Zoom G3 beats line 6 HD!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter veji
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veji
veji
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well i went to the music store to try out the Zoom G3 and the line 6 HD 300/500.
and to my surprise the little zoom sounded better.
you guys have to check out the zoom g3..i had the axe fx and the boss gt-10 and i want to buy something smaller for home use.
This little box actually blew away the boss and line 6 stuff. The amp models were just better.
199$ plus the looper(best i have seen) and better yet. Plus its super easy to get a good tone. NO tweaking which i had to do with the boss/axe fx.
 
I think the zoom sounds better then the line 6 m9 killer unit imho
 
veji":3lb234sq said:
well i went to the music store to try out the Zoom G3 and the line 6 HD 300/500.
and to my surprise the little zoom sounded better.
you guys have to check out the zoom g3..i had the axe fx and the boss gt-10 and i want to buy something smaller for home use.
This little box actually blew away the boss and line 6 stuff. The amp models were just better.
199$ plus the looper(best i have seen) and better yet. Plus its super easy to get a good tone. NO tweaking which i had to do with the boss/axe fx.
Click to expand...

I would listen in a more controlled environment than a music store. In my opinion, I don't really think that there is that much comparison between my Line6 Pod HD and my Zoom G3. The G3 has a distinctly processed sound and the aliasing is quite present causing a chorus-y sound on dry amp patches. Some of the effects on the G3 are way too wet and you can't dial it out to the point so that they're usable. The Zoom can't do two amps in stereo or have as many effects in the chain as the Pod. The Line6 also has a superior editor as well. You'll have to A/B the two with headphones or studio monitors and you may see what I'm talking about.
 
Pod HD 500 user here. Depends on what you are playing but I haven't tried the Zoom. I will say the POD excels at overdrive/crunch tones. As you get into higher gain sounds it gets pretty meh in my opinion.
 
I have wanted to check out one of those Zooms. I have read that they do pretty good until you hit high gain.
 
i've been curious about the zoom units as i've been using the pod hd 500 now in my rig for a little while

the routing options and flexibility unfortunately are a big deal breaker for me, if the g3/g5 had some kind of fx loop that would be great (i use a bass preamp/di within the FX loop for playing bass through the same rig --> DI )

even if it might sound better it would be tough to integrate into my rig, tap dancing ahoi , and i'd be missing certain specific M-series effects (particle verb..synth/filter stuff)

the zoom is probably way easier to dial in with less options available,in any case would love to try one out at some stage but i'll be sticking to the pod hd for now
 
I've not really owned anything Line6 for any considerable length of time but a POD XT Live for a month or so. The presets on the XT sounded more like real amps/rigs to me, through my stereo but I couldn't get it to sound good at all thru my amp. I ended up trading it for a G-Major. The presets on the Zoom G5 are nuts. The gain is always too high. They switch between DI and Thru-Amp patches at random... But you can dial in some good stuff and thru a real nice amp/cab, it's very convincing.

The Zoom G5 is significantly lacking in features compared to the POD HD's but it is very easy to use and I think it sounds great thru my amps' FX return with the cab simulations off. Does it sound like a Jose JCM 800? Highly doubt it but then I've never heard one of those. All I know is the FX on it are much nice sounding than the L6 M13 I had for a few weeks on a test run. It's format is exactly what I was after ( minus the 4CM and MIDI options ). I've had 0 trouble at all dialing up great sounds with it. If you're just looking for FX, the G3 and MS-100BT or MS-70CDR are great. I spent some time with a POD HD 500 and I hated it. I love to tweak but that thing was almost as bad as an old Yamaha keyboard. The G3 and G5 can do 6 and 9 fx at a a time respectively. I haven't maxed out a patch yet. I bought it mainly as a portable 'rig-in-a-box' to take to friends houses that didn't have spare amps, etc. It's become my sound engine though. It replaced a rack with a Digitech 2120 ( which I still think has great sounding FX ) a 2101CD and a Furman PL-8. Smaller, lighter sounds every bit as good.

Zoom keeps doing firmware updates for each unit. On the G3 they took it from a limit of 3 fx at a time to 6 and they've added FX. I suspect they'll do more in the near future too.

It's no AxeFX but for the money, you can't beat it. Give it a shot. I liked it so much I bought a MS-50G merely because it was cheap used.

Now, instead of a halfstack, rack case and footswitch case - I have a 2x12 combo and the pedal case loaded like this. I mainly use presets but I have a couple guys I jam with that are heavy into the post-rock/sludgey/space stuff so I add the lil Zoom with 4 or 5 delays or 4 or 5 reverbs or some insanity. Being able to do all that with one stompbox is pretty cool.
 

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I certainly like the G3 MUCH better than the HD300 I had.
 
Pity the zoom stuff won't do 4 CM. Plus it has no relais or midi outs to switch amp channels. The same on the one that used a iPad for programming.
 
I went from the PD HD to the Zoom G5. Not as many bells and whistles but it sounds better to me and is real easy to use. I like the tube preamp option too.
 
I was able to simplify my gig rig considerably by using a G3 infront of my amp...before I had a midi footswitch, switcher, GMajor II rig...which worked great, but was a real pain to setup quick at a gig. New rig sounds great, is much more simple and quick to setup for a gig...and I can use just about any decent two channel amp...no special cables etc...love it.
 
BrokenRomeo":1opz0uqr said:
I was able to simplify my gig rig considerably by using a G3 infront of my amp...before I had a midi footswitch, switcher, GMajor II rig...which worked great, but was a real pain to setup quick at a gig. New rig sounds great, is much more simple and quick to setup for a gig...and I can use just about any decent two channel amp...no special cables etc...love it.
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I was in the exact same boat Romeo. I'm in a small time/local band and hauling a VHT half-stack, 2 guitars and a rack and footswitch to shady bars wasn't cool. Now I've got the G5 board pictured above and 2 guitars and whatever amp I choose.
 
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