Vox AC30HWHD Handwired 30 Watt Tube Head Reviews

5.0/5.0 based on 2 customer reviews

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Customer Reviews

Dr C
from Toledo, OH
April 4, 2012Music Background:
Gigging Musician

Awesome Amp - Excellent Vintage Tone

The AC30HW Head is simply awesome. I have researched AC30’s for over six months and fell in love with the Youtube demo clips of this amp. When I took it home I was in total awe with the tone this amp delivered. I am currently playing the amp through a Marshall 1960 4x12 Cab. My Les Paul Standard, Fender 52 Telecaster Reissue and Fender American Deluxe Strat have never sounded as good as they do when I plugged into this head. The amp is very responsive to your playing style. It will articulate the sound of really digging into your strings or give you a creamy warm tone with a light touch to your strumming pattern. The highs and mids of your tone will really come through the speaker but then there is this perfect blend of lows that compliments the overall sound quality of this amp. It seems that every time I turn the amp on and play with the controls I am able to produce new sounds from this amp. The Top Boost without the hot switch will give a great overdrive sound just to the point of breakup. The Tubes with distort slightly more with the 15watt switch engaged which is to be expected. The hot switch will definitely get the EL34’s to breakup but not to the level that metal lovers will like.
The amp is quite loud and would be able to cut through the drum mix in a small to medium venue without having to be mic’ed. I am able to get decent tone in my house with the master volume turned to about 1:00 o’clock without the family complaining especially if I plug the amp into the low gain jack. I was worried about not having an effects loop; however, I have run my Lexicon MX400 Rack and other pedals into the amp and they have sounded great. So far I have not missed having the loop available.
I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and had the privilege of hearing great tube amp back then from friends band I was around. I can say this amp sound every bit as good as those awesome vintage amps. If you play Blues, Jazz or early to mid 70’s rock and roll this amp will not disappoint. To get AC/DC sound or metal it will need the help of pedals which it will handle without any difficulty. I can highly recommend this amp. Great job VOX!

Jeff Morris
from Wyoming, USA
June 7, 2011Music Background:
Gigging hobbyist and tone hound

The Real Deal -- Complete the journey

I used to think that the details didn't matter - for me anyway. But the difference between these handwired VOXs and all the others, and any other amp, for that matter, boils down to one thing: you're there. You've gotten 80% or maybe even 90% there with other amps. With this amp, you get all the way there. That tone that, soon as you hear it, you smile and think,

"That simply couldn't get any better."

Now, I suspect the other gear in the chain should be quality stuff as well. I'm going through my Frankenstrat with Seymour Duncan Antiquity pups. My custom Tele with the Lollar P90s sounds just as good through this. In my experience, HB-equipped guitars sound merely "wonderful" through this amp. Quality single coils are your ticket on the train that goes all the way to perfect tone here. I wanted to experiment outside the usual 12" Celestion Blues setup, so I built a cab with a 10" Celestion Gold, open-backed, and a good ceramic 15" Jensen beside it, but closed back and unported. This setup brings out all this amp's juicy low-mids to highs goodness, but at 90 watts total room, I don't get the speaker breakup at full volume available with two Blues. So sooner or later I'll buy the Blues cab.

But even with all that, you're still not talking a boutique amp price with this thing. Believe me, it sounds better than any boutique amp you'll find, when used for the D, G, B, and high-E strings. And yes, that includes Dumbles and Trainwrecks - both of which I've tried, and are excellent, but I didn't achieve nirvana (not the band) with those. I did with this Vox AC30HWHD. Turns out that final 10% is where all the good stuff is.

(if you play metal, disregard all the above -- this ain't your amp)