ZoomB1FOUR Guitar MultiEffects Processor

Whoa, if you want some superior bang for your FX pedal bucks, this Zoom B1-4 is the deal of the century!I'm NOT exaggerating. This little jewel is undoubtedly the BEST bass effects pedal I've ever owned or played with. It has everything you'll need, including amp modelling, outstanding compression--the "Glam Comp" setting delivers jaw-dropping sustain, the likes of which I've NEVER heard before--an auto-wah that is a blast to play with, all sorts of nifty filter variations, and even some classic amp tone models right out of the history books. When I first plugged it in and started messing with it, I was astonished by this unit's range and versatility. I could get nearly any tone or amp sound, any kind of filter effect I wanted. It's ridiculously simple to use and has an open, "blank" bank in it that allows you to copy an effect from a different bank into an open slot. It's stupid-easy to set up a series of presets in linear order in the blank bank so that just a touch of your toe cycles quickly to the effect you want. I set mine up with the auto-wah first, then the "hard comp," followed by the "glam comp," with an Ampeg SVT amp model, then a vintage Fender cabinet, leaving four more slots open if I want to add something else, simply by copying the desired patch--a three click operation--into any of the remaining slots. Make a mistake? Easy-peasy: delete it and do it again. Takes less than a minute to reprogram it.Not satisfied with the internal patches? No prob; the unit lets you tweak the parameters to suit your own ears. I didn't get into that; I really liked what I heard. Zoom's engineers really put some serious thought and research into this.There are only two drawbacks: it's made of a relatively lightweight plastic, not aluminum or steel, so it's a wee bit fragile. DON'T drop it! I suggest buying the carrier case that's available. I'm glad I did. It's a hardshell case and protects the unit really well.The other drawback is that some of the patches are a bit...well, WEIRD. One of them is labelled "Explosion." I tried it. Yes, it sounds like someone set off a nuke in the next county. Or a really mean thunderstorm. I dunno, you metal players might find a use for it--but a few oddball patches that I'll never use does not mean a deal-breaker.The price will make your jaw drop, too: around $90. (Zoom might increase the price later. I'm astounded that it's THIS inexpensive.) Shipping will add a bit more and if you get the case, you're looking at a total of around $125 for both. Yes, it comes with a wall-wart that has a nice long cord. All told, the Zoom B1-4 is about HALF the price of a comparable steel or aluminum sheathed unit from any other manufacturer--and it does five times the job. It's clean and quiet enough for recording. Onstage, it sounds frickin' AWESOME. I kick the glam comp on when I hit a low E at the end of a tune and that note will sustain for several minutes. I do NOT exaggerate!No foolin', this is the deal of the century. It's now the ONLY pedal I use onstage for my bass (a Squire Affinity series J-bass with active electronics which is itself an awesome machine.) and I can't see myself using anything else for some time to come. Warning: it will peg the meters on the sound board if you don't give the engineer a heads-up during the sound check. I'm serious. This little beast is POWERFUL.

I play bass for the all pro band Rat Soup so quality sound is a high priority. I typically don't use effects and have always wanted to try them so I purchased this unit. I was not disappointed.A pure signal chain is important to me so I wanted a clean bypass. The bypass signal is very close to the original. So it's not so big of a loss in a live performance, but I would not record with it. As far as tones, there are some great ones and they sound pretty close to the actual stomp boxes. So if you are on a budget and want to try out some different amp tones or effects this is a cool pedal. I love the syth, wah, auto way, and pitch bending effects. For the money this unit is well worth it. Some people complained the wah is not that great, but to me it sounds good. I have a Morley bass wah and this thing is close.As far as usability and gigging . . . I couldn't find a way to bypass a patch other than create a clean patch and jump to that from the patch I want to use. That's fine if you only use one patch, because you'll have to scroll to patches you want to use rather than turn it on or off. You can use the pedal in stomp box mode where you can turn off individual effects with the pedal but not the group. My work around was to use a bypass pedal with this unit. Then I can utilize my pure clean signal and jump to and turn on or off an patch for the whole or part of the song.The looper is cool, but it does not retain the recorded loop after you power down the unit. I wanted to use the loopper to play a sample while playing live, but that's not going to work unless you record the sample right before you play.The tuner is great. So for a practice tool with a tuner and a mini drum machine AND the ability to play with some effects, it's awesome!If you're looking for gigging with great sounds then stick to stomp boxes. But if you want to test out effects and play a few live with a bypass pedal then get this thing. After thinking about it, I changed this from 4 stars to 5 because of the price and what you get!

Update: I've had this for about a month now and this pedal does provide some really good tones but the one I have is susceptible to radio interference when using higher gain settings which is somewhat reminiscent of a scene in the Spinal Tap movie. Cleaner tones are fine but for high gain stuff this may not work for you.I purchased this as a backup to my main multi fx amp modeler and for that purpose it's fine. It is an entry level multi fx/modeler so don't expect Fractal FM9 tones. Overall I'm happy with it and it's good to have in the gig box in case the main unit craps out. Here are some pros, cons, and tips.Pros: Great value. Good selection of effects, amps and cab sims. With a bit of tweaking good tones can be had. Primarily plastic construction but the build quality is good. There is a rhythm function for practice, and a looper as well. The Guitar Lab app make editing presets pretty easy on your PC or Mac.Cons: Most of the presets are set to run into the front of a guitar amp are not going to sound good without changes if you run through a PA or FRFR. Presets have up to 5 effect/amp/cab blocks available and when used as a modeler 2 blocks are going to be used for the amp and cab sim leaving only 3 for effects and such. The user interface on the pedal wasn't intuitive for me so it took some time to figure out.Tips: Download the full manual and the Guitar Lab app from the Zoom website. The included quick start guide just covers the basics. If you use headphones, PA or a full range flat response speaker the "mic" setting on the cab sim blocks must be turned on. Any preset with a cab sim has that setting turned off by default.So to recap, it's a good unit, the price is reasonable and Zoom makes quality stuff.