Zoom B3 vs. Darkglass B3K

[JT Foster]

I know this isn't exactly a reasonable comparison in general, but I'm talking more in terms of overdrive. Has anyone got a Darkglass type OD tone on a B3? Or do I just need to dish out the extra money for the Darkglass? I'm looking for something that can give me that super mean drive tone, aka Born of Osiris, Periphery, Etc. I'd prefer to buy the B3 so I could have the huge amount of effects it comes with, but I don't want to settle for some crappy fuzz box sound for my overdrive.

 

[Teijo K.]

I love my B3, but not for dirt. There are some, kind of good, dirt "pedals" in, and the B3 has definitely better dirt than the MS60B from Zoom line, but still no. I would not choose the B3 for DG type overdrive.

 

[mmbongo]

Get the Darkglass. Only a B3K is a B3K

 

[JT Foster]

Thank you for the replies. I think I might still get the Zoom for compression and other random effects.

 

[Teijo K.]

Thank you for the replies. I think I might still get the Zoom for compression and other random effects.

B3 is definitely worth the money on modulation, echo and delay, comp is usable and there are some other nice effects too.

 

[JT Foster]

By useable you mean it's just okay, but not great right? I don't have a ton of money since I'm in college so I'm really looking for an all in one kind of box. My setup is pretty simple. I have an Ibanez SR and a Hartke Kickback 12. So I don't have the most professional gear and I'm not really looking for that. I just want something that works and sounds good.

 

[bassbrad]

While I am using my B3 for fuzz & more live there is no comparison to analog units that I use for recording. The advantage of the B3 is having a lot of effects in that foot print and being able to save creations for recall.

 

[ole Jason]

The actual distorted tone of the B3k is not all that great IMO. It sounds, more or less, like any other CMOS based dirt on bass. The 'magic' is in the frequency selection of the EQ and blend functionality... it is very unique and I can't think of any other pedals with a similar EQ setup. You can definitely get similar sounds with other dirt pedals though. I don't have a B3 handy so I'm not sure how good the digital dirt is. Basically you need a CMOS-sounding dirt w/ blend combined with a sweepable EQ.

I think the DG megathread has specific frequency curves of the EQ on the B7k/B3k.

 

[JT Foster]

Thanks. I really like the sound of the Tech21 VT also. And it's way less expensive compared to B3k. Any thoughts on that?

 

[OzzyGreg]

Don't know about the Darkglass, but the VT Bass pedal definitely has a nicer drive sounds available than any of the the Zooms.
The Zoom overdrives can be tweaked to sound ok, but the VT Bass still sounds better for dirt IMO.

 

[imdkoz]

I love the B3 for everything but dirt. It has some good OD sounds but I added other pedals for that purpose.

 

[decentbassbreh]

yeah b3 is good but not for grit the vt and b3k would be tight, but what im using for grit is a hartke bass attack try that out,

 

[Buzz E]

Can someone please post a video of the B3K that has anything BUT dirt/distortion in it? It sounds very overrated in the vids that are posted on YouTube. Every video has nothing but distortion/overdrive in it, and it sounds fair at best. A few have said that they like it for everything BUT dirt. Lets hear it...what can it do?

 

[NoxNoctus]

Can someone please post a video of the B3K that has anything BUT dirt/distortion in it? It sounds very overrated in the vids that are posted on YouTube. Every video has nothing but distortion/overdrive in it, and it sounds fair at best. A few have said that they like it for everything BUT dirt. Lets hear it...what can it do?

Off the cuff, I'm lacking a proper amp at the moment so I recorded through my Zoom B3 and used my Joyo American as a preamp (Level maxed out, gain as low as I could get it but there's some residual grit in it)
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Nothing fancy, but should give you a small idea of what it sounds like with no gain at all off the pedal. My entire chain is based off the B3K gritting it up so I had to improvise. It's grit is just too good not to use!

As for the B3, I wouldn't dream of using the dirt on it. If it weren't the B3K, if it didn't exist it'd be something else for sure. The B3 does some things very well, but drive isn't one of those things.

 

[mmbongo]

Can someone please post a video of the B3K that has anything BUT dirt/distortion in it? It sounds very overrated in the vids that are posted on YouTube. Every video has nothing but distortion/overdrive in it, and it sounds fair at best. A few have said that they like it for everything BUT dirt. Lets hear it...what can it do?

You're referring to the Zoom B3, not the Darkglass B3K right?

 

[AciDBatH666]

Can someone please post a video of the B3K that has anything BUT dirt/distortion in it? It sounds very overrated in the vids that are posted on YouTube. Every video has nothing but distortion/overdrive in it, and it sounds fair at best. A few have said that they like it for everything BUT dirt. Lets hear it...what can it do?

A lot of us are running B7Ks with low drive and using it to sculpt our eq. The mids on it are money.
I wouldn't use a B#K for dirt. It's more of a glassy crunch gain. I have a Sansamp RBI rack unit that I actually combine my B7K with and it refines the tone to make it pretty punchy.

 

[Buzz E]

You're referring to the Zoom B3, not the Darkglass B3K right?

Yeah. Sorry about that!!! I didn't mean to confuse everybody, but I appreciate the replies. I found some stuff on the B3. It's got nothing on the B3K or B7K, but it does serve a purpose.

 

[AciDBatH666]

Check out these two vids. The first is Nolly from Periphery, he's using it with no drive at all.
I linked it to the spot where he's talking about the B7K


And then Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse's setup with the B3K to his chain. You'll see in the video that the drive is @ 10 oclock
Link starts right where he shows the difference.

 

[TitaniumRx]

Those who have both units they can try this patch from Crystalman thread http://www.talkbass.com/threads/zoom-b3-patch-ideas.918990/page-38 post #752.He nailed the sound of the Vintage microtubes.For me the Darkglass pedals is the best sounding analog pedals out there,but the Zoom B3 is the best digital.You can easy make any dirt sound you want with the Darkglass units,but if you don't have or want to spend the money for them,the B3 is a lot more difficult but capable to reproduce a lot useful dirt sounds.You only need to work A LOT with the unit to take the best out of it,but many of us have good results.I love both of theme.

Here some exables of mine dirts with B3

 

[SGT. BAKER]

I know this isn't exactly a reasonable comparison in general, but I'm talking more in terms of overdrive. Has anyone got a Darkglass type OD tone on a B3? Or do I just need to dish out the extra money for the Darkglass? I'm looking for something that can give me that super mean drive tone, aka Born of Osiris, Periphery, Etc. I'd prefer to buy the B3 so I could have the huge amount of effects it comes with, but I don't want to settle for some crappy fuzz box sound for my overdrive.

For OD don´t expect too much quality sound from a multi, so better you should go to a specific pedal. In that sense the Darkglass are really nice, probably the best OD in the market.