Darkglass Electronics Microtubes 500v2 500W Bass Amplifier Head

Darkglass Electronics M500V2 Overview

Loaded with an all-analog preamp and Class-D power amp, the Microtubes 500v2 from Darkglass Electronics is a 500W amplifier head sporting the potent Microtubes B3K Engine. Capable of delivering everything from soft and warm overdrive to massive modern distortion for a range of applications, the Microtubes 500v2 is an excellent choice for studio or stage.

Front-panel controls include active 6-band EQ, a Drive knob for controlling the distortion level, and a Blend knob for balancing clean and distorted signals. You can select between two overdrive voicings: B3K for aggressive, punchy bass, or VMT for a more neutral vintage tone with warmer mids. Further controls include compression (assignable to clean, B3K, or VMT tones), Tone for adjusting a variable low-pass filter, and switchable Active or Passive modes. I/O includes a 3-ohm speakON speaker output, a headphone output for silent practice, an aux input for playing along with or amplifying your favorite tracks, and an XLR output with three selectable cabinet emulations for DI applications.

Microtubes Distortion Engine

With the dedicated push button, you can turn on or off the Microtubes Engine to add natural compression, organic harmonic enhancement, and saturation ranging from mild overdrive to high-gain bass rage. The Microtubes Engine operates before the clean section, allowing you to use the 6-band active EQ for additional tone shaping.

Passive or Active Modes

With special push-button switches, you can change from passive to active mode. If your bass is active it can have a hotter signal making the amp to distort early.

Darkglass Suite

Using the desktop version of the Darkglass Suite allows you to select and use any of our available impulse responses from the provided library in addition to loading your own custom impulse responses. In addition, you can control the amplifier channel settings for the Super Intelligent Footswitch.

Compression and Tone

The compression knob controls the amount of dynamic compression added to the Microtubes Engine. The make up gain is adjusted automatically. The compression can be turn off or assigned using the Darkglass Suite for each mode separately (Clean, B3K, and VMT).

The Tone knob controls the high harmonic content of the Microtubes Engine via a variable low pass filter: crank it up for additional attack and definition or dim it down for a smoother sound, especially handy if already running bright clean EQ setting or cabinets with tweeters.

EQ Control

• Bass: ± 12 dB at 80 Hz
• Mids control of ± 12 dB at 250 and 500 Hz, as well as 1.5 and 3 kHz
• Treble: ± 12 dB at 5 kHz