Zoom G5N

review
ZOOM G5N
120
Guitarist september 2016
sideways, so that you can get access to all of
the effects for footswitching (and editing).
It’s a clever feature and allows the G5n to
remain compact rather than be covered
in footswitches, but it might take a bit of
getting used to. The displays telling you
which effect is assigned are not that easy
to read from five feet above, so some sort
of colour-coding backlighting would have
been useful. Also, the lower row of five
footswitches, although neatly designed, is
the same dark colour as the chassis, so may
be hard to see on a dark stage (though this
is nothing you couldn’t sort out with some
strategically placed white tape).
Sounds
There’s an eclectic variety of factory
patches loaded into the G5n, some
recreating the tones of famous players
1
2
The Rivals
Line 6’s AmpliFi FX100 (£229), a
Bluetooth-enabled fl oor unit, has
100 presets onboard (plus unlimited
presets via an app) and features 200
amps and effects models. You can call
up presets but not individual effects.
Meanwhile, Boss’s ME-80 (£249) has
72 memories (36 user/36 preset)
built from eight simultaneous effects
and features 68 amps and effects
models, and a fl exible footswitching
system. Also look out for DigiTech’s
RP1000 (£262), which offers 200
memories (100 user/100 preset) and
features over 160 amps and effects
models – Pedalboard Mode to use fi ve
footswitches to turn stompboxes and
effects on and off within a patch.
and songs, others the typically OTT
creations that tend to populate these units.
There’s certainly plenty to have fun with
and get you playing, but you’ll soon be
wanting to get in and build some patches
of your own. Assigning an effect to the
chain and tweaking it is really easy – each
of the four windows has cursor buttons for
effects type and four small knobs to adjust
parameters. At the moment, any editing has
to take place from the front panel, but Zoom
tells us that it’s working on a software editor
to replace the current Zoom Guitar Lab
1. The rear panel has a
minimal but workable
set of connections.
Some may miss the
balanced XLR output
that was found on the
previous G5
2. The display window
shows the loaded
patch for the
footswitch but
can also show the
corresponding effect
to be tweaked by the
four small knobs
(which is a patch librarian software that
allows instant download of new patches,
effects, and amp/cabinet simulators) with
a web connection.
Patches utilising amp simulation cover
plenty of range: the first five amp models
are a Marshall JCM800, Fender Twin,
Mesa/Boogie Mark III, Vox AC30, plus a
Bogner, all authentically flavoured and a
practical recording resource. An amp takes
up two effects blocks and a speaker cabinet
one, but that leaves six blocks to build a
sound, unless you’re also using the drum
There’s plenty to
have fun with and
get you playing,
but you’ll soon be
wanting to build
patches of your own
GIT411.rev_zoom.indd 120 04/08/2016 18:56