Vox Cooltron Bull Dog Distortion

Easy to use two channel distortion with simple controls and "tubeamp-like" Eq section

Head which I use isn't tube but transistor/hybrid head ( valve - 12AX7 in preamp only for the drive channel) but the clean channel is perfect for my setup .Needed smooth "tube-ish" sound with enough gain ,clarity and sustain for the driven sound ,and bulldog was the weapon of choice.
Did one mod to it - a switch which cuts treble and also some gain for use with 2 channel .
There is no true bypass in Bulldog as stated by VOX , but from my side of view ( know some things about DIY electronics and DIY pedals made some, modded some) great buffer in a pedal (example T-rex , Visual Sound a lot butique pedals and some boss or ibanez )is so much better to have with more effect pedals in a loop .Without buffer in such loops ,and only with so popular "true bypass" signal becomes weak and lifeless.Also ,lets be real every tube amp has "that legendary tube sound " if guitar is connected directly to it .If something is connected between it will degrade the signal and that's it.The main question is if you notice it and if it bothers you .
Lots of people use 2-nd channel for all kinds of metal and other extreme music but i have no need for it and my style is old doom metal - post metal - sludge combination - call it what you will..
Learned that seymour custom on the bridge of my downtuned guitar and digi badmonkey with minimum gain before Vox in a chain give enough signal boost for 1 channel of Vox to give great dynamic distortion with enough gain ,sustain and clarity .Have to mention that vox bulldog definitely drops the volume when on ,but nothing that cannot be repaired with knob volume setting
Many people mention lack of bass and high treble.It all depends off gear you are using , on 4x12 You will have enough bass believe me , but if you are
using solid state amp which is bright ,or some amps which are " brit sounding amps" there will be a lot of treble .
And yeah , this pedal isn't noisy at all.

Overall this pedal fits perfectly in my setup and with some filtering I was able to get the sound I was after.

My setup

Peavey hp exp signature with Seymour Duncan sh-5 Custom in the bridge ads sh-2 Jazz in the neck tuned in 1.5 steps down

>->Digitech bad monkey (use as a filter for more bass and just a little dirt for the clean and more dynamic response for my kind of
playing, always on with minimum gain -just love this pedal )
>-> Vox bulldog (Use first channel in combination with bad monkey - gain almost set to the end , rarely use the 2-nd channel for some extra gain on solo parts (prefer EHX eq as a boost )
>-> Ehx Attack Eq (for correcting Bass after VOX - example for solid state amplifiers or treble-ish amps , and with my amp and setup as a
filter/booster for solo or melodies to stand out from the mix
>-> Artec delay (Use for selfoscillation and Echo sounds , transparent delay ,it has life of its own some background noise ,think its slightly broken:) awesome original sounding pedal )
>-> Homemade DIY Chorus (CE 2 clone with slight modifications for some extreme detuned settings - overall full bright sounding chorus
set to have a little boost for the signal when on also ,use in several occasions for clean guitar to stand out)
>->DIY Homemade Tremulus Lune Tremolo (for me one of the best sounding tremolo project )
>->Digitech DigiDelay (Use setting Tape delay for solos , sometimes 4 sec looper "special" option in combination with DL8 looper)
>->Digitech Hardwire series DL8 Delay/Looper( Use Nice Chorus/delay combination for clean parts , also Lo fi or Analog settings are
great, and of course 20 sec looper option which is great for practice and live experimentation)

Into clean channel of Laney LV300H head with supporting 4x12 cab.

I had to repair it after 6 months of playing and few gigs , this thing has reputation to break and it's not just mine pedal that acted like that.My second guitarist broke the switch on his bulldog.Then again after repairing the thing it's still working and I have it for 3-4 years

Don't know about the support ,in a country where I live there is no official VOX dealer and support , didn't even try to take it in
the shop where I bought it ,repaired it myself.

For the sound pure 10 but it broke once hope it won't break again :) ,and if it does will repair it .One thing about my setup and gear, I am playing guitar for about 17-18 years and play all sorts of music but mainly extreme music, and learned that if pedal sounds great to you and your style of playing take it , experiment , sometimes the "bad" things about pedals can sound as advantages .Be original
and listen to yourself , reviews are in my opinion there to inform you not to make you buy gear without listening to it and playing it .Just because someone thinks this or that is great or pure garbage , doesn't mean it is ,and just because something costs big money doesn't mean it is great sounding piece of gear.Example - look at my gear from the guitar to the pedals to the amp , many would say digitech pedal suck bla... , artec is a cheap
sounding pedal.. amp is lousy ,but it does sound great and with some experimenting and modding all gear can sound even greater .I know mine does
PS - Sorry for my bad english or grammar errors

-One input Jack, one output jack and one for the power supply (9 volts).

-Two channels
First channel: Gain, Volume, Bass, Treble controls
Second channel: Gain, Volume, Bass, Treble and "Voice" control which
shifts the midrangescoop from low- to hi mids.

Two footswitches: the left one activates the unit, the right one switches between channels.

More knobs than your casual overdrive pedal but pretty easy to use as all knobs do what you expect them to do ! :-)

But beware: Bass and treble and especially the voice control seem to be of passive nature and interactive.
That means: if you turn up the treble, you lose bass and vice versa. If you turn up the voice control on the second channel, you' cut the mids tremendously which reduces "loudness". If you now turn up the volume, you'll actually boost bass and treble.
This can be tricky for someone who is used to tone-circuits built into most "off the shelf" solid state pedals.

The EQ section of this pedal feels more like an eq-section of a tube amp than your standard distortion pedal, which feels really good !

The manual: Read it once. Very informative about the implemented technology, but not really needed to use the pedal. :-)

I use this at two occasions:
-In front of my Marshall 2266 (dialed to clean on low dynamic range)
-In front of my Pod XT with ampmodelling to "off" and loudspeakersimulation to Brit T75.

First of all what astonished me the most:
Although this pedal runs just on 9 volts, which is definitely way lower than what tubes usually run at, this piece of hardware sounds amazingly tubelike and crunchy ! Way more tubelike than my more expensive and at 250 volts running DamageControl Demonizer which sounds as cold as antarctica compared to the really warm Bulldog Distortion !

The first channel gives you classic british crunch with rather scratchy but harmonic overtones similar to a Marshall Plexi but with more gain. This is a little more Marshall than you'd expect from a pedal carrying the VOX label. Although you can dial in some AC30-like sounds, it still sounds rough.

The second channel is almost exactly your
"80s-Metal-Marshall-JCM 800" !
I've never heard a pedal before, that was so good and so close!
Better than Marshall's own Guv'nor or Jackhammer pedals!
And definitely better than the JCM 800 Simulation in the POD XT... ;-)

The voice control let's you dial in the amount of "chainsaw" you want.
The more you turn it up, the more you get your 80s Metal.

Both channels are really good at what they deliver.
Don't be fooled by what some people say:
This is not a modern sounding unit. Not at all !
And it isn't really trebly or bass-lacking for what it is. It just delivers exactly what you'd expect from your 70s-80s Britamps.
No more, no less!

If you're into NU-Metal with downtuned guitars and ridiculous amounts of low end: look somewhere else!
If you're searching for that classic british medium to high gain tone that dominated the 80s, this is definitely the piece to buy !!!

The unit is true bypass (i didn't notice any change in tone when pedal connected) but the footswitches do make click noises when pressed. Both of them. Not really loud but noticable.

I use this unit with the original 9 Volts/600mAmps Korg powersupply which is not included.
Haven't tried batterys yet so i don't know if that changes the tone.
But batteries are included... ;-)

Got it for less than a week, so no real comment on that.

It is completely built of metal (folded steel for the chassis and aluminium for the sidebars) and looks pretty solid.

But one thing bothers me:
The open tube compartment !
If the tube runs cool (which it really does), why is the chassis open directly above the tube ?
If fluid drips into there, the pedal is toast !
Even dust goes in there... :-(

Why no plexiglass like on the Damagecontrol pedals ?

Never had to deal with them, so no comment.

I'm an "80s metalshredder" playing guitar for more than 25 years now, using mainly Ibanez and Jackson Guitars with Dimarzio Tonezone or Duncan Distortion bridgepickups.
If the Bulldog was stolen, i would buy another one.
It does deliver the old Marshall-Metal tone which nothing else does except for the original JCM2203. :-)

A 10 as the final rating for what it is. Don't expect anything else.

It's very easy to use. The're are 2 channels, gain and volume controls for each of them, some kind of an equalizer (treble and bass knobs for both channels together) and one special knob - Gain 2 voice, which helps to get more control of the second channel.

It uses a 12AU7 preamp-type tube.

I'm using a lot of guitars (including Gibson Les Paul Supreme, Ibanez S470 dxqm, ESP LTD Ec-200, etc., but mostly I play with a self made ESP LTD EX And FX series type guitar with EMG's). The amps are A lot of different Marshall's, Crate 120w and a Peavey Bandit 112.

What can I say about this pedal is that it's not very noisy. Actually, it gives out less hum than other distortions.

About The sound:
As I play some Hard'n heavy, Symphonic, Gothic and some kind of a folk Metal, I needed a pedal, which could produce really HEAVY distortion. And that was the main problem why I needed to buy something that is famous with it's sound, but when I got it, I noticed that it really lacks bass. Although the bass knob is on it's maximum, it can't produce a bone crushing distortion. But the tone itself is very good. The tube inside gives full and very tasty sound, but it definitely won't be the bes decision if you want to play something extra heavy. Or you'll have to save some money for an equalizer, which could add some frequencies and make the sound tastier.

Well, I bought it used and it has never let anybody who played on it down, so I think it's reliable.

Never used.

I play Heavy music (a lot of metal, etc), also worship music in my church and some other projects.
I 've been playing for around 2 years.

This pedal suits very well for soloing, but for the rythm parts I choose EHX Metal Muff (model with top boost), which gives a far heavier sound. I have tried a lot of distortions from Danelectro, boss, marshall, Dunlop (mxr) and I can say that this is the best pedal for solo parts, because the sound is very bright. I would place it right after the EHX Metal Muff as the second, just because the equalizer is not so tasteful. If Vox could make it with more bass and one more extra tube in it, it would be a perfect thing, because right now I'm playing with all knobs at maximum and it doesn't make the sound just as I want. because of the lack of bass, it is not so heavy as it should be.

If it were stolen or lost, I'd probably try to get it used again, because it costs a lot if you want it from shop.

To sum up, I'm not unhappy with this thing, because it is very good in some ways, where my favorite EXH Metal muff is not, for example the solo parts. The tube inside it really helps to get out the tone for solos just as I want. And because it is not so heavy, I can use it while playing in the church with very litle gain - it sounds very good. So, averything I want for a perfect sound is an equalizer (that should be a really good equalizer) and a Metal Muff in chain with this.

The Bulldog seems rather fiddly at first, but it's really surprising how incredibly easy it is to tweak, as there are enough controls to really hit the spot (in a tonal sense, of course), but not too many controls that the sound becomes intensly painfully unbearable. I especially like the voice control on channel 2, not because I play scooped metal sounds (because I certainly don't), but because the control is just there, if needed.
The only beef I have to say, is that I don't like the idea of shared tone controls, as a compromise has to be made when choosing good settings: what may hit the spot on one channel, may sound dodgy on another. Otherwise, it's rather user friendly.

For what I paid for it, the value in sound is rather impressive. Put it in front of a decent valve or solid state amp, and it will really give the tone a boot up the arse! The first channel is just perfect for early rock and blues, as the 12AU7 valve produces a warm, rather welcoming crunch; slightly reminiscent of an old Marshall JCM800. Turn the gain up, and get some mad drive. For metallers, or fans of the high gain, the seccond channel really delivers the goods and very rarely fails to impress. Through a valve amp, it produces anything from a modern marshall tone to Soldano and Mesa Boogie territory.
For my sound, in the studio, I play early rock and progressive rock, so I have the seccond channel selected, with the treble and bass to 12 o clock and the voice/scoop control to about 10 o clock. Fronting a seccond hand JCM 2000 DSL50 on the clean channel, this setting roars to life with enough power to kill an old person, but with just enough clarity with the gain set low.
However, higher treble settings can sound very harsh, as do higher gains, and some clarity and bass is lost in the seccond channel, bun these things are forgiveable.

It's been gigging for 3 years and has faced abuse while recording. Where other units have died and gone to Heaven, this thing just keeps going and going and going...
Half the time, I cant be bothered to take my billions of pedals to a gig, so I just end up taking a couple of guitars, my marshall, my crybaby wah and the bulldog. That's how reliable it is.

I've never had to take it back or have it repaired, so no dealings with the company itself

For someone like me, who plays zeppelin and rush and so on, it does what I want it to. I just plug it in and it works. It makes me happy to play guitar. Compared to some of my other transistor based pedals (marshall guvnor, boss ds1, ibanez tubescreamer to name a few), it feels more "alive"; it has more realistic bass, and drives quite smoothly. I love the fact that it can make a small amplifier sound big, and a big amplifier sound absolutely massive.
However, it's real home is the studio: being used live almost defeats the purpose of having a Marshall that can be driven. I only wish this kind of technology could be used porperly, instead of people buying pod xts, which have no valves in them. It is also quite bulky and takes up uneccesary room. Nitpicking aside, it is really clever, and only a fool would consider another distortion pedal over this, despite some of the problems it has.

I mainly use Vox Bull Dog for harmonica. It effortlessly produces "the sound" that so harmonica players like through virtually any amp or PA system. Usually, I leave my amp at home and just play through the Bull Dog into a PA system. It's so easy to get feedback-free vintage sounding distortion with this machine. I play a mix of blues, country and folk so it is easy to switch from clean to dirty sounds with the touch of your foot - especially handy when playing rack harmonica.

Great tube distortion for harmonica due to the 12AU7 tube inside. I use both channels but the "modern" sounding channel is my favourite producing a more molten liquid harp sound with plenty of bite (the Vintage channel is no dog however). I have mainly been using a MicroVox mic with it which gives an even response over all the notes with no awful sounding spots. Nice and gutsy at the low end and smooth and rounded at the high end. I also use a Strnd pick-up for rack harmonica and it is great with that too.

So far so good. I have had it for about 8 months.

NA

It is one of the best pieces of musical equipment I have ever bought for harmonica. Had it been available a few years ago I don't think I would have spent all the thousands of dollars I have spent on vintage tube amps.

With only 7 knobs, and two switches, it is, needless to say, very easy to use. There is no real need for a manual, as it is pretty self-explanatory, especially with the scribblings on the box, which desribes in layman's terms what everything does.

I am a teenager, and this means two things: 1. I don't have a particularly advanced knowledge of sounds of pedals, etc, and 2. I have a cheap and basic setup. I play an ESP viper-50 with basic ESP pickups (which is possibly a regrettable choice as my musical tastes have changed a lot, but i dont have the funding for a new guitar), through a Boss ME-50 and into a Marshall 50 watt AVT combo. Therefore, my sound is that of a money-deprived teenager. Until i can upgrade the pickups on my ESP to something coil-tappable, I use the Humbucker-to-single tone modification on my ME-50. I plugged in the Bulldog, and managed to get good sounds out of it almost instantly. Apart from the obvious option on setting volume to zero, there isn't really a setting on it that is completely unusable. I keep the Gain 2 voice setting pretty much at halfway, although it does have a pretty cool scooped setting with that set full. The genre i generally stick to the softer end of grunge, like Pearl Jam, but i play pop,soul,metal etc as well. Because of this, generally gain for me never goes too high, but on gain 2, turning the gain up full is the cleanest full gain I have heard. Yet again, I need to stress that I haven't heard that many pedals, and I am mainly comparing it to the overdrive on my AVT50, which, at full gain, gets very muddy. My generally used one is gain 1, but with Gain 2 being so powerful, yet so clear, I occasionally cannot resist having a shred. The unit is virtually noiseless. Essentially, the point I need to make is that with reasonably low end equipment, you can get a very nice sound out of it.

Not had it long enogh to know, but, aside from the valve, I bet I couldnt break it if i tried.

Never used.

This pedal is brilliant in my opinion, although I might be abit biased because I bought it for 50 quid. You can't go wrong for 50 quid. But I'd highly recommend it to almost anyone. Also, it's really shiny , the valve glows blue, and it has a scary-looking bulldog on the front. What's not to love about that?

It's certainly not idiotproof. There's a lot of control (which I think is a good thing) but you have to sit down for a few minutes to dial in the tones you want. Everything makes sense, though.

Also, it's shiny. Shiny is nice.

I wanted this pedal to be the holy grail in my quest for good distortion. It wasn't. I play a VOX AC30CC2 and it sucked all the tone out of my amp. That's the only way I can put it. This pedal has no low end whatsoever. Even with the "bass" knob cranked, I absolutely could not get this thing to punch me in the chest. Both stages of overdrive sounded tinny and brash, not rich and creamy. I'd bypass it and all the rich lows from my amp came right back.

One thing VOX did right with this pedal is in the levels of saturation. Channel one allows you to dial up some minor breakup to get you going, and channel two is very heavily saturated, which I was looking for.

Again, I wanted this thing to be the answer. I just couldn't get any good sound out of it.

The only other thing I've heard about the Cooltron series is from a buddy of mine who owns the Big Ben Overdrive and he had some problems with it. It does, however, seem sturdy enough on the outside.

I haven't had to deal with them.

I mainly play in a worship band and I like three stages of distortion. I run my AC30 clean and add two stages of distortion, one with minor crunchy breakup, the other with heavy saturation. On paper, this pedal was perfect for my needs. In reality, it was not.

Here's the first thing. If you're interested in this pedal because you think it's going to sound better because it has a "tube" in it, you're mistaken. You simply cannot power a vacuum tube on nine volts. Nine volts is only enough to power the filament of the tube. If you try this pedal and think it sounds awesome, buy it. But just know that you're buying a solid state pedal with a (cool looking) light bulb in it.

For me, this pedal is going back tomorrow and I'm going to try a Seymour Duncan SFX-03.

For a two-channel distortion box, it couldn't be much simpler.

This is amazing. A two-channel dist box, which actually sounds good on both channels. And for my style the second channel suits more than well. Bulldog is at its best when you play a good gtr and amp and turn that volume pot high enough. The sound is very powerful and because it's almost noiseless it's very easy to play palm mutes etc. I'm not looking for anyone's sound except myself's. And I must say I've finally found it. Yes, there is much treble, but you can dial it out, if that's what you like. Certainly doesn't bother me.

Just received it.

No experiences.

I've been playing for more than twenty years. I have had many many distortions and overdrives, cheap and expensive, good and not so good. For exaple Hughes & Kettner Tubeman (not very good imo), Carl Martin Plexitone (even worse, too much bass you can't cut off) and Emma ReezaFratZiz (again too much bass). I've sold all of these. What I still have are the Sansamps (Tri AC, GT-2 and Original), which are all very good, but noisy when used live. I use the Sansamps at home for recording and playing. I also use Danelectro Blue Paisley for od sounds. It's a great pedal (perhaps the only good Danelectro pedal ever). Then, I have had cheaper pedals: Digitech Hot Head and Bad Monkey (good, but not as good as Bulldog, so I sold them), Metal Muff (every guitar sounds the same), Warp Factor (very good, but only for metal) Marshall Drivemaster (very good actually, but sold it too), Marshall Shredmaster (total crap)Marshall Gov'nor II and BB-2 (both crap), Boss Metal Zone (even more crap, totally useless), Digitech Grunge (same as Metal Zone). There must be some kind of a noise gate inside the Bulldog, because it's almost noiseless. That's not the nature of a dist/od pedal. But I don't mind, it works. There's no screaming feedback either. I love the GT-2, but it's so noisy and it feeds back, I can't use it at high volumes. I use mainly the second channel, but the first channel is very important to me, because I can change the amount of gain in channel 1: if I need a slightly overdriven tone, I've got it and if I want a classic rock sound, I've got it too. Just have to turn that gain knob a little. But the most important thing is that this pedal rocks and really kicks ass.

This pedal is easy to use, two channels with gain volume eq and voice for channel two.

I think the sound is good but you must know how to set the pedal. At firs I was disappointed because it's too much trieble oriented. But if you turn trieble down the sound comes out ok. Channel1 is hottest, more classic hard rock oriented. Channel two is mid-scoped, more compressed and dark. Good for new kinds of metal.
I use this pedal with a fender blues jr and it' s ok, I like it very much. I also use this as a booster with a rack composed by brunetti mille and mesa 20 20, so with different settings. I'm happy with thw bulldog. It has a particular tone, british ok, but particular... like all vox's products... hear it before buy!!

I don't know, I never had problems

It' s a good distortion pedal, cool with the blue light and solid.
It has a particular tone end I apricate this. I think too much expensive. 7 for the price....

The manual is a joke.The pedal knob tunings are self explainatory.A chimpanzee could figure this thing out.

Warm tube preamp saturation.Although the signal does get a bit weak on power cells.Its best to use a wall wart power supply instead.The treble is absoulutly terrible.Completly overpowering if set to more than a sliver of a turn of the knob.But, thats probably on some amps and not all.You might try the midrange mod if your willing to solder a bit.Try to use a valve amp on the cleanest channel possible.Solid state amps DO NOT do this pedal justice.Oh yeah and this pedal is whisper quiet on idle even when all knobs are tuned to max settings!

Valves arent very reliable now are they?Especially the cheap ones made in russia or china.I suggest replacing the stock E.H. valves with better ones.Mine are 12au7 E.I. elites.Otherwise, your valve is likely to go microphonic much too quickly.Another thing i dont like is its much to easy for a rowdy fan to spill beer inside the valve cage and have the pedal renderd totally useless.It should be almost water tight to keep things like beer and the ocasional spit out.If you must gig with a backup, use the marshall jackhammer distortion pedal.

Iv never dealt with vOx, Roland or whomever manufactures this pedal and hopefully never have to.

Overall this pedal is on par with a Marshall Jackhammer Distortion pedal only slightly better.If you add in the price differnce this one leaves something to be desired.But i still cannot stress enough how much a good valve amp is neccesary in this amp/pedal combo equation.Overall though id say its a good step in the right direction.The next step being, a real overdriven preamp and poweramp stage working toghether in a quality amp.

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.

7 knobs,
Each channel has its own "Gain" and "Volume"
and they share the same "Bass" and Treble" knob,
Channel 2 have an additional "Voicing" knob,which can let you to choose from Classic Distortion sound to modern Metal sound.

easy to use?of coz!

I use an Yamaha RGX TT with 3 Seymour Duncan pickup and a USA Jackson V with TB-4 on bridge and JB on neck,the effect sounds really really nice!

it's not noisy,compare to a Sansamp GT-2 that i also owned,and it sounds more "Natural"!

the sounds is really "Tubish",

you can get some really nice low-gain sound from the channel 1,it give a quick respond to your picking.

Want some metal-sound?just tune the "Channel 2 voicing" knob all the way up,you will get a very "Compressed" and powerful sound!

All i can say is..the effect sounds warm and natural,with this price the quality is supreb!

just bought it yesterday,but it looks so well-built so i think it won't have any problem.

no idea .never have to deal with them

i got it with a great price since i was working in a Musicial instrument shop,

and since i was working there,i have try many difference equipment.and for the effect range,this pedal is always in my "Top 3" list,even compare to a Mesa boogie V-twin,or something cost 2 or 3 or 4 times the price!

it really have the sound of it's own,once you bougth this pedal,i hope you guys can keep it until you die(or maybe you can pass it to your son....:D)

the only minor problem that i'm not 100% satisify,is the tube doesn't really "Grown" a blue light,there is a blue Led under the tube that makes the tube looks like have blue light.

Fairly straight- forward, dual channel pedal. If you can't figure it out in two minutes, find a new hobby. My only beef with it is that there is only one eq for both channels, but with the bass on 2/3 and treble on 3/8, it works nicely with both.

I use it with a Amer. Lonestar Strat or Carvin dual hum into a Seymour-Duncan Pick-up Booster into the Bulldog into a modified Fender Blues Jr. This is the ballsiest most versatile pedal I've ever heard. I was at store and tried every od/dist pedal they had, all of which (including everyone's favorite Tubescreamer) sounded thin and weak. Because of the price, I tried this one last, but when I did I was blown away. The fact that I couldn't afford it didn't matter anymore. I immediately bought it and when I took it home and played it through my setup, it was even better, a lot better. I can get an incredible texas blues sound(like SRV) in channel 1, and a bad-ass (not thin,cheap, and thrashy sounding) distortion in 2. With the voice knob you can really tweak your sound in 2. The pick-up booster is a great compliment to this pedal, especially when using single coils. This is the only 12au7 driven pedal I've ever heard, but it's a great one. too bad there's not 11 rating. Worth every penny of the high price.

I'l never own another dist/od pedal again. I play everything as far as instruments and styles, and have been for a relatively good while. I don't use as much dist these days as I used to, but since I've had this pedal I've been finding excuses to use a lot more. I'm very picky about my sound and I'm no less than extatic about this purchase. The best pedal of it's kind out there, so don't bother looking, I already did. If it were stolen I couldn't buy a new one because I'd be locked for murdering the theif. Despite the one EQ thing, this gets a perfect rating. The only reason not to buy this is if you play death-metal or thrash metal, have no taste, or both. Even you whiny emo-punk-indy-rock kids would like it.

I don't want to repeat all the things already said. 2 channels and true bypass.

first time i hooked it up i was fairly disappointed with the sound. Harsh and rough in the first channel - biting and piercing in the second. the distortion seemed to crumble and fall at a certain threshhold (ok thats what tubes are supposed to do) and i was missing punch and balls. My setup was a Les Paul with Rios (Texas BBQ)- Vox 847 UK Wah - the Bulldog - TC Chorus/Flanger - into a Matchless Chieftain Head w/ a 412 Celestion G12H100 cab.

The Matchless delivers a great sound with this cab and i love the dynamic response and the full and ballsy sound of it.

Now: 2 weeks later i chekced the Bulldog again - and this time as a single frontend to the amp. WOW - now it sounds like a new world to me. I played several hours with different eq settings on either the Bulldog and the amp itself to find the sweet spots. And there are many of them. After i was wondering why it was so ugly and harsh sounding before i reassembled the fx line step by step and i found the problem: the TC doesn't like the Bulldog in front! I wired an old Boss CS1 Chorus behind it and - there we go! all as it should be. fantastic sounding setup.

My advice to all the people who running several fx in a line - check the position of the Bulldog if it sounds weird. Some pedals don't seem to like the Bulldog as a feeding unit.

All together I am very happy now with this unit. two great distortion sounds and a true bypass gives you already three sounds.

I bought the bulldog about 2 months ago and there is not much to say by now. it looks solid and even it has a tube inside no weak spot to detect. I gigged several times (i bacame one of my favourite stomps) and it never let me down. No backup required.

I never dealt with Vox or their distributors. So no opinion here.

I play mainly rock and blues. After over 25 years of playing I went through many styles and setups. And - as you certainly all know - the tone you're after changes with time. Many years ago i found the sound of a cranked big muff into a marshall plexi fantastic - today i find this not appropriate anymore. Music is changing and the sounds,too.
The Bulldog is a fresh and modern sounding pedal without missing the vibe of "vintage" tone. I am wondering how i would rate it in 5 or ten years time????
I love it right now and that's all it. It suits my desires for distortion sounds perfectly and i would definitely buy it again.
The price is fair in my opinion. The value is great.

Considering that this is a 2-in-1 pedal, its simplicity is quite welcome. The shared EQ may not be to everyone's liking, yet it does provide me with 2 very good sounds with a bit of adjusting of both the EQ and gain 2's "voice control".

As for switching, I suppose that a bypass switch and a Gain 1/2 switch are more than self-explanatory. It deserves a 10 in this category.

This pedal has been put to actual use (excluding practice, rehearsal, etc.) with 2 amps: a Mesa/Boogie Mark III and an ENGL Savage 60. As far as guitars are concerned, I've plugged everything from Teles to Les Pauls, so its character and the way it influences your sound have been thoroughly tested.

Vox's descriptions on this are quite accurate: gain 1 has a looser, more vintage vibe, while gain 2 is more punchy and slightly scooped, like a good JCM 800 with a good booster on front. The sounds are extremely varied, and it is a true jack of all trades (unless you're specifically after ultra-scooped distortion). You can get impressive "sag" out of it once it warms up properly, and you'll find that your amp AND the pedals' personalities shine through perfectly.

It is a tad on the treblier side of things, so you might want to lower the treble when using single-coil ecquiped guitars to prevent it from becoming too harsh. Doesn't bother me at all, since EQ isn't extreme in terms of range, but very cleverly tuned instead.

Perfection seldom comes, however, and this fantastic box hasn't had its output level tweaked to perfection, since it's a bit low. In most cases this won't present a problem, but I find it strange that, when I plugged it into a Laney VC30's clean channel, I was forced to turn the level (for both channels) up to 9 just to balance the sound, which is silly...

If it wasn't for this tiny matter, it would easily get a 10, but as it is, 9 seems fair.

It is rock-solid, BUT it does have a nice lovely 12AU7 lurking within, which means you must check for microphonics every once in a while. If you take good care of it, it will certainly take good care of you!...

As far as consistency is concerned, it's perfect. It is a relatively new pedal, so I'll get back to Reliability a few months from now. Time will be the judge here.

Never dealt with Vox UK, partly because of a carefully structured website and dumb-proof manuals. Of course I do hope never to deal with them because my gear went 'kaboom' on me... :-P

A friend of mine does own a Tonelab and they have been most helpful. I doubt it would be any different for me.

I have been working as a session player for a while, and my setup consists of 14 guitars, 2 amps (unless I'm using other stuff for sessions - it's great when you can fiddle with tons of gear while paying nothing for it -, and a multitude of pedals and various FX units. I happen to play mostly everything, from pop to r'n'b to funk to blues to rock to metal, and most session guys like me tend to, so I was happy to witness the versatility of this unit.

This is, of course, an expensive pedal, and I encourage you to try it before you buy it. NEVER take a review for granted: what rocks my world might be crap to you and vice-versa. If it was lost or stolen, I'd get another one for sure, considering the way I like it. The one and only thing that I wish it had was a little bit extra output, but it hasn't been a prblem so far.

I must say that it is indeed expensive, but I found myself gigging with it without turning the amps' overdrive on a single time, so it does pay off.

very easy two channel stompbox overdrive. No need for a manual. a bit more knobs than a boss pedal but....ok straight to the soundpoint.

I'm using it through a VOX AC30 and it sounds great!
It has two channels, channel 1 is more clean and crunch channel 2 is high gain compressed sustained sound...with additional treble control....the two sounds are very different. I use the channel 1 for rythm and channel 2 for solo. channel 2 also kicks ass if you use it to play sort of smashing pumpkins harmonies (like the song "Zero").
This pedal has a true valve blue-glowing and man...it works!
the sound is clearly a tube sound.....the only thing is that it's a bit too much "treble" oriented...but you have bass knob to pump.

it seems teel made.
hard case and relieble.

it maches my soundstyle perfectly.maybe it is going to tak ethe place of my boss blue driver....

Been using it for a month now. Very easy straight to the point pedal. Dont need a manual to operate it. Its analog so you dont need to edit any patches...just dial in the setting you want and play away.

this pedal is a great all around pedal. Rock, blues, metal... this baby can deliver. I use it with various amps, and it sounds almost the same with any amp. But i think it will sound best with tube amps. I used it once with a roland jazz chorus and this dog bites!!!. The only comment I have is that it sounds too bright. I role off the treble control just to hit that sweet spot. Gain 1 is warmer than gain 2 but a little bit noisy if you turn the gain at full. Gain two has a compressed, tweekable but heavier gain structure which is a bit harsher but still sounds good when you use it for heavier music. My fender strat fits this pedal like a tailored glove. My set up very simple: Fender strat or Ibanez RG, Dunlop wah 535Q, Arion octave, Cooltron Bulldog, Boss DD3. Ever since I switched to the cooltron I've been getting praises on my sound. I use to have a sansamp GT2, the bulldog just ate it for breakfast.

I wouldnt know, just used it for a month. Let's see after a year. But it looks pretty sturdy with its chrome chasis.

I play glam rock and sometimes mainstream when I session. It works with all the artists I've played with. It definitely is a heavy pedal...but it could also go mellow with the right adjustments. I would definitely get another one if this gets stolen. I just love Gain 1. It's warm even at maximum gain. I kinda dislike the treble on this baby. I would compare it to a mesa v-twin. But I like the fact that you can control gain 1 and 2 separately. I wish it had a mid control though, then all my ratings will be 10.

This is new in 2005 with the evolutionary cooltron technology. First impression was not good as there were too many buttons and knobs (9 all together) But after using for about 5 minutes, it's not as intimidating as it looks!! easy enough to get a good sound out from the 2 channels. Manual itself is a Joke, a piece of paper with many languages and NO helpful infomations. It is easier to figure out the sound by messing around than reading the manual!!

My setting is a Gibson Les Paul/ Fender Tele thru this baby to VOX AC 30 CC2. It's simply rocks!! This baby gives a little hizz when you have both volume and gain wind to max but that is just warning you that you have more than enough distortation on your tips. Beside, this baby also makes you amp louder which, is good for many but if you have a loud amp life AC30....... but thanks to separate colume control for each channals, it can be easily sorted.
The first channel is more vintage like distortion, not very aggressive but very responsive when the strings are attacked! Fantastic for soloing as it's a killer sound and ultimate clarity!!
The second channel is flat out. Kill'em all approach. very heavy, solid, punchy and crunhy. ideal for rymth works in metal band. Not bad for soloing as well, very unique!!

the Shell looks like metal but it's actually very hard plastic. have this baby for only a short while and have no prob so far. it looks reliabale and if not, will come back and report again

never deal with any of them so..................... no comment

I play punk' (Greenday, cood charlotte) rocks ( Guns n roses, Randy Rhoads) and some alternative for about a yr and a half. still new in this area but my friends in the band simply praise the sound out from this baby (they have been play for about 15 yrs) They have the tube screamer, tube factor, mega distortation, only tube factor comes close the other are..... well they are not tube driven so not same league!
If this is stolen, will get this baby again or maybe some other padel in this Cooltron product range, heard they are few new peddals out so will see^^

just a couple of thoughts following my review. for the ones who care:

1. although the Bulldog uses operational amps (I.C.'s),they DO NOT create distortion.
all they really do is boosting a powerful clean signal right before the valve,thus overdriving the valve insanely.It is only a clean booster.

because a single 12ax7 could not possibly have all that gain,they use this system ,enabling them to obtain such high amounts of gain,and keeping the price low,because a preamp with 5 valves costs more than a preamp with one valve.
So does that means that if a pedal or whatever has more valves in it sounds or is actually better? No.
Mesa or Peavey uses 5 or 6 valves to get all the gain their preamps,but you know Mesa,they make you pay with interest.

Hughes & Kettner uses the same I.C. system before the valve,in their very good Tubeman. If a valve pedal uses transistors to create part of the gain,you would hear it. But not so with the Bulldog.
In my opinion,any good valve pedal like the Bulldog absolutely thrashes toys like the Boss Metal Zone ,DOD,sansamp etc.

2. You might want to use a boss ge-7 or similar before the Bulldog to cut the bass BEFORE the Bulldog's distortion...I do that and get an excellent 'tight' sound ,if that's what you are after,in other words there is a total lack of muddiness,not that the Bulldog is muddy-sounding pedal. That is only my personal preference though. Happy barking

It's an overdrive/distortion pedal..nothing difficult to use!
Manual is good and conversational,although short. Well..you dont need a book for a pedal,right?

I always record direct to my laptop,and I have used the Bulldog for that also . I also run a fully fledged tube amp thru a powerbreak and it ends in my laptop anyway. I listen thru headphones. If you do this sort of thing,you will need a speaker simulator of some sort,like ab Hughes & ketner Red box ,or if you want to go software,Cakewalk does some excellent speaker sims for free. I also use stuff such as Amplitube,but I NEVER use the distortion ,or even the clean sound,from such stuff. Neither I ever use transistor or digital distortion...I absolutely dislike it,to me has to come from tube.
That's the only way I play a guitar.

I am rather impressed with the Bulldog. I even compared it,side to side,with the preamp out of my peavey Bravo...the preamp of the latter is no joke.They both were using the same speaker simulators.
They both sounds very aggressive and harmonic,but the Bulldog gives also an hint of something less american-sounding....it sounds very Marshall-like,the tone is more 'macho',and it does not sound buzzy.
It's eq it's powerful and uses the right frequencies,in my opinion.

Someone could complain about the fact that the Bulldog shares the eq with both channels. It's true,but also remember that this was supposed to be a distortion pedal rather than a 2 channels preamp,so I think of it's eq as a plus rather than a minus.

It has 2 channels,and they sound rather different to my ears,channel 1 is less gain (but still a lot) it's a very cool vintage-like distortion.

Channel 2 is the flat-out ,take-no-prisoners approach. the thing I liked is that it sounds bigger as you increase the gain.
Power chords are very 'british'like...as I said it's a really good marshall-type of sound,rather than Mesa or Fender.
It's still modern and ballsy,but older as well,I really think it's the best of both worlds but at the same time it's not a wannabee pedal...it has a sound with a lot of attitude and authority of it's own.
BTW, something like the Mesa Boogie V-Twin is very compressed and weak sounding compared to the Bulldog.Other than ridicolously over-priced. the Bulldog eats that at breakfast!
(Also, I will never understand why some people uses stuff such a Tubescreamer,Sansamp etc,when you can find a pedal like the Bulldog!).

the Bulldog is rather the opposite,it's not a squashed 12ax7 sound but a lot more of a focused heavy high gain,quite exciting in riffs and solos.
It's an heavy expressive sound,responds very very well to anything from blues to fusion to whatever form of metal. Very responsive to speed picking and legato-based licks. the thing I really like about this pedal is that other than the insane gain,the tone is of a singing quality. I love that quality in a guitar sound.
It also does the 'chugga-chugga' thing excellently.
Distorted triads or intervals sound very harmonic.

I use also a graphic -eq in front of whatever preamp because it allows me to tune more finely my sound. Also,it servers as double-purpouse,because it's also a booster should I need a boosted sound. You dont really need a booster with the Bulldog though! It has plenty of gain!

The pedal it's not noisy at all,compared to other pedals or preamps with similar high amounts of gain.
Another thing: dont change it's valve to a 12ax7,for more gain or whatever,doing so will weaken a lot the Bulldog's output,which is rather strong,and you might want that strong output to drive a good valve power-amp hard.
So keep a good 12au7 in there.

My only niggle is that those pedals are a bit of a fuss if you want to change the valve. Although the Bulldog uses a good one,no krap like Mesa Boogie does.
In the Bulldog is not more difficult to change the valve than in the H+k Tubeman 2 ,for example,but still,why complicate a complicate an already difficult life.....
I give the Bulldog a 10 for sound.

seems very sturdy,but the sides of the pedal it's hard plastic ,although they look like aluminium. It still will be very difficult to break those sides because of the internal frame of the pedal,so unless you trow it down the stairs it wont break I suppose.
I would gig with no backups no problem

I play fusion,hard rock,metal,blues. The Bulldog it's a great match!
Been playing about 10 years.
i also own a h+k Crunchmaster ,a mini valve amp, and a Peavey Bravo. I used to have a Seymour Duncan 84-50, a Marhall reissue,a Peavey Triumph...all very good used stuff

I have compared the Bulldog with some other pedals,such as Guyatone Metal Monster. The latter it's even more expensive (really a theft for what it is) than the Bulldog and sounds like bullshit in comparison. very buzzy and thinny,compared to Bulldog's roaring bark!
I also compared it to a Sansamp Classic....I can only laugh at that Sansamp stuff,it costs even more than the sound it emulates,and compared to the real stuff like the Bulldog,it's light-years behind.
The Bulldog it's a bit pricey but still much less than a sansamp. And ,unlike those ridicolously priced toys ,delivers sound-wise.
It still deserves a 10 even if it is slightly pricey

This pedal is really pretty straight forward. There aren't a whole lot of knobs to confuse a person. Inside of about 2 minutes I had dialed in a tone and was up and running.

OK, here's the thing. I run this through a Matchless Clubman 35 which will expose everything. The 1st channel on this thing sucks. I have tried about everything and I can't get it to sound good. The two channels share an EQ which bites because what sounds good on one channel makes the other one harsh. The 2nd channel on this thing is great. It really nails that British crunch. Because it is tube it responds very well to your picking dynamics and volume control. It will clean up, but because it is 2 channels, I was hoping this would replace my lower gain pedals. It definitely will not. I wonder if anyone has tried changing the tubes in this thing. That may improve the tone. It also needs a mod to smooth out the highs. They get really harsh really fast. For what I paid for it I must admit I am a little disappointed. This thing costs as much as Fulltone or Menatone, and doesn't sound good on everything like those pedals do. I'm gonna keep it because the 2nd channel is so balls to the walls, but the 1st channel was a real let down. Definitely try before you buy. It may work for you, I'm gonna make it work.

This thing is chrome, large and heavy. I seriously doubt you could much external damage to this piece. It is tube so eventually the tubes will go microphonic on you so keep that in mind. This is basically a tube preamp so you will have the same type of upkeep.

Don't know. The guys at Sweetwater are awesome though.

Overall this pedal wasn't what I was hoping for. It's not horrible, just not what I thought a 200+ effect pedal should sound like. I'm gonna keep tweaking though, who knows maybe It'll grow on me.

Intresting but not cheap pedal. Has a 12au7 tube that can run off 4 AA batteries for 16 hours or you can use a 9 volt(boss) wall wart. Has 2 channels with true by pass for both. One channel has treble and bass pots, the other a mid scoop/boost for that metal sound; both channels have drive and volume controls. It's not an overdriven amp, but it comes close. Fairly easy to get anything from a soft od on chords to a singing Santana like lead sound to metalica. Also very quiet and can be used direct for recording.

Tested the pedal on a Fender twin playing a PRS standard 22. At home I've used a PRS standard 22, Ameican Strat, Washburn Falcon, Sammick 335 knock-off, all through a JC 120 and a Blues Jr. Will try it through my Delux RV and Peavey Classic 50 4/10 in the near future when I take it to the sudio. I am looking for Santan lead sound or sound of Mark Goldberg on Jackson Browne CD "I'm Alive". Comes pretty close to both. This is a balls out tube OD pedal with a low voltage curcity that allows it to run off batteries. Two channels that can be set up for different OD sounds plus true by pass for both.

Haven't had it long enough to know but it is may by Vox(Korg) and is made in Japan. I would bring along another OD pedal just in case. It is a tube pedal and tubes burn out or get broken.

All. 40 yrs. Don't know. The tube glows a pretty blue. It's chrom and it looks like it's been dusted for finger prints after you use it. Yes, the Tweak Fuz. Information about switching tubes for different sounds. Helps with music. I'm butt naked in 1969. It is an interesting pedal and does the OD sound pretty good. I wish there was a way to control the harmonics better. By using a compressor in front of the pedal you're able to augment to dynamics of this device.

This unit has two 'channels'. They share the same EQ section (bass and treble) but channel 2 has an added mid-range shape control. There is an on-off footswitch and a footswitch to change between the 2 channels. An LED lights for channel 2 and is off for channel 1.

This pedal is very bright! It definitely leans toward the treble/presence side of the distortion range. There is however enough EQ available to round off the high end and get into the warm 'pocket'. The thing I like about this pedal is that it gets better as the tube warms up. After playing with it for about 15 minutes it really starts to 'sag' and sing like a pushed tube amp in the sweet zone! It is a great peedal for moving a class 'A' amp into the Marshall zone of crunch, it does a great Brian May treble boost sound too! The pedal is dead quiet even when the gain is maxed in channel 2! BONUS! Solid job, silent channel switching, works with a 9volt ac adapter (another major BONUS!) Because of the channel switching you can dial up 2 (slight to moderately) different sounds use channel one for crunch and use channel 2 for your high gain solo sound. At first I thought it was too bright, but, PATIENCE! I was able to dial in a great tube distortion sound that sits very nice in the mix. This pedal is a keeper on my pedalboard! and, I am a major picky dude when it come to pedals!

I just got it so I can't vouch for reliability...it is built in a solid metal/chrome box and looks to be well built!

Don't know the 'chaps' over in England (is that where Vox is???)

I have this pedal right after my Fulltone OCD overdrive and right before my Budda Zenman pedals (both offer different 'types' of gain) now I have a nice 'biting' Marshall style pedal to push my Carr Mercury EL34 MONSTER of a small amp (that sounds like a wall of Marshalls to a PA or a recording mixer!) Great job Vox dudes!