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Johnk has a crossover distortion coming out.

actually, i just noticed the error in my artwork on the input and output jack arrows today when i was looking at the etch mask for #2. (oops!) if it ends up bothering you, you can send it back to me and i'll etch a new enclosure for it and remount everything. like 99.9% of pedals, on mine, the input is always on the right and the output on the left.

Nah, doesn’t bother me and I wouldn’t want to give the pedal up while you made the new cover :D
 
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Just ordered up a mini XO last night, that sound clip sounds way too sick to pass up. I haven’t liked the high gain crunchy sound of any other crossover distortion I’ve tried (the Microtubes X is sick, but more for lower gain IMO), so hopefully this monster will break that streak.
 
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i've been trying to get everyone's order completed ASAP. i spent all day yesterday polishing and etching these:
3 mini and 2 cross-mix enclosures-1200.jpg
 
Well my XO came in today and I thought I'd give my 2 cents.

Do not buy this pedal if

1) You don't want that unsettled feeling that all of a sudden most of your other dirt's are moot.

2) You don't want to have a fire sale of all your now moot pedals.

I say this because next to my XO many pedals sound like a Yugo compared to the XO's well tuned Ferarri.

Just the preamp side alone is worth the price. Turning it on adds so much heft and clarity to my signal it's unreal.

The EQ points are beefy and perfect.

The distortion side sounds great.

And of course being able to tune the pedal so only the highs get distorted is a revelation. The crossover method makes it hard to go back to full spectrum overdrive. The bass just ends up sounding too flabby on those.

What I would like to see in a deluxe version:

1) Cross mix capability (outs for the mixer)

2) Diode selector on dist side. My Daring Audio laser cannon is an early example of the crossover idea. It has weird blend issues and never gets loud enough without engaging the boost, but the only place it beats the XO is in the fact that it has three clipping options. The lp/hp/bp switch might be a good addition too, but not necessary imo because for me I always use HP only.

I am not going to hold a fire sale of the 50 or so high end pedals I've bought over the last couple years, but part of me wants to. The XO has replaced most if not all of them, and now with the XO and the Baximato I have a very powerful and simple JohnK Pedalboard.

If I had to use one term to describe what this pedal does that word would be "Clarity."

Anyone who sleeps on the last one available is making a mistake!

Come on. Join the club....
 
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thanks for the positive review!
my goal in designing the XO was to retain all of my original bass's tone, low end, punch & "clarity", and to be able to dial in where i wanted the top end to OD/distort, from none, to a little, to a lot. the 4 band eq was added to tune it to the room and/or to add a ton of low end. at my last gig, i never turned it off. 1/2 of the songs i didn't click in the dirt, and the other half i did without adjusting any knobs on it.
 
thanks for the positive review!
my goal in designing the XO was to retain all of my original bass's tone, low end, punch & "clarity", and to be able to dial in where i wanted the top end to OD/distort, from none, to a little, to a lot. the 4 band eq was added to tune it to the room and/or to add a ton of low end. at my last gig, i never turned it off. 1/2 of the songs i didn't click in the dirt, and the other half i did without adjusting any knobs on it.
Yes. It immediately jumped out at me that the pedal sounds very natural going from clean to dirty. This is rare on dual footswitch pedals for sure. I am finding the XO can replace three pedals (all my od's and eq pedals) on my board because of this.
 
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What I would like to see in a deluxe version:

1) Cross mix capability (outs for the mixer)

i have a prototype with the extra outs for the crossover in a larger enclosure but i'll be a little while before it's completed (have to keep up with current orders first)

2) Diode selector on dist side. My Daring Audio laser cannon is an early example of the crossover idea. It has weird blend issues and never gets loud enough without engaging the boost, but the only place it beats the XO is in the fact that it has three clipping options. The lp/hp/bp switch might be a good addition too, but not necessary imo because for me I always use HP only.
the distortion circuit in the XO doesn't use diodes for the clipping, so that couldn't be implemented unless i used a completely different overdrive circuit in it.

i don't think an lp/hp/bp switch is necessary since the crossover is basically a sweep-able version of it.
 
Hey John how does the mini xo sound compared to the mbd1? Love my mbd1 but always looking for something similar in a smaller enclosure!!!
it's capable of getting some similar tones when you use the low end like a bloop. the OD in it is a CMOS type (like the MBD1) but is closer to a Greedtone's OD circuit.
 

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