My friend Finn pulled out the jackplug and looked at it ruefully.

"The best things in life are cheap," he said, "but sometimes they don't have on/off switches."

"You left the lead in all night and knackered the batteries," I said. It was more of a statement than a question.

"Nonetheless," he reflected, "it isn't half bad, the Rock Box II. I believe I will use it on my next album."

The truth is, Finn has about as much chance of making an album as I have of going up in the Space Shuttle.

Nevertheless, since fortune has eluded Finn as consistently and unfailingly as fame has, he was distinctly interested in the prospect of a preamp and headphone amp and compressor and delay line and chorus unit and equaliser and tuning guide and overdrive processor and distortion processor all in living stereo and all for £149.

The effects on the Rockbox might be described as presets; it gives you a diversity of effects but not a great deal of variation on any particular one - the Tom Scholz Rockman principle.

The Chorus and the Delay are brought in and out through pushbuttons on the front panel.

The Delay has a depth control which, like the overall gain and compression, is controlled by a small plastic knob with a detachable top. This is a great idea (the one top serving the gain, compression and delay pots) for avoiding knobs which stick out and can be accidentally turned.

However, my friend Finn has lost his already. Luckily a screwdriver works just as well.

The compression is useful for tidying up sounds with too many dynamics, and the gain and output controls make the Rock Box compatible with everything from mixing desks to amps even to hi-fi amplification.

It gives you a 440Hz A for tuning (handy); a normal setting (normal); a clean setting (Stratty); and a distortion setting (heavy), each of which can be used in combination with chorus or delay.

There are some very usable sounds. Finn's upmarket imitation Les Paul does well on Clean 1 and becomes very big and fat on overdrive. Distortion is as effective as any from a dedicated distortion pedal and adding chorus does strange, metallic things to all those extra harmonics — you sound right on the edge of feedback.

The delay must be around a tenth of a second and rounds out the sounds very satisfyingly. Neither this nor the Chorus is overdone — extreme settings are not available.

However, as a complete inexpensive guitar processing system the Rockbox can't be beat.

Talking of guitar processing — that's not all there is to it. We tried putting the Rock Box across the aux outs of a mixing desk and playing a few other things through it. Very interesting.

The Rock Box can be a very versatile home recording device. Even Finn's voice responded to the treatment. Finn's singing is roughly comparable to a dog being run over, but one being run over with delay and chorus is more pleasant to listen to than one without.

Thus, then, the Rock Box. It has more effects than Tom Scholz's original, and costs considerably less.

It will do wonders for your guitar and is a handy pre-amp or headphone amp. It even has sends and returns for yet more effects and a remote footswitch.

But it gobbles batteries so a mains adaptor would be an investment; otherwise if you leave a lead connected it costs you 8 penlight Duracells. But, as Finn says, that is the price of fame.

Fame is a thing that comes to few bass players, though.

It's all very well being the most solid player in the universe but as you are usually heard as a low rhythmic rumble, then who's going to congratulate you effusively?

"I thought your deep booming noises were wonderful tonight, man."

Luckily, the Rock Box has a bass brother, the simplistically named Bass Box. It has the low-register versions of most of the Rock Box effects, such as chorus, distortion and compression, though no delay, and costs £189.

But whether you think it's worthwhile depends very much on your longing for the bright lights and the centre of the stage.

Because it does give your bass sound that wonderful boingy resonant attack that everybody wants from their 1964 Woolworth's Audition bass.

The compression cleans up the sharper twangs and bangs, the chorus goes swish gently (adjustably, too) and the high-frequency EQ is also twiddlable to achieve clankiness or fattiness at will.

The distortion, mind you, is horrible. Fizzy fuzz.

But the clipping is mildly gritty, just the effect you'd expect if you were using a hefty bass cabinet and sweating amplifier instead of a box the size of two paperbacks. Very live, very Rock, very JHS.

All in all, it gently prods you away from the shadowy bit just left of the drum riser and into the limelight. As Finn would say, what price fame?

About £189 at the moment.

Rock Box II & Bass Box: £149 & £189