When I was 15 I was paid for clearing out an old record shop in the West-end (London) which had a VOX 4×12" speaker cab used for decoration. The owner wanted to out it so I took it home in a Taxi(Black taxi cab) which has a lot if space for stuff. It was massive. It got used as a permanent speaker in our bands rehearsal space in a t-shirt printing factory in Camden town. One sunday morning we turned up to jam and found that the place had caught fire! A short circuit un the dressmakers one floor down started a fire which spread and fried all our gear. My Vox was found at the bottom of a 4 floor staircase ? Fire brigade did a "Keith Moon" on all our gear, drums, guitars, amps etc and all that survived was a Fender musicmaster bass guitar. The body paint had boiled and made it turn bluey purple with a cratered texture. This happened long ago, If only I had the sense to go and rip the Celestion green speakers out before the trashmen took it all away...oh yeah and it was powered by a Hiwatt 100 custom amp head which was also consumed in conflagration...we cried for weeks...we were barely 16/17 year old sproggs. Seeing this mini VOX stack brought back the trauma....and leading to a happy ending cos it looks "FAB"!
I remember in the 70s when people were going to marshall or fender. The vox amps like the supers and such were so cheap that i was jobbing them or playing them in my bands. They took fuzz pedals real nice. Damn i miss those days
Todd, i have a question for you ,i'm thinking to get the mini beetle, i always use compressor pedal ,do you use compressor? If yes , does this little amp really sounds 60's ? Thanx for your kind reply. Patrick from Italy
WOW THAT TELE SOUNDS AMAZING JOHN SOUNDS AMAZING I BET MY GIBSON EXPLORER WOULD MAKE SWEET SWEET EXPLORATORY LOVE TO THIS AMP JUST SOUNDS LIKE MAJOR 7THS ON TOP OF EACH OTHER
Great demo, the prices on these aren't too bad either... Too bad that there isn't a corresponding Rickenbacker for less than an arm and a leg! Great playing, as usual!
Superb full demo of all features and effects. Also, great playing! Really sweet vintage tones from this amp! Gotta me one if they ever give us another stimulus check.
The original Vox Superbeatle amps were all solid state, loaded with onboard effects and made in the USA under license by Thomas Organ. They were used by the Beatles on their last tour and also by The Who at The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Both bands didn't like them though, cause those early solid state amps sounded bad in general.
very interesting! Would have to disagree about old school solid states sounding bad though Brian Mays deacy amp, sunn beta lead, frank zappas pignose etc
I would tune in to watch this guy review guitar polishing rags just to listen to him play. Nice amp but don't think I would trade it for my Yamaha THR10C
I just discovered the super mini Beatle, and I gotta say, I was almost totally committed to getting a line 6 duoverb that is available (I'm a line 6 fan) , but honestly, I didn't even consider vox, assuming that any vox amp would be out of my price range. but just to humor myself I did a search on vox and found this little gem...I'm pretty much sold now, especially since I can add my line 6 pod if I want (pod 2.0, the kidney bean looking thing)...and this has tubes.....had my long distance sights set on the line 6 DT 25, when I can afford it, but in the mean time i still need a decent practice amp. found a few listed for less than $400. and that's about what I'd have to limit myself to at this time.....it's definitely a beautiful amp., thanks for this review!
A tough choice between two of the smaller VOX products. The Mini Beatle and the AC4 pack quite a punch. This was a great in depth review utilizing several guitar's and conveying the versatility of this little powerful.treasure.
Thanks for the great review and "FINE" playing as always. I had a SB back in the day, combined with 2 of their Goodman's !9" cabs with an AC 50 for my bass rig. This was in the late 60's and it all got replaced by Sunn hi wattage stuff as the levels came up, but I still pine for one to ad to my collection, and since I'm now mostly a guitar player I might just need one of these mini's. Nice to hear how well they work, of course you could play through a 10 watt Crate and sound good.
Strick nine I knew plenty about them, my friend had one and he played it all the time and I hated the sound. It wasn’t until I was able to mess with the settings of this super beetle and discovered that it wasn’t just all crazy treble ice pick sounds that I changed my mind. I never messed around with my friends settings and he always set his treble way up and bass way down just like pretty much every other review I’d ever seen of them.
@@MrJacobrezac Well it's a good ending. You will probably like the AC15. I dont own that one but have played on them at different occasions. I have three,. the AC30 and the Beetle,..the last one I bought very recently was the little Pathfinder 10. It is $90.00 at most retailers. It was just sort of a novelty purchase,...I thought. It is an unbelievable little amp and sounds like a Vox is supposed to sound. It's the size of a tackle box with a 6" speaker. It sounds much bigger. Like the Beetle, it's an over-achiever.
I just bought one a couple weeks ago. this amp IS as good as the reviews and videos makes it out to be. and listen, I'm a beginner, and I can tell you the amp DOES sound like you hear in this video. (actually better, you just can't mic certain things)
and, yes, tube sweetness!!!! makes me really excited to save up for one of those hardwired AC30 with the blue speakers. more tubes = more sweetness...🎩
Much better than the toys they released before! Reverb, absolutely never without! I wish they sold this without the speaker, because 10 inch speakers can't compete with my lovely 2x12.
I'M CURRENTLY RENTING A USED TRAYNOR CUSTOM 20WR, WITH A PURCHASE OPTION OF LIKE $350 CANADIAN, but i'm liking this VOX as well. which should i buy? The VOX is 450. they both sound good, but i have zero use for the gain channel on the traynor, but i use pedals.... the vox is new. hmm
Anyone know if the head NEEDS to be plugged into a cab if I want to use the headphone-out to my interface for recording into a DAW. Does newtube need a reactive load?
The NuTube is nothing like the dual triodes and beam pentodes or kinkless tetrodes we love. Overly susceptible to microphonics and aren’t user serviceable. Waiting for reliability reports, too early to say atm.
How would this go running an acoustic through it? I run a 12-string Ibanez (the AEL2012ETKS) doing solo shows, how do you think it would sound through this amp?
HappyTimeHollis, i'm using the MV 50 with BC 108 cabinets ( 1+1) , i believe that should not be a big difference as circuit comparing to the head of the Mini Beetle ,however, i play acoustic Hora bouzouki, which has a Fishman piezo pick up, sounds great, no distortion, no annoying feedback, and furthermore i use the MV 50/ BC 108 with an electric semi hollow bouzouki, with two GFS humbuckers, l' m totally satisfied .Greetings from Italy, Patrick
why keep hitting the wammy bar? and why say practice amp? we use this thing to gig with. Even the biggest gig amps are only 15 to 30 amps, you get 25 with this and 50 at 4 ohms and it sounds awesome so why not gig with it.
It would've been nice to have a full view of the amp so that we can gauge the size and actually check the damn thing out. The camera was on you and your guitar the whole time though unfortunately.
Notice how they zoom in every time he plays. That's because he's not playing it at all. They have Kurt Cobain locked in a cupboard and bring him out to play any of this stuff then just image flip it. Kinda crazy if you ask me but damn his jazzy/blues playing is good these days
What is wrong with companies? Every product should have a mid knob so I can hear John say my fav phrase which is "scoop the mids wierdo's"! PS, John you haven't been saying it recently and you really need to for the sake of humanity!
@@DMSProduktions Thats always my experience with new amps ( in shops too ) , Wenn i buy a new amp i always give the amp about 20 - 30 hours of loud gainy playing till the speaker "breaks in" and reaches its full Sound / Volume potential , Or i replace the new speaker with a used one , Most amps are equipped with cheap speakers and need to be upgraded .
I get so tired of these demo's. You mic the amp through a PA and we never actually hear the amp by itself..For the people who don't own a PA System like me, this is worthless.
He's doing it that way for the sake of video production. I agree though, it would be nice to hear the amp raw, like you would at a music store or someones house. I guess you'll have to buy one! Theres your excuse.
Read the review: bit.ly/VoxMiniSuperbeetle
Love my mini superbeetle head. Play it outside at night, the Vox Mini Superbeetle light can be seen from the space station.
I put some tape across my light it was so bright.
When I was 15 I was paid for clearing out an old record shop in the West-end (London) which had a VOX 4×12" speaker cab used for decoration. The owner wanted to out it so I took it home in a Taxi(Black taxi cab) which has a lot if space for stuff. It was massive. It got used as a permanent speaker in our bands rehearsal space in a t-shirt printing factory in Camden town. One sunday morning we turned up to jam and found that the place had caught fire! A short circuit un the dressmakers one floor down started a fire which spread and fried all our gear. My Vox was found at the bottom of a 4 floor staircase ? Fire brigade did a "Keith Moon" on all our gear, drums, guitars, amps etc and all that survived was a Fender musicmaster bass guitar. The body paint had boiled and made it turn bluey purple with a cratered texture. This happened long ago, If only I had the sense to go and rip the Celestion green speakers out before the trashmen took it all away...oh yeah and it was powered by a Hiwatt 100 custom amp head which was also consumed in conflagration...we cried for weeks...we were barely 16/17 year old sproggs. Seeing this mini VOX stack brought back the trauma....and leading to a happy ending cos it looks "FAB"!
John is the greatest. His reviews and love for music shows in all of his videos. Keep up the great reviews and other videos! Long time fan of PG
Played bass in a 60’s band with 2 Super Beatles, a Buckingham and a Bassman. We had sound. I might just have to have a Mini.
Having sound is a good thing!
@@DSilvergun i gotta get me some sound as well!
I remember in the 70s when people were going to marshall or fender.
The vox amps like the supers and such were so cheap that i was jobbing them or playing them in my bands.
They took fuzz pedals real nice.
Damn i miss those days
I am very happy with mine ,amazing bottom end for a 10 inch speaker ! Nice demo JB !
Todd, i have a question for you ,i'm thinking to get the mini beetle, i always use compressor pedal ,do you use compressor? If yes , does this little amp really sounds 60's ? Thanx for your kind reply. Patrick from Italy
Finally! I've always wanted an amp that was "totally adorable"
It all sounds great!! Thanks so much!! Trying to decide if I’ll get one of these soon. Thanks again! ✌🏻
Not sure if the amp's making you sound good or you''re making the amp sound good. Either way it's a win-win combination.
he makes any amp sound good google him
The second.
@@Estuardino71 nah it’s a good sounding amp
Wow!!! As lush as that intro sounded, I would have bet that amp was all tube. Very cool!!!
These amps are superb I plugged mine into my Marshall 4 x 12 1960 ASL cabinet and set it to 4 ohms to pump out 50 watts and it is LOUD.
Hi , does it really sound like tube?
And how ?
KesselRunHero Wao , thank you bro ...
Excellent review brutha man very thorough and superhelpful in making the choice to buy or not to buy... and clearly the choice is buy
WOW THAT TELE SOUNDS AMAZING
JOHN SOUNDS AMAZING
I BET MY GIBSON EXPLORER WOULD MAKE SWEET SWEET EXPLORATORY LOVE TO THIS AMP
JUST SOUNDS LIKE MAJOR 7THS ON TOP OF EACH OTHER
Great demo, the prices on these aren't too bad either... Too bad that there isn't a corresponding Rickenbacker for less than an arm and a leg!
Great playing, as usual!
Sweet Hahn. I just picked up an AC4 now I gotta try one of these out. Vox is knocking it out of the park with these low watt jobs.
Superb full demo of all features and effects. Also, great playing! Really sweet vintage tones from this amp! Gotta me one if they ever give us another stimulus check.
Got one today for $300 lightly used. Sounds great!
as far as set up comes these reviews are the best as they define all parts in the chain to be clear; another great review
The black falcon is awesome
That Telecaster sounds awesome
I'm hearing the intro to Van Halen's "Finish What Ya' Started" being played with this combo.....
The original Vox Superbeatle amps were all solid state, loaded with onboard effects and made in the USA under license by Thomas Organ. They were used by the Beatles on their last tour and also by The Who at The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Both bands didn't like them though, cause those early solid state amps sounded bad in general.
@Rocknrolladube, didn't know that. Very interesting. I heard he also had a solid state Rickenbacker amp which he played in the early days of the band.
very interesting! Would have to disagree about old school solid states sounding bad though Brian Mays deacy amp, sunn beta lead, frank zappas pignose etc
I'm a solid state guy, fo' lyfe.
@@jackhubbard4234 There certainly were a few good ones. You get to hear a lot of solid state sounds on the Beatles' Sgt.Pepper-Album for example.
@@revolutionday1 Me too.
Mahalo John on the many demonstration/ equipment videos.
Tele sounded great through it!
Sounded like the Queen song "It's Late"....
@@revolutionday1 Yup. Nothing does Queen quite like a Vox.
This dude's playing gives me some more blues focussed Jack White vibes and I love it. Doesn't matter what guitar he plays.
Great review! You're the man, John.
Love this demo, I think this is going to sell well.
The perfect man cave amp.
I can confirm that :)
Man cave? This has enough WAF to make it into the living room. As long as you don't dial it up all the way.
Great Demo, John!
I would tune in to watch this guy review guitar polishing rags just to listen to him play. Nice amp but don't think I would trade it for my Yamaha THR10C
Tom Sheraden hahahaha!
Well deserved high praise
Mr B is a great player!
Listen to the Vox Adio Air GT. Blows the old Yamaha out of the water.
@@tonepilot Simply not true. They're comparable, but I prefer amps that don't look like tacky handbags.
Thomas Kirby I hear ya but I played them both side by side. Even the wife preferred the Vox.
I own both. The THR is an awesome DESKTOP practice amp. But I hook the Vox to another cab and get 50 ways PLENTY of gas to play w a drummer.
Just bought myself a green Mini Superbeetle and think I'm falling in love. Can't recommend it enough for anyone thinking of getting one themselves
I have just seen one advertised at a store--brand new--for nearly £100 less than black version. I am really tempted!
@@kingstumble If you go for it, please let me know what you think of it! I like hearing opinions on gear I own, what settings people use etc.
I just discovered the super mini Beatle, and I gotta say, I was almost totally committed to getting a line 6 duoverb that is available (I'm a line 6 fan) , but honestly, I didn't even consider vox, assuming that any vox amp would be out of my price range. but just to humor myself I did a search on vox and found this little gem...I'm pretty much sold now, especially since I can add my line 6 pod if I want (pod 2.0, the kidney bean looking thing)...and this has tubes.....had my long distance sights set on the line 6 DT 25, when I can afford it, but in the mean time i still need a decent practice amp. found a few listed for less than $400. and that's about what I'd have to limit myself to at this time.....it's definitely a beautiful amp., thanks for this review!
Sounds like the whole latta love amp a bit but smaller but you could connect it to something with more power
This amp plays a _Wicked Game_ indeed, man! 😂
Man I LOVE that lil’ Super Duper Beatle!!! Need me 2, or 4, to run in tandem🇬🇧🎸⚡️⚡️🤘🏼
Man, seems like John does a lot more rig rundowns and interviews, but this dude can play! Keep up the good work!
Where is the Rickenbacker?
Another great demo by John - "I'm just gonna dime this pig" epic
Got one to play at the house a month or so ago. Fun little thing to play in the bedroom and can get some gain on it.
Hi, can anyone recommend this for small gigs? Thanks.
Vox is good at amp modeling. i have a Vox NuTube amp and I was shocked how good it sounded.
The original Superbeatle amps were solid state i believe
The american version made by Thomas Organ was solid state
Yes they are. The Beatles should have dumped their super Beatles for Hiwatts like The Who
A tough choice between two of the smaller VOX products. The Mini Beatle and the AC4 pack quite a punch. This was a great in depth review utilizing several guitar's and conveying the versatility of this little powerful.treasure.
Not even close ac4 is real tube this is not
Great playing and review! I really wanna hear it through a 1960 Marshall 4x12 now.
Got mine, it seems best suited to 335 style, although Lp style works well.
Thanks for the great review and "FINE" playing as always. I had a SB back in the day, combined with 2 of their Goodman's !9" cabs with an AC 50 for my bass rig. This was in the late 60's and it all got replaced by Sunn hi wattage stuff as the levels came up, but I still pine for one to ad to my collection, and since I'm now mostly a guitar player I might just need one of these mini's. Nice to hear how well they work, of course you could play through a 10 watt Crate and sound good.
That would be Goodmans 18" cabs, either Foundation or Westminster.
Sounds good, I already loved the MV50 with nu-tube. Some pretty hot playing at 5:24 too :-)
I hated Vox until I got this amp and it totally changed my perspective. Now I’m saving to get an AC15.
It's very interesting that you hated something that you knew absolutely nothing about.
Hatred without reason is strange.
Strick nine I knew plenty about them, my friend had one and he played it all the time and I hated the sound. It wasn’t until I was able to mess with the settings of this super beetle and discovered that it wasn’t just all crazy treble ice pick sounds that I changed my mind. I never messed around with my friends settings and he always set his treble way up and bass way down just like pretty much every other review I’d ever seen of them.
@@MrJacobrezac
Well it's a good ending. You will probably like the AC15. I dont own that one but have played on them at different occasions.
I have three,. the AC30 and the Beetle,..the last one I bought very recently was the little Pathfinder 10.
It is $90.00 at most retailers.
It was just sort of a novelty purchase,...I thought. It is an unbelievable little amp and sounds like a Vox is supposed to sound.
It's the size of a tackle box with a 6" speaker. It sounds much bigger.
Like the Beetle, it's an over-achiever.
Great video John.
Dear Vox Could you please build a full-size super VTOL I would definitely buy two or three maybe four💰💰💰💰💰🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I just bought one a couple weeks ago. this amp IS as good as the reviews and videos makes it out to be. and listen, I'm a beginner, and I can tell you the amp DOES sound like you hear in this video. (actually better, you just can't mic certain things)
@Keith Clark She's a beginner at playing, but perhaps not at listening...
@@f.valguarnera1486 100%
what a great sound!!!
and, yes, tube sweetness!!!! makes me really excited to save up for one of those hardwired AC30 with the blue speakers. more tubes = more sweetness...🎩
Not real tubes. Nutube tech.
Tiny little bugger.. Cool to be visually patterned after the Super Beatle. I still prefer tubes.. they should do an AC30 circuit in that cab!
They make the mv50 AC, which is a nitube AC, which is the same dimensions and output as the super beetle 😁😁
Much better than the toys they released before! Reverb, absolutely never without! I wish they sold this without the speaker, because 10
inch speakers can't compete with my lovely 2x12.
Cool little amp for home!!
I'm curious what speaker would be a good upgrade for the cabinet. A Red Fang? Greenback?
WGS 10" British Invasion. WGS makes the best speakers for mods & upgrades etc
I'M CURRENTLY RENTING A USED TRAYNOR CUSTOM 20WR, WITH A PURCHASE OPTION OF LIKE $350 CANADIAN,
but i'm liking this VOX as well. which should i buy? The VOX is 450.
they both sound good, but i have zero use for the gain channel on the traynor, but i use pedals....
the vox is new. hmm
Sounds cool! Will those be ok with a bass VI? or will too much low end make things muddy?
They have a bass version as well :) its black
Cool! 👍
has anyone tried it with a 12 inch speaker?
Anyone know if the head NEEDS to be plugged into a cab if I want to use the headphone-out to my interface for recording into a DAW. Does newtube need a reactive load?
Anyone know the song name at 4:14? Thanks in advance!
Mark Martinez Wicked Game by Chris Isaak. Very cool song...😎
That telecaster looks like it has a b-bender on (in?) it. I could be wrong though.
Here at premier guitar, we smoke the good stuff.
The NuTube is nothing like the dual triodes and beam pentodes or kinkless tetrodes we love. Overly susceptible to microphonics and aren’t user serviceable. Waiting for reliability reports, too early to say atm.
Is it loud enough to cope in a band situation??
Dime that Goose Ace
0:37 licks that nasty are illegal in some territories, be careful ;)
is this a limited edition ?
Got mine on 2~12
I sure wish this rascal was available bare-head without the stand or speaker.
How would this go running an acoustic through it? I run a 12-string Ibanez (the AEL2012ETKS) doing solo shows, how do you think it would sound through this amp?
HappyTimeHollis, i'm using the MV 50 with BC 108 cabinets ( 1+1) , i believe that should not be a big difference as circuit comparing to the head of the Mini Beetle ,however, i play acoustic Hora bouzouki, which has a Fishman piezo pick up, sounds great, no distortion, no annoying feedback, and furthermore i use the MV 50/ BC 108 with an electric semi hollow bouzouki, with two GFS humbuckers, l' m totally satisfied .Greetings from Italy, Patrick
I think I want one
Me too
Too good
Even got a lil' bit of JB singing in this one! :-D
why keep hitting the wammy bar? and why say practice amp? we use this thing to gig with. Even the biggest gig amps are only 15 to 30 amps, you get 25 with this and 50 at 4 ohms and it sounds awesome so why not gig with it.
Many of us like ze 'whammy', eh senior...?
You think there's enough room to fit a 12 inch speaker in the cab?
No way.
that tele riffffff
Nice review!
Sweet sound man,play a Peter Banks guitar solo.
Small solid state amp gives you that oomph when maxed up, is an interesting twist on amplifier review👍
What can you do to reach the full capacity 50 watts?
Add another cabinet?
4 ohm Jensen 50 watt 10 inch speaker. They run about $50.
Would you recommend AC4TV or Mini Superbeetle?
Fwiw the ac4 to me sounds a little better. I like the power switching too.
Very cool but a used ac10 should be about the same and they rock.
NYC LP Player i dont think so...
@@Mr11oo me either. Not the same at all
STRAT Please!
It could be better with 12” speaker.
$199 at musician's friend stupid deal.
The original super beatle amps are solid state ......no tubes
No, the original amps that were nicknamed "superbeetles" were 100 watt valve amps
It would've been nice to have a full view of the amp so that we can gauge the size and actually check the damn thing out. The camera was on you and your guitar the whole time though unfortunately.
Couldn’t call it mini Beatle?
Yes.
Notice how they zoom in every time he plays. That's because he's not playing it at all. They have Kurt Cobain locked in a cupboard and bring him out to play any of this stuff then just image flip it. Kinda crazy if you ask me but damn his jazzy/blues playing is good these days
Calum Stout wait.. wut?
What? Even Cobain copped to being a terrible guitarist. Kurt could never have any of these licks, lol.
Your right who doesn't love gain🎸
I want 🍬 candy 😎
What is wrong with companies? Every product should have a mid knob so I can hear John say my fav phrase which is "scoop the mids wierdo's"!
PS, John you haven't been saying it recently and you really need to for the sake of humanity!
If thats the clean sound it sounds dirty
HOTONE BRITWIND much better than this amp .. check it out on youtube .. good luck 👍
Sounded great clean, but distorted it was shitty! Very buzzy/ratty!
Im sure the ratty New speaker wasnt "played- Broken in " thoroughly .
Possibly. WHO knows cos we hear all these things BRAND NEW!
@@DMSProduktions Thats always my experience with new amps ( in shops too ) , Wenn i buy a new amp i always give the amp about 20 - 30 hours of loud gainy playing till the speaker "breaks in" and reaches its full Sound / Volume potential , Or i replace the new speaker with a used one , Most amps are equipped with cheap speakers and need to be upgraded .
Play it in person. Sounds killer.
Why don't Vox just reissue the full Super Beatle instead of this toy.
I get so tired of these demo's. You mic the amp through a PA and we never actually hear the amp by itself..For the people who don't own a PA System like me, this is worthless.
gary jenkins
But it’s not running through a PA.... it’s going into an interface.
He's doing it that way for the sake of video production. I agree though, it would be nice to hear the amp raw, like you would at a music store or someones house. I guess you'll have to buy one! Theres your excuse.
sux