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THIS is the real deal. The rarest iteration of the AC50, famously a collaborative effort between Vox and The Beatles (if which this may be one of theirs but more on that in a video we'll be making soon so follow to keep up to date on that!). This is basically a top boost AC30 circuit, tube rectified but with two very notable changes: first of all, a pair of EL34s as opposed to the more commonly associated EL84s seen in most Vox-style amps. This was in order to achieve more headroom (closer to a clean 40W). Secondly, the ECC82 / 12AU7 as opposed to the raunchier ECC83s / 12AX7s seen in most amplifiers these days. This gives the amplifier a brutally clean tone all the way up to the 3 o'clock position on the volume knob.
This head has been paired with a faithful recreation of its matching cabinet from the glory days... 2 celestion alnico blues, paired with a midax horn. The horn was added as players complained that the AC50 was too dark sounding and wasn't cutting through live. This gave Vox the idea to chuck a horn in which would handle those upper mids' harmonics as well as to stop the 15W blues from getting overloaded by the immense wattage coming from the head.
Of course, This pack of 16 tones were captured using our Neve 1073 preamps, summed using our SSL 6000G console at Blue Bell Hill Studios. Though as opposed to the more common SM57 and R121, I found that this wasn't taking in much of that midax horn and thus was sounding a little dark. Therefore, I decided to close mic the blue speakers with a typical SM57 and used our Coles as a somewhat far mic (around a foot or so away from the cabinet and positioned low) to take in a more true-to-life version of the amplifier and how it sounds in person. The result, a break up that screams Helter Skelter and a clean that reminds us of the swinging 60s.
THIS is the real deal. The rarest iteration of the AC50, famously a collaborative effort between Vox and The Beatles (if which this may be one of theirs but more on that in a video we'll be making soon so follow to keep up to date on that!). This is basically a top boost AC30 circuit, tube rectified but with two very notable changes: first of all, a pair of EL34s as opposed to the more commonly associated EL84s seen in most Vox-style amps. This was in order to achieve more headroom (closer to a clean 40W). Secondly, the ECC82 / 12AU7 as opposed to the raunchier ECC83s / 12AX7s seen in most amplifiers these days. This gives the amplifier a brutally clean tone all the way up to the 3 o'clock position on the volume knob.
This head has been paired with a faithful recreation of its matching cabinet from the glory days... 2 celestion alnico blues, paired with a midax horn. The horn was added as players complained that the AC50 was too dark sounding and wasn't cutting through live. This gave Vox the idea to chuck a horn in which would handle those upper mids' harmonics as well as to stop the 15W blues from getting overloaded by the immense wattage coming from the head.
Of course, This pack of 16 tones were captured using our Neve 1073 preamps, summed using our SSL 6000G console at Blue Bell Hill Studios. Though as opposed to the more common SM57 and R121, I found that this wasn't taking in much of that midax horn and thus was sounding a little dark. Therefore, I decided to close mic the blue speakers with a typical SM57 and used our Coles as a somewhat far mic (around a foot or so away from the cabinet and positioned low) to take in a more true-to-life version of the amplifier and how it sounds in person. The result, a break up that screams Helter Skelter and a clean that reminds us of the swinging 60s.