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Vox Satchurator
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Analog Distortion -
More Switch -
Pad Switch
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Searched Vox Satchurator in Reviews
Absolutely Satchurific! - Good pedal for the money 
| Ease Of Use |
So easy to use a chimpanzee could dial it in. You won't need the PAd switch on most of the time if ever, but its nice to have it there if you need it, the manual explains why you would need it.
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| Sound |
Very nice voicing for chords and leads, high and low gain settings are very nice with almost no noise. Great harmonics and tones running it in front of my tube amps (Mesa Boogie and Fender). I love the way it accents the sound of picking for playing leads. It has a really nice half overdriven sound when you use a low gain settings. Stays suprisingly clear when you roll back the volume knob on your guitar. Sounds great with high gain and very little noise that you can still actually "dig into". The tone knob I usually have dialed way back as does Joe but you can get crazy obscene sizzling sounds by cranking it up, I mean like insane almost not usable, like butter on a red hot pan. The notes are cooked before you even hear them. This is a great pedal for the money, it is even true bypass, I just love it.
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| Reliability |
I have owned one well over a year with no problems. It is well built with a durable metal casing, the footswitches are smooth and easy to switch on/off. The chicken head knobs are quality and easily turned with a touch. This thing is definately gig trusty.
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| Liked about it |
- Great sound with plenty of gain and low noise. The MORE switch is really cool feature.
- Good layout and compact design with perfect spacing so you step on what you want not what you don't want.
- Its true bypass, very visual chicken head knobs and LeD lights, not too expensive.
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| Didn't like |
The only complaint I could come up with:
The battery compartment and door cover is made of plastic.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
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Its worth it
| Ease Of Use |
I don't think it could get any easier. Staring you in the face are three knobs labeled Gain, Tone, and Volume. For anyone who's played the guitar for any length of time, those terms are pretty self explanatory. They do what you expect, too. You also have the "on/off" footswitch, and a "more" footswitch.
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| Sound |
I'm using both an Ibanez JS1200 and an Ibanez JEM7V with the Satchurator. I've had this pedal plugged both into my Blackheart 5W tube head, as well as simply included in the external effects loop of my Boss GT-10 when going direct into a mixer/PA. I am able to keep the sound really noise free from "mild" overdrive all the way up to a very high gain setting. What I think I like best is that I can back off the guitar's volume and get a great reaction from the Satchurator -- the sound gets really clean but is still colored nicely when you're at low volume settings. What I also like is that you vary the color of the sound with even the most subtle changes to the tone knob, although I typically have to keep the knob below the 1:00pm position otherwise it just gets way too bright for my tastes. You might have a tendancy to make huge adjustments when you're dialing in a sound. DON'T! You'll really be surprized at the variations you can achieve through almost the smallest of touches to the knobs.
You can get very nice blues an rock tones out of this pedal. But if you're looking for any type of metal sound, you'll really have to use something else. Even at the highest gain setting it doesn't have that metal "crunch". What it *does* give you at the highest setting is still a nice clean type of distortion; you can still hear every nuance of your picking. There's no way to cheat with this little pedal. ;-)
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| Reliability |
I'd have to say the construction is rock solid. I've only had the pedal about two months, so I can't comment on its long term reliability. But it seems strong & sturdy, and I have no complaints.
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| Customer Support |
No comment on this, yet. Hopefully I'll never have the need. ;-)
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| Liked about it |
I like its simplicity, I like the range of sounds I'm able to get, and I like how responsive it is to rolling off the volume on my guitar pickups. So far I'm quite happy with it.
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| Didn't like |
It seems it just gets way to bright after about the mid position on the tone knob. I'd have liked the tone range to be tapered differently.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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Good enough
| Ease Of Use |
It only has 3 knobs so it's pretty easy to use. It's easy to get good sounds from this pedal, but they arent anything extraordinary
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| Sound |
My guitar is a reissue RG550 20th anniversary with Dimarzio pickups; Evo2 in bridge position and Breed neck in neck position. My amp is a Laney VC15 tube amp. Other Distortion/overdrive pedals I have are the Electro-Harmonix metal muff and the Xotic BB Preamp. Almost always, there is a delay pedal after whatever distortion I use (Ibanez DE7). Out of these 3 pedals, the Satchurator takes 2nd place. Better than the Metal Muff but has a loooong way to go before ever getting close to the BB Preamp (which I shall write a review for as soon as I can).
Now for the actual review:
If you want to play Satriani songs, this pedal gives a good sound. It will show EVERY mistake you make, though. Even with high gain, there is no cheating with this pedal :)
For 3 knobs, this pedal is somewhat versatile. It can do some blues (modern blues, but not that good), modern rock, and Maybe some metal. It does not have that artificial, crappy sound most cheap pedals have, however it is a little too bright for my taste, and I cannot adjust tone controls seperately.
Since it's definitely not a bad pedal, I guess it all comes down to personal taste. I'm sure many people will like it more than I do, and some might hate it.
Out of 10, I'd give this sound a 6.5 on my rating (anything about 5 is good). It will be good enough to gig with (something small), jam with or just play at home with.
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| Reliability |
Never had problems with it, but Ive only had it for a few months now and never gigged with it
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| Customer Support |
Never dealt with them
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| Liked about it |
Ease of use, some sounds I could get out of it... all in all, a nice addition to my rig. I don't use it as my main sound (Laney's drive channel boosted by the BB Preamp is what I use), but for jamming or doodling around at home, it works well.
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| Didn't like |
Price. It's too expensive for what it does. I would sell it if I ever needed money. I like some sounds (mainly for playing Satriani, Vai and some rock) and since I can afford to have a seperate pedal for that, I decided to keep it.
The brightness also got on my nerves after a while.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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3.0 |
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A Good Pedal
| Ease Of Use |
This pedal is really simple to use because it only has three chicken head knobs. I found it really easy to get a 70's rock sound from it. The more switch is a nice touch if you like the sound you've got but you just want to add more gain.
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| Sound |
I was using it through my ibanez js100 and my (don't laugh) marshall mg15. This is an all round great sound pedal if you're using the right amp. With my marshall mg15 i got a lot of feedback and when i used this pedal i got the same amount of feedback but what can i say i was using a marshall mg15. If you ignore the feedback you can hear a great heavy rock sound that will get you through pretty much every satch song. But with my new amp (roland cube 60) the distortion on the amp sounds great already so by adding this to my new amp just adds more feedback.
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| Reliability |
It's very reliable because it's made of heavy duty metal and i think it be quite hard to break it. I would reccomend using an ac adapter or otherwise it will just eat up batteries. It also has led's so you can see it on stage.
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| Customer Support |
didnt need it
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| Liked about it |
-Great sound
-Reliable
-Easy to see on stage
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| Didn't like |
-doesnt work well with certain amps
-may cause a bit of feedback
-lack of ac adapter
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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An affordable hi-end Distortion pedal
| Ease Of Use |
straight out of the box easy tweaking, this little monster has its own vibe and tone, the chicken head knobs are easy access three knobs Gain,Tone and Volume, every percentage you dial in has its own tonal characteristics. There is also a toggle switch called the pad used for giving extra dynamics on pedals before the Satchurator and the two footswitches for bypass and engaging the pedal and the other switch called "More" for extra harmonics and gains and widen your tone without sacrificing your distortion set up
The manual that comes with it is just easy straight forward to understand ,no confusing technicality jargon.
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| Sound |
pluging in my Ibanez RG320Fm playing tunes from Chickenfoot and other rock music this pedal is just awesome the Satchurator is designed by Joe Satriani and Vox and his sounds can easily be emulated from this pedal not just him but other rock tunes from Thin Lizzy, Alice cooper Def Leppard etc . Of course there are some other pedals that are better then this, but then this pedal are not for metal heads however it does have the ability for it but for rockers in search for a more warmer crisps and crunch of a hard rock tunes well this pedal is just amazing
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| Reliability |
the casing is built though considering its a VOX it is reliable and Joe Satriani use it for his tourings and all. so yea.. and i wouldnt think its that fragile but i always have my kORG Ax 1500g for my backup
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| Customer Support |
nope.
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| Liked about it |
the color red and the vintage white knobs very very cool
its cheap affodable hi end
the versatility of tone that it has given me
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| Didn't like |
i would want it to have a switch for two settings, one for a low range dist and the other for heavy dist
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
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Get that Satch tone, smooth distortion
| Ease Of Use |
Easy as it gets - three chicken knobs - gain, tone and volume. Very easy to use. Sound was great, works well with a valved amp, very good with change in picking dynamics - be warned though, this baby will show your bad technique up like a highlighter!
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| Sound |
Great sound. I'm using a variety of Ibanez guitars on my Vintage Modern Combo. I will use the amp on the low gain setting, crank the gain on the pedal, turn the volume knob down on the pedal and warm the tubes in my amp at manageable volumes. AWESOME. Pretty darn quiet machine, no probs so far from my end.
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| Reliability |
Subject to having a decent battery, this thing looks like it will last for a long time. No problems so far from my end.
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| Customer Support |
Never dealt with Vox, so I really can't comment.
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| Liked about it |
Great rock sound, emulating those tasty satch tones
* The volume knob is a great feature if you want to warm your tubes up at lower volumes, I love that feature!
* Chicken knobs - they look awesome!
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| Didn't like |
I can really only think of two :
*The tone knob above about half way is just way too much treble for me. Would have preferred if it was more tweakable
* Plastic covering in the battery slot, but really that is a tiny gripe as I power the thing via a daisy chain!
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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If you like today's stach tones, get the unit
| Ease Of Use |
Very clear and easy to understand unit. Only the FAD switch might be a bit cloudy. Joe seems to use it wether or not he is using his wah. Gain/Tone/Volume are very clear and give the result you'd expect. The "More" switch is a very nice addition.
It has a 9v battery compartiment on the bottom side and a standard Boss type adapter input as well. Works perfectly with my T-Rex Fuel tank.
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| Sound |
The guitars I use it with : JS1200ca (perfect color match ;)) with Paf Joe en Fred pickups, and a RG Jcustom with Air Norton and Tonezone, all dimarzio pickups of course.
I used it mainly with Carvin Legacy and still have to try it out with my Marshall 30th Anniv 6100LM. I have to say this pedal can sound quite different depending on the amp. It seems it does not work as well with all amps.
If you want early satch tones, this might not be the thing. This unit was inspired on the MIJ Boss DS-1 but it has a voicing of it's own, think of Satch's tone on Prof. Satchafuncilus and the Chickenfoot album. That is how the Satchurator sounds, certainly not Surfing with the Alien -> Extremist IMO.
Although I like the tone, it will only comes to it's right before a cranked amp on the verge of break-up. Since it's a distortion pedal and not an overdrive, I hoped it would've sounded beter at lower amp volumes as well. it didn't blow me away, at least for now.
It's quite silent, even at high gain levels, so that's a real + ! |
| Reliability |
Seems very sturdy built, I like the switches (not hard switches btw!)
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| Customer Support |
Never dealt with them and I doubt it will be necessary for this product.
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| Liked about it |
- Cool distinguishes sound
- Nice look and built !
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| Didn't like |
- Appareantly doesn't work as good with all amps, but I guess there are other pedals like this.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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3.0 |
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The best
| Ease Of Use |
It's pretty much as straight forward as you can get!
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| Sound |
Very smooth! There is no excess distortion most other boxes I'v used put at full distort just have tooooooooooo much noise! I can get any sound I need for what I play from some good 'ol BB King blues to Joe Satriani shred metal!
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| Reliability |
I would never think of bring a backup for this, it shows no signs of slowing down!
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| Liked about it |
The tone is great. It's easy to use and set up the sound I need
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| Didn't like |
I can't think of a thing!
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
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More than meets the eye...
| Ease Of Use |
The unit is very straight forward and if you are familiar with a distortion pedal you should be able to use it without the handbook.
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| Sound |
It is definately more than meets the eye.
Of course if you dial in the Satch settings, the unit will give you authentic Satch tones, especially if hooked up with my JS1200, but I can also get very nice results with my JEMs and Les Paul Std.
You can vary the tones a lot and even get some nice crunchy sounds, which tend to go very bluesy and surprisingly sound very tube crunch like.
The more button, well it gives you more :) and you can go up to very high gain, however not the "insane" kind. It keeps the gain in reasonable levels.
Very nice is that the unit has very low added noise and is really high quality.
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| Reliability |
It is very durable and rock solid.
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| Customer Support |
No dealings yet.
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| Liked about it |
- Sounds
- Well built
- Very low noise
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| Didn't like |
- Would like more tone settings
Nothing else to think of.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
 By Tank Oct 27, 2009
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More than just Satch in a box
| Ease Of Use |
The pedal is fairly easy to use. Plug in, adjust the gain, tone and volume knobs and you're good to go. The pad function has yet to do anything noticable for me, up or down seems to be the same. If you need even more satchuration in your signal, just hit the more button with the gain all the way up.
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| Sound |
The Satchurator offers plenty of gain for classic to modern distortion. It also can be used as a dual channel distortion with the more switch. The tones are in the same ball park as Satriani, so if you don't like his tone, look elsewhere. That being said, the pedal is versatile enough to handle several styles of distortion. It cleans up wonderfully with the volume rolled back on your guitar. Things get a little shrill with the tone level past 12 o'clock, but can be very mellow and jazzy when it's at 0. I've noticed that the tones really open up with the volume up around 1-2 o'clock and, like an amp almost, it likes to be pushed. One thing it will not do is metal distortion. If you want thick tight brutal distortion, look elsewhere. The Satchurator is too wide open and loose in the bass department without an additional EQ device. It can handle everything else though. With the gain dialed down, it will do blues and classic rock crunch with the more switch acting like a solo boost. It's totally silent until you hit the more switch with your gain cranked. Even then, it's not noisy by any means. The pedal is meant to be used on a clean channel, it does not sound good as an overdrive (nor was it ever intended for that).
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| Reliability |
I've gigged with it for a year now and it's been great. No problems. It feels very sturdy.
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| Customer Support |
Never had to deal with them.
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| Liked about it |
1. Great Dynamics and very responsive to guitar volume and picking.
2. Enough gain on tap for my music tastes with a quazi-2 channel operation
3. Very quiet on all but the highest gain setting
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| Didn't like |
1. Pricey, although not terribly unreasonable. Still, I've heard good things about some non-signature pedals that are a little cheaper. I love the pedal, but I also have to concede that for less discerning musicians, the DS-1 will sound pretty darn close. Even ABed, it's tough to tell a difference between the two with the distortion levels up although the Satchurator wins easily when you start to use dynamics and lower gain settings. Still, it's $100 more than the DS-1 and players interested in saving some money will probably not miss the enhanced capabilities that much.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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4.0 |
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internal use: spec24 spec583
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