Stratpicker wrote:So - if this is true - where does the much heralded original AC15 , the HolyGrail (supposedly) of Shads amps sit in all this?? If Apache onwards was the AC30/4, when, if ever, did the AC15 feature in recordings.
The reason for my interest is that using the AC15 model, I CANNOT get the sound I think I am looking for BUT to use the AC30 model, back off the treble and select 1 x 12 Vox speakercab, I get what I think is a better tone. I know all this is subjective though - hence my interest.
Ian, the Holy Grail is achievable with both amps, either the circuit three AC15 (as you heard a month ago) or the AC30/4, as Amanda and Alan concur. The two amps are identical circuit-wise apart from the power stage. I agree with Alan in that the bigger cabinet and the two speakers will help boost the bottom end soightly (oo err, missus!). Phil and I have the luxury of having both types of amp available to us, and we have agreed after various experiments and tests that it was most likely the two speaker AC30/4 with Rola G12 speakers used on
Apache. It matched the sound
exactly (bar room ambience), and we think it likely that the same model of amp was used on many of the hits recorded after that point. It would make sense if
Apache was the 30/4, as those amps were made in 1959 and were distributed comercially in 1960.
Before they started recording the big instrumetals, Hank famously preferred the sound of Vox amps to the Fender and I suspect that he was using the circuit two AC15 at that time. Then Dick developed his masterpiece: the third Vox circuit. The Shads never used the circuit three AC15s, though - they went straight to the single speaker version of the AC30/4.
AlanMcKillop wrote:Justin, on the early Cliff shows, the AC15's can clearly be seen mic'd at the front.
There is video footage showing both front and back miking at different times. But, front or back, it doesn't matter. I believe Bruce; what he says makes sense, that they used the AC15s for TV gigs after the AC30/4s were available as they were easier to transport to the studios, and the "in-house" volume/mix was not important on those occasions.
I'm enjoying this thread, it's good fun!
J