Vox Time Machine

Easy enough if you read the manual on how the vintage/modern/tap switch works. Typical delay/echo functionality.

This is a good sounding echo, very musical. ONE PROBLEM not mentioned, IT IS NOT A LINE LEVEL PEDAL, therefore it CANNOT BE USED IN A AMP LOOP! Since I require this in my line to keep the load off my amp in line, this was not working for me. I sadly had to exchange this for what I wanted in the first place, the Boss DL-20 Giga-Delay, simply the best delay/echo to be found. More features than you can comprehend, dual echos (short into long), reverse (direct mute), 4 memory slots to hold your custom settings, AND LINE LEVEL +4db output (also stereo in/out). I was not a fan of Boss or cheapy little effects but the Giga-Delay is pro tool.

I really liked the VOX JS-DL echo tones but if you need your delay/echo in your loop, this is not the pedal to get. If you have an old Marshall without a loop, this is a great echo. And kids, no tails, means true bypass, tails is not true bypass.

Only has a 1 year warrenty, probably a good idea to get the extra warranty replacement package. I seldom have ever had a unit fail in a year or two and usually the factory warranty takes care of it. (The DL-20 has a 5 year warranty from Roland) I did have a pedal start humming on me after about a 1 year, the extra warranty replaced it. This JS-DL seems to be a really good pedal, I cannot see it breaking down any moreso than another pedal, most things are really good quality these days. I suppose if you are tapping echos a million times a day you might wear the switch out.

No idea, never spoke to Boss.

Again, NOT A LINE LEVEL PEDAL, great echo, very musical tones, if you want a LOOP LINE effect, this is not your choice. A nine here for not being line level capable and for them not openly stating this in the manual! I was getting a volume drop using the pedal and when I started looking it, it was because of the +4-5 db drop of an instrument level feed. I exchanged it for a Giga-Delay, that unit is a mind warp on features and line level switchable (read the manual).

I am a pedal maven and when it comes to delays and distorion/OD I am hard to please. The Vox JS-DL is the best delay/echo I have used to date. As far as ease of use, it delays and echos right from the on switch, dialing in your needs or preference is most of the fun. The options on this pedal were clearly engineered by a good player, it shows in the musical usefullness of the options. I found it all very easy to use (details to follow). I had just bought a HardWire DL-8 looking for a new echo, it was between the Boss Gigadelay (DL-20)?, the Hardware 8sec/20sec looper, and the Satch VOX JS-DL. I took the Hardwaie back to the store, pushed another $40 and got the Vox/Satch. My search is over.

A lot of options on this delay, it allows for all manner of adjusting the forefront, or lay back in the mix quality of any echo/delay you might require.
Footswitch; on/bypass and combination tap/vintage/modern. Do read the short manual to get the premise on how this all works, once you get the issue that holding for 10 secs changes the vintage modern and tapping works just tap, it is really simple. Led on the right, times with the delay setting and tap length, turns red with vintage/green with modern.
Toggle switch for HD or Lo-fi which filter notches the highs and lows. Really useful to lay the repeats under or back in the mix, sounds like an old analog or tape roll off. Using lo-fi with the vintage select (my fav) gives you an old style tape delay with some very musical subtle waver you really do not notice much. Click the hi-fi toggle to bring the repeats up front just a little. Delay is adjustable by switch mode ranges, longer delay is possible on the long setting using tap. Everything musical is here, no matter the level fo repeats you want for clean or sweet lay back in the mix thickner for heavy distortions. This delay works with everything fine, all my other boxes love it. I have it in loop 1 of my Carvin V3 and in Loop 2 I have my rack mount Carvin FX-2 now set up for a Chorus and a nice reverb tail when required, all meshes in with the JS-DL with musical bliss. You can space out the neighbors or crowd by hitting a chord or hammer run, clean or dirty, turn the repeats all the way to infinite hold and warp the delay control.

This unit contrary to some comments seems to built very well, the switches are high quality above standard and I could imagine taking a little care of your pedals by not jumping on them might be in order. This is cool painted box and if you're lucky to have the red Satchurator as well you have a scheme to make Vai jealous. I am impressed by this pedal, quality, sound, and looks, Hey you can get a bad anything, I had two Voodoo Lab power bricks bad right out of the box, it happens. I advise picking up on the replacement warrenty you can get on-line or at the store if you are afraid something might die after the factory warranty of 1 year. I expect no problems, few units I have had in my lifetime have ever completely crapped on me. These are 2009 tech parts not 70's, our technology is much better.

Have no idea, never owned anything Vox, never talked to them. With this sort of quality, I suspect I will be looking at them much more in the future.

We have to thank the Professor for this line of pedals from Vox, he has managed to design some really sweet musical heaven here. This is the best delay ever! I never had any Vox products before, always reminds me of the Beatles. I do plan to cop a Satchurator at nearest opportunity, as this is great unit as well. I also give a hats off to Zen Master Vai and his work with Morely, simply the best Wah out there with no moving pot to wear out or a stomp switch, excellent stuff. I am constanly updating my board and this JS-DL will never be leaving its mounted and cabled position. Maybe some of the comments out there are due to using bad cables, you'd be amazed at what the good cable can do for your sound. I just redid my rig with Core X2, thick and a little hard to manipulate but the end product is no cap loss, no hum, and HD sound.

the easiest most intuative delay ever. I have played a lot of gear in my time. unless you have an eventide or pigtronix type budget this is the delay you need... yesterday.

its only really seen bedroom action as I just got it last week. Cant wait to here it at stage volume. transparent / warm / quiet / clean - it is all of these things.

Not true bypass, however the buffer is good.(not all buffers sound as bad as you think. Pros spend hundreds on stand alone buffers/boosters cause they are needed). I have modified all my non true bypass pedals except the time machine and my visual sounds pedals - jeckyll and hyde and route 66. The visual sounds pedals buffers are good too..if you run through a whole chain of pedals all true bypass and turn them all off your signal is degenerating by the time it hits your amp.. there is a reason why they put buffers in pedals...If you set that level right it sounds like its in an effect loop..so clean for going in the front of an amp, i prefer this so the delays clean up a little..tube amps..

so far so good but everything stops eventually. I live in Australia and don't normally bother going to the dealer to resolve a problem. Its usually faster to just get someone local to fix it. I will keep buying these things over time in case they ever stop making them.

not needed yet.. people you should try and find a local electrical repairer cause usually when a pedal stops it is a quick cheap fix.. and you get it back a few days later, rather than sending it off for god knows how long, make how many phone calls, not have it for how many gigs..but it was under warrentee so it didn't cost me anything to get it fixed...

I play all styles, this is a versatile delay. dont let satriani's name scare you off. I do not associate his sound with a lot of the tones i get from this. there are a couple of settings that lead you to playing some different stuff though. could be just the fix if your in a rut. I dont really dig satch's tone that much, but this pedal sounds awsome.

i been playing around 15 years, mainly doing original music, have also done international full time performing contracts playing in cover show bands(i really wish this thing was around when I was doing those gigs.. you can change between settings really easily on the fly, maybe the easiest of any pedal i have ever owned that has no stored presets.

other gear - Guitars - i use a us tele / Maton saphire)like a 335) and Ibanez jazz box,

Pedals - I then have a programable loop pedal(8 loops, with 28 patches to store) which i run nearly all my pedals in - Vox 847 wah re-isse(true by-pass mod), Dunlop JH1 wah, Visual SOund Route 66, Visual sound Jeckyll and Hyde, Fender Bender, Danelctro Fab Tone(orginal big one-modified...)Fulltone de ja vibe, boss ph3 phaser, Vox Time Machine, the into a gigfx chopper running stereo to-

Amps - MArshall JCM 800 50w 2 x 12 combo (modified by Reynolds vAlveart

Trace Elliot Vellocette - 22w 1 x 12 class a combo

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I am tralling for another one cause i dont really want to play with out it anymore.

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I love the range control you can change after you tap. This is freaking awsome if you do original music and your trying to find those triplets and stuff. you have to try it to really see its power. Its green, i like green. the trail thing.

you cant compare this to anything near its price range.. there are better units available, but if i had enough money to buy them, i would not have time to play guitar cause I would be cruising in my ferarri.. if this is you look at eventide or TC electronics if you must throw money away, or get one of these and send me the difference:)

i spose a switch for trails would be good at times, but they had to leave something out so we all buy the new one when it comes out.. stereo would be good too at times, but the simplicity of this thing is why it is so good. you will spend more time playing and less time turning knobs. i almost dont want to share this one, but i will in case anyone can help me modify one, please get in touch.. I wish it had 4 expression pedal inputs on it so all knobs could be controlled but with the expression pedals.. maybe just the time would be enough. you cold do some pretty cool time stretching or speeding up effects if you could acess that knob with your foot.. Vox if you reading this, yes hire me! or endorse me watever.lol

this absolutely helps create music.

100% intuitive design. easy peazy.

guitar>cs3>blackstar HT Dual>Time Machine>Digidelay>BF2>Fender Deville

It's various sound repro options (mod/vintage, hifi/lofi) are cool, though in the heat of the moment you might not notice the subtleties yourself they should help to create a bit more clarity while maintaining the huge sound of delay.

quiet, and efficient.

No Tails! This is annoying. most delays i've used have the option to turn 'tails' on or off. That is, when you switch it off you will get a tail off of delays from when it was on meaning your sound doesn;t just clip from one feel to another as the delay is disengaged.

I had this pedal and it developed an intermittent fault. Under three months old, using the tap tempo pedal the pedal would acknowledge the tempo i had picked, but would then, a few seconds later, just pick a really fast speed (possibly the nontempo one as given by the 'speed' knob, but not sure). It's back with the shop now, so we'll see....

we'll see once i get it back...

Simple and straight-forward, no need for the manual.

Normal delay tweaking knobs (level, delay range, time and feedback), a toggle-switch for filtered and non-filtered sound (Hi-Fi/Lo-Fi), stomp switches for on/off and tap tempo/mode select (Modern/Vintage). Everything labeled clearly. A plus for the constantly blinking tap tempo led that also indicates the current mode by different colors (green=modern/red=vintage). One input and two outputs (effected and dry), mono.

Knobs work precisely and their visual positions match well with the effect they make on the sound. Level and feedback knobs can also be easily operated by foot, since the knobs aren't too light to turn. This being compared to my other delay, Carl Martin Red Repeat.

I use delay as the last pedal before amp input. Other pedals are a tuner, wah, 3 overdrives, boost and 3 modulation effects. 9V to 8 pedals from 1Spot adapter, 24V adapter for EH The Worm and a separate adapter for the Time Machine. I don't use the amp's (Laney L20H) overdrive channel when playing through the effect board, and have never used effect loop.

The sound quality is very good! Both modes sound great with both Hi-Fi and Lo-Fi positions on the toggle, and all adjustments make what they're supposed to and in a way that I think is logical (an opinion). There's no extra noise, on or off - at least nothing I'd notice.

In the modern+hi-fi mode (green led+toggle switch up) repetitions sound very accurately like the dry sound. Clean and full-frequency. Toggle switched to lo-fi cuts highs and lows from the repetitions, "fading" or softening them a bit compared to the original sound.

In the vintage+lo-fi mode (red led+toggle switch down) the sound is something like a tape echo. Not that exactly, though. The lo-fi mode on the toggle puts on high- and low-pass filters, so the repetitions have less frequencies than the original sound. Vintage mode brings in some saturation, kind of very mild "chorus" effect to the repetitions. Sounds nice especially when playing clean, works with overdrive too. Vintage+Hi-Fi is kind of brighter and has more clarity.

Time Machine does not eat your (or at least my) sound so you'd notice.

Only thing I'm missing is the trails option (delays trail off, don't stop like hitting a wall, when you switch the pedal off in the middle of playing). Since the pedal is digital and not true bypass, it would've propably been easy to include, and expected in this price. Don't know if that's exactly a sound quality issue. I feel it is, because that affects in the way I sound - very little, but still. So not 10 but 9 here.

Built tough all around. Will use it without backup.

Some reviewer worried about the switches. I opened the box and wouldn't worry too much. The stomp part of the switch is mount only on the box, and operates the actual switch (a flat some kind of electronic "pad" on a PCB) with a spring. At least this is how I figured it works with a quick look, see for yourself and correct me if I'm wrong. If the spring don't break off or move sideways, I wouldn't worry. And I think the spring can't do that on it's own or by a force pushing it straight downwards. The stomp part seems sturdy, and better mechanical quality than i.e. Line6 modeller's similar.

Future will tell, but I'm confident. Maybe it's a bit stupid to give grades for reliability with few days of experience, so I won't.

Never dealt with them, and hope I don't have to.

I'm currently studying music and playing for living. I play hit music from 60s to this day in a party band, rock, pop, folk etc. Rock and blues oriented, though. Some own projects now and then.

I was going to buy Boss DD-7, but it was sterile sounding compared to the Vox. Besides I like the way Vox has almost everything I need to adjust in the middle of a set adjustable by foot without extra pedals. Tweaking the delay sound I was looking for was faster with the Vox. This is just a matter of personal preference though.

I was supposed to replace Line6 DL4 that died on me with two different kinds of delay pedals, analog and digital, so I had the delay sounds essential to my playing without too much bending down on my knees in the middle of a show. I had already bought used Carl Martin Red Repeat to do the analog thing (which it does well), but after few hours of messing around with that and the Vox, I noticed the Vox is enough! The two independent ways of altering the sound (Hi-Fi/Lo-Fi toggle and the Modern/Vintage modes) work great and bring versatility. Good sound quality, sturdy feeling and fast, logical tweaking made me surprised. Wouldn't have expected it to be an all-around workhorse, but for me it may just be, though I'm sure it lacks some abilities some other guitarist might appreciate. Few different kinds of gigs and we'll see...

The size of the box is just perfect for the features, not too big to fit a pedal board properly, like the Electro-Harmonix The Worm next to it.... Footswitches not too close to each other and not too close to the knobs. And the box looks good!

Tap tempo led blinks even when the effect is off, which is great - except that in the Modern mode it's very bright and might disturb your bandmates! =)

I have to drop down a couple of points because it's not true bypass, OR it doesn't have trails option, and it's not stereo, in this price range.

Easy to use.Good owners manual.

Sound is warm and nice.Its quiet and clear.Sounds great.

I play rock,blues music.Les Paul guitar and JCM 900 amp.

Very easy to use. a few knobs hi low switch and tap tempo, the reason I bought this bad boy...all work good and if you play with the knobs you can make wierd sounds..comes with a battery but i have mine on a board with a jucie box powering all.

Sound is nice and spacious. One note here is this delay works and sounds best in an effects loop of the amp. When placed out front you can hear a slight hiss when engaged. Dead quiet in fx loop!
The tap tempo light stays on forever so you can tap in before you turn it on. The tail end echo does get cut off when you switch the pedal off which to me is the one downfall of the pedal. But over all i do love this one... Sounds great in distortion and clean....

I rate this at a 9 It is awesome . It works well with clean and distotion.....as long as you use it in a fx loop it is great... I wish the tail end echo died out on its own when turned off...but on that note if you have a song you want to switch delay off and it be OFF then this is it.......... I will keep this pedal for as long as it holds up.....I am happy with it. I do recommend it <

This is a pretty easy pedal to get to know. The knobs pretty much do exactly what they say. Even the modern/vintage mode says "hold" above it. So it should be pretty easy to use it for most without reviewin the manual.

Speaking of the manual, it's a thick lil guy with a whole bunch of languages, but the english is only a few pages long with a breif description of how everything works. There's no 'suggested' settings. But I guess the Lo-fi/Hi-fi switch is the EQ change.

I run a stereo rig with a Vox AC30 and an Orange AD30TC. The signal chain consists of a Hot Cake, Emma Reezafratzitz, then into an ABY switch, then the A channel goes to the Time Machine and the AD30TC. The B channel goes to a Cuack Tap-A-Whirl, then to a Maxon AD999, then ending in the Vox AC30.

Guitar is a Tokai Breezysound Tele or a Gibson ES335.

The Time Machine is VERY clean. No odd noises, no pops, just a quiet pedal.

I use it in hi-fi mode mostly becuase I find that the low/hi cut and EQ changes that happen in lo-fi just make the delay start blending in with the mix too quickly when your in the "vintage" mode.

The hi-fi/modern comibination is a very clean, clear delay signal that is pretty much an exact recreation of the input tone. The lo-fi/modern combination is alright, but I find the delays are not as clear as they should be.

The hi-fi/vintage is a pretty decent analog delay simulation that gives you that high end roll-off on each repeat, and starts fading quite nicely. More of an echo than delay. The lo-fi/vintage just gets lost and flubby.

The one major gripe with this pedal is the lack of repeats. I need to set it pretty high to get lush repeats.

Can you depend on it?

Now thats the question...

the casing seems very very wel built, and the knobs are very fluid and feel high quality... the switches however do not have that nice thick "click" and are a little rattly.. I would be affraid that they might break pretty easily. I'm even more worried if the switches are PCB mounted...

never delt with Vox directly. but the Canadian area rep has always been quite helpful for previous products... and the dealer is always my first stop!

The honey moon isn't over yet... if it lasts 3 months I'll do another review on it then...

but for now, it's a great delay pedal that offers tap tempo and both modern digital repeats and vintage delay/echos.

I dunno if it would be my top choice for delays out there, and the money is a lil much in my opinion...

but it does sound fantastic, and seeing how versatile it is, I'll probably keep a hold on it for a while.

This pedal is a nice mix of standard Delay functionality, with a couple of very interesting features that are not found on many others.

As for the "standard" functions (these are the 4 rotating knobs):
"Level" - controls the volume of the delayed output.
"D.Range" - controls the range of the "Time" control.
"Time" - controls the speed of the delayed output.
"Feedback" - controls the number of repeated delay outputs.

Now for the interesting stuff... this is a dual mode pedal. It has a 2nd button (beside the on/off button), that allows you to switch between "modes". The 2 modes are "Modern" and "Vintage". In Modern mode, the pedal reproduces the input tone cleanly and clearly. In Vintage mode, it simulates what used to be an Echo Tape Delay, with a little bit of modulation and saturation. Basically you step on this pedal and hold for 1 second and the indicator light changes from green (Modern) to red (Vintage) and back.

Now this same button also has a second function, it can be used to TAP out the "speed" of the effect. It has a TAP range from 1ms to 5800ms (6 seconds). I initially thought that the 2 functions from this button would get confusing, but from my experience so far, I have had not problems at all. The other nice feature with the TAP function is that if you tap out a time... the Time knob is disabled, but the D.Range knob will take your time and make the appropriate time adjustment associated with your tap time. Very nice and easy to get perfect triplets right on the beat. This is truely one of the nicest features of this box.

The last nifty feature is a small toggle switch that sits up out of the way of the knobs, called Hi-Fi/Lo-Fi. In the Hi-Fi position, the delay tone is full-range of the original source, however, in the Lo-Fi position, there is some filtering of the high frequencies and low frequences to take the edge off of the delay output and to cut into your mix.

The manual is fairly straight forward, it gives you everything you need to know about this unit, plus it provides 4 standard setting suggestions for how you might want to start off using the pedal. One of those is "Joe's Live setting", which is very cool.

I have alot of effects, but this how my set up goes:

Ibanez Jem 7DBK -> Morley Bad Horsie Wah -> MXR EVH Flanger -> MXR EVH Phase 90 -> Vox Satchurator -> Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808 -> Yamaha Noise Reducer A -> JSX Combo Amp input. In the JSX's effects loop: Vox Time Machine -> Retro-Sonic Chorus Ensemble (a replica of the original Boss CE-1) -> Yamaha Noise Reducer B -> JSX Return Loop.

The sound quality of the pieces that I have are simply outstanding, it has been a long time compiling what I have now... I have gone through so many pedals and amps, I have completely lost count!

The Time Machine stands tall in this fairly prestigous crowd. The sounds it produces are crystal clear and the adjustments do exactly what I would expect them to. Although I have never had a vintage echo tape loop... I know that Brian May from Queen uses one for his live solo (during Keep Yourself Alive)... and the Time Machine in "Vintage" mode reproduces it exactly!

I have matched some other unique delay sounds that I particularly like, such as the one that David Gilmour uses on "Another Brick In the Wall". And a nifty delay trick that Dave Wiener (Steve Vai Band) uses for "Dave's Party Piece". Not to mention the U2 sound that they are so famous for on earlier albums. All do-able with this box.

One of the most fun features of this box is when you put the Feedback button all the way to max. It will then repeat your input sounds forever... well all you need to do is hit one note, let it repeat a few times - and now for the fun!!! Put your guitar down, and start to play with all of the other knobs and buttons to get some seriously space-age way-out-there sounds!!! It is the price of admission all by itself!!!

Well, I have only had this pedal for about a week now... it has only been on the market for 10 days! So I can't remark on its longevity quite yet! But it does appear to be built like a tank... so I would expect it to have a very long life.

Again, I have never had a problem with any Vox piece of equipment that I have ever owned, so I have never had to call them for support. So again, I can't really comment. Other then to say I have had quite a few different Vox pieces over the years... and none of them have ever faultered. That's quite the standard to set!

As you can probably tell from the equipment in my rig, I do play mostly hard rock virtuoso style guitar music... with influences from Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen, Rush, Queensryche, Extreme, Pink Floyd... well the list goes on. For an over-all rating, I consider the following factors: Sound Quality, Usable Functionality, Durability and the ever so subjective: Do I like to use it - is it fun? And with those things all considered: The Vox Time Machine is the finest delay pedal that I have ever owned and I have owned quite a few others from well know manufactures (such as Boss, MXR, Ibanez, DOD) and none of them are even close.

That being said, it is not the cheapest pedal that I have ever bought, actually it might be one of the most expensive (although I did a bit of bartering and traded some old gear in for it). So I can't give it full marks here. But factoring everyting into the equation, getting rid of some old gear for this piece might have been one of the best moves I've made in a while!

This pedal sounds great with clean tones and fully "Satchurator'ed" tones. It does everything that I want and the real bonus is the fun stuff that it can do all on it's own! I suspect that this box will stay in my collect for many years to come.

Very easy to use! Mix level knob, delay range knob (4 ranges for adjusting delay time), delay time knob and feedback knob. Then you have a Hi-Fi/Lo-Fi switch, effect on/off switch and a tap tempo/modern&vintage switch. Ok, it's not the most simple delay pedal, but very intuitive and easy to use. It was very easy and fast to find my settings.

Well, I sure like a delay pedal that reproduces what it gets from the guitar, and the digital delays (most of them) can achieve this objective. But they also loose the warm of a good analog delay, and that is what creates the magic of a delay ambiance. This pedal, can achieve that "warm" level while reproducing high quality repeats. I owned a Boss DD7 which is a nice delay pedal with lots of options, but this one is for sure on another championship. It doesn't have the looper function as the DD7, but in any other aspect is much better. And I'm saying this in a general way, because I own several guitars, amps, and other effect pedals, and the Time Machine sounds great with all of them.

To soon to know about this, but it really looks very well built. All the knobs are smooth and precise and the switches transmit the same feeling, so, I'll base my opinion on the confidence given by it's build quality.

Also too soon to know. No opinion at all.

I play all styles, but my preferences are old-school rock and blues. My idol guitar player is Slash, and Guns are the most "heavy" sound I like (apart from very rare exceptions). This pedal suits well for those styles.

If you are looking for a good delay pedal and having a range from 150 to 200??? as your limit, so you have here a very good choice. Of course there are better delay pedals, but only above that limit. For my own taste, and for I was looking for, and after several visits to stores and testing, and testing... my choice list was reduced to this on and the Carbon Copy from MXR. These two were the only ones that delivered what I was running after, and the Vox won the race because of a very useful feature - Tap Tempo.

Of course, you may have different tastes from me, but as this pedal is very versatile, I'm sure it can cover lots of different tastes and always with a very high sound quality.