Xvive crank it up with DynaRock and Sweet Leo overdrive pedals
These two new leopard skin rock boxes were designed in conjunction with Thomas Blug
Xvive Sweet Leo and Dynarock mini pedal designed in conjunction with Thomas Blug · Source: http://www.xviveaudio.com
Xvive announced these two pedals earlier in the year at the Winter NAMM show. Designed in conjunction with world famous german blues guitarist Thomas Blug, these two leopard skin print overdrive pedals offer a compact footprint and two different takes on overdrive tones.
T2 Dynarock
The Dynarock is described as an ‘open dynamic and warm pedal which comes to close to the natural tone of tube amplifiers’. I think this is their way of saying it sounds like a real amp distortion. It’s the heavier-sounding pedal of the two and aimed at a heavier distorted tone than the Sweet Leo. With three mini knobs labelled Drive, Volume and Tone, there’s also a mini switch for a Mid Boost function. The pedal looks easy enough to operate and won’t be hard to squeeze onto your pedal board. It’s powered by a 9V external power supply.
RRP GBP £59.99
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV_F6vz9Ep0
02 Sweet Leo
The Sweet Leo is more of a classic low-gain overdrive with the ability to blend in a portion of the clean tone so you can keep your dynamics intact. They describe it as offering ‘Class A valve amp-esque tones, approaching dirty tweed sounds’. To me, this means it’s a more dynamic touch-sensitive style overdrive pedal.
This pedal has four mini controls: Drive, Level,Tone and Growl. The pedal again is powered from a 9V power supply and comes in an even more garish leopard skin print than the Dynarock pedal.
RRP GBP £59.99
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNfBNTLPQSk
Both pedals are well priced for an overdrive pedal with an artist association. However, I think the micro pedal size can be really awkward to tweak live. So if you like to fiddle with your settings, you may find these a bit of a faff. On the positive side you don’t want be wasting money on batteries. It’s also better for the environment. And given the fact they are dinky, they are easier to carry around on a packed pedalboard.
Dynarock and Sweet Leo specifications: Xvive site
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