All user reviews for the Zoom 505II Guitar

I've been playing guitar for about 7 years. mainly acoustic, but I've always loves effects and the countless sounds that can come out of
the tons of pedals out there
my biggest influences are pink floyd and radiohead

I picked up the 505II for about 90$CAD at Steve's in Ottawa



I was just looking for something simple with various mods and amp types
...nothing too fancy
I love the fact that not is it only an easy to use beginner pedal, but with 36 preset effects
and the ability to create your own and morph
the existing ones, it's surprisingly easy

plastic...ugh

see above...you have to be nice to her

again, good beginner pedal for cheap

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I Got This At Wodwind And Brasswind. I Paid 50.00 Dollars.

It Has Some Cool And Usefull Sounds On It. Almost All Of The Presets Are Pretty Bad. You Can Make Some Awsome Sounds By Yourself Though.

Like I Said, The Presets Are Pretty Bad. It Doesn't Have The "Pro" Sound Of More Expensive Effects. Also The Plastic Casing Seems Like It Could Break Easily.

The Casing Is Plastic. The Quality Is Pretty Good For The Price.

This Would Make An Awsome First Effects Pedal (It Was Mine). Also, If You Are Looking For A Pedal That You Can Use On Tour And Stuff, This Isn't What Your Lokking For. Innless You Are Not Picky About Sound Quality.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I am a trailblazin' Iron Maiden guitarist and for that one needs effects for ones guitar.So I did buy one of it for my musical arsenal.I purchased it from E-bay for around INR 3000.

Once you read the instructions,its usage is a piece of cake.Effects are excellent like overdrive to acoustic or from metal to tremolo.You name it,it has it.


It is dangerously delicate looking.

It is made of superior quality plastic.Although you can use it directly,I prefrebly use a separate foot pedal.Its portable and smart looking.

You like to play the guitar?Then it is worth the money you will or may pay.Personally though,I will give it a 4/5.Indeed,a very good product from Zoom.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I paid $79.99 for the unit from Alpha Music in Virginia Beach, VA. I also brought a cabinet simulator direct box with this.

The Effect sound very nice. I like how you can set the unit up to Queue up patches instead of changes one patch at a time. The built in tuner is very accurate. I have not started making my own patches yet but it's straight forward and easy to program.

Did not come with an AC Adaptor. Thank God for Radio Shack. It does not have a switch so if you leave your guitar connected and forget to take out the batteries. Count on it being dead the next day.

Construction seems good. Light weight and small enought to throw in a gig bag. Quality also seems good. Only time will tell.

I think for the price and would you get it is an excellent buy. It just needs to come with the adaptor. For my setup it has a lot of potentional and I'm sure I'll get some good uses out of it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I went right online to zoom.com to look for a pedal like my friend's zoom 505 effects unit. What I found was the 505II, the same great pedal with a few tweeks.
After reading about this unit for awile, I figured with the same great performance and the low cost of $79.95, I couldn't go wrong.

I like this unit for the great sound quallity. It has the best verieties of distortion and modulation. The limited reverb effects are perfectly balanced for generic reverb sound.
This unit is extreamly user friendly. Not only does it come with outstanding factory presets, but it is also very easy to make your own. Just set the selector switch to the effect you want to tweak and tweak it. When you get the sound you want, just hit store. Its that easy.

The few downsides of the unit are; the pause between effect changes, limited amount of reverb, limited EQ, and the pedals are a little close together. Also the fact that you have the option to use an expression pedal is good, but expensive.

The unit's housing is durable, sleek, and handsomly silver. Although the pedals are a little close together, they're big enough to see and hit acuratly from a standing position. It has a bright digital display to let you know what bank and efect you are on. The unit also has a master volume control for fine tuned sound control. I think it is a very comfortable effects unit not for the price of accesibility.

This is a very good unit for beginers through advanced players. The price is right for the efficiancy of this unit. And it has the best distortion options I have ever had the plaesure of using. Thank you for the great deal on my Zoom 505II guitar effects unit.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

After a lot of pestering, I finally got my dad to buy me the zoom 505 II. Initially I wanted the 606, but had to settle for the 505 II later on. I paid Indian Rupees 4500, roughly around $95. I bought this unit after I read a LOTT of reviews and actually tried out the 505 I, 505 II, and 606

The best thing about this unit is its ease of use. Alritey, when u are changing fx and expect a whole load of presets at your feet...sorry brudder o mine, this baby can handle only 2 memory calls to each distortion each time ... only two pedals, so u've got to have the distortions streamlined to your gig in the memory patches. The feel and look of the unit is awesome. The settings are easy to operate.

The distortion deserves a mention - ok look guys..its not the best distortion out there...but it sure packs a lot of punch in it. Most of the distortions (especially the Fender Clean - fdr, Distortion - dt, and the PVY drive distortions KIK ASS). If u looking at giggin small time - this unit is definitely for u. If u planning on woodstock - forget it. LOL

I've heard a lot of complaints abt the input jacks going haywire..nothing has happened so far - in the first 3 months that is. Try digital recording on this baby and the sound comes out really DIGITAL and sukssss. Even a Creative LIVE soundcard sampled it rather bad on LINE IN. But..the amp pumps out some good distortion though. I feel the Metal Distrortion is great...the plain Distortion does the job pretty well...actually kiks ass.

The construction is well...lets say....the best when u consider the price of the unit. It look durable. Don't be fooled by the company's claim of SPACE AGE PLASTIC....get u'r mama to sit on it...and u goinna have a multitude of a multifx box

I'd recommend this baby to any intermediate / beginner. Good value for money. Packs a lot of tones ... comes close to many signature tones...like Metallica - Black Album, Slayer, Kill em all. Just a wee....a real wee lil bit digitized though.

U goinna have hours of fun with this box i bet.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

second hand, 62 euro. I wanted flanger, chorus, etc but didn't have the money for all the different boss pedals

There are a lot of patches on the internet, and after trying lots of them and make some of my own, I now have some really good sounds!

To go from one sound to another during a song, you can only go 1 preset down or 1 preset up, so you really have to pay attention what preset you put next to the other so you can make it through your song.

It's second hand and still no damage, but it doesn't look like you can accidently throw it off your balcony.

I think it's amazing that for little money you get a lot of possibilities and super good sounds!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I payed 69.99 dollars for the unit and bought it from a Sam Ash outlet in Orlando Florida.

There are tons and tons of customization options on this multi effect pedal. Its got delays, chorus, reverbs, distortions, even an accoustic simulator which isnt half bad! Its a great way to start yourself out in guitar effects.

With 36 pre created effects, 12 distortions, 4 delays, several wah options, harmonies, chorus and etc this thing will give you hours apon hours of just sitting there and listening to each effect, its so cool! Comes with a headphone jack.

Several useless(to me anyway) effects come in the 36 precreated effects, however you can easily replace them with your own customized effect.

Plus you will probably wan't to buy the 16 dollar AC adapter to power the unit unless you want to change batteries every 20 hours, that is an unfortunate limitation. I bought the adapter after a month of wasting money on batteries.

The construction and quality are superb. The unit itself is made of hard plastic and it is very very durable. The pedals never get stuck and neither do the dials no matter how much you stomp on the thing. Its a sturdy piece of equipment.

This unit gives you a great introduction to guitar effects and gives you tons of effect options to choose from.

Its a ton of fun to play around with and I was actually very satisfied with some of the distortions and delays, they proved to be a great alternative to the crappy distortion on my amplifier.

I highly recomend this to beginning guitarists, however experienced guitarists will probably wont something a little more powerful along the lines of the Boss GT6 or ME-50. A great product overall however, I gave it a 4 out of 5.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Well I got this unit from my mum who is buying me the "cheapest pedal " in the shop u can get. It is from Hong Kong and I have no idea how much it would cost.

I read the other reviews and none of them mentioned about the Tuner function of this pedal which is totally awsome. Unlike those weird pedals with a gauge sorta looking thing, this one actually can help u down tune to a Drop-C tuning within 20 seconds if u are fast.

And also this pedal has actaully got more funky sounds that you would expect, although u usually play on the same effect anyway, but slowly after u played for a while with this pedal you will find the other effects useful and also start editing your own effects (which is easy).

It is small and easy to carry around, great for beginners, looks kinda cool as well.

The Wah effect in this pedal is not really the pefect choice for using trying to play one of those solos from "metallica".

The changing of the effects sometimes is a pain in the Butt because you can only change effect which is one up or one down from the one that you are using, so you have to make sure the effects are "next to each other" before playing the songs with multiple effects. And when u change, there is a sudden pause in the sound, which is not good for performance.

Well I hav had this pedal for about 2 years now. About a year after i had the pedal the input plug just suddenly stopped responding. You have to push the wire left and right until u get the inputs actually going. ( Now I just used ducktape to wrap it around and it has worked for another year , donno how long it is going to last after that.)

Afterall if you are a beginner or you are looking for a pedal with cool effects at a low price this one is just perfect.

But if you are a pro and looking for something that you can use on stage this is not really the pedal u will be considering.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got the Zoom 505 II pedal of eBay for about 70 bucks. I think it's around 100 in stores so I was happy. I got it because I just started a band and needed something other than the amp for effects.

I like the ease of use! Real easy to change stuff on the fly. (I had to change volume before while playing and that was no biggie) You don't even really need the book but it's a nice reference if you don't get something.

I don't like the fact that from one effect you can only go to two others. You have to think ahead about how your song is going to go and make sure that the effects are right next to the one you start.

This would be the part I really don't like. The plastic construction is alright. The actually pedals are fine and stable. The only thing is that one day it stopped working all together. I took it apart and found that the power input broke off from the rest of the stuff. I got it sodered and it works but I don't know for how much longer.

Great little pedal for the guy that does a little bit of travel but it can't gig regularly. Good for the beginner of just poor guitar player. (like me!)

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this from Electrohill in London, for £65. I needed something that would have a decent range of effects, and would go with my Peavey Rage 158 amp.

Metal, acoustic, clean, distortion, wah, all sound good. You can give it a room or hall effect to it. The tuner is really helpful. Plus it can push up the volume on any amp. When jaming with drums and bass, the metal sound is so good.

You can't jump from one effect to another, without reseting all the digits on each option. The inputs for the leads, aren't practible. When you do jump from one effect, theres a little pause between each one. When you want to change a tone option, you have to do it by hand, which isn't practible when standing up, and using your foot. And you can't adjust the feedback.

It's built quite well. It's not totally easy to use though. However it gives out some really good tones.

I'd save a bit more, and get the Zoom 606, which comes with an actually foot pedal, and more options. The 505II isn't a total loss though.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I aquired this because I was using my shitty overdrive in the 10 Wat "amp" (if it is an "amp").

For about 80$ US (in 2002)

I like the choice of the effects.
It does'nt have many but ITS OK.

The Distortions are Good.

I dont like it because it's PLASTIC!!!

You need to mess up with this thing at least for 1 month untill you get the "HEAD"
of this thing.

Its Compact and nice looking Afordable 2.

The first 6 months I had this thig the buttons started not to work.

YOU'R NOT RICH ENOUGH TO BUY CHEAP STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EVERY DISTORTION OR EFFECT NEED'S AND EQUALIZER TO SOUND LIKE YOU WANT IT TO SOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com