2006
Update:
I've
since bought the AD30VT for myself. Great sounding amps
for the money.
I
also took my son's AD15VT to an open blues jam, and
with everthing going on, I was still told I was too
loud. That 15 really packs a punch!
|
INTRODUCTION
Not
long ago, my son and I were walking through our local music
store and his eyes caught sight of the display for the Vox
Valvetronix amps and their gleaming chrome metal grills. When
I sold one of my guitars, I decided to pick up the 15-watt
version as a gift for him.
I was a bit skeptical at first. How serious can a Vox amp
be with a metal grill, instead of the traditional diamond
grill cloth? After a day or so, I “borrowed” it
for a few hours.
WOW!
 I
was blown away! It sounds amazing and with such a warm sound,
you would swear it was a 15-inch speaker! Does it sound like
a tube amp? Well, not exactly. However, it is pretty close.
In fact, it is about as close as you can get, without buying
an all out tube amp.
The
amp models sound great! I was able to get great sound out
of all of them and with the selection of amp models, you can't
go wrong. Almost any style of music you want to play will
sound great with this amp.
HOW
DO THEY DO IT?
How
does Vox do this? Good question!
The
Valvetronix line is considered a hybrid amp…half solid-state
and half tube, but Vox does it a bit differently. They don’t
use a tube preamp and a solid-state power amp like other hybrid
amps, nor does it work like a pure modeling amp where they
digitally try to mimic the sound of a tube amp.
In
a full tube amp, you have a tube preamp and a tube power amp.
What Vox has done is take a 12AX7 duel triode tube and use
half of it for the preamp and the other half for a low wattage
power amp. Then they amplify the tube power amp output via
a second solid-state power amp.
The
simplest analogy is if you took a tube amp and put a microphone
in front of it and then amplified it through your PA system.
In essence, this is what they are doing. This way, they are
able to give you a decent version of that saturated, multi-dimensional
tube tone we have all come to know and love.
AMP
MODELS
Nowadays,
to avoid copyright infringement, most companies are no longer
stating which amps they are emulating. Instead, they give
a generic title, but put a few descriptive words in the documentation
so you can figure it out.
After
a lot of research I came up with a list, that I think is pretty
accurate.
 Boutique
CL: Dumble Overdrive Special
Black 2X12: Fender Blackface
Tweed 4X10: Fender Bassman
AC15: Vox AC15
AC30TB: Vox AC30 Top Boost
UK 70's: Marshall Super Lead
UK 80's: Marshall JCM800
UK Modern: Marshall JCM900
Numetal: Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier
US Higain: Soldano SLO100
Boutique OD: Dumble Overdrive Special
DOWN
SIDE
With
every low cost non-tube amp there has to be a down side to
it somewhere and the Valvetronix is no exception.
- No
effects loop.
- Limited
digital effects that do not separate the time based effects
from the pedal type effects. This is a common problem on
small amps with onboard effects, though I might add that
internally the time based and pedal effects are properly
chained.
- Does
not come with a foot switch, but most small amps don't anyway.
- Comes
with a metal grill instead of the traditional Vox diamond
cloth.
- Does
not have a CD input.
CONCLUSION
This
is THE practice amp. You need not look anywhere else. Pick
one up and I’m sure you’ll agree. Oh! I forgot
another down side. The AD15VT belongs to my son and not to
me!
|
