New: Zoom B3n Multi-Effects

[FuzzFacetious]

That looks like overkill x500000000 but if it works for you, that's awesome!

I was trying to look into Chapman Sticks purely out of interest and can't find any info on where to buy one, or price ranges, anywhere! Are they good for metal? I don't want one per se, another instrument, more costs, more learning etc, when I still suck at guitar and bass But I'm curious!

 

[Backsnack]

That looks like overkill x500000000 but if it works for you, that's awesome!

I was trying to look into Chapman Sticks purely out of interest and can't find any info on where to buy one, or price ranges, anywhere! Are they good for metal? I don't want one per se, another instrument, more costs, more learning etc, when I still suck at guitar and bass But I'm curious!

Many things to address with your post!

First, if you actually delve into the land of pedalboard setups for Stickists, this setup is actually pretty basic compared to quite a few of Stick players. One guy on the Stick discussion board has to use panoramic mode to show his entire pedal setup, if that's any indication how some Stickists go HAM with their pedalboards.

Second: is the stick good for metal? IMO it depends on how it's being utilized. Coming from the perspective of a guitarist, it has some limitations. You can't really strum it and palm mute it like a regular guitar, and those tonalities are a big of part of metal. You can distort the melody strings, but once you get into higher gain, you get crosstalk onto the bass side. (Completely unavoidable). There are benefits and drawbacks, technically speaking, regarding tapping instruments.
I think where the Stick has the potential to shine for metal or progressive rock is in a band setting, where it can talk the role of something like a keyboardist, with the ability to add some expression like bending notes. The instrument excels at doing enormous chord voicings that spread across multiple octaves.




The Stick is really its own instrument. A lot of people get humbled pretty quickly when they pick one up for the first time. Keyboardists/pianists assume they'll jump right into it because they've been playing with two hands on keys. Guitarists and bassists have to start incorporating two-handed coordination which will feel completely foreign. I had guitar and piano experience before picking up the Stick and that still didn't help me much, maybe only in terms of music theory.


The website is easy to remember
www.stick.com

www.stickist.com
is the main community/discussion board. It's a very small, tight-knit land over there. Very nice community that's always willing to answer questions and welcome new players.

Stickist.com has a classified section where you'll see used Sticks for sale. Since the instruments are rare and tend to have demand that outpaces supply, they maintain their value quite well.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Human please! :O0 Well that's Cool!

 

[Backsnack]

Human please! :O0 Well that's Cool!

Not sure if that was directed at me, but if so ... thanks!

 

[DJ Bebop]

Not sure if that was directed at me, but if so ... thanks!

Yep it was, I must not have hit the quote button.

 

[escaraBAJO]

Hi
I searched for this but didn't find an answer. If anybody can shed a light on these subjects I would greatly appreciate it

1- Is there a way to inmediatly bypass the effect with just one footswitch? I think maybe in Memory (patch) mode if I press the switch for the already active patch it will go into bypass. The purpose for this is to have my non affected tone always available while beign able to egage a patch now and then.
2- When using an expression pedal, if I go to a patch that uses that pedal, will the sound change inmediatly and correspond to whatever position the pedal is at that moment? I mean, if I go to a patch that uses the Ex pedal for volume and the pedal is at its heel position, will the sound be muted when i select the patch? Or if change to a patch with wah and the pedal is at the toe position, will the sound be inmediatly super bright?


Thanks a lot

 

[Spblat]

1) Nope. That's why I added a polytune in front.

2) Sorry, dunno. Got rid of my pedal.

 

[jimfist]

Hi
I searched for this but didn't find an answer. If anybody can shed a light on these subjects I would greatly appreciate it

1- Is there a way to inmediatly bypass the effect with just one footswitch? I think maybe in Memory (patch) mode if I press the switch for the already active patch it will go into bypass. The purpose for this is to have my non affected tone always available while beign able to egage a patch now and then.
2- When using an expression pedal, if I go to a patch that uses that pedal, will the sound change inmediatly and correspond to whatever position the pedal is at that moment? I mean, if I go to a patch that uses the Ex pedal for volume and the pedal is at its heel position, will the sound be muted when i select the patch? Or if change to a patch with wah and the pedal is at the toe position, will the sound be inmediatly super bright?


Thanks a lot

1) as @Spblat said, there's no dedicated way to bypass, but if you are in MEMORY mode, you can set up a "bypass" patch. There are 3 "always available" switches when you're in a Memory Bank, so for each bank of 3, you could dedicated one of the switches to this bypass patch. Then, if you need to access more than 2 special effects, you only need to navigate using the bank up/down switches.

If your effects needs generally only involve engaging one (virtual) stomp effect, you can use STOMPbox mode, load up the pedal board with all of the individual stomps you need, and engage/disengage them as you see fit, just as you would using "real" stomp pedals.

FWIW, the G5n guitar pedal DOES have a dedicated TUNER switch, which would give you the functionality you desire...but...it's a guitar pedal and doesn't have any stock/provided bass amps or cabs. That said, I've used it for over a year and you definitely can get good bass tones out of it. Plus there are a lot of other bonuses to having the G5n, including the built-in exp pedal.

2) I don't know, but if nobody else can confirm this, I'll see what I can find out when I've got some more free time.

 

[escaraBAJO]

1) Nope. That's why I added a polytune in front.

2) Sorry, dunno. Got rid of my pedal.

Thank you. As for 1), I'm trying to find a self contained solution for my Fx needs.

 

[escaraBAJO]

1) as @Spblat said, there's no dedicated way to bypass, but if you are in MEMORY mode, you can set up a "bypass" patch. There are 3 "always available" switches when you're in a Memory Bank, so for each bank of 3, you could dedicated one of the switches to this bypass patch. Then, if you need to access more than 2 special effects, you only need to navigate using the bank up/down switches.

If your effects needs generally only involve engaging one (virtual) stomp effect, you can use STOMPbox mode, load up the pedal board with all of the individual stomps you need, and engage/disengage them as you see fit, just as you would using "real" stomp pedals.

FWIW, the G5n guitar pedal DOES have a dedicated TUNER switch, which would give you the functionality you desire...but...it's a guitar pedal and doesn't have any stock/provided bass amps or cabs. That said, I've used it for over a year and you definitely can get good bass tones out of it. Plus there are a lot of other bonuses to having the G5n, including the built-in exp pedal.

2) I don't know, but if nobody else can confirm this, I'll see what I can find out when I've got some more free time.

Thank you. I don't have the pedal and I'm deciding if it is good for me.

For #1, That is a good workaround. I'm assuming when you press the "bank up" switch, you still have to press some of the 3 footswitches to engage the next patch in that bank, right?
Stompbox mode is similar to my Boss Me50B, which I find poorly flexible.
The G5n sounds like it would be more flexible (why isn't there a bass version????). I don't care much for amps or cabs but I do care about drives. Are they any good for bass? I have a MS50G and there is only 1 dirt effect I like.

For #2, I would greatly appreciate if you or someone else can check this.


Thanks again

 

[jimfist]

Thank you. I don't have the pedal and I'm deciding if it is good for me.

For #1, That is a good workaround. I'm assuming when you press the "bank up" switch, you still have to press some of the 3 footswitches to engage the next patch in that bank, right?
Stompbox mode is similar to my Boss Me50B, which I find poorly flexible.
The G5n sounds like it would be more flexible (why isn't there a bass version????). I don't care much for amps or cabs but I do care about drives. Are they any good for bass? I have a MS50G and there is only 1 dirt effect I like.

For #2, I would greatly appreciate if you or someone else can check this.


Thanks again

Correct, you use Bank Up/Down, and then select a patch from the 3 switches. There are a number of ZOOM fans on this thread that wondered the same exact thing, why Zoom didn't offer a big-brother "B5n" (@CharlieC started a thread on this somewhere), or allow for the bass models to be cross-compatible with the G5n pedal. But I guess ZOOM did the calculus and figured a street price of $299 US wasn't as attractive as the smaller "x3n" format.

One of the great improvements IMO on the B3n is the quality of the drives, and there are quite a few varieties, many of which I've found to be very good for bass - compared to the B3 which IMHO struggled mightily in the stomp drive emulation department. For that matter, the G5n (which I still use for bass, and have been for over a year) is not a bad processor for bass tones, and it has some pretty good stomp drive emulations that work well for bass. My personal favorite has been the Gold Drive on the G5n. What is missing, though, on the G5n is the ability on many pedals to have the wet/dry blend parameter, which is less important for dialing in drive/dirt on guitar.

I may have time tonight to do the exp test for you if nobody else has weighed in.

 

[David Sutkin]

Speaking of utilizing a Zoom guitar pedal for your bass tones, I experimented the opposite way last night and I was pleasantly surprised to hear how well the B3N worked with a strat and a Princeton Reverb amp.... sounded great actually, gave the strat a lot of warmth.

I had room on my "guitar" pedal board and so I figured I slip the B3N in and give it a shot and the results were great.

Ok, enough of that .....

 

[jimfist]

Speaking of utilizing a Zoom guitar pedal for your bass tones, I experimented the opposite way last night and I was pleasantly surprised to hear how well the B3N worked with a strat and a Princeton Reverb amp.... sounded great actually, gave the strat a lot of warmth.

I had room on my "guitar" pedal board and so I figured I slip the B3N in and give it a shot and the results were great.

Ok, enough of that .....

That's cool. I tried out the SVT amp model with the Fender 4x12 cab sim, and it didn't sound half bad, with the SVT drive supplying the dirt. I cleaned up the sound a little and put a tube screamer pedal sim in front of it, and it's a viable classic/hard rock guitar tone IMHO, that would work in a pinch.

 

[escaraBAJO]

Correct, you use Bank Up/Down, and then select a patch from the 3 switches. There are a number of ZOOM fans on this thread that wondered the same exact thing, why Zoom didn't offer a big-brother "B5n" (@CharlieC started a thread on this somewhere), or allow for the bass models to be cross-compatible with the G5n pedal. But I guess ZOOM did the calculus and figured a street price of $299 US wasn't as attractive as the smaller "x3n" format.

One of the great improvements IMO on the B3n is the quality of the drives, and there are quite a few varieties, many of which I've found to be very good for bass - compared to the B3 which IMHO struggled mightily in the stomp drive emulation department. For that matter, the G5n (which I still use for bass, and have been for over a year) is not a bad processor for bass tones, and it has some pretty good stomp drive emulations that work well for bass. My personal favorite has been the Gold Drive on the G5n. What is missing, though, on the G5n is the ability on many pedals to have the wet/dry blend parameter, which is less important for dialing in drive/dirt on guitar.

I may have time tonight to do the exp test for you if nobody else has weighed in.

Cool, thanks

 

[khutch]

Other recent Zoom bass pedals have included an "effect" called "LineSel" which is a switch that bypasses or engages all the effects units in the chain that follow it. Depending on where you put it in the chain you could use it to bypass some or all of the other effects in a patch. You turn it on an off with one stomp on the switch. This effect will probably be added to the B3n firmware someday.

Probably.

Someday.

 

[jimfist]

Other recent Zoom bass pedals have included an "effect" called "LineSel" which is a switch that bypasses or engages all the effects units in the chain that follow it. Depending on where you put it in the chain you could use it to bypass some or all of the other effects in a patch. You turn it on an off with one stomp on the switch. This effect will probably be added to the B3n firmware someday.

Probably.

Someday.

Great catch on that. +1 to have that added...that's a nice option to have in stomp mode.

 

[DJ Bebop]

A little off subject but, I am looking to understand what's the deal with the quest for overdrive tones? :Ol

A little about me. I started playing bass through a B-15n straining to keep up with 50 watts guitar amps.
I never like the distorted sound of my amp trying to keep up. As I went along I went with bigger more powerful
amps to gain a clear clean low bass tone.

Flash forward to the future, now all the kids want is Darkglass pedals and distortion modeling.
Help me here please, what did I miss? :Ol

Thanks in advance!

 

[escaraBAJO]

A little off subject but, I am looking to understand what's the deal with the quest for overdrive tones? :Ol

A little about me. I started playing bass through a B-15n straining to keep up with 50 watts guitar amps.
I never like the distorted sound of my amp trying to keep up. As I went along I went with bigger more powerful
amps to gain a clear clean low bass tone.

Flash forward to the future, now all the kids want is Darkglass pedals and distortion modeling.
Help me here please, what did I miss? :Ol

Thanks in advance!

I'm sure you will receive several answers on the subject and probably there are a lot of threads about it. Your question even comes close to one of the "no-no" questions to be asked in this subforum (look for the stickies).

However your question seems well intended so I will answer it: Different stiles of music.
Try listening to Rage Against the Machine, Tool and even Muse. There are a gazillion bands that use dirty bass as a foundation for their sound.

happy quest!!

 

[Askia]

A little off subject but, I am looking to understand what's the deal with the quest for overdrive tones? :Ol

A little about me. I started playing bass through a B-15n straining to keep up with 50 watts guitar amps.
I never like the distorted sound of my amp trying to keep up. As I went along I went with bigger more powerful
amps to gain a clear clean low bass tone.

Flash forward to the future, now all the kids want is Darkglass pedals and distortion modeling.
Help me here please, what did I miss? :Ol

Thanks in advance!

If you blend in some distorted bass to the dry signal, you can get a sound that will be more present in the mix. You won't really hear the distortion, just a more alive bass sound in the music!

Otherwise for me it's hard to make a good overdriven sound, that wouldn't be hidden in band context, or just being a big confusion.

 

[jimfist]

Darkglass products are one of the newer flavours du jour, but there have been a number of bass "dirt" pedals around, and whether the overdrive is blatantly obvious or not (slightly driven to enhance harmonic distortion), dirt has always been with us.

A number of modern bands have taken their cues from icons like Lemmy (Motorhead), Chris Squire (Yes), Geddy Lee (Rush), John Wetton (King Crimson), Dug Pinnick from Kings X, and a number of others who weren't necessarily afraid to lay down the heavy bass with some distortion. In the context of the mix, it's actually sometimes not apparent how much overdrive there really can be on a bass sound until you hear it, in all of its ugly glory, on an isolated track recording. For the uninitiated, it's a big eye opener.

The newer metal bands have sort of put their own stylistic spin on things, though, as opposed to the old school which would just drive the snot out of an amp until it broke up nicely (reference early Clash and the Pretenders hits). Today, it's much more shaped and sculpted in very specific ways - as has been mentioned, with various dry + wet/dirt schemes employed...for better or worse depending on what you like.