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How good is the Zoom B3n? I brought one to find out.


Prime_BASS

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To cut a long story short, I wanted another drive didn't find much sense in spending £100 or north for something I already had (BB preamp) or something I hated for whatever reason. Tried lots of gear other love and ended up sending them back. 

So I heard about the Zoom B3n, I was sceptical as I'd used previous zoom gear and didn't think they were any good. Looked online and thought damn these drive sounds are pretty wicked. So went a head and thought screw it, for £130 I'd at least maybe get some drive sounds I like along with being able to try some other stuff out. 

Totally blown me away this thing. Excuse my dog playing. 

 

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That sounds EPIC!

What settings are you using, and I assume you're kicking in an Octaver for the extra heavy tone?
Typically, I've literally just thrown out the idea of multieffects and started building a bloody board with analog pedals...

Eude

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13 hours ago, eude said:

That sounds EPIC!

What settings are you using, and I assume you're kicking in an Octaver for the extra heavy tone?
Typically, I've literally just thrown out the idea of multieffects and started building a bloody board with analog pedals...

Eude

So from memory, bass octave, NYC bass muff, room reverb, fender bassman amp SIM and a compressor. And yeah the octaver is used for those big chorus bits! 

Never really liked digital multis either and I wouldn't use it without my preamp after it either. However I am so surprised with how good a lot of the sounds are even just flicking through the pedals and with out moving any settings they sound nice and pleasing. 

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10 hours ago, Prime_BASS said:

So from memory, bass octave, NYC bass muff, room reverb, fender bassman amp SIM and a compressor. And yeah the octaver is used for those big chorus bits! 

Never really liked digital multis either and I wouldn't use it without my preamp after it either. However I am so surprised with how good a lot of the sounds are even just flicking through the pedals and with out moving any settings they sound nice and pleasing. 

Thank you very much for sharing.

Yeah, as close as I got to pulling the trigger on a multi effects, I found myself looking out problems and complaints about digital sounds, not helped by woeful and completely gutless demos all over YouTube, but your little video definitely tilts things back the other way!

Eude

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On 18/03/2019 at 21:34, Prime_BASS said:

 Never really liked digital multis either and I wouldn't use it without my preamp after it either.

You mention you use a BB preamp - I’m sure there is a model of one on the B3n. You could try doing an comparison - I’d be really interested in the results!

if favourable, it could be one less thing for you to carry.

George

Edited by geoham
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For me, the BB doesn't quite nail it. It gets close, but not close enough to make me want to sell my BB. The Darkglass sims though sound very close to the real thing, I have no real need for my B3K anymore other then the fact it's more compact and analog.

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17 hours ago, operative451 said:

I'm just about getting to grips with my B3n after about a year... :D

Haha excellent! That tends to be my timescale for getting to grips with everything apart from my basses, amp and cab (i.e. the stuff I'm actually gigging with) too! 

The B3N still remains the single best value all round bass pedal bar none IMO!

Are you using your pedal board in a band mix? 

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2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Are you using your pedal board in a band mix? 

Ish.. Duo with guitar and singing and backing tracks, but mostly video recorded live.  Plus a lot of general mucking about in my living room.. :D   I've made some nice guitar patches too, generally using the Bassman and a 4x12 cab with the SM57 turned up. It takes a bit of imaginative drive pedal layering but it works...

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4 minutes ago, operative451 said:

Ish.. Duo with guitar and singing and backing tracks, but mostly video recorded live.  Plus a lot of general mucking about in my living room.. :D   I've made some nice guitar patches too, generally using the Bassman and a 4x12 cab with the SM57 turned up. It takes a bit of imaginative drive pedal layering but it works...

Bit of a side track, but always keen to see what fellow BCers are doing on the video recording front. So do please feel free to share! 

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On 20/03/2019 at 12:48, dannybuoy said:

For me, the BB doesn't quite nail it. It gets close, but not close enough to make me want to sell my BB. The Darkglass sims though sound very close to the real thing, I have no real need for my B3K anymore other then the fact it's more compact and analog.

Ditto. 

It's definitely gotten better compared to older versions on the B3 for example, but sounds closer to a warmer and more bass friendly Tube screamer. 

I'll try and get a comparison sometime but right now my board is in bits while I build a bigger one.

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On the Zoom MS-60B I use two or three "AC Bs Pre" in series to provide a HPF at 40Hz with a 24 or 36 db/Octave slope (12db/Octave is standard on each AC Bs Pre). Can the "Low EQ"  HPF on the B3n offer a similar performance solution? 

I'm considering replacing my MS-60B with a B3n and I'd like to hear from you Guys if the HPF is as good as the one I currently have on the MS-60B.

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How good is a Zoom B3n?

User interface - 7/10 (on a scale where a MS-60B is about 3/10 until you discover the tonelib free editing software and then suddenly it's a breeze)

Quality of effects sims - 6/10 (gets a little blown out of the water by Helix these days)

Value for money - 7/10 (there's nothing better out there for a comparable price)**

Compactness - 3/10

It's a great gateway to a bunch of dedicated pedals which you end up getting 'cos the B3n doesn't quite cut it.

Then you get a Helix Stomp and start selling off the dedicated pedals you've just gone and previously bought 😊

 

**see later posts about the new Zoom B1 Four and Four X that's just about to hit the shelf.

Edited by Al Krow
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2 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

On the Zoom MS-60B I use two or three "AC Bs Pre" in series to provide a HPF at 40Hz with a 24 or 36 db/Octave slope (12db/Octave is standard on each AC Bs Pre). Can the "Low EQ"  HPF on the B3n offer a similar performance solution? 

I'm considering replacing my MS-60B with a B3n and I'd like to hear from you Guys if the HPF is as good as the one I currently have on the MS-60B.

I found the HPF to be just as good if not better on the B3n

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have had my B3n about a year. Typically it’s for using IEM at church and wanting to use the amp and cab sims to the desk to give them something to work with that’s a little more like a bass and amp tone.

today was a momentous day for me - I used two different patches for different songs!! 

AND 

get this...

turned on an effect on the patch for the loud bit!!! Woo, this is a new me!

 

at the end asked a fellow musician who was there if my dark glass 7k OD was a bit OTT “dunno mate you were hardly in the mix at all” 

sounded great in my ears anyway!

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Hmmm.  I like pedals, up until now for mostly mucking about with in the house, with my guitar and pianet as well as bass.

I always have a  muting tuner on stage though, like a comfort blanket.

Recently though, I’ve been thinking a fairly light touch compressor would help on stage. Also something I could DI to front of house so the sound guy doesn’t trash “my” sound.  I’ve also been reading the HPF thread and thinking that would definitely be a good idea to get the best out of my rig.  There are some songs I play that require a boost  (Sweet Child Of Mine beginning bit, Do You Love Me vocal “dohs” played as a short bass solo, etc).

Seems a pedal board might be a bit costly with dedicated units, but these B3n’s seem to cover my needs (I think).

Maybe I should hold out for one of those Helix Stomps though.  I know joe public wouldn’t notice the difference between the two, but if there  is one, I would. Hmmm indeed.

All musings great fully mulled.

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On 28/03/2019 at 21:09, Al Krow said:

I found the HPF to be just as good if not better on the B3n

Has anyone experienced any "process overflow" issues with the B3n?

I'm not sure whether to replace my MS-60B for a B3n OR buy a B1Four to add to the MS-60B and run the two together. I'd use the MS-60B for tuner, & always on HPF & compressor and the B1Four  for amp Sims, cab Sims, & the odd effects. Seems to me that I would have more DSP processor capacity with the MS-60B + B1Four than just the B3n alone. The specs indicate that the same DSP is used in B1Four & B3n but probably with different memory capacity. There doesn't seem to be too much difference in footprint on the pedal board either.

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14 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

Has anyone experienced any "process overflow" issues with the B3n?

I'm not sure whether to replace my MS-60B for a B3n OR buy a B1Four to add to the MS-60B and run the two together. I'd use the MS-60B for tuner, & always on HPF & compressor and the B1Four  for amp Sims, cab Sims, & the odd effects. Seems to me that I would have more DSP processor capacity with the MS-60B + B1Four than just the B3n alone. The specs indicate that the same DSP is used in B1Four & B3n but probably with different memory capacity. There doesn't seem to be too much difference in footprint on the pedal board either.

No to your first query - but perhaps only 'cos I wasn't pushing it too hard.

Like the sound of your alternative approach, but obviously you'll have two pedals to handle rather than one. Couldn't you just get away with a B1Four by itself or does that not have an HPF sim?

Alternatively just get yourself a Thumpinator for HPF duties? It's class leading as an HPF to clear up low end crud, but you don't have the flexibility of where it kicks in (it's fixed to cut at 28Hz)

Edited by Al Krow
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2 hours ago, JohnDaBass said:

as anyone experienced any "process overflow" issues with the B3n

No - it just doesn’t let you add anything that exceeds its processor specs. 

if you are layering up HPF you might be better with a dedicated HPF. What are you feeding the signal into that needs that much of the bottom end controlling? 

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2 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

No - it just doesn’t let you add anything that exceeds its processor specs. 

if you are layering up HPF you might be better with a dedicated HPF. What are you feeding the signal into that needs that much of the bottom end controlling? 

My main board is

Bass>>Tuner>>Thumpinator>> Spectracomp >> EMX ABYswitch(faux guitar)>>Tech21VT bass DI Deluxe >> amp ( Mesa Subway D800)>> Barefaced Super Compact x2.

My small board is

Bass>> MS-60B  (tuner & HPF)>> BD21dI>> Tech21 VT bass DI >> amp (Fender Rumble 500)>> Barefaced Super Compact x1

So I try to simulate the Thumpinator with a 40Hz 24Db/Octave on the MS60B. The two bands I play requires several bass tones which I can achieve on the main board with the six memories on the VT Deluxe but would like to emulate on the small board by maybe adding a B1Four. 

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25 minutes ago, JohnDaBass said:

So I try to simulate the Thumpinator with a 40Hz 24Db/Octave on the MS60B. The two bands I play requires several bass tones which I can achieve on the main board with the six memories on the VT Deluxe but would like to emulate on the small board by maybe adding a B1Four. 

You can use four effects simultaneously with the MS-60B. So in your case:

  1.  "Bass Drive" (or other amp sim)
  2.  Compressor
  3.  HPF #1
  4.  HPF #2

Then create five duplicates of that patch for the different Bass Drive settings.

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