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Vox VR30 Guitar Amplifier Combo

Vox is one of the most prominent and desirable brand names from the ranks of the original guitar amplifier manufacturers. The Vox AC30 became a legend in its own lunchtime by providing a signature tone for many Rock Gods of the past. Today Vox are still producing desirable modern amplifiers clothed in that special vintage Vox livery. 

Vox VR30 Amplifier reviewed by The Man in the Jar

The VR (or Valve Reactor) design is a hybrid combination of tube (valve) and solid state technology. Pre-amp stages use transistors and integrated circuits whereas the power amp stage uses a 12AX7 vacuum tube or valve. Vox claim that this technology links the sound from this box to the same pedigree as the legendary AC15 and AC30 of forty years ago.

The control panel is recessed into the top of the cabinet and all the controls sport vintage style "chicken-head" knobs. You immediately know in whose backyard you've come to play!

Next to the single input jack are the Clean Channel controls. One Volume, one Bass and one Treble. The manual warns us that with high output guitars even the clean channel will break up at higher settings. That, my friends, is the magic of valves. If you want totally clean sounds at high levels you'll have to back off the guitar's on-board volume to keep it crisp.

After a push-button channel selector we move along to the separate Overdrive Channel controls. The first of these is the Overdrive Style button. Set this to OD1 for natural "vintage" overdrive or OD2 for a more "modern" style of distortion. Next along is the Gain control which controls the amount of pre-amp overdrive produced. The Overdrive Volume next to that is used to control the amount of pre-amp gain delivered to the power stage. Juggle the gain and volume to achieve the overdrive sound required at a performance level that balances with your clean channel sound. A Bass and Treble control complete this channel's options.

The Master section contains the Master Volume to set the overall loudness of the unit and the Reverb control. The VR30 is equipped with a real spring reverb which adds a whole dollop of vintage kudos in my eyes. The topside control panel is completed by an on/off rocker switch.

The back panel has the mains socket together with an output for external loudspeaker and one for headphones. If you use headphones always turn the master volume to zero before you plug in your 'phones. To a musician hearing is as valuable as fingers!

The back panel is completed by the input for the optional reverb footswitch and the ventilation grille necessary wherever valves are employed.

I started as always by plugging up to the clean channel. I found that even with the channel volume down and the master volume up I could detect an attractive undercurrent of valve break-up. Immediately the warmth of the valve power stage makes the whole guitar experience that much more enjoyable. The tone controls are wide in sweep, especially the bass, providing huge tonal variations to the player willing to seek them out. Dropping the master down and advancing the channel gain caused that valve undercurrent to swell into a fabulous rock crunch sound.

Moving across to the overdrive channel I selected OD1. This produced a classic vintage valve overdrive that with the right tweaking could be used for pop, rock or blues will equal satisfaction. The interplay between channel gain, volume and master volume delivers a full range of rich tones. These classically meaty guitar sounds will satisfy everyone except the Metal-Heads.

Selecting OD2 made much heavier tones available with excellent tube saturation. The gain control offers a wide sweep of overdrive levels starting at a quite heavy crunch and ending in an OTT heavy metal grind.  

 

Overall impressions of the Vox VR30

I really liked the Clean and OD1 channels because they offered the vintage tones that are strongly associated with this brand name. In fact I summed up my feelings about this genre of sound in my review of the Vox Cooltron Big Ben Overdrive - in short a valve sound will always be better than even the best digitised emulation. That's why they try to emulate it!
The OD2 channel is a smart move by Vox to get younger players with different points of sonic reference to get into the Vox brand. This amp won't disappoint them. The 30 watts it delivers through its 10 inch speaker is loud enough for rehearsal use and small gigs at a push. But the sound quality is so good you may want to mic it through the PA at larger gigs.
The great thing about this amplifier is to find the best sounds you need to master the interplay of several controls including the volume control on your guitar. Working to find your sound becomes an enjoyable and gratifying journey. 

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