How do you get a clean-sounding Vox AC30?

ijonty

I don't have one myself, but there's one in the rehearsal rooms I use.

Any advice on how to set it so it's reasonably clean? At the moment I fine-tune the tone I want with my pedals at home (with a clean amp), but then the Vox throws it all out when I get to the studio.

There are plenty of dials on there - what should I put where?

Cheers,

Jon

ICBM

If it's one with master volume, first turn that up full. Run it all from the channel volume and keep that as low as possible. Probably turn the bass up full, that also cuts midrange and reduces the level at the tone stack. If that's too much dial it back until the midrange just starts to kick in. Treble probably just above halfway and Cut to fully off. Tweak it from there if it isn't quite right - Cut is an overall tone control that takes off high-end as you turn it up, which can be confusing at first.

If it's a CC, set the slide switches on the back to 82-ohm bias and 44uF smoothing, that will give the power section a bit more headroom.

ijonty

Great, really helpful thanks!

siraxeman

What AC30 is it ? Is it a real valve one? Not a tranny VR or an old solid state AC30 ? They are pretty loud amps and usually stay clean till half way up on the wick..so this has me wondering. The C2 I had a few years ago was loud enough clean to gig with - easily so, just keep the channel volume less than halfway up....other than that I'm mystified! How loud do you need clean to be ? At half way up on an AC30 when they start to grit up they're getting a bit loud by then and a lot of bands won't play that loud! Often when I gig my AC30 its crystal clear cleans and the volumes only on 3 ! And then I get dirt from my pedals. Occasioanlly I'll run it full up with a powerbreak and a treble booster Brian May style - great sound but its all controlled off the guitars volume pot. Works great in a 1 guitar band but not so well in a 2 guitar band as the volume differential from say a rock rhythm crunch to fully open lead isn't massive.In a 1 guitar band thought that's fine as your not battling to get over the top of another guitar. AC30 = LOUD amps.

Voxman

I used to have a 1974 (I think) Vox AC30 6-input top-boost.  The problem I had is that it stayed too clean for too long - well up to or even past the halfway volume mark.  At the volume where it started to distort it was just way too loud, and I had to use an MXR distortion pedal clone.  

siraxeman

^^that is the common story folks have with AC30's...hence why the last 2 generations of them are master volume.

ijonty

siraxeman said:

What AC30 is it ? Is it a real valve one? Not a tranny VR or an old solid state AC30 ? They are pretty loud amps and usually stay clean till half way up on the wick..so this has me wondering. The C2 I had a few years ago was loud enough clean to gig with - easily so, just keep the channel volume less than halfway up....other than that I'm mystified! How loud do you need clean to be ? At half way up on an AC30 when they start to grit up they're getting a bit loud by then and a lot of bands won't play that loud! Often when I gig my AC30 its crystal clear cleans and the volumes only on 3 ! And then I get dirt from my pedals. Occasioanlly I'll run it full up with a powerbreak and a treble booster Brian May style - great sound but its all controlled off the guitars volume pot. Works great in a 1 guitar band but not so well in a 2 guitar band as the volume differential from say a rock rhythm crunch to fully open lead isn't massive.In a 1 guitar band thought that's fine as your not battling to get over the top of another guitar. AC30 = LOUD amps.

I'm not actually sure, but I'm going tomorrow so can check. Unless @builttospill ;knows?

rico

Are you rehearsing at a pirate studio room perchance?

The one I use has AC30 VR and it sounds pants to me. Set up as clean as I can it still gets flubby at any real volume. 

ijonty

rico said:

Are you rehearsing at a pirate studio room perchance?

The one I use has AC30 VR and it sounds pants to me. Set up as clean as I can it still gets flubby at any real volume. 

Yep, that's the one. You think they're bad in each room? I've only played in Room 3, 4 and 5.

ICBM

rico said:

The one I use has AC30 VR and it sounds pants to me. Set up as clean as I can it still gets flubby at any real volume. 

That's because they have no real volume, so you're pushing them harder than you should have to. The problem is the crap speakers. I serviced a couple recently and I couldn't believe how quiet they were - until I connected them to a pair of decent speakers, then they sounded much better and a lot louder.

ijonty said:

Yep, that's the one.

You may struggle then. Unfortunately they have no useful connectability either - no FX loop and no access to the speaker connection, so you can't even use them as a power amp or a speaker cabinet.

What other amps does the studio have? Hopefully they haven't been daft enough to put all the same amps in all the rooms...

builttospill

Hi there, @ijonty ;it's defo an AC30 VR

Voxman

The AC30VR isnt a particularly good amp...I hated it, and it isnt a proper AC30 and sounds nothing like one. It is solidstate and has a single 12AX7 tube only which is used in a similar way to later versions of Valvetronix amps albeit the circuitry is not digital modelling but purports to be analogue. 

ICBM

Voxman said:

The AC30VR isnt a particularly good amp...I hated it, and it isnt a proper AC30 and sounds nothing like one. It is solidstate and has a single 12AX7 tube only which is used in a similar way to later versions of Valvetronix amps albeit the circuitry is not digital modelling but purports to be analogue. 

I have to admit to not looking very closely - I was just servicing them, not trying to reverse-engineer them - but I didn't see anything inside that looked even as sophisticated as that… just a fairly basic analogue solid-state amp with a valve in it. The signal does genuinely pass through the valve, on both channels - because if it's dead as one of them was, the amp doesn't work - but I don't hear anything very special in them either. Aside from the poor speakers the amp section just isn't that loud or dynamic for 30 watts - nothing like a real AC30 as you say.

Voxman

ICBM said:

Voxman said:

The AC30VR isnt a particularly good amp...I hated it, and it isnt a proper AC30 and sounds nothing like one. It is solidstate and has a single 12AX7 tube only which is used in a similar way to later versions of Valvetronix amps albeit the circuitry is not digital modelling but purports to be analogue. 

I have to admit to not looking very closely - I was just servicing them, not trying to reverse-engineer them - but I didn't see anything inside that looked even as sophisticated as that… just a fairly basic analogue solid-state amp with a valve in it. The signal does genuinely pass through the valve, on both channels - because if it's dead as one of them was, the amp doesn't work - but I don't hear anything very special in them either. Aside from the poor speakers the amp section just isn't that loud or dynamic for 30 watts - nothing like a real AC30 as you say.

Yup, notice I said later Valvetronix. The valvereactor circuit, as Vox calls it, is a much simpler and cheaper design than in the original Blue Valvetronix, with much lower voltage and current going through the tube, and it doesnt interact directly with speaker impedance.

And you're spot on re the speakers..they are crap, and IMO is where cost cutting was a false economy that did none of their budget amps at this level any favours.  The only exception was the AD50VT original chrome grill Valvetronix that had a proper Celestion Seventy Eighty speaker which was reasonably decent. 

rico

ijonty said:

rico said:

Are you rehearsing at a pirate studio room perchance?

The one I use has AC30 VR and it sounds pants to me. Set up as clean as I can it still gets flubby at any real volume. 

Yep, that's the one. You think they're bad in each room? I've only played in Room 3, 4 and 5.

I've used the ones in rooms 5-9 and they have all been the same. A strange choice for practice room amps - must have got a job lot

@ICBM there are three different types of room (with different prices) and they either have a Roland Cube or a JC40 or a AC30 VR. 

ICBM

rico said:

I've used the ones in rooms 5-9 and they have all been the same. A strange choice for practice room amps - must have got a job lot 

@ICBM there are three different types of room (with different prices) and they either have a Roland Cube or a JC40 or a AC30 VR. 

Use the JC40 if you want a good clean sound.

Actually the AC30VR isn't a stupid choice for a practice room - they're cheap, seem fairly reliable (the ones I serviced, one had a dead valve and the other a faulty speaker crimp connector, and both had an iffy pot but nothing serious) aren't too big, have a good clean-ish sound and a tolerable overdrive channel… they're just not loud and clean or like a real AC30 . Not a bad amp for a typical guitar-into-amp player, or someone who uses a simple boost/drive pedal to push the amp a bit.

The reason I asked is that I've come across studios where they have all the same amps - which is daft, they need to have two different ones in each room to give players a choice and to avoid putting all their eggs in one basket if one type proves unreliable. I knew one studio which had about seven rooms, and put two Marshall MG100DFXs in each… they literally *all* blew up within six months.

rico

I'm using my own amp now since they have storage lockers but our other guitarist can't seem to get a consistent tone from either of the amps and is mainly just a mush of feedback but I suspect this is the result of being over-exuberant with the multi FX.

This particular rehearsal studio has only been open a few months so time will tell how the amps fare I guess!

builttospill

I've booked Room 1,  I suppose there's a good chance that we are going to get another AC30 VR in that one?
I don't think we've come across the Roland Blues Cube yet? I was pleasantly suprised with the JC40 it's a nice clean platform and seems to take pedals well... may bring my Princeton tomorrow.

rico

builttospill said:

I've booked Room 1,  I suppose there's a good chance that we are going to get another AC30 VR in that one?
I don't think we've come across the Roland Blues Cube yet? I was pleasantly suprised with the JC40 it's a nice clean platform and seems to take pedals well... may bring my Princeton tomorrow.

You should get the AC30 VR and a JC40. The Blues Cube I think was a typo as I haven't come across one yet - only the Cube. 

Room 8 is our current fav - close to the lockers and the kettle! 

Bridgehouse

rico said:

builttospill said:

I've booked Room 1,  I suppose there's a good chance that we are going to get another AC30 VR in that one?
I don't think we've come across the Roland Blues Cube yet? I was pleasantly suprised with the JC40 it's a nice clean platform and seems to take pedals well... may bring my Princeton tomorrow.

You should get the AC30 VR and a JC40. The Blues Cube I think was a typo as I haven't come across one yet - only the Cube. 

Room 8 is our current fav - close to the lockers and the kettle! 

Is there a v125 or a blues junior in Room 101?

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

Is there a v125 or a blues junior in Room 101?

Last time I checked it was a Micro Terror, Cornford Harlequin, Ashdown Superfly bass amp and a Simmons electronic drum kit.