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Voc AC15 C1 - yay or nay?


ChrisFFTA

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Compared to a Princeton Reverb RI?

The Princeton has a 10" Jensen C-10R reissue speaker, which Fender claims is a "40W" speaker - yeah, right - maybe PEAK. It's rated as a 25W by the manufacturer.

http://www.jensentone.com/speaker/c10r

Still, I have on e in my vintage Princeton, and it's not half bad sounding at all. 94.7dB @ 1W, 1m, so it's reasonably efficient.

The Vox comes with a 12" Celestion G12M Greenback. At 98dB @ 1W,1m, it's a touch more efficient than the Jensen, and will probably be slightly louder overall in actual use.

http://celestion.com/product/16/g12m_greenback/

There's also the question of wattage. Fender now claims the new amps are putting out 15W, and maybe they are... but original BF and SF Princetons were always rated as 12W amps, not 15. Not that 3W extra makes a gigantic difference, but still...

I don't have a c1, but I do have a slightly modded (Weber Blue Dog AlNiCo), cc1, as well as a 71 Princeton Amp (non-reverb). My Princeton isn't quite as loud as the Vox, but it's really close. It stays clean, the Vox growls back at you when provoked. A Princeton Reverb will too, but the fangs are a bit different. The Vox snarls a bit more, and her teeth are sharper. The Fender has a throaty bark and she's more muscular. It really comes down to that more than anything - which are you after - the Vox sound, or the Fender sound?

FWIW, I love running those two amps in stereo... idea.gifsmile.gif

FWIW #2: The construction and overall ruggedness of my Princeton are light years beyond the Vox. Even though it has been well maintained and respectfully taken care of, gigged very infrequently, and lived nearly exclusively in the studio, the grille has sagged slightly, the gold piping keeps wanting to bulge out a bit in one spot, and it's picked up a couple of dings in the (surprisingly thin) "tolex." The Fender was a disaster before I restored it, but it was a 35 year old amp that had been practically tortured, and the thing still worked. Gotta love old Fender amps. Phil-Thumbs-Up-Small.gif I don't know if the new ones are built as well, but the originals are solid as a rock. The new ones do use PCB construction and are not hand-wired like the originals. Neither is the AC15c1... it's all PCB too. IIRC, the Princeton is either USA or MIM, and I think the Vox is built in China.

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Youtube demos are terrible guages obviously but the ac15 does sounds nicer than the PRRI in the pgs reviews.

Other than a greenback what would be a nice replacement? Trouble with that is the price mounts and you are close to SF Princeton Reverb prices

Thanks folks...

Phil... I love the Fender sound and have played a Bandmaster for years and loved it, but the Vox pgs demo is very good salesmanship... But that Vox is also just as loved.

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I love my ac15c1. Light years better than the cc series that vox was putting out.

As far as sound wise? I'd prefer a princeton reverb with an extension speaker, but right out of the box, the ac15c1 for $500 is hard to beat. The trem is decent, the reverb is pretty good (nothing to go crazy over but it does the job), and the drive you get is pretty nice when cranked. I wouldn't know how it would hold up as a gigging amp, but I can say its better build quality than the last generation of ac15s vox was putting out.

I'd recommend getting one used in the low 400's high 300s if you can.

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Have had mine for 2 years now and am still super happy with it. As you said, the youtube demos aren't great and I liked it a lot more when I actually went and played it.

As far as pedals go, I found that it was a bit finicky with dirt pedals when stock - the highs got really sharp and harsh. This changed when I did the bright cap mod to the Top Boost channel - made it a lot smoother when using dirt pedals.

I've been through a bunch of the 'best' boutique dirts (ss/bs {censored}, pharoah, black forest etc) but to my ears there absolutely nothing better than RAT -> Vox AC

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I've been a big fan of the AC15c1 for a couple of years now. No complaints, given the price for sure. The reverb is only ok, I use a Hardwire Supernatural for my reverb, as I just prefer plate settings for the most part. The tremolo is pretty good on it.

I like the cleans on the Vox too, just turn down the preamp gain, and turn up the master, and you can have some nice chimey-like tones. I find it takes pedals well, maybe not pedals, but most. In my experiences, I have not been fond of tubescreamer like pedals with it, I like more neutral overdrives, like the Walrus Mayflower. Great match. Timmy would be good too. I've found most muffs, ffaces also sound good with it.

I like Fender amps too, and am hoping to add a DRRI variety of some sort to my arsenal soon, and will run the two in stereo, like Phil mentioned. Never owned the Princeton, and personally the PRRI seems a bit overpriced new, when a DRRI or even a Supersonic 22 only costs like $50 more. But the cleans on the PRRI seem reallay nice. Both really good amps, I say you can't lose when choosing.

One other option is the VOx AC15c2, which has the same amp, but a better (AC30) reverb in it, and 2 greenbacks for a fuller, maybe slightly louder tone for like $799 or less. It will be a heavy amp though.

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Quote Originally Posted by Phil O'Keefe View Post
Compared to a Princeton Reverb RI?

The Princeton has a 10" Jensen C-10R reissue speaker, which Fender claims is a "40W" speaker - yeah, right - maybe PEAK. It's rated as a 25W by the manufacturer.

http://www.jensentone.com/speaker/c10r

Still, I have on e in my vintage Princeton, and it's not half bad sounding at all. 94.7dB @ 1W, 1m, so it's reasonably efficient.

The Vox comes with a 12" Celestion G12M Greenback. At 98dB @ 1W,1m, it's a touch more efficient than the Jensen, and will probably be slightly louder overall in actual use.

http://celestion.com/product/16/g12m_greenback/

There's also the question of wattage. Fender now claims the new amps are putting out 15W, and maybe they are... but original BF and SF Princetons were always rated as 12W amps, not 15. Not that 3W extra makes a gigantic difference, but still...

I don't have a c1, but I do have a slightly modded (Weber Blue Dog AlNiCo), cc1, as well as a 71 Princeton Amp (non-reverb). My Princeton isn't quite as loud as the Vox, but it's really close. It stays clean, the Vox growls back at you when provoked. A Princeton Reverb will too, but the fangs are a bit different. The Vox snarls a bit more, and her teeth are sharper. The Fender has a throaty bark and she's more muscular. It really comes down to that more than anything - which are you after - the Vox sound, or the Fender sound?

FWIW, I love running those two amps in stereo... idea.gifsmile.gif

FWIW #2: The construction and overall ruggedness of my Princeton are light years beyond the Vox. Even though it has been well maintained and respectfully taken care of, gigged very infrequently, and lived nearly exclusively in the studio, the grille has sagged slightly, the gold piping keeps wanting to bulge out a bit in one spot, and it's picked up a couple of dings in the (surprisingly thin) "tolex." The Fender was a disaster before I restored it, but it was a 35 year old amp that had been practically tortured, and the thing still worked. Gotta love old Fender amps. Phil-Thumbs-Up-Small.gif I don't know if the new ones are built as well, but the originals are solid as a rock. The new ones do use PCB construction and are not hand-wired like the originals. Neither is the AC15c1... it's all PCB too. IIRC, the Princeton is either USA or MIM, and I think the Vox is built in China.
Phil, would you recommend the alnico weber blue dog over the ceramic, which is less expensive? I have a AC15cc1 also, which came with the wharfdale, and I will definitely upgrade to a weber blue dog, and probably new tubes also. Got mine in a trade, and it's been gigged hard.

As to OP, have you considered a blues jr.? It's in between the PRRI and the Vox, though definitely much closer to the PRRI. Much closer in price to the vox, though. The PRRI and blues jr. will have much better reverb than the vox. The reverb on my cc1 is awful.

In the end, it's exactly like Phil said, do you want a fender sound or vox sound as your base sound? I've had a BJ for a few years and it's my main amp. It works incredibly well with the little covers trio I play with. We play a lot of classic rock, some old country, some blues, basically music drunk people in Georgia like to hear. I recently got the vox and used it at my last gig instead of the BJ. The overdrive tones, especially with my tubescreamer, were very cool and worked for the music. But I realized the clean tone wasn't what I envisioned in my head for several of those songs. I didn't mess with the eq as much as I should have, but playing "Under the Bridge" through it, clean and with my strat, just didn't sound like I wanted it to. So, long, super cool story, bro, but that's the best advice I can give.
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Quote Originally Posted by mdrake34

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which came with the wharfdale, and I will definitely upgrade to a weber blue dog,

 

Weber's sound great, but the Wharfedales are underrated. Once they are broken-in they sound really good. I was planning on replacing the Wharfedale's in my Vox 2x12 extension cab, but after a few loud shows they settled in and I kept them.
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Quote Originally Posted by DigiTechRep

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Weber's sound great, but the Wharfedales are underrated. Once they are broken-in they sound really good. I was planning on replacing the Wharfedale's in my Vox 2x12 extension cab, but after a few loud shows they settled in and I kept them.

 

There's no way mine isn't broken in. Like I said, I got it in a trade and it's been gigged hard by a previous owner. It sounds great, but the wharfdale is just a little brittle for my tastes.
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I really like my C1. It eliminated quite a few drives off my board and I utilize the amp drive quite a bit. I replaced the reverb tank with an accutronics one, the same one that is in the blues junior I believe (I can

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Ampeg GVT 15?

Tone wise i love fender vox and ampeg through the years. Have owned and played vontage hiwatt, organge, fender, vox and gibson. Not chasing a specific tone per se as i can make most things work live, just looking for reliable workhouse type sounds on the cheap

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