Anyone use Vox AC100?

[Heroesforghosts19]

I picked up a used Vox ac100 for 300 bucks, and although it's Chinese,it freaking rips! I have a Marshall JCM2000 DSL 100 and Vintage Modern 100 and is just as good sounding,maybe a bit better at some things. It has a great sag when you pick harder. Anyone have experience with one? I have been looking for the matching cabinet but can't find one anywhere. I have other 4-12 cabs but hope to find the right bottom. I can't find any reviews of the ac100 but was hoping somebody might know some links or have played through one and can share their opinion.

[DeepEnd]

I can't help but Congratulations and Happy New (Used) Amp Day. 👍

[WRGKMC]

Is it an AC100 or Vox AC100CPH? 

I'm guessing its the less expensive CPH model.  That's still a great price for a tube head however.  I'm not surprised its comparable to a Marshall considering they both use the same EL34 Power tubes.  The originals were only 80W and had 3 knobs, Volume, Treble and bass. No drive channels, effects loops or any of that stuff.  The modern version has everything including the kitchen sink thrown in.  I've played through some of the originals, and even repaired many when I used to repair gear for a living.  The repair shop I worked out of had a stack of old Vox gear customers had smoked and didn't want to get repaired so they left the gear instead of paying for the estimate.  even those old units would be worth a mint today.  The originals sell for $2K to 5K. 

The heads used on say a Marshal cab should have a good dose of lower mids compared to a Marshall head.  A different kind of drive gains that's quite touch sensitive too. This is mostly due to them not only having different tone stacks but where those tone stacks are placed in the circuits.  Not sure how the drive compared to other Vox amps I've used but the new ones I have tried are excellent.  In fact my favorite overdrive I've been using lately is a Vox Distortion booster. 

Even though the original Vox heads were mainly clean amps without overdrive, Vox built several guitars with distortion built in, plus they had several different drive pedals for that. 

As far as the speakers, The cabs are where allot of the classic Vox tone coms from. The tall 4X12 cabs were semi open backed cabs. My buddy has the Super Beatle version and runs a Stereo Valvetronix Super Beatle equivalent  head. He even has the chrome tubular stand for the cab/head so it can be tilted back on stage.  You can buy the Modern version of these cabs here at North Coast Music.   http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/vox/cabinets/ac100.html

The speakers look to be no name imports but I'm sure Korg (Who owns Vox) speced out those speakers so they produce classic tones.  The open backed cab is the trick however.  Having the sound come out the back prevents compression and produces a three dimensional sound in a room.  It also lowers bass compression and you'll find that's where those lower mids come into play.  The head is tuned to sound flat using an infinite baffle, an open backed cab.  Overall, the price of that cab with the imported speakers is only $499 which isn't bad at all. Its comparable to some of the lower cost Marshall stuff.   

The main improvement would be to add Alnico Celestion Blue speakers which cost an arm and a leg. 

They also used 2X15" cabs for the AC100 for awhile and Harrison/Lennon used 4X12 cabs with added horns.  Horns might be good for the acoustic guitar tones but they are rarely used for guitar these days. mainly because the quality of speakers and heads are much better and the fact the high end interferes with Vocal PA Mains/Monitors.  Back when those guitar cabs had horns, PA systems consisted of 100W speaker columns and maybe a 100W head and add on power head to run some more cabs.  Nothing in comparison to what's available today for even small club bands.