Zvex Box of Metal Vexter

SOUND:
From a heavy pounding boom to a sizzle reminiscent of Dimebag, it’s possible to dial into several different tones with ZVEX’s Box of Metal. What really stands out about this pedal is how its heaviness still manages to cut through the mix incredibly well. The YouTube demo below demonstrates various settings on the Box of Metal, as well as a composition.



Now, what should be made clear is that even when the GAIN is turned right down (with the pedal on) there is plenty of distortion and drive. This obviously picks up and becomes dirtier and without increasing the volume very much (and so, you can go from a filthy crunch to more traditional metal without having to fiddle with the volume knob). Another point to note is that the GATE works exceptionally well… so well that it should be turned almost all the way down or turned off when wanting to play lead with some modest sustain. Having said that, when the GAIN is turned up about half-way (or more) you literally can stop your power-chord on a dime! There isn’t even a hint of noise or artifact sneaking through the circuit. Best yet, the Gate is completely silent, and so you can click on and off as desired without introducing any transient noises.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:
This pedal is about as metal as they get… not only in sound, but in construction. Encased in steel, the Box of Metal also has metal switches and metals knobs. And so, if you damage it you are far too rough with your gear. The standard 9v (10mA) power input is located along the side and next to the guitar’s input (it also works on a 9v battery, which comes with the pedal and lasts a long time since it requires such low power).
There’s enough tonal variation with The Box of Metal that anyone into the Metal genre will make use of it; and I think most people will recognize the quality of the sound to be reminiscent of 1980s high-gain amps. What makes the pedal even more diverse is that you can set your amp to super clean to crunch and can make very good use of it. My video demo is on pure clean, but with some added crunch you can get even heavier and thicker tones.

The one unfortunate thing is that once you click the pedal off (for complete bypass) you cannot use the Gate – it works only when the pedal’s Gain is on. Other than that there’s no downfall with the Box of Metal.


EASE OF USE:
It’s not exactly plug-and-play, but the amount of tweaking required is not unreasonable – depending on your amp and guitar, as well as the sound you want to achieve, you certainly have to fiddle with the Bass, Midrange and Treble. The Gate needs only modest experimentation, as it’s either completely off or kicks in quite nicely at only a quarter turn. The Gain is already pretty intense when turned all the way down, and I find there’s a sweet spot around 11 o’clock if you want a heavy distortion with some grind to it (beyond 11 o’clock you get more sizzle).

The Zvex Box of Metal is a more extreme version of their Box of Rock. Think of this as a crazy, over the top distortion pedal with some fuzz overtones at times. The pedal has a volume, gain, bass, mid, treble, noise gate. On top of that, there's an extremely cool Vexter look going on with the case, and the pedal is 100% true bypass to ensure no tone suckage.

UTILIZATION

The pedal is designed a bit differently than most other distortions. Most generally just have a single tone knob, but Zvex uses a three band EQ. This adds versatility to the pedal, and it gives you some extra cool options once you start fiddling with the knobs as they all seem to interact with each other in a unique way. The gate in this is particularly useful as there's tons of gain built into this pedal. It'll turn even the cleanest JC120 into a metal monster, although the tone might not be the best you've heard...

SOUND QUALITY

The sound is where I am a bit weary with this pedal. It's such an over the top distortion pedal that I think it was meant for clean amps. Because it was meant for clean amps, it has that distinctive "pedal" sound going on. Imagine running a DS-1 into a clean amp -- that's the pedal tone I'm referring to. That said, the pedal does the job it sets out to do, I believe. The three band EQ is probably the coolest part of this pedal as you can really shape the tone the way you want it. I don't recommend running this into a high gain amp, but if you do, you can try using it as a boost by turning the gain all the way down. The noise gate gets bonus points as well.

OVERALL OPINION

If you're looking for a more boutique style distortion pedal that delivers the goods, this is probably something you should check out. It's a bit over the top, but the gate helps keep everything under control. I recommend trying to find one of these used as it'll help out in terms of the price department, and these pedals are built to withstand a nuclear warhead so no worries about it shorting out during shipping.

Analog distortion pedal, in, out, alim9v standard volume, bass, treble, mid, gain and gate, switch on / off switch gate, full, but despite the small size of Zvex, the provision of connectivity is that it take more space in a pedalboard lets do it
ah yes true bypass

UTILIZATION

bin is very simple to settle for quicquonque had this kind of pedal, buy OCCAZ g was no manual and really do not need, we turn we find very easily good sound

SOUND QUALITY

simply the best distortion pedal ever tested, yet there was (all bosses, metal muff (the pedal "attack), T Rex Bloody Mary, digitech metal master, hardwire ml , mxr DoubleShot, Fullbore, Guyatone Metal Monster ...)
the sound is huge, and when the expected gain 12pm (and beyond) like below average
the thing is it sounds not like a pedal, it sounds distortion amp, it's not cold, it's also a little fatter, the pedal sounds dark, something correctable by increasing the acute, eq is rather effective, the gate is a model of the genre, perfectly neutral and silent
I use two Gibson Les Paul (premium plus DC and pro) on an old hot rod and turns the AC amplifier, which has a pretty rotten disto, I feel like being on a mesa boogie correct! !
Moreover, there is a demo on the internet zack vex: correct mesa vs. + fender twin box of metal, it is quite edifying, and for testing, I can guarantee it's not faking!!

OVERALL OPINION

I've had this morning, I tried a bunch of model before, and I regret having lost so much time (and money) with this ton of pedalle has not height, I love everything in this pedal, if the format n'sst Zvex finally is not very important because I have a big muff so ....
AC may parraitre expensive given the concurence (there are amp (small or medium transo lamp) for this price) but seriously a nice big amp lights, the sound difference is even greater ...
I believe that I finally found the high gain distortion pedal I expected

Analog distortion pedal, in, out, alim9v standard volume, bass, treble, mid, gain and gate, switch on / off switch gate, full, but despite the small size of Zvex, the provision of connectivity is that it take more space in a pedalboard lets do it
ah yes true bypass

UTILIZATION

bin is very simple to settle for quicquonque had this kind of pedal, buy OCCAZ g was no manual and really do not need, we turn we find very easily good sound

SOUND QUALITY

simply the best distortion pedal ever tested, yet there was (all bosses, metal muff (the pedal "attack), T Rex Bloody Mary, digitech metal master, hardwire ml , mxr DoubleShot, Fullbore, Guyatone Metal Monster ...)
the sound is huge, and when the expected gain 12pm (and beyond) like below average
the thing is it sounds not like a pedal, it sounds distortion amp, it's not cold, it's also a little fatter, the pedal sounds dark, something correctable by increasing the acute, eq is rather effective, the gate is a model of the genre, perfectly neutral and silent
I use two Gibson Les Paul (premium plus DC and pro) on an old hot rod and turns the AC amplifier, which has a pretty rotten disto, I feel like being on a mesa boogie correct! !
Moreover, there is a demo on the internet zack vex: correct mesa vs. + fender twin box of metal, it is quite edifying, and for testing, I can guarantee it's not faking!!

OVERALL OPINION

I've had this morning, I tried a bunch of model before, and I regret having lost so much time (and money) with this ton of pedalle has not height, I love everything in this pedal, if the format n'sst Zvex finally is not very important because I have a big muff so ....
AC may parraitre expensive given the concurence (there are amp (small or medium transo lamp) for this price) but seriously a nice big amp lights, the sound difference is even greater ...
I believe that I finally found the high gain distortion pedal I expected