Zoom GFX-4

There are a lot of great preset patches ready to use from the moment you turn it on. Editing patches is very simple, and once you know the basics described in the manual, you can explore the features very easily. The manual is great and really helpful.

I use this with my Washburn BT-2 guitar and a Peavey Rage 158 amp. At low volumes it sounds great, but the bass on the GFX4 nearly kills my amp. but when you play it through a big amp it sounds great. It can be noisy with very high gain and some modulation effects. my favourite bands are oasis, dire straits, u2, and metallica. the USBLUE setting gives me a sound that sounds very much like Mark Knopfler, and one of the metal presets satisfies my need for metallica sounds. i'm still working on U2 and oasis... :)

I haven't had this long enough to be 100 % sure, but it seems to me that it is very solid. i would rather get a backup guitar than a backup effect set if i had to choose.

never needed to contact them

i play many forms of rock, and the GFX 4 suits me perfect. i have been playing electric guitar for about 2 years now, but once i got this, i experienced a new glow in my guitar playing... (it was my first shot at guitar effects!) so it is definitely inspiring. My favourite features on it has to be... the metal and USBLUE settings in the DRIVE section, and the chorus effects. if i had to mention a negative thing about it, it has to be that the board it self is a bit small, and in the heat of playing i sometimes manage to hit the wrong pedals with my big feet... :) i also agree to what other people have written, it should also have a bank down switch. but these are no big issues, i'm extremely satified with this, a great sounding set at an affordable price!

I have owned the GFX-4 for about half a year now and love it...
I used to own a korg ax1000g which was way to clunky and to analog for me.. The patches are very easy to edit ..just press the button and turn the knob its so easy...and its nearly always sounds good..
I had the manual a few nights before i bought the unit and after reading it once or twice i understood the basic ins and outs of the unit which helped me so much ..and after buying it i found out how easy it all really is!!

I own an EPIPHONE les paul series guitar through a peavey 112 bandit which was the perfect PUNK sound that i wanted ...The noisiness ..?? i did nt notice much at all as i use low gain distortoins and if there is any noise i use the noise gate on a low setting ...but even on a high setting it doesn,t block any of the sounds i produce that my freinds new dod effects pedal does ..it always cuts out the harmonics..yes i can get the sound i want ..i have a sound nearly exactly like my fav band no use for a namewhich is a nice smooth distortion.i use the lead ,and chorus aswell which i love to fiddle with all the time.. and if it doesnt sound good through say a recorder i can turn on the amp sim which only has a bit to fiddle with but gives such a good sound..all up i love the sound!!

I use this all the time giggin but i do have back ups all the time while playing...and yeah i suppose i do depend on it allthe time so yeah its quite dependable as i play it every day and use it 1-2 times a week giggin...

It doesnt have the best customer support...i had trouble with the drive module button sticking and they told me to just go to the shop i got it from and ask them...and then to make it worse the shop said id have to send it interstate and pay $150 to fix it nearly a third of what i payed overall...i ve just learnt to live with it....overall there is no customer support.

I am a punk musician and its a great match it gives me the smooth distortions and lead that i want to hear for the low price...
i have only been playing for 3-4 years now but i played bass guitar in a ska-punk band for3 years before hand...if it was stolen i would definently buy a new one...or hunt the bastard that stole for a few years..
I love the easiness of use and how i can customise the effects to my liking my fav thing is the distortions easily kicks ass over the other pedals i own..
i wish it had a bit more stuff in the amp simulator as it doesnt have to much in it..
it doesnt exactly help me make the music but it helps me get the sound i want in the music and since their is so many effects i can use a vast array of effects in all of my songs..
i also love the look of it..this isnt what drew me to buying it but its more of an added bonus when people see it and just go f%#k how cool is that...so yeah i really love it!!!

I previously had a Zoom 9002 and so was fairly familiar with the way Zoom processors work. I still refer to the manual sometimes for certain functions but it's very easy to edit the patches once you've played around for an hour or so. Manual is good enough to explain the simple procedures required to edit and uses plenty of disgrams which can be helpful. It has a built in tuner which I find to be much better than the tuner on my Digitech RP2000. The GFX4's tuner is more stable whereas the Digitech can show a string as sharp, and then flat a couple of seconds later without touching the tuning head. The Zoom unit seems to be less sensitive to whether the note has just been attacked or is in decay which may be a negative for some people, but for me it gets me close enough as I'm not fanatical about getting tuning to within a nano-cent. The longer I take tuning, the less time I spend playing.
Unfortunately the only input is for your guitar and so it misses a CD input for backing tracks. I suppose Zoom consider this as a processor for live use and have the PS04 for practise and jamming, but it would have been a useful addition.

I use a number of guitars, namely:

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Ibanez RG770
Jackson PS4
BC Rich Neck Thru Mockingbird
Epiphone Les Paul Classic 7 string with a complete hardware overhaul and DiMarzio pickups
Hohner G3T
Vintage VJ6 (Jackson clone)

And a couple of amps:

Marshall AVT150 with AVTC112 extension cab
Peavey Bandit 112

I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality provided by this processor. OK, so maybe half the factory presets were naff, but they gave a good basis to tweak parameters to match things up with my amps and guitars. Some of the distortion patches were great and I didn't have to make ANY alterations whatsoever to some of them (VAIDRV is great!). The built in noise gate (ZNR) helps for some of the distorted patches which may otherwise be quite noisy.
The clean effect needed a bit more work in my opinion as the clean factory patches are pretty weak, but you have to accept that these companies can't produce a processor that will sound superb with every guitar/amp combination and so tweaking is generally a must. With a little time I got the clean effects sounding great. I think that these multi effect processors have come on leaps and bounds in the past couple of years and I can get just as good sounds from this as I can from my individual stomp boxes and all in a much more compact package.

It's never failed me yet, but I don't think I'd ever gig without a backup. It does seem quite plasticky and flimsy compared to my Digitech RP2000 which is my main processor. I use the GFX4 now as a backup but only because of the quality and features of the RP2000. I would be quite happy to use the GFX4 live as it sounds good enough which is the most important thing. I also use the onboard effects of the AVT150 quite a lot (pareticularly the distortion) and just use my processors for additional effects such as harmony and delay.

Useless! When I first got it (3 months ago), I wrote an email to Zoom, basically saying that I wanted to tweak patches and I would find it incredibly useful if they could provide me with a list of the parameters for the factory presets. I've not heard from them since despite sending a second email asking if it is usual for them to simply ignore their customers. Despite the fact that I'm very happy with this unit, I doubt I'll ever buy anything from Zoom again as I like to deal with companies who stand behind their products, not sell them then forget about them.

I've been playing guitar for 20 years, play mostly rock and metal and have owned a multitude of effects from individual stomp boxes to pedal style multieffects to rack mounted units and the sound quality from this after editing to my preferences is up there with the best of them. Some of the distortion effects are at least as good as my RP2000, if not better, and although it may not be as good an overall package, it is still excellent considering it is #200 cheaper than the Digitech. I don't think that Boss multi-effects are as good as either Zoom or Digitech (I owned a GT3) particularly the distortion effects patches.
If stolen or lost I would dearly love to buy again, but like I said earlier, I won't do so unless there is a complete turnabout in Zoom's customer service.

If you are content to use the preset patches right out of the box, this thing is a snap. Pick any one of sixty presets, press the foot switch, and you're in business. However, the distortion settings are a lot more aggressive than I like. Any parameter is editable, but READ THE MANUAL several times before you go too far into the editing. The good news is that this unit is extremely versatile and every setting is changable. The bad news is that finding out how to get TO the setting to change it can be a challenge. More good news: you can't screw things up too much. There are sixty presets and sixty identical "user" patches. The presets can be edited on a one-time basis. You can't save them, though. Not to worry. If you like the editing, you can save it in the "user" location. If you really bollux things up, you can reset the whole unit to as-it-came-out-of-the-box and just call it a day.
The manual is well written, but very spare in its descriptions. As I said, be prepared to read through it several times. It will be worth the effort.
I like this unit because of its versatility. You can get everything from subtle little tweaks to rip-raging thrash-n-bash. The expression pedal can be assigned to numerous effects. There's also a not-very-well-docunmented foot switch under the toe of the expression pedal that switches you from "program" to "manual" mode on the fly. This is neat during a performance, because you can call up a preset patch that has, say, distortion, modulation and reverb. Press the expression-pedal footswitch into "manual" and you can switch on and off one or more of those effects with the "module" foot switches while you're playing.

I'm using this with a Strat, a Tele and an Ibanez AF120 jazz box. I play into a Peavey Classic 30 or my Mackie mixer/tape deck. There is a bit of noise on some of the more distorted settings. there's a "noise reduction" setting which helps a little.
Geneally I play at fairly low levels, so I'm not the guy to ask how "meaty" some of the effects are. They sound darn good to me, but I'm not really cranking the volume.
The pedal wah is not as full as the Vox wah I used to own. Otherwise the effects are convincing. Especially for the price. I got a whole lot more than I expected. I doubt I'll ever use some of the patches, but having them just gives me something more to edit around with.

Have only had the thing for about a month. Yes, I'd take it on a job without backup. but then, if it were to conk out in the field I'd just make do without.

Have not needed to contact the company.

I really like the fact that this unit comes complete with the power supply. I don't trust batteries and I resent paying 25 to 30 bucks for plug-in power. Not a problem here. There's no provision for battery power at all, which might be a problem if you're going abroad.
I play jazz and R&B. This is a good match in that I can get almost any sound I can think of. I can also get a lot of sounds outside my style, and I have to be careful to call up the patch I really want. There are some pretty unlikely neighbors in the patch bank, and if you want a smooth "fusion" vibrato, make sure you press bank pedal 3. If you step on one of the others, you might get something reminiscent of Hendrix or Grand Funk. Doesn't do much for a Cole Porter slow dance.
If this were lost or stolen, I'd probably buy another, just because I've already invested so much time learning the ins and outs of the editing process. Like so many other effects, familiarity and practice time give you the ability to really make music with the thing.

This is a follow-up of my review of 03/26/02. In that review I stated that "the pedal wah-wah is failry lame, but usuable and convenient for those of us who use wah-wah very little anyways". What a goofus I am!

I was paying more attention to what others said than trying to exercise the wah pedal effect fully for myself.

The patch called CoolWah is excellent. The pedal is very responsive and I could easily do 70's funk with it. Crank the overdrive on my amp with the GFX-4 in the effect loop set to "Coolwah" and Jimi Hendrix watch out. Excellent breadth of tone.

The more I play with the GFX-4, the more I like it. The chorus are, as I said before, excellent! So are the delays.

I don't use phaser or tremelo much in my types of music and I never did like vibrato, so those effects don't get much use from me.

As for noise, yes there is some. There are several wasy to decrease the noise:

(1) lower the master volume knob on the GFX-4. Doing so also lowers the amps overall volume, so you have to decide...

(2) incease the noise gate setting. I don't want to unnaturally cut off any notes, so I have steered clear of this for right now.

(3) run it through the front panel instead of the effects loop. Unfortunately, if you do that, then the amp's distortion doesn't sound as good when combined with clean settings on the pedla like delay+chorus. It really does sound better in the effects loop.

(4) edit the patch and lower Zoom's volume setting in the patch. This cuts down the noise while not overly affecting the overall volume when you use the master volume knob.

You may actually have to use either of the 4 methods enumerated above, depending on the effects you are combining, keeping mind mind that the compresor, phaser, and OD effects are the noisiest.

The gFX-4 is not as noisy overall the the GFX-8 and is really no more noisy than any other multi-effects pedal. So keep that in mind when shopping for your next multi-FX pedal - they all are noisy on certain settings, certian amps/guitars, etc.

I've had many of these things and I know.

Great pedal. I'd buy it again. I love the way it looks - almost as if it was designed for my Sunn T50C, but that's not why I got it. In fact, I couldn't tell what it would look like from the pix.

I bought it because I like Zoom multi-effects pedals, having graduated through most everyone they've made in the last 4 years (including the GFX-8).

They are generally easy to use, are generous with the number of effects and sound decent.

Very fiddly, supposed to be user friendly. Got use to it's working after an hour or so. This is not a piece of Pro Gear!

I play both electric and acoustic, I was using this for Reverb & Chorus on acoustic. Very Quiet and clear sounding. Didn't rate the overdrive sounds (I own POD and Sansamp TRi-Ac v.good)way too fizzy!

I wouldn't gig this without a back up, I sold it because of this. The mains adaptor has a very thin power lead to unit, this could easily be sliced thru'.

If you are a pro' don't buy this as it will not last a year of gigging twice/three times a week... keep your old pedals. Howeverif you are a 'bedroom' player you will have a lot of fun. Wah sounds are fun.

It's pretty easy to use, took a couple of days to get used to it, but I was able to get some great sounds editing the preset patches and then creating some of my own from scratch. The manual helped, but it could've been a bit clearer when explaining the patch editing process.

I use this with my good ol' Cort SG-1000 Les Paul ripoffn and a Marshall Valvestate 20 amp. It's a pretty basic setup, but it has worked pretty well. I'd say that for its price range, the GFX-4 has about the best sound you can get. The distortions are analog, which makes them great compared to other digital distortions in this range. The 2-stage distortion (OD boost & distortion) really packs a punch. The choruses, flangers, delays, reverbs, phasers are all great, they sound very pro. The wah is good also, unlinke some reviews I have read. It's not as good as a Crybaby for instance, but then again this is a multieffects console, you can't expect that much from it. The only thing I don't like that sometimes the expression pedal's range feels a bit steep, that is, feels more like a step than a gradual change. It can be a bit noisy but the ZNR takes care of that pretty well.

It feels pretty sturdy, it's part plastic and part metal, so it's not indestructable but I think it could take a pretty good beating and still work perfectly. I have gigged with it without a backup, and it has never failed me.

Never dealt with Samson/ZOOM.. all I know is they have a decent website.

I've been playing for 8 years, I play alternative grunge and mostly modern rock. If it were stolen, I'd think about getting it again, mostly because of the price-sound value. If I had a bit more cash, I'd go for a more expensive Boss console or a rack-mounted effects unit. But that's a whole new league.
I really like the overall sound quality, I just wish it had a harmonizer effect, and well, the bank down pedal really would be an essential addition.
I definitely recommend it. It's the best in its league.

This unit is fairly easy to use and follows Zoom's way of thinking.

Now, I'm not sure why they group DELAY with the modulation effects and ECHO with the Reverb, letting you have both on at the same time. They also group Standard CHORUS and DETUNE (light chorus effect) with the modulation effects, but put the stereo CHORUS with the reverb effects such that you can 2 choruses going at the same time. A little wacky, if you ask me.

And if they could have made the switch to manual mode a little easier on the fly... As is, you can either bend down and hit the manual button to disable/enable the 3 stomp pedals on the fly or program the experssion pedal to go into manual mode by depressing fully. Unfortunately, none of the ffects have the expression pedal set like that. They actually could have used another pedal to switch in an out of manual mode.

Features include:
* switch for active/preamp pickup or regular passive pickup
* stereo or mono effects loop
* metal/plastic hous8ing - seesm very sturdy
* generous length on the A/C adapter - not a wall-wart, per se
* 60 read-only presets and 60 user program slots
* 4 reverb types (arean, hall, room, and garage)
* 4 chorus types (standard chorus, CE chorus, detune, and stereo chorus)
* analog knobs to control effects
* 3 built-in stomp pedals to control effects groupings individually (distortion; chorus/modulation; reverb)
* master volume control (unlike the GFX-8 which does unbelivably does not have one)
* expression pedal for pitch/detune, wah, and volume. Can alos assign other params to it to control the deph of chorus, for example or the speed of the tremelo.
* various additional effects like vibrato, tremelo, auto-wah, wah-wah, phaser
* built-in tuner - very, very easy to invoke unlike other pedals where you have to artfully hit 2 pedals at a time or whatever
* easy to use mute for silent tuning
* amp (combo, stack, etc) simulation for going direct
* ability to name patches with up tyo 6 letters
* a zillion other things

What it doesn't have:
* MIDI (like the GFX-8)
* lick learner (like the Digitech units)
* built-in drum rhythms (like the GFX707)

Based on features alone, this unit gets a "10", factoed in with ease of use, "9"

1. The Standard Chorus and the Detune are excellent! As good or better than a DanElectro cool cat
2. The echo, delays, and reverb are very good
3. the tuner is excellent! Tracks perfectly
4. I'm still working on the OD tone, so no comment there, but so far, so good
5. decent clean tones for jazz
6. 1/2 presets useless for my music
7. excellent bypass - really takes the unit out of the loop for straight amp sound
8. excellent bypass
9. the phaser can be alittle whoosy when idle, otherwisae this pedal is quieter than the GFX-8 I used to own. The reason being is that this unit has a master volume knob to dial the preset down, so no matter what internal volume the preset is set to, it doesn't come through at that volume unless you want it to. This is in contrast to the GFX-8 that has no master volume knob.
10. The pedal wah-wah is failry lame, but usuable and convenient for those of us who use wah-wah very little anyways.

I'm giving the pedal a "9" based primarily on the useful ness of the chorus, delay, and reverb effects. The OD tone is decent, too, but I'l probably use my tube amp for most of that.

Can't rate this yet, but having had the Zoom 505, 505-II, GFX707, and the GFX-8 and having never had a problem with anyone of them, I'm confident that the GFX-4 will hold up.

I play classic rock with a group of guys and this pedal will be good for that. We've yet to play out, but are working toweards that. I've been playing for almost 10 years and have owned alot of gear. Current gear inlcudes: Gibson Es-135 archtop, Sunn T50C + ext cab, Fender Acoustasonic JR, Fender GA45-SCE flattop, 1974 Fender Princeton Reverb, and an Epi Joe Pass jazz archtop.

I have owned every Zoom multi-FX pedal made over the last 5 years. I liked the GFX-8, but with it's lack of a master volume knob and Zoom having set every effect to maximum volume level, it was too noisy for me. I bought the GFX-4 to capture some of the GFX-8 tone, but control it more easily.

I really like the way the GFX-4 looks - it looks like a pro pedal with an easy to read lighted display (unlike the GFX707 which was impossible to read outdoors).

I wish the pedal had a few PCM rhythms built-in like the GFX707, but other than that it's fine.

Very intuitive and easy; much easier than gt6.

Not noisy, very good gate. I did an A/B test with a GT-6; in my view and to my ears, the gfx-4 sounds much much better, even when you tweak the GT-6; the distortions on the zoom are more analog sounding. More important, this unit souds larger and is more transparent then the boss. It does not detoriate your sound. Reminds me of the Voodoo Lab effects. Good reverbs, compression is smooth and usable, overdrive is excellent. The GT6 in comparison is more shrill and sounds digital , very bright with a Stratocaster. It is good for direct recording . The gfx-4 also has preamp modeling with choices of speakers, cabinet, type of amp. It sounds very good in a console, but of course never as good as a real tube amp. The Wah on the GFX-4 is not as warm as a Vox but it is very convenient. The unit is easy to carry and well thought.

Looks solid ; Metal and plastic

Don't know; the web site is good.

Very good for light rock, oldies; the tremolo is just so warm; can play Buffula Springfield even better. Also good for Deep Purple, Hendrix. It is not really very suitable for Ultra Heavy stuff. Mind you, At 47 I am not as aggressive as I used to.

Had everything under control after playing around with it for a few minutes. The manual explains some things too complicated, though.

I'm currently using a lefthanded Fender Standard Strat and a Hughes & Kettner Edition Tube 20 watt amp. The guitar signal goes directly to the GFX-4 unit and enters the clean channel input. I bought the GFX-4 about ten months ago.

As always most of the factory presets are crap, so you have to tweak them or create your own. There are 60 slots available for saving your own patches (4 groups x 5 banks x 3 patches, which is plenty, but the 60 factory presets can't be overwritten). You can give names of up to six letters to each patch and adjust their volume levels seperately.

Amp Simulation: I only use this when practicing with headphones. It sounds too artificial through an amp or directly recorded. Four amps and five speaker cabinets can be selected and combined. The cabinet depth can also be set from 0 to 10.

Integrated Chromatic Tuner: No problems. The tuner is enabled when going into bypass or mute mode. The reference pitch is adjustable from 435 to 445.

Zoom Noise Reduction: Does its job fine, but a noise gate with more parameters would have been better (you can set it from 0 to 10).

Compressors: There are two compressors available. They're both very noisy when used with distortion, so I only use them on clean patches (on which I think they are necessary since the unit's clean sounds are somehow not that impressive).

Equalizer, overdrive/booster, auto wah, slow attack, chorus, vintage chorus, flange, tremolo, detune, vibrato, phaser, pedal wah and especially all of the reverb effects are very good and do what you expect them to.

The unit has digital delay but the maximum delay time is only 500 ms. There is also a sample and hold function of 2 seconds (Wow. Great. Do you know any 2 second riffs? Me neither. That explains why it's not advertised as a real feature of the unit and is only mentioned somewhere in the manual).

The pedal pitch effect and the pitch shifter are the worst effects on this board. It sounds just plain bad and digital (I must admit that when I sent a microphone into the guitar input, it was quite fun to mess around with the pitch shifter). One preset patch even suggests to use the pitch shifter set on -12 halftones as an octaver, which sounds very weak. They should rather have included a real octaver. The step and ring modulation effects aren't good either.

What the GFX-4 really excels at are the analog distortions. Most of them are suited for all kinds of rock and metal (dial in METALZ and start shredding), but you can also get some smoother distortion with the "overdrive" and "us blues" settings (although I would recommend using your amp's own distortion for that). The best one is clearly the EVHDRV distortion (which probably stands for Eddie Van Halen driver).

I tried the GFX-4 with four different amps of which two were solid state. In my experience, the sound with the tube amps is many times better, especially with smaller combos.

Aside from pedal wah and pedal pitch the onboard expression pedal can control distortion, volume, delay and reverb. It can also be used to control the main parameter of a modulation effect (e.g. adjust the Tremolo or Flanger rate) in real time.

Connections and controls at the back: an active/normal switch for active and passive pickups, guitar input, mono output, stereo/headphones output, master volume control, ac input with safety hook for cable, power on/off.

I wish the casing would be entirely made of metal, like the GFX-8 is. It looks a bit fragile to me. But since it has not given up on me yet, I would definetly gig with it. All buttons still work as they should, no wear, no tear (after ten months of constant use).

Never dealt with them.

If it was lost or stolen and I had the money, I would probably buy a better unit (maybe the new GT from Boss, or one of these expensive G-Force rack thingies). But for the price, this is a very good multi effect. I definetly prefer it over the cheaper stuff from Zoom and I'm happy with it (even after ten months).

The range of sounds available means it can be a bit forbidding at first. I would advise spending a little while playing with it before gigging with it. Beware - if you edit patches while the amp sim is on and save, all the patches are saved on the sim setting. I was playing a gig and just couldn't figure what was going on - completely spoiled the sound. The expression set-up is a bit hard to understand - I use it mostly to add reverb to a sound. The reverb can be ferocious - use sparingly - it can make a solo really fill a hall though. Do not edit using headphones as the sound will be very different through your amp, but I suppose that is the case with all FXs. I previously used the Zoom 1010, which is a lot more fiddly to edit. The GFX is definitely superior.

I play a strat through a fender chorus amp, which has a terrible dirty channel.The GFX-4 helps me to get a good dirty sound and adds a bit of variety. I also use an Epiphone SG as a quick back-up for when I break strings ( which I do a lot). Make sure you have different patches for different guitars as the sound can change dramatically. Not too noisy in most patches. Some of the settings should be changed to give a decent sound, and some of the options are just too weird to bother with. Don't be tempted to throw in the kitchen sink and use all possible options at once - stick with one or two at a time.

No problems so far, apart from some surprises when using the expression pedal. I usually take my old Zoom 1010 with me when playing a gig, but only had major problems when I inadvertantly had saved everything on an amp sim setting.

Never been in contact with them, though their web site didn't seem to informative.

I play rock covers mostly, and can get a good crunchy sound for the likes of 'Hard to Handle'. Haven't spent too much time playing with the echo, but what I have used is quite effective. I would consider getting another if lost, but would maybe check out competitors like Digitech, as some of the editing can be frustrating on this.

I have had this pedal for about 4-5 months and im pretty pleased. The editing patches are very easy to use and i can usually get the sound i want. The manuals pretty straight forward (easy to follow)

I have a fender mexican strat w/ pearly gates humbucker at the bridge possition and i play through a Marshall valvestate 100. Some effects witch i despised that were noisy X-Rock, RingDrv and Hyllow. I can usually get the sound i want by messing w/ the tones. I like artists from Hendrix and SRV to Sublime and Rx Bandits. I really enjoy the strum effect,Texas,

never delt w/ them

I like to play alternative style to blues. I have been playing for 5 years. I own a Gibson ES120-T, Roadhouse Strat, and A fender mexican Strat. If my pedal was stolen or lost i would prob get a diff one that could bank down. Not being able to bank down is very irritating.

Ok this unit is very easy to use. I upgraded from a 707 and i didn't even need to read the manual. If you're used to multi effects, you'll be alright. If not read the manual which explains stuff reasonably well.

I use a heavily modified Yamaha Pacifica through the GFX-4 and into a Peavey Classic 50. the effects are very good. The CE chorus effect is very nice. the echo effect is also good. The distortions however are the strongest point. most of them are useable and sound very good.
The wah is probably the weakest effect. it works fine with a clean sound for funk, etc but through distortion it doesn't sound too good.

Seems well made, it's made from hard plastic with some metal parts. these don't appear to offer all that much more protection though. the pedals should be metal. it'll hold and i do gig without a backup however

never dealt with them, so i'm in no position to judge.

My style ranges from acoustic rock to heavier alternative styles. The GFX-4 is the only multi effects i'd ever need. if i had to replace it i'd get a GFX-8 or a boss something. i compared it to a korg AX1000G, and the zoom sounded better in my opinion. The distortions and effects are very good, the wah is weak, but i don't need it. I've been playing for 6 years and i'm happy with my gear. while it has it's shortcomings, these are far outweighed by it's fantastic sound quality. A good product overall, and for the money you shouldnt be dissapointed.

This is really easy to use, I bought it used without the manual, figured out how it worked in 5 mins.
Great dist. on this one, but the wah pedal isn`t good...
It is very easy do edit patches... great !!!

As said before, the disttortion is GREAT on this one. Chourus is good too... I think all the effect exept from the wah sounds good at this baby

It is made of metal and plastic, I wouldn`t dropped it, but I`m sure it can take some beating...

Never dealt with em

I`m playing alternative punk rock, great grungey sounds =)
great pedal

Its easy to use just like eating peanuts....Editing patches is a breeze if u read the manual twice or thrice..

I use a fender mustang running through a fender bassman 600 amp...It isn't noisy as long as the cable of guitar is clear...the effects sound great from blues to metal...you can have different types of distortion from creamy overdrive to hell blasting metal......I can get sounds from any artists from jimi hendrix to kirk hammet..as long as u set the proper tone for it..

I can depend on it as long as it depends on me....i can use it without back up in a gig..

I wrote them via e-mail but they won't reply...I don't know why...

I play blues, alternative music, and mostly hard core metal....I started playing guitar when I was 7 years old...I've been playing proffesionally for 10 years..i have a band and we are signed to warner music of the Philippines..I play most on rhytnm Guitars..If it were stolen I would buy another...It really helps me big in my career
We recorded our album using it witouht a Fuss....

The built in patches are, as usual from zoom, over done and not much use. Editing the patches however couldn't be easier, its got buttons to select things and knobs to change them. You can't get much simpler than that. If you are playing live and something has gone wrong with your presets or you're too drunk to remember them, you can just flick into manual mode and use it as three individual pedals. The manual is as always from Zoom, easy to understand and well laid out.

I use mine with a Laney pro-linebacker amp and a Washburn guitar and it sounds great. The pre-amp on this unit can create a severe buzz but the rest are fine. The stereo chorus is one of the best I've heard and the distortion is well toned and balanced with every parameter editable. The amp simulator is superb.

I would depend on this unit. Although I've only had it a few months I have had no problems. The construction is solid yet lightweight, the perfect gigging equation. I would gig without backup of the main unit but it has one of those pesky AC/DC adapters which is a very flimsy thing. Why can't Zoom put the adapter inside the unit with a plug in AC cable?

I've never had to deal with them but I've heard bad bad thing about them.

I play things with a sort of indie rock grungy metal sort of sound and it really is great for making that kind of noise. The only really bad point is the lack of a bank down pedal, this can be overcome with clever bank arranging though. I've not had it long but it quickly became an essential part of my musical setup.

Well, i sat down at the guitar store and played with this baby for about an hour before I decided to buy it. By the end of the hour I was pretty well adjusted to the way this pedal works. I previously had a Zoom 505 pedal, so I am quite familiar with editing patches and such on these Zoom units. If you're new to multi fx rigs, programming it may take a while to get used to, overall its a no brainer. Manual is pretty basic, but gives you the info you need if you have the time to actually look through it (31 pages)

I've only had it for a day or two, but so far it sounds great. I play a Fender telecaster with the GFX-4 through a Fender Deluxe 112 Plus. A lot of the default distortion programs are kinda noisy, but this can be fixed by playing around with the equalizer and compression settings. The other effects, pitch, wahs, delays etc sound great. I really like the expression pedal... it can let you add a nice twist to some of your sounds

well, zoom has always been known for making things out of plastic, but the undercasing of the unit is metal, with plastic covering, the whole unit is pretty light. I wouldn't want to drop it from too high, but I'm sure it would stand up to regular use. I've had my old Zoom 505 for about 4 years and its been dropped, kicked, thrown, etc, still works great.... so I suspect that the rest of Zooms products will handle the same way

I've dealt with customer support once or twice, usually through e-mail. I had a problem with a setting on my old Zoom 505 and e-mailed them about it, I got a response within a day or two.... not too bad I guess, i'm not sure if they have a 1-800 number, but overall I was happy with the responses I got

I've been experimenting a lot lately with my music and figured it was time for a new pedal with more features than my old 505. I play all types, except for country. Been playing for about 5 years. Other gear I own: Ibanez rg7 and ax7 guitars, Zoom 505 Guitar multi fx pedal, Ibanez Soundtank Tremolo, Dunlop Original Crybaby, Electric Mistress, etc. The gfx 4 definately helps me create music.

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I find that the GFX-4 was fairly simple to use, ZNR Which actually stops unwanted noise is no good! Maybe its just my pedal, or maybe its just not that good of a feature to a truly amazing pedal! Editing the patches was very easy and I find the manual most useful, not that I or probably anyone else ever reads them properly, just get on with it!

I use the effects board with a Yamaha Pacifica and 100 watt custom amp, It is a little noisy as it lacks a proper noise gate! Some effects on the board are of poor quality, you should left them behind and stuck some more distortion ones in. The Pedal Pitch is an execelent effect I love it, I have been working on my Rage Against The Machine Guitar, I can get most of the sounds I want but my taste in music varies from Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day and Metallica.

No and NO!
Simply because i have only had it a few days, I have a gig coming up next week and I am think of leaving the GFX-4 at home cause I am not fully used to it! I think the foot switches could be a little sturdier as I dont want to tap down to hard and snap it off

I haven't had any contact with the company at all!
I would consider an upgrade yes definately, I have a DOD tec 4, and its seriously out of date!

I play all styles of music, mostly punk and funk. this is amazing for making a good funk riff sound even better, there are so many effects you can add. I have been playing for 4 years and I have all sorts of guitars pedals and amps. If i lost it, God damn I would find it! if it was stolen i would buy a GFX-8, I love the look of the GFX-4 its very professional and its hard to compare to other products. I wish it had a good noise gate! I can make some seriously good music with this baby, I feel some excelent riffs coming up! I would like to say that Zoom have come up with a half decent pedal, Cheers!

Not the easiest unit to program, but ok once you get the hang of it.
Biggest drawback in usage in the inability to bank down. Serious flaw.

Warm and fuzzy. By far the best sounding unit in the price class and I have played almost ALL of them.. 2 Digitechs, DOD, Boss, Everything from a Big Muff sound that is better than the real thing, to clean chorus, to crunch. Vibrato, trembolo, chorus, reverb, delay, auto wah, overdrives and distortions and wah all sound great. Very non digital. Use with Musicman 110 RD 50 and 112 RD 50 and Strat 40th anniversery. Some noise on high gain settings, some hiss thru the amp, I run it thru an old BOSS me-6 to bring the outout down before it hits the amp as I have no effects loops. Sounds great, no loss of tone or dynamics anywhere.

Seems sturdy. Havent gigged with it yet , but will soon. No worries mate.

none needed yet.

I've played for over 20 years. Play live 4-6 times a month, originals and very working Grateful Dead/ San Fran cover band, and this is what I need to travel lite and sound great.

Very easy to use even when performing live quickly adjusted

rather good, you just have to play around fine tuning a little and you get the exact sound you`re looking for

sure

nothing really on the net yet since it`s pretty new

I love it and i`ll stick with it

Easy I'd say, once you've fiddled with it for a while to find out what everything does, you don't really need the manual.

I am using a BC Rich Mockingbird with twin humbuckers into a Peavey Studio Pro 112. The sou d is usually terrible but with this unit it sounds quite good. The reverb and delays on some patches are gorgeous. The drive sounds are much improved over the earlier zooms, some of them are really nice (eg. EVH Drive).
Some sounds are just useless though and could never actually be used in music. (at least not with my ability, but maybe other people could find something to do with them).

Hmm... haven't had it long so couldn't really say. It's lightweight but it seems really well built, but I'd never use anything without a backup, no matter how good it is.

Pathetic, hopefully they will improve on this soon but for now it is virtually non-existant.

I play a wide reange of styles from blues to metal, this unit is very versatlie. It has good preset patches and the user definable ones are eassy to get good sounds for virtually anything out of. Only thig is, not being expensive, you still get what you pay for. Value for money wise it is great, but you might be better off spending a little extra for a Digitech RP-2000 or Boss GT-3.

it's too easy to use.., have a good system to create very good effects.

mmm it's good...but the distortion it's little noisy... with the compresor turn on.

bad.. maybe cuase it's a new product.. u don't find good information online for it.

so.. i have a ibanez rg570 guitar and a create gx-212 amp.... and i like to play metal so... my instruments(amp, guitar and zoom gx4)....sounds very well together.

Idiot proof is the best way to describe it. Everything is set out in a nice logical pattern for you. I had every function under contrtol within 10mins of buying, without using the manual.

Some of the distortion patches are excellent, perfect for alternative and heavy rock, with some nice british style rock tones. I found it much harder to get smooth blues tones and what I generally came up with wasnt worth the effort compared to just setting up the amp right. Chorus and delay effects are both lush and highly usable, the best Ive heard on a unit in this price range. The amp sim is highly usable and gives good, but not great tones straight to tape.

Reliablity should be fine but some of the construction feels a bit flimsy. The pedals are a bit light weight weight for my liking and Im worried they wont take much abuse from my size 12s but I'll see.

Lack of email facilities and online support at the moment, but that should hopefully change soon knowing ZOOM so I'll give my rating as a potential.

For most of the music Im liable to play with the unit it always verges on being excellentbut never quite attains it. My personal tone preferences are clean delays, chorus's and big muff style distortions, akin to the Smashing Pumpkins and the unit gives a credible performance with my equipment (Custom Fender Strat with humbucker, Gibson Les Paul Standard and vintage Burns Vibraslim). However I do wish it was possible to combine more of the effects for sonic terrorism rather than just having access to seven banks (before amp sim asnd noise reduction). However, I compared the unit to Korgs 1000AX-G and Line-6 POD and found the unit delivering considerably better tones than the Korg and my pewrsonal favourite JCM800 style grunge tones just as well as the POD. However the unit is not as great for direct recording as the POD but then again, thats not what the unit is intended for.

Operation is dead easy. Even a kid could operate it. The manual is nothing special. It has the well-known Zoom standard and explains all the important stuff. No problem's here.

I'm using a USA Fender Strat with DiMarzio's Super Distortion and PAF humbuckers directly into the unit and to a Marshall Valvestate 265 or headphones. The sound is good. Not noisy if you are using the noise gate. The effects are all in the standard GFX-8 quality. Although I must admit that I like the Reverbs better on the GFX-4. The clean sound on the GFX-8 is better but the Distortion of the GFX-4 tops the GFX-8. It's tailored to my kind of music (Iron Maiden). But go check it out at a local dealer for yourself. I'd say, the sound quality is very good but not perfect. But than again, what IS perfect?

Yeah. It's quality-built. Very dependable. I use it without a backup.

Very poor. They don't even have e-mail. Worst support I've ever met

It's a very good unit for Rock and Heavy stuff. Definately better than the GFX-8. That's why I traded it. I don't like the fact that you can only switch banks in one direction. For live, it's a bit disturbing. This was better on the GFX-8. But overall, I'd say it's a good unit which doesn't follow the standard of trying to duplicate amp models. It's more like a distortion-modelling-processor. I say: Thumbs-up!