Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

[STRATDELUXER97]

I Passed on buying this unit because of the initial learning curve with it...I Plugged it into the input of a 65 Twin Rever reissue...I thought the ToneLab was bright in it's presentation and "gimmicky" but I needed to read the manual to give this thing a fair shake...It's one of those units probably better to have at home to try though...It's pretty pricey also at $600...So for now,I passed on it..I think the clincher was when the guy at GC handed me the manual...I was like WTF? I Like to plug in and get pretty instant tone and not fiddle too much with all the knobs and stuff...

My board minus the Tech 21 pedal which I didn't like and sent back..

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/stratdeluxer602003/album?.dir=/57d2&urlhint=actn,del%3as,1%3af,0

[Indie P Bass]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

I tried one of them out. The Vox AC30 tone was pretty good at low volumes, but, once I turned it up, it got less and less believable. I put it on Brit hi-gain and turned the gain to 10. It sounded VERY digital and compressed, I didn't like it, it seemed like I could HEAR the computers in it.

[Norman_T]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

John,

Thanks for the heads up on this. In one of the guitar magazines in the UK it good a good review but my initial concern was that it is still digitalised and depends on the gimmick of having a pre-amp tube in it. At $600 in the US it is expensive I have seen it being advertised for about $550 in the UK. However give it some time and I am sure the price will come down to a more realistic level. Also my reservation is that in a real situation (live) it is going to take a lot of time to set up all the patches etc and not really be practical.

Norman

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

Thanks John...kinda' what I figured with it & the Digitech GNX's.

[nuntius]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

I'm the same, I'm very lazy with setting up my sound I'd rather just plug in and play.

I find that line 6 gear seems easiest to dial in of all the modelling stuff.. with the exception of the vetta's

[MattPete]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

I Passed on buying this unit because of the initial learning curve with it...I Plugged it into the input of a 65 Twin Rever reissue...
John

You really need to try it through a good set of quality speakers or quality pair of headphones. I doubt a guitar amp will do it justice.

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

I have to say that I've been very very happy with my Fender Cyber Twin that I've been using for the past 3 years...The only reason I was interested in looking into the Tone Lab,was so I could plug it into either my BF Pro Reverb or my Deluxe Reverb combos and using this instead of pedals..My pedals sound great but I could have maybe been able to do more with the Vox unit...Through the input of a 65 reissue twin yesterday,the Tone Lab was thin,"bright" and noisey on alot of the higher gained amps...I spent enough time with it to know I really didn't need it...The Cyber Twin I Own I've added stereo output jacks to.This allows me to bypass the 2x12 Celestions and run my CT in stereo through my Marshall Vintage 30 4x12 cab for more volume,power,and grind on my Marshall type settings...Live,the CT has been an overall great amp,so I'll just stick with that for now and my 2 combos with pedals...

John

[y2stevo]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

Thanks for the quicky review..!!
Have you tried the Boss GT-6, IMO I thought it was great,My friend has one and you can get some really great tones out of it,You should really check it out (thats if you haven't already) and they're much cheaper than the Tonelab..

[Ez74]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

i have the tabletop tonelab and i am really happy with it.... the reason I didnt get the SE was because it just seemed too big and clunky. With the free editing software i hook my tonelab up with midi cables and its so easy to play with and find new sounds. Using the midi i dload patches from the diffrent usergroups and open them up with just 1 click.. and then make adjustments to get more of a sound i like. I can see where people would have worries about using it in a live setting but for recording and home use I couldnt be happier with it.

Also the tabletop version has dropped $50 and you can find them on ebay quite abit cheaper than new.

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

i have the tabletop tonelab and i am really happy with it.... the reason I didnt get the SE was because it just seemed too big and clunky. With the free editing software i hook my tonelab up with midi cables and its so easy to play with and find new sounds. Using the midi i dload patches from the diffrent usergroups and open them up with just 1 click.. and then make adjustments to get more of a sound i like. I can see where people would have worries about using it in a live setting but for recording and home use I couldnt be happier with it.

Also the tabletop version has dropped $50 and you can find them on ebay quite abit cheaper than new.

I needed it for both live playing straight into my amp and band practice...

John

[Mkf411]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

From what I know the Tonelab is best suited to home recording. Running it in front of an amp seems a bit odd with all those effects. Wouldn't you want to run it through an effects loop if using it with an amp? I'd just go with the head version and forget about the tonelab for playing out.

The Valvetronix line is overall a bit complicated. That may be becuase I don't have any experience with the amps modelled either. I spend more time trying to get good sound out of it than actually playing. Single notes sound great but the distortion seems to hang in the air like bad BO.

Maybe I'll go back to messing with it in the future with a fresh approach, but for now I'm tired of messing with. Go to their site and hear the demo if you want to hear what I mean about the distortion hanging in the air like bad BO. That's what it actually sounds like. http://www.valvetronix.co.uk

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Played Through The Vox ToneLab SE

From what I know the Tonelab is best suited to home recording. Running it in front of an amp seems a bit odd with all those effects. Wouldn't you want to run it through an effects loop if using it with an amp? I'd just go with the head version and forget about the tonelab for playing out.

The Valvetronix line is overall a bit complicated. That may be becuase I don't have any experience with the amps modelled either. I spend more time trying to get good sound out of it than actually playing. Single notes sound great but the distortion seems to hang in the air like bad BO.

Maybe I'll go back to messing with it in the future with a fresh approach, but for now I'm tired of messing with. Go to their site and hear the demo if you want to hear what I mean about the distortion hanging in the air like bad BO. That's what it actually sounds like. http://www.valvetronix.co.uk

I was looking at the Tone Lab SE and not the desk top Tone Lab....This unit would have replaced my pedal board and would not have included pedals at all...The only amp I currently own that has an effects loop is the Cyber Twin..Putting the Tone Lab SE into my CT's effects loop would be senseless I think also as I wanted the Tone Lab to be a stand alone effects unit to be used with vintage amps without any effects loop>>.....Not for me I guess..