Vox Cambridge 30 Twin Reverb

Price Paid: US $250.00

Features: 7
I have the single 10 inch version.
I have read a number of bad reviews for this amp, but my experience has been 100% positive. I suppose I am very fortunate!
When playing this amp, one must rememebr that it is a 300 dollar copy of what a Vox amp could be. The original Cambridge 30 was completely solid state, and did not have a nice overdrive at ALL. This new Korg version is a great sounding amp for the price, I would dare to say unbeatable for under 300 dollars. The reverb is very old school, so if you want some sort of newfangled digital reverb, dont buy this amp. I find it sounds good. The tremolo is also very good for the price. It is not a fender style tremolo, so if you want that, dont buy this amp. I play indie rock that is heavily influenced by motown and the british invasion, and this amp does the job for a relatively low cost. I wish it were louder. When I am standing in front of the drums and the guitar is on the floor, I can't hear it.

Sound Quality: 7
I play a 1990's re-issue of a 1972 Fender Telecaster Custom, with a single coil bridge pickup and a fender humbucker in the bridge position. It is a very versatile setup, and I can make quite a few different tones with it. Overall, it will always sound like a vox, and get "distorted" at higher volumes. That's what Vox amps do.

Reliability: N/A
I have had absolutely NO problems with this amp. I leave it on all day in the studio, then play a track. It sounds great with an SM57. I have had no overheating problems, no brownouts, nothing. It could have a sturdier build, but give me a break, it's a 300 dollar amp.

Customer Support: N/A
no experience with them, I guess I am lucky.

Overall Rating: 10
Overall, I would call this amp a great value. Korg has a lot of experience with effects modeling and such, and they have put that technology to goo duse on this amp. It has a celestion speaker, a reverb that actually works, an adjustable tremolo, and sexy looks for 300 bucks. The quality could be better. This is not a professional quality amp, so if you need a pro amp, don't buy this. If you want an amp that sounds WAY better than your friends peavey for less money, buy this amp.

Submitted by Ryan at 12/11/2003 14:41

Price Paid: US $320

Features: 9
Guess was made in 2001, I play mostly rock and blues and this amps suits me perfectly, nothing to complain about. it has a tremolo that really seems to be *weak* but I hardly use, the reverb is quite all right, not a 7th wonder but good enough.

Sound Quality: 10
Sounds great with my Jap strat, not that good for my Washburn mercury MG series. The clean channel doesn't distort until i blast 70% of the volume. the distortion channel is not fantastic but fair enough, but HERE IS SOMETHING YOU MUST KNOW!! TRY THIS LIL BASTARD WITH A IBANEZ TUBE SCREAMER!!!!man it shines, it takes it to another level...
So my rating is for what you can do with this amp + a tube screamer

Reliability: 8
So far so good, I bought it 2nd hand and at the store they said the amp was all revised (not sure whether was broken or something they do before selling to someone else, I hope the 2nd one :))

Customer Support: N/A
never delt with them.....fortunately

Overall Rating: 10
Definitely it has a fantastic value! plus things people say you get when you try other valvs on it, i mean, tweaking this amp is easy.

Submitted by Strat@stratland.com at 11/01/2003 14:04

Price Paid: US $300

Features: 6
I wrote a review for this amp a long time ago.. I liked it then and I like it now. when I bought the amp about 2 years ago, I hadn't heard any bad reviews about it. I really do feel bad for those who bought it and had a lot of problems out of it. mine was a factory reverbished unit... so I guess it was sent back due to problems , but mine was fixed I suppose. I've had 0 problems out of it.

Sound Quality: 10
I use an esp h series guitar with humbuckers and I just like to play music. no particular type or fashion. just goofin off. but I do take learning the guitar seriously.I have been playing about 15 years. the amp isn't very loud normally.. so I run it thru a 4x12 extension cab and the volume is increased considerably. I really do love the vintage sounds this amp makes . this is where I am really empathetic to those who had problems wiht thier cambridges. I would be extremely pissed too if mine didn't work.

Reliability: 4
obviously this amp had issues. and I'm willing to bet most of them stem from their assembly in korea. It seems to me ...of all the reviews of this amp...there are only 2 real opinions; 1. the amp works and sounds beauiful.or 2. It browned- out after a week and I hate it.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 6
overall I feel lucky to have expirienced such a rare find... a vox cambridge that actually works!!! It does sound gorgeous tho.

Submitted by gary at 04/24/2003 21:32

Price Paid: US $250

Features: 8
This looks like a real Vox amp from the 60's, so give it some points for vintage vibe. And the features are pretty decent: a pair of 10 inch Celestion speakers, tremelo, reverb, usable tone controls. And it's all in a package that's light enough to carry with no strain. But don't be fooled by the so-called tube preamp. That 12ax7 tube is there for appearances only. It doesn't do a thing for the sound.

Sound Quality: 5
My guitars are a Fender American Std Strat with Fralin pickups and a Gibson LP Studio with stock humbuckers. My style is classic rock and blues-based rock, so I was thinking this Vox would be a good fit. The sound is straight up generic solid state. That's not bad, but it's certainly not what someone who's looking for Vox tone is looking for. Good clean tone, although the volume is less than you'd expect. Fizzy, irritating overdrive characteristic of cheap solid state amps of any brand. I went to the trouble of swapping the tube out for an NOS RCA tube, and it made absolutely no difference. The old RCA's have the reputation of being THE preamp tube, and if this tube won't improve the tone, it's because the amp just flat doesn't respond to the tube in its circuit. The reverb is a little weak, but usable. This amp is definitely not loud enough to gig with or even practice with a drummer. Surprisingly enough, my Ovation Celebrity acoustic/electric sounded real fine through this amp. So, if you're doing a solo acoustic gig, or maybe a duet, this amp would work for that.

Reliability: 9
I only kept this amp for a few months before selling it. During this time it had no problems.

Customer Support: N/A
I bought it as a blem from Musician's Friend, so there was no returning it. No problem. I was able to sell it to a Vox afficionado for the same price I paid for it.

Overall Rating: 5
I've been playing for twenty years and I've gone through a fair number of amps in that time: Fenders, Marshalls, Boogies. So I think I can speak from experience when I say that this amp is useful only as a good looking practice amp. I wanted something that would give me vintage tone for small gigs, and the Cambridge wasn't it. I purchased this amp over the net, thinking that it would be a "real" Vox. Chalk it up to experience. I sold it and got a used Ampeg J12R JetII for less than the Cambridge. This little Ampeg fills the bill. My main amp for larger gigs is a Fender Blues DeVille 2x12 that absolutely rips. Nothing but true tube amps for me from now on.

Submitted by Donny Linden at 04/21/2003 10:02

Price Paid: $750 (AUS)

Features: 10
I Bought this amp about 16 months ago and placed a very favorable review up then. Now that I've gotten to know them amp a lot better over the past year, I thought I'd do an update.

The features are great. The tremelo is superb, very authentic sounding. I like the lay out a lot and the two foot switch contols allow you to switch channels, reverb and tremelo.

Sound Quality: 8
This amp does deliver classic vox 60's tone. It nails that Beatles tone. The second Channel does the Hendrix style fuzz over drive fantasticly also. But there is a catch, it can offer you these fantastic tones but only at low volumes. The amp is very quiet and perfect for recording. When using the amp on stage I would suggest running a preamp. I run my guitar though an ART SGX2000 and then into the vox. This works really well and gives the amp heaps more gain. When doing this I keep the volume on the Vox down to a quater and then use the gain on the ART. It really kicks. The only think I feel the amp can't deliver is a good crunch sound. But then again I don't think that any 30w trani amp really can. Oh and yes,the sound can get worse as the amp gets hotter. I will try placing a fan in the back of the cabinet as advised on another review. I think that should work.

Reliability: 8
I did have one instance of it browning out and took it to the authorised repairer. It did appear that the soldering was the problem and the tech went over all the points. It hasn't browned out since and that been over a year now.

Customer Support: 10
fantastic

Overall Rating: 9
I feel that it is most unfortunate that there were so many issues of quality control with these amps earlier on. Vox seem to have quite a number of dissatisfied customers because of it. I have since bought a peavey classic 30 for live work but I don't think I can part with the vox. It has such a beautiful sounding clean channel with such authentic vox tone it's hard to believe it was made in Korea in the year 2001. Keep in mind that this amp is only a small amp and only a fool would expect it to be as loud as an AC30.
But it is a unique little amp with fantastic tone, and best of all it's a vox.
If you are buying one, just make sure it's a later model. If it browns out, have a tech go over the soldering.

A great amp, a great price, a piece of Vox history.

Submitted by Nick James at 04/08/2003 08:07

Price Paid: US $180 used

Features: 1
READ ALL OF THESE HORRIBLE REVIEWS!!!! I can't believe I bought this amp without reading these reviews. MY LOSS.

I had the amp totally up and die after 3 days. No "brown out", it just died. This amp is so horrible. The guy I bought it from said he never had a problem with it, but I found out through a guy who knows him that it was giving him a ton of trouble so he decided to unload it off on somebody stupid (like me). He won't give me my money back, so I guess I'm stuck with this piece of crap.

That guy below that says "HIS REVIEW IS THE DEFINITIVE REVIEW, IGNORE ALL OTHERS" just has to work for VOX or he's trying to sell it on Ebay and can't because everybody knows what a shitpile of an amp this is.

THIS AMPLIFIER IS NOT WORTH $25 BUCKS!!! IT WILL DIE ON YOU!!!! For the love of God, just look at the SAME PROBLEMS with everybody's amp. That is a design problem, plain and simple.

DO NOT BUY THIS AMP!!!

DO NOT BUY THIS AMP!!!

DO NOT BUY THIS AMP!!!

YOU WILL BE SORRY, THEY ARE ALL LEMONS BECAUSE OF POOR CIRCUIT DESIGN!!!!!

Sound Quality: 1
It first made a decent sound, then 10 minutes later started to fade out. Now it is just dead totally.

THIS AMP IS CRAP!!!!!

Reliability: 1
BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID!!!!!!!!!

Customer Support: 1
Never replied back to me, so screw them. Don't ever buy a VOX. Thier amps suck and thier customer service sucks.

Overall Rating: 1
READ ALL OF THESE REVIEWS. DO NOT BUY THIS AMP. ANYTHING IS BETTER THEN THIS PILE OF GARBAGE.

Submitted by A. Bulow at 03/28/2003 20:31

Price Paid: US $300

Features: N/A
This amp appears to be the perfect amp for small rooms and practice. Notice I said appears to be. I have no problems with the features they wook quite nicely and the sound of the amp is great. It does get worse folks. The one feature that I hate and I'm sure was not designed into the amp is that the great sound only lasts about 30 minutes depending on the temperature in the room at the time. The hotter the room is the shorter the great sound, and naturally if you are playing in a room below 50 degrees you will have a great sound all night.

Sound Quality: N/A
As I said the sound when first turned on is fantastic. I really upsets me that the sound deminishes as the amp warms up. There is a ratio here. Temperature = sound quality.

Reliability: N/A
This amp is totally unreliable unless you take a temperature reading when you first enter the room, and no one turns up the heat, and you do a calculation to see at what point in your set the sound quality and volume will drop off.

Customer Support: N/A
It cost me $50 to have a tech look at my amp and tell me he could not find anything wrong with it. The amp cost me $300. Now I am up to $350 for this amp and it still has a major problem. I am not going to put any more money into this amp. It is time for me to experiment with a solution on my own. Since heat seems to be the problem I will try to install a cooling fan on the power section. Oddley enough, if I set the amp on its side rather than its feet I do not experience the problem. I think the heat disapates from the amp by doing this, thus the sound does not degenerate and there is no drop in power. I am still experimenting with this theory. It does look rediculous with the amp on its side but it seems to help the problem.

Overall Rating: 2
If your only going to be playing one or two songs at a time, or if you are going to perform in a room that has near sub-zero temperature, what a great sounding little amp. if your going to be playing for three hours in a very warm room, forget it. This amp will aggrivate you to the point that you will do a Pete Townshend act on it.
I should have saved a little more money and fought a Fender amp.
If I owned Vox I would pull all of these amps from the market and burn them. This is gives a very embarassing blow to a great Vox reputation.

Submitted by Jay Shrub - The Shrubs at 03/08/2003 08:56

Price Paid: US $175 used

Features: 7
I have been using a blackface Fender Pro Reverb for years, and was tempted by the low price, channel-switching, cool look, etc. I was able to get good sound out of both channels, but it took more effort on the gain channel. But....what good are features if the amp doesn't work???

Sound Quality: 8
I loved the sound out of this amp. After decades of clean Fender tone getting a dirty VOX sound was cool. I plugged into this amp and old Beatles tunes just started pouring out. I like the sound of the Celestion 2x10's. But what good is good sound if the amp doesn't work?

Reliability: 1
Ran into the brown out problem during the first week. Took it to a great sound shop and they fixed it, but it took 2 months, getting schematics from Korg was an ordeal, or so I heard. Then used it for another month. Put an 8-band EQ into the line, next thing I knew black smoke was pouring out of this sucker. I pronounced the amp DEAD, I am not putting another penny into this.

Customer Support: 1
Terrible. Like I said the schematics on this amp are some big dark secret.

Overall Rating: 1
OK, what I ended up doing was yanking the amp out, and converting this into a cool looking extension speaker cab. Am currently driving with a Fender Champ II, with amazing results. $175 for the Celestions in a Vox cabinet makes this not quite a total loss. Champ II gives me what I was looking for, light weight amp for jamming, plus totally reliable and all tube. Celestions complement that amp well. Play Tele's and an American-made Schecter thru it. The Schecter overwhelms that amp/speaker combo a little, so I am mostly playing the Teles with this rig.

Submitted by Rich at 02/26/2003 17:47

Price Paid: US $305.00

Features: 10
This solid state amp features 2 channels (clean&dirty). the dirty channel gets it's tone from a 12ax7. 2 built in effects, reverb and tremelo. Also has a gain boost and mrb. switch (midrange boost). The speakers are 2 celestion ceramic 10's. on the back of the amp you get headphone jack, line out for recording and speaker ext. Quite an impressive package indeed.

Sound Quality: 9
The first thing to have in mind, forget every negative or positive review of this amp. Don't be mislead, my review is the difinitive one.
This is a killer amp giving you classic vox sound for a fraction of the price of its ac30 sibiling. Do not be mistaken this is not an ac30 but excellent in many respects.
SOME IMPORTANT FACTS on getting the best tone out of this amp.
1) THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO TO THIS AMP IS CHANGE THE STOCK CHINESE 12AX7 WITH A PHILLIPS BRAND 12AT7 ($10 DOLLARS). I'VE FOUND THAT THE TUBE IN THE GAIN CHANNEL ALSO EFFECTS THE TONE OF THE CLEAN CHANNEL. WHY A 12AT7 YOU ASK? THE 12AT7 IS A LOWER GAIN, BRIGHTER SOUNDING PREAMP AS COMPARED TO A 12AX7. WHAT DID THIS DO TO THE AMP? a) THE CLEAN CHANNEL. IMMEDIATELY I NOTICED THIS TUBE BROUGHT OUT MORE OF THAT GREAT SPARKLY, JANGLY, CLASSIC VOX SOUND THAT YOU HEAR ON CLASSIC BEATLES ALBUMS. IT ALSO KEPT THIS CHANNEL CLEANER WITH LESS GAIN AND MORE HEADROOM AS COMPARED TO ANY OTHER 12AX7.
b) THE DIRTY CHANNEL. FOR BEGINNERS THE DIRTY CHANNEL TENDS TO SOUND DARK NO MATTER WHERE THE BASS KNOB IS SET. I'VE FOUND THAT ENGAGING THE GAIN BOOST MAKES THE SOUND NICELY BRIGHTER, I RECOMMEND HAVING IT ON AT ALL TIMES. HERE THE BENIFITS OF THE 12AT7 ARE HEARD IN BRIGHTNING AN ALREADY DARK SOUNDING GAIN CHANNEL. IT ALSO CALMED DOWN THE ALMOST RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF GAIN TO A TOLERABLE MEDIAN. I PLAY GISON SG'S, LES PAULS, FENDER STRATS, RICKENBACKER 12, AND 325, EPIPHONE CASINO, ETC., ALL GUITARS, SINGLE COIL OR HUMBUCKERS SOUND GREAT THROUGH THIS AMP. ALL AROUND I THINK THIS AMP IS A GREAT PORTABLE AMP FOR PRACTICE AND RECORDING. ONE OF THE BEST AMPS IN ITS CATEGORY AND A BARGAIN IF YOU CAN GET ONE. UNFORTUANETLY ARE DISCONTINUED.

The only drawback I have noticed is that the amp is not to loud for a 30 watter and the dirty channel is not as loud as the clean. This is why I'm giving it a 9.

Reliability: 10
I have owned this amp for over 2 yrs. Played at home for a decent amount of hours. Has never broken down.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I have been playing for about 20 yrs. I have seen it all. I started purchasing the new reissue amps, you name it I have bought, played, modded just about everything out there (marshall, fender, rack gear,etc.,). I came to the expensive conclusion that nothing will ever sound as good as the old oringinal tubes amps. They can also be found for alot cheaper than the new reissues. I wish I knew then what I know now. I own several vintage amps 71 1959 marshall, fender bandmaster and bassman head, 74 fender super reverb, mesa boogie mark 1 reissue, acoustic 134 s.s., marshall 2100 50 watt 212 combo. Well you get the picture. For a new amp, the cambridge is a good tone machine. Looks great too.

Submitted by Hiram Perez at 02/05/2003 22:20

Price Paid: 400 (Canadian)

Features: 8
Vox Cambridge 30 Twin is a great practice amp. Tremelo, 2 channel (gain, clean), Reverb etc. It's a tube/solid-state hybrid. The tube is used for the pre-amp, and creates a different sound from other solis-state amps like the Fender Frontman 25. The Twin is 30 Watts, doesn't really get too loud, the Fender Frontman 25 Watts sounds louder, but it is really just a practice amp anyway.

Sound Quality: 9
I use a 50's Fender Telecaster with it. Sounds great on both channels especially with the Tele's bridge pickup. A Les Paul sounds garbage with this amp, stick with single coils. The Gain channel is muddy enough that humbuckers just create a wall of inaudible noise. I use this amp for Britpop styles, good for John Squire/Johnny Marr sounds. The Twin has a great variety of sounds availible. The clean channel is excellent to run effects through. The Gain channel can be too thick at high volume, and both channels lack enough treble.

Reliability: 10
I've had the Vox for 7 months with no problems. I use it regularily and have had no technical issues but am concerned with the other review's reliability problems. I'd say it is dependable, but not a gig amp, just as the wattage is low.

Customer Support: N/A
Never had to deal with them, and hope I never do! P.S. I never got a warranty with mine, the store didn't offer any.

Overall Rating: 10
I've been playinf for many years now and this amp is totally perfect for the styles and sounds I'm looking for. I would buy it again, but naturally would upgrade to something larger like a '65 Fender Twin. I chose it because the hybrid technology sounded interesting, and as far as practice amps are concerned, Fenders are just too common.

Submitted by Tim at 02/02/2003 17:47