VOX NT2H Lil' Night Train Head

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $400.00
Sale Price: $268.80
Today's Bonus: 33% Off

• Authentic VOX all-tube tone in a stylish and ultra-compact 2-watt head
• Two 12AX7 preamp vacuum tubes; single 12AU7 power tube
• Treble & Bass EQ controls; plus Gain and Volume controls
• Bright / Thick switch offers additional tone options
• Headphone/line out jack for direct recording or late night practice

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I've been chasing tube tone in my tiny apartment for years now. I've tried everything from modelers, tube pedals, one-knob Class A amps, etc. and could never quite hit the sweet spot. I got wind of the Lil' Night Train and was very interested in the idea of a 2W, all-tube head. I tried it at my local guitar shop and was instantly sold.

It's the perfect little amp for people who cannot crank a 100W stack to get good tone at home. I can set the gain down low and dime the master volume for sparkly cleans that won't disturb the neighbors. Or, set the master low and crank the gain for some serious distortion. It can get pretty loud for an apartment if you start maxing out the gain and master but it's not loud enough to play over a drummer if you're thinking of using it in a band setting. Sounds great into a 1x10 cabinet but sounds epic into anything larger.

Unfortunately the headphone out is inadequate. Cleans sound good but any gain sounds very harsh and unusable even for just practicing. It can still be used as line-out into an external cab simulator for recording, which sounds good, but the output direct to headphones is not implemented well. Don't buy this amp if headphone use is one of your top needs.

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This is a great little amp, but you have to remember; it is just a practice amp. That said I play mainly out of a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special. I also have 3 tube practice amps, a Jet City Picovalve, a Kustom Defender 5H, and this Lil Night Train.

The Jet City is mushy sounding, even with different tubes, but playable. The Kustom gives an awesome clean tube sound for a little amp, but I find my self practicing with the Lil Night Train. It sounds like a much bigger amp. Because there is only a single channel, you have to play with it to get the sound you want. With a Les Paul Standard, I tend to turn the treble up a little and the gain down. With a Strat, the treble goes down and the gain up.

It takes pedals really well. Put a Tubescreamer type overdrive with a little bit of gain from both the amp and the Tubescreamer and you can get a big tube amp bluesy tone at very reasonable volumes.

This little amp can sound so good that you can bring it with you to practice sessions, if you understand that for different songs (sounds) you'll have to adjust the controls.

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I love the Lil' Night Train. I haven't had the chance to try it with a nice cab, but even with a bad one, it sounds amazing after it's all warmed up. I would not recommend to buy this just for headphone use; because that output is really bad quality.

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Nice amp, too bad it is no longer produced. Good for rolling the knobs, everybody to 10.

Tempted by the 15w version.

This is a handy little bugger, I currently have it hooked up to a MOTU external sound card.

I can certainly get some good sounds out of it, however it would be nice if you could crank up both the volume and the gain without the signal clipping. I realize there are steps I can take to correct this, however if I wanted a more complicated setup I would not have purchased this amp. The advertising should reflect that this amp does not have a true power soak, just a headphone output.

Overall, it's good but not great. So far, it's worth it.