2020 Happenings! (BOSS Strikes Back)

[Dandolin]

pretty sure Blackstar was started up by ex-Marshall employees; don't know of any particular KorgVox connection....
(other than maybe what good sir Pepe mentions )

[mcatano]

IIRC korg was the US distributor for both Vox and Marshall for a good chunk of the 90s and 00s. The MIUK AC30TBX amps that are quite well-regarded were made in the same facility as Marshall amps.

[Dandolin]

[mcatano]

AFAIK, the Marshall-era amps (at least the AC30TBX and the AC30TB) are really uncontroversial great amps. I had an AC30TB (greenbacks instead of blues) years ago and regret letting it go—prices have really crept up since Vox has become a major brand again over the last decade+.

Pepe might be thinking of the 70s/80s Vox amps that were made when Vox was owned by Rose Morris (who was also the distributor for Marshall from the 60s through the early 80s, maybe that's when both companies switched to Korg?). I think there was some clause of their agreement that prevented the two companies from competing directly, which meant no Marshall clones from Vox and no Vox clones from Marshall. I think the AC30s from that era are super hit or miss, there's a lot of weird solid state stuff, and then you get oddballs like the V125 (a 125 watt tube head with a transistor gain stage in front of it—I have one and it's pretty sick actually).

I don't follow this stuff too closely but my impression was that the korg stuff is seen as the last 'good' MIUK era for vox, and those amps are now more valuable than some of the rose morris era—largely for their consistency.

[Pepe]

Pepe might be thinking of the 70s/80s Vox amps that were made when Vox was owned by Rose Morris (who was also the distributor for Marshall from the 60s through the early 80s, maybe that's when both companies switched to Korg?). I think there was some clause of their agreement that prevented the two companies from competing directly, which meant no Marshall clones from Vox and no Vox clones from Marshall. I think the AC30s from that era are super hit or miss, there's a lot of weird solid state stuff, and then you get oddballs like the V125 (a 125 watt tube head with a transistor gain stage in front of it—I have one and it's pretty sick actually).

At the time when I was working in a music shop (closed in summer 2018 due to the retirement of the owners) I've always heard bad things about the VOX AC30 made by Marshall. I have no first hand experience in this case. I only know the few incarnations of the 2000s and they are all great and reliable.

[dubkitty]

to reiterate, my recent AC15 (AC15C1, manufactured sometime after 2010/before 2018) is tits. the tremolo is a bit noisy, but that's from my single-coil hum rather than a fault in the amp. admittedly the reverb is kind of tinny, but that seems common in small amps because they use cheap little spring pans and i almost always use the EQD Ghost Echo anyway. at some point i'll swap it out. the Greenback took awhile to break in compared to, say, a Jensen but once it did it whomps ass almost as effectively as the pair of older Greenbacks in the Laney. it's a hella loud amp to be rated at 15W RMS...i swear it's as loud as the Laney (VC30, in esse a AC30 with a Marshall T/M/B tone stack) at full crack. and the Greenback tames the more obnoxious parts of the neo-Vox high end and moves more than its share of air. one of the best $300 in equipment dollars i've ever spent. it would work in a fair-sized theatre with a kick cabinet.

[dubkitty]

i wonder if there's some way to lessen the hum by, say, running a resistor to ground?

[Dandolin]

@ 3 Benjis that was a score

meanwhile:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bTp6n2qJdI[/youtube]

https://idiotboxeffects.bigcartel.com/product/repo-man

[dubkitty]

it was the free shipping to GC in Richmond that made it work. it would have easily cost $75 to ship from wherever in bumfuck Texas it came from.

[Dandolin]

yeah, bummed they did away with that....

[dubkitty]

i didn't know that. well, that sucks, especially since that's the only reason to plow through the metric tons of recycling on their website in hope of finding a platinum ingot.

[Dandolin]

from the engineer behind the moogerfooger delay comes...something to take your mind off how overpriced those minifooger delays are now?

https://www.ashevillemusictools.com/products/adg-1

[cantremember]

That looks pretty neat and from the hype John from EAE has given it, I'd imagine it sounds really good. I'll have to check out some demos.

*This link wont work for me on my work computer*

[Inconuucl]

[youtube][/youtube]

[Dandolin]