AC30 speaker replacement

[ColdLungs]

I've been playing more heavier stuff as of recent, my fuzz helps add some meat to the sound but it's definitely lacking. I'm currently re housing the amp to separate the head and cab. I hate lugging it around.
Going to build 2-2x12 cabs keep stock speakers in one and hoping the second cab can house some speakers that will make it more suitable for metal.
Maybe add a 15? Saw a guy play with a 2x10 and 1-15 closed back cab and sounded great.

 

[kingofrats]

If you want to shed some weight while still having some great speakers, you should look into some Neo speakers. I have some Jensen Neo 12s that sound great, and only weigh 4.5lbs each.

 

[WhoJamFan]

WGS Retro 30 can beef up the AC30 for heavier, overdriven tones.

 

[fiveightandten]

You're just never really going to get a lot of "meat" out of an EL84 based amp with high value coupling caps. The amp does midrange, and it does top end chime with different EQ settings. But there really isn't huge low end to amplify, so putting different speakers into the mix probably won't get you where you want to be, IMO.

The AC-30 is my favorite amp and I love my AC-30TBX. I play metal (somewhat) on the amp in a cover band I play with, but it's just not built for that sort of thing. It's also tube rectified and cathode biased, so it's loose and springy.

 

[Humble Texan Fan]

I'm looking into finding a set of speakers that balance out the Vox circuit rather than going all out chimy. Speakers like the Celestion Classic Lead and WGS British Lead springs to mind, as these seem to have the body the Vox doesn't have, and shave off some bite that's very present with the Vox.

 

[WillLane]

If by "heavier stuff" you mean levels of gain of metal and up, replacing the speaker in a VOX AC is not your solution. VOX AC's are not metal-oriented amps, use a different amp altogether. Swapping the speaker would be a misuse of funds imo.

 

[fiveightandten]

I'm looking into finding a set of speakers that balance out the Vox circuit rather than going all out chimy. Speakers like the Celestion Classic Lead and WGS British Lead springs to mind, as these seem to have the body the Vox doesn't have, and shave off some bite that's very present with the Vox.

I'm not sure which Vox iteration you're using, but try turning the treble knob down. At high treble knob settings, the amp is scooped and sounds like the Beatles. At low treble knob settings, it's all midrange and turns into a rock machine with an almost Marshally tone. I play mine with the treble around 12:00 for humbuckers, and near 0 for single coils.

IMO, those "lead" speakers are a bit contoured from my experience and won't help "balance" the Vox tone, if by balance you mean you're trying to get away from the scooped chimey sound. I'd go with something that has a prominent midrange.

 

[eigentone]

If by "heavier stuff" you mean levels of gain of metal and up, replacing the speaker in a VOX AC is not your solution. VOX AC's are not metal-oriented amps, use a different amp altogether. Swapping the speaker would be a misuse of funds imo.

My AC30 is capable of some really convincing 70s and 80s metal tones.

Recto-ly stuff, not so much. Maybe with a pedal.

 

[Humble Texan Fan]

I'm not sure which Vox iteration you're using, but try turning the treble knob down. At high treble knob settings, the amp is scooped and sounds like the Beatles. At low treble knob settings, it's all midrange and turns into a rock machine with an almost Marshally tone. I play mine with the treble around 12:00 for humbuckers, and near 0 for single coils.

IMO, those "lead" speakers are a bit contoured from my experience and won't help "balance" the Vox tone, if by balance you mean you're trying to get away from the scooped chimey sound. I'd go with something that has a prominent midrange.

Those lead speakers does have a bit of midrange, though, and are far from as hollow as e.g. the G12H30 or G12-65. What we want is lower midrange - meat - to fill the gap that the Vox couldn't.

The amp I use is basically a beefed up AC50 and regardless of how I tweak the thing there's still a peak in the mids that detracts from my concept of tonal heaven. Actually I found it sounded sweeter with the top boosted, wouldn't you know. The thing did accept KT88s and with those installed it achieves some kind of balance, however not perfect.

I did get a WGS Reaper HP for evaluation purposes in this SS emulator I have and it running the Vox model it doesn't sit well at all - granted the amp is 1x12, open-back, and fibre board so anything is bound to sound rather flat and stale. But nonetheless the scoop tends to highlight the highs (around where the Vox peaks) and the very lows. Just couldn't tweak that out as lowering these frequencies would be all mids, really.

 

[KeLynne]

If you want heavier tones out of an ac30, invest in a decent high gain preamp pedal and run it in the fx loop. I don't believe new speakers are going to give you some extra low end oomph like an orange cab.

 

[108]

The AC30 can't get heavy.