Vox AC15TB2

Price Paid: US $650

Features: N/A
Has all the features I need - tremolo, reverb, master volume, 2 inputs, bass/treble.

Sound Quality: 9
This is pretty much it for me. I may eventually get one of those high end Vox clones, but for now I'm very happy. Chimey, crunchy...gorgeous.

Reliability: N/A
So far so good. Bought it used.

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 9
Been playing for 20 years or so, with significant gaps in there. Also own a Fender '63 Vibroverb RI.

I moslty play a MM Albert Lee...also own a LP Faded DC with P-90's, a Us strat, US tele, and a Surfcaster 12-string. All of them sound great, though I prefer a slightly hotter pickup like the Gibson P-90 over the strat single coil through this amp. But of course, that just depends on how you play and what you like.
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I like the fact that it's fairly light...it's no hassle to drag it over to my friend's house to jam. It also starts to break up at fairly low levels if you have the master set right. I'm generally not a master volume fan, but this one works fine.

Submitted by Tom at 12/08/2003 12:23

Price Paid: 649 (£)

Features: 9
15W all-valve (including tremolo & reverb) class-A combo based on the brilliant channel of a top-boost AC30 (but with master vol, trem & reverb). 2 inputs (one slightly higher gain), line out, double footswitch for reverb & trem. 2x10" "Vox Bulldog" speakers which are apparently made by Eminence.

Sound Quality: 9
I use this amp at home, purely for pleasure and some low-key recording projects, usually with a Mexican 50s Tele and sometimes an Epi Dot. The kind of stuff I like is early REM, The Smiths, Galaxie 500, Low, Mogwai, alt-country... This amp is clearly aimed at players who want the Vox tone at a slightly lower volume and a smaller package, and as such is not competing with high-gain channel-switchers or digital modellers. What it does very well is that warm clean sound with an edge that gets spikier the harder you hit the strings. The volume/master arrangement lets you play with variations of this at different volume levels, although with volume up and master at bedroom levels you're getting crunchy overdrive at most. It's great for slightly distorted chords, with each note ringing out clearly. Play softly and it cleans up, a very dynamic amp to play. Obviously cranking the master to get those EL84s cooking brings it alive but I haven't had the opportunity to really run it flat-out. The tone controls are very responsive (being early on in the signal chain I believe) and it's hard to find a bad tone to be honest, except perhaps with both at zero. Turning down the treble sounds warm not muffled. The tremolo is superb with a wide range of useable settings (handy to have it on a footswitch as well) and the reverb is pretty good (much much better than my old Marshall DSL201 but nowhere near as nice as a silverface Twin I once played). It's quite buzzy but I can live with that (my next project is to shield my Tele) and possibly to do with a valve rectifier not being as efficient as a solid state one. At high volumes I get a hint of microphonics so I suspect the preamp valves could do with a change. The preamp valves in mine are unbranded, with the EL84 and the rectifier being JAN Phillips. NOS valves - not bad!

The 2x10" speakers sound fine and are probably a better option for gigging, although I do wonder what the Blue Alnico version sounds like.

Reliability: N/A
I don't gig these days so my amp will not have a hard life. It does get noticeably hot, and there's a lot of metal inside to sink that heat. That's the price you pay for a class A power stage so if you do gig with it I'd be careful not to leave it switched on uneccessarily. Changing valves is a bit of a nightmare. Remove back panel, remove 4 screws holding chassis (once it's loose the chassis immediately gets pulled by the speaker magnets so hold on tight!), then remove the metal cover (another 5-6 screws). The pcb looks very tidy and solid, with most caps & resistors at least appearing to be good quality, and blobs of glue holding some of the bigger caps. Drake transformers. I would say that at this price you should be getting ceramic (not plastic) valve bases and metal jack sockets not plastic pcb-mounted ones!

In the six years between leaving the factory and coming into my posession the tolex had taken a few knocks and scrapes. Ten minutes with a tube of superglue had it looking like new.

Customer Support: 5
When I tried it at the shop the salesman was unsure whether they could find the footswitch (according to the serial number it was made in 96!) so I emailed the customer support page on the vox website to ask how much a replacement would cost. No reply. Not good.

On the other hand I seem to have succesfully registered my warranty through the site, so we'll see. I also downloaded the schematics out of interest (I'm an electronics engineer).

Overall Rating: 9
My formative guitar-playing years were spent with a JMI copper-panel AC30, which I sold when I had no job, no band and no money. Since then I've had a couple of Marshalls (a valvestate and then an all-valve 20W combo) which were great little amps but not really "my sound". The Marshall did a decent clean and a great rock overdrive, but I was after the in-between sounds. This is where the Vox delivers! When I saw this in the shop I pondered for a week, went in and tried it and it was like meeting up with an old friend. After a bit of research I found out they were being discontinued, so I went straight back to get it before somebody else snapped it up. In these days of pressing buttons to get a digital simulation of anything you want this is an amp with character, and like a guitar, you have to learn how it works and how to play it to get the best sound out of it. I can't see me ever getting rid of this one, for me it's perfect. It even smells like my old one!

Submitted by Rhys Williams at 11/23/2002 04:27

Price Paid: US $850 used

Features: 10
The AC15TB2 was issued in 1997, the first year of AC15 reissues. It's identical to amps of that year, but with two 10" Bulldog speakers, rather than 1-12". Vox made an AC10 in the '60's which was a twin as well. I guess this is what they were after. IMHO, it sounds better than the single speaker versions. It's tighter and doesn't break up at high volume like the 12". Its smoother and tighter. Loud enough for clubs. I play a sort of brit-pop. Features reverb, vibrato, master volume, volume, treble bass. Two inputs and footswitch.

Sound Quality: 10
Great cleans and overdrive. Overdrive is exceptional, nothing smoother or creamier. The amp can be very warm. I play both a Tele Plus and a Starcaster. The Tele can twang or growl through this amp. The vibrato is incredible, the reverb is ok. I also have a '65 Twin, and it is unsurpassed in the reverb category.

Reliability: 8
The only complaint with the amp is that when I first got it, there was a noisy rattle at higher volumes. Very annoying. Upon research, I found that it was the riveted posts in the reverb tank. They are there to keep the spring tray from moving too much during transport. To fix the problem, I put epoxy on the top of the rivets and inside. NOTE: these are not the mounting screws! Don't glue those. After that, no other disappointments.

Customer Support: 1
I wrote vox about the rattle. They were useless in helping.

Overall Rating: 10
I've been playing about 15 years. Seriously about 3. I play lots of pedals and severl Fender guitars. This amp is great. I will always want it. Plus it's loud and light. Great features for club gigs.

Submitted by Michael Hendrix at 08/19/2000 20:12