Price Paid: given as junk
Ease of Use: 9
This is a "King Vox Octavoice I ampliphonic Clarinet." My boss gave it to me, she said it was junk, and she wasn't sure what it was, probably a clarinet mic. It is about the size of a Fishman preamp, has an 1/8" input and 1/4" output, and four switches; instrument, oboe, bass clarinet, and contra bass clarinet. It is basically an octaver, with instrument being straight tone, oboe an octave higher, bass cl. an octave lower, and contra bass cl. two ocataves lower. 9V Battery is accessible by unscrewing two screws.
Sound Quality: 9
This unit doesn't sound very good, but I love the sounds for their nastiness. There is no bypass, the volume is dropped significantly, the octaves have trouble tracking, which causes jumps (not much worse than the BOSS OC-2). As with most actavers, you can only play one note at a time. I run it in the effects loop of a Professional Music Products Super Buffer Amp, which gives me bypass, as well as a gain booster to compensate for the drop in volume. When I run it through distortion/overdrive, the volume loss is not apparent. I have found it tracks best with thinner sounding pickups, and the tone is clearer also.
Reliability: 7
It must be near 40 years old, and still works, but I've never seen another one, and I've searched the internet. I haven't had any troubles, I would trust it.
Customer Support: N/A
I doubt Vox knows this exists.
Overall Rating: 10
I do not know what the designer intended this for, but I get the impression is was made for clarinet. I got it in a leather zipper pouch, with parts of a terrible-sounding King Vox microphone. It sounds very cool with distortion, good for thickening up the sound. It was given to me as junk, but I have been enjoying it ever since.
If anyone knows anything about this unit, please e-mail me.
Submitted by Christopher Rice at 02/09/2004 14:47
