Zoom A2

This thing is awesome. Very easy to use. No problem at all. Screen could be better, and patches if you want to change them are easy once you read the manual. Personally I think that the only thing that lacks here is USB port for connecting it to computer, but that's not such big thing.

Sound is great. Awesome. I use Washburn acoustic guitar with washburn pickup and unplugged my guitar sounds great, but electronic could be better, and when connected to my A2, guitar sounds like one of the Taylor guitars. If You tweak patches you can come up with any sound you want. ZNR works great. No noise at all. Jewell is my favorite artist and with this unit I can simulate her sound. Great.

Built like a tank. I use it on a gig without backup and it never failed me.

Never needed them. Upgrade is not possible so, nothing here. Any upgrade you'll have if you buy new model when it comes up! ;)

Overall i would give it a 10 but, little things like no USB and such is 9 for this baby. If it were stolen or lost that would be hard for me, and I'd bought it again. Nice color to btw. :)) I tried magic stomp from Yamaha and it's just to expensive for what it offers. This thing is almost twice as cheap than Yamaha and better sound too. Yamaha could stick to bikes and such 'couse that's what they do best and leave musical equipment to others. That goes for their guitars too. Good work Zoom. Two thumbs up!

I love the sound I get from this! I have a nice clean acoustic sound with just a hint of chorus and reverb. I have a detune setting of +4 with a touch of reverb for a 12 string sound...awesome. I also have a setting with a bit more volume and some added delay for picking. The resonator sounds are not great but I have no use for them anyways. I just wanted to enrich my dead dry acoustic sound and this pedal does wonders to liven her up. It does it so well I now wonder if I should have bought the Zoom G9.2 instead of my Pod XT Live pedal.

Seems very reliable. Metal chasis with rubber bumbers. Solid knobs and switches. Should take a beating.

Never had to deal with Zoom or SamsonTech.

I play in a church that I use acoustic and rock electric in. This unit has alot of bang for the buck. I love it. Great effects and reverbs. Zoom has breathed new life into its name with this new series of pedals. Well done!

The interface is easy and logicaly laid... as long as you know how to read and have had "at least a 10 minutes struggle" with the manual...
It is so simple once you have understood what it does and how it does it...
You can absolutely get rid of the annoying digitalness so many reviewers complaint about...
Editing is a breeze and absolutely a pleasure, so I can't keep my edited patches for too long...
Keep changing them every time I play a different axe...

Use it ONLY FOR PRACTICE...
I usually go analog plus tubes for recording and performing (DOD milkbox comp / BOSS G7 EQ / ART MP / may be a DI BOX / Mixer, amp or PA
Anyway, I'm pretty sure you can get dozens of recordable sounds out of this little green mean machine...
I see some reviewers expected it to be quieter... can you belive this guys?...
If I need an amp to play with this, I must surely go with a keyboard cheapo amp because of the wider range of frequencies they are able to work with...
I can not get the sound of my favorite artists... But -hey- that is because of my lousy playing or because my favorite ones are pretty hard to emulate... It's all in your head, heart and hands (fingers) folks!...
Effects are not excellent or terrible... THEY ARE... FOR FREE! and deliver a natural sound IF YOU TWEAK IT RIGHT...
TWEAKING IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH... AT LEAST TRY IT EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE...
THE NEW ZOOM PEDALS HAVE GREAT TWEAKABILITY...
I USED TO HATE THE DIGITAL ZOOM SOUNDS... NO MORE...
THE G2 PEDAL FOR ELECTRICS CAN SCARE YOU IN TERMS OF THE SOUND QUALITY YOU GET FOR THE PRICE YOU PAY...

Looks pretty well made... Not the ZOOM plasticness we were used to... So I hope it works OK for long... BUT IF IT BREAKS EVERY SIX MONTHS, I WILL KEEP ON BUYING NEW ONES...
Just saw the price of a tuner made by the supossed to be the BOSS in the market... It was a hundred bucks... 15 usd more expensive than my GA...
By the way, you do get some drum-machine for practicing FOR FREE...

DON'T KNOW AND DON'T CARE... IT WOULD BE TOO EXPENSIVE TO GET IT FIXED CONSIDERING U CAN GET A BRAND NEW ONE FOR 85 DOLLARS...
SO LET'S JUST SAY THE CUSTOMER SUPPORT THIS GUYS OFFER IS THE BEST & IT GOES IN ADVANCE... BECAUSE THEY GIVE YOU QUALITY SOUND AND CONSTRUCTION FOR ALMOST NOTHING...

I play nylon stringed guitar (flamenco) and some acoustic blues with a modern little Martin with onboard system by Martin...
I play some open tunning stuff and slide blues with a Taylor 410 and an old Epiphone made in the 40s at Kalamazoo (these two go with a soundhole pickup... I would not dare to put a system in them...

Been playing 25 years...

Can't understand guys complaints about this little pedal...
Wonder what they were expecting...
Cheap digital is for practicing...
If you want to go digital in a perfect way, you get ready to spend thousands and learn computer and such...
You better go and buy one of these ASAP...
THE MAIN MANUFACTURERS (YOU KNOW WHO) SHOULD BE ASHAMED...

Very easy to work with... Once you get used to its main features and user interphase and... there you go milking the sounds you need...

The same quality level you have with the G2 for electrics... It is just so hard to believe you can get all you get for a hundred bucks... ANYWAY I really... really... really wonder what this guy Amadeu ate or smoked when he wrote his review... DOES HE EVEN PLAY GUITAR AT ALL? Looks like he never payed for a tuner or any BOSS pedal... CAN'T BELIEVE IT... You get more than 500 bucks of tweaking possibilities & tone and quietness here...

HOW COULD I (OR ANYONE ELSE) KNOW till it gets broken?

NEVER NEEDED IT... Anyway if it works like this for 2 months it will be worth buying it... DOES ANYONE REALIZE HOW GOOD & FAIRLY PRICED THIS NEW ZOOM PEDALS ARE?... IF YOU DON'T ... BETTER CONCENTRATE IN PLAYING GOOD... SPEND YOUR MONEY IN LESSONS... CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS JUST THE BEST POSSIBLE ONE SINCE THE MOMENT YOU BUY IT... YOU GUYS AT BOSS AND DIGI AND SUCH SHOULD FEEL REALLY ASHAMED...

THANKS ZOOM.... YEARS AGO I HAD THE 504 AND IT SUCKED BIG TIME (JUST HATED IT)... YOU HAVE COME ZOOMING A LONG WAY, ZOOM...

Acoustic version of the G2 pedal that morphs the sound of your cheapo guitar into a simulation of something more famous - with added eq, compression, mic position, reverb, echo etc. Editing is easy with the manual and it is possible to get some very lush sounds out of your modest instrument. However, the unit is really great on electric guitar using the tube preamp sim and the GLOBAL pick-up selector.

Sound qual is fine, not as stunning as the 24/96 specification would have you believe, but good for the price. For clean electric sounds use the tube preamp, eq and compression to taste, select Ar for the modulation effect ( much better than stereo chorus, gives a wide, lush stereo image ), arena reverb, GLOBAL humbucker or single coil pickup. You now have a beautiful all purpose guitar sound which can be dirtied up nicely with a bad monkey or TS without sounding crap because of the chorus.

Brick sh*thouse comes to mind here, nice and solid no probs.

Website looks OK, just remember if you get any problems your contract is with the retailer ( in the UK at least ).

Good for acoustic and clean electric sounds, fine for the price and is now a permanent part of my set-up.

It takes some time to get used to it because of the small screen. Manual is very good.

Overall all of the effects in the chain are good especially considering the price. Chorus is very very good and worth the price alone.

This is why I wrote a review: guitar models are a big dissapointment, If you plan to buy it because of it, I wouldn't recomend it. It is a pure manipulation to attract customers. Probably just some cosmetic EQ and a tiny ammount of chorus. The "top-ranked model" produces hiss (no, not from my guitar) when turned on high. Also, amp and pickup sellect features are simply bullsh*t.

I have an old Zoom 506 and after 3 years it works as new.

For an effect proccessor it does a good job but all of the simulatons are zero useless and only a big marketing lie..

None of these multieffect pedals with "banks" of presets by Zoom, Digitech, etc. are very easy to use. The idea of scrolling through banks of presets is so stupid, its amazing that it is so common. But having said that, once you get used to it, you find ways of making it usable.

Wow! This little pedal sounds great. I have a nice acoustic with an unimpressive pickup. But by dialing in the features I want carefully, it sounds like a million bucks. Great reverb and chorus, lovely overall tone, good emulations, it just sounds great!

I've had it for less than 24 hours, But it feels really well built. I suspect it will last until I abuse it.

I love what this pedal has done to my acoustic tone. I have an Epiphone Masterbilt AJ500RE with the LR Baggs pickup installed. Its not an exciting sounding pickup system. The tone acoustically is so nice, but electricaly, its a bit boring. However, this pedal wakes it up and makes it sound very compelling. Much more natural and "acoustic" sounding. It even has feedback control stuff! I suspect I am gonna love this pedal for a long time.

Superb unit for acoustic guitar, very clean reverb, echo and chorus with models of the acoustic properties of various benchmark guitars. The 24bit/96kHz processing is really suited to the electro-acoustic guitar, I found the G2 electric version very disapointing for crunch and distortion sounds ( I ended up with a Digitech "Crossroads" pedal for electric guitar ) but the A2 is a wonderful piece of kit for acoustic. Editing is fine but I am sticking with the presets for now, I am more interested in playing than programming.

Exceptional sound quality, used with an Aria nylon and Simon & Patrick 12 string into a Mackie DFX mixer and 2 powered Peavey cabs.

Strong build, good battery life all seems fine.

Never needed to contact

Great unit, would recommend to anyone looking for a cheapish acoustic multi-effects unit. There are more esoteric devices out there but they cost many times more than the Zoom.

Like any compact multi-EFX unit it takes a little time to work out the limited interface but this is essential to getting what you want out of the pedal. Also like most other EFX the presets exist more to show off what is possible rather than really be plug-and-play. I suspect many players will find most presets somewhat over-the-top and require editing for personal preferences.

There are 80 presets, 40 of which are user-programmable and start out as clones of the ROM presets. They provide good starting points for editing. Having real knobs makes editing easier and faster than having to step thru setting incrementally with switches (like the 504II that preceeded it). Reading the better-than-usual manual is a must. It's available as a PDF download from Zoom so you can get a jump start and figure out if this is for you ahead of time.

This is basically an updated and enhanced version of their 504II acoustic processor and everything seems better here probably due to a much faster processor, higher sampling rate and 1 meg ohm input impedence which doesn't "load down" the pickup signal and cause it to sound thinner than they already can.

The presets do provide good examples of all the features in the A2 and can inspire you to try some settings you might not otherwise. Like any acoustic processor what you're using to amplify your signal makes a big difference in the overall sound. Although there are filters on-board to facilitate playing thru combo amps and such I find nothing beats going direct into a decent PA system. If you invest some time with the manual you will get a lot more out of this pedal than just diving in and turning knobs.

I use this with a Taylor W14ce with the installed Fishman Blender system played thru my Mackie/EV PA system. I also use headphones when editing and late-night practicing. Before this I used the 504II for many years and I find the A2 a serious upgrade in overall sound quality and great "bang-for-the-buck". With proper gain staging I find no noise issues that I can blame on the A2 although on some compressed or highly-EQ'd settings it will amplify any line noise or RF already there but that's not unusual.

Along with the usual EFX suspects (delay, reverb, chorus, etc.) this pedal features guitar modeling wihich is similar in concept to amp modeling that has been so popular in recent years. the guitar modeling "imprints" the acoustic characteristics of 10 popular guitar types on your signal. The amount of modeled tone added to your own is fully adjustable so you can slightly tweak your own tone or turn it up to sound more like the modeled instruments.

This is a real boon to anyone who is dissatisfied in their pickup tone (lots of us I'm sure) and wants to "push" their timbre more toward a big dreadnought or jumbo flattop or several other easily recognizable instruments. I find the Dobro and D-28 models to be especially pleasing but that's me, there's lots here for just about anyone's taste. The ability to have many tonal variations at your disposal is always fun especially if they're done well and there's plenty here to work with.

As for the other EFX I find them uniformly very good largely because they're quite adjustable so you can dial in just enough for your taste. The reverbs are clean with smooth tails, the chorus variations all sound good especially in stereo. The different delays and echos are all good. The stereo pingpong setting offers something new - 8 different variations that seem especially interesting to me. There's even a reverse delay that has great possibilities and is something I've not heard in a pedal like this before.

There is also some microphone and "air" settings that go a long way towards adding realism to your piezo's overall timbre. Although I don't have much use for them even the phaser and flanger sound better than most. There's also 40 PCM drum patterns available. They sound quite decent and can make practicing and writing more inspirational for sure.

The switching is much faster than in previous models too so setting 2 presets the same except for volume and switching between them while playing is fast and quiet. There is also a Global setting that acts as a preamp sound shaper to allow a better match to different styles of pickups even before you start processing the sound. This is a good thing.

Have I heard better EFX than this? Absolutely! Have I heard them all together in a $100 box? Nope. There's that "bang-for-the-buck" thing again. Considering the price this is a real gem.

Previous Zoom pedals were all plastic and felt like extra care was usually necessary. This new series (A2, G2, B2) is far more robust in construction using metal and plastic together. The switches are solid and this thing feels far more "gig-worthy" than others before it. the Zoom products I've owned before never failed on me so although this is new I feel even more confident in its dependibility because of the stronger construction.

Zoom is distributed by Samson in the US and finding information on the A2 on the internet was a tad more difficult than most but even the Japanese website has all the info and manual downloads wou'd want. I've never had to deal with Zoom for a repair but I always appreciate the ability to read user manuals before buying anything and Zoom doesn't disappoint there. This is a brand new pedal so time will tell.

I've been a F/T player for 35 years. I perform as a solo performing songwriter and as a sideman for several original and cover acts and this A2 helps me cover a lot of sonic territory very easily. I would buy it again if I had to. It is a great enhancement to my acoustic performances and although there may be better EFX out there I am pleasantly surprised as to how much there is and how good it sounds for $100. I would recommend this to anyone...but RTFM!

It's not intuitive, but if you READ THE MANUAL it's actually easy to program.

I am using an Ibanez AE series acoustic electric w/a fishman pickup>Zoom A2>PA system and it sounds amazing. I programmed the first preset with the Martin D-28 simulation + reverb + compression and it really enhanced the tone. When playing live a real D-28 would not sound this good without the Zoom A2. The nest preset is the same but with a lot of reverb for leads.

I've only had it for a day.

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A good digital reverb pedal >$100...good compressor >$100...good eq pedal >$100...that is $300 on essential acoustic/electric guitar effects so if you buy it for those features alone it is worth every penny. On top of all that you get 12 acoustic guitar simulations, a bunch of modulations, delays, a noise gate and a drum machine/metronome.