Vox Lil Night Train Head and Cab Set

I was tested the Lil' Night Train and the Blackstar HT-1. I was a little worried driving home that I'd made the wrong decision however these disappeared as soon as I plugged the amp in at home with guitars I knew.

Firstly this amp looks amazing. Combined with the matching cab it really does look the job.

The clean sounds are amazing and to be honest there's much more headroom than I expected on a 2 Watt Valve Amp. There's great classic Vox tones on tap and lots more.

Turn the gain up and you've got a great classic rock crunch and drive.If you need more drive add your favourite pedal into the mix as this amp loves to take pedals.

The thick switch removes the tone controls and adds a boost in gain and low frequencies. This I've found works best with single coils. With humbuckers it can get a little muddy - but some may like this.

The best tones I've found with this amp are with the gain set to around 2 O'Clock and a strat plugged in. It's great for bluesy SRV type tones.

The only criticism I have is the lack of Reverb. But this isn't huge issue.

This little amp set is fantastic.

The amount of saturated gain from this tiny head is unbelievable !!.

It is also quite a lot louder than I expected, being only 2 watts I thought I would have it cranked up all the way permanently, this is not the case, I only have it on about 30% volume.

The bright / Thick modes work really well.

Bright mode with gain is great for that classic rock sound.

Thick mode with gain just gets filthy :)

Clean sounds are surprisingly good for a small amp.

I only gave it 4 stars as there is a high pitched buzz noise to the edge of your gain sounds when playing which irritates me (and many other people). It kind of sounds like a wasp in a jar alongside you as you still get a great sound it just has this other unwanted sound with it (if you know what I mean).

there is a way to fix this apparently, by clipping the leg of a capacitor (C-19).

you can also install a switch so you can keep the sound with the capacitor in as apparently you lose a bit of brightness when it is clipped.

also the speaker cab sounds a bit weird (can't think of the right words to describe it), which I think is down to the back of the cab being a bit flimsy as some people report getting much better sound from it by lining the inside of the back board with acoustic foam. However it still sounds good standard and for the price when bought with the head this is amazing so i haven't let this effect the star rating.

overall this is a fantastic package with plenty of gain and volume to cover pretty much any style without the need for pedals.

for the price, I don't think you can beat it

Andertons service was 10/10 as always, thanks again,

Dan

Lovely tiny tube amplifier!

Love the sound of it... between Bright & Thick i can find almost any sound that i need although i would have loved to have a knob for mids in the EQ section.

The cabinet sounds good although it could have a bit more powerful lower end. I'm sure a 12 inch speaker would deliver that lower end big time.

Now when it comes to volume this thing provided me with an unexpected surprise. It is louder than my old 15 watt Marshall MG. This was both a good surprise and a bad one. Good because i heard people say it's as loud as a normal person speaking. That is not even close to reality as i can't hear anything else when this thing is fully cranked up. The bad part comes in the fact that i really wanted something that i can crank to the max and it would not get the neighbors at my door in 2 seconds(which is exactly what happened).

That being said the amp sounds great even at lower volumes ... but it shines at high volume. Huge difference between this one and my old Marshall MG... love the tube sound.

Build quality looks rock solid, knobs and buttons all work smoothly and the entire thing feels good to use.

Portability is the best you can get on the market for a tube amp.

Worst part of it is the headphone output. It is completely unusable. Way too powerful, lots of cracks can be heard... just cheap. This, added with the fact that the amp is a bit too loud compared to what i expected from 2 watts, is the main reason i gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

Great value 2 watt valve amp. I can dial in decent clean, crunch and full on overdriven sounds with classic sounding valve harmonic overtones all at low home practice volumes. Well chuffed. Looking forward to trying this amp with a twelve inch speaker as well.

The Vox Lil' Night Train Set is a great little amp head & speaker. It has a wide range of classic tones from jangly clean to growling driven sounds. The lack of a middle tone control or reverb, really does not matter, also for 2watts it kicks out a decent volume,plus you can use headphones!Both units are well made & it also looks gorgeous! I would recommend this amp to anyone who is looking for a small valve amp with a headphone socket to use at home, you would be very happy with this unit.

There are three reasons for buying the Vox Lil' Night Train. First reason: the price; at £240 plus free delivery, that's a good deal considering I've read a mag review which prices it at £281. The review also states that the head/cab deal is only available for a limited time so at some point in the near future the stack could cost up to £328.

Second reason: it's easy to use; select the Thick mode (this bypasses the Tone controls) to boost the Gain for grunge and metal riffs. If, like me, Blues is your thing, select Bright mode and cranking the Gain up to about half way provides a range of convincing blues tones. If you want classic overdrive crank the Gain all the way. Whatever your style, this rig will cover it. The lack of reverb may be an issue for some, but I've found that I don't miss it . There's a Headphones/ Lineout Jack round the back and thats about it. Third reason: normally I'm not one for retro styling but this little stack looks great as well as providing classic tube tones and at 2 Watts it's a great little stack for practising or recording (where you can add reverb if needed).

For such a low power amp rating it is very powerful and loud for practice in my bedroom. Also a number of settings to get a load of different sounds. Class

Great sounding little amp. Looks good too and the matching cabinet works well with the head. Great tones from reasonably clean to some great driven bluesy tone and then right up to a good heavy classic rock sound. Couldn't recommend it any more as a practice/recording amp but don't be fooled into thinking its not loud as it is plenty loud enough to play with a quiet drummer.

After a few weeks of getting to know this Vox amp/cab set up all I can say is wow! This 'Lil Night Train combination offers authentic tube 'edge' at practice/bedroom levels.

Easy to dial in tones from four controls plus one selector switch for a thicker, heavier sound. Looks good too.

At under £250 it's a 'lil beauty.