PurityS.L.G
Well-known member
Got these last week and put them through their paces. Team Medic is a keeper and the XTS GE-7 most likely will be getting sold.
Good stuff first. Shout out to @braintheory Sam for the recommendation on this board numerous times. Although it’s not in my top 2 like it is for him, it’s so far in my top 5. It sounds like no other OD/boost pedal I’ve tried or own. It adds this unique liveliness and texture to your sound while also adding a cool feel to it. It can get very aggressive sounding if you want especially with the boost engaged but it adds a lot of noise if you’re not using a gate. Standalone on a clean channel sounds awesome and organic as well. Again, a very unique sound and feel.
The XTS has been on my radar for a long time and I couldn’t have been more disappointed. I can see why it doesn’t get much discussion on any gear forum. It’s completely lifeless sounding to my ears in front of amp and also in the FX loop. Dare I say the stock GE-7 actually sounds better but at the cost of being noisey. The XTS is a LOT more quiet than stock pedal, which was very nice. The individual bands seemed to hardly boost much, and when it did it was very bland and generic sounding. No juice or character whatsoever.
Also, since it sounded like it didn’t boost much, I did a pink noise test to see how the individual bands behaved when cut and boosted and was disappointed to find out it only boosted between 10-11db instead of the 15db the OG does. Not a deal breaker since as to why myself or anyone else for that matter would ever want that much boost on a band but still, misleading. Unless of course that’s how it’s supposed to be but I didn’t see info from XTS website specifying anything.
