Decibelics doubles down on its superior The Reverend Expandora style OD, Distortion & Fuzz with the further extended-range The Reverend XX
You may recall that I wrote a fairly expansive article when my good friend Guillem Vilademunt launched his The Reverend Mini Expandora pedal - some 4 years in the making, and a project I was proud to have collaborated on.
So in the same way that he introduced the Dual Golden Royale Edition of his much celebrated Golden Horse Mini Klone, of course with some extended features. He now repeats that same evolutionary exercise with his The Reverend XX - which benefits from an external Bass Boost on each channel, along with 3 way clipping - Stock Silicon, LED, and NOS Germanium. You then essentially get two full fat Expandora’s left and right channels, and through some smart electronics and an internal switch - you can actually separate the two halves via use of TRS Y-Splitter Cable!
I’m already a massive fan of the original Reverend Mini - and this new one is more than double the goodness - and totally awesome in the Red colourway edition in particular - which I have dubbed ’Redverend’ somewhat fittingly.
Controls - 2 x Gain, Level, Tone, Mode : I (Crunch) / II (Overdrive) / III (Distortion) / F (Forbidden Fuzz Mode), Bass Boost : On/Off, Clipping : Stock Silicon / LED / NOS Germanium, Footswitch per Channel.
My only input on this pedal really was on the Germanium Clipping mode - which I personally felt had just a touch too much of a volume drop - and Guillem has of course engineered a solution to that in the final production editions.
Obviously each of the 3 clipping modes render at slightly different output volumes - where my favourite independent settings for the two channels are :
- Left Channel - Gain @ 10 o’c, Level @ 2 o’c, Tone @ 3 o’c, Mode : II, Bass Boost Off, LED Clipping.
- Right Channel - Gain @ 3 o’c, Level @ Max, Tone @ 4 o’c, Mode : F, Bass Boost On, Silicon Clipping.
The Germanium Clipping has a lovely character to it - but you need to be prepared for something of a volume / output drop. And if you're stacking the two channels together - then the pedal can get a bit noisy particularly on the higher gain modes - so I would advise moderation there - you can certainly get some interesting textures - and expansive sustain in particular by running both channels together - but you definitely need to be more finessed on the controls.
The original Reverend Mini was quite the proposition already - and here you have more than double the goodness - those extra swtiches really help elevate the format further and the options and choices you have for different tones and textures are very much next level. I would advise that if you're thinking more about running the two channels together a lot - then you might want to place the pedal within the loop of a noise gate. If you're using just individual channels - as a sort of 2 preset style scenario (like I mostly do) - then you should be mostly fine without a gate - as per the original.
I love the flexibility and versatility of the Epxandora format in delivering so many different core voicings and textures - and this Expandora XX properly doubles down on everything you love.
For me the 'Redverend' edition is the obvious choice - but each of those above 4 colourways is attractive. The Black Standard Edition is €10 less expensive - and that would probably have been my second choice, For me though the Redverend XX really stands out in all the right ways.
Of course this pedal is available for orders on the Decibelics Webstore as soon as you see this article go live. If you want to know more about the pedigree and provenance of this pedal - by all means read my former Reverend article, and check out Decibelics.com for further details. All of Guillem's pedals are magical for me - and not surprisingly - in high demand! Excellent demo by Anand Mahangoe below also!
Key Features
- Dual format – 2 Expandora circuits in one box
- Circuits replica of Guillem's original MIJ Bixonic Expandora EXP2000
- Featuring the unique Expander Circuit on both channels for incredible saturation dynamics never seen in other drives
- Tone modeled after Guillem's 5 original Expandoras (All versions)
- Handmade using a mix of SMT and old-style through-hole components, in Barcelona, Spain
- Highest Quality components and hardware
- The only replica to use Expandora’s original N.O.S. RN2206 transistor and N.O.S. JRC4558DD op-amp
- Uses OP07 chips and H11F1 optocouplers, fine-tuned to deliver the exact tone and feel of the originals
- 4 Knobs per channel, being that the fourth one is the replacement for the original's 2 x toggle-switches
- ‘Forbidden Setting’, the explosive, brutal, gated Fuzz mode found on the EXP-2000 and EXP-2000R
- External Guitar-Bass switch of the EXP-2000R for each channel
- External 3-way Clipping Switch (Silicon|LED|Germanium) for each channel
- True Bypass, soft-click footswitches with programmed memory / Latching + Momentary option
- Low noise floor, Decibelics-Style
- Pricing : €309 / €319
Demos
12 Degrees of Saturation 2023 Compact Edition
