22 Nov Review – Vox AC30 “amPlug”
This is my first gear review here at SoloDallas. Some of you have shown interest in practice amps and/or amps on a budget, so I thought a review of the Vox AC30 “amplug” that I own would be useful, including a couple of pictures and a sound test to give you an idea of how this thing works in practice.
A bit of background. The Vox AC30 amplug is a portable, battery-powered solid-state amp that plugs in directly to your guitar and provides a headphone output. It’s a convenient little portable amp. This is the first amp I owned – I purchased it last year right after I purchased my guitar. Since then, the line of these Vox amplugs has grown – they now have classic rock, lead, metal variants – but I have not tried any of them. My review will focus on the AC30 model.
What is great about this amp is that it’s portable, very easy to carry around. You can pretty much leave it plugged in to your guitar; if you often practice unplugged because you don’t want to be loud, or are not near an amp, it is quite convenient. For me, in the beginning it’s been very useful because I didn’t want to subject wife and kids to bad playing amplified – accoustic is suffering enough. For you, it might be useful in the same case. Or, if you are visiting your in-laws… or if you want to go out on Halloween trick-or-treating as Angus – strap on a portable speaker and let yourself go playing on the streets.
You can read more detailed specifications from their Web site, but long story short: the amp runs off two AAA batteries; has the guitar plug input as well as an “aux” input (e.g. to jam along an mp3 player), a headphone output, and provides three knobs (volume, gain, and tone). It costs about US$45-50 new. Here are a couple of pictures of it plugged into my guitar, and near the bridge so you have an idea of size:
Tone-wise: of course, it’s not near any of the other gear featured here that keeps us drooling. But I think it’s pretty good for what it is and for how much it costs. I bought it without the benefit of being able to listen to it first, and was pleasantly surprised. Here is a sampling of some AC/DC riffs that I recorded to give you an idea of what to expect for the kind of sound that this community likes. The amp goes from clean to distorted with the gain/volume knobs, this sample focuses on just one setting that I used:
Click here to open another window and play sound samples
Very minor drawbacks: the knobs are a bit hard to adjust and to read the labels. Because it weighs more than a typical cable you plug in to the guitar, you need to watch out for it loosening the nut of the guitar’s output – not a big deal. There’s no indication when the battery is running out of juice. It’d be neat if they supported Bluetooth, getting rid of the single cable that is needed now (to the headphone); well, I guess you can always plug in a Bluetooth transmitter to the output of this amp.
banane
Posted at 18:03h, 09 DecemberBy the way Renato, i got mine (Classic Rock) and I’m happy with it. Has a nice Rock amp tone and is pretty loud too.
rjofig
Posted at 21:29h, 09 DecemberGreat, glad to hear it!
Marsenal
Posted at 17:10h, 09 Decemberyo tengo esa misma epiphone, tal vez lo compre, no es el sonido de mi humilde marshall pero vale la pena para entretenerse, muy buen material no sabia de la existencia de este dispositivo.
rjofig
Posted at 17:25h, 09 DecemberYeah, my idea with the review was to let people know that this exists and provide some sound bites, glad it was useful to you. Cheers,
(I can read Spanish alright but I don’t dare trying to write π
Lemmiwinks
Posted at 21:11h, 28 NovemberI have the classic rock one but I rather play acoustic than using one of these. The tone gets boring after an hour
banane
Posted at 22:13h, 28 NovemberHm, why does it get boring?
Lemmiwinks
Posted at 18:49h, 29 NovemberI dont know, It sounds dull and fizzy but what could you expect from little electronics like these. But you want to play distorted without making any noise at all THIS IS A LIFESAVER! Sry for saying its boring. All I ment is that its not a thing you want to play all the time, maybe as a on-the-go thing or when you cant make any noise. But for clean for clean stuff I recomend this thing. One of these with reverb must be great!
Lemmiwinks
Posted at 18:50h, 29 NovemberI dont know, It sounds dull and fizzy but what could you expect from little electronics like these? But IF you want to play distorted without making any noise at all THIS IS A LIFESAVER! Sry for saying its boring. All I ment is that its not a thing you want to play all the time, maybe as a on-the-go thing or when you cant make any noise. But for clean for clean stuff I recomend this thing. One of these with reverb must be great!
banane
Posted at 15:51h, 23 NovemberJust ordered the Classic rock one, together with new amp tubes and a Shure SM 57. Will be my own birthday gift π
rjofig
Posted at 16:51h, 23 NovemberCool – I hope it works well and you enjoy it!
banane
Posted at 18:35h, 23 NovemberI’m sure it will be fun playing with it π
Angusrocks
Posted at 22:13h, 29 Novemberhahahaa, du machst dir aber viele Geburtstagsgeschenke……und der Weber auch noch (((-:
banane
Posted at 22:18h, 29 NovemberJa, und ein SM 57 auch noch…naja, man wird nur einmal 40 π
Angusrocks
Posted at 22:22h, 29 Novemberuiiii, jaaa, das stimmt, ist bei mir auch schon 5 Jahre her. Lass es krachen…..
banane
Posted at 22:26h, 29 NovemberJo, werd ich machen π
Chris
Posted at 15:17h, 23 Novembergot that amplug
and have to say i love it ^^
didn’t use my amp for over two weeks because of that thing
just sound nice and you get easily a crunchy bluesy sound out of that thing
i recommand that to everyone who wants to play when other people are sleeping
it’s just amazing how this little thing sounds^^
ar2619Rob
Posted at 13:09h, 23 NovemberThanks for the review, I am going to get one of these for playing at night.
HagusYoung
Posted at 20:42h, 22 NovemberDont get the AC30 model, there is a Plexi model also available from these amPlugs.
Guitarjosii
Posted at 20:50h, 22 Novemberthere is a “classic rock” model, but, hearing some sounddemos on youtube, i liked the ac30 model better
rjofig
Posted at 00:36h, 23 NovemberIt’d be nice to have samples of other similar amps posted here – I guess I can update the post with additional links. The only model I have access to is the AC30.
rpatzelt
Posted at 13:39h, 23 NovemberCheck this clip with an amPlug review by a hungarian guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1iC9m2nqqE
Chris
Posted at 15:22h, 23 Novemberwhat plexi model are you talking about ?
i just know the ac30, classic rock, metal, lead, and joe satriani, and for me the ac30 is the best one
nice crunchy bluesy sound
Angusrocks
Posted at 20:23h, 22 NovemberFor that little piece and that little money it sounds really awesome !!
Guitarjosii
Posted at 20:11h, 22 NovemberLOL. Today I got my AC30-Amplug, too and then suddenly there is this review. I’m amazed how good this little thing sounds… on my PC-speakers, it’s a little bit muddy but it gives you a cheap possibility to record your playing nicely.
Here is a record of me. Please exuse the crappy playing, especially my little timing-problem in Back in Black but it’s just to demonstrate how it sounds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHqOpVUSBLg
rjofig
Posted at 00:39h, 23 NovemberWhat a coincidence! Thanks for the link. Yes, took a bit of tweaking to get a good sound going into the PC for recording.
rpatzelt
Posted at 09:38h, 23 NovemberHi rjofig! Your guitar is an Epi, right? The amPlug sounds pretty decent but seems to come to life with Guitarjosii’s Gibson. Nice little gadget π
rjofig
Posted at 14:05h, 23 NovemberThanks! yup, mine’s an Epi.
Yeah, Guitarjosii’s sample is great! I think the difference is more due to better fingers than better guitar π
banane
Posted at 19:27h, 22 NovemberGreat review, thanks! Sounds fine, and I think, I’ll also buy myself one. I have a small Marshall MS-4, but it’ll be nice to walk around and exercise without having to struggle with the guitar cable.
rjofig
Posted at 00:43h, 23 NovemberYeah, two for one: skip the gym, and get more time to practice π
banane
Posted at 07:10h, 23 NovemberHehe, yeah π
Well, if I only had the time to practice…for the moment, I’m working all the time, all customers want new servers and things before christmas, spending the rest of their yearly budget. And this will continue till mid December, I fear.