Been a ghost the last few weeks as the heavy lifting of my forum life is while I’m a work and I’ve been out since Dec 20 till today. Ironically this post is from home since today was filled with SO. MANY. EMAILS!!! During my time out I came to a couple of crossroads.
A good friend of mine plays drums and we’ve talked about jamming together. However the only amp I own is a 10 year old Acoustic B20. While it can get decently loud, I feel pretty confident its not going to hold up against acoustic drums. So I’m open to try and solve this problem in whatever way you come up with amp wise. Be it combo amp, amp & cab, something else? Some particulars to keep in mind.
I. It needs to be able to be moved via a sedan.
II. Both of our music rooms are in our basements. So up and down each of our stairs every jam.
III. Though he is a very good friend, we each are 35 and have children. Not sure how often we will even get together. So a super niche solution that doesn’t have much use otherwise probably wont be worth the money.
IV. $500 is about my limit.
So all in all the main factors are: loud enough, portability, and useful for other situations. I don’t have a huge aspirations of my career but since I have to already be pretty loud to fight the drums, if its kicked up a bit to where in a pinch I could play a small coffee shop or backyard show as well with it that would be great.
So I’ve been in the mind to grab a Zoom B3n at some point in the relative near future. Since it is a very common board I know many on this forum use, what pedal do you recommend to use in conjunction with it?
A guy is selling a Boss ME-50B for $120 and looks to be in good condition. Should I ditch the Zoom and just grab that or just use till I can get the Zoom?
Thanks in advance to you all. Hope your holidays were grand!
You can get a used B3n in the $120 range and I highly recommend it. That’s what I paid for mine when I had it, more or less. The B3n is a (large) pedal though, so not sure what you mean by a pedal to go with it?
I guess I should have been more clear about what I meant as a pedal in regards to the Zoom B3n. I meant a external expression pedal to go with it. My main purpose for it is managing volume.
The Boss ME-50B is the one that I can swing for $120. Not the Zoom. If I saw the Zoom for that I’d message the person immediately!!!
Yeah I don’t think its impossible by any means. Just with how much people like, I’m not sure anyone wants to part with theirs. Do you use an expression pedal in conjunction with it?
Yep, you can. I just used the Master Volume knob on the top for that.
Generally though the way it worked for me was when I set up effects I would try and come up with some kind of unity volume when setting them up. It’s a little tricky.
Additionally I would get a B1four before I got a ME-50B. The ME-50B is getting pretty dated at this point. A better comparison for the B3n would be the GT-1B.
Yeah, @ChrisThomason, if you can hold off a bit longer, I can share my impressions on the GT-1B - just got mine a day ago, but will first really have a chance to dig into it during the weekend!
Oh, and… there are drummers that can play at lower volumes also Of course, it depends a bit on the music you guys want to play!
The amplifiers I suggested were 450 and 500 watts. Probably more power than required. I can’t help myself because Moar Loud and Moar Fuzz is Moar Good!
I may be thinking so far outside the box that the box has forgotten I was ever near it, but; could you use something like the Zoom with a headphone splitter so you can both hear what you’re playing but without the need for a big amp? This way all you’d need would be your bass and a box small enough to fit in your gig bag.
The reason this was my first thought is that I only play through my B1on these days - partly because the practice amp I have is terrible.
Not a question so much as a suggestion, but badly phrased, for which I blame red wine & Tramadol.
The original post was asking for suggestions for amplification for jamming with a drummer. My suggestion was to use a DI/pedal with a headphone splitter so that both people could hear the amplified bass but still hear the drums through the headphones. The advantage being that it would cost less, be far easier to carry, and probably already in Chris’s arsenal.
@ChrisThomason, a thought on the location; given the limits on your time, perhaps if you could keep it to only his place so that he wouldn’t have to shift/assemble/disassemble every time. It’s a long time since I had a band practice but I remember clearly just how long it took for the drummer to get set up - even with the rest of the band carrying his kit. If you used my method you wouldn’t have to carry anything heavier than your bass and possibly a laptop (if you were using a DAI and recording).
It’s still early here and I haven’t slept well so I may not have been any clearer this time. Sorry.