The Vox AD60 Has a Great Sound and Is a Great Buy
Written: Nov 15 '04 (Updated Dec 31 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent modeling with a powerful amp attached
Cons: Maybe a little pricey
The Bottom Line: Another great sounding modeling amp, the AD60 is especially well-suited to AC15, AC30 and Marshall fans. Maybe a little more expensive than the competition, though.
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| buffoonery's Full Review: Vox Valvetronix Ad60vt |
In 2002 or so, venerable UK tube (or do you say “valve”?) amp builders Vox, manufacturer of the classic AC15 and AC30 amps, entered the modeling amp sweepstakes with a bang with the Valvetronix AD60VT and AD120VT amps.
These two amps—the AD60VT being reviewed here—were intended to marry the best of Vox’s tube amp capabilities and the Korg ToneWorks team’s well-regarded digital modeling strengths. By any standards, the results have been a rousing success.
Quick technical specs on the AD60VT:
Power output: 60 watts RMS @ 8 ohms
Speaker: 1x12 Vox original made by Celestion
Dimensions: 20.87 x 10.51 x 22
Wt: 19.6 kg
Included: Power cable
Optional: VC-4 Vox foot controller (which you will buy for the $180 they want, if you are smart)
The guts of the AD series is the so-called “Valve Reactor” power stage, which uses a 12AX7 tube and is equipped with an output transformer that is connected to a variable power circuit that increases the magnitude of the transformer output from a minimum of one watt to 60 watts. (That means you can get the nice breakup of a tube amp at lower volumes, by dialing down the wattage, and not kill your neighbors.) The 1x12 delivers plenty of volume and is suitable for both practice in the home and for employment in smaller clubs without micing.
Anybody can buy a nice 1x12 tube amp for a lot less than what these guys are asking, so what more are you getting for the extra dough? The modeling, obviously. So what does the AD60 give you? Besides the two jacks (one for high out put, one for low out put pickups, you get tons of stuff, the most important of which are the sixteen amp models. These include:
AC 15
AC 15TB
AC30
AC30TB
UK Blues
UK 70s
UK 80s
UK 90s
UK Modern
Recto
US HiGain
Boutique OD
Boutique CL
Black 2x12
Tweed 1x12
Tweed 4x12
Unlike Line 6, Vox doesn’t like to identify who it's ripping off (i.e. modeling), so for those who are interested, the UK’s are a bunch of Marshalls, the Recto is a Boogie Dual, the Tweeds the usual Fenders, etc. The Vox models in particular sound terrific, the others good to excellent. The modeling is as good as the Boss Gt-6, maybe not quite as good as the Line 6 Vetta. Turn the switch and dial up what you want. You also control gain, volume, treble, mids and bass. The power amp controls are for master volume and presence.
Also unlike many other modeling amps, there are no cab models available, which I find a bit surprising.
Besides the excellent amp models, there are a goodly number of footpedals, stomp boxes, etc. For pedal control, you get compression, acoustic sim, vox wah, auto wah, univibe, octave, treble boost, and three distortions (tube OD, Fat OD, and fuzz). Turn the switch, determine the level, and off you go.
The five modulation effects include chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, and rotary speaker. Controls are for effect selection, speed and depth. The three delays are for delay, tape echo and multi head, including selector switch, tap button, feedback and depth controls. Reverbs include spring, room and plate, with a selector and depth controls.
The effect models are generally as good as that provided by the competition. I’ve listened to a lot of effects boxes—Boss, Digitech, Korg, and my own Line 6—and these are good models, not quite as good or tweakable as the Boss or Line 6 stuff, but good, especially the reverb.
Other controls include noise reduction, bank and channel selection (for the 32 included programs, plus 32 user presets), built-in tuner, manual and write (for user programs), and power.
The rear panel controls include speaker in/out, power select (1, 15, 30, 60 watts), loop send/return, level, phone out, line out, and foot controller.
The amp is easy to use. If you have any experience with modeling boxes at all, you’ll barely need to read the rather talkative instruction manual. It’s a snap to create new programs or to tweak existing ones: dial up what you want, hit “write”, and you’re pretty much there. Get the optional footpedal for SURE if you plan to gig with this.
All in all, this is a very high quality amp. Its closest competition is probably the Fender Cyber-Deluxe, which is the little brother to the Cyber Twin and a couple of hundred bucks less and has more presets, if you don’t mind the bias toward Fender amp models. It’s $300 more than the Line 6 Spider II 2x12 combo, although it has more functionality. Generally speaking, it delivers somewhat less functionality than Boss GT-6 multi-effects box ($400 list) but, on the other hand, comes with tube amplification. All in all, I think you pay maybe $300-$350 for the modeling capability and the rest for the amp. Keep in mind that the recently issued Vox effects box runs about $600 (for more functionality, sans amp)so you can use that for comparison as well.
I think you pay a little more for an import (taxes, you know), so what I recommend is that you take a good look at the Fender and Line 6 models in this price range before you make a buying decision. But don’t worry, if you end up with this beautiful Vox amp and be very happy that you have purchased a superb sounding, high quality amplifier. The AD60 is a very, very flexible amp that can provide an almost infinite set of tones. Once you get past 16 amp models (say, for instance, the 73 on my Vetta II), it starts getting a bit absurd. You’ll have a lot of fun with this machine.
My effects and stomp box reviews:
/review/Digitech_Brian_May_Red_Special_Overdrive_Pedal/content_412727086724
Boss ME-20 Guitar Multiple Effects Processor
Boss GT-8 Multi-Effects Processor
Boss ME-50 Multi-Effects Processor
Digitech RP50 Guitar Effects Processor
Digitech RP80 Guitar Effects Processor
You may find some of my guitar reviews interesting:
Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom
Epiphone Les Paul Standard
Epiphone G-400 SG
Fender Classic 50s Esquire
Fender Cyclone
Fender VG Stratocaster
Fender American HSS Stratocaster
Fender John Mayer Stratocaster
Fender Eric Johnson Stratocaster
Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster
Fender 57 Stratocaster Reissue
Fender 50s Telecaster
G&L Legacy Strat
Gibson ES-5
Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster
Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis
Gibson ES-175
Gibson ES-333 Memphis Style Hollow Body
Gibson ES-335
Gibson ES-335 1959 Reissue
Gibson ES-350T
Gibson Jimmy Page Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul GT
Gibson Les Paul 1957 Goldtop
Gibson Les Paul Studio
Gibson Les Paul Classic Ebony
Gibson SG 61 Reissue
Gibson Super 400
Ibanez Steve Vai Jem7
Martin D-28 Acoustic
Ovation VXT Acoustic Electric
PRS McCarty
PRS Single Cut
PRS Santana SE
Gretsch White Falcon II
Schechter Diamond C+1
Variax 700 Acoustic
Other amp reviews from buffoonery:
Crate Acoustic CA30
Crate Power Block
Fender Cyber Twin
Fender DSP 65
Fender 64 Vibroverb Custom Blackface
Fender Super Sonic 1x12 Combo
Fender MH 500 Metalhead
Hughes and Kettner Switchblade 50 Combo
Line 6 Spider II Head
Line 6 Flextone III Plus
Line 6 Vetta II Combo
Line 6 Spider III 75
Marshall Super 100 JH
Mesa 5:25 Express
Mesa Stiletto Ace
Mesa 5:50 Express
Mesa Dual Rectifier Roadster
Mesa Stiletto Deuce
Mesa Triple Rectifier Head
Mesa Lone Star Combo
Peavey JSX Joe Satriani Signature Head
Peavey Classic 30 Combo
Peavey Triple XXX Head
Peavey Penta Head
Roland Micro Cube
Vox Valvetronix AD60VT
And you may also be interested in a few books such as:
Hugo Pinksterboer – Tipbook Amplifiers and Effects
Ritchie Fliegler – Amps: The Other Half of Rock and Roll
Michael Ross – Getting Great Guitar Sounds: A Non-Technical Approach to Shaping Your Personal Sound
Nick Freeth – Classic Guitars: Identification and Price Guide
Recommended:
Yes
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