a bunch of Taylors (my beloved 614CE, a 514CE, a 454-L7/12, an NS32 nylon), a Godin A6, and an Alvarez 12-str jumbo. Amps are a Trace TA-100R and Yamaha portable PA. Plus, several electric guitars, amps and basses.

There are precious few floor processors designed for acoustic guitars. Electric processors such as the Boss GT-4/6/8 color the natural sound. Most rack products are expensive and bulky. Some inexpensive rack units (Lexicon MPX-200) sound nice but are inflexible and unfriendly for quick FX use on stage. Thus my purchase of the A2.1U.

To me, the volume pedal is critical for performing, but if all you care about is effects, buy the base A2 unit and save a hundred bucks. If Zoom were to make one improvement, it should be the EQ. Six bands isn't bad, but it really takes 20 bands to properly customize a a guitar's individual sound.

Overall, I'm pleased with my A2.1U. If you want modestly good acoustic effects at a budget price, this could be your ticket.

Has some great patches. Easy editing. Good manual.

I was amazed at the sound quality!

Only had it for a few weeks.But appears realitively strudy.

NA

I play Christian music and much of the time I play alone,no bass,drums,etc... My main acoustic guitar is a Martin JC-16RGTE. I really wanted it so I can have different sounds on my own songs. I think it's awesome how much a little effect can change the feel of a song.

Well it fired right up when I took it out of the box, this is after I fumbled through all of the papers I got with it (and candy from Sweetwater.com thanks guys tootsie rolls rock) which took a few minutes. The inerface from guitar to amp was a sinch. The USB connection took a little finagling with my sound options on my computer, oh and this machine is a relic and records everything great.

It is kind of cryptic for me to operate still because there are 2 full digit LEDs on this thing everything is labeled in weird 2 letter or number sequences, takes time to memorize them.

The buttons are all within easy reach with it up near me to ajust or down low changing effects its a snap very ergonomic, thumbs up Zoom. Only downside is the drum beat button being small, cant hit it with the foot, however that is easily fixed if you buy the optional foot switch (which I dont have).

I'm using a Garrison AG-300-BK-CE Acoustic guitar with an Artec piezo pickup into an upgraded preamp from what it had, still low end though. I am running it into, get this, a Kustom KBA-30 bass guitar amp (got it cheap from a friend). The sound is fine, a little bright but workable. The amp and pickup options in the global settings are flexible enough to accomodate about any setup you could imagine.

This thing is dead quite. The effects that come preset are actually only permanent in the 01-39 area of the device, so user presets A0-D9 are before those. They sound fine just to sharp really, if you tone them down a bit they sound fine, I just make my own for the most part.

The atoumatic distortion / feedback is priceless for me, my guitar howls like a banshee normally but I cant tackle that easily now.

Well its made better than any of the equipment I use to use in the U.S. Army, this thing could double as a claymore mine hehe. Its got a rock solid steel case with rubber dampers all around it. I am not to worried about it breaking, however...

One problem, with mine anyways, is that the left hand effects change foot switch is sensitive in the regard that it must be depressed directly down, if you push it to the side a bit before pressing down it catches on itself a bit. Might just wear in "shrug".

I don't play gigs, honestly I'm just a hobbyist really.

Big thumbs up publishing the manual ahead of time and letting anyone download it.

Other than that I haven't had to deal with Zoom

I play blues and some rock, moslty just acoustic guitar but I dabble in other stuff like bagpipes and harmonica.

I'm not very good yet been playing guitar now for only about 6 months, but I played harmonica and the bags from when I was about 7 years old.

If it were stolen I would have fun hunting the thief.

I like the product for its soundness as a solid piece of gear I can abuse, it sounds good (or makes me sound less bad), and its not super expensive like some other models in its class.

I wish it had some electric guitar effects it could emulate, maybe just a couple, I will probably buy another zoom pedal just to get some crunch once in awhile, maybe the smaller electric guitar model. The effects are a bit limiting for that kind of thing, but if you want acoustic sound loud, clear, with little or no feedback this is the deal.

If anyone has anything they want to ask email me at ojmac79@gmail.com and I will try to help you out.

It was pretty quick. I sat down with the unit and the manual and was up and running in minutes. Patch editing is pretty quick, though I fully read the manual before I received the unit, actually b-4 I even ordered it! The manual is pretty staightforward and easy to understand.

I am using this with a Yamaha Silent Guitar, the steel string model, and a Seagull S-6 with a Lace California magnetic soundhole p/u. Signal path is gtr-A2.1u-XLR out to PA. With the Yamaha, there is virtually no noise and the single coil mag pickup on the Seagull has the expected level which the ZOOM's noise reduction seems to handle fairly well. (the unit has a high-gain mode especially for lower output pickups, but it is a global setting which you can only change by powering the unit down, then holding a key while powering up. I wish this could change within patches so I could have presets for each guitar.)
The effects are really nice. I mostly use the reverb and some delay for leads, though I have fooled around with some of the other stuff such as the wah (resonance with expression pedal) and the chorus. As usual with multi-fx units, the presets are pretty extreme, but they are easily edited for a little more subtle coloring.
The modeled guitars, which I think are the main selling point of this type of unit, are mostly pretty nice. The Silent Guitar I use it with is really just a wooden stick with a pickup and acoustic strings and bridge, but the A2.1u really beefs it up nicely while removing the undersaddle p/u's brittle dryness. I mostly use the D-28 model and though it doesn't totally give a convincing "body" sound, I do hear some depth and a really nice "pick click on strings" sound that the stick-guitar just doesn't possess. It rounds out the "quackyness", especially on single note lines.
There are abunch of other guitar models which I really haven't spent enough time on to fine tune to my liking, but it seems as though there might be 2 or three others that could be good sounding and useable.
The unit also has microphone modeling, with the close mic'd condensor on the soundhole doing the best job to my ear at adding to the Martin dread model with my silent-stick. There's also a compressor (handy) and low and high EQ modules with parametric as well as graphic type settings, then noise reduction then effects then effects....whew!

The unit is weighty, made of metal with rubber endplates and seems very sturdy. I have been able to get an "acceptable" sound with my Silent Guitar and para-mid board eq and effects from the mixer, so I don't have a backup, though I usually carry an eq pedal and direct box in my gig bag anyway. We will see, though I do still have a Zoom 509 pedal that's been beer-ed on a couple of times and, while still a little sticky, works just fine, and that thing was made totally from plastic!

Haven't had it long enough. Registering the warranty online with samson was painless, though, and it was really cool to be able to download and read the manual while I was waiting for the unit to arrive. For that alone I'll give it a 6.

I play funky acoustic rock and blues, covers and originals in a rowdy pub atmosphere. I also play much of the same material hosting an acoustic open mic every week, which affords me the opportunity to tweak the sound in a calmer, quieter environment. I have been playing for over twenty years and own a bunch of other stuff, mostly electric guitar oriented. I realize this probably isn't the be-all end-all of amplified acoustic sound, hell, I gig with a body-less guitar! For my use, though, I find the A2.1u to be a fine bang for buck unit. Lots of functions crammed into not a lot of real estate, and for not too much dough. My favorite sound is the Martin D-28 model with condsensor mic model, a little compression and some 'verb. I like that it has a tuner, XLR out and the really clean sound and decent effects. I don't like that some of the global parameters like overall pre-gain and footswitch function can't be programmed into patches, as I'd like to have the external foot switch go from tap -tempo in one patch and bypass/mute in another, but these are pretty minor concerns.
I compared the unit to stuff like the Fishman Aura and Mama Bear from DTAR, but I couldn't justify the expense of those units for my main use (noisy environment). I think this is 75-80 percent of those units, sound wise, for almost half the money. I listened to samples of the Korg, but they were too "effected" to tell what it might sound like in my situation.
I wish (since it is on there) that there was programmability and more control of the drum machine, and maybe some more live looping functionality (start/stop/auto loop).
I have been gigging it since I got it, so about 8 gigs since I got it mid-Jan. I really need to spend more time with it and make better use of some of the other functions and sounds, perhaps another review in six months or so.