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Darkglass dissapointment
- Thread starter wolfkeller
- Start date
Yeah that Mew album was on a constant rotation for me for a good year about 6 years back! The bass has that perfect fuzzy/almost-nasally grit going on that makes it ever-present in the mix but without getting in the way. I've seen em play twice (once with the original bassist from that album and once with the newer guy) and they nailed it live pretty well both times. I didn't pick it up one the albums, but some of my favorite bass parts actually had a baritone guitar in unison that added some of that percussive stuff on top. The live rig both times was just a P-bass through an SVT into a smaller cab (maybe 1x15)...Ha. That's cool - it kinda makes me happy he doesn't really use that tone anymore. I like his newer tones as well, but my favorite remains that old clanky Chuck Mosely/early Patton era tone. The latest bass tone on an album which I really love is Mew's "And the Glass Handed Kites". It has some of that "metallic magic" on the bass.
I plugged the b3k into my gk 800rb and ampeg 8x10 using my Spector... It was cool but I feel its too fuzzy for me. I had the blend and level about 12 and drive about 11. I did experiment, still not it for me. Guess it goes on the shelf. One other thing, I was using my sansamp power supply (9v) and it the gain got really noisy past 11 I switched to a boss and it was very quiet. I'd still prefer a battery since I'm not using a pedalboard these days
Why didn't it work for you? I've always had a hard time describing what I want, I referred to pantera and Alice in chains kinda thing, to me there is no fuzz in those tones and the b3k, to me, is fuzz.
Pantera - Walk - Bass Only - By Rex Brown: this is a great example, no fuzz but grinding! I know cranking an svt can do that type of thing but I can't crank my svt2 past 3-4 without soundmen bitching and I use my GKs a lot
Another example. Again, all grind no fuzz. I realize a lot of it is Spector and tubes but I don't always use these (I have them) lately its been all P bass and gk.
Ehhh...to me bddi is too brittle sounding to me. And it gets fuzzy too. I've thought about other sansamp pedals but no one ever has them to demo
I will reiterate that if you can't get that tone using the B3K you're simply using it wrong.
Try with the Grunt switch on Raw and the Attack switch on. Also, dial the drive up more with the level down.
Try with the Grunt switch on Raw and the Attack switch on. Also, dial the drive up more with the level down.
See, I hear that stuff about basic but its not easy to replicate. Every od pedal I've tried gets too fuzzy. The bddi is the closest I've found. I have the 3 channel but I don't like the way you don't know where the knobs are if they're moved when its off. I guess bddi but less...brittle on the top end.
B3k didn't work for me either, scoops out the mids that I like. Didn't think it got too fuzzy. I run a Rat King with a blend and people would comment that they like that setup better. I have just ordered a XD-1 so we'll see how that compares.
And a rackmount pre... And, the second generation pre pedal has the boost function that will go as distorted as you need.
They should change the name of the B3K to 'The Female' because it is the most misunderstood creature in the pedal world, and nobody really seems to know how to properly manipulate it. But I enjoy what it does for me and I'm glad I have one. It does, however, seem to get jealous when I touch my other pedals.
I really can comprehend that. However, the solution is so easy, it's almost embarassing.
My favourite solution for it would be a knob to tame the highs of the clean signal. It could even be a passive rolloff. In my experience, the weird 2-signal-sound comes from the clean highs shining through the overdrive/distortion.
There is one simple way to try that, just roll back your tone control on the bass and and then go into the distortion with a blend. Voilà, the sound becomes one.
Try it out.
This is exactly what Source Audio did with their Bass OFD. The blend knob at noon means only dirt, counterclockwise it's a normal blend and clockwise it's a blend with a reduced highs on the clean signalpath. Simple yet effective.
I for my part don't want any clean highs and no distorted lows when using distortion.
My signature drive would have a one or two knob eq for the clean and the dirt and then a blend.
