I just De-Darkglassed

[OptimalOptimus]

I love my vintage ultra. It can give soft distortion or more crazy but it is less extreme than BK or the Alpha Oméga

 

[redstrand]

So for the first time in 5 years my board has no Darkglass on it, and for some reason it feels kind of......... liberating.......anybody else shared a similar experience?

Over that 5 years I've had:
Alpha Omicron (X2)
Alpha Omega
Alpha Omega Ultra
B3K (X2)
B7K
B7K Ultra
B7K Ultra v2
Harmonic Booster v2
Hyper Luminal (X2)
VMT (x3)
X
X7

And here is my current board (that needs tidying up) minus a blender and wah which are still to come.
View attachment 4058503

But but but you still have room.........

 

[SidNitzerglobin]

The B7K wasn't my cup of tea so it found a new home but I've loved the Vintage Deluxe.

 

[ole Jason]

I still love the Luminal comp but I'm pretty over the distorted Darkglass tones. Just kind of played out at this point after so many years.

 

[Matt Dean]

I still love the Luminal comp but I'm pretty over the distorted Darkglass tones. Just kind of played out at this point after so many years.

This is where I'm at as well. Still rocking the Luminal, but have moved on to dirt that more fits my style.

 

[deff]

This is where I'm at as well. Still rocking the Luminal, but have moved on to dirt that more fits my style.

I find this odd, because I never used any of the DG pedals to sound like Nolly or whatever Djent du jour player. I've always found their stuff to be pretty versatile.

 

[SunByrne]

This is where I'm at as well. Still rocking the Luminal, but have moved on to dirt that more fits my style.

I also have a Hyper Luminal, and I have no issues with it—does what it's supposed to do and sounds good doing it.

I do have a Duality fuzz that gets basically no use but I haven't bothered to actually take it off my board. Got it for half price last year for Black Friday, but I've decided it's not the fuzz for me. (I actually like some of the tones, but the deal-breakers is that there's no sustain control.)

I dunno, they're just pedals, I don't see it as a cult thing—if DG makes a pedal that I think fits a sound I'm looking for, I'll get it. If the pedal ends up not working for me, no big deal. If it does work out, it stays. Seems pretty simple. I think people are over-thinking this.

 

[Hypocrite]

"cult" "played out" "generic" "kool aid"

We finally get an easy to achieve tone that can be heard in a dense metal mix, and y'all do nothing but complain.

 

[DrMole]

I find this odd, because I never used any of the DG pedals to sound like Nolly or whatever Djent du jour player. I've always found their stuff to be pretty versatile.

Agreed.

I utilized the dirt on B7K ultra II, when first arrived but find I have the distortion off at least half the time.

Not that I don't like the tone- I like the variety
of tones one can achieve.

- Just that the B7k and Hyperluminal that precedes it on the board- are far from one-trick ponies.

 

[misterCRUSH]

The only two pedals on my board are the hyper luminal and the microtubes B7K ultra v2. I am a jazz player, so I only run it clean and primarily use it to boost and pinpoint the mids for my fretless basses. I am really happy with both pedals. Congratulations on finding what works for you, I guess that's really the whole point anyway..

 

[sotua]

I never really joined the cult myself. The tone in my head is less "Djent/metal" than most of their stuff. I initially thought their Vintage Microtubes was my thing, but as it turns out, my thing is somewhere in between those two.

We all have our sensibilities. While Darkglass definitely makes good stuff, they can't be everything to everyone. Welcome to the non-Darkglass club.

Bolded for truth! I hear Darkglass demos and promo clips, and people using it, and it sounds to my ears really, really great. And absolutely nothing like the sound I want/need for my bass playing (as opposed to bass-listening) skills. I think I've used a DG pedal once (playing a cover of Muse's Hysteria) but otherwise it doesn't really fit my needs.

 

[PhatBottomBass1]

I am fine using the Darkglass components that work for what I am doing in the context of the band. Solid useable tones, when needed.

My system has a massive amount of flexibility designed into the sound chain, pedal locations, output stages, amplification option availability. All well made tools in the chest.

I run the Booster, Hyper Luminal and OctaBass upfront, then into the Trilobite. The insert loop goes to the best Fuzzz I've ever heard applied to the Bass guitar. The NEW Catalinbread Giygas set in Bass mode. Then the B3K to the Vintage Ultra and out to one channel of the SA EQ2 with a gate set then to the Broughton Always On HPF under the board and back to the Trilobite.

I keep the Modulation/Delay effects in the Parallel Loop using the second independent channel on the EQ2 without a gate set. The FX loop is in/out switchable from the Trilobite.

Darkglass definitely works for me, but doesn't dominate the "one sound fits all situations" that many players hope to find or over use.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I love the quality of Darkglass gear, but never could gel with the baked in tone. I would love it if they came out with something that was B-15 / SVT in nature and more focused on clean into saturated tones.

 

[Funky_Be]

I don't play metal or heavy music anymore but it seems like everyone that does has some sort of Darkglass pedal/amp/preamp... To me it's kinda lame when everybody is using the exact same gear and sounding exactly the same.

That being said the Darkglass stuff sounds amazing for that style of music so I don't know lol... Do what ever makes you happy : )

 

[SunByrne]

I don't play metal or heavy music anymore but it seems like everyone that does has some sort of Darkglass pedal/amp/preamp... To me it's kinda lame when everybody is using the exact same gear and sounding exactly the same.

Gotta love TB. 75% of the site is "oh, gotta play a Fender P with flats" and that's perfectly OK, but some subset favors a particular brand of pedal, and that's "lame" because "everybody sounds exactly the same."

 

[Frety_Kruger]

I had $400 Alpha omega ultra. Wasn't expressed for the price.

 

[Obese Chess]

I still use the Neural DSP Darkglass plugin because I love the tones it gets, in particular the clean tones and cab sims, but I'm thinking about replacing the B7K on my board - it just has this very subtle top end "fizz" that I don't enjoy. I am going to A/B it with a Mr. Black Thunderclaw and a Pike Vulcan (I know, I know) and see if anything gets me close to that sound without that same bit of fizziness. It's also a relentlessly noisy pedal and I have to almost dime my noise gate to get it to shut up, even at low gain settings.

 

[Rojd]

Out of the various pedals on my board, 2 are Darkglass. I have a Microtubes X and a Duality Fuzz. I like the sounds I get out of them whenever that's what I'm looking for. It's great to have a variety to choose from depending on what you like.

 

[BigCactus]

Gotta love TB. 75% of the site is "oh, gotta play a Fender P with flats" and that's perfectly OK, but some subset favors a particular brand of pedal, and that's "lame" because "everybody sounds exactly the same."

THANK YOU. Don’t work so hard to be different that you lose sight of the simpler goal, sounding good.

if you roll off the distortion on a Microtubes B7k, it’s just a very effective tone shaping preamp that helps you cut through the mix. No need to make bad metalcore with it, just let your bass be present and powerful

 

[Cave Puppy]

The DG sound never gelled with me. Too many choices plus I couldn't read the graphics. I'm old.