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New Zoom B1X Four $99

#41
Joe Nerve said:
I don't like carrying extra things around. If it's smaller and lighter I might get it just to get rid of the other pedals I don't use.

I'm not crazy at all about the sounds on the B3, but I'd use it if I didn't take up as much space as it does (I know its tiny, but not tiny enough for me :)). Are the guts in this new one essentially the same?
Click to expand...
The guts are the new N series guts like the new B3n and Gn stuff that plays with the new Guitar Lab
 
#42
dave_bass5 said:
I think there are quite a few nice updates in how the B1 FOUR works.
For a start you have over all bass/mid/treble/master volume on those front knobs, so can be used without having to go in to any patches or menus.
Its a lot easier to turn individual effects within a patch on and off. You just hit the corresponding button. With the B1on its was a lot more involved.

The guts/tones are essentially the same as the B3n, which is an upgrade over the old B3, B1 and 60-B.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's all true too.
Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like about the new changes but, they didn't reinvent the wheel here :)
I personally liked the B1xon formate as I was used to it.
I like this the B1four more, as the switchy-ness of the B3n was not a factor for me.
 
#43
DJ Bebop said:
Yes, that's all true too.
Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like about the new changes but, they didn't reinvent the wheel here :)
I personally liked the B1xon formate as I was used to it.
I like this the B1four more, as the switchy-ness of the B3n was not a factor for me.
Click to expand...
Yes i agree, its the usability thats the most interesting thing for me. I use my B1-on most of the time at home. Bass and ipad in, headphones out, all running off battery. Mainly just a basic patch to simulate a bass rig (normally Heavy Pick), with the ability to jam to a drum track when needed. I also need the ability to transpose the bass for learning songs in different keys etc, so i have a pitch shift programed in to the patch i use.
The B1 Four just seems a bit easier to use, and with easier access to turn the effects on and off.

Never really got to grips with my B3n (nor B3 before it). They seemed like too big to be convenient but too complicated to use live instead of separate effects. I never needed the XLR but did miss the battery operation from the original B3.
 
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#44
dave_bass5 said:
Yes i agree, its the usability thats the most interesting thing for me. I use my B1-on most of the time at home. Bass and ipad in, headphones out, all running off battery. Mainly just a basic patch to simulate a bass rig (normally Heavy Pick), with the ability to jam to a drum track when needed. I also need the ability to transpose the bass for learning songs in different keys etc, so i have a pitch shift programed in to the patch i use.
The B1 Four just seems a bit easier to use, and with easier access to turn the effects on and off.

Never really got to grips with my B3n (nor B3 before it). They seemed like too big to be convenient but too complicated to use live instead of separate effects. I never needed the XLR but did miss the battery operation from the original B3.
Click to expand...
My current setup is kinda goofy. I have a B1on and a B1xon that I use together with a laptop running an editor from this guy ToneLib – Complete guitar studio in your computer
I use the B1on as an amp modeler always on with four or five models to cycle through and the B1xon as my effects, controlled by the laptop.
Stupid but fun :)

I am thinking of one of the B1 fours down the road after the dust settles on these
 
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#45
Joe Nerve said:
I own just about all the zoom pedals made and still don't really like any of them :).

What are the main differences between that, and [B3]?
Click to expand...
  • No XLR DI (only the B3 has this)
  • Likely to receive continuing effect and firmware updates (only the B3 lacks this)
  • No digital audio interface (only the B3 has this)
  • More than three concurrent effects (up to 5)
  • Evolved physical interface
  • Edit patches in real time on PC
I have owned and gotten rid of B3, B3n, B1on, yet I couldn’t resist a B1 Four preorder. I have an MS60b on my pedalboard and I think it’s essential.
 
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#46
Spblat said:
  • No XLR DI (only the B3 has this)
  • Likely to receive continuing effect and firmware updates (only the B3 lacks this)
  • No digital audio interface (only the B3 has this)
  • More than three concurrent effects (up to 5)
  • Evolved physical interface
  • Edit patches in real time on PC
I have owned and gotten rid of B3, B3n, B1on, yet I couldn’t resist a B1 Four preorder. I have an MS60b on my pedalboard and I think it’s essential.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much! I don't need any of that extra stuff. I may need to drop $80 on this. Are they in stock anywhere yet?

Also, whats the going price for a mint condition B3? Anybody here want one?
 
#51
I must say that Zoom are showing impressive and real product excellence with these. The achilles heal of the b1on/x was the usability and the lack of master volume/eq, and they seem to have really nailed it with this one.

In addition to the known and good sound-engine, they now have a very compelling line of entry to mid-level line of multis, and all tailored specifically for bass players to boot!
 
#53
Zoom B1X-4 (with MS-60B for scale) ... arrived today! :D
Zoom B1X4-I.jpg
Zoom B1X4-II.jpg
 
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#54
First impressions...(through headphones)
  • PSU doesn't come supplied with the pedal, so I was glad to find that my spare PSU worked - it's just a standard 9V centre negative 500mA power requirement per the manual. That's quite a chunky current draw though.
  • Plugging in the PSU acts as an off switch for the batteries. Neat!
  • With the PSU engaged I did get a bit of noise on some of the effects patches ('patches'). It's pretty NOISELESS WITH BATTERIES. So it looks like I'm going to be ordering some rechargeable AA batteries (although I did manage to find a stash of about 20 AA batteries lurking from before I went all Ciocks DC5 / MXR IsoBrick, so plenty to keep me going for a while yet!)
  • Had a quick run through the pre-loaded 40 patches. Found a few (but only a few) that I liked - a couple of ones I was familiar with from my B3N e.g. [24] Fat Tube - drive [44] SMR400 - amp and one that Zoom must have more recently released or I'd missed previously [34] Sub Boogie = octave down + chorus, which seemed better at tracking than the B3N octave patches I remember.
  • There are currently 50 user patch slots = 40 preloaded patches and 10 empty slots. This is the same total available user patch slots as MS-60B, but worse than both the B1on, with 100, slots and the B3N with a 150. Someone please explain to me why the patch numbering goes from 10 to 59 - what happened to 0 to 9?!
  • Given that there are at most half a dozen existing patches I'll be tempted to use and very few existing ones that make use of the expression pedal, the fun / usefulness is definitely going to be creating our own and overwriting the existing patches. In particular there are no delay, flange, chorus patches pre loaded. So the next step will be a deeper dive into the individual effects - no list of these in the supplied manual, but available from the Zoom website. There are a TON of individual effects to get your teeth into! (Which those with MS-60B and B3Ns in particular will be familiar with).
  • Zoom's GuitarLab 4.0 is out and ToneLib apparently already supports the B1-4 / B1X-4. I'll be sticking with ToneLib for editing patches as I found that a very usable interface last time around and got myself up to speed on it.
  • The ability to adjust volume and 3 band EQ 'on the fly' globally is going to be really useful. Don't recall having that on the B3N.
Update...(through rig)
  • Sounded just great! Effects were crisp / clear.
  • The octaver tracking not quite so good as I thought when listening through headphones - started glitching at A on the low E string (which is actually pretty typical for octavers, so it's certainly usable)
  • Patch [27] Wahdist - drive allowed me to put the wah pedal through its paces. That is going to be a LOT of fun! If you're thinking about getting this pedal for use as a standalone rather than on a board where space may be at a premium, then I'd seriously recommend spending the extra and getting the expression pedal and you're effectively getting the Zoom FP-02 expression pedal for half price.
Quick verdict

If you've paid $99 for this and are expecting it to stand toe to toe with a Helix Stomp, you're going to be sorely disappointed. But if you're looking for a compact multi-fx which will likely pretty quickly displace the B1on, MS-60B and B3 with their older DSP and chip sets, then this could well do the job. If you don't have a headphone amp and want one - this is worth the entry ticket just for that and, of course, it also doubles up as a tuner!
 
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#55
Had a bit of fun with the tuner, looper and drums this evening.

The tuner has three centre lights which come on when you're in tune and this is going to be very welcome for anyone gigging / in darker venues.

The looper is relatively short at 30 secs but easy to use with a separate button to engage. It seemed all too easy to me to clear what you've just recorded! Pretty basic in that it's just one up to 30 secs loop pattern that can be stored and doesn't record from the aux in, only the bass. Contrast that with a decent looper e.g. my Boss RC-30 which has 3 hours of recording time and 99 loops available.

Similarly there's a separate button for the drum machine. Again a pretty basic feature, but useful for home practice. 62 different drum patterns (55 of which are in 4/4), in fact an identical list to the B3N's, that can be easily accessed by turning the first dial and you can also set volume and tempo with the other dials. The patterns can't be edited, so my Alesis SR18 can rest easy for now...

Not sure I'll be making too much use of the looper, but the drums will get used for home practice and the tuner is neat.
 
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#56
Ordered mine around 5PM yesterday, and it was at my door 2PM today. Yay.

Haven't really dived in yet, but I'm happy about a few things, immediately. Size and weight, which were super important - and tuner. It seems a lot steadier than my Pitchblack, so even if I hate everything else - I can use this as a tuner.

My wife is asleep so I can't really check the effects with any volume through my amp, but they sound pretty frikken good. I want to do my best to get this thing figured out before my gig tomorrow night. Have a full day tomorrow so I ain't too sure, but we'll see.

Happy so far.
 
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#59
I was surprised to discover that there's no MultiTap Delay effect; I really like this on my MS60b and it's disconcerting to see anything missing at all. Also I'm finding Guitarlab thinks there's a firmware update but I can't seem to find anything to download from Zoom. Anybody else experiencing this?

Edit: The Invalid Link Removed has GuitarLab 4.0 and Firmware 1.1. Invalid Link Removed is still at 3.0 and 1.0. Hopefully not long before they post an update. Still it's odd that GuitarLab thinks there's an update that I can't actually seem to get my hands on.
 
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