Vox MV-50 AC - with demos

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Vox MV-50 AC - with demos

Postby dave robinson » Tue Jul 26, 2022 10:08 pm

I have stumbled on a Vox MV-50 AC with a dedicated 8" speaker cabinet at a very reasonable price. I don't need it, but it's too good to turn down so I want to try it. I already have the MV-50 CLEAN amp which I used with a couple of Neodymium 12" speakers and it sounds great, but I wondered if anybody here had tried the AC version and how they rate it. Being as I have a Meazzi Echomatic as well as the TVS3 , I wanted to see if it gives an authentic 1960 Vox sound, because if it does I'll use it in my studio and sell the AC30/4 and the Pinnacle.

Below are links to hear it compared to the AC30/4 with EF86.
I'll do a demo of the MV-50 with two speakers at 50 watts when the stuff arrives, meanwhile I'm quite impressed with this and
wish we'd have had it a lot earlier. The MV-50 / BC108 cabinet is the perfect combination for my TVS3.

https://youtu.be/0MXe_9_H-rE Apache

https://youtu.be/5IN_Kv0HDs8 Wonderful Land
https://youtu.be/63M1N47P2kc. The Savage
https://youtu.be/Tcjc9pRnwdI Kon Tiki
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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby rogera » Wed Jul 27, 2022 11:24 am

Hello Dave - If your Vox MV-50 AC is based on the old Vox AC50 then it will be interesting to hear your findings.

The one thing that occurs to me is that the old AC50 did not have that important EF86 valve in the circuit as your AC 30/4 does.

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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby barryg » Wed Jul 27, 2022 4:44 pm

Hi Dave,

I recently bought a Vox MV50 AC and a second hand Line 6 amplifier and removed the amp parts and fitted it with a Celestion G12M 30w 8ohm speaker, a Speakon connector and some decent speaker cable. This balances nicely with the MV50 set at 8ohms impedance giving a power output of 25W. My idea for doing this is to have control of the guitar amp volume at out club guitar nights where there are different players playing through the system. The guitar speaker is on stage and the amp is off stage where I can control it.

I use a strat with vintage pickups into a Blue Nebula echo into a Boss RGE10 into the MV50 amp. So far I've only played at home but the sound is really good and in the right area for the Shadows sound. You can tweak the EQ and tone control on the amp for different tones as you wish but it's really a nice sound and it has the full presence to fill a pub venue and 25watts is ample for what I need.

A pal has used the MV50 AC with the small Vox BC108 8" speaker and he says he gets the Shadows sound but I've gone for the 12" Celestion speaker which was in the AC30 amps.

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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby Somerset » Wed Jul 27, 2022 10:12 pm

I'm hoping this is an excellent setup as I have just bought the same amp/speaker combination. It is currently en route from Germany with delivery expected in a couple of days.

I already have a Peavey Classic 112E 16 ohm speaker cabinet that I will try with it.
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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby dave robinson » Wed Jul 27, 2022 11:14 pm

Thank you for your replies and information.
I collected the MV-50 AC along with the 108 speaker cabinet and gave it a spin in my studio this afternoon. It certainly sounds very close to the AC30 and with the TVS3 in the chain it's close to perfection, though I fear not loud enough to gig with. That said it does the job in my studio. For an outlay of only £139 I'd say it's a 'result'. Maybe a 4ohm load of a couple of Celestion Blues it would offer an improvement in volume. :)
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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby Somerset » Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:08 am

dave robinson wrote:Thank you for your replies and information.
I collected the MV-50 AC along with the 108 speaker cabinet and gave it a spin in my studio this afternoon. It certainly sounds very close to the AC30 and with the TVS3 in the chain it's close to perfection, though I fear not loud enough to gig with. That said it does the job in my studio. For an outlay of only £139 I'd say it's a 'result'. Maybe a 4ohm load of a couple of Celestion Blues it would offer an improvement in volume. :)

Dave - unfortunately I have never heard a genuine AC30 "in the flesh" so to help me get started please could you give me an idea of where to set the gain and tone on the MV50AC to get an authentic sound. Thanks
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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby dave robinson » Thu Jul 28, 2022 10:23 am

Quite simply, keep the Gain down, use the Tone to mellow the sound as you would with the 'Cut' on the AC30. Use the Volume to increase level. If you use Gain to increase level you will add distortion as well.
I have my MV-50 as follows - Tone halfway (12 o clock) Volume full on and I use Gain as low as possible to set the desired level.
A real AC30 doesn't have a Gain, just a volume, so as you increase that, it not only gets very loud but it begins to add distortion as in the Brian May sound. Hank's sound back then was relitavely clean with a pleasant 'chime, though on some numbers such as Man Of Mystery, he did push it harder which you can hear by listening. That's the key to nailing it, listening to the originals. Some numbers seem to sound more 'trebly' and that would have been achieved by the studio engineer using the HPF (High Pass Filter) on the desk, it was that simple. A high pass filter removes bass frequencies, not add treble which is a mistake that people make. :) '.
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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby Somerset » Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:41 am

dave robinson wrote:Quite simply, keep the Gain down, use the Tone to mellow the sound as you would with the 'Cut' on the AC30. Use the Volume to increase level. If you use Gain to increase level you will add distortion as well.
I have my MV-50 as follows - Tone halfway (12 o clock) Volume full on and I use Gain as low as possible to set the desired level.
A real AC30 doesn't have a Gain, just a volume, so as you increase that, it not only gets very loud but it begins to add distortion as in the Brian May sound. Hank's sound back then was relitavely clean with a pleasant 'chime, though on some numbers such as Man Of Mystery, he did push it harder which you can hear by listening. That's the key to nailing it, listening to the originals. Some numbers seem to sound more 'trebly' and that would have been achieved by the studio engineer using the HPF (High Pass Filter) on the desk, it was that simple. A high pass filter removes bass frequencies, not add treble which is a mistake that people make. :) '.



Thank you Dave. Without a Gain control, it appears a real AC30 is similar to my Fender Deluxe Reverb which similarly has only a volume control so as you increase the volume you start to add in valve overdrive. Lovely for Blues but not so good for Shadows!

I’ll perhaps try my Boss GE-7 graphic EQ with the MV50AC to reduce the bass when I want a more trebly tone.
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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby dave robinson » Thu Jul 28, 2022 2:34 pm

I have a Fender Deluxe Reverb and that is exactly right what you are saying. If you're going to use the graphic you need only reduce the bass up to about 100hz, I don't recommend adding treble.
Here's a photo of my settings, I got it identical in sound to my AC30/4 which has the EF86 valve. :)
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Re: Vox MV-50 AC

Postby Somerset » Thu Jul 28, 2022 8:54 pm

dave robinson wrote:I have a Fender Deluxe Reverb and that is exactly right what you are saying. If you're going to use the graphic you need only reduce the bass up to about 100hz, I don't recommend adding treble.
Here's a photo of my settings, I got it identical in sound to my AC30/4 which has the EF86 valve. :)


Thank you Dave. My MV50 should arrive tomorrow. Can’t wait!
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