Friday, June 20, 2008

Vox AmPlug AC30 review

Posted by Jon in •

Vox AmPlug AC30
I have just been loaned a Vox AmPlug AC30 by Rob from Dirt Loco so that I can review it for Guitar Noize, thanks Rob. The AmPlug is a very simple and clever idea, it simply plugs into your guitar where you would normally plug in your guitar lead from your amp, plug in a pair of headphones and if you want to play along some music, use the Aux input to plug in your iPod. The unit is powered by 2 AAA batteries which come included so it really is a plug and play device! Once it is plugged in you use the 3 control wheels on the underside of the unit to control the Volume, Gain and Tone.

So how does it sound? Well don’t expect a completely faithful representation of the AC30 they haven’t been able to miniaturise the 8 Tubes used in the AC30! But considering the size and price of this product you get a pretty good sound! I got the best results using the neck pickup on my Patrick Eggle Berlin Stage which is a Seymour Duncan SH-2. With the Gain and Tone up full and the volume on about half I was wailing SRV licks, it sounded almost as good as plugging my headphones into my Vox AD50VT! Using my bridge humbucker, a Seymour Duncan SH-14 the sound was a little less inspiring, I really wanted more overdrive but then that is why the other 2 models exist, the Classic Rock and the Metal!

With the Gain rolled all the way back to one the sound was a little noisy but I was still able to get a decent clean sound, not that I play on clean very often! To be honest I lasted about 2 minutes before cranking it up switching to the neck pickup and attempting some Scott Henderson blues runs! If I have 1 criticism and Rob felt this too, it could do with a little Reverb and seeing as they have plenty of DSP experience I imagine it won’t be long until they manage to include this as a standard feature. This is a great tool for practicing without annoying everyone in the house, and with the device being so compact it makes for a perfect travel amp!

UPDATE: If you are going to use this as a travel amp you will need a travel guitar so make sure you check out the DeVillain.

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Axe on 06/20 at 09:41 PM

I’ve been thinking about one of these for a while now. You might just have helped tip the balance. I fancy the Classic Rock.
AV

axe victim on 06/21 at 02:37 AM

Update: I checked out the demo sounds at the Vox website and settled for the AC30 model instead. You made me spend money Jon!!!

Jon on 06/21 at 07:27 AM

Hi AV well I’m glad my review was useful to you the AC30 AmPlug is a great little unit I don’t think you will be disappointed!

thereviewmine on 06/22 at 07:00 AM

Thanks for sharing this product with me.  I am going to give it a try.

Jon on 06/22 at 08:50 AM

No worries, I think you’ll like it!

GLW on 06/23 at 03:30 AM

I just got myself the “Classic Rock” model, and am quite pleasantly impressed with the sound. I checked out each of the three models at the London Guitar Show and I reckoned the Classic Rock had the best sound.

on 06/23 at 07:59 AM

Hi GL, did the Classic Rock have more gain? I would like to try the Metal, the AC30 was great for classic rock sounds and blues but I have to get my shredding fix too!

GLW on 06/23 at 08:58 PM

Yeah, the classic rock has more gain. I quite liked the metal one too, but thought the classsic rock was more tasteful. The AC30 was the one I liked the least, which as an ex AC30 owner, was a surprise to me.

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