The Vintage Deluxe takes the warm, tube-like overdrive of the Microtubes Vintage circuit and adds a 4-band active EQ, a parallel output, and a balanced line driver. It turns a simple drive pedal into a genuine bass preamp that fits four decades of tone into something small enough for a gig bag.
Stop Press: This is the last V2 in stock. There is now a version 3. This is a brand new pedal, so it has been priced to be a bargain!
Worth knowing if you’re weighing this up. There’s a newer Vintage Deluxe V3 available, with more flexibility on the EQ and an added XLR output. The core sound engine is the same across both versions. This makes the V2 a strong option if you don’t need the V3’s extra EQ range or the XLR.
Key Features
- Warm, tube-like saturation based on the Microtubes Vintage circuit
- 4-band active EQ for shaping your tone before or alongside the drive
- Parallel output: a passthrough of your input signal, for parallel processing
- Balanced line driver for a clean, long-cable-friendly output to a mixing console or PA
- Regulated 9V DC centre-negative only — does not accept batteries, and higher or unregulated voltages can damage the unit
- 30mA current draw
Vintage Saturation With Preamp Flexibility
The overdrive circuit delivers the natural dynamic response and compression just like classic tube amps and tape machines. it’s the kind of saturation that responds to how hard you play rather than just adding a fixed amount of grit.
The Blend control keeps your clean signal at unity gain while the Level knob sets the volume of the overdriven signal separately, giving you fine control over exactly how much drive sits underneath your dry tone rather than an all-or-nothing blend.
Controls
- EQ bands: Low ±12dB at 100Hz, Low Mids ±12dB at 500Hz, Hi Mids ±12dB at 1.5kHz, Treble ±12dB at 5kHz. The live page just says “Low; Lo Mid; Hi Mid and Treble”.
- Blend: mixes the clean input signal with the overdriven signal; clean stays at unity gain, so Level controls the blend ratio
- Level: Sets the volume of the overdriven signal
- Drive: sets the amount of saturation in the overdriven signal
- Grunt switch: three positions, setting how much low-frequency content gets saturated by choosing between three bass-boost levels before the clipping stage.
- Attack switch: Boost, Flat or Cut, setting how much treble gets saturated. Boost adds clarity and presence, Flat leaves it alone, and Cut tames the highs going into saturation. Darkglass notes it’s handy with new strings or cabs with tweeters.
- Ground lift: the balanced Direct Output has a ground lift switch. Leave it pushed in (grounded) unless you get ground-loop hum.
Power
Requires a regulated 9V DC centre-negative supply only, drawing 30mA. It does not accept batteries. As with other Darkglass pedals, unregulated supplies or higher voltages can cause noise issues or damage the unit and void the warranty. A CIOKS SOL is a suitable, regulated option.
Who Is This For
Worth a look if you want tube-like warmth and organic compression rather than an aggressive modern distortion, with enough EQ and output flexibility to function as a compact preamp rather than just a drive pedal.
Watch The Darkglass Electronics Vintage Deluxe In Action
FAQs
It’s a warm, tube-like overdrive based on the Microtubes Vintage circuit, with a 4-band active EQ, parallel output, and balanced line driver added, turning it into a compact bass preamp.
A regulated 9V DC centre-negative supply only, drawing 30mA. It does not accept batteries. Unregulated supplies or higher voltages can damage the unit and void the warranty. A CIOKS SOL is a suitable regulated option.
True bypass.
The clean input signal stays at unity gain, while the Level knob sets the volume of the overdriven signal separately, so Level effectively controls the blend ratio between clean and driven tone.
The V3 has more flexibility on the EQ and adds an XLR output. The core sound engine is the same across both versions, so the V2 remains a strong option if you don’t need the extra EQ range or the XLR.
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