Zoom G2.1u

This is a great unit, my first ever multi effect (some home electronic projects aside). Preset patches range from superb to interesting to -do not select me-. Editing patches is where it really gets going, it takes some time but allows you to create unique sounds. Manual is ok, a little more information would not do any harm.

Fender Strat, modified pickup. No noise. Great for practising with headphone. Recording also great, software does take some getting used to.

Still searching for more of the specific sounds of my favourite artists (Vai, Satriani) but have found some already.

Yep, reliable. Would use it on a gig.

Great first buy in my opinion. Would buy the g7.1u is this one was stolen. Very inspiring sounds, composing new songs and phrases is so easy.

Is there any user group that shares settings for edited patches?

Very easy to use. The manual is very well written and explains all that you need to know. To edit is a breeze.

I bought this unit to go with my Tech 21 60 watt amp. I was really surprized how well it made the amp sound. To tell the truth I'm not a big fan of these digital all in-one boxes, but the price was right and there were many good reviews so I took a chance. Most of the presets are over done but if you tweek a little bit it really begins to kick ass. One thing for sure it puts the Line 6 Pod to shame. The effects are some of the best I've heard from this type of unit. All and all the sound is very good

Just dont shoot it with a 357 and it will last.

Hope not to.

Been playing to long to remember but I'll tell you this nothing beats the real sound of a tube amp it's simply a matter of physics. Zoom has done a real nice job but lets face it people it's just another little toy for us to play with. It seems that so many young players today are brain washed into believeing that a $169 unit could replace a $1200 dollar tube amp. Sorry guys but it's nothing more then a illusion created by the manufactures who sell these products. I like the zoom it has alot going for it and compared to Line 6 or Roland it's the toy to have. This rateing is based on simular products.

Pretty easy to use once you know it. It is like a row of virtual stomp boxes: there is a rotary switch to select each box and three knobs to set the parameters for the currently selected box (or some key parameters in PLAY mode). The manual is good for explain how to get to all the less-obvious bits (like where they hid the global output level setting!) but if you are a newbie who doesn?t understand amps and effects you?ll just have to try stuff out.
Where the G2s fall down is that they have a two-digit numeric LED display ? fine for selecting patch ?C3? or ?D6? but a bit of a pain for parameter editing. You kinda get used to it when you do your first bit of editing, then you go back a few days later and you?ve forgotten some of the obscure stuff - like an upside-down A is a W. One of the bits that confuses me is the hieroglyphics for the various amp/distortion models ? ?FC? is Fender Clean, ?JC? is JC Clean and they are both clean (makes sense so far) but then what looks like ?NC? is Marshall Crunch, which is obviously not clean. Then you?ve got ?Pu? which is either a Peavey 5150 model or a Vox Wah, depending on which part of the processing chain you?re in. Takes a bit of getting used to.
Another annoyance is that you can?t just turn cabinet modelling on and off overall ? you have to create separate patches! And to set the overall output level you have to select ?Control? and then set the volume ? and then it goes and resets it next time you power up! Annoying little quirks but overall not bad, and like I said ? look at the price!

I?ve used this with my Washburn MG40, my Steinberger Spirit GT Pro and my brother?s 1985 PRS (only briefly ? not often I get my hands on it!). Pretty impressed with the sound overall, especially considering the price - you?d pay this much for a wah and a cheap distortion box. The sound is kinda clean and bright and detailed, even with the messiest distortion patches. In some ways it?s a bit too toppy even with the speaker cab modelling - easily tamed with a bit of EQ.
The presets are a matter of personal preference ? I wasn?t too keen on them to start with but I can see the use of most of them. It did seem at first to be either all clean or all distortion, but when I realised that every time you change the amp model it changes the parameters to some default values I finally started to sort it out. Making sure the compressor isn?t on you can get progressive (touch-sensitive) overdrive no problem, either by turning down the drive on ?crunch? models or by using the ?Boost? before the ?clean? amp models. The only thing is that the onset of distortion (the way the sound breaks up) seems to be pretty much the same on most models. It sounds as though the distortion model is the same and the individual character comes only from EQ before & after.
The drum sounds are surprisingly good and the patterns pretty good too (allowing for the fact that, as usual, they tend to be a bit ?busy?). The lack of bass line sequencing and patern chaining makes the drum section just an overgrown metronome ? and the fact that it cuts out the reverb section when you switch it on kinda seals its fate. Playing in time is a bloody good thing to practice, though.
As for features it?s easy to look up what it has, so I?ll look at bit more at the less obvious things. There are a lot of areas where it could be improved, but you have to admit that for the price there?s little to complain about.
The whole processing ? modelling ? effects chain is pretty standard. It?s good that the pre-effects section can be placed before or after the amp/distortion modelling ? you can often make a lot more of the wah by putting it after the distortion. The wah has been criticised quite a bit by other reviewers but I think it?s pretty good if you think about what you?re doing with it ? just like in real life.
There are some effects missing that I?d like to see. There?s no voice-box filtering, no synth filtering and no rotary speaker simulation (though considering how bad most rotary sims are you?re probably not missing much ? PLEASE somebody come up with a simulator as good as a Korg G4 in a multieffects pedal). The acoustic siimulation I haven?t made up my mind about yet ? I prefer Korg?s, but this one is still useful.
I've only used it briefly for recording so far (with a laptop). It was immediately recognised as a USB audio interface. It would have been nice if you could record the clean signal while listening to the effected signal but Zoom have decided it is not to be (not on this unit, anyway). You need to reduce the buffers from 5512 samples down to 768 (input) and 512 (output) to stop it feeling sluggish through latency.
I wish the pedal could be used to control a wider range of parameters. Why do they think you want to control modulation speed rather than modulation depth or effect mix? The G7.1ut can patch the pedal to a wider selection of parameters, but for nearly twice the price. At least you get to control effect mix for the stereo chorus.

Seems really well built. It?s sometimes hard to tell whether it is metal with rubber added on or rubber with metal added on ? especially as it stinks of rubber when new! It is the former, of course. Even the battery compartment door is reasonably sturdy (well, compared to most). The controls are nice and positive and the pedal feels good too. It needs to be on a solid floor for you to be able to ?kick down? on the pedal to turn pedal control on and off ? takes quite a heavy press but it is up to pressure. Of course, whether it actually is reliable only time will tell.

No idea, except that they do allow you to download the manual from the website - which might help you make up your mind, if the price doesn't do that.

Some bad points (hasn?t everything) but no killers and all at an excellent price. I play a variety of styles ? blues, jazz, ambient and ?weird sh*t?. It sounds good ? you may have to EQ off some of the top end for more vintage sounds but it is better than trying to add top end that isn?t there. The only drawback after quite a bit of playing is that the distortion models seem a bit ?samey? in the way they kick in ? which is where I?m normally playing. This seems to be a common problem with amp modelling: clean is fine, distorted is fine but it?s the bit in between where quality shows. Have to keep reminding myself about the low price!
It?s a nice size for the job: just big enough to use but small enough to carry around in my laptop case ? *with* my laptop! Overall I?m very happy with it, in the absence of the money, space and road crew I?d need to have all the amps, mics and effects it models. A big step up in quality for Zoom.

Great right out of the box. Intuitive interface, clean layout,and decent manual.

Great, for what it is. I bought it to bring to rehearsals so as not to have to lug around my massive padalboard. It really does the job nicely. I am impressed with the low noise factor and the quality of the effects. Much more than I expected for $149.

Seems sturdy enough. Zoom seemed to focus on build quality with this unit. Feels very solid.

Never dealt with the company.

I play classic rock. My guitar of the moment is a Fernandes Ravelle Elite (I just love that sustainer!) I play through a Rivera Fandango 2-12 and my pedalboard is (over)loaded with a bunch of high-quality, hand made pedals, the mainstays being a Guyatone Flip tube delay, a Chicago Iron Parachute wah, a very vintage MXR Dyna Comp and a Morley volume pedal. I rely on my amp for drive when needed. I like this pedal for the intended use. It doesn't take the place of my pedalboard, but as mentioned, is a big bang for the buck, and even plugs into the computer to provide a recording/editing interface for beginners wishing to explore that venue. This is about as good as it gets for the money.

First of all i should mention I bought this because i loved my Zoom 505 so much, and wanted something to record on PC, and play live. I've never used this pedal with an amp, only straight into my headphones and my PC (for practise), or straight into a PA (live). In both situations i always have the cabnet simulation turned on.

As people have already mentioned before, it's like having 9 stomp boxes, with 3 control knobs. Unfortunately because of the small screen you dont know what each parameter it set to until you turn the relevant knob - not very intuative.

Also it's easy to get overwelmed by the sheer number of effects. The manual is very good though (you can download it on the Zoom website).

Really nice touch is that you can adjust gain, EQ and level using the front knobs when in "play" mode, and the expression pedal can turn a particular effect off/on. Also the pedal switches patches in 5ms, it's so quick, no 1/2 second of silence like the old zoom pedals anymore!

PC recording is really easily, i'll talk about it more later.

To start - the 20 presets all suck. really badly. Not sure how zoom dropped the ball so badly on this one, but pretty much all of them sound sucky.

I've found the best way to set up a patch is to set everything to off (except reverb), then go the drive module and find an amp/pedal model you like (if you want to use one), and adjust the gain and level to suit you. The amp/pedal tone should be set between 5-8, to give you some leeway for adjustment later. Now turn on the EQ module and adjust EQ to suit your sound. Then finally, add any extra effects, one by one.

The sound of the distortions is frankly incredible. Some really great crunch, fuzz and smooth lead sounds in there. I also love the ring modulation, phaser, slow attach, pitch shifter - as you can tell, i like weird sounds. The expression pedal can do tons of cool things with different effects, like adjusting the phaser or delay rates, however the crybaby pedal wah effect is just ok. They're not really enough travel on the pedal, but it's still useable.

One thing though, is a lack of a good overdrive sound. I went back and tried my Zoom 505 and couldnt believe how fuzzy and bad the distortions sounded. However, the "rhythem" overdrive setting does a great edge-of-breakup sound that i havent yet managed to get out of the Zoom G2.

very solidly built - i'd be suprised if i had any problems.

no idea

I bought this mainly for PC recording, and for this reason alone it's been brilliant. The G2 comes with Cubase LE and a quick getting started guide, and already ive produced some nice sounding demoes. The G2 appears as a soundcard when plugged into your PC via USB, so recording has zero latency, plus its way cool to play an Mp3 and jam along with it through headphones.

Live it's sounded good through a PA, overall this is a great pedal well worth the money and probably better value than a POD (cos you can use it live or for recording, and its way cheaper!). I'd definitely buy it again.

As with the old 505, very easy to change patch settings. Much easier to save settings as well. Really need the manual at hand while editing to get a full understanding of the symbols used.

Included drum machine is useless....
USB port,useless....
Included recording software, useless....

Tried at front end and through effects loop of Tech21 TM60, and direct to PA. Have tried both single and bucker pickups. EQ setting for both amp and PA...FLAT. I dont try to emulate the sound of any one artist/guitarist, so I cant make a comparison there, however I am able to get some really good clean chorus and delays with my TM60 from the front end and in the EFX loop. Distortion is another matter. Best run in the front end for distortion.

Direct to PA in stereo this thing kicks....but I have spent about 3 hours playing with it to find sounds I was lookng for. Oh yah...quiet!

Expression pedal can be a pain. IF you have the pedal in the middle of its travel path and switch to a patch that uses it, it does not know where it is and does not instantly respond. You need to leave it at the top or bottom of the path.

Modulations are great, and easy to find a good sound. DRIVE, amp sims, need you work on them to find the sound you are looking for. Playing around with the EQ and Extra EQ is the key.

Gigged a long time with a 505 without back up, I think I would do the same here. I am really looking forward to using this direct to PA without an amp at rehearsal. If that sounds good and works I would do the same at a gig. Too soon to have any ideaof reliability issues.

Never dealt with them

Band plays 50% cover, 50% oringals. Style is rock, country rock, modern rock. Been playing for 37 years and have a variety pedals from back in the early 70's, 80's, till now. I like this for its compact size, and diversity. It is not all things to everyone, but will cover a wide variety of need. Oh Yah...did I mention quiet?!?!

Some combinations of effect are absolutely crazy. I dont know where or when I would use them, but they are fun to play with.

Pretty easy to use once you know it. It is like a row of virtual stomp boxes: there is a rotary switch to select each box and three knobs to set the parameters for the currently selected box (or some key parameters in PLAY mode). The manual is good for explain how to get to all the less-obvious bits but if you don?t understand amps and effects you?ll just have to try stuff out. (You might ask why the hell someone who doesn?t understand amps and effects would have one of these, but I have a fourteen-year-old daughter who is learning guitar, so...)
Where the G2s fall down is that it has a two-digit numeric LED display ? fine for selecting patch ?C3? or ?D6? but a bit of a pain for parameter editing. You kinda get used to it when you do your first bit of editing, then you go back a few days later and you?ve forgotten some of the obscure stuff - like an upside-down A is a W. One of the bits that confuses me is the hieroglyphics for the various amp/distortion models ? ?FC? is Fender Clean, ?JC? is JC Clean and they are both clean (makes sense so far) but then what looks like ?NC? is Marshall Crunch, which is obviously not clean. Then you?ve got ?Pu? which is either a Peavey 5150 model or a Vox Wah, depending on which part of the processing chain you?re in. Takes a bit of getting used to.
Another annoyance is that you can?t just turn cabinet modelling on and off overall ? you have to create separate patches! And to set the overall output level you have to select ?Control? and then set the volume ? and then it goes and resets it next time you power up! Annoying little quirks but overall not bad, and like I said ? look at the price!

I?ve used this with my Washburn MG40, my Steinberger Spirit GT Pro and my brother?s 1985 PRS (only briefly ? not often I get my hands on it!). Very impressed with the sound overall, especially considering the price - you?d pay this much for a wah and a cheap distortion box. The sound is kinda clean and bright and detailed, even with the messiest distortion patches. In some ways it?s a bit too toppy even with the speaker cab modelling, but that?s easily tamed with a bit of EQ if you?re recording, or by using cheap headphones when practising!
The presets are a matter of personal preference ? I wasn?t too keen on them to start with but I can see the use of most of them now. I did think originally there was a tendency to be either all clean or all distortion, but when I realised that every time you change the amp model it changes the parameters to some default values I finally started to sort it out. Making sure the compressor isn?t on you can get progressive (touch-sensitive) overdrive no problem, either by turning down the drive on ?crunch? models or by using the ?Boost? before the ?clean? amp models. The only thing is that the onset of distortion (the way the sound breaks up) seems to be pretty much the same no matter which model you use. It sounds as though the distortion model is the same and the individual character comes only from EQ before & after.
The drum sounds are surprisingly good and the patterns pretty good too (allowing for the fact that, as usual, they tend to be a bit ?busy?). The lack of bass line sequencing and patern chaining makes the drum section just an overgrown metronome ? and the fact that it cuts out the reverb section when you switch it on kinda seals its fate. Playing in time is a bloody good thing to practice, though.
As for features it?s easy to look up what it has, so I?ll look at bit more at the less obvious things. There are a lot of areas where it could be improved, but you have to admit that for the price there?s little to complain about.
The whole processing ? modelling ? effects chain is pretty standard. It?s good that the pre-effects section can be placed before or after the amp/distortion modelling ? you can often make a lot more of the wah by putting it after the distortion. The wah has been criticised quite a bit by other reviewers but I think it?s pretty good if you think about what you?re doing with it ? just like in real life.
There are some effects missing that I?d like to see. There?s no voice-box filtering, no synth filtering and no rotary speaker simulation (though considering how bad most rotary sims are you?re probably not missing much ? PLEASE somebody come up with a simulator as good as a Korg G4 in a multieffects pedal). The acoustic siimulation I haven?t made up my mind about yet ? I prefer Korg?s, but this one is still useful.
I haven?t used it for recording so far (should be really handy with a laptop) but it is immediately recognised by PCs as a USB audio interface. It would have been nice if you could record the clean signal while listening to the effected signal but Zoom have decided it is not to be (not on this unit, anyway).
I also wish the pedal could be used to control a wider range of parameters. Why do they think you want to control modulation speed rather than modulation depth or effect mix? The G7.1ut can patch the pedal to a wider selection of parameters, but for nearly twice the price. At least you get to control effect mix for the stereo chorus.

Seems really well built. It?s sometimes hard to tell whether it is metal with rubber added on or rubber with metal added on ? especially as it stinks of rubber when new! It is the former, of course. Even the battery compartment door is reasonably sturdy (well, compared to most). The controls are nice and positive and the pedal feels good too. It needs to be on a solid floor for you to be able to ?kick down? on the pedal to turn pedal control on and off ? takes quite a heavy press but it is up to pressure. Of course, whether it actually is reliable only time will tell.

No idea: never had dealings with Zoom.

Some bad points (hasn?t everything) but no killers and all at an excellent price. I play a variety of styles ? blues, jazz, ambient and ?weird sh*t?. It sounds good ? you may have to EQ off some of the top end for more vintage sounds but it is better than trying to add top end that isn?t there. The only drawback after quite a bit of playing is that the distortion models seem a bit ?samey? in the way they kick in ? which is where I?m normally playing. This seems to be a common problem with amp modelling: clean is fine, distorted is fine but it?s the bit in between where quality shows. Have to keep reminding myself about the low price!
It?s a nice size for the job: just big enough to use but small enough to carry around in my laptop case ? *with* my laptop! Overall I?m very happy with it, in the absence of the money, space and road crew I?d need to have all the amps, mics and effects it models. A big step up in quality for Zoom.

Este pedal tiene un excelente sonido. En realidad me sorprendio mucho cuando lo probe en la tienda antes de comprarlo. Editar los bancos es facil, ademas el manual es de gran ayuda.

Yo utilizo generalmente una strat a traves de un amplificador behringer. Excelentes parametros de compresion. Las 3 perillas metalicas trabajan perfectamente en la edicion y construccion de bancos. la puerta de ruido trabaja super bien, elimina todo el ruido innecesario. Algo que me agrado mucho es el simulador de cabinets y posicion de microfonos. Las distorciones suenan mas llenas que nunca, excelente modelado. El wah es decente, un buen punto es la opcion de colocarlo antes o despues de la distorcion (inteligente opcion). hasta ahora he conseguido todos los sonidos que me he propuesto. La paleta de efectos es muy amplia y manejable.

Desde luago que dependo de esta pedal para tocar en vivo. Antes de comprarlo tenia la zoom 505 II junto con el pedal de expresion FP02, pero tenia muchas limitaciones, sobre todo en cuanto a delay.

No he lidiado con ellos.

Actualmente toco musica alternativa-industrial. Gracias a este pedal, puedo recrear en vivo la mayoria del sonido que consegui en estudio. Como trabajo con bases sampleadas, el tempo debe ser perfecto, y la G2.1u me permite setear las repeticiones del delay acorde a la base musical. Este pedal es simplemente excepcional. Me fascina que todo sea de metal (incluso las perillas), lo unico que no me agrada y me resulta irrelevante es el drum machine integrado, bueno, el unico uso justificado que se le puede dar es el de metronomo.

You are up and running in minutes.

I use Ibanez JS 1000 with this unit. It sounds far better then older Zoom products like the 707 or the competition in the same price bracket. Its quiet, crisp and full of dynamics with absolute fantastic distorted en clean sounds. Tried Santana?s Samba Pa Ti with the C5 patch and it really comes very close. This dinky unit holds some very impressive sounds and is capable of a lot more. The digital distortion unit makes my JS 1000 sound like a synth. Not a sound for vintage lovers, but for a off the wall sound it?s perfect. The reverbs and delays are great. The harmonizer is ok but could be better. Phasers and flangers sound good but are no replacement for the real thing. The sound very well with a distorted sound, but a lot weaker with clean sounds.The wha simply sucks. But this never was a strong point of Zoom. As a amp sim distortion unit it?s better then then units costing 5 times as much.

Never had any problems with Zoom gear.

Never had a reason to contact Zoom.

This unit is not very flexible and some effects are useless or don?t sound that well, like the wha. Most patches are way over the top and need some tweaking. If it wasn?t for this inflexibility and weaker modulation and filter effects. The sound quality would have been a solid 10.

The G2.1U is very easy to use, also because the manual is very good (which is quite rare).
Editing patches is easy, using the drum machine is easy and even recording with Cubase LE on the computer is easy.
I had a very bad experience with a DAW and was reluctant to buy the Zoom. But I wanted a small unit with an integrated tuner and volume pedal to use live + something to easily record myself when I'm practicing at home. The nice thing is that these two things are combined in 1 pedal and that it's not expensive at all.

I used to have a Zoom 4040. A few months ago I bought a Korg PX4D to practice at home. I wanted a new thing for live usage + recording so I bought the G2.1U. Frankly, I am a bit dissapointed about the sound quality. The out-of-the-box sound quality of the Korg PX4D is much much better. But maybe I have to spend more time editing the patches.

Don't know yet. The good thing is that it has a metal case, so I hope it will be OK for live usage.

I play jazz most of the times (but I can rock too!). I needed a small effect unit with chorus+reverb+tuner+volume pedal for live usage. But also when you are practicing it is important to record yourself regularly to hear you good and bad points and I can do this with the Zoom too! And it's cheap!