MV50 Boutique 50-watt Hybrid Tube Head Review

Modern Marvel

Having owned a Super Beatle I marvel at the palm sized engineering artistry that Vox has achieved. Pair it with a great speaker and enjoy the sonic richness this bliss maker offers. 50 watts when you need them and family friendly volume when you need that for your practice makes this smart amp head a lifelong keeper.

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Great Amp

I gotta say this little amp is amazing. I bought mainly because I wanted an amp that I could run a line out for live-streaming. But I also wanted the versatility of playing with a band. I have to say, I am currently running thru the Vox VC108 cab and this thing cranks. I am playing with my band(drums, 2 guitars, vocals) and I'm running 4-5 o'clock on the gain and about 9-10 o'clock… read more on the master. Still have room to go louder. I am very happy with this amp. Eventually I will get another BC108 so I can get the full 50 watts but I have to say that I'm quite happy just the way it is. I normally use a Vox AC15 or AC10 depending on the gig...but I noticed the sound on the AC will vary a bit. With the MV50 it seems more stable. Handles pedals real well. I did a lot of research on the different MV50's and I went with the boutique as I could get both a clean and dirty sound with the same amp.

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Fantastic tone!

Gear used, 2011 Gibson Les Paul Traditional flametop with Gibson 57 Classic and Classic Plus pickups into this amp, into a 16 ohm Avatar sealed back 2-12 cab with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers. I bought this amp looking for an easily portable backup to my trusty '74 Marshall JMP50, and honestly when I first plugged into this thing I wasn't all that impressed. The clean sounds were… read more decent, but the overdrive just kinda reminded me of a practice amp. I even went as far as plugging an EH Soul Food overdrive into it to see what that would do, but it wasn't much better. Then, after continuing to play through it and leaving it on while I was doing other things, it seemed to go through a metamorphosis. It suddenly started sounding fantastic! I don't know if that has to do with with the NuTube analog preamp section finally getting broken in or what, but now I find myself plugging into this thing every day. It handles pedals well, but the internal overdrive is really fantastic on it's own. I play primarily older rock and blues and was looking at something that would hopefully be sonically on par with my '74 Marshall and this fits the bill quite nicely. Think old Rod and the Faces or Humble Pie tone. I never run the gain past 75%. Great British Invasion tones at lower gain settings. This unit has more than enough volume to keep up with a band. I am very happy with this purchase. Thanks to Ronuel and all the gang at Sweetwater! Good people!

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Hybrid head

Hybrid 50 watt head has great tone Lightweight and easy to use

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Very expressive!

I'm totally sold on the NuTube sound. When running clean it's warm and chimey, and when overdriven it's very tight and focused. After getting used to it, when I go back to 12AX7 distortion it sounds a little filmy and papery - on both Fender and Marshall amps. I bought the MV50 Rock a few months back, and it's marvelous - the sound and feel could be a third channel on my Marshall… read more head. I wanted a more "woody" sound for some special tracks I'm doing, so when the Boutique, Hi-Gain and MVX150H came out I tried them all. Each has a different flavor and response. Every time I plugged into the Boutique it felt great and I started smiling - it's extremely expressive and its voicing is just right for my new project, so I chose it. Interesting feature - turning the volume up past 2 o'clock or so starts a pleasing high-end rolloff along with overdriving the tube. Now, even when turned all the way up the gain isn't quite where I want it, so I tried a power boost pedal - perfect! The NuTube sounds perfectly natural when overdriven this way. And, when I turn the volume below the rolloff point and boost the input all the way it breaks up with the added high end in a very pleasing way. Also, the emulated output is just what you would want. I recorded it in stereo with the speaker emulation on one side and a Neumann KM-84 micing my Marshall 1960-AV cab on the other, and the two are indistinguishable. Of course, for actual recording you also want to run through a speaker so the guitar can resonate, but I'm getting great results running the emulated out into the board for cleanest recording, and sitting in front of the speaker to generate feedback. Now - if Vox would just make a model in between the MV50 and the MVX150, with just a single NuTube, two channels, 100 watts, internal power supply and an effects loop, that would be what Santa Claus would bring for Christmas!

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