Vox was originally built on innovation and over the last 25 years that pioneering spirit has continued to flourish under Korg’s ownership, allowing the brand to achieve its true potential as one of the world’s top musical instrument brands. The single Celestion VX12 speaker in this near closed-back cabinet produces plenty of volume and bottom end, with a slightly more focused treble when you listen on-axis compared to a 2x12 enclosure.
Diming the gain and tones comes very close to classic Queen, with maybe a touch more gain needed for lower output pickups. It’s ideal for blues players looking for a slightly more aggressive edge to their tone, compared to the regular ‘benchmark’ tweed sound. Pushing up the gain to about halfway takes you into the Blues Invasion era, with a singing sustain and a touch- sensitive toothy attack that compliments any guitar. Take the reverb off, add a little more gain and you’ll find a perfect Beatles Top Boost jangle, which sounds superb with our ES-335. The AC30S1 gives a modern interpretation of the Top Boost tone wrapped up in traditional looks If you pick ‘Marvin style’, using the bridge pickup of a Strat and holding the trem with your little finger so the pick is roughly over the neck pickup, any decent delay in the AC30S1’s effects loop will get you a satisfyingly authentic Shadows sound. This effect is excellent and matches many studio effect/plugins for quality, with a range that goes from natural background ambience to full-on cavern.Įven with the level control maxed out, the effect doesn’t overpower the guitar and works well for authentic 60s guitar sounds. Low gain settings produce slightly boxy mids and a medium-fast attack, evoking many classic pop instrumentals from the 60s, especially when mixed with Vox’s digital spring reverb. The controls are deceptively simple, with a wide range of gain and tone that makes it easy to dial in any guitar. After a few minutes though, initial hum fades away and the amp is remarkably quiet. Like all cathode-biased amps, the AC30S1 takes a little while for its voltages to stabilise. We auditioned the amp with a variety of guitars, including a Gibson Custom Shop ’63 ES-335, a PAF-loaded Les Paul and our Duncan Alnico Pro-loaded Strat. Overall, this amp is built to the typically high standards we’ve come to expect from Vox today: built to last as well as looking great. The power toggle switch has been replaced with a momentary action type that operates a relay, which feels a little odd at first, but we quickly got used to it. Thankfully, there’s a small switch to turn this function off. The AC30S1 has an energy-saving power supply that switches the amp off if no audio is detected for around 15 minutes.
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