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Picking up a used Vox Pathfinder tonight...


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got it home and was able to plug in after I got my evening chores done...Wow! What a great sounding little amp for the price! The seller didn't have a footswitch for it, but my Carvin two button switch worked fine for switching the boost and the tremolo effect on/off. :thu:

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Great little amps. I started a "Pathfinder Appreciation" thread some time ago. It's still floating around in HCEG hyperspace.

 

But they are a great little 15W SS amp that sounds more tube-like than it should. My guess is that a lot of the kudos belong to a good speaker and a great cabinet design for the speaker which expands its dimensions.

 

Mine is the 15 (sans R) but I've used a Boss RV-3 or DigiVerb with it to make it sound Huge!

 

And yeah, the OD on them is not great at all, but the sweet little surprise with them is that they do actually take OD pedals quite well.

 

I've coupled mine with a $30 Bad Monkey and I was surprised that with the extra external gain it retained its "tube-like" qualities that you hear on its cleans. I thought it would fizz up a storm, but it takes it real well.

 

To me they are one of the absolute best values out there - end-O-story.

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I own the Cambridge model, which I'm pretty sure is the predecessor to the pathfinder and it is the one amp I'll never get rid of.

 

Perfect amps for around the house, and for an inexpensive amp they don't look like tinker toys like other amps out there.

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I own the Cambridge model, which I'm pretty sure is the predecessor to the pathfinder and it is the one amp I'll never get rid of.


Perfect amps for around the house, and for an inexpensive amp they don't look like tinker toys like other amps out there.

 

 

Doesn't the Cambridge have a tube pre-amp?

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I recently performed a little volume experiment with my current stable of amps (details here) and was shocked at how loud the Pathfinder 15r can get. However, after running it full tilt for 30+ minutes it started smelling bad...the smell of ss amp melt down. Luckily I shut her down before permanent damage ensued. However, the experience has got me thinking of several mods (queue maniacal laughter)...

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I recently performed a little volume experiment with my current stable of amps (
details here
) and was shocked at how loud the Pathfinder 15r can get. However, after running it full tilt for 30+ minutes it started smelling bad...the smell of ss amp melt down. Luckily I shut her down before permanent damage ensued. However, the experience has got me thinking of several mods (queue maniacal laughter)...

 

 

:facepalm:

 

:poke:

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I gig my Pathfinder (SMR head - ie 15R without the speaker, but made in Korea) all the time. I run it through half of a Vox 4x12 cab (so, 2x12 at 8 ohms - seems to sound better than 4x12 at 16 ohms). No problem with volume - stays clean even loud. Takes pedals nicely too, as mentioned.

 

I got some video of my last gig on dv tape - gotta figure out how to upload to youtube...

 

I bought a Pathfinder 15R combo "just to have". The little thing sounds good on it's own!

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have you run it through an extension cabinet?

 

Yep. VHT Special 6 closed back cab. Smooths out the mid range and extended the lows considerably. Basically gives it more punch and a bit more power. As the cab is 16 ohm and the amp takes 8 ohms min, I plan to put a 16 ohm 10" speaker in the cab and rewire the speaker out jack to be parallel allowing the use of a secondary 16 ohm cab at the same time reducing the total load to 8 ohms. I've got a chip to sub in which should deliver nearly double the wattage using the existing power supply and I'll go ahead and heat sink it when I swap it in. Additionally, I've heard the clipping is a red diode pair and am planning on socketing on of them and wiring a switch to sub in a couple different diodes for asymmetrical clipping (re-queue maniacal laughing)...:evil:

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