The 'Vox' sound?

[hernando]

and b) that Hank may have had some footpedal treble booster or other the enhance the bitey sound. I also believe that the Abbey Road Studio's were very instrumental in The Shadows recorded sound. Interesting......

Probably had better cables too. I won't bore you with all the technical stuff about frequencies and capacitance.
Suffice to say that, In the sixties, I too had trouble getting any decent bite to my guitar sound but I was using a lead made up from a spare length of coax TV aerial cable!

[Martyn]

I remember (in 1967) my AC30 being very dull or mellow but also lacking in oomph, which is why our group invested in new amps with a 50w Marshall (it had the sloping back upper two thirds shape to the cabinet) for my use. This added so much bite and treble I had to bump up the bass control to tame it.

I was, by then, using a Rickenbacker that tended to be a lot brighter and janglier than my old strat anyway, but I suspect the Vox was faulty as it really couldn't cut through the group's overall sound and I don't think we played at silly volume levels back then.

[des mcneill]

Hi Martyn,
I suspect your AC30 was faulty,the lack of treble in the early amps wasn't that critical and certainly the top boost had plenty of both treble and volume. I still use old AC30s at the Shadows club and they are never even at half volume and in the past have played at some big venues,- before "house PAs".
Bet you wish you had it now !
Des.

[Iain Purdon]

I agree with those who cited Abbey Road's contribution to the recorded sound. Plus Hank's "attack" as he played.

The Vox amps were what you saw on stage but maybe not that crucial to the sound? What you heard in the auditorium (or on TV) was often not much like the records.

[dyker124]

Hi Lionel, Des, Hernando, Martyn, and Iain,

Many thanks for your replies. I agree that the AC30 with 'top-boost' is very trebley. The Vox AC30 (without TB) we had in 1961 definately was not. I have recently played on the latest amplifier emulators for AC15 and AC30 (without TB), which have a very 'warm' sound and are as I remember them from all those years ago. I am just fascinated as to how 'Hank' got the sound for those very barky bitey numbers 1959-1961. As mentioned in an earlier post, in my band I had to fight to be heard over the other band members due to the mellow-ness of the amplifier tone (with treble full up) on the lead guitar.

[Iain Purdon]

Testosterone. Attack. Picking technique.

[JimN]

I agree that a non-TB AC30 could sound very dull.

I got an AC30TB in 1966 and kept it until 1971, but some months before it went, it was giving trouble and went in for "repairs". Whilst it was in, I borrowed a spare AC30 (non-TB) from the band's bassist. This was a country band and I just could NOT get a decent sound out of that Vox. I should have seen the signs. All these years later, I prefer Fender amps (and now have several of Corona's finest, plus a hand-wired boutique 2x6L6 combo).

JN