For Sale: VOX AC15C1-BL (London)
Hello people,
I am selling my VOX AC15C-BL (Blue Version) for £350.
This was my second amp and it was a welcome change from BS HT-1 being brighter and more open sounding. I used to love it very much until one day I was restoring old Peavey C30 for my friend and really fell in love with the bottom end it had. Fast forward couple of months and I already have an Egnater T88, two humbuckers installed in my Strat and no use for the AC15 really.
Onto some stats:
Made in China AC15C1-BL with a blue tolex (kinda blue mixed with olympic white), gray felt grill cloth and creme plastic corners, legs and handle (this is the cutest amp I've seen, not counting the Mesa Lone Star Special combo): 15 watt amp with a Chinese made 12 inch 16ohm G12M Greenback, Korean made Accutronics-Belton Reverb (the stock one that gets bad rep for hawing too much of dwell, but I have never had any problems with it just kept it always at 9 o'clock), proprietary tremolo (have no idea if it is the classic bias one or opto or whatever, I've used it only once when goofing around with the Passions' I'm in love with a German film star), has an extension speaker port (so you can run one more 16ohm cab together with the original speaker), 1.5 cm thick MDF box and a 1mm thick amp chassis (this thing is the sturdiest amp I've seen, and I haven't seen much =) and no mods whatsoever if not counting the new set of tubes. Its dimensions are: 602 x 265 x 456 mm / 23.70 x 10.43 x 17.95 inches (according to the official website), and it weights about 23 kilos (a ton in my book). It is little more than half-a-year old.
So what are its strong points?
Well, it is very loud! I've never noticed how loud it was before I actually compared it with T88 (that is if T88 really has those 88 watts coming from those KT88s as it claims). But then again I've never went much past 9 on the master on both - I live in an apartment for the time being.
It has a really nice cleans/crunch and with the replacement of tubes (there was weird problem with the original Chinese Shuguang ones) and a HBs I was able to achieve a pretty nice distortion (although you definitely can't say that it got tons of gain). It has its problems, but overall very nice sounding amp, which is the most important thing.
So, what are its low points?
Bass. It went out to buy some cigarettes and since then nobody heard from it again. So apparently this amp is a paraplegic as it got no bottom end when running on clean. Like, don't even try it with singlecoils or you will cut your ears off with this amp. I've tried lots of things - running my Strat through MXR EQ with both channels going at the same with tone controls borderline muddy and only got it down to bearable amount of treble and little bass (I just wonder who in their right mind would use this amp on the brightest setting). Humbuckers work well, but as soon as I coil split them - I shed a tear. The only thing that really worked to get the bass into this thing - the first 3 band EQ that you run into on the Line 6 M5. Sadly, I had to give it away as it was part of the C30 gift. Anyway, on higher gain settings and when playing at higher volumes this problem is not that noticeable.
Boxiness. VOX decided to go smaller MDF cab (which also adds to the thin sound) with closed back on their C1 model, so it does sound kind of boxy. But, again, on higher volumes it is not as noticeable.
Those screws on the back panels... Thousands of them...
This particular amp used to have a problem with its tubes, which I replaced with EHX 12AX7 and JJ EL84 set (I sell it with a set of spare JJ EL84s as I have no use for them). In the end the problem turned out to be with the Shuguang EL84 - at any master volume when preamp gain reaches certain point (about half) the amp would stop distorting more and responding to tone controls. I found this out when building a standard 18w Marshall-based amp for another friend of mine. Weirdest thing ever.
Also, the master volume knob gained scratchiness when turned at one point between the 0 and 9 o'clock - the range that I use the most.
Onto pics:
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/...psc4f4a059.jpg
Front
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/...psb62cf65e.jpg
Back
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/...ps87149a2e.jpg
Top (forgot to wipe the dust of it)
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/...ps19cf72d6.jpg
Inside
http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/...psf4222c0f.jpg
The last picture is of the speaker change process to show off the amount of screw needed to be unscrewed to work inside the enclosure. I've tried out the Celestion Blue in this combo. From my point of view it didn't add anything good to the clean sound of this amp that was worth the additional kilogram of weight. And I never play as loud to hear the speaker breakup. When I swapped the Greenback back in I felt more happy with the sound that I got from it. So, as it turns out, I also have a 12 inch Celestion Blue 15ohm speaker for sale and I would part with it for £150, as it has no box (got destroyed during the delivery) and not broken in at all.
To recap:
I've got a VOX AC15C1-BL for sale for £350. This is a very nice sounding and looking amp that is not very suited for use with singlecoils and/or low volumes. Pickup only (I live pretty close to Notting Hill in London). Comes with all the stock accessories (power lead, manual, "You're special" letter) minus the box (hence the pickup only).
Also I've got a Celestion Blue speaker for sale for £150. No accessories. Can try shipping it (I've got some box and packing material lying around). Or I can install it into the AC15 for you if you want and will kick £50 off it if you won't keep the Greenback.
So, hoping somebody actually wants one and waiting for PMs. And if you don't want to buy it I hope at least you enjoyed the description/review.
