Valvetech 2x10 Combo

Have had this VAC22 for almost a year and secided to try my hand at a review. Please note that I have played since I was 12 and now I'm 57! You do the math. It gets ugly doesn't it? (ha)
As you have read the previous reviews you know that this is a two channel number with effect loop. This loop is not for a fuzz box or wah. It is more for the pro setup/rackmount.
I have reverb and wish I had trem. The knock here is, I think the reverb could be a tad more lush. As it is I turn it to 2-3 and leave it there.

I play three guits through this. A custom shop tele, Eric Johnson Strat and an acoustic. I play a hybrid blues with big fat chords and rock. I use a looper and do a lot of rhythms with leads stacked on top. Amp is dead quiet and is used from my studio to a small stage (500 people). My opinio is that this amp is very versatile in that all the tones I want are in here. I love the channel 1 cranked. Gain is excellent and can get pretty nasty. Channel 2 is brighter and here you can use the footswitch to drive Channel 1 and get pretty searing leads.

Outstanding with nary a problem. Rob has made two amps for me and I will consider no other.

Call Rob. It's that simple.

Been playing awhile and have played Dr.Z, Fender, Top Hat and Hiwatts. I like the Voxy EL-84 tone but have found it to be somewhat shrill. This amp (6v6) nails the tone I want. SOmewhat Voxy with Fender and Dr.Z blended.
I intend to buy another before anything happens because I'm not waiting 6 months! Plus I want to try stereo!
Wish I had trem and will order it on the next order.
Please note: I told Rob about my el-84 jones and he told me the transformer is where it's at when it comes to tone. Tube are huge but all is lost without the transformer! So a 6V6 can sound like an el. Capiche?

I ordered this amp in July 2006 with tremelo and reverb. I think the features have been well covered in previous reviews. In summary, two channels with an overdrive channel and a master volume plus all the features listed on the website.

I have been playing for over 30 years and have owned fantastic amps including 2 x 60's Vox AC30s, Ampeg VT40, blackface Fender Showman head and a 70's Fender Vibrolux (a great amp). I also have owned great guitars including a 74 Les Paul standard, early 70s Stratocastor and a 70s Gibson L6 Deluxe. I now play a PRS Custom 24 and a Mex Strat with Kinman pickups. I have also owned a reasonable amount of bad gear as well so know what makes a great amp tick.

I have had this amp for two days (shipped out to Australia) and every time I play it just gets better. As a previous reviewer said, you have to give this amp some time to work out the controls. For example, every input on the two channels has a different sound. The tone controls work differently to every amp I have played. They actually change the sound a lot. The overdrive channel is fantastic and sounds great. I am still working on the clean sounds bit they are all there.

I ordered mine with Celestion speakers as the Webers were out of stock. I am glad I did, this amp is powerful. It may not be a 100 watt stack bit it is plenty loud, actually very loud. I have played in all sizes of venues from 12 to 12,000 people and I cannot see why this amp wont cut it as my Fender Vibrolux did and this is just as powerful. On a minor point, it is lighter than many of the aftermentioned amps that I have owned which adds to its features.

On a rather personal note, I should add that the amp looks fantastic. I ordered a red model just like the one pictured on the website.

I bought this amp to use in my studio. I used a Crowley and Tripp ribbon mic with it and the result was just fantastic. I mainly play rock and pop with a strong hint of jazz and blues. This has proved very versatile. My son also tried open tuning heavy rock with it and it cut the mustard there as well (very boogish). He rated it top notch for that style.

This amp makes you play better (as every good valve amp should)because it boils down down to how good a player you really are and how well you get the sound out of the strings. I found it to be pretty quiet for recording. Again, the more you work with it, the better it gets and it was good to start with. In short, I think this amp sounds fantastic.

I cannot comment as it is too young but it is very well made. I also like the fact that I have a handmade point to point wired amp.

I called Rob and found him pretty easy to deal with, other than that I can't comment. No probelms so far!

This is a great amp and the equal of many more expensive amps. I have been to the shops to try amps worth AU$3k to $4k and this holds its own no problems (if not better). I have been lucky to own and play throught so many great amps over the years and is this is up there with the best. It is very versatile and has made me feel refreshed. Now I want to get back in and play more (now thats a plus).

I ordered this amp in July 2006 with tremelo and reverb. I think the features have been well covered in previous reviews. In summary, two channels with an overdrive channel and a master volume plus all the features listed on the website.

I have been playing for over 30 years and have owned fantastic amps including 2 x 60's Vox AC30s, Ampeg VT40, blackface Fender Showman head and a 70's Fender Vibrolux (a great amp). I also have owned great guitars including a 74 Les Paul standard, early 70s Stratocastor and a 70s Gibson L6 Deluxe. I now play a PRS Custom 24 and a Mex Strat with Kinman pickups. I have also owned a reasonable amount of bad gear as well so know what makes a great amp tick.

I have had this amp for two days (shipped out to Australia) and every time I play it just gets better. As a previous reviewer said, you have to give this amp some time to work out the controls. For example, every input on the two channels has a different sound. The tone controls work differently to every amp I have played. They actually change the sound a lot. The overdrive channel is fantastic and sounds great. I am still working on the clean sounds bit they are all there.

I ordered mine with Celestion speakers as the Webers were out of stock. I am glad I did, this amp is powerful. It may not be a 100 watt stack bit it is plenty loud, actually very loud. I have played in all sizes of venues from 12 to 12,000 people and I cannot see why this amp wont cut it as my Fender Vibrolux did and this is just as powerful. On a minor point, it is lighter than many of the aftermentioned amps that I have owned which adds to its features.

On a rather personal note, I should add that the amp looks fantastic. I ordered a red model just like the one pictured on the website.

I bought this amp to use in my studio. I used a Crowley and Tripp ribbon mic with it and the result was just fantastic. I mainly play rock and pop with a strong hint of jazz and blues. This has proved very versatile. My son also tried open tuning heavy rock with it and it cut the mustard there as well (very boogish). He rated it top notch for that style.

This amp makes you play better (as every good valve amp should)because it boils down down to how good a player you really are and how well you get the sound out of the strings. I found it to be pretty quiet for recording. Again, the more you work with it, the better it gets and it was good to start with. In short, I think this amp sounds fantastic.

I cannot comment as it is too young but it is very well made. I also like the fact that I have a handmade point to point wired amp.

I called Rob and found him pretty easy to deal with, other than that I can't comment. No probelms so far!

This is a great amp and the equal of many more expensive amps. I have been to the shops to try amps worth AU$3k to $4k and this holds its own no problems (if not better). I have been lucky to own and play throught so many great amps over the years and is this is up there with the best. It is very versatile and has made me feel refreshed. Now I want to get back in and play more (now thats a plus).

Two Channels. Channel one is a Clean amp. When plugged in to this channel you have a old fender type of tweed that can do clean clean to raspy grit. There is a little toggle on the beck that does somehting to the tubes to make the amps super clean sounding but from what i understand it only works on the channel one. Channel two is where I spend my time. Thnik of a nice Marshall that breaks up nice at lower vol. & then you hit the footswitch & it kicks in this warm old school boogie dirve. A tille tweek to the tone controls can do wonder for this amp. Unlike many moderen made amp the tone contols actully do somthing BIG to the tone of the amp.

This amps make the sounds that have been in my head for many years. After buying it I sold most of the other amps off. TONE TONE TONE. I did change out the stock Weber "Silver Tens" due to they did not work well for higher gain stuff. I replaced them with one Em. Copperhead & one Em. Ramrod. A huge change in the sound of the amp. If you do order one of these from Rob I beleive you can request just about any type of speaker you want. Also Rob can do some tweeking to the amp to get the tones more to your style.

ONly had one issue & it got fixed very quickly. A very well built amp.

I will all music mfg. were as good as Valvetech. Rob will work with you on anything invloved in this amp. Knows his stuff. Everytime I have had a question he e-mails me back very quickly.

10++++ I love this amp to death. I will have one of these until I can't play anymore. The best sounding amp I have every played & I have played now for 20 years. Find someone that has one play it & you will want one.

I have been a Valvetech owner and just stumbled into this review area. Some folks seem to understand this amp, but the last reviewer just called this 22 watter Valvetech a Vox clone does not. He obviously does not know much about Vox ...or Valvetech. That makes the review a bit dubious.

From all that I know after 30 years of playing through all types of gear, the 22 watt Valvetech is an original sort of design, with a Fendery sort of tweed component that can be mixed with a second channel to get modern tone. By the way, I have heard that Valvetech now makes another model that is a Vox clone..but it is not the 22 watt 2x10 Valvetech.

I have owned one of these original designs and it is more like a tweedy 6v6 Fender on the clean side and it can go to pretty gritty OD on the other side. How is that like a Vox? Nope. It isn't.

As for loudness, it is a 22 watt amp. I found mine to be plenty loud for a club type gig at moderate volume, but it is only a 22 watt combo!! So, if you are playing loud music in a noisey room you may need more firepower. If you are gigging with a rock band without miking this 22 watter you may have trouble. That does not seem to hard to comprehend for most folks.

I have nothing against Peavey either, so if a loud Peavey covers the ground that a player needs he should go look for one of those...But, comparing a PV to a 22 watt Valvetech is like comparing apples and grapefruit. However, if a hand built compact low powered tone machine is your thing than the Valvetech is more than worthy.

My experience found these amps to be a really great amp for a player looking for a compact amp that can cover tweedy to modern OD tones. Mine got screeching harmonics and an almost Mesa sort of OD too. But, if you want a louder amp you need to go for a 50 watt version.

As for Rob at Valvetech, he is a great guy. But, he probably is just like me when some opinionated, yet critic spews silly stuff.

Good blend of Fender tweed with modern OD capabilities.

Best for low to moderate volume.

Covers lots of ground.

Seems like a quality piece of gear

The builder seems nice and accessible too.

I really enjoyed mine

You know the drill. Two-channel, 22-watt amp with two Weber Celestion Blue clones. It'd be like having a Vox with two channels and a master volume and effects loop. The usual number of features gives it a SIX. It is a very nice-looking amp and everyone kept asking "Is that a Matchless?". Most people have no idea what it is, of course. I got to keep this one for three weeks after it's owner decided he couldn't gig with it due to problems cutting thru. I was offered a decent price on it, but I had the same issues, unfortunately.

It is pretty versatile, and you can get loud Vox, quiet Vox, and cranked/compressed Vox, and that's what I was looking for. Unfortunately, that's about all you'll get, so you need to understand it is built to be a Vox clone. The problem is with volume. Listen very closely: if you are a gigging musician, you better look somewhere else. It will not cut thru on any decent sized bandstand. It must be miked. It makes a killer Voxish amp for practice or just wanking in the bedroom, but you cannot gig it unless you can mike it. After about four or five on the dial the volume changes little. It gets a THREE for being a one-trick pony and for being low-powered.

Will probably last like a Peavey. Meaning 'forever'. It is very well-built. Makeit an EIGHT.

Here is another problem. The owner says his concerns were sort of poo-poo'd by the builder and he was made to feel stupid. This has been mentioned before, and in fact, when I talked to Mr. Pierce last Winter about one of these he basically laughed in my face when I started talking about EL-84-based Peaveys. Not a way to start off a sale. Also, when I discussed it with folks on the boards last year I was pointed to reviews here that talked about this specifically, and unless I missed something, these reviews have since been removed. Not good HC. :o( If they were fair and respectful, they should've stood. You don't make your customers feel like idiots. You get a TWO.

It is a VERY nice practice or recording amp, and if you're into that you can't beat the price. It is one of the sweetest-looking amps I've ever seen, as well. But you have to mic it if you gig it, and the builder can be a bit pretentious and domineering. I'll average it at SIX, because it is what it is, and it's good at what it was build for: Vox clone for recording or wanking.

I have a new Valvetech VAC 22 watt combo #220 that was just built and delivered this week (July '05). I had to wait for a while on the Valvetech backlog list, but Rob Pierce, the Valvetech owner and amp builder, was right on target with the timing and delivery dates that he mentioned when I ordered it in April. All that I can say is that this amp was worth the wait!

This 22 watt all tube combo has two 10" Weber Blue Pups and features all of Rob's latest upgrades and evolutionary mods, so some of the the earlier HC comments about EQ and brittleness have been addressed. So far, this amp is really impressive and answers all of my needs. While the tone pots and interaction of the channels is not like the average set-up, I found them very easy to dial in, and even less complex than some other boutique amps I have used, which have multiple voicing settings and tone interfaces.

This amp has the two channels with the ability to blend and cascade these for real modern overdrive. It also has a clean side that is crisp and works for jazz. In between blends get you bluesy and vintage rock tones.

The amp has lots of features including reverb, presence, FX loop with blend/volume. tube voicing switch and footswitch. The controls are a bit different than traditional, but I found it pretty easy to find lots of great sounds withing ten minutes of firing up my new amp.

I have several other amps, including a Fargen MiniPlex, Hughes and Kettner Duotone, Laney Tube Combo and three old Modded Traynor tube amps from the 70's. This Valvetech covers lots of the vintage tube ground of my other amps, but the ability to get modern tone that rivals my H&K Duotone in the same little package is really incredible. Even more so, when you consider that my amp cost less than $1000 and it was handbuilt to my order with my own choice of tolex and grill. Rob even found blue tolex to meet my request. He is also very cool about using any speakers that you may want, but I went with the standard Webers, and I am very happy with them.

For my needs this amp seems plenty loud. You might think it was 5O watts if you did not know it was only 22 watts!

I have been playhing for over 35 years and I have a large collection of guitars, from Strats, to PRS, to Les Pauls. I play rock and blues styles. and I like hot overdriven tones too. I like harmonics and growl,along with some sweeter tones. It seems that this amp can find good tone with all of of my guitars, but the modern overdrive works best with a hot humbucker.

This amp offers more range than many of the fine 18 watt Plexi clones and other low wattage boutique amps that are available. I really like many of these fine boutique amps, but very few can go to the rock and OD territory than the Valvetech covers. So, this Valvetech is really a versatile amp.

The amp looks great. The quality of construction and execution exceeded my expectations. The pots and controls are top notch and feel smooth.

I also sense that Rob Pierce will be there to take care of any problems and issues, should any arise.

Rob is a great person to deal with and he takes real pride in his product. Rob spent time on the phone discussing my needs and promptly responds to email too. He also is very nice about delivering real value. This amp is the best value in a handbuilt "boutique" type amp that I have ever seen.

This amp is surprisingly good. It is a keeper. It is also the best bang for the buck that I have seen for this type of tone and quality.

2004, w/reverb, fx loop. Heavy at more or less 50 pounds or so. 22 watts, 2 different channels, etc. etc.
It's pretty loud, i'm not sure if it's 50 watts loud, but it gets pretty loud. Master volume goes up to about half-way, then it's mostly just added tube compression for the rest of the trip, depending upon what your gear is. used it playing at an open mic at a bar with like 10 other instruments onstage, it kept up and they told me to turn down...

used it with 3 different guitars. epi les paul elite w/lollar buckers. charvel surfcaster with weird boosted lipsticks. and a ibanez artcore hollowbody with HD z90s.

Sound is very nice. He's got good tubes in mine, Ei ecc83s, and i'm pretty sure he just used the, eh 6v6s, and ... i dunno what kind of recifier tube is there. It's an extremely quiet amp, never makes any unwanted noise. THe cleans are really nice for JAZZ playing. Very articulate and warm, and i have really discriminating taste and am very nitpicky. First day my college jazz teacher commented on how nice the tone was, and that was with me playing my LP. with the ibanez, it really becomes much more natural and round, but still very clear. It goes well with the singles and the Buckers. The boosted lipsticks sound great thru the clean too, very deep and cool, which is unusual, because they usually like higher gain stuff (really weird pickup alert though). I think the 10" Weber Blue Pups are a great choice for this channel, Very articulate sounding, while being just warm enough w/out being muddy. Very high quality.

Very fendery channel 1, it also has one of the problems of that luscious fendery clean which is when you are cranking it and hit a low power chord or something, it gets that flatulent sound. I don't have a fender to compare it to, so i dunno if it's better or worse. It's not horrible, but i defenitely don't wanna play that chord unless i'm using a good overdrive. As far as clean headroom on the poweramp goes..., there's not really very much. The amp sounds really great and clean at practice volumes, it's an incredibly good practice amp and i didn't expect it to have such good low volume sound. but it does! hooray. At drummer levels, you can't really play this clean anymore. It's now a beautiful blues overdrive, really smooth and articulate, not really as sharp as a tweed, smoother but it still cuts, 'specially w/the 10"s.

and it takes pedals really well, except that when you are playing w/a band, your overdrives are going to be supersaturated because the poweramp is so cranked already. I couldn't really roll off the volume of my fuzz to get good cleans, 'cuz the amp could no longer produce good cleans (then again i was playing it a bit too loud!)



anyways..

channel 2 is pretty bright. ROb is making an upgrade right now to let you turn the presence even further down if the brightness becomes too much of an issue. when you're rocking out, this is also the speakers. i think with 12"s it'd be a little more steady.

That said, 2 has a very nice bite to it. You can get awesome harder blues sounds than channel 1. you can also get great rock sounds. It always sounds pretty HIFI. sometimes i thought it almost sounded too good, like i should replace the tubes with chinese ones or something to get ride of all the beautiful tonal colors. different guitars really react differently in this mode. but rest assured it's awesome. It's not quite marshall territory..., the overall tone is somewhere between the fender curve and the marhshall curve my ears tell me. This mode also works great with overdrive pedals.

I never cared much for the Extra Gain boost on this setting. It sounds too saturated to me..., too high gain or something. Mayve if i adjusted the EQ on it it'd work different. Rob said the fizz kit will address this issue too. And the gain will do in a pinch, but i'm very particular about my distortions, so if i want to go into thrash metal stuff, i pull out a radial tonebone hot british, which i like more for that than this mode. this is a little more classic rock, but too much gain i think for classic rock.

I sometimes wish the bass was a more solid with the 2x10s. They are really really good, but they're only 2 10's afterall. The cabinet seems pretty solid, but nothing great. it made a buzzing sound with my ibanez back when it had buckers on certain notes at certain volumes, which u don't wanna d

well, i could treat mine better i think, i lug it around a lot, so it gets plenty of bumps and nicks. Has held up well, 'cept the half voltage switch for the clean tube gave out. should be an easy fix though. once the reverb started making noise, but it was just 'cuz the tube had come loose.

Rob is very pleasant to deal with, i've emailed him tons of times whining about this and that and he's always helped me out. Defenitely the kind of guy you want backing up your amp.

Good amp. I wish i had gotten the head, so that it'd be lighter and i could experiment with different cabs.


Overall the amp is very empathetic. If it were stolen, i'd probably wait a bit and try to save up for a higher wattage amp with powerscaling (A better version of power attenuation but a hassle to make and expensive). I would like to have cleaner cleans at gigging volumes, with the option of turning it down to get saturation at lower volumes.

this amp is made to get tube saturation at small club levels, it is a very nice price though for what it does, and the sound quality is excellent. i wish that it sounded more marshally sometimes, but that's a personal taste thing. It's got it's own thing going on, and you can hear how much better it sounds then a lot of other amps.

Highly recommended, and a defenite keeper.

Hi,
This is Rob at Valvetech. If you buy a used amp we have made several improvements over the years to them. The boost volume jump has been resolved and the thin OD tone as well. If you have one of the early amps it needs the whole upgrade. Any amp we ever made can be changed over.
Contact me if you get ahold of one of my amps used at vtkamps@aol.com
Thany you.

This is actually a 12-10 combo instead of the 210 , 22watt 6v6 amp, footswitch gain channel, same features as all the other amps here. Slightly larger/taller cab, about 50/60 pounds, Jensen c12q and c10q. The reverb is lush, nice, the fx loop with mix knob is very nice.
I use strats one standard, and one with 2 humbuckers

After reading all the reviews here I bought this amp used off ebay. I REALLY wanted to love this amp. The past few years Ive gone through numerous amps looking for MY tone. JCM 800 head, Soldano'ed Yamaha T-100, Rivera, Valvetech, all of which has been sold or traded and I'm still with my old 68 showman head and 2-12 cab,
Now dont get me wrong the valvetech is one fine sounding amp, If your recording or doing jams at your buddies house. But onstage in a real live gig situation the valvetech just did'nt cut it for me. There was a hollowness/thinness to it that just made it dissapear onstage when competing with a drummer bassist, crowd, pool tables,etc.
mic'd up it could be workable, but without it....
I took the valvetech to 3 different gigs and was dissapointed everytime. I didnt want to unfairly compare it with my 100watt showman , so my next gig I used a borrowed Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 1-12 combo, afterwards, I bought the deluxe and put the valvetech up for sale, I wound up trading for a 64 Fender Princeton and some other gear.
The valvetech seemed to be missing that rich lower mid character that makes an amp sing, thats just my opinion, tone is different for everybody,
that said, If your looking for a working amp to gig with, you might want to play one of these BEFORE you purchase.

Looks like its built to last

I sent a few e-mails, Rob seams like a nice guy. Sincere about his craft and very friendly. If you ever neaded support from this guy I'm sure you would have it.

Played my first gig at 15 and I'm now 38, never had a real job except playing guitar, so I'm not a kid, Im not a rich guy wanting another expensive toy, Im down to earth, and I've seen enough blues dives, honky tonks, and biker chicks with 3 teeth to know what it takes to get the job done. for me it was a stretch to pay what I did for this amp. and when a stock HR Deluxe has more guts, well.. ya somehow feel cheated buy the whole boutique amp thing. Overall this 22 watts dont sound like 50 it sounds like your pushing 22 watts two hard to try to get a sound out of it. Kinda thin and nasally
No Ratings givin here because the Valvetech is a quality built product and if this scouped mid/ heavy distortion thang is the sound YOUR looking for, the Valvetech could be your holy grail. But If youre like me, looking for big round beautifull tone with gigable headroom and a little grit on it. You might have to go on up in boutique price, DR.Z, BadCat,etc. Or go down in price,, good old fender stuff and a some decent pedals.
For what its worth.