Boss RT-20 Rotary Speaker Simulator

While all the knobs are self explanatory in my opinion this pedal does take a while to get the sweet spots in. If your impatient then this pedal is going to be a very daunting task to work with. Whats great about it is the jack in the back for an expression pedal.
If you dont plan on using a power supply with this thing then you are a fool.

Getting one thing out of the way... strictly for guitar the distortion is absolutely worthless in any way. It just sounds muddy and digital.

Now on to the effect. I have had this box for about 5 months now. When I first got it the thing I noticed was the VOLUME BOOST. Kick this thing on and your gonna hear a distinctive boost. To get around this I have turned my effect and direct settings to around 9 o'clock to avoid a sharp volume increase, this does take away from the intensity of the effect though. The second thing I noticed is that when left off

The rotary sound is very nice. Setting one is a classic Leslie sound which is awesome with a clean guitar. Distorted it seems to get a little to harsh for me. On the higher speed it is easy as hell to get into "Any Colour You Like" tones.

Setting two is the one I use most. It is kind of like setting one and a subtle univibe thrown together. This tone is where it's. It has a more drastic spin on it.
Setting three I have found no use for other that weird keyboard stuff (which I forgot to mention, keyboards and thing box are tops)
The univibe sutting (setting four), is kind of subpar when compared to even the Dunlop reissues so I choose not to use it much. It does give a nice Trower's Hannah tone though if the intensity is turned up.

All in all Settings one and two are going to be your money makers. They are a true sound and easier to carry around than a real leslie. When you kick this thing on and sit next to your cab you can almost hear the horns spinning around inside... It's a pretty cool 3D effect.

This thing is tough. With all my pedals I take advantage of the warranty and throw them down my stairs (im serious) first plan. If they survive then I can use them. If they break then I take em back and tell the guy that I opened it up and it was not working. The reason I do this is because when I play live I have a habit of stomping the crap out of my pedals.
This is a Boss and all Boss pedal I have used have passed the test.

I take this on gigs and it hasn't failed me but if it does then I have a Phase 90 in my board that I would use instead.

Overall this thing is ballin. It gives you awesome rock tones from Trower to some AWESOME vocal tones (I recorded some vocal with this thing and it was perfect for that "Planet Caravan" feel).
I play in a psychedelic/fuck/rock Mars Volta/Hendrix kinda outfit and this suits our styles perfectly.

I run it through my chain as such.
Fender modded strat > Vox V847 > Ibanez Analog Man TS808DX > Fulltone Fulldrive 2 > Seymour Duncan Tweak Fuzz > MXR Phase 90 (modded for true bypass) > Boss RT-020 > Marshall DSL50

I have been playing for 10 year and gigging for 8. If it was lost or stolen I would drop some bills for another one simply because it is the easiest way to get the Leslie sound I want.

I have two gripes about it though.
ONE: The damn horn display is extremely distracting to me... I have an affinity for spinning lights and I often find myself looking down and my board cause this thing is so psychedelic.
TWO: when turned off (like with all digital effects) I can feel a slight digital tinge is my sound rather than if I were to take it out completely. Although this is not as bad as it sounds. I find my tone a bit darker with this thing is chain.

Overall, go try one out for a good hour and get over the volume boost... i mean come on use your volume knob for christ's sake.

This is an easy peice to operate. There is one footswitch to turn the effect on and off and another to change the speed of the rotary effect. The knobs that effect the sound are easy to figure out with minimal fuss. The manual is pretty simple to follow plus it gives a couple starter settings.

I have been using this in my pedal board with the following signal chain. 51 RI Tele>Peterson SS2 Tuner>Fulltone Fulldrive 2>RT20>MXR Carbon Copy>Fender Deluxe Reverb RI. I also tried it with a mid 70's Silver Face Twin Reverb.

When I first tried the pedal I set the eceffect knob at unity gain and nearly blew my eardrums. The pedal has a lot of gain so I turned the output to 3 o'clock and the direct signal at about 12 o'clock. This made it pretty transparant and when switched on not as jarring. Since I already have the Fulldrive so I do not use the OD that is built in the unit. I did try it, but found it really altered the tone of my guitar. If you already have a decent OD you can just leave this off. You can also tweak how much of the "rotar" and "bass" you want.

You can get most of the stock "guitar through leslie" sounds straight out of the box. It nails the Joe Walsh sound down as well as the George Harrison sound on the solo from "Let It Be". The Uni-Vibe effect however is a little to bright and in your face. It's hard to get a subtle sound from this mode. the other two modes I found not much variant in sound. I would give it a 9 overall were it not for the jarring Uni-Vibe.

Well I have e not useed at a gig and I am running it through a Visual Sound One Spot on my board so with constant power it is very reliable. I wouldn't use the AA batteries since this thing looks like it has a hefty appetite for batteries. I tend to run modulation effects through dc anyway.

Haven't had it long enough and I never had a problem with Boss effects through the decades I have been playing.

Keep in mind that this is part of Boss's line of "Twin Pedals" so it has a larger than normal footprint. If your short on real estate on your pedalboard you may want to take this into consideration. With other Leslie simulators on the market this is one of the best sounding units available at a decent price. I have seen others that cost twice as much and if your going to pay that much for a leslie simulator you may as well just get a Motion Sound cabinet.

I play mostly 60's style rock as well as country and blues. This is a pretty flexible great peice of gear. If you want that tone from "Badge" it's here. It is a very musical effect.

I find the 4 position mode switch is lkind of unnecessary since the 1 st postion gives me everything I want. It seemed to me a little bit of overkill but that is what makes it flexible.

The controls are simple and it's very easy to adjust the settings to recreate classic Leslie effects. The brake control can be a little difficult to engage if the pedal isn't sitting perfectly flat or firmly anchored in a pedal board, but that is a minor complaint. It's also a major current drain so an AC adapter is a must.

My main instruments are a 1975 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe and a custom Strat with active EMG's played through a 50W 1981 Mesa Boogie Mark II. The rotary effect works very well with my rig and I am easily able to recreate every nuance of the classics - everything from Badfinger and George Harrison (Badge) to early Zep (Good Times Bad Times), Joe Walsh and SRV.

It's Boss, built like a tank. I've never had any problems with anything from these guys in more than 25 years of professional gigging.

Don't know... never had any occassion to need customer support for anything from these guys.

The effect isn't for everyone, but more than fits the bill if you're looking for a decent Leslie sound for you guitar rig and don't want to spend a fortune or deal with the space/weight of the real thing. I am extremely pleased with it - my only regret is that I didn't get one sooner.

It's a little more complicated than your typical effects pedal but it's not rocket science either. The controls are pretty intuitive and it's not difficult to get a decent sound from the RT-20. In fact, there are a few good sounds to be found here. The most difficult part is setting the levels (effect and direct) which is where most users probably start complaining. I've found for most curcumstances to keep the levels between 9 and 12 o'clock in order to keep the thing from boosting the volume too much. Other than that, it's pretty easy. Just fiddle around until you find what you like.

The RT-20 has awesome sound to my ears. I've had the Hughes & Kettner rotary pedal, an old Digitech RPM-1 rack (both had tubes), a Lexicon Vortex, plus I have the Damage control Glass Nexus (which is an amazing multi-effects pedal worth checking out) and the RT-20 has that swirling, gritty rotary tone. It's not a clean effect, it isn't s'posed to be. It can be fairly clean but it's a rotary unit, if it is emulating a real Leslie is going to be a little dirty. I do agree that the overdrive gets unusable anywhere past 9-10 o'clock (at least for my tastes) and I usually only turn it on a little, but that's not why I got it. The speeds are good and usable and it does have a brake to stop the swirl; it does everything a rotary should. It's not a Leslie so stop expecting it to be, but it does do the job very well. By the way, put the Boss RE-20 Space Echo after it and whoa ...

I've never had an issue with a Boss pedal in 15 years.

See reliability.

The RT-20 is a great value considering other pedals that do the same thing cost more and don't sound that much or any better depending on what you buy. I've been at this for 30 years and go through trading gear a lot, so I know what's available and what sounds good. Right now I'm using Damage Control pedals and a few Boss twin pedals and an AdrenaLinn III and a Boomerang, but I've had Lexicon, TC Electronic and Rocktron racks plus E-H, MXR, Line 6, Boss, Pigtronix ... pedals. For some reason Boss pedals always seem to grace my pedalboard.

The RT-20 is really easy to use. In fact, I ended up with all speed settings on 12 o'clock and the Leslie model I because that comes closest to what I wanted my sound to be like.
The only tricky part is the overdrive. I think that even in "keyboard"-mode it's a little too sensitive.

The RT-20 isn't as much "tweakable" as the Korg G4 or some Boss multi effects, but that's fine with me. It sounds good out of the box.
Oh yes, and you can't save anything as a preset. But in turn you've got knobs! No menus, no display, no questions - just 8 knobs to turn, and that's great!

Minus: They forgot a jack for a foot switch. Only an EXP-pedal is possible - but that doesn't make too much sense for an organ player. Pity.

I'm using the RT-20 with my Hammond XB-2 II to make it sound like an organ. If I have to bring my own stuff with me, I've got a Yamaha MG-10/2 for mixing and a Dynacord AM-12 active speaker.

The rotary simulation itself is the best I've ever come across. Of course you can't simulate the projection of a real Leslie, but it certainly comes close, especially if the speaker is at a little distance, so it gets some "air".
Overdrive is ok, but as mentioned above a little hard to adjust. If it works once, it sounds pretty authentic. Usually I have the overdrive set at about 10 or 11 o'clock and the volume on my Hammond XB-2 around 9. The output signal is pretty quiet, so you should use two mic inputs on the console, but the sound justifies that.
As I'm playing jazz and funk, I stuck to the rotary model I (122 with 122 drive, miking a little off), which is perfectly suited for that kind of music. It really sounds like it should.
Also nice: You can control the amount of distortion with the expression pedal, like real tube gear.


I rarely use the other models. The 122 close-miked is ok, 122 with the Marshall drive, too (but not suited for my music) and the UniVibe is nice, but I don't really need it. Furthermore it's pity that the overdrive on the UniVibe reacts so harshly. It would be great to give it just a little saturation without screaming distortion when playing with the Rhodes - but that's very difficult.

However, as I bought it for my organ, I'm fine. Once the drive is set, it sounds really good.

Should be ok. I've been using it for a year now - no problems at all.

I've never contacted Boss.

For jazz organists I think this one is a good choice. As I said, I've got about everything in the middle position, the 122 off-miked and drive adjusted to taste. Of course that doesn't convert an old XB-2 into a pristine B-3, but it's close enough. Next step up would be a real Leslie.
I've been playing piano the most of my life (about 18 years out of 22) and Hammond organ for 1 year. I'm using the XB-2/RT-20-combination with my organ trio (w/ guitar & drums) and have always been satisfied. Yes, it greatly helps me making music, as it makes the XB-2 sounding like an organ!

Nothing difficult about it. A knob for every parameter, it's a no-brainer.

First note that I'm using a real Hammond C2 with this, and would have a real Leslie if they weren't so much money, but I have played through them and I hear them in person several times a week...whether I'm sitting behind the organ or not.

Well the big complaint I see from people is the overdrive. I hated it at first too, but I found myself loving it after getting it set right. IF you just crank it up halfway and start ripping real loud on your instrument, then it sounds horrible. You gotta make it very subtle and then it is very realistic to a Leslie.
So what I do is set the overdrive "on" at the absolute minimum setting. I put the organ volume on max. and adjust the 1/4" output until the overdrive is at the maximum amount that I want. The trick here is that the overdrive is volume-sensitive, which is true to the Leslies I have played through. With it set this way, it gets just a little dirt as you get louder. But remember, minimum setting...just a little dirt, and make sure the max volume you put into it is set where it is only at the max amount of dirt that you want.

Everything else is good. I like that the horn and bass speed up differently. The default speed and ramp settings are realistc, although I tweak them about a centimeter just for my taste.

I thought it had some digital coloration at first, but I notice it less now. It may just be me getting used to it, but even after time away from it and hearing the real thing, it sounds 99% of the way there to me. What's really lacking is the 3-D sound of a real Leslie...with the sound bouncing off all the walls. That doesn't happen with any pedal and it simply can't happen without the physically rotating speaker.

For organists, whether you have a real Hammond or a clone, I think this is the best pedal available (but depending on what clone you may not even need this...mainly the older ones would benefit from a better sim). For guitarists the story may be a little different. I'm not a guitarist and I don't ever play a guitar through a Leslie so I couldn't tell you.

It's very sturdy, and always works flawlessly, I can't imagine it failing on me.

Have not dealt with them before but everybody I hear from says they are exceptional.

I would give this a 10 except for the price. It's a fantastic pedal and gives credence to "you get what you pay for," but it still seems expensive for a pedal these days. They could have at least included a power supply at that price. But I had an extra Boss adapter anyways...so it worked out fine in my case. With other pedals like the Line 6 at $120, it's tempting to get that instead, since it is also a good pedal and $100 cheaper, although it sounds a little less realistic.

But like I said above...for organs this thing sounds amazing. Guitars could be a different story...ask someone else because I don't know. :)

I got it since june-06. It's very simple, it's too much simple... now I want more parameters!

It sounds good? This is the question. YES and NO is the answer. It have a strange EQ leslie simulation. It truncate high frequency, but without a good filter or a good algorithm job... it seems a digital 16khz(or less) recording auto-cutoff: this produce non-accuracy high sound details, and a acute frequency enfasys in mid-8khz(or less) circa(my ears response..). The Balance knob don't help us.
I've tried it in many ways: in live through big speakers, with my band in a room, in my room through my Esi Near 05 monitor, with my old Yamaha Electone C-55N, with the Roland RS-5, with NI B4 II.
In Live or with the old Yamaha, it sounds good, very "rocky", very loudy, with an emotionant fast rotary speed, very simple. Plug and play.
The "secret" for use the "distortion" is give a VERY LOW signal input to the RT-20: this get the sound dirty, but I agree with other users, the distortion is not good.
With the B4, in studio, it sounds bad. I don't know why. In comparation with the leslie 122 simulation of the b4, the RT-20 lost.

I play funk, soul, blues-rock organ. It doesn't sounds jazzy, his sound is more usable for rock or for electric guitar IMHO. It's the best solution in live.

Well,,,,this is my second review as I've read so many reveiws here where there were so many disapointed with it, I thought I could give some feedback as to how one can get the best of this pedal.
I't's easy to use, but how you use it & in which signal chain you choos totally makes a difference of the performance of this great effect.
Bear with me,,, as I know there are not many people that run their rig the same way that I do, but this is where this unit will satisfy, no doubt in my mind.

I've tried this pedal in every way possible.
With guitar I've found that using the RT20 parallel with the mic signal chain is the best way to get the this pedal to sound as authentic, warm, & close to the real thing without playing with, or sucking your tone.

I run my rig as follows,,,,Guitar to my analog pedals,( overdrive, boost, wah, ect) then into the amp.
I don't have an effects loop as most of my heads or combos are vintage, besides, I don't like them in general anyways.

This leaves all my time based effects out of the amp, which I prefer as I seem to get better tone, definition, & balls this way.

What I do, & there are some others that have found this method of running time based digital effects to be far better, is run my mic (E-609) to a rack with a midiman line mixer, this unit has a very good mic preamp, it also has an effects send that works quite well indeed. I run the RT20 by routing the send signal to the input & I run the outputs into other channels in the line mixer & set the direct level of the RT20 on zero & the effect level full, so there isn't any of the direct sound coming out of the RT20, just the effect.
The direct sound is parrallel & unadulterated by the digital effect.
If you are skilled in setup of effects & tweaking, your ears will thank you.

This method has some drawbacks though,,,because in order to monitor your effects, you need a dedicated power amp & full range PA speakers.
To some this may be out of the question, but I use a Yamaha P3500 & a pair of Ramsa stage monitors, & there is no question that this rig sounds just killer to say the least, so I don't mind bringing it anywhere.
If you have a good soundman & a dedicated house monitor, you could get away with that as your soarce of referance too, but I've known guys to run the "wet dry wet" set up & haul even heavier stuff than me, & not even come close to the tone I get by running effects in the mic signal in parrellel & using my own dedicated small PA.
As I stated in my previous review the overdrive sounds like crap, but using it the way I described, I find I get that sound of the leslie growl with the overdrive completely off.
If you have the means to try running your effects this way, try it.

I give this pedal a 10 only because of the results I get by using it in this way, I agree with most, in front of an amp, this thing sucks.

Boss, need I say more?

Roland, need I say more?

I play guitar, I have good ears, & I know how to set up & tweak effects.
If more guitar players would have the patients to learn about how to use these tools to the best of there tonal benefits, there would be less bad reveiws.
I get an extremely good simulation of a leslie with the way I use this pedal, & I know what one should sound like as I have a real Leslie 147 as well.

Not easy to get a half decent sound with a guitar.
The best settings are: Mode:1 Rise:Noon Balance:full left
Effect:9:15 p.m. Direct:full Slow:full Fast:1 o'clock

It changes the tone of your guitar whether it's on or off. It brightens up your sound and gives it an awful digital tone, even when the effect is just slightly used. If you're like me and have a nice warm tube amp tone with all analog pedals, you won't like this unit.

It seems well built

Don't know.

I've been a pro lead guitarist for 16 years and play stuff like SRV, Hendrix, blues, rock etc. I've got really nice older Strats and vintage Fender tube amps with analog pedals. If I were to put this pedal in my box, it would ruin my tone whether it's on or off.
I do not recommend this pedal at all.

Very simple.No manual needed.

Good Leslie simulator.I use it with my Hammond A100 and Voce V5 wannabe.The only cons are :

1)the overdrive which is orrible matched with organ sound : sterile and harsh, 1000 miles far away from the warm tube overdrive of the real thing

2)the differences between the four models aren't noticeable (except for the Leslie16,monorotor,simulation)

3) too emphasys on higher frequencies

In a live contest is realistic,but lacks a bit of "wow" (depth in modulation) ; on recordings it gives a really good Leslie sound (if you keep the overdrive on "O" and adjust with a EQ the high frequencies!)

strong metal case

Good Leslie effect