Vox Deluxe Distortion Booster v8161

The Vox Deluxe Distortion Booster v8161 is a vintage distortion and boost unit made by Vox under Thomas Organ, announced in the November 1966 Thomas Organ accessories catalog and produced from 1966 to 1968¹. It belongs to the distortion family covered on Distortion Pedals, and it is an ancestor of the later Vox Distortion Booster V2 and Vox V830 Distortion Booster.

What it does

The Deluxe Distortion Booster is a distortion and boost unit: it pushes the signal into distortion while raising its level, the approach Vox later carried on in boosters and drive pedals such as the Vox V830 Distortion Booster and modern designs like the Vox Tone Garage V8 Distortion.

Two details set the v8161 apart from the ordinary pedal shape players know today:

• It was reconfigured to be plugged directly into the guitar, rather than into the amplifier's input, so it sat at the guitar end of the chain instead of on the floor¹.
• The Deluxe Distortion Booster finally had an adjustable volume control fitted to it, an addition over the earlier Distortion Booster design¹.

History and production

Thomas Organ, the US company producing Vox gear at the time, announced the "Deluxe" Distortion Booster in its November 1966 accessories catalog¹. Production ran through 1968, when Thomas Organ ceased production of the rectangular chrome Deluxe Distortion Boosters¹. The unit's run therefore spans roughly two years, covered by the v8161 designation for 1966 to 1968¹.

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