So my Darkglass B3K overdrive showed up on Monday and I've had some time to play around with it a bit and thought I'd post some general thoughts and early impressions.
First, here's a picture of mine (labeled #4 inside the box)
The B3K arrived in about the smallest box possible protected fully by bubble wrap but with no actual box for the pedal or documentation/manual which was a bit surprising. It was actually smaller than I expected, being about MXR pedal sized.
Initially the screw on the back of the Blend knob was sticking out enough that it was catching on the Level knob when both were near noon. I was afraid tightening it would make it too hard to rotate but it didn't. A couple turns with my tiny screwdriver and it was good to go.
A quick rundown of the controls:
The Blend control mixes clean and overdriven tones. Blend controls are always hit or miss with me as I've had some pedals where the blend just seemed to be adding a harsh buzziness to my clean signal as it was turned up but this one works well without it sounding like two completely separate signals
The Drive control affects the amount of gain or saturation. However, the pedal absolutely imparts a characteristic tone regardless of the amount of drive. Even with this knob set to zero engaging the pedal will give a more aggressive tone. More on this in a bit.
The Level control simply adjusts overall output. I leave it set just above unity gain.
The Attack Switch basically gives a brighter, more aggressive sound when engaged.
The Grunt Switch is a 3 position switch between "Fat", "Thin" and "Raw". The Fat setting has thicker bass and a warmer response and the Raw setting is tigher and more aggressive. I don't use the "Thin" setting much because it (1) cuts some low end, (2) does indeed produce a thinner sound and (3) drops the volume relative to the other two switch positions. I HAVE used that setting (with the Level boosted quite a bit to make up for the volume drop) for a Justin Chancellor-like tone but that's not something I personally want.
The overall tone of this pedal is VERY aggressive sounding. And while I haven't tried it in a live mix, I was playing along to an old unfinished band track (drums and guitar) and at least through headphones it actually cuts through the mix better than clean bass. I attribute this to what I hear as a boost in the high, high mids (adding "growl" and a bit of "crunch) while not scooping my signal like many other pedals do.
It ranges from medium OD to distortion levels, but it isn't a pedal I'd recommend for people looking for "a touch of grit". It always has a significant amount of growl and clank. It's a tube amp like sound, but more on the Ampeg or Marshall side than the grunty, fat or round sound.
It adds some noise to the signal, especially at higher gain levels, but is quieter than average relative to pedals with equivalent amounts of dirt on tap.
I'll try to record some clips on Sunday night (my only free time this week) but the overall impression I have is that this is the aggressive OD I've been looking for forever. It isn't mushy or buzzy the way most ODs on bass have been for me, it is touch sensitive (not as much as say, the SFT but still very responsive to playing dynamics) and the tone it puts out is aggressive but natural sounding. For a rock gig I could absolutely see it being an always on pedal.
My Iron Ether Bubble Chamber isn't finished yet but I'll be very interested to see how it does adding some harmonic content before a filter, something I like to use an OD for. I found a few ODs that really pushed the Moog LPF in a pleasing way but I have very high hopes for the B3K and the BC pairing.
I'll post clips when I can record them, but I'm happy to answer any questions people might have.
