I bought the same one last year to replace and retire my Vox Tonelab ST that I used for over a decade to record and jam. I think these little Zoom pedals are an awesome bargain for what they cost. In a mix or live, you could never tell. The amp simulation and effects are pretty high quality and of course, as with any pedal, at any price, you must use the users manual to be able to get the most out of it. Great review!
The most recent software update allows you to place the looper before or after effects. That way you could record a loop and “reamp” it on different patches, or you could have the loop stay on a setting and then pick a different patch to solo over it
This thing is a swiss army knife, use it on everything, take time to explore, and make your own patches, most of the existing ones are too wet with effects, love the znr noise reduction, use it to record direct through my interface, you can even use it on your mixers effects loop to process vocals, in case someone didnt think of that.
Interesting. As a player who prefers and uses clean sounds without overdrive/distortion, it's usefulness for me was minimal - but the tips about how to set up and change settings was very handy.
Dirt tones needed the cab sims turned on. Yes the unit can be confusing as it shows the cabs are on but the mic setting within the cab is default to “off” so it looks like the cab it on, but it isn’t.
Yes, always check the cab / mic settings, depending on your intended use (playing through amp, or direct to desk). A lot of the Zoom G1 Four's presets don't have any cabs or mics engaged. So always tweak the settings and add a cab/mic if required. Just experiment.
I’ve found the G1Four very useful by putting other overdrive pedals and distortion before it, turning down the zoom distortion or overdrives, some nice singing leads to be had,
Thanks! I bought it earlier today before seeing your video, spent all of 3 minutes deciding what to buy. Pretty easy choice! Time to learn to play guitar!
@@tgdb4968 Just bought the unit and wish I'd known this before - so if you are playing live you have to create the loop as you play. Not sure what I would need to spend to do this, but having said that , this unit is great value.
I really like the G4, it's very quiet , no hiss , great sounds available as long as you create your own. I do use a DI box on the way to the mixer, but I don't know if i really have to. The only pedal I use with it is a Tube Screamer l I got for Christmas in 1981 Brand new. Wish I was 20 years old again. Great review, Thanks.
Bro’, no disrespect. I own one of these, and they don’t sound muddy like that. In fact, if you know how to tweak them, they can go toe to toe against some of the higher end modelers. Perhaps it’s the way you’re 🎤 the amp/speaker. As great as Zoom guitar FX are, one of the reasons why they don’t get the respect they deserve, is ‘cause they’re not always demonstrated righ, by the user base. I know we can do much better than that. Any hooo, thx for listening. 🎸🎸🎸🎸 ✌️
Thanks. Top tip... If you update the firmware you can put the looper before the FX, then record a loop and adjust the FX on the fly in real time to find the exact tones you want (and save them, all while the looper is still playing).
I would have been Ecstatic if I had this in the late 90's or 2000's. My ZOOM G92tt is still a very highly competent processor even it is a bit limited in the number of simultaneous effects but it does have an external Effects Loop, so, Viola! : hook up the G4 to it and away we go.
Hey dude. Good video but; I would like to hear just a clean Chorus? With some slow, strummed chords ringing out? You played all the distorted sounds; which sound like Garbage? The question is? does that pedal have a nice clean, Pink Floyd type Chorus sound? Lush chorus in there anywhere? Because we singer/songwriters hate distortion. It just sounds like Mud!
Hi, I agree the stock patches suck. But this pedal offers amazing tones when edited and patches made from scratch. I use it 90% of the time for recording clean tones, which are stellar. There are a couple of excellent chorus FX, fully editable parameters. I prefer the Tri-chorus, which is heavenly.
Try a audio isolator, behringer hum destroyer.. it isolates the audio signal, that will proberly remove the ground loop, which causes the hiss.. thats my experience
Hey, thanks for this review. It's really good. I've ordered mine and am waiting to receive it soon. However I'm the beginning you mentioned the noise when it's plugged in a power supply. Was the power supply s an original from zoom?
Yes. Depending on which outlet I use in the house, and depending on which guitar and what other equipment I'm using in close proximity, the noise is either there or not. Batteries just eliminates most of those variables
I love this pedal, it's small and tidy, my only problem is I cannot get active EMG pickups to sound good on them, the emgs are too hot.Passive pickups sound beautiful.
@@PetesGuitarUniverse thank you for this will try reducing the gain on the amp, I also use an overdrive pedal in my chain, with very little gain, around 10 in value, should i reduce the gain on the overdrive pedal too. Will try reducing the gain on the amp first and see how things go, thank you very much!!!
Unfortunately not very much in the way of clean sounds, I wanted to hear the different Reverbs, Chorus, and Echo/Delay's, too many overdriven distorted sounds for me.
Save the 2 patches you wish to play with, both your perfect distortion tone, and your best chorus chime, then save them next to one another. You can do this 4 times and then toggle up and down either way and still be sure to engage your 2 favourite setting no matter which way you tap the footswitches to change patch. You can control the distortion with your guitar volume pot, so you can control your OD tone and Dist tone right from your guitar. And leave your clean tone totally clean with no amp sims on. The best clean guitar was recorded by people like Michael Jackson and Prince. Both of which played directly into the desk only running through a high quality preamp to add that transformer-in-the-circuit weight in the signal. Perfect cleans with just modulation is the way to go.
nice video thank you. Is this worth it in 2022 for live vox and strumming a guitar for shows? does it sound cheap as compared to any of the more expensive processors? I currently have an korg ax5g. Does this sound better?
This is definitely worth it in 2022. Great sound quality, and the key is to program it yourself. With so many flexible features it produces a great bunch of tones.
Hi Pete, i am a keyboard player who usually plays the piano. Do you think that this would be a nice gear for me to have? I think I will be using the looper feature to loop chords, reverb for melancholic things, delay fot fun , and the equalizer for lo-fi ing if there is one. I love to experiment with sound. Do you think this would be suitible for me. I will use it with my piano which has a few built in but kinda cool sounds. I hope you got my point. Thx
Hard to say. Boss are great at what they do. But personally I find the new Zoom ranges of guitar FX sound better to my ears. You can get good live tones and even better direct recording tones. The 32-bit processors Zoom use are top spec.
@@PetesGuitarUniverse It's funny, about an hour after I made this comment I found a Boss GT1 used in excellent condition from a guy here locally. It was too difficult to pass up. I will be experimenting with it for now and then get a Zoom G1X four later on.
Can you please tell if Zoom G1x four can be connected with piano Keyboard?(especially Roland and yamaha?)....And what does it mean by saying 38 seconds looper? Will the looper stop looping after 38 seconds?
The input is mono, so will accept any mono instrument. And yes the looper has a max time about 30 seconds or so. You can layer on top, but can't make the loop any longer.
Would you comment on the sound quality when using headphones plugged into the output jack? I want to use this pedal as a headphone amp that has decent EFX, but I'm not trusting enough to buy it. In my experience sharing the line-out & headphone-out in the same jack is a terrible idea; it's really just a line-out that can't handle the low impedance of the headphones, and so with headphones such shared outputs have very low volume with terrible tone that can't be fixed no matter what I do. Zoom's manual seems to imply that you can use this same jack for both, so I'm curious to know whether it is really mysteriously capable of this (and even more curious to know how it's possible that it could work). Thanks!
Headphone output is excellent. Literally brilliant. No issues at all. Just use the right hand side knob to lower the patch volume so you don't blow your ears up. The tones sound incredible. Especially the modulation / stereo FX.
Used zoom for decades. They are the first pedal company to do this an the digital multipedals afaik. I split an recorded wearing headphones while recording on the fly videos with my old one.
The way you did the review is fine, but the tones sucks. Did you put a cab with the mic on in the signal chain? If you are not playing with a real amp you need to select a cab from the G1 Four! Cheers from Portugal 🍺🤘🇵🇹
Thanks for your feedback. As mentioned, the tones are all stock Zoom patches (except the first couple of clean patches). All patches used are recorded direct and have the cabs engaged. But thanks
Oooh yeah. I'm planning to do a deep dive video on this pedal to cover everything, as there's too much to cover in just 1 vid. Stay tuned / subscribe to the channel for the up coming vids.
Totally agree. The presets suck, as with most multi FX. But I can guarantee that the tones within the G1 Four are first class. I have dialled in a bunch of amazing patches of my own and believe they rival anything else I've ever heard. The delays and looper are worth the money alone.
Use the ZNR (zoom noise reduction) patch in the last slot. Adjust the parameters so it's silent when not playing, but so that it doesn't choke the decay of a single note sustain too early
As many as you like, so long as they're under 30 seconds in length (loop). If you stack lots and lots, the earlier ones will loose clarity slightly, but that's the same on all loopers
I bought the same one last year to replace and retire my Vox Tonelab ST that I used for over a decade to record and jam. I think these little Zoom pedals are an awesome bargain for what they cost. In a mix or live, you could never tell. The amp simulation and effects are pretty high quality and of course, as with any pedal, at any price, you must use the users manual to be able to get the most out of it. Great review!
Agree with everything you've said there. It's hard to imagine pedals of this quality existing a few years back, especially given the affordability
The most recent software update allows you to place the looper before or after effects. That way you could record a loop and “reamp” it on different patches, or you could have the loop stay on a setting and then pick a different patch to solo over it
Wow, thanks for that info. That'll be a really useful update and I'll look into it ASAP.
This thing is a swiss army knife, use it on everything, take time to explore, and make your own patches, most of the existing ones are too wet with effects, love the znr noise reduction, use it to record direct through my interface, you can even use it on your mixers effects loop to process vocals, in case someone didnt think of that.
Top tip. Yes, a true sleeping giant this pedal. Use it for lots of stuff, not just guitar
I really appreciate this review. Very straight forward and honest but not Being weirdly critical like every other review I've seen for this product
Thanks. Glad to help
Interesting. As a player who prefers and uses clean sounds without overdrive/distortion, it's usefulness for me was minimal - but the tips about how to set up and change settings was very handy.
Dirt tones needed the cab sims turned on. Yes the unit can be confusing as it shows the cabs are on but the mic setting within the cab is default to “off” so it looks like the cab it on, but it isn’t.
Yes, always check the cab / mic settings, depending on your intended use (playing through amp, or direct to desk). A lot of the Zoom G1 Four's presets don't have any cabs or mics engaged. So always tweak the settings and add a cab/mic if required. Just experiment.
I’ve found the G1Four very useful by putting other overdrive pedals and distortion before it, turning down the zoom distortion or overdrives, some nice singing leads to be had,
Great idea. Will try that
Thanks! I bought it earlier today before seeing your video, spent all of 3 minutes deciding what to buy. Pretty easy choice! Time to learn to play guitar!
Great purchase. Hours of fun ahead
These little effects units are really handy when you come up with a new riff, put the drums on get a loop going and jam away.
Yep. Layering really helps flesh an idea out
So can you save the loops to use later?
@@eyetalic No, there is no way of saving a loop to the unit. Once you turn it off the loop is gone.
@@tgdb4968 Just bought the unit and wish I'd known this before - so if you are playing live you have to create the loop as you play. Not sure what I would need to spend to do this, but having said that , this unit is great value.
@@davidmaxfield2398 Yeah you cannot store the loops on the unit.
I really like the G4, it's very quiet , no hiss , great sounds available as long as you create your own. I do use a DI box on the way to the mixer, but I don't know if i really have to. The only pedal I use with it is a Tube Screamer l I got for Christmas in 1981 Brand new. Wish I was 20 years old again. Great review, Thanks.
You're welcome. Yes, the G4 will worth without any need for a DI direct. Just engage the speaker sim if you want that mic'd sound. Top stuff.
Bro’, no disrespect. I own one of these, and they don’t sound muddy like that. In fact, if you know how to tweak them, they can go toe to toe against some of the higher end modelers. Perhaps it’s the way you’re 🎤 the amp/speaker.
As great as Zoom guitar FX are, one of the reasons why they don’t get the respect they deserve, is ‘cause they’re not always demonstrated righ, by the user base. I know we can do much better than that. Any hooo, thx for listening. 🎸🎸🎸🎸 ✌️
I'll try harder. Bro.
@@PetesGuitarUniverse, 👍
6:54 yeah I’m definitely sampling that right there. Don’t even need to play my guitar cuz that alone is good enough to use on a beat
Thanks for showing how to set it up! I was looking all over! Great video 🙏
Thanks. Top tip... If you update the firmware you can put the looper before the FX, then record a loop and adjust the FX on the fly in real time to find the exact tones you want (and save them, all while the looper is still playing).
I would have been Ecstatic if I had this in the late 90's or 2000's. My ZOOM G92tt is still a very highly competent processor even it is a bit limited in the number of simultaneous effects but it does have an external Effects Loop, so, Viola! : hook up the G4 to it and away we go.
Great idea and setup
Hey dude. Good video but; I would like to hear just a clean Chorus? With some slow, strummed chords ringing out? You played all the distorted sounds; which sound like Garbage? The question is? does that pedal have a nice clean, Pink Floyd type Chorus sound? Lush chorus in there anywhere? Because we singer/songwriters hate distortion. It just sounds like Mud!
Hi, I agree the stock patches suck. But this pedal offers amazing tones when edited and patches made from scratch. I use it 90% of the time for recording clean tones, which are stellar. There are a couple of excellent chorus FX, fully editable parameters. I prefer the Tri-chorus, which is heavenly.
I am using this gadget with my electric violin and also with acoustic violin
@@zafarhyd5044 how's it working out?
Try a audio isolator, behringer hum destroyer.. it isolates the audio signal, that will proberly remove the ground loop, which causes the hiss.. thats my experience
Thanks. I prefer rechargeable batteries. But other solutions definitely work well if hum is an issue for anyone.
Hey, thanks for this review. It's really good. I've ordered mine and am waiting to receive it soon. However I'm the beginning you mentioned the noise when it's plugged in a power supply. Was the power supply s
an original from zoom?
Yes. Depending on which outlet I use in the house, and depending on which guitar and what other equipment I'm using in close proximity, the noise is either there or not. Batteries just eliminates most of those variables
Nice! another great review. and a new microphone! :)
Thanks. Steadily improving the quality of my videos.
Amzaing Machine but you forgot to show us the Rhythem beat patterns....? thanks for the demo...
Thanks. They're standard drum patterns. I might cover this in a follow up video, as I have discovered some amazing features I want to share
I love this pedal, it's small and tidy, my only problem is I cannot get active EMG pickups to sound good on them, the emgs are too hot.Passive pickups sound beautiful.
I use it with active buckets sometimes too. The key is to drop the gain levels to bring the clarity back.
@@PetesGuitarUniverse thank you for this will try reducing the gain on the amp, I also use an overdrive pedal in my chain, with very little gain, around 10 in value, should i reduce the gain on the overdrive pedal too. Will try reducing the gain on the amp first and see how things go, thank you very much!!!
@@ILLRICARDO it's called 'gain staging'. With a bit of experimentation you will get the sound you're looking for.
Unfortunately not very much in the way of clean sounds, I wanted to hear the different Reverbs, Chorus, and Echo/Delay's, too many overdriven distorted sounds for me.
I plan to do a real deep dive to explore a bunch more of the settings on this, as there's so much to go into.
I’m having one delivered to me and I been playing since I was 12 but my whole family plays but I’m more excited about the drums
Aw the distortion, the dopey big boy distortion ! Use Boss SD 1 and SD 2 for distortion ! Now what do the reverbs and echoes sound like ?
how to move the distortion effect with the chorus so that they are close together,thanks
Save the 2 patches you wish to play with, both your perfect distortion tone, and your best chorus chime, then save them next to one another. You can do this 4 times and then toggle up and down either way and still be sure to engage your 2 favourite setting no matter which way you tap the footswitches to change patch. You can control the distortion with your guitar volume pot, so you can control your OD tone and Dist tone right from your guitar. And leave your clean tone totally clean with no amp sims on. The best clean guitar was recorded by people like Michael Jackson and Prince. Both of which played directly into the desk only running through a high quality preamp to add that transformer-in-the-circuit weight in the signal. Perfect cleans with just modulation is the way to go.
@@PetesGuitarUniverse can you make vidio tutorial please ...if you have free time ,thank you. Very much
hey, i have a question... can i put a headphones to pedal like you know, can i play it without amp, on;y headphones and guitar to it?
Yes, just plug the headphones into the output jack. It takes the large 6.3mm jack size (same size as a guitar cable jack).
Can you tell me how to delete patches/effects to free up space and add new patches from guitar lab. The instructions in Zoom manual don't work.
You don't delete, you over-write the patches. And I don't use guitar lab. Prefer to tweak via the pedal UI.
I gonna buy one
@@ZaibasLightningRanger I now have 2! Snap them up. A genuine unsung hero of multi FX
nice video thank you. Is this worth it in 2022 for live vox and strumming a guitar for shows? does it sound cheap as compared to any of the more expensive processors? I currently have an korg ax5g. Does this sound better?
This is definitely worth it in 2022. Great sound quality, and the key is to program it yourself. With so many flexible features it produces a great bunch of tones.
Hi Pete, i am a keyboard player who usually plays the piano. Do you think that this would be a nice gear for me to have? I think I will be using the looper feature to loop chords, reverb for melancholic things, delay fot fun , and the equalizer for lo-fi ing if there is one. I love to experiment with sound. Do you think this would be suitible for me. I will use it with my piano which has a few built in but kinda cool sounds. I hope you got my point. Thx
I don't see why not. I use it on vocals so it can handle the full audio range / spectrum with no issues. Go for it. Amazing unit.
Is It suitable for electro acoustic guitars? Whats your opinion, Pete? Thanks
awesome video, super helpful, thank you!!
Thanks. Happy to help.
How does this compare against a Boss GT-1? Is GT-1 worth the extra for mostly home use?
Hard to say. Boss are great at what they do. But personally I find the new Zoom ranges of guitar FX sound better to my ears. You can get good live tones and even better direct recording tones. The 32-bit processors Zoom use are top spec.
@@PetesGuitarUniverse Thanks for your input. Listening over UA-cam, I like the zoom sounds as well. I may just get the Zoom as I have been debating.
@@philos212 that would be my choice too. I already switched from Boss to Zoom. Don't regret it.
@@PetesGuitarUniverse It's funny, about an hour after I made this comment I found a Boss GT1 used in excellent condition from a guy here locally. It was too difficult to pass up. I will be experimenting with it for now and then get a Zoom G1X four later on.
@@philos212 cool. I'm sure you'll love the Boss. Great unit.
Great review. I’m wondering about the battery life. How long will the batteries last before you need to replace them?
Seem to last ages. I run mine on batteries for recording (to eliminate ground hum earthing rattle). Get many sessions from one set of batteries
I used to have to replace my zoom every 8 hours or so max. Buy some good rechargeable an proper charger. An keep 2 extra sets in the area
Hello,
is there a reverb trail/tail when you switch from bank 1 to bank and to the last bank and from patch 1 to patch 2 and to the last patch?
You can turn the reverb tail on / off depending on what you want
@@PetesGuitarUniverse thank you for the response😁
is there something like this in Bank mode and stomp mode?
@@user-nh5ml3je6d when you select a reverb one of the parameters is to turn the tail on/off. However you like to use it, patches or stomp.
Can you please tell if Zoom G1x four can be connected with piano Keyboard?(especially Roland and yamaha?)....And what does it mean by saying 38 seconds looper? Will the looper stop looping after 38 seconds?
The input is mono, so will accept any mono instrument. And yes the looper has a max time about 30 seconds or so. You can layer on top, but can't make the loop any longer.
@@PetesGuitarUniverse alright, thank you so much
Nice TY What Recording equipement are you using? TY
Guitar > Pedal > Tascam Model 16
Liked and subscribed. Cheers mate .
Great to have you onboard
is it only available to be powered via AA batteries? No way to power it via a wall socket?
Yes, you can power it via the wall wart. But batteries avoids the hum / cycle noise that many who use multi fx units (no more so than any other pedal)
@@PetesGuitarUniverse thanks man 👌🏼
Can i buy this in 2024
You sure can!
Would you comment on the sound quality when using headphones plugged into the output jack? I want to use this pedal as a headphone amp that has decent EFX, but I'm not trusting enough to buy it. In my experience sharing the line-out & headphone-out in the same jack is a terrible idea; it's really just a line-out that can't handle the low impedance of the headphones, and so with headphones such shared outputs have very low volume with terrible tone that can't be fixed no matter what I do. Zoom's manual seems to imply that you can use this same jack for both, so I'm curious to know whether it is really mysteriously capable of this (and even more curious to know how it's possible that it could work). Thanks!
Headphone output is excellent. Literally brilliant. No issues at all. Just use the right hand side knob to lower the patch volume so you don't blow your ears up. The tones sound incredible. Especially the modulation / stereo FX.
Used zoom for decades. They are the first pedal company to do this an the digital multipedals afaik. I split an recorded wearing headphones while recording on the fly videos with my old one.
The way you did the review is fine, but the tones sucks. Did you put a cab with the mic on in the signal chain? If you are not playing with a real amp you need to select a cab from the G1 Four!
Cheers from Portugal 🍺🤘🇵🇹
Thanks for your feedback. As mentioned, the tones are all stock Zoom patches (except the first couple of clean patches). All patches used are recorded direct and have the cabs engaged. But thanks
Do you have any patches for good overdrive sounding and distortion?
Oooh yeah. I'm planning to do a deep dive video on this pedal to cover everything, as there's too much to cover in just 1 vid. Stay tuned / subscribe to the channel for the up coming vids.
Will do! And btw, do you still use the amp and cab sim even though it's already plugged in a real amp?
@@davidmylesmapilot5708 usually turn on the cab sim if recording direct. It just applies high frequency damping like a cab does.
What's the chord progression ur playing?
Just something I came up with for the video. I always try and write something original
@@PetesGuitarUniverse can u pls tell me the chords? I can figure out the strumming myself... Love ur playing btw
Are you mixing in the acoustic sounds of your strumming with the recording? Maybe I don't understand.
It's just a little bleed from the camera mic
IS THERE any useful setting to simulate a bass cab/ tone ?
Yes, in fact I use it for recording DI bass. Make your own patches and there are lots of great FX. Really useful.
Thank you for the Demo. The Factory presets sounds do not impress me at all. Biggest mistake most of them make.
Totally agree. The presets suck, as with most multi FX. But I can guarantee that the tones within the G1 Four are first class. I have dialled in a bunch of amazing patches of my own and believe they rival anything else I've ever heard. The delays and looper are worth the money alone.
@@PetesGuitarUniverseyou can export/share those patches 😉
@@onceagain227 about to release an in-depth tutorial on how to get the best out of this pedal. Subscribe for notification when it releases soon
@@PetesGuitarUniverse you got it, dude. Subbed.
@@onceagain227 cool. I've discovered some very cool things about this pedal. Will be sharing soon.
Hi is that have a wah?
The usual auto-wah, yes
Bro some niose is comg from it can u pls help
Use the ZNR (zoom noise reduction) patch in the last slot. Adjust the parameters so it's silent when not playing, but so that it doesn't choke the decay of a single note sustain too early
How many loops are there?
As many as you like, so long as they're under 30 seconds in length (loop). If you stack lots and lots, the earlier ones will loose clarity slightly, but that's the same on all loopers
@@PetesGuitarUniverse thank you!
Gagawan mu?!
kinda sounds like weird fishes
Well spotted
So just got this piece of shite for xmas, put the batteries in teady to rock and the dam thing isnt powering up. Is there an on off button????
You need to plug a jack into the input and output.
Dude, some pedals won’t turn on unless you plug the jack cable :)
Sounds like 🤮