Vox Pathfinder 15R

[Duff]

This is one fine little amp.

I would say this has to be one of the all time best bedroom amps ever made, tube styles included.

It has a very excellent clean sound that shimmers and can be modified with reverb and tremolo.

It has a distortion sound developed by turning a gain knob, with a boost button that moves the distortion into new territory quite well.

It is totally loud enough for a variety of environments including bedrooms, small areas, etc. It turns down really well for low volume quality tones and distortions.

It has that special Vox appearance that so many love. More importantly, it backs its attractive looks up with outstanding sonic performance. I have never played a fifteen watt amp that sounded this good, except for possibly a Fender Blues Junior. That Blues Junior is another very special and super great little amp. No question about it. But the Pathfinder is also very excellent, with a nice reverb and a great tremolo. You can combine its well integrated elements to produce some highly quality sounds and all sorts of volumes, up to its maximum potential. Of course you could go even farther with the filtered line out, or by miking it. You could even plug into a cabinet or build your own cabinet.

This is a really nice little amp. Stand it next to one of those Vox fifteen watt chromies and see what it looks like. Play it and you might find you like its sound better too. I only played the bigger chromes and found them to be complicated and difficult to get a great sound out of, plus they are notoriously unreliable. The Pathfinder starts out with a great sound and waits to be adjusted into incredible intensities.

This unit rocks like a freight train and rolls into a blues explosion, effortlessly.

I would highly suggest trying this before a fifteen watt chromie. The Pathfinder fifteen R is hard to find in stores though. No wonder, it sounds so great. But it can be easily be found on all the internet music sites.

Duff
Winfield, Pa

"Blue, blue windows behind the stars. Yellow moon on the rise. Big birds flying across the sky, throwing shadows on our eyes; leave us helpless, helpless, helpless." NY

[SuperSwede]

Nice review Duff.. I have not tried the Pathfinder amps, but your review makes me really interested. I´m a big fan of the Blues JR as well.

[tot_Ou_tard]

I forget, does the Pathfinder use the ValveReactor circuit?

[Duff]

It is solid state and very well done. Super excellent sound and looks good too. A lot of people would really like this sound and the nice tremolo and reverb.

[mwagnerch]

Is this amp loud enough for gigs, or to be heard over a drummer? What about a church setting?

[Duff]

Need about 100 solid state watts or 30 - 50 watt tube amp to effectively keep a drummer from yelling at you to get a real amp.


Duff

[pes_laul]

Need about 100 solid state watts or 30 - 50 watt tube amp to effectively keep a drummer from yelling at you to get a real amp.


Duff

actually my little 15 watt line 6 played in front of about 800 kids at my talent show and it was a little over halfway up and you could hear me.

(though The mics on the cieling could have picked it up)

[Brian Krashpad]

actually my little 15 watt line 6 played in front of about 800 kids at my talent show and it was a little over halfway up and you could hear me.

(though The mics on the cieling could have picked it up)

Were you playing with a drummer?

If so s/he was playing awful softly.

No way a 15W SS could cut it with any of the drummers I've played with over the years. Not un-mic'd.

[Katastrophe]

Nice review, Duff. I always wondered about the little Voxes...

I wouldn't recommend a 15 watt solid state amph for gigging. I played on a Fender Frontman 25 watt SS amph and was able to be heard over a drummer, but that thing was cranked.

For a church setting at lower volumes (unless y'all rawk out), a 50 - 75 watt SS amph should do okay, especially if mic'd.

My 120 watt Crate is loud enough to play country gigs at any of the clubs in my area and still be heard, without a mic at the speaker.

[Tarin]

A little late for a reply on this.. but on my honeymoon i went to Cancun, one weekend we wen't to the island of Cozumel and decided to rent a scooter to drive ariund the island (1 hour travel round the island).
On our little trip we came across a local coffee/restaurant/bar with a live cover band playing so we had to stop and take a look.
The band played ok, some songs came out better than others and played mainly rock and reggae tunes.
The guitarist played thru a Vox Pathfinder 15 (without reverb) and the Line 6 red-bean processor. The amp hold out pretty good and clear (at the time i had the Vox AD30VT) and was surprised to find out how loud this little amp sounded... tha band was playing outdoors BTW.
So after that experience i sold the AD30, bought a 15R with a Digitech RP250 to handle all the gadgets if i ever feel to fool around... basically i enjoy playing it directly.
Right now besides the 15R i own a Crate V5 waiting to be modded (see thread).

Here's the pic of the Cozumel band, couldn't catch the name of the band so, no plug here.

[Brian Krashpad]

Haha, that sign is pricelss: Big Tippers go to Heaven!

I notice they wrote it in English por todas las touristas!

[Tarin]

I had to revive this thread... i just have to.
This little amp sounds awsome as it is, we all know that... but have you heard it through a 12" cab?

I recently got a Blackheart LG half stack... the head i will sell but the cab i'll keep for further testing.
Thing is i've been using my 15R with this 12" cab and to my ears it just sounds great... i'm not that much "tone savy" but i know what sounds good to me when i hear it.
I've had lot of 15-30 watt / 200-300 dollar amps since i buy on Ebay and sell on the mexican version of Ebay... that way i get to use lots of guitar stuff.

Back on the subject: i then decided to upgrade my 15R with a 10" speaker, got a good deal on a Jensen MOD 10-35... i just finished installing it... soundcheck, and decided to write about it ASAP.

Great little amp this 15R's... no wonder it's the only one i haven't sold.

[Duffy]

This thread takes me back.

I was just looking at my Pathfinder 15R yesterday, admiringly.

It is no wonder that after two failed attempts to get a solid functioning Peavey Classic 30 I finally, and with great satisfaction, purchased the new
Vox AC15c1 Custom with the Celestion Greenback. I already have a Peavey Delta Blues that performs impecably and sounds even better now that I elevated it above the floor. Spud's comment that the Classic 30 would be redundant blew past me like a funky wench until later when the wisdom of his words finally sunk in.

The AC15c1 Custom is an awesome amp that does not crackle or pop and sounds like an instrument in its own right. It looks a lot like the Pathfinder 15R and has a top panel lay out quite similar to the AC15c1.

I can't speak highly enough about both amps, but the AC15 is in another universe. I played it last night with my NOS Ibanex SZ320. The SZ320 is an unbelievable guitar. I might sell off some lesser guitars and try to find a new old stock SZ520 just because they are such great guitars.

Last night I noticed something very enjoyable with the SZ320. When I turned down the volumes on the pickups on the guitar, it kept all of the tone; all of the driven sound and clarity. I'm not sure if it was the guitar or the AC15, but suspect the guitar strongly. This was a really welcome treat at about four in the morning jamming to some Buddy Guy with the Saturday Night Live Band CD at low volume. I also was playing my Ibanez stock AS73 with the only mod being my just modified neck - that I finely sanded down to the bare wood and treated with lemon oil. This neck is now awesome and for some reason I have immediately bonded with this excellent guitar, one of my best, that did not get picked a lot for playing. From now on it will be one of my favorite players. I'm playing it right at the moment thru my Crate Palomino V32 212 with Celestion 70/80's, another great sounding amp, set up next to my AC15 for easy nodding out access. I also played my Squier Affinity J Bass with the Fender Custom Shop noisless J bass pickups; super smooth sounding bass with very musical tone. The Custom Shop noisless pups and the Flatwound strings give this bass a tone that is really fun to jam along to CD's with. I was grooving to almost exclusively mellow blues tunes from Gary Moore, Buddy Guy, and others. No effects pedals, just these fine guitars and the inexpensive bass.

Anyway, it is amazing how similar in vibe the Pathfinder 15R is to the AC15c1. I am going to do an a/b sound comparison with some grains of salt added to see if I can find any parallelisms other than the visual vibe.

I wonder what a great replacement speaker for the Pathfinder 15R is?

I'll let you know about the amp comparison, see if there are any tonal parallelisms. I bet there are. Especially with the reverb and tremolo played into the picture.

[Commodore 64***]

Back on the subject: i then decided to upgrade my 15R with a 10" speaker, got a good deal on a Jensen MOD 10-35... i just finished installing it... soundcheck, and decided to write about it ASAP.

Did you have to install a new baffle or modify the existing one?

[Duffy]

I'm thinking that a really good quality 8" speaker might work just as well as a ten in the Pathfinder. An 8" with a high sensitivity rating, like 100dB or greater.

I wonder if anything in the 8" range is really good and available?

[Commodore 64***]

I'm thinking that a really good quality 8" speaker might work just as well as a ten in the Pathfinder. An 8" with a high sensitivity rating, like 100dB or greater.

I wonder if anything in the 8" range is really good and available?

I'm loving the 8" in my Champ, it's a Weber Alnico Signature 8S. Weber makes a TON of 8" speakers, here are a few:

Signature Series
http://taweber.powweb.com/weber/csig8s.htm

http://taweber.powweb.com/weber/asig8s.htm

Vintage Series:
http://taweber.powweb.com/weber/8f125t.htm

[markb]

Lots of love and ideas for the Pathfinder 15 over at tdpri

Link to google tdpri search

[Tarin]

For the 10" i used the same baffle board... i thought i would get in trouble disassembling it but no, it's a fairly easy task to do:

The baffle unscrews right off very easy, the tricky part was to unstaple the grill cloth in order to use it again... what i did is, i just unstapled the bottom part and almost both sides to the top, leaving just the 2 first staples in place to hold down the cloth (shoulda taken pictures, right?).
So basically, the cloth and the white piping are just hanging on by the golden valance (or whatever it's called... my english sometimes slips) metal thing just underneath the VOX emblem.

You know what... i did take some pictures, not of the whole process, but with some photoshoped notes i guess i can be clearer.

... just a minute or two...

[Tarin]

Sorry, left it at the office... i'll be posting thos pics tomorrow.