The Classic VOX AC15, Watkins tape echo & Stratocaster
So, we all may know VOX from the heady days of the 1960's when the iconic VOX AC30 amplifier seemed to be the must have amplifier for any player into the music of the time and any player wanted to be Hank Marvin of the Shadows, Keith Richards or George Harrison, not to forget the Monkees to come with their Vox stacks.
Yet from the success of that iconic amplifier range, a range of guitars and effects, the VOX company were victims of fashion and by the late 60's the Marshall stack was the new must have. And VOX was struggling.
The AC30 was the main amplifier of the early 1960's
Sadly, VOX went solid state at the end of the 1960's and the company was sold on and moved away from the AC30 in time to wonders such as the VOX Venue, adequate but a world away from the 30. I had a 1964 VOX AC4 in the 80's and that was everything my Venue wasn't. My first Venue caught fire and the second one was pretty awful.
Fast forward to the Korg ownership and we were blessed with the AC30 reissue in the 1990's. Yes the 6 input leviathan was back. Twin speakers and all. Still as weighty.
The Tonelab SE and the Pathfinder 15R amplifier
the Pathfinder is a 'new' take on the AC4, but solid state and sounds good
But new was to come in the form of the VOX Valvetronix series. Here, an amplifier modelling brain was built into an amplifier, styled on the old AC30 and the TV Cabinet 1959 AC15 size amplifier, the VOX AD120 and VOX AD60 amplifiers.
Also built as a studio module and as the SE stage version floorboard with expression and volume pedals, the VOX Valvetronix delivered very realistic amplifier sounds with the capacity to store 96 user editable patches on the SE and Studio version.
The VOX AD60 Valvetronix, practical and portable
The building of the Valvetronix brain into the AD series amplifiers was a master stroke. The single speaker AD60 with 32 on board user editable patches supplies plenty of scope from early 50's rockabilly to present day sounds, allied to a VC12 footboard which can store its own patches to upload and can be used to select patches and guitar volume.
The brains of the beast - old school VOX chicken head knobs
The partner to the 60 was the 120, a twin speaker amplifier which is lighter than the old AC30, but still in the same retro style, with the stylish Blue cloth speaker cover which I like. Also an on-board tuner is so handy and can be engaged in silent mode for onstage use. This amplifier has everything, so what could be done next? Blow it.
The VOX AD120 - best of old school looks, best of modern modelling
So the AD series amplifiers were king of the hill in the early 2000's and we then saw a new version come in, the VT series. Although styled on the lines of the AD's with traditional styling, the lack of on-board patch storage reduced to 8 was abysmal.
The VOX VT30 part of the VT Series
The VT dropped the on-board tuner function, perhaps the AD had been expensive to make and at over £700 for the 120, they were pricy but they had so much functionality.
The VT by a contrast was basic and poorly appointed. The updated range of VT+ amplifiers reinstated the tuner but the same few patches storage, why? Memory is cheap these days!
I contacted VOX and asked why they had gone backwards, essentially they needed an AD with more patch memory. It was hinted that a new version would come out, but to be honest they need that AD or Tonelab capacity of storage.
The VOX AC30 continues to be popular some nearly 60 years after it first made the stage, today there are Valve Reactor versions which are less costly and have the same look, but no patch storage. You have to bring your own pedal board to the party here.
So the challenge to VOX is, go and give us a new AD series with more patches on-board and that nice beefy foot controller!
The New VT40X does have an on-board USB socket for modelling, perhaps that is the way forward or to produce a Donkey controller box to set up patches that can be disconnected for playing, but with on-board patch storage in the amplifier. Oh and whilst there, put a bigger LCD like on the Tonelab so we can name patches and see the names.
Then you'd have another market leader. Go to it.
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