Now THAT is more like it!
I recently spent some time with the Vox AC4 featuring a 12 inch speaker crammed into a cabinet that looks like it ought to house a 10. That’s because the AC4 normally contains a 10. Here’s the thing about 10 inch speakers – as a general rule of thumb, I don’t like them for anything. To my ears, wherever you find a 10, a 12 would sound better. Of course that’s utter bullshit. One of the best amps I’ve ever heard was a silver face Princeton Reverb and it had a 10 inch speaker. But 9 out of 10 times, the 10’s in most guitar amps (or PA speakers) sound a little small on the lower midrange frequencies.
I’ve always like the AC4, but of course my one complaint was that it didn’t have a 12. Now it does! But does that make this amp sound better? Oh yes.
This amp is what you’d get if Vox listened to its customers. Which it did. People want an inexpensive Vox amp that has the classic AC15/30 sound and a 12 inch speaker and a preamp gain in addition to a master volume. AND separate bass and treble knobs. The only thing debatable is the “inexpensive” part. This amp sells off the shelf for $349. If I could get one of these used for $200 I’d jump on it. I wonder if Vox makes an AC4 head? I need to look into that…
[Editor’s Note – Vox did make an AC4 head, named the Vox ACTVH 4W Tube Guitar Amp Head. They don’t sell it any more. They are going used for about $200.]
Appearance
I love the way it looks. Very retro, big enough to house the speaker but not much bigger. Classic Vox good looks. High marks.
Clean
This amp sounds good clean… but maybe not great. I prefer the Night Train for clean sounds, if I’m honest. It’s got a nice chime, and I’m not complaining. But of course part of that might be the fact that the cab is too small for the speaker, which gives a smaller sound.
Crunch
This amp starts to break up wonderfully, using the preamp gain. Often, the preamp gain doesn’t deliver on Vox amps, but on this one it does. This amp starts to distort in a very pleasing way. I’m still a Marshall guy when it comes to crunch, but this is very good.
Overdrive
To me, this is the shining moment for this amp. The overdrive is very much Brian May-ish – very aggressive but still really warm. I was very surprised by how good this amp sounded when you crank up the gain using single coil pickups. I’d been very disappointed by the overdriven sounds of the Night Train, but this amp has me drooling. I will likely own this amp someday when I can find it used and cheap.
Value
The amp is under my “Budget Guitarist” ceiling of $500, and it sounds amazing when you crank the gain, so that’s great. But… well, it really depends on what you need an amp for. If you want to record with this, I would say it’s a great value – instead of buying a AC15 you can grab this. But I’d probably rather have a used AC15, and you can pick up a used AC15 for this kind of money. However, you can’t compare new to used because it’s not fair. If you wanted to gig with this, you could… assuming you’re not in a band with a drummer. 4 watts isn’t loud enough to compete with real drums. You can’t score higher than a 70 if you can’t gig with it.
