Vox AC30 for jazz?
Mark Guest
trade in a gear deal. Anyone use these amps for jazz? My limited
experience with EL84s was not very satisfying...
sheetsofsound
i love el84s for strats and teles and roots rock. They don't produce
the bottom end of a 6L6 or 6V6 but you can get some older, early 60s
jazz vibe out of them. That amp is a pretty noisy one though and if
it's an original, the build quality was known to be poor. The hand-
wired reissues are better. The pcb reissues are ok.
Mark Guest
Thanks for the quick feedback, Jack!
Tim McNamara
<227cc311-2b6b-48c5...@n33g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
Mark Guest <mark.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
Rory Gallagher used them for years (listen to Rory's "Against the Grain"
and "Calling Card" albums, IMHO his best studio work and both recorded
with his '61 Strat through an AC30, IIRC. He gets a wonderful throaty
growl with that setup), as did IIRC Brian May who was emulating Rory's
setup right down to the Dallas Rangemaster treble boost. Which is odd
because to my ears the AC30 is a very bright amp to begin with. It also
seems to get into distortion quickly. It's good for rock and blues, but
I've never tried jazz through one.
--
"I wear the cheese, it does not wear me."
Mark Guest
> In article
> <227cc311-2b6b-48c5-9a41-7382e009f...@n33g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
Thanks, Tim. Sounds like it won't be a deal...
Dave
Not unless you want to sound like Sco. He's been using one for quite a
number of yrs now--no more Rat for distortion; it's all from the amp. The
AC30 certainly has enough mids for jazz, but as others have mentioned, it
just isn't gonna be clean enough for most jazzers. Besides, who wants to
lug it?
Mark Guest
Definitely sounds like a poor fit for me... Thanks!
sheetsofsound
Christian pickup into my Goodsell EL84 amp today. It's a beautiful
tone. Somewhere in between Grant Green and Jesse Van Ruller.
Like most EL84 amps, it doesn't develop a lot of bass but I found this
to be an extremely beautiful tone and the benefit of not having a huge
bottom end is a more lyrical and singing tone without the feedback.
This amp has a single tone control like the early AC30 amps as opposed
to the bass and treble control of the Top Boost circuits. Many people
feel that the purity of the early models has better tone.
pmfan57
Just waitin' for the invention of anti-grav packs. Like in Star
Trek. Just connect them to the sides of whatever your carrying, e.g.,
a tube amp, and you're set to go.
Marc Why
sounds great, IMO. I have a similar amp, and I like it for jazz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt2ydxWpOvM
Marc
(I'm the MarcWhy who's been around a while; I had to restart the acct
though)
sheetsofsound
The Goodsell amp I have is very light and portable.
Greger Hoel
<mark.c...@gmail.com>:
> Someone is offering an AC30 of (as yet) unknown vintage as a partial
> trade in a gear deal. Anyone use these amps for jazz? My limited
> experience with EL84s was not very satisfying...
When I saw Sco when he toured his Ray Charles album, he played through an
AC30. Amazing tone. Clean and really thick at the same time. No
discernable breakup, really. Just that lovely, thick shimmer. Try
listening to his Ray Charles album--I'm pretty sure he used it on the
record as well; it complemented Ray's songs perfectly.
--
Always cross a vampire; never moon a werewolf
Dave
> P� Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:34:32 +0100, skrev Mark Guest
No breakup? I've seen him 3 or 4 tmes since he switched exclusively to the
AC30, and though he can clean things up by volume and tone adjustments, it's
never entirely clean, and usually pretty crunchy.
Greger Hoel
> No breakup? I've seen him 3 or 4 tmes since he switched exclusively to
> the
> AC30, and though he can clean things up by volume and tone adjustments,
> it's
> never entirely clean, and usually pretty crunchy.
One man's crunch another man's clean, I guess. But there were certainly
solos where he cranked the gain--he finished with a high gain version of
Georgia where he went apeshit with some looper pedal. He really tore it
apart. Even the band suddenly got afflicted with the slackjaws.
Al
I want. (Go Saints!)
"Mark Guest" <mark.c...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:227cc311-2b6b-48c5...@n33g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
Mark Guest
> Mark, I've always wanted an AC30. Please get it so I can borrow it whenever
> I want. (Go Saints!)
>
>
> news:227cc311-2b6b-48c5...@n33g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Someone is offering an AC30 of (as yet) unknown vintage as a partial
> > trade in a gear deal. Anyone use these amps for jazz? My limited
> > experience with EL84s was not very satisfying...
:-) We'll see. Heavy amps don't seem like a good idea to me...
Phil
Too heavy, though great sounding with a Tele. A friend has a recent
reissue -- for playing classic rock, though. Too many other/better/
lighter tube options for jazz... like an old Gibby, or Fender, or best
of all (to my ear) an old Ampeg.
Al
not an amp a guy in his fifties lugs to gigs if he can help it.
"Mark Guest" <mark.c...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:5721709d-f76b-4c02...@r24g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...
David J. Littleboy
"Al" <a...@dataviewresearch.com> wrote:
> Heavy, yes, but less so if you keep it at my house. ;-) Seriously, it's
> not an amp a guy in his fifties lugs to gigs if he can help it.
That's what God made Henriksens for...
--
David J. Littleboy
In his 50s, and thankful, in
Tokyo, Japan
JNugent
> Mark Guest <mark.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Someone is offering an AC30 of (as yet) unknown vintage as a partial
>> trade in a gear deal. Anyone use these amps for jazz? My limited
>> experience with EL84s was not very satisfying...
> Rory Gallagher used them for years (listen to Rory's "Against the Grain"
> and "Calling Card" albums, IMHO his best studio work and both recorded
> with his '61 Strat through an AC30, IIRC. He gets a wonderful throaty
> growl with that setup), as did IIRC Brian May who was emulating Rory's
> setup right down to the Dallas Rangemaster treble boost. Which is odd
> because to my ears the AC30 is a very bright amp to begin with.
That depends. The original run of the AC30 came in three types (all with
sngle treble-cut controls, labelled "tone"): "normal" (not very bright),
"treble" (brighter) and "bass" (not even intended to be bright). AC30N.
AC30T, AC30B (or AC30 Bass).
The AC30T can be quite bright (especially in the Brilliant channel), but the
various types are not usually distinguished by any marking on the outside.
This can mean that one is listening to the bass version or the normal model
and wondering why they don't sound as treble as the treble version. You
usually have to look inside to see what is inked onto the chassis.
The Top Boost version (the one with three tone controls, the extra two of
which only work on the Brilliant channel), is quite a bit brighter -
challenging the Twin Reverb for clarity (if not outright volume).
> It also
> seems to get into distortion quickly. It's good for rock and blues, but
> I've never tried jazz through one.
It's a 30 watt amp (compare the contemporary Twin, with 85w, or the Pro
Reverb, with 40+).
The AC30 is very loud for a thirty-watt unit (the Celestion speakers help),
but it does tend to overload relatively quickly if played with a warmer tone
from a humbucker. For reasonable playing volumes, a clean tone is available.
Use the normal channel for jazz and don't bother touching the treble and bass
controls if using a TB model (they make no difference in that channel anyway).
JN
(who has been an AC30 owner for 44 years and still is, though he nowadays
prefers Fender amps)