It was introduced in 1958 to meet the growing demand for louder amplifiers. The Vox AC30 is a guitar amplifier manufactured by Vox. ( Learn how and when to remove this message)Ī Vox AC30 behind a replica of Paul McCartney's Höfner 500/1 bass and George Harrison's Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar ( July 2012) ( Learn how and when to remove this message) Please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view. The AC30 is one of rock’s most important sounds and deserves a place in any serious amp collection.This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. If you have never played one you need to and if you have played one, you probably own one. Whether you plug into a vintage model or one of the newer amps, the Vox AC30 will give you the jangly, chimey, sound that has kept it on stages both large and small since its inception. Production, which was always in Great Britain, has been moved to China, which has made some Vox fans unhappy, but at least the amp can still be obtained. AC30 production has never stopped, despite a 1991 “ Limited Edition” run and newer AC30s are reissues of the AC30/6 (AC30TB) originals. A new tube-powered AC30 with reverb was brought back in 1978. The 1970’s saw more changes to the AC30, including a silicon rectifiers and a solid-state model, the AC30SS. The late 1960’s saw Vox in varying amounts of financial distress, which led to ownership changes and the inevitable drop in quality control that these sorts of situations typically bring about. Vox also brought out the Treble and Bass versions of the AC30 without the Top Boost which used changes in the circuit design to emphasize these frequencies. The Top Boost became so popular that it was soon part of the new AC30/6 and its controls were made part of the main control panel and amps from this 1963-ish period had the Top Boost on board and became known as AC30TBs.

In 1961, Vox changed the unreliable EF86 tube to the better ECC83 (12AX7) preamp tube and the circuit to a three channel/six input design with Normal, Brilliant, and Bass voicings called the AC30/6.Īround this period, the Top Boost feature came into being and consisted of a rear-mounted circuit that gave the amp an extra gain stage as well as individual control for Bass and Treble, which was an improvement over the single tone knob found on previous models. The top of the new cabinet also sported three small brass vents to provide airflow to the tubes, as well as three leather straps to assist in transport. The front baffle now came divided by a thin gold strip which separated the Rexine-covered top section from the new brown diamond grill cloth below. These new cabs were covered in fawn Rexine, which was a beige leather-ish cloth that featured a subtle printed grain pattern. In 1960, Vox abandoned the “ TV Front” cabinet and debuted the cabinet design that has remained mostly unchanged from then until today. The 2×12 configuration helped the amp move more air on bigger stages, which was an important consideration at the time. Later models shipped with Celestion G12 alnico drivers.

It was still a 1×12 but Vox shortly introduced the AC30 Twin, which came with two Goodmans Audiom 60 12-inch speakers.

The E元4 tube was not used for very long and soon the amp came with EL84 power tubes. These early AC30s lived in “TV Front” cabinets, reminiscent of some 50’s Fender amps, and were covered in thin, white Rexine with a small diamond pattern and grill cloth with a larger diamond imprint. It used E元4 power tubes, a tube rectifier, and EF86 preamp tubes, which were known to fail from vibration fairly often. Also called the AC30/4, it featured one 12-inch Goodmans 60-watt speaker and two channels with two inputs each, which explains the “4” in the model designation. Originally brought to market in 1958, the AC30 was considered a big brother to the Vox Company’s up-til-then flagship amp, the AC15. Used by artists ranging from The Beatles to Brad Paisley, the AC30 is one of the primordial flavors of guitar amplifiers and is likely to be in use as long as anyone out there has some interest in the electric guitar. Its appeal is wide enough that it could be considered to be the Fender Twin of Europe and it has powered as many legendary recordings as Leo’s finest or anything Jim Marshall ever created. The Vox AC30 is one of the longest-lasting and most popular guitar amplifiers ever produced.

History of vox amps