Check out my awesome new stack....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Armistice
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Armistice

Armistice

Son of Yoda
Vox stack.webp

lol.... wandered into a guitar store on Saturday and they were almost giving it away, so why not.... early Christmas present to self...:)

Sounds pretty good for 4 (count 'em) watts... :listeningmusic:

Vox AC4TVH in case you don't know the model. I bet Slash is envious....:laughings:
 
Bearing in mind that everything is ridiculously expensive in Australia... RRP is $650 for the head + cab version, they wanted $399...

Plus I got them to chuck in a speaker lead, but when I got home I realised I'd forgotten about the power cord.... lol... not that I don't have a million kettle cords lying around anyway... I'm such a good bargainer:laughings:
 
I love low watt amps for recording!

Actually the AC4 is one of my more powerful amps. I have recording amps in the 2,4 & 5 watt flavors

I was never able to get my AC30 into a sweet spot in my recording space (Also known as the spare room) without getting severe ringing in my ears and complaints from my family and neighbors.
The other benefit of low watt amps is price IMO. I was able to buy two low watt tube combos and a L'il night train head and 1 x 12 cab with the proceeds of selling my AC30, giving me a much larger array of sound options to play with.

A lot of clean headroom? nope but plenty of real tube sound without the need for tone sucking attenuators (the really good ones that are almost transparent cost, by themselves, almost as much as a handwired higher watt amp) or master volume controls. yes the AC4 can attenuate down to 1/4 watt at the cost of some tone but I only use that for late night practice, for recording I always use the 4 watt setting to get the best out of the amp, and it's plenty loud with the combo's 10" speaker, even more so into the 1 x 12 cab
Great for recording to get real tube overdrive without destroying your mics, your hearing or your relationships with your neighbors.
IMO you can use 4-5 watts in a smallish venue or for jamming if you can do with overdriven sounds or can mic the amp into the PA
 
Yeah, Bristol, that's what I was finding. I have a Laney 30 tube amp which is similar to the AC30 in character, and it's just SO LOUD.... even at a full band rehearsal you can't crank it... and the distortion you can get from the preamp at low vol is a bit fizzy..

Exactly the reason I bought this little monster...
 
Too cool... I love my little Vox DA5 (I think that's the model...) Perfect little battery powered amp. I'm a truck driver and back when I was on the road all the time this thing was great in the truck.
 
Bristol Posse said:
...plenty of real tube sound without the need for tone sucking attenuators ...
Click to expand...

Not to hijack, but I gotta take issue with that statement. I own, and use, the original power attenuator- a Altair PW-5. What some may think of as "tone suck" I hear as compression as a by-product of attenuation. When one does not over-attenuate the signal, it is a very pleasing sound. Over-attenuation does produce some pretty crappy tone, I must admit- but if you gotta squeeze an amp down that much, you are using the wrong amp for the job/venue/occasion.

Just my two cents.
 
stevieb said:
Not to hijack, but I gotta take issue with that statement. I own, and use, the original power attenuator- a Altair PW-5. What some may think of as "tone suck" I hear as compression as a by-product of attenuation. When one does not over-attenuate the signal, it is a very pleasing sound. Over-attenuation does produce some pretty crappy tone, I must admit- but if you gotta squeeze an amp down that much, you are using the wrong amp for the job/venue/occasion.

Just my two cents.
Click to expand...

I would completely agree, I have found though, that most people looking at attenuators to play at home have crazy "Stadium" rigs like 60-100 watt heads or more and so are trying to soak up like 95% of the power when using the attenuator. Even on my old Vox AC30 there was a real difference in tone when I demo'd an attenuator to get to a home use level, Maybe using a 10 - 18 watt amp the effect would be less noticeable since your not hitting the attenuator so hard.

Also most of the good attenuators that don't kill off too much of your tone are at least as expensive as just getting a lower wat amp anyway so why bother at all, just get a sensible amp for playing at low volumes to complement your gigging set up

For some people it seems to be a machismo thing that a low watt amp some how makes them a wimp (despite the fact that most of the recorded tones they are trying to emulate were achieved with lower watt amps in the studio and larger stacks for touring) so they'd rather suck all of the life out of a 100 watt amp with an attenuator or go deaf playing at home with a completely inappropriate set up

If I were still playing out club type gigs I'd still be using my AC30, I'd be crazy to try and use an unmic'd 2 watt amp for even heavy distortion let alone for cleans. For playing and recording at home I'd be equally crazy to be trying to get sweet tube distortion off that AC30 in my little one room studio, a low watt is far better at that job. Get the right tools for the right job
 
Not my taste tone or looks wise, but I would have to be a moron not to appreciate that rig.
 
Bristol Posse said:
I would completely agree, I have found though, that most people looking at attenuators to play at home have crazy "Stadium" rigs like 60-100 watt heads or more and so are trying to soak up like 95% of the power when using the attenuator. Even on my old Vox AC30 there was a real difference in tone when I demo'd an attenuator to get to a home use level, Maybe using a 10 - 18 watt amp the effect would be less noticeable since your not hitting the attenuator so hard.
Click to expand...

You are right...when you try to tame A 100W monster that is dimed, with an attenuator...you can get some mush and tone suck, but yeah, if you keep it in the 20-30 watt range (or less)...you can use attenuators and get some nice amp crunch with no noticeable tone suck or mush.
All my tube amps are from 12W to 32W, with the exception of my Rivera Chubster 40 (40W). I use mostly Weber MiniMass attenuators, which I really like and don't think they harm the tone at all, and I've pushed them hard at times.

Anyway...back to the OP.

Nice stack, Armistice!!!
Love the white/cream Tolex with that grill cloth. :cool:
I'm not a big EL84 player, but I find that the EL84 tubes sound great in low wattage applications, I bet that amp sounds sweet.

Now...what about that Gibby.... :)
 
Nice looking rig, I'm sure it will do some great recordings, too. I have a couple of 15 watt tube combos-but often they are a bit too loud. Congrats Armistice!
 
So at 4 watts do you get much clean headroom with this thing or does it get furry fairly quick? I had a little 5 watt head and hated it. :lol:

But I think since they stuck a tone knob on this thing it would be more to my liking.
 
Armistice said:
Yeah, Bristol, that's what I was finding. I have a Laney 30 tube amp which is similar to the AC30 in character, and it's just SO LOUD.... even at a full band rehearsal you can't crank it... and the distortion you can get from the preamp at low vol is a bit fizzy..

Exactly the reason I bought this little monster...
Click to expand...

I was looking at the Laney when I was scouting around for a 20 to 30 watt tube combo. Seemed to be okay, but what you said is exactly what I heard . . . a little too "nest o' bees" on high-gain, but very good on the clean. TTYTT, I found 80% of the lower wattage tube combos were really lacking articulation and clarity on the gain stage.

Ended up getting a St Louis Crate Vintage Club 30, which doesn't mush out on the low end. But . . . finally broke down and grabbed an AC15C1 so it could be at least cranked. Swapped in an old blackback, and that seemed to help a lot with reducing any harshness.

Suds . . .
 
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