Guitarists--Vox AC30 and Alnico Blues

[hicksjd9]

Ok, so I just got a handwired AC30 head from Musiciansfriend (used with 10% off no tax and free shipping, so a pretty good deal). Managed to wheel and deal with the wife and sold a pile of gear to make it happen. Anyway, I plugged it into my orange 412 with vintage 30s and was somewhat impressed, but not overwhelmingly so. It sounded good, but not great. In fact, my budda head sounded MUCH better (the budda sounds amazing through that cab).

I found an amazing deal on an avatar 2x12 with celestion blues. Got it home and plugged it in, and...WHOA!!! Talk about beautiful tone, searing gain, amazing breakup. You name it! All along the dial, I couldn't make the vox sound bad no matter how hard I tried. My wife even commented that it sounded amazing when I came downstairs (and believe me, that is right up there with the parting of the red sea). For all those guys with AC30s (be it ccx or ccx2 or whatever model you have), you have to seek out some alnico blues to see what you are missing. All I can say is, it's worth whatever premium you pay.

With a pair of broken in Alnico Blues, this is probably the best amp I have ever played through or heard hands down. It's pretty much head and shoulders above pretty much anything I've ever played through. No wonder they are one of the most recorded amps in history.

[bassist_25]

There's something special about those amps that gets a tone that no other amp can get.

I'm glad you had good luck with the Avatar. I had a neo-loaded Avatar bass cab about 7 years ago, and I just never really dug it.

[hicksjd9]

This is just an open back cab, so unlike a sealed bass cab, the cab doesn't impart too much to the sound of the speaker. The cabinet does seem to be well-constructed, though. They have raised their standards quite a bit over the past several years.