Vox Pathfinder 10 Guitar Combo Amplifier with Gain, Volume, Treble, Bass Controls

The verdict

The Pathfinder 10 is for the player who wants one small, simple Vox combo that does one job: Volume, Gain, Bass, Treble and a Clean/Overdrive switch, 10 watts through a 6.5-inch Vox Bulldog speaker, plus a headphone output for late-night practice. Good as a first amp, a bedroom rig or a teaching-room spare.

It is the wrong amp if you want built-in effects, an effects loop, an aux input, USB, Bluetooth or presets. Vox publishes none of those — see the comparison below.

That "None" column is the honest shape of this amp.

How it compares

Three small combos we actually stock, side by side. Prices are ours, correct as at 6 September 2026.

Buy the Orange Crush 12 instead if you want a middle control and a better silent-practice path. It costs more, and it adds two things the Pathfinder does not have: a three-band EQ, and CabSim — an analogue circuit on the headphone output that emulates a 4×12 cabinet loaded with Voice of the World speakers. If most of your playing happens through headphones, that CabSim circuit is the deciding difference. What it will not do is replace this amp's line output: Orange publishes no line output for the Crush 12 at all. The two amps are within 0.1 kg of each other, so portability is not what separates them.

Buy the Marshall CODE50 instead if you want effects and presets rather than four knobs. It costs considerably more, and for that you get a 12-inch speaker instead of a 6.5-inch one, 100 editable presets, 24 built-in effects, Bluetooth and USB. It is also 13 kg against the Pathfinder's 4.8 kg, and it is a different class of amp — one you could sensibly take to a rehearsal. If you want simplicity, that spec sheet is a reason to avoid it, not a reason to buy it.

The detail

Four knobs and a switch

Vox's published control set is Volume, Gain, Bass, Treble and a Clean/Overdrive switch. That is the whole front panel.

Gain sets how hard the preamp is driven — how much dirt you get. Volume sets how loud that result comes out. Because there is no master volume separate from the two, you set your distortion with Gain and then set the room level with Volume, rather than cranking one to get the other. The Clean/Overdrive switch moves between the two voicings; because Vox publishes no footswitch socket for this amp, it is a hand-operated switch on the panel, not something you can kick mid-song.

The EQ is two-band: Bass and Treble. There is no middle control. That matters more than it sounds — the midrange is where a guitar sits in a mix, and on this amp you shape it with your guitar's tone control, your pickup selector or a pedal in front. Both amps in the comparison table above have a middle control; this one deliberately does not.

Ten watts through a Bulldog

Vox publishes 10 W RMS into 8 ohms, driving a single 6.5-inch Vox Bulldog speaker. That is a practice-and-lessons specification: a bedroom, a lounge room, a teaching studio. It is not a specification for holding your own against a live drummer — the amps built for that job in the table above run 50 watts through a 12-inch speaker.

Nobody in this category publishes an SPL figure, so treat any "louder than you'd expect" claim you read elsewhere — including from us — as marketing rather than measurement.

One output socket, not two

This is the point our own product URL gets wrong.

Vox publishes the outputs as 1 × Headphone/Line Out Jack. One socket. It serves both purposes: put headphones in it for silent practice, or run a lead from it into an audio interface, a desk or a recorder. Our own listing and its URL are worded as though there were a line output and a separate headphone jack, as two things. There is one.

Two practical consequences. First, you cannot use the headphone output and the line output at the same time, because they are the same hole. Second, Vox publishes no cabinet emulation on that jack, so a signal taken from it will sound like a direct guitar signal rather than a mic'd amp. If you are recording out of it, a cabinet-simulation plugin or pedal after the amp is the fix.

Size, weight and where it lives

380 × 260 × 170 mm, which Vox labels width × depth × height, and 4.8 kg. That is a one-hand carry and a shelf-or-desk footprint. For scale, the Marshall CODE50 in the table above is 13 kg.

What it does not do

Sourced from Vox's published specification, and stated plainly because you deserve to know before the box arrives: no onboard effects or reverb, no effects loop, no aux or MP3 input, no USB, no Bluetooth, no MIDI, no presets, no amp modelling, no extension speaker output, no footswitch socket, and no power-reduction switch.

If two or more of those are on your must-have list, read the comparison table again before you buy.

What you'll also need

• A guitar lead. The Pathfinder 10 has one normal input jack, and you need a cable to reach it. → Instrument cables
• Headphones. The combined headphone / line output is what makes this amp liveable in a share house. A 3.5 mm-to-6.35 mm adapter is cheap insurance if your headphones don't match the socket on the amp. → Headphones
• A clip-on tuner. The Pathfinder's controls are Volume, Gain, Bass, Treble and the Clean/Overdrive switch — tuning is your job. → Guitar & bass tuners
• A reverb or delay pedal, if you want ambience. There are no onboard effects and no effects loop, so pedals go in front of the input. → Guitar effects pedals
• An amp cover, if it lives on a floor or under a window. No cover, bag or case is supplied with this amp. → Amp covers & accessories

Australian availability and delivery

Price: shown live in the buy box above.

Stock: In stock on the floor at our Footscray showroom, 284–288 Ballarat Rd, Footscray VIC. You are welcome to come in and play it before you buy — that is what a showroom is for. Additional stock is held with our supplier.

Click & Collect: Free from Footscray.

Delivery: In-stock orders are dispatched the next business day. Standard shipping is a $7 flat rate and free on orders over $150 — the Pathfinder 10 is over that threshold, so it ships free on its own. Estimated delivery is 4–9 business days after dispatch. Express is $15, typically 1–3 business days. Orders over $30 are tracked and insured. Some rural or remote areas may incur additional charges or longer delivery times.

Scarlett Music is an independent Australian retailer at 284–288 Ballarat Rd, Footscray VIC, trading since 1997, with a physical showroom and in-house technicians.

Related reading

• How to Choose a Guitar Amp: Watts, Valves & Modelling
• How to Choose a Guitar Amp: Watts, Valves & Modelling
• Guitar amp combos
• Guitar effects pedals
• Orange Crush 12
• Marshall CODE50
• Marshall Origin 50C