Vox Cambridge 30 Twin Reverb

Price Paid: US $350

Features: 6
the outputs for recording or running into a system were pretty nice... but as for anything else i wasnt that impressed.

Sound Quality: 5
i am playing through a crapy peavey right now with single coil pickups and a dod effects board. I play jazz hardcore emocore indie style rock music. The amp sounded pretty good for the first 20 something minutes, then it would just wig out and get really soft sounding, and thin, and basically crap out. It was really crazy, i still to this day dont understand why it does this.

Reliability: 6
well if you are playing longer than 20 minutes, dont get it. and if you have a band with a drummer that can actually hit the drums loud enough to be heard, dont get it because this thing cant cut through sound worth a flip. I ordered my amp off of zzounds, and when i got it i heard weird noises in it, so i opened up and the spring reverb cover was not even attached right... pretty gay.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 6
for me this amp had lots of potential if vox actually spent the time to not make a nice looking door stop. I personaly would not recommend buying this amp, i am currently in the process of selling it right now to pay for one of the most awsome amps i have played through, a peavey classic 50 4-10 wich i highly recommend. So if all you want to do is play in your room without anyone else, sure i guess buy it, but if you want to rock out, dont even look at this amp, all it is good for is sitting on when you are tired and kicking when you are mad.

Submitted by brandon at 06/29/2002 11:05

Price Paid: US $330

Features: 8
Simple appointments, nice tremolo. Very nice low volume practice amp. Not quite enough power to compete with drums.

Sound Quality: 9
I was impressed with the sweet clean channel tone at low volume. A nice practice amp. Tried using it in rehearsal with the band- it couldn't quite keep up volume-wise and the tone wasn't nearly as nice at high volume. The drive channel is OK but I prefer the sound of a distortion pedal through the clean channel. I wonder how important the one little preamp tube is to the tone? I've switched it out and noticed slight improvement.

Reliability: 5
I tried to use it at a small indoor gig and it suddenly lost all bass response and became distorted. Same sound through the headphone jack so not the speakers. Took it in for repair- they dignosed damaged circuit board possibly due to static. Been in the shop for 2 mo. now. When it gets back I'll relegate it to practice amp status only.

Customer Support: N/A
I may see if the warranty will cover this repair but haven't contacted them yet.

Overall Rating: 8
This amp has nice looks and sweet tone at low volume. Definitely not th most reliable amp I've ever owned. Still the price is right- i may still buy this one again.
I give it a 9 as a practice amp (minus 1 for reliabilty), but a 7 as an overall amp., avg. = 8

Submitted by Anonymous at 06/14/2002 13:24

Price Paid: US $350

Features: 10
I bought mine from Musicians Friend in July, 2000. I won't bore anybody by talking aboot the feature....we all know them by now....

Sound Quality: 7
I love the clean channel. Electrically, I own a '93 Gibson Les Paul Studio and a '00 Fender Nashville Telecaster. Both sound excellent thru it. The reverb on mine is very deep. The bass and treble also lead to versatility of tone. I have also played thru it with various Ovations. The CS-257 deluxe sounds good, but it is very difficult to control feedback. The CC-057 and CC-157 both sound nice without having to worry aboot feedback. As for the dirty channel, the planets seem to be aligned just right for it to sound good. It takes a lot of tweaking to get anything I can use....it's very muddy! It does work well for some Neil Young type sounds. If you want a good distortion thru it, use a pedal thru the clean channel! I now use it in combination with a Laney VC30-210 to create more sounds....works realy well with my set-up!!!! We've also used it to record with my brother's Ovation CC-157...works very well with the line-oot. We record onto a computer equipped with a low-budget software package. It gives a nice Beatles-type sound in the recordings.

Reliability: 9
I have been using it for gigs since November, 2001....only with the above mentioned Ovations. I had to place it in front of me and use a AC-1 amp (very cool little thing!) facing me as a monitor so I could hear myself....also used a Boss Compressor/Sustainer to take some bit out and to control feedback. I now play thru a Marshall AS50R...excellent acoustic amp! Anywho, outside of the feedback (I can't complain, it's not an ACOUSTIC AMP), it has been very reliable for small gigs lasting 3 hours or so. My brother has used it at our gigs since my acquisition of the Marshall with no problems. I will begin using it combined with the Marshall to create more sounds as listed above. I feel confident it will get thru the shows.

Customer Support: N/A
I've never had to contact Customer Support for my amp.

Overall Rating: 8
Overall rating would be an 8. This amp has taken a beating in many reviews, but you need to remember what you are buying...it's not an AC30!!! It's a 30 watt solid-state amp. If you are looking for a "crunch monster", don't buy this, buy a Fender Princeton 65, it crunches! If you are looking for a beatiful clean channel with nice reverb and tremolo, this is it...at least mine sounds good! I was very disappointed in the dirty channel, and came very close to getting rid of it on many occasions, but I'm very glad I have held onto it. However, if lost or stolen, I would not replace it...I'd go after another Laney VC30-210! If the amp ever dies, I'll probably "jerry-rigg" it to be used as an extension cabinet for my other amps....because it does look very nice! I hope this has been helpful to you.

Submitted by anthony at 06/03/2002 12:31

Price Paid: N/A

Features: N/A
THIS IS A REVIEW OF MY REVIEW, OF MY REVIEW. i HAVE BEENREADING ABOUT VOLUME, AND BROWN OUT PROBLEMS. I SENT IN A REVIEW AWHILE BACK SAYING MINE HAD QUIT NO VOLUME, A VERY FINE AMP TEC FIX IT. IT WAS THE OPTICAL ISOLATION CHIP TIED INTO THE TREMLO CIRCUT IT CONTROLS THE VOLUME OF BOTH CLEAN & OVERDRIVE HE REPLACED IT WITH DIFFERENT ONE OF HIGHER VALUE AT MY RE QUEST MUCH MORE VOLUME 2ICE AS MUCH, DOESN'T HAVE QUITE AS GOOD A TREMLO SOUND BUT OVER ALL WORKS MUCH BETTER, IF THIS GOES OUT I'M GOING TO HAVE HIM BY PASS THE TREMLO ALL TOGETHER i USE A ZOOM 505 ANY WAY. JUST WANTED TO HELP PEOPLE WITH BROWN-OUTS AND NO VOLUMES

Sound Quality: N/A

Reliability: N/A

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: N/A

Submitted by Doran Boudreau at 05/04/2002 17:25

Price Paid: US $379.00

Features: 10
You all know the features, this is a review of my review

Sound Quality: 10
It sounds great

Reliability: 1
this is the rub bought 06-6-2000 bit the dust 03-29-202 not very dependable for 379 bucks. Took it to a service shop two weeks ago,theysaid they service warranty stuff first don't know when I'll get it back.

Customer Support: 1
It sucks!

Overall Rating: 4
I'll give it 10 for sound if you can just keep it playing,got a 30 year old Fender all valve Bandmaster still plays great. Love the sound of vox poor reliabilaty, Don't know for sure but if you would have trouble wit a valvtronics, I'll bet it's a bear to get it fixed.

Submitted by Doran Boudreau at 04/11/2002 19:10

Price Paid: US $359

Features: 9
I very much like this amp's features: vibrato, reverb, gain boost. It's what I wanted in an amp. The vibrato is deep sounding and very nice. The reverb is decent, though it doesn't have a rich sound. Gain is outrageous! I play a Fender Toranado, which is a gain monster so that helps. Headphone jack is great for silent practicing, and the line out works well for lo-fi recording. Mid boost alters the sound quite a bit, too. Overall, if you spend a bit of time you can get a bunch of different cool & crazy sounds.

Sound Quality: 8
Do NOT mistake this amp for a "real" Vox. It is not. However, it CAN actually reach some kinda Vox-y sounds. The aforementioned Toronado has 2 humbuckers that provide high gain sound/output, which is a great combo with this amp. The clean is nice, too. Not much buzz either. With Vox, the clean sound is never really totally clean, as there's always a bit of growl in there. The gain channel is great! Change tubes as recommended by others and the sound change will be noticable. However, I like the stock tube. The vibrato is a nice touch and reverb is fine, but not great. This amp is also not loud enough to play with a typical drummer but it does rocka little. Don't expect high volumes.

Reliability: 3
As for reliability. my amp is/was a golden turd. After a couple months, it began to brown out after 30 min. of use. Took it to be fixed by the pros and they couldn't completely rectify the problem. Now it's okay (for practice) but I could not play out with it. Also, now it periodically produces a wavey sound, supposedly by a ghost in the vibrato channel. Very, very disappointing.

Customer Support: 3
I took the amp to be repaired by a great company who had a heck of a time dealing with Vox/Korg. An overall hellacious ordeal. Now, the Cambridge 30 Reverb Twin is no longer being made so I can't even get a replacement from the store where I originally purchased it from though they offered an exchange. The warranty covered the repair, but it's a moot point, as the amp couldn't be totally fixed without assistance from Korg which never happened.

Overall Rating: 7
Despite the problems, I can't part with this turd of an amp. It looks & sounds super cool. I'm not much of a gearhead either so I can live with it. Stolen? Naturally, I'd be pissed, but I imagine that I could live out the remainder of my life in peace. However, too spite the thief I'd buy an expensive Orange half-stack and rock the universe!
*Peace*

Submitted by gp at 03/27/2002 12:29

Price Paid: US $365 used

Features: 5
This amp is ok for the basic beginner guitar player. It only has two on board effects (reverb and tremelo). The reverb is very lacking as far as resonance is concerned. The amp also has two channels, one for tone and one for distortion. The distortion channel is British sounding and does not provide much kick at all. The tone channel is ok but the bass, mid, and treble adjustments don't seem that sensitive to me. Both effects and channels can be accessed through a footswitch which is included with the amp. It does have a headphone jack but a converter is needed (guitar cable size--not sure of exact size). The amp comes equipped with two ten inch bulldog celestion speakers putting out 30 watts of power. I have played it miked and in that situation, the lacking 30 watts makes no difference. However, for practice and playing small gigs, a more powerful amp would be a better decision. This amp is very lightweight too. All in all, the amp is not very versatile at all but is a Vox and comes with a certain amount of nostalgia anyway.

Sound Quality: 5
I play an LTD EC-300 Eclipse. My guitar does not really match up with the sound of the Vox. I play punk, praise and worship, contemporary christian, and metal. The style of music that the amp is most suited for is probably the contemporary christian and the praise and worship. I really think a telecaster or stratocaster would sound good with it. The two tens seem to shoot sound out like a bullet in one direction which is a huge con. When you move from side to side or stand above the amp, the sound changes. I use an amp stand for practice, and I think that even makes it worse.

Reliability: 10
I have never had a problem with it but I have only owned it for 2 months. I bought it used on ebay, and it was in perfect working condition. I think the guy before me had it for about a year or so with absolutely no problems.

Customer Support: N/A
I have never dealt with anyone regarding the amp.

Overall Rating: 5
I have been playing guitar for about 3 years and I don't think the amp is suited for me. A beginner would enjoy the amp and the right to say he or she owned a Vox. If this amp were stolen or lost I do believe I would purchase a different one. I think the amp would be alot better if it had two twelve in. speakers instead of two ten in. speakers. The looks are ok, the sound is ok and the price is ok.

Submitted by Anonymous at 03/07/2002 22:10

Price Paid: US $300

Features: 8
2 channels, gain, gain boost switch, reverb, tremolo, bass, treble, mid range boost siwtch, headphone, line out, extension, and footswitch jacks.

Sound Quality: 10
I've been playing for 3 years now and was looking to move up from some cheesy practice amps. I have a Mex Fender Strat and play a mix of rock, classic rock, grunge, folk and country. No metal. I'm not the greatest player in the world but I know the sound I'm looking for. I played a large number of amps in this price range including Fender, Line 6, Marshall. When I played the Cambridge, I fell in love. On the clean setting, this amp stands up to anyone. On the gain channel, it had the unique sound I was looking for. The tremelo is awesome. However, once I got this amp home I found that all the reviews are true. With distortion, this amp sounds very dark and has a limited range of acceptable sounds. It didn't bother me too bad since I usually use effects through the clean side anyway but after reading all the reviews I had to change the tube. Yes, it makes a big difference. It is now hard to find a setting that sounds bad. My warning here is that not all tubes sound the same in this amp. I tried 3 tubes and was only thrilled with one, a Tesla 12AX7. If you change the tube you may need to do some experimenting. I hope to try some premium NOS tubes later on but for now I am happy.

Reliability: 10
No problems yet

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
It's not an AC30 but for the price this is a damn good amp. If you use the distortion you do need to change that tube but hey, it's only one tube!

Submitted by Clark at 03/07/2002 21:29

Price Paid: $700 (Australian)

Features: 9
We all know what the amp has and doesn't have, but it certainly has all that I need. The tremelo is fantastic, the reverb okayand unlike so many I like bothe channels. I don't think I'll replace the tube as it gives me the exact tone that I'm after.

Sound Quality: 10
I think this amp really is for single coil guitars. I use a Maton mastersound, to those of you who are not familiar with this guitar it is a 60's style with one single coil an one switchable to humbucker. They sound very much like a cross between a tele and a rickenbacker. As you can imagine that would sound great with the vox. Today I recorded with it in the studio for the first time and I was amazed at how well it came up. Just pure valve vox tone (just fantastic) I don't seem to get the muddy sound on channel 2 that so many have mentioned. The amp sounds just like a really old valve amp. I can't believe the way it responds to my playing style, hit the guitar hard and you get the coolest crunch distortion, then play softly and it brings out the sweetest purest vox tone. Name one other amp at this price that can do that.

Reliability: 10
so far so good

Customer Support: N/A
not required yet

Overall Rating: 10
I guess I've been playing for about 15 years, pro for around 4. If it were stolen I would replace it in an instant. I love the way it looks, the way it sounds, it's size but I can't stand that stupid "valve power" badge in the bottom right corner. I did compare this amp to many others and infact I could have bought a 50w or 60w Peavey, Marshall or Fender amp for around the same money but none of them had the tone I was after. if you are a lead guitarist playing in a loud rock band, then obviously don't buy this amp,it won't do what you want it to. If you are a purist who loves that 60's valve tone, then you will love this amp. From the first strum, I was in love!

Submitted by Nick James at 01/31/2002 06:38

Price Paid: US $349.00

Features: 6
Rating 6, one channel is tube, the other transistor. Has headphone output, external footswitch output, etc. The functionality of this amp, in the very beginning, was good. I encountered problems with the channel switching each time I used the amp, as when it 'heated up,' the footswitch would not switch the channels. (relay?).

Sound Quality: 5
I was using this amp for soul/Motown, with a Fender Stratocaster and an archtop with humbucker. This amp would sound wonderful at first power-up, with nice thick tone, good for blues or even jazz. Songs like "Rainy Night In Georgia" or "Dock of the Bay" sounded great with a touch of reverb, with the clean channel and volume up about 1/2. However, each time the amp would warm up (even at 1/2 volume) the clean "Vox-y" sound would become distorted, especially with the input signal from the archtop. The sound became very thin, labored and non-usable live. The second channel (tube) was totally unusable and was, at best, distortion with no control. Frankly, the gig I played last night was virtually miserable because of the problems with the channel switching going away and the fact this amp would 'bake out' at about 1/2 volume. In short, this amp would have been fine if I only had to use it for 2-3 songs...but certainly not in any live environment, even considering the amp was sitting on a stand five feet from me. It is clearly not the amp that I was hoping for and I have since got my money back from Mars Music. I'll switch to a Delta Blues or Hot Rod DeVille for another $300.

Reliability: 1
In one week, this amp showed signs of problems. As mentioned before, the channel switching internal circuitry seemed to go bad after warming up, using a very top-end 3-position pedal (not made by Vox). Each time I would unplug it for a while, plug it back in, it would work fine. But, it would go away.

The clean channel (non-tube) was far better than the second (tube) channel, but both suffered so much from lack of power, even at low volumes that this amp was completely unusable on stage. When I finally drove the amp full blast (using my guitar master volume to try to survive the night during my solos) the output literally cut out, (yes, completely) then back, then out, almost in a linear fashion. I assume the output transistors were saturating and coming back out of thermal.

With all of that being said, this would be a great student amp, for someone who played in the basement, living room, church, etc. and didn't need any volume to speak of. Otherwise, (as so many have written in other reviews) it is really an amp that shouldn't be considered 'gig-worthy.' My honest opinion.

Customer Support: 5
I simply returned this amp to Mars Music, and the two young men at the desk both nodded their head and said "I believe this happened, because that is what others have said as well (paraphrased)." Mars was quick to respond and I got my money back. It's off to the store tomorrow to buy a tube amp this time, with outputs that don't bake at 1/2 volume.

Overall Rating: N/A
I've played for 26 years; hard rock, jazz, Motown, and blues. This is the first amp I've ever returned to a music store. I love Vox equipment, and though this review is very critical, it is sincere. This is not an AC-15, nor an AC-30, or a Royal Guardsman for that matter. I collect Vox and love the things they made. This amp is however not a true representation, in my honest opinion.

Submitted by Dave at 01/25/2002 18:12