Vox AC30CC2 212 Combo

Price Paid: 1070 (Canadian)

Features: 9
The features have been stated before. Many people seem to bitch about the fact that there are hardley any controls for EQ, and even though it's got two channels its not footswitchable... to that I say BAH! It's more than the origianl AC30 had (closer to a Top Boost) but it's still WAY more versatile than my Fender Twin!

There is an effects loop
You can blend two channels together for a really unique tone
It's 30 tube watts

And its more than versatile for me, hell... I really only use the Normal channel with the brilliant switch on.

Mine is loaded with the Warfendales.... which I switched for greenbacks.

Sound Quality: 9
I use this amp mostly with Gibson 335's and Fender HH Telecasters, and I play a variety of styles, but mostly use it for Rock and Blues.

I find that if I'm feeling basic and just want pure tone I'll just plug straight into the amp, crank up the normal channel volume, and keep the master low to get that great overdriven tone, then use my volume control on my guitar to control the amp and get my different sounds.

But, for the most part my amp feels the pain of two brands of distortion boxes (diamond and hotcake), a Seymour duncan pickup booster, as well as a variety of modulation pedals.

When running clean the amp is crystal clear, and has a very chimey vibe to it. This is what the amp seems built for as it's just as clean as my 1973 AC30, and definatly gives you that midrangey nasal vibe.

When cranked up, it dosn't seem to have enough 'whump' for me. My 1973 AC30 just breaksup and really gets you rockin. HOWEVER, this was fixed when I replaced the original speakers with Celestion Greenbacks. The lower wattage speakers make this thing sound way more like a vintage AV30 than these Warfendales (which I actually liked better than the Blues... couldn't justify the extra $1000 for $600 worth of speaker...)

The Trem is nice and thick, something I always loved about Vox trem. The Reverb is a lil bland, but still nice and wet sounding. Not as great as a twin, but hey, I barley have it on anyways!

The coolest thing that I noticed with this amp is that it reveals all your dirty little secrets.... For example, when I played through my Fender Twin I thought I was a pretty decent player, very tight rhythm. But the Vox just showed me how sloppy I really was by not hiding any of my playing faults. It shows every minor mistake, that other amps like to cover up! I love it!

9/10 because the stock speakers just don't give you the breakup of an original one... but hey, this isn't an original AC30...this is a new breed of AC30!

Oh, and I also use the 412 extension cab with the amp. (loaded with Celestion Lead 80's)

Reliability: 7
.......okay people....you all got problems, and you all got one thing in common.. YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES!

I'm serious.... these amps were almost 5 months late in the Canadian market because they were held up at the border because they were not reliable enough for Canadian standards.

I'm VERY hard on my amps, blowing my Fender Twin up on a bi-montly basis, and my old 1973 AC30 up almost weekly! I even got a Yorkville 400 bass head to catch on fire... but this amp has been rock solid for almost 5 months now! The funny thing is I've tried to blow it up too....

But there are complaints:

Cheap small screws
speakercable is of poor quality, and really short. You need to unsolder the cable if you want to remove the chassis (and you will) to replace the tubes
Gets UBER hot... oh wait... All AC30's do this
Plastic jacks suck...

I upgraded all the commonly used parts to metal (jacks, amp corners) and changed the small toggle switches over to small touch switches (those line 6 switches that are under the foot pads work really well!)

Customer Support: 10
Vox has always been good to me. Hell, the even found me a Union Jack Wah pedal brand new in factory sealed box to replace one of mine that died on me two years after waranty was up... and they replaced it free of charge, no questions asked, so dibs in!

They even gave me a new set of tubes for free when the tubes I got with mine were shot from day one. They even supplied a second set becuase their nice guys.

Love Vox!

Overall Rating: 10
I love AC30s. I've been using a variety of them for almost 6 years now. My current rig uses two amps, one for clean, and one for dirty, and the second amp will probably be replaced with an AC30CC very soon just because I'm very impressed by them!

Obviously I would buy another one if it was stolen or lost.

Did I test it vs other amps? Yes I did. The Lonestar Special by Mesa Boogie are amazing amps, as are the Orange Rocker series. But for the money the Vox beat them out... if I were to go back and do it again with unlimited funds.. I'd probably go with an Orange Rockerverb100.....but the Vox tone is my tone, and nothing can do that but a Vox!

Submitted by Anonymous at 10/25/2005 23:50

Price Paid: US $1,599

Features: 6
It's an El84-powered 33w tube amp. That's the feature you need. I could personally care less about the reverb, tremolo and all the extra switches (though the "blend" feature is pretty cool).

Sound Quality: 10
Simply the best-sounding mass-produced amp out there for rock, punk, garage -- pretty much anything but metal. This thing may be made in China, but it kicks the UK-made Korg reissues up and down the block for sound quality. These guys really worked on getting it right -- especially with regards to the output transformer. By the way, you must pay the extra scratch for the Celestion Blue speakers. Half the AC30 tone is in those AlNiCo-powered puppies (not to mention half its volume -- those things are efficient as heck).

Reliability: 4
Er... I hear they're making improvements. So far, it's been a crap shoot. Though, apparently 90% of the problems stem from cheap preamp valves.

Customer Support: 10
Mitch Colby and Co. are incredible. They're really on our side. Best customer service out there.

Overall Rating: 10
It is a fantastic value. Just be prepared for glitches. Though, any JMI AC30 player will tell you that those come with the territory.

Submitted by Anonymous at 10/16/2005 11:10

Price Paid: US $999

Features: 4
I hate to give such a low score on such a great sounding amp, but this amp was never built for versatility. Still, the tones it does give are amazing. Well suited to the styles of the artists that made the AC30 so well known (Brian May, Jimmy Page, Dave Evans, etc..).

Sound Quality: 10
I'm using a Gibson ES-335, and it sings with this amp. I play rock and jazz, generally, and it works beautifully. Vox DID cut down on the quality of some components; but as amps go mine is pretty quiet. The sound breaks up very nicely, with a good amount of headroom. Obviously the distortion isn't well suited towards metal (buy a pedal for that).

Reliability: 8
Once again, there are some pretty severe quality control issues, as it's made in China. I STRONGLY URGE you buy from North Coast Music (www.northcoastmusic.com) - they replace the microphonic tubes and test your ac30 "to prevent infant mortalities" before double-box shipping it (free shipping, too). This probably sounds like some bull**** advertisement, but if you wanted to buy any Vox amp this is where i would go. I'll give it an 8 because from the proper source it'll probably be as reliable as any tube amp.

Customer Support: N/A
I haven't had problems yet.

Overall Rating: 9
This amp is a terrific value (despite the major quality control issues); if you get a "good" amp and not a dud (and once again, www.northcoastmusic.com seems the best bet), you'll be in heaven with the unbelievable tone this beauty can produce.

Submitted by BronYAurStomp at 10/08/2005 19:44

Price Paid: US $1000

Features: N/A
First off I am going to refrain from using the rating system here. I don't want to bring down the overall score of this amp. I have a special place in my heart for this guy and even though I have issues the CC I don't want to see the amp go away.
Being a vintage reissue style amp, the features are pretty staightforward. The CC ads an effects loop, channel combination (no footswitch) tremolo, reverb (with tone control) and master volume to the original classic. There are 2 channels but they can only be combined with a switch not a footswitch. Normal channel has a tremble boost switch, (no tone controls) The second channel has a "custom eq" switch, treble and bass. It comes with a 2 button footswitch that controls reverb and tremolo. I would rather see a channel switch but this is easily done with some sort of A-B box. On the back is an effects loop, speaker extension and external (cut off internal speakers), switches for matching speaker ohms, and 2 switches that control Bias options. I won't pretend to understand what the they are doing but it's basically vintage vs modern sound. The dam thing is heavy as hell. I looks like it's a one person job but try carrying it more than a few yards and you'll wish you had bought the AD100 instead.(BTW Great amps) You wanted those trannies and tubes so now you gotta pay! The cab is built well. Baltic Birch (does it really come from the Baltica?) and a well built box. The fit and finish is well done and I think the cab should last longer than my Silverface Twin which is built from particle board. Nice little touches like the gold trim. The amp is mounted on a piece of wood that pulls out for servicing. The speaker lead and soldered on, which is good but what's bad is they are not long enough to make removing the amp possible. So if you want to change tubes you have to unsolder the speakers. The amp uses 3 12AX7s and 2 EL34s. (please correct me if I'm wrong) The amp looks well done and its built on a solid metal welded box. The wiring looks neat and clean and closely resembles the original layout with the preamp tubes mounted verticle. Unfortunatley the preamp tube and not really mounted to the metal box. It looks that way but they just go through to the circuit board underneath. The hole is grometted with rubber sleeves but this looks like it would hold in heat and mounting to the circuit board I don't think is the best for heat distribution either. The amp comes with Electo Harmonics EL34 which are good tubes. On the downside the 3 preamp 12AX7s are noname Chinese and are questionable. There's more but I'm bored with this part and you already know this stuff anyway. I want to get to the good part.

Sound Quality: N/A
OK I'm a classic rock guy with a lot of years of old school but I still keep up with what's going on thanks to my 3 sons who have reached the age of reasoning. So much for a point of reference. I bought this amp the first day I saw it at GC. I plugged it in and loved it. The sound takes me back. I tried it out sitting right in front of it and loved the richness of the sound. When I got home and had a chance to compare to my other amps I realized it was not as full a sound as I thought. In comparison it was a little thin, but really that is the Vox sound, it's not a Marshall. Strangely though it has a lot of Marshall character to it when you crank it. There's a nice grind there and what I really like about it is the raw character. Let me repeat that...it's raw. This edgyness is what I like most about the Vox sound.It's a mid range thing that cuts through the mix and sits in a cool place. It does not have that deep low end chug and balls. People talk alot about the "Vox Chime". Well it's got that but only at very low volumes. I set the master on 10 to get the most output but as soon as you get the channel pre volumes past 9 o' clock (not volume 9) you get into the barking sound. Not that this is a bad thing but I would love to be able to get a clean sound a littke louder without the breakup. That being said this is only a 30 watt amp and I'm probably not being fair here. I can't believe The Beatles played Shay with these things. On to recordiing...Every track I cut with this amp was great. No complaints. I got a beautifully chimeing sound, bluesy sounds, funky sounds, rocked out, metal (kinda) whatever I recorded with this amp came back better than I expected. If you want a great recording amp the AC30CC is great. I did have some problems though. I wanted a virgin amp in the box and GC told me to take the one on the floor and as soon as a boxed unit came in, they would switch it out for the boxed. Great! When the new one came in it played fine except there was a little rattle noise that sounded like a microphonic preamp tube. I had read on this forum from other AC30CC owners that the tubes where sometimes problematic. So rather than start buying tubes for a new amp I decided to try another. I went back to GC but the first amp I had and returned had already sold but they got me another from a different store. That one did not have the tube noise but it did have a distinct 60 cycle hum at idle. That went back and I got my second one with the tube problem back. At least I thought I could deal with a tube problem and it was quiet at idle. BTW I have read others on this forum mention this amp is noisy. It's not, at least it's not suppose to be. If you have one that hums without anything plugged in or the gain turned up all the way, something is wrong. The amp is quiet as a mouse at idle. I heard this problem with the third amp I had. OK I know this is getting a little hard to follow but now I'm back to AC30CC2 #2 with the tube issue. I sprung for the Mullard type Groove tubes, Gold Series that GC gave me for cost to help out. I replaced them and it got rid of the noise, for a while. Then it came back accompanied by all kinds of other noises. Little noises, not too bad but still it's not suppose to make noise. After going through 3 of these things I know what they are suppose to sound like. The problem noises were crackles, and fissels, and little pops and now and then on certain notes with the amp cranked up, a sound that wobbled and almost cut out. Weird. I tryed switching guitars, cables and tubes. It seemed to happen after the amp was on for a while and I had been playing it hard. Then sometimes is was quiet and the problems didn't show up. Don't you hate that? I finally gave up and as much as I really wanted to keep that amp I had to take it back. I go with the old "3 strikes and your out" theory. I gave it every chance cause I really liked looking at it. I have an AD50VT "Steel series" and love it. No problems and it can get the Vox tone along with a great Blackface Fender and the Classic Marshall sounds. It looks cheezy compared to the AC30CC but it works. And I've shown no mercy to that amp.

Reliability: N/A
Well I think I covered this already.

Customer Support: N/A
My customer support is Guitar Center sadly. GC really provided more help and support than anyone at the factory. Everyone bashes GC but they did everything possible to make sure I was a happy with my purchase. Ultimately I wasn't but they never questioned my sanity and just kept trying to work things out. I did try reaching Korg which is the only option for support since they control distribution. I received a call back about a week later from a person who was not at all familar with the products, much less technical problems. A person who actually is familar with the amps and is maybe a guitar player who know how they sound and operate would be good. Why don't these companies get it. A common problem nowadays and it is getting worse.

Overall Rating: N/A
Again I am not going to rate this amp. I still like it despite all the problems I had.
I love Vox. It was my first really good amp back in the day and it was used by all the great bands of the day. It holds a special place in my heart. I think I bought this amp mostly just to look at. It's finished equally well as my 60's amp was. I wouldn't mind just using it for furniture. It's just so cool to look at. The problem is that what I love about Vox has nothing to do with this amp. This amp is not a Vox, it's a good Chinese copy of an old Classic amp. I have no complaints with the Chinese, Korea, or any overseas or south of the border products. Their craftmanship is equal to most American products. Isn't that sad. We use to rule the world in innovation and craftsmanship but now we just try to rule the world. (OK I'll get off my soapbox) Made in China and fathered in England (I assume) by a company that has no direct link to anything that Vox was. Nowadays it's like we are buying fake reproductions of anything that we use to make really good just because it reminds us of how quaility equipment use to look. Those ingenious individuals who created legendary gear have been replaced long ago with bean counters and slick marketing suits. OK now I'll get off my soapbox.

Submitted by Brooks Reid at 10/07/2005 00:53

Price Paid: US $1000

Features: 9
If you're reading this, you know most of the features, so I won't go in depth. If you don't know, go farther down and find someone who lists it or go to Vox's site. In a nutshell, 2 channels, an input for each one, a switch to allow you to have them both on and mix them, reverb, tremelo, effects loop, etc. Compared to a lot of older Vox models, this has a ton of features, although compared to some other amp models out there, it's still very minimal. This amp isn't for versatility, and AC30's have never been great for versatility. But what they do do, they do amazing. I'll give it a 9 for it's relatively more features than past AC30 models.

Sound Quality: 10
This one is the one with 2 Warfdale speakers, not the blues. I use a Epiphone Les Paul with a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and Jazz in the neck. I run it through an Ibanez TS9DX, Electro Harmonix Small Stone, and Boss DD-3 delay. I have more pedals, but I haven't used them through this amp yet because they aren't true bypass, and I don't want to take away any of this amazing tone. I've owned it for a couple months now, and every time I play this thing or let a friend borrow it for a gig, I'm blown away by the tone. This is the holy grail to me. I play indie rock and experimental stuff, but I also play modern praise and worship for my student lead service and I can get some awesome U2 tone with it. Both channels are great. Even the normal channel which has no EQ sounds great. Doesn't even need an EQ. Personally, I prefer having both channels on and mixing the tone. But I've let a friend of mine borrow it for his rock n roll/brit rock band, and he used a modded TS9DX through the top boost channel, and we were almost moved to tears by the tone. I kid you not. This thing has got all the great tone you'll ever need, clean or distorted. If you want to really push the thing, definitly get an overdrive pedal. It gets close to metal with the right pedal, but I don't know any metal player that would actually want to play through one of these. This amp excells in the cleans to mid/upper mid gain levels. What I love about this amp though is that even with the preamp volumes all the way up to get the most distortion out of it, I can roll back the volume on my guitar and still get a nice clean tone. Amazing.

Reliability: 10
It has been gigged and practiced with several times by me and friends. I have never had one problem with this amp and I don't forsee any problems. Some people talk about all the horror stories, but I guess I got one of the good ones, because it's been a couple months since I bought it and it has been played consistantly, and still no problems.

Customer Support: N/A
Comes with a year warrenty, but I upped it to two with Guitar Center because of all the horror stories I've heard. Hopefully I'll never have to use it. I've never had to deal with Vox yet though.

Overall Rating: 10
If this baby were stolen, I would hunt the man down and demand for justice to be done. This is easily the best amp I've owned and one of the best amps I've played through. I used to own a rack set up with a Marshall JMP-1 preamp, Peavey 50/50 power amp, and Splawn 4x12 cab, but I really needed a change tone wise. My tastes changed from high gain to more mid gain kinda music, and this amp suits it perfectly. I plan on owning this thing for as long as it functions. I actually like it better than the Orange AD30TC that I was also looking at. Simply put, awesome amp and an even more awesome price. Get it now while you can.

Submitted by Jon Duenas at 09/28/2005 15:18

Price Paid: 550 (pound sterling)

Features: 8
Okay, the problem with the controls on this amp are that they have some nice added features but not enough of what SHOULD be there. Example i hear you say? Of course....

While my 200watt Marshall Bi-chorus has comprehensive amp controls for both clean and overdrive channels, with two types of setting on each channel PLUS chorus, reverb, effect mixing and Db level setting the Vox AC30CC has two channels where only one has ANY eq controls (bass...and treble...that's your lot)...oh thats it for tone....oh yeah with the ability to mix top boost and normal channels (useless)..and to add extra treble (not useless but be careful with it - this amp has treble by the bucket load)- Not impressive. But it has a reverb and tremolo.

However, it's remarkably easy to get a good tone out of this amp...hell i havent found a bad one yet. The tremelo lends itself to 'Little Wing' -eqsue sounds, and the Reverb is effective enough. Neither are incredible, but i have stomp boxes and rack units for that jiggery pokery - HOWEVER - both effects are very individual and definately usable, i will use them at a gigs combined with my effects.

I've heard horror stories about farty, buzzy sounds - but my amp sounds beautiful - it's not a vintage AC30 but it comes pretty bloody close - and most people really can't tell the difference at a gig anyway "oh that a 2002 Vox re-issue NOT a vintage 1965 model"....i don't think so. Either way - features aren't great but some nice touches and unusual features, which come mainly in the form of switches to boost the sound or cut parts of the frequencies out mean that this amp won't get 10...or 9...but because it does everything VERY VERY well - i'll give it an 8

Sound Quality: 10
I use telecaster mainly. I have rickenbackers too, and some strats but i mostly use tele's. I have a thinline tele with fender vintage noiseless, a fat tele with emg's and a custom bad-ass tele with all sorts of stuff on it - mainly 1 PAF and a humbucker in the bridge.

This amp is silent. Though cheaper mexican models may buzz - you can guarantee that the amp has nothing to do with it. The sound is rich, warm and bluesy, but with the use of effects it can become anything you want it to be - honestly. You may want to change the valves (although that means unsoldering the speakers...terrible planning) I use all sorts of pedals though i have a fetish for boutique pedals and electro harmonix stuff and they all sound fantastic. I'm really happy with the sound. Had i have had more money i may have bought an orange head and 4x12 cab, but this amp works perfectly alongside my fender twin and marshall bi-chorus. It's fantastic. With a great sound thats truly individual. Fantastic. Some vox purists, and young hopefuls expecting sounds straight from god's mouth, are misguided and expecting too much. For an amp that cost me £550 brand new - i'm NOT complaining. No option for distortion on the amp. I have dozens of distortion boxes - not a problem - this baby loves them all. I play EVERYTHING i can, but on my albums it's mainly alternative ala Radiohead, Smiths, Muse - but i play lots of Queen, Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Vai etc...it works with them all within reason...though it won't make the best death metal amp..but hey - GET A PEDAL.

Reliability: 9
It's heavy...HELLA HEAVY. I've had no problems, if a bus hit it - i think it'd kill everyone on that bus on the impact. Joking aside, i havent owned the amp as long as other here have. And it hasn't gone on any extensive year long tours but it's studily built, and i've had no problems. I know no-one that has had a problem with it. I think people have been a bit harsh on this amp. It may be mass produced but so is practically every amp amp and guitar - with a handful of exceptions. Because it's an AC30 people expect the greatest amp ever - and are horrified when even the smallest of things go wrong - it happens, get over it. COULD YOU BUILD A BETTER AMP?

Customer Support: N/A
Wouldn't know, never needed their help for it. Though they have bugger all information on their website...DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT TYPE OF VALVES THIS THING USES?

Overall Rating: 10
ive been playing for about 7 years. And im a bad ass guitarist haha, i love equipment and i spend all my time in studios. Trust me, this amp is a worthwhile choice for anyone considering a step up into the valve amp market. It outclasses and outperforms any amp in it's rank within reason. The only thing coming close being fender vibroverbs and things like that which are equally great amps. Not VOX's best effort ever, but a f**king good one none the less. I'm a tone freak, and really happy with this amp. At £600 nows your time to buy into VOX heritage...at least until you get that record contract and buy yourself one from 1965 to please those two amp spotters in the crowd...

Submitted by jon at 09/19/2005 10:54

Price Paid: $1500 (Australian)

Features: 8
I got this amp a few months ago from a small store in sydney.
I was basically after a workhorse amp that wasnt something that most people have 'eg. a fender or a marshall'. I like expoloring gear... Out here in Australia there isnt much of a market for gear as compared to the USA so if you ever get your hands on say.. a vox or a matchless or an orange its like WOW!

The only features I wish it included would be being able to change channels from a footswitch. Also I snapped the wires to the speakers and put caps on (So I can dismantle the amp alot easier... No soldering iron!)

I am prepaired in the tube dept... AC30's apparently go through valves fast.. If your gigging regularly then they say you only get about 6 months of good use out of valves. For the great sound and the look, im happy to put up with that. This amp can be run at 22watts so I guess it would be more tube friendly than any previous AC30

Sound Quality: 10
Well I play in an originals Rock band that is massively influenced by 50's rockabilly. Sounds great for both of those... But I would be lying if I said this sounds better than a Fender for 50's rockabilly (echo, sun records era) but still does it unreal.

I also play 2 nights a week in a covers band or duo (its good money, i make a living out of it!) and the amp sounds huge. I use it with gretsches... I'm lucky enough to own a white falcon, duo jet, 6120 and a tennessean with an anniversary coming in the next 12 months im hoping! In the covers band I use the normal channel anywhere between 2 and 5 with the master on full. In the originals band I use the top boost channel. The reason for me using the normal channel in the covers band is cos that channel reacts fantastic to overdrive and big distorsion pedals. This amp cuts through like anything!! You dont have to play loud, Usually when I play and im standing infront of the amp I can hardly hear it but around the room apparently it is very very much heard! Its not too loud... but then again I use it on 22watts and I did play at a stadium last week and had it on 4.. Dont get much bigger than that! I guess im used to having a Fender amp that sounded sssooo loud with the volume on 3 (but it broke up at 4) so yeah... Im just used to 60 + watt amps... Still getting used to 33 or 22 :)

Reliability: 5
WHen I first got it, it had some terrible popping, hissing and motor boat sounding sounds!! It anoyed me for ages, many new owners of these had the same problem and it all came down to one of the pre amp valves was crappy. Thats all!

However, literally 50% of these amps came out of the factory with dodgy tubes... Not good

Customer Support: N/A

Overall Rating: 10
After solving the pre amp tube issue all is well!
I use this amp at least two nights a week, its a workhorse!
At first a had my doubts cos of the weird sounds from the tube and even after I fixed the problem I still had my doubts. Ive dont about 20 shows with this amp now and its been nothing but dependible always! Im going to order celestion blue speakers... One at a time though cos they are so expensive. Apparently just having 1 blue and 1 wharfdale is even more heavenly sounding than the 2 whalfdales. Eventually I will get the 2 blues. HOWEVER I am going to get a Roland JC-120 as a backup amp incase anything goes wrong. No matter what model AC30 I got I still would get the backup amp. Its just an AC30 thing to be a lil questionable when it comes to reliability haha but so far its been a dream come true. I will continue to use this amp and if I change my mind I will let you all know why.

Keith Urban IS using a Vox AC30CC on all his shows and appearances in 2005. That says it all :)

Submitted by Michael at 09/11/2005 08:05

Price Paid: US $1499.99

Features: 10
This amp is a new 2005 model AC30CC2X.

I don't think I need to go into the features here. If you are reading this, you either have already bought one or you are thinking of buying one.....so you know what it does.

I am playing retro-country and retro-rock in my current house gig. We occasionally get to play some modern country and some R&B. This amp (with some pedals) does everything perfectly.

I should add here that I bought the AC30CC2X with the Celestian Blues. I tried out the AC30CC2 with the Wharfdale spkrs and the Blues are definitely worth the extra cash. I had to wait an extra week to get though. I was dealing with Guitar Center and they had to locate one 2 states away. From what they tell me ( and this comes from a really good friend that works there ), the demand is great but the supply is low and slow.

The only change I would make is to include a panel switch to turn on or off the tremolo. I use a Voodoo Labs pedal for that, and although the amps trem sounds great, I don't want to run anything else out to the front of the stage other than my pedalboard.

Sound Quality: 10
I play a Tom Anderson Classic, Tom Anderson Hollow T, Gibson Les Paul 57 Goltop reissue, and a PRS Hollowbody into this amp. That is 4 very different and distinct sounds. The amp uses them all very well. Though, to me, the sigle coils sound the best. But then again, I like my sound very bright. And bright is where this amp excells!

I bought it and took straight to my house gig where my Mesa/Boogie Maverick was still set up from the night before. I moved the Mesa over and set up the AC30. This is the first time I took something new to a gig without a week working with it at home. I don't think I was confidant, I was just excited as I have wanted an AC30 for years.

After a little frustration through the first 2 songs of the night, I was in tone-heaven thereafter. The sounds I have been wanting were right there. The amp responded just right to picking attack. I normally set an amp up where it is just starting to break up and then back off the guitar vol a little for things that need a squeaky clean sound. This amp does it perfectly!

I was not going for a Beatles sound. I know the rep but that's just not my tone or style. I wanted the sound of John Jorgenson with the Deset Rose Band, early Keith Urban, early Brad Paisley, Tom Petty, and, man, does this amp deliver! Of course Jorgenson and Urban switched to Matchless and Paisley to Dr.Z. Now Jorgenson is using one of these and a AD60VT. Urban kept Matchless and added Bogner. I tried a Matchless, and I own and will keep my Dr. Z. This is the one that nailed that tone.

The only noise I got is when I plugged in cheap cable. When I went back to my George L's or my Planet Waves, the noise was gone. For the first night, I did not put it on stand-by during breaks. I did not hear one single sound from it during those breaks.

I did try the bias settings and the filter settings on the back. But I will preface my comments by saying that I usually don't like the sounds of tubes that are biased cold or warm -- only hot will do. But this one does sound good at the lower setting. I would probably only use that setting for late night use at home though. I really did not notice a whole lot of difference with the filter smoothing settings...... YOMV.

The reverb is not as lively and chimey as my silver face Twin. But, Kudos to VOX for putting a tone control on the reverb. Why doesn't everyone do that? It works really good. The addition of a Low Drive/High Drive switch helps a lot too. I like the front end really cooking so switching the reverb to Low Drive allows me to have the reverb that I want without it being too much.

This is NOT an amp for metal or alt rock playing. It does vintange sounds. I use a pedalboard to get to other tones. My signal chain if Boss CS-3, Hermida Zendrive, Fulltone FD-II, Tonebone Classic, Boss PH-1, Jacques Meisterstringer, Voodoo Labs Tremolo, Boss DM-2. As you see I don't look for the amp to give me more than ONE GOOD sound. And this amp does that better than I could have hoped!

Reliability: N/A
I really won't make a comment here as some have done. Considering that I have only owned it for 7 days. It is a new product line so I hope a lot of R&D went into it.

Remember that Marshall's number 1,2 and 3 selling products are made in China. Read "The Father Of Loud" and your opinion of Chinese maufacturing will change.

I am not advocating putting any more money into the Chinese economy, in fact I am opposed to it. But I did not want to spend 3 to 6 thousand dollars for a used amp either.

Customer Support: N/A
I have not had to deal with them other than registering the amp so I want offer an opinionhere. I did get a nice personalized email back. I had asked a question in my registration form. They responded in 3 days. Hopefully any other issue will rate the same treatment.

Overall Rating: 10
Based on a week of use, I will give it the highest remarks. But the honeymoon isn't over yet. I hope nothing changes.

If it were missing today, I would have to get another now that I have owned and AC30.

It is heavy. I wish it had casters included ( like Fender ) or available ( like Mesa ).

It won't replace my Dr. Z., Mesa, Fender stuff. It will take it's own spot in the sonic playground.

Try it, you'll like it!

Submitted by Larry Williams at 08/13/2005 11:08

Price Paid: 850 (Euro)

Features: 9
i think it's from 2005. Mine was one of the first available in Holland. bought it in June. Well it's got loads of features. you'd better check www.voxamps.com to see them all. I use this amp in a beatles tribute band. so it's great. anything else... uh no

Sound Quality: 10
I use an epiphone casino and a rickenbacker 330. this is the real beatle sound, and that's what i need it for. one the other hand when i play other music it also suits it's style you can get a great overdrive out of it.

Reliability: 3
yeah well this is why i wanted to post something. i owned my amp for let's say 20 houres. when i took it out of its cardboard box (i didn't have a flightcase yet) the cloth was hanging lose. just below the vox logo. and the blend switch wasn't working very well. so i took it back to the store where they gave me a new one. two days later the amp of a friend of mine (we bought both an ac30 cc2 in the same store at the same day) started to buzz. so he changed it as well.( he has my old amp now with the cloth comming of, because the shop and vox holland ran out of vox ac30's he will have to wait for couple of weeks). then a week later i had to gig, so i picked my vox up to put in it's box and then... one of the handels came of. it just broke in two. fuck. so i called the shop again, now i have to change the handle with one of the vox of my friend, as soon as they have new ac 30's. so that he can bring a vox back with 1) cloth comming of 2) broken switch 3) broken handle. so i think that isn't very good, is it? so i hope it doesn't break done a day after the warranty expierse. well that's enough.

Customer Support: 8
i didn't have to deal with vox the store just gave me a new one. i did have to wait for a couple of months before they arrived in holland. and when they arrived i was lucky to lay my hands one one, because they are almost sold out at the moment.

Overall Rating: 9
like i sad i play oin this beatles band. using a epiphone casino and a rickenbacker 330. i used to play in an other band as well, where i used an fender jazz bass with a kustom bass amp.
i love the sound and the looks of my vox, a bit kitsch tough with the gold plastic vox logo. well i think that's it. my conclusion: Great amp, but take as much waranty as you can get.

Submitted by F de Gooijer at 08/09/2005 05:46

Price Paid: US $1599.00

Features: 1
2005 It never work so don't know about the versatile.
never got to try any of the channels,switching, or loops.
Never got to use any features.
I would have used this amp in a band. The snapping and cracking had enough power.
Vox Ac/30CC2X W/BLUES $1599.00 I receive this amp on 08-05-05 and it crap out before I could plug a guitar in this amp it Pop...snap... crack...hummed...I had to turn this amp off because I just knew if I let it on for another second it was going to blow up that I knew. I have never bought anything before that would not last for 5 min. I must say that the CHINA needs to go back to the elec. school on this amp. I don't now how Vox Corp. could even think of making a amp like this and state how great this amp is. This is one of these amps that when you put the money out you are taking a chance if your going to get a good amp or a peace of crap for an amp, it's a 50-50 shot on what you are going to end up with, so to everyone out there don't have to take my word on this amp it's your money and if you like to gamble with your money then I say go ahead and buy this amp you never know you just might end up with a nice amp but I think it's alot of money for a peace of CRAP that VOX should be ashame to have the name on it. Good thing the Beatles did not have this amp because if they would had this Vox AC/30 there would be no Beatles in our time. I don't think I need to say more how I feel about this PEACE OF HISTORY. Thanks

Sound Quality: 1
If the amp work I was using a Ric 360, Ric 625, and reissue Fender Strat 1954.
Rock
It make alot of Humming...Snapping sounds...cracking sounds.
Never got to use any channels the whole amp was crap.
Oh it's BRUTAL if you like the sounds that are not to come with this amp.

Reliability: 1
I don't no cause I couldn't depend on it for 5 min.
This amp should have NEVER left the VOX CORP.

Customer Support: 5
Still working with the company I bought it from so will let you know how they are on takeing this Vox back or I might have just ate $1599.00.

Overall Rating: 1
40 years,NO please have someone steel this amp.
Looks, That it don't work.
FENDERS, cause Vox it to be a Vox not (CHINA VOX)
Yes wish it had enough life to last 30 min. so I could have rated this amp the way it should be rated.
Vox need to go to the factorys and check out just who are these poeple that are realy making this amp and take off the name VOX and put the name JUNK.

Submitted by Bob at 08/06/2005 11:37