Reviewed by:
Felttoaster, on march 26, 2009
0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: C$ 199
Purchased from: Long & Mcquade
Features: The Vox DA series is supposed to be Vox's competitor to the Roland Cube Series in portability. It can be battery powered by Six C batteries for a maximum of 5 watts or can be plugged in for the full 20 watts of power. This amp extremely versatile based on the Vox Valvetronix's hardware it has 11 amp styles from a very nice and bright clear setting to a very aggressive high gain setting's. There is technically 1 channel so there is the problem that you are stuck on your style so if your a high gain setting or something and you want a clean tone you will either have to stop and go to your amp or do stuff like I would do and lower the volume as that lowers the distortion by a very noticable amount. It also has 11 Built-in effects and it's very easy to change your effect settings with the tap tempo, edit knobs and if you want to cut your effects the bypass. While the back panel is has a microphone input that even has it's own dedicated volume knob. A aux input in case you want to plug in your MP3, CD player etc. It also has a Headphone/Line jack for recording or playing on dimmed down levels. But most interesting about this amp on the back panel is the power control. It can change the power being used by the amp which is useful if you want to save battery on while on battery mode or want to lower the volume while keeping the same tone. There are only few features which that would have made this amp so much better. A full EQ would be nice, a single tone knob doesn't really quite cut it but I just looking at the amp I can see there really isn't that much space for 2 other knobs so I don't really think of that they had the option to do that. I also get annoyed because when jamming and you need to cut the effects you have to reach over to the amp as the only way to do so is to press bypass. I use this at home as my main amp and I don't really gig so it has plenty of power of my uses. Feature wise this amp has all the stuff. I need for bedroom jamming and the occasional camping trip. // 9
Sound: I play a Mexican Fender Telecaster with all stock hardware except strap locks except I doubt that makes a tonal difference. I play mostly Funk, Trash Metal and Classic Rock. For me this amp is very noisy as I have single coils and I play right in front of my computer monitor but out of my default environment it's really quiet and there is noise reduction in case the hum is really that annoying I say it kills some tone but not a noticeable amount. Can get noisy on Hi-Gain Settings but all around it's pretty quiet. This amp is basically pretty good at producing different sounds with it's 11 styles I can get a lot of sounds but then sometimes I can't EQ it right because it only has a tone knob. The clean channel just gets louder at high volumes so if you want a loud clean I say it's very good at that. The distortion in it's price range I would say pretty good can get really good stuff out of it but your wont get a tube distortion out of it. // 9
Reliability & Durability: Well I can depend on the stuff to all work but I can't depend on the handle as I attempted to carry it on a 8 minute walk and it just broke. The actual amp is really solid as it's got used in my super long jams and my extremely loud volume usage (for a 20 watt solid state). I would say it's solid and I would use it without a backup but I would be careful in transportation of the amplifier. // 8
Impression: Overall if you play any type of music this amp is for you. I have been playing for 8 months and I own a Epiphone G-400, Dunlop Crybaby (which it works pretty good with), Fender Telecaster and a Marshall MG10CD. The only thing I wished I would have checked out this amp is some EQ pedals. If some one stole it I would put missing amp posters everywhere. I probably would not buy it again just because I would want to try something else out. I just love playing with the effects as they are a pretty fun thing on the amp as In My Opinion the only serious effects are Reverb, Comp, Auto Wah, Chorus and Delay. The other ones are just really fun stuff to play with. I hate the fact there is no EQ, I hate that there is only 1 channel and I hate that there is no easier effects bypass. // 9
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