VOX ToneLab Patch Exchange

Hey everybody,

New member here and just want to introduce myself quickly. Not a professional player by any means, but I have played guitar for about 20 years or so and I do drag all my gear across the street to play with the Youth Band at my church every weekend. "Youth Band" being somewhat of a misnomer, given that it's actually about a 50/50 mix of relative geezers like me and then the actual youths.

Anyway... I recently saw the light and found a Tonelab LE and am loving it. I've used lots of different MFX over the years - started with a couple Digitech units, I believe, then I had a Korg and played through a Pod XT Live for a while. Recently I started to feel like the XTL was falling flat when it came to tone and I've been focusing more on vintage-type sounds lately, playing through two Gretsches and a Fender Strat, so I started to look around.

I considered the X3 briefly, but didn't like the sound of all the hardware breakdowns coupled with the larger price tag and lack of any type of valve circuit. I found the Tonelab LE and Zoom G9 at about the same time. I figured right off the bat that I would probably like the Tonelab more, since it seemed geared more towards vintage sounds and the G9 is set up more for metal. No stores in my area carried Vox products though, so I ended up picking up the G9. I was a little worried about this one too because I heard alot of hardware nightmare stories, but a Guitar World review had called it the most advanced guitar processor out there, so I figured it was worth a try. I had hardly gotten it home before I realized my mistake.

There were definitely some cool sounds and I know that if I had spent a lot of time tweaking it, I probably could have gotten closer to the types of sounds that I was looking for. The presets really turned me off though. I probably would have ditched 95% of them. The valve circuitry also didn't have a very organic feel to it. I kept listening to samples of Tonelab sounds and the G9 just didn't have that same vibe. The final kicker was that the LCD screen that told you what patch you were on crapped out so it was busted. Store wouldn't refund my money and they didn't carry Vox, so I had to exchange it for a new one just so I could sell it on eBay and not dump off the same problem to someone else.

Luckily, it sold quickly and I was able to find a great deal on a Tonelab. Now I know why I read so many Tonelab users saying that they switched to the Vox product and never looked back. Totally different experience. I love 98% of the presets right out of the box. Editing patches right on the board is way more intuitive than any other product I've owned. It's got that natural feeling to it and I just can't get over being able to roll back my guitar volume and having the sound clean up. Just amazing.

So... just waiting for my MIDI cables to come in the mail and I'm sure you guys will be seeing alot more of me.

== Sean