Pinball Posted December 1, 2014 Share Posted December 1, 2014 (edited) The reason for posting this is that I recently asked advice from BC on options for a practise kit to take travelling with me. I decided on the B1on and was asked to post feedback on how I got on with it. I was originally thinking of a small practice amp but decided on this pedal instead. I should state up front that I'm not into multi-effects pedals. I have already been there with both guitar and bass and have always reverted back to single effects. Here's a link to the B1on: [url="http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on"]http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/b1on[/url] Why get the B1on then? Well I thought this would be a cheap and portable option and at £39 from PMT it is a very cheap pedal. For my purpose I found the pedal surpassed my expectations, mainly due to the wide array of options available and the clear instructions and display. Construction seems OK, it's plastic but seems robust. You get 100 bass sounds and a bunch of drum patches that are infinitely variable, a basic looper, tuner and an audio input to that you can play along to whatever you fancy. Output is for an amp or phones. The controls are easy to understand. There are a couple of foot pedals and a bunch of orange buttons for various functions and a nice bright display to help you though the intuitive menu. Sometimes lots of options can be confusing but I found this easy to use. You use the foot pedals to move to the next patch and the up and down buttons to jump 10. Once you find the ones you like you can personalise it and group them together. On my recent trip I was trying out a fretless bass and one of the deciding factors on buying this was an option to leave the tuner functioning while playing along, which meant I could visually check that I was as "in tune", rather than rely solely on my ears. As a creative tool there are lots of options. Each patch can use up to 5 different effects and these appear on the menu as stomp boxes (very handy for me) and each one can be tweaked as required. Drums are more limited but are more than adequate for a guitar pedal and can also be tweaked in multiple ways. The Looper is basic and works fine but doesn't have an undo function. All of the above were explored in depth while travelling using headphones and amazingly I found my way around the pedal easily. Since returning home, I have tried it though my amp set up. It is OK and has some cool patches but as I suspected my £40 pedal doesn't sounds as good as my carefully matched kit and it does suck some tone. Because of that, its unlikely that I will use it live. To sum up: It is great for practising and using creatively it isn't something I would gig with. It is superb value for money and therefore recommended Note: don't forget to pack your headphones on your travels! Edited December 1, 2014 by Pinball Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted December 2, 2014 Share Posted December 2, 2014 That's interesting, especially to hear about it sucking tone. I've got a B3 and there's been times I think it takes volume, or the tone isn't all it could be. I know Victor Wooten uses a B3 in his live set up, mainly as a looper, but I do wonder how easy it would be, in a gig situation, to be scrolling through effects on stage to find the right one for the next number. You didn't say if the B1 has a USB connection for connecting to a PC for recording. The B3 does this. So, over all I think they're a great piece of kit but probably more suited to home/small gig use. Thanks for posting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted December 2, 2014 Author Share Posted December 2, 2014 [quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1417513510' post='2621056'] That's interesting, especially to hear about it sucking tone. I've got a B3 and there's been times I think it takes volume, or the tone isn't all it could be. I know Victor Wooten uses a B3 in his live set up, mainly as a looper, but I do wonder how easy it would be, in a gig situation, to be scrolling through effects on stage to find the right one for the next number. You didn't say if the B1 has a USB connection for connecting to a PC for recording. The B3 does this. So, over all I think they're a great piece of kit but probably more suited to home/small gig use. [/quote] The PC connection is really for updating patches I think. I'm not saying its impossible to gig with it but I would probably have to shape the rest of my sound system around the pedal to get the sound I was after. Most people only use a few patches so I think it would work OK in that respect. The drum volume can be tweaked so the patch volume may well be able to be varied too, as can the numerous tone settings of individual patches. The pedal is now wrapped for Christmas so I can't check anything else until then. Note:Like I say I'm not normally a multi-effects user. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinball Posted December 26, 2014 Author Share Posted December 26, 2014 [quote name='Pinball' timestamp='1417514694' post='2621084'] I'm not saying its impossible to gig with it but I would probably have to shape the rest of my sound system around the pedal to get the sound I was after. [/quote] An update: I'm planning on taking it our to play live but not using it as a replacement in my band set up-it sounds beautifully with my fretless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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