This pedal has two effects in one box, a clean boost and a distortion circuit.

This Box of Rock simulates Zachary’s favorite amp turned up all the way, a 1966 Marshall® JTM45. The tone control adjusts brightness and there’s a high-headroom low-noise boost.

The Box of Rock is Zvex Effect's first "distortion" pedal, highly specialized to simulate the "everything on 10" sound of a classic Marshall JTM45 non-master-volume amplifier. You may use the Box of Rock effectively with many different amplifiers, but to get the sound Zvex heard when they designed it, try it through a Marshall at least once. You may use your guitar's volume control to adjust for the exact amount of distortion you need, all the way down to very clean and clear with most drive settings.

The Box of Rock also contains an extremely high-headroom, unity-to-50X gain booster with nominal input impedance and low hiss. It is very similar to the SHO boost circuit, with refinements to make it sound more like a standard amp input and less glassy. The boost channel can be used alone or in conjunction with the "distortron engine" channel. The boost channel follows the distortion channel so that the distortion is able to hit your amp harder (at a higher volume) when both switches are engaged, for boosting solos and what-not. -- Look out when boosting "what-not." 8^)

The Controls:
Drive: Sets the amount of distortion. Start around 1:00 o'clock.
Tone: Adjust for treble content. Start around 2:00 o'clock.
Vol: Adjust for distortron engine volume level. Start around 9:00 o'clock.
Boost: Sets the boost level, which is engaged with the left stomp switch. Start around 11:00 o'clock.

The Drive and Boost controls are based on Zvex's original Super Hard-On gain control, so they may crackle when turned. This is perfectly normal.

Operation:
Plug your guitar (or any effect’s output) into the right hand input jack. Plug the output into an amp or other effect’s input. Rock out. Careful with the Boost setting when using a high-powered amp with lots of headroom... you may be shocked at how loud it can get!

The best way to complete this pedal is to run it through a Marshall amplifier on a warm clean setting (try strapping the channels, setting the volumes below 3, and setting all other controls to 6 as a start point), which has the proper voicing to reveal the "rock" in the Box of Rock.

This Vexter Series Box of Rock features UV printed graphics to commemorate Zvex's 25th Anniversary. The parts inside Vexters are identical to the hand painted pedals.

Pedal Dimensions (LxWxH): 4.70" x 2.38" x 1.82"