Zoom G1X Four Multi Effect-Pedal

I use this at home as my main effects unit. It's usually the only effects unit in my signal chain. Overall I'm very happy with the unit for this purpose.

Pros:
1. It's the same price as a single effect pedal, yet it contains dozens of effects. Most of the effects sound really good. If you want to experiment with lots of effects to find the ideal sound for a song, this is a convenient and cheap way to do it.
2. The build quality is good.
3. The unit doesn't hum or buzz.
4. There's a tuner which appears when the effects are bypassed.
5. There are 3 different ways the unit can be powered: with a micro USB charger, with a standard 9V PSU, or with 4 x AA batteries.

Cons:
1. The looper has 30 seconds of memory, which I find to be insufficient.
2. Changing effects midway through a song is somewhat impractical. It's achievable if you are switching between effects that are stored in adjacent memory slots. Otherwise you will have to keep hitting the "up" or "down" footswitches until you reach the program you want. The foot switches are "up", "down" and "on/off". The up and down switches cycle through the 50 programs.

Minor niggles:
1. It doesn't seem to be possible to use the looper with the effects bypassed.
2. When the effects are bypassed the volume knob becomes a pitch adjustment control for the tuner. However the signal is still affected by the volume setting. You just can't change the volume.
3. Changing the effect parameters is a bit fiddly, but no more than you would expect on a compact multi-effects unit.

The default programs range from the not-so-subtle to the bizarre and amusing. However it's easy to create your own programs. A program can contain up to 5 internal effects. Many of the internal effects are emulations of specific standalone pedals. For example, there are emulations of the Tubescreamer ("TS Drive", Klon ("Gold Drive") and Zendrive. Don't let the eccentric default programs put you off. There are plenty of usable effects in this pedal.

There are additional internal effects that can be loaded onto the unit via the USB port. To this you need to connect the G1X to a PC and run the software that is provided. It would be nicer if all the effects could be loaded on to the device at the same time, as this would remove the need for a PC. I rarely connect the pedal to a PC and hence I'm probably missing out on some useful effects.

For the money, this unit is very good. If the limited amount of looper memory and limited foot controls don't bother you, I think you'll be happy with the G1X Four.

I'm honestly sorry to give it back. It's got a great looper that can be synchronized with the drums. It even counts 4 bars before starting the looper so you don't have to play the first note and kick the start button simulaniousely. The Looping is perfectly synchronized with the drums then. 30 seconds of looper is not very long though.
BUT: It is by default set to "amp" output mode and it does NOT have a global switch to change to "mixer" or "headphone" mode (!!??). So you have to trigger a cryptic "microphone" feature in the cabinet simulation to get a decent sound when playing via the livingroom stereo or even listening to it via headphones (!?) I mean, you can do that, but you have to do it for EVERY patch you use. Okay, no problem so far, but you need to inform the customers about that. I guess most of the time the device is gonna be uses in a livingroom or with a computer or a DAW or headphones. Not with a "real" cabinet. Learned about that "microphone" mode from the interent.
You can buy it but you need to turn on "microphone" with mixers.

I am a keyboard player who tries to play guitar and I tried to save money by buying a unit i thought I could use on both platforms.

I reckon reading tons of different product reviews i've got confused as I thought there were a lot more tones, technically there are plenty of sounds but because of limited space on the device you have to use the software to swap in and out, probably not an issue after i spend time finding what I like and don't like and cleaning up the unit, again i should have taken more care before clicking buy now.

And surprise surprise a guitar effects unit has far more guitar based effects, more study next time, oh by the way real guitar players will probably love this.