Darkglass Microtubes 900: Micro bass head with some serious output
A sleek, powerhouse of a miniature bass amp
The new Darkglass Microtubes 900 is the company’s latest outing into compact bass amp heads. With its preamp and digital Class-D power amp section they have managed to squeeze a lot of power into this tiny bass head.
Micro Tubes
The Darkglass Microtubes 900 has a ‘Microtubes Engine’ on the left side of the front panel which is where the analogue preamp/Microtubes section has controls for Drive Level,Tone and Blend. You also get a switch for the ‘Microtubes’ which is used to add “natural compression, organic harmonic enhancement, and saturation” – which is marketing talk for valve compression. You can, of course, choose either passive or active setting for the input level using the switch by the jack input on the front of the amp.
B3K/VMT
Two voices are switchable via a small switch on the left-hand side of the amp. B3K is voiced more aggressively, whereas the VMT setting is more mid-focused and nowhere near as in your face as the B3K setting.
Class-D Power
The transistor power section is, for want of a better phrase, digital and that is how they achieve the 900 watts at either 4 or 2 Ohms (selectable by switch on the rear panel) . The right-hand side of the amp contains controls for Gain and the EQ section which comprises of Bass, Low Mids, High Mids and Treble, plus the Master output control.
Rear Panel
The back of the amp has a single Speakon output for the 900 Watts to go through, an input for the matching Darkglass single-switch Intelligent Foot-switch and then both a power input and preamp output. You also get a balanced DI output on XLR, which is great for going straight into a front of house mixing desk.
The Darkglass Microtubes 900 amplifier looks very compact and almost like a Apple Mac Mini in appearance. The demo video below really does nothing in the way of letting you know how it actually sounds, so I cannot really make any comments on its tone. I will say that he company makes some great amps, so I expect that this new one will follow in the footsteps of its predecessors.
RRP EUR €999
Full Darkglass Microtubes 900 specifications here
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