I have been amp shopping now that I am starting back playing again. Down to the vox Ad30VT, Peavey valveking 112, Crate's V16 tube and also the popular Blues Jr. which is a little above my price range. I know how people feel about tube amps and I agree that they have a wonderful natural tone that SS amps can't quite reproduce but I want to play some hard rock stuff with nice distortion in addition to having a good clean sound. Will be playing mainly at home for hobby and I don't want to have to crank the amp up too much in order to get that killer tube tone. I know you can buy pedals for the distortion but the cost starts to go up there. What do you guys think about this Vox Valvetronix. It sounded good in Guitar Center but then again so did the blues Jr and the crate(havent heard the peavey yet). I know the vox isnt an all tube amp but it it does have alot of versatility. I guess what I am really asking is should I just go with one of the tube amps and add effects or get this Vox and save some money? Anything else I should look at in this price range?
The crate is not much more than the vox and it is all tube and also sounded really nice in the store.
Well, first of all I disagree that you HAVE to have a tube amp cranked to get a good sound. A master volume tube amp with the gain set for "preamp" distortion at modest volume will sound as good as most any other sort of amp playing at modest volume with distortion coming through pedals (which you can of course use as desired) or a hybrid amp. The wide open tube amp sound with output stage distortion is a fun thing to have, but you can't always do it. Modeling amps have tones derived from cranked power amps built into them and can be played at lower volumes, they won't sound quite the same but probably can make you happy. I do lots of playing with tube amps turned down to very quiet volume levels.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
I have been amp shopping now that I am starting back playing again. Down to the vox Ad30VT, Peavey valveking 112, Crate's V16 tube and also the popular Blues Jr. which is a little above my price range. . . .
Will be playing mainly at home for hobby and I don't want to have to crank the amp up too much in order to get that killer tube tone. I know you can buy pedals for the distortion but the cost starts to go up there. . . .
I guess what I am really asking is should I just go with one of the tube amps and add effects or get this Vox and save some money? Anything else I should look at in this price range?
Except for the Vox, which has a built in attenuator along with fairly decent modeling, all of those amps are going to be far too loud for bedroom use. If you want that "cranked tube sound," you'll have to crank the V16 and the Blues Jr. up to the point where you're overdriving the tubes, which is almost painfully loud in a small room.
The Valve King is a 50 watt "channel switching" amp. You can set this up so the "dirty" channel has pre-amp distortion, the clean channel is clean, and use the master volume to keep the volume to levels that won't enrage the rest of the household ( or the neighbours), but you're also not going to be close to the "sweet spot" of the power tubes, and may wind up with a sound the is a bit "sterile" and lifeless.
For a bedroom amp and the occasional casual jam, out of the amps you've listed, the Vox is your best bet. I'd also take a look at the Blackheart Little Giant and the Epiphone Valve Jr.
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
Another option might be to go with a very low-powered tube amp, like an Epi Valve Jr. in either the combo or the head/1-12 cab configurations. (I prefer the head/cab, as the single 8-inch speaker in the combo doesn't do it justice.) That's only 5 watts, and they sound great cranked. If even that is too much volume you can also get a cheap attenuator from Weber.
http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm
There are a couple different attenuators there in the $60 range that would work great, and keep angry neighbors and family members off your back.
Hope that helps.
Cheers!
Strat
Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm looking to buy something tomorrow(wed) and am feeling better about trying out the vox. I guess I could always purchase a bad-@#% tube amp in the future once my playing level has progressed. Playing at a very low volume is important for sure with my schedule and my likely practice times.
I would highly recommend the Fender Super Champ XD 15 watt amp.
My brother purchased one of these at Christmas and I was able to play it quite a bit. It is a great sounding tube amp, but it also has modeling capabilities. You can choose from great Fender clean tones, to Marshall crunch to downright Metal distortions. The amp is very portable but has plenty of power and volume to play small gigs. And the price is great. It would be hard to beat this amp in this price range.
It also has some very good effects like chorus and tremelo that sounded very good. This is a great amp for the unbelieveable low price.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Vox Ad30VT for 230 $.
Vox Ad30VT for 230 $.
Have you had good luck with this amp yourself? I've looked at this amp for my son. What do you like about it compared to others in this price range?
Dan
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
I use the dirty chanel of my Peavey Classic 30 with the master volume on 3 in my home and with the boost of a Tube Screamer pedal I get exellent classic rock to early heavy metal tone. Wouldn't dare go to power amp distortion in the house, my ears would bleed. :shock:
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
I thought about going ahead and spending the extra and getting the blues Jr. but then I would have to add effects to get that heavy distortion sound that I'll want from time to time. I just can't decide if its worth 200+ bucks more to run the blues jr. over the vox. The superchamp XD looks like a good one too but I think its backordered everywhere.
Basically, this is where I'm at now. Vox for 240 or blues jr. and maybe a multi-effects pedal for ALOT more. Is the Blues Jr really that great of a sound for the hefty pricetag?
I own a Blues Jr and absolutely love it, but that doesn't mean you will. It is a one channel amp, except you have a "Fat Switch" that thickens up the tone. I pretty much play mine with the Fat Switch engaged all the time, but it sounds quite good without it too. You can buy a footswitch for around $20. I wouldn't say the Fat Switch boosts it quite enough for a solo. It does get a little louder, but not much. The main difference is the thicker tone.
You control the amount of overdrive using both the Volume and Master controls. With Volume at low settings the tone is very clean, a beautiful classic Fender tone that only Fender does. It has a short Reverb tank, some complain it is boxy, but I think it sounds very good, maybe not as good as a Twin Reverb, but what amp does??
In this case you would use Master to control your volume.
If you crank Volume up above 6 or so the amp starts to overdrive. I absolutely love the overdriven tone of the Blues Jr, believe it or not it is very Marshall sounding. I like to crank it to 10-12, Bass around max, Mids around max, and Highs around 7. I am a big fan of the 70's Marshall amps and this is what it sounds like. Pretty awesome.
The amp is amazingly loud, I used it at a gig at a firehouse a month ago and barely had it turned up at all. And I was maybe a little too loud. :D
But this amp will not do Metal at all. For that you would need a pedal. But you could have it set clean and use a good pedal or multi-efx and it will do anything you want.
This amp has outstanding tone. Go to Harmony Central and read the reviews. When I bought my Blues Jr I looked at many other tube amps in the 15 watt range. I was just tired of hauling big heavy amps around, but I wanted something to gig with. I just kept coming back to the Blues Jr, it just plain sounded better than all it's competitors to me.
But that is me. I love tube amps. I do not like solid states. I am not putting that Vox down, I know it has a legion of fans, but I've tried it and it didn't do anything special for me. Tube amps just have a live presence and fullness that solid states do not. But that is just my personal opinion. You have to trust your own ears and what you like, not mine.
The Blues Jr alone is not real flexible. You set it clean or set it dirty. Both both ways it sounds great. But that is what it does, sound great. You do not get bells and whistles with the BJ. It is known for TONE.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Thanks again everyone for the feedback! After trying out both the blues jr and the vox again at guitar center yesterday, I decided that the blues jr didnt sound 230 bucks better to me than the vox. Especially when I factored in the effects of the vox and the fact that I would have to purchase those seperately with the blues jr. Anyway, I am really happy with my purchase(went with the vox) and am amazed at the many different sounds that the vox can produce. It really sounded better to me than any other SS amp that I tried(I guess it DOES have some kinda tube in the preamp process making it a hybrid) This amp is perfect for household use and I would imagine that you could even use it with a band for practice and such with plenty of power.
I have been amp shopping now that I am starting back playing again... I know how people feel about tube amps and I agree that they have a wonderful natural tone that SS amps can't quite reproduce but I want to play some hard rock stuff with nice distortion in addition to having a good clean sound... Will be playing mainly at home for hobby and I don't want to have to crank the amp up too much in order to get that killer tube tone... Anything else I should look at in this price range?
Seriously, you should give the Orange Tiny Terror amp a try: it's an all-tube (EL84/12AX7) boutique amp by the Orange amp company and it has an awesome tone. I rented one for about a week to mess around with... I even took it to a gig and played it thru a 1x12 closed-back cabinet. This little guy screams! He sings nicely too and when you crank the gain knob, and adjust the volume and tone to whatever suits for your needs, you can get some pretty serious gain out of it, even at bedroom levels with the 7/15 watt switch.
It performed really nicely at the gig, though the feedback was kind of a pain... that was entirely my fault though, as I didn't put too much into the soundcheck at the beginning of the night.
Next time you're in the shop, give the Tiny Terror a try. Even if it doesn't exactly suit your needs, I'm sure you'll at least enjoy your time playing thru it.
I've got the Vox and it's a great little amp. As with all modeling amps it takes a while to set up, the EQ is usually wider and more interactive then on 'the real deal' so it's easy to create pretty ugly tones. Remember that the master volume controls the Valvetronix circuitry and you can bring the volume down with the wattage selector at the back. Try the Boutique clean model with the master open, the gain at 50% and the mids boosted. Add a touch of reverb and you've got a killer sound!
Well, believe it or not I went with the blues Jr. after all. The vox was defective after only a week of playing(started crackeling and cutting out) and rather than exchange it for another vox, I decided to upgrade to the blues jr. since I had some extra cash. I really did like the vox and think its a great amp for the price but I did have some realiability concerns especially with a brand new one already crapping out. Anyway, as has been stated by many, the blues jr. is AWESOME and has a clean tone to die for! I paired mine up with a digitech RP150 so I could get some more distortions, etc. and it all sounds great.
