Tech 21 XXL

The Tech 21 XXL is a distortion pedal, and the maker describes its character in plain terms: "The humungous XXL is all about distortion, obese, megalithic, dynamic distortion."¹ It sits among Tech 21's distortion designs alongside pedals like the Tech 21 Double Drive and the Tech 21 U.S. Steel, and there is a separate Tech 21 XXL Guitar page covering the guitar version in the current lineup.

What it does

The XXL's central idea is what Tech 21 calls the X-Factor: "the ratio of odd and even harmonics relative to the dynamics of your instrument and your playing style."¹ In practice that means the pedal's distortion is meant to track how you play rather than producing one fixed texture, shifting the harmonic content as your attack and dynamics change.

The control that drives this is the Warp control. Tech 21 says it "manipulates the structure and balance of odd and even harmonics, and influences the X-Factor."¹ Where you set it changes the character of the distortion noticeably: the maker notes that "playing open and loose with Warp at max will yield a vintage fuzz tone," putting the pedal in fuzz territory at one extreme of its range while remaining a distortion pedal overall.¹

The Bass Edition

Tech 21 also made an XXL Bass Edition for bass players. The company positions it as a partner to its preamp pedals: "The Bass Edition is an excellent companion to the SansAmp Bass Driver DI, especially for those times when considerably more distortion is desired."² For a bass player already running a SansAmp Bass Driver DI as a preamp, the XXL Bass is presented as the way to add a heavier distortion voice on top.²

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