Played A Vox Ad50vt Last Night

[6STRINGS 9LIVES]

I was at my amp tech's last night to look at an amp that he may sell and i may buy ...anyway he does warranty repairs for korg and several other manufacturers , he had 3 vox amps in for warranty work 2 on the bench and 1 wich was ready to go .. the repairs were all to do with the power switch , so i took the opportunity to plug into a ad50vt and check it out for the 1st time ... i thought some of the available sounds were pretty good , but the 410 tweed was quite a surprise , very nice and useable , it was loud and i found the amp was excellent at bringing out pick velocity and it was quiet too , as for the other available sounds the vox pre-sets 15 and 30 were no big shakes and the blackface was not even in the ballpark , but the tweed sound might just be worth the price of admission .. i kept going back to that setting ... however i could not get past the cosmetics , that giant cheese grater on the front is too much , but he tells me you can get the amp with a vintage vox grill cloth as well , i could live with that ... i took the opportunity to ask him about the amps quality as i had heard much on the web regarding reliability , he said most issues are the result of cheap plastic parts breaking and some bad boards , and that in general its a good amp for the money, but that he would not go to a gig with one without a backup amp ..food for thought.. still i liked what i heard , how do these amps take to pedals ? i'm not a big pedal user but for recording its always good to have a toolbox full of different tones ....i'm going to my local shop to see if i can take a demo home for the weekend to check it out ...anyone have a list of useable settings i can try so as to save a little time and to prevent it from being played in tweed mode all weekend?? 6S9L

[Robert****]

I've got some video clips on my site where I play the amp with pedals. I like using the tweed setting with a Bad Monkey. Works great!

The default presets are mostly useless. You need to play with the settings yourself. The Blackface model can sound very nice too, if you set it up right. Again, clips on my website!

Great amp for the money, no doubt.

As for settings - just play with the knobs a bit - adjust volume/gain and master volume and the eq. The different amp models often need very different eq'ing.

[Tone2TheBone]

6S9L,

I have some good clean settings using some of the other models besides the tweed, you can check them out but I have to get them from home first. I'll ship you an email tomorrow explaining them. Rob's right, give the amp a chance. You need to experiment with the gain and volume/master volume and rear variable output volume to get really excellent and believeable clean sounds. I'll elaborate more in my email.

[6STRINGS 9LIVES]

Cheers, Tone i appreciate the effort , i REALY liked the clean vibe , i played it with a epi sg with hb's , need to hear it with single coils, i bet my strat will cluck like a duck , thats the test ... 6S9L

[Tone2TheBone]

You will like the clean sounds it makes once you have "the secret". I'll get back with you for sure. I also sent you a private message...check your inbox.

[Nelskie]

"GIANT CHEESE GRATER" - I'm laughing so hard I can *barely* type this response! Classic, 69SL. But since I think those Voxie ADVT's are stellar amps, I'll behave myself. Here's a link to a company out of the great state of Wisconsin that offers the Valvetronix models with the "dolled-up" Vox diamond cloth grille, and piping. Man, it looks sweet! If I didn't like my Cyber Twin so much, I'd have an AD50VT just like this one:

http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoas...ad50vt-gr.html

That traditional look really makes that amp stand out, doesn't it? Wonder why Vox didn't go with that to begin with. I, too, was not a big fan of of the . . . ah . . . um . . . giant cheese grater.

[Tim]

T2T Bone,

I would not mind a copy of those settings either. Being as slow as I am, I just now discovered not to even entertain the Preset settings on the VOX Ad amp. I was getting the preset setting and trying to modify them from there. I was not getting anywhere. So I went straight to the manual mode and then set everything at 12:00. Boy what a difference. Now I need to learn how to tweak the controls. How much for the secret???

[Tone2TheBone]

Tim, I will email you a copy of what I am sending 6S9L. At no extra charge.

[Tim]

You da man!

[warren0728]

me too....me too

can i have the secret....i've been searching for the secret!

ww : )

[6STRINGS 9LIVES]

Robert i had a chance to check out your site , gotta admire your dedication man , pretty good playin there too bro , you demonstrate the variety of sounds very well , nice job!!, 6s9l

[Robert****]

Thanks, 6s9l! I appreciate that!

[MagicBaller21]

i want the secret!! it'll prolly make my amp glow and someone special will come out of it to tell me how to play guitar like a pro. or maybe it'll just make a good tone... either one is fine!

[Tone2TheBone]

The secret is................................................ ..........................turn the volumes UP on that amp. The amp comes alive when you play it that way.

The other secret is................................................ ..................use your volume knob on your guitar to vary the gain. (clean or dirty). An amp that has punchy good gain (not too much now) will always sound it's best with your guitar volume knob lowered. It drives better.

Vary the gain to your preamp distortion level liking. Cleaner sounds but still with punch and bite...lower it down until it cleans up or (also see above). This part is highly subjective so mess around with the knobs until you like what you're hearing.

Well I found my notes on the cool clean settings on the Vox so I think I'll just post them here.

This is a very cool ever so slightly compressed Boutique clean sound.

Model - Boutique OD (used because of the clean punch I described above)

Gain - 9:00

Volume - Dimed (all the way)

Treble - 1:00

Middle - 12:00

Bass - 12:00

Effects - Comp (compressor) with the EDIT 1 knob set between 9:00 and 12:00 depending on how much compression you wanna hear. The EDIT 1 knob is the amount of compression when the effect is on.

Master - 1:00 or more

Rear Variable Volume Level - 75% of full volume. (I like this setting because it seems to sound quieter than maxed out. Less speaker hiss.

This setting sounds really sweet with both single coils and humbuckers. With humbuckers I usually lower my guitar volume. I'll do the same with the Strat for various tones. I think about the only time I dime my guitar volume is when I am playing a solo or something. Usually my guitar volumes are at around 7 or 8 because I like that sound of the treble coming through when I'm playing rhythms.

Another cool one that is really raunchy....

Model - US HIGAIN

Gain - 9:00 (more or less to your liking but this has lots of good drive when using your guitar volume to control the gain output)

Volume - 12:00

Treble - 1:00

Middle - 1:00

Bass - 1:00

Effects - Comp (compressor) with the EDIT1 knob at 1:00...again vary to your liking.

I use this sound to get a "pedal induced" gainy clean sound. You should use your guitar volume to clean this up! If you play this full out you're gonna say "dang that's metal man!" ...but with the guitar volume down to like 5 (half way or so) it makes a really bitey clean sound as if you kicked in an overdrive pedal. I used this setting before I got my Bad Monkey and Blues Driver. This settings works best on single coil guitars.

I also should note that I've lowered my noise gate to almost nothing on the Vox. I didn't like the factory setting...it was cutting off my notes when I'd let them sustain. With the noise gate set at this more open setting the amp sounds even better.

[Tim]

Thanks T2TB - I will try these when I get home tonight. Just this week I kind of figured out that some where between 11:00 and 1:00 o’clock for the EQs was a good place to set them. I discovered last night that 1:00 o’clock was a good place for the Master to be set for clean sounds. I was setting the back Volume a little higher than 50%.

I was not lowering the Volume to the position you indicated. I was maxing my Volume out. I was also setting the Gain around 11:00 to 12:00o’clock. Now that I think about it I was going after volume instead of a clean clear sound.

[Tone2TheBone]

Tim,

You've just made an important discovery. That amp seems to like the tone frequencies set like you described...between 11:00 and 1:00. I feel that those are the most optimum settings for all the models. I pretty much leave my tone settings either straight up at 12:00 or at 1:00 ALL THE TIME ON ALL THE MODELS. It might be that "we" like them that way because the people who actually did all the egghead stuff on designing this amp created the models with the thought in mind that the eqs would be at a normal setting...meaning that they sound their best with the eqs straight up at noon. I remember looking at the Vox site with that cool Flash simulation of the amp at various settings and going..."dang that's a lot of eq settings just for different sounds". I copied them on paper and tried them at home and I hated them. Experimenting with the amp I found my sounds and it looks like you're finding yours. Good going Tim!

[Tim]

Thanks Again T2TB – It’s been a slow and long process. Remember I am starting from scratch. My first amp was the Peavey Envoy 110 Solid State. You just basically plug ‘n’ play. The EQs did very little to the tone. But, it was a good tone for a SS.

All this new Gain, Volume, EQs and then the Master controls were all a nightmare to me. As I stated to you earlier, I maybe be calling for help, but just nudge me along in the right direction. Do not just hand me the information.

Since I really started to get serious about guitar playing about 3 months ago, I have learned more from this forum than I have anywhere else. I have made great progress, just by asking questions and reading the other topics by the “family”.

I have even started to learn the scales and doing a small amount of soloing. I still have to memorize the different scales (I just know the minor and major) and the fret board better than I presently do.

Once I figure out this home recording thing, I should posting my own sound in the near future. Sometimes I am amazed at the talent on the site.

Have a good weekend my friend

[Tone2TheBone]

Thanks Tim will do. Glad to help!

[warren0728]

Since I really started to get serious about guitar playing about 3 months ago, I have learned more from this forum than I have anywhere else. I have made great progress, just by asking questions and reading the other topics by the “family”.

I'm right there with you Tim! I used to play in high school (mostly rhythm) long time ago! but have taken it up again... i love the blues and now my 9 year old son is as big a blues fan as me! I gotta keep practicing so he doesn't catch up to me!

This forum really is like a family....and i have learned a lot here too. I don't get as much work done lately because i keep "checking in" to see what the family is talking about. It's dissapointing if there are no new posts and sometimes i am tempted to just post something to keep conversation flowing!

ww