Craigslist score of the year, perhaps

smurfco

smurfco

Meatus McPrepuce
Saw the ad earlier, went and checked it out.

1997 Vox AC15 - TB2, made in England. 2x10 Vox speakers made by Eminence.

The guy told me it was clean, but... This thing is seriously in immaculate condition, including the cover, footswitch, and paperwork. The slightly dented vents on top are the only thing that keep it from being showroom mint. A little bit of noise in the pots when I first plugged it in - some DeOxit took care of that. Everything works great. May get the caps checked at some point because I don't know that this thing has been played very much - we'll see.

Pictures forthcoming...
 
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What makes this model special, aside from being produced by Marshall? Is it hand wired?
 
No, it just sounds a lot nicer than the current Chinese line. The UK made amps from this era tend to sound really good. And this one is apparently a little bit on the rare side, being 210 rather than 112.
 
I did not know they made 2 x 12 AC15s. Excellent! And no wonder the top vents were dented with that blonde bikini chick straddling the amp all the time. Had I know that I would have gotten a 2 x 12 AC15 instead of my 1 x 12.

I need to get one of those foot switches for mine.
 
It's a 2x10 actually, though they do now make a 2x12 version that looks more like an AC30. They no longer make a 2x10 version as far as I know.
 
jp_nyc said:
What makes this model special, aside from being produced by Marshall? Is it hand wired?
Click to expand...

It was pretty original at the time, Top Boost preamp, 15-watt power amp, with reverb. They are a great full, big sounding amp with a relatively good amount of headroom.

Popularity-wise, they got a recent boost just for being UK-made by Marshall, instead of coming from China or Vietnam; but that's a bit of revisionist history. The Chinese Voxes were actually a step-up in reliability (though they had their own issues with the Standby switch killing rectifiers), and (at the time) considered "more authentic" tone-wise relative to old Voxes than the Marshall-built amps. The AC15TB was discontinued years before the move to Asia because it was a warranty nightmare for Korg. But there will always be a stigma connected to the Sia products (and these days the Chinese and Vietnamese Voxes are a dime a dozen).

This may sound like I'm peeing on @smurfco's parade, but I'm not, the reliability issues were a percentage of amps thing and the ones you find today usually have all kinks worked out (or never had them)...and I think the AC15TB's were my favorite sounding Vox amp, I find them fuller- and rounder -sounding with great rock/blues midrange. I would love to have that amp (especially at that price).
 
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