Vox 1964 AC30 Top Boost

This is one of the first grey panel's that came out in late 64. This is a classic push it to drive it kind of amp. I own a variety of vintage Fender amps. This puppy is a very different animal. It has three channels. Brilliant (top boost), vibrato and normal. The normal and vibrato channels are very weak and need some kind of treble booster pedal in front of it which is what I think Brian May does. THe vibrato channel has either tremolo which is very strong or vibrato which sounds like a leslie on fast speed. The top boost channel goes through an additional 12ax7 and is very strong and incredibly loud. I mean loud. It is rated at 33 watts but it is far louder than my 65 Super and 58 Bassman. I have a 100 watt 1969 Dual Showman Reverb that I bought specifically for my Rhodes piano and the Vox is as loud if not louder than it. The tube ine up is 5 12ax7, one 12au7, 4 EL84's and 1 GZ 34 rectifier. I went for the gusto with tubes. I use Mullard 12ax7's and GZ 34 and Amperex El 84's for that British tone thing. The idea when this amp was made was that a keyboard player, a guitar player and bass player could all plug into these 3 very differently voiced channels. You can cascade the channels and dial in the amount of each channel you want. I only do this when I want to add the very interesting sounding tremolo in. Usually I only use the top boost channel because it is so dynamic and strong sounding. The cut and treble and bass knobs are very unusual. They dont function the way a Fender does and you have to mess with them to get the feel. This amp actually doesnt need any tone controls. It is one of those fire it up and go amps that does its own thing. It isnt versatile but can still get some different sounds. My 65 Tele can run the two pickups in series making it sound like a humbucker and this amp handles it well. In fact it is a very smooth sound. Many Les Paul players love this amp.

It has a similar dynamic to my 40 watt Fenders. Four and it is clean but always has a spot of hair on it. When you crank it up it gets real crunchy. I have begun A/B this amp with one of my 40 watt Fenders mentioned above. I can really cover all the sounds I like that way. The thing about this amp is it does NOT have the low end that 6L6 driven Fender amps has. This is a plus for me becasue if you use hubuckers (which I dont use much) or hollowbodies (I do own vintage Gretsch guitars) this thing is king. Hollowbodies can be very boomy and bottom heavey and the feedback problems they produce are from the low end. This amp balances them out so well to the point that the hollowbodies dont feedback badly. It has a slight hum from the sheer volume and trble emphasis form the top boost but it isnt bad at all. I record with it all the time and no issues. It will squeal if you get too close to it with say a Tele. It is a special sounding amp. Glassy, chimey, clean but can be very tough sounding with a smooth overdrive that sounds grat with chords or solos. The speakers are the silver vox bull dogs. Same as the early blue ones without the paint. They are 15 watts, alnico magnets that some people consider the finest guitar speaker ever made.

Dependability has always been the issue with this amp. It's nickname in the states is "the fire box." Why? It has a voltage selector on it. We use the 115 volt here in the states becasue it used to be that the outlets in America were 110 volts. Nowadays most areas of the country pump out 125 volts. The thing runs very, very hot. In fact, I have noticed that the hotter it gets the louder it gets. By the end of the night I have to back the volume off a little. If you hold your palm over the vents it is blazing. I have used it as a hand warmer during chilly outside gigs. Point being, is you have to make it dafe before you depend on it. This requires changing out the caps and many resistors. My amp has been severally overhauled and has never given me a problem. It might be my most dependable amp but get it checked out first. They do catch fire.

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I have been playing over 20 years and have become very knowledgable about these old amps. I am fortunate now that I can go out and switch back and forth between a 58 Bassman and a 64 Vox Ac 30. They have a very different sound and are both special amps. If it were lost or stolen I would get another one. Nothing comes close to this EL84 driven sound. I dont like amps that have 2 EL84's. I find them wimpy but four of them with a tube rectifer really sound great.