Zoom A3 Acoustic Pedal

[Adair Neto]

I think that the A3 is a nice pedal, but I won't change my A2 for one. I'm thinking in make a nice pedalboard just for acoustic, with separate pedals, what IMHO is better.
If Zoom makes a G5-like acoustic pedal it would be nice.

[8TrackJoe]

A G3 Acoustic pedal is what I hoped Zoom would release. I've got the A2 and the G3 that I use. From what I've seen in the YouTube videos the A3 has some nice sounds, but I currently don't see an easy way of moving up and down in the patches like you can on the A2.

[seratone]

I saw it in a music store the the morning, watched the posted Youtube video at lunch and by 3:00 PM I had one. (fantastic playing by the way)

I've experimented with a lot of amplified acoustic guitar solutions in the past year, let's just say the Zoom A3 has replaced all of it. (Fishman Aura Pedal, Yamaha AG Stomp, Various EQ's, Reverbs and Chorus).

I use a pedal board with my own Power All so I have no complaints about the lack of Phantom Power. The ability to use the Mic dry, and have all the affects run the UST pickup is great, but not applicable for me live.

Since one of the effects is dedicated to the body style of the guitar, it would be really nice if Zoom came out with a larger version that would allow me to use three or more real effects instead of two (Compressor, Chorus and Reverb) - the'Air' treatment is also really usable. It ads some transparent 'crispness' that really makes Pizo's come alive. Al little more mid-cut functionality would also be appreciated.

It's a great unit at a great price. It blows the Fishman Aura technology out of the water.

[8TrackJoe]

Originally Posted by seratone

It's a great unit at a great price. It blows the Fishman Aura technology out of the water.

Any chance that you could provide a comparison of the Fishman Aura and the Zoom A3? Would love to hear what they sound like side by side.

Joe

[JoMas]

I don't agree. I have both Aura and the Zoom A3. They cannot be compared. These are two completely different beasts. The "modeling" of the Zoom is completely different from Aura's, I'd say that the purpose itself of the 2 tools is different. In fact, I think they complement each other very well. One does not replace the other.

[Einzeln]

What two purposes do you mean?
Can the mic input be used for a vocal mic?

[JoMas]

Originally Posted by Einzeln

What two purposes do you mean?
Can the mic input be used for a vocal mic?

Aura is not a traditional effect - its purpose is to remodel the piezo signal from your guitar in order to make it sound as it was coming from a microphone. The result can be quite dramatic. It can be very, very good, or not so good, depending on a number of factors, mostly on how close the "image" (the model) that Aura is using is similar to the sound of your guitar.

Zoom A3 is a multi-effect - the usual ones, reverb, delay, eq, chorus etc. The quality of the effects is excellent. Besides that, there is also a sort of "modeling" section, where the piezo sound of your guitar can be slightly improved by providing a little bit of extra richness and fullness, a little bit of "realism", so to speak. However, in my experience the result is not even close to Aura's. It is much, much subtler than Aura. Zoom's modeling does improve the sound, but nothing dramatic at all.
As I said: Aura is supposed to emulate the sound of miked guitar, Zoom modeling feature can only (slightly) improve your piezo sound (but it has nothing to do with emulating the sound of a miked guitar).

In my opinion, they are both excellent tools, and they go very well with each other.

And yes, I think you can connect a vocal mic to the vocal input of the Zoom (never tried though, but I don't see why not).

[Einzeln]

OK I have a Martin M36 with a Lr baggs element in it, and I want the piezo sound like my Martin. The Aura is the way to go, since it has 8 presets of the M36?

[JoMas]

Originally Posted by Einzeln

OK I have a Martin M36 with a Lr baggs element in it, and I want the piezo sound like my Martin. The Aura is the way to go, since it has 8 presets of the M36?

I guess so. I'm not familiar with the Element, so I don't know how the Aura will respond to it. Maybe someone else can help you better than I do.

I've used the Aura for my Taylor 314ce for a few years now and I've been pretty happy. It's a huge improvement over my Prefix pickup. I usually add a little eq after the Aura to eliminate some resonances that I don't like. I think this is probably true in general, Aura needs a little tweaking and experimenting, but the results can be extremely good.

However, now I'm moving to the LR Baggs Lyric. But I haven't installed it yet, so I don't know if it's the right choice. If it sounds like most people say, I will abandon the Aura.

[rainfire]

UniqueSquared has these for $149.99 shipped, and possibly even less, since there's a "Make Offer" button on their web page. I wouldn't dilly-dally though, because the price in their eBay store, Music-Next-Day, was just raised from $149.99 to $199 (click on the "9 sold" link to see the previous sales--one of which happens to be mine).

[celtic_dude]

Thanks for the heads up!

[El Chiguete]

Can someone PLEASE make a review of this using a solid body electric guitar with piezo and normal pickups? Maybe this is what I need to do real justice to a couple of power ballads!

[rainfire]

Originally Posted by rainfire

UniqueSquared has these for $149.99 shipped, and possibly even less, since there's a "Make Offer" button on their web page. I wouldn't dilly-dally though, because the price in their eBay store, Music-Next-Day, was just raised from $149.99 to $199 (click on the "9 sold" link to see the previous sales--one of which happens to be mine).

I hope anyone who wanted an A3 was able to get it for $149.99--Unique Squared has now raised (fixed?) their price to $199.99.

[celtic_dude]

I got my order in with a best offer accepted at $130 Lets see if it goes through!

[rainfire]

Originally Posted by celtic_dude

I got my order in with a best offer accepted at $130 Lets see if it goes through!

WOW! Fantastic! If they accepted it, to renege would be pretty crass of them. Good luck.