Anybody Else Running Vintage Vox?

[Robal]

If you have the chance, try out a vintage Vox AC-50 MKIII or IV for bass, through a decent bass cab. Vox sold the AC-50 with solid state rectifier to be used as either a guitar amp or a bass amp, depending on the Vox cabinet paired with it. The AC-50 uses two EL34 power tubes, rather than a pair of EL84s used in the AC-30, and is simple: two channels, no effects, volume, treble, and bass controls for each channel. Rated at 50 watts but sounds bigger, louder than that. The Vox AC 50 amplifier, introduction, brief history, and background.
Not loud enough? There's also the AC-100. Home Page
FWIW, AC-50s typically sell for less than AC-30s of the same vintage.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

Really cool story about Cerwin Vega, AH.

I remember meeting some Cerwin Vega workers at a party in Topanga Canyon one night. It was a music biz party full of various luminaries and aspirants.

The CV folks made a huge impression on me - they were friendly low key and whip smart. I spent much of the evening sitting and talking with them by the bonfire.

 

[MarshallAC50Stack]

@agedhorse, Thanks for the learnin' on Cerwin Vega! Funny because the way the gain was set up on the Westminster I thought the speaker was distorting. I replaced it with a CV not realizing until later it was the same speaker as the stock. Needless to say there was no improvement in sound! Those CV 18s found years of use in a couple of pa cabs after that. Still liked the amp though, once I understood the issue. I think much of the bad rap on Vox SS is due to that approach to the volume control.

Robal: Two 1965 AC50s with SS rectifiers were my main amps for over a decade, 77-89. Solid and reliable. I paid +\- $175 for each of them. Quality tubes were cheap and plentiful during most of that time. Mullards for the preamp and Philips power tubes. Those amps are great for rock and blues!

I had an AC100 for a very short time but it didn't seem much louder, if at all, and only had one channel. It sounded nice, but the AC50s with two, normal and brilliant, were more versatile tonally. I no longer have Vox bass amps but have plenty of fond memories of them.

 

[OptionD]

two part answer - I purchased the head from a Vox V125 bass/cab set. The cab they made was a 15" folded horn, I think but the seller didn't have it. It was OK. I connected the amp to a 2x12 bass cab. I have little tolerance for hum and the refurb of the amp was going to get expensive fast so I traded it privately for something else.
As for the Essex. I really wanted to like this style of amp but wisely, I believe, never bought one. They're still really expensive and the power is low and tone is questionable. I recall reading a story, on Talkbass I think, where the bass player in a (young guys) band gigged with the amp and it was so horrible sounding that they stopped the car on a bridge after the show and threw it in the river.
I've seen the guts of an Essex on multiple buy/sell sites. No cab at all. Schematic included; seller is looking for someone to buy it and restore it. That ad has been up for over a year on my local site and it's been around for several years elsewhere. The guy says he intended to fix it up but never got around to it. That story appears on all those ads I've seen. I'll be glad to see that ad disappear one day. I won't be buying it and I have the skills to restore it...but there's no upside to that amp for me.

two part answer - I purchased the head from a Vox V125 bass/cab set. The cab they made was a 15" folded horn, I think but the seller didn't have it. It was OK. I connected the amp to a 2x12 bass cab. I have little tolerance for hum and the refurb of the amp was going to get expensive fast so I traded it privately for something else.
As for the Essex. I really wanted to like this style of amp but wisely, I believe, never bought one. They're still really expensive and the power is low and tone is questionable. I recall reading a story, on Talkbass I think, where the bass player in a (young guys) band gigged with the amp and it was so horrible sounding that they stopped the car on a bridge after the show and threw it in the river.
I've seen the guts of an Essex on multiple buy/sell sites. No cab at all. Schematic included; seller is looking for someone to buy it and restore it. That ad has been up for over a year on my local site and it's been around for several years elsewhere. The guy says he intended to fix it up but never got around to it. That story appears on all those ads I've seen. I'll be glad to see that ad disappear one day. I won't be buying it and I have the skills to restore it...but there's no upside to that amp for me.

 

[OptionD]

Would love to play with "THAT" side of the Vintage bass rig....

My daughter and I haven't tried vintage VOX amps...(Izzy has a hand-wired AC15 that screams for guitar) but would love to try.

We do play (3) 1967 Vox Bass guitars, though. Delta, Constellation and Hawk with a 67 Clyde McCoy.

 

[MarshallAC50Stack]

My cab after the Essex was the early '80s V115, the other half of the set that Andy Marshman was talking about above.

It was Rose Morris Vox’s version of the MusicMan 115 but made out of particle board. Even the grill cloth was attached to a sheet of particle board with a hole cut out for the speaker to blow through and it weighed a ton! The cab rattled when I bought it new, so I opened it up and filled the seams with wood glue. Come to think of it, I had to do the same thing with that Essex cab! The V115 had a Fane in it originally. I replaced it with a Celestion PowerCell, a big improvement.

The AC50s sounded amazing through that very efficient cab. Volume was never an issue. It was my rig for ten years; I played at least a thousand gigs through it.

I had a white Vox Phantom bass for a couple of months. The neck was too thin, so I offed it. I love the look though and almost picked up a red Phantom IV in the middle '80s, but they wanted $350.00 freaking dollars for it!