Customer Reviews

Vox Joe Satriani Satchurator Distortion Pedal

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have played guitar for 20 years and have tried a bunch of gear. I was initially enamored with the pedal, but after using it for six months, its shortcomings have become apparent. I use it in a wet/dry setup, in front of a cranked Peavey Tube amp, a JSX cab miced with an SM57 in another room, then through my studio monitors. I can modify the EQ in multiple places in the chain.

This is a nice pedal with a "wide" EQ, which is its defining characteristic. Even on high gain settings, chords retain clarity. It has a nice harmonic presence and feels very alive.

It has a wide range of gain versatility, and between the two setting on the pedal and your volume knob, you can get a wide range of usable gain from slightly overdriven to high-gain.

The EQ versatility is where this pedal may be a problem. If plugged in front of your clean channel, the pedal has its one tone knob, and the tone shaping of your amp. This means the pedal may not sound great with your amp. However, I use an MXR 10 band eq. It only takes slight EQ adjustment from the MXR. I slightly boost the 2k-8K frequencies to make it sound more marshally. The sm57 picks up the tone well, with little(to none) eq at the board.

The pedal needs to be played loud to sound good, like most distortion boxes. Sounds fizzy at lower volumes.

Now the only problem with the pedal is that I noticed that it feels "slow" when playing fast picked runs. It doesnt have the same nice sharp attack of an amp. It has a muted pick attack that makes it feel clunky for lack of a better word. Listening closely to Joe's recordings, you can hear this quality, so its probably something inherent to the DS-1 style circuit. I suspect it has something to do with limited headroom and compression of initial input volume spikes. Instead of a typical sharp click/swish of the pick, you hear almost a broad "flub". THe pedal works better with medium and low gain pickups for sure. To summarize this complaint, I would say the pick attack is not precise or musical, but veiled.

Its not the holy grail, but if you like this kind of distortion, Joe's "open" EQ and the two channels of operation make it worthy. It sounds good recorded for nice crunchy guitars and screaming leads, so I really cant complain, although without the MXR EQ I would not be loving this pedal as much. Four stars.

Just received it as a gift off my Amazon wishlist ... after playing for about an hour, I'm very pleased with it! The hiss levels are remarkably low, even at high gain settings. It's a warm yet sharp distortion, and once you tune in a comfortable tone knob setting to your tastes, it will be just what you're looking for.

The More switch is just what it's supposed to be, a boost in just the right way, without having to bend down to crank up anything. A little TS9 Tube Screamer before it gives a bit more body, a good tone for my technique, but not essential. By itself through a tube amp (in my case a Fender Blues Jr. NOS) the Satchurator covers everything you need. Just get good at rolling the guitar's volume knob as part of your "effects chain", and you don't need anything else to get good, solid, pure tone that rocks and shreds.

I would give this 4 stars and a half, but since it can't be done I'll just write it. I own two amps, a Peavey Classic 30 which is tube amp and a Line 6 spider 3 cheap solid state amp. I know most of the guitar players have solid state amps, so watch out if you're buying this pedal, because it will not sound as you expect it to sound, it sucks.
However, if you own a good valve or tube amp, this pedal is a beast, you'll have much tonal coverage with it, but in my opinion, if you turn it further 12:00, the tone gets sharp and trebly, not my taste really. The switches are soft compared to a Wah Wah switch, you dont have to stomp on it to turn it on and off.
Im loving this pedal, some people say it's the same as a modded Boss DS-1 and they're right, but come on, bothering modding a DS-1 is hard for newbies on electronics, like me, you'll probably destroy your ds 1 trying. So, what I'm saying is, if you got the money, just buy this pedal instead of modding the DS-1, you will not void your warranty and will have Satch's signature on your pedal :D

I like this pedal because it's easy. It's my first guitar pedal and it will be the last distortion pedal I purchase. The controls are so simple a novice like me can tool around for hours and still have a lot of fun. To my shock, my wife loves the sound at high gain. Sounds great through an AC4TV with my worn cherry Les Paul Studio.

Of course, the price dropped $10 immediately after I bought it. Too bad Amazon no longer has a price protection policy.
Good deal right now at $117.

I've only used it twice but it blows away my BOSS SD-1 , Ibanez TS-9, and Voodoo Sprarkle pedals. Used a PRS custom 24.
I get a nice range of tones with both the gain and the tone pedals. My guitar tone and volume knobs also produce noticeable changes in the quality of the distortion. Of course the 5-way switch contributes a lot to the tone as well.

Definitely a 'warm' pedal, not quite bluesy, not a grunge pedal, not a metal pedal. But I can get close to all of these with some tweaking and a good eq, so it scores big points for its versatility.

This pedal has yet to make a sound that offends me ( that is about the best thing you can say about a good pedal, right? )

I did put it in front of a vintage Fender Blender Fuzz and it is LOUD and it growls. This combo produced some really sick sounds.

I've only tried it out on a VOX tube amp, so I don't have a feel for its performance on solid-state equipment yet.
Must try next on my Roland amp, maybe with the Gibson or Ibanez. I also need to further experiment with it in combination with other pedals, then add some more details to this review.

I have sent back several other distortions/overdrives that failed to impress.
This one is a keeper.

This pedal represents the exact sound that I was looking for in my guitar. What impressed me the most was the fact that I could actually hear the differences as I alter either the tone or the gain settings. That goes a long way to convincing me that the pedal was worth it. Adjusting it to create a bright clean sound creates the bright clean sound I want. Turning up the gain for more byte accomplishes that much as well. All the sounds are here and more controlable than ever. I'm playing the pedal thru a custom guitar (walnut body, cocobola neck, Jim Wagners Darkburst pickups) and I now have the holy grail of sound. I can't imagine this pedal sounding bad even with stock comercial guitars. I will be running my sound through this all the time.

I play in a 60's cover band and had finally worn out my trusty "Rat" distortion pedal. I got a great deal on Amazon on the Vox Joe Satriani Satchurator...what an awesome sound. Paired with my 65 Gibson ES335 and my Vox AC30 I can get the sound I want whether I'm playing "Satisfaction" by the Stones or "Alright Now" by Free. We just added "Bang A Gong" by T Rex to our set...the Satchrator stops the show when I come in on the opening riff. It works great with my other pedals....it's just what I was looking for.

Amazing pedal by the people from Vox. If mine was lost or destroyed, I would immediately order a new pedal. So many pedals inspire buyer's remorse, but not this one.

The more you speak about this pedal you are wasting time playing it. So I will write the bare facts. This pedal has amazing tone. I beg to differ that this pedal will make you sound like Satriani, no it doesnt cos Satriani's tone is in his finger and not this pedal. However you will be able to do things like Go clean / cruchy on High gain distortion by rolling off your volume or coil splitting your pickup and so the cool variations in sound like satriani does. I have a RG 2550 with Evolutions and a Super distortion and both guitars scream through this pedal. Gain at 12 O clock, you get excellent rythm tones, and the Evolutions / Super Distortion with their high output can get you a classic rock lead tone at this setting. AT Gain all the way up to 5 O clock and the tone at 11 O clock, you get a smooth satchurated tone for modern metal / lead playing, Even at High Gain the pedal is significantly quiet unlike most distortion pedals that will be hissing. The More switch is such a MARVEL -- IF gain is set to 12, it wil boost it to the 5 O Clock position and saturate your tone, if your Gain was at 5 already then it add some juicy harmonics to your sound, you have to hear it, it is one real cool switch that you will be amazed at every time you hit it. What really impressed me about this pedal is how it reacts to playing. I have two of the after market hottest pickups in my guitar, yet I can play nimbly and make the strings go clean at the gain set to 2 O clock, strike it a bit harder and it will scream... Believe me, if you can master the art of playing light and nimbly, and then change to hard picking in an instant, you wont need your foot on the pedal, and mind you that the volume does not drop drastically. There is tons of Gain and the volume out is pretty impressive with very little noise. I run my Ibanex RG2550 Prestige into the Satchurator and then into a Laney LV 300 with Celestion 70/80. Great combination. I got it for a steal price of $129 and they even threw in a free 20 Foot premium Whirlwind cable along with it. Worth every $ I paid for it.Simple pedal, easy to use and Great sound.