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Blown away with Darkglass B3K v2

javi_bassist

javi_bassist

Dec 6, 2011
1,600
3,029
Madrid, Spain
#1
Hello,

I know I know, it is a very well-known pedal and this won't take most of you by surprise. I have seen too many demos of this pedal and similar and I have always find them "too heavy" for me. I prefer more warm "old school" overdrives. However, I found this pedal cheaper than it usually is and I gave it a shot.
I was instantly blown away. Really good tones. The "Grunt" is something I thought I wouldn't like, but I do. It is great. I find my favourite setting with the Drive at 3 and Blend at 10. But it has so many possibilities.
I must admit that when I include it in the effects loop of my HX Stomp I was not that happy as before, but I had to find its place in the chain.
And I also must admit that this pedal changed the perception I had with Darkglass. I had always avoided their products because of the Youtube demos. And I was wrong.
PXL_20251007_115314243.MP.jpg
 
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#3
My clone (Joyo Double Thruster) has a "Gain Boost" switch in place of the "Grunt" switch - same thing?

I have to say, I wasn't all too impressed with the sound of it with my Sire GB5 fretless, but when I tried it with my fretted Ibanez Iceman ICB500 - WOAH! Yeah, that's the sound!!
 
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#7
Man, I wanted to like this pedal. It spent some good time on my board, but ultimately came off. I have yet to replace it with anything that would compare directly. Not sure if I could even articulate why I did not get along with it. Something about the low end just seemed indistinct to me, too compressed maybe? I think I did like the mids and saturation tho, and the overdrive just "felt" good. From what I can remember anyway.

Glad you're digging it though! I do love Darkglass for the fact that they cater to the hard and dark side of things.
 
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#8
javi_bassist said:
Hello,

I know I know, it is a very well-known pedal and this won't take most of you by surprise. I have seen too many demos of this pedal and similar and I have always find them "too heavy" for me. I prefer more warm "old school" overdrives. However, I found this pedal cheaper than it usually is and I gave it a shot.
I was instantly blown away. Really good tones. The "Grunt" is something I thought I wouldn't like, but I do. It is great. I find my favourite setting with the Drive at 3 and Blend at 10. But it has so many possibilities.
I must admit that when I include it in the effects loop of my HX Stomp I was not that happy as before, but I had to find its place in the chain.
And I also must admit that this pedal changed the perception I had with Darkglass. I had always avoided their products because of the Youtube demos. And I was wrong.
View attachment 7339658
Click to expand...
The B3K is in my shortlist to try. What were your primary tone goals?
 
#10
Yep, they're great. I have a B1k and it sounds great. Still, I will almost certainly sell off in the spring when I buy an Anagram, but the BK pedal family sounds great.

Darkglass certainly has a rep for "heavy" and some of the pedals definitely are, but not all of them. The BK can get heavy if you crank 'em up but they back off very politely. I really like the Vintage Microtubes, pretty mellow overdrive. The Alpha Omega/Omicron, on the other hand, is indeed pretty heavy.
 
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#11
I'm glad to hear people still discovering the main Darkglass "secret" after all these years (the secret being that they aren't just good at doing the one thing people have come to know them for- and sometimes apparently resent them for- the other "secret" is when you try multiple different DG options and realize there isn't just one "Darkglass sound"). I was a fairly early-adopter of the B3K, back when they were all small batch direct sales from Finland via word-of-mouth and Talkbass reviews and they totally changed my idea of what a bass drive pedal could be (when they came on the scene most "bass drives" were just slightly modified guitar pedals, excepting the Sansamp BDDI and a few other much less common options). I've now enjoyed most of their analog drive pedals at some point, and have never played modern metal with any of them!
 
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#12
bholder said:
My clone (Joyo Double Thruster) has a "Gain Boost" switch in place of the "Grunt" switch - same thing?

I have to say, I wasn't all too impressed with the sound of it with my Sire GB5 fretless, but when I tried it with my fretted Ibanez Iceman ICB500 - WOAH! Yeah, that's the sound!!
Click to expand...
No idea if it's the Joyo is the same- "Grunt" is essentially a switchable high-pass filter into the clipping section. Some versions have 3 settings, I think the v2 B3K just has the less-intense filtered setting (called" Raw") and a bypassed setting (though it is called "Boost", presumably because the built-in shaping into the drive section has a pretty big inherent mid cut that makes the bass relatively boosted vs the mids). I'm not a big fan of the B3K/B7K with fretless either, though Steve Digiorgio makes great use of a B7K with his fretless- just depends on what you're going for!
 
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#13
javi_bassist said:
Hello,

I know I know, it is a very well-known pedal and this won't take most of you by surprise. I have seen too many demos of this pedal and similar and I have always find them "too heavy" for me. I prefer more warm "old school" overdrives. However, I found this pedal cheaper than it usually is and I gave it a shot.
I was instantly blown away. Really good tones. The "Grunt" is something I thought I wouldn't like, but I do. It is great. I find my favourite setting with the Drive at 3 and Blend at 10. But it has so many possibilities.
I must admit that when I include it in the effects loop of my HX Stomp I was not that happy as before, but I had to find its place in the chain.
And I also must admit that this pedal changed the perception I had with Darkglass. I had always avoided their products because of the Youtube demos. And I was wrong.
View attachment 7339658
Click to expand...
Oh, my Joyo R28 has same setting like yours ......
 
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#14
burgerdj said:
The B3K is in my shortlist to try. What were your primary tone goals?
Click to expand...

I tend to favour more "vintage" overdrives. I have the EBS Black Haze 2 and also the Ampeg Scrambler, and I love both. I also had the TC MojoMojo, which was great. I was looking for an overdrive that I could have always on to give some presence and cut through mix. To be honest, I was looking for the B1K (because of a recent demo that I just watched), but the B1K was out of stock and there was a sale on this one. I was not sure but I remembered that I have one bassist friend who is extremely against pedals but he has like 3 or 4 that are a must in some projects where he plays and he has a b3K (v1 I think). He always says that he hates distortion on bass, but that one was acceptable. So I gave it a shot.
There is also a demo in the Darkglass youtube channel where they show some sounds out of the Vintage Microtubes that I really love and I copied two settings that I really liked and that I use with my Scrambler (drive between 12 and 3 and blend between 9 and 10) and I tried with the B3k and I also love it. I prefer the B3k over the Scrambler just a little bit, even though the Scrambler is a little less noisy.
In conclusion after this paragraph, I was looking for a drive that is not extremely present but adds something to cut better. And this pedal does it pretty well.

SunByrne said:
Yep, they're great. I have a B1k and it sounds great. Still, I will almost certainly sell off in the spring when I buy an Anagram, but the BK pedal family sounds great.

Darkglass certainly has a rep for "heavy" and some of the pedals definitely are, but not all of them. The BK can get heavy if you crank 'em up but they back off very politely. I really like the Vintage Microtubes, pretty mellow overdrive. The Alpha Omega/Omicron, on the other hand, is indeed pretty heavy.
Click to expand...
I was looking for the B1k but I couldn't find it on stock and the B3k was on sale.
 
#16
sunbeast said:
No idea if it's the Joyo is the same- "Grunt" is essentially a switchable high-pass filter into the clipping section. Some versions have 3 settings, I think the v2 B3K just has the less-intense filtered setting (called" Raw") and a bypassed setting (though it is called "Boost", presumably because the built-in shaping into the drive section has a pretty big inherent mid cut that makes the bass relatively boosted vs the mids). I'm not a big fan of the B3K/B7K with fretless either, though Steve Digiorgio makes great use of a B7K with his fretless- just depends on what you're going for!
Click to expand...
Thanks, yeah I played with mine, yeah the gain boost is just a plain gain boost - not unuseful, but I want a Grunt switch! Now I've got Grunt envy!! :woot::laugh::roflmao::drool:
 
#17
The B1K is identical, just in a smaller form factor. For 1990s and beyond metal bass tones it is essential!

I put mine in the effects loop of the HX stomp, on Path A (above 123Hz) into an Orange ADB-300 amp model, merging with Path B (Ampeg Svt pro4 model) then into my second effect loops for the MXR M87 compressor. I couldn't be happier.
 
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#18
bholder said:
My clone (Joyo Double Thruster) has a "Gain Boost" switch in place of the "Grunt" switch - same thing?

I have to say, I wasn't all too impressed with the sound of it with my Sire GB5 fretless, but when I tried it with my fretted Ibanez Iceman ICB500 - WOAH! Yeah, that's the sound!!
Click to expand...

You can married the Joyo Double Thruster with Joyo R26 . I tweak for Alpha <> Omega <> Clean <> Scoop voice and able change those voice on the fly like programmable digital multi effect pedal .

IMG_20251012_100109.jpg
 
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#19
I added a Like to the OP but wanted to clarify: yes, great for pick playing.

Mine remains on my board for when I use a pick but I get my drive needs met elsewhere when it's finger style.

Interestingly, I like it for flat wounds with a pick too. Brings the clank when the strings don't.
 
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