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Sign up for product alertsZ-Vex BOX OF ROCK Vexter videos
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Z-Vex Box of Rock
The Box of Rock, all you really hear about this is references to old marshall amps. It is indeed able to give you those sorts of sounds but theres plenty more its capable of.
Firstly the boost in very capable, not really colouring the tone at all and really a valuable addition. Dont expect to max the boost off though, your ears will be bleeding.
Thens theres the \"distortron\", its got plenty of balls. The main trick to getting the sound you want is adjusting your guitars volume to the pedal volume to the amps volume. It happily does blues through to hard rock and maybe some metal as well, and sounds natural.
Only complaint I could give is that it can be more bass heavy, but I like the depth of the sound it gives so I can\'t really complain. I just keep the tone around 3 o\'clock.
Played with a Gibson LP Standard through an Orange Tiny Terror head and 1x12 Orange Cab.
ZVEX Box Of Rock
Plugging the Box Of Rock for the first time carried some mixed feelings. 'Here we go again' was one, as yet another promise of the perfect distortion pedal was to be tested, and probably found to be wanting. And 'Oh goody, I hope this is worth the cost' was another.
Fortunately the BOR lives up to the promise, although you may still argue that boutique pedals like this are overpriced - that's a matter of opinion and wallet depth. The ZVEX pedals are hand made, with quality components, are sturdily built, and, aesthetically at least, the design is pretty cool.
There is one tiny design flaw. The unit is a little small, what with there being two effect switches, and so it can be easy to hit both effects at once in the heat of Rock frenzy. And particularly clumsy, large footed users might even disturb the knob settings with their over sized feet.
But this is small niggle and might have been annoying if the sound that this little box produces wasn't so monstrous. The gain, even on full, isn't that high - but it's high enough. If death metal is your thing, look elsewhere. But if classic rock guitar goodness is your thing, then you've come to the right place. The roar that the BOR delivers is BIG. It sounds very valve like, although one caveat is that really you need a decent valve amp to get this little wonder really cooking. I tried it on a practice amp and it didn't have the same effect - this is not one of those pedals that claims to turn your cheapo tranny amp into a 100watt Marshall beast.
So what's the point? Well, the designer, Mr Z Vex, created this pedal to sound like a cranked JTM45, and it does. So you can play quiet, and still be loud. But also the tones available from the pedal means it can be used as a distortion / overdrive in many other situations. It reacts nicely to guitar volume pot changes, and lower gain settings offer a nice bluesy sound. The tone control also provides a nice range from dark to biting.
Additionally, that second effect I mentioned is a simple gain boost effect, which can add more gain, or more volume, and can be simply used on its own as a boost, or with the distortion for highlighting solos etc. Although I did feel a slight mid range boost along with the volume increase, but this is no bad thing necessarily.
Altogether a fine pedal, maybe would have been 10 if it wasn't for the slightly cramped switch / knob placement.
