Tonelab SE Review

From clean sounds to extreme high-gain distortion, this model cover a wide range of tonal possibilities.

Ease of Use:	9.3
Sound:	10
Reliability:	9.5
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	9.7
Users rating:	6.8
Comments:	7

Featured review by: unregistered, on november 29, 2005

Price paid: $ 600

Purchased from: North Coast Music

Ease of Use: The Tonelab SE is extremely easy to use: you just rotate the dials to choose an amp, cabinet, modulation, delay, and reverb type. Nothing could be simpler. The best part is when you hook your Tonelab up to your PC with MIDI cables and the free Vox software. You can then control all knobs on the Tonelab thru your PC and see the exact knob positions on your monitor. I've had a Boss GT3 and GT6 and DigiTech products and the problem with those is the knobs on the pedalboard don't match what you are hearing once you change presets. It would be too expensive to put little motors on each knob on the pedalboard to make them rotate to the correct position when you change presets. So the Vox solution of MIDI-ing up the Tonelab SE to your computer so you can see a virtual pedalboard on your monitor with the correct knob positions as you switch presets is a tremendous feature. Plus, you can save an infinite number of your new tone creations on your PC and then download up to 96 of them at a time to the Tonelab SE to use at gigs. With my Boss GT6, once the memory was full, that was it. You had to erase something to create a new tone. With my Tonelab SE I've already created thousands of tones whose settings are stored on my PC. And it's important to realize these computer files are not "modeling" files; all they are is a record of the position of the knobs on the Tonelab SE when you saved the file. // 10

Sound: The Tonelab SE's sound is pure, true tube power amp tone. The technology is unbelievable. I play the Tonelabe straight thru the sound board, and at any volume you have awesome real tube tone. The days of lugging a 4x12 cabinet to gigs and cranking a 100 watt head to get the tubes to glow and and then using a Power Brake to get the volume down to an acceptable level are long gone. // 10

Reliability & Durability: The Tonelab SE is rock solid all steel construction and quite heavy. It is also painted in a the beautiful Vox blue. The two Vox expression pedals are rock solid too. The Tonelab uses a real 12AX7 vacuum tube, so you will have to replace that every once in awhile, but a 12AX7 only costs about $15 so that's no big deal. I've been using a Ruby tube for over six months now and it still sounds fine. // 10

Impression: I've had my Tonelab SE for 15 months now and I'm still in love with it. It's the best guitar product I've ever used, and the setup at gigs is now under two minutes. I will never use an amp head and cabinet again. That's ancient technology. I play everything from Van Halen to classical and the Tonelab can nail every sound. Plus, you can match amp heads and cabinets that in real life would be next to impossible because of impedance and power issues. With the Tonelab SE you can have any tone you want. I plan on getting a second Tonelab SE and MIDI-ing the two together to change presets in unison and running them both into the soundboard to get the Keith Richards "two different amps with different settings at once" stereo sound. // 10

overall: 9.8

Reviewed by: jmac72187, on september 09, 2006

Purchased from: Guitar Center

Ease of Use: I have to say that this unit was pretty easy to get a good sound out of. I tend not to like the presets that come with effects or processors, so I just skipped playing with those and began making my own. Editing patches is simple. You simply get all the setting to your liking, then hit "write" and choose the bank and preset you want and then hit "write" again. The manual was pretty good. It is written by another guitarist, so they know what they are talking about. It pretty much explains everything in detail. You probably won't need the manual much though. I have only referred to it once or twice. I gave this category a rating of 9 because there is no USB connection like the PODXT. This is not that big of a deal, but it comes in handy. // 9

Sound: I am using this with my Epiphone Les Paul and plugging it into the front of of my B-52 AT-100. You can set it up to go into the front of an amp or into the power amp. I prefer the setting for power amps into the front of my amp. It is a lot louder and sounds like a real amp and not just a processor. The unit has a build in Noise Suppressor, so you don't have to worry about noise at all. I haven't tried this at super high volumes, but when I set it my amp to about 3 or 4(I set it at 5 for shows) I can eliminate all of the static sound with it. The effects sound great. There are multiple reverbs, delays and modulations effects and they all sound great to me. You can adjust just about every setting of each effect. Also there are pedals in the front of the amp modeling. You can choose wah's, overdrives, distortion pedals, etc. The second expression pedal can be used to control these effects. You can set it to control how much gain the Tubesreamer models has. I think that is great. All of the effects are switchable by foot. I haven't found any bad effects yet. So far, I have made my basic settings that I use often. These include clean, acoustic, Overdrive, high gain, high gain lead and then settings for Metallica's Fade to Black lead and acoustic settings. They all sound great. You can get close to them pretty quickly and then with a little time equaliziing, you are there. I gave this a 10 because compared to the other processors I have tried, including the POD 2.0, PODXT and Korg, the sound is amazing. I usually prefer amp distortion, but this thing can get brutal. Cleans are great too. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I have not owned it long enough to rate this yet. I would definetly gig with this unit though. Everything is solid metal. Footswitches are sturdy and the same can be said about the expression pedals. It even included a gig bad for the unit. This was a great surprise. I didn't know this was included at first. I must choose a rating, so based on the build of this, I will give it an 10. This is only by the build and not by actual use at gigs yet. // 10

Impression: I play pretty much any rock. I like to play anything from Metallica to Oasis to Saves the Day to Hardcore. This covers every style I could possibly want. I have been playing about 2 years. If it were stolen or lost, I would buy another if I had the money. I would be pretty pissed because this is an expensive piece of gear. I love the fact that this includes all the models, effects and features I can use. I also like the 2 expression pedals. I cannot really say there there are any things that I hate. The only thing missing is easy connectivity through the computer. You can use midi, but that requires midi on your computer. I compared this to the PODXT Live and Boss GT-8. I chose this because the overall sound was better and it was probably the most user friendly out of the three. Overall, I am amazingly happy with this. I thought after I got rid of the PODXT that I was modeling and multi effects just weren't the way to go, but this has proven me wrong. // 10

overall: 10

Reviewed by: StoleN GuitaR, on august 09, 2004

Price paid: $ 650

Purchased from: Weirs Music Store(Hamilton, New Zealand)

Ease of Use: Basic to use, Many effects but pretty straight forward, you have 24 banks, each bank has 4 effect slots. Editing is a Breeze, and very easy to do with many controls just to edit one sound to prefect it. The manual tells you everything you would need to know. // 10

Sound: I use a B.C. Rich Platinum Pro Series Beast. My amp is the TB100H and TB412A 100w head and cab package. It has many Preset artist sounds such as: Joe Satriani, Van Halen, S R V and many other ones which I don' know the name of, but have been told (I'm hopeless.) All effects are great, the preset wah sound needed a little bit more gain in to but it was great other than that. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This is very dependable and durable, it is easy to adjust the tension of the wah and volume pedals by putting a screwdriver in the holes pre-cut to tighten or loosen the tension. // 10

Impression: Playing for 5 Years and would reccomend this to all guitarists. If this was stolen would get insurance to get me another. sadly I would loose all of my sounds and patches I have made. I would reccomend this over any Zoom pedal. It's at least 100 pedals in 1. // 10

overall: 9

Reviewed by: lemenz70, on july 20, 2005

Price paid: $ 592.5

Purchased from: Metronomie

Ease of Use: I bought this baby 3 weeks ago and I haven't figured out how it completely works cause this is too amazing to spend time on editing sounds and reading manuals. // 8

Sound: I use an Epiphone Gothic Les Paul through a crappy 15 watt Peavey amp. Toonelab SE gives me whatever I want from a vintage old classical sound to warm bluesy tones. Some people say it's not made to play metal but that's false. The compagny settings are not bad but I'll need to edit them to fit with my style. // 10

Reliability & Durability: It seems to be solid but this is a little big and when I carry it out I often hit it in the doors, anyway it's rough and though. // 8

Impression: It suits every style of music Metallica, Jimi Hendrix. You can get everything out of it. I compared it to Boss gt7 and I really prefer the Tonelab SE. Boss GT7 sounds digital and Tonelab SE sounds like tube amps. For really special effects I would have considered GT7 but for a real good distortion and a tube amp sound I choosed Tonelab SE. If it was stolen I would replace it for sure. // 10

Comments

[Nackers]

I just bought one so I'll see how it goes over the coming months/years!
I thought the Zoom g9.2tt was pretty good too but I preferred the TLSE when I tried them at the shop. Compared to the Boss GT8 I thought both the Vox and Zoom fx were much better sounding (but the Boss had more weird effects).

[tilleking]

I just bought a ToneLab SE for £199! It's the cheapest I've ever seen it!

What a piece of kit thought..

*whistles*

[tori7]

Hallo everybody.
I want to buy a guitar effect and i am torn between the Boss Gt8 and the Vox Tonelab SE. I would appreciate some help. The most important things for me are: easy to use, making some weird but clear sounds and reliability. I wouldn't like to spend 540 euros (for the vox, bag included) for something that is going to break in a concert.
Thank you

[caramall]

From what I've read and sound clips, if you want solid, tube, classic sounds go with the Tonelab.

If you want tons of effects, lots of adjustability (including assigning any pedals any way, etc.) go with the GT-8 (but I think you lose some sound quality).

I always think if you can go hear them at a shop, that's a good thing.

[marduke]

for tone go the tonelab like i did, but for versatility the gt8 is my pick, the effects on the gt8 are alot better and the delays are amazing.. but the tonelab is still an amazing unit.. and built like a tank! mine dropped about 3feet off stage.. man i freaked out, but plugged it back in and it worked as per normal.... dont think i could say that same for the gt8 though, my mate has one and it seems quite flimsy in comparison.. but the gt8 is alot lighter...

but will be getting rid of it for a tc electronics g-force and mesa triaxis

[gconry18]

Hmmm.... Tonelab SE or PODX3 Live. Functionality is my concern as im not gigging yet. I also want something that i can easily interface with my PC. Im thinking more towards the X3 coz its cheaper and has usb... Please help based on experience ond not on hear-say.

[Osiod9]

Why is everyone whining about ease of connecting a TL to a PC? Nothing could be simpler. Any processor can be hooked up to the line-in jack on a soundcard with just a couple of patch cords and a splitter adapter like this one: http://www.audioadapter.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?key=ADPT2QM FMSM&preadd=action

While you're at it, pick up a USB to MIDI adapter cable like this one: http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-EDI-UM2EX-LIST? so you can tweak the patches.