bjelkeman

[quote name='Jorduan' timestamp='1487545312' post='3240724'] Just to put this to bed - today I splashed out on the BK3. First impressions are very good, a big upgrade from what I had before! I am already intriguing by the BK7 though!! [/quote] Woukd even cool to hear more about how it turns out.

[quote name='DiMarco' timestamp='1486859574' post='3235157'] The older class D amps were souped up mono hi-fi amplifiers. Never liked any of them. This one is rather interesting. My 500w Tech21 doesn't go loud enough with a Barefaced bigtwin II. I just wonder if 900w will be enough to keep up with my 250w all valve head, which can get insanely loud. [/quote] What cabs are you driving with that? I run my M900 with dual TKS W2126 (two twelves and a six, 4 ohm cabs). This stack gets very loud. I also have a Mesa M9. I haven't A/B tested them for max volume, but there really is no need. Both are more than enough. The guitarist plays a Marshall tube amp with a 4x12, a noisy drummer, sometimes with a second guitarist on a 4x10 and I am barely tapping into the M900s potential.

I have tried one of the prototypes. I wrote this about it, at that "other forum" [quote] To those that follow the Darkglass pedal thread, it will come as no surprise that Doug is working with Jon Stockman on a new pedal. I was a bit naively thinking that I had heard what I needed from Darkglass when it comes to distortion pedals and I have a B7K and a VMT. After all, the BXK/VMT/Duality fuzz are no slouches in this space. So when I heard that a signature pedal was coming, I arrogantly thought I wouldn't need it as I have a B7K and VMT. Boy was I wrong! The new pedal is something different, again. From clean to brutal bass … soundscapes? I am sure I haven't heard anything like it before. (But then I haven't listened to Karnivool before.) If you like distorted bass, there is going to be some real goodies in there, quite a few actually. The prototype pedal was amazingly versatile. More so than both the B7K and VMT I think.[/quote] Rest assured that I am getting one.

Not gone back, but after getting a Darkglass M900, which I really like, I can't make myself get rid of my Mesa Carbine M9. I alternate between using them.

[color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]I finally got to practice with the M900 properly. As others have pointed out, it is a loud amp. And sounds good it does. It is punchy, powerful and can deliver on the rock/metal front with no compromise. The clean tone is great, with an honest representation of your bass guitar's sound.[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]But it is when your dial in a bit of grit or throathyness with the VMT or B3K, that it really shines. (I don't do flat out bass distortion, like you see in a lot of demos. I like that part of the BXK sound, but it isn't for this band.) At practice I didn't use my B7K as I normally do in front of my goto-amp, a Mesa Carbine M9, but just used the M900 plus the inbuilt B3K. The preamp tone controls are really good, and I just boosted a bit of bass and dialled down the treble (I had new strings on) and it was perfect. I think in fact it is a bit brighter than my B7K+M9, as I normally have to pull up both the mids a bit.[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Compared to my normal setup it is also less noisy. The B7K into my M9 with mids dialled up can be a bit on the noisy side. Not so the M900.[/font][/color] [color=#141414][font=verdana, geneva, lucida,]Very happy about the amp.[/font][/color]

So the other day i got pinged by someone who had a friend who had bought an Ibanez bass that he had changed his mind on. I am known around the community as someone who collects Ibanez basses from "the golden age", i.e. 1979-1985. So people regularly tipp me off on things that might be of interest. It turns out it was a bass I had missed bidding on in a sale from a pawnshop earlier on. Which turned out to be fortunate, as I was offered to buy it at the price he bought it, otherwise I would have ended up driving the price up with my bids. A few nicks on the body, but otherwise in really good shape. I cleaned up the frets on it today and put new strings on it. Very nice indeed. I have an Ibanez Musician MC800, which has the same pickup placement which I really like. So this suites me really well. My small amp is at the practice space so I haven't really heard it yet, but acoustically it sounds like this will be great. [url=https://flic.kr/p/NFoLGE][/url]

Lovely! Really like that colour. I have a black 960 and haven't actually seen a wine burst before.

[quote name='nash' timestamp='1477942620' post='3165439'] Seriously considering buying one of these. Does it have the weight of tone similar to a class A solid state? [/quote] I haven't had lots of time testing it yet, but at least in some tonal ranges (lots of mid), the M900 approaches my Mesa Carbine M9 in behaviour. They aren't the same, but considering that I really like having a Darkglass preamp in front of my M9 normally, the M900 is going to be my lightweight amp for when the M9 isn't practical to shlepp. The M900 is punchy, loud, quick. The M9 is too, but somewhat gnarlier in a smoother, more organic, way, with the gain cranked up. The M900 is edgier, and will clip at very high volumes in a way the M9 doesn't. (But all class D do?) Two great amps. And then I haven't taken the Darkglass preamp effects into account yet. I If I can only add something small to a backline, the it will be a Darkglass B7K. If I can bring a whole rig it will probably include the M9, but the M900 can do both, and really well too I think.

Doug has said (and I am paraphrasing) that he wants to make gear nobody else makes. He even cancelled a pedal that was too my like other pedals on the market. Even though they where pretty far along with the design. Making an amp with a tuner really doesn't seem like him, to me. Lots of companies make tuners. Several make amps with tuners. I doubt Darkglass ever will.

UnPacking a Darkglass Microtubes 900. [url=https://flic.kr/p/MYoZt2][/url] [url=https://flic.kr/p/MYoZw8][/url] [url=https://flic.kr/p/MYoZDx][/url] [url=https://flic.kr/p/MNgU3J][/url] [url=https://flic.kr/p/MYoZf6][/url] [url=https://flic.kr/p/MYoZ68][/url] [url=https://flic.kr/p/MYoYS2][/url] [url=https://flic.kr/p/MYoZnv][/url]

Well. I picked mine up at Darkglass' workshop today. I have only tried it at home yet, but I think I am going to enjoy this.

Oh, very nice. I have been looking for one like that for a while.

Darkglass 700 release in July: http://darkglass.com/2016/03/31/mark-your-calendar/#comment-667

[quote name='Kev' timestamp='1456860512' post='2993012'] He also tends to get too excited to keep things secret [/quote] Haha True.

Thanks.

I played one of the prototypes last Thursday at Darkglass. This amp is going to replace my other micro. Maybe even become my main amp. It was really very good.

You may enjoy this post about a visit I made last week to Darkglass, including a 20 minute interview with Doug Castro. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/280043-a-visit-to-darkglass-electronics-february-2016/

A year and a half ago I visited Darkglass Electronics in their workshop in Helsinki and [url=http://basschat.co.uk/topic/249803-visit-to-darkglass-electronics-helsinki/page__p__2615421__hl__visit]wrote a post about it[/url]. Yesterday it was time for another visit. Doug and the Darkglass team has produced so much new cool stuff that I couldn't wait any longer. (You have figured out already I am really interested in the new Darkglass 700, right? Disclaimer: I am a Darkglass fan.) Doug kindly let me and my friend Loïc, come and visit their new offices in central Helsinki and we spent half the day with them. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffIbsF1yxpc[/youtube] [i]Video interview with Doug Castro, Darkglass Electronics, February 2016. The interview contains things which are only touched on below, or not even talked about at all. So you better watch it. [/i] Since we saw Doug the last time Darkglass has released a ton of new stuff. They have refreshed the products with new milled aluminium unibody casings. If you haven't seem them, they are really nice. Most pedals have also have had minor improvements. The Super Symmetry compressor pedal, which he told us about last time, has been released and been very well received. The on-board preamp, Tone Capsule, can be found in Dingwall basses. The Vintage Deluxe is out. And finally, the much sought after two foot-switch B7K Ultra has just started shipping (a huge batch left the day before we were there). Doug showed us circuit board designs for it when we were there last time, but of course, I couldn't talk about it then. [url=https://flic.kr/p/E4YWjs][/url] [i]Darkglass Vintage Deluxe pedals ready for packaging. [/i] The new Darkglass offices are nice and airy, and there is a persistent sound of baselines being played as each pedal is extensively tested. More space for storage of components means better ability to do logistics. All pedals are assembled, tested, packed and shipped from the Helsinki workshop. The cases are milled locally and the laser etching on the pedals are also done in Finland. A nice new touch on the newer pedals are that the serial number is etched into the backplate on the outside. [url=https://flic.kr/p/EnSxLX][/url] The team is quite a lot bigger since we visited last time. Which has allowed more work to go into better logistics, analysing issues with production and making sure what goes out the door holds consistently high quality. Of course, occasionally a pedal goes out the door which needs attention. But if you have spent any time in the TalkBass forums you know Doug and his team are paying close attention to issues and help out quickly when something goes wrong. [url=https://flic.kr/p/EtMp45][/url] [i]Pedal assembly.[/i] [b]Darkglass 700[/b] – One of the things that really excited me before NAMM this year, the US music gear show, was that the rumours flew high and low that Darkglass would release an amplifier. I knew an amplifier was coming, but not if it would be ready for NAMM. In the end it wasn't ready for shipping, but they demonstrated prototypes of the new Darkglass 700 amp and everything I read about it was that it was good. There were a bunch of relatively poor video clips from the show. And I can tell you, those clips do not do the amp justice. Not at all. [url=https://flic.kr/p/Eu9GFg][/url] [i]Darkglass 700 amplifier. Darkglass 410 speaker cabinet. [/i] I had the privilege to test play the amp in Doug's office, whilst Doug was going through the settings as I played, explaining what he was trying to achieve with it. And damn, if that isn't going to be a real best seller, I'll be really surprised. I don't really have anything new to tell, but for those of you that have missed it the amp will deliver 700 watts at 4 ohms, 1000 watts at 2.7 ohms. It will have the B3K and Vintage Microtubes effects built in. It is built as an all aluminium body with no fan and the whole body acts as a heatsink. Doug was showing me how it behaves thermally with an infrared camera. I tested it with a Tone Capsule equipped bass, but heard it with a few other basses as well. Just going straight the amp has a very DI like clean tone. What you hear is what your bass delivers. Anyone who is interested in studio clean, punchy tone really should have a look at this beast. I think you will be surprised. When you apply the effects, you get what you expect, the signature Darkglass sound with an amazing amount of brawn to it. (Explaining tone with words is like dancing the colours of the rainbow, but heck we try.) The amp can be brutal, clean and anything in between, where the Vintage sounds allows a "modern old-school sound" and the B3K sound gives you that metal bass you don't get anywhere else. Your going to love it, or hate it. I don't think you can be indifferent to it. [url=https://flic.kr/p/EnSyNB][/url] [i]PCBs ready to be assembled into pedals.[/i] Doug has a few more tweaks to make to the amp, before it is ready and there will probably be one more round of prototypes before the production models are built. I think most people will be happy with the relatively small changes, but I am not going to say anything about now. As it as I think it is best if Doug has the space he needs to get it done right, without me setting expectations about things that may change a month from now. With a bit of luck, a friend, who is a bassist, a huge tech nerd and a technical editor for a hi-fi magazine will get to test one of the next round of prototypes and we will write a comprehensive review. [url=https://flic.kr/p/DVjhFe][/url] [i]Doug picking some basses to do some testing with[/i] [b]Darkglass speaker cabinets[/b] – I think something which took everyone by surprise was the fact that Darkglass showed speaker cabinets alongside the amplifier. They showed 2x10 and 4x10 cabinets, at 4 ohms each. The speakers are custom made ceramic from Eminence. The cabinet comes with a tweeter and an adjustable crossover. Most tweeters don't sound particularly great with the distortion form Darkglass pedals, so the crossover has been designed specifically to work well with the Darkglass distortion frequencies. And I can say it works. I only had a chance to play the amplifier with the 4x10 cabinet and it is of course hard to tell what it will sound like with a different cabinet, but clearly it was good with this. The 4x10 was punchy, deep and had the power which could be felt. But of course, we were in an office where nobody minds loud bass, but not a sound proofed practice space. Doug mentioned that he was hoping to ship them in both 4 ohm and 8 ohm configurations, so you could get a two times 4x10 stack, or easier to transport two times 2x10 if you wanted. Although I think 2x10 or 4x10 will be plenty for most situations. [url=https://flic.kr/p/EtNGe4][/url] [i]A peak into the creators workshop. This is where days and weeks of trying, failing, and trying again, turns into sound magic. My friend Loïc and Doug.[/i] [b]New signature pedal: Jon Stockman, Karnivool[/b] – To those that follow the Darkglass pedal thread on TalkBass, it will come as no surprise that Doug is working with Jon Stockman on a new pedal. I was a bit naively thinking that I had heard what I needed from Darkglass when it comes to distortion pedals and I have a B7K and a VMT. After all, the BXK/VMT/Duality fuzz are no slouches in this space. So when I heard that a signature pedal was coming, I arrogantly thought I wouldn't need it as I have a B7K and VMT. Boy was I wrong! The new pedal is something different, again. From clean to brutal bass … soundscapes? I am sure I haven't heard anything like it before. (But then I haven't listened to Karnivool before.) If you like distorted bass, there is going to be some real goodies in there, quite a few actually. The prototype pedal was amazingly versatile. More so than both the B7K and VMT I think. The only consoling factor is that if I get a 700, I suppose I could sell either the VMT or the B7K, as both will be in the amp, so I can get a Stockman pedal too. Of course, Darkglass wouldn't be Darkglass if there wasn't more in the works. Some really rather exciting things actually. But, we'll leave that to the next visit I think. Thanks to Doug and the whole Darkglass team for all the cool creations and the hospitality. [url=https://flic.kr/p/E4ZBbf][/url] [i]Secret project being unpacked. Even unfinished this sounded amazing.[/i]

[quote name='PauBass' timestamp='1454784021' post='2972999'] It would be even better if it had a double footswitch so you could toggle between the B7K and Vintage circuits as well as go clean. [/quote] I suggested it to Doug and he said : [quote]That is a very reasonable request and I thought about it. The main drag there would be that in order to have LEDs in the Footswitch we would need to use a special connector/cable which makes things more complex and expensive. If now the cable fails sourcing a 1/4" mono or TRS cable is super easy. Not so much if it's a din 4 pin.[/quote] [URL="http://www.talkbass.com/threads/darkglass-microtubes-700-class-d-amp.1200895/page-22#post-18313439"]Darkglass Microtubes 700 Class D Amp foot switch discussion[/URL] So I think it is still a possibility.

[quote]Not really. We focused on getting the best sounding cabs we could. The 410 is very compact but it weighs about 80lbs. How it turned out its worth the extra weight. We'll probably do some lightweight Nes once the cabs get rolling.[/quote] Found the reference: http://www.talkbass.com/threads/darkglass-microtubes-700-class-d-amp.1200895/page-21#post-18297292

Thanks Wolverinebass! Doug from Darkglass said the Darglass cabs so far are 210 and 410s. I know Tommy has been testing 10s, but he wasn't convinced I think. But the Doug said somewhere (FB, Talkbass, can't remember) that they where quite heavy cabinets. I can't imagine Tommy building a heavy cabinet. So my guess it isn't a TKS Darkglass collaboration. However much I think it would be cool.