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Boss' least favorite child: The Xtortion XT-2

Discussion in 'Effects, Pedals, Strings & Things' started by dangayle, Dec 28, 2010.

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  1. Dec 28, 2010 #1
    dangayle

    dangayle Member

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    Spokane, Washington
    From what I've gathered, most people don't really like this pedal. Boss only made it for one year, and I bought mine secondhand from the Trading Musician in Seattle. In fact, it was so hated that when I had a $12 credit at the store, I offered to take that pedal in lieu of cash and they accepted.

    Here's the catch: On basically every setting, it sounds kinda lousy. The distortion is meant to be a hard/heavy metal kind of sound, but it just doesn't hit the sweet spot that someone playing that style is going to want.

    Here's the secret: Turn the volume up to max, contour knob to about 11 o'clock and all the others down to zero. Instant Blackface overdrive. In this setting, it has a bit of a scooped eq with some boost to the bass and treble. It's incredibly touch sensitive to picking dynamics, and will go from a clean strum to a nicely overdriven tube-amp distortion.

    Stick in front of a good sounding tube amp, clean or distorted, and your amp just sings. It's one of those pedals that you instantly feel disappointed when you turn it off, it makes everything sound that much better. Maybe mine is special and the rest are crap, but it won't ever leave my pedalboard from now on.

    EDIT: Volume to MAX volume. That's important. I was writing this based off of memory.
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2011
    dangayle, Dec 28, 2010
    dangayle, Dec 28, 2010
    #1
  2. Dec 28, 2010 #2
    MERCYFULFATE

    MERCYFULFATE Member

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    i have one i bought new.its sounds ok.
     
    MERCYFULFATE, Dec 28, 2010
    MERCYFULFATE, Dec 28, 2010
    #2
  3. Dec 28, 2010 #3
    Occam

    Occam Member

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    My old Marshall JCM800 2210 (the 2-channel model) is also much maligned but mine had one magical setting that was just amazing sounding...everything else was either bad or pedestrian.
     
    Occam, Dec 28, 2010
    Occam, Dec 28, 2010
    #3
  4. Dec 28, 2010 #4
    dshobe

    dshobe Rocky Mountain Way Silver Supporting Member

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    How could you go wrong for $12?! At the least you'd own a piece of history, I.e. The worst boss pedal ever (for some). I haven't played one, just heard about them. The local music go round has one, but they want $60 for it. Crazy.
     
    dshobe, Dec 28, 2010
    dshobe, Dec 28, 2010
    #4
  5. Dec 28, 2010 #5
    KevinFinn

    KevinFinn Member

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    I love mine for how hated it is alone.

    I think it's perfect for industrial crap sounds for covers. If I was ironically covering a Britney Spears song, that would be my power chord sound. The thing is, it's like lo-fi and hi-fi at the same time. It has this noise-killing compression, and sounds like a purposefully-bad sound you'd tweak in pro tools.

    I think it's cool.
     
    KevinFinn, Dec 28, 2010
    KevinFinn, Dec 28, 2010
    #5
  6. Dec 29, 2010 #6
    jgyn

    jgyn Member

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    I have one, and like it (once in awhile.)
     
    jgyn, Dec 29, 2010
    jgyn, Dec 29, 2010
    #6
  7. Dec 29, 2010 #7
    cjkbug

    cjkbug Senior Member

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    clinton, ma
    :rotflmaoI love that!
     
    cjkbug, Dec 29, 2010
    cjkbug, Dec 29, 2010
    #7
  8. Dec 29, 2010 #8
    Pedal Dan

    Pedal Dan The Island of Misfit Pedals Gold Supporting Member

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    I like mine. In fact I've got 2.
     
    Pedal Dan, Dec 29, 2010
    Pedal Dan, Dec 29, 2010
    #8
  9. Dec 29, 2010 #9
    Moe45673

    Moe45673 Member

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    I listened to some demos on youtube. Does it sound awful? Sort of. It'd never be the distortion I use regularly. However, for one song to give it that certain touch.... I don't see how you could go wrong. Particularly at that price.
     
    Moe45673, Dec 29, 2010
    Moe45673, Dec 29, 2010
    #9
  10. Dec 29, 2010 #10
    dangayle

    dangayle Member

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    As an overdrive/booster I love it, as a distortion, not so much.

    I will say this in its favor though: You CAN get distortions out of it that I don't think exist anywhere else, and it's certainly not a retread of an 808/DS1/Rat/Muff like 90% of all the dirt pedals in existence.
     
    dangayle, Dec 29, 2010
    dangayle, Dec 29, 2010
    #10
  11. Dec 29, 2010 #11
    sahhas

    sahhas Member

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    i'll have to check this out, i'm wondering if this was a pedal to be used for industrial music back in the 90s? again i need to check out clips.
    from what people are saying it reminds me of the zoom 9030, 1/2 rack unit that zoom had back in the 90s.
    most guitar tone snobs hated it, sounded too digital, etc.
    but for those into industrial sounds, it was the guitar distortion that NIN used on one album and helped you get that specific sound.
     
    sahhas, Dec 29, 2010
    sahhas, Dec 29, 2010
    #11
  12. Dec 29, 2010 #12
    sahhas

    sahhas Member

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    i just checked ebay quick, the worst hated boss pedal ever (?) there are 2 of them on there, both over $100. oh well...
     
    sahhas, Dec 29, 2010
    sahhas, Dec 29, 2010
    #12
  13. Dec 31, 2010 #13
    sahhas

    sahhas Member

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    just listened to some clips of this pedal on youtube. it sounds like a grunge flavored distortion. it does have a unique flavor to it, can't quite describe it. but in the brief bit of the clips i watched it sounded decent.
     
    sahhas, Dec 31, 2010
    sahhas, Dec 31, 2010
    #13
  14. Dec 31, 2010 #14
    nullin

    nullin Member

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    Cedar Rapids, IA
    I have one, love using it for nasty, late 90's industrial sounds. Anyone notice that when you turn the Punch up, you start to get harmonics on the low E string like you were doing pinch harmonics? Ugly, nasty, in a good way. I still think the Power Driver is uglier sounding.
     
    nullin, Dec 31, 2010
    nullin, Dec 31, 2010
    #14
  15. Jan 2, 2011 #15
    KevinFinn

    KevinFinn Member

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    Yeah, it's really original. The amount of tone you can affect in key ranges is pretty significant. It almost leaves "distortion" territory and becomes an effect unto itself.

    This thread inspired me to play with mine again today, and I was really digging it. It's a lot of fun. It sounds like industrial dystopia. It was never meant to do SRV. But, oddly enough, the setting someone recommended for a "Blackface-like" sound was really great! It can really clean up a clean tone, as a way to use the pedal unconventionally.

    I keep mine around 'cause I figure it's a piece of history. And if I ever find myself in a pop cover band, it will be useful for covering everything from Britney Spears to Ke$ha, 'cause it has that overblown "jar o' bees being raped by dragonflies" with tons of compression so the noise floor is almost non-existent.
     
    KevinFinn, Jan 2, 2011
    KevinFinn, Jan 2, 2011
    #15
  16. Jan 2, 2011 #16
    crosse79

    crosse79 Member

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    That honour actually belongs to the Boss MetalZone :D
     
    crosse79, Jan 2, 2011
    crosse79, Jan 2, 2011
    #16
  17. Jan 2, 2011 #17
    KevinFinn

    KevinFinn Member

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    Isn't the Metal Zone the only Boss pedal to outsell the DS1?
     
    KevinFinn, Jan 2, 2011
    KevinFinn, Jan 2, 2011
    #17
  18. Jan 2, 2011 #18
    teleclem

    teleclem Member

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    :rotflmao i have to agree
     
    teleclem, Jan 2, 2011
    teleclem, Jan 2, 2011
    #18
  19. Jan 2, 2011 #19
    KevinFinn

    KevinFinn Member

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    Whether or not any of us likes the Metal Zone, it's arguably Boss' FAVORITE child. It has been printing them money for 2 decades.
     
    KevinFinn, Jan 2, 2011
    KevinFinn, Jan 2, 2011
    #19
  20. Jan 3, 2011 #20
    hades_1123

    hades_1123 Member

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    Guadalajara, MX
    XT-2 Sound like a lot of distortions from digital effects boards for me

    And a lot of people have digital boards So .....
     
    hades_1123, Jan 3, 2011
    hades_1123, Jan 3, 2011
    #20
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