VHT AV-RL-40R Redline Combo Amp, 40W, Reverb

I'll start by saying, I've only had about 4 days with this amp, so this is just my first impressions. I may update this review after I have ran this beast through it's paces. I have tested most of it's features so I felt I could give a fairly through review.First off, the look and feel of this amp is really nice. It seems very well put together. All knobs and buttons seemed to be installed tight and snug, so no wiggle when a button was pushed or turned. The exterior was flawless. No blemishes or unglued corners. The screen covering the 10" speaker was centered and stretched very tight for a nice finish. All in all, this amp seem very well put together on the outside.Now for the components on the inside. After a through inspection everything looked perfect. I did notice when I picked up the amp to move it there was a rattling sound, so after a closer look I noticed the the spring reverb housing was just a little loose. Nothing to warrant any concern, but it had a little wiggle when I put pressure on it. A quick turn of the 4 screws and it was a non-issue.Now the fun part. I plugged this thing in, and man was I surprised at what came out of such a small amp. Keep in mind this thing is only about 18" by 18" by about 10" deep, but this thing had some crunch! The clean channel was crisp and the EQ, which is just a simple low, mid, high, seemed to work great. With the push of a button you switch over to the dirty channels that have four options from a simple distortion all the way to what VHT calls "redline", which is what is close to what I would call a fuzz. All dirty channels are adjustable with a gain and level knob that can really dial in each distortion channel along with some more tweaking from the EQ to really make the sound your own.Now for the cons: I was a little disappointed with the reverb on this amp. It's claim to fame is that it has a real spring reverb and not a digital one. When on the clean channel it was more noticeable when turned from 0 all the way to max, but nothing like the reverb I can get out of my Fender acoustasonic, but the clean channel is not where this amp shines. When on the dirty channel reverb was almost unnoticeable, but not to worry, with the gain and level adjustments, plus the EQ, you can really jam.There was one more complaint I had, but this is very minor, and I'm not going to ding VHT for this but when you switch over to the dirty channels it illuminates an LED light that burns with the brightness of a thousand suns, so when you look down on the amp to select the different distortion options you can't see which one you are on. This is really not too big of a deal since there are only 4 options and once you memorize them, there is no need to stare into the abyss anymore to see what channel you're on.Final thoughts: All in all this amp is amazing. This amp has great sound at low and high volume. No crackling from the speaker when cranked, and still great crunch from the distortion and low volume. This is a great combo amp for fun at the house or with friends. It definitely could hold its own beside bigger amps, but this is not something you would use as a stand along amp at a gig. I have a fairly large living room and it will blow your socks off in that kind of setting. I have not had enough time to really explore the far reaches of what this amp can do, but maybe I will update this review later. I highly recommend this to anyone for a great practice amp, and for the price it could be perfect for a beginner amp. With it's light weight(only about 16 pounds) it can easily travel with you anywhere. Hope this review helps, and keep rockin'!!

Arrived with speaker not attached. All of the screws were stuck to the magnet and speaker was loose in cabinet banging around during shipping. It was obvious that it left the factory this way, not sure how it passed quality control. I sent it back.

I have lots of guitar amps, I thought for the price it might be okay, it’s transistor and sounds like it. Get the VHT Special 6 Ultra!

Real Spring Reverb , nice clean tone and aggressive distortion with 4 choices . LOUD . Connected to 2 x 12 cabinet and am impressed for the price........ Very nice red color ........