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Darkglass Microtubes 900 Class D Amp

#1,001
Today is a good day! Thanks to Bass Direct & Doug's team...
It's beautifully made, immediately looks & feels like a serious quality product.. made with loads of care & attention. Love the practical thought behind the foot switch!
Moving from a VBA400 to this and couldn't be happier... I'll post some sounds & thoughts when I get a chance to plug it in!
@Darkglass
IMG_9920.jpg IMG_9921.jpg IMG_9922.jpg
 
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#1,002
To anyone wondering about rack mounting, if you've got a 1U rack tray, you can just drill your own holes through it and mount it up. I put some washers (Ø1/8" hole is what the screw size is) and just mounted it up. The only issue you may run into is the screw head hitting the surface underneath it. For soft racks like mine, it's got a board underneath where the tray would sit flush, so I was worried that the head would not clear it. If you've got a different rack that actually has space under it you're in the clear.

Worst case, you can move the rack up 1/2 a space. But the holes on rack ears aren't perfectly spaced like that, so you may have to open the holes up on the tray.

qWdqxRU.jpg


SEcBADT.jpg


Here you can see the head clearance below.
tGwGTUv.jpg
 
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#1,004
AciDBatH666 said:
To anyone wondering about rack mounting, if you've got a 1U rack tray, you can just drill your own holes through it and mount it up. I put some washers (Ø1/8" hole is what the screw size is) and just mounted it up. The only issue you may run into is the screw head hitting the surface underneath it. For soft racks like mine, it's got a board underneath where the tray would sit flush, so I was worried that the head would not clear it. If you've got a different rack that actually has space under it you're in the clear.

Worst case, you can move the rack up 1/2 a space. But the holes on rack ears aren't perfectly spaced like that, so you may have to open the holes up on the tray.

OCd0B6K.jpg

qWdqxRU.jpg

OfQdmCB.jpg

SEcBADT.jpg


Here you can see the head clearance below.
tGwGTUv.jpg
Click to expand...

Wait, did you actually drill holes in your new amp?
 
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#1,005
DerekW said:
Wait, did you actually drill holes in your new amp?
Click to expand...


Lol no man. You just remove the rubber feet and use the screws that it's got. If I drilled holes into the amp I'd have to thread & tap them. All I did was drill holes in the tray to put the amp where I wanted it since the tray didn't have any holes that would work.

Just mark up the holes on the tray, drill, and then use some washers to space them out.
OCd0B6K.jpg
 
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#1,007
Seem like many of you have tested many amp's. I havent...

Darkglass seems interesting, but I havent the possibility to test before buying. I play on a Yamaha TRB2-5 atm.

If you only could buy one new amp, and only have one (married and still want to be), what amp would you choose?
- GK MB800 Fusion
- EBS Reidmar 750
- Darkglass 900

I mostly play clean with my band and have pedals for dirt etc.
 
#1,010
Mokolotivet said:
Seem like many of you have tested many amp's. I havent...

Darkglass seems interesting, but I havent the possibility to test before buying. I play on a Yamaha TRB2-5 atm.

If you only could buy one new amp, and only have one (married and still want to be), what amp would you choose?
- GK MB800 Fusion
- EBS Reidmar 750
- Darkglass 900

I mostly play clean with my band and have pedals for dirt etc.
Click to expand...


It really depends on you man. Darkglass isn't everyone's tone, but for a lot of people it's the tone we've been chasing for years. For me, the Darkglass will become my main amp. The MB800 Fusion is a great amp for me, but it's more of a power amp for me since I use my B7K and B3K on the floor to get my tone. Going to the M900 finally puts everything in one place.
I love my MB800F, but I rarely play with just the amp solo because I just love the way that the Darkglass cuts through the mix. Even though it's got low mid and high mid controls, I still feel like the Darkglass Low/high mids controls are more responsive. Especially with being able to use the switches to refine where I want the mids. The preamp is a whole nother level on the Darkglass
 
#1,011
Mokolotivet said:
Seem like many of you have tested many amp's. I havent...

Darkglass seems interesting, but I havent the possibility to test before buying. I play on a Yamaha TRB2-5 atm.

If you only could buy one new amp, and only have one (married and still want to be), what amp would you choose?
- GK MB800 Fusion
- EBS Reidmar 750
- Darkglass 900

I mostly play clean with my band and have pedals for dirt etc.
Click to expand...

I have a GK MB500 Fusion and I prefer the Darkglass amp for primarily two reasons: A sound which is more what I look for (subjective). I think the GK is a bit tame. The B3K and VMT OD/dirt effects are just really good and with this amp are built in, which means less noise in the signal chain compared to having them as pedals. It is also value for money. I don't think you can get a B7K and a VMTU (it has all the tone sculpting of these preamps) and the poweramp for the price of the M900.
 
#1,012
Mokolotivet said:
Seem like many of you have tested many amp's. I havent...

Darkglass seems interesting, but I havent the possibility to test before buying. I play on a Yamaha TRB2-5 atm.

If you only could buy one new amp, and only have one (married and still want to be), what amp would you choose?
- GK MB800 Fusion
- EBS Reidmar 750
- Darkglass 900

I mostly play clean with my band and have pedals for dirt etc.
Click to expand...

I play hard/indie/alternative rock. I mostly play clean too. I love the clean sound. I also have several dirt pedals. For me, the dirt sound from the head is very good for certain sounds. (Revised opinion from my previous post.) It has a tubey, very compressed sound to it. I generally prefer something more dynamic. It can be blended into the clean signal at whatever ratio you like. But it seems that whatever you set the dirt side for will always have the level of dirt, no matter how lightly you play. This has some advantages. If you don't want the dirt to clean up in quieter passages, this is the ticket.
 
#1,014
crguti said:
I would love to hear this head in a recording... with a band.
Click to expand...

Probably not really the style you'd want but here's a scratch track I did with the MT9's DI a couple weeks ago. This is my Spector Forte on the neck pickup (Aguilar Super Single) with just a touch of VMT dirt blended in. No other EQ or post effects.

Dropbox - DONT GIVE A DAMN 10.17 MIX.mp3

Here's another with just a tad of B3K blended in the mix. I messed up a bunch in this one so cut me some slack.

Dropbox - WEARY MIX 10.17.mp3

Last one, totally clean again with the Microtubes DI pre-EQ. Again, it's just an impromtu scratch track...no post editing or anything. It's very dry and raw.

Dropbox - Say You Will.mp3
 
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#1,015
Mokolotivet said:
..
If you only could buy one new amp, and only have one (married and still want to be), what amp would you choose?
- GK MB800 Fusion
- EBS Reidmar 750
- Darkglass 900

I mostly play clean with my band and have pedals for dirt etc.
Click to expand...
I like GK fine, but I've been using EBS for years, and like them even better. I also really like my Vintage Microtubes pedal. The only reason I haven't bought a Reidmar 750 is that my full stack is 2 Ohm, which is fine for my HD350, but the Reidmar only goes down to 4. I'm intrigued by the Darkglass, and it has the 2 Ohm mode, but it lacks a couple of things I like about the EBS - the built-in compressor, which EBS does extremely well, the sweepable mid (only one, versus 2 on the Darkglass, but the Darkglass has presets instead of sweeps), and the HPF on the input - though I suppose one could argue that with 900W of power, wasting a couple hundred watts on unmusical rumble isn't a big deal.
 
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#1,017
Sid Fang said:
I like GK fine, but I've been using EBS for years, and like them even better. I also really like my Vintage Microtubes pedal. The only reason I haven't bought a Reidmar 750 is that my full stack is 2 Ohm, which is fine for my HD350, but the Reidmar only goes down to 4. I'm intrigued by the Darkglass, and it has the 2 Ohm mode, but it lacks a couple of things I like about the EBS - the built-in compressor, which EBS does extremely well, the sweepable mid (only one, versus 2 on the Darkglass, but the Darkglass has presets instead of sweeps), and the HPF on the input - though I suppose one could argue that with 900W of power, wasting a couple hundred watts on unmusical rumble isn't a big deal.
Click to expand...


Those are valid and interesting points indeeed!
If there's a Darkglass dealer nearby I would encourage you to go and try one in person, better yet A/B it with you favorite amp (hopefully using comparable cabs).

At the end all the cool features are just tools and mechanisms that should help you sound better, for which the true and only test is plugging your bass in and let it rumble.
 
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#1,018
Darkglass said:
If there's a Darkglass dealer nearby I would encourage you to go and try one in person, better yet A/B it with you favorite amp (hopefully using comparable cabs).
Click to expand...

That's what happened to me. I walked into the store to return a pedal I purchased a week before. I walked out with the amp. (Never intended to buy a new amp.)
 
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