Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

G

gvis

New member
Anyone here have experience with the Vox Night Train G2 50? Other, similar options out there?

I'll soon be in the market for a lunch box sized amp head (23 inches wide max) in the 25 to 50 watt range (closer to 50 preferred), with a budget of $1,000. I'd prefer to buy new and leverage GCs return policy. The size is important because my stacked oversize 1x12 cabs are 23 inches wide and I don't want a head to extend past the edges, for looks and load balancing (limiting, I know).

I'm liking many of the you tube clips I've heard, but there's not many and as usual it's hard to get consistency. I'd play one but the last time I went there weren't any on the floor. I like it's clear and chimey clean channel, and it's gain seems to have the grind, harmonics, and slight fuzziness I'm after.

I'd like a clearer, chimier clean channel, with more dimension, than what I'm getting with my hellhound, which is fender voiced and nice, but on the thick and dry side.

And I'd like a gain channel with a tone and gain structure closer to the modern side of things but able to cover thicker tones like Foo Fighters, QOTSA, etc, not necessarily drop tuning metal with tight bass and super high gain, etc.

To date I've always used pedals to get my gain, of any type, but, while I'll use them for variety, I'm ready for an amp with moderate to higher gain options.

Other amps I've considered:

EVH 50 - I really thought this one would be it, and it does sound great, but after reviewing many clips I just don't think it's my sound. The cleans seem almost too clean and sterile, I can't handle the volume imbalance between clean and gain, channel 2 has imo an 80's van halen vibe no matter what's played and how, and channel 3, while it sounds cool for metal styles and drop tuning, is just past how far I go with gain and I'm not so sure it can do the foo fighters thing.

Mesa Mini Rec - I just can't jibe with rectifiers. I've had duals and triples run through my house from my son's band and the mini's clips sound similar. The cleans have a plinky attack and the gain, while probably considered the most modern, isn't what I go for. But I know they are finicky and require a lot of tweaking, so maybe I didn't spend enough time with them.

Orange Dual Terror - Only heard a few clips so far. Not really my gain sound.

Thoughts?
 
Re: Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

I think you've found what will work for you, although definitely play it before you decide.

My suggestion is a Traynor Iron Horse head. 40 watts, but only one channel.
 
Re: Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

Thanks, I'm hoping one will be available the next time I visit GC. Otherwise I'll need to try elsewhere.

I should've mention I'd like 2 channels. The hellhound has one channel, which is one reason why I went the pedal route for clean vs gain options.

It actually handles pedals pretty well, but I feel like, despite some cool tones I'm getting, I'm not getting the higher gain tones I'm hearing from modern recordings and amp clips. Close, but not quite.

I'm guessing I'll probably end up really liking both amp driven gain (even if pushed occasionally by a TS type pedal) and the option of higher gain pedals through a clean channel for variety. I just want to finally find out after all these years of relying on pedals.

I've had mesa rectifiers and marshalls pass through and had chances to play their gain. Like I said, the mesa's just weren't my thing. I preferred the marshalls more. The JCM 4 channel I tried was my favorite, although a bit fizzy on the high end.

This lunch box effort is just an attempt to wrap up the dual 1x12 concept if I've been playing with for awhile, for space and easier portability. One day I'm guessing there will be a 4x12 in the works, with a normal size head and more options.
 
Re: Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

Jeremiah said:
H&K Tubemeister 36?
Click to expand...

I left that off the list, but I did listen to clips last night. I really liked it's gain section, but I felt the cleans were flatter and dryer than what I'm after; more like the Blackstar cleans I've heard, and flatter and dryer than my hellhound. Not necessarily a bad thing, just not what I'm after.

It's tough finding one amp that meets so many requirements. That's why so far the Vox seems the closest. It's just fairly new and there's not a lot of reviews on it yet.

If I had to pick which is more important, clean vs gain, I guess it'd have to be the gain, since the hellhounds clean are pretty good. Excluding cleans, just comparing the gain of the Vox to the tubemeister, I recall the tubemeister being a bit more modern but the vox closer to the foo fighters type stuff. Maybe splitting hairs though..lol...although the vox is cheaper.
 
Re: Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

I'd take a look at Egnater stuff. If price was no object, a Mesa Transatlantic could do what you want.
 
Re: Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

Lampy H said:
a Mesa Transatlantic could do what you want.
Click to expand...

Wow, I like what I'm hearing from the transatlantic, but more the cleans than the gain (gain still great though); it's just too far out of my range.

But it got me looking at other mesas and I found their 5:50 plus sounds great both clean and dirty, it's the perfect size at 22.8 inches, and at $1,300 it's a little closer to my budget. That's the absoulte most I can spend.

I still like the sound of the Vox, but it's not as refined and, at least to my ears, as modern sounding as the 5:50.
 
Re: Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

So I went with the Vox Night Train G2 50 and received it yesterday. I’ve got 30 days to decide if it’s what I’m looking for, and so far, realizing there’s probably no one amp that meets all my needs (at least within a grand), it covers a lot of my needs and more than the two amps I’d been using covered.

For a while I’ve been using a dual amp setup, with an amp switcher, where I set the one channel hellhound to clean gain, using pedals for OD, and only use the clean channel of a deville with El34’s & mods, also using pedals for OD.

I’ve liked the concept of having two amps with different voicings and being able to switch between them as if they’re one amp with two channels; pedals covering as different voicings but over the same amp never really sold me on getting very different voicings. But I’ve never been super happy with the amps I’m using for this and have spent too much effort trying to compensate with pedals.

So I’m looking at the Vox as a way to fill one side of the dual amp concept, knowing it won’t cover everything I’m after and that eventually I’ll get a second amp to cover the rest. And so far the Mesa 5:50 plus looks like a good future candidate; it’s just too far out of my current budget.

Here are my thoughts of the Vox so far:

** The cleans are great. Chimey and clear. The attack is a bit harder than the fender voiced amps I’ve played, with less midrange scoop, but its ok because the second amp will likely cover the Fender sound. Maybe the EL34's contribute to this.

** The Bright/clean channel handles OD pedals better previous amps I’ve owned. The harder attack and clarity helps OD sound more immediate, with better note separation. My Empress Heavy sounds amazing thru it and better than thru the hellhound; more amp like. The high gain tones I’m getting this way (sometimes with a TS type pedal in front of the Heavy) sound modern to me, which the more classic rock focused gain channel doesn’t cover as well. And, unlike the gain channel, there's zero fizziness, no mater how high gain I go with pedals.

** The Thick mode against the clean channel doesn’t impress me. It bypasses eq and creates a boost that’s way too far past non-boost. Not useable at all for me.

** The Girth/gain channel, while billed as a higher and more modern gain than the AC lines, sounds more like a Marshall sound (but still voxy) than a modern Mesa type sound, and that’s ok because I can use variations of that sound for foo fighters type stuff. Using a TS type pedal in front gets a bit closer to modern by tightening up this channels fairly loose and fuzzy bass. My only gripe with the gain channel is some fizziness while soloing, which is less apparent with rhythm playing. Not trailing fizziness; fizziness just after the attack that stays while the note is sustaining. So I run the gain on the low side to avoid extra fizziness and, without thick mode, get a nice moderate OD sound that's better than any lower gain OD pedal I've had so far. Maybe a tube swap could reduce the fizziness.

** The Thick mode against the gain channel is very useable. The boost level is only modest, and theres no ill eq effects; just more gain and edginess. I’d read that it bypasses EQ, but for the gain channel it doesn’t appear so; unlike the clean channel, I can adjust the eq and it affects while in thick mode.
Overall the Vox has a lot of presence, character, rawness, and immediacy. Some have said it can be bright and thin, with inadequate bass, but I’m running it through two oversized 1x12 cabs with swamp thangs and it sounds great to me. The swamp thangs are on the beefier, midrangey tonal side, so cleans are a bit rougher than they would be speakers geared towards American/fender tones, but they are still great, and the combo of high gain thru the Vox and swamp thangs is working very well.

We’ll see how I feel about it in 30 days, after the honeymoon is over.
 
Re: Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

Last night I was on the fence about the night train, mostly because of the gain channel's fizziness, even at lower gain settings, and less so due to the overall brightness of the amp, which I was looking for to replace the darker amps I'd been using through a dark cab and speaker setup, but it seemed still a bit too bright.

I've read about cutting the C19 treble cap to get rid of the fizziness, and some have said different preamp tubes can help as well.

Before trying the C19 mod, I decided to put a 12AT7 in V1 (unknown chinese make) and EH 12AX7's in V2 & V3.

Voila! It smoothed off the hard edged attack of the clean channel and gave it more clean headroom, and it reduced the overall brightness just enough. The clean is just so amazing now, and the best I've played so far (although I haven't played as many amps as others here).

But another big improvement was the near elimination of fizz on the gain channel, likely due to the reduction of gain from the 12AT7.

I still run the gain channel's gain on the lower side, so that I get a great gritty tone without the thick switch engaged. Engaging the thick switch brings into a cranked Marshall plexi type tone, and engaging a TS brings into heavy rock tone; both perfect for the foo fighters type tones I was after.

And my distortion and fuzz pedals still sound great through the clean channel.

It's still a pretty bright amp overall, so my next mod will be to do the C19 mod, but with a mini switch, so that it's an option.

What a relief to be this happy with a purchase. Hopefully this feeling lasts..lol
 
Re: Vox Night Train G2 50 & Other Options

I recently had my JCM 2000, 2001 model, bite the dust. I have had the 15 watt night train g2 as my backup and finally put it to use in a live band situation. I really love the raw cleans of this amp. They are so full and lush it handles pedals extremely well. I agree with the fizziness of the overdrive channel, however. I would like it to be a little smoother. Just curious if the preamp tube swap really helped with this or not. Do you still use this amp? I may upgrade to the 50 watt version and keep this 15 as a backup, but I will tell you that the 15 watt version easily keeps up with the drummer. I would also like xlr out for recording.
 
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