Blues Defined

"Blues, to me, comes from when a person can feel other peopl

"A guy will promise you the world and give you nothin', and that's the blues. "

--Otis Rush
e's pain and is able to articulate it." --Carlos Santana

Thursday, December 29, 2011

VOX AC4TV Enhanced by Boss Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Pedal



I have been enjoying my new VOX AC4TV amp with the single power and single preamp tubes.  Also, it has a 10-inch speaker which is very competent as a component of this little combo. Although the AC4TV is best as a home, practice amp, and with a little tweaking of the amp dials and the guitar knobs, you can utilize this amp in a live performance situation, provided it is a smaller coffee house type venue.

The BOSS FDR-1 Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Amp Pedal is a great pre-amp companion for this small and efficient, tube amp.  What I found is that the FDR-1 provides a smooth, creamier sound reminiscent of the Fender tube amps of the 1960's.  It takes the AC4TV's characteristic crisp tone (due to the 10 inch combo speaker) and warms it up, while reducing the brightness.  As it warms it up, the tone becomes larger than you would expect from this small, but brilliant VOX Amp. 

Initially, I was having trouble with the FDR-1 pedal causing springy sounding crashes, almost random pops, when the "reverb" setting was on.  I played with the controls and eventually found that by taking the gain (provided for the purpose of creating distortion-- which I prefer to get from the tubes in the VOX) and setting that "gain" at the lowest possible level (7-8 o'clock) to get rid of those unwanted sounds.  Next, turn the volume of the pedal up past 12 noon and it smooths things out nicely.  The pops/crashes went away, and the tone cleaned up like a true Fender tube amplifier!  Wow!! 

I suggest the VOX's 1 Watt setting for home, which is plenty loud, even with the VOX at less than "half" on the volume and half way up on the tone, you will still get a bit of crunch by turning the Strat's neck pickup up to 8 or 9.  I practice and enjoy the cleans at 4 or 5 with these settings.  I think the small, compact VOX AC4TV is a great amp and enjoyable to use at home, but adding the FDR-1 to this rig completes the picture.  -- Guitar Man


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