GFX-707 Review

The Zoom GFX-707 one of the best sounding, most feature packed guitar effect pedals ever presented by Zoom.

Ease of Use:	8.3
Sound:	9
Reliability:	8.6
Impression:	9.4
Overall rating:	8.8
Users rating:	7.1
Comments:	6

overall: 9.5

Featured review by: UG Team, on august 04, 2003

Price paid: $ 146.4

Purchased from: Curlys musical store

Ease of Use: The Zoom 707 effects proccessor is easy to get a sound out of and is easy to create your own patches although preset patches like Van Halen distortion are very good to use as well. However the sampling function is hard to get a grip of. // 8

Sound: I'm currently running this with an Epiphone Les Paul Standard and a Marshall stack amp. It is noisy but it is possible to change each individual patches volume. The effects always sound pretty good.

I can get the sound of my favourite artists. There are preset patches like blues distortion and lead which is great for playing along to one of my favourites Eric Clapton and great cheesy lead patches for other favourites like Pearl jam. If there arent presets ready for you make your own. you always get close to youre desired sound. There is plenty of good lead and chorus effects but surprisingly not a decent clean. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I can depend on it for its quality. I would use it on a gig without backup as its never let me down yet. // 10

Impression: It's great as I've said for playing my music like Pearl jam and clapton, I've been playing for about eight years and I am sixteen. I have a les paul(epiphone), a strat bass and my effects processors Zoom 707 & 05. If it was lost I would probably buy it again, I love the preset patches, but I don't like the way you have to scan through the effects to find the desired one although you can move them around to within range of eachother to make live playing possible. Before I bought this I was given a Zoom505 the 707 is a big improvment it has a added rhythm feature more patches sampling function and a text screen showing instructions which makes things alot easier. // 10

overall: 8.8

Reviewed by: Kandizzle, on august 28, 2006

Price paid: $ 125

Purchased from: ABC music

Ease of Use: I love this pedal, I have used it for about 4 years and still works. To my knowledge, I'm pretty sure the price has dropped. It has many different effects that sound awesome. A Van Halen effect is included and it gives a deep rockin sound. The only bad thing is that you have to switch quickly to where you want the effect to be if you play a show and you want to change the tone to something else. The good thing is that you can program where you want the effects, if by each other or not. // 8

Sound: I can get a great sound out of most of them, some effects are a little odd and is cool for experimental music but, you can make your own effects also. It's really great how there are many different tones to choose from, they don't all sound the same at all. a variety of tones. I mostly use the Van Halen effect cause It sounds so sweet. It has a deep tone and sounds like Eddie Van Halen's guitar. I can also get a tone that sounds like Greenday's stuff and Metallica. You can plug it into pretty much any amp. I really like it. It also has a pedal where you can change the pitches and tones. You can edit whatever you want on it and make your own effects. // 9

Reliability & Durability: I've used it playing shows, droped it a couple times and have had it for about 4 years without any problems. I love it. The only thing I have had to fix on it was the solder in the chip, a small dot of it helped. which is very easy to fix. Nothing big at all and it's still running. // 9

Impression: I like to play any style of music and this pedal gives me a range. It has a guitar tuner in it also. I have been playing for 5 years and I own a Zoom GFX-707 and a Fender Twin Reverb and a Fender Telecaster. If something happend to my Zoom I would buy it again, if not then I would get the $500 new pedal that's out, It looks sweet, although I haven't messed with it yet. I love everything about the Zoom. I have compared it to the little $40 pedals you can get and this Zoom gives you like 50 of those in one plus a tuner, a recorder (for 6 sec), a pedal, and many more things. // 9

overall: 7

Reviewed by: davegrohljr, on may 14, 2007

Purchased from: A Friend

Ease of Use: This FX pedal is my first one. I bought it from a good friend of mine Who was the lead guitarist in the band I previously played in. I really liked the sound he was getting with this unit, and so I let him know if he ever wanted to let it go to give me a call. He had lost the owners manual, so I had to figure out everything on my own. I really found that the more I took time to adjust the settings, the easier it got. I also have recently downloaded the owners manual, and I pretty much knew everything on it. Lots of really great features. // 8

Sound: As for me, I have an old Peavey Bandit 65 with an old Black widow speaker, and so the sound is not that great; however, I have recently recorded directly onto my Audacity program, the sound is really great coming through a quality sound system. I never really have been to excited about the sound I get and now I think I just need to get a better amp. The sound my friend was getting with his old squire strat was amazing! I found out that he went out and bought another pedal exactly the same as the one he sold me! I think it's a great first pedal. The amp sim is my favorite effect, I use only the "combo A" setting. // 8

Reliability & Durability: These pedals all have the same problem sooner or later. All the connections in the back eventually come loose. My pedal has been re-soldered more than once. And my friend Who bought another after he sold me this one, also had loose connection problems too. If you gig with it, be careful, or you'll have problems with the connections. // 4

Impression: I play a Bandit 65 and my guitar is an Epi Special. I don't really like the sound I get from this set up, and like I said, I'm probably getting another amp. I was planning on getting a Floor POD, but I'm going to hold off until I've used it on a good amp. I have heard this thing sounding really sweet on my friend's Squire Strat and Crate tube amp, so I'll see about it then. Not bad at all for a first pedal. // 8

overall: 9

Reviewed by: kandy2314, on june 08, 2006

Purchased from: ABC music

Ease of Use: I love this pedal, I have used it for about 4 years and still works. To my knowledge, I'm pretty sure the price has dropped. It has many different effects that sound awesome. A Van Halen effect is included and it gives a deep rockin sound. The only bad thing is that you have to Switch quickly to where you want the effect to be if you play a show and you want to change the tone to something else. The good thing is that you can program where you want the effects, if by each other or not. // 8

Sound: I can get a great sound out of most of them, some effects are a little odd and is cool for experimental music but, you can make your own effects also. Its really great how there are many different tones to choose from, they don't all sound the same at all. a variety of tones. I mostly use the Van Halen effect cause It sounds so sweet. It has a deep tone and sounds like Eddie Van Halen's guitar. I can also get a tone that sounds like Greenday's stuff and Metallica. You can plug it into pretty much any amp. I really like it. It also has a pedal where you can change the pitches and tones. You can edit whatever you want on it and make your own effects. // 9

Reliability & Durability: Iv'e used it playing shows, droped it a couple times and have had it for about 4 years without any problems. I love it. // 10

Impression: I like to play any style of music and this pedal gives me a range. It has a guitar tuner in it also. I have been playing for 5 years and I own a Zoom GFX-707 and a Fender Twin Reverb and a Fender Telecaster. If something happend to my Zoom I would buy it again, if not then I would get the $500 new pedal thats out, It looks sweet, although I havn't messed with it yet. I love everything about the Zoom. I have compared it to the little $40 pedals you can get and this Zoom gives you like 50 of those in one plus a tuner, a recorder (for 6 sec.), a pedal, and many more things. // 9

overall: 9

Reviewed by: >>AlbiN<<, on may 24, 2004

Price paid: $ 201.2085

Purchased from: Stringsdirect.co.uk

Ease of Use: A great sound at the touch of a pedal, very easy to edit but make sure you read the maual first. I have the mkii version of this unit, awesome sound quality. Remember to take time on the manual if you're unconfident. // 8

Sound: I use a 1987 Marshall valve amp and a Yamaha Pacifica, and I have very good quality sound. The effects could do with a bit of tampering but you are able to get the best quality sounds. // 10

Reliability & Durability: Very dependable - if using batteries bring spares (runs on 4x standard AA batteries) - I would use at a gig but be warned: unless you use the patch change function well it could take a little while to switch between patches. // 8

Impression: Whatever style you play, this pedal will cater for it - it has 120 patches and 72 effects. I play blues/funk/rock/metal and this pedal is great for these styles. I've been playing on and off for years but have really gotten started in the last 18 - 20 months. I'd buy it again if I lost it (hope I never do that!) unless a newer model had been released. I love the wah pedal on the side, which can also change pitch, volume or any other effect you care to mention.
It would be cool if was made of metal so that I could be a little less careless with it. Definitely the best pedal in its price range. If your budget is up to £120 (don't know that in $) go for it. // 10

Reviewed by: unregistered, on december 18, 2003

Price paid: $ 144.57

Purchased from: music store

Ease of Use: The Zoom 707 was my first effects pedal. I found the whole thing remarkably easy to use in it's basic form, either through an amp or headphones. The manual provides a quick start guide for basic functions, which was all I needed at first, and gave pretty clear instructions on editing which took a little experimentation, but came good fairly quickly. I still hadn't fully mastered some aspects, but then the Zoom 707II came out & I purchased this too (GBP 120). This gives a much wider array of effects and I found this simpler to use as well. I love the rhythm section, which I often use when composing, as opposed to my separate Drum Machine. All told, this is something that you can Pick up, plug in & make sounds immediately, but, with a little reading can improve on as you go. I still find a couple of aspects of patching tricky but these tend to be in areas that I don't feel I need at the moment, so I haven't really gone into the details as much as perhaps I ought. // 8

Sound: Please bear in mind that I am not professional. I use a budget Fender "squire" guitar with a 15W "Squire" practice amp. However, I tend to play mostly when I am away from home in my caravan, using either batteries (which seem to last for months) or mains hook up. In these situations, I will use headphones (caravans aren't known for their soundproofing!). Either way the quality of sound, in my opinion, is great. There has never been any "noise", except on some "Fuzz" settings which I have never found particularly useful. Of all the main effects, I found that most were superb, but there seem to be a number that "seemed a good idea at the time" to the manufacturers, which I can't see ever being used by anyone! I tend to use the "heavier" sounds for playing punk/metal and within these parameteres there is a huge range of sounds, and the ability to tweak and save patches. // 8

Reliability & Durability: Durability? - both the Zoom 707 & the 707II travel with me either in the back of my van or caravan in their cardboard boxes & have never let me down. I have never done a gig as most of the time I am playing for my own pleasure although I do record to a Tascam 424II 4 track analogue recorder. They seem built to last. // 10

Impression: Whilst my music style is mostly "heavy & fast" I still want a decent sound, and both versions of the 707 seem to give me a lot of scope and really good sounds, especially when used with the inbuilt rhythm sections. The rhythm has many different styles, and whilst I use only a fraction of these, they cater for almost any taste. I haven't found the "intro" & "end" rhythm bits at all useful (as yet), but perhaps I've not explored this sufficiently to use them. There is almost nothing about either model that I can say is negative, but again, remember that I an not professional and may not be looking at what Marilyn Manson may expect!! The range of effects is superb and I love the smartcard facility to save effects with the 707II. The fact that I purchased the markII model whilst still owning the markI, shows the feeling that I have for the 707. If it was lost, I would certainly want a replacement - It does everything I wanted it to do and more. // 10

overall: 9

Reviewed by: bazo, on february 12, 2004

Ease of Use: I think that the 7072 is good because it has every effect and more on it. You have eleven catogories each one with a different set up it has from a to f and it has f0 f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9. in each letter that should give you ninty effects in each catogory and some have more and these endless effects include metal distortion, acoustic distortion, clean acoustic, reverb, old school and new wave and so on. In each effect you can slightly change the distortion or take it off and you also have with it a variety of side pedal(wah ped) effects to control the sound with that including wah,pitch,mod,gain,rev,vol and the salmpler one. You can record but only for about 10 seconds you can make your own effect move them around and you have also got a large variety of drum beats that you can play along to, it has also got a built in tyner but can sometimes go a bit wrong.

I use a reliable Squier Strat by Fender and a Fender amplifier. // 8

Sound: It sounds great and has has a toggle on the back which will turn it up really loud or really quite. // 10

Reliability & Durability: The tuning isn't that good but if it starts to run out of battery thenit stays on for quite along while but the effects are reliable. // 8

Impression: I play rock to red hot chili funk and there a wide selection of good effects for that kind of music.

If it got stolen or lost I would probably buy it again.

I love how many effects it's got and I don't like that when you record it only records for about 10 seconds.

My favourite feature has to be the drum Machine, it sounds great with all the effects. // 10

overall: 9.3

Reviewed by: thepower, on february 13, 2006

Price paid: $ 91.5

Purchased from: Ebay

Ease of Use: This is a really easy pedal to use, was my first Multi-FX one, and I found programming all the patches really easy, I looked at the manual, which wasn't too much help really, but I jsut worked it out in about 10 minutes. Can easily change through the effects too and easy to use on stage. // 10

Sound: I use this with a Gibson Les Paul and a handmade Pacifica, so these produce a nice tone, then the Zoom, then a Marshall GV-2. Nowadays, I hardly ever use the pedal for distortion, as I much prefer the sound of my Marshall pedal. The Zoom is good for clean effects, but the distortion is really hard to get a nice tone with, it seems to lose all it's quality. The chorus is good, as are the acoustic simulators if you can find a decent patch and I like the wah on it. // 8

Reliability & Durability: This is great, I have dropped it, spilt stuff on it, sat on it, anything and it keeps going. I have gigged it without a backup, and it's great. Although I have never played using batteries, but I never trust batteries with any pedals! // 10

Impression: I really like this pedal, it is great, the only disapointment is the distortion on it, and I have tried many different ones. So, if you want a Foo Fighter/Green Day all that style, don't get this, but a Guns N' Roses sound, it's perfect and all the clean sounds too. If this got stolen, I would buy another, for the easy of use and the nice clean tones, or I might try the 707 II. This is a good pedal. // 9

Comments

[wolfnetong5]

I agree, the 707 is a great effects processor. Also, I find the fact that it has a X-character LCD display really helpful. You get to customize names of patches, rather than referring to them as just A1, or B5. But that's just me. =)

[tallicadude1205]

get an BossGT-8 or an GFX-4!

[Linered]

How to get this similar like Metallica sounds? i tried, but i don't get till the end... can you help me?

[davegrohljr]

I have since bought a Randall RG200 tube amp. I was considering buying a POD 2.0; my new amp took away the need! This pedal with the right amp can sound amazing!

[deceit]

if anyone wants to sell me one of these im totally in for buying it

[davegrohljr]

If you check ebay once in a while, you cand find some floating around - even the bass version is out there too!