VOX StompLab 1B Multi-Effects Modeling Pedal for Bass Guitar

The StompLab has been a part of my signal chain for 5 years. You can pick one up super-cheap, it's very light (about 1lb), and it can also be powered with AA batteries.Tweaking the tone is a little confusing at first, but I'm really happy with my custom settings. The stock tone models are absolute garbage though.Here are my settings that I gig with:Acoustic & Clean/More Bass Tones (U0)PDL - oFAMP/DRV - c3 - 5.2 - 9.0 (Pure Clean)LO - 10 - 8.6HI - 4.6 - 6.9CAB - CU - 10MOD - oFDLY - A3 - 3.1 - 1.4REV - HL - 2.3 - 4.8NR - 0.0GL - Ln - 7.0Acoustic & Clean/Brighter (U1)PDL - To - 10AMP/DRV - c3 - 10 - 6.2LO - 3.9 - 3.4HI - 5.8 - 5.6CAB - CU - 10MOD - oFDLY - A3 - 3.1 - 2.4REV - rM - 10 - 5.3NR - 0.0GL - Ln - 7.0Little Bit of Grit (U2)PDL - oFAMP/DRV - C1 - 6.7 - 5.3 (Fender Tweed)LO - 4.4 - 10HI - 6.5 - 10CAB - U2MOD - oFDLY - E2 - 3.0 - 3.8REV - rM - 7.8 - 5.6NR - 9.4GL - Ln - 7.0Little More Grit (U3)PDL - oFAMP/DRV - o1 - 10 - 4.8 (Digitech Tone Driver)LO - 4.4 - 10HI - 6.5 - 10CAB - U2MOD - oFDLY - E2 - 3.0 - 3.8REV - rM - 7.8 - 5.6NR - 9.4GL - Ln - 7.0Guv'nor Overdrive (U4) -- **My Lead Go-To**PDL - oFAMP/DRV - d1 - 6.7 - 5.3 (Marshall Guv'nor)LO - 7.4 - 10HI - 6.5 - 10CAB - U2MOD - oFDLY - E2 - 3.0 - 3.8REV - rM - 7.8 - 5.6NR - 9.4GL - Ln - 7.0Tube Screamer (U7)PDL - oFAMP/DRV - o5 - 7.2 - 5.6 (Ibanez TS9)LO - 10 - 10HI - 6.5 - 10CAB - U2MOD - oFDLY - E2 - 3.0 - 3.8REV - rM - 7.8 - 5.6NR - 9.4GL - Ln - 7.0To make a custom tone, select any of the 20 user settings (u1 - u10, or U1 - U10), then push the EDIT button. The preset name will begin blinking. Spin the preset dial counter-clockwise and start with PDL.If you want to cycle through the options, push the EFFECT TYPE buttons:--PDL cycles through pedal effects (wah, octaver, uni-vibe, etc)--AMP/DRV cycles through different amps and distortion/overdrive/fuzz--CAB cycles through cabinet types--MOD for different chorus/flanger/mod pedals--DLY goes through different delay types (analog/digital/echo)--REV goes through Room/Spring/Hall--The effect button doesn't do anything for LO, HI, NR, or GL.The 2 other dials determine the settings of what you've chosen.To remove a pedal or mods, for example -- hold the 2 EFFECT TYPE buttons together for about 2 seconds.Here's what the dials refer to for each setting:PDL - Value 1 & 2 dependent on the pedal type selectedAMP/DRV - 1: Gain, 2: LevelLO - 1: Bass, 2: MidHI - 1: Treble, 2: PresenceCAB - 1: Nothing (except Custom Cabinet (CU), 2: N/AMOD - Value 1 & 2 dependent on the mod type selectedDLY - 1: Time, 2: MixREV - 1: Time, 2: MixNR - 1: Noise Reduction Level, 2: N/AGL - 1: Amp/Line Selection, 2: Master Volume

Bought my first Stomplab in 2013 and couple years of heavy use, a button broke. So many new multi effects, I bought 3 others over the years, and came back to Stomplab. Why? PLENTY OF REASONS, but first is SOUND. The others have a gritty "digital" grayness, hard to get clean high chiming frequencies, although I know that sampling at 44,000 time a second SHOULD model frequencies to our 20,000 Hz upper hearing limit, but it don't. PITCH SLIDE: A recent multi-Effect could only slide one note at a time, STOMPLAB SLIDES THE WHOLE POLYPHONIC CHORD, set to whatever frequency from octave below to octave above (plus a detune), controlled by the pedal. Or take DELAY: other effects remove the delay when you use the pedal to reduce the delay or reverb mix, very UNNATURAL. Stomplab keeps reverberating and echoing for a natural die down. THE COMPRESSOR REALLY WORKS!!! The other, at least one other, didn't. The number of effects, limited compared to other multi-effects, also LIBERATES you from endless trial and error. Visualize the sound you want, and you can get close (or better). AMPLIFIER EMULATION: A good amp model (depending on amp chosen) should respond to the guitar's volume changes (with cleaner to more distortion) and that happens with some of the Stomplab's emulations. I have not found that to be true in the others. Vox Stomplab also has some space-age ring modulator and noisy amp models that the others cannot get close to! Really strange fuzz-wah craziness, easily NOT harmonic and crazy noise, yet can still produce interesting music! I thoroughly examined all amp models for low noise and volume-responsiveness, and found about nine that I'm happy with. Very solid construction; no failure-prone exotic little plastic buttons that trashed one of the other multi-effects. OK, so the battery access by unscrewing the four feet on the under-panel REALLY sucks, so use batteries as the backup for power-cable failure. Ten User-programmable presets, and 90 factory presets (useful for instructional purposes) unfortunately no way to store the volume on presets, so be careful at high volume. FOUR EQ settings per voice, which I set trebly (sometimes for wah response) to control from the guitar. Why pay double for a confusing, gritty sounding *new* digital guitar effect with ugly boring drum sounds and a difficult looper (one other multi-effect linked the drum tempo to the looper BY MEASURE COUNT, and that was GREAT! Modification: I took the right knob off to avoid my wah-pedal foot bumping it and changing the output volume! The knob-stem works fine.

This will convert a basic practice amp into a modeling amp. I'd say out of the 100 presets in this thing - about half of them are actually usable. For me, this turned an almost "free" bundled 10W practice amp I had into more or less the equivalent of my 40W Peavey VIP II modeling amp. Once I figured out which presets I liked - it's easy enough to switch between them, and they do sound great.On the negative side - I have no idea what the controls do (beyond the main "mode" selector switch) and the manual did not help me. YouTube was not much help either. I'm sure if I understood how amps worked better the controls would make more since to me... but for now, I have no idea what they do or how to properly use them. I only know on some presets the foot pedal seems to do various stuff and on others it does not. Same for the two chicken head knobs. I just stick them in the middle setting and leave them alone... a I leave the pedal depressed.I suppose if you knew what you were doing you could use this thing on a stage to quickly change between a lot of great sounds, inexpensively (a lot cheaper than a bunch of pedals). But for me - I can't figure out how to do that.