Not sure if I'm going to keep it. Actually, many of the presets sound pretty good, though I don't have a use for a lot of them. So far, I've only found one that's really noisy, which is one of the "clean" tones (?). I'm going to do some serious patch editing, although there are a few useful ones from the factory. Their version of Billy Sheehan's tone is probably as close as you can get without using Billy's equipment. A couple of the amp sims sound pretty good as well. I don't think the flanger/phaser/chorus stuff is all that useful to me, but they sound reasonably good. They tend to put some echo or reverb on a lot of the sounds, which I think is pretty useless on bass. I'm going to see if I can make up some EQ/compression/overdrive patches that will be workable for me. If not, back it goes. I should probably just buy a SansAmp (three times the money), but the 506II has a cool mute/tuner function, as well as a headphone output. So, we'll see.
I am thinking of sending my 506 back as well... the one I got may have a defective jack, or it's just not that well designed (wiggle the cable a little = pop, pop). I do like some of the effects. Chorus okay, octave really good and some of the over drive were nice. Easy to program, too, I thought. Actually, I think the thing is quite good for $70, but still don't know if I'm keeping it or not!
You know what they say about something being too good to be true. I couldn't quite get what I wanted out of it. Like Bass Player mag. said, the step filter works really well, but I have no idea what I'd ever use it for. The meat-and-potatoes sounds, though, are lacking, and some generate major noise. I guess guit*rists are used to noisy pedals, but I don't need this one bad enough to put up with its flaws. I guess I'll have to spend the real cash and get something worthwhile (and probably single-purpose).
I'm still in the process of deciding. I may x-change since the jack on mine may be bad. I was a little disappointed with the overdrive options. The "fuzz" setting comes close to the effect I was looking for... could be better, but might be okay... anyway...
Well, I tried it again this morning, just in case, and it convinced me. It's in the box, and I have my RA number. No more Zoom for me. :=(
Got my replacement 506II. It's fine. Gonna use it for a while, get used to the fx and then maybe sell it on eBay for 95 cents less than I paid for it.
Is anybody happy with these things? I've had one since June, and there's about 5 effects I like,(auto wah, envelope filter, a few of the distortion modes) but this thing IS noisy, and I find that a lot of the effects are very, very similar. Give me analog anyday. I haven't tried the bass pod yet. Mike J.
