Ball&Chain
New member
About a year ago, I decided to try out a Vox Amplug. They sound like they should be wonderful devices for convenient plugged in practice sessions. Just the amplug and some headphones and you are good to go. I got the "Metal" version and just couldnt get along with it. It had more of a scooped sound to it and I couldnt get the mids in with the single tone knob which made it sound like complete hindquarters. I ended up returning it, wondering if I had just gotten the wrong one.
A year later, I decided to try again. I got the Joe Satriani model. Its supposed to be based on his tone via the overdrive and delay signature pedals he has with vox from what I understand. I'm not a satriani fan by any means, but his guitar tones have always been pretty good. This particular amplug has gotten alot longer look, though in the end, its produced similar results. It sounds like hindquarters. Especially on single note stuff on the G, B and high E strings. It sounds really tinny and thin getting worse the more you roll the tone knob toward the treble side. The attack seems to have a bit of lag to it, even with the delay effect turned off. I've tried 3 different guitars with different pickups and different headphones, all with varying degrees of sounding like complete garbage. Surprisingly, it sounds best with cheap earbuds. I think mainly because they intorduce more mids which allows you to dial the tone knob more toward the bass side. It also sounds best with the gain all the way or at least most of the way up. Rolling off the gain on the amplug produces a sound similar to rolling off the volume on most modeling amps. Its just not quite right.
Anyone with similar or different results? I think I've about turned the page on these ever being useful. Maybe I'm just not going about it right. My expectations arent exactly that it needs to sound like a good amp, but I'm expecting something that at least doesnt promote the overwhelming desire to turn it off.
A year later, I decided to try again. I got the Joe Satriani model. Its supposed to be based on his tone via the overdrive and delay signature pedals he has with vox from what I understand. I'm not a satriani fan by any means, but his guitar tones have always been pretty good. This particular amplug has gotten alot longer look, though in the end, its produced similar results. It sounds like hindquarters. Especially on single note stuff on the G, B and high E strings. It sounds really tinny and thin getting worse the more you roll the tone knob toward the treble side. The attack seems to have a bit of lag to it, even with the delay effect turned off. I've tried 3 different guitars with different pickups and different headphones, all with varying degrees of sounding like complete garbage. Surprisingly, it sounds best with cheap earbuds. I think mainly because they intorduce more mids which allows you to dial the tone knob more toward the bass side. It also sounds best with the gain all the way or at least most of the way up. Rolling off the gain on the amplug produces a sound similar to rolling off the volume on most modeling amps. Its just not quite right.
Anyone with similar or different results? I think I've about turned the page on these ever being useful. Maybe I'm just not going about it right. My expectations arent exactly that it needs to sound like a good amp, but I'm expecting something that at least doesnt promote the overwhelming desire to turn it off.
