Vox 4 Watt Valve/Tube Amplifier Shootout (AC4C1-12 AC4TV AC4C1)
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Vox 4 Watt Valve/Tube Amplifier Shootout (AC4C1-12 AC4TV AC4C1)
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The battle of the 4-watt guitar amplifiers from Vox
World of Music
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#Vox #guitarist #intheblues
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Most people don't like it as much compared to the others, but I really like the AC4TV, for the price you can get an awesome tone with heaps of character if you set it correctly.
I found the blue one to be the most pleasant on all settings. Good demo!
The 12 inch will cut the best in recordings
nice shootout, great playing! the blue one is the most balanced crunch in my view. creamy has veeeery cool fuzzy sound, i love it! ac4c1 makes possible to sound clean and has a nice break up too! thanks for qualified comparision!
The AC4-BL was the clear winner for me-the overdrive was the least farty of the three. The AC4TV sounded awful with the AC4-12 marginally less so. Useful comparison demo; thanks.
1. Ac4 2. Ac4 3. Ac4
But thats just like my opinion man
You and others 90 guys had bad monitor speakers, bad Headphones... or just not ears!!
Not sure about that
nice one Dude
For a moment I thought this was a chess joke involving an infinite loop of giuoco piano.
The Dude abides
I've owned all 3 I kept the blue it was my personal favorite
Thanks for watching!
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Nice shiny shoes man! Lol
+javier gallegos haha thanks mate :-) I thought I'd dress it up a bit :-P
this hits on a HUGE pet peave of mine with amp companies- they spend time & money to put out what could be great amplifiers, but then put in these cheap, under-sized speakers that make the amp sound like an old car stereo about to shit the bed... the 12" speaker in the new AC4C1-12 AND the almost comical(in comparison) sound of the cream-colored amp BOTH prove my point. LISTEN UP AMP MANUFACTURERS! -great vid, Shane.
i just bought the cream one today for 165 at gc on clearance. great lil amp so far
I have the ac4c1-12 and I absolutely love it! If you're thinking about picking one up, do it, it's my main practice amp now :)
I honestly thought the C1-12 sounded better, with both single and double coils. I'm actually planning to buy the AC4C1-12, but it's going to take me a while to save up for it because I have a seriously limited income.
Both my #1 and #2 guitars have a mix of single and double coil pickups, so it'll obviously work well with both, but I'm more interested in running it with the gain as low as possible and using my pedals for gain and treble boost instead.
Does it work well with the gain turned down, or does it only get really loud when you crank the gain?
I have the AC4c1 10” version and I rarely turn the gain up. Love the cleans. I swapped tubes (JJ power and tung sol 12ax7’s) had to have a couple capacitors replaced (lost gain for awhile, didn’t really care, cause I liked the cleans, but couldn’t get volume as high as normal). But I got it used at Guitar center for $199, about 4 months ago or so.
do you have demo of the 12 inch amp
@@That70sGuitarist I keep the gain around 9 o’clock on mine and the volume around 5. My ears ring sometimes… Extremely clean on my strat, edge of breakup on Humbuckers, some breakup on a P90. It’s probably pretty loud with the gain even lower, but that’s where I like mine and I just roll the volume on the guitar off a touch if I want my non-single coils to be completely clean.
@@GrandaddyJeff Wow, that must be pretty loud! I also keep the gain at 9, but I've never turned the volume much past noon, and even that was loud enough to be heard alongside a big Fender twin. I use my overdrive pedals to push the amp when I want a little grit 'n hair, and roll off my guitar volume to clean things up quite nicely. 😉
They all sound good. Nice demo. Each sound better at different settings. But you asked for a ranking. Big one, Blue then cream.
These things love boosts! Clean boosts, treble boosters etc. They should always be together.
They sure do. I used to have the cream version and I ran a Strymon Obi-1 boost/compressor into it - sounded beautiful!
Those Barden-PUs seem to have a lot of power/output ...
I do know both a blue and a creamy one very well (the blue one is named Betty and the cream one is named Caroline, just in case ...) and i used a vintage-PU equipped Strat on them: much cleaner and much more sparkle on Betty and less muddyness/fartyness/tweedyness on Caroline! I even had to buy a booster to get Betty over the "mild crunch" point of breakup. So my result playing with Betty is more VOXy, open sound, sparkly than in this demo and i like the sight fartyness of Caroline .... sounds like a maxed out tweed!
Never considered to ask for a date with the bigger sister - big Bertha - cause i like the tight sound of a smaller speaker (;-)
Great Demo ... merzi!
I find my "Cream" is plenty loud enough playing in a band BUT I don't have the volume past 10 o'clock because it starts to get muddy, and that's completely evident from the video. At around 9-10 o'clock it gives a great clean/crunch sound, which is ideal to go with an overdrive pedal and people at gigs comment on how good it sounds. If there's an actual negative thing I'd say it's that there is a noticable hum even at zero volume!
I have the blue one, after I swapped it for the cream version I originally owned. I love how it has the gain and master volume for better tone control, plus the separate treble and bass controls.
I’m currently running the AC4-C1 alongside a Fender Princeton 65 in a wet/dry set up. I have the AC4 run on edge of breakup as my dry amp bringing those mid-range Vox tones mixing in with the cleans of the Princeton. Beautiful tones all at manageable volume levels.
HOW DO THEY SOUND IF YOU ARE RIGHT HANDED?
SpezlvomAnneNr1 a lot better I'm sure
SpezlvomAnneNr1
You have to buy the right handed amp.
Love this lmao
Hahahhaa made my day thanks :)
SpezlvomAnneNr1 you will hear the difference with headphones. What you hear in the right you’ll hear it in the left and so on. Lol
The cream one (AC4Tv) has an attenuateìor. For me, as a bedroom player, it makes all the difference.
a fine demo of three similar 'noises' - would have been good to give a little more info on each of the amps - similarities, differences. Your opinion is always sought from us too. Thanks.
I'm digging the Blue one...
Ownin' it :D is nice
The AC4TV is an odd amp. It's a great amp, but you need to know what you're doing do get a great tone out of it. Humbuckers or neck pickups will sound muddy if you crank the volume much past 12:00. But bridge single coils like on a telecaster sound great through it with the volume dimed. Once you find the sweet spot on this amp, it's a killer tone and cuts through the mix with a band nicely. Oh, and it takes pedals very nicely. I had to sell mine in order to purchase the AC4C1-12 that I have now, but I really would liked to have kept it.
I have one, too. Bottom line is that mine sounds a hell of lot better than this demo sounds.
Please tell me how you compare the tv with the c1 12
@@carlopetruccioli284 as someone that uses the TV for 10 years, if you can get the 12, get the 12. different circuitry, a lot more versatility, a lot less boxy, more headroom, better speaker and cabinet.
stock AC4TV is not that great, you can get insanely good British crunch/mild OD but it will suck at everything else, mainly due to how gutted bass frequencies are. another downside is the very cheap particle board that just rattles at high volumes due to poor quality in conjunction with the small size.
however, it's a blast modding the TV and you can make it sound however you want if you know what you're doing. the reason this amp is a hidden gem is the insane quality of the transformers used. VOX cuts a lot of corners on the cabinet and simplicity of construction on this amp but they did not skimp on transformers (or tubes, the amp comes with very decently sounding Sovteks that are way better than the usual low end Chinese tubes you would find in most new amps these days).
I modded mine a bit. With ceramic caps with modified values that free up the bass, different type of tone control that actually works, modified OP control that does not gut the tone that much on lowest setting, different tubes (and maybe speaker) and you get the creamiest and most boutique-sounding amp you can dream of. I run an old Tesla EL84 and I modded the amp for ECC85 in the pre (also a Tesla tube, both recovered from old radios) and the amp is just great from sparkly cleans to lead overdrive (with an OD pedal).
I use to own the cream colored ac4 and a ac15. The ac15 sounded 100 times better. I would strongly recommend the ac4 with the 12 inch speaker or a ac15. 12 inch speakers sound much better for electric guitar, very big difference.
The AC4TV was dialled up incorrectly, mine sounds so sweet
Yeah people fail to recognize how sensitive and interactive the control on that one are. I've had a TV for a few years now, should be getting the C1 later tonight. I can appreciate each one for one it does but I've been trying to chase the tone of my old AC15-CC1. Hopefully, the C1 gets me closer...
They all sound great… the blue reminds me of listening to vintage live while the TV reminds me of listening to the vintage broadcast or vinyl days… the 12 just sounds like a vox. Good schtuff 🖖🏽
I’ve never seen or heard of Vox making a “blue amp”. It looks bad ass. I want one.
I like the 12 inch and the blue one. Cream sounds like a bad fuzz pedal just kind of muddy.
I have the cream one and it does not sound muddy like that, especially with a Tele.
Could be the tubes. I have british AC15TBX from the 90s and it's very tube sensitive.
british tube are the best ever!
I agree the "Cream" did not sound that great in the demo, but I have that one and the blue AC4C1 and I prefer the sound I get from the AC4TV. It's a bit deeper sounding and not as sharp/bright as the C1. Maybe mine is just broken in a bit better. The sound really did improve with some play time. But the C1 is better if the "chime" is what you're going for. I'm just wondering if I want to get the 1x12 version too. :-O
+1 on tube sensitivity. My AC15 came alive when I replaced the cheap Chinese glass with some GT's. Or JJ's? One or the other. But yeah, Vox's are picky about tubes. Never had another amp show such difference from a tube change.
My ears prefer the blue one. It sounds cleaner than the 12 incher and not as boxy and small as the cream one. Cool shoes.
I put a GA10-59SC eminence speaker in my AC4 Blue (BRG) and OMG...it's amazing.
THAT right there is why I love Fender amps.
I have the AC4TV. It sounds great with a strat when mixed with the Biyang Tri-verb and Behringer Vintage Tube Overdrive. Played clean on the 4watt setting with the OD pedal gain on 9o'clock, tone at 11 o'clock and level at 3 o'clock you can get an amazing John Mayer esq clean tone. Try it for yourself!
Thank you so much for this! Exactly how what I was looking for. Bless you!
I have a tv4 mini and I plug it into a closed back 1/12 cab and love it. Great for my boss gt6.
Great comparison, I prefer the AC4/12. I have an 80's AC30 with Greenbacks installed but for my playing these days it's far too loud and I can't get the sound I like. I'm thinking I could get a nice break up without blowing the windows out with the AC4 with the 12inch speaker.
Thanks for this useful demo !
For me.. AC4C1-12 is the best.. thanks for the sound test my friend!!!
I love your style of playing mate, so suits valve/tube amps. Shit hot mate!
Vox + tele = magic
I have owned the ac4tv 10" for 7 years or more, since they first came out.
The best thing I ever did for it was cut the rear panel and partially open the cabinet. A slot about 2.5 inches tall across the back (leaving another 2.5 inches of timber at the bottom) really opened it up at high volumes. It sounded okay quiet but cranked they sound really boxy. The slot fixed it. The factory speaker (at least on the first production run) sounds decent too once it is broken in properly.
Also running a boost into it drives it better with humbuckers than just cranking the volume (they get muddy). Really great cheapy amp
I looked at these and ended up with the Marshall SL5. 12" all tube / 2ch + reverb. Good 2nd amp. Great alternative if you can find one. But sure I'll end up with an ac30 at some point as well ..
The AC4C1-12 is a winner when it comes to cleans
le bleu sonne bien; j'ai l'AC4TV depuis plus de 10 ans et je joue pratiquement toutes les nuits à 1/4 de watt et ça c'est interressant.
I like all three I own the cream great little practice amp, n a house full of people also it cleans up well with tone adjustment on my Les Paul. Thanks for the video!
Mine is like the blue one (AC4c1) but has the TV appearance. It sounds great.
Nicely done my friend, the new AC4 sounds pretty good
+P.o.B pedals Thanks mate :-) I really like that one too :-)
I just bought a brand new AC4C1-12 in White Bronco for just $230 USD. I went to the store to see what my options were, but at that price, I had to take it home!
The ac 10 c1 seems like a better deal. Much more variety and depth for a bit more money. They are all.cool.amps though. I would not mind playing them.all. Thanks for the demo!
There's a line from "slapshot" that reminds me of the AC4TV down to a tee.
"Too much, too soon!"
Sounds like ass. I nearly just blew £120 on one of these and now I'm getting the hell out of there before the deal is done.
Has to be said though, the other two were great.
I'd mention that the blue amp has a speaker out for running into a bigger cab. 4w into 16 ohms.
These are great for their size I'm blown away
The AC4TV sounded frankly broken.
Little Blue was exceptional, the others were not good and I agree that the tv sounded fried.
I am going for the blue, great controlled gain and sweet sound, the cream one has a bit a cheap 'n' nasty sound, the bigger one didn't stand out for me!
Recording: AC4C1
Live: AC4C1-12
Home: AC4TV
My favourite: AC4C1
Nice demo. On clean, 12" one shines through. O dirt, blue one's the winner. Cream one sounds like fart no matter what. :). Thanks again for the demo.
Baby blue sounds fantastic.
Would have been good to hear some clean sounds too...
Blue amp is a screamer, it likes to be pushed. :)
Definitely the blue amp. 💙
the speaker in the cream box is fried mate.
Which is great:)
It’s not fried it’s powertube distortion vs preamp distortion.
C1-12 stole the show. Great amp, and not much bigger of a footprint than the other two. May have to pick one up and replace my micro Terror.
+MEDiumInc I have both the c1-12 and a micro terror, and I much prefer the vox
GuitarFreak1901 Yeah, I got the micro terror as an amp i could take outside in the back yard and just play while I enjoy the sun. but You def feel like you are missing some warmth and some of that natural tube break-up. Was originally looking at the AC4TV, but i really like that C1-12
That Blue one sounded excellent. I have the AC-4TVH (head of the cream one), and with lower gain tubes and an Alnico blue it sounds awesome to my ear. As you say, one of the biggest upgrades is the speaker, and I knew from day one (bought my AC-4TVH when they were new like 7/8 years ago) and got the Alnico Blue cab they were selling for the ac15 handwired head that was out at the time.
That gain with the original tubes was just nasty. Didn't really give it a 'Vox' feel if that makes sense.
I got an AC4TV recently, as a poor man's Orange it does very well. I am saving for a couple hand-wired AC4HW to run in stereo from my echo. Some pedals cost more than others, but I am always sure to get an extra song out of it.
All amps had widely different amounts of head room @ 4W!!!
All sounded good.
WoM are sly/sneaky/shifty lot!
They tried to trick me into buying a Mackie mixer there they had on sale once, and tried to keep me from leaving the shop till I coughed up!
Needless to say I told them to back off and left and NEVER went back!
I'd WATCH 'em!
+DMSProduktions
Yeah i know .. since economy dwindles down salesmen tend to get get rough sometimes. But there is a much better way: my fav. shop changed the alarm system in order to detect foul/fake customers who did not buy anything. if you get caught you win a 2 hour shop walktrough attended by 3 power salesmen, a bank credit specialist and a security guard. You are invited/obliged to play every instrument you could afford and you get 15 min stops at every pedal sale hotspot ...
Matze R
LOL! This happened nearly 10 years ago now!
+DMSProduktions It's a bunch of young guys running the shop now they are all nice dudes. :)
+DMSProduktions
good to see you didn't loose your sense of humor ...
intheblues
Ok good to hear Shane.
Yeah the old bunch tried to treat my enquiry as an offer and got real aggressive with me when I said I didn't have the money on me, and tried to hold me there cos I made an 'offer', & they 'accepted', so I HAD to complete the 'transaction'! I said,' misunderstanding, an enquiry is NOT an actual offer', and if they tried anything I would have the Po'po there quick smart!
They got really shitty with me and I said, 'I am leaving right now and you AREN'T stopping me!'
Left and HAVEN'T been back since!
This is a cool video BUT … as the proud owner of an AC4TV, something sounds WAY OFF about how it’s recorded here. I owned six Vox Amps and definitely did not need another when the AC4TV knocked me on my ass. If it sounded anything like in this video, I would’ve demanded to know who put the Crate amp inside my Vox cab. Trust me, the AC4TV chimes and overdrives to heaven, and sounds nothing like what’s shown here.
Blue one sounds the best to me in terms of both clean and dirt. The white one sounded too flubby. Black one has good cleans. Overall, cool series
The Blue and the 12 are very close in cleans. The 12 had more bass when pushed blue seem to better string to string articulation.
At 1:49 you are supposed playing through the black one and turning up the gain "to make it comparable" but there is an edit and the mike jumps to the cream in the center and a guitar cord suddenly appears plugged in as you begin playing. Please advise.
i have the blue one. after a tube swap and a new speaker,this amp is indeed studio ready. great sounding amp if you put just a lil work into it. the stock chinese tubes are junk:/
What tubes and speaker did you choose? I've got one too and I'm curious how to improve it.
I used tungsols at the time (both preamp and power amp) as well as putting in a celestion G10 greenback. I lightly lined the cabinet as well and that seemed to help a little with the boxiness I was normally getting in recordings.
Blue amp for me, although if you got a Marshall already, you may go with the black one, which is a not-so-far second and the white one sounds farty, period. I guess with higher wattage the white could get a great distorted sound and the black one an overdriven one.
Im leaning towards buying an AC4C1-12. I prefer the fuller sound generated by the larger speaker. Although, that little blonde one sounds like a screamer!
hearing the 3 amps back-to-back-to-back, i am very happy i bought the ac4-c1-12; the blue is very close to the 12, but the cream amp sounded shitty to my ears, especially the fizzy-fuzzy overdrive sound; thanks for the shootout...
O
The cream one sounds like tone bender into vox lol
The smaller ones get all fuzzy. A fuzz pedal would make more sense because the effect can be turned off. The C1-12 sounded the best, to me
El video No le hace justicia al ac4tv crema, yo tengo uno y suena bien!
wonderful demo!
Those are some cool little amps!!!!
Thank you ^so^ very much! This was so helpful in my buying decision.
Белый усилитель звучит как фузз, тоже очень неплохо. А в целом, все три усилителя звучат очень хорошо. Спасибо.
Great comparison. Really helps me to pick one. Looking for a good home use amp to play later at night and don't really care about the reverb or tremolo as I have a Princeton Reverb already and I want a different sound, so these would all work great. Certainly like the AC4C1-12 better, so I think that's what I'll go with. Thanks again!
I have the ac4tv and like it. But I liked the ac4c1 best in the demo
as always looking for best value for the money versus the best sound is a dilemma.
when the AC4 C1 with 12" speaker came out due to popular demand, I thought that's the one to get. A no brainier as they say, right? but no not for a new one, not for the price.
I got a good deal on a AC4 TV a while ago and it is a bit harsh sounding making it little bit of a one trick pony but I took advantage of this by using a EHX LPB (boost pedal) with my Stratocaster with 69 pick ups and it's great for lead. it reminds me of my old Fender black face champ I had way back in the 80's but looks boutique 60's just how it's meant to be. By using the 3 power settings it is useful to me for going mental at home than the champ was for crunchy nut blues.
Also it was cheap enough to try some of the many mods that are available (well maybe one day)?
is the cream one a beehive ?....cos it sounds like a box of Bees ??
Shane, you da man!
I got the mini & the Blue but once you go to the ac 10 there is no turning back. They are fun though.
Did you review the Brian May 'decay' amp?? It would go nicely in one of these shootouts I think:)
So thats how to sound like jack white...great playing
Another really useful demo, thanks mate. Have you tried reverb/ delay in front of the AC4C1-12? Bugs me that Vox don't include reverb or a loop on these, given that they're at a practice/ home amp price point...
Kind of torn between getting a AC4HW1 or a Fender 68 Vibro Champ Reverb. The Vox sells for amazingly cheap here in Japan.
The 68 vibro champ is quite awesome if you swap the celestion out for a Jensen p10q.... it becomes a poormans low wattage 59 bassman
@@floundrpoundrI ended up getting the Vibro Champ, yeah. Didn't change the speaker yet, but I will someday probably. Still, loving it as a great sounding practice amp.
Great video dude!!
I picked up an AC4TV as part of a deal on the guitar I was really after. I can't get along with it at all. I don't like its sounds (I could stop there but ...); I don't like what the attenuator does to the sound thus I prefer it at the full 4watt which, as it is not a master vol amp, makes it too loud for my home setup when cranked; I don't like the single 16ohm speaker out which means I can't use my 8ohm V30 cab with it; I don't like the combination of no reverb + no fx loop + no line out making it a feature desert by modern standards; I don't like that it is difficult to use a speaker DI box unless you are using an external cab; I don't like that the tone control is so subtle that it is sometimes hard to tell if it is doing anything at all. Altogether it is a poor home recording amp, a poor practice amp and it sounds poor though could be of use in a studio with mics and all. All the amps I have owned over the years I can't remember disliking any of them the way I dislike my AC4TV. Should I spend loads of dosh modding it into something more acceptable ? NAh, I'll just stick to my Blackstar Studio 10 6L6 and even my Blackstar HT-1r both of which fart the AC4TV into outer space. So, what's to like: I got it for near to nothing and plenty of badge loving folk will be queuing to give me a tidy profit when I sell it.
I like the AC4-C12 better of the three.
The blue one is my number 2.
Fender(blue) - JTM(cream) - AC30 in 4watts imho
In my opinion the cream amp is too fuzzy, not the classic vox tone. Blue and black are much closer to the ac30
Good demo, it really shows the differences between the amps. To be honest, I feel the creme one is the lamest of the three. I tried one of the Vox modeling combos a few years back & came away disgusted. No low end, for one thing, and worse, I could hardly hear a difference between the so-called models. At best it sounded like a comedian imitating a famous singer, if you get what I mean. Like if they found a way to make a tweed entirely out of plastic & cardboard. I build small amps, and I wouldn't even try to sell one that sounds anything like the middle amp. But the other two seem to have some life & girth & sparkle & nuance. Could be improved a bit with some tube-swapping, maybe better power-supply caps. Good job. Thumbs up.
I love that cream one
12" hands down.
I might be able to compare how they sound if you used a professional quality mic instead of a Shure 57?? Now I'll have to find other videos. 😢
Good guitar playing
Sounded good to me without reverb. While playing, did you miss it? I'm considering the 12" one.
I owned the cream one and was very underwhelmed. I have the blue one now with the ten inch speaker and it's great, the 12 inch new one doesn't sound as good in my opinion.
I own the AC4TV Mini (6.5" speaker version of the cream one) and it sounds almost identical to the one in the video which I don't care for. I have been underwhelmed as well. I also have the Blue one which was my favorite in the video and it is fantastic. I own an AC15C1 as well which is obviously the best but is a tad heavy if you want to lug it to a friend's place.
David DeLaney Yeah, the TV doesn't sound like a proper Vox to me, but the blue sports the top boost circuit hence its prototypical Voxey character.
Nice video man,i just needed this comparison. A question, is the -12 one too loud for bedroom playing? I am between that one and the blue one btw
Bauti Cassaglia hey which amp did you go for? I'm in the same boat as yourself. I want one of these but I want it to be crunchy and still at a low bedroom level
love the blue. the cream sounded like garbage. and the classic was decent too, similar to an AC15.
I like the big one best. The other two are really too saturated and get muddy with chords