The best thing about the Zoom G2 is the drum machine. It just sounds good to me - and you can spice it up by using the delay on your practice amp. The G2 is also good for playing a background drone from a looper, as it gives you a lot of effects options like delay, echo and reverb all that can be used at the same time.
This thing in front of an MG combo is the sound of my life from 6th grade to my freshman year of high school. Imagine poorly played Cosmo Canyon covers and that one song by Coheed and Cambria with the pinch harmonics smeared by the angry bee and juice can exhaust note of maxed out solid state gain and bass controls. Then all the bedroom shredders in my hometown moved "up" (edit: laterally) to B-52 tubed heads and Line 6 you-name-its, gain still at ten with maxed out bass.
I still play this pedal for fun. Using the pedal to modulate the delays in Stereo is good. I use it through two Valvetronix Vox which ads some Valve Warmth
I gave my G2.1u to my nephew. I'm not entirely sure if he's used it but he still has it. I've got the G5 which I'm still using for everyday practice through headphones. It works nicely for clean to crunch. High gain isn't really my thing, so I don't feel qualified to judge, but the opinions I've read online generally agree that high gain isn't its strong suit. I know that if you push it to extremes it starts doing some weird stuff like partially muting particular notes/frequencies. The G5 has a few quirks. For example, amps and drive pedals seem to have way more gain available than their real life counterparts. Also, there isn't a master volume control for amps but there is a Tube setting which according to the manual adjusts tube amp compression, so I'm never quite sure how to adjust it for non master volume amps (I think the default is 30% for all amps so I tend to leave it there). I'm pretty sure the tone controls react more realistically than what you're describing with the G2, but I'm not convinced they react realistically. You can push clean models into breakup, but high gain models sound weird when you turn the gain down low. It's difficult for me to objectively gauge the quality of it due to my lack of experience with other modellers or valve amps. I also have the Atomic Amplifire 12, but I've barely spent any time with it due to the lack of a built in looper. I've just ordered a Boss Tube Amp Expander and a Marshall SV20, so I'll be getting some more experience with a real tube amp in the near future :)
It's amazing how they made it work with so little knobs or digits. The axsys didn't do much more and had a huge panel, two digit display with dots (similar) and sounded worse lol. The 5150 alone with the dynamic mic could support the unit and I've managed to get some decent marshall sounds believe it or not. The compressor module plays very nice with the booster. You could use it for its eq alone in the loop, analog delay sounds excellent as well. The broken fuzz (dying battery) is amazing not only for the price. This unit made me look for a full feature g9.2tt for months. However they ask a lot, they are unreliable and switches break and they are as units very rare.
I just think this is an amazing pedal really. A real bang for your buck. Learn the manual and you'll be amazed with the tones you can get out of this little box. But I repeat: Learn the manual. It pays off.
The first pedal I ever bought. It was great for learning all the affect types. Only thing I hated about it was that once you connect enother pedal to it it becomes more noisy. Traded it when I bought my first good amp.
I have the 1 with the wah pedal,blown away with it,not 100% on what I'm doing on it yet as I don't have a manual & just a PDF which I need to print out, it's inconvenient looking at my phone at small letters,so using presets, I am going to make a sticker indicating what the symbols & letters mean I think they missed a trick there, the paper manual looks daunting to learn, a quick start guide as it were would help massively. I also bought a looper pedal,my second favourite purchase,opens a lot of doors, advances your ear & playing imo.👍
A very good product for its price and time; well built. The znr, comp, modulation, delays were very good. The reverbs were okay. The amp and drive section was horrible. Overall, it compressed your guitar tone and you lost some highs and volume, but you could compensate with the compressor, boost and tone controls.
I have used a Zoom G1 & G2 into an '80 Boogie Mk2b 100 watt for past 21 years. A great pedal platform, the G2 just gives me more control. And i love the sound. I am also running it into an Orange Terror Stamp. Really killer!
These things are great if you want a simple setup that can give you effects and a range of sounds. Yeah, most of the presets suck, but you can dial in decent ones if you can navigate the controls. For the money these are a great value and are perfect for bedroom play or taking on a vacation and not wanting to risk your better stuff getting messed up. You can dial in a lot of good usable tones on these units. They are still out there and going strong even today. Dated, but still pretty cool pedals.
How do you set it up so i can use it like an individual Stomp box?. So i can preset ONLY Chorus in one patch? and ONLY delay in another patch? To put on a pedal board with my SD1 stomp. *And Mostly where do i start, to get a clean signal that doesnt change the beautiful tone of my '65 PRRI amp, and just be able to add ONLY either Chorus, or ONLY Delay, without losing my beautiful tone? ...is there a preset patch to start with, that lets my Amps tone shine thru, so that i can color the tone with chorus? Any help please would be much appreciated, thanks.
I’ve collected a lot of gear over the years. I tend to hold onto most all of it, even if it’s just for nostalgic reasons. This G2…I couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. What a steaming pile on a paper plate, thanks for confirming 😆 I thought Zoom recovered admirably shortly afterwards with their G3 line of mix modelers.
Not sure if you still have this unit, but do you happen to remember if you were actually getting sound out of the Right channel when plugging a stereo jack in? Cause I own 3 of them and although I remember back in the day it was giving me true L/R signals, now it just stays mono (L)... thanks!!!
The Amps sim and drive/dirt pedals sim, may not sound good in default settings. You have to tweak it in our liking, it is not 100% good simulation, but for the price and availability of this multi-fx in its time. This is quite bang for the buck. And avoid ZNR as much as possible, it can ruin tone and sustain
This was my first modelling unit, had it with a trash Marshall MG for about 7 years. good times. looking back, it was pretty great for the insignificant price. or maybe it's just nostalgia haha. I remember i favored the 5150 sim.
I have one and like you messed with a little bit and in the closet it went. The reason I didn't use it was because I simply didn't know how ! There is a thousand things to know and if you don't have the manual, your really screwed, although you can download it via Google. But that's my biggest gripe, I am going to give it one more try, if I don't dig it, well, I have a friend like you to pass it on too ! Lol,,,TY Bro, very professional review ! Good job ! 😎✌️
Been using a Zoom G1 in a pro tribute band for 5 years. Initially into a Fender Frontman 212Rbut now direct to PA. Despite experimenting with numerous other MFX, including pricey ones, none come close to my G1. I even got hold of a Purple GFX-1 but recent rehearsals have shown its not up to live use tone wise despite many a hour tweeking. I'm wondering if the G2 with the built in expression pedal is worth trying out? Weirdly according to Zooms product timeline, the G2 came out before the G1.
I unearthed my zoom g21u, (G2 plus a control/wah pedal), and by tweaking delay, reverb and tremelo, i got a very surfy sound. So it saves me about £120 by not buying a ehx oceans 11 pedal.
I have the G2.1nu and it has 4 cab to choose from : two types of fender combos, a 412 stack and a cabinet that is "matched" with the drive block. There is neither mic placement option nor extra eq alternative. The cab modelling is definitely the weakest part of this unit, but I used i live for a while in front of a clean amp, and even associate it with some IRs to record my first EP.
i just bought the zoom g2 from a friend today. cost me 20$ i also found a zoom505guitar pedal in a thrift store cost me 5$ both be very nice. money well spent
Good video, I’m still use my g2 because it have all I need for my play right know jajaj could you put the settings of your patch that sound at 00:13? It’s sounds cool :D thanks!
@@PlagueScytheStudios If you do, make sure to really go in depth with the Tone Studio software. Most TH-camrs often neglect this. There are so many good distortion/overdrive pedals included in the software - everything from a TS9 and a Rat to a Metal Zone and HM-2. Not to mention all the other effects. Plus, there's something you can download called "Sneaky Amps" that gives you a bunch of different amp models to choose from that aren't included by default.
That would be my entire take to be honest. I would probably get the head, briefly talk about the controls, then treat it as a desktop modeler from there forward.
I bought one at guitar center for $89 (circa) in 2009. I still use it especially plugged to the pc for practicing. The factory presets are terrible, too much gain and weird effects, maybe to attract metal head teenagers. But, if one takes time to tweak the presets and forget about the 'amp models' given in the manual, they can sound good even in front of a tube amp. My 2c
This pedal is great for headphone practice. Plus some usable tones using just the verbs and delays on yer amp. Drive tones are fizzy but it is a cheap all in one pedal after all.
I paid $200 new in australia about a decade ago. I found it too busy to learn without having to read a book or do a course. I did a few patches and used a high gain style distortion with subtle delay and also a clean rev ch. But wasnt that satisfying. If anyone knows how to simplify this into 1. delay chorus 2. Reverb chorus 3. Blackface reverb 4. Od3 or bluesdriver style OD (with and without delay) 5.ProCo Rat style Distortion ....please let me know? Especially a Rat style pedal.
@@binilgn5941 Depends on the application. Some parallel loop designs always mix some part of the amp sound along with whatever you feed (effect) in...parallel. If you have two signals, which are similar, ending up in the power amp you get phase cancelling and a thin sound. Some parallel loop designs though allow for 100% mix (of the effected sound). In that case it becomes a serial loop. But in also some cases that they say 100% it is not really 100% because you have crosstalk through components internally depending on the loop design, wether it uses a tube etc. What amp do you have?
@@binilgn5941 I had that amp and it is not a true series loop. However, put it on 90% you may like the sound. No harm in experimenting. Great amp though. You will be surprised if you take the preamp out and put it in another 6L6 power amp as well. Sounds great.
does the g2 zoom pedal effect can make a dotted 8 delay settings? if it's possible can you please email me the settings for dotted 8 delay for this pedal?
It can NOT directly convert your quarters into Dotted 8th. You may need to compute it, or make multiple patches with different dotted 8th settings for different songs. Example: Hillsongs' "Fire fall down" works well with 65ms settings in delay module.
This guy hits the nail on the head as to why I wouldn't touch any zoom multi-effects unit with a barge pole, even their latest flagship stuff.th-cam.com/video/_9mkEem00OY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=65ForU2dpOMTdNYx&t=1702 The big deal-breaker for me is the way that the gain seems to be set to one setting, meaning that you can't set a classic Marshall or fender tweed amp to edge of breakup, as opposed to full on drive. The "Bottlenecks" mentioned here were even more apparent on the Zoom 8080 that I purchased as my 1st programmable multi-effect, and lived with with buyers remorse for a few years. I have acquired a few more modern entry level Zoom's for my studio as examples for my students to try out, and they all seem to have this issue, with the amp modelling/OD/EQ being by far the weakest link to the units. None of the other entry level pedals I've tried such as Digitech RP50 seem to have this strange issue with the gain. I am not saying this as a Zoom hater, I really want to like their stuff; they do some really interesting stuff with their modulations and ambient effects (Perhaps the Zoom G2 could work well in a guitar amp's effects loop for reverb and modulation effects only) , but unfortunately they just fall short with what is to me the most important part of the package, the gain/amp/EQ. I am waiting (and kind of hoping) that zoom brings something out in future that changes my mind on this issue (that I could fel comfortable recommending to my students)...
The best thing about the Zoom G2 is the drum machine. It just sounds good to me - and you can spice it up by using the delay on your practice amp. The G2 is also good for playing a background drone from a looper, as it gives you a lot of effects options like delay, echo and reverb all that can be used at the same time.
This thing in front of an MG combo is the sound of my life from 6th grade to my freshman year of high school. Imagine poorly played Cosmo Canyon covers and that one song by Coheed and Cambria with the pinch harmonics smeared by the angry bee and juice can exhaust note of maxed out solid state gain and bass controls.
Then all the bedroom shredders in my hometown moved "up" (edit: laterally) to B-52 tubed heads and Line 6 you-name-its, gain still at ten with maxed out bass.
Instablaster
Damn, was NOT expecting for Pull Me Under to be pulled out from this bag of tricks!
A good surprise indeed
I still play this pedal for fun. Using the pedal to modulate the delays in Stereo is good. I use it through two Valvetronix Vox which ads some Valve Warmth
I gave my G2.1u to my nephew. I'm not entirely sure if he's used it but he still has it. I've got the G5 which I'm still using for everyday practice through headphones. It works nicely for clean to crunch. High gain isn't really my thing, so I don't feel qualified to judge, but the opinions I've read online generally agree that high gain isn't its strong suit. I know that if you push it to extremes it starts doing some weird stuff like partially muting particular notes/frequencies.
The G5 has a few quirks. For example, amps and drive pedals seem to have way more gain available than their real life counterparts. Also, there isn't a master volume control for amps but there is a Tube setting which according to the manual adjusts tube amp compression, so I'm never quite sure how to adjust it for non master volume amps (I think the default is 30% for all amps so I tend to leave it there). I'm pretty sure the tone controls react more realistically than what you're describing with the G2, but I'm not convinced they react realistically. You can push clean models into breakup, but high gain models sound weird when you turn the gain down low.
It's difficult for me to objectively gauge the quality of it due to my lack of experience with other modellers or valve amps. I also have the Atomic Amplifire 12, but I've barely spent any time with it due to the lack of a built in looper. I've just ordered a Boss Tube Amp Expander and a Marshall SV20, so I'll be getting some more experience with a real tube amp in the near future :)
Great video. Picked up one of their newer versions (G1On) for $25 and gotta say it's impressive for what it is. Using for my portable rig mostly.
It's amazing how they made it work with so little knobs or digits.
The axsys didn't do much more and had a huge panel, two digit display with dots (similar) and sounded worse lol.
The 5150 alone with the dynamic mic could support the unit and I've managed to get some decent marshall sounds believe it or not.
The compressor module plays very nice with the booster.
You could use it for its eq alone in the loop, analog delay sounds excellent as well. The broken fuzz (dying battery) is amazing not only for the price.
This unit made me look for a full feature g9.2tt for months. However they ask a lot, they are unreliable and switches break and they are as units very rare.
axsys upgrade ax2 is so amazing its unreal.
Oh God, I used it for so many years!!! Sniff sniff. Sounded great, though
I just think this is an amazing pedal really. A real bang for your buck. Learn the manual and you'll be amazed with the tones you can get out of this little box. But I repeat: Learn the manual. It pays off.
And it's a really good written manual 👍
Planning to buy this bro,,I have boss me6 but this zoom G2 absolutely good for gigs👍👍👍
The first pedal I ever bought. It was great for learning all the affect types. Only thing I hated about it was that once you connect enother pedal to it it becomes more noisy. Traded it when I bought my first good amp.
I have the 1 with the wah pedal,blown away with it,not 100% on what I'm doing on it yet as I don't have a manual & just a PDF which I need to print out, it's inconvenient looking at my phone at small letters,so using presets, I am going to make a sticker indicating what the symbols & letters mean I think they missed a trick there, the paper manual looks daunting to learn, a quick start guide as it were would help massively.
I also bought a looper pedal,my second favourite purchase,opens a lot of doors, advances your ear & playing imo.👍
I bought this mainly for the delays and I have to say it’s one of best for that…
A very good product for its price and time; well built. The znr, comp, modulation, delays were very good. The reverbs were okay. The amp and drive section was horrible. Overall, it compressed your guitar tone and you lost some highs and volume, but you could compensate with the compressor, boost and tone controls.
I have used a Zoom G1 & G2 into an '80 Boogie Mk2b 100 watt for past 21 years. A great pedal platform, the G2 just gives me more control. And i love the sound. I am also running it into an Orange Terror Stamp. Really killer!
These pedals have not been out 21 years.
These things are great if you want a simple setup that can give you effects and a range of sounds. Yeah, most of the presets suck, but you can dial in decent ones if you can navigate the controls. For the money these are a great value and are perfect for bedroom play or taking on a vacation and not wanting to risk your better stuff getting messed up. You can dial in a lot of good usable tones on these units. They are still out there and going strong even today. Dated, but still pretty cool pedals.
Miss mine. Had it for over 10 years.
How do you set it up so i can use it like an individual Stomp box?. So i can preset ONLY Chorus in one patch? and ONLY delay in another patch? To put on a pedal board with my SD1 stomp.
*And Mostly where do i start, to get a clean signal that doesnt change the beautiful tone of my '65 PRRI amp, and just be able to add ONLY either Chorus, or ONLY Delay, without losing my beautiful tone? ...is there a preset patch to start with, that lets my Amps tone shine thru, so that i can color the tone with chorus? Any help please would be much appreciated, thanks.
I’ve collected a lot of gear over the years. I tend to hold onto most all of it, even if it’s just for nostalgic reasons. This G2…I couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. What a steaming pile on a paper plate, thanks for confirming 😆 I thought Zoom recovered admirably shortly afterwards with their G3 line of mix modelers.
Lots of people disagree.
I thought the multitude of useable tones that this guy pulls out of this box proves how good that it sounds!
Very cool. i think they will sound even better today if you add a cab sim pedal at the end of the chain.
Very good review of this product thank you
Not sure if you still have this unit, but do you happen to remember if you were actually getting sound out of the Right channel when plugging a stereo jack in? Cause I own 3 of them and although I remember back in the day it was giving me true L/R signals, now it just stays mono (L)... thanks!!!
The Amps sim and drive/dirt pedals sim, may not sound good in default settings. You have to tweak it in our liking, it is not 100% good simulation, but for the price and availability of this multi-fx in its time. This is quite bang for the buck. And avoid ZNR as much as possible, it can ruin tone and sustain
indeed a great pedal thru an effects loop of any tube amp as well.
I use this pedal with a Fender Vibro Champ and it sounds great, sound as good as my analog gear : )
This was my first modelling unit, had it with a trash Marshall MG for about 7 years. good times. looking back, it was pretty great for the insignificant price. or maybe it's just nostalgia haha. I remember i favored the 5150 sim.
it was good at the time. wasnt expensive as well but good
One thing I notice is that it isn't noisy as other multi years after
I have one and like you messed with a little bit and in the closet it went. The reason I didn't use it was because I simply didn't know how ! There is a thousand things to know and if you don't have the manual, your really screwed, although you can download it via Google. But that's my biggest gripe, I am going to give it one more try, if I don't dig it, well, I have a friend like you to pass it on too ! Lol,,,TY Bro, very professional review ! Good job !
😎✌️
Been using a Zoom G1 in a pro tribute band for 5 years. Initially into a Fender Frontman 212Rbut now direct to PA. Despite experimenting with numerous other MFX, including pricey ones, none come close to my G1. I even got hold of a Purple GFX-1 but recent rehearsals have shown its not up to live use tone wise despite many a hour tweeking.
I'm wondering if the G2 with the built in expression pedal is worth trying out?
Weirdly according to Zooms product timeline, the G2 came out before the G1.
Rp200 digitech. Can you make a video?
Hi brother, i have a question abour that pedal, does it have noise gate? Thanks for your time
Yes, theres settings for that in an area called ZNR i think from memory
I unearthed my zoom g21u, (G2 plus a control/wah pedal), and by tweaking delay, reverb and tremelo, i got a very surfy sound. So it saves me about £120 by not buying a ehx oceans 11 pedal.
I have one of these, I never really figured out how to use it well. My grandpa said he got it for $100 bucks.
I just bought this!!!!🤘😔
some of the g2 had extra eq /cab & mic option but some doesn't had that, only extra eq option... anyone know why ?
Can you point to a specific model or picture? I'm not familiar with that.
I have the G2.1nu and it has 4 cab to choose from : two types of fender combos, a 412 stack and a cabinet that is "matched" with the drive block. There is neither mic placement option nor extra eq alternative. The cab modelling is definitely the weakest part of this unit, but I used i live for a while in front of a clean amp, and even associate it with some IRs to record my first EP.
i just bought the zoom g2 from a friend today. cost me 20$ i also found a zoom505guitar pedal in a thrift store cost me 5$ both be very nice. money well spent
Great video!
Good video, I’m still use my g2 because it have all I need for my play right know jajaj could you put the settings of your patch that sound at 00:13? It’s sounds cool :D thanks!
Speaking of modelers (and "built in" Metalzones), will you review the Boss Katana at some point?
Not unlikely, but not on the schedule anytime soon.
@@PlagueScytheStudios If you do, make sure to really go in depth with the Tone Studio software. Most TH-camrs often neglect this. There are so many good distortion/overdrive pedals included in the software - everything from a TS9 and a Rat to a Metal Zone and HM-2. Not to mention all the other effects. Plus, there's something you can download called "Sneaky Amps" that gives you a bunch of different amp models to choose from that aren't included by default.
That would be my entire take to be honest. I would probably get the head, briefly talk about the controls, then treat it as a desktop modeler from there forward.
¨too fizzy¨
Edu Ardanuy: Hold my bear for a sec!hahahahahaha
lol, Awesome! My 505 still comes out of the cupboard every now and then. Secret weapon .....ROTFL
I bought one at guitar center for $89 (circa) in 2009. I still use it especially plugged to the pc for practicing. The factory presets are terrible, too much gain and weird effects, maybe to attract metal head teenagers. But, if one takes time to tweak the presets and forget about the 'amp models' given in the manual, they can sound good even in front of a tube amp. My 2c
is there any multi effects pedal out there that has decent overdrive/fuzz/distortion effects?
running stra...this is my fav base ped...
This pedal is great for headphone practice. Plus some usable tones using just the verbs and delays on yer amp. Drive tones are fizzy but it is a cheap all in one pedal after all.
I paid $200 new in australia about a decade ago. I found it too busy to learn without having to read a book or do a course. I did a few patches and used a high gain style distortion with subtle delay and also a clean rev ch. But wasnt that satisfying.
If anyone knows how to simplify this into
1. delay chorus
2. Reverb chorus
3. Blackface reverb
4. Od3 or bluesdriver style OD (with and without delay)
5.ProCo Rat style Distortion
....please let me know?
Especially a Rat style pedal.
You should try it feeding the effects return if you have one amp with a good serial loop...
My amp has a parallel loop, is that a problem?
@@binilgn5941 Depends on the application. Some parallel loop designs always mix some part of the amp sound along with whatever you feed (effect) in...parallel.
If you have two signals, which are similar, ending up in the power amp you get phase cancelling and a thin sound.
Some parallel loop designs though allow for 100% mix (of the effected sound). In that case it becomes a serial loop. But in also some cases that they say 100% it is not really 100% because you have crosstalk through components internally depending on the loop design, wether it uses a tube etc.
What amp do you have?
@@81giorikas It's a Mesa Boogie F-30. The FX return has a mix knob that goes to 90%
@@binilgn5941 I had that amp and it is not a true series loop. However, put it on 90% you may like the sound. No harm in experimenting.
Great amp though. You will be surprised if you take the preamp out and put it in another 6L6 power amp as well. Sounds great.
81giorikas Alright, I might try that. Thanks for the help! 🙂
Thanks
does the g2 zoom pedal effect can make a dotted 8 delay settings? if it's possible can you please email me the settings for dotted 8 delay for this pedal?
It can NOT directly convert your quarters into Dotted 8th. You may need to compute it, or make multiple patches with different dotted 8th settings for different songs.
Example: Hillsongs' "Fire fall down" works well with 65ms settings in delay module.
ITS NOT GOOD ON A SEETONG BUT THIS MULTI EFFECTS REALLY GOOD ON ITS TONE , MUCH PLAYER NOW CHOICE THIS IN A LIVE ...
Best video 👍
How to get JC effect?
i remember using the 707ii lmao
Anyone know how to get this G2 to sound like a ProCo Rat?
Settings? Parameters?
starts at 20k
ends at 5k
hiiiiiifiiiiii
There has never been a mark III with a 10 inch speaker. Zoom was wrong on that...
I bought the g2. 1u ten years ago. Since I use a fender vintage amp the zoom is obsolete cause this amp already got some nice presets
Do Digitech rp series!
Speaking of battery life,,,,I think I heard enough,, .😂😂😂😂
do you like avatar?
This guy hits the nail on the head as to why I wouldn't touch any zoom multi-effects unit with a barge pole, even their latest flagship stuff.th-cam.com/video/_9mkEem00OY/w-d-xo.htmlsi=65ForU2dpOMTdNYx&t=1702
The big deal-breaker for me is the way that the gain seems to be set to one setting, meaning that you can't set a classic Marshall or fender tweed amp to edge of breakup, as opposed to full on drive. The "Bottlenecks" mentioned here were even more apparent on the Zoom 8080 that I purchased as my 1st programmable multi-effect, and lived with with buyers remorse for a few years. I have acquired a few more modern entry level Zoom's for my studio as examples for my students to try out, and they all seem to have this issue, with the amp modelling/OD/EQ being by far the weakest link to the units. None of the other entry level pedals I've tried such as Digitech RP50 seem to have this strange issue with the gain. I am not saying this as a Zoom hater, I really want to like their stuff; they do some really interesting stuff with their modulations and ambient effects (Perhaps the Zoom G2 could work well in a guitar amp's effects loop for reverb and modulation effects only) , but unfortunately they just fall short with what is to me the most important part of the package, the gain/amp/EQ. I am waiting (and kind of hoping) that zoom brings something out in future that changes my mind on this issue (that I could fel comfortable recommending to my students)...