CRITICAL THEORY

I wanted a CMOS type of drive sound without the investment in a B3K which is basically what the FTelettronica CRITICAL THEORY is. It's not a tone I need often but is something I wanted in my arsenal. I've never used a B3K pedal but do own some amps with the Microtubes and Alpha-Omega circuits. I'd say this does an excellent job. My only quibbles are related to the arrangement of the controls. I don't understand why the graphics are arranged horizontally rather then vertically. I would've arranged the controls more like the B3K. The switching order is peculiar. For the Treble toggle, it's arranged logically, bottom/cut, middle/flat and top/boost. OCD Note: the word, CUT, is upside down from all of the other words in the arc. For the Bass toggle, the order is changed to down/boost, middle/cut and top/flat. The B3K is also not logically set up in regards to the toggles with the Treble being down/cut, middle/boost and top/flat and the Bass being down/flat, middle/cut and top/boost. Neither pedal is consistent. I'm not into heavy distortion. I have 2 favored settings with this pedal. One has the Drive at 12:00, the Blend at 6:00 and the Level to unity which, for me, has it aimed at the LED. The other variation I like changes both the Drive and Blend to 9:00. In both cases, I set the toggles to boost the bass with the highs kept flat. The pedal seems solidly made.