Zoom GFX-3

This is my first (and only) pedal.

I had zero experience prior to this one, so it was a little daunting ... what with all four dials and three stomp pedals and one modulation pedal and close to ten buttons.

Turns out it's fairly simple!

Easy enough to select and edit patches (half can be edited and the other half are read only).

I got the manual online, which was good.

I find it has a good range of sounds and effects available.

I play a Peavey Patriot (awesome guitar, by the way ... if you can ever get your hands on an older '80's Peavey with the pickup configuration you desire, I seriously doubt you will be disappointed) ... but I digest ... SO:

A Peavey Patriot > the GFX-3 > a Washburn BD25R (on clean, with reverb set at zero)

It's a little hissy when you put any overdrive into the mix - not bad, and not noticeable when you are actually playing the guitar.

The effects are adjustable with the volume dial, so you can kinda fine tune them to whatever you want if it's not quite right for you "out-of-the-box".

I think you can get about any sound you want out of this (chorus, flange, reverse, echo, wah, delay, overdrive, clean, acoustic simulation). The only weakness I can think of is the acoustic simulation is nothing special.

Yep and yep.

Easy to use, metal case, appears to be well built and ZOOM is well known for building good pedals.

It's electronic, so it could crap out today for all I know, but appears to be solid.

Indirectly dealt with them in that their website has audio demos of their (current) product line (the GFX-3 is apparently discontinued here in Canada).

I was able to download the manual from their site. So far, so good, although I have not dealt with "them" directly.

I play classic rock and folk mostly. It's what I was looking for for the "rock" part.

I have been playing for two years, and I own a 1980's Peavey Patriot (I love it), a 1977 Yamaha FG-160 (killer acoustic) and a Yamaha C-40 beginner classical guitar (surprisingly good guitar).

I own a Washburn BD25R amp, and now this GFX-3 pedal.

I like that it adds fun to playing music, it's easy to use, and it can be run by adapter or by inexpensive AA batteries instead of expensive 9 v batteries.

There are two pieces of equipment that I admit that I never compared and bought based on reputation - hoping for the best:

Washburn BD25R amp, which turned out to be a very good personal amp, and,

ZOOM GFX-3 guitar effects pedal, which has not been a disappointment either.

I like simple, functional, well rated products that are either undervalued or, in this case, just a lucky deal ($60 for the pedal, adapter, and patch cord).

It's pretty easy to figure out. Every sound/effect that is contained in this unit is adjustable. Editing patches is a breeze: Edit Button> Bank> Store. That's it. The manual is available online, but I had this thing pretty much figured out before it was done printing.

70's rock, 80's metal, and Tool sounds are easily attainable with this unit and my little Crate amp. The clean settings are nice and fat too. I don't know if the amp mods sound like what they are supposed to copy, but they all have good qualities and give you plenty to work with. Did I mention that every effect is adjustable? You can also pick what you want the effect pedal to do on each patch, i.e. volume, rev/dly, mod, or drive. The range on the pedal seems a little short, but that's just my personal preference. You can get a poor man's version of any sound you want with a little tweaking. If you want the sound of a $10,000 rack system, go and buy a $10,000 rack system. Are you in a cover band working clubs? Are you an apartment rocker? If so, this unit will do just fine.

This thing is solid. The housing is metal and has taken some abuse. The power jack needs to be babied though. As far as a backup is concerned...don't do anything without one. Backup guitar, backup effects, backup girlfriend, backup gun,...backup everything and you can't go wrong.

When I bought this thing off of eBay it was missing the value knob. I found the website, http://www.samsontech.com/products/brandpage.cfm?brandID=4, and got a phone number. After talking to a real American person, the part was in the mail. They didn't even charge me for it. This level of customer service is all but nonexistent in this day of crappy service and outsourcing. Zoom has at least one loyal customer here.

I would track down another one if it was stolen. The sounds that you get for the price are amazing. I've been able to get about 50 different sounds out of this thing and I'm still tweaking. Considering that I would only get one stomp box for the price I paid, I think I did okay.

Once you play with it a bit, it's easy to figure out. Each button does a number of things, which is the most difficult thing to get down, but everything is labeled. This was my first pedal so it took a bit of time to learn how all the different effects work. Easy to get good sounds out of it though with just messing around. The manual is a big help with things as well. Making a storing patches is quick and simple as well.

Most of the effects are good and easily adjustable. The Mesa patch doesnt sound that great to me. The Marshall and Overdrive models sound best to me. Both can get a good window-rattling chug. The Metal is ok and the Fender sounds good but makes my amp put out some horrible buzzing noise unless it use a very soft pick attack. There is no noise and the bypass doesnt suck much tone. The delay and flanger are fun and easy to work. I've used this amp through a cheap Ibanez strat and an 80's BC Rich Warlock into a Roland Jazz Chorus.

It's made of steel and it's solid state. The AC plug is the only area susseptable to damage and if you use the cord holder thing on back that should eliminate that problem.

The website has all you can need for info. I doubt this thing will ever break.

I play hard rock and some metal and with the right tweaking this can do any kind of music you'd want. Cleans or chugging rhythms are all easily obtained. I chose this pedal to introduce myself to all the types of effects. The only other pedal I've had is a Boss MT-2, and I didnt like that near as much as the Zoom. The pedal is worth it's price for the EQ and delay/reverb alone. The built in tuner is quick and accurate too. I think it was a great bargain used.

Initially I bought this as a backup for stompboxes(at $150 USD you cant go wrong) and was so impressed that I now use the stompboxes and the built in amp FX as backups !

Zoom says Easy to tweak and it really is ! A small amount of time with the pedal and the manual and patches can be set up in conjunction with the Wah-Rocker footpedal(as "on-off" for effect or gain boost)That,and with a little good old fashioned bending down while playing to push button FX on-off Or even changing to a different Modulation or Reverb/Delay effect on the fly which seem to have individual recall even if not saved as such in the patch when recalled(remember how we all used to have to do that when playing single stompbox effects:) I think its possible to play 3 sets of cover tunes without really ever leaving the first bank of 3 effects patches :)

Also; if tuner/bypass is engaged in any bank(simply by pressing the selected patch footswitch Once and leaving it)the Tuner can be recalled by simply returning to the same bank. I use the last factory bank which I then "back-up" to from my 1st user bank patches and ...

I own a Roland Cube 30 and this amp is known for its amp simulations and frankly I Think the GFX3's amp sims are equally satisfying and slightly more more versatile in that you can change cabinet simulations(nice for recording)Just have to tweak the EQ and Volume accordingly; Sweet :) Nice Compressor too(which I think is modeled after the DynaComp?)

The ZNR noise reduction works well and for those who record on their PC's and get a lotta noise, try turning your back on the PC and Many "noisy" pedals,according to many, Clean right up !

The delay section is awesome as there is a reverse delay as well as mono and stereo delays and you could pay this much Just for a dedicated delay stompbox to do what the Reverb/Delay section alone does.Tap-Tempo settings without the "tapping" is a Plus here as well.

Scope out the manual which is easily obtained from Zoom at their website and you will be surprised how much More the GFX3 does in comparison to the GFX1 and I think the GFX5 was out Before the GFX1 and GFX3,so maybe some improvements over the GFX5 here as well ?

A 9 in sound quality for a multi fx in this price range(or even slightly higher $) as a "10" in this category would have to be in the "ear" of the beholder.

Rock-solid, nothing iffy or plastic here and I never abuse Any pedal anyway so should last a long time.The GFX3 also powers up nicely with the One-Spot adapter which I already had for other FX, so ...Am giving a 9 because I havent owned it as long as some of my MXR FX and such to know if it will hold up for another 10 or 20 years !

Have never had to deal with them and expect(hope) not to have to.

Pretty sweet, and overall Easily tweakable and Versatile multi-fx unit. I Really felt compelled to give the GFX3 a good word so they will hopefully sell a lot of these and want to keep them in production so If I ever want/need to get another one down the road they'll still be in production :)So. Yes,if stolen or lost I'd get another in a heartbeat !

Not too bad to edit. There are a lot of different settings that are fully tweakable. There are preset patches and user patches - the user patches are easy enough to edit. There is no way to download patches or any external communications.

The GFX-3 does not sound as good as the GFX-1. I don't understand how one unit can sound so good with realistic patches and the GFX-3 sounds fake with a lot of useless patches. The GFX-3 has too many chorus/flange patches and really takes some tweaking to get a good Mesa sound. The GFX-1 has a great patch for metal - B1. I found the GFX-3 to be a lot more like a scaled down GFX-8 which also has a bunch of dated patches. The expression pedal lacks linear sweep. Instead there is a place in the sweep where it is more like an on/off.

The built-in noise reduction is not as effective as the ones on the GFX-1 or GFX-8. Also, the unit is a bit more sensitive to ac adapters when used on a pedalboard with other effects.

Only a guess - sturdy metal frame with metal inputs. Looks like it will hold up.

Untested

I play a variety of music but mostly metal. I don't like to tweak units like thes to find the right sound but would rather select a preset patch. The GFX-3 lacks good patches for metal, although there is a decent Marshall 900 patch. There is a lot of tweaks you can do with the GFX-3 but none can be uploaded or downloaded.