Vox V830 Distortion Booster

If you can hit the bowl when you pee, you can operate this pedal. You aim in the general direction...
With a wee tweak it's easy to find the two specific sounds that IMO make this pedal a gem.

Excellent pedal for nailing British sounding rock. Sorry for that generic sweep, but it really does bring to mind Marshall Plexi tone. Eric Johnson would like this pedal if he was as poor as I am - a most satisfying violin-like, creamy, saturated drive with just the right amount of singing top. But you've got to keep the tone dial skinned back as it gets a bit shrill when pushing anything but the brownest amps, especially with single coil pickups.
Dime the drive, tone well below noon and bring the level to what you want, and it's my personal slice of inspiration pie. Round, corpulent and plenty of smooth harmonic distortion.
Also does a really nice Voxy grind. Pushes EL84's into that zone for sure.
To sum, tone-wise this is a 2 trick pony, and for a c-note, that's one more pony than usual. And what it does do, it does exceedingly well - in fact, mops up. I'd give it a 10 in its price category, but an 8 in light of the brittle top end. (others might actually like that)

Long after they make flutes from our bones, this sucker will still work - indestructable.

Made in China by the same folks who built the Great Wall. Customer support...who knows? Who cares? This thing will outlive all of us.

Great bang for the buck. I love this little monster for what it is - a cheap way to make any amp crunch and growl like an old plexi, or grind like a hot vox. Apparently it's true-bypass but I've never yet gone through a pedal or switch that didn't do something to my tone. THis one does NOT suck tone as bad as my other pedals - Boss, Rat, Tech21, Wahs or whooshers. It sounds best through my ancient Traynor Mark lll head and 3X12 cab. Also rips it up through a Princeton, vox-like 15 watter, and my Crate VC30 loves this pedal. With single coils, you better watch your high end. Humbuckers push it instantly into violiny tone-zone, and you can bring up the highs a bit more.
I love the chicken head knobs, the old chrome and black heavy duty construction and the word 'VOX.'
If you're looking for a cheap way to add girth, smooth and warmth to your leads, or a very convincing crunch for rhythym work, this little chrome monster is worth checking out.

Is there a distortion pedal that isn't easy to use?

Ironically, it seems like the more the previous reviewers paid for their Distortion Booster, the more they like it! I guess if I had paid $100+ I'd try to convince myself that I liked it too!

How does it really sound? This pedal is okay at best -- has a certain mid-range honk to it that just can not be dialed out. If you like that sort of thing in your tone, then you'll love this pedal. Also, it is quite incompatible with some of my amps -- the Trace Elliot Velocette (like the Gibson amps) in particular. Personally, I wouldn't (and didn't) pay more than $30 for it. Sold mine on eBay some time ago -- more than tripled my money... It seems the value of these is coming back down to Earth now as people are figuring out that it just doesn't sound all that good!

I never had a problem with it while I owned it.

Overall, seems to be very over-rated here on Harmony-Central. They couldn't give these things away before they were discontinued... Probably why they stopped making them, don't you think?

I am absolutely sure that I would NOT include the Distortion Booster in my live rig -- not useful enough. It might be okay to leave laying around your studio in case you need some crappy punk-rock tones. Well, maybe it's not quite that bad. But not much better! It does, however, look really cool though! And by the way, my rating is based on the $30 price point at which I had purchased it. The cheap Dano and Arion pedals are better.

level,tone,drive and your off!

On single notes you get that singing Clapton howl...no fizzy fuzz buzz here.It's upper midrange makes it good for leads but seems to be somewhat compressed for much chord crunch.I boost it with a Reverend Drivetrain which is perfect for chord crunch so when it comes time for those hot lick solos,I just kick this beauty on and dance all night.The tone control is a real mystery as it's overloaded with treble so If you go past 12 on the dial,your sound will be so thin and cold you wished your big German woman Hilda would come home from camping to warm you up or at least let you use her mucklucks so your ears won't melt.You would think these engineers would have figuered out by now how to develop a tone knob that can cover the whole bass/treble spectrum or have a knob for each the treble and bass to open it up ad give it a balanced Eq. This ones a keeper though as it has a tone I like.

Built solid and heavy,expect it to last.

Vox is in The UK but probably have a US rep somewhere,never needed them.

Have played for 45 years and has that definate 60's vibe as it's good for rock and blues.I Play through a Marshall G50RCD and boost it with a Reverend Drivetrain.Compared it to many pedals,and if lost I would buy it again....if I could find one as their discontinued now.

Easy as pie to use-the level controls the level in a very linear way, the tone works perfectly and the gain goes from subtle to screaming. Very versatile without being complex.

Used with a Fender style amp, this effect covers the heavy "Marshall" sounds very effectively. While it doesn't perfectly imitate an overdriven Marshall, it has a complex and heavy tone that lets a Fender cover parts a Marshall usually covers. I have a modded Tube Screamer, a DS-1, a Daddy-O (yuk!) and I've traded tons of other pedals. This thing has become an essential part of 'my sound' and I use it with my Tele, Strats, humbcucking guitars and my P-90 LP JR. It's equally friendly with every one of them, and is sufficently adjustable to give good results with everything.

True bypass and solidly built. Never a problem.

Never dealt with them, so can't comment.

I play mostly blues and classic rock, with a little country and metal thrown in. This pedal manages to cover them all. In fact, if I can get another one at a decent price I plan to use two set to a lightly distorted tone and one full-up to work like a two channel amp. Love it.

Three knobs and a footswitch. A trained monkey could use this pedal...and maybe an untrained one, although I don't think an untrained monkey could play very good guitar. But who knows? Maybe the world is waiting for the first primate guitar player.
The manual is satisfactory. It tells what everything does.

I am playing through this with a homemade Telecaster (traditional setup) and a Deluxe Strat Plus with lace sensor pickups. I run my effects setup (mxr phase 90, crybaby, DD3 digital delay, tube screamer, vox distortion booster, jim dunlop tremolo) through a Fender Performer 1000. I dig the Fender's clean sound and slightly dirty sound completely, but sometimes you have to go crazygonuts with some mean distortion. This little metallic wonder gives me a close approximation of the meaty wonderful distortion I get out of my little Vox Pathfinder amp. It sounds great and adds some really nice roaring-but-melodic, classic distortion. Hint: use it with a tube screamer and amp distortion for relatively controllable feedback, which can be cool under certain circumstances. Sound quality is so subjective its hard to say "yes, Sonny, this pedal is what YOU need! Hallelujah!" But if you like tasty distortion for overdriven leads and rhythm, try it out. If you don't like it you can sell it to some gearhead on ebay, maybe for more than you paid.

Seems pretty reliable. The thing is made of chrome and tough black plastic. I'd say even though I haven't gigged with it extensively it should hold up as well as my other pedals, which aren't build as solidly. I'm not a wealthy musician so I use all my pedals without a backup. It's a hard fact of life, but sometimes you have to rock out ghetto-style. I take care of my gear so that's usually not a problem. It's always a good idea to keep the drunks away from your rig at live gigs, though. I don't think spilled Mai Tais ever made a pedal work better.

Haven't dealt with the company. As stated earlier I haven't had it a long time, but it shouldn't be hard to get someone with a basic knowledge of electronics to re-solder a few wires or replace a footswitch, whether they work for Vox or not. It's not rocket science.

I play music ranging from surf to hard rock and rockabilly if I were to put it in a category. A generous friend said we sound a little like Tito & Tarantula (we're not THAT good) This pedal helps me get the distortion I need for some of the hard rocking songs we do. I tend to look for a distortion that doesn't sound like everyone else. I try not to fall into that category of sounding like every jackass who plays a strat. SRV clones, you know who you are. The Vox delivers a sound that's not a cookie cutter distortion. It's capable of being rather transparent at low volumes, but when you turn it up, look out, Jack! You're playing with fire and it's going to be fun!
My favorite features of the pedal are the simplicity, ease of use, cool looks and wonderful sound. If you like the distorted sounds of people like Lenny Kravitz, the Clash, U2 and basically anyone that used a Vox amp you'll like this. I suppose you could get more distorted than that with this pedal but it sure would be muddy. (I'm no metal head, but this offers some dangerous sounds that don't sound like metallic cheesyness)
As compared to my other distortion unit, the Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS10)it can do everything the 'Screamer can do and more. Set it low for a slightly overdriven boost. Tweak it up a few notches and you are in rich distortion and sustain heaven. (be careful with that volume knob, son...It's a might powerful)
If it were stolen or lost....first I'd cry, since its attached to my pedalboard, most likely some jackass now has all my pedals. After assuming the superhero alter ego of Condor Man and doing some serious damage to the responsible party's cranium I'd...take my pedalboard back. But if I couldn't find it I'd probably replace it if I had the bread. Getting an AC adaptor is recommended. This is the best sounding distortion pedal I've used, and the price is nice compared to a lot of boutique pedals out there (Fulltone, Diaz, etc). It'll rock your ass ALL around. The rest is up to you, Grasshoppa.

Its very easy to use. This box is VERY tone sensitive so you can really dial in your sound, almost like a precise air strike of rocking.

Its great for achieving a Hendrix style fuzz bomb. Even when you've got the drive turned all the way over, you can still distinguish notes in the low, mid and high ranges. But seomtimes, its a little too much and you get this heavy robotic sound from it. Its easy to over do it with this box. With high tone and drive, the sound gets sort ofgrainy and robotic like I was saying before. Kind of bothersome.

I've never had a problemwith mine. Its solid metal, very hard to break. Just make sure to unplug the cable from the INSTRUMENT side of the box if you are using 9v batteries. Oh and don't step on it and turn it on late at night when your fumbling around your dorm at 4am to get a drink of water in the night. The battery goes out really quickly.

I haven't had any problems so I've never had to deal with Vox. Being a discontined item, I bet it would be hell trying to get help from Vox. Just a theory though

Its simple, and straight forward. I like the sound a lot. I use it on a thinline tele and a Reverend Hellhound amp and its a great effect for hard rock. But you can get frustrated with the tendency for this box, when you are messing with it, to breakdown your tone.

Easy to use. Just crank the drive, find the right tone, and get the volume setting right.

It is crunchy but not to crunchy. It could be a little more clear though. It doesn't sound like any metal stuff or regular rock sound though. The tone knob gives a good tone all around. I have an ashdown bass head going through an avatar cabinet, may have been a cheap cabinet but it is better than cabs 2x or 3x it's price! I use it on my Ibanez btb 515 bass and it sounds pretty good. It could be better though. It's almost and 8, not a 7.

If you don't have an ac adapter it could be a little repetative replacing the battery every couple of months. It hasn't broken down yet.

Never had to deal with them.

I play metal but sort of an alternative style of it. It works pretty well but I'm getting an electro harmonix big muff pi pedal soon. I've been playing for 2 1/2 years. I don't love or hate it. It just works fine and does it's job fine. It helps out with the music. I'm also adding the electro harmonix bassballs pedal. Still a good pedal but not too main stream or contemporary.

Nothing more than 3 knobs - but it takes a little time to find the right setting you're looking for

Used with a '67 reissue Gibson flying V or a Epiphone Union Jack Supernova on Orange 120W Head and 4x12 cabinet.
Used mostly coupled with a BOSS overdrive/distorsion OD2.
As shown by the name it's a Booster so when used with a normal distorsion it has a wonderful sound - used alone its not as good (too warm sound, very crunchy -- DIRTY!) but it's fun and nice for distorted solos - not for chords. This pedal expresses itself better when used along with other effects.
On my Orange amp it has a wonderful sustain, dirty enough but not sounding like metal.

I think it's a pedal for those who look for a true british/70's RocknRoll sound (Rolling Stones, Hendrix,...) and maybe for punkrockers too (But Clash rather than louder stuff)

Metal aficionados won't like it, i think (but has anyone seen metal guitarists play on Vox gear????)

All made of steel.
Your grandson will still play on yours.
But i wouldn't trust the footswitch too much.

Never dealt with them. I know it's discontinued. But i dont think anyone would ever need to have one repaired.

Info & schematics at www.voxamps.co.uk

Great sound, built like a tank, soooooo beautiful : i give it a 10.
You'll love its design.

If it was stolen the guy would deserve death penalty! It's my favourite one.

EASY TO USE... if u cant turn 3 knobs that is.

the worst sound i have ever heard from a distortion pedal EVER. i had a boss PW-2 power driver and that sounds sooo much better. if you really need something that will make ur guitar stand out this is it, but it wont make ur guitar sound good AT ALL.

metal case, its solid as hell. I've had it for a couple of years now and its still in great condition, but thats cause i hardly use it.

no I DEAr

I play alt/metal/rock and this pedal doesnt do any of them well, i've been playing 6 years, I have an Epiphone Dot, a yamaha pacifica, a De'Armond M65, and a variety of pedals, if it was stolen i'd get money from the insurance and go buy ANY other pedal cept this one. I hate the way it kills any tone your guitar had, and the way it just suxs soo bad.

Easy to use right out of the box. Pretty self-explanatory. The tone knob is extremely sensitive.

I bought this pedal after I bought the Valvetone. The booster is not as well defined as is the Valvetone. I use both pedals though. I like to run the booster in front of the valvetone. I use it when I need a little more edge. By its self the booster sounds too "nasally" and sharp. It seems no matter how low I set the tone knob the booster is still too sharp. Granted I do play it through an AC-30 which tend to be sharp anyways. It sounds pretty good in front of another overdrive.

Great! Never had a problem

I e-mailed vox about some nos mullard tubes for my AC-30, but they never e-mailed me back! Maybe they're busy!

If I lost the dist. booster, then I wouldn't but another one. I would buy a fulltone. If your pocket can't afford a Fulltone, then buy a valvetone!