New Zoom B3 has arrived!!!!

[dannybuoy]

Anyone wanna share your favorite settings?

If you do, put them here. You can dump them via the supplied software.

.: Guitar effect patches for zoom B3 :.

 

[fkh006]

Anybody pre-order one at Sam Ash?
If so have you received it yet?

Inquiring minds etc......

 

[Andy Brown]

Anybody pre-order one at Sam Ash?
If so have you received it yet?

Inquiring minds etc......

I did, but cancelled since I got one from Route66.

 

[willsellout]

They are popping up on ebay pretty regularly for 199.00. I spoke with my rep at Sweetwater and Zoom doesn't appear to be doing a great job of getting ship dates out to their vendors; no one really knows when they are going to get them. My rep said that from what he has heard, Zoom knows these units are going to be popular so they want to make sure the launch goes well. Maybe that is the holdup?

 

[Andy Brown]

Just a thought... when will they come out with a unit where the drum machine part is programmable like they had in their old PS02 / PS04 recorders? Program the drums in software, then upload the songs into the unit.

That would make B3 perfect.

 

[Infidelity]

Just a thought... when will they come out with a unit where the drum machine part is programmable like they had in their old PS02 / PS04 recorders? Program the drums in software, then upload the songs into the unit.

That would make B3 perfect.

I was thinking the same thing when I was jamming with the B3 this morning!

I'm droolling thinking about it!

 

[G On Bass]

It seems kinda weird. Route66music has received at least 2 shipments while none of the major retailers seem to have them or even an idea of when they'll get them.

I have my brand new one here at regular ol' retail w/free shipping, but it's not even on the GC or MF sites yet!

In goofing with it for about 15 manual free minutes tonight, I am really impressed. Best Zoom yet IMHO and I've owned them all....

We'll see what lies in store when I dig into it and use it in a rehearsal setting...

Anybody pre-order one at Sam Ash?
If so have you received it yet?

Inquiring minds etc......

I did, but cancelled since I got one from Route66.

They are popping up on ebay pretty regularly for 199.00. I spoke with my rep at Sweetwater and Zoom doesn't appear to be doing a great job of getting ship dates out to their vendors; no one really knows when they are going to get them. My rep said that from what he has heard, Zoom knows these units are going to be popular so they want to make sure the launch goes well. Maybe that is the holdup?

 

[phatbass30]

i was lucky enough to try the unit here before i bought it. i tried it 2 days in a row. finally bought it yesterday. and i could say that this is a good unit, covers all my needs for my gigs, in less space. its not perfect, but for US$200. its a steal. its like a price of one of my pedals. this will stay for a while in my board. a PT Mini with VT Deluxe and a B3, what more do i need?


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[fivestringgecko]

In goofing with it for about 15 manual free minutes tonight, I am really impressed. Best Zoom yet IMHO and I've owned them all....

I'm sure I'm not the only one here who'd be interested in hearing your thoughts! I remember that my very first effects pedal was an old-school Zoom 506! *sniff* And now I'm a pedal wh*re... lol (although, I have been downsizing lately... )

5sg.

 

[mjmeche]

I am curious too, This could be the replacement for my Yamaha Bass Magicstomp.

Hmm says you can hook up 2 together through USB for 6 stompboxes. Now that is interesting!

 

[ruins]

i have just got mine yesterday, unfortunately didn't have much time to test it out much, i just went through the whole patches and tweaked few.
my first impression, i was happy owner of the zoom BFX 708 but now that i have this unit it blows me away.
the power and features that i has to offer comparing to the price that i paid for, this unit is simply AWESOME.

more detailed review will come as soon as i will have more time to play with it

 

[G On Bass]

I've had a couple of rehearsals and some play-time at home with the B3. I'm a fan. I'm not an in-your-face-effects guy. I bought it to help smooth out my EUB, boost my passive basses to match the active ones and to add a little depth on a couple of songs. Here's what I've come up with thus far:

Pros:
-Fits in a gigbag
-Super easy to adjust/tweak in the field
-Sounds really, really good. Quiet and not digital-fakey.
-Has a very high ratio of useful to useless effects. So many pedals have a bunch of garbage on them that serve no purpose in the real world
-The USB based software makes it really, really, really easy to set patches. Having the icons of the effects is a big convenience factor.
-Easy to read onstage (only tested indoors)
-I don't need to bring any other pedals.
-'Level' on every effect. Each effect can has its volume adjusted individually.

Room for improvement:
-I'd like to see a quicker/on-the-fly way to swtich patches. Like have the patch your using active, then have another one ready to go by holding down one of the footswitches.
-You can store patches easily in the software, but, unless I've missed it somewhere, I can't seem to swap them wihtout using the pedal (which is quite easy).
-I'd like to see a way to recall a patch-by-patch factory reset. That way if I accidentally save over a patch (not like that has happened a few times or anything) I can recall what was there.
- Batch export! It would be nice to be able to export/import mulitple patches at a time. That way, I can have my clean default patches at home and replace the ones I may tweak during a gig/rehearsal.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a great pedal that does exactly what I'd been looking for but had not found in other multi-fx pedals.

 

[fivestringgecko]

Thanks for the thoughts Grateful!

5sg.

 

[BassZilla5]

...
Room for improvement:
-I'd like to see a quicker/on-the-fly way to swtich patches. Like have the patch your using active, then have another one ready to go by holding down one of the footswitches.
...

That's what makes me mad about my B2 (and now this, though i don't own a B3 yet)... Especially considering my old 506B did have a similar feature.

 

[fivestringgecko]

That's what makes me mad about my B2 (and now this, though i don't own a B3 yet)... Especially considering my old 506B did have a similar feature.

+1, that was something I did like about my ol' 506 too... You could preload patches pretty easily. I later used a couple other multi's that didn't have that option, so I made a workaround by programming my standard clean patch between effect patches so I always had my clean tone no more than one click away. (ex: clean patch > envelope patch > clean patch > overdrive patch > etc) It worked pretty good, so I guess I could deal without it on the B3. It still makes me wonder why they'd take it out though.

5sg.

 

[BassZilla5]

+1, that was something I did like about my ol' 506 too... You could preload patches pretty easily. I later used a couple other multi's that didn't have that option, so I made a workaround by programming my standard clean patch between effect patches so I always had my clean tone no more than one click away. (ex: clean patch > envelope patch > clean patch > overdrive patch > etc) It worked pretty good, so I guess I could deal without it on the B3. It still makes me wonder why they'd take it out though.

5sg.

For this one, I'm just going to get/build one of those simple bypass loops and deal with it that way. :scowl:

Still pisses me off, though...

 

[G On Bass]

For this one, I'm just going to get/build one of those simple bypass loops and deal with it that way. :scowl:

Still pisses me off, though...

There is a bypass on the B3.

 

[SteveC]

I'm not a big effects guy, but I want something to "thicken" my sound through my very clean Genz Benz Shuttle combo. This looks interesting as I'm currently trying a friends BBDI - which is modeled. I went to look at the other effects/pres/etc. and was very surprised to find things like the Xoctic BB, an Avalon U5, and nice BASS SPECIFIC amps and effects...all for $200. I may just become an effects guy.

 

[dannybuoy]

There is a bypass on the B3.

Only by holding a button down though, not ideal for mid-song changes. The optional footswitch doesn't solve it either, when you press that it goes into bypass for one second before going to mute!

 

[BassZilla5]

There is a bypass on the B3.

There's a bypass on pretty much any effects pedal... Not what we're talking about.

Only by holding a button down though, not ideal for mid-song changes. The optional footswitch doesn't solve it either, when you press that it goes into bypass for one second before going to mute!

This is what we're talking about... You can't jump straight from say patch #A5 to patch #C8 without going through all the patches in between. The older 506B could be set to where if you were in a patch already, you could start scrolling through the patches until you found the one you want, tap one or both pedals (can't remember exactly - it's been quite a while) and jump straight to the new patch.

So, by using a bypass loop, I still wont be able to go straight from one patch to another... But I will have the ability to start on one patch, bypass, scroll up to another patch and engage again while playing. And while this truly only solves half the problem, it works for me... I don't use my B2 for any clean sounds. My clean sound is always just Bass & Amp. I use my Zoom for the tuner plus occasional effects/noises.