Vox Tonelab LE

This unit is very easy to use Ive been a line 6 user and the tonelab le rules.You have to understand how the unit funtions with the valve reactor circut and after that you will be able to get any sound you want except a distortion pedal and wah at the same time. just figure out what your favorite pedal is and add it to the insert or just add a wah there.

I use fender and Ibanez guitars with this they both sound good sometimes you may want to make different patches for different guitars one with hums and ones with singles.
this unit is not noisey very good noise reduction..
I use mine with a tech 21 sound engine or for bigger gigs I use it with a crate power block tonelab le into the back of the power block very cool rig with the power block I use a peavey 2x12 vertical cab.
I can get any sound I casn think of out of it.
I really like all of the effects.
I changed from line 6 to digitech rp1000 loved that but then I tried the tonelab I fell in love with it went online learned a few tricks here and there now its my main rig..

should be fine if you take care of it only had mine a little while

never used them yet but I assume that they have to be good come on its vox!!!!

Ive been playing music for 40 years I'm 47 I've had almost every kind of modeler out there. I'm more than happy with the tonelab le I'm thinking on trying to score a tonelab se because of the amp channel switching.I would definatly buy a new one if stolen or broken. if you want a all around recording and live performance tool this is it...go get one an see for your self you wont be dissapointed I guarante that...
this unit might not have as many effects as other modelers but what it does have smokes the compition

Good sounds are easy enough so long as you read the manual and understand the output configuration, and listen to their suggestions as far as amp and cab combination go.

Editing is dead easy. Twirl the chicken head knob for amp, delay, mod or reverb, then use the 6 multifunction knobs to edit the parameters. Again, a good read of the manual will get you up to speed. I like the interface way better than the POD X3 because it is simple.

There is a manual and it is quite good. Contains some nice usability tips to get you started down the right tonal path. Compared to the Line6 manuals for the POD X3, this is great. No tips there.

I'm using this direct to the board and through a PA, or at home through studio monitors and direct to disk through my DAW software. I use Ibanez SZ series and a Schecter C-1 Classic guitars, with Duncan Distortion and Duncan '59 pickups in them.

It's only got a bit of noise on really high gain settings, but nothing that a touch of the noise reduction doesn't help. Actually, pretty quiet compared to the POD X3 on those types of patches.

The effects aren't bad at all. Some are quite good, actually. The modulation effects like the multi-tap chorus can be dialed in nice and lush, as well as the phaser, flanger, etc. The delays sound just fine for my tastes too. Reverbs are okay, but I almost never use reverb.

My favorite are the stomp overdrives. Used with the right amp, they really complete the picture. US Modern High Gain (Soldano SLO) with the Tube OD in front of it gives an awesome 80's Hair/brown sound.

This unit seems to get trashed in reviews for its purported inability to do high gain. Coming from a unit that does high gain pretty well, the POD X3, I have to say that I kinda think the LE does it even better. It's all in the tweaking, but I was able to get some really, really good 80's Hair, 80's metal, and even modern metal sounds from the unit. Although you'd never guess this was possible from the YouTube videos out there. Almost all of them don't do the LE justice in that department.

The low to mid-gain tones and clean tones are also fantastic, as you might expect. The AC30 model, naturally, is spot on. Boutique clean is probably my favorite, next to a cleaner plexi sound.

Overall, the quality of the amp and cab models are fantastic, even compared to the POD. I like the fact that you don't have to mess with mic models. Everything sounds more like a real cab than some compressed, mic'd up, artificial sound. I don't know if there's mic models in there or not, but if there are, they are really transparent. True, you don't have the variety of the POD, but the quality of what's there is far better.

The case is made of metal. Compared to the X3 Live, which is made mostly of plastic, the LE feels like quality stuff. The switches feel better, the expression pedal is great, knobs and buttons feel okay.

Would I use it without backup? No. Who would? But I feel far better about its fragility, or lack thereof, than I do about the X3 Live.

I guess we'll see how it does in the long run. I have a decent padded bag for it, so it'll be treated well.

Have contacted Korg via email in the past about some Marshall stuff and they responded very quickly, within 24 hours. That's fine by me.

I've been playing for 25 years. Own a couple of tube amps and a bunch of nice pedals. I play in an 80's Hair metal cover band and also play contemporary Christian rock at church.

I investigated this unit mainly because while I love my amp and pedals, they are heavy and inconvenient to take to church. So I thought I'd get a modeler just to cover that. Imagine my surprise when I found this would even make a nice backup rig for the heavier gig too? So it's become more for me than just a worship solution. I'm also going to use it for recording heavier stuff too.

Favorite feature has got to be the valve reactor circuit. It really does work as advertised. You can dial in the right amount of power tube distortion separately from the preamp gain. You can't do that on a POD. And it actually sounds real.

I've owned two PODxt's, a POD XT Live, POD X3, POD X3 Live, and POD X3 Pro. Needless to say, I'm VERY familiar with the POD product line and how to get good tones from them. So my comparison of the LE is against the PODs. The LE beats them handily in the amp/cab part of the equation. Sure, the POD has some slightly better routing options and maybe even better effects. And there are some features the LE is missing, like the ability to run a stomp and wah at the same time. But I'm not missing that at all.

Totally helps me make music rather than getting in the way. With the POD, I'd be tweaking for days to get a good sound. The LE lets me get a good sound quickly and focus on playing rather than tweaking. But make no mistake, you could tweak your little heart out with this unit if you wanted to, because there are so many good sounds.

I swore when I got rid of my X3 Pro a few months ago that I'd never use another modeler. I was wrong.

This is an update to a previous post. See Reliability....

Update to previous post - I have been able to get some fantastic, realistic sounds from this pedal and use it routinely in place of an amp on stage in my classic rock band.

This is an update to a previous post. I'm starting to be really disappointed in the quality of this pedal. After two years of light gigging, keeping it in a case, I am having numerous problems with the controls. The plastic piece that activates the waa-waa broke off during the first six months and the local dealer has been unable to replace the part (it's been on order for a year and a half!). The basic up and down selector foot switches are now unreliable and the plastic selectors for the pedal, amp, mod, reverb, delay stick in the down position causing them to change parameters spontaneously. Yesterday, one of the four programming switches near the display just popped off and fell into the case leaving an open hole in the case where it used to be. So going forward, I'll have to use the computer interface to change those parameters. A few weeks ago, the handle just tore right off of the gig-bag that came as an "extra". Don't be fooled by the rugged Vox look, this thing is extremely delicate!

Non-existent. There doesn't appear to be any way of working with them directly and the dealers are not really interested in helping.

Still a great-sounding pedal but who know how much longer this thing will last. My Korg A4 from the 80's was bashed around mercilessly and every function still works perfectly 24 years later!

It's very easy to make some perfect sounding presets. After a few minutes of learning about the different functions, pedals, effects and amps/cabinets, playing with it, i've already been able to make some perfect sounding basic sounds like clean, crunch, distortion and lead who will get me throug a gig. Do you want an incredible perfect sounding guitar during the following gigs, then it will take some time because this box is loaded with superb functions.

I use two Tech 21 Powerengines. THE ONLY WAY TO get your sound right. You can throw your tonelab in the mixer and hear it back through monitoring but that's not the way to do it. You want to "feel" the tube of your LE on stage. My two tech's give me the feeling that i play through a huge stack with an amp full off tubes. The effects are very good, not of superb quality i think but when you put it all together i don't think that you would hear the difference on stage. Some distortions sound to " fuzzy" so i won't use them but others are great. You CAN'T create a useful death metal sound with a tonelab and some techs but a bit of metallica isn't a problem. You CAN create a perfect ACDC or even Van Halen sound. Even a beautiful crunch sound is one of the options. The acoustic simulator doesn't really function quite well, a cheap acoustic guitar sounds far better. There are enough effects, amps and pedals to make you sound like the guitarhero's of today. Just try them (trial and error). The only extra i wished for is a dual delay to sound like The Edge. When you use the Tonelab with a Tech Powerengine be sure to set the tonelab on line 2. DON'T use the amp setting. My first impression of the LE wasn't a very good one. I found out that the amp setting has not much treble at all. Yow will need the Treble boost to get the distortion you like. Your guitarsound will not be as " sparkling" as a guitar has to sound in my opinion. You get a rather dull sound. After using the equalizer of LINE 2 even my bandmembers where impressed, LE RULES. Try it!!!!!

Ok, this is not a good point. The Tonelab switches are from poor, poor, quality. Check the forums. I have bought an extra le for backup because i don't want a switch to disfunction during a gig...... During practice it's just very irritating, during a gig it's the perfect nightmare (had it already, you DON'T want one of your preset numbers to fall out....)There seems to be a fix but i haven't tried it already. SOUND is great, Reliability, sorry a huge drama....

N.v.t.

I play in a cover rockband and the LE is THE perfect thing to take to a gig. Big problem are the damn switches but it's sounds that good that i will have to live with that.

I've owned the Tonelab LE for over a year. I recently built a pedalboard out of separate pedals and was thinking of selling the Tonelab. But then I played with the Tonelab over the last weekend and I realized it can do so much more than separate pedals. I use the Tonlab LE editor on a computer to create patches and it's really well designed. It can uncover lots of hidden features in the unit and allows for deep patch editing. I've been using the expression pedal with a number of different functions. My favorite expression pedal setting is to drive the A-GAIN from just before crunch to full drive - this allows me to play clean for some parts of a song and then drive it into overdrive with my foot instead of using the guitar's volume knob. I can't do that with separate pedals.

Get the Tonelab LE editor !

Built in noise suppressor is great - most people have a hard time finding the control since you have to press AMP and CAB to control it. Again, get the editor and it all becomes obvious.

I use this unit into either the return of a Peavey Classic 30 or the return of my Tech21 Trademark 60. Both sound amazing. I am using the Tonelab for amp emulation - all of the Fenders are great, the Marshalls are great, the Vox's are throaty (but many are also dull), and the Soldano and Mesa emulations sound awesome.

I play with an American Strat, an Epi Les Paul and a Fender American Tele - all sound great.

I was thinking of getting a nice Fender Tube amp lately, but I am very satisfied with the Fender amp emulation of the Tonelab.

Solid !

Don't know

Play rock, blues, jazz - many great tones from this unit.

Been playing for 40+ years.

I would buy another if it were lost or stolen.

I compare this against my separate pedals and I'm starting to see the benefit with having all of this tightly integrated.

The only complaint is that the WAH, COMP, and DISTORTION are all on the same control - there are times I wish I could enable a few of these at the same time. This unit does have the ebility to connect with external effects, so I might start using that element for an external WAH.

Is easy to use, I was reading the manual a little, but sometimes is confusing, and some features are not very easy to find, having a mistake is very easy specially with the assignable footswitch and the expression pedal.

I don't know what to put here, because some sounds are the best compared with my old digitech RP2000.
when I was reading some reviews and several reviews with 10, I said "I must have one of this", I was playing a little in a store and it was wonderful, a really nice valve sound. but some days after at home, with headphones, a small fender amp, to the computer, direct to PA, trying several patches, and creating new ones, I find the sad reallity. This procesor is not what want. it has 16 models of amps but one half are usable, the rest are bad or similar to the others. it have only the "vox" tone, so is difficult to find a fender or marshall tone in this processor and other different sounds.This processor is good for crunch, it have a vast variety, but is not really good with clean tone and distortions,some distortions are noisy and I have to put the noise-gate at a very high value but this cut the picking, very ugly. The effects are good but are few effects.

Is very big and heavy, but the worse part is that have few effects,poor in effects and other features, you can't mix some effects, I tried mixing the metal stomp box and a distorted modeled amp tryin to get a brutal distortion and something weird apeared, the sound gone and appeared something similar to "envelope effect". weird, and bizarre.

I've beeng playing during 11 years, all kinds of music specially the 80's music, my favourite player is Joe Satriani, and it was impossible to find his tone with this thing(I use Ibanez Js-100 guitar) , I needed a powerfull and expressive distortion. and the same with other artist like paul guilbert, david gilmour, etc. I checked the Eruption Patch, it sounds great but the sound get lost in some passages. I think I got the best sound with earphones, trhu the PA system, and a solid state amp the richness of the valve sound was lost , and is a little difficult to get in tone with pa system I will not do it. there's nothing better than an authenthic valve amp(mic-ed to the pa)and I preffer the multieffects more than stompboxes.
I am regret. I'm going to sell this procesor, with a big discount mmm.

For the most part, the unit is quite intuitive. You may very well have to read the manual, though, as I couldn't figure out how to set tap tempo without it. (Which reminds me, the index in the manual is useless. So good luck with that. But the manual itself is mostly clear and simple.) The one thing I found not intuitive (and actually kind of stupid -- more on that in the "overall" section) is the order of the insert effects. But again, the manual is very clear on this point.

There is one semi-major issue in this category, though: the tuner. It is not accessible via footswitch. Um...why not? Seriously, that's a pretty basic thing. The bass guitarist is going into a 24-bar solo; I just abused my whammy bar and want to make sure I'm still in tune, but in order to do that I have to kneel down on a dark stage and try to find the button?! No. I'll use a separate one, thank you.

This thing has such gorgeous overdrive! I can't believe it. It breaks up so beautifully I never want to stop playing!

Which is why it's such a shame that it takes so much effort to get many usable tones from it. I dialed in a modern rock sound with no trouble whatsoever, but it took me HOURS to get a decent classic rock tone out of it.

The main problem is that almost none of the basic amp models have much treble to offer. I'm using an Ibanez RG series guitar, which was made for shredding, so it has high end to spare. And yet, I can't get even do a pinch harmonic on most of the default settings. Thankfully there is a treble boost "pedal" which solves this problem, but then I can't use any other overdrive pedal.

There's also the fact that there aren't any devoted clean amps. We have a slew of OD/distortion pedals to choose from, but the only way to get a clean base tone is to set an amp gain to no more than 3. Any particular reason for that? Apparently they didn't have jazz (or clean blues) players in mind when they designed this thing.

I also should point out that none of the amp models really sound that different from each other. Yes, they have their own subtleties and the EQ sounds different on each of them, but they still sound like basically the same amp. On the bright side, this actually fixes one of the main problems amp modelers tend to have. Usually you can select a clean tone, a crunch tone and a high gain tone, but rarely will they match. Sometimes they'll be so mismatched that is literally sounds like you switched amplifiers in the middle of a song. But most if not all of the amp models on the TLLE are compatible with each other. Tweak a few settings, and you can switch from one to another without it sounding unnatural.

It also sounds great when sending it into a recording device. At least, it sounded great in my Micro BR.

I haven't had it for very long. It's made of metal, with plastic knobs. So I think it should hold up and long as I don't step on it in the wrong places.

I play mostly classic rock, but I like to do some modern stuff once in a while. And when I'm in the mood I'll do some jazz or blues. I know you can't find an amp that runs the gamut of styles, but isn't that the point of putting so many amp models on a unit like this? But this one takes so much effort to get a usable tone for anything but modern rock or heavy metal. Still, when you finally do get the sound you're looking for, it will make sweet love to you like you wouldn't believe. The breakup on this thing is awesome. I've used the DigiTech GNX series, and I have yet to hear a realistic tone from a POD. This is easily the winner in the category of modeling tone.

Yet Vox made some odd decisions with the TLLE. For one thing, there's no footswitch for the tuner, making it too inconvenient to use in a live setting. Also, they included an effects loop, but it's inserted AT THE BEGINNING of the chain! Other than having a (non-footswitchable!) button to turn on/off the loop, this is pointless! You can just hook your effect(s) up to the input and get exactly the same result! Why didn't they give us a standard effects loop -- immediately before the power amp/output? Like I said, odd decision.

Nor can you use a wah pedal and an OD/distortion pedal at the same time. This isn't really a big deal, since you can use a wah with a cranked amp sim (but then, no treble boost), or you can put your own wah pedal in front of the unit. But it still would have been nice to have more of an option in that regard.

The TLLE also lacks any kind of CD/audio input, which I thought had become fairly standard on these units. I treasured the "learn a lick" feature on my DigiTech unit, but there's nothing of the kind here. No biggie, but it's conspicuous in its absence.

So I can't give it a 10, but overall I am very pleased with it...as long as I have the patience to work on finding a good tone!

Super easy to use. Within minutes of taking it out of the box I was tweaking and creating patchs. Those who say this unit is hard to use, must not be too bright. Its probably the easiest of all the modelling units out there. If you can tweak an amp you can tweak this,if not then , I dont know,.....buy a kazoo or something. Editing patches=dial in a sound---hit "write" twice---done---easy. I only had to get into the manual to get into the deeper editing functions, like assigning stuff to the pedal and the "pedal" button. The manual is easy to understand. If you can read at a 7th grade level you'll have no problems.

I use several different guitars. Mostly strat styled with humbuckers. I also use a strat with a single coil and suprise....its a bit noisy, just like it is when plugged into ANY amp. It has some hiss when using high gain settings.....just like all amps,or amp simulators do. The noise gate is pretty effective, not great but good. The effects are very good. My only gripe is that the Wah and the Distortions are on the same dial, so you cant use them together. Not a big problem unless you're doing Hendrix, but still kind of a dopey oversight on Vox's part. I use this thing thru my computer with the stock soundcard into a Bose 2.1 speaker setup. I think it sounds great. When I play live, which is usually 3-6 times a month I go direct into the PA and use the stage monitors as my only monitors. Been doing it this way for @ a year and I love it. Hearing myself blended with the rest of the band thru the monitors makes it easy to adjust my picking dynamics, volume etc. so it sounds like your listening to the band thru a stereo. And BTW this thing responds to changing the volume knob on my guitar just like a real amp. I rarely ever use a straight up clean setting, to get clean I just roll the volume down and it sounds sweet. I play in two praise and worship bands, and I can get any tone I need. My favorite is a "Lincoln Brewster" tone that I've dialed in that sounds unbelievable. Some have commented that this thing will "never sound like a tube amp"! I agree it wont like a GOOD tube amp, although I've heard some of the lower end tube amps that dont sound as good as this. To get a good sounding tube amp, most will agree ya gotta crank it. At lower levels, I.E. conversation and bedroom levels the Tonelab LE will definately give them a run for the money. Also its just not a fair comparison to run the Tonelab thru your computer speakers and compare it to the tube amp sitting right beside you. The Tonelab is designed to sound like a "mic'd" amp. If you want an A/B comparison you need to isolate your amp in another room, mic it into your computer and then compare them. It'll be a lot closer than you might think. If you want it any closer you'll just have to pony up a couple of grand for a GOOD amp, another $1500 or so for the effects and you'll be set.

No problems in a year. I gig with it all the time. No I wouldnt gig with it without a backup, that would be insane with any amp. Always have a backup.

Never needed.

Been playing off and on for 20 yrs, pretty much daily the last 4 yrs or so. I've owned Marshall, Fender, Peavey and Carvin amps, tube and SS. This thing suits my current needs well. Plug-n-Play. I'd replace it if lost or stolen. I compared it to Zoom, Line6 and Digitech before buying. I picked the Tonelab cause it sounds better, more organic, than the others, and because of the user friendly nature of it.

I found the interface easy to use. Of course I read the manual a bit first, but 5 minutes were enough to understand the basics and get me going. It's not necessary to read it, but it will make your life easier as is usually the case with manuals. It is very well written by the way, and it is very enlightening to check it now and then. There's always some new trick to learn, and info about the characteristics of every amp and effect it emulates. I've used several similar units over the last 9-10 years, including synths and digital consoles with lcd interface and knob controls, and this one felt pretty comfy. Once you select your amp and cab model, the buttons' functions are pretty obvious. As for the fx section, there's only the limitation that you can use only 4 of them simultaneously. So that's the only point to consider as a drawback if you like to have 10 fx stacked at the same time. However, I am an fx person myself and sometimes I like to make my guitar sound like a 70's movie spaceship, but up to now I haven't had a need for that 5th effect. So I don't consider it to be a significant drawback.

I use it both for practice and recordings. I've played it mostly with an epiphone les paul standard of the 700euro quality, tuned in drop C for heavy stuff (got some killer sepultura-slipknot sounds out of it) and also with a teisco 67 del rey (vintage, collective, 3 single coil pu's, E-tuning) for sounds including funk, blues, pink floyd, rock'n'roll, punk, radiohead-mogwai experimental sounds, etc.
In every case it did the job perfectly. I am especialy in love with its emulation of the fender twinverb (including the fender tremolo and spring reverb fx). It is exceptionaly realistic with the vintage models, but I was completely satisfied with the modern ones as well. It is to me as close as it gets to the actual amps.
The fx are also very wisely chosen and very well emulated and I've had lots of fun stacking and synchronizing delays together to create those complicated pink floyd long-tailed sounds. I give it a 9, considering 10 to be the sound of the actual amps it emulates. As I said, I can't imagine anything getting any closer.

I've had it for some time now and I've been tweaking it a lot on an everyday basis, and it never complained. It looks reliable to me. But it doesn't look like it would survive a fall or someone stepping hard on it with boots for example. So I give it an 8 considering that it looks rather sensitive to bashing hits and mistreatment. But if handled with respect and reason I think it will survive many years of frequent use.

No idea. I hope I'll never have to know as with all my equipment.
The website is ok though, providing software to tweak and exchange patches which is very useful.

Generaly I would consider this unit to be mostly an amp-cab emulator rather than a multi-fx unit because they focused on making the most out of its tube, to make it emulate the amps accurately. It has a great variety of amps and cabs with even more combinations so it's what the name says, a lab where you shape your tone. Not an fx unit. However it has enough fx (both in quantity and quality) to cover all my needs, especially for a gig, where the outboard fx are limited compared to a recording studio. Even so, I would have bought it at the same price even for just the amps & cabs section now that I know how they sound. If lost/stolen I would buy it again. I give it a 10 because it gave me so many great sounding amps making my practising and my studio recordings very versatile and wide in genres, for a very good price.

Let me start off by saying why I bought the Vox Tone Lab LE. As you well know guitarist are a fickled bunch on the whole. Always looking for that ever elusive tone that sometimes only exists in there minds. They will buy anything in there quest to find that one unit that will do it all for them. Unfortunately that unit does not exist nor will it ever be created, and with so much to chose from there search goes on. Unit after unit there dreams go up in fire in this maddening process. While technology moves forward so do they at a cost that borders on schiz??o??phre??ni??a.
I to was once a part of this madness but no longer. After previewing all that the God???s had to offer I have chosen the Vox to die with. Now I don???t care if you personally what to mock my choice or point out to me what sounds you hear in your head, but pound for pound and dollar for dollar this unit has the retro sounds from are beloved past. No it wont give you everything that you want, but it will come close enough to make you happy and sane again.

Sound wise it is the warmth that stands out above the rest of them. Most of the effects are quite good and can be tweaked to your hearts content. Again I use the word retro sounding, which most of the other manufactures have failed to capture. Some have said that it does not do well when it comes to recording? Well let me put your minds to rest by saying that after 25 years of recording it is a pleasure to hear the results of this unit. Song after song the Vox did its job more then admirably. Either you have the chops and the ear to get good results will determine the outcome of your recordings. Turn a knob, chose an effect, pick an amp, tweak , and then hit record button and your on your way. Everything about this unit is first rate, its just up to you to find its potential. Oh by the way I had two Line 6 pod units and almost wound up in a mental institution. You guys know what I am talking about, even though you don???t want to admit it. For you gear junkies its about time you got a life.

Never had a problem and its been 8 months now.

No matter what company you dont what to go through this.

Its got nearly everything that I need to perform and to record. Sound wise nothing out there can beat its warm tone and killer effects in one housed unit. Vox is marching to a different drummer and I love what they have done. Been playing now for more then 25 years, and I don???t need to blow smoke out of my *** when it came to this review.