NAD Fender '59 Bassman LTD 4x10" 45-watt Tube Combo Amp

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

Since I am somewhat of a tube amp snob, I was wondering about the quality of the Chinese made Voxes. But I auditioned more than a few of them, and they all sounded great. But what really got me was the build quality. And I liked them so much that I bought a A15HW1X.

Yep, the build quality is GREAT. The turret board is ridiculously cleanly wired, and the components are all top notch. I can rail on this amp and not a vibration to be heard!

I compared this directly with my buddy's English made AC15 and it was all the amp that the English amp was. Actually both of us preferred my amp. I typically never advocate buying Chinese made tube amps, but I wholly endorse this one. Vox has setup these Chinese factories to deliver the goods!

Just take a look between how the Chinese Vox is built compared to the Bassman LTD, and you tell me which one you would trust more...


VOX AC15HW1X


Fender Tweed Bassman LTD


But be forewarned about Vox amps, they are HEAVY, ridiculously heavy for what they are. My AC15HW1x is at least a 50lb'r. And, they are loud, I was astonished at how loud this 15 watter gets!

Unless it's the Chinese politics that are bothering you, I wouldn't worry about buying one of the Chinese Handwired series Voxes.

Rockabilly, thanks for the photos and your first-hand experience with the Viet Nam--made Vox amps! The Viet Nam Handwired Voxes sure look well put together and likely the quality surpasses that of the original English-made Vox amps from the early- to mid-1960s. My thing with top-of-the-line products that originated in a certain country is that I want that product to still be made in the original country. For example, top-of-the-line Martin guitars and Fender amps and guitars I want to be made in the United States, and they still are. Regarding the Vox Hand-Wired Series amps that are Made in China, no doubt that if they were still English-made, it would add at least another $500USD (or pick an amount) to the price of the Vox AC30HW2X (Alnico Blue speakers). This wouldn't deter many players from wanting this amp at that price. It would be nice if Vox could offer their Hand-Wired Series in both Chinese- and English-made versions.

[clintj]

The Chinese Vox amps use a fairly brittle lead-free solder, just a heads up for long term durability. If it's just going to stay at home I'd not worry about it though.

[Tom60]

Originally Posted by clintj

The Chinese Vox amps use a fairly brittle lead-free solder, just a heads up for long term durability. If it's just going to stay at home I'd not worry about it though.

Chinese crap is just that - a crap they skimp on everything they can

I think the Vietnamese did wire these HW Voxes much better... if you are in that style of amp..

Anything these days (after 2008) is ... you know it
bean counters - inferior wood, low quality frets, all components, everything

I´ve bought two Marshall handwired replicas .. the worst mistake in my life
poor quality trannies.. OT on one went south and the PT on the other one is noisy as hell...
Do not buy any of this new stuff, wherever it was made..
China or England.. the same ripoff.. the same pattern

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Rockabilly, thanks for the photos and your first-hand experience with the Chinese-made Vox amps! The Chinese Handwired Voxes sure look well put together and likely the quality surpasses that of the original English-made Vox amps from the early- to mid-1960s. My thing with top-of-the-line products that originated in a certain country is that I want that product to still be made in the original country. For example, top-of-the-line Martin guitars and Fender amps and guitars I want to be made in the United States, and they still are. Regarding the Vox Hand-Wired Series amps that are Made in China, no doubt that if they were still English-made, it would add at least another $500USD (or pick an amount) to the price of the Vox AC30HW2X (Alnico Blue speakers). This wouldn't deter many players from wanting this amp at that price. It would be nice if Vox could offer their Hand-Wired Series in both Chinese- and English-made versions.

I made a mistake, I thought my Hand wired Vox was made in China, it was actually made in their Vietnam plant. And I personally think they are built better than their English made counterparts. And let's face it, neither Fender, nor Vox, nor Marshall have anything to do, build wise, with what they made in their heyday. The transformers are different, the circuits have changed, and for sure, the tubes are of lower quality. If you really want a UK Vox, vintage models are still out there, but even if you find a good one, be prepared to spend money getting serviced for the long haul.

[jonfields45]

BTW, at 64 I remember plenty of transformer failures in my youth. In particular a Fender Deluxe Reverb and an Ampeg B25 come to mind as particularly poorly timed failures. My prejudice as an EE with manufacturing experience is no one ever wants anything to fail if they can avoid it. It is such a hassle and drag on any business. My guess is transformers today are like they've always been...heavy and more reliable than capacitors.

The tin-silver solder that must be used today, instead of tin-lead, is relatively brittle and I think not a great choice for the large joints of hand wiring. But I would take new tin-silver over 50 year old tin-lead. I've not been asked to repair a tube amp in quite a while, but back in the 80s it was my standard procedure to reflow every joint on a Fender eyelet board before putting any real effort into repair (excepting the obvious power supply failure modes). And that usually nailed it.

One item that seems much better today are basic speaker drivers. Rubbing voice coils were outrageously common in my youth and I've only encountered one in the last decades.

I think with everything I've experienced I like the Hot Rod Deluxe for cost effective, reliable, modern construction. Tube sockets are on a PCB. POTs are nutted down (missing from the Blues Jr) and also PCB mounted. Largely ribbon cables running inside holding down the mess. Not too hard to replace a POT and no chaotic mess of hand wiring. If you want to see a worst case example of hand wiring take a look inside any of the silver face Twin Reverb Master Volume amps.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

BTW, at 64 I remember plenty of transformer failures in my youth. In particular a Fender Deluxe Reverb and an Ampeg B25 come to mind as particularly poorly timed failures. My prejudice as an EE with manufacturing experience is no one ever wants anything to fail if they can avoid it. It is such a hassle and drag on any business. My guess is transformers today are like they've always been...heavy and more reliable than capacitors.

The tin-silver solder that must be used today, instead of tin-lead, is relatively brittle and I think not a great choice for the large joints of hand wiring. But I would take new tin-silver over 50 year old tin-lead. I've not been asked to repair a tube amp in quite a while, but back in the 80s it was my standard procedure to reflow every joint on a Fender eyelet board before putting any real effort into repair (excepting the obvious power supply failure modes). And that usually nailed it.

One item that seems much better today are basic speaker drivers. Rubbing voice coils were outrageously common in my youth and I've only encountered one in the last decades.

I think with everything I've experienced I like the Hot Rod Deluxe for cost effective, reliable, modern construction. Tube sockets are on a PCB. POTs are nutted down (missing from the Blues Jr) and also PCB mounted. Largely ribbon cables running inside holding down the mess. Not too hard to replace a POT and no chaotic mess of hand wiring. If you want to see a worst case example of hand wiring take a look inside any of the silver face Twin Reverb Master Volume amps.

The reflowing of all the joints is always a good thing, and in alot of cases that immediately fixes the problem. I seen it happen too many times to count!

And yes Silverface Fenders, some of those were attrocious!

I pass on ribbon cables, and PCB mounted tube sockets, jacks, and pots though. My Fender Blues Deluxe, and earlier Super 60 used all of those techniques, and they were hands down the most problematic amps I've ever owned with most of those problems being attributed to those PCB mounted components!

[Song]

Originally Posted by Tom60

Chinese crap is just that - a crap they skimp on everything they can

I think the Vietnamese did wire these HW Voxes much better... if you are in that style of amp..

Anything these days (after 2008) is ... you know it
bean counters - inferior wood, low quality frets, all components, everything

I´ve bought two Marshall handwired replicas .. the worst mistake in my life
poor quality trannies.. OT on one went south and the PT on the other one is noisy as hell...
Do not buy any of this new stuff, wherever it was made..
China or England.. the same ripoff.. the same pattern

What do you think about guitars and amps that are made in China?

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

I made a mistake, I thought my Hand wired Vox was made in China, it was actually made in their Vietnam plant. And I personally think they are built better than their English made counterparts. And let's face it, neither Fender, nor Vox, nor Marshall have anything to do, build wise, with what they made in their heyday. The transformers are different, the circuits have changed, and for sure, the tubes are of lower quality. If you really want a UK Vox, vintage models are still out there, but even if you find a good one, be prepared to spend money getting serviced for the long haul.

My Bad, Rockabilly, I originally thought China was the country of origin for the VOX HW amps and wrote that in my post. I made the correction to Viet Nam. Sorry, Bro!

[Tom60]

Originally Posted by Song

What do you think about guitars and amps that are made in China?

They make some so-so preamp tubes, Ruby/Shuguang ..

Other than that, I wouldnt touch any guitar/amp from China
with a 10ft pole

[clintj]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

BTW, at 64 I remember plenty of transformer failures in my youth. In particular a Fender Deluxe Reverb and an Ampeg B25 come to mind as particularly poorly timed failures. My prejudice as an EE with manufacturing experience is no one ever wants anything to fail if they can avoid it. It is such a hassle and drag on any business. My guess is transformers today are like they've always been...heavy and more reliable than capacitors.

The tin-silver solder that must be used today, instead of tin-lead, is relatively brittle and I think not a great choice for the large joints of hand wiring. But I would take new tin-silver over 50 year old tin-lead. I've not been asked to repair a tube amp in quite a while, but back in the 80s it was my standard procedure to reflow every joint on a Fender eyelet board before putting any real effort into repair (excepting the obvious power supply failure modes). And that usually nailed it.

One item that seems much better today are basic speaker drivers. Rubbing voice coils were outrageously common in my youth and I've only encountered one in the last decades.

I think with everything I've experienced I like the Hot Rod Deluxe for cost effective, reliable, modern construction. Tube sockets are on a PCB. POTs are nutted down (missing from the Blues Jr) and also PCB mounted. Largely ribbon cables running inside holding down the mess. Not too hard to replace a POT and no chaotic mess of hand wiring. If you want to see a worst case example of hand wiring take a look inside any of the silver face Twin Reverb Master Volume amps.

It's interesting that some of the features you prize are some of the most common problem areas in cheap amp. Ribbon cables fail due to shock and vibration. PCB mounted sockets heat the board, the board mounted screen grid resistors cook off when a tube shorts out and carbonize the board, and mechanical loading from tube replacements stresses the solder joints. Board mounted jacks are easily broken loose from the board, and when the jack breaks when you trip over a cord desoldering the multiple pins to swap one out is more time consuming and more prone to a failed repair. And Peavey Classic 30s with the three piece folded "taco boards" make many a tech cringe. There's a broken jumper in there somewhere, it's just a matter of which one or ones.

When designers account for those issues, PCB amps can be great.

[SpruceTop]

For my difficulties with my first-ordered and returned Fender '59 Bassman LTD, Fender sent me a FENDER® CAMO COACHES JACKET valued at $60. Another shout-out to Brett Arney who was right on top of my concern!

[jonfields45]

Hey SpruceTop, I thought you were older!

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

Hey SprucetTop, I thought you were older!

Well, ah, let me say this about that ... I'm young at heart!