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As I'm sure many of you know Vox's Valve Reactor series is a bit like Marshall's Valvestate stuff...

So I was milling around the guitar shop today and I saw a guy trying out an AC15 from the Valve Reactor series. He seemed extremely impressed with the sound and confused that it was just £250. He then said he was very interested in it to one of shop guys and asked the guy to google it just to see if the price was right. The price was basically the same everywhere and he then asked what type of tubes it had in it. The shop guy then did some more googling and tells this guy that it has one tube in the pre-amp section and that the rest is solid state. The guy then completely changed his tone and said he was no longer interested, he then left abruptly.

Now, why the hell would he decide he was no longer interested just because it was a Hybrid amp despite loving the sound earlier?

Are you surprised? Those Vox amps are great amps though.

Haze wrote:Are you surprised? Those Vox amps are great amps though.

Yeah I am surprised that someone could change their mind about an amp that they previously liked just because it isn't fully tube.

I don't get why this is thread worthy.

A guy decided he didn't want to buy an amp when he found out it wasn't all tube?

jcyphe wrote:I don't get why this is thread worthy.

A guy decided he didn't want to buy an amp when he found out it wasn't all tube?

Yeah but I don't understand why? He was basically in the process of paying for it then he dropped out when the guy mentioned it wasn't all tube...

ohyeahfuzzbear wrote:

jcyphe wrote:I don't get why this is thread worthy.

A guy decided he didn't want to buy an amp when he found out it wasn't all tube?

Yeah but I don't understand why? He was basically in the process of paying for it then he dropped out when the guy mentioned it wasn't all tube...

I don't know this guy's thinking.

I used to own a Vox with 1 single tube for pre-amp. It was an ok bedroom amp. A lot of that stuff designed like that is ok for beginners but not much else.

ohyeahfuzzbear wrote:

Haze wrote:Are you surprised? Those Vox amps are great amps though.

Yeah I am surprised that someone could change their mind about an amp that they previously liked just because it isn't fully tube.

he might have thought he was playing an ac15cc1 until that point, they do look exactly the same aside from the badges.

You're making assumptions about him. Maybe he just wanted to look up this new amp a little more before committing to a purchase.

Asking what tubes are in it does make me lean towards MY TUBE MOJO however.

Also, 250 is not cheap for a 15 watt amp that just uses a single tube to color the sound. I had one of the vr series when they were new and kept it for about 2 weeks. sounded good playing around at home, but you could never gig with it. Guy thought it was a 15 watt tube amp, not a 15 watt SS amp with a tube in it. There is a huge difference in volume and useability between the two. I could totally understand. Maybe he lie the tone but knew amps well enough that he decided that it would not fit his needs (especially volume wise)

Although on face value he sounds like an idiot, I think it could have been for a sensible reason. If I was him I might have been looking for a 15w tube amp to gig with, so I wouldn't want a 15w hybrid because that's nowhere near loud enough for gigging.

those amps are weird to me, I played the AC15 VR recently and it sounded really blackface-ish It really had a lot more fender characteristics than vox ones, so that really turned me off on them, because if I buy a vox I want it to sound like a vox. But, If I liked the sounds of an amp but then just found it it wasn't all tube, but just had a tube power amp I think I wouldn't buy it.

I own a fender cyber twin, great amp I love it, its a hybrid combo with a tube power amp. But I want to upgrade to a full tube amp just because I dont feel like im getting all the power that I want, plus tube amps take pedals way better and I use pedals with it and just set it up clean. an AC30 would be ideal for me and thats what I want to get. So for me I have a different reason to go against getting another hybrid amp. maybe he had a reason like mine? or maybe he was just a snob? who knows?

I didn't get the concept of these anyway. They sound nice, but no way nicer than a Pathfinder 15 or even an Amplug. It's the tried and true Vox SS sound. But nothing more. Only that it looks like a "real" Vox. And then it's much pricier than the VT amps, that are really good stuff.

But I'd rather be concerned about a shop guy who has to use google to find out that it's not a tube amp. I'd expect someone working in a guitar shop to know what they are selling. Especially when it's not an oddball second hand item.

Thanks for everyones opinions... I now see why he may have backed out... It just confused me at the time because he seemed really happy with it