Zoom 606

I find it very easy to use. After reading the manual for less than 5 mins, and some knowledge about my guitar, im already doin my licks. :D it's very easy to use. the manual itself is very detailed and you won't get lost.

7 because i can't get the sound that i like. the wah sucks, because of the expresion pedal. The ZNR is a big help but it's still noisy. maybe it's just my amp. i'm using a Marshall MG-10.

yes, because i have no choice. It's sturdy. I bought this second hand and i don't know how well it was treated. but still, it somehow sounds good.

never dealt with them

it's cool! for a beginner like me it's wonderful. but if i can just get my money back i would go for 707II or a Korg ToneWorks AX1000G. if and only if.

First things first, this is a very cheap pedal price-wise, and naturally, that's going to be apparent in the overal sound. This pedal was fantastic value when i bought it, just over a year ago, and is a fantastic solution for anyone who wants to explore effects before buying stomp-boxes, or who is on a budget (like me).
The effects themselves are quite standard for digital effects, but there's so many here, that it's hard to criticise. I run this pedal stright into the line-in on my PC (thanks to it's fantastic stereo output).
Now, to be fair, these effects ARE digital. The distortions can have a habit of drowning out your guitar, and some effects (like the pitch-shifter) can sound a bit cheesy. Which is unfortunate, considering how much pitch shifting i use.
Actually, the one thing that annoys me the most about the pitch-shifting, is that once engaged, it drops the volume by a few dB... but that won't bother everyone.
Also, this thing is more geared toward high-gain distortions, and they don't respond too nicely to dynamics when set to low gains. But again, that won't bother everyone.

I do find that this thing eats batterys, so i almost always have it running on an AC jack. I would gig this without backup, but that's only because i can't afford a backup. I wouldn't expect this thing to keep in mint condition. Mine is already scratched to buggery, and i don't even gig it. It has a sturdy metal base, so it won't be snapped in two, but it is quite flimsy. The expression pedal especially isn't weighted, so has a tendancy to move by itself as you take your foot off it.

I can't really comment here, having never spoken to Zoom. I reckon i'd just get another rather than get it fixed.

I play a few styles, and this pedal does cater for the major practices. There's a reasonable metal distortion, a rather bassy blues setting, and my personal favourite, the fuzz setting, amongst others. I've used most settings for one song or another over the past year, and they all sound pretty good, in a digital kinda way.
I play an old, handmade guitar with two single coils that isn't fantastic or anything (except its thin neck), usually through my PC & HiFi speakers. If i go to a practice, the pedal is run through a 20watt Laney amp. Usually, i have to switch off all reverbs + delays to stop it sounding muddy. But that's the amp's fault.
If this broke, or was stolen or something, i would buy some other separate stomp-boxes, but that's only because this pedal has given me a good perspective of what i want in sound.
I would recommend this, as i say, to beginners or those on a budget. It IS capable of creating some inspiring tones, and is perfectly adequate in sound and operation; not being difficult to figure out.
My only quibbles are with construction and overall sound quality, which is only just under par. It is a damn good pedal for the price!

This pedal is very very easy to use. No problem. If you want to edit a patch just use some logic and move around.

I am a Satriani/Sai/Saraceno ando other virtuoso players, Satriani's my favorite. It just produces noise at very high volumes with very saturated distortions. I'm usin a boss amp, but I usally use peavys. Ive been trying to create Satriani's sound, this is the closest i have been
Comp/Limit:of
Wah: P9
Drive: N5
EQ: 12 or so
Countour: 10
Znr/Amp: 9
Mod/Pitch: C2
Dly/Rev: D3
Time: 30

If you create a better Satriani sound, email me please at xspataro@hotmail.com

Good wah considering it is an expresion pedal, (cannot be compared with a bad horise)
Nice distortions if you modify them
I dont put 10 becouse i have heard better
The only complain I have is that I have not been able to find a good blues sound. I know there is but i have not been able to create it. Again, if you know a eric-like blues sound email me Please!!

Yes, I would depend on it, I always carry it aroun in it's box. If I had another pedal i would also carry it in case something happens, you never now (I am paranoic with this things)
Yes its plastic, but there is no problem, you would have to kick it or something to damage it

Very good pedal, if you use logic it can perform and sound great. If it was stolen, i would buy anotherone, or maybe a 707. I have to admit that at fisrt I was worried becouse i was not likeng some sounds, but if you learn how to modify them there will be no problem,.

I m a single pedal user. It is hard to get through the function or what i suspose the sounds as my virgin mulit-effects. Manual is good, and it lets me understand what is the mulit-effect suspoed to be. Perhaps for the mulit fans is 10, but for me whom never use mulit before it is 5.

I use my custom guitar through the 606 then plug into Vox pathfinder amp. as i mentioned before i used to use single pedals, so this 606 sounds so digital for me. I think I should take more time to get my own sounds, but they are just digital anyway. Distortion is sounds like a 'piece'... if you see wat i mean.

I wont gig with it, cos it doesnt sound professional, just have a big laugh for the auidence. or perhaps I am not a pro for this 606 effects, but i wont use it for the gig anyway.

i bought this from yahoo auction, so... but i guess this section is useless. who would really deal with the customer support? 1 out of 10 maybe. I susgest get rid of this section and change another topic could be better, something like batteries usage. i bought it with the adaptor.

I play our own songs and influenced by suede, those brit pop era bands. And i put it 10 in here because it is cheap and worth with it. I dont use this with gig but in the rehearsal room, cos we dont have our own one. I dun want always to bring my 10 single pedals along for a whole day before go to the room, so this effect is good for me cos it is light weight. and I use those single pedals for gigs or at home, but this 606 is for my easy using. I advise those ppl who want to get this effect, it is for prastice only but not for the show. A beginner effect.

Its EASY to use. Even if you borrowed it, all the needed infos and legends are there, no hassle of thinking mwah. Editing the effect pedal is a breeze, it has selectors (soft,easy to move) that would instantly jump to your effect chain if needed. and also the pedal button wherein you can choose a specific effect to be controlled, very helpful on live situations. The manual is something of reference only but the manual is well oriented and can give you some hints/tips about the effect.

(Due to the fact that i still havent got my rig)I jam with my friends using his Ibanez GIO series guitars (H-S-H)directly into the 606II and to any amp we could plug into. The effect is quiet enough on good settings but if you over oscilate, then it would produce feedbacks and i think thats a normal thing right?. A Good thing is that theyve decided to chop out some effect combos into effect chains so that it would be easier to juice them (comp/wah). although they havent got many preset settings i think theyve selected the most commonly used settings (specially on modulation/pitch shifter/eq)for an effect to be used. The delay is somehow limited but i think 37ms is good enough but not if your into long "slapbacks".

But the most wicked of all is the dist/amp module.. though it sound a bit digital (and some analog users would really hate) still its worth the money. so many to choose with it would really take time to get that sound you wanted (it will always take huge amounts of time on any guitar effects/MFX IMO). Great sound, but not excellent..

It would stand for a long time.. and ive used it on some gigs.. coz its light.. except for the buttons and selectors and the footswitches.. take extra care of it.. trust me

noper

Ive been playing guitar for like 7 years now. most of my influence now came from Paul Gilbert, Michael Angelo Batio, Rusty Cooley, Frank Gambale, and other speed freak/fushion guitarists and i dont copy others tone but in my lust for tonality the 606II can deliver that prestine sound i wanted...high presence in it. My only comment is that this is the best MFX out on the market if you really are short on budget. it will give you the best of something i tell ya. Just be patient, tweak it, dont blame it if it doesnt consume..

Sure it ain't to hard to navigate around the sounds.

I have been playing for 12 years, Anything from Bach's "Air on a G String" to Steve Vai's "For the Love of God" I normally use my fav guitar which Is a custom designed Greg Bennet Inteceptor, with a Floyd Rose Pro and Two Seymour Duncan humbuckers with a custom fitted set of Cool Rails. The guitar sounds amazing on it's own or through any DoD product, for example the little sweet DoD Tec4X. however after years of abuse I broke my little baby and bought this pile of sh*t instead (Zoom 606)....Ok It sounds distorted but it's just not clean, it's messy....all the other effects are the same, it's a case of you get what you pay for, and I'm afraid this is the cheapest effects unit I bought, and it shows! If you want good sound thats crispy and clean get a DoD

Don't know I'm taking the plastic peice of crap back tomorrow. After one day of ownership.

N/A I'm sure they are better than the pedal though, it wouldn't be hard!

It's not worth the cash I'm afraid, they rushed it I guess, and it just don't cut it! Sorry Zoom, you make SOME good products but this one sucks!

The only issue I've had with use of this is figuring out how each function alters the sound (since there's so many to expiriment with). Other than that, everything is easy. The manual explains everything pretty well. Editing/saving patches is easy. Put patches right next to each other in the sequence you'll use them in a song, and you'll be fine. Theres plenty of storage slots to use.

I play a Epiphone Les Paul custom through the 606 and to a Fender Deluxe 90. I never found a default patch that I would use consistently (when I first got it though, I really liked D6.) I usually only use one patch, that I made, but it sounds really great. Its a crunchy, yet sweet distorted sound. I play it on the clean channel of my amp with just a small amount of spring reverb coming from the amp. If you want to try it, here it is:

Comp/Limit: L1 (use compression "C" for more sustain)
Wah: Off
Drive: Pu (Pvy Drv), 20 (or so)
Eq: 50
Countour: 0
Znr/Amp: 9
Mod/Pitch: Off
Dly/Rev: r1
Time: 1

I love it. My guitar probably plays a big part in it sounding as good as it does though (my Squier Strat really doesn't sound nearly as good coming out of it). I do have a clean setting I like to use on it too because it creates almost a Fender tube amp clean-like sound, which is milky and sustainy sounding, and very full at the same time. Here are the settings (I play it with quite a bit of reverb):

Comp/Limit: Off
Wah: Off
Drive: Fdr Cln (about 15-20)
Eq: Off
Znr/Amp: Off
Mod: Off
Dly: H2
Time: 7

Another really nice thing about this is how quiet it is. I forget my amp is even on a lot of times because I don't hear any noise at all. The ZNR (Zoom Noise Reduction) is just awesome.

The sound quality of the default patches, modulation effects, and a lot of distortions are not that great. Hence the 9/10. I don't use them, but maybe I would if they sounded better. They're there, though, so that's good.

Recently, this thing has been acting up a little. I hate to admit it. Sometimes it shuts off randomly (its not the battery). And now, it occassionally gives really bad fuzz as the output gets a little loose. All it takes is a kick in the side to set it straight usually, but what a sucky problem. I might send it since I <i>think</i> it came with a warranty card.

Never had to deal with them.

For $100, this pedal is definately worth it. Even if you only get one awesome sounding patch, it would cost as much or more to buy something that sounds as good. Then you have all the extras, and any other good patches you discover is even more goodness coming out of this baby.

Very easy to get a good sound out of it, though you may find that a bit of pre-set editing is necessary.

Editing patches is really easy, i can not see how anyone can have difficulty with it.

The manual is good, it has all the effect parameters listed, so any unknown effects can be looked up.

I play an Ibanez grx20, through the zoom into a peavey rage amp. The pedal makes little, if any, noise.

A lot of the patches are plain crap, but like i said, they can always be edited or ignored.

I play metal (iron maiden, helloween, stratovarius, children of bodom, etc.) and can get the exact tone i'm after. The Metal 7th distortion is very digital sounding, though after i added some doubling (incredibly useful, makes the tone much fuller) and it's quite good.

I can see why lots of people say it sounds crap, but chances are they didn't try editing the pre-sets.

I'd gig with it without a backup, because i pretty much have no choice, though i've never had a problem with it.

A lot of people have complained that it's made of plastic, but i don't see why you'd change patches so hard that the pedals would break.

Haven't dealt with them.

As I said before, i play melodic metal, and this pedal gives me the tone i want. If it was lost/stolen, I'd have no hesitation to buy another one, unless i was in a particularly upgradey mood.

The patch-changing system is kind of crappy, seeing as my favourite patches are in the 4th slot of each bank, meaning i have to use the tiny buttons, but I can always use the gain pedal on my normal patch.

I would've appreciated the display to be more than 2 characters (a letter and a number) to recognise patches more quickly, but it's no major worry.

I have noticed that when the stack amp model is used, the bass end can get too much at higher volumes.
For anyone that's interested, here are the details for my regular patch:

Patch Level: variable
Comp/Limit: C5
Wah: off
Drive: Mt (Gain:23)
EQ: 25
Contour:0
ZNR/Amp: 9
Mod/Pitch: d3
Delay/Reverb: H1
Time: 1

Since this is a multieffect it requires a lot of tweaking, however it's quite easy and simple to use. Editing patches is very easy and fast too. Manual is short and simple, you really have to read it only once and maybe use it as a reference for effects you use rarely.
The patch changing is not as fast as it should be. There's two ways to do it and either of them won't cut it while playing live or concentrating on playing. A way to select from two pathes using foot switches would have better working idea.
If you only use about two tones then you can work it but changing the patch causes a disturbing "cap" in sound. Plus: in direct sunlight the led "screen" is impossible to read so playing outdoor gigs can be beefy.
It works ok in practising and jams, not on gigs. To sum up why such a bad rating: Doesn't work in live situations. For other easy of use it would have deserved eight.

I use an stratlike Jackson with two single coils and humbucker bridge pickup so it gives pretty much tones by itself too. The pedal isn't noisy or humming, not even when using a wall mart. It has build in noise gate that works moderately well.
The distortions sound ok, but just ok. There's plenty of them though. The patches need a lot of tweaking to get a good sound of them. The overall sound is "digital". The echos and delays work ok but their delay times are quite restricted. I still liked them most. It does amp simulation of combos and stacks but I really can't compare if they sound "real".
The button adjustable tone controls don't work. A knob would have been a better choice. It also lacks a master volume knob too, although the master volume can be set. But this has to be done every time you turn the unit on!
The tone you get by this effect is ok and not something to be ashamed of. Just tweak it a lot. I got very good sounds from it for playing surf, some sentimental stuff, metal (from soft to death and black), hard rock and 60's instrumentals (use the echo for them). Also it offers lot's of variation that would otherwise require tons of pedals. I liked the echo and delay effects.
There are some effects that are so crappy they can't be taken as joke either but at least you don't have to use em. Bypassing the pedal drops the volume significantly. A bad thing. Wah would be ok (only ok) but the foot pedal lacks sensitivity. It's bad for adjusting amount of effects too and can't be used as a volume pedal either. Also the clean sound is very quiet compared to distortions. All "from the box" settings are shit.
Tweaking is very important, also knowing something about dialing the tones. People, especially beginners tend to use too great amounts of distortion. When using moderate amounts of it, like you should, (even for very heavy material), this unit sounds very good. Also when playing with other people the tone needs to be "thinner". BTW: The "from the box settings" have all too much distortion and fat sound.
If you only need a good distortion buy a distortion pedal, do not buy this unit. Rating 8: It does it's job ok. Eight is good grade for a distortion and echo in same packet.

Can I depend on it?
In what situation? In home practise, small jams, yes. On gigs or intensive concentrated playing requiring patch switching, no. For sitting on the floor and giving tones I want, yes.
The batteries work long. The wall mart doesn't hum so why not use it instead.

Some reliability issues:

1. The structure is plastic: Not reliable in long term. If you don't jump on it, throw it around or drop something heavy on it, it doesn't matter. If you drag this around on gigs do you think it will be exposed to such hazards?

2. The input and output jacks are plastic. Not so big deal but they're attached directly to PC board and are in no way mounted to pedal's chassis: They will break! They will break even in home use! They are hard to repair! There's no way to mount them, even though you'd want to do it (I tried)! Bottom line: The jacks won't survive gigging long. They will survive home use a little longer, then eventually die.

3. The buttons are mounted to PC Board too. For small buttons no worry (adjusted by hands) but how about those patch change foot switches: They will break! Also the foot switches are cheesy and over or under sensitive. You can't totally rely on them to operate correctly. They're too small and too close to each other too.

4. The foot pedal doesn't operate mechanically so it will not wear out: Good thing! However the multieffect is so unsensitive that it can't be used to anything. While playing you just can't take the outmost care to get it in just the right position. Doesn't work on gigs during playing.

Would I use it without backup?
If I had a choice, of course not. Considering plastic switches and PCB mounted jacks it will surely break, ask Mr. Murphy when. If this unit is your main source of tone and only distortion effect, you need a backup. Every essential piece of equipment needs a backup. Is this essential enough for you to need one or can you survive without it? Your call.

Don't know but no high hopes.

I play all kinds of music. It is a multieffect unit and if you know what you're doing with it it should be ok to every genre, but not fantastic. Like I said, good echo effect and different sounding distortions.
I've been playing long enough to get the hang of how to get the tones I'm after. Besides this unit I own an small combo amp, bigger homebrew combo amp and a guitar. Also some recording equipment and other music related junk.
If this pedal would be stolen or lost I wouldn't buy another. This was the first pedal I bought mainly for recording and practise purposes. Gaining knowledge, I know now that I would only need a good compressor pedal, distortion pedal and echo unit. That's it. Three good sounding, reliable pedals. Such a small amount of pedals is actually easier to use than one multieffect.
For beginners, this is good unit. It's cheap and it teaches you what you really need and how to tweak the tones. It works and sounds fine after that too but isn't very sturdy and will probably die after a few years. On gigs and intensive playing it doesn't work so that's a big setback. I don't think the resell value is good either.

Ease of Use:
the Zoom 606 is easy as pie to use. Editing patches is easy, but you're limited to the factory preset assortments available - like the delay there are 10 presets for delay saturation, and like 37 presets for ms [milliseconds], and they only go to something like 250ms, so no 2 second delay. If you run it stereo it's even less because the delay bounces channel to channel. For what it is I love it. it's a quick fix for someone that wants a multi-effects pedal. Firmware? Where's the Serial/USB/IEEE port on this thing? How do you upgrade the firmware? Maybe I gotta check the manual... Maybe there's an E-prom that I need to swap out....

Sound Quality:
I run this DI to my PC as well as my small PA for gigs. Does a good job with bass too. I created several patches for bass that seem to get alot of responce from people at gigs... The effects are consistent sound-wise. I can get alot of great sounds, SRV, Holdsworth, Page, Beck, Clapton, Metheny, Boston [Tom Scholz], Van Halen, I can get 98% close enough for horseshoes to the sounds of these artists. The one effect I wish had better engineering is the Phase Shifter. The Flanger does a better phase shift! The Phaser is very Sinusidal, very ballsy. Not enough like an MXR phase 90 as I wish it was, but it's okay... Not a critical problem. The distortions are great and feel natural. I can shred with the best of em or get an amazing Mesa Boogie sound, or a great tweed Fender sound, or Acoustic sound, or bypass the drives altogether. The EQ is very interesting too. If a certain drive doesn't have the bite you're lookiing for yoou can crank up the contour and move the EQ presets around to get the bite you want. Very versatile $99.00 stomp box.

Well, I did have major problems with it cutting off when plugged in, but I opened her up and stuck a piece of foam between the board and the top of the unit [I'm inside the unit now] and made sure the foam was pushed close to where all the jacks are. I think the pressure of switching patches sometimes was enough to cause a short or an open somewhere and the thing would cut off [haven't yet found the exact source of the problem]. Since putting foam in, I haven't had the problem. I've used it on gigs with Batteries and a fresh set of alkalines will hold up all night even with the unit plugged in and idle for up to 5 hours. I replace them with new for each gig to be safe. This gets expensive after awhile. But this was also before i stuck foam inside the unit. I plug it in regularly now. I also started using rechargables for emergencies. 4 times recharged and the investment pays for itself as opposed to buying alkalines all the time...

I gotta look into this Firmware upgrade issue. How in the world does one update the firmware? I see no ports for data downloading.... Maybe I need to swap out the E-prom chip... I'm heading to the company website now.

For Rock, Pop, Jazz, any style really, Psych, I created this wild assed psychadelic patch with a Mutron sounding auto-wah-type filter, plus a slow moving flanger, a long delay [250ms], and British Stack distortion that would make Hendrix drool. 20+ years as a semi-pro musician, I pretty much know what I like. I tried this baby at the store and was hooked the first minute. If I lost it or it got stolen I'd test out the next one up [707 II], but the 606 has my vote for the best in its class.