Zoom B1 Four

[Al Krow]

10 minutes ago, ped said:

When you’re ‘in’ an effect do the physical knobs adjust the parameters of it?

I suspect you need to be in 'edit' mode, but will check...

[ped]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

I suspect you need to be in 'edit' mode, but will check...

Yeah that’s what I meant 👍🏼

[Al Krow]

Zoom B1X-4 (with MS-60B for scale)

Following hard on the heels's of Dave's, it's more 'expressive' brother  

Edited May 2, 2019 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

Be warned the PSU does not come as standard! (Fortunately I'm managed to accumulate a couple of spares over the last couple of years  )

Edited May 2, 2019 by Al Krow

[dave_bass5]

Nice one Bas. Mine will sit on the bed/couch when i use it at home so i the expression pedal wouldn’t get used. Ill get a shot done with the B1-on soon. The B1-on seems a bit wider but both are pretty similar.

I just had a quick play with  mine. I love it. The tone seems strong and no noise that i can hear. Definitely a bit more kick to the tone over then B1-on. 

I also love how those knobs have direct control over the drum machine. Instead of having to scroll though Pattern/BPM/volume etc, before you can adjust it each of those knobs now control ther relevant parameter directly. 

More than worth £68 IMO.

[dave_bass5]

19 minutes ago, ped said:

Yeah that’s what I meant 👍🏼

When you hit edit the first 3 knobs relate to the first 3 parameters in that effect. The 4th knob takes you to the next page of 3 parameters. If there are only 4 parameters then all 4 knobs are used. 

[Al Krow]

20 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Definitely a bit more kick to the tone over then B1-on. 

Yup - given that it has the latest DSP chip set present in the B3N that is exactly what I would expect / hope for  

[jrixn1]

Just playing about with mine.  The button/dial layout and interface makes it really easy to use.  I've had a B3 (but not B3n), and I still own a MS-60B (for live) and B1on (for home practising).  This B1 Four will be getting used live.

Edited May 2, 2019 by jrixn1

[jrixn1]

B1 Four vs B1on.

[ped]

Does it sound better? 

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

That looks rather good. 

Well it's your thread, so you have to say that don't you? 😁

[Woodinblack]

6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Well it's your thread, so you have to say that don't you? 😁

hahah - maybe. It looks like a handy thing to have - I have the B3 still, but that is very much a gig bag sort of size, so almost certainly will get one. however I can't at the moment as I am in a 'not allowed to buy myself anything before my birthday' month!

[Al Krow]

On 12/02/2019 at 14:56, ped said:

Is the actual sound processing better then the B1on? I find mine OK for messing about when travelling with my mini bass, but it's a tad noisy on some settings.

51 minutes ago, ped said:

Does it sound better? 

@jrixn1 or @dave_bass5 can one of you dear gents put our illustrious mod le ped out of his misery? He's been waiting three weeks**  to find out whether the B1-4 (i) sounds better and (ii) is less noisy than he's beloved B1on? 

If it is, there's gonna be one B1on that is not long for pedworld methinks 😀 

Edited May 2, 2019 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

Just now, Woodinblack said:

hahah - maybe. It looks like a handy thing to have - I have the B3 still, but that is very much a gig bag sort of size, so almost certainly will get one. however I can't at the moment as I am in a 'not allowed to buy myself anything before my birthday' month!

Petite and ideal for a gig bag (and with an interface a LOT easier to use live than my MS-60B) were exactly the reasons for me getting one too (oh and that I don't have to wait for a birthday before I'm allowed).

Should be a few of us moving ours on by the time it gets round to your birthday, so you've probably timed that to perfection 😂

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

@jrixn1 or @dave_bass5 can one of you dear gents put our illustrious mod le ped out of his misery? He's been waiting three weeks**  to find out whether the B1-4 (i) sounds better and (ii) is less noisy than he's beloved B1on? 

If it is, there's gonna be one B1on that is not long for pedworld methinks 😀 

I thought I had already said it sounded better, but if not, then yes, it sound better 🙂

No need for my B1-on anymore, but will give it to my son, who also has the G1-on. 

[Al Krow]

Yes indeed you did!  

3 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

I just had a quick play with  mine. I love it. The tone seems strong and no noise that i can hear. Definitely a bit more kick to the tone over then B1-on. 

Ok, sounds like the B1on has met its nemesis! 

And for me the B1-4 does look much more like a Zoom multi-fx, with its trade mark red livery, than the B1on. Not that that should matter...

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Yes indeed you did!  

Ok, sounds like the B1on has met its nemesis! 

And for me the B1-4 does look much more like a Zoom multi-fx, with its trade mark red livery, than the B1on. Not that that should matter...

Product Red as Apple would call it....and then charge a premium for it lol. 

[dave_bass5]

Forgot to post this earlier.

 

[Al Krow]

You missed off your MS-60B (or did you never have one of those?) - for a full family shot!  

[dave_bass5]

I did actually take a shot with not only the 60B in it, but also my R8 🙂

Seeing as you had done the 60B i didnt bother posting it. 

Edited May 2, 2019 by dave_bass5

[Al Krow]

2 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I did actually take a shot with not only the 60B in it, but also my R8 🙂

Seeing as you had done the 60B i didnt bother posting it. 

Nah - get a full family shot done!  

[dave_bass5]

Ok, ill do it tomorrow. I make that 6 boxes

 

 

[Al Krow]

First impressions...(through headphones)

• Glad to find that my spare PSU worked - it's just a standard 9V centre negative 500mA power requirement per the manual. That's quite a chunky current draw though.
• Plugging in the PSU acts as an off switch for the batteries. Neat!
• With the PSU engaged I did get a bit of noise on some of the effects patches ('patches'). It's pretty NOISELESS WITH BATTERIES. So it looks like I'm going to be ordering some rechargeable AA batteries (although I did manage to find a stash of about 20 AA batteries lurking from before I went all Ciocks / IsoBrick, so plenty to keep me going for a while yet!)
• Had a quick run through the pre-loaded 40 patches. Found a few (but only a few) that I liked - a couple of ones I was familiar with from my B3N e.g. [24] Fat Tube - drive, [44] SMR400 - amp and one that Zoom must have more recently released or I'd missed previously [34] Sub Boogie = octave down + chorus, which seemed better at tracking than the B3N octave patches I remember.
• There are currently 50 user patch slots = 40 preloaded patches and 10 empty slots. This is the same total available user patch slots as MS-60B, but worse than both the B1on, with 100, slots and the B3N with a 150. Someone please explain to me why the patch numbering goes from 10 to 59 - what happened to 0 to 9?!
• Given that there are at most half a dozen existing patches I'll be tempted to use and very few existing ones that make use of the expression pedal, the fun / usefulness is definitely going to be creating our own and overwriting the existing patches. In particular there are no delay, flange, chorus patches pre loaded. So the next step will be a deeper dive into the individual effects - no list of these in the supplied manual, but available from the Zoom website. I've attached a copy in case you're feeling lazy. There are a TON of individual effects to get your teeth into! (Which those with MS-60B and B3Ns in particular will be familiar with).
• Zoom's GuitarLab 4.0 is out and ToneLib apparently already supports the B1-4 / B1X-4. I'll be sticking with ToneLib for editing patches as I found that a very usable interface last time around and got myself up to speed on it.
• The ability to adjust volume and 3 band EQ 'on the fly' globally is going to be really useful. Don't recall having that on the B3N.

Update...(through rig)

• Sounded just great! Effects were crisp / clear.
• The octaver tracking not quite so good as I thought when listening through headphones - started glitching at A on the low E string (which is actually pretty typical for octavers, so it's certainly usable)
• Patch [27] Wahdist - drive allowed me to put the wah pedal through its paces. That is going to be a LOT of fun! If you're thinking about getting this pedal for use as a standalone rather than on a board where space may be at a premium, then I'd seriously recommend spending the extra £16 and getting the expression pedal. The Zoom FP-02 expression pedal retails for £30 from Zoom UK, so you're effectively getting the expression pedal for half price.

Quick verdict

If you've paid £70 (or £85 with expression pedal) for this and are expecting it to stand toe to toe with a Helix Stomp, you're going to be sorely disappointed. But if you're looking for a compact multi-fx which will likely pretty quickly displace the B1on, MS-60B and B3 with their older DSP and chip sets, then this could well do the job. 

If you don't have a headphone amp and want one - this is worth the entry ticket just for that and, of course, it also doubles up as a tuner! 

Zoom B1(X)-4 effects.pdf

Edited May 3, 2019 by Al Krow

[jrixn1]

22 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 Someone please explain to me why the patch numbering goes from 10 to 59 - what happened to 0 to 9?!

 it also doubles up as a tuner!

My guess is that it's because there are five banks, which correspond to the five physical buttons marked '1', '2', '3', '4' and '5'.  E.g. pressing '2' takes you to the patches which start with '2', namely 20-29.  But if there were patches 0-9, you'd need a physical button marked '0'.

The tuner's cool as it uses the green & red LEDs underneath the display.

[jrixn1]

29 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

With the PSU engaged I did get a bit of noise on some of the effects patches ('patches'). It's pretty NOISELESS WITH BATTERIES. So it looks like I'm going to be ordering some rechargeable AA batteries

Could try powering it from a socket but via USB.  That's what I do with my B1on.