Vox Pathfinder 10

Features — 7
Purchased used from a musician. Eventually sold it to upgrade for a dearer Marshall. I owned it for 1-2 years and enjoyed playing it. It was my fourth ever amplifier. I used an Epiphone guitar with it and managed to play most styles of music. The product build is solid and feels high quality. It's a pretty standard product from Vox and doesn't look out of place with more expensive gear. There are basic EQ controls, nothing fancy there. I loved the way this looked and for a cheap price decided to go for it. Don't know what the year is.

Sound — 7
Suited my blues and classic rock style fine, the sound could get quite treble-heavy due to cheaper solid-state hardware. It's probably best to use a humbucker-equipped guitar to compensate for this. I would stay away from using your typical Squier Bullet or equivalents as you might get severe treble-itis. I didn't use any effects with it and just cranked up the gain a little when playing AC/DC, Hendrix, etc. It's not a noisy amp. You can get a wide variety of sounds, although I wouldn't play Metal or anything too heavy, go for a Marshall in that case.

Reliability & Durability — 7
I wouldn't use this as a main live amplifier, just for rehearsals and home practice. Reason being the sound quality could be better (see previous comments). Durability is fine however. It's dependable and looks quite cool. Portability is a huge plus, the amp is quite lightweight so you can carry it around easily. It's a standard rehearsal / practice amp that will last you a good couple of years when you first start playing, especially if you like classic rock. I had fun using it and it never let me down.

Overall Impression — 7
The Vox Pathfinder 10 delivers very nice Vox-style tones in an affordable and lightweight package. It’s a ‘does what says on the tin’ type of amplifier, with nice breakup once you turn the volume up. When compared to other amps from Marshall and Fender, it does feel a little quiet, and you often need to turn the volume up halfway to hear nuances well. This might be a deal-breaker for some, but if you’re only looking to practice in your home or a small room this won’t be an issue. The lovely finish makes the amp look great in any setting.

This little Vox is a transistor amp with 15W (according to the label at the back of the amp, but some people say it's 10W...), one input, and one 6.5' speaker. The nice looking chicken head knobs are gain, treble, bass and volume, plus the overdrive button and a line/headphones out. No reverb, no fx, no fx loop, no footswitch... a very simple amp, straight to the point.

UTILIZATION

Plug and play, man. Bought it used, so I've never even seen the manual. I like chicken head knobs, they are easy to grab and it's easy to see where they're pointing to. This amp is a little bigger and a little heavier than other ones with the same power, but not a big deal. Looks and finishing are pretty good too.

SOUNDS

Talking about rock here: it actually sounds like a Vox amp, which is a good thing. The clean tone is nice and full, the drive can go from a little crunch to heavy enough for Black Sabbath, and you can use the guitar volume knob to bring the dirt down a little when you want to.
Few knobs, few options, but you either don't need any tweaking to get good sounds, or don't get them at all. It is loud enough to play with a drummer if the drummer is not insane, and, as many other guitar amps, it sounds better whith the volume knob between 60%, 65% and... I would say 75% at most. More than that and 1) sound gets worse - dirtier, but not in a good way) 2) It doesn't really get any louder.

Talking about other styles here: tone wise, you can play many different things with this guy. I would say that you canNOT get tones like those really bright-roland-jazz-chorus stuff and the really heavy-mesa-boogie stuff (at least not without a drive pedal).

OVERALL OPINION

Comparing this one to other small amps in the same price range I personally like it better for rock n' roll, it crunches nicer than the little fender champs but the clean tones are better than the marshalls. Its sound is not going to blow your mind, but for an amplifier this small and this cheap, it's certainly really good.

Not having a mid frequency knob is a bad point. This amp likes my guitars and works fine with them, but I can see that situation happening where you want a certain tone and can't find it... and, well, you never will with only treble and bass, sorry.

So in the end what I say is: if you like rock n' roll and need a small amp to study and to play small gigs, plug your guitar straight into one of these and play it for 5 minutes. If you don't like the sound, no tweaking will fix it. But if you like it, look no further.

Solid State, 10 watt amp. Simple controls with a drive channel. Plug your axe in and play!

UTILIZATION

EASILY get great clean VOX tones out of this puppy. I mean, we're talking -- this thing really impressed me with how much it sounded like it had tubes in it. Vox really made a great practice amp worth mentioning!


SOUNDS

Sounds FANTASTIC on the clean channel. However, the 'drive' channel or distortion channel sounds rather tinny probably due to the smaller speaker size. It's still OK though, and very useable.

OVERALL OPINION

Love its size, weight, response and tube-like VOX cleans.

Tried numerous practice amps before buying one of these, and my blues - playing father stole it from me promptly once I upgraded to all tube stuff. I have guitar gear OCD, so that's just how it goes.

10w / transistor
jack of (plastic)
an output jack (line / headphone)
of gain and output volume, offering, casually, a lot of possible combinations
bass / treble rglage a third band would not make sense given the size of HP

USE

RAS

SONORITS

It was a clear sound that can become very round, it can mess it (for example with the master base and gradually returning gain). Saturation is really interesting, as long as we do not put background. but again, there was way to have fun.
I am surprised by the performance of the small HP.
I use to work at home, playing on my records (well, not Sepultura, but if we listening sound - almost clear - the last AC / DC, marries very well)
It seems that FEIST used on stage for a sound a little dglingu has not m'tonne.
It's a little cheap amp (I pay 71 euros in stores on Tours), very very surprising. Nothing to do with my first amp transistor there a year 20aine (ROSS, an absolute horror)

NOTICE GLOBAL

Very happy with my choice. Unbeatable price-quality ratio.
Not be enough in rehearsal with a rock band, but can fill bcp services.
100% happy with this choice. I t advisable by an old old fan "historic" Ramones that he too used to play on the record its protgs.

One note: Cheap because Made In Vietnam, o how to move in the opposite direction of what one defends.