Acoustic Control Corporation 230 Head

'77-'78 Acoustic 230 guitar amp, made in van nuys ca, usa, white/lt blue logo, solid state, 125 watts @ 4 ohms, 160 @ 2, single channel, no loop or phones, front: normal & active input jacks, bright switch, volume, treble, midrange, bass, reverb, master vol, 5 band graphic eq, power switch, reverb, eq & master vol have red LED's, back: 3 prong cord, 5a/120v fuse, 2 speaker jacks, weird 6 pin footswitch jack (good luck!), power amp in, pre amp out. Simple yet effective. I use it in my basement, plenty of power. Loud.

Great sound. Loud. Some distortion at higher levels, but it's old. Very sensitive eq (i.e. lots of different sounds). This is a guitar amp, but you can play bass through it & it sounds great. I've got a strat, & I've got a ton of basses as well (fenders, kramers, a mosrite copy, Ibanez, etc.). I play punk, rock, surf, rockabilly, country, metal, etc., seems to work fine for this stuff. My reverb doesn't work, but it may be the footswitch (or lack thereof = turned off?). No, it's not a tube amp, but sounds really nice considering (I'm a total tube guy for guitar).

Built like a tank. This is 30 years old. It has that weird thing going on when you turn it off, like the previous reviewer had, it may be something wrong with the parts they were using back then. Hardly worth mentioning. Doesn't effect the sound or anything.

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I dig this thing. I got it cheap ($150), & it needed a 3 prong plug installed (it took me like 5 minutes). It hummed horribly when I got it, the previous owner had pulled the ground out of the cord. Now it's really quiet when I'm not playing through it. I didn't seek this head out, just stumbled on it. I always wanted one, ut was always chasing down other stuff. I'd like the 370 as well (bass version). I used to see these in pawn shops all the time, but people are catching on to them. If anyone knows where to get the eq sliders for these things let me know. Pick one of these up if you can!

I've had this amp over 15 years now and it's never let me down once. I've played loads of different basses through this amp from a cheap 'n' cheerful Hohner to my current 1972 Jazz via Rickenbackers, Wals and a Fender Mustang and they've all sounded great! Because this amp is a very clean sounding thing, the natural sound of each bass I've played has come shining through on every occasion. It has 2 channels, one for passive basses and a -15 dB (I think) channel for actives. An interesting feature of this amp is the master volume circuit which is accessible via a footswitch which allows you to overdrive the amp if you so wish (ideal for fuzz bass without using a fuzz box.) There are also sockets at the back allowing you to split the amplifier stages: one can use it as a pre-amp or a power amp or indedd run an effects unit through this loop quite noiselessly. The graphic eq is very sensitive and a little noisy when pushed right to the top at high volume, however, the overall output of this amp is so huge, I've never had to have it on any more than about half, even for larger venues. The only gripe I have about the amp is that someone about 10 years ago lost the footswitch and six pin three-in-a-line plugs are impossible to find over here in the UK. If anyone reading this knows where I can get a new one (footswitch or plug!) I would be more than grateful for the details. Anyone who needs a powerful bass amp and doesn't mind the weight (it is rather on the heavy side, especially for a solid state amp, but no more so than say an Ampeg or early Randall)could do much, much worse than give one of these beasts a try!

As stated above, I've used this amp with a wide variety of basses and also heard it used by other players using different basses too and all I can say is that the clarity of this amp gives you the individual character of the bass in question with as much power as you need. I have not been able to get this amp to distort by itself unless I used the seperate master volume circuit. (This works brilliantly with a Ricky!)I play this head through a couple of Fane 1x15 cabs although it has been used in the past with a Marshall 4x12, a Kitchen-Marshall 8x10 and also an Acoustic folded bass reflex cabinet. In all instances the sound was exceptional. (Except when one of the speakers went in the 8x10!) This amp has been used to play most styles of music from thrash metal to country via jazz and rock. The treble middle and bass controls are nothing fancy, but give you more than enough range to sculpt the tone of the amp to what you want, especially with the six band graphic eq on board as well.

I've had this amp over 15 years and the only problem I've had with it is the mains switch refused to turn off. Hardly a major problem!

As stated above, I've never had any problems with this amp and consequently not had to deal with the Acoustic Control Corporation directly. I believe that the company folded some time in the 80's: however, I did notice that there is a website under construction with e-mail contactability for parts, schematics and general info.

I've been playing bass, guitar, drums, keys and reeds for over 20 years now and a lot of gear has come and gone over the years. This beast will be staying with me until I'm pushing up the daisies!