Darkglass opinions

[nomis]

Hi all,

(please point me in the right direction if this has already been covered!)

I'm considering a big ol' overhaul on my rig. I currently use a AD200 and orange 410 with couple of pedals for drive (big muff, three way sansamp and tone hammer pedal).

For smaller gigs, I sometimes don't bother with the amp and go through straight through the PA VIA the tone hammer.

I'm looking for something that I can get some pretty versatile sounds through that doesn't weigh a tonne and I can use direct without a cab if needed so I can shed some pedals - and that's where I have spied the darkglass.

In principle, I think its perfect for what I want however a lot of the demos seem to be active pickups and metal! I play things right across the board so I don't want to pigeonhole myself with an amp that can only do one thing. I play a 59 (RI) P bass and the vintage MT side of the amp seems to appeal to me (I don't have a good reason for that!)

Soooo, now I have got round the houses, who uses one and do you play non-djent?

 

EDIT: I realise I didn't actually say which product I was asking about! Either the 500 or 900w amp.

Edited February 9, 2018 by nomis

[fretmeister]

M900 for me.

At the moment my main gig is big band jazz and modern orchestral arrangements of pop tunes and film themes.

The amp is superb 

[Cuzzie]

I’ve had the M900 amp, and I have no complaints about it, great EQ on the clean side.

The drive channel ultimately was not my thing, but you can still get a useable sound without it being modern metal for other types of music. Don’t let the oodles of demos fool you, it’s not a pigeonholed amp and will work across genres. 

I have had not just the amp butbthe VMt and b7k Pedals. If you do want a vintage sound you may find you prefer the b3k circuit, VMT can be a little mushy.

I moved mine on for something else, because there was another sound and set up I wanted.

You can’t hate the amp, I don’t know anyone that won’t like it, and you may love it, but ultimately you have to play it to see if it’s you, we can’t tell you that.

if you want and alternative with an inbuilt drive channel look at the Genzler Magellan 800, that is also very good.

[Musicman20]

I imagine the clean channels could be anyone’s taste, but the dirt is, IMO, very specific and very DG modern shred....not my cup of tea at all.

[machinehead]

Another good option if you want a clean sound with the option of some drive is the EBS Reidmar 750.  It'a a superb amp at a very good price.

Frank.

[Al Krow]

+1 for the M900

Clean channel

The clean channel is awesome and provides all the headroom (and that 'heft' folk refer to) you are ever likely to need for pretty much all venues that don't have an in-house sound system.

The EQ section is perhaps the best available on any D class amp at a similar (or cheaper) price point on the market today, with very usable and versatile EQ centre points: 

Bass - 80Hz

Low mids - toggle switch optionality centring at 250, 500 or 750 Hz

High mids - 750Hz, 1.5kHz and 3kHz

Treble - 5kHz

If I was to find any room for improvement in the above it would be to have a toggle switch for the Bass to also give the option of centring at 60Hz; but hey really starting to split hairs, right? DG have pretty much nailed the EQ.

This clean channel alone IMO makes the amp worth getting for the price (particularly if you can get a mint condition one second hand - which I was lucky enough to do; there were several that came up in the latter part of last year and seem to have all been snapped up).

Drive channel

I'm definitely not in a metal band either (actually I'm playing in two covers bands).

Like many of us I'm still looking for that elusive dirt pedal (having tried several thus far, but nowhere near as many as our resident dirt boy guru @dannybuoy, who is also a M900 owner). I initially found the DG dirt to have too much top end fizz (which was not massively dissimilar to the Channel B dirt on my Two Notes Le Bass), however this was partly down to bright / aggressive Nord pups (which I love) on my Ibby SR combining with a very articulate and responsive VK 210 which has a tweeter. The DG dirt has a 'Tone' control which is essentially an LPF and allows you to cut out the top end fizz, and that combined with adjusting the tweeter crossover on the VK cab got me 85% of the way there, and has allowed me to move on several dirt pedals including my 2Notes, One Control HGBM and TC Mojomojo. 

What I've found interesting is that for cabs with a warmer tone e.g. my Markbass 1x12 which has a tendency to roll off the high-end or with a P-bass rather than a J bass, the high end fizz disappears entirely and actually the high end presence of the DG dirt comes into its own and becomes a plus rather than a minus.

The drive channel (which is not a standalone but feeds in seamlessly to the clean channel and clean EQ) also has a clean blend to allow you keep as much 'clean' bass in the signal as you wish which is very helpful in maintaining the low end.

So having come to the amp as someone pretty sceptical about the DG dirt sound (but convinced that it had one of the best clean power-amps and EQs on the market today), I find myself being pleasantly surprised by the dirt channel (which is effectively £400 worth of DG pedals) too - always nice when that happens!

Intelligent foot-switch

Really handy to be able to engage dirt or mute via a compact stomp box foot-switch which is included in the price.

I personally also like the fact that (IMO!) it's been beautifully designed.

Hope that helps.

...I'm still on the look out for that elusive dirt pedal though  

Edited March 11, 2018 by Al Krow

[winterfire666]

i cant fault the m900, i use it with a marshall dbs 4x12 for a thrash band and with a barefaced super 12 t for a melodic metal band, i use very different sounds for both and it nails them both equally well

i love to play a bit of reggae at home too and have no problem getting a great sound for this with the clean channel

that dirt channel just barely on as a gain boost is superb too, just brings the bass parts alive and to the front of the mix a little more in a live situation

[Higgie]

Love this amp. Powerful, light, versatile and reliable. After buying one to give it a whirl, I bought the next one that came up for sale, so that I'd always have a backup. I don't really use the distortion channel with the gigs i'm doing at the moment, but safe to say there are some great tones in there too! I like the Tone control. I had both the VMT and B3K pedals and sold them both because I actually liked their M900 counterparts more than the pedals themselves!

[Dan Dare]

If you're spending that kind of money, go and try some and ignore us. We all suffer from confirmation bias. I bought my present head after comparing it with others. It was one I hadn't even considered prior to trying it.

[Cuzzie]

@Dan Dare I cannot agree more

[Bigwan]

I owned the M900 for a while before deciding going to in-ears was probably a better use of my money. It's a fantastic amp. As @Higgie says, the tone control is the secret sauce of the amp, and makes it much more pleasing to use than the B*K or Vintage pedals - I bought the Vintage Ultra after the M900 and it just wasn't as nice. It's a really versatile design, but be aware it has its quirks - like the volume control controlling the DI output level, something that was corrected in the M500.

[TheGreek]

I had one for about a month - since I don't want a "dirty" sound I couldn't justify having half an amp I wasn't going to use so I traded it. 

Some rave about having two of the best bass pedals in the world built in (£300 each) but if you don't use them, they're superfluous.

If you're after a "dirty" tone, give them serious consideration, if not you may want to think about something else. I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions.

[fretmeister]

On 10/02/2018 at 11:40, Musicman20 said:

I imagine the clean channels could be anyone’s taste, but the dirt is, IMO, very specific and very DG modern shred....not my cup of tea at all.

I don't find that at all.

 

The 2 drive circuits are very different and the use of a tone control rather than swtiches makes it much more versatile than the pedals. No doubt that's why the V2 versions of the pedals have been changed to that option.

 

I'm using the drive in big band. tone low, drive level low. Just a bit of vintage warmth - and I'm using the B3K circuit and not the vintage one.

 

B15 tone all day long.

[Al Krow]

19 hours ago, TheGreek said:

If you're after a "dirty" tone, give them serious consideration, if not you may want to think about something else. I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions.

I'd actually say the opposite: if you want one of the finest clean-tone D class amps in the market today (for the money), with a brilliant EQ and bags of head-room, give them serious consideration.

The dirt can be 'just a touch' as fretmeister is using so well, to give a bit of vintage warmth or full on if you fancy something more crunchy, or equally as likely not have any dirt at all. The point is: the choice and versatility it offers is yours to make use  of as you will.

In deference to Monsieur Le Greek, I'll grant you this is no TE head. Some may be tempted to say that's a good thing!

Edited February 13, 2018 by Al Krow

[bjelkeman]

I has been said, and I agree. The M900 is an excellent amp. To learn more about it and how it came about, check out my interview with the designer of it.