Zoom GFX-1

I've never been a big stomp box advocate, but I jammed with a guy that had the older version of this. I saw the potential and bought one. The block diagram out of the manual shows it all, how all 9 patches are in series and where you're injecting a particular effect into the mix, literally. The manual is good about explaining the effects for each knob including the different effect parameter ranges. At first, I ran through all 32 stock patches and wrote down a few to keep. Then to learn programming, I took the information that Bigjan in the post down a couple recommended, and he was right on for the sounds he claims, nice work man. I took several of those and made some alterations to come up with other keepers. This thing reminds of me the old Juno 60 synth where you can call up a patch and edit it on the fly with total ease.

I use two amp configurations depending on gigs, one is a Fender Princeton 60w DPS and the other is a Crate GHX-120 half stack. My main guitar is a Custom shop American Strat and a CS-780 Washburn for floyd rose use. Except for the DPS on both amps setup for clean reverb, the Zoom is my only effect. The Strat is setup with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in the bridge, Lace Sensor Holy Grail in mid, and a stock Fender Lace Sensor in the neck position. The two Lace Sensors are phase reversed.

The effects are pretty strong and talk about tailorable, I don't get where a couple of people have complained about adjustability. A single unit that has this much versatility is a dream for a pedal reluctant player. Switching patches is a snap, and the bypass mode for instant tuning covers me when I'm using the Fender, since the Crate has a built in chrono tuner. Like I said, adding the sounds from the post down a couple and then working on some songs I was able to produce some really choice sounds. I was able to nail a patch that emulates the guitar in Flock of Seagulls - I Ran..including the muted tapping seagull sounds in the beginning..great effects easily found and created.

With a set of Alkaline batteries, I don't even mess with an AC adapter. I have been averaging about 35+ hours of play at 4 hour intervals per set of batteries. If something crapped out, I'd revert to the DPS I have built into each amp. The switches are solid and responsive. While the knobs feel like you could easily reef on them too hard, they hold up. I had only one problem with mine, which was my own fault. I attempted to adjust the +/- level adjustments under the effects switch with my shoe toe once, and tweaked the rubber enough to get the - key to stick. I couldn't do anything with it until I figured out the issue, pulled the button back into shape and it's been problem free ever since.

not even needed yet.

Dude I was playing with had a collection of cheap Danelectro pedals, always one of them breaking into ear shattering oscillations or no effect, etc.. I didn't want to go the pedal route and saw a couple RP units, was not impressed.

The sturdy construction, size of pedals, the way the functions are laid out, stellar operations. This unit rocks, in about every possible flavor of the word. Except for the Wah effect which is only good with a pedal(I didn't by the optional expression pedal myself) and doesn't fit my styles of 80's to present alternative/pop rock. If someone lifted it, I'd replace it without thinking twice. A steal for the price and so far - very dependable. With this combination of effects and amp modeling you can go to any sound you want, regardless of your gear.

I will say this though, if you're not using a quality guitar to play through with, it can only do so much. But that isn't the fault of this unit..

muy facil de usar, y de conveniente tama?o, esto es lo que andaba buscando, pues tuve hace algunos a?os la 505 y sonaba bien dentro de lo que cabe de precio, pero la apariencia y los materiales dejaban mucho que desear....despues tuve un gt3 y no quede satisfecho, pues estaba muy grande y traia demasiadas cosas que no esan necesarias......este zoom gfx es un belleza en practicidad y calidad de sonido

suena muy bien a traves de mi ampli traynor de bulbos (12AX7 y 58881) con celestio vintage 30 y con mi ernieball axis....los que esperen que una guitarra economica y un ampli de transistores hagan maravillas.....pues no lo van a lograr......ahora con mi godin LG P90 suena muy bien tambien.....

no dependeria de el, pero es bueno obtener muchas configuraciones y mezclas de efectos de un solo aparato (por el otro, lado el tener demasiados pedales en el suelo es muy molesto), quiza probaria otros similares, pero este multiefectos esta construido resistente (por eso me agrado) y ya se me ha caido de las manos cuando lo estoy moviendo o guardando en dos ocasiones y sigue funcionando de maravilla...

no la he usado y no creo que en mexico se de soporte tecnico... :)

gran calidad de ensamble, gran variedad de sonidos, gran facilidad de uso (ni he leido el manual).......gran precio

Try these patches, copy these to a notepad, save file and then open with excel (tab delimited) try them on practically any guitar! then you'll say it is worth every cent.
name level comp wah drive gain EQ contour znr mod delrev time COMMENT
SCOFIELD! 26 C3 OF OD 12 10 9 7 C4 OF OF Use neckpickups!
CLEANTUBE 25 C3 OF Fd 15 25 0 3 OF OF OF
Standard Clean Sound CHORUS 25 C3 OF Fd 15 25 0 3 C4 H2/d3 6/37
CHO+Flange 25 C3 OF Fd 15 25 0 3 F7 H2 3 ChorusFlanger Series...
RotaryJaz 25 C3 OF Fd 16 28 10 9 C9 H6 10 Use Neckpickup Tone Off
ACOUSTIK! 30 OF OF Ac 30 16 0 7 OF H2 6 5 or 4 position pickup
SurfCntry 25 C3 Of Fd 15 25 0 5 t5 E4 28 Brige pickup!
POLICE 25 C3 OF Fd 15 25 0 3 C3 d8 37 Everybreath/message
Marshall 25 C3 OF Ms 18 28 -3 9 OF OF OF ROCK & ROLL!
Light 25 C3 OF Ms 3 28 0 6 OF OF OF Rock Rhthyms!
Rectifier 25 OF OF Mt 23 31 0 9 OF r3 6 Modern Heavy Rock!
M.Zone 25 C3 OF dt 23 25 0 9 OF OF OF Metalzone? chug! hehe..
Slash 25 C3 OF Ms 20 25 -3 9 C1 OF/d3 OF/37 Great for lickswith delay
SANATANA 25 c3 of Bg 18 28 10 9 OF H2 3 Carlos'Boogie! Use humbuckers!

You can plug this in straight out of the box and get some good sounds out of it within minutes. Editing patches is childsplay, just twiddle the knob to desired parameter, adjust value keys, save patch, done. The manual is ok, although it does make it sound more complicated than it actually is.

Cort G250 (single coils) thru Marshall MG250 amp. The pedal is not noisy, and doesn't colour or suck too much tone from the guitar. Some of the effects aren't that great, although you will quickly work out which ones are worth keeping, and which ones to write over. The majority of the presets can be discounted, and with tweaking, there are several good tones that can be had out of this. A lot of the effects sound very similar, some are totally useless, others just don't appeal to me, are far too digital sounding (maybe a good thing for all you industrial fans out there)
That aside, this does have some excellent features, and once you're familiar with it, you can dial in some excellent tones. The noise gate is quite good and does limit the hum from my pups, the compressor is also quite good. In total there are 4 effects that I have dialed in that are great-you can find a good acoustic simulator, a decent overdrive, and a great boosted lead sound, but my favourite so far is a real raunchy, jangly bluesy sound, you can nail some real classic tones if you just spend some time messing about with it.

I could depend on this, it has a fairly heavy looking metal casing (in a pretty nice purple colour) and it's great for me, as I mostly use it to dial in a blues sound for my rhythm playing and leave it there-be warned that there is a noticeable delay between stomping the pedal and the patch being activated, so for switching between tones, this is possibly a problem in live playing.

Overall, this is a good pedal for the money, and given the time, you can dial in some great tones, and it is a great value little package-just be aware that this isn't a guitar multi effects board-you do get what you pay for. I would never want to lose this, as it has created the ultimate tone for my playing, and my band has crafted a new kind of sound around what this pedal has done to my guitar. I just bought this cause it was on super special offer, and did everything I wanted at the time (compression, noise gate, chromatic tuner, various effects, amp simulation) for a fraction of the price I could have bought individual stompboxes. The sturdy metal casing is a great addition too, making this a very reliable little box.

Bought it, unboxed it, plugged it in and was editing my own patches within moments. I usually don't read manuals (I hear it's a "guy" thing) but decided to have a read through the english version of the vast amount of volumes it comes with, just to get aquainted with my new little purple friend. Editing is extremely simple and sounds can be dialed in and saved easily. Clever thinking. As for all those who complain the parameters are too few, I can only say, if you need more room to colour your sound you need to get real! Play the guitar- don't try and be an orchestra. Agreed, the delay times could be a little longer but hey, you can't buy a decent delay pedal for the same price as this box of tricks. Nuff said!

I run a customised strat copy with Reflex Red active pickups into a lovely old H&H Musician Amp and Peavey 2x12 speaker cab. The amp on its own has a great warm tone which I try to keep as intact as possible. I went through the phase of flooding my sound with effects and now have come out the other side looking for a great tone with a little colour to make it jump out a bit. The GFX1 does a great job without loss of natural guitar/amp tone and allows me more flexability than I'll ever need. Its only downfall is that the four footswitches cannot be assigned to a particular effect and bypass the "patch" it is assigned to. My previous effects unit was the Boss GT5 which contained a crazy amount of options but allowed the user to switch to Manual mode and turn effects on or off individually with the assignes footswitch. Just a little complaint cause I just have to set my sounds out better to suit live situations.

Well, I have only had it for a month or so and I treat my gear carefully. The build quality surpasses its pricetag- you just don't expect something so affordable to be so well constructed. But it is. I would feel comfortable gigging without a backup unless I was playing in an arena setting (unlikely). But as a guitarist, there are so many links in the chain that could fail, we should all have three rigs!! (again, unlikely). I expect the Zoom would be the last link in my chain to go- and with the backup batteries, you can't go wrong.

No idea. Hope I never need to find out.

Anything from Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dire Straits, Mettalica and other styles I don't think I'll mention. I have been playing for 22 years and have owned mainly Boss gear till now. I started with a collection of pedals, sold them all to buy an ME 5 which was stolen and replaced with the GT 5 which was then sold due to poverty (yeah I hear ya brother!). I can't believe so much money was spent on these pedals that, truth be told, the Zoom GFX1 can replicate just as well. I know players get precious about their gear- especially when they have forked out their hard earned bucks for it- but great tone is much more than how many parameters you have on a particular effect. Just shut up and play yer guitar! I would definately replace it if it were stolen, lost or killed and I would have a hard time replacing it with a different make of unit- I don't know if it can be topped for value for money (unless they threw in a power supply). I am a convert.

Easiest pedal i have bought. i have been playing for around 10 years and feel annoyed at the amount of money i have spent buying different pedals and exressions. Manual is easy to understand and the patches are easy. Just turn the dial to whatever effect and use the product keys to change it.

I use an American Fender Strat and a peavey 5150. cant get a better sound. The presets are a bit over the top so i spent about 20 mins getting my favourite effects perfect.

Like a tank. it has fallen out the boot of my car once (dont ask how) at about 40 miles an hour and there was hardly even a scratch. Totally dependable i would use at any time in a gig without a backup.

I havent had to deal with them Though they are meant to be a bit dodgy.

This pedal is great for mild rock to hard and a bit of blues and solo plus the acoustic is great.if it got stolen or lost (i hope not) i would definetely buy another one without a doubt. Its small enought to fit into a guitar case.

Very easy to use once you get used to it. Knob based interface is simple and intuitive. Its fairly easy to create patches once you learn what each symbol on the display stands for. The four footswtich layout is the smartest thing I've ever seen in a budget multi-effects unit. As for getting a good sound, I don't know if it could ever be "easy"...

I wanted to like this thing, I really did. Its got an amazing layout that other multi effects producers should consider (Digitech!). However, I was never satisfied with its sound. Granted,I was running it in front of an amp, the Kustom Dual 35 DFX. It sounded horrible here. Very stale and lifeless. The only usable "Drive" settings for me were OD (if turned way up) and MS Stack. The rest sounded kinda, well, "farty." The modulations were preset, so it was very difficult to dial in anything good. They either cover up your sound or are impossible to hear. The reverb and delay were too limited (you could only have one or the other!).

I'll admit I never tried this through my PC monitors, it may have sounded much better, but that wasn't the application I need it for. I needed something to go in front of my amp. Because I didn't give it a fair run, it gets a 5.

Amazingly constructed. Metal and heavy guage plastic. If you are like me and buying a GFX 1, you probably can't afford a backup...

I've been playing simple rock music about a year and this thing just couldn't cut it. The drive sounds were nowhere near versatile enough to deliver what I was looking for. I guess the problem overall with the GFX 1 is this: its either nothing or everything on all options.

As I said before, I ran it through a Kustom Dual 35 DFX amp playing a Washburn X40 (H/S/H).

If you'll notice, this review was written in past tense because the GFX 1 went back to Music123 after a week. I was looking for something to replace my awkward RP200 and thought this would do it. The RP200 sounded much warmer and had that "inbetween ability" on its settings. They are both gone now, and I picked up some Dano effects and I'm much happier with those (my brain has infinite patches).

If you are looking at budget effects as a beginner like I was, I suggest you go cheap and get something like a Digitech RP50 or ZOOM 505II, whichever you like better. Use that to determine if you need all of the effects of a multi, or if you only need a few stompboxes. Then you will have more money to use for your PODxt Live or your stompbox regimen.

it's easy, few knobs and it can be easily understood with the help of the manual.

Bad thing about this, when you switch patches, there is a pause inbetween, it is really disturbing if you are going on live.

distortion aint bad esp for the metal drive. kick ass!
one thing i didnt like is the EQ. you don't have complete control over that, whereas only the "mode" to choose from which is preset already.

i use this basically as a effects pedal. like delay, chorus, flanger and so on. Delay are great!
i'm running a Epi SG(duncan distortion) > crybaby > boss MT2 > GFX-1 > peavey studio pro 112
all i can say with that price, you get everything you need from a basic multi effects. Sounds are great considering the price you paid for it.
If you are very particular about tone/sound, then you can jolly well forget about this pedal.

you wont see this little monster break down provided you take good care of him =)
what can you expect from a full metal case built monster?
If you dont go crazy and smash this thing around, it is built to last physically.
As for electronics, i only had this pedal for 1 week, so no comments about it

hvent dealt with them before

great pedal for beginners or just to serve as a tunner and misc effects, playing for fun where you wouldnt want to burn a hole in your pocket just to purchase all the fancyful analog pedals

This is so simple to use, I would advise not trying the presets though, build your own adn you'll be much happier. You'll find you use a lot less gain that the factory settings but get a much better sound.

I didn't need the manual, at all it's so obvious how to program up.

Good sound quality, bought as a backup to pedalboard but I liked it so much I've bought another as they are now discounted as the new Zoom G2 unit will be arriving in the UK soon (for a very competitive price too I hear). As I said before, build your own patches - I built two lots of four that can get me out of trouble for most things, one for Teles/Strats and one set optimised for my Gibson guitars. What makes this unit great is that it has all the stuff you actually USE, not loads of other unwanted crap that are there just to fill up the patch lists (both Boss and Zoom are guilty of ths with the larger floor units). Gave it a 9 as sample rate is 31.25Khz, still pretty good though.

Totally dependable, runs on 4xAA batteries or mains adapter - I've always run on batteries with no problems. Metal jacks screwed to the steel case (robably soldered to PCB but this helps) aid reliability. This is more reliable than the GFX5 etc as I've know the volume ots at the back of them to cause noise/cutout problems. I've got mine in an old small laptop case to protect it - a perfect fit.

No tried them yet but new price point is so low I'd have a go at repair myself first then possibly scrap.

I love this unit, it's just so easy to use, compact, very robust and runs on commonly available batteries. It's the first thing I plug into and am now considering selling other stuff through lack of use.

The only extra I'd have liked would have been a CD in jack to take on business trips, I'd rather take this that my Behringer V-Amp.

Zoom's product strategy is a bit odd at times, they have introduced the simplest and cheapest unit last with easy access to four sounds yet more expensive units have loads of presets but only ready acces to three sounds (GFX3), instead offering a poor expression padal - you have to go for the GFX5 upwards to get the bank up/down foot switches.

Easy to use except for the EQ, which is useless and difficult to understand. Editing patches is easy, any idiot can do it. Manual is tiny, you need a magnifying glass to read it. Mine is the red one.
The pitch shifter will allow you to go an octive down, or up, or use all three parts at once, or any two, which is way cool. The EQ drives me crazy, there is no way to edit out the bass in the chorus, which is the reason I bought it in the first place, now I must return it. Otherwise, even a deaf retard could use it.

I use this with a Fender Squier with one pickup (bridge) through a Crate 15 watt amp with a 6 inch speaker. It is very noisy - noise gate doesn't help much. I can't hear the chorus at all, just a slow warbly deep annoying drone. The distortions sound pretty crappy, and I have a good amp so I know it must be Zoom's fault. My facvorite artist is Kiki Dee and this does not even come close to that sound.

I think it would last it is made of steel.

I play mostly Kiki Dee music, but also some kukamonga stuff, as well as dried up fish. I can't get any of those sounds on this pedal.