Mainly looks then ended up digging the sound, too.

[honeyiscool]

The mighty Vox Pathfinder 15R. At the time I bought this, I was interested in getting some sort of a Vox, but I didn't have a lot of money, so I was reading about some cheaper Voxes like the AD and the VT series. I read someone on a forum mention that these amps didn't even sound any better than a Pathfinder. So I got interested in this thing, someone mentioned Feist uses them, and looking at the picture just made me fall in love. It looked just like a miniature Vox AC! For $120, I couldn't go wrong. It ended up becoming one of my favorite amps ever, soundwise. I don't know if there's something wrong with my ears but I love grainy solid state crunch a lot, and this Pathfinder nails the flavor of tone I love. I can always hear myself and the sound is deep and full through a 12" external speaker. Just fantastic.




Someone (on this forum, actually, can't remember) posted a picture of this amp, the Roland BC-60, sitting behind one of his guitars. I thought, oh, look, a Roland that looks good! I've generally liked the Roland amps I've had in the past, and this was something that I could be seen with. Call me shallow but the standard Cubes are way too... how should I say this... the metal grille is a turn-off for me and screams "cheap practice amp." Basically, unless it's a Peavey with a pointy logo, I like my gear to look classy. (For some reason, Peavey pointy logo makes everything OK.)

When I plugged this thing in, I knew I found the amp for me. I have gotten so used to this amp now that using anything else live or in rehearsal just feels wrong to me. I use other amps, too, but it's all for fun and games (or for recording, when I want a certain sound). When things get serious and I need an amp to behave predictably and play nicely with other band members throughout the set, it's this amp. It's not the "best" sounding amp I have nor does it have the most "character," but it always delivers a consistent level of good tone and volume and depth, and more importantly, my tone never sucks through it, even when knobs are in the wrong places. I can't say that about my other amps.