Members dkerwood Posted November 9, 2009 Members Share Posted November 9, 2009 I'm just thinking back over a lot of gear that I've owned over the last couple of decades, and my memory lingers over the first multi-fx pedal I ever owned- the Zoom 505. This was, of course, back in the mid-90's. I was about a year or so into my guitar playing journey. My guitar at the time was a Squier II Strat, and my amp was a solid state 1x12 Fender combo (with a sweet nylon cover, baby). I owned a few single effects, but wasn't really sure how to achieve the sound that I had in my head. Thus, I decided to pick up a box with everything in it and, after mowing a few lawns, I sprung for the Zoom. Now, I won't be trying to tell you that the tone was incredible or anything. It wasn't. It was sufficient for what I was trying to do at the time. It did, however, have a couple of really cool features that I miss. First was a sound thing. The Zoom had a cool effect that I believe was called "Step" or something like that. It was essentially a multi-stage square wave filter, jumping through different frequencies and creating a cool computer glitch/auto-arpeggiator sound. I liked that sound a lot. Very cool, very unique. I still have a cassette tape recording of me doing a song with a band using that effect pretty extensively. I've never been able to find it since. Second was a feature thing. The Zoom had 4 patches in each of 6 banks. At default, you could use the two footswitches to cycle through these patches. However, I soon ran into the problem where I didn't necessarily always have two patches I liked right next to each other. Maybe I'd have a great clean tone next to a great dirty tone next to a great lead tone. But what would I do when I needed to go directly from my lead tone to my clean tone? Or worse, if I had my unique Step-effect tone stored in C3 and then needed the heavy distortion I had stored in A1, what could I do? Scrolling through all those effects wasn't desirable, or even possible if I had to go through a lot of patches in a short time. For a while, I tried doing as the 6 banks of 4 implied- I set up 6 "sets" of 4 tones: Clean, lo gain, hi gain, specialty. Soon, though, I found myself duplicating patches and generally wasting space. So I dug into the manual and discovered "Direct Load OFF" mode. Normally, if you scroll up, you load the next patch. In "Direct Load OFF" mode, you can scroll wherever you want and stay on the original patch. Thus, I could load A1 and scroll out to C4 without hitting everything in between. When I got to C4 and was ready to change, I simply stepped on both pedals simultaneously and C4 loaded instantly. Fast forward to today. I now use a RP-200A at church or when I don't want to haul an amp and/or pedalboard around to a small gig. And I find myself doing what I had to do with the bloody Zoom- put lo gain sounds next to hi gain sounds and set it all up for convenient patch changes... I rather miss the "Direct Load OFF" mode these days. Anyway, after using the pedal for over a year, my car was stolen outside of a rock club- guitar, amp, and pedal (as well as some other gear) in the trunk. Haven't seen it since, but the memories remain. Thoughts on this pedal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrfresh782 Posted November 9, 2009 Members Share Posted November 9, 2009 yeah, i had one. it wasnt bad for what it was. the step filter can now be found on zvex seek wah etc, or in the m9. i remember i used to like the tone i got by overloading the compressor and playing into my silverface champ, it was a real down home raw blues sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RadioSilence Posted November 9, 2009 Members Share Posted November 9, 2009 i had the 506, bass version, and i loved it. my first pedal, taught me all about fx. my guitarist had the zoom 2020 and used that step filter effect, he loved it too i think the original robotalk pedal can do the same thing, but they removed that function from the robotalk 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members joeyowen Posted November 9, 2009 Members Share Posted November 9, 2009 i had the 606 and the 707both saw me through a lotttt of gigs as a younger teenager!some cool sounds, and taught me a lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mind_Riot89 Posted November 9, 2009 Members Share Posted November 9, 2009 Had the 707 then the GFX-5 and now I have the G2 for times when I can't lug my pedalboard/acoustic gigs. Those multi-fx saw me through more gigs than my good equipment did. That's a bit sad actually, considering how horrifically muddy the distortion models were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members conky Posted November 9, 2009 Members Share Posted November 9, 2009 I too rocked the {censored} out of a 505. It sat right next to my Digitech Grunge pedal and ran into my Peavey Express 112. I miss that set up sometimes and wish I still had it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Amplifier Worship Posted November 9, 2009 Members Share Posted November 9, 2009 My first effects box was a 505 as well. I was just thinking about the step mode the other day. I thought the acoustic simulator on it was great, as was the auto swell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Drugo Posted November 9, 2009 Members Share Posted November 9, 2009 I had a 707 too!And as Mike was saying, i made with it way more gigs then i should have! (i really liked the loop function in it, and the tuner too! a lot of functions considering it was pretty cheap) (and yeah, that "step" thing was very very cool!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Inspector 71 Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 My buddy had one and would leave it over at my place. This was my first intro into multi fx. My wah pedal sounded the best through the dist settings. My other buddy bought the 505II for his trumpet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members valvestate Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 Good read! Zoom 505 was also my very first effect then 'upgraded' to 606. They were all heavily gigged 10 years ago. It was awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seifukusha Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 i read Billy corgan used a 505 on parts of Machina, and thats pretty cool. NIN and Prince laso have used zoom stuff zoom have always been awesome, people love to hate them because theyre plastic , but everything is still made in japan, and they keep coming up with new stuff. i miss my old zoom driver 5000, hell of a dirtbox for highgain stuff. noone talks about them anymore here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members olgluefoot Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 yup! a 505 was my first pedal Still love messing with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dkerwood Posted November 10, 2009 Author Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 One of these days, I'll find one in a pawn shop for cheap and I'll pick it up. I wonder how it takes pedals? For the life of me, I don't think I ever tried other pedals with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 88mm Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 Still have mine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cobalt-60 Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 I remember my Digitech RP200. I had a lot of fun with the expression pedal, I could assign anything to it and do a lot of odd things like rock the pass of a Phaser like a wah pedal, or rhythmically change the speed. It also had a Whammy setting which I loved. I remember getting really good at playing with the layout of it, and enjoying that. The big pain in the ass though was the bypass, you had to push both buttons at once. People kept saying pedals were better, so I believed them. I got bunch of Dano and DOD pedals for about the price of the RP-200. Wish I still had the French Toast and the old blue DOD Chorus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Johansolo Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 i had a 505 when i first started too...then i upgraded to a 1010then korgs Ax1000G...the boss GT6 to GT3 to GT8 (with single pedals setup inbetween owning multifx to) i recently replaced my behringer Vamp2/Line 6 POD for a Zoom G1u...solely for DI recording and love it. i really wanted the G2R thou but sadly you can edit patches via usb on that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thisISjoel Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 I bought a used 506 as my first pedal (used it on guitar cos I was a noob) and I loved the crap outta it. I think it must have broke though cos I ended up with and RP50 which I never liked nearly as much as the zoom. Then I had a ME-30 which I also really liked (the distortions are pretty useless but some nice mod/delay stuff and a really liked the wah. When that started getting sketchy on me I bought a zoom gfx-4, like the boss dirt sounds were horrible but the other stuff was all totally usable, except the wah, that was horrible. Now I just have a few cheap stompboxes and while I think I have a better overall tone now I still think about just picking up a cheap multi for playing around with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members valvestate Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 I never though that there are a lot of Zoom lovers here... awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Crxsh Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 I had the 505II..... and it had the standard +/- as virtually every other multi out there: terrible dirt, fun filters, passable delay, and decent modulation. I was happy to see it go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members <JT> Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 I used a 707 from '99-'03 and I thought it was the cat's pyjamas at the time... I gave it to one of my youth group kids earlier this year and it's his turn to drive the neighborhood crazy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Amplifier Worship Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 i read Billy corgan used a 505 on parts of Machina, and thats pretty cool. NIN and Prince laso have used zoom stuffzoom have always been awesome, people love to hate them because theyre plastic , but everything is still made in japan, and they keep coming up with new stuff.i miss my old zoom driver 5000, hell of a dirtbox for highgain stuff. noone talks about them anymore here. To this day, one of the best studio reverbs i've heard was off one of the older zoom pro rack units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members celoedus Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 haha i'm dating myself here but I remember these back in the day, it was zoom's first right? (or something very similiar).. looked like a sony discman.. I remember peeps being all excited about the fact they could wear attach these to the guitar strap... http://www.chrisguitars.com/zoom-9000-040412.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seifukusha Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 haha i'm dating myself herebut I remember these back in the day, it was zoom's first right? (or something very similiar).. looked like a sony discman.. I remember peeps being all excited about the fact they could wear attach these to the guitar strap...http://www.chrisguitars.com/zoom-9000-040412.jpg yep, that was it. my pal had one like in 1990 or so when i went to uni. i was like what is that?!? cool times..i see them in shops in japan sometimes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cantoXIII Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 my brother bought one of these when i was in 8th grade and just learning how to play. used to plug a squier strat into some mixer plugged into a PA speaker. recently found one at a pawn shop and got it for his birthday. after messing around with it for a few minutes, was able to get some fun sounds. nothing too usable, but fun. good memories with this pedal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 the 505 also was my first multigot it for the step filter effect aloneI really abused it and it never let me downI ended up using it on bass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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