ch-ch-changes (vox content)

exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
edited August 2006 in Musicians and Gearheads
gone: jazz bass and casino, orange AD15

arrived: paid off SG, +$$ leftover + vox AC15CC1


yes, I gave up the orange. sorry paco. I loved this vox after giving it a good run. it does the orange thing + the vox thing. I know it's offshore and all that but it fits me better I feel.

pics and review soon.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • i own that amp too, pretty much love it, but i really loved it the day i bought it, when i had tried it with ... a casino.

    just thought it was funny you dumped one, picked up the other.

    i've used it mostly with a strat, some with an LP, but would love a tele for it...is the sg going to be your main guitar with it??
  • moster78moster78 Posts: 1,591
    You go for the one with the upgraded speaker?
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    the casino would have been a good guitar for it since the casino was rather dark sounding. however, i had to make some choices in order to cover the SG.

    the vox is a bright amp. much brighter than the orange. however, they have the same type of character.

    it does sound better with the darker guitars like an SG or LP. with the strat, i didn't like it except for really clean sounds. when it's crunching, it needs the humbuckers. the SG will be my main guitar with it. the strat and tele will still go through my deluxe reverb.

    the reverb is the only weak link. it's horrible. i'm going to be replacing the tank i think. it's too bright and the decay is too long. i'm going to swap ino the tank from my fender as an experiment. the tremolo is lovely.

    the speaker is the wharfdale... it's all they had and i don't feel the blue is worth the extra $$$$$. there are better aftermarket speakers out there for less than the upcharge to get the blue.

    once i live with the amp for while, i'll see about the speaker.
  • we're on the same wavelength i think.

    i hate the reverb so much that i went out and bought a reverb pedal.
    and i m also wait and see on the speaker replacing.

    and i also have a deluxe.

    scary

    now if only i had a SG and a tele

    :)
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    i read one review where the guy put a 17" tank in and got a big improvement so it's worth a shot. i'll take it apart tonight and see what the deal is.

    i've got a reverb pedal too since the orange had no verb but i'd like to drop it out of the chain if i can since it's got some hiss.
  • holy grail perhaps??

    mine definitely adds noise...had to seperate it from my power supply just to make it usable.

    let us know about the tank switch tho... sounds like a good project.

    off topic ...what do you think about the Vox's tone when playing PJ songs??
    i sorta have come to the opinion that Ed should dump the fenders and play a Vox. most of his parts sound really good straight thru the amp, no fx.
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    i've got a verbzilla. it's quieter than the holy grail and much more versatile. i do these big buckley type cave reverbs with it.

    i'll report back on the tank switch for sure.

    i actually don't play a lot of PJ but i'd agree that it would be worth a shot for ed to try a vox or two. i don't like his tone with the fenders but he does need something a bit brighter and cutting to suit his style get through the rest of the band. he's very percussive on the rockers and i think the vox/orange type of growl would work out well.

    the hiwatt days were good for him.
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    let us know about the tank switch tho... sounds like a good project.

    bah. the specs of the fender's tank are totally different than those of the vox. so the swap won't work. i'll have to figure out what will sound good because the fender type isn't available in the same impendances as the vox uses.
  • that sucks ....

    you could always buy the reissue reverb fender unit ... only costs as much as the vox .......
  • Pacomc79Pacomc79 Posts: 9,404
    awesome, congrats on the purchase. I dislike the wharfdale but it's an ok speaker, I think it's a little too stiff to sound perfect or record in a low volume situation and for me it's a touch bright in an already bright amp, but that's me. Crank it and it does fine, the upcharge is a joke, you can find other great speakers cheaper later. The amp sound itself is legendary.
    My Girlfriend said to me..."How many guitars do you need?" and I replied...."How many pairs of shoes do you need?" She got really quiet.
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    it got a good run this weekend and i'm pretty happy overall.

    i took it apart and went through it. the build quality is fine. the plastic jacks are my only beef in that regard. the rest is fine. ICs in the circuits for the trem and reverb which is a little jarring but i'll get used to it. the trem sounds fantastic.

    i've ordered a new 17" 2 spring reverb tank with a shorter decay time. hopefully that improves that aspect of it. i imagine the tone of the decay will remain a little too thin though. we'll see.

    still undecided on the speaker.

    *may* try the AC30CC1, just in case but i doubt it.
  • IMO the AC30 is pretty great... more options then i needed on an amp...

    its like they wanted this reissue to please everyone

    some seriously small switches on there.

    The tone is seriously great tho, and it's every bit as good a deal as the Ac15. IMo seriously loud tho. I can't imagine it having any problems cutting thru any situation, can probablykeep up just fine with halfstacks.
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    that's my concern too. too many options. that and i probably couldn't lift it.

    the expanded reverb controls and the cut control are appealing but not worth the extra $$$$ to me since i don't want to deal with the added volume either.

    the only thing i really miss in any of the amps i like, is a parallel effects loop. no one does that except for the high gain metalish amps that i'd never play.

    lots have serial loops, including the AC30, but i want a parallel loop.
  • what are you looking to send thru the loop?? all of your efx, just a couple??

    i've never had any real loop experience. i just send thru the front ...

    so what's a parallel as compared to series... its just something i never paid attention to, sorta like those high-gainers you mentioned

    yeah and as far as weight, Damn! i'm sick of moving the ac15. i bought it to be the amp i practice at home with, and still maybe use it for rehearsals, so basically portable, take it with me everytime i go somewhere, and leave my other amps. Every time i lift it i think to myself that it should at least be a 50 watt amp for how heavy it is. My brain has some sort of weight/wattage logic worked out, and this amp is not fitting into it.
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    i think it's the cabinet adding the extra weight over, say, the deluxe reverb which has a lighter cabinet (read flimsier) overall. my orange was the same way, heavy because it's cabinet was solid.

    the speaker and transformers are close to the same across the board.


    as for the loop, i want to run my delay and reverb pedals in a loop because they hiss when they're out front. i love the sound of them but they hiss unacceptably. they're both line6 tonecores which are infamous for the hiss. and the hiss is constant regardless of mix settings on the pedals. and i really don't want to waste a bunch of money searching out different pedals because at this point, about all i haven't tried are the t-rex delay and reverb and they're $400US each. i'm not worth it.

    so it's either deal with the noise, mod the amp, or buy something like this.
    http://www.prosoundcommunications.com/english/xotic/effects/x_blender/index.html

    a series loop sends all the signal from the preamp through the pedals. so they'll still hiss i think.

    with a parallel loop, you can vary the amount that goes through the pedals, thereby limiting the noise.

    i'm really anal about noise in my chain because mostly all i do is record. live, it wouldn't be an issue.

    interestingly, they make very little noise when being fed into my pod, or placed after my pod, which is my normal recording set up.

    gain pedals -> POD -> stereo chorus, delay, verb.


    i played my rickenbacker through the AC for a good couple hours on saturday. i'm in love.
  • ahh, you have a rick!! that's awesome, makes the amp purchase worthwhile without any other considerations. ...maybe the beatles were on to something.....

    the one time i really played a rick was thru a vintage ac30 (only time i've ver seen one) the amp's volume was nearly off and it was still the loudest, most Present amp i've played. i was clueless on what to do, standing in this tiny cramped store, people brushing by me, with a guitar that was really foreign to me, and this loud loud amp. i was barely strumming the thing, it was like stage fright.

    the xotic stuff looks pretty cool, their ac boost gets some good reviews... radial/tonebone has a lot of switchers also, maybe a touch cheaper? could work for you. hopefully that new reverb tank will take at least one pedal out of your chain, tho.
  • exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    rickenbacker

    :D

    i have a love / hate with it. love the sound, hate the neck. unless it's capoed, i can barely play it. 12 strings and a narrow nut do not playability make.

    radial has a loop pedal but not with mix controls unfortunately.
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