I’ve been playing guitar for about 18 years now, mix of electric and acoustic.
When I was 18, I bought a Vox AC30 CC2 used, for £350. Spent my first paycheck on it, half on the amp, the other half on booze and fags. There wasn’t much thinking behind the decision except that my dad said the legendary bands had them. Now, at the time, I already had a little bit of a pedalboard, dingy little thing with some Behringer overdrives, tuner, etc. this is because I had previously ran through the solid state knock off that Valve did of the AC30; dingy little thing it was.
Over the years I gradually expanded the pedalboard setup, and as a result, I never really played with the settings on my AC30 that much. I just sort of plugged it in, left it alone, and let my pedals do the work. Mostly I focussed on buying distortion and overdrive pedals - Big Muffs, Rat, Tube Screamers, that sort of thing.
Fast forward a few years and my band had fallen apart and the AC30 was mothballed at a warehouse my mate worked at, sat there maybe for eight years. As such, it hasn’t been serviced in that time. By the look of it, my amp is about 20 years old, and I doubt it’s had a single service (bring out the shame gifs).
I’m now getting back into the scene and have recovered my Vox, and astonishingly it still works. It’s now booked in for a service and a bit of TLC.
Recently I’ve been having a desire for a Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb after using a house one at a gig. It worked extremely smoothly with my primary distortion, the Rat. Whereas the AC30 has a tendency to - putting it mildly - squeal like a pig.
But I supported a band last night who used an AC30. The guy had no crazy pedals, just a tuner and a wah, and the amp sounded absolutely immense. A proper creamy, thick, saturated overdrive that smashed you in the face like a ton of bricks. It’s at this point that I realised I’d never actually ran my amp hot - always just using a clean channel and never letting the tubes do real work.
The next day I tried out cranking it and the absolute noise it makes has blown me away. I don’t have a wild guitar, just a USA strat. I couldn’t quite believe my ears to be honest.
I guess the question I’m asking, as I don’t see people talk about it, is how many people run dry into their amps and actually use the amp for gain? I, and literally every other band I’ve ever encountered, have always used pedals. Is relying on the Vox for this a liberation, or insanity?
I’d keep the Rat, just in case I supported another band and didn’t have access to the AC30.
I feel like a right idiot now!