Vox V830 Distortion Booster

The 3 knobs are very simple.

I'm using an 83 strat and a fender blues deville. This pedal is as noisy as most distortion pedals. The tone is not bad at all. However, it is plain. If you can get a good price on this, it's probably worth it. This effect does make for an excellent lead boost. My only complaint is that the distortion lacks in the low end. You'll fall in love with this pedal if you're into that piercing treble sound. Personally, I don't want to go deaf from using this effect. I bought the Ibanez Tube King after having owned this effect for a few months. The Tube King is similar but is much fuller and richer. The Tube King also has more gain. The highest distortion this pedal is capable of is punk - no grunge, hardcore, metal, etc. This effect can have a usable overdrive like sound - I can see it being used for blues when plugged into a tube amp. This distortion can't really produce any fuzz sounds either. My suggestions are not to buy this effect for any heavy distortion. It does have a nice, ordinary, distortion sound though.

The housing is nice looking. It has true bypass switching. It seems like it will last.

Both lead and rhythm sounds are usable. Not much personality. Many people enjoy the sounds in this box though. However, there are better distortion units in every sense. This pedal is becoming more and more inexpensive, so, in my opinion, this pedal deserves a 9 for its value. It really beats everything else in its price range.

It's pretty simple to use with only three knobs: level, tone, and drive. There wasn't much to the manual but it wasn't really necessary.

For a reasonably priced stomp box, this thing has an incredibly full and natural sound. Although it's not quite as fat as other pedals such as the Tube Screamer, I find that it's much thicker. The only problem is that it isn't as versatile as one might like. It kicks major ass when at full force, but when you turn the distortion down, it really loses its flare. I play it through a 60W Fender DeVille 2X12, which has a lot of kick and bass, and when I step on the pedal, it seems like the sound coming out of my amp got its legs chopped off-- it totally loses it's power and strength. But basically, when you use the right amp and the right guitar, it's got a great sound for playing stuff with Green Day-ish distortion. Also, when paired up with a Dunlop Wah, the distortion booster is the ultimate rock distortion pedal.

I've had the pedal for almost two years, and I've recently started having problems with the switch. It sometimes doesn't completely kick in, and I have to turn it off and do it again. Also, my drive knob is fucked, but I don't really care cause I always leave it all the way up.

I haven't yet tried getting help for it... but soon.

All in all, it's a great rock distortion pedal. Although it certainly is not without its flaws, if you hook this thing up to a Marshall stack, and put an 80lb Les Paul behind it, it kicks a lot of ass. Otherwise, be careful. Give it some good testing before you buy it. You'll hate it with a passion, or you'll love it to death.

Very easy to use with just 3 knobs. But they are very interactive, so expect it to take some time to dial in your sound. The manual is very brief.

As a clean signal booster, it works very well, reasonably quiet. I've used it in some experiments with a $1.50 piezo transducer from Radio Shack as a temporary pre-amp. We also use it with a Marshall VS65R, it can overdrive the tube even with a "lower power" guitar. It also does a nice job with a Trace Elliot Tramp. When engaged, it tends to emphasize the Treble end of the tone. Perhaps I will be able to fix this with a capacitor change in the future. You either will like or not like it's distortion. We will use it as a test platform and exchange it's clipping diodes for LEDs, germainium, and other experiments, but we still like it's qualities as is. Please remember the amps we use it with, both have excellent distortion qualities of their own. My son can do Petrulli with his LP clone, or SRV w' his hotrodded Mex Strat, so he's happy. (He really can sound quite a bit like those guys!)
I disagree with those who find the V830 overshadowing their sound. At higher settings, of course any clipping diode pedal like this will bury you, but working in the lower end of it's range and with high end gear, especially good speakers, it is a contributor, not the dominate force.

I bought it at GC new for $30 bucks, figuring I would get at least a beautiful case out of the deal. It is SOLID. The foot switch looks a little cheesy, but hasn't quit yet. Battery life seems to be very good, which is important since you have to remove 4 screws from the bottom to change the battery.

no contact

I would buy it again and pay a normal retail price. It has a lot of applications for us. I'll put the $1.50 piezo pickups in my accoustics and use it as a preamp. It provides good distortion with my Crate 12" practice amp for the Sunday eve pickup band at church, and it contributes with the Marshall and Trace to make good sounds. I really don't hate anything about it. I really like it's appearance and performance.
I only buy stuff at Guitar Center when they have really good sales. I was fortunate to get such a versitle piece of hardware for a very good price.

it's really easy to get a great sound out of this pedal. you can get a huge variety. all you have to do is press the foot switch. one tone knob, one level, and one distortion makes it that easy.

i love the sound i get out of this. i usually play ska and punk and the pedal is just right. i use it with a little fender bullet and a fender squier strat. (my first amp and guitar, they kinda suck)

well, i just got it just about a month ago, and i haven't had any trouble.

i haven't had any trouble with it.

i think it's a great pedal for punk and ska. it was a great value.

Very simple Level, Drive, Tone. However I dont like how the level must be totaly re-done every time when the drive is changed thats why it got a 9 not 10.

Very quiet! Very Strong! Very Vintage! Very Sweet! This is a great sounding vintage distortion I have heard none better in my life. Dont buy this is your looking for something els. It totaly drounds out your personal sound but it still does what it is ment to........... Brings back memories of Cream.......

YES ITS VOX!!!!!!!

NO IDEA NEVER HAD A PROB

I give her A 10. This is a great pedal for the money it sounds so cool! I love the vintage sound. IT LOOKS AWESOME!!!! CROME AND BE-UTIFUL!

This pedal is very straight forward,Level,Tone,Drive.The manual SUCKS!But you don't need it anyhow.

I'm using this with a Gibson LesPaul Standard and a Fender Strat through a Fender Hot Rod DeVille 4x10 guitar amplifier.I find this pedal really de-personalizes your guitar tone and doesn't respond all that well to dynamics .I get the impression that this pedal sounds the same regardless what guitar you use.Don't get me wrong this pedal isn't all that bad,it certainly lives up to its name in that you can dredge a lot of distortion out of it.With the drive knob set at 2 o'clock or more it gets very gnarly,subtle it ain't.But I like distortion so that's O.K.,it's the midrangy honk that's a little overbearing after a while,kinda sounds like a wah-wah pedal backed off.I suppose that's what sets this pedal apart from the rest.I believe they designed this pedal to sort of emulate Vox amps when overdriven.This pedal is pretty noisy when you get into the higher range of distortion,but that pretty much comes with the territory,it's only Rock'n'Roll afterall.

Can't really say, I've only had it for 6 months, but it seems reasonably well constructed,but I haven't giged with it or put it through the abuse a professional musician might inflict upon it on the road touring.

I've had no problems with this pedal so far.

I like ZZ TOP but this pedal doesn't dial in that tone.I've been playing guitar for over 20 years.If it were stolen or lost I wouldn't buy it again,I would probably check out the Danelectro Fab Tone instead.The V830 has a good crunch tone but it needs better EQ control to make it more versatile.

It's a one foot button distortion box.

I loved the sound at first. It's almost a tube screamer. Very close. It's a great tone heavy distortion, and sounded great through my Vox AC-30.

Well, here's my problem. I went through 3 of them. And the foot switch went out in all three.

Nill.

After the third one failed I gave up and spent a little more on the Ibanez Tube Screamer. It's more sturdy (though not nearly as cool looking!), and just gives more of a real tube distortion.

Has the usual distortion, tone, and level knobs. If you dig the mxr distortion + then getting a good from thi sound wont be hard. But changing the batteries wont be easy. You still have to remove four screws from the base plate to access the battery compartment. Still dont know why they never learned.

I was checking out pedals at Tom Lee when i noticed they had the new Vox pedals. So i decided to try this one out along with the vox valve tone. The valve tone was too weak for my taste so that left me with this. Once engaged, i noticed a sort of mxr distortion + kinda vibe. It was raw, meaty, and was able to sustain notes very well. It was also very dynamic. Roll of the volume in your guitar and you get a clean to slightly overdriven tone depending on your pickups. So i decided to buy it. When i tried it with my peavey classic 20 and les paul special, i noticed it was edgier than the shops roland blues cube i tested it on and i was able to nail a sugar type sound. But for some reason, it sounded one dimensional compared to my blues driver. Maybe because its bass respone isnt too stong. Anyway this pedal gives of a truly unique and awesome sound when used with a half cranked classic 20. Great for crunchy riffs and droning parts. And when mixed with the blues driver, it gives a nice fuzzy character kinda like suede. The tone control of this pedal in my opinion isnt very dramatic but a least you get more control over your sound. So for those of you who dig vintage distortion, i suggest you try this one out.

This thing looks sturdy and reliable. But unfortunately for me, i had too choose the one with a slight problem. Yeah it sounds great but it has a tendency too lose volume or die out when it is stepped on. But this didnt happen when i was testing it out. Hopefully its just a little switch problem. But overall build quality looks good.

I would buy another one because mine has a footswitch problem and i cant replace it cause i was in vacation when i bought this. Just hope the next one i buy works fine. Well over all this pedal sounds great especially with a slightly cranked tube amp.