VOX Pathfinder 15R - Review anyone?

[burnthyfret]

ang gaganda ng mga review sa internet nito e, pero what do you think about it?

here's the link to the product itself. http://www.voxamps.com/us/pathfinder/pathfinder15/

my marshall mg 15 is dying on me and i'm planning to replace it na for home practice, partucularly bedroom practice, so getting a bigger/louder amp wouldn't be too helpful to me. i also rely heavily on pedals to get my dirt sound as i play mostly blues, classic rock, hard rock and sometimes metal. of course it has also occured to me to get a tube amp, but one thing that bothers me about that is the cost, for it is a bit expensive to get a descent sounding tube amp. and according to the reviews, the pathfinder 15 is a solid state that actually sounds like a tube amp. so reviews anyone? would be really appreciated.

[royc]

If you love good tone and classic rock but cannot afford a tube amp yet then get the pathfinder 15. This is loud!

It behaves like a 1 channel tube amp. Set the gain low and master high and you get clean tones. Baligtarin mo with the gain high and master lower and you get crunchy sound typical of the 60s. Push the boost and you get distortion though not the heavy type. Di lang maganda gamitin yung boost switch for clean/distorted sound kasi sobrang laki ng increase a loudness.

Medyo mahirap timplahin sa umpisa lalo na pag nasanay ka sa 2 channel amp na pag clean eh yun na tapos pag lead channel distorted agad at any volume. Dito kahit mataas na gain pero light picking relatively clean pa rin pero pick or strum hard magiging distorted sya. Yun nga lang may mga settings na di maganda tunog parang di kaya ng bass so you really have to experiment.

Yung tremolo I have no use for it pero it's okay. Yung reverb is not good past 9 o'clock.

I highly recommend this amp. Totoo yung mga nababasa mo sa net. Yung nakabili ng pathfinder ko after hearing the amp sa bahay yan ang sinabi. Next day nagpost sya sa ad ko saying the same

How does it compare with my blues junior na pinampalit ko? Sa clean iba pa rin ang fender maganda talaga. Pero if you want an overdriven sound without a pedal mas madali gawin sa pathfinder.

May nakita ako sa AP festival mall I suggest you go and try it.

I had a Marshall 10 watter before the vox and it was a no contest. In fairness to the marshall it had a small speaker and single tone control so all I got from it was varying volumes of distortion.

[burnthyfret]

wow. thanks po sa review sir. any other reviews regarding this amp? how does it compliment pedals, particularly overdrive and dirt pedal?

[royc]

wow. thanks po sa review sir. any other reviews regarding this amp? how does it compliment pedals, particularly overdrive and dirt pedal?

Ganda ng tunog sa zoom at wah ng kabanda ko wag mo lang isasabay sa 30w amp ng kabanda mo matatabunan.

[jdawg]

Don't have the 15R but I have the 10. Agree with all of what royc mentioned.

In addition, you should try the 10/15R through a cab. It will sound like a completely different amp, and the boost channel actually sounds very decent when the amp is played through a cab.

Here's my solidstate Vox ministack 

[dantuts]

i agree..!!

vox pathfinder 15R user here.. hindi ka mag sisi.. clean is smooth and im using humbuckers heck you can even run electro-acoustic guitar with this thing. the reverb is good too.. although not as clean as fenders. its loud. the big cabinet actually improved the loudness of this amp.

question sa mga current users, is there a reliability issue on the current Made In China Vox Pathfinder ? i was lucky to have the last MIK pathfinder sold by yupangco..

[smarty]

Don't have the 15R but I have the 10. Agree with all of what royc mentioned.

In addition, you should try the 10/15R through a cab. It will sound like a completely different amp, and the boost channel actually sounds very decent when the amp is played through a cab.

Here's my solidstate Vox ministack 

sir, anong speaker yung ikinabit mo para dun sa mini stack mo? thanks

[jdawg]

Eminence GB12. Any 8 ohm speaker will do if you just want to try it out.

dantuts, just checked, mine is MIK as well. 

pero I'm guessing no issues naman siguro yung MIC. I mean, these amps are already built so cheap so I can only imagine they're cutting manpower costs only by farming out the manufacturing over to China.

[randymarsh]

i used to have a vox pathfinder 15r. ayus siya, it works well with pedals. someone borrowed it from me hanggang ngayon hindi pa rin sinasauli. 

[dantuts]

Eminence GB12. Any 8 ohm speaker will do if you just want to try it out.

dantuts, just checked, mine is MIK as well. 

pero I'm guessing no issues naman siguro yung MIC. I mean, these amps are already built so cheap so I can only imagine they're cutting manpower costs only by farming out the manufacturing over to China.

jdawg, i think your Pathfinder head was a limited edition. tama ba ? meron din mga naka tweed covers na pathfinder e..

[jdawg]

jdawg, i think your Pathfinder head was a limited edition. tama ba ? meron din mga naka tweed covers na pathfinder e..

Nope, mine is a production model, and can still be found in most online stores I believe. Baka nalito ka lang - the cab you see under the my PF10 is aftermarket.

The limited edition that you might be referring to are the Pathfinder 10s and 15s that were released in Japan. These came in funky tolex colors such as purple and silver/grey. Very nice units, and these came with real Celestions too!

[burnthyfret]

nice. now i'm really craving for a vox pathfinder too. more review guys. i really appreciate it.

[deathbystroke]

yung pathfinder 15r nabili ko sa audiophile MOA... made in vietnam sya... ganda ng clean settings...

[burnthyfret]

any negative or downside on this amp? kasi puro positive reviews naririnig ko e. maganda rin siguro kun may makapagpoint out ng mga flaws niya.

[royc]

any negative or downside on this amp? kasi puro positive reviews naririnig ko e. maganda rin siguro kun may makapagpoint out ng mga flaws niya.

Reverb is not good. Although nung marinig ko blues jr ko di ko rin nagustuhan hehe.

Di kaya too much bass liit kasi ng speaker minsan nagrarattle yung cabinet although maganda reviews pag kinabit sa speaker cab na malaki. Mahirap timplahin sa umpisa you have to get to know the amp.

It doesn't sound good when maxed like kung jamming tapos napipilitan ka itodo to keep up. Sweet spots kasi nya is not the max setting.

[jdawg]

Seriously, for the price of the Pathfinders, there's not much to nitpick. I'd say the only negative is that the tonestack is only 2 band - wala kang control over the midrange. If you have pedals that have a mid hump or strong mid emphasis, it may not sound as good on this amp compared to the more Fender-y amps with scooped mids. For instance, I had a Barber Direct Drive and an Indyguitarist Plexi Drive that I liked with other amps but were kinda "meh" on the PF.

However, this can be mitigated by using an EQ pedal. So if I'm using pedals with a mid-hump I set up my EQ to slightly reduce the mids and just a slight nudge to the high frequencies to get a more Fender-y clean base tone.

[in_the_tent]

Di ka magsisisi pag bumili ka.
Magsisisi ka pag nabenta mo na..

[burnthyfret]

tried the amp personally,the clean is not really the best clean ever, but it's not that bad. andun talaga yun characteristic ng vox.

[markv]

kakatest ko lang kahapon using Ibanez SZR... eto findings ko sa pathfinder 15w by VOX.

>>  THE best non-tube, practice amp i've heard!


Highly Recommended!

[BAMF]

Ye. Like I oft say, any amp that wears a speaker smaller than 12 inches is nothing but a toy. It's great for personal practice and maybe soft almost acoustic sounds but try putting an overdrive or distortion before it and you'll hear the speaker break up and you'll hear those small "brrrr brrrr brrrr" sounds indicating that the speaker cone is stressed out.

If you're on a budget, want something that sounds good with solid bass, stands up to louder amps and is ultimately pedal friendly, nothing yet, and I mean nothing yet in my book beats a surplus Yamaha J-series (J25, J35, J50, J100). Meron ngayon sa Pier, 3 pieces get them while you can. I already own 2 . Oh...with the exception pala of the Yamaha J15. That's a toy also.

Reverb is not good. Although nung marinig ko blues jr ko di ko rin nagustuhan hehe.

Di kaya too much bass liit kasi ng speaker minsan nagrarattle yung cabinet although maganda reviews pag kinabit sa speaker cab na malaki. Mahirap timplahin sa umpisa you have to get to know the amp.

It doesn't sound good when maxed like kung jamming tapos napipilitan ka itodo to keep up. Sweet spots kasi nya is not the max setting.

[knightburn]

Best 15W Solid  State for the money.

Pros

1. Balanced MIDS even with only having a Treble and Bass knob.
2. Terrific cleans.
3. Super loud for a mini amp.
4. Can handle pedals very well.
5. Classic looking amp
6. ROCK

Cons

1. Boost section is almost unusable for me. sounds muffled
2. Reverb is so-so but I still use it anyway in conjunction with RV-3
3. Vibrato can be better

[yona]

Best 15W Solid  State for the money.

Gotta agree. I think the VOX Pathfinder 15R is the absolute best solid state 15 watter on the market. I wish I had kept mine. Sounded great clean, very good bluesy overdrive, reverb was pretty good (I don't use much reverb) and it handled the pedals I had nicely. For a little 15 watt practice amp with an 8 inch speaker it was LOUD.

Paps

[cacophony]

Bought the last piece of AP at Paco. Made in Vietnam. So far so good. My Tubescreamer really screams out of this amp. Very nice clean tone too. Gain and master really complement each other, which I find cool enough for a single channel amplifier. Tremolo and reverb are good for blues. Boost switch is always on as markv suggested.

[pitongjerome]

Ye. Like I oft say, any amp that wears a speaker smaller than 12 inches is nothing but a toy. It's great for personal practice and maybe soft almost acoustic sounds but try putting an overdrive or distortion before it and you'll hear the speaker break up and you'll hear those small "brrrr brrrr brrrr" sounds indicating that the speaker cone is stressed out.

If you're on a budget, want something that sounds good with solid bass, stands up to louder amps and is ultimately pedal friendly, nothing yet, and I mean nothing yet in my book beats a surplus Yamaha J-series (J25, J35, J50, J100). Meron ngayon sa Pier, 3 pieces get them while you can. I already own 2 . Oh...with the exception pala of the Yamaha J15. That's a toy also.

even the peavey classic 50 410?

[maxi_musikero]

Bought the last piece of AP at Paco. Made in Vietnam. So far so good. My Tubescreamer really screams out of this amp. Very nice clean tone too. Gain and master really complement each other, which I find cool enough for a single channel amplifier. Tremolo and reverb are good for blues. Boost switch is always on as markv suggested.

congrats Caco!  --->  from a fellow Pathfinder 15R owner.