Call me strange but... (BOSS pedal content)

Kosh Naranek

New member
...I tried a used BOSS Xtortion out yesterday at GC and actually liked it. I'd heard almost nothing but bad things about this pedal, and decided to plug it in and see what the fuss was about.
Rather than bass and treble EQ knobs, this pedal has a pair of idiosyncratic sweepable midrange boost/notch controls that let me dial in toe-down and heel-down stuck wah tones, to something like that lower midrange growl that you hear from Peavey 5150/6505 amps. I can see using it ahead of my 6505+ to enhance that growl. They weren't asking much for it so I did the deal. I have to wait for it though, because the store has a policy about holding on to used gear while a check is made to find out if it's stolen. Apparently they'd just gotten it in.
 
Re: Call me strange but... (BOSS pedal content)

stompboxes are weird pieces of gear because their tone depends so much on how the guitar and amp sound.

and internet reviews are not very reliable because most of the time the dude will single out the stomp box as the villain making his tone suck, while conveniently ignoring the fact that he's playing his older brother's Ibanez RG100 plugged into a MG10 with a torn up speaker and complaining that he doesn't sound anything LIKE Bury My Valentine's Dead Between The Poison Train I Die

in reality most stompboxes that were mass-produced and sold can and will sound good if you plug them into good gear and use them the way you're supposed to

most stompboxes that were mass-produced and discontinued never caught on cuz people didn't know how to use 'em correctly.
 
Re: Call me strange but... (BOSS pedal content)

And as always, distortion is a very personal thing. Whatever flavor of fuzz you dig is what you dig. One man's white noise is another's tone of the godz.

I, for example, really like the Boss HM-2. Most say it's crap. But I really dig it, especially for the low gain growl it can make.
 
Re: Call me strange but... (BOSS pedal content)

I think 98% of pedals have at least one tone that in the right situation can be just what someone needs but most peoples gear may not bring this out. To me the DS-1 (non modded) is ok for 5 minutes then pains my ears but as a boost it can thicken and crunchen up ur tone in a lovely way but a fair few people tend to get one and plug it into their cheap no name solid state and complain that they don't sound like Satraini or Kurt Cobain.
 
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