Tech 21 XXL

If you can plug in a guitar and turn a knob or two you should have no problems.

The XXL was originally marketed as an overdrive pedal. Mine was a 90's one, not the reissue, which might sound different. Even with the Drive knob all the way down it put out a ferocious distortion. You have to turn the guitar's volume well down to get it to clean up, which often results in a loss of highs. Its not an overdrive by any stretch of the imagination, and if you buy it as such you may well be disappointed. The Warp knob makes a difference but its very subtle and I would often find it sounded better in its neutral position anyway. The XXL's distortion is not half bad but for me the problem is this pedal is incredibly noisy. I though mine had a problem until I compared it with another one - just as bad. With a gate after it it could be used live but imho never ever for recording. The excessive, unsubtle distortion (for a supposed overdrive), lack of true bypass, and mad noise levels give it a low score for me. I put it back on ebay after about a month and replaced it with a Cmatmods Tube Slammer - a dead quiet, beautiful sounding real overdrive that costs about the same.

Decently built and should give no problems.

Never dealt

If this one had god stolen at a gig I'd regret the money loss but not the pedal itself. I bought it to sit in my rig before the EXH Little Big Muff, to provide a more subtle and controllable overdrive. It turned out to be as unsubtle as the LBM (which is an out and out fuzzbox and takes pride in its lack of subtlety) and more noisy.

It's fairly easy to use. The warp control appears to have a quasi-compressor-like effect, and requires some tweaking. Other than that, it's pretty basic.

I'll try to be as objective as possible here. As a stand-alone unit, the XXL sounds pretty good. My only complaint overall is that this unit doesn't have very much low end -- not what I would want in a distortion/fuzz. I play an '06 Clapton Strat through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a Hot Rod Deluxe extension cabinet. Through a 4X12 it might sound perfect, but through the Fender it's not quite convincing.

That said, the real problem I found was that the XXL does not stack well. I run a Telenordia TA-100 Overdrive which is on nearly all the time (without question the best unit of it's kind I've ever heard, much less owned. Check one out.) The TA is set for natural overdrive when the guitar volume is maxed and cleans up beautifully when the guitar is dialed back. I've had very good results stacking a stock Boss Blues Driver on top of the TA for a very good blues sustain. My recent search has been for a unit which I could also stack on the TA, one that would yield a more ballsey-fuzz. The XXL is not the answer for me personally. Try as I might, I have not been able to balance the compression between the two pedals and as a result, I cannot get the XXL loud enough to cut through without dialing the Warp and Drive back so far that it's self-defeating sound-wise.

It seems like a very well-built unit. I have no reason to expect otherwise.

I have not dealt with them.

This is, of course, a very subjective review. It would not surprise me at all to learn that the XXL was not designed to be stacked with other drive pedals and that's fine. Alone, it doesn't sound bad at all, a little noisy with the drive past 1 o'clock, but not bad. It was just not what I was looking for.

Pretty simple to use if you have used pedals before. However I purchased it used and no box nor manual came with mine. The only thing is the warp. Not sure what it really does. I leave it at 10/11 o'clock

This is my holy grail. I run a 61 Reissue SG and a 52 reissue Tele though a Mesa Boogie Mark I. I get a lot of compliments on my tone. I get that old school Billy Gibbons / Los Lobos sound. Nice and FAT / WARM and Gnarly. Has the right amount of Fart Fuzz when needed, cleans up nicely when you back off on your picking and turn the guitar volume down. The tone when you use your fingers is just sick. I play in a few projects from blues to stoner rock / Sabbath type riffs. It is perfect. I had a big muff and found it too muddy and not clear enough. This pedal is clear as a bell with the right amount of mud. Nice amount of crisp pop when you need it and also nice balance of warm sustain. The thing I like the best is like others have pointed out it keeps YOUR sound. It does not compress or bastardize your tone. I suggest pairing this up with a booster pedal such as the Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster. This will put your right on top for some nice nice leads. Keep in mind the pedal is not for everyone and tone is also in the hands of the player. If you are looking for anything I discribed above.. This is for you.

Not one problem with it. Battery changing is a pain in the ass when you are about to play.

Again....... A must have.. For single and humberbuck fans.

Try this bad boy out with P-90's and you will pretty much fall in love.

Easy to use: Level, Tone, Warp and Drive. The manual has a few patches to get you started with. You can't really get a good sound out of this pedal if it doesn't fit in well with the rest of your gear.

I've owned this pedal for 8 years and my equipment has changed a lot over time.

Back then, the main elements in my rig were: Humbucker pickups, XXL pedal, 150W Solid state amp. The XXL was exactly what I needed in tonality and drive for my setup. I used to never turn this pedal Off. It did wonders at adding warmth and depth to my tone, especially the warp knob which simulated a satured tube amp.

Nowadays, my rig consist of: Single coil pickups and a clean 30W tube amp. I find myself never using the XXL. It's too harsh for my setup. Level is noisy, Tone is flat and muddy. Warp adds absolutely nothing to the sound, i can't hear it, and Drive is always too heavy like a distortion. I can get a clean overdriven sound but i need to pick very, very, very softly on a string when drive is at 0 or else it just screeches.

Conclusion: this pedal is fine if you play though a solid state amp with enough balls, but it's a no no for tube amps.

This pedal is sturdy. I would rely on it.

On the guitar, I play rock, blues and surf. I tried recording with the XXL but it's just too compressed for serious stuff. I guess for some background rythm guitar it could do the job, but I'll try to find a pedal with a better tone, wider gain stages and more dynamics. For now i'm replacing it with a clean boost which gets the best out my tubes.

Easy to use but as mentioned in other reviews, the warp control is pretty unique to this pedal and may take some getting used to.

Most of the reviews here are people using tube amps, however I use an old Carvin SX200 with this pedal. It's a solid state amp without a lot of character but it's clean channel is VERY clean. I use an Ibanez SZ320 with stock humbuckers and gig several times a month with this rig...so...

First...I leave this pedal on at all times...everything at about 12 o'clock except the drive which is almost all the way down...

This setting gives me a warmer overall sound and I use my guitar volume to clean up the sound. I can roll the guitar volume back up and it has enough drive for my needs.

The point is: it cleans up great (unlike so many distortion pedals) and reacts to guitar volume and pick attack Very well...and gives my souless solid state amp some warmth.

Never had a problem with this one...I have two...I plugged a Boss power adaptor into the old one and it must have been some kind of mis-match because it did damage that pedal...it still works but has less gain for some reason...weird...but the fact that it still works says a lot...and I can still use it as a back up if the newer one goes out (which it doesn't seem inclined to do).

NA

The band I'm in plays a BUNCH of different styles of music...Temptatios, Tina Turner, Black Crowes, Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top, Top 40, Country, Blues, Disco, light Jazz...pretty much everything except heavy rock.

This pedal works without much hassle...I work days and gig on the weekends...I don't have a bunch of time after work before a gig but I know I can set my amp next to the nearest outlet and plug this thing in and get my "bread and butter" sound...I like that...any other effects are just added spice (tremelo, chorus, wah).

ease of use:... takes some teaking but not a problem

sound ... i am running a vibro champ through a 4x12 the amp on it's own sounds big even though it's only 5/6 watts - it's point to point wired w/ a tube rectifier and can do a very nice fender clean sound - with NOS tubes pushed sounds awesome too - but I wanted a pedal that would give me the equiv of a gain channel - WITH THIS XXL I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER !! very complimentary !! i've tried others..., you know i have... the XXL dialed in right (with my rig), has plenty of balls, and still retains the vintage sound i love. nice with my jh-1(halo induct)wah too. sounds great with PAF's AND single coils!! (the hell you say) i know!!!!!

i hope so, don't know

don't know

gives me the equiv of a gain channel with my fender amp that i love - i'm seriously thinking of trying the original sansamp now (also made by tech 21) because of this pedal but as i said, i couldn't be happier with this XXL - i know EVERYTHING AINT FOR EVERYBODY, and this might not be right for you your style of music or amp , but if your situstion is similar to mine - nice fender clean need a mean overdrive to go with that - give it a shot, (it doesn't sound cheap (with my rig) AT ALL !! but it doesn't cost that much either)

yeah, was easy for me to get the sound i wanted outa this sucker.

this is one one the best sounding pedals i have ever owned, the main reason is it retains the complete tone of my guitar, other pedals 'hijack' the sound, that in itself aint a bad thing if thats what im after, but with this pedal sounds like the complete spectrum is intact.

well it did clap out, i do expect all my pedals to work forever under extreme rock n roll circumstances. tech 21 replaced the board, and been ok since. but it's the only pedal i have ever owned that had to be repaired. (think i own bout 11 pedals all up)

when i got it repaired the process went smooth.

overall it is the best pedal i own, people comment on the sound after gigs, i wanna get more xxl stuff.

This pedal is very simple to get working, no worries there but, I must say the knobs are somtimes a bit of a hassle. For me when switching on and off, because I'm often singing whilst doing this, sometimes if not %100 accurate, I will accidently knock the level knob out of whack and suddenly wonder why my gat's gone 100 times louder. Perhaps if they were a little more stiff or rigid this could have been avoided. But other than that no worries!

If memory serves me correctly, replacing the battery requires a screw driver, thats a bit of uneccessary hassle too!

This is the problem for me. At 1st I loved this pedal, the options for sounds was excellent. In my room and at practice and on recordings it sounded pretty mint. But live its becoming a real pain. For me it just doesn't cut through the mix very well, and after playing my TS-9 or hotcake for a few songs, when I kick in the XXL it sounds really thin and seems quiet because it just gets lost in cymbal noise and what not.

The other problem for me is that it causes a strange buzz. Not major, but definitely noticeable in a quiet situation. (not that I've ever noticed at a gig)Thats especially strange because I use battery for it and I'm reassured batteries can;t cause hum or buzz.

One great feature is the warp though, still love that option. Oh and the sustain on this pedal is amazing!!!!!!!!!!

Reliable as they come. No problems with it suddenly deciding its not going to work. The battery lasts for ages in it, unlike countless other pedals. I've been gigging with it for over a year now with no back up.

Overall its still a great pedal. THere are some really good features on it, like the Warp. But I've found myself using my hotcake for heaps more songs that in the past I used the XXL for. I'm gettin sick of its thin sound and not cutting through the mix is a real pain. If it were stolen, I would explore other options.

go d/l the manual instruction. got mines off of e-bay and e-mail tech 21, and they replied back no prob with infos and such.

now, the warp knob really is the key player here so don't let the drive overpower it if you're seeking the golden singing tone.

tone really is waaaaaay to subtle for my taste,but it does have its use

ofcourse despite what was said above, I've had this baby for a year now, and hm...basically most if not ALL the GREAT COMMENTS and alledged sounds this baby can make can hold true.(ofcourse, I don't think people really made it sound tooo out of this world but its perfect).

here's my checklist.

-SWEETDAMN MOTHER SINGING TONE? CHECK

-SUPER WEEZER BLUE ALBUM CRUNCH? CHECK

-dying fuzz battery sound in its own way? CHECK

-Interesting compressed lead lines that can bring out your playing? yes.

-Sag and BLOOM? Check.

-not like the american woman tone, but someone close because the same company made it? Yes.

-not like the Mariah Carey for your pedal but it does the job fucking well? SWEETDAMN MOTHER you wish you would have done her...ofcourse the closest you can imagine is with this pedal...CHECK!!!

-This thing is freaky, powerful chug, awesome chuggy rhytm? yes...but its more of "singing" pedal...ok.

anyhow, just things that come up to mind, mind you I woke up 10 minutes ago lol, but even if you put whole truth serum into my system...its pretty darn close.


NOW!!! the only disadvantage I've had so far...is that this pedal DOES
not truly bypass, freakin such a big argument so I think people should
have a forum/messageboard. I'm happy for those who went the extra mile and got theirs fixed one way or another. My theory behind this lies with perhaps the drive knob and maybe the warp? turn them both towards the left kinda alleviates the clean sound from have this fudging little high end hiss that follows your output when you play clean.
it does color your sound and may get annoying. I don't mind mines so far because it just adds character to your tone. what?what? making excuse? dude you're gonna die one day, so at least don't sweat it too much.

choosing between batteries and adapter does affect your sound as others mentionned. if you want to be consistent, adapter is the way to go...but once in a while if you get bored, putting the warp towards the tube emu spectrum comes out pretty well with a used battery, nice compressed semi muddy sludge tone to your playing. lskdjflsjd sweet I tell you, so I do that once in a while.

you will thank tech 21 and other reviewers to have mentionned the sweet singing character of this pedal.

(tranny peavey, goes well with my ehx clone, and/or ECHO PARK, and really adds a cool factor being fuzzed along with my new family member...mid-fi RANDOM COMPUTER GLITCH...which is texture party avant-garde pedal. have a compressor pedal too, but this thing compresses itself already in its own beautifully unique way, so don't need that in combo, that'd be limiting this baby's own Mariah tone. I also once sported a dod and digitech Grunge pedal...which is my preference in perhaps trying to nail other people's tones particularly the nineties sound. obvious,neh?)

ah ah ah...perhaps, not as hardcore as the random glitch comp, grunge or perhaps soon new member effector13 smooth yellow fuzz, but it holds its own as its solid performer, I find above average. helps you find your character in your leads. YES YOUR OWN CHARACTER.

perhaps a ten it CAN DESERVE. but I'll leave that til tech21 improve the tone spectrum (get your own sep. eq , and drive beyond 3 oclock isn't always best, between 1 and 2 is optimal before some annoying hiss starts to dial in). thank you. I love you mom and your mom.

used. hardcore. butofcourse, do not perform physical sex with it and expect it to work the next day...if so or too late...good luck anyway.
up to you if you want to feed it to your dog. hasn't failed me yet.

email. respond fast. helpful, and does great pub rel. responses. thanks tech 21. just make more kick ass pedals one day?

its cool on its own, one of my favorite moments is that my friend had this christian family event where he had to play a song for these kids 30 strong choice hahaha that was hilarious...he's like playing something that has the feel of I love rock n' roll thingymajig, and yeah everytime he'd pause after a good fifth chord and mute the strings, there like a weird delay or decay or noise gate that comes in...(like play E5 twice and stop and muted with palm) then there this huge sucking up sound, sort of bass oriented, very weird but very powerful quality lol like as if the speaker wanted to suck you in? hahaha...oh yeah, big time AURAL SEX BABY!!!

don't know what type of music that you play...but this pedal is definitely awesome if you get away with steal, as in ebay, unless you'd wanna join inmatedatingpersonals.com.

this pedal helped me write my leads, and even some of my new material.
this baby sings. perhaps if you got a better technique, it will sing out more, because I know it only pushes me further with my playing as an occassional lead.

also, I suggest messing with your tone knob on you guitar, it does wonders, I don't get frustrated when people put this down or bitch how bad or muddy this may get leadwise (mug plus rhythm can be a good thing ;)) but its a simple and yet golden secret solution. people can be such dolts at time...ugh...it pains me.

so remember. play with tone knob. less it more with the drive knob...something for tech 21 to look at for future referrence. I like noise thus compelling me to buy some fuzz (this is 6/10 for the experience has its uses, but if you want fuzz character which I find is great for everything else texturewise but NOT ALWAYS FOR LEAD).

YOU WANT A PERSONALIZED LEAD SOUND? LOOK NO FURTHER.

ps.I'd thrast/bomb this review if I wanted to keep this secret. being a nice soul and all, I'd wanna support and salute those who'd want to rock!!!

-Yuri

Depending on what guitar\pickups combination you have and what sort of amp you use, there are a wide range of possibilities in this box. If you want a straight fuzz box, you should probably try something else, especially if you are looking for scooped mids. The contols are fairly straightforward and elusive at the same time. The gain has a lot of boost and I use it to either provide unity gain or a little boost. The tone knob is very sensitive and makes a huge difference with just a little turn. Tech 21 products in general have eq controls that really have a lot of gain so small adjustments and then playing for awhile and listening carefully is the best approach. The warp control is the most subjective and elusive as it doesn't seem to change the harmonic balance that radically but seems to alter the compression qualities. Drive has a pretty wide range of distortion and should be set according to how much your amp is already distorting and your mood.

I use mostly strat type guitars with Duncan pickups installed. The bridge pickups are usually JB, AH, or JB juniors. The middle and bridge pickups are anything from stock Fender to split rails duckbuckers or the newer Fender noise cancelling single coils like on the new Jeff Beck Strat. It is very quiet and has no pops or clicks from the switch. My normal amp is a Hot Rod Deluxe set for a clean smooth sound with the tone controls set flat or with slight mid boost.I have played through many small and medium fender amps all over the west coast in various blues jams and found I could get my sound as long as the amp was working normally. I my opinion, Tech 21 didn't market this box correctly. They should have sold it as a box that would get a Marshall sound out of any small to medum Fender amp, especially the famed "Bluesbreaker" tone Clapton got on the "Beano" album. I traveled with only this and a cheap Charvel strat with the Duncan pickups for years and most players were shocked that I could make their amps sound like that. Another killer feature is that it will always feed back and sustain on the second harmonic and hang in there with extreme whammy bar drops-always in complete control. The other cool feature is that when you turn down the volume on your guitar, the distortion cleans up considerably and gives a slightly roughed-up rhythm sound but with no muddyness. It is very responsive to dynamics and has a big variation in tone depenging on how hard you pick, especially with the volume backed off on the guitar. It makes the distortion more animated and "alive" with swirl and harmonic shift like no other box I ever tried. Oddly enough, as others have noticed, it sounds best with a dying battery.

I bought it when it first came out and it died after about a half hour of playing. I sent it to Tech 21 and got it back about 10 days later. It has never failed again.

I met Andrew Barta, the designer at a Namm show in 1999. a cool guy and super intellegent. He told me that they test all designs with Duncan humbuckers for tone. He admitted that the box didn't sell too well and that yes, they could have marketed it as a box to turn a Fender into a Marshall but that it wouldn't have made the amp companies very happy. When I asked him about the Warp knob, he was kinda vague and when I asked him how the circuit worked, he clammed up. You can't blame him for not revealing trade secrets. He did talk to me for a long time, however which is not the usual thing at the Namm show if you are just a regular guy crusing the show on a borrowed pass and not from a big music chain or a rock star. Hats off to him and his company.

I play a lot of blues jams and can play fairly straight blues if I want but tend to wander into the netherworld occupied by Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth, Robben Ford, Robin Trower or early Clapton but not copying any of them. I have been playing 40+ years and have owned or borrowed just about eveything ever made. I always work to get a sweet, musical tone and in my opinion it is the most musical sounding distortion box ever. I am probably going to get a spare soon as they don't make 'em anymore and I can't get my sound without it. The led could have been a little brighter but that would probably draw the battery down faster. It does seem to work best when plugged straight into an amp or amp simulator like a Sansamp which comes alive when they are used together.

After I sold the first unit (no real use for it since I expected fuzz), I bought one back as I'm in a cover band again as well and I remembered the good sustain it had.
I also like to have non-mainstream pedals ...

I use it for lead work in moderate rock songs (think Bryan Adams and such).
Gain at max (i.e. 3 o'clock, anything further just adds mud) pushing a Laney LC15 or LC50 MkII tube amp set on clean. Gives a nice Marshallish gain.
I use it exclusively with my Carvin Bolt (strat type) in that band.
I use other pedals for other types of gain.

The pedal is probably too much for blues players, there is some very noticeable gain even with gain on zero. I think there are better pedals for blues anyway.
On the other hand it's too mild for the heavier stuff (metal heads, even moderate ones, don't waste your money).
People who call this a fuzz pedal probably never have oned a real fuzz.
There is ZERO ! fuzz in this pedal compared to my ZVex factory, DOD FX52 and DHA fuzzes.

I don't like it that much for rythm. A bit undefined/mushy.
Sustain is good like I said already. I still need to use a delay FX for lead though.

At the gain levels I use it, the warp only has a very subtle effect. I prefer it turned completely to the left, 07:00
The effect is more noticeable at low gain settings, but it remains subtle.
And no way you could ever notice any difference in a band situation.

From what my ears tell me, the tone knob is a trebble cut in the range 12:00 to 05:00
Below it acts differently but I never use that range anyway ...

I like the smooth switching, without any hard point to pass.
The LED dimms when the battery gets empty but it's rather hard to tell since it isn't that bright to begin with.
The pedal looks (and is) very sturdy. Extremely lightweight just like all Tech21 products.
My pedal board (and my back) want to thank Tech21 for this.
Certainly dependable.

I think the pedal is quite transparent. It doesn't really have its own sound which is a good thing.
Depends a lot (and I mean it) on amp and guitar unlike other distortion boxes.
It doesn't work that well with my time FX (currently Ibanez DE-7 delay and Jacques chorus), seems they fight against each other a bit. I have pedals that work better with them.

There are certainly other ways to use this pedal which take better advantage of the different controls.
For instance I can see how it would suit some specific type of Jazz like a guy said below.

I can't rate it. IMO it's one of the better pedals on the (now used) market though.
It's a mixture of hype and real qualities.
(I'm quite surprised by all the raving reviews below)
Sustain and relative transparency are its best features.

I like Tech21 products even if I always end selling them. Weird.
Had a sansamp classic (pre reissue) which I sold a fortune. Thank you Kurt Cobain.
And the Tri-A.C. would have been the best pedal I EVER ran accross if it had had more gain.

I'm 40 playing 20 years. By no means a pro player but I play everything, really.
From folk to techno/electro to metal to boys bands ...
I also play synth.
Obviously, during this time I had (and still have) a ton of gear.
If you get past the Tech21 hype and use this pedal for what it seems to be (a decent medium gain distortion pedal), you'll probably find a use for it.
Any pedal that makes it on my pedal board is a good pedal.

Its fairly easy to get a good of it I'll go into more detail in the next section. The manual is pretty good ginving some good suggestions for sounds you might want to try and clear diagrams. Access to the battery is a bit of a pain, four screws to get in and I am not to impressed the way the battery it just wedged in under the PCB. Wouldn't have killed them to fit a plastic clip or something to hold it still at least

I use it with a Yamaha Pacifica 112 and sometimes a Fender Squire Jazz bass. Not a lot of people it is also designed to be used with bas guitars too which is one reason I bought it. Tech 21 do recommend you use it with their Bass Driver pedal though. As other people have said it does introduce a tiny bit of hum when being bipassed and I think it does take a little edge off the tone of the guitar, but I think that might be just as much to do with having extra ten feet of cable for the signal to pass through.

A lot of people have slated this pedal for sounding flat and unresponsive to adjustments of the controls and I thought the same at first until I tried it with a friends Mexican Strat. With that guitar and the volume turned down to say 5 it was fantastic. Yes it does add an incredible amount of gain and if you turn it up too much its sounds like mush regardless of what you do with the Warp control. But with the right guitar I got some great singing heavy blues sounds out of it. It doesn't do that just breaking up crunchy valve amp sound unless you turn your guitar down to two or three but when you need a wall of sound on some power chords or a wailing guitar solo its got it. Whats more its got finesse. Its far more sensitive to different pick-up settings and how you strike the strings then a lot of pedals out there. If you want to sound like the Darkness, Led Zepplin or Queen then this is the pedal for you. Warning if you already have powerful pickups particularly humbuckers I would give it a miss. Using it with a bass it gives more of a fuzz sound, which isn't the best, it is a bit flat though my old bass amp but through a modern amp powerful with a horn tweeter its much better and the fact you get two pedal for the price of one is a bonus.

It has worked fine so far

If you want to sound like the Darkness, Led Zepplin or Queen then this is the pedal for you. Warning; if you already have powerful pickups particularly humbuckers I would give it a miss as. Using it with a bass it gives more of a fuzz sound, which isn't the best, it is a bit flat though my old bass amp but through a modern amp powerful with a horn tweeter its much better and the fact you get two pedal for the price of one is a bonus.

4 knobs, one switch. Just takes a bit of experimentation with the warp control to certain tones.

Tanglewood Tomkat > Morley Wah > Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde OD > XXL > V-amp 2 > Laney Hardcore

This thing sounds awesome! It's a fairly unique pedal, in that it's high gain, but not necessarily as scratchy-sounding as many gainy pedals. I really do like the warp control, I wouldn't go so far as to say it makes it sound as though you're using valves, it doesn't totally nail the 'sag' but it IS close, warms the tone up quite nicely when open, or can give that transistor sound, should you want it, when closed. The best thing about it is that it's an extra layer of tonal sculpting, which you can use in conjunction with the tone and gain to get loads of different tones - I can find anything from drivey 70's blues, chunky rock rhythm, vintage fuzz to thrash. Which is nice.

It does have to be said it's very gainy, but it wouldn't have a name like XXL if it wasn't, would it?

Finally, no it's not true bypass, but there's no discernable hum with the pedal off at bedroom volume. At gig levels, there's nothing a bit of gating won't fix.

would be 10/10 if the warp did exactly as it said on the tin.

I've never heard of a problem with Tech 21, the chassis and case are made from feeling durable steel, all sockets and pots are high quality, and the soldering is immaculate.

Never needed to deal with them, doubt i'll ever have to.

I play anything from jazz and blues to thrash and industrial. This thing's too gainy for the former pair, but that's not what i bought it for. As far as rock and metal go, it's excellent at giving that thick-sounding disortion.

It wouldn't get stolen because i wouldn't let anybody get near enough to steal it.

You need to do some experimenting to set this up (like Mesa Boogie amps). Once you've got the right balance (primarily between the Tone on your amp and the Tone/Warp/Drive on the XXL) it's a doddle to use.

Mostly playing LPs. Dialled in for its party trick - the bloom+sustain Warp thing - it sounds amazing. If you like to use slow bends, adding emotional feel with vibrato, the extra change in tone you get on sustained notes is fantastic to play around with. I've never heard anything like it in a cheap stomper.

I run my XXL into a MB Studio preamp (with no other pedals) when the preamp is set on the Lead channel with a little drive (like a mild blues edgy overdrive) and this then adds the over-the-top legato-style solo tone. Awesome :)

There's something about the Mesa's Lead channel that works with it really well - to cut the highs. Because, if I switch to the Mesa's Clean channel with the XXL switched in, it sounds terrible. So basically I've got the two things set up for 3-channels: Clean, Edgy Overdrive, Sustainy Lead.

Like others have said - there's still a LOT of gain with the Drive at minimum (it's not a clean boost pedal). I mostly have it at about 12oclock. But the type of distortion is voiced wrong for HM, so I can see why some people won't like it.

I'd give it 10 for its party trick but I've got to take off 3 because it has a bug - it's not true bypass and when switched off there's a distinct fizz low in the mix. This f*cks up the clean tone if recording, but isn't noticeable live. I'll hack the pedal to add a true DPDT bypass switch soon.

Fine

Never dealt with them - no need to.

As a rule I don't like stompboxes for distortion. But I dug this out of the bits box and it was far better than I remembered it. I'd love to have an amp that could bloom/sustain like this at living room levels. It's not perfect, and it's not for everyone, but does deliver.

Pretty easy.

High gain tubey sound. Do not get this for "amp just breaking up" sounds.
The warp knob is great: full to the right you get an excellent thick sagging sound and thick compression. I run in into a sans amp bass driver for both guitar and bass.
This is the only only thing I know about that gets anywhere near that Neil young arc weld guitar-sag amps melting sound.
With warp on full, bass freqs are boosted and the slightly unusual tone control (past 12 oclock it cuts bass freqs) becomes useful for cutting the bottom if its too much.
With the warp set flat its a more normal heavey overdrive sound.

Doom/sludge metalists etc should check this out, downtuned its thunderous.

Into a sansamp its a really warm thick fuzzy sound. Naked into a solid state bass amp its brighter/tinnier.

Other reviews say its reative to different amps. so beware maybe?

so far very solid

Great heavy overdrive, with the excellent ability to simulate amplifier sag and compression.

Easy to use. No matter where the knobs are set. I don't like the sound.

Used with tech 21 trademark 10 amp and single coil guitar. I don't like the sound I get wit this pedal. Even with the gain all the way down it still has too much gain. Turning down the guitar's volume helps, but it does not clean up as well as a Blacktone Mosfet overdrive. The higher gain settings sound almost too full - not much room for notes to come through. The warp knob is all hype. it's supposed to switch between even and odd harmonics or amp "sag" - whatever! turned all the way to the right and the sound just loses the high end on the attack of the note. as the note sustains the high end comes back. with the knob all the way to the left the sound is thinner sounding. Half way in between and you're right in the middle of two not very good sounds.

Very reliable. I can always depend on it to give me a sound I don't like.

I haven't had to contact them.

I wanted either a natural sounding low gain overdrive or an over the top maxed-out fuzz. I recently replaced the XXL with a Blackstone Mosfet overdrive for low gain overdrive and a Frantone Creme Puff for fuzz. Both pedals are great and have the sounds I wanted. Tech 21 has other products I really like - trademark 10 amp, bass and acoustic guitar direct boxes. But this pedal is all PR hype and not the sound I want. I heard a couple of short mp3 sound files of the pedal on the tech 21 web site and they must have a guitar and amp that must work with this pedal better than mine does. this pedal does not fit with my set up. Test this pedal out before spending money on it. I bought it over the internet because I read tech 21's hype and their sound files sounded good. My set works great with the Blackstone and frantone. My set up sound just as good as Blackstone's sample sound files. That makes me not believe tech 21's demo files.

This is also my second review. I'd written this thing off. But I tried it in the clean channel of a Peavey Rockmaster, just to have a different distortion sound than the Rockmaster's Crunch and Ultra. But I'm kind of amazed at how I'm liking it BETTER than the Crunch and Ultra channels of the Rockmaster. I keep telling myself this can't be. I mean, IT'S A PEDAL. What i discovered is, the Tone knob on the XXL - at least in my set-up - has to be rolled way back to about 8:00 o' clock (Presence and High on the Clean channel are at 12:00 o' clock. Lows too. Mids about 1:00.) The presence on my power amp is full. The other key is setting the Warp to neutral, at the 2 arrows < >. I don't know, I'm dumbfounded by it but I like it.

I've had it for about 10 years. I notice when I leave the Drive knob in one position too long it develops a scratchiness in that spot. Soon eliminated by moving the knob back and forth.

I'm playing rock, pop, hard rock. I have another amp, a Marshall Artist 3203, and the way I have this pedal set-up reminds me of the Artist's sound, which is kind of nice because I can now access that sound without having to haul an extra head.

Well lets see, distortion/overdrive pedal, and 4 knobs, hmm?? What is so hard about that? Okay, I admit the WARP knob is a little difficult to get used to, but a little fiddling and some patience is all it takes to find some killer tones.

Well this is my 2nd review for this product, but my last one was made like 3 years ago, so I thought I would update my review with some new facts. My set up currently consists of either a G&L S-500, a Godin LG, or a Godin SD then on to a Tech 21 Killer Wail (good aound, bad manufacturing) or Crybaby535Q then into a Boss OC-2 octave, a Boss TU-2 tuner, Boss CS-3 compression sustainer, Ibanez TS-10 tubescreamer, Ibanez MT-10 metal charger (i think)(Oingo Boingo sound), into a Boss HM-3 hyper metal, Tech 21 XXL (OH BABY), Boss DD-3 digital delay, Boss DM-2 analog delay, Ibanez CF-10 chorus/flanger, Boss CE-2 chorus, and Boss PH-1R phaser into a Marshall JCM 900 SLX 50 watt head and JCM 900 slant cab. Then in the effects loop i have a Boss RV-3 reverb/delay. The XXL is my main dist. box. The sound does change with every amp and guitar I use, it builds on the tone of the two not change them like Boss dist boxes do. Definitely sounds better with tube amps like my TS-10.
It has a very distinct one that sags like a tube, when playing rythms it can sometimes be a little muddy but over all great sound.

I have used this pedal for a little over 3 years now and have had no problems, anyways it was built in the USA so I doubt I will have any problems with it built like a tank. I gig without a backup.

never had to use them for this pedal but I have with my killer wail wah and they have been nothing but helpful.

I play a range of music from Jazz, fusion, blues, FUNK (most of my original music), rock, metal, and alternative (the remainder of my music) and the XXL has been my standby always one of the first pedals my foot goes for on my pedal board, my TS-10 being the second.
If lost I would search hi and low for another and would murder anyone who stole it from me. I love the smooth sound it gets, and even with the drive at 0 it still crunches like none else.
This pedal even with the gain cranked still has clarity of notes that hardly anyother pedals can even touch, especially Boss's distortion/overdrive pedals which all are extremely muddy. The warp is so engenious i is a classic rock/hendrix blues in the middle of its set 12 o'clock or so and cranked all the way up it sounds almost like a synth with my flanger and with tapping arppegious.
Definitly the best dist on my board.

This pedal is pretty hard to use. Even though i have been playing electric guitar for only 8yrs, i can tell when a pedal is easy or hard to use, and this one is a lil touchy one. The warp knob needs good ear training ;) and the manual included isnt very reliable, you have to play with the pedal alot to understand all its possibilities.

I am using a Ibanez Talman guitar(really crappy), plugged into the XXL, then in a BOSS HyperMetal, into a Peavy Classic CHorus 212 75W rms.

First of all, THE SOUND OF THE XXL DEPENDS ALOT ON YOUR GUITAR and AMP!! i have tried with my friends equipment and the sound wasnt the same at all. so ill just go with my setup. The pedal itself has a very warm fuzz, even more when the WARP knob is at 75-100%, giving a mellow and crispy meltdown on harmonics. You really need to hear this: ITS YUMMIE!! but i found out the only way to get the best of this feature is using it plugged BEFORE a distortion pedal. It sounds like a tube amp cranked to maximum drive. Gives warmth to a cold and crunchy distortion, like the hyper metal or any other boss distortion.if used without other effects, the pedal has too much a high-pitch sound and really hurts my ears. but that may be only because of my amp. so its hard to tell. i hate the tone knob; it either cuts too much high notes or sharpens it too much. the drive knob gives a nice distortion, but cant be used to play chords cause its too noisy. when i play using only the XXL fx pedal, i find the sound to be too flat. but REALLY, the pedal should be used to enhance the warmth of any distortion pedal, and should be plugged betwin the guitar and the dist pedal youre using, assuming you wont turn the xxl's drive knob too high. I LOVE IT

the pedal alone gives a good sound for blues, brit-rock, reminds me alot of SUBHUMANS sound, old school punk. but with the hyper metal(dist knob at 25%), i get a really nice Billie JOe ARmstrong or any new school punk sound easily, with the warmth of low distorttion/high gain tube amp sound.

Oh yeh. the metal box is so strong i could throw it down a f***in cliff and it still would be in mint condition. the electronics are high quality. everythings tightly packed: its a real SAFE

Nope. i heard its discontinued though... thats sad.

I play old school punk rock, experimental rock, rock n roll. its the perfect match! ive been playin for 8yrs and used the XXL for 4yrs. its been a fundamental element of my equipment. My fav feature is the sound of the pedal itself. i use the warp knob to where the arrow is and the drive button to 0. its uncomparable to any other stomp pedal. but you gotta love light dist. and harmonic meltdown.

The only reason I give it a 7 instead of a 10 is that it takes a while to suss out the Warp control and its interplay with the Tone control. Otherwise, it's straightforward -- totally so if you leave the Warp in its marked "neutral" position, which is what I've come to prefer. I like the attack and the chord clarity of that position.

70s Japanese (Moridairi) equipped with Duncan mini-HB neck PU, unknown (DiMarzio? Mighty Mite? Early 80s manufacture, at any rate) PAF-style HB at bridge. Guitar > XXL > Korg G3 > 80s Randall RG80. I had bought the little Korg floor unit for a few reasons: got a deal (NOS that the store couldn't move -- obsolete in terms of features, but I just wanted a little chorus & delay anyway), easy programmability (all knobs), great clean sounds -- really enhances already great clean sound of the RG80, & the quality of distortions & overdrives -- smooth & clear, VERY natural-sounding, BUT .... The Korh doesn't quite have enough "oomph" to its ODs and distortions. The "crunch" settings in the banks go up to about a Keith Richards dimed Ampeg VT22 sound -- great, but not quite up to fat power chord territory. And the high-gain "lead" settings don't quite make it to violin-sustain/jump-to-feedback sounds. OK, I needed a pedal.

I used a Tube Screamer for quite a while -- good match for the Korg, but with the usual TS mid-hump. No that I don't like mids, I love'em -- that's where the electric guitar lives, and mids are essential for fat leads that cut through the mix. But the XXL *excells* at goosing already overdriven & distorted sounds while preserving basic tones. The string-to-string clarity for chording is also superior to the TS. The XXL does not mess with the richness or smoothness of the Korg's ODs and distortions. It complements them perfectly.

On its own, in front of the RG80 (a solid-state amp), there are a few things I discovered. This pedal likes VOLUME -- it sounds like crap at bedroom practice levels, but really takes off at gig levels. Sounds VERY tubey and bluesy in front of the RG80's blackface-like cleans. I imagine it would sound godly driving a tube amp. The Warp is subtle, but it does what it claims to do -- crank it counterclockwise for compressed, sustaining Brian May/Santana, clockwise for some pretty convincing vintage "sag & bloom." The Warp *will* affect EQ settings -- it interacts with the XXL's tone control in a way that requires some tweaking. Watch the tone control -- this unit is bright. It most definitely does not like very much presence-control snot from the already-bright RG80. It is also no good as a clean boost, as the absolute lowest gain setting already has a fair amount of dirt.

All in all, the XXL sounds great -- even driving an all-SS rig. In front of a full complement of tubes, I'd wager it would sound orgasmic.

Seems very rugged -- 1 point off for plastic jacks, although they work fine & should hold up nicely if you're not an ape on steroids with your gear.

Dunno, although Tech 21 seems like a cool company.

They don't make XXLs anymore, so I don't know if I'd take the trouble to hunt for another one if it was stolen. I'd certainly GET one if it were available, however, and I'd certainly check out Tech 21's current products. That programmable Tri-OD looks interesting ....

I bought this pedal used with a manual, but you dont't need one. With only four controls I let my ears do the walking.

The pedal has very high gain cirduitry. I read all of the other reviews and agree with only one. I've benn playing for over forty years and have owned just about every type of Distortion pedal or floor processor you can imagine. My two favvorites are a Korg AX 30 and this pedal. The pedal is not noisy and adds no new tones to your guitar. It sounds natural, which is what I wanted. I use it with either a Polytone Mini Brut IV , Fender Concert or Lab L-9 depending on my mood. It simply has a great overdrive. The warp contol to my mind is a compressor. My favorite position is to leave the DRIVE, and WARP at their lowest postion, move the Tone to the 9 o'clock position and adjust the Level to a little more than even gain with the switch on. I am a nut for sound quality, I own an Eventide GTR 4000, Digitech digital delay, rackmounted parametric equalizer and a Digech harmonizer. What can I say, I love it, it gives me the sound I have looked for and like.

I haven't owned it for long, but I do own one other TECH 21 Product, the SANSAMP, and it appears to be rugged. Tech 21 did not scrimp on parts for the XXL, the electronics are housed in a very rugged metal enclosure.

Don't know. No problems.

I play all types of music, but this pedal will be used for Rock & Roll and Blues. I would buy one again. It outshines any pedal I have owned in the past.

na

excellent see last, this is a revision.

very

I should revise my previous and say that the customer support was very good. They sent me a pdf file of the manual.

I placed an earlier review some time ago. At that time I was impressed with this pedal. I am even more impressed now that I've had it a while. The sell it as emulating vintage tone which it does a good jobe at, however, where it EXCELS os as a preamp device. I recently purchased an old Silvertone 1472 tube amp. I plug in this pedal with my "muy grande" equipped strat and OH MY GOD!. You can't believe the tone. With warp all the way on and and frive off I get a wicked ACDC fat tone. Turn the guitar tone pot down and voila, "money for nothing. Turn warp allt way off and get VOX AC-30. It sings and sustains like you wouldn't belive. Again with warp off I turn the guitar vol pot to 5-6 and I get a singing, sutain-happy Santana tone. I think this pedal differs from most other tech 21/sansamp products in that they emulate a tube amp where as this pedal complements a clean tube amp in the extreme. You can't get a really saturated MesaBoogie or nu-metal tone but thats not really the point here. They have discontinued the product but you can still get one on ebay. Also the current Tech 21 Double Drive does essenially the same thing with slight different nob function. If you want to add some zing to that old vintage tube amp of yours this pedal is for you!

No the most user friendly pedal I've ever come across, the tone, level and drive controls are self explanatory but warp? Has Mr Sulu designed a stomp box? It interacts more with the tone than the drive in my experience, its suposed to bosst and cut harmonics with a poition of about 10 o'clock for the nuetral setting.

Sounded terible with my Trademark 10 but fantastic with Les Paul and Fender Blues Junior.

I think it really thrives on Valves...

I give it a 10 for the sound with the blues Junior and 4 with the Trademark 10. So an average of 7 is awarded here....

Great pedal with the right Guitar / Amp but very ordinary with single coil guitars and solid state amps (not tried it with a digital amp yet.

Easy to use in the sense that it's a stomp box and what could be easier. The difficulty (and fun) lies in playing around with all the knobs (including your guitar volume and tone) in order to get the sound you want. It this respect it's very versatile

I'm plugging in a custom made fender strat with Muy Grande pickups. Sometimes I play through a digitech RP-5 in order to add compression, chorus, etc and sometimes straight through to a crate G40 CXL. Either way this pedal sounds great. I can go from an almost Metallica crunch to a farty "money for nothing" tone depending on the combination of settings. The warp knob really does affect your tone if you get a feel for it. The X-factor is really affected by the tone setting on the box and on your guitar. You also have to experiment with playing style as this will make a difference. Once you get a sense for all of tne subtle nuances of this pedal you really can get a beautiful tone.

I have only had it a couple of weeks but I bought is used on ebay.These things came out in '97 or so. I guess it's lasted this long and I haven't had any problems with is.

Not much experience with the telephone support but I have emailed a couple of times and gotten no response.

I love this pedal. It's been fun playing with all the settings and seeing what kind of tone I can get. It is extremeley versatile and yield a very (several very) tube-like distortion for those of us who can't afford a tube amp. It sound awesome when I run it throught my RP-5 (which has been criticized on the site for it's bad distortion) and add effects. All around a fun, fun, fun pedal with a great sound.

Very smooth overdrive on most positions.
No real distortion, and certainly no fuzz.
This may be due to myself using batteries rather than
an adaptor. I believe that slightly different voltages
will have a big change of tonal characteristics.

The sound I was able to dial in were good, nothing to rave about
and certainly not as good as my Laney TF300 preamp.
I agrea that it is very analogue sounding, way different from
digital distortions. Sustain is REALLY incredible.
I also agree on the dynamics and sensitivity : this pedal lets
your playing technique really shine through.
I wanted fuzz. I haven't found anything usable for me :
when cranking the gain knob past 3:00 you have harsh distortion
Before you have creamy, smooth overdrive.

VERY nice people.
The marketing manager responded within 24 hours to my mail.
Top notch !
I'll certainly check all their production line.

I don't want to come and fart among all these raving reviews but I'd like to give my opinion as well :
I've had this pedal for a couple of months and sold it recently.
Whereas it sounds good it doesn't sound great.
There's NOTHING spectacular about this pedal.
I repeat : NOTHING SPECTACULAR
It's a good overdrive in a box but most preamps
will sound better. (even my shitty Laney does, excepted
for the smooth sustain this pedal provides)

The warp knob does nothing special.
I can hear a slight effect and as other people mentioned
to my ears, it's a compressor effect rather than anything else.
(When you use heavy gain you won't hear any effect at all).
I've tested the pedal under several of situations with several
completely different guitars, amps, direct, headphones, digital preamps, ...)
Used in combination with my Sansamp classic it does nothing
the SA classic doesn't. They don't compliment very well.
The XXL seems redundant in this situation.

I don't hate anything about this pedal.
It's just that I don't need it.
I wanted to get a fuzz pedal to compliment my gear
and it's NOT the kind I needed.

I highly recommend it for smooth, creamy and sustaining lead play,
especially if you're an analogue snob :=)

I like Tech21 products.
I have the original Sansamp and I intend to get the Tri-AC for live play (I liked the way it sounded direct into the PA at the store). And I'd like to find a deal on the PSA-1 (currently going used for 450?). I'll buy one when they drop to 300? ...