Vox Lil' Night Train 2 Watt Tube Head Reviews

Paul Hartmann
from Hyde Park, NY
February 17, 2013Music Background:
Serious hobbyist, light gigging

What a great little amp!

I'd read enough reviews to have a good feeling about springing for one of these hot little toasters, but couldn't believe what it could do when I actually plugged it in. My main amp is a TrainWreck Rocket clone...15/30 W, versatile, crisp and LOUD. This little amp can very nearly duplicate the tone and sonic quality of the TW without the structural damage that even 15 W can generate. I run it through a Weber 15"speaker and it has plenty of volume for a full band practice, though I wouldn't try to gig anything bigger than a coffee house open mic nite with it. I did upgrade the tubes, add a handle, and bought a soft side insulated lunch box to transport it, but at this price, Vox has a real winner.

frank plunkett
from glen allen va.
October 24, 2012Music Background:
hobby for sure.

less is sometimes best

i love this little amp. serious distortion without the decibel levels that bother everyone on your street. it is small , affordable, nice looking.

Ernie
from Troy, MI
January 25, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist

Perfect Practice Amp

Looks awesome, even on the junky 1x12 cabinet that I have it hooked up to.

Through a less-than-stellar speaker, it still sounds fantastic and is very easy to operate. I bought this with my son in mind who has started taking lessons and needed something to play through without being my AC15.

I have a fondness for Vox products and this one is the coolest of all the low-wattage heads out there.

Danielle, my Sales rep was also helpful in getting this order done as I had a gift certificate that I was not aware of in the system and that helped bring down my cost.

Mark
from Canada
January 3, 2013Music Background:
Gigging Amateur musician...rock & funk

Vox Lil Night Train

Great little amp for home practice. Great and surprising range of clean and dirty tones. Perfect for practice where yu don't want to fiddle with your tone. Simple controls and appears well built. Exceptional value at under $200.
Running it through a low end 1 x 12 16 ohm Vox cab....all good

John Hamrin
from Cape Cod, MA
November 21, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist, 36 years of playing

Great Tone for low volumes

I purchased this head for playing at low volumes in my home and it sounds amazing. Smaller than a toaster and yet it gets plenty loud enough for home use. You can also get a wide variety of tones from this little monster. I used it with a 4x8 cabinet and through a 1x12 cabinet and with both I was able to dial in just the tone I was looking for. The only thing I would like is an option for a foot switch to change from thick to bright, but for the price I can't complain. The controls are simple yet responsive. Both settings (thick & bright) sound great. Great for rock and blues. What a deal! I am very pleased.

RM
from Phoenix, AZ
November 2, 2012Music Background:
Beginner Hobbyist

Versatile w/ Great Tone

This is my first tube amp and it's a great improvement to the solid state modeling amps I've previously used. There isn't too much room for ultra clean tones. However, there is a lot of headroom before the a slightly gritty clean becomes complete rock distortion. Once the knob really get cranked to the right, the distorted tones are absolutely brilliant and I love seeing the tube glow orange as it spits out good ol' rock n' roll crunch!

I'm not a huge fan of the thick mode. It's almost like having an overdrive built in and it's not what I'd call "thick." The high gain tones are so brilliant in Bright mode that you're not driven to use it much anyway. Thick does produce early 70's heavy metal tones very well (think Mountain or Iron Butterfly), so if that's your thing then this will do it.

Overall, I think nearly everyone short of heavy metal fanatics would love this little amp for getting great tones at normal practice volumes.

Allen
from Williston, ND
March 31, 2011Music Background:
Hobby Musician & Tech

Sweet Spot

Sounds Great with that tube amp touch. They did a good job setting the gain knob bias to get the desired sweet spot for clean vs. distortion. And within the distortion zone there is plenty of variation from light to thick. I'm using an efficient Eminence speaker, so even the claimed low wattage fills the livingroom, and can do feedback effects.

Jake
from ca
February 4, 2013Music Background:
hobbyist 20 years

lil night train

Stock it was not inspiring IMO. The headphones jack is a joke. It sounds like garbage. I haven't tried running the line out into a recording device. I don't reccomend buying it to use with headphones.
Turned up all the way it is loud.
Nice clean sound. The gain went from clean to heavy distortion.
I like to play blues and did not like the sounds i was getting.

I replaced the tubes with older ones from the sixties and eighties.
Now I love it!
The cleans are amazing, and turning up the gain gives it some great overdrive all the way to classic rock crunch.
Rolling off the guitar volume cleans it up nicely.
I am running it through the speakers of my JTM30.

Rod
from United States, Oregon
December 1, 2012Music Background:
hobbyist with tons of gear

lil' night train 2 watt tube head

Let's just say that it is much, much better than i originally thought it would be. I'm happy about the purchase.

Steve Hoover
from Fountain Hills AZ
July 20, 2011Music Background:
Old gear head

Neat package for the money

This head has tons of gain but not in a metal sort of way. So much so, that I ended up substituting some NOS lower gain higher quality tubes. Its a little light on PS filtration as well. Packaging and construction are
very well done for this price point.

Not a bad bedroom amp. A likely candidate for some hacking if I could find a schematic.

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