ZOOM 505 GUITAR
Compact Multi Effects Processor

Zoom 505 has to be the greatest all around all purpose effects pedal out there! If you want to get a little of everything, but don't quite have the outrageous amounts of money to purchase all the seperate pedals, then Zoom is for you. Whether you wanna go bluesy or just thrash your little heart out, this thing has it all. Ok...now that you understand how I feel about this modern marvel, let's go through a breif description of it's capabilities.

For those of you who have been deprived the use of this awesome musical tool, let me just say this.....this is the most underrated, and misrepresented pedal around!

The Magnificent Zoom-505

Zoom is one of those pedals that people put down just because one person had a bad experience with one. All the people I know, who don't like them are too stupid to know how to use them correctly. Anyone who says Zoom isn''t the most useful and versital pedal for the lowest price is an asshole, plain and simple. If you read the manual, and have at least three braincells in your head, then you can work this thing. The problem is that most people don't have the patience. Also the Zooms compact size, and light weight make it seem like more of a toy, when in fact it's not.

A GREAT PEDAL FOR THE PRICE

Like I said in the article about intonation, not everyone can afford expensive equipment, and the people that can usually treat their stuff like crap (I'm talking about my age group here 15-20) Much like that cheap guitar you have to baby in order to sound presentable, the Zoom also is nothing to kick around. If handled delicately, the Zoom will last you a while. I've had mine for a year or so and it works as good as ever. So now that we have that out of the way, lets go over some components of the thing.

--COMPRESSOR--

"COMPRESSOR": - This feature I really don't use much, and is the only part of the pedal I find useless. It is more or less a treble control

"PEDAL WAH": - If you have the optional expression pedal, this turns your Zoom 505 into 9 different wah pedals. But if you don't fret not!! It makes a great beatlish nasal sound. Sort of like a Vox wah half compressed.

--DISTORTION--

"ACOUSTIC": - Not terribly useful for me, seeing as it makes it really quiet. It comes in handy for bass. Also if you have a larger amp. You can crank it up and get a great clean sound. Try this with a bit of hall effect and the pickup selecter in the middle on somthing with dual humbuckers. With this you can maintain distortion free sound even at high volumes.

"RHYTHM": - Same as above really, but this one allows you to ajust the gain, so you can get a nice vintage sound with this.

"OD": - Overdrive - This is one of my favorites. It gets a bluesy sound. If you like Zeppelin, use this one on about gain 28.

"DIST": - METAL!!!!! Simply put. Great for early Ozzy, and Randy Rhoads stuff. Use this with the doubler and your in 80's metal heaven.

"BLUES": - Like odd, but less nasaly, and more bassy. Good for use with neck pick-up.

"FUZZ": - Get's you that 60's Psycadelic era sound. This one is good if youlike Hendrix, Clapton, or later Yardbirds.

"LEAD": - Very trebly version of blues.

"METAL": - Superb for Metallica. Make sure your amp can handle this one. Not good for small amps at high volumes. It will just rumble more than anything else. This may sound cool, but trust me it's not!

--ZNR/Amp Block--

"ZNR (Zoom Noise Reduction)": - When you play with lots of gain, you sometimes get this kind of a hiss/hum sound. Don't you hate that shit?Well Zoom Noise Reduction gets rid of 90% of it. I always have it on it's highest setting A9.

"AMP BLOCK": - I'm not sure what this is supposed to do, but it's basically the same as ZNR.

--4 BAND EQUALIZER--

"4-Band Equalizer": - Do you know what an equaliser is? Good! Let's move on.

"PHASE SHIFT": - This makes for a nice rotating speaker sound.

--MODULATION--

"CHORUS": - This is perhaps the most frequently used effect nowadays. Often to simulate the sound of a 12 string. It takes the note you play, and doubles it. The duplicated signal is played slightly off pitch so it seems like two guitars thus creating a bigger sound. Many new bands make it hard on themselves and opt instead to have several guitarists play the same thing.

"FLANGER": - Much like the Phaser, but with less of a swirling sound to it. This will simulate that smudge cassette tape sound that sounds great on drums.

"DOUBLING": - Like the chorus this also doubles the signal, but instead of making the second signal slightly off pitch, it makes it slightly delayed. This can also make for a sound of multiple guitars.

"STEP": - This is a weird computer sound. Not very useful for a song, but great for stoning out during a bridge.

"PITCH SHIFT": - These are various harmonizers. Unless you have a good ear, stay aways from this one.

--DELAY/REVERB--

DELAY" - This one has nine different settings. The ninths is a strait up one second repeat of anything you play. As you go down the delay gets more gradual, until it's merely a faint echo. It's not that versital in that it only has nine settings. If your really into imitating someone else, you might not find what your looking for one, but if you have an identity of your own, then it's great.

"HALL EFFECT": - Simply stated. This will make you sound like you are in a hall. At high volumes this may cause feedback, but that can be useful on occasion.

"ROOM EFFECT": - I like this one alot, becuase I play in small roms, and this helps one create the illusion of playing in a large studio.

--PATCH LEVEL--

This controls your volume level basically. Certain patches may sound louder than others even with this setting the same on all of them, due to gain and whatnot. SO with this you can make them all balanced out. I often have two or three of the same patch next to each other with just slight variations in gain and Level.