ErikH
Well-known member
Since the cost of getting my Marshall head fixed was going to be about the same to actually buy a replacement, I decided to not get it fixed (but I will at some point) and just get a new amp.
The candidates where (due to budget)
1. Crate Powerblock
2. Roland Cube 60
3. Vox Valvetronix AD50VT
Line 6 was left out because I don't like their modelling. Too digital to my ears.
The winner by a mile is the Vox. I was talking with the Korg rep at a local shop about these amps and he had mentioned that the guy who designed the "Valve Reactor" poweramp in those things was retired from Marshall and Vox approached him.
I can't believe the sensitivity of this amp. It reacts so well to picking dynamics as well as rolling back in the guitar volume (which I do a lot). The models are the most accurate that I've heard out of all of them. My favorite models are the Boutique CL, UK 70's, UK 80's and US Highgain.
The effects are really nice and easy to set. There's not too many of them either, pretty much everything I'd use if I wanted to; delay, reverb, compressor, phaser, flanger, chorus, tremolo, auto wah and rotary. Some of them are combined with another but from what I can tell from reading the manual one can be disabled leaving the other. It would be nice to allow mixing/matching of the different effects, but then that would be a price increase and probably out of many people's range. Not being able to do that doesn't bother me since I'm using the reverb and chorus/reverb pretty much anyway right now. Tremolo or Rotary may have some use too.
As for the other candidates; the Roland is nice, but a little too digital sounding still (compared to the Vox) and the picking dynamics aren't as crisp as I like and a couple of the models didn't quite sound as good as the Vox. The Powerblock simply ran out of clean headroom. I couldn't get a nice clean sound at very high volume. Still, it's a great little amp. Standalone the thing sounds great.
The speaker in the Vox is a Celestion, at least the tag hanging from the MV says so. Not sure which model other than it was made for Vox. Sounds really good. The sucker can move some air that's for sure. The variable wattage control on the back is an awesome feature. With this, you can set you amp models and channel settings to have the levels way up there, letting the thing breathe and open up, but keep the actual volume down to say a 5 watt practice amp, or in a small room, up to 30 watts. Playing a gig, turn it all the way up. It's loud.....real loud, and sounds really really sweet that way. While I was messing with settings in manual mode last night, I had the US Highgain setting and just about shat myself after dialing in a sound that was rediculously close to my Marshall, but at a much lower volume.
Band practice is tomorrow night so I'll know more in how it performs in that situation but I have no doubt it will be fine. If I need more oomph, the speaker out allows me to hook it up to another cabinet.
For what my band is doing right now, this amp fits the bill with all the diversity in it. Doesn't mean other amps are out of the question. A Mission Aurora is still on the list, either at the end of the year or next year. The budget had a big influence on what I could spend, and the Vox is the best bang for the buck when it came to that.
The candidates where (due to budget)
1. Crate Powerblock
2. Roland Cube 60
3. Vox Valvetronix AD50VT
Line 6 was left out because I don't like their modelling. Too digital to my ears.
The winner by a mile is the Vox. I was talking with the Korg rep at a local shop about these amps and he had mentioned that the guy who designed the "Valve Reactor" poweramp in those things was retired from Marshall and Vox approached him.
I can't believe the sensitivity of this amp. It reacts so well to picking dynamics as well as rolling back in the guitar volume (which I do a lot). The models are the most accurate that I've heard out of all of them. My favorite models are the Boutique CL, UK 70's, UK 80's and US Highgain.
The effects are really nice and easy to set. There's not too many of them either, pretty much everything I'd use if I wanted to; delay, reverb, compressor, phaser, flanger, chorus, tremolo, auto wah and rotary. Some of them are combined with another but from what I can tell from reading the manual one can be disabled leaving the other. It would be nice to allow mixing/matching of the different effects, but then that would be a price increase and probably out of many people's range. Not being able to do that doesn't bother me since I'm using the reverb and chorus/reverb pretty much anyway right now. Tremolo or Rotary may have some use too.
As for the other candidates; the Roland is nice, but a little too digital sounding still (compared to the Vox) and the picking dynamics aren't as crisp as I like and a couple of the models didn't quite sound as good as the Vox. The Powerblock simply ran out of clean headroom. I couldn't get a nice clean sound at very high volume. Still, it's a great little amp. Standalone the thing sounds great.
The speaker in the Vox is a Celestion, at least the tag hanging from the MV says so. Not sure which model other than it was made for Vox. Sounds really good. The sucker can move some air that's for sure. The variable wattage control on the back is an awesome feature. With this, you can set you amp models and channel settings to have the levels way up there, letting the thing breathe and open up, but keep the actual volume down to say a 5 watt practice amp, or in a small room, up to 30 watts. Playing a gig, turn it all the way up. It's loud.....real loud, and sounds really really sweet that way. While I was messing with settings in manual mode last night, I had the US Highgain setting and just about shat myself after dialing in a sound that was rediculously close to my Marshall, but at a much lower volume.
Band practice is tomorrow night so I'll know more in how it performs in that situation but I have no doubt it will be fine. If I need more oomph, the speaker out allows me to hook it up to another cabinet.
For what my band is doing right now, this amp fits the bill with all the diversity in it. Doesn't mean other amps are out of the question. A Mission Aurora is still on the list, either at the end of the year or next year. The budget had a big influence on what I could spend, and the Vox is the best bang for the buck when it came to that.
Last edited:
