New Vox Bass Amp

[bassboogie]

Hi All,

Don't get too excited but Vox have made a small return to the bass amp scene. It's a tiny 10 watt Pathfinder bass amp. We live in hope that this will increase to a 100 watt valve head with the option of 2 by 12 or 4 by 12 or more wow 15 and 18 speaker cabs. I hope I'm not getting too carried away. The people at Korg are quite approachable and do listen, so email them and keep pushing and our dreams may come true. Their last decent amp was the 60 watt T60 (stopped production a few years ago, slightly under powered but still a lovely Voxy sound)

Here's a wishin' and a hopin'
Luigi

[Iain Purdon]

In theory it sounds a lovely idea but, in reality, why would you want a Vox bass amp? The old ones weren't that great, they were under-powered and weren't crucial to the Shadows sound. I can't source it, but I heard somewhere that as far back as John Rostill's time, he took to using an AC30 fascia on stage with other gutsier kit hiding behind it. Alan Jones certainly did the same thing more recently with a concealed Peavey combo and Mark Griffiths doesn't disguise his Roland Cube at all.

[bassboogie]

Hi Iain,

You are probably right. Why would I want a Vox amp..........association, nostalgia and because I want to play like Jet (but can't). For me Jet's tenure with the early Shads and his backing Cliff was the business. I have every respect and admiration for the bass players that followed, but as you point out, amps moved on as did the bass playing techniques.
The club I belong to have Hank's and Bruce's who will only play through ancient AC15's and AC30's. They also scan the world for little metal boxes with funny Italian names, and keep bending over to ajust the iron knobs whilst playing. If I arrive at club meetings with my hundreds of watts Ampeg they avoid me like a smelly armpit. However if I arrive with my AC30 bass amp I am praised and allowed to position the AC30 next to the AC15's and iron age Italian boxes.
I am very fortunate to have an early AC30 bass as well as a Custom AC30 head made by Roger Allcock which I play through a Vox cab with 2 by 12 Celestion Gold speakers which are rated at 50 watts as opposed to the Blues which are 15 watt. Based on my delight with Roger's upgrade I am certain Vox could come up with a stunner of a bass amp for those who love the 60's sound and looks. If you're in Cornwall (near England) sometime come try and hear for yourself. Several local well known Wurzel tribute band bassists absolutely agree with me.

Hopefully many of you Shads bottom enders are going to Scarborough....I thoroughly recommend it....as good as Shadowmania by the northern seaside and hopefully will see you there.

Regards, Luigi

[cockroach]

Jet used his sunburst Precision bass through a custom built bass amp rig on the early recordings anyway- not a Vox AC30 bass amp...

It was a large bass speaker box with a separate valve amp head, built by a London-Italian guy called Pepe Rush.

[bassboogie]

Yes I've seen a picture somewhere of Jet sitting with his sunburst P bass next to an enormous box in a recording studio, if I am correct, whilst recording Apache. However there are many live recordings of Jet, with The Shads and Cliff where he used an AC15 and later AC30. Live at the ABC comes to mind. I certainly think he sounded great, unless of course he used something else disguised as a Vox which I doubt. Lic I am sure only used AC30's.
Not being biased I can now see that Italians were responsible for the Shads sound, Italian echoes and now Jets bass amp made by an Italian........... Forza Italia !!!!!

Ciao, Luigi

[Iain Purdon]

The afore-mentioned sand-filled bass cab was subsequently acquired by Dave (of Chas and ....) and became a rabbit hutch in his back garden!

As I see it, whatever Jet used in the studio would have been miked up and tweaked on the desk so the basic amp used wouldn't have been crucial. Live was a different matter. The AC30 bass amp is under-powered without help - I know from personal experience. Listen to the cones flapping on the ABC recording to hear how hard it is working for the audience! (It didn't matter for the recording because, again, EMI would have miked it for that.) There is little other record of the live bass sound from those days but the "live on TV" sound was always very disappointing.

Lic used an AC30 and an AC50.

Alan Jones is now using an awesome Markbass amp, which is, of course, Italian. So Forza Italia indeed!

Cheers - Iain

[bassboogie]

The picture of Jet with the enormous amp is in the Feb issue of Guitar and Bass magazine, plus an interview with Jet, well worth a read. Jet seems to be looking at Hank and saying "My Italian box is much bigger than yours".

Ciao, Luigi