I just noticed that on the website, it says they're made in the U.S.A. But on most of the pictures I'm seeing, it says Made In Finland. Are there any major differences? Tone? Quality? Quirks? And by the way, www.prymaxevintage.com/ is having a 15% off pedal sale right now. I was about to buy one, but thought I'd ask before dropping the cash.
They were originally made in Finland but Doug at Darkglass teamed up with a US based builder and production got shifted to USA. I have a Finnish B3k and a US VMT, the Finnish stuff has the old true bypass switching so you can hear it switch on and off and the US built stuff has a different style of switching so it is silent when switching, you also cannot feel the switch clicking. I assume this is the same switching on all US based pedals but I don't know. I much prefer the US switching. I have heard there are tone differences between the US and Finnish based ones but I don't know personally.
Darkglass no longer allows discounts on their pedals, so grab it for the 15% off while you still can.
They were originally made in Finland. Last year I got in touch with Doug and started updating the design to be produced in larger quantities. We started selling the USA-built pedals in July of 2012 and I've been building every Darkglass pedal here in Seattle ever since. The USA-made pedals have the same circuitry as the Finnish ones, but I re-engineered the mechanical design to be more rugged. We've had very few failures of USA-made Darkglass products in the field (not that the Finnish ones were unreliable to begin with). On a side note, we recently opted out of all dealer sales as we didn't like the atmosphere it was creating, so that Prymaxe coupon code won't work.
I say get it anyway. I have a US B3K and it's really, really good - seriously! It's hyped up a lot around here but for good reason, quite simply it's the best OD I've ever heard on bass. If you're looking for serious raunch, it might not be for you (considering it really excels at lighter OD) but overall, it's really hard to go wrong.
Take a gander at the TB classifieds, there's a small handful of B3Ks going for great prices. If you don't like it, you can always flip it back over. Mine would only leave my board for a B7K, and at the current price, it's not looking likely soon.
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