Like a lot of people that play hard rock or metal, I've experimented with Darkglass pedals, but they never quite worked out for me. That said, I've been keeping my eye on their cabs for the past few years. The youtube samples have always sounded great, but I never had the chance to hear them in real life.
Fast forward a bit and I'm in the situation of looking to pair up a new cab to my Mesa WD-800. As we all know, the Mesa cabs are unicorns right now (not a criticism, just reality). I did see the Subway 215 cab in stock a few times, but I just couldn't justify the price after taxes etc. I also wanted to be able to trade in gear towards the purchase.
A local GC had the DG212N in stock, so I brought in my old cabs (GK CX115, Peavey 1516 with an Eminence CA154 15" in it), had a quick play through of the DG212N they had in the store, and was pretty impressed. I had them ship me a new one from the warehouse and it arrived in perfect condition.
Construction/looks:
-I thought the silver weave tolex was pretty sharp in the pictures, but wasn't sure how I'd like it long term. So far so good. It's a little more subdued in-person and looks great.
-Light as per the specs, but feels solid.
-Handles are in a good location for transporting.
-Tweeter dial has a good feel to it.
-The grill is on there tight. There is the tab at the bottom, but I felt like I was going to rip it off if I tried any harder - oh well, it stays sealed for now.
Tone:
-It has a neutral/flat tone, which comes across as mid forward.
-The tweeter isn't harsh and is more a treble volume knob for the cab instead of really altering how it sounds. I play with a pick so I've settled on about 10:30 for now (12:00 being the "flat" setting).
-There is a roundness to the notes even with it having strong mids.
-THUNDEROUS low end, but not boomy.
-Tight and punchy, but the roundness mentioned above prevents it from being obnoxiously so.
First few hours impression:
The last 212 I played was a long time ago - a GK Neo 212 from either the first or second generation of that line. Since then I've been mostly playing various 15's. I know technology advances, but I never would have imaged that a 212 could sound like this. I don't have any other present day 212s to compare it to, but WOW. The absolute authority that this cab solidly dishes out notes with is something else. The low end is focused cannon shots going off. I wouldn't say that this cab has the traditional sub sub-lows voicing/more enveloping sub-lows of a 15 or 18, but you still feel it and it ate my B string for breakfast. If you use a HPF you may not notice it anyway.
Pairing with heads/basses:
You can clearly hear the characteristics of different amps or basses you put through it, but you can definitely also tell you are playing the DG212N. This may or may not jive with some people. That said, while I think that it sounds great on its own, I would absolutely call this a "mix cab". I normally keep strong mids in my tone anyway, but I found myself being able to scoop the mids on my amp without causing the normal issues.
In the mix:
I'm not playing with anyone currently, so my very non-scientific method is to turn off my stereo's sub-woofer, turn it up to a level that probably should require earplugs and give it a rip playing along. No matter how I EQ'd my amp or adjusted my tone knob on my bass, I cut through. Even with the tone rolled all the way off and mids and treble cut pretty hard on my amp, my notes still poked through. This is very musical, though and it cut while sitting in the mix at the same time.
I had read on here that the cab was a bit directional as far as projection and that's true to a certain extent. Going from about 6ft directly in front of the cab, to about 45 degrees off the corner of the cab and 8ft away, there was a drop in volume. What was lost was the boom of the lows and high end dynamics (string noise etc.) - it just sounded like the tone was cleaned up a bunch. Those elements would probably be lost somewhat in a band setting anyway.
Moving forward - keeping it?
Yes. I really think this cab is something special, but I can also see people not liking it at first listen - you gotta hear it in the mix to truly appreciate it. I'll say that this is a cab to build your tone around. In the Bass - Amp - Cab balancing act of brightness vs darkness, it might be too much if your amp and bass are already really bright.
I'm in that situation a bit right now. My bass has a maple fret board with stainless steel frets with Aguilar DCB pickups installed - clear and bright. The Mesa WD-800, while having that tube pre-amp to give it great character, is full of clarity and its natural voice is strong in the mids/bright (IMO, YMMV). While the DG212N presents these two in a wonderful light, I might actually prefer an amp with a little less clarity/is a bit darker through it.
I haven't even had this cab a full week yet, so I'll be trying different EQ settings on the WD-800, but I wouldn't be surprised if I find myself trying out some different amp pairings in the future as well.
Fast forward a bit and I'm in the situation of looking to pair up a new cab to my Mesa WD-800. As we all know, the Mesa cabs are unicorns right now (not a criticism, just reality). I did see the Subway 215 cab in stock a few times, but I just couldn't justify the price after taxes etc. I also wanted to be able to trade in gear towards the purchase.
A local GC had the DG212N in stock, so I brought in my old cabs (GK CX115, Peavey 1516 with an Eminence CA154 15" in it), had a quick play through of the DG212N they had in the store, and was pretty impressed. I had them ship me a new one from the warehouse and it arrived in perfect condition.
Construction/looks:
-I thought the silver weave tolex was pretty sharp in the pictures, but wasn't sure how I'd like it long term. So far so good. It's a little more subdued in-person and looks great.
-Light as per the specs, but feels solid.
-Handles are in a good location for transporting.
-Tweeter dial has a good feel to it.
-The grill is on there tight. There is the tab at the bottom, but I felt like I was going to rip it off if I tried any harder - oh well, it stays sealed for now.
Tone:
-It has a neutral/flat tone, which comes across as mid forward.
-The tweeter isn't harsh and is more a treble volume knob for the cab instead of really altering how it sounds. I play with a pick so I've settled on about 10:30 for now (12:00 being the "flat" setting).
-There is a roundness to the notes even with it having strong mids.
-THUNDEROUS low end, but not boomy.
-Tight and punchy, but the roundness mentioned above prevents it from being obnoxiously so.
First few hours impression:
The last 212 I played was a long time ago - a GK Neo 212 from either the first or second generation of that line. Since then I've been mostly playing various 15's. I know technology advances, but I never would have imaged that a 212 could sound like this. I don't have any other present day 212s to compare it to, but WOW. The absolute authority that this cab solidly dishes out notes with is something else. The low end is focused cannon shots going off. I wouldn't say that this cab has the traditional sub sub-lows voicing/more enveloping sub-lows of a 15 or 18, but you still feel it and it ate my B string for breakfast. If you use a HPF you may not notice it anyway.
Pairing with heads/basses:
You can clearly hear the characteristics of different amps or basses you put through it, but you can definitely also tell you are playing the DG212N. This may or may not jive with some people. That said, while I think that it sounds great on its own, I would absolutely call this a "mix cab". I normally keep strong mids in my tone anyway, but I found myself being able to scoop the mids on my amp without causing the normal issues.
In the mix:
I'm not playing with anyone currently, so my very non-scientific method is to turn off my stereo's sub-woofer, turn it up to a level that probably should require earplugs and give it a rip playing along. No matter how I EQ'd my amp or adjusted my tone knob on my bass, I cut through. Even with the tone rolled all the way off and mids and treble cut pretty hard on my amp, my notes still poked through. This is very musical, though and it cut while sitting in the mix at the same time.
I had read on here that the cab was a bit directional as far as projection and that's true to a certain extent. Going from about 6ft directly in front of the cab, to about 45 degrees off the corner of the cab and 8ft away, there was a drop in volume. What was lost was the boom of the lows and high end dynamics (string noise etc.) - it just sounded like the tone was cleaned up a bunch. Those elements would probably be lost somewhat in a band setting anyway.
Moving forward - keeping it?
Yes. I really think this cab is something special, but I can also see people not liking it at first listen - you gotta hear it in the mix to truly appreciate it. I'll say that this is a cab to build your tone around. In the Bass - Amp - Cab balancing act of brightness vs darkness, it might be too much if your amp and bass are already really bright.
I'm in that situation a bit right now. My bass has a maple fret board with stainless steel frets with Aguilar DCB pickups installed - clear and bright. The Mesa WD-800, while having that tube pre-amp to give it great character, is full of clarity and its natural voice is strong in the mids/bright (IMO, YMMV). While the DG212N presents these two in a wonderful light, I might actually prefer an amp with a little less clarity/is a bit darker through it.
I haven't even had this cab a full week yet, so I'll be trying different EQ settings on the WD-800, but I wouldn't be surprised if I find myself trying out some different amp pairings in the future as well.
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