Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I finally got that amp I've been lusting after for soooooooooo long; a Vox AC15C1. Love it! Paired up with my Music Man RD-Fifty-110 it's just Rick-O-Sound heaven. Pix tomorrow.
JimK

Pix as promised.
JimK

Some folkie you are.

That's folk-rock. Jangle on!
JimK

Right on! That looks great.

Nice combo there Jim, ROS heaven indeed!

Those old Dod compressors were one of the best too!

Eden.

Speaking of DOD compressors; at first I didn't think I'd like it. It wasn't really very impressive hooked up to my Kustom. But hooked up to the Vox and the bridge pickup, there's plenty of chime and jangle comes out of that 12" speaker. I thought I might want to get one more Jangle Box. But that amp really doesn't need much help to get a sound that's close enough. It's all good.
JimK

Bob Dylan Revisited!

Can you give us a detailed compare & contrast between the VOX and MusicMan amps?

I'll try. It's difficult to put into words those subtle aural sensations.

General impressions: Vox AC15C1, bright, crystalline, bell-like, especially when the DOD compressor is turned on. The word chime is used a lot to describe the Vox sound, and that's pretty accurate. At first, I debated whether or not I wanted a compressor between the Rick's bridge pickup and the amp at all. The Jangle Box I thought was too much of a good thing. So I replaced it with the DOD. Much better sound. There must be some natural compression occurring from the Vox, because it doesn't need a lot of help. And this particular amp is one of the new models with the Celestion green back 12" speakers.

Music Man: There's a brightness switch on the amp that I never engage, because the Rick just sounds too brittle, particularly when the Jangle Box in engaged. I suppose this could be mitigated by switching the Jangle Box to the normal, or dark position, and the EQ adjusted (bass, mid, and treble) on the amp. But why bother? Just turn the bright switch off, and I don't have to fiddle with all that. Without the Jangle Box, the sound from the neck pickup just seems uninteresting to say the least. No sustain, no chime, nothing bell-like there at all. That amp really needs the Jangle Box. The bridge pickup-->Jangle Box--> Music Man wasn't satisfactory either. It seemed like I couldn't quite dial in enough midrange to suit me no matter what I did. Therefore the signal path is Rick neck pickup-->Jangle Box-->Music Man. It has a single 10" ceramic speaker, manufacturer unknown to me. It just has the Music Man logo on it.

For those who aren't familiar with Music Man amps, they were the brainchild of Leo Fender. My particular amp reminds me of a poor man's Fender Princeton Reverb, without the tremolo control. It's a hybrid amp, meaning that its electronics are a mixture between solid state, and tube. (Beyond this the electronics of an amplifier are a little beyond me. Sorry.) The Vox is all tube driven.

In sum: Vox=bright, chimey, bell-like, crystalline.
MusicMan=dark, organic, earthy, musically woody (imagine a hollow rosewood block of wood), balances and contrasts nicely the Vox. A really great study in contrasts for ROS applications.

It's getting late, and I've about run out of gas on this subject for the evening (morning?) I hope this small attempt at least partially answered your questions, Jeff.
JimK

Perfectly!

A friend of mine had a MM 112 combo amp back in the '80s, I don't remember much about it except that it's hybridness was the reverse of the typical hybrid amp, having a solidstate preamp with a tube power amp section. We did some recording back then, even running a vocal mic through it for effects!

The combination of the MM and the VOX does seem like a nice ROS setup.

Thanks for clarifying the hybrid (solid state preamp/tube power amp) detail for me. Part of my initial strategy was to get two amps each a sonic contrast to the other. I think I've succeeded better than I thought I might.
JimK