Darkglass Alpha Omicron

The Darkglass Alpha Omicron is a compact bass distortion pedal from Darkglass, first released in 2017¹. Its defining feature is a double distortion engine with two distinct circuits, Alpha and Omega, which you can select or mix with the Mod control²³. Darkglass describes Alpha as punchy, tight with a lot of definition, and Omega as simply brutal and raw⁴.

The pedal is built around a premium analog signal path² and was designed in collaboration with Jon Stockman, an Australian bassist with the progressive band Karnivool¹. Darkglass positions it as a preamplifier for bassists who need to be distinctively heard in any musical context², and Premier Guitar called it a somewhat scaled-back version of the company's Alpha Omega preamp⁵. Darkglass's product page currently lists it as sold out².

Two blendable distortion voices

What sets the Alpha Omicron apart from most distortion pedals is that it carries two separate distortion circuits rather than one⁵. The Mod control selects or mixes between them: Alpha is punchy, tight with a lot of definition, whereas Omega is simply brutal and raw⁹. Because the Mod control blends rather than just switches, you can land anywhere between the two characters³.

Aion FX, which traced the circuit in 2025, describes the Alpha path as punchy and tight and the Omega path as brutal and raw, matching the maker's description¹. Premier Guitar's reviewer found that the two distortion engines create a cornucopia of grit sounds⁵.

The pedal keeps your clean signal in the picture. The Blend knob mixes the clean and processed signals, with the clean signal remaining at unity gain while the volume of the overdriven signal is set by the Level knob, allowing for fine mix tuning⁶. That blend approach is a big part of why bass players use Darkglass drives: the low end stays intact while the distorted layer sits on top.

The controls

The control set is deliberately small. Here is what each control does, per the maker's manual and product page:

Growl and Bite are the tone-shaping pair. Growl fattens the bottom end with a shelving bass boost, while Bite lifts the high mids at 2.8kHz so the distorted layer cuts through a mix⁸. Premier Guitar described the front panel as the usual suspects of drive, level, and wet/dry blend dials alongside these switches⁵.

Power and connections

The Alpha Omicron runs on a regulated 9V DC adapter with a center-negative plug⁸⁴. The manual warns that unregulated power supplies and higher voltages may damage the unit and void the warranty⁴, and no battery option is mentioned⁴.

Input and output impedance are both listed at 1kΩ in the manual⁸. The enclosure measures 75 mm by 111 mm by 43 mm and weighs 250 g². GuitarPlayer's buying guide noted the side-mounted jacks, which some users may not like depending on how tightly a pedalboard is packed¹⁰.

Inside the circuit: op-amp distortion without clipping diodes

Aion FX traced the Alpha Omicron circuit in 2025 and released its own adaptation, the Empyrean Dual Distortion¹. The trace revealed something unusual for a drive pedal: there are no clipping diodes, as used in most other drive effects. The distortion comes entirely from overdriving standard op-amps⁷.

The op-amp in question is the MC33178, which Aion FX calls a favorite of Darkglass, used in nearly all of their pedals in some capacity⁷. Aion FX also notes that unlike the B3K and Duality, the Alpha Omicron has no mu-amps, CMOS drive stages, or comparators⁷. In other words, its distortion is simpler in construction than those siblings, relying on the op-amps themselves clipping rather than on diodes or transistor stages.

The original unit uses an electronic CMOS bypass rather than true bypass⁷. That is a change from the earlier Microtubes B3K, which No Treble reported as true bypass in 2010¹¹.

How it differs from the Alpha Omega

The Alpha Omicron is a slimmer, simpler, and more affordable take on the Darkglass Alpha Omega². Premier Guitar called it essentially the same engine, with its two separate distortion circuits⁵. The difference is the surrounding feature set: the Alpha Omega expands on it with a 3-band EQ, XLR output, and parallel out, a comparison Aion FX likens to the difference between the B3K and B7K⁷.

Aion FX also places the Alpha Omicron as similar in spirit to the B3K and Duality, with several shared Darkglass signature design elements¹. For a player deciding between them, the choice comes down to whether the EQ, XLR and parallel outputs matter: the Omicron covers the distortion voices and the blend, and leaves the full preamp features to its bigger sibling.

What reviewers said

Premier Guitar reviewed the Alpha Omicron and found the two distortion engines create a cornucopia of grit sounds⁵, and described the alpha distortion's darker and defined sound⁵. GuitarPlayer's 2025 distortion pedal guide found it surprisingly good on lower settings, with a very musical low grit tone for adding saturation to a clean sound rather than only serving high-gain use¹⁰. The same guide flagged the side-mounted jacks as something some users will lament¹⁰.

At launch in 2017, Guitar.com and MusicRadar both reported a UK price of £245⁶¹², against the maker's current product page price of £198.00 GBP².

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