Zoom 505 II - Opinions?

[slug]

Hey, all-

Just wondering if any of you have experience with these units. *I was considering picking one up because they seem to have a ton of effects and are pretty affordable. *I like to keep my system simple, especially live, and this thing looks like it's fairly cool. *Y'all let me know whatchya think.

Thanks,
mg

[rgr]

IMO, they are kinda neat practice toys but I wouldn't use one live. *Save up and get some decent effects and/or buy some decent pedals. *I don't own one but have never been tempted to either.

$0.01
Roger

[slug]

Thanks, Roger--

So, what would any of you recommend for a guy playing Hamer and Ibanez guitars through a 5150 half-stack? *I really don't need much for gain, although I may mix amp distortion with processor distortion if it sounds good. *We play mainly 70's through 90's metal, and I'm running an old (I mean old when I say it) Yamaha FX 500 with no pedalboard. *I have to turn around and switch the patch between songs sometimes and that kinda sucks.

What about the Boss GT-3 or GT-5? *All opinions appreciated.

Thanks,
mg

[Jimi D]

Slug ~ I had an original Zoom 505 for about 3 days. I might make a useful practice toy, but I didn't think it did my tone any favors.

[rgr]

The Boss units are nice but sounds like overkill for what you need unless you want the amp models. *Here are my suggestions for your setup, remember, these are my opinions only:

Assuming that you are looking for time/modulation type effects, reverb, delay, chorus, etc..., you want to put these in your effects loop. *Boss pedals are great but they don't like line level (effects loop) levels. *Some loops have control over their level but I don't think the 5150 does. *I don't think the 505 would like line levels either. *You can get a rack mount unit, like the Lexicon MPX-100 for around $200 which is a killer unit for the price. *If you want to stay with pedals, the best pedal that I found to run in loops for this kind of stuff was an old Zoom 5050 Choir pedal. *It had really nice delays, reverb and chorus and it could handle line levels. *It also is programmable, meaning you could have 2 different programs and bypass, I loved mine. *I had a basic chorus/delay patch, another flange/delay patch for Pink Floyd's "Run" and U2's "God, pt 1"and bypass. *

Unfortunately they don't make these anymore so you'll have to find one used. *Part of what made me think about it is that I actually saw one for $50 at Robb's Music in Boulder yesterday, and I think Rob at Spotlight Music, has one for $75. *I almost bought one for myself, nostalgia probably. *The one at Robb's was a little beat but if it works WTH, don't know about the one at Spotlight but Rob is an honest guy, feel free to buy my Genz-Benz cabinet from him too *

A hush pedal might not be a bad idea for the loop on a 5150 either.

$0.02,
Roger

[slug]

Thanks, fellas--

It seems that every time I hop on this site I learn something cool. *I'm in the process of finding a MIDI pedal for my old FX 500 right now, actually. *I'm having no luck, though. *Too old a unit. *I may wind up just going with stomp boxes. *That seems like the simplest way to go.

Keep the suggestions coming!!

Thanks again,
mg

[swiggy]

i would reccommend the zoom player 3000, *sound expensive? *well it isn't

retail: *£149.95 ( may have gone up )

plus you get a little ext. pedal

you say you don't need much gain, well this has got it all, *exc. *cmopression, *exc. *delay, reverb, distortion.

i was going to buy it from my shop but then we went and sold it, so i bought a s/h boss me-6 *which i won't be keeping cos it's just not me

[ellsobrien]

Get yourself a Pod and a GT-3. You can put the Pod into the effect chain of the GT-3 and move it around at will for every patch you want.

[warmregards]

I still think the suggested setups are overkill. *My signal once went through 9 different pedals, but weird effects get old quick. *And also, the 505 is not a high quality pedal. *You already have good amplification. *Right now I use three pedals - distortion, chorus, and delay. *I play mostly metal as well, and I find the setup simple and effective. *I don't really see the need for a multieffects unit in your case, especially not a POD and a GT-3.

[rgr]

My sentiments exactly warmregards, I was trying to talk him into 1 pedal *The Zoom 5050 is a single pedal, not a pedalboard. *Much higher quality than the 505's and stuff like that. *

[slug]

Hey, all--

Thanks once again for all the cool advice. *I'm looking into pedals now. *The simpler, the better.

Thanks,
mg

[carlos seo]

I have one of these units for practicing at night and it's a good multieffects box.

It has 33 effects (9 simultaneous) and 36 totally programmable patches, plus a noise reduction system (ZNR). *When I got it out of the box, I realized that the patches aren't programmed in a useful way, as there were too radical sound changes between one and it's next or previous. So, the first thing I did was to program them in a useful way (I prefer one clean-channel patch, another one for rhythm distortion and a last one for leads, all in the same bank). If I mess up too much and realize that I screwed this thing up, I'll just reset it and restore the factory presets. The coolest thing in this unit is an effect called "Cry", that emulates a Talk-Box. The ZNR works well, although it can make your tone too artificial sometimes.

I suggest you getting your guitar and amp to a music store nearby and test this one for at least one hour, so you can check all effects and configuration options. If you wanna buy one, keep in mind that the construction is not strong enough to take several live performances without a backup.

[bduersch]

I have a 505 II I use as part of my practice/backup rig. To sum it up simply: For $70 or so you get tons of flexibility and a good variety of FX, but it sounds like a $70 FX unit. If you're really hung up about the quality of particular FX, you're probably better off buying a bunch of boss pedals, but if you're more concerned about price/value, then this Zoom box is where it's at. As Carlos mentioned, with almost all digital FX devices, it takes time to sit down and tweak the presets and reorganize them to make them more useful.

I've actually started using this with my main rig only for the "cry" preset... it's pretty cool.

--Brent

(Edited by bduersch at 11:12 am on Feb. 4, 2001)

[petedz]

I recently started playing again, and I wanted to replace my rack with something more transportable. I compared the Boss GT-3, Digitech RP, POD, Korg 1000, etc. *In spite of having a major prejudice against Zoom stuff, I ended up with a Zoom GFX-8. If you use it into the front of an amp, it was the clear winner over everything except the Korg. *The Korg sounded good too, but personal preference took over. To my ears: Zoom = 80s, Korg = 90s. YMMV

I've had the Zoom for about 5 months. I feed the GFX-8 into the front end of a Boogie Mk III combo and sound way better than I deserve to. (Crappy drop-outs when patch switching --but that's what you get for 300 bucks.)

Having said that, everything else I've tried from Zoom was pretty sad.

Disclaimer: Everybody else here is smarter than I am.

[Shane Hendricks]

I just wanted to drop a line here, albeit a little late.

I recently bought a new Jem and plugged into my Carvin SX200D. *I was used to my older guitar, which has active pick-ups, driving the distortion circuit of the amp. *The Jem did not drive the circuit worth a poop. *Here I was with a $1400 guitar that did not sound better than my $800 guitar through the same amp.

So I bought a Zoom 505mkII and tried it - key here is WITH MY AMP and Jem. *The patch C1, which is supposed to emulate Van Halen's tone, was my favorite right from the beginning. *Once I tweaked it a little, it sounded fine to me right through my amp's clean B channel. *Maybe not as good as direct through the amp distortion circuit with my other guitar, but it sounded better than when I was trying to use my Digitech TSR24 to add gain for my A channel's distortion circuit with the Jem. *The Digitech is a 24 bit studio processor compared to the Zoom's 16 bits!

To me, the Zoom is very usuable, even in a live situation (unless you stomp the hell out of your effects pedals). *When playing live, you have even less to worry about (IMHO) in terms of tone, etc., because you lose a lot simply based on the situation (crowd noise, people talking, amount of space creating natural reverb to sap your tone, outdoor space which swallows your tone, etc.). *This is where having a good amp comes in. *Steve Vai himself even said once that he doesn't worry about the nuances much live, because so much is lost between the speaker and the listener's ear. *It becomes more about what the guitarist perceives than what the audience actually perceives. *When recording or practicing, the sound is most likely coming right out of the amp and right into your ear - there's no space for it to bounce around in and lose something in terms of tone. *So 16 bits verses 24 bits when playing live is even less important (IMHO).

So to me the Zoom is fine if you keep in mind that it can only provide you with the bare basics. *Your average Joe Listener isn't going to notice if you're playing through that or something else. *You may notice but it's all about settings and attitude. *Tweak your amp and pedal - that's why god put those little knobs and switches on there.

:mc: