Zoom G2

Fairly easy. You MUST read the manual sice the display is very criptic. But keeping the book around for reference ease things a lot.

I suppose a larger display would rise the price but it's a shame nevertheless. Not the end of the world by any means though.

Somewhat easier than my old GFX 707, the modules are more inmediate thanks to the rotary knob.

One thing that I'm not sure I like is the cab emulator settings on every patch, for me a global cab emulator would be better, but I suppose having those in a per patch basis gives you more possibilities.

Other than that this little wonder is really easy to program... once you read the manual.
Talking about the manual, it's fairly concise and right to the point. Not a problem with it.

I have a switch pedal connected to mute/unmute the unit, stepping at the two switches at the same time tend to change the preset before muting and is a little awkward with the switches small and apart.

I own a Washburn Lyon Series guitar (two single coil and a humbucker in the bridge), connected to a Jim Dunlop CryBaby, Boss Metal Zone, Zoom G2, to a splitter DI: one end to a Laney TF-200 combo and the other end to a mixer and PA. The Laney combo has a volume pedal and Boss Digital Dealy in the effects send/return.

Well, at first this baby sonded really dark to me. I mean I got to switch the bright on on the amp to get the distortions to "shine"... no good, I was so disapointed, I was considering taking it back to the store. Then I try it through the mixer... another story!! and the cab emulation is terrific for the size and price of this baby.

Then I realize that all the distorions have a tone control with a defaul value at 5/10, which make it sound somewhat dark when connected to a cab, or a least with mine.
Crank the tone value up and voila!! :) Now the sound through the Laney combo sounds MUCH better.
Now we are talking!! a little touch of EQ and you probably will get the tone you are after!
Granted, you shall not trust the presets, you need to program from scratch this baby to make it sound like you want. For me at least.

The effects I think are awesome, a lot of amps to choose and they are very good. Obviously not EXACTLY like the real thing, but for this price, believe me, you can't go wrong.

I wanted to get a sound like the Metal Zone, a little hard at first before realizing the distortion module tone control, but after that, fairly easy with some tweaking with the EQ. I can't make it sound exactly like the MT-2 obviously because the G2 doesn't have a parametric EQ which is what makes the MT-2 (metal zone) so special, but I got a really close sound. Very nice. The MT-2 stays in my setup though: the low end is bigger and fatter in the MT-2. The G2 with the EQ low freq at max can't get those bass frequencies...

The modulations are very good, so the reverbs. Like some one else said, good for a gig or for a quick recording but you will need to turn those effects off of a professional recording. Engineers have much better stuff at their disposal.

Noise.... noise?? are you crazy?? this thing is the quietest effect I ever had. Of course if you use a high gain module and you try to play with single coil pickups you WILL get a lot of noise, but that's how those pickups work, it's not the G2 fault. With a humbucker or "humbuckered" single coil duo there is no noise. Zero. I try to play the G2 through the high gain channel of the Laney amp with the gain at max and the noise was not higher than without the G2 connected: IM-PRE-SSIVE!!!

IMPORTANT: A little note on DAW: if you (like me) still use a CRT display and play your guitar near it, or happen to have a TV set near you (when turned on, of course) it will induce a lot of noise, specially with single coil pickups and high gain modules (distorions, amps with high gain), the only solution is to turn the monitor off (at least while recording), or replace it with a LCD type which doesn't induce noise.

That said, I must say this little baby is incredible for this price range.

I think is very dependable, is very well build. On a gig I will have a spare probably not because I think this may fail, but because always there are things that can go wrong. You should always have double equipment if possible.

Never dealt with them.

I play progressive rock.
I think the G2 transcend music styles, I think you can play almost anything with this thing.
Is simply amazing, theres nothing quite like it (yet).
If were stolen or lost I think I will bought one again, or maybe upgrade to a better model, you know with a better display :)

Very easy to get a good sound out of the g2.
Easy editing for patches BUT you will spend some time editing. The pre-set patches are OK. You'll find yourself editing over them quickly but the factory settings can be restored if you want.
Manual is very useful and easy to follow.

I'm playing a samick through this plugged into a crate mx20rc and also an ampeg gemini 2.
Haven't had any trouble with any noise. no buzz or hums. nothin
I'd have to say that the effects are pretty strong. the problem here is that you really need to pay attention to the settings on your amp as well as the settings for the EQ on the pedal. this is the part that makes the editing a little time comsuming. Some of the effects I will probably never use but they're there just in case.
I've been able to get some good sounds out of it when it comes to diffrent bands. I like heavy metal so the Megadeth sound is easy and of coarse the Metallica sound is easy to get. You can get the sound of system of a down out of this too. I havent been able to not simulate a sound of a band YET.
Haven't found a bad effect yet but I use just a few like chorus, flanger, phaser. WAIT!!!!the WAH is a little weak but this isnt a wah pedal either. want a good wah? buy a pedal dont use this if you want a good wah effect.

this thing is made out of steel!!! its been very dependable.
Havent giged in several years BUT if i still was i wouldnt without a back up. i'm not saying its not reliable thats just how i am.

no problems to complain to them about

Like i said earlier I play heavy stuff. with the diffrent distortion effects and cab simulations like a mesa boogie and marshall its a good match to what i play.
Been playin for 18 yrs have owned several digitech pedals and was turned on to this by the local music shop. listen to the zoom and then the digitech rp50. the zoom blowed the digitech away.
If it were stolen i would buy another.
I've said a lot of good things about the zoom but i gotta say the one thing i don't like about it. there are only to switches for going through the patches 4 would've been better.
i've already typed way too much but if you've gotten this far go buy the g2 you wont regret it.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? Several of the presets are very good, but to really narrow down on what you want, expect to spend a couple hours learning how to program and safe your own settings.

How about Editing patches? Again, alocate a couple hours for learning the device and you'll be set.

How is the manual for it (if there is one)? Good manual, fairly short and to the point.

My rating is 9/10 because I'm used to working with alphanumeric text displays instead of just 2 LED readouts, but they make total sense once you learn the "code."

What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with?
Mostly through studio headphones or a cheap 10-amp practice amp. Makes the amp sound much bigger.

Is it noisy? On what settings?
Very quiet, high-resolution sound. The changeable noise gating is also excellent.

Are the effects weak or do they always sound great?
The distortion is better than most digital models you've heard, but not the same quality as analog pedals or professional (studio-quality) effects. However, some of the effects really are excellent...

Are certain effects (distortion, chorus, ...) very good? Very bad?
The chorus, phaser and flanger effects are top-notch. Reverb is good enough for live guitar, but don't use it in a studio setting or the engineers will take the G2 away from you. The G2's distortion settings are quite good for a digital unit (probably thanks to the high-resolution sampler) but don't throw away your vintage pedals. Still, for about $100, you can't expect to sound *exactly* like Clapton, Metalica and Floyd. Close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades though.

Can you depend on it?
Seems very well built with a metal chassis and rubber ends. Switches and dials feel like quality stuff.

Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
Yea, but a paltry $100 will get you a second unit - why risk stopping the show? Get a second one if you love the pedal and play out.

If you've dealt with the company, how helpful/friendly were they?
Never needed customer support.

Ever get an upgrade, or try and get it repaired?
No, haven't needed to.

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?
I'm just a beginning guitarist (a semi-professional keyboardist stretching his wings) so I just need something to sweeten the sound a little while I practice fingering & strumming. The G2 more than meets that goal. The built-in drum machine is perfect for rhythm practice. Generates ideas too - easy to plug in the guitar, G2 and headphones and have a ball.

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?
Guitar for 2 months, keyboards for 20 years. My guitar is an entry-level Brownsville strat copy. The G2 makes it sounds better than it is, which is encouraging while I see how far into this geetar thing I want to go.

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?
Yea, sure would get the same thing (or upgrade to the built-in pedal version).

What do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature?
I love the sounds quality, great construction, easy programming, drum machine, battery power, included AC adapter and tons of effects and modeled amps to chose from. The distortion could be better (tubes and vintage pedals have no fear), but that's not my primary use anyway. Others may be perfectly happy with the distortion through, recognizing that I may not know how to play well with it yet.

Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?
I looked at the Digitechs, Korg and Line 6 products in this price range and decided on this one, mainly because of its solid construction and full feature set.

Anything you wish it had?
Stereo MP3/CD input and center channel canceling would make it more versitile as a "guitar karaoke" device.

Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?
Definitely helps me learn and have fun. It's just so darned easy to stuff the G2, two patch chords, my guitar and headphones in a bag and be ready to plink around anywhere. And all for a hundred bucks!

Very easy to get a good sound out of this pedal. It comes loaded with 40+ sounds right out of the box, you don't need to adjust anything to start playing. The built in tuner is a great feature too.

Manual is very comprehensive too. I won't give it top marks for ease of use because something with this many features isn't going to be as simple to use as a single effects pedal.

I've played this with a dean guitar and a marshall amp. On some distortion settings it seems to cancel noise, to the point that when you're picking very lightly you can feel the line where the pedal decides the note you played was too soft to be intentional, and won't amplify it. This is great in some ways as it masks minor mistakes, but a but frustrating in others. Mind you there's not that much music I can think of which calls for distortion & very light picking so I suspect it's really a non-issue.

It has a ton of preset sounds, I haven't even needed to experiment with custom ones yet. Has many different distortion tones ranging from a slight distortion through to the "big wall" which is a massively fuzzy distortion.

Clean sounds are very good too, with some very warm tones with a nice ring and echo.

I haven't found any effect on here which I feel is lacking, and if a sound isn't quite what you're after, you can simply copy that sound to the user memory bank and then tweak it to your liking.

From all the photos I saw of this pedal online, it looked like it was plastic, and quite big. It's surprisingly small compared to what I expected, and was very pleased to see that it's made of metal with rubberised edge pieces. The foot switches feel very sturdy, and the adjustment knobs feel pretty good too. I think this pedal could take a few knocks, the only thing I'd be concerned about would be stepping hard on the adjustment knobs. Haven't had a single problem with it since I've owned it (about 3 months).

Haven't dealt with them.

I'm still a novice player but play several styles including rock, blues, classical/fingerpicking.

I've found sounds on this pedal which suit all of the above for my liking.

I'd definitely buy this same pedal again if it was stolen or lost.

Favourite feature has to be the fact that it comes preloaded with so many sounds. You can start using it immediately.

I compared this to a couple of digitech pedals and this one seemed to have nicer features, including a harmonized pitch shift. The drum machine/metronome on this one is ok too.

Considering it's the price of one or two stomp boxes, I don't think the average player could go wrong with this pedal. You get a vast amount of different sounds out of it, and it's one unit vs. having several stomp boxes with their own link cables and power adapters.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of this thing?Let's put it this way...a trained monkey with 2 fingers would have no problem..

Im currently using this pedal with a Gibson 84 Flying V and Les Paul Special,noisy?With 120 dec.dynamic range i think not.If it werent for the leds i wouldnt know if this baby was on or or not.Let's start on how much money you save with this pedal.It is by far the most technically evolved of all the"bang for your buck" pedals out there.Not one comes close.Not even Digitech.But you have to play this thing through Roland amps to get EXACTLY whatever make and model amp you want.I'm a profesional world class guitarist,currently with the band Duel,and i don't rely on tube amps because there is AALWAYS something going awry with them(and i cant stand that midrange mud you play through without the amp being fully cranked)i had a jcm 900 for a while.The power amp blew and i had to replace 3 tubes within 1 WEEK of having the p.o.s. Anyways,here's how much money you save:power brake-$199marshall 900 head-$1,299 peavey 5150-$999 mesa rectifier-$2000 noise gate$99-$200 world class 32 bit effects-$1000's.I'm in my early 30's now and back when i started out in the late 80's,i had an ART rackmount,Digitech rackmounts,T.C. rackmounts etc.and the effects are just as good.When you want to channel swith THERE ARE NO DROP OUTS,you get your next sound in a millisecond.

It seems pretty sturdy and reliable.And forget about filling up the van with outdated rackmount $%^& and useless junk pedals......

Not yet.......

First,if your in a gigging band don't ever come to Jamestown N.Y.,there is no music scene here (as the town is dominated by cops,vagrants,and the spirit of Lucille Ball)The only musical entertainment around here is a drug-addled band called Synergy who people pay NOT to play.I enjoy playing respectable venues,as i need the right gear to get me through every gig.With this pedal and a Roland JC120 coupled to a Marshall 4-12 cab,i can sleep well at night without worrying about my sound.Keep an eye out for "Uncle Bob" Lindbeck yall!Some people have said i make Zakk Wylde look like $%^&(but shhhhhhh,thats our little secret,i love Zakk and Randy,and i have no ego like those gerbil &^%$#@ elitist tone snobs)peace!

Con un poco de paciencia le agarras el hilo, no tiene mayor problema si ya haz usado otras multiefectos de Zoom aunque coincido con otro "reviu" de mas abajo sobre que el manual no ayuda mucho ya que es un tanto pobre.

Mi setup es: gibson explorer o Ibanez RG370 o Epiphone Fat210 o Fender Srato mexicana o Yamaha RGX220DZ conectadas a la G2 y salida a un Marshall Valvestate 2000, o a un peavey TripleXXX combo 212 (uuff... me encanta este ampli) y mas frecuentemente a un minicomponente sony genezi RG575S (en el auxiliar de audio o en la entrada de microfono); lo cierto es que de acuerdo a el equipo en que lo conectes el G2 sonora distinto; la guitarra que mas uso con la G2 es la yamaha RG220, el sonido que da la G2 es increiblemente bueno si tomas en cuenta que cuesta mucho menos que otras multiefectos que dicen tener buen sonido (entiendase Boss, Digitech... suenan chafa)... Ademas hay que ser realistas: es verdad que el G2 nos lo anuncian como un simulador de pre amps Marshall, Fender, boogie.. es obvio que es mentira, este aparato no reproduce muy fielmente el sonido de cualquiera de esos amplos (que ademas cuestan diez veces mas que este aparatito), asi que no esperes que comprando la G2 ya la hiciste y ya te libraste de comprar algun dia uno de esos amplificadores.... Es decir, si cuestionamos al G2 desde ese punto de vista, obviamente sale perdiendo, la G2 no reproduce tan bien un sonido de tales amplos... pero, si hacemos a un lado semejantes palabras (simulador de marshall, bla blabla) y lo vemos solo como una multiefectos, la G2 sale bien librada, el sonido es muy bueno, mucho mejor que su antecesora la 505II e incluso que todas las multiefectos de la serie GFX anteriores; los solos suenan por momentos para mi, sin exagerar, inspiradores; con las pedaleras anteriores de ZOOM los solos y en general todo el sonido era medio chafa, no pude nunca paracticar bien un solo (notas agudas) porque el sonido era como salido de un juguete; en cambio esta G2 ahora es una excelente herramienta para practicar o componer o grabar, hay que tenerle un poco de paciencia al principio, y ya veras que por el precio es de lo mejor en su categoria, y hay que hacer enfasis en "categoria" por que esta G2 es como un automovil compacto, es decir, no seria justo comparar a un Pontiac Matiz con un Ford Mustang 2005, digo, igual en cuestion de Audio para guitarras hay de categorias a categorias, y la Zoom G2 es de lo mejor en su categoria (llamemosle la categoria de los compactos).

La G2 tiene una construccion solida, no como sus antecesoras que eran de plastico (la 505II o la 707II), no dudo que aguante un toquin en vivo, sin embargo, para tocar en vivo no estoy seguro de usar esta multiefectos, creo que depende de el estilo de musica que vayas a interpretar; en mi caso prefiero usar pedales independientes conectados a un amplificador como el marshall o el peavey que te dan mas potencia en una interpretacion en vivo (claro, en lugares no tan grandes); pero creo que el G2 tiene el aguante y confiabilidad para una interpretacion en vivo.

Nunca he tenido bronca con algun producto de Zoom, de cualquier forma en donde lo compre (en una tienda del centro de la ciudad, DF) me dieron garantia de un a?o contra cualquier falla que pudiera tener.

Llevo 11 a?os involucrandome con las liras, lo mio es el Rock en general, desde algo de los Beatles, pasando por Hendrix, Doors, LedZepp, pasando por Maiden, Accept.... del Rock al Metal pues, claro, con las debidas escapadas al blues y al jazz... en fin, esta multiefectos me parece una gran opcion para esos estilos que menciono, aah e incluso suena muy bien si le conectas unos buenos audifonos. Si la perdiera claro que me doleria y muy posiblemente me compraria otra, ya que como mencione, es una excelente herramienta para ensayar o practicar, aahh y tambien hay que mencionar que puede funcionar con 4 pilas AA, cosa que ninguna otra de su categoria (y que tenga buen sonido) te ofrece. En general me parece uno de los mejores productos de zoom.

If you never have used this type of ZOOM pedals, it may take you around ten minutes to start creati0ng the tones you are interested in; but if you have used the 505 II and such, it will be only a matter of seconds to start rocking. Of course, there are always details (like the line/amp option, tghe three different delays & the second EQ) you have to check in the manual once or twice. In summary: it has an easy interphase IMHO...

Have different setups. Let's talk about pickups instead of guitar collections: DiMarzio (Fred, PAFPro, Twank King) Seymour Duncan (Pearly Gates, Stacked tele p/ups (STK2?)) Gibson (57 classic)and a lot of different systems for acoustic guitars (di marzio, fishman, martin, yamaha, etc.) Sounds quiet well with all of them, and sounds like it could handle voice quite well since it is so clear sounding...

Noise is minimal... How come?... The sampling rate?...

Effects are not my specialty (particularly digital)but as long as I can hear the reverb and delays are fine. Do not know how I should rate the flanger, phaser, rotary and other effects. They sound OK but not that good (are they weak or what)...

I have been using it basically with a mixer and phones, but it did not loose tone quality when used with my Champ-25S amplifier by Fender. It sounded quite impressive indeed... Anyway, I go completely analog with my amplifier set-up (have you heard about VHT valvulator? It makes your pedals set up the quietest and best analog sounding thang you can achieve by bringing down the impedance from "high" to "low")...

I'm pretty sure you can get the tone from other guitar players, 'cause this thing is pretty flexible. Anyway, I do not care about a particular player's tone... (Don't get me wrong, I love some guitarists tones I unconciously go after, but do not try to nail them) I can get the ones i like & that's good enough to me...

The most interesting effects are the amp and speaker emulations...
Does that mean I like the distortions? Well, I like the reverbs too...

Now, here's my main commentaries:

1)A reviewer said he founded hard to get a "slightly broken amp blues tone" I don't understand. May be he is talking about the presets. The many chances you have to alter the tone MUST LET YOU DIAL UP THE TONE YOU WANT, EVEN A NICE JAZZ TONE FOR YOUR ARCHTOP GUITAR... Just be patient, keep on tweaking (bring the gains down a bit, try different amps and consider the minimal changes are noticeable and don't forget there are two volumes you can deal with)...

2) Nobody has said a word about using this box with electroacoustic guitars. I have been trying different ones. Even a classical guitar with nylon strings (Yamaha hybrid piezo pickup and microphone)sounds....GREAT... This box kicks the sorry %&$#$% of many dedicated acoustic guitar gadgets (not all, but many) that I have bought throughout the years... Most of them were so expensive and so, so weak... I will do you a favor and warn you about the worst one: the so called "Platinum-Pro EQ/PreAmp (bought from a suppossed to be great company) and paid for more than 300.00... mmmh... All of my acoustics sound great without too much tweaking (clean am sims of course)...

Looks quite sturdy... Hope it will last a long time... won't buy a backup because soon we'll meet better and cheaper gear by zomm itself or someone else's research...

Anyway, kudos to ZOOM! cause they nailed with this one... I have PX2 (KORG), V-AMP-2 (Behringer), SansAmp Classic (Tech 21) and so on... This one is another keeper...

I confess I do not gig anymore... Getting too busy and too old I supposse...

Never dealt with the manufacturer...

Of course I would try to repair or upgrade this thing if broken...

Play different kinds of music. I'm mexican, so I'm a natural fingerpicker, but I play electric (old style rock, rockabilly, blues & jazz, mainly, flamenco guitar, etc,.... Been playing for 22 years... I own too much gear...I'm a (GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) patient in recovering...

Anyway, I would buy it again... because it is too good for the price (don't understand guys who complaint on this one... Really, just don't get them...) There are single compression or distortion pedals (by BOSS or Digitech) way more expensive than this little wonder! As I said: I just don't get it (No entiende!)...

not rocket science, but depending on how many of the features you decide to use and how much tweaking you do, you may need to refer to manual frequently or have a great memory. not a problem for me. took a little bit of time getting familiar, then deleted the crappy presets, laid down my settings from scratch (WHICH EVERYONE SHOULD DO) over about 10 patches (which is way more than enough for me in a live situation), and done. manual is GREAT and very detailed.

absolutely teriffic (GIVEN YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, AND TAKE THE TIME TO CUSTOMIZE IT). dont listen to any negative reviews on this. it doesnt matter how long these people claim to have played guitar, or how many tube amps they've had in the past. none of that matters. The versatility and capability of this pedal are technical fact. In fact i think the tech aspects (ie. harmonic distortion levels etc) are listed and available from zoom. There is not a similar unit (as it is still very new) that even matches it. This is the limit (maybe not for long but until the technology is outdated again). so any of these so called "experts" that complain about the sound either don't know how to set it right for them or have become such tone snobs that they lose their minds and reach the point we they really can only feel reassured by brand names (we all know they exist). playing guitar for 50 years doesnt mean you know everything about technology and a product that came out less than a year ago. I tell you sonically and in regards to tone, presets sound like shit, even starting from scratch a bare amp/sim or distortion may not sound how you like. but there is a crazy amount of tweaking and utilization of the pedal's gazillion other features and adjustable settings, past that point. our studio at first thought the quality was ok. the more we adjusted it the better it got. we had a wide array of popular rigs, (mesa rects, marshall jcms, peavey 5150, etc). It took a really really long time but we got to the point that with the right combination of other equipment and VERY precise & refined settings on the pedal running to our DAW the result was a near perfect sonic match to many of the rigs (but only with the original tubes) which we were then able to sell off. we were stunned. to our ears the tone was exact none of the produces, techs, or musicians could tell when the tracks were switching from zoom to actual rig and vice versa on the DAW playback. i will admit when we sent the signal through audio spec analyses and such, there were differences between the actual rig and the zoom. however, the differences were quite insignificant and measured in ranges virtually non-audible by the human ear. that being said perhaps some of the so called "expert" complaints root from thinking for example you can run a mesa rect sim through a crate cabinet and expect it to sound like an authentic mesa rig coming through a mesa cabinet. DO YOU REALLY THINK THE PEDAL "KNOWS" WHAT SH*T YOU INTEND USE WITH IT? objectively a very powerfull tool given you are the right kind of person to use it.

built well. constructed to withstand more than i could imagine throwing at it. obviously its not invincible. seems to me thats the reason some snobs on here have deducted points. it was 100 bucks and is built with more durability than a lot of high end equipment. lets be realistic. 10

never had to deal with them

after really exploring what it can do i would be willing to pay a lot more than 100 bucks for one of these.

If you have used Zoom before you already will know how to use it

The Best Zoom has done yet, really sounds good on my peavey amp,and through my computer

think it will last longer than their previous ones. Pretty solid

Havent had to use it yet.

Just what i was looking for, I really like the fast switching on it, perfect for switching between rythem and lead, the auto wah is much better on these also, only wish you could label each patch, but otherwise great product and cheap in price.

Easy to use once you read the small manual a few times. You twist a knob to select the module to edit, press another button to turn it off, press another pair of buttons to step through the effect and then there are three knobs to vary effect dependent parameters. Although the 2 digit LED display is large and easy to read from a distance, it's difficult to work out the two letter codes displayed on it.

I've used it with a variety of new and old gibson and fenders. As with real amps and effects, some work better with some guitars than others. Lots of nice sounds covering clean to over the top fuzz/distortion amp sims and delays, reverbs, phaser, harmony etc. Sounds best through my hot rod deluxe clean channel. I reckon anybody will find at least 5 amp/distortions they like. The effects sounds go from adequate to very nice. Finding it a bit hard to get good bluesy crunch but it is excellent for light to heavy distortion

I play blues, rock and classic metal. I'm continually finding new sounds that inspire me. It's cheap but not nasty. Probably one of the better values around today. I'd probably buy another if it was gone.

Very easy to modify. Easier than I initially thought.

Tried it with headphones, a 30watt amp and a hifi-system on a american series strat. Sound quality is often very high though it starts to clip and mess up the sound if you decrease the gain (below 40-50%) on some of the amp models. Also decreasing gain gives a quite unnatural faded sound (unlike their "real" counterparts). Most of the amps simulated are very "metal/hard rock" the only ones which were flexible and pleasant sounding were the OD1 and the clean fender. Also the effects were topnotch; good effects without killing the sound.

Seemed very sturdy. Knobs were tough and stomps had a good resistance.

Got a very nice site, demo sounds and manuals.

I had my hopes that this would match my taste. After reading about the high sound quality and reading rewies, I got kinda dissapointed when I tried it. Not of the quality though, but of the lack of flexibility. The amps while sounding good, if you like metal & HARD rock (duh, its a zoom), don't have as much gain control (as say a POD, Vamp or Tonelab)and don't really suit "older" type of rock/country (apart from the OD1).

Really easy to use if you've used a digital processor before. If not, then you should still be fine just as long as you read the manual. The controls are intuitive and clearly labeled with a solid feel to the knobs/switches. The only drawback is the minimalist screen and the resulting cryptic abbreviations that you have to learn. It took me a few days to memorize all the two-letter names for some of the more obscure amps/effects (it ain't hard to figure that CH stands for chorus). So, there's a small catch.

Ok, good things first... It's extremely quiet compared to pretty much anything except rack-mount studio processors. The instant patch change is AWESOME!!! Your standard effects like chorus, delay, phaser, are as good as any analog pedal and will make you wonder why you dropped a hundred bucks on your Phase 90/Small Clone or whatever you've got. Seriously. Some of the amp/stomp simulations are right on point, namely the Roland JC-120, Boss OD-1(so I was told), Fuzz Face. The acoustic simulator doesn't really sound like an acoustic-electric, but gives you a great sparkly rich sound. It has a six band EQ with low-mids, presence, and harmonics control on top of the usual bass/mid/treble which I found very useful. The tuner tracks well and the rhythm machine is realistic enough not to be offensive to your ears and also includes a few metronome options besides the many beats. Also, the noise reduction is nice if you're playing with a strat, but it hardly needs it with humbuckers.
As for the rest of it... The compressor is pretty crude, it jumps from having very little effect to huge squash and kills your tone. The reverb is so-so; just crank your amp up or plug in headphones and you'll hear all kinds of digital crap going on there, although at low to moderate volume it's OK. I was really looking forward to the "intelligent" harmonized pitch shifter which turned out to be slightly "retarded". It works well for slow sustained lines, but starts messing up when you ask more from it. And finally... the ditortions. I have to say I expected more; not perfect recreations of legendary amps, just more. I guess they still haven't figured out how to stuff a tube amp inside a computer chip. Even for a digital processor they're only OK at best. Some are better, some worse, some leave you wondering "what the hell were they thinking?"(ahem.. Metal Zone). With enough tweaking you can find a liveable compromise for almost every model but only the select few distortions are actually good.

Hard to say, it looks sturdy and the feel is of quality, but don't expect it to last a lifetime with regular use. Footswitches and input/output jacks are the usual suspects.

Like other reviewers said, it's hard to criticize this box for the price. However, nobody wants another "bargain" collecting dust in the closet either. Here's the thing: if you're a beginner or a casual player you'll be very happy. It will let you get the sounds of all your favorite artists close enough to impress all your non-guitarist friends. If you're looking to record into a computer using the cabinet emulation then look to something else unless you're absolutely strapped for cash. If you're a performing musician (also strapped for cash) then get this thing for the great effects and the stellar overall sound quality. For your first preset, turn every module off, turn the harmonics up a little to restore your true guitar-to-amp sound and save it. Afterwards, start from there in creating your presets. And remember that the most important part with any digital processor is the balance between your amp volume, pedal master volume, and amp model volume. It's the key to making them sound real and not digital.
Bottom line is this: the G2 makes a world-class effects pedal; it also makes a great beginner/first processor to keep you playing; but as a do-it-all unit it probably won't meet your expectations due to limited input/output options, somewhat lacking distortions, and very average DI performance. My rating for this category reflects its use as an effects box only. I wanted to be as honest and objective as possible for the people who are likely to purchase this unit online without a chance to play it first since that's what I had to do.

Ok so the screen is extremely minimal, but the dials tell you everything you need to know. I was tweaking this sucker out of te box, although it probably helps that i owned an older zoom product. The manual is very helpful too.

Ok you've really got to consider he price of this unit whilst describing the quality of the sound. I have to say it's extremely impressive. I use it mainly running through a PA in stereo, to save me lugging my amp around, and to use it as a backup. A lot of the effects are very similar to the older Zoom units. The distortions have really come a long way, especially with the cabinet modelling, you only really realise how good it is when you turn it off.

There's 20 distortions to choose from, I went through them all critically and found about 5 that I really liked, what more does a guitarist need? My only complaint is that the difference between 0 gain and 100 gain is not really noticable on most of the distortions, the same goes for when you lower the volume on your guitar, they don't really clean up the signal, except for a few of the crunchy, bluesy distortions. This isn't even a bad thing when playing live because it's a lot easier to get even signals between all the patches, almost as if they were compressed.

All the other effects are great, although I'm never really a fan of the Zoom flange sound, and the gimmicky effects aren't really useful. The delays are very good, and you can have two, even three at a time because theres different delay effects in each module. I love the tape echo because the repeats lose bass with each repeat, and the echo effect does the opposite, it loses high end. The reverbs are good too. The pitch shifters are good but I wish they'd put an octave effect in there. The harmoniser is good too (considering the price of the unit).

You can't really knock this unit for the price, and I honestly think the the higher sampling rate has made all the difference to the sound quality.

The case is a lot sturdier than older Zoom stuff. And the footswitches are tougher than the plastic things that they've used in the past, but I wouldn't hold my breath, they're probably still stuck straight to the circuit board. And there' no telling when a jack socket might die on you. These are worst case scenarios of course, but you really can't expect a unit of this price to withstand too much abuse. It's probably unfair of me to be so negative without a good reason, but if I were honestly going to use one of these fulltime I would definately buy a second one as a spare.

No idea.

This pedal is ideal for beginners, all the way across the spectrum if you ask me. I've been playing over ten years and I've gotten some amazing blues-rock tones out of this beauty. If you're going to listen to the presets and call this pedal names that's your problem, presets are never good, start from scratch, and only use cab modelling if youre not using a cab and vice versa.

I wanted to use a cheap volume pedal as an expression pedal but it didn't really work (needed a stereo cable, and didn't cover the full sweep), so be careful, might be worth buying a zoom expression pedal for it.

Like all effect units, take a little time and READ the manual!!! I know it's hard for us guys!!! But give it a shot!!! Zoom makes it very easy to create some truly great sounds from this amazing unit!!!

I use it with various setups. Home run through a vintage Dean Markley RM-40-DR (absolutely killer amp!!!) I use a variety of guitars,(Fender Tele heavily modified, Schecter PT Custom, Vintage Hamer Special, Steinberger Stick, and a Handmade Strat ala San Dimas style. The unit is absolutely silent!!! I have owned the original 505 since it came out, still going fine!!! This pedal is the Rolls Royce of the Zoom pedals!!! They really put on their thinking caps this time!!! I have played for over 25 years, I have played most every effect pedal you can get, I have also suffered through some really lame multi-effect units!!! This unit is quite simply stunning!!! Even the factory presets are really good!!! I won't sit hear and pick it apart because I am NOT a "tone snob"!!! I've got better things to do than spend my life whining about my search for the "Perfect Tone" Get A Life!!! The amp patches are great!!! If you want to nit pick about certain nuances of classic amps, then go blow you dough on a room full of vintage amps!!! Every effect on this pedal is good, Chorus, Phaser, Delay, and on and on. It's all good!!! I have a pedal board full of great classic pedals,and this Zoom pedal had me jammin for hours!!! My pedal board is quite jealous!!! I also have a Digitech Rp 50 which is a Turd compared to the G2, it is out the door next week!!! Another amazing feature is the fact that the G2 features a harmonized pitch shifter which means you can select the key and scale according to the phrase you play!!! This is worth every penny by itself!!! Don't waste another minute!!! Get one on ebay or rush to your local music store and demand one!!!

Regardless of whats others have said, if you treat your pedals with care, you will get years of use from them!!! My original Zoom 505 is still going strong after 9 years!!! The new G2 is much more sturdy, with a heavy metal (no pun intended) case, and great rubberized sided. I will use this all the time without a backup!!! What kind of faith would I have in my pedal if I carried around a backup???

Never had to call them. If it aint broke, then you've been taking care of it haven't you!!!

I play for my church every week, Contemporary Christian. At home I play Blues, Jazz , and some Classic Rock. I've been playing over 25 years. Other Gear is listed above. If it were stolen, I would order another one them same day, and lament the lose of the other G2. I love the whole concept of this pedal!!! Well thought out!!! Just try and find the same features on another pedal in this price range!!! Favorite feature? The amp models!!! Have tried most of the multi- units out there, my most recent was the Line 6 POD XT Live, great unit, but confusing, and huge, not to mention expensive!!! The G2 hold it own very well against some of the big boys out there, and icompact size, and price will give you some dough left for other things, like more guitars!!!!

Relatively easy to use, considering the small number of controls available. I mastered it in a few days.

I bought this to replace an old Korg PX4 I used for teaching at home, but ended up using it live as an amp modeller direct to board. Here are my opinions, compared both to amps/pedals and other modellers I've owned,such as POD and Tonelab:

1. The clean sounds are very crisp and usable.
2. The hi-gain sounds are nice and full sounding, and they sing when playing single notes, which most modellers won't do.
3. Several effects are outstanding, the others usable to good (except of course ring modulators and other gimmicks). The phaser, chorus,flanger and slow attack are excellent, good enough to use in place of a rack effects, IMHO. The spring reverb is so-so. I found the compressor to be functional but not close to a good pedal. The pitch shifting is as clean and smooth as any I've used on a guitar system. Pick attack is instantaneous, as is program change.
4. The Zoom noise reduction does a credible job, but I found it to be a little less smooth than other units I've used like POD or Korg.
5. Here's the bad news for me, and it's a pretty big deal. There really are not any good sounding "amp just breaking up" or overdrive sounds here to compare with a real amp or other modellers. The ground between BF Twin and Soldano is pretty shallow. I had to buy a cheap OD pedal just to get some non-metalish breakup. Also, the unit does not respond to the guitar's volume control like an amp would, or a good modeller like the Tonelab.
6. The outputs are guitar level, not +4, so there could be some issues with noise and gain when going direct. I run mine through an EQ with +4 TRS outs.

Seems very well built for a $99 pedal.

No experience here.

I play a lot of different styles but lean toward more classic tones. The hi-gain sounds on the G2 have opened up my playing to new possibilities, and I have several effected clean sounds that are as good as any I've ever had. If this unit had better overdrive sounds I would consider buying the G7.1ut as my main rig. As it is, I'm thinking of going back to a small amp and pedals for live use, in which case I will initially use the G2 for some effects and distortion. I recently sold my Vox Tonelab SE and switched to the G2 temporarily, with the loss of overdrive sounds as a result. The fact that the G2 can hang with the clean and hi-gain sounds of other modellers for $99 is pretty impressive to me. A flawed but good effort.

My son is 1 1/2 yrs old and he is editing patches as I type this! He could've read the manual but it is too easy he didn't need to.

I am using a $10,000 les paul and sometimes I use a guitar my grandma bought me from walmart THEY BOTH SOUND TREMENDOUSLY GREAT through this pedal. I'm glad they put lights on it, because it's so quiet I didn't know if it was on! Auto makers should learn something from this pedal. The sound is SUPER, I was playing some Vai stuff the other night and my neighbors were outside my house selling tickets because people actually thought STEVE VAI was there playing!! The distortion is TOP NOTCH I play everything from Wynonna Judd to Accept.

Seriously, I think this is built out of titanium, I accidently dropped it from our balcony on the 41st floor and I thought "oh no" but, when I went down to the street everyone was just standing around saying "now, that's a well built pedal". It was still in ONE PIECE not even a scratch!! Come to think of it, It almost sounds better now, if there can be such a thing!!!!

Like I said it's so quiet, so I called tech support to see if they could tell me if it was on and the SUPER NICE guy on the other end told me about the "lights" and that they would be on if the unit was on so.. WHEW!! They are TOP NOTCH, he even offered to send me a case of my favorite beverage!!

I've been playing for 75 years. Someone DID already steal the first 3 of these things I bought so now I have a backup of 5 of them. The only thing I don't like it sometimes I hear voices coming out of the unit (cross-comms w/telco I I think) I've owned every effect pedal made by every company ever and this is the best one! I used to just play in my house but recently there was a MAJOR band in town and I guess they heard me and stopped so now I might be going to be on tour with them, I can't say who, but I'm not sure if they were on a bus or a Crazy Train HEHEHE. The only thing I wish this thing had, was a bottle opener on the back because those Mexicans put their caps on the bottles so tight!! The only thing else I would like to share is that if you don't go buy one of these right now then you should probably sell all of your gear and move to iceland and plant daisies on the beach!

The two-digit display is irritating, but for all that, it isn't very hard to program.

For a $100 device, this thing is marvelous. I won't rehash what people have said below, but you CAN GET NATURAL OVERDRIVE OUT OF THIS THING. The way you do it is to choose the "booster" option from the WAH/EFX module, and use it to drive the clean amp models--the Twin and AC30. You can also drive the Deluxe model nicely by turning the gain all the way down and using the booster. The booster is the secret weapon for natural overdrive. Seriously. Also, this pedal is VERY quiet and the delays are great.

I play indie rock and electronic/experimental music. This will replace a large pedalboard full of stompboxes AND an amp in my live electronic-music rig. It's a great deal for the dough.

very easy if you are not trying to do many things with it. simply turning knob 1. to control, for instance, will allow you to use knob 3. to attenuate master volume, which on mine was at 86, a tearyourheadoff setting. then, for instance,turn knob one to mod/sfx and then use one of the little selectors just below to scroll through the various effects-------try them one at a time, adjusting each with the other three knobs. different effects reflect differing values in the three adjuster knobs.

as the manual reads: adjust your instrument and your amp accordingly as in any common sense audio setting.

never weak. thing one on this box is big sound. thing 1.1 is distortion. i play ten guitars, from a custom Chris Sayre, chrome and ebony strat to a 1931 martin 017 with a bartolinni A2. depending on venue and effects, either a quadrophonic systems of battery-powered amps between 30 and 50 amps, or a marshall plexi +/-.

i do no covers.

best effect is tape echo.

once again, you have to adjust the noise factor........it is possible to go totally clean.........but why? the thing is inyourface, satan, distortion paradise.

ps.......the word pristine, is lame.

so far. two weeks in, and it does what i have programmed. i never use computers except for writing. the effect has to be easy to understand, or i send it back quickly.

i never go w/o backup.

one time five years ago. real guy on phone helped me solve problem myself.

i've played for 29 years and am producing an albumn and a show during 06. my guitar sound has a large dynamic range, from unplugged little old martins to my chrome strat (with Black Ice) through G2.

Boss DD-3 & DOD250.

Boss ME30.

DanEcho/Dunlop rotovibe.

Most of these are souped up by my tech, the luthier, chris sayre. Write him at choreopera@yahoo.com. Chris also voices my guitars for the various tunings and beefs up the bracing, customizes the profiles, etc.

I play both neo-Broadway pop, prog-rock, and what is usually called classical music. most of it on guitar, some on synth and one piano, a little on pipe organ. my present project, The Last Ingenue, is a musical/rock opera.

One can also write choreopera@yahoo.com for information as casting is underway for guitarist/singer/actors.

i'm a private detective; no one steals my gear. and if your head's in the game, no one will steal yours either.

like big sound and for 100 bucks, it would be worth it if it did one really good thing. it does at least ten for me now, and the number one, the tape echo is not only a better sound than an echoplex, which i have used and owned, but there is no echoplex noise, which can be dreadful, and i am not tight assed about noise.

i can play 4-8 guitar parts on this setting, and the machine defaults to it (because i saved it 2 or 3 times) when turned on.

i can skip to the chase and attack immediately.

if you don't like distortion, or at least distortion laying back there like a caged tiger or a nuke meltdown waiting to happen, then this probably won't work for you.

i can share my music. again, choreopera at yahoo.com.

I used the 505-II for years at about a zillion gigs, and then went to the GFX-8, so I was familiar with most of the concepts of the G2 and the editing procedure. For the novice or someone never owning a Zoom, I'd think editting the patches might be tricky, at first, until you get a feel for how to do it. The 505-II, I'd give that a 10 for ease of programming. The G2, probly a 6 or 7.

Its quiet, I'll say that much. the effects are generally quite good. the Vibro-tone is excellent, as good as pedals I bought for the sole purpose of that, for much more. the chorus is also good and the delay is much improved over the 505-II, with longer delay times available.

However, the drive modes are not satisfactory to me at all. I dont play metal, and altho there are a few really good hi-gain drive modes, that isnt what i do (classic rock and country rock). the 505-II had a great basic rock guitar drive mode called OVERDRIVE. Very warm, natural sounding and responsive, to me anyway. The GFX-8 has it too. Zoom blew that off with the G2, and instead, has gone to amp modelling and nothing on there, to my ears, comes close to the old OVERDRIVE mode on the 505-II. A real disappointment. I was hoping to use the G2 as my only onstage box, with maybe a wah wah, but it wont happen. I simply cannot find a basic rock tone I like out of this, and grew tired of messing with the extended EQ settings thru three different tube amps, over about 2 or 3 hours.

I have not tried this directly thru our PA but that isnt how i like to play a show anyway, I like a little tube amp behind me. the 505-II and the GFX-8 work great in this manner. so far, the G2 does not, not for me, altho if you played metal or heavy alternative, or grunge or goth or whatever, it probly would.

At this point I've got it on my big pedalboard to use in a true bypass loop as a time-based effect generator only. Delay, chorus, echo, vibro-verb, stuff like that, and it works well that way. You can turn off everything except the effects module, including the EQ, that is helpful.

However its pretty much one effect per patch and with only the two digit display, its tough to remember at a gig, which is which. You need a printout, just like with the 505-II. the GFX-8 fixed this by having a multiple character readout, but the GFX-8 wont run on batteries, has a weird and delicate power cord, and has the half a second delay when you switch patches. the G2 is an improvement over all those things.

Still, I'm unhappy with the G2 drive modes, and altho a couple were ok, notably the Boogie Mk 3 and the OD-1, still, when A-B'ing them with a 505-II set up in Overdrive, it wasnt a good comparison, for what I wanted. Zoom screwed up, in this respect. Most amp modelling to me, sucks. I dont like Line6's stuff, either.

I havent used the G2 at a gig yet, but have used the 505-II and the GFX-8 at many shows.

I've emailed the company a few times over various issues, andonly got one response, which was obviously written by a japanese person who had limited english skills. not great.

Easy to use. Editing is not to bad to get around the unit. The manual is helpful if needed.

I'm using a Gibson SG. Also processing raw guitar samples through this unit, just like you would a real guitar. I am going strait to a mixer. The amp simulations are basically trash. Only the clean sounds are decent. This is supposed to be the heart of the unit and 90% of it sucks. Please give me a good amp sound first, before you give me any of the fillers and dressings. What a disappointment! With a sampling rate of 96k you think it would be better. The effects are good and useable. Clean but thin sounding. Good noise reduction. Cab simulations sound fair at best. Maybe this thing sounds better through an amp. I doubt it.

Well built.

Never have.

I would not buy it again. For around a 100 bucks your getting a lot of stuff hear. It's digital and it sounds like it. After a half hour your ears are tired of it. The ZOOM 5000 pedal is the best thing ZOOM ever made. You need to get the tone down first before any thing else, and this falls way short.

Features listed already. 2 digit display with 4 knobs a few little buttons and 2 footswitches. Display is nice and bright. But as mentioned getting into effects takes a while with the manual to hand as some of the names for amp models etc are a little vague.
Power switch is a nice touch though.
Presets are gash in general and it took me at least 30-60mins to start getting the sounds i wanted out of it.

I have used this unit now with- straight into my DAW at home and in the studio through a desk and a DI unit, through a HIWATT 100w head, a peavey classic 30 and my Vox AC30. Oh and headphones.
Patches need to be tailored to whatever you are running it through obviously. It has switchable cab modelling for running direct.
First impression was how scarily quiet this thing is. I mean seriously quiet.
Plugged in direct to my audiophile at home in stereo it sounds very useable. Some of the amp models are pretty good like the boogie, marshall and JC120 sounds. Some are not that outstanding but still quite useable such as the vox. I dont think the pedals through the cab sim sound that great in general. Not bad just not great.
Plugged in to an amp with the cab sim off is a different story. Some of the amp sims still sound good and most of the pedal sims sound pretty good. The only complaint with the pedal sims is that they are a little too smooth sounding to my ears next to analog dist pedals but still reasonably faithfull to the modelled sounds.
Ok the next bit is easy. The delays, reverb and modulation are superb. There could be more reverbs maybe and maybe 100% wet mix and stuff but they just sound great anyway. Add a pedal for delay hold and have loads of fun looping and stuff.
The compression too is very useable and good sounding. The noise gate is effective without too much artifacts. Intelligent pitch shifting is a thin lizzy heaven.
And strangely enough there are only one or two special effect type things that will probably be quite usefull.
Overall I would say this pedal is very useable as a single unit for live or recording. Used in a bigger rig it is excellent for using for filling in gaps. Upto now I have been using it live for delays,comp,chorus,trem and a touch of reverb.
Oh the drum thing is ok. Not much i can say about it really as i have only used it for about 5 seconds.

Solid unit. Nice rubber edges and tough feeling footswitches. I havent checked but it doesnt seem as if the jacks are pcb mounted although i may be wrong. But all the same they feel very solid too.
Patch switching is instantaneous. I would happily gig it without a backup.

This pedal is very usefull and great sounding. The only quibbles I can raise are just petty as the unit is so cheap. I cant think of anything in this price range with such high sound quality. I am just a little gutted I didnt shell out the extra for the exp pedal version. I didnt realise how good it was gonna be.
I didnt buy it for dist but I have found myself using some of it at home for quick stuff into my computer.
I havent used any digital gear for 4-5 years because I realised how rubbish they sounded next to analog stuff but my space echo broke and I needed a delay so I looked into this. It was intended to fill that gap till i fixed the tape delay and I was just gonna give it to someone who needs it.
Well I forgot about fixing my tape delay and I am keeping the G2 for the forseeable future.
For this price right now I think this unit is unbeatable.

Just bought one of these for my son (for Christmas) so, of course, I had to try it out. If you can operate a bunch of separate stomp boxes then you can work this beasty - just turn the switch and the knobs will set up each virtual stomp box in turn. I can't see how it could be much easier in that way. What makes it a bit more difficult is the two-digit *numeric* LED display. This is great to read your patch number from a distance but pretty limiting for editing because every parameter becomes a cryptic two "character" code. Takes a bit of getting used to, so you'll need to keep the manual handy to start with. So... good news and bad news.
Any more bad news? Yup, there aren't enough patch memories! With a box that sounds this good and has so many possibilities it needs more than lesser units, yet it only (really) has twenty. It has forty user patch numbers but half of them are for stage use (no cab models but extra EQ) and half for studio. The Korg AX10G (my daughter has one) does a similar sort of thing but just has a simple LINE/AMP switch. Why can't Zoom do this (Answer - they want to appear to have more memories than they really have!).

I have only tried the G2 with headphones so far but the verdict is... WOW! It brings VST plug-in or rack unit quality to a stomp box. At last every effect sounds clear and detailed - even distortions! I have a Korg PX4 for practice, which I use with a Steinberger Spirit GT Pro. This is fine with average headphones but I'm reluctant to use it with my studio AKGs because they show up the digital mess around the edge of the sound. No such problem with the G2.
I can't vouch for the accuracy of the amp models but they give a great range from squeaky clean through to something like a buzz saw cutting through a tin shack - and everything in between. You will probably need to ignore the presets and set up your own sounds, but you should be able to find whatever you want. The only limitation I've found is that it seems quite tricky to set up a touch-sensitive crunch for blues, where quieter notes are clean but as you pick harder the distortion comes in progressively. The sound *is* there but I haven't yet got it as responsive as I could on a good amp - or even my PX4.
The effects which go along with the amp models are excellent: clean and easy to set up, with just enough controls. You can get a pretty ridiculous number of delays - three sections can each be set to delays simultaneously. The noise gates need to be set up properly to get the best out of each guitar (another good reason for more memories!). You can even dial up a knackered noise gate to go with a crappy digital distortion. Not sure why, but you *can*...
The built-in rhythms have pretty good samples and above-average patterns. They are only any use for practice (you can't edit or chain them, there are only about 35 rhythms plus 5 metronome "patterns" and switching them on cuts out the reverb) but they do the job.

Zoom gear always used to be a bit cheap and nasty - though I'm told not as breakable as they seemed to be. This is a different ball game - it seems really solid and chunky. The controls feel great, the footswitches are positive and solid and, all-in-all, I can't see how they do it for the price. This is only the price of one of the cheaper Boss boxes and feels very bit as solid - but does as much as a whole bunch of them!
Unless it starts showing electrical problems of some sort (I've only had it two days) I would trust this on stage. Probably not with the wall-wart power supply, though - that's just a cheapo average consumer unit.

Never dealt with them. Hope I never will.

I am primarily a keyboardist but using guitar more and more over the past few years - it's nice to interact with something real and immediate. I play a wide variety of styles from jazz, through blues and indie to the occasional thrash. This will do the lot. I have used it with both of my guitars (Steinberger Spirit and Washburn MG40) and the SG copy I've bought for my son (his other Christmas present - shh!) and it makes everything sound great. I like the size, the looks and the price - as well as the wonderful clarity of the sounds.
I don't like the limited display (why not two-digit alphanumeric, at least). I like even less the lack on memories but, hell, for this price?!
Would I buy another? Well as soon as I recover from Christmas I think I'm going to buy the G2.1u - can't let my son have better gear than me! ;o)

It took me all of 15 minutes to completely understand every aspect of its programming capabilities.

The sound on this unit is brilliant. I've been looking for the perfect direct recording interface for computer recording and I think that I've found it in the Zoom G2. Zoom has set the bar at a new level with this product. It is extremely quiet. The noise reduction makes the buzz in the treble pickup of my Strat virtually nonexistent. The distortions are fantastic. There is enough gain programmability to execute blazing solos without the need for any other effect pedals. The amp sims are amazing. The clean guitar sounds are superb as well. The effects are unparalleled for a unit at this price. The best 100 dollars that I've ever spent.

All metal build. Solid. I just bought it but can't foresee too many problems.

I play alternative/industrial rock along the lines of NIN, gODHEAD, Rammstein, TOOL, etc. The Zoom G2 definitely fits the bill for this type of music. I own lots of other gear including the Sansamp GT2(which is also good), the KORG ampworks device, the BOSS Metal Zone and various other effect pedals. I play through a Fender Strat. Until now, I've had to use various devices simultaneously to get the guitar sound that I want. Thank you Zoom.

Easy to get some great sounds if you take the time to adjust the settings. The presets, aren't great. Editing is pretty simply but for most of it you need to use your hands. Some memorization or frequent manual referencing may be needed for more complex effects and operations but once you've got your settings save em and leave em.
There is a manual. It is very thorough, detailed, and relatively easy to understand.

I use mainly epiphones, PRS, fernandes, and Gibson, with hard rock or metal type pickups and tones. Peavey, Marshall, and Mesa heads with marshall lead and 1960a, and berhinger cabs
A lot of people not giving high ratings here are just being ANAL. like this reviewer who posted his review a couple below me making ridiculous subjective claims and presenting them as fact. As far as digital multieffects pedals go this is one is right up there. I've used many different ones in the past: digitech, boss, other zooms, dod, Line 6 etc. This is one is in an entirely different world. Sure the presets are lame but the quality of the individuals effects, distortions, amp sims, etc is incredible. It is VERY clear sounding in general as someone else as mentioned (yes on distortion as well, it is very tight). Zoom was extremely thorough with this pedal, giving great versatility and variety. For once a digi multi effects has a decent amount of gain with tons of options for adjusting tone and overall sound. The person a couple of posts below says the amps models/sims are poor..... THAT IS BS, sounds like he/she's trying to make themselves seem extra professional. well stop being so anal you little babies, its just a pedal its not designed to read your mind and mutate to the gear your use it with. but hey NO pedal does that so get used to it. giving this pedal a 7 because stupid crap like that is ridiculous that would make the majority of other ones out there 3s and 4s. i wonder if these people are even comparing to other products or keeping in mind what it is.
as for the amp models/sims they are actually very good its "scary" as someone else has said. obviously when you hook it up to your rig its not going to be a "replica" of the sound its trying to model because your running it through an additional, preamp section, power, amp section, likely diff cabinets, etc. DUH. but the signal actually coming out of the pedal before it goes through all that extra crap is very good, and if you can get your amp to some very neutral/flat settings the simulation is again so good that its "scary". I have a mesa dual rec half stack, and a Marshall JCM, as well at the same place i use this ZOom pedal through just a solid state peavey. WEll with the right settings on the peavey and zoom, they can sound RIDICULOUS similar to either when on those amp sim settings. And you can test this out by running one of those original rigs into a DAW with no additional preamp, and then the same straight frmo the zoom to the DAW with no rig infront of it. VERY good job by zoom. By the way, even if you are running it into an amp zoom even acknowledges the fact that this affects the sound and even has a section in the manual which says how to set some popular amp models to use the zoom pedal with to bring out the intended sounds. like i said, very thorough by zoom. i mean even by just looking and and thinking about some of the samp models/sims they have on there, like for example, the roland chorus amp, or a couple of the clean/semi clean fender ones - these are unique sounding amps but lets face it they are not that shockingly distinct - yet zoom takes the time to model them anyways even for the finest and most subtle of tonal details that make them unique - can you say THOROUGH? anyways im not going to go through every little effect and detail but overall the sound quality is very impressive compared to other so-called "pristine" digi effects units/modelers. I think that this new line or chip by zoom is a huge leap for these kinds of products. and of course its not automatically going to make you sound like a million bucks fix all your problems, replace other shitty equipment, or read your mind and tastes. but like i said no peice of equipment does that (especially just a 99 pedal) and likely wont any time soon. So i'm not going to dock points for that. I'll judge it for what it is. It does its job very well and completely meets and EXCEEDS expectations for a $100 pedal. I would give it a 9 but i haven't seen another unit in its class for under 5 times the price, so bumped up to 10. oh and the acoustic sim is the best so far of many i've tried. and the tuner tho i thought it was funny and cheap at first (check it out you'll know what i mean) it turned out to be insanely accurate/sensitive. you need to have your pitch nearly POSITIVELY correct or it will read out of tune. just wish the display was better

damn this thing is sturdy. wouldnt expect it to give out (inless electronically some how). For a unit this compact that really went all out on making it tough. Made out of solid sturdy materials, good design. I've been depending on it so far with no problems and would definately gig without a backup and not feel worried. Not docking points for ridiculous hypothetical siutations or because its not completely indestructible like my favourite review from 2 down did. of course it can break, EVERYTHING can. but this one is right up there.

never had to deal with Zoom directly. but the manual is great. its very detailed and thorough. babies you and makes you feel like they care about how you're using their product.

Well is mess around with all types of music. mainly play harder rock, punk, emo, metal, alternative, but also play around with a variety of other stuff. pretty picky with tone and overall sound but dont need to be spoonfed everything. just need something that is CAPABLE of bringing out my desired sounds dont care if i have to mess with it. thats exactly what this pedal is. so i really like it. has everything i need and more. and its not like you pay little money and get lots of effect but they are shit. not at all like that. the effects are high quality. why go out and buy a boss metal zone, or line 6 uber metal (like i did) at $130 when you can get this unit with tons of effects at the same quality and better for less? and with much more versatility. this pedal solved a lot of my problems and saved me a lot of money (and i expect will keep saving me from buying other shit as long as i have it) and dont get me wrong i'm not wowed because this is my first multi effects or something i've had MANY suggested pristine quality ones in the past. but they were just lacking, didnt meet expectations, and were not all that they were boasting to be. i have no problem keeping this one tho. very satisfied. the pedal is still a new advancement and is at the top of its class so i'll give it a 9. there wil probably be improvements in the future (at this rate it will be zoom exceeding themselves) but until the i'll leave it with a 9 docking points only cos it should be a simpler and easier to use and read layout.

It takes some tweaking to get sounds customized to your amp, guitar, and music genre preferences as it would with any MFX pedal.

Editing patches is a little more difficult than it was with a 505-II because the G2 adds deeper editing parameters that force you to reuse knobs meant for one purpose in "play" mode and another in "edit" mode.

That said, you have much more control over parameters affecting EQ, FX, and patches than you ever did with the 505-II.

I like the ability to turn off every module individually - EQ, FX, drive, etc if you want.

I'd put the 505-II at 10 for ease and the G2 at 8 - oly because it has many more parameters to edit - that's a good thing.

The manual covers all the ground you need.

The unit is not noisy.

I use mine with a Gibson archtop and a fender tube amp.

The effects are very editable and customizable with some deep edit parameters. A six band EQ allows fine tuning of the EQ. Three types of reverb - Hall, Room, and Spring along with a "pre-reflection" setting and other parms allow tailoring of the 'verb to taste. Chorus is decent as is echo/delay.

I usually turn off the compressor altogether as it just softens the tone too much most of the time.

Overall, I am very happy with the tones from this unit. I also have the GFX-5 which is even mroe editable, but it only has 20bit AD conversion compared to the G2's 24 bit.

I'd give it a "10" for the $$, but the compressor and the lack of a limiter is enough to bump it down to "9".

I've owned Zoom's 505, 505-II, 504-II, GFX-1, GFX-4, GFX-5, GFX-8, GFX-707, and now the G2. I've not needed much support in the past but when I did need it with my GFX-5, they were helpful even though their "fix" did not fix the problem at hand. No biggie as I fixed it.

Includes a $29 power adapter, unit is mostly metal, good metal connectors, lots of good sound in a small package for short money. i think it's a terrific deal.