X Factor

J Rockett provides Bon Jovi guitar-slinger Phil X with a signature boost and overdrive pedal

- Trevor Curwen

When it comes to choosing a drive pedal, there are many, many choices available out there and it's often a case of trial and error with a bunch of stompboxes until you settle on the one (or several) that will really work for you and become a long-term fixture in your rig. Some high-profile professional players who know exactly what they want, however, are lucky enough to get to work with a pedal manufacturer and get their ideal pedal made for them.

And that's the case with Phil X, the Canadian guitarist who officially replaced Richie Sambora in Bon Jovi back in 2016, and who has worked with J Rockett to arrive at the PXO. The idea here was to create something that would be of use in the studio and help Phil achieve his sound with any backline - and the result is a pedal with independently footswitched Boost and Drive sections that can be stacked in any order.