Vox ToneLab

It's reasonably easy to figure out how it works. And, it's reasonably easy to change settings on the fly. Those are good points.

Here are some not so good.

It was hard to turn the tuner on. You have to press two buttons at exactly the same time. If you're off by a bit, you get a different preset, not the tuner. If you do it right you get the tuner, but you don't silence the guitar. To do that, you have to hold it down. More often than not, I'd have to try several times to get the tuner.

There is a switch on the back which has PA, Fender, Marshall settings. And there are a great many options on the face of the unit. That switch essentially multiplies the number of possibilities by 3. Plug into a new PA (as I had to) and see if you can figure out what's best without a soundcheck. I can't recall if the switch setting is remembered as part of a patch.

The manual was ok.

I'm a jazz player. I wanted a very clean sound for comping and just a bit of warmth for soloing.

I was able to get an adequate solo sound. But, I could never get an adequate clean sound -- and I tried every option.

In front of a JC55, the guitar sounded much better without the Tonelab. It has bypass, but then you don't even get EQ.

Maybe this should be in the ease of use category and maybe it's not fair, but this happened. I had to plug into a PA at a jam where there the players were surrounded by PA speakers (no audience) but without monitors. I tried to stay clean on comping and reasonably clean on soloing. What happened was that when I tried to increase my volume for soloing, inevitably it got very dirty. I'd guess that I'd have figured that out with more experience, but I couldn't that night.

Seemed well built.

No experience.

45 years playing. I play mostly Brazilian jazz, but it's high energy music, including some, hopefully, scorching leads.

Too much gear to list. I played this unit with a 335 type by D'Angelico and a Godin nylon multiac.

I wouldn't buy it again or replace it if stolen.

I bought it for a situation in which I had to play directly into a PA with no guitar amp. I'd never done that before. Hard to say based on just a couple of nights, but I'd still be more comfortable with a mic'ed amp.

Looks more complicated than it is. If you can use a cell phone you should have enough brain cells. Manual could use a chart of the amp models and how the knobs map to that particular amp, since the knobs change function by emulated model. But you can find that online, use your google-fu.

This is what sold me. I live in an apartment and have been using a Behringer modeler amp (which has a tube too, but it distorts like ass) and/or a Fender Princeton Chorus (solid state and distorts ok) into a mixer then headphones, so I was in a situation of trying to get good tone from modeling stompboxes and such.

I was trying out various modelers in the store thru a keyboard amp (Pod, Zoom, etc.), and when I fired up the Tonelab it was like "Oh yeah, this is the one". Sounds much better than the rest, warmer, better distortion, and good response.

Since I didn't get the pedals for it, and I still wanted the option to use the completely clean channel on my amps, I've got the TL at the end of my effects chain switchable with an Boss line selector pedal. Kind of an "uber-pedal" if you will. So I keep the TL on, and have a MXR comp -> Jeckyll n Hyde -> Danelectro EQ/Boost feeding the TL. The amp can now be kept completely clean and the best part is that the TL responds great to overdrive coming into it. Yay! So I have the TL set to a somewhat mild Blackface 2x12, and feed it what a real amp would eat.

The is some noise in some situations, but like others said, judicious level and NR tweaking can take care of that.

Effects are good, as usual, some better than others, but I usually only run a mild reverb and chorus, if anything, anyway.

Giving it a 9 since universal law state there is always something better, and there's no 11 on the rating scale here.

Can't say yet, but seems solid. Given that it has a tube in it and all, I'd probably handle it a bit more gingerly than a stompbox you chuck in the trunk.

Not used, so no opinion. Deal with it.

I'm a wanker. I've been wanking for 7 years now. My style could be described ad self-medicated classic rock/blues wailing.

If it were stolen I'd get another, after I dispense karmic justice on the thief.

As above, compared to other products, and it stood out for it's tone and response. Now I've got a SansAmp GT2 to sell :P

Only had this a few days so I thought I would give my initial impressions as vox seem to be doing very little to publisize this unit
I went for this model as I record directly into a computer soundcard I don't play live, so the LE seemed a bit overtop for what I required. I've read the excellent reviews of the LE, and seen the Youtube demos so took a chance on this unit, the logic being that as this type of technology keeps improving then it should be at least be as good as the LE!! But smaller and cheaper.
When it arrived a couple of days ago it was even smaller that I expected, but seemed robust, and well put together(my wife thinks its cute).
The layout of the unit is logical, the controls are solid, and work well and the manual is understandble

As mentioned Im plugging straight into a soundcard and outputting to a pair of decent active speakers(using the Line level switch on the back of the unit).
There are 33 different Amps and 11 different Cabinet set ups. and I'm slowly working my way through the combinations, but I've already found a lot of great tones worth recording. I usually play clean'ish, so can't really comment on whether the high gain stuff, is authentic(although it sounds pretty good + useable to me) and thers a lot of high gain tones on this unit.
Not had a good sound from the acoustic simulator yet, but perhaps I've not done enough tweaking yet.

Looks solid to me - but whether it would stand being thrown about at the back of a Van - who knows!!

No idea - but I am quite suprised how little Vox seem to be pushing this Model.

This is only a first impression review
very happy with it so far -
small neat logical everything works well and it sounds great
how it compares to similar units I do not know.
On the minus side the USB connection is a waste of time for me and probably for a lot of other computer users. the only way I can use the USB as input to my DAW is by setting the unit up as my sound card, which may be great if you are new to DAW's and do not have a card already, but useless if you already have a decent card.
The librarian software also looks very basic.
Improvements /additions : I think a digital output(as on the LE)would have been useful, and some kind of clear/reset button would be really useful. So that you could clear all the settings belonging to the previously loaded patch, when you want to create a new patch.
But so far its lived up to my expectations

To really get your hands dirty with this thing it takes some doing. However, for basic tweaking, which is what most of us will be doing, this thing is easy to use. If you understand amps and pedals you can dial in a good sound out of this thing no problem.

OK, I'm going to cut straight to the chase. I used to own a Line 6 PODv.2. I idolized that thing and saved up $400 to get one. It had every imaginable sound but after a while I realized it sounded like harsh digital fizzle. Granted, if I ever decide to have a POD in my studio rack I'll probably go back to the original or v.2 over the newer ones, but hey, this is about the vox, right!!

Anyhow, the 12ax7 tube makes all the difference in the ToneLab. No more digital fizzle. It has less options but you get better quality out of the options it has than anything I ever got on the POD. The sound is warm instead of harsh. You don't get these things for the effects features (although there are some pretty decent ones that manipulate very naturally), you get them for the amp emulation, and that it does very well. It is Vox, after all.

I've moved it in and out of my studio rack and that's about it. I guess once to play one song at a church performance where they complained about it (they complained about just about every piece of gear I ever used so what's the common factor here :) Point is, I've never had any issues with it. Any sound issues have always been a result of other pieces in the rack (old patchbays, bad compressors, hot effect units, etc.) that I put in the chain, not the Vox.

Never had to deal with them.

There is a good possibility that the floor version is better than this simply because it's more functionl for live use (I'll probably eventually get the foot controller). Although, it's the same teachnology / features just with pedals and foot switches. For sutdio use this thing is great. Takes up a lot of space in my rack but I like having it there for when I need it. I wish they'd make a rackmount version.

Put it this way, I have three options at my disposal for studio sessions. Some great real amps, some great plug-ins, and the Vox ToneLab. On many occasions I've used the Vox ToneLab and the result has been fantastic. You can't go wrong with it.

A Little more "in depth" that a pod, of v amp, but the options are a good thing. Pretty simple to make a good tone, but you have the option to really put the time into it and make a great tone.

I have been playing for about 10 years. Have owned some middle of the ladder tube amps, no dumbles or two rocks, but some crates, and a Genz Benz or 2. For what i have been exposed to thus far, this is great. Effects are better than a Pod. Not quite as good as a couple of my stomp boxes, but not as expensive either. Great for direct plug ins, like recording. I have this running straight into a mixer, then into my computer and running Cubase, and i get very little noise, and very studio quality sounds out of it.

No problems yet, but i havn't used it live either.

Never had any issues, so i wouldn't know.

For those of you like me, not making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to spend on a " hobby " as my wife so beautifully puts it,( more like a life in itself) this is wonderful. If you are like me, and dont have the money, but you still want quality sounds for what you are paying, this is amazing. I thought about the SE or the LE, and i couldnt see spending that much on something that has as few upgrades over this. Haven't used one of the above mentioned, nor do i plan to. This will be with me until i win the lotto and can afford a hand-wired head and cabinet for each sound i want. Dont waste your money on a lifeless pod, this thing breathes like a true tube amp, and although nothing is as good as the real thing, this gets as close as any pedal of it's kind i have used, and i have used many. Spend the cash and make more use out of your time and money. Almost everything you need is right here. Dont pay attention to the people *****ing about the delay not being as good as >>>>> or the gains not stacking up to their **** Get it and you will be happy you did i swear.

It does not get any easier than this to use. Good traditional knobs control 95% of what you are going to do with this unit, and the other 5% is very easy to get a grip on.
The manual is straight foward, and there is not a whole lot to it, but it covers all the aspects of the ToneLab very well.
My unit has been upgraded only in the fact that the original processors are no longer soldered directly to the main board, but seated in sockets for easier troubleshooting/replacement. Some of the filters and caps were also replaced.

This, without a doubt is the best all-around sounding modeler preamp I have yet to play with. I used this preamp with a Danelectro Nifty 50 which let it come through in all its sonic glory. You could not tell the setup apart from a top-shelf tube amp.
The effects are limited, but very good. It has pre-preamp (pedal) effects including a couple of distortions, a compressor, treble boost, an univibe clone. The modulation effects work fine; the chorus, flange, and phaser are all very good. The controls (again) are knob based. You have very few parameters that you can change, but they are the important ones. The tremolo and rotary effects are top notch. The delays are very good and have the all-important tap tempo button. The reverbs are extremely limited, but they work great when combined with the delay.
This unit has a very good noise gate that does not kill your sustain, and "hi gain" models can be noisy without it engaged (like a typical tube amp).
I like mid-gain amp tones, and the TL delivers it in spades!
Hi Points: good amp models, good modulation & delay
Lo Points: reverb, only able to use one "pedal effect" at a time

My unit had to be defective due to damage in transit to me.
It had a loud buzz accompanying the guitar output being cut in half.
It took a couple of months and a fluke trip to a buddy who does electronics at a guitar shop fixed it. For 2 months. I believe one of the knobs was a main culprit, but never found out for certain. I had it foxed a second time and sent it on the way to a new home where it would sit in a studio and no longer travel.

Korg USA repsonded to my emails, but gave very little help outside of telling me where I could send it (yeah, I laughed when I wrote the last phrase too). I found more help at www.tonelab.com. they have all the schematics and service guides for the ToneLab and ToneLab SE at this site along with some of the most helpful forum members this side of stombox.net.forum or instituteofnoise.com.

I play on a worship team, and my style varies with each song. Jangly clean strumming, to blues, rock, jazz, a little metal here and there too. I have been playing for 20 years now. My favorite weapon of choice is my Jeff Beck Custom Surf Green Strat, Followed by a 1993 PRS CE-24.
Had the ToneLab worked 100% I would never have gotten rid of it or thought twice about buying another. The ToneLab replaced a Vetta, a PODxt and a Digitech Genesis 3. But now the hunt is on again.
My main amp is a Traynor Custom Special 50, and my practice amp is a Danelectro Nifty 50.
If you have one that works, get the best case you possibly can to protech it. This unit is gold when all works as it should.

It takes some tweaking to get a good sound, but the same is true with every setup I've used, tube, modeling or solid state. It was a lot easier to get a good sound out of this than any Line 6 gear I've used.

I couldn't get exactly the sounds I wanted for everything, but at every turn I was impressed with the quality of this unit. The effects models are good, and the amp models, with the possible exception of the Mesa and Dumble, are very good. I should mention that although I had hoped it would be a "one stop shop" I did end up feeling the need to run an EBS MultiComp before it and a HUSH pedal after it ... the onboard compressor isn't bad, but I wanted to be able to have a compressed sound in addition to their distortion pedal models. The noise reduction system is ok, but especially for the Soldano I felt more comfortable with the Hush after it, in addition to the onboard NR. I tend to prefer a more cleaned-up sound, so the Tonelab's NR might be ok for most people (although it seemed the attack and release were a little off).

The distortion sound seemed rich, full, and natural to me. Not perfect, but way better than Line 6. I am fully confident replacing my tube rig with a ToneLab, especially because it sounds good at any volume, instead of just cranked to the max. Some folks have said that this unit can't do metal -- it seemed ok to me. It took a bit of tweaking, but I got a good metal sound out of it using the Rat and Soldano, with a little hint of chorus. The Mesa model sucks, but it's kind of hard to model 5 preamp tubes and 5 power amp tubes if you're only actually using one. In general I found that it was easier to get a useful heavy sound than it had been with my old Fender tube rig.

I run this thing into a full range bass amp (Epifani PS 600 into Dr. Bass Neo 2260). This seems to be the best way to do it, since it doesn't color the sound after the cab models, and gives me a lot of clean power and stuff like pre-eq DI out.

It seems reliable. If I was rich and touring, I might buy a backup, but I don't see any real need for it. I might spring for a USB MIDI cable so I can back up my presets, though.

My needs are fairly simple, but a unit that can provide me with a good gritty sound, a good crunch sound, a good glassy delay, and a solid heavy sound, and switch them all at the touch of a button, is perfect. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to "real" amps after this -- it's just too easy; and being able to run it through my bass amp means one expensive rig instead of two. A+.

This unit can do what ever you need it to. You need to read the manual because the controls work differently with different models and you need to understand what they(each control)do to get the best tone from each model. The manual is fine for people who are willing to take some time to read it. I suspect that people who complain about this sounds from this unit have not taken the time to read the manual or figure out how to eq the amp they are using with it. There is a certain amount of volume required to really get the best out of this unit and it varies from amp to amp.

I have used this unit with a THD Bivalve and a 2x12 cabinet, a handwired Bassman clone, a fully restored '66 Super reverb, and a Peavey Delta Blues 115. It sounds very good with all of them. It takes a little while to get all the settings just right to get the best tone. With the Bivalve it is simply breathtaking. The THD Bivalve is one of the best sounding amps made and by itself it has unbelievably nice tone from clean to hi gain distortion. But having said that,it is hard for me to go back to just the bivalve after I have used the Tonelab with it. That should tell you something. I play Les Pauls, Strats and Tele's with it and they also sound fantastic with the appropriate settings. The models are not exact replicas but they close enough to be recognizable by ear. You can set it up to serve for any musical genre.

Seems very well built. Take a back-up pre-amp tube if you are going to gig with it. It is fairly light weight and I have not quite figured out how to secure it so it won't get knocked around at at gig. The SE (floor pedal) version is probably the one to have for gigs.

No experience here.

I play rock, hard electric blues, and basically the same thing but with modern country rock. I've been playing for many years and I have first hand experience with the basis amps that are being modeled. I also have a Fender CyberDeluxe which I really love. They kind of overlap but also do some different things. The keyboard (and occasional rhythm guitar) in my band has the Digitech Modeler...it sounds like crap. Don't know about Line 6. I have also open-mic'd with a guy that uses the Boss modeler. It does not sound too good, but I am not sure if it is the unit or something else. If it was stolen I would probably get the floor pedal model. I might do that anyway. Anything that has as many features as this thing does will have things that different users will complain about, But for what it was designed for I have to give it a 10.

I bought this piece of equipment when it was quite new, and I've used it several times a week ever since. Partly since I don't have enough money to buy the amp of my dreams, but mostly since I still like it.

Easy to work with, plug in your headphones and just have a good time tweaking. Most of it is intuitive. But don't skip reading the manual because you might miss out on stuff. And some settings on some of the effects can not be done without hooking it up to a computer (not to my knowledge at least).

This depends a lot on your genre. Since I play more and more metal these days, the Tonelab makes less and less sense - it's main weakness is the high gain sounds. They're very muddy and unconvincing. If you mainly play metal, don't buy this machine.

On the other hand, for everything else, from jazz to hard rock, the Tonelab is a very pleasant experience. the different amps and cabinets gives you great versatility, and both clean and crunch sounds are great. The tube/valve actually seems to give some life to this effect box, because it responds well to your playing and has "feeling" (more so than various Pods and V-amps I've encountered). It even works quite well for heavy leads - as long as you don't try to play metal riffs on it.

The effects are generally quite good, although the dist boxes don't hold a candle to the amp distortions, and the wahwah drives me crazy (it sounds like there's an "open" a "closed" position, that you can switch between with a pedal, only they forgot the inbetweens). Reverbs are fine, Delays very nice and flanger/phaser/chorus etc all work well when not overdone.

Then, of course, there's the problem that all amp modelers deal with. It sound's great through your headphones but crappy through an amp, and boring through a PA. And it sucks in a studio environment (I've heard the Pod is a good studio tool but I haven't tried that), always making you wish you had a real amp and a real mike instead.

I actually dropped this from my bike - it was in a thin bag and I wasn't going too fast, but still, it didn't seem to notice it. It's a tank, nothing less.

Never dealt with them directly.

If you play metal, forget it altogether.

If you want something to gig with, only buy this if you can afford something like the Atomic Reactor as well - and try them together first.

If you want something to practice at home on, with earphones or through your computer/stereo, and for easy demo recording, and you play anything but metal - this is the thing for you, I'm sure you'll love it. I've loved it - and hated it, for several years now.

This desktop unit is easy to use, with separate sections for amp models, cab models, effects sections and separate EQ dials, all of which are clearly layed out. Patches are easy to store. MANUAL mode is easily attained, and is a nice feeature to use for moving around and experimenting with different config's. The two "Gain" dials make sense and are functional, once you understand what their intended purpose is.

Here's where i differ from much of what's been said about the TL. Valvetronix is good, to be sure; and definitely gives a tube flavor to your tone. However, all the models are just too closely aligned, and not distinct enough. For example, instead of having the full complement of amp models, for instance, you really end up just 3-4 REAL models, broken into groups serially across the amp model dial; this is because the models really end up sounding pretty much the same, as you rotate CW. The same holds for the cab models. (Recording is a somewhat different story; today's modelers are expert at generating good direct signals; but live play will be a bit of a disappointment.) The effects sections, overall, don't have enough variation either. For example, all the reverbs sound so much alike that the unit might as well just have one reverb dial. Now, the caveat here is that a modeler's signal is colored too much when running it through a normal guitar amp, which is designed around its own particular architecture. So, you can overcome this blending effect of individual models, to an extent, by connecting directly to a powered PA speaker or power amp. (If your primary amp has a direct port to the power section, you could try that option, thus bypassing the pre-amp. However, note that not all FX loops are constructed the same nor work the same as a Slave IN, and sometimes playing through it will not produce the intended results.) Or, you could try out an Atomic Amp (www.atomicamps.com), which sells specially-designed all-tube amps without a pre-amp section, intended to provide un-colored amp'ing of modellers. Just be aware that the TL is NOT as diverse a unit as you might expect, given all the positive feedback about it. (The feedback is deserved, as far as what it DOES give you, because the tones are rich and full-bodied.....but sound "processed".)

Several of the dials have developed static when rotated (my unit is less than one year old.) Also, the "Gain" and "CH Volume" dials have little spikes in volume transition as they're rotated, which is annoying when trying to make small adjustments. On the plus side, the 12AX7 tube is easily accessed on the top panel; i've swapped it out a couple of times and the results can be good, if you're looking for smoother performance than the stock tube provides. (I've also experimented with a 12AT7 tube, which is a lower-powered pre-amp version of a 12AX7, and this is nice for some of the models, but not so good for others.)

No opinion.

I wouldn't recommend the TL to anyone who's never tried other processors and modelling pre-amps, unless you buy from a retailer with at least a 30-day return policy. This is because you may very well end up finding another processor, for less $'s, that you like better. For example, Digitech's new RP350 goes for less than the TL, with greater diversity and options, and sounds great. That goes for the Behringer modeler as well .... less expensive, and a good variety of features. Vox has a good product here for sure, but it's NOT the only player in town, in this price range.