Looking for a small amp........

Joseiy · 07-16-2009, 03:54 PM

Well I ended up trading my AC15 for an 04 Highway One Tele with a Rosewood board. I've heard people talk about the "one" before and I'm pretty sure I've found mine I don't think I've ever played this much guitar straight and not gotten tired of it. But for right now I'm just playing at church and I was wondering if anybody could give me a rundown of the Vox AC4 vs all the other >5 watt amps out there. As they are kinda on the cheap and have heard good things for them. I'm mainly looking to run the amp dirty/semi dirty and run my volume knob and pedals I rarely use a pure clean sound anymore. Thanks for your help guys!

Major Tom · 07-16-2009, 04:57 PM

I finally got to briefly try the new AC-4, in fact a brand new one for $200. with no sales tax...I was very disappointed and passed on it. I used a LP with PAF type humbuckers straight into it. I'd give it a "C". It has some decent sounds, better than a stock VJ and some other budget low watters, but... No clean or even semi-clean headroom, and definitely not as loud as it should be for a 4 watt amp with a 10" speaker IMO.

It breaks up too early (on 3 to 3.5 !? c'mon Vox), and over halfway up and it gets saturated in a way I don't like; that I interpret as being under-OT'd, like other low priced low watters - I would describe it as mushy. It doesn't get louder or more distorted as much as it just gets more compressed and loses low note definition: fartacious. IMO, it sounds like it needs a bigger/better output tranny, one that won't waste any of the EL84's output, and probably a higher value filter cap would help too. Of course the one I tried might have had a tube issue, and not been 100% but it didn't sound like that to me. Being closed back, I couldn't look in there at the OT, or easily swap out the tubes.

The other thing I did not like - the attenuator. Great idea and feature, but only having 3 positions they should have had the full, then a 2 watt and maybe 1/2 watt, IMO. The 1 watt setting was too big of a drop I think; it was so quiet I didn't even try the 1/4 watt.

Bro Shane · 07-16-2009, 05:57 PM

I haven't played the Vox, but I do have a Vibro Champ XD. It's five watts, very versatile, very light, and sounds great.

**bread man** · 07-16-2009, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Major Tom

I finally got to briefly try the new AC-4, in fact a brand new one for $200. with no sales tax...I was very disappointed and passed on it. I used a LP with PAF type humbuckers straight into it. I'd give it a "C". It has some decent sounds, better than a stock VJ and some other budget low watters, but... No clean or even semi-clean headroom, and definitely not as loud as it should be for a 4 watt amp with a 10" speaker IMO.

It breaks up too early (on 3 to 3.5 !? c'mon Vox), and over halfway up and it gets saturated in a way I don't like; that I interpret as being under-OT'd, like other low priced low watters - I would describe it as mushy. It doesn't get louder or more distorted as much as it just gets more compressed and loses low note definition: fartacious. IMO, it sounds like it needs a bigger/better output tranny, one that won't waste any of the EL84's output, and probably a higher value filter cap would help too. Of course the one I tried might have had a tube issue, and not been 100% but it didn't sound like that to me. Being closed back, I couldn't look in there at the OT, or easily swap out the tubes.

The other thing I did not like - the attenuator. Great idea and feature, but only having 3 positions they should have had the full, then a 2 watt and maybe 1/2 watt, IMO. The 1 watt setting was too big of a drop I think; it was so quiet I didn't even try the 1/4 watt.

I spent about 45 minutes with one in the store and my experience was much the same, I used it with single coils. It just had a really dull sound. Could have been a bad speaker but the Fender Pro Jr I tried at the same time had much better tone.

Joseiy · 07-17-2009, 08:44 AM

OK so the AC4 kinda seems like a no go... How would the Little Giant work for my purposes?

***BillSPrestonEsq*** · 07-25-2009, 04:00 PM

I tried the AC4 head and I really liked it. Granted, I last played one at Namm. And I didn't monkey with the attenuator. The Namm one might have been an unusually nice one.

I agree on the low headroom thing, but I liked it. And most low watt amps need an OT change to be up to snuff. But, I didn't notice it sounding choked really.

The little giant has a ton more clean headroom. I preferred the sound of the vox for lower gain overdrive. The little giant was cool.

But there is only so much a lower watt amp will do.

Another option would be an old sf princeton...

Ax · 07-25-2009, 08:06 PM

Take a look at the Night Train. It is amazing.

Joseiy · 07-25-2009, 09:49 PM

Well what I'm doing right now for live stuff is running my pedals into a 35 watt realistic solid state PA head into my Marlboro sound works 112 cab. And honestly it sounds like crap. I was thinking about trying a tech 21 character series like the blonde or liverpool. Since now what I'm wanting is an AC15 and a Deluxe Reverb. (Vox for my praise and worship and ryhthm stuff and the DRRI for the blues and lead stuff. Maybe run them in Stereo???....) But I'm getting desperate my tone is really sucking... (Oh and BTW I'm happily running my Tele into my line 6 toneport on my PC with pretty happy results.)