Price Paid: 25000 (belgium frank)
Features: 8
my ac100 was built in 1966 and i never had another bass amp that sound as clean as that one. i had the original ac100 bass cab with 2 x 15" vox speakers and of course, since i was in electronics school, the first thing i did was to take it apart to make a schematic which i still have in my archives to this day. our band made 10 gold and two platinum with that amp and to my great chagrin, i traded it in to buy a hammond b3 and a leslie ( i'm a versatile devil am i? ).
thsi amp had two channels, one low and one high z ( impedance ).besides that, volume, bass, treble and a power switch.
that amp gave me a good kick on stage, it was a pants leg mover.
Sound Quality: 10
this was a bass amp so let's not talk about guitar...
my lead guitar player had a 65'strat at the time and try to plug it in and at the max volume, we could barely get any sound out of it because it was really designed for bass only; but with a rickenbaker equipped with piano strings, this baby was murder she wrote all the way. i remember that in 67, we were opening for the Who in Brussels Belgium under a circus tent kind of show, and during practice, John Entwisle came on stage and told me to turn it down, because they were trying to work backstage and could not hear themselves ( with 4 marshall jtm100 onstage ). what a thrill that amp was.
Reliability: 10
had that amp for four years and travelled europ back and forth and never had a problem with it, but i came to understand that if that amp was used in warmer countries, it was required to remover the vent grill on top to provide for more air circulation. What a bommer!
the great innovation from vox was to use xlr connectors for the speaker cable, a lot more sturdy that a 1/4 inc jack.
Customer Support: N/A
never had to use it so i really do not know !!!
Overall Rating: 10
i have been playing keyboard since the age of 5, i majored in percusions at the age of 18,learn to play bass and guitar by myself and made it in a band the first time at 17. had my first gold at the age of 18, gave up playing live in 74, but have got the bug back in 2002 and start recording again in 2004.
on the road again...
playing keys and guitar now for good.
wish i still had that amp to pass it on to my son in law, he plays bass in my band.
Submitted by gerard halloy at 03/31/2005 09:08
Price Paid: US $150
Features: 1
This was the original version of the infamous "Super Beatle" amp head, made by Jennings Musical Instruments of England. It was a single channel amp with only Volume, Trebel, and Bass controls; no effects or switching. A solid state version was built later on, but it was total crap.
Sound Quality: 10
I played this amp thru two Altec 12" 417-A speakers that were popular in the '60's and were built to compete with JBL's silver-domed guitar speakers. I used a Telecaster and a Rickenbacker 360 12 string thru this rig, and the sound was to die for. Years later when I was playing clubs in California, I used the AC-100 as a power amp, driving a 4-12 Marshall bottom. The pre-amp was a 2-12" speaker equipped Fender Super Reverb blackface that had a pre-amp jack on it. Try to imagine six 12's driven by a Super Reverb and an AC-100.......
Reliability: 4
Because of the extremely high plate voltages and the heat generated by the four EL-34 power tubes, this amp was far from 'stable'. I didn't dare run it wirhout a "boxer" fan sitting over the top where the tubes were to draw some of the heat off. Occasionally, the B+ voltage would "arc" to ground inside the amp and blow the fuse. I remedied this by lifting the plate voltage wires off the barrier strip, away from the ground terminals. My first AC-100 was stolen. My second one blew an output transformer and I couldn't afford to fix it so I left it at the shop where it was finally sold off. Yes, I did need my head examined....
Customer Support: N/A
The output transformer was gonna cost $200....and that was 20 years ago. Warranty? I bought both of 'em used.
Overall Rating: 8
I miss that amp. I've been playing 40 years professionally. I won't even try to find another AC-100. Petty probably has 'em all now. I never heard a louder, cleaner amp than this baby (well, maybe an SVT)when it was running right.
Submitted by Chuck Kirkpatrick at 01/09/2002 12:12
