New Vox AC15H1TV

[playon]

Anyone tried this amp? I checked one out at a shop the other day and was pretty impressed. They are hand wired but made in China... not sure if "hand wired" means PTP?

[Gear91]

Originally Posted by playon

Anyone tried this amp? I checked one out at a shop the other day and was pretty impressed. They are hand wired but made in China... not sure if "hand wired" means PTP?

All PTP amps are handwired but not all handwired amps are PTP. My guess is that this amp is handwired but not PTP.

[dave s]

Not sure on the internal construction either, but sure digging mine! If you have any questions about whether or not the amp would be loud enough at gigs, it most certainly is!

Wonderful sounding amp!

dave

[Flux]

It's mostly hand-wired but some purists have pointed out that there's a couple of jacks that are surface mount...

[hamfist]

All the Vox Heritage series amps are handwired components on a big chunky PCB-based turret board.
All jacks, pots and tube-bases are chassis-mounted and off the turret board. here's a couple of pics of the guts.

[wingwalker]

Wow...parts handwored onto a PCB...Im not even sure what to say about that.

Anyway, i've tried the amp twice so far...didn't like the first one I tried so I gave it a second shot this past weekend...different store, different amp still didn't care for it. It was OK but nothing amazing IMO...

[aman74]

Originally Posted by wingwalker

Wow...parts handwored onto a PCB...Im not even sure what to say about that.

Anyway, i've tried the amp twice so far...didn't like the first one I tried so I gave it a second shot this past weekend...different store, different amp still didn't care for it. It was OK but nothing amazing IMO...

What's wrong with that?

Or are you saying something about it being marketed as handwired?

[Flux]

Originally Posted by hamfist

All jacks, pots and tube-bases are chassis-mounted and off the turret board. here's a couple of pics of the guts.

...except maybe if you take a close look at those input jacks... I'm all good with that, the main point being that it's a helluva lot easier to work on than a regular PCB amp. One criticism I would like to make is the cabinet construction. I had a chance to see one of the limited edition mahogany cabs and I must say the joinery was shoddy. Too bad, otherwise it looked really sweet.

[hamfist]

Originally Posted by Flux

...except maybe if you take a close look at those input jacks... I'm all good with that, the main point being that it's a helluva lot easier to work on than a regular PCB amp. One criticism I would like to make is the cabinet construction. I had a chance to see one of the limited edition mahogany cabs and I must say the joinery was shoddy. Too bad, otherwise it looked really sweet.

Yes the unput jacks have their own little "mini-PCB" off the main turret board. That's not ideal construction but I can definately live with it.
And your main point is utterly correct in that it will be Soooooo much easier to work on than a PCB amp.
The joinery on my AC30HH cab seems pretty good (for the pricepoint).
My main criticism, and it is rather petty, is about the utterly cheap and crappy plastic Vox badge on the front. I guarantee it will break at the first minor impact. It's quality would be appropriate for a cheap Christmas cracker toy.

Strangely, I have heard (but not seen) that Matamp are now using the same construction methods for their hand-wired amps. The only real difference is that Matamp are using brown PCB board instead of the green ones that Vox use. Smart move Matamp !! It's amazing how conditioned we are to relate PCB's to the colour green. Make the boards a different colour and the magic of hand-wiring returns !!

To summarize, I think the cheaper (ie. non mahogany) Heritage series amps are cracking amps for the money (in the UK anyway !).

[sixstringsteve]

I love these little amps, but I play single-coils through them. A gibson doesn't impress me through these, but any fender-ish guitar should sound absolutely heavenly.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by sixstringsteve

I love these little amps, but I play single-coils through them. A gibson doesn't impress me through these, but any fender-ish guitar should sound absolutely heavenly.

You're not the first person who has said this. Can you explain why?

[hamfist]

Originally Posted by sixstringsteve

I love these little amps, but I play single-coils through them. A gibson doesn't impress me through these, but any fender-ish guitar should sound absolutely heavenly.

You must be kidding. My Lester sounds astoundingly good through my AC30HH

[mlj_gear]

Originally Posted by Flux

It's mostly hand-wired but some purists have pointed out that there's a couple of jacks that are surface mount...

I thought that there were quite a few (current-carrying) traces on the board, too, though, no? I think a Vox employee wrote that on a post a while back. I could be mistaken, though. That's not to say it makes it a better or worse amp... Just that its being marketed as "hand-wired" is a bit shady.

[sixstringsteve]

Originally Posted by Dave

You're not the first person who has said this. Can you explain why?

Mine just didn't blow me away. It sounded good, but there wasn't enough headroom for the warm cleans I got out of my tele and strat. With the 30, I'm sure you'll get more headroom. It sounded good cranked with a LP, but plug a single-coil equipped guitar, and you'll really hear the amp come alive. I'm more of a single-coil fan (except for TV Jones pups), so I'm biased in that way too. Here's a vid of my playing my Lester through mine, and it doesn't sound bad at all, but lots of people just plug pauls in, and they don't hear the magic that this amp + single-coils has.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ANfQdi0E--U

This guy, on the other hand, really got his LP to sound amazing. Maybe I'm not experienced enough to know how to make a LP sound so great:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eJugBp_YrF4


So, I won't say that LP's cant sound good through these amps, they can. I, on the other hand, prefer my Teles and Strats through it, and all my friends who have played it agree that single-coils sounded more suited for the AC15h1tv.

[Julia343]

Two things ended it for me... first was the price, second and probably most important was that I couldn't lift it.