Best pedal platform amp for overdrives: Fender vs Vox 

Which amp platform is your favorite here, vox or fender? Also: The free pedal has already been claimed - congrats to Bradley Gougler!, thanks for watching!

0:41 Vox Clean 1:07 Vox Clean + TS w/high gain 1:32 Vox Clean + Tumnus w/high gain 1:55 Vox Clean + Euphoria w/high gain 2:36 Vox Cranked (no pedals) 3:17 Vox Cranked + TS w/high gain 3:36 Vox Cranked + Tumnus w/high gain 3:58 Vox Cranked + Euphoria w/high gain 4:43 Vox Cranked +TS w/lowered gain 5:01 Vox Cranked + Tumnus w/lowered gain 5:26 Vox Cranked + Euphoria w/lowered gain 6:45 Deluxe Clean 7:18 Deluxe Clean + TS 7:46 Deluxe Clean + Tumnus 8:22 Deluxe Clean + Euphoria 9:08 Deluxe Cranked (no pedals) 9:42 Deluxe Cranked + TS 10:01 Deluxe Cranked + Tumnus 10:38 Deluxe Cranked + Euphoria

I love that Fender AC15!

0:40 Vox AC15 6:43 Fender Deluxe Reverb

They are both fantastic, but I'm a Vox guy. For best results with a Vox AC15, crank that master volume and give the amp more headroom.

To me, this was the best possible advertisement for the Euphoria.

The Tumnus through the distorted ac15 with original setting was great.

Tele + low gain TS + dirty Vox seems to be a great combination!

Thank you so much for being one of the only people on youtube willing to crank your amps to show how these pedals actually color the amps inherent gain characteristics.

Vox all the way here love my AC15

Mental note: Get a Tumnus next week. Holy mackerel, that thing sounds ace no matter which amp you plug it into.

Love that top end presence on the Tumnus... Doesn't feel like I walked into a room that has a 5 foot ceiling.

Personally have always had a preference for the Vox, but they both sound awesome! When it comes to Vox, keep that channel volume around 9 o'clock, but crack the master open more, like 12 or 1 o'clock. It lets the amp breathe a lot more and fattens up the low end nicely, without farting out. It loves to sing in that range and it takes dirt pedals beautifully.

I consider my playing to lean towards what sounds good on a Vox, but when playing alone, I really like how my fender sounds across the EQ spectrum. Vox really cuts through a mix tho, which is beautiful when playing with a band.

"Fender AC15" typo in description. Yes, I do read descriptions! Great video.

Great video, appreciate the A/B comparison between these two popular amps. Man that Euphoria pedal sounds killer in each setting with both amps!!

The Vox dirty tone kinda sounds better than the pedals

In my opinion, if I were to choose an amp to stand alone, no pedals, I might choose the Vox. It is very versatile and dynamic... Not to take anything away from the Fender... But this is a comparison between the two as a "Pedal Platform", and in that aspect, I can't think of any amp line that can compare to Fender. Legendary clean which allows an unadulterated signal path for a pedal to shine... Even maxed, the Fender was consistent in its tone where the Vox seemed a bit harsh and couldn't match the tone it produced at lower volumes... Honestly, I love both amps, but for different reasons and applications. Maybe you should try a Fender/Roland face off with pedals...

I think the VOX tone is better here ... great video! Cheers

The tumnus and deluxe reverb is love.

The Fender is my personal preference. OD pedals sound better through sparkling clean amps like fenders and the Peavey Bandit. The Vox sounded too muffled combined with the pedals.

I have an AC15, and used a TS808 for a while, then i switched to Tumnus 2 years ago. That 1k mid hump are just perfect to my hears. My TS take the dust now. Thank you M. WAMPLER 😛

I don't know why some players keep poopooing Vox as pedal platform amps. Sounds great to me!

Holy Gods of tone...that Deluxe Reverb, a Tele, and all three pedals sound ridiculous!! Just amazing tone!

@Wampler Pedals This is closely related to a question I emailed you for RU-vid or a podcast a while back, so first a thank you for that! I’ve been a Fender and Fender-style clean pedal platform guy for a long time, but after spending 2 months with an AC30 as my main amp I think I’m a Vox convert. Only negative is the EQ on the Vox took a while to dial in the way I like and weaker bass response than a Fender using single coils, but I’m planning on buying an EQuator to remedy that. Keep up the great work!

Have a AC15hw1 (Greenback). Love fender. Different sounds for different occasions. But I prefer what the Vox does to my ears with pedals

That euphoria pedal was AMAZING, gotta pick myself up one

I couldn't decide so I got both amps...

Love the Fender Deluxe Reverb tone... amazing pedal platform. The Vox is good, but for me I´d go with the Fender over the Vox.

That Vox sounds beautiful!

They both sound great cranked without any pedals.

love that tumnus...never heard of it before.

They all sound good when you're playin' !

You just reminded me how GREAT the Euphoria sounds... time to get out my old Ecstasy :)

I think understanding the way mids work on box amps are key to getting it to work as a pedal platform. You can’t adjust them, you can just make them more or less present in a mix. So having an overdrive that gives you the ability to adjust mids is a godsend. Personally I use a Fatrat and a hotcake. Great video tho!

Excellent vid. Thank you. It's so hard to find any info/demos with a cranked amp.

My problem with most fender amps is, for them to sound like I want them to, they need to be dimed! That’s no bueno in the house, even at the jam it’s too damn loud. My AC15 with an EQ in the chain does just fine and I can get the tone I need without killing everyone around me. Love both of those amps though.

The extra mids of the Vox make it sound more aggressive off the bat. The Fenders cleans are great and ends up with a more behaved sound. Generally a Fender guy but both are good with the right pedal

The question is which amp you prefer to start with. I like an ac30 but I use a Fender Princeton for cleans. Twins are ok as are old tweeds but i like my blackface Princeton the most. It is mostly personal unless you are trying to copy a tone. But really all the magic is in the fingers so, back to my original statement, it depends on what you like to start with. I also have a Rivera Ktre for high gain but it's a whole other monster anyway. I have channel switching / stereo and can run my Princeton and Rivera at the same time. So, crazy number of options and a lot of work getting it to do what i want in a super simple way.

The tone I want so bad. I have an AC30 but it’s too loud to get the natural distortion out of it so I’ve ordered an attenuator. Hopefully it’ll get me there. Super cool 😎!!!

The Euphoria into the cranked Deluxe is delish!

I love my VOX. Dracarys is different with my vox ac 15 compared to through my marshal stack. But I love it especcially when stacked with my DECO saturation... or stacked with my archer ikon which is kinda like the tumnus which along with the Ego will be my next Wampler Pedals. The new modulation terraform def has my eye. I was not into the MOBIUS as it was just too insane and I feel like Wampler isn’t going to let me down with this. Can’t wait to try it out. I ❤️wampler

I’ve had both amps but I am currently using a deluxe reverb. They are both good pedal platforms.

The Euphoria on the clean Deluxe sounded a lot like the Deluxe cranked alone. What a pedal.

Mid scoope amp use ts and klon style pedal, mid boost amp use any other of that kind

I liked the Vox best, personally.

Both amps are freaking amazing I think we can all agree. For me I prefer the clean sound and chimyness sp? Or the VOX. I ended up getting a used VOXAC30HW and fell in love with it beautiful cleans and get some dirt by switching to the 15w mode and the master volume cranked 🫠

Both handle great pedals, if you want some extra drive on your pedals Vox, if you want just the pedal sound Fender. I have both but my favorite for pedals is the Vox. I know that many people don't like the vox cause of it's very low low end hehe, I love it but I did wanted some extra low end so I got it by added a vertex steel string pedal that one added that low end I needed sounds way better

Vox has some sweet natural break up when you push it, but the sweet, clear and open tones of the Fender are just impossible to replace. (In my opinion.)

Out of these two I gotta say I preferred the Vox.

Deluxe Reverb all the way !!

I own a vox ac15 with a Celestial green I gotta say I prefer it over a mates fender, his seems to always have troubles dialling it in.

My fave sound was the TS dimed into the AC15. My fave Fender pedal platform is the Hot Rod Deluxe

I like the Vox cranked, with no pedals, just a touch more than I do the Deluxe. It's got a little bit more meat to it.

Awesome demo! I lover comparison vids. Fender for me. Also you sold me on the Tumnus.

Fender with pedals sounded best. Crisp and really showcased the pedals

Vox nails that Syd Barrett, Piper at the Gates tone. That’s why I own one.

The simple solution is to own both amps. Each amp excels at different sounds with and without pedals. That being said, a new Vox AC15 can be bought for around half of what a new Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb costs. Just something to think about 🤔

Thank you for saying what few people do about the frequency center of the k type circuits. Keep using those ears. As to the pedals, my TS and my Euphoria never leave my board. Both are great for different things.

After 25 years of leaning more British - Marshalls, Hiwatt, Vox - I just picked up a '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb last spring. (The Bassman tone stack on the custom channel hooked me.) It's the best Marshall combo out there under 25 watts (and its a Fender); In fact I don't think another combo amp touches it in that 15 -20 watt range and price point; it may be the most versatile amp I've ever plugged into. I love Voxes but they can be a bit grainy/spikey sounding cranked - but that's their pallet; the CDR is rounder/smoother sounding, and the Celestion in the '68 holds the bottom end together. I usually run it around 5/6ish, with a bit of hair when I dig in; takes my TS808 or my Germanium Fuzzface or both like a champ.

It's clear to say that both are great! I reckon it just depends on your preferece, I really enjoy the Deluxe but would be happy to play an AC15. Both are unreal!

The best first tube amp to get is the Vox AC10c1. I love mine. Its lightweight, its loud enough to play with a band, theres no need to upgrade the stock speaker, its under 500 bucks, it has a gain dial so you can blend your overdrive pedals with it to boost your gain tone, the amp cover is only 30 bucks plus it fits the amp perfectly and has a nice gold bullion embroidered Vox logo on it .You could spend more on a tube amp but you wouldnt get more. For example if you buy a Marshall DSL20cr like I just did for twice the price of a Vox AC10c1, youll end up with a faint sounding clean channel, an EQ section that doesnt do much, and a sorry reverb effect. Seriously, if you dont yet have a tube amp go with the Vox AC10c1. Future tube amps youll buy after it will have notable drawbacks, somehow for what you get with the Vox AC10c1 the price is right and thats rare these days. Have you seen the recent price hike of Gibson acoustic electrics lately?

"Let's take a look at a Fender AC15 and Fender Deluxe Reverb" in the description 😂

I had a 2000 Vox AC30/6 TB for a couple of years and my overdrive pedals I had been playing through various different amps for many years all sounded like total crap through it. Add to that that it was insanely loud, but it had a ridiculously high headroom that I could barely get to breakup maxed, it had me kind of wondering about the $2000 I had spent for a fabulous clean tone.

I’m a fender guy but I love vox. I think I’ll get an Ac10 or 15 and run in stereo.

Both are great platforms.....just some drive pedals sound better with One vs the Other. You need to experiment and pick the amp and pedal that you like. Personally, I love a Tube Screamer into a Fender, a Blues Driver into a Vox and a Red Llama into both of them.

In my opinion the sound of an OD pedal depends almost totally by amp platform. Vox is "middy", so that a middy too pedal like TS and Tumnus sounds like in a closed box (less bass and highs). Euphoria in this situation is more suitable. Fender amp is a "mid-scooped" and with it, TS and Tumnus sound quite good but to my ears Euphoria wins the match also with Fender.

I have a Vox AC30C2 and a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and I actually prefer Vox. I’m aware the Vox is a little more expensive, but I’m just putting that out there for people to see. Remember that’s just my opinion. Everyone has their own opinion based on musical taste, what amps they have previously owned, and even what guitars they use.

I have the VoxAC30s1. Kinda wishing I had the Fender amp. Sounds like what I’m looking for with Texas country.

I have used an AC30 for years as a pedal platform with great luck, but I do prefer Fenders. But I even liked the TS better through the Vox clean much to my surprise.

I like the Euphoria with the cranked Deluxe better. It just sounded too fizzy to me every other way with either amp. I'm such a Fender fanboy. My bad.

Love my 2004 Vox. Smaller club amp go to is the Deluxe Reverb which is cool too

I'm a Fender guy, I have Princeton's , Deluxe , Super all reverbs of course . They seem to be a great platform for pedals . Sometimes a change in a pre-amp tube makes a difference as well .

I was expecting some harsh sounds from top boost channel on VOX with kranked pedals, but it still sounded usable ... very interesting ...

Honestly I have one of each plus a marshall dsl40. All sound great in my opinion. Some may have more bite than others when cranked but I dont have anything bad to say about any of them. nice video!

I honestly don't know why people dismiss the normal channel on a Vox.. to me it seems like it handles pedals way better..

Man I have been going through this exact same situation. I bought an AC-15 back in June, and I really liked it on its own in the store, but when I started playing around with my gain pedals I just cant find the sound I want. I took my pedal board with me to another store and played around with the Deluxe reverb and instantly I was getting the sound in my head that I wanted. I also discovered that the various gain pedals retained their individual character much better with the Deluxe than with the AC-15... as though they are being chocked by the amp. I still think the AC-15 is a great sounding amp, but I have yet to find a gain pedal I like with it. So I'm going to sell it and get the Deluxe reverb.

Have you ever tried running both amps at one time, using different pedals in each amp, with one guitar. Just wondering what type of tone you would hear. I vote for the Vox as it gives me the dirty channel tone the Fender just does not have ...... however I do own a both a fender and vox amp

We still remember your soft spot in your heart for VOX Brian... Even your attorneys know each other lol.

I actually have both...I use a Ibanez TA as Fender style plataform and then i kick in my Wampler Ace Thirty for a Vox style plataform...best of both worlds .

I think the Euphoria Pedal sound the best. Setting the amp for maximum clarity and volume. I like chime (Vox).

I absolutely love the Voxes - the overdrive even low amp overdrive is more "Rockin" in my view. BUT the Fender stuff is more versatile in my opinion to cover a wider range of tones/genres - you can do practically anything with a Fender and the right stuff into it. Conversely I can't honestly say the same about the Vox as much I would like to. If you take something like a Tech 21 Mop Top and put into Fender you can get the best of both worlds with a single amp. Personally I love EL84 power amp breakup and my setup is a Laney cub 12r with a Tech 21 Fuzzy Brit at the end of my dynamics chain. Its an analog dual channel pedal that I can set for 1987x dirt on channel A and cleaner JCM 45 on channel B that then runs into at Tech 21 RK5 then the amp I then have some good stuff in front of notably a Wampler Ego, Clyde Deluxe, Noble Screamer, and EP Booster. This setup covers a ton of ground gain wise from Fender country stuff to high gain Marshall stuff with an amp that can get very Voxy yet without the Vox negatives.

I have a Vox AC30HW2 handwired with Celestion Greenbacks (gasp!). Putting my Tumnus in front of it sounds heavenly! Not a tame lion!

Definitely Tumnus! But . . . through a HIWATT 50 and a Fane 4x12 at 16 ohms.

I come just to hear the Vox and now i'm buying the Tumnus. It adds a certain cut to the tone. Reminds me of Warren Haynes.

The term "transparent" as it relates to overdrives has nothing to do with EQ or "keeping the tone" of one's amp, whatever that means. It refers to a type of overdrive, like the Klon Centaur, which features a blend of the clean, unoverdriven signal in parallel with the distortion. In such a scenario, the overdrive distortion can be thought of as Superimposed on the still-audible unaffected signal, and is thus "transparent," acting in a manner akin to that of a plastic transparency on an old-fashioned overhead projector.

Great tone and playing Brian.

I’m sure that recording your clean guitar with a looper than playing that thru all of the iterations would be boring as all get out. However, it would take an important variable out of the comparisons - your great understanding of each pedal’s dynamics. Right after the 8:00 mark you did some really tasty stuff up above the 12th fret that sounded just great through the Tumnus. I don’t think you did the same licks with the other two pedals. Probably just knew “this will sound cool” and it did. And thanks! I got a Tumnus Deluxe last week. Really like the tone and response through my Princeton Reverb clone, but it didn’t sound right through my Tweed Princeton clone. Why? The 5F2-A circuit has virtually NO clean headroom, and it sounded a lot like the cranked pedals through the dirty amp. I need to try it with the gain dialed back even more.

The ending was very cool, the video very informative!! I love my Fender 212R combo amp! I am pretty sure My guitar teacher's Fender amp was the same as yours is so I'm rather prejudiced toward Fender amps, didn't see your comment till after I sent the e-mail knowing I was way too late, but couldn't resist the urge. what pedal did Bradley choose??

Timestamps: *Vox Clean* 0:41 No pedals 1:07 TS9 1:31 Tumnus 1:55 Euphoria *Vox Dirty* 2:36 No pedals Pedals with drive cranked 3:16 TS9 3:35 Tumnus 3:57 Euphoria Pedals with drive backed off and level crakned 4:42 TS9 5:01 Tumnus 5:26 Euphoria *Fender Clean* 6:44 No pedals 7:18 TS9 7:45 Tumnus 8:22 Euphoria *Fender Dirty* 9:08 No pedals Pedals with drive cranked 9:42 TS9 10:01 Tumnus 10:38 Euphoria Pedals with drive backed off and level cranked 11:29 TS9 11:46 Tumnus 12:15 Euphoria

Definitely prefer the fender tone. It's so much fuller and warmer

Didn’t hear a tone I don’t like at any point in this video. I have a Tumnus and it’s awesome, especially with single coils.

I love both, but I think Fender style amps are a better blank canvas for a pedal platform due to the scooped mids, ESPECIALLY when interacting with a TS style circuit. Vox style amps have a natural mids boost that start to get muddy when stacking overdrives. An AC30 and Deluxe reverb are both 30 watts....but a deluxe just sounds cleaner.

Great video Brian, the ts9 set to level boost only into the cranked fender is a terrific combination. I thought the euphoria sounded excellent too and IMO the tumnus was by far the weakest here.

Vox makes some amazing amps! And I have the smallest Vox in the lineup (The AC4 with the 12 inch speaker) and it sounds HUGE. Great pedal platform, and sounds great with any guitar I plug into it 👍

For me its marshall. Pantheon sounds magnificient in front of my dsl. İ love love it

I think the Vox, but I also think if you dialed the the tone more to the high end ts808 and Tumnus would sound as good as the euphoria. IMO

The winner is Fender !!!!

Yeah the Vox sounds fantastic but point made -- it's easier to turn a Deluxe into a Vox than a Vox into a Deluxe by using effects pedals. So if you like the Vox sound & you can only afford one amp you better love that Vox sound.

I've always been a Fender guitar / Fender amp guy, so I'm already biased before I watched this. But both sound good. I like a clean amp with the pedal supplying the dirt.