TopHat Xpressor

I purchased a Xpressor pedal made by Tophat Amps, but was discontinued in 2003. The pedal had set at Metro Sound, Richman, Vir. for the last three years untouched. I heard this pedal because a friend had one and really wanted one for my Tophat Club Royale amp. This is a very simple pedal with two knobs, one for the clean volume and another for the OD volume.

My set-up consists of a "51" Fender Nocaster into a fulltone Wa-Wa into the Xpressor then into a 1X12 Club Royale (20watts). I set the mild break-up sound with the pedal off, then adjust the clean and distorted sounds giving three different sounds to work with. The Tophat amp is very loud for 20 watts and fills the stage with a beautiful warm tone. The pedal is silent and is easy to use. I find that this pedal really opens up my amp and makes it more musical in the sense that the natural sound of the amp is enhanced. I love the mild overdrive sound for Blues and early (50's-60's) Rock and Roll. The amp is now more touch sensitive to my fingers.

When I got the pedal it made a horrible hissing sound but I called the factory and they had me mail the pedal in and fixed it for no charge!!! This is a product that they haven't made in three years and they honored the warranty on it. I was very impressed and will continue to buy tophat products in the future because of their willingness to back a product!

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I love this pedal and will seach for another one as a back-up over the next few weeks. If it were lost I would imediately try to find another. This pedal was better than the Klon pedal and the Fulltone Fat Drive that I've had in the past. Also I've tried this pedal with other amps (fender, etc) with great results. Overall this is the best pedal purchase I've made in the last twenty years!

For me it was very easy to get a good sound out of this pedal right away. If you set the clean side for your normal volume and set the boost for some crunch, it works great. Although I still use various overdrive boxes in combination with the Expressor for certain lead tones.

Too many guitars and amps to mention but I'm currently using my `66 Deluxe (I try `em all and keep going back to Leo's amps). It works great giving me a two-channel feel. As far as I can tell, it doesn't change your tone at all. It's also extremely quiet. I'm giving it a 9 because you still gonna need another overdrive of some sort.

I do use it without a backup and it appears to be built like a tank. I've been using it for almost 2 years, no problems.

I've never dealt with Top Hat but they have a great reputation and seem to care about their products.

I'm a session guy and I've been playing for 40+ years so I've played all kinds of music. Currently my band plays modern country (southern rock, if you ask me). I've been using Top Hat, Dr. Z, Gibson, Boogie, Marshall, Bogner and Fender amps. My guitars are Zion, Fender, Gibson and G&L. Needless to say, over the years I've accumulated a ton of pedals but my main ones are H&K Rotosphere, Carl Martin compressor, Demeter Compulator, Barber LTD., DLS Echo Tap, TC chorus/flanger and the Top Hat Expressor. I did a side by side comparison of this pedal with a Fulltone Fat Boost, Bennett Boost-e-a and TC Line driver/Booster. The TC and Fulltone colored the tone in their own ways (not necessarily bad)and the Bennett is a great pedal which has the advantage of a tone control but for me, the Expressor is the most straight-up, uncolored, clean boost that I've tried. It stays on my board.

This pedal seems to be be designed to create a pseudo-channel switching with single channel amps. It is very easy to use, just two chickenhead knobs, one marked "clean", one marked "boost". The clean sets your clean level (and introduces some compresssion? possible but I can't quite be sure), the boost sets your boost level and introduces a bit of grit into the signal. It takes a single channel amp, lets you set the basic amp sound you want and then add or subtract levels, giving you three different levels/sounds. Beautifully simple and beautifully made!

This is a very quiet pedal with either a battery or power adapter and on it's own or with other pedals. On my pedal board, it's next to a Pharaoh Class A Boost, a Reverend Drivetrain and a EH Holy Grail.

I haven't had it long enough to say but it's the best built pedal I've ever seen.

By reputation, TopHat is one of the best service companies in the business but I have no direct experience of this. They have a useful forum for tips and opinions as well.

Basic blues & rock player, 25+ years experience. I have several single channel amps (e.g. 50s Magnatones and Supros thru to a Reverend Hellhound) and this pedal gives me much more flexibility that I've had before. My Class A Boost also gives me similar capability and it will be interesting to see which pedal keeps it's place on my pedal board.