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Zoom 505...useful or not?


metalheadUK

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Yesterday I got a free Zoom 505 multi FX.

 

I tried it out quickly..Reverbs and echoes sounded OK, distortion was a bit....meh!

 

Just as I realised these were patches done by someone, and I reset it to factory default, the battery went dead.

 

I'm gonna look for a wall wart in a minute, but I was after something small to use downstairs for noodling through my MG10, and was thinking of a pocket pod.

 

If I mess with the parameters and stuff, will the 505 sound good enough for noodling through my MG without me wanting to cut my ears off?

 

It does seem to have some knarly FX that, whilst not subtle, could be useful for recording.

 

Opinions?

 

:thu:

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Did you mug a granny?
:eek:

 

Yep, but not for her FX....

 

I popped in to see a mate I hadn't seen for a while, and he said to me that another mutual friend had knocked, said he didn't want his old 505 anymore, and to get my friend to "give it to Marc", which he did, and then he gave me the pedal!

 

:thu:

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The flanger, chorus, delay, reverb and the pitch shifter are pretty nice if you use it in the effects loop or into a monitor. It also lets you sample some effects you would probably never buy a pedal for (ring modulator, cry, step) Don't use it for amp simulation or distortion though.

 

Also the phaser sucks and the wah is terrible.

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I had one when I was like 12 years old and just learning guitar lol. I thought it was awesome at first but I got tired of it pretty quickly and sold it. I'd like to try one again now that I'm a more experienced player for {censored}s and giggles.

 

 

This.

Except I was ~16, and I lent it to a guy who never gave it back, then claimed I never lent it to him.

 

In retrospect, he may have done me a favor.

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It's fine for grins and giggles. Even if you take out the amp sims, the EQ, etc. it will still have a digitized sheen to the sound. The chorus sounded pretty good, and like primativ said, it lets you try out some effects you'd never pay for on their own. I didn't think the distortions were that horrible, but there's much better ones out there to be had.

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Terje Rypdal used one for delays and verb in 2002 at the end of his pedal chain. Worked nice, sounded great and people couldn't believe he used a 505. I own one too, but haven't tried it for over 10 years. I remember it sounded somewhat plastic, but was fun when I first got one (was my first multifx).

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the 505 should definitely be okay for some casual playing, trying out ridiculous effects, and just having fun.

 

I bought the Zoom GFX707, which is basically the 505 but with an expression pedal and drum machine, when I was about 15. It was pretty cool for me back then as like some said, it allowed me to try out a variety of effects. I actually remember liking the phaser and especially the ring modulator. Nothing on it is all that great, but for some casual couch jamming, it is great. Just remembered it has a 6 sec. looper which was awesome too.

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I had an old first version 505 and got the expression pedal to go with it, It was my main rig for several years and used it as a headphone amp all the time, obviously I got a better unit soon after but I feel a little nostalgic about the little 505, the cleans with some delay and some chorus were snappy, the wha wha was very usable for me and the distortions were useful in front of a cheap amp.

 

Hell I recorded most of my existing demo songs with the 505's distortions using an old demo version of Revalver for tweeking with the final result.

 

Take in mind that the pedal came out just right before the whole line 6 emulation revolution thing.

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the 505 should definitely be okay for some casual playing, trying out ridiculous effects, and just having fun.


I bought the Zoom GFX707, which is basically the 505 but with an expression pedal and drum machine, when I was about 15. It was pretty cool for me back then as like some said, it allowed me to try out a variety of effects. I actually remember liking the phaser and especially the ring modulator. Nothing on it is all that great, but for some casual couch jamming, it is great. Just remembered it has a 6 sec. looper which was awesome too.

 

 

I have that, too. Paired up w/ my crappy 15 watt Crate amp at the time, it opened up all sorts of new terrain for me. Now, I use it as a tuner when the battery in my other one dies. And occasionally I'll mess around w/ some of the ridiculous effects just for fun.

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I have a Zoom 2100 multi-pedal, which, as far as I can tell, is not that different from the 505, only with a couple more buttons and effects. It's kind of fun to play around with once you figure out how to program the patches, but it would be pretty useless in a live situation because you really can't tweek the patches on the fly. It has 20 banks of patches and you can only cycle through them in one direction, so if you want an effect on bank 3 and you are on 4, you have to tap the button 19 times.

 

Some of the effects (reverb, chorus, etc) are OK. I could never find an overdrive or distortion sound I really liked.

 

It mostly sets in a drawer... about once a year, when I have nothing else to do, I'll drag it out to see if I can get some good tones out of it, and then it goes back into the drawer.

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Years ago, I had a 505 ll that I used for home practice and occasional jams. It was ok for home use at low volume, and as stated above, the tuner was decent. One time I actually gigged with it, and man, was that a mistake. It sounded horrible when turned up. But the later Zoom series - the G2 is quite impressive and I've gigged with my G2.1u a number of times. I also have a G9.2tt which is amazing. But the 505 is more of an entry level fx unit and is ok for what it is, but not a serious piece of gear.

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I had/have the 506, which is the bass version. I used to run my bass into the 506, then into an Art Tube MP, then into an Alesis NanoCompressor when recording.

 

WTF was I thinking? :o

 

Actually it did what I wanted it to do, and never let me down. Never used it in a live setting though, and only used it with a guitar to get the autowah effect.

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505's are good for 80's alternarock stuff like the Cure, Smiths, Psychedelic Furs, even some clean-ish mild pop stuff like the Cars and Police. Not ideal for heavy distortion rock.

 

I used a 2002 for many years, had a creamy thick distortion that had amazing overtones & harmonics, but it also had a horrible hiss like a 60's Marshall stack turned above 8.

 

Nowadays I use a Zoom 8080, which has some decent amp modeling and a wide range of distortions, and I play direct in to the PA. When I do play with an amp, I use a Peavey Classic Chorus 212 and the Zoom emulates that sound precisely.

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