Vox AD120VT Valvetronix 212 Combo

Price Paid: US $820.00

Features: 10
This amp was made in 2002, I bought it about a month ago, and it sounds great to me. Every effects pedal you could possible NEED, like reverb, flange, delay, phaser, Wah, or maybe even amp sims or cab sims in built in to the amp. It'll save you a lot of money on the overrated BOSS effects pedals that will break your bank. The amp can do anything from Classical to Nu-Metal music with jaw-dropping ease. This amp has 4 channels that can run at the same time. You'll need the optional VC-4 footboard to access the channels without reaching over and changing them manually. This is a must for live performances. There is an on-board effects loop as I said, but you can plug external effects into the back. The only thing I wish this amp had was easier access to the controls. Other than that, it's a 10.

Sound Quality: 10
One word. Infinite.

Reliability: 10
Haven't had a problem yet.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't dealt with them yet and probably won't need to.

Overall Rating: 10
10, 10 , 10 , 10, 10 , 10, 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Submitted by Michael J. Smalley at 12/04/2002 11:34

Price Paid: US $600 used

Features: 8
Most everything is there for effects. Very straight forward layout and very easy to use. I like a little more control over the effects but these are more than adequate. The different power setting is a great feature. The stomp box effects are very good for the most part. The foot pedal is adequate. I have used it live and while it is not the most feature laden, it is usable. I have talked with Vox (ie Korg) and they appear to be working on a new pedal. There isn't much for me to complain about. For me I like the simple but usable layout. There could be some things better, like more control using the footpedal (like GT-3/6),but so has everything else I have tried, and I have tried about everything else. I wish it werent so heavy tough. 72 lbs.

Sound Quality: 9
I am using a Fender 62 Reissue Japanese Strat with Lindy Fralins in the neck and mid positions and a JB Jr in the bridge. I must say I do love the sounds of this amp. They are extremely usable. Cleans are great and distortions rock. You may need to noodle around with the programs to get what you want, but the amp just plain sounds great to me. Even my wife commented (which she never has before) how great this amp sounds. Use your own ears to judge. I played many different amps before this one. Actually didnt even plan to look at this one but was just wasting time and tried it. It really impressed me from the first sound on. I went back several different days to make sure and ran it against several amps each time. Still I felt very impressed how it sounded. So I got one and still love every minute I use it. No regrets (See reliablity however).

Reliability: 5
Ok, here we go. First one I got developed a few problems. Vox had me ship it to them ($30) and they would take care of it. They actually sent me a new one due to some shipping problems on their side. That one stopped working while I was practicing for the next days gig. Vox immediately sent me another one which I had 2-3 days later. They paid for FedEx to come and pick to bad unit up and ship it back. I didnt have to do anything. Very nice. I have used the 3rd one only for a few days now and so far so good. I will update later.

Customer Support: 9
Fantastic. They have done a great job working with me. Eddie at Vox was very curtiouse and helpful. He took great care of me. The shipping problem I mentioned above wasnt their fault, but they took care of me anyway. If you have any problems, fear not, they are very responsive and resposible.

Overall Rating: 8
I will give this thing an 8 overall. I love the sounds. The effects are also very good. Footswitch for me is usable though could be better. Reliability is somewhat a problem but they took right care of the thing. If this one hangs in there, It will be the only thing I will use for a long time. I just didnt care for the other amps that I tested. They each had some things that I liked, but some things I hated. This unit had the best package overall for my needs. Basically, I needed the thing to cover a wide range of styles, which it does well. I would recommend that you dont bye based on my opinion. I have had to many experiences of buying things that others have loved only to get rid of the thing because I hated it. Please take the time to go look for yourself. And enjoy doing it because playing guitar is a lot of fun no matter what you play.

Submitted by Anonymous at 11/25/2002 18:12

Price Paid: US $950 tax incl

Features: 10
You've read it all before. IMHO: Loud enough, sweet sounding, nice looking...especially on a stand. Wattage output selector makes this amp a 10.

Sound Quality: 10
I use mainly Duncan Vintage Rails (single coils, play many styles and this amp covers them all. Clean is clean when loud, distortion is fatso-crunch. Infinite number of sounds available *but* it's going to take some time as there are many controls on this animal. Oh yeah, it has a good noise reduction circuit, up to 2 second delay (an exact replica of the sound, adequate reverb.

Reliability: N/A
Time will tell on relibility.

Customer Support: 1
***BEWARE*** The user manual was written by a complete idiot. Not technical. You have to weed through stupid, familiar cliche's, "try to sound cool" expressions. The manual itself could be reduced to 10 pages if it weren't for the "Paulie Shore" type jargon. AND, literally, at least once on each page, they keep telling you to buy the footswitch. From what I've seen of the switch, it's worth about 10.00, not the 250.00 they're asking. Back to the manual: You could delete 90% of the words and it would be a great user's guide.

Overall Rating: 9
Best combo amp I've owned so far, been playing over 30 years. Wish it hads: A Cover, A stand, a "not so cool,dude" manual, easier to read controls (but I'm getting old, so..). Glad it has: Wattage controller, on board chourus, flanger, delay, reverb, all eq knobs, gain, volume, master volume, effects loop, fuzz, auto-wah, tuner, stereo output.

Submitted by Danzo in the sticks, NY at 11/23/2002 06:52

Price Paid: N/A

Features: N/A

Sound Quality: 10
I wrote before that Soldano sounded bad, but I like it now! Just had to back off the gain, and also putted a BOSS PW-1 in front, PW-1 is noisy as hell, but it opens up the sound, wow that Soldano sounds sweeeet now.I can't wait till tommorow to dive into the Mesa model!
but I won't write here anymore, but you get the picture, it's just fun playing through this thang everyday. Now I wish there were more memory for patches definately.

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A

Submitted by teilHARD at 11/19/2002 12:52

Price Paid: US $899

Features: 7
You can see them at the www.valvetronix.com web site. Lots of toys to play with. The things that would have made it nicer are motorized knobs that reflect the current preset (I know, more expensive), more memory for storing user settings, and a more readable display for differenciating beween factory presets and user presets. The current format for reading patch settings was done by an engineer - not a guitar player.

Sound Quality: 8
I play a PRS CE24 with the HFS bridge pick-up. If it won't sound good with my guitar, it won't sound good.
I was after the Marshall sounds more than anything else. That is, the Marshall sound at low volume levels. Since I've never owned a Marshall, I can't validate the authenticity of the tone. However, I will say that the various Marshall settings do sound very good. If you're into 80's and 90's rock, you can get very, very close here. The rest of the amp models sound good too. So, no complaint about tone. The fact that you can "crank" the gain and master volume at the lowest (one watt) power setting means you can get great sounds at a reasonable level. This is the main reason I purchased the amp. Overall, very good sound and a large variety to choose from.

Reliability: 5
Unfortunately, I no longer own this amp because of reliability problems. The amp would randomly cut out on me. That is, the volume would drop to zero for several seconds and it would then come back on. I had read previous posts on HC about this same problem so I decided to unload the amp. I may consider the Valvetronix again in the future once the bugs are all worked out. For now though, I have decided to run my Boss GT-6 and Yamaha DG-Stomp through a Roland JC-120. I get great sound at low volume levels and I know the Roland will always work. At least it has so far...

Customer Support: N/A
Didn't try them. I wanted to unload the amp while I could still return it.

Overall Rating: 6
I'd like to give the Vox a better overall rating, but the fact that I don't own it anymore says it all. If the tone had been perfect, I would have worked through the reliability problem. However, the sounds were good, but not worth the hassle of one or more trips to a service center. For the price, I think it's a very nice amp. However, I would recommend waiting until all of the kinks are worked out.

Submitted by Toneaholic at 11/18/2002 13:53

Price Paid: 13000 /w VC4 (SEK)

Features: 10
Great features, had it for 4 weeks now but still noodling around in manual mode.Wish you could use wah+od or comp+od.Lots and lots of volume in headphones, this I like, no need for chorus because of this.
Tuner is a lot better than the POD & Korg AT-2, tracks fast, play a normal tempo solo and tracking no problem.

Sound Quality: 10
Fender strat with Dimarzio 2xhs3,1xyjm into high sensitivity input, sometimes with DOD Preamp.Good overdrive sound with older marshall models, lots of chunkiness.I also use Mex-Tele, sounds good on all models except soldano & mesa.Dearmond Starfire special sounds too harsh on bridge pickup with my boogie, but in the VOX it sound so sweet in all pickup-positions & all amp models except soldano and mesa.Have also 3 guitars with humbuckers but still haven't found any good settings yet, tend to play mostly the single-coil guitars 'cause they sound sooooo nice.Have no idea how soldano should sound like but I don't like it.All the effects sounds good except the chorus, I feel that something get lost ( volume or bass ) when activated, can be compensated with the other controls.In the POD it was the other way around,used stereo-chorus all the time because something was missing in the basic sound.Noisy in extreme settings but dead quiet with DOD at 50% and whatever other built-in OD at 50% with noise-suppressor at max.I can then fool around with 3 different crunch-level in one patch.

Reliability: N/A
I don't GIG, but read here in the reviews about keeping master very high(max), I also think it sounds better adjusting the volume with power-selector and gain&volume knobs.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
Been playing for 20 years, owned several amps( mostly tube ones), and gadgets.I would of been rich by now if this AMP was available 20 years ago, not with my playing ability but avoiding the loss I've done over the years by trading in stuff over stuff over and over again in search of the "sound". And this one got several completely awsome "sounds" in almost different styles.And thats what I was looking for all these years, cause I don't GIG I tend to get into periods only playing blues to only playing metal to only playing whatever style I feel for that time in my life and this amp does it all.Only thing I wish it had is numberings for the knobs.I like having some presets in my head also but it would be a lot easier with nuberings definately.Never tried the vetta cause I couldn't afford it anyways, besides the VOX looks sooooo good. I'll give it an 11 just for the looks.I'm a so called "looser" guitarist, playing just for fun and wanting to sound like my favorites, I feel I get Yngwie/Rory/Stevie sounds from this amp, now if I only could come close to early Loudness sound I'll be in heaven.There's a lot left to explore in this amp.

Submitted by teilHARD at 11/15/2002 18:23

Price Paid: US $800 used

Features: 8
This amp is loaded with features, but not overloaded like some other modeling amps out there. I use this amp in my cover/original band to cover anyting from STP to BNL to U2 to Pear Jam.

Sound Quality: 10
I play a mexican strat(with noiseless pickups)
an epiphone les paul,
and a relic'd 60 strat.
I have only had the amp for a few days but the sounds are increadible, I have spend months looking at modeling amps and A/B testing them. The vetta is nice but it takes too long to figure out what is going on with that amp, the same thing goes for the Cyber twin. The CT just sounded like junk to me anyway, I guess if I tweaked it a little bit it would sound ok but who wants to fiddle with tweaking that maze of controls during a gig? After learning the vetta and playing with it in the store for weeks I was sold on it, untill the day that I went to buy one. That day TWO Vettas were returned to Guitar center because they crapped out. So I turned to the vox, which I hadent really looked at before. It is easier to use( I just feel so stupid every time I try to use the CT), better looking(why did they make the vetta so ugly?), and better sounding. The sound is where the Vox really shines. I can't stop playing it, it just sounds so good and convincing of the amps that it is modeling.

Reliability: 10
So far so good

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
I have been playing for about 10 years, if it was lost or stolen I would buy another one. There are a few things that I wish that it had.

1. a better footswitch - who designed this thing anyway? why is there no bank up bank down? Thats fine if they don't want to use MIDI so that you have to buy THEIR petal board, but why limit us to 16 presets? This is where the CT and the Vetta kill the Vox. Why couldent vox make a board like the Vetta? I would pay the extra money. Why are there only 16 presets available? It kills me. The expression petal is junk too, but I would use my crybaby anyway.

2. The cabinet - this cabinet is garbage as well. It treat my amps with care but it just looks so flimsy and cheep. I am probly going to buy an AC30 repro cabinet and transplant the electronics.

Submitted by Chris Blust at 11/11/2002 09:34

Price Paid: US $850.00

Features: 10

Sound Quality: 10

Reliability: 10
I hate when ignorant people give stuff crappy reviews just for fluke instances as listed above. You guys are giving this Revolutionary Amp a bad name. Its like if a product isnt flawless in any sense, that automatically it is crap... You guys need to lighten up. WHO EVER READS THIS!!!! GO BUY THIS AMP NOW...DONT LISTEN TO anyone that tells you this amp isnt reliable or is good. Everything about this amp can OWN Marshall/Fender/Mesa on any account. Thanks

Customer Support: 10
Do you guys know how to use a telephone... I waited 3 minutes, and was helped promtly and very kindly. I think the people that have Customer service issues, just have lack of patience and a brain.

Overall Rating: 10
GO BUY IT NOW!

Submitted by Ryan Puls, CA at 11/07/2002 00:13

Price Paid: N/A

Features: N/A
This is a real quick update to my earlier rewiews several months ago. I have owned this amp since January of 02'. After using it every weekend for loud club gigs, I recently started noticing degragation in the sound quality especially to the clean sounds. After speaking with Mitch Colby at Vox he reccomended trying some new tubes. I ended up ordering Elecro Harmonics EH-12aX7's and after using duct tape to remove the originals I installed the EH's. What a HUGE difference! The amp now sounds better then the day I bought it. Tubes make a huge difference with this amp, just thought I would let those of you know who own this amp or are considering it. All my programmed tones sound signifigantly better with these new tubes. I can also can get sustaininig Harmonic feedback with any tone even clean without microphic sqealing.

Sound Quality: N/A

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A

Submitted by Jim at 11/04/2002 09:56

Price Paid: US $799

Features: 10
Everything you could basically need to replicate 99% of all guitar sounds from the 30's to the present, and plenty of room for experimentation. 2x12 combo, 120 watts, 12ax7 pre-amp/power-amp tube, celestion speakers, blue VOX grill and black tolex covering.

Sound Quality: 10
The JCM800 and the Dumble sounds are worth the price alone. I am still blown away every time I play this amp. All of the effects are excellent, all the amp models are entirely different and usable.

Reliability: N/A
No problems thus far

Customer Support: N/A
Never dealt with VOX.

Overall Rating: 10
For it's price there's nothing better. Certainly, nothing beats the original amp sounds and the versatility of having a dozen indiviudal stomp boxes... but Vox has done a marvelous job with everything. I would have never know this was a hybrid amp had I not been told or checked out the back of the amp. The wattage controller is excellent for apartment living. The greatest thing about this amp is that it sounds NATURAL, whereas the Line 6 and other modeling amps come out sounding artifical and processed.

Submitted by mbv at 09/24/2002 19:05