A few days ago, I mentioned the possibility of trading my Reeves amp for a Goodsell G5. Well, the owner of the other amp decided to sell the amp outright, so that didn’t work out. However, earlier today someone offered to trade a Vox AC30CC2 for my setup. I’m seriously thinking about it. The AC30 would have way more headroom than the Reeves, which doesn’t really have a clean setting in it.
However, the Vox is a big, heavy amp. It’s a 2×12″ combo, and it’s supposed to be really loud when cranked. Of course, I’ll be setting it for cleanish, chimey tones, so I’m not really interested in the higher gain sounds. Also, I’ve heard about some reliability issues with some of the CC series.
Any thoughts? Anyone out there have an AC30 that they’d like to rave/complain about?
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I played a CC2 for an event and it was heavenly. Granted, that doesn’t speak of reliability at all, but I just wanted to relive that sweet, creamy tone at least once more.
I know very little about amps other than the big names, so I’m enjoying learning here.
yeah well do you think the loudness will be a factor for you at church? i know you mic the amps off stage someplace, and since you won’t be bringing it to gigs on any kind of regular basis (assumption), that lessens the chances of it breaking from being carted around every week. what does the previous owner say about it?
AC30CC’s are nice. Which set of speakers does it have? The Blues make a big difference in sound IMO.
Vox AC30 – isn’t that what every church praise team has now?
I got bit by the bug – bought a AC30 CC1X on eBay (is the amp you’re looking at outfitted with the Alnico speakers?). It arrived DOA – red power light comes on, but green standby light won’t come on. Did some research – turns out the AC30′s *do* have a bit of a reliability issue. I ended up returning the amp to the seller, and was out $80 (for shipping and eBay fees).
That’s left a bad taste in my mouth, as far as Vox amps go. I’m sure they sound great – but that’s not for me to find out.
Me, I’ve got access to a Peavey Classic 50 with a Weber Mass (my amp, but it lives at church), Peavey Delta Blues 210 (mine, just got it last week), Tech 21 Trademark 60 (mine, supposed to be for at-home practice), and a Roland JC120 (church’s). And I’ve come to the realization – in a blind test, the congregation probably wouldn’t know which one was which, or which one sounded “better”. (Maybe they all sound great? Haha.)
I love the cleans on the Peavey amps, especially the Classic 50, since the Mass allows me to crank the amp without killing my ears. My strat on the Classic 50 sounds clean and sparkly, but when I hit the strings hard, the sound just turns a little bit “brown” (that’s the only thing I can think of). It’s nice. When I use the boost on the Fulltone Fulldrive – oh my Lord! It’s so crunchy it’ll put pork rinds to shame.
The Delta Blues is still too new for me to pass judgment, but so far I’m also digging the clean sound, albeit at a much lower volume.
The JC120 has a nice clean sound that is surprisingly unharsh for a solid state amp. I haven’t tried putting a pedal in front to see how it reacts to overdrive, but the onboard overdrive is just what everyone else says it is – meh.
The Tech 21 – I really haven’t had time to fiddle with it. I just remember I used to record with the SansAmp GT, and the Trademark 60 supposedly has the GT2 guts inside, so I thought I’d give it a try.
Sorry this is so long winded, particularly since you only asked about the Vox, but… once I got started, I couldn’t stop.
I have the AC15 CC series, though I’ve played the 30s a ton. It is a lot of amp, my only beef is that the components themselves are very cheap, they use crappy parts to cut overhead, and the amps SCREAM at high volumes. Not in a charming or harmonic way, just in an awful, shrieking feedback way.
I’ve decided against the AC30CC2. I would have had to put in too much cash to be worthwhile. Besides, I would have been paying for a ton of features that I would never use: tremolo, reverb, channel blending, etc. The fact that it weighs like 75 lbs doesn’t help anything.
If I really wanted that AC30 sound, I’d probably get a hand-wired amp like the Valvetech Hayseed 30. As it stands, I’m trying to figure out a way to get a Stulce combo. I’m in the process of selling off some gear to raise some cash.
Wow. All these amps I’ve never heard of. Where do you find this stuff??
Man, I would love a Vox, but they are ginormous and I’m not even happy carrying my Peavey Classic 30, which I’m a fan of. Had it for a couple of years. Swapped out the tubes and the speaker.
Jason – I spend too much time at a wonderful, terrible place called the gear page. There’s a lot of discussion there about obscure boutique guitars, amps, and pedals.
hey man, this may be a bit late….
the CC series sounds pretty good, at least the top boost channel does. the reverb and tremolo on those are pretty much crap. and the 1st channel isn’t like a classic Vox. the original Vox sound is based on the EF86 tube. the new handwired heritage series has these options. if you are looking for more headroom and a smaller size, the AC15HH head looks to be the deal. I have the AC30HH head and even though it is a head it is pretty big.
Yeah, I wish that Vox would make a true handwired AC30 without all the extra crap. I guess that’s why we have JMI, Valvetech, Ceriatone, etc…
You should check out Gabriel amps too.
http://www.gabtone.com/
Dude, I wish. They look amazing, but the Voxer combo is almost twice the price of the Stulce. They do sound amazing, though. They’re on the “one of these days…” list.