Happy to own a new NOS VT30, stock; advice?

[Duffy]

I just bought a NOS VT30, brand new for 120US out the door. I think the amp sounds great, not harsh at all and it seems to sound best with full sized humbucker equipped guitars, but also sounds great with a good telecaster with single coils, actually two different quality telecasters - just a little more twangy, but nothing that the tone knob on the guitar couldn't knock down, and "harsh" is not a word I can associate with the sound I get. These are nice Alnico II Pro Seymour Duncan pickups in a Fender MIM telecaster standard and the stock pups in the butterscotch Squier Classic Vibe Fifty's Telecaster. These pickups are not "harsh" sounding in my Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue either. I have, however, played some "harsh" tele pickups in the DRRI and they definitely sounded very unconcerting and noisy.

Right now, as I take a break from playing and am typing this, I'm playing my PRS SE Singlecut Tremolo guitar with humbuckers thru the new VT30 and I am enthusiastic about how good the amp sounds. I have not stuffed anything into it or done anything to it at all. I played a couple other good guitars thru it also and had fun, thinking that it sounds great.

I have had the opportunity a few times to "crank" the amp up and it is very, very loud and produces a very musical, pleasing sound - without a hint of harshness. Even on the higher gain settings it sounds really nice to me, cranked. I selected a nice amp model and some slow rotary speaker effect, and added a little more than half the knob of reverb. I turned up the gain about half way or more and turned up the master volume and the regular volume - the amp emitted a beautiful musical roar. I then reached around back and turned down the power sponge to a very satisfying "den" level of very moderate loudness and it retained all the endless saturated sustain and musical feedback. It sounds great played softly too.

I have been wanting to get a "Chromie" ever since I bought my Vox DA5, and I have played quite a few different Valvetronix models. I personally feel that the VT30 is at least equal to or superior to the best of the Valvetronix amps, in terms of sound and producible tones. It is not to weak or too loud for my application of the amp. I wish I would have picked one of these up sooner, but I always missed the chance because I would come down to getting one and then dismiss the idea because I thought they were too sophisticated and complicated and possibly unreliable.

I'm very happy with this one and have a can of De-oxit on hand. Should I spray all the input jacks as a precautionary measure and should I do a "factory reset" because it was out on the shelf for a month or two and who knows what may have been stored in it by unsuspecting customers trying out the amp?

Being new to the real world of the "Chromies" I can appreciate any advice on preventative maintenance or just plain suggestions on how to make the most out of the amp and have the best experience with it. It sounds great to me stock, at all volume levels and settings. I have not cranked it up to maximum volume for more than a few seconds, just long enought to get an idea of where the top end is - it sounded really good cranked, not muddy or unrealistic sounding. I know it's not like a full tube amp that sounds best when the tubes are pushed into saturation and overdrive.

What about switching out the stock tube to an Electro Harmonix or other recommended one? Does this yield any significant improvement to the sound? It sounds really good to me now, so this idea is not something I will probably do any time soon. A dude at a music store by my house had a new Electro Harmonix tube put into his real nice Tonelab and it made a significant improvement in the multipedal's tone. Do most people simply leave the stock tube in place until when or if it starts to wear out?

Am I missing something I should be noticing, because I think the VT30, personally, is the best sounding amp in the VTxxx series. I had a nice little VT15 for a while and this sounds way better. I played a VT50 unmodified at the store and found it to be wallowing in thick, heavy bass - irretrievably mired in the muddy bass and nothing I could do at the store was able to rectify the problem. I dismissed the idea of getting the VT50 because this brand new VT30 was available and my experience is that it sounds well balanced and very cool.

I don't think I have gotten a sound out of my NOS VT30 that sounds less than awesome. The single coils required turning down some gain and adjusting to a suitable model, but the Telecasters sounded very nice.

If I should be listening more attentively for something in the sound of the amp, or making some mods, I'd appreciate some info regarding how to proceed.

Any feedback is appreciated. Please excuse a lot of the questions that might sound ridiculous to some of the well experienced of you all.

[cosmicrepairdude]

Yes, spraying all the jacks and working plugs in and out several times would be an excellent preventative.
Don't see any need for a reset if everything is working OK.

I know you're happy with the sound now and that's great, but for other points of view and discussion on cabinet stuffing, you could read these, if you haven't already:
http://www.voxamps.com/forum/topic.php?id=3233 and then http://www.voxamps.com/forum/topic.php?id=3276 and unhappy-with-your-amp-s-sound-read-this-t3774.html for lots of discussion on this.

I do find that the Power Level on my VT30 sucks tone when turned down and prefer to leave it up at around 2-3:00 to minimize hiss and up full playing with others. MV at 1:30 -3:00 saturates the tube nicely and then Gain for grit or clean level and Volume for loudness.

Opinions on the tube vary but seem to lean toward leave it alone, perceived change is likely placebo effect. I don't see any need to change mine.

My VT30 sounds awesome, now that it's stuffed, and when I gig or jam with it, people regularly comment on how good my tone is. Happened today, in fact.

The only thing that is starting to bug me about this amp is the chrome grill. I'm thinking about spray painting it black.

[Duffy]

I like the chrome.

What do you think about the price I paid, 120 US new, NOS?

I definitely can't see anything wrong with the sound of the amp. It has a lot of zing to it but is not harsh.

I want to take the right kind of care of it to avoid degradation of sound as time goes on.

Have you done any of the mods, like replacing the input jack or anything else particularly useful? I can easily silicone under the capacitors if this is indeed a great idea.

What about doing a speaker upgrade? At four ohms there are not too many speakers out there but I would suppose that there are at least a few that are really great upgrades. As I said, I like the sound of my amp, at least at this point and probably shouldn't think about a speaker change.

You really like your amp a lot, I'm sure. How long have you had it and has it been reliable for you? I remember you sending me a few messages a couple months ago when I was looking at this same amp and considered the VT50 that turned out to be uncompromisingly bassy when I tested it out. Was that a design flaw or do some people want a super bassy amp like that?

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to play the amp now - PRS SE Singlecut Tremolo straight in, nice selected model and slow rotary with 2 or 3 o'clock on the reverb - really nice reverb too.

[cosmicrepairdude]

Price sounds very good to me, less than I paid and mine was used, although still current at the time.

The only mod I've done is stuffing the cabinet.

I'd leave the speaker alone. It takes a few months for a speaker to break in and it usually sounds better after that. One poster recently admitted not knowing that and he replaced his speaker right away, only to go through the breaking in process with the replacement and then realizing it was not the smartest move.

I've had it more than a year, less than 2, bought it used. Had no issue other than the one that led me to stuffing it. Then it developed the "snare noise", on which there is a lengthy thread on another site http://www.voxamps.com/forum/topic.php?id=3716 , and which is, since the summer, solved.

I don't think the headphone jack works properly as I can't seem to get headphones to work. Speaker works fine, though, so I don't really care. I also have a VT20+ and headphones work fine on it.

I have no experience with the VT50, so can't comment.
Boomy amps, however, will sound much better raised off the floor.

Edit: Hah, I just reread our previous conversation and see I have repeated a fair amount. Oh well, at least I'm consistent.

[seduk]

Very interested to hear your impressions. I've had a VT30 since they were first introduced and have found with the stuffing mod and an amp stand, once properly dialed in, it is a very decent amp. I just returned a VT40+ that I had hoped to replace the VT30 with but I could not get past the "snare" sound and didn't want to take the amp apart to correct it. The guys at my guitar store indicated that they are seeing a lot of VT40+ amps returned for the same issue. Too bad, as I really would like the additional models.

[cosmicrepairdude]

seduk, your amp model needs may be completely different than mine (which are pretty vanilla) but I actually have fewer amp models I like on the VT20+ than I do on the VT30.
On the VT30 I mostly move around AC30TB, Tweed 4x10, and Super 4x10 which are pretty similar but have subtle differences. On the VT20+, only the US Blues has a similar vibe to me. The AC30TB model on that amp sounds completely different than the one on the VT30 and it does nothing for me.
More choice doesn't necessarily mean better choices.
Certainly if overdrive and distortion are your thing, the VT+ has almost endless possibilities with all the models and further OD and distortion effects to dial in.

[seduk]

I also use the cleaner, blues style amps a lot, but was hoping for more choices such as the early Marshall models. I was hoping for a little less gain as now it seems to jump straight to the '80's higher gain models. I guess I'll just spend more time trying to tame the models in the VT30.

[cosmicrepairdude]

I guess judicious use of the Gain control might help. I find the dirt threshold to be quite different from one model to another so you can't just leave the Gain in one position as you switch models, if you're looking for clean, but almost dirty sound.

[Col Mustard]

hello, congratulations on making a good choice. I like my VT-30 quite well. it's good to keep a notebook, at least it was for me. I had quite a learning curve getting into this amp, but after maybe eight months or more, I am pretty comfortable with it. I'd suggest first that you make copies of the pages in the back of the manual where you write down your own settings. then you can try things, write them down and put the date on it. this will help you make sense of all the choices.

I believe the price you paid was a good price. You paid less than I did, and I thought I got a good price. these great amps are marked down because the VT-40+ is supposed to replace them in the market, but I think the VT-40+ is a bit of overkill. anyway I like what I have. there's a thread around here called 'cheat sheet' where one of the members published a great pdf which tells you what all of the models are supposed to be representing. that's good to download and print.

I'd play your guitars through it a lot before messing around with it too much. that will give you a chance to decide what you might need, if anything. since yours was a floor model, the break in period should be shorter for you than it was for me. but there are lots of good options for speakers. you can put in an 8 ohm speaker if it's rated for a lot more power than your amp generates. Someone posted about installing an Eminence 'Ragin Cajun' and loving the sound.

Here's a link to some of the mods that I've done to mine. Mine's a working man's amp, I use it onstage regularly, so I have modified it to make it easier to use facing an audience. You've saved enough (by getting this amp for $120.00) to pay for the big Vox VSF5 pedal, which I think is an important part of the system, almost a MUST for a performer. After working this pedal into my setup, I sold some other pedals I didn't need anymore. So enjoy my gallery, you asked about this very thing, and this shows what I've done with mine.
http://s971.photobucket.com/albums/ae19 ... 20project/

[Duffy]

I liked the VT30 particularly well when doing my footwork.

It almost looks like they have group following of people that really like them.

I hope mine stays reliable; no glitches so far and it has been on almost continuously since I bought it. A couple of my humbucker guitars sound especially good thru it across a big part of the amps spectrum - my Gibson faded LP studio and my PRS SE Singlecut Tremolo that I got in mint condition, 2010, tobacco burst, all original except the locking Grovers I put on it. This PRS was a totally great deal at 200 US dollars out the door at the music store near my house. I have had some great deals with these guys. I lucked out on that one and this amp, both at the same place. Anyway, these two guitars in particular sound very three dimensional thru the VT30. I have to try some other guitars out to see if any of them stand out.

Thanks for all of the insight you guys are providing. It has really helped me and proved interesting because I am totally uneducated with the "Chromies", except my little DA5 that was the mind opener to checking out the whole line. This has to be my favorite modeler I have ever used.