Simple 
by Mark Higgins of The April Skies from Harrisburg, PA, December 2007
Music Background:  Performing Artist, Recording Hobbyist

I've had this amp for about 7 months now, and it is great for my purposes. I generally play keyboards in a band, but also like to record my own music on the side. I basically use this to record demos at home to present to the band, and it has exceeded my expectations. The best part is that the tube is in the signal path to the line out, so plugging it into a preamp to record direct sounds pretty decent. The 'clean' preset is phenomenal, and it's not too hard to dial in a tone fairly easily, although there is a little to be desired in the EQ. For the price tag, though, it is a negligible complaint. I can adjust EQ on the tail end when recording, or re-amp a clean tone and adjust the EQ on the amp I'm putting the mic on. (I do have other amps....) Overall, it is a great value to own. Great Vox tone that isn't too heavy on the wallet. If the EQ was a little more responsive I would give it a 5.

  what it says on the tin 
by Rich Rath from Honolulu, HI, May 2007
Music Background:  semi-pro for fun, lots of home recording, playing 35 yrs

The amp came out in 2004 I think. I bought it early 2007. I play a weird concoction of ambient, blues, noise, alternative, experimental, dub, post-punk, whatever is needed in a band (see way.net for free downloads if curious) When I went amp shopping I had a short list of what I wanted. Master vol, bass treble, mid, onboard good sounding reverb, tubes, small package. I thought the fender blues jr was going to be the amp of choice, but when I tried it I found it does one sound and that's it. I didn't see anything else small with tubes and I ignored modeling amps because I already have a modeling pedal. Salesman said, after I had told him what I wanted, to check out the ad15vt, which was on sale. I was skeptical, but when I read about it the way they do the tubes sounded like it would work...its not just a tube preamp, it is a two stage tube amp with a speaker driver emulator that is then run through a solid state amp for getting the volume. It does what it says on the tin. THe tube crunch and bite and clarity are there for most of the amps. If you can't tell by now its all about the tone for me. I use the reverb and occasionally the echo as a second delay, but not much else as far as the effects go. I'm not against effects by any means, just a [ASIN: Boss gt-6 pedal] does a consistently better job at that for me (wish I had a gt-8)!. I use the vox reverb just because it is at the end of the chain. I might turn it off and use the pedal's 'verb...still testing there.

The sound of the different amps gives a lot of range, but I use pretty much the clean boutique setting with a boss gt-6 pedal with the preamps turned off to get various tones. The clean boutique sound is killer, supposedly modeling a dumble amp, it has a fuller frequency response than the twin or the other clean-capable models. If I want heavy distortion I get it from the pedal which has eq and is a lot more versatile. I just leave the GT-6 pre-amps off. When I play clean, it has just enough bite to make for a great bluesy sound. I mostly play a mid-70s Gibson SG with single coil pickups, or occaionally a pre-cbs fender jag through it. You can probably figure out what kind of tones I'm after from the guitars.

There is a problem though, one I am surprised others have not mentioned. I am coming from using an ampeg vt40 (actually, 3 of them over the years!) for most of the last 35 years which I love but is a monster to carry and way too loud. But the tone....I won't review the vt40 here but it is to die for and very responsive to tweaking. Anyway, when I tried to dial in some of the sounds I know and love, I found the tone controls are basically near useless, especially the mid. They don't do anything but sort of throw a blanket on the frequencies they cover...no changes in color at all. This is somewhat made up for by the amp selection, which gives lots of colors, and I can color it using the gt-6 eq too but cheez, the tone controls should work better, some of the sounds I'm after...like the lead guitar sound in Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy, a bassy trebly, hollowed out 1khz mid notch for example, or a zappaesque black napkins sound, with its over the top mids, are pretty elusive. This is a serious but not deal-breaking problem. The amp models sound good to my ears and partially make up for the weakness of the tone controls, especially the bassman (which I am not that fond of in real life!) and vox sounds in addition to the boutique. The twin sounds a little tinny...not enough frequency response for me, and I don't really mess with the marshall or numetal (Soldano?) emulations much. I regularly use the ad15vt for gigging small clubs and coffeeshops, and miked it works great. Just wish the tone controls did a little more.

The effects are a nuisance to dial in. The little chart that comes glued to the top of the amp is useful and I keep it taped on the amp at home, but generally I don't use the effects so this is not an issue. THe two writable preset sounds are nice...would be nice if they included the footswitch in the sale instead making it extra. I mostly dial in a good tube clean sound with a little bit of teeth in it and leave it, shaping tone on the pedal so it is easy for me to use. Would like a second in to keep a second guitar plugged in.

I wanted a little amp I could carry to gigs without a crane that gets a good tube sound to replace my ampeg. with the caveats above I'd say it does that well. What I really want is a midget vt40, but alas there is no such animal. I'd probably replace the vox if I needed to with the same thing or the ad30vt, which paradoxically is supposed to work better than the 15 watter at quiet volumes because you can adjust the wattage of the output. THe ad15vt is loud enough at work and quiet enough at home for my purposes though.

versatile vox 
by Utility Project from New Harmony, IN USA, February 2005

I'm a drummer but I do a lot of recording on my own, I was looking seriously at the 15R pathfinder and saw that for a few more bucks I could have 11 amp sounds! I don' t need pedals now! The interface is relatively easy to use and the only downside is that some settings are a little noisey...but I'm in love with it and now (using the line out) I can rip monster riffs at 5 am and stay married!

versatile vox 
by Utility Project from New Harmony, IN USA, February 2005

I'm a drummer but I do a lot of recording on my own, I was looking seriously at the 15R pathfinder and saw that for a few more bucks I could have 11 amp sounds! I don' t need pedals now! The interface is relatively easy to use and the only downside is that some settings are a little noisey...but I'm in love with it and now (using the line out) I can rip monster riffs at 5 am and stay married!

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