Boss RT-20 Review

I've been searching for a good Leslie rotary speaker emulator for a couple of years now. I couldn't ever find what I wanted though in pedal form. I toyed around with a few ideas and a few different pedals, but was never satisfied. I didn't need a perfect emulation, just a "close enough" one.

I bought, modified, then sold a Danelectro Rocky Road pedal to give it the Leslie vibe. Not what I was after, especially with the crappy case. Still I have to admit it was kinda fun to play that thing after the mods. I think this was the one I did. Not even close enough, but a fun little pedal and cheap to boot! Like I said: Sold it.

So then I knew this was not going to be something I could easily get away with. I went to the local Guitar Center (sigh) and tried out the Boss RT-20. Ughh, hated it.

I then went for a search on the interwebs and arrived at a Line6 RotoMachine module for a Tone Core pedal. Okay, first off, those first-run Tone Core pedals are ridiculously heavy! I had to cover the entire back w/ Velcro to assure it wouldn't come off the board, and still it pulled away. Second, the pedal "docks" are finicky in more than one way: They don't always work on the first click after power on (witnessed many times.) Third, they MUST have a dedicated, isolated DC input, or your whole board will inherit nasty noise. Batteries are eaten up quickly too. Still, I wanted that sound.

I LOVED a couple of the sounds I could get out of it, but when I practiced live with it there was just no way. It has a couple of major drawbacks. First, the Gain also controls the Level. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why does Line6, after all these years in the biz, STILL carelessly design stuff this way? Really. Second, there was a severe problem with the Bass & Horn mix: Turn too far one way, you lose all the volume and have to readjust the Gain. And Vice Versa. ARRRRGGGGhhh! Incredibly way too interactive. No happy medium. Third it was far too sensitive to different guitar inputs. If I set it up perfectly for a Tele, then it would be overbearing when I plugged in the Les Paul.

...Off to ebay it went...

Now fast forward a couple years and we go back to the RT-20. Here's one of those times when YouTube comes in very handy. :) I listened to a couple of clips and figured if I could find one at a decent price it would be worth a go.

It doesn't sound anything like I remember at Guitar Center. Now, the reason I hated it so much at GC was that it was in one of those awful displays, and pumping through something like a Roland Street Cube or some nonsense like that. Play a pedal through 30 other pedals with buffers into a practice amp, and you'll see what I mean. ...Or just visit Guitar Center for the full effect. It takes away any and all character of a pedal. Poor, poor pedals...

I plugged in my new (used) RT-20 on MY pedalboard with MY amp (having placed the pedal in a true bypass loop, of course) and was quickly satisfied. Bonus was that mode IV on the pedal is a Univibe. Woot! Didn't know or care about that, but it's a nice extra.

Anyway, this thing plays nice with all my other pedals and guitars. Switching guitars is not a problem.

I dial the included overdrive off completely, as my other Dist/OD pedals work VERY well with it. (Far better sounding than the built in OD.) And I'm still in love with it after a couple of months. Plus current draw is only 85mA or so. Not bad.

One huge thing is that I love to constantly ramp the speed up and down. Where this thing wins is that the horn & bass ramp at different speeds: Horn more quickly than bass. This is what emulates the sound so well, even in mono.

I'm very happy with Mode I. I don't like II or III, so I can't really comment on them. I also have rarely found myself readjusting any of the dials, whereas the RotoMachine was a constant fight.

I also found myself using the "brake" which is a great feature. I thought it was gimmicky at first, but "starting" up a swell from zero sounds so rich... I love it!

I haven't tried it in stereo yet, and I wonder if this would work well with bass. I would think so, since you can also use it w/ keyboards.

Anyway, give this thing a shake if you're looking for that rotary sound. I think it's the best option in the price range. Have fun!