XT-2 Xtortion
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on january 18, 2011 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Pawn shop
Ease of Use: 4 knobs, Level and dist are obvious perameters, but the contour and punch take a fair amount of experimentation to find something that is practical and ear pleasing. I didn't have the manual but generally Boss pedals are user friendly enough. not necessary // 5
Sound: This is a really unique pedal. It can sound anywhere between a standard distortion, a fuzz, or at its worst a DOD grunge.
When I first got it I was pairing it with a Boss blues driver into a peavy bandit (my high school garage band set up haha) Anyway the xtortion provided a decent slightly harsher than Overdrive sound that I would boost with the blues driver for harder sections.
Fast forward 7 years. I have better equipment, an old 20 watt penncrest (JC pennies version of a 60's Sears tube amp) and a 70s Schecter Strat model. I put this in front of the penncrest with a Boss delay on a slapback setting, rolled back the volume and tone on the guitar and holy shit. I got a really harmonic, almost Sparkle Drive like tone. Think sonic youth's more melodic passages. It responds great with open chords, which alot of distortion pedals muddy up too much.
Essentially, I feel as though this is an incredibly underrated pedal. For those of you who play Indie or noise, this is a unique sound that I know a lot of people don't have. I read that there was only 20000 actually made.
With a good hand wired tube amp turned to just below breaking point, this thing can sing. // 9
Reliability & Durability: its boss. // 10
Impression: Its not going to sound good until you have f--ked with it for a while. The sweet spot exists but the shit spots exist too, perhaps more so. The amp plays a major factor. // 7
XT-2 Xtortion
Reviewed by:
unregistered, on june 19, 2007 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Purchased from: Billy Hyde / Allison Music
Ease of Use: The pedal has 4 knobs that give a good variety of sounds. Adjusting the "Contour" knob can give you a blues/rock and roll sound or a metal sound. The manual is good. Short and sweet, and even give's you visual instructions to get sounds like rythm, slash metal, '70s rock and compressed wah I think. // 8
Sound: I use a Jackson DK2T Dinky Pro series through this and just a crap practice amp but I have played it though a Fender FM100H combo and Line 6 100 watt Spider and they all sound great. I give it a 9 because of it's flexibility. You can get great blues sounds and then with a turn of the knob having a metal sound. It also has no noise what'soever. When you aren't playing anything it's dead silent. The only setting I don't like is when there's no contour and all punch and sounds like you've left a crap wah pedal compressed. Some may like it I reckon it sound crap! // 9
Reliability & Durability: This thing could be run over a truck and still be ok! like all Boss products it's solid, durable and reliable. I would definately play a gig without a backup with no wories. This thing will Live forever! It's very reliable and the battery last for a long time. It's definately a great distortion pedal // 10
Impression: I play hard rock / metal (things like Rage against the Machine, Audioslave, Metallica, Faith No More) and it gives me a great range of distortions for all these styles. I wen't down to the music store and tried all of their distortion pedals and I thought this one was the best. It's a verry flexible pedal and I wouldn't have chosen any other. And verry affordable too (although I think they stopped making them). // 9
XT-2 Xtortion
Reviewed by:
fender_rules728, on november 27, 2006 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 40
Purchased from: ebay
Ease of Use: This pedal has 4 knobs, which should make it easy. However, the parameters interact with each other a lot, so each knob adjustment may require some turning of the other knobs also if you are looking for a specific sound. This product was discontinued a while back. // 7
Sound: My set up: Fender Strat - Boss Xtortion - Fender 10w. The bypass seems fine to me, no extra noise or fuzz. The sound of the pedal itself is an intense fuzzy distortion, lots of trebble. Possibly good for someone Who plays metal, or punk rock. It is possibly one of the most heavy, distorted sounding pedal by Boss. // 7
Reliability & Durability: It's a Boss pedal. That is all that has to be said. It could survive nuclear war. I have many Boss pedals and none of them have gone out on me. It's nice and solid and I'm pretty sure I could drop it a few times and it would still be fine. I already use it in gigs without backup. It's very dependable. // 9
Impression: I play punk, and hard rock. I picked this up on eBay like brand new in the box with manual for 40 dollars. Been playing with it for about a year, and always loking for ways to increase my overall crunch tone. This pedal does it well. I also own a Power Driver and a Mega Distortion. This has a much heavier sound. If it were lost or stolen I would die. They don't make this pedal anymore, like I said it was discontinued a long time ago. It's great. If I could find another, yes I would buy it. If you want a harder sound, find one of these. it's worth the buy. The sound could be better, or easier to use but if it fits your genre of music than get it. // 8
i kinda find hard to believe it's one of "the more heavier soundin' boss pedals" (if it was, it will still be around, or at least have a reissue version)
And also don't believe it's good for metal,mainly because he doesn't play metal in the first place...
You kind of changed your mind because you said it's good for heavy metal or punk which one do u want their completeley different styles you know what i mean. you should try it through a bigger amp to get a better effect.
I read this review a few months back and yes I've never heard of it too. But when I went down to Swee Lee (I'm from Singapore) I saw the pedal. I forgot how much was it, but there was only 1 left. =( And I was flat broke.
I got this pedal for only $50 extra when I got my first guitar package. Its hard to fault the pedal, but playing alongside a guitarist with a Boss Metal Zone pedal, his gets way more gain and more range to play with. Great for 10 year old or whatever technology.
i got this pedal at a pawn shop for 60 bucks and i love it but i have way to much trouble trying to find the rite seting the punch and contour are hard to adjust without completely throwing the sound off if any one has a good setting for master of puppets and other awesome metallica songs please let me know
i kinda find hard to believe it's one of "the more heavier soundin' boss pedals" (if it was, it will still be around, or at least have a reissue version)
ML-2 MetalCore much? Only difference is Contour is replaced with Bass and Punch is replaced with Treble.
personally, i love this. can get some gnarly interesting timbres and sounds out of it, looks cool too. red and glittery-like. don't think of it as a "LOL metal" pedal, it's quite flexible and worth it if you can find one.
hellview_666 wrote:
ML-2 MetalCore much? Only difference is Contour is replaced with Bass and Punch is replaced with Treble.
No, that's not true. 'The tone controls are called Countour and Punch and is not just a renaming of bass and treble. Contour cuts highs or boosts highs and lows while Punch controls the distortion depth and adds a mid boost'.
