Zoom B3 & B3N

[viclobocga]

Hi Everyone, I need assistance in creating Bass Patches in Zoom B3 and B3N, please provide ideas as to how to proceed creating a patch to emulate the bass tones of Hofner Violin bass (Beatle)

[WRGKMC]

You didn't mention what kind of bass you have. That's a key item people need to know in order to steer you in the right direction.

 

 

I have a Hofner and use a Vox Stomplab Bass Pedal for amp modeling. (Korg owns Vox now and their modeling pedals do a great job nailing many vintage amp tones)

 

I've owned many basses in 50 years and have a couple of Precisions and a Gretsch.

 

The Gretsch is a short scale like the Hofner and uses Mini Humbuckers. Its pickups gets it sounding close very close to a Hofner's Mini humbuckers and with some mixing it can sound pretty convincing. You still know its a solid body however.

 

Hofners are Hollow bodies with a wooden bridge and have a distinct midrange sound to them you simply cant get from a solid body.

Its closer to sounding like an upright bass than a solid body. The bass gets highly talkative midrange tones and the short scale makes the notes snap quicker then a long scale.

 

Unless you have a Hollo body bass with Mini humbuckers you aren't going to nail a Hofner sound. Modeling does not change the type of pickups and the wood tones the strings pick up from the body resonation. Its like making a solid body guitar sound like an acoustic. Without that air chamber you wont have that distinctive ring. .

 

If you need Beatles tones and have a solid body bass, I'd focus on trying to nail McCartney's Rickenbacker tones like he got on the Sargent Peppers album. I'd simply plug the pedals and a CD player into the same amp and play along with it until you nail the same tones. McCartney typically used several layers of compression to get his sustained tones. His highs tend to be rolled off so you don't hear his guitar pick, Strong mids and lows. I'd try either an SVT or Vox amp and take it from there.

 

Once you get the Rick tone you can fake a Hofner tone by getting a 1" wide piece of Styrofoam and sticking under the strings close to the bridge. This should emulate the dynamic attack of a small box Hollow Body. The amount of foam and its pressure on the strings will affect the sustain. You don't want to go overboard with the pressure. Hofners have a sharp attack but they do sustain a long time, especially when played with the fingers.

You want to get the foam to produce the pick attack but not destroy all the sustain.

 

Here's how a Typical Hofner sounds. There's not allot of instruments covering it on the recording I did so its real easy to hear its voice. This one has the neck pickup fill up and the bridge dialed back a hair to get rid of spike tones. No major sound effects, I only used added compression but no EQ or any other enhancements.