Well this little pedal turned out to be quite a surprise for me today, as it was something I picked up very cheaply at £35 and my expectations were pretty low.
I took interest because of it's connection with the G3 and at the price thought it a safe bet to have a go at programming it with Shadows sounds. I put a dozen programmes on there to give me the tools to do my work with Past Masters and I took it to our first rehearsal in over nine months. It absolutely breezed through our set list, from rock ands roll to Four Seasons, Beach Boys, Shadows, Beatles, Everley Bros, James Bond, Gary Moore - the lot. Also I can tell you that the sounds were first class and at one point one of the lads commented that the Meazzi might be redundant before I've even got it back from Amanda, who is doing my mods, the echoes are outstanding and the sound is far more authentic that could have been achieved with the older Zoom & Alesis units, heaven knows we tried hard enough. I wasn't aware of the G1Xon until one of our members mentioned it, but it seems there are quite a few options out there of devices similar to this, not too expensive that will do a great job compared to the prices of a few years ago for similar kit. I've mentioned this before, but I'm convinced that there are new more powerful chips going into this gear today and it has brought the price spiralling down for the days of a Q20 which was deemed the top dog by many for quite a few years.
Nowadays that mantle is definitely owned by TVS, as their attention to detail is perfect in every way, but those machines come at a high price and only a few of us are lucky to own one, but although a massive difference in price between TVS and the Zoom products, the difference in sound is not as wide by any stretch of the imagination and I think that someone who is not an expert would be satisfied by the sounds these modestly priced units deliver. Put it this way, the gap has narrowed somewhat from what were 'digital' sounding or 'sterile' to some people and are now more 'real' for want of a better word. At the end of the day, you pays your money, you makes your choice.