Vox Tonelab LE

i use a tonelab se now and just bought the tonelab le.Its practically identical and sounds fabulous. editor is just like the se editor..smooth and simple to use and the amps sound excellent..the effects are very analog sounding too.

super just like the the tonelab se..

built l;ike a tank..already took it apart to try out different tubes.

never dealt with them.

I see that vox uses a 12ax7 electroharmonix tube now(smart) instead of the crap groove tube sovtek think the se came with...but i changed the tube in the le to a groove tube mullard type-which sounds more rounded and full but to change the tube in the LE...is a real pain..you have to literally take it all apart now and remove a circuit board-no biggie really..but vox didnt obviuosly want you to get to the tube....the EH tube is definately decent... but i was just wanting to try my trusty mullard type tube.

I love the tonelabs and feel they sound the most realistic of all modelors for amp and cabinet...effects are very very analog sounding like real guitar effects should sound.

To the past poster about his dissapointment..We all have to realize no 1 unit will answer all our prayers. The tone reactor circuit really works and does sound warm.I had the ADA unit which was cool but sold it like 10 years ago not realizing what it really was...i think the tlLE missed the mark on the fact that even though you can have an a/b channel with different amps they MUST use the SAME effects...this is a poor oversight and only required doubling the processor and adding a few more buttons...I would have paid $100-150.00 more for this on the LE...for sure...but i have had every modelor and i praise the vox for its true tube tone and ease of use..i also use the pod xtl and variax and really think that unit is wonderful as well for what it can do.
The roland/boss gt-8 i had for 8 months and just felt it was sterile and cold sounding i even had the vg88 ver2 and sold that because it was really the same amps and cabs as the gt-8 and it too sounded cold and 1 dimensional...too bad because as usual rolands effects were plenty and a tweekers dream(or nightmare).

The gnx3000 i have is being sold now as while it did sound good it was to my ears a bit flat and dull..but i liked it above the gt-8.

When I found out there would be a new Tonelab I immediately got on the phone to Vox to ask some pertinet questions. I was none to happy with the answers.

What the hell Vox? Would it be so difficult to fix the couple flaws in the design? I love the 12ax7 tube as power amp but NO this is not so groundbreaking as they would lead you to believe.

There is a pretty old and hard to find 1U rack piece called the Ampulator from the long defunct ADA that had way more control over what could be done with the signal and it was done in an all analog signal path.

If Vox put a MIDIfied and preferably stereo rack version of just the output section of the tonelab I would be all over it. The very least they could do is fix the GIGANTIC flaw in the unit.

THE FX LOOP is in a crappy place of the signal path. If you can't make it freely assignable in the signal path ala the Boss GT series and some other boxes, at least put it between the preamp and power amp sections like a real amp. I want to place my Digitech Whammy (and certain other FX like my ADA MP-2, 535Q Wah, etc.)after the preamp but before the power amp like they should be for certain sounds. Failing this I would at least like to be able to turn off the preamp section altogether but still be able to adjust the power amp section to my liking.

The other big flaw is that too many FX are dumped into the pedal section. I can't even set up a proper Hendrix style signal path. Adding another section with duplicate FX would suffice. I and many others would be willing to pay extra $$$ for a properly designed and outfitted floorboard or rack.

This unit does have some great tones but its lack of proper integration is keeping me from purchasing. If these issues (in particular the FX loop) are addressed in a later unit I will be first in line to purchase.

End Rant

Having waited for a couple of weeks, I got mine today. I haven't used the Tonelab SE, so I cannot make a comparison in terms of ease of use but I guess that it is pretty much the same. After plugging it, I was playing in a couple of seconds. The manual is well prepared. The quick start guide helps you browse the patches quickly but I found myself going through all the manual after 30 minutes since I want to know all the features it provides. I would definetly suggest using the tonelab editor software (you have to download from VOX's site) on your PC if you have MIDI ports since it helps you see the details of each patch. You can tweak all the controls in real time through the PC which is great. Editing patches is quite easy even on the device itself.
There are 120 programs which are organized into 30 banks. The bank up/down buttons switch the banks. There are 4 stomp buttons which are either used to select the one of the 4 programs in that bank or used to turn individual effects on and off. Switching between these two modes is done by holding down the bank up button. They used different colored leds for each mode so, even at a dark stage you would easily distinguish it.
The SE version had two channels for each program like most of the real amps. VOX has taken that out as far as I've seen but that is not a big deal since that doesn't make a difference if you use separate programs as different channels or use 2 channels in each program.
It doesn't have a separate tuner display like the SE version but instead, it displays the tuner on the main LCD screen when you activate the tuner with one button.

I fell in love with tones that this processor delivers. I love tube amps and know the tones that a good cranked tube amp can deliver. Tonelab is pretty close to the real thing. I've heard people complain about the lack of high gain tones in the Tonelab SE but this one has great high gain sounds for my taste. Maybe it is the same, but i can't compare since I didn't play through Tonelab SE before.
All the effects that I need is there and they sound pretty good. I haven't looked into the clean tones much since I played with my Les Paul only until now but I will try the clean sounds with my Strat later.

I looks pretty solid so I would gig without a backup.

Haven't dealt with them and I hope I never will have to.

I play rock and blues. I have two guitars -a Les Paul Custom and a Strat which I play through a Peavey Classic. I have been playing for 14 years.

Some more things to mention:

There is only one expression pedal (instead of the 2 in the SE version) which you can assing to control different settings. Having 2 would be better but one would need 2 in rare cases I guess. There is also a control button which you can assign different settings to.
There are two things that I didn't like so far. First, you can select only one pedal at a time which means that you cannot have a compressor and a wah at the same program. Nothing has changed here from the SE version. Secondly, I don't understand why the external effects loop is not moveable in the chain. The external effect loop comes before the pedal effect which closes the door to many different combinations.
I was about to buy the big brother Tonelab SE but there were several reasons why I've waited for this unit to be available:
1) The SPDIF output
2) Better high gain sounds (VOX says so)
3) The master EQ at the output
4) Smaller size compared to the SE version

I have many stompboxes and a tube amp which I was carrying to the rehearsal and the gigs all the time and I hated carrying that many stuff especially for the rehearsals and spending 20 minutes each time to tweak my settings on the stompboxes. I looked into Boss GT-8, Zoom G9.2tt, Tonelab SE and POD XT before I bought this one. Having a tone similar to a real amp is quite important for me and I wouldn't sacrifice it even to the great flexibility that GT-8 provides.

I am quite happy with it although I wish it provided more flexibility in number of pedals at a time and the effects chain thing.