Zoom b9.1ut General discussion thread.

[Mornats]

Just bought one of these today from PMT in Bristol (£99 in store and a few in stock still - plus they've got one set up in the bass area at the back for you to try).

Just figuring it out at the moment but I think I'll really make good use of the, er I don't know what to call it but it's where you can select one "preset" - bank? and then switch modes and have the option to turn on or off any of the individual pedals. I can set up a couple of these and swap between groups of pedals. So some nice subtle compression, slight fuzz maybe and some amp modelling on one and some flanger/wah effects on another

[Skinnyman]

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1359217440' post='1951762']
Just bought one of these today from PMT in Bristol (£99 in store and a few in stock still - plus they've got one set up in the bass area at the back for you to try).

Just figuring it out at the moment but I think I'll really make good use of the, er I don't know what to call it but it's where you can select one "preset" - bank? and then switch modes and have the option to turn on or off any of the individual pedals. I can set up a couple of these and swap between groups of pedals. So some nice subtle compression, slight fuzz maybe and some amp modelling on one and some flanger/wah effects on another
[/quote]

Have fun with it!! Out of interest, has yours got the "unpressable footswitch" feature? i.e. does the footswitch under the expression pedal click as you hit max travel on the pedal? If not, your might need the same extensive modification that mine (and others on here) did - viz; a small washer stuck to the underside of the pedal.

BTW I just love the pedal synth - we don't have a keyboard player so I usually get stuck with doing anything vaguely synthy and "atmospheric" using my chords and a touch of overdrive. Pedal synth allows me to do that (er, slowly - I'm no tap dancer) and free up the bass for regular playing...

[Mornats]

I have a clickable footswitch under my pedal (I checked after reading about it here) but the pedal doesn't go far enough down to click it. I can press it with my fingers though so it's not stiff. I'll have a read up on the fix for it.

I've had a bit of a practice through my Superlux headphones and have to say that a) I'm getting a bit of noise (but from my noisy basses) and it still sounds really good - far far better than the Vox Amphones I tried out the other week. I'm going to try it as an audio interface to see how it compares to my Guitar Rig Session and Guitar Rig 5 Pro. It should have better amp modelling (Guitar Rig rocks but is lacking in the bass dept.) but is 16 bit not 24 bit so it'll be interesting to see how these two compare.

So, for a £100 it works better than the £100 Vox Amphones (albeit, you have to supply your own headphones but you also get a load of effects and amp modelling). Hopefully it will also blow the socks off a £100 audio interface too. This thing is such the bargain!

[Skinnyman]

[quote name='Mornats' timestamp='1359227119' post='1951959']
I have a clickable footswitch under my pedal (I checked after reading about it here) but the pedal doesn't go far enough down to click it. I can press it with my fingers though so it's not stiff. I'll have a read up on the fix for it
[/quote]

OK, that answers my question then! You have the unpressable footswitch!! I emailed Zoom support about it and got a not-very-helpful reply to tell me that the switch should work when you press down on the pedal. Duh.....

Fix is simple though - you can either put a rubber tip onto the footswitch itself or (and this was my solution) glue a small washer or 5p piece to the rubber pad that's on the underside of the expression pedal.

Other than that one minor glitch, it's excellent. Some of the patches can be a bit noisy - you can adjust the ZNR a bit to reduce it and its more noticable through headphones than through an amp/cab. I haven't tried it as an Audio Interface yet - I use my Zoom R24 for that - but you'll need to download and install the ASIO driver for it.

HTH

[Mornats]

Yes, cheers mate

I took it to "band practice" (which was myself and my guitarist having an improvisation night) and we were both quite impressed by it. It's really easy to switch through the different banks and patches and quickly adjust them too (whilst hitting open string root notes to keep the marathon 20 min songs going!).

I do need to spend time setting up my presets now. I need to make sure everything's the same volume as the bypass volume and that all of the EQ settings work well with my Ashdown Touring combo. Still loads to learn but for such a complex device I was surprised at how easy it was to go from buying it to using it in anger at band practice the same evening. Well impressed!

[mikebass84]

Really got the hang of this pedal. Taken it to a few practices (had to make a few adjustments on some patches) but everything sounds amazing .

I do have a problem with using it at home at low volumes. My Laney R3 sounds really farty and sh*t when I use any OD or fuzz. Yet the same patches sound great at practice (used a few different amps) and via headphones....problem with the combo or could it be a patch/pedal issue?

[jw54]

Not had a chance to play with this properly yet, but what exactly does the switch under the Z pedal actually do?
Also, it would be great if people could upload their patches on this website so we can all have a play with them
http://guitarpatches.com/units.php

[Skinnyman]

[quote name='jw54' timestamp='1360238415' post='1967115']
Not had a chance to play with this properly yet, but what exactly does the switch under the Z pedal actually do?
[/quote]

It does a number of things depending on the patch currently activated. It's not used in all of the factory preset patches, just some of them. It's easiest to see if you look at a patch in the Librarian software and select the button for the expression pedal - for each of the (up to) four parms that can be controlled by the vertical movement of the pedal, you can also assign a function to the footswitch. So, for example, you might bring up the volume and, when you reach max, have the footswitch click in to bring in a bit of distortion. Or whatever....

HTH

[Oopsdabassist]

Was actually hoping to test drive a B3 yesterday, but as local place was out of stock, ended up twiddling with a B9, so...2 hours and a parking ticket later..I haz a noo toy!

Spent whole evening playing some more, def more versatile than my old ME20B...bigger though....need to find a bag big enough to store it!
Gonna take a while to organise meself totally, but I have a handful of patches setup for this weekends rehearsal...great stuff!! very happy..............................................apart from the parking ticket.

[Oopsdabassist]

[quote name='Skinnyman' timestamp='1358804601' post='1945469']
I'm currently playing around with the Live Sound1 patch to tailor it for my gear/playing style and see if I can also add in the PedalSynth (see above for comments re lack of keyboardist) - I need to try it at rehearsal but once I have that set up, I can see it being the go-to patch I use for the majority of live stuff
[/quote]

Couldn't quite get my head around what the 'live sound 1' patch actually IS, although I've only had 1 play so far, can you enlighten me dude?

[Skinnyman]

There are 2 "live sound" patches and they're effectively just two "basic" pedal boards. One has a wah, a phaser, a delay and a bit of distortion, the other is an overdrive, a chorus and a reverb (I think - I don't have my cheat sheet to hand so I can't remember exactly, but you get the idea). I guess their idea is that it's a couple of standard board layouts that you could use in most gig situations.

I've taken the idea and just changed them so that I'm not tap dancing through patches in gigs, I just swap between those two patches/boards, but I've changed the pedal assignments and settings for my own purposes.

One thing I have discovered is that in a live situation, up against two guitarists, there's no real place for subtlety. A lot of the effects just get lost in the noise of two Marshall tube amps at full chat so a lot of the patches I carefully set up at home to were just wasted, so now I just have a couple of amp styles, a wah, chorus, bit of reverb and that brilliant pedal synth.

HTH

[BassTractor]

[quote name='Oopsdabassist' timestamp='1360313077' post='1968333']
need to find a bag big enough to store it
[/quote]

Several are mentioned, maybe in this thread, one of them being:
http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_effect_pedal_bag.htm


best,
bert

[Oopsdabassist]

Cheers Bert, will have a peek.

Thanks Skinny, I see what you mean now, I didn't even think of them in that situation, so you call up the patch, switch to 'manual mode' and pick /choose phaser or distortion or whatever as required? Will have another play tonight!

[Jack]

Exactly. Like a 'real' pedal board.

[Skinnyman]

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1360324200' post='1968551']
Several are mentioned, maybe in this thread, one of them being:
[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_effect_pedal_bag.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...t_pedal_bag.htm[/url]


best,
bert
[/quote]
I got the Gator 2411 bag. I couldn't be sure the B9 would fit in a traditional pedal case (Stagg=85mm int height, my B9 with 5p piece footswitch fix = 89mm high) then suddenly realised that this is one board, not a loose collection of pedals that need to be velcro'd down - so I just got the soft bag. Excellent.

[lefrash]

[quote name='Oopsdabassist' timestamp='1360326358' post='1968617']
Cheers Bert, will have a peek.

Thanks Skinny, I see what you mean now, I didn't even think of them in that situation, so you call up the patch, switch to 'manual mode' and pick /choose phaser or distortion or whatever as required? Will have another play tonight!
[/quote]

The way I work mine is I have 4 patches set up as basic clean tones. I have the compressor, EQ and noise reduction set the same on each. I then keep it on manual mode, and use it just like 4 seperate pedals. The 4 patches I use have different set ups though, so for example preset 1 is envelope filter > OD > Chorus. preset 2 is tremelo > fuzz > filter (which i cant remember the name of just now). preset 3 is wah > synth > vibe. Preset 4 is octaver > fuzz > pitch bend. This means that whatever tune I'm playing on I can flick between the presets without it changing the standard bass tone, bu I can bring up the majority of effects pretty easily. I do also have two other presets that are used for specific songs which are used for about 20 seconds each.

[Mudpup]

[quote name='Skinnyman' timestamp='1360367839' post='1969628']

I got the Gator 2411 bag. I couldn't be sure the B9 would fit in a traditional pedal case (Stagg=85mm int height, my B9 with 5p piece footswitch fix = 89mm high) then suddenly realised that this is one board, not a loose collection of pedals that need to be velcro'd down - so I just got the soft bag. Excellent.
[/quote]

I have this one too - perfectomundo!

[Oopsdabassist]

The B9 isn't too loose inside the Gator bag? they do a slightly smaller one that would seem a better fit.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gator-Purpose-effects-keyboards-GK-2110/dp/B001GE5TAU/ref=pd_sim_sbs_MI_2

[lefrash]

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1360324200' post='1968551']
Several are mentioned, maybe in this thread, one of them being:
[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_effect_pedal_bag.htm"]http://www.thomann.d...t_pedal_bag.htm[/url]


best,
bert
[/quote]

I've just purchased one of these... il let you all know how I get on with it.

[BassTractor]

[quote name='lefrash' timestamp='1360438024' post='1970553']
I've just purchased one of these... il let you all know how I get on with it.
[/quote]

I have one, and I can predict your future: you'll be thinking it would have been nice if it had been a bit smaller, but will be chuffed again when thinking about the price you paid for what's basically a nice bag.
It's not me. It's the stars that guide me.


best,
bert

[Mudpup]

[quote name='Oopsdabassist' timestamp='1360427926' post='1970242']
The B9 isn't too loose inside the Gator bag? they do a slightly smaller one that would seem a better fit.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gator-Purpose-effects-keyboards-GK-2110/dp/B001GE5TAU/ref=pd_sim_sbs_MI_2
[/quote]

Theres a bit of space round the edge - maybe a couple of inches. The pocket on the front is a bit small so i keep a lead and ipod cable in there and the power supply goes in the main part with the B9

[Oopsdabassist]

Tnx all, decision made, bag ordered, nice work

[RussFM]

I saw PMT Birmingham was down to its last B9 yesterday so I took a trip in to give it a try, seemed way more than I will ever need but a USB interface with tube preamp, tuner and unibass effect is still worth £99 of my money!

I had a play with it at home and it'll definitely take some getting used to. i found myself unable to get out of the looper without turning the power off! Also, how do you clear a patch so it's completely clean to set up a new one from scratch? I can only seem to edit existing patches?

Edited February 11, 2013 by RussFM

[Oopsdabassist]

As far as I can work out, pick a patch thats close to what you want, then hit the F(unction) 2 foot switch to put it in manual mode. This should light up the LED's on the bottom 4 foot switches, solid if effect is engaged or flashing to show it isnt. By tapping the switch of the lit LED's so they flash, you should now have turned off ALL effects for that patch, hit the save/swap button and save the patch to a slot of your liking. They start at U01(U for user, P for preset ie pre stored ones)


Does that make sense?

[Oopsdabassist]

Erm..as for the looper, I think if you press and hold the F2 footswitch this clears the memory of the looper and you then just select another patch using the bank up/down and/or the footwsitches 1-4. You could also change the effect by turning the top left rotary switch (labelled TYPE I think) this scrolls through all the patches in order.