New Zoom Multi FX: Zoom B6

[carlsim]

Hi everyone… 

im in the market for a multi effects unit.

i want something as a front end for my QSC 12.2 FRFR. I’m not big into effects - I basically want a good DI, some good amp sims, chorus, octaver - I’m not a ‘dirt’ man… but what I’m really after is a good synth modeller. I have a boss SYB-5 which is ok (I do a lot of function 80s stuff) so a good synth engine is quite important to me.

i do like the boss, but one unit rather that separate pedals suits me more. I did have a line 6 pod go which was ok… not great for synths but ok… same engine as the helix so I don’t think a stomp is the way I should go.

i did watch a video of someone blistering their way through ‘Like a Prayer’ using a zoom B3 and it sounded great. Exactly the kind of thing I am after… 

will the b6 do this? Can anyone share some sound samples at all? I can’t find much online - it’s mainly standard demos…

I would be happy with the chorus octaver stuff I reckon… I’m just after a good synth bass!

[Aygotaygo]

I upgraded to a B6 this week, after using a B1 Four X. To be fair, I never used the B1 to its full potential, but I was happy with what it could do. I upgraded to the B6 in large part because since I lost the sight in my right eye, I needed something that was easier to see, so the upgrade would have been worth it just for that.

 

However, this thing is amazing. 1 hour out of the box and I managed to set it all up for my needs without having to go anywhere near a computer. The effects are top notch, the modelled amps are pretty spot on, it’s got two inputs and a DI. I’ve read a lot about it being ‘only plastic’ (which is true), but there’s plastic and there’s plastic. It’s not made from yogurt pots so I’m not sure what you’d have to do to damage it. It’s sturdy, but I suppose if you abused it badly it’d break, but that’s true of anything.

 

I was initial hesitant, wondering if it would be that great an improvement on the B1. This just in: it definitely is.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Aygotaygo

[LukeFRC]

8 hours ago, Aygotaygo said:

I upgraded to a B6 this week, after using a B1 Four X. To be fair, I never used the B1 to its full potential, but I was happy with what it could do. I upgraded to the B6 in large part because since I lost the sight in my right eye, I needed something that was easier to see, so the upgrade would have been worth it just for that.

 

However, this thing is amazing. 1 hour out of the box and I managed to set it all up for my needs without having to go anywhere near a computer. The effects are top notch, the modelled amps are pretty spot on, it’s got two inputs and a DI. I’ve read a lot about it being ‘only plastic’ (which is true), but there’s plastic and there’s plastic. It’s not made from yogurt pots so I’m not sure what you’d have to do to damage it. It’s sturdy, but I suppose if you abused it badly it’d break, but that’s true of anything.

 

I was initial hesitant, wondering if it would be that great an improvement on the B1. This just in: it definitely is.

Are the sounds a step up too? Or just the interface?

[Greg Edwards69]

10 hours ago, Aygotaygo said:

I upgraded to a B6 this week, after using a B1 Four X. To be fair, I never used the B1 to its full potential, but I was happy with what it could do. I upgraded to the B6 in large part because since I lost the sight in my right eye, I needed something that was easier to see, so the upgrade would have been worth it just for that.

 

However, this thing is amazing. 1 hour out of the box and I managed to set it all up for my needs without having to go anywhere near a computer. The effects are top notch, the modelled amps are pretty spot on, it’s got two inputs and a DI. I’ve read a lot about it being ‘only plastic’ (which is true), but there’s plastic and there’s plastic. It’s not made from yogurt pots so I’m not sure what you’d have to do to damage it. It’s sturdy, but I suppose if you abused it badly it’d break, but that’s true of anything.

 

I was initial hesitant, wondering if it would be that great an improvement on the B1. This just in: it definitely is.

Serious question, and apologies for derailing the thread (and being a nosy, inquisitive sod), but how challenging do you find playing without the use of one eye? 

 

The reason I ask is I tried playing a gig with an eye patch many years ago. It was at the wedding of one of our guitarists who had detached retina surgery a few weeks before the wedding and had to wear an eye match for most of the day. Being the loving type of people we are in the band we decided to all wear an eye patch when we started playing to take the fosters.  It's really difficult without any depth perception!

[Aygotaygo]

11 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

Are the sounds a step up too? Or just the interface?

The sounds are definitely a step-up, too. Zoom have really done well with this one.

[Aygotaygo]

9 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

Serious question, and apologies for derailing the thread (and being a nosy, inquisitive sod), but how challenging do you find playing without the use of one eye? 

 

The reason I ask is I tried playing a gig with an eye patch many years ago. It was at the wedding of one of our guitarists who had detached retina surgery a few weeks before the wedding and had to wear an eye match for most of the day. Being the loving type of people we are in the band we decided to all wear an eye patch when we started playing to take the fosters.  It's really difficult without any depth perception!

It’s taken some getting used, that’s for sure! I lost the sight about a year ago to optic neuropathy, and the biggest thing from a playing point has been not being able to see the feet dots on my Fender Mustang (which aren’t exactly easy to see for anyone!) away from playing, I’ve bumped into a lot of doors and people in supermarkets. Could always be worse 🙂

[Franticsmurf]

Got my B6 a couple of days ago and I've spent about 3-4 hours over the last few days setting it up. So far I'm impressed and happy. Impressed that it has so many options and that editing is simple (I haven't felt the need to connect it to Guitar Lab). Happy that it lets me do what I wanted, which was to be able to set up the effects so I can go between them without having to cycle up or down. Coming from the world guitar multi FX, this was the norm but I guess bassist aren't expected to change back and forth mid song. I have four amp-based patches set up within which I can select or deselect individual effects (chorus, flange, phase and delay in my case). The simple editing process means that it will be easy to adjust on the fly during practice as new songs are brought in, or old favourites wheeled out from the cupboard. 

 

I haven't been able to test it at gig volumes but at home volume (with the neighbours away) and with headphones I like the sounds I'm getting.

 

For the main band (the Hulla) I'll be using it directly into the FOH and I'm hoping to get the chance to try this on Sunday (still waiting to hear if we're rehearsing). Otherwise, with only one gig on the books between now and the new year (and that one is meant to be quiet, so I'll probably be using my acoustic bass) I'll have to wait a while to see what difference volume makes.

[jonnybass]

I've been using the zoom b6 for around 6 months now.  Played a couple of gigs with it, fabulous box if you are looking for easy to use straightforward muliteffects for your bass.  Sounds are fab, take a bit of tweaking at gig volume but two inputs, with variable levels, DI out (with four DI models) on top of the good amp sims and available effects I cant think of a band gig situation where this wont meet my needs.

 

Jonny

[stewblack]

Aye, it's a fantastic piece of kit. The sounds are first class and something Zoom never gets enough credit for is how simple and intuitive their multi effects are to adjust on the unit itself. 

Absolutely vital for live work.

Edited December 5, 2023 by stewblack

[jonnybass]

10 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Aye, it's a fantastic piece of kit. The sounds are first class and something Zoom never gets enough credit for is how simple and intuitive their multi effects are to adjust on the unit itself. 

Absolutely vital for live work.

This is what swung me towards the B6, ultimately its not as flexible as the HX stomp (limited slots, no parrallel chains etc) but to unpack and plug in at a gig then adjust during soundcheck or create a new sound during a practice really quickly I think its terrific.  

 

I'm sure GAS will kick in and I'll buy a stomp too...

 

Jonny

[edstraker123]

Got one coming today to replace my B3N - hope its as good as the reviews say it is.

 

[Franticsmurf]

2 hours ago, edstraker123 said:

Got one coming today to replace my B3N - hope its as good as the reviews say it is.

 

I unleashed mine on the unsuspecting band for the first time at last night's rehearsal. A universal thumbs up, with some nice compliments from the guy who does our sound. He was a fan of my old pedal set up (Digbeth pre-amp, EHX Bass Clone chorus, Zoom MS60B for various spot effects (swapped out for a Plethora X3 for some gigs) and TC Hyper Gravity compressor). From my perspective it was nice to hear it through the PA (I DI for this band) and it sounded pretty much as I had hoped it would, having only really used headphones and amp/cab at low volumes.

[stewblack]

7 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

I unleashed mine on the unsuspecting band for the first time at last night's rehearsal. A universal thumbs up, with some nice compliments from the guy who does our sound. He was a fan of my old pedal set up (Digbeth pre-amp, EHX Bass Clone chorus, Zoom MS60B for various spot effects (swapped out for a Plethora X3 for some gigs) and TC Hyper Gravity compressor). From my perspective it was nice to hear it through the PA (I DI for this band) and it sounded pretty much as I had hoped it would, having only really used headphones and amp/cab at low volumes.

Mine has never disappointed when used live. Really great sounds from it, and the always on stuff like compression is top drawer.

Oh and don't forget the B6 boasts the best tuner I have ever used.

[edstraker123]

Played it through headphones for hours last night and I love it. The sound quality is fabulous and the presets are very usable and sensible - barely any widdly noise filler patches. So intuitive to use - having watched a few youtube vids was enough to show me how to do the things I needed so I didn't look at the manual. It looks amazing too.

Good call everybody above !

[Franticsmurf]

13 hours ago, stewblack said:

Oh and don't forget the B6 boasts the best tuner I have ever used.

I've never done a tuner shoot-out (😀) but I have to agree that for clarity and speed, it is the best I've used.

[Franticsmurf]

2 hours ago, edstraker123 said:

Played it through headphones for hours last night and I love it. The sound quality is fabulous and the presets are very usable and sensible - barely any widdly noise filler patches. So intuitive to use - having watched a few youtube vids was enough to show me how to do the things I needed so I didn't look at the manual. It looks amazing too.

Good call everybody above !

I was prepared to watch YouTube tutorials and plug in to my PC to edit, but by the time I'd finished the initial 'new toy' tinkering to see what it could do, I'd created a bank of four patches that, with minimal tweaking, were the patches I used on Sunday. As mentioned above, I treat each patch as a mini board, a bit like the Plethora, with individual pedals I can switch on or off as required. That worked well on Sunday too.

[Kateplaysbass]

Acquired my B6 yesterday, courtesy of @paddy109. I'm wryly amused by all the comments about how intuitive it is because I barely know where to start- however, I'm determined to persevere, hopefully with a little help from you guys. Apologies for what are probably some incredibly basic questions coming up.

 

I've basically bought it for gigging, and ideally at gigs I don't want to do anything more taxing than click from one song to the next. In other words, I don't want to have to be thinking/ remembering what settings I need for a particular song. So am I right in thinking that I need to create a patch for each song, in the order of our setlist, and then use it in memory mode at gigs?

 

What I don't really understand is the point of grouping patches into banks - am I missing something? Is it just functionality that isn't really necessary for the way I plan to use it? Also, I understand that there's a finite number of patch slots, but can you organize your patches into a much larger number of different combinations - ie setlists? I think the answer to this is 'no' but I thought I'd ask.

 

[I'm kind of ruling out the presets because from what I can see they all use amp/ cab modelling, and as I'll usually be running it through my Ashdown rig at gigs, I should steer clear of that- right?]. 

 

Finally, and this is just a minor thing, but the character limit for patch names seems really low - about 10 characters, so you can't use full song titles in most cases. It's not the end of the world, but it's a bit of a shame- is it limited by the size of the display screen? 

 

[Franticsmurf]

I'm not tech minded and while the B6 looked daunting at first, once I'd started playing around with it I found it was quite straight forward to use. There is a lot of functionality in the unit, so there are a lot of options in the menus but I found I wasn't using most of them to start with hence my comment about finding it easy to set up.

 

If you want to set it up for one patch per song, you can do that and select them sequentially using the Bank/Patch function, cycling through each patch in order using footswitch 4. In that mode, banks are only relevant for keeping a record of where each patch is for editing purposes. As you can see from my previous posts I use it differently so for me a bank is where I store a band's worth of patches and I switch effects on and off within those patches. 

[jonnybass]

@Kateplaysbass I roughly use it how you plan too for the covers band.  However, I found I didnt need a slightly different clean sound or dirty sound for every song so I have a "clean" patch, a "dirty" patch, an Octave patch, synth patch, etc, and I just make sure they are easily accessible during the set.  The cobination of touch screen and acutal buttons I find really useful.

 

For my original band I tend to use it more in memory mode where i have a pedal board set up (roughly the same as I did before I got muliteffects) I find this easier when we are coming up with new songs/parts/arrangements, we havent gigged since I got it but I think I'll end up setting up patches to match the set for that as mid gig its so much easier to just click one footswitch

 

Jonny

[Kateplaysbass]

Thanks both- that's both helpful and encouraging! 

[tauzero]

I haven't used a B6 so this is based on my knowledge of the B3 and B3n. You have various modes that you can use it in, and the two that would most likely be useful to you while playing are patch (Memory) mode and stompbox (Effect board) mode. Memory mode just needs one press of a button to switch between the four patches within the same bank, so you would use those for significantly different sounds either within a song or from one song to another. Effect board mode means you can switch effects on and off within a patch. More than four patches and you need to do a bit of tap-dancing in Bank/Patch mode to go up or down the banks.

[Kateplaysbass]

I've been playing around with it a bit more, and I've found 4 pre-defined patches that would work for the majority of the setlist, meaning I can use it in Memory mode, which is so much easier. 

The hurdle I've now encountered is that, since these pre-sets use amp modelling, I understand I should plug into the Effects return input on my amp head (Ashdown ABM300). Which I did, but got no sound. It works fine when plugged into the instrument jack. I've never used the Effects return jack before, so I don't know if it's faulty, or if I'm just doing something very basic wrong! Or even how much it matters, if I like the sound of it going through the pre-amp.....

[MichaelDean]

3 hours ago, Kateplaysbass said:

I've been playing around with it a bit more, and I've found 4 pre-defined patches that would work for the majority of the setlist, meaning I can use it in Memory mode, which is so much easier. 

The hurdle I've now encountered is that, since these pre-sets use amp modelling, I understand I should plug into the Effects return input on my amp head (Ashdown ABM300). Which I did, but got no sound. It works fine when plugged into the instrument jack. I've never used the Effects return jack before, so I don't know if it's faulty, or if I'm just doing something very basic wrong! Or even how much it matters, if I like the sound of it going through the pre-amp.....

Ashdown heads mute the output if nothing is plugged into the input. Stick a patch lead or ¼" headphones adapter in the input and it should work. 

[Kateplaysbass]

22 hours ago, MichaelDean said:

Ashdown heads mute the output if nothing is plugged into the input. Stick a patch lead or ¼" headphones adapter in the input and it should work. 

It did work! Thanks very much 😊

[carlsim]

Hi all... just a quick question to all the B6 users out there...

 

I have a B6 that I use with my QSC 12.2 as backline and monitoring, much better IMO than a backline amp. Anyway, that's another discussion... The only issue I have is fine tuning overall volume control. I have plenty of headroom, but I don't like to control overall volume on the bass and can't be going behind the QSC or bending down mid-song to alter the volume on the B6. The B6 has a master output volume control for each patch assigned to the right side button (the 4 encoders under the screen) - if I connect a volume pedal to the B6 (I have an old Bespeco one that still works), will that default to controlling this volume control or will I have to assign it in the patch? I just want it to control this volume output globally, I'm not interested in wah control or anything, just for volume so I hope that if I plug it in it will default to this control automatically. Anyone tried this?

 

I haven't tried it yet, will do when I get time, I just wondered if was as simple as I hoped!

Edited April 25 by carlsim