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DarkGlass B7K - How does it sound clean?

MrFabulous

MrFabulous

Guest
May 12, 2014
18
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49
#1
I'm looking for a tube pre-amp to travel to Europe with this summer and I'm super interested in the the DarkGlass B7K, but the only video reviews I've seen of it have been too crunchy for my tastes. I use some overdrive, but not full saturation. Can this pre-amp do clean well?
 
#2
Yeah, the preamp is permanently on as you engage the pedal. So in order to use it as a clean preamp all you have to do is to turn the blend knob completely off.
On the other hand there is a new product incoming, the new Harmonic Booster which is the tone capsule in pedal format.
Invalid Link Removed
 
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#3
Bass - Mids - H Mids looks like tone capsule. Is it official that this is tone capsule in pedal form? What does this switch do? Is it switches the mids beetween 250-500-1000? If yes, then what H mids are set up on?
 
#8
AciDBatH666 said:
A lot of us are using the B7K with low drive and using the 4 band eq to really shape our tone. I have mine with the drive at about 9:00, and I put a B3K in front of it with heavy drive so that I can keep the B7K clean and always on.... And just hit the B3K for when I want the heavy to come.
Click to expand...

dude, that sounds like a really awesome combo.

wonder how blending a b7k and a samsamp would go....
 
#9
anavar said:
dude, that sounds like a really awesome combo.

wonder how blending a b7k and a samsamp would go....
Click to expand...

I actually used to blend my B7K with my Sansamp RBI. I went thru a bunch of iterations and ultimately ended up with the B7K being the main staple of my tone and organizing other pedals around that. The B3K is before the B7K so that it can push the B7K even harder, rather than have the B7K drive the B3K. It's something Doug suggested with using both of them.
The good thing about the B7K (or any of the Darkglass pedals) is that they compliment other pedals extremely well. I think I used to use the Sansamp RBI with the drive at 12:00, and the blend to 100%. That plus the B7K had a really nice clank but overdriven tube tone.

Right now I'm using the B7K with the mids maxed as high as they will go.
 
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#10
^ interesting.

what i was thinking was go from bass to comp(cali76 or Mxr 87, cant decide what i like more), into the sansamp for the spanky/clanky, almost triggerd bass drum sound, with little drive and blend, into a b7k for the tone shaping, mid section and drive into a NS2 then into amp.

basically i want the offensive top end of the sansamp, with the warm punchy overdrive signal of the b7k.
 
#12
anavar said:
^ interesting.

what i was thinking was go from bass to comp(cali76 or Mxr 87, cant decide what i like more), into the sansamp for the spanky/clanky, almost triggerd bass drum sound, with little drive and blend, into a b7k for the tone shaping, mid section and drive into a NS2 then into amp.

basically i want the offensive top end of the sansamp, with the warm punchy overdrive signal of the b7k.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I'd use the B7K for more of your clank and the sansamp for something else. When you activate the B7K even with low drive it adds a clank to it. The Sansamp kind of does a tube grit. I always turned the presence OFF on the Sansamp because it's SOOOOO trebly.
Give me a sec, I made a quick vid going over the two. I think something's wrong with my Sansamp RBI because no matter what it comes out really boomy. It could be because of the Darkglass Tone Capsule and me usually boosting the lows a bit. I'm uploading it now.


Here ya go. Sorry it's so craptastic. I just threw this together.
 
Last edited:
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#13
holy fek!

that tone is killer!. the RBI plus the b7k was brutal. perfect amount of lows, dirt and definition. i wonder if a sansamp driver in place of a RBI would get the same affect. Currently im borrowing a cali76 but i seeing how darkglass are making a comp unit soon i might hold off until then to buy one.

Thanks a million dude, that video has given me a few ideas now, legend!
 
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#14
I've been using the B7K for a couple of years now, almost always for the color of the EQ section, with the blend knob all the way down. The closest to 'flat' setting seems to be with all 4 EQ controls set to about 10 o'clock, but even at that setting there's a gain boost and a bit of extra mojo that I really like. I tend to favor a very slight boost (from that 10 o'clock position) to the lows and to the high mids. the B7K does the overdrive thing nicely too, but I only use that on occasion. Great pedal!
 
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#15
anavar said:
holy fek!

that tone is killer!. the RBI plus the b7k was brutal. perfect amount of lows, dirt and definition. i wonder if a sansamp driver in place of a RBI would get the same affect. Currently im borrowing a cali76 but i seeing how darkglass are making a comp unit soon i might hold off until then to buy one.

Thanks a million dude, that video has given me a few ideas now, legend!
Click to expand...

I liked the RBI, but after more and more tinkering with it in the practice space, I find that the B7K alone had everything I wanted. I messed with SOOOO many tone settings at home solo and found that barely any of them really showed up in my live tone. So I started to kind of downsize and work with the B7K as the main thing my tone revolved around. For a metal setting, boosting the Low and High mids on the B7K is NASTY. Adding the B3K before it for when I want distortion has pretty much ended my search for usable distortion. There's a vid of it if you look thru my latest uploads.
 
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#18
AciDBatH666 said:
I actually used to blend my B7K with my Sansamp RBI. I went thru a bunch of iterations and ultimately ended up with the B7K being the main staple of my tone and organizing other pedals around that. The B3K is before the B7K so that it can push the B7K even harder, rather than have the B7K drive the B3K. It's something Doug suggested with using both of them.
The good thing about the B7K (or any of the Darkglass pedals) is that they compliment other pedals extremely well. I think I used to use the Sansamp RBI with the drive at 12:00, and the blend to 100%. That plus the B7K had a really nice clank but overdriven tube tone.

Right now I'm using the B7K with the mids maxed as high as they will go.
Click to expand...
What about the SANSAMP TECH21 RPM RACK MOUNT BASS PREAMP? It has a mid and mid freq knob that works great with tube blend knob.
 
#20
I use mine completely clean with no drive all the time. I love it. It's the fondation of my tone. It excels with or without dirt really. I get my dirty tone from other pedals and the B7K really helps my dirt pedals among as well. Like someone's stated already, clean, it'll give you a little boost but I like that.
 

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