Is the Darkglass for me?

I have never played any Darkglass pedals before, but all the demos I have listened to the tone of the B3K seemed very scooped. They are very popular pedals and I am sure someone with experience with these pedwls will chime in. I use the Aguilar Agro, it can get very close to the Rex Brown aggressive tone. Good luck!

 

The B3K and B7K get even closer to the Rex tone. As a matter of fact, his soloed clips actually sound like he's using a B3K or B7K even though it wasn't made back then.

I had an Agro, and the Darkglass just have a lot going on in the highs and high high mids, therefore it can be easy to mask the great low-mids they also produce. The Agro is no slouch either, it just doesn't have near the presence the Darkglass pedals have. They can almost sound like "too much" until you hear them in a mix.

Here's a couple mic'd clips out of my GK 800RB with my B3K, and I had to cut the low-mids a bit to get a clearer signal. There is plenty of mids in that pedal. To show the versatility of it, both of these clips have the exact same amp settings and the exact same bass settings. The only thing that changed on the B3K is the Grunt switch from "Raw" to "Fat" in the 2nd clip, and I used a bit less drive in the 2nd clip. Everything else is the same, and you'll probably more of the "known" Darkglass grind in the first clip:





GK 800RB was set at :
Bass: 1:00
Lo-Mids: 10:30
Hi-Mids: 12:00
Highs: 2:30
Bright Switch pushed in.

 

B3K - modern, slightly scooped in the lower mids/mid mids area, but plenty of high mids and highs, bright. Yes, you get a lot out of B7K eq.

VMT - plenty of low and mid mids, rounded high mids and rolled off highs, warmer, darker, less gain on tap than b3k.

I much much much prefer the vmt and I use it as an always on tool to vintage up my GK gear and add some dirt. If I had an all Ampeg gear though, I might prefer the B3K. It really depends on the gear you're using and what you want out of it.

 

I have both the B3K and B7K and they respond very differently. The EQ is a huge upgrade IMO. I don't use the DI on the 7 either. I have it set as a low overdrive in its own loop and then run it in series to the 3 from which I can stack the grindiness when I want. I play passive through an Aguilar TH500 into a GK Neo 412 so I can't attest to your specific setup and sound. But it seems to me that while the 3 & 7 sound scooped, their presence in the mix would lead you to believe otherwise. The sound is very intense and CLEAR. I would recommend the B7K to anyone on the fence as to which model to get. You can EQ yourself into many different sounds. And who knows, maybe running it last in your chain as a DI would be beneficial to have a parallel mic'd and DI'd setup for recording and it might be right up your alley. But I just use it as a good ol' OD pedal and I'm never turning back.

 

That sounds pretty spot-on.

I dig very grindy tones like early FNM, early Tool, Jesus Lizard, and Shellac. But for some reason, my Ric worked better with Darkglass than a Rusty Box or the Traynor TS-60B I owned for a few days.

 

Which darkglass are you using? You can get some pretty cool 90s tones out of vmt. I seem to be steering towards those lately. Awesome dirt pedals for sure.

 

B3K(it's in both of my clips with my Gallien Krueger 800RB above). I like the VMT as well, but the metallic grind I really like seems to be more than abundant with the B3K(those tones almost require that accentuated top-end). They also sound great together, from what I've heard of em(VMT+B7K/B3K).

 

Metallic is a very accurate adjective actually!

As for the original question, I think the EQ raises the tonal possibilities exponentially... specially when playing around with the toggle switches, you can do some very very fine tailoring.

As for the DI, it has the advantage that even if you don't usually need it, you can always show up at a session or gig and run direct if an amp fails or something.

Alex Webster actually switches to the B7K when the rig he has on tour is not as flexible as he'd like.

As for the Vintage, it's a different animal. But the descriptions above are pretty spot on!

I hope this helps,
Doug.

 

Really enjoyed the sound clip FaithNoMan! The Darkglass sounds pretty sweet! Very modern "glassy" sounding to me.

 

Thanks man

 

I would go with the B7K if I where you. I always have mine on as a clean preamp though, I dont use it for dirt. But, I do know that if you, as stated, want a sound that sounds pissed off and aggressive, the OD/Dist on the 7 is probably what you are looking for. If you are worried about the DI thing, it never hurts to have one. The extra money you spend on the 7 over the 3 would be for the EQ mainly anyhow and it is totally worth it. I wouldve pain a bit more for my 7 if I had to of at the time I got it. It is a great preamp and OD. It is one of the best purchases Ive ever made to date. Ever.

FaithNoMan really has some killer tones!!