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MGR/Anonymous « Zoom 3030 »
Published on 06/26/01 at 15:00I bought the Zoom 3030 from Musician's Friend magazine for around $250 when it was fairly new on the scene. Since then, the price has lowered some. Musician's Friend ran an article about the processor and recommended it, and that was what convinced me to purchase it.
The pedal has all the important effects like wah-wah, distortions, flanger, phaser, reverbs, chorus, and tap-tempo delay (which is nice when you want to really line the delay up with the song.) Then it's got some pretty neat stuff like an auto-harmonizer, which will play harmony with you in a specified key, major and minor, and the amp simulators. Another cool effect is a slow fade which reproduces the sound of a bowed instrument like a cello.
While there are several distortions to choose from, there are only a couple of high quality ones. The metal distortion is so overdriven that it sounds like the dying engine of an old diesel truck. The harmonizer frequently sounds out of tune. The phaser and flanger are disappointing, too. I think the biggest disappointment of all was how quickly the thing fell apart.
I had to repair the guitar input, the output jack, and I repaired the power input three times. The first patch pedal no longer works at all, and the expression pedal doesn't work correctly. The edit button now requires enough pressure to break your finger, but it still works. Now, keep in mind that I have used this processor every single day since I had it, and I have taken it to several gigs, but if the lead guitarist for my band didn't happen to be an electronics technician, I would have spent twice as much repairing it as I did just to buy it. The main problem is, it's made of plastic. The underneath is a metal plate, but the surface is plastic. Imagine what happens to plastic when you stomp on it over, and over, and over....
I wouldn't recommend this processor. In fact, I don't like a whole lot of anything that Zoom has manufactured. The other guitarist in my band owned a Zoom 4040, and he made at least as many repairs to it as I did to mine. Plastic processors fall apart. Or maybe it's just Zoom. I would recommend you go out and buy a nice metal Roland, Digitech, or BOSS. Or, speaking of BOSS, just stick to the old stomp boxes.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
The pedal has all the important effects like wah-wah, distortions, flanger, phaser, reverbs, chorus, and tap-tempo delay (which is nice when you want to really line the delay up with the song.) Then it's got some pretty neat stuff like an auto-harmonizer, which will play harmony with you in a specified key, major and minor, and the amp simulators. Another cool effect is a slow fade which reproduces the sound of a bowed instrument like a cello.
While there are several distortions to choose from, there are only a couple of high quality ones. The metal distortion is so overdriven that it sounds like the dying engine of an old diesel truck. The harmonizer frequently sounds out of tune. The phaser and flanger are disappointing, too. I think the biggest disappointment of all was how quickly the thing fell apart.
I had to repair the guitar input, the output jack, and I repaired the power input three times. The first patch pedal no longer works at all, and the expression pedal doesn't work correctly. The edit button now requires enough pressure to break your finger, but it still works. Now, keep in mind that I have used this processor every single day since I had it, and I have taken it to several gigs, but if the lead guitarist for my band didn't happen to be an electronics technician, I would have spent twice as much repairing it as I did just to buy it. The main problem is, it's made of plastic. The underneath is a metal plate, but the surface is plastic. Imagine what happens to plastic when you stomp on it over, and over, and over....
I wouldn't recommend this processor. In fact, I don't like a whole lot of anything that Zoom has manufactured. The other guitarist in my band owned a Zoom 4040, and he made at least as many repairs to it as I did to mine. Plastic processors fall apart. Or maybe it's just Zoom. I would recommend you go out and buy a nice metal Roland, Digitech, or BOSS. Or, speaking of BOSS, just stick to the old stomp boxes.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com