fuzz for a crunchy ac30?

[Rotlung]

i wanna stay slightly crunchy in the top boost of my ac30 and get fuzzy from there. my scarab works great for this but not much else. the normal channel has no troubles. the bright cap is clipped on the top boost, and its doable if i keep the pre gain back to 9 o'clock but thats too clean for me. i usually got it up around noon or even 1 o'clock if im not as loud. any particular fuzzes out there that seem to work with this particular amp and application?

[PanicProne]

Maybe it's just me, but have a hard time coming up with a good suggestion just reading this. I play an ac30 myself and have been for a good couple of years now. Maybe you could post a clip of something somewhat similiar to what you're looking for soundwise? I've tried a lot of different dirt pedals with my ac30 through the years, but I want to give you as good of a suggestion as possible, rather than just namedroppping 2 billion fuzzes.

[Tristan]

The ones that work for me are:
Driving Notion
Harmonic Percolator with diode lift switch
HM-2
Pharaoh or other modern tweaked Muff (I'd go with a germanium or opamp one)
Rangemaster
Tonebender MKI

It depends on what you want to achieve since these are all quite different.
In my opinion for what you want to do the Rangemaster is probably the best since it isn't a fuzz but pushes the amp over the fuzzy edge.

[skullservant]

I just boost the shit out of my Shiv (ac30ish) with a Klone. The Driving Notion worked incredibly well too though

[frigid midget]

Relative to my interests.

I'm having a hard time getting my AC15C2 to really sound great with fuzz, especially in the top boost channel with a bit of crunch goin on...

It always sounds kinda muddy, it seems like there's something missing that I can't really put my finger on. My other amps (usually loud and sparkly clean, plexi style) turn into fire breeding monsteres when I put a fuzz pedal in front of it. Dunno if it's the EL84's or the greenbacks, or maybe the infamous 'bright cap'...

[Rotlung]

Maybe it's just me, but have a hard time coming up with a good suggestion just reading this. I play an ac30 myself and have been for a good couple of years now. Maybe you could post a clip of something somewhat similiar to what you're looking for soundwise? I've tried a lot of different dirt pedals with my ac30 through the years, but I want to give you as good of a suggestion as possible, rather than just namedroppping 2 billion fuzzes.

I have a small handful of pedals that just haven't seemed to work. I'm not really going for anything in particular, and generally I lean towards Muff-derivatives, but anything that inspires me to write something is good to me. I just have the damnedest time finding anything I can stack on the AC30 with it set for a little crunch, while with a Marshall 2204 or Tiny Terror there has never been a problem. There's two billion fuzzes out there, but I'm looking for ones that users here have personally thrown in front of a loud and crunchy AC30.

The ones that work for me are:
Driving Notion
Harmonic Percolator with diode lift switch
HM-2
Pharaoh or other modern tweaked Muff (I'd go with a germanium or opamp one)
Rangemaster
Tonebender MKI

It depends on what you want to achieve since these are all quite different.
In my opinion for what you want to do the Rangemaster is probably the best since it isn't a fuzz but pushes the amp over the fuzzy edge.

I have a Rangemaster clone, and it does good things. I have a Scarab Deluxe which is based on a Tonebender, although I'm not sure which version or really know the differences other than the Mk III is "Muffy" while the others are not. The Scarab may never leave my pedalboard as long as I own this amp though, it's one of those pedals that seamlessly melds with the guitar and amp. I have a Mojohand Colossus that sounds good on the normal channel, but not on the crunchy top boost. It's a Russian style Muff with some mid control, but maybe that's not tweakable enough. I had a Pharaoh before I owned an AC30, and always had trouble with it being far too dark. The AC30 can be pretty damn bright so maybe it's worth looking into again. I have an HM2 on the shelf, haven't even thought about trying it. It sits around for those late night Swedish metal inclinations, not much else. I read that the Fulltone 69 works well with top boost because it's a calmer, smoother Fuzz Face, so that may be worth checking out. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Rotlung]

Relative to my interests.

I'm having a hard time getting my AC15C2 to really sound great with fuzz, especially in the top boost channel with a bit of crunch goin on...

It always sounds kinda muddy, it seems like there's something missing that I can't really put my finger on. My other amps (usually loud and sparkly clean, plexi style) turn into fire breeding monsteres when I put a fuzz pedal in front of it. Dunno if it's the EL84's or the greenbacks, or maybe the infamous 'bright cap'...

You definitely need to clip that bright cap. Just snip it out completely. C15 on the top boost volume pot.

[PanicProne]

Well then, I mostly run my AC30 clean, but think the Dwarfcraft ECT works well either way. As does the Hot Cake (which is what I've been using the most. Although not a "fuzz" I reckon it gets pretty fuzzy. I haven't used my Fulltone 69 for a looong time, but remember it sounded very good too.

[frigid midget]

Well then, I mostly run my AC30 clean, but think the Dwarfcraft ECT works well either way. As does the Hot Cake (which is what I've been using the most. Although not a "fuzz" I reckon it gets pretty fuzzy. I haven't used my Fulltone 69 for a looong time, but remember it sounded very good too.

Yeah, I forgot to mension that the Hotcake has been my main non-fuzz dirt pedal ever since I started using Vox amps. First had a AC30CC2X, and than later replaced it with the somewhat more manageable AC15C2. While the hotcake tends to sound too dark and muddy with my other amps, it seems to really like the Vox. It's more of a fuzzy overdrive though, or a mild distorion at best, instead of a real fuzz in a muff/tonebender/fuzzface/whatever kinda way

[UglyCasanova]

AC30 with fuzz is the best. You guys are crazy.

[Meriphew]

I use a Spaceman Sputnik with my AC30 & AC20 Dlx. I always jump the normal/TB channel on my AC30, which makes it a lot more pedal friendly - and sounds better IME.

[Rotlung]

It would be nice to get my hands on a Sputnik.

[Uncle Grandfather]

i ride my vox ac15 and ac30 on the verge of breakup in the top boost channel and have tried a pretty good many different fuzz pedals and never came across a fuzz pedal that didn't sound like what that pedal sounds like. i mean, the vox has a character..that's why I got mine..for that chimey tone that is unique to these amps. why anybody would buy a vox and mod it to not have that sound is beyond me, but of course everyone should do what makes them happy. but yeah, every amp has a character and that is gonna make pedals sound a little different. and taste is subjective. but never played a fuzz pedal on a vox that didn't sound like what that pedal sounds like on another amp with all things considered.

[vbps]

First, clipping the bright cap will only change things if you don’t crank the volume, so it won’t help on stage.
Secondly, some fuzzes really don’t go well with Top boost channel. One example: DC Shiva. It likes to get trebly and annoying, in a good way. On a cranked Top boost, it gets choked and over compressed and the magic is gone. I think the problem is not the treble emphasis that all Voxes do (Normal channel gets trebly too), it has probably something to do with some frequency filtering happening in the top boost channel only.
The fuzz that works best with Vox for me so far is Mid-fi Peace Gun into a Fuck OD with rolled back highs.