... I just bought one and I'm hooked. I recently snagged a Putnam modded VT (DI out, phantom power, ground/lift switch, and speaker sim bypass) from Spencer at 3Leaf, and I have to say that it sounds like someone lifted a blanket off of my amp!
I've had the chance to try it twice now on gigs with my 7-piece soul/r&b band. I normally use a Fender P5 with a P-retro strung with TI flats, through a LMII and 2 Bag End 15s. Both times I have gone direct to the FOH from the VT, and it sounds just awesome, so I thought I'd give a quick review from my perspective:
Pros:
The 'low' knob. There's always been a hole between the low and low mid controls on the LMII, and the VT has successfully closed it. Having the low knob centered at 128Hz is a godsend, because it gives a tone of usable bass punch to my rig, and out front.
Warmth. The VT added the warmth that I've been looking for in my sound. Dialing in some drive added a nice furry presence that I feel like the band has been missing in general.
The Putnam mods. The DI sounds absolutely superb! 1000x better than the LMII's, which was already great. The sound guy was frowning when he saw it at first, but when I convinced him to give it a shot, we were both very pleased. The fact that I can run the pedal on phantom power from the board is fantastic too, and having the added ground lift speaks for itself. The speaker sim bypass is a must I feel. I'm glad the new Vt has it stock. The speaker sim seems to squash a lot of the low lows, and the glassy-type highs. I suppose that's fine if you like the Ampeg tweeter-less 810 thing, which I do not at all. The speaker sim does sound great in a recording though, so I'm glad to have it.
Cons:
Tweeking knobs. I am not a knob-tweeking guy, and this pedal loves to be tweeked. I'm getting the hang of it, but geez.
Sensitive eq. It's just a little too sensitive. What's the point of having ridiculous extremes when you know nobody's going to use them? I'd like a little more play in the knobs.
The 'high' knob. It's clank city. IMO, totally useless beyond noon. Even at noon it sounds harsh and crappy to me. I think it would like it better if it was something well above 1k. 1kHz has always felt like clank rather than "sheen" or "glassy" which I like.
Overdriving it. Eww. It does great at adding some fur when you dig in (which is especially cool on the bottom end), but there's a fine line on this pedal between fur and chainsaw.
Overall, I am super impressed though, and I will be leaving it on all the time if it sounds as good as it did on my last two gigs!
EDIT: For those of you who want to see the setting that I think I've settled on:
