Vox V860

The Vox V860 is a volume pedal from Vox, introduced at Musikmesse in 2016 and available that June¹. Vox describes it as "a reimaging of the classic VOX pedal design exemplified by its well-known wah pedals," so it borrows the familiar wah-style treadle chassis and puts a volume control in it instead². It sits in your signal chain and lets you raise and lower your level with your foot, for swells, fade-outs or riding the volume while you play.

A volume pedal built on the Vox wah chassis

Vox positions the V860 as "a new standard in guitar volume pedals," and its design leans on the company's wah heritage². The body is aluminum with a blasted and anodized finish, which Vox calls both tough and classy, and the pedal mechanism uses gears with a high tooth count for durability and smooth operation². That geared drive is a contrast with string-and-pulley volume pedals like the Ernie Ball Mono Volume Pedal, where a cable physically pulls the potentiometer.

The pedal is a mono unit: one Normal Input Jack and one Line Out Jack to the amplifier². Vox lists no power requirement, which fits a passive pedal that needs no battery or adapter.

Controls and feel

The one adjustment is a torque adjustment screw, which allows players to adjust the feel of the treadle¹. That means you can set how much resistance the pedal offers under your foot, from loose and easy to rock to stiff enough to hold a position.

What Vox promised about tone

At launch, Vox promised the V860 would be "as transparent as volume pedals can get"¹.

Transparency here means the pedal aims to leave your tone unchanged at full volume, the main thing players listen for in any passive volume pedal. How well a passive pedal achieves that in practice depends on where it sits in the chain and the impedance of what feeds it, which is why some players choose active designs such as the Lehle Mono Volume or the Boss FV-500L instead.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions