Tried the Box of Metal yesterday...

[DeuceII]

They have one of the USA Vexters at Old Town Music here in Portland, had to try it out. Sounded pretty cool, very responsive tone controls. I ran it with a stock Strat into a Fender Vibrolux reissue, still very massive sounding. And I really only pushed up the gain knob to about 11 o'clock, plenty of gain at that point. The gate really only seemed to work well when almost fully open, otherwise it's a quirky little stutter-effect sound (which fits with the rest of the ZVex line, I'd have to say). But when fully open, it let through some odd feedback/buzzing sounds at times, not musical type feedback but loud annoying stuff, not sure why this was happening.
Now for the disclaimer. I've already got an ISP Decimator, and since the gate on the ZVex only functions when the BoM is on, I'm thinking I'd rather go with a different high-gain distortion pedal at a lower price point. Granted, if you think of the BoM as two pedals in one, the price is at least justifiable, if not somewhat cheaper than other options (ISP $125 + MI Audio TZ $180, or GT500 $200, for example). But I find it odd that the gate doesn't work on it's own, in the same way the Boost on the BoR does. If it did, I'd probably sell the ISP and get the BoM. But as it is, I'd rather spend that kind of money on one of the more idiosyncratic ZVex pedals, like the Machine or Octane III. Just my .02, but I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same way regarding other pedals that might do similar things for less.

[DeuceII]

Turkey-day bump. Anybody else gonna chime in on this? Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

[jgyn]

I see your point. My 1st Zvex was a Machine, and I've an Octane as well. And a Fuzz Factory, Wah Probe, etc.
I coughed up the clams for a Box Of Rock because I favor low gain sounds, and prefer fuzz for high gain sounds.

[BAN]

Happy turkey day to you, too. I already wrote a short review at the below link, but I'll chime in again.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/sho...d.php?t=316995

I'm still digging mine quite a bit. I've been using a stock EJ strat and an R8 Les Paul with Wolfetone Dr. Vintage pickups through a Sewell Texaverb (blackface style amp).

I didn't buy this thing for the gate; I've actually never used gates all that much. But now that I have it, I like it. I use it primarily all the way open myself, although I've started closing it off for some weird fun stuttery sonic tricks when combined with delay.

When wide open, I don't get any of that feedback/buzzing you mentioned (although there can be a slight "buzz" type thing when the gate closes). I'm also using a boost to push my signal sometimes so that the gate doesn't close on me when I'm playing softer, single note passages (especially with the strat).

This pedal is its own thing. I have the Tube Zone, and I've owned the GT500. Both are good pedals, but they can't do the type of distortion + fuzz that the BoM can do. Just depends on what you want.

It does sound massive, though. It even makes my Skreddy Mayo, seem a little small, which is no small feat.

BAN

[zachary vex]

If you hear something during the gating action, turn off the gate and listen to what your guitar's pickups are putting into the pedal. Whatever you put into any pedal will appear at the output, and if it's very loud, the pedal will interpret it as part of the guitar's signal.

[RickB]

I had a 6 knob Tube Zone for a while and still have a GT-500. Neither one of them can touch the BoM's available gain IMO. All three are definitely cool though!

[DeuceII]

Originally Posted by zachary vex

If you hear something during the gating action, turn off the gate and listen to what your guitar's pickups are putting into the pedal. Whatever you put into any pedal will appear at the output, and if it's very loud, the pedal will interpret it as part of the guitar's signal.

Zachary, I was hoping you'd actually show up on this thread. I did try exactly what you're describing above, mainly to see if the gate affected the tone at all (not a bit), and with the pedal on but no gate there was quite a bit of buzz, as you can imagine. Much like the video demo. With the gate engaged, wide open, it seemed to only be making the noise I mentioned when I would move the guitar. It was probably some kind of feedback signal that was loud enough, as you say above, to force the gate open (or whatever the correct terminology would be).
At any rate, I was very impressed with the tonal options available on the BoM, and I'd very much like to A/B it against other high gain pedals with the ISP gate to hear the differences. I was very happy that you did your original demo with the AC15 as my own amp is closely related to that circuit, giving me a pretty accurate sense of what the BoM would do in my setup.