Splattle101
V.I.P. Member
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- May 30, 2008
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I found an extraordinary deal on this Vox AC15HW1. It's one of the two hand wired AC15, the one with the Celestion Greenback (the other has the Celestion AlNiCo Blue).
Anyway, onto the naughty bits.
This thing is built in Vietnam, and I have to say they did an excellent job of it. The board itself is very thick and it's fastened at about 8 points.
The heater harness is reasonably tidy, and certainly tidier than some of the stuff I've seen coming out of the big shops. Note also the ventilation slots in the chassis. These are repeated on the top edge of the circuit board, too. I think it's an excellent idea, particularly for a line of amps that used to have a rep for bursting into flames.
Errrrmaaaghherrrd, a PCB!! This is the circuit for the footswitch. The switch is for a feature on the Top Boost channel. They've added a dip switch for the TB channel, giving 'cool' and 'hot' settings. The cool setting is the traditional TB channel and tone stack. The hot setting is a modified tone circuit and an extra gain stage (presumably the preamp for the normal channel). When the footswitch is plugged in and the dip switch is set to hot, the feature is foot-switchable. It's handy as a boost for solos, or just for a different voicing.
This is also a nice touch. It's a bloody great thermistor, set up on the power transformer primary. Presumably this is to slow the inrush on startup. I don't think this amp needs it (it has no standby), but it certainly doesn't hurt. As I said, it's a nice touch.
It's a very well made amp, all things considered. The only thing I'd change if I were building it myself is that I'd make the cabinet from pine rather than birch plywood. As it is, it's a heavy little mutha.
The sound of the thing is very Vox, very bright, very aggressive. I like it because it because it reminds me of my old Marshalls (believe it or not). I'm not a fan of the Greenbacks in general, but it seems to suit this amp. It's got enough top end to handle the Vox and it takes the dirtier sounds very well. I quite like this amp as a nasty distortion beast. Both channels take pedals very well (though I read interwebz wisdom that the Top Boost channel is no good for pedals. I must be doing it wrong, huh?).
Anyway, onto the naughty bits.
This thing is built in Vietnam, and I have to say they did an excellent job of it. The board itself is very thick and it's fastened at about 8 points.
The heater harness is reasonably tidy, and certainly tidier than some of the stuff I've seen coming out of the big shops. Note also the ventilation slots in the chassis. These are repeated on the top edge of the circuit board, too. I think it's an excellent idea, particularly for a line of amps that used to have a rep for bursting into flames.
Errrrmaaaghherrrd, a PCB!! This is the circuit for the footswitch. The switch is for a feature on the Top Boost channel. They've added a dip switch for the TB channel, giving 'cool' and 'hot' settings. The cool setting is the traditional TB channel and tone stack. The hot setting is a modified tone circuit and an extra gain stage (presumably the preamp for the normal channel). When the footswitch is plugged in and the dip switch is set to hot, the feature is foot-switchable. It's handy as a boost for solos, or just for a different voicing.
This is also a nice touch. It's a bloody great thermistor, set up on the power transformer primary. Presumably this is to slow the inrush on startup. I don't think this amp needs it (it has no standby), but it certainly doesn't hurt. As I said, it's a nice touch.
It's a very well made amp, all things considered. The only thing I'd change if I were building it myself is that I'd make the cabinet from pine rather than birch plywood. As it is, it's a heavy little mutha.
The sound of the thing is very Vox, very bright, very aggressive. I like it because it because it reminds me of my old Marshalls (believe it or not). I'm not a fan of the Greenbacks in general, but it seems to suit this amp. It's got enough top end to handle the Vox and it takes the dirtier sounds very well. I quite like this amp as a nasty distortion beast. Both channels take pedals very well (though I read interwebz wisdom that the Top Boost channel is no good for pedals. I must be doing it wrong, huh?).
