Vox Cooltron Bull Dog Distortion

2 channel, class B tube distortion. True By-pass!
Extremely easy. You can get a very good sound at any position.
1.Knob For Gain level Channel 1 & 2
2.Knob For Volume Level Channel 1 & 2
3.Knob For Bass Level
4.Knob For Treble Level
5.Extra Knob "Voicing For Channel 2 (Only)"
+ By-Pass Switch , Channel Switch

This is the most saturated distortion pedal.
Very warm sounding and completly noisless.
I'm used to playing from classic rock to metal.
You may say that "Vox can't give so hard distorted sounds".
This was also my wrong thought before try it.
The setup was simple.A soldano amp with a jem 7vwh. And The result was
simpler...the most warm and sweet sound i have ever hear.
At the vox website you can hear some demos of metal riffs.
A very versatile box without a doubt.

I can't say much about the reliability.
I bought it two month ago.
I thing that is very good builded.It's rock solid.(japan made)

The customer support was excellent!!
There is nothing more to say.

As i have said before i'm used to playing rock and metal.
This padal can satisfy me completetly for this kind of music.
It is versatile and complete.I think that the great amount of sweetness
and warmth may dissapoint some super-xtreme-hard-metal)(ers!!
Because this is my personal thoughts i will give you an advice:
try before you by....;)

OK there are more knobs on this than some other pedals. But it is a distortion pedal, not a mixing desk. It takes five minuites to figure out, if that.

Equipment - Strat/AC30. Mostly studio use.
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I was initially disappointed. After all, this pedal is silver and expensive, so I figured it should 'do' more than just fuzz a bit too brightly. I should sound like Hendrix for this money! And then there are some irritating quirks too - e.g. when using the pedal on batteries the signal is lower with the distortion stage bypassed.

But after a month using it my view has completely changed. I have figured out that by rolling the treble back, and only using the first gain stage, this pedal sounds just like the distortion-sound-in-my-head-but-could-never-quite-get. True, it's just one sound, but it is a good'un.

So this is a pedal you need to learn to use. You need to get past its quirkiness, and find the sweet spot that suits your style. But once you do figure it out, you will not look back. I bought this pedal to get a really usable, noiseless valve distortion. And that is what I now have.

So after my initial disappointment at not being transformed into Hendrix, I have settled for being a better version of me.

Good stuff.

Seems solid enough

No idea.

Slightly too quirky to get a 10, but a damned fine piece of kit nevertheless.

Overall, this pedal gives me exactly what I want. Which is the ability to have an instant, noiseless valve distortion sound. I think my guitar parts sound better than they did before, and that is enough.

Very easy to use no problem :)

I was using a damage control demonizer before .. but it was too crunchy for me .. so ive decided to go with this vox pedal. at first i think it will be the same thing with the other tube floor based pedal like hughes and kettner, V-twin etc. But it really delivers the sound that ive wanted. the sound on Gain 1 delivers a bluesy tones that i used for some halftime solo accompanied with delay and chorus .. but the gain 2 delivers much more .. and yeah, i connect this pedal with boss compression sustainer .. pretty nice sustain and gain boost .. so i guess im pretty satisfied .. what can u expect for a floor based pedal ? a boogie sound ? lol :D

ill definitely use a backup for a gig .. everytime i got to a gig, i always bring my demonizer ..

never had a problem before

i play basically rock and metal like metallica, dream evil, black label society and all that .. it does deliver the sound that i needed not that i wanted .. if it were stolen, ill definitely buy something else :D .. probably a boogie pre amp :)

Very easy to use, you don't need any manual.

I'm playing only with pedal connected to a Mesa Boogie .50 Caliber Head on a Marshall 4 speaker Celestion G12-65 Cabinet. The stock Bulldog sounds like a BOSS distortion pedal with a tube gain. Many people say that it has enough gain but it's not enough to me, especially on the channel 1 (Gain 1) that has less gain. I don't play any Death Metal or something, but I think it's preferable to set the gain at about 4:00 o'clock than to the max, because you lose all of the tube crunch. Otherwise the gain can be increased and compressed inside the opened box (without any OverDrive in front of it), with adding two diodes or LEDs to get a "clipping diode" effect (it's not easy to explain how to do that and you would better ask a qualified technician). Also, there is too much Treble that can be easily fixed with an Orange Drop 1n (0.01uF) capacitor between pin 1 and 4 of the tube socket (that's just an easy mod to execute). Doing so you'll lose all that crisping sound but you'll get more Middle tube like distortion, which is a great compromise for solos. I put 6 for the sound quality just because of the mods you must adduce to get what you need. After that you can play rhythm on channel 2 and solos on channel 1, with a killer tube tone at two different volume levels, which is appreciable.

Now I can say yes, I can depend on it!

I just asked them a question about tube replacement, three weeks ago and I'm still waiting!

I started to play guitar 24 years ago and now I'm just playing at home. What I prefer to play with... are the Megadeth CDs. If the Bulldog were stolen or something, I think I'd prefer to try the Seymour Duncan SFX-03 pedal. That stompbox can be compared to a Mesa Boogie V-Twin but it sounds just a little bit better, because of the two channels you can use at different levels. I put 9 because it has a good tube sound quality... when you take the time to mod it. Likewise, you'll need to replace the Electro Harmonix 12AU7... in my case I prefer the Ei 12AU7 for the mids.

Very easy to use. Nice simple controls, very intuitive. Manual sucks -- don't need it.

This pedal works very well with my 1971 Gibson G-20 solid-state amp. It screams high gain metal! With my Vox AC30 it is a completely different animal. I find channel 2 to be almost useless, it does nothing for me. However, channel 1 pulls off an outstanding vintage hard rock tone, Jimmy Page style distortion (i.e. Valco/Supro) from the first couple of Zep albums.

Used regularly for about 8 months. So far so good. Well see in a couple of years.

Output transformer of my AC30CC fried on me (teenage son left it on for 7 straight days) when I was on vacation. Warranty response was excellent and I had my amp up and running in a week and a half.

Classic rock. Alternative. Pop. Some metal. When I need certain distortion sounds this pedal excells. It is versatile and can meet differing needs. I have been playing for 20+ years, I own a Vox AC30TB (1983), a Vox AC30CC (2005), Gibson GA-5t Skylark (1965), Gibson G-20t (1971), Gibson Les Paul Studio (2004), Gibson Les Paul Standard Gold Top (1999), Japanese Fender Strat (1985), Epiphone Korina Explorer (2002), EH Deluxe Memoryman analog delay, Vox Wah, Morley Master Volume, EH Small Clone Chorus, EH Big Muff Pi Distortion, Boss tuner pedal. I would want to replace this pedal immediately if it were lost or stolen, I rely pretty heavily on it at times. I love its versatility. I love the way it interacts with different amps. I hate nothing about it. I can say that it is a different channel on any amp it goes on and it fits right in, not sounding like it is foreign to my rig. Compared to the EH Big Muff, which does sound like a pedal, not a separate channel to my amp, it blows it away, though I enjoy the Muff. Vox is, by far, my favorite manufacturer. I have tried lots of other stuff out there over the years, a lot of it is crap, a lot of it is great, Vox excells at whatever it does and the Bulldog is no exception.

Pretty easy to use. 7 knobs. Not to complicated, but not to simplistic either.

Setup:
Fender Fat Strat with Kinman Noiseless Blues pickups -> Vox 847 Wah modded for true bypass -> Bulldog -> Digitech GNX3000 MultiFX unit -> PA.

In a nutshell, the sound is Amazing. Personally, I'm not one to lug around amps because I play and lead at my church every week and they have all the top notch monitors so I figure why buy a bit amp if I can get real tube sound out of a pedal. I have the GNX3000 on a clean amp model that breaks up slightly (btw, the GNX3000 has the best digital clean amp models out there IMO, better than the XT or GT-8) and the Bulldog absolutely SINGS!! This way, I can use the Bulldog for a bluesy crunch (channel 1) and a high gain lead (channel 2) then shut it off and use the great clean channel simulation and effects of the GNX3000. Also, I have the privalage now of using different clean amp models and different cabinets on my GNX3000 while still using the great tube sound of the bulldog...in otherwords, the tone combinations are limitless.

I've heard someone here say that the bulldog isn't great through a solid state amp. I partially agree in terms of the great tube amp sound that we all want and love can't really be had by a single tube preamp alone. It neads the warmth and sometimes slight breakup of a power-amp tube section as well...which is why I run the unit through my GNX3000. With the 3000's clean amp set so it only barely gives that warm breakup on heavy chording, the Bulldog shines. I get that preamp tube breakup of the Bulldog plus the poweramp-like breakup of the GNX3000. It's like a whole nother instrument. Not only is the bulldog reacting with a tubelike musical sound with my guitar, but my GNX3000 is also musically reacting with a tubelike musical sound with the bulldog. Tone heaven. With the tube simulation of the GNX3000 working in series with the real tube in the Bulldog, my guitar has so much life and depth to its sound.

Some people here say that the unit is too bright. IMO, that's a conclusion based on personal preference and your own amp you're using with it. If your amp is really bright and crystal clean sounding on the clean channel, the bulldog will be bright sounding. If your amp is not overly bright and breaks up slightly on the clean channel, the Bulldog won't be overly bright. Again, it's all personal preference. For me, using it throught the amp and cabinet models of the GNX3000, brightness isn't an issue because I can just turn it down or use a different cabinet...

The ONLY reason why I give this unit a 9 instead of a 10 is because there is an audible "click/pop" when you activate/deactivate the unit's tube distorn. It's not bad swichting from channel 1 to channel 2, but when you initially click the unit's distortion on or off, there is a click/pop that's noticably loud...especially if you have delay as a post effect. This makes it tricky in a live situation when switching from the distorted sound to a bypassed clean sound, but mostly I'll probably just use Channel 1 and turn the guitar down for a clean sound. Surprisingly, it cleans up very nicely.

In summary, the unit is amazing and I'll never use the distortion amp simulations of the GNX3000 ever again. The GNX3000 has really great digital tubelike distorted amp modelling, but the realy tube sound/feel of the Bulldog just can't be beat. I even tried the Bulldog through a Traynor amp at my local music store and AB'd the Bulldog's crunchy distortion through the Traynor's clean channel with the Traynor's crunch/gain channel alone. The sound was only slightly better in the Traynor's crunch channel but the feel was the same. In fact, my guess is that you'd have to have the best mic in the world on the amp to hear the difference. A regular or even great mic wouldn't be able to show that slight Traynor edge.

Looks really reliable and the fact that it's running the tube at 6V means that the tube should last a LOOOOOONG time.

Not needed yet.

Sure, it cost me $220 Canadian, but it was JUST what I was looking for and if it was stollen or lost, I'd buy it again. My only hope is if they make newer versions, that they get rid of the "click" when you turn it off and on. Then, it'd be perfect.

You know the features.
Manual is mediocre.
Easy to use.

My setup: Fender Strat with Seymour Duncan pups or Washburn P4 (also SDs) -> Axess Electronics BS2 (Buffer/Splitter) -> Peterson Strobostomp Tuner (via split out of the BS2) -> BOSS Volume Pedal -> BOSS OC-2 Octaver -> Maxon OD808 Tubescreamer -> VOX Bullshit Distortion -> Lehle D.Loop with the following in one FX Loop: BOSS CH-1 Chorus -> BOSS DD-5 Delay -> Ibanez AD-9 Delay; out of the Lehle Looper -> BOSS NS-2 Noise Gate -> Laney GH 100 L Amp. MXR 10-Band EQ and DigiTech DigiDelay in the amp's FX loop.
All good patch cables, Neutrik jacks, soldered together by myself for shortest possible cable lengths.

The amp sounds great, but you get either sparkling clean or heavy distortion, as the preamp gain is for both "channels" (it's got one channel with a drive stage). When I tweak it to sound good both in the clean mode and with the drive stage on, the volume jump when turning on the drive is too big. Don't want to put a compressor after the preamp stage, as the distorted sound is perfect and compressed enough. The Laney just needs a second channel! That's why I thought I'd get a pedal that can do this for me.

So here's my opinion:

I first tried the VOX with all knobs in the 12 h position, here's what I heard:
when you turn the unit on, the volume drops. Even when the level knobs of each channel are turned up all the way, I can't get the same level as on my clean amp channel. I wanted to get three different sounds, clean from the amp and two stages of distortion.
When I stomp on this pedal, my signal loses definition and power. The volume drop is already unacceptable (at this price), but it cuts the low frequencies too and sounds lifeless to me, even after letting the tube warm up half an hour.
I tried it directly to the amp, without the pedal board in between, with and without the buffer, but it just couldn't cut it for me.

The VOX pedal doesn't do what I thought it was, that is giving me two additional sounds that would melt with my clean amp sound. It sounds like a stranger it my signal chain.

I was really disappointed.

Looked sturdy. Knobs turn a bit too lightly for my taste. Footswitches looked and felt good.

Never dealt with them directly, just with my dealer.

I play since 1990, I'm a professional musician. I like DramaGods, Extreme, Faith No More, Dredg, A Perfect Circle.
I couldn't yet afford a decent amp that comes close to my Laney (I'm serious! Give it a chance when you need a great, unflexible rock machine ;-)). Until that happens, I'm in search of one or two more channels in a pedal. The VOX couldn't do that for me. I'll try the H&K Tube Factor, but the EQ and mid shape options are such a good idea! It's a shame I didn't even have to rate the channel sounds itself because of the overall drop in volume, bass and POWER. This thing doesn't rock when combined with a real tube amp.
Not worth the money. I returned it to the store after three days of intensive testing.

Very simple to use. The manual, which is a piece of paper, is useless. A generic instruction for the entire Cooltron line. But yha, the effect itself is super easy.

I'm playing this with a tele deluxe, too many pedals to list and through a Fender Twin (though will also be using through a Vox AV30tbx). This pedal can do anything. I think I will mainly use the 2nd Distortion because of it's over-the-top noise - it's perfect solo's. But don't let that fool you. I really think you can dial in nearly any tone you want. Use #1 for almost a classic rock type thing, or crank it for crunch. My main inspirations have been Jimmy Page and Johnny Greenwood. They can both be found here.

Another great thing about this pedal is the lack of noise. You would think that if you had it set at crazy high gain and volume you would get real bad hiss, but NOTHING. Man, I love this thing.

I've only just bought it, but I would be confident without a back-up. It's fairly solid.

n/a

What style of music do you play? I hate that question. Seriously. But ok. I play what we call "indie rock" now. (Tis a bit of sarcasm for you) Somewhere in the range of Bowie meets Franz Ferdinand I guess. Actually, we sound nothing like that.

I should do more reviews I suppose because I read on this site before I buy - always. Take my word, this is superb quality and VERY diverse. For my distortions I used to use:
Boss Super O/D
Tone Bone - Classic
Mig Muff Pi

Now I use:
Vox Bulldog
Boss O/D

Straight forward dual channel distortion pedal.

Gets a minus for not having a mids control, or invidvidual EQ sections for each channel. (I would have even liked two seperate 'tone' controls instead of a uniformed bass/treble section!)

There are a lot of play in the controls, but everything (Besides volume) really sounds best when situated bellow the 12'oclock.

I'm running this with an AC30CC2, USA Telecaster (With JD bridge pickup, and '62 Noiseless neck pickup), and a Gibson 335.

I tried this pedal before with my early 70's AC30 and was very impressed, but didn't like how quiet it was. Decided to blow the dust off and try it again with the new reissue AC30.

I was happily surpised that this unit works way better with the AC30CC2's than my vintage one. The Volume problem is magically fixed, and I can get a loud enough dirty tone out of it to match my clean signal.

The first channel is very ballsy, and gives off great sustain. I'm running it with just a hint of breakup for 'bluesy' style rhythm and soloing. The heft of the sound that comes out of it is just awesome! Real warm and smooth!

The second channel was fun at first! Really great tones, just massive, and awesome for all the high-gain fun you can have. Alas, all this 'modern' tone is too much for me. The 'gain 2 voice' knob seems to bring in these huge and compressed overtones that sound like mud with my Tele. Not to mention add some searing brightness, even with the trebel controll rolled all the way back (which is where it is anyways becuase its a very bright pedal!)

I'm now running the second channel with the voice knob almost off, the treb knob a lil up, and the gain sitting at 12:00. This tone is closest to my Crowther Hot Cake, but still not there. Just way to bright, something I'm trying to fix in my overall tone.

However, this brightness makes the pedal clear as bell, with tons of defination throughout it's whole sonic specrtum! it's actually hard to get a 'bad' tone out of it. It's just hard to get a tone that works for me out of it!

Pedal gets a 7 because of the huge ammount of high's it delievers!

P.S. My other guitarist is using this pedal with his Fender Tonemaster. Because of how heavy on the bass his amp is this pedal is perfectly suited for it! If I was reviewing this pedal using his amp I would definatly give it a 9.

Seems reliable. My lead player has been using this pedal with his Tonemaster (which sound amazing!) for almost a year now. Seeing as how it sits in his pedal board it hasn't really recieved move than the regular pedal stomping he provides it. But if it werent in said case, I'm sure the tube would be experiencing huge failings because of the open cavity.

The tube illuminated blue = cool

The tube not under some kind of plexi covering to still show it off = not cool.

Vox have always been a great company to me with my amps and wah pedal. Havn't had anything wrong with their cool-trons so I'll go off past experiance

For alternative rock music the pedal definatly has it's place. I just think it needs to accompany the right amp.

I'll probably AB this with the Dual overdrive/distortion that Vox are about to release, but until then it will probably go back to my shelf and sit there for a while.

For a rhythm tone, it's defiantly one of my favorites. Its just so defined in it's tone I would use it if I were still playing a dual Rectifier, or a Fender Bassman. But with my AC30's it does leave a bit to be desired.

I love this pedal, there are no questions about it. I just wish I had it in my previous bands and not in my current group.

The value of this pedal is amazing, and a definate buy for anyone who needs a pedal that can deliever thick rhythm tones, and crushing lead tones with just a press of a button!

Really easy to use, but you may need to spend some time balancing the eq between the two channels.

I am running a Music Man Luke, Levinson Blade and others into silly amounts of pedals into the clean channel of a Laney TT50 (yes the overdrive sound is a bit poo- High gain and stuff is great, just not anything else).

I am giving this pedal an 8. I do like it, and for me it produces some great tones. It wont do bluesey break up. But then again it is a DISTORTION pedal. Here are my main beefs with this pedal:

Firstly, the tones I am getting from this pedal are brilliant. But, I cant understand what that treble control is all about! It makes your tone harsh and spikey and you lose any sense of valveyness- I have heard transistor pedals sound better! (no- I am not a tube snob). I am sure they could have tuned this contol to operate around a nicer frequency.

Secondly- It is not loud enough! I have some pedals that Are really loud- If you bringing distortion into the equation you need your sound to be louder in order for it to cut through! Fortunately I run an Ernieball volume pedal after all of my gain based effects.

However- keep that treble control really low and you are in big sustaining lead guitar heaven. I run a barber OD before my other pedals just to give them a kick and this is seriously good. I actually use channel two for my heavy rhythm sound (scooped) and channel 1 for my leads in all of its middley glory!

Seems solid enough- Had a look inside and the construction is very nice and solid looking to me. Why is there an open grille over the valve???? It is Cooltron technology for gods sake! Vox even say they dont get warm. I guess they are just trying to appeal to those valvey tube snobs or something.... Anyway- I am worried about foreign objects and kack getting into the pedal- Not a good idea vox- grow up.

Gets a 7 because I know that those holes in the casing will lead to trouble down the line!

NA

I'll give this an 8. Its a good bit of kit- and I will be geting the Dual overdrive when that comes out to compare it- but I feel there are some really stupid design features.

If they want to show off that valve then why not put it behind perspex??

Anyway- rock on and stay off the R n B.