Attn amp nerds, Amp head like AC15hw wanted

columbo2

Hi all,
I have a AC15hw combo, the fawn coloured Vietnamese made handwired version.  The tone is amazing!  It's not like other Vox AC15s. Apparently the circuit is closer to a Fender tweed, but with EL84s.  It doesn't excel at chimey cleans, but crunch and dirty sounds are just awesome.  A bit saggy, plenty of bite, very dynamic. It goes loud as hell but sounds great at bedroom(ish) levels.Every amp tech I've taken it to says the build quality is ace.
I'm amazed these amps aren't more sort after.

I'd like a similar amp in head format for practical reasons.  Are there similar amps around?  I've not played anything quite like it.  The standard AC 15 & 30 sound very different.  It plays nothing like a Marshall.  I don't normally like fender amps, but I haven't tried that many.  

Failing that, I may get a head cabinet built to make my combo a mini-stack.

Let me know it there is something more portable out there that gets close tonally.

Cheers!

dazzajl

Would that be this amp?

http://www.voxshowroom.com/uk/amp/ac15h1tv.html

I’ve had that and the AC30 version and I can’t really think of anything that sounds quite the same and has a head version. There is a head version of that amp but waiting to find one would be a real lottery. Splitting into a head and cab might be the best option, if not the most fiscally wise. 

ToneControl

dazzajl said:

Would that be this amp?

http://www.voxshowroom.com/uk/amp/ac15h1tv.html

I’ve had that and the AC30 version and I can’t really think of anything that sounds quite the same and has a head version. There is a head version of that amp but waiting to find one would be a real lottery. Splitting into a head and cab might be the best option, if not the most fiscally wise. 

I had one of those, they are made in China, and were white/cream I think?
I thought the chimey cleans were exceptionally good, especially on the proper EF86 channel

I recall other HW series came later that did not include the EF86

ToneControl

columbo2 said:

Hi all,
I have a AC15hw combo, the fawn coloured Vietnamese made handwired version.  The tone is amazing!  It's not like other Vox AC15s. Apparently the circuit is closer to a Fender tweed, but with EL84s.  It doesn't excel at chimey cleans, but crunch and dirty sounds are just awesome.  A bit saggy, plenty of bite, very dynamic. It goes loud as hell but sounds great at bedroom(ish) levels.Every amp tech I've taken it to says the build quality is ace.
I'm amazed these amps aren't more sort after.

I'd like a similar amp in head format for practical reasons.  Are there similar amps around?  I've not played anything quite like it.  The standard AC 15 & 30 sound very different.  It plays nothing like a Marshall.  I don't normally like fender amps, but I haven't tried that many.  

Failing that, I may get a head cabinet built to make my combo a mini-stack.

Let me know it there is something more portable out there that gets close tonally.

Cheers!

Do you mean this one
The VOX AC15 Hand-Wired guitar amplifier - Vox Amps
it has no EF86 preamp - so more of the ecc83 sounds

AFAIK Vox HW versions are all close to the original Vox ac15/30 circuit, I can't see how they could market something that was a Fender tweed design in Vox AC15 clothing

Fender tweeds sound very different in my experience, the preamp tonestack is very different,
you might get more sag than on most solid state rectifier amps, but there is more to tweed sounds than that

ICBM

columbo2 said:

I have a AC15hw combo, the fawn coloured Vietnamese made handwired version.

If you mean the ‘Heritage Handwired’ series, they made a head.

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/vox-ac-15-heritage-handwired-collection-head/7347

They’re rare, but you should be able to find one if you’re patient.

columbo2 said:

Apparently the circuit is closer to a Fender tweed, but with EL84s.

No. They’re based on early Vox circuits. They don’t sound particularly ‘Voxy’ if you’re used to the classic AC30TB/6 sound, but they have nothing to do with Fender at all.

Despite the name they are also not really hand wired - they’re a combination PCB/turret construction with *some* hand wiring - that doesn’t mean they’re bad, but it is very dodgy marketing and may be one reason they weren’t very successful.

ToneControl

ICBM said:

columbo2 said:

I have a AC15hw combo, the fawn coloured Vietnamese made handwired version.

If you mean the ‘Heritage Handwired’ series, they made a head.

https://www.gak.co.uk/en/vox-ac-15-heritage-handwired-collection-head/7347

They’re rare, but you should be able to find one if you’re patient.

columbo2 said:

Apparently the circuit is closer to a Fender tweed, but with EL84s.

No. They’re based on early Vox circuits. They don’t sound particularly ‘Voxy’ if you’re used to the classic AC30TB/6 sound, but they have nothing to do with Fender at all.

Despite the name they are also not really hand wired - they’re a combination PCB/turret construction with *some* hand wiring - that doesn’t mean they’re bad, but it is very dodgy marketing and may be one reason they weren’t very successful.

I just missed out on one of those heads, I had a 15w combo
I thought they sounded quite comparable to Matchless DC30, and I went on to buy a DC30, so hopefully that is a reliable opinion from my ears.
As you say, it was turret-based, not old-school, but you can see their point, they should be more reliable than PCB-only.
I can remember that TV version being Chinese-made, with Chinese-made Celestion blues.
Interestingly, it sounded ropey through a UK Celestion Blue in an external cab. My theory was that they tweaked the amp to match the Chinese speaker, which did sound lovely in the combo.



I think OP means this one, which came out a few years later, and did not have an EF86:
The VOX AC15 Hand-Wired guitar amplifier - Vox Amps

ToneControl

Yes, the AC15H1TV I owned was made in China, I found the photos
mine was s/n 166

ICBM

ToneControl said:

As you say, it was turret-based, not old-school, but you can see their point, they should be more reliable than PCB-only.

No, less - there are about twice as many solder joints - the ones between the turrets and the PCB on the underneath are prone to going 'cold' when the turrets are soldered to. It's a poor idea to combine two different techniques whose only purpose seems to be to say it's turret/hand wired.

Pure PCB with high-quality double-sided boards is actually the most reliable, contrary to what musicians seem to think. That's why all really safety-critical systems are now built like that, not hand-wired.

olafgarten

ICBM said:

ToneControl said:

As you say, it was turret-based, not old-school, but you can see their point, they should be more reliable than PCB-only.

No, less - there are about twice as many solder joints - the ones between the turrets and the PCB on the underneath are prone to going 'cold' when the turrets are soldered to. It's a poor idea to combine two different techniques whose only purpose seems to be to say it's turret/hand wired.

Pure PCB with high-quality double-sided boards is actually the most reliable, contrary to what musicians seem to think. That's why all really safety-critical systems are now built like that, not hand-wired.

PCBs are certainly more reliable, but they are harder to fix when things go wrong. 

ICBM

olafgarten said:

PCBs are certainly more reliable, but they are harder to fix when things go wrong. 

Yes, but if they're high quality and the components are correctly spec'ced, they don't.

AndyJP

Give the Victory Copper head a whizz.  It's a quad el84 head.  My fav tones out of it are the chimey cleans.   You can switch it between 12w cathode biased and 35w fixed bias and it has a decent master volume.  Also has a switchable fx loop and a digital reverb.  The digital verb sounds decent.

It's a little cracker. And it's 8kg!