FireFly 30?

I bought one 6 months ago, everything fine, everyone who listened to it found it very good, and excellent for the price. The only thing it misses is a pedal loop, but who cares, the clean is so good...

Haven't tried a Firefly, but something was very wrong if the VJ wouldn't overdrive. Sure you didn't have your guitar volume knob turned down?

Wat richochet said, the EVJ really can get quite heavy.

A pretty basic recording of the EVJ: the rhythm is just the Epi at around 3 o'clock, the lead has a comp and booster in front of it. Recording quality is pretty low but it does show that the Epi should really not stay clean too much.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=361288&songID=4531527

I have an EVJ combo, and it starts to break up a little bit around 10 o'clock already. By the time its around 3 o'clock it does distort very nicely. I can have distorted power chords, and it's very loud with the little Weber 8" speaker. So, I third the notion that something must have been wrong with the EVJ you played.

I have not really played the VOX AC 30, but the vox models on the AD 30VT certainly distort a lot less.

(And you are looking at two very different classes of amps here .. one for about a grand and a couple for around $200? ..)

The AC30 is a massive amp, pushing that beast into overdrive without attenuator will probably knock down the walls of your house. Seriously, it's that loud.

Haven't heared this one myself but you might want to take a look at the Orange Tiny Terror amp. 15/7W full-tube head.

oh oops did i say AC30? i meant ad haha. I must have had the guitar volume low on the Vj, it was a prs singlecut i was playing and i wasnt used to it at all, plus going in to a store full of experts and blaring that thing when youre as inexperienced as i am is pretty intimidating. As for the firefly, the gain sounded 1000x better than my current amp, and its nice to be able to get that gain without cranking so loud as with the EVJ. But thanks everyone so far for youre responses

It may have been accidental, but that's a hugely useful technique, to set the amp up for the loudest, dirtiest, and brightest you ever want it to be, then turn down the volume and tone knobs on your guitar to suit. You can always turn 'em back up as you want to.

oh oops did i say AC30? i meant ad haha.

Oh, the AD 30VT. This is indeed an excellent amp for home use. Because you have the attenuator in the back, you can really crank it at low volumes. You can't really get distortion out of the EVJ at low volumes unless you use a pedal. Also, some of the models in the AD 30VT actually have much stronger distortions that you will get out of the EVJ. The three or four models on the right hand side (starting with the Brit 80's) are very distorted -- especially the presets which have the gain turned all the way to max. If you want to be able to get lot of different sounds, especially both distorted and clean, at low volume, the AD 30VT would be a very good choice.

Thanks, i like the ad30 alot too, the tweed and black settings were my favorite. the problem is or was the money, a b-stock firefly is 170, and the b-stock vox is 219. im getting payed for helping out a neighbor tonight so that along with a few odd jobs this weekend may be able to give me the extra cash. but is it worth the extra over the firefly? (oh and though this is not of any matter i love the look of the firefly)

I'm with Vink: I have both the AD30 and EVJ as well, and both would do very well at home. I'm gigged twice with the Vox without any problems. Personally I use the EVJ pretty much exclusively now as I've now got a setup that allows me to get whatever sound I want out of the Epi at whatever volume I want. If your budget is capped around $250 or so and you are into hi-gain sounds the Vox would be a very nice choice. If you have a bit more you could try the Epi with an attenuator and a booster and reverb pedal.

As for the FireFly: haven't heared it yet so no opinions. But from what I've gathered from user reviews I think all three would serve you very well. No bad amp to be found in your list. :D

I think im going to save a litttllee longer and spring for the vox unless i can be convinced if anyone has a sound clip from the FF. The vox has a nicer clearer overdrive, especially because i can crank it and get that tube. The modelings also nice, and though most effects i dont care about, the reverbs alright and the autowah is fun to screw around with. Thanks alot everyone.

YAY! Just got the Vox today! Im in love with it for sure, but its one heck of an amp to set up! Im having a good time getting all the different sounds out of it, different distortion/od and such. Anybody have any advice? Or a PDF manual for it? r should i just play around and figure it out.

thanks, mike

YAY! Just got the Vox today! Im in love with it for sure, but its one heck of an amp to set up! Im having a good time getting all the different sounds out of it, different distortion/od and such. Anybody have any advice? Or a PDF manual for it? r should i just play around and figure it out.

thanks, mike

Good for you! It's a great amp. I have one myself and still love it.

A manual: http://www.voxamps.co.uk/downloads/AD15_30_50_100VT_E4.pdf

You also might want to check out http://valvetronix.net/ and http://www.patchtronix.com/ Both of these sites have a ton of user patches that have been posted. It sometimes help find a tone that you maybe be looking for.

YAY! Just got the Vox today! Im in love with it for sure, but its one heck of an amp to set up! Im having a good time getting all the different sounds out of it, different distortion/od and such. Anybody have any advice? Or a PDF manual for it? r should i just play around and figure it out.

Congratulations! It's a great amp. It's the first amp I bought, and although I have two other amps today (a Epi Valve Jr combo and an Epi Galaxie 10), the VOX is the amp I usually use for practice almost every day. I have a distortion channel and a clean channel setup, and I can play both at very low volumes at night.

My suggestion on how to familiarize yourself with the amp:
- Turn off the effects (ie. push down the effects bypass)
- Play purely with the presets, at the volume you like
- Once you know roughly what each preset sounds like, you will probably pick a couple you really want to experiment with.
- For your chosen presents, play around with turning the different knobs. BTW, you can see where a particular knob is set for the preset level because the led will flash when you are passing that setting.
- When you have a sound you like, save it to one of the channels OR start experimenting with effects that you can add.

By the way, you should have gotten a printed manual with it, it is the same as the PDF pointed out above.

Some further suggestions:
- For bluesy sound, use the tweed model or the black face model.
- For harder rock, try the british 70s/brit 80 presets
- For metal (I have least experience with these) try the numetal, uk modern, us modern etc.

Enjoy! It is a great amp.