Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

AlleeCat

AlleeCat

He's Special
would some please school me on how to tell the Brit made models from the chinese? I understand the British models are held in high regard. a friend wants to buy a Brit made ac30, he asked me for advise, but I'm confused by the diffrent models.

What is your favorite model? HandWired?

Advise? I know some of you guy's have ac30's.

Tell me what to look out for, Thanks.

Don't want to give bad advise to a friend!!


AlleeCat
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

There are dozens of differences.

Best advise I can give is forget where it is made and look at features...

It's not like there is a Brit and MIC versions of the same AC-30...each version has it's own set of features.
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

Best advise I can give is forget where it is made and look at features...
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for the response, I'll do more research....about features.

My friend was looking at one on CL, and asked me where ita was made I wasn't sure.....
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

It's not about "where it was made", but rather, we we're told the chinese aren't as well made, and don't sound the same.
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

AlleeCat said:
It's not about "where it was made", but rather, we we're told the chinese aren't as well made, and don't sound the same.
Click to expand...

They don't sound the same because they are a different circuit.

The well made thing is, IMHO debatable...

The 90's Korg era English made Vox amps that everybody seems to want these days are not made nearly as well as most folks would have you believe.

If you want a Vox amp get ready for an amp that sounds like no other but also an amp that will likely stay broken as often as it stays in one piece.

In fact while I'm talking about it...I'd say that the Custom Classic series has LESS issues in terms of breaking down than the 90's Korg era amps!
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

the guy who invented fire said:
They don't sound the same because they are a different circuit.

The well made thing is, IMHO debatable...

The 90's Korg era English made Vox amps that everybody seems to want these days are not made nearly as well as most folks would have you believe.

If you want a Vox amp get ready for an amp that sounds like no other but also an amp that will likely stay broken as often as it stays in one piece.

In fact while I'm talking about it...I'd say that the Custom Classic series has LESS issues in terms of breaking down than the 90's Korg era amps!
Click to expand...

I agree with this 100%
England has made just as many (English cars anybody) crappy products as the rest of the world.
IMO, those Korg TBX amps were pretty bad.
The Chinese CC models are just (barring the modern features) a sneeze away from a Jennings AC30 circuit.
I have a great sounding CCH if anybody lives near by and wants to take it for a test drive.
best
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

Vox amplification has gone through numerous periods of good and bad production. Not all Made In England AC30s are created equal.
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

The single biggest issue with Vox amps is they all tend to run very hot...the excessive heat produced by the amps causes various issues depending on the model...

Vintage (60's) AC-30's have short tube life and the parts on the board tend to go bad often because the way the chassis is designed they can't stay cool enough to operate properly.

Vintage (again, 60's) AC-50's for example due to poor cab design are prone to catch fire not to mention component failure.

90's era Korg build AC30 "reissues) suffer from the same crappy chassis design that caused most of the vintage examples to fail at some time or another not to mention they are built on PC Boards that when they get hot suffer from their own sets of issues and on top of that the component quality was MUCH less than that of 60's Vox amps...this created a triple whammy on the 90'as Vox AC30's.

The Custom Classic series did correct a lot of the design issues and the biggest single thing I've seen "wrong" with them is just a sort of cheap built quality but if you look at the prices they are a pretty cheap amp in the Vox world so you sort of get what you pay for.
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

Thanks for the feedback guys, you all have made valid points. Just the kind of input I was expecting from SD Forum Bros. honest and straight foward. Thanks.


AlleeCat :)
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

i tried out an MIC AC 15 and an AC 30 today... the AC15 had some tech issues even if new.. it crackled and had some weird hum... the 30 didn't do much for me
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

I have a CC2 combo. It sounds great and have not had any issues with it although it is used in my home only. Things I don't like about it is the reverb and accessibility to the tubes. I just use a pedal in the loop for verb. It is one of those amps you don't really need any effects with. Every guitar I own sounds good through it.
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

Have you guys seen the way they ran the heater lead dress in those TBX/Korg amps.?
Was like they were trying to create noise/problems.....
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

To add to it the current range is meant to be of better build quality (and from what I have played) better sounding then the Custom Classics. Even the 60s and 70s VOXs had heaps of problems with overheating and such. There are a few american and english builders that make copies not exactly the same but pretty close with better build quality such as the Valvetech Hayseed 30, Tony Bruno Amps and JMI all have different takes on the classic design (JMI is the one trying to be more vintage correct). That said I think the newest series of VOX AC30s sound pretty fantastic.
Also lots of amps in that vein that aren't exactly the same these days like things based on the DC30, versatile amps like the Transatlantic and a few other El84 amps that are similar (different but similar).
 
Re: Vox ac 30 Brit made or Chinese?

I had a 60's AC30 for a while and it sounded great - but at one particular volume setting, about 6 as I recall. Below that it had no bite and above it it became mushy. Too quiet for some places, too loud for others. I heard someone playing a Chinese one in a music shop recently and it sounded really nice.
 
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