Aguilar Agro vs. Darkglass B3K

[mmbongo]

What I take from this thread so far is I need to try a BDPG pedal.

It's definitely an interesting pedal, I've never played with anything else quite like it. It's more of an 'enhancer' than a standalone pedal though. If you have a boxy sounding amp, the BDPG will definitely take care of that.

 

[andrew]

It's definitely an interesting pedal, I've never played with anything else quite like it. It's more of an 'enhancer' than a standalone pedal though. If you have a boxy sounding amp, the BDPG will definitely take care of that.

I don't have a boxy sounding amp, will the BDPG help my sound in other ways? Loved what it did for your AGRO.

 

[yaksonator]

Mmbongo is pretty much right on.. Opens things up so to speak, especially dirt. I like it after all my dirt some like it before but it really shines with dirt IMO.

 

[mmbongo]

I don't have a boxy sounding amp, will the BDPG help my sound in other ways? Loved what it did for your AGRO.

Yeah it really helps the Agro, it drives it more and adds a ton of bottom.

The tone knob on the BDPG is where it's at. Fully CCW it will give you a grindy top end and cut some bottom end. As you go clockwise it starts to add a huge thick bottom end and cut highs. All the way CW sounds like a huge 'dubby' thick sound with no highs. It always has an overdriven sound, it cannot do clean. My clip of it alone is about as clean as it gets. Guess I should do another clip of it to explain what I mean. It basically will just drive everything harder and can add a layer of huge bottom.

 

[el murdoque]

i tested the Agro again in bandcontext yesterday and paid special attention towards low end loss. At first, there is a feel that some lows get cut, but i blame that on the boosted mids. When you set the level by ear and have a little contour dialed in, the mids make the whole thing sound louder and thus, you're likely to choose a lower setting to achieve unity, resulting in a little less bass in the signal. I tried with other settings and could not detect any loss of lowend.
Inspired by the Broken Dick Peanut Gallery soundsample i took my other OD and set it to low Gain and boomy sound to feed the agro. The result was kind of brutal but totally worth to keep in mind for further experimenting.

 

[blindrabbit]

Listening to all the clips in this thread reinforces my long-held impression that I don't really like anything about how the B#K pedals sound at all. No offense intended to those that do, we just all have different ears and mine don't agree with the tones that come out of those boxes. I seem to hear things similar to johnk in that I didn't like the Talons or the Empress Fuzz either.

The Agro sounds better than the others in the comparison, but I think it is still too aggressive for any uses that I would have. By no means is it my favourite distortion though.

I will echo a comment made earlier in the thread about a wish for Aguilar to have a drive pedal that offers up the Tone Hammer's AGS circuit. Yes, yes, I know the TH DI pedal does have AGS, but I really want it to be with a variable control. I can get the majority of driven tones I'm looking for out of my TH350 head, so I know a pedal like that would work for me. If you are listening Aguilar, a simple OD/boost pedal with four knobs - gain, volume, AGS, and the "filter" tone control from your Octamizer pedal. Please.

Finally, that BDPG did have some magic to it. I've always liked clips and samples of Fuzzrocious Pedals. Maybe it is time to give them a closer look/listen.

 

[Kindred_]

i tested the Agro again in bandcontext yesterday and paid special attention towards low end loss. At first, there is a feel that some lows get cut, but i blame that on the boosted mids. When you set the level by ear and have a little contour dialed in, the mids make the whole thing sound louder and thus, you're likely to choose a lower setting to achieve unity, resulting in a little less bass in the signal. I tried with other settings and could not detect any loss of lowend.
Inspired by the Broken Dick Peanut Gallery soundsample i took my other OD and set it to low Gain and boomy sound to feed the agro. The result was kind of brutal but totally worth to keep in mind for further experimenting.

yeah, i have also admit that, tweaking controls allows you to choose one in between.
so since i own this pedal for about two years yet it never dissapoints me.

 

[villegastx]

They didn't get around much before the pedal version replaced them, but I love the rackmount AGRO. A very different animal than the pedal, much more flexible and I prefer the tones you can get from it over the pedal.

John, if you like the AGRO you should consider the rackmount version in the classifieds now. I have two of them.

I also have two, I love rackmount version, but hate its weird size. Those are the same size as aguilar AG700 and mesa WD800 and mesa TT800.
I installed regular rack ears from penn elcom and builded a custom size rackmount case for my pair of agros and a matching case for my mesa.
I use a stereo 1/4 cable with a splitter on the other end to control both agros with a two button footswitch