Vox Satchurator

Pretty simple. Plug in, find the settings that you like and blast away. Getting the settings absolutely perfect is nigh on impossbile the first time, so lots of tweaking here and there sure helps.

I'm running mine through a CryBaby GCB-95 Wah, to a Randall KH120 head and cab on the clean channel. Guitars are an ESP LTD EX-260 and a Schecter Revenger, Cort instrument cable from the guitar, and Hot Wires interconnects for the pedals. With the gain on full, the tone on 11 o'clock and the volume at 12 o'clock, the sound is absolutely amazing for metal/hard rock tones. It is fairly noisy but this can be controlled with a noise gate (at the sacrifice of some of the tone.)

Seeing as it's not a vintage pedal it will probably last a long time, only thing I'd suggest is buying a power supply for it if you plan on gigging.

Never had to deal with them.

For the price (??60 secondhand) I think it's an absolute bargain. The distortion is leaps and bounds over the Randall distortion. Absolutely ace for metal and hard rock, and if you dial back with the gain there's some nice classic rock tones to be had. If it were lost or stolen I'd definately buy another, without a second thought. Having a decent amount of distortion without sounding muddy is definately one of the things I need as a metal guitarist, and this helps brilliantly.

Easy to use. I did not use the Pad switch, because I don't use a Wah, etc.

I am using a Mesa Boogie F50 amp. I like the Contour setting on Channel 2 of the amp. So I wanted to use the Satchurator on the clean channel to overdrive the tubes, similar to what Satch does.
This pedal sounds good in that situation and is very sensitive to guitar volume. I use a MusicMan John Petrucci guitar and a PRS Custom 24. The JP guitar is so hot that there is not much difference in the tone at different settings. The PRS has more laid back pickups, and it produced alot of nuanced tone.
Satch and Vai supposedly use the DS1 pedal and have patterned their signature pedals on the DS1. So I put the Satchurator and the DS1 side by side to test them. The DS1 overdrives my clean channel and brings out the tubes, but it is more of a classic rock feel. It misses some presence. The Satchurator sounds similar but adds some compression and some shimmering presence.
The More button gives a good lead boost.
The biggest complaint I have with the Satchurator with my equipment is that there is a sweet spot between 3 and 4 on the tone where the distortion turns from great to treble buzzy. Anything less is not there but anything more is too much.

I would but I could probably revert to the regular distortion channel on my amp.

I play classic rock and progressive rock with a tone from classic to modern rock, depending on song.

Easy in one way - only three knobs and a couple of switches. But a bit of a learning curve in some other ways - suddenly your guitar's volume and tone controlls really start to make a difference, even without starting to fiddle with your amp.

I'm playing my Jem555 into a Fender Super Champ XD. Playing straight into the amp itself is fine. Adding the Satchurator makes my guitar's controls come alive. Some reviewers have commented on how overly treble this pedal can sound. The best thing to do is to turn your guitar's tone control down. The pedal makes sure the tone doesn't become dull.

Semms solid as a rock.

Not needed

Wish I'd had this pedal (and the Fender Super Champ XD) when I was in a blues band a few years ago. So responsive and expressive. Just remember the tone and volume controls on your guitar make a big difference with this pedal, not just the knobs on the pedal itself

A nice sounding overdrive, with typical controls and a pad switch for matching with hot pedals in the chain. Very easy to get a mild to wild overdriven tones -though not a clean boost pedal.

I use a Fender Strat with Texas Special pickups, very standard -this goes through a Vox AC30 amp, plus I use an old Boss ME5 for digital delay. The Saturator is pretty quiet sonically and it can get a very sweet grainey sort of mild overdrive, not unlike a Strat straight through an old '70s Marshall cranked up, then of course you keep adjusting the pedal for more and more complex overdrive -it gets very rich and in your face.

I would say it should be reliable -top build quality

No need yet

Benn playing for over 30 years and I'm playing more contempory covers music at the moment (used to be more old rock and roll and Blues..the Saturator is not really for those styles..maybe ZZ Top blues) so I need a more "modern" sounding overdrive, and this is where the Saturator fits in -and I don't lose the quality of the Strat sound. The sound quality of the pedal is very sweet.

A simple-looking pedal: 3 knobs and a PAD switch. However, i must admit that getting "your" sound out of it is really quite hard. I mean this in the best way i can, but you can spend a really unnecessary amount of time twiddling the knobs. I should add that you get a fantastic buzz when you DO finally get the sound you're looking for.

I'm using the Satchurator with a PRS SE Custom (two Humbuckers) and a Vox AD30VT-XL amplifier. Really, this pedal is exactly what you make it. You want a Satch tone? Dial in a Satch tone. You want heavy, chugging distortion? You can get it. (It might take some time though, see above). I also like that you can roll back the volume knob on your guitar and lessen the gain, it works wonders and many other reviewers have raved about it.

The only problem comes when you "dime" the pedal; it gets fizzy and trebly. However, if you had any sense, you wouldn't "dime" the pedal and you would spend some quality bonding time getting your sound out of the pedal.

I've had no problems so far, and i'm not a gigging-quality guitarist yet. Having had only 6 months use out of the pedal, i don't think i can comment fairly on the reliability.

No dealings so far, although i'm sure Vox are a delightful company.

As what some would call a "fledgling" guitarist, i play quite a manner of styles (although mostly instrumental/rock). This pedal does exactly what it says on the tin: it gives Satch-style tones. I am, on the whole, extremely satisfied with the pedal as it suits my exact needs as a guitarist. However, i would not recommend the Satchurator to somebody who isn't interested into instrumental or "shreddy" styles, as there are better pedals out there for punk/blues etc.

I've compared this pedal to a Boss DS-1 and a MetalZone, and to my playing styles it wipes the floor with both. Given some time to set up, this pedal provides the gorgeous, creamy distortion that i crave. However, it does niggle at me sometimes when i change playing styles and can't get the settings right.

If stolen, i'd buy it up again in a snap, only i'd invest in a quality amp first as the pedal cost nearly as much as the amp i currently use.

Very simple to use, traditional controls.Has a pad switch which comes in handy when clobbering the input signal with other pedals, especially-wahs.

using it with a Ibanez Jem into the satchurator into a keeley comp into a Tech 21 GT2 amp simulator into a Behringer ultra G DI/cabinet simulator into a pod x3 live(delay and reverb)into a Tech 21 Power engine.
This is by far the most quiet distortion ever- unbelievable!
All you have to do is find the sweet spot for your guitar/amp set-up and dial-in the amount of distortion you want. I have the tone all the way down for the Marshall setting and at 9:oo for the boogie setting on the GT2 and it sounds tight, sparkly and lively. The satchurator is set up to sound great even with tone down, in fact it is difficult to clip or get a bad sound. It nails the Halen/Satch/Vai distortion if you have the right amp set-up. I've compared the sound with a Radial Tonebone,Rat,Mxr,but their is really no comparison. this pedal has output but the secret is really the harmonically complex distortion and the more button. the sound is thicker and has no low-end loss when engaged,just rich saturation

Seems very reliable and is a beautifull looking pedal

no opinion

perfect,perfect

You have to spend a little time working with this pedal and your volume knob.Full blow its over the top but its amazing how much you can change the tone and satchuration by rolling your volume knob off a few notches. Set your lead tone, then start backing your volume knob off until you have just enough crunch for rythm. Had the same problem with my Mesa Lone Star. Thought I'd made a big mistake until I started tweaking, then found the amp could do anything (but metal). Same with this pedal. Gave it a 8 because it does take some work to get your sound out of it.

I use this with a Mesa Lone Star and a Orange Tiny Terror (depending on the size of the Bar)with a Carvin DC127 (Ducan distortion in the bridge),88 Les paul Custom (a JB in the bridge), stock Clapton Strat and stock Gibson ES 137. IMHO it sounds much better with humbuckers than single coils, but then again Joe probably dosent play single coil guitars much so it should be expected to sound better with humbuckers. Dont bash it for what it wasnt made to do. My favorite setting through the orange (with the Carvin) is Gain @ 1:00 , Tone @ 11:00 and Volume @ 12:00.(Orange set at 12:00, 2:00 and 1:00) Roll back the volume until you have a nice crunch for rythm and no matter where your at on stage when your lead comes up all you have to do is reach down and turn your volume up. No scooting back across the stage to stomp on a box. I have also had great results with a keely compressor in front of it. It tames it a bit and makes it more articulate if you hit the more button. We cover music from the late 60's to present and i find this pedal seems to work much better for 80's music on. I have my Carl Martin Plexitone and ACtone to cover the early classic rock tunes.

So far,so good ? I Always have back up pedals. You'd be crazy to do a gig without some kind of backup ! No matter how well the pedal performs and is built. Remember Murphy's law.....lol

No need yet.

I have Carl Martin(Plexitone, ACtone and compressor/limiter) ,Keeley mods(Blues driver,TS9DX-flexi x 4 and 4 knob compressor)and a Fulltone GT500. I also use the Vox Big Bad Wah (very versital too), Dunlop cry baby and a Boss DD-20. You can see I have early and classic rock covered. With the Satchurator i now have a articulate voice for modern rock too. It has taken the place of the GT500 on my board if thats any help ? Its also sounds great as a lead voicing on channel one through my Lone Star. So , if you want to sound like Joe it's in there. If your looking for your own sound.....odds are (especially for modern rock)it's in there too. Just remember that volume knob (ever wondered why some guitars come w/out tone knobs but all have volume controls) on your axe of choice is on there for a reason. Start experimenting with it !

It's got 3 knobs and a switch, doesn't get much easier than that...The gain knob does what it's supposed to and it has more than enough gain on tap. The tone knob, in my opinion is really only useful from 0-5. After that, it's a little too trebly for my tastes, but if you have set at about 2 o'clock and use the pedal with the gain on 1 as a boost to a darker voiced amp, it's not too bad. That basically points out that this pedal is very reactive with the amp, and some amps won't like it at all...so try before you buy. Also, the pedal, like an amp, seems to me to respond and get better if it's turned up at least half way. It opens up a lot more then. The pad switch, I guess it does something, but I haven't had an issue where it's really made a difference. In general, the pedal gets Satriani/lead distortion tones very easily, without thinking, but it can be a bit trickier to dial in something not geared for solos.

I use this with all my guitars and it works very well for anything guitar lead heavy. It gets Satch to the letter and will do the other usual suspects with some slight tweaking. I've also found that it reacts very nicely to the guitar's volume. When I roll off the volume on my guitar, the pedal cleans up very nicely. Overall, I think it perfoms great for it's intended purpose...make you sound like Satch, or one of the other virtuosos who do mostly instramental guitar work. Where I've found it to be lacking is when I try to do any sort of rhythm stuff. It wants to solo...

I've had it a year now and never had a single problem with it. It's been gigged with and always performed well. Metal casing and the switches and knobs are all solid.

I'm a big Satch fan and that was a huge reason why I bought his pedal...there, I said it. I had a MIT DS-1 prior to this and went through phases where I thought it sounded ok, but most of the time didn't like it. The Vox is phases where it sounds awesome but sometimes only ok. Tonally, it's very similar to the DS-1 but it has more gain and a bit more open sound to it. It also has a bit wider range for adjustments with the tone knob. I would probably buy it again if it was stolen, but I might also take a look at a few other distortion peals that are out there and in the same price range. The major drawback for this pedal with me is that it isn't the most versitile pedal. It's made to play lead guitar in 80's style music and it does that great, but it's only average in most rhythm settings or other genres.

Very easy indeed - plug & play style.

Been playing for 20+ years, have tried gazillion of various od/dist pedals, this baby really tops 'em all. Crank up the volume, adjust the gain, explore. Can get virtually any sound - from mild gain to over-the-top distortion. The pedal is absolutely quiet - until you hit that power chord, that is! I also own a classic Big Muff and a Tube Screamer - the Satchurator is like having the best of both worlds.
Another bonus: cool chicken-head control knobs.
Have tried it with the Strat and the Les Paul - superb. Amp: Fender Blues Deville 410 Reissue. Distorted tube heaven. Wear earplugs though :-)
But bear in mind: it only becomes Satriani-ish when you want to. You absolutely must fiddle with the controls and get your own sound. This pedal definitely allows it!

The box itself seems sturdy enough. Would use it without a backup.

/

Pop-rock, blues.

Very easy to use controls have a smooth operation
only time i needed the manual is to check the operation of the pad switch out

Straight out of the box the pedal doesn't disappoint tried all of my Guitars with the Saturator now Strat ,Les Paul, Ibanez Through a Rat Hot Rodded Harley Benton Valve amp , would say the pedal is very similar to a MODDED DS1 , And one thing would say when i use a compressor with the stock pedal bottom end notes do sound a little muffled , so will give the stock pedal 7 ,
But since changed the stock clipping Diodes(kept them in a safe place) and spent a good day experimenting with all the different diodes i could lay my hands on added a switch and ended up with silicone Diodes one side and Leds on the other which has also improved the Bottom end muffiness loads ,just waiting to try the pedal out with some decent volumes for final verdict But very happy with it so far

Would say i should be reliable seems very well built with good parts no probs so far

No Need as yet

The Pedal is good for Rock Lead and excellent for rhythm , and really love the more switch especially when the Gain knob is dialled back superb , and a serious contender with the Boss DS1 is it going on my pedal board OH YES !!!! WELL worth a go for the money

Easy to use with three knobs and a more switch.

The sound varies alot depending in what channel you are or which channel you are using. I have a Stratocaster into a Peavey Valveking 112. First I was disappointed with the harshness of the sound after tone knob is pushed over 9 when I used clean channel like Joe apparently does. Then I tried it in overdrive channel with practically clean sound and it sounded like the demos in youtube.

Its quite silent even with full gain, but it humms louder in the clean channel.

I play blues and rock and its great for that.

Still working

I play blues and rock which this pedal is made for I think.

The Chicken Head knobs glide, and if I need to change a setting, I can easily do it with my foot. It sounds good right out of the box.

I use this through my Charvel Custom and my Fleshtone amp. This pedal has a lot of grit to it and is very good for rhythm parts. The "More" switch gives it a nice gain boost which is very good for lead parts. What I also like about this is the "Pad" switch which lowers the effect a slight bit so that it can be used with other Pedals(Such as a Wah).

I play primarily Classic Rock such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Van Halen and alot of Yngwie and Vai. This pedal has the versatility and tone quality that I need. The only thing I discourage is the size. I bought this primarily to get rid of my Little Muff Pi and Its is a bit bigger in width. As a result I had to cut out a bit of foam from my Pedalboard to make it fit. But in any case, this pedal is a great addition to any pedalboard.

The 3 knobs are self explaning - the first channel is controllable, the 'More' channel is the full undiluted channel. The cut switch does not work - is this an 'in' joke perhaps?

it sounds awful with my Marshall DSL 100w (clean channel) - it has a mid-range ball od mud which throttels chords - it does sound slightly better with a Marshall 1987 amp.

It will not boost clean sounds but some clean does come thru if you back off the volume (but they all do that right?).

It is not good enough to be a intregal part of my sound - the rhythem is muddy and the distortion is compressed - it does not understand British crunch like most pedals. However I do like it for soloing.
Facit - nice toy for soloing but a real distortion unit would have been better (Hughes&Kettner/Fulltone etc...). eg, could not record with it

Is solid

Only for widdling along to songs in my cellar - not for professional use unless you only play widdling music.

Simple to use, not simple to get a good tone. It truly saturates your tone with satchrificness, but if you are not Satch, well....that's it. I think they could have done better on this one. It did not make me want to surf with the alien, that's for sure.

It's probably best suited for beginners who want to have a very thick sound to cover up the garble. Great for that, and it's a nice fizzy sound for that mucky muck. Otherwise, meh.

Didn't have it long enough to judge reliability. Feels like a solid tank, but my buddy had one and the "true bypass" crapped on him in the first day of playing. Not cool.

No opinion.

Meh.

Very easy to use, the manual covers the basics of the control knobs, but there being only 3 knobs means its not rocket science to figure it out. Gain, tone and volume. Easy. Though the pedal also responds to your guitar knob settings extremely well, so you have a bit of fiddling to do at times.

This pedal sounds great with my amp, a Vox ADVT, played with my Spear Gladius guitar. The best thing about this pedal is that it responds to your volume control on your guitar, as well as the settings you dial into the pedal. I found that just by lowering the volume it lowers the levels of gain, and vice versa, which i thought was a great feature giving you a really versatile pedal. The 'more' button on the Satchurator is another cool feature. It's most noticeable when you have your gain knob lower, hitting the more switch provides a big gain boost. Not so noticeable when you have gain maxed, or almost maxed, but even then it allows your sound to cut through even more.

However I did find that at times I didnt lower my guitars volume, the distortion can become very gritty and fuzzy, so I suppose not everyones cup of tea.

Looks sturdy, feels sturdy. Vox always make quality products and I dont see this thing breaking any time soon

You get a 9 month warranty with the pedal, but i've never had to contact vox in the past. Well build pedal, vox.

really easy to get a great sound out of this pedal.... manual just shows basics... note special to be honest.

i use this pedal with several guitars such as strats, les pauls, red special guitars... and amp side of things i use a vox ac30. this pedal makes my amp sound like a full distorted boogie lol... one word ''awesome!''

this pedal is made from a sturdy metal case. seems solid! My verdict on this pedal is i think i could depend on it without backup during when i tour.

vox are very helpful and kind everytime ive phoned them with a problem! top company.

This is a correction and addition for my previous post on 01/09/09 regarding modding the Satchurator. It has been brought to my attention that I transposed the part numbers for the diodes used. The silicon (stock) diodes in the Satchurator are 1N4148 and the germanium diodes that I used are 1N34A, not the other way around as in my last post. My apologies for any confusion.

I've also heard from a couple people that germanium diodes are difficult to find, so I experimented with different diode configurations using diodes/LEDs that are easily found at a local Radio Shack. The best sounding combo IMO that I came up with was to use one of the stock diodes in series with a 3mm red LED for one side (as in the previous post) and another single 3mm red LED to replace the other stock diode. This gives the pedal a very dynamic amp-like distortion that cleans up extremely well with the volume knob of the guitar, even better than the stock pedal. Overall output is increased significantly. Unity gain between the bypassed and active signal is achieved with the volume knob at about 11 o'clock when the gain is set to about noon. Turning up the volume to max slams the front of the amp with a huge amount of output! There is also a greater difference in volume boost and gain when the "More" switch is engaged, particularly when the gain knob is set below 12 o'clock.

Also, after some live performance testing, I have decided to remove the tone cap mod described in my previous post. Although the cap helped cut some of the excess highs, it also tended to dull the tone when the volume knob was rolled back on certain guitars. Removing the cap retained the highs on all the guitars I tested. It seems Joe knew what he was doing on this one. ;-)

If anyone has questions about any of these mods, please feel free to email me.

I was soo looking forward to etting this pedal but was horribly disapointed. I sold my Blackstar HT Dual to get this. I wish I'd listened to it first before parting with my lovely HT Dual.
It's easy enough to use but the pad switch doesn't seem to do much.
So 9 for an eas of use. No complaints there.

I used a Custom shop strat with Kinman pickups & a Les Paul Custom.
The pedal was not noisy.
I struggled to get the distortion sound I expected from it. I think it probably makes a huge difference which amp you plug into.
I used a Laney Lionheart 5 watt amp.
My Blackstar HT Dual sounded fantastic through this amp (I bought a replacement)
I found the sound to be fizzy and bodyless. Lacking girth.

Used the pedal for less than one hour and sold it on ebay.

Make sure you hear this pedal in the flesh before buying. If possible, play through same amp as you own and similar guitar.

Very rugged looking.
The pedal looks great.

never used them.

The sound was not as expected.
I suppose us guitarists are always looking for new sounds and improvements to our rigs. Maybe we should learn to be more content.
Maybe this pedal sounds great through some rigs, but not mine.
I wish I'd liked it. But I didn't.
Oh well.

3 knobs a pad switch and 2 buttons. Very easy to get a good sound if you leave your amp alone. Would be nice if Joe Satriani actually gave you some settings he likes and would use if it was just his guitar this then an amp, like how most of us will be using it.

I have lots of distortion/overdrive pedals on my board and this is one that I use for the modern sound. Dare I say that this thing has too much distortion, mind you I play pub rock which suits this pedal well. The more switch does what it needs to as the drummer always sucks the gain out of the sound as he gets louder. YES it the drummers fault again. I have also been able to get every harmonic out of my guitar with the more switch engaged.

I too have to keep the tone at about 10 or 11 o'clock for a nice even sounding tone ala marshall. If I had 2 I would had the tone at 10 for chords and 12+ for solo time.

The pad switch was a puzzler to me until I played live with out it activated. My bad horsie 2 sounded lost. I then activated the pad for the next song and bang, or should I say WAH, I had it back again. So use the pad if you have any pedals before this one.

The volume knob is annoying though. Depending on acoustics (bloody acoustics), I get different volume levels when comparing this with line volume. I just tweak according to the venue now, just as you should always do with everything as everyroom sounds different.

All in all sound is in the ear of the beer holder. Plus its better than the jemini and cheaper and better than the DS1, there I said it.

Boss like.

Not had the need yet.

I play pub rock, so I need a wide range of sounds. This pedal gives you the modern distortion, nice and clean notes with good sustain. It fits in with my blues driver (slight overdrive), keeley blues driver (hendrix fuzz) and Blackstar Distx (classic distortion). I use the Blackstar and this pedal a lot during my sets and both sound excellent and produce tones that the other doesnt which fits with me.

Would buy another if stolen.

I compared this with every pedal in the shop and it sounded clearer, tonaly superior and more solid than the jemini, DS1 and other distortion units.

If this had a lead boost that increased the output volume that started at 0 being the original output and went from there to 6db as well, it would be perfect.

I have been playing since 1990 so have grown up with multi effects which just sound rubbish when compared with stomp boxs. So lets face it, until they bring out a progammable dedicated distortion pedal (not the boss cmos type) that remembers all your favourite settings we will never be truly happy.

It's easy to tweak (Gain, Tone, Level knobs). Stomp and go...

There's a little stompbox manual that comes in the box - nothing special.

Tried this out with several tube amps, and several guitars (Les Paul, Strat, Tele, Danelectros). The pedal is quiet.

The effect is basically like a Tube Screamer, but with a little more meat - sounding thicker - and slightly more gain. It also really seemed to favor single coil pickups (The Telecaster sounded fantastic) as opposed to the Les Paul's humbucker.

I A/B'ed the Satchurator with a Keeley modded Boss BD-2, an old Ibanez TS-9, as well as a few other distortion pedals...It compares favorably.

The Satchurator looks and feels rock solid. It could function as a stand-alone overdrive on a gig. I'll go out on a limb and say it's a 10 - so far! It's still relatively new item here, so time will tell...

N/A

I play jazz/funk/fusion/rock/country - or basically, whatever works in a pinch. And I've been doing it for decades. I also have a lot of gear, for various applications, recording or gigging live.

I wanted to get the Satchurator because I liked the idea of a dual function distortion pedal, with the "more" switch being an option for bumping up the gain for soloing. The simplicity of the controls and the sturdy-as-a-tank construction are very positive qualities. The pedal more than meets expectations there.

But, if you're looking for nastier, edgier distortion, this product doesn't quite get there. Best to add a nastier fuzz in the signal path for those times that call call for "Velcro from Hell."

Bottom line: If you need a "thickening" agent for chunkier rhythm parts or to make singing lead jump out, this pedal delivers.

The only drawback with the Satchurator for me was (and is) that it doesn't give you a lot of volume boost. I just wish it had a little more gain...

Simple operation, as you would expect from a drive pedal. The chicken head knobs (Gain, Tone & Level) are useful cos it's nice to be able to view your settings at a glance... something that other manufacturers don't always consider. An 'on' switch, a 'more' switch and a 'pad' switch (I won't bore you with their functions as others have explained them very well). If you have good technique and can tease out vocal tones using your fingers, pick attack weight and angles from your nicely overdriven valve amp then this pedal will amaze you. It responds beautifully to your touch and cries in a really nice way during solos. I got a great sound from this unit within around 15 minutes, most of which was spent experimenting with extreme settings to judge the pedals parameters.

I use either an Ernie Ball BFR Luke, an Ibanez JS1000 or a Jackson SL1 into a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with a TC Electronic G-System to manage drive and digital effects. The pedal is surprisingly quiet with only a mild hiss with the gain fully cranked and the 'more' switch engaged... not enough to irritate. If you are searching for a particular artists sound and tone (OK then, if you want to sound like Joe!) then this is a good starting point but you will need more than this to achieve that kind of goal... if copying is your bag.
Compared to the sound of my Mesa with a Keeley modified TS Flexi 4X2 in front to provide a little 'more', I notice that the Satchurator handles the low end of my sound a little better, with a nicely controlled punch which retains the guitar's tone. It's harmonic qualities across the board are impressive. My rating for this section is based on the fact that I can tease out vocal tones a tiny bit easier from the Mesa.

It seems very well made although I haven't had it for long... but I always have alternatives available in case of equipment failure.
Because I have never experienced the failure of a drive pedal and owing to the fact that this is made from steel I have rated it highly.

As of yet there has been no need to bug the Vox team and I don't think I will need to any time soon.

I have been playing the guitar for a very long time. I play rock music but no covers, just our own particular brand (www.myspace.com/thecageuk). I went for this unit over others owing to it's promise of high gain, harmonic response and the 'more' switch (because I know exactly what Joe means when he says that sometimes you just feel that you need a tiny bit more)
My advice for what it's worth, is to make sure that you have a good compressor in front of the Satchurator and a good multi-band guitar EQ pedal in front of that.

I was unable to get a "good sound" out of this pedal.

Tone is subjective, so I don't normally "trash" products on HC. However, this pedal is so bad that I'm compelled to make an exception. To quote the gentleman below: "It sounds gritty, buzzy and harsh all at the same time." That's exactly right. Regardless of setting, it completely sucked the life out of my THD BiValve and made it sound like a little transistor radio. For the first time in 30 years, my wife looked at me and said, "Wow, whatever you're playing sure sounds ughly." It was the Vox Saturator.

It looks real nice, and the switches operate especially smooth. I'm sure it would continue sounding awful for a long long time.

I've been playing for over 30 years and own all kinds of guitars, amps, and effects. I currently play classic rock/blues in a couple cover bands. I'm not that good, but I do know when something sounds bad, and this is the worst sounding OD pedal I have ever encountered, bar none.

This is a review of the Satchurator after doing some minor mods to improve the sound of the pedal. The pedal is very easy to use, but I was initially a little disappointed with the lack of output volume and limited range of the tone control.

The pedal has a good sound to start with. It has a lot of smooth distortion and it cleans up well with the guitar volume knob. This is pretty much what Satch does when he performs live - you never see him make any adjustments to his amp or pedals during a performance.

The two things that bothered me most about the pedal were the tone control and lack of output. The tone control pretty much needs to stay at about 10:00. Any more and things get harsh and buzzy. Less goes into the muffle zone. When the gain is maxxed, cranking the output volume barely puts it over unity compared to the bypassed signal.

I've modded and built quit a few pedals in my 30-something years of playing, so I figured this would be a good candidate for tweaking. When I opened the pedal (you have to remove the knobs and all the nuts to get to the circuit), I was greeted by a CNC manufactured circuit board with mostly tiny surface mounted components! "Bummer, not easy to mod." I thought. On closer examination I found two back-to-back 1N34A silicon diodes. Yay, a clipping circuit!

Now the Mod...

I carefully desoldered and lifted out one of the diodes, added a 3mm red LED in series with it (a la the Keely DS-1 Seeing Eye Mod), and soldered the assembly back in. I also removed the other diode and replaced it with two 1N4148 germanium diodes soldered together in series. The GE diodes help to give the pedal a little bit of compression and "tubeyness". I used two to closer match the voltage swing of the stock silicon diode. Testing time....WOW! Big volume increase! A little less saturated distortion sound due to the large voltage swing of the LED, but with the gain at about 2:00 I could get a big, crunchy rhythm tone with better mid range than stock. More of a hard rock tone than high compression shred. A big improvement IMO.

Now to that tone control....

I experimented with different cap values to tame some of the harshness in and settled on a 0.05uf ceramic cap soldered in parallel with the diode setup. I soldered this on the back side of the board to the diode leads poking through the board. The location is marked "D5" on the top of the board. This really helped to tame the buzzy highs and made the tone control more of a midrange control than a buzz blaster.

Stock, I would have given this pedal a 7, but with the mods it's at least a 9 (nothing's perfect).

It's pretty well built and likely to last a long time.

Don't know, don't care. For $129 bucks, I'd buy another.

A good pedal, but could of been better. I guess it works for Joe though. With my mods, I'll give it a solid 9.

Hard for me to get a good overdriven tone. Tone control above say 10:00 oclock is harsh, brittle.

All tube 30 watt single channel, Celestion speakers and reverb. A fender strat with 2 stock single coils, and a pearly gates humbucker. I was hoping to get a pedal that I could get various tones from grungy blues, to searing leads. I will say I DID get an o.k. blues sound where the the overdrive was just barely breakin' up. That tone was actually useable in a live environment. When I tried to get anything close to a good "Brown" sound or lead tone, the pedal could not do it. I could only get REALLY fuzzy based overdriven tones. Not my cup of tea at all. I'm not here to rip on those players who have gotten good results with this pedal as there is a lot of factors to any given tone, and a lot more from a player and his hands than is ever given credit for in reviews. With that being said, I returned it and bought a "fulltone fulldrive 2" for $30.00 bucks more than I had in the satchurator and WOW what a difference.

I play a mix of mostly jam band based, blues, rock, and jazzy jams with a lot of improvised playing. I use a lot of various pedals just for inspiration and FUN. This was just a grab off the shelf to try it out unheard first. Just not for me. Maybe I got a dud!! Anyway, congrats to those who love it. I'll stick with my fulldrive for now.

There are three knobs, two footswitches and one miniswitch. Effortlessly simplistic.

I tried this pedal through a Marshall JVM with a PRS SE custom 22, a LTD EC1000 and an Ibanez Telecaster-type guitar that i do not know the model name of. I also tried it with an Epiphone Dot Natural through a Mesa Lonestar and an Epiphone Valve Junior Special.

The pedal can do satch very easily but that's not what it does best. It is a rich pedal that is clear and crisp and has a beautiful analogue tone. It takes your guitars tone and layers gain in such a way as to preserve the original tone of the guitar. You really notice this when going from passive to active pickups.

The pedal cleans up unbelievably well when the volume knob is rolled off, and works really well with different amps and guitars. I aimed to get a tone i liked as opposed to hunt for Joe's tone, and with tweaking on each rig setting i could find my own voice. I also didn't find myself trying escape satch's tone all the time.

The 'more' button is a blessing. it takes your pre-12 o'clock gain to max gain, or your max gain to 11. It also adds a new harmonic texture and really makes your leads sing out loud. The pedal took whatever was thrown at it and just loved it. It even gave room to complex chords which, under normal distortions, wold just become a jumbled mess. It is a crystal clear pedal, and it can do so much.

It's a chunky pedal with little to go wrong. I would happily gig it without a backup.

Not Vox, but Andertons Music Store who are always willing to help.

I play a lot of different styles of music, from metal to indie, blues to rock and i have been playing guitar for 3 years, bass for 6-7. This pedal, with small adjustments, can and will do all. Don't expect ultra-heavy from this pedal, but it is such a versatile little box. And for the price, there aren't many pedals that can touch it on value for money and tonality. I would buy this pedal again if it were lost or stolen.

It's pretty simple to use, Has all the controls you need from a distortion pedal (gain,tone,level), all these controls act very responsive.

Tt also has a pad control, which is a tiny toggle switch you can whack on when you've got some high output pedals (e.g. Wah) before it in the chain that create some noise.

The manual is great, the presets recommended are great a real solid sound.

Distortion pedals are a risky thing, as really nothing compares to a good valve dirty channel, having said that i think this pedal is a great one!

I have 2 Amps,my main one is an Orange Rocker30, now i love my rocker its great for basic rock and blues and jamming to some Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen but when i wanna play heavy stuff which is my main love like Thrice,Vai or Deftones the orange dirty channels dont really cut it so i thought id try some distortion pedals and this works great.
I run it through the clean channel and use it as a flat out channel switch to distortion and it sounds sweet, its got great sutstain and presence and gives a great ambient metal sound.
I also use it with my Epiphone valve junior as a straight distortion pedal for practise or recording and sounds great too.
If you put it with a cheeky delay pedal you really get a great sustainy Vai sound!

My only issue is, is that i'd like a little more bass so maybe 2 tone knobs would be great but it's still a great pedal.

hav'nt had it long enough to make a decision.

dont know.

This is the best distortion pedal i've ever used,my points of comparision are the Boss DS1,Boss metal core,Big Muff and the marshall Guvnor, and these beats them all hands down!

It has great sustain volume and brightness you can really hear each string and note ring, and the boost gives it that little extra.

also it looks great (real classy) and isnt too badly priced either.

This effect is easy as it gets to use. Turn the controls until you like what you hear! There is only Tone, Volume, Distortion.

I use either a Strat or Les Paul and it responds well with either. Like others have said it's sounds DS-1ish, but it can get a lot louder and have a better bottom than a DS-1. The more switch is ok for the house but does not cut it while out gigging. I use a Fuzz Head after the Satchurator for lead work. This has turned out to be my main tone generator for my band, I think it really rocks and it can play the smokey blues thing because it will clean up with volume. The DS-1 can't do that unless you mod one. It can get very close to Joe's sound with a little effort. Here's a clip I did using a Les Paul of all things, of course I ain't no Joe :-)
http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=7107448&q=lo
So I like it and will keep it on my board.

No problems yet.

Never used them

A great little box for the peso
It is in the vein of the MIJ Boss DS-1 which I own and I have several other DS-1's including a Keeley that Joe himself signed for me and even set the controls for me. The switching system is silent and it IMVHO is several steps ahead of any DS-1 in overall pinch harmonics, sustain, and ability to get more distortion when needed. So it's a cool ride and will take you into new jams and add some mojo to the old ones.

Its a simple pedal but it is quite difficult to find a great tone, takes a fair bit of playing to get a shit hot sound.
Knobs are easily bumped and move too easily, is a pian in the ass.

Mixed feelings about this, its sounds good depending as to what you are playing. It is a high quality distortion, i use it a fair bit and im happy with it, its great for cutting solos, very high powered and emotional solos. It however is very noise as it has such a high gain. Personally i find it practically useless for solos.
I use it for soloing.

Hasn't died on me yet.

I like its:

Simplicity
Soloing Sound
MORE switch
Pad swtich
Tone control is great
Huge amount of gain to be had


I dislike:

It's noisyness (however i have a noise supressor now so not a problem)
Difficulty finding the perfect sound
Useless for rhythm (doesnt have that low/mid mid crunchy rythm sound)
Pad switch i find doesnt really do a hell of a lot.

Very easy to use and to get great sounds out of - right out of the box. But after a few days, it'll get even easier and you'll like it even more - I did!

I've been playing my Strat with Duncan Antiquity Pickups or my Strat with a Duncan 78 bridge humbucker through my Fulltone Clyde or Vox 847 Wah and that into my Satch plugged into my blackface Princeton Reverb, blackface Deluxe Reverb or '51 tweed Super. 18 to 25 watt amps.

I use Fender amps.

I can get Joe's sound, Jimi's sound, Jeff Beck's sound and most importantly: my sound.

As far as I can tell, it's very well made.

I'd trust it without a back up, but my pedalboard has an Ibanez Jemini, Fulltone '69, Ibanez TS-808 and a 80's Rat. So I have plenty of back ups.

I play mostly rock and blues.

Been playing for over forty years

I'd get another Satch in a hearybeat if I lost this one.

I love everything about it but especially the way it makes getting pinch harmonics so easy.

I don't dislike a thing about it.

I've compared it to all my pedals and the only two that compare are my Fulltone '69 and Ibanez Jemini. I love the Jemini Green channel but wish the Jemini's red channel was the Satchurator. In truth, the Jemini's Red channel does sound a lot like the Satch.

Its pretty easy really, the GAIN control gives you from a small nest of hornets to a larger nest of hornets tonality, the tone just kind of does "something" , nothing remarkable or outstanding , the volume does as it says on the tin and the more switch does pretty much absolutely nothing, it should have been labelled the "nothing" switch. I give it a 1 because its a pretty lousy pedal.

A very very underwhelming pedal. It sounds gritty, buzzy and harsh all at the same time. I put it front of my Two Rock custom reverb head and man did it blow !! Those familiar big sounds from my 4x12 sounded like a waspy 1x12, I couldnt get it out of there quick enough. I think the pedal is total pants and purchasers of it are in for a reality shock.

Lost interest in it super quickly so it wouldnt be appropriate to give a rating here.

As stated, it went back out the door at breakneck speed, some other player might like it and the Satchurator was disposed of. I never bothered to contact Vox, so again, I wont give a rating.

Its a pile of trash. I despair when I read comments from the fanboy quarter who are just blinded by the word Satch on the box, it could have been a pile of horse droppings , but so long as it has Satch on its cover, all is well in the world as they see it.. Joe is laughing all the way to his bank account im sure, if he has that pedal in his rig, ill eat my hat for breakfast , lunch and dinner.

Very easy to use, very hard to get a usable tone.

Sweep of the tone control is VERY DS-1'ish.

THIS is a rebranded/rehoused Boss DS-1!

I already tried it with a lot of mid-range to high-end amps marshall, vox, peavey. I wind up selling this because:

It has all the headaches that the boss DS-1 has:
- lacking on volume
- fizzy treble
- bad sweep of tone control
- fuzzy when notes are picked hard
- doesn't retain the true voicing of guitar

Try a/b'ing with the boss ds-1 and you'll hear that's there's almost no difference. The only difference is that the satchurator cleans up better compared with boss'.

looks boutique so it probably would last.

Overall Rating ?

Did i forgot to mention? THIS is a rebranded/rehoused Boss DS-1!!

Try getting a tube distortion pedal, like damage control solid metal or ibanez tube-king instead.


A VERY DISAPPOINTING DISTORTION PEDAL.

Very simple and ultra user-friendly control layout. 3 chicken head knobs for Gain, Tone and Volume. A 'Pad' switch, on/off switch and the 'More' switch.

Gain, Tone and Volume are self explanatory.

The 'Pad' function is designed to be used if you have a 'hot' pedal before your Satchurator that may cause unwanted signal distortion. If you do, just switch the 'Pad' to the up position. If not, just leave it down.

The 'More' functions like a booster pedal. When engaged, it gives you a mid hump and a gain boost. It also gives you a very subtle volume boost. The lower your gain, the more audible the boost.

My 2 go to guitars are Ibanez Jem7VWHs. My main amp is a Carvin Legacy halfstack but I did not purchase the Satchurator for use with my Legacy. I bought it as part of my smaller gig pedalboard.

I play in cover bands and more often than not, the gigs are too small for me to use a blaring halfstack so I was in the market for a quality stand alone distortion unit that will sound good through most amps, tube or solid state. I was contemplating the MI Audio Crunch Box and the Fulltone OCD but after hearing numerous clips of all 3 pedals, I fell in love with the meaty yet clear tone of the Satchurator and with the 'More' function, I no longer had any need for an additional boost pedal.

The trick with this pedal is to go easy on the Tone knob. Anything past 10 o'clock and it's gonna get piercing IMO and even a very slight adjustment will yield drastic results. I know Satriani uses the gain full on but I find that backing it off slightly will make the tone just that much clearer. Not a true bypass pedal but it doesn't bother me cos' I have buffers in my wah and volume pedal.

Overall, the tone is great. Chunky with more than ample sustain even without the 'More' function engaged. Even with the gain on full, the inherent hiss is kept to a bare minimum so I don't think anyone will need a noise gate with this pedal.

I give the pedal a 9 cos' I feel that they could have smoothened out the taper for the Tone knob. It goes from just nice to shrill from just 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock. Too steep a taper.

Seems sturdy and rugged. Only time will tell with this one

Haven't had to deal with Vox yet

Overall, it's a solid, quality sounding pedal.

If you're looking for a no frills, stand alone distortion unit, the Satchurator is a definite contender but please don't expect to sound like Satriani just cos' you have this pedal.

This is very simple to use and get good sound out of it. The sweet spot for the tone is roughly 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock. Before and past that it just sounds bad unless you are going for a muffled passage or a kind of lo-fi sound. Battery compartment very easy to get to.

This sounds heavenly! I play through a Ibanez JS1200 (Satch's top line signature model). I can get almost his exact tone for songs like Satch Boogie and The Extremist. Close to Always With Me. The More switch doesn't color your tone at all! It just adds more of the same gain. Don't listen to those who say it doesn't clean up. They obviously didn't do much research into this pedal. The pedal was NOT designed to clean up when the gain is rolled off, it was designed to clean up when the guitar's volume pot was rolled off, and it does a great job at it. I went at full gain and can play the entirety of "State of Grace" by Liquid Tension without even touching the pedal! Overall the tone is beautiful! would not add anything more. However I do like to tinker and like being able to get quick different tones. If you have the money available buy a Boss GE-7 eq and run it afterwards. I can get Hendrix to Killswitch to Mettalica with this combo.

Can you depend on it? OH YEAH (nuff said)

Awesome buy it! Now! NOW! Grab your keys and go! Can't wait to the rest of his pedal's come out. The next ones to be released are a delay called "Time Machine" and a wah call "Big Bad Wah" If you know Satch you'll get the pun.

Vox Satchurator - Wow! says it all. Easy to use - three knobs and a pad switch to calm your wah wah pedal. Easy to dial in tones though somewhat lacking in the upper mids , no big deal 'cause there are plenty of other choices if you need upper mids to bust out , don't forget - your speakers and cab have the last word at defining your tone - lot of players don't consider that reality. for myself , the More switch is a nice feature but i don't see myself using it.

I have and use all of these - Strat , Tele , SG , McCarty , and JEM guitars. my amps are Vox AC15 Heritage head , '65 Super Reverb reissue , 8 space rack holding a JMP-1 and Mesa 20-20 as the pre and power section. my cabs are Lopo 2x12 holding a pair of Eminence GB12's (great speakers), Mesa 1x12 widebody holding a Celestion G12H30 , another Mesa 1x12 widebody holding a Jensen P12R. For my first run at using this pedal i used my JEM > VoxAC15 > Lopo cab. between the guitar and amp is my pedalboard holding a slew of effects. This Satchurator did fine and well by me and met my expectations. It's been said more than once and needs repeating here - this pedal is quiet and dynamic all at once! it has a very defining bass tone that stays firm at the lower tone range. i find the tone range one of the most sweeping in a pedal of this sort. i dig the distortion from this pedal - it's very controlled and somewhat glassy with a shimmer - it's a refined gritt like i've never heard before with a big open soundscape enveloping it - not insanely compressed at all. the gain range is just right for my taste. i use this pedal second in line on the pedalboard using it in a stand-a-lone app or as driving some other OD pedals which it does effortlessly - it's blending abilities into other pedals is a plus in my estimation. the one other pedal i have and use on my board that's a near cousin is the MI Audio Crunch Box. the Satch and Crunch combo make for good buddies. i was thinking of pulling the Crunch from the board 'cause it isn't near as open as the Satch.
but the Satch doesn't have the same gritty knarl the Crunch has - this makes a big difference in my needs depending upon which speaker cab i'm using - so the Crunch stays. the Satch to me is a worthwhile pedal and has to be one of the best offerings in its class for distortion tone.

No probs.

I play many a style and have a continual hunger for all things TONE when it comes to pedals and speakers. the Satchurator is a difinate worthy dirty tone investment. as with all pedals , some are going to sound better with your gear than others - that needs to be recognized. so, if someone doesn't like this pedal it's more than likely it didn't sound right with the gear being used or perhaps the pedal wasn't being used correctly. in my estimation there is a strong corellation between dirt pedals and the speaker/cab system their driving - some are going to make a better match overall. i point this out 'cause if you're looking to use only one dirt pedal this pedal can fit the need but your speaker/cab setup will have the final say at how well or not they will work together. so , get a Satchurator as your only dirt pedal if you will - knowing you can return it with no probs to the dealer if your speaker/cab is telling you to take it back.

Well, pretty simple, it's got a gain knob that controls the amount of distortion u want, a tone knob and a volume knob, pretty self explanatory.

Sounds great, you can get exact's joes kind of distortion and also roll back the gain knob for a more bluesy tone, the only style of music which i wouldn't use this pedal for is heavy and more distorted things (but for that i already got my engl 530 preamp). I love how it sounds, also i find it very versatile, since very small changes in the knobs make big differences in the sound

I can't tell about that, since i've had it for 15 days. Prolly in a gig i would bring also my boss ds-1, which is similar, but inferior in sound quality. But it looks like a solid one, the only thing i'm "scared" about is the pad switch, seems very light and easy to break, but you don't use it a lot actually.

Never dealed with Vox costumer support, but know people that have dealed with amp's issues and people were great.

I mainly play rock, blues, and instrumental rock things (satriani, vai, etc..) Been playing for 2 years. If you want satriani's distortion (NOT HIS SOUND) and a very versatile pedal that goes from very smooth blues to hard rock sounding get this, but don't pretend to sound like satriani or to have a heavy distortion pedal. Since i like that distortion, and i love the tone it has, i give it a 10.

The pedal is about as straightforward as it gets...very easy to use-- but, i could have used a marker or 2 on the face for the knobs. Sometimes i can't remember exactly where the knows if they shift or get moved and they are sensitive to change.

As an earlier review points out - you have to fiddle with it a bit to find the tone you are looking for since it really is dynamic and can add a lot of texture. It's quiet and has a nice range - ala Satriani. Great for some nice rythm textures. The more pedal is great and a nice touch.. But what I really wanted from this pedal was the function of the "Pad" - to control sound from a Whah pedal blending into the distortion stream when turned off. It works! I have a BOSS multi effects Whah pedal that i've been wanting to use -create some subtel effects for some rock riffing. ith some of the univibe features etc I get some great sounds..the other night i spend ane evening mashing arounds chords for some R&B type sounds..it was fun and different.. the S'tor pedal create very nice tone and some new dimensions. As advertized! But i agree with some of the earlier comments re mids and levels - I plan to take my TD9 andd to the chain. Was hoping to go simpler but Ok - i can contineu to use my investments. And agree -- the delay add a great dimension - fattens everything up perfectly. Overall a very professional sounding system. Not tinny or thin.... but do test it with different volume levels on the amp .. ths red box adjusts to nuances in the setups. Again as advertized. I use marshall amps and EMGs on the guitar. The combo is great. Since Marshall amps liked to be played loud, the pedals output even widens as the amp volume goes up..

I think so. VOX is a good brand..first VOX pedal i own. We'll see. i don't gig .. but I would use it. Though i would worry about it being stolen.. it looks good and has brand name buzz..

Bottom line... having fun with it and it's expanding my sound range. It is doing what it is supposed to be doing - thus far. I like the pad and more features. The gain is fat (though this is not a heavy metal pedal! good for allround / everyday needs.

As soon as I plugged into the Satchurator I knew it was coming home with me. The controls are simple to use and the battery is easy to access. The lights are large and bright which makes it a lot easier to know when its on.

I've used the Satchurator through a few different amps like the Vox Valvetronix AD50VT and a JCM800 combo with a range of Yamaha hollow bogy guitars and a Schecter M33.

Its noiseless operation really suprised me especially with how much gain this unit can produce. Even with the 'More' switch activated theres no unwanted noise.

The different gain stages and clarity of this pedal are amazing so I wasn't suprised to hear that Joe uses it as his main distortion.

I've read a small amount of internet reviews claiming that you can only get Joes tone through this pedal and nothing else but those people are talking through their ass. The sound that this pedal gives at times reminded me of the 5150 II. At any gain level the sound that is produced is clean and clear. Even when you drop the volume of the guitar it still sounds amazing.

This pedal is a very solid unit. It's built like a tank and I will very suprised if I have any troubles with it. I won't be bringing a back up to a gig with this pedal.

Here in Australia, Yamaha is the Vox distributor so although I havn't had to deal with Vox on this one, the crew at Yamaha Aust have been very helpful with all enquiries that I've had on the pedal.

I play a lot different kinds of music, and with the sounds this pedal has to offer it will always remain in my rig wether I'm playing jazz, blues, rock, hard rock or metal.

I have been searching for a while now for a good distortion pedal and my search is now over. If it were stolen, I'd replace it in a heart beat.

In my opinion it is one the best pedals I have ever played.

Very easy to use but take your time and dial it in for your gear.

Setup
Ibanez Presitge/ John Petrucci Music Man > Satchurator > TS-9 (Monty Allum Modded) > DD3 Delay > PS5 Pitch Shifter > Boss CE3 Chorus> Mesa Dual Rectifier combo or Fender Deville

Okay now, how is everybody out in distortion land? COOL!! Well lets talk about the Joe Pedal. So, I purchased this pedal (Ochanimizu, Tokyo) because I was looking for a better solo tone. I wanted more gain and sustain (guitar players ugh!!) and a smoother tone. I needed Metal all the way to Skynyrd. So I slapped that puppy on the pedaltrain board and headed to rehearsal. My first impression with out the drums and the rest of the band was WOW!! The tone was thick PLENTY O GAIN AND SUSTAIN and very quiet. I was happy, so I thought. Well the first song up was Gimme Three Steps (lynyrd skynyrd) I thought well I need a medium distortion so I dialed in what I thought would work. The drummer (the bands leader) gives me the nod and counts off the tune. Well after about 1 verse he stops the band. His comment was "Dude your not kirk hammet playing skynyrd" where is that sound. So I turned red and and clicked of the saturator and turned on the TS-9. Needless to say we finished the song.

Next song up. Purple Haze yahoo this time I can impress the guys with my new tone I was excited I cranked the gain a little bit and turned the volume about 3/4 "I wanted to scream". So we kicked off the tune and AGAIN half way the band stops and the FREAKING bass player looks at me and says (unbelievably), "I cant hear you" WHAT R U SERIUS!!!! the pedal has the mids scooped out and when the band plays I DISAPPEARED uhg

So I reach down and turn the tone knob up but all that does is bring the high end up NO mids or mid tonal control. So thinking well why not just turn the gain down to half and add in my TS-9. I figured during break I was going to get screwed with anyway for the pedal. so I didnt have anything to loose SO I tried it (and if the sax player says anything I will piss on his reeds) I turned it on and BAMMM!!! wow what an awesome sound the TS-9 brought out the mids coupled with the gain from the satch and it was tonal heaven I was very happy with it. So to sum all this up. This pedal isnt a tool bag of tone its pretty much a one sound pony and thats fine its a SATRIANI pedal (what do you expect)

The only complaint I have about the pedal. One the output volume isnt enuff. It doesnt have the same output gain as my TS-9 or DS-1 (both modded) but this could be an issue of gain sturcture I honestly havent investigated it too much. But its def not as loud as those other pedals.

I think its built really well No complaints

No dealings with them

I play all styles in this traveling cover band. And I have been doing it for close to 15 years. I dont think I would buy this again. I will just stick to my Modded DS-1. Monty Allum Mod..
I love the color and the chicken knobs. The paint job is outstanding but I dont think its very durable..but I dont think its loud enuff it needs more output gain and some sort of mid control but thats not joes specs so it doesnt matter. Its a great pedal and I am glad I own it no buyers remorse.

Simple, three knobs, two buttons and a pad toggle. On, More, Pad... only word for it is simple.

It's a solid state overdrive / distortion. It's not going to replace a really nice lead channel. But for a pedal, it's pretty darn nice I think. Roll off the volume on the guitar and it cleans up. The tone control makes the pedal very flexible. No real noise. I mainly use it with a Carlsbro Fatboy and a Koch Multitone.

Will it make you Satch? No. It is a nice pedal though.

Haven't had it for long, just two weeks. Seems pretty good. I've gigged with it twice and it work perfectly so far.

Never spoke with them.

I play all kinds of stuff. Mostly rock, blues music and only with humbucker strats or a Parker Fly Deluxe. Been playing live since 1997. If it were stolen, I'd buy another. Best features are the "more" button for solos and the very active tone control. I'm not an OD pedal master. Usually I use the drive channels on my amps. The other OD pedals I have are a Fulltone Fulldrive and a Carl Martin Drive'N Boost MKII. The Satchulator is more flexible than the other two. It's much more of a distortion. I wish the "more" button worked without having the pedal "on".

Overall, great pedal for rock distortion. As long as you keep the tone knob under control, it's not thin sounding.

Should an effects pedal be difficult to use, of course not, so why are so many over complicated. THIS ONE IS NOT, it does exactly what the buttons say. I hav'nt even looked at the instructions.

Whooah, just right, one review said it sounds a bit like a tubescreamer at the mid position, if so its a cheap tubescreamer. All I can say is I love it. One of the quietest of pedal I have used (interference wise), The tone is very pure and dosen't mask the sound of your guitar, the sound sits on top of your guitar tone instead of swampint it. Great.

Well I'm going to. But I'll make sure I keep an eye on it, these are going to be collectable.

Have not had to contact them, alway a good sign I think.

If you only get one pedal, get this one. I got mine from an Ebay shop, after trawling the guitar shops online, they were all sold out! and awaiting the nest batch. That says it all I think. Looks great, sounds great and will become a classic. Probably not for metal, but for everything else you might need a distortion pedal for (or just improving your tone) its sweet and subtle but powerful. Thankyou VOX and Joe (I'm not mad about your music, but will be looking out for more of your pedals!)

3 knobs (Gain/Tone/Volume), 2 footswitch, 1 padswitch
very simple to use....like how hard can it be??

manual was pretty helpful with the specs

Setup

Ibanez RG570(Dimarzio Pickups)>Vox Satchurator>MI Audio Crunchbox>Boss ME-50>Digitech Digidelay>Randall RG50TC

its a relatively very quiet pedal, only noisy when gain is set @ full and more switch engaged. This is probably the best distortion box i ever heard and it sounds so versatile for almost any kind of genre except Heavy/Death Metal and Jazz. it has a fuzzy but rich sounding distortion but when gain is set halfway, it sounds like a vintage tubescreamer. SO its very much in between DS-1 n TS-9 but still has its own character. Tone is very sensitive and this pedal can make u not only sound like Joe Satriani but also classic rock like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, Cream (Early CLapton)

i agree to the fact that it can sound thin but this pedal is definitely giving the user a very clean distortion. U cant expect it to sound overly fat since its analogue n transistor. if u want fat sound, buy a tube pedal or amp OD but don complain of muddy either cause u cant have both worlds.

this pedal sounds best with some delay or if just used alone. Chorus is nice too but i prefer it with delay only

Seems tough n well built but the paint isn't tough thoo. i somehow chipped it without knowing how it happened.

Get a backup for this one.....in gigs its likely to get stolen

talk to the hand

Good match with the genre i play (Hard rock, classic Rock, blues and 80s rock/metal, Worship songs, Shred)

Been playing for 4 years and i also have tried DS-1, TS9 and other distortion/fuzz boxes and this one did stand out to me for i trust Satch's ears. Thank u

i really love the distortion, it should have been out on the day i started buying pedals (sigh). Its cheaper than many boutique pedals out there and yet to me, it sounds better. REALLy great value for $$$

i would buy it again anytime

Very easy to use.Gain,tone and volume along with a "pad" switch that works with any pedal you might put ahead of it.Two foot switches,"on" and "more" exactly what they do.These are smooth,silent switches,no click or pop.

Ive run this into a Budda Super Drive 18 with a Taylor solidbody and a Rivera Quiana Studio with my favorite,a 1988 Fernandes Revolver, neck through body,loaded with Seymour Duncan pickups.Fairly quiet set up.Both these amps have clean and overdrive channels and unless everything was on overdrive,{the amp,the pedal with both switches on,}there was not a bunch of hiss.When you did kick everything on you need to be playing hard because it will get very active at that point.There are a few comparisons to Zen Drives on this review.I also own one and love it but they are not for the same purpose.A Zen is a overdrive unit that truly has a incredible range of rich tones.It will not put out the type of distortion the Satchurator does.The Satchurator does a great smooth controlled distortion that will hold notes,scream chords or just go to a total break-up.A little knob twisting on my amp and there was no thin sound to me.This pedal does what they say it will and much better than a lot of others I have played through or owned.At least try it if you can find one,{what is going on with Vox and Ibanez talking January 2008 release for products that still aren't out or are trickling in?}

Seems to be well built,not fragile.Always have some type of back-up.

No need yet,hope not to.

Play anything that suits my mood,makes me happy or gets rid of some aggression,LOL!Mostly blues based material on into Vai and Satriani,{go figure..,}Jeff Beck,Santana,Leslie West,Tommy Bolin.Rory Gallagher,Clapton,Ronnie Earl,Robben Ford,{there's that Zen pedal again.}The list goes on,{Ive been into this for a "few" years...}I like this pedal.It puts out a good sound without a lot of playing around with it and the "more" button does just that,gives it a good kick!

3 knobs, 2 footswitch, 1 pad >.<

Pls read the manual b4 using which it came very helpful
its so easy to use and if u struggle with this, OMG damn u're slow

MADE IN JAPAN!!

I'm using it with a Randall RG50TC
IBANEZ RG570 with dimarzio PAFJoe+Mo Joe>hey its not only Satch's pickups but the most versatile set i've heard in my entire life

Setup :Guitar>Boss DS-1>MI Audio Crunch Box>Vox Satchurator>Boss ME50>Digitech Digidelay>amp

its a relatively dead quiet pedal even when i dial in on 10 it still shines but yes, to some its fizzy or muddy. but the fact that this pedal sounds so organic n analogue i could easily play hendrix's music with it. i like it cause i always had digital sounding distortion/overdrive from pedals and this one.....well sounds so organic

i'm a huge fan of Joe Satriani's sound so this gets me close but still the way u sound is also in your fingers and style of playing. Still i love it.

This pedal blends very well with almost any effects u put ahead of it n with it. Its nice. It doesn't cater too much for metalheads but for blues/rock, alternative it does the job nicely. The MORE switch comes in very handy esp when u dial back the gain for softer dist. it really kicks in!!

Pair with tube amps for better sound (if u can)

Yea....seems tough. i wud try buying a 2nd in case it gets nicked in a gig. Realiable for almost any genre

Havent tried them but their distributors are nice

I play blues, rock, Christian worship, heavy rock, shred/wanking (watever u wanna call this) and some pop once in a while. M

i really love this pedal. i agree that it can 'clone' the user but if u have your own style too, u should be fine by all means. don expect this to be a overly/tube fat sounding pedal cause its not. its transistor analogue fat sound. this pedal would work well with almost any guitar IMO and its very inspiring sounding. if stolen, well sad but anyway life goes on.

i chose this over the Ibanez Jemini cause its analogue n its cheaper which i'm glad. i compared this also to the Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS9) n i still prefer both the sound n price tag of this baby.

Would like it cheaper.....Can u guys @ VOX drop it to US$50? LOL

Very easy to use - much subtlety with a small shift in the knobs.

THis gives you instant Joe - or Stave Vai - or any of that ilk.
Thats great - if that what you want.
When compared with a ZENDRIVE however - the Satchurator come up thin,
especially in the higher note range.
Single coils seem to derive more benefit from this pedal
than humbuckers.
TRhis pedal is great, quiet, and built solidly - but it is very generic.
If you are trying to establish your own voice - move on.
If you want to sound just like the shred guys, you are in luck.

It seems very reliable.

Have not needed it.

3 knobs could not be easier

This is my second review... I have now used it extensively in practice and 1 live gig and it is awesome. It does not get hot as I had it on for 6 hours straight during some rehearsal and practice time. It is very quiet, and with the gain at about 3 o'clock, when I roll off my guitar volume it cleans up wonderfully. At full gain with the "MORE" switch on, there is no feedback or warble when I cut the strings with my palm during some start/stop action in one of our heavier tunes. Normally I am rolling the volume down and then up, but this pedal allows me to keep it open. The "MORE" switch is the coolest thing I have ever used. It just gives you MORE of the same sound you have going without adding a harshness or unwanted tonal quality. I love it. The tone knob seems to be the secret for me, going from a bassy side to piercing treble. I tend to use it based on the room I am in and have found I use slightly different settings depending on that situation alone. I use 7 string guitars at standard pitch and this pedal keeps things from getting too muddy. If you are looking for Pantera or heavier type of distortion this is not the pedal, but for everything else in a distorted world this pedal really has a ton of sonic capability, and I must say, 99.9% of it is workable...a first in a distortion pedal.

So far so good...

Haven't had a chance to use it and I hope I will not.

The price point alone is huge on this pedal. Keep in mind it is made in Japan, not some other far away place. I tend to have the best luck with pedals made there although the better English or USA made pedals have done well for me. I will buy a second one of these as soon as I can find one to have as a backup and to simply have because I think these pedals will be highly sought after for a long long time. I am a Satch fan and enjoy instrumental rock music tremendously, but that had zero influence on my purchase. In fact, I stay away from signature series anything if I can. I really think it sounds that good and I am sure Joe or whoever spent a lot of time coming up with this pedal and making it work for guitarist's that just want to drive the front end and that's it. It is really a killer pedal and I cannot say enough thanks to whoever designed this thing. I have been waiting for a pedal like this for 15 years. The only piece of gear that has impressed me more is a Roccaforte Jenelle 80/100 head. What reminds me of that head in regards to this pedal is how well you can clean up your sound by simply rolling off your guitar's volume. The most dynamic and responsive distortion pedal I have ever used, period.

Very easy to use. Could not be simpler
yet - there is a wide range of versitlity with small changes
in the 3 knobs.

The sound is harmonically rich - very musical and dynamic.
For me however - I have gotten used to playing through a
ZENDRIVE and the Satchurator does not sound as real as the Zen.
The Satchurator is a great pedal if you really want tons of
distortion. Compared to the uniqueness of the Zen, the Satchurator comes up very thin, especially in the higher range, and a bit cheesy
and generic sounding. It has instant Marshall Plexi tone.
Also - I got far more usefullness from a Strat than from a Les Paul.
The single coils seem more affected than humbuckers.
If you want real over-the-top distortion, and classic Marshall tone - you will probably like the Satch.

no opinion - no problems, but it seems very well made.

no opinion - no problems

The MORE button is totally Joe's sound.
if you want that you will love this pedal - if you are trying to
establish your own voice - it will leave you sounding cloned
like so many others.

Easy, but you have to dial in the tone knob correctly.

The sweet spot is 10-11:00...if you go past 12 it can get super fizzy fast and loose all tone. Therefore, unlike Brassear who slamed this pedal - all you have to do is dial in the rest of the eq band with either your guitar tone knob, your amp or eq pedal. If that still does not do it for you , then get an eq pedal or something like an Xotic RC boost pedal with treble and bass to round it out. Good to have anyway.

Its easy to use, but you do have to find the sweet spot for your gear and when using the more button. For example, on my strat neck pickup I can't go past 12:00, but on my tele neck I can go to 3:00 or 12:00 and kick on the more button.

You will be much better off to lower your pickups with high gain and use lower gain pickups at least for strats IMO. For me, I need to put my lollar blondes back on my strat to see how these handle gain. Best pickups I have found so far for toneful high gain. My fat 50's are fairly muddy. If Everything at 10:00 is a very nice tone indeed.

Excellent tone - Thick and crunchy when dialed in correctly.

Using Strat, Tele thru new Fender Champ 600 (with RCA blk plates and preamps), Tweed deluxe and Fender Custom vibrolux Reverb. Review is from 600 only. Using holy grail reverb pedal. Very quite pedal the satch..

I was looking for a mild to moderate blues tone - no problem. I dont use the super high gain for anything yet, but to mess around with. . Sweet spot to my ears is gain 0-2:00(depending on guitar), Tone at 10:00-11:00 and volume 9:00-2:00. I have a decent line of pedals: Klon, Timmy, Xotic BB PReamp, RC. So far its a keeper.

No problems so far

Have not needed. Don; texpect to.

Play blues, Rock - mess arounf with high gain to.

Playing long enough to know what good tone is and how to dial it in. I would likley buy this agian. The price is reasonable. This pedal is close to my Xotic B PRe amp which has a slighly more flexible eq section - but not as much gain and that pedal has gobs of gain. Will know more after I play some more if they both are keepers. Will update my review then. I mainly wanted to post to talk about the tone knob - be careful. Don't conclude to quickly. You have to dime it. Most people should be happy - but their will be some whose ear is set to different freqencies and will not find their sweet spot. Hopeing to read reviews on vai's pedal.

This pedal is simple to operate. If 3 knobs is too tough pick another hobby!

I have placed this pedal before my Rivera combo, a JCM 800, and the JC 120 combo. All amps set on clean really get spanked by this pedal. The "MORE" switch is fantastic and if you leave the gain at less than 75% you can use it like two channels, rhythm and lead. It does not color my sound at all and sounds killer with my CM chorus and MXR carbon copy delay.

I play all types of music and mainly on 7 string guitars. This pedal sounds so dynamic and lively you can't stop jamming. It is without a doubt, the best sounding natural distortion I have used. It is not mega metal or too over the top, just right for most applications. I can drop down and crank the gain and it rips, or roll the volume back and it cleans up. Virtually noise free with the "MORE" switch not on, and slightly a hiss with it engaged and gain maxed.
I did not by this because of the endorsement but because I wanted a good analog distortion and did not like my MXR 3 because it doesn't drive the front end like I want. I usually play fusion/metal type of instrumental music and want that gain for the leads, but man does it clean up.

This is a very practical pedal. Three familiar knobs, and a Pad switch... great idea. On-off and "More" footswitches. Both footswitches are silent, so there's no mechanical clicking when you step on them. Manual has some useful info in it. Battery compartment is easily accessible (i.e. no screwdriver necessary). Cool paint job, too.

I tend to avoid using pedals... ESPECIALLY distortions. There are only a couple distortion pedals that I'll use... the Satchurator has been added to that list. I've only played my Satchurator with humbucker-equipped guitars and a Carvin Legacy (clean channel), but it sounds great. At gigging levels, this thing roars. I was surprised at how much gain this pedal can produce, and by the quality of the tone... it produces a very full, fluid drive that sounds very natural. Even with the Gain fully up, picking stays defined. With my typical amp settings, the Tone control is most useful between 9 and 10 o'clock, but there's huge tonal range in this pedal. I've found that the More button is most useful when the Gain knob is not set to maximum... the effect is much more apparent, versus when using More with the Gain cranked. Decreasing the guitar's volume also yields great results for more mellow playing.

Solid-feeling switches, knobs, etc. The pedal has enough weight to it that it doesn't feel particularly cheap. I don't dance on my pedals, but it seems to be built to withstand normal wear-and-tear just fine.

I haven't needed customer support... this is my first Vox product, and it's too new.

I like rock. That's about it. The Satchurator is a winner, especially at $129. This is a great pedal that isn't just for the high-gain shred heads out there. If you want Satriani's tone, this pedal can do that, though there's so much more under the hood that most guitarists might find this pedal enjoyable to play.

Very easy. 3 knobs, on/off and more switch. Can't get any easier

Awesome. I use a Ibanez JS1000, ESP LTD EC-400VF, and a Peavey JSX half stack. Can easily get satch tones out of it. I find myself liking the distortion out the satchurator more than from the jsx. I've never been a fan of distortion pedals and preferred distortion created from tube amps. But I thought, Satch uses it so I might give it a try. And it does rock. I put the gain around 10 o'clock, tone around 2 o'clock, and volume around 12 o'clock. Gave me a nice meaty classic rock sound. If you use a tube amp and putting the gain and tone all the way to the zero position on the satchurator can give you great sustain when combined with the amp's distortion. At least it did for me with the jsx. Don't need a sustainer with that setup.
Just a little bit of hiss when the more switch is activated but nothing too noticeable.

Built like a tank.

I love this pedal. I'd buy it in a second if lost or stolen. If future pedals by VOX and Satriani are this good of quality I'm going to get them. The price is just right for this quality of pedal and you're not paying boutique prices which they probably could have.

Three chicken-head knobs, two footswitches, and a pad switch. EASY!

It is very easy to get a great sound out of it as well as just plain fun getting many sounds from it. The most tiny movement on the knobs, and you change things very much sometimes.

I am using a Ibanez JS1000 Black pearl, into...Dunlop Crybaby 535q, Fulltone Ultimate octave, Satchurator, Digitech whammy, into a Peavey Triple XXX head. I have other effects in my effects loop, but I digress....


I do not think I have ever played through a pedal that is so quiet with this much gain available. This is the most impressive pedal I have purchased since the Fulltone OCD and that is saying a lot for me. It is better than the OCD. It is better than anything!
The best pedal possibly ever as far as distortion goes.

The smallest changes in knob position yield very different results.
The tone that pours out from this pedal is extremely touch sensitive. It plays like all boutique pedals wish they did.
I cannot say enough about this. If you back the volume on your guitar down, this pedal cleans up so nicely it is almost unreal.

It is very sensitive to the players touch as well. If you dig in, you get more drive. Ease up and play soft, you get lighter shades all over the place. Another thing that is awesome is the rich harmonic structure of the tone. Every note rings out so well.
If you hold notes for a little bit, it rings out into a beautiful feedback. AWESOME!

Great pedal for all styles. Not just shredders.

Since I have only had this pedal for a while, I cannot comment on the long term. It has only been available for a short time, but I am willing to bet I could gig heavily without a back up, and not worry about it.

I have never dealt with Vox before. Therefore, I cannot comment.

However, I can comment on the customer support at MusicToyz.Com, and they are awesome. There was a mix up on my pre order for this pedal, and they made it right and sent me one out immediatley even though it somehow shown I was no longer in line to get one. They bent over backwards to make me happy, and I cannot thank them enough.
Especially Dawn. She is one awesome lady. I love you Dawn!

Personally, I play instrumental rock. However, I play in blues, rock, etc etc. This pedal could cover anything.

This pedal takes away the tone of raw strings bleeding through the distortion that the DS-1 is so good at. It eats that part of your tone. I spent hrs A/B'n the two and the Satchurator just did not have it. The distortion becomes fizzy very quickly when the tone knob is turned past 12 o'clock and very muddy when turned below 10 o'clock. The only positive thing I can say is that it has way more gain/saturation and less noise at the equivalent level of the DS-1's highest setting.

Built very well.

I waited forever for this pedal to be released and I am quite disappointed. For three times as much as I paid for the DS-1 I expected all that and "More" but it ended being more of what I did not want and less of what I did.

Doesnt get any easier! 3 knobs, volume, gain & tone, a 'more' switch for more gain and a pad down switch and thats it!

I been waiting months for this so I couldnt wait to try it out and I wasnt dissapointed. Running a couple of Srats through either my Peavey JSX stack or a Crate Vintage Valve 50 and this pedal loves both amps. Single coils or humbuckers this things amazing. No loss of your original guitars tone but with gobs of beautiful hi gain distortion. And this pedal responds really well to your picking technique to allow you to coax all kinds of tones out of your guitar without ever sounding mushy and its also really quiet. I could go on all day its that good. Best distortion pedal Ive heard in 25 years of playing guitar and as for nailing Satches tone, it delivers in spades, you wont be dissapointed!!

Only had it 2 days, but its really sturdy and quite classy looking too, photos on the web do it no justice. Its made in Japan too, not China so thats got to be a good thing. No Chinese cheap plastic here, it wont fall apart and you wont get poisined by toxic paint lol.

Who knows, Hope I never have to find out!

Its not very often you find a piece of equipment that just works so well yet is so simple. I play everything from RnB to Rock to 80's Metal to Funk & Reggae etc and this pedal will work brilliantly for any of those styles. This will become a permanent fixture on my pedal board and I'll kill any bugger that tries to steal it!
Very inspiring tone and I think its going to be a very popular pedal.

It's finally arrived. This cute red box with the chicken head knobs does exactly what it's been designed to do. Getting a good sound is as simple as plugging it in and balancing up the 'gain' and 'tone knobs to your taste.

I run a JS1000 through an English VS100 on the clean channel and it's very easy to go straight to Satriani type tones.
When the 'MORE' button is on I can pick up a little hiss but when it's off it's very quite.
Distortion is anything from just barely discernable to a silky fuzz right up to gnashing scream.
This is I think it's greatest quality, the variation in tones is just so good. Bending and sliding with the 'MORE' switch off is warm and bluesy at one end, but screaming lead tones at the other. Natural and pinched harmonics are a breeze and have good sustain.
With the 535q Dunlop Wah first in the train the tone and sweep seem easier to control, I'd almost given up on the wah but now it seems like it's useability has been broadened.
The owner's manual states: "capable of very high gain levels, but preserves the tone and pick attack of the guitarist" - this about sums it up.

Haven't owned it long enough, however the build seems sturdy enough.

Warranty in Australia is VOX er no it's KORG er no it's YAMAHA, errr.
I hope it doesn't break.

I've been playing for only two and a half years but mostly Satriani and I've been looking for an easy way to get his tone and now I've found it.
I think I'd have to have another one if someone pinched it, just for the versatility. I had been looking at a DS1 which are mostly digital and somehow thin but the chance to try an analog box has paid off.
I just want to play with this thing plugged in to my amp.