VOX AC30 CC1

Aubrey Brocklebank
April 7, 2009

Rating: 8/10

Within a few moments of plugging my Strat into the Vox AC300 CC1 I felt a stirring in my loins. Fortunately I had a guitar in my lap. In a word the tone of the AC30 is ‘Sensual’.

This new (well it was when I bought it two years ago) AC30 follows in the best traditions of Vox but has a few nice new extra touches.

It is a two channel 30-watt amp. It has tremolo, with adjustable depth and speed, and has the most luscious reverb, with adjustable mix and tone controls as well as a nifty little switch to select between high and low drive.

The Low channel does not have an EQ section, but a switch that gives ‘Brilliance’. This setting is great for your clean tones but switching to ‘brilliant’ will just allow your solos to sweetly sing over the top of your band.

The High channel has a more overdriven sound. There is also a two band eq section which can allow you to scoop out some of the mids in order to let rip a more rock and roll sound.

Both the tremolo and the reverb are footswitchable. The tremolo is great for a subtle shimmer but it will not give you a surf sound not a leslie rotor either. But then if that is what you want go buy the pedal. The reverb is just a joy. It sounds thick and full but can be tailored so that it is just right.

There is also a tone cut knob that which works the ‘wrong way round’. Turning this knob up cuts out the highs. This is really useful when using single coils as it really enables the player to trim out any harsh harmonics.

There are then two really handy switches on the back. One to switch from a vintage sound to a modern sound, which will cut the power from 30 to 22 watts, thus allowing the amp to get that overdriven valve breakup sound a little earlier. The other switch determine whether or not you run the tube hot or warm. Whilst running them hot will give you more overdriven sounds it will also cost your tubes some of their life expectancy.

This is not an amp for metal. This will not give you heavy, chunky distorted sounds. It will, however, give you a great overdriven sound and an even better crunch. This is achieved by using the link switch which allows both channels to operate simultaneously.

Whilst this is not an amp for every man it is versatile enough to be enjoyed by most. It will handle everything from Jazz, through all types of blues to good old fashioned rock and if you can not find an indie sound out of it then it is time to give up playing guitar and switch to the tambourine.

I would love to give this amp 10/10 but the fact that channel switching has to be done by plugging/unplugging a cable does let it down. Though I just use an ABY box. It also loses another star as the price has just gone up to something that is reasonable and not the absolute bargain that I bought it for two years ago.


Pros
A tone that will mean your guitar is no longer your hardest piece of wood
Some useful, original, new features
Roadworthy
It looks great on stage

Cons
It is really heavy
Channels are not footswitchable
Needs a distortion pedal if that’s your thing
On stage ejaculation is embarrassing unless you are Hendrix