Multi-channel Vox based amps?

[laxu]

I'm not talking about amps that have a Normal and Brilliant channel, or 12AX7 and EF86 channels.

We have so many "Fender cleans, Marshall overdrive" amps out there with 2-4 channels. Yet somehow "Vox cleans, something else overdrive" or "Vox cleans with higher gain Vox overdrive" is just not a thing.

Or is it? Can you think of any amps that are Vox voiced but either do a higher gain version of that sound, or pair it with something else?

 

[MirrorProfiles]

"Vox cleans, something else overdrive"

Laney VH100R

I think the power section of Vox’s is quite different to what most Fender and Marshall’s use so it’s not too straightforward to just dump a Vox on one channel and something with a totally different topology on another. The Laney is kind of like a Vox preamp with a Marshall power section, but it sounds good and works well. I don’t have a real Vox to compare how authentic it is

 

[laxu]

Laney VH100R

I think the power section of Vox’s is quite different to what most Fender and Marshall’s use so it’s not too straightforward to just dump a Vox on one channel and something with a totally different topology on another. The Laney is kind of like a Vox preamp with a Marshall power section, but it sounds good and works well. I don’t have a real Vox to compare how authentic it is

Looking at the schematic it looks a lot more like a Fender clean channel + Marshall overdrive.

The clean channel tone stack is in the same place as a Fender Blackface, with a bit different values. The interesting bit is that the clean channel allows for a drive circuit that adds extra gain stages on top of the clean channel with its own gain control, so maybe that's a little bit Mesa Mark series inspired?

The overdrive channel on the other hand seems like it might be kinda in the JCM800 and SLO inspired territory - more gain stages than the JCM800 but not quite the same design as the SLO.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no expert at reading schematics.

The whole Vox sound is definitely dependent on the poweramp and speakers too. I remember being a bit disappointed in the Victory VC35 when I ran it through my 4x10 with 10" Greenbacks, because it sounded too much like a Marshall to me. Only when I got a 1x12 Alnico Gold cab it got that Vox character in spades.

 

[Fishbulb]

Friedman JJ Jerry Cantrell model has a Vox-inspired clean I believe

 

[metropolis_4]

Yes! I spent so much time looking for an amp like that back in the day, but all multi-channel amps are some variation of “Fender clean + Marshall distortion”.

And they’re always voiced so clean is really clean and channel 2 is all out crunch. I always thought it would be much more useful to have two channels that were right around edge of breakup.

The only one that comes to mind right now is the Orange AD30HTC, which was an amazing amp but it’s fatal flaw was having no effects loop

 

[MatrixClaw]

Isn't there an entire company dedicated to this? BadCat.

 

[EOengineer]

Isn't there an entire company dedicated to this? BadCat.

Yeah I thought so too, which is why the criteria to exclude the ef86 amps confused me. As far as I know, that’s the two channel Vox thing we are familiar with from Matchless/BadCat.

 

[laxu]

Yeah I thought so too, which is why the criteria to exclude the ef86 amps confused me. As far as I know, that’s the two channel Vox thing we are familiar with from Matchless/BadCat.

I deliberately left it out because it's IMO kinda in the same realm as the normal vs brilliant channel thing. Limited tone control, usually the single cut control. Yeah I know it's part of the poweramp, but surely you could make that channel specific the same way you can have channel specific presence?

That same pattern seems to track across Morgan, BadCat etc.

I'd love to see e.g Victory put out a dual channel version of their VC35. I loved a lot about that amp (and kick myself for selling it!) but it had several viable settings so it would have been cool have two truly independent channels with those tones.

 

[metropolis_4]

Isn't there an entire company dedicated to this? BadCat.

Bad Cat has never made anything like the OP is describing, that I know of. Bad Cat originated as Matchless 2.0 after Mark Sampson left Matchless

Calling a Vox with both a 12ax7 channel and an ef86 channel a 2 channel amp is like calling a 4 hole Plexi or a blackface Fender a 2 channel amp.

Technically if we’re counting channels that way then the 1963 AC30 is a 3 channel amp

 

[GuitarBilly74]

I think that's what they were going for with the Vox AC50CPH. But I never had the chance to play one.

The VOX Showroom - The Vox AC50CPH Amp Head

 

[EOengineer]

Bad Cat has never made anything like the OP is describing, that I know of. Bad Cat originated as Matchless 2.0 after Mark Sampson left Matchless

Calling a Vox with both a 12ax7 channel and an ef86 channel a 2 channel amp is like calling a 4 hole Plexi or a blackface Fender a 2 channel amp.

Technically if we’re counting channels that way then the 1963 AC30 is a 3 channel amp

I have a lot of real world Vox experience but have barely crossed paths with Matchless and BadCat in the wild. Admittedly not an expert.

Looking at something like an HC-30 I just assumed you could footswitch into the higher gain side, which appears to be a bad assumption.

You can use a Plexi as a 2 channel amp (or jumpered) if you have an ABY box. I wonder if the same applies to the HC-30.

 

[metropolis_4]

I have a lot of real world Vox experience but have barely crossed paths with Matchless and BadCat in the wild. Admittedly not an expert.

Looking at something like an HC-30 I just assumed you could footswitch into the higher gain side, which appears to be a bad assumption.

You can use a Plexi as a 2 channel amp (or jumpered) if you have an ABY box. I wonder if the same applies to the HC-30.

Yeah, same thing applies. You could use a A/B to jump back and forth. But just like the Plexi it doesn’t really make sense and isn’t really usable that way.

But you could also use an A/B that way on an AC30. I read the OP to mean what we usually think of as a modern 2 channel amp. One that has two different preamps designed to work together to provide two sounds that compliment each other and can be switched between

 

[Orvillain]

I think that's what they were going for with the Vox AC50CPH. But I never had the chance to play one.

The VOX Showroom - The Vox AC50CPH Amp Head

I played the 100watt version of one of those back in the day. They were quite cool yknow! I'd love to have one even now.

 

[EOengineer]

Yeah, same thing applies. You could use a A/B to jump back and forth. But just like the Plexi it doesn’t really make sense and isn’t really usable that way.

But you could also use an A/B that way on an AC30. I read the OP to mean what we usually think of as a modern 2 channel amp. One that has two different preamps designed to work together to provide two sounds that compliment each other and can be switched between

Now I’m genuinely interested why this doesn’t seem to exist. I sincerely thought the matchless amps were footswitchable lol.

EDIT: googling around and not seeing a compelling blocker preventing such a thing from existing from the technical side. No idea.