Vox Pathfinder 15R

Price Paid: US $89.00

Features: 9
Mine is a brand new floor model from Guitar Center. I paid a whopping 89 dollars for it!

I use it for practice in my little studio. I am VERY impressed with the tone. Even though it is a little offshore made solid state amp it is obvious that someone did their homework on this amp to make it sound as good as it does.

I use the footswitch as well which switches from a soft overdrive to a harder overdrive. This way I can back off my guitar volume on the softer setting and get a nice clean tone. The amp is very versatile or what it is.

Sound Quality: 10
I typically play with a Fralin equiped 20 year old American Strat or a 1981 Gibson ES335. Sometimes I bring my 74 Les Paul into the picture as well - but for the most part I use my Strat. The Lindy Fralen pickups are just simply incredible.

I play upbeat blues and some jazzy stuff mixed in with the blues. The amp really sounds like a VOX for a solid state piece of gear. I am very impressed. So impressed that I am writing a review when I have other things to do! This is the first review I have ever written.

When I am playing at times I look up to remind myself that this thing does not have any tubes in it. And, I am a tube amp person having owned multiple Boogies and Marshalls through the years. The tone of this amp really impresses me. Sometimes I could swear that I am pushing a couple of EL84's. And when I think of what I paid for it I am truly blown away. I love the hotter overdrive settings as well as the middle of the road bluesy settings - this thing covers a lot of territory.

The other day I cranked it through a different speaker cab. I think that this little amp could hold it's own with my band. I have not tried - but I intend to try it out with a full band and I would not be surprised if I am able to use it in a gig setting. Of course it would have to be set to overdrive if kept up loud - but I think it would make it.

Reliability: 10
Appears to be well put together. I like it so much that I am planning on buying the new VOX AC30 all tube model that recently came out for around 1500 dollars.

Customer Support: N/A
Never dealt with Korg - but my take is that they are easy people to work with, from what I have heard.

Overall Rating: 10
I have been playing for over 30 years. I have played in studio envir onments where I had to read. I own and or recently have owned: Mesa Stiletto, Mesa Mark III Blue Stripe, Marshall RI Plexi 100, Marshall JTM 45 Head, Sundown 50 watt all tube. The list goes on and on. My favorite amp that is a keeper for me is a black face Fender Super Reverb which I use for stage. I front it with two pedals from Fullone. I use the Fulltone Fulldrive II and the new Fulltone OCD. Both pedals have their place and the OCD is a mind blower in conjunction with the Black Face Super! I crank my Super up a bit to get a blend of distortion with the pedals. I also have and at times use a Maxon TS9 Tube Screamer. (Maxon was the original company behind the Tube Screamer), and a DOD 250. I also use the new Hendrix Pedal which is just incredible for getting authentic Hendrix sounds.

Submitted by Kirk Hargreaves at 01/06/2006 12:41

Price Paid: US $119

Features: 10
2005 Model. Apparently these are now discontinued.
I've been playing badly for about 13 years. My nice guitar is a Rickenbacker 360; my beater is a $75.00 DeArmond. Both sound great through the amp. I like the headphone option. The amp has a LOT OF BALLS! Very Loud for what it is.
It's got everything I need in a practice amp; actually more--the reverb and tremolo are nice touches to someone used to playing through a no-frills tube combo.

Sound Quality: 10
Goes from clean to biting with a few knob twists. The extra gain channel is fun to play with, but it's a bit much. I am amazed at how good this amp sounds. Honestly, with the gain up, it sound comparable to my Hiwatt SA112OL 50-watt combo. It's got a bark to it that I find very similar. Conversely, the cleans sparkle nicely.

Reliability: N/A
Only had it for a few days. Seems very sturdy.

Customer Support: N/A
Not applicable

Overall Rating: 10
As I said above, I'm pretty much a hack, but over the past few years I've been acquiring quality gear as opposed to buying throw-away junk. I got a great vintage tube amp, a great guitar, and I wanted a quality practice amp for short money. The Pathfinder fit the bill, and I am completely happy with it. I never thought that an amp this good would be available in this price range. Grab one while they still exist!

Submitted by GeeBeeVee at 12/28/2005 12:00

Price Paid: ¿75

Features: N/A
Single channel (with a footswitchable boost), reverb and trem. 3 band EQ, M.Vol. & gain. Also has an extension cabinet out jack. The internal speaker is OK, but farts a bit at high volumes. I never give a rating in this categories, as you get what you pay for.

Sound Quality: 10
I am, frankly, amazed by this thing. I play an Orange AD30 as my main amp, and wanted something smaller to play at home, but this thing has been twinned up with it now for gigs.

Minus points - the reverb is OK up to a very small amount, where it then sounds odd and way too boingy. The high gain capability is OK, but that sound doesn't interest me. No one buys a Vox looking for death metal. I presume they just included it to tap into the nascent teen guitar market who were looking for high gain sounds to cover their mistakes and play Limp Bizkit or whatever.

The trem is OK. I don't have a huge amount of experience with them, and tend not to use it, so effectively no comment here.

The sound... whilst of course, it doesn't sound like a full on AC30, I think it's as close as any SS amp is ever going to get: that pretty much tells you all you need to know about the sound. Ignore the high-gain capability on this, because where it excels is at the cleans, and greasy, chimey mildly overdriven sounds. The amp itself is absolutely fantastic, although it's let down by the speaker not being able to be pushed too hard. I ran it through the Orange 2x12 with some Vintage 30s one day, and oh my life, did it sound good.

As I said, I now twin it with my Orange, which has quite a dark and rich voicing, put the two of them together, and it's an incredible overdrive sound when set up right. Going to make an extension cab with a V30 for this fella.

For the category marked "Practice amp" this thing beats the snot out of anything else within that range. To be honest, if you can run it through an extension cab, it sounds better than a lot of more expensive SS amps, and valve amps i've heard, and i've heard a few.

Reliability: N/A
I take decent care of my gear without mollycoddling it. This has survived so far. I wouldn't go throwing it off buildings, because I think that's asking for trouble, but in my experience, you tend to get trouble with any amp if you do that.

Customer Support: N/A
No problems, haven't had to contact them.

Overall Rating: 10
Big thumbs up for this little fella. When I started playing guitar, I went through a couple of Park & Marshall practice amps, got a bigger Marshall Valvestate, and ended up with my Orange AD30 (valve amp) which is a good 'un. The Pathfinder quite happily in terms of amp sound quality beats any other SS i've owned or played. The other day, I actually took it out gigging with me and left the Orange at home, as I was doing funk stuff. Miked up, it was fine. Give it an extension cab, and it rocks, big style.

As for me, i've been playing 10 years on acoustic, electric and bass. Been in a few different bands in that time ranging from simple church worship, to very rocky contemporary stuff, funk, jazz and my old band's own individual style which was somewhere around Rage Against The Machine meets Red Hot Chili Peppers meets Mojo, Portishead and some beat-based funk. For electric I play G&L ASATs through an Orange AD30, and this amp, and a suitcase-full of effects on occasion.

Definitely buy it again, unless someone were offering me a full AC30 for approximately a twentieth of the price. Gigging musos can take this out with them knowing that if anything goes wrong with their main amp, you can run this through the speaker cab, and get a great sound. Hell, you might even prefer it. Some days I prefer this over my Orange. I'm serious. For the money, it's an absolute no-brainer.

The only other thing i'd say as one muso giving a shout out to another ... go check out the claims of Jesus. I think he's God, he also rocks, and I believe i'll go to heaven through him.

Submitted by Joe at 07/16/2005 02:39

Price Paid: US $95 new

Features: 5
2005 production. Features have already been listed many times here.

Assembly/covering was only fair.

Sound Quality: 3
Really bad hiss, tremolo depth control had no effect past about 2/10.

Reliability: 2
I have no idea. As far as I'm concerned, it was bad out of the box, but probably not enough to get repair under warranty.

It worked, just not well.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 2
I bought this amp because of many recommendations from other owners, but it was junk, right out of the sealed box. It's the first product I've ever returned to the retailer, which I did the next morning.

Probably a bad example, but I wasn't going to screw around with sorting through them to find a decent one.

Submitted by Anonymous at 07/10/2005 16:35

Price Paid: US $120

Features: 9
15 watts, 8" speaker, clean and boost channels with same bass and treble controls, tremolo and reverb, headphone jack, line out and jack for 15w ext cab. it would have been nice to have the footswitch included. it doesn't have an input for a cd player if you wanted to play along like on the marshall 15w ss. also i find it kind of weird that the headphone jack is in the back and points downward, but that a minor gripe.

Sound Quality: 10
im using a 2002 or 2003 MIM strat HSS with stock pickups for now. it pretty much plays anything i've tried to play from rock in the bridge position to some more bluesy sounding stuff at the neck with the treble rolled off a little. the amp isn't really noisy since its a solid state unless your pickups are noisy like mine seem to be. clean channel stays pretty clean when turned up, but then again it doesn't go THAT loud at 15 solid state watts. good at relatively low volumes for practice at home which is what i use it for mostly. the distortion isn't that bad. it kind of lacks definition but with some eq adjustment im sure its manageble. i use a boss ds-1 pedal in front of it to play more contemporary stuff. it has a nice overdriven sound if you turn up the gain to more than half and keep the volume a bit lower. i've tried playing with a drummer just to see what kind of volume i could get but i got drowned out easily. you might be able to cut thru with the volume maxed and with substantial gain but you'll need something bigger for playing with a band.

Reliability: 10
i've had the amp for a bout 2.5 years and haven't had any problems with it. very reliable and well built. there's really not much to break since its a solid state.

Customer Support: N/A
n/a

Overall Rating: 10
i've been playing on and off for 2 years trying to play outside of classes and stuff. i think this is the best amp if you're looking for a 15w solid state practice amp. my brother has the marshall 15w solid state (mgcdr15?) and its definitely not as good as the vox. the clean on the vox sounds much better as well as the distorted sounds. the vox sounds more unique. the overdrive channel on the marshall sounds cheap and flat. play them for yourselves and you'll see. also the vox has the nice oldschool look while the marshall looks like a weird shrunken version of those amp heads and cabs you see. i wish it had the pedal included but it doesn't really matter since i use the boss pedal with it anyways. one minor feature that the marshall has over the vox is the cd line in so that you can play along with your favorite band coming out of your amp. i probably wouldn't use this, and my brother definitely doesn't so its not a factor to me. i give the pathfinder a 10 because i believe its the best in its class (sound as well as look) despite lacking the foot switch.

im actually looking into upgrading and buying a low wattage all tube amp. im looking at the traynor ycv20-wr (15w class A, all tube, 12" greenback) and probably going to replace the tubes with jj's from eurotubes.com. from what i hear the results are great. i read alot of problems people are having these days with the big name companies (fender, marshall, peavey, etc) and will probably go with a small name well made amp. the traynor also has a 2 year "even if you break it" warranty.

Submitted by anonymous at 06/29/2005 10:05

Price Paid: US $85 used

Features: 9
the features are covered territory...

if i were the project manager and had to compromise for cost, i would get rid of the headphone jack and add an effects loop. if i had to compromise even more i'd lose the line out. tone comes from the speaker pushing air, and if you really like a direct sound, get a pod et. al., or even a direct box. amps don't need them. they're usually a let down.

a lot of these reviews talk about a "clean channel". there is no "clean channel". there's "gain" and "volume", just like a tube amp. problem is, with no gain, maxing the volume is barely a whisper. you have to set the gain at 9 o'clock before you really hear anything. this is as clean as it is going to get. as a couple others have mentioned, to get it loud, you have to crank the gain. bottom line: clean and loud? forget it.

Sound Quality: 8
it sounds really good, overall. i've had an hour work-out on my most versatile guitar -- solid body with coil-tapped dual humbuckers. i seemed to prefer the neck p/u, with or without the tap (which makes it sound more like a single coil).

high gain gets buzzy. i don't dig it. a little crunch or modest-volume clean does the trick.

the trem is nice, usable, moderate. the reverb is moderate too, but not as nice. after 12 (half-up) it gets noisy to the point of being usable. at lower settings, sometimes i didn't even notice it.

the two eq knobs seem to have ranges where they're not really affecting the sound. i think someone else mentioned this. but between the other controls and your guitar's, there's always a workable tone correction, so long as you don't expect good blistering distortion.

Reliability: N/A
too soon to tell

Customer Support: N/A
n/a

Overall Rating: 10
to my experience, for the price, this amp has no peer. other amps i've considered are the trademark 10 and the roland cubes (blues, which needs reverb, and the 30, which is bit overladen with features). but these amps cost about double.

Submitted by alwaysjam at 06/28/2005 00:06

Price Paid: 7200 (pesos)

Features: 10
Made 2005. The specifications has been mentioned by other users.

Sound Quality: 10
I'm using a Ibanez RG450GX and a Fender Telecaster. I was looking for a smaller practice amp, i already own a Fender tube amp and a Peavey tube amp. The clean tone i get from this amp is more that what i expected.

Reliability: 8
I think it's a dependable practice amp, i'll never use it for gigs. The Hot Rod Deluxe and the Classic 30 can do the gig job.

Customer Support: 8
nope

Overall Rating: 10
I always loved the sound of tube amps but easily bummed waiting to heat them up before using. That's why I decided to get a small practice amp since i don't play at higher volumes at home. I just to the store hoping to get a Marshall MG15 but instead I got this amp without even testing it. I was blown away how this amp sounded when i first tried it at home. This amp is a keeper for tube amp owners.

Submitted by arjinted at 06/16/2005 03:54

Price Paid: US $120

Features: 10
Really good features for a amp of this price and speaker size. Tremelo, reverb, gain, and master volume. Has Bass and treble pots, no middle. Line out, headphone out, extension speaker out and footswitch connection. 15 watts into a 8" speaker. Oversized cabinet for the speaker size and traditional Vox looks.

Sound Quality: 9
I'v had this amp for over a year and am really liking it. I use it just for home practice and recording. Very good clean, mild distortion. Sounds very Voxie on clean, alot of chime and with the trmelo engaged. Reverb is rather weak. If you need a fuller sound, I engage the boost and lower the volumne and gain and you get a really thick clean sound. The filtered line out works really well into a recorder or mixer. I've plugged into a 212 cab and it sounds really good. Again, very good sparkling cleans and can get a little dirty if need be. Tremelo is very nice, reverb weak.

Reliability: 10
Has held up very well. I have traveled with it alot. No negitive issues. Do be aware it has plastic jacks and the tolex is somewhat thin. If you're careful, these should be a non-issue.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't had to deal with them.

Overall Rating: 10
Excellent value for a good sounding practice amp. Wonderful sparkling cleans. I've been playing for over 35 years and own a variety of instruments and amps. If it were lost or stolen I would pick another one up. I'v looked at the new Vox Valtronix series of amps and the Roland Cubes and although they sound nice, I still would buy the Pathfinder. Easier to use, and really great sound.

Submitted by Kiersten at 06/06/2005 11:59

Price Paid: 200 (Canadian)

Features: 7
Vox 15 watt solid-state amp, with an 8-inch speaker, reverb, tremelo, and gain boost button. Also has standard gain, bass and treble controls. Vintage styling with 'chicken head' knobs. Amp has one line in, plus a line out, headphone out, footswitch input, and external speaker output.

The gain boost and tremelo are both footswitchable, though I almost never use the tremelo.

I bought this amp mostly for practice and jamming around where I don't want to lug a big stack with me. It easily handles the volume required for playing with another guitar, bass, and drums.

Sound Quality: 8
The clean sounds are awesome! I've never played through a solid-state practice amp with better clean sounds. In fact, this rivals some of the valve amps I've played through. With the gain turned up it gets pretty fuzzy. You can get enough dirt for metal, but it's not really a good metal sound; it's too fizzy. I don't really turn the gain more than halfway up. That gives me a nice crunchy sound that's good for blues, or any other style where you don't need tons of gain. The amp doesn't have a 'fat' distorted sound at all. Even with a distortion pedal in front of it I don't get a big metal sound. But then, that's not why I bought it.

Let's talk about the reverb. It sucks. It's the worst sounding reverb I can ever remember hearing in my entire life. Not only does the sound of it suck, but the decay isn't at all natural-sounding. I normally love reverb when I play leads, but I turn this one down because it just ruins the sound. Still, the amp sounds great without much reverb.

I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to tone. And I can easily pick the difference between, say, a PODxt and a real amp in a blind test (I've done so more than once), but I still like the sound of this amp. Of course, you get what you pay for; it ain't gonna give you just as good a sound as a multi-thousand dollar amp setup, but for the money it's very good.

Reliability: 5
So far so good: I've only had it for one week and it hasn't let me down. I can't say how it will last. Like I said above, I expect to get what I pay for in terms of build quality as well as sound.

That said, the amp looks pretty cheaply made. I expect the vinyl and other covering to start to peel off before too long with the wear and tear that comes with transporting it.

Customer Support: N/A
I haven't dealt with Vox, but their manual for this amp was well-written and done with a sense of humour. If their customer support is in the same vein then I have some hope that they will treat me reasonably well. Of course, I'm an optimist.

Overall Rating: 9
I've been playing since 1990. I played in a band doing all kinds of music for a while - 1920's jazz, through to modern thrash metal - so I'm used to needing diversity in my gear. I have done studio work, production, teaching, touring - you name it. I've played all kinds of guitars, from vintage Strats and SGs, to pointy guitars like Ibanez RGs. The most expensive guitar I have heard up close was a mint-condition pre-war Martin that was selling for $225,000 AUS.

I can't say that this amp is very versatile, but for what I bought it for, and combined with the Vox Tonelab SE, it will be fine.

The last decent amp I owned was a Marshall DSL 2000 half stack. My next amp will be either a Bad Cat, a Hughes and Kettner, or a Kingsley. I have expensive tastes.

Submitted by Mark at 06/02/2005 11:35

Price Paid: US $119

Features: 8
I bought this amp in 2004...SS, one channel...a boost button i never use...reverb, tremelo...yada yada...nothing fancy, which is a good thing. I've always wanted a Vox, because i love their sound and look, and since i will probably never be able to afford an AC-30 unless i hit the lottery, i thought this would make a nice replacement for my utterly horrible 30w Crate.

I wanted a nice simple small amp that i could screw around with at home and get fairly decent sounds out of. I play mostly 60's and 60's influenced rock...Beatles, Dead, early Floyd, Velvet Underground, Radiohead, etc. This little amp excels at those kind of sounds. I played in a band in the 90s, but just started playing guitar again for fun in 2003. I mostly just play at home for fun now to relax, although i would happily take this amp to a rehearsal if i could find some halfway interesting people to play with. It's actually a lot louder than my Crate, which is twice as many watts, which surprised me. It has a line out for a bigger speaker cabinet, which i would really like to try sometime, because i hear these amps are awesome with bigger speakers...

Sound Quality: 9
I play an Epiphone ES 335 and a Fender Telecaster into a Digitech RP100 pedal and a Rat distortion, then i set the gain on the Vox fairly low, at about 10 o'clock. Generally i use the 'Fender Tweed' model on the Digitech for a borderline dirty sound, using the Rat for higher gain stuff. The Digitech is a very versatile little pedal, but that's another review...

This amp is REALLY, REALLY loud for 15 watts. I live in an apartment building, and if i turn the volume knob past 10 o'clock i feel like i'm probably annoying people.

I play my Epiphone 335 through it and it sounds nice, but sometimes a little muddy...but with my 1992 Telecaster it really shines. For some reason this amp just LOVES Teles! If you're into clean twangy country sounds, you won't be disappointed. The distortion is kind of ugly, [and not GOOD ugly]...but if i want high gain, i use a Rat pedal anyway. The reverb is not bad, and the tremelo is nice. I didn't get a foot pedal with this amp, but that's ok, because as luck would have it, the pedal i got with my POS Crate works the boost and the tremelo!

It's fairly quiet, just normal amp hiss...although i've noticed at times it seems to pick up a bit of 'interference' or static...not sure what's up with that...it's just like a few seconds of intermittent loud hissing that goes away. Could be picking up radio interference or something through my guitar.

Reliability: 10
It seems fairly solid...haven't had any real issues with it.

Customer Support: N/A
Haven't had to deal with Vox...there is a tech nearby who is an authorized service center, and he really knows his stuff, so i wouldn't worry about taking it to him if i had a problem. So far so good!

Overall Rating: N/A
I've been playing on and off since i was 12, and i'm 39 now. I've owned everything from a late 50's Fender Princeton my uncle gave me, to an early 80s Tusc tube amp, both of which i foolishly sold...:( I also am the not so proud owner of a Crate GX 30m, which i hate like poison. Overall i love this little amp...it totally beats the underpants off anything at it's price point. I found the clean tones on the small SS Marshalls kind of flat, and the newer Fender SS amps didn't really do it for me either. If i find a band to play with, i will certainly look for something bigger, either a Marshall or Peavey Classic, but for my purposes, mostly playing at home for fun and recording on my 4 track, this little Vox is perfect.

Submitted by Rob at 06/01/2005 22:39