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70ies Vox AC-30 any good?

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5/10/2005 4:55 AM

70ies Vox AC-30 any good?

Hello, I am looking at a late 70ies Vox AC-30 and was wondering what the word on the streets is on those models. I am looking to get a really nice, reliable amp and I am not sure whether it has to be an original JMI model for killer tone. Any opinions? The one I am looking at is on evilBay, the seller is located not far from where I live, so maybe I will get a chance to stop by and play it:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7320824252

there is another one from the nineties, not far from my place either:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7320292716

thanx!

5/16/2005 6:08 PM

i've never personally worked on a 70's vintage, from what I have seen in pics and read (in VOX book) they look sketchy at best. The AC30 runs very hot and has very poor ventilation. It's an oven.. Combine that with poorly made (by modern standards at least) PC boards and you have a recipe for nagging intermittent problems and failures. Many (most?) of them did not use the GZ34 rectifier which not only slowed the warm up of the whole circuit but also lowered B+ levels so I would guess that the 70's models would have a tendency to be less reliable.
Given the choice, I'd go with the 90's model as a few quick mods and they can be very good sounding amps, and they have fewer miles on them. Swap the tubes for something better and swap out the output tranny and the reissue amp will sound great.
jm2c

5/16/2005 6:39 PM
Greg Simon	The reissue AC30's sound great in stock form also! I haven't heard the new AC30 CC's yet since they just came out, but the AC30TBX from around '93 to '04 is an excellent amp! I suppose with a 70's one you could do some mods to get rid of the solid state rectifier and put in a WZ34 Copper Cap and it may sound ok, but a new one would be more reliable. Greg

5/16/2005 10:21 PM

Bruce /Mission Amps

I've worked on a few "vintage" 70s AC30s.
They can't hold a candle to decent one from the 60's and don't even sound as good as the 90's reissue ones!!
The 70's AC30s are gritty and sizzle/smokey sounding when played at 1/2 to full volume. NOT VOX like at all.
I don't know any serious VOX owners would own one but many do own the 90's reissue ones in conjunction with the 60s models.
FWIW and IMHO, the best reissue amp to come down the road in a long time is the reissue AC30 HW.
Just a darn good sounding amp.

Bruce

5/17/2005 8:36 PM
Greg Simon	I'd buy one of those if I had the dough....but I could probably build one myself for that kind of money! greg

5/18/2005 8:50 AM
Frank	Well, I restored some 70's Aceys and found the Made in UK ones soundwise quite similar to the 60s ones due to similar OTs, while the Italian made Voxes sounded rather dull/harsh/cheesy.Changing their OTs brought a much better tone. Frank

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