NPD - B7K Ultra

[screamingdaisy]

Sometimes I buy things and they end up cooler than I expected.

I bought this thing looking for a distortion pedal. I've kinda avoided this pedal for years, but I wanted to hear it for myself and took a chance. In the past there was a lot of hype, and every demo is someone djenting on a bass, so I pigeonholed it as a djent pedal. I thought it would have a very baked in "Darkglass" sound with a relatively limited EQ, but it's more versatile than that. It's capable of being more subtle and nuanced than I expected.

Additionally, it's can be used as a full blown preamp. I bought this to be a distortion and expected the preamp part to be kinda meh, but's actually really good. It has a Neural DSP cab IR built into it, which does a great job of filtering the distortion so it doesn't sound like shit through a fullrange system (PA, headphones, etc). It also makes the clean channel sound fairly Ampeg-ish, which was a surprise as I expected it to sound more like a raw DI (I'm currently using Nolly's vintage cabsim, which to me sounds more or less like an Ampeg 810).

If I wanted to, I could DI the IR to FOH and run a separate output to my stage amp with no IR on it, so this ended up being a more complete package than I expected.

Either way, it's kinda cool that I have a two channel bass rig that fits in my gig bag.

[RaceU4her]

nice, i have the x7 microtubes and its great.

[Devin]

Been wanting one of those; I've heard many a sexual clip

[fretless]

Nice piece!

[GuitarBilly]

I've been looking at the DG stuff. Our bass is all DI now so a pedal like this would work really well..

[screamingdaisy]

I've been looking at the DG stuff. Our bass is all DI now so a pedal like this would work really well..

It could. I've found Steve Harris somewhere around 8:30 on the gain knob, and it goes up from there. Even maxed out it's not crazy gainy. Last night I dimed the distortion, blend 100% dirt and jammed to Thin Lizzy. While not the most appropriate sound, it wasn't terrible. My point is that even at an extreme setting it seems to sit really well and play nice in the mix.

That said, as of today I'd put the B7K a step below the SansAmp BDDI, but maybe as I learn things the B7K will move up the list.

I can get both into similar territory, however the BDDI has an energy in the low end that I haven't found in the B7K. The BDDI low end somehow punches harder, yet it's not hyped or exaggerated sounding. I think it creates more excitement, which is probably why it's been industry standard for 30+ years now.

As it stands, my plan is to use the BDDI to feed FOH and the B7K will likely remain as a distortion pedal (and practice rig).

[GuitarBilly]

Yeah it's probably the analog vs IR thing once again.

[screamingdaisy]

After messing around some more I think the problem was the IR. Nolly's version of the Ampeg 810 was kinda of boxy and 1 dimensional. The generic Ampeg 810 + Beta 52 IR that Darkglass offers is better and carries better low mid energy.

[screamingdaisy]

So, the secret to getting the speakers to punch you in the face is to carve out a lot of 500Hz, which is making it sound way less boxy and far more like a well produced bass tone.

I'm really starting to like this B7K. Been A/Bing it against the BDDI as a reference and the B7K can get really subtle in terms of how you tune it. Not subtle as in barely noticeable, but that small tweaks between the blend, level and gain can really change how the bass and the dirt is sitting in the overall sound.

IMO, it's basically Tool in a box.