Vox AD-100VTH Head

Made in 2007: 11 amp models + 11 effects. Two channels plus a manual setting. This model goes from Fender blackface Twin to old Bassman to various Vox models to Marshall models & boutique. Almost everything is usable. It's a decent alternative to dragging a head, pedalboard, cables, etc. The channel switching is pretty quiet, and all it takes is a $25.00 VFS2 pedal to plug in to do that. It is NOT digital: solid state meets a small 12AX7 mini-tube that gives the warmth and tones that are surprisingly good. It can cover most styles admirably too. Realistically: you get what you pay for but this is a notch above the rest. Great for backup/spare, practice or general gigging.

As stated above: it covers American & British sounds pretty well, but do NOT expect the super chime of a REAL AC30 or the sound of a Dumble, Lone Star Special or similar tube amps. The various distortions are pretty good, especially at the price these are going for currently. It screams with singles and HH PU's too!. Noise (again) is pretty low, just don't stand in front of the head when you have a metal setting on and your guitar has marginal shielding. Getting unity gain from clean to nasty will take just a bit of tweaking too.

No problems so far (I have the AD30VT and it's done well so far). But if you don't use a cover, like to put your drinks/smokes on your amp, or smack your stuff around: bring some backup.

They answer the phone & e-mails.

Playing for over 30 years, and use an assortment (Boogie, Fuchs, Bogner) of gear. This head has more tone than Line 6, more decent sounds, made better than most "modelers". Great bang for the bucks, but not as cool as the AD120VTH stereo head they discontinued last year (way more models/FX).Wish it had a slightly more sparkling clean tone, more adjustability for the FX. Plastic jacks aren't too cool either. But with a street price of $400 who would want to complain too much?

100 watts. Tons of knobs. Bunch of amp models. Couple of effects. Two recordable channels/effects. NO FOOTSWITCH INCLUDED. For a digital amp, they could have given at least 4 recordable presets. So, that sucks... I play mostly blues rock/hard rock/metal kinda stuff. Think Monster Magnet/Aerosmith/Guns N' Roses/Metallica/Godsmack kinda vibe. So far I've only been able to play it mostly at home, but I think it'd probably hold up really well in a band setting.

OK, first off, it doesn't sound very "digital", which is nice. Line 6 stuff probably sounds better in general for the type of music I play, but it does have a "fake digital" vibe to it (that, I hear can be fixed by putting it through a tube powerhead and then into a cab, but what a pain). It has a nice organic vibe to it, and when you crank the wattage in the back, the sound does "expand" really nicely. In fact, if you're recording, I think you'd probably want this this cranked pretty high, as it does affect the sound a bit (eventhough its billed as being able to have constant sound at all volumes due to wattage knob). It kinda gives it more "bite". The cleans are really nice and you can get some mild overdrive tones for blues pretty well. And, just tweak the effects knob, and you can get some SRV tone in there (or at least pretty close). But, I play a lot of heavy overdrive music, so I'm usually on the Modern UK setting (by far the best distortion on this thing). The other ones either sound like they'd be easily buried in a band mix (either too thin or too dark, ie, not enough mids). So, stick to the UK Modern and you should be able to get some great, warm, tones. Also, remember to TWEAK, TWEAK, TWEAK! The biggest thing I didn't like about this amp, is that in the UK Modern settings, once you start putting in just a little bass to give it more balls/guts, it starts breaking up (not in a good way). At first I thought this was the cab, but its in the amp. I guess thats just the way they modeled the high gain tone. In any case, I've found a good way to try and dial that out it gut the volume (not the master. The Master should almost always be pretty high). Also, keep the bass no more than 5-MAYBE 6. Also, adjust your mids to give you more guts. Like I said, you'll have to tweak it A LOT, because the EQ doesn't respond the same way a regular EQ on an amp would. So, forget the settings you're "used to". You'll have to start from scratch and really use your ear. And, remember that when you crank the wattage in the back, it'll almost always sound a lot better/fuller, so setting up your tone at quiet bedroom volumes might not be the best way to go. Oh, and if you're getting this amp to do super aggressive CHUG CHUG CHUG music, I think you might want to look elsewhere. It kickss ass, but heavy bass distortion just isn't its thing. As a result, I don't think this amp likes downtuned guitars AT ALL. It just goes to mud really fast. I think the best you'll get out of the Vox is HEAVY rock (like a slightly tamed Zakk Wylde). Not quite CRUSHING Metal. So, just keep your expectations realistic. Also, I noticed when I demoed this amp in the store, I thought the VOX cab sucked. It just doesn't really do this amp justice. I plug it into a 2x12 EarCandy BuzzBomb cab with Eminence Wizards. i think this helps quite a bit, and it makes it sound a lot bigger than the Vox 4x12. The effects are pretty nice and are a fun time to play with. Even the Auto Wah, which most people say is garbage, I think you could get to sound decent if used just right. Like I said, TWEAK, TWEAK, TWEAK! And don't give up. Its not going to sound PERFECT, but I think it'll sound really damn good.

So far, so good. Although, like I said, I haven't really put this thing on the road yet.

No idea, but I've heard they suck.

I've been playing for a little over 10 years. I've owned a bunch of gear over the years: Fenders, Line6, Marshall JCM2000, Randalls... This one is probably one of the better amps out there. It probably won't be able to compete with a full tube, top of the line amp like Diezel or a JSX or a VHT, etc., but c'mon, it costs only $399! So, to be fair, I think, for the price range, it definitely kicks ass. I'd love to pair this up with a high end Line 6 to see which would sound better. I'm pretty sure the Vox would sound more pleasant. Also, if you're gonna buy this, try to have the vendor throw in the footswitch for free. It should come free anyway, but they might want to charge you $24.99 for it. The cable isn't very long (in fact, in a live setting, you're probably going to need some type of extension cable), but its less of a hassle when changing channels/effects. So, to sum up, its NOT the best amp for HEAVY METAL, but still damn decent. And remember to TWEAK A LOT. Even when you're about to give up, keep tweaking. The EQ reacts to each knob in a unique way, so gutting one area and boosting another might yield very unexpected results. Oh yeah, and judge this amp with the wattage cranked pretty high.

Just got this amp head about a month ago. It's a 100 watt modeling amp head that lets you choose between 11 of the most popular and best sounding amps that Vox has researched and chose to pick. It has a headphone jack an effects loop and a footswitch jack. It also has two presets that you can set to your liking and save into memory. With the optional footpedal you can switch between the two. Uses a 12AX7 in the preamp for tube type sound. I'll explain later why I have a big two thumbs up.

I have a Epi Les Paul Standard Elitist (better than a Gibson) and a Epi SG Elitist also better than a Gibson and just for the heck of it I put a pair of GFS Dream 90's in the SG that sound better than the American humbuckers that came with it. The cab I'm using is a closed back 2x12 with two Celestion Vintage 30's. What amazed me about this Vox was I have a 1972 Fender Dual Showman Reverb thats been blackface etc. When I choose the black 2X12 setting on the Vox it sounded like an exact clone to the Fender. I heard it at Guitar Center and said I have to try one of these. It's kind of eerie I told the salesman.

Haven't had it that long but I chose to get the gold warranty for $38.00 bucks. If anything happens to this amp they will pay the shipping to and from and cover everything on the amp for 2 years.

Haven't had to use the warranty.

This amp is a lot of fun. On most of the amp settings I've been playing with sound awesome. The three British selections all sound great with tons of distortion. The AC-30 and several more sound great also. I'm honestly thinking about selling the Dual Showman. Well thats about it. I read one review where somebody was liking it to a toy. He's dead wrong. Go hear and spend some time with one and then you can write a review and tell me if I'm either full of shit or making any sense. It's a Vox and they have a pretty good reputation. Looks great too.

This amp has great effects and the digital modeling is very good.

I play Brit oldies...mainly Beatles, so I want the AC-30TBX sound. The amp requires doing your homework to get the sound dialed in that you want. I used a Behringer AB200 switch and compared the AD-100VTH with my AC-30TBX. It is a little unfair to compare Alnico speakers with ceramic magenet speaker, but that's what it is. The amp in many ways sounds very close to the real AC30TBX..but there is something about the sound of a real tube class A amp that must be impossible to digitally duplicate. The effects are great, and when using most of the effects, you can't tell the difference between the AD-100VTH and the AC-30TBX. In the clean mode, you can hear the difference. Trying to match the digital sound with the real thing requires not only using the tone controls, but a lot of adjusting the gain and volume control, perhaps this is the most important and tedious work in seting up the amp to clone the AC30 sound.

No problems.

I haven't needed any support.

The amp is great, but if you want a tube amp, buy a tube amp, otherwise, your not going to be happy. A sound engineer for a top Beatle cover band said the guitar is 90% of the sound. That's subjectively true, but the warmth and sound of a real class A amp, is very noticable when next to a hybrid modeling amp. I thought the other amp models were a better clone sound. That could also be due to most other amps don't have the more expensive Alnico speakers. The amp is great and exceptionally versital, it is everything except a perfect copy of the Vox AC-30TBX, but it is a great amp. Maybe adding a tube preamp in the effects loop could bring the sound a little closer to the AC30.