Pics today, clips tomorrow.

So the amp works fine, except when I turned it on there was a quiet pop and now either tremolo doesn't work or I just can't tell any difference by moving the knobs. The amp was in stand by at first as I didn't notice but I switched it pretty quick. Is it possible I overloaded a cap or resistor or something and blew the trem by switching off the stand by too hastily?

I really wouldn't hate having it work.

Normally I'd say no, probably not, but the Vox trem, like everything else AC-series, is wonky and actually dicks with your bias voltage to produce the effect, or at least the classic Vox tremolo did. The driver tube is in the preamp, should be a 12au7. It could just be a fuse? Also, check your footswitch and any other switching apparatus they may have decided to stuff in there (I don't know if they added a way to toggle the trem on and off by hand, though depending on the footswitch connection you might be able to test it with another cable, or the relay from the G-Major if you still have it.)

Re: footswitches, I don't know who owns Vox currently, but it was Marshall for a while, and I have to say my experiences with Marshall's footswitches... Well, frankly, they were total shit. Like utterly useless.

It could be any number of things, really. Assuming it's not a dodgy footswitch, I'd say pull the chassis and take a look. Another annoying AC-non-feature: pulling the chassis to get at the tubes. So get used to it.

If everything's connected properly and doing what it should, you should notice the tremolo. It is not at all subtle.

Of note: if you do pull the chassis, place the amp face down on the floor before removing the four bolts (two per side) that hold it in place. You shouldn't need to remove the rear panel. (Make sure the speaker is disconnected lest you bend one of the stupid little clips.) Doing it with the amp standing up is more trouble than it's worth, and really awkward as you have to support the thing by hand. With the amp face down, it's held in place against the cab until you lift it out.

Already unplugged the footswitch and gave it a shot to no avail. The reverb works just fine, and is not shabby though I imagine I will get an outboard pedal down the road. Same for the trem, which is why I am not super concerned, but it bothers me knowing something doesn't work.

I am about to give it another go in a minute. I might just have to pull the chassis, the thing was just shipped here so it would not be a big surprise if something got knocked loose and hopefully I can just unloosen it. If not I might call Vox, the thing is under warranty and the local shop is a dealer. They probably can't fix it in house but they might know a guy.

Okay, never mind some of what I said there: apparently, according to Vox's site, the AC15 CC1 has a solid state rectifier, and the 'verb and tremolo are SS-driven as well.

Interdasting ...

...But if it's something blatantly obvious like a fuse, or an obviously damaged component, or a molex connector plugged into fuckall, it doesn't hurt to look.

Definitely SS trem and reverb. Still bias wiggly, but based on IIRC a mosfet?

Seems most likely to be a problem with the switch, footswitch jack, etc, as snaxo suggests.

You are correct:

http://www.voxamps.com/us/archive/ac15cc/

Yo, the CC AC15, it only has the footswitch jack, not an external toggle as well? If so , maybe take a look at the footswitch itself, and if you have random footswitches from other maps or whatever, maybe plug them in and see if you get a different result.

Just gave it a shot with no footswitch (which by the way they sent me for free which was kind of nice) and either I am just not hearing it, or turning the trem depth and speed knobs cause only very subtle changes. The reverb mix knob works just fine, but I can tell little to no difference from the trem depth and speed knobs turned all the way down and all the way up.

I do have another 2-button that I use with the Tron, Ill give that a go.

The issue I had with the Marshall switches (this was really annoying with the TSL... especially 'cause it had a 5-pin DIN connector and wasn't cheap... well, price-wise) was that the individual stompybits would go under normal use- just plain fail- and the others would function fine. So you could change channels and not turn the loop off, for example. And I had one shipped to me pre-broken right out of the box once. Usually you could tell though, as it wouldn't make a proper stompy click! and the feel was off.



You should be hearing that. Like a lot.

Yarr, i am thinking that with no footswitch, it might default to "off".

And that a footswitch might be required in the AC15 version to turn it on.

And that your footswitch might be the problem. Which would actually be good, because it is much easier to mail the switch back to them than the whole amp.

Yarp, it is tough with switches that need to do more than two things, because they tend to go with wonky connectors, which makes troubleshooting lousy when the things break(and all footswitches do eventually).

If i had (in some alternate universe) the need for a four channel(or 2 channel + 2 effect) switching on an amp i built, i would probably just run two 1/4" plugs from the footswitch. Wonky looking, but much easier to deal with if shit breaks randomly at a show or on the road. The alternate would be XLR-style plugs like they use for stereo mics. That way at least the cord could be easily swapped out. But even then, if the switches themselves shit, you would be out of luck unless someone in another band on the bill just happened to have the exact same amp/footswitch.

The Vox should just be a single stereo normaljack though.

Same thing, I can turn reverb on and off, but hitting the other switch does not cause any discernible difference, even when I turned both knobs from all off to all on in both switch positions.

Hmm, well then, it seems perhaps likely to either be a loose connector from the switch/trem controls to the poweramp bias, or perhaps the switching BJT, or the trem mosfet itself might be toasty.

Well I will have to take it apart tonight when I get home from work.

On a brighter note, it sounds really good. The wharfdale sounds a lot better than I was expecting, but I will probably give one of these a go somewhere down the line: http://wgs4.com/content/gb

Time to bust out the screwdriver then. I guess just check for the previously mentioned stuff- connections (the tremolo might be on a separate PCB?), fuses, there's a scorch mark under a resistor and a family of voles nesting in the reverb tank, etc.

The Green Berets are nice. They should pair as well with the AC15 as any other Greenback-type flavor would. The Wharfdales, from the CCs I've played, they're not hideously useless or anything, the amps sound fine. I think the reaction to them is based in large part on the ACs with other speakers- specifically Blues, and to a lesser extent Greenbacks.