Vox Tonelab SE

Price Paid: 470 (EUR)

Ease of Use: 9
Usage is pretty straight forward. If you have some idea how these typically work you will not need the manual. It is still good to read to know all the options but then in normal use you can do without manual.
Compared to Boss GT series and Line5 PodXT Live I definitely rank this much more user friendly.

All the ratings are made against other this type of multieffects I've owned/tried and not comparing to real tube amps and boutique stomp boxes (which would not be fair...)

Sound Quality: 9
My "normal" setup actually contains only pretty high quality stomp boxes with Fulltone ChoralFlanger as the last one in chain and going stereo to 2 x Hughes&Kettner Puretone heads + THD212 cabinets.

I still have time to time given a change for these multigadget to see how they are doing. This time I actually first tried Korg 3000G and was impressed as it did not ruin the sound as these typically do. I was encouraged to upgrade that Korg to VOX ToneLab SE which -as far as I know- contains the modeling engine and user interface from Korg.

Factory presets will need some tweaking. They are ok to present what you can do with this but most of them are not usable in the real game.
So I did some tweaking with headphones and pretty fast was able to create some 10-16 sounds of my own. Btw this unit does not sound so stunning with headphones as many other units I've tried do but don't get depressed wait for connection to amp...
What I was extremely happy about the sound was that when I connected the pedal to real amp (and remebered to change the output from line->amp) these created patches were usable almost as such. I did only some EQ tweaking and some minor tunig with reverb and delay levels and I had all the patches created with headphones working with amp as well. This really was not the case with Boss and Line6...

Basic sound is healthy and does not ruin your original sound. Also this very well preserves the dynimics of your playing. You can also notice the difference between different guitars (I tried the ones with humbuckers, single coils, P90's...)
What is also great is that this reacts pretty nicely to guitar volume pot. I.e. sounds can go from clean to heavily distorted by tweaking the guitar volume. Not quite as real tube amp but still amazingly close (again when compared to Boss etc...). The same sensitivity is there as well for how heavy you pick.

Amp models are all very ok and you can get nice sounds out from this. Most of the effects are also quite ok for the prize but for example chorus does not match what you can get out from Fulltone ChoralFlanger (I would even not expect as this Fulltone almost as expensive as this whole Vox unit)

There is limitations that were very well described with Chirs in a review made before. Pedal section is really a compromise as there is wah, comprssion and you can select only one. Still you get good distortions with Amp models so that part is ok but if you need compression and Wag then you have a problem.

I never know if I really use this to replace my stomp boxes in a gig but still I'm happy and will not recycle this as soon as other went. When I replace my stomp box arsenal with this there is a difference in sound but I would claim not as big as a difference of prize tags...

I have not yet tried this directly to PA so no comments on that.

Anyway a really good compromize on prize and portability and you surely can also gig with this and sound good.

If there was something good with Line6 btw, it was the flexibility provided by USB connection and all the stuff they have in their web pages but I finally need a good sound and on stage usability, not computer interface...

Reliability: N/A
No opinion as I've owned it for a short period only. Seems well build.

Customer Support: N/A
Never tried.

Overall Rating: 8
I play almost everything and for the sake of versatility I do check these pedals if they are in good enough level...

This one is getting close in my books. Limitations of pedal section and quality of some effects takes the points but overall functionality and good sounding amp models gain points. So I'll give 8.

Submitted by AA at 01/14/2006 00:36

Price Paid: US $500

Ease of Use: 7
Getting a good sound out of it is the easy part. Writing tones is the hard part. I have to turn some of the settings on and off, which gets annoying at times.

The online manual is much easier to use than the book. Some of the stuff in the manual you should know before hand just from expierience, or you shouldn't be owning the system, because it will be too complex for you.

Sound Quality: 8
I love the sounds, especially the recreations of the 60's and 70's amps. It makes my wasted amp sound slick.

I was disappointed that the heavy metal tones weren't so great, but other than that it has everything that you can expect for a band and alot more.

Reliability: 10
I leave my tonelab sitting out alot and my family has kicked it around a bit, but so far it has been dependable. I was glad to get this instead of a POD. It is around 20 lbs (?), which is good for placing it on tables and such, because most likely when someone trips on a wire, them or my amp will fall, not the tonelab.

I don't know how reliable to tube is. Anyone have an idea?

Customer Support: N/A
My family ordered this for christmas, so I didn't deal with any customer support.

Overall Rating: 9
I've been following alot of bands, a certain one most of the time. I've looked at each band's gear, and the two best ones have had tonelab so I figured it was the way to go.

I will still be getting gear, but not as much as some of my friends have. It is a great all in one processor. I find distortion pedals useful for it, though.

Classic Rock, Rock, Punk Rock, Blues, and some Metal I find a use for on the vox tonelab. It makes it funner to play guitar, and it can really annoy your family. Some of the effects are fun to play with, and some just get in the way. Whoever programmed the tones did a piss poor job on it. Over-writing them is a pain too.

I would definetly buy another one if this one was stolen. If someone stole it and I caught them with it I would beat them until they are crippled.

I've been playing for about 6 months (serious) but I am told I am way ahead of most of the people who have been playing this long. It is great for anyone who loves the guitar. It's not worth the money if you don't absolutely love the guitar, and if you have a crap guitar you need a new one.

I went to the store to compare it with a whole set of BOSS pedals, and I found three ups and one downside. The better parts were that they had alot more to program off of and the tones are all attatched under one processor, and the A/B channel switch. The downside is that to adjust the tone you have to go back and forth to how many different settings there are and the tone you want them to make when combined, (for example fuzz, amp, delay, and channel settings.)

I will still be buying a metal zone pedal to equipt it to the tonelab, and I already have my distortion pedal equipted because I had it before the tonelab and I don't want it to go to waste.

I give the tonelab a 9 for awesome, worth every penny. I'm always looking to talk to people about setting tones and guitars, so you can e-mail me: joe_petrungaro@comcast.net

Submitted by Joe at 01/06/2006 19:17

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 10
It's not hard to get a good sound out of it but you do need to set it up with your gear. Patches are a bit tedious manually but with the software it's easy. If you can dial a pedal you can dial in this unit.

Third party support for users:
http://www.tonelab.net/

Sound Quality: 10
Great sound quality. It replaced a defective PODxt and I've been much happier with it. I use it for direct recording and live performance.

Third party support for users:
http://www.tonelab.net/

Reliability: 10
I use it all the time in live situations and have had zero problems. I think it will hold up fine.

Third party support for users:
http://www.tonelab.net/

Customer Support: 10
They've always answered my questions in a timely fashion. Whether I liked the answer or not is my problem not theirs.

Third party support for users:
http://www.tonelab.net/

Overall Rating: N/A
I use this for all styles of music. I'm using this unit with an EARCANDY BUZZBOMB 2x12 and a PEAVEY 50/50 CLASSIC. I've been very pleased with this unit for direct recording and live purposes.

Third party support for users:
http://www.tonelab.net/

Submitted by Eric Meyer at 12/25/2005 15:26

Price Paid: US $600

Ease of Use: 8
Please see my article under the "sound quality" section.

Sound Quality: 8
Critique of the Vox ToneLab SE

The upside: The VT is a good amp modeler. The Fender, AC30 and Marshall Plexi models are terrific. The other amp models are useful. The reverbs are good, as are the delays. Other effects like chorus and tremelo are useful but not top of the line. I like the VT better than the competition because of the better sounding amp models and because its easier to program. All those nested menus and gazillion parameters per patch are not fun to wrestle with. Many patches are somewhat responsive to guitar knob volume changes or pick attack and that’s what folks mean when they say that the unit has a certain “vibe” that they have not found in other fancy processors. Some reviewers have said that they can’t get a heavy sound out of the unit, but I have been able to get some nice Satriani like sounds out of the unit, straight lead, octave-fuzz, autowah. If you want a Zak Wylde sound you probably need those EMG pickups and a decent LP for starters. but even this short list of points is ample justification for the product.

So what’s wrong ? Well there is a certain product design “issue”. The Vox product design team made a questionable tradeoff, presumably to keep the unit’s cost down. They put the Wah, Compressor and Stomp Box Distortion circuits under one master switch. You can pick Wah or Compression or TubeScreamer or UniVibe (think Robin Trower). Look, I don’t mean to be overly negative, but that’s just the wrong way to go. When I realized this was the case, I didn’t believe it because I assumed nobody would make that trade-off. This is the dirty little secret about this product. For example, let’s ask Vox, “How am I supposed to craft Hendrix patches given this trade-off?” Or similarly, “didn’t SRV combine wah, amp compression and a green effects box sometimes ?” Or for slide work, I might want to combine compression, for sustain, and a little distortion for growl, and then EQ some bass out to take out the flubby part, right ?

Some other problems for some folks will be that there is no “final” EQ section. When programming a Boss GT patch you can always put an EQ last to try to smooth out a patch or push a patch in a certain direction. I think this is forgivable (but not optimal) since VOX sees this unit as a kind of “amplifier + effects”, not as an “generic effects processor.” The noise gate is average and the compressor is below average. High gain patches can suffer from buzz and hiss, especially for single-coil pickups. Crank up the gate, sure, but you lose tone and control.

I don’t relate to the logic that focuses on comparing features of multifunction processors. And then decides which one to buy based on features and cost. The number one thing is sound quality. Having 500 different ways to produce so-so sounds (or worse) is an argument for what ? The 2nd standard is ease of use and convenience. The 3d standard is physical reliability. The 4th thing is quantity of features and how they are specifically implemented. The Vox scores well enough on the first 3 but scores low on the 4th. If the VT were an Olympic figure skater you would say that her artistic score was higher than her technical score.

Where does this leave us ? I see two paths: (1) live with the unit as-is and reap the benefits of decent sound in a single, self-contained unit. You will be happy since your setup is convenient and portable. You will not have everything you really want, but you will have a dozen or two useful patches to select from. (2) add on more devices that address the main problem cited above. Let’s discuss this latter path and see where it takes us.

Use a separate compressor and wah pedal in the VT’s effects loop. The cost of this is somewhere between $50 and $400. The beauty of this solution is that you win like three times. The solution gives us independent wah, sustain and distortion effects. Also, if you get a decent compressor, your sound will improve noticeably and immediately for many patches. So, you’ve upgraded both sound and worked around the main problem with the unit. The scary part of this solution is that we’ve now opened up Pandora’s box – again. We are back in the hunt for decent effects pedals that don’t break the bank. Plus, we’ve lost the ability to program in different levels of compression per patch. Didn’t we buy a fancy processor to solve exactly these problems ? It just aint a perfect world is it ?

Now that we have opened up Pandora’s box and decided to add a few pedals to the setup you might want to consider other effects that help cleanup your signal. Perhaps a noise gate or an “enhancer” of some kind, or some other specialized effect or pricey boutique American made effect box will add just the right spice to the mix. An EQ pedal might give you that chance to really dial-in your sound. But now we are adding cost and complexity to our rig too, and we seem to be inching back to a spider web of cords on the floor. No one ever said the quest for guitar tone in this modern age of gizmos all marketed as having some secret magical mojo would be easy. The price tag for this solution for both the VT and the pedals could easily exceed $1000, let’s be straight up, but isn’t the quest for tone loads of fun ?

In sum, add these items to the effects chain:
· compressor(mandatory: will improve both sustain and “sparkle”)
· Wah Pedal (mandatory, if you use wah somewhat, love Hendrix or record for the porn industry)
· Noise gate (mandatory for high gain single-coil PUPS); don’t go cheap here !
· EQ (mandatory for tone-tweaker-freaks)
· UniVibe (mandatory for Hendrix, Trower, trippy jam rock aficionados)
· Enhancer / Maximizer (optional)
· Autowah / envelope filter (optional)

What should Vox do with the next version of the product ?
· make wah and compression completely independent of *all* other effects.
· improve the compressor
· improve the noise gate
· move the UniVibe effect over to the chorus section
· make every factory patch match up to either a famous guitar player’s signature sound or a sound from a historically significant song. Every factory patch should be immediately useful to somebody. Host a user patch contest.
· add 20 second “riff recorder”. Allow the user to edit the current patch and apply the effect to the riff. That way we can get closer and closer to the “right” sound without constantly going back and forth between instrument and processor. Presumably, you would record a dry signal and play back the wet signal. Call it “Super-Tweak”, “Perfect-Patch”, “Patch-Master”, “Real-Patch”, “Patch-Factory” some catchy thing like that. Good idea, isn’t it ?
· add a female AC jack to the back to plug a power strip into or one of those multi AC powersource gizmos. I’m beggin’ !

Reliability: N/A
I have owened the product for 14 months and so far, so good. The unit feels solid.

Customer Support: N/A
N/A

Overall Rating: 8
I *do* recommend this product. I've played one for 14 months and still like it a bunch. I play mostly rock, blues, funk, slide and a little jazz.

Note: please do your own independent product research, I could be wrong ! generally, you get what you pay for.

For high end and expensive floor pedals go to Keeley at least for research purposes.

Compressors to look at include Behringer Compressor/Sustainer CS100 ($20), Guyatone ST-2 ($70), MXR DynaComp ($60), BBE Opto Stomp ($90), Line 6 ToneCore Constrictor ($110), Aphex Punch Factory ($100).

Wah pedals to look at include a cheapo Behringer HB01 ($30), the fancy-smancy 535Q CRYBABY ($110). Vox has a nice line, Clyde McCoy.

For a noise gate try Behringer Noise Reducer NR100 ($25), Rocktron Hush ($55), Line 6 ToneCore Constrictor ($110), Dunlop MXR Smart Gate ($100), Carl Martin Noise Terminator ($130), ISP Technologies Decimator($120).

For a sonic enhancer (last in chain) see BBE Sonic Stomp ($90), Aphex 1403 Guitar Xciter ($100).

Submitted by chris fitzmartin at 12/16/2005 12:55

Price Paid: US $475

Ease of Use: 10
Like many others on here, I've owned tons of different effects...multi and single...and this is the easiest multi-effects box that I've ever seen when it comes to getting different sounds. Spend a few minutes with the manual and programming it becomes second nature very quickly. I'd suspect that you could get by without the manual pretty easily too. Aside from a few typos in the manual, this is the one that others should be judged.

Sound Quality: 9
I looked at all of the latest pedals before buying the tonelab. The final round included the Boss GT8 (good pedal, but it didn't have the right feel and I've had other Boss multi-effects that didn't live up to the hype), the Digitech GNX3000 (another good pedal, but it just didn't have the variety of sound that I was looking for and didn't sound very organic0, the KORG AX3000G (same parent company as VOX and some of the technology is obviously shared with the tonelab). I played all of them and really loved the KORG, until I played the Tonelab. It took all of the good points of the others and added to them. I was skeptical that the valve would really make a significant difference, but it does!

Again, I have or have had tons of multi-effects including a Boss GS-10, Pod II, Digitech RPX400, Digitech ValveFX, and so on. This has the best sounds of any of them. From clean to dirty I can get just about any sound that I'm looking for. I play a variety of music and it's important to be able to get credible sounds from rig easily.

I'm currently using a Fender American Fat-strat deluxe with an LR Baggs piezo bridge. Then I'm running a stereo cable to a Yamaha Magicstomp acoustic for the piezo and the magnetic pickups through the tonelab. Both go directly to the PA. The sound can be huge and round, I get a lot of compliments.

Reliability: N/A
Too soon to say, but it appears to be built really well and the included gig bag is a nice touch. I would imagine that it will be very road worthy. I might get an extra tube though.

Customer Support: 9
I haven't needed to use this yet, however, I was able to find the manual online before I bought the unit so I could compare features to the other pedals. They also have a FAQ (albeit almost empty) and other support features online.

Overall Rating: 9
I'm very happy with this purchase! I've been playing for more than twenty years and this is one of the best pieces of technology that I've seen or played. This pedal has absolutely made it possible for me to get the sounds out of my head and into the ears of the people at the show.

Submitted by BlueMan at 12/13/2005 08:24

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 9
The tonelab SE is by far the most intuitive and easy to use floor based modeler out there. Editing patches is a breeze. Using the six amp style rotary knobs makes editing a breeze. However since they are not automated is you want to make a slight tweak to an already saved patch this is easily accomodated by using the little arrow buttons by the screen. Getting great sounds to me was a piece of cake, from basic amp sounds to effects. The manual for this product was straight foward and loaded with lots of helpful hints and important need to knows that might shed light on some of the negative reviews.

Ease of use is relative. You would expect that a single unit that boasts the ability to model a dozen amps and cabs, as well as several types of every effect imaginal all in a single piece, allowing you to create endless combinations and organize them many different ways would require some time spent learning how to use it. If you are not willing to spend a half hour reading a manual for a product of this type and complain you don't have my sympathy. In my opinion this product exceeds all other modelers of this type in terms of ease of use.
the pedal switches are very easy to press, and you can easily see the screen when standing, unlike other modelers (pod)

Sound Quality: 10
First a complaint: Many guitarists are more than eager to complain about the tone of modeling and other emulation devices. They expect every guitar they plug in to sound instantly fabulous through every amp, cab and effect combination built in. Of course this doesn't even work with real amps and effects. some guitars simply wont work with certain amps. for instance fender amps (distorted) sound much better with a strat than a les paul. Most of us guitarists have spent considerable time tweaking our rig, and we know just how to get the sound we like out of our particular guitar, amp, and effects boxes. We should not expect a modeler to instantly recreate that vibe verbatim simply by selecting matching components and settings on a modeler. This may be a good starting point for recreating our tone on a modeler, but thats all.
Another criticism is that the modeler is completely dependent on what it is plugged into. Is it a cheap solidstate amp, a boutique tube stack, a PA, headphones, ect..? If you plug it into crap expect it not to sound as good as the real thing.
Another criticism that should be addressed is that a modeled sound should sound completely verbatim in every nuance to the original. I seriously doubt that most of the "experts" that say they don't sound like the original have not done A/B comparision tests with more than a couple of the modeled amps, or at least not on equal terms. Playing a real mesa with distortion will sound somewhat different that a modeler of that mesa plugged into the real mesa set with a clean sound. At the end of the day I think we all can live with slight subtle differences between the real thing and the model. What matters is if you can have good sounding, musical, and responsive tones using a the modeler.
One last complaint. Do you think that its fair to expect that one of a 100 modeled effects will sound completely as good as one single stomp box that costs $100+ . Again the originals may sound better but what still matters is the ability to get overall great responsive tone out of the modeler.

I expect that the only fair review for this type of product is by comparing one to another product such as the tonelab, to the pod, or the boss gt6 or 8. (or others)

So how do I think the tonelab did. I think it has something that all the other modelers that I have played lack. it has true responsivenes and that undescribable vibe that you get from a real tube amp. It has a warmth that all the others lack. -maybe its the tube, who knows. From playing Pod xtlive and boss gt-6, found that they both lack these qualites.
You can get great sounds on all the modelers that I have played however a great sound is different than something that is playable-that responsive vibe thing that we all can't describe. For this reason I feel that the vox blows all the other modelers out the window.
I'm sick of people claiming that some of the amp models on the tonelab are noisy. what do you think happens when you crank a real marshall or mesa up all the way gain, volume and all- um some noise perhaps. You wanted the real deal and you got it. If it bothers you then start playing (the noise seems to disapear when you are playing!) Or use the built in gate which is not as good as a dedicated single $150 stomp box-but what do you expect. At least you can filter out most of the noise.
One more complaint. If you complain that the bypassed sound on the tonelab sounds a little weaker compared to plugging directly from guitar to amp what do you expect to happen. Doesn't the same thing happen when you run your guitar through a dozen stomp boxes? Besides you didn't buy the tonelab to use it in bypass mode anyway.
All in all the amps sound fabulous and the effects are good. For $500 you get a something that sounds and plays like the real deal and covers every desired tonal territory in one little box.

Reliability: 9
I would gig without a backup (and do) I'm to lazy to lug around extra gear. For 9 monthes or so it has been very reliable. Very solidly built and I don't expect any problems.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
This is the only modeler that has warmth and feels real to me when playing. It is extremely simple to operate especially after reading the manual.
Only a few minor complaints. the wah's (is that wow to say wah plural) overdrive stomp box models, compressor, and a couple others are all under one section. Which means that you can't use the super overdrive with say a compressor at the same time or even under the same preset. Duh this would be easy to fix. Simply have one more knob and section that has a duplicate of the first set of choices. Keep in mind the main reason that guirarts use distortion/overdrive pedals in the first place is because it simplifies their live set up and defeats the need to use the effects loop with a couple extra cables. Well also the ability to have a couple extra distortions available with out worrying about amp switching. but when you buy a modeler Why use a model of a stomp box distortion when you can use a model of a real tube amps distortion?
In this day an age it would have been smart to include a sp/dif output for recording.
One more criticism. I often find myself using my acoustic on a few songs and I don't need the amp or cab modeling when my acoustic is plugged in. I would however like to access the tuner, and a little reverb. All the tonelab would need is an extra notch on the amp select knob for selecting no amp. (not that you can't find an amp setting that sounds ok for acoustic guitars, but still)
But those complaints are minor to me

Submitted by Anonymous at 12/06/2005 12:28

Price Paid: 600 (Euro)

Ease of Use: 10
How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?
=Dead easy. Plug in, select Amp/Line and start playing.
How about Editing patches?
=Piece of cake. Very very intuitive, no multi-layer rotary menus and confusing options. If you understand an amp or stomper, no problem.
How is the manual for it (if there is one)?
=Nicely written and the quick start is perfect for all impatient types.

BUT if you try this in the shop, spend some time reading up before. As previous posters have noted (though not managed to correct) it's possible to get crap sound or get confused (most likely with the Control switch, allowing the thing to act as 6 separate stomps or by selecting Line/Amp wrong)

Sound Quality: 9
I use a Strat and a Les Paul, Koch amp, Bassman amp, Crate amp, monitors, headphones.

The default sounds never impressed me.

It sounds better than any modelling thing I tried. The feeling is there. It can be made to sound digital, but if you leave out the effects the AMP section kills. I just play and play and play, it inspires me no end.

1: Amp modelling through an actual amp does not work well. It's a fact of life that putting a signal from a Mesa head into say, a Marshall head must suck. It does suck with my Bassman head, or my Koch combo. Ideally, a power amp is the best choice. For amp use, try the stomps and effects! Using the stomp boxes into amps sound very good. I don't like all of them, but the ones I like get a honest 10.

2: The cabinet modelling is a bit 'too much' for my taste. However I use a 4x12 anyway.

3: Not all fx sound very good. However, for the price they are more than adequate. I would anyway not consider spending $500 on a reverb, and that's sadly what's needed to make me happy, at least today.

4: Into the home stereo it's shockingly good.

5: Headphones - if you use cheap tinny crap phones, expect crap sound, right?!

Accept that of 20-ish stomps you may NOT have chosen 10 of the originals. That's the biggest and hardest compromise for VOX. I mean, I don't like the BOSS stomps and BOSS is the biggest manufacturer in the world, so they have to be there for you other guys. Fair deal.

The price for buying 5 of those stomps is at least the cost of the whole Tonelab + you need cables and powersource and a case/pedalboard and...

Below, Paul put some comments in that were quite thought through- but as he ends, the price and complexity with these features would land the thing in the >1000$ category.

I'm happy with the sound I can choose! The sounds I don't like, well, I don't have to choose them anyway.

Reliability: N/A
It's sturdy, real proper switches, metal chassis. Looks well put together.

I don't have any problems with the pedals. Yet. :)

Rackmount + floorboard is perhaps better, but then the price takes a hike. The option is there, almost with the deskversion of Tonelab.

Customer Support: N/A
No opinion.

Overall Rating: 9
It fits any style, almost. The metal guys may disagree.

I played for some 20 years and my gear list is too long to write.

I love the feel and the sound. It inspires me every time.

I'd wish for global EQ, global cabinet sim on and off and some kind of cabinet 'mix' to tone down the cabinet influence a bit. I'm not too impressed with the compressor. A CD/RCA input is what I miss the most. There it loses the 10!

My personal taste in effects and such may differ from everybody elses. I therefore accept that I can't love them all.

Conclusion: Even if I only use a stomp/wah, volume pedal, tuner and some chorus the total price is dead cheap and sooo convenient compared to hauling separate stuff. You get a lot of sound and usefulness for the money.

YES it is fantastic value!

Submitted by Rydson at 12/04/2005 10:55

Price Paid: US $500

Ease of Use: 9
Pretty easy to use. The dials make it much easier to mess with than a Pod, which is what it's replacing. The manual is cool, editing patches is a breeze.

Sound Quality: 8
I'm running a pair of Godins (a Multiac Jazz and a Flat Five X) to this with the electric output, and to an Acoustic with the acoustic output simultaneously. I also use a US Masters Strat-style guitar with it, and occasionally a Danelectro U2. Now... with a truly great electric guitar amp, I think that you can always get a good guitar to sound great, but you can't dial up your favorite amp through one of these modeling things and expect to have any GTR you plug in to it sound great. You have to find the model and the cabinet and the settings that sound great with THAT guitar. I have 3 guitars I plug into this, and none of them sound good through the settings I created for the other two. That said, once you find the amp model that sounds great with your particular guitar, stick with subtle variations (different cabs, etc.) and you should find something great. Or maybe your clean sound will be one amp/cabinet and the dirty sound will be another. (Try that live on stage... in a little club or church...) Will you use every amp model that it comes with? Probably not. I only use 4 or 5. Does it replace all the amps it models? No way... BUT... every time I plug in I sound the same. I use it on Sunday Morning for worship at a church, and my sound people don't have to mess with the settings every week. I run it direct through the PA and through an Acoustasonic amp just for monitoring on stage.

It sounds super clean, the effects are great... except the rotary speaker effect is unusably awful. That's one of the reasons I'm only giving it an 8, but I AM totally happy with it.

Reliability: N/A
Don't know... just bought it. I would NEVER use something like this without SOME backup... period.

Customer Support: 8
No idea. the thing is so easy to use I don't need to talk to anyone at Vox or KorgUSA, who distributes them. My previous experience with Korg has been great... no previous experience with Vox. So I give them the benefit of the doubt.

Overall Rating: 8
Been playing 25 years, I love this. If lost, I'd probably replace it with the same thing. LOVE the form factor and the editing, especially on my mac with the software you can download. I compared this with a POD LiveXT. This had WAY more vibe and soul than the Pods, although I had the original Pod for YEARS and was happy with it. I with it had a more flexible pedal effects section, so that I could use a distortion pedal AND a wah AND a phaseer or something wackly like that, and I wish that the rotary speaker didn't stink. But the Uni-VIBE is GREAT, and I LOVE the Vox Wah effect WAY more than the wahs in the Pods.

In short, I recognize it has limitations, but it is PERFECT for me!

Submitted by Peter at 11/21/2005 11:02

Price Paid: US $487.00

Ease of Use: 9
Ease of Use?

It's difficult to be objective with this because I've been going around the effects processor block forever. Having said that, though, I am not by any stretch of the imagination a sound engineer. I'm also afflicted with a pretty extreme case of option anxiety. Give me too many parameters to wade through to find good tone and I just shut down. There is a great deal of flexibility with this, but it's all very intuitively designed and laid out. As far as the amp models are concerned, the controls are made to work like the those on a guitar amp. Dial in your gain settings, bass, mid, and treble, presence and noise reduction, set the channel volume and then start playing your buns off.

If you have any experience with effects at all, this should not be the least bit daunting. I own or have owned the BOSS GT-5, GT-6, Digitech GNX3, and the Behringer Vampire (both rack and combo amp), and even owned the BOSS GT-8 for about 5 minutes before sending it back to Musician's Friend, and in the ease of use category this beats them all hands down (IMO, of course).

I'm giving this a 9 in the ease of use category, because I'm not sure I'm being objective and because working an "on/off" switch would rate a 10 (but this is almost as easy).

Sound Quality: 9
I'm getting ready to go off here, so anybody sensitive to the rants of opinionated blowhards should skip to the other posts. Let me first try to qualify things. My objective in buying or trying out every floor-based mult-effects processor available has always been flexibility. I need to cover a lot of musical ground and the concept has always made a lot of sense. Unfortunately, the execution was something else entirely. I didn't find any real guitar tone in anything I tried until the ToneLab SE, and then I found an oceanful. The irony for me is that I've always been a dyed-in-the-wool BOSS fan, and while I have been aware of the ToneLab for years, I always ignorantly scoffed at it, never bothering to even check it out. Hah! What good could come from the Vox people? They couldn't carry Roland's jock strap. Oh man, was I wrong (and this is some crow I'm delighted to chow down on).

Again, I'm no expert in the matter, but I do have some experience with real amplifiers. In the bad old days, I played HiWatt, Boogie, Fender, Music Man and Lab Series (any Ronnie Montrose fans out there remember those?) And as I write this, there's a brand spankin' new Marsall JCM2000 TSL100 that's been sitting in it's shipping container for the last two years in the other room (but that's another story). So before anybody gets their hackles up, let me go on record as saying I don't believe there's any little box that's going to put Marshall, Boogie, Fender, Bogner, Matchless, Soldano, or any other amp manufacturer out of business. And I don't think there'll ever be a guitar god getting all of their sound out of a multi-effects processor . . . because they don't have to. If I had a million dollars to spend on gear, manufacturers dying to customize their stuff to my exact specifications, and total gearheads on the payroll to manage all of it, I could sound like The Edge, too (well, not really, but with all those resources, I could pretend that I did).

OK, so much for that. Here's the setup I'm running and the reason for posting this, because I know there just has to be at least one other guitar player out there striving for flexibility AND REAL GUITAR TONE:

Guitar>ToneLab SE>BBE 482i Sonic Maximizer>QSC RMX850 power amp>Behringer BG412S (stereo 4x12 cabinet with Jensens). My guitars are all either Les Pauls or LP inspired (Gibson Custom and Standard, Heritage 150CM-CL, and a couple of Hamer imports), with the exceptions being an Ibanez S520WNF and a MIM Fender Strat. The Gibbys have stock pickups, as do the Ib and Fender, and the Heritage and Hamers have Duncans.

Let me just take a quick little jab at guitar players who are always capping on stock pickups from Gibson because they're too loud and too bright. Dude, Gibson puts volume and tone controls on their guitars for a reason. And all those screws actually make the pole pieces or the whole pickup go up and down. Pick up a screwdriver and start turning some screws and control knobs. There, I feel better now.

Anyway, in this rig, the ToneLab SE does it all for me. The amps sound and feel like real guitar amps. The QSC provides clean, uncolored power and allows the amp models to shine and the Behringer cabinet does the same for the stereo effects. The various amps actually sound like different amps, and the tone is warm, thick, complex and authentic. Do the amps sound identical to the ones they're modeling? I don't know. All I know is that they are astonishingly good. Every time I plug in, I've got an ear cocked, waiting for that awful digital sterility and that horrific aliasing, and so far, I've waited in vain. It just isn't there with the ToneLab SE.

The sound and style of effects is a subjective thing for all guitar players, and as I wrote, I've always been a fan of BOSS products. However, I've been amazed at how perfectly Vox matched the effects with the various amps in this unit. Does it have everything plus the kitchen sink like BOSS's GT series? Nope. But as another reviewer put it, I can live without them. Since I'm just opining, I think if I ever do get the Marshall out of storage, I would probably use the GT-6 in stompbox mode for my effects because I don't think I'll ever stop liking a lot of what BOSS has to offer. But as far as my current rig where live playing is concerned, the GT-6 is history.

Anyway, my experience with the ToneLab SE is that it's an honest-to-goodness, guitar-tone generator and unique among everything else out there. You may not like the tone it puts out, but you can't deny it's the real deal . . . because it is. Buy it or don't buy it based on the sound of its amp sims.

A Marshall stack cranked to the point of power tube melt down is a "10", but for my little real world application this thing gets an unequivocal 9 (and then some).

Reliability: N/A
The question for this category is Can you depend on it? The answer is, I don't care. If it blows up, I'll keep buying them because it rocks.

As for gigging without a backup. I never have . . . and hopefully never will.

Customer Support: N/A
Never dealt with Vox or Korg.

Overall Rating: 9
I'm from the old, old school. Favorite guitarslingers? Blackmore, Gibbons, Frampton, Gilmour, Iommi, Andrew Latimer (Camel), David Lambert (Strawbs), Petrucci (OK, not old school), and a bunch of others. I don't care if the ToneLab SE can nail these guys sound or not. All I care about is I can finally get a varied, no-compromise, MUSICAL guitar tone - in stereo- from an easy to use rig that I can play at conversational levels when necessary (and ear-busting ones when the venue allows).

Others may disagree with me, and probably know better, but my suspicion is this is NOT a rig for full-on metalheads. Where the ToneLab is unsurpassed amongst similar floor-based processors is in it's ability to deliver astonishingly clean sparkle tones and sonically complex crunch and rich, manly, rock and hard rock tones with warmth and clarity. And it's ability to respond to changes in guitar control settings and variations in pick attack are unparalleled in this type of device.

Since nothing is perfect, I guess I can only rate this a 9+, but if I could, I'd rather give it a 10.

Submitted by Rick "Star Wars" LaForce at 11/18/2005 16:04

Price Paid: US $450

Ease of Use: 7
Vox tried to think of everything. Despite some of the reviews here I found it difficult to get a great tone out of this especially through any type of amp, even when routed through the effects loop. It worked pretty good through a PA or headphones but that is about it. It was pretty easy to edit patches and assign the exp pedals.

Manual was decent.

Sound Quality: 5
Like I said a one trick pony. No where near close to the sound of an overdriven tube amp. Not sure I would ever need to create all the "different" sounds this box claims to emulate. I tried to like it because it is a hassle to drag around effects pedals, a mike, multiple patch cables, and a tube amp...but I'll take the hassle.

Reliability: 9
Very Reliable. no problems.

Customer Support: 10
No issues

Overall Rating: 5
Like I said I tried to like it. I plugged it in direct to the PA and the sound was pretty good. I couldn't dial in any pleasing sounds through my amp regardless of how I routed it. Oh well. I sold it for $400, bought a great attenuator and had my OD pedal modded at tone-jam, now I can rock at bedroom levels and keep stage volume down by miking. I am happy now. Sorry vox, nice try.

Submitted by Bart at 11/14/2005 20:45

Price Paid: US $399

Ease of Use: 10
With the editor it couldn't be easier

Sound Quality: N/A
Simply the most authentic,realistic sounding amp sim on the market. It is NOT the Numetal box that the XTL is. But it WILL do Metal, and do so without the annoying fizz that other modelers possess.

Reliability: N/A
Haven't owned it long enough to make a valid assessment

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
Been playing for 30+ years. Love my old school Heavy Metal/Hard Rock & Shred.. This unit fits those genres very well. I have owned evry modeler on the planet, a couple times just to be sure I wasn't wrong the first time;-) As with every modeler the SE has it's weak points and strong points. The wah is unuseable imho.. And the Recto sim is middle of the road.. But all in all this unit to me is the best on the market. It SOUNDS and FEELS more like playing an amp when compared to it's competitors.. I have swapped out my tube to 3 different types. That DOES make a difference..

If Vox ever wises up and releases a rackmount version I will sell the SE and be on the rackmount instantly.. My biggest complaint about this unit is the size of the footprint.. Too big,, but all else considered and compared to the competition I will deal with it.. Best unit on the market imho but no modeler devised yet rates a 10 so I'll give it a 9

Submitted by Anonymous at 11/13/2005 12:59

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 10
Responding to an earlier review------squeaking pedals and pedal feel/tork adjustment---------If the pedals start to squeak apply some grease......push the heal of the pedal down.....look under the pedal......apply the grease to the left and right side of the pedal on the hinges...you will need to use something long like a chopstick to get the grease in the right spot (unless your fingers are 9" long)...do not apply the grease to the bar that runs under the pedal...only the side hinges....To adjust the pedal tork flip the unit upside down......remove the cover.....under each pedal you will see a allen head screw.....by turning this allen screw you can make the pedal harder or looser, adjust this to your preferance.

Sound Quality: N/A

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A
Can't find a phone number....If you have one please contact me ...I want to chat with some of their techs...

Overall Rating: N/A

Submitted by Jeff at 11/07/2005 06:38

Price Paid: 309 (£)

Ease of Use: 9
Q: How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?
A: Easy-Peasy, Lemon-Squeezy
Q: How about Editing patches?
A: Piece of Cake
Q: How is the manual for it (if there is one)?
A: Uneccessary
Q: Do you know the firmware revision number? Has your unit been upgraded?
A: Who gives a...

Sound Quality: 10
Ibanez 540S Custom, (and Wasburn Force2 c/w Roland GR-20) through Traynor YCV40.
No EXTRA noise unless you cannot set-up EQ's on any of your equipment.
Individual Tone of each Guitar Pickup configuration maximized and so it gives TONE, TONE and yet More Tone!!
FX are ALL good any cobination are useable in the right context.
Some of the Amp Modelling (which I didn't actually want, but find I need for simple and quick sound variation) are not my cup of tea.

Reliability: 10
Build more solid than the Boss GT-8, Korg AX-3000. Similar, if not better, build quality as the original Line 6 Floorboard.

Will grab another Valve one day, as my amp uses a few the same.

Customer Support: N/A
N/A

Overall Rating: 10
All styles can float my boat depending on mood, so I need them all instantly. The Vox ToneLab Se delivers them all, if not in a small box, but a well laid out and intuitive format.

Have had LOAD of FX, but normally just use my amp and guitar. I am limited without FX for quick sound change, though my "sound" is Fab without any in-line, or external device.

Submitted by Jas at 11/03/2005 12:32

Price Paid: £299.00

Ease of Use: 10
I bought this pedal after owning the Boss GT3 and GT6 pedals. The Vox Tonelab SE couldnt be simpler to program. After owning the GT6 for 18 months I was still struggling to hit a good lead sound for live gigs. With the Vox I had my 'killer sound' in just about half an hour of getting it out of the box. The guys at Vox designed this pedal with the stage guitarist in mind and personally I dont think they could have done a better job.

Its so simple that you could basically go to a venue and dial in a good sound within a couple of minutes. Thats its main advantage over Boss and Line 6 pedals - you dont have to tap a button 10 times to get to the setting you want. The settings are clearly marked out in front of you, all you have to do is turn the knob and hit 'write'.

The manual is one of the best Ive seen - very easy to understand and has all the recommended amp and cab set ups.

One of the big reasons why I rate this over any other pedal is the ease of installing and editing patches. You can even link the pedal up with your PC and edit sounds on screen and actually hear the difference whilst your playing your guitar which is an invaluable feature for fine tuning your sounds.

This pedal also has an A/B channel which means that you can have each patch set for a rhythm and lead settings and because you can see the exact settings of things such as volume and delay (when your editing patches with the computer software)its very easy to alter your settings for the A and B channels if you want a bit more boost for your lead or echo.

Theres a control switch that you can assign to turn on effects like delay, echo, wah etc which is very handy, or you can turn these on by stepping on the expression pedals. Or you can go into manual mode at the tap of a switch and the pedals become stompboxes where you can add echo, distortion or whatever youve got programmed for that patch, as you want it - thats a feature that you couldnt do with the GT6 unless you stooped down and quickly tapped a button.

Sound Quality: 10
I use a Fender '99 US Stratocaster and invested in the Tech 21 Power Engine 60 as soon as my Tonelab arrived. Im more than pleased with the sounds Im getting so far. Ive only had the pedal a couple of weeks but Ive managed to get better sounds already out of the Vox than I did in 18 months with the Boss GT6.

Many people here who have reviewed the Tonelab have given it minus marks because they couldnt replicate the sounds they heard in their headphones with an amp. The simple answer is that you need to buy an amp which doesnt colour the sound. Of course the Tonelab is going to sound rubbish if your using it through a normal amp because your sending a sound to it that is already 'amped' so to speak. The Tonelab has amp and cab simulators already built into it so you need to get yourself an amp which doesn't colour the sound and thats when you'll start getting the sounds what you hear through the headphones.

The effects are really nice and although theres a few things that my Boss GT6 could do that the Vox cannot, I am willing to sacrifice gimmicks for a good tone, after all thats what guitarists are seeking isnt it?

I found that I didnt even use most of the stuff on the GT6 anyway. Some people have said that the Tonelab can be noisy - I have a Strat with noisy pickups and its quite on most settings. I like the wah on the Vox which is the best Ive heard.

The Vox sounds the most authentic modelling pedal and thats because of the tube. This is the ONLY pedal that Ive managed to replicate a decent Stevie Ray Vaughn sound. The clean sounds are beautiful and the distortions are great too. Some people have said that you cannot get a good metal sound on the Tonelab, I would disagree. Its also untrue that you cant use the wah with distortion. I can get a perfectly decent distortion sound with wah on - you just overdrive the amp and its perfect

Reliability: 10
Only had it a couple of weeks so havent had any problems. Seems very sturdy though and is built of metal. Having used my GT6 for 18 months without a backup I cannot see any reason why the Vox should be any different.

I will buy a backup tube though just in case it goes mid-gig.

Customer Support: N/A
Again havent had to deal with them.

Overall Rating: 10
I play a wide range of music from The Beatles, Rock and Roll, Classic Rock, Police, Reggae, the 60's, right up to the present like Robbie Williams and Keane. This pedal can cope with any of the above styles. Ive been playing the guitar for 20 years and have finally got the kit that Ive been striving for. I also own a Fender Deluxe 112 plus amp and the Tonelab doesnt sound as good as it does with the Tech 21 - you have to mix and match to get the sound that you want.

What do I love about it? Everything. Hates? Havent found any yet. Favourite feature would be the ease of use and easy editing, also the ability to easily share and install patches.

I chose the Tonelab after reading the glowing reviews on Harmony Central - Im glad I chose this pedal over the Line 6 stuff.

Im going to start using it for recording, Ive heard some very good reports about the Tonelab and its quality for recording straight into a PC.

If you want a pedal that is robust, easy to use, can emulate your favourite band, easy to edit and install patches, then this is the pedal for you. It sounds sweeter than the Boss GT6 and Line 6 and is well priced.

Submitted by Dave C at 10/28/2005 15:35

Price Paid: US $325

Ease of Use: 9
I am used to the way Line 6 has set up there modeling units so this one does take some getting used to. Once you get used to it, it's just fine. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this on out!!!!

Sound Quality: 10
I was amazed with the sound Quality of everything on this thing. The effects are quality. I personally like the stereo chorus. Vox is now owned by Korg, who has been doing FX for quite some time now. I know that you don't get as many amp models as a Line 6 POD or a Vetta. I was a huge Line 6 Vetta fan before I got this VOX. I sold my Vetta and got a Line 6 POD XT Live. Man does that thing sound like CRAP. Serously, Line 6 better shape up or their going to get run out of buisness by these guys. Like I said before all the amp modles are quality. The Soldano sound like a Soldano and of course the AC30's sound great. I even like the Mesa/Boogie Rectifier sound. Anyway needless to say this thing actually sounds like a real tube amp as opposed to digitally manufactured sounds like the guys at Line 6 are crapping out these days!!!

Reliability: 10
Built like a tank. I haven't had any problems yet!! And it comes with it's own bag!!!!

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't used them yet. Like I said this thing is built to last!!!

Overall Rating: 10
If you want some tonal diversity and you don't have $20,000 to spend on guitar amps, than this thing is for you. It sparkles and shines like a tube amp, and does not get muddy!!! These guys are going to start putting Line 6 out of buisness, and I USED to be a HUGE Line 6 guy!!!

Submitted by worshipmaker at 10/20/2005 21:05

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 8
The tonelab was surprising easy to use, once you learn how all the buttons work it's much, much easier than the pod xt live or the gt8, the other two that I compared. Editing patches is easy as well.

Sound Quality: 5
I am using a strat deluxe into a bunch of pedals, all true bypass boutique kind of stuff into a deluxe reverb. I love my sound the way it is and I was getting kind of tired of lugging around my big old pedalboard all the time. Plus, I was looking for something that could offer lots of different sounds, flanger, vibe, and all that. I tried out the tonelab SE at a local guitar center. I plugged in a strat and then went from the tonelab into a decent fender amp and then I tried it into a set of headphones. I don't know what it is about this - I really wanted to like it, and there is much to like about it, the way it is setup is just great, really smartly put together and it seems very durible, but the sound and the effects are just not all the spectacular, unfortunately. It just didn't give me goodbumps, nor was it very inspiring. I suppose if you're starting out and are looking for something decent then this would totally be a viable option, but since I already have my 'sound' I was looking for something to complement it, it just didn't fit the bill.

I first plugged my guitar straight into the vibrolux and got a nice clean sound and then I plugged in my guitar to the tonelab and then into the amp and then I shut off all the effects, amp models and speaker cabinets and listened. It sounded muddy and, well, kind of terrible. Not in the same kind of terrible vein that the pod sounds like with everything turned off, it was definitely 'warmer' than that. but still it just wasn't leaving the nice original tone alone.

So I thought, okay well I need to tweak it. So I tried my darndest to get it back to how sweet it sounded just going straight into the amp and I just couldn't get there. It was a drag. This told me that I would lose my original sound if I used the tonelab.

okay, so how do the effects sound? well, some are pretty cool. the delays are pretty nice and all that but all the effects are kind of weak sounding. I dunno it's hard to describe but they just didn't wow me. they were easy to tweak and assigning options to the expression pedals was nice and easy, like assigning the delay feedback created a cool wall of noise thing, but it just didn't grab me.

I then gave up with the amp and plugged in the headphones. I'm not sure what I did but it sounded like sh%t thru headphones, maybe I didn't have it set right or something? I don't know.

so in sum, the tonelab sounds just 'alright' - nothing spectacular. maybe it has to do with the fact that it's only 20 bit and not 24 or 32 bit? ah well.

Reliability: 8
seems reliable, definitely built like a tank

Customer Support: N/A
na

Overall Rating: 6
I really wanted to like the tonelab se, I really did. but I just couldn't justify spending 500 bucks on it. I liked it better than the Pod Live in many ways - it definitely sounds warmer and is easier to use, plus it's a "Vox" - which gets street cred points imho, but it just doesn't sound all that great. I'm waiting for tonelab SE version 2 with 32 bit effects - I'm sure that will sound great. and I'm hoping the next version will have an option that you can use the floorboard and still retain your amps sweet tone, then I'll fork over the 5 bills.

My advice is that you probably cannot go wrong with the tonelab, but if you want a pro-sounding setup then you'll have to keep waiting - it's probably the best modeller out there, but it's still a modeller

Submitted by james at 10/18/2005 13:38

Price Paid: US $600

Ease of Use: 7
It's not hard to get a good sound, but it takes a lot of tweaking. The factory patches were just about useless with my Les Paul Custom. The manual is well written, but not much help when most of the tweaking has to be done with your ears. Editing patches is a royal pain unless you have a computer and use the MIDI editing software, but that's probably true about most of these pedal modelers.

Sound Quality: 9
I use a Les Paul Custom, run direct into my sound card for recording. The sound of this unit is its best feature. The amp models are all good, as are most of the effects.

Reliability: 8
I haven't had any trouble with it, except for squeaky expression pedals. Oil and silicone do not help. I would trust it at a gig.

Customer Support: 4
Forget customer support, there isn't any from the manufacturer. If you need service, call your local Vox authorized service, or the place where you bought it.

Overall Rating: 8
I've owned my Tonelab SE for about 9 months now, and at this point I think I have a pretty good idea of what it does well and what it's lacking.

1. The whole idea of building a pedal board with editing buttons that sits on the floor... is stupid. You can't edit with the board on the floor, but you can't use the pedals with it sitting on a table. The original tabletop Tonelab made more sense, but the next Tonelab should be a 19" rack mount unit, with a VC-12 type of pedal unit as standard equipment. The pedal unit should have a removable cord, perhaps a 15-foot cord as standard and an optional 40-foot cord for stage use. Even then, the MIDI software is still a necessity for easy editing.

2. The compressor sounds like the Dynacomp it is supposedly modeled after, which is fair. There are certainly better ones that could have been modeled, such as the DBX 165, or the Janglebox, for example. However, the compressor is such an essential part of today's guitar sound that it should be in its own section (not part of the Pedal section), available all the time. Also, the compressor routing should be adjustable, since there might be times when you want the compressor preceding or following the other pedal effects.

3. With only one Pedal section, you can't cascade a wah into a fuzz, or a fuzz into a phaser, or whatever. There should be at least two identical pedal sections. I know you can cascade external pedals, but those are patched before the Pedal section, and usually you'd want your compressor driving the next pedal, or your wah driving a fuzz or phaser, so the insert point should be routable just like the post-effects. Besides, why buy an all-in-one pedal board if you have to carry auxiliary pedals around with you?

4. And speaking of the Pedal models, I'm not a big fan of Boss OD pedals, so the Super OD and Orange Dist, are pretty useless to me. There are so many excellent and unique fuzzes out there, they could have chosen a better selection. Like the Zendrive, or Tim on the boutique side, or a classic germanium fuzz like the FuzzFace. The Fuzz sounds very little like the Maestro it is supposed to be modeled after, and I would have preferred an even cheesier sound, like the Mosrite FuzzRite. Also, my 27 year old Ross phaser sounds better than any of the phaser models in the Pedal section (I use it all the time as an Insert pedal), so they could have done better there, as well. It would have been nice if the Octavia model, which is actually quite good, could produce a clean octave-up effect without the overdrive. Notably missing is a 6 or 10-band graphic EQ, which is commonly found in the pedal chain of many well-known guitarists. Having said that, most of the existing pedal effects are pretty good, actually.

5. I have very few complaints about the amp and cab models, they're the high point of the unit. However, there is no model of a single-ended, true class A amp, like the Fender Champ. The Vox amps are not really Class A, they're push-pull, class AB with cathode bias (the British call this class A apparently, but in the US, we don't). My only other criticism would be that the amp models that use a tube rectifier should sag a little more when cranked, an adjustable sag control would be nice.

6. The noise reduction (NR) fizzes noticeably on both attack and decay. Compared to a decent studio noise gate, it's pretty lousy. To compensate for the poor NR stage, I've learned not to set it as high as I would like it. There's usually a lower setting that allows some noise through, but is a lot less fizzy.

7. Modulation section: The rotary speaker effect is the weakest link in the Tonelab SE. I almost never use it because it sounds like a bad 2-speed phaser with excessive panning. To hear how much better a rotary simulator can sound, go to the Line6 web site and listen to samples of the Roto-Machine, for example. The Classic Chorus distorts too easily. The Textrem would benefit from having an LFO waveform select. And a minimum speed of 1.0 hz is too fast to use it as an autopanner. The minimum speed should be 0.1 hz. The pitch bender is extremely glitchy at all settings, and when used as a digital whammy with the expression pedal, it randomly produces a weird flange effect when returning the pedal to the zero pitch bend position, like you can hear both direct and effect outputs even with the direct output turned off. I doubt this is a defect in my particular unit, but rather a firmware bug, as my first Tonelab SE (which I exchanged due to squeaky pedals) did the same thing.

8. All the delays in the Mod and Delay sections should have 0.1 ms resolution for delay times below 20 ms. This would give better tunability for those pitched resonant feedback effects.

9. Delay section: Better overall support of adjustable parameters for the expression pedals is needed (this goes for the Reverb and Mod sections as well). Also, the Reverse delay takes too long to kick in after you start playing (that is, if the delay time is 2 sec, you wait about that long to hear anything). It should be possible to feed the input continuously and adjust the output level or mix with the expression pedals, so there is backward effect immediately when you want it.

10. Reverb section: The reverb models are acceptable, but they're all mediocre sounding. In fact, none of the reverb models sounds as good as the ones built into my sound card (Yamamha DSP Factory). The only ones I use are Spring2 and Gate. The whole Reverb section needs improvement.

11. There should be parallel and series-parallel routing options for the Mod, Delay, and Reverb sections, not just series routing options.

12. There should be a 4-band parametric EQ between the amp model and the channel volume. It should have A/B settings for the two channels. It would be nice if it had an automatic unity gain switch.

13. The post-effects should die out naturally when you switch patches while playing. Worse yet, the post-effects glitch when you switch A/B channel (this is especially audible in the reverb).

14. The tube should be a lot easier to replace. I know Vox doesn't want people changing the tube; in fact, they'll tell you that doing so voids the warranty. How incredibly stupid. Naturally guitarists want to try different tubes to individualize their sound. If every amp and preamp manufacturer said that changing the tubes voided the warranty, it would pretty much put an end to the guitar amp industry as we know it. Assuming the next Tonelab is a rack mount unit, the tube should be on the back (forget that eye-candy, red LED thing, the tube doesn't need to be visible). The socket should be partially recessed into the chassis so it doesn't stick out too much, with a half-size metal cover. Then the tube would be easy to replace. The socket should have gold plated contacts.

15. The expression pedals on my Tonelab SE squeak intermittently (my first Tonelab SE squeaked so badly, I took it back and exchanged it). I have used both sewing machine oil and silicone on the hinges, but it made little difference (the local Vox authorized repair guy told me there is no documented procedure for dealing with this, but he recommended oil). Also, the hinge tightness is not exactly equal on both pedals, and there doesn't appear to be a way to adjust it. The expression pedals have a cheap feel to them. I have a Yamaha DX7 keyboard I bought in 1987, and its old, potentiometer-based expression pedal still works great and feels great, so I guess Vox just used an inexpensive and inferior pedal hinge design. In all fairness to Vox, though, a lot of floor modelers have problems with poorly designed expression pedals. Considering how much abuse expression pedals get, they should be individually removable, adjustable, and replaceable from the top of the unit.

16. Vox should put back the S/PDIF output, but coaxial (RCA connector) this time, not optical as on the original Tonelab. Coaxial would be compatible with a lot more sound cards.

17. Dual output support for direct PA and live stage monitoring, and an input sensitivity control with detents so you can use the same patches with different guitars.

18. A clipping LED for the post-effects would be helpful.

Have I forgotten anything? Probably. But having said all that, I love the sounds I get from my Tonelab SE; it packs a lot of bang for the buck. If Vox ever puts out a rack mount version with all the changes I've specified above, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, even if it cost $400-500 more than I paid for this unit. However, this unit works OK (given its limitations), and I certainly wouldn't waste the money on the next version of Tonelab unless it were a rack mount unit with most of the improvements specified above.

Quick Summation of Tonelab SE:

Best thing about it:
The sound. It records great. With a couple good guitar amps or a good PA, you can get a great live sound as well.

Worst thing about it:
The expression pedals. They suck big time.

Reasons I might not buy another one:
It's not a rack mount unit, crappy expression pedals, has only one stomp box section.

Submitted by Memorex at 10/08/2005 11:14

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 8
It is very easy to find great sounds on Tonelab SE. Of course, the buttoms and knobs are typically on the floor, but I still preferred this one-box solution.

Love the two big pedals, and the ability to easily assing any control to them. Typically I have effect mix of one effect on the left, and volume on the right. Good thinking also that volume pedal is before delay or reverb.

Sound Quality: 9
I run two strat style home-brew guitars with very lightweight basswood bodies through Tonelab and from there to some combo amp, the favourite being Höfner 1969 combo with A-Class 40W power amp, 2x12" Goodmans speakers and disk echo (which is weird but great)

Tonelab is the first emulator system Iäve played that actually manages to produce good sounds that are between clean and full blown distortion. Those sweet sounds when you have some growl, great harmonics and natural compression. I used to to run a tube preamp to Hiwatt 50 watt slave to Marshall speaker emulator, and Vox comes very very close to that setup (I still often use the real thing for recording). My single favourite emulation on this box are Bassman 4x10 and Vox AC30.

I.m.h.o. where Tonelab fails is the speaker emulation. I think this is where all the emulators fail: the sound of real guitar speakers and how they sound in certain space. To me this not a major shortcoming, though. I use my favourite combo amps and speakers in rehearsals, gigs and recording.

Reliability: 5
The input/output jacks are not that great. Hey Vox, how about some Neutriks in there for $50 extra? Definitely worth the money.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A
The only one stop solution I know of. Does the magical tube power amp thing! Great controls. I only wish the knobs weren't on the floor. Should've taken the Tonelab instead of Tonelab SE....

Submitted by Hiilari at 10/07/2005 04:41

Price Paid: US $365.00 used

Ease of Use: 9
The SE is the best modeling processor I've used. The Owner's Manual is great. It breaks things down so you can quickly understand them and start playing right away. It can be a little time consuming to tweak the sounds, but if you want to get the best tone from anything it takes time. I really like the way they explain how the Valve Reactor technology works. I would have to agree with the others that complained about the lack of 'name description' when it comes to the amps, effects, speakers, etc. Line 6 uses trademark names in their owner's manuals on everything they model in their processors and I think Vox could do the same.

Sound Quality: 10
I've purchased several popular modeling processors in the past, as well as a slew of top of the line analog effects pedals. The pedals always sounded better than digital, but the processors were always easier to transport. When it comes to live performance it's also handy to use a processor. The Vox SE changes all of that. Never again will I say analog effects sound better. These effects sound spot-on. The amp tones are the REAL reason to consider this unit, though. I've always believed tube amps were untouchable for tone and feel. I've owned enough modeling amps and tube effects to know they just didn't compare to my tube head or combos. After weighing the facts about the latest modeling processors I checked out the sound recordings on the Line 6 and Vox websites. I thought they both sounded pretty good but Vox was more realistic. The more I've read about Line 6 everyone always says, 'They're pretty close to the real thing' or 'they sound like a tube amp, but they don't FEEL like a tube amp'. I've compared my Vox SE to several tube amps and I'm amazed. Not only does it sound real, but harmonics, sustain, and FEEL are all there. The Valve Reactor really works. The display panel actually lets you know the tubes it's emulating: EL34's, 6L6's, 5881's, EL84's, 12AX7's, 12AY7's, ECC83's, ECC82's and on and on. I ran the Vox SE directly into a PA, and it felt like I was playing through a 100 watt Marshall stack. The notes 'sag' like a cranked, hot tube amp, and you can get this at any volume. I've owned my Vox SE for six months, now, I'm selling my tube amps. For amplification I'll run the SE into a solid state power amp. No more carrying around heavy, fragile, expensive, high maintenance tube amps.

Reliability: 10
I bought my Vox SE used. I used a couple drops of 3 in 1 oil for a squeaky wah pedal, and some canned air for a dusty pedal contact and it works as good as new. All the pedals and body are costructed from heavy duty metal.

Customer Support: N/A
I haven't used customer support but it was easy to download the free midi software on their website.

Overall Rating: 10
I'm generally a rock player. Led Zeppelin, 3 Doors Down, the Stones, Aerosmith, etc. I use Fender Bassman, Marshall Plexi, Marshall JCM-800, JCM-900 amp tones. I also like their Mesa Boogie model for more modern rock and their Vox AC30 models for blues. The acoustic simulator sounds great too. The Vox SE is definately is in a league of its own as far as modeling technology. I've tried a vast array of amps and effects over the last 16 years of playing and I can truly say this is the best piece of equipment I've heard. You may need to spend some time before you get a precise customized tone, but you can get it with this. I personally found that when using the overdrive pedals with amps you have to lower the pedal level equal to the amp level or else the pedal distortion will bury your amp tones. These are the subtle kinds of things that you need to figure out as you use it. It can easily take a couple months of tweaking before you're satisfied with your customized tones. I recommend taking the time to learn because the presets are so-so.

Submitted by Dan at 09/26/2005 13:59

Price Paid: US $499.00

Ease of Use: 9
After a short time it became very easy to use. You DO and SHOULD have to read the manual. Once you become familiar with it you can just dig in and edit anything quickly. The manual is well written and it ws easy to find topics quickly. If you've used other similar processors you'll appreciate this set up. You pick what you want from what you see in front of you. Simple, cool. I've used new Digitech, Boss, Line 6 processors. This is the easiest and best set up. I would give it a ten but it ain't THAT easy...

Sound Quality: 8
I tried the Tonelab SE with a combo amp (Randall Renegade), a stereo Carvin 120 power amp and Peavey 2-12 stereo cab and direct thru PA (which is how my band plays, using floor monitors as reference). I was disappointed to note how noisy many of the presets are. You can eliminate the noise with a fine noise reduction patch but then you create some dynamic problems with light picking cut outs. Your basic sounds are excellant-flat out. I did have a hard time dialing in some clean sounds. They distort too easily but after a time you can get it right. It should have been easier. All distortions were very good whether it was rock, power rock or most modern heavy modes. I was pleased that the natural tone of the guitars shone thru. Fenders sound like Fenders, Les Pauls like Les Pauls.
Where I fell off the wagon was when it got to the effects. Most of the basics, reverb, chorus, delay are very good. The other extra's, I thought, sucked. The wha was what made me return the unit. It's got a middle of the ride break point that made it work like an on/off switch when holding a note or chord. For these bucks that's not acceptable. The harmonizer type effects were brittle and tinny and useless. For the weight and size of this monster you'd think they could use better circuits for these effects.

Reliability: 9
It seems very reliable. Weighs a ton. I always have a back up-always. The best processor, car, tv, etc can break down at the worst time but at a gig it's more than an inconvenience to YOU. Always have a back up!

Customer Support: N/A
NA

Overall Rating: 8
I play with a band that plays everything. Commercial rock of every genre. If I didn't all ready love my Digitech RP14D I might have kept this. I want an upgrade. The RP is old and has some sound quality issues also but after using POD LiveXT-which was terrible, the Digitech GNX4 which sounded fine but was too complex and this Tonelab SE which I wanted to love, I'm back in search of the Holy Grail. I do compliment this pedal for it's easy function and general sound qualities. It just isn't up to the task that it sets for itself. For the money it should be better.

Submitted by eric ferreri at 09/13/2005 10:09

Price Paid: US $350 used

Ease of Use: 6
It does require some reading to get the unit to do what you want, but when you do the results are nothing short of brilliant.

Sound Quality: 9
I use a fender highway 1 strat and plug the se into the effects return of my amp. The sound quality on this is amazing given how versatile it is. To be perfectly honest, even though the line 6 has thirty billion different amp models and just as many cab models, there is no way in hell that you will use them all. And in this case less (models) is more (tone). Each amp sounds distinct and great, although some of the high gain settings get muddy (but only when you put a pedal in front of them, which is too much gain for most people anyway). Clean sounds range from warm and smokey to icy and shimmering. And, for the price, you really can't beat it.

Reliability: N/A
I've had it about two weeks, use it at practice, seems very reliable, but I'll post another review later regarding this category.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't Had to deal with the company

Overall Rating: 9
Overall rating of nine, just because of the muddiness in some, not all, of the distortion settings. Just being nitpicky, really. An Incredible floor unit and a great buy to boot.

Submitted by Nick at 08/26/2005 17:02

Price Paid: US $400 used

Ease of Use: 7
First: I purchased this toy for LIVE GIGGIN' performance. I'm trying to simplify my setup and get the most out of this thing after years of using a rack system. I was impressed by the combination of amps, stomp boxes, and two built in pedals, so I'm giving it a try.

The TonelabSE is EXTREMELY easy to use and program. I am using the PC software for editing and it's an absolute treat to quickly edit, audition and save.

As for easy to get good sounds, well, that takes some work (read below)...

The A/B button is very useful live, allowing quick switching from one sound to another while maintaining the same mod/delay/rev settings.

Getting around the pedals is quite easy. I especially enjoy the control button for switching on and off the stomp boxes (or whatever else). (BTW: as others have posted: it would be nice to be able to combine a OD box with a WAH, but oh well...)

The manual is good, however, I had a difficult time figuring out some of the delay configurations. I'd like to see better descriptions of the delays.

I'd also like to see a "GLOBAL ON/OFF for the cabinet emulation. Some gigs I use an amp, some are so small I'd just as soon run straight into the board. It would be nice to have this global feature, instead of having to manually reprogram each patch... *Note: I've found a workaround. With the PC software, I have two saved files, one for "into an amp" (No cab circuits) and another for "into a board" (cab emulation on). So, before I leave for the gig I can quickly dump the file that suits the gig...

Sound Quality: 6
I use a mix of guitars: strat, tele, 335, LP, etc...I'm running the SE into a Marshall tube power amp into a 4x12AV speaker cab. Pretty darn simple. I am NOT using any of the cabinet emulation, as I'm going into a poweramb/cab. I have the output set to "Line".
So far, after a few weeks of use and constant tweaking, my reaction is "so-so". It sounds good. But not "Great!!". I believe the engineers likely did their creating with the cab emulation on, running into a recording console. I'm sure the TLSE sounds far better in that environment. Now, having said that...

The clean sounds I'm using are pretty good. I'm using mostly the twin and bassman clones.

The lead tones, however, are a bit weak IMHO with one exception: I have been using the 68 Plexi tone almost exclusively. As for the rest of the lead amp models, I have not been able to dial in a useful lead tone for use in a live setting. They're just too thin and buzzy IMHO. A/B the TLSE against a real amp and it's night and day. In general, the TLSE just doesn't deliver the thumpin', rich, full-body tone that a real amp does. Even though I'm running it through a tube amp into a 4x12. It's "okay" and I use it, but I'm not "thrilled". In general, I'm having a difficult time dialing in "my tone" for leads. But I'm getting closer. Again, the Plexi seems to be the most solid tone.

The pedals and effects are good in general. The reverbs and delays lack sonic shimmer. But I guess I'm asking a lot of a $400.00 box...

In a nutshell, the sounds are good, usable, but not too inspiring...

Reliability: 8
Seems like a brick. I've been using it on my gigs without backup (well, okay, I have an combo amp in my van just in case...) I'm getting a little squeaking in the pedals, but I guess I can just oil them.

Customer Support: 9
I sent one question via e'mail and it was immediately addressed. Nice work.

Overall Rating: 7
Overall, I'll give it a 7. I've been tweaking the heck out of it and I'm getting closer to liking the sounds I have programmed, but not necessarily loving them. It is a versatile and useful gigging tool, and I think it suits the purpose for which it was purchased. Of the modelers I've used, it sounds the best.

I'm using:
- Fender Twin and Bassman for cleans.
- 68 Plexi for grind and leads (putting either the TUBE OD or ORANGE OD in front of the plexi).

Improvements I'd like to see:

-More dynamic lead tones. More "creamy" and less "Buzzy".
-The ability to copy/paste JUST THE AMP SETTING from one patch to another, ignoring the pedal/mod/delay/rev settings.
-The ability to copy/paste JUST THE A or B side of a particular program to another A or B location. Example: you have a nice lead tone you've programmed that would be a great B side compliment to a clean tone on a different program. Too bad, you have to overwrite the A side as well when you copy the B side.
-Global Cab Emulation on/off as noted above
-The ability to combine a fuzz box with a wah.
-More programmability in the delays (i.e. a STEREO delay that has SEPARATE settings for Left and Right).
-Digital recording output.
-Expression pedal input.

Submitted by Duane at 08/01/2005 10:57

Price Paid: US $595

Ease of Use: 10
Very easy to use: Dedicated knobs, flashing buttons and lights
let you edit and set patches pretty easy.

Easy to get a good sound. Once you understand (or if you already know) how the picked model works, it's a snap.

The manual is good. However, it's a shame they've done so much
"cover your ass" type of indirect name description of non-Vox products. If you're not familliar with the characteristics of
a modelled product and only know it by name, then it's bit of
hunt to pin point the sound you're going after, but eventually
you get familliar with all the amps and effects and you can get
what you want.

Sound Quality: 9
I'm using a G&L legacy, a Ric 360, and a Fender Amer Delux Fat Strat.
Playing live, I send the output to the power stage of a Fender
Hot Rod Delux. When recordng, I use a Boss BR-1600. I get very
good sounds in both applications.

When the gain(s) turned way up, you can get a lot of noise.
The noise reductoin feature helps, but you lose tad of definition though.

To me the effects are really nice. I must admit though that I have
little experience with them in the past so I can't give a well informed/experienced opinion on that. That said, I can get rich
sounding effects to match the sounds I'm trying to create. I also
like the fact that I can add an effect into the chain externally.

I don't have any experience with the actual amp models that
the the TLSE contains, however, I think the models sound really
full and distinct. I had a POD2.3? and tried the PODxt. While
they sounded good, the POD2's models didn't sound that distinct
from each other and both lacked a certain depth and warmth in sound on
the clean and overdriven sounds.
The TLSE's high gain amp sounds are good, but so are the POD's. A previous submitter commented that the POD has better high gain sounds
for metal. This might be true, but I don't play metal so I can't
really say.
As I've said, I don't have experience with the actual amps the TLSE
models. I wasn't looking for spot on recreations. I just needed
something that sounded musically rich and flexible to get close to
the sounds I was hearing in my head. The TLSE succeeds here.
However, it can only get a 9 because only gear custom created
for me could be perfect for my needs.

Reliability: N/A
So far so good. Had it for 10 months. Seems very rugged.
I plan on getting one of those small Korg Ampworks boxes
to stick in my guitar case if the TLSE dies during live use.

Customer Support: N/A
Never dealt with them. Not sure how responsive they will
be. I've read some things that make me a bit unsure about this.
Hope I don't have to find out.

Overall Rating: 9
It's good match for any style of electric playing.
Been playing 15 years.
If stolen I would get another as soon as I could.
Love the tone and ease of patch creation. Dislike the text editing method (then again, it would be asking too much to add mini T9 type keypad).
My favorite feature is the VR Gain / valve reator. Really adds
depth to the sound.
Like others have said, I wish it had a post EQ.
Best signal processing box I've used so far. It really helps me
get the sounds I want.

Submitted by Anon at 07/31/2005 09:19

Price Paid: 455 (Euro)

Ease of Use: 9
Plug-In, (press "Global" and select "Amp" or "Line",) play.

Change sound, play on.
Hold "expression" for a sec to control the current value via pedal.
Damn easy to use.

Bank Up / Down controls could be placed better. Brits have small feet obviously.

No fuzz and wah at the same time. What were they thinking? But I still have my Crybaby Fuzz-Wah and there's an effects insert loop.

Phones-out ain't that great. Noisy. No chance using it as a record output.

Manual is ok, nothing spectacular but helpful. Reading is quite interesting.

Sound Quality: 10
No need for moaning or bitching. Superb sounds and many options. I play Framus Diablo Custom into a Fender Hot Rod. I am blown away. Every time again and again. Bought it 2 weeks ago. Before I bought it I read most of the other reviews and also read about that "lack of authority". Don't know what he/she/it did wrong... just tried it in the store? Even the lead sounds sound verrry good to me. The presets are not that great, but hey we all want a quite unique sound anyway, don't we?

Versatile wah and talk-mod-sounds. Nice Delays. Chorus is ok. Would have to listen more to tell you more, there's still so much to try.

I try to sound like Jerry Cantrell and Slash so the LAB was my only choice. If you want to sound like Dimebag this ain't no good for you: Buy the POD.

Reliability: 9
The LAB's built like a tank. Only the plastic knobs... I don't like plastic knob that much but even my Hot Rod has some.

Customer Support: N/A
Never dealt with 'em.

Overall Rating: 10
Warm. Valve. Value.

Don't buy it if you play metal only.
Maybe buy the POD if you want a "true" metal sound.
I play mainly hard rock, Seattle sound, crossover, punk rock.
The LAB is 100% pure rock and roll.
Great built-in effect pedals.
Fantastic value.

Submitted by Dominic at 07/26/2005 09:44

Price Paid: US $499

Ease of Use: 7
Easy to get good sounds, editing is pretty straightforward. Manual is OK. Original FW, non-upgradable.

Sound Quality: 5
I played it through a Tech21 Power Engine with a Strat and a Les Paul Standard. Clean and lower sounds are good, even great. I didn't like the higher gain sounds, which was the deal breaker for me. They're noisy and lack authority.

VERY nice delays, filtering, and wah. Average chorus, I wouldn't use it. ALERT: You can't use an OD pedal with the wah! What were they thinking?

Reliability: N/A
I checked it out for many hours over the weekend.

Customer Support: 3
Where is the company sponsored user's forum? I couldn't find one.

Overall Rating: 5
Overall, there are some things I loved about this box. The Vox, Fender and low gain Marshall models with an overdrive were really nice. Great delays, very musical and rich sounding. It seemed well-made, good switches and rockers for the pedals. Felt solid.

I couldn't get a warm, wooden, singing Eric Johnson approved lead tone with the Strat.

Submitted by Ken Rash at 06/26/2005 16:15

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 9
I find the tonelab very easy to use. It is quite simple to get great sounds of it, and save them. Unlike other all in one pedals, you don't have to scroll through an screen to make selections for almost all operations. It was also very easy to figure out how to use. Having two channels under one preset is one of the greatest features, since you do not need to have seperate presets for your basic clean and dirty sound, allowing you to keep your other effects going when switching channels, especially vital for live performance. In addition each preset also lets you choose delay, modulation, reverb, and stomp effects that can be turned on and off within a single preset. (other modelors expect you to create a new preset for every combination of effects. This makes it incredibly easy to make last minute changes in a concert, such as balancing the volumes of your clean and dirty sounds as simple as turning one knob and pressing save, instead of having to treak the volume of a dozen seperate presets.
Editing patches is also very simple and lights simply light up letting you know which feature you are editing, it also does not involve scrolling and banking and all that jazz.
The tonelab also makes editing and saving features easy by using their software.
The built in tuner works very well and you can see it very easily from standing position. Actually every light and display is easy to read and see from standing position. Other modelors are not this easy to read and see -such as the pod. As for modelors this is the easiest to use of all the other products along this line.

there were a few stomps that i wish could be used at the same time. no big deal though

Sound Quality: 10
Once thing that modeler skeptics seem to criticize these type devices is based on when they compare a model to playing the original. For instance playing a marshall stack at full volume shaking your house vs. listening to your modeled version through your I-pod headphones is not a fair comparision. obviously you don't have the "Wow" factor of standing in front of a real amp. Trying recording them both and listening back through the same source. Another misuse that often causes one to criticize these models is when users plug the modeler into the guitar input of there amp and assume that dialing up a clean sound and leaving the eq knobs at 12 oclock will result in an amp that is flat and won't change the sound of the modeler. (if this was true that a marshall would sound the same as a fender twing with the tone knobs set the same) Instead users should use just the power amp section of their guitar amplifier, if the desire is to authentically emulate a given amp. (you can plug the modeler into the effects return jack on the back of your amplifer to achieve this. Then you can still use the master volume on your amp to control volume. Keep in mind that the speakers that your real amp has, effects the sound of your modeled amps. Can you expect a modeled 4 12 cabinet to sound the same through a real 4 12 as it sounds through a real 1 12 for instance. This isn't the fault of the modeler, but of the user.

I don't want to over-hype the sound quality, but I was and continue to be blown away by the tone. Having played other modelors such as fender cybertwin, pod xt live. The newest boss, what ever its name is, I feel that the vox is by far the warmest, and least digital sounding.

I am not so concernded with if the models sound exactly verbatim in every nuance to the original amps modeled. What I do care about is if the amp and cab models, sound great and are inspiring to play. There is a feel that is lost quite often with digital equipment that most listeners don't hear, but the player notices. For instance when I played the pod xt live, on the surface the tone was great, but I just didn't feel the connection that you feel when playing through a real amp, and that caused my to play more rigidly, less dynamically, and simply made playing less enjoyable. That is something that the listener can hear, a guitarist that doesn't play as well.

However the vox tone lab excelled in this area. Perhaps it is because of the tube, power amp circuit, and dummy speaker load. Regardless of why, when playing this, I forget that I am not playing through a real amp. I feels very responsive to my playing, how hard I pick. My strat sounds like a strat, les paul like a les paul. It is also very responsive to the volume of my guitar, even the pick I play with. It simply feels very warm and organic.

While this modelor has less amp models than some others, it has all the essentials and all of them sound and feel real. I wouldn't trade the quality of the included amps for a million amp models with no feel. the effects are also great sounding.

There are a couple things, clearly written in the manual that would lead someone to not like a few of the ampl sounds if they didn;t bother to read. For instance on amps that didn't originally have presence controls the correct position of the prescence control should be turned completely off, NOT the twelve oclock position. should you like a little more sparkle than the original amp had, you could always dial up a little. On amps that didn't have a mid control, the correct position is twelve oclock.

One effect that really was quality was the acoustic simulator. (obviosly no simulator

Reliability: N/A
Seems very solidly built. from the all metal construction, to the knobs and everything else. Don't see why one would need a backup.

Customer Support: N/A
never needed to

Overall Rating: 10
I would recommned this to any one that wants great real tone and feel

Submitted by Anonymous at 06/07/2005 06:30

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: N/A

Sound Quality: 10
This is in addition to my excellent review below. After 3 months I am still addicted to the ToneLab. I have tried - as many recommended - a different Tube (selected JJ ECC83), but in my opinion, the Electro Harmonix 12AX7EH which the ToneLab was equipped with, did a lot better. The sound lost its clarity and definition, it became more middy/bassy and sweet but the Soldano didn't really sound like Soldano anymore, the marshall lost its cut, so I went back to the EH tube.

Regarding the amp simulations, which I had complained about. I have meanwhile minimally EQ'ed the TL output (little more bass, little less treble) and now I am ONLY playing direct. It's just great to have the additional versatility of the different cabs and to be able to play at ANY volume ANY time. Now I actually love the speaker simulation. Also did some recording and my recorded sound was never as authentic and direct as this.

I am not even using many of the effects, except a little delay, the Wah and some reverb. This with a pair of active fullrange speakers is as much as you need to play any style you could ever think of - except outer space stuff, which is even possible to some extend if you're into it.

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A

Submitted by Christoph Jaeger at 06/01/2005 10:18

Price Paid: 225 (UK £) used

Ease of Use: 8
Simple to use and great sounds out of the box the valve really does make a difference.

Patch editing is easy and the PC software is a doddle to use - Great fun

Manual is good but I didnt use it just the quick start guide.

Sound Quality: 9
I have strats (my 72 is my main squeeze, Les paul std, prs Ibanez rg550 and an epihone sheraton.
It can be noisy when used with the strat but otherwise is pretty good.
The effects are more than adequate but not great. The amp sounds and wah etc are very good indeed but need to be tweaked to get the best sounds.
I use this to record and to play through a marshall AVT 150.

Reliability: 9
Built like a tank.

Customer Support: 5
Never dealt with vox but their website doesnt offer forums or any user discussion areas.

Overall Rating: 9
I play many styles but mostly, blues, jazz and heavy rock this pedal suits them all.
I have other pedals from zoom Boss etc they are all good bu the Voz is the one I go back to when i want that Brian May or SRV sound. You can hear the sound of you guitar with this pedal the non valve jobbies zoom , boss etc sound great but its the pedal eegects your hearing not your guitar.
The valve really helps you to play better as you have to use your fingers to squeeze out the tone. If you cant play through a valve amp (ie you like Line 6 or other digital amp) then you may not get on with this,

Submitted by meandmealone at 05/31/2005 05:48

Price Paid: 440 (Euro) used

Ease of Use: 9
This is my second reviw (see below).
I have to convert my first statement on this...On global options be shure to set to LINE if you go straight to PA and if you go on the return (power-amp in) of you amp. Probably the only time you'll need the AMP setting is going on front of you amp (i've never tried that by the way). Generally is only a matter of equalization: AMP is really muddy (too much...) while LINE is sparkling clear (you can set it down by lowering presence and highs).

Sound Quality: 7
This is my second shot. I reviewed it first below, that was my first impression, now that I dig some more, I can be more critical.

* First you have really to saparate opinions if you intend to use it in your amp or with a PA system. Using it connected to your amp delivers really nice sounds, you don't need cab simulation, you get kinda more *real* sound, so if you tweak a little bit you'll got nice results. Direct on PA it's a little bit different, and that's why: I think the cab simulation really sucks!!! I've got the behringer GI100 with a general 4x12 cab sim and when I use this while the VOX cab sim's off really let this Tonelab comes alive!!!!!!! A/B them is no question, really. In fact I'm now using this setup (which is kind of sad you can imagine...). The combination VOX amp sim + VOX cab sim delivers plastic sounds, back on your band acustic stage, not really like a real thing. The combination VOX amp sim + real amplifier cabinet or VOX amp sim + behringer cab sim takes your sound to another step in terms of quality and fidelty.

* Second: as someone here mentioned before, this unit is really highs-EQ centered (with LINE option). be shure to lower down presence (a lot) and highs to avoid hiss.

* Third: this unit can be really noisy! starting from mid gain amps you get increasing noise. you can do something with NR but you'll know this is not exactly the real solution...

* Fourth: lacks a post EQ

* Fifth: they should had a separate button for wha and comp (just as NR-PRESENCE) as Digitech 2120 was (10 years ago...)

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 8
I think modulations, reverbs, stop boxes are really good sounding and made with quality (in this order). unfortunately most of all cabs simulations are bad. I dont know, they are too much EQ and plastic sounding. I think VOX engeneers went like...ok we must show different tones on cabs! so for marshalls let's +20 db mid freq, fenders let's -20 db mid freq!! I just can't find a NATURAL SOUNDING, TRASPARENT, FLAT EQ cab from this box.

So if you gonna use this unit just as multieffect you are going fine. Direct on your PA or for recording might be not really exciting.
I am really curious to try POD Xt live. the VOX made it because I really liked its superior operability, but probably in terms of simulation the pod is better (i've got the guitar port and i'm happy of it actually).

I owned the digitech 2120 artist and it's no comparision between this and Vox. 10 times better the digitech in terms of pure ritchness, fidelty and transparency in preamp section. but unfortunately the digitech is really complex and not easy operable (and it's rack + foot controller) so I sold it. I remember that few years ago digitech was say 1200 euro, vox is now 500...there must have been a difference!! TC electronics effects only units cost now 2 times the whole Tonelab...think about that...

Submitted by Paul at 05/23/2005 09:50

Price Paid: 1099.00 (AUD)

Ease of Use: 9
Now comming form the Boss GT6 to this, talk about easy.

I did read the manual, but it wan't needed.

Straight forward, but with every good comes a bad, sorry to all those tweakers, not much to do.

dial your sounds save, done.

Sound Quality: 9
First, i changed my valve, replaced it with a Tung-sol, wow what a diiffernce. More grut, more high gain.

Now like i said, i had a GT6 for 5 months, it did have some good rhythm sounds, but it just was dead for lead. Tonelab SE has got it. I am so happy.

It did take me 2 weeks to find all my sounds, yeh it can't do everything, you can't have 50 effects all chained together.

But it reacts like a amp, you have more then enough sound options.

This is the best sound i have for a while. I also use a 250watt active speaker and my amp and go directly into the pa desk.

Reliability: N/A
no need yet

Customer Support: N/A
no need yet

Overall Rating: 9
This is the best processor i have owned, i have been through a lot of gear.

I play classic guitar rock, i have no problem getting any sound i need.
acdc, deep purple, three doors down, nickleback, doors, ZZ top, status que, just to name a few.

Look it can't do everything, but what can,

Think of this as a real amp, now you get the picture, then add a few effects, and cab, your off.

Submitted by gezza at 05/20/2005 22:39

Price Paid: 550 (Euro)

Ease of Use: 8
It's very easy to get good sounds out of this box. Manual is ok, not great. But it shows what you have to know.

Sound Quality: 9
One word: great!

Chorus could have more depth, over all the effects sound ok to me.

more details under "Overall Rating"

Reliability: 6
hm ... ok, I giged several times with it without a backup. nevertheless the construction could be better. see details below.

Customer Support: N/A
no experience

Overall Rating: 7
Here I have packed my points together:

The good:

I love the sound of most of the amp-models. The unit interact with the guitar like a real amp, you can play very dynamically and control the level of crunch with your picking – this is really great! My strat whispers, cries, smacks, growls, sings – it’s amazing. The sounds are that good and easy to handle, that I hardly use my TriAxis/VHT-setup any more. Any questions?

A/B-switch: It’s great to have two choosable amps in one program

FX-switch: That’s what I like on my Lexicon G2/R1-combo, too… via that switch you enter the “stomp-box”-mode within a program.

Effect-switch: Very handy – one effect is directly accessible without entering the FX-Mode

Switches under the the pedals: assignable to a lot of parameters, great for real “wah”-feeling.

And the bad…:

Tone/programming:
Biggest issue: It’s not possible to configure the fx-chain in a way that you could use more than one pedal in front of the amp-section (ok, there’s an insert – but hey, this want to be an all in one box).

Some amps (rectifier…) sound muddy when driven hard (espescially the low E-string sounds flubby). Workaround: They become chunky and get bite with an Tonebooster in front – but again (see above): In this case there’s no possibility to use the wah, vibe or other fx.

The chorus could have more depth

A pedal can only be assigned to one parameter, for example gain on amp A. If you switch to amp B in one program, the pedal is out of function.

Construction:
Shape is not very handy, it’s to wide, to heavy. (pod xt live is better here)

Footswitches are arranged in two rows (good!), but all in one layer (bad!). If you want to hit a switch in the second row, there’s a good chance you’ll hit the one in front of it (ok, my feet are big, but again: pod live is better here, as it features a two-layer-design with bigger switches).

External power-supply – that’s a really stupid anachronism, because there’s plenty of room inside the unit. And don’t tell me about the danger of hum when the supply is inside the housing – there are ways to shield it.

The pedal-bearings are designed too simple (metal-on-metal friction bearing): After some month of normal usage one pedal starts to quieeeeek. When I opened the housing, the surface of the bolt was rubbed deeply.

To adjust the mobility of the pedal you have got to open the hole housing!!!!

No digital out, no possibility to upgrade one

No XLR-outs

Git-input on the backside behind the pedals - so in many situations the cable hangs over the board and could block a switch or get tangled up a pedal

All software in fixed ROM – no possibility to upgrade the operating system or amp modells let’s say via MIDI (again: pod live ist better here)

So, here's my conclusion:
Great sounds in a lousy designed box. I couldn't understand why firms like Vox make such obvious mistakes. For a lot of details there are better solutions on the market - which are from a production point of view not even more expensive.

Oh, and yes: I play a lot of music styles from jazz over funk/soul to metal.

Submitted by jemsession at 05/17/2005 06:22

Price Paid: US $585.00

Ease of Use: 8
This unit is pretty easy to use and set up. I have used Digitech pedal boards for the last 7 or 8 years so I have a background in how to approach these type of units. If you have never used a multi-effects unit like this one you may find it a little harder to use. The manual is also pretty good and straight forward. You can look up each of the different effects and amp/cabinets and read about it at will.

Sound Quality: 9
I use a '96 Gibson SG completely stock except I installed volume kits on both volume pots. This allows me to roll down the volume and get a real clean "strat" tone. This unit is really noisy if you like the Marshall/Mesa hi gain tones. The noise gate seems to work ok but it will cut your sustain if you go above 7 or so. I play this unit through a Peavey Classic 30 on the clean channel and it seems to produce alot of high end. I have to run my amp with the treble on about 3 and the bass on about 7 to get a good round tone. Even when I try to adjust the treble of the unit it doesn't help. I play about 50 or so tunes each time we gig so I need to replicate tones from alot of different bands. It does well for what I need in a live situation.
The amp and cabinet tones are really very good. I'm not saying they are like the original amps(that would be silly)but I am saying for a guitarist playing in a cover band that needs to be able to produce the "faux" tones from 35 different bands on the radio, it works very well. I also like the pedal effects. The "Rat" and "MXR" replicators are my fav. I run them through the clean amp model and they sceam!

Reliability: N/A
I have only had this unit about 3 months. It is the only pedal I take to gigs.

Customer Support: N/A
No contact.

Overall Rating: 9
I play rock, blues, and some jazzy stuff. I have played longer than I want to admit. If this unit were stolen I would replace it. I love the fact that it is an "all in one" unit so you don't have to run patch cords and power packs all over heck. No batteries either! I did compare to the Digitech models but they seemed too complicated to me. They were so "digital" it was hard to program. I felt even with the almost $600.00 price tag Tonelab was a good value for me. As for the features I wish it had: I wish you could run two or more pedals at one time. I mean when you select the wah feature you can't run the rat pedal with it. I want to be able to add some radical wah-wah to some heavy rat distortion!

Submitted by T J with B2B Band in Florida at 05/15/2005 17:48

Price Paid: 440 (Euro) used

Ease of Use: 9
very easy for a multieffect unit. it's like having separate boxes, but with the chance to make programs too!

fantastic operability!! the inconvenient is only what turning the knobs the value jumps on the actual position of the knob (if in that moment is at 3 o'clock, you get instantly like 7 on 10 value), and therefore you loose the original setting (you must watch when the label ORIG pops on the display while turning the knob). but I have discovered that it can be obviated using the little buttons with the arrows in order to fine tuning, that way you can also see the original value before even changing it. optimal are the exp pedals, great is also to have two of'em!! you can also obtain effects like whammy that I had before with the Digitech 2120 and I had fear to have lost! brilliant also the fact that you can on/off the effect associated to the pedal pressing hard on toe as you would do like on a normal wah.

Sound Quality: 8
easy obtainable good clean sounds, simulations do not interest me that much, enough for me is to have a natural sounding. it seems me that the boutique clean is the case but also fenders. on the distorted sounds you must work more also because you can make many combinations using saturation amp+od pedals. the effects all of good quality truly, i like a lot the echo plus and also the filtron, very vintage like and usable even if they are not mainstream sounds.
overall probably my digitech 2120 was more "deep" and natural sounding, tonelab sounds sometimes "digital" and extreme settings but does it anyway pretty much the same and maybe more. and i sold my used digitech at 600 euros...buyed this at 440 ex-demo...

Reliability: N/A
looks like it will last...
sturdy and metal solid. i like the footswitches wich are best quality and efficient (like fulltone ones, but they don't really snap with a huge "stokk" that much, they much like "click" half way like your mouse does!! i find this is usefull if you are operating with your hands especially while making your first souds and programming, just pop it on a desk at reach of hand). i didn't like the more "plastic" footswitches like pot xt live has...

Customer Support: N/A
none yet

Overall Rating: 9
I play for 15 years, i was searching for something to use live with my band, but connected to a PA. that was my choice, it made it against the pod xt live. we play pop covers, jazz-pop, some rock/blues, but not really heavy stuff. i own a fender stratocaster 62 reissue with texas specials and little 59 on bridge.
I just got the vox yesterday. this is my FIRST IMPRESSION review. I have tried it first live with the band, connected to a mixer, and then at house in the return of a Fender Deville (until 1,30 am...). the second solution was best for me, but I have understood why: in the global options you must select LN or AP wheater you are connected to a mixer or an amp. I have verified that the solution LN creates a sound too much fizzy, so I tried with option AP (only on fender)...much better! therefore is probably best to ** leave AP also using your PA!!! **. the gig bag is awesome!. they have made things with care overally. kudos for VOX, It looks an optimal purchase. sorry for the sloppy language (i'm italian). maybe i'll post another review when i'll discover more.
if you wanna share comments just use the email provided.

Submitted by Paul at 05/13/2005 03:18

Price Paid: 500 (euro)

Ease of Use: 10
very simple. It's like riding a bike...

Sound Quality: 10
from muddy 60's to rammmstein...I love those warm tubesounds, espesially "SRV" makes me cry....

Reliability: 10
I can count on this. The box seems to be very strong....

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
I run little homestudio and guitarsounds have always been a problem. I do music from jazz to metal and needed something to cover all the sounds...i think i've got it now.
And it sounds great when recording direct!!!
boss no more......

Submitted by Mike at 05/01/2005 07:39

Price Paid: £308 (GBP)

Ease of Use: 8
Quite easy, but it is worth reading the manual first. The pre-sets are quite good on their own, but won't suit everybody.

Sound Quality: 10
Excellent sound quality. I used a modified Squire Strat into a Tech 21 Trademark 60 and band's Peavey PA system. The AC30 sounds were very close to the original and also felt as responsive. I set the unit up for Shadows, Searchers, Beatles, EC, Mark Knopfler, Albert Lee and was very pleased with the results at its first live gig.
The effects that I used were very good quality.

Reliability: 7
I have only had it for 2 weeks, but it is built like a tank.
The valve may prove to be the weekest link, but I always carry at least one spare.
I used it with only minimal back-up equipment and felt confident with it.

Customer Support: N/A
Not had to find out, so can't comment.

Overall Rating: 10
I mainly play 60's music in a band and have been playing live since 1962.
I would buy another if it was lost or stolen.
I like its versatility and quality of sound.
It is the sort of kit that makes you want to play more.
It will also be very useful for recording.

Submitted by pat seaman at 04/24/2005 15:00

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: N/A
I submitted the review directly below this one a few days ago, but I would like to make a correction. I said that I can't figure out how to work the tap tempo, and that is still the case (I would STILL love for someone to explain it to me... the directions in the manual just aren't working out). But I said I fixed that problem by getting a Line 6 DL4. BIG MISTAKE!! Do not, I repeat, do not get the Line 6 DL4 (better known as "LIE" 6)!! I bragged on it before I really got to mess with it. If you want to supplement the TonelabSE delays (which are great by the way) with something along the lines of the DL4, get a Boss DD-20 and thank me later. I even hear that the Guyatone MD3 is quite impressive and surprisingly versatile (despite no tap tempo). I just couldn't sleep knowing that I may have cost someone $250 by endorsing that Line 6 Paper Weight. I hope I didn't offend any hard core Lice 6 fans out there (yes, i meant to say "lice"). But if you love it so much, why are you here? Why aren't you reading about the PODxtLive? Forget the details and listen to my advice. Get the TonelabSE instead! Music IS about tone... right? Oh, and it's great when your instruments actually work! My DL4 wouldn't even work when i first got it home, but it later decided to work (too bad the tone was underwhelming). I found out later that many DL4s are dead on arrival... i just thought i got that one out of a million. I've also heard that Line 6 amps have a nack for burning up. That's not a figure of speech... i mean they literally burn up. Smoke n' all! Besides, when your POD goes out (notice i said "when," not "if"), the Line 6 Customer Support may treat you like they treated me... as if i didn't exist. Do yourself a favor and get the TonelabSE.

Sound Quality: N/A

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A

Submitted by Kenny at 04/17/2005 01:34

Price Paid: US $560

Ease of Use: 8
The controls are VERY easy to figure out. I haven't really had to look at the manual (which is great b/c reading the manual is like discussing philosophy with a pot head). The manual might give good info, but i haven't really given it a chance. I've already figured out how to do everything i want to do with it. It took me a while to figure out how to use the tuner (hold the FX button for a couple seconds), but that is totally MY fault... it's written right below the button. I felt stupid when i figured it out lol. The only reason I gave this an 8 instead of 10 is because i can't figure out how to use "tap tempo" to save my life!! This isn't good b/c i'm a delay junky. I might not be able to figure it out b/c i'm a fricken moron, but i dunno... i'm pretty smart. I've done what the manual says to do, but it won't DO what the manual says it'll do. I even called Guitar Center, and the manager read the manual and still couldn't figure it out. What i've gathered from the manual is that you would have to assign a different switch (like the modulation switch) as your tap tempo. What the crap is that about??? Why not just have a "tap tempo" button available? *shrugging shoulders* I haven't read/heard any complaints from anyone else concerning the tap tempo, so I either got a defective board, no one else cares, or i'm just stupid. However, i consider this a blessing in disguise... it totally gave me an excuse to buy the monster of all delay pedals, the Line 6 DL4 *drueling* that thing is amazing. Which brings me to my next point. You are able to use other pedals with it. I haven't tried any other pedals with it, but all I do is run my guitar through the DL4, and from there to input. Presto, I have an endless supply of delays. If you can figure out the tap tempo on the tonelabse, more power to ya... you'll love the delays. But i'm glad i couldn't because i REEEEEEEALLY like the Line 6 delays a lot better (they are 100,000% more versatile). As far as stage capabilities, my Vox is very easy to use. However, though i haven't tried it, the PODxtLive looks easier to use (and the PODxtLive has a tap tempo botton right there on the board!!!). I wish you could turn the expression pedal on by stepping on it (like a Dunlop Crybaby), but that hasn't been a hassle yet. I'm just griping. I think (i haven't tried it) that you can assign more than one pedal effect to the pedal switch. That would come in handy for using the wah with an overdrive. Other than that, i don't know why you would need more than one at a time. Overall, EASY to hook up, easy to use onstage, easy to figure out (except for tap tempo), and VERY easy to transport. I've gigged with it for about 10-11 months, and i'm totally spoiled to it's portability. I even heard that Billy Idol's guitarist uses this same thing... for the same reason... hmmmm.

Sound Quality: 9
The first thing you'll notice when you play this is that the factory presets SUCK. Never fear though... it doesn't take long to make it sound glorious. I got this b/c I play in a lot of small venues (mostly churches), and I needed a way to get CRANKED sound at lower volumes. This definitely does that! Every time I tell someone I have one, they instantly say, "Dude, those things are amazing." One friend who plays through a POD had a "spiritual moment" when he played my Vox. Another friend who plays a Line 6 Spyder II couldn't get over the fact that my Vox has beefier crunch. I let another friend use it to record... a couple months later he bought one of his own.

BUT!!! I'll have to warn you about the sound. I plug into a P.A., and the sound can be really THIN. When overdriven, the treble can sound like someone getting a hair out of his throat. If you don't have subs in your settup, i don't know if you'll like this. We have a Mackie system, and I turn myself up in our 15" subs to beefen it up. That really does the trick. I have one more warning. I'm a huge Slash fan, and the Vox wah on the board just doesn't give you that lead-wah that he rips. That was a bummer. In fact, it doesn't sound that great with any of the Marshall settings... just not enough "wwwwwaaaaahhhh" (i guess that gives me an excuse to try out some other wah pedals, huh? lol). I use it with one of the tweed settings, and I get a great funky sound from it though.

I mostly play with the Marshall settings (i wish it had more than one Mesa setting). For clean, my amp setting is UK Blues, and my cab is UK H30... settings: gain 5, VR gain 10, treble 3.1, mid 10, bass 7.6. When i set my Les Paul on the bridge pickups, it's very bright and glassy... on neck pickups, it's very warm. Then I use the Tube Overdrive setting (simulates Ibanez TS808) to get good bluesy leads or British-ish distorsion. For heavy, i use UK 68P amp and UK H30 cab (i found that this is the thickest)... settings: gain 10, VR gain 10, treble 5, mid 5, bass 5 (i'm gonna mess with these to see what it sounds like). This is very thick and bassy. When I play power chords on the A string, I'll bar the note above on the E string (i.e. when playing an "e", bar the "b" above it). This gives a 7-string effect, and adds a lot of dark thickness and bassy breakup. This setting doesn't have the greatest sustain, but one of the overdrives will give you that. It'll also give you more gain, but makes it sound thinner, so i usually only use it for lead. You might be interested to know that I played a Marshall triple super lead at Guitar Center, and it sounded exactly the same as my "heavy" channel. I use a couple other settings for certain songs, but these are my main two... i LOVE'em. Just remember, turn yourself up in the subs!!!

Reliability: 10
You could bust pavement with this thing. My tube is still going strong after almost a year, and there isn't a single scratch on the board. When i'm carrying it in the gig bag, it bangs into EVERYTHING. So far, it's remained victorious.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
I play mostly praise and worship music, but our band refuses to sound lame... WE ROCK FACES OFF! This thing gives me the power lol. It is so incredibly versatile. Whatever your style is, this'll do it. Not only that, but it will sound LIKE AN AMP!...not just an effects processor. I've been playing for 5 years, so i'm still learning how to find perfect tone. I do know,however, that this thing will produce some great tone. If it were lost or stolen, i would definitely get another one. Even if I have a whole studio with 30 amps, i would want one just to have. It's WAY too convenient not to have one. My favorite thing about it is the portability. My only real gripe is the thin, scratchy treble, and no tap tempo. Other than that, it's great.

Submitted by Kenny at 04/14/2005 13:25

Price Paid: 260 (GBP) used

Ease of Use: 8
Very easy indeed. If you know how to use a guitar amp, you don't need the manual to get started. The manual helps to get to know every feature more quickly. It took me no time to exploit every aspect of the unit. It's very intuitive to use and has more of the appearance of an amp than a multi fx unit. I want to play, not twiddle knobs all day long, so this is great for plug & play action although not as simple as a traditional guitar & amp.

Sound Quality: 8
I have several old Fender amps (brownface, blackface & tweed), so I won't even try to compare the Tonelab SE to them. It does not sound the same....However I believe that it does not sound inferior either.
The response to your playing style is very much like an amp. I don't know how much the valve actually contributes to the sound but I don't care because with a guitar over one shoulder and the Vox over the other and I am kitted out for gigs & rehearsals anywhere. I bought this to take to the far East where I will be touring and there is no way I could take my 4x10 Fender & my pedal board! The audience doesn't give a monkey's what you're playing through anyway. They just want to be entertained!
One thing to remember is that it takes a while to get good sounds out of it and I dicovered that to my tastes the presence control is best set to ZERO for all amp models. Whnever I tried to use it, it sounded atrocious, absolutely awful, disgusting, cheap and more like a typical DI'd digital POD sound. The Noise reduction works exceptionally well, which helps for the higher gain sounds. I don't use any of the modern type amp models, just the tweeds, the blackfaces, the Voxs and the Plexi. If you experiment with different cab & amps you can get some really nic, rich sounds.

I record a lot of guitar also and first impressions is that this records very well, but again, you need a lot of tweaking. Maybe my comments will help people cut down on tweaking time if you take my advice and leave the presence control well alone!

I play contemporary rock/pop, using classic/"traditional" guitar sounds, like Neil Young, Rolling Stones etc...Sounds that usually require just a guitar & amp, with maybe an OD pedal and a delay. This is how I set up to use the Tonelab and it is well up to the job! I prefer the fact that there are not hundereds of amp models or upgrades because the amount of tweaking I have had to do on this is quite enough already. I want to play my guitar!

However I have not had the chance to use it at a gig yet through a large PA, so I may end up hating it after all these comments! Somehow though I don't think I will.

Reliability: 8
It's already 3 months old & I have had it a couple of weeks and played around with it continuously. It seems very well built, very tough, but not too heavy to carry around. I think it will last me well, but I suppose it still pays to take care of it. I doubt it will break down in the middle of a performance. I have never bothered with spare amps etc.... anyway. I've always been lucky that way.

Customer Support: N/A
No idea. I haven't needed to contact them. Here's hoping I never will.

Overall Rating: 8
Like I mentioned before, pretty traditional guitar sounds are what I like to use. Classic amps, mainly Fender and although my music is all original and not of a "Retro" type, those are the sounds that inspire me the most. I play a 50's Custom shop relic Strat and a Jap 50's RI Tele which I have modified with Kinman pickups, an active midrange boost and an original 60's "F" branded Bigsby. So far in my use of the TLSE I have found the tweed 1x12 and the Black 2x12 to be the most organic sounding amps for clean and the AC15/AC30 models great for crunchy rhythm. The Plexi sounds good with the 4x10 cab and I swear it sounds really similar to my Brownface '63 Fender Concert!

Submitted by Guv at 04/07/2005 14:39

Price Paid: 460 (Euros (€))

Ease of Use: 9
Very intuitive, the downloadable editor for PC helps a lot.
The manual is not very explicit, but it's easy enough to inform about the features.
The knobs help in small adjusments on stage, and the "Original Value" feature is a great help!

Sound Quality: 9
I use my Tonelab SE with a Tech 21 Power Engine 60. Very simple setup, easy to transport and with enough power for pubs and small stages.
Some noise on extreme distortion settings, but nothing too serious.
Great effects, lot's of delay possibilities.
I'm using the Boutique for cleans, Marshall for Crunch and Mesa for distortion. Some of the other amps are great, too.
The valve adds some "breath" to the pick attack. Very good!

Reliability: 10
I'm currently using this without any backup, but I'm thinking of buying a smaller modeller, like a X-Vamp or something, just in case something goes wrong...
But I'm preety much depending on it now, and with no regrets!

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I'm playing in a pop-rock covers band, so I need a great range of sounds. The Tonelab SE has all I need for a quick and simple setup, and a great sound!
I also do lot's of studio work, and the Tonelab is indeed a great recording tool. I'd love XLR outs, but you can't have it all!!...
I've been playing for 11 years now. I own an Ibanez JPM, Yamaha RGX 820Z, Yamaha Pacifica 312 and a Dean Avalanche 7. All my guitars have DiMarzio pickups, but yet, the Tonelab let's the tonal charecteristics of each guitar come out clearly.
I've had some other preamps and processors in the past, but all I needed was a great sound in a box. This is it!

Submitted by C.C. at 03/30/2005 10:03

Price Paid: 530 (Euros)

Ease of Use: 10
very easy to use. of course u need the manual for some settings like the expression pedals. But all the basic functions are very very easy.

Sound Quality: 10
This unit has been made for people who like playing the guitar and hear something real. The amps are real and very versatile with 2 chanels like the original and attitude like the original. The effects are not the best out there but I repeat this is a very real unit. It doesn't put aside your guitar's sound like digitech and Boss GT6+8. The presets are ok but you need some tweaking from the beginning. Now, something important!!!! This unit uses a tube. It's very warm and more analog than all the other units. But it's still a digital unit. Don't overload the sound with reverb because u lose the originality of the amp's sound and u need it in a live situation.Most of u know that. Try to find a very noisy sound because near the drums,the bass and the keyboards, only this sound will go OUT!! This unit helps u do anything.I rate it with a 10 because I haven't heard an other pedalboard more real than this. It's very close to the real thing.

Reliability: N/A
Have gigged with it only 7 times. I don't know yet.We'll see...

Customer Support: 10
Very good support. Believe me!!!

Overall Rating: 10
If u want versatility and your guitar's sound with a pure amplification, buy this. If you are a metal addict and want crazy sounds, don't buy this. Go buy the GT-8. I heard GT-8 and it's more digital than all the GT's. It's like digitech.I have a Parker fly and I want to hear my guitar. GT-8 and Digitech GNX-4 did't leave my guitar's personality go out. VOX is my unit and I'm very happy to say this. I think that this unit was made for players who are mature enough to think and choose the more warm sound and not the more extreme. If u are ready to focus on your instrument, don't lose time. Go buy it now!!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous at 03/28/2005 12:56

Price Paid: 570 (EUR)

Ease of Use: 8
Presets are not very useful, except some few. But it's easy to find your way around. I used the editor software before I went to the shop to get a better idea of its architecture - and this definitely helps. The editor is also handy while the unit is on the floor and I am playing in the studio. Overall, this thing is easy. The reduced amount of effects and amps even was an argument for me to chose it.

Sound Quality: 9
I play a Hamer Sunburst with Seymour Duncan '59 and JB and an ENGL screamer top w/ V30 4x12. Having read many reviews, I didnt expect this unit to be perfect straight away. So I did as I was told, deactivated all effects and first tweaked some good sounds, having a Soldano in Bank A and a Rectifier in Bank B. I really have to say, having tested both amps some time ago, it's the real thing. Going straight into FX return of the ENGL gives a very transparent, breaking-through sound. And the models do bring across the character of what they emulate. In the shop I tested it against a Line6 PodXTLive. The POD is sounding good, very clean and very harmonic, but what I missed about it was the character of my own sound, the one that comes from my guitar and my fingers. The VOX was much better in this perspective, and I chose it although it has less features and no USB port. Line6 has some good features for recording (USB and A.I.R.), but the TL in conjunction with a tube amp has convinced me very quickly. I agree with my predecessors: combining the Wah with a Overdrive Pedal would be nice. But hey, there's enough drive on most of the amp models, so who really cares? And the Wah is great. I will sell my modded Vox847 now. My preferred models in the Tonelab are Black 2x12, AC30TopBoost, Plexi 68, Solo100 and Recto.

Reliability: 10
Very heavy. Having bought it just a few weeks ago, I can't tell how long it takes befor the tube wears out. But it is very well crafted.

Customer Support: 8
I wrote an email to the customer support about connection alternatives, and I received very quickly a very competent answer that didn't seem to come out of a reply database. Very good support. On the other hand I am missing updates. I hope they will develop the software of the TL and post updates from time to time. As well there is no sound library (but maybe that's not really needed as the unit isn't so complex that it would take ages to tweak in Gary Moore, Brian May or EVH on your own).

Overall Rating: 9
I'm perfectly happy and don't regret my decision. Playing mainly in the high gain range, I had lots of fun doing SRVaughn or Neill Young as well as AC/DC (Plexi68, all levels on 10:) I'm very sure I'll stick with this unit for a long time.

Submitted by Christoph Jaeger at 03/19/2005 12:17

Price Paid: 699 (CAN)

Ease of Use: 9
This thing is very intuitive. The controls are solid and well placed. The only thing I had to open the manual for was to figure out how to quick-assign effects to the expression pedals.

The A/B amp channel button is a great idea.

Sound Quality: 10
I've been using this item non-stop for the last 4 days.

My setup:
Guitar:
91 strat deluxe with dbl fat strat humbuckers
home recording:
guitar > tonlelab se > PC > headphones
studio:
guitar > tonlelab se > 2x behringer GI100 > yamaha AW16G recorder > headphones

Effects before pre-amp:
These are great ... my favourite is the Vox wah ... combined with the right amp model (AC30) and it simply kills. There are some good renditions of vintage pedals as well. The compressor is nice, but I with it were available to put in front of the other effects in this category.

Amp Models:
I can't give a full review as I've only really tweaked with the AC30, AC30TB & Boutique CL models. All of these, I love. The sound is warm and real.

Cab Sims:
Some good variety here. It's nice to have so many choices for sound shaping. Again, I've stuck with only a couple for the time being.

Modulation:
This is where I was pleasantly surprised. The sound quality of these effects are unbelievable. The chorus mods especially. No wait ... the rotary mod ... and then there's the filtron. The sounds are clean and free of that nasty digital essence that you hear so often from other units.

Delay:
Again, I was surprised at the sound quality, and usefulness of the delays included. I had not heard the "mod delay" before, but now I use it constantly.

Overall sound:
Others have gone over this, so I go on & on. I tested this thing out at my local store and dialed in a couple of Edge's Achtung Baby sounds ... the tube simulation is very good. It has attack, it has push/pull ... I have not heard such tasty tones from a modeller before. It gets a 10.

Reliability: N/A
no problems yet. I don't "gig" but I certainly go over to my buddy's studio without a backup :)

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
Since I'm in an apartment I can't use an amp ... direct recording is my only option right now, so the tonelab se suits my purposes just fine.

I'm your standard 30-somthing guitarist influenced by rock/pop/grunge/jazz. I play mostly originals now and the flexability of the tonelab se is perfect for song creation.

It's expensive, but I honestly think that it is the best modeller available. I'm not that good, but I have a good ear and I play better when I like my sound. With this unit, I like my sound.

Submitted by Graham at 03/18/2005 12:10

Price Paid: 699 (CDN)

Ease of Use: 10
No more complicated then two good tube amps and pedal board.

Sound Quality: 10
First I use the SE just for recording. After auditioning the Berhinger V-AMP PRO, PODxt and the SE in my studio over a weekend I found the SE the most natural sounding modeling system period. I auditioned them all playing two Fender strats one 1982 Vintage 57 reissue with SD Rail PU and a 1997 Collectors Edition with Texas Speails. All processors were run through a Tascam 2488 digital recorder,eq was set flat. From there to a Alesis M-500 power amp into a set mid field JBL 4311 monitors and a set of near field Yorkville's monitors. The Tonelab was the winner hands down. I did plug it into my old Fender Princeton Reverb and just had to laugh, it never sounded so huge!

Reliability: N/A
It is never going to be moved around so I hope it last along time.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I have been playing some 20+ years mostly playing Blues, Roots Rock, R&B and a little country (when forced to):). I own 3 vintage Fender Amps and mostly use these to record, so I know what a blackface fender 2X12 sounds like. I bought this to record late at night and also for some different sounds. If it were stolen I would buy it again, it is the best. If you are looking to buy a modeling processor with a natural sound and feel buy this one and save yourself the trouble of auditioning the others. If you like brittle distortion and no feel try the others.

Submitted by Anonymous at 03/18/2005 09:40

Price Paid: US $740

Ease of Use: 8
It´s quite simple to use, but you need to read the manual to understand the basics. If you cant´t get a good sound ot of this unit, you are doing something very wrong! I´ve had it for a week and Im totaly in love with this product.

Sound Quality: 10
My setup is one American Fender Standard strat, and a custom Warmoth Strat with floyd rose and EMG pickups.With these guitars I can do everything with my Tonelab SE. I own a recordingstudio in Norway and Im running the unit directly in to my recording gear. Fantastic sound, everything from Fender clean to Boogie Higain. I´ve had them all, Fender super reverb orginal 69mod, Marshall Plexi,JCM800,JMP-1,Mesa Boogie Studio preamp,Tremoverb,Mark4,Egnator Ie4,Elmwood,Engel Richie Blackmore.Line6 Pod2.0.
It can sound like them all, but you need to understand how to tweek the unit.
Im going to use it with a 4X12 Marshall cab. and a EL20/20 poweramp on stage, but in the studio and on small gigs I will go direct.

Reliability: N/A
It´s build like a tank, I think it will be. But I realy don`t know yet.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
Im playing mostly Pop/rock music but in the studio I sometimes find myself playing all kinds of music. It depends on the what the custumer wants.
If you`re in need for a unit that realy can do it all, this is it.
I tryed it out at a local store with a ceep 150dolar guitar and two small Bheringer Studio monitors, after 3 min I was totaly on my knees begging the storeowner to sell it to me.If it ever gets lost/stolen I will run to the closest store and buy my a new one. Im 30 years old and I have played the guitar for 20 of them. Im a soundfanatic and I normaly hate everything digital when it comes to guitaramps but this is great! In Norway some of the best pros are using this unit live direct. They all are using Inear monitoring, so they do not need a big speaker on stage.
If I can aford a good inear system I will try it out. Good work Vox!

Submitted by Kjetil Nesheim at 03/17/2005 04:30

Price Paid: US $500

Ease of Use: N/A
8
I've owned several multieffects units like this so I may be biased here, but this is really one of the more simple user interfaces i've come across. Its much easier to learn than the digitech ones i've owned and the manual explains thing ok.

Sound Quality: 9
9- Well, this is what really counts, and while its not perfect it definately is the best one out there, tonewise. The sounds are really warm, and the effects are lush. The distortions are pretty good, but to get a really good sound it takes some tweaking. I imagine with a bit more experience with it you can really get some beautiful tones out of it. I've had it for a week and i've already got a clean sound thats just addictive. No distortion sounds have really jumped out at me, but they are all very good, i have no doubt that with some more tweaking it be nearly perfect. One note, several reviewers aid that it lacks a bit of low end, and that very true, but negligable, and to be honest i've found that to be true of most guitar equipment. What i love about this unit is it really sounds warm, not digital at all. The downsides are that the unit is a bit noisy, but i find it depends where you use it. at band practice away from interferances i have low noise, but if i'm near a light or electrical source i get much more, it might be shielding thing. second is that you don't have full control over every aspect of it, so getting really way out effetcs patches is difficult.
Overall i think that if your looking for tone, this is the way to go. I've manages to add my other effect unit through the loop and gotten some really crazy stuff happening, so it open to more than it first appears to. I look at it like a good amp or guitar, its very important that they sound really good, cause yopu can always add crazier stuff to it after the fact. I'm tired of sacrificing tone for verasatility.

Reliability: N/A
I cant realy say yet, seams very sturdy, but we'll see.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
Overall all i give it a ten because its just what i was looking for. A multieffects unit, with realy good tone at a decent price. Its not perfect at everything, but its great at what it does. The truth is that trying to do everything usually results in doing nothing well. I've own the digitech rp-12 and gnx-1, Boss, and the dg-stomp, and this is by far the best one.

Submitted by Randy at 02/27/2005 14:43

Price Paid: 475 (US rate at Hermes Music)

Ease of Use: N/A
Let me start by saying I don't own this unit, so I won't even give ratings. I am considering buying it (Hermes music sells it for $475), but am studying the manual before purchasing. As I sit here going thru the manual, I am going to discuss specific points that no one has really touched on.

If I am incorrect, or failing to note some items, blame the manual, not me. I don't have one.

Just what can you apply the expression pedal to?
Wah position
AutoWah sensitivity
Speed of univibe
Center Frequency of phaser sweep
Ring Mod direct mix (but why not the effect mix?)
Ring mod filter cutoff
Ring mod oscillator frequency
Octafuzz drive, level and tone
Chorus speed, depth, & center frequency (& mix on bi chorus)
Flanger speed, depth, resolution and center frequency
Phaser speed, depth, resolution
Tremolo speed, depth, spread
Rotary speed, depth and acceleration
Pitch shifter fine, coarse (-24/+24), direct mix, effect mix
Delay speed, depth, feedback, time, mix
Filtron attack, depth, resolution, cutoff freq, sensitiity
Talk mod attach, depth, vocal character, sensitivity
In various delays you can generally adjust time, feedback, tone, speed and mix... ducking on a few
Reverb time, lo attenuation, hi attenuation, mix
Gate low, hi, mix

This covers most of the stuff anyone will reasonably use on an expression pedal... There are a couple of things I'd like to see, but have yet to find in any pedal I've tried..

For instance, I'd like to be able to do the actual sweep of the phaser or flanger with the pedal... but you can't. With the RP2000, you could at least stop the speed (assign LFO speed to pedal and then set it to its lowest position, 0.000Hz), but with this pedal, you cannot stop the sweep.. the LFO goes a minimum of 0.100 Hz. Why do I HAVE to use an LFO? My feet ain't broken, and there are certain sweet spots in the phase and flange that I'd like to hold.

I don't see anything in the manual regarding amp control with the expression pedals.. obviously you can assign volume to one, but can you assign gain, presence, tone, etc. to the other? I don't know... I sure would like an expression pedal for my gain. Even better would be a "dual inverted expression"... increase the gain while lowering the total volume for a smooth transition between clean and distorted without a change in volume... I'm dreaming, there..

There's mix control on most of the effects.. why can't I have it on the Wah? They put mix control on the octave effect, but can't I use the expression pedals to control the octave mixes? Does the expression pedal work on any parameters for Treble Boost, Tube OD, Super OD, Boutique, Fat OD, Orange Dist, or Fuzz? Doesn't look like it from the manual..

Dammit.. I want to fade between clean and distored, but I don't think this pedal will let me do so. The way I set my rig up now, I split my guitar signal so clean and distorted are on separate expression pedals, and I can have any amount of either (however, I don't have a button for an immediate switch between the two channels :-(

Sound Quality: N/A
I played with it at the music store.. Sounds nice. What you put into it is what you'll get out of it. If you think it sucks, you probably need either a new guitar, a new sound system, or a new set of ears. It's an instrument. Like any instrument, you'll have to practice with it to get the sound you're looking for.

Very cool: There is an effects loop for external effects.. a definite step up from say a Digitech RP2000 (a very similar unit).

Very UNcool: It does not appear as though you can define WHERE the external loop is.. The docs put this loop at the beginning of the chain (directly after the guitar input). That's just fine if you are plugging in a compressor... good for distortion, unless you wanted your distortion after the wah... questionable for phaser/flanger/chorus (probably ok clean, but distored this won't work right... those effects want to be after distortion), completely useless for reverb/delay or any other effects that need to be near the end of the chain..

For that matter, I think you can move effects around, so long as you're playing with the after both the pre and power amp.. You can't use the Tone Lab's effects before the preamp. This just doesn't sit right with me...

The way I set my rig up, I have some effects before the pre amp, some after, but none after the power amp, I don't think... On a typical amp, isn't the effect loop between the pre and power amps? Maybe I'm incorrect on this point..

There are folks who've complained about the Pitch Shifter... well, it sounded fine to me, given that I'm quite used to a Whammie pedal... but this ain't an eventide, so don't expect clean chord pitch shifts.. In my tests, the chord-based pitch shifts sound horrible, just like my Whammie (or the RP2000) pedal. Sounds ok on single notes, though there is a slight delay (just like the Whammie or RP2000).. If you want to shift entire chords, you need to apply several thousand more dollars for an eventide processor (the only device I know of that will do what you want).

This unit clearly has some Very Cool Effects:
BI Chorus - dual chorus that can be hooked either in series or in parallel, with synced or unsynched LFO

Duo Phase - 6 six stage phasers, in series or parallel, synced or unsynced LFO... wicked!

Stereo Rotary with independent speed control on left and right

Direct and Effect mix control on pitch shifter is cool.. the tracking may help deal with chord-based pitch shifting.. I'm not sure. I didn't see anything regarding specific pitches... ie. shift exactly a 4th or 5th... maybe this could be programmed, maybe not... Digitech Whammie and RP2000 could do this, but the RP2000 has way better control so you could fade in and out of anything from a minor 2nd thru Major 7th, as well as fluid control of 2 octaves up or down (the Whammie will drop 3 full octaves!).

The filtron, an envelope controlled filter, looks cool...

The echoplus looks like a cool analog delay that models something... ???the original echoplex??? but has a way longer delay than a standard analog delay (2 full seconds)

Double tap delay... Also a 2tapdelay that has a 20ms different between R&L.. cool for a nice stereo sound.

Hold delay of 8 seconds... that's pretty good, but come on.. this is digital, man... give me minutes of delay, not seconds. You've already screwed me out of hooking up my loop samplers (see "overall" below)..

Reliability: N/A
Looks sturdy as hell.. You could probably use this pedal for self defense, but you might break the tube if you hit someone too hard with it.

Customer Support: N/A
Never dealt with Vox directly, but the manual is their first line of support.

The manual totally sucks. Vox is obviously afraid of infringing on certain copyrights so they won't necessarily tell you what is what. Anything in double quotes "" is direct from the manual:

The Tube OD effect is "based on an overdrive pedal that's housed in a garish, 'seasick green' box..." blah.. They won't tell you that it's modeling an Ibanez Tube Screamer (I presume).

The BLK/ORG Phaser.. "models three models of phaser; a wide-range four-stage phaser that was made in Denmark and packaged in a black box, a popular four-stage phaser that came in a banana colored box, and a mild-sounding ten-stage phaser that was likewise banana colored". Sad and pathetic.. Just tell me what you're talking about, already. I am unfamiliar with these units, so I don't know what they're supposed to be.. Not that it matters, but it would be nice to know.

The Boutique effect "models an overdrive unit named after a half-human half-horse creature appearing in Greek Fables". The Fat OD is "based on a pedal named after one of the most disliked rodents..." The orange dist "models a classic distortion unit manufactured in Japan and packaged in an orange box".

There's no end to this crap... "A stereo chorus in a yellow case".. Here's a good one... the Classic Flanger "a model of a truly classic analogue flanger that 'unchained' a highly influential modern guitarist who many hail as the 'godfather of two handed tapping'".

COME ON PEOPLE. If you're going to model an effect, don't tell me what color box the original came in, tell me what it is. Give me the name of the freaking guitar player you're referring to, or don't fill up your manual with mind-numbing crap.

But somewhere they do refer to the Korg Traveler pedal by name... I don't get it...

The manual indicates that effects parameters marked with a * can be applied to an expression pedal. UniVibe speed does not have such an astersik, but 3 lines later, there is a hint that says it can... Can I assign the univibe depth or mix to the expression pedal??? I don't know. Logically, you might think so, but the manual wouldn't agree with you.

The manual doesn't have any info on applying expression pedals to amp modeling or any type of distortion :(

Overall Rating: N/A
Please don't think I'm being negative. I'm mainly trying to highlight specific shortcomings that MOST people probably won't even notice.

It's probably bad-ass! For the price, you'd be hard pressed to find a better unit. Despite my complaints, I wish I had one... I just don't think I'll part with the money to get one.

Quite frankly, the shortcomings I've described can be applied to virtually any unit of this "style". I've used the RP2000, Johnson J-Station, and a few other multi-effects units, and they all have similar problems to what I've described here.

The lack of ability to move the effects insert is the sticking point. I do a solo act using an echoplex and a boomerang sampler (the echoplex lets me record up to 198 seconds, then overdub, mix, multiply, insert etc. on the fly). If I could move that effects loop, I'd buy the ToneLab SE in an instant. Without that ability, the samplers end up in the WRONG PLACE (read my reviews on those products for further information). They pretty much have to be AFTER the distortion, but BEFORE the reverb. Ideally, pitch shift/phaser/chorus/delay/flange/univibe and other standard effects could be placed either before or after the external loop, depending on preference at the time. Would be ultra cool to be able to hit a button to switch the location of these other effects.

Submitted by John Nelson at 02/15/2005 00:50

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 10
Very easy to use and navigate.

Sound Quality: 9
It has any possible sound within its thousands of parameters.
I am using it with 2 Music Man combos and it has sounded amazing.
The effects are beautiful.

The problem is... as with any box of this nature...finding sounds that work in a live situation.
This is a trial and error process and when you find your sounds you will be amazed.

The other problem is getting to your saved sounds.
The footwork is reasonable, but I wish there was a better way.

Reliability: 10
It has been very dependable for me.
The construction is very sturdy.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
I think this thing has the capability for amazing sounds.
I've had a few gigs where it sounded better than anything I've ever tried.

The dual variable pedals are a really cool touch.
They are very tweakable and can do more than the average bear.

Overall, this is a very useful musical piece of gear.

Submitted by Anonymous at 02/13/2005 02:57

Price Paid: US $450.00

Ease of Use: 9
If you've hacked your way around a couple of guitar processors before, then this should be no different. It's especially easy if you get it hooked up to your computer (via midi in AND out) and install the editing software. If you play to sequencer live, then the possibilities open up dramatically in terms of changing parameters through mdi control, i.e. suddenly riding your reverb up for a passage, etc...

Sound Quality: 8
the question of sound quality is SO subjective, everyone has different tastes... The short version of my review would be: great for live, only ok for direct recording, since the high end seems a little weird to me.

The first thing I did when I unpacked it is put as the effect loop in my rig (THD BiValve w/ KT66's into a Guytron 2x12 closed pack cab with a 80's Les Paul Custom and a '61 Fender jazzmaster) and I was surprised at how transparent the convertors were... in other words, I could make the box disappear by bypassing all the efects and amp/cab settings. Excellent. Next I tried setting it up so that I could switch to a dirty channel B, and pretty quickly I had something usable, partly thanks to the sound of the THD's overdrive coloring the the tone and keeping it inn the same ballpark as the clean tone. Other points on the live use of the SE: the revrbs are impressive, and the use of the expression pedals with their min/max functions can make for some really expressive distortion tones. The pedal FX (tube OD, fat dist etc) are a little brittle and won't do much for me unless their pushing against the Valve Reactor and/or my amp, but the insert switch is very useful, since you can turn on an entire effects chain (comp, overdrive, eq) in one stomp.

note: after trying to use Z.Vex effects in the insert position on the SE, I switched around the signal chain: Z.Vex effects 1st, the into the SE, then into the amp. I'm not sure that the impedence loading of my amp is a perfect match for the SE...

Direct Recording:in this case I set up with my les paul straight in, a rat and a mutron biphase in the insert on the SE. and then stereo TRS out into my apogee convertors. I do wish that this box had a digital out (like the regular tonelab), but whatever. In this set up I found that it took a while to create a couple of really useable presets. Its clear that Vox focused on the 'feel' of playing with a tube amp, and they got it down pretty well: in particular amp 'sag,' and the british sound where you hear your pick ups in the amp ( I don't know how to describe it really, a certain kind of compression that comes from tube gain where you really hear your strings in the detail of the amp). That said, the overall quality of the treble is pretty poor, and the limit of cabinet models with out post EQ, mic'ing options or secondary room reflections completely limit the viability of the SE as a replacement for traditional electric guitar recording techniques, at least as far as albums go. For TV work, I can get the required sounds quickly and effectively as long as I push the engineer in the right direction regarding post eq and room reflections. So those are the cons, the pros again are the reverbs (which get pretty gigantic), the multhead delay is nice and the textrem set nice and wide will definitely spice up a track.

Reliability: N/A
so far so good. Seems well built and thank you thank you for the gig bag!

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 8
Another user remarked that this pedal was not that useful for alternative rock guitar sounds, and I kind of agree. If distortion tones are your thing, then you'll still have to work with other pedals/or amps to find combinations that are unique and musical. If you need a work horse to get quick guitar sounds for gigs or session work, then this will be a totally useful tool, especially in combination with a few outside pieces. If you're using this live, then try putting it as the effect send on your amp, maybe something interesting will happen when you hit it with your post-preamp guitar signal. If you have prests you love then email them to me cause I'd love to check them out.

Also, I've set this guy up as a send for my DAW (digital Performer) and saved some CPU by sending guitars (and vocals, and drums, and keyboards etc) back out to it for some very useable colorations....

Overall, I'm glad someone is paying attention to 'feel' when it comes to amp modelling, now if we can get the tone/cabinet mic'ing together we'll be all set. This is a useful tool and for the money, its the best in its class

Submitted by Alex Kemp at 01/31/2005 19:51

Price Paid: US $599

Ease of Use: 10
This Tone Lab is really nice and easy to use. The only thing I don't like is the cheesey Treble pot for the amp section. It distorts too easy. I would give this a 10 but the cheap Treble circuit in the amp section needs to be re-born with some higher quality. Pro's use this thing too.

Sound Quality: N/A
Too much Distortion in the Treble pot , in the amp section. No excuse for this. It breaks up for no reason ,other than Cheap.

Reliability: 10
So far so good

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A

Submitted by Voxfan at 01/17/2005 08:34

Price Paid: 320 (UK Pounds)

Ease of Use: 9
Tonelab SE is really easy to use.

Editing is a breeze and, though you must tweak a little to get the perfect sound out of it, this will make you forget that many factory presets aren't that good.

Manual is well written and it's clear. However I feel like they had forgotten to print two or three pages since, for instance, I've got to learn the "hold delay" function (amazing function to record loops and play over them) all by myself.

Sound Quality: 9
I'm using Tonelab SE live along with a Fat Strat type guitar. On rehearsals I connect it to a guitar combo's power amp input and on stage directly to a mixer or PA.

This unit can be a little noisy depending on the combination of settings you choose. On the other hand, the noise supressor is quite good.

Overall, the effects are really amazing (wah, compressor, boosters & distortions, modulation effects, delays, reverbs, ...). Maybe the ones which are not that great are the pitch shifter and the octaver.
Amps are outstanding and cabinets are quite good too. Your sound can be extremely close to a Fender Twin Reverb, Marshall Plexi, Vox AC30 TB, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier or any other amp this beast has within.

Reliability: 9
This thing is definitely reliable. It's built like a tank.

Just keep in mind that you have to wait for the tube to get cold before moving it as you'd do with a real tube amp.

I you will be on a gig soon, remember to carry another tube as a spare and a suitable wrenck in case you have to replace it.

Customer Support: N/A
N/A

Overall Rating: 9
I play pop-rock-funky and metal too and this pedalboard rules!
I've been playing for 12 years.
I also own a PODxt, which I use for recording.

What I absolutely love about the Tonelab SE is the FEELING.
At the beginning I thought that Tonelab SE blew the PODxt away because of its great sound, but then I realized that the sounds from PODxt could be as good as the ones from Tonelab SE.
Finally, I saw that the secret was the feeling. As anybody else said, Tonelab SE responds like a tube amp to different guitars, pickup selections, tone control settings and pick attack... lovely pick attack!

Therefore I ended using PODxt just for recording and Tonelab SE live, though it lacks a post EQ, as many other have stated. I must also say that Tonelab SE is not upgradable by now... but I don't need to.

Tonelab SE helps me play more and tweak less and it is also really inspiring for me. I enjoy composing again!

Submitted by Marc at 01/14/2005 06:18

Price Paid: 550 (EUR)

Ease of Use: 10
The tonelab is very easy to use. It has not too many switches and the programming interface is not too deep, which means it doesnt't have millions off underpages which would make you loose the overview.

Sound Quality: 10
First off all I want to say that I am not going to compare the tonelab to the originals it trys to emulate. First I don't have the possibility, and second I don't really care for I just wanted to have a flexible soundsource.

I think the sounds overall are very good. Compared to the pod stuff I would say that overall the vox sounds "earthier" more vintage, while the pod sounds more modern.

As I don't use everything the tonelab has to offer, I will comment on some of my favourites.
With the simulated Marshalls i can get a very nice distorted tone which glides from the clean side to the distorted side while i change pickups and add little tube stomp box drive.
I can get nice thick lead sounds with vaiish character with the boutique amp.
I have built some compressed funky clean sounds with the tweed amp.

Overall you can build some great sounds which are very clear even when distorted. You can get very articulated sounds (clean and distorted) which react beautifully to your playing dynamics. And you can also create some very percussive sounds.

The effects are also good. I like the vox wah!

Hope this helped, I like it :-)

Reliability: 8
I don't have it that long, but it looks well built.

Customer Support: N/A
Don't know?!

Overall Rating: 10
Been playing for 15 years.

I mainly play progressive rock. So I need to be able to switch from one sound to a totally different one with one button. I also need a couple of different sounds, spacey cleans, plain cleans, slightly distorted, fat distorted, etc... and all with effects depending on the song.
I can do that with the tonelab and that is great!

Equipment:
Tonelab se -> Peavey 50/50 Power amp -> Marshall 4x12 with Celstions 12T75
It sounds good, BUT, in the same practicing room there's another guitarist who uses an Engl 4x12 Cabinet with Celestions V12-60 I think. I played my setup over it and it sounds soooo much better. So don't forget that there are still other components that make up your
sound, Cabinets, guitars, and last but NOT least your playing style.

Yes, if stolen, I'd probably buy it again.

Submitted by stephan at 01/04/2005 03:30

Price Paid: Euro (590)

Ease of Use: 8
Very easy to use. The manual could be better - I find it particulary annoying not to be exactly sure on how to dial for each amp model the sound I'd get from the actual amp with everything cranked all the way, and somehow they managed to be unclear about this. I guess they tried to write a cool manual (it is rather cool indeed...) and they forgot to be clear about this. Other than that, this unit is very easy to use, most probably the easiest unit in its category.

Sound Quality: 9
As another reviewer said, this units should not be expected to sound as good as the amps they try to imitate. I agree with that, and I never expected this thing to sound better than real tube amps. I bought it to use at rehearsals and live, through my Fender Hot Rod, mainly as an EFFECTS processor, and hoping there might be a couple of amp sims I could actually dare using. What I really needed was the effects, the amps were like a bonus really. On the other hand, I was hoping to get the best imitations on Vox amps out there, because I like Fenders and Vox, and I do have a Fender amp.

All that being said, let's go to the sound part: it does all I expected it to do, and more. I didn't expect it to:

- Have such good quality amp models. They all sound really different. I usually make this test with these units (POD, V-amp, etc): I listen to the different amp models through headphones and without the speaker emulation. You do this and you should find every amp sounds pretty much the same, but not with the Tonelab. The Vox models are really accurate, as far as accuracy goes for a modelled amp. I was also shocked to see I get more of a good feeling from my beloved Fender Hot Rod when using some of the amp models from the vox than I get just using the amp. Some might think this is because the amp I'm using is not a great tube amp... well alright, it's not a Matchless... on the other hand, if you do have a Matchless and all sorts of gear, the what are you doing reading this? Everyone on this posts say they have tons of equipment and being playing guitar for thirty years or so. I do know a couple of guys with the gear and the experience AND without the ears, so that doesn't impress me, and I don't think readers should be impressed by that kind of posts either.

- The effects are so good. I bought it mainly because I wanted one good unit to carry around. You see, I still don't have a guy to do the job for me, so I figured I'd rather have one piece of gear instead of a hundred (well, five or six stomp boxes would be more accurate). But I expected it to be not very good, as most floor multi-effects units are. For instance, I have a Hughes & Kettner Rotosphere, and it is the heaven of leslie emulation. The Tonelab doesn't actually sound that good, but it sounds good enough not to notice an important difference on a club... of course, I would not use the Tonelab for recording a leslie sound because I have the Rotosphere, but the distance in quality is not that big. This applies to mostly all the other effects: they are very very good. The delays don't sound as good as my Memory Man, the phasers don't thrill me as my Small Stone (yes, I do like Electro Harmonix effects). But I don't miss them much either when rehearsing or playing live in a gig.

- I definitely didn't expect the wah to sound as good as it does. Actually at first I didn't even wanted to try the wah in the Tonelab, I was convinced it would sound like crap. But it doesn't: it sounds great. I don't miss my cry baby at all right now (I've been using it for years!).

- I really didn't expect the distortion stomp box models to sound as good as they do. You can actually use them. I've been avoiding distortion pedals for ages, they allways sounded like crap to me. Not anymore!

In general, I'd give it a 10 in sound quality. There are, though, a couple of things you should know:

1 - It doesn't sound that great for direct recording. I guess, somehow, the heartless (to my ears anyway) sound of the line 6 products is better at this, for some reason I don't quite understand. If you want it for direct recording exclusively, I think you should go that way. I can't see why you would be thinking on getting a floor multi-effects unit to use on a desktop for direct recording anyway.

2 - I agree with a previous reviewer: why didn't they put an overall eq? why there isn't a main volume for every program? I don't mean the volume of and the eq of the amp model, because I don't always use the

Reliability: N/A
Boy, it shure is heavy! I don't have an opinion on this, it just seems well built.

Customer Support: N/A
Let's hope it doesn't break and I'll never have to find out about this.

Overall Rating: 9
Best in its category, only exceeded by the actual things it emulates, and not by far in some cases. If you are a metal head, anyway, perhaps you should go for Boss or Digitech or even Zoom products, I just don't know. OR you could start making music. It's never too late!

Now, seriosly, I just gave it a very good and long and proper review. But, let's go again on this: why didn't I get a volume and EQ? was it THAT expensive to include it? It'd really come in handy I think. Wasn't it even an idea while you, people at Vox, where designing this thing? I really like the Tonelab, and feel bad about having to point out a flaw in it. If it had an EQ and a Volume as an independent part in each program it would probably be a 10 in all categories.

I really hope people at Vox are reading this: keep up the good work! don't forget the EQ next time! Bye bye.

Submitted by Anonymous at 12/23/2004 20:26

Price Paid: US $599

Ease of Use: 8
There are a ton of controls that you can shape your tone with however you want. It'll take you some time to dial all this stuff in the way you want it. The controls are perplexing at first. Each numerical bank has 4 banks each, selected by the switches. This could be useful if you have a couple of effects that you'd like to patch through in a hurry, say if you're doing one song on top of another. However, when you first sit down with it, it can be confusing. You also have to change the modes on the processor by tapping the FX On/Off switch that enables you to either turn off the effects directly, or enables you to select your patches. Isn't there an easier way to do this?

The knob based adjustment is really nice, but your patches won't correspond to your knob settings when you've changed patches. At the price this thing costs, I'd like to see motorized knobs like the Fender CyberTwin amp. Then, you'll know where you are before you change the setting.

The feel of this board is very nice. It uses the very same expression pedals as on the Vox wahs. Also, the switches to turn on/off the effects are nice switches just like you'd find on any MXR or boutique stopbox. It just screams quality.

Sound Quality: 7
As far as the general sound, it's about as organic sounding as it gets for digital modeling. I compared this side by side to a Pod XT Live board and it blew the Pod away in sound quality - except for one. The "Uni-V" setting does NOT sound like a Univibe. It has this double studder that doesn't sound anything like the real deal. It becomes very apparent the slower you set the speed. The POD got it right, though it sounded digital somewhat.

The POD also had far more patches, and good ones at that. The patches on the Vox could use some work and lots more of them to boot.

I've yet to see a modeling processor, yet, that gives me the total Hendrix sound. You cannot combine a fuzz distortion, Univibe, and wah. You can have the fuzz and wah, the Univibe and wah, but the fuzz and Univibe cannot be combined at the same time. This it totally obsured. This is the most well known effects combination on planet earth, and you can't have it.

However, the other sounds are pretty impressive. I liked the phaser, the tremelo, the chorus, and the reverb.

I was also a little disappointed that the volume swings with the gain settings. Getting a Recto setting produces ungodly gain and the volume increase to correspond. I'd rather see the volume be the same across the patches.

Reliability: 9
Can't vouch for reliability, but this thing looks and feels like it'll hold up very well. However, the electronics may be something else altogether.

I'm giving it a 9 because it seems built well, but you never know.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 8
There is no such thing as the perfect effects processor, yet. Digital has come a long way, and is getting more and more impressive, esspecially when combined with a tube. However, this thing is awfully pricey. I was really disappointed in the Univibe setting, and the fact that the fuzz and Univibe cannot be combined. However, if these are not concerns of yours, this thing sounds absolutely great for a digital processor.

This thing is expensive, but like I said, it's built very well and most sounds are pretty nice. I haven't found a more organic sounding digital processor yet. Also, if you add up all of its capabilities and bought them in individual stompboxes, you'd spend a lot more.

Submitted by Anonymous at 12/23/2004 10:40

Price Paid: US $474.00 plus tax

Ease of Use: 8
Like many others have mentioned, sometimes you gotta check back with the manual for 'x' reason, but overall it's relatively easy, especially compared with many other amp modellers and tubepreamp racks I have owned in the past.

Sound Quality: 9
Overall great sound quality, blows the pods, vamps and others out of the water... it doesn't have that 'digital nasality' especially when playing solos or other one note passages. I'm usually using it with a PRS standard 24 in dropped B or an epiphone les paul custom with emg81 and emg60 pickups (of course, decent to badass guitars are really gonna help it sound better, I'd recommend more tone tweaking and practice to those who can't make it sound half decent) and this unit CAN most definitely can DO metal... I don't mean moderate crunch, either. I have easily dialed in zakk wyldes (of course it sounds more authentic on the epi custom but hey... what great guitarrist ever played an aria anyways? ahaha aJK :), I can get the nu-metal stuff quite easily too, linkin park/limp bizkit, classic and current van halen sounds were a little trickier (i also have and ibanez jem) the pitch shifter isn't great but the octafuzz rocks!!! I got that plexifuzz hendrix tone goin even without a strat... or that kenny wayne shepard sound from the blue on black solo for instance... ok I'm just rambling, great cleans, great crunches, really nice effects , can't do the dist. pedal and wah at the same time which is dissapointing so I can't get the zakk wylde w/wah and push the jcm800 into squealie zone at the same time... foiled again! does anyone know if you can edit this via midi perhaps?

Reliability: 10
I've been gigging with it, way more reliable than my pod ever was... or the floorboard at least... I paid more for my floorboard than I did the pod and it was always crapping out... not a fluke mind you about 5 other friends in various bands had the same problem, one friend just stuck to an old boss midi pedal to remedy this. the tube runs at 1 volt so I'm not too worried about it blowing out but I still would like to get a spare to keep in my guitar case cuz hey it doesn't work at all withouta the tube.

Customer Support: N/A
no no and no... I'm sure they're lovely blokes though!

Overall Rating: 10
nu-metal/hard hard rock and lots of other stuff.
been playing 11 years or so. Pod 2.0, vamp2, peaveytubefx, digitech2001, ibanez sz, ibanez jem, epi custom emgs, prs standard 24
I've played through a lot of amps, actually even did an A/B test with through a JCM2000 ... bypassed and compared the model of the same ... I really could hardly tell the difference, probably only because of the eq in my preset.
definitely gets the creative juices flowing, I've already done a lot of recording with it, direct in fact, at first wasn't quite convinced but it was really just a board eq tweaking matter although I still wanna try it amped and mic'd. wish it had at least DUAL pedal capabliaties, I think the everyones biggest complaint would have to be the no wah+dist. am I right? I just gotsta have my tubescreamer or overdrive pedal WITH the wahwah man!

Submitted by sean at 12/22/2004 00:28

Price Paid: US $599

Ease of Use: 10
I found the Vox very easy to use, the manual was a bit wordy - but I plugged the board into my computer via midi access, plugged my guitar into the board, plugged the board into my amp (peavey 50/50 classic into an avatar 2x12 cabinet) and using the computer interface I dialed in four banks for awesome tone in a couple of hours. Assigning the effects and adjusting the parameters on the pedals is simple. The board has more effects and settings than I will ever use - and here's the big secret for those who couldn't get a decent sound - you gotta spend some time with the board to dial in what your looking for, don't rely on the factory settings, if your favorite amp showed up at your door with all the dials turned all over the place wouldn't you tweek some to get what you want??? Anyhow, I find this board to be very easy to set up and use.

Sound Quality: 10
As I mentioned earlier I'm using a Peavey classic 50 /50 tube amp, Avatar 2x12 cabinet (V30 and G12H30), I also use an Atomic Reactor 1x12 modeler amp. For guitars I'm using a Fender Clapton Strat and a Heritage H535 (similar to a gibson 335). The board is dead quiet, some of the effects (phase and flange) will throw in some hiss when used but that's the way the vintage pedals the emulate sounded. The effects are awesome, I love the univibe, wah, phase, flange, reverb, octave and chorus effects - the board offers more effects than I'll ever use. Some people have knocked the wah pedal - again, you need to adjust the parameters of the wah (sweet spot, amount of sweep) to get what you really like, I get the best wah sound I've ever had, my teese rmc3 is gone. You can get pretty much whatever your looking for out of this board - it may not do metal as some of the others have mentioned but then why would anyone buy something like this to play something like that??? Stick to crates and boss super distortions.... Another thing, if you buy this board and play it into an amp you better tweek and remove the cabinet simulators - those getting excessive highs and lack of lows are experiencing the cabinet simulator not working with set up your using. Simple stuff, read the directions and use your ears to dial in (key words here) the sounds your looking for, I'm getting some great tones with my setup, wouldn't trade it for the world.

Reliability: 9
This board is built like a brick shithouse, nothing plastic on top, the switches are all metal and the pedals are the same as those found on a vox wah. I have complete faith this board will last a long long time, I don't take a backup on gigs.

Customer Support: N/A
Can't comment on this, I haven't had to use any customer support.

Overall Rating: 10
I play rock, rock/blues, blues - and some acoustic sets - the amp nails all the tones and sounds I need. I've been playing for awhile, I'm tired of lugging big heads and tons of pedals around - the tonelabse does it all, there isn't anything I don't like about the board, there's a bunch of stuff I'll probably never use but that's okay - I think I got a great deal for what it does, I've invested three times what I paid for the board in pedals over the years and now I have one board that covers all those areas - the pedals were sold and that's how I bought the tonelabse. I've heard pods and gt's - the tonelabe is the only amp simulator I found that can create authentic amp tones in a live rig - the pod and gt6 couldn't do it.

Submitted by Anonymous at 12/04/2004 20:50

Price Paid: US $600

Ease of Use: 9
Easy at first, then difficult, then I read the manual, then easy. You need to read the manual to get the best results because it's not like other effects units out there.
Editing is simple, just turn knobs until you get what you want, then hit one button twice to save.
The manual is the key to getting the best sound. This unit has a hot pre-amp, which I wasn't used to from a multi-effects unit. You can't really crank up the volumn on the unit itself if you're running into the front of an amp.

Sound Quality: 9
I'm playing a Hammer through the TonelabSE into a 130 watt Peavey Special. At first I played directly into the power amp, bipassing the pre-amp on the amp itself, with the out on the Tonelab set to Line, then I tried going through the front(Amp out setting), getting a lot of unwanted distortion on clean settings. Not being used to a multi-effects unit that you didn't have to turn up at least halfway, I didn't realize what was causing the distortion. The output is hotter than anything I've played through before. You have to keep the unit turned down pretty low. Other than that the effects sound great, you can adjust them to sound like just about whatever you want.
I like the echo effects as I play a lot of 50's and 60's rockabilly to surf. This is the first unit I've found that you can get a decent echoplex sound out of. I play a lot of 70's rock and bluesy type stuff, and you can definately get the distortion need to play Skynard. I never played much metal, but it's oboious that those heavey tones can be achieved as well. The flange, phase, and chorus effects sound good too. They are easier to control than in other units I've owned, Digitech and ART. This unit you can tweek existing programs or start from scratch. Oh, the auto wah is easy to use and responds well, I don't use the wah pedal much, but it seems to work well, you just have to set the tone where you want it.

Reliability: 9
Have owned for 6 months, no problems, outside my own ignorance. I'm going to get an extra tube to pack along, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. I carry and old unit just for a back up, but I would do that with anything.

Customer Support: 9
N/A

Overall Rating: 9
Classic Rock & Roll Oldies/Country/Blues. Been playing for 25 years. Would purchase again.
The best thing I like is that it's easy to program. Other units I've owned I was stuck with the preset and what they had in them pretty much. In the Tonelab you can add or take away any effect. Of course there are certain effects that you can't put together, for instance, you can use the wah pedal and the acoustic setting at the same time, or the distortion and wah, which is kind of strange.

Submitted by JD at 12/01/2004 07:47

Price Paid: 5450 (SEK)

Ease of Use: 9
I rarely read manuals for anything, and you certainly don't need to with this one. It is so easy to operate much thanks to the lack of options but also the nicely laid out interface.
It doesn't have the tons of options that many other multi-fx units have which is good for usability. I wish that they had made more options available via the MIDI interface though.
The only thing that can be a hassle is that there's no way to instantly see the current setting of a patch. You need to turn the knobs to find which the original setting is.

Something I really miss from my old Digitech RP-1 floorboard is the ability to switch back to the previous patch by pushing the stomp of the current patch. But I guess I will get used to it.

If you can operate a guitar amp, then you can operate a tonelab.

Sound Quality: 8
This is where I'm split. It doesn't work as well as a direct recording unit as I had hoped it would. It sounds OK through a PA system. It sounds great through an amp.

It does sound and responds a lot more like a real amp than what the Pod and V-Amp does, but it fails to emulate the acoustics of an amp cabinet and speaker in a room. When I turn up the gain on the tonelab not much happens with the sound other than more distortion. It sounds more like a lined FX-unit than a miced amp. So it's not really ideal for direct recording, especially not with high gain sounds. And this was a huge dissapointment for me since it was one of the reasons I bought this unit. A bit of room reverb can help but it still doesn't sound natural.
But coupled with a software amp modeller I guess it could work out I have to experiment a bit with that. But on it's own, it just doesn't cut it. It's just such a shame that they didn't bother to make it better in this area. They have had some time to do research. They could even have licenced a chip from another company.

Most of the effects in this unit are excellent, I especially like the reverbs. The pitch shifter was a bit dissapointing and the hold delay wasn't really what I was expecting (one of the reasons I choose this unit). Some of the distortion pedals sounds really sweet through an amp if you bypass the amp modeller on the tonelab.

The signal is noiseless. There is the normal noise you get when using high gain models, but that's all part of the show. The fact is that the signal itself is very clean.

This unit works best for jazz, blues, classic rock, and some kinds of hard rock. I play mostly alternative rock with distorted grungy open chords and the tonelab is certainly not ideal for that kind of music, it doesn't deliver the full tonal range as I would expect from a real amp. But with some tweaking, I can get OK sounds for my kind of music. Not great, but OK.
If you are into monster distorted nu-metal then the tonelab won't cut it. Even with heavy tweaking. The Pod will suite you much better.

The tonelab excels at lead sounds. I have never heard a modeller delivering such beautifully singing leads. If you are playing jazz, blues and metal leads, this is the unit for you.
Personally I only play lead guitars for fun. And while it is fun to play leads with the tonelab, it's not my primary use for it.

One thing that really bugs me about the Tonelab is the lack of a post EQ. Why, oh why didn't they bother to put one into it? I mean, even my old Digitech RP-1 has a post EQ.
It would be OK if the sound that came out of the tonelab was ideal out of the box. But fact is that it isn't. It has way too much activity in the high freqs and it lacks some bass. This unit really needs equalizing to sound good. So be prepared to shell out with $200 for an equalizer.

But after all, for the money you pay, this unit sounds really good. Ten years ago you would have to pay at least four times as much for something like this.
The only thing the Pod has over this unit is the cab modeller and post EQ. Something I really hope that Korg thinks hard about for the next version.

It isn't the be all end all, but it's very good.

Reliability: 9
It certainly looks like it's going to survive a nuclear blast, but then again you can't depend on looks. I haven't abused the unit enough to say that it's reliable. Even though the casing is metal there's a lot of knobs, leds and displays on it that can break. And I have never opened it up to check out the soldering of the electronics. I just have to pray that it's well made.

I don't have the budget to buy a backup so the Tonelab just better hang in there with me. I think it would take some serious abuse to break this thing though. It seems very well built.
I feel that I can trust it.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 8
I bought the Tonelab SE because I wanted something that I could use for direct recording, rehearsals and gigs without having to carry around a big amp. It works well for rehearsals and hopefully for gigs(don't know yet) but it fails for direct recording compared to the Pod. I really miss some good cab modelling in this unit.
The lack of a post EQ is another downer as it is really needed for the Tonelab.

However, it does sound really good especially with clean and dirty sounds. Most of the amp models are nice, even though I could have wished for some more modern sounding amps. The effects are really great for the money you pay.

This is not a modern hi-tech effects unit like the ones Boss/Roland makes, it just doesn't have those kind of options and abilities. The tonelab is very back to basics and oldschool just like an amp with a bunch of stomp boxes. Easy to use but limited to trippy people.

What I like most about this unit is the ease of use and great looks. It is a bit too big and heavy to carry around but I can live with that since I don't need an amp anymore.

Even though I am a bit dissapointed in this unit I will stick to it. Taking everything in consideration I just think that I can't find a better unit for my needs and budget out there.

If it was stolen, I would check to see if there was a better unit out there. Hopefully a new improved Tonelab with better cab sims and post eq.

Submitted by Henrik Petersson at 11/23/2004 19:43

Price Paid: US $599

Ease of Use: 10
Prior to purchasing the ToneLab SE, I was a Line 6 user. In contrast to Line 6’s Flextone II (had a POD 2.0 brain) and the PODxt 2.x, the ToneLab SE is a "walkup and use" unit. No buried parameters only editable via a computer. No "press and hold" buttons and no scrolling through endless menus. Each ToneLab SE model category has a dedicated "chicken head" knob (cool choice). Just spin this knob to select the model, and then use ToneLab SE's 6 value knobs to teak the model's parameters. A LED provides a visual cue as to which row of labeled parameters corresponds to the six value knobs. Alternatively, if the model's "chicken head" knob already points to your target model, just press the button below this knob. The button will blink and you can then use ToneLab SE's value knobs to adjust its parameters. With VOX’s free downloadable SoundEditor software and a midi connection, you also can adjust the unit using the software’s highly usable visual interface. I often use this software to create new patches while at home between gigs.

With my PODxt 2.x, I grew tired of endlessly tweaking its dizzying array of parameters to get a good sound...too many variables to take into consideration. I just want to play guitar and not tweak! Like a tube amp, with the ToneLab SE you can quickly dial in awesome tones! One caveat…you need to understand its Valve Reactor technology and how it fits into the overall signal chain (see myth 2 below).

Sound Quality: 10
After thirty years of playing guitar, I’ve grown weary of lugging around amps and cabs to rehearsals and gigs. The ToneLab SE (Stage Edition) is obviously optimized for live use. It even has a readable display (take note Line 6)! Now I just walk into a rehearsal or gig with my ToneLab SE in its gig bag (included with purchase), plug it in to the house PA and play! My current gigging environment provides me with a consistent PA setup…highly recommended for modelers given a PA’s flat tonal response!

My current guitars are a Gibson Les Paul Custom Lite and a Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster Designer Edition (equipped with a quilted maple top). The ToneLab SE allows the unique qualities of both guitars to shine and be clearly heard! The ToneLab SE has the best response and feel of any modeling device…period. Kudos to VOX for getting it right the first time! They’ve figured out that the secret to good modeling is the tube power amp section. This baby responds like a tube amp to different guitars, pickup selections, tone control settings and pick attack.

PODxt 2.x has 36 amp models while the ToneLab SE has 16. However, the PODxt 2.x just does not have the feel of a tube amp. This also can validated by the latest trend of using buffers such as the Valvulator to make up for the POD’s lack of feel. I currently own both units. At first I waited until the 2.0 release before selling the PODxt. Now that I’m spoiled by the ToneLab SE, every time I switch back to the PODxt I’m reminded of its sterile feel and response. While this may be suitable for recording, it does not work for live rehearsals and gigs. Therefore given the ToneLab SE’s stunning feel and response, you really have a tonal palate that offers more variability than its 16 amp models indicate. I’ll choose quality over quantity any time!

Reliability: 10
The ToneLab SE is built like a tank! Its size and weight allows the unit to stay put on stage. I currently gig without a backup.

Customer Support: 8
After purchasing my ToneLab SE, I contacted VOX’s customer service and received both a prompt and professional reply.

Currently there are no software upgrades in the works for the ToneLab SE. However with the PODxt I found that software upgrades can be a blessing and a curse. Significant upgrades usually require you to redo all of your patches. Additionally, key amp models can be drastically altered as part of an upgrade (a stock Marshall was “upgraded” to a hot-rodded Marshall for example). Again I want to play guitar and not tweak a modeler! With Line 6 products, I’ve found that the desirable upgrades usually require you to purchase another unit (POD 2.0 to PODxt for example). I prefer to skip the upgrades and save my tweaking time for the next ToneLab SE product release!

Overall Rating: 10
Lastly I’d like to dispel some myths relative to the ToneLab and specifically the ToneLab SE:

Myth 1 – The tube is only cosmetic:
Try to play while the ToneLab SE is powering up and you find that you will not be heard until a few seconds later. Why? Because the tube needs to warm up first. Secondly, some ToneLab owners have been experimenting by swapping the stock 12AX7 with other tubes to determine the differences sonically and in feel. While sometimes subtle, sonic differences do clearly exist (see myth 2).

Myth 2 – The tube is contained within the preamp section:
Given that the tube is a 12AX7, most guitarists assume that swapping the tube or adjusting the Valve Reactor (VR) gain will result in an expected preamp sonic change. However VOX’s Valve Reactor circuit uses the 12AX7 as a power amp tube running at 1 watt of power. Given that the tube operates at only 1 watt, it would not glow as one would typically expect. So to “calm” us all, VOX simulates the glow via an amber LED placed below the tube. The use of an LED has obviously contributed to myth 1 above. Given that the tube is a dual-triode device (2 tubes in one), VOX uses the tube as 2 power amp tubes in the Valve Reactor Circuit allowing them to create a 100% analog power amp stage that accurately models the amp’s power amp characteristics (Class A/Class AB operation, negative feedback, presence and resonance). Therefore, when adjusting the ToneLab SE’s VR gain control, you’re either adjusting the amp’s volume (amps without master volume control) or the amp’s master volume (amps with master volume control).

Myth 3 – The ToneLab has less effect controls than the PODxt:
While this may be true for the desktop ToneLab, it is untrue for the ToneLab SE. The SE added the following models to the desktop ToneLab model categories:
- Pedal: 2 phase shifters, ring modulator, super OD, boutique OD, orange dist and octave fuzz
- Cabinet: 1 cabinet model (1x8)
- Modulation: 2 choruses, phase shifter, pitch shifter, mod delay, filtron and talk mod (talk box)
- Delay: Analog delay, mod delay, sweep delay, cross delay, tap delay, rhythm delay, hold delay and reverse delay
- Reverb: 1 spring, 1 room, 1 plate, 2 chamber, 2 hall and gate reverb

Additionally, the ToneLab SE ups the ante to the following number of effect controls per model category:
- Pedal: 3-6 controls
- Modulation: 3-6 controls
- Delay: 4-6 controls
- Reverb: 5-6 controls

Myth 4 – The ToneLab cannot bypass the amp models:
While this is true for the desktop ToneLab, the ToneLab SE can indeed bypass the amp models.

Myth 5 – The ToneLab doesn’t do high gain tones:
I’d say that first you’d have to define “high gain”. IMHO, the ToneLab SE also excels at what I define as high gain tones. Additionally, given the ToneLab SE’s excellent response to outboard overdrive and distortion pedals, you can add even more gain than the ToneLab SE’s stock amp models provide.

Myth 6 – The ToneLab SE is an expensive alternative: The ToneLab SE’s average street price is 599 USD (including gig bag). Given that I’d have to add a buffer (e.g. Valvulator) to the PODxt to make up for its deficiencies in response and feel, I’d currently have the following Line 6 alternatives:

- PODxt 2.x (bean): Bean ($299) + shortboard ($269) + Valvulator ($199) + L6 gig bag ($69) = 836 USD
- PODxt Live (XTL): $399 + Valvulator ($199) + L6 gig bag ($69) = 667 USD

I rest my case. Besides, now that I’ve been spoiled by the ToneLab SE’s response and feel, I cannot justify shelling out another $199 for a Valvulator…the PODxt is headed for the auction block!

Submitted by GeeJay at 11/20/2004 12:40

Price Paid: US $475 + shipping used

Ease of Use: 10
Easy to get good sounds out of. Easy to edit. The interface design gets a 10+. No pages to scroll through (no horrible Lexicon PCM-70 experience). Push an effect or amp category, it lights up green, and the knobs control the parameters. I felt like I was turning the dials on an amp or an effect. The manual is ok.

Before I bought this unit, I tried it out for 1.5 hours at Guitar Center through a cheap epiphone through a crate 10" speaker practice amp (solid state too). It sounded great - the house system was playing Allmans, so I punched up a 100 watt Marshall plexi, set the gain, and was off. Repeated the same experience at Sam Ash (this time with a strat and a solid State Marshall through a 4 x 12). Played an hour and a half. Bought the unit on Harmony Central classifieds, unpacked it and played it through studio speakers w/ backing tracks - this unit is great. One month later, it's still great.

Sound Quality: 10
I am using Gibson 335 w/ duncan pearly gates pickups, Custom Shop Strat w/ stock pickups, 70's tele w/ duncan humbucker in neck, Tone Lab Se, into a PA. I hear my guitar in the monitors. Get great clapton tones (british blues - a 20 watt Marshall), great tube screamer too - it's just like owning one. Dire Straits stuff with the strat is cool w/ the tweed settings and a strat. The univibe is good - it sounded just a tad weaker then the fulltone univibe. Using the univibe with the Leslie simulation was very "chewy". The wah was exceptional, and the treble booster was pretty good too. Delays and flanges are ok - it's not an eventide. Noise was pretty low - a lot better than my previous pedal board was. The best part of the Tone Lab Se was the great "just overdriven" sound. Hit a note soft and its clean, pluck two notes and bend and it overdrives real sweet.

Reliability: N/A
Built like a tank. I'd hate to go to any gig without plan B, but I guess that would be going in straight o the board.

Customer Support: N/A
Never dealt with Vox, but at least you can get the manual from the website and read it before you buy the unit.

Overall Rating: 10
I play blues, rock, funk, country, soul. This unit is perfect for me - it sounds great, and I can get the sounds of a cranked amp without blowing everyone's brains out - and then switch to a high head room amp for rhythm.

Been playing 30+ years, and I teach as well. I've owned and played 50's tweed deluxes and champs, 60's black face deluxes (twice) and bassmans, 70's silver bassmans and bassmasters, Victoria and Powertone custom deluxes, zeeta maven peal, THD Univalve, etc. And all the pedals I sold on E-bay after I got this unit. The guitars were listed above.

If it were lost or stolen I'd get another in a heartbeat.

The best part about the unit is I like the way my guitars sound through it. I can get lost in the sound and just play.

I guess one complaint is the proprietary power supply - I'd rather just a removable cord.

This unit was so much better than anything I've heard from Line 6, that I don't like to mention Pod in the same sentence as Tone Lab. I've owned the Pod 2.0 and tried the XT out - what a phony sounding processed sound and feel - sort of like a glorified Scholtz Rockman. The Tone Lab SE feels like the amp and effect you've chosen. I've been buying devices like this (sansamp PSA-1)for ever, and they were all a disappointment. Not anymore. I don't think I'll ever want to use a tube amp anymore (I cant believe I just said that).

As you could gather, I don't play much heavy metal, so I have nothing to say about high gain sounds.

Submitted by Anonymous at 11/18/2004 21:49

Price Paid: 329 (£)

Ease of Use: 10
It's very easy to use, editing is quite simple and the controls are layed out as per a normal amp. It's logically thought out and presented and you don't have to worry about adjusting the wrong things by mistake, ie no searching through sub menus, holdswitches etc. There aren't any complicated things to perform, even the tougher thnigs are quite easy to do, the manual is pretty clear, although experience with amps and pedals means you won't really need it much. A really cool thing is that you can assign any parameter to the expression pedals which gives scope for all kinds of experimentation. You can also adjust the order of the modulation, delay and reverb effects quite easily.

Sound Quality: 9
I play Tele's and Strat's mainly and you get the usual single coil hum, but there is a noise suppressor to take care of that. The amp sims are as good as any other models I've ever heard, in fact I think they're better, especially if you like clean and driven amp sounds. The 4x10 Tweed is modeled on a Fender '59 Bassman (my amp) and the controls on the Vox react in the same way and the nature of the tone is closer than anything else I've heard, it's not exact, but you wouldn't wisely try to separate them when playing with a group and for practice at home through a stereo or headphones you do get a nice sound in the ballpark you're after which makes playing more fun. I really like the Wah pedals and you can specify the range ie adjust the open and closed sounds to get the type of Wah you want. The volume pedal works fine too and they are solid. This isn't a direct replacement for your fav amp, but the sound quality is very good and for recording and playing live it takes care of a lot problems and you'll easily get into the vibe you're looking for. The rest is in your fingers. The effects are pretty good, the spring reverbs seem a bit hard, but the others are good and I like the tremolo, things can get very chilled with this unit which can be either mono or stereo with various connection options. I'm not a high gain Recto player at heart, I think the cleaner end is very well done with this kit, but the Recto sounds are heavy enough to get a serious thump going, they do sound a bit processed, but then in truth, those bands use a lot processors, so that's obviously what they want anyway, despite the purist illusion folk are under.
You won't be embarrassed by a thin fizzy sound or poor tone using this unit and you can get heavy or chilled very easily, the sounds are really very good and it does make playing lots of fun, especially if your alternative (and if you want effects it is) an amp followed by a trail of boxes and cables all needing plugged in.

Reliability: 10
I doubt it'll break without some serious abuse, the pedals and casing are rock solid and built to last, it's steel and aluminium and even the screen is recessed so I'm not worried at all. It's built like a boss if you like.

Customer Support: N/A
Don't know.

Overall Rating: 10
I like jazz, blues and country mainly and getting a bit heavy or funky from time to time is made a lot easier now. The sounds are top for this and after 15 years of dreaming of the perfect rig and lugging gear around etc I decided that actually for the most part I want to go straight into my Bassman or if using effects I don't want have the boss catalogue on my floor. I've had various amps of different sizes to use for things and this elimanates the need. I'm stripping down my gear to make things more practical and this lets me do so while giving me a huge range of options as well. Into a PA, or recording desk this does the job just fine, frankly if you're concerned about the tone of your energizer battery you need help, just play the thing.
I'd say it's more natural than the POD stuff and better than anything else for cleaner stuff. I love the layout and possibility factor, there isn't anything I dislike, the A/B amp channel option is a good idea and I'd say Vox have thought long and hard about doing thngs well and in a user friendly way. Maybe the fact you can't have several pedals (before the amp) at once, but then the switching requirements for that would be impractical anyway and it's not something you're really going to miss, in most cases.

I would buy it again, or an upgraded version if that's what was out at the time. It definately helps the music making side of things.

It comes with a carry case and power supply and does what it says very well. It's got practical and experimental written on the design brief I'm sure and for the classic tone end it's pretty close, close enough when scurtinised, perfect when you're playing and hearing your band mates.

Submitted by Cal at 11/09/2004 05:52

Price Paid: £280 (GBquid)

Ease of Use: 10
...Y'gotta be pretty dumb not to get this!..it's all very logical, which is partly why it's fun to use. No hold/press shit, as with pod,
no smackin' y'geetar into things while y'use both hands to change stuff!..Simple edit process, basically, plug 'n' play!..

Sound Quality: 10
i'm usin' a big old Epiphone Emporer(semi), jagmaster, de armond(jet star, de-tuned)...a couple of Vox supreme's, custom built 2x10 & a bunch of pedals, Arion sc-1(this rools), boss super od, flanger, phaser!..Basically, i bought this to record at home & i needed to approximate my 'very particular' sound(the supreme's are untouchable imho) i tried the pod & it didn't even get close, even afta loads more processin'!..i don't go for tube sounds, my vox is transistor!..
...But i figured vox would get a better Vox sound than pod, it did, even with the built in tube!..The sound 'stands up' to be counted, if y'knowarramean, no slouchy, slushy tube dirge, unless thats what you want, 'cos y'can have that too!..The fx work just fine & y'can string a few 2getha, also the NR does a great job on anythin' that's hi-gain & can get a bit noisy, without compromise!..Generally, i'd say it's pretty true to the fx it has on board!..

Reliability: 10
...So far so good on this count!..It's solidly built, i reckon it'll bounce a few times b4 it breaks, free gig bag too(i got the SE)!..The pedals are tuff as fuk also & proper metal stomp switches!..

Customer Support: 10
...The only contact, so far, is to download the midi stuff from the web-site: it worx perfectly, unlike the problems i had with the pod download!..

Overall Rating: 10
...I play what i call Heavy irony or Jazz/punk, it works 4 me & i'm a picky bastard when it comes to geet sounds. i only use certain stuff, 'cos it does the job, i don't get hung up on labels, in fact, i cover the labels up, i ain't advertizin' till they pay me, which says a lot about me writin' this glowin' report!..If it busted i'd defo buy another, it does what it says on the tin, don't know if there's anythin' i don't like about it yet!..i got rid of the pod2 for this, i tried podXT, didn't like it, sounded the same as 2, tried some other pod stuff-errr!..Boss-too tinny, mesa boogie vtwin-too limited!..This had everythin' i needed: great sounds, fx, usabilty, connectabilty( don't care about usb, i got a mixer etc.)...The only thing i would want outta Vox would be for them to model my own Vox Supreme & cab, then i'd fuk my gear off & i wouldn't have to carry loads of shit to gigs!..Please model a SUPREME(transistor amp) Mr. Vox!..& i'll buy this machine agen!..

Submitted by Clint Flick at 11/03/2004 06:30

Price Paid: US $499.00

Ease of Use: 9
Not bad, but read the manual so you don't blame the pedal for any short comings you think the unit has.

Sound Quality: 10
I rated it a 10 for the value. I own a Marshal JMP Preamp and TC Electronics guitar processor. I sent it through a Marshall Valve State 100w Amp/4x12 cabinet. I spent roughly 1200 bucks for those units. I love that sound, but I hate lugging it around. SBK Case, Ultrafoot MIDI Foot pedal, etc.. This unit, for the price mind you, is great. I love it! It's not the end of tone or sound but for playing small gigs or just jamming out with friends, the portability married with the sound is definetely worth it. But don't expect to take it out of the box, plug it in and expect some studio tone quality. Tweaking gets you close, however.

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
Good Unit. I also own a GT-3 and the Tonelab SE blows that unit away.

Submitted by Anonymous at 10/22/2004 08:21

Price Paid: US $579

Ease of Use: 10
For someone with experience with multi fx units, this is a breeze.

Sound Quality: 9
My main guitar is a Jackson Dinky with the Sustainiac pickup. When I got the TL SE home, I hooked it up to my old Fender Princeton Reverb amp (all tube) and it sounded like shit! Very tinny. Then, I hooked it up to my Vox Valvetronix 60 ( the high input) and it sounded awesome. Just goes to show you that one's sound is a combination of several variables.
The factory presets are not the greatest, but after many hours of tweaking I got a bunch of great distorted, semi-distorted, clean and outright spacious sounds. The pitch shifter is amazing - you can play chords with it if you adjust the tracking high enough. There is a slight delay if you just use the pitch shifted sound with no direct signal, but most units are like this (the Zoom GFX8 is a little better in this regard, but it sounds lo-fi compared to the TL).
The only effect that my plethora of stompboxes beat out is the phase. Nothing quite compares to my ancient Electro Harmonix Polyphase. Outside of that, I'm actually thinking of selling some of my pedals, as I hate having stuff that I don't use and the TL has everything covered (and then some).
I can't comment on the noise because I haven't really cranked it yet, but the noise gate seems smoother than others I've used. The highs can be strident, but with some judicious use of eq and the cabinet models, they can be tamed.

Reliability: N/A
I haven't played in a band in a few years (it's kinda like being married to several dysfunctional people, isn't it?) but it seems very sturdy. You could easily bludgeon somebody to death with this baby - just one good whack!!!!

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't had to deal with them yet, but they couldn't be any worse than Zoom! I e-mailed those suckers 4 times over the past few years and they have never e-mailed me back. Maybe if I learned Japanese....

Overall Rating: 10
I've been playing for about 30 years and love most styles of music, although I'm still partial to 70's progressive rock. I teach guitar part-time and work for Child Welfare during the day (I should have become a farmer!). Anyway, I would definitely buy this unit again if stolen, although I'd be willing to check out new stuff on the market. Still, I can't imagine needing much more in the way of sounds. Ninety six presets may be a drop in the bucket for dedicated tweakers, but it's enough for me! Now for my wish list:
1) I wish this thing had more footswitches per bank, like 10 perhaps. Of course, if you're willing to spend about $700, you could get the Rocktron All Access MIDI foot controller which gives you 15 sounds per bank.
2) I wish the pitch shifted signal didn't have a slight delay (it's seems to be a little better on higher pitched signals).
3) I wish it came in purple!!!
I must re-empahsize - it sounded like shit through my old Fender amp, and great through my Vox Valvetronix 60. If it sounds good or bad to you in the store, it may not mean anything. You really have to try it with your own stuff, and try different combinations of guitars, amps, connections, etc. E.g., a few months ago I tried the Boss GT6 at Guitar Center and thought it sucked! Recently, I jammed with a guy who used the GT6 through a Marshall DSL and it sounded killer!
I'm quite the happy camper now, although my downstairs neighbor may not be!!!!

Submitted by Barry at 10/18/2004 18:24

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: N/A

Sound Quality: N/A

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A
note to Gryphon: quote " If there is a transistor involved; it is DIGITAL. Period. Transistors only operate in 1's and 0's. You can't ever get analog when your original input is 1's and 0's."
1:
a Transistor is as analoge as a tube, there is three diffrent states of a transistor Closed (digitaly 0: no current flow) variable area (in siganl varies output current analoge) and open (digitaly 1: noe resistanse in the transistor).

2: there is dirfent types of transistors so you cant just take a small transistor used as a gate, and make it work as well inn a power stage circuit as a power transistor (in your post it sounded like you thought that

Submitted by Lithanas at 10/15/2004 10:39

Price Paid: US $530.00

Ease of Use: 10
This is one of the main reasons I purchased the tonelab. I love the fact that everyhting is laid out nice and it is soooooo easy to use.

Sound Quality: 10
I must first note that I run this through two yamaha ds60 amps. These are similar to the tech 21 power engines. This setup sounds freakin' awesome! It only makes sense. You run an amp model through another guitar amp and.......you get the picture. On the other hand run it through an amp meant to amplify with no additional color and voila! I can not get over how awesome this rig sounds. All of the amps are nailed quite well and the effects are killer. I have been using the yamaha dg ud and ag set-ups for years. I love those, but this thing smokes them. It is laid out very nicely and it also is set-up with live performance in mind. Great job VOX for a killer product.

Reliability: 10
Things built like a tank. Plus you get a killer gig bag.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
Great product. I fell like I have been waiting for this for years. Try it for yourself.

Submitted by Anonymous at 09/17/2004 10:31

Price Paid: US $600

Ease of Use: 8
getting a good sound is rudimentary. all you really gotta do to get a good tone is to plug it in and twist some knobs.
as to editing patches, i found it to be fun. the knobs made it fun instaed of holding down a button.
the manual is pretty well thought out for the most part. i think it could be explained a little more clearly for the technical morons like myself.
as to being upgraded, not yet since this is the upgraded version of the original tonelab.

Sound Quality: 8
im using this with a peavey 120 vtm and when i went direct with it, it didnt work quite like i planned. i thought it was gonna sound doubly cool going through a tube pre & post, but found that it was a real squealer, puttin out some screechy shit that i didnt like at all, nor would anyone else, but then i went in through the effects loop 'in' and it sounded like butter, but i wound up bypassing either the pre or post (am i correct in assumng this?)but like i said, it sounded really NICE.
as t5o the effects, i dont think theres an effect that i dont like the sound of, but not bein able to combind 2 different modulation fx or delay or reverb fx is kinda a drag.

Reliability: 7
yes, i can depend on this unit without much worry. as to gigging without a backup, i dont think id ever gig without a backup to make the sounds i need.

Customer Support: N/A
i havent had to deal with em yet, but rest assured that youll know about it if i do.

Overall Rating: 9
i play bluesy hard rock to seruious metal for 25 years. this rig is tight. if it was ripped off, i cant say that i wouldnt shop around now that i know what the se has to offer. i love the ruggedness and ease of use to the se. i cant say i HATE anything about it, but i dont dig the lack of more options as to the out/in's of the unit.
making music is a real pleasure with this unit. its already helped me write 7 full songs just from the sounds i get from it.
i guess you could put me down as a definite "YES" on the voting list.

Submitted by dhost at 09/16/2004 17:46

Price Paid: US $450.00

Ease of Use: 10
The Tonelab SE is very easy to use and the manual is really good. I was able to get great tones from the unit with ease.

Sound Quality: 9
I play a Carvin AE 185 thru tonelab to effects return on a Fender Utimate Chorus and I also use it thru a PA at church. The unit sounds great. I have had no problem with lack of bass as mentioned by others. It is important to read the manual to learn what controls are used in the amp model and how to adjust them. The effects are very good too.

Reliability: 9
I gig without a backup. No problems so far. Unit is very well built and come with a good case.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
I play all styles of music Rock,Blues,Christian etc.. The tonelab can cover them all. I really like having everything I need in one unit. This makes it extremly easy to take to a gig and set up. I also like having two pedals to control the effects and volume. I have used all kinds of gear RP2000, Line 6 POD SANS AMP etc. This unit has the best sounds features etc. I won't lose it and if stolen I would get another one.

Submitted by Anonymous at 09/09/2004 12:28

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: N/A

Sound Quality: N/A

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A
message for gryphon: "And guess what folks: a transistor is a transistor. Nobody makes "better transistors". Your amp doesn't know whether all those transistors are in separate little stomp boxes or in a chip on the Tonelab SE. Electrically it is all the same."

I respect that you have education in electronics but that line about nobody makes better transistors is false. There are vast differences in separate transisters, the biggest one being whether it's a germanium or silicon transister. germaniums were from the '60s and silicons were mass produced soon after. For instance dunlop reissued the '60s fuzz face stompbox a while ago with silicon transisters, there is a huge difference in tone, and it doesn't have the same rich creamy texture as the germaniums. There is a germanium mod available and everyone who has done it reports a noticebly better sound. The transister usually effects the overall sound in a stompbox. (go to anologman.com and go to the page about the sun face, or check out the fuzz face reviews (both the dallas arbiter 60's one and reissue to see for yourself. the sun face is a fuzz face clone from analogman and has the original transisters from the 60's fuzz face (very rare and probably going to run out soon) check out the amazingly satisfied reviews for that on hc. I believe the tonelab has orginal authentic tube tone, but I doubt it can emulate most vintage/custom stompboxes.

Submitted by Anonymous at 09/03/2004 18:18

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: N/A

Sound Quality: N/A

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A
I don't have a Tonelab SE (yet) but I do want to make a clarification of Gryphon's post. His review is quite alright in every way except on his information about transistors. A transistor is a electronic amplifier, as in it's a device that takes a small signal, combines it with a large current, and makes the signal larger. This is just as analog as a tube, it's just solid state, rather than requiring electrons to arc thru a vacuum. Transistors CAN be used for digital signal processing, but it requires large amounts of them to do even the most basic digital operations. The point I'm getting at is that if you've got transistors in your pedal, it's probably quite analog. Almost all digital circuits use IC's (microchips) for signal processing.

Also, I mean no offense to Gryphon, his review does give a lot of true and useful information.

Submitted by Alexei at 08/26/2004 09:53

Price Paid: US $479.00

Ease of Use: 10
I guess it all depends on who is using it. I found it to be extremely easy to operate.

Sound Quality: 9
I am using a stock Les Paul custom, Carvin DC400 and a Jackson PS4. I run the Tonelab right into my Marshall Valvestate 8100
this way I can utilize the eq on my Head My cabinet has 4x12 greenbacks.

There is no noise at all.

I just don't get some people. For the most part this thing has received great reviews except for the 3 or 4 people that just had to knock it. I know that sound it subjective but come on this thing kicks ass. I was looking into buying a tube head. so I went guitar center and sam ash and tried them all out. Then I bought a Pod, Boss Me-10. the boss blows the pod away but still had that digital sound. the clean stuff was unbelievable! I sent them both back.
The tonelab has that warm tube feel. I get great feedback, harmonics all the stuff you should get from a tube even at low volumes. if you want versatility then you need to check this out. I read some reviews about the gt3 and gt6. come on no comparison. I'm not sure if the tube actually does anything but who cares it sounds good. As far a getting a metal sound you definitely can get it. YOU MUST TWEAK!!! when I first got this I hated it. the presets suck. I went to guitar center and the salesman said that he has never seen one come back and that they can't keep them on the shelves. no one there could believe that I hated it. I just could not return it without giving it another try. so before you make any hasty decisions make sure you tweak the hell out of it.

the effects are good but there not the same quality as more expensive units but they get the job done. once again tweaking is key.
I was able to achieve a Van Halen "brown sound" as well as the new Eddie sound, SRV, Matallica, Eric Johnson It really fits all styles as long as your willing to spend the time and have good equipment.

I only wish this had good harmonizer other than that great deal for the money.

Reliability: 10
Built like a Tank

Customer Support: 1
Sucks emailed them 3 times no response. I guess you can call jolly Ole England if you want too.

Overall Rating: 9
I'm an old school 80's metal guy I also like rock, blues, classical, and some jazz. I have been playing for almost 25 years.
if this were lost or stolen I would go get another immediately.
I love the tone but I hate that you can't use the distortion pedal and wah at the same time. duh?
As stated above if your looking for versatile and great tone this is the unit for you.
If you hung up on the "tube" thing and refuses to be open minded then this is not for you.
All I can say is I have tried most of the amps modeled in the Tonelabe and I think they are pretty darn close. to me the subtle difference is not worth spending the extra money on all these other amps
If your one of those people like Eric Johnson who can tell the difference between a Duracell and an Energizer in their stomp boxes then were talking about a whole different ball of wax here. You are cursed but probably one hell of a guitarist.

Submitted by Joe at 08/25/2004 19:41

Price Paid: US $600

Ease of Use: 10
The Tonelab SE is the easiest to program and use effects unit I've ever owned. And I've had the Digitech 2112, and the Boss GT3 and GT6. The Tonelab SE blows them all away in both tone and ergonomics. The coolest feature is the downloadable software that lets you hook up the Tonelab to your PC with MIDI cables. You can create and save an infinate number of Tonelab programs on your computer, and then transfer 96 of them at a time to your Tonelab as you need them. When my GT6 ran out of memory, that was it. And rearranging the programs to change your set list on the GT6 was a nightmare. The Tonelab's layout is perfect for performing live. The two expression pedals and the contol switch give the live perfomer tons of ways to change their sound in real time.

Sound Quality: 10
The Tonelab SE is real tube distortion at its finest. The amount of real tube amps one gets for $600 is amazing. And yes, this is REAL A, A/B tube amp configurations. (If you don't know what A, A/B means, don't tell me you know what real tube amp tone is.) Amateur guitarists need to realize real tube tone has NOTHING to do with deafening volume. All that you need to do is make the tube(s) glow. And you can make a one watt tube glow just as good as a 100 watt stack. Young amateur guitarists don't realize that back in the '60s there were no 100 watt stacks. All of the amps were 15 watt amps that were mic-ed up when the group played live. Tell Clapton he didn't get "real tube tone out of his 10 watt amp on Layla!" Stacks were invented in the '60s when groups started playing stadiums. At that time nobody sent the guitar thru the PA system. The stacks were the sole source of the guitar, and the volume on stage was deafening and uncontrollable. I've read some reviews from people saying they had to hook up the Tonelab to a real tube amp to get a good sound. That is ridiculous. The tube distortion is created in the Valve Reactor circuit and then amplified in a solid state circuit. This is the same as mic-ing up your amp. In the real world when you mic up your amp and send it to the sound board and the PA speakers, you aren't going thru tubes. When your car radio plays back a distorted guitar tone, the car radio isn't using tubes. I've also read many reviews from people talking about boutique pedals being superior to what the Tonelab has to offer. Well, I took electronics physics at University. Open up your pedals and see what is inside. Do you see any tubes? No, you don't, (with only a couple of exceptions). You see chips and transistors and capacitors. And guess what folks: a transistor is a transistor. Nobody makes "better transistors". Your amp doesn't know whether all those transistors are in separate little stomp boxes or in a chip on the Tonelab SE. Electrically it is all the same. And there is apparently a HUGE misunderstanding among amateur guitarists as to what constitutes digital and what is analog. If there is a transistor involved; it is DIGITAL. Period. Transistors only operate in 1's and 0's. You can't ever get analog when your original input is 1's and 0's.

Reliability: 10
The Tonelab is a tank. The solid steel board is never going to break. I would carry an extra 12AX7 tube along though in case that burned out.

Customer Support: 10
Korg Vox support is first rate.

Overall Rating: 10
I've been playing for about 30 years, but what is more important, I am a formally trained musician. I took University music theory lessons. I play mostly originals, but I also play Van Halen, classical, Eagles, anything that is good. I love to play with effects, get a cool sound, and make that sound something musical. That is what Ed Van Halen did, and frankly the guitar community has gotten away from that. Everybody is trying to sound like SRV or Hendrix or some dead blues guy from 50 years ago. The Tonelab SE is a tool that can design millions of sounds no one has ever heard before. I know a lot of amateurs will reject it because they have to have the EXACT same rig SRV or Hendrix had. Well, those guys were innovators. You should be too. Too many guys are afraid and intimidated to try anything new. They don't want to stand out from the crowd. The want to be known as the guy who sounds the most like SRV. Well, I want to sound like me. And the Tonelab is the best tool I've found so far that lets me get out the sounds I have in my head.

Submitted by Gryphon at 08/11/2004 18:56

Price Paid: US $530 ebay

Ease of Use: 10
I've never cracked open the manual and feel I have it pretty much mastered. Multi-processors have been trying to do this for years and most have failed in my eyes. Because these units have so much jammed in them, it's just hard to make them easy to use. Vox gets a 10 cuz nothing I've owned was even close (well...POD XT is decent layout, but the Boss GT6 is a frigin joke).

Sound Quality: N/A
First off, the Vox can sound like crap in a hurry, but unreal with the right set up. I mean UNREAL!! I've hooked this up a number of ways and my favorite result is through the front of a NICE tube amp. I run it straight into the front end of a very nice 100wt. tube head and 4X12, and also a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. If you use the amp sims and cabs SPARINGLY the Vox will shine. Let the nice tube amp create most of your tone. I mostly play hi gain. The Soldano (US HI GAIN setting) set with modest gain, then a titch of the "boutique OD" pedal is just beautiful. My half stack was $2000, but the Fender does an unreal job!! If you get a chance to run the settings mentioned above through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe you will soon believe!! The Fender is a proven winner with unreal tone. Ad a little of your Vox and experience nirvana. Not the Kurt Cobain kind either. This catagory is Sound Quality and it gets an easy 10. Nothing comes close in the digital world. I've owned everything. Trust me. BUT don't hook it up to some crappy solid state amp or PA and expect it to be the end all.

Reliability: N/A
Seems ok. Vox is a big company. Take a number if it breaks.

Customer Support: N/A
Like I said....Vox is a massive company. But never dealt with them.

Overall Rating: 10
The ONLY reason I own this is ease of use. I used to have boutique pedals hooked to a beautiful tube amp. This is the way to go if you want ultimate tone combined with headaches to no end. I opted for the next best thing......almost the sickest tone I've ever heard, combo'd with pure brilliance in the ease department in a nice floor package. I play out and pedals have the mojo factor, but I couldn't deal with it anymore. This IS the next BEST THING. Bar NONE!!

Submitted by Anonymous at 08/10/2004 15:37

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 10
More amazing things from this wonder machine!

Recently we have been recording an album" (on Pro Tools) and we have finished the bass,drum and keyboard tracks.

Yours trully has started recording guitars on Friday (using a stereo set-up of my RIVERA QUIANA and TRRI plus my huge pedalboard loaded with many boutique pedals,some of them costing MORE than the TL!! )

The original plan was to use my old and tried a/m mentionad set ups and not to waste time w/ experimenting w/ the Tonelab SE I have recently bought.

So Friday is ok and within 2 hours I manage to cut all the clean guitars on 4 songs.

Sat.morning I enter the studio ready for recording on the rest of the songs when....BAM the recording console is on FIRE!!!(no kidding!!)

The engineer goes crazy and at least he manages to shut of the power before anything worse happens!

It turns out that the master "slice" of the console is totally burned out.It is Sat evening so everything closed till Tuesday (music shops in Greece during the Summer remain closed on Mondays)

Only solution so that we stay on the tight scedual is to record DIRECTLY in the computer!! This means NO amps!!

I plug my Tonelab's stereo outs directly to the pc's inputs and I am getting ready for a "mediocre" sound at least compared to the amps..
Yes? well.... NO!!

It simply sounds FANTASTIC (just a bit more "in your face" than amps)
especially with a little help from "AMPLITUBE" the results are stuning!! (especially on the dirty sounds).

10 hours later we are done, the tracks sound great and the day is saved!!

we have even recorded the parts I have recorded on Friday w/ the amps , w/ the tonelab and the results were extremely similar!!

Thanx Tonelab!!

Sound Quality: 10

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A

Submitted by Anonymous at 07/12/2004 04:36

Price Paid: US $500

Ease of Use: 10
There are only a handful of things that need to be accessed through a menu, and those are system settings that you wouldn't really need to set more than once. Everything else is available by pushing buttons and twisting knobs. Very easy to use. Anyone with experience using multi-effects processors will appreciate the Tonelab SE's intuitive interface.

Sound Quality: 8
I'm not going to go into the whole digital vs. tube debate here. It's apples and oranges. The modelers solve a lot of REAL problems that come along with a multitude of tube amps and boutique pedals. The real tube amps and boutique pedals sound better. The modelers are much easier to gig and record with. Those folks that rant about this stuff on either side of the debate are truly ignorant. The amps and pedals and modelers are all tools to help musicians create and perform their music, and as the proverb reads "It's a poor worker who blames his tools." The Tonelab SE has some of the best, if not the best, digital modeler sounds currently available.

Reliability: N/A
Haven't had it long, but it is built solid.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't had occasion to deal with them.

Overall Rating: 10
I have played for a long time and owned a lot of gear, both digital and analog. I have my own dream analog rig with a Mesa Road King, and a bunch of boutique pedals. The Tonelab SE cannot compete with that rig in sound quality, and I wouldn't expect it to. The Tonelab SE is a fantastic tool for late night / low volume practice and applications where mobility and ease of setup are necessary. There's a lot of advice (and a lot of mindless ranting) that is dished out in these forums. I'd like to offer a bit of advice that hopefully one or more of you will find useful...

Recognize that the modelers serve a purpose. They do not and currently can not compete with the tube amps they seek to model. They solve some very real problems in live performance and recording settings, and in those applications, they excel. They also sound darned good by themselves.

If you understand the purpose of these tools, you can then make an informed decision as to whether or not they are appropriate for your applications. I personally have applications for both and am fortunate enough to be able to have both.

I think the Tonelab SE is a marvelous piece of gear, and if it were lost or stolen, I would evaluate what the market had to offer at that time and buy whatever was the best fit for my application(s) at that time.

My favorite features are the intuitive interface, the all-in-one package, and the included gig bag. The pedals, buttons, knobs and displays are all top notch. The Tonelab SE truly is a fine piece of gear.

Submitted by Matt at 07/09/2004 11:50

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 7
Easy to use after reading the manual.

Sound Quality: 1
Totally sucks digital bits. The previous reviewer who states that they saved thousands of dollars by buying this unit is in dream land. That's like having sex with somebody and saying that they are having sex with super models because they are closing their eyes and "imagining" it. Not the same buddy boy. I've owned and still own a lot of those amps. This "Tone Lab" is not even close to the response, feel, dynamics, tone, etc. of the real thing.

I wish al this digital crap would go away. Do youself a favor, pick up a good tube amp, a great distortion pedal (if the amp is single channel) and you'll be happier with the tone and feel.

Reliability: N/A
Don't know, i returned within 3 days.

Customer Support: N/A
Don't know, don't care.

Overall Rating: N/A
Yuck, yuck, and double yuck. I quess this thing is OK for pretenders who like to pretend that they are playing through those amps.
I own several PRS and Aria Pro guitars (vintage Aria's, not the new crap). A Fuchs Overdrive supreme amp, a handmade 6v6 / matchless clone, a handmade el84 amp, and a handmade Fender Champ clone. Each one is so much fun to play, more so than any digital modeling crap, and a TRUE personality all their own. My girlfriend hears the difference in my amps, when she heard the Vox, she thought that they were different sounds of the same. Good ear on that girl.

Submitted by Mario at 07/08/2004 09:28

Price Paid: US $599.00 FREE SHIPPING FROM AMS ONLINE

Sound Quality: 10

Reliability: 10
VERY RUGGED

Customer Support: N/A
WHO CARES

Overall Rating: 10
Fedex delivered my Vox Tonelab Monday. I spent four hours creating and tweaking a performance set of six banks thru my concert rig via line out NOT amp out. No parameters on my rig were changed from all previous preamp settings. I immediately hooked it to/from my laptop via midiman 4x4 chs1/1 and voila, it seamlessly uploaded that I wrote to my laptop. Editing is so easy, and dragging and dropping presets is a breeze ... It is utterly unbelievable! This has redefined my entire rig and approach to playing. Its a rocking tone-monster and the genuine article having played the real things for over 30 years! What Vox-Marshall have accomplished is a genuine wonder ...

Rig setup includes three Mosvalve power amps preceeded by BBE 462 each into dual custom 4x12 cabs (four inputs each G12H80s top -- JBL D120Fs bottom, and dual 1x15 sheffield cabs. EFX Processor GSP2101A outside L/R 2x12s, Inside 4x12s dry, top 1x15s L/R Alesis Plate Reverb 10%.

Key observations:
* The key is setting the volume control knob at 50 percent and volume pedal open to 15 percent. MVol at 15 % for starters because these amps will get as loud as the originals quick fast and in a hurry and set amp parameters like the real Clampetts & McCoys. This is where the problem arises ... for those who have never played the real amps have no clue where to begin. This is why there are so many mixed reviews on HC -- its the blind leading the dumb informing the deaf defining tone. Digit?
* A/B for each patch. It can be any amp/cab combination, e.g. clean-clean or clean dirty or dirty dirty.
* The reverse delay is luvly for tasteful Hendrixy Axis/Electric Ladyland vintage.
* I now have Two Fenders (Bassman, & Blackface Twin), Four Voxs (AC15, 15TB, AC30, 30TB), Six Marshalls (JTM 45, Plexi 50, Plexi 100, JCM 800, JCM 900, Modded Marshall), Soldano SLO100, Mesa Rectifier, Dumble Clean and OD, and an Acoustic Simulator at toe tap ... I just saved over $30,000 in vintage amps for $599.00.
* The beauty of this is marrying up fav cabs with amps not available before, e.g., Blackface twin Ch A thru recto 4x12 G12-30V, Ch B 4x12 G12-75. etc
* The two pedals can be assigned to gain/gain or one to gain/master volume, or Vox 847 or 848 Wah, or any other parameter you want. In real time this creates a genuine dumbleator effect because you can set low high parameters on any parameter
* I only kept two factory presets (Axis and an EC Patch). I do not really need the onboard efx to color the tone. Kept the tone pretty pure minus onboard compressor (sens/level attack) Clean/Blues: 4.0/40-50/4.0, Dumble: 4.5/40-50/1:1.5, HiGain: 3.5/40-50/1:7
* The only onboard effect I am using is compression toe tapped on/off settings per amp type.
* No more pedals. Floorboard includes an ATA case housing a midi controller and the Tonelab SE. KISS: KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!!!
* I nave become more than happy ... IAW George Carlin, they will come and take me away now lol

This concludes my briefing. That'll be $500 for the consultation ...

Submitted by ROY CHOUERI at 07/07/2004 07:17

Price Paid: US $599.00 FREE SHIPPING FROM AMS ONLINE

Ease of Use: 10

Sound Quality: 10

Reliability: 10
SEEMS VERY RUGGED

Customer Support: N/A
WHO CARES

Overall Rating: 10
Fedex delivered my Vox Tonelab Monday. I spent four hours creating and tweaking a performance set of six banks thru my concert rig via line out NOT amp out. No parameters on my rig were changed from all previous preamp settings. I immediately hooked it to/from my laptop via midiman 4x4 chs1/1 and voila, it seamlessly uploaded that I wrote to my laptop. Editing is so easy, and dragging and dropping presets is a breeze ... It is utterly unbelievable! This has redefined my entire rig and approach to playing. Its a rocking tone-monster and the genuine article having played the real things for over 30 years! What Vox-Marshall have accomplished is a genuine wonder ...

Rig setup includes three Mosvalve power amps preceeded by BBE 462 each into dual custom 4x12 cabs (four inputs each G12H80s top -- JBL D120Fs bottom, and dual 1x15 sheffield cabs. EFX Processor GSP2101A outside L/R 2x12s, Inside 4x12s dry, top 1x15s L/R Alesis Plate Reverb 10%.

Key observations:
* The key is setting the volume control knob at 50 percent and volume pedal open to 15 percent. MVol at 15 % for starters because these amps will get as loud as the originals quick fast and in a hurry and set amp parameters like the real Clampetts & McCoys. This is where the problem arises ... for those who have never played the real amps have no clue where to begin. This is why there are so many mixed reviews on HC -- its the blind leading the dumb informing the deaf defining tone. Digit?
* A/B for each patch. It can be any amp/cab combination, e.g. clean-clean or clean dirty or dirty dirty.
* The reverse delay is luvly for tasteful Hendrixy Axis/Electric Ladyland vintage.
* I now have Two Fenders (Bassman, & Blackface Twin), Four Voxs (AC15, 15TB, AC30, 30TB), Six Marshalls (JTM 45, Plexi 50, Plexi 100, JCM 800, JCM 900, Modded Marshall), Soldano SLO100, Mesa Rectifier, Dumble Clean and OD, and an Acoustic Simulator at toe tap ... I just saved over $30,000 in vintage amps for $599.00.
* The beauty of this is marrying up fav cabs with amps not available before, e.g., Blackface twin Ch A thru recto 4x12 G12-30V, Ch B 4x12 G12-75. etc
* The two pedals can be assigned to gain/gain or one to gain/master volume, or Vox 847 or 848 Wah, or any other parameter you want. In real time this creates a genuine dumbleator effect because you can set low high parameters on any parameter
* I only kept two factory presets (Axis and an EC Patch). I do not really need the onboard efx to color the tone. Kept the tone pretty pure minus onboard compressor (sens/level attack) Clean/Blues: 4.0/40-50/4.0, Dumble: 4.5/40-50/1:1.5, HiGain: 3.5/40-50/1:7
* The only onboard effect I am using is compression toe tapped on/off settings per amp type.
* No more pedals. Floorboard includes an ATA case housing a midi controller and the Tonelab SE. KISS: KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!!!
* I nave become more than happy ... IAW George Carlin, they will come and take me away now lol

This concludes my briefing. That'll be $500 for the consultation ...

Submitted by ROY CHOUERI at 07/07/2004 06:50

Price Paid: 570 (Euros)

Ease of Use: 8
TL Se is really quite easy to use. Just have to read the manual to understand the main functions. There's some advices really useful, and it explain all you need to make this stuff sound great !

Sound Quality: 10
The unit really rocks. I am using a gibson LP. The overdrive and crunch sounds are fantastics. The VR Gain 'heat' the sound perfectly. There no unit sound with such dynamics. I plug it into my amp (VS 8080) directly in the PA section, and the sound was just ok. But through a sono, the sound was completly amazing. More dynamics, more harmonics. I think this unit was not made for amp. Clean sound are really good and the effect section is quite good. for overdrive and crunch sounds, this unit is excellent. For more distorsion sound, u have to put an EQ after to give the sound u need. I play Led Zeppelin songs, AC/DC, Incubus, Pink Floyd , dire strait , all kind of rocks, and i am really hâppy with it. The cab section give good different kind of sounds. I thinks the unit need tweaking to sound as u want.

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I will buy another one if it were stolen, that's for sure.
I thinks it's sounds better than a pod xt, and futhermore, you have all control on your sound, with the 2 expressions pedals, and the control button. A/B switching is really great. There 192 patchs for yours sounds.
Overall it's a really good stuff, and for live gig it sound just better the sound is going up.
Let try it !

Submitted by Tino at 06/30/2004 10:41

Price Paid: US $599.99

Ease of Use: 9
Fairly easy to navigate. Editing is quite easy. Manual is good.

Sound Quality: 3
This is the reason I took it back after 24 hours. Sounds to digital. I'll have to keep my GT-3. So far nothing can beat it, except a bunch of pedals on a board purchased seperately. There were a few happening sounds, but the Amps and Cabs just didn't make me happy...to DIGITAL...even with the tube on board.

Reliability: N/A
Only had it 24 hours.

Customer Support: N/A
Never called em

Overall Rating: 5
This unit was fun to play. But compared to my GT-3, which is all analog, this unit sucked. BUT, it took some a/bing and fiddling to finally decide that the unit could not deliver a fat analog, real sounding distortion. With some long sessions of editing, I got it sounding decent....but my thinking is this...and it pertains to guitars, basses, amps and effects: If it don't sound good in 5 minutes, you most likely will not like it.

Submitted by Bill at 06/28/2004 21:24

Price Paid: 570 (euro)

Sound Quality: 10
i play in a dutch rockband, covering most of the dutch bands. The sound is what my review is about; I had a yamaha dg stomp and a podXT. They were great...but...the vox smokes them. The "feel" of the sounds is just amazing... everything i play, anyhow i play, i can hear it cristalclear and very detailed in my sound. I play the tonelab through a marshall 2x40 valvestate and homemade 2x10inch celestions. it rocks...
I'm even thinking about trading in my rack with mesa boogies and g-major efx and marshall speakers. For a tube-freak (and gear-junkie!) that's a freaky thought!!

Reliability: N/A
i'm only playing it now for 3 months, so until now no problems.

Customer Support: N/A
until now, no problems, so didn't contact them.

Overall Rating: N/A
if it was stolen, i definitley would buy i new one. I hope they come up with a rack-version, so i can build a new rack with vox and the other gear i'm using.
one more thing;
if you like tube-like sounds and the comfort of digital programmability, buy this monster!

Submitted by Roger at 06/22/2004 13:33

Price Paid: 399.00 (quid)

Ease of Use: 9
it really isn`t difficult to get your head `round this pedal,as it is pretty intuitive in the design,although a good look into the manual might save a bit of grief.considering what you can do with it,i am pleased with the layout and the speed and flexibility of use.

Sound Quality: 8
i use a fender us standard strat and a ibanez AS80 semiacustic,through a carvin belair valve amp,or alternatively a laney l.c.30 and play mainly vintage rock,blues and country,for which
this pedal excelles.with a little bit of patience(if fiddling with knobs is not your idea of fun)you can get a wide range of sounds,from
pristine clean to a bit dirty to full out distorted.
I find the modulation effects to be ehr,effective but not exactly luscious and the same for the delays,the reverbs also are ok.interestingly,their sequence can be changed from the original
MOD to DEL to REV,to any other combination you may prefer.
the PEDAL mode includes various distortion pedal simulations and other effects like:univibe,organ phaser(?),octavier,compressor,wha and others.
Here i`m happy with the sounds, but i find it odd that you should either use,for instance, a distortion sim. OR
the wha pedal but no possibility to use them at the same time.it would have been better grouping these effects in different patches that could be switched on in congiunction to each other if needed.
Generally the standard of effect sounds is above my expectations,considering how much more it would cost to have the single stompboxes and how much more complicated it would be to operate them,this is a very good solution.
whether the simulations reproduce faithfully or not the "real thing"
i cannot say,because that`s not what i`m looking for.what i can safely say is that i have no trouble in finding a large variety of
good sounds,be it clean,overdriven,distorted,"wet" or "dry".

Reliability: N/A
seems to be solid,but i had it only for a coupla months so i couldn`t
possibly say.
i would use it on a gig without backup because i haven`t got any backup!

Customer Support: N/A
never dealt with them.

Overall Rating: 9
overall i`m very pleased with this pedalboard.if stolen i would definitely try to replace it or if no finances were available i should seek counselling.the only comparison i can attempt is with my previous digitech RP6,now sadly defunct,which i thought was good for what it was:the vox is in another league altogether.
the minus point for me is in the grouping of dist. pedals on the same knob of wha,oct.,univibe and others that could have probably been grouped elsewhere (together with the modulation patch, for example).
another minor complaint is that if you don`t want to use the amp simulations,you don`t get the benefit of either BASS/MID/TREBLE overall e.q.,nor the use of the A/B channell switch.The latter is otherwise a beatiful addition,a touch of genius dare i say,as it gives you the ability to switch from,say,a rithm mild overdrive sound,to a boosted distorted lead sound,each with it`s own E.Q.,all within the same patch.
another very useful feature is the CONTROL switch,which can be assigned to operate any of the single effects without exiting the BANK mode.
all this ,together with an external switchable effect loop,plus a couple of footpedals that can be programmed(quickly and easily)to change any parameter on any effect while your hands are on the guitar,
makes this pedal a very flexible and useful tool that solves many practical problems while delivering a good range of enjoyable sounds.
i don`t want to sound like an ad,but this machine really is good.
one word of warning:
it can seriously damage your relationship/family life!

Submitted by Anonymous at 06/12/2004 15:56

Price Paid: euro (500)

Ease of Use: 10
VERY easy to use.The manual is fantastic for a change.It is my FIRST digital pedalboard (I am a pedal junkie) and it took me no more than 3 hours to understand it COMPLETELY.

Sound Quality: 10
Well this is where I was EXTREMELY surprised.I will compare this pb with my REAL ANALOG effects (I have a HUGE pedalboard that is loaded with many boutique pedals that cost a fortune.)
This thing WITH THE PROPER PROGRAMMING and SETTINGS will sound 99% like it!!AMAZINGTo the guys who complain about the pb sounds GET SERIOUS programm the thing correctly and it will sound killer.
THIS IS THE FIRST DIGITAL MODELER that has GREAT CLEAN sounds.The dirty sounds are fantastic.

Reliability: N/A
Seems built very well.Totally noiseless.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
finally a product that I feel confident enough to use ALONE!I will continues to use my pedals but frankly WITH THE RIGHT PROGRAMMING this thing sounds the same.

Submitted by Anonymous at 05/27/2004 22:54

Price Paid: US $480

Ease of Use: 9
This pedal is very easy to use. I started tweaking with it right out of the box, but I recommend giving the manual a once over. There are couple of models where proper use of the "VR Gain" really brings them to life. I love the solid construction and feel of the footswitches.

The real "ease of use" comes from the fact that the whole thing is packaged in one floor pedal. I've never had such an easy time travelling to rehearsals and gigs.

Sound Quality: 9
I'm also a keyboardist so I use modelers in order to only carry one amp to gigs. I play a Tom Anderson (Strat style guitar) into the Tonelab SE through a Roland KC-300. Plenty of low and high end. I haven't played many gigs with it yet, but got many compliments on my tone when I did. I'm generally a rhythm player doing funk, rock, pop, and folk.

I bought this because I think that VOX really has the best clean and crunch tones in the modeling amp domain. There is such a great variety that really becomes apparent when you mix the different amp and cabinet models. The other key to this thing is using the "VR Gain" to it's full advantage. This allows you to control how much signal is running through the tube to produce that tube power amp magic.

The effects are lush and inspiring. I have literally spent hours discovering new tones and effect combinations. It's got a few stereo effects that wonderful. For people who aren't fans of the leslie simulation, try using the stereo tremelo. The delays and reverbs are warm and as good as it will get without buying separate units. Another plus is that you can edit the chain of effects for the modulation reverb and delays. The only major downside in my opinion is that you cannot use a distortion pedal model and a wah model at the same time.

The other lovely part of this amp is being able to assign most parameters of the effects or amp models to one of the 2 rocker pedals or the dedicated footswitch. Highlights of this feature have been tap delays, turning the Univibe into a Rotovibe, and assinging the gain knob of the Marshall plexi model to one of the rocker pedals (thus eliminating the need for a stomp box distortion/boost).
I find the pedal to be no noiser than a real amp.

Reliability: N/A
It's new so I can't vouch for the realiability. I owned a Korg AX1000G (same parent company) which took a serious beating for 4 years and never let me down.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't delt with them.

Overall Rating: 10
I love this pedal. It has great sounds, it's easy to use, and it's very satisfying to play. My approach to amp modelers is not to try to capture a particular tube amp perfectly, but to treat the modeler as it's own new entity. I used to play tube amps, and there is a magic to the real deal that no modeler can replace. However, I feel that the Tonelab SE has it's own magic that is different (not worse) than an actual tube amp. I've tried various modelers (amps and pedals) from Line6, Fender, Vox and Yamaha). The Vox modeling amps and Tonelabs are very lively and have a lot of personality for clean and crunch sounds.
I'm giving it a rating of 10 in this section because I've never found anything that sounded so good and is this versatile (despite any of its deficits) at this price.

Submitted by Anonymous at 05/18/2004 07:58

Price Paid: US $599

Ease of Use: 10
As straight ahead as anything I've used.

Sound Quality: 8
I have specific reasons for writing this review, which I'll detail in the 'Overall Rating' section. I bought the TL to use with a Carvin H2.
It has a chambered body, with two humbuckers, and it's the brightest humbucker equipped, or chambered guitar I've ever heard. It sounds great. The tone of the guitar come through at almost every setting.
This isn't a good modeller for hyper-distorted metal type sounds. There are, however , countless options to get that sound if you want it. The thing about an amp modeller is, that it's supposed to model amps. You're guitar will influence the overall sound of every patch, the Tonelab isn't the VG8 (which i use) - it doesn't give you dozens of different sounds at the flip of a switch. It gives you your guitar sound through a handful of various amps and cabinets. That's the most important thing to consider before buying this box. That's exactly why I love it. It's not capable of duplication a tube amp exactly, nothing is. But it's damn close. As close as I've heard yet. The response between the guitar and box is a close approximation, close enough for some home recording, and more than close enough to make practicing a hell of a lot more fun than playing through anything else i've tried. Also, the factory settings are a horrible tool for promoting what this thing does. I was highly disappointed when I first heard it, but turning a few knobs kept me hanging around.
Also note, it defaults to the "Amp out" setting, which is considerably lacking in high end through headphones. Tweaking the sounds leads to a whole new world. From simple tone changes, to the effects, there is a lot more going on then is represented in the factory patches. It has great 'dirty' sounds. Decent High Gain sounds, and beefy clean tones, although not as clean as some devices which model a 'high-fidelity' guitar sound. This one is much closer to a 'real world' amp. External EQ is another 'trick' that really brings out the most of this box. I give it an 8 because that's a good rating. A 10 would be unobtainable, a 9 would mean this unit would put everyone else out of buisiness.

Reliability: N/A
Built like a tank. Only had it a week now. No comment

Customer Support: N/A
Never had to use C.S. yet.

Overall Rating: 8
I've been playing 25 years. Live and in the studio. I've mostly played my only music, starting with Rock, and moving to Jazz and Fusion. I've owned a lot of amps, tube, solid state, and a lot of modeling devices. I use the VG8, which is great for recording. It has two drawbacks. It's not quite the same playing through the roland pickup as it is through a real guitar, and you have to mount an external pickup to your guitar (if you don't have a Brian Moore type set up already). I did not want to mount such a pickup to my H2. As I mentioned, it's a distinctive guitar, which I was playing through a voodoo valve for recording. The Voodoo valve has great pristine clean sounds, but not a great deal of sustain, as you'd get through a real amp. It also has way over the top distorted sounds, and nothing in between. I never really enjoyed playing the guitar through it, because it sounded like any other guitar I might plug into it.
The tone lab allows the character of the H2 to come through. It's a joy to play, and it makes me want to play guitar. That's alot to get from a box of wires. I ran the TL through a tube head, into a 1X12 cab. A/B ing between the natural sounds of the amp, and the patches of the Tonelab. It sounded pretty damn good. I had to remind myself what it's like to play a guitar through a real amp ( having spent so much time with the VG). It sounded good enough that I'd consider using it for alternative sounds through a tube head. But the real reason I bought it ( and most would I assume) is to use for recording in an environment where I can't mic and crank an amp. To that end I'm pleased with it. As I mentioned, tweaking the patches, and using external EQ can bring out some amazing realistic simulations of the real thing. Also, it does sound better as the tube heats up, and comparing it to the POD, it's a more realistic simulation of plugging your guitar into an amp, imo.

Submitted by Alan at 05/16/2004 09:14

Price Paid: US $525

Ease of Use: 10
Very easy to use

Sound Quality: 9
Great for all types of music. The tube like feel is nice. The cleans are beautiful, the blues amps warm, the high gains sizzle and are tight. The triple rectifier model and soldando models are great for metal old and new. You have to know what you are doing, however. The pedal models are great, most of the post effect are nice, but I've heard better.

Reliability: N/A
Built like a tank...we'll see.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I play all styles. Close to perfect for my live playing needs. I have some tube amps, PODxt, many guitars. I'd buy it again, yes. The only thing I really really really wish it had is post eq for each patch.

Submitted by Anonymous at 05/13/2004 20:36

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 8
If your already familiar with multieffect boards then this shoulnd't be hard to tackle at all. Its pretty easily setup. But if your not used to this type of thing it could take some getting used to.

Sound Quality: 3
Ok. I like heavy nu-metal type sounds. Very full warm rectifer type distortion. This unit CANNOT do this. It cant even touch it! Im sure it could do old school rock and bluesy tones OK. But I couldnt get a good distortion out of it to save my life.

The effects were OK. Nothing that blew me away. Actually I sorta wasnt feeling them at all. I didnt like how you could only select from certain pre-determined kinds of chorus, flanging, etc. Not enough versatility.

I was running the SE stereo into a BBE sonic maximizer. Then feeding a Peavey Classic 60/60 6l6 tubes power amp. Then feeding a Behringer BG412S cab with Jensens. Wasn't happening. Period.

Reliability: 9
It seems built like a tank. I liked the idea of having a tube preamp, but on the other hand, that is just another piece of the puzzle that could break. Besides, tubes really are for your power section. 12ax7's AND 6l6s/El34. You can still get excellent disortions from solid state preamps. But apparently not this one.

Customer Support: N/A
I have dealt with Vox personally numerous times. Their great people. Very informative. I just wish they had consulted more metal heads before settling on what the SE has to offer.

Overall Rating: 5
I know all I've done is talk crap about this board. It still is a very cool piece of gear and Im sure for some people it's a godsend. But I just wanted to warn some. If your like me, and you like really heavy distortion sounds. You aint gonna like this.

Before the Tonelab I was using a Boss GT-3. I was pretty pleased with it and used it for 6 years. Now THATS reliable!! So. Ive since returned my SE and got the GT-6. Def. much much better for my needs. Im happy with my choice. Thanks for reading.

Submitted by Anonymous at 05/13/2004 11:21

Price Paid: US $599

Ease of Use: 9
Generally as easy to use as any such device. I had to glance at the manual for the controller pedals, but that's all.

Sound Quality: 8
Using a homemade Strat with SD TB14 HB. I recently sold my Tonelab (desktop) to get the SE because I needed the controllers, wah, tap tempo, muting, etc. Some observations: I would buy the SE just to get the effects! The choruses and delays are much more 3 dimensional and clear, and there are 2 or 3 phasers to choose from. The BiChorus got compliments from everyone who heard it. The a/b selection button allows me to group 2 sounds with common effects, which I love.
Now, the negatives. Stock out of the box, this unit has very little bass, and has a fizzy, overly bright high end. I am getting a JJ ECC83S tube like I did for my Tonelab, and have ordered the ECC81 (less gain) to experiment. This helps a great deal, but the general sound of the unit is bass-shy and treble-heavy. I also find the high-gain models to be way bright and lacking in any mids, but I don't really care because the AC models sound so good. The Univibe pedal is lush and sea-sick, which is good.
A note to Tonelab users switching to the SE: the tonal balance and gain structure are different, so don't expect your presets to sound the same.
This unit has the potential to provide most, if not all, the sounds I need for live and studio playing. Certainly, a nice amp like a Matchless with 10 boutique pedals might give you 20% of the functionality and better tone, but you're talking $4K or more.
One bad for Vox here: This unit is even noisier than my Tonelab, and I'm now getting the noise gate chatter that I got with my Korg PX4 and AX1500G, which is not good, and my single coil noise is much worse-this is live or studio. This needs to be addressed, Vox. I'm using this live at a church where the music goes to 48 track digital for TV production. HELP.

Reliability: 8
I've never had a failure on a pedal or digital modeller, but there is usually an amp around for backup where I play, so no biggy.

Customer Support: 4
Korg/Vox seems to generally thumb their nose at the consumer, not admitting product problems and ignoring input. I have gotten someone on the phone when I've called and they were generally courteous and helpful, but I don't want to deal with a repair situation.

Overall Rating: 8
Used for everything from classical guitar to classic rock, latin rock, black gospel, funk, U2 sounds, blues and jazz. Don't care about metal and probably wouldn't use this for metal if I did. I love this thing with all its warts, and you would have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers to get it.
For a wish list:
1. Louder clean models
2. Separate compressor and wah settings (apart from other pedals)
3. Global parametric EQ
4. Make a/b switch work with all parameters, not just amp/cab.
5. A model of the Fulltone Dist Pro pedal.
I know of nothing even close for my application after trying most modellers on the market, some extensively. SO--compared to other modellers a 10, compared to an optimum amp/pedal setup-5, so that's about an 8.

Submitted by Rick at 05/03/2004 11:26

Price Paid: Won (720000)

Ease of Use: 10
very easy, but the downloaded manual sucks.

Sound Quality: 10
well... the cranking/hard driving metallic sound is missing.So if your into metal than this is not the one for you. But with classic rock/blues sounded really good.

Reliability: 10
Vox has long history of making reliable goods

Customer Support: N/A
never had to deal with them. Not just yet.

Overall Rating: 10
Very much for the blues/jazz/classic rock. I used it with gibson les paul classic/ fender- D'aquisto/ modified Carvin through JCM 800 and it all sound excellent.
I wouldnt recommend it to the metal lovers. It would be a dissappointment. Well, anyways... I certainly had fun with it and love it. I'm just eager to find out the sound options it holds before me.

Submitted by Anonymous at 04/26/2004 09:05

Price Paid: 569 (Euro)

Ease of Use: 10
I bought my Tonelab SE just last thursday and had a gig on saturday.
I took me no time to get really good tones out of it. I edited it by connecting it through the MIDI ports and using their editing software. I just had to tweak my sounds a little at the sound check before the gig. And I found it surprisingly easy to do with the dials on the thing itself. It is very intuitive and works like any amp or stomp box.
The best thing is to start with the amp/cabinet sound. Then, one-at-a-time at the effects.

Sound Quality: 10
I use it with a 2000 Fender American Strat and a 1981 Ibanez Jazz guitar (AF200). The Strat of course gives a bit more noise but the NR-option is convenient enough to handel that.
I run the Tonelab on the LN-setting (lines)through a the return-jack of a Trace Elliot Super Tramp. This sounds far better that using the input-jack on the amp and the AP-setting (amp).
I was very, very happy with my sounds during the gig. Even my other band members gave me compliments for my sound ;)
Our band consists of eight people, including a horn-section and we play covers, mostly funk/rock/soul classics.

I love the AC-models, the Tweeds and UK's. Because I am not a very high gain user, I haven't tried the Recto and USHigain. It has 24 banks with each 4 channels. Each channel has a A and B channel, so all together 192 sounds! You can assign a different amp/cab to A and B. Very good!
I think the influence of the tube in the Tonelab (which you can tweak with the VR Gain) gives the sounds a real and warm feeling.
I am also very satisfied with the Tube OD, VoxWah, Chorusses and the long list of delays and reverbs (11 each!)

The Tonelab SE has two controller pedals. I had never played with two at one time, but found it extremely convenient. I use one for volume control and the other for fx-control like wah or to adjust delay-speed on the fly.

I think the sound is awesome. I've tried the PodXT a few months ago, but was very, very dissapointed. I think you have more high gain options on the pod, but if you want your sound to be more subtle and have more feel, go for the Tonelab.

Reliability: 10
It is very solidly built. As strong as any stomp box.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't had to deal with them.

Overall Rating: 10
I tried a PodXT first, but then decided to wait five months for this.
I am very glad I did that. This is the best buy I have ever did in my 25 years of playing. All I need is this thing and a good guitar.

So if you have 7 strings on your guitar buy a Pod. For any other guitar buy this!

Submitted by nepmol at 04/20/2004 01:42

Price Paid: US

Ease of Use: 10
Very easy, easy laid out, but sometimes the printing on the top can be confusing to either the manual or what's on the display read out. And I rather would had it printed in all white. It's a stage edition so it should be read on a dark stage. However, as another one mentioned, they have printed underneatch the pedals, now, even if the pedals are full tilted back, you can't read it. Now, how's that for a total braindump from VOX? Where's their heads at?

My favorite thing is, when being barefoot and no shoes or socks on, I can operate EVERY button individually without accidentally nocking the neighboring buttons off. I guess I have to have an oriental carpet on stage and leave my slippers just right off it and do all gigs with bare feets. No fancy country gigs anymore with cool boots. Just a thought! But this means that one does not have to "bend over" all of the time during playing. Definitely a plus, and a back saver!

Sound Quality: 8
Strat, heavily modified with new EMG SV pickups (the ones with pole pieces and a 112 db signal to noise ratio and 18 v batteries!) And I'll use, sometimes, a Gibson L5-S with stock humbuckers. Using the EMGs makes this unit virtually un-noisy at almost any settings. However, there is the omnipresent slight hum from the tube (s) - as on real amps - that one can't get quite rid of.

I just plug this into the PA and direct recording. The best sounds I got from actually de-activating the cabinet sims because, for some reason, I think a PA-cabinet is a cabinet as well, with inherent woofiness and air surrounding it. In a studio setting, one uses smaller speakers, and even headphones, or closeup monitors. Then you can activate the cabinet sims, but generally I think they'll just sounds out of phase and just are an EQ on top. There's no "speaker motion impedance" or even something remotely similar anyway.

The amp simulations are close but no cigar, but this is one of the closest cigars there is on the market right now. However, it excels on half cranked - break up distortion sounds. I can't get a crystal clear like Jazz Chorus amp or something like that. On full tilt distortion, it does seem to lack some bass, as most other reviewers here thought too. I'll guess one still has to go for something like the Sans Amp PSA-1 in conjuction with this one - to cover ALL distortion sounds out there. PSA-1 lacks in half cranked sounds, and warm sounds.

Of course factory presets represent a "least common denominator" and plays it safe. Not much use, almost every sound has to be edited to suit your pickups, and your picking and playing style. The advantages of the ToneLab Se sounds are:

1. You can turn down guitar volume pot and get a reasonably clean sound, at least very reminiscent of how it behaves on a real amp.

2. Most sounds cuts through a dense mix of tight music, without having being loaded with excessive preamp gain. Definitely a plus! The "granularity" (!) of the inital attack which can be set to sound quite ugly makes low notes well articulated in a dense mix.

3. One gets no digital noise hangover, i e listening fatigue. All these elusive descriptions about "digital haze" and stuff. I mean, I can sit with headphones on for hours, without getting listening fatigued. Something warms it up and masks the "digital haze" quite nicely, maybe they covered this up with the slight hum...You can't have it all it seems.

Disadvantages:

Effects section has just average things. How hard can it be these days to do a nice phaser or chorus? Or delay? I like the multihead and old delay simulations a lot, because when they simulate the tape head and speed shift, the delay turns into a slight chorus, not affecting the original signal. That's always been my favorite type of chorus. But all the other ones are quite bland. They could've put more into the reverbs, especially with more tweakings. My favorite sound was in the pedal section set to "Botique" which, according to the very tounge-in-cheek written manual, was modeled after a luxurous pre amp pedal called Klon Centaur, which I've never even heard of. The Hold Delay were supposed to be one of my favorites, but you can't play on top of things, once you held it. It surely must be a software bug, as they were plenty of in my unit. Right now, Hold Delay was totally useless. The Wah Wah is just decent and average. But if I recall it exactly, the Vox Wah wasn't the cream of the crop back in those days, it was the Dunlop Cry Baby. Good distorted sounds, but poorer effects.

Reliability: 8
Yeah, physically sturdy an well built. I could gig with it without a backup, however, I´d wish there was a complete different AC/DC outlet.
How many times have one forgotten the wall wart at home? Lots of times! Or even if theres a proper ordinary main outlet, one can fix a replacement. This unit has VERY unusual contacts for apparently no reason!

That would be my backup in that case, not the actual unit, but the power supply. I'd wish it had a tube or valve bypass as well, so if the tube breaks, you could bypass it, leaving it just like a KORG AX1500G with no dummy load, or "tube warmness". The Korg uses the same EMS modeling technique anyway.

Customer Support: 4
Korg/Vox seems to be reluctant to answering e-mails regarding software bugs found in this unit. Haven't got an answer on the hold delay yet. I left mine back for guarantee repaired, cause I find the display and mod effects not respond and display correspondly. If I turn the chicken head to Delay it still says chorus on the display.

Overall Rating: 8
Blues/Rock ancient half cranked amps, classic rock, without excessive loudness levels is what this units about. Been playing for 30 years. I own lots of stuff, which takes to much space to list here. If it were stolen, I probably get a new one, but I can't be too sure about that.

Love the ease of use of it! Hate the tounge-in-cheek written manual. Sometimes when one just have to do something different than all these cut and dry japanese-translated-to-english manuals it turns out they're even worse. This is such a case. Hate software bugs, and my favorite feature is that it can play hold delay, which was the bug that didn't work. Compared to Korg AX1500G and Line-6 POD, and Behringer V-amp this is the better one of all these. But Sans Amp PSA-1 excels in mega full tilt distortion, pick attack and bass response.

This unit is simply not the be all and end all. Say if you want some nice modern effects you still have to buy a effects rack that ain't specifically geared towards guitarist, say a nice reverb, a pitch shifter unit that tracks better than this one and so on. And if you want really spaced out effects (Boss SE-50, Se-70, VF-1, TC Electronics G-force, Major-G, FireWorx) this unit is not enough.

One major gripe with all this modeling industry is that all these gadgets aren't geared towards multi-instrumentalists. You still have to buy one unit for keyboards, one for bass (I play those too), and in the studio you'll end up with one unit each for each instrument. Maybe a corporate plot to sell more? I would love to see a Bass ToneLab SE incorporated in this unit. Today, you can't use it for bass at all, especially not low tuned, high end basses, with active pickups. They put out too much of a output, and you can't get ultra clean sounds suitable for bass at all. Especially not with this units weak bass response.

Oh, one other thing, I am the only guy on earth who loves metronome, and settings through MIDI to work any effects and BPM to a metronome. And the metronome should be able to put out through the headphones only. That would be nice. Then it could be set up as practice amp as well with decent sound.

I'd wish it should be expanded with a - now this may be outrageously over the top - Sustainiac Model C Magnetic sustainer unit! The one that you attach to the neck head. Then you would be able to recreate the natural feedback of all these amps, and then you won't have to use excessive amounts of gain to mimic sustain. Now, one can get this separately, but I would have seen it built into this unit, although it's unwieldy to attach and use.

As a live pedal board on stage, it's excellent in it's physical use, however you still need MIDI cables and insert cables go back to a backline rack, with additional effects. It excels in it's very niched sounds, i e half distorted simulations of some classic/vintage tube amps, with an unnecessary slant towards the VOX brand amps, and just at SOME settings on those amps. With, maybe, a third party company brand name, not affiliated with any amp brand name, all other amps would have been treated more equal. And more models would be featured.

Submitted by Mats at 04/20/2004 00:28

Price Paid: US $599

Ease of Use: 10
I’m a bit leery of deep technology in musical gear – I like to plug into a unit and get good, usable sounds by twisting a couple of knobs. I don’t like scrolling through digital menus and adjusting cryptic parameters. When I started reading the manual, although it was well-written, there was too much information to absorb the first time through. So I put down the manual and started tweaking…and realized I didn’t need the manual at all. This unit is butt-simple to use, very intuitive and easy to edit. There aren’t millions of parameters, just the ones that matter which is a very refreshing concept in a floor processor. The effects within each program are switchable stomp-box style and each program has an A/B setting capable of switching between completely different amp and cab models.

Sound Quality: 9
I’m using this processor set to the Line output setting (not Amp output setting, which is the default) into a Carvin AG100D 3-channel full range 100-watt amp, with a 12” speaker and titanium horn. In my experience, using the Line output setting into a full-range amp is the way to extract the goods from a unit like this. Using the Amp setting into the effects return or front end of a guitar amp may produce less-than-satisfying results, which I suspect was the case with the joker metalheads below who gave this unit poor ratings.

I’ve played tube amps for years, and currently own two Mesa combos, a Traynor YCV20WR, a ’79 Marshall JMP, and have owned countless others in the past, so I am familiar with the benchmark and industry standard guitar and effect tones. Every modeling unit I’ve tried has left me cold, regardless of price or prestige. Having said that, I am going to make a VERY bold statement: The Tonelab SE through a full-range amp is a tonally viable alternative to my favorite tube amps. I’m serious. I don’t miss the real amps at all. All but one of the models in this unit are spot-on. It acts like a real amp – the tones are deep and rich with no weird digital qualities, and even highly distorted tones clean right up with the guitar’s volume knob. It responds to changes in picking dynamics with added urgency and dirt, and the individual guitar character is never lost in the processing. Notes bloom in the Vox models. The only not-so-hot model is the ’68 plexi, which for some reason just plain misses the mark, sounding congested and not dynamic. But it’s a small disappointment when the rest of the unit is considered. The effects are equally impressive and authentic. The cabinet models are also knockouts. Without going into the geek-speak of what’s happening in that Valve Reactor circuitry, it works and damn does it work well. Because I felt that the high end was just a hair strident (and I mean just a hair), I put a JJ ECC83S into the Tonelab and the tone just blossomed.

Myself, and the band, are duly impressed with this unit. They jokingly (I hope) call me the Gear Hound and tell me I need professional help to deal with my obsession. Everyone in the band room is a stage veteran, and everyone agrees that this sounds every bit as good as the real thing. Having the great effects as well is just gravy.

If you are a young, angry metalhead, and/or cannot figure out how to adjust global output settings properly, you ain’t gonna like this – it sounds like your daddy’s vintage amps and surely that is going to piss you off. But, if you like real tone, check out the Tonelab. It is the first unit I’ve played where I don’t miss my tube amps a bit.

Reliability: N/A
Too early to tell. The second footswitch button on my unit only worked intermittently for the first few hours, but has been fine ever since. It probably just needed to be switched a few times to clean and seat the contacts. The unit is in a steel case with billet aluminum ends and chromed steel expression pedals, and weighs 15 lbs!! It is clearly designed for heavy use on stage, and nothing here feels insubstantial or cheap. On the contrary, it begs to be abused and is built like a brick house.

Customer Support: N/A
Don’t know, hope I never have to find out. I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t be particularly accommodating or responsive, although I could be wrong..

Overall Rating: 10
I doesn’t get any better than this, gentlemen. When I bought it, I just KNEW I was going to be disappointed in the tones and have to send it back, relegating myself to carrying a second amp. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. After just a few minutes with the Tonelab, I couldn’t stop grinning. As I mentioned, run it through a full range amp with the output set to Line and hold on. This unit is a godsend for someone like me who uses a complex rig with enough crap to carry already (Roland GR33, piezo output, electric output, effects, etc) and doesn’t want to carry a second amp or two, stompboxes, tubes, etc etc etc. You can get truly authentic tones of some great amps and effects in a single, simple-to-use unit that won’t leave you wanting. If you are a real musician with a taste for great tone, I highly recommend you check this unit out.

Submitted by Anonymous at 04/13/2004 10:16

Price Paid: US $580

Ease of Use: 8
Fairly simple. DO NOT get fooled by the menu labeling on it. The set of pedals do NOT make use all of the 6 knobs from left to right(drive level tone manual type order).

Sound Quality: 6
Ok, I am very disgusted with the overall value and sound of this thing. First of all I agree 100% with the guy who said it lacks bass! The damn thing is muddy even with the amount of bass it does have! This thing sounds like shit through headsets. Never before have I owned ANY multieffect pedal where it sounds like shit with headsets! The only exception is when playing with clean amp models. The amp models are okay, but overall the rock/metal stuff is not there at all. They sound weak and quite frankly absolute shitty. The only way to get any decent distortion is to turn the cab and amp model off and use the pedals(fat drive, overdrive, orange, etc aka hard rock, not thrash or metal). I also used the pedal insert which worked okay... it acted like a fake bypass pedal...it ate some tone.... I'd like to mention I owned a vox ADVT120H and combo before and this sounds nothing close to it. The best features of this thing are the effects especially compared to the ADVT120H. Compared to the tonelab(prior to this Tonelab SE) was better sounding in my opinion, but not a winner(sent that one back). Also, I agree with the guy who thinks the vox wah is fake or crappy. The range is too short too. Since I've read these reviews after owning this for a week I had already drew the same conclusions most of you have flamed this bitch for. So I know it's not just in my head!

Reliability: N/A
It's built with solid metal and plastic pots. One thing that is retarded is the board has stuff printed on the top UNDERNEATH the wah / vol pedals. HELLO!?????? People can't see through a wah pedal VOX!!!! It's merely an absurb argument, but just adds to the overall bad rep this thing already has.

Customer Support: 1
They never answer a damn thing. Look at their FAQ/SUPPORT. It's proof they do nothing for the consumer.

Overall Rating: 5
This is not worth $580(got a discount.. regularly $600). While some of the modulation effects are cool I just have to send this bitch back. They dropped the hairy pulsating balls on the amps models/distortion on this one folks! If it works great for you then fine. All I am saying this is not a good pedal for hard rockers and metal. Just softer stuff. Oh well...

Submitted by Jason at 04/07/2004 03:59

Price Paid: US $599.99

Ease of Use: 8
Fairly simple to use,

Sound Quality: 7
It sounds digital. Effects are good. Especially the delays and chorus.
The EQ knobs could do a little more. Definately lacks bass. The wah has a digital sound, kind of disappointing.

Reliability: N/A
So Far so good.

Customer Support: N/A
It would be nice if you could swap presets with other players on there web site. Other wise experiance with customer support.

Overall Rating: 6
I play Rock and blues. I'm using a Rocktron Prophisy and a VHT power amp. I've been playing for about 20 years. I'm disappointed with the Vox SE. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it yet or send it back. It has some good tones but for the money it just seems to be lacking something. It might be in the cab models. The effects are overall pretty good. Better than line 6. Also the tube has a light behind it to make it look like its working. I heard from a dealer rep. that theres only 1 watt passing through the Tube. Take that for what its worth.

Submitted by Anonymous at 04/02/2004 16:56

Price Paid: US $350.00

Ease of Use: 7
this is the "upgraded" version of the tonelab and VC-12 and i liked the firs version better. This unit is much more complicated than it needs to be, the simplicity of the other tonelab was ideal. There is a manual which is very good but also very long.

Sound Quality: 6
well, there is less gain and presence than there was on the original tonelab and there is also more digital noise. The sounds are overall fairly weak and they deleted my three favorite patches (voxman,haven,and police)from the other tonelab. There is also less, and not much to begin with, bass on the EQ so if you want more bass you are screwed if you are running it through the FX Return on the back of your amp unless tou are running through a mixer.
Another thing to consider, if you plug it in and it sounds muddy and dosent have any presence and you are running through the fx return, you want to push the global buttin then push the up or down arrow untill you see LN(line) not AP which means amp. I know is confusing but it is on page 15 of the manual.

Reliability: 8
well, I would most likely use it with out a backup because I have a Marshall AVT 275 which has built in effects that would do fine in an emergency situation.

Customer Support: 10
never dealt with the company for problems but I do my business directly through them and they have always taken good care of me.

Overall Rating: 7
I love melodic metal and good 80's rock so it was a good match but just not as balzy as i would like. There were a lot of very cool sounds and things to play with and it has a volume and a secondary expresion pedal for wah, pitch shift, modulation and delay timing and more.

Submitted by jacy oliver at 03/26/2004 12:30

Price Paid: N/A

Ease of Use: 9
This is where this unit really wins - I've only had it 3 days & have already dialled up some killer sounds direct to my pc. It literally took me a few minutes to get better mid gain sounds than I have achieved before. The two amps per patch function is really useful - you can setup rhythm & lead on each & leave the pedal free for someting else (other that an lead boost).

Sound Quality: 9
Used a strat & a prs both sound v. good with it. More than flexible enough for me - amp/cab mixing yields some very nice sounds. Effects sound very good to me, incl. the wah. Used it through the effects return of my valvetronix & cornford amps - sounds great through both. I've had a hard time deciding which amps I like best as they can all sound very good. The 68P marshall gets some fab sounds just breaking up - amazingly valve-like.
Going direct sounded as good as miking up speakers when recording.
Only small complaint is that there is a little more hum than I would expect but it isn't enough to bother me - definitely there though.

Reliability: N/A
I'd not gig without a backup of some sort. It looks very well made and a nice design too.

Customer Support: N/A
No idea but I've heard good things.

Overall Rating: 10
I've had/have a lot of Line6 gear, this is much easier to use & to get great sounds out of, especially in regard to clean & just breaking up sounds (I play mainly blues & rock - no metal).
It's knocked my socks off so far. Got better sounds to disc that ever before in a few minutes. Well worth a try.

Submitted by Anonymous at 03/14/2004 13:25

Price Paid: ca. 640 (euros)

Ease of Use: 8
It's easy to turn the knobs. The problem lies with getting to know the sophisticated features beforehand. With, for instance, Line6, you can get to know any device inside out just by downloading the manual. Nothing of the sort with Vox. I have demoed it only in the shop and I'm not that interested in the presets (altough they sound good). I want to know how much power I have over the features and parameters of the device.
As Vox hasn't been able to let us know all the effects that come with the device, I'll try to do it for everyone:
Pedal:
Orange Dist
Fuzz
Octafuzz (octave up)
Comp
Acoustic
Vox Wah
Auto Wah
U-Vibe
Blk Org Phase
Octave (down)
Ring Mod
Treble Boost
Tube OD
Super OD
Boutique
Fat Dist

New Cabinet: Tweed 1x8

Modulation:
Classic Chorus
Stereo Chorus
Classic Flanger
Bi Chorus
Duo Phase
Textrem (tremolo)
Rotary (sounds awful, why didn't they utilize Korg's G4 technology?)
Pitch Shifter
Mod Delay (1)???
Filtron
Talk Mod

Delay:
Echo Plus
Multi Head
Analog Delay
Mod Delay (2)??? Did they run out of effects?
Sweep Delay
Stereo Delay
Cross Delay
2 Tap Delay
Rhytm Delay
Hold Delay
Reverse Delay (cool backwards effect)

Reverb:
Spring 1&2
Plate 1&2
Chamber 1&2
Room 1&2
Hall 1&2
Gate

There are visible screens for Tuner, Banks, Patch Names (now you don't have to rely on your memory alone to tell which sound lives in which patch, eg. "black od" instead of "4 C") and some other trivial info. The tuner comes on really quickly (with L6 Floorboard you have to stand on the switch for ages).

Sound Quality: 9
The presets sound really good, as does the individual amp models and the effects (save for the rotary). The expression pedal instead of just Wah is a cool feature (although it leaves me guessing again). Only the mod, delay and reverb are changeable in the effects chain.
But as I said I have only demoed it (though couple of times with several guitars).

Reliability: N/A
Looks and feels very sturdy.

Customer Support: 6
How hard it is to make a PDF of the already ecxisting paper manual???

Overall Rating: 9
This far it seems to be the best option out there for palying live (SE=Stage Edition) and I will grab one as soon as I get rid of my POD. But there are many questions I haven't been able to find an answer for. Like can more than only one effect be used simultaneously from "pedals" (octafuzz+univibe, Wah+anything else)? Can I use a separate volume pedal and use Tonelab's own pedals as an expression pedal and a Wah? Argh, if only I could download the manual! But otherwise it feels like an ispiring product.

Submitted by Lounger at 02/27/2004 08:54