Vox Tone Garage Flat 4 Boost

So the Vox Tone Garage Flat 4 Boost is an interesting booster pedal. It can provide mid-boost, treble-boost and overdrive an addition to a full range boost. The Vox Tone Garage Flat 4 Boost also is loaded with a visible 12AX7 preamp tube (which I kinda like to see) and is part of Vox Tone Garage series.

The official description mentions that it uses the Baxandall tone circuit which allows for adjustments from the flat position to the desired boost or cut range. I personally never heard of the “Baxandall tone circuit” – so let’s go on a mini tangent shall we?

Baxandall tone circuit

http://sound.whsites.net/dwopa2.htm#baxandall

This is the most common of all modern tone control circuits, and was named after PJ Baxandall who came up with the idea many years ago. The original design article was entitled “Negative Feedback Tone Control – Independent Variation of Bass and Treble Without Switches”, and was published in Wireless World (now Electronics World) in 1952. This type of control is fully symmetrical, and there is no interaction between the controls, unlike the older passive controls. When centred, there is neither loss nor gain, and the opamp acts as a buffer. Frequency response is absolutely flat, provided the pots centre precisely.

The circuit is a frequency dependent feedback arrangement, and provides boost and cut for high and low frequencies. It is common for designers to make the turnover frequency for both treble and bass centred around 1kHz, but this is essentially a stupid thing to do (IMO). Ideally, bass boost/cut should start from no higher than about 160Hz, and treble boost/cut should start at no lower than around 2.5kHz – this is two octaves either side of the 640Hz nominal centre frequency for audio. In practice it will be found that this is more natural, and provides the boost where it will do the most good (or harm, for the purists!).

Along with being quipped with a 12AX7 preamp tube, what I love to see.. a midboost toggle switch to notch up those frequencies. The standard control options are available – Volume, Low, High and Gain. This pedal can be a monster blues pedal – rhythm and or leads.

Check out this demo:

Pretty tasty right? I wanted to bring this up today, because… as of right now (Thursday 1/12) it’s the Stupid Deal of the Day at Musician’s Friend. Typically, the Vox Tone Garage Flat 4 Boost is available for $160, but is currently on sale for a massively cut price of $89.99 and includes FREE shipping. For those of you not familiar with Musician’s Friend Stupid Deal of the Day, the deal will only run for a single day OR if it’s sold out. At that point, the item will shift to another item. So, if you’re digging this pedal, I would jump on it quickly because it won’t last!