Well in early 2010 I played with some dork... played multiple guitars and bass on every track on his album and barely got paid anything lol... but... the joy of it was getting to use the studios AC4. Ever since then, I've had my eye on this little beauty... finally got around to scooping one up the other day.. I love love LOVE IT!

One thing that truely perplexes me is all the reviews of people saying "well it's good for bedroom practice or playing with friends but I'd get a bigger amp for gigging" Or like "it breaks up too soon at too low a volume... I need to switch to a cleaner tube". Is everyone deaf or what? On the 1/4 watt setting... it's way louder then I feel comfortable playing in my bedroom... and theres no way I can get it loud enough to break up without making my ears bleed.

And just to prove a point, I did a show with a Fender Pocket amp with a 2 inch speaker. lol. Put a mic in front of it and it seriously doesn't matter. The show was fantastic and rockin. :-P

But back to the AC4.. I can't even turn it up loud enough to hear overdrive without deafening myself... do people just have enormous bedrooms or something? lol

Anyway... GOOD JOB on this one VOX... Master Volume next time please so I can get that overdrive at tolerable volumes :-)

VL, congrats on your new AC4 - I'm assuming you went for the1x10" combo? (my you-tube demos were with the AC4 Head & 1x12" cab).

If you're miking up, you can use any amp you want & perform to 10,000 people! Jimmy Page was a master at using a small Suppro amp & making it sound huge.

However, the references to volume & clean headroom with the AC4 relate to using the amp non-miked i.e. as pure backline, which is how the majority of buyers will be using it - and although it's surprisingly loud for its size, it is aimed more at the home/studio/small club player after all.

The other consideration is guitar/pickups. Guitars with humbucking pickups will distort earlier than single-coils - and the more powerful the pick-up, the earlier this will happen. So you'll get that classic Vox tube crunch at relatively low volumes with a Les Paul as compared to a Strat. I believe one of your guitars is an Epi Casino, that has single-coil P90's, which will be much cleaner than for example my Gibson Les Paul Custom or Epiphone Sheraton II (in which I've put Seymour Duncan SH1 '59'ers).

So, depending on your guitar, the volumes you play, who you play with & whether you're miking up or not, the AC4 may or may not be suitable for gigging and as with all gear it's very much a case of 'horses for courses'.

BTW - there are mods that a competent amp tech can do to put a master volume circuit in which isn't expensive. However, that won't give you the same tone. The whole point of the AC4 is that you can get that wonderful power-tube distortion from its EL84 at relatively low volumes. That only happens by cranking up the amp & driving that tube hotter. All a master volume will do is to push the preamp 12AX7 tube into early gain whilst running the EL84 'cooler'. That will give you gain, but it's pre-amp gain - not power-tube crunch, which is slightly different.

It was exactly this consideration that brought about the Valvetronix design with the 12AX7 acting as a power-tube, not pre-amp tube, in the amps power-section.

That's YOU doing those videos? The blonde guy? I love those vids! :-) You're doing the one for the tonelab as well? I just bought a ToneLab EX (online) today to replace the ST that got lost in a taxi ride. What can I expect in comparison?

Julie, if you mean the very talented good looking guy with long blond hair who's a great professional guitarist & does the official Vox studio made promos....I wish that was me, but I think you're referring to Freddie DiMarco of Vox! I'm just the little old amateur guy with home made vids here (well, apart from the VTX150 Pro demo done at a friends studio): http://www.youtube.com/user/Voxman5?feature=watch

The TLEX has some nice features the TLST doesn't - not exhaustive, but here's some of the main differences;
*2 pedal sections, with 2 wah types
*stomp box facilities, with easier movement between patches in blocks of 4
*Some new effects eg 'Energizer' that makes your tone sound bigger & more dynamic (similar to an aural exciter pedal)
*100 user presets instead of 50
* Additional 3-band EQ within Line mode
* Much better, brighter/clearer tuner
*11 stand-alone distortions (instead of amp model), 4 delays

Unfortunately, it's still lacking patch-naming facilities so you'll need a good memory to know which of your user patches is where! And it doesn't have MIDI. It's a fair bit bigger/heavier than the ST, but that's to be expected as there's a lot more in there. It also has 2 built in stereo speakers for 'practice' - useful if you want to tinker & have no amp, headphones, PA handy, but tonal quality limited as you'd expect.

Back to the AC4 - I found it broke up way to quickly with humbuckers at 1/4watt. Not too bad at 4w setting though.
Rich

It is an attenuator (as stated in the manual) so you are getting that pushed EL84 saturation tone when the volume is cranked.

Hello,

I'm considering getting a AC4C1 and I have the very classical question about apartment use.

I love this sound :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lanmpAGXYnw

I'm not fan of heavy distorsion, I play more on the jazz/light blues style

Will I be able to get this kind of gorgeous sound at bed room volume ?
I don't gig and will not do so (at least in this life, maybe to next one) so the AC4C1 will never quit my home (and I would like it to be a sweet home not a heavily noisy one)

Thanks in advance

Lstelie: Yes indeed. In your bedroom, you'd have to blow out your ear drums to get it to break up. You'll always have that lovely clean tone.

Dsouza, I still strongly disagree that this amp breaks up at anything below EXTREMELY loud volumes. I've tried with a Casino (P90's), an SG (humbuckers) and two les pauls. The 12 string les paul DOES break up a bit. I think perhaps this difference of views between myself and a lot of other users is based on two things... My more modern idea of what qualifies as "overdriven" (I go as late at the LATE 70's! lol) and my younger ears being more sensitive. So take that into account. Or maybe all my guitars just have weak ass output and ya'll have higher quality stuff that's putting out more signal?

But yeah, I have to deafen myself before I get it to break up... especially on the 4 watt setting. I have to wear earplugs above like 10 or 11 o'clock and it's still clean... which I LIKE! lol It's a nice clean slate for the Tonelab to do all the fancy things. :-)

I'm using my ac4 head with a two ten cab live.. Small gigs with concrete floors make for chime y goodness!!