A rare but ultimately disappointing pedal. Some good design concepts just not backed up by anything inspirational in the way of sound. It does have its afficionados, though.
This FX unit actually's got amazing Drive section, plus even on this demo the atmosphere of Reverbs and Delays available on this unit is evident - very good multi FX along with Zoom GFX-8 both are strangely less known in guitar user community. After a bit of tweaking/adjusting you get very impressive sounds out of it. Furthermore pretty often it's stated that the DRIVE section itself is analog!
Strangely, I agree with those comments. Zoom did indeed have an analog circuit in their multi's at the time but I could never dig a truly analog feel out of it. I think it was just me though. Since making this video and doing literally hundreds more reviews I've learned a lot!
You haven't done full justice to this processor. I owned this at one point in my life. It was the only processor I ever owned. While shopping for a processor, I had tried one by Digitech and Boss. I instantly fell for this the Gfx4. An 8 hour session of adjusting the gain, mids and treble for each distortion patch resulted in a heavy crunchy distortion custom patch that was good whether I played Megadeth or Maiden or Iced Earth. Turning down the volume knob on the guitar a bit made the patch good for AC/DC. I had it setup such that the first button was for rhythm playing, the second one was a nice clean patch and the third was the rhythm patch was the same rhythm patch with a slight delay which was fine for playing some slow solos (I've never been a lead player, more rhythm). Once my room got flooded and the processor still lived. The power adapter wasn't all that great in quality but I did eventually got a replacement for it with a plug adapter to fit in the power inlet socket on the processor. I had some issues with the power inlet soldering but I realised several years later that the guy who i had first given it to repair for did a lousy job repairing it and whenever i tried to repair it, my asshole friend who i was staying with at the time fucked it up when I was asleep which again I realised only the next morning when I was told that the processor is fucked again. And this same asshole friend told me he needed the processor so I let him keep it and the fucktard stole it and lost it which according to him he lost it. I never got my processor back and have since never had a replacement for it. Sorry for the rant but I just couldn't help saying this, considering what lousy justice you did to this processor. It was a great processor. Try working on the distortion patches with the gain mids and treble, you'll find that it's well worth the money.
Fair play mate if it works for you, you get decent tones from it that suits your style and playing and you know how to edit parameters then it shouldn’t matter how old something is in my opinion, I’m not totally dazzled and blown away by todays new style units for loads more dollar, I’m sure they’re easier to use in many ways and sound better but I like using old bits of gear and putting the time and effort in to workout the functions for editing all parameters and being creative, I’ve used so much old and complex stuff over the years and know how to use inside out that a lot of the time I can edit parameters and sift through loads of edit pages without looking or blindfolded, that’s all part of knowing your gear for me and being creative by knowing every little feature of your gear, that’s just me though I know most people want to be able to plug in and play straight away and expect to have great sounding presets without doing anything to the unit, that’s boring and doesn’t make you create your own personal guitar tones.
@@gearfacts Yeah! You know I had a real original advertising brochure of this particular model printed in Japan in early 2000s. So that's where my nostalgia comes from! ))
Not bad at all... It is usable and quite ok for house jams and even performing outside of the 4 walls. If you crawe for some more proffesional so to call it go for G5...
Your comments at the end seemed contrary to the text description. Regardless, I actually enjoyed hearing the somewhat overblown, science fiction sounds you were getting. I haven't tried one, so I don't know how capable it is as a bread and butter processor for basic, good quality tones, but sounds like some folks have found them.
It's pretty rare that anyone watches any of my videos to the end - much appreciated! And you read the description too :) This sure is an old one so I can't remember what I said, but I know that around this time I learned that to avoid harsh criticism a reviewer has to be very 'hooray for everything' even if you didn't really like the product. Too much hate-mail otherwise! Also for this reason I began moving away from the far-our effect sounds and made the videos more conventional. Thanks for your comment, it was refreshing to hear from someone who'd paid such close attention :) #Gearfacts (aka Glynn)
Hey Bro I have the very same guitar effect processor . GFX4 .. can you please lead me to Slash Tone? Im tired of trying every single effect to imitate it .. plz help. Thank you
Slash really isn't my thing so I don't have exact settings. I think it'd be hard to get close to that sound on the GFX4. However, his sound is pretty strong in treble and presence and I find Zoom units to reward you quite well if you really push those 2 settings. Look up info on google about common ways to set up EQ, I think that's the key. I'm guessing he uses a 'scooped' EQ shape (low mids, high bass and treble).
Well now that I'm more experienced I know that the GFX4 is actually pretty terrible, so there are lots of good alternatives! There's little correlation between age and quality, I've found. My favourites are the (old) Zoom 3030, (newer) Boss GT6 and (newest) Digitech RP360XP. If you search 'gearfacts effects' on RU-vid you'll see all my multi effects reviews. We are spoilt for choice! Gearfacts
I have a zoom gfx4 I wanna know about wah pedal switch button how its work on wah effect ? When i press pedal switch on manual mode how can i change to wah???
i've tried zoom G1,G2,GFX 5,GFX 4,GFX 8,G7.1UT,606,G5,...IMHO,i still think gfx 4 n gfx 8 had a great distortion,more natural sound,but not a good footswitch which is made kind of plastic.. just my opinion..:) other models are great too..
That's interesting, I found almost the exact opposite. That's not to say that you are wrong, I think it's more about the kind of guitar the user has and whether or not the pedal likes it! Some pedals just won't cooperate with some guitars and most GFX series pedals don't seem to want to chill with my Fender Jag :/
+Gearfacts :i agree wif u in some ways..ive used gfx 4 n on the amp sim,thats where i got my tone instead of not using it..if direct i'll try the send/return...the output response in passive/active switch is way much better than g5..the g5 seems like nothing happen.i juz prefer gfx4/8 cuz unlike the other model is a bit digital to my hearing,but it can be done in tweaking. if u try g5 side by side wif gfx 4/8 beside,than u knw wat i mean..the other zoom model i can say they r good at clean sound..distortion a bit digital but its juz my taste..but i still love Zoom products..😃😃..anyway tanx 4 ur comments..its good for ppl who used multi efx n for sharing tips👍✌..
In my defense, I've reviewed about 100 multi effects systems and done over 1500 total reviews of music gear on RU-vid, so I've seen a thing or two. And to be honest I think I was pretty kind to the GFX4. But if you like it then that's all that matters, you don't have to listen to anyone else's demo.
@@gearfacts Dude, I have no idea how this ended up on your video. I was commenting on a friend's video and that was meant as an inside joke between the two of us. You know, talking trash to a buddy who would give an equal response and so forth. I apologize, feel free to delete my comment man and sorry if I upset you, lol
