Question:
So I sold almost everything now and got my new setup. Which includes a Vox Tonelab and an Epiphone Blues Custom 30.
I took this setup out to my weekend gigs to check out before I made my final decision and I was very pleasantly surprised! The Vox Tonelab is a NICE pedal if you are in the market for an effects/amp modeling pedal. The power amp modeling section of the pedal is all analog. I was a little skeptical as to how much effect this would have on its digital tone, but I was very surprised. I owned a POD XT Live for a LONG LONG time and while it sounds good, the Tonelab really has the FEEL of an amp down much better than the POD. The POD to me always sounded like looking at a picture of a real amp while the Tonelab sounds and feels a lot more like you're actually playing through a real amp.
At the gigs (Lead guitar playing modern and some old country and some classic rock) I used the pedal overdrive and distortion sounds on the Tonelab straight into the Blues Custom set clean. I used the Super OD and Fat OD settings. I was really surprised at the sounds I was getting! IT was very warm and natural without having any of that normal digital harshness I was expecting to hear. I played two 4 hour sets and never once had any ear fatigue or felt any harsh spots in the sound, it was well balanced throughout the range of the guitar from low to high.
The effects in the pedal are pretty good. Not as versatile as the POD XTLive, but more geared toward useable effects. I used a nice sounding analog mod delay and a stereo bi-chorus as well as a little chamber reverb for some of the softer atmospheric songs.
It's a little hard to get used to the controls, they're not quite as well set up as the POD. The channel switches become the individual effects on/off which gets a little confusing trying to figure out which mode you're in in the middle of a song on a dark stage! (I had a couple incidents where I accidently switched on an effect thinking I was changing channels!) There are some REALLY nice features for controls that the POD doesn't have though! There is a CONTROL switch that can be programmed for tap tempo or turning on/off any of the other effects, or for turning on/off the effects loop for external effects. There is also a second expression pedal that can be setup to control any parameter wanted (there is a cool pitch bending effect that I was using to bend notes down 1/2 step and then back up to emulate pedal steel... very cool!).
Through a PA the amp models sound EXCELLENT! The AC15tb and AC30TB are especially nice. The feel is much more responsive and amp like than the POD.
I also started playing around with using the amp models as overdrives into an amp. This has been working very well. You can use the amp models without using the cabinet models so its like using a preamp. This is yielding some very impressive results so far. I've got every shade of overdrive/distortion/fuzz/octavia I could ever need.
I am very impressed with this pedal, if anyone is looking at a POD XT Live I would recommend checking this out. Its a good alternative, it doesn't feature as many bells and whistles as the POD, but it is much more natural feeling and sounding and has a great vibe to it.
Answer:
Yeah we used one at church for awhile and no one was really getting the full potential of it they would just use the effects that were already on there. So I took it home one day and made my own bank and customized the effects and then all the guitar player's were using my bank cause it sounded really nice.
See its funny when we bought it we were looking at the XTL and then we played this and this is what we wanted. Much more natural feeling and me and one of the other guitar players are tone freaks and so it was nice having something sound real and natural.
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that thing sounds tight, cool thing you got it. it did look a big more complex than an XTL though...
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In case you haven't seen, Vox has released the Tonelab LE. It is meant to replace the Tonelab SE.
I already have a PODxt Live that I am please with, but I might pick up the SE if it's well liked.
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Originally Posted by 777Brad In case you haven't seen, Vox has released the Tonelab LE. It is meant to replace the Tonelab SE.
I already have a PODxt Live that I am please with, but I might pick up the SE if it's well liked. From what I've read, the LE doesn't replace the SE, it just offers a cheaper , less powerful option.
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i was leaning towards the tone lab LE myself, does anyone in CGR have one of them?
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I'm giving some thought to the LE myself. The few sound samples I've heard on the Vox site are pretty good.
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the Tonelab LE is a brand new product. I don't know of anyone on CGR that owns one.
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Originally Posted by thesteve From what I've read, the LE doesn't replace the SE, it just offers a cheaper , less powerful option.
Check this http://www.voxamps.co.uk/tonelab/tonelab_le.asp where it says "The new 24-bit Tonelab LE includes a few improvements on its popular predecessor, the Tonelab SE."
Sounds like it is meant as a replacement & improvement upon the SE.
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Originally Posted by 777Brad Check this http://www.voxamps.co.uk/tonelab/tonelab_le.asp where it says "The new 24-bit Tonelab LE includes a few improvements on its popular predecessor, the Tonelab SE."
Sounds like it is meant as a replacement & improvement upon the SE. Interesting...I wonder why they sacrificed the second expression pedal and extra footswitches. I'd expect something else to hit the market soon as the LE doesn't look to be designed with replacement in mind. It just seems like there's fewer easily controlled parameters in it than there were in the SE. Generally the ideas of "compact" and "replacement" aren't done at the same time
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if only the le had another expression pedal right beside it, it'd still be more compact...my brother is waiting to try this one out vs the xt live. personally, i like the upgradability, the easy computer access with the pod (perhaps available with the vox as well, i just haven't heard about it), while the vox's feel seems so important too. also that you can use two delays at once with the vox =]