vox porn

https://imgur.com/a/4or5SjQ

the newly tuned up '62 in front of the AC30HW2... the '62 has a broken foot so I propped a sock under her so she wouldn't rattle.... shut up! you don't even have a 1962 ac30, asshole... I just need some new feet. Actually, a lot of the plastic parts are deteriorating as she breaks the half-a-century mark.

Damn! Impressive. I like the sock, it's a good cosmetic addition. I assume it still sounds like a dream?

this amp has never sounded BAD, but she's out because me and my buddy just gave her a going over and finally improved vox's messy 60s ground issues reducing the self-noise as well as making her safer... the top boost module on the back was acting up and sadly that had to go for now due to deteriorating wire, solder and the termindals it was built on so she's not a top boost right now until I rebuild that module, but the brilliant channel is pretty fat and ballsy without the tone controls and its WAY less noisy! Those rear top booosts were a dealer add on so they were only as good as the store-tech who installed them (and when looking the thing over it really seemed like the guy who did mine hooked it up wrong and the lead dress was ATROCIOUS)

also, alll the original plastic is deteriorating and I need to replace the knobs, feet, etc... needs new brass vents too, those eventually warp and fall out. Obviously its already been recovered and regrilled ages ago. The sock is gone now, I got some feet on her for now while I find vintage correct ones.... Its got marhsall knobs on it right now because as it turns out, none of my spare chicken heads are the right color or the right shaft LOL. I kidna want proper repros in the old plastic anyway.... need the vents anyway so I will probably have to just make a big aprts order from North Coast and eat their inflated pricing because it'll be one stop shoping. I'm thinking about putting her to my prefered blue/H30 combo for ac30s too, the 60s G12S speakers (basically early 20 watt greenbacks like what EVH prefers) that the previous owner replaced the blown alnicos with used to do it for me but now I'm not as into them or perhaps they're just wearing out. My 70s vox is out for MAJOR service I can't do myself with a toddler running around. I'm trying tog et all the amps in fighting shape this year and decide if I want to keep all of them.

Its hard to believe but my amp is still more stock then any AC30 I can find for sale of this approximate vintage... and the asking prices on some of these amps with replace transformers and none of the old signal caps left are exorbitant! 3.5k and up. I can't imagine what my old girl is worth now.

Having her really cleaned up and putting the stock brilliant channel next to the normal on the new HW2 with the bright switch engaged for similar voicing I realize that the new ones aren't markedly inferior to the old ones. In fact, they sound really good in a smilar way and either one might trump the other based on the situation. The difference is not NEARLY as drastic as the tone snobs who go around modding their HW2s to "JMI spec" would have you believe. They're subjectively comparing before and after by memory and with all the work they did changing caps and resistors I guarantee their brains want to hear a huge improvement. I put my amps on a switcher and even ran them through the same speakers on sunday just out of curiosity. Fact is, its not worth voiding the warranty on your expensive new vox, for real. I suspect some of the difference is very much the transformer set. They don't make 'em like they used to... well, maybe mercury does, but that's a huge investment and its the law of diminishing returns because I thought this was more of an apples-to-apples comparison then I even remembered. The new amp is a hair brighter and tigther and the mids are maybe a smidge less swirly and magical. The new amp is a teensy bit louder too... the old amp starts distorting earlier but its really subtle. The new amp distorts later and the distortion is less subtle. The new amp would actually probably be to a lot of people's liking. Its ahrd to say which one sounds better. it would depend on what type of music you were doing and what guitar you were playing. With a tele the old one definitely owns it... it can confure isntant brad paisley actually. With an SG or LP? I think I kinda like the new one. Cork sniffers be damned. both do different shares of brian may with a treble boost... and those 2 shades of queen are equally awesome but equally ear splitting in a small townhouse.

What a review. SOunds liek you did some good work on that old amp, and I love it. I know what you mean about the loss of those magical mids on the newer amps, they definitely have a more tight feel to them. I personally love it, and I like the satisfaction of a tight sound especially in the mids. It's hard to come by.

I've been maintaining her for 15 years already. It seems like less time but I feel certain I bought her in 2002 or 2003.

That's awesome, I hope that one day I can own a piece of gear like that. I love how attached you can get!

is the sock true bypass???

it is now, I put some non-vintage feet on her so the sock is bypassed

still working on her a bit... got the right knobs on her... see my gear porn

thanks, that old ac30 is the only piece of music equipment I think I love more then my kid! I have her 100% tuned up now, found some bogus aprts in there that were either WAY off spec from the previous owner or just failing due to being almost 60 years old... only took my 15 years to spot that the brilliant channe;'s 1st coupling cap that the previous owner replaced was over 10 times larger then the part specified by JMI totally playing havoc with the channel's voicing and probably causing an intermitent noise issue the amp's had all this time. People do some strange things to amps. it was a solid enough sieman's mica cap, but in roder to put ina part that LOOKED right the guy went with a big value that apsses more bass then on the normal channel! The only thing preventing moroboat noises leaking in from the pweor supply was the bright cap! The thing looked like it could be original and I couldn't read the labeling the way it was put in. Couldn't even see the siemen's logo until i really dug around and decided to risk cracking the sodler joints or damaging the legs. When i etmered it I wasn't even getting a reading ebcause I was set to picoferrads expecting 500 to 1000 of them but this thing was like a .68ufd and for those unaware 1000 picos is .001ufd! The value for the normal channel is .01ufd and that's just small enough to block parasitic low frequency oscillations. What's funny is the vox circuit is so sweet that it sounded okay like this as long as I didn't turn that channel all the way up where it would freak out but now its got this great mid focus it never had, cuts like a knife with a Gibson and does a perfect early paisley with a tele...

I'ms till trying to source the right vents for her though :-( the cabs were made at a few different subcontractors and the vent work on mine is sloppy, so a lot of repros are too small to stay put even if they cover the slots alright.

I mettioned that the new ac30s handwireds aren't markedly inferior to the early JMIs like mine but I take that back. now that she's tuned up I think this amp plays a lot easier and just feels better then any of my other ones. its got a sweeter breakup too. Pretty much just a better sounding amp then anything made now in this style. But it took a lot of work to get it here and I admit the thing is a maintenance nightmare that would give someone who doesn't know how to work on tube amps a laod of grief.