JohnDaBass

FYI got an email yesterday saying B1Four won't be available until the end on June!

I didn't detect it at rehearsal levels (Rumble 500 into one BF SC) last night! I remain very happy with the B1Four performance. The only question that sprung to my mind was " are these units Pre-production units " since Zoom UK were selling well before the major retailers. Normally a small quantity of units are produced on the assembly lines to "prove & validate " the manufacturing processes before mass production commences. While the pre-pro units are a final hardware status the manufacturing test software and final product software may not have been concluded. I ordered mine from a retailer who e-mailed a day or so later to inform me that delivery would be at the end of May. So in the meantime I bought a B1Four from Zoom UK. I have been so pleased that I didn't cancel my order as I wanted two units, one for my small pedal board and one for battery, single use for my duo project. If my assumption is correct the retailer units maybe mass production units so it will be interesting to see how it performs in comparison to the B1Four I already have.

Nope can't hear anything on the MS60B. But I am not a good judge as both my 67 year old ears enjoy tinnitus and have been abused standing in front of bl**dy noisey bass stacks for the last fifty odd years or so😆

Ok, so I've plugged up my B1Four into my Mackie Thump12A frfr (lower case characters as it is really league division 2 compared to Headrush, RCF & K12) which I use for a Duo project in small pubs. Went through my own patches, and some of the original patches which were not culled when the B1Four first arrived, and yup I can just hear some digital noise which I hadn't detected previously. The Thump12A has a higher frequency response than the BF SC and does expose the slight digital noise if you listen closely. An Alesis SR16 drum machine is run into channel 2 and my bass via the B1Four into channel 1 of the Thump 12A normally and I'm sure any noise from the Zoom won't be noticeable in a pub gig environment. Until it was pointed out to me I hadn't noticed any slight noise and as I won't be using the B1Four for any recording I'm quite happy to ignore this minor issue of what seems to me to be a very decent value-for-money multi effect/ amp sim pedal.

@Al Krow and @ped please could you share which effects seem to cause the digital noise you are experiencing? I use a BF Super Compact and I don't detect any digital noise on the patches I have created, which are mainly Amp Sims with no distortion effects. Mostly patches are :- >>bass>>HPF>>Comp>>Amp Sim >> VT Bass DI>> Subway D800(set flat) >>BF SC.

+1☺

Nah, leave it with the Tele neck it looks handsome. If you're planning to spend anymore on it upgrade the PUPs & pots. Lovely job well done I'm really envious!

Well I think I've achieved what I planned when purchasing the B1Four. I've created patches which emulate (95%) of the main 6 pre-sets on my Tech21 VT Bass DI Deluxe. I culled all the standard patches which were of no use to me and organised the patches that are nice to have in banks 10 & 20. My VT Bass patches are saved in 51 thro 57 with Thumpinator at 48, Spectracomp at 49 and Thumpinator + Spectracomp at 50 (basic pass through). I'm definitely going to key the MS60B at the start of my chain/board, then B1Four into my Tech21 VT Bass DI. All three fit nicely into the small case protecting the B1Four and providing good footswitch access. I now enjoy 100% redundancy so if any single item should fail on a live gig the remaining pedals would get me through . Unlike @Al Krow I'm not planning to sell on any of my current pedals, simply because they don't eat or drink and their value is relatively low in comparison to their sentimental value. All in all the B1Four has been a good investment for me.

+1 for Fender Kingman. It is BIG but lovely to play with a Jazz size neck and great preamp containing notch filter & phase to control any body resonance. Acoustically the loudest I heard but a small amp is probably the best setup.

So here is my Patch for the Free & Bad Company songs. Fender P Bass, flats, & tone fully open into Fender Rumble 500 Head( set flat) & BF SC

We always do that in D.

@Al Krow thanks for that. I think your settings are just right for me as an always on effect. It only "costs" 13% of DSP allocation so it's going to be be standard on all my patches now. That's another example of how rich with knowhow this BC community really is. It's extremely gratifying to able to have other people's ears to confirm and verify personal assessments of setups of kit.👏

It looks handsome. Is it 34ins scale? Because the string alignment over the PUP pole pieces looks spot on. The bridge string spacing looks really tight.

+1 I have never used a Helix Stomp so I can't comment but the combination of ToneLib and the B1Four provide an easy, user friendly, simplistic method of creating bass sounds and tones. I really couldn't be happier with the product. I sit the B1Four on my desk beside the pc keyboard, power it with the USB cable then connect my bass to both the B1FOUR and my pedal board then the output from the Zoom & pedal board go through a switch into my Fender Rumble and BF Super Compact. I can then emulate the pedal board sounds thro the B1Four using ToneLib to tweak the Patch settings & save on the Zoom and save a backup on the pc.Using the switch to toggle back & forth means I can get really close to my pedal board's bouquet of tones using the live amp rig ( okay only at room volume).

Well I have had a couple of days now to get to know the B1-Four, like many I have "Culled" 20 patches which were definitely not for me leaving 30 slots for building my own patches. I downloaded all the "Blue Star" effects not loaded when the unit was shipped through the Zoom Guitar Lab software. I have to say how pleased and impressed I am with the quality and the authenticity of the Amp Sim sounds. ( YES I KNOW they are not as good as the Line6 Helix) I have built 6 Preset Amp Tones that I require for my bands and they sound very ,very close to the sounds I achieve with my VT Bass DI Deluxe, so close in fact, that I don't think anyone could distinguish the difference in a live environment. Done all my tweaking thro Tone Lib using both my Amp rigs so I was able to have a direct comparison. Next task is to put the HPF through it's paces by removing the front speaker grills of my cabs and seeing if it can get close to the Thumpinator. At present I still think I will keep my MS60-B for tuner & HPF duties and toying with the thought that I may get a second B1-Four to take in my bass guitar case for some of the open-mic nights I frequent in local Pubs who provide a backline. The convenience, portability and compactness of the B1-Four really does allow you to take "Your Sound" with you anywhere. ( Okay, I know there's no DI!!!! but I can always chuck in my case my spare BDI21) All in all I think Zoom has done a good job!

@hooky_lowdown There's a Gibson Humbucker for sale here

Funny that you should mention the B2Forty5 and B2Forty5 X, as I saw something on the TinterNet that it will be honed from a solid block of Titanium Alloy and have elephant grade footswitches. Can't wait for the marketing blurb. 😂

+1 cull the demo stuff and patches which don't fit with your own personal needs. My requirements are pretty straight forward 6 OR 7 amp tones to suit the needs of the current set lists of the bands I play with. The B1Four has lots of potential for future song requirements.

@dannybuoy thanks for that, I was blissfully unaware of the built in subsonic filter on the VTDI. Any idea of the set frequency or gradient? I also have an earlier version of the VT Bass DI Deluxe which does not have the "Bite" button. I still think I will keep the HPF at the start of the chain not to "muddy" the signal, but I'll test the Bite button at rehearsal on Sunday.

The plan is to use the MS60-B for tuner & HPF duties and VT Bass for DI duties(as & when required). I am hopeful that the B1-Four will provide all the preset tones I require for the current setlist with the bands I play in. Once I have bought a pedal I would rather keep it as the second user values seem so low. The VT Bass DI is a fine piece of kit with lovely analogue tone stack and DI. I will probably try to emulate my TC Spectracomp on the B1-Four as first effect of the preset tones. On my other board, like many others, I use the standard Spectracomp compressor Tone-Print set at around 9 o'clock. It just works for me , so if I can get close with the B1-Four compressors I'll be a very Happy Chappie.

My B1-Four has arrived.

My current small board provides 5 basic amps tones I have now replaced the Bass BDI 21 with a Zoom B1-Four The B1-Four will offer many more Amp Tone presets and hopefully come close to my main board with a small footprint.

Excellent contributions from @Al Krow, @dave_bass5 & @jrixn1. Their knowledge and experience help us to evaluate what really matters and cuts through the hype & "me too" mentally with their informative, honest assessments. It's funny how every day I still use my Line6 Bass Floor Pod for silent noodling, it's simple, sounds good (IMO) and convenient allowing me to focus on playing the instrument than twiddling & tweaking.

The issue you need to check is the spacing of the pickup pole pieces. You may not be able align the strings accurately over the PUP pole pieces due to the difference between the Gibson 30ins scale and the Fender P 34ins. I ran into this when trying to fit a Gibson EB3 Humbucker to P bass,the best solution I found was to use a '72 Telecaster Bass PUP which has huge gain and has a greater range of tones than the EB3 PUP. The value of the tone cap you choose also has a major effect on what you are trying to create. Alternatively you could change the bridge for one with a smaller string spacing.

I have used BadAss l's, ll's & lll's, and I really like them! I've even replaced MIA Fender P bridges with with thro-body BadAss lll. It's really not a great deal of work to file the ungrooved bridge string seats to suit your own preferred spacing. If I were you I would go for the Omega for consistency and your OCD. I must say though that the Fender High Mass bridge on my MIM FSR PJ is rather good.