Four pedals came through our lab that you hate to part with. Four small, carefully built, rugged machines that deliver various kinds of top-shelf overdrive and saturation. We could sum it up in one word: they are fantastic. Let’s take a slower look.
The pedals on our test bench today share a sober look, solid construction that can take a beating, and quality in the way they treat your tone, delivering warm, authentic saturation in every case. Still, each one has its own personality.
Precision Overdrive
FROM BLUES TO CLASSIC ROCK
This is a small pedal, similar in size to a classic MXR. It reportedly uses the most popular overdrive circuit design in the USA. It is an add-on for your guitar designed to sound like an “overdriving amp.” The Precision OD was designed to sound like an overdriving amp. If you turn down your guitar’s volume, the sound cleans up; if you turn it up, it saturates like the legendary amps of the ’50s and ’60s.
It has incredible dynamics. It is ideal for stacking with your amp’s gain, for solos, or for adding another channel. It is simple, offering just the controls you need... Everything sounds perfect at noon... After trying it, we understand its fame. Its tone and features let you play Satriani, Van Halen, Vai or Timmons, Bonamassa and a long etc. Your imagination rules, and the pedal helps you get the sound you need. This is one of the two pedals I liked most of the four. I think what best defines it is its simplicity, excellent signal-to-noise ratio and the quality of what it adds to your guitar’s tone, in the vein of the most classic, “naked” sounds. I love it.
Precision Multi-drive
EVEN MORE CONTROL
This is an overdrive pedal just like the previous one, with the same qualities and sounds, but with two added switches that let you vary and flex the tonal response and gain structure even further. These two new controls, “punch” and “slim,” let you take the sounds toward something smoother, boost the higher tones and precisely sculpt every nuance of your saturation.
Depending on your demands, you should weigh what this pedal brings compared to the previous one to see whether the eighty-euro difference is worth it. If you are picky about your tone, you will love it.
Atomic Overdrive
FROM PUNCH TO DISTORTION
This is my second favorite of the four. It provides enough energy to take it beyond the overdrive concept. I tried this little thoroughbred on everything from classic guitars to a baritone. Its range is truly crushing, because you can do a ton of things with it, all of them with surprising sonic results; it is over the top. Pedals like this are the latest thing in the USA and are being installed on the pedalboards of many well-known artists.
With the Atomic Overdrive you can cover everything from mellow tones with punch to quite biting and “thick” distortions. It is a very complete, quite versatile pedal with first-rate quality. A great beast.
Tejas Boost
BOOST / OVERDRIVE LIGHT
This pedal gives you an EQ’d boost and an overdrive/distortion in a single box. With the gain low, it gives you a volume boost with a warm tone, perfect for working together with other pedals such as compressors and bringing new sounds to your pedalboard.
A very classic boost with gain, treble and bass controls. As its name suggests, “Tejas style”: very defined, without muddying the tone It adds body, definition, volume and tone. A big sound in the Stevie Ray Vaughan vein. Don’t miss out on trying it if you’re looking for a classic-style boost/overdrive. I read this from the importer. After reading it there is little to add, since it comes close to the reality. It is probably the pedal on which you have to control your sound the most to get the juice out of it, especially if you have a good amp. What you will ultimately find is density, body and weight, always at low-aggression levels.
Conclusions
For many people, when distortion comes up it seems like just another effect, and they tend to cram many of the nuances this term covers into a single word. The reality is that the whole range covered by boost, punch, overdrive and distortion makes up the essential tones of your guitar, and they largely define your dynamics and sound. It is like a drum set’s snare: so many nuances and resources make it one of the essential parts of the kit.
With these considerations in mind, it can be said that XTS Custom pedals are high-quality pedals that cover with mastery practically every setting you might need. With them, your guitar becomes more alive, more nervy and more capable of expressing nuances that are enhanced thanks to the electronic delicacy of these “beasts.”
Personally, and without taking anything away from the other two, the Precision Overdrive and the Atomic Overdrive strike me as crushingly good. I recommend you try them, if only for the pleasure of hearing yourself with top-quality saturation.