Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

[James Rock]

This is a battle for all AC-30 style and influenced el84 amps. The values in which they should for are as follows:

Tone: How good they are at getting a nice chimey clean sound, not the closest to an original ac30 so not battles about that just what is the most beautiful clean tone in your opinion. Characteristics such as response, dynamics etc apply hear.

Versatility This is not versatility in the amp itself as most are one channel amps but in situation, does it take pedals well, can you coax many different tones with the right equipment, does it work with lots of different guitars.

Ease of Use Is it a set up and play kinda amp (most should be being simple designs) or does it take hours of tweaking to find its sweet spot.

Ease of purchase Are you waiting for a year to get this amp or can you just pick one up when you want it, is it easy to play through or custom order only.

Value Not is it cheap but is it worth what it is, some of these are cheaply made and therefore cheap and others are handmade. Is it worth its price or is it overpriced for what it is (can you get equal at lower cost without sacrificing build quality).

The amps are as follows
VOX AC30C2X
VOX AC30HWX
MATCHLESS DC-30
BAD CAT BLACK CAT 30
Valvetech Hayseed 30
Divided by 13 ERT 33
Top Hat King Royale
Bruno Amps Underground 30
Bugera BC-30

All the vox amps with celestion blues and if they are recommended by the other companies (such as the hayseed) then in them too.

Any other amps people prefer vote for them!
Remember its not about how vox sounding it is but the other aspects.

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

I wonder if anyone here has played all of these amps? :scratchch

 

[James Rock]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

I wonder if anyone here has played all of these amps?

I would assume not but I am sure at least 1 person has played at least one of these amps to give an opinion

 

[saladin]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

I'm voting for the Bugera...it's made by Behringer in China. Perfect!
Just what I need to play my SX Strats thru!

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

I've played the AC30 C2 and find it to have a nice clean that can go from warm to cutting depending on settings. Very easy to EQ if you mess with the tone cut.
It comes with passable speakers out of the box (celestion greenbacks)
it's diode rectified for punch and reliable service.

It's only a grand for a brand new one, and you can gig it out of the box! That's value.

 

[eggman]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

Howdy,

All those non-Vox amps and no Dr.z Stangray? Admittedly, it's not an AC-30 clone, but was designed to sound alot like one..

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

I voted 'OTHER' for the Genz-Benz Black Pearl ... my favorite of the few EL84 amps I have played.

 

[d1dsj]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

You should check out the Cornford Hellcat. It's a 2 channel EL84 amp rated at 35 watts with reverb. It has a vintage channel that goes from clean to vintage crunch, and a modern channel that carries on where the vintage channel left offand gets very dirty. The only draw back with the clean channel is that it can run out of head room if you want loud pristine cleans. Guitars keep their own character and individuality. Note definition and clarity are excellent and the amp responds to your picking dynamics and cleans up real well with guitar volume. It has a nice reverb, good effects loop and very well built (PTP). I wish I still had mine and will get another when funds allow. To summarize, it goes from clean to AC30 on steroids.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

You have 2 Vox AC-30's listed both of which are great IMHO.

The Matchless DC-30 is only sort of like an AC-30 IMO...it was supposed to get AC30 tones but w/o the issues of a vintage Vox. It failed at nailing the AC30 tone IMO.

Does it sound great, sure...does it sound like an AC-30...a little.

The Bad Cat Black Cat 30 has less in common with an AC30 than even a DC30 IMHO.

The Valvetech Hayseed 30 is a different story...these DO nail the AC30 tone w/o the issues of a vintage Vox and you can get them set up to give you several of the various eras of AC30 amps

Divided by 13 ERT 33, never tried one but all D13 amps I have tried sort of sound like a vintage amp but they also have a very special D13 thing going on in them, I suspect that the ERT33 is no different.

Top Hat King Royale, never tried one.

Bruno Amps Underground 30-never tried one of these either but hear good things, however I know it's not a dead nuts AC30 replica inside, Tony has taken liberties with it.

Bugera BC-30-this is just a cheap import copy of the Matchless DC30 w/o the EF86 channel...

IMO there are also several DR. Z amps that will give you various eras of AC30 tones and then some that shoudl be on the list as well.

That said the new Handwired AC30's are going to be damn hard to beat not only for their tone and their construction and price point!

If I wanted an AC30 right now I'd get one of the AC30HW's or a Hayseed 30 and those woudl be the ONLY 2 amps on my short list...

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

Bugera BC-30-this is just a cheap import copy of the Matchless DC30 w/o the EF86 channel...

the deal breaker. i've heard so many cool clips of that ef86 channel that it just seems like it MUST be part of the reason to own a DC30.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

the deal breaker. i've heard so many cool clips of that ef86 channel that it just seems like it MUST be part of the reason to own a DC30.

EF86's in general are WAY overhyped...

As for it's impact on the tone in general it depends on where and how it is used but it's not a reason to buy or not to buy an amp...

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

All I'm sayin is the internet vids make the ef86 channel sound great.

 

[Despair]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

IIRC, the EF86 channel is more like a Non Top Boost AC-30. It's a unique sound, subtly different from any common preamp config. Definitely one of the reasons I would love to have a DC-30.

So really, depends on what AC-30 sound you want. I bet the DC-30 would sound a lot more AC-30ish if you dropped in some sort of Celestion Alnico Blue speakers (or clones with a bit more power handling, if you want to crank the thing without worrying about letting the magic smoke out of particularly expensive low power handling speakers). Celestion Golds might be another good option. [I actually tend to like Weber 30W Blue Dogs, but they are a slightly different take on the design, generally held to be slightly less chimey, but warmer.]

G12M25 + G12H30 (with or without the Special Matchless Treatment) is an awesome speaker combo, but they don't do the same thing as a pair of Blues.

I don't mind at all having diodes in the power section, if it's truly running Class A, diode vs tube rectifier makes no difference as long as they are tuned for the same power output. Of course, AC-30s are cathode-biased Class AB, not truly Class A.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

The DC-30 is just not an AC-30...im, not saying it's better or worse I'm just saying it's different and FWIW, it is tuned to work "best" with those treated ceramic Celestions...a DC-30 into alnico blues is not a great sound IMHO...

Cool amp for sure but if you set a DC-30 next to an AC-30 you'll hear that they are far form the same...maybe they are in the same ballpark but not the same.

 

[Despair]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

The DC-30 is just not an AC-30...im, not saying it's better or worse I'm just saying it's different and FWIW, it is tuned to work "best" with those treated ceramic Celestions...a DC-30 into alnico blues is not a great sound IMHO...

Cool amp for sure but if you set a DC-30 next to an AC-30 you'll hear that they are far form the same...maybe they are in the same ballpark but not the same.

Take two different AC-30 reissues and they can be pretty different beasts. A fair chunk of the tone lives in the iron and rectification, which have varied a lot over time. Then throw non-Blue speakers in... But I think the models from Vox that the poster chose are more accurate than most of those, speakers possibly aside.

I love the DC-30 for what it is, I'm not dead set on it being an AC-30. If it HAS to be a classic AC-30... well, which model? Like any of the classics, it's varied over time. Most players like the Top Boost, but I've heard some amazing warm stuff done with the original that the later models don't do quite as well.

What goes wrong with the DC-30 with Blues? Too bright/biting? If so, a darker Blue clone may fix that...

Edit: Gotta agree with you on the Black Cat, all I've heard of those has been much darker than the Matchless equivalents, sometimes fatter, but with less complex mids. Very puzzled by them... Really moved much further away from Voxy tones.

 

[James Rock]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

All those non-Vox amps and no Dr.z Stangray? Admittedly, it's not an AC-30 clone, but was designed to sound alot like one..

I voted 'OTHER' for the Genz-Benz Black Pearl ... my favorite of the few EL84 amps I have played.

alot of others I wanted to have but poll is max 10!

The Matchless DC-30 is only sort of like an AC-30 IMO...it was supposed to get AC30 tones but w/o the issues of a vintage Vox. It failed at nailing the AC30 tone IMO.

Thats why this thread is not about the most ac30 ish amp but the nicest in that side of the tone scale the chimey jangly british tone even the brian may tone isnt included because while a vox its a different tone

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

All of them...hell, I haven't played one of them!

 

[Tor]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

I've got the Hayseed 30. The tone is really, really good. Chimey cleans, and gets nice and crunchy when pushed a bit. So far I have almost exclusively delved into the EF86-side of the amp, as I like it so much. It's got a very full sound (more body than the top boost, me thinks). Versatile, well, yeah, to an extent, I guess. I still prefer my Mesa F-50 for funky stuff and liquid leads.. Very easy to use, few knobs to twist - I like that! (I went from an AxeFX). Rob from Valvetech was very good to work with, and the turnaround time was just a few weeks. For the money I believe it's a lot of amp!

Didn't vote because I've hardly tried any of the other amps..

 

[jeremy]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

in general im not a huge vox fan but tonys underground 30 is an increadible amp

 

[Jeremiah]

Re: Ultimate AC-30 style Cathode Biased EL84 Amp BATTLE!

Isn't the Laney LC-30 (or VC-30, I'm not entirely sure on the differences) meant to be pretty similar to the AC-30?