Hey Zach,
I always enjoy your column, so I thought I’d pick your brain about a Vox V125 Bass tube amp I bought in the late ’80s or early ’90s. I can’t find much info on it, and I wonder why you don’t see them around. Vox’s classic guitar amps are so popular, but this bass amp was not. Short of Sir Paul McCartney, I’ve never seen anybody use one. You’d think gear used by a Beatle would catch on more! I’ve owned all kinds of amps over the years, but I’ve never wanted to part with this one. Am I just weird?
Thanks,
Yvon in Edgewood, Kentucky
Hi Yvon,
A taste for unique vintage gear does not qualify as weird! I think Vox’s bass amps aren’t so highly regarded because Vox is one of a number of manufacturers who made guitar amps first, and then slightly tweaked their guitar offerings to make a bass amp. Marshall is another example.
Vox knocked it out of the park in the late ’50s/early ’60s with their AC30 and its variations, but the company didn’t keep up with musicians’ styles enough to remain a driving force in the industry—something Marshall did quite well. Marshall went on to build some of the greatest guitar amplifiers of all time, while Vox spent decades struggling to rediscover its identity. Partly this was due to Vox’s messy ownership history—especially from 1967, when founder Tom Jennings and engineer Dick Denney exited the company, until the early ’90s, when Korg purchased the brand. Sales, moves, and bankruptcies contributed to an unstable brand and many experimental designs.
It’s no secret that Marshall and Vox were rivals for many years. It’s interesting that Jim Marshall, who had a music shop in West London, was a Vox dealer early on. When Marshall started designing and building amplifiers that would compete with Vox, Tom Jennings was not impressed. But by the ’70s the sides had switched, and many Vox amps were designed to compete with Marshall’s successful stacks.
Rose Morris was the exclusive Marshall distributor between 1965 and 1980. In the late ’70s Rose Morris, correctly assuming that Marshall wouldn't renew their soon-to-expire contract, purchased Vox to fill the impending void.
Introduced in the early ’80s and produced in England, the V Series amps were some of Vox’s first amplifiers under Rose Morris ownership. They were derived from the AC120, first offered in the mid-’70s. These amplifiers—specifically the V125 Lead and the V125 Bass—were clearly designed to go up against Marshall’s stacks. (Combo versions called the V125 Combo and the lower-wattage V15 were also offered.)
These amps were advertised as “pure valve power,” but they actually have two transistors in the preamp stage. Otherwise, the V125 Bass is an all-tube amp with four preamp tubes (1 x ECC81, 1 x ECC82, 2 x ECC83) and four EL34 power tubes. It produces 125 watts and features two inputs (brilliant and normal), along with sensitivity, volume, and master-volume controls. A 5-band EQ section ranging from 50 Hz to 1,600 Hz rounds out the controls. The separate VR115 cabinet houses a single 15" Celestion speaker. The only noticeable differences on the V125 Lead are a distortion control instead of sensitivity, an EQ section ranging from 100 Hz to 2,300 Hz, and two 12" speakers.
When this amp appeared in the early ’80s, bass-specific amplifier companies such as Hartke, SWR, and Gallien-Krueger were emerging, and bassists took notice. Why buy a slightly tweaked guitar amp when new amps designed specifically for bass were now available? Also, since this amp series was only offered for about two years, Vox didn’t make many of them.
Currently, a V125 Bass rig (including both the head and speaker cabinet) is valued between $800 and $1,000 in excellent condition. The general consensus amongst collectors and players is that these are good-sounding amps, and most people who own them have enjoyed them.
Vox limped along through the ’80s and early ’90s before Rose Morris sold the brand to Korg. (Until 2010, Korg also distributed Marshall amplifiers in the U.S., uniting the two rival brands.) Since then, Vox has enjoyed over two decades of stability under Korg while re-establishing itself as a major player in the guitar-amp industry.
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: Unique vintage gear that works well and sounds decent is cool, and liking it doesn’t make you weird! If you can find these pieces relatively inexpensively, they can be treasures.
DL4 MkII Delay Stompbox Modeler Special Edition 25th Anniversary Silver
Delivering legendary delays, the green DL4TM modeler has been ubiquitous on pedalboards worldwide since launching in 1999. Designed to continue inspiring creativity, the limited and collectable 25th Anniversary DL4 MkII, in a special edition silver, boasts all the same powerful features as the DL4 MkII, but also comes with a hand-numbered label, a keychain, and a DL4 MkII product sticker.
Not only is it more compact than the original DL4, it offers 15 legacy and 15 new delay effects drawn from the HX® family of amp and effects processors, plus bonus reverbs, all derived from the latest Line 6 sound design labs. Looping, SD card expansion and a host of I/O options aim to carry the DL4 legacy forward.
For over five decades, audiences worldwide have marveled at Baxter’s inimitable and instantly recognizable guitar playing and generational songcraft. His output spans classic records as a founding member of Steely Dan and member of the Doobie Brothers in addition to hundreds of recordings with the likes of Donna Summer, Cher, Joni Mitchell, Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton, and many more. During 2022, he initially unveiled Speed of Heat, showcasing yet another side of his creative identity and introducing himself as a solo artist.
On the Storytellers Edition, his fascinating commentary pulls the curtain back on both the process and the message of the music. This version traces the journey to Speed of Heat and its core inspirations as shared directly by Baxter in the form of detailed anecdotes, candid stories, and insightful commentary on every track.
The 12-songalbum, co-produced by Baxter and CJ Vanston, is a riveting and rewarding musical experience that features a host of brilliantly crafted originals co-written by the guitarist and Vanston, as well as inspired versions of some of the great classics. Along the way, Baxter is joined by guest vocalists and songwriters Michael McDonald, Clint Black, Jonny Lang and Rick Livingstone. Baxter notably handled lead vocals on his rendition of Steely Dan’s “My Old School.” Other standouts include "Bad Move" co-written by Baxter, Clint Black, and CJ Vanston, and “My Place In The Sun”, sung by Michael McDonald and co-authored by McDonald, Baxter and Vanston.
As one of the most recorded guitarists of his generation, Baxter’s creative and versatile playing has been heard on some of the most iconic songs in music history, including “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton and “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer.
The stunningly diverse collection of material on Speed of Heat presents a 360-degree view of the uniquely gifted musician.
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If 3 Were 6
With six times the controls found on the 1 and 2 versions (if you discount the original’s on/off slider switch,) the LPB-3’s control complement offers pre-gain, boost, mid freq, bass, treble, and mid knobs, with a center detent on the latter three so you can find the midpoint easily. A mini-toggle labeled “max” selects between 20 dB and 33 dB of maximum gain, and another labeled “Q” flips the resonance of the mid EQ between high and low. Obviously, this represents a significant expansion of the LPB’s capabilities.
More than just a booster with a passive tone, the LPB-3 boasts a genuine active EQ stage plus parametric midrange section, comprising the two knobs with shaded legends, mid freq and mid level. The gain stages have also been reimagined to include a pre-gain stage before the EQ, which enables up to 20 dB of input gain. The boost stage that follows the EQ is essentially a level control with gain to allow for up to 33 dB of gain through the LPB-3 when the “max” mini toggle is set to 33dB
A slider switch accessible inside the pedal selects between buffered or true bypass for the hard-latch footswitch. An AC adapter is included, which supplies 200mA of DC at 9.6 volts to the center-negative power input, and EHX specifies that nothing supplying less than 120mA or more than 12 volts should be used. There’s no space for an internal battery.
Power-Boosted
The LPB-3 reveals boatloads of range that betters many linear boosts on the market. There’s lots of tone-shaping power here. Uncolored boost is available when you want it, and the preamp gain knob colors and fattens your signal as you crank it up—even before you tap into the massive flexibility in the EQ stage.
“The preamp gain knob colors and fattens your signal as you crank it up—even before you tap into the massive flexibility in the EQ stage.”
I found the two mid controls work best when used judiciously, and my guitars and amps preferred subtle changes pretty close to the midpoint on each. However, there are still tremendous variations in your mid boost (or scoop, for that matter) within just 15 or 20 percent range in either direction from the center detent. Pushing the boost and pre-gain too far, particularly with the 33 dB setting engaged, can lead to some harsh sounds, but they are easy to avoid and might even be desirable for some users that like to work at more creative extremes.
The Verdict
The new LPB-3 has much, much more range than its predecessors, providing flexible preamp, boost, and overdrive sounds that can be reshaped in significant ways via the powerful EQ. It gives precise tone-tuning flexibility to sticklers that like to match a guitar and amp to a song in a very precise way, but also opens up more radical paths for experimentalists. That it does all this at a $129 price is beyond reasonable.
Electro-Harmonix Lpb-3 Linear Power Booster & Eq Effect Pedal Silver And Blue
