Zoom BFX-708

Once you've read the manual, editing patches is pretty straightforward. You will definitely want to figure this out from the start, the presets don't really demonstrate the potential of this little plastic toy. In fact, I don't use them at all.

Fairly noisy, and hard to match levels on the various effects - some are super loud, some not so much.
I use this with both bass and guitar, and am pretty happy with a few of the effects: in particular, the tracking ability of the octaver is far superior to that of the Boss OC-2. Not perfect on the very low stuff, but great past the fifth fret of the E string, and great on guitar. The synth effects are also great, in a low-fi distorted way. This is not a pedal to make things sound smooth and rich, obviously - but the digital nasty factor is high. I even enjoy the distortions for what they are: buzzy, grating, and wonderful.

So far so good. Seems like a potential disaster, though, it's flimsy and I feel like the pedals could decide to start sticking or something. I've gigged with it, but I'm a man of faith and ingenuity - if it stopped working, I'd plug it into a foil wrapped baked potato or something.

I play some noisy hard art rock in somewhat of a Mr. Bungle/Lightning Bolt/Freedom Haters sort of vein.
I think anyone could find something to use with this pedal, except for the tone snobs; it's unlikely that anyone will like everything it does.
For the octave effect alone it's a bargain in my book.

it takes a couple of hours to play as good as the pedal can do it. if you dont read the manual maybe the pedal cant do not well that you expected. for example, the manual says you most to put the 708 output volume in a 3/4 position to get a strong and warm sound, high mid range and good signal provide for the effect.if you turn down to 1/2 or less you can notice a weak signal and a low quality sound. maybe the fuzz and all relation with the distortion mod can be useless.
it has 8 little buttoms, 5 knobs, 2 pedals for the patches, and finally the expression pd, each one of them combine different functions depends the action that you want to do.

some people make me laugh: they have expensives basses, with a expensives cabinet, thousands of u$s in equipment and the biggest basses ever made and they are such a fool like to buy an a cheap bass effects like the 708. the most ridiculous thing is they didnt go the the music store an after take a look and play they seat down and think: "this pedal doesnt go well with my ken smith, my tobias, my stingray, my trace elliot, my messa boggie"
they decide to buy the thing and then put a tread describing how bad is the product the buyed. and then said "the only thing i can use is the bypass and the tuner". well my friend, i got to tell you that you are not a business man at all. you can get a chromatic turner for 12 u$s. a Korg one!
i have a yamaha bbg5a. cool bass for me. this pedal is good, thats all. i dont have money right now to buy something better. but is good. low price, low everything.

i recently buyed, so at this time i dont have any problem. but it look like fragile.

i've playing for around six years, im not a big fun of a effects processors, once i've had a 506 1, which was a toy which i played till i boring and sold it for cents. never used in gigs or something. the 708 can be a toy either but is most serious, it has a 20 bit against 16 of the 506 1 o 2, the effects like chorus, phaser, flanger even the distortion was redesigned and sounds with much clarity and quality.
a hundred u$s, not much to ask.

It's not rocket science, but keep the manual handy.

Using a Dean Edge 5 with EMG 40s and the BQS system, through an Alesis EQ and QSC pwr out of 2 SWR Goliath 3s...not bad...but definately not good. The bypass sucks the life out of the sound. The effects are kinda neat, but most are useless. Once you learn how to tweak the sounds effectively, some useable sounds can be found.

I've had it for a couple years, usuing it here and there. No problems yet. Plastic is scary though.

havnt dealt with them.

Playing different styles of rock I can get some useable sounds. As far as it being a preamp, look elsewhere. If you use a switcher, you can bypass this unit until you need some effects, which it does ok with. The convenience of not having a group of pedals almost makes up for the lower quality sound.

The unit itself is easy enough to use after a quick flip through the manual.

When using this pedal, I always find myself flipping through the effects, either laughing or shaking my head. There are only a few effects suitable for playing with, the rest fall on either side - either they're too overblown and ridiculous to use, or they simply lack any real kick. The distortions are terrible, the delay/echo doesnt delay or echo enough etc. I find the only ones I use are the Analogue, Hardpick, and of course the bypass tuner :)

I've had my unit for a few years, treated it well, but just lately the input jack has come loose.

I think of this pedal as more of a toy than a serious tool. For my style of playing (experimental metal), it is completely inappropriate, and I am better off using separate, high quality stompboxes.
As stated, the unit no longer works due to the input jack coming loose, and I'm still not sure if I'll bother getting it repaired. I certainly wouldn't buy another one.

The manual is about as easy to read as the diary of a crack addict, but the thing isn't had to figure out once you get frustrated and burn the manual. All around, it's easier to use than most similar pedal effects. The drum machine pretty much blows. You can alter tempo and tone all you want, but without the ability to toss in a fill or a coda or any pattern alteration, I wouldn't gig with the thing.

I have only been using the zoom for practice, so I haven't had to run it through a PA or anything- see other reviews for this info. When I first set it up, as per the manual's diagram, it sounded horrible. I practice with a Genz-Benz M-line 200, so I was able to run it through the onboard effects processor and it fixed almost all the problems. Some effects cut out when you nudge the pedal, almost all sound as digital as they are and the only real fun to be had is in the more outlandish effects (try the theme to Sesame Street on 'fuzz.')

It has worked fine for the last four months, but I do baby it quite a bit. I have a feeling

I sent an e-mail off to ZOOM shortly after I bought it four months ago to ask about the drum machine problem (see 'ease of use) and I am still awaiting a response. I am not sure they even have customer support.

Well, I play a little metal, a lot of punk, and have been playing lounge music just for a change of pace. I have been playing bass for six years and have gone through a dozen different basses. I am currently playing my trusty old, dirt cheap Hondo (stop laughing!) as my MTD was jacked out of my car. This pedal leaves a lot to be desired, but if you are just a poor beginner, yet to make your mark on the music world, go ahead and use this for practice. Just treat it better than your girlfriend and don't leave your car unlocked.

had no problem learning how to use it.

i thought the sound quality was very good. Used it for many live shows.

this is the problem with the unit. It's built cheap. I bought 2 of them and neither one made it over a year. I take pretty good care of my equipment and I even tried to baby these things but yet they both broke. For this reason I would NEVER buy this product.

nah

i play about 2 gigs a month and practice everyday. I really liked some of the tones this baby helped me get but whats the point if the dang thing breaks all the time. Forget it.

Dials are a big improvement, but you still must know (or learn) to use multi-pedal menus. A large LED screen helps with real words like "NOFRET" or "JACOP". Lots of presets of good variety.

Effects and Sounds are quite good. Of course it has that digital pedal noise associated with such pedals and is apparent at very high amp volumes. The distortions sound good when using the amp simulators to take off the electronic chip edge common to digital distortions. I especially like the NOFRET defretter effect. I use it with my 1979 Ibanez Roadster Bass and with my 1979 Ibanez Artist Guitar. (Yes, ZOOM's bass pedals work nicely for guitar, too.)

Had to resolder the INPUT jack. No big deal with a soldering iron and 15 minutes.

Never needed.

Nice unit, but it will gobble batteries. Alkalines last 11 hours according to the manual, so you must (realistically) use an AC adapter all the time or invest in rechargeable batteries. I modified my unit so that it internally tricke-charges Ni-MH batteries when plugged in with an AC adapter; the result is exceptional: no more dead batteries on stage as long as I use an AC adapter at home or in practice sessions. See how I did this at http://www.masbagua.com/zoomcharge.html if you'd like to learn more.

the ease of use is excellent. the jack ports are all labelled clearly and the interface is laid out properly. all the infomation is on the front of the pedal. the only flaw is that the knobs are a bit twicthy and over sensitive.

i played this through a peavey 100w bass amp, with pirana leads and my epiphone thunderbird bass. on the "tight" setting the bass is powerful and has a brilliant sound to it. other effects are flange, chorus, fuzz, wah wah. some of the effects are saft and unuseable like "time" a heavy delay effect-very useless when doing solos. all the effects can be altered-mainly reverb. also the gain (volume) and rate can be altered. full gain on fuzz sounds awesome!

very good-hasnt broke down on me yet. this can take mains or 4 AA batteries. i would recommend a mains adaptor for gigs.n

dont really deal with things like this but theres alot of infomation on the box to assist.

with the music i play (rock and shuffles :D) the effects serve well. for rock i use fuzz, chorus and flange and for shuffles i just have it on normal. the only flaw is the knobs-they are very sensitive so you have to mess about with them. it also comes in with a tuner-and a drum machine! how about that for value for you pennies! with 12 patterns where the tempos can changed for 40 to 240 (for all those metal heads out there). ZOOM have really got a winner here-you brits can prob get it cheaper because i brought it last year. a brilliant buy

Pretty Easy to set up and operate. Only annoying thing is hitting both buttons at **Exactly** the same time to get into bypass mode for the tuner.

I agree with most of the previous posters who say this sucks alot of life out of your tone. The unit is good for home practice and noodling around with. Playing live, I only really use the tuner plus two sounds, one with everything off except a small amount of compression, and the defret patch, which gets some passable Pino Palladino type sounds with some fretless warmth and 'bark' - if you set it up just right.

At home, I use the unit as the front end for my homebrew practice amp. Live I use it with a Yamaha TRB5II and Trace Elliot 7410HSM. I plan to make up a switch box to bypass the unit except when I want the defret patch - even bypass mode seems to suck tone out. The unit gets a 6 for the passable defret patch but that's about all I find it good for.

Not convinced by the plastic case. I haven't (yet!) had some of the problems with connector reliability that other users have reported. I keep it in a laptop type padded case, and I would recommend other users do similar.

Don't get the Zoom PSU - I have repaired Zoom PSU's for friends - and they are C**P! CPC (www.cpc.co.uk) in the UK sell PSU's which is far more solid and relaible than the Zoom PSU, cost about half the price, and don't have the problem with 'spider' type PSU plugs shorting to metal guitar leads.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing bass about 15 years, and have used this unit for about 2. I play mostly praise and worship music, and find the defret patch good for slow worshipful ballad type stuff, but that's about all I use it for. If it were lost/stolen, I would probably look around for another way of getting a fretless type sound (without using a fretless) before considering this unit again.

Easy to tune and edit the effects and other parameters. The manual is complete and easy to understand in several languages. However, there is a great lot of features wish makes it long and difficult to go through all the possibilities... neverending fun :)

the effects are all good and if it's not the way you want it to be, you can edit any patch over and over to finally get the perfect sound that will fit your highest expectation. A little bi noisy sometimes but you can fix it by changing some parameters. I play an Ibanez 4 strings with a Marshall BassState 65 amp and I don't have any trouble getting a great sound.

I didn't need to contact customer support.

I've been playing punk and metal since one year and i'm really satisfied with my effects processor. I like the fact that I can play about 10 to 12 hours with one set of batteries. Another cool thing is that you can tune your bass guitar directly in no time, very handy. Seriously, I have been very lazy playing bass guitar without effects, and since I got this, I play a lot more and also a lot better.

This is pretty straight forward, I was auditioning the presets right away without cracking open the manual. Unfortunately, I didn't spend enough time with the unit to tell if modifying or programing was easy as well.

What can I say? this thing absolutely sucked the life out of my bass set up. I play a Tobias 5 string (not the mass produced Tobias from Japan, but one custom made to my own specs with all the exotic woods and amazing electronics. It was crafted by the man himself before he sold the company) directly into a GK 800 RB and into Hartke and Bergantino cabinets. All I really needed to do was listen to the bypass mode to hear all my glorious tone disappear into the black hole that this processer is. I went ahead and walked through some of the presets, and could hear interesting things trying to happen, but at what cost? I would not feel comfortable using this in any situation. It might be considered a fun toy, but even in this lower price range you could pick up some kind of single effect unit that could be used professionally. I bought a cheap bass effects box by a no name company back in the 80's for 10 dollars cheaper than I paid for this, and it actually had some usable effects

I didn't have the unit long enough to have reliability issues, but the cheap plastic and light weght did not inspire confidence. Don't let that beefy looking photo fool you, The initial impression is a real disappointment

In some ways, the 5 is a generous rating, but at 89 dollars the price was so low. What Am I saying? I sound like the two old ladies in the restaurant when one says "Boy the food is lousy here." and the other replies "Yes.....and such small portions! OK. I just changed the 5 to a 3. I certainly don't mean to be overly critical, but I've gotta be honest. You may have figured out that I bought this unit from a catalog. If I'd tried it in person I probably never would have gotten as far as plugging it in. Needless to say, it was repackaged and on it's way back to the warehouse the very day it arrived. I suppose the built in drum patterns could be useful to play along with, but what fun is there in playing along and sounding bad? Not much.

This pedal is pretty simple, the manual explains how to create your own patches and the preset ones are selected by the two big switches - couldn't be easier.

I'm sorry, I've read the other reviews and I have to say I'm surprised by some of them - this pedal sounds awful, absolutely minging. I play an Ibanez EDB600 into my computer for direct recordings and the best sound on this bedal is when you hit both switches and bypass it completely. The distortion is useless unless you want your bass to sound like a $10 guitar through a broken stereo, the delays are too quiet, in fact all the sounds are too quiet, the wahs and ring mod and other weird effects might be OK but the analogue footswitch is too hard to use accurately. I only ever use the tuner now.

Well it's never broken so I guess it's fairly dependable.

Would I use it at a gig without a backup? - I wouldn't take it as a backup for anything never mind use it as a first choice.

Never spoken too them so I don't know. I'd imagine they'd be unhelpful though as I'd be hurling abuse at them.

I play a lot of different styles when I'm recording but if I'm using my bass I avoid this pedal like the plague. Strangely enough though, the pedal redeems itself somewhat by sounding amazing with my worse-than-terrible casio keyboard that I've had for over ten years and hardly used. Most of the patches give it a warm sound and some really cool effects so it's not entirely hopeless.

If you want a bass pedal, avoid this one, unless it's going cheap, it's handy to have around but if it disappeared, I'd not notice for a couple of weeks and not be terribly upset when I did.

I find this pedal a little bit tricky to use because of the smaller buttons... i know ure not going to play around much with the editing butons and such when youre playing but the drum machine and sampler should have their own switches.

the sound quality is rather good, HOWEVER, the wah doesnt wah enough, such as a Cry baby... so if ure after wah, get a seperate cry baby. and the amount of hiss or horrible in mine. tho before i say anything bad about it, it could just be mine. and that raises a question of how clean the electrics stay.

Ive dropped it a few times and its still rather solid and good. Ive use it on many gigs simply because it gives my tone a good work out everytime.

I havent had a need to speak to anyone about it. I repair anything wrong with all my equitment. Only person i can trust ;)

Being a music student at University, i try to keep my tone as clean as possible, but when a certain thing needs a bit of crunch or fizz or wah (too a lesser degree) i turn to my BFX. But it really comes down to your quality of playing to make it sound good. Also, i find it to be full of useless effects that just seem stupid... i guess its cool when your sitting around at home with nothing to do and flicking thru some effects. But yeh. It all comes down to what you wanna play.. and if u wanna play something with alot of odd noises and the like, get a BFX. otherwise, just use your amp.

Extremely easy to use, much easier than most effects processors. Editing is a breeze although somewhat limited. You can't change the order of the effects, and unfortunately you can only use one effect from each group at a time. Therefore you can't use a compressor with a "vintage" amp model, nor can you put chorus on the "defret" effect.
The manual is simple and reasonably clear.

I'm using a (modified) Magnum short scale Jazz Bass copy and a pair of $20 Sony headphones (slightly heavier duty headphones are a must with a bass headphone thang). There are pedal glitches on a couple of patches, no big deal though. The drum machine sounds like something lifted from a cheap Casio keyboard from the early 80's, cheesy, but occasionally handy. The "scratch" sampler is a joke and a poor one, although that's not really an importandt feature. However I feel that when a manufacturer includes such things, they should work correctly.
Actually sounds decent for home 4-track recording.

I can depend on it for practice and home recording, I do daily. I wouldn't attempt to use the cheesey "expression pedal" (expletive pedal)live, it's much too small and fragile. I think of this as a practice tool, not something I would rely on live. It's plastic, and looks like it came from an asian toy factory. It's too small and light duty for anything but sit-down coffee house gigs. It is what it is, and it does what it does reasonably well.

I've never had to deal with Zoom. The pawn shops I've been dealing with regularly usually give me two weeks to figure out if the stuff I've bought is working correctly, if it's not they take it back, good guys.

I bought this at a pawn shop for $45 including box, manual, warranty card and power supply. I couldn't be happier. I've played guitar and bass for 23 odd years or so now, and I've never had this much fun practicing bass (alone). Wish I'd had something this cool when I was 15, it would have helped my progress immensely.

To use straight from the box is a doddle. Plug it in, turn it on, and stomp on the buttons to make the patch change. When the pedal light is on, you can use the pedals. Changing main parameters is easy with the orange knobs, and the amp sim is a doddle. Store the changes by pressing store. The basic stuff is easy.

Altering the effects other parameters, level, pedal function, EQ etc does require the manual, but its pretty simple. Follow the instructions, its all there. The sampler is hard to use while playing tho, and I tend to avoid it. The only problem is that I have size 12 feet, and sometimes cant get one pedal without the other when playing live, which is something that may consign this to nothing more than an amp top tuner. Wouldn't be a problem for a shoe gazer tho.

Very quiet indeed. Even with the noise suppressor off its quiet, only gaining a small amount of hiss when gain is high. It certainly wont cause any problem in a chain.

The octaver and ring modulator are really very good, but thats about where it ends. The distortion has no bite at all, and is next to useless, the chorus is a tone free zone, just muddying the sound, there is no filter, the wah is not good (there isn't even an autowah on its own, it has to be with an octaver). The flanger and phaser are passable, and the pitch modulator isn't bad, but its not going to redeem the crapness of the most important effects.

I am not very careful, but the jack plugs are not good enough. Any pressure at all and they come loose, which has happened both at gigs and at practise, not good. I had them resoldered by a decent shop, but they have come loose less than 6 months later. Another reason it will be staying in the bedroom as soon as I get a distortion and an octaver and complete my effects chain. The power input is now loose, and requires wiggling the taping to be OK.

Haven't called them, its out of guarantee now, so I doubt it would be worth it. Can't slag them off tho.

I play alternative rock/metal, and I use a lot of effects, so I thought this would be great. Now I wish I had brought a tuner as that is all its any good for. I'm not a tone freak, nor do I hit my equpitment with a hammer, so it should be OK, even though I know its cheap. It isn't. It might be OK in the studio as it is quiet and has a couple of effects, but its not sturdy enough or good enough to justify having it in my chain. My friend has a zoom 505 and that has had the same jack and power connector problems, so I know its not just my pedal. This will be the last Zoom product I get, and probably my last ever multi effect. I thoroughly recommend getting a dunlop wah, an EBS chorus and a Qtron instead, I have done, and they are much better. Sorry Zoom, easy to use and pretty are nice, but this pedal is simply not what it claims to be.

This is a great pedal! It 25 user patches that you can edit and play with all you like, and 25 preset patches that just stay the same. The manual is very clear and easy to understand, so you can get used to the pedal in about a day, and start making some really good patches.

All the effects on this pedal are great, i dont think i've ever heard a really bad one. The sound quality is really impressive - i play it through a trace elliot cab linked to a peavey black widow cab at gigs, and the sound is just perfect. Always perfect.

I use the pedal at gigs without backup, and have no worries. I never have any problems with it.

I've never had to deal with the Zoom customer support.

I play all sorts of rock from indie and ska to metal, and this thing is so adaptable for each style i have ever had to play. if i lost it i would be straight down the shop to buy another one. it helps you to improve your sound with EQ and noise reduction, compressor the whole lot, it even has some really nice bass overdrive and synth sounds that wow everyone who hears them! when we're writing somgs it aids us dramatically. It rocks. well worth paying for.

I played around with it a lot when I got it to set up the sound I wanted.Now that I've had it a while it's a pain. I don't like the digital controls and my eyes are really bad so the small writing is confusing. I like the big red led readout. That'ds why I chose this over some other more expensive units.

I bought this unit specifically for my fishman matrix acoustic pickup. The 707 was really wirey and overdriven but this unit must have gain levels for active bass outputs so it does an awesome job on my acoustic. The tuner is great too but I never use the rythm or sample features.

Absolutely not!! This thing is treated as tenderly as my kids. Always in the box when not in use and I never use the expression pedal. The same problem as i've seen with others. The input and output jacks are terrible design and very fragile. They break even with gentle use. There's no feeling quite like cutting out in the middle of a solo and having to nudge the unit to re-establish signal!

The guys at the shop fixed it for under ten bucks so that was great. If I sent it away that would be useless. But it's busted again so I'm going to try trading it in.

I would not buy this again. Too undependable.If you want one look around, there must be plenty of guys that are fed up like me and will sell their's used, cheap.

Fairly easy for anyone of the last two digital generations, or anyone older who just knows about that stuff. A breeze once you've been at it awhile, but a bit complicated though so don your reading glasses if you have them, it may be a long night.

hey, it's a zoom, what do you want? It's cheap as dirt, but the sound isn't. The distortions leave quite a bit to be desired, so much so that I have recently purchased a Boss ODB-3 Overdrive pedal. However, for those on a budget, particularly those who are just getting into effects this thing is great. Really the delay is flawless and extremely flexible. It's barely exaggerating at all when it claims FULL programmability either. The sampler only has 6 seconds in it and is a bit difficult to use while onstage without stopping the show so I don't recommend relying on it but the drum machine is great for practice and improving time as it covers a pretty wide range of time-signatures and styles and bpms(speed for the newbie).
This was my first pedal and I was quite satisfied with it for some time indeed. However it is certainly not to be used as the back bone of your effects supply for more than your first year or two of playing. The delay, which is what I use it for the most, is flawless. The pitch bending, however, often leaves a bit to be desired as it sounds VERY VERY VERY digital and, often, lifeless. A big fat distortion often helps to disguise that little problem, but nothing is failsafe right? There are some rather useless patches but I'm sure someone, somewhere has found use of the ones i haven't so it's all relative right? The flanger and phasers are rather mediocre but not horrible and the EQ is pretty decent. The distortions often sound either too distant or too lifeless. The synths sound ok. Sometimes it can be a bit noisy and the bypass takes a LOT out of the sound. It's very strange, like hitting the tone defeat button. However if you work at it enough you are bound to find a few settings with every parameter that work for you.

I had a slight problem after about a year where a wire had come loose but it was nothing a soldering iron couldn't fix. luckily i keep one in the case of my primary instrument. DO NOT THROW FROM MOVING VEHICLES!!!! That's not what I did but my point is that as long as you're reasonable with it it'll work fine. I can't pinpoint when the wire was knocked loose because I don't recall mishandeling it. However my drummer or father may have droped a bass drum or tom rack on it when i wasn't looking.

I don't bother them, they don't bother me.

I got this pedal so that I could better experiment with my sound. At the time I had only an epiphone starter bass i pulled the frets off of and a 10-watt amp that came with it. Doesn't sound like I had much right to branch out so early I know but I think it really helped me to diversify my skill. Maybe it's just coincidence I don't know. But my band released an EP in 2000 on which I use it almost exclusively with my 5-string ESP LTD B-205 w/dual EMG-HZ humbuckers that I found used for 450 and my BXR-100 I got used for 180. And it still sounds fine. Even though I now have a boss limiter, chorus, and overdrive, an eh micro-synth and a dod flanger I still find myself using the zoom for the delay, some forms of pitchbending(both up and down, though up sounds very electronic) the phasor I programmed and a very slight variation of a preset for an EQ which I copy to all the other patches before creating a new sound. I am constantly adding to it. It's got a definitly cut and dry interface, an option that allows you to search through the settings before you change them(an option lacking in the older zooms), it allows for all sorts of effects at once, all sorts of expression pedal options, and with all its flaws it's still a very good pedal. It's like an old friend i think, maybe it's pure sentimentality but I don't think I'll ever retire it, unless it breaks beyond repair and then I think I'd either frame it or formally bury it.

The manual is a little on the complicated side. You will need to spend some time familiarizing yourself with the unit. Editing the patches can be confusing at first.

Sound quality is pretty good. I play a 12 string bass with a single 4x10 & 1x18 rig with a Peavy head. The unit does some pretty amazing things. Some people have been very critical of the 708, but you must remember that no effects pedal will make up for bad technique or sloppy play!!! Granted, not all of the effects are great, in fact some are not useful at all to me, but it's not the falt of the box, it's that I have no use for that particular sound. The drum machine and amp simulator are perfect for late night quiet practice.

Have not had any problems with it. It is made of plastic, but appears to be able to stand the rigors of serious giging. Some have said that it can't take a pounding, well, it's not suppose to take a pounding. It's a musical accessory, not a fucking sledge-hammer. If you don't abuse your equipment then you should have no problems.

Haven't had to use them.

For the price and considering what it gives me, it is a great value. There are better, but at a considerable price.

Pretty easy. I think that if you can adjust a digital watch and/or program a VCR, you can do it.

I used it through a lot of different configuration. But the main test is when it's plugged directly in the mixing console. The sound is great and there's not that much hiss coming out of it. The distortion of the unit is kinda guitar-like. It's not really suited for the bass since even if you set the distortion level very low, it still hisses very much. Though you can't get a real overdrive simulation with it. Also, the Octaver effect is very limited. You can mix the effect output but you can't mix the original signal. Since I'm playing with a piccolo bass, I like to have the balance a bit more on the effect side than on the dry signal. And the pitch shifter is one hell of a sucker. Even if you use it for a 2nd tone aside the dry signal, it produces some sort of an "out of phase" sound. The defretter effect is actually pretty surprising.

I can't say that there's too much unusable effects in that thing but there are some.

I can only give it a 5 because I had mine for more than 2 years now and the "down" pedal-switch is malfunctionning (gotta bang it real hard to work) and it's made of plastic. To protect it a bit, I bought a laptop case for transport or else I would've scrap the thing a couple of times.

Never had to deal with them but I'll try soon.

For the price of the unit, you get almost every effects a bassist would need and more. Just by buying the cheapest brand effect pedal for each one you've got in there, you'd end up paying 5 times the amount the unit sells for. Although the BFX-708 can't be a #1 choice for studio recordings, it does the job on stage very well.

But....I gotta save some $$$ for the Boss GT-6B......

Having spent years programming Boss, ART and Digitech products as a guitarist, this unit is a piece of cake to edit. As others mentioned, you have to be careful with the real time edit knobs as they may drastically alter the settings. The manual is good, an easy reader.

This unit is in my pedalboard: Pedulla 4 string/Steinberger 5>Boss chorus (splits the signal to have separate wet and dry outputs)>Boss Heavy Metal> BFX-708 >Digitech RP-12. Both the BFX-708 and the RP-12 have their own loops so I can cut the out of the signal path entirely. I run into a SWR/1x15 for the effected signal and an Eden WT-400/ 4x10XLT for the dry signal.

The unit is quiet when used by itself with headphones but I get a nasty hum in my pedalboard. This is probably due to my budget power supply creating ground loops and 60 cycle hum.

I basically got sold on this unit for the crazy effects. The ring modulator is great, the time warp thing is way cool and 3 of the 5 synth effects are totally usable to me. As others have said, the flanger, phaser and fuzz are great. The cool thing about having the foot pedal is that you can push the phaser/flanger speed up in real time for momentary laser beam- freak out effects. The step filter is too weak to my ears and the pitch/whammy stuff sounds terrible. Because of the wild effects, I give it a 9.

Seems kinda fragile. I got this one cheap because there was no adapter and the output jack was fautly. I fixed the output jack and it's mounted in my pedal board so it shouldn't get kicked around too much. I would use it by itself as log as I had a way to bypass it completely on the fly.

No need yet.

I have been playing bass for 12 years and have been running effects on bass for about 2 years. This unit is way cool for the few crazy effects I was looking for. I play in a progressive rock/ funk band so the weird FX and the synth sounds are great for me. I was set on getting a Line 6 FM-4 for all the cool filter/synth effects but this unit gave me what I was looking for at a fraction of the price. The line 6 also seemed to have a lot of REALLY non-usable effects. The best thing about the pedal is the build-in expression pedal to alter the effects in real time. A cool unit!

pretty srait forward there. i like that the amp simulator is independant of the different patches. the patches were allready quite usable.

have to give it a ten because it delivers pro enough sound quality for the price. i DI it right into the front of house and send the line level signalfrom the "to amp" into the low input of my peavey mark 4 head and 1810 cab. sweet sound!

haven't got there yet! i mainly like to use the amp sim sound to get a good front of house sound. i'll be very nice to it and see.

not yet

i like it, i recomend it, but keep in mind it's plastic, good deal for the price!

The BFX was a pretty good unit to get various "colors" from out of the box, even if you didn't open the manual you could integrate this right away into a jam session and enjoy yourself. And the best part, even find yourself playing more experimentaly. But keep reading, it gets worse...

Using a Warwick Thumb 5 and a new Fender Jazz, I've always been happy with the sound quality. More so through the headphones - if I could achieve THAT sound through my Hartke rig I'd be in heaven.
And I mean the sounds are great across the board, TIME patch really breaks up the band - if not terribly useful.

Nope. It's already busted! And I pampered it. It's a symptom I've seen posted - the INPUT area near the plug has to be wiggled, then utterly motionless. Consider the expression pedal feature and you'll see why this is unworkable.
Tried to give it one last chance in rehearsal last night, but yanked it. But, what did I expect for the price?

I emailed them and got an auto-reply. That was it at this writing. Disappointed.
Sure, I didn't send in any registration - was that wrong?

For my diverse playing influences the zoom BFX was the jackpot, the part that breaks my heart is that I loved practicing with it (yes, practice can be fun with this) with the rhythm sample/metronome and the headphone was great for after the kids are asleep...
But it failed after using it on only two gigs - and I babied it, if I had know I would have never let it out of the house. I used it on recordings and it sounds great - because of the unreliabilty I have a Sansamp Bass DI on order, while not the same thing, I've read here that it rocks and is better made.

Fairly easy to use, I figured out how operate it in about 2 days, about an hour total manual reading time. The manual does its job well, and is easy to navigate. Easy to use, but the myriad variety of effects and their parameters may overwhelm you at first.

Lots of functional effects, lots of wacky-ass space effects. It's all here. Built in noise reduction eliminates feedback. Effects sound great once they're tweaked to perfection, but unless you adjust them they'll sound somewhat plastic, and lack force.

Plastic, but as long as you don't stomp it to death it should be ok. Expression pedal seems sort of fragile...

Haven't had to deal with it.

I play fuzzy rock with spacey touches. I'm using a cheap ass samick stingray ripoff bass, a Crate BX-100 amp combo, a Boss ODB-3, and a Mini Q-Tron filter pedal. The Q-tron provides all the funk i need, so i dont usually use the BFX. As a backup or for a really odd number with lots of odd parts, it (BFX) would be well suited. I usually just use my Boss overdrive and Q-tron though. Anyways, Ive been playing for 3 years. If it were stolen, i wouldnt replace it, I like its versatility and ease of use though. If you buy this, you will mess around for months with effects and lose all musical direction (temporarily). After that things will even out though, and you'll learn to use it tastefully and occasionally.

personally, i love this gizmo. patches sound great if you are prepared to tweak them to your own personal preference. editing is easy but i have lost my manual so i'm stuck with the sounds i have for now. bought mine new in September 2000 and have had no problems so far.

I use the pedal with a westfield 4 string and a session 100w combo. sweet sound. and the edit feature means you can adjust high, low frequencies. patches can be stored to a desired location, so, if you are like me, you keep your favourites close to each other! i am into dirk lance of incubus and with this pedal, i get reasonably close. obviously his rig costs more than all the equipment in my band!!!! it's all about the flanger!

as i say, my unit has been very reliable. i know a lot of people have had problems but, unless you are a stomper, there are no real problems. treat her like a lady!!!! i can feel that with one hard stomp the pedals would break so i don't do it.

have not had to deal with this yet so i cant tell you.

I play in a funk, metal type group. i have played for 5 years. although i love this pedal, i will definitely be looking for something else in the not too distant future. it's great. they had no business putting the drum machine on but it's cool! i love the sampler feature, a nice touch. overall, if you need a nice back up or value for your money then choose this! that's right kids!! this is a good unit.

I think that if you are willing to play around with this processor you can get some good sounds. The 708 has 60 different patches some of which you would probably never use but they are fun to play with anyhow. There are several patches that are great and with some tweeking they can really sound sweet. Almost all the patches do require some adjustment to be used if you are picky about specifics. Editing is easy and once you get the hang of it you will almost enjoy creating new sounds with the 708. You will probably have do read the instructions. Do yourself a favor and start here first.

I have used the zoom with my Warwick corvette fretless. I am also using a BBE sonic maximizer 482 (good stuff). I am running this all through a Fender bxr300 combo. I do have to complain about some hissing I get with chorus and flanger effects. Other than the hiss, the effects are high quality and very useable. Favorites onboard are CHORD,FLANGE,POWER,MELODY,BASIC,ETC. Again, some adjustments were made to all of them to match my taste. I play progressive,melodic,"harmonic",metal music. I am very picky about my sound. I have been able to use this processor in some of my music.

I do complain that the chassis is made of plastic. Eventhough, it is durable feeling. I have used this in probably 75 or more band rehearsals and played it in dozens of shows. The only time that it disappointed me was when we played outside one afternoon. You cannot see the LED diplay in the sun at all. This can easily ruin your show if you switch effects alot.

nope-I am hoping that I won't.

I have been playing bass for about 12 years. I having been playing metal music of all different forms during this time. I am into experimenting with new sounds to broaden my musical horizon. I presently use BBE's sonic maximizer and a 31 band graphic EQ in my rack. These help also to sweeten my sound. I am always looking for ways to improve my sound. If your like me, on a tight budget, I feel that the Zoom BFX 708 is a low priced good quality processor that will give you some knobs to play with. If you spend some time you will come up with some sounds that you can use regardless of music style barriers. If you don't have access to a practice amp, the 708 makes an excellent headphone practice amp. Just plug in you phones and your ready to go!

This is great, this pedal is very easy to learn..I learned most of it's features within an hour or so..Editing is also very easy and straightfoward..The insturction manual is very helpful, it tells you everything.

I'm using this BFX708 w/ my Squier P-Bass and Crate BFX50 amp. It gets a great sound, and with the ZOom Noise Reduction, it's not staticy..The effects are awesome!! I can get some sounds from my fav bands like Stne Temple Pilots, and Alice In Chains..all of the effects are great,

I think I can depend on it and I know if I did have a gig, I'd definitly use it w/o a backup!

I've never dealt w/ the company

I play mainly Rock, and funk, and this has every effect for it..It's great for me./.I've been playing since June 2000, and all I use is my P-bass and Crate BFX50 and now my new Zoom..If it were lost, I know I would buy this one again..I love all of the effects and drum machine in it, and really don't hate anything about it..It helps me make new songs, especailly w/ it's drum machine, and it's very good!

Very easy to use, except I find the analog knobs to be a bit of a pain when you switch between patches. Also, I've never actually bothered to edit my own patches yet, so perhaps there's an option to ignore them. I didn't have a problem with the manual, persay. I glanced through it, set it aside, and will only pick it back up when its time to edit my own.

I've got a BC Rich mockingbird, and a no-name generic 60 watt amp, with this unit. To me, it sounds just fine. This is the first effects unit I've ever owned, and as such perhaps I'm biased. The distortion effects are pretty lame, but beyond that I'm satisfied. Plus, its got some fun ones in there to make some really out there spacey sounds. I bought this because I wanted a wah pedal, and decided I also wanted something to give me that phaser/rotating leslie style sound. I'm contenteded, especially for the price.

People gripe because its plastic, but you know, its pretty solid to me. I've dropped it once, and stomped on the expression pedal pretty hard a few times, all to no damage (yet). I think people are more afraid that its plastic, than anything else. It'd probably take what you can throw at it. I don't play out, so I can't say if I'd gig without a backup, but then, you shouldn't rely on effects to cover your playing anyway. :)

N/A

For noodlign around, this is a fine thing. This is the only effects unit I own, and the only other thing I have any intention of buying is a decent distortion pedal to complement it. Its cheap, its got lots of fun sounds, plus the ability to edit your own. Combined with a basic drum machine, tuner, and even sampling: Its a good bargain.

Been playing bass for 10 years. This was my first FX box, so it was a bit overwhelming at first. But after playing around for a couple of hours with the manual in hand, editing patches and editing while playing was a piece of cake. The feature of naming your patches is nice. I program them in the order I need them. The manual is OK, but contains some errors regarding knob numbers.
The two footswitches are OK, pressing them together takes some practice. The tuner works fine. The MUTE state is nice when you're switching basses; any sound man will thank you for using it. The rotary knobs are a nice "analogue" touch, but after changing patches, a small twist is enough to make a big jump in parameter setting (Oops, what was that setting again??). I'm not too crazy about the expression pedal; as a volume pedal it's OK but when you use it for controlling speed of chorus, flange etc. you'll find the change going from almost imperceptible in the beginning to very abruptly in the end. Even if you use the UP region setting for the pedal. Finally, on dark stages, the big LED display is clear to read but on outdoor gigs, you won't see a thing. Perhaps a backlit LCD would have been better.

I use it for gigging and rehearsing with a showband and for practicing at home. (I'm also in a rock 'n roll band, and I don't need it there). The key here is tweaking, tweaking and even more tweaking. You will also have to reconsider tone control settings of your basses and amps when you'll be using this one. I use it with an Ibanez ATK305, a Yamaha BBN4 fretless and a Laney 50 watt combo amp (No need for big rigs here, my signal always goes into a mixing board).
Compressor/Noise reduction/Equalizer: Great, I think you can find a good clean tone for any bass, with very little noise. My combo sounds very expensive now! The chorus, phaser and flanger are outstanding. Octaver, auto-wah, tremolo, slow-attack (emulating a bow) and vibe (Commodores? ?Nightshift? on a fretless!) are nice too. Fuzz sounds rather thin, but I don?t like fuzz on bass in general. Defret is no option if you?ve got a real fretless, and the synth is a joke. I expected some Taurus pedal sound! I only use the pitch shifter for short octave-down whammy notes; it is blatantly out of tune. Then there are the wacky techno sounds for which I have no use. For different effects, you may need to re-tweak your ?clean? tone settings. I found out that different effects work better with different amp simulation settings, but you can?t combine these in patches. My favorite setting is the ?Edge Ln B?. I don?t use the reverb unit that much, I suppose it?s OK.
The sampler and especially the drum machine are nice for practicing, though the drum volume is rather loud.

Again, it?s not as sturdy as a metal box, but I?m not a real wild pedal stomper. I think I?ll glue the in/out jacks as a guy before me advised. Never used batteries. Don?t pay those $$$ for a Zoom adapter, use a stabilized adapter from any electronics store for $15, replace the multi-jack by a single female jack and you?ll be fine.

No troubles yey.

I owned it for a year now, and I still say it?s incredible for the price! I?m more the functional player, and it nearly has all the sounds I want. As long as it doesn?t break down, I don?t think I?ll need something else. It?s been out now for two years, I wonder about an upgrade? The preset patches give a good impression of its capabilities, but I wish it had more room for user patches. It?s a great box to start with, but I?ll still be using it for a long time.
Feel free to contact me if you have questions!

it seems pretty easy overall. patches are easy to get to, although they sometimes take a while to get there. i recomend programming it so all your favorite patches are in a row. i havn't done any editing with it, other than changing the order of the patches i use most.

right now i'm using it with a jackson performer ps5 and a carvin ag100d amp, but i'm planning to upgrade some soon. i really like some of the effects. some are pretty cool sounding, but nothing i'd ever use in a show. a few are kinda weak, but overall i like it. if you are looking for a heavy metal bass sound(i wasn't but a friend of mine was) look elswhere. a strong fuzz is about as heavy as it gets.

i keep it in the box when it's not in use. it's made of plastic, and i don't think it would take alot of abuse. i personally have never had any problems with it though. i've used it for several shows and many practices and its been fine without a back up.

never dealt with them personally. have heard mixed reports.

i play in a christian heavy rock/heavy blues band and it suits my needs. i really like the fuzz patch, it gives me a good overdrive without being too much. i've been playing bass about 7 years and this is my first actual bass processor(i play guitar too and i used to run my bass through a roland gp-16 guitar effects processor, i don't really recomend that if you're looking for a bass sound). i didn't really shop around because the guitarist in my band was already using a zoom 707 and really liked it and it just made sense to get the matching bass pedal to go along with it. if it were stolen i would probably look around some before deciding to get another one of these or not. my favorite feature is the built in tuner. its very convenient. my least favorite feature is the fact that if you're playing outside or in a well lit area, its impossible to read the screen. you can't see the tuner or read what patch you're on. all in all, though, for the price its a good little unit.

Very easy to use for all of the basic functions. Some what confusing for a beginner when it comes to editing and other advanced functions. The manual is adequate

I run a Pedulla 5 string through a Peavey Combo 115. The Zoom box is a little noisy but not terrible. I do enjoy playing with the different sounds and I can usually find something that sounds like what I want.

The big issue with this unit is the cheap 1/4" female input and output jacks are very light duty and are only held onto the unit by the prongs that are soldered to the circuit board inside. Mine failed just like the guy a couple of postings down from this one. The deal is this...When the unit is on the floor and someone steps on the Guitar chords or trips on them or knocks the unit around the solder joints crack and the unit will only work (for a while) when you jiggle the chord. I had an electronics friend of mine go inside it and hot glue the female 1/4" jack/receptacles down to the circuit board and re-solder the connections (3 for each jack) which were obviously coming apart. Now I use the effects loop and leave the unit on top of my amp.

Sending it back when I knew what was wrong with it seemed like a pain in the a**

Hey this is a very cool gizmo for 129.00 at ZZounnds.com. The drum machine is fun and the headphone practice amp with all the cool tones is worth the money alone. Someday I'll upgrade to a pro-quallity effects unit when I have the time and $$$ but I would not hesitate to recomend it...Just be careful with it cause they just don't build this stuff the way they used to.

The BFX 708 is mass EZ to use. !! !! and !! !! !! !! !! the patches are perdy cool and it's hella sick.

I use a phatty Dean Markley Five string edge 5 fretless. The sound quality is too cool to explain. The dandy knobs make the bass sound much better and they allow for you to shape the sound-Dyanamics and faster attacks.

I can really depend on my pedal because it is dandy wandy. It hasn't failed me yet. And i'm sure it won't. I would use it on a gig with out back up but i would prolly use more than one pedal.

I haven't tried the customer support yet but i'm sure it's all dandy.

This pedal is phatty and dandy wandy.

I really dug this pedal, until something went wrong with the input, where it wouldnt work unless I put weight/pressure on the cable where it conencts to the pedal. When I sent it to be fixed under warranty, it took them a couple of weeks. When I got it back it worked fine for about 2 months then the same problem came back and now its not under warranty. It was nice when it worked....

ampeg b100
hartke 30
Ibanez Soundgear 990

Not at all!

IT was nice when it worked

Editing patches is difficult as there are a lot of button presses and the funny "digilog" (my word) knobs to get there. The knobs are strange in that they are digital, not analog, so the place where the little tick mark is turned is not where you are in the dial unless you touch it, at which time it immediately goes to where it's turned. So if you wanted to tweak a default setting just a little, you better look where it is before you touch it!

The manual is sufficient to explain patch editing and gives you a few to try for practice.

I use this pedal with a Tobias Toby Deluxe 4 (with a Peavey Fury II as a backup) for gigs. I run it through my Peavey Combo 300 at practice and have run it through an Ampeg SVT Classic w/8x10 when we open up for another band (his rig). It has a good low end through the Peavey (I guess due to the 1x15) but overloads the 8x10 pretty easy on my EQ patches. This is not the fault of the pedal, I just don't like that rig as much...

The effects sound pretty good and there are a lot of options, but they are rather noisy. It's not noticeable during a song, but the unit's effects are somewhat "sound activated" meaning if you don't palm-mute your strings or turn down during breaks, you will get a "sizzling" sound through your rig. Changing patches during a song is impossible unless you make them consecutive because you can only go up or down. On the good side, the effect switch is instantaneous unlike other pedals. It has a good tuner, but it works in "bypass" or "mute" mode only, so you have to press both buttons down at "exactly" the same time with one foot, which is nearly impossible and takes several tries (even with practice). I am considering opening it up and making my own switch that activates both buttons!

I find that I mainly just use the EQ, and tuner and am happy with that as the noise is minimal without having the effects turned on. If you want to customize some effects and use them to emulate cover tunes, you could do it, but if you want to develop a nice warm personalized tone, you don't want this pedal.

If you wanted weird effects like space aliens and crazy stuff like that, you can easily do it with this, but as I would like to get a nice warm low end, I can't with this pedal.

I have never had a problem since switching to the adapter. Don't even try to gig with batteries as they die at unpredictable intervals -- get an adapter!

I have used it without a backup, but I could still play fine without it as I use it for a tuner and EQ (I am repeating myself now).

It's all plastic and really feels and looks like a little toy. I feel like a half-dozen more gigs and at least one of buttons will probably fail completely. The buttons are getting looser and more difficult to put it in "mute" for tuning as time goes by...

Also, I hadn't thought about it before I did it but I took it to an outdoor (daytime) gig and I couldn't use it because the lights and LED display are absolutely invisible in daylight! You can't even tell it's on, so no tuner or anything. Yikes!

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for about 6 months and am in a 80's-90's rock cover band. The pedal is good for a tuner and EQ, but I don't use the effects for anything that we play. If it broke, I would not bother with it unless I could get one for less than a good tuner and stomp EQ.

If they made a new version that was all metal, had several progammable buttons and reduced the noise, and had one button MUTE/TUNE, I would consider it. A cross between the ZOOM and a Digitech BP8 would be nice and I would consider that as an upgrade.

The unit has two large patch control stomp switches for accessing patches up and down and it comes with an expression pedal. Top panel has five dials for additional adjustments on patches for gain, amp simulation, and three for effects levels. The on/off switch and AC adapter cable hook are super. Something the Zoom 506 did not have. The unit also has eight smaller buttons for adjusting modules, editing, storing, rhythm and sampling.

This unit is very easy to use but it takes some time to learn all the features.
The unit has two sets of patches; 30 presets and 30 user patches. There are some incredible effects with infinite variation. Of course, the many sounds are not for everyone. This pedal is only for the calm and patient types that understand the English language. You Neanderthals should steer clear of this one even though it is cheap.

There are a lot of opinions about this unit here, and they vary greatly. I believe the manual is well laid out, organized, and VERY easy to understand. Everything you need is there and it makes a good reference source after you're on your way. I have read many kinds of technical manuals in my time and this one is easy to understand. But, when it comes to manuals there are two kinds of people in the world, those that read the manuals and those that do not and say they have. I think you will see some of each in this section and I think that might explain the high degree of variability in the ratings. Some don't bother to read the manual which is a major mistake. Others just have no understanding of the English language and have less patience. If you don't believe that, just look at the spelling and grammar in this section and judge for yourself.

The drum machine is excellent for practicing different styles and different timing. It has many ways to adjust both. This is especially good for rookies and the ?rhythmically challenged?.

The six second riff recorder is excellent for picking up on very fast or complex riffs. You hook it up to a signal source (music source for you stompers) record the riff, then play it back. What's more, you can slow it down without changing the pitch to figure it out; a very nice feature.

Many of the sounds are excellent like the phase, chorus, reverb, delay, tremolo, octave, and amp simulators but like every other unit like this, there are some bad ones too. This is where the ability to make adjustments becomes important, you can create your own settings and store them. Setting them up is easy too.

Unlike its cousin the 506, this one has an on/off switch which is a great addition and it saves your batteries if you use them. I use the AC adapter ? the same one from the 506 as it turns out. Incidently, you can get the same ones at Radio Shack for only 4 bucks; but you have to read the manual.

This unit sounds great with headphones, my small amp (a 10" 25 watt practice amp) and my big rig, which is an Ampeg SVT III.

Unlike its cousin the 506, this unit has no noise or hiss which makes many of the effects clean and very nice.

So far so good. It would appear that the box will be sufficient for many occasions. And it should be able to stand up to normal wear and tear, it has up to now. But for those who wish to 'stomp' their stomp boxes they should opt for the boxes made of stone, brick, hair, and mortar. The ones with the two page manuals and single syllable words like - pres dis dare! Yah. Daats Eet Now Pley!

I have contacted Zoom in the past and they were very responsive. I haven't had the need for support for the 708. However, they have a good website for accessing information and the manuals are available on line for downloading. Sorry, it is more than two pages.

I have been playing bass for close to 25 years. I am currently playing a Fender V with active electronics and a Badass II bridge, a California P-Bass and a Fender Mexican Jazz fretless also with a Badass II bridge. I use a Park 25 Watt practice amp and an Ampeg SVTIII for jammin? with a single 15? cab, soon to be enlarged. I hail from a time when bass effects were a dream and a novelty (like fuzz and phasing) to be used sparingly because your job was the bottom end. Now it?s a whole new world which is good and not so good! This unit is an excellent buy because it is useful for playing out and for practicing and exploring at home.

If this unit was lost or stolen I would buy another without hesitation. It is worth the money, in my view, for a variety of applications and just practicing solo at home. And yes, the unit and the manual is easy to read and use and it will provide many hours of fun and enjoyment.
I will give it a 9 because nothing is perfect but this one comes close in its use and functionality.

This unit is pretty easy to figure out. Editing the patches is not really that hard (you're gonna want to edit them since the preset FX need to be tweaked to get desired sounds). Everybody seems to hate the manual, and rightfully so. Not that its full of technical jargin only engineers understand, it just isn't that informative.

I like the fact that this is a digital processor that you can edit. As I said, you're gonna want to tweak the settings to get *your* sound--it'll take a week or two to figure out all of the sounds and how to edit them.
The expression pedal has no travel whatsoever, giving the impression of either too much or not enough feel.
I don't like some of the presets (mainly the reverb/echo -style patches like TIME, ECHO-LD, etc.)--they sound kinda weak--like they lack volume (even when you edit the patch volume).
It has a built-in drum machine so you can jam without a drummer if you have to. You can't edit the FX patches "on-the-fly" while the drum machine is going, and "noise" artists will probably be disappointed over this.
All of the distortion/octave/flange/fuzz FX are noisy - has ghosts, hums, and buzzes - which seems to be the case with just about anything (I'm sure there are a few transparent models out there, but I haven't run across any). It has a noise gate thankfully, so the noise isn't overly annoying.
I'm a guitar player that has crossed over into bass. I have 12 years with the guitar, and 3 with the bass. I play just about every style of music (STP, TOOL, Dave Matthews, James Brown, Stu Hamm, ZEPPELIN, Chili Peppers being my influences), and this little unit can pretty much emulate everything - just as long as you figure out how to adjust the presets. It does sound like a DIGITAL processor (mainly because it *is* a digital processor), and if you can get past that prejudice, you'll be alright.
I play a 75 Fender Jazz Bass through a Marshall amp with a 15 and 2x10 cabinet. This unit suits my needs perfectly.

This thing is made of plastic. Therefore, it can't be too reliable. For the touring musician, I would not recommend getting one.
The display is sunken in, and seems like a good place for liquids to pool up (spilt beer, water, etc.). The control dials have a couple of neat-o walls built around them so you can't kick the knobs off. The expression pedal feels like something that would break if you're the type that doesn't take care of your equipment.
For the studio artist, this is an excellent alternative to a POD.

N/A

Overall, I like this unit. It is a great little toy. I would get another if this one disappeared.
This thing needs to come with a power supply. The drum machine's volume adjustment could use some fine-tuning. It also does that annoying power on/off "pop".

Not as easy as a stompbox, but ok if you're used to multieffects pedals...my major grip is the mixed function buttons - each button does a different thing depending on what mode you're in

But I got the hang of it pretty quickly (1 day)

hehe. I'm using it with a noname shithouse LesPaul imitation that sounds like shit. And a poxy 2nd hand fender 15watt Bass amp! Does a good job of exciting the tone, make it interesting.

Pros:
Good EQ
Tons of compression options (if you like that)
Tons of different effects, especially wierd ones (time trip, ring mod, pedal pitch, flanger with negative feedback, etc)
Cheap (got mine for AU$165 2nd hand)!!
Tons better than shitty 500-series => three parameters per module, rotary dials, expression pedal, naming patches, etc.
Noise reduction is very effective when you're not playing ;-)
The ring modulator is insane - especially when you link the carrier frequency to the expression pedal! Sci-fi dive bombs anyone? *g*
Ability to have multiple delays+reverb is nice.

Cons:
A bit of hiss durin playing if you turn up the treble
Some effects suck bigtime: Octave, pedalpitch (whammy), vibrato...but the big one is.........SYNTHESIZER! This SUCKS do not use it! Remember kids, this is a _simulation_ of a bass synthesizer, not a real one! This gives real synths like the Boss SYN whatever a bad name!
What else sucks...The pedal has hardly any travel, and it's impossible to centre it accurately to a point which isn't full on or full off. (but hey, I paid AU$165 for it, what do I expect?)
The onboard amp simulator is no POD....but you get what you pay for.
You have something like 49-50 different effects, but you can't use all of them at once (but only I'd want to do that - I'm a nut).
Jam play is useless (or I haven't figured it out yet I've only had it one day). Even still, 2 seconds - what can you do with that?
Sampler is ok....but you can't change effects while playing with yourself...it would be good if the sampler were combined with the Jam play, to give 6 secconds of reverse playback, foot-triggered blis... *g*

I'm also going to use it as a mic DI for my computer cos I'm a hack.


Overall, sound quality is great considering you pay peanuts for it. It doesn't get a ten cos I'm still pissed of with some of it...

Well, I got mine 2nd hand, and it's in perfect condition. Yeah ok it's plastic, but it's bloody tough plastic. I think Zoom have a deal with Lockheed to use up all the material offcuts from making stealth bombers. Dials are protected by walls on each side, so they won't get kicked off. This thing will probably outlast me, but I'm not the type to abuse my gear...even still I'd imagine it would take a lot of effort to make a dint in this thing.

I'd gig without a backup because I'm too poor to buy a backup.

Haven't delt with them in person, but their website rocks - straight to the point, includes sound examples (A little cheezy tho) and ALL MANUALS FOR DOWNLOAD!!! Not all companies do this. Reading the manual is the best way to determine how good a piece of gear REALLY is, behind all the marketing hype and all. I'll give an N/A because I haven't actually spoken to anyone from ZOOM, for all I know it's run by robots...

I play wierd styles, on the strange and noisy side of the spectrum...I baught this for two reasons:
a) brighten up my shitty guitar sound
b) make queer noises

Does both of these great. Great value.

It can be a bit daunting at first if you've never used a multi-effects before, but if you have even just a little experience using multi-effects then it's pretty easy. The manual's not too bad, I needed to read a few things several times before I knew what they were talking about but overall pretty well explained.

I've been trying it with a Warwick Streamer through Warwick Profet IV and Warwick 4x10 and I didn't find it to be noisy at all. I wasn't very impressed with the presets though. They all seemed a little harsh sounding to me, especially the Synth sounds and distortions. I liked the autowah (fatwah, I think it's called). Most of the presets did not sound good to my ears and I think you need to do a lot of tweaking to get a good sound, but I do believe it is possible with this thing.

I think Zoom is a pretty reliable brand. As with all things like this you just have to look after them and treat it nice and it should serve you well.

I play every style of music but the pedal is for experimental music, to try and get some way out sounds. I've been playing for 6 years. I think the sampler function is the best feature on this thing. 6 seconds is actually quite a bit of time to lay down a bass line or padding to loop so you can play over it. It's terrific. I think the biggest selling point for this pedal is that you are getting so much for what you are paying. The sounds didn't grab me that much, but I'm sure it'll be very useful for a lot of other bass players. BUT... Try this pedal out carefully before you buy it, trying all the presets and tweaking the analog knobs to see what other sounds you can get, etc, try the drum machine and the sampler thing (ask for the manual or download it from the zoom site). Because I don't think it could be for everyone. But once again, great for the money.

Everything is so easy to do on this. Editing patches are a breeze if you know what you're doing. The Manuel could be a bit more in depth though.

I am using an arbor bass guitar on a microbass amp (not the best but works for me). The effects are great and you can tweak them almost any way you want. Personally, this is the best multi-effect box I have ever heard.

It always works when I use it.

I've never had a problem with it.

The way I see it, this box has some of the best effects I've ever heard.

I don't think this is the easiest thing in the world, but if you try (very hard!) you can get something close enough to the sound you imagined!(but never exactly) I think the manual is ok but it needs a careful reading.

I use an Ibanez SR-400 with a TraceElliot-30W and i think this is the weakest sound i have ever heard (+ a bit noisy). When i play at home everything is ok, but in the studio with a Peavy 300W things are getting very bad. The sound is very weak and low (i tried all the EQ possible parametrs)

No,no,...NO! This plastic thing sucks! Especially the Wah Fx is the biggest problem. For example when you want to use the pedal for wah you must be very gentle because it will brake, also the two switches.
I will use it on gig only as a backup for my Digitech

I play from old rock to death metal and i think this effect works only at home for private studying. I play with it for about a year and i will not buy it again. The only way i use it is when i want a very heavy and "catastrophic" low sound, otherwise it's high sound sucks! I must warn you, if you want to buy it, you must test it with a big and proffesional amp.

It has some good sounds, and it's fun as hell to play.
Editing the patches aren't too easy, they seem sort of complex, but you'll get the hang of it. The manual is tricky, but again, spend some time and you'll be fine.

I am using the processor w/ a Fender P-Bass and a Fender BXR 100 amp. It sounds fine. The effects sound pretty clean. I like the Octave effects. With the right tweaking you can get a Stanley Clarke or Jaco Pastorius sound out of it.

It seems dependable so far, it's sturdy. I'd feel comforatable using it w/o a backup @ a gig.

The customer support sucks. I pre-judging this one because they're located in Tokyo and the unit didn't come w/ an AC adapter and won't let you use any other adapter except one from Zoom. I like the pedal anyhow, the price was great.

I've been playing for 2 years, and I play alternative rock w/ a funk edge (incubus style i guess) the price I got it for was great, I wouldn't pay over $200 new for it though. I like the different effects and the drum machine it came w/, but I don't like the fact that it took me a while to figure out how to use the damn thing. It's a good purchase, go for it if you like to have fun with your music and play a lot of lead parts.

A few months ago I submitted a review, and would like to further elaborate.The Manual is the stupidist thing you will ever find on the face of the earth. The presets give you an idea of what you want but you'll definately want to tailor them to your style. Which isn't hard at all. (It only took me a few months to get the sounds I wanted!)

As before I'm running with an esp 5 string through a kustom 3-15, the only difference is I got a classic ampeg amp which is far quiter than anything. I haven't noticed noise I don't know what the hell people are taking about. Perhaps there Noise gates are turned off.Anything that uses the compressor is good, also the flanger is very excellent. Anything that uses distortion will suck unbelievably. Over the years I have come to a conclusion. ALL BASS MULTI EFFECT PROCESSORS SUCK!!! But this is porbably my favorite, even over the DOD, and Digitech models.

I wouldn't use a back up, but I would still hang on to the box to store it in, just to transport otherwise itll be fine.

I have never dealt with the company, and I dont thik I will ever need to. The reason Im giving it a review is because you want to use a universal adapter forget it. Zoom plotted against the bassist here. On 4 point multi adapters if one of the metal arms not in use touches the metal of your guitar cable. the machine will turn completely off.A feature that pisses me off.

Overall its better than anything else short of Individual stomp boxes. Here's my opinion save your mmoney and get rack mountable preamp, They will fatten your sound. Another possibility would to get an amp with a descent preamp built into it. There are some nice ones such as the Mo' bass, and clasic ampegs. The unit is superb for the price, but save your money you'll be thankful in a year or so.

This unit is the easiest floor processor I have ever used.

I use a Ibanez SR 800 bass with a Hartke 3500 head and a Peavey TXF 4x10. I also have a Peavey 115 BW cab. The sounds on this unit just plain suck. I bought this for some quick cheap effects. I really wish I had looked into this buy more. With the equipment I have you would think it would sound alright but not at all. One day I wanted to make a simple ditortion patch. Good luck this thing has no crunch at all it just fuzzes the fuck out of everthing. The only thing that might actually sound Ok is the flange on it. The thing is also really noisy Any thing you do to it doesn't quiet it down. There are many factory presets and they all suck ass. I couldnt get any of the sounds that I wanted out of it. I play music like Pantera, Deftones, Dream Theater, Sevendust, Tool, and Fear Factory. The only reason I have this is around is to use it as a tuner. That works fine.

Its plastic but no problems.

THIS JUST PLAIN SUCKS ASS. DON'T EVER BUY THIS UNIT!!!!!!

It is taking some getting used but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. On the same hand I can't help but think it could have been at least somewhat easier to use ya know.

For practice, at lower volumes there is some hum on certain patches but when you start jammin it is a non-factor. I love the pedal wah, in my opinion it is better than a Cry Baby. The comp is good too, lends itself to the bass all the way down to the basement.

Like everyone else i have to say that it is plastic ya know, but outside from individual stomp boxes what effects units are made of iron anyway. Seems rigid if you dont abuse it. Having said that I do question the ex. pedal.might sound better than a Cry Baby but isn't quite built to the same specs if you know what I mean. I still carry mine in the box but thats me.

I've been playing for six years now. I'm playing a Fender P-bass Spec. through a Crate BX-100 however some time I'll play through the 708 straight in to the effects loop return. That more or less eliminates the amp all together and just give the unit a big speaker, this works well with the amp sim. I play my own type of thing but I use fingers picks and slap (whatever the song needs you know) it help all of these I like slapping through it though.
It would be replace right away if stolen or lost.
I always wanted a zoom 506 but never got around to it, now I'm so glad I didn't. This thing blows that away with the drum mach. the sampler and the built in ex. pedal. The only thing I miss from the 506 is the buttons being close together sometimes the 708 can be a bitte to get into bypass mode. I love being able to plug headphones in and play anywhere plus it sure beats lugging home a huge amp from school for weekend trips.

- manual included, but needs some more detail
- you can name your patches with ENGLISH (or other languages, too) names -- they are displayed on the 5 character LED display
- editing patches not too difficult, but not all settings fully explained -- for example, what does the flashing pedal light mean?
- Patch selection done with two foot switches. If you press both at the same time, it goes into bypass mode, which turns off all patches and engages the tuner. I have trouble hitting both at the same time (size 12 shoes) I step on both, but on actually press one of them. Will take some getting used to.
- includes a foot pedal that can be assiged as a volume pedal -- a very big plus over the cheaper Zoom box.
- drum machine volume on lowest setting still overwhelms the sound of my bass

- using this with Carvin PB200 15 and Peavey T-40
- in a quiet room, some of the patches are noisy, but I try them in a live setting, I cannot here the noise anymore.
- some of the phasing patches have some residual noise
- octaver sounds good down to G, but starts to cut out below that
- the JACOP patch doesn't sound just like you know who (what did you expect?), but sounds very good nonetheless with the bridge pickup on the T-40.
- quite a variety of present patches, but many not useful to me due to the types of music I play. Some more appropriate to industrial/ambient music.
- drum machine sounds in it are cheesy, but usable.

- the body is plastic, and some criticize it for this, but the unit is very rigid. You cannot jump up and down on it, but will take normal wear well

na

- My band plays praise music, but I like all types - funk, fusion, rock, etc. Playing for 3 yrs
- Good cheap, introduction to many different types of effects. This was cheaper than a single Boss pedal! I am really having fun with this and figuring out how to use this in my music.
- Considered getting a Boss-MB6(?) on e-bay, but was outbid!
- Some of the settings are a little noisy. I tried adjusting the noise gate on the Carvin amplifier, but couldn't find a good compromise -- might make this difficult to record with.

DO NOT PAY OVER $129 for this new!

It's very simple to use the unit , i think Zoom people have take many time thinking how to make the operation easy.
Edit a patch isn't so simple , you have to put Zoom's concept in your mind , first you have a "patch" , in there you have effect modules , inside the effects modules you have too many effects , finally three parameters for each effect. To edit or create a patch may result very complicated but any way its very instintive.
The manual dont cover all , you have to discover how to "assign" the expression pedal or how to use the jam play or sampler.
One thing bad in the console is that the parameters that can be controled in real time with the knobs are not always the most important parameters in the effect , same for the assign to the expression pedal. And that cant be edited.

Very good , but not great.
I have a pasive hyundai bass and create bass amp (but i have probed the unit whit better equipment and is all the same)
It has very good patches , for example the stereo sinth sound or the fuzz distortion , but there're patches that make you ask why did this guys build this thing with this inexpressive settings.
Another bad things is when you hear the patches using a guitar , some effects show much more color and clean sound. That makes me angry : i cant accept a guitar sound better than a bass in a unit build for a bass
Anyway the bass sound fine , the chorus is very good , the wha sound too. The comp/dist module have a great compression and fuzz.
The delay is OK but it has difficult acces to change parameters like feedback.
Not traditional effects like ring modulator , time or pitch control works better with guitar but i cant complaint , its sounds good anyway

The noise reduction WORKS

Its plastic , but hard one. I think it can resist foot operations. I think i would buy new one if i lost my unit.
Never used in a gig but it has strong red characters , i dont think some one cant read it.

I play many styles of music in bass , from Bach Celo suites to Magma kobaian music and the unit works perfect. I have been playing for 6 years and the unit has things that like very much to me.
The think i hate about the unit , AND THIS IS SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO READ IF YOU PLAN TO BUY ONE , is how the pedal control the expression of the effects. Let me explain it, for similar distances of step in the pedal you dont get similar variations in one effect , near the fully down poit of the pedal , your move cause huge variations in the effect, but near the fully raised point , movements in the pedal causes low perceptible changes. If you had not understood think in the delay parameter "time" controlled by the pedal : for 1 cm of pedal variation in raised point you change the parameter form 50 mlseg to 100 , but for the same distance of movement in the pedal , when this one is near fully down poit , the change in the parameter will be at 300 to 500 mlseg. Hope you understand me :)
I would like the unit had more freedom when you want to edit parameters with the knobs , i would like you can assign the parameter like to knob that i want.
Anyway i think i cant live with out the effect console.

The unit defaults to "power A1", a good patch and very clean. Editing patches are a little on the "you have to fool around with the unit and read the manual" side but when you have finally put your patch together, it's worht the labor.

I use a 72 jazz bass and an ampeg 50R for practice and small to medium gigs and a yorkville 400 with an SWR 4x8 for bigger venues.
The unit can be highly praised for being quiet and (though i haven't yet) may be used for recordings. there are a lot of effects but most admirable are the fretless, power settings which complement the jazz and R&B sounds, and the automatic wah for the "bootsy" effect.

I beleive this unit is dependable as long as you don't stomp on it. Sorry, but I always use a Backup. I use it as my primary effects unit now.

I have not had a chance to use customer support but do beleive that they would be OK.

I have been playing for more than 18 yrs now and play almost anything from standards to the blues and rock and roll ; mostly jazz and R&B. i also play in church. This unit fits fits itself into anything I play. I have owned almost every brand of bass there is but came back to the Fender Jazz. (for the new bass players, "you'll come back to the fender jazz") been there, done that !! I have researched a lot before I got the unit.

C'est tres facile a utiliser, le mode d'emploi entant efficace, on personnalise facilement les patches

Le son est tres bon, il donne du punch a mon ampli (marshall 8015 - 150w)
vraiment bon

jamais eu besoin !!

Je joue de la basse depuis un an, stle rock, rock alternatif, voire psychedelique, une peu de reggae..
ma basse "vantage 225b", peu connu, ce n'est pas du haut de gamme, mais le modele vieilli bien !

I would have to say it is fairly easy to use. I too had trouble finding out how to remove a module (press both module keys at the same time) but that is a minor gripe. The manual is ok.

I first used this with a crappy squier j-bass, but i recently updated to a musicman sterling. it kicked with the sterling. the amp sim is ok, but the 'warm' setting is shit and the 'edge' setting kills the distortion and wahs, and some other effects as well. the auto wah is absoloutly crap, I don't think i ever used it, the pedal wah is much better. the distortions are very weak. they sound sort of ok by themselves but get killed in a band, as they are very fuzzy and not growly enough unless you eq them every heavily and even then they suck. everything else was pretty good except the synth which was really soft and weird, sort of like a screwed up auto wah/yah sort of thing

o dear. this is where i had many problems. i know noone else has had problems, but mine has broken THREE times, yes three, and they were all differant pedals, as i got them replaced when they broke. the first time, the exp. pedal broke on the left hand side and came clean off that side, the second time the input jack broke and it was totally unusable, and the third time the exact same thing happened as the first time, except half and hour after i got it home from when it broke the second time. i swear this is all true. i have had it for about 3 months

they were very slow and crap, it took literally weeks the first time and then the shop keeper gave up and gave me a new pedal because it took so long

the pedal was ok but it was just too damn unreliable, so i am now selling it.

This thing isn't too complicated. A week or so is enough to master it. Editing patches is pretty easy, but because there's so many different effects it can get complicated. The manual is fairly straight forward, except for a few very annoying parts. It doesn't tell you have to turn off a module (I learned that from an above review) and more than once they put the wrong parameter knob #).
The only thing I wish this thing had was more room to make your own patches (to make one if you have to erase one of the existing factory patches).

I have a real simple setup because I only got my guitar a year ago and I'm saving up for a car so I don't have too much money. Anyway, I can't remember what amp I have (it's a Peavey with 65 watts if that helps anyone) and I have a GSR 200 from Ibanez. With this thing that's all I need.
This unit has every reasonable kind of effect I can think of: Compresoor/limiter, fuzz, flange, reverb, chorus, delay, 5-band equalizer, wah, auto-wah, ring modulator, etc., etc. The drum machine is fantastic for practice and the sampler is interesting. The jam thing is pretty useless with just 2 seconds.
As soon as I first plugged this thing in I was amazed at the sound quality. I've been running effects from my brother's guitar amp and this was a welcome change. I'm not an expert in effects, but as far as I can tell it sounds great.
I have had trouble perfectly imitating my favorite artists. But for some this works very well. For example, I can finally play Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Almost all of the effects sound good, some better than others. The fuzz, delay, chorus, and ring are outstanding. The wah is better than any of those effect systems for the same price. The synthesizer is cool. I don't like the fretless or the violin effects at all.

It's plastic so I don't expect much. I'm careful with it. I've never really had it give me any problems but I've only had it for 2 months.

?

I play lots of different stuff.(I'm in 3 bands) In one I play a kind of death metal alternative hybrid (kinda like the deftones) as well as some softer stuff. In the others I play grunge/ alternative, Metallica, and classic rock (Beatles, Doors, Zeppelin,Clapton). This unit adds to each of those styles.
If it were stolen I would not have enough money to replace it, but if I did I'd probably replace it.
The reason I got this is to save money, and I succeded. I originally was going to buy a distortion pedal: 40$. Then I realized I needed a compressor: $30. Plus a wah: 65$. You get the point. The effects on this thing sound great and if you bought all the effects separately (even if it was just the good ones) it would probably be almost twice as expensive.
End note: If you are just starting out, or even if you've been playing for awhile, this unit is great for either gigging or practicing or both.