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Gear Review
Zoom 504II Acoustic Guitar Processor Pedal
Zoom 504II Acoustic Features:
* List Price - $144.99 (AC Adapter Not Included) |
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The Zoom 504II Acoustic is aimed at attracting the acoustic guitar player, who wants to add a cost effective effects arsenal to their guitar sound. The pedal also has patches that attempt acoustic guitar simulation through input of an electric guitar. This processor retails at $144.99 on several websites, but is readily available at dealers all over the internet for $69.95, which is quite a discount. The price point here is simply amazing for the amount of effects and features that this pedal comes with.
I have to tell you, I've never been a big fan of Zoom products, but in this review I wanted to give their acoustic pedal a chance to defend itself against the competition. As a reviewer I try very hard not to be biased; so I purposely put aside any past experiences with older Zoom models, and started with a clean slate with the 504II Acoustic.
What's Inside the Package
The Zoom 504II Acoustic is a small pedal that comes in a small box. Included are the 504II Acoustic pedal, operation manual with a patch list, and a warranty card.
Construction
I'm usually annoyed by plastic construction in a guitar pedal. It generally makes me question reliability. But in this case, the plastic is quite sturdy, and the design is solid. The bottom is some type of metal with rubber feet. The top and sides are a nice platinum silver plastic, with the LED placed right in the center of the pedal. The design is excellent for the intended use. I gigged with this pedal many times with no problems in lots of conditions. Outdoors...Indoors...Hot...Cold...and even twice in some rain. At a $69.95 available price, one would expect some compromises in construction components. The compromise here as with so many pedals these days, is in the area of the input/output jacks. Here Zoom scrimped a little, and after much use and abuse, this is where I had problems. The output jack became a bit loose, and would make a popping sound from time to time, which is embarrassing and unacceptable on stage. I replaced the pedal with another one, and it lasted fine until I finished testing it (a small piece of toothpick stuck on the edge of the jack, in between the housing and the jack, solves the problem temporarily I'm told.)
Connections
The rear panel reveals that this is simply a plug and play pedal, with no jacks for Midi or USB or anything else. All inputs/outputs are 1/4". There is an input jack, an AC adapter jack, a control pedal input jack for an expression pedal or footswitch, and a single stereo output/headphone combination jack. That's it.
Electric Guitar Sounds
Some players may find something useful here. I couldn't find anything really of use to my styles of music, but to each his own. I have yet to hear an electric guitar acoustic simulator pedal patch that actually sounds like an acoustic guitar. This pedal is no exception. I really think the intention here is just to have some patches to edit and work with on particular electric guitars to get a simulation, but not a believable acoustic sound out of an electric. The 5 factory presets for electric guitars offer a standard acoustic simulation, a pies acoustic simulation, a 12 string acoustic simulation, a warm tone with wah, a bottle neck slide sound, and a nylon gut string sound. On the electric side, the pedal also includes acoustic simulation types (Normal, Jumbo, Piezo, Gut,) adjustable EQ boost on the Low and High end, Edge, and Guitar Body Size, along with the chorus, delay, and reverb effects.
Acoustic Guitar Sounds
Here is where I was quite shocked by this pedal. For my $69.95 with free shipping included, I honestly didn't expect to be shocked. Well...maybe shocked by disappointment. I'm happy to say that was not the case!
A scan of the reviews at online musician supply store websites, such as www.music123.com, or www.zzounds.com , and the reviews section at www.harmony-central.com, reveals that many purchasers of this pedal are happy with their decision to buy the Zoom 504II Acoustic.
As I stated before, I was
skeptical about Zoom products before reviewing this model, because of some past
models that I had used. I just did not think Zoom had a competitive quality in
sound with other manufacture
r's
models. Of course this was years ago, and Zoom has come a long way since then.
With the 504II Acoustic, they have one-upped the competition in several areas in
my opinion. Sounds, Layout, and Price/Value.
The sounds the 504II Acoustic makes (with a piezo equipped acoustic plugged in) are very useable in live stage playing situations. Higher bit rate pedals are out there that sound better on one effect or another for sure. But the choruses here are not too choruse-ee, if that makes sense. The reverbs are not too reverb-ee. So because of that fact, the sounds are very useable and adjustable live, without going overboard on processing the acoustic sound. I think some players are gonna want more adjustability, and more knobs to adjust with. For me however, I see the value of the compact package, and well designed layout. You can get at everything you need with the one knob, and 3 buttons. 3 buttons that is, if you count the + and - buttons as two!
The delays are not what I'd really call delays in the traditional guitar pedal sense. They do work and sound nice, but don't seem to have a lot of adjustability. According to the manual, the delay effect is adjustable from 100ms to 370ms, but Zoom has chosen to jump in increments of 30ms-60ms per switch. Smaller increments would have been better. A nice feature though, is that the delay and reverb can be adjusted via the optional expression pedal.
Another feature in the sounds department is the De-Amp parameter. It's purpose is to attenuate frequency bands that sound harsh when acoustic guitars are plugged into regular electric guitar amplifiers. There are choices for amplifier kind, such as Bright Combo, Combo, and Stack. This feature does work to some extent. It's the way to go if you don't have a PA to run through. I'd suggest a dedicated acoustic guitar amplifier if given the choice, but many players do not have the $$$ to purchase another amp just for acoustic guitar. Having the De-amp feature as an option is nice. It's not perfect, but nothing ever is, and it's a feature that many other pedals don't even offer.
An acoustic pedal with a Wah effect controllable via expression pedal? Yup, the feature is here. I don't know who'd use it. Not me. I imagine somebody will think this is the coolest thing since sliced bread, so I'll leave it at that! The effect is also set at Auto-Wah when no expression pedal is plugged in.
The acoustic guitar simulations are where I was impressed. Not in the way you'd think though. As with the competition, Zoom has attempted (with the 504II Acoustic pedal) to make any plugged in acoustic guitar sound like an acoustic that is bigger, better, and properly mic'd. The nice thing about this pedal is the fact that you have acoustic preamps such as Flat, Natural, Mild, Rhythm, and Bright. They are all useable. There is adjustable EQ boost for both Low and High end, a Limiter, and AIR effect (which simulates the sound and distance between the guitar and a microphone.) The AIR effect does offer something nice. I won't say that it sounds similar to a nicely mic'd acoustic as with the Korg AX10A pedal, but it does offer some nice sounds anyway. The AIR effect with a Mild or Rhythm preamp and a little Chorus/Reverb, creates a very useful sound live through a PA with an acoustic electric. I found that if I cut the mid EQ nearly to off on the guitar EQ, then I got a nice sound that fit well in the live mix. Some guitarists will cringe at the thought of doing this, but it sounded right to me with this pedal and 5 different guitars I tried with it. I also wished for EQ cuts as well as the included boosts, but it really isn't much an issue unless the acoustic guitar you use doesn't have a mid cut on it's EQ.
Zoom has graciously opted to throw in an auto chromatic tuner built into the 504II Acoustic. The tuner works great, and is almost worth the price of admission alone.
I did record with the 504II Acoustic. As usual, I A/B'd it with the same guitar recorded with Rode and Octava condenser mics. The sound was not much like the mic's, but was definitely still useable on the recordings. With some adjustments, the pedal was able to take the piezo quack out of the sound, and make the guitar sound more like an acoustic guitar (less harsh.) That is a good thing. On some songs, I even preferred the Zoom's sound for the style and mix. You can get an especially nice big acoustic chorus sound with a little work. It's all about options in recording, and the same old beautifully mic'd acoustic sound may get boring to some at times. Not to me of course, but maybe to some :)
Conclusion
I do not hear an expensive mic'd acoustic guitar sound no matter how much I adjust this pedal. I don't hear that with any other simulator pedal I've tested either (although the Korg AX10A comes close.) What I do hear with the 504II Acoustic, is a good and useable acoustic sound, that is very adjustable, and perfect for many situations. There is real value in purchasing the 504II. It is less than half the price of most of the competitors, lasts about 28 hours on 4 batteries, is nicely laid out, and is darn tough for a plastic pedal. For the money a person could buy 2 and have a backup, and still be in for cheap! Zoom has changed my mind about their products with the 504II Acoustic, and I am now willing and ready to try out some of their other models because of it.
by William Charles
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