The universe seems to be directing me...

[Phantasmagoria]

....towards VOX :laugh2:


It's always been perhaps the last brand on my mind but all of a sudden I find myself surrounded by Vox's..

First I was looking for a 1x12 and end up with a pretty awesome little Vox cab w/ a Celestion Redback that sounds sweet af!

Then out of the blue I end up with my Night Train 50 for 300 bucks :bigthumb:

And now I'm in the store looking for a reverb and a delay pedal and Vox strikes again :lmao:

I walked out with two of their awesome "Valvenergy" pedals (and have my eye on a third). which technically are tube preamps cuz they have a "Nutube" in them.

Anyway, the most shocking thing about them is how exactly they sound and feel like a tube amp. There's no way anyone could tell the difference..no one.

I've only tried them in front of an amp so far (into the clean channel of my Night Train)..but man...these are absolutely fantastic sounding & feeling pedals. I've tried AMT tube pedals (SS20 & the Mathias Ekhlund/Freak Kitchen one), the big Behringer one, various Chinese ones etc...but this is theonly one that absolutely nails it for feeling/responding & sounding 100% like a tube amp does.. You pop one of these in front of your amp and it's totally like buying a new amp :bigthumb:

The one's I have (so far) are the Cutting Edge (American high gain..(sort of Mesa/Krank/Soldano-like...basically American high gain) & the "Copperhead" (JCM800). I'm probably going to pick up the "Mystic Edge" (Vox AC30) as well cuz that sounds fantastic too...even the silk drive is awesome (just some more gain would be nice)

Anyway ,,here's a clip with the Cutting Edge first followed by the Copperhead. They're way more different/distinctive sounding/feeling than the clip suggests (maybe color from the amp?) but for some reason that's how things turned out :laugh2: . It'sjustthe pedals intothe amp....nothing else.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

With the bit of reverb from my TC Electronic Skysurfer pedal in the loop..

 

[Mincer]

Early Ritchie Blackmore is my favorite Vox sound (before he used Fender & Marshall).

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I knew he used Vox's earlier on but have no idea on what he used them?

I could'nt resist picking up the Mystic Edge as well. Bought it online cuz it was a bit cheaper than the store

And it comes in tomorrow :bigthumb:

Pete Thorn makes it sound so good here...it did nothing for my GAS :laugh2:

 

[Phantasmagoria]

They are'nt cheap, but if you consider that once you have them in front of an amp that you already own, you essentially have 4 new awesome amps for a hell of a lot lot less than you would actually pay for 4 new amps...

And really they actually make your amp sound like a completely different amp. The Nutubes sound (and even more importantly ..feel) so realistic & convincing it's unreal.

 

[Blille]

I have the Mystic Edge! I used it as my preamp into a Two Notes cab m to go direct and it was great. I kept it as backup. It sounds great imho.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Sweet! ,,can't wait to check mine out tomorrow.... I've only tried them in front of my amp so far. Curious to try out the other two modes.

 

[Mincer]

I knew he used Vox's earlier on but have no idea on what he used them?

I could'nt resist picking up the Mystic Edge as well. Bought it online cuz it was a bit cheaper than the store

And it comes in tomorrow :bigthumb:

Pete Thorn makes it sound so good here...it did nothing for my GAS :laugh2:

He used them on the first 4 Deep Purple albums:
Shades of Deep Purple
The Book of Talisyn
Deep Purple
Concerto for Group and Orchestra

The Concerto has his best tone (to me), and outtakes from that album formed an album called Power House, which has the pinnacle of Ritchie's ES-335 & Vox tones.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Did'nt realize he'd done so many albums with the Vox/335.

Personally I got into Deep Purple with In Rock & onwards...ie their 70's output & then their 80's stuff as it was released ( House of Blue Light, Perfect Strangers etc)...love all the stuff with Morse too. .I did go back and listen to their early stuff but I guess their 70's -80's stuff was more my thing...so I missed out on his Vox tones..

 

[Mincer]

Did'nt realize he'd done so many albums with the Vox/335.

Personally I got into Deep Purple with In Rock & onwards...ie their 70's output & then their 80's stuff as it was released ( House of Blue Light, Perfect Strangers etc)...love all the stuff with Morse too. .I did go back and listen to their early stuff but I guess their 70's -80's stuff was more my thing...so I missed out on his Vox tones..

Apparently, he did use a Vox for about half of In Rock, but I don't know what songs. Later, after seeing Hendrix, he had his Vox guts stuffed inside a Marshall head chassis.

I am a big Purple fan (if you haven't guessed), and love all eras.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

hahah...Blackmore is nuts....

Always thougt you were more into Morse & that era actually...you're obviously a bit of a fanboi

 

[Phantasmagoria]

The thing I like about my Night Train is the grit in the solo tone. the graininess or whatever and yet it's smooth to play (not choppy at all) ....I love amps like that with a bit of texture for solo's. My Brutus has it ,,especially on "Lead 1", my Labogs classic, my DIY low gain head w/ the teakwood headshell (though I need to have it looked at, it's not sounding like it did atm), my SS Oranges etc....they all have it. And none of them are a struggle to play. They're still nice & juicy sounding/feeling. I just love that shit in amps ...texture :bigthumb:

 

[Mincer]

hahah...Blackmore is nuts....

Always thougt you were more into Morse & that era actually...you're obviously a bit of a fanboi

I even dig Tommy Bolin, too. Come Taste the Band was a great album.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

It was indeed. And Bolin was great though maybe not as distinctive of a style as either Blackmore or Morse imo..

Anyway..my Mystic Edge came in a couple days ago...another killer totally amp-like pedal! Thought it would be fun to do a comparison between the pedal & my Night Train amp so.. I tried to dial them in as close to each other as I could. The only real difference being the pedals gain was dimed and the amp's was at about 3 o'clock otherwise the knobs on bothe the pedal & the amp were physicallly in the same place almost ...with some fine tuning.. (no fx/post).

And here's another with the Copperhead (JCM 800 style) with the DOD OD250 pedal I also just bought in front of it going into the front of my Night Train. Had my TC Eletronic Skysurfer reverb ib the amp's fx loop..

Both video's mic'd w/ my SM57 (off-axis)...

Fun times :bigthumb:

 

[Phantasmagoria]

And the Mystic Edge into the front of my Mooer GE300 modeler. I used the Randall T2 "tone capture" patch that I'd made/saved with my Randall but swapped the Mystic Edge for the Randall sim. The rest of the signal chain's the same. Guitar's my Cort w/ Fishman's..

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Had'nt tried the "DI/Cab sim" mode with any of these pedals...it's pretty useable/decent..

I like it better in front of the amp though..still have'nt tried it in the loop as a preamp either...hopefully soon :bigthumb:

Here's the "Cutting Edge" direct into my interface with my new Kramer..

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Same thing w/ the Copperhead(Marshall JCM 800 style) pedal & the EVH-ish backing track. Been thinking of Eddie quite a bit off late...

...more later