Zoom 506 mk 2 Bass

It takes a while to get use to editing patches. This is a really compact pedal. I found the manual to be very useful and straight forward.

You can get a lot of different sounds out of this pedal. But you get what you pay for. At $80 US, you can expect it to do everything really well. THis pedal is a lot of fun to mess around with and it takes a while to get a good sound, but you can and it's worth the time.

If I were a serious musician into gigging I would not gig with this. I plan to use this pedal for home recording and I'm sure it will be very reliable.

I've never dealt with zoom. I own other zoom pedals and have never had a problem.

If you are thinking of getting a 506 mkII and you can afford the bfx 708 go for that instead. I own the gfx 707 and really like it. It has an expression pedal and drum machine, figured I could get by with 506 mkII for my bass since I already have the 707, for my guitar. If my 506 was lost or stolen I would probably upgrade to the 708. It's a bit easier to edit.

At first this pedal can be a bit tricky, but with some time it's very simple to navigate. Everything is adjusted with two buttons and one dial, so you don't get overwhelmed with a lot of buttons. Just a suggestion...but when you turn the unit on...hold down the right pedal as you power it up. This allows you to scroll through the effects without switching as you go. Then you just stomp on both simultaneously to use that effect.

OK...first of all...this is no Boss pedal, so the sound quality isn't superb. It can be a bit noisy at times, even with the noise reduction at peak. But for the most part the sound quality for a unit like this is excellent. I had a lot of trouble finding a distortion sound that I like on this pedal, so sometimes I combine it with my Boss Bass Overdrive pedal. They could also give you a little more room to play with the effects they give you. I also use a Cry Baby bass wah with this too, and it sounds great. I run this whole setup thru a Cate amp and an SWR 410 cab. I have used it many times live and it sounds really good through a PA. I have been complimented on some of the effects I get from this pedal...so it must be doing somethin right. I don't use any of the presets the pedal offers. I tune in all mine manually and I have been pleased for the most part. I give this pedal an 8 out of 10 for sound.

This is where I think it gets a bit shaky. I have not had any problems with this pedal, but the fact that it is made out of mostly plastic makes me a bit cautious of how hard I stomp on this thing. It seems like it can take some abuse, but I am not gonna jump on it to find out. I also own the original 506 and have never had problems with that one either. I would give this a 10 for reliability because neither the old 506 or this one have ever failed on me, but because it is made of plastic instead of a tougher metal shell, I have to give it a 9.

N/A...haven't had any need to deal with them so far.

Overall this is one of the best multieffects units you can buy for your money. I don't think you can find anything else under 100 bucks that comes close to this thing. ZOOM did a great job of improving it this time and they still managed to keep it pretty much the same price. If you're on a budget and looking for a solid multieffects pedal with a good sound...go for it. If you have the cash to get something more then I would go with a Boss multieffects board (if you can find one). For an overall score I rate this at 8 out of 10. And my compliments to ZOOM for making a good multieffects unit for those who can afford to go out and spend 300-400 bucks.

Any one who has had a first generation 506 like myself knows what a pain in the ass programming that sucker was. This one is the easiest multi efx unit I've seen yet. Granted I still like one-effect devoted pedals because of the ease of tweaking my sound...but when I go gigging and I need something that isn't going to cost me an arm and a leg for batteries and gives me an immense amount of options, the 506 II is my first and last choice.

Working this unit with my Boss Overdrive, Chorus, and Synth pedal creates a whole new palette of Industrial sounds that I thrive off of. I do use my Ibanez EDC705, but believe it or not I like my piece of garbage Yamaha 250 RBX the most with this unit. Some of the efx do sound repetative to me, but then again I've set up all the unique ones in the first two banks so I don't complain. Unfortunately though the factory didn't do a good job of getting all the levels of the efx even with each other and the sound drops out momentarily when you switch patches...but other than that I love this sucker!

Hasn't failed me yet...the battery life in this puppy is hell of a lot longer than the first 506.

I'm a fourth year bassist and play primarily Industrial Metal...and with my Boss pedals and this unit in tow all I need is a techno beat and I'm ready to roll. I've created my own sound with this piece...and with a little time you can too. I wish it had more pedals to select any of the efx in the bank at once...but then again this isn't a DigiTech. Alone this pedal is good, but with others it just gets better!

Simple but pretty much sucks

A 3 is generous because this thing sucks ass. Like huge elephant ass.
It has some good chorus but the clean sounds sound choked on all settings. The Step sound is cool but thats about it. If you play slap
at all you might as well forget about this thing.This is just my opinion though.

Yea it works but its plastic.

I play in a band called Spatik and we are a hardcore/funk/punk/melodic
band and this thing blows ass because i might have a badass swirling chorus on and then go to clean, but the clean sounds like it just chopped off the bottom end. And if your a bass player you need that bottom end or you just might as well play guitar.

This is my third zoom pedal. I found the pedal extremely easy to set-up and use out of the box. The manual is extremely useful for knowing the presets. It took me about 20 minutes to go through the manual to understand how to configure my own presets, use the tuner functions, etc. Editing is easy and quick once you do it a few times. I actually would have liked a bigger pedal in size. I found this almost too compact for using while jamming,etc. The light weight makes it a little too easy to shift around and sometimes flip on its side if you pull the cord too hard. But, velcroing it to a pedal board would eliminate this problem. However, I do like that I can have the pedal on top of my amp for easy editing, etc. some of my larger pedals are difficult to have on top of my amp.

For $80, it's SUPERB!! Is it a bass POD? No, but for the money, I found the tones to be as good. When compared to other expensive pedals, I would rate a 7-8. But, I'm trying to keep in mind this is a budget pedal. With that in mind, I was really impressed with the sounds available. Some of the presets are noisey, but you must keep in mind that even expensive units will be noisy when flange, phase, or distortion are used. These are just noisey effects. I also noticed this pedal was far noisier when I got too close to the pedal. I would easily say that 75% of the presets are usable without any editing. This is uncommon. The unusable presets are definitely unusable unless you need weird sound effects for a recording. The fat bass sound (A3) is incredible. I use a 4-channel keyboard amp since i need something that can run a drum machine (a zoom 234), a bass guitar, and an electric or acoustic at the same time. Therefore, I need pedals and a good preamp to get a solid bass tone. With the A3 preset, I have a 15" with two 10" cab tone! This zoom definitely added something to my tone.

For this pedal, I have to rely on past experience with zoom products. I have a zoom 2020 guitar pedal that had been dropped countless times from 3 feet onto a concrete basement floor. It is has had beer and coffee spilled on it as well as a cat hurling a hairball on it (yes, this seriously happened). Although this pedal is not as solid as the 2020, I don't expect problems with it. It has a typical 1-year warranty.

I've never had to deal with them. I know when I got the FP-01 pedal, the cord was missing with it. Musician's Friend sent one within 3 days. But this is not really Zoom's customer support.

Nothing receives a 10 unless it is top of the line. Again, for $80 you get a super-friendly and usable pedal with a variety of effects and uses. If you NEED super high quality effects, get a bass POD rackmount or the digitech BP-8. but for a 1/5th of the price of a bass POD, you get close to one--especially if on a budget or want to spend your money on a top-of-the-line bass (where your money should be going anyway).

Easy and strait forward to use out of the box, need to review manual to program. Once you've programed it once or twice, you'll have no problem.

I am using this with an ESP B-205 bass, a customized Yamaha fretless and SansAmp Bass Driver DI all into either a SWR 12" combo or a Peavey 12" Combo. I am not big on effect for bass, I generally like a clean sound. I just wanted to have the option of adding some effects here and there without spending a lot of $$. The Zoom works very well for that. The effects sound good to me, although they are not as good as more expensive units (obviously - what do you expect for $79!), and they can be ajusted from subtle to obnoxious. (Some of the presets are very obnoxious!) I especially like the wah and octaver. Never thought I would use the wah but I like it so much, I'm finding uses for it! If I want overdrive I use my SansAmp, it sounds better. The unit is very quite when you are not playing, but when the gate opens up...hisssss!

Although this this is made out of plastic, it seems pretty rugged. However, I wouldn't through it across the stage to a buddy.

Never dealt with them.

The Zoom works well for me, I've been playing bass for about 6 years now and I play praise music in a large church and also play in a Christian Rock band. Between the two, I've played about every style from Orchestra to contemporary/pop to Jazz to Ska to Rock. I love the fact that you can mute this unit and use it as a tuner, great for tuning between songs. The main thing I wish it had is a better display, like a 10 character lighted LCD instead of a two character LED that makes you look at the manual every time you program it. (But I guess that might make it cost a lot more than what its worth.) Bottom line: If you have a critical ear, stay as far away from this thing as you can, you will hate it! If you are just looking for some quick effects on the fly and don't want to fork out $400+, buy it and have fun!

I think its very easy to use theres really nothing to know for this part accept how to edit so i give it a 9.

There is not a sound that can be to noisy becasue u can always turn it down on the pedal. Also the distortions are great I have 1 that sounds like Cliff Burton. The chorus is great too and I love the slap I give it a 9.

I can totally depend on this pedal it's great. Yeah i wud totally use it at a gig I give this part a 9 also.

It has never broke so I wouldn't know how nice they will be when it does but I doubt soon because it's 1 of the most dependable pedals out there i give this a 9 too.

Over all i give it a 9 it has great sound I play hard rock and it is great for it I love the distortions and the flang. Also the Wah is great.

About 20 minutes out of the box, I understood it completely. At first
the MANUAL will severely needed. Once you get screwing around with the thing it is quite simple. The manual is very easy to understand.
Since there are so many effets, you'll want to always have the manual handy, so you know what effects you have selected.
It has 33 effects.36 rewritable pathches, that can be copied, rewrote, and restored to the factory presets. A decent Auto-Chromatic Tuner(easy to use).And that's about it. Has lots of little features that are nice. You can hook up an expression pedal to it. Can be powered by a 9V DC Adapter. Good to have, Because The batteries last 28 hrs., but if your like me, I can drain them in two days go to their site for more info.
I give it an 8, could be more simplistic, but then I guess it would cost more!
more and be larrger.

Well, Its' pretty d@mn good for 80 bucks!!!!!!!!!
It is an extreme value, trust me. I compared the effects on it to many other $60+ pedals, mainly BOSS & DOD. It equaled most often either almost exactly the same, the same, & in some cases, even better. There is one thing I don't like, I wish it had a better distortion. The distortions(12 of them) on it are often very weak, can be adjusted to a good sound though. The best distortion on it is the FUZZ. and with some minor adjustments, sounds like a good DISTORTION.
I give it an 8, sometimes noisy at high volumes.

It is molded plastic, has a metal undercarrage. I think it can take a pretty good beating though. I would gig with it.
9 'cause it's plastic. Other than that, it's fine.

Never dealt.

It's a great effects module with an even greater price. It REALLY pays for itself if you add up the price of the effects seperately. And would still pay for itself if you only used two or three effects!
The FRETLESS simulator is AWESOME, add in some HALL(reverb), some compressor,and a scotch of FUZZ or DRIVE (types of the distortion), And you've got a NEW-MILLENIUM J.S. BACH sound that sounds great playing his MASTERPEICES. And with some RESONANT WAH, FUZZ, and few more minor things, You've got the sound of the greatest bass player to ever walk the earth, CLIFF BURTON!!!!!!!
What more can I say! Quite readin' and go buy the d@mn thing!!
This is meant as an introductory to effects. If your a "pro"lol!,Go get a DIGITECH RP2000!!!!!! 400 bucks, but well worth it!
My Both guitarists in my band have one.
9 because there are better ones out there, but, it does what it should and at a price that kicks @$$!!!!!

This unit takes some tweaking, but after you're done, you should have a very good sound come out of it. The manual helps a lot if you haven't ever had a multi-effect pedal (like me).

I use a custom-made Peavey '98 bass and a BX-15 CRATE amp. Sometimes I'll also use my BOSS ODB-3 Overdrive Pedal with this. The unit is a little bit noisy, but something that everyone seems to overlook is the ZNR (ZOOM Noise Reduction) which helps with the noiseyness (sp?).

I don't gig with my bass (I also play trombone, I gig with that) so I won't answer this. It is a pretty strong unit though.

N/A

I play anything from Blues to Heavy Metal and this pedal reaches all genres (except maybe kid's music and gospel, but if you're good enough, you might be able to create some sounds for that too. I have been playing for 2 years. I told you all the gear I have, and it goes pretty well with this. I'd suggest getting this pedal for practicing, I don't know about gigging with it though.

I get great sounds out of it . but the jet i have doubts on .

Great sound.

Yeah i would use it at a gig.Yeah i do depend on it like one time we did a show in a bar and i broke my digtech so i had to use this i got some awesome sounds out of it.

The style of music i play is funk or jazz.Yeah it has plenty of slap and solo effects on it.i have played for 5 years with a fender hot rod bass fender stack with sam duncan humbuker pickups.If it were stolen i would definatly get a new one.I love the durability small size and the memory bank.I hate editing a patch.Bass synth. effect.i wish i had an Ibanez bass.it really helps make music . Nope .