social.noyu.me

package!! (basketball for scale) >:)

not particularly exciting packaging, points for the gloss though, this looks less bad than we feared from the one photo we saw

speaker

unfortunately my very first impression is that this thing has a very noticeable hum (presumably 50 cycles?) with the volume set to 0, the gain set to 0, and regardless of whether a guitar or headphones are connected. that's not a great start

oh man this thing actually kinda sounds like a guitar amplifier

fuck me man i'm actually rhythm guitaring out

owning this thing is terrible news for the frets on our main guitar

also I had to strip off a layer of clothing because I actually felt too warm, that's kind of amazing, it's still winter, am I being that energetic while playing

fumu fumu

I decided to compare it with the other small cheap solid-state practice amp we have, the BOSS MG-10, settings roughly matched by ear

the Vox is so much less boxy,
presumably [unquantifiable]% more Voxy,
and most importantly,
doesn't fizzle and die at a hint of bass!

important caveat is that this MG-10 has been mistreated by some previous owner(s), it not only no longer has its carry handle, but the back is missing (it is meant to be a closed-back amp), and that surely affects the bass response

so far the Vox Pathfinder 10 is looking quite promising for us… the actual main thing we've used for practice so far is the ZOOM MS-80IR+, a small digital ampsim/IR-loader pedal, but using headphones for practice is frustrating and fatiguing, and it doesn't even have overdrive

with the Pathfinder 10, we can:

• practice without earphones, so:
  • no cable dragging on our ears
  • is more comfortable… psychologically??? an IR through in-ears is not like an amp in the room
  • makes volume accidents hurt less
• avoid needing to use the SD-1 thank god

the big physical analogue controls are a plus too, they're nicer than using the tiny encoder wheels on the ZOOM

obviously most but not all of this is stuff the MG-10 could do too, it's just… less inspiring… (remains to be seen for sure that this isn't confirmation bias But)

sound sample?

heavy proximity effect there, we'll have to play around with mic positioning of course

having an amp in the room is getting us addicted to guitar again, I was supposed to go running an hour ago but instead I did this

the chicken-head knobs on this amp are very satisfying, very smooth and adjustments are quick and easy

x-7-9-x-10-x is a pretty satisfying chord. I think this is technically just some kind of inverted power chord? but the inversion makes it spicier

waking up and seeing this beauty is such a good motivator

there is a real effect to having a pretty guitar, you know? I guess we're getting this for our amp now. they feel more worthy of one another

oh man we're getting finger callouses again, getting this amp was an excellent decision

make doing the things you want to do (playing guitar) as frictionless as possible and you'll do them more often! we now have an enjoyable guitar tone at a flick of a switch, that's huge

it doesn't have to be amazing. I will not tell you this amp sounds amazing because it doesn't, it's a cheap transistor practice amp, but you can do a lot worse. the main thing is it's just a much more convenient setup for guitar practice than what we had before

honestly a huge thing is just not having to use the BOSS SD-1, it's not a pedal that we get on well with and having to use an external overdrive is very annoying

@hikari E sus4

(Not resolving down to G# makes it sus as a sus from a classical harmony perspective, but I think most folks would still call it that.)

@hikari you can make it more power-chord and less sus by putting the A in the bass like x-0-2-x-0-x. Then it’s just stacked perfect fifths and doesn’t want to act like a suspension.

Very different sound, though.

@hikari I have some outlets in my home with shoddy ground connections that sometimes cause hums like that. I do not know if this is your problem, if you already checked, or if it has a ground pin...

@hikari Have a lot of fun and many groovy grooves! :) 🎸

@hikari You can now start a Beatles tribute band!

https://www.reddit.com/r/beatles/comments/f3fh8v/beatles_using_vox_amps_ad_june_1963/