A few weeks ago, I got a Zoom G5 pedal and this past Sunday was my first gig with it. In short, it sounds amazing, is easy to use and has a number of handy features. The one sort of a downside to it is the process you have to go through to change banks. There are 99 of them; each containing 3 patches. Within a bank, you can change patches by simply stepping on the 1 of 3 footswitches. A 4th footswitch allows you to move between editing/manual mode and performance mode. Manual mode allows you turn individual effects within a given patch on and off as if they were individual stomp boxes. But unfortunately, there is no way to scroll through banks prior to selecting them and you have to hold down two of the three patch select buttons to scroll either up or down and the sound will change to whatever patch is next in line so you will have to not play while looking for a particular patch (unless, of course, the desired patch is next in line). The unit also has this multi-function assignable expression pedal (Z-Pedal) that allows fro up and down as well as right to left movement. With the additional range of motion, you can use the Z-Pedal to control multiple parameters including wah, pitch up, pitch down, tremolo rate and more. One thing bout the expression pedal (and this is not specific to Zoom): it doesn't have quite the same up and down travel as a "real" wah (at least not to me - maybe I just need to get used to it). So in a word, it's a nice compact unit with lots of great sounds and features (Cubase LE is included). There's even a looper rhythm machine built in so you can get down by yourself if you have to. With regards to the bank switching issue, I think that there is a mod available for it, but even without it, you can still access bunch of different sounds using the manual mode within just the three patches.
