this is a beauty!!! I'm a true fan of Valvetronix products, and this is one of my all-time favorites! you will never and I mean NEVER! going to get the feel and the sound you get from this, with ANY of these "so-called" digital processors like the line 6 boss or digitech, their sound it's so fake and lifeless, by other hand, the Tonelab SE delivers such a FANTASTIC tone! and it's a no-brainer device too, very versatile and very user friendly, it's an absolute shame Vox discontinued this model and "upgraded" it with the Tonelab LE, which is a very good effect board too, but it's missing the extra pedal in the Tonelab SE, (what a shame) anyways if you ever have the chance to try/buy the Tonelab SE, you better do it! I guarantee you'll be so happy for a lifetime!

After thoroughly testing all available multi-processors in this category, I tried the ToneLab SE and it totally stole the show. It just sounded great, warm, natural... and fat. And the ToneLab SE physical appearance was impressive. Though it is a rather large unit, I appreciate the layout, and the space between the groovy chrome switches. It it really easy to use and to program. I really like the A/B switch - you can have an A/B channel within one program. The effects are top notch. The amp models and cabs are really cool.

I have a few complaints and suggestions though: 1) The control pedals do not have a wide enough range, so you go from zero to 100 too quickly. Because of this, I run the output of the Vox into an Ernie Ball volume pedal so I can be more subtly expressive. It would be great if the pedal on board was sufficient and I didn't have to hook up another pedal. If these expression pedals could be designed to have a longer sweep, they could be much more musically useful. 2) The "pedal" section allows you to use only one "pedal" at a time. So you couldn't use a fuzz and the univibe at the same time, for example. 3) It's got a really nice tuner. But to use it, you've got to stop playing, hold a switch... As a touring musician, this doesn't fly. I need a tuner on at all times so I can check in the middle of a song... Because of this reason, I have an external Boss tuner I go through so I can always check my tuning. It would be great if there was a way the tuner could be quickly accessed without muting the program you're on. 4) It has an effects loop which is useful. An auxiliary input would be a nice feature so you could mix in another signal. 5) Seems to me that the system exclusive via midi method of backing up program data is outdated and inconvenient. Maybe some companies are doing this and I'm not aware, but I'm waiting for the time when program information on a unit like this could be saved to a flash memory card. If the unit goes down while your traveling, or you need to quickly import all of your programs to another unit, it would be nice to simply insert your little memory card and be quickly and easily back in business. (a usb interface might be cool too) 6) A few of the chrome switches have become intermittent after 1.5 years of usage.

Summary: I realize it's a tall order to try to fit everything into one unit. Because there are aspects of the pedal that I'm not happy about, I've ended up with a situation where I have several additional pedals I use in conjunction with the ToneLab SE. (Volume pedal and tuner for example) which is unfortunately redundant... Despite my complaints and these inconveniences however, this is still the best pedal I've used. It sounds great. I'm proud to own it. It's sooo good... and yet, with a few improvements, it would be the absolute king of pedals.

This is a great unit if you like warm sound, takes some time to tweak but is worth it! great compresser, nice distortions for classic rock and country rock and alt! Unit is a little big. Only thing I dont like is that you only have 4 switch stomps for effects, you have to bank up to get to more and that can be a problem playing live if you use different sounds on one song, so I ran a exteral foot controller, the roland that has 8 foot switches. This is by far the best effects unit I have had and I have had just about everything, been playing clubs for 27 years. I love it....

Tonelab is quite an appropriate name for this advanced system. I cannot really find anything I don't like about this piece of equiptment. The accuracy of the amp models are way beyond mediochore amp models Vox has done an excellent job reproducing the tone, and characteristics of these amps faithfully. The effects are way above the average you see today. And a huge selection of effects you actually could see your self using. Unlike another pedalboard whos name I won't mention. The tonelab se is also set up in such a way that you can dial in your tone, or the tone your trying to get with very little effort. Controls are placed perfectly, easy access overall. Right now my set up is an Eric Johnson Strat,an American Fender Deville 410. Over all the combination is WOW. So what are you waiting for buy the tonelab se...

Easy as hell, sounds amazing! 96 preset patches organized into 24 banks. 32 presets = Banks 1-8, and there's 4 pedal switches. And the switch is smooth and immediate. Banks 9-16 and then 17-24 repeat the first 8 presets. So you can edit S-R-V or EVH, and you've haven't lost it because there's two more that haven't been altered in the other banks. I love the way it’s all organized, pure genius. Big props to the engineers on this one, I was considering buying a pro, expensive multi-processor but I don't think I'll need it now. You can also save a bundle on a new amp, you won't need it with this because it adds a tone of wattage, and it has noise reduction and presence. This thing also responds to your different guitars, unlike most modelers. The best feature, if I had to choose, is the variable preamp tube built in. Basically, you're not going to need to use any other stomp box with this, even the tuner is awesome and accurate.