Not sure if I should go british or american.

[astrozombie]

See, I had settled on purchasing a Vox AC30 with the alnico blue speakers but lately I've been listening to alot of music done with a deluxe reverb and I really LOVE the sound of it turned way way way way up.

I am recording an album later this year and would like to have both sounds.

Do you believe I'd be happy with the ac15 with an alnico blue? I had the one with the greenback and I actually enjoyed that amp alot. supposedly the blue is like someone took a comforter off the front of it.

I figure this way I'd have a versatile A/B rig or could take the fender or the vox to any given gig or rehearsal as needed.

What's the financial side of it?



Might be able to get these locally as there is a great vox and fender dealer nearby but the math is simple:

$1300 + tax for the ac30 on it's on and $1750 for the ac15 and the 68 silverface style fender with the "custom" additional bassman channel.

A/B pedals have a setting for running both amps at once right?

It's only $450 more and honestly it's a lot more versatility as well as the fact that I'd have to smaller and (technically) easier to transport amplifiers.

what's your take?

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

dont you already have an AC30?

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

dont you already have an AC30?

No, I'm currently amp-less. I've been gigging with an ac30 with green backs but it isn't mine.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

Flip a coin.

I'd go AC30, but that's because I'm (probably) a fanboy. Look at it this way, no matter what - you're getting a very nice amp. Is there anything about your gigging AC30 you don't like? Do you want less headroom/a less loud amp? I could see a nice setup being the AC15 in the studio and an AC30 for live stuff.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

Any of the 3 amps will do the job for live or studio work. It just comes down to if you prefer the chime of vox or the warmth of the fender.

If you decide to go for vox then you need to work out if you want tube crunch from the 15 or the high headroom of the 30.

If you go the 30, do you really want to be lugging a 2x12 to every gig? It takes both hands, which means getting your axes as well as your amp to the stage will take 2 trips to the car. Maybe an issue, maybe not depending on how the parking is at venues in the city.

Two amps is a luxury, and while its a beautiful thing you also have to look at spending money on an isolated AB box such as the radial twin city, lehle or even the fulltone tru path. Without isolated outs, you will half the impedance so neither amp sounds as good or as full as it normally does on its own, and you come across all kinds of ground hums etc. So if you do choose to go for 2 amps, then factor in the extra money it takes to get a dedicated buffered ABY box.
So im gonna try to talk you out of going for two amps because of these reasons:
1. At live gigs, the audience wont notice all that lovely and expensive swirl.
2. Live sound engineers could care less about your expensive swirl. Most often they will only mic one speaker up anyway.
3. Two amps is louder, so you will be limited in terms of cranking either up.
4. In the recording studio using one amp, you will be amazed how rich an wide a sound you can create by using two different mics pointing at different parts of the speaker, then spread hard left and right. Something like an sm57 pointed at the edge and a sennheiser pointed at the middle of the cone is pretty nice. You can also set a stereo pair of ribbons back a few feet and do the same thing with them. You will get a myriad of colours to blend with at the mixing stage.

Ok so i will now come clean and tell you that i prefer fenders to voxes and tell you why.
Deluxe reverbs have more low end than vox ac15s.
They break up at a good stage volume (ac30s are ear splitting at that stage). You can tailor this sweet spot by careful speaker choice. You can also swap out the rectifier for different feels including a ss rectifier for more headroom and punch.
So out of the 3 amps i would go for the deluxe every time.


If you love voxes...have you considered a 1x12 version of the ac30 also?
Last thing about speakers: alnico blues are delicious but they are not the holy grail. The real thing is to find a speaker that delivers what you personally need. I have a suspicion that from the stuff of yours that i have heard that a celestion g12H will give you what you need in spades.

So my recommendation is to get one amp. See how it goes at a few gigs then fine tune it with speaker selection if need be. You can get loud and efficient, fat and warm, chimey and sparkly, woody and low output. There choices are endless these days.

if you want one black and white recommendation then: sf deluxe reissue and a celestion g12h30 - but only of you find that after a few gigs you are not happy with the stock speaker.

 

[allbutromeo]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I love and am gassing for both, so I say get both. Of course I'm also a gear junkie and probably need to go to rehab for it.

 

[hydro]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

Consider a Mesa Boogie TA-15 or TA-30. They have vox-y and fender-y modes. I didn't care for the top mounted controls on the combo and the amp was brighter than my personal taste, but it might do good for you.

 

[formula73]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I think, if you don't know what you like, you ought to stop giving tone tips.

 

[hydro]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

Who exactly was that directed to?

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

Was that directed at me? In this case my indecision is part of a good problem to have: I will be able to afford any configuration of the three things. Hell, I could even buy all three amps if I really wanted to... though I think I might have to eat cereal and boulogne for a month in that case. :lmao:

 

[Securb]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I have never liked VOXs, I can't get MY tone out of them. I have been a Fender guy all my life. My first gig-able amp was a Deluxe Reverb, what a workhorse. It is also a great platform for pedals.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I prefer fender amps . . . to me they have the clean sound I want to hear and tend to take pedals pretty well, so I can always get the distorted tones needed with some experimentation.

 

[dominus]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

Line 6 Spider 15W

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I can understand that being a tough decision because they are both excellent amps. I am sporting a Fender right now–love the cleans so my vote is for the Fender. However both are awesome amps

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I'm totally buying the ac15 and the deluxe reverb. If it turns out to be too much of a pain in the ass I can sell both and buy the ac30. I don't do well with ALL clean amplifiers since I don't plan on using a "natural" overdrive type pedal, I'm planning on using a RAT for wild sounds.

I mean how much do any of those good aby boxes cost anyway?



OK, point taken. but I mean... this is an investment I won't be able to make again for a while.

I'm particularly fond of the 68 deluxe reissue because of it's bassman voiced channel... 3 amps for the price of 2?

 

[chadd]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

Consider a Mesa Boogie TA-15 or TA-30. They have vox-y and fender-y modes. I didn't care for the top mounted controls on the combo and the amp was brighter than my personal taste, but it might do good for you.

I like the "Tweed" and "Brit" modes on my Roadster. I just wish they weren't on different "clean" channels.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I like the "Tweed" and "Brit" modes on my Roadster. I just wish they weren't on different "clean" channels.

I haven't bonded with any mesa other than the road king.

 

[chadd]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I haven't bonded with any mesa other than the road king.

Roadster is essentially the same as the Road King, with just a few less bells and whistles. Your two amp setup sounds like it should cover a lot of ground and it's still less expensive than a lot of the boutique options out there.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I haven't bonded with any mesa other than the road king.

My favorite Mesa is the DC-5, like have a Mark Series and a Dual Rectifier in the same amp. The 5 Way EQ is what made the amp invaluable personally. Only problem was it nearly shattered my windows. lol

 

[hydro]

Re: Not sure if I should go british or american.

I prefer fender amps . . . to me they have the clean sound I want to hear and tend to take pedals pretty well, so I can always get the distorted tones needed with some experimentation.

To be honest if I was starting from scratch I might go the same way; fender and pedals. I have been using multichannel master volume rigs with preamp gain for a while now but sometimes I think, Man I could have just run pedals into an old Fender bassman and been done with it. Plus all those old fenders start to break up so awesomely as you crank the volume.