Members honeyiscool Posted March 17, 2013 Members Share Posted March 17, 2013 I can't believe I actually debated with myself whether I should get this amp. This is the amp I should always have had. Not the Vox Night Train, not the three different varieties of AC15 I've tried, not any Marshall, not anything else. This is it. Yep, this oddly shaped creature has met all my expectations and more. Out of the box, it was pretty good but it really got interesting with a nice Alnico in there, I tried an Alnico Blue and then a Scumnico, decided on the Scumnico to complement its classy, rich tones. I can see that some people wouldn't like this amp, but it was seriously made for me. It feels very natural to me, like it's an instrument that understands how my strumming hand works. Also... it's so light (38 pounds) and quiet it could be solid state. Plus it even fits on my AC15 chrome stand (after moving the feet around a bit). I rehearsed with it today, and I sounded the best I ever had, and naturally I played better. It's a bit ridiculous considering I've had my fair share of decent to great amps, but the only three amps I've liked this much are the Roland BC-60, Vox Pathfinder 15R, and now the Vox TB18. I guess it's time to trim the fat, then. No time to make one of my awkward conversational reviews, but we did make another video in the drummer's house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phaeton Posted March 17, 2013 Members Share Posted March 17, 2013 And all this time I thought "Mittens" was a cat with a funny face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted March 17, 2013 Author Members Share Posted March 17, 2013 We do have a cat as our logo. My cat is Butters. She's a Bengal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ancient Mariner Posted March 17, 2013 Members Share Posted March 17, 2013 The amp sounded good, and that's a serious retro vibe you've got going there between you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tone Deaf Posted March 17, 2013 Members Share Posted March 17, 2013 honeyiscool wrote: I can't believe I actually debated with myself whether I should get this amp. This is the amp I should always have had. Not the Vox Night Train, not the three different varieties of AC15 I've tried, not any Marshall, not anything else. This is it. I can see that some people wouldn't like this amp, but it was seriously made for me. It feels very natural to me, like it's an instrument that understands how my strumming hand works. Also... it's so light (38 pounds) and quiet it could be solid state. Plus it even fits on my AC15 chrome stand (after moving the feet around a bit). I rehearsed with it today, and I sounded the best I ever had, and naturally I played better. It's a bit ridiculous considering I've had my fair share of decent to great amps, but the only three amps I've liked this much are the Roland BC-60, Vox Pathfinder 15R, and now the Vox TB18. I guess it's time to trim the fat, then. Congrats! Hopefully this one really is the one for you, but we have heard that before Now what I'm about to say will either piss you off or you'll ignore altogether, but it's coming from a good place...from one member of a shared community looking out for another. Over the past year (maybe year and a half) I've seen you go through at least ten amps that I can remember, not to mention several speaker swaps and probably another 4-6 guitars. And honestly, because of the kind of tone that you are dialing in (which works for you), I really haven't heard much difference from one amp to another. The "not exactly dirty, not exactly clean" tone that you use can arguably be dialed in by most amps. All I'm saying is that I'm wondering if what you feel to be "tone searching" is becoming a spending addiction/obsession. You've been spending like a bandit, and I'd venture to say, if you add it all up, in the span of about a year, you've probably spent a nice down payment on a house. You're a young guy, and from what I've read, share an apartment, and make a decent living, which may make it feel as if you have a big chunk of spendable money. But unless you're a trust fund kid, which I'm not getting from you, I would strongly advise you to start thinking about socking away some cash and reeling in the spending. Especially for amps, because as I mentioned, for what you've spent, I'm not really hearing that you've moved the needle much on your overall tone. I remember your thread from when you were contemplating a Marshall Class 5. The rest of the enablers were chanting "buy it, buy it!" I noted that while it was a nice amp, I didn't really hear it for the style you play. And here we are less than two weeks after you're having bought one and proclaiming it was "made for you," you're announcing yet another amp was "made for you." No, none of this is any of my damned business, but I've been where you are, and I'm only trying to offer some advice. Just be careful is all I'm suggesting. It's easy when you're young and have minimal responsibilities and large amounts of disposable cash to dispose of a big percentage of it without socking much of it away for the responsibilities you'll have later. Don't let it get away from you. Sermon over...enjoy your new amp! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted March 17, 2013 Author Members Share Posted March 17, 2013 I appreciate your input! I do play with a fair amount of money when it comes to gear, but I think a lot of things have to do with not having to find what I'm looking for. As far as some things go, I really found them easy, like finding my favorite overdrive pedal (OD-3 was like my second one), and some things take a while. I do try my best to sound like me on every equipment I get, I think that's why I'm so picky. Especially amps, there's a small area where it's just breaking up and I'm always in that region, and every amp feels different in that region, even if I ultimately sound the same. I think it's all a matter of how happy I am in trying to dial it in. I want to get most of my tone without pedals and only use them to further manipulate the sound, I don't like to rely on pedals because it goes against how I want to play. I think because I'm usually acquiring things used and because I'm always selling stuff I don't like, plus I live in California, I don't think I've spent a down payment's worth of money on gear. Certainly my pile of gear right now is probably not worth too much more than $10k or so, and that won't buy a house here. Now, yes, if I had kept everything I buy, that would be troublesome, but I think I do my best to not get too attached to gear. I just hope that this amp is an important place in reining things in as far as amps go. Yes, I've bought a lot of amps, especially recently. But I was like that with guitars, too, until I got my favorite guitar (the white Mustang), and then that allowed me to be very objective about what I need and what I don't, sold off a bunch of things that didn't meet my requirements, and since then my collection has stayed very stable. I think for whatever weird reason, I wanted to find a tube amp that plays exactly the way I want it to (I already had a couple of solid state amps that did), and I'm hoping that this is it. The only tube amps that have really played the way I wanted to so far, they've been very low wattage Class A amps but obviously they lacked usable volume, this TB18 is the first giggable amp with the right response. I wish at some level I could just be happy with what I have... I do appreciate you looking out for me. I hope I won't be silly enough to keep looking for something when I already have it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LOLRECONLOL Posted March 19, 2013 Members Share Posted March 19, 2013 Mittens? Oy... The girl on bass seems fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GreatDane Posted March 19, 2013 Members Share Posted March 19, 2013 That amp sounds great - thank you for sharing and congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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