Vox Cooltron Big Ben Overdrive

covered

Having been playing for 40 years in many bands and used tons of gear I hereby pronounce this is the best od out there. It blends perfectly through my Fender Blues Junior and through my tiny Roland Microcube street. It responds somewhat like a tube amp - very sensitive to your playing - and has great compression making playing easier. It's better than a TS9 or even a Ibanez Tone King.

Why come up with such a great pedal and put a total crapo footswich in it? Mine by the way, has metal sides.

Some say it's dark - and that's just what I need for my Telecaster which now sounds the right thickness. I'd buy another. It is expensive but still worth it.

This pedal is extremely to use! You only have 3 knobs on it. Volume, tone and gain! Simple to use!

I found it on the return shelf when I was working at Guitar Center in colorado springs, co. I was the guitar dept manager at the time. I grabbed it off the shelf, threw some fresh batteries in it, plugged it into a gibson SG to a fender twin and hit the switch. The tone was sweet and warm!!! I had to dial it in to get the tone I liked, but after that it was all over! I bought it immediately!!! I took it home to plug it into my SG and my peavey delta blues. The pedal is a perfect addition for my amp and guitar. Pure, unadulterated, sweet tube driven overdrive!!! Great product!!!

I gigged with my band alot in the springs and my gear gets moved around alot. So far I have had no problems with the pedal. It has been rock solid for me.

As far as customer support goes, I have never had to use it, so I couldn't tell you.

This pedal is a must-have for and musician! It doesn't matter what kind of music you play. This pedal will provide a great overdrive with ANY rig! It's simple, a little expensive, (you get what you pay for), and reliable. I paid $175.00 for the pedal and I personally think it sounds better than the Seymour Duncan overdrive pedal. Working at Guitar Center opened me up to alot of gear that I got to try out on a daily basis and as far as an overdrive pedal goes, THIS IS THE ONE TO GET!!!

Very easy to use, just like any normal OD pedal with 3 knobs.

Bought it used at a cheap price, thinking I can flip it if I don't like it. Now, no way I'm selling it.

Very transparent. Also has that tube presence, clarity and warmth. Good with single-coils. The OD is very similar to amp break-up.

Really surprised and taken by the sound quality.

Bought it used. Apparently, the previous owner used it for a couple of years, problem-free.

The wordings are starting to disappear though. Functionally, just great.

Dunno

Am very happy with it. Didn't think the tube in there will do much in terms of tone, but am convinced now.

This is one good-sounding tube overdrive pedal.

what's up with people saying all this crap about dielectric noise and hard plastic coloration? and mostly that tubes are the "purest and crispest form of amplification." i totally disagree with this. The reason tubes sound better is not because of their pureness, it is actually the opposite. It's because of their lack of purity; their distortion. Tubes introduce even harmonic distortion to the signal path which we perceive as "warmth". I can tell the difference between tube overdrive and transistor based overdrive, but what is this dielectric noise? I looked it up and can't find one thing on the internet about dielectric noise. the two words are never found together, except on harmony central. there is only dielectric, not dielectric noise. anyway, people are way to biased based off of other people's opinions. that's the only problem with effects reviews.

I also own a TS9 and was unsure about how to set up the tone knob. It just sounded not quite right regardless of the position. With the bigben, you are finaly able to get a sound as clear as a bell or as dark as a black cat in the night :-).
I amazes me how to get such a good sound from a pedal running with 9 Volts!This is genious!

Well yes!... This is the sound I hunted for such a long time. I previously used a badcat 2tone pedal. That one sounds also nice but you just cannot get a smoth distortion out of it and the output is too high and difficult to control at lower volumes.
I prefer to control the grade of distortion by (finger-)picking softer or harder and bigben is just made for that! My likes for an agressive distortion are over mostly. Otherwise I use a MXR Distortion+ to throw in a very biteing lead sound for a few notes that is sounding like a Marshal Solidstate Amp... I always missed the distortion channel in my ol' VOX AC30 - now I've got one by my feets!

Well, everything would be fine if:

- the noisy footswitch was replaced by a better one
- The side-panels would not be made of cheap plastic

What I'm gona do about that is:
- Replace the switch regardless of the 2 years guarantee
- Build some nice sidepanels made of real wood (or alu?)

I guess I don't need it. I'm an electronician. A schematic diagram would be helpful in future...

I give it a 9.99 in reality just to show that it is not quite perfect but still my choice!

Althought that Mister Butler has 'invented' a similar tube-effect years ago I am sure that VOX is earning a huge succes with the new cooltron products.

easy enough to get out your sound, only the 3 things to change. out of the box and into the circuit, 5 mins to get it sorted and im happy with the sound.

i pump mine through a JCM800 and its does just what i need, a general purpose warm overdrive that wont sound out of place for blues or oldschool rock. there is the heard about cluck when the pedal is pressed which is annoying but the overdrive is great value.

no problem tkae it with me and forget about it

wouldnt know; never needed any

il play anything going, blues, rock, metal through bass and guitar and this will handle all of the above with a few seconds worth of tweaks. ive been playing about 18 months but i have a habit of burning through gear :D.
i would get a new one if it were lost or stolen because its an essential, a good steady OD.
teh noise of the footswitch is anoying but its not liek its the only pedal that does it and it doesnt affect the overdrive itself.
i chose this for the shock value and becuase i was without a smoother OD, my mxr is a little more electronic sounding.

like all cooltron it is well made in a metal chassis, only plastic borders but solid. Cool, beautyfull to see with the blue led behind the valve.
Simple and pratice with three knobs in vintage style!

One of the best overdrive ever heard, due tothe warmth of tone: a nice valve natural saturation (even if the circuit is transistor and the valve only heats up the sound, but in a great way!
You hear that valve works. Great to crank up your sound, to have a smooth distorted ampli-like distortion or to boost your crunch.
With gain on the top you have a sweet sound like valve saturation, not extreme, tink some santana sound, ac dc or some vintage tone!
It s great with every ampli, better if it is a tube one.

Ok.

I don't know. never had problems

This is one of the best over drive without doubt. Try it before buy, the tone is grat but maybe not for modern sounds.
A great stomp, only the price could be something better.... to much expensive.

This pedal is exceedingly simple to use. There are three "chicken-head" style knobs: volume, tone and gain. There is a little instruction booklet, but it's not really needed. If you're looking to do a lot of EQ tweaking, probably not going to get it out of this pedal. But it is very easy to get a nice, glassy, brit-style tube tone out of this box.

Well, I use this as a direct-input device. My setup is guitar -> big ben -> garageband software. I play a PRS SE EG in the S/S/S config. I don't get the chance to play out a lot, and I wanted a tube pedal to "warm up" my otherwise dry guitar signal. I have to say that with a little "post" EQ and a dash of reverb in garageband, it sounds exceptionally amp-like. You are obviously missing the speaker, which makes a huge tonal difference, but this $179 pedal is about as good a tube amp sim as I've ever gotten.

I really love 60s British amps ... the Vox AC15s and AC30s and Marshall plexis (and, especially, the 1974x & the Bluesbreaker amps.) I have found that by simply manipulating the gain knob, I can cover a huge tonal range within those baselines. With gain all the way down, it's a very warm, fat clean. Put the gain anywhere from 8:00 to 2:00, and it's a remarkably chimey tone. On the verge of breaking up ... but not fully there. Anywhere from 2:00 and above and you are really in some wonderful areas ... a meaty overdrive, thick and harmonically rich.

I've only played this w/ single-coils, and I've found that there is a lot of "bite." The highs are definitely something to be aware of. I actually roll the tone down on my guitar, keep the treble up on the pedal, and that seems to work well, keeping the highs crips without being screamy. Rolling the gain down brings out some wonderful "jangle."

Roll the gain all the down, leave the tone all the way up and you get a fantastically transparent volume boost. And the knobs are VERY SENSITIVE. Just a little push forward can make a big difference -- that's true of each knob on the pedal.

I am very, very happy with the tonality I can squeeze out of this pedal.

I haven't needed to bring it out with me, but I can say that the construction (a chrome box) seems about as road-worthy and reliable as I've seen. I'm not rough on my gear, and I wouldn't go around smashing the Big Ben intentionally, but if it fell or was dropped or was hit, I wouldn't be worried.

N/A.

I do bluesy rock "rave up" type stuff. Have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and an Epi Valve Jr. (which I **love**.) This pedal is exactly what I was looking for. I considered an SIB Varidrive, which is a similar type of pedal, but the Vox Big Ben was actually available! And it was significantly cheaper. I would definitely consider getting another more fully-featured Vox "cooltron" type pedal in the future.

I've been playing for about a dozen years, and I've heard all kinds of overdrives and distortions, but this is easily the most touch-sensitive, defined, crisp and useful OD pedal I've come across. I love the fact that it's tube-powered, and I think that home-recorders would do well to consider it as a DI unit. Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only person who truly doesn't like the Tubescreamer. This pedal blows it out of the water, as far as I'm concerned.

The gain knob is one of the most interesting settings I've encountered, period, on an amp or a pedal. A little push forward and back can really make you sound like you've got two different amps.

I would be extremely upset if someone stole this.

Very easy to use, volume, tone and gain, takes just a few minutes to get great tone. I have used many other pedals and this is one of the easiest.

I play a G&L ASAT through a Fender '65 reissue and have great clean tone, with nice breakup at higher volumes but missed having a second channel to get some overdriven tones. One of the other reviewers described this pedal as a second channel for vintage style tube amps so it sounded like what I was looking for. I've had it for about two weeks now and love it. It maintains the sound and tone of your guitar and amp,it doesn't change it into a differint animal, just gives great overdriven distortion with the same great tube tone. I can come very damn close to getting the exact same tones at a lower volume with the pedal as the sound of the amp at a much higher volume with the gain set low. Turn up the gain and you got lead! It sounded great just practicing by myself, but when playing with the band at higher volume, the Big Ben really shined with good sounds. We play everything from 60's garage through to grunge and punk. The BB handles everything well and for the punk the BB in front of a Russian Big Muff does a great Marshall sound while still maintaining great tone. I'm giving it a 9 in the tone dept. because it really does sound like you have an extra tube channel on your amp, which in my opinion says everything. I'd give it a 10, but I don't know what a 10 would sound like.

It seams solidly built. I bought mine used on ebay without the box or instructions and it arrived in like new condition. When checking the battery compartment (even though I use an ac adapt.) everything seems to be well made. I have it on a pedal board so it stays plugged in and is carried about on the board, so I doubt it will break easily.

No experience.

I give it a 9.5 for ease of operation, cool looks and absolutely nailing the "extra tube channel" sound. I'ts not a distortion or compression pedal, but it will make your amp scream way earlier and you can get many usefull tones, from shimmering early tube breakup for rhythm work to some nasty overdrive for leads. I have to say that I got a great deal paying $90 on ebay, but after hearing it in my actual situation if it was stolen I would definately buy a new one at retail.

Well, if it takes more than five minutes or so for you to get a decent sound from it, you need a slap. It only has three knobs, for crying out loud. Volume, tone, and gain. Simple. There was a manual, but I didn't bother looking at it. Very easy to use, just dial in a sound you like.

I absolutely love this box. I play a Gibson SG Special or an American Fender Strat HSS into a Marshall AVT50 (soon to be upgraded to a VOX AC15- I love VOX stuff now), through a Dunlop Crybaby and then the Big Ben. Sometimes I put a DOD Classic Fuzz in front of the wah to get a Hendrix-type sound.
This pedal rules for tone, but it lacks drive a bit. It needs the gain knob pretty much full to get a good punch on it. Keep it low and you can get a nice Beatles/ Yardbirds light dirt on your sound, 'til about 12 o'clock where it starts to heat up nicely, and at full crank you get a full on Led Zep, AC/DC, Sabbath smack in the gob. Turn the tone down and you can get good on a Clapton "Woman" type of tone.
I didn't expect tubes in pedals to work fantastically, but this really does. I tried Boss, Digitech, DOD, Danelectro and Marshall pedals before this. This was by far the best.
The great thing is that it isn't like a lot of overdrive pedals where the overdrive is like a layer of sound on top of your guitar signal. If you picture your guitar's clean sound as running water, and then someone drops some coloured dye in the water, only a tiny bit mind... That's what this is like. It works with the guitar.

People have said this isn't built very solidly. I'd have to disagree. You get a vent for the tube, and you can see how thick the metal casing is. It's a very shiny tank. Sure, the jacks are plastic ones. So what? It performs, that's all I can see. I've had it 4 months now, and had no problems.

Not had to deal with them yet. Hope I don't have to.

Love it. Just love it. The overdrive on the amp was okay. I got this meaning it to be an alternative depending on what song I was playing/ what sound I needed, but I've just gone ahead and let the pedal take over. It's just so good. If you see one as cheap as I got mine, grab it, I promise youwill not regret it.

Only 3 knobs but be weary of the tone knob. Live with a 2x12 or 1x12 or 2x10 I always kept it around 3:00 (after I realized below that sounds woofy)Manual is ok at best. Doesn't go into changing tubes but it is absolutely important to put a nice nos 12au7 and it will sound amazing! Try not to dime the gain, try it at about 4:00 or 4:30. You will be rewarded with 1.A nice tube 2.tweaking 3.Tube amp

I have had this a year and a half and actually got rid of it to go back to amps with a good od built in. Well I bought it back and a spare!! I am presently running this through a lonestar Special and it is awesome. Very amp like, using the volume knob really works (better than my jcm 2000 distortion channel)Let it warm up first like an amp. I am getting great modern rock tones with all out bridge attack and with bridge and neck it sounds bluesy (especially with volume knob adjustments)

Never a lick of a problem. pops sometimes but alot of true bypass pedals do. When you are playing live it doesnt matter

?

I play EVERYTHING from Rock, Rawk, R&b, blues, funk, country, rap and Jazz and this is a HUGE part of my setup

Easy as 1..2..3

Sound is awesome. I wouldn't call the sound muffled at all. It's warm though. The Tone knob works very well, and the character of the amp is kept. No heavy metal gain, but from overdriven blues to nearly punk I get all the rocktones I wanted (my Amp is a Vox AC30 CC1). I also use this pedal in front of my Line6 Toneport for recordings at home. Works perfectly with the Marshall amp simulations as well.

Looks reliable to me. Looks like you can change the footswitch easily if it's broken.

To me it's the perfect Overdrive pedal. Give it a try. Price is too high imho (that's why I give it a 9), but maybe you can make a deal at ebay. If it were stolen or lost I would use my Ibanez TS again in the meantime and try to get another Big Ben OD.

I just like to say :
After switching about ten times the "plop"-sound of the
by-pass is allright (duel overdrive-user) !
Try it, perhaps it works.

This unit makes fun to play with.

It looks reliable.

Only 9 points because of the bypass-switch.
I think it??s possible to make this work better.

Hard to get a good sound out of it. Too DARK. Even changing tubes(pain in the neck) doesn't improve the sound.

Why are you all fooled by the tube? I think it's just there for show. Open the box and you will find cheap components, including 4 or 5 cheap surface mount ic's. When I tried many different tube screamers and their clones I could hear the dielectric noise but mostly at high gain settings. This pedal even with Mullard tube has dielectric noise. It is a bad idea to screw up the signal of your guitar with cheap ic's, caps, and resistors in hopes of putting magic back in with a tube.

I think the enclosure could be smaller and tube access better. The cheap pots and switch might soon break as well.

n/a

Avante/garage. Beatles-esque. I have owned many of the cheapest and most expensive stompboxes and amps. Don't waste your time with cooltron. Just get a real tube amp. Sell off the other stuff. I tried this box direct into my speaker sim and Mixer and it sounded worse.

If you can't handle 3 knobs, you better..... Very easy and simple to operate.

I've tested this device with VOX, Marshall and Fender amps. It doesn't seem to like every amp and thus I'm going to describe the best match for this pedal. I used it with my vintage Silverface Princeton Reverb, Deluxe Reverb and Vibrolux Reverb amps. This is a fantastic combination. Enjoy the natural sound of these sweet amps and then kick in the pedal: Warm, rich, wide, harmonic, growling sound! Pretty cool compression here.

Teles are my main guitars. Hence I'm somewhat averse to trebly sounds. Tone control on my amps is usually set quite low. On the pedal I have it on 12 o'clock while gain is at about 3 o'clock. Yes, it's a bit dark but hey that's exactly what I like about this pedal while playing a Tele. It adds a lot of bottom and ground! Wonderful for Rhythm, partly usable for lead sounds, too. After 3 o'clock the sound turns from overdrive to distortion.

Not overly tube-like feeling but that's the job of my all-tube amps. Like other reviewers said, the on/off switch is annoyingly noisy. VOX should have clearly done better here.

Seems to be built well, has great looks

Never dealt with them

Classic Rock and Blues. Too much gear to list. I think I know what's good and what's not. We all paid a lot of money for stomp boxes and went through many disappointments. However, I recommend this pedal to vintage Fender amp owners who play Teles/Strats. BigBen seems to like Fender amps more than Marshalls. Good pedal but still behind my Fulltone OCD. Easy handling

only 3 knobs, easy enough but read on

I agree with the review below, sound is pretty good but a bit to warm, muffled. The treble knob works but adding treble gives it a kind of boxy sound. The gain kicks in at one o'clock but delivers the overdrive only at the last 20%. I did some A/B testing with my Chandler tube driver and Ibanez tone king. The Ibanez has the most agressive upfront sound, the Chandler is the most natural open and smooth. The Vox doensn't color like the Chandler but lacks the open woody character or the sweaty in your face of the Ibanez. Too polite and boxy. Still a nodge more natural than your average green box. Still a nice overdrive though but this thing misses a good mid/bass knob

big and sturdy, reminds me of my Matchless hotbox. Well, that didn't sound better but it sure sounded more like tubes in heath.

It has three knobs. Very easy to use. Comes with batteries installed so it works right out of the box.

Muffled. I play into two 1950s Gibson BR-6 tube amps with humbucker and P90 les pauls and flying Vs. With Big Ben's Tone control dimed, my tone was still muffled. Too bad the control didn't go to 12 or 13. The amps have no tone controls so there's no adjusting treble or presence or anything to make up for a pedal's shortcomings. They kick out whatever comes in.

The pedal's overdrive is created by an opamp (read the literature), and that signal is sent to the tube. So you're still getting plastic overdrive. It's just colored by the tube. Plastic overdrive sounds too perfect in how it breaks up. It's like the micro-second gaps between sound are all exactly the same size. A tube amp's gaps are crazy random--organic. Big Ben does not deliver on the organic.

The ads or reviews that say the pedal sounds like your clean signal when Gain is on zero and Tone is on ten must not have played the same unit I got. There is very apparent grind at these settings--it is not the same as playing your guitar clean.

Low rating based on plastic and non-transparent sound.

Nice box. Sturdy enough.

NA

Blues and old rock. Some fast stuff (Satriani) when the rare mood strikes. 21 years of play time. Own: 57 Historic Les Paul, '54 Historic Les Paul, Faded V with P90s, White V with Burstbuckers, 2 x Ibanez 540R, bunch of pedals, two amps mentioned above.

The sound of this pedal kills it for me. Other features of this survey bump the rating to a 7.

this is an update to my previous review I left.....this pedal is still kicking tail and taking names. here are few that have bit the dust in the Big Ben's shadow: Modified Vox Valvetone, Modded Maxons, Peanut Butter, Barber Direct Drive, Barber Direct Drive SS, Barber LTD, Keeley BD2, MIAudio Blue Boy, Chandler tube driver, Butler Tube Driver, tone bone classic tube, and numerous others. They have all sounded so plastic and sterile in comparison and for good reason (the solid state ones). Its impossible to get true tube sound because of a little known and talked about phenomenom called dielectric noise. Look it up boys and girls and you'll see what I'm talking about. Tubes don't suffer from this since the electron flow is in a vaccum. The tube pedals ive used don't even compare with the exception of the Chandler tube driver...but that is extremely expensive if you can find one.

For the money this is absolutely the best overdrive pedal out there. Nothing has come close and this is a statement from a Fuchs overdrive supreme owner. This pedal in front of a good tube amp sounds like a boutique amplifier with boutique overdrive. I've also owned several tube overdrives and the only pedal that beat the Big Ben...and not by much in my opinion, was a vintage Chandler tube driver, and that was 3x the cost of the Big Ben and that was used and very noisy!! Vox really has a winner here. Some reviewers have complained of popping footswitches (mine is quiet) and low quility parts. Its the sound that matters to me. I've owned handwired pedals with high end parts and sounded like crap in comparison to the Big Ben. One wish though, I wish the Big Ben had a easy latch to swap out tubes. You have to take it apart to change the tube. For that I give a 9.

Extremely easy. Nothing hard about it at all....Manual not needed...

Have a 95 Fender Evil Twin...79 Les Paul CSB Standard, 87 62 RI Strat in Vintage Cream flame neck.

Big Ben is VERY well done in my opinion..

As someone stated, there is a pop when you switch it on or off, especially one way or the other, however, I had a very old Rat pedal that did the same thing. I think that is the nature of TBP...

I have to agree with other people here, it is extremely transparent, works well on clean channel (SRV would roll in his grave) AND overdrive channel (Does ZZ-top come to mind) of my Fender Twin...I set level at 12, tone at bout 2, gain at 2-3 and that is the Bees Knees...Not noisy whatsoever...

However not intended for shred type of guitar techniques, even with gain dimed. From 2 o'clock on to max it is somewhat of a distortion device... Shredders look elsewhere, that includes myself...

Who knows??? It is a new technology and a new pedal...However I think Korg makes these so it should last a few years...

Who me????

Great for Blues, Blues Rock...I have been playing on and off my whole life...Don't know what is a ten, however this is pretty close to ten as possible....Would probably buy it again, sounds great...Smokes my modded ts-9. That TS-9 is gonna get some dust and rust I suppose....Very warm round overdrive, very tubey, somewhat remarkable I might add..Would like to get the new Vox Compressor, the Bulldog and Wah, then I will have all the bases covered except delay...I REALLY really like this Vox stuff...How often do amp builders build effects of equal value and quality??? Not to mention the sound is great!!!

Easy to use, it's got the standard overdrive control setup.

Here's where I ran into a bit of an issue... I think the unit sound excellent as far as tone goes, it's a warm-sounding pedal and not harsh at all. Perhaps a little too dark though for some applications. The problem is that the unit makes a loud pop when you switch it in or out of operation. The switch seems kind of cheap and does not have a solid feel to it, it feels a little mushy and like something it would wear out fast perhaps. Anyhow, it sounds nice but the popping is unacceptable, it's quite loud when the volume gets cranked. I ended up returning this unit and picking up a Barber LTD Silver, it's a very nice transparent overdrive for much less money, which is true-bypass. Sure, it's cool to have the real tube in there but in the end if you find something that's smaller, lighter, and cheaper that sounds just as great and will have better reliability in the end most likely then it makes sense to switch. Mostly it was the popping thing though...

3 knobs. How hard can that be.. :)

Perfect. Used Strats, Ibanez JEM7, Ibanez SZ520, PRS, Les Paul. Amp used: Marshall DSL50 and Peavey JSX. The best overdrive out there in my opinion. But that's me. Try it yourself. Just fantastic, Round and smooth, AND biting at the same time. Worked great on clean channels and the distorted channels

Looks and feels sturdy

I would buy it again. I will probably buy the Brit boost too. Also a cool and well sounding overdrive. To all you people who want try this this: It's a tube inside, so play at least 20 min to warm up the tube.

All been said already, except the knobs on this baby were meant to be turned up. A lot of pedals are like a fender reverb knob don't turn past 3-4. this is more like a marshall you can keep the knobs in the 7-10 range.

Actually in the 1-5 range it doesn't do much at all.

Slightly noisy, but just slightly. I use mostly the higher end boutique stuff (spoiled I am). I have thousands of $$$ in pedals.
My favorites are the fulltone line, TS808, and MXR OD. Just for something different I thought I'd try this one.

It heavy, but uses regular off the shelf cheapo parts inside. But that is OK.

I use strat,tele,les paul, es335.es175,ricki's with Fender Tweed, Blackface Twins,Marshall Plexi, Marshall HWbass and lead, Vox AC30, Orange.

This pedal has a "Vox-ey" sound and adds really really Nice Compression to your OD. This Compression is the reason that I will keep this pedal. IT is very nice, reasonably priced, you'd probably like it to.

I play mostly classic rock, country-ish type of music.

If you have a crap-o amp it still sounds pretty good. I took a battery operated $35 Plastic Fender Mini Twin and my strat out on the islands and we do a lot of campfire stuff at night. With the tube in this pedal It sure made the little plasic amp sound more convincing and after a few beers and stuff it sounded great around the campfire

Seems well built on the outside, it is beefy and has a lot of weight etc.......... On the inside flimsy pc board, and run of the mill components. I had my amp tech change out the footswitch and the input output jacks to something more durable.


If I made a living playing guitar I'd have to bring a few just because the insides looked more like a computer and less like the typical indistructable footswitch you'd expect in a simpler design.

Never dealt with em, hope I never do. (how many times has that been said)

They charge a boutique-like price and use cost saving parts. Stores are full on Chinese/japenese made crap that looks cool and breaks and basically disposable. Not saying this pedal is, but it has some of those parts in it. (Read the reviews on the NEW Chinese AC30 if you wanna good scare).

I remember when you would go to the store and buy a gibson or fender at is was top quality. Now they've relabled those "custom shop" and charge a small fortune. For the rest you get mediocore "wanna be".

I hate this money making stratagy and it reflects in my rating.

But the Compression it adds is very rich and harmonic/musical. I would recommend buying this pedal, but wish they would build it as nice on the inside as they do on the outside. I'd even pay an extra $100 for a quality "custom shop" version.............

I have been looking for a transparent overdrive pedal for quite some time now, and didnt want to colour the excellent sound of my Mesa F-50, since that in of itself has a great clean, and overdrive sound on 2nd channel. What i wanted was an "extra" channel for the clean, and the crunch (2nd), and I have found this with this new vox pedal.

It has a 12AU7 tube in it, and due to the very smart circuit built in, it doesnt run in starvation mode, which is what all other 12AX7 tubes basically do. I am an electronics Technologist, and know full well , that its IMPOSSIBLE to get REAL tube sound out of solid state discrete components, although I admit some like the Tonebone classic, FD-2, Barber DD sound very nice.

I was drawn to this pedal due to the design, gave it a try ,and was impressed. It is noticeably warmer than the above pedals (tube), has tone, volume, and gain knob, with one good quality switch. Has the LED to let you know its on/off, and of course, true bypass. This thing is built in Japan, which is odd, since the New Vox Ac30 amps are built in china (??) oh well, no problem from me; i prefer it that way. With the tone maxed out (or maybe backed off just a tad), and gain set to full counter clockwise,you have the SAME sound from your amp, as if it was off. Now that is transparency folks.

Like I said, true transparency, not too noisy, unless your using single coils, dirty power supplies etc, and have the gain maxed out.

The tone circuits used are great, and i cannot get a bad sound out of this thing. I have turned my Mesa F-50 into somewhat of a very good rendition of a Vox amp with the clean channel, and this Big Ben tone maxed, and gain set to about 3oclock.

I use this with a R.I 59 Les Paul w/new burstbuckers, PRS custom 24 (1995),my 1984 Japanese Squier Tele w/swamp ash body (great sounding tele for the record), Fender 50th anniverary, crafted in Japan, Strat with the disc type string tree. (Like the 54 re-issue for 2004) and a 1984 Japanese Yamaha SA800 (complete rip off, and better made version of the Gibson 335)

One thing here folks, if you do not start off with a good amp, and I mean a good amp (read the reviews of the F-50, and from Magazines) and good guitar, pick ups, cables (george L's), then your sound is crap, and no pedal in the world, even if it was made by god, will help your sound out. Start there, and go from there, cuz if your not happy with the sound from square one (guitar >>amp) then your a lost cause, and it will be wrought with frustration.

One thing to note, I have since ditched all my Boss pedals going to input of the amp, but have the DD-20, and CE-2 for effects loop purposes. No more CS-3, modded TS-9 (although i will keep it). Its all true bypass so as not to jinx the great sound of guitar to amp on its own. I wanted to use the Line6 DM4, but it crapped out, and spat a distortion barrage of 1's and 0's at me when i tried it out on 2 occasions. No thanks. I dont give a rats ass how great is sounds. That aint happening on a gig thank you very much. Boss is Boss.

Anyway to close, i have added a great "other " channel to my amp, and couldnt be happier. Its made me think if i need to get a compressor now ( I sold my CS-3, and happy i did, but I never used it anyway) cuz if you turn the Big Ben gain full up, on 2nd crunch channel on amp(low gain), it just sings for days. Back off on gain on the pedal, and it breaks up accordingly without loosing the tonal response. Remember this thing has a 12AU7 tube in it, from EH, but i have a couple of JAN phillips 12AU&'s from '82 around that i might put in just for shits and giggles.

Shredders (i.e Metallica, Lincoln Park, etc..( you need the BullDog Distortion box, as this one is for classic type AC-30ish type of sound, or go get a modifed DS-1 from Keeley. Nothing is a 10 so consider this 9 a 10.

Havent had it long enough. If it breaks, I will write up again, but its a shiney chrome top with very rugged steel housing. Weighs a nice bit, and so I dont think it will break.

I hope i dont need to go there. Again, if i do , will write up again.

Its a bit pricey (methinks) and it is a new product (1 of 3 of different flavours), but I have become frustrated with my modded TS-9, Boss distortion, and even tried the fulltone FD2. Was thinking of the Barber LTD, or the DD, but this pedal is just so musical, warm, and has that unmistakable tube vibe to it. Tube pedal into tube amp. Brilliant. I also have a Xotic effects RC booster, which is , for solid state, one of the best pedals I have heard. Transparent as hell (you cant tell the diff between on/off), and i use it as a buffer because you will loose signal with long guitar cables. I also have a 1980 MXR Flanger, a 30 year old wah face (think Dallas Arbiter) wah pedal(modded), and the Boss delay-chorus pedals for effect loop. I love the Big Ben, and it has put me into another shifted realm of excitement, and tonal satisfaction than what i get from the solid state pedals. I think its a winner, so try one if you can get your hands on one, cuz my local music store had the Bull Dog in for 3 days,,,,sold, gone, they had the Big Ben Left, I tried it again in store with the F-50 and proceeded to the check out counter with my plastic in hand. Ka ching!!

just got it.
easy.

my gear: fender deluxe, fender strat
would give but haven't heard all of them yet.
used to use fender deluxe amp drive, then switched to Ibanez Tube King which sounded better. Now I'm using this one and I have to say that it simply sCREAMS.
You can actually hear the difference when you turn this one on:
your tone stays the same, only driven.
Try doing some tests by turning it on and off and trying to hear how your tone gets its balls shaven.
I've never heard such a delicate and great-sounding drive before.
There is almost no noise, and you can get the feedback quite quickly whenever you want it -> you control it.

i don't really know, but it looks quite solid

yy eeeee. I guess there wouldn't be any problems

I've been playing for 8 years now. I play straight from the jewels.
besides fender gear i ocassionally use rotovobie and vox wah.
all this sounds really great driven by bigben and me, heh. kiddin'
anyway just go to any musicstore and give yourself a few minutes with this chickenknobbed beaver. you won't regret it

As easy as it gets. Totally self-explanatory. Just plug it in and turn the knobs and you'll find a great tone in seconds.

I've tried this pedal with a Tele, Strat, Zion strat, ES-335 and PRS, of course you have to make adjustments when you switch from single coil to humbuckers but both sound great. I'm playing through a Top Hat Club Deluxe but I have no doubt that this pedal can be made to sound good with just about any rig. Noise is not a problem, even on the highest gain settings. Vox is really getting somewhere with their tube technology, using a tube in the output to warm up the tone. I'm impressed! I have to comment on how responsive the controls are. They actually do good things. You can gradually turn up the tone and gain knobs and get pretty subtle increases. Brian May fans, forget about a treble booster, Crank the tone on this pedal and you're there. Again, I'm impressed. Beware metalheads! You will probably not like this pedal. This is more of a 60s/70s vintage drive sound. If you're looking for ultra high gain/scooped mids, you might want to check out the Vox Bulldog Distortion which was designed with you in mind. If it's anywhere near as good as this pedal you won't be disappointed.

Haven't had it long enough to comment but Vox does have a shakey track record in this department. We'll see.

Never dealt with them

Right now I'm playing Country and Blues in two different bands but I'll probably be using this pedal primarily in the studio. I've been playng 40 years and have been a session player for 25 years. Needless to say I've been through a load of gear. I recently bought a Fulltone OCD (big disappointment)and a Barber DD (better than a TS9 but nothing special) and this pedal leaves `em in the dust.