“Sets a new standard and dynamic and expressive drive pedals”: Xotic’s AC Booster v2 is a feature-packed but compact overdrive that promises amp-like touch sensitivity and dynamics

Xotic AC Booster V2: this yellow stompbox has four white dials, external dipswitches and two footswitches.

Californian electric guitar and effects specialist Xotic has unveiled the AC Booster v2, updating the compact overdrive pedal with the second footswitchable gain stage and promising a wide range of dynamic drive tones.

As you might expect from Xotic, this one is designed for tone gourmands. There’s always something upscale and imaginative about its guitar effects pedal designs. Even if we simply take the fascia into account, there’s a lot of tone-shaping capability.

There are dials for Volume and Gain, Treble and Bass, just as we had on version one. Bass and Treble can both boost and cut depending on which side of noon they are set. But there’s more. Now we have a second footswitch to add a clean boost to the signal, its output adjusted by a mini-dial that illuminates when this separate gain stage is active.

Again, there’s more. On the side of the pedal we have a quartet of dip-switches, applying a range of quick EQ tweaks and changing the character of the drive.

(Image credit: Xotic)

One of the DIP switches alternates between the Classic and Modern mode, with the former giving you that old-school warmth that we heard with the original AC Booster, and the latter giving you “contemporary bite”, ie. more gain, more articulation.

There is also a Compression DIP switch, applying an extra 6dB to the signal, and offering a little more control over the dynamics, boosting sustain.

(Image credit: Xotic)

Dynamics are the name of the game here; Xotic is really selling this as a drive pedal that responds to your playing, just as a good guitar amp should.

It was ever thus with the AC Booster, which was why the likes of Tim Pierce and J.D. Simo had them on their pedalboards. This takes the principal a little further.

There are two further DIP switches, one applying a low-mids boost, the other to the upper-mids, two options that sound like they could come in handy when switching between single-coil and humbucker-equipped guitars, and certainly when finding a little space in the mix for your solos.

You can run the AC Booster V2 on 9V or 18V DC from a pedalboard power supply, deploying it as a boost, as an overdrive, as a tone-sweetener. That extra gain stage could be invaluable in pushing your amp into saturation.

Xotic says this is the sound of its favourite booster on steroids, and it is available now, it is priced $180 street. See Xotic for more details.