Zoom 505 II Review

History:

Purchase: I am a guitarist with a moderate amount of experience but currently, mediocre gear. A friend of mine has the first version of the 505 series pedal and recommended I buy the 505 II. I did some reading, read some reviews made sure it had good backing and even went to the store to gawk at it and on return visits to my friend’s house, used his. I was sold. So, later down the line, when I got a few pennies (actually about 80 bucks) I ordered it from Mars music overnight (because I’m very impatient when it comes to waiting for packages) and the next day I had my new toy.

What I Like About This Unit: This little pedal makes my 15-watt fender scream. I’m very impressed on the solo practice personal use side. It has good distortions and the presets, while some of them ridiculous, held among them, a few gems. From my experience with the first version of this pedal there have been many great updates. You get two extra patches to each bank (making it a total of 6 patches in each of 6 banks and thus, 36 total), a knob for selecting different specs in edit mode, and some other good controls. Depending on your taste it has a better outer design and it seems smaller but still equally useable. If you can manage to get settings down well you have a potential for tone and put through a good amp, this baby is a monster. Also, the inherent ability to display your patches in a written form (ie. Volume: 25, gain: 12, dist: blues, etc…) internet sites have done a good job of putting up many patches for you to choose from.

What I Do NOT Like About The Zoom 505 II: First off, this is a digital pedal. That makes for a small gap of silence in-between patch changes but as my friend demonstrated, you can be creative about working around this minor detail. Secondly, I don’t like the plastic construction and I personally would have preferred a different style of pedal maybe more along the lines of a stomp box style button switch. More problems come up when switching to patches that are separated by other patches. You have to be a quick trapper to get it down unless you want to place patches together based on your need of them in a performance type situation. And lastly, I cannot read that damn LCD in any kind of daylight. Only in a moderate or darker lit room can I read it well.

505 II Quality: You would assume a plastic casing on a stomp box style pedal would be a bad choice and while I still say it is, it has proven it self more than worthy. I have stomped the heck out of it and once dropped it on concrete form a standing height while fumbling with the battery slot. Still works!

Summary: Professional musicians, this is not for you. I would not even recommend this to a gigging band unless you use only one or two distortions per song (in which case I recommend you nestle them together). This is for people who sit in their room and play a lot. And for the price you simply cannot beat it. Just think, ten years ago, you would have to buy a rack mount in the upwards of 500 dollars to match this baby.

Rating of this product: 4

This Zoom Guitar Effects Review Submitted By: Isaac

Date: 2001-07-07