Section for the review of Black Box Pedals..

Please State Model and Gear You Use....

Oxygen compressor $239 @ Musictoyz

Gear I use with it: Teles, Alamo Tonemonger, EB/MM EVH, Danelectro, Carr Slant 6V 2x12, Dr. Z Maz Jr. 2x10, Menatone pedals, Fulltone pedals, MJM BLues Devil, George Dennis phaser, EB Volume, Line 6 DL-4, DM-2, BD-2, Analogman Clone chorus, etc., etc.

The best compressor I've owned and used out of: MXR Dynacomp, Carl Martin, Ross, Boss CS-2 and 3, Nanocomp, DOD milkbox, Marshall ED-1, Way Huge, etc.

It's very transparent for a comp. It also has tons of versatility as comp, clean boost, limiter, OD, distortion, etc. It also features a gate for cutting noise or giving you tight chop off for high gain sounds. It has a switch of different presets for attack times on the comp. (soft knee, hard knee) Just turn the knob 'til it clicks to the next one.

Do you want to run your amp at the verge of breakup without the peaks into OD all the time? Set it as a limiter and It won't cross the threshold. It can slam your amp with clean boost, too. Various settings of the gain, dirt, comp knobs allow for OD and distortion shades, too. I wish I could go into all the details...it's very versatile.

Build quality is excellent, as well. Don't overlook this pedal. It's worth the dough you'll spend in every way. It will do wonders for your sound if you let it. I recommend this as the best compressor available in pedal format. Try one!!

Man...I just got my Bass X-ray today and plugged it in. This is one cool fuzz!

I plugged this thing in every way possible in combination with a Stereo Volume pedal, an Electro-Harmonix Octave Multiplexer, and a Lexicon MPX100 (chorus sounds). The Blackbox lost no tone nor altered anything when I placed it.

I run into an Alesis Studio 12R mixer with no amp (headphones for now) and the Blackbox is so incredibly nasty (in a good way) that it freaked my mixer out. I checked out the factory settings and they work really well. I find that I can easily tailor the sound I want with the slightest move of any dial.

The Blackbox sounded great after my octave pedal and both octaves fuzzed the same. The Backbox handled the sub-octave almost perfectly. I lose no tone, no attack, and really found a lot of differences available in the dials.

My Lexicon MPX100 is used for chorus. It can't handle the pedal and I found when I bypass the Lexicon, the tone is great and poweful. Guess what's going by-by now (hint, the digital bastard chorus).

Anyone want a Lexicon?

derek lorin
www.dereklorin.com (come visit me...you know you want to!)

oh yeah...the only things i would change about the x-ray blackbox is to add a 9v option and blue led...