FS: Vox AC30 HW Head £600 *Sold*

Cirrus

 

This is a rather fetching 2010 AC30 head, cosmetically tweaked with a tan handle and black vents which I think look a little nicer than the cream on cream on cream stock look. This was my main amp for three years for recording and gigging, but my style and tastes have changed a bit and it's just not getting the use it deserves over the last 18 months. Besides the changes, it's in fantastic condition all round.

I'm a bit of a tweaker and the HW layout is easy to work on, so it's had a few mods done on it to get it away from what I think is the slightly stiff and modern stock sound of the HW series when compared to older AC30s;

- Replaced Filter Caps with F&T brand, and lowered power filtering in the preamp (Gives a smoother transition into overdrive, more open tone, and a looser, thicker distortion when cranked. Brings the circuit closer to vintage spec and in my opinion, a major improvement)

- Classic Tone Output Transformer (I'll admit this was a pretty subtle change but it did make the mids at max volume nicer and gave the amp a little more thump)

- UK Made Choke (Made by Danbury Electronics, turns out a choke is a choke, it's not better or worse but I wouldn't spend the £50 again!)

- Cathode resistor changed from 47 to 56 ohms ( No tonal change but makes EL84s Bias less hot and last longer)

- 15 watt mode (which just increases the cathode resistor value to bias the EL84s very cold) now puts out about 20 watts and sounds way better.

- Coupling Caps replaced with Mallory 150 series.

- With the ceramic treble caps, I tried quite a few different kinds including Silver Mica and Polystyrene. The different kinds made an audible difference in certain positions, and I was surprised how often it turns out Ceramic was the best choice, so I went back to that. Exceptions are the Top Boost 500pf cap where Silver Mica sounded thicker, and again the 47pf cap in the tone stack. The bright caps were lowered *slightly* - 180pf on the normal channel, 100pf on the top boost.

What this gives is a reliable handwired AC30 that sounds great clean or cranked, takes pedals very well and has a big, dynamic open sound. I appreciate that the mods don't add any value to the amp and that I might come across as a mad scientist, but I'd be very happy to let anyone interested in the amp loose with it to try for themselves, I'm based in Birmingham and have a lockup room in the city centre where amps can be cranked.

Included is the original footswitch to engage "Hot" mode on the Top Boost Channel, and a Hotcovers soft cover. The valves were replaced in January - JJ for EL84s and GZ34, Tung Sols in V1 and V3 and Golden Dragon in the V2 cathode follower position.

TonyR

Nice amp! However it might do better in the Classifieds section.

benmurray85

Cracking ad. Wrong section

Cirrus

Oh bugger! Fixed, cheers both.

robt1291

Is this the HW 2? Or 1 ?

Rob

fingers

Very nice

Cirrus

robt1291 said:

Is this the HW 2? Or 1 ?

It's the current (I think they still make them, anyway) handwire series, as opposed to the heritage handwire series which were discontinued a few years ago.

SunDevil

What speakers, Sir?

Cirrus

It's a head, so no speakers.

SunDevil

Ah - yes - clue would be in the title - sorry!

jb1336

Lord almighty this is tempting, don't suppose trades are of interest?

Cirrus

Sexy AC30 head bump! Hoping I don't have to resort to Ebay with this one. They've taken enough from me!

Trude

I'm full of want for this  

Lew

Man this is a cool amp!

Cirrus

Yeah, it is!

Monday evening bump, and I'm open to offers.

This might backfire if you hate the song, but all the guitars in our last proper video were done through this amp;

Cirrus

Now sold

Eards

And what a nice bloke Cirrus is. A pleasure doing business with you.