Zoom B3 top tips?

[TRBboy]

Hey folks, 

I've had a zoom B3 on my pedal board for yonks now. It's a great pedal, but I usually only use it for rarely-used effects and such. 

Although I've used it for lots of different things, and it's been great, I've always felt like I haven't really been scratching the surface or getting the most out of it. 

I usually only have it stuck on one bank with 3 seperate stomp boxes set up. I have no need of amp sims really. 

Just wondered if anyone has any good tips or advice for getting the most out of it? 

Effects I'm especially interested in at the moment are envelope filter, phaser, octaver, fuzz, and a natural, gritty slight overdrive. 

Do most of you guys combine effects on one bank to get 'a sound' and then change up and down the banks for different effects? 

Any advice welcome! Thanks all. 😊

[stewblack]

TBH the way you're using it is absolutely fine. You have, effectively 3 stomp boxes running off one power source with no patch cables! Depending on which three you haven't had to buy, the cost of the unit is covered! 

You could have fun creating an effect of your own by building it from three effects, say eq into overdrive into an envelope filter. Or build a monster distortion with three different overdrive pedals. The great thing is you  always have the ability to blend clean signal with the final patch, so you can go a bit crazy with the effects in one patch but only dial in a small amount with the clean bass sound. 

Have fun - experiment, but don't feel you underused it  If it's doing what you need it to do, it's doing its job. 

[TRBboy]

16 hours ago, stewblack said:

TBH the way you're using it is absolutely fine. You have, effectively 3 stomp boxes running off one power source with no patch cables! Depending on which three you haven't had to buy, the cost of the unit is covered! 

You could have fun creating an effect of your own by building it from three effects, say eq into overdrive into an envelope filter. Or build a monster distortion with three different overdrive pedals. The great thing is you  always have the ability to blend clean signal with the final patch, so you can go a bit crazy with the effects in one patch but only dial in a small amount with the clean bass sound. 

Have fun - experiment, but don't feel you underused it  If it's doing what you need it to do, it's doing its job. 

Think I'm going to have a play around with it when I get time, and see what else I can do. Might try setting up different banks for different sounds on there and being a bit more creative. 

I know it's getting on a bit, but still a great multi fx IMHO. 

One of my favourite fx on there (though a bit crazy) is the phaser+dist, it's awesome! May have wheel that one out again! Used to use it for the bass solo on my generation! 😉

[stewblack]

Nothing wrong with it at all. Solidly built and for bass, in a band mix, the effects are absolutely fine. I sold mine recently because money. No other reason.

[rushbo]

I ditched a board full of pedals a few years ago, in favour of a Zoom B2 and I’ve never looked back. I upgraded to the B3 and I can’t see myself moving away from that in the near future. I have a pretty minimal board, consisting of the B3, my SmoothHound wireless receiver, a Behringer pre amp and a Pitchblack tuner.  I use the Pitchblack as a kill switch as it responds a little quicker than the B3. I struggled to find a slightly overdriven/gritty sound that was suitable for the songs I needed to use it on, hence the pre amp, but everything else, the B3 covers brilliantly. I use mine in the same way as you- a bank of 3 pedals, but I switch between a few banks. The only unusual thing about my rig, is that I use a Zoom expression pedal to trigger the effects. All my effects are set so that they only work when the the pedal is rocked up. This means, I can cue up my effects silently and I’ve got a bigger target to aim at with my uncoordinated feet! 

I’ve done hundreds of gigs with my B3, from pubs to large festivals, and it’s never let me down. The sounds available are brilliant and more than enough for most bassists, I'm sure. Take the time to get to know it and always audition your sounds through your gigging amp, as the difference between that and listening through headphones or a practice amp is immense. 

[TRBboy]

52 minutes ago, rushbo said:

I ditched a board full of pedals a few years ago, in favour of a Zoom B2 and I’ve never looked back. I upgraded to the B3 and I can’t see myself moving away from that in the near future. I have a pretty minimal board, consisting of the B3, my SmoothHound wireless receiver, a Behringer pre amp and a Pitchblack tuner.  I use the Pitchblack as a kill switch as it responds a little quicker than the B3. I struggled to find a slightly overdriven/gritty sound that was suitable for the songs I needed to use it on, hence the pre amp, but everything else, the B3 covers brilliantly. I use mine in the same way as you- a bank of 3 pedals, but I switch between a few banks. The only unusual thing about my rig, is that I use a Zoom expression pedal to trigger the effects. All my effects are set so that they only work when the the pedal is rocked up. This means, I can cue up my effects silently and I’ve got a bigger target to aim at with my uncoordinated feet! 

I’ve done hundreds of gigs with my B3, from pubs to large festivals, and it’s never let me down. The sounds available are brilliant and more than enough for most bassists, I'm sure. Take the time to get to know it and always audition your sounds through your gigging amp, as the difference between that and listening through headphones or a practice amp is immense. 

It's a great unit, I think I just need to have a bit more of a play with it, I've been using it in the same way for many years, but I think I could get more out of it and use it more. 

I've always wondered about using an expression pedal with it, may have to get one! 

I have the smooth hound also, it's a great unit! Only wireless I've ever really got on with tbh! 

[rushbo]

1 hour ago, TRBboy said:

It's a great unit, I think I just need to have a bit more of a play with it, I've been using it in the same way for many years, but I think I could get more out of it and use it more. 

I've always wondered about using an expression pedal with it, may have to get one! 

I have the smooth hound also, it's a great unit! Only wireless I've ever really got on with tbh! 

You can pick the expression pedals up quite cheaply- mine was £20 from Reverb. They’re really useful - I use mine in a pretty unorthodox way, but for things like wah effects, volume control and the ability to add a variable amount of the effect to the signal, it’s a great addition for not much of a financial outlay. 

[Japhet]

For the slight, gritty sound you're after it's worth trying some of the amp sims and pushing the gain on them rather than the overdrive option on the menu. I use a few banks on mine and have the same core sound by copying the patches but leave one or two spaces free where I can add whatever effect I'm after (like phase, env filter, chorus etc.). I also use a couple of separate pedals for 'always on' duties such as compression and reverb.

[rushbo]

20 minutes ago, Japhet said:

For the slight, gritty sound you're after it's worth trying some of the amp sims and pushing the gain on them rather than the overdrive option on the menu. I use a few banks on mine and have the same core sound by copying the patches but leave one or two spaces free where I can add whatever effect I'm after (like phase, env filter, chorus etc.). I also use a couple of separate pedals for 'always on' duties such as compression and reverb.

That’s a great idea, I’ll give that a go- cheers Japhet. 

[TRBboy]

Well, had a bit of a play around with it last night (forgot what a great practice tool it is!) and thus far struggling to find the slightly overdriven sound I have in my head. 

I took your advice @Japhet, but I couldn't really get the amp sims to break up quite enough, or they didn't really have the tone I want (some great sounds in there though - that flip top patch!).

Overdrives were a bit meh, either too distorted, or had too much inherent tone (too bright, too muddy, etc) which I couldn't dial out with the eq. I will persevere though! I'm wondering if one of the amp sims combined with an overdrive might be the way forward. 

Some great effects on there though, the fuzzes are superb! I've never been able to get fuzz to work in my band, but might have to have another go! 

More tinkering is called for..... 

Thanks for all the help guys 😊

[stewblack]

10 hours ago, TRBboy said:

Well, had a bit of a play around with it last night (forgot what a great practice tool it is!) and thus far struggling to find the slightly overdriven sound I have in my head. 

I took your advice @Japhet, but I couldn't really get the amp sims to break up quite enough, or they didn't really have the tone I want (some great sounds in there though - that flip top patch!).

Overdrives were a bit meh, either too distorted, or had too much inherent tone (too bright, too muddy, etc) which I couldn't dial out with the eq. I will persevere though! I'm wondering if one of the amp sims combined with an overdrive might be the way forward. 

Some great effects on there though, the fuzzes are superb! I've never been able to get fuzz to work in my band, but might have to have another go! 

More tinkering is called for..... 

Thanks for all the help guys 😊

Also try the preamp section for dirt. 

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 6, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[TRBboy]

48 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Also try the preamp section for dirt. 

Think I went through all the amps, preamps, and drive pedals, but will look again at the preamps. 👍

 

[TRBboy]

2 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

 

Was thinking the same thing! What Behringer pre are you using? If it is the BDI 21, there is a model of the Sansamp Bass Driver on the B3.

Behringer? I can't see where that was mentioned! 😅

[Mudpup]

.

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Mudpup

[rushbo]

I use a separate BDI 21 pedal for dirt - I tend to use it in a very ad hoc way, so I like to keep it separate from my B3, so I can avoid having to swap patches. 

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 6, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[TRBboy]

17 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said:

I was quoting Rushbo, but if you are hunting for an overdrive sound, the Bass Driver is worth a try. The Sansamp is something of an industry standard, and the model on the B3 includes the mid control of the latest version.

Yes sorry, I see it now! Had a play with the bass driver patch, and it was one of the better ones, but maybe need to try it a bit more. 

[stewblack]

7 minutes ago, TRBboy said:

Yes sorry, I see it now! Had a play with the bass driver patch, and it was one of the better ones, but maybe need to try it a bit more. 

Lots of adjustment there, how you listen makes a big difference too. Headphones won't tell the whole story 

[TRBboy]

Had a bit more of a play today (lots of fun!) through my proper amp which helped. Does anyone else find that a lot of the patches are really loud by default? 

Anyway, after going through all the amp SIM sand drive pedals, and I think these were my two faves for my 'light drive':

Had a good go with the bass driver, but it a) just wouldn't wouldn't break up quite enough, and b) had a built - in tone that I couldn't suppress enough and wasn't what I wanted (although did sound nice enough in its own right. I'm not looking for too much of a shift away from my clean tone. 

So then I started getting a bit more creative 😁. Historically I haven't found fuzz very use able, but I have to say the fuzz patches in this pedal are superb! Definitely want to try it out with the band (when we eventually get back to it...) 

I also wanted to find a good filter and phaser sound, and play with the octaver a bit more. ANYWAY I ended up on this combination of effects, and it sounds OUTRAGEOUS! Couldn't stop playing, just too much fun. Need to find somewhere I can shoehorn this in with the band..... 

[fleabag]

I've used a B3 for few years as well,  live and at home but i've never managed to get a decent Env Filter sorted.

I use one of the compressors, and  the chorus / delays /  other modulations , seem fine

[TRBboy]

1 hour ago, fleabag said:

I've used a B3 for few years as well,  live and at home but i've never managed to get a decent Env Filter sorted.

I use one of the compressors, and  the chorus / delays /  other modulations , seem fine

I've tried the Q-tron patch before and not been that enamoured with it, but only recently have I tried the M Filter patch (Mutron?) and I've got some nice results after a bit of tinkering I'm quite pleased with the results. 

[fleabag]

Might be worth another try with the M Filter, but i'm feeling its one of those i've already tried.

I'm quite prepared to dump some coin on a dedicated EF 

[TRBboy]

17 hours ago, fleabag said:

Might be worth another try with the M Filter, but i'm feeling its one of those i've already tried.

I'm quite prepared to dump some coin on a dedicated EF 

I have no doubt a good quality standalone would be better. For me, it's very rarely I get to use the EF with my band, so the B3 does the job. Would love the MXR one though!