Zoom A2.1u Acoustic Guitar Multi-Effects Pedal

The Zoom A2.1u offers plenty of tone-shaping options to acoustic players. With 32-bit DSP and 96kHz sampling, the Zoom A2.1u sounds fantastic.

Overall User Ratings (based on 55 ratings)
  • Overall:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Sound:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Features:
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Ease of Use:
    4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Quality:
    4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Value:
    4.5 out of 5 stars
  • The Wow Factor:
    4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
(55) (see rating details)
Submitted January 24, 2011 by a customer from nccumc.org

"Awesome Amazing Acoustic Guitar Effects Pedal!"

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I really can't imagine needing another effects pedal for acoustic guitar. This is so much superior to the single "chorus" effect that the Crate amplifier provides with its included pedal.
Sound
This is a truly amazing tool for those of us who love to play acoustic guitars. It has the ability to make any acoustic instrument sound very close to what the developers call "key effects"; that is, to mimic the sound of some truly great signature sounds. What I really appreciate about it is how I interact with my guitar to bring out the most of the effect... I feel it is making me more sensitive to "how" I play to produce a quality sound. That alone makes it worth the purchase price. I am running this through a Crate CA125D acoustic amplifier with Digital Signal Processing, a MacIntyre "Feather" under-the-bridge pickup on a Martin D-28. a red label Yahama FG-300, and a Taylor GA-3-12 string through a Dean Markley ProMag Gold Acoustic Guitar pickup. Good sounds from all.
Ease of Use
The possibilities with this effects pedal would appear to be limitless.
Value
You get a lot of value for your dollar with this pedal, no doubt about it.
The Wow Factor
This pedal has a really nice look to it... in fact, that's what caught my attention first, then noticed that it was for acoustic guitars, then got excited about the possibilities of sounds, and I have not been disappointed!

Musical Background:

ckmoseley@nccumc.org

Musical Style:

bluegrass, folk, pop
9 of 10 people (90%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!

Submitted December 27, 2010 by a customer from yahoo.com

"Well worth the money"

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
Sound
Sound quality is excellent. XLR jack provides clear output signal. Wide variety of sounds with the ability to modify patches gives you endless possibilities. (almost too many)
Features
Product included the pedal, which is nice to change the effect on the fly. I have not used it during performance. Came with recording software, which I probably won't use.
Ease of Use
Very easy to get great sound, the unit interface is intuitive, but you will have to refer to the book to determine the range of settings that are available for a particular effect at first, until you are very familiar with the unit.
Quality
The unit is well made and very sturdy. Buttons are easy to push and appear to be durable.

Musical Background:

Hobby

Musical Style:

Contemporary Christian
4 of 5 people (80%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!

Submitted May 22, 2011 by a customer from gmail.com

"Convenient but, with its share or shortcomings."

Overall: 3.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
It will last me a while for small gigs where I don't want to carry my bigger rigs - that's what I was looking for. Even with its shortcomings, it makes for a very convenient, all-in-one, plug-and-play pedal. Easy in/out of your gigs.
Sound
Sounds clean - Hall Rev. not very good (washed out/muddy) barely usable if tweaked - other Revs mediocre as well. I would have prefer thy placed more processing power toward a decent REV than to other effects that are really not often used for acoustic guitar gigs. EQ is workable - again, could have used more bands but, it is doable. Easy to setup and decent sounding. Comp/Lim - again, not enough parameters for either. Compression and Limiting are very important for proper acoustic, live sound - should have had a more traditional Attack/Decay/Threshold/Rate/Level - Other effects are cheesy (flanger/phaser, etc...) I wonder why waste processing power on those instead on concentration on effects that are used in MOST acoustic guitar gigs. The Delay is ok - in fact, I prefer it to the rev. You can set both Dely and Rev and get a decent sound with that combination, making up for the poor Hall algorithms. Sometimes, I think it would be best if companies focused their product more instead of trying to throw everything, which only adds to the mediocrity of the results. I mean, who is this effect designed for? From the XLR out I would assume at least they expect some working PROS or semi-pros to be using this thing so, why not keep in line with that market?
Features
Too many mediocre effects - best if they had concentrated on GOOD, basic effect, used in MOST acoustic guitar gigs (good compressor and limiter, EQ and REV.) Nice touch is the PRE/POST switch on the XLR as well as the ground lift. but, once again, anyone picky and smart enough to know and use the Pre/Post switch will then be baffled at the mediocre Comp/Lim/EQ/Rev parameters, for sure!
Ease of Use
The interface is very self explanatory and I was programming withing a couple of minutes. I only had to read the manual to see which paramaters are indicated by the 2-letter symbols on the display. Of course, an alpha-numeric, LCD display would solve that issue :) Controls are intuitive to use and well thought out. Even tweaking on the fly is easy and fast thanks to the knobs aptly assigned to each function.
Quality
Well made, solid and pleasant to the eye.
Value
Good value - would have preferred more processing power to FEWER effects - as it stands, they cheesy sounding effects, lack of proper settings for Comp and Limiter and the horrible Hall rev. bring down the value a bit because if you are picky you would have to buy those effect separately, thereby killing both the value and convenience of having those BASIC effects in ONE pedal.
Manufacturer Support
I wish they had a N/A option as I never had to use it but, I gave it a 10 based on their very well organized support section on the ZOOM website. Getting the latest drivers and manual was a breeze. No endless clicking on pages, links, etc... It's all there, on the product page.
The Wow Factor
Well designed interface and looks good.

Musical Background:

PRO Musician

Musical Style:

Jazz/Nuevo Flamenco/Latin Jazz
9 of 12 people (75%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!

Submitted May 7, 2008 by a customer from otodance.org

Zoom A2.1u Acoustic Pedal Customer Review

Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
Sound
I'm using this thing with a Blue Lion pickup and Baggs Para Acustic DI preamp, playing a custom made Cedar four string lap dulcimer. This setup is giving me sound opportunities I have been dreaming of for many years. I love the box but have a wish list, (I am basically a solo live artist): The ability to edit patches via USB, setting up a series of coordinated effects I can move through coordinated with live playing. The ability to edit drum sounds and to create pre programmed playback/backing tracks. Overall, I am totally happy! Now, if the pedal could only do something about the sorry state of the US Government.....
Quality
Seems fine. Have not had it on the road yet. It's small, so it should fit in one of my cases ok.
Value
Good God people. If you are playing acoustic, this box is amazing for the dough...even if you only use it as a DI!
Manufacturer Support
So far, so good.

Musical Background:

Professional musician, sound engineer, lighting designer, theatre rigging professional

Musical Style:

Humm. Thats a tough one. Traditional, jazz, modern, dance, trance.
54 of 74 people (73%) people found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!
Please wait.