Anyone got a Vox VBM1 Brian May / Deacy thing

[police squad]

what's it like and do you want to sell it?

[chyc]

I have one, along with a Burns Brian May guitar. Definitely could sound like the man himself if I could play like him. I just choose not to (practise).

 

The original Deacy I believe was a speaker and a battery, so no volume or gain. The VOX one has all the knobs you'd expect from a combo, but there are some really odd design decisions. One that for the life of me I cannot understand is that using the headphone output doesn't cut the speaker output, so you  put some headphones on and your neighbours will still hear you.

 

Reliability wise, the thing has failed on me and been repaired. It's old, but I hardly play it so that's not a ringing endorsement. If you like near Oxford you're welcome to come try it. It's currently gathering dust under my desk at work.

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 06/02/2022 at 09:25, chyc said:

I have one, along with a Burns Brian May guitar. Definitely could sound like the man himself if I could play like him. I just choose not to (practise).

 

The original Deacy I believe was a speaker and a battery, so no volume or gain. The VOX one has all the knobs you'd expect from a combo, but there are some really odd design decisions. One that for the life of me I cannot understand is that using the headphone output doesn't cut the speaker output, so you  put some headphones on and your neighbours will still hear you.

 

Reliability wise, the thing has failed on me and been repaired. It's old, but I hardly play it so that's not a ringing endorsement. If you like near Oxford you're welcome to come try it. It's currently gathering dust under my desk at work.

As memory serves, these were designed so they could be used either as an amp on their own, or as a pre-amp (I believe May's original is exclusively a pre-amp). Could some wiring quirk around that be why the headphones work oddly that way? 

 

[chyc]

19 hours ago, EdwardMarlowe said:

As memory serves, these were designed so they could be used either as an amp on their own, or as a pre-amp (I believe May's original is exclusively a pre-amp). Could some wiring quirk around that be why the headphones work oddly that way? 

 

Possibly. It's intentional though, because the instructions make mention of that. Means volume controls don't work for headphones.

 

I'd need to double check, but the line-out feed *does* cut the speakers, but then if you plug your headphones into it it only comes out one ear. So infuriating.

[EdwardMarlowe]

4 hours ago, chyc said:

Possibly. It's intentional though, because the instructions make mention of that. Means volume controls don't work for headphones.

 

I'd need to double check, but the line-out feed *does* cut the speakers, but then if you plug your headphones into it it only comes out one ear. So infuriating.

That does sound odd! There must be a reason for it, though, if it's designed that way! 

[police squad]

On 06/02/2022 at 09:25, chyc said:

I have one, along with a Burns Brian May guitar. Definitely could sound like the man himself if I could play like him. I just choose not to (practise).

 

The original Deacy I believe was a speaker and a battery, so no volume or gain. The VOX one has all the knobs you'd expect from a combo, but there are some really odd design decisions. One that for the life of me I cannot understand is that using the headphone output doesn't cut the speaker output, so you  put some headphones on and your neighbours will still hear you.

 

Reliability wise, the thing has failed on me and been repaired. It's old, but I hardly play it so that's not a ringing endorsement. If you like near Oxford you're welcome to come try it. It's currently gathering dust under my desk at work.

thanks for the offer but I managed to get an immaculate one, still in its box.

I've used it once or twice. I also have a BM Red Special so decided to pair them but it's not my thing really. I love the Red Special, it's my main gigging guitar, for my 80s thing that I do.

I swapped pickups to  more authentic ones (yonderbosk) but, to be honest, I can't tell the difference

[chyc]

On 14/02/2022 at 15:07, EdwardMarlowe said:

That does sound odd! There must be a reason for it, though, if it's designed that way! 

 

I've found the manual online:

 

Quote

RECORDING/HEADPHONE jack

This speaker-emulated jack enables you to connect directly to a mixing console

or portable recorder such as a Korg PXR4 or D1600. Additionally, you can hook-

up headphones to this jack for a great emulated sound. Turning the VOLUME

controls (6) to zero will facilitate "silent" practicing.

 

So there's some proof  I'm not making it up. You can alter the headphone loudness by twiddling the gain knob, then then obviously that affects the gain!

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 17/02/2022 at 20:30, chyc said:

 

I've found the manual online:

 

 

So there's some proof  I'm not making it up. You can alter the headphone loudness by twiddling the gain knob, then then obviously that affects the gain!

Aha! Yeah, sounds like it's a function of the headphone jack and the direct line-out being one and the same. Interesting! I wonder how many people buy these used (or don't read the manual when it comes new) and think there's a fault in it! Nice design once it's explained - be interesting to compare the sound in phones with an otherwise identical amp with a regular headphone socket...