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Skeptical about Darkglass

#61
My always-on color is a DG B7K used sparingly (used to be a Sansamp Bass Driver). I definitely hear what you are saying about DG in a sweeping way. I use it for a little extra punch and cutting through. On the open/airy songs holding whole notes, I find it's too thin and hollow precisely because it's not fuzzy.

If you are a sucker for punishment, below are three songs from a recent basement jam recorded via iPhone velcroed to the wall. At 3:05 you can hear my go-to tone pretty well with just the drums and bass (active PJ). The next song has a lot of holding whole notes, and it just sounds anemic. The last song drops down to D standard with a passive PJ and it just sits in the mix nicely. Other effect on is a Bass Preacher compressor, Hartke LH500 head and Hartke XL 210 & 410.

RedHouse_Possum Kingdom/Yellowledbetter/Lithium
 
#62
Jonahlane said:
TLDR: Darkglass Products are incredibly dependent on what bass you feed them. Nice sounding bass with fresh strings is going to sound very different than the same bass with old strings. Notice I didn’t say expensive.
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I wonder how my vintage P with 43 y/o flats would sound through a VMT =)
 
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#64
I've got the Alpha Omicron and love what I can get out of it. Definitely noticeable in a band setting. I understand what you mean in saying that it can be too "clean," it's definitely a tight sound, especially on the Alpha side (I tend to keep the alpha/omega blend in the middle), and it's not going to get nasty.

I just received a Tomkat Violet Muffer from a fellow TB'er and I think it is one of the best fuzz pedals I have ever tried. It goes from real smooth to just gnarly and it also keeps the low end very well. You should check it out.
 
#65
bigsnack said:
Man, is it just me or does that BOSS Bass Driver sound pretty darn good? Sounds really crunchy and natural to me, color me impressed! I've never even heard of that pedal before...
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That was my first overdrive pedal. It's saving grace was that it had a blend pot. Used it for a few years; best tone I got was running it into a compressor.
 
#66
2010P said:
Lol! GReat post. So true. The inevitable backlash/falling out of favor is coming for the Darkglass sound. Hopefully DG is aware of this and making plans for something different soon. I call them the "auto-tune of the bass effect world." Such a common and boring sound nowadays.
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That’s why the Alpha Omega is my favorite.
My tone is nothing like the typical metal DG sound. The closest thing that I liked compared to it was the MBD-1

The dug and X7 cover similar ground.
The A/O is a different beast altogether.
Def gets the early FNM midrange grind/grunt. I wish there was a crossover of that circuit.

Funny you always have something really negative to say about Darkglass. It doesn’t come off an an unbiased review at all, imo.

I actually was and am ready for a new overdrive to be my thing(bought the MBD-1 in December, the X before that, and almost all the Tech21 bass and Character pedals).
Maybe you’re saying that Darkglass’ huge success has created a lot of “me too” ultramodern metal bass overdriven sounds. I can agree there. In a way, it’s the new VT Bass(I bought that one too. The SVT thing was never my sound though. I tried!)
 
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#69
@fuzzspiral - As promised here's that clip comparing my clean tone to the X7 dialed in for some clank on top without losing the fundamental. I'm playing on pressurewound strings with my fingers, so it's not as clanky as the video you posted with the Ric. But it gives you an idea of what it can do if you keep the distortion ~ 1K on the highpass. It leaves you with lots of fundamental & won't hollow or mask your bass tone if dialed in right...

 
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#71
oldskoolskatedad said:
I had been keeping an eye on DG for quite some time and though being impressed, nothing quite did it for me. Then they release the X7 and it was time to pony up. Couldn't be happier with it.
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That was me EXACTLY.

I’d had that crossover with compressed lows and dirty highs concept in my mind, and was looking at the DP3-X but couldn’t quite get on board with the lack of frequency tuning. Then X7 got announced and I couldn’t give them my money fast enough.
 
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#72
Grahams Groove said:
@fuzzspiral - As promised here's that clip comparing my clean tone to the X7 dialed in for some clank on top without losing the fundamental. I'm playing on pressurewound strings with my fingers, so it's not as clanky as the video you posted with the Ric. But it gives you an idea of what it can do if you keep the distortion ~ 1K on the highpass. It leaves you with lots of fundamental & won't hollow or mask your bass tone if dialed in right...

Click to expand...


Hey thank you! Well, this is a really good sound, the attack on the strings remains intact and as you said, the bass tone is there. I guess that a lot of big, "hollow" distorion samples I heard, were just based on personal taste of the musicians, to show the potential of the pedals, at this point. Thanks a lot, this really helped!
 
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#74
Most of what i’ve heard with the various dg’s is lack of lo-mids, crisp highs and most of the time played with dingwalls or other hi-end basses. It gets kinda boring with everyone jumping on the same tone. Still i’d like to try the x7 at some point.
But the problems i have with dg gear, is all the fan boys. There simply isn’t a bass distortion that suits everyone lol
 
#75
Have you taken into consideration a Rat clone instead?[/QUOTE]

I answered that has no enough low ends for my taste, but I've forgotten that I could pair it with the boss equalizer...since it has the grit/growl I'm looking for, I wonder how it would sound...
 
#76
fuzzspiral said:
Have you taken into consideration a Rat clone instead?
Click to expand...

I answered that has no enough low ends for my taste, but I've forgotten that I could pair it with the boss equalizer...since it has the grit/growl I'm looking for, I wonder how it would sound...[/QUOTE]

What he meant is there are lots of rat clones around, that doesn’t loose any bass. Fuzzroscious cat tail, mxr bass distortion, abominable “don’t thread on me”. Just to name a few.
 
#78
So...here we are. I've been lucky enough to try several drives/overdrives/preamps:
- Boss BB1x (nah...)
- Maxon hybrid bassdriver (nah...)
- Tech 21 Vt bass (reeeally good!)
- Darkglass Alpha Omega (big disappointment)
- Providence Brick Drive BDI-1 (the winner)
I can confirm what some of you said: the instrument you use is a huge difference on Darkglass. I tried with a Precision (similar to the one I use, in any case, passive) complete different sound from what I got used in demo videos. Tried with an active one...BOOM! Darkglass sound (and it was great...not too modern/compressed, just aggressive, a lot). Since I don't use active basses or similar I dropped it (too much money, anyway).

To the finals: Tech21 VT Bass and Providence Brick Drive. Both really good equalization and versatility. But, since I was looking for a sharp overdrive I ended up with the Providence. The VT Bass really was a close call, just too warm. The only downside: 12v (f*uck!). Power supply included but still a pain. Here a photo of the winner
 

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#79
fuzzspiral said:
In the meanwhile, I'll continue with my EBS multidrive, it's great, just too tone closed, that I like but in a mix sometimes get lost, if I don't use the boss equalizer (that it's on the board just to support him :whistle: )
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I'm considering this combination as I already have a Boss EQ and tempted to get the EBS Multidrive (or the metal drive). What do you mean by "tone closed"? How's the tone together? Thinking of this combination or a B3K (i like a grindy mid focussed distortion). Any thoughts?
 
#80
So are you now able to dial up that wicked tone from the video you posted?

fuzzspiral said:
So...here we are. I've been lucky enough to try several drives/overdrives/preamps:
- Boss BB1x (nah...)
- Maxon hybrid bassdriver (nah...)
- Tech 21 Vt bass (reeeally good!)
- Darkglass Alpha Omega (big disappointment)
- Providence Brick Drive BDI-1 (the winner)
I can confirm what some of you said: the instrument you use is a huge difference on Darkglass. I tried with a Precision (similar to the one I use, in any case, passive) complete different sound from what I got used in demo videos. Tried with an active one...BOOM! Darkglass sound (and it was great...not too modern/compressed, just aggressive, a lot). Since I don't use active basses or similar I dropped it (too much money, anyway).

To the finals: Tech21 VT Bass and Providence Brick Drive. Both really good equalization and versatility. But, since I was looking for a sharp overdrive I ended up with the Providence. The VT Bass really was a close call, just too warm. The only downside: 12v (f*uck!). Power supply included but still a pain. Here a photo of the winner
Click to expand...
 

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