Hand-Wiring AC15?

[rp]

And after all that work, you'll finally power it up, and it will sound...basically the same.

Exactly. I've ruined many perfectly good things since I was old enough to hold a screwdriver and I'll pass on what I've learned: Leave the AC15 alone it's fine as it is. Sell it for $500 to someone who will love it, and put the money towards a scratch build. If you are going to do total gut jobs save it for amps you find on the street. Sometimes you just need to park your space ship and float peacefully in space.

[sixstringer]

A Spitfire circuit will work, it's close to the AC-15 (assuming you are using a 12AX7 in the preamp). It has all the EL-84 chime of a good AC-15, works with the existing AC-15 transformers and is straight forward to build. I built this one into a Fender chassis, so there should be real estate to spare on the AC-15 chassis. The turret board is from scratch and works great.

[ampmike]

Hey Bob,Checked out the site,very impressive,now I know where to get great trannies,Thanx Man,Mikey

[azatplayer]

Thats very nice sixstringer.

[tubeswell]

I built this one into a Fender chassis, ... The turret board is from scratch and works great.

immaculate!

[selloutrr]

yes very clean work!

[sixstringer]

Thanks very much, it's a great 15 watt amp on it's own, and an outstanding platform with pedals.

[Markusv]

FWIW......

A friend of mine wanted to do basically the same with an AC30 TB/6
Talked him out of it and kept the PCB. Just upgraded some caps and resistors here and there, put the slope resistor on a switch for 2 different values, and I think I lowered the value of the tail resistor a tad for faster break-up. and I think I added a bypass cap on the 2nd stage. (can't remember)

I think we achieved what we wanted: A slightly thicker sounding amp with a little more teeth
The amp sounds great and he is extremely happy
(in fact he is raving)
Not sure if this is psycho-acoustics playing a role. The amp definitely opened up a bit and it may partially be due to some Sozo caps and Styrene pf caps. And then the slope resistor tweak

Markus V

[The New Steve H]

Today my friend contacted me again. Now he's thinking he may want to gut the amp and put a Matchless Lightning clone in it. I told him this was the nuclear option, since the Vox stuff will be history.

The obvious issue I see here is that because the knobs, jacks, and switches are different, the chassis will be a problem. This amp has already been drilled for AC15 stuff. I figure he will need either a new chassis or a new faceplate. Does that sound about right? I've never tried to turn a Chinese factory amp into a handwired classic clone!

I know we could make a thin wooden faceplate to go over the existing aluminum, and then we could lacquer labels onto it. We would still have to work around the existing holes, though. I'm looking at an AC15 photo on the Vox site, and it looks like we could just use every other hole and cover the rest. A wooden faceplate would work for that. The big problem is that the Vox faceplate isn't flat. It has a vertical surface and a horizontal surface. Might take some work to get a new wooden plate to look right.

Seems like it might be simpler to just order a custom chassis with suitable dimensions. Or, of course, sell the Vox and start from scratch.

[amplifiednation]

Sell it for $500 to someone who will love it, and put the money towards a scratch build. If you are going to do total gut jobs save it for amps you find on the street. Sometimes you just need to park your space ship and float peacefully in space.

100% agreed.

That AC15 still has good resale value and its a desirable amp to many. If you strip it out and rebuild, the "value" (at least online) is going to be less than the parts.

If you can get $500 that is plenty of money to fund a nice new project, with new chassis, transformers, quality parts, and even some new faceplates, especially for a nice low wattage build.

[The New Steve H]

Looks like they bring about $400 on Ebay. That would go a long way toward a new amp.

[M Fowler]

Steve,

The Matchless Lightning gets really dirty fast does your friend want an amp with more clean headroom then what the Lightning can deliver?

Mark

[amplifiednation]

Steve,

The Matchless Lightning gets really dirty fast does your friend want an amp with more clean headroom then what the Lightning can deliver?

Mark

thats how i like my women

[The New Steve H]

I'm sorry to tell you this, but he hasn't told me the first thing about what he likes in an amp. I wasn't trying to help him choose. He got in touch with me on his own and started asking questions. I guess he just doesn't like the Vox, and he is probably familiar with the sound of the Matchless.

If he gives me any more info, I'll post it.

[chrisc]

A friend brought me a broken AC15cc to rebuild. I built an X10 in it and its fantastic. I just superglued some black aluminum to the inside of the chassis to block the un-used holes. He wanted to reuse as much as possible and it came out great, the only modification I did was to the chassis, I had to drill for a third 12ax7.

I guess you just need to figure out if a cab, speaker, chassis, transformers, sockets and most of the tubes would be worth the $400. I love rebuilds because they are just so easy, start to finish in a day.

just my $.02

Chris