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Zoom Owners' Club!

#582
Hi guys, thought I would pass this on in case it is useful to someone else:

Bought a Zoom B9.1ut from eBay last week, it arrived Monday and I was enjoying getting to know it. I was a little disappointed with how noisy it was, especially on high gain effects, but wasn't too bothered as I'd bought it more for synth / delays etc.

Anyway, switched it on today and... Nothing. All the lights came on, but no sound. I realised I had the tube circuit gain at unity and the solid state off. When I raised the solid state gain, it started working. So I figured the tube had gone.

I pulled the unit apart and replaced the tube with an old Mullard I had laying around. This fixed the issue, and the difference in sound quality is remarkable. I'm not saying a new valve will make all B9s sound better, but a working tube in place of one on its way out will. The tube channel tone is much warmer now and all the noise has gone.

However - the unit isn't built in a way that encourages tube swapping. It's a fiddly process that would be very easy to #}%| up, so if your B9 is giving you issues on the tube accelerator circuit, think twice before pulling it apart if you aren't confident rummaging around inside electronics.
 
#583
I use a zoom g3, not b3, for compression, tube warmth and glitzy modulation and delay and pitch fx. This goes into my Ampeg pf-350 or sometimes elsewhere like my bvamp pro or avid 11.

No reason not to use multiple digital efx these days....

And zoom rocks :-)

Also use a g1x for whammy fx at times.

Yes I play guitar also.... And other things.... But bass is my main electric baby.
 
#587
Just picked up a MS-50G to use for my occasional guitar gigs. A little tricky adjusting to the small footprint and screens but like the familiarity to the interface of the B3 and the way the menus are the same as my H4. Once I figured out being able to assign presets to scroll through I realized the genius of this pedal. It will work nicely in front of my B3 to add a couple of effects and will be perfect as a stand alone for my guitar rig. I'm tempted to get a MS-60B now as well. I loved my B2s, but these new ZOOM pedals are much easier to use. I really love the scroll set up. So much easier than having to set up banks with the effects I wanted before.
 
#588
Just got my b3. Sold my b9 to a tb'er. I like the b9, but the b3 is just more of the style that I use. I only ever use chorus, autowah, and some fuzz on occasion. Although, I do like the jet phaser a lot. I'm looking to have a compact pedal board more than the amp sim capabilities so I think I am all set. I'm not sure if I want the expression pedal or not. I never used it except as an easy volume mute with the b9.
 
#592
lokikallas said:
Question about the lack of a mute button in the B3. What do others use? Would the optional expression pedal work as a good volume pedal, and would that take up an effect slot?
Click to expand...

If you hold the tuner button down for a little while it mutes. If you use an expression pedal it doesn't take an effects slot but I'm pretty sure the pedal controls the input volume so I don't think that would help with tuning. The expression pedal is really useful (for me anyway) for a lot of other things and is definitely worth having. I don't have the pedal in front of my right now so I'm not entirely sure about the mute and expression functions. Pretty sure though.
 
#593
lokikallas said:
Question about the lack of a mute button in the B3. What do others use? Would the optional expression pedal work as a good volume pedal, and would that take up an effect slot?
Click to expand...

I chain my B3 into a B2.1u...

The B2.1u holds the duty as my tuner (I like the B2 tuner a little better), my amp sim (I use a flip-top sim that sounds great), and as my volume pedal...

On the B2.1u, the volume pedal mutes the tuning, too... so it doesn't matter if I'm tuning in bypass or in mute mode, if the pedal is up, the sound is muted.

An expression pedal on the B3 set up for volume would work just fine as a mute... or... simply put a mute switch in after the B3 (use ½ an A/B switch for instance)...
 
#596
Got a Zoom B9 foot pedal board a few months back. Has some nice pre done patches, getting use to it, Have not messed with looping and some other custom sounds. I like other brand's tuners and some sounds.

But I think it depends more on the user, if I spent more time learning about it etc, I could get a lot more out of it, but if you have spend a lot of time with the tech, then the tech is a lot of work etc also.

Sound wise it is excellent.
Like the metal pedals and the foot pedal is awesome.
 
#597
Plantbrain said:
Got a Zoom B9 foot pedal board a few months back. Has some nice pre done patches, getting use to it, Have not messed with looping and some other custom sounds. I like other brand's tuners and some sounds.

But I think it depends more on the user, if I spent more time learning about it etc, I could get a lot more out of it, but if you have spend a lot of time with the tech, then the tech is a lot of work etc also.

Sound wise it is excellent.
Like the metal pedals and the foot pedal is awesome.
Click to expand...

I'd say the B9 IS pretty user intensive but if you put in the effort, it's capable of great things. I love mine!
 
#598
I just snagged a cheap used B2 off ebay. Will do me nicely as a bass beginner. The drum machine is good for practicing, and plenty of different sounds to make life more interesting - even if I wont use half of the more wacky effects in a live setting.
 

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