Zoom B3 Bass Effects and Amp Simulator

Get it dialed in, build you patches and you can cycle through them with ease on the fly. Tuner is excellent and fast, sounds great, and the selection of effects is fantastic. It could use a built in expression pedal like the guitar version gets, but there is an input for one.

My only gripe, is the displays are somewhat smallish, meaning we have to really focus to make sure I am picking the right effect... But those with 20/20 won't have an issue...

This is my first ME pedal for Bass and otherwise. So i'm in no way an expert.

Okay you've probably heard people raving about this thing online. Obviously, it's really, really good and probably the best for the price.

Build Quality and Appearance
All Metal. Very heavy and bulky (in terms of it's size, of course; otherwise it is incredibly light if you compare it to some other ME pedals.) The colour is a Maroon-ish colour with a black base, which looks pretty good in my eyes.

Sound
Sounds good to my ears. I'm a beginner (at least for the Bass) so all the weird sounds are new to me. Make sure you connect it to Left channel if you're connecting it Mono/Headphones.

Effects
MANY! You can go and change each and every part of each effect, which I can't even comprehend in the little time i've spent with it. The Amp Sims sound distinct from each other. As others have said, Distortion isn't as good, but with a bit of tweaking it can be pretty good as well (at least i've been told)

Patches
Yes, you can easily change and switch between patches. Albeit the B3 seems to be more of a individual pedal sim than a traditional ME pedal, you can easily get into the patch mode and switch between patches. (You literally have to hold the left most stomp button for a second.)

Tuner
Really, Really Nice. Even works with guitar! You can't get more accurate than this. Also how you get into bypass mode (not true bypass mode.)

Looper
I tried it for like 10 minutes and I got the hang of it! I really like it and I guess this is my favourite feature of the B3. Upto 40 seconds, which is pretty overkill, and it works well with the rhythm feature as well.

About the buttons...
The quality is top - notch, but I just don't like the single button layout of the stomp buttons (or whatever they're called). Even the Zoom B1 has the wider buttons. It's really not a problem if you're standing, but I like sitting down while using the looper, and it seems a bit awkward. I guess this is just rambling and I just have to get used to it.

What about your inner Slash?
It does work with Guitars as well (Guitar --> B3 --> Guitar Amp). Effects may not be super good, but looper works O.K. with the guitar.

All in all a great buy. Mostly for jamming and practice and messing about.

Thank you for your time!

I couldn't play without this little guy and I only have one setting.

It's an amazing unit and for me it was a great introduction to the world of bass effects. It's a one stop solution and it really does a lot very well. Out of the box, the patches are all over the place gain wise. Some will hurt your ears and others are really quiet. It's not a unit to unbox at a gig and work it out as you go along...no this box needs some time investment to set it up for you to use. The chorus, flangers, synths, verbs and delays all work really well. But the amp sims, compressors and dirt didn't really do much for me. They work ok and sound ok, probably fine for a live gig with a limited quality PA...but it doesn't take long to want for better in these areas. The limit of only three FX's to a patch bay is quite low considering other offering have 5+ and I can't see why this unit should be any different. The built in tuner is excellent and I would invest in the expression pedal to get the most out of the wahs. I like this box a lot and I think multi-FX have come on a long way in recent years. I think it's typical of the breed though...some effects are great, others less so. It's incredibly cheap for what it does.
The built in drum machine is fun but limited...no runs or fills...but fun all the same. The displays are great and it's very easy to control each effect. It's a bit like having three digital user select able stompers. It's a great way to learn what you like and don't like in bass FX and the resale value of this unit is still quite good. Ultimately it lead me to buy a dedicated (and analogue) compressor, octaver, filter and dirt...with an MS-70CDR on the end to handle modulation and ambiance (which is where i think these zooms excel). But that lot combined are a lot more ££$$ than this unit costs alone. So be aware that to improve in this unit will cost a lot more money than it did to buy it in the first place. My advice with this is unit is to use it as a learning curve and add a few analogues on either end.

I use the Zoom B3 as a practice/backup pedal board for my analog setup costing over $1000. I was able to mimic the sounds created on my analog setup pretty closely. With the built in tuner, looper, and tons of other features I am very happy with this product.

I have used it: live, practice, and recording.

Really fun to play with. Still learning all the thing it can do. Dozens of effects that sound great. Bought 2, one for home,condo, and one for office....where I can turn it up. Because I'm the boss! Took back the MXR.