Vox AC4TV - 4/1/.25W 1x10" Guitar Combo Amp Reviews

It is a very weird thing. Even at a quarter of a watt...it sounds fat and loud...my first reaction was to turn it down...then I realized I could talk over it without raising my voice. All other amps sound thin and tinny at this volume. The Vox sounds like a good 50 watt tube amp with a 12 inch speaker. At the price its a steal. Anything better will be a Gourmet jobbie well over a thousand.
The amp is based off a 50's...Vox AC4

i found after playing it to be heavy on the gain side (dirty) and light on the tone (bell chiming). after checking the installed tubes i found they are ultra high gain tubes designed mainly for some classic rock and heavy metal music.
I switched them out with ultra high tone/low gain tubes and got the sound i was looking for. the factory tubes are fine in terms of quality fyi.
(tube swapping is a very typical change for smaller tube amps I am told) because tone is a fleeting thing for musicians, difficult for each to nail down.

i did my homework before ordering and found this to have the features i wanted. i wasnt disappointed, its a blast to play with. I am retired, and wanted a bedroom jammin amp and perhaps the local coffee shop. playing with the volume and tone gives me the gain sound should i want it. usually set on 1/4 watt, the 1 watt is a tad cleaner, (thinking of adding Variable Treble Bleed Circuit to my tele for a low volume boost)
the amp looks great, very retro.
I have to say sweetwater and my rep jonathan blew me away with their service. i have the year planned out for purchases now!

For classic tone broadcast 24/7 Shows include the blues, rock...that British chime on a dime. This thing begs to be turned up rewarding the senses with true tube distortion. This is a great amp to drag to a party, gig, or open mic. I line up a Tube Screamer to push this into the higher realms , blistering leads, Distortion on the TS very low, I use it more as a boost.

I have been hoping to get a tube amp for a while, and this one fits my needs perfectly. The sound is a huge improvement over my starter amp and the ability to switch down to 1/4 watt is priceless, as I mainly play after kids go to bed.

If you are looking for a reasonably priced tube amp this is a "must buy". The option for 4 watt, 1 watt or 1/4 watt make it ideal for home use. Beautiful styling and workmanship. You will never go back to solid state technology after hearing what this tube a mp does.

The bonus was typical great Sweetwater service.

This is an awesome little amp! I had been eyeballing them for a few years and finally pulled the trigger. My main amp is a Dr. Z Maz 18, which is based on the Vox AC platform. The AC4TV allows me to get similar tones to my Z without having to change the settings on my pedals when switching between the two. In my humble opinion, this is the best of the affordable low wattage amps. Even with the recent price increase, I still think it is a good value.

Don't let the small size of this amp fool you. This little amp not only has a big sound for its size, but is warm, full and sweet sounding right out of the box. I debated buying this amp for some time and wanted something affordable with tubes, a compact size and the right tonality. This is one of the best sounding amps that I've used by far. The selectable power attenuator enables you to play the various wattage settings and customize your sound without too much volume. I was a big fan of another company's tube amps for some time and they needed to be "broken-in", but this amp sounded great from the start. This amp is well worth the price and would highly recommend it to anyone.

this is a no-frills little amp that has one thing that makes it worth it: tone. I live in an apartment and even at 1/4 watts it's too loud to turn up to overdrive, so a nice contollable overdrive/distortion is necessary. If sweet tone is what you want clean or overdriven, this is it.

This is my first tube amp ever. If you need a super clear non distorting channel, go solid state. If you like vintage clean with a little grit (warmth) or that delicious tube overdrive at lower wattage get a tube, this tube. This amp is sensitive to the way you twist the knobs and stroke your strings. In less suggestive words, there are many tones you can get out of this amp. I plugged my synth into this too, sounds amazing. I have a Parker guitar with the coil taps, tone galore. If you want to do the experimental texture noisebed thing, this helps you along since you can get it to feedback so easy if you want it to. The feedback from this thing is mouth watering. Thank you sweetwater Katie! You know what's good!

An outstanding British variation on the Fender Champ type design, made to emphasize distortion and interactivity rather than minimize them as Leo Fender originally intended! With the EL84 power tube it can't duplicate the glassy clarity of my 70s Champ with a 6V6, but compensates by producing a much wider range of clean and crunch tones, through a much better cabinet and speaker. The low wattage settings are useful but a little mushy, however like most tube amps it sounds best cranked in the maximum 4W setting. This amp is meant to stand right in front of and play to - it produces incredible feedback and near-feedback interactivity when you stand close to it and blast away. The tone control has an extremely wide range from icepick in your ear to bear farting in a submarine, with a million useful tones between the unusable extremes. It sounds great with analog synthesizers as well as any guitar I've tried, humbucking, single coil or even piezo. Awesome sounding when you melt the 12AX7 with any decent fuzzbox. The primary liability is the necessity of removing an absurd number of screws to change the tubes.

This litte guy is simply incredible. I've not found anything else in this price range that gives you such a range of wonderful tube amp tones. If you know what Vox amps sound like, you'll know what to expect here. The only thing I was surprised about was how loud it is!

I was talking to my sales engineer Marcos Sanchez about my guitar setup, and ranted about this amp, so I figured I'd share my opinions with everyone else. This is first review I've written anywhere for any product, but I couldn't feel more strongly about any other purchase I've made.

the ac4 is I think the best purchase I have ever made. I play every thing from jazz to disco, pop, gritty blues, and even rock. And I'm very psychotic about tone. That's all without pedals, I'm a bit of a purist. It takes pedals awesome too though, when I add my mxr gt-overdrive (only overdrive/dist. pedal that I think sounds good so far, I haven't tried anything over $250 though) you can get awesome heavy heavy rock sounds. And the vox can get pretty loud, I've played bars, outdoor restaurants, hotels, and small clubs with bands without micing it. And the variable wattage lets you get any sound at managable levels too, even practicing in an apartment at night levels. as someone who is exteeeeeeemly picky, I think EVERYONE should own one. And the cover for it is great too. Very few products get that strong an endorsement from me, right now, just this vox, and the gt overdrive (even though I kind of want to, I won't rant about that now). Both quality and price are AMAZING!

(Sorry for the long review- take a minute to read it. It's worth it for this amp)

I bought this amp secondhand off of craigslist several days ago (amp was in like-new condition). The amp is a 4-watt all-tube 1x10 combo, with an attenuator switch between 4 watts, 1 watt and 1/4 watt (more on that in a bit).

I've only owned 2 other amps before this: a tiny piece of junk starter amp, and a solid-state Crate 2x12 combo (I don't know the exact model, sorry). I've only played guitar for ~2 years and drums are my main instrument. In my band where I play drums, both of the guitarists play solid-state modeling amps (Peavey Vypyr, Line 6). Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience with tube amps...but it doesn't matter. This amp is AMAZING. Really. As soon as I plugged in, I was blown away by the sound. I started by turning the volume to about 25% of the way up and got a gorgeous high-end clean sound. After that I turned the volume up to 40 or 50%- the PERFECT distortion - I thought to myself, am I really playing a $250 amp? I thought I would never own an amp that sounded like this. The tubes break up and distort SO beautifully. This amp reminds me of so many old classic rock songs. My friends' $500 modeling amps don't hold a candle to this amp's distortion.

Even though this amp is pretty much "plug n play" (the only real controls are volume & tone, plus the attenuator switch), there is actually a LOT of room to experiment and change your sound. I have been playing the amp constantly for the last week and I'm still messing with the controls to dial in different sounds. The power attenuator switch is, in my opinion, one of the best features of this amp. Basically, you switch depending on your desired overall volume level. Set the power to 1 watt and turn the volume knob to about 11:00- you'll start to hear the tubes break up beautifully. Set the power to 4 watts and roll back the volume to 8:00 or 9:00- you'll get that clear, "chimey" Vox sound. Oh yeah, speaking of volume, this amp is LOUD for 4 watts. The guy who sold it to me was only getting rid of it because it was too loud for bedroom practice. Just for fun, I set it to 4 watts, set the amp volume at 50%, and turned my guitar's volume knobs all the way up-- and my ears physically hurt afterwards! I'd venture to say that at the 4 watt setting you'd have enough volume to match your average rock drummer or play small coffeeshop-style indoor gigs- although admittedly there is not a lot of clean-sounding headroom, since the amp starts to distort once you reach 40 or 50% volume. If anything else, this amp helped me learn the valuable skill of adjusting volume knobs to sculpt your sound, rather than using effects or pedals to do it for you. The amp's volume knob, your guitar's volume knobs, and even the aggressiveness of your strumming/picking- all of this will affect how much this amp distorts- and I think that's a good thing. Plus, if it is too quiet for your stadium gigs, it's got an external speaker output (16 ohms).

Cons: Not many to speak of (for the insanely low price!!). If you check youtube, you'll find a lot of video demos, most of them featuring single-coil pickup guitars- strats and teles. I play a 2008 Gibson SG Special Faded, all-stock, and some people say that humbuckers can sound muddy on the AC4TV. Personally I haven't had a problem dialing in a clear and balanced sound, although I usually leave the amp's Tone knob all the way up. I also keep the Tone knobs on my guitar at least 75% of the way up, especially on the neck pickup...YMMV. If you can, try out the amp in person with YOUR guitar before buying it, so you can be the judge of whether you think it's muddy-sounding.

The tubes break up really nicely with the volume anywhere between 9:00 and 1:00 or so. If you keep going past that, however, you really start to lose definition; rather than more volume, you really just get more mud. So the full range of volume may not be TOTALLY usable, depending on the sound you're going for. Again, try this amp out in person before buying it, if you can.

Regardless of these minor downsides, this is a standout amp. The flaws are so minimal simply because you get a high-quality, gorgeous-sounding all-tube amp for $250. I've been spending all day playing some of my favorite songs on this amp just because they sound so strikingly similar to the original recording. White Stripes, Black Keys, Weezer, The Who, Beatles, Stones- Songs by these bands sound simply stunning through this amp. Check out the guy on youtube playing U2 covers with a strat and deluxe memory man running into this $250 amp. I'd swear he was playing the Edge's guitar rig. Every day I'm more amazed by this amp, it's such an incredible deal, buy one now before they jack up the price or discontinue it.

I really love this little amp,and agree with the other reviews.However,quality control may be an issue-out of the five I played in a store only one worked correctly.Found that out after I took one home brand new in the box and it was DOA.Took it back,next 3 had issues too,so instead of a 10" combo I ended up with the 8" combo.
The amp is killer sounding,love the attenuator and 3 different speaker jacks,4,8,and 16 ohm.

I was looking to finally get myself some classic tone and looked at the VOX amps first. I was pleasantly surprised to read about this amp so I took a chance and ordered it. For the price I was expecting something decent but I was blown away when I heard it. Granted, I was coming from 2 years of POD (which I think stands for something... piece of... not sure about the D but anyway).

I own a `60 Reissue Strat, an Epiphone Les Paul and an Ibanez hollow body and this amp just allows those guitars to do their thing. For example, my guitars sound like they`re going through a Fender Twin w/o the reverb. Thats the best compliment I can give this amp. The sound is simply warm, round and well balanced!

The other really cool feature is the switchable power attenuator. I always use the 1/4 setting and push the volume up half way to get a little crunch. I`m always amazed. This is not only my practice amp but my recording amp and the size makes it so convenient to travel with.

I highly recommend this little guy for anyone looking for a practice amp or record with with. I`m not into trashing guitar simulators but nothing beats the sound of a tube amp pushing some air into a mic.

I have several of the small single ended amps (EVJ, BH5, etc.) and this is my favorite right out of the box. It really sounds like a Vox. I also added the BitMo mods and 12AT7 which made it even better - chimey jangle to singing overdrive. The built-in attenuator works great too. Beatles, Byrds, Stones - they are in there!

I am a big fan of the small all-tube combo amps. While waiting for this one to hit production, I bought the Fender Champion 600. While it is a true classic in its own right, by comparison the Vox AC4TV is a mindblower. For starters, its 4 watts seem bigger than the Champion's 5. The 10-inch speaker adds more roundness to the tone. And best of all, the 1 watt and 1/4 watt settings make this one for the ages. Fifty years from now people will be telling their grandkids how they stupidly passed up the chance to buy one of these for $250 bucks. Don't be one of those people. Get it now.

Crank it for that awesome tube tone. This baby rocks! Don't let the size fool you, this thing can get loud on the 4 watt setting. The 1/4 and 1 watt settings are perfect for practice without disturbing the neighbors. Cool vintage sound and cool looks. Vox got this one right! You won't be disappointed,get one.

What a great little amp this is. It well exceeded my expectations, as I have purchased a few of the other 5 watt tube combos out there and was disappointed with them.
This little guy really sings, and each power selection has its own distinct "sweet spot" that sounds different in each of its settings. It has an impressive overdrive to it that goes well beyond what one would expect.
One thing that really impresses me is the ability this amp has to get thick, tonefull feedback that is not high end shrilly and easily controllable.
Really quite a cool amp!

Sound from this little guy is VERY BIG. Fit & Finish are Excellent. Due to my excitement and anticipation, I inadvertantly played it for 10 minutes on the 1/4 watt setting (after it first arrived), before realizing it was on the quietist setting! No Regrets; A COMPLETE TONE MONSTER!!!

Pre-ordered and received on 4-9-09. Vox AC4TV is a well constructed amp. The knobs have a better, more solid feel to them than my Vox AD15. At 4 watts it is loud enough to play when no one is home. At 1/4 watt this amp really shines. YOu can crank it up and get excellent tube distortion at a useful volume for home or small studio use. What has suprised me is the quality of tone from this combo. Vox has really matched a great speaker with this unit. Excellent!!!!

I can't say enough about this amp. The tone is just phenomenal! Buy one now before the price goes up.

It is a pretty good amp like all the posts suggest. I'm happy with mine! I would buy it again, and I am now thinking of purchasing the AC10 W/Greenback.

Love the amp. Had it for about 5 months now and I love always plugging into it. It handles effects really well and also has killer tone in and of itself with some great break up when you let it sing. Love the selectable voltage, but love that it sounds great at any volume even better. It might not sound like a full blown AC30, but for the price and size, you can't beat it. I'd absolutely recommend this to anyone, pro or beginner.

Wow, this amp is a great bargain. It's a bit noisy when cranked, but upgrading the tubes helps. You can also reduce the boxiness of the sound by taking off the back panel -- just my personal preference. But power tube saturation at 1/4 watt? Terrific! Just one complaint...would it have killed them to give it an 8 ohm output alongside the 16 ohm jack?

I got this just to have on hand to add a little flavor to rhythm tracks and such, but it has been the No. 1 pick for nearly everything since. No, you can't blow steaming chunks of metal through it, but you've probably got THAT amp already. This has so much more personality than I ever expected. Useable tones at all attenuation settings and nearly all volumes, though 1/4 watt setting breaks up pretty early with volume advance. Head and cab are the way to go, by the way.

This may be the best all tube amp for the money out there. It's usable as is - no mods (as the Vox ads say). The single tone control works well. The 4 and 1 watt setting are good, the 1/4 watt setting requires a small treble boost with the tone control. Probably 4-watt for clean and 1-watt for crunch are the most usable. The factory speaker sound great, which is unusual.

The minus is the output transformer only has a 16-ohm tap. My normal stack of two 12" Blackheart speakers is 8-ohms. So I only use one cabinet.

I am very pleased. Period, but especially for the money. Made in Vietnam, for what it's worth. The build quality seems to be ok on the outside, but I have not looked at the guts yet. A lot of screws to change valves as Vox would say.

This is a nice amp for the project studio or home use. Or the original use as a practice amp. I sort of collect low power tube amps, and this is as good as any of them.

joel in Dallas

all i got to say is this amp is sweet. i espeacially like it set to the 1/4 watt setting. this amp make you want to play. well worth the 2 month wait.

I bought this on an impulse buy on sale when they were practically giving these away. I get an excellent clean tone out of mine but it doesn't break up well at all either on it's own or with distortion pedals. Very muddy tone overdriven, I didn't care for it at all. I thought it may be the speaker, but it sounds the same through the 1x12 extension cab I have. I mainly play clean so it's not the end of the world. My ASAT with alnicos particularly loves this thing but all my guitars sound really good until I push it too hard. The attenuation works great from 4 watts to 1 watt but there is a noticeable loss off tone at .25w. FYI this amp is still pretty loud despite the size/wattage but sounds great clean at bedroom levels. Mine lives next to the couch and I can get some great tube cleans all night without disturbing anyone. I imagine this could be mic'd and give great bang for the buck in studio applications as well.

Good little pracitice amp. Connected a Boss Blues driver to it set on 4watt.......fantastic!

A really great little amp to have around the studio. Sounds great on its own but really shines when run through a 12" cabinet. Clean to nasty can be achieved with the volume knob on your guitar. very responsive and a hell of a lot of fun.

This amp is small but mighty. The AC4TV gives the player light weight portability, while providing great tone. This amp is amply loud at the 1/4 watt setting, which also facilitates a quality overdrive tone. On the 4 watt setting you get great clean tones and plenty of head room. Providing plenty of volume to play in small venues, the AC4TV works great with a reverb pedal, which completes the variety of sounds needed for most uses.

I have one concern and that is that on the 4 watt setting you get some tube rattle during sustain. I find that a bit annoying. For my use, mostly home practice, there is no rattle on the 1/4 or 1 watt settings, as long as you keep the volume at no more than just over half way. The thing is, you don't need to crank this amp above 1 watt to get it plenty loud! I recommend this as the best amp in its price range. I am glad I picked it for the pure tube tone over the Fender Super Champ XD, which is more of a modeling amp, though also very good for this price range.

This is one great little sounding amp!!!! So easy to use. Only complaits is I do WISH it had a spring reverb and a longer power cord.

I have to admit, for the price, size and wattage I was not expecting much. I just wanted a small low-watt amp that I could practice on to keep my skills up. Boy was I surprised when I plugged this thing in. It sounds great! Even at low volume, set at 1/4 watt, it sounds fantastic. I would recommend this amp to anyone. Also at higher volume at 4 watts, it rocks. It's a lot louder than I thought it would be. Buy it!

great practice amp for the bedroom, but yet still too loud for my wife.
difficult to control a nice clean sound at a bedroom softer setting (when the kids/wife are asleep), but serves its purpose. and lucky to get a nice deal w/ the guys at sweetwater.

This is a great little amp. At the time of my purchase of this amp, I was looking for solid tube amp choices, but I was slightly strapped for cash. I looked and compared all other tube amp combos in its price range, and I think this one is the winner.

Most tube amp combos have only a power switch, input jack, and volume, well this one is different. It has power switch, input jack, volume knob, as well as a tone knob and attenuator.

For me, the attenuator was this amp's selling feature. It allows you to play at four power settings: 1/4 watt, 1 watt, and 4 watts. These different power settings can be used as a "gain" knob, in a way. If you crank the volume it starts to break up a little around 12 o' clock. On the 1/4 watt setting, I use an overdrive pedal to push the amp over a little more, and turn the volume full blast, for a nice tube crunch sound.
This amp stays clean at fairly loud volumes too. On the 4 watt setting, you can turn it up quite a good amount without breaking up. Depends what style you play and how loud you're bandmates are, but it will surprisingly handle most low-middle volume band settings. I have played live with it on the four watt setting. I just have to mic it and put myself through the PA.

In short, this is a really solid choice as far as cheap tube combos go. It handles pedals well, its small (and very lightweight), it can do more than expected of it, and on top of that its got that classic Vox "chime". The downsides, are that its a single channel, no gain knob or feature, no reverb, and its not super loud.

I would recommend it to anyone starting out though. I really dislike solid state amps, or amps with built in effects and such. This is a good cheap alternative, and its not a far price leap above some other amps.

I already own a Vox AC15 but I was looking for a cute and affordable tube practice amp. I picked it up at a local music shop and I was very impressed from the start. I found the 1/4 watt setting louder (at higher gain) than I expected. I use a Boss SD-1 to give me more gain at lower volumes. I also have a Line6 Verbzilla to give me a spring reverb sound like my AC15. Tonally, it sounds very much like my AC15. I've purchased the V112TV 1x12 cabinet that matches this combo. You can get the head and cabinet, but with the combo you get both! Despite some opinions on the tone knob not producing enough change, I disagree. Tone blasted I get a very chimey sound, and cut off I cat a pillowed-warm sound. I keep it in the middle and use my guitar tone to do that same thing. Also, if you crank up the volume to max on 4 watts and you back off the guitar volume, you'll get the loudest clean tone you can from it. Add some more volume and you'll crank out some killer smooth overdrive. It's definitely Vox sound. I've yet to mic both the AC15 and AC4 to compare them recorded. But, I have a feeling they difference will be hard to point out.

I play blues slide with an Epiphone SG eg: Duane Alman, Elmore James, Robert NIghthawk, etc. This little guy flat gets it! Great break-up. I plugged it into a 16 ohm 4 x 12 , and it sounded HUGE at 4 watts...almost unbelievably loud! I like it better than my Silverface Champ, because it gets loose quicker.
I use a Bam Monkey pedal for distortion at low volume, but the amp gets its own distortion thing goin'-on anywhere over 1/3 volume. I'm going to order the matching 1 x 12 cabinet to try out with it.

Tube driven Vox sound for $250? U can't beat that! The power switch is a nice feature but the amp tends to get over-driven before the 12 o'clock position with humbuckers in the 1/4 and 1 watt range. I am using a Hagstrom Select Super Swede with coil splitting and the single coil sound on this amp is very nice.At 4 watts this thing really shines. Very clean crisp highs and nice low end. Looks great too.

Really nice British tones out of this amp. Well built and beautiful looking. An excellent practice amp! My only gripe...Vox has not made it very user friendly when it comes to replacing the tubes...disassembling the amp to do so is a real pain and not something that can be done very quickly. Other than that is a terrific value for the money. By the way, Sweetwater Customer Service is the best around!

I purchased this amp to practice at lower levels, my regular amp
is overkill for personal rehearsal. I have tried smaller solid state
amps and the Tech 21 was the best of that group, but I could not
get used to the solid state sound. The other small tube amps I've
tried usually suffer from the small speaker or shallow cabinet.
This amp is different. I would say it lacks a bit of high end bite,
but it does have a pleasing tone slightly mellow, but very good.
It sounds like a Vox. The power selector allows you to over drive
the amp without increasing the output volume so you can get a
very playable tone without disturbing the neighbors. It is not a
replacement for an AC30, but it is the most usable small amp I've
come across.