Vox AC15H

Must have tube amp

Very good tube amp, made for a clean guitar sound, sounds nice on my Greenback Heritage 8ohm. Especially in my Livingroom!!!!!!!! Seems by its weight and size "undestructable". I don't use the reverb or tremelo.. so no rating.....but the sound is truly great with my mia strat. I hope in the near future i'll be able to buy two 16ohm's speakers for my self-made guitar cab, so I can use the attenuator. Btw did I mention, the sound is truly greeeaaaaat…………nice bluesy/ rock……..

My First Vox

I am, admittedly, a 'livingroom warrior' at this point in my life. I wouldn't have bought a valve head to lug around to gigs, lol. I've been using amp sims for the past few years, and started to get a bit tired of them. So, I started to research amp heads, as I have a 12" cab. When I saw this model, I was intrigued, and decided to give it a try. I wanted a traditional amp with a real reverb. I didn't want to pay for USB/Headphone outs, as they are irrelevant to me. I didn't want any DSP in the amp. That ruled out my other choice, the Fender Super Champ, which seems like a nice amp, but didn't fit the parameters of what I wanted.

As I mention in the title, this is the fist VOX amp I have played in 44 years of playing, and I can only say I wish I had done so earlier. I absolutely love the wide variety of tones that can be dialed in very easily. It does clean very well, and the crunch/overdriven sounds are the best I've heard on an amp that wasn't loud enough to blow the windows out. Speaking of volume, I am quite pleased with the built in attenuator. I have been playing it in its middle setting, which is 1.5w. You would be surprised how loud 1.5 watts can get! The dynamic range is something amp sims cannot yet emulate really well. Pick gently, it is clean with a tiny bit of grit. Dig in, and you get that really creamy overdriven crunch that is not muddy. This amp has two channels, with a master volume, and you can get the overdriven tones on both the 'Normal' and the 'Top Boost' channels, and they both sound different. The reverb I find merely adequate, though since I am not playing surf music, I don't need to use very much of it, just enough for a bit of depth. This amp also has a tremolo, again adequate. I've heard better on Fender amps, but this is fine for me.

The only real niggle I have is the dimensions of the unit. It won't sit on my 112 cab, nor will it sit on the Vox 112 cab. It needs the 212 cab to sit properly on. This is why I took 1 star off for 'handling.' I am going to think about getting the 212 cab, but in the meantime will have to find another place to put it.

To sum up:

Pros:

Great variety of tones. As I don't do hi-gain metal stuff, this does everything I need it to do, and it does it well.

The attenuator is a welcome feature for those of us who don't want our neighbours showing up at the door with torches and pitchforks.

It is stylish, and with a Vox cab, will look absolutely killer.

Cons:

Size is a bit awkward;

Reverb/Tremolo are not the absolute best I've heard, but are adequate for my purposes.

I will be using this amp for recording, and just having hours and hours of fun. Again, I wish I'd tried a Vox amp sooner!!!

Beautiful Voxy sound

Can't really add to this product - it is a masterpiece in an affordable package. Excellent features include master volume, tremolo, and reverb. Sweet tube sound that dirties up at a low volume for apartment-living, but offers nice stage volume when needed. One cool feature is the power attenuator that allows you to reduce the wattage (only caveat is that this function is for 16ohm speakers only). This amp sings!