Review of the T-Rex Twister II Chorus / Flanger Pedal

A little while ago T-Rex sent us the new T-Rex Twister II Chorus / Flanger pedal to try out and review on the site. T-Rex makes some great guitar effects, quality and tone are always fantastic. The Twister II is a upgrade from the original T-Rex Twister pedal. They upgraded all software and hardware as well as improved some of the older features. The Twister II was designed to provide vintage sounds as well as modern chorus modulation tones.

Let me break down the controls and features.

First off, the pedal is a stereo pedal and for our demos below we recorded it in stereo. On the side (input side) there is a input level control. This allows you to control the input signal level to the pedal. This is a great way to keep the pedal clean.. or crank it to overdrive the circuit. There is a clip LED next to the pot, so you can easily see if your signal is hot. This knob can be depressed and be out of the way. So if you want… set it and forget it.

Depth. This handles the amount of modulation on the effect. Turn it down for subtle effect, but it up for more.
Rate. This handles the speed of the modulation
Level. Handles the pedal’s output level
Tone. Allows you to shave off high end frequencies
Regen. Regeneration used in flanger mode. This will control the feedback of the flange.
Chorus/Flanger toggle. This is how you switch between the two effects

The pedal is powered via 9v DC power supply. You can power with a 9v battery… but would not recommend it. On the back it states “Battery Power for Emergency Use Only”. We tried this, and it’ll eat the battery very quick (30-60 minutes of use). The draw is 85mA so it needs a good amount of juice.

Here is the official description of this pedal:

Shimmering, rich, vibrant, swirling. There are lots of ways to describe the chorus effect, made famous in the 80s and used today by just about every guitarist on the planet. A chorus brings your sound to life, adding a dynamic vibrancy to the sonic texture of any song you use it on. T-Rex Engineering is proud to introduce the next generation of this legendary effect – Twister II, a chorus and flanger pedal for guitarists who demand nothing less than the best.

My immediate reaction to this pedal.. classic T-Rex. The effect seems to be around your tone.. not your altered tone. I love that I can hear the guitar’s original tone in there. I’ve played a few T-Rex pedals now, and all of them had this behavior. I dig it!

For this review, I again enlisted the help of Jimmy Rolle. He did a couple of demos – a clean version and a distorted version. For this demo, he used his American Fender Stratocaster, played through two amps (Matchless DC-30 and Rivera Knucklehead) in stereo. Both amps were recorded with a Fathead SPII Ribbon and Shure SM57 microphones through a ART Pro MPAII PreAmp into the computer.

This first clip is the clean demo:

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You can listen to the high quality MP3 clip via SoundCloud

Next is Jimmy playing the T-Rex Twister II through the gain channels:

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You can listen to the high quality MP3 clip via SoundCloud

Overall, this is a great sounding pedal backed by the legendary quality of T-Rex. The T-Rex Twister II is a new product to the United States, and requires special ordering if you purchase from Musician’s Friend (at this time). The T-Rex Twister II Chorus / Flanger is available for $279.00 at Musician’s Friend.

If you’re liking the sound of this pedal, I’ll be giving this guy away very soon. To make sure you’re aware when this give away is happening, please sign up to the EffectsBay.com mailing list!