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