What are peoples opinions on these? anyone have experience with them?
Had a demo of a 15 today at Go West. Quite impressed. Serious volume for a 15 and awesome sound. Various amp models to choose from. I like that it has a master volume so I don't piss the flatmates and neighbors off. great pricing too from what I can see.
very tempted to get one. or even get the 30 or even the 50.
Vox AD15VT/AD30VT
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read the blues junior thread... theres a bit of discussion about the amps on the recent posts
http://nzguitars.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=89248#89248
http://nzguitars.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=89248#89248
what we've got here is failure to communicate... some men you just can't reach
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If you like knob twiddling, they're great for home use. If you want to switch amps and effects mid song, look elsewhere, ie, far far less versatile than they might appear in a live setting. The 60 and 120 are the pro versions, which don't have the issues of the budget line, and I recommend stepping up to the 60, especially at its new price level. For home use, if it were my money, I'd be more inclined towards the Roland Cubes. However, I find many people dialling in their favourite amp and leaving it set there, in which case, I would strongly argue in favour of getting a non-modelling amp. Also, I think the effects let most of these new amps down.
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Good link that one actually. Plenty of cudos for both. Whenever I've played a Valvetronix I have been extremely impressed by the amp modelling. The effects are average, mostly, although the delay is pretty good.
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Ive had the AD30 for almost a year now, I got the footswitch for it and I replaced the stock speaker for a Celestion G10. (footswitch is an optional extra)
FOr my needs it is a very versatile amp, you can have three channels, two that are saved in CH1 and CH2 and one in manual. With the footswitch this means you can swtich between three of your own presets. For instance I have the fender blackface with custom settings for my clean on CH1, the AC30 with custom settings for my overdrive on CH2 and the UK modern or US High Gain for my distortion on manual. All accessible via the footswitch.
The AC30 and above basically have three volume controls, the model/preamp volume, the master volume and the "power brake" at the back which some say is a proper attenuator and others say is just another volume control. In any respect, it gives you a lot of control over the overall output.
The models are good, though I mainly use the two fenders, the AC30 and the UK80's or modern. The models are not explicitly talked about in the documentation by name (I guess this would be an infringement on Vox's part), but they're alluded to enough that people have worked out what they are, I have seen this list & similar posted on patchtronix.com:
The effects are ok, but there is some idiosyncratic way of operating them via the footswitch which I have never fully understood, either that or its just a plain bug in the modelling firmware, basically I found that it would choose a different effect to what you expected when turning the effect on/off, but this could be related to switching channels as well. In any respect you can program the footswitch to either turn effects on/off or to select the manual channel. The first button always chooses between your two presets.
Another cool thing is that when you turn the controls, the light will blink off for a second to tell you that you have reached the setting for that particular saved patch (CH1, CH2) or for the preset. So you can work out what they set it up with from the factory or if you want to remember your patch settings, just choose CH1/CH2 and dial the controls around until you reach it. Handy if you want to tweak a patch but have changed the dials for manual use.
I've played it quite loud a few times, and for 30 watts it is bloody loud! Its an absolutely fantastic practice amp, not sure if the AD30 would quite cut it for gigging though.
So I totally recommend it.
My biggest pluses about it are: It gives me a lot of different sounds, it approximates a tube sound, it has lots of people using it & lots of support at patchtronix.com, it gives you a lot of goodies (models/effects) in one batch
My biggest minuses are: it has some wierd behaviour with footswitching the effects, the effects have a slightly unintuitive way of being adjusted (you have to use one knob & two buttons to ultimately control upto three different aspectS), I still haven't got a proper AC/DC sound out of it.
FOr my needs it is a very versatile amp, you can have three channels, two that are saved in CH1 and CH2 and one in manual. With the footswitch this means you can swtich between three of your own presets. For instance I have the fender blackface with custom settings for my clean on CH1, the AC30 with custom settings for my overdrive on CH2 and the UK modern or US High Gain for my distortion on manual. All accessible via the footswitch.
The AC30 and above basically have three volume controls, the model/preamp volume, the master volume and the "power brake" at the back which some say is a proper attenuator and others say is just another volume control. In any respect, it gives you a lot of control over the overall output.
The models are good, though I mainly use the two fenders, the AC30 and the UK80's or modern. The models are not explicitly talked about in the documentation by name (I guess this would be an infringement on Vox's part), but they're alluded to enough that people have worked out what they are, I have seen this list & similar posted on patchtronix.com:
It is very good at being set to "break up" based on your playing, i.e. light picking or strumming sounds clean, striking the strings harder causes breakup.Boutique Clean = 100w Dumble Ovedrive Special (clean channel)
Black 2x12 = Fender Twin Reverb 85w
Tweed 4x10 = 1959 Fender Bassman SF6-A
AC15 = 1962 AC15
AC30 = AC30TB (Treble Boost)
UK70s = 1971 50w Marshall Plexi (high treble channel)
UK80s = 1983 Marshall JCM800 2203 100w
UK Modern = JCM 900 4100 100w (high gain channel)
Numetal = Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier 100w (modern high gain channel)
US Higain = Soldano SLO100 (Overdrive channel
Boutique OD = Dumble Overdrive Special (overdrive channel)
The effects are ok, but there is some idiosyncratic way of operating them via the footswitch which I have never fully understood, either that or its just a plain bug in the modelling firmware, basically I found that it would choose a different effect to what you expected when turning the effect on/off, but this could be related to switching channels as well. In any respect you can program the footswitch to either turn effects on/off or to select the manual channel. The first button always chooses between your two presets.
Another cool thing is that when you turn the controls, the light will blink off for a second to tell you that you have reached the setting for that particular saved patch (CH1, CH2) or for the preset. So you can work out what they set it up with from the factory or if you want to remember your patch settings, just choose CH1/CH2 and dial the controls around until you reach it. Handy if you want to tweak a patch but have changed the dials for manual use.
I've played it quite loud a few times, and for 30 watts it is bloody loud! Its an absolutely fantastic practice amp, not sure if the AD30 would quite cut it for gigging though.
So I totally recommend it.
My biggest pluses about it are: It gives me a lot of different sounds, it approximates a tube sound, it has lots of people using it & lots of support at patchtronix.com, it gives you a lot of goodies (models/effects) in one batch
My biggest minuses are: it has some wierd behaviour with footswitching the effects, the effects have a slightly unintuitive way of being adjusted (you have to use one knob & two buttons to ultimately control upto three different aspectS), I still haven't got a proper AC/DC sound out of it.
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thanks CD and offender.
it's not a amp that will be gigged. (not any time soon anyway). And given the sound I thought the price was fantastic.
will defintely give it some good consideration. It's either one of those or a POD. and unfortunately Go West don't stock PODs. and I'd rather support them than RS.
it's not a amp that will be gigged. (not any time soon anyway). And given the sound I thought the price was fantastic.
will defintely give it some good consideration. It's either one of those or a POD. and unfortunately Go West don't stock PODs. and I'd rather support them than RS.
AFK.
I've been looking at some of the POD's on ebay, mainly because I am interested in the idea of downloading a particular patch tone, i.e. AC/DC which gives you that tone, though reviews seem to say that the AC/DC one that comes with the POD XT is kind of crap. I did hear someones POD sample for AC/DC that they did with the variax (not a POD, but by line-6 so may have the same sort of modelling, its their guitar that they do) which sounded about 75% there.
another thing about the Valvetronix series to note is that a number of reviews say that they're cheaply made (I considered this when buying & have simply tried to treat it as gently as possible). They cite for instance that the jack input is plastic & has a tendancy to get loose & fall in (though I haven't had this).
May be something to consider if you want to cart it around. The weights of each amp are on the vox site, I know the AD30 is about ~12kg and isn't too bad to carry.
another thing about the Valvetronix series to note is that a number of reviews say that they're cheaply made (I considered this when buying & have simply tried to treat it as gently as possible). They cite for instance that the jack input is plastic & has a tendancy to get loose & fall in (though I haven't had this).
May be something to consider if you want to cart it around. The weights of each amp are on the vox site, I know the AD30 is about ~12kg and isn't too bad to carry.
yeah I was looking at the weights as well. it probably won't be moved around much. mainly to mates places or nzg jam sessions. it's more of a practice home setup.
I was looking at a pod because I could use headphones and not get evicted when really trying to wail. and all the different sounds that they have.
the little marshall I've got now has a headphone jack but sounds like crap when I plug phones in (seems to overpower them)
I was looking at a pod because I could use headphones and not get evicted when really trying to wail. and all the different sounds that they have.
the little marshall I've got now has a headphone jack but sounds like crap when I plug phones in (seems to overpower them)
AFK.
The vox series have a headphone jack, but this bypasses the power stage/valve reactor circuit & sounds a bit crap, surprisingly toneless. The same thing happens if you try to record from the line-out (which is the same socket strangely enough). But it can be a handy option.
Or you can do what I've done and get a cheap mini-amp for the times when you can't play too loudly
Or you can do what I've done and get a cheap mini-amp for the times when you can't play too loudly