Vox Tonelab SE

I find that this piece is pretty easy to edit, even just using the floorboard. Editing with the PC is a little easier, and is nice since you can save your patches on your computer, but I would not consider it necessary to have a PC with MIDI in order to get around on the pedal well. It's certainly a lot easier than the PodXT Live.

I play an American Strat straight into a PA. I have played through different amps, but keep in mind that whatever amp you play through will color the sound in that way. In general, I'm a Fender tube amp and Tube Screamer type of guy, and this does a good job of recreating these vintage sounds. I don't consider many of the stock patches usable, and have created a few of my own from scratch. The Tube Screamer OD is very nice, and other ODs are good. I don't use the mod section much, but have been impressed. The delays are fine. The reverbs are good, especially the spring reverbs. I have yet to get a good, thick, ethereal verb from it, though. I am still trying to find that sound. The expression pedals sound smooth, and you will find yourself making great use of being able to set the min and max values on them, especially on the wahs and such. Does this sound as good as getting a Fender Deville and a Tube Screamer? Probably not, but its a hell of a lot cheaper, and the tones are very acceptable in my opinion.

It seems very sturdy, metal foot switches, and metal housing. Physically, it's very reliable. Electrically, I'm not yet convinced. I have heard some strange noises coming from it, even with the volume pedal off. There have been a few pops, and I'm wondering how much it was used before I bought it (I bought it used). Perhaps the tube is on it's way out? Doesn't seem likely, though. So I give it a 10 for physical reliability, and a 5 for electrical reliability. Thats a 7.

Have not yet contacted them, but might soon.

Overall, this is a very good unit for blues, classic rock, and other vintage type, tubey sounds. It is not as good as the real thing, but is a great value. Here's the thing... I'm just getting into playing the electric, and wanted a good way to get a good sound with effects, and not pay a lot of money. This has more effects than I'll ever need, and sounds great for the price. This should not replace your collection of vintage amps, but if you want a way to streamline your live setup, or get a lot of good amps and effects at a great price, then this is your thing. It doesn't do high gain sounds as well as the Pod, but those all sound like computers to me anyway. I like the blues tube sounds, and this is great for them. Go to your local music store and play it.

Easy. Using the editing on a computer with the midi interface is tits. Online patches available, some are a bit much, but with some tweaking are great.

I am using a Strat, modified Melody Maker, Hamer Echotone, and Les Paul guitars. Peavey 50 watt stereo amp, into a Marshall 4x12 cabinet, rewired for stereo. Not really noisey, some settings are though. No other effects. Found out Pat Travers uses one, had to have one.

No issues as of now,

Have not had to deal with them.

Play classic rock and blues. Been palying for over 30years, have an original Mark 1 boogie and a Fender Blues DeVille 4x10. Use them for back ups, but so far have not needed them. Would buy again if stolen.
Have had many stomp boxes, would reccomend to any one.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? Easy. Plug it in and try the various default patches...many "good" sounds right out of the box.

The real question is how easy it is to get a "great" sound out of it...and I do realize that these are subjective terms (good/great/etc), but please bear with me. To get a "great" sound out of the TLSE, you will have to have a PC w/MIDI connectivity so you can use the TLSE Sound Editor software. Editing patches via the TLSE itself can be done, but it is MUCH easier to edit patches and experiment via the TLSE Sound Editor. This is why I gave the TLSE a '6' in Ease of Use...to me, '10' is plug it in and it works perfectly...'9' is plug it in, push one button and it works perfectly...'8' is turn a few knobs etc...'7' is get out the manual and tweak knobs...'6' means you'll have to spend some time in the manual and hooking up other stuff to get at the sound you're looking for.

To echo the often heard complain about having the compressor pedal in with all the other effects pedals, I worked around this issue by putting a rack compressor in the effects loop on the TLSE. Since I run compression with everything I play, this workaround works very well for me...plus the rack compressor sounds better to me than most (if not all) stompbox compressors out there. I also run a rack EQ on the stereo outputs to give final EQ, but I usually only use it when I have to tweak for PA/venue differences.

Having said ALL of that, once you get your TLSE dialed-in, it is a wonderful sounding machine. I love mine!

(Very good manual, good patch editing software, firmware rev 1.000.)

'10' doesn't exist in this plane of existence...'9' would be owning all of the actual hardware that the TLSE emulates...given that, the TLSE is a '7' to '8'. Given the fact that I love my TLSE, I'll round up and give it an '8'.

I'm using my TLSE with:

- Guitar: Carvin Bolt-Kit (mahogany body, maple neck, ebony fingerboard, C22B bridge, TBH60 twinblade humbuckers in the mid and neck.)

- Amps: I run it through a pair of Roland MA-12C powered micro-monitors in the house. At church and abroad, I use house PA.

- Insert effects: Behringer Composer Pro MDX2200 rack compressor

- Post effects: Nady GEQ15 dual 15-band rack EQ


Can I get the sound of my favorite artists? Pretty much everyone I've taken time to try and emulate. Brian May and Sabbath are pretty easy to dial in without much trouble. (Don't expect to be able to exactly match Mr. May's sound unless you have a 'Red Special' replica and spend the necessary time in the woodshed. :) )

If you're looking to emulate a particular artist, the Tonelab (not TonelabSE) come with a lot of artist-specific patches, many are quite close right out of the box. If you have a TLSE and want to use the TL patches, you can swap them around via the Sound Editor software. (The software comes with the default patches for both the Tonelab and TonelabSE.) I'd recommend starting with those patches and experimenting until you get the sound you're looking for. It's pretty easy to get the sound you're after with a few spare hours to experiment (and yes, it can be done much quicker than 'hours'...I enjoy experimenting with my patches, so it takes me a bit longer to get new patches to where I consider them 'done'.)

I really don't use all of the effects, but the only effects/features I'm not super fond of are: 1) compression (it sounds like the cheaper stompbox MXR compressor that it was modeled after...no surprise there) and 2) noise gate (I use the noise gate on my Behringer rack compressor, as it has more settings and doesn't clamp down so damn hard like the TLSE noise gate.)

Bottom line: Very good sound quality with a few gotchas (that can be worked around pretty easily and inexpensively.)

Can I depend on the TLSE? You betcha. It is built VERY solidly. The only minor pain is having to keep a hex-wrench and spare ECC83 tube in my TLSE road case, but that's the price you pay to have tubes in your gear. :)

Would I use it on a gig without a backup? I would and I do. I've had no surprises or failures from it after 5 months of heavy usage.

I've never had to deal with customer support yet, so I can't comment as to the quality of VOX customer support.

In the sub-$1000 category, I've not found an amp modeling effects processor that sounds as good as the TonelabSE. There are others that are easier to use, but don't sound as good to my ear.

But don't take my word for it...go A/B the Tonelab with all of its competitors in this price range. At the very least, you'll find it very competitive with anything in the sub-$1000 category. I did this and eventually settled on the TonelabSE...and I am not sorry that I did. Great product!

First things First! I purchased this from an Internet Music Store and am still in the trial period. I have the option to return this item for several more weeks. So, I haven't decided if it's a keeper or not for I have a couple of issues with it (as seen below).

Easy to use right out of the box. If you are not familiar with Multi-Fx's I believe you can still be tweaking and editing in just a short while. I have had other Brands which had a much more steep learning curve.

I use a American Telecaster and a Fender Twin Reverb Reissue amp. The tonelab se goes inbetween the two.

The overall sound quality is great! I just recently sold all of my Boutique and Modded Pedals (Not calling any names here), and to my ears, this tonelab sounds as good, if not better, than the much more expensive modded stuff out there.

There are only two issues I have thus far with the Tonelab. 1)- Is that some of the Presets (even after tweaking) sound like someone threw a Blanket over my amp. That's not acceptable to me. However, there are several presets that don't; so that tells me it's just a matter of "dialing it in" when it comes to the tones. 2)- is the fact that you can only use 4 of the many, many effects simultaneously. That's a real bummer! This unit is not like my old Boss GT6 where you can stack and layer as many effects as you could shake a stick at. So, BE AWARE OF THIS BEFORE YOU BUY IT. I like to use compression on just about everything I do; but with this pedal you have to choose between Compression, Overdrive, Distortion or one of the other offerings. So, what I am saying is: You are somewhat limited here! If anyone reading this review know how to get around this issue, email me and let me in on it.

I did find out how to put the pedal in a Manual Mode within any given preset and in that mode I can use the four pedals to turn off and on any of the four categories of effects "on the fly". This is a cool feature. Let me add here that there is no delay in sound when swithing channels or turning effects on and off.


As far as the Distortions go; I haven't played a better sounding box yet! I can dial in everything from Extreme Clean to Mild OD to Full Distortion (anything beyond that isn't of interest to me).

The quality of the Delays, Reverbs, etc... are very good. Remember, I had all the boutique stuff and TO MY EAR I can't tell a difference except in price. My Boutique \ Modded Pedal Board costs well over $1200.00. This was 1\3 of that (with the limitations spoken of earlier of course).

Built like an American made Howitzer!

N\A

Over all I give this pedal the "Atttttaaaaa Boy!" It's a good investment for what it is for the money.

There's a lot to choose from.
That's what can make it hard to use.
However, all functions are always very accessible.

EVERTHING sounds a bit Voxy. So you have to like that flavour.
Effects are good, but the reverb (Pgggrrrrr)could have been better.

After an hour one pedal broke.
The new one I got is absolutely problemfree.

It's a very nice pedal.
You can get your own sounds with this thing.
The reverb is not too good.

I don't think this is the ULTIMATE thing, but it's certainly nice to have it around.

This is an update to my very early review of this product. I find the user interface very friendly and easy to master. The manual is good.

Using a custom ssh Strat. I bought this to play direct-to-board with ear monitors live. It became apparent early on that this unit excelled when plugged into a good tube amp's effects loop, but left something to be desired direct. I had to purchase post-eq to tame the raging upper frequencies. There are some very good sounds in this unit, and I miss it still, but...
1. You can't use the wah, compressor and fuzz pedals together, so I used a fuzz and wah in front.
2. The speaker modelling was not so great. There's a huge amount of energy beyond 6K (upper range of most 12" speakers).
3. It's prone to picking up stray noises.
4. I found the chorus/phaser/flangers to be spikey-sounding and hard to tweak to sound like analog pedals.
5. The whole package-large, heavy pedal, with external pedals and eq. What's the point of buying a digital all-in-one if you have to drag all that other crap around just to function?
Since I didn't have access to an amp where I gig I Ebayed my SE in search of something better. I'm currently using a Zoom G2 with a wah and VS Jekyll/Hyde in front, and I'm shopping for an amp and pedals.

Never had any problem with either Tonelab or SE I owned.

Never had a bad experience calling Vox, but my expectations were pretty low. I think there are 2-3 shops locally doing warranty work, so I would be covered if it broke.

If I had my SE back and could run it through a tube amp onstage I would probably be 80% satisfied, which is pretty good for me. If Vox comes out with a new version addressing some of the shortcomings I perceive (poor eq/speaker modelling direct to board, inability to use comp/wah/fuzz together)I might give it a listen.

There's tons of tonal options, so you'll be tweaking alot, most likely. The layout is user-friendly if you have any experience with mult-fx units. I had no problem figuring it out. The manual is decent and helped with the few things I couldn't figure out immediately.

I submitted a review awhile back (which I can't find) and, as I've had the unit for about 8 months now, I figured I'd give a better review now. My main guitar is a Jackson Dinky with the Sustainiac pickup (if I had the money, I'd put Sustainiac pickups on all of my guitars - just awesome).
For the record, none of the modeling gizmos I've tried over the years replicate the amps they're supposed to in any great detail. I've owned the original Line 6 modeling amp (the AXS 212 or something like that), various Digitech floor units, the Zoom GFX8, the Boss GS10, the Line 6 Pod (first version), the Vox Valvetronix AD 60 and tried the Johnson Millineum at a store. To my ears, all of them use different tone stacks (i.e., eq variations) to try and emulate different amp types, but eq is not the main ingredient for unique amp tones. The key factor is the grind. Is the grind fuzzy, mosquitoey (is that in Webster's?), loose, tight, smooth, obnoxious? In order to attempt to replicate different types of grinds, you would need very different circuits within any given unit, something that just doesn't occur with modelers. So to my ears, any given unit gives you one basic sound and varies the eq and gain level for different "models".
As for the TL, I like the basic distortion sound. It is a tad grainy and loose, for lack of better terms, but decent. It can ably cover 60's and 70's distortion sounds. To my ears, it can't really get a true metal sound. It lacks the gain and percussiveness. Presently, I'm experimenting with a Boss Metal Zone in the fx loop and that seems to be working decently, but I've gotta tweak a bit more. (Incidentally, I recently A/B'd the Metal Zone with the Line 6 Uber Metal and the Metal Zone won out).
To my ears, the clean and slightly overdriven sounds are the best that I've heard from any modeler - very warm and natural. Maybe it has something to do with the tube. The Digitech GNX modelers, for instance, as well as the Zoom GFX8 and the Boss GS10 suck in this regard (the new Zoom G9.2tt and Boss GT-8 may be better in this regard, but I haven't checked them out yet).
The FX are excellent. I love the fact that you can play chords with the harmonizer, although the sound quality doesn't sound very natural with distortion, but as good as most (interestingly, I tried the harmonizer in a TC Electronics rack unit and it farted out on chords, just like the Digitech Whammy pedal). The cross delay and reverse delay are a little whacky in terms of controlling the delay time - just a little hard to control somehow. Again, the distortion boxes all sound the same to me - same grind with different eq's - they are good for adding sustain to leads but you've gotta be careful not to set the gain too high on them or they'll add noise. Everything else - the wah's, chorus's, flange's, etc. sound great.
The overall sound doesn't seem to change much whether I play through my Vox AD60 or direct into my M-Audio Omni Studio through my KRK V6 monitors. I almost prefer the sound a hair more through the KRK's. When I was in a band last year, I played direct through the board and it sounded fine. I even tried playing through headphones for the first time the other day and it also sounded good - a little thin perhaps but that may have been the phones.

I haven't gigged out with it but it seems very sturdy - all metal.

I've e-mailed Vox a couple of times and they respond very quickly. When I first bought it I tried registering it online and couldn't get that to work. I e-mailed Vox - I got a reply the next day and Joseph Gilmartin had registered it for me!!!

I've been playing for 30 years or so (gone is the size 28" waist and white boy afro) and teach guitar part-time. I'm primarily into 70's progressive, hard rock and jazz-fusion but like anything that has some talent or depth to it. My favorite band is Yes but I love early Metallica and Megadeth (go figure)!! I detest rap (what is the ultimate oxymoron? - rap-artist)!!!! Last year, some girl told me that Eminem is a genius!!!! Okay, Einstein, Bach, Da Vinci, Heron of Alexandria, Frank Zappa, Buckminster Fuller - arguably geniuses. Eminem???? Are we devolving or what? Frank Zappa once said, "There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life." Enough pontificating........
Overall, I love this unit. It has tons of tweaking capability and sounds natural as opposed to digital or processed and is simply alot of fun.
I agree with some other reviewers that the footprint is too big, it should be smaller or at least more square. I'm a friggin' clutz and it's a little hard for me to manipulate at times. The expression pedals should be a little closer together too, if you want to do 2 controller type movements. If you wear a size 12 or larger you'll probably be okay.
The sound editor is very convenient - definitley saves my already battle-torn neck and back from constantly bending over, and you can save tons more presets than the unit has by itself.
If it got stolen, I might consider purchasing it again. I might also consider checking out the Boss GT-8 and the Zoom G9.2tt, as they seem like they have even more tweakability (and cost a bit less than the TL). I might check out the Fender Cybertwin SE as well. The Cybertwin seems appealing because there is less chance of sound variance in what you get. It's one whole package, as opposed to floor-based FX units where your sound can change drastically depending on what amp you use or if you go direct. Hope this all helped.

It takes some work to get some great sounds out of this unit but they are in there. It is also neat that you can download patches on the net and the fact that sounds from the desktop version is compatable.Editing couldn't be any easier.

I am no longer using an amp-I use the Se to one output into the Pa going through a beringer guitar DI ( the red one) and the other out to a keyboard amp-you need to use a full range amp with this unit. I don't find the patches noisy but if you use the higher gain settings it can be ,but the noise suppressor works well. I find the over all effects quite good and i am getting amazing tones out of this unit. No problem getting a good rythmn patch and switching over to a nice lead patch. I used to use amps like Marshall, Peavey 5150, etc.. but one day I tried the Vox desktop at a practice and lo and behold this unit sounded as good as my amps and my other bandmates agreed and were shocked how good this thing sounded( and if it didn't they would have told me) This unit does need to be tweaked ,the factory settings do not do it justice. Like someone else on the page said ,do you buy an amp and just leave the settings where they are at the store-Of course not ! This unit is more involved than a regular amp so it takes more work to get a good sound but it is in there. By the way the guys that knock this unit do not spend enough time with it-and I know we have heard guys with great sounds out of amps and the reverse is also true. I swear that if you hid this unit and asked someone to tell you if it sounds good 99.9 % would think it sounded great. I have also owned Boss ,Digitech, zoom, roland, line 6, products and the basic guitar sounds in the Vox are the best out there.Vox concentrated on good guitar sounds first not like Line 6 who give you a zillion fancy effects but the basic guitar sounds are digital sounding.Most of the effects sound geat I have been able to ditch most of my pedals and just use the Vox SE.

Seems built very well, made of steel not plastic. You should always have some sort of back up-just in case

never dealt with them

I play rock and pop music -this unit would seem to fit most styles of music out there.Been playing for over 20 years and have been through tons of stuff. If it was stolen I would definitely get another.I feel I am getting great guitar tones and do not have to drag around tons of gear. As was said in earlier posts this unit is an amp with no speakers with the right settings will sound great.

Usage is pretty straight forward. If you have some idea how these typically work you will not need the manual. It is still good to read to know all the options but then in normal use you can do without manual.
Compared to Boss GT series and Line5 PodXT Live I definitely rank this much more user friendly.

All the ratings are made against other this type of multieffects I've owned/tried and not comparing to real tube amps and boutique stomp boxes (which would not be fair...)

My "normal" setup actually contains only pretty high quality stomp boxes with Fulltone ChoralFlanger as the last one in chain and going stereo to 2 x Hughes&Kettner Puretone heads + THD212 cabinets.

I still have time to time given a change for these multigadget to see how they are doing. This time I actually first tried Korg 3000G and was impressed as it did not ruin the sound as these typically do. I was encouraged to upgrade that Korg to VOX ToneLab SE which -as far as I know- contains the modeling engine and user interface from Korg.

Factory presets will need some tweaking. They are ok to present what you can do with this but most of them are not usable in the real game.
So I did some tweaking with headphones and pretty fast was able to create some 10-16 sounds of my own. Btw this unit does not sound so stunning with headphones as many other units I've tried do but don't get depressed wait for connection to amp...
What I was extremely happy about the sound was that when I connected the pedal to real amp (and remebered to change the output from line->amp) these created patches were usable almost as such. I did only some EQ tweaking and some minor tunig with reverb and delay levels and I had all the patches created with headphones working with amp as well. This really was not the case with Boss and Line6...

Basic sound is healthy and does not ruin your original sound. Also this very well preserves the dynimics of your playing. You can also notice the difference between different guitars (I tried the ones with humbuckers, single coils, P90's...)
What is also great is that this reacts pretty nicely to guitar volume pot. I.e. sounds can go from clean to heavily distorted by tweaking the guitar volume. Not quite as real tube amp but still amazingly close (again when compared to Boss etc...). The same sensitivity is there as well for how heavy you pick.

Amp models are all very ok and you can get nice sounds out from this. Most of the effects are also quite ok for the prize but for example chorus does not match what you can get out from Fulltone ChoralFlanger (I would even not expect as this Fulltone almost as expensive as this whole Vox unit)

There is limitations that were very well described with Chirs in a review made before. Pedal section is really a compromise as there is wah, comprssion and you can select only one. Still you get good distortions with Amp models so that part is ok but if you need compression and Wag then you have a problem.

I never know if I really use this to replace my stomp boxes in a gig but still I'm happy and will not recycle this as soon as other went. When I replace my stomp box arsenal with this there is a difference in sound but I would claim not as big as a difference of prize tags...

I have not yet tried this directly to PA so no comments on that.

Anyway a really good compromize on prize and portability and you surely can also gig with this and sound good.

If there was something good with Line6 btw, it was the flexibility provided by USB connection and all the stuff they have in their web pages but I finally need a good sound and on stage usability, not computer interface...

No opinion as I've owned it for a short period only. Seems well build.

Never tried.

I play almost everything and for the sake of versatility I do check these pedals if they are in good enough level...

This one is getting close in my books. Limitations of pedal section and quality of some effects takes the points but overall functionality and good sounding amp models gain points. So I'll give 8.

Getting a good sound out of it is the easy part. Writing tones is the hard part. I have to turn some of the settings on and off, which gets annoying at times.

The online manual is much easier to use than the book. Some of the stuff in the manual you should know before hand just from expierience, or you shouldn't be owning the system, because it will be too complex for you.

I love the sounds, especially the recreations of the 60's and 70's amps. It makes my wasted amp sound slick.

I was disappointed that the heavy metal tones weren't so great, but other than that it has everything that you can expect for a band and alot more.

I leave my tonelab sitting out alot and my family has kicked it around a bit, but so far it has been dependable. I was glad to get this instead of a POD. It is around 20 lbs (?), which is good for placing it on tables and such, because most likely when someone trips on a wire, them or my amp will fall, not the tonelab.

I don't know how reliable to tube is. Anyone have an idea?

My family ordered this for christmas, so I didn't deal with any customer support.

I've been following alot of bands, a certain one most of the time. I've looked at each band's gear, and the two best ones have had tonelab so I figured it was the way to go.

I will still be getting gear, but not as much as some of my friends have. It is a great all in one processor. I find distortion pedals useful for it, though.

Classic Rock, Rock, Punk Rock, Blues, and some Metal I find a use for on the vox tonelab. It makes it funner to play guitar, and it can really annoy your family. Some of the effects are fun to play with, and some just get in the way. Whoever programmed the tones did a piss poor job on it. Over-writing them is a pain too.

I would definetly buy another one if this one was stolen. If someone stole it and I caught them with it I would beat them until they are crippled.

I've been playing for about 6 months (serious) but I am told I am way ahead of most of the people who have been playing this long. It is great for anyone who loves the guitar. It's not worth the money if you don't absolutely love the guitar, and if you have a crap guitar you need a new one.

I went to the store to compare it with a whole set of BOSS pedals, and I found three ups and one downside. The better parts were that they had alot more to program off of and the tones are all attatched under one processor, and the A/B channel switch. The downside is that to adjust the tone you have to go back and forth to how many different settings there are and the tone you want them to make when combined, (for example fuzz, amp, delay, and channel settings.)

I will still be buying a metal zone pedal to equipt it to the tonelab, and I already have my distortion pedal equipted because I had it before the tonelab and I don't want it to go to waste.

I give the tonelab a 9 for awesome, worth every penny. I'm always looking to talk to people about setting tones and guitars, so you can e-mail me: joe_petrungaro@comcast.net