Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

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Lewguitar

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I'm going to buy another one. I had a really nice reissue but sold it because it was to loud for the way I play these days. But now that I have the Weber Mass I'm looking for another one.

I've only owned the PCB reissue and that was a great sounding amp.

Has anyone compared the reissue to the handwired originals?

I have some 60's Celestion G12 alnico speakers I can put in a newish one. The Celestion alnicos are the ONLY speaker for an AC-30, IMO.

I've read that the oldies are very tempermental and fragile inside. That connections break and insulation crumbles and things like that. True or false?

The reissue goes for under $1000 - 1300 used whereas the oldies go for $2000 and way beyond that.

Anyways, any tips or insights would be appreciated!

Thanks, Lew
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

OK Lew...I'm gonna help as much as I can...your questions are in white, my responces are in red...I hope this helps a little

I'm going to buy another one. I had a really nice reissue but sold it because it was to loud for the way I play these days. But now that I have the Weber Mass I'm looking for another one.

I've only owned the PCB reissue and that was a great sounding amp.
You're right there...I think that the PCB amps still sound amazingHas anyone compared the reissue to the handwired originals?
I have played through RI. PCB amps as well as the limited hand wired reissue, as well a few original 60's Voxes.I have some 60's Celestion G12 alnico speakers I can put in a newish one. The Celestion alnicos are the ONLY speaker for an AC-30, IMO.
Agreed!

I've read that the oldies are very tempermental and fragile inside. That connections break and insulation crumbles and things like that. True or false?

Well...this is the deal, an AC-30 is one of the hottest amps around (I do mean the tempture at which they run), and the older ones are almost ALL falling apart. Not to mention that they are very tempermental (that is a great word to describe them)...Brian May didn't carry 24 of them around for mothing...he needed that many back ups! As for the reissues...the first few years they had a few problems with them and they got worked out prett quick and they became great amps.

The reissue goes for under $1000 - 1300 used whereas the oldies go for $2000 and way beyond that.

I would snatch up a good reissue, put new speaker in it, new tubes all around (the reissue's seem to LOVE Sovtek power tubes...the JJ's are good if you want it to have a nice dark Jazzy tone but for rock I like the Sovtek's on the AC-30's). If you can find one of them, the hand wired reissues are killer amps and are still less money than an original, that said I did not notice a lit of difference in the tone from the handwored reissue and the PCB reissue! The biggest tonal difference in the 2 was that the hand wored reissue had a tad more detail in the treble responce, but IMO that could be fixed with some careful tube selection! If you are already planning on using the speakers you have buy one with Celsetions...the reissues could be had with 2 different speakers...Vox blues, and Celestion greenbacks...the Vox Bluse sound much better for that amp IMO, but since you are putting the 60's G12's in there save a few dollars and don't spring for the vox blues. An AC-30 re-issue with Vox BLues will be about 250-350 dollars higher than one with the Celestions.Anyways, any tips or insights would be appreciated!

Thanks, Lew

I hope that helped a little...feel free to call me if you need anything else, I will help as much as possible. A good buddy of mine plays through 2 of them, and he knows nothing about them...I had to do all the research for him so he didn't get a bad deal...after all was said and done he ended up with 2 reissues!
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

Thanks! I'm going to grab the next newish used one I can find for around $1000. If you're patient, they are out there....especially this time of year. I have some NOS GE EL-84's I bought from a man who actually engineered for GE in the 50's and 60's! He sold me his personal stash of NOS GE EL-84 tubes a few years ago and I scored 8 of them. So those will be the tubes going in it. I put four of them in my AC-30 during the short time I owned it and they really did sound better than whatever EL-84's were originally in it. I pulled them again when I sold the amp, thinking I'd use them in a AC-15 or something similar. Lew
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

Lewguitar said:
Thanks! I'm going to grab the next newish used one I can find for around $1000. If you're patient, they are out there....especially this time of year. I have some NOS GE EL-84's I bought from a man who actually engineered for GE in the 50's and 60's! He sold me his personal stash of NOS GE EL-84 tubes a few years ago and I scored 8 of them. So those will be the tubes going in it. I put four of them in my AC-30 during the short time I owned it and they really did sound better than whatever EL-84's were originally in it. I pulled them again when I sold the amp, thinking I'd use them in a AC-15 or something similar. Lew
Click to expand...


NIce score!!! Like I said the Sovteks seem to being out some top end detail that the PCB amps did not have with the factory tubes or with the JJ's...but if hove NOS Ge's I would say that tubes are not a problem!
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

Well...this is the deal, an AC-30 is one of the hottest amps around (I do mean the tempture at which they run), and the older ones are almost ALL falling apart. Not to mention that they are very tempermental (that is a great word to describe them)...Brian May didn't carry 24 of them around for mothing...he needed that many back ups! As for the reissues...the first few years they had a few problems with them and they got worked out prett quick and they became great amps.
Click to expand...

That's good info! I wondered why the old ones are so fragile. So they just run hot as heck and that cooks them huh? Dries out the insulation and what not. I've read that the wiring gets real fragile and breaks easily on the oldies when you go to work on them. I'm going to have to dig out the Ken Fischer article on AC-30's that I read years ago and saved. I've forgotten most of the info in it but Ken knows those old amps well. Thanks again!
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

Plus the wax in the powersupplies runs out on the ampsurface, runs down into the output tube sockets...causing all kinds of pops and bangs, until it is hot enough.
I have a friend who redid the whole amp.....build it into a top and used the combo as a cab.
He did that 15 years ago, it still works;)
Before that...well it went down every 6 months.
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

But the new ones don't have those issues? Right? I know they get hot, but wax melting and insulation drying out and cracking hasn't been a problem with the reissues...right?

Curly tells me the AC-30 RI may have been discontinued...is that true?
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

A friend owns a RI and a 64 refurbished by the Plexi Palace. He finds the 64 is a bit more finicky to dial in and it is more sensitive to different guitars and pickups. Some are amazing and some are not. The RI is much more forgiving and sounds good with just about anything. I like them both but personally the AC30 tone is not a holy grail for me. Of the two, the original when dialed in is wonderfully rich and dynamic, but the RI is easier to get a tone out of, and has been extremely reliable. I spose I have a couple hrs of messing with both amps under my belt.

I personally don't like the Mass with tube rectified amps,and his is included ( Jason has a Mass too and we get the same sounds). I have 7 heads right now, 5 are SS and 2 are tube rectified ( Hilgen Basso Grande, Silvertone 1483). A lot of sparkle is lost with the tube rect vs the ss when attenuated. I have tried it with all of em and all the SS sound great and all the tubed ones are murky. Not horrible, but not the same with the Mass bypassed. I would run the Mass with one to make sure it is gonna do what you like, don't know if the same issue exists with the Hotplate.
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

That's interesting. I don't know what's inside the Mass exactly, but Ted describes it as having a 50 watt speaker inside without a cone...so it can't make a sound, just soaks up some wattage. I don't know that I'll be able to try the Mass with an AC-30 first. I'll probably grab a used one online somewhere and won't be able to try before I buy. Thanks for the heads up though! Lew
 
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Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

The load of the Mass is just a speaker motor with some parts (that's as much detail I could find on the site) to simulate the cone.
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

Oh and Lew, because of your recommendations I decided to give the 50w MiniMass a try with my amp, should be here next week :).
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

FretFire said:
Oh and Lew, because of your recommendations I decided to give the 50w MiniMass a try with my amp, should be here next week :).
Click to expand...

Cool...mine is the deluxe version with multiple impedence selection, DI, etc. Haven't tried the mini. Let us know how it works out for you! Lew
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

Lewguitar said:
But the new ones don't have those issues? Right? I know they get hot, but wax melting and insulation drying out and cracking hasn't been a problem with the reissues...right?

Curly tells me the AC-30 RI may have been discontinued...is that true?
Click to expand...


The new ones run JUST as hot as the old ones, BUT the technology we have today makes it possible to build these amps so that the heat is not a large as a problem.

Kenny Fischer is the expert on Vox amps...whatever you find in his articles should be taken as the gospel...in fact Kenny is where I did most of my research!

Here is the new AC-30 Handwired
http://www.voxamps.co.uk/products/ac30/ac30hw.htm

Here is the standard AC-30 reissue...as a note, the new reissues do have a GZ34...the early reissues uses a soild state rectifer...this make a HUGE difference in these amps, as the sag from a tube rectifer is a big part of the key to the AC-30 tone!
http://www.voxamps.co.uk/products/ac30/ac30hw.htm

And here is the AC-30 CC...this is based on a non top boost amp with a few new features.
http://www.voxamps.co.uk/products/ac30/ac30hw.htm

The handwired amps can be had as a combo, or a matching head and cab!

all this was taken from the vox web site and all these amps can be had now...let me know what you do! and good luck!
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

Ok, FWIW, here is the rundown. All Vox AC-30 amps vary widely in quality. For this reason, I would recommend trying one out before purchasing.

The newly released HW isn't as great as you'd think. The majority of them don't sound as good as the PCB based RI. Don't ask me why. I've noticed from other owners that they either have one that they love dearly, almost as much as the originals, or they hate it and can't understand what all the fuss was about.

Many of the PCB based ones do sound very good. I'd still play one before buying to make sure you don't have a lemon, but the odds of having a good sounding PCB RI is more than the ratio of bad to good ones on the HW series.

The very best Vox by far (as any Vox enthusiast will tell you) is the original HW JMI-era Vox AC-30s. They are amazing and if you've seen a classic rock icon use one on stage, odds are it was a JMI (aka Brian May from Queen, Edge from U2...). They are expensive, but to many it's the holy grail.

I agree fully with the comment about Celestion Alnicos being the only speakers that do the amps justice. On my Fargen which does the early Vox thing extremely well, it is loaded with Weber Silver Bell/Blue Dogs. Once I get some repairs done on some items in my house, I'll be buying the Celestion Blues for it. Maybe pricey, but they're right up there in tonal quality with the pre Rola Celestions.
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

the_Chris said:
Ok, FWIW, here is the rundown. All Vox AC-30 amps vary widely in quality. For this reason, I would recommend trying one out before purchasing.

The newly released HW isn't as great as you'd think. The majority of them don't sound as good as the PCB based RI. Don't ask me why. I've noticed from other owners that they either have one that they love dearly, almost as much as the originals, or they hate it and can't understand what all the fuss was about.

Many of the PCB based ones do sound very good. I'd still play one before buying to make sure you don't have a lemon, but the odds of having a good sounding PCB RI is more than the ratio of bad to good ones on the HW series.

The very best Vox by far (as any Vox enthusiast will tell you) is the original HW JMI-era Vox AC-30s. They are amazing and if you've seen a classic rock icon use one on stage, odds are it was a JMI (aka Brian May from Queen, Edge from U2...). They are expensive, but to many it's the holy grail.

I agree fully with the comment about Celestion Alnicos being the only speakers that do the amps justice. On my Fargen which does the early Vox thing extremely well, it is loaded with Weber Silver Bell/Blue Dogs. Once I get some repairs done on some items in my house, I'll be buying the Celestion Blues for it. Maybe pricey, but they're right up there in tonal quality with the pre Rola Celestions.
Click to expand...


Just as a side note...there have now been 2 different Handwired limited reissues from VOX...
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

FWIW, I think the problems with the originals were a combination of poor venting, and the trannies may have been a little weak - there's no getting around the fact that Class A amps (or those that run close to Class A) do go through tubes faster - that's just a trade off for the tone.

also, regarding availability, I saw this notice on the US Distributor's site:

"These amps have been discontinued, and production of the replacement amp will be in the Orient. The new amp will not have the classic "three channel" AC-30 architecture or circuitry."
 
Re: Vox AC-30...who here knows alot about these?

Curly said:
FWIW, I think the problems with the originals were a combination of poor venting, and the trannies may have been a little weak - there's no getting around the fact that Class A amps (or those that run close to Class A) do go through tubes faster - that's just a trade off for the tone.

also, regarding availability, I saw this notice on the US Distributor's site:

"These amps have been discontinued, and production of the replacement amp will be in the Orient. The new amp will not have the classic "three channel" AC-30 architecture or circuitry."
Click to expand...


that sucks!!!
 
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