Jump to content

The Official "Vox Pathfinder" Lounge


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 206
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Members
Quote Originally Posted by Mendolin View Post
I have 2 of them now. I don't use anything else anymore ampwise.

What do you guys use for dirt?
Big Box Rat works pretty well for me... what else should I try?
Boss Power Stack and my Cool Cat fuzz rock the PF's world. I have gigged with it since my last post twice. Once we were playing at coffeehouse volume, and once through a 2x12 cab, YES!!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I must have missed this thread when it first started, but glad to find it now.
A few years ago I was in a local pawn shop looking for an inexpensive little amp to leave at a rehearsal/jam space. I came across a fairly beat up Pathfinder 15 that looked like it had seen better days. I had never heard of the Vox Pathfinder before that but when I plugged it in I couldn't believe what a great clean tone it had so I bought it for $40. Eventually I also acquired a relatively new one in a trade and used the two of them in a stereo rig. A few months ago I sold the original one to a guitar student of mine, but I'm keeping the newer one. I sometimes use it in stereo along with a Fender Super Champ XD.

I along with a lot of other people here tend to swap speakers in their amps a lot for better tone. However I rarely hear of anyone changing out the speaker in a Pathfinder. I think it sounds great and don't have a desire to change it, but just wondering if anyone has swapped theirs and what the results were?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Quote Originally Posted by richey888 View Post
Boss Power Stack and my Cool Cat fuzz rock the PF's world. I have gigged with it since my last post twice. Once we were playing at coffeehouse volume, and once through a 2x12 cab, YES!!
Did it do pretty well with the 2x12 cab?


Quote Originally Posted by nixhex113 View Post
Yeah that tower is around 7 feet tall... it makes the 3x10 sunn cab look tiny.
eek.gif


Quote Originally Posted by Karma1 View Post
I along with a lot of other people here tend to swap speakers in their amps a lot for better tone. However I rarely hear of anyone changing out the speaker in a Pathfinder. I think it sounds great and don't have a desire to change it, but just wondering if anyone has swapped theirs and what the results were?
After the LED Mod and reverb pan upgrade, this is on my to-do list. I'm thinking about getting an Eminence Lil' Buddy 10" hemp-cone speaker and enlarging the baffle hole to install it. I know that some are putting 8" Weber and Jensen replacements in and saying they make a difference over the stock. I believe Snorkelmonkey is a stock speaker guy and swears by it.

Here's a thread over at TDPRI where a member installed a 10" into his Pathfinder. It's a little rough, but he's says it made quite a difference:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/amp-central-station/156295-vox-pathfinder-speaker-baffle-modification.html


Video demo of the upgraded sound:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Quote Originally Posted by Karma1

View Post

I along with a lot of other people here tend to swap speakers in their amps a lot for better tone. However I rarely hear of anyone changing out the speaker in a Pathfinder. I think it sounds great and don't have a desire to change it, but just wondering if anyone has swapped theirs and what the results were?

 

I have a pile of 8" speakers vintage and modern (Jensen's vintage/reissue, Weber, Vox). I tried few of them in the PF and found the stock speaker to be the best in the stock cab. I've ran it out into a few different cabs for a comparison. The 8" stock speaker holds its own up against a number of larger speakers. Up against really efficient wide range 10" and 12" and multiple speaker configs not so much, as you'll find they edge out ahead in the volume and bass dept. But for a crappy 8" speaker it's pretty amazing that it can keep up with some of them. I can't say that about any of the others.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm currently entranced with the Pathfinder 15r, and though it's a great little unit as stock, I have been obsessed with trying to make this widely acclaimed little SS gem even better.

You could say I have been on the path to find additional tone goodness... facepalm.gif

First off, a rehouse/respeaker job with the first one, into a refinished bass combo cab I found at the recycling depot... The 12" eminence "Tweedfinder"...

voxtopstratlaying.jpg
voxopenback.jpg
voxtweedbottom.jpg
panelletteringbeforeclear-1.jpg

Second, since I had a leftover combo cab, so I managed to snag another 15R with mismatched grill cloth for $40, and happened across a pair of vintage 4ohm 10" CTS speakers for another $20, which are now being frankensteined together to become the "Stackfinder"...

ministack.jpg
10inchpairspeakers.jpg
puttogether.jpg
voxstackwstrat.jpg

The Stackfinder is meant to be used either as a one-piece combo, or a stacked with the extra 10" for flexibililty- there were some speaker size and resistance challenges to overcome.

Still toying with the LED mod idea, not sure which one I might try it on first. Any suggestions?

The full project threads, and a bunch more other guitar-ish fun can be found on my main gear mod thread HQ over here http://www.agileguitarforum.com/show...tid=255&page=1 if you are interested. cool.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

These are some amazing mods. I like the "Tweedfinder" and its metal speaker cover. What you did for the grill-cloth on the stack version looks really good. Inspired! thumb.gif

Looks like you did some shielding on the chasis, right? And what's the gold grill on back of that same shot for?

Quote Originally Posted by tvvoodoo View Post
I'm currently entranced with the Pathfinder 15r, and though it's a great little unit as stock, I have been obsessed with trying to make this widely acclaimed little SS gem even better.

You could say I have been on the path to find additional tone goodness... facepalm.gif

First off, a rehouse/respeaker job with the first one, into a refinished bass combo cab I found at the recycling depot... The 12" eminence "Tweedfinder"...

voxtopstratlaying.jpg
voxopenback.jpg
voxtweedbottom.jpg
panelletteringbeforeclear-1.jpg

Second, since I had a leftover combo cab, so I managed to snag another 15R with mismatched grill cloth for $40, and happened across a pair of vintage 4ohm 10" CTS speakers for another $20, which are now being frankensteined together to become the "Stackfinder"...

ministack.jpg
puttogether.jpg
voxstackwstrat.jpg

The Stackfinder is meant to be used either as a one-piece combo, or a stacked with the extra 10" for flexibililty- there were some speaker size and resistance challenges to overcome.

Still toying with the LED mod idea, not sure which one I might try it on first. Any suggestions?

The full project threads, and a bunch more other guitar-ish fun can be found on my main gear mod thread HQ over here http://www.agileguitarforum.com/show...tid=255&page=1 if you are interested. cool.gif
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

^ I had to put in a 4 ohm resistor on a switching jack for the bottom cab output so I could use the single 4 ohm as a combo cab, or it switches out when speaker plug goes in the extra output I made to add the bottom cab.
apparently those big resistors can give off quite a bit of heat, so I did a bit of a heat shield, and it's set up to port the heat out through the grill in the back because we don't want heat build in the chassis.

I was told heat might be an issue if I just use the combo with the resistor, (it's that big white block tied that's tied in to the jack) so I figured better safe than sorry. The grill is actually a chunk of something from an old microwave.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Quote Originally Posted by tvvoodoo View Post
I'm currently entranced with the Pathfinder 15r, and though it's a great little unit as stock, I have been obsessed with trying to make this widely acclaimed little SS gem even better.

You could say I have been on the path to find additional tone goodness... facepalm.gif

First off, a rehouse/respeaker job with the first one, into a refinished bass combo cab I found at the recycling depot... The 12" eminence "Tweedfinder"...

voxtopstratlaying.jpg
voxopenback.jpg
voxtweedbottom.jpg
panelletteringbeforeclear-1.jpg

Second, since I had a leftover combo cab, so I managed to snag another 15R with mismatched grill cloth for $40, and happened across a pair of vintage 4ohm 10" CTS speakers for another $20, which are now being frankensteined together to become the "Stackfinder"...

ministack.jpg
10inchpairspeakers.jpg
puttogether.jpg
voxstackwstrat.jpg

The Stackfinder is meant to be used either as a one-piece combo, or a stacked with the extra 10" for flexibililty- there were some speaker size and resistance challenges to overcome.

Still toying with the LED mod idea, not sure which one I might try it on first. Any suggestions?

The full project threads, and a bunch more other guitar-ish fun can be found on my main gear mod thread HQ over here http://www.agileguitarforum.com/show...tid=255&page=1 if you are interested. cool.gif
Really cool. What's a recycling depot? Not sure any recycling centers around here would be open to the public to rummage through.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

^ well, we have a place where people take thier old electronics, computers tvs and such and really, I'm not sure where they send it all. I saw a combo box sitting in the pile, along with an Line-6 effects controller, and I just asked if I could have 'em. They were great about it. I'm not sure if they are supposed to do that, but it does follow the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra.

junk.jpg

If you want to find out what I did with the board, you should visit my mod HQ over at AGF... http://www.agileguitarforum.com/showthread.php?tid=255

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

the pathfinder loves pedals and MFX too. I find it especially transparent when it comes to amp models - but I want to put this warning out...
The above combo/stack configuration mods shown are not correct. I am working to rectifry the situation with help of some other forum folks.

As is the above set up, I could not get the cab working, which led me to do some troubleshooting and I found out I did some stuff wrong,
so don't do what I did, it could damage your amp. Thankfully, I think mine is still ok, but it's not doing what I want it too.

Once I get it corrected, I will modify this post, and the other one as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Members

I did the LED Mod today. It really opens up the clean headroom by quite a bit. Pretty nifty. The resonance with the stock speaker is really bad at high volume though, so I'm sure I'll need to get another speaker in there or figure out a way to do an external cab.

Back to the reverb tank. I looked at the tank today and the only thing on there is stick that reads:

PF-15
07 | 0904

Maybe it's marked somewhere on the circuit board, but I didn't see it.

How would I measure the Ohm rating on the tank using a digital multi-meter?

6i5Sj.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Quote Originally Posted by Wulver View Post
Since this is simply the "Vox Pathfinder" lounge, I figure I'd ask. Found a Vox Pathfinder 10 in a local pawn shop for $60 today, and I suppose I'm asking if it's worth a buy. Seems like a handy little amp for stuff.
The Pathfinder 10 retails for $70 new at places like Amazon, so at $60 it doesn't seem like such a great deal. Maybe if you talk them down to something like $40?

http://www.amazon.com/V9106-Pathfind.../dp/B0000WS0RI
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Quote Originally Posted by richey888 View Post
Boss Power Stack and my Cool Cat fuzz rock the PF's world. I have gigged with it since my last post twice. Once we were playing at coffeehouse volume, and once through a 2x12 cab, YES!!
Boss Power Stack sounds nice...
The Cool Cat Fuzz is a Fuzz Factory clone?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Hey Bot, did you check the top of the pan? If you go with a different speaker check out 8" PA speakers. I've put just about every 8" guitar amp speaker on the market in there and they all sucked by comparison to the stock speaker which I suspect is some sort of home audio/PA speaker. They all display limited frequency range and (buzzy) early breakup whereas the stock speaker has more bass, better highs, and has a decent amount of headroom by comparison.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Quote Originally Posted by SnorkelMonkey View Post
Hey Bot, did you check the top of the pan? If you go with a different speaker check out 8" PA speakers. I've put just about every 8" guitar amp speaker on the market in there and they all sucked by comparison to the stock speaker which I suspect is some sort of home audio/PA speaker. They all display limited frequency range and (buzzy) early breakup whereas the stock speaker has more bass, better highs, and has a decent amount of headroom by comparison.
I guess I'd need to pull the whole tank out to get to it. I might do that today. I'll see if there's anything on it and report back.

I was thinking along the same lines about the speaker. I have a pair of old Zenith ported speakers in my garage. They are a two-piece speaker with a main full-range driver and a smaller tweeter. Unfortunately, they're 6" and not 8". I might hit some thrift stores and see if I can find something similar.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I put a Jensen Mod 10-70 in mine and I totally dig it. Haven't tried the LED mod yet because I have plenty of headroom and volume already. I figure I'll mess up a good thing.

I have the 2x10 extension cab that came with the pathfinder head, too. I don't have the head, but the regular 15r looks great sitting on top of the 2x10. If I ever figure out how to post pics...

The cab has black grillcloth, but my 15r has brown. Anyone want to trade my brown cloth for your black?

BTW, congrats on 10 years, hangwire!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...