I could buy one tomorrow if I wanted to get into our shared income, but I prefer as much as possible to make gear purchases out of my gigging money. (I do some volunteer work, but that doesn't add to my GAS budget.) And it's not that the price of the MSB is cost prohibitive. I try to book paying gigs on a regular basis. I'm retired, my SS check ain't that much. I'll speak more about my impressions in a bit, I'm still hoping someone else will "chime" in (intentional Vox amp word play there) that can speak to these questions.įWIW, I haven't pulled the trigger yet because of finances. So I was hoping someone here had been able to do a side-by-side test, or at least had the same experience of playing both, albeit not at the same time in the same room. And I haven't taken one of my Pathfinder 15Rs up to GC to do a comparison. Accordingly, I haven't had the MSB in my home where I could do an A/B side-by-side comparison. What I haven't done is pull the trigger.yet. I even sent the amp's signal from the phones/line out on the rear panel of the MSB to a powered speaker with JBL 12s to see what that would sound like. Of course I played around with the amp's settings: Gain + Volume configurations, reverb, tremolo, tone stack. I played different Teles through it (Classic Vibe, Players series, I don't remember now what all), as well as Strats (same deal), and a guitar loaded with humbuckers (can't remember now, may have been an Epiphone Sheraton II). Then I came back and test drove it again. It took our local GC the longest time to get an MSB in, but a few months ago now they did, and I test drove it. Returned, and both it and the MSB were gone. They have to.Īs to the slightly dinged Tele in the closing down clearance, I went away and thought about it. They can't kill the AC15/30, but they do churn the lower offerings. They're a business, not a nostalgia provider and some products have to have a finite life. I suspect the Pathfinder was phased out to refresh the product line with cheaper to build newer models. The Pathfinder will be a second hand bargain you can alter to suit. The MSB has the looks, and sounds really quite good. Scraping the verdigris from the memory vaults, I'd have to give it overall to the MSB, but if a Pathfinder should show up in a pawn shop for a reasonable price, it would be wise to add it to the hoard, providing it doesn't duplicate that which already gathers dust. I only had a passing acquaintance with one, and it was stock. The Pathfinder was a cracking little amplifier, again, regardless of the technology used. If they offered it as a standalone head, I'd have to consider it. Cute, and a great man-cave addition, regardless of the technology used within. I thought it was a fine sounding, and in its retro grille cloth, fine looking amplifier. Our local large(ish) music shop closed down recently, and I only had a passing chance to try a Mini Super Beetle while I tried a slightly shop soiled Affinity Tele. Walmart pastiche pop art for the great unwashed, stylised for its own sake. It reminds me of the post Quimby animation attempts to modernise and 'hip' Tom & Jerry. That representation of a Union flag on the speaker cabinet triggers me to trigglypuff levels of triggerdom. And all such modifications/configurations are welcomed in this discussion. They've wedged 10" speakers into their 15R cabs, used the extension out on the rear panel to go to a separate cab, done speaker swaps, etc. Opinions comparing a stock 15R to a stock MSB are primarily what I'm thinking of, but I know that many PF15R owners here on TDPRI have done mods and/or play through different cabs. So how do you think the Mini Super Beetle compares? Do you own both? Have you A/B’ed them? Have you tried out the MSB but haven’t had the chance to play them side-by-side in the same room? I’m going to assume for the moment that I don’t need to recap on TDPRI the features that makes the Pathfinder 15R such a sought after amp. But comparing Vox to Vox sounds like a logical thing to do, in my book. I don’t recall these previous conversations taking into consideration the still fairly new (unveiled a year ago at Summer NAMM 2018) Vox Mini Super Beetle. Previous discussions have taken place here on TDPRI addressing the question of what current production amp, if any, can take the place of the now long discontinued Vox Pathfinder 15R.
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