The Darkglass Alpha Omega Photon is my Perfect Live Rig.

[@thumb_bass_guy]

Great analysis and discussion of what the AO Photon is capable of.

[@gsimongear]

Thanks Guy! It has a bunch of useful features that are super convenient, but I hadn't thought of before getting it. Hopefully this helps shed some light on the utility of the pedal, beyond just bone-crushing distortion!

[@kevinkwmiller]

Excellent real world experience review. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and you uses. The pedal sounds great and I really like your clean tone. I think your criticism of not standardizing the output configuration is a fair one. I also don’t understand why anyone would make a pedal like this without a master knob.

[@gsimongear]

Thank you Kevin! Yeah, they are certainly a few quirks that could certainly be improved. All things considered, I think the pros far outweigh the cons, but I figured they're things that potential buyers should be aware of.

[@Antman3820]

Love the T Shirt. Brings back memories

[@gsimongear]

That's awesome! NJ Guitar & Bass is an awesome little shop. Sam is such a nice owner! I really hope the store keeps going strong.

[@Antman3820]

@@gsimongear yup. Me too. Bought a few things there in the early 2000’s.

[@CC-ks3tj]

I had an Alpha Omega Ultra, and honestly, I found a hard time using the types of drive that the AO circuit provides. I just replaced it with a Microtubes X Ultra for that reason. Now that the Microtubes Infinity is out, I would definitely argue that’s the best all-in-a-box rig that Darkglass offers. It has the B7K, VMT, and X distortion capabilities and all of those are much more usable sounds for me personally.

[@gsimongear]

Yeah, for sure CC! The Infinity sounds awesome, as the classic B3K/B7K circuit is still my favorite. However, I've grown to like the Alpha Omega circuit (on the Photon, at least). I feel like I can get a B3K-like tone with the Alpha, and then get an aggressive VMT-like tone from the Omega. If you snag an Infinity, let me know how it works out! Thanks so much for watching.

[@Wildsnapr]

It’s great that you included the app settings while playing the 3 presets. Very helpful. What bass are you feeding the pedal with?

[@gsimongear]

Good question! It's my custom Shop Warwick Thumb BO 5, poplar top w/ bubinga body and stock MEC pickups. Thanks so much for watching!

[@mkosmos]

can you set up this pedal in such way that xlr out will have cab sim applied to it but main out (for my amp) will not be affected by cab sim?

[@gsimongear]

Yep! You sure can. All in the Darkglass app.

[@D20band]

Man this makes me really want a thumb 5 bass!!! I might try to look for a bolt on used! Great tone by the way!!! Anyway you could post some thumb DI tracks?

[@gsimongear]

Appreciate it! For sure, if you check out the Pro Series vs Custom Shop Thumb video I made, that has a series of Thumb DI tracks, with and without cab sim applied. Thanks for watching!

[@D20band]

@@gsimongear I’ll check that and maybe have a good listen to the DI tracks! Many thanks!!!

[@gonzalosanchez6387]

Good video 👏👏

[@gsimongear]

Thank you Gonzalo, I really appreciate it! Hope it helped. Are you a Photon user as well?

[@meyersguitars2196]

Good review

[@gsimongear]

Thanks - I appreciate it! Just checked out some of your bass builds; that's really cool!

[@meyersguitars2196]

@@gsimongear thanks so much. I need to hurry up and get the three I’m working on finished

[@romanr.4030]

I'm using Photon as audio interface for recording. Can I control the volume of unprocessed raw signal (DI)? Thank you

[@gsimongear]

Hi Roman! I'll be honest - I've never used the Photon as a DI before, so I'm not much help there - sorry! I tend to use it only in live settings & band practice.

[@coveryourears3851]

good vid, about to have one of these on the way for the presets alone. Can you bypass the cabsim?

[@gsimongear]

Yep! You can individually program the left TRS, tight TRS, and XLR outputs on the app to apply the cab sim or to bypass it.

[@JayKayCH]

Thank you so much for this video. I have a stupid question as a newbie.. In the signal chain of your pedal board, this would come last?

[@gsimongear]

No problem! Definitely not a stupid question. Ultimately, it depends on what other effects are on your board. For time-based effects or modulation, you'd probably want this out front. For most else, this would be aftewards. Personally, the only other effect in my board is a Broughton Audio High-Pass Filter, which I put before the Photon. I prefer having the cab sim as the final effect applied to my signal. Hope that helps!

[@JayKayCH]

@@gsimongear thank you so much for this detailed answer. This helped alot

[@JayKayCH]

@@gsimongear Yes that definitely helped, thank you. Sorry to write here again. So a flanger or octaver would be ok in front of the Darkglass? (Like between Darkglass and Bass)

[@francoishtzl157]

The XLR cable can change how they turn, no need for a straight one