AC30 vr

smudge_lad

One of my mate’s offering me his Vox AC30 vr for £120 as he needs a quick sale.

Are these amps any good? £120 seems like a steal, even if I was to try and sell it on.

Any thoughts/recommendations?

Cheers guys

ICBM

They’re good amps let down by poor speakers. If you plan to keep it and use it, budget for some good replacements - at £120 you’ll be able to without spending more than it will be worth.

theflyisback

The other guitarist in my band had one of these.  Great sounding and perfectly giggable amp but prone to a few failures (but easy if annoying fixes) if your playing it loud and throwing it in and out of your car boot regularly seemingly.  £120 is a steal.    

JamieWakeham

I'm considering selling mine, and it's fair to say I'll be asking more than £120!  Looking at eBay, that's about half the going rate (assuming good condition). 

It's a good amp - a reasonable facsimile of proper Vox-y cleans and crunch, and *much* more drive than you expect to come out of a Vox.  ICBM is unsurprisingly right about the speakers; mine sounds quite a bit better through even a 10" Jensen than it does through its own 2x12".

rico

They have them in our rehearsal rooms and they are pretty 'spiky'. I wouldn't buy one.

ICBM

rico said:

They have them in our rehearsal rooms and they are pretty 'spiky'. I wouldn't buy one.

Try one through good speakers. I did, more or less by accident while tracking down a nasty distortion (which turned out to be a microphonic valve) and I was astonished how much better it sounded. Hence comment above... the *amp* is fine.

Voxman

ICBM said:

rico said:

They have them in our rehearsal rooms and they are pretty 'spiky'. I wouldn't buy one.

Try one through good speakers. I did, more or less by accident while tracking down a nasty distortion (which turned out to be a microphonic valve) and I was astonished how much better it sounded. Hence comment above... the *amp* is fine.

I concur completely - good speakers in these amps totally transforms them. A friend of mine had one of these years ago and I thought it wasn't nice sounding at all - quite harsh & raspy as you cranked it, and lacking the warmth you associate with an AC30.  But he upgraded the speaker and the difference was chalk & cheese - you really wouldn't think it was the same amp. I'm not 100% sure but I think he put in a couple of 12" Celestion Greenbacks but I can't recall the version. The tone was way richer, warmer, with a much nicer breakup, and more responsive to the guitar volume roll off.