Vox AC15 Custom Head, AC30 Custom Head

1
first play
VOX AC15 & AC30 CUSTOM HEADS
18
Guitarist july 2016
is neat, the soldering is clean and bright, and
both amps look ready to take on the world.
The AC15 head is slightly shorter than the
AC30, with fewer controls and input sockets.
There’s a pair of jacks for the normal and
top boost channels; volume for the normal
channel; volume, treble and bass, a reverb level
control, tremolo speed and depth, and master
controls for volume; and the classic Vox Tone
Cut, which acts as a global tone control and
works in the opposite way to what you might
expect. The AC30’s extended control panel
offers high- and low-sensitivity input jacks
for both channels, a reverb tone control and
separate LEDs for mains and standby.
The rear panels on both amps are practically
identical, with a pair of speaker outlets, a
footswitch jack and a chickenhead knob
operating a rotary switch that controls the Vox
Reactive Attenuator circuit. This reduces the
output power in three steps: from 30 watts to
15 to one third of a watt on the AC30 head, and
from 15 watts to seven to one fifth of a watt
for the AC15. Overall, both amps are well built
and look the part, especially when sat on top
of Vox’s matching 2x12 enclosure. The AC30
head also benefits from an effects loop with
switchable levels to accommodate rack and
stompbox effects.
1. The Tone Cut control is
peculiar to Vox amps.
It operates on the output
stage (not the preamp)
and works back to front,
decreasing highs as it’s
turned clockwise. Both
the AC15 and AC30
Custom heads feature
built-in tremolo, with
variable speed and
depth controls
GIT408.rev_vox.indd 18 5/12/16 2:32 PM