The Xotic pedal line up includes three very good Boost and Gain pedals which I find to be some of the more useful and tone pleasing pedals in today’s over-saturated gain pedal market. They are the RC Booster, AC Booster and the BB Preamp. They all share the same complement of controls (i.e. Volume, Gain, Treble and Bass). In truth, it really is up to you and what your personal preference is for guitar gain sounds. To my ear, these pedals emulate that wonderful compressed tube sound that is similar to the old 60s and 70s era tube amps.
First, a comment about “transparancy”
I take issue with those who talk about pedals that don’t alter your guitar sound. This flies in the face of the whole point of guitar pedals. If you don’t want to alter your guitar sound, then don’t insert an effect pedal. Contrary to popular belief, effect pedals will change the sonic character of your guitar (and amp). The question is, will the effect enhance your sound or degrade your sound. We guitar players are constantly looking for a new sound or a new way to improve our guitar sounds. There are two distinct goals here:
1.) Add a special effect (i.e. chorus, distortion, delay, flange, whatever…)
2.) Enhance your original guitar tone (make it better)
To say that a pedal does not effect your sound or is “transparent” is false. It absolutely will alter the tone, timber, attack, finish and color of your guitar sound. The question, does it make it better? Does it achieve what you set out to do? Does it inspire you? How does it feel while you play? Let’s not lie to ourselves about guitar effect pedals. They will change or “shape” your tone which will intern alter how you express yourself on the guitar. That being said, guitar pedals come in all flavors, shapes and sizes. I personally look for guitar pedals that will improve my overall guitar tone and offer different sounds for different songs but sound pleasing to my ear. The Xotic line of OD and Boost pedals do just that and they do it extremely well!
Gear Review
RC Booster
AC Booster
BB Preamp
This little box is my favorite of the trio. It adds “presence and sparkle” to the guitar sound. It makes your guitar “step out” from the noise. It was designed specifically as a “clean boost” to compensate for signal loss or low gain pickups (RC = Rig Conductor). It includes a 20db gain boost and a +/- 15db Treble and Bass control. In some scenarios, this pedal can serve more as a buffer to help boost low gain pickups into your amp or compensate for signal loss while using lots of pedals. It can also help drive your amp in to a sweet overdrive. It does this really well on my 71’ Fender Deluxe Reverb.
I think this pedal works best with a Strat or Tele style guitar. While playing my Strat, I literally keep it on all the time. Essentially, it beefs up my sound while adding a little bit of grind. It allows me to achieve a little breakup too when I pluck harder or by turning up the guitar volume. I can, however, still stay clean with the guitar volume turned down or by playing softly. It is very “user responsive”. The treble and base controls are very usable and allow me to get a very natural tone. In other words, it sounds like you are just playing through a very nice amplifier with a warm presence and a slight breakup. One of the best features of this pedal is the treble and base control. You can really dial in on your desired tone.
I think this pedal should be used in two ways. First, it can be used as a straightforward clean boost. Switching from your normal guitar sound to the RC Booster does not dramatically change the character of your guitar. It just sounds like you turned up your amp. The other mode, which I prefer is to keep it on all the time and give you that “RC presence” and a slight gain breakup sound. This works extremely well with my Strat.
Listen to the sound samples to the left. The first part of the phrase is played without the RC. Then, you here me click in and you can hear the clarity step out with a little grit!
The AC Booster has been described as a “Soft Edge Overdrive”. To me, this is a higher gain version of the RC Booster. It is not an over-the-top gain pedal but more of a medium distortion pedal with a very warm character to it. It has plenty of sustain and can give you an edge to your solos that will help you “stick out” without being too loud. Like the RC, it includes controls for volume, gain, treble and base which help make this pedal incredibly usable. The base and treble controls are tremendously responsive and help “curve” your guitar sound into something that is warm and pleasing (not buzzy and piercing). There is no mud or flabbiness to the AC Booster. It has a smooth and articulate overdrive sound. There is no midrange hump like a Tube Screamer.
One other feature I love about this pedal (as well as the other pedals) is that it responds to your playing like an old tube amplifier. You can use your volume control to back down and clean up and then when you want to let loose, turn up and drive!
Again, I think this pedal is best suited for a Strat or Tele (single coil) type of guitar. Although, it is working extremely well with my new Jack Briggs guitar with Lollar pickups. It is not a metal or heavy distortion pedal but more of a “Robben Ford” kind of gain thing. I use it for chomping with a distorted rhythm and then I turn my guitar volume up for soloing. Simply sweet sounding!
FYI, I found out that the AC Booster was originally designed as a “boost pedal” to push a Vox AC-30. During the development, the designers decided to add a little more gain and control to the circuit to make it an overall gain pedal for any amp. They did a great job with this pedal.
The BB Preamp is the big brother of the AC and RC pedals. The BB (Blues Breaker) Preamp includes a 30db gain booster and also uses the volume, gain, treble and base control scheme. This pedal uses a “pre-gain” stage in the circuit, which allows the pedal to go from super clean to super distorted. It has a very smooth and compressed overdrive sound.
Similar to his little brother pedals, the BB Preamp is incredibly interactive. It really “responds” to your playing and guitar volume control. It is not noisy so you can turn your guitar volume down and/or play softly and get some wonderful rhythm and lead sounds.
In my opinion, the BB Preamp offers a more focused lead tone with great warm and sustain. The EQ controls allow you to add just a tad more high and low to the grind. At a medium and higher volume, this pedal sounds fantastic. It is reminiscent of the old Fenders and Marshalls of the 60s. It can achieve a wonderful blues lead tone but crank the gain up and it’s got a heavy gain and attack.
Listen to the sound sample here. The BB Preamps has lots of compressed gain but you still hear the character of the Strat pickups. It’s very sweet!
Conclusion
What turned me on to these pedals were all the videos shown on the Xotic website. All those hot players were getting some amazing sounds out of these pedals. There is not one bad tone that I heard. I encourage you to have a listen for yourself. Below is a picture of my personal effects pedal board incorporating all 3 pedals.
The Xotic line of pedals are extremely well built and look like they were designed for years of use. They all include a true-bypass switch and 9VDC power input. They also run on a 9V battery. I use all three pedals in my rig. The RC adds a wonderful presence to my guitar sound. The AC gives me a moderately warm gain sound with a cool singing lead. The BB let’s me out of the box to drive the band. My Strat lead sound with the BB Preamp is awesome!
Finally, a cool trick is to drive the pedals together. Running the RC pushing the AC or the BB creates an amazing tone. My personal favorite combination is the RC into the BB. Overall, these are high quality pedals all the way around. They are designed and built for the working musician. I encourage you to try them out for yourself. You won’t be disappointed!
To that end, here is a short video clip using my new Jack Briggs Saturn Deluxe with the RC and BB both on. The pickups in this guitar are Jason Lollar Minihumbuckers. I also have just a little delay in the chain feeding my Fuchs Overdrive Supreme. It’s a great high-gain sound for soloing!
Visit Xotic Effects HERE
For fun, check out Harry J’s Overdrive Pedal Shoot Out page HERE. It is well done. He uses a Strat and a 70’s Vibrolux with each pedal. You get a real comparison from pedal to pedal. Below are the pedal participants:
1.) MJM Blues Devil
2.) Love Pedal White Dragon
3.) Tech 21 Sans Amp
4.) Hermida Zen Drive
5.) Proco Rat
6.) Fulltone OCD
7.) ToadWorks John Bull
8.) Ibenez TS-9 w/Analogman Classic Mod
9.) Ibenez TS-9 w/Super B Vaughn Dual Tri-Mode Mod
10.) Xotic AC Booster
11.) Boss BD-2 Blues Driver w/Keeley Modification
RC w/Strat, Bridge-Middle PUPs
RC w/Strat, Neck PUP
AC w/Strat, Bridge-Mid PUPs
BB w/Strat, Neck-Mid PUPs
