In the process of deciding about whether I "need" a Trainwreck style amp, I was playing thru a bunch of the stable and discovered that the AC30 Vox, above any other vintage amp, has that "fast", notes jump off the fretboard feel that Ken built into his amps. So, if I'm going to get another fast amp, I probably should think about thinning the herd, so I ended up playing all my Voxes back to back:
65 AC30: this one has had a hard life. It came to me with the Rola built, gold speakers from the American "Vox" amps of the late 60s and some weird OT. After a MM upgrade and a pair of Weber Blue Dogs, retuned with Tungsol Reissues and NOS Russian EL84s, it sounds great. No question it's darker than an EF86 or Top Boost version, and a little less gainy. But it takes pedals like a champ so I can make up for that. Today I'm using a PRS 513 and a Blackstone Mosfet overdrive (the PRS because most of my hum bucker guitars are un-potted pickups and at this volume level they squeal). The clean is stellar. It cleans up with the volume knob like a champ. I could live with this one amp and be happy.
65 AC30 Top Boost: Not sure how I feel about this one. Obviously in much better shape than above. More treble and gain from the Top Boost channel than the regular Brilliant channel. Sustains notes and takes pedals about as well as the regular amp. Crunches nicely, cleans up well, loud as hell. Still, maybe I feel sorry for the 3 legged dog, because I just like it a little better. Weird since this has the original speakers and proper OT and all Maybe need to roll a little glass and see if I can find something that gives me a little more crunch and a bit less bite.
96 DC30: I know this isn't an AC30, but dimed*they sound pretty similar, at least the normal channel. A big more gain, a bit more bass, perhaps a teeny bit more volume but definitely amps from the same mother. This one comes with the glass that Sampson put in it at the factory. The EF86 channel can be brighter, a bit gainer, but definitely noisier. And I'm getting about the same amount of ghost notes when it's fully cranked. Sustain-perhaps a bit more. Cleans up with volume. Takes pedals well. Heavy as sin and just about as big.
Anniversary AC30HH: this is stock, except for some tube rolling. With no tube changes the crunch gets very "splatty" at full volume, especially on the EF86 channel. Surprisingly a Siemens EF86 didn't change things much. What did was subbing a GE into V2, Mullard in V3 and Telefunken in V4 (the PI, I assume). Sound settled down although I didn't find all the switches and clicks to change the basic tone of the amp, they did allow me to get the sweet spot for different guitars and pedals. Sure it's a little darker and less gain with the EF86 in Triode mode, but you can do the same thing by leaving it in Pentode and rolling back the guitar volume a notch or two. Anyway, good sustain, very bright with some settings, cleans up nicely with guitar volume, happy with the overdrive pedal. Oh yeah, some folks have said this is a PCB amp with flying leads? Mine's not, it definitely has a turret board, very cool!
Brian May AC30: This was a surprise. I've never really cranked it before. It noticeably louder and higher gain than ANY of the others. To the point that the un-potted pickups were simply useless. With the 513, though, I could get infinite sustain, some strings shifting to the octave harmonic and some staying on the root note. Clean up was still great. Did well with the OD. And the built in boost is really well voiced to get more crunch and sustain. It's a REALLY good sounding amp and I have no idea why they don't get more love. We don't need no stinking EQ (heck, there really isn't any EQ on the non-top boost AC30s anyway) and if we did a pedal would do the job.
So, which am I gonna keep? Well, the AC30HH is a cool amp and does some interesting stuff, but the DC30 covers all that ground and I'm more emotionally attached to it (I traded a tweed bassman*for it, I know, I know ) so it's likely to go. The AC30TB is unquestionably the best collector amp, but maybe, at my age I should be starting to get beyond that? I mean, how many AC30 style amps do I need? So, perhaps it's gonna be the AC30BM, the beat up 65 and the DC30 What would you do?
65 AC30: this one has had a hard life. It came to me with the Rola built, gold speakers from the American "Vox" amps of the late 60s and some weird OT. After a MM upgrade and a pair of Weber Blue Dogs, retuned with Tungsol Reissues and NOS Russian EL84s, it sounds great. No question it's darker than an EF86 or Top Boost version, and a little less gainy. But it takes pedals like a champ so I can make up for that. Today I'm using a PRS 513 and a Blackstone Mosfet overdrive (the PRS because most of my hum bucker guitars are un-potted pickups and at this volume level they squeal). The clean is stellar. It cleans up with the volume knob like a champ. I could live with this one amp and be happy.
65 AC30 Top Boost: Not sure how I feel about this one. Obviously in much better shape than above. More treble and gain from the Top Boost channel than the regular Brilliant channel. Sustains notes and takes pedals about as well as the regular amp. Crunches nicely, cleans up well, loud as hell. Still, maybe I feel sorry for the 3 legged dog, because I just like it a little better. Weird since this has the original speakers and proper OT and all Maybe need to roll a little glass and see if I can find something that gives me a little more crunch and a bit less bite.
96 DC30: I know this isn't an AC30, but dimed*they sound pretty similar, at least the normal channel. A big more gain, a bit more bass, perhaps a teeny bit more volume but definitely amps from the same mother. This one comes with the glass that Sampson put in it at the factory. The EF86 channel can be brighter, a bit gainer, but definitely noisier. And I'm getting about the same amount of ghost notes when it's fully cranked. Sustain-perhaps a bit more. Cleans up with volume. Takes pedals well. Heavy as sin and just about as big.
Anniversary AC30HH: this is stock, except for some tube rolling. With no tube changes the crunch gets very "splatty" at full volume, especially on the EF86 channel. Surprisingly a Siemens EF86 didn't change things much. What did was subbing a GE into V2, Mullard in V3 and Telefunken in V4 (the PI, I assume). Sound settled down although I didn't find all the switches and clicks to change the basic tone of the amp, they did allow me to get the sweet spot for different guitars and pedals. Sure it's a little darker and less gain with the EF86 in Triode mode, but you can do the same thing by leaving it in Pentode and rolling back the guitar volume a notch or two. Anyway, good sustain, very bright with some settings, cleans up nicely with guitar volume, happy with the overdrive pedal. Oh yeah, some folks have said this is a PCB amp with flying leads? Mine's not, it definitely has a turret board, very cool!
Brian May AC30: This was a surprise. I've never really cranked it before. It noticeably louder and higher gain than ANY of the others. To the point that the un-potted pickups were simply useless. With the 513, though, I could get infinite sustain, some strings shifting to the octave harmonic and some staying on the root note. Clean up was still great. Did well with the OD. And the built in boost is really well voiced to get more crunch and sustain. It's a REALLY good sounding amp and I have no idea why they don't get more love. We don't need no stinking EQ (heck, there really isn't any EQ on the non-top boost AC30s anyway) and if we did a pedal would do the job.
So, which am I gonna keep? Well, the AC30HH is a cool amp and does some interesting stuff, but the DC30 covers all that ground and I'm more emotionally attached to it (I traded a tweed bassman*for it, I know, I know ) so it's likely to go. The AC30TB is unquestionably the best collector amp, but maybe, at my age I should be starting to get beyond that? I mean, how many AC30 style amps do I need? So, perhaps it's gonna be the AC30BM, the beat up 65 and the DC30 What would you do?
