ac30 sound

[paisley_tele]

i have a dr.z stingray it dont real sound ac30ish . it that cause i am running american style speakers. would the ac30 sound come from a british style speaker like a red fang

[dehughes]

Celestion Blues in a 2x12 cabinet are a huge part of the "AC30" sound...

[Blindog]

Celestion Blues in a 2x12 cabinet are a huge part of the "AC30" sound

+1

Also, the Stangray is based on a pre-top boost AC30 circuit. If you are going for that sound, you may not be happy with this amp. But definitely try some Alnico Blues or the many others that emulate them.

[rhinson]

the stangray is the ac30 power section with an ef86 (think ac30/4) front end. why it doesn't sound like an ac30 is because the tone control is a slight variation of the carmen ghia tone stack. if you bypass it, add som series resistance, and bleed just a tad of signal, you'll have a much different (and better imo) amp. add in a 3way bright sw. like from the express for example and it's killer.

rh

[dehughes]

My AC30 build has both the EF86 circuit and the Top Boost circuit, and both are great with Blues....FWIW....

[M Fowler]

The Stangray with the open back blues is a great tone. The amp is pedal friendly and the 30 watts is plenty for most gigs. If you need more volume add another cabinet with a special cord for the two 4 ohm cabs for more sound coverage.

Not much reason to open this amp up in my opinion and I have been gigging with my Stangray for two years now.

Mark

[swarty]

I think most may find non-top boost AC30s rather dark and lacking gain. Even an Arbiter era '70s AC30 w/ ceramic Fanes still sounds like an AC30.

[dave g]

To me, the EF86 variants don't sound nearly as good as the top boosts. I actually hooked up a spectrum analyzer to a specimen of each design and found one big reason why. In the EF86 variant, with no stages capable of clipping in the preamp, all the distortion happens in the PI and power amp, which generates odd order harmonics almost exclusively due to the (nearly) symmetrical clipping properties of a push-pull output stage...clipping the 2nd gain stage directly coupled to the cathode follower in the top boost model fills in the missing even order harmonics, which are amplified further in the power section, not to mention that the even orders generated in the 2nd stage clip themselves, odd multiples of which end up being even multiples of the fundamental. What results is a very full and rich harmonic spectrum, clearly dominated by a strong 2nd harmonic.

I believe that this is the reason why it's impossible to get the Brian May lead tone on a pre-TB model, as well as why the cold-biased, low gain phase inverters work so well on these amps (less gain in the PI allows you to overdrive the 2nd stage more)

Of course, that's not to say that the EF86 variants don't have a stellar clean tone.

[paulster]

Dave

Really interesting post and nice to see that someone's actually explored this.

One thing to note, however, is that Brian May only uses the normal channel and removes the tubes for the other channels (vib/trem and top boost if applicable) which will up the voltages and probably make it even cleaner!

Then he slams the input with one of Pete Cornishes finest treble boosters.

Personally, AC30 for me is the top boost channel and a pair of blues (or Golds), and maybe Scumnicos when I get to try them.

Paul

[dave g]

Really!

That explains the treble booster then...whenever I play the TB channel, I have no problem getting that whining lead sound with no pedals, so I have always wondered why BM used a stompbox. The gain from the booster must be enough to clip that first preamp stage...

[Stanz]

I have two Top Boost type amps, a Rocket and an AC15 I built, and will play them through a Red Fang in an Avatar cabinet. Very nice indeed, although a 2x12 would be nice. The Rocket also plays well through other speakers, but it is a more muted tone and is basically a different amp at that point.

[paisley_tele]

what i mean brad paisley plays a stingray on 5th gear and a trainwreck and bruno on his new cd , and a ac30 and mazerati on his part 2 cd and most of them all have that ac30 type tone. the only thin in common with all these amps is the blues he runs and the tube. so would it be more of the speaker for the ac30 type thing. if you plug a ac30 into a fender speaker in a super reverb cab does it still have that ac30 sound?

[dehughes]

if you plug a ac30 into a fender speaker in a super reverb cab does it still have that ac30 sound?

It sounds like an AC30 into a Fender Super Reverb cabinet.

Most of what we tonally like as guitarists is a mixture/convergence of many things. To simplify it all to one component is like saying that Michael Jordan was the greatest player of his time because he went to North Carolina.

[collinsamps]

Run a G12H30 and hit it with a small boost pedal. You'll likey.