MichaelW
Well-known member
Yah, I know I said "no more overdrives for me....."
BUT....I'm totally blaming this one on @Feral Feline with his juxtaposing the Xotic SL with roasted pork tenderloin, I can never separate the two notions ever again. And I couldn't resist ordering this board with the recent coupon code.
I've always had a love/hate thing going on with the Xotic mini pedals. They all sound really good, they're all a royal pain in the rear to access all the dip switch options.
The SL Drive may be the worst offender because there are so many good sounds in that little pedal but you have to take the back off to get at them.
When @PedalPCB released this board with all the dips exposed as toggles it was a no brainer for me.
This was in my most recent order that showed up in the mailbox yesterday. I've had a super busy work week with very little dedicated bench time.
So when I opened the envelope and saw that it was a relatively easy build and I had all the components, I decided to start it yesterday evening.
Wrapped it up this morning after walking the dog and before starting work.
Flying totally blind on this one, no build docs, no drill template, and no schematic. I think I managed the drilling ok, the only thing I goofed was drilling the LED hole on the wrong side of the footswitch, I got discombobulated looking at the PCB upside down....but a short trace of wire and all is well.
There was no BOM for this that I could find so I built it off the board silkscreen. (Yah I know, risky....
Only a couple of substitutions, the board calls for tantalums in 2 spots, I used an electrolytic in one and a film cap in the other.
Sounds freaking awesome. Sounds better than I remember the actual SL sounding (Maybe @Feral Feline can confirm once he compares them).
Lots of Marshall sounds in this box. Everything from Plexi to JCM800. Tons of gain on tap. I am assuming that the 4 toggles map to the 4 dip switch settings on the Xotic pedal (@PedalPCB can you confirm?)
Only messed with it a little bit on my Tele Thinline but I like the "Mid Boost" setting with the gain dialed down to about 8-9 o'clock. I can get a nice cranked Plexi-ish sound on my Tele. I recorded a very short clip in this setting for some flavor.
This is on the bridge pickup on my Tele Thinline, gain at 9 o'clock, volume at noon, tone at 2 o'clock. (Hydra Delay and Spatialist Reverb in the loop)
It feels a little weird associating the XS Drive in a 125B with the diminutive Xotic SL but man, having access to all those eq settings is definitely worth it.
Highly recommend this build for a cranked Marshall-y kind of overdrive.
BUT....I'm totally blaming this one on @Feral Feline with his juxtaposing the Xotic SL with roasted pork tenderloin, I can never separate the two notions ever again. And I couldn't resist ordering this board with the recent coupon code.
I've always had a love/hate thing going on with the Xotic mini pedals. They all sound really good, they're all a royal pain in the rear to access all the dip switch options.
The SL Drive may be the worst offender because there are so many good sounds in that little pedal but you have to take the back off to get at them.
When @PedalPCB released this board with all the dips exposed as toggles it was a no brainer for me.
This was in my most recent order that showed up in the mailbox yesterday. I've had a super busy work week with very little dedicated bench time.
So when I opened the envelope and saw that it was a relatively easy build and I had all the components, I decided to start it yesterday evening.
Wrapped it up this morning after walking the dog and before starting work.
Flying totally blind on this one, no build docs, no drill template, and no schematic. I think I managed the drilling ok, the only thing I goofed was drilling the LED hole on the wrong side of the footswitch, I got discombobulated looking at the PCB upside down....but a short trace of wire and all is well.
There was no BOM for this that I could find so I built it off the board silkscreen. (Yah I know, risky....
Only a couple of substitutions, the board calls for tantalums in 2 spots, I used an electrolytic in one and a film cap in the other.
Sounds freaking awesome. Sounds better than I remember the actual SL sounding (Maybe @Feral Feline can confirm once he compares them).
Lots of Marshall sounds in this box. Everything from Plexi to JCM800. Tons of gain on tap. I am assuming that the 4 toggles map to the 4 dip switch settings on the Xotic pedal (@PedalPCB can you confirm?)
Only messed with it a little bit on my Tele Thinline but I like the "Mid Boost" setting with the gain dialed down to about 8-9 o'clock. I can get a nice cranked Plexi-ish sound on my Tele. I recorded a very short clip in this setting for some flavor.
This is on the bridge pickup on my Tele Thinline, gain at 9 o'clock, volume at noon, tone at 2 o'clock. (Hydra Delay and Spatialist Reverb in the loop)
It feels a little weird associating the XS Drive in a 125B with the diminutive Xotic SL but man, having access to all those eq settings is definitely worth it.
Highly recommend this build for a cranked Marshall-y kind of overdrive.
