Zoom G2.1Nu help!

[zhijie46]

Hi people!

I have a Zoom G2.1Nu multi-effects that I bought recently. Personally I reckon my ability to tell a good tone is atrocious! Then I started listening to more varieties of fuzz and realized I was getting unsatisfying tone from my multi-effects!

Of course it is a multi-effects processor, what'dya expect?!

In case your wondering I am using it with an Ibanez Gio with Seymour Duncan Jazz neck and SH-2 bridge pickups and a Roland 20X Cube.

Some problems I face are not getting screaming pinch harmonics or getting very weak, to almost no, finger slide sounds. Tone tends to sound very "plastic", "fizzy", "thinny" whatever you can call it, rather than organic and full.

I honestly am not very experienced in this pedals and multi-effects business but I thought hey, maybe I should bypass the drive in my multi-effects and instead run a distortion pedal into it!

Ok so I never tried that yet, that's why I'm here to be enlightened. Is it a problem with my gear? Will running a distortion pedal into my multi-effects help at all? If so what great pedals are gonna be able to step up to this occasion?

Appreciate any help, hope someone with experience with this or own one, thanks loads!

 

[mightyboy88]

Hi i have a zoom g2, i find that the distortion tones are impressive and extremely thick. But the compression is the distortion is really unnatural and hence i prefer using stompboxes.

Maybe you can try out different types of distortions in the pedal, you can try to use the booster function in the wah section to add more meat into your distortion. I think there is a mic simulator after the eq which also helps to make your sound more real sounding.

I have gone to using stompboxes for my distortion tones with the zoom providing the modulations. You can simply add distortion pedals before the zoom G2. The compressor and wah effects may work strange after tt as these effects are not meant to be run after the distortion, at least for me. I now have a standalone wah and compressor due to the aforementioned reason.

Hope tt helps have fun :d

 

[zhijie46]

That's a start, so now I'm scratching my head over which stompboxes would be recommended.

Seriously, I have only ever tried Boss SD-1 and DS-1. Sold them both before I bought the Zoom. There are so many distortion stompboxes available on the pedals classified. What do you use? Some that caught my eye were Subdecay Blackstar, Fulltone OCD and this kinda never heard before brand, Shark Mr Big Distortion that comes with 3 band EQ. Wampler Plextortion looks really neat too but kinda over my price range :/

 

[mightyboy88]

You should try out the sounds on the G2Nu hahah those should give u an idea of what distortions you would wanna get.

I think distortion sounds can be widely classified as 1) Marshall Sounding Distortions 2)Mesa Boogie Sounding Distortions 3)Hardcore Gain Distortion or 4)Fuzz Distortions. At least thats how i look at it hahah

You should really try adding the booster effect to your zoom distortion sounds and use the mic emulators to make the sound more realistic before coming to a conclusion that you need individual stomp-boxes though.

If you are planning to get pedals i would suggest getting an overdrive and a distortion and place the overdrive before the distortion so that you can get a full and fat sound by turning them both on( this is a similar concept to using the booster function with your distortion to your zoom)

I personally use the pedaltank G-2 distortion(Marshall Plexi sounding) and a biyang od-7( tubescreamer clone) for most of my sounds.

Yup you should check out video review for each of the pedals you mentioned and hear whether its the sound you want

Try looking for patches settings online for that zoom pedal. You can search for eg zoom g2nu paul gilbert sound and see whether anyone has any sample settings for you to try hahah.

 

[WorldWithoutE]

Hi,

I am using a G1N MFX which would be similar to your G2Nu since they both are using the ZFX3 chip. I have had a great experience using it with headphones and through a XMini speaker capsule. The pre-amp and cab sims are surprisingly dynamic and produce a decent enough tone.

From what I am reading, you are using the G2Nu through an amp, so what I would check would be if you have the cabinet simulation feature turned off. The sounds will be weird if you turn on the cab simulation along with playing through the amp speaker.

2nd, along with the cab sim, there is a noise suppressor feature that comes along with it. Maybe this is what is muting the harmonics and string scrapes. I am not sure if the noise gate is that strong, as I never use it.

Hope this helps!

 

[haikelzambri]

dude, currently im using the g2.1u idk whats the diff between those two but...
if its similer try to activate the cab & mic option located at the extra eq place thingy...
it give the extra bass chung's that u need...

from my g2.1u i can get clear heavy tones, nice clean tones and and even a synth'ish kindda sound...
all u need is to explore that gadget of yours dude... it will do wonders...

 

[mightyboy88]

yeah i agree, the sounds without the cab n mic option is much thinner n fake.

you can get really good recording tones from this unit, it can sound very professional n big.

 

[haikelzambri]

hahaha so true bro!