To players brought up in the 1960's the name Vox has a very special ring to it — most of today's pro players, for example, will have seen countless of their early heroes plugged into Vox amps, playing Vox Continental organs or even (like Brian Jones) playing Vox guitars. To musicians who lived consciously through that whole explosive decade, Vox is still a name to conjure with.

And yet for today's up and coming bands there must be some puzzlement at the reverence automatically shown by their older brothers towards that distinctive gold logo and the chequered speaker grille cloth which adorned all Vox amps. After all, they must reason, Vox gear might have been the best around in the dim and distant past - but what relevance can it possibly have today when the chip and the I.C. seem to be parts of even the meanest equipment?

It's being caught between these two attitudes which must cause Vox's latest in a long line of owners (Rose-Morris and Co.) some considerable problems with their amplification marketing and design. They can't ignore the past, and lose the value of their brand image, and yet they must look to today's players to be the people at whom their products are aimed. Certainly the old familiar Vox line-up of amps (whatever its outstanding virtues) would be a hard one to sell. AC30's are still as magical and unique as they ever were and bands like Status Quo, players like Brian May and others, are capable of getting the most electrifying sounds out of the old, much loved valve 2x12" combo. But, however good the AC30 may be in absolute terms tonally, there's no getting away from the fact that the current price (which is caused by the old fashioned components and manufacturing techniques it uses) of £340 is a hell of a lot to pay for what it is, in modern terms, a rather outdated valve combo rated at 30 watts.

But what about the rest of the Vox traditional range — AC50's, AC100's? They'd hardly stand any better chance today than a 1959 sports car put up against the latest rallying Ford. True, there'd be some who would stick by them come what may — but the majority would value the newer sophistication of today's products.

So, what on Earth has all this blather about nostalgia got to do with a brand new offering from Vox — the Climax 125 watt combo? Well, what we're trying to get at is that Vox in 1982 must be caught in a bit of a cleft stick as far as its looks are concerned.

The first major products from the newly re-vamped Vox line were the V125 guitar and bass stacks. The bass version was a fine bass amp with an excellent sound; the guitar version — well I found it too harsh by far and I gather that I wasn't alone in that view.

So, being very honourably committed to getting it right, the current Vox team have re-thought their ideas and come up with a combo which should, they hope, combine the best of both the traditional and modern worlds.

From a cosmetic point of view the new Climax is very much a case of 'as you were, chaps'. It smacks strongly of the AC30 in looks and is a nicely made open-backed combo, with the inputs and controls on a top panel, as per the old AC30, and it wears that black vinyl covering material and the old cloth grille cover which, it has to be said, makes the Climax look rather dated. Internally, the latest Vox is in some senses a development of the V125 amp unit, with one or two major alterations.

It may seem, externally, like a scaled-up AC30, but internally, it bears four EL34 valves for a power rating in excess of 100 watts and drives two excellent Fane 12" speakers — a far cry indeed from the old 12" speakers of past AC30 fame.

The Climax is very well made, but there's just no getting away from the fact that, possibly through fear of alienating traditional Vox users (maybe especially in the USA?) the Climax doesn't actually look particularly modern, although its features and facilities are.

The control panel too shows that the Vox design team are thinking modern with regard to facilities. They provide you with two inputs (normal and brilliant) a 'distortion' pot, pre-amp gain, and then an equalisation section offering cut and boost (individually on each pot) of 100Hz, 250Hz, 500Hz, 1.5kHz and 2.3kHz. Next off we find a master volume pot (they're all the old Vox pointed knobs, by the way) and then two metal flick switches, one for mains, the other for standby.

"The control panel too shows that the Vox design team are thinking modern with regard to facilities."

The back panel is a bit on the spartan side in that it offers just a captive mains lead and a jack for extension cabs. This latter can be set to inboard speakers plus extension cab or extension cab only.

And so we come to the acid test — that point where one either finds one's worries about this combo's rather dated looks indicative of its sound or not.

Rather than take the obvious route, to produce a simply louder AC30, Vox have chosen here to make a phenomenally loud and ultra bright, clean combo with a decibel per watt output which must be staggering. Boy is this amp loud!

I've had it said to me (by the proud designers at Vox, I'll admit) that this new combo is physically louder than most standard 100 watt valve tops — even when the latter are linked up to 4x12's. I can believe them — this monster nearly took my window panes out!

But the uncanny thing about the Climax is its smooth valve cleanliness. There's little to be gained from setting the pre-amp pot up against the master volume control with this amp as (even driving it with a Gibson using a pair of extra powerful humbuckers); that isn't the way to get a valve distortion from it. This is where the 'distortion' pot comes in. The Vox features a separate valve in the pre-amp chain (an ECC83) which is there to wind on overdrive when wanted.

Due to a few problems I wasn't able to spend as long with this amp as I would have needed to have been able to decide how this distortion wind-on compared with most valve amps run at full tilt, but I certainly found that by using this pot in close conjunction with the fine tonal control offered by the Eq section I was capable of getting some really superlative clean rhythm sounds combined (when using the distortion pot) with some fantastic traditional valve overdrive solo sounds — this extra pre-amp valve is certainly worthy of its keep, believe me!

Maybe though Vox should think about offering a footswitch for the Climax so that the distortion pot can be switched in mid-number — certainly it would be of considerable use. As things now stand, you see, the distortion is either wound in to a constant level or it is out - there's no switching between totally clean rhythm sounds and solos as there is with some dual channel amps.

Mind you, it is possible to turn one's axe down for chord work or riffs and then wind it up for solos but, if you've set the distortion pot for an ideal solo sound, I found that no amount of reduction of guitar volume would let you have a totally clean rhythm sound and a warm but 'over the top' solo sound. Perhaps they should put this distortion circuit on a pedal?

"If you're looking for superlative output levels, fine tonal flexibility and a very modern sound with all the advantages of valves, then this could be just what you are looking for."

Nonetheless this new Climax is a strange mixture. It might look a bit like the result of an act of incest between an AC30 and a V125 head, but it is far, far louder than the AC30 and much better sounding than the V125.

For players who are after nothing more sophisticated than the basic, and (some would have) dated, 100watt valve top sound, then this simply isn't the combo for you. If you're looking for superlative output levels, fine tonal flexibility and a very modern sound with all the advantages of valves, then this could be just what you are looking for. The Climax needs approaching with an open mind. It may be that its traditional looks will deter some players who, for some reason or other, might not want to be too closely associated with the past. On the other hand, it might automatically look right to lovers of the past.

Well, let this be a warning to both types of prejudices. The Climax doesn't sound much like the traditional whining, screaming valve amp unless the distortion control is used (in which eventuality it does a fine job).

In effect this rather tends to make the Climax a bit of a schizoid amp. Used without the distortion pot the sound is quite relentlessly powerful and sharp. There are still just slight overtones of the harshness (or should that be hardness?) of the V125 guitar head, but really it's more of a clean valve responsiveness here which would probably appeal to the growing band of younger guitarists for whom 100% distortion is by no standards the sole aim which it was for their peers back in the early 70's.

Given however that the distortion effect is gained, not by naturally extending the amp's volume past the point of comfort to an onset point of distortion, this distortion pot works like a typical tranny amp's circuit insofar as the effect must be wound on beforehand, rather than being just 'there' at full hoot, to be controlled by the guitarist's hands or his guitar's volume pot. To an extent it is possible to use this feature like that of most valve amps, by turning one's guitar down on chords and wheeling it up for solos, but this way you neither have the pure, clean rhythm sound later added to by a 'distortion effect', nor do you have the footswitch operated 'fuzz effect' of most cheap tranny amps.

This is primarily a clean valve amp (yes, they do exist!) with a damned fine distortion 'extra' available. Maybe it would be better if this latter effect was footswitch controlled — maybe owners could learn how to wind it on from their guitars (I just didn't have time with it to find the magic setting, if it exists). But, if a clean tranny sound makes you despair and yet you don't want to go for that old valve lead sound then you really must try out one of these excellent new Vox combos.

Finally, what will it cost you, all this strange intermixing of old styling and ultramodern guitar sound? Well RRP is set at £399 which seems very fair for the one amp which you will need to take on stage with you (you just aren't going to need anything louder than this new Vox!).

Go on, be a devil — why not try something different for a change? And, whatever it may look like, this latest Vox combo is different in its sound.

Overall verdict? That's got to be down to you. I really liked the sound from this amp but it's certainly a new approach and the choice as to how you spend your money is, as ever, yours and yours alone. Either way, it's nice to see that the Vox team are trying hard to give us guitarists something different with which to make ourselves deaf!