This unit cost me $70 CDN at Long & McQuaid.
Being new to the electric, I wasn't sure what my first pedal investment should be. I had (what I felt was) pretty nice distortion built into my Peavey Audition +, so I was thinking of maybe a chorus or phlanger to play with. Since I wasn't even sure what I wanted, the gentleman at the store suggested - in a nicely low pressure way - an inexpensive multi effect pedal: the Zoom G1.
He pointed out that it would not be something he'd recommend for stage use, but for a beginner looking for some low cost fun, this turned out to be my new favorite toy!
It has 40 presets with room for 40 user defined patches. It has built in tuner & drummer and lots of amp and player simulations in the presets. The link above can do a better job than I can at describing all the features.
On the Pro side, I can play with all kinds of sounds, get different amp effects, including "acoustic", to simulate whatever I'm playing to, and help develop my own preference/sound. If I planned to invest in something more stage-worthy, I can use this to help decide what effect(s) are truly 'must have'. As a newbie, I had no trouble figuring out how to use it. Even has an earphone jack and it came with an AC adapter. ...And it's cheap!
On the Con side, my review is limited by my experience. I can say the Compressor effect is not as breathtaking as what I have heard on a dedicated pedal. Comparing to Peavey type distortion, it matched my amp pretty closely to my untrained ear and I could easily pick out the distinctive Fender Twin Reverb sound, but I suspect to the trained ear, there might be some noticeable (glaring?) shortcomings.
Also, the sequence of patches is kind of a pain to set (and there is only one), so I have generally created "groups" each few patches having it's own clean/dirty and other effect, so I'm using more patches than I would if I could easily set the sequence.
In summary, I would recommend this to any beginner type person. It's really the price pushing this opinion, I suppose. $70 is pretty small change these days, so it's a low risk investment to help decide if you want to go bigger or to just have some fun with.
...so ever since then, I always hang on to the buckle.
