unearthing old effects/multi effects units - zoom 3030

[university81]

so while going through my basement, found the first effects pedal/multi effects i ever owned

the zoom 3030

i remember being super psyched after having saved up the money to get it, some 14 or so years ago, there were websites with settings for various metallica songs and all that stuff that i'd set up, back then i'd run it into some no name solid state 30w amp, and would be loving all the weird effects.

plugged it in today just for laughs, overall it did sound pretty terrible lol, but there were some ok sounds in there if you tweaked the hell out of it, the chorus on it is super 80s sounding but is not bad, reverb is decent, and i think one of the overdrives/distortions is pretty ok

but that's about it, everything else about it reminded me why i've avoided multi-effects units for so long until more recently when i got the m9

the weirder effects on the 3030 were a laugh tho, an interesting effect called the 'super bender' where it pitch shifts down or up to the note you're playing was pretty cool , and i think the step harmonizer it's called was a blast from the past, but all horribly 90s walkman kind of processed headphone sounding stuff

it was fun playing through it again anyhow, really brought back memories,

just wondering if anyone else has been through something similar?


to think in 50 years time someone could be writing '..so i was clearing out my basement and then i stumbled on my old axe fx...' viva technological advancements

//

a video of the unit from youtube

 

[Shask]

I had one of those in high school

 

[university81]

I had one of those in high school

fun times right?

i think i still used it after i got a marshall vs100r combo, my first 'real' amp heh it took a rather swift backseat after that tho, found my old crybaby wah as well that still has the same battery in it...works just about heh


found the 3030 webpage with all the presets/tricks info...it's still alive altho not updated since 2000 and very much late 90s compuserve style =0

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/wellofsouls/

there's even a patch i submitted there lol , time to watch ferris bueller again me thinks if we're going down memory lane

 

[mboogman]

I had the 2020 back in high school, and wished I had the 3030. My, how things change

 

[Chris6870]

Had one also. Had the 20/20 and I think there was a 10/10 too. I used to buy stuff from Musicians Friend, play with it for a while,send it back,get something else,send it back and so on. I had all the early Digitech RP's also. Still have my RP 7 (the one with tubes in it) Its a pretty cool practice unit. I remember I had the Hughes and Kettner Creme machine,and Metal Machine too. also anybody remember the Boss micro rack units.I had a bunch of those too.

 

[university81]

Had one also. Had the 20/20 and I think there was a 10/10 too. I used to buy stuff from Musicians Friend, play with it for a while,send it back,get something else,send it back and so on. I had all the early Digitech RP's also. Still have my RP 7 (the one with tubes in it) Its a pretty cool practice unit. I remember I had the Hughes and Kettner Creme machine,and Metal Machine too. also anybody remember the Boss micro rack units.I had a bunch of those too.

two friends had the rp7 , we were all jealous because it was like big and metal =0

then when one of our friends bought a half stack h&k vortex (solid state ftw lol) all hell broke loose

 

[petejt]

the chorus on it is super 80s sounding

I wonder if this is one of the units responsbile for making 80s chorus so "80s-sounding" in the first place?

 

[glassjaw7]

Had a 1010. I thought it sounded so good at the time. Sounds awful!

 

[MrDan666]

I had the 1010 and the 3000 back in the 90's

 

[petejt]

This thread now has reminded me of this- a cheesey parody from about 1997 mocking Sting releasing an album of him singing "Happy Birthday" and other songs. They obviously used some cheap digital multi-effects stuff to produce the old Police modulated chorusey sounds.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

I still have a digitech rp14 kicking around here somewhere, I must say it still doesn't sound all that bad considering.

 

[xXxGhotimanxXx]

Some of the best effects are "vintage". I use a Boss GT-3 to this day and love it still...had it since '98.

J

 

[petejt]

Some of the best effects are "vintage". I use a Boss GT-3 to this day and love it still...had it since '98.

J

nice one


Although I have a stack of effects pedals, I could still do all my sounds with the Boss GT-5 that my housemate uses in the loungeroom.

 

[jwelliott]

I actually played one of these until it quit and recently found another and had to snatch it up. I had exhaustively tweaked mine, and used only the "U.*" patches - since they were the only overwritable slots, I found them to be the only useful ones. I used it as a disto/OD preamp in front of a tube combo, and only really ever used the EQ2, MAAAAAAYBE a very subtle chorus or delay, and the compressor. But I found I cut the amp sim out entirely, and used mainly the OD1/2, Disto 1/2, And Lead models. If you roll the high end off a bit, both in the preamp tone and in the EQ, you can get some really tactile, squishy overdrive and distortion sounds that feel like they're sticking to your pick, something I have only previously found in tube signal chains.

I typically steer clear of effectier signal chains anyway, so while I understand the bad press and reviews concerning the dated nature of some of the sounds this unit is packed with, I put a little more effort into finding my own sounds, and have found some really useful tones in this old gem.

 

[iplayloudly]

My 1st 2 pedals back in the early 90's.... weirdly I kinda miss them.

 

[thunda]

dug out the old GNX3 the other day, plugged it into my PA and jammed a bit. Actually has some nice tones in it still.

 

[Dopethrone]

had a yamaha fx550. hated that thing

moved on to the digitech 2101, and never looked back. still rocking one (my 3rd) just about every day too!

 

[paulyc]

Boss ME5. Still like it too.

 

[JTyson]

I'm still using two Yamaha REV 7's and a Roland GP8 from 35 years ago
I have some newer stuff, but I still use my old stuff. Most of my amps are 30+ years old
It works for me

 

[billsbigego]

I had one of these back in the day, along with a lot of ART rack shit. I thought this sounded like shit back in the day, and about a year ago, I got back into electric guitar and bought a new POD HD and thought it sounded like shit. I have a MK5 tube amp now and I'm pretty happy with it.