Darkness
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2021
- Messages
- 855
- Reaction score
- 1,268
I didn't need another amp. I didn't want another amp. I certainly wasn't looking for another amp. I blame Sweetwater.
About 10 days ago I got an email and I tried to avoid it. A day later I opened it. I was thumbing around in their sales, some stuff on clearance was catching my eye. I fumbled into the Vox stuff looking for a footswitch, it was $10 and I wanted it so I got that. Then I noticed this unusual looking (by Vox standards) amp. Basically a 15w practice amp with an 8" speaker, the controls looked simple, a few preset models and three effects. Marked down from $250 to $149.... no I don't need it. Get your foot switch and walk away. I did.
Next morning I read some reviews and went right back to the page. 6 left... Into my cart it went. I may be giving my Pathfinder to my niece so I could use another small cheap amp, right? Stupid Sweetwater.
The cabinet is made on the cheap. Wood feels too light to be true, betting it's a porous particle board rather than a dense fiber board. I wouldn't expect it to survive any sort of dropping, but it has a very nice suitcase style handle. It does have internal bracing so that might not matter much. It also has a little bass port on the front and the rear is enclosed, thats different.
After playing it a bit, it seems much more sensitive to pickup height than my other amps. I actually thought it was deffective while using my Riviera on neck, then on bridge it came to life. I tested a few other guitars with similar result. The bass response is impressive. In my experience with car stereo I never liked ported sub boxes because they limit the frequency range so much in exchange for output, but that doesn't seem to apply to this. Hmm.
I played around with the fat switch and the bright switch. At lower volume I leave both on, at higher volume I don't need it. I haven't really messed with the bias or reactor switches. The "Clean 2", "Crunch 2" and "OD1" are very good to play with. Crunch and OD are especially lively with my P90 Special, it's like new tones were unlocked. The reverb and delay are what you'd expect. The "Mod" effect I had seen documented as a chorus, but sounds more like modulation or a flanger or phaser to me. I may try it later turned way down, but I've never been into that effect.
The power chord is a little odd to me. Vox seems to do this often where you have a full sized section of chord, then a little box, and from the box to the amp is as thin as a phone charger. It makes me wonder if they're that efficient to not need a meaty cable. I wonder if the same applies to the big brothers, AV30 and AV60, which have more than one tube.
Overall I like it a lot. It's a small amp, and compared to my Pathfinder and VT40x, I think it sounds a bit better. It doesn't muddy up as quickly as the Pathfinder and doesn't have to be loud to get the full experience like the VT40X. I just checked, Sweetwater is out of stock. You can find these well under $100 used.
You're still here? Why? This was too much senseless reading. Go play guitar! Okay okay here are a couple of pics.
About 10 days ago I got an email and I tried to avoid it. A day later I opened it. I was thumbing around in their sales, some stuff on clearance was catching my eye. I fumbled into the Vox stuff looking for a footswitch, it was $10 and I wanted it so I got that. Then I noticed this unusual looking (by Vox standards) amp. Basically a 15w practice amp with an 8" speaker, the controls looked simple, a few preset models and three effects. Marked down from $250 to $149.... no I don't need it. Get your foot switch and walk away. I did.
Next morning I read some reviews and went right back to the page. 6 left... Into my cart it went. I may be giving my Pathfinder to my niece so I could use another small cheap amp, right? Stupid Sweetwater.
The cabinet is made on the cheap. Wood feels too light to be true, betting it's a porous particle board rather than a dense fiber board. I wouldn't expect it to survive any sort of dropping, but it has a very nice suitcase style handle. It does have internal bracing so that might not matter much. It also has a little bass port on the front and the rear is enclosed, thats different.
After playing it a bit, it seems much more sensitive to pickup height than my other amps. I actually thought it was deffective while using my Riviera on neck, then on bridge it came to life. I tested a few other guitars with similar result. The bass response is impressive. In my experience with car stereo I never liked ported sub boxes because they limit the frequency range so much in exchange for output, but that doesn't seem to apply to this. Hmm.
I played around with the fat switch and the bright switch. At lower volume I leave both on, at higher volume I don't need it. I haven't really messed with the bias or reactor switches. The "Clean 2", "Crunch 2" and "OD1" are very good to play with. Crunch and OD are especially lively with my P90 Special, it's like new tones were unlocked. The reverb and delay are what you'd expect. The "Mod" effect I had seen documented as a chorus, but sounds more like modulation or a flanger or phaser to me. I may try it later turned way down, but I've never been into that effect.
The power chord is a little odd to me. Vox seems to do this often where you have a full sized section of chord, then a little box, and from the box to the amp is as thin as a phone charger. It makes me wonder if they're that efficient to not need a meaty cable. I wonder if the same applies to the big brothers, AV30 and AV60, which have more than one tube.
Overall I like it a lot. It's a small amp, and compared to my Pathfinder and VT40x, I think it sounds a bit better. It doesn't muddy up as quickly as the Pathfinder and doesn't have to be loud to get the full experience like the VT40X. I just checked, Sweetwater is out of stock. You can find these well under $100 used.
You're still here? Why? This was too much senseless reading. Go play guitar! Okay okay here are a couple of pics.
