I still remember the days when amp and pedal simulators were looked at sideways. These days I wonder whether anyone is left who doesn't own one or hasn't tried a model or two.
In musical reality you can find various false dichotomies: pick or fingers, classical or electric, cable or wireless, and so on. In my opinion the most talked-about one is amp versus modeler. With the former we get air, space and an organic feel, but we put up with the weight, the maintenance and cables everywhere.
With the latter we have every imaginable sound at the press of a button, easy transport and minimal setup time, but at the same time a digital feel, a sound similar to any guitarist you can see online, and so on.
In reality, all of this is a fallacy, since they are two representations of the same thing and aren't mutually exclusive: amps are getting lighter and easier to handle, and modelers are getting more organic, with more air and more dynamics.
We've reached the point where you can't live without an amp, but you can't live without a modeler either
That last point applies in a general context, not to one particular type of player. What happens when something breaks onto the scene? When modelers first appeared we had no prior experience with them, so we couldn't tell whether this or that product was satisfactory. Over time we've learned what we need to demand of any modeler and what the grounds are for saying that a given product meets our needs. Now that the board is set, let's introduce a new piece which, I'll say up front, more than satisfies all our needs and also brings us tools we never thought could be within our reach. I'm talking about the ZOOM G6.
General Description
Anyone who has had even the slightest brush with the guitar world will recognize Zoom as a brand that has always been in the spotlight, with a long and deep track record. Today it brings us a new step in six-string innovation.
The G6 is an effects processor in floor-unit format. This first descriptive line matters: “floor-unit format” doesn't mean it's a rack unit that you then control with a separate pedalboard or MIDI controller. It has its own footswitches, as well as an expression pedal, built in. In other words: two cables, a power adapter, and you're on the floor dancing on top of it.
Its construction is sturdy and elegant, with modern lines at the same time, yet it feels like it could fall from a fourth-floor window and come out unscathed. One of the biggest features of its construction is how light it can be: it's completely lightweight. When this pandemic nightmare ends and we can travel making music again, one of the pleasures I can't wait to enjoy is walking through an airport with my guitar and the Zoom without feeling like a pack mule pushing heavy cases full of pedals.
In terms of construction, we can highlight its easy connectivity as well as its intuitive layout: 6 footswitches, 4 control knobs, a touchscreen and an expression pedal
On the front panel we find the connections, namely: guitar input, an aux input for connecting any player, the Send/Return of the effects loop, two mono outputs for making a stereo output, an input for connecting another expression pedal, an SD card reader, a connector for communicating with the pedalboard from an app on your own mobile phone or tablet, a USB connection, the on/off switch and the power input for the adapter, which comes with the unit.
Operation
One of my fears before a show is that my guitar will stop sounding. It can sound awful because a cable or a pickup has gone bad, but please, don't let my guitar go silent. With a good number of pedals, the chances go up. I could write five books just on my touring experience, never mind individual gigs, because the same cable fails again night after night even if you replace it with a new one, and it turns out the fault was somewhere else in the chain and not in the cable you swapped at every show.
With the processor we've reduced the chances of that happening, to the point where if you're not sounding, it's because there's such a disaster onstage that the last thing that matters is that your guitar has stopped working
On the scale of chills, that case could take first place. In second place is a very common situation: you've spent entire days dialing in your sounds, but when you get to soundcheck, it's a different venue and everything changes, and you have to start readjusting all the parameters. This is where the Zoom stands out, since it has very intuitive, easy and fast accessibility, making any change a matter of moving this or that control.
I'd like to underline the word “intuitive.” It seems an innocent word, but in itself it holds much of the secret of the processor that brings us together today, because the pedalboard's structure works as if it were an analog system, that is: Guitar – pedals – amp – cabinet. If we want to use the Loop, it will appear between the guitar and the pedals, just like the master EQ and master volume, which appear at the end of the whole chain.
Between the pedals and the amp we have the send/return for our external effects loop, and the tuner, which we find before the pedals, so we get to see a representation of what happens in real life with real pedals and amps, brought to a touchscreen where you can drag this or that pedal with a simple swipe of your finger. On the Zoom G6, everything happens mainly on the touchscreen when it comes to setting up and/or assigning the pedals, amps, cabinets, etc.
As I said above, it's very easy to operate, since the home screen shows you a diagram where you can see the pedals, the amp and the cabinet drawn out. There's no room for doubt, and with all the conveniences that touch gives us
The processor lets us interact with it in several ways, all accessible with one of the 6 footswitches it offers:
- EFFECT BOARD: As if it were a regular analog pedalboard, where each footswitch turns each sound in the chain on or off. They light up in different colors, which is a big advantage when you're looking at a dark stage.
- BANK/PATCH: The four footswitches are split in 2 to move banks up and down in steps of 4, and the other two to select the sound up and down within the bank. You've previously dialed in the sounds with the amp and pedals you want, assigning them to a patch inside a bank. It's an option designed for live use where you know exactly what sounds you want and want to get to them quickly. These bank and sound changes can also be made on the touchscreen by swiping up or down, the same way you scroll through Instagram.
- MEMORY: This option is a spin-off of the previous one. Sometimes we want all 4 patches accessible from my bank, and with Memory I can assign a sound to each footswitch. Once again, it's designed for quick live access: you can save the sounds for a song in each bank, so you'll have as many banks as songs in the set, or, if you only need 4 sounds or fewer for the whole set, you program each footswitch of the bank with a sound and enjoy the show.
- LOOPER: As the name says, it lets you record yourself in an endless loop. The duration the processor provides without an SD card is 45 seconds. If we add the card, it depends on the card's size. The looper has all the features of a modern looper, with REC/STOP/PLAY/UNDO but also overdubbing. Personally, I loved how precise it is when you release the recording and turn it into a loop, letting you be very exact so that it comes out as a perfect cycle.
We've already described how the other 4 footswitches have one function or another depending on the operating mode. Now I'd like to describe the most important footswitch, the sixth: Tuner/TAP. This footswitch takes us to the two most important “effects,” the tuner and the tap tempo for setting the speed of the song that the delays, tremolos, etc. have to sound over.
Let's not forget to mention the expression pedal, which can cover everything from volume to the wah-wah effect itself, always configurable
Sound
On the subject of sound we could go on forever, because it seems as if the processor has the phrase “ask, and it shall be given you” written inside. You get British amps with the sound of Slash, Hendrix or AC/DC, or even more British ones, 30W and class A, in the style of Brian May, or clean American tones à la SRV, B.B. King or Albert King, or more aggressive sounds like Metallica or Korn, new handmade British sounds, etc.
If we ask about pedals, none are missing: from green and red overdrives, the ones that represent the Yin and the Yang, and the legendary Van Halen-style one; as for boosters, from white to yellow; analog delays, digital delays, delays with modulation, etc. If we ask about modulation, we have chorus, vibrato, flanger, etc., everything imaginable; and as for cabinets, you have every type: 4x12, 4x10, 2x12, open or closed, etc.
In conclusion, you have everything you could imagine on an inspired afternoon. The sounds are simply spectacular, to the point that I had the chance to compare them with an actual amp and could perfectly recognize that sound inside the pedalboard, and the sense of air is so well achieved that it gives you dynamics worthy of any analog amp. The pedals are real in that they capture the true character of how they are in real life.
Conclusion
As you've been able to see throughout the article, my conclusion is very clear: this is such a fascinating effects processor that you'll think you have your amp at home, or the one you've dreamed of, at the tap of a pedal and at a minuscule weight. If you can try it, don't pass up the chance, because it's sure to leave you pleasantly surprised.
