Zoom G2

its easy... very easy.
But, if you are a TARD... then you might not be avle to use it.
It is very simple and a steal for $100. The other guitarist in my band has THOUSANDS invested in his rig. I take great pride in making him sound like dog %$@# with my $100 pedal and a $300 crate half stack.

If you can't get an amazing tone out of this pedal then you are a idiot. Most of the negative comments on here about this product are made by stpudid kids who wouldnt have a clue how to use or adjust eq or use a real effect. The bottom line is this unit is the MOST AMAZING INVENTION EVER MADE FOR THE ELECTRIC GUITAR. The new distortions and overdrives on this pedal really steps it up to the next level. You can buy one of these pedals for $100 and have every tone imaginable. This pedal makes me feel raped for buying so many effect pedal and line 6 products.
The new extreme distortion setting is exactly like a line 6 insane setting but more raw and real

My old plastic zoom 505 is over 10 years old. I cant imagine how long this one will last considering it metal contruction.

never had to use them.

As long as you have a clear load clean channel, this pedal can create every tone on the plant flawlessly. There is a reason why many music stores do not carry zoom pedal. Because if you buy this pedal, they will not see you for a long time. Because you will not have to buy anything else. IT'S 2008...TIMES HAVE CHANGED, TECHNOLOGY IS HERE, YOU DONT HAVE TO SPEND THOUSANDS FOR TONE.

It's easy to use.

A reading of the manual is advised if you have never used a multieffect before. You can download it from the support section of the Zoom website.

It has deep enough editing to provide a good amount of adjustments, ie most actual effect pedals have 3 (or 1,2,4) knobs on them. The three parameter knobs make editing quick and simple by working just like pedals would.

The display is VERY cryptic with it's two digits. A massive improvement would be to have a display which is alphanumeric and of at least 6-8 digits. I think there should also be indicator led's showing which modules are active within a patch also. Anyway, it is what it is.

Hmmmm, without sounding overly negative I really don't like the sound quality or quality of the effects. IF you had nothing else to use then this would be fine. BUT... if you own other pedals then using the G2 equivalent of that effect is a big let down. SInce I own other individual effects and have some awareness of sounds I don't like the Zoom at all for anything.

The delay's even the EC which is supposed to be warm sound bad compared to my Belcat DLY-303 Delay. The flanger is just terrible compared to my Nady FL-10 Flanger. The wah sound when using a Roland EV-5 expression pedal is just terrible compared to my Cry Baby type wah pedal with reissue fasal inductor. So you can see where I've gone with this, I can't stand the poor quality effects this has.

I can only rate it as 1 - It sounds terrible.

Web site is great, support section is great. I have emailed them about the bypass and got a pefectly helpful and informative reply. I think they have good customer support.

Ultimately this one had to go onto eBay as I just didn't like anything it did. I had owned a Zoom G2.1u a while back just after they came out. I didn't like it much but thought maybe I would try one out again. Yeah, they suck pretty badly.

Overall Rating, to me they sound like what they cost.

They look lovely and are nicely laid out and straight forward to use. Personally I was not happy with the sound quality when bypassed, so I used a true bypass box. Then the problem was I didn't like the quality of the effects themselves. There was nowhere to go from that point except back onto eBay.

Otherwise a good product, lots of things to play with for very little money. Built in a strong metal enclosure with stylish looks.

I've been playing with multi FX processors for years, this box was easy for me to set up. I did have to refer to the manual for which amp sim was which. But i punched in some basic sounds in a few hours, and tweaked them to perfection within 2 days. you can exect a big display on a cheap unit i guess. The manual was easy to read, but after 2 days playing around i didnt need to look at it.

This box ROCKS!!! its warm and sooo clean even when extremely distored. It dosent sound digital like some other gear.

I've run it though 3 setups all sound extreamly good... a Peavey bandit 80 watt combo amp. In to my mixer with the cabinet simulator turned on, and out though monitor spekers and a sub... and my fav rig.. into a Peavey 50/50 Classic stereo tube power amp and out to stereo quad boxes, this rig screams.

The amp sims and cabinet emulators sound very good, but im not an amp conisurer so i can t tell you how realistic they sound... they sound good to my ears.

The zoom extreme distorsion screams for leads and metal, one of the best distorsions I've herd. I have it set to 30% distortion for most of my stuff.. its to driven at higher levels.. maybe some slayer at 70% drive.

It has all you basic FX's + some nice stuff like zoom noise reduction, pre amp frequeny boost ( nice for extra gain on leads ect ), harmonised pitch shifter. It also has stuff i dont use like complex delays, and reverbs for a slighty different effect.

looks like a solid box.

no idea.

I paid AU$150 for this unit, rrp is about AU$250. It sounds awesome for the money...better than my 10 year old rack mount digitech gear that cost me $2500.. I got good sound punched in in an hour and tweeked within 2 days. I'm so impressed i think ill repace my rack with a G7.

If your thinking about buying one, just get it, you wont regret it. I coulnt find anything that came close for the money.

The G1 seemed to have limmited delay settings, and the extra knobs on the G2 make it dead easy to dial in sounds. Spend the extra few bucks and get the G2.

It is easy, you just have to tweak the three knobs an listen. But don't expect too much from factory presets: overprocessed, and digital. A chimp could use this unit (after reading the manual :P)

Distorsions are crap, amp and cabinet models are crap :P Pretty much the same with all multieffects for me... I only use this for modulation and delay, and sometimes some extra reverb.
I want to tell you about the way i use it, hope it helps. I am mainly a jazz guitarist, but i like to play with effects. My pedalboard looks like this: Digitech EX-7 > Line6 FM-4 > G2. The dist (which i don't use much), whammy, leslie, etc comes from the EX-7, the filter stuff for funk comes from the FM-4 and the mod (mainly chorus) and delay comes from the G2. I wish it had a separate bypass switch (like the yamaha magicstomp), to make it more like a stompbox. But it doesn't, so I've set up the programs, so i can always reach a bypass mode (everything turned off in the program) with one kick. I keep my programs on minimal, no amp, no eq (messes up with the amp eq), just one single effect usually. So my programs go like this: A0-clean(i use a bit of stereo chorus for this too), A1-effect, A2-effect, A3-clean, and so on...
So what i have is some separate stompboxes, but programably. I can use 5 different types of delays on a concert without tweaking between songs.
10 for mod, delay and reverb and 2 for distorsions = 7 altogether.

Heard some bad things... we'll see with time.

Dunno.

You shouldn't forget, that playing with effect have nothing to do with music. It's like a programer who plays on the computer occasionally.
But this is definately a killer one! The best in its category, a must have for begginers (if they need games appart from playing the guitar). More advanced guitarist should probably have a look at the magicstomp (which i'm going to buy too, if i'll have the money), same thing but a bit more complicated and avanced.

I think that the zoom g2 is very easy to use, than other multiefects. I compare the zoom g2 with the digitech rp70, and I couldn't understand how to use de digitech.
like all the multiefects units, you have to read some pages of the manual, but just doing that you can understan how to use it.

I like the zoom g2 because it has 13 distortions, and they are very good. If you are just strating on playing guitar it has a very very good souns, but if you have some years playing the guitar, you'll notice that it's not the best sound.
This multiefect is weak on the modulations and in the auto-wah, in my opi??on. But I strongly think that the zoom g2.1u is not better because of the expresion pedal, it is very expensive!!!

I think tha my zoom g2 fell over a million times, and it is still working, like the first day.
I think that the zoom g2 is better than the zoom g1, because of that. The zoom g2 has steel switchs, and they make them using steel, and the zoom g1 is made of plastic.

I did'n have any problem with it, so I don't know

I think that you can play any style of music with it, I play blues, clasical, rock, metal and jazz, and I use my zoom g2 for all of that.

I think that you can get multiefect of the same quality, but for less price, that is the only desadvantage.

Ease of use is not le gran force of any multi effect procecessors. A couple of knobst to do all the job, it is very hard to visually get a hint of the settings. Anyway, I praise zoom for their unquestionable commitment to usability, which might be a hard job in case of this product type - I've been a zoom 505, 505/II and now G2 user, and I can see that almost all my wishes have been developed, without ever contatcing them. Ok, now you can switch it off. Battery life is ******* great! This thing can be operated by four AAs for ages. I'm greatful for its massive design, in contrary to its predecessors, as well as the four analog-like knobs, instead of the plastic moskery.
I absolutelly prefer the new grouping and sequence of effects, its far more logical and usable. The fact that i have direct access to some parameters without havingt to go to editing mode. Please note these, when you buy a product, I am a product designer myself, and i know that usability features never make it to the brochuires. Anyway, there is still place for development, luckily. For G3 I need:
-absolutelly NO harcoded factory effects (they sound terrible, but thats the lesser proble, you cannot delete or edit them at all, unlike the 505)
-one more digit for the display, please, it does not require that much space. the trouible with parameter values over 100 just makes me crazy.
-the too stomp buttons are way too far - Its a drag pressing them together for mute or tune. and add that I have big foot.
-the default volume of the drum machine is way too much. in standard settings it just ruins your amp. note that it is unable to store your last setting after restart, drum volume always starts at 100%
-what else...I'd like to handle boost separatelly, maybe group with the compressors, instead of frequency manuipulators like phase/tremolo/wah
-I absolutelly HATE knobs that turn around endlessly, without the feel of maximum and minimum values.
-it wopuld be good to have a main switch for amp/phones, they require a number of patches duplicated for different settings
-please add at least an ending command for the drum machine
I could go on, but I leave some work to the, too. Its aalready great product,absolutelly 10 for usability, which is often under estimated at this category.

>setup: fenders american standard telecaster > stomp pedal board > fender performer combo for gigging OR
more teles, squiers too > G2 > earphones/mac/soundboard/combo for practice, quick rehearsing and short gigging
>NO noise as compared to stompboxes. might use its noisegate at some extreme settings, but I try to avoid it.
>some effects sound great, and some dont. greats are:
wah, phase (somehow I preferred the previous phaser controls, tough. It sounds more of a Smallstone model.) tremolo (great) delays (absolutelly great and most versatile on the market for digital. you can run 3 delays together!) equalizer (very good feature)
overdrive (yes! I DO use its round, warm overdrive at fine settings, even with amps (only with amps, in headphones they actually sound terrible, which I cannot understand. if an overdriven guitar can sound good in a walkman, why pedals never produce good OD sounds in the ear) Cabinet modeling is very useful if you play through the line.
>crap effects: all factory patches, compressor, which is a fake, any overdrive more extreme than the OD, acoustic simalator, all the amp modeling **** that I never use, funny sounding **** like ring modulators, steps, pitch shifters etc, and I never use chorus or flanger. If I play throu amp, I always use its own spring reverb.
>I cannot really produce sounds like my favourite artists (like neil young, keith richards, lou reed) who are mostly gain wizards, rather than modulators, however, it is goood to develop my own sound.

seems quite relyable, altough i already had some problems with the stomp buttons not working in one direction. they left me in trouble at a gig, but they could be fixed with some contact sray. Now the module srcoll buttons start the same. I might as well get down to fix it again, but I would not rely on it at a gig, cause anything can happen. Two early after owning it for a year or so.

never needed. I guess they have. It would be nice if the company would publish some kind of content, patch lists and tips, like one guy did for 505. these are not usable for the G2 already. it helps learning the game.

I think this is such a great product, it definitelly reaches its target., thats why I decided to write a review on it.
I'd still not use it in the studio, it is still a practice or go and gig thing, but a very handy one. a 9, which is far above the avarage

Took a little time to learn how to change settings. But worth it.

Almost all effects are cool! With an exception of acoustic simulator. But that's still okay.

No problem!

For almost any kind of music style.

considering the number of knobs you have here (not many), it's oparation is very good. it's very vestile, and as soon as you learn how to operate it all becomes pretty intuative, but again, since you have 3 knobs operate all the effects it's a steep learning curve.

i used an american delux strat and a fm65r amp.
i only got the g2 for mods delays and reverbs, and for the most they sound surprisingly good (i didn't like the way the chorus sounds for example, not very clear). nothing amazing, but it does the job very well.
i wouldn't use the amp and distortion models for gigs, but they are very nice for practice, which for the price is actually great. the same with the wha.

the thing is this unit is very verstyle once you get to know it, if you only want some good delay reverb section, i dont think you can beat it at this price range. but if you expect the amp section to do magic you might be desapointed.

well..
mine just stoped working after about a year and a half, and i don't intend to fix it. other then that it had some minor problems before.

on the bright side it's very very raggedly built.

never used it.

it's awsome for thre price. i think that besides some tech problems it's an amazing unit for the begining guitarist, and very good for practice. for gigs it's limited- it's a verstyle and a not bad at all sounding unit if you use it for the things it does good.

Read the Manual. There are so many permutations of possibilities with the different settings available, it pays to know what it is that you're modifying when you start twirling knobs and changing settings.
Takes effort to learn how to create a patch and save it, but once you get up to speed you'll be navigating around easily. Manual is reasonably helpful.

Keeping in mind that I'm running this into a solid-state amp, my experience with it says,"The more distortion you dial in, the crappier it sounds coming out of the amp". I.e. solid state sounds like solid state when it comes to distortion. The Boost setting helps. At cranked amp volumes, I found that I really had to back off on the amp modelling gain settings.
Effects are a mixed bag. I mainly use Chorus, delay, reverb, and the above mentioned Boost. Noise Reduction helpful. Flanger effect sounds processed - I avoid it. I use maybe half of the effects available and avoid the rest, but that still gives me a good palette of things to choose from.
Favourite amp model with this is the Roland JC with some extra chorus, and delay/reverb thrown in. Was disappointed with the Vox and Marshall amp models - perhaps had unrealistic expectations about getting that Marshall sound (with an Epi Les Paul).

I've had it for just under two years. Worked great for the first year. Then, as with so many other G2 users, the foot switches started to fail intermittently. I use it to play on the church music team. Now I'm looking for a replacement.

Well, it failed after the warranty expired. I may contact Zoom - the switch problems are common and I've heard that they may do warranty support even after the product is out of warranty. If I have any work done on it, I'll do it myself or enlist the help of a tech.

I play on the church music team. Musical style varies from slow to uptempo incl rock. I use a Hagstrom Viking through the G2 into a 30W solid state amp. We mic our amps and run the sound through the PA system. Whenever I get comments about my playing, I listen for comments about my tone, as hearing yourself through a stage monitor only tells you so much. Last time out I was encouraged by how warm my tone sounded, the person commenting attributed it to the fact that I was playing a semi-hollowbody. For the price, this was a great buy at the time, it has enough functionality to keep you tweaking for ages. I wish it had the ability to select the order in which effects are applied to the signal (manual describes the order in which effects are applied). Best feature about it is that I get great clean sounds from it.
Based on it's reliability, I won't be buying another G2. But I like the functionality of this thing so much, I'm pulled to getting it's cheaper sibling, the G1, hoping that Zoom hasn't engineered the same defects into it as with the G2. Even with the amp models and effects that you won't use (too processed sounding), there are still lots of features available at this price. It's a roll of the dice on reliability.

Once you program a few patches using the manual, it becomes easy to navigate on your own. I'll still pull out the manual occasionally to remind me of a few things, but for the most part, it's pretty intuitive. It's easy to get a good sound out of it, but there are plenty of ways to get a terrible sound out of it.

You can get these for under $100 brand new, and you can usually pick them up used for around $50-$70. For that price, these can't be beat. The models are very good. Do they sound like what they're emulating? Not usually, but they'll remind you of the amp they're imitating, and they sound good doing it. For example, I have a Vox AC15. The AC30 model on this thing is pretty close to the Vox vibe, though it's definitely different. The same goes for most of the models. Good sounds, although not perfect imitations. The cleans have some character, and the distortions sound nice. Some are a little iffy, but if you can't find an overdrive/distortion sound in here that you don't like, you're obnoxiously picky, and you probably won't even look at pedals that aren't overpriced boutique boxes.

I don't really like many effects, but most of the ones included are usable. Of course they aren't as good as a dedicated stomp box, but look at it this way - a Boss CH-1 costs $90... this unit cost about the same... and the chorus in here sounds just fine. I'm sure others have pointed that out, but I suppose it can't be said enough. The chorus, tremolo, and phaser are just fine. The auto wah is okay, and the flange is passable. Other effects are really just fun to mess with, but you probably won't ever use them.

It sounds great plugged into the front of an amp. I use this at home with a Fender Blues Jr. I haven't used this for gigs, as I have a different setup that I really love, but it could be used in that way as long as you don't need to switch patches too much (there are only two footswitches to cycle through patches). You can run this thing direct into a recorder and get some pretty good tones for demos. You could even use it as your guitar sound for a real recording if you want. It's no slouch. The cab simulator isn't very tweakable - there are two mic models and mic positions, but they seem to just shift the EQ center rather than change anything. Tweakable or not, the cab simulator sounds pretty good. I haven't really tried it direct to PA, but I'm sure it would work. I have the Zoom G7.ut (which I have used direct to PA), and the G2's cab simulator is identical to the one in the G7. For a headphone practice amp, this thing is great.

No problems, but this unit stays at home.

They answer their emails fairly quickly.

I've been playing all kinds of guitar music for twelve years. If you want a fun box for practice or whatever, this is it. For gigs, you may want something a little different, but this unit has the sound quality to hold up to most gigs. As I mentioned before, I've got the G7.ut, and I'm honestly more impressed with the little G2. Give it a try - you'll like it.