Zoom G9.2tt

I found it quite easy to get good sounds out of it using the G9Ed software.

However there are lots of parameters to I wrote a program to automatically
generate a random patch (which can be based on a supplied favourite patch).
See Zoom Random Patch Generator (For G9.2tt / G7.1ut ) at:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/davieses/Zoom_RPG/Zoom_RPG.htm

There is a good PDF manual.

I haven't upgraded to the latest firmware revision as it offers no significant improvements.

I'm using a Fender Telecaster direct, the noise gate generally ensures
it is quiet, but some "breathing" can be heard on some effects.
I found the giasso Steve Vai patch "For The Love Of God" stunning.

I have gigged using it without a backup.

Zoom do reply in a friendly way to emails, but they have not made
any significant software upgrades available for the G9.2tt.
For example new features have been added to the B9.1ut but it is unlikely
that these will be backported to the G9.

I play rock/pop and it suits me - I even managed to use it on a bass
guitar. See G9 bass patches at:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/davieses/Zoom_RPG/G9Patches.htm

My favourite features are the amp models, the tubes and the 3D pedal.

Pretty steep learning Curve if you dont know what your doing, not at all like the super user friendly Boss GT10 (only played it in the shop for 30 mins and was already sussing it)

All in all if i play around with it enough I get what i want, I owned a Boss ME-50 and a zoom 707 before this (both really easy to use) and while at the start it was harder to use since theres so many features, but once you get going its gets easier all the knobs are clearly labled and now i can make great efx alot faster than my previous older, smaller pedals.

Sound is amazing, Z pedal does things that Experimetal guitarists dream about, ive already made this thing make sounds ive never heard any artist play, you can do so much its not funny, it can shift pitchs while also adding effects only when it going to the side, So i have my standard wah with up and down, then if i go left or right it raises an octive, adds some reverb and wahs at the same time, I cant stress enough how cool this is, a revolution no doubt.

2x Tube seems to be undeniable also, gives my solid state 60 watt amp a beatiful realistic tube sound and now my artifical harmonics sounds like a screaming banshee on fire that just got kicked in the nuts with steel cap boots.

Its awesome...Ive tried this with a varity of friends guitars/pickups (Schecter/Jackson/Ibanez and even a cheep Ashton)(EMGs 81/85 combo, Dimarzios and Semour duncan livewires and Ibz/dimarzio super lame stocks) and it just doesnt matter, while it brings the best out of a good pickups, I can make my no name 100 dollar ebay speacial (Sterling) sing like it never could.

I have created teh perfect Satch efx,... I can get the perfect Vinnie Moore sounds also, A Thrashy Megadeth Metal? you bet your ass.. The amp sims are great, does a very nice ENGL and Super Distorion.

Heard some bad things and has some bad experiance with Zoom reliability , but this is a studio pedal for me and stays safe under my recording desk and will never move, i wouldnt even gig with a Multi EFX pedal, just looking at them Tube warmer bulbs through the slits makes me really nervous...but so far in 6 months nothing has gone wrong yet

My 707 input jacks died (as they always do) and Zoom company wouldnt do **** about it had to pay to get it repaired. I dont trust em.

People lean towards teh latest Boss and Line 6 pedals cause there more renound but I have to say Zoom hasnt let me down yet, they are definatly an innovative leader in todays multi EFX market. Ive been playing about 10 years now and of the 3 multi efx pedals ive owned and 20 or so Ive played this one stands out among the best and most unique.

I was looking at alot of efx pedals before making my choice and the reason I went with this is cause it was cheeper than its rivals but after owning it for 6 months, I have no regrets at all. If it was stolen or broke id get another......Z pedal for life \m/

It doesnt have a loop feature or drum machine and for that i was gonna go for a GT10 but I just ended up getting this and a Boss RC-2, now i have loop and drums + Tube and Z pedal, beatiful combo... As soon as I get a Sweet Roland GR 20, ill be laughing...

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? Ive had it for awhile now and i can get some lovely tones out of it .
How about Editing patches? Its pretty easy to edit the patchs i find.
How is the manual for it (if there is one)? It explains enough in the manual to give you a understanding of its basic functions .

What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with? I use a Ibanez S670FM straight into the G9 , i basically use it as a modeller direct into my comp , i also use various pedals with it aswell .
Is it noisy? On what settings? I do find its a touch noisy, as i don't think much to the noisegates on the G9 , so i just have them on min , but in honesty i think thats more to do with outside interference then the unit being noisy .
Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? Who are they? I play alot of diffrent styles and i find the G9 is excellent for recreating tones on , i can get a near perfect Satriani , Vai , Timmons tones out of it , then get some other lovely tones to like blues, clean , jazz ,neoclassical, rock, metal , fusion , in honesty you can recreate pretty much anything you want to on this (if your heros don't use heavily modded setups ) .
Are certain effects (distortion, chorus, ...) very good? Very bad? I wasn't sure about the delays , reverbs when first using them but they have grown on me now and seem to be decent, as do alot of the other effects aswell , the only thing i can really fault is the noisegates , i don't think there very good but everything else sounds excellent .

Can you depend on it? Well i haven't had it long enough to say if its super reliable but i had a podxt before this and that started to go wrong only after a year n a half, so im hoping this will last longer lol .

If you've dealt with the company, how helpful/friendly were they? Once again i haven't had to contact them yet .

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match? In honesty for modern hi gain settings the G9 is fantastic , the tubes do really just give it a slight edge and more realism i find to settings like these (like legato feels alot less work on this , as it was on my podxt), one thing i will say tho is i think the G9 can be tweaked to suit many styles/tones etc but if your looking to buy one and your coming from other modellers like the line6's etc , then make sure you have some decent pedals (like distortion, overdrive etc ) , as the G9 as a modeller dosen't have its own stomp boxs to go with your patchs(it only has them for its preamp use with a real amp ) , still with pedals infront of it i think it sounds fantastic , i do prefer it over the line6 podxt .
Anything you wish it had? One thing i wish it did have is a tube preamp model , i understand running it into a amp like that is np but for using the G9 as a modeller i do wish it had that feature, so you can use it for vocals/acoustic mic'd up , although you can use it for those through other means it would still be cool to have on this .

Its easy to edit patches. The input settings are simple knobs.
Beware the depth. SOOO much depth, it'll take a lifetime to explore all of the options this thing has.

Excelent. Considering the number of options its ridiculous. The feel is great.

NOW LISTEN CAREFULLY. I NEVER DID WHEN I READ REVIEWS CONTAINING THIS KIND OF INFORMATION.

It is not as simple as editing patches to get a good sound from a multieffects. When you open up the box and plug it in and start having a tantrum, " Its so digital and horrible, i wasted all that money," etc. It takes tweaking of the things you're plugging it into. Im not going to go into detail my problems, but I will tell you that WITH TIME, this will produce a kickass sound, just give it time, figure it out.

Tankos.

i sent 2 emails. 1 got replied to.

Overall give it time and a bit of effort, you will love it.

Well,that part is kind of a trick,it is easy enough to just plug in and play,using their presets while you take the time to read the book and make your own.That is a good trade,the presets arnt that great but you do get a sample of what you can do.You dont have to read the manual before you play it you just must before you make your own.I pluged into mine 10 min after it arrived and played for 5 hours non stop without touching the book.Only made it through a few presets too,each one just inspired jamming more

the sound quallity is flat out amazing,sooooo much more than i expected.I have been building my own pedals for 15 years and have either owned the real deal or made clones of any boutique pedal you can imagine,i wanted a compact multi effects unit for practicing with out all of the patch cords and pedalboards and deciding if i wanted the wah ect ect.I would have been totaly satisfied if it was half of what it is.Any sound that is in your head is in that box,it just might take time to adjust it in,there are so many good even amp models that it is easy to wander.i finally settled on working on 1 patch at a time and man,with just 10 full patches i can call up anything from country to metal.It would be impossible to tell this thing from the boutiques,i can tell if my bias is off .5 volts in a fuzzface but i cant tell this thing from my fuzzface,well its not my fuzzface anynmore,after this alot of my old gear went on e bay.
After owning it for 3 months,you could give me a cd of anyone and i can make you a patch that isnt just close or in the ballpark,you would be playing the cd.

so far no problems,it is built like a tank but some of the stories make me wonder.I use it live now and with all the loot i made on e bay i bought another that only came out of the box 1 time to make sure it worked and to transfer my presets in case i need it quick.I made so much on there i almost felt bad for selling a tonebender for 360 when the poor sucker could have had one of these for 40 more.I can call up the tonebenders sound so closely that the only difference is less noise.

no need yet

the biggest thing that i can pass on or mention is this,if this is the most expencive peice of gear you own,you will not be happy,it will not turn your gorilla into a firebreathing marshall,or you kalamazoo into a fender tweed.noor will it turn you epiphone into jimmi pages les paul.if you love the sound of your guitar plugged straigt into your amp already and are looking for versitility and great effects then your search is over brother,buy one of these and start getting the sounds out of your soul,the long journey is over,it took me 25 years of playing and literally tons of gear and money to get here,but man it is so worth it.a few tips i have learned that are worth noting start with amps,i have several tube amps and loath solidstate amps.i have 1 roland cube and while a nice amp it didnt respond well to this board,all of the tubes sounded amazing,even a epiphone tube 10 with just 1 preamp tube.it wont make a small combo sound like a stack like aloot of people expect apparently,but through a 4x12 it will make any tube amp go from sparkling fender to out of control boutique,i even a/b ed my krankenstein and a fender blues jr with a 4x12 and it sounded like the same amp in stereo,just took some time to figure what i was doing.another weird thing is it seems to like hotter pickups better,even for mellow stuff,the acoustic simulator is so acurate but when you would expect to be using your necck pickup with the volume rolled back,it sounds better with an invader in the bridge position cranked.i used an ibanez neckthrough with ann invader and an esp neck through with a jb and they sound awesome,i just couldnt get my sg with burstbuckers to sound right till i plluged the guitar into a tube pre amp first,then it sounded great as well.i tried 3 different emg active pickups and was disapointed,go figure

This is a revision to my comments from:
Submitted 12/19/2006 at 03:23pm by Jim G.

First off, after going through extensive frustration with my sound between my guitar and amp, I spent lots of time researching, evaluating and experimenting with all of the components of my gear.

My main conclusion about the Zoom G9.2tt, is that it does not have a high quality bypass like I originally posted and simply sucks tone. While initially it may appear to be transparent, once you start really testing this against other resources, you find that it does suck tone, which is unacceptable IMO.

I started with changing my cables to Fulltone, which produced a substantial difference in my tone. Once I was able to test the basic tone of the Zoom v. straight into the amp, the tone difference was obvious, especially in areas like pick attack and articulation. No amount of tweaking I did with any of the basic knobs on the unit would solve this issue.


At this point, if someone is serious about having great tone from the devices they use with their guitar amps, I recommend they stay away completely from ME units and move towards some of the higher end pedals that really make a difference.

I think once someone begins to really dig into this issue, they will find there really is a difference and the difference will affect your playing and tone substantially.

Save button and one of the other ones basically broke after 1.5 years. I did save lots of times, but a $400 unit broke after 1.5 years?

This is my 2nd ME unit to do this. No more for me.

N/A
Out of warranty.

My advice: If you can afford it...dump your MEs and look at using devices made by Fulltone, Xotic and a few other boutique pedal makers. Also use rack mounted devices for any effects loops.

Some of the top selling brands of pedals suck tone if you take the time to check them out.

Do your homework and always buy where you can return the items. You efforts will be rewarded with better tone than you've ever had.

They all have a bit of learning curve, all multi-effects devices. To save settings is simple, but it takes a bit of time before you see the simplicity, as there are so many features.

Great, this is the draw, the tubes make a difference.

This is the one I had bad experience with. I am updating an earlier review, having new information. See customer support below.

Earlier I complained about warranty being voided because they found animal hair in it. I still feel strongly that the switches should not have failed so quickly, and am doubtful some animal hair was the cause. I have many computers and keyboards in the house, on the floor, have had not problems. And I leave them on all the time.

But the technician got on my good side, he told me I could attempt to fix it myself, I should be able to replace the switches if I am careful and patient about taking it apart. He sent me some diagrams, and offered to give me some advice when I did it if I needed that. So I will give him good marks on that.

Well, with premature failure in my opinion, and it not being repairable, well I can't be real favorable. But still, if I can't fix it, I may buy another, and just be careful about not doing anything that could void warranty, to keep it covered when I am not using it, as I have a dog and cats. AmericanMusical doubles your warranty. I mean, it really is a nice sounding unit. And I like two expression pedals (I consider the 3 useless, the one that swivels). I just wanted to be fair to the company, the guy was decent as he could be I think, under his circumstances. I will just be careful to get 2 years warranty, and be real careful with it as I said, keep it covered when I am not using it. That is, if I can't fix the one I have now.

it's easy to use

i use a fender strat with a marshall valvestate,there is too much noise in the dirty channels but the Znr kills that noise but it kills the sustain as well i don't know what to do for keeping the sustain without noise.

I play guitar from 12 years ago i'm into the blues,rock & jazz.
i have a zoom 4040 which has a great sound.

I'm still working with the G9 & i hope i could get the sound that i want.
It's prests needs a lot of adjustments to hear a good sound from it.

The G9.2tt has ready to use patches that need slight tweaking to sound fantastic. As with most pedals, most patches are completely unnecessary--used only to show all the effects and combinations. Setting up A/B channels s simple, programming the pedals is logical, and anything that doesn't make sense is easily found in the manual.
The pedal is surprisingly easy to pull apart as well (you will too when you realize the low quality of the factory tubes). Much more simple that I would have thought.

On a scale from "vintage tube amp" to "the eighties" this effects processor gets pretty darn close to "vintage tube amp". I have replaced both tubes with a JJ pream tube and a Tungsol post amp tube, and the sound has improved dramatically. I primarily play through a pair of Etymotics with my Epiphone Les Paul, and I have loved the sound. There is a lot of cabinet modeling and "air" effects that really bring a sense of space into the sound. I also play through a blackface Fender Princeton which allowed the pedal to open up.
I would rate this a 10 in comparison to other effects that I have played (VOX, Boss, Line6, etc), but let's be honest--we're all looking for more than just sounding like a good multi-effects processor. We want to sound like boutique effects and vintage amps, right. So an 8 is quite generous.

I have not had it that long, but I do feel like this is built exceptionally well. The tube sockets are of low quality and are poorly attached (crooked), but that has little to do with reliability. The pedal is solid and the switches are quiet and responsive. I would feel a lot better with a gig bag, but everything seems just as solid as the other pedals of this ilk.

I play a host of music in a host of styles. I mostly fall into an alt-country, blues vibe. I have been playing for about 12 years, and have needed a quiet solution to playing electric guitar. This fit the bill precisely. I love that I can play great, distorted rock n' roll in my small apartment as my son sleeps... I also love the auxiliary jack to play along with other music through headphones or through an amp.
Knowing what I was getting into, I have not been disappointed. This is not a replacement for great vintage amps. The effects are digital, though they are also smoothed over with a tube preamp and post-amp. It is what it is, and it does a better job of producing musical sounds than any other pedal I tried. I am a penny-pincher as well as a tone-monger. I found the best deal for my money in this pedal.
All that aside, this pedal does sounds great. It's probably not as great as buying boutiquey effects, but no one's going to notice besides the guy who is out more than $500 on his pedal collection--and even he might not notice.
I have also used the Z pedal more than I thought. I generally use it for gain settings, which works really well for a bit of a boost.

Not real easy to figure out from the instructions, but not a big deal, you get it eventually.

This is the good point

This is the bummer. A few patch switches started required several pushes to work after about 4 or 5 months. Over time it got worse, and then about 10 of them failed completely, meaning I could make no more changes. It took a month for them to get to it. It was out of warranty, but my credit card doubles the warranty. I was told that he found animal hair in it, voided warranty. I can understand that, have cats and a dog. But I have had them for years, and 7 or 8 computers on the floor (I am a programmer) and other electrical devices, and have never had problems. My TV has worked for 10 years. CD player, every thing. No problems. Not sure why the cats picked on the Zoom box. Keyboards work on computers, and they all get junk in them. I don't believe for a second that a few animal hairs causes 10 switches one by one to fail. I will NEVER buy another product from ZOOM. They do not support their product well, that is obvious, and will use any flimsy excuse to void your warranty. Parts are probably junk, you get what you pay for. Switches should not fail because of a few animal hairs, it they did, it was poorly engineered. I know what junk gets pulled into my computers, never a problem. Besides, I think the animal hairs had nothing to do with this, just an excuse.

Slow

I just will never buy another product, from a company that I have judged to play hard ball regarding warranty. Many companies will give you the benefit of the doubt, they want a good reputation. Oh, you have to pay for your estimate. Between shipping and that, I am out $75 to be told my cats did it.