100 dollar vox amp?

  • Thread starter Thread starter oh_the_blood
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i've got one of those Pathfinder 15's and it's a tonal monster. it chimes with nice cleanness and the drive is pretty AC30-like as well. don't bother with switching the channel on it, though, b/c the OD channel is just about worthless.

the tremolo and reverb are *very* nice on this amp--i concur that the tremolo itself is worth the price of admission. in all, they could easily sell this amp for twice what they do.

i gigged with it last weekend--i ran the speaker out to a Fender 4x10 cabinet and had plenty of volume coming from it. this thing through a 2x12 would be just about heaven.


cheers,
wade
 
so after hearing all of these nice things about the pathfinder is it worth it to upgrade to the 400 dollar all tube Fender Blues Junior?


ggunn: that is so cool i wish i would of even been alive when he was at his peak ... just remember you are a lucky man
 
Nick The Man said:
so after hearing all of these nice things about the pathfinder is it worth it to upgrade to the 400 dollar all tube Fender Blues Junior?
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$400? Sheesh! That seems like a whacking great load of money for one. :eek:

I can't say whether it's worth it or not as I haven't owned the Pathfinder. My buddy Mark Wong (hands down America's best guitar photographer) swears by the little Voxes and can't be bothered to buy a Blues Junior when I nag him about it. He has the small Voxes for him and his sons and thinks the sun rises and sets on them.

I think are there still some shortcomings with even the MIM whiteboard Blues Juniors (never mind the numerous serious design problems with the MIA greenboards), but they are all easily remedied. If it were me, I'd look for an old greenboard for around $200 and do Bill Machrone's modifications on it for a few bucks in parts.

A couple of years ago, I bought a spotless, stone mint blonde/oxblood MIA Blues Junior with a brand new set of JJs, some NOS Tung-Sols, a new GB-12 speaker ("The Bomb" for a Blues Junior replacement driver!), the original speaker, the original tubes...all delivered, for $190. I've never done any greenboard upgrading/retrofitting, though I had many conversations with Bill on the FDP about them while he was developing them.

The Blues Junior is an OK amp and in its various upgraded presentations (blonde, tweed, relic, exotic wood) is a very interesting looking piece. It's also very loud for a nominal 15WRMS, especially when upgraded with a more efficient speaker, such as the GB-12. I think the GB-12 adds about 4dB over the stock speaker, which is quite noticeable. It's actually giggable.
 
Nick The Man said:
so after hearing all of these nice things about the pathfinder is it worth it to upgrade to the 400 dollar all tube Fender Blues Junior?
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as i mentioned earlier i had a cambridge 15 ... and whilst bein a good practise amp - lets not get overboard w/ those hype reviews on h.central ... 90% of those people there dont know real good tone ...

i also owned a fender champ (class A all tube) and the vox was a very distant second to the champ ... again - not bad, but not great either ...

cheers
alfred
 
Like mrface noted, one of the cool things about the Pathfinder is that you can use it to drive a bigger/nicer cab.

Nick: The Blues Juniors sound great. They break up really nicely, and are easy to record because of their size, but the $400 price tag scared me off. That's a little ridiculous. I have Hot Rod Deville 2x12 that I got new for $450.
 
Nick The Man said:
how many watts is the Hot Rod Deville and is it all tube?
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It's a nominal 60WRMS(Specs)

No, none of the Hot Rod series amps, from the Pro Junior to the DeVille, are "all tube." There are any number of solid state functions inside, from the rectifier to the reverb circuit to various JFET switches and other whatnot.

Of course, virtually no modern amp anywhere is "all tube" any more.

"All tube" as a term has sort of degenerated into merely meaning that the preamp and power stage include tubes.
 
EleKtriKaz said:
The Blues Juniors sound great. They break up really nicely, and are easy to record because of their size, but the $400 price tag scared me off. That's a little ridiculous. I have Hot Rod Deville 2x12 that I got new for $450.
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That $400 price is reflecting a really lousy discount. Straight wholesale is $285, and I've had GC offer to sell me a new one in the box for $289.99 (for cash) during a previous Memorial Day sale, when they go pretty nuts on prices and cut long deals.

I got a brand new Twin-Amp for $599 at one of these sales. MSRP was over $1600. I've been trying to find a use for it (besides inducing backstrain) ever since! :D
 
Yeah, it's 60 watts and WAY too loud for me. It can dial in some really nice clean sounds though. I'm thinking about trading it in for something smaller. I find kind of funny that my 2x12 combo has more juice than my friend's 50 watt Marshall JCM 900.
 
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