Riaan
I've found myself involuntarily reading more and more about this device...not that I'm gassing or anything like that, it's just for my own education.
OK, I know I won't fool anyone on this forum... :-[ In spite of having Guitar Rig on my PC, there are times when I just want to flick a switch and play without having to boot a computer, open software, etc. And of course, when playing away from home, some effects would be nice. So I've been thinking of making myself a "minimalist" pedal board, with just a few good quality pedals to use with my Roland Bluescube. I figured if I'm gonna go for just two or three pedals, I might as well get good quality stuff. I'm only interested in a blues/classic rock sound, but with a bit of flange, rotary speaker emulation, chorus and the odd phaser as well. And of course, some delay. No need for metal/shredding kind of sounds.
But it seems that for the money I'm willing to spend on two or three good quality pedals, I could get a Vox Tonelab LE... 8). Now my understanding is that the Vox Tonelab comes out tops in terms of tone rather than number of effects, so if it's tone one is after, the Vox is your best bet. Sounds good to me so far. It does have an effects insert loop however, which I suppose can be used to insert a specific effects pedal or chain of effects that might not be available on the Vox's selection of effects? So theoretically one can still end up with a Vox Tonelab, and a number of pedals on one pedalboard? If so, does the Vox still makes sense or should I just go the single effects pedal route and build up a board over time? Or rather go for the Boss GT-10 then?
I don't see myself spending money on a new amp, so whatever route I'm going, it will be used on my Roland Bluescube only. Ideas?
inflames
Riaan, this could become a wonderful thread!
I have never played a Tonelab LE, but a friend of mine had one for a month and sold it before I could play it.
He got one after his GT-10 got stolen after a gig one night. He said he just did not like the tone and usability of it.
Just my 5c worth ?
Muhammad
This is probably going to come across as a huge punt cos I have one for sale, but here goes;
The GT-10 is much more flexible than the tonelab.
You can set up all the onboard effects in any config you want - ANY, even sticking your drives after time-based effects etc (how crap you make it sound by doing this is up to you ? )
All effects have pretty deep options - eg. the delay effect has analog/digital/modulated etc etc.
You can set delay rates from 0 to 700ms, or use dotted eight delays etc etc.
You can set the effect level and mix it into the overall patch level.
The expression pedal is programmable - it's not just a volume wah pedal, it can be used for delay time, reveb, drive, gain etc etc.
You can add effect pedals into the effect chain and then route them anywhere in the chain (ie, move them around the gt-10's built in effects!)
The posibilities are endless.. really.
In a week I had a very decent U2 - Streets sound.
Ok, now the downside..
The Amp models can be a bit fizzy..
No worse or better than any pod/etc/etc
One thing though, they are dynamic enough to clean up if you roll of the volume knob, and they definately do have a lot of bright harmonics.
The vox ac-30 sim is by far my fav.
Throw some delay on it and a bit of 2x2 chorus and it sings ?
However, if you like your amp's sound, then just turn of the amp models and use the effects only.
I route mine's through a little valbee tube amp, so I let the tube amp give me the sound, and i colour it with effects.
Oh one other really cool feature is the 30 - second looper.
Why am I selling mine?
Dunno..
A part of me think's i'm being dumb..
But we tend to ignore that part most of the time ?
Riaan
A pedalboard with just two things on it....a Vox Tonelab with a GT-10 routed in.... ?
Muhammad
lol, thats the spirit!
Renesongs
@ Mohammed - The Fizzyness and the cocked wha effect can all be tweaked out there is plenty of technical support on the net. I bought my GT-10 on impulse because I needed something easy to set up for stage use. I hated it for the first 2 months but being a bit of a chip head I tweaked it until I got exactly my tone which is Fender Tweed with a TS9 and Reverb or Delay . I have put the GT direct through a PA or a Roland JC or a real Fender Tweed or a Line 6 and managed with very little effort to maintain the same tone. Then when I want to do some jazz I kick the switch and can get my strat to sound like a hollow body with humbuckers another kick and I have a high gain metal sound. I don't know whether the Vox Tonelab can do all that. Send me one , give me 3 months and I will tell you [/rave]
Muhammad
@rene is the roland jc you use a keyboard or guitar amp?
AlanRatcliffe
Especially for the odd bit of travelling, the Tonelab comes in handy because of the amp modelling. You can travel light just with the board, guitar and a pair of headphones (although Guitar Rig and a laptop also do just as well for that).
For plug 'n play simplicity, a couple or three stomps in front of an amp are hard to beat, any more than that and things start getting progressively more complicated ('specially if you're spoilt by Guitar Rig). Of course, some of the best tone to be had from a stompbox pedalboard as well, but it is also a seriously expensive route to take (just add up the cost of half a dozen quality patch cables, let alone a few of the better effects boxes).
Quite honestly, I don't like using stompboxes in multieffect pedal loops - you always seem to lose some of the tone. Some multieffects (PODs, GT-8/PRO, although I can't speak for the Vox) just have horrible sounding loops anyway, regardless of what you plug in.
Riaan
Thanks guys...wow, after having slept on it I'm now reconsidering, and this morning I'm more inclined towards the minimalist pedal board again...maybe I'll just start with one good quality distortion pedal and try to get the most out of it in combination with my amp, before getting another one later on. We'll see where this journey takes me... ?
singemonkey
I'll say the same thing again in favour of pedals:
1. Yes, they're expensive, but the resale value (at least of analogue pedals) hits a bottom end and stays there. For digital effects - particularly multi-fx units, there is no bottom end. After 8 or so years, their value approaches zero.
2: They're super-easy to use. You don't need - as I said in another thread - a bachelor's degree in programming a GT-10 to tweak the sound of your pedals.
3: They're mod-able. Go to someone like Matta and he can make your tube-screamer sound even better with a little tinkering under the hood. I've yet to hear of people doing that with a GT-10.
4: You get to cherry pick your effects. All multi-fx units are known to do certain things really well. Well, if you do your homework, on your pedal board every effect is the best it can be, and entirely tailored to your tastes. For example, I'm doing a lot of research into tremolo pedals at the moment. A tremolo is not a tremolo, is not a tremolo. I can happily do without the level drop and subsequent disappearance of my guitar from the mix that boss's effort offers. So now I'm looking at the MXR unit, or the unit made be Bad Cat amplifiers that can get a pretty flawless Fender Deluxe Reverb amp's tremolo.
5: They're fun and come in crazy shapes and colours. Good for keeping your GAS at bay at a lower cost than, for example, collecting Gibson ES335s ?
It's expensive. It's clunky. But you get exactly what you want, it's easy to use, they're fun to buy, and you'll get 50%-70% of your cash back whenever you choose to sell one (be it in 15 years time).
aubs1
Sorry, was supposed to be a PM.
Shawnvs
The Gt-10 was ridiculously hard for me to figure out, im sure its good, but unfriendly as hell.
I had the pleasure of playing the tonelab SE and now I have the Tonelab LE. Tone is awesome. Value for money is 10/10. But, BOTH my units had the same problem, after a few months the Bank UP switch stops working, probably due to bad soldering from factory. I am still very disappointed in the unit because of that. Then again, of that is the only reason, then this unit still comes out tops.
Great Tone for very very little money.
PeachyDragon
For metal the GT-10 is fine, but it squashes the living daylights out of your clean sounds and the bypass doesnt sound anything like really just bypassing the pedal... The Vox Tonelab has excellent unsquashed clean sounds and even has dynamics when fully distorted... to some people that might actually sound odd since distortion often has no dynamics.
Shawnvs
PeachyDragon wrote:
For metal the GT-10 is fine, but it squashes the living daylights out of your clean sounds and the bypass doesnt sound anything like really just bypassing the pedal... The Vox Tonelab has excellent unsquashed clean sounds and even has dynamics when fully distorted... to some people that might actually sound odd since distortion often has no dynamics.
My unit started losing tone after a few months, so I think the unit actually needs a resolder.
