Lounge Musicians: Let Us Now Praise Vox Amplifiers

[dbt]

I was raised from the age of 16 on the blackface Fender Band-Master tube amp that my Mama bought me just so's she could hear Mustang Sally loud enough at the local dance hall. And it was a killer amp to the point where I named it after my auburn-haired cousin Harriet.

But from the time I first saw and heard one George Harrison on TV in early 1964, I could tell there were at least TWO different amp tones in this world--one from California, the OTHER from By-God LIVERPOOL!

It took me forty YEARS to get my first VOX AC30 guitar amp. Costly bitches they are, in the neighborhood of $1100.00 and worth EVERY penny! Bad as it hurts to say this, Vox amps just kick Fender's ass back to the house and make it hide under the bed. Damn! Luther Perkins and Don Rich shoulda had them some Voxes. They out-twang Fenders so bad that it ain't even NEAR funny.

I liked my AC30 so much that I bought an AC15. Now I can rock the house without blowing the roof off!

Vox rules, Fender drools. We all need to get over it and move on for the good of the country.

:smoke:

[Gold Metal Flake]

1. Four EL84s in class A. An amp to keep the whole house warm.

Not those Thomas Organ American solid state versions. Although I worked over a solid state vox with the on-board fuzz effect and it was great for some wild surf stuff.

Seen here in it's natural habitat.

[dbt]

4. Yep. Gotta give those tubes 24 hours

to cool down before you can get close enough to change 'em!

RE the picture: is that a Doctor of Astrophysics in front of NINE AC30s? Truly a ringing endorsement...

:beer:

[Gold Metal Flake]

5. That is Brian May of Queen.

Long time Vox user. Another is Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

[dbt]

7. Yuh-HUH!

Tangential to this discussion: Anyone who doesn't like Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers is a Communist and needs to go BACK to Communesia where they came from!

Yep, GMF, I knew that was Brian May--who could have ANY amp he wanted, and probably free to boot. Now WHY would he choose a stack of AC30s?

Stuff dat make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

:hi:

[bluesbassman]

2. Depends on what you play I suppose, but I'll take my Super Reverb...

over an AC30 for blues and hard rock any day. Plus it's gotta be a damn big club before I have to mike it.



Not sayin' I don't like the AC's though, they are a great amp.

[dbt]

3. Not sayin' I don't like Fenders!

Those blackface darlings will always have a special place in my heart, since I came up playing that Band-Master. But the Voxes begin distorting from the high frequencies down, where the Fenders are just the opposite. Given my preferences for single-coil P90 pickups and Cash licks (Beatle chimes, too), the Vox floats my boat.

Also, an AC30 is hands down the best fiddle amp I ever plugged into. Who knew?

Thank you for your insightful comments and for not giving me the slicing I so richly deserve for that rule/drool bidness. (Yeah, I know better, but sometimes I just get all Brit-ified.) EVERY amp builder on the planet owes Leo Fender big-time!

:smoke:

[Gold Metal Flake]

6. Fine one-two Fender set-up for blues is...

A Super or Pro and a Deluxe or Vibroverb with an A/B switch. Seen and heard many combos like that and it covers the bases real well. I still have a BF Deluxe Reverb.

[bluesbassman]

8. One of my guitar players uses a Deluxe and just added the extension cab.

He also uses a Twin, but adding the extension cab really fattened up the sound to match the Twin for pressure, and it's got way better mid. He alternates between a Strat and a Tele, and the Tele just comes alive with this new setup.



spelling edit - bbm