Darkglass AO900... finally.

[NancyJohnson]

I bought the Darkglass head about three years ago, pretty much as soon as it came out.  I'll admit it was the headroom that appealed more than anything else and I was more in love with plugging a Sansamp into the effects return and I'd never really bonded with it.

 

Had a session yesterday and left the Sansamps at home; 100% determination to get this amp to resolve the one box solution I've been looking for for years and spent a bit of time trying to dial in a gnarly tone earlier in the week. Ran the head through a pair of Darkglass 1x12s and took the Spector X.  Man alive.   

 

I honestly can't get over how awesome this set up sounded; the amp was pretty much as I'd set it at home other than notching up the output volume and then tweaking the Spector Tonepump a little.  Whumpy, dirty, gnarly.  Beautiful.

 

 

 

 

[BassmanPaul]

Nancy you know the rules! No photo, it didn't happen!!

 

I hope the set up serves you well. 

 

[fretmeister]

I still want to try the AO900.

 

Im really curious about very low drive tones mixed in a bit for harmonic richness.

I had the V1 MT900 but the different drive circuit of the AO really appeals.

[NancyJohnson]

11 hours ago, fretmeister said:

I still want to try the AO900.

 

Im really curious about very low drive tones mixed in a bit for harmonic richness.

I had the V1 MT900 but the different drive circuit of the AO really appeals.

 

If/when you watch any of the You Tube content supporting these heads, the prime focus seems to be on a handful of pre-set/emulated tones that can be tweaked/saved/utilised via the Darkglass Suite; these can only be used for post-DI purposes and it's hugely problematic trying to dial these in from the controls on the fascia.  Both drive engines are extremely aggressive and it's a bit of a fine line between getting a controlled dirty tone and unlistenable mush.

 

With this head I just kept adjusting and still not getting anything like the sound I wanted; I knew the tone was in the amp somewhere, but in the few times I used it, it was more a case of giving up and reverting to the tried and tested route of Sansamp>effects return. 

 

A few weeks back I just decided to spend some time trying to dial in what I wanted; I'm so used to the easy route tonally... I've never really worked at trying to sound right (I mean, if Tech21 could produce a 900w head with a BDDI engine, they'd clean up the class-d market).  I sounded decent enough at home and within seconds I knew the head sounded great in a live setting.