ZOOM 505 - 24 YEARS LATER, does it hold up for METAL? 

Everyone here is talking about the “good old times” But this is my only pedal i have had for years till this day🤣

In 1997, when I was a teen. I had the chance to work a job removing chairs from the United Nations building in New York. I worked for 2, 10-hour shifts.. all of my friends were planning on going to a music festival the next week and they were trying to persuade me to use my earnings to go to the concert. I saw this Zoom in a store right before that and made my desicion. It was an absolute great choice as it would influence me and continued my journey as a musician. All my friends were disappointed with me but this was the first time I chose myself as a musician over going to see others play. This was a turning point in life. 🤘🎸🎶

This pedal stood by me for years, I played gigs with it, I recorded at home & in studios with it, I love this pedal 🤘🏻

I don’t know about it’s appropriate use for serious metal, but guitarists seem to be more interested in judging others for using cheap and obviously compromised equipment than they are in just enjoying making music. Back in the 90s, this was an incredibly affordable way for a kid to approximate the sounds of modern guitar players. I suspect that a significant percentage of people who openly mock the 505 would love some of the sounds it has in a blind test. Clearly many of the sounds are cheesy and sterile, but there are some great sounds available.

My uncle was a great guitarist and I kinda followed in his footsteps after he passed. He passed down his Zoom505 guitar multieffects pedal to me and it was really all I had. Just a cheap american strat, the Zoom505 and an even cheaper combo amp (I can't even remember what it was, even though it was only like 4 years ago. Fender maybe?). It holds a special place in my heart, and this video has reminded me of it. I think it may be in storage, so next time I go I'll look for it.

No one in the history of anywhere ever hooked any Zoom product up to a Fortin anything. Horray for Ola!!

Ola: Has anyone ever used this preset on a song? Me : Sounds like some weird Rammstein thing. Ola: They came from outer space with dildos! Me: Definitely Rammstein.

I've actually been to Autowah Canada, its a beautiful place.

Back in the day when you didn’t have a thousand bucks to buy a decent amp this helped a lot. Most affordable amps in the 90’s sounded terrible.

OMG, I have this pedal! I've been playing it almost every day for 23 years! I bought in 1997 on my first trip to Miami, I'm from Brazil, actually. It's so nice to know that someone still uses it around the world, haha. Nice video!

"Somewhere from outer space, they came with dildos" inspiring stuff.

NEW VIDEO! Have a great Friday!

The D3 effect was used by Tom Morello in Audioslave's "Show me how to live".

Funny, this was my FIRST pedal when playing guitar when I was just becoming a teenager. I LOVED it back then, and it actually seems up to par with a multi-FX pedal I have now. I personally think it's a bit heavy on the bass on the presets, but those can be adjusted easily. I think they wanted to be heavy on the bass end because they expected most to play it through a small amp for practice, but that's just a guess/opinion.

Awesome, I just dug out my old Zoom 505 earlier this week and plugged it in for my daughter who is just staring to learn guitar. She loved the steel drum sounds. Keep up the great work Ola!!

4:45 effect was used by John Frusciante in Throw Away You Television.

The Zoom 505 was kinda life-changing for me back in the day, as a kid playing in his bedroom, the built-in looper function on the Zoom was the first time I ever got to play solos over a backing rhythm guitar!

This is my first multi-effect pedal that I used in junior High School🤣

it's 2022, this is the first pedal i own. hell yeah.

4:40 "Has any guitar player ever use this effect?" Yes, Brian May in the solo of "Headlong". Check it out : )

Seeing this again actually warms my heart.

Actualy I was at a Vader gig back in 2000 and the guitarist used this pedal lol

Back in the day I used to have *( still have but just doesn’t work)* a Zoom *707 II* . Used to play metal/ grunge/all kinds of stuff with it. The *flanger* patch was one of my personal fav. Used to play *come as you are* , would sound exact the same. Oh and it also had a loop function. I would jam alone all day in my room also did a few gigs with it. There’s an inbuilt volume/gain knob behind near the power switch. Comes in handy playing live when the sound guy doesn’t increase the volume on your guitar. Brings back memories!

I was a pro lead guitarist for over 50 years, now i am eighty, I dont play commercially anymore, but I bought this unit shortly after its introduction, it has served me well after all these years. Not many like that these days. I play my telecaster and Laney through it and it still works fine, never ever let me down question: Why would you expect this item to perform like a modern unit, that's like comparing a morris minor with a Jaguar.? See if any of your modern units last this long you did qualify your comments towards the end. I say 3 cheers to the makers Phil Colter Cose

Duuude, damn, lol. Zoom 505. Childhood memories. I played it through those pc speakers on the headphone jacks, that was my amp, lol.

Holy Sh!t, i personally loved my ZOOM 505 Pedal, i purchased mine in '98 and it was stolen with the rest of my gear in early 2001!! Seeing this has my brain going back trying to remember how to work the editing and so on! I loved this pedal, from the effects to the simulators! The transitions between the patches were seamless in my book, i was able to match sounds up to alot of the great artist i was jamming along with at that time! This pedal will always have a special place in my heart! Thanks Ola for checking it out!! Peace brother!! Edit: Gear i had at the time!! Pedal: ZOOM 505 Amp: Laney HC50 Hardcore Guitar: Fender Squier my personal Frankenstein model, yes it was cheaper, but i loved this guitar and setup!

When I was young, my friend had this pedal, but the amplifier sucked and sounded like a hell's door I had a lot of fun at the time

I love seeing reviews of gear from before computers were a thing. Brings back memories of when I was just starting out. I still have my Digitech RP-1 and it still kicks ass 25 years later. Keep it up Ola!

I bought mine in 1997. I still use it. In fact, it's the only effects pedel I have. Saying that I only play acoustic and one Fender Strat. But it serves my purposes. I use it live for gigs and for recording. It's a cool bit of kit even today (2022!) Any of my music videos I'm playing are using the ZOOM 505. I'm not sure what I'll do when it eventually gives up!

Damn, i literally played live shows with this thing back in the late 90's ))) And it kinda sounded not bad after some "deep" tweaking :)

These devices sound much better when played in a decent amp with an effects loop. Most of us started using these units on 70 - 100 dollar amps and they sounded like $hit.

Good to see Ola vindicating a product almost everyone deemed trash back in the days.

I can't adequately express how much this pedal blew my mind when I bought one in 1996. It unlocked an entire world for me, as trite as that sounds.

Back in 1998, when my pals had no cheap alternatives, this piece of gear did a good job actually. Of course I don't feel nostalgic about it's sound but I'm thankful for my earliest experiences with effects with the help of this little thing.

"Has any guitar player ever used this effect ever?" That 311 song Flowing starts with it

That "effect" is called "Headlong", and Brian may uses a similar sound in the intro of the Queen song, "Headlong". I still have one of these pedals stashed away somewhere. I actually recorded an album back in 2000 with one.

24 years? Thank you for pointing out how old Im getting. LOL!

Joe Satriani recorded the song 'Crying' With a zoom pedal

Nostalgia, I had one of those haha

If I remember correctly, the first preset you played was called "Steel China." I used to use it with my bass to annoy my bandmates between songs.

I was at a buddies the other night. He has an even older version of this, with an expression pedal. Was blown away at the heaviness of some of the stock presets. Couldn't believe my ears.

4:43 Muse - Map Of The Problematique One of my personal favourites.

The guitarist in my old band used that thing for every show we did. He sounded like he was playing a kazoo.

Had one of those for a while; it was something extra I got in some gear trading I had done. Gave it to a kid who had nothing to play the guitar through. I didn't need it, but did check it out enough to learn to set it up and have some fun with it before giving it away.

"Has anyone ever used this preset on a song?" As I know, Tom Morello on Audioslave's "Shom me how to live". Thanks for the video, I had one of these for short time, but bought 2nd version and I still have it, but not using it...

4:43 Olaaaa, Tom morello is ur man, he used something similar on "Show me how to live"

The pitch shifter is solid and still holds up in my opinion.

Wow, my first pedal! Listening to that spacey-twangy patch brings back memories, I would always mess around with it but could never find a practical application for playing with it.

4:57 Yes, If you were a kid who played rage against the machine on the 90's ... I think this video would be a lot better if you played some 90's song because that was the mision of that pedal ... Cheap gear for 15 years old 90's kids

This and the 9030 are so rad. I’ve heard that the guitar tone for Broken/Downward Spiral era nine inch nails used the 9030 (with marshal jmp1 preamp) extensively.

lol that was my FIRST pedal ever! and i sold it for a Death Metal DOD! LMAO

There were forums dedicated to patch setting that were pretty amazing back in the day. Could just search for a sound you wanted and people that spent days tuning their sound would upsload the patch settings for you to copy.

you brought back lots of memories of my childhood with this, of my school times...great video...

"Has any guitar player ever used this effect ever?" Frank Zappa - Ship Ahoy

1997 i have zoom 4040, with volume and wah pedals and i loved this thing the distortion from this pedal back in the days was pretty warm and powerful

That effect will forever be known as "Space Dildos"

The reason Ola can make anything sound half decent... That god damn right arm

The D3 preset sounds like what you’d get if Peter Frampton banged ‘Stone Henge’ by Spinal Tap. If you know, you know.

OMG I were playing this when I was a teenager. I remember each sound of this processor. thanks for good memories :-)

I recall that D3 step arpeggiator being linked to Brian May at the time. The intro to "Headlong" used it. I loved my 505 in the 90s and 2000s, especially for its chorus and flanger. Only really retired it when the components became noisy with age.

Wow, metal tone hasn't changed in 24 years! Sounds like everything else! Still love Ola, and solar

4:40 yes Brian May on Headlong from the album Innuendo by Queen :)

Maaaaaan. The Zoom 505. Takes me back to 97 with my Buddy Ed

what a blast from the past! I used to have one of those in 1996! brilliant for beginners

The effect that ola asks about in 04:33 is used in "Throw Away Your Television" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In Ola's hand EVERYTHING and all pedals chugg in different ways: just mini-chugg, super-chugg, uber-chugg or mega-chugg or Ola-chugg, . . . 2 Cheers from Canada !

The end of the solo of "Show me how to live" by Audioslave always reminded me to that weird "space dildo" effect.

I remember when I was young and have a Zoom 707 II. Everybody tells me that BOSS is a much better choice, because ZOOM is too noizy!! So I buy a BOSS ME-33!! (we need to understand that I was a broken guitar player kkkk) I really prefered the ZOOM sound and missed so much my old guitar pedal! lol!! Just like 4:34 !!! Some sounds nobody dares to make because everyone desire to do what another one have already done!! A band with old instruments and equipment shurely can make a lot of money because even this ZOOM 505 sounds good!! You only need to "open your ears" the hear things without prejudice!! Thank you so much for this videoo!!!

I can actually answer that question "has anybody ever use the sound on an album before?" I remember hearing it either at the end of a Soundgarden or audioslave song. I don't remember which album it's been awhile.

just took out mine, got it from 96, found this video, still a cool rig, this was my first rig, for the price, you couldn't get any better, I had never used a computer back then. this unit is robust, and still in good nick., love it man jammed with it on a Dynacord amp and a cheap epiphone cherry red guitar

5:00 reminded me of Ross performing with his synth at the cafe Central Perk lol

Ola: * plays incredibly specific and spacey sound effect * “Honestly, has anyone ever used this effect in a song before?” Muse: * Breathes heavily *

I used to play with one of these for church on sundays, i used to plug in into a direct box, mixer then to two spekaers "acoustic panasonic" models. I remember jamming the shit out of this pedal when sunday services were over and no one was around

Luxo do gaúcho era ter um dessas em 1998. Cheguei a ter a 506 para usar no baixo. Caiu lágrima aqui. 😪

I still have one. A roommate in college was going to toss it out. I kept it. I love it. I don't use it much. I had to solder the jacks a couple of months ago. Its a kick ass little thing. First one of it's kind. I've kept it for memories. It still works great. I have completely forgotten what presets I had set and will sit programming it one day. My old RU-vid channel got deleted but I had a few metal covers on there. Used to connect it after the wah straight into the crate 60w half stack. The combo used to give great 90s tones. Sorry for the long post. I just love this thing. I used to use a esp m50 painted in Van Halen bumblebee theme n a Jackson Rhoads V with gold pinstripes. I painted the guitars at home. Used flat gold coz I found the paint can in the basement at a friend's place. It truly sounds good if the amp and guitars are decent. I had a zoom 8080 around the same time. That thing was amazing.

Damn, this brings back some memories. As a teenager these things sounded amazing. As an adult, not so much. LOL The nostalgia is pretty sweet though.

4:40... yes Tom Morello did. “Show Me How to Live” after the 2 minute mark of the song (2:45)

That's the problem with modern guitar players today. They want that perfect sound with one click and no time to make it! If you take the time and put in the effort, you can literally make anything sound great. Besides, why do you want to sound like someone else? I want to sound like me and that is the idea of all those controls and options in gear! Love your show!!!!

Wow, this brings back memories. My first ever effe ts pedal. My parents bought it for me and the batteries died within minutes.

MY first ever unit i used in my guitar life held up well for years for me. was gifted to me by my uncle still love it till this day

1:00 sound brings back so much memories 😂

For what it was, especially during its time, it was great for the musician on a budget, especially for practice. I can’t remember if line 6 was out when these were out or if Line 6 debuted its Pod after, but pods were anywhere from $300-$350, you could get a zoom multi fx pedal for less than $200.00, I even remember the digitech BP100 (for bass) however they made them for guitar and vocals as well and they range from a VP 50 of BP 100 and the BP is 300 I could be mistaken but there may have been a 200 model as well but they were around 50 or 100 200 or possibly even 150 and then 300 for the 300 series and they were good for what they were at the time they were around. Speaking of hey Ola why don’t you try one of the GP 200 is the one that had two petals like that soon 505 but it had an expression pedal as well the GP 100 I think was set up just like that to petals no expression pedal or that may have been the GP 50 it’s been so long I can’t remember and I’m surprised I remembered what I wrote here LOL

The weird fx is the "stepper" and zoom claimed to be the inventor of this midulation fx, it sounds like a reso filter with a sequenced frequency. It can be heard in the bridge of queen song headlong! Anyway This was my 1st multifx, it was a good product to experiment with fx, and actually the manual was wery well made because it also explained very good all the fx and how they fxs do to the sound

The best guitarist at my middle school used a zoom 505, and his band played during lunch one day, and they absolutely crushed crazy train. I may have been stupid and the rest of us kids may have been stupid and not known what great tone was, but we all absolutely loved it and went nuts

Brought one in the early 90s and still have it! Good to practice with! If you push both pedals together it becomes a guitar tuner!

I think Ola's eyes are suggesting he did a fat bong hit before this vid.

i honestly feel like this sounds better than the pod hd i once had

The other guitarist in my first band used one of these. I had a DOD FX7 featuring the legendary Grunge distortion. We sounded like turds in an ashtray, but we sure made lots of noise!

Here's how mine was usually set up. I had the Zoom FP01 expression pedal plugged into it. A1 was lead with wah, A2 metal with FP01 as a whammy pedal, A3 lead with FP01 as a harmonizer, A4 lead with chorus & delay with FP01 as volume pedal. I generally kept all the other patches as is but did experiment with them in terms of what I could use the sounds for. F6 was supposed to be an acoustic tone but it didn't really sound like an acoustic to me so I used it as a warmer clean tone when I wanted something nicer than bypassing to the amp by pressing the 2 pedals at the same time. The tuner in bypass was very handy.

I started playing seriously using a Zoom pedal like this, but mine had preset drum beats to play along with, and a used Schecter Omen 6, through a pair of headphones. I squeezed every drop of tone out of that thing, and it served me well until I could afford to upgrade. It also helped me to appreciate how a really good tone can influence your playing. It's kinda like learning to play on an old Acoustic with insanely high, stiff action, and still able to ring out some clean full chords, and then picking up a PRS with action like butter, and seeing your hands fly across the fingerboard.

I've got one of those and I'm going to look for it right now

4:40 Audioslave - Show Me How To Live, end of interlude mr. Morello used it

4:41 Actually, yes... check out John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) on "Throw away your television".

Christmas of 1999 i asked for a few pedals - tube screamer, cry baby, maxon flanger - that were at the music shop I took lessons at. I was 9, just started playing guitar earlier that year. On Christmas morning instead of a few different pedals I got the Zoom 505. Not knowing money was tight and my parents couldn’t afford -3-4-5 different pedals for a 9 year old, I acted kind of spoiled and played it for 5 minutes then just kind of let it go by the wayside. Years later when I was 12ish and I started playing in bands I got it out and started ripping it. Countless hours. The phase / flange stuff it did was awesome and the dirty sounds were so inspiring. Still remember they were factory presets a1, a4, and c1. Outgrew it a few years later but really loved that thing. It’s still somewhere around here.

This video really took me back - I used to love my 505. I think I still have it around here somewhere.

I think when you said "That actually sounds really good." it was your clean signal lol

I still have the “newer” silver version of this. Never thought to use it without headphones... 🤣 You can hear that trademark “Zoom” tone in some of Prince’s live recordings.

You should make a segment called “dumbest questions and statements with Ola”

Had one of these for over 20 years. Hadn't played with it in a few years but plugged it back in today. Still love it 🤘

The sound bring me back into studio session when i was high school early 00's