1964 Vox AC30 vs 1993 Korg reissue Vox AC30
Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:52 pm
Well I got together with a friend today who recently sold his 1964 Vox AC30 on ebay for about $3600. He's waiting for the check from the buyer, and we decided to compare amps since I'd never played a vintage one, and he'd never played a modern one. I have to say it was VERY interesting.
My amp is bone stock except for a filter cap that is larger than stock in an attempt to get rid of ghost notes that turned out to be speaker cone cry. This mod was done by a friend who worked on it in about 1998 which is before I knew anything about amps. I haven't changed it because the amp is always in use and it sounds fine. My tubes are unmatched prewar (and getting tired) EI in the power section, and a mix of EI, Tesla (pre JJ) and NOS in the preamp. My speakers are the original Celestion Blue reissues that came in the amp, but they've been lightly doped by Ted Weber to get rid of ghost notes.
His 1964 AC30 had original speakers and had just been gone trhough at a local amp tech's shop. His tubes are a mix of EI, Sovtek, and Chinese stuff in the power section but all bias the same, with all NOS preamp tubes in it.
Guitars used were:
his newer mexican made Tele with stock pickups,
his newer American made Strat with Stephens Design pickups (www.sdpickups.com),
his several year old Gibson LP Special with stock Gibson P90's,
my self-made Strat with a custom set of Wolfetone pickups (www.wolfetone.com),
my new RIC 350V63 BBR with toasters,
and my 330/12 BBR with hi-gains.
I am of course partial to the RICS, but all of the guitars sounded great with some minor tonal adjustments to the amps. The P90 guitar sounded best throught the top boost channel, but the others sounded fine anywhere.
Both amps were about as close to each other tonally as one VW Beetle would be to another of the same era. My amp was a little more aggressive and a little louder, and it broke up more when dimed, but overall it was a bit darker sounding and not as rich sounding. His amp was chimier and richer tonally overall, with more lows, mids and highs, and overall it was just a bit cleaner. But it was VERY subtle, and it could be due to the speakers, the different transformers caps and resistors, or the fact that his was just overhauled and mine has seen constant use for 13 years. For the price, we'd both rather have mine!
My amp is bone stock except for a filter cap that is larger than stock in an attempt to get rid of ghost notes that turned out to be speaker cone cry. This mod was done by a friend who worked on it in about 1998 which is before I knew anything about amps. I haven't changed it because the amp is always in use and it sounds fine. My tubes are unmatched prewar (and getting tired) EI in the power section, and a mix of EI, Tesla (pre JJ) and NOS in the preamp. My speakers are the original Celestion Blue reissues that came in the amp, but they've been lightly doped by Ted Weber to get rid of ghost notes.
His 1964 AC30 had original speakers and had just been gone trhough at a local amp tech's shop. His tubes are a mix of EI, Sovtek, and Chinese stuff in the power section but all bias the same, with all NOS preamp tubes in it.
Guitars used were:
his newer mexican made Tele with stock pickups,
his newer American made Strat with Stephens Design pickups (www.sdpickups.com),
his several year old Gibson LP Special with stock Gibson P90's,
my self-made Strat with a custom set of Wolfetone pickups (www.wolfetone.com),
my new RIC 350V63 BBR with toasters,
and my 330/12 BBR with hi-gains.
I am of course partial to the RICS, but all of the guitars sounded great with some minor tonal adjustments to the amps. The P90 guitar sounded best throught the top boost channel, but the others sounded fine anywhere.
Both amps were about as close to each other tonally as one VW Beetle would be to another of the same era. My amp was a little more aggressive and a little louder, and it broke up more when dimed, but overall it was a bit darker sounding and not as rich sounding. His amp was chimier and richer tonally overall, with more lows, mids and highs, and overall it was just a bit cleaner. But it was VERY subtle, and it could be due to the speakers, the different transformers caps and resistors, or the fact that his was just overhauled and mine has seen constant use for 13 years. For the price, we'd both rather have mine!