Hi! Great video!
I have Yamaha BB and I sold my entire pedalboard because I bought Zoom B3. Zoom is fabulous mfx, but I am an overdrive junkie. I can make excellent live usable patches on zoom, but I am thinking of adding Line 6. So, my questions, what are yours impressions of different OD's and distortions HX Stomp can produce? How "analog" they sound? How they react to playing and are they sonically different (because on Zoom everything has the same zzzzz sound, and eq-ing only masks it)
Just additional comment - after trying Zoom I am never gonna return to individual effects. Such PITA to set and change, during playing, different sounds without adding 100 more pedals...
Thank you!
I was also a happy user of the
Zoom B3. Used it live for several years. I learnt to use OD / Distortion / Fuzz / warm 70's sounds with this unit. After 2 years hesitating, I finally got the full Helix (just when the LT was released, taking advantage of some sales).
Distortions, ODs and "strongly driven amps" (for me ALL are serving the same function) are
considerably better than the ones in Zoom.
I studied why I was not 100% happy with zoom, the only amp model that got me "a realistic touch of overdrive" was the SVT model. The rest are just "EQ curves" or someting that you could recreate with impulse responses. Very handy, but if you want to get some subtle OD with just an amp model... There was one to use! It is true that combining SVT and OD and distortion I got very good sounds for my Zeppelin cover band. THE FACT THAT ALL OD / Dist / Fuzz models have
blend control was key to get easily good sounds (not in Helix products).
Helix is
much, much better for amps.
Bass and guitar. ~50% guitar amps with bass cabs / IRs or just post-amp EQs are really usable. I mean GOOD. Specific OD / Dist for bass are VERY good (
Obsidian and Clawthorn drive) are worth it the full price of the HX stomp by themselves.
Then Some
~30% guitar OD/Dist are very good for bass, but some would need a separate path with / without crossover. Bear in mind that not all blocks have a "blend" control like in the zoom B3, and blending (with/without crossover) can be trickier than people think, specially for bass. Anyway the choice is excellent. I suggest to try some "legacy" dirt models with bass.
Perhaps I'd dare to say that I am not impressed with fuzz models. But I do not care, some guitar distortion pedals or the Clawthorn Drive (What I use now in Zeppelin's Heartbreaker) are perfect to get the sould in my mind.
I cannot be happier that I sold my B3 and went for the full Helix. I am sure you won't regret. If the stomp or Helix FX was available 2 years ago, I would have bought one of them (considerably smaller / lighter / cheaper). Now I don't want to downsize... I use the full Helix for other things (mix keyboards and FX for other instruments) and now it is hard to go back.
