Anyone still rockin' a Zoom 500 series effects processor?

XWulfhere

I bought this Zoom 507 reverb back in 1998 to add some ambiance to the embryonic recordings I was making on my tascam 4-track at the time. I don't think I ever used it live, and soon got into more sophisticated computer set-ups and until this last week I don't think it had evern been powrred up in 15 years, just stuck in my dad's loft waiting to be rediscovered...

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag118/wulfhere/2BCC12F2-1F8D-4E07-97EE-9D09BD3DF7D1_zpso9dw5bqy.jpg

Anyway, I normally only play directly into my Tiny Terror, but as I just got my new JM Jag I thought maybe I should try and go a bit reverby for the clean sounds and put it in line. Can't say that it's a particularly brilliant but it does seem to be doing it job. Even has delay and a bit of chorus if you need it!

Does anyone even have any of the old Zoom 500 series pedals? I also had a Zoom 510 which was a decent drive pedal for a beginner back when I started out, but I remember trading that and all my other stompboxes in for a Marshall stack back in the 90s...

Pretty sure it cost me £100 back then, I see they're on ebay for £60. Not that I'm going to sell it, but I do have its original box and manual!

BigMonka

I remember drooling over those as a teenager as I couldn't afford one even though they were about the cheapest multieffects you could get. A few years after that I got a Zoom GFX-707 which I still have although haven't used for a good few years. 

I remember the day I got I played for about 12hours straight going through each and every setting - I had some sore fingers after that!

Johnnyseven

I had the regular guitar multi effects version (505?). I loaned it to someone and never asked for it back.

thermionic

I had the Guitar & Bass Amp Simulator, which I got mainly for recording bass. Some of the guitar amp simulations were not too bad, although the speaker simulations gave you a 4x10" for the Marshalls rather than a 4x12". The miking simulation options were quite useful as I remember, combine with a touch of reverb. Very useful little box, but superceded by a Vox Tonelab (better sounds and user interface but lacking a bass amp apart from a Fender Bassman) and went on ebay for almost as much as I paid for it - £47 iirc.

WezV

Johnnyseven said:

I had the regular guitar multi effects version (505?). I loaned it to someone and never asked for it back.

I had the same one new for xmas in 1996 - I also gave it away

JayGee

I've still got an old 2020 sitting on the shelf in my office if that's any good... :-)

jonnypioww

I had the 509 Modulation pedal, which was alright but given I don't like chorus anymore I recently sold it along with the mighty Zoom 3000 Player to fund a pedal purchase. Good old ebay got me enough to get a DD7.

ROOG

I have a 505, boxed with PSU, cost about £100 I think, looks like new.

I never liked it much, I can't believe I paid that for it either!

XWulfhere

Heh heh seems like a lot of us had the same experience. I think they were decent enough entry level FX and you got quite a bit out of them, but they certainly did make you appreciate better stuff when you could get access to them. I remember thinking that the distortion on the 510 was the greatest thing in the world...

rpr

I had one for a bit as well. The Korg AX1 was much better-I still have use for that one. Surprised they go for that price, usually see knocking about for the £15 mark. The new-ish Zoom G1 on is much better than the 500 and is sub £40

WezV

to be fair to the old 505, it did my playing wonders.   It was the first electronic tuner I had.  I think I had been trying to play for about a year when i got it, getting quite frustrated... then suddenly i was playing in tune and things started making sense  

thermionic

I seem to remember the price dropping in half at some point, which is why I got my 503 for less than £50. Bargain at that price, because more or less the only alternative at the time was the first gen Pod, for something close to £300?

meltedbuzzbox

I had a 505 as well. I have no idea what happened to it. I think I paid £69 from flying pig music. 

From memory I would be reluctant to pay £9 for one now. 

XWulfhere

Flying Pig music! I bought an Epiphone Riviera from them around the same time!

The 503 looks like it was probably a decent, kinda wished I'd got that now insead of the 510...

alalalkasar

A guy I used to play with uses the delay one. He makes it sound really good but he's just that kind of guitarist. Seriously just that and a fab tone through a solid state fender with one of them old one pickup fender student guitars. Makes all the boutique buying players cry.
That is all.

rsvmark

I still use a 2020 for various delays through my fx loop. Sounds fine, ain't broke, don't need fixin....

JayGee

rsvmark said:

I still use a 2020 for various delays through my fx loop. Sounds fine, ain't broke, don't need fixin....

Hmmmm...

You've got me thinking. 

Might have to drag mine out and try that, my recollection is that the delay section was pretty flexible (2 separate delays, one plain vanilla and one multitap IIRC), between that and a decent number of patches dedicated to just delay settings it could actually be pretty damned useful... :-)

rsvmark

JayGee said:

rsvmark said:

I still use a 2020 for various delays through my fx loop. Sounds fine, ain't broke, don't need fixin....

Hmmmm...

You've got me thinking. 

Might have to drag mine out and try that, my recollection is that the delay section was pretty flexible (2 separate delays, one plain vanilla and one multitap IIRC), between that and a decent number of patches dedicated to just delay settings it could actually be pretty damned useful... :-)

I use the amp reverb as a base setting and then have short to longer delays assigned to each preset left to right. I set the overall level to match the base setting, ie no boost, as I have a boost pedal for that. The only pita is that going from / to overdriven solos and back to clean I have to hit the zoom to change delay and o/d pedal but it's a small price to pay

gubble

Another 505 owner here. Found it about 2 years ago in a cupboard, went on ebay and got £50 for it. i was shocked.

failed_astronaut

The 505 was my first effects experience and teeange me stomped that poor thing into oblivion. After swearing I'd never use another multi-fx, the G3x is the centre of my pedal board now.

Teetonetal

I had the 1010 which came before the 500's put me off fx for a long time. Very harsh and very noisy