Zoom GFX-4

It's very easy to get good sounds out of this thing. Once you are through the manual, it's like stealing candy from children.

I really like the three-knob-per-pedal, which gives you a feeling of handling several stomp boxes.

I use the Gfx4 in front of a Fender FM212 R with 100 watts and a Avora GT 25, both solid state. I play a Cheri Les Paul with DiMarzios, Fender US Telecaster, Stagg Flying V with Shadow P90'S and a Harley Benton HBL500K Les Paul copy. I use a Tubescreamer 808 and a Hellbabe Wha in front of the GFX. First of all, the Drive section is great. It's perfectly for my needs and offers a wide range of sounds, between creamy blues and evil metal. I use mostly delay effects and different OD and distortions and of course the ampsim, which makes my solid state amps sound more tube like.

The expressions pedal is kind of useless for me, the range is too samll to modulate the effects in a senseful way. I use it as Volume Pedal to mute my guitars.

The first thing that borke was the Power supply cable. I replaced it and after 4 years of use the onboard power connector broke and I repaired it. It never let me down on gigs (which are about 60)

Never dealt with them

I play a strange kind of progressive stoner rock and I play guitar for about 8 years now. I have the Gfx4 for about 5 years now. I am looking for a second device as a backup on ebay at the moment. I wish it had a tap speed function for the delays...

It's pretty well laid out and designed. You will need the manual to get your head around how it's arranged, but once you have it's very flexible and can be easily tweaked. The three adjustment knobs for each section of the pedal make it easy to, say, adjust the delay time halfway through a song.

One very irritating problem is the slight pause when changing patches. When you playing you have to get used to hitting the pedal half a second before you need it to kick in. I guess this should be expected given the price of the unit.

The tuner is great, and is far more responsive than the standard Boss tuner pedal that everyone uses.

The pre-programmed sounds are very over the top and mostly horrible, but it's easy to strip them back to basics and create nice, subtle effects.

Generally the sounds are good but they are rather noisy, and sometimes rather synthentic sounding. The better your amp is, the more you'll notice the pedal's limitations. The distortions are probably the most impressive, I managed to get a setting that was almost indistinguishable to the crunch channel on my Marshall valve amp. I'd reommmend you use the compression on the unit to get the most out of the distortions. Phasers, delays, wah etc are all pretty reasonable. They're not as good as individual predals, but perfectly usable.

The amp sims are another very useful feature that means you can use the pedal for direct recording into a PC or whatever. They take a little tweaking, but can be made to sound pretty good.

My first one went funny and some of the buttons stopped working. Luckily, it was just before the warranty expired, and was replaced. Generally, it seems pretty solid, and has survived lots of gigging, although the PSU wire is far too flimsy and breaks easily.

I took my first one back to the shop where I bought it. They sent it back and gave me a replacement. Never dealt with Zoom themselves.

Overall, this pedal will suit a beginner fine, or someone who's starting to play gigs. It gives you a very broad palette to work from while you find out what effects you like and use the most. More experienced (read: fussy!!) guitarists will probably not be too impressed. I don't really know how it compares to other multieffects, as I've not used many.

I used mine quite happily for about three or four years, including tons of gigs. I've now changed it for individual stomp boxes, which do sound a lot better. I miss some of the effects the Zoom has though such as pitch bending with the expression pedal, and I might start using it alongside my stomp boxes.

As it's my 3-rd processor from Zoom Co. I know their ideas so for me it's very ease however while setting some patches I had to chech manual.

My first opinion after one week "hard working" on it was : it's not good... but...
After 16 years playing giutar today I'm playing in three bands : gothic, hard metal and clear pop so I'm using quite diffrent settings. Like it was mentioned som are noisy (flanger) but not so bad you would be dissapointed.
Next thing which is very important for me (keeping on mind my 3 bands) : I need good Metal sounds, dark Metal and clear with chours, delicate tremolo, delay, reverb. I spent many hours to get my sounds but I did it!!!! And I have very critical point of view on any Metal effects, distortion, overdrive (as my favourite kind of music is metal)
You will have to make some experiments with distortion with or without EQ but with equalization from Pitch , Flang or Tremolo as EQ..believe me : it will take time but you will find what oyu want. Chorus :great, flange : could be better, Pedal Pitch : in Zoom 8080 was better (without any additional effects of course). So, I really happy for this unit. I heard Boss GT, Digitech, and I decided to Zoom again- Was thinking about GFX 8 but there is no volume knob ... the rest it doesen't matter for me.

One suggestion for ZOOM Corp - power supply : do something as it's really crap.... I changed after consultation with one of Polish electronic corporation ( they advised what should I use). Body is quite solid, after few years all pedals works fine, no complains. Expr. pedal is Ok but coudl be little biger : I not a brownie and my feet are litle bigger that this pedal... :/

no need for now, but they don't response for my emails

After spending many hours with plenty of effects thie one gives me what I want. I don't have to go with God know how much quantity of single effects playing several music styles. Sometimes I wish the wah would be better but it's not bad and nothing special (exluding coolwah :))) )
And one question : why there is still no option to mix for ex. pitch with tremolo or with chorus ...??

Once I read the manual and understood the editing and group/bank arrangement, I think it is fairly easy. The manual is well written and I had working patches quickly.

Not to detract from the FX side, I think the absolute BEST feature is the true bypass feature when selecting the active patch. I wish more FX units had this feature. this allows you to make sure the levels are correct and you know what the amp is doing befo eadding any effets.

OD: better than most Boss/Digitech to my ears (almost a stomp)
Dist: Not bad, beter o the "over the top" dist
Delay: not bad, not able to get fine adjustments on delay time (close)
Mod-Effects: Yeah, the Flanger is noisy, but overall the mods are good.
Reverb: Not a Lexicon, a lot less $ and good variety of verbs.

I use this with a Soldano Decatone and an Allen Tonesavor.

Looks to be well built and I actually bought this for a backup to my high end rig. It is built better than a lot of the cheesy ones ou there. I've always though the Boss GT-5,6,8 had the most robust construction, but this isn't bad.

I bought this used, but is seems to have held up well and looks like new.

Don't know. One plus is that the manual is available from the Zoom website.

If you are a purist and like the true bypass capability, this is one of the few multieffects units that does that. For the price I think this unit absolutely rocks!

Quite easy to use if you regard the manual, which is intelligibly written. Due to its TWO modes (usual multi-effect bank-switching AND stomp-box-like operation), you've got to use your head a bit to get its versatile opportunities. There's need for a bank-shift pedal, so that you would not have to bend down though...

Most of the sounds are great and if not abused relatively noiseless. But, hey folks!I simply can't understand why you folks adore the distortion of this thing. You will need hours of adjustment to get your sound right (that cannot be blamed upon any cheap gear, which I have not!)!
Compressor: fine
OD: it depends...
Dist: Oh, shit!
Delay: great
Mod-Effects: very miscellaneous!I did not expect that from a low-budget piece of gear!
Reverb: ok for most of my purposes

It works! I did gig with it under any circumstances and it never let me down. Looks quite fragile though. Crappy AC-Adaptor. Pedals could be bigger and more distant from each other.

Never dealt with them...

It does its job quite well. If you want this for distortion, go and buy another one or at least test it whether it fits your sound-visions. Great to try out different types of effects and to find your sound. Mind the price!

Switching between patches within a bank if straighforward. Easy to see display with ability to customize patch name. Editing patches is easy. The manual is comprehensive and logical.

I use a variety of guitars including a Strat with Duncan pickups, Gibson V, Aria TS-600,Dillions with Humbuckers and P90s. Also used for Bass compression. The ZNR (zero noise reduction) feature keeps the backround hum at very low levels. Very comprehensive set of distortions. Best suited for Rock and Metal. The expression pedal is very versitile and can be programmed as a volume, wah or effect change pedal.

Very solid construction with a metal body No problems in the 3 years. Used at weekly band rehearsals and live performances. I've never needed a backup.

I've never needed support from Zoom

I play mainly rock and blues. This pedal is better suited for rock, clean or metal. 8 years playing in bands and 20 years overall.
I play through either a Fender DSP 90, London Reverb or Crate Vintage 20. A very good device for direct mixing into a board. The pedal is well suited to tailor for particular amps as you have 60 patches to customize. I wish there were better choices for amp modeling. Better than the Digitech products as I compared the GFX-4 closely to the RP-300. I have many Zoom and Samson products which have all been a great value.

I give it 9 because the manual isn't that useful at showing how to use the basic stuff. That said anyone who has touched a multi effects unit should have no problems as its fairly easy. You can press the manual button, and the switches acts like 3 stompboxes (drive, modulation, delay/reverb), very similar to the Boss ME-50. Patch mode is fairly straightforward, with 3 patches in each group (toggled by the footswitchs). bank up footswitch goes to the next bank. 60 patches in total. onboard tuner is easy to access by foot, so not bad for live gigs. While no bank down footswitch has been mentioned heaps it isn't too bad, as long as you sort your patches out in a good order. Setting up the expression pedal to custom stuff like tremolo speed is also easy to do. Few other advanced things that need reference from the manual but thats about it.

Sound quality is overall very good. Unlike most multi effects units this has a true bypass (mono out only) that avoids a/d/a conversion, which is good when you use it with a few stompboxes (like myself). Most of the effects are top notch. The entire drive module is well done, with top distortions/od and a decent acoustic sim (needs lots tweakin like any acoustic sim though). The fact the distortions are actualy analog means they sound much better than digital distortions eg. Boss Gt-3, Gt-6. The envelope and auto swell (sounds like Boss sg-1) are also good. Compressors are decent once tweaked. The modulation stuff is mostly excellent. The only bad ones are the pitch shifter / pedal pitch, which like most multi effects is unable to do octave up with out artifacts. Got some decents sounds for 5ths (for RATM - Know your enemy solo), since you can hide the artifacts behind dry signal but wet only (as in whammy sounds) is not too great (but its like that on just about every multi effects around). The choruses are top notch, especially stereo chorus. The Flanger is also good, is a little noisy but most flangers are by nature. Phaser is one of the best i have heard, tremolo is good. I also like the step effect, makes for some cool weird sounds. The Wah is good, but for some reason doesn't work that great with distortion, I got some goods sounds with tweaking though, and also with use of amp overdrive. The Delay module is probably the highlight of the unit with some really good effects here. The reverbs are very convincing, much better than reverbs ive seen in other multieffects units. Echo is also good, and has hold function too, which is a bonus. Reverse is very cool, and allows for wet signal only, making it better than the Boss DD-5 and Digitech X series Digidelay which can't get rid of all dry signal in stock. Obviously with dry signal, the sound of a guitar playing backwards (the whole point of reverse) doesn't come through.

This unit is also one of the quitest multi effects around, with a built in noise surpressor / gate (ZNR), and also has an amp/cabinet simulator for recording direct. Amp sim is decent, of course it can't replace marshall stack but its there.

Tuff plastic and metal. This aint gonna brake easily, the footswitchs are just as sturdy as other units like Boss Gt-6, Digitech GNX. Would gig without backup.

never dealt with them

Top buy, a bargain at under $200. This is better than a boss gt-6 in many respects (better sound quality in many areas) and less than 1/2 the price.

easy to use axcept for the banks...no 'down' switch!
anybody read the manual?...it's a college text book...make it simple..

i'm using esp kh2 and other shit...i'm a metallica fan kinda guy..the wah sound is too mild...i cant get it loud and extreme like kirk hammett sound. help me..anybody?
changing modes(between patches) really effect the sound..u have to tap on the paddle a little bit and toe it down to get the original sound back.

i have to add few more gadgets like a crybaby wah(i use gfx4 pedal for volume), boss ds2 and other rack shit.

since that i play blues, rock and heavy metal...it need to be added few more shit..
i've been playing guitar since 1989...oh yes..i have line 6 pod 2..it's fucking hard to use on stage..need a rack of footswitches! yet..too small..(my advice..dont buy this thing!)
if my gfx4 were stolen..i'll buy something else..

It is pretty easy to get a good sound out of this unit since it looks like the juxtaposition of 3 stompboxes. Editing patches is just as easy. It is impossible to bank down the patches though, ant that is a major annoyance when playing live. The manual is well done overall.

I play with a Washburn Bettencourt model guitar (the cheapest one) and my amp is a Peavey Bandit Transtube II. The unit is not significantly noisy unless I am using extreme levels of distortion Then the noise reductor does its job. I bought this unit mainly for the metal distortion it gives. It is dynamic and sharp after you tweak the equalizer. Reminds me of the Boss Metal zone tone.
The effects are all pretty good quatlity ones with enough parameters to satisfy most guitar players who want a good sound quickly. You will get good Iron Maiden distortions with it. The fuzz sound is good too, along with some other distortions. Some are bad though, but all in all you can find what you want.
The clean sounds are not so good, as they lack tone. It takes a lot of tweaking to get a half decent tone for clean sounds.
The Wah is correct, nothing that can compare to a Cry baby but it's okay to use it once in a while. If you are a Wah freak, buy one separately.
Chorus is good, especially the stereo one, phaser and flanger are pretty good, and the echo/ reverb section is also satisfying and provides all that a guitar player needs.

That's where the major complaints go. I have had this pedal for 2 years and a half and last year I began to have problems with it. the plastic switches just aren't sturdy enough. I have not been tough on it though, but they are stuck and randomly interact with the settings.

I play mainly rock, from funk to metal, with a special emphasis on metal. this pedal is good for it. I have been playing for something like 11 years. If the gfx4 was stolen I would not buy it again even though it is not a bad unit at all. Better than some more expensive units. But I just wish it was sturdier. I am planning on buying a used Boss gt3 from a friend for really cheap. The distortion of the GFX4 is better so I will mainly use the gt3 for the very good modulation effects it gives pluggin it in though my amp's effects loop.

well i just got this thing and i think most of the effects are really easy 2 except maybe for adjusting the expression pedal which isnt explained well in the manual other than that i edited 3 effects in the second day i bought it and they sound outa this world

i kinda have small equipment (esp explorer and a small 30watt amp)and the gfx4 seems to work perfect with them ...i was surprised how quiet that thing is i edited a distortion and created a monster but when not playing its reallll quiet even without noise reduction..

since this is my first multi-effect i surely will go on a gig with bec i went on a gig with boss pedal(ds-2)and it sounded not so bad but this baby i would definatly take to a gig without backup

never tried them hopefully never will:)

i mostly play power,thrash and this effect has it all except for the wah i just cant get out of it the wah used by metallica in their solos ive been playing for almost 2 years but the rest is gr8 i compared it with the me-50 boss and i didnt find a dist i liked in the me-50 so i choose the gfx4.

After the first day I purchased it, i stayed up until wee hours trying to figure it out how to work this thing. I must say that in manual mode it is a piece of cake since it works just like any normal stomp box. In program mode things kinda get awfully complicated at first,but after two days it seems that program mode is much better to use than manual mode. Editing patches is more user friendly than i had expected. THe manual is informative, clear and easy to understand. You will have to study the manual carefully and be brave to try new things out if you want to get the best out of this product.

I use an Aria Pro II gt series electric guitar and a pair of mesa boogie amps and cabinets. The first thing I noticed was that the factory presents sounded so crappy I regreted buying it. It either sounded too noisy or too weak or too digital or should i say very fake. It took me a week to thoroughly set all the presents all over again to bring out the hidden quality of the product. To add even more realism and life to the sound, the VAMS technology really brings out the character of the sound, even if it is no match to the real legendary fender or marshall amps(c'mon, how much are you paying?!). Not all effects mix with each other. Some sound good alone but sound crap when mixed and vice versa. Most of the present drive effects are okay and the modulation effects sound really good. The delay effects are creditable but you will have to spend time to set it to your liking. All i can say is wether the effect sounds good depends on the user's settings.

On my opinion this unit is surely dependable if compare to it's other units such as gfx 8 and 707. My friend bought a gfx 8 last month and one of the footswithes snapped and ran out of place. I found that the footswitches on the gfx 4 are more stable and durable than gfx 8. The expression pedal is also very sturdy. The only draw back of this unit is it doesn't have a bank down switch which is not very stage friendly during gigs. The circuits seemed to be very reliable and I don't think I need a back up at the moment.

I don't think I need customer support at the moment.

This is the first multi effects unit I have ever bought and I must admit I am very happy with it. I get more that I expected and could possibly ask for compare with the price I paid for it. Those who are seeking to buy their first multi effects processor can give this unit a try.

LOOKING AT IT, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FIGURE IT OUT , BUT IT MAY TAKE TIME, PLEASE SEE THE MANUAL, IT IS REALLY HELPFUL, EDITING PATCVHES IT ALSO VERY EASY, I THINK IT IT MUCH BETTER THAN GFX 8, GFZ 8 IS ONLY ABOUT ITS HEAVY PRICE, BUT TRY GFX 4, IT LOOKS BETTER THAN GFZ 8 AND PLUS SOUNDS BETTER THAN IT

ID SAY EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS THING IS REALLY OKEY, EXCEPT THAT THE FLANGER IS A BIT NOISY...... , I GIVE 10 POINTS TO ALL EFFECTS , I GIVE 7 TO FLANGER AND 7 TO DISTORTION WAHWAH, BUT ACCOUSTIC WAHWAH IS BRILLIANT

IT IS MADE UP OF METAL,LOOKS GREAT, LOOKS LIKE A DIFFERENT KING OF INSTRUMENT, IF SHOW TO SOMEONE NEW, THEY WOULD LOOK AT IT FOR MOMENTS AND FINALLY SAY WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

THEY ARE PRETTY GOOD AT CUSTOMER SUPPORT

BEST FX I HAVE EVER SEEN TILL NOW, I THINK GFX 4 IS THE KING AND, GFX 8 SOUNDS EVEN WORSE THAN 505, BELEIVE ME,505 sounds even slightly better than gfx 8, buy gfx 4 it is the best product, with anew flavour

Nothing new once you are in this business. Moreover, BOSS-like layout makes thing even easier. Knobs (not push-buttons) is a great touch!

LP copy with SD's, Rosewood body Tele with '63 no-name (very bright) PU's, Rickenbacker 1997 to SansAmp TRI-A.C. to ZOOM GFX-4 to either Fender DeLuxe 112 Plus or TORQUE TK50. All sound good, depending on the music you are palaying.
DI'd into my Roland VS sounds MUCH better than Roland's COSM FX.
GFX-4 could be noisy when the flanger is set too high. Even ZNR doesn't solve the problem since the noise starts few seconds after you struck the last note. Rather than that it is SILENT.
By playing with the knobs you can obtain the sound of any top-class guitar player who doesn't use ZOOM as a distortion FX. For real distortion look around for something else.
Compression, EQ, chorus, delay are VG!. Flanger good, but noisy! Reverbs are VG (be careful, though!), delay, vibrato - good. Wah - @#$%$!!! Try VOX or CryBaby instead.

Looks pretty sturdy. Don't know yet.

Thanks God, never had to deal with any Company!

I'm in classic rock/blues and everything near to it for about 20 years. For my setup GFX is just fine (switched from DIGITECH PR-7, was using number of BOSS pedals -OD, CS etc. - didn't like 'em). If it were solen or lost - which is unlikely - I'd probably get another one used or look around for something of this type.
I wish it had another footswitch for jumping from BANK to PROG mode. Maybe it would be a good idea to have less banks with more patches in every bank.

Very easy to use,having used zooms before I didnt really have to use the manual at all but even if i hadnt its nice and simple to use.

1-very dissapointing.the most important thing to me is distortion..the d.s are ok if you want a mildly driven sound but if you use a lot...aaargh it just sounds so awful, really fake and fuzzy.Im using this with a jackson and 100 watt custom made valve amp.The rest of the effects are ok.I had a zoom 2100 before which pobably came out at least 2 years ago and the delays and distorions are much better.

I would use it in a gig but only when very sober and being careful as there is no bank down pedal which could prove dificult when thing are heating up.

dunno

I play heavy stuff mostly,ive been playing for at least 6 years.If it were stolen id get something else,Im probably gonna sell it anyway cos im not happy with it.I guess its ok for a lot of other styles but dont use it if you want good distortion-this ruined it for me.Also the tuner is a bit weird,the amp simulators IMO are pretty rubbish,there's no prescence control,and for some reason the compressors just make your whole output really noisy(with distortion)!Im comparing this mainly to a zoom 2100 which as i mentioned is older, and i cant see any advantage the gfx-4 has over it apart from looking nice,and being slightly faster to change settings.obviously the footpedal is not a bad thing.

This is a follow-up on the previous review from a dissatified player. Actually, this unit is easy to use and to program.Very intuitive, much better than a GT6.

This is the point; very important, it has a true bypass, so if you want the clean sound of your amp, once switched off, it's out of the way. The quality is as good as a GT6, though, less expensive. The fact of the matter is that those kind of devices will emphasise the mid frequency; if you already have a mid amp (Boogie as ex) It will tend to sound very piercing , unless you cut the highs and the mids on the patches. I use to have a Traynor, wich was relly bright, and a Caliber 22 Boogie; the GFX-4 was ok but a little too bright and aggressive for me. You have to have the right amp in combination with the right guitar and effects to achieve a good warm sound; the best match I have found is the Fender Deluxe hot-rod (tubes of course); it sounds warm, musical and the patches on the GFX-4 sound much much much better. I tried it with my other amp that I got recently, a digital Yamaha DG80 2x10 , and it sounds good but not as good as in front of a tube amp. Those things are in fact a preamp and most of the time, they are used in front of the amplifier preamp. I tried in the effect loop but did not really like it. In fact if I have a Fender or Yamaha , it is the preamp I want to listen to! The distortions are good, the fuzz sounds very much vintage, good compression and overall, all the bread and butter effects are there(Distortion, fuzz, tremolo, compressor, overdrive, wah,ring modulator, pitch shifer, chorus, flanger. etc.

Have it for a year, very sturdy and I think it will last

No dealing with the cie.

To sum it all up; good sound and contrary to what a previous review said, the Boss GT6 sounds more brittle than a Zoom , more synthetic. I had the chance to A/B a Zoom GFX-4 side by side with a GT6 and the GFX-4 was more realistic and , i'd say, had a denser sound. I don't think the GT6 worth all the money they sell it for. It is a good machine , but in my view, it tends to make everybody sound the same.

I find the GFX4 pretty easy to use. I checked the manual a couple of times, and that was quite enough. The trickiest bit was how to program the expressionpedal.

I use the GFX4 for chorus, delay and reverb. These three types of effects are of high quality, and this unit maintains alot of the original sound. Noise has never been a problem, as long as the noisegate is activated. I can't comment on the other effects, since I have not really used them to any greater extent. For its pricerange the soundquality (at least the effects mentioned earlier) is great. Also, the bypass function works fine, taking the unit clear out of the signalchain.

It's not sturdy, nor is it flimsy and weak. Pretty standard quality for something not made of metal. It has withstood livesituations, and seems OK construction-wise. I would depend on it, but it isn't made for being abused.

The GFX4 has worked fine for me, and hasn't acted funny yet after a year of use. Watch out for the weak power-input, though. The cord might fall out if you aren't careful.

I have not dealt with Zoom, Samson or the distributor for Sweden since there has been no need for it.

I play 80s popmetal and light rock. This style of music, or at least to suit my taste, requires pretty extensive use of effects and this unit has stood the test. I have since moved on to rackmounted effects, but the GFX4 still gets used from time to time. I would, however, not buy it again if it were stolen. When I had just purchased it, I probably would have gotten another if I lost it, but not now.

This unit has two major drawbacks. No MIDI and no footswitch to move down a bank. I can understand why it hasn't got MIDI, since this really isn't a professional piece of equipment, but the lack of the footswitch is pretty strange. This means you can't go from, for example, A2 to A1, but instead has to go thru A3, A4 and A0 to get there. Unless, of course, you want to bend down and use the little bank down-key.

I compared it to just about everything in its pricerange (DigiTech, Boss, Roland) and this came out on top for ease of use, nice design and quality of sound.

The GFX-4 is pretty daunting at first, for a first-time user of a multi-effects unit. The manual is thinner than I'd imagined, but it has everything explained in great detail. As I always find, it's better to dive right in and then look at the manual later - hands on experience is more effective for me, personally.

The unit, as a solid-state multi-effects unit, has a lot of 'knobs and buttons', placed just about everywhere. At first it was a little overwhelming, as I had no previous experience, but it's easy enough to get used to. I realise that there are far more expensive units out there, but this has a lot to keep the user happy, and as such, its ease of use could potentially be impaired somewhat...not so! Once you've had a look about, it becomes pretty apparent. Effects are divided into 'groups', with there being 4 groups (A-D). Each group contains 5 'banks' of preset effects (0-4), with each bank containing 3 separate effects. These effects are adjustable via different knobs that sit above the chosen effect (ie, 3 knobs for each effect). The whole unit can, obviously, be controlled by a simple set of footswitches. There are 4 footswitches - one to control the chosen bank, and 3 to cycle through the 3 available effects per bank. The only disadvantage to this setup is that, to cycle through the available groups, you have to bend down and press one of two small buttons, that serve this purpose. Should be sitting down, two more small buttons also serve to cycle through available banks.

The expression pedal is also very simple to use, and can be customised for a variety of functions - wah, pedal pitch, volume control, etc. Integrating the expression pedal into the effects for anything other than volume has proven a little complicated, but then, I haven't really read the manual as much as I probably should have!

Editing patches is also very simple. You select the parameters you wish to keep, when in 'manual' mode, and press the 'store' button twice. These parameters vary, from the amount of gain you wish to have, to the seconds of delay, to tone, etc. Very customisable, yet very simple to use. When you've saved a patch, it gets stored in one of the 60 available 'user' patches (as opposed to the 60 pre-set patch slots, which cannot be overwritten). If you're currently in 'group A, bank 1, effect 1', the new, modified effect gets saved to the same place, but in user pre-set patches.

The amp and cabinet simulators are very easy to use also, and a brilliant addition - anything from a single tube combo, to classic amp stacks.

The 'drive' option is also easy to use, representing many different sound options. From the thick sounding 'Fuzz' option to the bridgey, twangy, absolutely gorgeous 'metal sound', these can be used in conjunction with up to 8 separate effects at a time. Brilliant.

I'm using the GFX-4 with a Roland Cube-15 amp and an '87 Jap Strat, usually with neck pickup selected, and running the amp on clean channel. I don't have too large a problem with noise from the effects unit, due to the 'ZNR' facility on the unit. This is a peice of noise gate technology, which is customisable to suit the different effects. You simply press the 'ZNR' button once, and, on the LED screen, a number comes up - from 1 to 10. You can quieten the background noise with a setting of 10, with the trade-off coming, apparently, in sound quality of the effect itself - it becomes more 'fuzzy'. I say apparently, because I've had very little, if any, experience of this myself - the sound quality to me remains much the same, with only the guitar volume decreasing slightly. Without a doubt, the 'ZNR' facility is a great help in eliminating background noise.

Effects volume varies with chosen effect, but, if you plan to go on stage, you can simple set the patches you'll be using to have a similar volume, and so this problem is eliminated.

The effects don't sound weak, because they are all fully customisable. If something isn't to your taste, I can pretty much guarantee that, with a bit of tweaking, you'll come to love it! There are endless options for customisation - you really have to see the unit in action to realise just how numerous - and great - these options are.

The sound of my favourite artists are easy to obtain, in that effects like 'Vai' already exist - pre-customised to get a screaming Vai lead, in this example. Satch is also represented, as are a number of other guitarists. More generically, timeless sounds, like the classic British Marshall rock sound are represented, as are numerous other classic sounds.

I can easily depend on this unit, and, apart from the fact I couldn't afford it, I wouldn't use a backup. What do you wanna do with it - jump around on it on stage? You're audience will love you for that...I don't think!

To all those who question its reliability in previous reviews: do you have size 20 feet? Or bad eye-foot co-ordination, giving you poor control over pressure exerted!?

Built from metal and plastic, it won't break in a hurry. But, as with anything, treat it well - if only to preserve the beautiful looks! The expression pedal itself is reassuringly solid, as are the footswitches - they ain't gonna drop off!

I play a lot of different styles of music, but mostly Blues. I find that one of the effects in particular approximates the clean channel on my amp, but with a warmer sound, which I love. However, true to Zoom form, this unit is built for overdrive - and it does that extremely well! As such, it's excellent for rock!

I've been playing for around a year now, and I own a Westfield semi-accoustic, a generic strat copy (my starter guitar, to which I'm ever grateful) and the aforementioned '87 Jap Strat. I've only played the latter through the effects unit so far, though, but I don't foresee any huge differences in performance, with regards to type of guitar and amp combination used.

If I lost it, I'd consider myself careless, and if it were stolen, I'd be very angry. I'd get another one as soon as the insurance money came through...! 'Nuff said!?

I love the amp and cabinet simulators - a brilliant addition - and the sheer customisation opportunities the unit presents. Excellent for stage use, I can imagine - and soon it hopefully will be used on stage. Looks great, lots of lights! :) In addition, the 'drive' options, and sturdy expression pedal are great.

I compared it to a Zoom 5 series, but decided to go for this, for 40 quid extra, just because I could. Cleared out my piggy bank, but it was worth it!

I'd like to have had a metronome built in - just anything to help keep time. But this doesn't really detract in any way from the all-round greatness of the unit.

It definately helps me make music. Sure, there are sometimes when I just take it out, if I want a general clean sound, or if I want to make use of the built-in Boss effects on the Cube-15. But it helps to make anything sound good, really! It's great for getting different sounds out of the guitar.

Its pretty simple

AWFUL, the unit is so damn noisy its unbelievable. All the distortions are rubbish they all sound crap, you cant gig with this thing because if you play it load there is sooooo much extra noise. The tone of them is crap, they all sound horrificly fuzzy and not solid. The wahs and stuff are shit aswell.

If your gonna gig with it take care, the unit seems so feeble and almost 'flimsy.'
Also the adaptor cable is v.thin

Overall I was EXTREMELY dissapointed, the sound quality was a real let down. If I could go back I never would have bought this thing, and would have spared the time of me selling it.
Take my advice and dont buy it! Its full of cheap amateur tones which might just be suitable for bedroom-play for a kid's first thing, but not even that - its too expensive.
If your looking for a good range of quality distortions buy a BOSS pedal, thats exactly what I went and did.

Very easy to use,straight forward manual.

at first i used it with a headset,and it sounded great..But then when i tried it trough som amps,its just like the sound want come out off the speaker.It gets vwery noisy,and my guitar is drowning in the other ones.Not even the fabric_patches seems right

Coverband,plays everything from Metallica to Beatles.All OD,s are very noisy.tips anyone?

Yet another update to my update of my original post - OASYSCO.

I left the GFX-4 at home and started taking my stand alone pedals - Morley volume, Boss CE-2 (great understated chorus pedal, BTW), a friend's Boss Blues Driver for OD and the amp's channel switching pedal for amp OD, and a tuner pedal. I thought with individual pedals I'd be able to tailor my sound better... wrong...

I had already customized my Zoom GFX-4 to the 10 or so patches I always use - a couple of stadium OD patches, a crunch patch, a couple of clean chorus/delay patches, an organ-like patch (for intro to Black Magic Woman), and a few other specific patches.

Try configuring dedicated pedals like that in real-time. My volume was all over the place... hit one pedal to turn on OD - oops too much volume, back off on the volume pedal... oops, too much - forget it.... Uh-oh, need to tune up... oh the pedal doesn't light up unless it has a AC adapter... bend to the floor... sucks up too much tone, so have to manually add and remove it from the chain... Oops, the light is fading on the CE-2... I guess the battery's dying... what happens if it dies altogether?

The GFX-4 gives me great OD at low or high volume. The tuner works with and has a mute option. I can flip form the organ tone to a clean chorus tone with a single footswitch. I like the OD tone.

My only gripe (besides having to manually switch banks, which I have overcome by moving my fave 16 patches to one bank) is the over-sensitivy of the pedal when set to control volume. Move it a little and you may get much more volume.

OK, I'll remedy that with an outboard, passive Ernie Ball 6166 with tuner out. But I'm using my GFX-4 again. Having all that capability pre-programmed and accessible is just too convenient not to use. It'd be one thing if I didn'tliek the tone, but I do like it and have it tailored for my particular gutiar and amp combination.

Why I ever thought using individual pedals would be easier, I don't know.

The GFX-4 is easy to use, for basic functions.

However, if you wanna know complete operations, I cannot say its easy. I downloaded the manual and studied it before buying the unit. The day I bought it, I went through the manual again. When I got home, I was still lost. In the end, I must have went through the manual 3 or 4 times.

After using the unit for sometime, I suddenly discovered a "malfunction". If you step on the pedal hard enough, you enter the manual mode. Hmmm.... But it doesn't work on every patch. Eventually, I realise that this "malfunction" is really a special function that is very briefly described on the manual. After testing out for some time, I finally decided not to use this special function for fear of damaging the unit, so I reset the pedal UP and DOWN levels again to prevent entering that special mode.

Also, the patches are grouped. You cannot switch group with the foot pedals or switches. So its a minus. However, I find that you can set up the unit for a gig with 15 patches in a group. If you need more patches, just bend down to switch group.

I'm using the GFX-4 with my RG-series Ibanez. I use different amps all the time because our band go to a Jam studio, instead of having a regular place.

I like the sound quality from this unit. The only comparison I have draw is from my old Digitech RP-3 and the one I almost bought, Digitech RP-300.

In terms of easy of use, I prefer my old RP-3. However, in terms of sound quality, I realise that the RP-3 is really yesterday's technology. Matching up GFX-4 with RP-300, I find RP-300 to give better sound. However, GFX-4 is capable of producing nice sounds too, just that I have to spend more time learning on the various effects.

Very reliable during home practices and studio jamming. So far, I have brought it to 2 live gigs and the unit hold up reliably.

NA

On the whole, I am very satisfied with this unit. It is relatively cheap, looks real cool and gives satisfactory sound quality.

If it were stolen or lost, I may buy it again. But I would research the market to see if there are any new products around of the same price range.

The only thing I hate about it is the inability to access every patch using just the foot switches.

Although there are some options to place some effects before COMP or after EQU, it would be nice to have more flexibility in designing your own sounds by permutating the effects around.

Very straight-forward, got the hang of it in a day

Most of the distortions are heavey, The booster distortion is rubbish, the wah is cool, the phasers chorus delays detune etc are all wicked. The echos and reverbs are cool.

I wouldn't pick a fight with it

It looks awesome, the pedal is realy cool, and its great for playing in the dark with all the lights. Its a bad-ass piece of equipment either for bedroom playing or live. If I could make It better I would have more lighter vintage distortions and a drum-machine. Its well worth the money and better than any othe in its league

This is my 2nd update to my original review.

We are nearing the point of playing out live. As such, I'd like to address the "Ease of use".

First off, this pedal is easy to program and change parms, though I still have to consult the manual when trying to copy a patch from one location to another. Other than that - very easy.

Secondly, how easy is it to change patches during live play? As long as your band has dead air between songs and you remember which patch you want for which song, you should be OK.

Patches are arranged in 4 bands labeled A,B,C,D. Each bank has 4 sub-banks, labeled A0,A1, and son on. Each sub-bank has 4 actual patches.

The only problems are:

1. To switch from one bank A,B,C,D to another, you must bend down a punch a small button with your finger.

As long as you group your moft often-used 16 patches in a single bank like "A", this won't be much of a problem. If, however, you have a separate patch for each song, switching banks is tricky if you don't have much dead air between songs, within which to switch.

2. To toggle certain effects in a patch, like turn off chorus, or turn on reverb, you must put the unit into MANUAL mode. Once done, then the current patch functions as if it has 3 individual foot pedals - which is very cool, but not all that useful. The problem is that you have to reach down and punch another small button with your finger to put the unit into manual mode.

If Zoom could provide two small foot tap buttons to scroll through banks and toggle in and out of manual mode, the GFX-4 would be a much more useful unit for live play.

As it is, I use mine in practice and plan to use it when we gig soon, but I do wonder if separate echo/reverb, chorus, and OD pedals would easier to control. Then I ask myself if I really want a pedal chain to worry about - especially if they all use different power sources... For that reason, the GFX-4 is more convenient.

If I were to grade this category, I'd choose "8" for ease of use when used in personal practice and "6" for live play.

I am currently using my GFX-4 with my Sunn T50C amp and Gibson ES-137 P90 semi-hollow archtop. My gosh, what a fantastic combination for blues and rock!!! Whew, I love the tone I get from this combination - and I'm talking about tone at gig level volumes.

With just the processor, I'd grade this category an "8". With the amp and guitar, an "11"!

HI I THING THIS MODEL OF ZOOM IS 1 OF THE BEST PRODUCTS OF HER UNTIL NOW.INDEED I DON'T FIND AN EASY WAY TO USE THIS PEDAL AND THE MANUAL IS NOT HELPING AT ALL.AND FOR THIS REASON THE RATING TO THIS GATEGORY

GREAT FEATURES ON MAKE YOUR OWN SOUND AND ALLREADY GREAT SOUND QUALITY FROM THE FACTORY SOUNDS.
I THING THE WORK TO THIS MODEL HAVE DONE TO THE DISTORTION AND GAIN CATEGORY.CHORUS SOUNDS ARE PURED THAN DISTORTION BUT THEY ARE STILL GOOD TO PLAY AND SEARCH.
ALSO VERY GOOD FEATURES TO REVERB,DELAY,ETC... EFFECTS

BECAREFULL NOT I DO NOT SUGGEST IT FOR VERY CLEAN GUITARIST

THIS MODEL EASILY CAN WORK IN STUDIOS FOR RECORDING AND MAKE A SHOW WITH A BAND. A LEAD GUITARIST HE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR WITH THIS GUITAR EFFECT PROCESSOR

IN THIS GATEGORY
I HAVE 2 RATINGS
1:3 ABOUT PURE ONLINE AND OFFLINE SUPPORT
2:10 BECAUSE IT HAVEN'T NEED REPAIR UNTIL NOW

I LIKE HARD ROCK MUSIC(DEEP PURPLE,LED ZEPPELIN,ETC...)I CAN FIND MANY SOUNDS THAT ARE LIKE THE SOUND OF RITCHIE BLACKMORE OR JIMMY PAICE.
I PLAY FOR 4 YEARS WITH A PREVIOUS MUSIC EDUCATION
OTHER GEAR ARE FENDER STRATOCASTER USA,SOME MIDI DEVICES 2 BOSS PEDALS 2 AMP(1 FRONTMAN AMP AND 2 FENDER JAZZ)1 STARLITE BASS 1 ROLAND KEYBOARD KORG TUNER 1 G4 MACINTOSH COMPUTER 1 PC MUSIC SOFTWARE (CUBASE,SEBELIUS,DIGITAL PERFORMER,ETC...) AND OF COURSE ZOOM GFX 4 .
IF IT WHERE STOLEN I THING THAT I WOULD BUY IT AGAIN
I LOVE THE DISTORTION GAIN AND EFFECTS FEATURES THAT HE OFFER
I HATE THE OPERATION MANUAL
A COMPARE WITH KORG 1500G NOTHING TO TELL JUST THE GFX 4 IS 10 LEVELS UPPER THAN THE KORG
I WISH IT HAD A FEATURE LIKE GF8 LIKE A MIDI PORT
IS NOT HELPING TO MAKE MUSIC JUST HE FIX THE SOUND QUALITY OF MY MUSIC

if you can read the manual, or have used multi FX boxes....you SHOULD be able to use this. EASIEST? nope..but that dont matter...SOUND matters..

SOUND matters. I used this as my main effects unit for about a year.
It sounds better than any Digi-crap, or Boss, or Korg multi that I played in that price range, and i have played most of them. WARM and Fuzzy, IF you dont use too many FX at once...I only used the mods, Echo, and reverb...usually 1 or 2 at a time..Very Nice envelope fiter...decent Wah, nice chorus, trem, phase...used moderatley..Amp sims? dunno....overdive and dist ...they all kinda sound the same to me..I use a TS-9/808 mod and a Zoom PD-1 for OD.... OK I guess..but the mods and echo ROCK...very warm...Run into Crate VC-6112 all tube amp with all my analog FX in front of it. It's at the end now, for backup. retirement, the good life!

Very reliable....MANY OUTDOOR Florida gigs at Skippers Smokehouse and other dives. No probs. One knob fell off. BFD.

never did need none.

the bottom line with this product for me is, ALMOST ALL of my effects are now analog...this sits at the back of my chain as a very reliable backup...I can mute the front end of my pedal setup, without putting the amp on standby, and if an effect takes a dive I have a good backup for all of my sounds. I use it to record direct at home..It sounds fine...No noise. No problems. Very nice sounds. I'd buy it again as a backup, and now they are even less expensive.
Listen, compare...this is NOT an AMP modeler. It is a stompbox multiFX. No triple rectifiers in here. But Buffalo Springfield's "For What It' Worth" is...!!