Amp Tone Shootout

Just testing out two Vox amps, VT30 and AC4TV. The VT30 is modeling amp and the AC4TV is a all tube class A amp. There is a very obvious difference in tone and overall sound. The backing track is titled "A Minor Affair" by Pete Anderson. This one of the backing tracks for the Guitar Center King of the Blues guitar contest. I never signed up, but I should have. Perhaps, next year. Audio was recorded with a new Blue Snowball USB condenser mic. It actually sounds very good, and I seem to like it a little better than my old Shure SM57 mic. I'm playing with a Fender Road Worn 60s Strat and a Vox AC4TV 4watt amp. The Blue Snowball seems to capture the true tone of the AC4TV which the Shure SM57 had trouble recording.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Fender Road Worn Strat
• Vox AC4TV
• Blue Snowball Mic
• Ibanez tubescreamer
• Boss DS-1
• MXR Classic Distortion
• Dunlop Crybaby Wah Wah
• Vox VT30

[Voxman5]

Hi gmiasam - Interesting choice of comparison. If you're making the point that the VT30 is much more versatile than the AC4TV then that's fine. But if the intention was to compare the TONE of each amp, which is what I thought you were doing, to be fair to the AC4TV you really need to take off the effects. The closest amp model to the AC4TV in the VT30 is probably the AC15 so that model, and the AC30, (non TB) may have been good ones to compare, both clean and dirty. Rich

[gmlasam]

Hi Rich, Tip(s) well taken. Yes, my presentation for comparing the tone of both amps will not be valid with this video. I Should of chosen better wording for the title. Perhaps, I should of made a comparison of all tube amp vs. modeling amp. Thanks.

[dyingforastrat]

Cool man, I dig it. I am the first to see your post,haha, that;s what happens when you stay up until 4:13am est looking for guitar parts and posting questions. I like that guitar alot, and I do favor one of the amps more than the other fo sure, I like the vox tube amp but would like to hear a little verb with it ,just no as much as the vt30 is sporting. Nice demo dude

[jamesjohnson88]

@SharingonMadara I have the JCM2000 - TSL =) I guess a 7/10 is a fair overall score, I just kinda see it as an amp for a purpose. Great for practise and great for mid-level players who just want to try shit out without having to invest too much money in a decent valve amp, pedals, etc in order to do what the Spider IV does.

Doubles as a great speaker for my iPod too, lol. Of course, it's not stereo......

[SharingonMadara]

@jamesjohnson88 huh interesting. not sure how similar it was, but the spider 30 gave no good clean tones. what i cant stand for is i could get an exact, and i mean EXACT chuck berry tone. and with my deltalab distortion pedal i could pull off a nice zeppelin and sabbath. but on its own no tube tone. id rate it an 7 outta ten. what kind of marshall iz it?

[jamesjohnson88]

@SharingonMadara Yeah, I use overdrive and a crybaby wah. I can decent tone without them but you have to do a lot of fine tuning with all the different settings. Depends a lot on the guitar too, or at least in my experience.

I'd never choose it over my Marshall stack, nor would it be first choice for gigging but as a practice amp, I love it.

[SharingonMadara]

@jamesjohnson88 so you say the spider 4 75 watt is good for blues and rock n roll? explain. its pure solid state. the thirty watt was great for metal but lacked the tone i was looking for. do you use tube overdrive? plz explain your setup :)

[jamesjohnson88]

@SharingonMadara I own the 75w and i'd have to disagree.

[SharingonMadara]

@jamesjohnson88 ive owned the spider 4 thirty watt, trust me, no tube tone at all, (given that it isnt tube0 but tone is dry and sterile. vox vt30 is much more versatile. spider 4 is good for metal and metal only.

[jamesjohnson88]

Personally, I don't think the VT30 even touches the Spider IV.

[wedge070]

I think for the price/versatility and tube like sound.. the vt30 would be fun to have.. No longer need 5-6 pedals on the floor.. You can just mess around and get some half way decent tones out of the VT30. Head/tails better then line 6 in my opinion. The effects would be fun to mess around with..The best sounding modeling amp yet me thinks..

[fretboarder]

thats diffrence with tubes and transistors..the actv sounds much more full..

[gmlasam]

As I recall, I had the snowball about about 12" from the speaker and had the switch in the back of the snowball at position 2.