Musicman20 Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 I've been reading through threads and I can't believe this thing is so cheap!!! I'm interested in one just for a bit of fun to be honest. I've has really good use from my (still owned) Tech 21 pedals but after trying 2-3 different units of the VT Bass DI I've given up (very expensive for the problems I was having with them). I love their pedals but I fancy trying a multi fx for fun!! Views? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrammeFriday Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 Dunno anything about the B3 but I have an old Zoom 708II bass multi effects processor and it's ace fun - cheap and cheerful, surprisingly wide range of good sounds, very tweakable, and built like a tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiMarco Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 I do not have an opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 [quote name='DiMarco' timestamp='1388191724' post='2319436'] I do not have an opinion. [/quote] Yes you do But no, they're great pedals especially for the price! If you do find they're not quite authentic enough for your needs it's not a very expensive lesson learned. Personally I really like the time and modulation effects, and the tuner, DI and USB interface make it more than worth the money. Anything else is a bonus! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratman Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 [quote name='DiMarco' timestamp='1388191724' post='2319436'] I do not have an opinion. [/quote] Lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiMarco Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 (edited) Tuner, compression, drive, chorus, DI, all perfectly usable. If you`re lucky enough to use the same amp that is on the list of amp-modelling add that to the list. For £100ish, that`s a lot of usable. I love mine, but as with anything, it`s the ears of others that count, and our producer, who is someone who knows sound fairly well, came up to me after one of our gigs raving about my bass sound. All of the eq/compression/drive was coming from the B3. Says it for me. The only criticism I would offer re the B3 is that the effects need to be blended carefully to be of any use. The full-blend option on the unit renders them - to me anyway - to be useless as they are far too full-on. Additionally the cab-selection on the amp-modelling, same again. Read this on Talkbass, set the blend on zero for this, sounds much better, especially when DI`d. These aspects may be where those with negative views have got them from, the unit, like anything, needs to be played around with to get the best use from it. Out of the box, everything is far too in your face, but tinker around and you really get some good sounds from it. Edited December 28, 2013 by Lozz196 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyclaret Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 [quote name='DiMarco' timestamp='1388191724' post='2319436'] I do not have an opinion. [/quote] Ha ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 What Lozz said. I like the way you can mix and match amp sims and fx. I used one as a preamp driving a power amp for a while and it does this very well. There's a whole thread on tb about it. It's not a toy and if you spend time with it you can get very good results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil.i.stein Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 as others have said, spend time tinkering with it, and it's a great piece of kit for the price. if it had an additional fx loop for other pedals, it would be pure win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 [quote name='phil.i.stein' timestamp='1388309592' post='2320537'] if it had an additional fx loop for other pedals, it would be pure win. [/quote] Yep! The one thing I really want would be a footswitch so you can easily select a specific patch on the fly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 [quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1388334601' post='2320877'] Yep! The one thing I really want would be a footswitch so you can easily select a specific patch on the fly. [/quote] There's a way of doing that... [url="http://ashbass.com/AshBassGuitar/Zoom/"]http://ashbass.com/AshBassGuitar/Zoom/[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 [quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1388404961' post='2321539'] There's a way of doing that... [url="http://ashbass.com/AshBassGuitar/Zoom/"]http://ashbass.com/AshBassGuitar/Zoom/[/url] [/quote] Yeah I saw that before, looks like a great mod! Though what I meant was the ability to go from, for example, A1 to C3 by just touching one switch rather than cycling through. I realise I'm expecting far too much for a £140 pedal though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacey Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 What I could not get on with was, I could have 3 stomp boxes or put it in memory mode, where it did not display the boxes, the only way to cycle up the stomp box displays was to bend down and use the up arrow buttons. I really like the idea of having multiple rows of 3 effects and scrolling up and down them, but it is either one mode or the other or bend down every song. That and every effect needed toning down and volumes evening out, in the end, I decided the the old 708 mk ii with its simple edit and store and just go up a tach was far better live to use. So i agree, it needs an urgent firmare upgrade to make it cycle the patches in stomp box mode from the footswitch. A loverly pedal, but just too hard to use live beyond the three stomp boxes you have down. Could have been great if they had just thought the display through more on the patch mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 I was going to get one of these but after buying a Variax bass I got a Pod X3 Live as I could save the bass settings on it as well. Not meaning to knock the B3, as it does still look very appealing, but it does seem to be quite limited in certain aspects that would've annoyed me trying to use it in a gigging situation. For home use the B3 looks like a lot of fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 [quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1388433189' post='2321972'] Yeah I saw that before, looks like a great mod! Though what I meant was the ability to go from, for example, A1 to C3 by just touching one switch rather than cycling through. I realise I'm expecting far too much for a £140 pedal though! [/quote] You'd need a few more footswitches. I had a Boss MS5B (I think) where it was easy to select bank and patch number on the fly, but you weren't then in single stompbox mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 [quote name='spacey' timestamp='1388437066' post='2322051'] What I could not get on with was, I could have 3 stomp boxes or put it in memory mode, where it did not display the boxes, the only way to cycle up the stomp box displays was to bend down and use the up arrow buttons. [/quote] You can also press and hold the left footswitch, then use middle and right footswitches to scroll up and down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacey Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Yes, But it would only do it in memory mode, I found it frustartingly annoying live to the point the 708Mkii just works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 [quote name='spacey' timestamp='1388437066' post='2322051'] What I could not get on with was, I could have 3 stomp boxes or put it in memory mode, where it did not display the boxes, the only way to cycle up the stomp box displays was to bend down and use the up arrow buttons. I really like the idea of having multiple rows of 3 effects and scrolling up and down them, but it is either one mode or the other or bend down every song. That and every effect needed toning down and volumes evening out, in the end, I decided the the old 708 mk ii with its simple edit and store and just go up a tach was far better live to use. So i agree, it needs an urgent firmare upgrade to make it cycle the patches in stomp box mode from the footswitch. A loverly pedal, but just too hard to use live beyond the three stomp boxes you have down. Could have been great if they had just thought the display through more on the patch mode. [/quote] Are you talking about the B3 or 60-B? As already said, one of the big advantages the B3 has over the 60-B is that you can scroll trough the different patches without having to bend down.You press foot switch 1 down so a sec and then you can scroll through the patches (as opposed to turning the individual EX on and off) using the other two foot switches. Agree with the posts that say you really do need to get the many level controls balanced correctly. I've found what sounds good at home is way off at gigs, but the B3 is very easy to tweak and once set it al sounds good to me (and my audience). I do find the Zoom boxes sound more digital than both my BDDI and Boss Chorus, but really only in isolation. At a gig i really cant tell the difference, and its nice to have a mid control on the BDDI. My one big issue with the B£ for live use is that my fett are a bit too wide to hit just one foot switch unless im really careful. Quite a few times i went to turn Chorus on and ended up with both Chorus and Filter, or turn Filter on and end up turning BDDI off. Thats not really a fault of the B3 though, and its something i could get used to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicman20 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Just had one of these delivered very recently. I've not even had chance to plug it in etc, but the quality of the pedal seems excellent for the price! It makes me wonder why boutique pedal's cost so much! Eg. The Tech 21 BDDI! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Having used both a BDDI and B3 at the same gig, and also now using a 60B id say the Zoom boxes do a very nice BDDI but there is a difference, and neither Zoom boxes nail the BDDI tone as close as even the BDI21 does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftyhook Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 (edited) Very happy with the B3. For Live work I use mainly for a bit of compression ( D-Comp with compression set lower than the factory setting....took a few goes! ) , Octave and a Boost for soloing. Also an edited synth bass for one song. Don't do the distortion thing. Only gripe: it's easy to stamp on 2 pedals at once if you not careful and you can end up on a different by sound bank. (easier to bend down and manually change back by hand - 5 seconds job) I need to stop wearing my clown shoes for gigs Edited February 3, 2014 by leftyhook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Exactly why I don't use mine live. My shoes are too wide, and although I don't have any real wacky tones it's still a pain to have to watch my step (pun intended). I might investigate the new zoom boxes that Dan posted about in another thread. Looks more useful for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicman20 Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Finally got this out! Super super impressed. Updated it in seconds. Excellent build quality, fairly easy to use, and the actual effects and amp tones etc and fantastic. This is a far cry from the zoom pedals of the 90s! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 [quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1391978327' post='2363257'] Finally got this out! Super super impressed. Updated it in seconds. Excellent build quality, fairly easy to use, and the actual effects and amp tones etc and fantastic. This is a far cry from the zoom pedals of the 90s! [/quote] Indeed. I'm glad you are enjoying it, sir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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