Vox Pathfinder 10 Combo

Price Paid: US $69.00

Features: 8
Brand new '04 Korean made SS Practice amp...V/G/B/T input /LO-HP Overdrive switch..pretty basic but works well. Great for practice and home recording..with the OD on has enough umph for small jams and tiny gigs (java hut, house parties, xmas carols for the OAPs..)just keep the drummer on bruses or rods!

Sound Quality: 8
Squire Strat, Tele& cheepie 335 copy..mostly use this clean for Brit invasion stuff and other '60s style pop, R&B ect. Pretty quiet esp. on clean..noisy if you crank it but I never do..Sounds pretty Voxy ..with the 335 I can get some nice "Beatles Tone" clean. With the OD on and just a bit of gain the Tele does the Yardbirds thing.. Back to clean; add a Dano Trem ped and the Strat.. vola YOU are Hank Marvin! ( dorky glasses optional) Has the chime and "ampy resonance" (I read that in a AC-30 review once..) that defines the Vox sound..most impressive for a budget offering, and IMHO this sounds a bit better than the 15r. BTW forget about "brutal distortion" it's not here..it's overthere in the Brian May

Reliability: 8
Had a 15r, a Cambridge 15 and a Brian May never had a bit of trouble..(except the lack of chime which this has in spades..) Friend had a AC-15 which needed some work.. was taken care of toot sweet, by the local repair shop

Customer Support: 10
Yes I have..they get a 10. Mitch & Hugh should make a million bucks by giving CS demos to the rest of the industry. excelent repair center right near my home 1 year Warranty (hey my Marshall MG 10 has five perhaps this should be a 9...)

Overall Rating: 10
LONG time player. In addition to this I have a Park G10r 1x8 combo..(my BIG amp ..he he) and a Mashall MG10cd (for my Epi LPJ ) all are nice little amps and are true bargans..Incredible what you can get these days..I dont know why everone is chasing big $$$ AC-4's , Capries, Champs, and Little Giants when you can waltz in to most any shop and get stuff like this for pocket $

Submitted by Buglecorps at 10/21/2004 07:41

Price Paid: N/A

Features: 10
it has all that it needs

Sound Quality: 9
the clean tone is quite impressive for such an inexpensive amp. My tele comes through clean and open, without a hint of mud. It sounds much bigger/fuller than the tiny speaker might lead to beleive. I havn't jamed with it but i bout it for practice/recording and it suits me perfectley. I dont bother with the amps od section. For dirt I rely on my sparkledrive which is a great match with the pathfinder. It's subtle overdrive on rythm work can be very satisfying.

Reliability: 10
Havn't had any problems

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
I wouldn't upgrade from this amp to anything less than a high end boutiqe amp. In this case lack of tubes does not mean lack of tone. Nothing else gives more bang for the buck ever!

Submitted by Anonymous at 07/16/2004 17:01

Price Paid: 120 (NZ Dollars (US$1 = NZ$2))

Features: 9
I got this amp about 6 months ago, as my bass amp is not the best for practising guitar. It has clean & distortion channels, bass and treble controls, gain & volume. Headphone jack is a good thing. This thing is plenty loud enough for using in a bedroom.

Sound Quality: 9
I use it with an Epiphone G-400 SG, and this amp is great! Some people have complained about the distortion sound, but I love it. It is unique, and at full gain is hilarious. Suits messy songs like the White Stripes, and with my SG I can get lots of nice distorted sounds. The clean channel is great too, I use my friend's USA Tele and it is clean as a whistle. It is a very rich sound considering it is a 6" cone! You have ot keep the gain as low as possible to get the best clean sounds though (makes sense huh).

Reliability: 10
It seems pretty solid, as a bedroom amp it is fine.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I have been playing guitar for a few years, I use it to write songs, as it's a little hard on my bass. This amp suits me perfectly, especially since it is so tiny but sounds good. It would be nice to have reverb, but for the price I'm not complaining.

Submitted by Simpy at 06/24/2004 17:50

Price Paid: US $70 used

Features: 8
This amp is pretty damn good!!! I bought this off the net because I needed an amp that I can use early in the morning without having to worry about police coming to the house. It has standard controls for Bass, Treble, Volume, Gain..... It has a 6 1/2 inch speaker (custom voiced) and an Overdrive switch.

Sound Quality: 10
This amp sounds amazing!!! I use a couple of Gibsons with it and they both sound beautiful. I can't imagine any guitar to not sound great with this amp. I've never played a Vox amp before, always have been a marshall guy, but this one is the perfect practice amp for me. The gain is just powerful, I mean you could really do heavy heavy rock with it. It makes your guitar sing when you play lead. Great variety of sounds too! From Beatle clean, to Sabbath nasty and maybe more... GET IT!

Reliability: 1
Just got it, dunno how tough it's gonna be in the long run. Looks pretty solid and I really don't plan on bringing it outside the house.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I normally don't waste my time filling these reviews anymore, just cause for the simple fact that I haven't bought anything that made me so excited/ got so impressed with. But I'm here cause this thing rocks and I wanna tell those pickers that are thinking about getting a nice little amp for practice/ a nice little amp for those early morning cravings, to GO GET ONE. You really won't be disappointed. Great tones you can pull out of this one. ROCK ON BROTHER!

Submitted by Slowhand V at 05/13/2004 11:29

Price Paid: US $78.00

Features: 6
VERY SIMPLE AMP. IMPUT JACK ,GAIN,BASS,TREBLE,VOLUME,HEADPHONE/LINE
OUT JACK,POWER ON LIGHT,ON/OFF SWITCH. LARGE LUNCH BOX SIZE PRACTICE
AMP WITH 6 1/2" SPEAKER.

Sound Quality: 7
BOTH NICE CLEAN AND OVERDRIVE SOUNDS. OWN 9 ELEC.GUITARS AND THEY ALL
SOUND OK ON CLEAN, HUMBUCKERS BETTER ON OVERDRIVE. BASS AND TREBLE
EFFECTIVE AT ANY VOLUME. THIS IS JUST A SMALL SOLID STATE PRACTICE
AMP, VERY LOUD FOR ITS' SIZE.

Reliability: 9
OVER 2 YEARS, USED TWO OR THREE TIMES A WEEK WITH NO PROBLEMS

Customer Support: N/A
NEVER HAD TO CONTACT THEM.

Overall Rating: 9
I WANTED A SMALL PRACTICE AMP WITH GOOD VOLUME,EASY TO CARRY FROM
ROOM TO ROOM. I ALSO OWN A VOX CAMBRIDGE TWIN(WHICH HAS A BAD REP.)
AND SOME TIME USE THE PATHFINDER 10 AS A PRE-AMP. WORKS MUCH BETTER
THAN CAMBRIDGE OVERDRIVE.
I MUST SAY HOW COOL THE PATHFINDER-10 LOOKS. HAS SAME STYLE AS AC-30.
FOR SOMEONE STARTING OUT,THIS SHOULD BE ON YOUR LIST AS A FIRST AMP.
LOW PRICE,KILLER LOOKS AND VERY LOUD FOR ITS SIZE. I WOULD BUY IT
AGAIN.

Submitted by POPS at 05/03/2004 08:38

Price Paid: 41 (chile)

Features: 9
2 chanels, gain, bass, high and level controls, very vox.
i'd liked and effects loop to add reverb, delay or modulation sometimes, but for the price you have a full range of sounds, capable of let you practice any style with a light, tranportable unit.
good look is another shiny feature of this baby.

Sound Quality: 10
(for the price)AWESOME!!, tiny cheap amp, but with a terric sound, clean is the best i've heard in this range, and in a lot a realy lot of upper ranges too!!, very clear beautifull sounding, the first time i heard it i was impresed with the bass it was giving; dont espect a tube twin sound but yes a very voxy clean.
the distortion, at the begining, i didnt like it so much, it gets a little buzzy with the gain turned up, but once u get use to it its very playable...with any style, with low gain about 0,5 an so, you can get a good blues tone, increasing it you'll geting heavier sounds even to play metal tunes at gain 10.

Reliability: 10
very compact and solid.

Customer Support: N/A
never deal

Overall Rating: N/A
10, for me this is THE practice/room/jaming amp, with its realy voxy looks its like an adornment for the room, not like that ugly cheap "marshall" or "fender" practice amps, you can easily carry it everywhere, and of course get good tones out of it.
the distortion could sound better, maybe like the vox valvetone pedal, but i think vox sacrife the quality of the distortion to get a wide range of sounds to cover more styles, wich is good too.

Submitted by gato at 04/24/2004 23:44

Price Paid: US $75

Features: 10
This amp has just the features I was looking for. Input jack, headphone/line out jack, clean/overdrive channel button and gain, treble, bass, and volume controls. Nice and simple.

It's solid-state, rated 10 watts, and has a single 6.5 inch speaker but it is quite loud and big-sounding for such a small amp.

I frequently use the line out jack to drive the 12-inch speaker in my Crate GX-30M to add a little more volume, and it sounds even better.

Cosmetically, it looks and feels great. I'm amazed at the level of detail for such a seemingly small amp.

Sound Quality: 10
I use this amp with a Jay Turser JT-200C (Les Paul copy) and Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster, and it sounds great! It has enough power and volume to fill a room no problem. Even plugging my Digitech GNX3 into it sounds good.

Alone it gives a great clean sound, and the overdrive is better than the overdrive channels on way more expensive solid-state amps.

Reliability: 10
It seems very well built with quality parts. It's solid-state so I don't forsee any problems, assuming it never falls down 10 flights of stairs. I take good care of all my gear, regardless of what I paid for it.

Customer Support: N/A
I've never had to deal with them and hope I never do!

Overall Rating: 10
I bought it to keep in my room to keep from lugging bigger amps up and down the stairs all the time, and it serves its purpose well. It was only $75 at a local music store (Huber and Breese, Detroit area) because they were probably looking to get rid of the 3 they had. What an incredible value! This is probably the best $75 I've ever spent on any piece of guitar-related gear.

Very versatile and many possibilities for this amp. I miked it and recorded a few tracks with it, and it sounds absolutely fantastic.

Some day I'd like to get my hands on an AC30, but this will help pacify my Vox desires until then.

If you have a hundred bucks or so to spare, buy this amp! YOU WILL NOT BE SORRY!

Feel free to contact me if you want some sound samples.

Submitted by Adam Jeanguenat at 03/06/2004 16:48

Price Paid: $100.00 Long & Mcquade (CANADIAN)

Features: 10
2003 VOX Pathfinder 10, "solid state"(but "similar" to tube sound)10 watts of power!Has those instantly recognizable, warm British sounds you’ve come to expect from a VOX. This 10-Watt, 1 x 6.5" combo’s eye-catching looks are classic VOX and I love the basket-weave, leather-look vinyl, distinctive diamond grille cloth and, of course, chicken head knobs! I'm a sucker for vinyage looking amps! Small but all-important details such as the gold beading and white piping have also been faithfully reproduced on this amp, perfectly recapturing the legendary look of the VOX amp.
It looks really "voxy" which I love! This is the perfect practice amp for me and for anyone considering buying their first guitar amp.
Very light(10lbs) and has a carry handle on the top, not that it needs one, but it looks cool.

Top Panel Features

Gain Control, Treble Control,Bass Control, Volume Control, 2-modes(clean/ overdrive switch) ,Headphone/Line Out Jack. This dual output carries a specially filtered signal for use with either headphones or for direct connection to a soundboard or recording console. The LINE OUT gives you a good sounding signal for recording or live work without having to mic up the amp. Inserting a jack-plug into this jack will mute the internal speaker.
Power ON/OFF Switch & LED. On/Off switch for mains (AC) power to amplifier. Plus power indicator LED.

Dimensions: 14.96"(w) x 6.69"(d) x 10.24"(h)
Weight: 4.8Kg or 10lbs

This little buddy unfortunately does not have a footswitch for switching between channels, This is one thing that would have been useful just for jamming with a couple of buddies or something, but what can I expect for $100.00 Canadian.

I just fell in love with the look of this amp,Vox went all out in making this amp look as good as it sounds.Great effort given by the people at Vox! I'd have to give the features a 10 for the catagory this amp falls in.

Sound Quality: 10
I want to start off by saying the following. This is my only amp at the moment. I was ready to buy a fender twin reverb amp for $775.00CND the day before I bought this amp.When I phoned the music store, it was sold 15 minutes prior to my call. Neeedless to say, I was pissed! Thats a great deal for that amp in canada. So, I figured I wasn't meant to have the twin. Well, I'm glad i didn't get the twin now because the nexy day I went and bought this amp for $100.00 new!
I didn't plan on buying this amp but I saw it and liked the look of it and thought to myself," All I really need at the moment for guitar playing at home is something small like this, a little practice amp". So i plugged a epiphone casino into it and tried it.........

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was in complete utter shock, Really! i knew it was heaven sent for me. i absolutely loved it from the start! It reminded me of the fender twin kind of tone at a lower volume. And lower volume is what i needed now since i have a 8 Month old boy and have to be quiet most of the time. I just wanted a great tone, and here I thought I had to buy a fender twin amp to get it! NOT!
I literally played it for about 10 seconds and unplugged it and went and bought it immediately,the only one in the store i wasn't going to let this one get away like the twin! This is my kind of tone! and i can't fathom how i'm getting it out of a small little squirt like this. I call it my baby VOX!
I'm using a epiphone B.B king lucille semi-hollowbody guitar and a washburn J-6 Montgomery through this little baby!
The B.B king epi sounds unreal through this amp, I gotta say, " I was litterally in shock", my wife came home and I was going on and on...telling her how i found the tone i was looking for in a 10watt $100.00 amp. needless to say, she was happy. i bet she was thinkin,"now if he only could settle for a $100.00 guitar!"
Ok, all that aside, this baby rocks! I'm serious. Metal heads would not like the natural sound of the amp, but with an effects unit maybe? I've been playing Blues/ jazz for 15 years now. I owned a super reverb, marshall 5150 ("yes they did make a 5150 model back in the80's) amp, traynor studio mate tube amp, played through my buddies fender hot rods... and vibrolux reverb.
I know what a good blues tone is when i hear one.
The thing I like best about this amp is , it holds it tone evenly all the way up, I love the sound the amp gives at high volume with moderate gain. This is a real blues jazz amp combo, i like the crystal clean sound of it too,not quite as crystal as a twin reverb amp, but comparable in a way. and the overdrive is nice for blues when slightly "broken up". Don't like the distoration when fully cranked(volume10,gain10). but then again, what amp does sound good that way? My jazz guitar sounds awesome through this amp!
I don't know if it's just the selection of guitars i'm using or if it's just that this amp is just kick ass!
i didn't think small practice amps like this were meant to sound this good. i'm so glad i tried one out. if it's solid state, I usually pass it up. I've learned a lesson in this case, never judge a book by its cover! As someone said earlier in one of the reviews" thy didn't print on the bo,"tube'like sound", they should have, maybe more people would try em out. If you had a tube vox, maybe this amp would sound horrible to you, i don't know.
It has great bass and glassy trebly when needed. i don't really miss the mids like some people have said. i hardly ever used them anyways on any amp i've had, maybe dailed at "3" at most some amps at 6. With the epi b.b lucille guitar you can get an incredible variety of tones out of this amp. Don't get no hum either at moderate volumes.
But this amp will definetly surprise you, i mean it, i can't stress that enough. I might get another one and run it in stereo with my varitone b.b king epiphone,"it has stereo inputs", i'd bet that wo

Reliability: N/A
no opinion really . I Take care of it...for gods sake "it's a "baby" VOX! If it breaks down, i will just buy another for a measly $100.00 new. i think it will last if it's taken care of.

Customer Support: N/A
Havn't had to deal with them yet, hopefully not!

Overall Rating: 10
I've been playing for 15 years, and I know good gear when I hear it.I wouldn't buy any marshall practice amps this size, they all suck! same goes for fender and whateverin this catagory of amp....this amp is practice amp king in my eyes. I would buy 2 more even if i blew it up playing, or if it got stolen.I compared this amp to a fender blues junior which was $599.99 canadian. Nice little amp too but the difference wasn't worth another 600.00 bucks, really!
With the b.b king epiphone, this amp kicks ass. And my washburn j-6 montgomery jazz guitar sounds sweet through this little sucker!
This amp sounded so good to me that i wanted to keep it a secret and tell no one about my little discovery until i read about what all you guys had to say about it too.....hehehehe, guess its not a secret?
best practice amp out there for this kinda dough!if you hear a better amp for 100 big ones, let me know... again ...have to give it a 10...sorry harmony cantral guys, but it is what it is in this catagory of amps. not fair to compare it to a fender twin or anything, really.

Submitted by Jason Hobbs at 02/14/2004 19:26

Price Paid: NZ ($100) used

Features: 7
2001 model according to the box and manual. For the purposes of description, it's a 10 watt solid-state practise amp with a 6" speaker. Two channels with clean/overdrive switch, gain, trebble, bass adn volume controls, line out/headphone jack. Lacks reverb, but for the size, and price, that's to be expected.

Great looking amp with vintage-styled knobs and tweedy cabinet, reminds me of a mini AC-30, carry handle on top and open back cab. Smaller than many practise amps I have used, but very light and compact, a perfect bedroom amp or one for guffing around with a couple of mates. Not sure how it'll hold up in a band practise situation and I doubt it's a gigging unit unless you mike it up to a potent PA or run it through a seriosuly big speaker cab.

For what it is, it has all the neccessary bits and pieces, though I feel it could of used a midrange EQ frequency, though I won't get picky. It's probably aimed at the very basic market, but that's what I bought it for. The best thing is that these features, although common, do work well i.e. the knobs are all responsive and the switches click with definition. As such, I rate it well.

Sound Quality: 8
This amp is the most tonally variable practise combo I've used in some time, more close to the sound I've been after - a mixture of overdrive and distortion that is neither too heavy nor light. I'm influenced by bands like Interpol, The Strokes, At the Drive In, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The White Stripes - my tone of choice is a dirty overdriven sound that can clean up nicely, or go into full cranking haze. This is evidenced on the White Stripes album "Elephant" or on Interpol's "Turn on the bright lights"

Currently, I'm using a Squire Bullet strat with single coils running through a Boss BD-2 Bluesdriver and DS-1 Distortion. I personally prefer humbuckers (had an Epiphone SG I regretably sold a few weeks before I got the Vox) but the Squire sounds very nice, I get a bluesy kind of fuzz that I'm fond of running it through the clean channel with the gain on about 1/3 and the volume higher, both pedals respectively set for mild overdrive and distortion.

The gain channel on overdriven channel produces a similar sound to my pedals, though probably a bit harsher and with too much bass. The Vox also runs the best clean sound I've heard in some time on a combo this size, surprisingly so. I like the fact I can add a bit of gain on the clean channel as I don't like my clean too clean, if you know what I mean =).

A lot of people had blagged the distortion and whilst I agree it's not the best, I prefer it to many other amps, including my larger 40w solid state amp and even my 50 all-tube head and cabinet, at low volumes anyway. However, I like the fact that the Pathfinder 10 doesn't sound like it's about to explode at higher volumes and keeps its tone intact.

I'm really looking forward to getting a humbucker'd guitar and shredding out some sounds on the Vox, but for now, I'm pretty happy with the sounds. Again, a mid-range EQ and reverb would of been handy, but I feel I've done this amp justice with my current range of gear.

Reliability: 7
Don't really know, only had a couple of days. However, the last owner never had any issues and he apparently pushed it pretty hard over the 3 years he owned it. I've read that Vox are pretty mechanically sound most of the time.

Certainly wouldn't gig with it - just not enough juice unless it had a major overhaul and got mic'd to a 500w PA. Even then, it'd probably not have the balls to play to a crowd of over 30. It's a practise amp anyway, and I have a tube amp and cab for gigs.

For the usage it's going to get though - me jamming at home for half an hour most days and band practise once a week or so, it should do the trick.

Customer Support: N/A
Warrantly long gone.
Vox has a good website and apparently these are easy to service according to local NZ music stores.

Overall Rating: 8
Been playing guitar sporadically for about seven years, but only really with a degree of committment in the last two. I'm fan of the alternative/indie/progressive rock-scene but I have a soft spot for blues-based rock as well and the Vox fits that sound better than any other amps I've had to date. I don't think it's entirely the complete tone I yearn for, but I'm hard to satisfy and will probably keep trying stuff.

I've had about a half dozen amps, some tube, some solid state over the last year or so, everything from 30 year old all valve heads to modern solid state amps with "trans-tube/vavletronix/valvestate" or whatever they want to dub tube-modelling enhancements. I find I keep coming back to these smaller amps as they can get the overdriven/distorted tones I like at lower volumes then other amps.

What I like about the Vox Pathfinder 10 is that nowhere on the amp packaging or manual does it allude to having a "tube-like" sound, a refreshing fact in itself, yet it sounds more vintage then many of the other amps I've used. I really like the simplicity, yet variability of this amp and the fact it is such a "sleeper".

I bought this on a spur-of-the-moment decision after I got sick of trying to coax a tone I liked out of my Ashton 40w solid state combo or my monster Gunn 50 tube head and singl-12" cab at lower volumes (great clean tone, but rubbish unless you crank the volume to full - which unfortunately everyone in my entire town can hear and be irritated by), a decision I'm very happy with. Ideally, I'd like to own a medium-sized tube-combo like a Peavey Classic 30 or 50, Fender Hot Rod Deville or Twin or ideally, a Marshall JCM 900 (I'm a sucker for the Marshall rock tone) but for the time being, this baby will do me fine. I need a new guitar before an amp anyway.

If it were stolen, I'd be upset, consider buying another but look into tube practise amps instead - Peavey Classic 20 or Kustom 12A spring to mine.

You can buy these things new for about $300 here in New Zealand, but I paid a third of that and I see them online for sale around that price fairly often, if you can get one cheap, you'll respect it despite any reservations about what style you play. I've gotten jazz/blues, classic rock, hard rock, grunge/punk and even a bit of metal out of this baby in just a few hours of playing with it and that should give you an indication on how good this amp is.

Submitted by Ben Lane at 02/03/2004 14:04

Price Paid: US $59

Features: 7
Pretty basic controls, made in 2003. It looks really cool and has that classic vox styling. Its got everything you need for practical purposes.

Sound Quality: 9
This little guy sounds fantastic. I've been playing my fat strat and epi casino through it and both sound great. The clean setting shines, it's so clear and full, and the distortion is great also. Others have said that the dist. is not as good as it could be but i disagree. You can get anything from that 60's overdrive to crazy crunch out of this bad boy. It can get real loud and hold its tone all the way through.

Reliability: 9
I got it not too long ago so I can't say but I don't think you would have to worry about it. It seems sturdy, if you dont stage dive off it I think it will last.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
I've been playing for about 5 years. I own a yamaha bass, fender fat strat, epi casino and a ampeg ba 115 bass amp that i play guitar through. I love this little amp, I got it for $60 on sale at sam ash, what a bargain. This thing sounds awsome, has alot of tones available and can pull off just about any style you want. I would buy another in a second if anything happened to this one.

Submitted by Anonymous at 01/14/2004 10:24