Who's got the Vox Valvetronix...

[pullover]

idk whether all vox's are bad or not, I know I wouldn't go for one of their cheaper ones made by Korg anymore. They are definitely ruining their name with their cheaper line though. A lot of people have them, and they're all saying the same thing.

[ugly casanova]

i've got a vox ad50 but i didn't have any problems with it for now. but after reading this thread i got scared
i hope this wont happen to me ever because i dont have enough money to buy a new amp 

... just isolate the wires before the transformer burn them so you will not have to buy a new amp. 

i think theres still a warranty for 2 years so i wont modify it until then... 
but thanks for the tip. on the other hand i'm not even in a 'heavy touring band' 

[Mighty Tom]

I bought a "broken" AD120VT on eBay about a month ago. It was described as having the intermittent cutting out problem. Instead of being scared off, I looked up more information about it and determined that it could be fixed relatively easily and cheaply with a little soldering. Now I have a real Vox Valvetronix amp (with the older blue grillcloth) for about half its original street price, and it hasn't given me any problems.

Here's the web page that provided most of the necessary insight:
http://www.amptone.com/voxvalvetronix.htm

[ugly casanova]

(with the older blue grillcloth)

first of all: congratulations. secondly i want to add, that it's not just 'older' but better. the blue valvetronix uses a better technique, than the chrome-grilled ones.

[Mighty Tom]

A better technique at doing what?

[ugly casanova]

compared to the "chrome-models" your amp has:
more amp models (16 instead of 11)
more effects
more channels
loop channel (?)
better sounding speakers
tuner
and it looks way better.

about the 'technique' thing:
i thought you bought a 120 ATX which features "Celestion NeoDog" Speakers and an enhanced version of the "Valve Reactor" sound.

[theworkoffire]

How I fixed mine - really easy:

My AD30VT started to cut out intermittently and make weird crackling noises. I hadn't really noticed it until I was round at a friend's house and we were cranking things up and it seemed fine at low volumes then would start acting weird when things got louder.

I figured the warranty was over so I opened it up to look for issues. The circuits and transformer all looked absolutely fine - nothing loose or fried. I was just starting to put it back together and thought to check the crimped connectors on the speaker itself...

They were both a bit loose-fitting, and as I wiggled them I could tell that when they were properly in line they could slide up and down about 2-3mm. So I slid them off, took a pair of pliers and squeezed them a bit tighter then slid them back on - nice and tight.

Put the amp back together, switched on, cranked it up - absolutely fixed. No issues whatsoever. Fantastic!

It seems that when the volume was up a bit the vibration of the speaker was enough to momentarily cause the connectors to shake out of contact. With hindsight it was fairly obvious but before I found those slack connections I was thinking it could be all kinds of things. I thought it sounded more like a problem with something in the input stage or something.

So anyone with intermittent crackling or cutting out or loss of sustain etc. I can almost guarantee that will be the problem.

[Mighty Tom]

compared to the "chrome-models" your amp has:
more amp models (16 instead of 11)
more effects
more channels
loop channel (?)
better sounding speakers
tuner
and it looks way better.

All true.

about the 'technique' thing:
i thought you bought a 120 ATX which features "Celestion NeoDog" Speakers and an enhanced version of the "Valve Reactor" sound.

It does have NeoDogs. I'm not sure about this enhanced Valve Reactor you mention.

[Mighty Tom]

As it turns out, the left speaker has ceased to produce sound. Same for the left speaker of my headphones when I plug them in.

I like my words with ketchup and a little salt. Thanks.

[marcusss]

i had a vox AD15VT.
it was a nice home practice amp and i actually used it on a small gig once. but i ended up switching it to a fender blues junior

[Mighty Tom]

I just bought a brand new AD30VT for use in rehearsals. Pretty happy with it so far. There's a lot more versatility to the onboard effects than I realized. I just wish it had a real grillcloth instead of a steel grill.

[DB]

I've got the 100 watt and my 16 year old has the 30 watt.  They are good amps, but the build quality is less than perfect.  They use plastic jacks, with plastic nuts.  On both amps, the input has fallen into the amp, which requires removing the amp from the speaker to fix it.  I'd swap them out for metal jacks, but there's a circuit board on the plastic jack (for god only know what).  While I like the tones and versatility of these amps, just a step up in components (namely jacks) would make them a lot better.

DB

[danoisefactory]

I've got the Ad50VT chrome with one speaker. The big powerchip burned up in two weeks... had to wait seven weeks for it to be repaired. And then in the sustain there was a crackle... so it's back at the shop.

So i'm having some problems with it, which is sad, because i really love the sound of it, i want to use it in my band instead of my marshall jcm900.
The vox plenty loud enough, and has a nicer clean as well as it handle's my effects better.

The marshall is always in full overdrive no matter how i dial in the pre-amp and power amp Any suggestions are welcome btw, i have the pre-amp at around 3,5 and poweramp at about 6 and i have to crank my effects up to 10 to make them as loud as the clean sound, but when using effects, you can hear the tube being overdriven as well so it gets really muddy and i just get lost in the mix...

More info on valvetronix:
http://www.patchtronix.com/

And as far as my Vox goes, maybe i should have bought a AC15, but it's a bit more expensive. And i'm all broke... I just hope that when my AD50 comes back it is finally ok and i can use it. And if i have another problem, i'll contact Vox myself. They're a good bunch who stand by their products.

Concluding:
Sound wise the Vox is short of brilliant, really amazing. I bought it for homestudio use at first and it's great for that, because i have a lot of amps at my disposal, with one small amp, but i love the sound so much, i'll park it in the rehearsal room to play with my band. And hope it won't break down on me again...

Until i can buy a Vox ac30, that is...

Dunno, maybe i should sell my Marshall, but its never bringing in the money for a Vox so i'll just have to look at something called saving...

[k o y l]

I'd like to fix my cutting sound problem I have with my AD50VT before selling it but working on an amp scarrues me a little I must say.. I'd like to know what I will have to face..

I think the problem comes from the cheap line out jack. I used it a lot.

What I'll do is try to bend the contacts in order for them to be in their original position: Can I do this by only unscrewing the Jack screw ? (like you can do on a guitar for ex.)

The best thing would be to change the Jack and put a CTS one. What would I have to remove before doing this ?
The back panel I guess but after this, will I have to remove electronic parts ?

[danoisefactory]

opening up the AD50 was simple enough:

-You open up the backpanel.
-Disconnect the speaker.
-Unscrew the amp housing, you should be able to take it out as a whole.

Now the line out jack is soldered to the PCB i think,just unsolder, stick in a new jack, solder wires to the pcb, easy fix.

There is a description of how to make an fx loop on a AD30 here:
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/tdunn014@ ... yahoo.com/

There are some pictures of the innars of the amp.

hope it helps!