Members Mike LX-R Posted March 28, 2012 Members Share Posted March 28, 2012 This pedal is solid. I bought one recently and am very impressed. What I needed was a lead boost for my Laney GH50L, just to creamy-up and sustainy-up the lead melodies/solos and give a slight volume boost. Pedals I've tried: TS9/808 and Keeley versions of both, Fulltone OCD, Dano CTO-1 (Paul Cochrane Timmy clone), Keeley SD-1, ZVEZ Box of Rock, Menatone Blue Collar Drive, and a few others that I can't remember at the moment. This pedal is somewhere between a TS type of sound and an OCD. It retains more of the guitar > amp tone than I've heard from any other pedal, while giving a slight bump in mids that actually just sounds like the mids are more open, rather than a mid-bump. It has BIG bass, smooth useable treble, and a gain structure that is smooth, thick and creamy while still sounding tight, punchy, and aggressive. It's fantastic! I like TS type overdrive but prefer the transparency of the Dano CTO-1. They have a similar thumbprint but in general wasn't satisfied with either of these because there was a loss in overall fullness of tone. When I tried the OCD I had the intention of possibly using it for a lead boost but that wasn't what it excelled at with my amp. It made an already aggressive amp sound even meaner, like really really mean , but it had a class A kind of tone that I didn't find useable for my purposes. When I put this pedal up against all my other overdrives, little by little they started coming off the chain. I would like the tones of the OD's I was familiar with because it was a comfort zone for me, but by going back and forth between whichever overdrive and the xotic BB I could hear the superiority of the BB in nearly every nuance that I was able to pay attention to. I had my girlfriend listen to the last couple of shootouts. She doesn't describe the nuances of tone the way most of us players do, analyzing every audible difference. She just listens to and feels the vibes moving through the air. She said "It's got something 'extra'... something 'more'. Don't know how else to say it." I agree with my girlfriend. I'm likely to buy the RC booster for a pure clean boost, because I'm totally digging the BB and have an inkling that Xotic might have more to offer me. If you have other pedals that would suite the purpose I described as a lead boost, for an already gainey amp, let me know. Finding this pedal hasn't closed my mind, just makes me wonder what other superior overdrives might exist out there. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Aaron SS Posted March 28, 2012 Members Share Posted March 28, 2012 I'd say that's a near perfect description and exactly why I love mine so much, congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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