Got the Vox AC50CP head into today.
I fired her up for about an hour. Here are my initial impressions.
I tried the amp 1st through a marshall 1922 with 2 G12H30's. I typically use this with my Vox AC30CC1. Cab design isn' t the best.
I then tried it through a marshall 1936 with 2 classic lead 80's. This is a cab that sounds good with most amps. Vox 212 will be here next week.
Channel 1: Clean
Very nice channel, reminds me very much of my Vox AC30CC1. Very open sounding. With the gain below about 1 o'clock or so its pretty clean. If you crank the gain you get a nice overdrive sound. The max gain on this is about an overdrive pedal maxed out.
Very nice chime and typical vox Clean. I played some Train and older Clapton on this channel and it worked great.
Rating 9 out 10 into G12H30 cab, 8 out of 10 into Classic lead 80's
Channel 2: Crunch
This channel was surprising in that without the FAT switch engaged it didn't have much gain. With the Fat switch engaged it could get a little muddy. Without the fat switch engaged it just had a bit more gain than Channel 1. You could set this up to be a nice crunch channel and leave Channel 1 as clean, plenty of over lap here.
With the FAT switch engaged you got into higher gain territory. I was able to get some Twisted Sister and Judas Priest tones. I tried some Metallica, but it really lacked the chunk and gain for that. This channel could have used a touch more gain. Overall I would say it has a more gain than a peavey classic 50, but less than my marshall silver jubilee and a bit less than my orange rockerverb.
For a good hard rock sound, channel 2 does the trick, its no marshall though, but that amp is hard to beat for gain sound. This channel did get better as I learn how to dial it in.
Rating: 6 out of 10 through G12H30's, 8 out of 10 through Classic Lead 80's