10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

[Silence Kid]

I put two RFT 12ax7s in to darken it; now the speaker doesn't like putting up with the bass frequencies, protests with a brittle crack when it gets pushed, even clean.

I'm looking for a speaker that can smooth out the bass response, and possibly tame a bit of the high-end as well; it's my practice amp so I don't care if it's very inefficient or lacks headroom, and I'm not as concerned about it sounding 'like a Vox' as I am with it just having a competent, useable tone. Any suggestions?

 

[Blille]

10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

G10 Vintage?

Not sure what you mean by smooth out the bass. Is it too thumpy/boomy now? Or muddy? Farty?

(Man I love speaker adjectives. )




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[MetalManiac]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

That little amp wont put out any bass. The reason I say that is that I had one, and put in old stock tubes, and the upgrade Celestion 10". I honestly don't know what anyone sees in those amps...the cleans aren't great, and distorted tone is thin and raspy. YMMV. I dumped mine. OTOH, there are youtube cluips of people getting good sound, so I'm not totally sure.

 

[AniML]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

I have the same amp. It gets decent gritty cleans and OD tone if you don't slam the gain. I'll often connect to an external 12" Greenback. One similar suggestion (though I have not tried) is a WGS 10" Green Beret, their Greenback clone in a 10" format. Even though you said it wasn't important, this would still keep you in the realm of Vox voicing

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

I get a good sound with a Tube Screamer or Fulldrive in front; clean doesn't exist for the most part except at very low volumes, and sounds quite tinny so doesn't matter much to me, not what I use it for. I play this because it has a master volume and I'm usually in a condo. I used to like the really unique tone the amp had, and replacing the tubes helped A LOT, but now to my ears it doesn't really sound any good on its own, and there's the bass issue. I'm wondering to what degree I can cure it.

The real problem with the bass is that when I hit a low E or something, there's a pretty audible, harsh CRACK, even at clean volumes. Sort of falls apart even more on distortion. Slightly better through a half-stack, but it has even crappier, brighter Peavey speakers.

Or maybe I should sell it and pick up a Tiny Terror/OR15 . I agree, demos online can sound good; def. better than an AC4TV, but not really compared to anything else... People like the 12" version though? Kind of starting to fail to see the appeal I once saw in this amp.

 

[Blille]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

The real problem with the bass is that when I hit a low E or something, there's a pretty audible, harsh CRACK, even at clean volumes. Sort of falls apart even more on distortion. Slightly better through a half-stack, but it has even crappier, brighter Peavey speakers.

If you have the same issue plugging it into (I assume) 12" speakers in the half stack I don't think you'll find a 10" that will have the bass you want and sound good to you. It feels like you can either cut the bass (and that's why you like it with a TS9) or change the amp...

 

[Johnny-DK]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

The real problem with the bass is that when I hit a low E or something, there's a pretty audible, harsh CRACK, even at clean volumes. Sort of falls apart even more on distortion.

Could very well be microphonic preamp tubes.

 

[Blille]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

Could very well be microphonic preamp tubes.

The OP already swapped them:

replacing the tubes helped A LOT, but now to my ears it doesn't really sound any good on its own

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

Stick it on top of a 16ohm Vintage-30 loaded 2X12 & stick a speaker cable between it & the amp. That's how I made mine sound great!!!

LOL.....

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

I swapped in a diff. set of RFT preamp tubes (from another amp with good bass handling and no issue; ) I still get the CRACK in the bass through the Vox.

 

[RogerMexiko]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

fwiw, never had any luck with a single configuration 10" guitar speaker, pairs okay but a single just never had the cajones to get a satisfactory guitar sound. Blackstar has done some sort of magic with even smaller speakers but there is some deep engineering behind it. for me it's gotta be a good 12, any chance a 12 would fit in tne cabinet?

 

[Nostalgic Distortion]

Re: 10" Speaker: Vox AC4-C1

fwiw, never had any luck with a single configuration 10" guitar speaker, pairs okay but a single just never had the cajones to get a satisfactory guitar sound. Blackstar has done some sort of magic with even smaller speakers but there is some deep engineering behind it. for me it's gotta be a good 12, any chance a 12 would fit in tne cabinet?

No... I also thought about this, there's just not enough cabinet under the chassis for a 12in driver....