Vox AC15HW1

guitargeek62

I'm thinking of picking one of these up in the new year, with the intention of replacing my beloved Express 5:25. I don't have any particular reasons for doing so, except that I'm pretty much a one-channel user, and it feels foolish to try and emulate a vox via the Express, even if it does get me very close to the tone I like.... such is GAS!

Does anyone have experience with them? I'll be using it as a home amp with a small pedalboard made up of mostly drives and delay. I notice a lot of my favourite players have switched from vintage Vox amps, to this handwired series now, I'm hoping that's for the right reasons, and not just because of a cheque?!

Strat_a_tat_tat

I've got a handwired (at least that's what they claimed) Anniversay AC15... the one with the solid mahogany cabinet. Great amp - sounds really nice.  Have gigged it unmiced in small-ish pubs. A pro-muso friend that has owned a fair few vintage ACs was pretty impressed with it - so I guess my ears can't be too bad! Not sure how that model compares with the latest versions.

Good luck with your amp change.

ICBM

guitargeek62 said:

I notice a lot of my favourite players have switched from vintage Vox amps, to this handwired series now, I'm hoping that's for the right reasons, and not just because of a cheque?!

At the risk of hijacking the thread slightly…

The reasons will be because they're more reliable and replaceable on tour.

There is a famous band who you will have heard of, that the shop I work for does a lot of guitar work for. I have done some amp work for them too, but very little, and never their touring amps that you see if you ever see them on TV, which are always a well-known modern amp model. I once asked their tech why not, and he said "because if they ever go wrong we just replace them".

pmg

ICBM said:

guitargeek62 said:

I notice a lot of my favourite players have switched from vintage Vox amps, to this handwired series now, I'm hoping that's for the right reasons, and not just because of a cheque?!

At the risk of hijacking the thread slightly…

The reasons will be because they're more reliable and replaceable on tour.

There is a famous band who you will have heard of, that the shop I work for does a lot of guitar work for. I have done some amp work for them too, but very little, and never their touring amps that you see if you ever see them on TV, which are always a well-known modern amp model. I once asked their tech why not, and he said "because if they ever go wrong we just replace them".

And the band are?

ICBM

pmg said:

And the band are?

Not being name-dropped.

pmg

Fair do's, was just curious :-) 

Adam_MD

ICBM;422262" said:

pmg said:



And the band are?





Not being name-dropped.

The Wurzels?

thermionic

A bit of detective work narrows it down... but not enough to take a guess!

Who the band is doesn't matter to the point ICBM was making of course. Sensible idea.

ThePrettyDamned

thermionic;422356" said:

A bit of detective work narrows it down... but not enough to take a guess!

Who the band is doesn't matter to the point ICBM was making of course. Sensible idea.

The eco warrior in me says no! They should be engineered to last in the first place, and easily repairable if not.

But that's horribly idealist and unrealistic.

guitargeek62

Makes sense, I've read that they're much more reliable than the old ones, but that the tone doesn't really suffer either!

Guess I won't know till I try one.

Voxman

I had the chance to try both an AC15HW and an AC30HW a few years back (both had Alnico Blues). Both were very, very nice sounding amps.  

Compared to a stock AC15 I found the tone smoother and richer, but it was also a bit darker...although not in a muddy way. It was pretty loud and I think louder than the stock version, and was very responsive to volume roll off.  It did sound and feel quite different to the stock AC15 and I can definitely understand the attraction.  As I recall there was a bright switch on the normal channel and there was a 'hot' switch on the top-boost channel, which really racked up the amount of gain you could get.  Its hard to describe but the gain was more aggressive than in the stock AC15 but at the same time it was more 'lush'. And its Master volume meant you could get 'cranked' tones at more sensible volumes, especially if you used it in 7w mode which makes it more 'home friendly'. 

I would mention that the HW's are 'stripped down' in that there's no reverb, tremolo or FX loop (for a purer signal path), so if you use time based effects such as delay and/or modulations these would have to go in front of the amp.  

I do seem to recall that there was some 'debate' by 'purists' on the Vox forum as to the use of the 'Hand Wired' description on the AC15HW and AC30HW who felt these HW's were not technically completely Hand Wired.  I can't recall the tech details (and the vox forum was shut down due to excessive spam, so I can't go back in to read the comments) but I'm sure others here will have greater knowledge on this than I do. But this aside, lovely amps! 

ToneControl

is it the TV one?
If so, I had one of those, and will comment on it. I thought it sounded excellent
PCBs with handwiring (I think onto posts on it) looked more repairable than normal through-hole soldered PCBs

Very good sounds, similar to a DC30. Hence me selling it when I got a DC30
the Celestion blue in it is made in China, and sounds slightly different to the UK made one.
When I tried the combo through a UK one, it did not sound as nice, so the amp has been voiced to match the supplied driver

guitargeek62

@Voxman - that actually makes it sound pretty much perfect then! I'm not particularly keen on bright amps, unless it can be dialled out easily, so a darker AC, with more gain on tap at lower volumes sounds, very attractive!

@ToneControl - Nope, just the more recent HW series - standard AC cosmetics, but in fawn tolex. I think there's a Greenback version and a Blue one.

JohnPerry

I owned the mahogany TV version, which i liked but eventually sold on, and a couple of years ago spent a happy half-hour with a AC15HW1X, which i thought was a rather better amp tbh and indeed the best Vox I've ever played. Too big and loud for my purposes these days but i really wouldn't hesitate otherwise.

ICBM

The *new* HW series are handwired.

The *old* 'Heritage Handwired' series aren't - they use PCBs with turrets and components soldered to them. Apart from ease of maintenance, arguably the worst of both worlds… you get the inter-trace capacitance problem of PCB (although that's usually only an issue in higher-gain amps), plus double the number of solder joints - more potential for cold joints in the first place, including on the underside of the board where the turrets are soldered to the traces - and components which can vibrate more easily and crack them. I haven't ever come across one with a fault because of this (yet), but it was still dishonest to market them as handwired. Personally I don't like the sound of them either, I find them shrill and scratchy. Whether the construction has any bearing on this is doubtful though!

Here's one:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h157/byusnowboarder/DSC03387.jpg

The new handwired series are basically the amps Vox should have been making all along.

Here's one:

https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/a_exif,c_limit,fl_progressive,h_620,q_85,w_620/v1409362220/hd82tyqrx8ctapjerf8f.jpg

TheMarlin

My friend had a Vox AC15HW.  He really liked it. 

Another friend sold him his AC15CC1.  It had been upgrade to a Celestion Vox Blue speaker, and had an upgrade accusonics reverb tank.

He sold the HW model, and kept the CC1.

Marlin

tbm

These are great. I've the AC30HW and its truly a fantastic amp. I breifly considered getting the AC15HW but one thing I noticed with it is that for a 1x12 combo is HUGE! Not that much smaller then the AC30. It's got the half power switch and the master volume - which some folk think is sacrilege, but is it fact well executed and very useable - so its workable as a home amp. It's still be loud mind you...

So yeah, great amp. But for home use the AC4HW might be a better choice?

Voxman

@ICBM Aha, so it was the Heritage HWs then that weren't true HW. Good to know the current HWs are the real deal.

ICBM

Voxman said:

@ICBM Aha, so it was the Heritage HWs then that weren't true HW. Good to know the current HWs are the real deal.

They're not only the real deal in terms of being true handwired, they're just far better made than any other modern Vox as you can see in that pic.

(Excluding the first - expensive - UK-made limited edition AC30HW, but that uses a different circuit and to me doesn't sound as 'right' as these new ones either… I preferred the Korg AC30TBX PCB reissue.)

breadfan

@ICBM Could you elaborate on the UK-made limited edition AC30HW?

I've been interested in getting one of the current fawn-covered Handwireds, but I have an opportunity to get the UK-made one (from 2003, I think) at a decent price. The reverb & trem would be very nice but I'm more interested in how the amp sounds. 

I'd have to travel quite a bit to try it out so I'd appreciate your feedback beforehand.

BTW, this is the model.

pmg

I agree with the comments RE build quality. I preferred the sound of a AC15 heritage, purely because it has an EF86 channel.