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.