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OD/Dist to Complement my B3K

T

The Ryantist

Mar 7, 2010
433
392
Orange County, CA
#1
I've had my B3K for almost 2 years and I really love the tone, but sometimes I want a little more gain. Nothing over the top. I normally have the blend and gain around noon, and I still like the sound of the pedal when it's maxed out, but I want foot-switchable option for more gain. (So getting a 2nd B3K is not out of the question ;)).

I just got a Dr. Scientist The Elements yesterday and I'm underwhelmed; maybe I need to spend more time with it. I had higher hopes due to its popularity on TB. It sounds ok. I'm not in love with it, especially for the price.

I'm thinking along the lines of: OCD, Bass Soul Food, SSBS Mini.

Any thoughts?
 
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#2
Although I don't have a B3k, I have a VFE Triumvirate which is similar enough that I feel I can give you an educated suggestion. What I personally use to pair up with it is an Idiotbox Swanson Superfuzz. The Swanson is very over the top, but cleans up extremely well with just a small drop in your bass volume. The reason I think this is a good combo is because the VFE, like your B3K, is not very over the top and very elegant sounding, whereas the Swanson is just all out low end grind and saturation galore. Those two pedals cover all my distortion needs because of the two very different voicings. The audience will not be able to discern too well another pedal similarly as "not over the top" as your Darkglass, so IMHO it's a great combination. Yes, I know you said you didn't want something too over the top, but it's always better to have the power on tap and not use it than to not have it when you may need it. Unfortunately, however, there are no good vids of the Swanson online with a bass. But the second I plugged my P bass into it I was hooked. It's the only pedal I own that I've never even though of taking off the board. Good luck!
 
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#3
The Swanson... with a bass:

51a510b9c30a116e5e0d86fa4ccf1f50.jpg
 
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#4
The Ryantist said:
I've had my B3K for almost 2 years and I really love the tone, but sometimes I want a little more gain. Nothing over the top. I normally have the blend and gain around noon, and I still like the sound of the pedal when it's maxed out, but I want foot-switchable option for more gain. (So getting a 2nd B3K is not out of the question ;)).

I just got a Dr. Scientist The Elements yesterday and I'm underwhelmed; maybe I need to spend more time with it. I had higher hopes due to its popularity on TB. It sounds ok. I'm not in love with it, especially for the price.

I'm thinking along the lines of: OCD, Bass Soul Food, SSBS Mini.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

The Mini rocks. Plus with one of those on your board you'll actually get some mids with your dirt. ;)
 
#5
Boss bb1x

Legit. i used this in combination with a VMTD and it was fantastic. the darkglass stuff by nature is pretty dry and running the boss infront of it added a "wet" sort of saturated gain to it. it was amazing.
 
#7
Any kind of clean boost will add more gain / more grit to your B3K if you place it between your B3K and your bass. So I would recommend some thing like a three band EQ (say the new MXR M81 Bass Preamp) to add some tonal variety. It's more than enough boost to do what you want. Another option is a Timmy, Wampler Euphoria, OCD v2. Any of these Overdrives can be set to a clean boost while adding the option of adding their particular grit to the chain. Another option is any good guitar clean boost pedal, a "super hard-on" comes to mind. There are loads of ways to do this. But if you really want crazy land distortion, then a good fuzz is the way to go. There are few Overdrives which fuzz as well as a good fuzz pedal. Out of this category, I would suggest a Way huge Swollen Pickle (a great name and an awesome muff variant) or a Mastotron / Woolly Mammoth. Pop that after your B3K. They can both do some pretty wild stuff.
 
#8
Anything with a good midrange (which i think the b3k is missing/lacking).
Musiciansounddesign silverstone is such a pedal-sounds very good! and really different to the darkglass.
 
#9
I was also pretty underwhelmed by most of the pedals mentioned here.

I'll put in my vote for the IdiotBox BlowerBox. Gain wise it picks up where the B3K stops.
But if you want just a bit more from your B3K, I agree with putting a booster in front of it, like a PhatPhuk B or TC Spark Booster.
 
#10
I have a B3k and B7K in my chain. The B7K is an always on pedal with the gain set to 9 o'clock. I love the eq on the B7K, so I run it with light gain and the blend around 1-2 o'clock so that it keeps some of my natural tone's lows in the mix. The B3K is my on-demand distortion. I run the B3K first so that it drives the B7K a little harder. I just dig the tone that it produces. That's my setup and experience.
I've messed with the B3k and B7K along with my Sansamp RBI, MXR M80 distortion, Darkglass VMT.... and ultimately stuck with the B7K/B3K combo. Now if Darkglass came out with a B7K with a switch between 2 drive settings, I'd switch to that.
 
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#13
The Ryantist said:
I've had my B3K for almost 2 years and I really love the tone, but sometimes I want a little more gain. Nothing over the top.
Click to expand...

Quick answer: any other low to mid-gain overdrive pedal that you like. I could name the ones I own, but this is the quick answer.

Less quick answer: Darkglass Vintage Microtubes, or Vintage Deluxe. I have a B7K, and it sounds great with my VMTD (deluxe). With my rock band, I like to use the B7K for modern OD, the Vintage Deluxe for classic OD, and for heavier songs I switch them both on. The end result is definitely not over the top IMO.

I have used the B7K with other OD pedals and have also been pleased, but B7K+VMTD is especially cool.
 
#15
You may think Im nuts for saying this, but if you can get your hands on a Boss ODB3 on the cheap, try it out. I used to run mine through my B7K all the time a while back and holy hell does it rip it a great way! The B7K really smoothed out the fizziness of the ODB3 and made a grind machine. So since the B3K is pretty much the B7K sans EQ, I say go for it. Just a thought anyway.

I also used to run my Fulltone OCD through the B7K all the time and loved it. Very great stacking there. (I run my B7K clean btw). But the OCD was kicked off recently (anyone who knows me knows thats sort of a big deal as I have been an OCD devotee for a while now) by the Big Game Bedlam drive. Very OCD'ish like plus it has a boost in it that boosts the signal and adds more hair while keeping if not enhancing the bottom end. LOVE the Bedlam. May be worth a look as well. The price it super right as well IMO.
 
#16
I run Phat Phuk B as an always on booster (with a slight, not over the top boost - around 11 o clock for me), VMT for medium OD and Tall Font Russian for that warm, faaat fuzz. Between the three, there's plenty of ways to use them combined, especially when trying them out in different orders. My current order is Phatty - TFR - VMT.
 
#17
gregmon79 said:
You may think Im nuts for saying this, but if you can get your hands on a Boss ODB3 on the cheap, try it out. I used to run mine through my B7K all the time a while back and holy hell does it rip it a great way! The B7K really smoothed out the fizziness of the ODB3 and made a grind machine. So since the B3K is pretty much the B7K sans EQ, I say go for it. Just a thought anyway.

I also used to run my Fulltone OCD through the B7K all the time and loved it. Very great stacking there. (I run my B7K clean btw). But the OCD was kicked off recently (anyone who knows me knows thats sort of a big deal as I have been an OCD devotee for a while now) by the Big Game Bedlam drive. Very OCD'ish like plus it has a boost in it that boosts the signal and adds more hair while keeping if not enhancing the bottom end. LOVE the Bedlam. May be worth a look as well. The price it super right as well IMO.
Click to expand...
Yo Mon-man, I've been eyeing the Bedlam because of your praise and you are absolutely correct. It seems to be an OCD clone on steroids. Price is right too. I love the features on it. If I didn't have a Demon on order, I may have pulled the trigger on the Bedlam.
 
#18
MGR said:
Yo Mon-man, I've been eyeing the Bedlam because of your praise and you are absolutely correct. It seems to be an OCD clone on steroids. Price is right too. I love the features on it. If I didn't have a Demon on order, I may have pulled the trigger on the Bedlam.
Click to expand...

My opinion, it kills the Demon. Not meaning to badmouth the Demon, it just didnt mix well with me and my setup. The Bedlam slays it in comparison with me and my setup. No contest.
 
#19
gregmon79 said:
My opinion, it kills the Demon. Not meaning to badmouth the Demon, it just didnt mix well with me and my setup. The Bedlam slays it in comparison with me and my setup. No contest.
Click to expand...
I will definitely take that under consideration. On the vids, it seemed to me that the Demon had a slightly more articulate sound, but then again, I'm the person who started a thread about how Youtube videos can be very misleading. Anyhow, I may end up picking a Bedlam up anyway. After all, can one really have too many OD pedals?
 
#20
I agree with some others here. Something with lots of available midrange grind will compliment the B3K very well.

bass > midrange-grinder-of-some-sort > B3K > amp

Fairfield Circuity Barbershop
Ashdown Hyperdrive (my favorite for this very application)
Wampler Euphoria
Wampler Triple Wreck (for LOTS o' distortion)
GK Diesel Dawg

These are those I've tried and liked.
 

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