Gabriel Sound Garage Voxer 18

[olectric]

I'm really interested in these amps--heard some great stuff about them. I konw there are a few guys on this forum (its namesake included) who are low wattage buffs. My two amps are 45W and 75W (with no half-power switches), and I'd like to not rely so heavily on pedals for OD tones. Anyway, the <a href="http://gabtone.com/voxer.htm">Voxer 18 </a>sounds pretty sweet. Anybody have any experience with it?

[Janine Doubly]

I have heard about them and seen them being used with Mercy Me. I believe the design of his amps (Gabriel) have also spawned the 65 amps stuff. The Gabriel's circuit came from a lot of input from the 18watt.com site (a tweak on Marshall 18 watt amps and EF86 loaded Vox AC15's) which inspired the amp design Peter Stroud and Dan Boul used for the 65amps Marquee model. If its anything like the 65amps, which I tried at NAMM last year, it should be cool. Plus, the bumblebee color scheme flat out rocks!!

[olectric]

I just sent off my payment for it. Sold a computer and a guitar, so it's paid for. Soon, I will receive a log-in and password from Gabi to view pics online of the progress of my amp. Estimated build time is 5 weeks. Those pics are NOT going to help with the patience factor! I agree with you regarding the color scheme, although some of my friends think it's a little too Stryper-ish. Whatever dude, Stryper ROCKS! http://thegearpage.net/board/images/smilies/Dude.gif

http://gabtone.com/images/voxer.gif

[olectric]

O,

We're all anxiously awaiting the review. Wait until you've had it a while. I hate honeymoon reviews...."the tone is to die for" "it just kills brand X, Y, and Z" or my favorite one ....drum roll...."Everything they said on Harmony Central has been confirmed. This amp is a 10!!!""

:D Well said. I'll wait for a bit.

[Janine Doubly]

Can't wait to hear when you get it. Let me know, I'd love to come hear it if possible.

[olectric]

Can't wait to hear when you get it. Let me know, I'd love to come hear it if possible.

Will do. http://thegearpage.net/board/images/smilies/AOK.gif

For those of you who can at least stand .mp3 clips, there's a great clip of the AC15-ish side of this amp on this page (http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=87399) called "Voxer noodling." Pay special attention to the note definition in the chords toward the end of the clip. Very cool.

[olectric]

Rather than further derail the Zendrive thread, I thought I would respond to Suriel's question here: Yes. About two weeks!

Here are a couple pics of my amp being built.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/olectric/P1010008.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b89/olectric/P1010007.jpg

[Suriel Zayas]

cool :cool:

[Janine Doubly]

OOHH!!! I'm getting all excited with the varitable carbon comp resistor overload!! Looks like a nice piece, I hope it sounds as good as it looks!

....oh and Stryper rocks! Still have my copy of their first album on white vinyl...

[olectric]

Alright the Voxer should be here next week, which is great because I just bought a Germino Club 40 from a Gear Page member, and it should be here at the same time. Yay!

[guitarzan]

Alright the Voxer should be here next week, which is great because I just bought a Germino Club 40 from a Gear Page member, and it should be here at the same time. Yay!

the sound clips on that Club 40 are awesome. I love the full-song mp3 called "tribute" at the bottom. Great strat tones.

My, my, my- you're quite the busy gear shopper these days, aren't you? :)

[olectric]

My, my, my- you're quite the busy gear shopper these days, aren't you? :)

Got nothin better to do...nobody calls me back.






OOOOooooo! That must sting!

[guitarzan]

must... type... slowly...

I need the other... hand to pull the zinger.... out of my chest.... :)

[guitarzan]

I picked up a Sewell Texaplex 25E, which is the more Voxy version of his Texaplex 25 (ef86 preamp and a 12" Blue Dog).

...still have the LS Special, gang, no need to call the sponsor just yet. It's still my fave.

[olectric]

Sweet. Good luck with that. My buddy Matt has a MOTU Traveler and some decent mics; we're going to make some clips of my new amps. I'll be sure to post them.

[olectric]

I picked up a Sewell Texaplex 25E.

How do you like it? What does it sound like? I've never heard of Sewell before.

[guitarzan]

Well, it's really loud for starters. No M/V, just vol, treb. and bass. It has a bright switch and a pretty big cab so it has a big sound but can accomodate chimey cleaner stuff at low volumes with the bright switch. More than anythign I've noticed is that the amp is just stinkin' loud. It's Vox, more or less. Chimey when low, gutsy when driven. It's meant to be like a Plexi, but its voice leans to the Vox side, so think "furry upper mids".

[olectric]

Well, I received my Voxer 18 last night. Everything was going great--the packing job was spectacular, there weren't any visible signs of mishandling on the box, and all the case candy (T shirt, Gabriel Sound Garage picks, braided Ferrari-yellow power cable, and gain footswitch) was sitting right there, all nice and perfectly fine. Well.....




I pick the amp up out of the inner box (which was wrapped in two inches of bubble wrap and set into two to three more inches of insulation with eight styrofoam corners around that) and I carry it back to my guitar room, and I hear something slide inside the box. I open up the back panel, and the EF86 preamp tube is out of its socket with four pins bent almost to a 90 degree angle. There is no other sign of damage whatsoever (or so I thought), so I straightened the tube's pins and put it back in its socket. I turn the amp on, the jewel lights up, and I wait about 10 to 15 minutes to take it off of standby. That time goes by, and there is no glow from the tubes, no heat whatsoever, not even a very faint electric hum coming from the amp. It is DOA. A closer inspection reveals that the chassis is bent. Yup, it's made of 1/8" steel, and UPS somehow managed to cause such an impact that it bent this piece of steel. The whole amp was leaning to one side very slightly. As this is an 18 watt amp, it's pretty light, and its output tranny is not very heavy at all. My guess is that they dropped it from a second story window. http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/angryfire.gifhttp://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/angryfire.gifhttp://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/angryfire.gifhttp://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/argh2.gifhttp://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/argh2.gifhttp://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/argh2.gif

[guitarzan]

sucks, man. I'm really sorry to hear that. Especially after waiting for so long to get it... I'm really sorry. If it makes you feel better, I'll show you what happens when Fedex decides to tune up an amp... (looks like they're competing with UPS for "Delivery Gorilla of the Year" award. I'm pretty sure they didn't stop the truck to deliver mine. They just threw it on my porch like the paperboy would do. And just to let you know how tough it would be to do this, the chassis is held in by 1/8" steel chassis feet that are machine bolted onto plates on the inside of the cabinet. I'm not sure a grenade could've done this much damage. Seriously, there's an art to causing this kind of damage.

http://www.dognmoon.com/anderson/sewell1.jpg

http://www.dognmoon.com/anderson/sewell2.jpg

http://www.dognmoon.com/anderson/sewell3.jpg

[tom]

remember, these guys are professionals. we have been with ups, canceled when 4 guitars were broken in 1 week. went to fedex. canceled when they left guitars at dealers back doors on days they weren't even open. went to dhl. canceled when cod fee was a percentage of the retail. that makes the cod charge $45! we're back to ups, but now we have the coolest box on the planet. the guitar is suspended on all sides by the grey foam like in a flight case. we'll see how it goes.

[olectric]

...Seriously, there's an art to causing this kind of damage....


Wow! That's much worse than the Voxer looked. (I say looked because we haven't the verdict on what the real damage is yet.) Did FedEx take care of that for you or...?

When I saw the damage to the Voxer, I called Gabi immediately, and told him the whole story. He had UPS pick it up at my place this morning. He'll get it Monday morning, fix it, and send it back to me by Wednesday night so I can take it to Nashville for my rehearsal. I told him I'd split the shipping bill with him since it really isn't his fault that UPS used it as an Olympic shot put. He insisted that he would take care of it, and he's terribly sorry I have to wait another week. Couldn't ask for better customer service.

[Janine Doubly]

Yeah, UPS and FedEx can do things to amps I never thought possible. I had an entire Dr. Z MAZ 38 chassis COMPLETELY sheer through the chassis mounts when UPS dropped it to a customer. And then, get this, said it was improperly packed! In its original shipping carton. They never did pony up for the repair.

[olectric]

Well, when UPS dropped my amp last week, Gabi had it sent back to him for the repairs and sent back to me. Turns out the jolt from the drop had not only bent the chassis but separated a solder leading to the output tranny. Gabi resoldered it, went through the whole amp again, and sent it back. I picked it up today at the UPS distribution center (I figured I'd take one link out of the chain of amp-dropping possibilities), and the box has a 4" by 4" chunk of one of its sides hanging loose with some broken styrofoam exposed. I asked the manager how it happened, and he said it looked to him like something punctured the box. Gee, are you sure? He said that they would take care of it if anything was wrong with the amp. Gabi packed it like this (from in to out):

(((((((amp) plastic) inner box) bubble wrap) styrofoam padding) styrofoam corners) outer box)

The gash didn't penetrate the bubble wrap or the inner box, so I'm hoping that everything is just fine. I just hope the damage to the outer box isn't from the thing being dropped.

http://forums.soccerfansnetwork.com/images/smilies/scared.gif

[billyguitar]

UPS stands for United Package Smashers.

[olectric]

Got a chance to play the Voxer over lunch. Holy cow. This thing ROCKS. What a little monster!

I'll write more in a couple of weeks.

[Janine Doubly]

Glad to hear you finally got an amp that works! Can't wait to hear about it! Do tell...do tell...