Top Boost or non Top Boost AC30

TheDarkLord

Housemates must decide whether they prefer Top Boost or Non Top Boost AC30 and state their reasons for doing so.

lustycourtier

I loved my old NTB 1962 one. Sounded amazing with single coils.

Phil_aka_Pip

Both. I've got a CC2X which can connect them together.

gjonesy

NTB does me fine

Cirrus

The pedant in my would probably like to say that it's more complicated than that - There's as much difference between a non-top boosted bass and treble variant as there is between top boost and non top boosted normal.

But fuck that guy.

Non- Top boosted, normal variant if I can be specific. Why? It takes pedals better, is more dynamic and has clearer, deeper bass. I like that for general purpose playing, especially live and at practice.

That said I do love the Top Boost channel and use it often when recording for the tight bass, compression, upper-midrange pushed voicing, and the occasional times I want to be able to EQ.

57Deluxe

I like the AC15C2 whatever - the Twin... is no good YT dems of it yet though... 

http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/vox-ac15c2-twin-534670

TheDarkLord

57Deluxe said:

I like the AC15C2 whatever - the Twin... is no good YT dems of it yet though... 

http://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/vox-ac15c2-twin-534670

I'm really talking about the 1960s stuff though.  The present day amps can't really be compared to the original 1960s stuff.  They're more like modern day look-a-likes and sound-a-likes.

koneguitarist

Non top boost for me, grown to like Vox's more over the years, never that keen when I was a youngster.

ICBM

Top Boost. I find the Brilliant channel too thin on the non-TB. The TB Brilliant channel has much more crunch and a far wider range of tones. The other two channels are identical so it makes no difference if you use those.

impmann

Non top boost - and the bass version. Pref copper top, Dartford Road built...

thermionic

I had a '62-ish non-TB AC30 and at the time I found it a bit of a one-trick pony. I could have done with some wider eq options than just turning the tone control down. I now have a '96 AC15TB (which sounds much closer to the original than the Chinese ones do imho) and I like the way the treble and bass controls work. So Top Boost for me.

NervousJohn

I've never actually spend Ny time playing with an old TB AC 30. Mine is a 64 normal and I generally play through the high input of the brilliant channel. Sometimes I jumper in the normal channel too.

ICBM

NervousJohn said:

I've never actually spend Ny time playing with an old TB AC 30. Mine is a 64 normal and I generally play through the high input of the brilliant channel. Sometimes I jumper in the normal channel too.

I always jumper all three channels . Guitar into Brilliant, Bril to Normal, Normal to Vib/Trem.

That's one of the main reasons I don't like modern AC30s - no Vib/Trem channel, which is a wonderful-sounding thing and completely different from the plain tremolo on the modern models. By jumpering you can blend in as much or as little as you want, rather than having it full on as you get if you plug straight into it.

Dodge

I'm a top boost man myself, for me it's the classic 'Vox' tone.  Yes, it's a bit picky on drive pedals, but a Hotcake fixes that.

jmf1928

ICBM said:

NervousJohn said:

I've never actually spend Ny time playing with an old TB AC 30. Mine is a 64 normal and I generally play through the high input of the brilliant channel. Sometimes I jumper in the normal channel too.

I always jumper all three channels . Guitar into Brilliant, Bril to Normal, Normal to Vib/Trem.

That's one of the main reasons I don't like modern AC30s - no Vib/Trem channel, which is a wonderful-sounding thing and completely different from the plain tremolo on the modern models. By jumpering you can blend in as much or as little as you want, rather than having it full on as you get if you plug straight into it.

Never knew this. I have one of the 60th anniversary models and have to give that a try. 

brooom

Non top boost bass version... Because that's the sound I like.