VOX Tonelab

[timryland]

Looking at perhaps getting one of these of the well known auction site. It's the original, blue one with no expression pedal.

Anybody used one, or have any opinions, good or bad.

Thanks,

Tim.

[Tone]

Hi Tim

I have one and it's a very capable unit. You do have to be prepared to experiment with the settings to get the sound you want (forget the presets if you're looking for a Hank sound) but once you've found the sound you like it can be stored in one of the user patches. I don't use the delays, though, as I prefer to use a separate echo unit. Incidentally, the 'blue' model is one of the few to have an AC15 amp simulation and I use that a lot.

Robby Januarsa, who has posted several sound files on this site, uses one and he gets a great sound.

The only drawback I've found is that there can be quite a lot of background hiss, depending on amp type, amount of gain etc but I can live with it.

Cheers.

Tony

[Deleted]

Change the valve to a NOS 5751 and the hiss will be just about eliminated.... Great unit,

Jim

[murraysanders]

I had a tone lab LE with a 12ax7 , I pulled the tube and it had a LED underneath it that lights up through the tube , It is a bit of a joke on some forums as to wether the tube does anything , I put a black paper over the LED in mine and the tube looked dead and was cold, a 12ax7 runs a plate voltage of 250v 330v an runs hot , the input voltage of my LE was 9volts from memory , personally I don't think the tube does anything , I might be wrong maybe they have found a new way of running a 12ax7 best regards Murray.

[knockoutrock]

Apr 7, 2015 12:59:59 GMT murraysanders said:

I had a tone lab LE with a 12ax7 , I pulled the tube and it had a LED underneath it that lights up through the tube , It is a bit of a joke on some forums as to wether the tube does anything , I put a black paper over the LED in mine and the tube looked dead and was cold, a 12ax7 runs a plate voltage of 250v 330v an runs hot , the input voltage of my LE was 9volts from memory , personally I don't think the tube does anything , I might be wrong maybe they have found a new way of running a 12ax7 best regards Murray.

Hi !

The valve are running in a low-voltage starved plate mode and the LED is a just cosmetic effect

Tonelab and the Valvetronix amplifiers have a similar design in what's called the "valvereactor" where the
tube does the work of simulating the power stage.

I have the schematic's for Tonelab and and the old Valvetronics amp and to me it looks like described in
their advertising etc.

And to ansver Tim's question, I think the Tonelab still is capable of deliver very good clean and medium
gain tones despite it's age It also respond well to dynamics and to the volume control on the guitar.

Best regards Leif

[murraysanders]

Thanks for clearing that up Leif , I sill can't get my head around a 12ax7 without the proper anode voltage for it to conduct and no heater to excite the electrons on the cathode best regards Murray