Rocktron Vendetta V80R Combo

Yea, it's a new design - 2009. Read the other reviews for details.

Clean is full with a warm bottom end. Distortion has an 'eq' type quality - like a midrange honk. (The other review described a 'wah' type quality which is close). Can't seem to get rid of that honk - is this a bad thing. Depends. You won't get any famous tones out of this thing, but the distortion does have a kind of modern edgy sound.
The distortion also has a solid gut reaching thump which is great for metal. The rear trim adjustments can help alot for tweaking response.
And yes, the gain knob has little effect at lower volumes, but loud, the amp sounds better with the gain lower which reduces feedback. The scoop knob is waste because the amp already sounds a bit scooped. I 'contour' knob would have been better. Overall, I'd rate the distortion as modern (not warm or brittle).

I don't know how long I'll keep it - that's not a good sign. I tried a bunch of preamp tubes and to hear if the tones improved. I couldn't really tell all that much, so I settled with a Fender preamp tube.

When ever a designed puts an LED behind the preamp tube, it strikes me as goofy. Marshall never did that in their VS series.

The footswitch (extra) was designed backwards. The left switch turned the reverb on/off. The right turned the distortion on/off with green LED when on. I was able to reverse the switches with the Left on/off with RED LED on with distortion (like the control panel), and the Right switch on/off with reverb (Green with reverb OFF - which is still not right, but I usually leave the reverb on anyway). Also, the reverb tank was rattling and I found one of the three springs broke which I simple removed and am using the other two springs which sounds better anyway. I got this amp new as a great deal and actually wired the back with a speaker input to use the cabinet as a speaker cab which sounds good. So much for the amp itself, which is a good haul around amp of maybe a backup. AND, it's overpriced, but the lighted logo looks cool.

I just bought a Rocktron Vendetta V80R 1X12" combo.

Here's the features direct from the site:

The V80R offers two channel operation (clean and distortion) with separate Master Volume controls for both channels. The Clean Channel features include Active EQ (Bass, Mid, Treble) and Level Control (Master Clean Volume). The Distortion Channel features include 12AX7 Tube Distortion Engine (T.D.E.), and Active EQ (Bottom, Scoop-Mid Range Sweep, and Top).

Rocktron's exclusive user adjustable AGX??? Gate Threshold (great for heavy percussive playing) provides amazing noise reduction technology. You will love this feature!

Another Rocktron exclusive: Global Amplifier Voicing with P.D.F. (Post Dynamic Filtering) which allows global control over the amplifier???s final EQ curve letting you dial in a perfect sound when playing in different rooms or venues. Trim-pot controls allow you to custom tailor your sound just the way you like it, including Reactance (low response resonance), Contour (Mid range definition), and Presence (Upper range limit).

The tuner has an on/off switch but no mute.....why?

I'd like to add that every description I read at every online store mentioned the lighted (blue) Rocktron logo nameplate. They touted this as a "cool feature". For this amp, it's one of the coolist features.......read on.

I really wanted to like this amp. It had most of the features I needed, was a reasonable weight and not too expensive.
Well, "Ya get what cha pay for" in this case.

The Pros: Good clean channel, sounds sweet with some reverb and has plenty of volume for rehearsal.

The Cons: Distorted channel is horrible!
First off, I immediately noticed a half-cocked wah sound. I turned the EQ every-which-way I could, but the "wah" sound was always present. After consulting the manual, I learned of the global EQ potentiometers on the back panel. They were set at mid point.
After adjusting for 15 minutes, I gave up. I rehearsed with it at one session (3 hours). The band agreed with my take on the sound and urged me to return it. (that say a lot right there!)
The reverb was of good quality, but was only audible if set above 5.
I didn't like the noise gate thing, I ended up cutting it down all the way.
The distorion knob itself had little effect. There was not a "half-distorted" setting and turning the gain up from 0 made it sound worse. Not even close to a model of a good tube amp (and this amp has a tube!) It's one of the worst distortion sounds I've ever heard!
I've been playing 30+ years and had over 20 amps in my life. This is the first time I've EVER returned an item simply because it sucked.
It really had to be THAT BAD for me to return it.
This amp needs to be fixed or discontinued.
Another flaw in design is the reverb tank. I noticed at higher volumes, the distorted channel had a buzz that only lasted a second or two after the initial attack of a note/chord and only E notes.
I called the Rocktron Tech guy and he told me it was the reverb talk resonating with the cabinet & E notes.
I give it a 3 here because the clean channel & reverb were OK.
Oh...and least not us forget about the "cool" lighted Rocktron logo.

Well, as you guessed, I sent it back before it could break down on me (lol)

I hate to say it, but when this amp first came in, I decided to crank it, testing both channels for flaws.
The clean channel did just fine, nice sound, powerful.
The distortion channel needed to be cranked up high to get enough volume. I had the volume set between 8-9 and in the middle of some double bend leads, it shut down! I wasn't even chunking on chords, just 12th fret lead stuff! The amp went silent on both channels, but the lights stayed on. I turned it off, then back on and that rebooted it. I never cranked it that hard again.
(Funny, my tube amps never shut down...hummm)

Would I rely on this at a gig? Hell No! Are You Kidding Me!
I'd rely on it to make my 1982 Gibson Les Paul Custom sound like an Epoch from Target. (then shut down)
Ladies & Gentlemen, this isn't pro gear! (I don't care if Gary Hoey says it is)
I give a two because if you only used the clean channel, this amp might work for you.

As I said, the tech guy told me the reverb was resonating from the E notes and causing a buzz in the signal (even when the reverb wasn't on).
He said to remedy this, I should remove the reverb tank and put some rubber bushings between the tank and the cabinet.
Now I don't know about you, but this sounds like the R&D team screwed up on their design or didn't test it thouroghly enough.
Why should I have to modify a brand new amp?
I shouldn't!
The tech was polite and helpful, but never admitted it was a design flaw, nor did he act like they are in the business of fixing these problems. I'd bet they don't do a thing to fix this in the future.

One of the worst amps I've ever played through (distortion wise).
Rocktron is now on my blacklist. (non-pro gear)

The V80R offers two channel operation (clean and distortion) with separate master volume controls for both channels (something many amps in this price class do not offer). The clean channel features include Active EQ (Bass, Mid, Treble) and master volume. The distortion channel features include 12AX7 Tube Distortion Engine (T.D.E.), and Active EQ (Bottom, Scoop-Mid Range Sweep, and Top). Rocktron's exclusive user adjustable AGX??? Gate Threshold (great for heavy percussive playing) provides amazing noise reduction technology
and I find it works like a charm.

Another Rocktron exclusive: Global Amplifier Voicing with P.D.F. (Post Dynamic Filtering) which allows global control over the amplifier???s final EQ curve letting you dial in a perfect sound when playing in different rooms or venues. Trim-pot controls allow you to custom tailor your sound just the way you like it, including Reactance (low response resonance), Contour (Mid range definition), and Presence (Upper range limit). While others have mentioned the trim pots to be a pain in the ass, they are not designed to be additional tone controls on the fly. They are designed to adjust to the nuances of particular venues. Once they are turned to the adjustment points which sound make the amp sound good to the user, there is no need to turn them again unless you're moving the amp to another location. I find this feature to be a god-send and don't mind the trim pots at all. For a combo amp in this price-range, I can't think of any non-digital amp that provides this many tonal options with dual master volumes and real spring reverb. Gotta rate this one high as a result...because I rate it with amps it would compete with...not with $1,800 boutique combos.

I use my Rocktron with several custom guitars. I've owned more than 300 amps in the 30+ years I've been playing. Name it...it's come and gone thru the music room. I've gotten tired of the overseas Borg boxes (Line 6, Fender Cyber Twin, etc) and despite giving them opportunities to find themselves in my music room, they usually are sold within a few months. The fancy options are fun to play with but in the end, it will always come down to tone. I didn't set out to buy this amp, rather I chose it to test a Lynch guitar a few weeks ago and was blown away by it. I'm quite familiar with Rocktron gear but this amp isn't really advertised anywhere and there are few places that even carry the brand. I knew they were using a 12AX7 tube for the distortion engine but that's not anything new to me having owned Johnson Amplification Marquis and Millenium amps plus ADA series amps which also have combined 12AX7 tubes with solid state.
I can honestly say, the way Rocktron does it is as good as the Johnson Amplification amps from way back and up to now, nobody did it better than them. The amp sings at high gain...it does not have that sterile, solid-state "sharpness" I find is typical from high-gain solid state rigs like Peavey's XXL or Randall gear. It has a very musical quality to it. The active tone controls allow for a serious sweep adjustment so everything from Larry Carlton-style smooth, syrupy tone to chug-chug death metal is available here. I was very impressed with how this amp approaches tone. There indeed, is a hint of "sag" that solid state amps always fail to deliver...until now.
If you can't get a decent tone out of this amp with the myriad of tone controls available (including the three on the back), you didn't spend enough time with it. This isn't an amp where you turn it on and choose a "preset." There are enough of those available already and usually, they find themselves on eBay soon after purchase. Not much to add for Rocktron's clean channel. It chimes as expected. Because it has its own master volume, this is a great channel to run pedals, creating essentially...a three-channel amp. It takes to pedals extremely well with a very transparent 80-watts of power.

Rocktron gear is like Peavey. Solid. No problems here.

Rocktron are extremely helpful whenever you need them. I've never had any issues with their customer support staff.

Compared to amps in its price class, this amp is a real surprise. Rocktron won't sell many of them because they don't advertise the amp but essentially, it's got the distortion "DNA" of their Utopia series of pre-amps, albeit with a 12AX7 tube powering the gain. They ship the amp with a cheap tube so changing it to a quality tube is highly recommened. It really brought the amp to yet another level. You can't access it from the front (as originally thought). You have to remove the top of the amp but that is a simple affair and once done, you shouldn't have to change the pre-amp tube for a year or more. Not much of a hassle for the kind of tone this combo delivers. As I wrote earlier, I've owned more than 300 amps since 1979 and this ranks as one of most surprising amps I've ever come across. Really strong tones...read the reviews on the big box sites that actually sell 'em. Players are raving about these amps and for good reason.
The only thing I'm slated to do with mine (since changing out the original tube), would be to throw an Eminence Swamp Thing speaker in the back and then stand back. It should really blow me away after that change. Gotta rate this amp a 10 when compared to other amps in its price range. Nothing else really provides this kind of musical distortion...and I mean QUALITY gain...and tons of it...for such low scratch.