“We found the perfect 1963 AC30 and we took it apart and figured out what made it tick”: Vox is making ‘classic’ amps and pedals again, as its Hand-Wired AC Series and Vintage wahs put the firm’s most iconic builds under the microscope
We headed to Vox's NAMM booth to hear the results of its most ambitious reproduction process yet
NAMM 2024: Vox has been the home of many guitar innovations over the years, but its two biggest have to be the wah pedal and the AC series tube amps that powered The Beatles – and much of the British invasion – not to mention, Brian May, The Edge and many more since.
In 2024, Vox has opted to return to both of these builds, prying apart their best vintage examples in order to offer some of the most exhaustive period-correct takes on its early wahs and AC amps since they were first manufactured in the 1960s.
Guitar World’s Paul Riario stopped by the brand’s booth at this year’s NAMM to hear the wahs and one of the new AC30s put through their paces, with a little help from Ian and Kenny from Vox.
Vox VRM-1 and V864 vintage wah pedals (Image credit: Vox)
First up, Kenny shows Paul the new VRM-1, AKA the Vox “Real McCoy” wah (a nod to the first Vox wah’s endorsee Clyde McCoy), which Ian notes “is voiced a little warmer and more vocal-like”.
It it is then contrasted with the new recreation of the firm’s most famous example, the V846 wah – favored by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton.
“It’s voiced a little brighter, a little more aggressive,” explains Ian. “To meet the [needs of] guitarists that like to play with a little more fuzz, a little more distortion.”
Check out the clip and you can really hear that Hendrix-like voicing on the latter – all the more impressive given the fact that Kenny is playing through it with a Les Paul.
The piece de-resistance of this year’s line-up though has to be the new Vox AC Hand-Wired series – the result of a fastidious study of the firm’s golden era builds.
Vox Hand-Wired Series AC30 head and cabinet (Image credit: Vox)
Throughout the demo, we get to hear the results of those efforts in the form of an AC30 head and the new V212X cabinet (loaded with Celestion Alnico Blue speakers). Again, the key to the success of the project was about going back to source.
“We found the perfect 1963 AC30 and we took it apart and figured out what made it tick,” says Ian.
“[As a result], we had to design new power transformers, we made our cabinets thinner – made of a really light birch, which changes the way that the speaker sounds and resonates within that cabinet – and then we put it all together.
“[Finally, we] added the modern feature of an effects loop and that’s true bypass, so if you’re not using it, it doesn’t touch your signal.”
Both on paper and on video, the amps sound very promising indeed – and they’re available in a wide range of formats, too, with AC4, AC10, AC15 and AC30 combos, plus the AC30 head and cab.
All of them are equipped with Celestion speakers, with Greenbacks as standard and Bluebacks in the alternative AC15X and AC30X variants.
The full range should be hitting shelves this summer (June, to be specific). We don’t have prices yet, so keep an eye on Vox for more information.
For more gear news, head over to our dedicated NAMM 2024 hub.
Since 1980, Guitar World has been the ultimate resource for guitarists. Whether you want to learn the techniques employed by your guitar heroes, read about their latest projects or simply need to know which guitar is the right one to buy, Guitar World is the place to look.
