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I have never been able to get a decent sound from a Vox style amp... yet 2 out of 3 of my favorite jazz guitarists are using them... i wonder if it's time to try again... but an AC30 is way too loud for my mostly bedroom playing... I'm looking at the AC10... that may be good for my needs...
what do you all think?
I have been using fender style amps forever, but I'm just so interested in a new tone
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03-02-2019 12:07 PM
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I've never played through a "real" VOX apart from a small combo with a tube preamp. Hovever, the MV50 micro-amps are said to be voiced closely. I have used the Clean version on gigs - loud enough. My son has the Classic Rock in his pedalboard. The AC lands in the middle, with a decent clean and a "civilized" gain. You should get one for about 200 clamshells. Just don't fall for one the their matching speaker cabs - those are toys.
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i don't have a cab, the ac10 has a couple nice clips on youtube
the ac15 i've heard it too loud, but i find that i want the headroom anyway, most people talking about amps seem to be all about the 'edge of breakup' tone, which is not me at all
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Hey Patshep,
I had the AC10 for a while. It's a cool amp, but more of a rock'n roller than jazz amp IMO. Which is why I sold mine.
The Vox sound certainly has a seductive sparkle which the AC10 delivers in spades, but fine tuning the EQ in a jazz context just didn't work for me. It's boomy in a way that you can't dial out, and one other thing that bugged me -- you have to remove the back panel to change tubes.
I totally get wanting to try a new sound, but there are better options than the AC10 for jazz IMO.
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yeah, you are probably right, i was just looking at wolgang muthspiel and he plays an ac30 as does scofield,
those guys have the best tones, so i was like hmmmmm
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I too love EL-84 tone! You can closely mimic AC30 tone with a Mesa Mark V 35, Mark V 25, or a cheaper (now discontinued, so used) Express plus 5:25.
Originally Posted by patshep
All have mid, treble, bass, and EQ sliders (MK V series has a presence knob) making it possible to dial in a lot of tones. I mention these amps because all feature reduced watt modes using: 1, 2, or 4 El-84's in triode or pentode mode (depending on which model).
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Saw Scofield at Dimetrios Jazz Alley a few years ago. He was playing an AC30. It was during the Ray Charles album release. His playing was beautiful but man, that Vox just didn't work for me. Kind of breaking up but not really. Sorry John. Didn't work for that project.
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I'll second the MV50 Clean as a good alternative... Originally Posted by Gitterbug
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i am very much a vox person and have three of them, i think. and though that is my preferred sound, it isn't the first thing i'd recommend for what i guess you'd call "traditional" jazz sounds. at best, i'd highly recommend the normal channel, with the bright switch off, with a speaker that lends itself to your cause and perhaps an eq pedal to give you a more manageable mid range experience.
you may need to decide whether you want those specific vox tones that your favorites get, or "vox tone" in general, which are probably two very different things. i'm a handwired, alnico speaker, channel jumper myself, so my sounds are something different entirely.
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A performance a few years ago at the Helsinki Music Hall. I was sitting on the balcony, quite a distance from the stage but right on the center line. The two AC's tried to bore a third eye on my forehead, the treble spike was like a laser beam. Not a pleasant experience.
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not sure which models have it, but my largest (ac15hw) has a diffuser thing in the middle of the grill, which i assume is for that purpose. i think it may just be a slat of wood, really. my ac4hw doesn't have it, if memory serves.
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I love my AC15. I think the key to getting a good tone out of a Vox, at least the ones with a master volume is to crank the master and adjust the channel volume to taste. I don't play archtops though, so I don't how they would fare.
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