Tubescreamer Variants with small Vox AC4 - Any thoughts or experience

Paul_L

I have a Tubescreamer type clone and it doesn't seem to work well with my small Vox 4 watt AC4 amp. I wonder if it is because it is quite a trebly amp with not a lot of bass. Has anyone tried a similar combo or generally Tubescreamers with small amps?

Voxman

I had a Vox AC4TVH on loan for a while with the 1x12" matching 'Greenback' cab, and I played it with both a Vox Tonelab ST and my normal pedal-board, which also has a tube-screamer clone (Behringer TO800 Vintage Tube Overdrive).  The ST tube overdrive is modelled on the Ibanez TS808, as is the TO800.  Both sounded great with the AC4.

So its odd that your clone and AC4 don't seem to be 'gelling' too well.  Which TS clone do you have, and what are your settings? 

Paul_L

Hey Voxman,  Thanks for the reply. I have a Jeds Peds TS808 clone that seems to have some value substitutions on a few caps and resistors, so not a straight clone copy as such. I have tried it as is and with a few mods but overall struggling with it. Plan to take it back to standard but wanted to see if it was a bad match to the amp. Seems maybe not... Maybe just not found a good setting yet. I have been setting the amp to the point of break up then using the TS to boost this.

Exorcist

IF you get a chance to play with an n-audio firesound v3, they are hugely tweakable to suit your amp, and sound great IMHO.

dindude

The AC4 I had didn't take pedals at all well. Come to think of it, it didn't take guitars particularly well either!

saint_ivey

I have the Vox AC4 hardwired with an alnico blue speaker in it. Bit of a different beast I know but some observations...

1) Mine has as much bass as I need. I rarely have the bass set above 2.30pm.
2) As a small amp it doesn't have much headroom once you stick a drive into it. It can do some nice loud clean if you just plug a guitar directly in but I found the best way is to set the drive I need from the amp and then just use delay & reverb pedals into it.
3) The low input will give a bit less volume but stays clean for longer. The high input will give a volume boost but breaks up sooner.
4) For amp drive I run a PRS Core Starla or a Fender Custom Shop Strat into the high input. Settings: Gain 2pm, Treble 12pm, Bass 1pm, Volume 2pm. The hot/cool switch is set to cool.
5) For the couple of times I've used a drive pedal it's been the Crowther Hotcake, set to give just a bit of grit. I've then gone into the low input. Settings: Gain 12pm, Treble 1pm, Bass 2pm, Volume 3pm. The hot/cool switch is set to cool.
6) I've never used it but you could use the hot/cool switch on the amp to create your second stage gain instead of a pedal.

I play rock, blues, pop (think styles like REM, Bryan Adams, Lightning Seeds, Blur, Dire Straits) and usually just use the amp for home and band rehearsals. When at rehearsals I use the settings above but mic the amp through the PA. 

For gigs I use the Crowther Hotcake or JHS modded ProCo RAT into my Vox AC30 hardwired so no problems there. It's a monster!

Hope that helps in some way.
Joe

Paul_L

Thanks @saint_ivey ;.  I have an AC4C1BL with just the one input and a 10" speaker. I am guessing that some of the various AC4 models have different circuits. How do you find the tone controls on your AC? I find them to be very interactive - you adjust the treble and it seems to effect the bass and oddly the mid range more than the treble.

saint_ivey

Paul_L said:

Thanks @saint_ivey ;.  I have an AC4C1BL with just the one input and a 10" speaker. I am guessing that some of the various AC4 models have different circuits. How do you find the tone controls on your AC? I find them to be very interactive - you adjust the treble and it seems to effect the bass and oddly the mid range more than the treble.

Yes, they're designed to be interactive. In fact their very similar to the controls on Taylor's ES guitar system. Basically, if you increase both bass & treble it will scoop the mids but dropping both bass and treble will boost mids.

It's best to play and tweak in small movements to get the ideal tone. Forget everything you know about how bass, treble & mid controls work on other amps because Vox's are different. 

I have to admit I've not heard too many positive comments about the standard AC4. However, definitely get yourself a handwired if you can. The bigger case, different wood & larger 12" speaker all contribute to better tone.