Price Paid: N/A
Features: 9
As promised, the follow up on my 1976 VOX Escort that I bought new for about 25 English pounds.
I just finished rebuilding the PCB from scratch with top-of-the-line components (SoZo caps; cc resistors; found original BC184 and TB801S), and just tested it.
This thing sounds great! Even better than what I remembered (must be the good components).
Now that I've built one myself I COULD add some interesting features myself hehehe.
Still sounds great at whatever position of the knobs. No looking for a sweet spot.
Sound Quality: 10
Sounds fantastic, for a little bitty 2.5watt transistor amp.
Reliability: 10
Incarnation 1 of the amp lived thru the already described abuse for 21 years, when I burned it up after installing a different (110volt instead of the 220V one that my father had installed in 76) and slightly hotter power transformer.
Incarnation 2 is not yet an hour old so who will tell?
I am not expecting it to ever break down.
Customer Support: N/A
Still no experience with them.
Overall Rating: 10
As I said: when presented with the opportunity, snap one up.
Submitted by teye at 04/19/2005 12:00
Price Paid: 25 (Pound Sterling)
Features: 8
1976 - I moved to London as a teenager, with just my guitar and my hopes of "making it" in a Stones/Faces/Hendrix band (Oh Boy! The punk explosion had just started... I played in that band, but had to limp back home for obvious reasons: ran out of money...). There I was, without an amp. So after a few days of unamplified plinging in my bedsit room, I plunked down my hard-saved cash for the VOX escort. Choice was: a battery/mains model for 50 pounds, or the battery only for 25. Needless to say, I opted for the battery only (a mains transformer could be added (and was!) at a later time.)
It was either the VOX or a Fender Champ silverface. The VOX beat the Fender gloriously on SOUND!
Now the options on this VOX are: there is one "normal" input, that actually sounds very, very well, especially when driven by a line booster, and a "brilliant" input which has more gain and more presence. Then you have volume and "tone" control (which is actually a real tone control, going from more bass one side, to more neutral in the middle, to more treble in the other side: NOT just a treble roll-off!
To today's players, these options may seem ridiculously meager! To me, they mean, I could get a great sound out of any guitar, at any time. The amp simply sounded great in all positions of all knobs (a very rare thing: not looking for "sweet spots", on a tiny amp like this.)
Countless times have we plugged two guitars in it, just for convenience sake. Still sounded good.
Sound Quality: 10
I've played the following guitars thru the VOX escort, with the following results:
Gibson Les Paul: wonderfully fat tone, singing sustain on "brilliant" input, tone rolled back a little
Gibson SG; great bite, very "alive".
Danelectro "Longhorn": extremely aggressive and direct
Ampeg Dan Armstrong: especially good in "normal" input, with a line booster (Dan Armstrong having single coil p/u), a truly great sound.
Zemaitis Custom Deluxe: well, sonically this was the best, but little surprise there.
AND: Fishman equipped Reyes flamenco guitar (...) unbelievable but true: I used the VOX to gently amplify my guitar during flamenco dance lesson accompaniment, but ended up driving it quite loud to be heard over the footwork. No one believed it.
This little VOX sounded WAY better than the current offering of VOX pathfinders (I tried the little one and the one-above-the little one, and they don't cut it.)
Reliability: 10
My little VOX Escort lived thru the worst of the worst. It was regularly transported tied on the back of a bycicle, rain or shine, it was used for outdoor performances, always on "10" (I even used it to play a rock 'n' roll show in the patio of Paco Peņa, some 20 years ago - ask him, I'm sure he'll remember!)
In a fit of anger, I even kicked it against the ceiling once... It bouced back, rolled into a corner, and fired right back up.
The most dependable piece of gear I ever owned.
Customer Support: N/A
Well since it refused to die, I never had to contact them now did I?
Overall Rating: 10
Well I've played the piano since age 5; the guitar (my true calling) since 10, professionally since 19, and fully professional (no more side jobs) since age 27, and the list of gear is too long. Let me list some: about a dozen Ampeg VT-22 and V-4; a slew of tweed and blackface Fender amps (one blond Bassman...); a few Boogies Mark; now a 20Watt Boogie and a "VOX" that I made (AC30 front end/AC15 power amp, JMI specs, Don Butler parts, Weber 10's in a 70's AC15 enclosure); guitars: Gibson Les Pauls (one 1957), SG's, Flying V's, a Firebird, Gretsch 6120, couple of VOX teardrops (English and Italian), two Ampeg Dan Armstrongs, two Parker Fly Classics, an imitation of Prince's "Cloud" guitar (sounds great!), and my two Zemaitis Custom Deluxe's (pearl and metal front). Flamenco guitars by Manuel Reyes, Gerundino, Lester Devoe, classical by Manuel Contreras. Most of them sold, but the creme de la creme I still have of course!
And most of all, a happy life of music sweet music.
By the way, when I moved to the USA, I put a new, 110 Volt power transformer in the VOX escort, that gave a little extra voltage: 18 Volts rectified, compared to the 14 volts that my old European mains transformer gave. GREAT SOUND! But, at a rehearsal with the Joe Ely band (yes, using it in a full band setup - what was I thinking?) I blew up my little VOX escort. And haven't been able to fix it. But I recently received all the good parts, and will completely rebuild it! The ELAC speaker is still working fine.
Will post follow up if/when it starts to work again.
If you EVER come across one of these, snap it up!
Good luck to all,
Teye
(www.teye.com)
Submitted by teye at 04/16/2005 23:00
Price Paid: US $150.00 used
Features: 8
Tiny AC/Battery operated amp made in the 70/80s. It has just one channel: two inputs, volume, tone and a selector between battery and AC power. Just what you need for the purpose it was made... you can always add external pedal effects.
Sound Quality: 10
The sounds is pretty, it stays fairly clean even close to the maximum loudness... you can deal good tonal variations from very trebly to bassy, not bad for a 5" speaker. However don't expect much loudness: after all it's a 5 watter! Anyway, more than enough for busking with a double bass and drums played with brushes.
Reliability: 9
I bought mine second hand on e-Bay, it was 20 yrs old but in very good condition. It seems sturdy enough to stand a normal use.
Customer Support: N/A
Overall Rating: 9
From a sonic point of wiev, it's clearly outdated, especially if compared with more modern similar products (Crate Taxi for example); nonetheless is still able to do honestly his job and aestethically is TO DIE FOR! Super pretty, like a mini AC-30.
Submitted by Anonymous at 05/28/2004 12:31
Price Paid: N/A
Features: 2
2.5 watt mini amp in proper AC30 styled wood case (not nasty plastic like the newer AC1). Basic controls, Volume, Tone and On/Off. Pays homage to its older brothers by having "Normal" and "Brilliant" input jacks. 5 inch speaker, also a handy headphone socket. Produced from early 70s to mid 80s. Chickenhead knobs, real VOX badge and diamondcloth grille, this baby really looks the part. Early 1970s ones ran from batteries, later ones had provision for mains input as well.
Sound Quality: 10
Beats the crap out of Pignose, bags and bags of tone when you put something like a Les Paul or SG through it, it breaks up really nicely. Reasonably loud for its size, only rated at 2.5 watts, but ssounds bigger. Loads of bottom end. Fantastic recording amp or practice amp, but dont expect to fill a stadium without miking it up :-)
Reliability: 10
Very little to go wrong with these, the circuit is basic and bombproof. Only potential problem would be if you left batteries in there too long without using the amp, and the resulting acid leak.
Wooden case is extremely strong, you could throw it down stairs and it would still work.
Customer Support: N/A
Overall Rating: 9
I'd recommend anyone who's thinking about a Pignose amp to go check one of these babies out first. They are available time to time on the used market, and the difference in sound is very noticable. I'd look for a clean example though, these have been favourites with buskers for a long time, and they can pick up abuse quite easily like that, so make sure you get one that hasnt been thrashed. This sounds like it looks, a solid lump of British tone. I'd be very annoyed if it was stolen or damaged.
Submitted by Jay at 05/06/2001 09:48
