Vox Cooltron Snake Charmer Compressor

I purchased this pedal because it was 'suggested' to me by a friend. The price (wholesale) of $220.00 w/tax did not scare me off. I own many more expensive pedals. Once you plug it into the unit, it is 'on' and running with a blue tube glowing away. With everything set at '0' immediately you can tell that some kind of difference is present. However, applying that difference in a way that is useful within your rig will take awhile... and at LOUD VOLUMES to distinguish what it happening to your sound. My sole purpose in purchasing this unit was to use it as a sustainer in guitar solos and a unit for recording purposes. The manual sucks. It doesn't offer any suggestions at all on how to use the pedal, which tells me that VOX doesn't like the manual either. "HEY VOX, YOU THINK FOR $220 BUCKS YOU COULD AT LEAST THROW IN A HINT OF SETTINGS IN THE *%*%# MANUAL?!"

I have ran this unit through two rigs. One Marshall Silver Jub 100w and 70 watt slant cab and the other a Marsh JMP1 with Mesa Boogie 50/50 poweramp and M/B traditional cabinet. The greastest in sound differences in sound came from the JMP and M/B 50/50. The greatest sustain came from the Silver Jub. The unit gets noisy at high emphasis levels but the manual does warn you that it will happen. The sound quality is good at levels below:

With Volume at 11 am; Emphasis at 1 pm; Compression at 10 to 11 am; Release at 9 am; and Attack at 3 pm; Ratio set to High; is not bad.

Don't know yet but I am buying an electical plug in.

Not yet.

I like hard driving guitar music and overall this is a good unit to have for this type of music. It works for clean as well. I have been playing for a while and primarily work with setting up sounds.

This is the way I look at it. Your choices for cheaper units include pedals such as BOSS. I do like BOSS pedals (with the exception of their tuner). You need to decide if the extra $100 bucks this VOX pedal will cost you versus the pedals abilities is significant enough to purchase. In my case, the $100 bucks was well worth it. Yes, the pedal is a pain to set up and dial in; Yes, you need to purchase a 9V electrical plug; However, the sound is good and once you figure it out, the features allowing you to dial in your sound are well worth it.

Well this unit is not easy to use... The manual seems to have been written first in Japanese and then translated (badly) to other languages. (this pedal is made in Japan). It takes quite a long time to understand how to turn the knobs to get the sound you want.

My setup : Fender USA Strat STD or Gibson SG STD > Boss TU-2 > Vox Snake Charmer > MXR Distortion + > MARSHALL DSL 100 with a Boss NS-2 in its effects loop.
I was looking for a compressor because I wanted more sustain on the clean channel. I also wanted something to help me playing artificial harmonics.

... It does its job ! Infinite sustain when playing with the drive channel... It turns to feedback at very low volumes with hi-gain settings.

When using it with the clean channel, you definitely hear the smooth warmth brought by the tube. Sweetens the tone. I love it.

I do not give 10 because this pedal is noisy. You have to plug a noise gate somewhere in your rig.

I haven't opened the box and I do not know about the quality of the components... It's made in Japan, so I am pretty confident. I bought it 6 months ago and it's still working like day one.

Never needed to get in touch with the company.
Never needed to get it modified.

I've been playing for 10 years now. I don't own any other compressor but my advice is to buy a tube one. I've not had the opportunity to try the EHX Black Finger. Anyway I was more attracted by the Snake Charmer because of the number of parameters featured :
Volume, Emphasis, Ratio, Compression, Release, Attack.

I love how it sweetens the tone but I only give 8 because of the price.

Read the manual and give it time. Somewhat difficult.

I think the tube is there for show. The sound is dead. My guitar has a nice sound but this takes it away. It has good Attack/Release. The attack/release was so good that I almost kept the thing. The components inside are cheap. It has many cheap surface mounted parts. It would be very hard to upgrade the components. I even bought a NOS Mullard tube from tubedepot and it did NOTHING for the sound. Duh, it's going through garbage before it gets to the $30+/- tube.

Cheap pots, switch. The pedal had to be taken apart just to swap the tube.

n/a

I've been playing poorly for 15+ years. I love Orange Squeezer Compressors but I wanted even more attack/release. You might say, "Orange Squeezers use an IC." True but if you buy a BajaTechCustom or Pedalworx or GeneralGuitarGadgets version, all the components are top quality. The VOX components are cheap.
I hate to imagine the poor wages these folks are getting to spin these out.