Acoustic Control Corporation 450 Head

I bought this amp when I was 13 years old at my next door neighbors garage sale for $30. That was in 1994. I have since become professional, and have toured globally. My arsenal has included Marshalls, Fenders, and Line 6, all of which have come and gone. My rig now has a Mesa Boogie Road King which doubles as a stand for the 450, which has been with me all along, over the past 10 years. Obviously I play guitar, and any amp that can convert from 110v to 220v when stuck in Australia is indespensable. I use the 450 only for my clean channel. Unlike a dirty channel, cleans must be very particular, having dual EQ's has made most other amps unworthy. Most amps are too clutered with gadgets and buttons and crap to really keep a good clean sound pristine.

I play a variety of guitars, but on the clean side, most of them have Duncan humbuckers in the neck position, and the warmth I am able to create, putting the 450 into a Carvin 4x12 is nothing short of orgasmic. I have found a head/cab/setting set up that I won't ever change unless the company returns. Only using a Boss CE-2, and Line 6 DL-4, this quaint amp has filled ampitheatres with head room to go.

I accidentally dropped this thing off a tall stack while getting wild during one gig. The stack swayed violetly, and the head slipped off during a rowdy encore. Had no one seen it go over, no one would have known. This thing is a TANK! Plus, it lasted through the years when a teenager was learning to play guitar, and any equipment that can take the abuse of a kid speaks more than words.

Never needed support

Every guitarist or bassist likes to have a back up rig when everything else goes to crap. This amp will go to my grave with me.

I have had my 450 head for over 22 years!!! it is a late 70's model,I I have an original SVT 8x10 cab and an SWR 2x10 cab with a horn, the amp sounds great thru both.

the Kraemer has active eq on diMarzio pickups, 1 split "PBass" style and one jazz (all original guitar)the Warrick has 2 jazz style passive pickups. the amp produces a very clean punchy bottom end for bass, I occasionally play a strat thru it

I am currently replacing the fuse holder(I lost the cap. A truley kick ass rock solid piece of equipment. I have used it at gigs for 20+ years with out a backup, I have had to teplace the

I have had to replace two of the output xistors and 1 hiwatt resistor(I did it myself) and I lost the cap for the fuse holder,so I have to replace it, other than that it has been rock solid, I managed to find some schematics a while back, the single sided circuit board is pretty easy to to schetch out, co is out of business

been playing 30 years, I'd probably get a GK or maybe an Ampeg if this one ever craps out to the point htat I can't fixit

solid state bass/guitar head 300 watt (thats what i was told) model 450 head 5 band eq mid bass treb bright switch distortion knob and a ground switch
for the time this was a great head and im using it almost 30 years after it was made now thats longivity and still keeps up at jam sessions with my band wit good pick ups it almost is too loud.

i got a epiphone thunderbird so its real cleans and has great sound but no growl (boo) its great for the music i play cuz hardcore music is just a blur anyways. it keeps up but doesnt drown out the guitars in my jam space.

alwasy there and works since 1970

um i dont think this company is around anymore so meh

its great im selling cuz im getting a rackmount svt3pro head so ill have a solid strong head but i will miss this head. i have a vintage fender 210 118 cab that i will never ever sell its one of the best most versitile cabs ever forget the ampeg 810!

The Acoustic Control Corporation designed this head to be a dual purpose head for both bass players and guitar players. Originally I bought the Acoustic 450 head with an Acoustic 406 cab that has 1-18" 8 ohms Eminence speaker front mounted, rear loaded folded horn enclosure for $225.00. It was supposed to be $250.00 but a slider on the EQ had come off so I haggled the price down to $225.00 thinking I could (and did) repair it myself. It's a solid state head which I was looking for at the time to have as an opposite of my Ampeg SVT head. According to the owners manual the head is rated at 170 watts RMS @ 4 ohms at 5% distortion. Don't forget we are talking about a 1970's amp! 170 watts RMS may not sound like much but it powers an Acoustic 301 cab very well! Modern technology has solved that problem of distortion with todays amps. I don't know what year it was manufactured. As far as versatility, I like it a lot or I wouldn't own it! I play heavy metal / rock and roll and the sound is perfect for my purposes, plus it still has some head room left for more versatility. It has 1 channel with 2 inputs. The first input is normal and the second input has a 10 db cut which I use because my Dan Armstrong has a high output pick-up. The head then has a "Bright" switch that I have set to bright for additional highs. Then it has the volume dial. Then there's the parametric eq of Treble, Middle and Bass. Then there's a distortion dial that I suppose was originally intended for guitar players, but I don't use it. Then there's an Auxiliary volume dial which gives you a second volume control that is switchable thru a foot switch. Then there's a 5 band graphic eq that I use all the time for greater flexibility due to the Dan Armstrong's very present mids. The 5 sliders are listed as 70, (which covers 50 hz to 110 hz) 140, (which covers 110 hz to 220 hz) 280, (which covers 220 hz to 460 hz) 1100 (which covers 700 hz to 1500 hz) and 2200 ( which covers 1500 hz to 2800 hz). Then there's a Lead/Bass switch that I have set to Bass, and then there's a polarity switch. Above the Lead/Bass and polarity switches is the power switch. The head also has an effects loop. One time I plugged in an eq just for fun to see how it would handle it. The head was fine but the speaker started to break up at respectable volume levels. Actually the head and all the features work so well that you don't need another eq! Although the feature is great to have if you wanted to use the send (pre-amp out) to power another head or a power amp for additional speakers. I use the amp mainly for practice because I'm not currently in a band. I've heard this amp live with the previous owner and I can't wait to try it with MY sound going thru it!

This head is so cool for its time era! It can easily play todays music and anything else in between with ease! It has the versatility of producing deep bass to the point of being muffled, to very sharp and biting highs that a guitar player would want! As far as noise goes it has a slight ground buzz at LOW volume levels that disappears as soon as the volume is turned up and your playing your bass. Personally I believe the ground buzz is the house I live in because the house is about 100 years old and of course so is the wiring! I believe this little buzz would disappear once the head is plugged into some place with modern wiring! Because my Dan Armstrong bass has a high output pick-up I never get to turn the volume up past 2 without rattling something or breaking something so I don't know what to tell you about how the head handles at high volume settings. Using the distortion feature doesn't catch my interest. If I want distortion I'll just turn the volume up till I'm happy! I have played with the distortion feature a few times and didn't like it. Maybe it would be more suitable for a guitar player as opposed to a bass player.

I believe I've had this head at least 10 years and it has never given me a problem at all! This thing is solid as a rock!

Acoustic Control Corporation has unfortunately gone to audio heaven. I believe there have been 2 or 3 attempts by different partys to re-establish the Acoustic line but as you can see it was to no avail. By the way, at one time Acoustic offered a LIFETIME WARRANTY to the original owner. How's that for faith and reliability in a product! You know as well as I do that there's NO WAY IN HEAVEN, HELL OR EARTH that you'll find a company like that today!!!!! To put it simply, no one has the BALLS to have that type of confidence in their own product! I think it's a shame considering todays modern technology!

I've been playing for 30 years. Besides this rig, I have 2 original Dan Armstrong basses, ( one with a phase switch and one without ) a 1970 Ampeg SVT with 1 original 8X10" cab, 2 Acoustic 301 cabs, 1 re-issue Ampeg V4B cab and an original Ampeg V4B cab with 2 - 15" Electro-Voice 400 watts each speakers. If it was stolen I would DEFINITELY get another one. (after I tracked down killed the skum bag who stole it, and his dog)