Prepare to Be Vaporized (NAD & Review)

Woody_in_MN

Coptic Orthodox Deacon
So thanks to the Great Deal Thread I got in on a very good price on a Fender Vaporizer. After about a week with the Amp here are my impressions:

THE GOOD: All Tube Amp with quirky design. (This might be good or bad - depending.) One of the first things I noticed when I unpacked the combo is that the cabinet is not a rectangle. It is a wedge - the top is bigger than the bottom. Only three controls - Volume, one tone knob, and reverb knob. When I fired it up I could tell vintage tones are where is shines. It has two EL84's for power tubes. Think Vox AC15, and Fender Blues Jr. However when the volume knob gets past about 3 PM the tone becomes very saturated. Not at all a Marshall, or Mesa Boogie tone - more of an angry Vox tone. They built in a "Vaporizer" circuit that is activated by the included one-button foot switch. The Vaporizer circuit over rides the volume and tone. It does not turn all to "10" - it turns the knobs to "11" or "12". I thought I would find the Vaporizer circuit too harsh - but to me it is more of a modern overdriven tone. By rolling back a guitar volume control I actually find that V. circuit quite useful. But by far the best tones came after I replaced the Ruby el84's with Sovteks. (Remove 6 screws to access the tube.) After the swap I was able to get strong, and clear clean tones to about 10 o clock. Past that the crunch starts. Crunch continues to about 3 o clock - at which point the tone becomes very saturated. My point here is that it is more than a one trick pony - it does clean, crunch, and a very saturated tone. It does shine in the "vintage" voices between 8 o clock to one o clock. Until saturation tones are clear and warm. For me 12 to 15 watts is perfect for home use, and I expect it will work well in the studio. Might be able to work in rehearsals - but your drummer really needs to hold back. Another big plus for me is a port for external 8 Ohm speaker. But the Special two 10" speakers sound really good. Size of the amp is bulky, but manageable at about 35 lbs.

THE BAD: At least for me the Ruby EL84's don't allow for true clean tones. It was difficult to get true clean tones past about 7 o clock with the stock power tubes. I wish it was a little smaller. It is almost as big as the Peavey Classic 50 (2 x12) I have. If you want an amp with a bunch of features - this is not it. Only reverb. No separate Gain control. No modeling - period.

VERDICT: I had 30 days to decide on this but once I swapped out the power tubes I was pretty much sold. I don't have an amp like this - so it doesn't overlap with other amps I have. The Amp that is closest to this in tone is the Vox Pathfinder 15R I got a couple months ago. But the Vox falls short in its overdrive. Although one of these days I want to A/B the two amps. Overall THUMBS UP ! (And I am not really much of a Fender guy.)

Pics...

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The kids wanted to see...

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Congrats on the Vaporizer Woody. I felt the same way about my Ramparte - basic, but good. Definitely a niche amp, and still very worth it.
 
Thanks all. Just another thought on the EL84's: I have a Carvin 3Vm which is EL84's also - and I love that one too. But the 3VM shines in high gain - but the Vaporizer shines in clean and vintage tone. So circuitry must have a big impact on the tone of the EL84's. BTW - I also swapped out various pre amp tubes and landed on Sovtek LPS in socket 1, and a vintage Dumont in socket 2 as sounding best with minimal noise/hum.
 
Very cool amp, Woody. I'm tempted to get one. But I don't need it. My Kustom does everything that I need it to.
 
HNAD

I tried one in a store along with a Gresch semihollow and was very impressed. It had everything I like about EL84s and the dual 10" speakers are something I really dig.

I'm kind of giving them some time to make sure there aren't any reliability issues. It looks like they separated the tube sockets from the mainboard so that's a good sign. It might be worth another look.
 
HNAD! If I didn't have to many amps already I would consider one of these.


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Congrats on the amp. They look very cool. I would have gotten one but I have too many amps right now.
 
This will do cleans at a bedroom volume - but yeh - there is no separate gain control. So to get a saturated tone - it gets kinda loud. Or you could throw on a pedal. I guess I see this as an alternative to a Blues Jr.
 
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