Should I buy one of the new VOX AC15s?

This is the amp in question:

http://www.voxamps.co.uk/products/valvetronix/ad15vtad30vt.htm

it's difficult trying to make sense of it by just reading the blurb, if you could line a few of these things up in a shop you might get a better idea.

i've already got a v nice 15w class a tube fender blues junior £300 @ and that handles clean and fuzzy overdriven with aplomb

next on my amp wishlist is an 18w Marshall 1974x re-issue @ £950 (ouch, i know) but then i should be sorted for the more bollocksy brit crunch

do they do a version w/o the effects?

but i'm gonna jump off the fence and say that personally i wouldn't spend the $$$'s on this

Why not get a real AC15?

The 12AX7 is an absurdly common tube for a preamp or for controlling tremolo or driving a reverb stage. It's also cheap as hell, so anytime you've got some bullshit "toob" gear (like all those mic preamps that are supposed to sound "warm" but only cost $100), usually it's a solid state design using a 12AX7 as an extra gain stage and allow for a little overdrive on the tube. In otherwords, most of the time that tube is being used more as an effect than as a necessary part of the circuit design.

The Vox with the built-in effects sounds like it has tubes in both the pre and power amp sections which is rare for modern bullshit tube equipment which usually only uses a tube preamp.

Most Fenders use 12AX7s in the preamp stage too. Most versions of the Deluxe Reverb certainly do.

Your friend is smoking crack though. A real Vox AC15 uses a 12AX7 or a tube from the same family of preamp tubes.

Those Vox Custom Classic amps are all tube, but circuit board wired and not handwired like the originals.

They are completely different amps. About the only real similarity is the name.

I don't know much about the Valvtronix series except that a lot of people think they are some of the best modelling amps out there (but they're still modelling amps for whatever that's worth to you as a purist or not). I just read a bunch of Vox's literature (which I realize is geared more to make a sale than anything else), and it looks like their "Valve Reactor" technology is actually using a 12AX7 tube in the power amp stage, which is pretty odd.

The whole Valvetronix amp thing is that it's set up as a series of modellers in a way. It models effects, a preamp, a power amp, etc. All of them are independently controlled. I'd imagine it can probably get a lot of different sounds. I'd also imagine none of them sound like the power section of a real vintage AC15 given that the AC15 runs on completely different power tubes and is a true tube amp.

If you are really only after the tone of a Vox, but you can't afford a real one, I'd look for other amps with similar power tube set-ups. The AC15 uses two EL84 (or 6BQ5) tubes as its power section. That's not to say that every EL84 powered amp sounds anything like a Vox, but it's a place to start investigating. (Oh and by the way, the reason so many tubes have more than one name is cause there's a British and an American version of many of them.)

A lot of folks call the Laney VC30 series the "poor man's Vox." It's a 30 watt amp, so it's more powerful than the AC15, but I'd say the comparison is warranted. There is a VC15 as well, though I've never played or heard one. The Laney was pretty cheap used the last time I checked.

Another great cheap EL84 powered amp is the Peavey Classic 30, although most people agree that the stock speaker sounds like shit. If you're interested in modding amps though, there are tons of things you can do to that Peavey to improve performance besides just changing the speaker out for a nicer one. It's not as jangly as a Vox by itself. It comes out sounding a little more like an older Marshall, though you can get it into Vox territory if you push it hard with a treble booster or some other relatively bright gain.

Also, there are so many tremendously good overdrive pedals on the market that you can make a good clean tube amp take on (at least some of) the characteristics of whatever famous amp sound you like if you know where to look. Menatone makes a pedal called "Top Boost in a Can" which is designed to sound like the TB circuit of the original AC30. I've used that pedal in front of a Deluxe Reverb to do a pretty good impersonation of a top boosted Vox. (At the time I had a real AC30 in my shop with which to compare it also.)

Of course the caveat with all tube amps is that most of them don't sound their best until the tubes are cooking, and that usually means pretty fucking loud, even on low wattage amps. I know that Top Boost in a Can pedal sounded the most like a real Vox right around the same volume that would make most neighbors call the cops. So, depending on your situation, your mileage may vary.

It was a 1x12, though there was a version called the AC15 Twin which was a 2x12. As far as I know the reissues made in the 90s were only of the 1x12 version.

I hope some of this helps. :) Lord knows I can go on at length about the tube amps...

Darin, check out the Laney 15w for sure. ppl have noted poor build quality and the weird housing of the tubes which actually makes it more prudent to play the thing upside down, but it's reckoned to be very good tone for the cash, brit but not marshall

http://www.fender.com/products/prod_images/amplifiers/0217400000_md.jpg

RISE FROM THE DEAD, RANDOM AMP DISCUSSION!!! RISE!!!

On the subject of Poker, what the hell is it with freaking' cards? It seems like every third commercial or show on the satillite TV is either for web poker or some show with people playing poker. I get a bazillion emails for people wanting me to come to their site to play poker.

I just don't get why everything has gone all poker? Why not euchre or gin?

Tech 21 NYC made a pedal called the DoubleDrive which does the same thing for much less. It's an overdrive circuit pedal with a Marshall and Vox emulation. I have one, don't use the Marshall side. The Vox side has all the pluses and minuses one might expect. It is great at jangle, and has the Vox woody tone at higher gains. You can do "I Feel Fine" and some Brian May with it. Lots of Tom Petty, too.

I have me a 50W Valvetronix. While it is perfectly adequate for my purposes, I doubt it would convince a tube purist. Despite the actual tubeage, I can hear some offputting digitalness some of the settings: it's not that it's sterile or too clean, it's that the dirt seems... calculated. Maybe I'm imagining this, though; I'm not sure I oculd hear it in a blind test.

All that said, I would totally bust a move on an AC15.

I love the JC120 too but it's just way too much amp, in my view, for roadieless clubbing. I wish I saw more JC90s.

So far, I can't think of one. It pushes out a LOT of volume and it's a lot easier to drag to band practice than my heavy Pro Reverb.

It's not as versatile as the AC30CC1, which you can still find on closeout for not much more (heavier, but not as heavy as a 2x12).

I think there's on on the LA Craigslist right now, so you might be able to get in cheaper.

That's about it. I played an Epi Japan Casino through one for a while killing a little time at the Hollywood GC. It was the sex.

'65 Jazzmaster, '72 Telecaster, '67 Vox Cheetah, crapload of old effects - mostly of the delay/reverb/tremelo variety.

Is that '72 one of them HH Customs?

Frankly, I suspect that you could dial out the YIKES high-end if, unlike me, you had spent enough time with it to get familiar with the EQ. Similar to the DRRI in that regard - sometimes I try one and think, well hey now this here is a fantastic little amp and sometimes it just takes the top of my head clean off and there's nothing I can do to dial it out.

Blah blah blah... all of which is to say, they do lush, chimey cleans, break up nicely, and get raunchy when you want 'em to. Other than the cheap-ass input jacks, what's not to like.

Unless you have a lot of cash sitting idle, in which case you may want to wait on one of the new handwired AC15s they'll be announcing at NAMM.

Yeah, I was aware of those. Photos have already leaked.

No. Basic blonde SS Telecaster w/maple neck.

Is that '72 one of them HH Customs?

Blah blah blah... all of which is to say, they do lush, chimey cleans, break up nicely, and get raunchy when you want 'em to. Other than the cheap-ass input jacks, what's not to like.

They're pretty inexpensive. I'll pull the trigger on one after my next paycheck.

Haven't tried one with a standard Tele, but if you do any chicken-pickin' it's a pretty classic Nashville combo.

That's a big negatory, but interesting nevertheless

It's because they refuse to admit their actions in regard to Tibet and other war crimes. They CONTINUE to lie.
Destroying minds is far worse than lives, in my opinion.
THAT is why I refuse to thoughtlessly take part in that country's calculated plans to bleed the western workforces dry.
Also, VOX's increased prices AFTER they went to Chinese manufacture=slimeball dick move.

Also, if you plan on brining up the fact that there were no WMDs and the administration knew it...I'm hoping to emigrate.

Squire's not gonna be too high on my list, either.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~anthro/images/dartmouth-seal.jpg

But you're close.