Zoom 505

Customer Ratings:
List Price: Price Unavailable
Sale Price: Price Unavailable
Today's Bonus:

• 24 world-class Zoom guitar effects with up to 9 you can use simultaneously
• The latest and greatest distortions, delays, reverbs, wah, chorus, flanger, EQ, 2-octave pitch bend and more.
• Stereo line out/headphone out with master level control.

Click Here to Read More Reviews >>

I actually got this pedal many years ago and thankfully it was still being made in Japan which probably explains why it still works a charm more than a decade later. I've since used it frequently while jamming and practicing either at home or in a band setup in a friend's place and I really liked the fact that there are 24 different combinations of effects that you can choose from although truth be told I've settled over the years to just a handful of these combinations whenever I play. Still, I like the way I don't have to connect various effects boxes together to get a nice sound and that I can also fine tune the settings if I like although I rarely if ever do this in practice. I also like the in-built tuner which comes in handy especially in a noisy setting.

And now the not-so-good elements: I used this on-stage during a paying gig once and it just died on me midway through the set! Thankfully I had a spare battery in my pocket and a sympathetic audience as well as a professional enough band to cover for me while I spent the minute or so making the battery change. This baby consumes a lot of power and so if you decide to use this live in a performance, make sure that you put in a fresh alkaline battery. Alternatively, you can use the 9 volt adaptor that was included in my original purchase as part of the package in which case it works like a charm. Secondly, stepping on the pedal only allows you to change from setting to setting sequentially. What this means is that if you want to go from say A1 to C3 you can't do that with one step but you'd need to do a minimum of 4 steps by pressing a very small button on the right edge twice and then stepping on the right pedal twice. Try doing all this live if you need to make changes during a tune!

For these reasons, this is a good toy to play with at home or while jamming among friends but it has limited practical uses for the professional or performing musician. I know I may sound antiquated for saying this but I still like pedals and so if I'm ever asked to perform again, unless I can use the adaptor and I do not need to make setting changes during tunes on a set I'm going to the tried and tested individual pedals instead which for me would include an Ibanez Tubescreamer or Thrashmetal or Muff Overdrive with a DOD Compresser/Sustainer and an Arion Delay. Maybe someday I'll "upgrade" to more modern boxes out there for stagework but right now I'll leave nothing to chance.

Overall, I'm pleased with this purchase for what I use it for which is an easy way to get interesting sounds while practicing or jamming with friends and the fact that the one I purchased years ago is still working so well for me speaks volumes for the overall quality of this Zoom product.

Buy Zoom 505 Now

Ok so technically I used the 505II which is an upgraded version of this model. Seriously this is probably the worst sounding pedal I have ever heard. Lets start with the distortions. For the most part they are noisy. Very noisy, On every setting. So noisy that sound barely gets through. This thing has no bottom or top end sound. Midrange is mostly what comes trough. The distortions that are not too noisy are too fuzzy. It sounds like playing a guitar trough a staticy tv. The acoustic sim sounds very muteed like you have towels in your guitar.

Further more the effects on this thing have very limited tweakability. Just like 9 settings for each. Not much variation there. They all sound very thin aswell. This does have one thing going for it. A great swell sound and decent pitch shifting. Other than that though its crap.

Its also quite indurable. Mine lasted less than a year before it quit working. After i started using the plug the battery would no longer work. Plus whats the deal with the modulation effects? They are probably the most useless thign i have ever seen.