Class D Head With Parametric or Semi-Parametric Mids

[J-Mags]

Let us know how you like it!

OK, I got the Little Mark Vintage D2 today. It must have been shipped before MF actually took their money. At any rate, it'll have to be good to beat out the Darkglass, and I'm feeling slightly underwhelmed, although it is a decent amp.

First, the good (though a GK Neo 212 ii with P, PJ, Mustang):

1) It's loud. To the ears, it's somewhat louder than my Rumble 200 with the extension cab, but to the body, it's way, way louder.

2) It's got a good punchy low end that doesn't have that annoying high-low ooze.

3) I can easily EQ it to sound good with any of my basses.

4) I can tune the EQ to have a million different kinds of pick attack. I play a lot of Punk. If I were recording an album, I could easily dial in a slightly different resonance for the percussive attack of each song so the 8th notes don't all sound the same the whole time.

Second, the not-so-good

1) For an amp that has a million knobs, it really only has one sound. If I turn the knobs in a certain way and turn the limiter off, I can almost get a bit of grind. What does the tube even do?

2) It's not the noisiest, but it's not freakishly quiet either.

3) As flexible as the EQ is, the knobs seem to gravitate towards noon when I'm dialing in sounds. This isn't a bad thing per se. In fact it could be a good thing. But it certainly reduces the excitement of the fancy EQ section.

4) The regular LM that I tried was marginally punchier and significantly more rational (although it was also more expensive). The D2 is still pretty punchy, though.

The Darkglass is supposed to come tomorrow. If I want to get rid of one of these (not an absolute necessity, but it would certainly free up some $$), I'd have to sell the Darkglass, but I could simply return the Little Mark Vintage D2 to MF. If I like the clean sounds and the EQ section (even if the EQ isn't as flexible, it's still 6-band graphic), I imagine having a bunch of dirt will be more useful than having a bunch of features that don't affect the sound too much. We'll see.

 

[Nebadon2000]

OK, I got the Little Mark Vintage D2 today. It must have been shipped before MF actually took their money. At any rate, it'll have to be good to beat out the Darkglass, and I'm feeling slightly underwhelmed, although it is a decent amp.

First, the good (though a GK Neo 212 ii with P, PJ, Mustang):

1) It's loud. To the ears, it's somewhat louder than my Rumble 200 with the extension cab, but to the body, it's way, way louder.

2) It's got a good punchy low end that doesn't have that annoying high-low ooze.

3) I can easily EQ it to sound good with any of my basses.

4) I can tune the EQ to have a million different kinds of pick attack. I play a lot of Punk. If I were recording an album, I could easily dial in a slightly different resonance for the percussive attack of each song so the 8th notes don't all sound the same the whole time.

Second, the not-so-good

1) For an amp that has a million knobs, it really only has one sound. If I turn the knobs in a certain way and turn the limiter off, I can almost get a bit of grind. What does the tube even do?

2) It's not the noisiest, but it's not freakishly quiet either.

3) As flexible as the EQ is, the knobs seem to gravitate towards noon when I'm dialing in sounds. This isn't a bad thing per se. In fact it could be a good thing. But it certainly reduces the excitement of the fancy EQ section.

4) The regular LM that I tried was marginally punchier and significantly more rational (although it was also more expensive). The D2 is still pretty punchy, though.

The Darkglass is supposed to come tomorrow. If I want to get rid of one of these (not an absolute necessity, but it would certainly free up some $$), I'd have to sell the Darkglass, but I could simply return the Little Mark Vintage D2 to MF. If I like the clean sounds and the EQ section (even if the EQ isn't as flexible, it's still 6-band graphic), I imagine having a bunch of dirt will be more useful than having a bunch of features that don't affect the sound too much. We'll see.

Parmetric EQ on any amp is not necessarily for only tone shaping [Quality Bass, Amp and Cab combination will mostly sound best 'near noon' on their own]

Where it can come in handy is with dealing with different room's/Clubs problems and/or cutting through mix in those different locations.

Tube can add some pleasing warmth to overall tone; some can add same when overdriving into distortion but varies greatly with product.

If overdrive/distortion tone is your main goal the Darkglass may be better at that; it's their thing along with excellent clean sound from what I have heard from users.

 

[J-Mags]

Parmetric EQ on any amp is not necessarily for only tone shaping [Quality Bass, Amp and Cab combination will mostly sound best 'near noon' on their own]

Where it can come in handy is with dealing with different room's/Clubs problems and/or cutting through mix in those different locations.

Tube can add some pleasing warmth to overall tone; some can add same when overdriving into distortion but varies greatly with product.

If overdrive/distortion tone is your main goal the Darkglass may be better at that; it's their thing along with excellent clean sound from what I have heard from users.

Darkglass Alpha Omega vs Little Mark Vintage D2 Comparison

I got the Darkglass (Alpha Omega 500) delivered today and did an extensive A/B with the Markbass D2. The Darkglass was smaller, better looking, less noisy, and arguably slightly louder. Its features made more sense than the Markbass. It has a mute switch, a number of cab sims with the ability to download more, fun distortion and fuzz, and an excellent one-knob compressor. However I ended up preferring the tone of the Markbass.

The reason was simple and inherent to the sound of the amp: the Markbass set flat has a bit of a lower-mid hump that I associate with Ampegs. The kind that makes it feel like it has plenty of lows without being slow and boomy. You could dial it out if you wanted to, but it was tough to dial into the Darkglass.

The Darkglass really seems to have a flat EQ when played clean with the 6-band EQ set flat. It sounds pretty generic until you start set the sliders (I didn't try the cab sims since I'm unlikely to use them in the near future). You dial in your tone with the 6-band EQ. You can dial in similar tones to the D2, but it's hard to dial in something quite as deep and tight. When the lows and low-mids come in it's always a little bit looser. I think this is largely because Darkglass is generally used by players who like a lot of distortion, and are probably playing with less low end.

What was great about the Darkglass was that you can dial in almost inaudible amounts of distortion or fuzz to fatten up your tone, and the cleans do sound great, they just didn't have that effortless chunky low end that the D2 does.

In other words, the Darkglass was better in every way, other than the way it sounded for my playing style. My #1 thing is I wanted kicky lows and percussive mids. It was easier to dial in that sound on the Markbass.

I'd say that at least half of all players would prefer the Darkglass though. It's beautiful. It has features that are actually useful. The cleans are great. Obviously, if you're playing Motown it's not for you, but if you're the kind of player who would play a GK over an Ampeg, it could definitely work for you.

Also, I wish I'd gotten a couple of 1x12s instead of a 2x12 because it'd be taller and run at 4 ohms. Live and learn.

 

[Jim C]

Parmetric EQ on any amp is not necessarily for only tone shaping [Quality Bass, Amp and Cab combination will mostly sound best 'near noon' on their own]

Where it can come in handy is with dealing with different room's/Clubs problems and/or cutting through mix in those different locations.
.

+1
Played a gig 2 weeks ago in a room where we've played before. They now have a house 4x10 and I decided to leave my GB 2x12 in the trunk. I also used a "new to me" G&L SB-2 bass. I'm so glad that my SWR SM500 is quasi parametric. For the first time ever I had to use 3-5 dB of 3 separate bands of EQ to dial out (cut) mud in two bands and add some hi mids in another. I could have just grabbed the cabinet and used my stand by P bass but it was gratifying to be able to get a good sound quickly with a versatile amp.

OTOH, it takes awhile to really understand how to use them. Not always intuitive

 

[J-Mags]

Update: I just discovered the the growl button on the Darkglass. I thought it only worked with the IRs. It doesn't change everything but it does make them sonically a bit more similar.