AC30 Preamp pedal with EF86 Sound

[roger bayliss]

Hi

Thought I would mention the J Rocket High Top pedal which I bought second hand off Reverb this week. Basically the AC30 Top Boost circuit reduced to a pedal with all tone bass and treble tones behaving like the real thing plus EF86 and speaker emulation for Alnico Blue and Greenbacks.

I have tried it out through my Katana 100 head via return jack (just used power amp section not pre amp).

Was very impressed with sounds and tried the 3 main sounds associated with the Shads, including Burnx nasal sound. The EF 86 sound is slightly fatter and slightly more gain than normal sound and with treble and bass set full anti clockwise you get flat response typical of the normal channel.

The Katana sounded truely like a Vox. I would imagine other amps like Fender would too if they have send returns.

They do not make these any more , but you can get hold of them if you shop around. I got mine for £163 on Reverb, but some are going f9r around £370 .

https://rockettpedals.com/hightop/

[roger bayliss]

https://youtu.be/VRhOdCgHRNI

[MeBHank]

How do you find it compares to the Joyo AC Tone, Roger?

[roger bayliss]

Thought it sounded more like the real deal Justin. The pedal is literally an AC30 circuit shrunk into a pedal and tone controls behave as top boost circuit should. The AC Tone is a great pedal for the money based on the tech 21 Liverpool. That however does not truely replicate the AC 30 tone stack , but does a good job.

The chances of owning an original 1960s AC30 is growing limited, the HighTone put through the return jack through power amp can transform modern amps to sound very close. You can of course use other modellers like Line6 Helix HX or similar which I have tried with success.

I guess its different flavours with these things, but I thought the HighTone produced the goods. The Strymon Iridium is very good, but no EF86 , which was the attraction with this pedal.

[dave robinson]

Is this a bit like the one Charlie Hall is making ?

[fenderplucker]

I understand that Charlie's new pedal only emulates the EF86 "normal" channel, no top boost included.

[C-C]

hi,
I bought it to use the EF86 part, while I wait for "Charlies EF86 pedal".
I have had the Mark Sampson Hightop pedal for a few years now it is a good pedal.
I believe it simulates the DC30 which has flexible tone controls with cut control.
I have used it through a mixer or through the Katana mk2 "power amp" input
which bypasses the preamp and FX-loop, so gives a flat response through the boss amp.
I still use other pedals such as the Joyo actone (Vox) and Joyo American (Fender)
and Nux solid studio.
With tinkering you can get all round decent vintage tones.
Collecting pedals takes up less room and less money than buying amps.
As I am in my middle 70s I have managed to sell all my Tube amps and settled for pedals, less carrying weight.

Carl

[roger bayliss]

Is this a bit like the one Charlie Hall is making ?

As Paul states, Charlies pedal is not including Top Boost circuit, but emulates the series 2 and 3 AC15 and the early non top boost brilliance channel I understand.

I agree with Cc. Carl regarding using these type of pedals instead of amps is a real option . Some are better than others though. The HighTone is a great way of getting the Vox in a box sound and certain units do very good amp and speaker emulation.

The HighTone is the only unit I have found that emulates the EF86 sound and Charlie's will be worth a look when he sells it. Redstuff amplification do a boost unit that has EF 86 sounds , but will be expensive as is their wonderful FAB30 amplifier which has Top Boost , EF86 and Normal chl and AC30 style tone stack. That amp when I enquired was nearly £3000.

Often the Top Boost bass treble circuits are not exactly the same, even on modern Vox amps, yet some modelling amps get this bit right! The HighTone seems to have got this part right, another plus point.

There are few good AC30 type amps around today that give the old Vox sounds and Vox amps are different to the early Vox's. Even some amp clones are just flavours of the Vox , rather than a true clone.

This is why I think modelling or Vox in a box is a very good option, but you need to sus out the best units.

So if you have say a Fender type amp with Send and return and a unit like the HighTone , you can also have a pretty good 1960's Vox as well !

[RogerCook]

I wonder what's inside? I've always fancied building one of these - http://www.runoffgroove.com/englishchannel.html

[roger bayliss]

I wonder what's inside? I've always fancied building one of these - http://www.runoffgroove.com/englishchannel.html

I had a look and there do not appear to be any IC chips just transistors, resistors other discrete components. Their info on pedal suggests it is the top boost circuit reduced to transistors etc. Go for it if you have the skills !