New Pedal Day!! Zoom B21U

G-Man

Ok don't laugh at me but I think this thing is really cool! Picked it up for 600 bucks so I think it's a bargain.

This is the first bass guitar effects pedal that I have ever bought so I am chuffed ?

It has a built in DI and a few other nifty features, gonna gig with it in a few weeks so will see how it handles in a live setting. (Anything has to be better than my poor old Zoom 505 II and LEEM DI that I have been using since 2012 lol)

Stoffeltoo

Congratulations!
Very nifty piece of kit and unloadable Shadows style patches available on the www net at a price as well.

Expression pedal is the bees knees and helps a lot with Volume and Wah.

Rockergramps, who sadly passed away 6 months ago had the same unit and he simply performed magic with this pedal.

V8

G-Man wrote: Ok don't laugh at me but I think this thing is really cool! Picked it up for 600 bucks so I think it's a bargain.

This is the first bass guitar effects pedal that I have ever bought so I am chuffed ?

It has a built in DI and a few other nifty features, gonna gig with it in a few weeks so will see how it handles in a live setting. (Anything has to be better than my poor old Zoom 505 II and LEEM DI that I have been using since 2012 lol)

No laughing here, I've got the B2 - was my first too, now on my 2nd one after having a Boss GT6B. Though I have been eyeing a upgrade to a B3 - debating that or building up a small pedal board.

Such a handy thing though - I use the tuner and drum machine the most. Runs on batteries, fits in the front pocket of my gig bag and sounds good on headphones. And I won't cry if it breaks (which both of them have, some switch cleaner saved the day both times).

Imho, the tuner is good, tracks a low B well and you can mute while tuning (bonus). Works better for bass than a clip-on or the boss tuner pedal. I don't really use the fx too much in the band - rely on the tone of the Warwick mostly. Just a hint of eq, some of the ZNR & sansamp sim for the clean tone and then for occasional melodic bits, no sim, a lot of eq, some reverb and phaser.

For jamming, I dig the SWR sim (factory patch C8, i think), is nice and bright, the resonance filter is fun (especially with some fuzz) and the ping pong delay is just killer on headphones (factory patch D8?). I don't much care for the cab sims though.

NB : Do spend some time figuring out the ZNR/MIX section. If you don't have the manual, download and read how this section works. It's NOT AT ALL intuitive, but critical to getting a usable sound. Basically if you are using the drive/synth fx, you can adjust the wet/dry balance in that module. I treat it like a 'blend' of original and fx, helps preserve the bottomend and dial out some of the fizziness of the drives.

Also figuring out the eq section(s) - high and low is also worth doing.

This pocket reference is a useful addition to the manual : https://www.talkbass.com/threads/pocket-manual-for-zoom-b2.709975/

warrenpridgeon

I'm a multi effects man myself ?
I run everything through my line 6 pod. Guitar, Bass, Vocals... hehehe.

Enjoy it... Experiment with it!

G-Man

Meron Rigas wrote: No laughing here, I've got the B2 - was my first too, now on my 2nd one after having a Boss GT6B. Though I have been eyeing a upgrade to a B3 - debating that or building up a small pedal board.

Such a handy thing though - I use the tuner and drum machine the most. Runs on batteries, fits in the front pocket of my gig bag and sounds good on headphones. And I won't cry if it breaks (which both of them have, some switch cleaner saved the day both times).

Imho, the tuner is good, tracks a low B well and you can mute while tuning (bonus). Works better for bass than a clip-on or the boss tuner pedal. I don't really use the fx too much in the band - rely on the tone of the Warwick mostly. Just a hint of eq, some of the ZNR & sansamp sim for the clean tone and then for occasional melodic bits, no sim, a lot of eq, some reverb and phaser.

For jamming, I dig the SWR sim (factory patch C8, i think), is nice and bright, the resonance filter is fun (especially with some fuzz) and the ping pong delay is just killer on headphones (factory patch D8?). I don't much care for the cab sims though.

NB : Do spend some time figuring out the ZNR/MIX section. If you don't have the manual, download and read how this section works. It's NOT AT ALL intuitive, but critical to getting a usable sound. Basically if you are using the drive/synth fx, you can adjust the wet/dry balance in that module. I treat it like a 'blend' of original and fx, helps preserve the bottomend and dial out some of the fizziness of the drives.

Also figuring out the eq section(s) - high and low is also worth doing.

This pocket reference is a useful addition to the manual : https://www.talkbass.com/threads/pocket-manual-for-zoom-b2.709975/

Wow, thanks for all that info! I am having fun with it so far, going to band practice with in soon so will see how it sounds when it is blasting through the PA over the DI. I will fiddle with the settings as much as I can. ?

Stoffeltoo wrote: Congratulations!
Very nifty piece of kit and unloadable Shadows style patches available on the www net at a price as well.

Expression pedal is the bees knees and helps a lot with Volume and Wah.

Rockergramps, who sadly passed away 6 months ago had the same unit and he simply performed magic with this pedal.

Thanks man!!

warrenpridgeon wrote: I'm a multi effects man myself ?
I run everything through my line 6 pod. Guitar, Bass, Vocals... hehehe.

Enjoy it... Experiment with it!

Always wanted to try a line 6 pod when I was still guitaring for the band, love the pod farm effects VST, are they similar?

Definitely going to experiment with this thing! ?

V8

G-Man wrote: Wow, thanks for all that info! I am having fun with it so far, going to band practice with in soon so will see how it sounds when it is blasting through the PA over the DI. I will fiddle with the settings as much as I can. ?

Not sure that is a true DI (balanced XLR type is a true DI to me) - but...if all ya wanna do is send it to the PA for jams, it should be fine....definitely waaayyy better than plugging straight in. At a gig they'd probably still run the Zoom into a DI box (I had to, long cable run to the FOH).

You'll probably like the overdrive (aka 'od') with lower gain (around 15-20, gets muddy as the gain goes up) with the ZNR on 9 and the Mix at around 70-80. Maybe try cab sim 2 (1x15?) if you are straight into the PA. I don't like the cab sims, the eq is a bit wonky, but can take a bit of the fizz out of the drives. Then tweak the hi & lo eq to taste. I cut the mids add a teeny bit of bottom and tame the fizz with some cuts in the high end.