Xotic SL Drive

rich75 · November 2014

I picked up a second hand SL Drive on eBay recently and thought it would be worth passing on my experience with it so far.

Initially when I hooked it up at home (with my amp set to a low volume) I was a bit underwhelmed by it. I tried the various different settings on the internal DIP switches and everything just sounded quite average really. Not bad, but also not as amazing as I was expecting.

I decided to take it along to a rehearsal and gig anyway just to see what happened and then realised what all the fuss was about! As soon as you use it though an amp running at a decent rehearsal or gig volume the pedal completely comes to life IMO. I think the best way I can describe it is to say that I've found it very amp-like and also very responsive to guitar volume and picking dynamics.

I guess it kind of makes sense that if it's supposed to be amp-like it will sound better through an amp that has got the power amp working a bit, but it goes against my previous experience with drive pedals as I've found that a lot of them will sound great at home and then get a bit lost in a band mix.