Vox Cooltron Over The Top Boost

Basically the preamp section of their current chinese made AC30. Rather big, nice and shiny box with cool LED-lit tube in it that runs on 9V. Good to work with, interactive tone controls offer wide range of e.q.

Generally I do not belive that a tube or two in a preamp pedal makes a difference soundwise. Anyway, this pedal sounds nice as it is. Nice smooth, musical overdrive is what it excells at, I couldn't get it to bark and bite tho. As a booster I like it o.k., the distortion is not my cup of tea. At the end of the day I didn't keep it, mostly for lack of flexibility.

Made in Japan, well buildt.

Fine sounding pedal, maybe a little too nice overall. Maybe I should look at their Brit Boost as an alternative but I use a Xotic RC now which is so much smaller and surprisingly versatile. Especially as the representation of a complete front end of their current AC30 this pedal is somewhat limited. Maybe this is where their overall problem lies today, even in the Heritage series of PTP wired amps. I took one home for tryout from the store and it completely crumbled in comparison to a friends 1968 AC30, oh well.....

easy to get good sounds through my modded pro jr.

classic voxy smoothness and crunch

I play a an '84 strat plus with a seymour duncan hot rails in the bridge. The vox pedal through my moded pro jr.(celestion G10 and philips 5751 preamp tubes/ JJ EL84) sounds really cool...through my home-made 1X12 cab it sounds killer, too. Works great as a clean boost and rockin' as a distorion pedal...turns my fender amp into something that's not quite a fender anymore. Very warm overdrive for blues and rock.

still pretty new so no comment, yet...plan on using it mostly for the studio guitar rig. Seems pretty tough.

I guess I give it a 10 for what it is...basically a VOX vibe for whatever amp you put it in front of

Nice chrome box with chicken head knobs, Fx switch with a red status light and a blue (COOL-tron means a cold valve) light diode underneath the tube when input cable is plugged in.

With its controls Volume, Cut, Gain, Bass, Treble and a "Standard" and "Custom" switch it really acts like the channel strip of a Vox AC 30 Custom Classic amp.

It??s very easy and intuitive to use and the results are always good sounding when you??re careful enough with the Treble and/or Cut control. If you??re not you??ll risk damaging your eardrums. This pedal is an interessting tool for sound designers.

The equalisation is passive and interactive, what means that especially the settings of Treble and Bass depend on each other. Cranking up the Bass for example will reduce Treble.....reducing Treble will boost Bass....and somewhere between you??ll find the mids.....

The intensity of the interactivity can be choosen by the Standard/Custom Switch. The characteristics of these two are different. Choose Custom for less interactivity like the hand wired voxes.

You can run the pedal with batteries or a power supply.

The manual is small with poor information....but a manual is not necessary to understand the functions of this stomp box.

My main guitars are Strat and Tele. The amp is a customized Fender Vibroverb Reissue with Alnico Speakers and 6L6GC-STR Ruby Tubes. So the Vox stomp box adds a british channel to my californian sound what??s my most favorite.

Beatles, Shadows, Stones, Brain Adams, Brian May, Radiohead and a lot of others....this is the british vintage sound. It??s very very close to the Vox AC 30 CC Amp......but without the clipping of the power amp section at higher volumes. If you know about the difference between the power amp tubes you??ll know about the special tone of the EL84 tubes when driven into saturation.

If you like Voxes and Plexi Marshalls, crisp glassy clean, crunchy, bluesy, rough and powerful or/and smooth overdriven sounds this is the right gear for you. The OTTB can do the styles between Jazz, Pop, Soul, Blues, Funk, Rock, R??n R, Punk and so on. But it??s always close to the warm vintage ideal. The range of overdrive/distortion ends at AC/DC with all tonal colors between crisp clean, up to rich crunch to Marilyn Manson glam with tons of harmonics around the tone. This sound is always FAT. Whatever a vintage enthusiast is looking for.....this stomp box is able to produce the right tone except Heavy Metal or similar styles.

This pedal is the best choice for guys with a californian amp that needs a hot channel and for players that can??t crank their amps to get crunchy, overdriven or sweet distorted sounds. This sound can get very punchy with a lot of vintage bottom. It??s also very responsible on your picking attack. Even simple and boring chords sound spectacular. Rich and clear without any mud inside. It??s really difficuilt to discribe. Check their website. They have some mp3 soundsamples in their download aera.

No complaints. It seems to be very stable.

Unclaimed until now.

At first: Sry for my crap English. I??m a Kraut. I??ve been playing for about 20 years. I play Pop, Jazz, Blues, Rock, R??n`R, Alternative and a lot of other stuff. I mostely use my Fender Amp or my Epiphone Valve Junior practice amp without any pedals. Actually its equipped with "Tone Bones". These Class A adaptors with EL 84 tubes reduce the output power of the amp down to 8 Watt. But cranked up this is still too much volume for my bedroom.....that??s one reason for the Vox pedal. Sometimes I run my guitars through an EHX Memory Man Deluxe, an Ibanez CS9 Chorus, an EHX Small Stone Phaser and a Dunlop Cry Baby....that??s it.

Before I bought the Vox OTTB I used an EHX Hot Tubes that always sounded to harsh and to heavy to my ears. It was equipped with two 12AX7 tubes and a very parametric equalisation. To my ears the sound was too close to their "Big Muff".....I don??t like solid state distortion.....

The Vox OTTB is definately the pedal I was always looking for. I would buy it again if it would get lost or stolen. I really love this pedal. I really know a lot of gear but no other box can reach this. Well done Vox !!! My next amp will be an AC 30 CCH.

Great tones straight out of the box. The controls are really straight forward, its really just like using a vox amp but in pedal form. It claims to be a Vox In A Box and to be honest it is just that. Manual is adequate but not really necessary anyway.

My set up is a Gibson Les Paul Standard through a Marshall DSL100 amp head and 2x12 cab. I know that screams rock and metal but the covers band I play in also play alot of Indie stuff such as Oasis, Stereophonics etc etc. The Marshall does one sound really well but it is just too "metal" for this kind of music even with the gain backed off. This pedal was exactly what I was after. Played through the clean channel of the Marshall it produces that lovely "!inbetween" sound that we all crave, not out and out crunch but a cleaner slightly overdriven sound that bites when you hit hard. I have had numerous pedals to try and achieve this but the Vox nails it perfectly. I dont know if it is because of the inbuilt valve but it just sounds organic and natural like another channel on the amp. I leave the gain down below half for this but if you turn it up higher it is quite an aggresive cutting sound. The tone is perfect to cut through the mix when a more overdriven sound gets lost. I love it !

No complaints, its built like a bloody tank ! Takes up alot of pedal board space as a result, thats my only gripe.

Not applicable

As I stated earlier I have had loads of different pedals including Boss Overdrive, Snarling Dogs Tweed Dog, Boss Blues Driver, Marshall Jackhammer . . . the list goes on. This is the one I was after. The tone is beautiful. When you kick it on it doesnt sound like a pedal, it sounds like you have changed amp channel. It really does make a Marshall and Gibson sound like you are playing through an AC30 - superb !!!