I was really excited to hook up the Darkglass Electronics Vintage Microtubes to my rig this morning. I was really blown away when I tried the Darkglass Electronics B3K Bass Overdrive (which we happen to be giving away RIGHT NOW!) so my expectations were very high for the Vintage Microtubes.
The Microtubes series was designed to give that tube-like tone AND tube-like dynamic response – focusing on that vintage compression of old tube amps and analog recordings.
The control layout is simple (I absolutely appreciate simple control layout). We have the following controls – Blend, Era, Level and Drive. Blend, just like the B3K Bass Overdrive is something I absolutely love! Having a drive pedal with a blend knob is amazing. I love cranking the drive but lowering the blend. This adds a touch of ‘hair’ to your clean signal. Often with drives, when things get cranked, your mids evaporate and the ‘body’ of the signal is lost. I absolutely hate that. I need to hear some meat. The blend knob is a great way to retain that primary signal to help cut through. Era is interesting. At first it felt like the standard ‘tone’ knob. Sure it brightens and darkens, but there is more complexity to it. It interacts with the Drive. Pulling it back darkens but in a more ‘warm’ way and turning it the other way, it wasn’t just ‘bright’ but more punchy. I definitely ‘get’ the Era it was trying to achieve. Well done. Finally, we have Drive and Level – and those are as you would expect.
The Darkglass Electronics Vintage Microtubes was primarily designed for bass. I tested this with an older Kramer 450B bass, and it sounds amazing. I also wanted to test this with my Fender ’62 AVRI Jazzmaster and again, it sounds totally amazing. Check out this video showing bass and guitar:
Ah yeah.. good stuff!
If you’re interested in picking up a Darkglass Electronics Vintage Microtubes for yourself, they’re available for $229.95 on Amazon.com. Let me know what you think of this great pedal by posting a comment below!
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