Amp gurus please advise.

[Gr8Scott]

I have one of those 30 watt vox valvetronix amps. It's a good little amp, but I want to see what it sounds like with other speakers and I don't feel like changing out the speaker in the cabinet each time I plug it into a different cabinet. What I would like to do is put a 1/4 in. NC Tip Switchcraft #12A jack in it and hook the positive lead of the actual speaker to the NC part and the positive lead coming from the amp to the tip of the jack with the negative on the sleeve. This would open the circuit when something was plugged in and close it when nothing is plugged in with the NC being in connection with the tip of the jack. What's more, I'm thinking of adding two jacks so I can parallel the first jack and run two seperate speakers (8 ohm total load) in parallel. This would really let that little amp get maximum sting and also let it generate enough bass to really feel it when I play. The 12" that it comes with is good, but not as good as two 2x12 wave cabs from port city will be.

I plan to keep things stock by making a custom rear baffle that I can cover in tolex (finding that gray color will be tough, so plain black vox tolex will have to do). I'll put the jacks in there and wire them up. When done if I choose to sell the amp for something else, I can put it right back to stock in a jiffy.

Here's the question. Good idea or bad? The only problem I can see is if the NC part of the jack gets worn and doesn't contact the tip when no plug is in the jack. Either that or mismatching the ohm rating.

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

The deal is that the Valvetronix amps have cabs voiced to be hi-fi flat. When you go into annother cab, you're gonna get the tone of the amp model AND cab model into the external cab...so it might sound good and it might not...the speakers in those amps would suck for that Celtic in your avatar, but who knows...the Vox into a cab might sound good to you, and that's all that matters.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

There are no cab models in the silver series, guitfiddle, so he can run it through whatever cab he wants with no issues. The blue series have the cab models, though they can be disabled.

Scott, sounds like a great idea. You're just adding an external speaker jack to it. Just as long as the built-in speaker is total disconnected when there is a plug in the external jack that, you should be fine.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

I have one of those 30 watt vox valvetronix amps. It's a good little amp, but I want to see what it sounds like with other speakers and I don't feel like changing out the speaker in the cabinet each time I plug it into a different cabinet. What I would like to do is put a 1/4 in. NC Tip Switchcraft #12A jack in it and hook the positive lead of the actual speaker to the NC part and the positive lead coming from the amp to the tip of the jack with the negative on the sleeve. This would open the circuit when something was plugged in and close it when nothing is plugged in with the NC being in connection with the tip of the jack. What's more, I'm thinking of adding two jacks so I can parallel the first jack and run two seperate speakers (8 ohm total load) in parallel. This would really let that little amp get maximum sting and also let it generate enough bass to really feel it when I play. The 12" that it comes with is good, but not as good as two 2x12 wave cabs from port city will be.

I plan to keep things stock by making a custom rear baffle that I can cover in tolex (finding that gray color will be tough, so plain black vox tolex will have to do). I'll put the jacks in there and wire them up. When done if I choose to sell the amp for something else, I can put it right back to stock in a jiffy.

Here's the question. Good idea or bad? The only problem I can see is if the NC part of the jack gets worn and doesn't contact the tip when no plug is in the jack. Either that or mismatching the ohm rating.

I'm interested if this works because I wanted to add a speaker out to mine as well. I also thought of taking the little guy to a table saw and cutting off the head so I'd have a 30 watt VT XL head.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

I'm interested if this works because I wanted to add a speaker out to mine as well. I also thought of taking the little guy to a table saw and cutting off the head so I'd have a 30 watt VT XL head.

I'd have Mojo build me a new head enclosure before I'd decimate the original cab.

I think it will work well so long as the jacks are built well and are properly wired. It would be mucho sweet to hear this little 30 watt amp blasting through two ported 2x12 cabs loaded with Vintage 30's and Red fangs. I'll post pics after I do it. Man I'm salivating just thinking about it.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

Last time I priced a head enclosure it was over $200.00 - table saw it is! LOL.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

You could be onto something. doesn't GJ run his VT head through a bogner 2x12?

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

You could be onto something. doesn't GJ run his VT head through a bogner 2x12?

That's been my favorite home practice rig, since the cab is half the tone.
It sure works for low volume, when I can't fire up the tube amps.

Scott, don't you have the heads? Why all the work on that combo?

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

That's been my favorite home practice rig, since the cab is half the tone.
It sure works for low volume, when I can't fire up the tube amps.

Scott, don't you have the heads? Why all the work on that combo?

Of course I have three heads and two of them are valvetronix heads (the other one is the Edana). This really isn't all that much work. I'm just going to make a new rear baffle and put a couple of jacks in it. Pretty straightforward IMHO. The reason behind all this is that I want to run the valvetronix XL combo through my cabs to test it with different speakers. It's a higher gain valvetronix combo basically and the single 12" speaker is nice, but it doesn't present much punch when compared to two 2x12 wave cabs. Those two cabs will spend most of their time on the regular valvetronix head, but they can sometimes plug into this little beast also to give it a louder and more authoritative voice.

They don't make a head version of the XL for some reason. My nephew would love a head version, but it's just not happening so far as I know.

 

[LoFiBrian]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

I really love my AD60VTH head into my Vintage 30 loaded 2x12...On the 1 or 15 watt setting It is the perfect bedroom amp...

sounds alot better than my old AD30VT

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

I really love my AD60VTH head into my Vintage 30 loaded 2x12...On the 1 or 15 watt setting It is the perfect bedroom amp...

That's the same home practice setup I have in my livingroom. If I could have had that rig the whole time I was learning guitar as a teen, I would have been in tone heaven. Back then, it was something like a DOD OD into a Peavey Studio Pro 40. :banghead:

I can't believe the Vox site doesn't show a VT XL head. What are they thinking? I was fully expecting them to release an amazing new amp head like the Vetta II. I'm sure they'll release one after all the complaints roll in.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Amp gurus please advise.

Or they'll delay the head release just like the did with the AD100VTH. That didn't come out at the same time as the BBQ grill combos did.