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Which Zoom - B1on, B3 or MS60?


TPTroll
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Hi

I've previously used B2s and G2s, and I'm looking to upgrade.

I've had a look at the B1on, B3 and MS60, and would be grateful for any advice on which one I should go for.

What I want from the pedal is:

1. To be able to switch a patch/effect on (starting from normal signal/sound) and off mid song, like a standard stomp box;

2. To be able to switch from Patch A to Patch B (so for a solo) then back to Patch A, during a song.

I've had a look, and they all seem to contain the effects I want, which are 7 band EQ, amp modelling, noisegate, drive/fuzz, octave and synths, along with a couple of extra toys. I don't really care about loopers, drum machines or recording abilities/syncing.

I'm not sure about the look and plasticness of the B1on, and like the look of the B3 and MS60, but obviously the MS60 is a fair bit cheaper, which is nice, but seems to have less on the floor control abilities.

What would people recommend?

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I only have the 60B. You can do 1 using the LineSel effect (which will take up 1 "slot") but 2 you can only really do with one song. The way to do this on the 60B is using the A/B method (where you select a subset of presets to rotate through using the footswitch) BUT, in order to change this subset you need to fiddle with the controls. So, if you want to cycle back and forthe between patches X and Y for one song and then Z and W for a another song it's going to be difficult.

Also out of the models you mention I like the amp modeling (mostly use the SVT) the big-muff clone is great for fuzz and the octave seems to work well, but I couldn't really get usable overdrive or synth out of it. I'm still searching for a good discrete overdrive pedal (trying out the b3k) and for synth I have a much easier time with a cheap Behringer BSY600. I couldn't work the synths on the 60B at all. They seem to have almost uncontrollable high gain with my setup.

Edited by ProfFrink
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The B1on requires you to press both pedals at once to go into bypass, which can be tricky, you might change patch by mistake. The B3 requires you to hold a button down which is not ideal... I've not used an MS-60B, but I think you can stomp it on and off and hook up an extra patch up/down switch (I have seen some in the post-your-pedalboard threads on Talkbass).

Workarounds though are to either set up a blank patch, or use an external bypass looper!

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I have the MS60. You can do 1 or 2 but not both at the same time. If you don't want to use a line selector in one slot of a patch in order to turn it on an off then you can set up a bypass patch and use the ability to cycle through two selected effects to go between patch and bypass. That will achieve 1. That will also achieve 2, as you can cycle through any number of patches, but if you wanted to also be able to turn everything off as well as have two different effects selectable during a song then you'll have to have a cycle of three patches, one of them being a bypass. The foot switch only has one mode of operation at any time, either turn on or off the currently selected effect in a patch (hence the use of line selector as the first effect to turn the others off) or cycle through a number of pre-selected patches.

If you're enough of a geek (as, sadly, I am...) then you could build an external switch using MIDI over USB, as the pedal does respond to basic MIDI patch change messages, but I won't say it's easy. There was a guy on Talk Bass building that sort of thing (http://www.disasterareaamps.com/shop) but I've not seen anything similar on sale in the UK, though there might well be if you looked hard enough.

If you wanted to go the DIY route it would probably cost about £50 to do something similar to what I did. I could let you have a list of the basic parts I used, and the code, but no warranty that it'll work properly!

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[quote name='TPTroll' timestamp='1445008947' post='2888164']
Hi

I've previously used B2s and G2s, and I'm looking to upgrade.

I've had a look at the B1on, B3 and MS60, and would be grateful for any advice on which one I should go for.

What I want from the pedal is:

1. To be able to switch a patch/effect on (starting from normal signal/sound) and off mid song, like a standard stomp box;

2. To be able to switch from Patch A to Patch B (so for a solo) then back to Patch A, during a song.

I've had a look, and they all seem to contain the effects I want, which are 7 band EQ, amp modelling, noisegate, drive/fuzz, octave and synths, along with a couple of extra toys. I don't really care about loopers, drum machines or recording abilities/syncing.

I'm not sure about the look and plasticness of the B1on, and like the look of the B3 and MS60, but obviously the MS60 is a fair bit cheaper, which is nice, but seems to have less on the floor control abilities.

What would people recommend?
[/quote]

You can do all of this with an MS60b. I use it in a similar way.

You just need a couple of patches set as bypass (or the amp model you normally use) and also a few with your desired effect or a clean boost for your solo. Then you assign them the A,B,C,D etc tags in the order you are most likely to need them.

I typically have -

A - bypass
B - chorus for Sweet Child of Mine
C - Bypass
D - SVT model
E- bypass
F - Opto Comp
And then a load more stuff up to H!

Each time you stomp it, it jumps thru and you always have a quickly accessible clean sound. Sounds complex but its actually pretty easy. You can go thru the whole lot in a couple of seconds easily. The key is always having that bypass set inbetween effected patches.

Ps i have a B1on as well for home practice but dont use iit live, the MS60b is much more useable ina live situation. Havent tried a B3 but its on the xmas list......

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The ms60b is a brilliant bit of kit. I can understand why some folk might fond it fiddly but once you overcome that it'll do exactly what you need it to do.

You can do it in a b3 too, but for me that would defeat the purpose of the b3 and it's main selling point (ie treat it more like 3 individual pedsls)

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[quote name='Mudpup' timestamp='1445070824' post='2888531']
You can do all of this with an MS60b. I use it in a similar way.

You just need a couple of patches set as bypass (or the amp model you normally use) and also a few with your desired effect or a clean boost for your solo. Then you assign them the A,B,C,D etc tags in the order you are most likely to need them.

I typically have -

A - bypass
B - chorus for Sweet Child of Mine
C - Bypass
D - SVT model
E- bypass
F - Opto Comp
And then a load more stuff up to H!

Each time you stomp it, it jumps thru and you always have a quickly accessible clean sound. Sounds complex but its actually pretty easy. You can go thru the whole lot in a couple of seconds easily. The key is always having that bypass set inbetween effected patches.

Ps i have a B1on as well for home practice but dont use iit live, the MS60b is much more useable ina live situation. Havent tried a B3 but its on the xmas list......
[/quote]

I do pretty much this, although I now use it in conjunction with a Boss LS-2 and arrange it so that A is effect loop (short loop - the MS-60B!) and B is bypass. You can squeeze more settings in that way if you need them. But I guess if you need to bounce between effects settings during a track, saving them in the order you need them as above then just click through.

Not being an effects hound, for me it makes a fairly compact board for those few I do use - MS60B, LS-2 and a tuner.

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I use the ms60b and it works OK for what you need to a point. As mentioned above you can set it to cycle patches via the foot switch including bypass options.

Just keep in mind that if you plan to do this for more than a song or two you are going to have to pause and reset the pedal between songs.

For example I have one song we play where I move from light fuzz in the verse to clean in the bridge/chorus and then use a synth & trem for a brief solo. The pedal does this fine, but it then needs to be reset in order that I can use it for the following song which moves between clean tones with an eq and heavy fuzz. There is no way to have it set up so you can just swap between song settings live without getting down into the menues. It does not take that long to do but you will need to fiddle with it frequently if you want to switch sounds often.

For me I am planning on moving my ms60b on and purchasing a b3, which is a little more flexible thanks to the three switches. The sounds of the ms60 are great and if you only need a few patches for a set it is great but if your going to be swapping around lots then perhaps the b3 is worth the extra cost.

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I use the ms60b and it works OK for what you need to a point. As mentioned above you can set it to cycle patches via the foot switch including bypass options.

Just keep in mind that if you plan to do this for more than a song or two you are going to have to pause and reset the pedal between songs.

For example I have one song we play where I move from light fuzz in the verse to clean in the bridge/chorus and then use a synth & trem for a brief solo. The pedal does this fine, but it then needs to be reset in order that I can use it for the following song which moves between clean tones with an eq and heavy fuzz. There is no way to have it set up so you can just swap between song settings live without getting down into the menues. It does not take that long to do but you will need to fiddle with it frequently if you want to switch sounds often.

For me I am planning on moving my ms60b on and purchasing a b3, which is a little more flexible thanks to the three switches. The sounds of the ms60 are great and if you only need a few patches for a set it is great but if your going to be swapping around lots then perhaps the b3 is worth the extra cost.

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Haven't tried the B1, but have a B3 and an MS60B.

In truth, I haven't played with the MS60 too much, I bought it as a backup to the B3, and then my band disintegrated.

I found the B3 to be both easy to set up and work with, and it sounds great through an amp or a PA. The MS60 took a bit longer to figure out, but still sounds good (basically replicated my fave B3 patches).

I'd say get the B3 & expression pedal out of the three.

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  • 4 weeks later...

[quote name='Gottastopbuyinggear' timestamp='1445070740' post='2888530']
Just remembered where I'd got the original idea from - this very forum... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/260884-zoom-b3-or-keep-building-effects-board/"]http://basschat.co.u...-effects-board/[/url]
[/quote]

I still haven't got round to actually putting mine together!

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  • 1 month later...

just got a B1on and having played around with it for about a week, I only use the distortion, amp sim and EQ effects and I still prefer my old Zoom 506II, it seems to have a clearer sound to my ears.
Am I over simplifying things to say that basically these pedals are distortion, EQ and delay the rest is just presets?apart from the drum machine, looper etc

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