ZOOM'S NEW 606 GUITAR is a guitar multi-effects pedal that offers players a wide palette of sounds yet is small enough to fit into the pocket of a gig bag. Based on the company's 505 II Guitar, the 606 has been beefed up with additional processing and an assignable expression pedal. It runs on batteries (four AAs) or an optional external power supply ($24.99), and features a mono guitar input and a single stereo/mono output that can feed amplifiers, a mixing console, or a set of headphones.
The 606 Guitar's memory holds 42 user-rewritable presets organized into seven banks of six. There are 35 effect types to choose from, 9 of which can be active at any one time. You scroll up and down through the presets with the two large footswitches. Step on both footswitches at once to access the 606's built-in chromatic tuner or to put the unit into bypass.
SPLIT PERSONALITY
As they do with most multi-effects devices, each preset draws from a number of categories, or modules, including (in signal-path order): Comp/Limit, Wah, Drive, EQ, Znr/Amp (noise reduction/amp simulation), Mod/Pitch, and Dly/Rev. The expression pedal can be routed to a number of effects parameters, including the obvious, such as volume and wah, and the not so obvious, such as gain, delay time, pitch-shift value, and modulation speed. A built-in toe switch toggles the effect assigned to the expression pedal on and off — a nice touch.
The Comp/Limit module gives you everything from gentle dynamics control to all-out squashing. The Wah module offers pedal and auto-wah effects, each with nine choices of center frequency.
GETTING THE DIRT
A guitar multi-effects unit is usually only as good as its distortion section, and the 606's Drive module doesn't disappoint. Its 11 settings include a rich, clean, tubelike sound and several crunch distortions, including Zep Stack, a canny Jimmy Page sound (audio example available at www.onstagemag.com). There's also an ample array of aggressive overdrive sounds suitable for rock or metal.
The overdrive responds well to dynamics; I was especially impressed by the sound of the clean setting with a tube amp and by the fat, singing quality in many of the overdrive effects. The 606 is also equipped with an acoustic simulator, which does a mediocre job of emulating an electro/acoustic guitar.
The 4-band EQ section gives you 50 preset curves to choose from. The EQ has a second edit parameter, Contour, that lets you sculpt the high and low frequencies with greater control.
The next module brings together Zoom's noise-reduction algorithm and amp simulation. The choice to combine these two is sensible, especially at this point in the signal chain; Znr/Amp lets you set both processors independent of the distortion. Toggle the amp simulator on and off to switch a preset between stage amp and recording or other DI applications.
IT'S A MOD, MOD MODULE
The Mod/Pitch module is as complete as you could expect it to be in a unit of this size. Self-explanatory effects include Chorus, Flanger, Flanger/Chorus, Phase, Phase/Chorus, Doubling, Doubling/Chorus, Tremolo, and Tremolo/Chorus.
Some Mod effects require more explanation. Step (Stepper) is a random filter that delivers wild, choppy, synthlike effects (audio example available online); use it on its own or in combination with Chorus. The Cry (audio example available online) and Cry/Chorus algorithms offer voice-box simulations that deliver a very expressive alternative to wah or phase effects. Ring Mod and Ring Mod/Chorus yield some metallic sounds that are good for special effects. Slow Atk (Attack) simulates the sound you might get by riding the volume pedal for a backward-style guitar sound. It can also be used in combination with the pitch shifter.
In addition, the Mod/Pitch module offers a nice array of pitch effects. The fixed pitch-shifter tools include one- and two-voice octave, fourth, and fifth intervals (with and without added chorus). The pedal adjusts the mix between original and pitch-shifted sounds. The pedal-shifter algorithm delivers pedal-controlled pitch shifting. The octave-up and fifth-down intervals sound good, but the octave-down setting sounded more dissonant than other pedal shifters I've heard. The two-octave intervals (up and down) introduce other digital artifacts that have a grainy industrial quality.
Reverb and delay are combined in a single module. You get a choice of standard Delay or the tapelike Echo (each with a maximum delay time of 370 ms), or Hall or Room reverbs. Like the EQ-Contour combination, the Dly/Rev module has a second parameter edit section that lets you adjust time. The pedal governs the mix between dry and delayed signals.
PRESET PROGRAMMING
The 606 Guitar is reasonably programmable, but as you may have gleaned from reading the effects roster, its editing interface relies on a limited set of controls and offers parameters from a preset list.
If you're into the “grab and go” vibe epitomized by conventional stompboxes, you might find the interface — which uses one knob, two value keys, and the expression pedal to access most of the parameters — less immediate than you would like. The Play/Edit knob selects the effects category to be edited while parameters are changed with the Value/Bank keys and, in some cases, the expression pedal.
Rather than providing you with control over a complete range of individual parameters, each effect has a number of possible settings. For example, the compressor/limiter has no traditional Threshold or Ratio controls. Instead, you choose among the nine limiter presets or nine compressor presets. The modulation category scrolls progressively through presets for each of the available modulation effects. Here's an example of how the system works: F1 through F6 take you through seven flanger settings (higher values result in faster modulation), F7 through F9 offer flange combined with chorus, H1 through H6 give you phase shifter in six modulation speeds, and so on.
The manual, although poorly translated in places, does a good job of describing the parameters for each effect, but because of the way they're organized and because of the cramped LED display, it would be hard to learn and memorize them all. You'll want to have the manual handy when you tweak. That's fine if your plan is to create presets and switch between them onstage but isn't ideal for tweaking on the fly. The exception to this is the Drive section, which has its own select knob and dedicated keys for adjusting gain.
GETTING IN STEP
Considering its price, the 606 is an excellent value. It's a blast to use, its effects sound good, and the factory presets strike a nice balance between useful, conventional sounds and outlandish ones. Many of the sounds will inspire, especially if you like to create riffs that rely on mod and delay effects. Perhaps most impressive, some of the distortion settings sound good enough to use without a lot of additional processing (generally, I thought the 606 sounded better feeding an amp than as a DI box, despite its amp-simulation features). The only real sonic disappointment I experienced was the graininess of the pedal shifter effect when I used it to bend notes downward.
Although the 606 offers a fairly extensive feature set, I wish it had longer maximum delay times and a tap delay (something that's increasingly common in stompboxes these days). I'm also a little unsure of the unit's durability because its housing is plastic. (Light plastics can be tougher than they look, however.) Its lightness makes it easy to carry, but it also makes it prone to sliding around underfoot onstage.
The 606's editing interface, which requires scrolling through pages of parameters, makes it difficult to program the 606 on the fly. However, if you take the time to preprogram the unit in preparation for your gig, you'll find it to be a very rewarding tool.
