Review : D. Kowalski Dark Gene Red
In this review, I’m going to take you through what I think is a pretty darn amazing little boutique tube amplifier, the Dark Gene Red from D. Kowalski Amplifiers. I learned about this amplifier via Phillip McKnight’s excellent channel on YouTube and unlike my usual mien, ordered one right after viewing the video and hearing the amplifier.
Who is D. Kowalski Amplifiers
The D stands for Dave, who makes the amplifiers by hand one at a time. He is supported by his wife Brenda and stepson John. There are also four dogs and a cat, but I am quite sure that the critters are not directly involved in the construction of the amplifiers. That is, admittedly, a guess on my part.
Dave has built over 300 amps since 2010 and while that may not sound like a huge number, remember that it is one guy, one amp at a time. There is no assembly line and the amps are plainly hand wired point to point.
The Dark Gene
There are two variants of the Dark Gene, The Green is a single channel amp, and the Red is a two channel amp. They cost the same, at the time of this writing $369 USD. I ordered the Red and is typical for me, did not pay for mine during a sale and so I paid a bit more. In this review, I am writing about the Red version.
The amplifier is rated at 0.5 watts. Before you pshaw the power, remember that this is a very straightforward tube amplifier and as such can get quite loud, Not gigging loud but certainly loud enough to annoy other denizens of your residence. No solid state or DSP here. The preamp is driven by a pair of 12AX7 tubes, although mine came with ECC83 S preamp tubes from JJ Electronic in the Slovak Republic. The power amp is driven by a single 12AU7 tube, although in the case of my amp, I received an ECC82 S tube from JJ Electronic in the Slovak Republic. While I understand that the 12AX7 and ECC83 S are functionally equivalent, I do not have them side by side, and to be blunt, I care about the overall sound of the amp more than where the tubes come from. To be crystal clear, I think that this amp sounds great.
On the front panel you will find the instrument input, with a sensitivity knob above it. The you will find Gain1, then a three way boost switch with neutral, top boost and mid boost options. Next is the tone stack consisting of a treble and a bass control. Then comes a push pull switch for Gain2, which controls the channel switching. In the clean mode, the Gain2 knob does nothing.. Finally is the power switch and above it the power LED, red in the case of the Red version or Green in the case of the green version.
On the back panel, you will find the connection for the supplied AC power cord. There are no wall warts involved here, just a normal plug. Then you will find the speaker output. The amplifier works with 4, 8 or 16 ohm speaker cabinets. My amp has the new Preamp output jack which replaces the old Low speaker output. For me, this is much more useful.
Ny amp arrived extrenely well packaged, with the tubes in their original boxes. Use care when handling tubes as you should avoid getting finger oils on them if you can. I’ve always used a nitrile glove when handling tubes. Maybe that’s overkill but it’s never done me wrong. The amp includes a metal tube protector that is a spring and twist mount. While the amp looks very cool with the tubes exposed, I recommend the use of the tube protectors.
And by the way, it’s pretty tiny. It is 7 inches by 5 inches by 4 inches high. However the case is black powder coated steel and feels extremely sturdy.
Getting One
You order a Dark Gene via the D. Kowalski Amplifier website. PayPal works well for payment. The site says 7-10 days lead time, but there is a note on the site to call first as there is a backlog and it will take longer. Mine took about 4 months to arrive. The site says shipping is by USPS, but mine came via UPS, possibly because Dave wanted to get it to me sooner. I had issues with UPS, but more on that later.
Connection
Connect your guitar to the input and your speaker cabinet to the output. Since the advent of the Preamp out, the amplifier is now self protecting if no cabinet is plugged in. Connect power, turn the amp on and give the tubes a minute to warm up. It is never a good idea to hit a cold tube with a heavy signal.
Playing
When in clean mode, (Gain2 is pulled out) the Gain1 control provides more flexibility than you might expect. It is actually doing gain staging so as you turn it up, the sound gets progressively dirty. Remember the use case for this amp, quiet practice with real tube sound. If you crank Gain1 expecting Fender like cleans all the way to the top, you have set your expectations incorrectly. The hotter the input signal, the faster you will will hear harmonic distortion. As you turn the Gain1 up, the boost selection has less effect and is fully defeated with Gain1 turned all the way up. If it makes you more comfortable think of Gain1 as Drive. When you engage Gain2 by pushing it to the in position, it becomes the Master Volume control and Gain1 is all about the drive. As with any tube amplifier, you will want to spend some time trying different settings. I promise you that the more you put into becoming skilled with the amp, the more that you will get out of it.
Definitely try different settings of the Sensitivity knob. It can deliver everything from a mid scoop to a mid push. Time spent here is time well spent.
The Sound
For the short samples here, I used my Sire S7 because it delivers excellent single coil tones and has the splittable bridge hum bucker. I wanted to use a more affordable guitar for this because I could. I used a PRS Stealth 2x12 cabinet with a Shure SM57 for the live recordings. It is my opinion that the Dark Gene Red is an excellent pedal platform. This is not always the case with really straightforward tube amps. However, in the interest of clarity, I am not using ANY effects in the recordings.
Sample #1 is using a Shure SM57 direct into a Clarett+ 8Pre into Logic Pro with no post processing whatsoever. The first section is clean and the second is with Gain2 active. It is beautifully warm and when Gain2 is kicked in, really has that classic overdriven harmonic distortion.
Sample #2 takes the preamp output directly into the Clarett+ 8Pre into Logic Pro. Because there is no speaker cabinet in the system, I used the Brit Std cabinet from Two Notes’ Torpedo Wall of Sound for the cab sim. This is their IR of a Marshall 2x12 cabinet as you would find in a Marshall Model 1936 Bluesbreaker.
It is less pleasing to my ear, although much better with the cab sim. I found the clean channel was still overdriving a bit through the preamp output and so when Gain2 is engaged, there is even more compression happening. Not awful by any stretch, but I’d rather run the cable and mike the cabinet. I could have run the preamp into a buffered pedal and then to the interface which may have levelled things out, but that would be another element impacting the tone.
Summary
I like the D. Kowalski Dark Gene Red very much. Some folks choke at the price, but come on, you can spend a lot more on a so-called boutique pedal or even a tube driven overdrive.
Pros
Handwired, built by hand in McAllen Texas by a person committed to low output tube amplifiers without audio compromise
Uses standard available tubes
Small and lightweight
Limited learning curve
Sounds awesome
Cons
Arrived without any documentation, so I had to find a third party video to determine what tubes went in which sockets and two to get best advantage from the controls.
If shipped outside the US via UPS, the UPS brokerage fees are brutal, nearly ¼ the value of the amplifier. This is not Mr. Kowalski’s fault. Would not be an issue for a US based customer
Took a long time to arrive after communicating with Mr. Kowalski who was incredibly nice and polite, It is what it is, but patience is going to be a massive virtue here.
My take is this. If you want an amazing low power tube amp for bedroom or low volume use, this is incredible. You will need a speaker cabinet, as there is no headphone out and so far, the preamp output into an interface is not delivering what I would prefer, however in fairness the output was never advertised as being suitable to plug direct into an interface. There are no effects, no loops, no gewgaws. It is exactly what it says it is, s tiny 0.5 watt tube amplifier that delivers awesome tone. If this is up your alley, place your order and be prepared to wait a bit for awesomeness.
