Zoom B2 Four

[dave_bass5]

11 minutes ago, SamIAm said:

Damn you @dave_bass5, having missed one here on BC I've been 'forced' to do the same; it is projected to land tomorrow.

Perhaps we can compare notes  

Sam x

All part of the Basschat service. You cant come on here and not expect to have your money spent 😂.

First thing ill do is shake mine lol.

[dave_bass5]

10 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Obviously too cheap - just had my order cancelled and a full refund paid! Ah well...

Shame but that did sound a bit too good to be true.

[dave_bass5]

33 minutes ago, SamIAm said:

Damn you @dave_bass5, having missed one here on BC I've been 'forced' to do the same; it is projected to land tomorrow.

Perhaps we can compare notes  

Sam x

I see Amazon are now quoting delivery in months. High five to us lol. 

[SamIAm]

4 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I see Amazon are now quoting delivery in months. High five to us lol. 

When I ordered they said one remaining.  phew!

Sam x

[dave_bass5]

29 minutes ago, SamIAm said:

When I ordered they said one remaining.  phew!

Sam x

Yeah, it was two when i ordered. Very lucky. 

[SamIAm]

Amazingly my the B2 four was just dropped off ... I was not expcting it for another 4 hours!

Seems solid, like the small size ... but it does have a 'rattle' when shaken as mentioned earlier.

Now to figure out how to use it and set up some patches and see if I like the sound.

I found a long but deep youtube about using it.

 

Sam x

[dave_bass5]

I've seen that video. I found it quite irritating as although it's helpful it's a bit repetitive. 

 

When I got my first one I found it quite easy to get going with it after a few mins. 

 

Good luck. 

[dave_bass5]

Just had my first rehearsal with the B2-Four. Seems to work really well. I prefer this over the B1-Four and my old B3(n). 

 

What really surprised me was i had it running off a small power bank and it seemed to drop around 10% per hour. So i went home with still just over 60% charge. Not as convenient as having internal batteries but i might use this rather than the supplied PSU. 

[Al Krow]

On 08/05/2024 at 23:20, dave_bass5 said:

Just had my first rehearsal with the B2-Four. Seems to work really well. I prefer this over the B1-Four and my old B3(n). 

 

What really surprised me was i had it running off a small power bank and it seemed to drop around 10% per hour. So i went home with still just over 60% charge. Not as convenient as having internal batteries but i might use this rather than the supplied PSU. 

 

You finding it's sounding better than your B1-4?

[DaleASmith]

Looking at the effects list I'm thinking the expression pedal is very limit in what it can control.

 

I would have hoped they'd take inspiration for the Helix and make any parameter controllable...

[dave_bass5]

7 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

You finding it's sounding better than your B1-4?

Yeah, it sounds a bit clearer and more open. Seems to have a bit more punch to it. I did a few A/B comparisons at home with headphones. Not sure the difference is as noticeable with the band though. 

[dave_bass5]

3 hours ago, DaleASmith said:

Looking at the effects list I'm thinking the expression pedal is very limit in what it can control.

 

I would have hoped they'd take inspiration for the Helix and make any parameter controllable...

Yeah, it’s a bit of a step back from my Helix Stomp. I miss the ability to turn off one effect and turn on another with one switch. 

I do like that becuse it is more basic i wont want to keep tweaking it. I found i got bogged down in all the possibilities with the Helix and my playing suffered a bit. 

Edited May 10 by dave_bass5

[dave_bass5]

Should add, the comparison between the two Zoom’s was done with the DI engaged on the B2-four. 
This section has surprised me. I wasn’t interested in the slightest before getting it, but now i find it indispensable. It’s a cool feature. Not sure it’s worth wasting a foot switch on it though. I’d be happy to just a global on or off. 

[PaulThePlug]

Noise inside... ribbon cable knocking about? 

[dave_bass5]

16 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Noise inside... ribbon cable knocking about? 

A spring apparently. It’s loose but not detached. Seems like a few others have it, some saying back to last year when it came out. 
 

Not my video but this is the sound I’m hearing as well. 
 

 

Edited May 10 by dave_bass5

[BEADist]

On TalkBass it is said (I believe it was confirmed) that the rattling noise is coming from those plastic 'cursor' foot-switches. Try shaking it while putting pressure on those switches to test/confirm this?

[dave_bass5]

3 minutes ago, BEADist said:

On TalkBass it is said (I believe it was confirmed) that the rattling noise is coming from those plastic 'cursor' foot-switches. Try shaking it while putting pressure on those switches to test/confirm this?

I tried that (saw the post you mention) but it’s not that. Or at least i couldn’t get it to stop by covering the foot switches. 

[dave_bass5]

I’m sending my B2 back. Nothing wrong with it as such, other than the speed the screen jumps back to the main screen which is really irritating, but i can see me getting distracted by it. Ive already noticed I’m spending more time tweaking it than playing at home. I also don’t really have a need for it, although i do enjoy using it. 
It struck me last night that the bass player in my main band doesn’t use any FX at all, and sounds great on everything. Just bass/cable/amp. Toys are nice to have but for me it’s a solution to a problem i don’t actually have. At least not at the moment. I’ll stick with my BDI-21 and that’s it. If i find i need more later on I’d certainly buy another B2. 

[SamIAm]

On 13/05/2024 at 10:46, dave_bass5 said:

I’m sending my B2 back. Nothing wrong with it as such, other than the speed the screen jumps back to the main screen which is really irritating, but i can see me getting distracted by it. Ive already noticed I’m spending more time tweaking it than playing at home. I also don’t really have a need for it, although i do enjoy using it. 
It struck me last night that the bass player in my main band doesn’t use any FX at all, and sounds great on everything. Just bass/cable/amp. Toys are nice to have but for me it’s a solution to a problem i don’t actually have. At least not at the moment. I’ll stick with my BDI-21 and that’s it. If i find i need more later on I’d certainly buy another B2. 

I too ended up sending mine back; the timeout on the knob display was annoying but I also found the tuner was a big step backwards from that in the B1Four.  Also a step back was that the rhythm and looper each consumed an fx slot (unlike the B1Four where they did not).

Sam x

Edited June 2 by SamIAm

[Phil Starr]

On 08/05/2024 at 23:20, dave_bass5 said:

What really surprised me was i had it running off a small power bank and it seemed to drop around 10% per hour

Now you've given me an idea. I run my B1ON on rechargeables but my duo partner uses the USB to power a G1ON via his phone charger. I've got some LED stage lighting that runs at USB voltages and run those off a small power bank which saves some of the spaghetti on stage and speeds set up and break-down I wonder how much else could be run off a power bank?

[SamIAm]

24 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

Now you've given me an idea. I run my B1ON on rechargeables but my duo partner uses the USB to power a G1ON via his phone charger. I've got some LED stage lighting that runs at USB voltages and run those off a small power bank which saves some of the spaghetti on stage and speeds set up and break-down I wonder how much else could be run off a power bank?

I've got a Krisdona power brick and it provides a switchable DC output that can supply 9V@3A (it also has 3 USB ports) so I can drive an HX Stomp&Morningstar MC6 plus whatever else I may add.  With 25,000 mAh it lasts hours.  Only issue is finding a nice way to mount under a pedalboard.

Sam X

Edited June 2 by SamIAm

[dave_bass5]

4 hours ago, SamIAm said:

I too ended up sending mine back; the timeout on the knob display was annoying but I also found the tuner was a big step backwards from that in the B1Four.  Also a step back was that the rhythm and looper each consumed an fx slot (unlike the B1Four where they did not).

Sam x

Id have kept it if i had space in my gig bag, but it was still on the larger side of what i wanted. If i was just playing at home it would have been fine, and im sure ill get another at some point for this use, but for now ill be using just a Paradriver. Nice and compact and runs off a battery. I like things as neat as possible when i have to carry stuff on public transport.

[SamIAm]

53 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Id have kept it if i had space in my gig bag, but it was still on the larger side of what i wanted. If i was just playing at home it would have been fine, and im sure ill get another at some point for this use, but for now ill be using just a Paradriver. Nice and compact and runs off a battery. I like things as neat as possible when i have to carry stuff on public transport.

After playing with a few setups (Mostly multi-fx but also some single pedals) I've ended up with an HX Stomp/Morningstar MC6/Sonicake Volwah configuration.  I had a Stomp a couple of years ago but then sold it on as I wasn't 'getting on' with it, but with two years of learning/discovering what I wanted/needed I recently acquired another (Here on BC of course).

Just waiting for a couple of 5-pin MIDI interconnects to get it all setup (And then measured to figure out what to mount it all on)

Sam x

Edited June 2 by SamIAm

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, SamIAm said:

After playing with a few setups (Mostly multi-fx but also some single pedals) I've ended up with an HX Stomp/Morningstar MC6/Sonicake Volwah configuration.  I had a Stomp a couple of years ago but then sold it on as I wasn't 'getting on' with it, but with two years of learning/discovering what I wanted/needed I recently acquired another (Here on BC of course).

Just waiting for a couple of 5-pin MIDI interconnects to get it all setup (And then measured to figure out what to mount it all on)

Sam x

 

Good luck with the Stomp - be interested to see how you get on. Seems to be very common tale (including with my own bandmates) of users finding the Stomp needing quite a lot TLC to get to a sound that folk are happy with and more often than not giving up along the way, whereas something like the GT 1000 Core seems to be a lot quicker out of the box.

 

8 hours ago, SamIAm said:

I too ended up sending mine back; the timeout on the knob display was annoying but I also found the tuner was a big step backwards from that in the B1Four.  Also a step back was that the rhythm and looper each consumed an fx slot (unlike the B1Four where they did not).

Sam x

 

I see that the B1-4 lives on to fight another day! Tbf I'm still managing to get more from mine since first they first came out in three years ago e.g. recently creating a set of bespoke preamp patches for my two gigging basses rather than having a one-size fits all approach which having access to a PC editor lacking on the B2-4 makes it a doddle to do.

[dave_bass5]

8 hours ago, SamIAm said:

After playing with a few setups (Mostly multi-fx but also some single pedals) I've ended up with an HX Stomp/Morningstar MC6/Sonicake Volwah configuration.  I had a Stomp a couple of years ago but then sold it on as I wasn't 'getting on' with it, but with two years of learning/discovering what I wanted/needed I recently acquired another (Here on BC of course).

Just waiting for a couple of 5-pin MIDI interconnects to get it all setup (And then measured to figure out what to mount it all on)

Sam x

I too had a Stomp and love what it could do and how it sounded, but when i stopped playing bass during lockdown i sold it. Now id love another but dot think I’ll ever need a Multi Fx like that again. Really enjoying the freedom of not having to think about anything other than the playing. I do use a Paradriver, but thats just for always on tone.