ZVEX Box of Rock Vertical

The ZVEX Box of Rock Vertical is a distortion and boost pedal for guitar, made by ZVEX. It is a vertical-format version of the company's Box of Rock, and like the original it simulates ZVEX founder Zachary Vex's favorite amp turned up all the way: a 1966 Marshall JTM45¹. ZVEX released it in March 2018 as a pedalboard-friendlier take on the design².

The pedal has two sides. The distortion side, called Rock mode, aims at the cranked-JTM45 sound, while a separate high-headroom, low-noise boost can push the front of your amp or the distortion itself¹³⁴. It sits in the same family as other ZVEX boost and distortion designs like the ZVex Double Rock and the ZVex Super Duper 2-in-1.

A distortion voiced like a driven JTM45

The Box of Rock circuit is highly specific in what it chases: the "everything on 10" sound of a classic non-master-volume Marshall JTM45. ZVEX describes it as simulating "Zachary's favorite amp turned up all the way, a 1966 Marshall® JTM45"¹⁷. MusicRadar's Michael Astley-Brown noted at launch that, like the original, the Vertical "emulates Zachary Vex's favourite amp turned up all the way, a 1966 Marshall"³.

What that means in practice, according to Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, who reviewed a Vertical edition in 2023, is "a fairly dark and dense crunchy sort of breakup," with the controls able to open the sound up⁴. He also found it distinct among pedals chasing the same target: "It's a fairly distinctive voicing," he wrote, comparing it against other JTM45-style drives in his collection⁴.

The boost side is a clean design rather than a second dirt stage. Pedal of the Day describes the boost on the Box of Rock family as "high headroom, giving you unity-to-50x gain, nominal input impedance and low hiss"⁵. That is a large amount of available gain, enough to slam an amp's input hard or simply lift a solo.

The controls: Boost and Rock

The Vertical carries the same control set as the original Box of Rock. Guitar.com's launch report breaks it down by mode: the Tone, Volume and Drive knobs control the Rock (distortion) mode, while the Boost knob sets the volume of the Boost mode, with each side having its own footswitch².

Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio notes that the Drive knob works in interaction with your guitar's volume control, which he counts as part of the pedal's character: rolling the guitar back cleans things up, the way you would with a real non-master-volume amp⁸.

How it differs from the original Box of Rock

The Vertical is the same pedal in a different box. The parts are otherwise identical to the standard Box of Rock, and the controls and circuit carry over⁹. The difference is orientation: the Vertical stands in portrait format, which Guitar.com described at launch as "a pedalboard-friendlier orientation"², and MusicRadar called a "pedalboard-friendly orientation" for the JTM45-aping effect³.

At launch, the vertical version was also cheaper: Guitar.com reported it "saves you a handsome 130 bucks" compared with the original². Delicious Audio later characterized the vertical version as "as expensive as the horizontal one," reflecting the pricing as they saw it in 2024⁸; the two accounts disagree, so treat the price difference as something that has changed over time.

The Box of Rock family itself comes in several versions. Delicious Audio counts three: a very expensive hand-painted version, a much cheaper Vexter version that is not hand painted, and the vertical version⁸. Analog Man's listing likewise splits the line into Hand Painted USA-made and Vexter versions⁷. Related ZVEX pedals include the ZVEX Effects Box of Rock Distortion 25th Anniversary Vexter Series, which keeps the original circuitry with UV-printed anniversary graphics⁵, and the ZVex Vexter Double Rock, a two-in-one variant.

Vertical format and hand-painted editions

The Vertical's dimensions are 4.70" long by 2.38" wide by 1.82" high, the same footprint figures ZVEX lists for the standard Box of Rock¹¹⁰. The portrait orientation stacks the controls and switches top to bottom, which is the point of the format: less horizontal board space.

Beyond the standard version at $249.00¹, the Vertical appears as one-of-a-kind hand-painted editions through ZVEX's custom store. One example is the A017, a one-of-a-kind hand-painted pedal by Daniel Buettner, listed at $439.00; its parts are otherwise identical to the '59 Sound Vertical¹¹. Guitar Pedal X also covered a Yvette Young artwork edition of the Box of Rock Vertical in 2023⁴.

Questions