The George Lynch Mr. Scary Multi Effects Processor from ZOOM

If you have been reading my reviews you are probably well aware that George Lynch was one of the biggest influences of mine in picking up a guitar. The sounds he can get from the instrument are utterly amazing. There are people who think that effects make up the majority of a player's sound. This simply is not true and the vast majority of professional guitarists will tell you that including George Lynch. Effects can make a guitar sound better though. In addition to being a great player George Lynch has also been very well know to use his effects to bring out his sound even better in his work with Dokken, The Lynch Mob and his various other projects.

All guitarists want to sound better and like their favorite players when they perform. George Lynch is one of the most respected guitarists the world over and has a sound many only hope to emulate. Lynch and ZOOM joined forces to introduce the G2 Mr. Scary processor. This is a multi effect pedal that has 40 presets designed by George Lynch himself. There are 20 live settings and 20 others are meant for recording. These include presets for songs like Dream Warriors and Mr. Scary. George Lynch said in an interview that what they he and ZOOM did was record samples of him playing all his favorite equipment that they wanted to replicate and burned that onto a chip and that is how the ZOOM Mr. Scary gets its sound. He used things like Marshall and Mesa-Boogie amplifiers, Celestion and Eminence loaded Speaker cabinets and a large plethora of guitar effects and stomp boxes. When it was all done he feels there is well over $100,000 in equipment that "You get for a fraction of the price". He also stated "I wish they had something like this when I was starting out". The ZOOM Mr. Scary can usually be purchased for $119.00 at most retailers. It is available used for about $70.

The Mr. Scary pedal is all metal and has two buttons on them to toggle in between the various settings. It has four control knobs to assist you in dialing in your sound as well as controlling the various parameters on individual effects like delay or chorus. You can also hook an expression pedal (sold separately) to this to further control effect parameters. It also features a built in drum machine to help you jam out your own tunes as well as some of your favorite songs. The box includes a custom poster, patch list, specially designed pick and a greeting card from George Lynch.

The Mr. Scary pedal features 16 classic and modern amplifier and speaker cabinet models. These include models based on the Fender Blackface, Marshall Plexi and Mesa-Boogie Duel Rectifier. you also have the ability to simulate using a mic in front of the speaker for a further sound enhancement. The ZOOM Mr. Scary pedal also gives you access to several guitar effects in one place. You can choose from various effects like reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, and phaser.

As I stated the Mr. Scary Pedal has several presets based upon the sounds made famous by guitarist George Lynch. In addition to that he gives you patches for every song or lead you could think of. There is the classic British Stack sound for playing songs by groups like KISS and heavy scooped mid patches for playing songs by groups like Metallica. You also get a variety of clean tones and an acoustic simulator if you want to play acoustic sounds.

I personally don't use this pedal. I find much more flexibility in the effects modeler and stomp boxes that I use. I will say that I think this is a very good starting out tool for someone learning to play or just starting to get into playing along with songs. If you have been playing a bit and already have a few effects this is definitely a waste of money. If you have a Line 6 or one of the Digitech RP products you already have a much better effect system. It also takes a bit of getting used to setting up the amp and cabinet models compared to how simple it is on other units. There are quite a few of these available used on the internet. Since this is relatively new that makes me wonder if people just don't like it. The only thing that I really was excited about this pedal was that it gave me the chance to see some of George Lynch's settings. I especially have found the reverb settings helpful. If you buy the Mr. Scary you can make it sound much better if you get an overdrive or distortion pedal and run that in front of the Mr. Scary and use a very low gain setting on the amp model you use while cranking the gain up on the distortion pedal.

Resources and to purchase.

www.georgelynch.com

www.guitarcenter.com

www.ebay.com