Zoom B3n Bass Guitar Multi-Effects Processor Pedal, With 60+ Built-in effects, Amp Modeling, Stereo Effects, Looper, Rhythm Section, Tuner

I had high expectations for this purchase. For how I use it, I'm not disappointed. Not particularly easy learning curve, but, doable. This thing can do A LOT! Messing with the presets achieves such a numerous variety of sounds. Then, making your own is kind of epic, really. So far, so good. Seems tough and well made. I can virtually dial in just about any bass sound I want, or at least pretty dang close. It's a very useable bass tool, as well as a crazy fun bass toy!!! Get the FP02M expression pedal to get just a little more out of the B3N! Yes, I highly recommend!

I purchased this about two weeks ago from Amazon after messing around with my buddy's B3. First off I'll say I love it. Really fun to get some different tones out of my Carvin bass. I've only been playing bass for about two years but play every week for my church.The biggest difference I've noticed between by friends B3 and the B3n is the ability to easily switch between patches using the "scroll" foot switches. You also can create patches with up to seven different effects and amp models if you want vs only 3 on the B3. It doesn't have a DI output but for me that hasn't been an issue. I just plug it in to my effects loop. I originally ran it to my line-in before the amp but was getting too much noise out of my GK 550 Fusion amp with one 15" cab and a 4-10" cab. Running it through the effects loop fix the noise issue and I just use my amp's DI out at church to the PA.The other thing I really enjoy with this pedal is the drum machine and looper which allows me to practice at home by myself. I've actually been able to lay down a simple bass line and work on soloing which is something I've never even tried before now. The pedal is actually helping me learn the fretboard better. You can also add the looper to your own patch or any of the pre-made patches for practice.The quality of the tones coming out of this pedal are definitely much better than I was expecting and are very good for live performance.

First the good - This is a very solidly built multi-effects box with a lot of good effects pre-programmed, nice sound with little to no noise, and plenty of space to copy and modify the programmed effects or create your own from scratch. That's probably the B3n's strongest selling point. If you want to create your own special effects, or learn about effects by tweaking various parameters and stringing multiple effects in series, you'll like the B3n. If you don't want to edit or create effects, the B3n has a lot, and they run the gamut from mellow, a little compression, a little echo or chorus... all the way to full blown outer space synthesizer effects. There are YouTube videos where all of the effects are quickly demonstrated.As a student bass player, the effects are a distraction from the fundamentals I need to learn but they're fun, and a little occasional fun keeps the learning interesting. The B3n has some features that are very beneficial to the student. The built-in chromatic tuner is excellent. The B3n can serve as a headphone amp so I can practice at 3AM with open ear headphones and not bother anyone. I can select one of the many drum tracks to help practice rhythm. I'll often learn a lesson without the drum track so I can learn as fast as possible by playing the tougher passages slower, and once both hands know what they're doing I can add the drum track and play it in proper time. I can use the accessory input to mix in an MP3 accompaniment lesson and play along while reading the music and playing the bass part. The accessory input could also be handy for amateurs playing with mixing their own music while using bass pedal effects. The looper allows me to record a bass line, loop it, and then improvise a melody over it which is good for freestyle practice or play.There are some B3n quirks. I hoped I could use it with three effects (Zoom calls these patches) active and switch them on and off as I liked with the three stomp switches, and the B3n does work like that. However, there are so many effects that you'll probably want to make copies in sets of three that you use together and stay within a bank of three, switching banks of three between songs. You can't quickly change between effect #4 and effect #67. Holding down the scroll foot switches quickly jumps to fast scroll mode, but it can take several seconds to locate an effect. You can't stop in the middle of a song and do that.Each effect is created by stringing together up to seven basic modules - compression, delay, amplification, filtering, etc. When in edit mode, each of the three LCDs shows the parameters for a different effects module, and the four knobs under each LCD are used to adjust the module's parameters. Some effects modules are so complex that they need two consecutive LCDs and up to eight parameter knobs. The black scroll pedals at the bottom are used in edit mode to scroll through the effects modules if there are more than three. This approach makes the B3n very powerful and flexible, but also more complicated. If you just want to play with the large array of factory programmed effects, you'll probably be frustrated when you accidentally wander into the complex edit mode.Rhythm (the drum tracks) and the looper are programmed as effects modules that can be added to each of the effects as one of the modules (no more than seven), typically at the end of the string of modules. This makes it more complicated to use the rhythm and looper as you are in edit mode to access these features. I wish Zoom had added these as stand alone features, but the features are implemented digitally with a digital signal processor and a separate drum module and looper would have needed another DSP. This makes these features at best a toy to play with at home or maybe a studio feature. I wouldn't want to try to use rhythm or looping for a live performance. No feature that requires fingers to push buttons and twiddle knobs is stage friendly. For use in a live performance, the looper should have dedicated stomp buttons for RECORD ON/OFF and PLAY ON/OFF, or optional external foot switches. There's a jack on the back for a pedal, but it's an analog expression pedal to control the volume or wah wah or a few other effects that can be programmed to accept pedal parameter adjustment, which is pretty cool. I wish there was a jack for Zoom's external foot switch to operate the looper.Be careful using the processor hungry effects modules together. There's a table that lists the percentage processor power that each module uses. Many combinations of seven modules would use more than 100% of the DSP's mojo and that might be what causes crashes. I've never had a crash, but I mostly stick to factory effects. There is a warning message when the DSP is getting close to its processor limit.A DI output would have been nice, but Zoom managed to pack a lot into the B3n at this price point and the DI apparently didn't make the cut.The USB port is only for firmware updates. It can't feed any form of digital audio to a computer. If you want to record the output, you'll need to record the audio out, with the inherent noise issues and problems getting an acceptable signal level. The firmware updates can only be done with Windows or Mac PCs. I use Linux so I'm out of luck. Apparently, many versions of Windows and Mac aren't compatible either. It'd be nice if the B3n saw the USB connection at power up and jumped into update mode where it was an external USB drive, and the upgrade file could be copied to the B3n, and the next time it powered up without the USB connection and saw the file, it automatically installed it, or there could be a manual Install Firmware option in the Setup menu. I shouldn't need to install PC software to upgrade the B3n's firmware.Overall, the B3n is solidly built which implies a pro would use it on stage, but the drums and looper are not stage friendly, and I'd stick to banks of three effects per song so they could be quickly turned on and off with the stomp switches.

I really like this pedal. I'm a very experienced pro player, but not an experienced pedal user. I got this mostly for the synth bass and octave. I like the synth sounds and tracking is good, on par with the M**Bas* supersynth. The surprise is that I really like playing through many of the other sounds. I find myself keeping the Sansamp setting on often, and using a slap preset as well. It's a good pedal, built well, comes with power supply, and is actually useful and fun to have.

I compared this to the BOSS units and found the Zoom unit to be a more solid product in construction, design and flexibility of patch setups. I like the sound combinations. Most of the other units are plastic, Zoom units are metal and solid. You can find many good YouTube videos and make your own decision. I'm happy with my decision.