XTOMP vs the real pedals...

[Mr Grumpy]

...continued on from here because I just wanted to share the $90 Hotone Xtomp mini pedal vs the real deals that I own, as well as trying out versions of pedals I don't have.

Ho-ing the tone - NPoD.

My experience with both cheap pedals (I've owned many and sold them all) and pedal simulators (I've owned two and sold them) has been poor, so I didn't expect much, but hoped the sounds may be ballpark.

Act 1: XTOMP vs Ibanez TS808



The Hotone has a nice quality brushed aluminium feel and a great feeling switch. I love MXR pedals, the quality feels ballpark to them.

The software is very easy, bluetoothed straight away, I chose the green drive, and it took less than a second to download - total software time (didn't look at the manual), less than 10 seconds.



Plugged the SG into the Marshall with these two in the loop; btw, I've actually learnt how to use a TS with my Marshall Origin = turn the mids down on the amp to create a tone approaching a flat Fender type mid-tone (kinda mid way between a Fender amp and this mid-heavy Marshall amp allows the TS to sound very nice).



Played around with the dials, tried a few runs, some powerchords...



They sound very close; I'd say more than 95% the same - the XTOMP has more volume available and more treble available, the gain is similar. In a band situation, you simply could not tell the difference. &, I did not prefer the TS808.

Option 1: buy the $180 TS808 or buy the $80 XTOMP mini? The XTOMP mini; my TS808 is now up for sale...

This is probably the first time that I've ever preferred a cheaper pedal over a more expensive pedal.

I will now be trying out more and reporting back.

 

[RVA]

Cool! I almost got one of those.

Questions:

Can you save the effects software to a backup source?

What does you do to remember which knob is what?

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Act 2: XTOMP vs Wampler Ethereal...



The Wampler is a superb pedal with many delay options and a reverb, so this will be a challenge...

But, in the library, we have a delay and plate reverb (my Wampler is set to plate reverb, so let's have a look):





Looking good, let's download...

Error XTOMP mini does not support this pedal.

A quick check, and this mini version doesn't seem to support any of the double pedals, mmmm.

Fail!

(Maybe I should have bought the full-fat version...)

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Act 3: XTOMP vs Wampler plate reverb...




(downloaded in less than a second - it's very easy to download/activate a pedal when noodling at home...)

At these settings, they sound very similar:



ChokDee seems to agree.



They actually sound really nice with the Xtomp going into the Wampler (reverb only).

Verdict: the XTOMP has a very nice and useable plate reverb. I can't compare the two because the Wampler is really a multi-function delay. IMHO, the XTOMP plate reverb is equal to that on the HoF I had.

That's 2 out of 2 excellent sounds for the XTOMP.



RVA, there's a microUSB, so maybe; pedals once downloaded are stored on the XTOMP permanently - you just have to activate them via the bluetooth app.

I've only done stuff with 3 knobs, so far, so it's easy to remember although I could lean the phone up with the graphic to remind me.

 

[eSGEe]

Sounds like the hormone is a great value.
I know my experience with the box vt20x modeling software and the tones produced has been very positive and much better than previous models....the tech advances daily

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Act 4: XTOMP Maxon analog delay 900 vs Wampler delay

Just using the delay side of the Ethereal - as before, this is a bit unfair on the Wampler because the reverb and delay are designed to work together.

This one took 20 seconds to download, but I did get a new colour!





Sooooo, different types of delays, but the Wampler on the first setting, if you only go to half way on the dials, is comparable:

Wampler delay (only upto midday, beyond that the X-Maxon doesn't have enough time-steps) = X-Maxon D-time (top left)
Wampler feedback (only the first half, beyond midday it goes ethereal...) = X-Maxon feedback (middle)
Wampler delay mix (only first half, beyond that goes ethereal) = X-Maxon D-level (top right)

At these settings, they are pretty close:



The XSTOMP is more analog and subtle sounding, as a delay only I prefer it because the Wampler has a kinda mechanistic tape echo element to it that sounds a bit digital to my ears when comparing very closely back to back. But, add the reverb into the Ethereal and it sounds great.

Result: quite shocked, I expected the Wampler to slaughter the XTOMP, but it didn't - they are different beasts though.

Comparing the XSTOMP to the TC delay I had: I can't remember the TC well enough to say...

The reverb and delay on the XTOMP is a lot better sounding than on my Yamaha THR (which has decent effects), but obviously you can control many more parametres on the XTOMP, so that's a bit unfair on the very good THR.

I have only tried 1 reverb and 1 delay out of 30 or so options.

I will say this: this pedal has been shockingly good thusfar. I might not be buying any $200+ pedals anytime soon...

 

[Thatbastarddon]

@Mr Grumpy thanks for sharing your findings here!

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Act 5: XTOMP custom trem vs Keeley Verb O Vibe

I thought it would be hard to match these because this Keeley is a super duper Eddie Heinzelman pedal... But, it's basically a tremolo with 3 voices and a basic (although nice sounding; pretty dark) reverb.

This tremolo seemed to be a good one to download because it had lots of features, so maybe I could turn it into something resembling the Keeley trem:





I turned the Keeley reverb off, and set the rate, depth and level to noon on both pedals. The XSTOMP has 4 'tones' which is controlled by the centre top knob turning blue, green, yellow and red - the default was green, and it was close to the Keeley. Out of interest I set the tone to blue and it was very very close to the Keeley. I then played with the bias knob (did weird stuff, so I put it back to noon). Then, I wondered what the color knob did, turned it here and there, and turns out that a smidgen below noon makes it exactly, and I mean EXACTLY..., the same as the Keeley - and turning the depth and rate knobs between 9 & 3 keeps the pedals exactly the same (slight differences at the end) although you need a tad more volume on the xstomp..

Here, the pedals sound the same:



Ok, the Keeley has a reverb and two other settings (as well as internal settings), but for the basic (Keeley calls it "tremolo rate .5Hz to 10Hz sine wave) - they are the same sound.

This XSTOMP mini, so far, is knocking it out of the park (not only am I using that term for you fellas, but notice how I spelt color! - although I didn't spell spelt spelled, sorry - ).

This pedal is a lot better than I expected.

I've gotta shower and off to bed, but tomorrow I will compare my compressor then start looking into some other sounds - there are many to choose from.

Should you get one? It's your choice, but it is by far the best guitar purchase (after my SG junior, obviously...) that I have made. Ok, maybe I'm in the honeymoon period and will grow to see this in a lesser light, but it has directly compared to $600, give or take, of pedals already.


RVA, for this trem, I must confess that I sent the pic from the app page onto my computer screen to help me realise what button does what (there were 6 of them, and I didn't know what to expect really because I rarely play tremolo).

 

[syscokid]

Option 1: buy the $180 TS808 or buy the $80 XTOMP mini? The XTOMP mini; my TS808 is now up for sale...

Option 2: buy the $68 EHX East River Drive or....

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Option 2: buy the $68 EHX East River Drive or....

There are a lot of TSs out there at reasonable prices, that's for sure. Interestingly, when those Andertons goons did a blind test of 10 TSs the Ibanez and Maxon came 2nd and 3rd. Only three pedals scored 90+ and the winner wasn't even a TS pedal...

 

[Mr Grumpy]

So, I decided to set my amp and SG to a tone I like then just add a few OD pedals set to the same volume to see if I like them and what they added (also used a small amount of plate reverb from the Keeley):



XTOMP Xotic AC Booster:





I found it best at these settings:



As I found to be the case with this and the two pedals below, I liked them best with the gain pretty low, and the volume bringing a bit of character into the sound - similar to the settings you might use on a TS.

This didn't really do much for me in the way I wanted to use it, didn't improve my tone, but would be good as a solo boost set up differently (I really like the Marshall's footpedal boost, so I'm not looking for that, just a fattening up of my sound at lowish volume or something pretty special. This pedal didn't do it for me, but not the pedal's fault; wrong application.

Next: XTOMP BB Preamp:





I found these settings best (again, low gain, and a bit of volume to compensate):



As the previous pedals, I didn't find the treble or bass added much, but up high the bass was interesting although it took away from the treble. This one was better, added more grit and a bit of breadth, a nice sound, but not as nice as my Marshall boost - the Marshall boost is really nice, it fattens up the sound and reshapes the tone controls in a similar, but better, way to this pedal, imho. Nice, but probaby not one I'd use.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Next XTOMP Barber Direct Drive:





This is quite interesting due to the harmonics knob which has two selections; the second one fattens things up.

This setting, with the less 'fat' harmonics, was very similar to the basic tone I had dialled into the Marshall:



However, if I thickened up the harmonics, added a tad of drive and tone then things thickened, added a bit of depth and sweetness. Actually, I was playing around 7 on the SG volume, but it was likemturning the volume up to 9 to get that extra bite and goodness, but at the lower volume.



I liked this, has potential - really helps me out playing nice gritty Marshall sounds at a reasonable volume, but also adds a tad of dynamic quality and sustain. The best OD pedal for my set up thusfar. I've never used one of these pedals, but I believe they are pretty highly thought of, and match my application well. I likey likey...


XTOMP Fulltone OCD V.3





I like this in 2 different set ups (both on the HP mode:

As a lighter OD, it acted very much like the Barber above, adding sustain and sweetness (but maybe not the touch sensitivity) on these settings:



It has a nice tone knob, works well with my amp to add just the areas that help. This was an improvement of my basic tone at low levels; again, like the Barber, sounded bigger and more like the grittier sounds you'd get if I turned my guitar volume up.

There's a lot of distortion on this pedal, it's very versatile, but I added in just enough so that it was right at the top OD end/lowest distortion clipping end, so really smooth - you know, pretty much like the D+ battery only mustard colour version. This was a really nice low distortion sound that you could dig into, and the gain was only about 10 O'clock:



This was a really good pedal, I can understand why they're so highly rated, and this makes me wanna buy one.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

I'll write these two up then take the dog out for a long walk...

I did a lot of playing today, so this XTOMP is a very fun practice tool

XTOMP Hermida Zendriver:





Quite similar to the above two although different; nowhere near the gain of the OCD, but you could find nice gain sounds by playing around with the gain/tone/voice dials, as they are very interactive. Similar to the OCD (although I needed more gain from the Zendrive) I could find a nice gritty low distortion sound with bite; maybe it was a high OD sound, just a suggestion of clipping into distortion, but soft and musical, not compressed - on these settings:



As nice as the OCD and barber, imho, but a tad different - much of the sweetness and breadth of the barber and the nice low distortion of the OCD.

Lastly...
XTOMP B.K. Butler Tube Driver - this may be a more complex pedal as it took 30 seconds to download, all the others were instant:





I don't what I expected from that, but what came out was not what I expected...

These settings are just parity settings with the tone I had; gain all the way down, volume at parity and high low at midday:



What I wasn't expecting was a huge sound fuzzy underpinnings, not nasty fuzz, but a bit of hair and a bit of grit and a wall of sound; very controllable. You could get really rocking sounds (I can use this to get my thrash metal and punk sounds...) aswellas Hendrix type sounds, and I didn't even have the gain beyond 11 O'clock. The hi/lo eq was really useable too.



What a rocking pedal this is...

Very happy with today's findings because the last 4 OD pedals are all very useable for me. I might buy an OCD just because it's so flexible, and use these other 3 pedals/sounds on the XTOMP. Actually, call me crazy, but I'm gonna sell my Katzinkronig and replace it with one of these (maybe 2...).

If you get the opportunity, pick up one of these. You won't regret it.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

&... the pedal has died...

 

[Thatbastarddon]

&... the pedal has died...

Oh no!
I have been thoroughly enjoying your review, and written impressions. This has been an entertaining thread.

 

[smitty_p]

&... the pedal has died...

Well now...that’s a disappointing end to the story.

 

[eSGEe]

WTF!?!?!?!

died?

 

[syscokid]

&... the pedal has died...

You're only supposed to use it for 5 minutes at a time, once every other month!

 

[eSGEe]

mine dont get used even that much LOL

 

[Mr Grumpy]

I think it was a sw issue that killed it, trying to do an update...

I think I might buy an OCD though. Does anybody know how an OCD would compare to a King of Tone?