Members GAS Man Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 Okay, so when I first got this amp, maybe 3 years ago or so, I thought, "WTF did I just do here?" and basically ordered an upgraded speaker and pushed it aside and moved on.Cut to the chase here, there's no " . . . then I tried Momma-bear's and it was just right" output on this thing.It's either transistor radio quiet, fairly low output, or blaring.I recently took this amp back down off the shelf and came around to enjoying the small but indeed very Vox tone voice of these amps. I think the stock speaker also broke in a bit which improved my liking for this amp. The TONE on the amp seems to behave a bit more like a character knob putting it more towards the tone of a Top Boost Vox, so it's not just treble, there's also a chimey brighter factor that comes in as well.So that's all cool.But that dang "OP LEVEL" switch of 1/4, 1 or 4 watts is a significant detraction for me. There's just an output level between the 1 and 4 watts where I want to be able to reach and I can't get there without a master volume. One's too quiet and the other is too loud. And of course the VOLUME control on this amp is your gain control as much as it is a volume control, so I'm just having trouble getting the amount of grit I want at a full but comfortable listening level. It also doesn't seem to take pedals all that well, at least not the one I have in the patch right now. It tends to make the amp sound flabby/muddy.I'm wondering how pricey it might be to get the output switch changed to a master volume pot?Oh, and you know you buy too much shit when you finally get around to opening up the Weber upgrade speaker you ordered for it almost 3 years ago, take one look at it and go, WTF was I thinking, no way an Alnico Silver Bell will fit in this thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted October 21, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 I'm thinking I'd be happy with the Vox AC4C1-BL. Although the AC4TV is real cute But on this one, I think the tone is similar, maybe a bit better, and the output issue shouldn't be an issue on this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Deadbeat Son Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 Here's a thought for taming your AC4TV, how about a weber micro-mass? Then you can set it at 4 watts and dial it down as you wish. I seriously thought about picking up an AC4C1-BL, but I just don't play at home enough to warrant it. I do love my AC30HW2 though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fretmonster Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 Not to be offensive but I'm just not sure what the utility of those tiny wattage amps is. Everyone I've ever heard sounds like a transistor radio, and they don't even make those things anymore. I had a seven watt Airline that was kinda cool but played my harp through it at a blues jam and it just couldn't keep up unmiked. I got rid of it in favor of a fifteen watt Pro Jr which can definitely hold its own. My rule now is fifteen watts or above for tube and twenty five watts or above for Solid State practice amps. I actually have a 25 Watt Washburn Baddog that sounds pretty darn impressive for such a small tin can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bluesnapper Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 I've got the blue AC4 - it's much better than the TV model (more expensive too though...) The master volume control is more useful than the built-in power switch and the overall tone is better, although it's a bit trebly at higher volumes. Use-wise, it's great for playing at home - I can't crank it too often in my residential terrace, but it's better than a 15Wer - a larger amp might sound fine when played quietly but it's pretty difficult getting the volume control in the right place between zero and one without annoying the neighbours. I've played small acoustic gigs, open mic nights and used it for band practices. I've tried taking it to a louder blues jam session and it was pushing it - it was only loud enough with high-output humbucker guitars. My main band at the moment is an acoustic folk/indie thing, drummer usually uses brushes - it's perfect for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Les Paul Lover Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 Originally Posted by fretmonster Not to be offensive but I'm just not sure what the utility of those tiny wattage amps is. You really must know what you want to expect from them. I have an Orange AD5, it's a screaming little monster. Great dirty tones, raunchy rock.Can just about keep up with a band practice, but it has essentially next to no clean tones. Great to play at home on my own too, but where it excels...... is for recording.So easy! Great tones all day, whereas with my "much better" Orange Rockerverb 50 and PPC212, recording is a lot more fiddly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PrawnHeed Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 I don't think you can easily replace the switch with a pot. AFAIK the switch chooses a resistor which dumps the power from the speaker. I don't know of any 4W pots that would make sense. However, should be very easy to change the resistor used for the 1W setting so it gave you 2W (or whatever you like) instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ancient Mariner Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 To cnange from that switch to a master volume would require a little re-designing of the amp, which is not hard, but you'll also only be getting preamp drive only, rather than the output stage being drive too, for that nice jangly crunch. If you want it to take pedals better then you'll need to experiment with different input resistor values. I've found some amps very susceptible to tonesuck, and usually with trial and error, find that something around the 23K to 33K levels in place of the standard 68K makes it much better. Sounds like it's just the wrong amp for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted October 21, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 Thanks for all the replies guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted October 21, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 Originally Posted by fretmonster Not to be offensive but I'm just not sure what the utility of those tiny wattage amps is. Everyone I've ever heard sounds like a transistor radio, and they don't even make those things anymore. I had a seven watt Airline that was kinda cool but played my harp through it at a blues jam and it just couldn't keep up unmiked. I got rid of it in favor of a fifteen watt Pro Jr which can definitely hold its own. My rule now is fifteen watts or above for tube and twenty five watts or above for Solid State practice amps. I actually have a 25 Watt Washburn Baddog that sounds pretty darn impressive for such a small tin can. No offense taken.With some of my small Class A amps, I find it's hard to warm up to them. I went lower power/small/Class A - nuts a while back and bought quite a few low powered tube amps.So far the Peavey Mini Colossal JSX and the Royal 8 are two I could have passed on. The Bugera V5, Blackstar 5, AC4TV, Marshall Class 5 and Laney Cub 10 (10W A/B) have been more rewarding for me.The AC4TV actually sounds pretty cool once you get past the initial shock of expecting one thing and then discover what it actually does do well. But often with these little amps I think of them more like a human voice that would be added into a mix. Sometimes they just are more vocal in nature than the bigger amps and there can be qualities to that voice that I enjoy.I also have an early version Fender Pro Junior and that's pretty much in a whole other league above these guys. But these low wattage amps still are cool for what they can do at lower volumes. I like being able to get a chimey gritty bluesy voice where the amp is cranked, but the decibels are not stopping traffic.I actually coaxed an "it sounded good" from the missus after I emerged from my man-cave last night after going off on one of my "getting off on my groove" moments. I almost think she was sincere, AND!, she hadn't shut the door to my man-cave proving that these little guys do have their place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fretmonster Posted October 22, 2012 Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 Originally Posted by Les Paul Lover You really must know what you want to expect from them. I have an Orange AD5, it's a screaming little monster. Great dirty tones, raunchy rock.Can just about keep up with a band practice, but it has essentially next to no clean tones. Great to play at home on my own too, but where it excels...... is for recording.So easy! Great tones all day, whereas with my "much better" Orange Rockerverb 50 and PPC212, recording is a lot more fiddly. Yeah I can really see that for recording. Particularly to get that really raunchy overdriven sound without sending all the needles into the red. Wish I had some decent recording equipment but my wife keeps getting operations and my twenty three year-old won't get a job and move out. Sorry, way too much information there I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BG76 Posted October 22, 2012 Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 I bought one just because they looked cool. I run mine through an 80s Marshall Micro Stack cab (bought 2 for $30) with the British 16 Ohm Celestion. Don't use it much, but it looks neat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Innocent Smith Posted October 22, 2012 Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 In my opinion, the kind of pickups you play through the AC4TV make or break it. I could never really get excited about the sound of my LP or Strat with it. But, my Gretsch with Surf 90's? Fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted October 22, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 Originally Posted by Innocent Smith In my opinion, the kind of pickups you play through the AC4TV make or break it. I could never really get excited about the sound of my LP or Strat with it. But, my Gretsch with Surf 90's? Fantastic! Yeah, since I had it out recently for some rotational play time, one of the guitars I ran thru it is my Gretsch Corvette, and I was thinking about the magical Gretsch + Vox combination. It was definitely one of the best tones I got out of it these last few days. Now it's going back up on the shelf. I got my Vox Pathfinder 15 back out and put it in place of the AC4TV. The Pathfinder sounds deeper, has more volume (and controls + a rather nice tremolo) and takes pedals better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Wayne2 Posted October 22, 2012 Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 Originally Posted by GAS Man Oh, and you know you buy too much shit when you finally get around to opening up the Weber upgrade speaker you ordered for it almost 3 years ago, take one look at it and go, WTF was I thinking, no way an Alnico Silver Bell will fit in this thing. Maybe look at front-mounting the Silver Bell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Verne Andru Posted October 22, 2012 Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 I use an L-Pad with my 5-watter and it does a great job of taming the volume while allowing me to drive the tubes into a nice, creamy distortion.http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...php?p=20597125 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted October 23, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 Originally Posted by Wayne2 Maybe look at front-mounting the Silver Bell? Thanks for the thought. I am indeed determined to give that application one more look before I move onto plan B. Thanks for the suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted October 23, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 Originally Posted by Verne Andru I use an L-Pad with my 5-watter and it does a great job of taming the volume while allowing me to drive the tubes into a nice, creamy distortion.http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...php?p=20597125 Thanks for the suggestion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brandass Posted October 23, 2012 Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 Originally Posted by GAS Man Yeah, since I had it out recently for some rotational play time, one of the guitars I ran thru it is my Gretsch Corvette, and I was thinking about the magical Gretsch + Vox combination. It was definitely one of the best tones I got out of it these last few days. Now it's going back up on the shelf. I got my Vox Pathfinder 15 back out and put it in place of the AC4TV. The Pathfinder sounds deeper, has more volume (and controls + a rather nice tremolo) and takes pedals better I had both the AC4TV and the Pathfinder 15R, too.I liked the AC4TV mostly because it took pedals really well. Must've been a function of MY pedals! The great thing about it was that on the 4W setting it had just enough headroom to stay together at bedroom volumes, with a pedal providing OD. Warm but not muddy, and just enough chime to give character. Definitely preferred SC or P90, rather than HB. Eventually the small speaker and boxy sound got to me though; not enough bass, too directional. And while slamming the power tube was fun once in a while, I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd expected - it was nothing like howling tubes at high volume, not sure why I thought it could be. Anyway, it was reasonably nice but not a keeper in the end.I liked the 15R because the chime and resonance of the cleans was super nice, way better than you'd expect from anything like that price range. Mild reverb worked well, trem was fun but rarely used it. If it had taken my pedals well I'd have kept it for sure, but it didn't, mainly because the chime got out of hand pretty quickly (think flavored coffee), and in the end I needed to let it go.Funny how radically YMMV, so many variables between the amp, the other gear, the aims and expectations, and the ears! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GAS Man Posted October 23, 2012 Author Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 ^^ Yeah, for my review on the AC4TV "taking pedals well" or not, the pedal that I was using is a Tech 21 San Amp Character series Blonde. It think it was too much body for the AC4TV to handle. It might do fine with a TS or other basic OD pedal. The Pathfinder, however, does respond better with that Tech 21 pedal. It responds getting warmer and rounder. The Pathfinder 15 I have I bought quite some time ago. It was a blow-out deal from MF (not that good of a deal in retrospect) for about $80 but it does not include Reverb. So I've always used it with one reverb pedal or another in front of it which has possibly always upped my appreciation of the tone I get from the Pathfinder, possibly because it's enhanced with the extra depth of a decent reverb pedal. But I'm often tempted to trade it so I could get the 15R so it would be a more self contained. But yeah, I'll try a basic OD pedal on the AC4TV and see how that works for me. The San Amp pedal has a lot of "tweakability" but I could seem to drop the "CHARACTER" control enough to keep it from making it sound flabby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted October 23, 2012 Moderators Share Posted October 23, 2012 Always had Goldilocks down as a bassist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drivelikejoewho Posted October 23, 2012 Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 Originally Posted by fretmonster Not to be offensive but I'm just not sure what the utility of those tiny wattage amps is. Believe me, I agree. I've had 4 of them now. I had the Vox AC4TV8, Bugera V5, Kustom V5 and VHT Special 6. Of those 3, only the VHT was a good sounding amp. That is also probably because that one was purchased as a head and played out of a 2x12 cabinet. Which brings me to my next point, those amps do sound much better playing out of a larger cabinet/speaker. But then you are defeating the purpose of them which is to get good tones at bedroom levels. I was almost always pushing the barrier of what "bedroom" levels are. I've now gotten rid of all 3 of them and I would only buy the VHT again. The other three were not my thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brandass Posted October 24, 2012 Members Share Posted October 24, 2012 Originally Posted by GAS Man ^^ Yeah, for my review on the AC4TV "taking pedals well" or not, the pedal that I was using is a Tech 21 San Amp Character series Blonde. It think it was too much body for the AC4TV to handle. It might do fine with a TS or other basic OD pedal. The Pathfinder, however, does respond better with that Tech 21 pedal. It responds getting warmer and rounder. The Pathfinder 15 I have I bought quite some time ago. It was a blow-out deal from MF (not that good of a deal in retrospect) for about $80 but it does not include Reverb. So I've always used it with one reverb pedal or another in front of it which has possibly always upped my appreciation of the tone I get from the Pathfinder, possibly because it's enhanced with the extra depth of a decent reverb pedal. But I'm often tempted to trade it so I could get the 15R so it would be a more self contained.But yeah, I'll try a basic OD pedal on the AC4TV and see how that works for me. The San Amp pedal has a lot of "tweakability" but I could seem to drop the "CHARACTER" control enough to keep it from making it sound flabby. I've got the Blonde, too. I use it with a keyboard amp, and it's great for that. But it sounds like ass when used in front of any of my guitar amps (including my now-gone AC4TV). Which isn't too surprising, given that the pedal is supposed to provide emulation for non-guitar amps, PA, etc. Definitely worth trying out other pedals with your AC4TV before writing it off.And yeah, I'm sure it sounds way better with a 2x12 etc. In the end I went with a 1x12 compromise, which works great in my small house but wouldn't if we lived in an apartment. I'd probably still have the AC4TV if we lived in an apartment. Has its issues, but on balance a pretty good solution for that situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted October 24, 2012 Members Share Posted October 24, 2012 Originally Posted by drivelikejoewho Believe me, I agree. I've had 4 of them now. I had the Vox AC4TV8, Bugera V5, Kustom V5 and VHT Special 6. Of those 3, only the VHT was a good sounding amp. That is also probably because that one was purchased as a head and played out of a 2x12 cabinet. Which brings me to my next point, those amps do sound much better playing out of a larger cabinet/speaker. But then you are defeating the purpose of them which is to get good tones at bedroom levels. I was almost always pushing the barrier of what "bedroom" levels are. I've now gotten rid of all 3 of them and I would only buy the VHT again. The other three were not my thing. did you ever try the others thru your 2x12 cab? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drivelikejoewho Posted October 24, 2012 Members Share Posted October 24, 2012 Originally Posted by tlbonehead did you ever try the others thru your 2x12 cab? Yes and they all sounded better but the only one I actually like was the VHT. I think my Vox AC4TV8 experience proved I'm not a Vox guy. I like their valvetronix series but not what they are known for. I actually tried the Special 6 Ultra as well (I had the regular special 6) and that was a cool amp. Good cleans and good dirt. I bought the Kustom V100 amp when it was on sale and absolutely love it. I now use that as a practice amp. It has a direct out and I run it through a mixer. I got my M13 wired up 4 cable style. It is quite the practice rig I figure since I don't play out anymore, I might as well try and consilidate my amp/effects array so the V100 is a bit large for a practice amp.BTW.. I still have the V5 if someone wants to but it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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