Xotic Soul Driven

The Xotic Soul Driven is a compact overdrive and boost pedal from Xotic, the Van Nuys, California maker better known for the BB Preamp and RC Booster. Xotic describes it as "producing creamy boost and overdriven tones that enhance harmonics while maintaining the transparency of your guitar tone," and the pedal can be set up for driving a clean amp channel or for pushing an already dirty channel harder¹. It carries a clean buffer/boost stage alongside its full harmonic overdrive, so it works as a subtle level lift or as a full drive depending on where the Gain knob sits².

The pedal began life in 2016 as the Soul Driven AH, a limited signature model built with Los Angeles guitarist Allen Hinds, and the standard chrome version followed in 2017³⁴. It remains in production, sold through the Xotic webstore and dealers as of 2023⁵.

What it does to your sound

Xotic positions the Soul Driven as a "transparent, harmonically rich overdrive" that adds "soul" to your sound with creamy boost and overdriven tones and what the maker calls just the right amount of compression⁴⁶. The transparency claim is the selling point next to Xotic's other drives: the company says the pedal enhances your natural harmonics rather than replacing your core tone with its own⁸¹⁹.

The pedal runs internally at 18 volts, which gearnews noted gives more headroom in the circuit than a 9V-only design⁴. Two working modes are described by the maker: driving a clean channel, where the pedal supplies most of the grind, or overdriving a dirty channel, where it stacks onto an amp already breaking up¹.

The controls

Four knobs sit on top: Gain, Tone, Volume and Mid Boost⁴. Inside, two DIP switches set the bass response.

The Tone control gets specific praise in the press. gearnews reported that Xotic says the tone circuit can be used to tighten up low end or get your highs cutting through⁴. On the technical side, Aion FX's circuit trace found the Tone pot changed from the 10kB value used in the BOSS BD-2 to 250kB, meaning it can cut more treble than a BD-2³.

Setting the bass boost DIP switches

To reach the switches you remove the back plate⁶. The maker's manual and product page give these settings:

Aion FX measured the bass boost center frequency with a gyrator calculation and found it actually sits slightly under 120Hz, against the 125Hz in Xotic's advertising³. The same trace found the bass resistor changed from the BD-2's fixed 6k8 to four available settings (18k, 28k, 33k, 43k), meaning even the lowest Soul Driven setting has more bass boost than a stock BD-2³.

Power and bypass

The Soul Driven runs on a 9V DC supply drawing 4mA, or 18V DC drawing 6mA, with negative tip polarity¹. A single 9V (006P) battery fits inside, and the manual notes that unplugging the input when the pedal is not in use extends battery life; when an external supply is plugged in, the battery is disconnected from the circuit¹. Battery access means removing four screws from the bottom plate².

The 4 to 6mA draw is low enough that the pedal shares easily with other compact pedals on a multi-output supply. Switching is true bypass, on a single ON/OFF footswitch².

Inside the circuit

The circuit that was traced was the later non-limited chrome enclosure model, without the "AH" marking³. One detail that sets it apart from the Boss BD-2 it relates to: the Tone pot is changed from 10kB in the BD-2 to 250kB, meaning it can cut more treble than the BD-2¹⁰³.

• A Tube Screamer style clipping stage with a slightly higher clipping threshold (1N914 and BAT46 diodes in series) and a variable high-pass frequency, similar to the Bass control of the Timmy or the Voice control of the Zendrive³.
• A back half "lifted almost verbatim from the BOSS BD-2 Blues Driver"³.

So the pedal pairs a Tube Screamer-style front end with a Blues Driver back half, which is a useful frame for players who know those two circuits. Xotic's own description of the topology is a discrete FET design in what they call a road worthy enclosure¹. Construction details from the trace include a top-side DC jack, PCB-mount pots, through-hole components, space for a battery, and high-end Switchcraft in/out jacks³.

History and versions

The Soul Driven was released in 2016 as the limited-edition "AH" model in a blue enclosure, developed in collaboration with Allen Hinds to be his signature drive pedal³. Guitar World described it as "created by Xotic and inspired by guitarist Allen Hinds," part of a limited run¹⁰, and MusicRadar reported the run at 1,500 units⁸. Hinds is a longtime Xotic player, and the collaboration produced what MusicRadar called a boost/overdrive that enhances harmonics while retaining transparency⁸.

The standard Soul Driven followed in 2017 in a compact chrome case, without the AH designation³⁷. Xotic priced it at $210 MSRP with a $168 street price at launch⁷; gearnews reported an introductory price of $189 rising to $210 after the offer expired⁴.

What reviewers said

Press coverage of the Soul Driven has been positive. gearnews wrote that "this looks like it has just enough of everything you'd want from a good quality boutique overdrive pedal," pointing to the simple layout and control set⁴. Guitar Pedal X reviewed it in May 2023 alongside the RC Booster V2 and the discontinued Custom Shop BB Preamp MB, calling it "a fantastically textured Transparent and Creamy Overdrive" with a properly smooth and creamy texture, and noting it sounds quite different from the BB Preamp MB⁵. That review listed the pedal at $225⁵.

Delicious Audio demoed the pedal in 2018 and highlighted its "incredibly flexible tone shaping options to help customize your sound"⁹. On the critical side, Aion FX's trace found a small amount of background hiss when the volume is all the way down, which they said could be eliminated if the volume control were placed after the bass stage, before the output buffer³.

Who uses it

The pedal's documented player is Allen Hinds, the Los Angeles guitarist it was built with, whose signature model started the line in 2016³⁸. Xotic's own framing for the original AH model was that it "will help you find the sweet spot every time"⁸.

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