Stone Machine

this is a foxx tone machine copy.imo it seems to be BASED on a tone machine , more than it is a "dead nuts" clone.not a bad thing though. i've played a foxx and i find this fuzz to be more usable on it's own than the org.less shril sounding. played it with a strat & a les paul through a marshall 100 watt 112 combo.i love this pedal.total stoner rock.the fuzz seems to have hints of 2nd octave even without the octave engaged.then lots more promanate when kicked in.i find this very cool.the vol. level seems to deffect the tonal caracter as well as vol.(weird)but it still not a bad thing(more tonal opptions)the sustain knobgets you diff. levels of gain but pretty much stays in stoner land.the tone turned more counter clockwise gets into big muff territory.full clockwise more foxx sounding.like most octaves it sounds best w/ the neck pick up in the upper frets of the neck.i liked the strat on the neck pick up w/ the vol. on the guitar turned down the best.but both guitars sounded great.i don't think this will find a place on my regular pedal board,but i've set up a new stoner rock pedal board sence getting this.(just the stone machine,a morley rotating power wah,& a dano mini flanger.on a slab of wood)sounds killer for this kind of stuff . can't see needing anythig else.so is it a foxx tone machine. not realy. is it an awsome pedal.ABSOLUTLY.i think this alturnative to the foxx witch fetches $400 @under $200 this thing RULES.i like it better than the foxx i played.

to soon to tell.but it's built like a tank.the only reason i would bring a back up is because there is no power jack & i always forget to check batteries.

pretty easy.3 knobs. vol./sustain(gain)/tone.2 switches on/off & octave on/off. the manual just says what the knobs do,i think thats self explanetory.no sugested settings.no power jack.

seems like a realy cool guy.i got the pedal in about 2 months. i would say sence i ordered it just before thanks giving & got it mid jan.for a guy w/ a famaly &@@@2@@@ jobs.he got it out pretty quick. THANKS RON

for stoner rock this is IT. for other stuff. you deside.i've been playing about 15 yrs.i own & have owned tons of pedals.i currently have a fulltone ultamate octave & a pe experience.for ME this is a one trick pony that does it's trick right(the stoner thing)for this i like this one the best. i would get another if it were stolen.i might try more of his stuff too.check out his web page.he does alot of stuff other guys aren't doing(ronsound.com)i wish it had a power jack though.over all GREAT pedal/SUPER COOL/VERY HAPPY

The whole reason for this review is because I was surprised how good this thing sounded. My interest was originally piqued by the sound wav. files of this unit featured on the Tone Frenzy site (www.tonefrenzy.com). The wav. files suggested a very heavy, almost octave down distortion. Sounded fun so I ordered it. The interim between getting a working unit in my hands and the original order truely sucked (see Customer Service) but the sound quality was wonderful. The distortion is very rich. Past halfway on the sustain knob and you have "Black Sabbath-in-a-box". Heavy, thick, sludgey fun. But the real surprise was the lower more conservative settings. Using a Les Paul Classic with Rio Grandes PU's I am able to get ultra smooth, thick, singing grind from 2 to 5 on the sustain knob. Very Claptonesque vintage voiced. The octave is a real treat too. Very present and liquid. In fact it is now my favorite 'octave up' sound, that I've yet heard. Like the distortion, very thick and singing. It works great just leaving it on. Playing below the 12th fret gives a nice grind with cool octave up overtones, then moving up above the 10th fret makes this wailing, sustaining octave sound jump right out. Very cool.

Housing is thin aluminum with an orange paint job that looks like it was done with a spray can. Very amatuerish. The on/off footswitch was defective right out of the box. Cheap plastic knobs. The whole thing feels and looks like it was made on someone's project bench. Wouldn't dare depend on it.

The Stone Machine is a remake of the famous vintage OD/octave up pedal the Foxx Tone Machine. In this new incarnation creator Ron Neeley is currently housing the unit in a Big Muff-like aluminum stomp box with all controls on the top surface (on the orignal Tone Machine the controls were on the side on the unit). One important deviation from the original design is that the octave up function now has its own footswitch. A real improvement over the original design. Features are footswitch on/off (not true bypass), footswitch octave, volume, tone, sustain, in and out 1/4" jacks. Operation is by internal 9V battery only.

Customer service sucked! Ron Neeley told me 2 week turnaround. It was 8 weeks, with three "what's going on" e-mails from me in the interim. Then when I got it the on/off footswitch was defective right out of the box! He hadn't even tested it before he shipped it. I had to send it back. He did fix it quickly. Had it back to me in 1 1/2 weeks. Almost 10 total weeks to get a properly working unit in my hands.

Good points - cheap, sound great, really has a unique voice, great octave up sound. Lots of fun Bad points - Took a long time to get one (mine is only the 6th Stone Machine built), was defective immediately, built in a very amatuerish fashion. Most of my current FX's are Fulltone, Way Huge, and Barber Electronics. I guess I'm pretty spoiled after dealing with those very professional people. Overall its worth the money for a fun new toy, if you dont mind the wait and you dont spend too much time staring at this little eye sore.