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tjon901 « A cool and rare OD pedal »
Published on 05/26/11 at 09:32The Bixonic Expandora EXP-2000R is a reissue of the old Bixonic Expandora. This pedal was made popular by ZZ Top and is quite hard to find now that Bixonic has gone out of business. This new version of the Expandora has some new features the old one didnt have. On the face of the pedal it has 3 switches that combine in different combinations to make certain sounds. There are D1 and D2 switches with low and high settings that change the voicing of the distortion and an Instrument switch where you select if you are playing bass or guitar. This also effects the voicing of the pedal. Each combination of distortion settings is laid out on the back of the pedal. On the front of the pedal there is the traditional Gain, Tone and Level knobs.
UTILIZATION
The different tone settings are laid out on the back of the pedal. With both of the D switches on Low the pedal will provide a crunch setting. With D1 on high and D2 on low it will provide an overdrive sound. With D1 on low and D2 on high the setting is just called distortion and with both settings on high the instructions call this setting "Forbidden" and you will find out why if you try it. With the switches it is a little counter intuitive that the low setting on the switch is above the high setting. If one setting is higher than another setting I think the setting should be above the other one just to be intuitive.
SOUND QUALITY
The crunch setting with both D switches on Low provides a loose ZZ Top style of gain. The overdrive setting with D1 on high and D2 on low produces a loose but more heavier distortion kinda like AC/DC. The "Distortion" setting with D1 on low and D2 on high gives a more searing style of distortion with more bite and high end. The "Forbidden" setting with both D switches down gives a really thick muddy fuzz style of gain. This setting is very noisy and sounds like the pedal is broken. In the manual it even jokes around saying you should never use it because it will drive your listeners crazy. I think they were only half joking.
OVERALL OPINION
With all the versatility and mostly usable sounds this pedal provides, many different types of music can be covered. The small design is a welcome change to the big square bricks that most pedals are. It can provide the sounds of 3 pedals and is smaller than one. This will save space in your pedal board. If you are looking for a wide range of distortion and dont have much space left in your board or rack you should try and find one of these pedals.
UTILIZATION
The different tone settings are laid out on the back of the pedal. With both of the D switches on Low the pedal will provide a crunch setting. With D1 on high and D2 on low it will provide an overdrive sound. With D1 on low and D2 on high the setting is just called distortion and with both settings on high the instructions call this setting "Forbidden" and you will find out why if you try it. With the switches it is a little counter intuitive that the low setting on the switch is above the high setting. If one setting is higher than another setting I think the setting should be above the other one just to be intuitive.
SOUND QUALITY
The crunch setting with both D switches on Low provides a loose ZZ Top style of gain. The overdrive setting with D1 on high and D2 on low produces a loose but more heavier distortion kinda like AC/DC. The "Distortion" setting with D1 on low and D2 on high gives a more searing style of distortion with more bite and high end. The "Forbidden" setting with both D switches down gives a really thick muddy fuzz style of gain. This setting is very noisy and sounds like the pedal is broken. In the manual it even jokes around saying you should never use it because it will drive your listeners crazy. I think they were only half joking.
OVERALL OPINION
With all the versatility and mostly usable sounds this pedal provides, many different types of music can be covered. The small design is a welcome change to the big square bricks that most pedals are. It can provide the sounds of 3 pedals and is smaller than one. This will save space in your pedal board. If you are looking for a wide range of distortion and dont have much space left in your board or rack you should try and find one of these pedals.