Home Forums Discussion Popular Topics EPIPHONE CONSTELLATION V and VOX ESSEX BASS AMP 2×12 w/ tonex

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  • #19723
    Anonymous
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    Hi. I was shopping for a nice vintage amp. and i came across both of the following:

    1. EPIPHONE CONSTELLATION V

    2. VOX ESSEX BASS AMP 2×12 w/ tonex

    does anyone out there know anything on either of these bass amps? any reviews? any idea what a fair market price for these might be? comparisons? contrasts?

    i tried to find reviews on both on Harmony central’s user reviews, but nothing on either 🙁

    please help!!!!!

    thanks
    -vic
    [email protected]

    Related Article:
    Portable Bass Amps

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    • #85036
      Anonymous
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      Good stuff. Read this review. Overall a great amp. depands on your style of jamming. Espy. Excerts taken from another venu. ——————————————————————————– Price Paid: US $100 used Features: 5 Don’t know when it was made, but I got it used in early 70’s, and had it, intact, until mid 80’s, when some stupid kid stole it just to take the 12" speakers out of it for his boom box car! I recovered the amp, less speakers, but that was the beginning of the end for it… Still have it, actually, but the fiberboard case fell apart, a wire or two got pulled off, and I have no idea if it will ever play again. When I used it, it was great- I was a bass player at the time, and my first garage band, from Baton Rouge, LA, named "The Dregs of the Earth" by my mother, used it for our PA. Pretty featureless, only vol, tone cut, line reverse (earlier reviewer didn’t know what that does- it reversed power polarity, if you have a hum one way, it usually goes away when switch is thrown) and a foot switch hard-wired which never seemed to do much, but prob. was sustain. Still, for a bass amp, it had what you needed. Solid state, by the way. Sound Quality: 10 Loud and clean, but rather bass-y. This was a slight minus when The Dregs used it for PA, but later when I played bass for bands that had real PA’s, it was a plus- with bass cut turned all the way to bass, it just hummed, no thunk- the smoothest bass notes you ever heard. Reliability: 10 Pretty solid. Never broke down till it was abused by that stupid kid. More on that story- another kid in the neighborhood ratted on him, which was how I got it back, but the rat was, well, a rat- I already knew he was as dirty as, well, a dirty rat. The kid who alledgedly stole it went to jail- I felt bad for him cause the rat prob. put him up to it. Geez, what a sad story. Customer Support: N/A no experiences Overall Rating: 5 Ive still got it, in a box, and would be happy to trade/sell it to someone who might make some use of it. email me at [email protected] Submitted by Anonymous at 11/08/2002 11:03 ——————————————————————————– Price Paid: 100 (Canadian) used Features: 10 late 60’s early seventies amp not sure though. I bought this off of my friends mom for 100 canadian. it’s made of 1 inch board and weighs about 80 lbs, and stands almost 3 ft high. it’s 55 watt solid state, and is loud enough to shake dishes in the china cabinet 2 rooms away, on level 2 of 6 avail. There’s a Volume and a Tone-X for knobs, 2 inputs, line reverse(no clue what it does really) and an output on the back. there is a switch on the back inside a little circular hole-type enclosure, which makes a wicked banshee scream.. i have no clue, but best guess is power switching from 110 to 220 or whatever is in europe.. since there is a cord in the little cubbyhole for the power cord that looks like an old lamp cord, but the end is cut off.. personally i never use anything but one input. vol and Tone-X.. and thats all I really need, as It really only stays in my room, where I play bass and guitar through it. very rich sound. Although compared to newer amps, it’d get a 3 or so, I give a ten because it sounds so amazing. Sound Quality: 9 I use an Epiphone Sg, with the bigsby style tailpiece, and an Aspen strat copy, with a floyd rose.. the strat doesnt sound as nice.. but’s thats mainly because my sg is my baby, and the strat is the deliquent kid next door. I play classic rock mainly, and bluesy-"la grange" type stuff, the thick tone sounds ,well undescribable at about level 2 on the tone x, on level 0, i can shake my eavestroughs… when I’m inside.. it’s insane. with a nice distortion like a big muff it gives off a really nice deep purle-esque sound to it, but it will produce nice headbanger metal sounds too.. oh since it is really a bass amp.. basses sound really rich and full through it too..it’s got two 12’s in it and really hums the feedback if you get too close on high vols.. Reliability: 10 this amp was owned by an older woman. who sod it to my friends mom.. who had it for ten-fifteen years and sold it to me there’s usual wear on it, like tolex peeling on the underside from carting it around, but the damn things so heavy it’d break the ground before anything on it would break.. only problems I’ve had have been pots sounding a little scratchy.. but that doesnt happen too often Customer Support: N/A never dealt with them… i e-mailed about it to their site to find out the year it was made.. and approx value.. but nothing.. but I think if I talked to their service line. or sent a letter they’d do something good. Overall Rating: 10 I’ve been playing for more then ten years now, I’m 19 now.. I love it so much, that I am now looking for as many vintage Vox items I can find, wahs effects and stuff, I don’t think I’d gig it, It’s too precious to me I am looking for vintage guitar stacks, not only are they sometimes cheaper, but I love the sound and esthetics better, new amps don’t look as interesting and they all wanna be marshalls..perhaps I’ll find an Orange, Music Man.. or who knows.. anyways, If you find one of these.. snatch it up before someone else does, I’ve been told it may be worth between 4-7 hundred american, so thats 6-9 hundred percent more than I paid!.. plus the Vox diamond pattern is so eye-catching.. amazing. Submitted by Mike Craigen at 12/24/2000 09:34 ——————————————————————————– : 2. VOX ESSEX BASS AMP 2×12 w/ tonex

      • #100630
        Anonymous
        Guest

        Epiphone EA 72 mfg. 1963-1967. 1-15 speaker, upgrade to JBL available.2-6L6 ouyput tubes.Comparable to Fender Bassman for power rating.Good tone.
        I saw an old picture of Fang uisng one or more in the PR&R early days,before the Vox deal.

    • #92924
      Anonymous
      Guest

      : Hi. I was shopping for a nice vintage amp. and i came across both of the following: : 1. EPIPHONE CONSTELLATION V : 2. VOX ESSEX BASS AMP 2×12 w/ tonex : does anyone out there know anything on either of these bass amps? any reviews? any idea what a fair market price for these might be? comparisons? contrasts? : i tried to find reviews on both on Harmony central’s user reviews, but nothing on either 🙁 : please help!!!!! : thanks : -vic : [email protected] I don’t know anything about the Epiphone but the Essex is a solid state amp that was mede by Thomas Organ Co in California during the late 60’s. They have a output of 35 watts RMS. These are by no means loud amps but they are very cool if you can find one in good condition. They sell for between $400 – $600 US depending on condition now a days. The amp should include the cart and a cover. The cart has two 6" wheels that permit the cabinet to be tilted back for easy transport. There were various versions of the Essex, both were almost identical except for the model number. The 1042 model is the older and the 1043 was the better of the two.

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