I've been playing guitar for 30+ years. It was my whole life from about 14-24. Played in a world famous (well locally anyway) band. The whole 9 yards. I never had money but had to fork over enough to allow me to play with other professionals and play live frequently. So I've owned a couple of Marshalls and a Peavy. Slapped on an ADA for effects and I was off. Suffice to say I am not an audio file/sound geek. Of course I LOVE good sound as much as the next guy but rarely did I mess around with it. It was just - get a couple of good sounds and jam.
So 25+ years have gone by since my last amp purchase as regular life, supporting and raising a family etc has taken over. Oddly enough, even though I am much better off than I was back in the day I decided to just start small and find something under 200 bucks. Amazon lead me to this Vox vt20x modeling Amp.
I've read over the years that solid state simply cannot compete against tubes and I had heard results that certainly solidified that view. I am sure that still may be the case overall but after spending two days with this amp I must say they have come A LONG way. I will just list the pros and cons as I have come across them AND point out the one issue that I am trying to resolve regarding the volume.
PROS:
Price ($179 - are you kidding. My bluetooth headphones are $100 more than that)
Weight and size: This thing is tiny. No more lugging around my 1/2 stack to jam with my best friend. At my age lifting the cab was not fun anymore. This thing is LIGHT.
Volume: LOUD. Wow. Like I said - I haven't purchased an amp in years so my perspective is certainly dated, but I had no idea a small amp like this could get so loud without cracking. I am buying the 40 Watt just in case but I really think this thing could handle most jam sessions. My best friend is not great but he has been consistently loud since we were 16. I look forward to our next jam to test it out (will update).
Controls: A ton of options but sweet out of the box. The layout is simple and almost self explanatory. That said there are a ton of options (presets and controls) so it is worth taking some time to learn. Tuner works fine. The Tone Room software (free) changes the game completely.
Tone Room Software: This is where my mind exploded lol. Inside the software, which installed easily and detected the amp automatically, there are dozens of preset tones. They label these tones so most people familiar with the song would know what they are talking about and in some cases use the name of the song directly. I probably cannot play a song start to finish that is not my own BUT I can play the main riffs of countless songs over the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and beyond. So as I went along and in most cases easily matched the label of the tone to the actual song my jaw just dropped. Black Dog - play - CHECK! Day Tripper - play - CHECK! Cliffs of Dover - sort of play - CHECK! Raining Blood - play - CHECK! Sandman - CHECK! Walk This Way - CHECK! Have a Cigar - YES! Paranoid - CHECK! This went on and on. You get the picture. AGAIN - a true audiophile/purist would notice issues but to my ears when I dropped Unchained I felt like a kid again. If I owned this as a kid I never would have left my room.
CONS
I can only think of two cons with only one being a real issue (not enough to reduce my rating from 5 stars however).
Volume Spike on preset change: this really bugged me at first. I THINK I have found an obvious solution but will be following up to be sure. Essentially when you start moving around the presets by turning the knob the volume jumps WAY up. You can see this on the software on the interface. The trick is turning the VOLUME knob on the amp all the way down and using the POWER LEVEL to control overall volume. Not sure if this is ideal but it now seems to be working fine with me. I have ordered the pedal and I hope the issue does not reappear while switching with the pedal.
No DAW interface: this I think for this price and all things considered is more of an upgrade suggestion but it sure would be nice to dial this right into something to record without having to mic up. VOX - do it. This would be cool.
OVERALL
There is not much more to be said. I read one review that stated you would get better use of the tube in this preamp as a light on your Christmas tree. That may be true. It's hard to tell if the warmth and quality of the sound is helped by the tube or if it's just the improvement in digital tech but I really don't care. It sounds frickin great. I'm not a big guy and I'm old (46) so I cannot lug around a big ass amp and this weighs almost nothing. On day 1 I played for 8+ hours for the first time in AGES. I went to pick up this morning to play and my fingers were toast. Going to take a few days to break them in.
I am going to make a video review where hopefully I can duplicate the songs and the tones to give potential buyers a better idea of what they are getting.
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40w and The 20w - can’t beat them for the money !
I bought both the 20 and the 40. The 20 is great for at home and the 40 is fine for jamming with friends as both are surprisingly loud. I have two 100-watt Marshall stacks running in stereo that are way to loud and heavy for just messing around....and they don’t sound right at wife friendly levels ;))The thing that drew me to this was a bias switchable tube pre amp ax12. It’s fun and does roll off a bit of the digital sound. However the modeling is so good it’s just a bonus at this point. The FX are fine. Prevents from having to drag along a pedal board for just jamming. The noise gate is an excellent addition! Software helps level out the gain change between presets.The only con for me, and this is really not possible to do at this price point, is that I’m used to running in stereo. There is Also no additional speaker out. So I’m using a Small switcher pedal to switch utilize the 40Vox and a Orange 35rt amp if I want to run a Waza Dimension C or other stereo FX. Both the Vox40 & Orange 35rt amps are very light and have a bit of a different sound so it’s easy transport them both in the back seat or a padded trunk :). The only downside is the speaker 🔊 is a bit flubby dealing with bottom end. Throw too much at it and it muddies up quickly. However at this price... that’s just a nit pick .
Top reviews from the United States
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Top reviews from other countries
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MARCELLO SENSOLIReviewed in Italy on December 26, 2024
ottimo acquisto
Style: VT20XVerified Purchase -
Client_Amazon_ADReviewed in France on November 16, 2024
Excellent ampli, le rapport qualité prix aussi.
Style: VT40XVerified Purchase -
Josep Maria FarraronsReviewed in Spain on June 4, 2024
amplificador con sonido versátil y potente
Style: VT20XVerified Purchase - Chris SweetReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2024
Fantastic amp!
Style: VT40XVerified Purchase
This amp did not disappoint. The presets sound great and if they are not to your liking, connect it to your phone or pc and start tone lab where you can build your own FX chain and tweak the sound to your exact liking. I was a little disappointed that they do not supply a cable to connect to your phone/pc so bare this is mind. Once you get your head around the controls this is a very loud and quality sounding amp, the clean channels are beautiful, as are the crunch. For the money I think you will struggle to find better.Fantastic amp!Chris Sweet
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2024
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