Zoom G3 Guitar Effects and Amp Simulator

I have tried to learn to play off and on for years now but finally decided to seriously learn, discipline comes with age I guessSo I guess I am a guitar noob with maybe a little bit more knowledge then the typical new player and understand what most of the effects are and what they do so I'm not going to get into that part of the G3 in this review play with the sounds you will figure out what stuff does. And I'm not going to get into any technical mumbo jumbo that most people don't care about if you like that kind of stuff I'm sure there are way more knowledgable people to quote the technical specifications then me.I knew I wanted a multi-effects since I picked up a guitar again, I like distortion, delay all that stuff but unless you have a rock star budget a multi effect is the most cost effective way to get all that stuff. I don't get into the analog vs digital debate or the separate pedal vs multi effect I bet 99 times out of 100 if you don't see a boss distortion pedal sitting on the floor only the most critical ear could tell the distortion or any of the other effects are being reproduce digitally with a half way decent multi effect pedal.I researched both online and in the music shops trying different pedals out and quickly realizing it was going to be an investment to get what I wanted. I was pretty settled on the boss ME-80 lots of effects, great sound and top notch build quality. But then I tried out the G3 I kind of always thought Zoom was like a higher quality version of Behringer (no disrespect towards Behringer I am sure some of their products are really good stuff but usually when I see something half the price of a similar product it makes me wonder) I got wrapped up in the whole one brand is better because it's that brand thing I couldn't have been more wrong.Also something to keep in mind, if you can bring your guitar and amp with you so you know exactly what it will sound like with your equipment so you won't be disappointed when you get home and are not using it on a $1000 amp and a $1200 Gibson guitar or at least try it out on something similar to your home set up unless of coarse you have high dollar equipment already. I got a little burnt on an amp playing through it with a high end guitar it sounds pretty good at home but sounded great having a high dollar guitar being played through it.Let's start with the way it is built. You could drop the thing down three flights of stairs and it might be scratched and dinged up a bit but I would bet a paycheck it would still work, to my surprise they didn't cheap out with plastic everything which in the $200 price range you just expect lots of plastic. Even the plastic parts have a very solid feel to them.The user interfaces are extremely well thought out the pedal icons are a stroke of genius I can't believe this isn't the norm on these multi effects pedals and not the exception, you can just look at the screen and see ok it's the tube screamer pedal next is a delay and a noise gate it feels and looks more like a real stompbox setup instead of a bunch of knobs, buttons and small writing like most of the units, and it's backlit so you can see it in the dark or a dimly lit room, maybe some people prefer all the analog goodness on something like the ME-80, but I think the G3 shines in this area over everything else I checked out.All that design stuff is personal preference the important thing is how does it sound, my opinion is it sounds great. Most of the distortions sound great although a lot of them sound similar but you can tweak all of them some more then others to get a desired sound. The other effects do what you expect them to do a flanger acts like a flanger and a chorus does what a chorus is supposed to do and with a few exceptions all the effects sound really good to great.Like I said I tried lots of units and if you are going to shell out a good chunk of money, try stuff out, listen to how it sounds, do the knobs, buttons and switches feel like they are going to wear out or break easily. Don't get caught up in the whole one brand is better then another buy what you like and sounds good to you if it's not a Zoom G3 that you like best buy something you like this review is just my opinion of this pedal so feel free to disagree with me.With that being said I don't think for $213 with the overnight shipping (I took my time with this purchase and when I was ready to buy I wanted it so I sprang for the overnight shipping) or around $180 with the free shipping that you will find a better built pedal, an interface that is as well thought out, and overall, really good sound quality in one package as the Zoom G3 has to offer. it's my first multi effects pedal and if all Zoom products offer this kind of value and sound quality for the money it is only a matter of time until I upgrade to the G5 unit so keep an eye out there may be a used G3 on the market in a few months. The only complaint I have so far is I didn't spend the few extra bucks and get the G3x unit with the expression pedal but that's not the products fault that's on me.

Awesome little device. After having fun going through all the effects, I got down to business and hooked it into my pedalboard and started to refine the uses on why I bought it for. The sound is great, a lot of effects and all which are tweakable. Does sound a bit digital but it is a digital device. Works well for me, quiet and fits right at home in my board. I didn't get the expression pedal because of space and really don't need it but I can see how it would be handy. The rhythm section is cool, I only use it for fun and practice. It does help with the timing. The looper is ok. I didn't buy it for the looper portion, boss handles that department for me. Everything else is great. Lots of distortion effects, chorus, flanges, delays, envelope, reverb, tape delay, even some funky sounding effects, all very awesome. I've had it for awhile now and I have no complaints. If you don't mind digital, which sounds very sharp and tight, than this is worth every penny.UPDATE:I've had it for just over a year now and had put it to use every single night. In a years time I've pushed every button thousands of times, some more than others. Also, I did end up buying the zoom expression pedal and made room for it on my board for even more fun options. This thing is great! It still is operating perfect, all the buttons feel and function great, no lighting or patch glitches and definitely get the expression pedalUpdate update:2018 still on my board. I have read some unfortunate reviews of some devices wear down, especially the soft buttons across the top. I've pushed mine hundreds of thousands times and still no problems, fingers crossed 😊

Nice interface and build quality but bad sound quality: exaggerated and unusable amp models, colored bypassed tone, severely undynamic gain/distortion/drive/whatever-you-prefer-to-call-it, and useless tuner. For gigs, it creates more problems than it solves. For recording, it's out of the question. In addition using the Zoom G3x would be a disservice to a beginner. Here's why.THE GOOD-Build quality is great. It is built like a tank. The body feels like die cast and the expression pedal feels very solid. Overall it is well made.-The design is well thought out and it is packed with features. I love the concept of visually seeing the signal chain and being able to enable/disable effects individually along with directly adjusting settings with knobs. The interface is very intuitive and easy to use and requires very little manual reading.THE BADthis is why I returned it:-The G3x's bypassed audio is not transparent. It's compressed and has low headroom.With all the effects bypassed, the signal is compressed. If you use this pedal in front of your favorite amp and bypass the effects, it will change your dynamics. It will change where you put your amp's volume and gain knobs to get the same tone, alter how hard you have to pluck the strings for the same tone, or alter the feel of your amp.The input does not have enough headroom for heavy handed players or high output pickups. Clipping the input of the G3x results in very ugly clicking and popping noises that remain present in the signal even after applying distortion effects.-The Amp models are exaggerated and unusable.The amp models are harsh sounding and adjusting settings -especially gain- doesn't allow you to mold your tone like on a real amp. The models are a caricature of what an amp sounds like. Adjusting gain and EQ provides very little variability. Turning the gain down reveals an exaggerated frequency response that makes the amp model sound the same no matter what your pickups are like. It sounds like you're playing single coils no matter what you do. The EQ controls alter the same frequencies from model to model, and they don't adjust the character of distortion like on a real amp. This may all be passable for high gain tones, but that exaggerated frequency response brings out sounds that are normally inaudible in a typical high gain setup. In my case, when palm muting notes or chords I could hear the sound of my hand rubbing against the other strings instead of a nice clean chug. No adjustments could make this go away.-The DSP and cabinet/speaker simulation is poorly implementedTo be fair, the cabinet/speaker simulation is actually pretty good, but it only simulates the frequency response of that speaker cabinet. The G3x speaker simulation doesn't include the early reflections and room delay required to simulate what that speaker cab sounds like when it's pushing air in a room. To Zoom's credit, the effects are available. Its factory presets show examples of how to use them effectively, and they sound respectable. But, getting a natural sounding speaker simulation means that you have to use 3 of your 6 available effects slots: one for the amp+speaker model, one for the early reflection effect, and one for the 'air' effect.In addition to wasting your effects slots, the DSP is not very powerful. Pitch modulation effects have poor tracking and poor rendering. Pitch shifting is not smooth, and harmonizing effects are often sharp or flat. Because of this poor tracking, the tuner jumps all over the place and can't really be used to tune accurately.Distortion effects suffer from the same problems that the amp models suffer from. The graphic EQ's frequency bands are not in the best places for tone shaping. Out of 6 bands, the top 3 are above 3kHz, the bottom 3 are 180Hz, 400Hz, and 800Hz. You can't fine tune the bass and midtone. The boost and drive effects don't allow you to go from clean to distortion by overdriving the next amp/effect in the chain, probably due to how distortion is modeled.-Clunky patch switchingWith 3 footswitches and so many features, the footswitches have many functions. Unfortunately, the long presses and simultaneous presses create some problems if you want to use the G3x in a live situation. To switch patches, you have to long press a footswitch to enter the patch menu, but whatever effect that switch is assigned to will activate/deactivate until the G3x figures out that you meant to get to the patches menu. Getting to the looper menu works the same way. This makes it impossible to change patches, effects, or use the looper smoothly during a performance unless you are between songs.CONCLUSIONThis could be a gig worthy recording tool if its interface and sound quality could match it's mechanical construction.Its DSP quality and modeling quality is not good enough to record direct with.Its lack of transparent bypass tone, poor EQ shaping, and clunky footswitch interface make it impractical to gig with.Finally, creating good guitar tone is as important as learning to play the instrument. Learning how to use the Zoom G3x will not help a beginner learn how to effectively use guitar equipment.While I did manage to get a couple of passable tones out of it, I had to put it in front of a nice tube amp and couldn't get much versatility out of it. I paid $200 dollars for the Zoom G3x, and to my ears it sounds like 15 year old modeling technology. For $50 dollars more, I got a unit with excellent amp models but a few less features. I don't miss the extra features.Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this unit to anyone.