Below its shiny knobs, low-profile, translucent buttons sit nested in concave dimples, protected from flailing feet by the raised display’s ring of chrome armor and the top’s gently sloping contour. The two footswitches, which are set far apart for trouble-free stomping, throw out a satisfyingly springy click-a, but I had to concentrate to nab both switches for bypass, even with my extra-wide espadrilles. The back panel has two rare and welcome features: a balanced xlr DI out—complete with pre/post and ground lift, and a USB jack (that’s what the “u” is for), which turns the pedal into an audio interface for recording to and monitoring from your computer. Zoom includes a copy of Cubase LE recording software—pretty cool. The single 1/4" output is a stereo trs jack, so with a Y adapter and two amps—or a pair of headphones—you can get swirling stereo results.
Lots of contemplation likely went into the Zoom’s guts, too. Paging through patches reveals gobs of goodies, from specific amp and effect models, to pitch shifting, synthesizers, autowahs, delays, and modulation effects. Editing starts out simple enough: Just turn the leftmost knob from play to one of the ten edit areas, and use the other three knobs to select and adjust parameters. There are a lot of options to change; this is good, but it’s often difficult to decipher exactly what the arcane symbol in the two-digit display is supposed to represent. Remembering dozens of two-letter abbreviations is hard enough, but the symbols often don’t resemble letters. I couldn’t believe the cuneiforms it used for W or M, or how it represented 3-digit tempo numbers; if you don’t have a Rosetta Stone on hand, you’ll definitely want to keep the manual nearby, as it can get downright confounding.
The Zoom sounds good, although onstage it sometimes betrayed a digital, somewhat detached vibe. It has plenty of rich, useful presets, including artist- and genre-based sounds, like Motown, Marcus, and more, as well as some intriguing effect and amp models outside the usual staples, like SansAmp Bass Driver DI, MXR DI+, and Boss ODB-3 overdrive simulations. Freaky stuff is readily available, too. Some preset patches seemed overcompressed, others were a tad severe on the high end, but both tigers could be tamed with a little tweaking. The expression pedal is very flexible: An adjacent button makes it a breeze to assign control over volume, wah, or things like tremolo speed, distortion blend, and pitch shifting. I was surprised how much fun I had with Zoom’s included rhythm-pattern player, a cool bonus practice tool that helped inspire groovy bass lines.
PROS
Good sounds; rhythm player + DI + USB port + recording software add up to excellent bang-for-buck
CONS
Weird display “letters” mean more manual time
BOTTOM LINE
All the basics, lots of extras.
SPECS
List: $315
Street: $190
Power AC adapter: (9-volt “wall wart” style, included) or four AA batteries
Inputs: 1/4" bass input
Outputs: 1/4" output/phones
Controls: Two footswitches, expression pedal, module selector, three parameter knobs, bank up and down keys, store key, pedal assign key, rhythm key, tap tempo
External footswitch: FP02 expression pedal ($69 list) for use as a volume pedal, or FS01 momentary footswitch ($29 list) for bank switching, bypass/mute, tap tempo, etc.
Display: Two-digit red LED display
Dimensions: 9 7/16" x 2 1/8" x 6"
Weight: 2 lbs, 8 oz
Number of patches: 80 (40 user and 40 identical, read-only factory presets)
Warranty: One year limited
Made in: China
SECOND OPINIONS
Jonathan
“There’s an upper-range emphasis, and little midrange. The screen is hard to understand.”
Brian
"I love the features it includes, but some of the sounds could have been more lush.”