After having used the Darkglass Exponent 500 for almost two years, I have to say that this product knocks it out of the park! It is cutting-edge in design and function, being extremely lightweight, powerful, and LOUD. In case you're wondering if 500 watts is enough to drive 8 or 4 ohm cabs... it's plenty (although 8 ohm cabs require the master out to be cranked much more than a 4 ohm)! That said, it's essentially a multi-effects unit with a 500-watt power amp attached, so practically speaking, volume in-house is much more likely to actually carry your sound in a mix than any cab could!

As for effects... the E500 is among the most flexible and versatile of any product in the bass effects market, for the simple reason that its signal chain is completely customizable, in the spirit of units such as the Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Line 6 Helix, Kemper Profiler, etc. (although the only trade-off is that these functions are done from a Bluetooth phone or cabled desktop connection). In Darkglass terms, this amp features the following distortions: B3K, VMT, AO, or even a Rat; I'm told a future firmware update will bring MT X distortion at some point But that's far from all: The E500 also features FET compression, 4-band EQ's with HPF and LPF, three separate preamps (among which are the newly added Harmonic Booster, which is my favorite!), various synth-y modulation effects such as reverb and delay, cab sims, and even a send-return loop - all of which can be fully customizable (except for the CPU limit, which is about 8 blocks of effects to work with) in terms of what effects can be used and where in the signal chain they can be set.

The only effects I currently perceive that are a bit of a weakness on the E500's part compared to the units' other effects are the Sublime and Sublemon octaves, both of which are liable to glitching when using particularly low notes (at least on a four string), but besides that, this product is one of the best standalone devices for bass in a very long time.
For the rest of this review, I should mention a few tips to fully making use of the E500 in a live performance setting that I've personally come to know and continue to implement in my signal chain. 1) On the Darkglass mobile or desktop app, set the headphone out at the start of the signal chain, before any of the effects come through the line. This splits the signal internally and gives you a clean DI setting that is highly adjustable on the stage or in the house's sound booth; you will just need a quarter-inch wire to run from the headphone out to an external XLR DI box, then have your speaker cable out and into your cab.. 2) For recording purposes, you won't need to get so convoluted and simply attach the provided USB-C wire to run into your DAW (because yes, it is a standalone audio interface!) ... Simply open a channel 1 and channel 2 simultaneously, and you will still get a clean DI tone along with your amp's full sound in two separate channels. And last but not least, we're going to take advantage of the FX loop and actually 3) consider mounting your E500 directly onto a pedalboard. What this does is allow you to use patch cables in order to run another effects pedal or multi-effects unit in pre AND send-return to add other effects such as an additional 1176 compression effect, pitch shifting, and more distortion and drive from a device such as a Sansamp pedal before reentering the E500's signal chain. Add a MIDI footswich (which Darkglass now sells their own version if you haven/t been previously aware), and you will have an absolute array of different bass effects at your own disposal... live!!

Future buyers, I sincerely hope that you enjoy your time with this amplifier. The E500 is absolutely incredible and yet still partially in development in terms of firmware, but its full capabilities as of now has been nothing but absolutely incredible. Cheers!

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It is truly astonishing how much they've packed into this thing. It sounds great and with firmware 1.7 it has a digitized version of every Darkglass effect ever, including some they don't even make a physical pedal for. It is probably going to replace pretty much every other piece of gear I own. Simply an amazing product from Darkglass.

I was playing through an Ampeg PF 500 into a 115 cab. Big and waffly. Very loose, and not just in the low end. First thing I did was to switch to a Phil Jones Bass 6x7 cab. Tightened things up quite a bit, but I was still getting that colored, deeper Ampeg tone. Got the Exponent. Wow!!!! Super clean, graveyard silent, and incredibly innovative and adjustable. No more pedal board, No more hiss, no more deep colored tone, no more...(I was picking up a radio station with the ampeg)....just on to articulate, punchy, transparent bass tones. I love the way the knobs can be set to different things within your signal chain. And, I love that when you switch patches, change the knobs, and then switch back, it remembers where you had them set (with the lights indicating) regardless of where the knobs are. Pure genius. I'm too old to have to try and remember all those knob settings. Game changer for sure!! I'm also too old to be lugging around a 15 lbs head plus pedal board. This does it all in 3.5 lbs. I play in two jazz trios, as well as with a songwriter, and an alternative rock band. I also play solo bass shows with occasional piano. This amp covers them all. Five presets are plenty to cover all the bases. My one misgiving, is that I wish the midi footswitch would have been available upon release. Talked to DG, sounds like there were some supply chain issues, and it should be released in a few months. Not a huge deal, I'm rarely ever needing to switch mid song, and even if I do, it's a button push away.
If you are searching for that transparent, articulate, fully sculptable sound that lets the true nature of your bass shine through, this is the amp for you. All it's extra bells and whistles are just icing on the cake. I'm truly impressed and highly recommend this head.

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I'm a huge DG fan and really wanted to like this, and while it's a really solid clean amp head, the software that controls it is terrible. It works on and off, and every time they update the amp, they break something. My compressor hasn't worked in about 3 months, and I can't change my cabinets or IRs anymore, because they keep reverting themselves. This amp is very clearly not ready and should not have been released as is. It's clear that it was rushed to market with minimal to no real testing. I would steer clear for now. It has great potential, but at the moment, it's not worth the money. I certainly would not trust it at a gig, since the pedals randomly stop working.

With a small footprint and ever growing digital effects library, Darkglass is making the days of heavy amps and pedalboards a thing of the past with the e500. So much so that it has completely replaced my old head and pedalboard!

The Darkglass suite software took me no time to dual up some killer tones. All the effects sound great and are easy to manage and the cab sim section is absolutely fantastic.
Thanks to Skyler and Sweetwater team for hooking me up with this awesome amp ,and saving my back from hauling heavy gear around.

Bluetooth is super convenient for at home practice and quickly connects work well with my Android phone. The Tube emulator on this sounds amazing I like being able to control the volume for the return and send XLR out and headphones out all in one place. The darkglass suite is super easy to use. And they're adding new effects preamps and cab Sims all the time.

First, the good. This amp is innovative! It's a little like having a Line6 Helix/Pod/etc inside of your amp head. You use your phone via Bluetooth to configure your virtual pedal effects, and this has several good ones built in. Heck, I even plugged my regular guitar into it and ran that through the Alpha/Omicron pedal, and it sounded really good! (A little bass heavy, naturally, but there's flexible EQ to tame that!) You can set up presets to be accessed via a button, or via a MIDI footswitch (not yet available from Darkglass).

Now, the problems. When I first paired my phone to the amp, it recommended that I update the amp's firmware. I started this process, and continued to noodle on my bass. The sound that came out was broken and hiccupy -- like a DAW whose buffer is way too low. Now, I shouldn't expect to be playing while firmware is updating, but it drove two points home: 1, the function of this amp is wholly dependent upon its onboard computer; if it fails, freezes, whatever, there's no direct analog fallback. 2, given this, why would they allow the amp to even pass audio when its firmware is updating? This is my first clue that the amp was rushed to market.

The next problem is the app (I'm using an Android Pixel 5). It doesn't remember the paired amp after you've turned the amp off and back on (e.g. you've set up at a gig). You have to re-pair your phone to the amp EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It's not the end of the world; it pairs quickly. But it's annoying. Then, the virtual pedalboard controls are tiny, especially the graphic EQ. The sliders on the GEQ require some rather precise finger positioning. Further, the change in control value is not continuously sent to the amp; you can't listen to the effect while you're changing it. The change is sent once you lift your finger from the screen. (Onboard knobs DO change the effect while you're turning it, though!) It was definitely rushed out the door.

I left knobs a-d mapped to the amp EQ tone controls, which leaves only one other assignable knob for controlling effects. I was thinking a MIDI controller would help unlock more control, but according to the manual, you still can only map those five knobs to the MIDI controller.

I have this amp hooked to a Genzler Bass Array 12-3 cab, and it's quiet with the gain up and master volume at 12 o'clock. It does get louder, but it seems like there may be some odd gain staging going on. Virtual pedals can make the amp louder.

Lastly, the fan developed a mechanical rattling noise. Sigh... The amp is going back. I'm bummed. I really wanted to like this one.

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My first impressions when I opened the shipping box were good. Inside was a black box with some foil tape holding the box together, elegantly. Inside the black box was like the holy grail of Darkglass amps, along with some amp candy and literature.
So before I could plug it in and play it, I had to open up my Darkglass DG212N cab. (What a powerhouse, holy ****!)
The preloaded signal chains sounded okay, but once you pair your phone or tablet and fire up the Darkglass Suite, that's when things really start to get interesting. Currently as of writing this there are 22 effects you can choose from, and mix them and stack them how you please within the CPU parameters.
This is a really solid, clean, powerful head. 500 watts will be more than enough for small and medium venues, anything outdoors or larger/louder venues you will have to DI out. No biggie. This sounds so good clean, and equally as good with my favorite signal chains I've created on the Darkglass Suite.
10/10 would buy again, and recommend it if you're unsure. It is awesome.

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