XoticSL Drive Overdrive Pedal

I'm very picky about what I imagine to be not only the Marshall "sound", but also behavior. This means I really want a smooth, biting mid range that is big yet cleans up very well with my guitar's volume knob and different pickups. I was happy with Xotic's BB Preamp MB in that regard, but I wanted more gain. I figured this would be the next logical step.The first day I tried it, I was disappointed. I found it to be too harsh and that there was more gain than girth of sound. Volume knob cleanup wasn't that great either. I tried playing with the dip switches and bought the 18v power supply, but I still thought it sounded more like a cheap distortion pedal than a warm, responsive Super Lead.Then one day, I decided to switch amps from a Fender Deluxe to a VOX AC30 and the difference in sound was phenomenal. The tubes and inherent mid range of the AC30 really brought the Super Lead to life. I suddenly found that I was about as close to "that" sound as I'd ever been. Instant AC/DC and Zeppelin, with a very responsive volume knob cleanup. On a whim, I decided to give my Fender amp another try. I discovered that it sounded much more in the ballpark (though not quite as good as my AC30) when I cranked the treble on the amp, giving it more of a high-end presence, which brought out the cleanup dynamics in a way I hadn't heard before.So I learned two things about this pedal. For one, you need to tweak both the tone knobs on your amp AND the pedal's tone knob. It's not like other pedals which become useless when you set it to one extreme or another. In my case, nearly cranking the tone knob actually made it sound much better. Also, this pedal has much more gain than you'd think and thus sounds much better with the gain kept fairly low. Crank it past 12 o'clock and it starts to sound more like a distortion pedal. It thrives on low gain and high volume. Then it starts to sound more like a "Super Lead" as I imagine it.Now that I've learned to use it, it's become an indispensable part of my board. Xotic has a good record with their pedals, and this continues that legacy.

i bought this one after watching Simon McBride's pedalboard, its the perfect pedal because of its slim design, its narrow but tall also, and very sturdy, and the second reason is because it is a very nice addition to a Marshall amp, its distortion tone is very similar to a Marshall tube amp, it gives you endless ways of combining pedal and amp for different gain and volume levels, but thats a luxury you can't really do live because you would have to kneal down to do the tweaking...

Xotic managed to nail the plexi sound w/ this one IMO w/ a surprising degree of flexibility for such a tiny package. It's got pretty impressive amounts of gain and a whole bunch of clipping on tap and maintains excellent definition and clarity up to around 2:30 on the drive knob. At this point it's supplying more than enough dirt by itself for any practical need I could conceive of. It cleans up well via guitar volume knob and picking dynamics too and hits very nice and natural bluesy OD tone w/ the drive knob below ~9:30.It gets along great w/ all of my amp and guitars (modded Blues Jr., Blackstar HT-20, Orange OR15, SF Twin, and Peavey Triumph 60 on the amp front and '92 LP Studio, '09 SG Special, '63 Jazzmaster, and a new Ibanez RC320) and actually stacks pretty well w/ modest levels of preamp clipping on the Orange, Blackstar, and Blues Jr. as wellSince I've added the OR15 I'm more often than not just cranking the gain on it paired w/ the overdrive channel of the HT-20 and skipping the OD/distortion/fuzz pedals for my distorted tones, but it works great when I'm using the Orange w/ the gain dialed back paired w/ the Blues Jr. or Twin.I heartily recommend this pedal for anyone looking for a very compact, reasonably priced, and pretty tweakable OD/distortion pedal that delivers a full range of awesome cranked 60's/70's Marshall sounds w/o the hearing loss or expense. Out of the 20 or so dirt pedals I've owned, this is definitely my desert island pick to date...

Great pedal. My guitar pedal board fit this good.

Ok so I've had the SL Drive for more than a year now and have used it now & then. My not-so-great initial review was maybe a bit hasty so I'm re-doing it. Here's the deal: ironically, the pedal sounds mediocre at best through a Marshall type amp. But just for the heck of it I plugged it into the "Rhythm" channel of my Tone King Imperial, which is basically a Deluxe Reverb type circuit. The pedal sounds stellar. It takes that scooped-mids Fender circuit and turns it into a wild Plexi beast that's very believable as a real Plexi. So evidently it likes amps with either flat mids or scooped mids. Plug it into an amp that already has strong mids (Marshall, Fender Tweed, etc) and IMO, it doesn't sound good at all, maybe because of the redundancy in the mids. Anyway, I'm bumping my rating by a full star, as long as it's used with the right amp. That seems to be the case with most dirt pedals - the amp type determines the "success" of the pedal. I have a Carl Martin big-box Plexitone and it sounds incredible through a 59 Bassman (Tweed) - but plug it into a Deluxe Reverb and it sounds like complete mush. This pedal is a good value too, quite a bit less pricey than most Marshall Plexi pedals.

Muy buen pedal suena bastante bien🤟🏻 ,, muy versátil con los dip switch internos hay muchas combinaciones posibles para modificar el tono y carácter del pedal,, aparte el pedal es muy bonito y pequeño,, pero bastante pesadito para su tamaño,, llego muy bien empacado y antes de la fecha🥳

Arrived on time. Great product. Very satisfied.

Un verdadero tanque de guerra, muy robusto, elegante y versátil, me hubiera gustado que los switch estuvieran fuera como en el super Clean para tener más control pero aún así me encanto!

Si buscas ese sonido plexi en un pedal compralo ya. Es un pedal sencillo, con muchas configuraciones por los switches internos y súper robusto.

Fast delivery!!! Very happy!!!