Vox AC30 Brian May

[Andi Rauscher]

Bought one today.
Holy Shit, what an amp.

Pics and Clips to come soon.

[Kestral]

Is it true that it has no knobs?

http://www.voxamps.co.uk/products/ac30/ac30bm.htm

Oh Jesus Christ! That much for an amp with no knobs??

Not even a pre and master volume so at least you could adjust the gain?

[tmarra]

It has one knob ... Volume.

What more do you need?

-Tony

[Kestral]

Originally Posted by tmarra

It has one knob ... Volume.

What more do you need?

-Tony

Well, Master Volume for one, Reverb for another, Tremolo for yet another

[Andi Rauscher]

bullshit!
turn it on, turn it up, sing away....!
here you can find hi res pics of the amp:
http://www.korg-guitar.de/produkte/v...8-1520&s_id=DF
click on the small pictures and a new window with the pic will come up!
the german site is much better than the UK Vox site, I´m afraid.

(and yes, it only has 1 knob, volume.)
and yes, you don´t need more. you can do everything with the guitar. it works! I love this amp.

[Meriphew]

I was really excited about this amp, but then found out that it's not all handwired, it's built in China (a big downer for me), and I've heard/seen pics of some pretty suspect build quality on it (for an amp in that price range).

[AdamJay]

$2300 for a chinese amp ?

it must really have one hell of a tone.

[Kestral]

The average person can't turn up an AC30 full blast in order to get a natural overdrive sound

And it's made in China and costs that much? Geez, you would have been better off with any number of high quality hand-made Vox-a-likes ie. Matchless, Bad Cat, Hayseed.

[eligit]

a marketing coup!

however you do NOT need a master vol on all your amps tho.....the best sounding amps (in my humble opinion) do not have master volumes.

then again i am not into that "modern"/mesa etc etc etc kind of tone which seem to be all about pre amp distortion.

either way i think that a better option for this amp if they want a pure curcuit and a $2300 price tag would have been to have a regular eq section that you could run a hard bypass to. then if you wanted a short path you could bypass but if you needed to tweak the treble or bass (which is sometimes the case) you could.

but i will also add that the treble and bass on my main amp usually are not moved so....

[lucey]

a little off topic ... just finished a new cabinet for my hot rodded 90s reissue ...

Solid pine cabinet, birch-ply baffle, black stain, nitro-cellulose lacquer ... NOS tubes, tone tubby DD alnico + weber silver ceramic (old Greenback clone- brighter)

[lucey]

this part of the 'Brian May' is confusing ...

Cabinet: Custom built AC30 2 x 12" combo using Baltic birch plywood fitted.



is "Fitted" a term for outiftted, or partially fitted ???

70 lbs. would suggest MDF with Birch Baffle. MDF sounds cloudy and muddy compared to solid pine.

[Ziggy!!]

Originally Posted by tmarra

It has one knob ... Volume.

What more do you need?

-Tony

an input jack would be nice....

[Andi Rauscher]

“You, like me, are unimpressed by dozens of controls on a guitar amplifier. You want ONE knob, and IT SOUNDS PERFECT – right? Well, this is it.

To the best of our capability and belief, here is an amp you will never have to mess with. If it sounds great for you today, it will always sound great. Power up, plug in, turn up the ONE volume knob, and play. We hope you love it – the concept and the Amp.” – Brian May

[Kestral]

Originally Posted by Ziggy!!

an input jack would be nice....

[dubrichie]

well, 2 knobs really.

the Loudness and the Goodness.

regards,

richie.

[Andi Rauscher]

to heat up the discussion a little more, here are some pictures I took today.
Of course I had to take a closer look at the amp, that´s´why I unmounted the amp from the cab.
but see for yourself.

[Andi Rauscher]

here are the pics:

[lucey]

a strange design ... the tubes are separated from the speakers by a solid piece of plywood/MDF... so no interaction there. Makes it like a Head/Cab, not a Combo.

that Rectifyer (Sovtek?) would be the first thing I'd play with ... you probably have many rectifyer options as you dont need the juice of the 5AR4.




the cabinet is all birch? or MDF with a birch ply baffle?

[Yuri Kogan]

Very nice amp, lots of sound variations, especially using the booster. It even sounds good at low volume (surprisingly for a vox)

Yuri

[Ziggy!!]

No they didn't... why would you keep doing the same thing even though customers complain about it. The way the chassis is laid out means you need to remove it from the cab to access the power tubes... Just seems plain awkward and silly. It is the same with the custom classics...

[mr. roboto]

Originally Posted by Ziggy!!

No they didn't... why would you keep doing the same thing even though customers complain about it. The way the chassis is laid out means you need to remove it from the cab to access the power tubes... Just seems plain awkward and silly. It is the same with the custom classics...

Hello everyone!

I'm a huuge fan of Brian (Harold) May... end I would really like to have this amp, but.. the money man.. the money...

So i would ask if somebody knows where i could find the schematics of this amp?

Thank you.

[jhknicks]

Hi. If anyone is interested, Alto Music has 6 in stock at great pricing. I know they are hard to find so I thought I would pass this along. sales@altomusic.com

[Sounds Great]

A little off topic, but...



Queen's guitarist explores the cosmos

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Rock star Brian May from the supergroup Queen swapped his guitar for a telescope on Monday to launch a new book on his other great passion -- astronomy.

"I was always torn and I still am," said May, who abandoned the stars for stardom.

He gave up his PHD studies in interplanetary dust to help form Queen but now, almost four decades on, he has come full circle to co-write "Bang! The Complete History of the Universe" with astronomers Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott.

"To me it is a spiritual force in my life," May told Reuters at the book's London launch.

[Tibbon]

First of all, of all the knobs you need on an AC30... the volume is the last one I'd imagine needing... there's only one setting i'd really use it at... which is '11'.

Secondly... this isn't at all like what Brian May was using to get his sound. I'm not sure why Vox/Korg doesn't just get the schematic from him for whatever that little box he made was, and make that.

And Made in China? Damn. I dunno, I'd like my amps to be made elsewhere really. If anything I'd know that it's not nearly slave labour being put into it, and that if money is going to paychecks that it's going somewhere decent. And that's a LOT for something Made in China.

Not to bash your purchase, but for the money i'd rather find a good older AC30, or an AC30HW... and either way fill it with NOS Mullards, RCA, or Telefunken tubes (after a good recap of course).

[Tibbon]

Originally Posted by mr. roboto

Hello everyone!

I'm a huuge fan of Brian (Harold) May... end I would really like to have this amp, but.. the money man.. the money...

So i would ask if somebody knows where i could find the schematics of this amp?

Thank you.

The AC30 Schematics are floating around online a good bit. Not too hard for an amp. The trem circuit is actually 10x more complex than the amplification circuit. Just making the AC30 circuit wouldn't be that hard at all.

[robot gigante]

Originally Posted by Tibbon

Not to bash your purchase, but for the money i'd rather find a good older AC30, or an AC30HW... and either way fill it with NOS Mullards, RCA, or Telefunken tubes (after a good recap of course).

Damn straight! I'm sure you could find a decent vintage one if you looked hard enough and kept your eyes open.

These knobs sound really damn good if you find an AC-30 with them!



We did, although neither the tolex nor the grillcloth is original on the one we found, everything else is. FWIW the amp sounds amazing at pretty much any setting or volume, but it sounds like GOD when overdriven. I don't have a camera at the studio, so that pic is from the Vox showroom.

What they are:

http://www.voxshowroom.com/uk/amp/ac30.html

Reissues = blah (yes, I've owned a couple and played on a couple more). Go for the real thing!

[paterno]

Originally Posted by Tibbon

Secondly... this isn't at all like what Brian May was using to get his sound. I'm not sure why Vox/Korg doesn't just get the schematic from him for whatever that little box he made was, and make that.

Didn't they do that already with the little white Brian May Special they put out a few years ago? The treble boost and the 'Deacy' amp. The manual was quite detailed on the history of the thing. Whether or not you like the sound was another matter. I think it's a pretty cool little amp.

JP

[George Necola]

did you ever looked inside a Vox AC100, or 30 of the early series? big resistors, trannies, the whole amp was full of parts:D

now we live in 2006 and the world is smaller (due to chinese production and internet ) and you dont need to put those things in an amp, like on your picture everything is smaller..

...and the tone>?

[robot gigante]

Exactly.

The tone on those vintage beauts is jaw-dropping.

The new ones are still good amps but there is a big difference in tone.

[pan60]

for that kind of money i would go boutique, thats insane for a china made amp that is not a hand wired point to point amp and minus the tone circuit to boot, ( not that i have a issue their ).